Fullness of Life – Mature Disciple

Mature Disciple of Christ

Have you ever been told that you were being immature?  What was the occasion? Were you acting silly, being irrational, or something else that made those observing your actions and words believe you were not “acting your age”?

The opposite of immature is mature! Right?  What is the difference between the two? Where is that magical line that you cross from immaturity to maturity?  Paul was asked this question several times and his response was usually a blunt one. Here is his response to the Church of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 3:2 “ I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able;” NKJV 

What does it take to grow?  How do believers move from immature to mature as disciples of Christ? I am currently sharing 8 Characteristics to look for as a mature disciple of Christ on Wednesday nights with our young people. Here are 2!

  1. Mature disciples understand their need for a Savior. This is the first and most important. We have all been physically born cutoff from God spiritually and there is “no way” to make a connection with Him except through Jesus Christ. John 14:6 – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” NKJV
  2. Mature disciples know the God of the Bible. We know and worship too many other gods. If there are things in our lives that take top priority over the God of Heaven, then we are not mature disciples. Maturity comes from knowing what takes priority. Immaturity places my wants first.

Here are 2 of 8 characteristics of a mature disciple of Jesus. Think about it, more to come soon.

 

What’s Happening Right Now

 

  • This Monday our Men’s Golf Scramble makes a difference. Monday, August 31 there is a benefit 9 Hole Golf scramble being held for Landon Matheny at Wynridge Golf Course. Calvary will have 3-4-man teams involved and supporting this great cause. I think it is an amazing thing to see the men of our church enjoy recreation and fellowship together each Monday afternoon and now have an opportunity to turn that into something to minister to someone else. We need 1 more person to fill all three teams. Let me know if you would like to participate.
  • Men’s Bible Study begins on Thursday, September 3. There are 2 times to choose from: 6am or 7pm. The bible study will last for 1 hour and this year’s study is “How To Be A Man-Learning from real men of the Bible”. A sign-up list is available at the Welcome Center.
  • Ladies Event is being planned for Saturday, November 7. Be watching for more information coming soon!

Current Ministry Needs

 

  • Cleaning Team > there is a need for 4 people to help sanitize the sanctuary on Sunday’s. Please help in this area. You give us your timeline. If you can help for a week, month, 3 months’; you let us know. Anytime at all will give someone else a break.
  • Van Ministry > there is a need for van drivers to go and pick up families for church on Sundays. What a great ministry of going and bringing in people for church.
  • Security Team > Our Calvary Security team is needing to add 2 more men or women who would be willing to serve once a month protecting our church and her members during Sunday services. If you would be interested, please contact the church office. There is a training requirement.

Resources

Spotify is my go-to Christian music source. There are several other great services like Pandora, Google Music, YouTube music, Apple music and others. These services provide unlimited Christian music by some of today’s and yesterday’s greatest artist. Check it out. Each one gives you the ability to develop your own playlist of your favorites. I encourage you to feed your mind with wonderful Christian based music of all kinds.


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Fullness of Life – Back to School

Fullness of Life – Back to School

Back to School

The buses are running once again, the opportunity clocks are set a little earlier, and uncertainty is at an all time high.  Teachers, administrators, health providers, parents, and students are all nervous as the hallways of our public-school system are once again buzzing with activity.

 Unanswerable questions seem to replace questions about test and academic subjects. Are we going to have sports? How many students or teachers will it take with positive COVID test before school is canceled? What do I do if I am around someone who test positive for COVID? Who knows the answers to these questions? Only the Lord!

There is still a sense of anticipation of, “are we going to make it”? How many weeks will it take to survive school being open before we can breathe easy again?  I believe everyone is hoping that the start of the 2020 school year could finally release us from the grip of this crazy pandemic.

This is a time for all followers of Christ to grow in their faith.  How many time I have prayed for the Lord to guide us through this crisis, to help us learn the lessons we need to learn, to protect us from uncertainties, and to strengthen our trust in Him. Psalms 34:4 states, “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears”.

