Church Of God

05/18/2025

09/01/2024

A Pastor's Thoughts For Sunday...
What will you choose to worship today? Will you worship your Creator or your possessions? Will you worship your Savior, Jesus Christ, or will you bow down before the false gods of pride and avarice? Will you seek the approval of your God or the approval of your neighbors?

All of mankind is engaged in the practice of worship. Some people choose to worship God, and, as a result, reap the joy that He intends for His children. Others distance themselves from God by worshiping such things as earthly possessions or personal gratification. And when they do, they suffer.

Every day provides opportunities to put God where He belongs: at the center of your life. Worship Him - and only Him - today, tomorrow, and always. Have a safe and wonderful Sunday my friends. JF

08/31/2024

Habits can make you, or they can break you. The one habit of a highly effective Christian is the habit of worship. Now worship is more than a habit, but it should be a habit. It should be a holy habit. It should be a hallowed habit. It will be a healthy habit. Just as God made a bird to fly, and a fish to swim, God has made us to worship.

But I am convinced as I have studied the subject and turned it over in my mind, that many people, if not most people, really do not go to church to worship. A. W. Tozer once said, "Worship is the missing jewel of the evangelical church."

Brothers and Sisters, our first obligation as a Christian, above all else, is to worship God. The first obligation of our church is to worship God. We should arise each day with a burning hearts desire to exalt the Lord in Spirit-filled worship, no matter what the day holds. Nothing will change your life like truly worshipping the Lord. Let's take time today to worship Him. We would also like to invite you to join us at Bluebank Church tomorrow morning for worship at 11:00 a.m. No matter what else we do today...Let's Worship our Lord and God!
Hallelujah!!! JF

08/31/2024

A Pastor's Thoughts For Saturday...
"Waiting on the Lord" means God is at work, but He works on His timetable and feels no obligation to coincide His timetable with yours or mine. We may say, "God, would you please resolve this?" And He says, "Yes." "Would you please resolve this now?" And He says, "Wait." And we don't like to wait. Part of the problem is how we define waiting. Biblical waiting is not passive activity; it is not sitting around, twiddling our thumbs. No, instead, waiting is active - it is like walking in step with God as He invites us to journey with Him in the unfolding of His plans.

In the waiting, we learn; in the waiting, we grow. Waiting is what happens between the promise and the fulfillment. Waiting builds our faith. Waiting reminds us that God does not live on our schedule; we live on His. And if we learn to wait, we will see God do some great things. Waiting is what God sometimes uses to help us see His will more clearly, to embrace it more joyfully when it is made completely clear. Just because we can't see God at work doesn't mean He isn't at work. The Psalmist has it right: "Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him" (Psalm 37:7). In waiting we learn to build our trust in God. My friend, be patient and "Wait on the Lord," He is working and doing great things for you! Hallelujah!!! JF

08/27/2024

A Pastor's Thoughts For Tuesday..
There was a nature show about a mama black bear that had given birth to two cubs. One cub died right away. Three weeks later the mother died. The remaining cub was left to fend for itself. An orphaned cub in that condition is like a walking buffet for predators. And of course the camera immediately showed a hungry-looking mountain lion.

One day the orphan cub encountered a giant male black bear. The little cub cowered at the older bear’s sheer mass. The larger bear peered around and seemed to realize that the mother bear wasn’t anywhere to be found. He gave the little cub a friendly nudge. The camera then showed the little bear happily trailing along after the larger one. The adoption papers were signed, sealed and registered at the county seat in that nudge. The camera followed along as Papa bear proceeded to show the cub how to grub for insects and how to catch fish and how to scratch his back against a tree.

One day the two bears became separated. The cub began to cry and looked frantically for his new father, but couldn’t find him anywhere. The cub approached a stream where he’d learned to fish and something caught his attention. He looked up to see a mountain lion ready to pounce. That same mountain lion had stalked the cub for the entire show. There was no way that mountain lion would’ve gone for that cub with Papa bear around, but now . . .

The camera zoomed in on the cub. He automatically mimicked the posture of his adopted father when threatened. He stood on his hind legs and bared his teeth. Then, in exactly the same way his new father would have done, this cub let loose a mighty growl that should have reverberated throughout the forest. But, only a tiny bear cub squeak came out.

Well, you knew what was coming. This is the end for the little bear cub. But then an amazing reversal takes place. The mountain lion suddenly lowered his head and ran off in the opposite direction.

The camera panned back to the proud little cub still standing tall on his hind legs. And then all the viewers saw what that little cub could not: a few yards behind him, at full, ferocious height, his sharp, white teeth bared in a snarl, stood Daddy bear. He may not have made a sound, but he was there.

Even though the cub couldn’t see his father, his father stood guard, protecting him. The little cub had power available greater than anything he could produce on his own. His father was watching over him.

Friend, your Heavenly Father is watching over you. Regardless of what fear you are facing this day a scary medical prognosis, an offspring who is going down the wrong path, the daily anxieties of aging, the loss of a job or whatever it might be turn it over to God. Let your prayer be, “Daddy, I’m afraid, but I know you are with me.”

08/27/2024

Dr. Ralph Sockman, long-time pastor of Christ Church in New York City, pictured a great battleship afloat on the high seas. He then pointed out that if you took it apart and threw it into the ocean - its plates of armour, its guns, its engines, its anchor chains - very little of it would float. It would sink immediately to the bottom. The parts will not float by themselves, but build them together into a great ship, and with majesty it will ride out the worst storms that the raging ocean can hurl upon it.

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). No! Not everything that happens in life is good, (much of it is very bad). But when you add all the happenings of life together and look at the whole of life, for the person who has faith in God, for the person who loves God and shares the love of God, that life is good. The whole of life, its ups and downs, are good when we see them interrelated in a life under the guidance of God.

