Answering the Knock
Questions for Jehovah’s Witnesses from Pastor Steve Verret of Hour Church
Question 1:“Does your group believe that Jesus was God”?
The JWs believe that Jesus was God’s son, but was not God on earth. They believe that Jesus was the first created being, that he was first the archangel Michael and was not God on earth. However, to denounce His deity goes against what the Bible says. Continue reading
While camping in the mountains east of San Diego recently we had the opportunity to meet Cody and Nina Cunningham and their kids, Olivia and Rider.
Fresh from selling their home they were embarking on a Great New Adventure; touring the country while Home Schooling their kids. Towing a Fifth Wheel trailer off to see the country!
It was truly wonderful to meet them on their first night out, to break bread and to get to know them. Our Grandkids sure had a ball with their new friends!!
Anyways, Nina plans to keep a blog: http://mamabearisms.wordpress.com/
We here at Blogomine wish them all the best and Happy Blogging! Please take a look-see and subscribe to her blog!
“I’m not sure of what is happening, but I am sure of one thing, I’m scared.” This was my posting 2/22/2012. Since then, faithful readers, I have been walking through some very dark places.
Despair has been my constant companion for a time now. Stuck at the crossroads of bitter and ill at ease, with loneliness biting me on the tail. Wrestling with a crisis of faith, in the church, in God, and in my relationships.
Don’t want to be overly dramatic, but I’ve been looking at making some tough changes in my life. Thankfully I have good friends who love me and have been talking me back from the precipice. Thanks to Pastor Will for his teachings on other, greater men than I that have walked through this swamp of despondency.
I’ve asked myself time and again ‘What lesson am I supposed to be learning through all of this??’ Well, when I don’t know any thing else, when I seem to be walking through valleys of shadow, I do know in my heart of hearts that there is a God. A God who listens, who cares, and who watches over me. And His Grace is sufficient for me.
My apologies to those that I’ve pushed away, you didn’t deserve it. Please forgive me. Please pray for me as I’ve not finished battling as yet.
May His name be praised.
This is a re-post from an article in ChurchLeaders.com from Marielle Thomas. It may not be a complete list. It may not be your list. But I found it thought provoking and wanted to share it here. If you find that some of these signs hit a little too close to home, or if they open your eyes to things that are going on around your church, then maybe it’s time to make a change. AND I don’t mean change churches. I mean work to change the church you currently attend. You should always start with prayer, individually or communally. Pray for the Mighty Counselor to give you wisdom and guide you.
From Marielle Thomas:
There is no such thing as a “perfect” church. Honestly, there will never be a perfect church because the people who occupy the church are imperfect. The only thing perfect in church is the message and purity of the Gospel. Though there is no perfect church, there are healthy and unhealthy churches. I have been in church literally my entire life, so I have seen the great, the good, the bad and the downright ugly. After witnessing and having endless discussions about the church culture, I have compiled a list of 5 signs that signal you are a part of an unhealthy church. Continue reading
I am very excited to tell you about a new church that my friend Steve Verret is starting; Hour Church (A Weekly Appointment with God). I can’t wait to see what God does through Steve and His church.
The where and when:
Hour Church will be a Bible based, Christ centered, non-denomination teaching church founded by Pastor Steve Verret. Steve is also a successful Christian comedian as well as the founder of the very popular course; “The Bible For Dummies”. Through “The Bible For Dummies” course Steve has guided hundreds of people from complete lack of knowledge in the Bible to a clear understanding and confidence in God’s word. Hour Church will be unique in several ways. First, we will invite families to attend church together. Steve’s sermons are uplifting, heartfelt, funny and very easy to understand. We also believe that families should attend worship together because there is no greater influence on a child than a parent demonstrating their love for God and others in front of that child.
The church web site will be www.hourchurch.org. I hope to have it up and running very soon. You will be able to stay connected with Steve and the church even on your smart phone.
I know that Steve would appreciate your support. He wouldn’t want you to leave your home church, but please consider attending and encouraging Steve at least for for a short time
I will leave you with the Hour Church scripture verse: “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men” John 1: 4
I’m feeling disgruntled, ill at ease, nothing getting done, things being dropped. Where’s the Joy? What about the fruit of the Spirit? The love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? ( Galatians 5:22-23) Has the Holy Spirit left me? Have my actions somehow grieved Him? Is it possible that the in-dwelling of the Spirit has an ebb and flow? If a Spirit-filled man such as David was in the Spirit would he be sleeping with another man’s wife? I still thirst ‘as the deer panteth for water’.
I don’t seem to be ‘on fire’ as I once was. I’m not sure of what is happening, but I am sure of one thing, I’m scared.
Running? Why would anyone run if they weren’t being chased? What do you mean when you say “fun run”? Isn’t that an oxymoron? That’s what I used to think until about a year and a half ago when I started running for exercise and to get ready to run the Coronado Bay Bridge. After the bridge run, I felt good and wanted to continue. I kept at it with the encouragement of a few friends, and completed a half marathon last August. It was exciting coming across the finish line, but man was I sore. I thought I had trained enough so I wouldn’t feel so bad once I finished. I guess it could have been worse. I saw people at the 3 mile mark looking like they wouldn’t make it to 4. I began to wonder why on earth they signed up for a 13.1 mile run and hadn’t, at least from my perspective, trained for it ahead of time. Did they think they could just wake up, go to the start line, and finish a run like that without training for it?
