Where do you find your self worth?

Where has this year gone. What an amazing year it has been in my personal life, my families life, and our faith family. Who would have thought at the beginning of the year I would be pastoring a church and that we would have our church open and worshipping and praising God every Sunday. God is amazing (I think I say that every week) in how He works in and through people. When we open our hearts to His calling and leading, the trip is incredible and we find His leading and timing are perfect.

As you think back on all that has occurred in your life over 2009, some good and some not so good, in family, job and life, where do you find your self worth? Do you find your self worth in your job, your financial situation, your friends? We sure for self worth in so many areas. It would be easy for each of us to read this and think that we don't try and find our self worth in earthly things, but the truth is many of us do.

Irving Berlin, the composer of "God Bless America" and "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas", was being interviewed by a journalist one day. The journalist asked him if there was a question that he had always wanted someone to ask him. His response was yes. Here is the question, "What do you think of the hundreds of songs you've written that didn't become hits? My reply would be I think they are all wonderful and precious to me."

God, too, has an unshakable delight in what and whom He has made. He thinks all of His children are wonderful, and whether they are a "hit" in the eyes of others or not, He will always think they are wonderful.

Our self worth will not be found in the things we won or positions we acquire. Our self worth will not be in the friends we keep or awards we win.


So, where do we find our self worth?
2 Corinthians 10:12-18 we find three principles that a child of God should consider in seeking their self worth.

1. Avoid human comparisons (humility)

Verse 12 tells us not to compare ourselves with others because those that do that are not wise.

People around us measure their own themselves against their own personal opinions and compare themselves to others around them. When we go in for the end of the year review, our temptation is to give our list of reasons we are better than other workers or give our brag list.

Let's see what Paul tells us to do in Philippians.
Philippians 2:3-4
3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his won interests, but also for the interests of others.

In this scripture the phrase "lowliness of mind" often confuses people. The Greek work that this comes from translates closer to "a deep sense of humility". What he is saying is that everything should be done by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is not natural for a human to put themselves last. This can only be done without His power.

2. Resist inaccurate exaggerations (honesty)

In verses 13-16 Paul boasted within the "sphere" of his ministry that God had given him.

Do you ever get frustrated when you work hard on something and others take credit. That is both lying and stealing. That is what was occurring here in scripture. Many of the religious people were taking credit for what others had done, including Paul, and then telling others how God worked through them.

Often we are tempted to exaggerate of take claim for something if it will help us get ahead.

Romans 15:20 tells us, "And so I have made it my aim to preach the gospel not where Christ was named, lest should build on another man's foundation."

Paul would not build on another man's foundation.

Resist exaggerations so that people can see us living Christ like.

3. Seek only God's praise (Integrity)

Verse 17-18 tells us to ONLY glory in the Lord and that we should not commend (praise) ourselves but seek only God's praise.

Integrity is defined as a steadfast adherence to a strict moral and ethical code.

Paul began this section of scripture by saying that he was not going to place himself among the group that praised themselves. The reason he would not was that the Lord would commend him as a faithful worker.

1 Corinthians 4:5 tells us our praise will come from God.

All throughout this passage Paul has been very careful not to boast in himself but in the Lord and His works. He has shown great integrity because he follows God's calling for his life and follows the directions given. For us this is the Holy Bible.

Humility, honesty and integrity are spiritual essentials for Christian maturity.

It is about guidance of the Holy Spirit in your lives. It is about looking at the example that God gave us and that was His son, Jesus Christ.

My favorite scripture is Mark 10:45. "Christ came to serve and not be served."

If we are servants then we understand our place and will not boast, exaggerate or live in selfish ambition or conceit.

The only way you can do this is to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is not natural for sinful man to live a servants life. It is what we are called to do.

If you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I would love to talk with you sometime or would love to help you find someone to talk to. Please email me or contact me through our website www.familybyfaith.com. Also, if you are looking for a place to worship, please join us on Sunday morning @ 10:30.

Please be in prayer for our Christmas Eve service. We are hoping to reach many that are not churched. God is dong amazing things in our faith family. Please be in prayer as we minister to the all those that he has brought and will bring into our faith family.

Thank you all for you many prayers during 2009.

Your brother in Christ,
Randy
James 1:27

Seeing with your eyes

As we prepare for the holidays, where do your eyes go? Do they look at all the toys your children want? Do they look at the fine clothes or jewelry you always wish you had?

