My Sunday Messages are On-line!

My Sunday messages are available in the sermon player below. Just scroll down to see it. There are many available in the archive, use the scroll bar on the player to view them. Please post a comment about them. I value your feedback!

Friday, April 06, 2012

Where will you be on Good Friday and Easter?

A holiday weekend presents a lot of opportunities for most of us. We have these because our loving Heavenly Father has graciously blessed us with family, friends, and such a beautiful place to live. More than that, through Jesus, He gives us the best opportunity of all, spending eternity with Him in Heaven!

Tomorrow is Good Friday, and it is a time to reflect on the price Jesus paid to make this possible. Many of us make an effort to recognize our military for the sacrifice they make to preserve our freedom. Should we not also be even more diligent in honoring the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf?

Sunday we have a chance to really celebrate. Death is defeated! Have you ever really stopped and pondered that? Because Jesus was raised to new life, we can be too! Easter reminds us that unlike every other person who has ever lived and died, Jesus' tomb is EMPTY! What a glorious reality!

We are all busy. Nevertheless, it is my prayer that God will help you set aside time from your hectic schedule to gather with His people tomorrow and Sunday to pause, reflect, and worship. Through these simple activities our perspective is changed, our outlook improved, and our joy restored.

At Community Lutheran Church in Oceanside, California:
Good Friday Service - 7:00 pm
Easter Sunday breakfast - served from 8:30 am through 9:45 am.
Easter Worship Celebration - 10:00 am
Easter Egg Hunt - after worship

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

What's New?

Happy New Year! Do you remember all of the fret and worry over Y2K? That New Year was supposed to bring calamity and chaos. Thankfully, that did not manifest and for most people it was a normal transition from one year to another. Just another New Year’s Eve and Day.

For many of us, we view the change of calendars from one year to the next as an opportunity to start over or begin new things. We make resolutions to detail the things we hope to accomplish during the year. Somehow, the “newness” of the year gives us permission to start afresh.

Yet resolutions are often abandoned within a few days or weeks of New Year’s Day. The best of intentions and will power are not enough to help us create something “new” in our lives, or at least change something in our life, like bad habits or our waist line.

Unlike our resolutions, which are based on our action, our strength, our will power, and our resources, which often end in failure, God provides us with “new things” that will never fail. This is because they are dependent upon His grace, His mercy, His wisdom, His love, His strength, His Word, and His Son. Through these, God provides us with a “new heart,” a “new life,” a “new nature,” and through a “new covenant” with Him we become “new people.”

In Ezekiel 36:26 God tells His people He will give them a “new heart.” In his second letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul informs us that “… anyone who belongs to Christ has become a ‘new person.’ The old life is gone; a ‘new life’ has begun!” (2 Cor. 5:17). In his letter to the Ephesians Paul encourages them to “Put on your ‘new nature,’ created to be like God – truly righteous and holy” (Ephesians 4:24). And again in his letter to the Colossians, Paul challenges them to “Put on your ‘new nature,’ and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like Him” (Colossians 3:10).

During the Last Supper, Jesus told the disciples that the cup of wine “… is the ‘new covenant’ between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you” (Luke 22:20). The “new covenant” is based on Jesus’ sacrifice alone. Our part of this covenant is a gift from God, and it is the most costly gift ever given, one that cost Jesus His very life.

Perhaps you’ve already made your resolutions or even broken some by this point in 2011. But there is still an opportunity to begin anew in and because of Jesus. Ask God to forgive your sins and give you a new life, because of Jesus. Ask God to give you a new heart, because of Jesus. Ask God to help you put on the new nature He alone provides us, because of Jesus. And because Jesus has made all these things possible, ask God to help you to live Each Day with Jesus in 2011.

Your fellow traveler on the journey of faith,

Pastor Tim

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Every Day with Jesus - Ordinary Days

Happy New Year to everyone! This last Sunday I began a message series entitled "Every Day with Jesus." As I've mentioned before, that is our theme for 2011. It is my hope and prayer that each of us will grow closer to God in this year so that we truly experience His presence, power, provision, and guidance every day!

If you were unable to join us in worship Sunday, and many people were not, I ask you to listen to that message on-line. It can be accessed through our church's website http://www.cloceanside.com under the Messages tab. When you arrive at the sermon player site, look for the Jan. 02, 2011 message.

The message deals with our experience of God during the humdrum ordinary days of life, and challenges us to step out of our comfort zones to live the abundant life Jesus speaks about in John 10:10. I believe many of us miss out on an amazing life because we settle for so much less than God intends for us. This does not mean an easy life of wine and roses, but a life filled with God's presence and power that will keep you and those around you in awe of His goodness, love, and power.

