Living Water Church

Hebrews 13:15 says, “let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” If you’re like me, sometimes singing praises to God is easy. Other times, it’s harder and requires sacrifice. But regardless of my feelings, the scripture tells us to continually praise God. There is something about singing to God that frees our souls from chaos and causes our spirit man to rise above the turmoil of life. Singing praises to God puts our focus on Him and on His goodness, His faithfulness, instead of life’s trials.

King David wrote, “I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.” Not only did David say this, he actually did it. He did bless the Lord, through his praise and worship, his entire life. Let that be our testimony too. Psalm 150:6 says, “Let everything that has breathe praise the Lord.” Do you have breathe? Then praise the Lord. Today. Tomorrow. Every Day. As long as you live!

Have you ever noticed that some of God’s commands are easier to obey than others? One of the more difficult commands to obey is one that Ken will address today. James 4:16 says, “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” It’s relatively easy to confess our sins to God. He is merciful and kind, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. Additionally, we can trust Him that He won’t use our confession against us.

But confessing our sins to one another is a different proposition. Yet notice the impact of this type of confession. The bible makes it clear that when we confess our sins to God, He forgives us. But James states that when we confess our sins to one another, there is another dimension added – healing takes place. Confessing to others is incredibly humbling. I have never met anyone who enjoys it. But do you want freedom from sin, Divine healing in your life? Then, find a trustworthy person and do some confessing.

Last week at church I spoke about walking through the hills and valleys of life.   Through the good times and bad, the one thing that keeps us steady in our relationship with God is choosing to draw near to Him.  When I was speaking, I had no idea I was getting ready to go through a gut wrenching ordeal.  Early Monday morning we found out that our neighbor and friend had been killed in a car accident.  He was 34 years old and left behind a wife and two young children.  I have struggled all week with the sting of loss and hurt.

This week I read this verse, “My heart has heard You say, ‘Come and talk with Me.’ And my heart responds, ‘Lord, I am coming.’”  Ps. 27:8 NLT.   God is constantly wooing us to come and talk with Him.  Over and over this week, I responded, ‘Lord, I’m coming.’   As I went through the troubling emotions of this week, talking with so many neighbors who are reeling from the tragedy, I found comfort in continually coming to the Lord, talking with Him.  God is a God of all comfort.  “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him and I am helped.”  Ps. 28:7

Post script:  You don’t know what tomorrow holds.  Don’t waste today angry.  Hug your spouse, your children, your family and friends.  Appreciate your co-workers.  Tell people that you love them.

If there’s one area in which we as believers feel the need to improve, it’s often our prayer lives.  I’ve rarely met a Christian who seems content with the amount of time he or she has spent in prayer.   And yet, Scripture tells to, “Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.”  Ephesians 6:18 NLT.  How can anyone pray at all times?  Do we isolate ourselves from society and from daily work in order to devote ourselves to pray?  Clearly not.

So what does praying at all times look like?  Often in the scripture it says that Jesus went away by Himself to pray.  We need to set apart time in our day just to pray.  But additionally, I think God desires for us to make prayer a focus of our lives.  He wants us to be talking to Him continually, throughout our day, about the circumstances of our life, constantly seeking His wisdom and help.  The Bible doesn’t necessarily encourage long prayers.  In fact, the Pharisees were criticized for them.   Instead, make brief prayer a habitual response to every situation you meet throughout the day.  Someone once said, “Prayer is the greatest power in the universe to which Christians have access and yet it is the most under-utilized gift that God has given to man.”

We have exciting news at LWC.  It our pleasure and our privilege to ordain Tim and Lisa Wright as ministers of the Gospel and name them as associate pastors at Living Water Church.  We first got to know the Wrights twenty years ago when the church bought our building in Aurora.  Tim and Lisa lived near the church.  From the moment we met them, we could sense their commitment to the Lord and to His church.

About twelve years ago, the Wrights joined LWC.  We felt so blessed to serve the Lord together with them in the same church family.  Over the years, they have taken on increasing responsibilities at LWC, serving as church elders for a number of years now.  About 6 months ago, both Ken and I individually felt the Lord impress upon us that it was time to increase the core leadership at LWC and name Tim and Lisa associate pastors.  When Ken came to me and mentioned his thoughts on this to me, I was so encouraged because I was sensing the same thing from the Lord.  We spoke to the eldership of the church about this change, and as we all prayed about it, we unanimously agreed that that this was of the Lord.

Tim and Lisa will take over some of the responsibilities that Ken and I now carry, including oversight of the entire children and youth ministry.  We are so blessed to have them on staff at LWC.  All of us will profit from their commitment to the Lord and to His church.  Please cover them in prayer.

“Give all your worries and cares to God, because He cares about you.” 1 Peter 5:7 NLT.

