Chrisman Christian Church

10/29/2026

Good Thursday CCC family & friends!~

We are preparing for a good Sunday and Celebration for Ruby Neil!
Happy Birthday Eve to Trisha Brinkley!
THOUGHT FROM TROY- CHASE IT DOWN!
From Psalm 37:5-6 "Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.”

We have a Part Black Lab/German Shepherd. He is beautiful, sweet, and has absolutely no sense at all. We put a fence up to keep him in. There has been an occasion or two we he has got loose and ran off. And I mean ran. I mean gone.
Down the alley to bark at Bobbie Jo's Alaskan Huskeys and then he bolted across the street without looking, dodged a car, cut through an alley and Jennifer and I took off after him.

We chased him for what felt like an hour. It was only 10-15 minutes. And here is the part that got me. When we finally caught up to him, He did not run away from me. He turned around and jumped into my truck. He was not running from us. He was just running. And the whole time, we were the ones doing the pursuing. We were the ones who refused to quit.

We have been committed to that dog. And he is committed to us. He barks at everyone other than family that walks by and sometimes even family. My Mom is scared of him, so I put him up when she comes. Commitment is not a feeling. It is a chase. It is the decision to keep running when every logical part of your brain says to give up and go home. It is the refusal to let go of something valuable just because the pursuit got hard. And here is the thing most people miss. The chase is where the commitment proves itself. Anyone can commit when it is easy. Real commitment shows up when the thing you are chasing has bolted across the street and you have to decide whether you are going after it or not.

David writes, "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun." That word “commit” carries weight. It literally means to roll something onto someone else. It is the picture of taking the full burden of your plans, your future, your direction, and rolling it onto God’s shoulders. But it is not passive. Committing your way to God does not mean sitting on the couch and waiting for him to do everything. It means choosing a direction, pursuing it with everything you have, and trusting that he will establish the outcome.

We live in a culture that celebrates the start. We throw parties for the launch. We take photos of the first day. We announce the new venture, the new goal, the new commitment with fanfare and applause. But nobody throws a party for day four hundred and twelve. Nobody posts about the Tuesday morning when you showed up again even though nobody noticed. The middle of the chase is where most people quit. They do not quit because the goal stopped mattering. They quit because the pursuit stopped being exciting.

The difficulty felt like a signal to stop. But difficulty is not a stop sign. It is a mile marker. It tells you how far you have come, not that you should turn around.

I love what David says next. "He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn." Dawn does not arrive all at once. You do not go from pitch black to broad daylight in a single moment. Dawn is gradual. It is a slow brightening that starts so subtly you almost miss it. But it builds. And it keeps building until the whole sky is lit. That is how God works in the life of someone who commits and does not quit. The reward does not usually arrive in a flash. It arrives like a sunrise. Slowly, steadily, unmistakably.

I think about farmers especially in this time of the year . A farmer does not plant seeds on Monday and harvest on Tuesday. There are weeks and months of watering, weeding, waiting. The ground looks the same for so long that you start to wonder if anything is happening at all. But underneath the soil, in the dark where you cannot see, the roots are pushing deeper. The seed is splitting open. Life is forming. And one morning you walk out and there is a green shoot breaking through the dirt. Not because it happened overnight. Because it was happening all along.

That is what commitment looks like in real life. It is showing up to water ground that looks barren. It is pulling weeds in a garden that has not produced anything visible yet. It is trusting that the God who told you to plant knows exactly when the harvest will come.

We found Nash that day. He jumped into my truck and licked my face like nothing had happened. And I realized something. The pursuit was never a waste. The running, the yelling, the dodging traffic, all of it was worth it because what we were chasing was worth the effort. Whatever God has called you to commit to, it is worth the chase. Do not quit on day four hundred and twelve. Do not let the difficulty convince you that you heard God wrong. Commit your way to him. Roll it onto his shoulders. And keep running. The dawn is coming.
Have a great day and I will look forward to seeing you on Sunday.
Love Pastor Troy

10/28/2026

Good Wednesday CCC family & friends!~
Happy Birthday to Joe David!!!
JAM meets this afternoon after school!
Our Celebration of Life Service for Ruby Neil will be Sunday, November 1st Visitation at 2 pm until service time which is 3 pm. A dinner to follow in the gym!

THOUGHTS FROM TROY- THE STRING
Psalm 119:45 "I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts."

Picture a kite. Not in the air. On the ground. Lying on the grass in your backyard, flat and lifeless. Beautiful design. Bright colors. Tail rippling a little in the breeze. But it is going nowhere because it is not connected to anything. Now pick it up, attach it to a string, and run. The wind catches it. It climbs. It soars. It catches altitude and hangs there in a way that almost looks effortless.

