Sunday Update

We had an awesome Sunday at the Springs. We had good attendance and we had a good response to the message "LOST and FOUND" part 2. We saw a few new faces in the crowd and that was nice. I can't put my finger on it but the Springs is in a good place right now. There is a new unity and a grasping of the vision to be growing church. New leaders are emerging and people are calling the Springs home.

As we enter the Christmas season and as we approach a new year there is much to do and many opportunities to sieze. I am praying that we keep the momentum going.

Speaking of prayer, I beleive that 2012 will be a year of prayer. As Mark Batterson stated "Work ethic + Prayer Ethic = Miracles. Pray as everything depends on God and work as if everything depends on us.

I had an blessed time helping lead worship for the Exchange church. I love to worship the Lord. This week we begin preparing for our Christmas service. This should be fun and exciting. Parties and fellowships and meetings mark the Decemember calander.

We are blessed to celebrate the birth of our Lord. Jesus is worthy of all the praise and attention because of His great love for us. He is Lord and God of all.

Until next week

Pastor George

Thankful

I am very thankful for my family. I have a great wife who makes our house a home. I have 3 awesome daughters that are such a blessing to me. I have 3 sons that I am proud of. I have 10 grandchildren that bring alot of joy to my life.

I have a great church family. I am blessed to pastor a church that has caught a vision of what God wants to do with us. The Future is bright for the Springs because we know that we serve a God who dares us to dream big.

I am thankful for our nation. America is the greatest nation on the earth today. We were established with Biblical principles and that is what has kept us strong. We need to pray for America. We need to pray for a revival in the church and for the lost of our nation. God wants us to be strong in Him.

What else am I thankful for:

The Bible
The Holy Spirit
The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ
Strong worship
Prayer
Fellowship among Gods people
The Blood of Jesus
The Strong Name of Jesus

and so much more

Be Blessed,
Pastor George
www.livingspringsa.org

Sunday Update

We had a awesome day at the Springs this morning. 5 people gave their hearts to Jesus during our invitation. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Fellowship Lunch. We had great food provided by our mission partners. We tried out our new fellowship hall set up and it was a huge success.

I began a new series called LOST and FOUND. I am convinced that the message of salvation must be preached weekly. People need to have an opportunity to recieve there salvation through Jesus our Savior.

The Holy Spirit must be present in our services so that the convicting power of God will produce repentance and life change. I believe the Bible is Gods complete and trustworthy word. We can trust the Bible to be inspired of God and without error. I will stand on the Word of the Lord.

The Roman Road
Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned"
Romans 6:23 "The wages of sin is death"
Romans 10:13 "Those who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved"

Is your name in the Book of Life... Trust Christ today

Trusting God Through The Transition

We need to keep believing
We need to keep praying
We need to keep attempting new ideas
We need to be positive
We need to keep working
We need to see the big picture
We need to encouarge ourselves in the Lord
We need to be listening to the whispers of the Spirit
We need to do the right things
We need to TRUST GOD

If I Could Do It All Over

Billy Graham was asked what he would do different if he had the chance. Here is what he said.
I'd spend more time at home with my family
I'd study more and preach less.
I wouldn't have taken so many speaking engagements.
I would have steered clear of politics.

What about you? What would you do over? When everything is said and done what changes would you make? With a question like this the only one who can address it is you. So I begin. As I reveal my list think about your answers. These are not in any specific order of importance.

I would have applied myself to be a better student when in school.
I would have spent more time with my children when they were younger.
I would have taken more time off from working and traveled with my family.
I would have spent more time in prayer and in the word.
I would have built better relationships with people
I would have been more informed about money(saving and investing)
I would have been a better husband to my wife.
I would have taken better care of my health.

Now for the message in this message. Whatever changes I wish I could make I must not dwell on the mistakes but I need to take steps to improve the areas that I can still impact. As long as we are in this world we can try to make improvements.

Pitfalls to be Avoided

We Learn from where others have already been. Paul was making the point in I Corinthians 10 that the people of Israel had traveled the road of life and had made some really bad choices and he has a warning for us. Just because we have trusted in the Lord to be our Savior we still have to make the right choices in our everyday walk. Here is a breakdown of the Pitfalls we should avoid.

We need to keep our lust in check. We all live in a tent of flesh and as a result we crave sinful things. To be tempted is not sin but to yeild to the temptation is. Everyone of us know what sinful things are and we need to keep ourselves away from these things.

Idolatry is anything that we exalt above God. If we put anything before God we have made that thing an idol. Attached to idolatry is worship. If we are not careful we can worship things that are inspired by the enemy. Clearly we are intructed to worship only God and God alone. Satan would have us worship him. Satan will try to decieve us into worshiping him. Rememeber he is the father of lies. Satan glories in anything that is false. Satan loves anything that is opposite of what God is. God is truth-satan is lies. God is holy-satan is filthy.

Nothing can effect us more than sexual sin. When we violate Gods word and act immoral we defile ourselves and become spiritually dull.

If we willfully act in disobiendence and throw it in the face of God we set ourselves up to suffer the consequences of our decsions. We will reap what we sow.

To complain that God is not enough reveals the true condition of our heart and that revelation of our lack of trust will open the door to defeat and compromise.

Clearly the Bible give us pitfalls that must be avoided. We must learn what must be avoided because we have a recorded history of the results of what we will go through if we do not heed the warnings.

Some Do's And Don'ts in Leadership

Always believe in people and try to find ways to help them succeed.

Take risks when giving people opportunities even if you don't know how it will turn out.

Always follow your dreams even if others lose the vision. God will bring others to help you.

Don't second guess yourself when you empower people to do something and if you made a mistake in trusting somebody who proved they were not up to the challenge admit you blew it and move on.

If you know something needs to be addressed don't put if off. When we let things go to long we live to regret it most of the time. If you are on the right side of the issue act quickly because it may hurt at first but it will resolve itself quicker as well.

Don't respond to people who criticize you for things that you know have to be done. Accept the fact that criticism is part of leadership. Learn from constructive criticism and don't let words against you upset you. Most people who criticize in a negative way need our prayers.

Aways remember that God is in control of everything and He brings all things to light. What ever a mans sows that he will reap.