What Is Church?

We need to rethink our definition of “church.” When we come to “church” as an individual who is primarily a consumer we begin to view church as an “event” where we can consume spirituality or religion to meet our own personal needs. The alternative here is to move from church as event to church as family. When we approach “church” as individuals in a community where we are cooperating together for a common goal its almost impossible to think of church as an event. Instead a better metaphor for church, as we have talked about at The Well a lot recently, is “family.” A family cooperating together to care together for the individual needs, all for a common goal.

- Todd Hiestand pastor of The Well (From the Provocative Church blog)

The Path Less Traveled

Found this on one of the blogs I regularly read and thought it was so appropriate. Hope it stretches you!

"Nothing (truly nothing) hurts more than to see people reject the hard road in search of an easier one. We get lazy when things are too easy - and it's far too tempting to do that. It breaks my heart when I pass by someone's house on Sunday that used to attend our church - and notice that all of their cars are still in the driveway. Who knows if they are attending at an odd service time, but it still hurts to know that they could be missing out on what God wants to do in their life. It hurts to see a family teach their children that they are more important than God - by switching churches based on a kids program and not the leading of the Holy Spirit. It kills me to hear critics complain when they themselves have not shared the Gospel (much less invited someone to church) in years.... All in all, God wants our spirit to be broken so He can fill us with His. You cannot experience true brokenness while you are working to feed your own ambitions in life.... Sacrifice, risk, and the Gospel are partners that spend a ton of time together.... and they cannot be separated! "

- Patrick Gillen @ Active Pursuit

Taking Love Up A Notch

Today's post at Our Daily Blog went right along with something else that I read today. How interesting it is that such a coincidence should occur.

The morning after Korah's rebellion, a large mob of Israelites formed around the Tent of Meeting. The mob called for retribution against Moses and Aaron because of their role in God's judgment of that rebellion. As the cloud of God’s presence enveloped the Tent of Meeting, Moses could already feel God’s growing wrath.

The moment he and Aaron fell on their faces, a terrible plague began....

...Even though the Israelites had come to threaten them and possibly kill them, Moses and Aaron were still willing to risk their lives to save them. It should be no different in our lives; no matter how obnoxiously people treat us, or how threatened we are by their actions, we must be willing to call out for their salvation and deliverance in prayer.

This is also true when it comes to the sins and wickedness influencing the very life of our own nations today. For example, my personal aversion to homosexuality and other forms of perversion must not stop me from praying and crying out for those bound by these terrible sins.

At times, like Aaron, you and I may even be called to stand between the living and the dead. That’s right, God may even call you to personally reach out to the very people you have been praying for from a distance.

Whether it is someone bound in a homosexual lifestyle or a person addicted to some illegal substance, God may need your actions as much as He needs your prayers....

...Today, the Holy Spirit is calling you afresh. He is calling you out of your comfort zone into a place of service which will change both your heart and the hearts of those around you.

- Jim Laffoon @ Our Daily Blog

The post is really excellent. It would be worth reading in its entirety.

Today I also read about a new ministry that is encouraging Christians to "Adopt A Terrorist" on the Presidential Prayer Team website .

A new web-based ministry is urging Christians to adopt a terrorist and pray for them as Jesus Christ had instructed his disciples to love and pray for their enemies.

Adopt a Terrorist for Prayer (ATFP) agrees that the military needs to fight terrorism, but advocates prayer as a counter-offensive strategy not utilized by generals and politicians. ATFP founder Dr. Thomas Bruce believes the war on terrorism is a spiritual struggle against fear.

“The terrorists are just the highest profile intimidators in Satan's arsenal,” Bruce said in a released statement. “They think they are serving God.”

You should really check out that article as well. I believe that Dr. Bruce offers some relevant insights that I won't be covering in this post.

It is so easy to get locked into an "us against them" mentality. It is pervasive in American culture. Heck, my other blog is even named "Xs and Os!" And truly this has been my default setting when it comes to people that I perceive to be opposing me in some way. I can't say that I am beyond responding this way, but God has been working in my heart to teach me to take a more diplomatic tone with people who disagree with my position on things.

