christian Archive

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march madness…at church

By
Jeanette
– March 22, 2010Posted in: Christ-inspired

At church yesterday, the message opened up with the opening song of a football game.  Of course, Pastor Adam had something up his sleeve again!  He had invited some of his “friends:” football players Kenyon Coleman of the Cowboys and Ryan Neill of the Rams, to come share their stories with our church.  I was captivated by these men standing just several hundred feet from me, who had succeeded against incredible odds, as they testified about God’s role in their life and victory.

Kenyon Coleman towered at 6’10″, 310 lbs, and 31 years.  He boasted 9 years in the league, 7 years in his marriage, and 3 kids and a beautiful wife in his family.  He spoke about the “epidemic” plaguing our nation today: this obsession with “making a name for ourselves.”  Everyone from the reality stars of “Jersey Shore” to kid with no sort of musical legitimacy who wants to be a music producer, is chasing after making their names “known.”  But this epidemic is nothing new.  In Genesis 11, the Babylonians wanted to build a tower that reached the heavens and said, “Let us make a name for ourselves.”  Kenyon said, “God is more devoted to your dream than you are.  But he doesn’t want you to love the dream.  He wants you to love the Dreammaker.”

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Reject Isolation.

By
Jeanette
– February 6, 2010Posted in: Christ-inspired

(inspired by Pastor George)
What are you devoted to?  A lot of us can name devotions to small things, I’m sure…coffee every morning, only flying American Airlines, catching Monday night episodes of “How I Met Your Mother.”

Well, what about committing yourself to “rejecting isolation?”  Hollywood glorifies the idea of “being self-sufficient.”  Think about Jason Bourne who took on the CIA, Liam Neeson (“Taken”) who took on everybody, Batman who so famously whispered, “I work alone.”  There are 8 million people in NYC, but Mark Twain said called NYC, “a splendid desert—a domed and steepled solitude, where the stranger is lonely in the midst of a million of his race.”  Sometimes you just wanna go “where everybody knows your name.”

So, Reject Isolation!
the Bible says “two are better than one.  Someone who falls alone is in deep trouble…”
God made us to be relational people.  In “the Band of Brothers,” it was taught that you never leave a wounded soldier behind.  Similarly, on days when we don’t feel like getting up in the morning, call on someone for encouragement.  On days when you feel alone, it’s our responsibility to reach out.  Our brothers will not leave us behind.  We must spur and provoke one another.

Your small group or any other community that you are in is not there only for you to benefit from, but it is also there for others to benefit from you.  MSNY hosts Game Nights and Dessert Nights because of the fellowship that ensues from it.  When you share a meal with someone, how much better is it than the meal that is eaten alone?

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