Writing to the Corinthians from Ephesus, Paul informed them of his travel itinerary in the closing chapter of 1 Corinthians.  He planned on visiting the city of Corinth, but everything was put on hold because a great door for effective work had opened to him in Ephesus.  Some great opportunity for ministry had presented itself to Paul in Ephesus.  He sensed the energy of the Spirit.  Doors were opening and things were happening.  So he stayed on.

Paul recognized an open door when he saw one.  Do we?  I hope so, because God has opened a door for effective ministry for River of Life. 

For the last several Sundays we have been privileged to have children and teenagers from the New Horizons ministry join us in the Legacy service.  Some great things have already happened in the lives of these children as a result of being here.  Many of them have connected with members of the RLA family.  More are waiting.  All we need is…YOU!

Last Sunday we were blessed to have many families from a neighboring church visit the Legacy service.  This church which is located in Fort Myers is going through a time of transition with the passing of the pastor.  How great it was to see our church family join with their church family in worship, prayer, and fellowship.  Truly, in Christ we are one.  Following the service many of these brothers and sisters in Christ expressed their appreciation for the Legacy service and their plan to return. 

In a few weeks we are walking through another open door God has provided at Stoneybrook.  The 2013 Bash is scheduled for Thursday and Friday, May 30-31.  The outreach will be held each morning from 9:00am – 12:00pm, and will conclude with a very special Legacy service under the tent on Friday evening.  We are going after unreached families.  Again, all we need is…YOU!

Paul understood that when God opens a door for effective ministry you don’t ignore it, you walk through it.  Maybe the open door isn’t what you expected.  Maybe it doesn’t look like what you anticipated.  But God chooses which doors to open.  Our job is to walk through the doors He opens.

Is this an appeal?  Most certainly!  If we ignore the open door, God will simply find another church that is willing.  But if we will seize the opportunity God has set before us, He will use RLA to do amazing things.

With Paul we can truly say, “A great door for effective work has opened to me.”  Like Paul, let’s walk through the open door.

Pastor Todd Weston

Our family will be celebrating a notable birthday this week.  Tori turns sixteen.  For some inexplicable reason Tori delights in telling me how quickly she is growing up.  My response to that unhappy thought has always been, “I don’t want to think about it!”  Whether or not I think about it, it’s happening.  She is growing up.

The other day we went shopping for new shoes.  When we entered the store, I naturally turned to the section with the shiny black and white patent leathers (no heels) and the shoes with little flowers and doodads all over them.  She turned to the women’s shoe department with heels so high you would need a step ladder to get into them.  Ok, I admit it.  I’m in denial.  She’s growing up!

Last Saturday night Tori attended the formal etiquette event sponsored by the youth group.  There she was dressed to the nines.  As I stood there looking at her, the words of the haunting melody from Fiddler on the Roof came to mind:

Is this the little girl I carried?
Is this the little boy at play?
I don't remember growing older
When did they?

So what’s a dad to do?  What’s a mom to do?  Treasure the moments.  Make every day count.  The Bible calls it redeeming the time.  Wring out of each day every drop of joy and happiness you can get, because the days fly by so swiftly.

Most of all, be sure to leave a legacy of faith in your child’s heart.  Of all the gifts we give our children, there is none greater than that.  To instill in them a heart for God, a love for Jesus, an undying commitment to biblical priorities is the best thing any parent could do for the child they love more than life itself.

So happy birthday Tori!  As we get ready to go to Disney to celebrate your birthday, I have but one request.  Just one.  Please don’t make me go on Tower of Terror!

Pastor Todd Weston
 

If you ever had the experience as a kid of having your mouth washed out with soap, you will stand up and testify as to the effectiveness of that good old fashioned means of discipline.  I experienced it once, and once was enough to last me for the rest of my life, through the Millennium, and a good ways into eternity!  

It seems to me that a lot of people today need a trip to the kitchen sink with a bar of soap.  Maybe two!  Sins of speech appear to be on the rise inside and outside of the church. Apparently, people have not been taught how to communicate intelligently, so they resort to profanity.  Or, having nothing better to do, they turn to the pastime of idle minds and busybodies and talk about other people. And then, there is the sin of lying, which is the first and last sin mentioned in the Bible (Genesis 3:4; Revelation 21:8).

Think of it!  Christians saved by grace lying, cussing, and gossiping.  I will state it lightly – these things should not be! 

Paul issued this command to all New Testament believers in Eph. 4:29, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”  There must have been a problem with this in the Church at Ephesus, so Paul told them to clean up their speech.

Interestingly, in the very next verse Paul warned against grieving the Holy Spirit.  The major attribute of the Holy Spirit is….you guessed it, holiness.  When Christians engage in unholy communication of any kind, the Holy Spirit who lives within us is offended.  The word Paul used means to distress and make sorrowful.  Imagine causing the Holy Spirit pain and sorrow because of our bad language.

