Is your family crazy? Probably!!

I’m not talking about your crazy uncle or cousin that everyone is ashamed of at the family reunion. {if you don’t know of a crazy uncle or cousin you’re probably it }I’m talking about how crazy our family and home situations can be at times.

The days of the perfect family seem to be over. Where did ‘Father Knows Best’ and ‘Leave it to Beaver’ families go? Fact is, our family lives don’t resemble that well ordered life anymore.

So what does that mean? Can God still do something with your family? Can God still use your family? Can some “sense” come out of your crazy family?

Believe it or not – He can do great things with your Crazy Family! There are a lot of crazy families in the bible and there is help and hope for yours!

Join us beginning on Mother’s Day and find out how. Invite someone to be with you. Almost all of us know a family that is hurting and needs help. You can really make a difference in their lives by just inviting them to church.

PS. If you click on the picture you can watch a video where I talk about the upcoming series even more.

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When you hear the words “Spiritual Warfare” you almost immediately start thinking about the spiritual giants you know. The preacher – deacon – evangelist – ‘super christian’ – who you think engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the devil himself.

But, the fact is, Spiritual Warfare happens every day of our life for the ‘regular’ Christian.

How do you fight a spiritual battle?

How do you win a spiritual battle?

Listen to this sermon by Pastor Joel Southerland and get some help on “Winning Spiritual Warfare for the Regular Guy”.

According to new stats released by Barna, having your youth in Sunday School makes a huge difference later on in life. If you consistently go to Sunday School when you are young it has a direct bearing on church attendance when you grow up.

According to Barna, “More than 8 in 10 adults in the U.S. claim they had weekly religious education before age 12. Of those, 69 percent now attend religious programs weekly.”

What does that mean?

Parents that means you cannot overestimate the importance of having your child in church when they are young. Being part of a good children’s program and youth program has  a great impact on their spiritual lives later on.

So, to all of the parents reading – here are some admonitions:

1. Model a consistent Christian life for your child / teen. It is even better if they see Jesus in you!

2. Make Sunday School and Wednesday night youth worship/AWANA’s part of your regular routine without fail. I know your child has homework on Wednesdays but if they need to stay up a few minutes late it won’t harm them for life. Being detached from the youth group might. Make sure they are in Sunday School every Sunday. Don’t be a “hit or miss” family when it comes to Sunday School – your children will pay the price later on!

3. Make Christ the center of your home. Talk about Jesus / church all the time in a positive way. Don’t ever let them hear you complain about something going on at church.

We all want our children to grow up to be good citizens and good Christians. It doesn’t happen by accident!

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

OK. This story comes from the files of just almost unbelievable. Where has Mayberry gone?

The town of Cheviot, Ohio is taking extra security measures this year to protect baby Jesus [you can read about it here http://bit.ly/8jrEQ8 ]. Several years ago someone stole their baby Jesus from the town’s nativity scene several times. So, to combat that this year, they have installed security cameras to watch over baby Jesus. The article goes on to say that a new industry is being formed in order to protect baby Jesus in public nativity scenes. Some companies even put GPS locators in the dolls in case Jesus gets kidnapped. WOW!

And then I thought – I wish Christians protected Jesus as much at Christmas time. It seems that years ago the Lord Jesus was stolen completely away from the Holiday of Christmas as well. We let Him get “swiped” and we haven’t even gone looking for Him.

This Christmas – find Jesus and put Him in His rightful place!

He is the reason for the season!

Why do Athiest feel the need to ‘evangelize’? It strikes me as humurous that they would spend thousands of dollars and countless hours fighting something they don’t believe exists!!

A group in NY City is promoting their atheism with their dollars and time. You can read about it here: http://bit.ly/INBsv

Shouldn’t we as Christians be much more motivated than the atheist? After all, we believe God is real and that there are dire consequences for NOT believeing and trusting in Him!!

So, lets do the world a favor and be more vocal and more zealous and more committed to telling people about Jesus than the atheist are in telling people He doesn’t exist.

Go to work ~ school ~ community ~ family and share the love of Christ and the gospel message!!

Psalm 14:1

Only fools say in their hearts,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, and their actions are evil;
not one of them does good!

A church in London was recently told to be quiet – literally! [Read about it here: http://bit.ly/2miyW6 ]

They were worshiping too loud – causing a disturbance – making too much noise – GOOD FOR THEM!!

Wouldn’t it be awesome if people complained that YOUR/OUR church made too much noise? I don’t mean just audible noise – I mean the “news” kind of noise. The kind of “noise” that told about how:

• God was at work in the church
• Lives were being changed
• Sin was being confessed & forsook
• Exciting worship was being engaged
• The community was being changed
• People were leaving false religions and turning to Christ
• The Gospel was being preached on every street corner
• Too much Jesus was going on

Let’s do it! Let’s go out into the world and make a lot of “noise” about Jesus!!

Go to work ~ school ~ community ~and make much ado about Jesus!!

Acts 17:6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.