Blog Archives - Page 147 of 149

January 16, 2014 By Phil Ressler 5 Comments

How to Hear God

Living in relationship with Jesus involves talking with Jesus. It is sharing with him your most intimate thoughts. It is also about listening to what he has to say. For many people, the first part comes easier. It is one thing to talk at God, but it is another thing to talk with God and keep the line of communication going both ways.

How do you hear from God? How do you discern his voice? The season of Epiphany is all about how God reveals himself to us through Jesus. It is through Jesus God makes himself known to us. We cannot know God or hear from God apart from a relationship with Jesus. Jesus himself says:

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 (ESV)

Hearing from God also involves a humble and repentant heart. It is easy for pride to get in our way. Do you have a hidden sin in your life that you enjoy and that you are holding on to? It could be overspending and poor stewardship. It might be a lack of sexual purity. It may be laziness and slothfulness.

If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. Psalm 66:18 (ESV)

Maybe the first way to start hearing from God is to start talking with God about that sin. Open your heart to what he has to say about that sin. Commit yourself to pursuing his desires. You might be surprised that when you commit to living a godly life, God has a way of revealing what that looks like. The question is if you are willing to receive what he has to say.

Another thing that hinders our ability to hear God is our insistence on going it alone. We live in an individualistic society that values individual achievement. Especially for men, we pride ourselves in being self-sufficient. Many of us have a hard time asking for help.

But as I look at the Scriptures, the pursuit of God is more than an individual effort. The pursuit of God takes place through community. This is why God gives us the Church. He knows we need each other on the journey. So many of the promises of God are given to the community and not the individual. It is impossible to experience all that God wants for you apart from a community of believers who regularly worship together, serve together, pray together, and wrestle with the Word together.

With that said, I want to invite you to join us on Sunday at 8am or 10:30am for worship as we continue this discussion about how we hear from God.

I would love to hear your thoughts and your comments below. What are some ways you pursue listening to God? I might share some of those thoughts on Sunday.

God’s Blessings,
Pastor Phil

January 9, 2014 By Phil Ressler Leave a Comment

Build Your House on the Rock

If you are participating in the Good Shepherd Daily Bible Readings, you finished reading the Sermon on the Mount today. At the end of the greatest sermon ever preached, Jesus says:

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. Matthew 7:24–25 ESV

The point is that life is filled with hardships and challenges. It is not an easy road. But if we are built up in Christ, we will be able to endure any hardship that might come our way. Over the next couple of weeks at Good Shepherd, we are going to be giving you the opportunity to be built up in Christ through two different discipleship opportunities.

The first opportunity is through the Crossways: See Through the Scriptures Bible Study on Sunday morning at 9:15am. This study is a 12 week journey through the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. It is a perfect introduction to learn what the Bible is all about and to discover the heart of the message. In many ways it could be described as Bible 101. Maybe your are intimidated by the Bible. If that is the case, this is the perfect opportunity to receive this introduction to the Bible. You can sign up today online.

The second opportunity is for men. Beginning next Wednesday at 8:15pm we will begin Men of Courage Discipleship Training. There is a second opportunity to participate on Saturdays at 8am (beginning January 18). Men of Courage is an 8 week basic training to help equip you to fight different battles we face as men. This training is not for the weak of heart. It is designed to challenge you to become the man that God has called you to be. A great introduction to this discipleship training is the movie Courageous. We will be showing this movie tomorrow night (Friday, Jan 10) at Good Shepherd. It makes for a great date night.

In the end, it is my prayer our church will be a church built on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. It is my prayer that he will do the heavy lifting and that we will get to go along for the ride. I want to leave you with one last Bible verse:

Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Psalm 127:1 (ESV)

Who is building your house? What are the blueprints you are following? Come join us as we build God’s house, our families, and our lives on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ.

January 2, 2014 By Phil Ressler Leave a Comment

When Resolutions Fail

It’s day 2 of the New Year! How are those new year resolutions going? If you are like many people, you did not last even one day. You had all the good intentions in the world. But when January 1 hit, you just did not have the will-power.

