10 Minutes with God, Monday, January 4, 2010

Psalm 119:17-18
Do good to your servant, and I will live; I will obey your word. Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.

Spend a few moments in prayer; ask the Lord to quiet your heart and mind that you may know his presence and hear his voice.


Philippians 3:12-14
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Paul here describes his relationship with Christ as a dynamic process – a kind of intentional journey.
Take some time to think about your own spiritual journey.
Were you raised in a Christian home? Were you exposed to the truth of Christ early in life – or did you meet him later on?
Who were the influential people in your journey toward Jesus?
When and how did Christ “take hold” of you?
Was there a decisive moment when you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior – or was your experience of salvation more of a “process?”
Can you define 1 or 2 spiritual turning points in your life?

Take a few minutes to write out an outline of your faith journey. After doing so - close you time with God by thanking him for the people and experiences he has provided you along the way. Ask him to give you an opportunity to share your story with someone who needs encouragement in their journey.

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Don't Settle for Mud Pies

In his sermon last weekend at the West Campus, Ken Lippold (Director of Equipping Ministries at FBCG) took a page from Pastor Jeff’s book by quoting C.S. Lewis:

"Our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak. We are half hearted creatures fooling around with drink ... and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday by the sea. We are far too easily pleased." (The Weight of Glory)


How true! How often do we find ourselves focused on and settling for far less than the joy, peace, contentment, and pleasure that God wants to give us? How often do we settle for the "mud pies" that our culture tries to force-feed us – instead of refusing to accept anything less than the "holiday by the sea" that is the promise and purpose of Christ?

We want to start off the New Year with a spiritual challenge for the entire FBCG family! This weekend Jeff and I will begin a 9 week series entitled, TAKING HOLD: Knowing and following Jesus. Each week we will focus on one dimension of spiritual growth that is absolutely essential to our maturity as followers of Jesus. Each week will be accompanied by a spiritual challenge – an action, a decision, a discipline – that we believe God can and will use in your life – in our church – for his purposes.

A Daily Devotional called 10 Minutes with God will be posted on this blog each day during the series.

It occurs to me that the coming of a New Year can mean either doing the same old things and living the same old life for another year on the calendar – or – committing to doing some NEW things and living a NEW kind of life. I think if God were making the choice for us – he would most likely choose the NEW over the old – don’t you?

Make this the year of TAKING HOLD of all God wants for you! Join us this weekend as we begin 2010 at FBCG.

10 Minutes with God: Connecting Sunday to your week

We have created a devotional guide as a companion to the “Taking Hold” sermon series in order to help you build the practices of prayer and scripture study into your daily life.

For the next 8 weeks you will find a daily (Monday through Friday) devotional guide on this blog. We encourage you to establish a consistent time and place for your “10 minutes with God” – and to keep your Bible and a small notebook (journal) close at hand.

Thanks for joining us in the adventure of “10 minutes with God!”

A Christmas Tradition

Most families have a number of Christmas traditions that they look forward to repeating year after year. Maybe you light Advent candles, bake cookies together, or watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” every year. Traditions are a big part of how we celebrate the story of Christ’s birth. And the same is true for our church family!

One of our fun church family traditions is gathering to worship on Christmas Eve. This year we have four services scheduled:

3:00 p.m. West (child care)

4:00 p.m. East (child care)

5:00 p.m. West (child care)

6:00 p.m. East (no child care provided)

We will sing carols, listen to the children’s bell choir (at the 3:00, 4:00 and 5:00 pm services), read the timeless story of God entering this world as a baby, and we will worship our newborn King. But there is another unique tradition that I want you to be prepared for – and that is our special Christmas Eve offering. Every year we give a generous gift somewhere outside the walls of FBCG – and usually to a project that involves children.

This year our gift will go to Kenya Children’s Fund – an organization that provides Christian education, nutrition and health care to some of the poorest children in Africa. Among the children served are the Kuan children – 13 children from the same family who are refugees from the war in Sudan. FBCG has had a significant ministry to this family over the last few years – and we hope that by our gift this Christmas we can help make sure the children are cared for in the coming years.

Thank you for being part of the FBCG family tradition - and may the love and joy of Christ fill your home and your hearts this Christmas!

A Giving Spirit

When I checked my voice mail messages this past Monday I had a message from an FBCG member who said he had a “question about Prepare the Way.” I have to admit I wondered if the question might be critical because I know that sometimes talking about money makes people uncomfortable. When I returned the call, the man explained his question to me. “I have some money,” he said, “and I want to know if you want me to give it all now, or if you would rather I save some in case there is a building campaign next year?” I love calls like that!

