Dear NewLife,
Thanks for a wonderful International Conference! We had a great weekend with the international worker who visited us. Please know he left very encouraged after our time with us. Thanks to all who helped make the weekend a success! Speaking of giving thanks…Thanksgiving is just a short time away! That brings the following verse to my mind: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thess. 5:18 (ESV) Why would the Apostle Paul tell the Thessalonians (& us), to give thanks in such a way? Here are a some of the reasons: God is worthy of our thanksgiving, all of the time. He has done immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine in giving us His Son (see Eph. 3:20-21). Giving thanks in all circumstances forces us to look for things to be thankful for, even in extremely difficult circumstances. Perhaps giving thanks is not even about our circumstances as much as it is about God’s everlasting presence and faithfulness to us in Christ. Giving thanks reminds us that God is the giver of every good gift (see James 1:17). When we see the Father behind every good gift, it’s a reminder to us to thank our kind and gracious Father who takes care of His children. Giving thanks is God’s will for us in Christ. That’s what He wants us to be doing. That’s reason enough! When we do the opposite of giving thanks, when we’re ungrateful, bitter, and grumbling, we aren’t shining the light of Christ and let’s face it, we’re generally miserable people who folks don’t want to be around. That’s not a good thing nor is it a good witness! Giving thanks helps us to rejoice (1 Thess. 5:16) and be joyful. As A.B. Simpson, the founder of the C&MA said, “Begin to rejoice in the Lord and your bones will flourish like an herb, and your cheeks will glow with the bloom of health and freshness. Worry, fear, distrust, care-all are poisonous! Joy is balm and healing, and if you will but rejoice, God will give power. Have a great Thanksgiving! Pastor Andy Advent is right around the corner! 
A partial list of spiritual practices:
Prayer, Time with Scripture, Silence & Solitude, Community/Fellowship, Fasting, Worship, Knowing the Lord’s Presence When it comes to the spiritual practices, they aren’t the place to begin. We are to begin with God as David does in Psalm 63:1. He says, “God-you are my God”. David is declaring that he belongs to God. It’s a possessive statement that could seem as though God belongs to David but what David is actually saying is that God alone is his God, that nothing takes the place of God in David’s life and nothing else deserves the love David has for God. It’s after this declaration that David shares the status of his life and his soul: parched and longing for God (v. 1b). We can only know these truths about ourselves when we have identified God as the one true God because our identity and very life-being flows out of this identification with Him. Thus David puts himself in a place to know God’s presence and to see His power and glory (v 2.), which then leads David to worship (v. 3-4) and even entrusting himself in the shadow of His wings (v. 7). No wonder then, that David said his soul was satisfied as with rich food (v. 5a). The practices/disciplines in and of themselves don’t satisfy our souls. They aid us in our pursuit of God and in Him we find our satisfaction. These disciplines help to peel back the layers of bitterness, frustration, busyness, and even grief, to know what’s happening within us and to seek the source of life, love and healing: The Father who gave His Only One to bring us back home. So, no, don’t start with the disciplines. For if we begin and end there, we only will become self-religious and rule-bound, like the ones that Jesus had the most conflict with: the Pharisees. Rather, let’s begin with the Alpha and Omega. He’s a great place to begin because He’ll see us through to the end. The practices simply help us seek His Face and hear His Voice along the way. There’s still much journey left for us with Jesus, so let’s keep our souls clinging to Him because He promises to hold on to us (v. 8). See ya this weekend for our International Conference! Pastor Andy 
Did we really blitz through Romans chapters 6-8 on Sunday in about 25 minutes? We sure did! There was much to cover and much we discussed because there’s a lot of important material in those chapters! So, instead of trying to repeat everything again here in this devotional, I’m going to give us five takeaways on sanctification for us to ponder. By the way, sanctification is the process that God takes us through to become more holy and Christ-like. It’s being separated from the world and being devoted unto God. So, here are some further thoughts on sanctification.
Do you really want Jesus to change your life? Or stay stuck where you are? Only you can answer that question, but if you press into His work for you, you will be transformed into His image. That’s your choice. Let’s be devoted to Him. As always, I’m on this journey with you. Pastor Andy 
What a great study we had looking at the Four–Fold Gospel in action on Sunday! Really what that means is that it was Jesus in action, doing what only He can do.