Others of you may be off to a good start. You have convinced yourself that this year will be different. This year will be the year to make the positive changes you have not been able to make in past years. Keep it up!

But when the end of January comes around, things may not be that different. The 3 trips a week to the gym become more like 1 trip every 3 weeks. Your Bible reading plan gets stalled somewhere in Leviticus (Download Good Shepherd’s Daily Reading Plan). The diet falls apart on the latest business trip. It is a story that is rehearsed over and over. Good intentions are not translated into right action. Nothing changes and guilt begins to set in.

So what do we do? When we stumble, here are some things to keep in mind:

1) Practice forgiveness. Forgiveness is not only something we practice with others, but it is something we need to practice with ourselves. God extends grace and mercy towards us. We need to do the same with ourselves. Your value is not in what you accomplish. Your value is based on the fact that you are a child of God, adopted through the waters of baptism. God does not love based on what you do for him. He loves you based on what he has accomplished for you. This is at the heart of our message.

2) Start again. Don’t give up. Don’t let the calendar determine when you can make a new start. With Jesus in your life, everyday is a new start. Today is the beginning of the rest of your life. Go and make it count. The past is behind. You can’t change it. But from what you can change is this moment and every moment forward.

3) Learn from you failures. One of my favorite titles for a book is Failing Forward by John Maxwell. I love that idea. The idea is that we succeed by learning from our failures. The path to success is rarely without stumbling. The question is not if you will stumble and fall, but what will you do when you stumble and fall. How will you learn from you stumbling and what will you do different this time?

4) Keep Jesus on the journey. Life is a journey. Jesus is our guide, our compass, and our GPS. Seek him. Follow him. Jesus has a lot to say if only we will listen. If we could overcome our challenges by our strength alone, we would have done so long time ago. Many of the challenges we face cannot be overcome by will-power, but by God’s power alone. If Jesus is not a part of the fight, we cannot overcome. It is with his strength we move forward.

God’s blessings on your new year. My pray is that with Jesus this will be the best year yet.

Happy New Year,
Pastor Phil

December 19, 2013 By Phil Ressler Leave a Comment

Reconnecting with God in the New Year

We are approaching the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014. It is a time of the year when many people think about setting goals for the new year. Many of these goals revolve around living a healthier lifestyle such as eating better, exercising more, and being more relational.

Some people also make it a priority to reconnect with God in a greater way. This might mean making Sunday morning worship a greater priority, praying more regularly, or making a commitment to read the Bible daily.

Unfortunately, we fail with many of these goals after only a short time and end up frustrated. We are piled on with extra guilt and are left feeling worse than before. We are left with remorse and frustration for letting God, our friends, our family, and ourselves down.

Over the next two weeks, I would like to offer some thoughts on how we might move towards better accomplishing our goals and practicing grace with ourselves when we fail to accomplish those goals.

One goal I had for a long time was to read the entire Bible. This was something I tried every year, but inevitably would fail. Eventually, I was able to accomplish my goal after many unsuccessful attempts. Through the process, there was much I learned about accomplishing a goal and I wanted to share them with you:

1) Remember what it is about. For me, the ultimate goal was not reading the Bible in year. That is not the end into itself. The purpose of reading and studying the Bible is spending time with Jesus and to be able to more faithfully follow him. This leads to greater joy, peace, and all the fruit of the spirit. When you are struggling with a goal, always go back to the “why.”

2) Don’t let the calendar defeat you. When I would get behind a few days, I would become overwhelmed by the amount of reading I would need to do to “catch up.” But remember, the calendar is a guide. If you get behind, so what? You are no less of a person because you finish two weeks or even a month late. Another thing you might do is consider starting early. We have two weeks until the end of the year. Start now. You will have two weeks of grace built into your schedule. No one told you you had to start on January 1. If you have a goal to participate in the Good Shepherd Daily Bible Readings in 2014, they are now available online. Why not get started today?

3) Get some accountability! Find someone else to partner with you. Get an accountability partner to join with you in accomplishing your goals. This is someone who will hold you accountable and give you encouragement as well. You are much much more likely to accomplish something when you know someone is going to ask you how you are doing. Make sure the people in your life are aware of what you are trying accomplish so they can help you and not hinder you.