It is our job to show love to our neighbors and even our enemies by serving them when we can (individually) and by praying for them. In many of the cases already identified in this post the eternal destination of our enemies is at stake. If we really understand how horrible hell is, we shouldn't desire that anyone go there. Perhaps our prayers can avert that terrible end for even our enemies.

Holiness

Jim Laffoon has written an excellent devotion on his blog about seeing the consequences of sin and using those examples to create in himself a fear of God and a hatred of sin. It is a most worthy read. Here is an excerpt:

In my own life, God has allowed me to be involved in spiritual autopsies more times than I care to count.

Every time I have to face the horrible consequences of rebellion and sin in the life of a person I love, it makes me fear God and hate sin all the more. Whether it is the horrors and pain of sexual immorality, or the pride and insecurity keeping a man or woman of God from confessing the sinful habits which would later destroy them, these close encounters with God’s judgments have helped to make me a wiser man today.

May your heart be filled with the fear of the Lord and a hunger for holiness as you consider the message of this story.

- Jim Laffoon @ Our Daily Blog

We must be careful to not trample underfoot the grace of God or to take sin lightly. The wages of sin have always been death and will remain so, but Christ's sacrifice gives us the power to live holy lives through the Holy Spirit.

A Quote For You

I am being pressed forward in the Spirit to assume my position. How about you? Each one of us in Christ has a position that we MUST assume. His Bride must be ready for her Groom! We can't fulfill our life's mission if we don't boldly step into that rightful place He has for us.
- Deborah @ Thoughts Along The Way

An Amazing Lyric

I found this lyric posted on the blog Crying Out To Make God Beautiful recently and thought that it was pretty amazing. There are some really unexpected lyric turns. I hope you enjoy it.

I heard He’s up there in that room
I’m afraid—I don’t know what to do
If He only knew what I’ve done He might never even look at me
I have to climb those stairs
I have to find His voice
As I make my way through the crowds nobody sees me, nobody notices me
I walk up those stairs and through the window I hear Him talking—telling parables
I can hear Him telling parables, I can understand what He’s saying
I should have changed my clothes
I’ve had this dress on for almost two weeks now and it’s stained in my sin
My sin—it’s like stains all over this garment but I have to climb those stairs
The room is crowded and I can’t see Him
He’s kneeled down and He’s talking in parables again
I just make my way over to the right and I lean against the wall
There’s an opening between the phrases
And I make my way, I make my break and I run and throw myself at His feet—and I weep
I have this perfume
I know it’s a gift from my lovers—it’s the only thing I have
So I break the neck of the bottle and start to pour my life
My mother forgot my name
My father disappeared when I was just a girl
I was used by everyone, abused by everyone and I was angry
So I ran and hid in the darkness—can you smell my darkness Lord?
Can you smell my sin, it’s being poured on you
And I worship you here at your feet
I hear them talking about me but I keep pouring
This is my one chance, this is my one hope, I have nothing left,
I’m gonna give you everything
Because I heard you heal the sick
I heard you give sight to the blind
I heard you would father the orphan
I heard you would be a husband to the widow
I heard you would forgive my sin
Demons will flee when the fragrance is lifted
Restoration comes when the fragrance is lifted
I’ve never known anyone in my life to look at me the way He is right now
He rebuked them in my presence and took my face in His hands
He looked in through my skin and said
“The fragrance is lifted. I can smell your worship daughter. You are free”
So I dance in a circle and I laugh out loud for the first time in my life
Cause the fragrance has been lifted—the fragrance was lifted
And I have the smell of His feet in my hair
Where He walked I can tell
Because the fragrance is lifted

-Rita Springer

Regarding Preaching

Sunday is about preaching the Word of God without compromise and leading believers into a time of worship. We are not seeker-sensitive…we don’t pull out all of the stops for guests. Sunday wasn’t Scripturally meant for them…it was mainly intended for the believer. Don’t get me wrong…we know that guests come to Compass Point on Sundays…and we want them to feel welcomed. We have greeters, Starbucks coffee and decent signage. We explain what each element of the service is so we don’t throw people off. However, when the preaching begins…that’s where “guest friendly” stops. Other church planters always ask me how we keep reaching people that are so far from God…it’s because we couldn’t give a rip about coddling them. People far from God…that venture into Compass Point…are already being engaged by the Holy Spirit. They aren’t looking for budget plans for their finances, their purpose in life or how to have better sex…they are looking for a Savior. If they want “self help” fluff they can get a Tony Robbins video or buy a “Marriage For Dummies” book at Barnes & Noble. If they come to Compass Point…it’s because they want to hear the Word of God…unfiltered. My job on Sunday is not to baby sit consumers…my job is to confront sin…for believers and unbelievers…through the uncompromised preaching of God’s Word.