Who would say that the life of Paul (with all its imprisonment, shipwreck, beatings and final ex*****on) was not good, very good? Who would say that the life of Jesus, even with the denial and the cross, was not good? Then why should not the totality of my life, with its joys and sorrows, its victories and defeats, also in its completion be good, very good. Loving God, trusting God, obeying God brings magnificence even to my little life. Hallelujah!!! JF

08/27/2024

A Pastor's Thoughts For Monday...
Christ has said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." In essence, He says, when you look up to Me, you look into the very heart of God. When we move away from that focus, only the anxiety and depression of life prevails.

A television commercial for hamburgers exhorts us in song, "Have it your way, have it your way." This may be fine for hamburgers, with or without pickles and onions. In terms of life, there is no victory if we stubbornly refuse to look up, and desire life only on the terms of "our way." We ought to realize by this time where our way leads. It leads to the garbage dumps of depression and fear, and the cesspools of sin and alienation from the Father. The Cross and Empty Tomb are the symbols of faith’s victory over "our way."

Lift up your eyes to Christ! Here is the victor! In Him alone we find the victory that overcomes the world, and our personal world, too. Yes, you can have it your way, but it is a dead end street and an empty bag. Christ’s way is the only way. Why? Because he reveals to us the will and heart of our Father who desires for us only His good. Depression and human fears are of our own making. Looking up, it is Christ who pulls us out, giving us the abundant and eternal life. Hallelujah!!! JF

08/25/2024

A Pastor's Thoughts For Sunday...
God knows that the journey of life is not always easy. His Word is full of stories and laments of people who suffered pain and sorrow. Psalm 55 speaks honestly about the challenges of life. How often must we also deal with struggles? How often do we feel powerless when faced with situations that seem to have no happy result? How often do we wish to turn to someone who can help us in a situation that seems impossible to resolve? Or, as verse 6 implies, how often do we just want to fly away?

The psalms speak to all the emotions of the believer’s heart. These are not always happy emotions: people who follow Christ still feel the pressures of life in this world. In fact, the psalms help us honestly express our faith. We can pray the psalms, recite the psalms, and sing the psalms. We can cry out to God, using their words. They offer a voice of praise, but also of lament. The Bible, God’s Word to us, is versatile for any occasion.

As pilgrims, we will experience both highs and lows in our lives. The psalms can give us the vocabulary necessary to speak to God in every situation. Our heavenly Father wants to hear from us always, even at our worst. He’s big enough to hear anything we have to say. Have you “cast your cares on the LORD” today? He will sustain you. JF

"And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest" (Psalm 55:6).

08/25/2024

We will all have some type of crisis in our lives. Times when we feel there is neither hope nor anywhere to turn for relief. Many of us feel that we are living in a perpetual state of crisis and that God himself has turned a deaf ear toward us. This must have been what David was feeling some days. David understood adversity: Chased by Saul, Living in the wilderness, Living with Philistines and an Army wanting to stone him. But David knew how to deal with despair, He encourage himself in God.

In our lives we face an enemy that wants to tear us down and keep us down until we are completely destroyed. He accomplishes this task by stealing things from us. Our Passion, Our Love for Others, Our Thirst for the Word, Our Desire to Worship and the Joy of our Life in Christ. Ultimately he try’s to destroy our faith, and he does this through bringing discouragement into our lives.

God is never taken by surprise by our problems. The God we serve: Is Omnipotent, Is Omniscient, Is never out of control.
Joshua lost in the battle of Ai because he failed to inquire of God. Israel lost the Ark of the Covenant because they had quit seeking God’s will. Nothing is impossible with God. Encourage yourself in God’s will. When God bolts the door, don’t try to get in through the window. The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you. JF

08/24/2024

A Pastor's Thoughts For Saturday...
ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD. ALL the time! ALL the time! Do you believe that? Oh, that God is good sometimes, I guess all of us would buy into that, but what is this ALL the time? Psalm 100:5 beautifully states: “For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations."

When the storms of life are raging, His steadfast love endures forever. When all that is nailed down seems to be coming loose, His steadfast love endures forever. When bombs are bursting in the air, His steadfast love endures forever. When you walk through the valleys of shadows of death and you wonder how you can carry on, His steadfast love endures forever.

It seems to me that most of the really grateful people that I know are not the people who have had it made. The really grateful people are the ones who have walked through the valleys of the shadows and the pain of life. They are the people who have touched bottom and discovered the bottom is sound and because it is sound they have a reason to give thanks. They have found the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever. JF
Hallelujah!!!

08/24/2024

On a day like today, I just want to serve the Lord with gladness. I just want to come into His presence with singing. I just want to remember that I belong to God and that is all that really matters. I just want to say with all the praise and worship within me: “Thank you Jesus. You have been a bridge over troubled water; You have been a rock in a weary land; You have been a shelter in the time of storm. Thank you Jesus! I love you with everything in me!!!" JF Hallelujah!!!

08/23/2024

A Pastor's Thoughts For Friday...
You can't preach repentance without the hope of forgiveness. And you can't have the hope of forgiveness without understanding, at least in some small part, the grace of God which offers that forgiveness. And you can't repent and accept the forgiveness and grace of God without acknowledging that that there is something wrong that needs to be forgiven, something broken that needs to be healed.

In 1st Timothy 1:15 Paul writes: "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." And in Romans 5:8 he wrote: " But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

Brothers and Sisters, we have the reminder of the cost of our sinfulness, the bread and the wine of communion, symbols of the body and blood of Jesus' sacrifice for our sakes. But that's not all, for in this simple bread and wine we also find the cure for that sinfulness, the cure for our brokenness. We find healing, forgiveness, wholeness and strength. All through the amazing Grace of God. Hallelujah!!! JF