What’s Happening Right Now 

  • Children’s ministries have kicked off at Calvary Baptist Church! Last night the Fellowship Hall was full of children and their parents signing up for GA’s, RA’s and Children’s music ministries.  There seemed to be a long anticipated excitement in the air as everyone normal again.
  • Men’s 9 Hole Golf Scramble on Mondays at 5pm. Come join a time of fellowship and recreation on Monday afternoons at Wynridge Golf Course in Troy. We have a short devotional, draw teams, and then enjoy 9 holes of golf. The cost is $23 and it’s open to our Calvary men and their guest.
  • Men’s Bible Study begins on Thursday, September 3. There are 2 times to choose from: 6am or 7pm. The bible study will last for 1 hour and this year’s study is “How To Be A Man-Learning from real men of the Bible”. A sign-up list is available at the Welcome Center.
  • Ladies Event is being planned for Saturday, November 7. Be watching for more information coming soon!

Current Ministry Needs 

  • Cleaning Team > there is a need for 4 people to help sanitize the sanctuary on Sunday’s. Please help in this area. You give us your timeline. If you can help for a week, month, 3 month’s; you let us know. Anytime at all will give someone else a break.
  • Van Ministry > there is a need for van drivers to go and pick up families for church on Sundays. What a great ministry of going and bringing in people for church.

Resources 

The resource I would like to share with you today is “God’s Promises”.  How many times have you needed a promise from God?  Maybe it’s a promise for you during a difficult time in life or maybe you would like to offer and encouraging verse to a friend. I have 2 resources that I visit weekly when I am needing that special verse for a certain situation. If you are a app user on your smart phone, search “Promises” in your app store. The icon has an open bible with John 3:16 across the top. If you would prefer a hard copy.  Go to Amazon.com and search “God’s Promises for your Everyday Needs by Jack Countryman”, that is the one I use on a regular basis.

 

 

 

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Fullness of Life – Moving Forward

Moving Forward

There are so many questions right now about what the future holds, but one thing is for sure; we must keep moving forward.

All churches across the world have been impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Many families have now experienced the effects of this crisis. Is there hope for the future?

Jesus Christ is Hope! He is the only true hope we have. The church has faced crisis since the beginning of time and the Lord has led the church to always prevail.  This crisis will be overcome too!

Calvary Baptist Church has a strong congregation and so many great people that respond with incredible faith during a crisis. There is no doubt in my mind that Calvary will prevail this time too.

That is why we must not give up our faith, we must not remain knocked down, and we must continue “moving forward”.

Prayer

Do you have a prayer plan?

One of the hardest things to do as a believer is to have a faithful prayer life.  Prayer is one of the most important fundamental practices that the Lord has given us for communicating with Him.  Now, don’t let me fool you, this is also a difficult thing for me to practice on a continual basis.  But I have found a few things that help me and I am passing them on to you.

I use a Microsoft Office App called OneNote.  You could use any note app on your phone, but the reason I prefer OneNote is because it easily syncs with all my devices. (Laptop, IPad, and IPhone)  I make a list of different prayer needs such as tests, hospital, personal needs, and anything else that comes up. I list a date and when I prayed. 

This takes a little practice to get started, but once you do it for a week or two it will become a part of your daily activities.

News of Interest

There is a new movie in the production.  This movie brings faith, family, and hunting together on the big screen; that is if you have a big screen at home!

“The Harvest” is looking for funding as plans are to release one of the first movies of its kind. If you are an outdoorsman, this movie may be for you!

Check out this link for more info: https://www.theharvestmovie.com/

Recap

Men’s Golf Scramble

On Monday, August 10, 2020 we had our 1st Calvary Men’s 9 Hole Golf Scramble of the summer. 10 men participated and everyone had a great time. The plan is to have this men’s fellowship for the next 7 weeks. Grab your clubs and come join us!

Ministry Needs

Cleaning Team

We currently need at least 4 people to help sanitize the sanctuary on Sundays.

Children’s Church

There is a need for additional help in Children’s Church on Sunday mornings at 10:45am.

Van Ministry

There is a need for additional drivers to assist in running a van for Sunday pick up service.

There is a need for 3 more people to help in childcare.


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Today Is Different Than Yesterday

Today is different than yesterday

  • Yesterday I would get up and go work out, I would go the grocery store and pick up whatever I needed, I would worship on Sunday with all my family and friends, I would plan events, I would have meetings during the day and at night, and life seemed to move at an incredible pace. But that seemed to change within a 24 hour period. The gym is closed, the grocery store is missing everyday essentials, worship is not in an empty sanctuary, events have been canceled, meetings are on social media, but life has NOT slowed! LOL! (Laugh Out Loud). Now time is consumed with thinking outside the box and trying to take crash courses in Live Streaming and Social Media practices. Through all that is taking place, the God I worshipped yesterday is the same God I am worshipping today. See, I am experiencing challenges and issues today just like I was yesterday.  They may look different, but He still handles them like He did yesterday. He simply asks me to “Trust Him”. That’s what I am going to do!