- Chris Elrod (from his blog, Chris Elrod Dot Com)

Honor

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned. There is no such thing as a no-man's land between honesty and dishonesty. Our strength lies in spiritual concepts. It lies in public sensitiveness to evil. Our greatest danger is not from invasion by foreign armies. Our dangers are that we may commit suicide from within by complaisance with evil, or by public tolerance of scandalous behavior.
— President Herbert Hoover

Facing the Flood

The moment you have victory over temptation in one area of your life, you will immediately be assaulted in another area. When you find yourself under the relentless attacks of the enemy, it is critical that you do not lose your perspective.

In my own life, I have discovered that this level of warfare is normally a signal that I am approaching a unique time of spiritual breakthrough or transition.

... many times God does His greatest work at the darkest moments in our lives. Whether it is Joseph going from the prison to the palace, or Paul and Silas experiencing the power of God after they had been beaten and put in prison (Acts 16:16-40), God delights in displaying His power in the weakest moments of our lives.

- Jim Laffoon @ Our Daily Blog

An Interesting Thought

Here is a thought that I overheard today:

It is an interesting thing about Jesus: there were folks who hated Him and folks who loved Him. The folks who loved Him most were the worldly folks - the sinners. I think that our society is ready for a gospel that loves people. That doesn't mean that it hides the truth from them - just the opposite - but perhaps it is one that earns the right to share that truth first by building relationship.

- JED

Interesting Article

Much of "traditional" Christianity gives the impression that God has these rather arbitrary rules about how you have to behave, and if you disobey them you go to hell, rather than to heaven. What the New Testament really says is God wants you to be a renewed human being helping him to renew his creation, and his resurrection was the opening bell.

- Bishop N.T. "Tom" Wright (Bishop of Durham)


Got this quote from an interesting interview between Time magazine and Bishop "Tom" Wright of the Church of England. It is about Bishop Wright's thoughts on Heaven and how different they are from many Christians' views. I found it an interesting, thought-provoking read.

Quote Of The Day

Propositional revelation spells trouble for it takes the heartfelt convicted knowledge of Christ the Lord and the great acts of our covenanting God as marvelous, praiseworthy and celebratory deeds, and replaces it with submissive intellectual assent to authoritative teachings. Instead of preaching being an amazing “Fear not!” announcement of glad tidings woven throughout the older and newer testaments, it becomes academic lecturing. Because it is humanly impossible to wholly eliminate the aesthetic dimension from worship, the hymns and special music provide the back-door individualized sentimental spasm tacked onto the “means of grace”.

And what depressing exercises when propositional revelation dominates theological discussion. Competing sense-verifiable facts inject uncertainty and tension into discussions of Genesis because we have to make sure what can and cannot be maintained against secular biology, geology and astrophysics. By contrast, how very relaxing it would be if we stopped the word play and immersed ourselves within the paragraphs, chapters and whole books to “prove” creation. Instead of declaring by fiat one’s insight into the divine meta-language, or self-confirming one’s method by bad-faith process of elimination, why not turn to the Psalms and Job to understand the Genesis creation?

The consequence of propositional revelation for Bible reading is that the book becomes a bone of contention in God-talk disputations. Gone from our hermeneutics is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob while we waste our time in scholastic pursuits like determining the ipsissima verba of Jesus. It is the yoking of Scripture to an unchristian positivist theory of knowledge and truth that substantiates the charge of bibliolatry. If we search and use the scriptures to reinforce our jots and tittles then our myopia will be too all-consuming for us to point others toward the Lord’s rule.

- Joel Hunter (From: "Can I Have My Bible Back?" at Internet Monk)

Unbelief vs. Faith

Where are you today? Are you, like Abraham, going through all the motions of a person that has real faith, even though faith has long since died in your heart?