As a reminder, the Four-Fold Gospel is that Jesus is our Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, and Coming King. This is how, as part of the Christian & Missionary Alliance, we view Jesus. This is not a separate gospel or a new gospel but it is a picture of Christ in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John) at work. In Luke 5, there were two powerful accounts of Jesus healing people. The first was his healing a man “full of leprosy”. The second was healing a man whose friends broke through the roof to get their paralyzed friend to Jesus. In both accounts, the people put themselves in a place to depend on Jesus and to receive his mercy. In the account with the man with leprosy, he acknowledged that Jesus was able to heal and asked if he was willing. And the second account, the men carrying their friend had such faith, that Jesus saw their faith. These are powerful lessons for us to learn because they are good instructors on how to approach Jesus: with humility, with dependency and desperation, filled with faith, and being gutsy as we approach Him. This is not meant for a manipulation of Jesus, which could never happen, rather learning right approaches to the King! After all, we’re dependent on Him for everything, including our very lives. So as we come to Him, humility is a must! In fact, God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). Therefore, may we humble ourselves and approach the throne of grace boldly (Heb. 4:16), to find His mercy in our time of need! Many blessings as we seek Jesus together! Please read Romans 8 for our time together on Sunday. Pastor Andy 
Within our series on stewardship, we have focused on four areas these past weeks from the Great Commandment (Mark 12:30), where Jesus tells a scribe that the most important commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
We broke these four elements down the past couple of weeks in order to study them. But to summarize the command, we are to love the Lord our God with all of the core of who we are and to the best of our ability. Strength was our topic Sunday and we looked at several good examples of loving God with all of our strength (Abel, Hannah, David, Paul), as well as some not so good examples (Cain, Saul, David). To further illustrate the idea of loving God to the best of our ability (or with all our strength), let’s look at what Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in his first letter to them. Specifically, let’s look at 4:1, “Finally, then brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more (ESV).” He taught them how to walk and how to please God. So the matter of how to do that is settled but then he also acknowledges something very important: they are living in ways that please God. That’s amazing! He knows they are already living that way and encourages them do so all the more. That’s a valuable lesson for us. May we be living lives that are pleasing to God in Christ and are seeking to be transformed in our minds. Are you living in this way? If so, do so all the more! If not, then turn back to Jesus and move forward walking with Him! And then, do so all the more! As the author of Hebrews reminds us, let’s spur one another on to love and good deeds (10:24). That’s the help and accountability we need to love God through the Lord Jesus with all of our strength because God loved us so much and to the best of His ability that He sent His One and Only Son to rescue us from darkness and be brought into the glorious kingdom of His Beloved Son (Col. 1:13). Let’s continue to grow in Christ, all the more! Let’s stay strong in loving Him! Pastor Andy 
Another day has gone, and a new one begins.
The race we call life seems to never end But we are promised that if we seek, we shall find So let us seek God and love Him with all of our heart, soul and mind. Our minds are defined as both all of who we are and as a place for rational, intentional thought, cognitive processing, feelings, and problem solving. But do we use our minds? Do we take care of our minds – exercising the mind to stay sharp and to be ready when temptation arises? Do you? We train our minds, by what we put into it (entertainment, news, friends, family, media), by reading, learning, and practicing activities that make us think. 1 Peter 3:15- “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,” Let us start reading, listening to, and educating ourselves with extrabiblical knowledge. Grab a book on apologetics (Josh McDowell, Sean McDowell, JP Moreland, Ken Hamm, CS Lewis, Lee Strobel, etc.) Read their thoughts and compare it to Scripture. If you were going to tell someone you know about Jesus but can’t use Scripture, how would you do it? Let us start getting ready to defend our faith, so we can truly fulfill the challenge in 1 Peter 3. May you be ready to defend your faith. If you have any questions on where to start or would like to talk about it – let Andy or I know and we would gladly journey with you. You have the mind of Christ – 1 Corinthians 2:16 – use it well and use it often. Blessings, Pastor Kyle 
Greetings NewLife,
Whether or not soul care is a new concept for you or one that you have been aware of for decades we need to take care of our soul. We need to position ourselves to spend time with God and listen. This is not an easy task because our culture trains us to keep busy and give no thought or priority to spending time alone with God. So, let’s try it, shall we. Let us take 5 minutes a day and be in silence by ourselves. Get to school or work five minutes before you normally get there and sit in your car or before you go into your home sit there and just be for a few minutes. Get up five minutes earlier or go to bed five minutes earlier and lay in your bed in the stillness of the evening and be with your Creator. We should no longer just keep pressing on when our souls are thirsty, downcast, or unsatisfied. We need to be aware of our soul and it should be magnifying the Lord, glorifying God, and an ever-present witness to God’s grace and mercy. Sunday we will be talking about the mind and how, very similar, to our souls, we neglect it – take it for granted and allow the world to take us away from what truly is important. Reflect on Romans 12:1-2 in preparation for Sunday and pray about how you are to work toward renewing your mind and being a living sacrifice. Blessings and hope to see you Sunday. Pastor Kyle
It’s amazing to me how there are so many songs about the heart and about love in pop culture. While I played several songs on Sunday before the start of my sermon, there were many, many more that included the themes about love and the heart that I could have also included. I think that speaks to how the world is looking to understand, know and find love. It also shows me that pop culture can capture the human experience in powerful expressions. As I noted on Sunday, U2’s song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m looking for” is such an example. The chorus, which repeats the title of the song, expresses the search of looking for something in life and not finding it, despite basically searching everywhere and through everything. It’s just like what the theologian Augustine said as well, “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” The world’s songs and the testimony of our own hearts speak to the restlessness within us until we find it in Jesus.