The problem is not always our desires, the problem is our eyes. What do we see? Do we see what we want or what HE wants for us.

John Piper says, "Five seconds of honey on the tongue will show you more sweetness than ten hours of lectures about the sweetness of honey."

Psalms 34:8 tells us, "Taste and SEE that the Lord is good."

Until God gives you a taste of His goodness all the theology in the world will not give you a knowledge of His goodness that changes your eyes and saves your soul.

What prevents us from seeing God? I want to discuss, HOW we can see God.

In the book of Job, we see the most righteous man on the earth. Job 1:8. He was so godly that the Lord took pleasure in pointing him out to Satan. Yet even though Job had a great love for God, he hadn't realized everything about God's character. There were characteristics that Job would come to realize only through adversity.

Let's start at Job 42:1-6
1 the Job answered the Lord and said:
2 I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.
3 You asked, "Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?" Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know,
4 Listen, please, and let me speak; You said, "I will question you and you shall answer me."

These verses show Job telling God that he understands that He is wiser and that His wisdom makes Job's wisdom look like ignorance. He confesses that God is absolutely sovereign. In other words, God is God.

So, before we can see God:
1. We must be humble and understand God's sovereignty.

2. To humble ourselves before God, we must become a broken and changed person.

Job 42:5-6
5 I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You.
6 Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

Job was a broken and changed man. Now I have to say that I learned this week that the word broken is used too often. I talked with those that said they have been told, the reason they are going through a season in their life is because God was breaking them.

I believe what this scripture shows is that the reason Job was broken and changed was because he had an intimate awareness of his own sin and his need for a personal relationship with God.

Isaiah 6:5, "I am a man of unclean lips."
Luke 5:8 shows Peter saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."

You see, if we don't feel grieved about our sin, and deeply unworthy of God's goodness, then we need to pray that God would show Himself. That He would not just be doctrine and scripture anymore, but instead would become an awesome, infinite holy, and wonderfully sovereign that we would TASTE and SEE Him.

3. Before we can see Him we must have our eyes checked by the Light.
Matthew 6:22-23 tells us that the lamp of the body is the eye. It asks us if we are full or light or darkness.

Of course what this is talking about is spiritual eyesight. The only way to safely navigate through times like these is by seeing life through God's eyes.

4. To see life through His eyes, we must intimately know Him.

Matthew 11:28, " Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

When you are hurting, when life treats you badly, crawl up as close as you can to the One who loves you unconditionally and get to know Him. See that He is awesome, holy and wonderfully sovereign.

5. The see God.

Job 42:5, " I have heard of You by hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You."

Job saw the characteristics of God that he had not seen before. Yes it was through tribulation unimaginable, but more so it was because he focused on God and not all that was around him.
While seeing God in things around you, see God in scripture. The 66 books of the bible are given to us so that we can see God; to know Him, to understand Him, to cooperate with Him, to trust Him, and to love Him.

John 17:3, "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent."

I pray that you know this eternal life. If you have never experience God in this way or understand what eternal life means, I would love to talk with you. If you do not live near, find someone to discuss this most important experience with. You can contact me through our website, http://www.familybyfaith.com/

I am praying for you today.

Please be in prayer for our Christmas Eve service. If you are close and would like a place to worship, we would love to have you.

Your brother in Christ,
Randy
James 1:27

Spiritual Optimism

Have you ever walked into a store to ask directions (most guys don't) and when the person responds you can tell by the look in their eye they are not sure, so you go to the next store to ask. How would you like it if your surgeon told you they were going to give it the good old college try. You would be looking for another surgeon. You want people that are sure and confident. You want to look in there eyes and see a YES and not a NO. We can sense that. How I am not sure but I know we can.

David was a true spiritual optimist. When he talked to Saul he had a YES on his face, but for different reasons than those above. Those people speak from optimism because of life experiences. David speaks because of his perspective.

We define a pessimist as someone who sees a problem and then concentrates on the reasons why something can not be done.
A spiritual optimist is one who sees the same problem, but they see it from the perspective of God's presence.

In 1 Samuel 17 we read the account of David and Goliath. We have heard this story many times. I just want to look at it a different way. Many read this story and see that you can accomplish anything as long as you put your mind to it. Some say that the story tells them that the bigger they are the harder they fall. Others have even said that it shows you don't need all the fancy garb to be successful, just the basics. Well, I am not sure that any of those is what God was showing us here.

