words from my pastor..

Kell and I LOVE our church. Although it is a hefty driving distance (about an hour away), we've never been to another church where we feel more at home and leave feeling more fulfilled than we do at Summit Church, so we think it is well worth the travel! I love everything about Summit.. EVERYTHING.. but what I love most is probably their involvement in the community and how successfully they rally church attenders to get involved in its service projects. At the last niceServe (which is just ONE of the several Orlando community projects happening year around) 800+ people showed up to help.. and their was work for everyone! Say you wanted to do community service everyday of the week.. with confidence, you could stop by the church and know they would know a pereson or place in the community (church members and non-church members alike) that need your help that day. It's awesome.. and good things are being done all over the community and the world because of Summit, which is my idea of a church that's doing things right and living out faith how Jesus might have in our time! Kell and I really love being a part of it all.

I'd love to keep bragging about how awesome my church is.. but you ought to just check out the website/podcasts.. or better yet, VISIT!!

Our pastor, Issac Hunter has a blog that I enjoy reading.. it's always very enlightening, helpful and real. But a post he wrote this week was especially wonderful and seasonal and presented angle from the "Christmas Story" I had never heard.. and would bet that not many have. He's a great teacher.. and speaks a lot of truth and depth into matters of the Bible that I think a lot of pastors overlook. Check it out! Hope you enjoy :)

December 9, 2009

PREPERATION IN THE PRESENT

Posted by Isaac Hunter

…when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph…

Technically speaking, she wasn’t His mother yet, but I think more is happening in this preemptive title than Matthew enjoying the benefit of retrospect.

Mary’s future was so certain she could rightly be introduced this way even before her future had been introduced to her. Why? Because God completes what He initiates every time.

You never know what God has planned for you. I don’t know what God has planned for me. Sometimes we get inklings, glimpses—other times, none whatsoever. Walking by faith and not by sight isn’t a command in scripture— it’s doctrine. It’s a statement about the way things are… of course we should respond accordingly.

While there are some things you can’t plan for, you can prepare.

Could Mary have planned to be the Mother of the Messiah? Not in a million years. Was she prepared? Apparently, she was. From everything we know, Mary had lived a life steeped in the scriptures and walked as well as she could with the Father before and after she technically became the Mother of the Messiah. (We know more about her than one might think from a cursory reading of the text.)

One of the ways we can prepare is to think about a future (though shrouded in mystery) that will one day be written in the history books and live now as if the movie of your life is going to play forward—because it will.

It is possible one day you will be someone’s spouse. Are you living with he or she in mind? Will they be glad with the decisions that you are making? In some ways you are already Mr. or Mrs. _. It hasn’t technically happened, but what does love have to do with time?

You might someday be a parent. People will ask, “Aren’t you ______ Dad?” Are you making decisions now that prepare you well for that possibility?

You may be someone’s boss, teacher, president, etc… Are you making decisions that benefit the people you will influence before you ever know their name?

Maybe God’s plans for you are so unlikely that they would seem impossible if you read them here… But remember, His mother. No one was expecting that, even if they were hoping for it. Nothing is impossible with God. (Luke 1:37)

How can you possibly do all of this? How can anyone prepare for that which they cannot plan?

Make decisions that honor God in the present. Put Him at the epicenter of your life. And every decision you make will both influence and prepare you for the future to which you are called.

Lord you know my future… I don’t. Help me to trust you as much with today as I do with my eternity, so that I am well prepared for what is to come.

If you enjoyed this.. he's been blogging a lot this month on the birth of Christ.. it's good stuff. For me they are lessons that will be helpful and relevant not just in this December month, but all year around. Read more from Isaac here.. http://summitconnect.org/blogs/isaac-hunter