Last night was a great service, and if you weren't there you missed a powerful moment in the life of our church with our prayer and healing service. A special thanks to Megan Z and her team that organized this event. I am looking forward to the prayer and healing service on August 6. When we gather to pray God moves in a mighty way.
Back to questions of the week: "If you believe Christ died for you, but do not change your worldly ways or thoughts are you saved?" That's a great question because there are so many issues in it that I could spend pages on writing the answers, but I won't.

First, to the issued of "saved." That's just a word I don't like in our faith because it automatically leads to saved from what? Which the typical answer is that we are saved from hell. Yet I don't believe the only reason Jesus came and died on the cross is so we can get the "get out of burning in hell free card." I believe that as it says in John 10:10, "He came that we might have life and have it abundantly." Salvation is much more than where we spend eternity it is about how we live now. We can live the best life possible when we align or orient our lives to Jesus's way, when we live according to God's unforced rhythms of grace.

So with that said to answer the question, I do think how we live our lives is an indication of our relationship with Jesus. So what are "worldly ways?" I think our faith and how we live it out is much more than don't drink, cuss, smoke or chew or go with girls who do! Living the way of Jesus and letting go of worldly ways means not responding to evil with evil, it means forgiving those who hurt us, it is taking care of those in need, it is reaching out to lend a helping hand, it is praying for one another, it is carrying each other's burdens, it is letting go of the past, it is taking a day to rest and honor God, it is offering a way that is different from our got to have it now consumer culture. That doesn't answer the question but yeah I think if we don't change our ways and are not constantly work at orienting ourselves to Jesus then we will miss out on living life to the fullest. What that means for our salvation, I'll let you and God figure that one out. For me and my house, we will serve God and try to put God first in all we do.

Okay so I got to do something really cool yesterday. I sort of broke a rule, shocking I know, but late Thursday afternoon the boys and I went out to the property to "inspect" the work. They climbed the pile of dirt, I walked the site. When I got to the back area I saw the stakes and realized that they had marked out the building and begun to flatten the ground around it. Well I know the blueprints pretty well so I could figure out where things were. I went and stood where I hopefully will be preaching from in a few months. I got to tell you it felt pretty good! It will be nicer once there is a floor, walls, air conditioning, bug control, etc. But it felt good.
Then I had one of those moments where I began to think about all that will happen there. I wondered how many people will accept Jesus there in that space? How many folks will begin their journey of faith right there? How many weddings will I do there? How many marriages will begin, and then I thought how many marriages will be saved in this building because the husband and wife connect with Jesus? How many funerals and memorial services? How many baptisms? How many, I mean the list could go on and on and on. But it is pretty awesome to think about all that God will do in that place that right now is just a 100 by 200 marked off piece of dirt!

With that said we need to pray for all that God will do, for all that God is doing, and for all that God has done. We need to ask for God to continue to guide us and lead us on this journey.

Well I really enjoyed the question and answer session last weekend. Plus I got some great ideas for upcoming sermons, and i also thought i will take some time to answer questions that either we didn't get to or only answered at one service.

Do you think God is please with us? Humanity?

Yes and no. I think God views us like a lot of us view our children. Don't your kids thrill you at times, and at other times disappoint you? And it isn't that God is mad at us, but just disappointed. God recognizes our potential, God knows all the good we can do and
when we don't live up to our potential God is disappointed.

Yet at the same time during those moments when we do live up to our potential, when we do live out God's calling i our lives God is so pleased. I see God like Eddie Murphy in "The Nutty Professor': "Hercules, Hercules, that's my boy!!!!"

Ultimately I belive God loves us in the good and bad moments! Even when we let God down God reaches out to us in love and gives us another chance. In the end I believe that at the core God is pleased!

So a friend of mine shared a thought with me about the 30 Days To Live series. He said that normally our messages are about us putting others first etc... but this series was more centered on us. Then he said, "If you knew that I only had 30 days to live wouldn't you treat me differently?" Great question and thought. I would treat someone differently if I knew that they only had 30 days. I would spend more time with them, I would be more patient, forgiving, etc... How cool would it be if we treated everyone we meet as though they only had 30 days to live! Of course even if my friend only had 30 days to live I would still count every golf swing!

Don't forget next weekend, April 26/27, is "Question and Doubt Week" at COF. Whatever questions or doubts you have we are going to spend some time wrestling with them at COF. You can email them too me, turn them in this weekend in worship or ask them next weekend. We believe at COF it is in the wrestling with the questions that we grow in our faith!

I hope you will invite someone to join with you this week in worship!! You never know when your invitation will begin the journey that will change someone's life. This will be a great week to invite someone!!! In worship this week take some time to get to know someone new.
See you this weekend, Scott

So they tell me confession is good for the soul! We will see. My confession; last week we talked about the scripture passage from Matthew 6:27, "Which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?" I thought I was doing pretty good on this. I don't worry about much aside from how bad is FSU football going to be this year. A friend of mine challenged me, "So you don't worry about the building?"

Well that's been tough to chew on this week. I realized I do worry about the building. I have worried about the building and it hasn't helped. If anything I have wasted hours and added gray hairs over the building, but not one ounce of concrete has been poured let alone a tree being removed. I've worried about when are we building? Are we doing enough or should we push the counties more? Are we pushing too much? Why are they so slow? What should we be doing that we aren't doing? Then I think about COF, I worry about the folks who are irritated cause we aren't doing anything. I worry that some folks will get tired of sitting those seats at the school and tired of nothing happening and move on to other places. I worry that the school will get tired of waiting on us and invite us to leave. I worry that some folks will get angry because they've given to help build the building and see no results. I worry that the garnet and gold color pattern won't make the final cut. (Actually that is one worry I don't have) The rest of the worries I do have and more. I haven't even touch on the "what if" worries.I was reading in First Peter this week and came across the line, "In all this you greatly rejoice, though no for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine. I realized that I need to make some changes. I have made the decision to start seeing the building process not as a frustration or failure but as an opportunity for God to shape my faith, to refine my faith.

So that's my confession. If I only had 30 days to live, if I knew my time was short I wouldn't worry. I would trust God and God's timing.

I hope you will invite someone to join with you this week in worship!! You never know when your invitation will begin the journey that will change someone's life. This will be a great week to invite someone!!! In worship this week take some time to get to know someone new.
See you this weekend, Scott

I am writing to you from where I can see Florida State University! I am in a hotel overlooking the campus! Oh I love Tallahassee in the spring the only time that is better is in the fall when you have a winning football team! I've had a busy week I started the week in St. Simon's Island GA at a conference on how to share our faith, and I am ending it in Tallahassee interviewing college students who want to work at the youth camp this summer.

I am looking forward to getting home to COF and Four Corners tonight. I don't like being away from family, and from friends. Being away from COF reminded me how much I enjoy being the pastor there and how much I enjoy worship on the weekend. I hope you enjoy it as well and that you are sharing that joy with friends, neighbors, coworkers, etc...

There are lots of events happening the month of March with the Blessing of the Animals, BBQ, and all the Easter Stuff. These are great events to invite friends to attend with you. Take advantage of the opportunity and share your faith.

I hope you will invite someone to join with you this week in worship!! You never know when your invitation will begin the journey that will change someone's life. This will be a great week to invite someone!!! In worship this week take some time to get to know someone new.
See you this weekend, Scott