Individuality

Each one of us sometime in our lives has wondered why am I the way I am. We look to other people who we may think are more talented, more successful, more capable of getting a task done. As we sit and think this two things come to mind. First, we are wasting time and our gifts. Secondly, I have this feeling that God is saying "Hey, look in the mirror!"
During the month of October our Children's Church character trait has been Individuality. We have been studying the last few weeks about discovering who you are meant to be so you can make a difference. During this study we have looked at some not so much talked about people from the Bible who made a difference. These individuals recognized that God gave them the qualities they posses for a reason. We have studied, Onesimus, Epaphroditus and Dorcas. All these individuals realized that God made them who they were, so they could be used for His glory.
I want to encourage you this week, to examine your life. Examine the gifts that God has given you. Are the gifts that you have being used? Or are you too busy wishing you had the gifts of someone else? The Bible verse that we have used all month is Psalm 139:14, "How you made me is amazing and wonderful." The next time you wish you had different talents, the next time you wish you had different gifts, realize that you do have different gifts and different talents! God made you amazing and wonderful, giving you the gifts and talents, that make you who you are for a reason. God has blessed each one of us in different ways. Find out what makes you an individual and glorify God!

His Love,
Patrick

Motions

The worship service yesterday here at ECCC was a great thing to be a part of, though my opinion could be biased. Being able to worship with the entire church body, try a new sermon style with Ron and Dave, was awesome! A great morning and an amazing way to worship. Since the services ended my prayer is that those who heard the message, participated in worship are still worshiping today. It reminds me of a song, maybe you have heard, if not check it out. The song I am referring to is called "The Motions" by Matthew West.

"I don't wanna go through the motions
I don't wanna go one more day
without Your all consuming passion inside of me
I don't wanna spend my whole life asking,
'What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?'"

I remember the first time I heard this song in the car on I-65 heading back to Columbus from Greenwood. It immediately hit me, how many times do I do what he was singing about? How often do I just go through the motions in my relationship with God. I want to encourage you to engage in God more and more each day in your own worship with Him. When we do this and allow God's all consuming passion to come inside of us, we can not help but to worship God. By allowing God to reign in our lives, He will flow out of our actions, thoughts, and words.
As we draw ourselves closer to God, allowing Him to take over, we will never have to ask that question. "What if I had given everything, instead of going through the motions?" This week do not go through the motions during the week. Next Sunday, do not go through the motions on Sunday morning. Instead let our worship reflect that all consuming passion that we have for God. The same one He shows us all the time.

Real Love

Our character trait this month in children's church is love. Too many times this word is easily thrown around. The definition that we are using to describe love is choosing to give someone your time and attention no matter what. (This is for K-5th grade students)
Have you ever told someone that you love God? Have you ever been asked if you love God and answered yes? Do you really? The definition that we are using to describe love to our elementary kids, do we really love God?
In all the chaos of our lives, the busy schedules, the me first mindsets; do we give God our time and attention? Not only ask ourselves that question but ask ourselves do we give Him those two things no matter what? Each of us (myself included) need to make a priority each day to truly love God. Not just whenever we feel like loving Him, that is not what true love does. This means that we make time to give him our time and attention.
Here at church Ron has been preaching a sermon series called "Psummer in the Psalms". As we talk about truly loving God. Really loving Him, spending time with Him, paying attention to Him I am reminded of what a certain Psalm says. Psalm 46:10 says, "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
I want to encourage each of us to truly love God. We need to be still, give Him our attention, give Him our time, give Him our love. Let us do this with our lifestyle and how we live, not just an answer to a question or a statement to a friend.

What Really Matters?

Have you ever realized how much time is spent on your cell phone, watching TV, being on the internet (I know this is ironic for a blog!) listening to an i-pod, reading magazines, reading books or even sleeping? Most people could spend an entire day doing all of these things not realizing how much they are missing. Missing out on family, friends and more importantly God! Have you ever thought about how much time you spend on the things listed above before you spent time with God? Maybe you have even spent time doing those instead of spending time with God.

A few weeks ago I went to CIY MOVE in Holland, Michigan with 7 students and one other adult sponsor. From Monday until Saturday I went without checking my email, getting on Facebook, checking on my favorite sports teams. I also limited my use of the cell phone. Instead I was focused on the reason God has us there. Guess what, I lived through it and even grew to know and love God more. All of these things that we place before God, all of these things that become idols, hinder us. Sometimes we need freedom from the world of technology, we definitely need freedom from sin, but the real freedom comes from Christ, what he did for us.

James 4:8, “Come near to God and we will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded.” That week, the students, the one other sponsor and I did exactly what James instructs us to do. We did everything we could to draw ourselves to God, we washed our hands and purified our hearts, it was AMAZING! I want to challenge you to do the same. Remove idols, find freedom, and come near to God, when you do this you will find what really matters.