Starting at verse 32, David knew that here was an opportunity for God to display His power. Have you ever gotten excited about the opportunity in your life for God to display His power?

In verses 34-37 David explains his past victories. He has killed a bear and a lion with his bear hands. What David wanted to show Saul was that these past victories did was give him faith to trust God for victory over Goliath. Have you ever stood in front of someone to explain your past victories? When they heard your victories, did they hear about you or did they understand you had enough faith to trust God for your victories?

The response Saul gives at the end of verse 37 was amazing, "Go, and the Lord be with you". After days of men moaning about victory being impossible and that they have no one to battle the giant, this is the first time Saul sees that God is central in this matter.

As we move on to verse 46-47 we see David standing in front of Goliath telling him what is about to happen. (maybe the first recorded version of trash talking)

Toward the end of verse 47 David put the contest into proper perspective, "for the battle is the Lord's". It is not man against man, but light versus darkness, good versus evil.

So we see that David is a spiritual optimist. He saw the same problem all the Israelite men saw, he just saw it from the perspective of God's presence. It was about what God can do through us not what we can do on our own.

The New Testament has this same theme. There is one modification. In the Old Testament, God acted in a great way so that men would know that He is the Lord. In the New Testament, God has acted in Christ in a great and mighty way (through His life, death and resurrection) so that all men might eventually acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father.

I look at many scriptures trying to show this and the one I wanted to share was Colossians 1:13-20. Please read all of this scripture when you have time. I would like to point our just a few highlights.

Verse 14- we have redemption through His blood
Verse 16- All things were created through Him and for Him
Verse 17- and in Him all things consist
Verse 18- He is the head of the body, the church
Verse 20- having made peace through the blood on His cross.

These verse show the lordship of Christ over creation, the church, and the individual Christian.
These verses show where our spiritual optimism should come from. As we lean on Jesus Christ, just as David leaned on God, we can walk into that tough situation as a little boy but know that we have a big God on our side.

As I was preparing for this message, a phrase continued to pop into my head. I have shared over the last several months all that God has done through our small church. God continues to show how amazing He is. So I think with that in mind the following may be appropriate for our church. Not because of the numbers but because of the perspective we should always have. Every church should have this perspective.

"little church, BIG God"

I will end this by making sure you understand that when I am talking about optimism I am not talking about how to feel good about yourself, or how to get ahead in life, or how to get that next promotion. What I am talking about is our dependence on the One that is the creator of all and is the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Philippians 4:13 tells us, "I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me". It is not about me about Him who strengthens me.

If you don't know Jesus Christ or know what He has done for you so that you can have this spiritual optimism in the face of any giant, please contact me or a pastor in your area.

Please continue to pray for us as we move forward into December and 2010. We have many things going on. Please be in prayer for our Christmas Eve service. If you are looking for a service to attend, we will be having our service from 6:00-7:00 on Christmas Eve. Please look at our website to find directions. www.familybyfaith.com

Also be in prayer as we move into January and observe Sanctity of Life Sunday. If you church does not observe this critical day, please encourage your pastor to research and plan on celebrating on this day.

Once again, if you do not have somewhere to worship, we would love for you to worship with us at Family by Faith. If you have children, we would love for you to check out our dynamic children's worship and study time.

Thanks to all of those that continually pray for us and are supporting us. We love you and please never hesitate to communicate with us anything we can do for you.

Your brother in Christ,
Randy
James 1:27

When life gets too busy

Another amazing Sunday. God brought more people to the church but better than that we have had so many victories in our faith family. He has healed those through surgery, He has brought some families together, and He is moving and softening hearts of those we are praying for. It is a celebration every time we get together. Hopefully soon, we will begin our "Victory" book. This will show victories that God has blessed those in our faith family with. Often we think God is not working, but when you begin to talk to those around you, you realize He is the same God that parted the waters and healed the sick.

Often we don't see some of these victories because we are so busy. Even if it wasn't this time of year, you would still be busy. Now we are moving into the busiest time of the year. Are you prepared?

Dr. Charles Swindoll says the following:
Busyness rapes relationships. It substitutes shallow frenzy for deep friendships. It feeds the ego but starves the inner man. It fills a calendar but fractures a family. It cultivates a program that plows under priorities. Many a church boasts about its active program: "Something for every night of the week for everybody." What a shame. With good intentions even the local church assembly can crate the very atmosphere it was designed to curb.