Maybe you’re still praying for your spouse to be saved, or a wayward child to return to the Lord, even though you stopped really believing months, or even years, ago. Worse yet is the fact that some of you have even begun to accuse God of being uncaring and even unfair because of the length of time you have been waiting.

Could it be that the unbelief in your own heart has lengthened the process? Sadly, in some cases that may be what has happened.

Wherever you are, however, it’s time for you to be honest with yourself and with God.

If you will only face the reality of your heart’s true condition, God will uproot the unbelief from your heart, so you can begin the process of planting fresh seeds of faith in the soil of your heart. It’s time for you to begin to apply the Word of God to your specific area of need.

As you plant these seeds of faith in your heart through meditating on the Word and verbally confessing it, fresh dynamic faith will begin to grow in your spirit.

This powerful infusion of faith will give you the power you need to fully possess the promises of God.

- Jim Laffoon @ Our Daily Blog

A New Name...

Whether you realize it or not, God is bringing people into your life on a regular basis to see if you will rename them. From the random encounter, to the friend who pours out his (or her) heart to you, these may well be divine appointments. Yet, this is more than a great privilege; it is also an awesome responsibility.

Paul clearly delineates the awesomeness of our responsibility in Romans 10:14c: “And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”

If you do not speak to the people whom God is bringing to you, how will they ever hear the Gospel? As you take a moment to ponder this great opportunity, let the words of John 20:21b-22a settle into your spirit: “'As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.' And with that he breathed on them...”

Can you feel your Master’s gentle breath? Can you hear His loving voice? He is not only sending people to you; He is sending you.

Jim Laffoon @ Our Daily Blog

He's Alive!!!

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"
- Samuel Clemens AKA Mark Twain

Hello, friends. I am sorry that it has been so long since my last posting here. Much has been going on since my last post. As many of you know, I lost my Grandfather on December 21. Between his loss, the business of the holidays, and the intense need to get some much needed studying and work done, I wasn't able to complete my Advent series as hoped and promised. I am sorry for that. Motivating myself to write during that period was more than I had energy to muster.

I do anticipate a much more regular posting here in the new year. We are fast approaching Lent, and I expect that there will be some meditations leading up to our celebration of Christ's resurrection. I doubt that they will be daily posts - that took more out of me than I had expected - but I do expect that there will be some content here to encourage you as you prepare your heart for this very important remembrance and celebration of the Church.

2007 was a very difficult year for many. I, for one, am glad to see it go. I hope and pray that 2008 will be a year of great blessing, breakthrough, and abundance for all who read this post. May God bless you all.

Happy New Year.

Don't Give Up!

The prayer that sparks revival begins long before the countryside seems to awaken from its slumber in sin. It starts when men fall on their knees and cry out to God. That's where true intimacy with God takes place and we begin the journey of being transformed into the image of Christ. And as men are transformed, the course of a nation can be changed.

— Wellington Boone, pastor, speaker and author

Prepare To Be Rocked...

I just read this in a post and it blew me away.

“Don’t you ever stop, and don’t you ever let anyone stop you. I let a church full of lazy Christians steal my passion away from me. They did not want to change, they wouldn’t reach out to anyone, and they did not care about people dying without Jesus. All they cared about was making church easy and convenient. I let them scare me into doing what they wanted. And I slowly died. I would give anything to be your age again, Clayton. I would do it differently and I would obey God no matter what people said. Trust me son, you don’t want to end up like me, dying in hospital with regrets hanging over your head. Once you let anybody other than Jesus tell you what to do, you begin to die.”

I'm not going to explain all of the quote or the background. You will be far better off if you click HERE and read the entire post. I know this isn't what we want, so we have to break through our fears and touch our community if we want to have a reason to exist.

Quote Of The Day

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes. "
~ Charles R. Swindoll

Attitude

Attitudes:

Tonight Bruce was praying for our attitudes and something that he said spurred this thought:

Good, bad, or indifferent, our attitudes are a direct reflection of our faith and belief in, and knowledge and understanding of God's claims about Himself.

