Sun
Mar
28th
2010
0

Tempted

Temptation is something we all deal with; it does not discriminate. Whether, young, old, rich, poor, believer or nonbeliever – a universal reality is that we all face temptation. What is yours?

Tempted Series INTRO from Ascending Productions on Vimeo.

We wrapped our our series entitled: Tempted today at Southbridge. We spent three weeks looking at Luke 4:1-3 and one week looking at the life of Samson in Judges. Today we talked about the fine line between stepping out by faith and trying to force God’s hand. Will you force or will you follow?

categories: Life Change, Southbridge

Mon
Mar
22nd
2010
0

Information overload or information selectivity?

It is astounding how much information is flowing at us everyday. The average American sees thousands of advertisements everyday, not to mention news stories, quick facts, and every other form of information that is flowing out there. Here is my question. What if we did not have all of this information? Would we be any worse off?

In a culture of information overload it seems that we need is to be much more selective to what we give our attention. While I love to learn, I sometimes intentionally don’t read or view things that are very popular. This is not to be a culture snob, but why spend the time to filter through laborious details when you will eventually gather all of the information from conversations with other people who have already done all of the work for you. We need to be more selective in what we take in both in quality and quantity. Information is flowing at a faster rate than ever before. What do you plan to do about it?

categories: Personal

Sat
Mar
20th
2010
0

Tal Prince

Tal Prince is going to be our guest speaker tomorrow. I am looking forward to hearing from him as he preaches about the life of Samson in our series entitled: Tempted. If you want to invite a friend use our new evite. Here is some of Tal’s story from his website: talprincelive.com.

Highly Unlikely

I’ve often told people that “I’ve been in church since I was a fetus” and although that’s true, for many years I felt that if anyone knew who I really was and the struggles I faced, I simply wouldn’t fit into the life of the church.  Having gotten hooked on pornography at age 8, an addiction which continued until I was 32, I didn’t believe that God could possibly use me for his glory and to the furtherance of his kingdom. And I was sure that if people knew where I’d been, what I’d done and who I was they couldn’t possibly love me. I had felt called to the ministry since I was 18, but I ran from God’s call on my life because, frankly, I treasured my addiction more. But God in his mercy has a way of pursuing us, even while we are in rebellion and hostile to him.
After being in recovery for several years from sexual and pornography addiction, I learned that God didn’t save me because he has good taste, he saved me because he specifically came to “seek and save that which was lost.” I learned that if I surrendered them to him, God could take all of my struggles and my brokenness and use them for his kingdom. I’ve come to understand that there’s so much more to the gospel than rules and regulations-that it is actually about intimacy and relationship. Everything about me is known to God, and he loves me anyway. The more transparent I’ve allowed myself to become to others, and more importantly, to God, the more I’ve learned to , like the apostle Paul, “ boast in my weaknesses.”
By honestly acknowledging what was going on in my life , I have been able to move forward towards transformation. That is what “Tal Prince Live” is really about-transformation through openness and transparency. God always uses the unlikely to accomplish his purposes, and I’m definitely that. I used to always fear that I was unlikable. Now I know that I’m just unlikely.

categories: Southbridge