Well I know that Jesus does. After Peter denied him 3 times Jesus met him on the beach for a breakfast and a time of reconciliation. Jesus wants us to not only be reconciled with one another but also with Him. After Peter’s denials we read in the book of John that Jesus comes to Peter and after having breakfast begins to question Peter about his love for Him. Peter of course says that he loves Jesus all 3 times that Jesus asks but the teaching ends with well then “Follow Me”. And this may seem simple but it is the hardest thing that we as humans will ever do. And if not careful we can end up in a set of religious acts thinking that this is what makes us holy, when it is really that time on the beach allowing Christ to permeate us with His holiness, His love, and His righteousness. I pray that you too are spending time with Jesus on the beach each day allowing Him to instruct, whittle, and mold your life as only He can do.

Yesterday evening I received a phone call that a good friend and Christian brother Ed Schlittler had passed away yesterday unexpectedly.  Ed and Fran have been at our church since before we started and have always been huge supports of our evangelism outreach walks.  We at 2MHDs want to send our love to Fran, Mike, and Michelle and the rest of the family as well.  I heard a song this morning that made me think of Fran and so I wanted to share it with you all and her.  The lyrics are from a Natalie Grant song and they are:

This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was when everything fell
We’d be held

So Fran, Mike, and Michelle  this is what if feels like to be held, God promises that He will be with us through all things. 

Nahum 1:7 (English Standard Version)
⁷The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.

We as Eden Community Church will be with you through every step of this journey.  We have great hope and joy in the knowledge that brother Ed loved Jesus and is now with Him worshiping and finding out what true healing and true peace is about.  We love you!

God Bless ~ Pastor Tyler

We all know the story of Noah’s Ark and how the animals were saved in pairs (of course that was unclean animals and he took more of the clean but that is a different blog) from the great flood.  Well today I was able to walk into an ark with a christian brother as we sat and shared our lives in an act of accountability.  We discussed our actions, thoughts, motives, and results.  We discussed our family time, ministry time, devotion time, and all of the other things that we faced or battled through the last 7 days.  It is our time to be real, to be broken, and to hold each other to a higher standard.

It is so important as a CHRISTian to find someone of the same gender that you can trust, communicate with, and confide in to share your failures and your successes.   The need to openly discuss our sin is one of the first steps in defeating that hold that the devil may have on our life or ministry.  We can not successfully truly be close to God while still holding on to sin that is not surrendered over to God.  We must repent and protect ourself from failure by finding that Ark.  Remember that not only did God use a ark for Noah and his family but also for moses.  When moses was a baby God had his mother place him in an ark (basket) so that pharaohs daughter would find him and protect him from being murdered.  God has provided us an ark from a life that is constantly impeded by sin…that ark is the act of accountability.  I urge you as a pastor and as a brother in Christ to find someone that you can love and trust to confide in.  Someone that will see you through Christ’s eyes and not judge you for your failures but through scripture help you to overcome those obstacles in your life.  There is no reason to tread water by yourself when God has provided somewhere safe to go.  So 2×2; stand strong and stand firm on the promises of God.

God Bless ~ Pastor Tyler

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