The Connection Gauge - Gratitude

by Andy Overly

A light came on in my car the other day, a gauge to remind me that the car needed an oil change. Consequently, today my car was in the shop for routine maintenance, nothing unusual really. This was true until the mechanic came out and said that rather than replacing a break light as I had requested, they need to replace a circuit board. The job of a circuit board is to relay important information from the brain of the car to its parts. Without the replacement of the circuit board, a good bulb would be of no value. Hence, from the routine maintenance and checkup for which I took my car to the shop came the realization that good parts in my car were not functioning because their link to the brain of the car was not working. 

We too need spiritual maintenance from time to time and often a simple check-up will reveal we have “wiring” issues as well.  So how do you and I know if we need repair? Good news! God’s Word provides gauges for our spiritual circuitry!

Last Saturday in a Men of Valor small group, I became aware of one of the gauges I can read on the control panel of my spiritual life. This indicator will allow me to always know whether I have a properly “connected” walk with Jesus. 

Colossians 2:6–7 (NASB95) says,   6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

You see, an offshoot of the connection to Jesus that allows for us to grow in our relationship with Him day by day is gratitude. Our connection was firmly rooted in Christ when we were saved. Still, our daily walk with the Lord can be short circuited. If we are not living a life of gratefulness, this indicates that there is a problem which needs to be fixed in us as soon as possible. A proper connection will cause us to be infused with so much gratitude that it will spill over from our lives into the lives of others around.  

Our gauge for knowing where our spiritual walk and connection to Jesus stands is found in answer to the following question, “Are we grateful?”  If we can’t answer this question ourselves, we should ask someone else. The gauge will be so clear that anyone around you and I can answer the question for us (Our spouse, the person we sit by in church, the co-worker with whom we share an assignment on Tuesday morning). “Does gratitude splash from our lives in such a way that we can’t help but be an encouragement to those around us?”  

This gauge comes as standard equipment for all Christians and churches. Overflowing gratitude is an indication that all is well; the lack of it signals that we need immediate maintenance. A fresh connection with Jesus will fix the problem and return us to the walk of the Spirit and gratitude will again ooze from us.

Check your gauge today! 

We will not be looking at a Core Value this Sunday. Dick Kelly from Slavic Gospel Association (SGA) will be with us in our service. SGA is the organization through whom we support our 3 church planters to the Ukraine; Victor & Galina  Opalinkiy, Oleg & Oklena Pelepko, and Audrey & Valentina Yakimenko. Come expecting the ministry of the Holy Spirit in your heart.

Do you swear to tell the truth...?

 by Jim West

Most of us (at least those of us with significant age) have heard a witness sworn in to testify in a court trial by a bailiff using these words. “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” As the witness agreed to these conditions to testify, he would do so with his right hand in the air and his left hand placed on a Bible. Sadly, we now live in a culture in which some are “offended” by references to God, so most states and jurisdictions have omitted the Bible and the phrase “so help you God” from the swearing in process.

By God’s grace, TCBC has from its inception been a body of believers who are unashamed to promote truth. God’s truth. Absolute truth. Unchanging truth. Though so many, including many who actually profess to know Christ, would hold to a teaching that there is no absolute truth, that no one can know anything with certainty, including whether or not they are saved, the body of TCBC has stood faithfully on truth as recorded and preserved in God’s Word.

This Sunday, Pastor Andy will share our Core Value from 2 Timothy 2:15, Faithful Devotion to God’s Word. “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.” The passion of everyone who teaches or preaches the Bible at TCBC is to handle the truth accurately. To get it right. Devoid of cultural pressure or influence; devoid of personal bias. Teachers study in preparation to present the truth because we have no liberty to teach anything other than what God intended. It is, after all, His truth. The original Greek for “accurately handing” carries the idea of making a straight cut or dissecting correctly. Paul tells Timothy (and us by extension) in this text that to get it right requires diligence and the efforts of a workman. Each of us as followers of Christ, as His disciples, must desire to “not be ashamed” of our lack of diligence or apathy to truth. We are called to be truth bearers to a world that needs Truth!

It is the truth of His Word (and the power of the Spirit) that convicts us that we have sinned against God, that presents the need of a human soul for forgiveness of that sin, and that presents the only hope of finding that forgiveness, the person of Jesus Christ.