4) Write down your goal and put it somewhere you will regularly review it. Many studies have shown that you are far more likely to succeed in fulfilling your goals if you write them down and clearly articulate them with words. A goal is not really a goal until you put it into words.

5) Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Less is more. Oftentimes we destine ourselves for failure, because we try to do too much, too soon. Instead of trying to read the whole Bible over the course of the year, read the New Testament this year and the Old Testament next year. Or rather than thinking in terms of a year, make a goal to read the Book of Proverbs over the course of a month. There are conveniently 31 chapters in that book. Making your goal too overwhelming will only lead to frustration.

6) Keep going. It is inevitable that you will stumble. Life will encroach upon your ideal circumstances. How will you handle the interruptions that life brings to your well laid out plan? Think through the potential pitfalls that will hinder the accomplishment of your goals before you hit them. Consider why you failed in the past and what will be different this time.

7) Make it fun and enjoyable. If it is not something that is enjoyable, any excuse will do.

8) Make sure your goals are God honoring. There are many good things we can do, but is it the God thing. Make sure what you are working toward is what God would have you work towards. If not, it is going to be a hard road.

9) What do you need to quit? Sometimes it is not a matter of being more determined, but rather learning to say no. You can’t do everything. For example, to spend more time in God’s Word you may need to spend less time on Facebook or watching TV. Make sure to regularly examine your use of time.

What other ideas do you have? Would love to hear. Make sure to share in the comments section below. Next week we will talk about how to pick ourselves up after we fall down.

November 22, 2013 By Phil Ressler Leave a Comment

6 Months of Gratitude

Next week we celebrate Thanksgiving. We have so much to be thankful for. One of the things I am especially thankful is the ministry of Good Shepherd. I have now been here for 6 months and God has been so good. God is breathing new life into our church.

We are making an impact on eternity. Eternal destinations are being transformed. What we are doing is the difference between heaven and hell. The ministry of Good Shepherd is more than a life and death matter is an eternal life and death matter.

When we get to the end of our lives, there will be many things we will look back upon and realize that they were not all that important. We will likely regret not having done more of the stuff that matters. But when it comes to the kingdom work we did there will be no regrets.

My prayer is that we at Good Shepherd will always keep our eyes on the prize and that we will throw off the stuff that so easily entangles and hinders our kingdom work. My prayer is that we would run with perseverance the race marked out before us and that we would stay true to the vision God has established for our church. My prayer we would strive with every ounce of our being to:

KNOW Jesus.
GROW as His followers
and GO out as missionaries into the world.

I am thankful for you and your partnership in the gospel! God is doing some exciting things through us. Just a couple of things we have to celebrate and be thankful for include:

3 baptisms in 3 weeks. Two of these families have recently started attending Good Shepherd over the last few months.
New families and new faces. Every Sunday we see new faces at Good Shepherd.
Friends inviting friends. More and more of you are sharing with me that you are inviting others to come. There is no better indicator that we are on the right track than this.
A full nursery. Two weeks ago there were 10 kids in our nursery. Six months ago, we did not even have a nursery.
Last Sunday our worship attendance between two worship services was 184 people. God is continuing to help us grow.
Our giving last Sunday exceeded $7000. This was the first time in the last 6 months our giving exceeded our expenses.
The Comfort Dog ministry is making progress. Two churches in the New Jersey District have given us gifts totally $1200 to begin the Comfort Dog ministry in New Jersey. We have also been awarded a grant by the New Jersey District for $6000 to begin this ministry. This Sunday, our Comfort Dog Ministry Leadership team will be meeting to prepare to send an application in to secure one of the Comfort Dogs. We are making strong progress towards our fundraising goal for this ministry.
This winter we will be launching new discipleship groups that will meet in homes. This is an exciting next step towards fulfilling our vision. If you would like to be a part of this push, please let me know.

This list does not include all the individual stories of life change. Many of you have experienced personal victories which God has won. Prayers have been answered. Hearts are being softened and drawn to Jesus Christ. How wonderful it is to be a part of all that.

God’s blessings,
Pastor Phil