So what do you do when life gets too busy?

If anyone understood the temptations to let busyness distract Him from the Father's activity, Jesus certainly could. He told a parable that clearly illustrated this danger. In Luke 10 He tells of a certain Jewish man that was on his way to Jericho when he was brutally attacked by thieves and left to die. First a Levite, then a priest, passed by. They were religious leaders; surely they would show compassion to a wounded person. But they had places to go and appointments to keep, so they passed him by. Surely someone would come by and help. The a Samaritan, despised by the Jews came along. Luke 10:33 tells us, "And when he saw him, he had compassion."

This is a parable that shows how Jesus expects those who believe and have been adopted into His family to respond and not to be so busy with their own schedules that we miss our opportunity to show God's love.

This is a parable, let's look and see how Jesus handled the pressure of busyness.

If you look at Mark 1:32-39, you will see how Jesus handles busyness.

In verses 32-34 you see Jesus inundated with swarms of people. You see, Jesus busyness here was not a bad thing. He healed people. Often our busyness is not a bad thing, The problem comes when we allow our busyness to dominate our lives. When busyness causes us to neglect ourselves and especially neglect our relationship with God and with other people.

For me, one of the things I have to watch out for is when I get busy. I have traveled often working my way up the corporate ladder. I have been busy as a football coach trying to get the next big job. The problem is when I get busy, I tend to rush through my bible reading and prayer, I treat them as routine. When I do this, the focus is on me.

What should I do?

Verses 35-37 gives us the answer.

First He went out and prayed. He didn't try to deal with the busyness on His own. He got up early and went to a private place. He prayed to His Father's input. He prayed for His Father's will.

I think the most important thing we see in these verse is that He allowed God to be the priority and not the demands of other people.

In verses 38-39 we see that He did not go by the demands of others. Simon has just come and told Jesus that there were a lot of people waiting on Him. They wanted Him to come out again. Instead, Jesus redirects people to the mission God has placed before them. It is easy to get distracted from God's mission. Prayer will help us focus on God's will.

So HOW do I get the time and how do I find the place?

What is interesting is whenever Jesus needed time alone with His Father, you always see Him going off alone in the morning. So what is the important ingredient?

Psalms 46:10 tells us, "Be still and know that I am God."

It is easy to become so busy that you are oblivious to those in need, even if it is your own family. Your schedule can become so full of accomplishing good things that you are not able to help the people around you. God is at work in the lives of your friends, your neighbors, and your family members. He may ask you to interrupt your busy day long enough to join Him as He ministers to them. Nothing on you agenda, no matter how pressing or the priority you have placed on it, is reason enough to ignore the voice of God when He tells you to stop and help.

Be still and know that HE is God.

Spend time with God before getting into the season. If you are already too busy, PRAY. If you feel are getting too busy, PRAY. If you need to hear God's will and not those around you, PRAY. Spend time with God in the morning and allow Him to set your priorities.

Thank you for your prayers for our faith family and our church. Once again, God is doing amazing things. The people that God is bringing truly understand the mission and vision and see how God is using our faith family. Please be in prayer as we begin our outreach for Christmas Eve. We feels as though God is calling us to reach many within a 3 mile radius of the school we meet. Please be in prayer of those that we will be reaching. God knows, now we just need to follow His will.

If you are looking for a church home or a place that is a family, please honor us by attending worship next Sunday at 10:30. All of the information you need is on our website. www.familybyfaith.com

We love each of you and continue to ask for your prayers.

Your brother in Christ,
Randy
James 1:27

"Orphan Sunday" What are YOU called to do?

When planting a church there are a lot of firsts. This past Sunday was our first "Orphan Sunday". There were thousands of churches all over the United States that celebrated this important day. You can go on to the website, www.orphansunday.com, and find out more. In our area, next year we will be starting in May to push this important day not only in this part of North Georgia but all over the state. I am going to push for our state convention to promote it as well as local associations. We will have community activities next year that will bring awareness of the plight of the orphan.

The question is, "Why is this Sunday so important?"

There are over 145 million orphans in the world today.

In the US there are over 500,000 social orphans. These are the children in the foster system. Of these children, 120,000 are available for adoption.

In the state of Georgia, there are over 2,200 from the foster system that are available for adoption. To adopt these children is no cost to the adoptive family. If you would like to look at these children, you can go to www.myturnnow.com.

