We invite you to hear the music and read the words to Amazing Grace in a stark presentation of this moving hymn. Take a moment to reflect on God's unending love and His amazing grace for you. Go full screen and click

"Summer Has Ended, and We Are Not Saved"

By Pastor Don Ginkel

Jeremiah says, "The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved" (8:20). That is verbalizing a desperate hopelessness. Verse 21: "Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me." How does it come to a point where he says to his people that they are not saved both physically and spiritually and they are doomed? The asparagus was saved, the olives were brought in, the potatoes were saved, but the people were lost!

They involved themselves in worshiping false gods. They set up idols as they saw fit to suit there own fancies. They worshiped their summer homes while their neighbors and they remained "unsaved" with God. Why aren't people saved? Then and today people want to avoid only the consequences of sin, but they don't want to avoid the sin. Summer can be very deceiving.

Being saved speaks not only of being delivered from the consequences of sin, but deliverance from sin - a willingness to repent and get rid of it as God takes it away. One man who scoffed at that said, "I'll take my chances." He will never say that when he sees the gates of hell, but he is saying it now.

Do you desire to have the one, true God live inside you? Do you detest your sins and do you want to be free from them? Then believe that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, all of them, and that His very name, Jesus, means Savior from sin (Matthew 1:22).

In the end only one thing matters - that even though "summer has ended," you are saved - saved now, saved in the hour of your death, and saved forever with God. (And think about all this as it applies to your unbelieving friends and neighbors. For them summer has ended and they are not saved. Think about what is going to happen to them. Be encouraged to share your personal testimony.)

Always Preach for a Specific Response

By Pastor Rick Warren

The Bible is clear that Christians must be "doers of the Word and not hearers only," (James 1:22) so it's clear that our responsibility as Pastors and preachers of the Word is to challenge people to do something in response to what we've said. In other words, the goal of preaching is life change.

How can you add more application into your message to make God's Word more doable? Always aim for a specific response.

The greatest weakness of most preaching is that the sermon has fuzzy focus. So many sermons are vague and abstract because the pastor isn't really clear about why he is teaching this particular message, nor does he give the audience a specific direction to go in response. [read more]

Stack of Stuff

"See the lilies of the field..." is an encouragement/get well card pointing to Jesus and the promise He makes to every believer to comfort and to heal. It's Card No. 405. Email us and ask for a free sample.

This is the coolest thing you will ever see a marching band do. Turn your speakers on and watch full screen. Click coolest.

"For broken dreams, the cure is 'Dream again.'" - C. S. Lewis

It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear

By Dr. Frank Luntz
Words That Work, pp. 13-14

"You can have the best message in the world, but the person on the receiving end will always understand it through the prism of his or her own emotions, preconceptions, prejudices, and preexisting beliefs. It's not enough to be correct or reasonable or even brilliant. The key to successful communication is to take the imaginative leap of stuffing yourself right into your listener's shoes to know what they are thinking and feeling in the deepest recesses of their mind and heart. How that person perceives what you say is even more real, at least in a practical sense, than how you perceive yourself.

"Once the words leave your lips, they no longer belong to you. The act of speaking is not a conquest, but a surrender. When we open our mouths, we are sharing with the world - and the world inevitably interprets, indeed sometimes shifts and distorts, our originally meaning. After all, who hasn't uttered the words, "But that's not what I actually meant'"?

Tweeting My Life Away

Fighting the Stigma of Mental Illness

By Troy Anderson

A Long Hospitalization

Signs of Burnout

What Recovery Looks Like

 The Ministry of There

By Tim Challies
Christianity Today, Summer 2013

I heard recently of a pastor who keeps a jar of marbles by his pulpit, each marble representing one week in the life of the pastor with an average lifespan. The marbles represent what remains of his ministry, what remains of his opportunity to be there with the people he serves. Each week, immediately before he enters the pulpit, he removes one of those marbles.

He does this to remind himself that he will only be with them so many more times, and that while he is with them he needs to take advantage of the opportunity, to preach God's Word, to bring comfort, to show love to the people assigned to his care.

Not long ago I met with a church that has no pastor. There is no one in the pulpit on Sunday to preach the Word, no one to go to the hospital to visit the sick, no one to visit their homes to reassure them of God's grace in their lives.

The ministry of there is one of the pastor's highest callings and greatest privileges. Be all means, use new technologies to minister to God's people and to reach those beyond the walls of your church. But don't allow these great technologies to keep you away from where you are needed most. Ultimately, there's no substitute for being there.