MAKE YOUR BED!

1 CommentPastor's P.O.V.

Admiral William H. McRaven, a 40 year Navy Seal, gave some solid advice when it came to being successful in life: “It may seem like a very mundane and insignificant task. But, if you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and will encourage you to do another task. Then another, and another. And by the end of the day, that one task completed will turn into many tasks completed.

Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you’ll never be able to do the big things right. And if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made. A bed you made. And a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow can be better. So, if you want to change the world,” McRaven concluded, “start off by making your bed.”

Read More

God Even Saves Serial Killers

Pastor's P.O.V., , , ,

“EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL AND VILE” is the latest sensation on NetFlix, “a chronicle of the crimes of serial killer Ted Bundy, from the perspective of his longtime girlfriend, who refused to believe the truth about him for years.”

Bundy was a notorious serial killer who confessed to murdering over thirty victims, as well as other horrible crimes; it was his philosophy about morality that allowed him to do these horrible things.

He wrote, …”I discovered that to become truly free, truly unfettered, I had to become truly uninhibited. And I quickly discovered that the greatest obstacle to my freedom, the greatest block and limitation to it, consists in the insupportable value judgment that I was bound to respect the rights of others. I asked myself, who were these ‘others’? Other human beings with human rights? Why is it more wrong to kill a human animal than any other animal, a pig or a sheep or a steer? Is your life more to you than a hog’s life to a hog? Why should I be willing to sacrifice my pleasure more for the one than for the other? Surely, you would not, in this age of scientific enlightenment, declare that God or nature has marked some pleasures as ‘moral’ or ‘good’ and others as ‘immoral’ or ‘bad’?

Read More

State of Our Church 2019

2 CommentsCommunity Church of the Hills

Every year we have an address detailing what we have done at Community Church of the Hills and where we are going. This year’s address was inspired by my friend Cher Guevera’s Facebook post. If you don’t know about Cher, he’s a radical, left-wing, communist, queer activist, as well as an anarcho-syndicalist, gender non-conforming, poet, journalist, performance artist and actor…and we’ve been friends for over five years on Social Media. Read a little more about him here.

He inspired my 2019 address with a—believe it or not—pro-abortion post! I then left him a skeptical appraisal in the comments section. This is how he responded:

“You know, Steve, here’s the rub, I would take the “pro-life” position a lot more seriously if the movement was interested in life. But by and large, it’s not. And we see that from politicians who endlessly promote themselves as “pro-life” on the campaign trail. These same politicians who tear their hair out over the unborn don’t seem to care about a fetus after they are born.

“You posted recently asking if people’s pastors preached a pro-life message and I ask you the same thing. Did you? Not an anti-abortion message, but a pro-life message, one that seeks a better life for poor children after they exit the birth canal?”

My Response: “We are committed to life in all forms. Our church supports a local Pregnancy Resource Center that sees moms and dads through the whole birthing process including educating them to be good parents and helping them with food and other items. 

“This year we are committed to helping the needy in our area. We just recently handed out 72 bags of cookies door-to-door in a low-income housing apartment complex to introduce our church to them, and want our church to reach out to see how we can help the residents and their children in the future.

Read More

The Voice of the Martyrs

2 CommentsPastor's P.O.V., PERSECUTED!,

THE SCARY-LOOKING MAN entered the crowded Syrian church service carrying a small package. Squeezing through the hundreds of worshipers he made his way to the front of the sanctuary where he set the package down in front of the altar while the pastor preached. He then shouted, “Allahu Akbar!” Over and over again the scary man screamed “Allahu Akbar!” until about half the congregants fled the church in anticipation of yet another terrorist attack. Fearlessly, the pastor kept preaching expecting that at any moment the package was going to explode. It didn’t. The scary-looking man had just become a believer in Jesus Christ and didn’t yet know how to praise the Christian God. Instead of shouting “Hallelujah!” he praised Him in the only way he knew how: “Allahu Akbar!”

Tears welled up in my eyes as I listened to the testimonies of pastors who ministered in China, Pakistan and Syria at a conference sponsored by The Voice of the Martyrs, a ministry devoted to assisting the persecuted Christian Church around the world. This is a subject that most churches don’t talk about, much less pray about, even though more believers have been killed for their faith in Jesus in the last century, than in all other centuries combined after Christ was crucified.

“The persecution index is rising,” wrote Mindy Belz, for WORLD Magazine. “If someone launched a futures market based on Christian believers getting killed and took a ‘long’ position, they’d have a safe prospect of a return. Last year 1 in 9 Christians experienced serious persecution—a 14% increase over the previous year. Christians are enduring high levels of persecution in 73 countries. The freedom to believe is the first freedom, making possible all others for all people. Roughly 70% of the world’s Christians live without the right to worship freely. Many of us are the world’s 30%, rich with religious privilege.”

Read More

Eating to God’s Glory

4 CommentsPastor's P.O.V.

HOW MUCH WEIGHT DO YOU NEED TO LOSE? As an American, chances are that you need to shed a few pounds. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 71% of adults aged 20 and over are overweight or obese. It’s no wonder!

Finish these 3 sentences to see if you’ve been food brainwashed:

  1. Eat everything on your _______________
  2. You are finished eating your meal when you are _____________
  3. The most important meal of the day is _______________

We’ve all been taught to overeat since we were children and have carried that bad habit into adulthood, which will be shortened if we don’t re-think our food consumption. Not only that, but carrying extra poundage has been linked to a number of chronic diseases, including Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. What if we all did something radical and obeyed this commandment from the Bible? “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Read More