LAUS DEO
 
The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former. Haggai 2:9
 
If you’re discouraged, think of Robert Mills. In 1836, his plans were chosen for the Washington Monument. But money didn’t come in, and construction was delayed for years. Then engineers found the ground was too soft, so the site was moved. Saboteurs destroyed a prized block of marble, and donations dried up. Vandals defaced the monument, and construction stopped again. After Mills died in 1855, his monument was an ugly, defaced stump. But today visitors stand in awe of the world’s tallest obelisk, and at its pinnacle are the words LAUS DEO, Latin for Praise be to God. In Ezra 4, the workers trying to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem grew discouraged, and the work stopped for many years. But God sent Haggai and Zechariah to encourage the workers, and the day came when their rebuilt temple became a pulpit for the Lord Jesus Christ. Rather than viewing problems as obstacles, we should see them as opportunities for praising the God who works things out for our good in His timing. Discouragement drains our spirits; perseverance accomplishes the job—especially when the cry of our heart is Praise be to God!
 
It is always hard to see the purpose in wilderness wanderings until after they are over.
Attributed to John Bunyan

May the Lord bless you today as you worship with us at Christian Life Church
Steve Harris
Administrative Pastor

Our theme this year is Connect! From a biblical point of view, God never intended for Christians to live in isolation or disconnected from the church.  We are each called to be a part of His body.  Each person different, but every person connected through our Apostolic doctrine and supernatural experience with God.  “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body…” (1 Cor 12:13). We are one, not simply because we meet in the same place each week, but because we worship the same God and His word has become our reality.  We are one, not because we are perfectly mature, but because we are all growing in the same direction.  We are one because we share a common DNA, i.e. we have repented of our sins, been baptized in Jesus’ name, received the Holy Spirit, and are striving to live a life pleasing to God.  

Some might ask, since our spiritual DNA makes us one, is it essential for the church to physically gather each week?  The answer to that question is unequivocally, yes! The church must be connected both in a spiritual and literal sense.  In Luke 18:20, we read where Jesus pointed to the power of gathering when he said, “Where two or three gather together in my name…,” and then, in Luke 24:49, when he sent them as a group to wait in the upper room.  In Acts 2:1-4, we read that when the Holy Ghost fell on them, they were together “with one accord.” The experience God had in mind for them, was not merely an individual encounter; it was something God intended for them to experience in the corporate environment of the church.  Clearly, Jesus knew the power of gathering.  

The word together also appears prominently throughout the Book of Acts.  Like the church of the 1st Century, we are called to worship together, work together, and pray together.  In a world that minimizes church environments, we must continue to be counter cultural and embrace the beauty of the body and protect the God-given discipline of gathering together for prayer, worship, and the ministry of the Word.

May God richly bless you,

Lead Pastor
Pastor Hanthorn

Leave Room for God

Do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay” says the Lord. - Romans 12:19
 
Suppose a hit-and-run driver smashes your car, causing thousands of dollars of damage. If it happens too fast to get a license number, you’re left with repair costs and the knowledge you could have been killed. What if there’s no way to hold the perpetrator accountable? You can stew about it, or you can turn the case over to the Lord. Romans 12:19 in the NIV, says, Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, as it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay, says the Lord.
Faulty thinking leads us to feel that injustice on earth is final. But God will ultimately right the wrongs, settle the scores, and square the accounts. Though we can’t always claim our legal rights, we can turn the hard cases over to the Lord and leave room for His justice. The Bible tells us our Defender is strong (Proverbs 23:11, NIV) and we have a powerful Advocate (1 John 2:1). Trust Him with wrongs you cannot right.
 
We can leave justice to God. He will take care of it for us, as He did for Christ, who refused to retaliate. -Erwin W. Lutzer

May the Lord bless you.

Steve Harris
Administrative Pastor

The Power of Prayer

The most basic definition of prayer is communication with God.  Prayer is the lifeline of the Christian. While most Christian churches encourage prayer, there is a considerable lack of understanding regarding the power, purpose and practice of Biblical prayer.  Prayer was never intended to be flawless, grammatically perfect or liturgically correct.  Prayer is communication between an imperfect soul and a perfect God.  Prayer connects our hearts to the heart of our Creator.  

Prayer must be real, visceral, honest and built on the premise of faith.  Paul put it this way: “he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). It takes faith, to daily set aside time, get alone with God and pray to Him in secret. Prayer is the simplest and most sublime act of faith.  When we use words to express to God what is in our hearts, we are by that very act, declaring His presence in our lives.  As with many disciplines, prayer must be practiced to be enjoyed. May I encourage you set aside some time each day in the coming week to give God access to your heart by faith.  He loves you and His presence will change your life.  

May God richly bless you,

Lead Pastor
Pastor Hanthorn

Job 1:21 (NKJV)
21 And he said:…..“…The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

As we all know, life can be challenging. Through every season of life it seems that we always encounter a storm. A loss of a loved one, financial hardship, relationship struggles, ethical dilemmas, parenting challenges & other hardships always seem to find their way into our season of life. If we were all honest, we would admit that these “storms” that we encounter can really rattle us. The interesting thing about these storms that we face is they seem to bring out the truest & most vulnerable parts of our own lives. Questions that we haven’t asked ourselves in a long time may arise. Emotions that we haven’t felt in a while come up from deep in our hearts. Wounds that we never took care of tend to become painful again.