Here is the part that does not make sense. The string is what holds the kite down. But the string is also what lets the kite fly. Cut the string and the kite does not go higher. It crashes. Every single time. Without the tension of the string, the kite has no stability, no direction, and no lift. The very thing that looks like a restriction is the thing that gives it freedom.

We live in a world that defines freedom as the absence of restriction. Freedom means no boundaries. Freedom means no rules. Freedom means doing whatever you want, whenever you want, with whoever you want. And anyone who places a boundary around your behavior is trying to hold you down.

But the psalmist says something completely different. "I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts." Read that again slowly. Freedom comes from seeking out God’s precepts. Not from avoiding them. Not from rebelling against them. From seeking them out. On purpose. Intentionally. The psalmist went looking for the boundaries and found freedom on the other side.

Think about this. A river without banks is a flood. A fire without a fireplace is an arson. A car without brakes is a weapon. In every other area of life we understand that boundaries are what make something useful, beautiful, and safe. But when it comes to God’s commands, we suddenly decide that boundaries are the enemy. We want the river without the banks. And then we wonder why our lives look like a flood.

Here is the deal. God’s boundaries are not punitive. They are protective. He is not sitting in heaven trying to limit your potential. He is the one who designed your potential, and he knows exactly what conditions are needed for you to reach it. A kite designer does not put a string attachment on the kite because he wants to hold it down. He puts it there because he knows the kite cannot fly without it. The string is not the enemy of the flight. The string is the instrument of the flight.

True freedom is becoming who you were designed to be. And you cannot become who you were designed to be while cutting the string that connects you to your Designer.

The psalmist did not stumble into freedom accidentally. He sought out God’s precepts. He went looking for the boundaries on purpose. He studied them, wrestled with them, applied them, and then he walked about in freedom. Not freedom from God’s Word. Freedom because of God’s Word. There is a massive difference between the two, and most people never discover it because they will not pick up the string.

I talk to people all the time who tell me they feel stuck. Directionless. Floating. And almost every time, when I dig a little deeper, I find the same thing. They cut the string somewhere. They dismissed a boundary God had placed in their lives because it felt inconvenient or outdated, and now they are wondering why they cannot get off the ground. The kite is lying in the grass and they are blaming the wind. But the wind was never the problem. The disconnection was.

So look at your life today. Where have you been cutting the string? Where have you dismissed a boundary because it felt restrictive, only to find yourself lying flat instead of flying? God’s commands are not chains. They are the string on the kite. And when you attach yourself to them, when you seek them out and hold on, you do not lose your freedom. You find it. For the first time.
Happy Wednesday all- Love Pastor Troy

10/27/2026

Good Tuesday CCC family & friends of the Christians in Chrisman!

I was with Miss Ruby yesterday. Playing Songs that she liked and just spending time with the one who taught me about Jesus. Cathy gave me permission to share that Ruby's prayer was answered this morning at 4:40 a.m. and that she went in her sleep to see Jesus. She didn't want to live to see the loss of sight and it got dark on Friday and then she became unresponsive.The last time I talked to her was Friday afternoon. She shared that she loved her church and missed being here terribly but that she was now ready to be with the Lord. THOUGHT FROM TROY- CHECK YOUR TIRES- Proverbs 4: 26-27 "Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.”

Jennifer texted me one day that she had the tire light on. We had just bought this new explorer and there was a little symbol on the dashboard, an exclamation point glowing orange. One of her tires was low, or the pressure was uneven, or something in the system was off. But I told her to get it checked. She drove it to the shop. Turned out one tire was significantly low. Not flat. Not visibly deflated. You could look right at it and think everything was fine. But the sensor knew the truth. The pressure was dropping, and if she had kept driving without addressing it, she would have been staring at a blowout on the highway.

That warning light never went away even when we bought new tires. It has stayed with me because I see the same thing in people’s lives constantly. The dashboard is flashing. The warning light is on. Something in their life is losing pressure, slowly, invisibly, and they keep driving. They look at the surface and say, "Everything seems fine." But the sensor knows the truth. And God, the one who designed the sensor, is trying to get their attention.

Solomon writes, "Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways." That phrase "give careful thought" is where most of us miss it. Solomon is not saying glance at your path occasionally. He is saying examine it. Study it. Pay attention. Check the dashboard. Most of us go through our days on autopilot, never stopping to ask whether we are still heading where God directed us to go. We assume the tires are fine because we have not hit anything yet. But low pressure does not announce itself with a collision. It announces itself with a slow drift.

Think about what a slow drift looks like. It is not a sudden turn off a cliff. It is a two-degree deviation that you do not notice for months. Your prayer life does not disappear overnight. It fades one skipped morning at a time. Your integrity does not collapse in a single choice. It erodes through a hundred small compromises that nobody else notices. Your relationship with God does not blow out like a tire on the highway. It loses pressure quietly, steadily, until one day you realize you are running on the rim and you cannot remember when the air started leaking.

