Category: Faith Fix

Keeping the Local Church

As we’re approaching sending our oldest child out into adulthood, to live on his own, we’ve realized there are some things he’s not yet had to experience that he soon will. It’s interesting having an adult “child” who works a full-time job, living in your household. Though we give him certain responsibilities, such as paying a few of his own simple bills like phone and insurance, and doing a few chores around the house, he’s never had to run a household. He’s never had to wonder where the toilet paper is coming from or whether there will be electricity and running water when he needs it. He’s never had to consider the age of the roof and when it may need replaced or what to do about the leaking garbage disposal. The children of the house simply don’t know all the things Mom and Dad have to handle.

This is so similar to the way it is in a local church. The members of the church simply don’t know all the things that the pastors have to handle. Most church attenders and members simply show up, hang up their jackets, sit in the seats, and listen to the sermon. They don’t wonder who made sure the electricity was paid or who made sure there was heat today. Most church attenders don’t wonder if there will be toilet paper and soap in the bathrooms when they go to use them. These are just among the many things that are thought about and kept in order behind the scenes in a local church.

The difference between most church attenders and our 21 year old son is that, typically the members of the congregation are grown adults who do happen to have to think about all these things for their own households. Most Christians are very familiar with what it takes to run a household, yet they don’t consider it their responsibility to help assure their local church (household) is in good working order.

If people truly understood the way a local church was supposed to function, they wouldn’t dare not be a tither. Look at the primary purpose for tithing, Malachi 3:10 (NKJV), “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house…” The Lord has called His children, His church, all Christians, to tithe and be a supply to the local church, to make sure the local church is provided for. When you study the statistics of tithers in the body of Christ, you’ll be shocked to find that only roughly 3-5% of Christians even tithe. This means that 95% of Christians or more are showing up to church expecting someone else to worry about keeping the mortgage paid, paying the electric bill, and supplying their toilet paper.

Hebrews 5:12 (NKJV), “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” If we can’t trust God in something so simple as with our tithe, which is 10% of our income, then how will we ever believe Him to heal that cancer, to restore that marriage, to break that addiction? The tithe is about being faithful to God because He is faithful to you. The tithe and the offering are about providing for the kingdom. It’s about providing a place for the lost to be saved, for the broken to be restored, for the (spiritually) hungry to be fed.

In the early church, the responsibilities of the church weren’t left for one or two people. They weren’t left for the pastors and leaders to do alone. Grown adult “children” in a household ought not live off their parents, but ought to contribute and learn to be an asset, not a liability. Christians and church goers ought not be a liability to their local church, but ought to purpose to be an asset. Ask yourself, is my local church better off because I’m there? Am I tithing so I can do my part to pay the bills? Am I giving so I can be a part of the outreaches, church plants, and special projects? Am I serving in the ministry of helps or am I just making a mess and expecting my parents or my brothers and sisters to take care of it for me?

Mark 10:45 (NKJV), “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Jesus, our example, had two key characteristics that we need to strive to have ourselves, He served and He gave. For Jesus, none of it was about Him, but it was about others. We should likewise care more for the well-being of the whole, rather than for ourselves. Are you a giver? Are you a server? Are you an asset?

Let’s get this job done, amen!?

Be Blessed,
Pastor Renee

What’s Marriage For?

1 Corinthians 6:17 (NKJV), “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” Let’s look in Mark 10:6-8 (AMP), “But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. 7 For this reason a man shall leave [behind] his father and his mother and be joined to his wife and cleave closely to her permanently, 8 And the two shall become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh.” Of course these scriptures reference the beginning of mankind from the book of Genesis. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we become one with Him. He becomes our husband, so to speak. What is marriage for? It’s to teach us about our covenant with the Lord, but if we look to the world for the example of marriage, we will not understand this.

Now, let’s look even further into this in Ephesians 5:30-32 (NKJV), “For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” This is the highest form of covenant on earth. When a man marries a woman, the two go forward together as one. This is not just physical, but the two must also be united in mind and spirit. The two must live in agreement. This is why we’ve taught our children and our churches, that it matters who you marry. Who you marry becomes who you are. You become one and what one does affects the other.

Look at verse 33, “Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” Husbands, the way you love your wife is the way you love Jesus. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NKJV) tells us exactly what real love should look like, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” This is the way Jesus loves us! He gave Himself for us, His church, His bride. This is what a husband is supposed to represent to his wife. My husband loves me, so unconditionally, with all that is in him and he would do anything to see me protected, safe, and blessed. My husband lives for me and our children. He lives to love me.

Now look at the second half of Ephesians 5:33, “…let the wife see that she respects her husband.” This word respect means to honor, to fear the idea of displeasing out of true reverence, to treat with true respect. A godly wife will act and speak in such a way that her husband will be honored. I live to make my husband’s life better, I love to bring him respect. When someone looks at me, I want them to see how great a husband I have. Remember those old shampoo commercials, “if you don’t look good, we don’t look good”? A wife must be sober about that. If you don’t live in such a way that brings your husband respect and honor, you’re not being the blessing you were meant to be. This is how we are to look at Christ. He loves us and we reverence and honor Him with how we live and what we say. If we look good, He looks good.