Live Streaming Schedule

  •      Sunday’s @ 9:30am – Family Bible Study -Armor of God
  •      Sunday’s @ 10am – Morning Worship
  •      Sunday’s @ 6pm – Evening Worship
  •      Wednesday’s @ 5:30pm – Youth WNL
  •      Wednesday’s @ 6:30pm – Recharge
  •      10:30am – Tuesdays and Thursdays – Bro. D’s Reach Outs
  •       ***COMING SOON*** Children’s Ministry efforts are in the works!

 How To Watch

  •      Our efforts are to stay in touch with our Calvary family and community. We are working everyday trying to provided resources and opportunities to connect with your church staff and church. We have currently established a FaceBook Live feed on our Calvary Baptist Church of Union City Facebook group. We have discovered that this group is our private group. We will be adding our Calvary Baptist Church Union City TN page to the live stream. Our plans are to also add a YouTube channel and live stream there by this Wednesday night. With that being said. You should have access to any of those feeds through apps on your smartphone. Many would like to watch these feeds on their tv’s with their families. Most smart tv’s have YouTube available. Once our feed makes it to YouTube that will be a great option. Other ways of seeing the feeds on tv is through mirroring your phone to your tv through special apps or devices. I plan to go over many of these options on a post to Facebook soon. I will try to copy that post here too! There is another simple way that is easily overlooked. Most laptops now include an HDMI out. That means you can connect your laptop up to your TV with an HDMI cable just like you would a DVD player and any content you access with your laptop would also be available on your TV.

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Tough Times Come

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

It’s been tough lately

That may be the understatement of the year so far. I spent 2 days at Obion County Central High School last week trying to encourage students and teachers who are grieving over the loss of 2 classmates and a parent. Then this week we experience deadly tornadoes just a few miles away with many loved ones impacted by the devastation. Telling people that this does not take God by surprise is true, but doesn’t go very far in soothing the pain and frustration.  The best advice is to remain faithful, no matter what emotions someone may be experiencing during this moment, remain faithful.  The God that we praised and worshipped during the good times of life is still the same Holy and Righteous God during the difficult times.  We praise God and thank him for our faith during daily life, it is times like these when we must practice that faith we praise Him about.  It is times like these that the best help we can share with those struggling is for them to see our faithfulness in action.

YouVersion Bible App

I will share this app over and over again. It is a wonderful tool and is available to everyone for Free!!!  With that in mind, one of the best Bible Plans I have seen so far for those who are struggling with grief is called “Overcoming the Monster of Grief“. It is very encouraging and thought-provoking. Check it out and/or pass it on to a friend in need.

Youth Encountering Christ Weekend

YEC weekend for our youth department is next week. I pray every year that every teen that attends our church would attend this weekend.  It is a weekend full of spiritual growth, relationship building, and worship.  This is the place strong, Christian young people grow.  As a mom, dad, grandparent, guardian, or friend, please do your best to encourage your teen to attend this great spiritual weekend.


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Let’s Get Blogging

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Let’s Get Blogging

  • Blogging is a great way to share information and keep others informed of things going on. It is also a place to share ideas and thoughts about things. It is also “time-consuming”. It takes time for me to pool my thoughts and type them up to post them on a blog. But I am going to try it!  It is crazy how difficult it is to keep things informative and yet short when blogging. It will take me more time and effort to keep my blog short than it will to just type out some thoughts. I will work at refining that and also at providing good info. I hope you will find my blog to be useful and will visit it often. So, let’s get blogging!

Upcoming Events

  • This Upward season has been absolutely amazing! What makes it amazing, people do. Most of our volunteer staff believe in Upward and the reasons behind it. Please let them know how much you appreciate all they do. Upward is a 3-month mission project and it does wear you down. So, pray and ask the Lord to continue to supply our volunteers with passion and with the rest they need.
  • Upward Award’s Night! Pray, Pray, Pray!  Can God move in a big way at Upward Award’s Night? Yes, He can! Pray that everything goes smoothly and that hearts are changed!
  • Youth Encountering Christ Weekend is March 13-15 at Natchez Trace State Park. This is a 3-day retreat for our youth. Every youth in our church should make an effort to attend.  Young people attending this retreat falls on the shoulders of our parents.  Parents! Please see the value in this weekend of spiritual growth and relationship building. This is where those things happen.