I have talked to people who were miles off course and had no idea when the drifting started. They could not point to a moment. They could not name a decision. It just happened. But it did not just happen. It happened because the warning light came on and they ignored it. God sent a nudge through a sermon, through a friend, through a verse that kept showing up at exactly the wrong time, and they looked at the dashboard and said, "I will deal with that later." Later turns into weeks. Weeks turn into months. And months turn into a life that looks nothing like the one God designed.

Here is what I have noticed. Nobody ignores the warning light because they want to crash. They ignore it because addressing it is inconvenient. Pulling over takes time. Getting the tire checked means rearranging the schedule. Admitting something is off means admitting you are not as put together as you pretend to be. So you keep driving. You keep smiling. You keep telling yourself the pressure is probably fine and the light is probably just a glitch.

But Solomon does not leave room for that kind of passivity. "Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil." That is not a suggestion. It is a guardrail. Stay on the path. Do not drift. And when you feel the pull, when the car starts pulling to one side, do not white-knuckle it and hope for the best. Stop the car. Check the tires. Get realigned.

Think about what happens when your car’s alignment is off. You can let go of the steering wheel for three seconds and the whole vehicle veers into the wrong lane. The road did not change. The destination did not change. The alignment changed. And the longer you drive on bad alignment, the more damage you do to the tires, the suspension, and eventually the frame itself. One small misalignment, left unchecked, leads to catastrophic failure.

God built warning lights into your life for a reason. Your conscience is a warning light. Conviction is a warning light. That uneasy feeling when you know you are cutting corners, that is a warning light. The restlessness you feel when you have been running from something God keeps putting in front of you, that is a warning light. They are not there to condemn you. They are there to correct you before the blowout.

Check your tires. Look at the dashboard. If the light is on, do not keep driving and hope for the best. Pull over. Let him show you where the pressure is dropping. Because the God who designed you knows exactly what PSI your life should be running at, and he is not going to stop flashing the light until you pay attention. Miss Ruby never drove but it wasn't because she wasn't smart enough she didn't desire but last Friday she knew the light was missing. What about you something to think about Love Troy

10/25/2026

10/22/2026

Good Thursday CCC family & friends!~
Happy Birthday Ruby Kindred!!!! Grow Team is this morning at 10:30 am
We are geared up and ready for a great Sunday at CCC- This Sunday is our Fall Fellowship at the Hess Shed! Bring a covered dish and come out from 4-7 pm
THOUGHTS FROM TROY- BUILD TO LAST- There is nothing more devastating than a fire that destroys a home or business. Blackened walls, burned down sections, charred remains. A fire devastates everything in it's path, leaving very few things salvageable. I experienced it twice once as a kid, and once at an adult and it is terrible. The Apostle Paul tells us that we are compared to a building that will tried by fire. We have a choice to either build on Christ or on earthly desires. Romans 14:12 says we will give an account for how we built our lives.
1 Corinthians 3:9 "You are God's building." and fire will reveal the foundation of our building. If it is your hearts desire to stand before God one day and present an enduring building, then live your life with eternity in mind today. Read God's Word and Witness to your friends and family. Build things that last. The only one foundation will withstand the test for all time and that is Jesus Christ! Happy Thursday...I look forward to seeing you on Sunday-Love Pastor Troy

10/21/2026

Good Wednesday CCC family & friends!
Thanks to all who showed up to represent CCC at Brotherhood we won the banner!
JAM is today!!!!
THOUGHTS FROM TROY-PLUGGED IN- Every once in awhile our toaster gets unplugged. I don't often make toast but the time I do it's unplugged and I put the bread in and think its toasting and then discover that it is unplugged. Dumb me! Just like a toaster, we need to be plugged into our power source. Jesus is that- he tells us in John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit: for without me you can do nothing." We all have needs, but that is not our responsibility. Our responsibility is to rest in the vines ability to provide. I don't produce fruit. I just bear it. Don't go around without power. Plug into Christ and He will give you all that you need. Happy Wednesday all-Love Pastor Troy