About a month ago, we bought my mom the cutest toy poodle puppy.  Her name is Mandy.  She is a dashing, playful ball of fur.  I don’t know that I have ever met such a loving puppy.  My boys adore her.  In fact, they are so fascinated by her that they fight over her frequently.  (Shocker.)  However, last week she got sick.  Really sick, really fast.  She could hardly even lift her head up off of the pillow.  This broke my heart to the point that I lost sleep over it, praying and asking God to heal her.  I feared having to tell my boys that our precious Mandy had died.  It was very upsetting, to say the least.

I relate this personal story because it once again reminds me that we serve a God who cares.  He instructs us to cast our cares on Him.  Why?  Because He cares!  What matters to us, matters to God. Don’t we serve an awesome God?  In light of the different crises in the world, our puppy situation is minor.  But for me, it wasn’t minor.  So I spent a lot of time talking to God about Mandy.  And I knew that He cared about the situation.  And thanks to modern veterinary medicine and bunch of prayers, Mandy is all better.  Praise God.  What matters to me, matters to God.  Pray!!

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  Galatians 6:9

One of my philosophies of life (and pastoring) is that people will learn a lot more from me if I share my failures than if I share my successes.   Personally, I have found this to be true.  I have sat and listened to numerous success stories by Christian speakers and walked away thinking, I wish my life was as easy as theirs.  However, when someone I respect talks about how s/he failed, I am drawn to them, and I learn from them, because I can totally relate to feeling the disappointment of failure.

So, in that vein, I failed this week.  I was talking with my neighbor over the fence.  She was pulling weeds and having a rough time of it.  I felt the Holy Spirit whisper to me, “Go and help her.”  For a plethora of reasons I won’t expound on, I didn’t want to go and help.  I argued with the Lord for awhile about this, and finally I just walked away and went inside.  But in my heart, I knew I had disobeyed the Lord and that I would have to deal with it.

And deal with it I did.  I spent time on my knees repenting to the Lord for my disobedience to His voice.  I asked Him for another chance to help her.  I haven’t had that opportunity yet.  The Scripture says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”  Galatians 6:9 I found that this scripture dealt with me exactly where I was at.   I was weary of doing good.  And consequently, in that situation, I had no eternal impact on my neighbor.   Lord, teach me (us) to be giving, kind, unselfish, and obedient to Your voice.

Would you describe yourself as a patient person?   If you’re like me, sometimes you are patient and sometimes it’s an area that is desperately lacking in your life.  Someone once prayed, “Lord, give me patience and give it to me right now!”  I wish that patience was something I could learn by reading about it in a book.  Unfortunately, we all know it doesn’t work that way.  God teaches us patience by making us wait.

I find it interesting that in I Corinthians 13, the very first adjective that God uses to describe love is…patience, “love is patient…”  Since God is love and love is patient, God is the ultimate example of patience.  Aren’t you grateful for God’s patience for you?   I sure am.  Lord, teach us to be patient, patient like You.

Guest Post by Pastor Ken

I love to keep good financial records at home and at church.  Knowing where every dollar has been spent is really important.  It causes me to be accountable for each and every purchase.  In fact, each month I create a personal summary sheet of our expenses to show how much we spent on housing, groceries, gas, restaurants, medical, entertainment, and incidental expenses.  When we know where we have been, it can help us know where we need to go.

Even though keeping good financial records is prudent, I would not recommend keeping close records of some other items.  I Cor. 13:4-5 says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.”  Do you count up wrongs that others have done?  Are there certain people that push your buttons?  Keeping record of others sins not only hurts relationships, but it destroys your heart.  It amazes me that Jesus poured His life into 12 disciples, more specifically Judas Iscariot.  Over time Judas was found unfaithful as treasurer.  Yet, Jesus kept no record of wrongs.  He continued to love Judas, even washed his dirty feet knowing that he was about to betray Him.  Be diligent to keep good records in some areas of life, i.e. finances.  But, more importantly, be diligent to not keep records of offenses, hurts, the sins of others.  It will free you to love others and love God with all your heart.

If you’re like me, there is something inside of you that rejoiced with the news that the United States had finally ended Osama Bin Laden’s reign of terror.    Proverbs 11:10 says, “They shout for joy when the wicked die.” At the same time, I confess that I reacted to the outward jubilation of some reporters as they announced the news that a man was dead.  One TV announcer appeared almost giddy.  Something about that felt wrong to me.

I felt especially convicted when I read Ezekiel 33:11.  It says, “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Sovereign LORD, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live.’” If God does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked, neither should we.

So how are we to respond to the events of this week?  As I’ve pondered that question, I came to conclusion that I can rejoice in justice.  At the same time, instead of being giddy and obnoxiously patriotic, God has called me to humble myself and pray.  In light of the current events, consider this verse.  “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8.