Resurrection Life Church

Ever since Christianity began it has been opposed. People, Governments, Kings and Dictators have tried to stop it from growing. But Christianity is more than a movement; it is love from the creator that can never be stopped. It is more than meetings, worship "environments", or organizations.

Christianity is and has always been built on the love that comes from our Father that we in turn as His children give to those around us and thus changing our world in the process. The unstoppable gift is not something we can purchase or get in a store or online. It first must transform you and you will not be able to help yourself and you will just give it away and thus the gift keeps on giving.

It is His love that is relentless in pursuing us, overtaking us and transforming us into the men and women He knows we can be.  Our friend and miracle of God James Moore tells us his story of how God’s unstoppable love never gave up on him when everyone and he, himself gave up on him.

May the unstoppable love of God that always finds you overwhelm you and bring you peace during this amazing time of the year.

We are living in a chaotic and stressful world, not only in our own country of America, but many of the countries in our world. Conflict after conflict, economies are collapsing, war, both big and small are all around us. How can we as human beings find any hope or peace in this world?

There is one and only one that can bring that hope and peace, all the time, and not just one time a year during a holiday season. The reason they split time in have, the reason for "the season", the Way, the Truth and the Life is Jesus Christ, God's only Son. He is more than all these things. He is hope, He is Love, He is all that we will ever need, He is our Prince of Peace.

If Jesus is our Prince of Peace then we have been reconciled to God.  In other words, we are back in right relationship with Him.  How?  Because Jesus was our substitute.  He bore the penalty of our sin.  He was our propitiation. 

We must first have peace with God if we are to ever have peace with men.  We learn to humble ourselves and not always want and try and get our own way.  We also know that our peace is a choice.  We choose to keep our mind “stayed” on Him and He will keep us in perfect peace.

Because we are created in the image and likeness of God we have the DNA of relationships at the core of our being.  We were designed with three relationships in mind: with God, ourselves, and others.  When one relationship is out of balance the others are equally affected.

The beauty of our relationships with God, ourselves (self & each other in the Body of Christ) and others help make this balance right. Roman 12 teaches us how to relate to God, ourselves and others (non-Christians and enemies).

God is all about relationship.  He created man so that we could be in relationship with each other.  He said that “it’s not good for man to be alone.”  From that statement God created Woman.  However, that statement has much more implications than just men and women relationships.  It is also about all of humanity and the importance of relationship.

Guest and friend Nettie Winters of Mission Mississippi shares these points and more in this week’s message about “Right Relationships.”  “A Right Relationship with God, with ourselves and with others will Result in Right Living.”

In today's DNA testing world we are desperate to know who we are. We have generations that have grown up with no idea who they are and what their purpose in life is. With the proliferation of information and social media we are as confused as to who we are as a termite is in a Yoyo.

Who we are is important and we can't find that with a DNA test. Though they are exciting, fun and informational the real way of finding out who you are is through our Father God and what He says and determines about you.

Too many in our society see themselves as victims.  They see themselves as victims of society, bad families, the system, and the list could go on.  However, we are not victims we are children of God and He and He alone gives us our value and identity.

Family is not as important in our society as it once was. Or is it? People desire family and they desire relationship. Most people whether they admit it or not are desperate for intimate relationship with others. Relationships where they are accepted for who they are and are loved for who they are. A family does that. But a family gives and receives more than just acceptance and love.

We get our identity from family. Our father God gives us our identity. When we know who we are and who we belong to we have a confidence that the rest of the world envies. We are not orphans we belong to family. Orphans typically seek their own and are not concerned with others. They are just surviving, getting by. It’s a survival of the fittest. Our family is part of who we are.

We have a responsibility if we are in a family. The Church is a family and God is our father. We are responsible for each other. Families take ownership of the family and family members. However, most churches function more like an orphanage than they do a family. We are here for each other and serve each other not looking out for our own interest but that of others.

Relationships are not always easy to flesh out. Family relationship are especially more difficult. Why? Because we are closer to each other and we all have expectations of each other.

There are a few "expectations" that are somewhat "a given" in family. First family members are expected to participate. Why? Simply because they are part of the family. When we comprehend the depth of our family relationships we don't participate because we have to but because we want to. The second expectation is to build up one another. Most "a typical" families tear each other down and belittle each other. Not so in the family of God. We are expected to encourage, build up, honor and love one another. Thirdly we are expected to stay together. When we do we become stronger as a unit and as individuals.

Pastor Allen shares, funny and life-changing stories about how the family dynamics in the Church of Jesus Christ must be present, if we are ever going to be the family that God wants us to be and change our world in the process.

The family is not an invention of modern society but an idea and invention from God Himself. Our personal family and the family of God (the church) have dynamics that make it work and bring hope, life and love to the world around it. God has outlined those dynamics in the book of Ephesians and through out His word.

If we are going to be able to do more than survive but thrive in this world and impact change in it we are going to have to listen, and obey what God has said. Not from religious duty but from hearts of love for God and each others.

This first part of a two part series deals with how we are to treat one another in the family.  It also deals with how we interact with one another, how we are to relate to each other and how it affects the world in which we live.

We are a family.  For some people family has negative connotations, however our Father God is a good God no matter what our earthly family was like and He wants us to love one another the way He loves us.

Matthew 6:24 says that no one can serve two masters. Many of us know how much of a taskmaster debt is. When we learn the godly principles of handling our finances, we no longer serve the money we receive. The money we receive then serves the Kingdom of God.

We use all that we are and have to worship God and that includes money. Money can become an idol to us inadvertently because of the culture we live in worship money. We have to be sober, alert and yielded to the Holy Spirit.
 
In Part Four of the Treasure Hunters series on money and finances, Pastor Allen shares how understanding worship, acknowledging idols in our lives, handling money practically, and being without a “shepherd” affects the way we oversee our finances. He specifically takes the time to detail how detrimental idols (mammon) are to the way we perceive money, falling in line with the attitudes and concepts covered in the past three messages.

So you have money, what do you do with it? Consume it on yourself, your family, your dreams, your wishes? No! We are not consumers we are children of God and as His children we must learn to steward what He gives us and not consume it on our own selfish desires. In order to do that we are going to have to learn a few things and first is your have to have the right value on the right things. We must quit judging according to this worlds system.

How much money we have is not a measuring stick to our importance and value. It's not what you have that is important but what or who has you? What goes on in your heart and soul is most important. In order to steward what God blesses us with we have to have Kingdom wisdom. We live with integrity and we are to be great stewards using wisdom in all our financial dealings.

We are handling the riches of two kingdoms. We live in this earthly kingdom but using it's riches to sow into the next kingdom. The investments we make in His kingdom pay dividends forever.

There is a perspective about money that is unique to us as Christians.  God didn’t create our money system but He does have a lot to say about it.  Why?  Because He knew it would be important to our everyday lives and our culture.  Money is simply a resource to be used for the betterment of mankind and to advance the Kingdom of God and not consumed upon our own selfishness. 

The American culture sees the American people as consumers that are driven by their appetites and not as people with purpose and destiny to affect positive change in the world.  When we, as Christians, must understand that we own nothing but we are required to steward everything.  

Guest speaker and entrepreneur Eric Bahme with Building God’s Way Sustainable Solutions and the Nehemiah Project shares that unique perspective and more in this week’s second installment of Treasure Hunters series.