Pastor’s Weekly Note December 30, 2011
2012 is almost upon us!
Will the end of the world happen this year as the Mayan’s predicted and as is showcased in many different books and movies? Will a republican win back the White House or will it remain in the grasp of a democrat? Will the Bills finally win a Superbowl? Oh, yeah, forget about that last one. They aren’t in the playoffs this year (again!).
Will Christ return?
I don’t know any of that stuff, and really, the only important thing to me of that list is the last one… will Christ return this year. Scripture says that no one knows the time. The only certainty we have in relation to Christ’s return is that it’s going to happen.
The big question… are you ready for it?
I’m not saying you should be having rapture practices or anything like that, but how’s your spiritual life and are you living as if Christ could come back at any time?
We get so entangled in so much, that often times we are living for the here and now, living for the moment, when really we should be living with eternity in view and as a result looking to have as many people as possible in eternity with us.That takes vision.
What’s your vision for the next year? Do you even have a vision for the next year and the years after next?
As we get ready to enter 2012 we’re going to spend some time talking about vision, and we’ll do that by looking through the book of Nehemiah. This Sunday we’ll be looking at Nehemiah 1:1-11, and my message title is “Preparing For 2012… And Beyond”. The beyond part of that is important because when we talk about vision, we’re really talking about things beyond the here and now, we’re talking about eternity.
Through what we’re going to be looking at with Nehemiah, we’ll see why vision is so important and through Nehemiah’s example we’ll see the formula that God took to have that vision born in Nehemiah’s life. It truly is an intriguing look.
I’m going to lay this out front for you to know where I’m going with this series: My desire is for us to be a group of people that have a vision where we are organized, we have strategized and have budgeted to accomplish that vision. That doesn’t mean we create a bunch of programs that we’ve got to maintain forever and ever, but that we would be a vision, mission driven people, and God has the freedom to do through us whatever He wants to do.
Wouldn’t that be cool?
Are You Ready,
Grace and Peace
Pastor Russ
Just a reminder… We only have Service this Sunday at 10:50am. Next week we will be back to our normal schedule, with Sunday School at 9:15am, Connections at 10:15am, and Service at 10:50am