True marriage is to be a blessing! Isn’t that awesome of God, that He would create the institution of marriage to teach us about our relationship with Him, but also to bless the socks off us!? Look at these scriptures: Proverbs 5:18 (NKJV), “Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice with the wife of your youth.” Proverbs 18:22 (NKJV ), He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the Lord.” Proverbs 31:10-11 (NKJV), “Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. 11 The heart of her husband safely trusts her; So he will have no lack of gain.” The implication of all these scriptures is that a true marriage covenant will be a blessing. Marriage God’s way should cause us to rejoice! Marriage God’s way is favor, it’s valuable, it’s a good thing!!

Marriage is for us. It’s for us to know and understand the true covenant we enter into with the Lord. I tell you, my marriage is heaven on earth! We rejoice together, we trust and respect each other, and we greatly love one another. True godly marriage is a good thing! If you have a godly marriage, keep these things in remembrance always. If you don’t have it, believe Him for it!Psalms 37:3-4 (NKJV), “Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.4 Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

Be Blessed,
Pastor Renee

You’ve Got to Want It; You’ve Got to Want Him

Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

This is a scripture we have on the wall of Family Church Mayville. It’s a scripture we read and teach every single service in both of our churches. Everyone wants God to bless them. They want abundance, they want peace, they want an amazing life and future for themselves and for their children. God has promised that for His children. Most Christians don’t even know that much, that God is good and only wants good things for them. Simply believing that is the first step to walking in that blessed plan.

But, when we have gotten the revelation of who God IS, we’ve got to do more than just believe. Look at Jeremiah 29:12, “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.” YOU will call upon God. YOU will go to Him and He will listen. It’s YOUR responsibility. Look at verse 13, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” When YOU search for Him, He will be found by YOU. Look at verse 14, “ I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity…”

The Lord is a perfect gentleman. He never forces Himself on anyone. If you don’t invite Him in, He’s not coming. If you don’t seek Him, you won’t find Him. If you don’t find Him, you’ll never realize all He’s got planned for you now and in your future. But the great thing is that He’s right there just waiting for you to call upon Him.

Look at Proverbs 8:17 (NKJV), “I love those who love me, And those who seek me diligently will find me.” Have you ever known anyone who wouldn’t let you love them? Maybe it seemed like they tried their hardest to keep you out of their life or they worked so hard to destroy all you tried to give them? People do the same thing to God. He can’t be in covenant with someone who won’t be in covenant with Him. It. Just. Can’t. Work.

This principle is found in scripture over and over again. You must seek God, you must want God, you must choose God, if you’re going to have God in your life. Look at Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV), “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Believe in who God IS. Believe that He needs you to invite Him in, through your words, through your actions, in your thoughts, and in your heart. And when He reveals Himself to you, through His Word and the inward witness, do your best to follow His lead.

Matthew 7:7-8 (NKJV) “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” What will be opened? That blessed plan, that hope and that future, that God has had for you all along.

Be Blessed,
Pastor Renee

Trusting God

Psalms 37:3
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.

This scripture has been the focus of my life in recent times. I love how the Lord will speak to us through the scripture. If you are not spending time in the Word, then you are not hearing from God! God will speak to your spirit as you read His Word!

This is the type of scripture that you can read right by without really getting it, if you are not careful. Trust in God and do good. This instruction is most of what any believer needs. In fact, I’ve been seeing in my own life, that everything I’m believing God for has its answer right here and so this is the scripture I meditate on. What then, you may ask, is trusting in God really about? The context of the Word of God is absolutely amazing. He never leaves us hanging with stuff He wants us to know. Reading on in the 37th Psalm, we find verse 7 which tells us clearly, “Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.” When you trust, you rest. When you trust, you wait patiently in faith. When you trust, you do not fret. That’s a tall order!
This all comes down to having faith in God and His character, and this is what we must get acquainted with if we will have victory in life. Faith in God is not believing that God exists, but that He is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do.

The only way to get this kind of faith is to spend time in His Word. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing His Word and Hebrews 4:12 explains that the Word is living and powerful. How is this? It is because it builds trial-conquering faith in its hearer.

We are a Word based church and as such, we are constantly reminding people and bringing them back to “what the Word says.” It seems foolish that spending time with a book could change any situation but that is exactly what God designed it to do. Just reading it is not enough, though. We are also a Spirit Church, meaning we believe that God’s Spirit is also alive and active. This is precisely why Jesus left us with the local church and the ministry offices which includes that of the pastor. Church isn’t a place to make us feel as though we accomplished our weekly spiritual duty. It is where we get equipped to take on the devil and all he will throw at us.

Trusting God all comes down to this: do you believe what His Word says enough to put it to practice? People will get mad a preachers like me because of the boldness of things being said, not realizing that those bold statements are not made for my benefit. They are made for the hearer, to teach them and guide them, and to give them truth to stand on during trial. Trust God and do good. He designed you, your world, and everything in it, so He knows how it works best. Trust His Word and what it says, allow this faith to be built in you, and see the desires of your heart come to pass in your life. He said it, so it must be true!