He didn’t ask me to explain Prepare the Way to him. He didn’t need me to convince him why he should consider participating in our initiative to reduce our debt. He had already decided in his heart that the money in his possession did not belong to him – so he was ready to give it back to the Lord. He just needed to know when and how (I ended up telling him that giving half now and half later would be just great!)" That’s what I would call a “giving spirit.”

The Bible teaches that generosity does not begin with money; that is, our giving does not depend on how much we have. The Gospel of Luke tells the story of Jesus watching a poor widow who gave the equivalent of a couple of pennies to God while the affluent were making a show of their large donations. Of this woman Jesus said, “…this poor widow has given more than all the rest.” What Jesus meant, of course, was that generosity is a condition and decision of the heart before it is anything else.

At Christmas time we think a lot about giving. We spend a great deal of time, energy and money in order to give gifts to those we love. And that is good. But I want to encourage you to expand your giving this Christmas season to include the One who loved you first! The man who called my office did so not so much because his bank account was full – but because his heart was full.

Our giving always reflects the condition of our hearts; which is another way of saying we give to that which we love – just like God.

“For God so loved the world that he gave….” – John 3:16

Celebrating the wonder of God’s love,

Pastor Brian

Prepare the Way...with Thanksgiving!

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
Colossians 2:6-7

With the red and green lights already sprouting up around my neighborhood, it’s easy to tell that Christmas is coming! And while I look forward with anticipation to the “most wonderful time of the year” – I also suspect that Thanksgiving is the perfect preparation for our celebration of Christ’s birth. While Christmas can at times get all tangled up with our consumer-driven culture – Thanksgiving seems to resist commercialization and remains a profoundly spiritual exercise. It is the giving of thanks that reminds us of the goodness of God and the blessings he has poured out on our lives. It is the giving of thanks that reminds us of God’s love and presence made flesh through the love and presence of family and friends. It is thanksgiving that prepares us for the celebration of Christmas!

And I believe it is the giving of thanks that will propel us as a church family to Prepare the Way for God’s future in our church! Week after week I hear stories of people and families whose lives are in the process of being transformed by the power of Christ. Week after week I see people investing their time, talent and treasure in serving the world in the name of Jesus and I am so proud – and thankful - to be part of FBCG!

As you know, Prepare the Way is an initiative to reduce or eliminate FBCG’s debt between now and the end of February, 2010. While I am absolutely convinced this is the right thing for us to do as a church family and that through our collective generosity God can do far more than we can imagine – I am equally convinced that our motive must be thanksgiving. We can give out of duty or obligation or guilt – but the greatest joy comes when we give out of love and thanksgiving!

As you consider your part in Prepare the Way I encourage you to do two things:

• Remember that Prepare the Way is a challenge to give above and beyond your normal giving


• Make your gift(s) to Prepare the Way an expression of your thanksgiving to God for all he has already given to you

May you enjoy the joy and peace of Christ as you gather with family and friends this Thursday, and may your hearts be prepared for the celebration of the Advent season!

Thanks for being part of the FBCG family!

Prepare the Way

We believe that FBCG is called to REACH the people and families of our local community, CONNECT them to the church and each other, and EQUIP them to SERVE the world in the name of Christ.

We also believe that God has not only blessed FBCG with facilities, staff, programs and over 1000 families that call FBCG home - but that he has given us a vision to reach, connect, equip and serve our community and our world as never before!

We also believe that if our vision to see more people and families reached, connected and equipped to serve is to become a reality - we must first Prepare the Way.

Prepare the Way is an initiative to reduce or eliminate FBCG's debt in order to pursue our vision for ministry. While the amount of debt we currently carry (see Questions) is certainly reasonable, we do believe it is wise stewardship to reduce our debt in order to Prepare the Way for both ministry and facility development.

Prepare the Way is an opportunity – between now and the end of February, 2010 for us as a church family to invest in the future of God’s vision for us as a church. We would like to invite everyone who calls FBCG home to consider giving above and beyond to share in this opportunity. We believe that God can and will use our collective generosity to Prepare the Way for greater things for FBCG!

Prepare the Way is a simple and straightforward challenge. We are going to reduce our debt, period. It’s the right thing to do and we believe this is the right time. You won’t be asked to make a pledge—but you will be invited into an exciting challenge. Every dollar given toward Prepare the Way will go to debt reduction – toward preparing the way for God’s future!

To participate in Prepare the Way, simply write “PTW” on your giving envelope or on the memo line of your check. For information about giving electronically or contributing capital assets (e.g. stocks) please visit Other Ways to Give