Let me put these numbers in perspective. There are over 3600 Baptist churches in the state of Georgia with over 1.4 million members. You do the math. Do this bother you like it bothers me?
But even with the tragedy of these numbers, let's look at the number 1. A member of our church said to me the other day, "While these numbers are tragic, what if there were only 1 child? This would be just as tragic". Please be in prayer to see what God would have you do to take care of or support these children in need. The ORPHAN.

As I have said many times, not everyone is called to have a hand in adoption but everyone is called to have a heart for adoption.

There are so many scriptures I would like to put into this message, but for the sake of space I will give them to you hoping and praying that you read them to see what God tells us.

Duet. 10:17-18
Deut. 24:19-20
Psalms 10:14
Psalms 10:18
Psalms 146:9
John 14:18

I would like to give you the scripture that God gave us years ago. Many have read it and talked about what they would like to do. I would like to share a few thoughts about this and would love to receive any feedback.

James 1:27, " Pure and undefiled religion before God our Father is this, to provide for orphans and widows in their time of need, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world."

God's heart for the fatherless is a consistent theme throughout the entire Bible. James says serving the fatherless is "pure" and "undefiled" religion. It is not just a concern of God's. IT IS A PRIORITY OF GOD'S!!!

God knows the names and location of every child on the face of the earth. He wants all of them, every last one of them, to experience an earthly family and to know the love of their heavenly Father.

Psalms 68:4-6 tells us that He is ," A Father to the fatherless" and that, "He sets the solitary in families".

God has commanded our involvement in the lives of orphaned and at risk youth. It is one of His stated priorities. This is why Family by Faith is so involved with orphans and orphanages all over the world. This is why we will begin to work with schools in our area that have at risk children.

So what do we need to do?

I think first we must follow the commands set forth in Ephesians 5:11-17

1. We must expose the darkness that is happening. So many in the United States never have a chance to understand who God is commanding us to provide for. We must expose this darkness to churches, pastors and those in the community so that they understand WHO God is talking about. We live so privileged in the United States that it is hard to see outside our walls. Please pray that God gives us the strength to expose and share what is happening to millions of children around the world and to thousands in each state.

2. We must show that this is shameful. Shameful for what is happening and shameful that little is being done. If this priority is that critical, if God talks about these all through the Gospel, and god shows that taking care of these is pure and undefiled religion, then we must understand the shamefulness of not doing anything.

3. We must change our walk to correspond to that of Christ. We must be light. That is the only way darkness can be exposed. We must watch how we live and make wise use of our time. That is simply, doing God's will.

The church must take off the blinders and begin to embrace this darkness and expose it.
I praise God that there are so many that have this heart. Those that are willing to sacrifice whatever is needed to provide for these orphans. Those that are willing to step out on faith, leave the life that they have always known and follow the command that God has given us.
Please pray for these children in their time of need. Please pray and ask God what He is calling YOU to do.

Please read the following blog to see how an 18 year old that had everything, and I mean everything, gave it all up to go to Africa and provide for the orphan. We pray for her ministry every day.
www.kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com

It is such a blessing to be able to share a word each week. It is so humbling to think there are this many people praying for our church and faith family each week. God brought another family to our church and many visitors this past week.

Please be in prayer for our Adoption Financing Seminar this weekend. There are over 50 people attending and we believe more than half of those are unchurched. Please pray that God uses us to reach those that are spiritual orphans and are fatherless.

Your brother in Christ,
Randy
James 1:27

Wow! As we have spent the last 5 weeks looking at the mission and vision of our church, it has been incredible to watch God move not only in our church but in individuals. To see people LIVE the mission and vision of Family by Faith. God's call to us is very clear. The only questions is, are we willing to step out on faith and follow His call? He has special plans for special people in our faith family. He has plans for both men and women, young and old, single and married, and each one that is willing to answer His call. Not my call. HIS call!!! What an awesome thought to know that the King of kings and Lord of lords has a call for me.

This past week we looked at the final step in the wheel that is our vision.
Step 1- Seek the spiritual orphans
Step 2- Show God's love
Step 3- Share Christ
Step 4- Receive a new life in Christ
The final step is: Adoption into the family of God.

