I for one am a person who really looks forward to the Fall. Clearly, it is my favorite time of the year both personally and “professionally”. Personally, I love the cooler weather, I love the changing of the leaves, and of course I love to pursue the most important unimportant thing in my life, deer hunting. As your pastor, the Fall brings us all back from many of our summer’s wanderings to and fro, trips, vacations, and all. It allows us to focus on the year ahead. It gets us back on track, moving forward together in His service, for His glory. I’m really looking forward to it!

One exciting challenge for me, for us this fall is a series of Sunday morning messages on “What is truth?” (exciting, but a bit intimidating for me). Having finished our study of Hebrews and having committed a great deal of thought and prayer to the issue, I believe God would have me do a series of messages that focuses our attention on what the Bible actually says about the several current issues confronting our church and our society. Here a few topics we may address…

1. Eternal destinies: Is there really a literal hell? What is heaven really like?
2. When does life begin…and end?
3. What does the Bible say about same sex marriage?
4. How “green” is God?
5. Why is there so much suffering the in the world?
6. What does God think about the “N” word?
7. What should we be doing about poverty?
8. What does the bible say about wealth?

So, if you have any suggestions as to questions we should address, let me know and I will certainly take them into consideration. You can drop me an email, a note, a comment in church, or through the church’s facebook or twitter. Well, see you in church, Lord willing.

In Him,

P. Tim

So right now while I am (we are) right in the middle of the church and seminary budget process, the opening of the new seminary year, final preparations for the 2010/2011 school year, and ramping up for all ministries for this Fall and Winter, much to my delight, I am also in the middle of a visit from Joe and Sarah with our five Hoosier grandkids! So for a while we have the grand privilege of having all of our children and grandchildren around for a short, sweet, fun, loud, gloriously chaotic, priceless time. It has been great, absolutely great. It’s great to see each one and great to see the whole crew laughing, playing, eating, and joking around together. So this is me praising God in front of all of you for His great kindness to Marilyn and to me!

As a church family, we will end our summer and begin our Fall season with our next Fellowship Sunday on September 4^th. As we observe the Lord’s Supper together that morning, the focus on the worship will certainly be remembering Christ. Our special emphasis for the day will be having all of us, as a church family, help our children to appreciate, understand, and participate in the Lord’s supper in a real, personal, and understanding way. Pastor Frank, along with the pastoral team and music and media team, has been prayerfully and intentionally planning a service that won’t be a service just for kids, but will be a service where we intentionally teach our children the what, why, and how of the Lord’s Supper. You won’t want to miss this.

That afternoon, we are planning to kick off Project Acts for the Fall, by beginning our collection of “extra possessions” that we all have laying around so that they can be sold in our Project Acts sale. As you know the proceeds will go to help the families in our church and community who remain in great need, particularly because of the ongoing unemployment crisis. We’ll give you more information on this as we get a bit closer.

Well…see you Sunday, Lord willing.

In Him,

P. Tim

I was asked to lead a Bible study the other night on the text Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” We had a great time together wrestling with what the Bibles teaches about disappointment, its causes and effects on our lives. Certainly the first part of the verse is sobering, serious, and is a present reality in all of our hearts and lives. While God has done many great things for us and while He has answered many prayers, there are some, often one particular hope, expectation, and prayer that remain unfulfilled, unrealized. This is certainly true in my life.

Today, however, I would like to focus on the second part of the verse, “desire fulfilled.” I would like to take this opportunity today to thank God for so many answers to prayer, so many gifts of His grace. So, to name a few…it has been a great joy to see two men and two ladies from our Bible study get baptized this summer, along with several others. It was a joy to see the first couple who got saved, baptized, joined church, grew in Christ, fell in love, and got married in our Bible study have their first child just last week. There have been a few significant personal, family type answers to prayer this summer. They are precious and encouraging. Lord willing, this next week, another answer to prayer, Isaiah Tamrat McDaniel, our grandson adopted by Joe and Sarah from Ethiopia, will be here with his whole new family to visit and meet many of his cousins, aunts and uncles for the first time…”a desired fulfilled is a tree of life.”

See you Sunday, Lord willing.

In Him,

P. Tim

Last night my wife sent me an email (so that I would get it here in my office this morning) with a link to youtube and this song. In the middle of reading this morning, I remembered she told me she had sent it, so I went looking for it. I found it, listened to it, and was blessed and encouraged by it. So, I thought I should share the song with you. I’m not sending you the link, but I’m sure if you’re reading my blog you are astute enough to find it on youtube yourself. The words are simple, clear, honest, moving, and spiritually “clarifying”, clearing the clutter of our minds. I am encouraged by Marilyn’s love for me. I am encouraged by His love for me. I deserve neither. I cherish both.

Grace Words and Music by Laura Story

Verse 1: My heart is so proud. My mind is so unfocused. I see the things You do through me as great things I have done. And now You gently break me, Then lovingly You take me And hold me as my Father and mold me as my Maker.

Chorus: I ask You: “How many times will You pick me up, When I keep on letting You down? And each time I will fall short of Your glory, How far will forgiveness abound?” And You answer: “My child, I love you. And as long as you’re seeking My face, You’ll walk in the power of My daily sufficient grace.”

Verse 2: At times I may grow weak and feel a bit discouraged, Knowing that someone, somewhere Could do a better job. For who am I to serve You? I know I don’t deserve You. And that’s the part that burns in my heart and keeps me hanging on.

Bridge: Patient with me, Lord.

Verse 3: As I work with You, I’m learning what Your grace really means. The price that I could never pay was paid at Calvary. So, instead of trying to repay You, I’m learning to simply obey You By giving up my life to You For all that You’ve given to me.

See you Sunday, Lord willing. I’m really looking forward to our fellowship, to the preaching of God’s Word, to offering up together our sacrifice of praise, to rejoicing with new believers getting baptized, and just seeing what great things God is doing.

In Him,

P. Tim