This was the theme of our first small group meeting that we had last night. I am so excited about this group that I can barely wait for next week. I saw Christians that got together and talked about what concerned them the most; and that was the people in their lives that were not walking with Christ. I heard them voice concerns and love for family and friends that they were absolutely almost grieving over because they were not right with God. I saw fellow believers that made a conscience decision to be part of a “small” group that would try to make a “BIG” impact for Christ and His eternal kingdom.

I really hope that those who are not currently involved in a small group will re-evaluate their decision as this is not only rewarding but also what Christ commanded us to do. If you look through scripture in the new testament there are roughly 50 scriptures that point directly to the church and what they are supposed to be doing. And most of these scriptures fall into 5 different categories from EVANGELISM, DISCIPLESHIP, SERVICE, WORSHIP, and FELLOWSHIP. The most common category however is FELLOWSHIP which basically is translated from the Greek word “koinonia” which means “sharing in common”. In other words fellowship is the building of relationships with other Christians.

If you look at the scriptures, 21 of them contain the phrase “one another” in them which is an instruction from Christ as to how we are to relate to each other. However the main instruction that we were given was in

13:35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:35 RSV

Here are some others that basically describe what that means to “have love for one another”. I will list the reference but not list the actual scripture I will let you look that up ;o)…

Romans 12:10, Ephesians 5:21; Colossians 3:13, Romans 15:7; Colossians 3:16; 1 Thessalonians 5:11; Galatians 5:13;

So look those up and really look into what Christ commanded us and how we are to live out what He commanded. And remember think “small” for “BIG” results. I hope that everyone realizes the value of our small groups and will take the time to invest and plugin.

God Bless ~ Tyler

Have you ever been put in a situation where you didn’t know what to do and in the end you didn’t handle it like you thought you would of?    For instance let me give you an example, in high-school or college I always had friends that would talk big about how tough they were or how well they could fight.  But when it came down to it and something really went down they would generally be the guy hiding behind the largest object in the room.  You sometimes never know how you are going to react to a situation unless you are put in that situation and find out.   As we go through life there are some things that we plan for and that we train for but there is always a question in the back of our minds what would we do when it actually happens.  This very question is why the military and other organizations spend so much time training on the most elementary of concepts so that there is no thinking that is involved when a situation happens there is just reaction.  I can remember in college we were preparing for the second game of the college World Series and my pitching coach had us out on the mound fielding bunts and throwing to first.   Here we are the one of the top ranked teams in the nation we have only lost a couple of games all year and we are getting ready to start one of the biggest games of the year.  And our coach wasn’t talking strategy or going over the other team’s batters we were fielding bunts.  But what we didn’t necessarily know at the time is that the other team was a great bunting team, and he wanted us to be prepared so that we didn’t have to think when we saw a bunt we would just come off the mound and react. 

So let’s fast forward to today and think about what kind of situations we will be in and are we prepared?  Will we come across someone that is struggling?  We will come across someone that is hurting?  Will we come across someone that is searching?  The answer is absolutely yes!  Even if you work from home and do nothing but sit behind your desk all day at some point you are going to leave the house and have to interface with someone, and chances are that person falls into one of those categories.  The question now is are you going to be ready and will you react or will you just hide behind the largest object in the room?

I hope that as Christians we are anticipating and almost eager for any of those situations to cross our paths throughout the day.  We should be chomping at the bit to share what we have.  We should be absolutely oozing our faith and the love that Jesus has given us.  We also must be training each day to be prepared with scripture and a heart that is softened to seeing these situations.  We must train in God’s amazing love and grace so that we can be representative of His mercies.  I challenge not only myself but also all Christians to be more mindful of the people as well as the situations around them so that we do not miss the opportunities that God places before us. 

 God Bless ~ Tyler 

As I have spent the past couple of days traveling for work I have missed my beautiful wife and 4 children more than I could explain in this simple blog.  I never enjoy being away from them and do nothing but long to be back with them while I am gone.  However that being said I have over the years grown accustom to this feeling and have reconciled with myself that I will never get over it so I just expect it and deal with it.  However this trip I felt a different absence that I have not felt before.  I was not able to attend our church this evening and felt a serious amount of being misplaced and not where I was supposed to be.  I to this day have not felt such an attachment to a church body.  Now let me make sure that you understand that it is not to brick and mortar that I feel this attachment but to the individuals that make up the body of Eden Community Church.  I see and experience more from this body of believers in the way that they exhibit the likeness of Christ than I ever have before.  I did miss the teaching, prayer, and worship but I also missed the fellowship and communion with the people.  I truly for once in my Christian walk have an understanding of what this means:

Hebrews 10:24-25 (New American Standard Bible)
 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,
25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

The verse is not talking about simply showing up to church when the doors are open but in a mindset of growing in Christ together as family.  Standing beside each other through the hurt and sadness of bad situations and rejoicing together in the victory of enduring through trials and the happiness of life.  I really don’t know how Christians function without this part of the walk.  If you do not have this in your life then I can only encourage you to begin to invest in a local church body.  See this is the “secret” that a lot of Christians don’t understand, it begins with them.  You can only expect to receive as much as you are willing to give.  If you will humble yourself enough to invest in other’s lives you will be blessed beyond what you can imagine.  When a church body can function as the Lord commanded there is no limit for the impact that they can have for the kingdom.  I again challenge all Christians to find a body of believers that they can grow, love, and worship the King with.  To not belong to a body of believers is to not experience the Christian walk the way that Christ intended and instructed.

God Bless ~ Tyler

As I was driving into work this morning I was listening to a wonderful sermon on the radio and the pastor said something that just sent my brain into overdrive.    It took me back to an incident that happened a few weeks ago where I was driving in my truck to go to a church members house and to get there I had to cross a narrow wood bridge.  Now this bridge had been crossed I am sure a million times however this is the first time that I had gone across and I had several thoughts go through my head: Am I going to make it across? Can this bridge hold this amount of weight?  And the only options that I had were to 1) trust that the engineer that designed the bridge knew what he was doing 2) go home.  And since I really needed to get across to where I was going I had to have FAITH in the engineer and drive across.   Now I obviously made it across so the point is could I have said that I really had faith in the engineer unless I went across the bridge?  The answer is NO.   If you look at FAITH how can you say you have it if it has not been tested.  We as Christians always look at trials that we go through and as the question “Why?”  when what was should be saying is “Lord, I know that you are in control so please guide me and help me find my way out of this trial”.  But to say that you have faith and expect the Lord not to test it would be foolish.  Last night in my sermon I used this very theme as it was pointed out in scripture

.James 1:2-4 (New American Standard Bible) 

2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,  
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.  
4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  

God tests our faith to get us to a point where trust completely in Him.  How we respond to those test sometimes determines whether we are going to have to go through them again.  So back to my point: it is definitely scary sometimes to go out across that bridge especially when you don’t know what is on the other side but remember who the engineer is and remember that He would not build anything that could not support you and carry you through.

God Bless ~ Tyler