Sun
Jun
21st
2009

Fearless Fathers

Many of our fathers made a public statement about their desire to be the fathers God has called them to be today. I was encouraged by the amount of men who stepped out of their seat and came forward at the end of both of our services this week to say they wanted to be fearless fathers. We saw from the Father in Mark 9:14-26 that fearless fathers: actively embrace their failure, and aggressively pursue Jesus. Men at Southbirdge were saying that they are not perfect, but they desire to aggressively pursue Jesus. Praise the Lord! Men stepping up to be the men God has called them to be!

As a follow up to today’s message the Fathers of Southbridge have been invited to a Fearless Fathers Forum at the Southbridge church office on Monday June 29th at 7:00pm. I am going to lead this time starting with a challenge to our men. Then we are going to have an open forum time of question and answer where our fathers and future fathers can ask any question they want to a forum of men who are leaders at Southbridge, and who have sons and daughters at various stages of life. I think this is going to be a great time for our fathers to sharpen each other and hold each other accountable to be real men to our families.

If you are a father and want more information about attending the fearless fathers forum email us at: southbridge@southbridgefellowship.com.


Mon
May
11th
2009
0

Moms you can be even more amazing

Perhaps some of you have seen the Electrolux commercials where Kelly Ripa does it all and at the end encourages you that you can be even more amazing. It seems like there is no limit to how much a mom can do especially if she owns one of these appliances. The problem is that many of the moms I know do have a limit. In fact many of them seem to be living at their limit. They feel out of time, out of energy, perhaps out of money, and out of answers. They are at their limit. The great news is you can learn things at your limit you can’t learn anywhere else. The question is what is God teaching us when we are at our limits?

This week at Southbridge we talked about a woman from 2 Kings 4:1-7 who was at her limit emotionally (she lost her husband), she was probably at her limit physically (she had two boys), and she was certainly at her limit financially (a creditor was going to take her two boys as his slave).

We all have a limit. We are limited by time, by our physical bodies, by our financial resources, by our abilities. However, many of us try and function as if we are not limited so we over schedule, over work, over spend, over eat etc. We need to realize we are limited and that there is One who is unlimited in every way. God is unlimited in His resources (He can create out of nothing and owns a cattle on a thousand hills. He even owns us as we have been bought at a price). He is unlimited in His attributes. He is unlimited in His power, in His knowledge, in His presence, in His love, in His grace, in His mercy, in His forgiveness. So if we are limited (the first thing we should learn when we are at our limit) doesn’t it make sense that we would turn to the one who is unlimited (the next thing we should learn at our limit)?

The thing that really gripped me when I was working on this message this week was that God who is unlimited and has more than we need, wants all that we have. God asks us to give what we have to Him and He gives what we need to us. He truly is an amazing God worthy of all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds, and all our strength.

I have nothing against Electrolux. I am sure it is probably a great product, but moms if you want to be even more amazing see what God can do with you when you turn to Him and your life is in His hands. He has this tendency to take what we have and do beyond what we could imagine with it.


Mon
Mar
16th
2009
0

For God so loved…

Today I got a call from Shanna telling me that Ella our three year old was telling Ava our youngest daughter some life lessons and busted out with John 3:16 almost word for word.

Every night we pray over our girls before we go to bed. My primary prayer for them is that they come to know Jesus at an early age. Ella has told people who have been working at our house that Jesus died on the cross for their sins. She tells us how much God loves her and that Jesus died for her. Today she quoted John 3:16 as a life lesson to her little sister, but when we sit down and talk with her about her trusting Christ she is not quite there yet. She has seemed very close, in fact one night I thought she was going to pray to receive Christ. However, she did not that night. More than wanting our children to modify their behavior to make our lives or even their lives easier we long for them to know Jesus. That is our primary prayer. We love that she knows verses about Jesus, we pray that she comes to know Jesus.

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What about you?

You may be able to answer yes to many of these questions: Do you know John 3:16? Do you know the facts of the gospel? Do you know how to tell somone that Jesus died for their sins? Can you give some good life lessons, maybe even quoting verses? The big question is do you know Jesus?