Monday Morning Perspective

I loved my husband's sermon yesterday from our 40 days series. It was on stewardship from 2 Chronicals 24. We saw how King Joash didn't let his age be a hindrance as he served well, just unfortunately didn't finish well. We saw that he had a heart for God and did what was right. The right thing is not always easy or politically correct. As my husband said, what God says is right is right and what He says is wrong is wrong. Please God and it won't matter who is displeased. 

Being a good steward isn't about making a one time gift, it's about adopting a stewardship way of life. It's not about giving to the church, it's about giving to the Lord. Everyone can give something, but not everyone can give the same thing. 

One of the greatest things about this emphasis on prayer and fasting has been hearing from so many of you about what you're fasting and how the journey is going so far. We've heard from teenagers 

to senior adults who are taking part in the fast whether it's food, social media, video games, so many meals a day or per week. Some are fasting certain types of food or tv time. It's been great to see so many taking it seriously and seeking God with great expectation during this time. I believe we are going to come out of these 40 days with some holy habits that that will go well beyond these 40 days and make huge impacts far beyond what we can even begin to believe right now. I'm praying for you. I know it's tough but we can do this! We can do anything for 40 days, right?! Blessings!!

Monday Morning Perspective

40 Days of Prayer and Fasting kicked off yesterday! I've been anticipating this for a while. I just know God is going to do some mighty things in these 40 days and beyond if we will go with Him through this and surrender to Him. I have my new journal ready to go. I have my 40 days of scripture I'm going to be praying. I do have a prayer list but I also just want to see how He leads me to pray. One of the things we've talked about in our house a lot in reference to this is we believe God is going to show Himself in a powerful way one reason being that Satan has seemed to be extra busy. We've seen his fingerprints on some things and we know he is mighty unhappy. I think prayer and fasting is the LAST thing he wants us doing so he has upped his game. Don't fear that. Just armor up! Recognize his handiwork and don't be distracted by it. I've been telling God I'm open to divine interruptions but don't let me be distracted by the junk that seeks to get me off track. So that's my own personal word, about yesterday...

What a great day we had at Fairview. It was good to experience all of the in between service, post service and preservice energy! I love all of our people out greeting and seeing the lobby buzzing with people. Worship was great and the message was as well. A few points to point out ☺️ that I especially loved...

...Jesus assumes we will fast. Mt 6:16

...battles of life worth wining are worth fasting. 

...the purpose isn't to get God on our agenda it's for us to get on His. 

...some battles will never be won and some doors will never be open apart from fasting. 

Looking so forward to being with so many of you Thurs evening at Favor! Have a blessed week and know that you CAN do this!!

Monday Morning Perspective

By the time John wrote 1John, false prophets were on the scene. And they're still with us today. I don't believe we fear them or cower from them. But I do believe that we remain aware and know how to discern between what is truth and what is false. 

Eddie gave us three tests we can do. We test the message. Get to the core of what they say about Jesus. Amazing truth Eddie gave us was "if they're wrong about Jesus, it doesn't matter what they're right about."  Even a broken clock is right twice a day. 

We also test their methods to make sure they are culturally relevant yet scripturally true. We also test their morality. 

The key to all of this is relying on the Holy Spirit within us. His primary role is to guide us. His presence in us is greater than the pressure outside of us.

We take a break from 1John and go into 40 days of prayer and fasting starting next Sunday. This will be an incredible 7 weeks in the life of our church and individual lives. I would strongly encourage all to make the most of this time. It will transform us and radically change us if we will yield to the Spirit and seek Him with everything we have. Start praying today, if you haven't already, about what you want God to see God do in your life through this time and give Him permission to do it His way! Pray for our church to be an instrument that He can use to reach many for Himself and that He will be glorified. May we decrease and Jesus increase. May these 7 weeks be just the beginning of all the best He has for us!

Monday Morning Perspective

Today is Labor Day. For me, it marks the final day of summer. I know for some summer ends with kids going back to school or football starting. I know we are not officially fall yet but the day after Labor Day marks that for me. We always celebrate with pool time or shopping or chilling depending on the weather. We always have the last official cookout of summer so I'm looking forward to my husband's Bbq ribs and everyone coming over. I know for many it's the last hurrah at the beach or lake and many of you enjoyed that this weekend. For those of us who stayed in town and were at church yesterday, we had a great time at both campuses. We had the Lord's Supper at the Greer campus, that's always special. My husband gave a powerful and yes convicting message from 1 John 3:11-24. He also introduced where we will be headed after next week. This fall will be an exciting time in the life of Fairview! I'm so excited to see how the emphasis on the 40 days of prayer and fasting will affect us both personally and as a church. We have seen 99 students, and still growing, embrace their new discipleship groups and they are serving so well before services. I love seeing their young sweet faces welcoming and helping in different ways. We have new classes starting for engaged and young marrieds both during Sunday morning and a week night study. We kick off a new college life group tomorrow night called Kairos that will serve college students during this season they're in and challenges they face. We have several Favor events coming up! I hope so much you will be a part of those! We anticipate what God is going to do as He leads us and we step out in obedience to embrace opportunities He is placing right before us. It's a new season. There are new opportunities. New things going on. New people joining us to be a part of our family to serve. Don't fear the new, embrace it. God is always doing a new thing and He invites us to join Him. Will you?