Then I started wondering about our spiritual race. The one Paul talked about in 1st Corinthians chapter 9. Should we think that we can just wake up one day, become a Christian, and everything will be just peachy? That we will never stumble? Why do we think we don’t need to go to church, or hang out with and encourage other Christians? What makes us think we can run the race of life, the Christian life, without constant training? I trained for almost a year, got serious and on an actual schedule about 16 weeks before the race, and I still felt like I had my butt kicked the day after the race. Did I miss a day or two here and there during my training? Of course. Could I have trained better? Sure. Am I going to do it again? You bet! What a sense of accomplishment. I praise God for giving me the ability to do it and thank him for being with me throughout everything.
Here are a few lessons for the race of life that I learned from my run.
- It’s a lot easier to do when you have someone beside you, encouraging you, challenging you. There are those days where you don’t even feel like getting out of bed, much less going for a training run, even when everyone else is busy and you have to go by yourself. What do you do? Do you say to yourself, “I’ll just take off this week and make up for it next week”? Everyone else is going to watch the game today, so what could it hurt. After all, it’s just one day!
- It takes determination and commitment. Many a time during my training I had to ask myself what I was doing this for…especially after a hard run. I felt sore and beat up, but always came back to my motivation. We as Christians should have the perfect motivation and example in Jesus. (Ephesians 5:1-20 sets out a great example on how we should live).
- A good pair of shoes helps! Ok, that doesn’t really apply to our spiritual race, but boy a good pair of shoes helps your run. Then again, maybe Eph 6:15 applies: “For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News so that you can be fully prepared” (NLT). Who doesn’t want to run the race “fully prepared”? God’s peace can help you to keep running and running and running and… If we’re worried about what awaits us around the next turn we won’t be able to focus on the ultimate goal. So lace up your feet daily with the Good News and run in peace!
- Training, training, training. Don’t ever stop training for something that’s important. Is our spiritual race important? I guess that depends on where you want to end up. Our pastor has been going through a series on “The Journey” and things that are important. One thing he says every week is that we will all end our journey one day, but will we finish in the location we want to be in or will we be where we want to be when it’s all over? Are we headed in the right direction and are we running in that direction on purpose? If we’re not focused on the “prize” as Paul put it, we can get distracted by all sorts of things that will waste our time and seek to keep us from reaching our goal.
- Sole-mates. Or if you wish, Soul-mates…those friends that encourage you day after day or week after week, to keep you going either by their example or their motivating words. All of us tend to hang out with those we want to be like or those who want to be like us. If your friends are not helping you reach your goal, in fact if they are hindering you from reaching your goal, it might be time to re-evaluate the friendship. I’m not saying necessarily finding new friends but maybe it’s time to help them change or get them focused and back in the race especially if it’s a Christian brother or sister.
So what’s next? Well, for me, another Half-Marathon in January. I’m already in training again using what I have learned from the last one to make sure I don’t, or at least try not to make the same mistakes I made last time. In the spiritual realm it’s time to read through the Bible in a year…again. But that’s a different story and maybe the subject of another article. Until then, keep running!!!
It has been said that faith can be disruptive. This disruption or disturbance can be broken down into three basic part of a man’s life.
For the unsaved there can be, however quiet or small, a disturbance in a person’s way of life outside of Jesus Christ. Faith and fellowship with Jesus is in stark opposition in every way to the natural man. The inception of faith then would be a disturbance wherein the natural man starts to feel a deep sense of conviction over his sinful life. Consciously or unconsciously he just knows that what he is doing or the way he is living is somehow wrong, though he may not yet know why.
For a saved, growing Christian their faith prods and challenges them to more fully rely on Jesus and his will for us. It is altogether too easy to fall back into old habits, become complacent, or worse yet, to tell God “Thanks for the Salvation, but I’ll take it from here.” True Biblical faith leads the growing Christian to submission and to fully rest in the arms of Abba, Father, Daddy.
For the mature Christian there is a steady walk of faith that oftentimes leads to difficult, challenging places. Your faith will test your reliance on God and teach you to act in ways that are contrary to this world. To walk by faith knowingly and fearlessly into the fiery furnace would be the mark of a mature Christian persistently, doggedly, following Christ.
Genuine faith, I believe, leads us to this pleasant disquietude as the Holy Spirit works within the hearts and minds to move us from living in this world to preparing us for the next: to bring His sons and daughters into glory!
A disturbance. A pleasant disquietude. A perturbing, disruptive faith. For these things I pray.
Where is my muse?
Honey! Where did you put my muse??
Where is that confounded muse anyways?
I thought this would be appropriate with a major hurricane bearing down on the east coast as I write this. I have heard on the radio people calling to pray for God to change the direction of the storm and what a miracle it would be if the storm just turned and went out to sea. I don’t think it’s wrong to pray for that and in fact God tells us to ask for things we need or want, but it’s also important to remember that God is in control no matter what happens. Continue reading