Don't rob yourself of the blessing God has for you by passing this opportunity by! Pray before you listen and ask God to speak clearly to you through the message. Clear your schedule and just listen. Have your Bible with you and read along the verses I quote. Ask Him for the wisdom of His Holy Spirit to understand His message for you and how He wants you to apply it to your life. If you were here with us and heard it the first time, listen again and ask God to show you things you may have missed the first time.

If it raises questions for you, please ask me! I would love the opportunity to clarify or explain the message.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Every Day with Jesus in 2011

As a congregation, our theme for 2011 will be "Every Day with Jesus." As I prayed and asked the Lord to give us direction for the year ahead, He brought this phrase to my mind. In the course of daily ministry, I find that many of the challenges people encounter would be much easier to handle if they sought to focus on Jesus more each day. But what does that look like in "every day life?"

In the busy-ness of our lives, we often lose focus on our relationship with God. We often focus on other relationships, our jobs, our homes, our hobbies, or ourselves independent of our relationship with God. Yet God is at work in every area and relationship of our lives, each day. But we must begin to seek to find Him at work in each of these areas, every day.

A monk from the 17th century named Brother Lawrence was someone who sought to do just that. He said, "We should fix ourselves firmly in the presence of God by conversing all the time with Him... We should put life into our faith... We should give ourselves utterly to God in pure abandonment, in temporal and spiritual matters alike, and find contentment in the doing of His will, whether He takes us through sufferings or consolations." He also said that he "was happy to pick up a straw from the ground for the love of God, seeking Him alone, purely, and nothing else, not even His gifts."

Jesus' remarks in John 15 are instructive here. In speaking about our relationship with Him, He says, "Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5) The fruit of which Jesus speaks are things that are in line with the will of God, things which please Him and make Him known in the world. Brother Lawrence understood that when he did things simply out of love for God, he found his faith strengthened and that he grew much closer in his relationship with God.

But he was a monk, you say. It was easy for him to be so devoted to God for that was his sole (and soul) preoccupation. But he struggled with it just as you and I do. He had regular "every day living" tasks to perform that were boring and not fulfilling by nature, just as you and I do. In reading the short book about him, "The Practice of the Presence of God", however, you find that it was in the menial day-to-day chores that he learned how to make this abundant life with God a reality. You and I can do the same.

"A little perseverance," he said, "was needed at first to form the habit of conversing all the time with God and referring all actions to Him. However, after a little care one felt stirred by His love without any trouble... We ought to act very simply with God, speaking familiarly with Him, and asking Him for help in situations as they arise." He trained himself to do everything for the love of God, whether it was a task he enjoyed or not, and he prayed constantly for the the grace to do his work. As he did so, God was faithful to help him and sustain him in his work.

God will do the same for us! Jesus said, "Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in Me" (John 15:4). I do not believe that in choosing the words "remain in Me" Jesus means an occasional prayer and attending worship when it is convenient for you. I think Brother Lawrence had a better understanding of what Jesus meant by "remaining in Him." It is an every moment, every hour, every day thing. And as he discovered, there is extraordinary joy to be gained as we “remain in God” all the time.

It would be wonderful if there was a switch we could turn or a simple prayer we could pray to cause us to remain in Him the way we might like to do. But it takes God's help as we work to submit each moment, each task, each conversation, and each day to Him. This work requires submission and discipline, with which God promises to empower us. But more than that, it requires a love for God that creates within us a desire to remain in Him.

It is difficult to fully love something or someone with whom we spend little time. A famous preacher once said that Love is spelled TIME. If we want to love God more, we must spend time with Him, time in conversation (prayer), in meditation (pondering God and His works), in His Word (reading the Bible for devotions and for study), in fellowship with His people (allowing others to be used by God to bless you and you doing the same for them), and time in worship (giving God the praise and adoration He alone is due). All of these can be done in the course of our daily lives, if we love God enough to make time for them.

Take a moment and think of the things that are a part of your daily life now. How many of them were added at one point in the past because you made time in your schedule for them? We are good at making time for the things we really desire, and really good at creating reasons to put off doing things we don't. In order for our relationships with God to be more than they are now, we must make more time for Him each day in 2011.

Hence our theme for the year - "Every Day with Jesus." Is this a lofty goal? Admittedly it is. Is there a more noble goal for our congregation? I believe there is not at this time. In order to fulfill our mission of "Building Committed Followers of Jesus" as a congregation, we must first be a congregation of "committed followers of Jesus." We must seek God's help to be more like Brother Lawrence and to live every day performing every deed for the love of God.

