Archive for August, 2009

A long time debate between the Arminianists and the Calvinist was finally answered yesterday.  I was speaking with a friend of mine (also a pastor) and he made the comment in our discussion that he considered himself a sovereigntist; meaning that he believes in the Sovereignty of God.   And you say well what does this mean?  Well, that means that God has the absolute right to do with His creation as He desires.  Some verses that support this are as follows:

Psalm 115:3, “But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.”

  Isaiah 46:10, “Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure;”

Dan.4:35, “And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, What hast Thou done?”

I think sometimes we as Christians need a reminder of who is in control of everything that goes on around us.  Although God may not always tell us why; as a Pastor friend of mine pointed out we truly already know the why.  FOR HIS GLORY!  We just have to have the maturity of heart to understand that His Glory is a perfect answer. 

God Bless ~ Pastor Tyler

There have been many times that I have been on the phone with someone or have even talked with them later only to find out that they did not get an email from me or that they sent one that I did not receive.   To someone in the IT world there is nothing more frustrating.  For me I feel like I have missed out on some information or something that I might need to know.  And while I’m talking with them I am either checking my email on my phone or on my pc refreshing my outlook trying to find what I missed.  And so often that is the way that our prayerlife becomes.  It is about the information and not about the relationship.  In my devotion I recieved a refresh to my outlook on prayer.

…”The point of prayer is not to get answers from God, but to have perfect and complete oneness with Him.”

When is the last time that you looked at your prayers as a time to be in complete oneness instead of a time to share or receive information from God.  Our modern day christians have moved into such a mode of consumption (meaning they expect God to just give give give to fufill their wants.)  We see this in our churches as to worship services, preaching styles, classes offered, and prayer lives.  If we dont get something out of the service then we complain, when in fact we are there to get closer to God to honor Him, not us.  So, I ask you to refresh your outlook on exactly what is your motivation towards God.  Is it a motivation that is simply worshipful and honoring to God because He is God or because you need something from Him.   Something to ponder…

God Bless ~ Pastor Tyler

I just did not have the words this morning so I am going to do something that I normally don’t do.  I am going to simply put my devotion reading this morning up so that you can read it and let it speak to you.  For me it was just to much of where I am for me to speak on it.  I pray that God will speak to you out of it.

Jerusalem, in the life of our Lord, represents the place where He reached the culmination of His Father’s will. Jesus said, “I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” ( John 5:30 ). Seeking to do “the will of the Father” was the one dominating concern throughout our Lord’s life. And whatever He encountered along the way, whether joy or sorrow, success or failure, He was never deterred from that purpose. “. . . He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem . . .” ( Luke 9:51  ).

The greatest thing for us to remember is that we go up to Jerusalem to fulfill God’s purpose, not our own. In the natural life our ambitions are our own, but in the Christian life we have no goals of our own. We talk so much today about our decisions for Christ, our determination to be Christians, and our decisions for this and that, but in the New Testament the only aspect that is brought out is the compelling purpose of God. “You did not choose Me, but I chose you . . .” ( John 15:16  ).

We are not taken into a conscious agreement with God’s purpose— we are taken into God’s purpose with no awareness of it at all. We have no idea what God’s goal may be; as we continue, His purpose becomes even more and more vague. God’s aim appears to have missed the mark, because we are too nearsighted to see the target at which He is aiming. At the beginning of the Christian life, we have our own ideas as to what God’s purpose is. We say, “God means for me to go over there,” and, “God has called me to do this special work.” We do what we think is right, and yet the compelling purpose of God remains upon us. The work we do is of no account when compared with the compelling purpose of God. It is simply the scaffolding surrounding His work and His plan. “He took the twelve aside . . .” ( Luke 18:31  ). God takes us aside all the time. We have not yet understood all there is to know of the compelling purpose of God.

God Bless ~ Pastor Tyler