Friday, October 30th The Relationship Principle-Your relationship with God is reflected in your generosity.“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)Your heart gravitates towards your treasure.Your treasure, your money/resources/time most easily flows through your hands to those things that matter most to you.Your heart is directed by what you treasure; by what matters...

Thursday, October 29th“All that I am and all that I have comes from God.”These are not my gifts, my talents, my resources, my relationships, my opportunities, my experiences, my personality.All I have comes from the hand of God; He owns it, they are His not mine.Which means I’m a manager- not an ownerThe Manager Principle-Everything you have is a gift from God - your talent, your intellect, your p...

Wednesday, October 28th What’s the Faith Challenge suppose to be? This week my challenge is for you to be with God, hear from God and respond to God. I don’t know what that will look like for you, but it’s your faith challenge. I hope you take up the challenge.This week we’re considering reflecting the generosity of God in our world, as a way of life.The Ownership principleThis first principle is ...

Tuesday, October 27thDay two of this week’s Faith Challenge.A reminder- What’s the Faith Challenge suppose to be? Where’s the challenge? What’s the challenge? Is it to read something new? To be challenged in your faith walk? An opportunity to grow? Yes, probably some of all of that. But this week my challenge is for you to be with God, hear from God and respond to God. I don’t know what that will ...

Monday, October 26thDay one of this week’s Faith Challenge. I’m wondering What’s the Faith Challenge suppose to be? Where’s the challenge? What’s the challenge? Is it to read something new? To be challenged in your faith walk? An opportunity to grow? Yes, probably some of all of that. But this week my challenge is for you to be with God, hear from God and respond to God. I don’t know what that wil...

Thursday, October 22This week we’ve been discussing how the flood is more than just devastation, or even God wipe out the entire world and starting creation over. It is God, handing humanity over to the ruin in created and out of severe mercy, chose to recreate again with Noah, the man of comfort and rest. We said, God gave us a path from ruin to renewal.Folks, I know that firsthand and God used a...

Wednesday, October 21 Noah waited, we wait, we grow when we trust in the waiting. But trust what and who? Back to the flood narrative. Genesis 8:16-19- 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be ...

Tuesday, October 20Read Genesis 8:10-16a- 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him. 13 By the first day of the fir...

Monday, October 19thWe are still in the flood narrative, let’s pick up where we left off last week.Read Genesis 7:22-24- 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with h...

Saturday, October 17Remember John Walton’s statement, “what God does through the flood is most important of all”? The last and foremost thing that should get our attention about this narrative is God’s deliverance- His rescue and redemption in chaos.The critical verse for this declaration is Genesis 6:13, but here’s the challenge. The translation from Hebrew to English in the NIV is stifling or I ...

Friday, October 16thWhat else do we notice about Noah? Genesis 7:7- 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood.Don’t slide past that, that has practical and theological implications.Think about it, the world was being handed over to its ruin because that’s what it chose. Noah and his family are rescued because of Noah’s righteousness....

Thursday, October 15thReadDid you notice that Noah never speaks a single word in the flood narrative?He asks no questions. He voices no complaints. He makes no dramatic declarations of faith. He simply does what God commands, again and again. The narrator describes him as a flat character on purpose.Notice that passages- Genesis 6:8-9, 22, 7:5, 16- 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord….9...

Wednesday, October 14th For those of you wondering where Tuesday’s daily faith challenge was, you didn’t miss anything. I didn’t finish it in time and we as a staff had an awesome day serving in Howards Grove Tuesday, so I made the executive decision to bump it from Tuesday to Wednesday and go into Saturday. If you need a refresher from Monday, go back and read Genesis 6:13-7:24, yes, it is a lot,...

Monday, October 12thYes, I want you to take your time today and read the bulk of the Flood Narrative (Genesis 6:13-7:24). I want you to take your time. TRY not to read it with what you think you already know. TRY to read it with fresh eyes, which means slow, deliberate, with intention of God showing you something “other.”Then, when you are done deliberately reading it, what did you notice? What go...

Greetings New Lifer-s! Pastor Bill here.This week I encourage you to work through Romans Chapter 12 with me. I have a suggested reading portion for each day and a verse I have chosen for you to focus on.I love nature. (the fact that almost EVERY message I do has a nature illustration might hint at that!)The amazing migration of salmon up the rivers, against the current and against all odds to achi...

Greetings New Lifer-s! Pastor Bill here.This week I encourage you to work through Romans Chapter 12 with me. I have a suggested reading portion for each day and a verse I have chosen for you to focus on.I love nature. (the fact that almost EVERY message I do has a nature illustration might hint at that!)The amazing migration of salmon up the rivers, against the current and against all odds to achi...

Greetings New Lifer-s! Pastor Bill here.This week I encourage you to work through Romans Chapter 12 with me. I have a suggested reading portion for each day and a verse I have chosen for you to focus on.I love nature. (the fact that almost EVERY message I do has a nature illustration might hint at that!)The amazing migration of salmon up the rivers, against the current and against all odds to achi...

Greetings New Lifer-s! Pastor Bill here.This week I encourage you to work through Romans Chapter 12 with me. I have a suggested reading portion for each day and a verse I have chosen for you to focus on.I love nature. (the fact that almost EVERY message I do has a nature illustration might hint at that!)The amazing migration of salmon up the rivers, against the current and against all odds to achi...

Greetings New Lifer-s! Pastor Bill here.This week I encourage you to work through Romans Chapter 12 with me. I have a suggested reading portion for each day and a verse I have chosen for you to focus on.I love nature. (the fact that almost EVERY message I do has a nature illustration might hint at that!)The amazing migration of salmon up the rivers, against the current and against all odds to achi...

Friday, October 2ndRead Genesis 6:7-10- 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of hi...