10/20/2026

Good Tuesday CCC family & friends!~
The Foodbank is open for distribution today from 11-7
Brotherhood at Lakeridge Christian Church in Paris at 7 pm Our van will leave the parking lot at 6:10 pm if you want to ride together come to the church.
THOUGHT FROM TROY- HEART HEALTH- Ever since February of 2018 I have heard about HEART HEALTH. I had open heart surgery with a mechanical aorta valve installed. I am sure that heart health was being talked about before then but I didn't pay attention as much as I try to now. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" That is talking about our SPIRITUAL HEART- In a world that wants to believe in goodness and decency of every person, it can be hard to accept that our hearts are wicked. King David knew all about it and you can read his testimony in Psalm 51. We read David's prayer in Psalm 139:23-24 "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxieties; see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." The truth is we cannot discern our hearts true state without the help from God. With each new day, we too should whisper David's prayer, and open our souls for God to search, wash us clean and lead us in His Way. Real change is an inside job that requires us to change our hearts and we can't do that without God's help. Happy Tuesday all-Love Pastor Troy

10/19/2026

Good Monday CCC family & friends!!!
Happy Birthday to Brayden Garver!!!! The Foodbank truck arrives today and distribution begins today at 3-7 pm THOUGHT FROM TROY- GO SLOW!
So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her."

There is a guy in the Bible named Jacob who saw a woman named Rachel and fell hard. The Bible says that the first time they kissed, it was so intense that Jacob started weeping. That is a first kiss for the ages right there.

But here is what makes Jacob’s story remarkable. He did not rush. He served her father, Laban, for seven years to earn the right to marry her. Seven years. And the Bible says something stunning about that stretch of time: “They seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.”

Think about that for a second. Seven years of waiting, and it felt like a few days. That is not the language of a man gritting his teeth and counting down a calendar. That is the language of a man so rooted in the rightness of the relationship that time became secondary. Jacob was not in a hurry because he was not in doubt. He had the patience to go slow because he had the confidence that it was real.

I speak from experience when I say, Go Slow! I did the opposite and it doesn't work out. Whenever someone comes to me and they are excited about a big life decision, whether it is a relationship, a career move, a major purchase, or a ministry direction, one of the first things I tell them is this: Go slow. Go slow and get to know. If it is right at ninety miles an hour, it will still be right at thirty-five. And you will see a lot more of the scenery along the way. This sounds hypocritical coming from me. But trust me when I tell you, it's true. I didn't say I like it or that I haven't made other mistakes and failed the advice myself. But as I get older I am starting to get it. Waiting is not easy and I hate it. I use call ahead seating as much as the other guy.

But speed is what our culture runs on. We want the overnight answer. We want the instant result. We want to skip the seven years of serving and jump straight to the wedding. And that impulse, that desire to accelerate past the process, is where so many of our worst decisions are born. We confuse urgency with importance. We confuse emotion with direction.

Hormones and excitement and fear of missing out can make us think we need to act right now. But those are not reliable guides. They create a fog that hides the road signs God has placed along the way. Jacob did not have that fog because his patience kept the windshield clear. He could see the road because he was not driving too fast to read the signs.

Here is the deal. Patience is not passive. Jacob was not sitting in a recliner for seven years. He was serving. He was working. He was building a life and a reputation and a track record during those years. Patience does not mean you stop moving. It means you stop rushing. It means you let the process do what the process is designed to do, which is reveal truth over time.

Some of you are in the middle of a seven-year season right now. You are waiting for a relationship to become clear. You are waiting for a career to develop. You are waiting for God to open a door that has been closed longer than you expected. And you are tempted to force it. You are tempted to speed up the timeline because the waiting feels unbearable.

But what if the waiting is the point? What if God is using the slow season to build something in you that speed would have bypassed? What if, like Jacob, the seven years are not a delay but a development? What if, when you look back, those years will seem like only a few days because you were exactly where God wanted you to be?

I have watched people uproot and move for an opportunity that looked perfect on paper but crumbled under the reality of daily life. And in almost every case, the person told me afterward, “I should have gone slower. I should have asked more questions. I should have given it more time.” Speed hides what patience reveals. That is not a cliche. That is a law of life.

Go slow. I know it is hard. I know it is countercultural. But every important thing in your life deserves the kind of patience that Jacob gave Rachel. Seven years of serving, and it felt like days. That is what happens when you trust the process and trust the God who designed it. Happy Monday all-Love Troy

10/15/2026

Good Thursday CCC family & friends!~
We are wrapping up things for Sunday and hoping we will have a full house!
Hope you are making plans to be here to Worship the Lord who is worthy of our Praises! THOUGHT FROM TROY- I AM NOT SKILLED TO UNDERSTAND
An old hymn says, "I am not skilled to understand what God hath willed, what God hath planned." Sometimes it is hard to find explanations for our situations;
we either trust the Lord or lose our minds. Jesus told Peter in John 13:7 "What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this" God is eternal and all knowing. He knows our past, present, and future. He knows our beginning and our end. He is good and kind and full of compassion. He has promised to work all things for our good. Maybe instead of asking "why?" we should trust Him TOTALLY. 1 Corinthians 13:12 "Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am known." Have a great day! Love Pastor Troy