Psalms 37:4
Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Be Blessed,
Pastor Jeff

Freedom For All, Not Free For All

“It’s a free country, I can do what I want.” Growing up, this is the tune my peers were always singing as they acted foolishly, mouthed off to authority figures, or walked in front of moving traffic. I used to roll my eyes in annoyance, because I knew they had no idea what freedom actually means. Thankfully, I had a healthy fear of authority growing up.

Freedom isn’t about putting yourself first and intruding on others. Freedom isn’t just doing and saying whatever you want just because you can, then expecting not to have any negative effects or consequences. If you rob a bank, you are no longer free. If you jump out into traffic and get hit by a car, you’re going to end up bound. If you mouth off to your boss, you’ll probably have a lot more free time, but you won’t have a paycheck with it. Every action has some sort of consequence. Every action has a reaction. Every effect had a cause.

Many Christians are singing the same tune my old peers used to sing. “Christ made me free, so I can do whatever I want and God’s grace will cover me.” I love what my husband said recently during one of his sermons. He said, “There’s freedom in Christ, but it’s not ‘free for all’ in Christ.” Ephesians 2:1 says, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Living in the “free for all” mentality will only produce death and destruction. If we were to continue in Ephesians 2, we’d see that Christ freed us from living like the world, that He freed us from living only according to the lusts of our flesh, and that He made us free to walk out the good works, the good plan God has for our lives. Look at Ephesians 2:10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Whom the Son sets free is free indeed, free to live for Him.

Look at John 8:31-32 (AMP), “Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in Him, If you abide in My word [hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them], you are truly My disciples. And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.” Notice that this freedom is in direct connection to living in accordance with the Word of God. God isn’t ok with us taking His freedom that He purchased through the blood of His Son and using it as an excuse to do whatever we want in this life. He made us free to follow His plan and His way.

Look at Romans 11:22, “Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, IF you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.” GOD HAS HIGH STANDARDS. HE WANTS THE ABSOLUTE BEST FOR US. He cares what we do. He cares what we say. It isn’t just a free life, with no consequences. James 1:22-25, “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.” We will walk in his goodness as we walk in His ways.

“Jesus, thank You for the freedom You paid for for my life. I will do my best to follow You. I will do my best to be a doer of Your Word. I thank You for the promises and blessings that come as I abide in You.”

Be Blessed,
Pastor Renee

Trust God?

Hebrews 3:19 (NKJV)
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

This scripture is a powerful statement and one that every Christian should know and take hold of. It is referencing the Israelites as a reminder to us that though God has delivered (saved) His people, they could not enter His promised land because they didn’t trust Him.

Believing in God is never enough. The book of James tells us that even the demons believe in Him. When we say “believe”, we have to define it rightly. Truly believing in God means that the whole of your trust is found in Him and His Word. I have known many “believers” who don’t actually believe the Word of God. Some of them are even in positions of authority supposedly leading whole groups of people. I say supposedly because how well can you lead people in the things of God if you don’t know or believe in what He says about Himself?

My daughter and I decided one morning to start learning and reciting a scripture each week daily with the desire to really get it in us. Our first direction was found in Proverbs 3:5-6 which says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” What direction and what promise!

Trust here is the same concept as believing in God. It’s placing the whole of your trust in Him and only Him. To truly trust God, you will have to let go of what you thought you knew and be ready to have your world rocked. Trust is what led Peter out onto the water after Jesus. Everything told him in the natural it was an impossibility but His Lord called to him. Well, neither trust nor God have changed. His Spirit will take you out on a limb and you will have to have complete trust in Him if you are to go.

Interestingly, the word in Hebrew used here for “acknowledge” is the same one the Bible uses to talk about when a man and woman come together in marital relations. (I hope that’s PG enough!) In essence it means to be intimately acquainted with. Do you intimately know your God? I trust my wife and she trusts me because we are intimately acquainted with each other. I would trust her with anything. When you learn to know God like this, trusting Him is less and less difficult. In fact, it becomes a literal joy because you begin to realize that every place He has for you to go and all He has for you to do, ultimately bring the fullness of blessing in your life and others’ lives.

God so loved us that He opened the door to an amazing world for us and that door is His Son. Jesus got for us what we couldn’t get for ourselves and God told us that alone should be enough to trust Him unconditionally (Romans 8:32). So I ask, do you? Do you trust Him completely or are you still foolishly blaming God for all the bad things that happen in life? Do you boldly look to God for answers, or do you sheepishly plead, hoping that maybe this time He will help you?

I encourage you, try faith! By try, I mean live in and refuse any other kind of life. After all the Word tells us that living by faith is the sign of our righteousness. Do you trust God or not? The answer to that determines whether you’ll receive from Him or not.

Psalms 37:3-5 (NKJV)
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. (Yes, that’s in your Bible!)

Be Blessed,
Pastor Jeff