There is so much I wish I could share with you so I may put this in to separate blog post. The deepest and strongest foundation of adoption is located not in the act of humans adopting humans, but in God adopting humans. This act is the heart of the gospel. Please don’t miss that last statement. This act is the heart of the gospel.

As we ask others, "Why did Christ come", we get one answer usually. To die on a cross to save us from our sins. While that answer is not wrong, it is not the complete answer. Galatians 4:4-8 (Romans 8:14-17) answer this question for us. Verse 4 starts out with, "When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son." Sounds like we are getting ready to hear why He came. Please read the whole text but I am going to paraphrase the 4 reasons God sent His Son.

1. To redeem those under the law.
2. That we may be adopted into the family of God.
3. That we may have an Abba! Father!- and intimate relationship, a Dad
4. That we may be an heir of God. I am an heir of the Creator of everything. Now that is cool!!!

So if we understand that Christ is the cornerstone of the church, then this must be the undergirding. So this week we looked at the final step, our adoption into the family of God. As we understand out adoption we must understand the parts of adoption. What are the steps that were taken for us to have this personal relationship?

We use the understanding of physical adoption as a metaphor for our spiritual adoption.

Step 1- We were chosen (election)
Ephesians 1:4-6 tells us that before the foundation of the world was ever made, we were predestined for adoption. What this verse tells us is that adoption is not God's Plan B. Adoption all along was God's Plan A. Imagine if He looked at someone with money and prestige and wanted them first, but after thinking about it they chose not to accept this gift. After that, He would look at Randy Grimes and say, "I guess I will take him". Praise God that is not how it works. He chose me even though He know I would not be perfect and I would disappoint Him. He still chose me.

Step 2- Legal action (justification)
Justification is a legal term that came into being around 1300. Justification means that someone must stand on behalf of those that cannot stand for themselves. They must plead the case to show what is right. We are told to be that for those that cannot stand on their own behalf. Psalms 10:14 ,"You are the helper of the fatherless." Verse 18 says, "To do justice (stand on their behalf) to the fatherless and the oppressed." Just as we are called to stand on behalf of those that can't stand up for themselves, Christ stands on our behalf. Romans 5:18 tells us that even though there was sin in this world, on Man's righteous act gave us the free gift, resulting in the justification of life. So you if you think physically adopting a child has a lot of red tape, keep in mind that this red tape is not stained with YOUR blood. Jesus satisfied all legal demands by shedding His blood.

Step 3- Expenses must be paid
Galatians 4:5, "To redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons." There sometimes are huge cost in adopting a child. Some are financial and some are emotional. I have always felt there was something deep and right about the embrace of this cost for the life of a child. 1 Corinthians 6:20 tells us, "for you were bought at a price". That price is the CROSS. We hear people complain about the cost of adoption. Why does it cost so much when these children need a home. I can only tell them to turn to the Bible. I ask them, "How much did your adoption cost?"

Step 4- Planning
My wife tells me this is the hardest part. I mean after you have done all of the steps before, now you wait.
Paul tells us in Romans 8:23, "but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body."

There are many benefits in being adopted into the family of God but I would like to point out 2 benefits of being adopted.

1. We have an Abba! Father! Romans 8:15-16, "You received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry, Abba! Father!. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God."
Why did Paul use this phrase Abba Father? Because this is the way Jesus spoke His Father. It is such an endearing, intimate term. This equates calling your father DAD. Some of my children have a birth father, but he will never be DAD. What a great benefit.

2. We are permanent heirs. Romans 8:17, "and if children, then heirs- heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together."
We are heirs of all that God has, namely everything.

Most will tell you that the mission of every church is to make disciples. I agree completely. The question is why would someone become a disciple and what will they do. We feel that once you become a part of a family, you intimately know your Father, understand all He desires for you and know His amazing love, your desire will be to spread the teachings of your Father. That is what a disciple is.

As people come into His family, we will disciple them and lead them to a greater understanding so that they will then begin to reach out to the spiritual orphans, which is the first step of our vision wheel.
I want to thank you for all of you prayers and asking how you can help. Once again, God is working in the life of our faith family. As with anything, there are growing pains, but nothing that God will not work out. He is doing that now. I must grow in the understanding that I must feed all the sheep of the flock. Please pray that I develop that greater understanding of all the needs of our faith family.

