Balancing Ministry N' Work

Last week as we were looking at Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and it started out painting a bleak picture of how we are all sinners. Every single one of us has fallen short in one form or fashion. We could be trying to have the same toys as the next guy, trying to fit in with our co-workers, or putting our wants ahead of God’s Plan for our life. We weren’t created to do those things, we were created to be God’s children. Thankfully God out of his infinite wisdom, mercy, and love gave us an amazing gift of grace. This amazing gift is given freely and received simply by having faith. As His children we have been elevated from our place as sinners to co-heirs with Christ. We are to no longer be who we used to be and do what we used to do. We need to focus fully on Jesus and the path He has for us. Remember an heir or co-heir not only gets the benefits of their position, but also has a responsibility to do their part in the family. For us that means we need to be living our lives the b...

So far, we have seen that we need to be blessing or praising God as only He deserves. Our focus should be on those ‘spiritual blessings’ such as salvation, redemption, the Holy Spirit marking us as God’s child, the fact that we are part of His family through Jesus, the Master’s Master Plan allows us to spend eternity with Him, and the fact that our God has unlimited power. I love the fact that no matter how low I had fallen, that the moment that I become a child of God that the Holy Spirit has marked me as important. No matter what anyone else thought, no matter the value society put on us, the moment we become the Father’s Child we are marked as one of His Prized Possessions. As awesome as that it, it is just the beginning or the down payment pointing us to the guarantee we have received as Followers of Christ. A guarantee that we will get to spend an eternity with God. There’s a lot of good stuff in this letter so far, and that was only the first chapter. Let’s pick up where we...

Last week we started our walk through the Letter to the Ephesians. For me, the two biggest takeaways were that first we need to be blessing or praising God for the things He has done. With our focus being on the ‘spiritual blessings’, namely those that we have yet to experience. Regardless of what we are dealing with today we need to remember that God has given us an opportunity to spend eternity in His presence and that is worth all the praise in the world. The other major point that I hope we all remember is that yes, Jesus died to forgive us of our sins but He also redeemed us. No matter what our sin has been, no matter how long we have been enslaved to it. Jesus has freed us from it. Jesus cut the chains that were holding you into a life of sin. Believe it, leave the sin behind, and live your new life. This morning we are picking back up at: Ephesians 1:8-10 “ 8  that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9  He made known to us the myste...

Thought you could look people up by email addresses on Facebook and gave that out today at church. That is not working for some reason. Try using Hudson.rw2 on Facebook to find me. Blessings, Robert

This morning we are going to start a new series. This one will be a little different than we have done the last couple of months. As much as I like topical messages, I believe it is very important that we make sure we dig deep into scripture and walk through books of the Bible. This morning we are going to start a walk-through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Paul wrote this letter while on house arrest in Rome to be shared with the believers in Ephesus and other churches in the area at that time. Open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1.  Ephesians 1:1-3 “ 1  Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will: To the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus.  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3  Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.” We see that the letter is written to ‘faithful saints’. The saint part tells us that the letter...

For almost two years we have been praying about how the next opportunity for us to serve God's people would manifest. During this time God has open the door for pulpit supply in more than a handful of churches and some were without pastors. There were churches that were 90 minutes away, others did not seem like a good fit, and others we really enjoyed.  God kept guiding us, even when we did not see it. Early in 2017 we spent time at Crossroads Cowboy Church and I truly fell in love with Preaching once again. It was an amazing time of healing, but was not meant to last.  Late in 2017 and off and on in 2018 we have been serving at Littleby Baptist Church in Rush Hill, Mo. We have been enjoying our time their and this last week they voted on having me serve as an Interim Pastor for Sep, Oct, and Nov with a review at that point if both parties want to consider something more permanent.  We love that God has opened this door and are praying for His guidance to mak...