Dear church family,
These are exciting days at Springs of Grace. It seems like God is moving in answer to prayer. I know that we have many struggles and you may or may not see the evidence of His moving, but as one of your pastors, I do see it and am thrilled. I see God doing things we have prayed a long time for as we are becoming more and more the church He has called us to be in His Word.
The Lord is doing fresh and wonderful things in our youth that has a chance to transform our city for the next generation.
The missions involvement and passion for the nations has never been greater at Springs of Grace. We have members of our body in the Ukraine, Papua New Guinea, and Guatemala right now, people just back from Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan and people strategizing and praying and preparing to go other places with the gospel.
The work and fruit of getAHEAD, sports club, girls club, Summerfest and block ministry, Day Center ministry AND the longevity and faithfulness of many of our body in ministry have moved us into the lives of our neighbors deeper than ever. It is such a blessing to see the knitting together that God is doing.
The commitment to living in community and serving and loving one another – the living out of my dad and Helen’s prayer for us to “keep taking our love to a higher level” seems to be happening in our church family in greater ways than ever. (ministry to moms, women’s ministry, the influx of young couples, babies, adoption, concern and investment in the emotionally hurting, medical ministry, etc.)
I AM SO THANKFUL.
In the midst of that we should remain aware of our frailty and of an enemy who is against us.
Let me give you two cautions and a big encouragement.
1) Don’t spend time comparing yourself with others or comparing ourselves as a church with others … In John 21 – Jesus has a discussion with Peter about John and He tells Peter not to compare –“You – Follow Me!”
2) In our hard pursuit of the Lord make sure that we keep rejecting legalism (any mindset of “doing to get or to gain God’s favor”) and keep rejecting externals as the measure of our Christianity.
Don’t grow weary and despair.
BIG ENCOURAGEMENT: Jesus’ presence through the Holy Spirit is our hope. WE MUST BE DEPENDENT UPON THE SPIRIT OF GOD. WHY?
– The mission we have is one that we cannot accomplish. We can’t do it. There is nothing of real value that we can accomplish without the power of the Spirit of Jesus working in and through us.
– The privilege we have to be in a love relationship with Jesus is too precious to forsake. He is with us, inside of us and He wants to have a love relationship with us. That’s too awesome to ever lose sight of.
– The family we are called to is too important to neglect. We are blessed to be in this family together. Yes, the Lord does work in our lives individually but He moves among His people. His work ultimately is about forming a people into the bride of Christ. He is interested in making us like Jesus – making us corporately, (together), faithful to Jesus. We are together in this thing.
– We have a God infinitely greater than we can imagine. We must be dependent upon His Spirit and we need to keep reminding one another that GOD CAN! “What is impossible with men, is possible with God.” “Shall not the God of all the earth do what is right?” “He, who did not spare His own Son, shall He not also through Him freely give us all things?” “Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.” “His grace is sufficient for us.” “He will never leave us or forsake us.” “Consider Jesus.”
He is with us. Depend on His Spirit as we love Him, our city and the nations together.
Pastor Joe