Time and time again - in the Scriptures, in my own life, and in the lives of others around me - I see the evidence to support this claim. The degree to which we understand God's claims about who He is and the degree to which we BELIEVE those claims is constantly played out in our attitudes. In fact, our attitudes become a billboard on which the world can see how well we know (and trust) God. Sadly, all too often our "billboards" are advertising something that the world around us just doesn't want. If John Piper is right in saying, "God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him" then how much glory is God receiving from our lives?

Although several scriptural examples come to mind, the story of the Israelite spies' report of the promised land provides both good and poor examples of attitudes in action. The account can be found in Numbers 13:25-33 and Numbers 14:1-12 The text quoted below comes from the New Living Translation.

After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land. This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.”

As the leaders of the tribes who had gone to spy out the land returned they brought back tremendous reports of the goodness of the land. They even brought back a bunch of grapes that was so big that it had to be carried on a pole between them! They began their report by acknowledging that the land was every bit as good as God had told them that it was. So far so good, right?

Yet on the heels of the acknowledgment that God had been truthful about the goodness of the land was a BUT. Had the spies left the "BUT" out they would have been fine as they described the strength of the inhabitants of the land. Their attitude showed right away that they didn't believe that God would keep His promise to them.

Now enter a good example. Caleb was one of the twelve sent out to survey the land. As the other spies began to horrify the people with tales of fortified cities and even GIANTS, Caleb tried to calm the people, "Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!” Caleb's attitude demonstrated his FAITH that God would do as He had promised and deliver the inhabitants of the land into their hands.

As Caleb's words began to calm the crowd, the fear of the ten other spies rose, and they persisted in their declaration that the war was a lost cause before it even began.

But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”

Their words were the last straw and the unbelief of the congregation was revealed through their response.

Then the whole community began weeping aloud, and they cried all night. Their voices rose in a great chorus of protest against Moses and Aaron. “If only we had died in Egypt, or even here in the wilderness!” they complained. “Why is the Lord taking us to this country only to have us die in battle? Our wives and our little ones will be carried off as plunder! Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?” Then they plotted among themselves, “Let’s choose a new leader and go back to Egypt!”

First it began with grumbling against Moses and Aaron and they let themselves get so carried away that they even accused God of plotting their destruction.

These are the same people that had seen the ten plagues that God brought against the Egyptians, resulting in their freedom. They were the ones who had walked on dry land through the midst of the Red Sea and had witnessed the destruction of one of the mightiest armies in the world at God's hand - they hadn't lifted a finger in the battle. These people had eaten manna every day and they had quail without hunting for it. Their flocks and herds were fed and watered as they passed through the wilderness by God, and yet they accused God of wrongdoing.

I hate to admit that I too have committed this great sin. I have allowed myself to accuse God of not loving me and not caring for me in the midst of a great trial - and I used the very air that He gave me to breathe to do it with. My attitude was reflective of how little I knew and trusted my God.

Moses and Aaron knew it was time to duck. They fell on their faces before the Lord as one last effort was made to curb the bad attitude of the congregation of Israel.

Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, tore their clothing. They said to all the people of Israel, “The land we traveled through and explored is a wonderful land! And if the Lord is pleased with us, he will bring us safely into that land and give it to us. It is a rich land flowing with milk and honey. Do not rebel against the Lord, and don’t be afraid of the people of the land. They are only helpless prey to us! They have no protection, but the Lord is with us! Don’t be afraid of them!”

But the people would not be restrained. Instead, they became even more irrational. They were hysterical, acting as if the armies of the promised land were encircling the camp, when in reality there is no evidence that they were even aware of or concerned about any pending Israeli invasion.

But the whole community began to talk about stoning Joshua and Caleb. Then the glorious presence of the Lord appeared to all the Israelites at the Tabernacle. And the Lord said to Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt? Will they never believe me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them?

Why was God angry? Because they had treated Him with contempt and refused to believe someone who could not lie after all that He had done for them. The end result? Everyone over 20 years old died over the next 40 years in the desert except for two people - Joshua and Caleb. Why? Because they believed that God would do what He said and their attitudes demonstrated this belief. God said of Caleb, "But my servant Caleb has a different attitude than the others have. He has remained loyal to me, so I will bring him into the land he explored. His descendants will possess their full share of that land." Numbers 14:24 NLT

Now, if you aren't reading closely, you might think that I am advocating a sunny disposition in the face of all of life's trials. That isn't my point. My point is that our attitude is a REFLECTION of our belief in God's goodness and His care for us. As I have endured the trial of the past year, I have gone through stages very much like the children of Israel. There have been moments, as I confessed earlier, that I have accused God of wrongdoing. Thank God that He is patient with us and understands why we do things better than we do ourselves.

