My Hope for CLBC

Last night, as a church, we reflected on God's faithfulness over the past 3.5 years for Cypress Lake Baptist Church. We've had some tough battles, but God has been faithful. What made it so great last night was the overwhelming unity in the desire to move forward. To change what needs to be changed in order to be a healthy church that is impacting our community for Jesus. Here are a few things I shared as I sought to push us to move forward for the sake of the gospel.

Envision men, women, and children from different backgrounds, with different colors of skin, with different preferences, with different political alignments, with different personalities, with different gifts, loving one another, caring for one another, singing with one another, praying together, learning and growing together, reaching the lost together, serving the community together, with the unity found in the Spirit, through faith in the Son, for the glory of the Father. 

Envision seeing hundreds and thousands of new believers being baptized into the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 

Envision seeing many sent out to pastor churches, plant churches, reach the nations, and serve in other ways and areas for the glory of God.

This is is my hope for CLBC!

Belonging to Jesus

O Heavenly Father,
Teach me to see
   that if Christ has pacified thee and
     satisfied divine justice
 he can also deliver me from my sins;
that Christ does not desire me, now justified,
   to live in self-confidence in my own strength,
   but gives me the law of the Spirit of life
   to enable me to obey thee;
that the Spirit and his power are mine
   by resting on Christ's death;
that the Spirit of life within answers to
   the law without;
that if I sin not I should thank thee for it;
that if I sin I should be humbled daily under it;
that I should mourn for sin more than other men do,
   for when I see I shall die because of sin,
    that makes me mourn;
   when I see how sin strikes at thee,
    that makes me mourn;
   when I see that sin caused Christ's death,
    that makes me mourn;
 that sanctification is the evidence of reconciliation,
    proving that faith has truly apprehended Christ;
Thou hast taught me
   that faith is nothing else than receiving thy
     kindness;
 that it is an adherence to Christ, a resting on him,
    love clinging to him as a branch to the tree,
    to seek life and vigor from him.
I thank thee for showing me the vast difference
   between knowing things by reason,
   and knowing them by the spirit of faith.
By reason I see a thing is so;
   by faith I know it as it is.
I have seen thee by reason and have not
     been amazed,
I have seen thee as thou art in thy Son and have
    been ravished to behold thee.
I bless thee that I am thine in my Saviour,
    Jesus.

Belonging to Jesus in The Valley of Vision