That’s why we have the privilege from God to have a heart: so that we could know Him (Rom. 10:9-10) and to know His love (Rom. 5:5). It stands to reason then, that God ought to have the privilege of being Who we love the most. For what we love, we serve (Matt. 6:21). No wonder because of this that He also commands us to guard our hearts for it is the wellspring/source of life (Prov. 4:23). The Father wants us to guard the very core of us, which He’s given to us so we can grow deeper in His love and experience Him more. This also means that we eliminate unnecessary/unproductive things that distract us from Him and avoid loving things that would lead us away from Him. King Solomon’s life is a sad commentary on this (1 Kings 11:1-4). My friends, I’m going to include the questions from the sermon handout from Sunday as a way for us to reflect on the impact of our hearts in life. Questions:
Please read Psalm 63 for Sunday. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer (Ps. 19:14). Bless your hearts! (**REMINDER FROM SUNDAY: when I say this phrase, I mean it as an encouragement and kindness, not an insult!) Pastor Andy 
The talents and gifts that God has graciously given to us in Christ Jesus are the ways that He has designed us to minister to one another (1 Cor. 12:7) and to proclaim His love to the lost world.
That’s His plan and He’s not slow about it. He’s waiting for the fullness of those who would believe in Jesus to come into relationship with Him, not wanting any to perish (2 Peter 3:9). We’re in His plan and there is no Plan B. These gifts are given by Him so that we would care for one another and to grow up into maturity in Christ (Eph. 4:13). And, seeing that it is God who empowers each gift within us (1 Cor. 12:6b), we run the risk of blocking, even quenching, His work that would bring further fulfillment in our lives and powerful ministry in the lives of others around us. I think that’s something we don’t think of or perhaps more accurately, we don’t care to think about, that when we don’t use our gifts, we cost others a blessing, maybe even the opportunity to know Jesus. Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying we’re wonderful but His grace is wonderful and He’s worthy of us getting messy in serving others. The scandal of the Corinthian church was that they all wanted the flashy and showy gifts. If you were to ask me what the scandal surrounding the gifts in our time, I would answer like this: Apathy: Believers don’t care what their gifts are. Unawareness: Some believers don’t know their gifts, plain and simple. Negligence: Believers know their gifts but either hide from using them or simply just don’t engage. Overuse: There is something called the 80/20 principle. It’s the observation that 20% of folks are doing 80% of the work in the church, and risk either overuse or burnout, all the while others sit out. Brothers and sisters, this ought not to be this way (James 3:10b).This isn’t my drumming volunteers for things at the church. You’re just costing yourself a blessing by not serving. If you are part of the 20%, many thanks for serving the Lord and know that He will honor that. If you’re part of the 80%, get moving and be about serving Him! My friends, our best ability in serving the Lord is our availability to do what He asks of us. Blessings, Pastor Andy 
Teach us to number our days carefully, so that we may develop a heart of wisdom. Psalm 90:12
If you joined us on Sunday, you might recall that I shared a story about intentionally turning the wrong way in Bellville last Friday in order to save time on my trip. I’m happy to report that as I was traveling the same way on Sunday afternoon, I took the correct path and took the right turn! I found it very interesting that it really didn’t add as much time as I thought it would on Friday. Isn't it funny (or sometimes not so funny) how time can seem to press in on us? In fact, as we know, it’s in the context of time that our life’s journey is played out. There was another song I was going to play as part of my introduction on Sunday but left it out since I already played several songs. I want to take a moment to share some lines from this song that is one of the Smith family’s favorite songs. It’s titled, “Little Wonders” by Rob Thomas. Here are the lyrics I’m referring to: Our lives are made In these small hours These little wonders These twists and turns of fate Time falls away But these small hours These small hours still remain It’s a poignant song that captures the sentiments that our lives are made up of these small hours that are the most significant in the end. God has given us these small moments & hours (and sometimes big moments & hours) that we would know, love and serve Him. He’s the source of our time and it’s important that we use it wisely to honor Jesus. No wonder Moses prays and asks God to help him have a heart of wisdom in regards to all his days. We can learn a lot from Moses in Psalm 90! Here are the questions I included in the handout from Sunday for us to ponder again on our time usage: What are God’s purposes He wants accomplished? What are your priorities? (Any discrepancies with the above question?) What are your personal time-wasters? What season are you in? It’s important to know what season you are currently in: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. What do you need to do to make the most of your time? Please read 1 Corinthians 12 for Sunday and blessings as He redeems the time for you! Pastor Andy 
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