It is evident from the scripture that good things follow those whose attitude reflects a firm belief in God's goodness and His care for them. Just consider Job, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, Daniel, and Paul and Silas. All saw glorious deliverances on their behalf because their faith was reflected in their attitude, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY they saw the people around them influenced to believe in the Lord God as a result of their rewarded confidence. You see, their attitudes were powerful tools in the hands of God to bring people and glory to Himself. However, if we seek the attitude as a means to the faith we will encounter futility as certainly as a dog sledder who tries to hitch the team behind the sled and coax them to push.

Their attitudes were the direct result of what they had learned about God through the Scriptures, and, perhaps just as importantly, by their experience and remembrance that He had always been faithful to keep His covenants and promises.

How can we attain to this knowledge of God, this godly confidence, this faith and belief? Ephesians 4:21-24 exhorts us:

Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. Ephesians 4:21-24 NLT

Another thing that has helped me during this period of trial in my life has been to acknowledge the wonderful ways that I have seen God move on my behalf. I have majored on not focusing on the worries of tomorrow - there have been plenty of worries for each day! As I have done this, I have been less blinded to the many provisions that God has made for me, and I have begun to trust Him even when I have no idea from where the next provision will appear. The confidence that I have is this: "God is good and His lovingkindness is everlasting."

What better season than Thanksgiving to ponder the many blessings that God has poured out upon us - the many provisions that He has made on our behalf? When we focus on the promises already fulfilled, we can patiently endure while we wait for the promises that have not yet been fulfilled. GOD IS FAITHFUL!!! GOD LOVES ME!!! GOD LOVES YOU!!! HIS PLANS FOR YOU ARE FOR GOOD AND NOT FOR CALAMITY TO GIVE YOU A FUTURE AND A HOPE! It is hard to have a bad attitude when you meditate on all that.

Go get to know God. Spend time with Him. Consider all of the things He has done for you. As you do, you will find that your belief is growing deeper and deeper and your confidence will not be so easily shaken in the next storm.

For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. If you serve Christ with this attitude, you will please God, and others will approve of you, too. So then, let us aim for harmony in the church and try to build each other up. Romans 14:17-19 NLT

Honoring Those Who Served

The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their Nation.
— George Washington








Let us solemnly remember the sacrifices of all those who fought so valiantly, on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores, to preserve our heritage of freedom, and let us re-consecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.
— Dwight D. Eisenhower





“We must not forget the past. We must not forget those who sacrificed, but we must also remember the reason for their sacrifice. They died so tyranny would die. They died to create a better world for those of us who followed them. Their sacrifice was not in vain.”
— Secretary of State Colin Powell as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, observing the 50th Anniversary of Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1991.



"Throughout our history, America has been protected by patriots who cherished liberty and made great sacrifices to advance the cause of freedom. The brave members of the United States Armed Forces have answered the call to serve our Nation, ready to give all for their country. On Veterans Day, we honor these extraordinary Americans for their service and sacrifice, and we pay tribute to the legacy of freedom and peace that they have given our great Nation.

In times of war and of peace, our men and women in uniform stepped forward to defend their fellow citizens and the country they love. They shouldered great responsibility and lived up to the highest standards of duty and honor. Our veterans held fast against determined and ruthless enemies and helped save the world from tyranny and terror. They ensured that America remained what our founders meant her to be: a light to the nations, spreading the good news of human freedom to the darkest corners of the earth.

Like the heroes before them, today a new generation of men and women are fighting for freedom around the globe. Their determination, courage, and sacrifice are laying the foundation for a more secure and peaceful world.

Veterans Day is dedicated to the extraordinary Americans who protected our freedom in years past, and to those who protect it today. They represent the very best of our Nation. Every Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine, and Coast Guardsman has earned the lasting gratitude of the American people, and their service and sacrifice will be remembered forever."

- President George W. Bush

Thank you veterans for the sacrifices that you have made to allow us to live in so great a land. God bless you.