It’s hard to believe that we are finishing up our 5th month of ministry with Westpark Church of Christ.  We have experienced 5 beautiful months of life, love, and service together with you.  Many of you have shared your table, time, and family with us and for that we are grateful.  You have helped us to feel welcomed here during a difficult but rewarding transition in life.  You have encouraged me personally in preaching, teaching, and ministering.  You have given your support and expressed your appreciation for our desire bless the lives of children through adoption. Thank you for your prayers, partnership and support for us in this passionate pursuit of redeeming love!!

Here’s what I/we have learned about you so far….

1. You have a deep and abiding love for the Lord and His Word.
2. You have expressed love toward those who have visited.
3. You have accepted those who have placed membership with us.
4. You are committed to building a strong church family in Fulshear. And a physical church building!
5. You love to fellowship with one another.
6. You love to have fun together!!

These experiences will become stronger and ultimately help us grow as we move forward to meet our coming Lord. 1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

Early one morning while reading and drinking coffee, the verse Matthew 26: 75 reminded me about "seeing one's true self". “Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said, "Before a rooster crows, you will deny me three times." And he went out and wept bitterly.” 

When Jesus his apostles walked to the Mount of Olives, Jesus told them that was the night the Shepherd would be struck down. He also spoke of meeting them in Galilee after the resurrection, but that comment seems muffled by Peter's bold assertion.  With great confidence, Peter announced, “I will never be made to stumble” (Matt 26:33). Jesus calmly reassured his well-intentioned friend that, as a matter of fact, before morning Peter would deny knowing Him, and would do so three times. With even greater conviction, Peter proclaimed, “Even if I have to die with you,  I will not deny you!” (vs 35).

Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. He understands our natural weakness but also recognizes where we can find strength: in Him and Him alone.  Self-reliance will always get us into trouble, for we simply don’t always have the ability to do what we should. As a result, our limitations are revealed so we must learn to find our strength in God and God alone. As long as our confidence is based on ourselves, we will inevitably fail. Therefore, Our boldness must come from Christ!

Here are 3 Life-Changing Words that could help TRANSFORM our life and the lives of people around us (Titus 2:11-15)!

1.   EXPECTATION (Living above what people expect of us as Christians.)  Living with EXPECTATION is important because God expects us to live self-controlled and spiritual lives. It also helps our family and friends know that we live with a Biblical standards of morality, serve with compassion like Jesus, and exist with a heavenly purpose.  We must live above others’ expectations. 

2.   AMBITION (Choosing to dream big and achieve great things in God's Kingdom).  AMBITION transforms us and our world.  It  is a hope or desire of achievement that requires hard work.  Henry Ward Beecher said, “A man without ambition is like a beautiful worm--it can creep, but it cannot fly.”  From a Spiritual perspective, the apostle Paul says that we need to be “zealous for good works!” He wants us to fly and goes on to say that we need to encourage one another to live lives with healthy ambition.  Living with ambition helps others understand that we have purpose in our lives and that there is more to life than what we experience in this world.  It helps others know that this world is not our home.

3.   ANTICIPATION (Preparing for the life to come with earnest expectation.)  With ANTICIPATION we know there is something more meaningful awaiting us than this life.... A home with God!  We hope for a life better than this sin-sick world filled with death, sickness, disease, brokenness, heartache and separation. We anticipate the day our faith and hope become a reality.  We live in anticipation of the second coming of our Lord when He comes back and calls us home.

Putting these 3 words into action changes us (personality and collectively) for the better!

“Leave it all behind” came across my mind as I studied from Luke chapter 5 about Levi the tax collector (AKA - Matthew, disciple, gospel writer, and Christian martyr) who was invited by our Lord to faithfully follow Him.  In Luke 5:28 it simply states, “So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.”  

Luke would later share a parable (5:36-39) that I reflects Levi and his commitment to “leave it all behind” and follow Jesus. The parable is quite simple in that it states that you don’t take the “new” and put it in with the “old” (cloth and wine) because it will not work and will eventually fall apart.  

That is exactly what Levi did with his life.  He left the “old” life of power, cheating, and taking advantage and embraced the “new” way of truth, life, and covenant of Christ.  He lived this life of hope, love, and faith with diligence even to the end of his life. Tradition has it that Levi was killed for his faith in Christ in Ethiopia. It would have been so easy for him to deny his faith in Christ and live and go back to the “old” but when it was all said and done for Levi, the benefits were out of this world.

The lesson for you and me is this: embrace the new and don’t try to do patchwork with your life by trying to put the new life in Christ back into your old way of sinful living.  Embrace the “New Covenant” and don’t go back to the “Old Testament” because under the “New Testament” what we have enjoy is so much better! So LEAVE IT ALL BEHIND even if it kills you!  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” - THE APOSTLE PAUL (2 Corinthians 5:17)

How much do you value FELLOWSHIP with your spiritual family at Westpark?

In April of 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a preacher, was executed by special order at a Nazi camp.  He was arrested two years before, and had been transferred from prison to prison. Moving from place to place, he lost all contact with everyone he knew, the outside world, and according to his own testimony, the most precious possession he had: FELLOWSHIP.

Years before his imprisonment Bonhoeffer wrote of the richness of fellowship in the following statements from his book, “LIFE TOGETHER,” based on Psalm 1:33.  “The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomparable joy and strength to the believer.  A physical sign of the gracious presence of the triune God. How inexhaustible are the riches that open up for those who, by God’s will, are privileged to live in the daily fellowship of life with other Christians.”  “Let him who has such a privilege thank God on his knees and declare. It is grace, nothing but grace, that we are allowed to live in fellowship with Christian brothers.”

We experience many blessings in Christ, but one of our greatest blessings is the FELLOWSHIP we share together at Westpark.  We must make sure we never neglect this wonderful blessing!