Can we do it? With God's help, Jesus tells us that it is possible. Will we desire to do it? That will be up for us to decide. Since the things of this life are temporary, we should prepare for 2011 by asking God to give us His perspective on our lives and to draw us deeper into relationship with Him as we seek to live "Every Day with Jesus." As we do, I know He will.

Your fellow traveler on the journey following Jesus,

Pastor Tim

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Christmas Eve is almost here!

Are you as excited as I am? No, I am not delusional from too much shopping. I cherish this time of year as we celebrate the birth of our Savior! God has come down to earth to save us from ourselves, our sin, and death.

What a glorious expression of God's love that He left the glories of Heaven to come down to earth and be born as a human baby! Think about that for a moment. It should fill you with awe and wonder at the amazing nature of God's love and grace.

Each Christmas Eve we gather to celebrate this astounding truth. The Light of the World came into the darkness of our world and changed our lives forever! Candlelight services remind us of this comforting reality.

They have long been a favorite of mine. I remember as a kid standing in the church, holding a candle, and being touched by the beauty of the glow in the sanctuary. Everyone singing Silent Night in the gentle candlelight. It was inspiring and the light gave everyone a radiance that was angelic.

This is just part of what you'll be missing if you don't make time to join us for one of our services this Friday!

For your convenience, we offer two services: one at 5:00 pm and the other at 7:00 pm.

I pray you will join us and I will get the joy of seeing your candlelit face all aglow with light of Christ, our Savior. It is truly a highlight of my year as a pastor, and I am asking God to touch you this year in a similar way so that this Christmas will be new and different for you.

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

A Glimpse of Heaven!

Last Sunday evening many people from the community and many from our church gathered for our annual Advent Dinner and the Blackwood Legacy concert. It was a wonderful night! For me, it was a glimpse of heaven. To be clear, I do not picture heaven as a crowded room with tables, chairs, and a potluck buffet line. The glimpse of heaven was so many people of diverse backgrounds who share a common faith gathering together for fellowship, fun, (yes-food, too), and sharing our God-given gifts with one another.

What a joy it was to watch as so many of you worked so hard to set up the room, decorate the tables, prepare the food, greet our visitors, and break out more chairs when even more people came! Although the room was crowded, there was a wonderful welcoming and peaceful atmosphere. To me, it was more like a family gathering than a "church" event. I believe that is how our "events" should be; and, therefore, I believe they are a small glimpse into what it may be like in heaven.

In addition to our church family sharing their various gifts and talents with one another (i.e. cooking, serving, greeting, etc.) and our guests, the Blackwood Legacy group shared their amazing God-given talent for music and comedy. Their performance was even better than their concert here earlier this year. I imagine that provides us another glimpse into heaven - each of us sharing our God-given gifts and talents with one another - for God's enjoyment and glory.

When we utilize the things, personalities, talents, and treasures God has given to us for His glory and for the building up of His Kingdom, that is a form of worship! From God's Word we know that worship is one of the primary aspects of life in Heaven - and rightly so! Only our glorious God is worthy of our praise and honor!

As we continue on in this season of Advent, let us take (and where necessary MAKE) time to slow down and remember the true reason for this Season. That God so loved the world that He sent His only Son into the world to save it (John 3:16). "The world" is you and I. God so loves us that He sent Jesus to die for our sins so that we could have LIFE! What an amazing gift this is!

I would commend you to write on a small piece of paper the following: For God so loved me that He sent Jesus into the world to save me from my sins and give me new life in Him. Because of His grace, one day I will be in heaven with Him, forever! Then wrap that up in a package with a tag on the outside “To you from God” and place it under your tree to open on Christmas morning. Make one for each person in the family so that everyone can be reminded of this most precious free gift that each of us share because of God's unfathomable love for us. Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Guitly as Charged - Meetings Are Too Long!

In my quest to become a better leader, I have run across a variety of helpful resources which I plan to share with you throughout the year. As uncomfortable as it has been, many of them have helped me better identify and understand my shortcomings as a leader.

One area in which I've fallen short is making meetings productive and concise. This is something I am working to correct. I found the following article on a business leadership blog entry on meetings helpful. Though it is designed for a business audience, it has many applications in our congregational context. (By the way, ROI is Return on Investment.)

http://www.leadersbeacon.com/want-greater-roi-from-your-meetings-six-questions-that-will-make-the-difference/

I will be putting more insights and other things I have learned here on my blog. I encourage you to come back and check for new entries often. Please leave comments so we can dialogue through this venue.

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