If you haven’t yet seen the new commercial spot by Focus on the Family on John 3:16, check it out here, it is, well, truth!

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=FM1CFCNU&utm_source=GodTube%20Must-See%20Video&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=01/18/2012

WOW :))))

As His disciples, we have indeed been sworn to tell His truth, His whole truth, and nothing but His truth. Prayerfully we can ask the Lord to help us be faithfully devoted to His Word.  We sincerely desire to present the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, “so, please, help us God.”

In the words of Mercy Me…

Word of God speak  
Would You pour down like rain
Washing my eyes to see
Your majesty
To be still and know
That You're in this place
Please let me stay and rest
In Your holiness

Word of God speak

…and all God’s children said…”Amen!”

“Are we merely ‘burdeners’ or burden bearers?”

 by Andrew Overly

Sunday afternoon at Jasper County fair has historically been the day that the horse pull takes place.  Carla’s recently deceased grandfather enjoyed tractor and horse pulls.   There are trophies all over his house that verify this passion he had to harness up a couple of ponies and watch them work together to accomplish a goal.  And so, pulling is in Carla’s blood.  For this reason, when she can get her husband to comply (J), our family will join the crowd to watch these powerful animals pull ”boats” filled with concrete blocks.   While trying to quell my fears that someone will lose a finger when hooking up their team to the boat, I enjoy watching these big horses do their work.  It is amazing the amount of weight they can haul.   Besides dragging their own body weight (something I find this as a chore each day to do physically, emotionally and spiritually), a recent pair of horses pulled 13,000 pounds at Topeka, Indiana.  Wow!  The amazing thing is they seem to enjoy a good relationship with the men who add the weight to their sled and the man who drives them to pull that weight.  What’s more, they seem to be chomping at the bit to pull the load.   They actually seem to enjoy the labor.    

Did you know that God intends us to be weight pullers?  Moreover, he wants to provide us purpose and joy in the labor it entails.

First, we are meant to pull our own weight.  Galatians 6:5 (NASB95)   5 For each one will bear his own load. Jesus provides a manageable burden that we all are meant to bear in service to Him.   He describes it in pulling terms in Matthew 11 when he says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light.  We are to constantly be working alongside our brothers and sisters, bearing the burden of service provided to us by the Lord.  It is a manageable and purpose-filled burden in contrast to the burden of the world that robs us of purpose and becomes too heavy to bear (Matt. 11:28).   

However, not only do we have our own burdens to bear, we are also meant to carry the weight of others. Galatians 6:2 (NASB95) 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.   The terms used in this verse describe a huge burden that at times is too heavy to bear on one’s own.  This is where it often gets difficult.  You see the burdens that we carry for others, in the context of Galatians 6, often are burdens they created for themselves.  Our natural reaction is to resist the idea of bearing these burdens with and for others.  Yet at that moment, the words of Hillsong stop us in our tracks and remind us of the biblical truth, 

Everyone needs compassion,

Love that's never failing;

Let mercy fall on me.

Everyone needs forgiveness,

The kindness of a Savior;

The Hope of nations.

Savior, He can move the mountains,

My God is Mighty to save,

He is Mighty to save.

Amazingly enough, often God allows us to participate in moving those mountains.  By His direction we His servants have great burdens loaded on us, by His great power we are provided the energy to team up side by side to move these loads, and by His grace mountains are moved miraculously.  And what is the source of joy in the midst of this weight pulling?   1) Having a tender relationship with the God who holds the reigns to His burden bearers; 2) Having a clear purpose provided by him in a world void of significance;  3)  Being able to participating in seeing mountains moved by God; and then  4) Standing back to see what He has done in and through us.  

As we continue our series on the body of Christ, remember that, as the body of Christ, we are meant to be burden bearers. All of us have burdens that we need others to bear with us; the question is, “are we merely ‘burdeners’ or burden bearers?”   As a part of our fused efforts as the body, you and I are meant to bear our own burdens and then yoke up to bear the burdens of those around us.  Let’s see what weight God intends to move through us. 

Stay tuned, and Sunday we will talk about the church’s core value, Compassionate Sharing with all Mankind of God’s Love.  Compassion is the yoke that links us together with God in our mission to bear the burdens of others.