As we look at the life of Job, we see a man who went through arguably the most painful situation that one could find themselves in. His ten children were killed. His livelihood was stolen. His servants were taken, then Satan attacked his health. It got so bad that his wife, whom he loved & served God alongside turned to him and said “Curse God & die.” She was ready to turn her back on God. That is when Job turned to his wife, looked her straight in the face and said “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity.” And the bible says “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”

I asked myself “Why was Job able to live for God despite all that God allowed to happen to him?” What was the secret? The answer is simple. Job’s faith in God did not depend on his situation or God’s performance in his life. Job’s faith in God was found in his authentic belief & relationship with Him. God never promised us a perfect situation, he promised us a perfect Savior. If we want to make it through storms we must understand & believe that we do not live for God for what he CAN DO, but we live for Him for what he ALREADY DID, died for our sins on the cross. Make this your declaration today: “My commitment to live for God has nothing to do with what my life looks like. No matter what storm comes my way, I will live for God!”

Blessings,

Reagan Matheson
Student Pastor

Like a Drowning Man
 
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. Luke 11:2
 
As the Ebola virus ravaged West Africa in 2014, Dr. Rick Sacra was on the frontlines working with SIM, an international Christian missions organization, at a hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. When he contracted the disease himself, the horror and suffering fell on him like an anvil. Lying there alone, fevered, convulsing, apparently dying, one set of thoughts flooded his mind. "I tell you I hung on to the Lord's Prayer like a drowning man," he later told a journalist. "I prayed through that prayer many times a day and just wept through it most of the time."1   Hopefully we'll be spared the Ebola virus, but there are lots of other afflictions coming our way. Life is full of trouble. Jesus warned us that in this world we'll face tribulation (John 16:33). But He also gave us a prayer: "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  Through prayer and trust, God enables us to stand strong in the midst of our greatest trials.

The Lord's Prayer is, to my mind, a sort of standing miracle—a self-evidencing revelation of the divine intelligence. John S. Hart, nineteenth-century  Presbyterian
 
Heather Sells, "Ebola Doc: I Held to Prayer 'Like a Drowning Man'" CBN News, January 26, 2015.
 
May the Lord bless you today as you worship with us at Christian Life Church
Steve Harris
Administrative Pastor

Greetings!

I pray this short devotional is a blessing to you and your walk with God!

As I began to pray about 2020 I quickly began to think and pray for NEW things. Things that I felt I needed to begin doing with more intentionality. Things I felt I needed to start achieving in ministry. Areas that I felt I needed to start growing both personally & organizationally. At the beginning of each year, all of us have new initiatives, new goals, new aspirations and new disciplines. However, as I began to pray I began to realize that in order to do something new, I had to be willing to STOP doing something of old. For every new thing that I wanted to start, I had to stop or, at least, de-prioritize something I was doing in the past. As I pondered this, I was reminded of the scripture….

Philippians 3:13-14  (KJV)
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

As a church, we love to talk about how we are reaching toward the call! How we should press toward the purpose that Jesus Christ has for our lives. But, maybe we overlook the underlined statement above. Maybe in order to “press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God….” we must be willing to “Forget those things which are behind…” Is it possible that before you can embrace a new challenge, a new initiative or a new spiritual discipline, you must give up something in return? Is it possible that with every new initiative, there will be a cost? Is it possible that before you can run towards your calling, you must be willing to sacrifice a certain level of comfort? One could easily argue that the greatest act of Jesus Christ was not in his ability enforce His will, but in his ability to sacrifice His will.

Maybe you are reading this and you have made some radical commitments in 2020. You are committed to incredible endeavors such as a deeper prayer life, scheduled fasting, more time in devotion & greater effectiveness in serving others! These are all incredible challenges, that I would encourage to take, but I would also remind you that these things will come with a cost. The question is, are you willing to pay the price?

“What’s more important to me? An extra hour in bed, or time in God’s presence?”
“If I am going to love & serve others more effectively, I may have to sacrifice some of my time & comfort, is it worth it?”
“If I am going to get into the Word of God on a daily basis, It is going to cost me time, energy, focus & patience.”

The reality is, developing a greater relationship with God at any cost is worth it. Developing spiritual disciplines may seem costly in the short term, but God will always make it worth your sacrifice. I never met anyone who regretted paying the price to grow spiritually.  

Blessings,

Reagan Matheson
Student Pastor

The Catalyst to Change

Behold, I will do a new thing; Now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, And rivers in the desert. – Isaiah 43:19
 
Many people are eagerly looking forward to a new year.  Often, that anticipation is fueled by the hope that things will be better in a new year.  However, it is important for us to remember that the calendar in and of itself is not a change agent.  The calendar merely marks the passage of time and has no real impact on the quality of our lives.  Yet, the beginning of a new year is an important event and can be a time of real change in a person’s life.
 
As we prepare to begin a new year, many of us take inventory of our lives and evaluate how things could be better.  There are three revelations essential for change.  The first revelation we need is that if things are going to be different, I must be the one to change.  Often we are waiting for the change in circumstances or in other people to positively impact our lives.  Yet the truth is we can be a better person even if nothing else around us changes.  Any lasting change must start in us.
 
Secondly, we must believe that change is possible.  Too many people have resigned themselves to the lie that they cannot change.  We may have tried and failed many times on our own, but with God ALL things are possible.  No matter how long we may have struggled with certain limitations or a particular mindset, we can be different. By the working of His Spirit and through the power of His Word our lives and futures can be transformed! Who we are today, is not who we have to be tomorrow.
 
Lastly, we must have the long view.  God calls us to commit ourselves to the process of transformation.  Growth and change never happen overnight or with a mere decision.  We are changed from faith to faith and from glory to glory.  We must be willing to invest ourselves in the process, no matter how long it takes or how challenging it may seem.  God honors commitment!  So as we prepare for a new year, I pray that each of us will invite God to show us areas in us that need to change and the we will commit ourselves to the promise and process of transformation.
 
God Bless,
Pastor Hanthorn