If this is an area of struggle in your life, then ask the Lord to do for you what He did for the prophet Isaiah.  In Isaiah 6 the prophet confessed that he was a sinful man.  In v7 an angel took a live coal from the altar and touched Isaiah’s lips and his iniquity was taken away.  Ask the Lord to touch your lips and transform your speech from corrupt to clean; from words of profanity to words of purity.

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).

Pastor Todd Weston

Ephesians 1:16-23 records one of the great prayers of the Apostle Paul.  In that prayer Paul prayed that we might come to understand the hope of our calling, the riches that are ours in Christ, and the incomparably great power of God.

The word translated “incomparably great” carries the idea of something thrown into another sphere.  Imagine a baseball player who times his swing perfectly and hits the ball out of the park.  Now imagine that he not only hit it out of the park but out of the galaxy.  That’s the idea!  The power of God is so great, it isn’t just out of the park, but is completely of another realm.

When the Apostle Paul set out to describe the greatness of God’s power under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he used nearly every synonym he could lay his hands on.  The passage is Ephesians 1:19.  Four different Greek words appear in that verse to help us understand the exceeding greatness of God’s power.  They are –

·         Dunamis – miraculous power, inherent ability

·         Energeia – endless energy, operative power

·         Kratos – boundless strength, dominion

·         Ischus – supernatural force, capable power

Paul finally ran out of words trying to describe the indescribable!  How can a finite mind comprehend infinite power?  It cannot.  But by faith we can believe in it, and trust our lives and eternal souls to it.

The same power that raised Christ from the dead and exalted Him to the right hand of the Majesty on high is at work in the lives of those who believe.  It is immeasurable and indefinable power from another world.  It’s the power of God at work in us and on our behalf. 

Think your problems are great?  The power of God is so much greater.  Thank God for the exceedingly greatness of His power!

Pastor Todd Weston

In Proverbs 17:22 the writer gives this spiritual prescription, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”  Did you know that joy is one of the predominant characteristics of biblical Christianity?  The Bible knows nothing of joyless Christianity and sour saints.  We are called to serve the Lord with gladness, not sadness (Psalm 100:2).

So how can we maintain the cheerful heart the proverb writer talked about as we walk through a not so cheerful world?  Here are a few recommendations that I think will help:

1.  Limit your load

We were not designed by our Creator to carry life’s problems on our shoulders.  Rather than carry them, the Bible tells us to cast them upon the Lord in prayer (1 Peter 5:7). 

2.  Live on the right side of life

Just as there are two sides of a coin, there are two sides in life – the bright side and the dark side.  I’m not suggesting you stick your head in the sand and disconnect from reality.  I am suggesting you choose to live on the sunny side of life, full of faith and optimism.

3.  Learn how to think

In the classic, See You At The Top, Zig Ziglar talks about “garbage-dump thinking.”  Wrong thinking can lead to all kinds of problems.  Philippians 4:8 provides these guidelines for right thinking, “Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things.”

4.  Let go of the baggage of life

We all experience tough times and painful experiences.  That’s life.  Let go of any bitterness or hatred that may arise in your heart.  These things are happiness killers.  Realize that God is at work even in the bad things that happen to you.  And trust Him to take what was meant for evil and turn it around for good (Genesis 50:20).

5.  Look to Jesus

The Hebrew writer told us to run the race of life looking always to Jesus (Hebrews 12:2).  Keeping your eyes on Him is the strategy that wins.  Remember, His joy is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10).

Apply these spiritual disciplines, and may God bless you with a cheerful heart.  It’s good medicine.  It’s just what the doctor ordered. 

Pastor Todd Weston

I have a confession to make.  I have developed a bad habit in recent years.  It’s the habit of starting a book and failing to finish it.  It isn’t that I don’t enjoy reading.  I do.  I just find myself getting bored and losing interest about half way through the book.  So I lay it down and start reading another one.  I currently have about six half-read books on my desk just sitting there gathering dust waiting to be finished.

In Colossian 4:17 the apostle Paul sent a direct message to a first century believer who was on the verge of failing to finish something he had started.  The issue at stake wasn’t a book.  It was his ministry.  Here is what Paul said, “And say to Archippus, ‘Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.’”

Archippus was a leader in the church at Colosse (Philemon 2).  While we do not know the exact nature of his ministry, we know that having started strong he was slowing down and showing signs that were concerning.  So Paul sent this wake up call, “Take heed.”  A spirit of apathy can creep in unawares and cause a person to lose interest in the very thing to which God called them.

Paul called Archippus to re-engage in the ministry which he had received in the Lord.  Maybe you are serving in ministry today because you were asked by a pastor, or elected by a board or congregation, or recruited by a lay-leader.  But in truth, you received your ministry from the Lord.  Behind the human instrument that got you there is the God who called you there.  That puts it in a whole new perspective.

Whether your ministry is small or large, visible or not, Paul said, “fulfill it.”  The Greek term means – finish it, accomplish it, complete it.  Then what?  Drop out of ministry?  No way. We are simply reassigned to a new ministry.  Ministry is what Christians do.

Don’t set your God-given ministry opportunity aside like a half-read book.  Instead, “be steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

Pastor Todd Weston