FCC Journey So Far… 2011

Back To The Basics

Ephesians 5:15-16  “Pay attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise people, but wise–making the most of time, because the days are evil.”

Greetings from Foundation Community Church!

I want to share with you just a moment about getting “Back to the Basics”.  The verse of scripture that I included from Ephesians 5 can be focused on in many different ways.  What stood out to me upon reading the verse was the part which reads “make the most of time”.  I began to reflect on moments when I do not make the most of my time.  This can lead to many adverse situations in our lives.  These situations may be at work, at home, at church, or even in our daily Christian walk.  If you have been a Christian for even only a short period of time, you realize that much of your day is spent meditating on Christ.  These moments of meditation help keep us focused on the basic fundementals of Christian living.  For me those basic fundementals are prayer, meditating on the word, and worship.  We should be doing all of these AT LEAST once a day.   It is when we get away from these fundamentals that we lose focus on Him…and losing focus on Him is not the direction that you want to be going.  I you have drifted from this way of living, then I encourage you today to get “Back to the Basics”.  If you become consistant with this, Christ will begin to bless in more ways than you can imagine.

Pastor Scott

You Shall Live

“I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” John 11:25-26

This verse from the Book of John is very encouraging to those who understand it.  On the other hand, it could be very confusing for people who have not been educated in the Bible for very long.  There are many different aspects or parts to this verse and this blog post couldn’t possible contain the depth of this verse.  I will make an attempt to sum it up, in an effort to give you a word of encouragement.  It begins by Christ explaining who he is…”the resurrection and the life”.  In other words, it is the resurrection that represents everlasting life.  After all, the resurrection is the culminating moment in time that conquered death for all of eternity.  Keep in mind, this verse, like many verses in the Bible is two-fold…meaning you can’t just accept one part of a verse and not the other.  More specifically, many times something is required of man in order to receive something from God.  In this case, man must die to live!  This is the requirement to receive the reward of the resurrection, which is eternal life.  What Christ meant is that you must die to the things of the world that cause you to be separated from Him.  Christ was explaining that through him is everlasting life, because he is the one who conquered death for you.  So yes indeed, YOU SHALL LIVE but the real question is…WILL YOU DIE TO LIVE?

Inward Change – Outward Focus

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Message from Preview Service 9-18-11

At Our Church

God Did This

Another FCC Preview service is “in the books” and wow was it a great evening. Each preview service brings the opportunity to meet new people, to introduce more staff members, to gel more as a team, and most importantly – to worship together as a community of people who love God and want to serve him. Last night, we were blessed to bring the Project 2020 to fruition. The sight of 20 overstuffed backpacks lining the stage during the service was truly moving. Here is a small (but growing) group of people who want to serve,  who manage to show God’s love to some very special school children in a very special way. But this didn’t just happen on its own…Carla Castator worked extremely hard on this project…and that really paid off for this group of kids. Our lead pastor mentioned several times in the service that God is the one who is also at work here. God has been bringing people together to work for Him in many, many ways at FCC. And God came through in a big way in the Project 2020 Outreach project. We are just very glad He used us to show His love in this way. So, as we walk away from this preview service and get a little closer to the October  launch we are uplifted, on fire, full of excitement, and ready for God to continue to use us for His service.

 

Everything or Nothing?

God our Father has made all things depend on faith so that whoever has faith will have everything, and whoever does not have faith will have nothing. – Martin Luther

How Do You Witness?

Matthew 28:18-20  Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

As we approach Easter Sunday to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, I am reminded of the command he gave us before he was taken up into heaven.  For the sake of this short devotional, I would like to fast forward beyond the resurrection and focus on this command from Christ in Matthew 28.  When Christ actually spoke this verse he was talking to his disciples.  He knew that he was speaking to believers.  Therefore, he knew that they would understand what he was talking about.  Often times in our lives we speak to people in an effort to witness to them only to see our efforts fall short.  I have found in my experiences that understanding who you are witnessing to makes all the difference in the world.  In other words, are you trying to introduce someone to Christ, so that they may be saved, or are you teaching someone who is already a believer?  If they are already a believer, then you know you have some “wiggle room” to get a little deeper into the things of the bible.  On the other hand,  when witnessing to someone who is not a believer, then YOU SHOULD KEEP IT BASIC.  They want to hear things like Christ cares, Christ loves, Christ forgives, Christ understands…none of this is condemning.  People respond to this kind of compassion.  The unfortunate reality is, that I have often heard Christians with good intention try to witness using expressions such as, you’re a sinner, you’re going to hell, you should change your behavior, etc.  All of which is offensive, and could even be considered judgemental by some.  Generally speaking, I have found that people can’t be scared into Christianity, but they do respond to the compassion of Christ.  So if you are trying to fulfill this Great Commission in Matthew 28 given to us by Christ, remember who you are talking to and how to approach them.  It just may make the difference!

 

Truth vs. Revelation

I recently heard a sermon in which the minister briefly spoke about truth and revelation and then carried on with the rest of his message. As the message