Discipleship

  • Many of our Calvary members are trying to read through the Bible in a year. Several started their reading plan on January 1.  I have been doing this along with them and so far I have been able to keep up. There has been once or twice I had to read 2 days worth in 1 day. The amount of information that I have read through in Genesis, Exodus, and Leviticus has been eye-opening. I have read through the Bible before, but each time I do I discover new things that correct some of my own thinking.  I am challenged to see things the way God sees them and I realize how strayed the world has made me in some areas.  Take the time, start today, read the Bible through!

Personal Book Reading

  • I am currently reading several books, but this post is a quick look at some information I discovered in “The Great Evangelical Recession: 6 Factors That Will Crash The American Church…and How to Prepare”. According to this book and I believe other signs around us, WE ARE IN BIG TROUBLE! Research is being done on how much of the American population represents “Evangelical Christians”. I don’t have time to go into a long summary, but here is what I have learned so far.  Research filtered out everyone who says that they are born-again Christians and everyone who says they are born-again Christians and live like it on a daily basis. Those that live out what they say represent about 7 to 8 percent of the American population. I will leave you with that to ponder!

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Our Young Men Need Men

This past weekend we had our first Guy’s Retreat!  This was a great opportunity to spend some time with teenage guys and to teach them things like grilling, hunting, automotive maintenance and how to safely use power tools.  The funny thing to me was that this came across as a great idea and needs to be done more!  Why does that strike me funny?  Because those should be staples of men’s lives taught by dad, granddad or other father figures during those young impressionable year’s of a boy’s life.  I know that there are going to be some exceptions, but that’s just it.  It should be exceptions, instead it seemed to be the norm in most of the young men that participated this past weekend.  They understood many of the concepts, they knew these things were done by somebody, but many of them didn’t have a clue about some of the common things we went over.  They didn’t understand cleaning out the charcoal grate, piling up the charcoal to light and get a burn started, that a car even had a spare tire someone, (and why it was so tiny!) or that hunting could be so much fun!  By the way, our young men need to work out more muscles than the ones in their thumbs, not one of them could break loose a lug nut on a wheel.  It is no wonder our society is in such a “dependency on others” mindset!  We are not passing on “Life Skills” to our children.  We have got do more in our “Family Time” then just play sports and have vacations.  Family time could also be cooking together, washing clothes together, changing the oil in the car together, building something together, gardening together, doing the dishes together. etc.  I just thought I would share a little bit of my experience this past weekend.  By the way, the fellas loved it!!!!  Enjoy the Fullness of Life with your family!

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Easter and the Cross

Easter is this weekend!  Are you looking forward to it?  Have you ever wondered when the cross shifted from a symbol of condemnation to a symbol of hope?  I know that the death of Jesus on the cross is the point that mankind’s penalty of sin was forgiven for all who believe.  But when did the cross become such a treasured remembrance among the world of believers?  I ran across a devotional that gave some direction to the beginning. It is believed that a mother started it all.  Helena the mother of emperor Constantine was given the challenge to discover religious relics that would ignite passion in the people as they spread the gospel. The time was the fourth century and it is believed that Helena was brought to the location of where the 3 crosses where buried.  The discovery happened after Helena has a pagan temple destroyed on the holy site and a Christian temple built.  During the excavation the 3 crosses were discovered.  Rumor has it that a terminally ill lady from the community came to the area and touched all 3 crosses.  The first 2 she touched did not cause any change, but the third one she touched miraculously healed her body of her sickness.  Seeing this, Helena had that cross broken into splinters and miniature crosses to be spread all over the country and to awareness to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  As this effort ignited passion in Christians, the cross became a symbol of hope for the rest of eternity.  Just something to think about as Easter approaches! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_(empress)

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The New Calvary web page has Launched!

The launch has taken place and now we are flying high with our new Calvary website.  I am hoping that this website will propel Calvary Baptist Church into a modern method of communication with her members and guests.  This website will be easier to maintain and easier to update with current information regarding events and news concerning the Calvary Baptist Church family.  If you have any ideas or suggestions of content that would be beneficial to our new site, please share in the comments section below.  Thank you. Bro. David

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