Nov. 14th is our Adoption Financing Seminar. It is from 10-12 on Saturday. Jason Kovacs of the Abba Fund with be our guest speaker. He will be discussing practical ways to finance adoptions as well as understanding the spiritual component of this financing. If you are interested and can attend, please go to our website, http://www.familybyfaith.com/ to register. If you cannot attend and would like the information, please let us know. We are going to record and get out to those that are not able to make it. Please also be in prayer, we are going to have a number of spiritual orphans there. Please pray that God show us how we need to minister to them in their place of need.
Also, we just sent $500 to a special needs orphanage that is being built in China. God is blessing us and it is a true blessing to know how He desires us to be stewards of His money. We sent this money in honor of Maggie Fogas. Maggie is a 7 year old that attend our church and she was adopted from China. She is going to be a blessing in so many peoples lives.
Your brother in Christ,
Randy
James 1:27

God is growing our faith family, both numerically and spiritually. This past Sunday was an amazing day of worship. I wanted to share some from the message delivered. Please never hesitate to contact me of email me back. Thank for all of your prayers and support.

Don’t rewind the tape, get a new tape.

Have you ever said this, "If I could just go back in time, I would make a different decision"? Or. would you want to go back and treat others differently or make a different job decision if you had the chance? If the answer is yes, then you are in the 98% of people that are being honest. We all have made decisions we wish we could go back and change. We wish we could rewind the tape. (DVD for today's culture)

While we know we can't go back and change things, what if we could just get a new tape. What if we could change our lives? Even to the point to where others may not recognize the new you because it is so different than the old you. Before we can learn how to do this, we must first understand how God works so that we can see how He gives us this new life. Psalms 103:12 tells us that, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."

Did you see it? As far as the east is from the west. Your sins have been removed. Why did He use this measurement? You can't measure east and west. You will never find the end. This not only describes His love for us, but how far he separates us from our sin. Satan will try hard to bring up the past. He will try and convince you that others may find out your skeletons. You can boldly look Satan in the eye and tell Him, God has removed that from me, as far as the east is from the west.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 tells us of those that will not inherit the kingdom of God. It is not the sins but from verse 9 He tells us that it is the unrighteous. That is those that do not have a right standing or know Christ personally as their Savior. Verse 11 starts with, " And such were some of you." Could you imagine if the scripture ended there? You would walk around constantly with guilt and fear. We would constantly be thinking about the consequences or the what ifs.

Thankfully, it doesn’t end there. Verse 11 tells us, "But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God." Praise God that we have been washed. He has separated us from our sins as far as the east is from the west. We have been made perfect (sanctified) in Jesus Christ.

We could read Ephesians 2 or Colossians 1 or many other text that reminds us that we have messed up our lives and have ruined everything. But whether you have grown up on the right side or wrong side of the tracks. Whether you have made the right or wrong decisions, we all end up discovering the same thing. That without Christ, our lives are a mess. We are absolutely hopeless.

Please let me give you the good news. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says " If anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creation; old things pass away and , Behold, all things become NEW." The word new here is not like buying a new car. You had a 2000 car and now you bought a 2006 car. That new means more recent. It is still a car, just more recent. The word in the scripture is the Greek word for metamorphosis. Think of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. It means RADICALLY different. When you look at the life of a Christian who has been transformed by the grace of God, this text comes to life. Behold, all things become new. That is remarkable.

Let me give a story example. A business man wanted to buy a warehouse from another business man. The warehouse was dirty and dusty, broken windows, the roof had holes and trash was everywhere. AS the prospective buyer looked at the property, the owner continued to tell him he would clean things up. He would repair all that needs repair. The buyer told him to forget about the repairs. He told him, "when I buy this place, I am going to build something completely different. I don't want the building, I want the building site."

Understand, God is not asking us to clean things up and make it pretty before He moves in. What He is asking for is not the building, but the building site. He was to bring a wrecking ball and knock it all down and build something new. When we are in Christ, the old life is over. The gift is free, Ephesians 2:8, and the gift has been paid for, Galatians 4:5.

Are you "in Christ"? Because, if you are, you're new and can walk around excited as you can be about life. But if you're not "in Christ", then I don't know what else to do but what the following text tells me to do. 2 Corinthians 5:20, "we implore (beg) you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God."

I beg you today, if you do not know Christ, TODAY, allow someone to talk to you about this new life. To talk with you to not rewind the tap but to completely replace it so it can be new. If you are looking for somewhere to find out about this NEW life, we would be honored if you visited us at Family by Faith Worship Center.