Thankfulness is an express acknowledgment of the goodness of God

For as thankfulness is an express acknowledgment of the goodness of God towards you, so repinings and complaints are as plain accusations of God’s want of goodness towards you.
WILLIAM LAW

The Fruit of Bible Study

Into the Storm

Matthew 14:33

Then they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.

When you’re in a storm with the wind raging and the waves pounding, and you feel like you’re sinking, know this: The same Lord who stills the storm allows the storm. Why does God allow storms?
Scripturally, storms appear for two reasons. First, there are storms of correction. Ask Jonah about them. If we’re out of the Lord’s will, He will use a storm to get us back to where we need to be. Storms of correction discipline us. Second, there are storms of perfection that develop us. In this passage, the disciples were obeying Jesus’ command to go to the other side. Thus, this was not a storm to correct them, but to perfect them. In this storm, Jesus was saying, “I want to test you now. I’ve been teaching you. I’ve been with you. And now I want you to exercise your faith to go through this storm.”

You see, faith is developed through struggle. If you ask people what faith is, most will answer, “Faith is believing even though you don’t have evidence.” Not true. Faith is not “believing in spite of the evidence.” Faith is obeying in spite of the consequence. Faith says, “I will do what the Lord says, even though it means a storm is headed my way. Even though it means there will be difficulties, obstacles, and challenges, even though it may be brutal and difficult, even though I must struggle, I will obey.”
When Jesus came to His disciples, they thought He was a ghost. So, too, we can look around and say, “The Lord is nowhere.” Or we can slow down and say, “Wait a minute. Is the Lord speaking to me through my sister, through my mother, through that preacher, or through the radio?”
And suddenly, “The Lord is nowhere” becomes “The Lord is now here” by adding a little space.
I find if I slow down and give the Lord a little space, He appears through my brother who shares with me, through my wife who gives encouragement to me, or through my children who challenge me. He sent you into the storm, He’s praying for you through the storm, and He’ll come to you in the storm—perhaps when you least expect Him.

Jon Courson, Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 115.

Enjoyed a visit from grandpa and grandma

Ministry Update for July

July 2015

Teen Activity

We had a wonderful youth rally where several teens came to compete in Bible Quizzing. This time the teens were quizzed over Romans 7 and afterwards Pastor Driskell preached to the teens. We closed out the activity with a photo scavenger hunt around Guernsey.

 

Visit from Pastor VanderHart

We also were privileged to again have Pastor VanderHart join us on his way out to Yellowstone with his wife Donna. It is always special and exciting to spend time with those who have invested so much into our lives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preaching at Camp Grace

After Pastor Vanderhart left for camp grace we headed up to Camp Grace for their first junior camp for this year. I was on the docket to be their speaker for the week. At first I was a bit nervous because it has been a long time since I have preached to juniors however all of my previous experience with children’s ministries came back and we had a wonderful week were many decisions were made for Christ.