Concord Church

Good Morning Family,
 
I hope you are having a wonderful day as the journey continues.  Today is Day 7 and the devotional reading focused on Luke 10:25-37, the parable of the Good Samaritan.   
 
The parable of the Good Samaritan is an amazing portrait of the type of love that should characterize our lives.  When it comes to loving our neighbor, we must love the person in front of us today.  If we try to do too much, we often suffer with doing nothing.  Instead we need to focus on the moment of “now” by loving the person in front of us.  Your coworker, your husband, your wife, your child, your friend, your waitress, and the list goes on and on, we must find a way to maximize that moment.  You and I know that the pace of society causes us to always live for the next moment, but for today, I caution you to enjoy the moment you have today with focus and intentionality.  Today, enjoy the moment.  
 
WE NEED YOUR HELP, as we continue on this fast, I want you to take a moment and post your best recipes or meals or restaurants or websites in the comment section.  
 
See you on Sunday and stay warm,

Pastor Carter

Well it is Day 5 of the 40 Days to Change and it continues to amaze me along the way. The entire emphasis behind this years’ effort is to strengthen our relationship with God and to strengthen our relationships with others. Today’s devotional reading was from our book during these 40 days entitled “The Relationship Principles of Jesus” and it focused on Loving God with our Mind.
It has been said that “the battle is in the mind.” Proverbs writes, “As a man thinks so is he.” Our mental thoughts set the tracks for our lives to travel. My responsibility is to focus on allowing my thoughts to sync with God’s thoughts. I truly believe this is one of our greatest battles. Each day I hook my iphone up to my computer so that it can sync up and transfer anything that needs to be transferred. I have some settings that allow some of these transfers to happen automatically but it is critical that they stay in sync. So too must believers stay in sync with God’s word. We must sync up with the word so that our minds can stay focused on those things that honor God.
Consider that every day our mailboxes are filled with junk mail that we have to sort though to get to the important mail. No matter how hard we try to stop it, junk mail is coming. Everyday our mind receives junk mail as well from TV, radio, internet and friends

The junk mail of negative thinking
The junk mail of failures in the past
The junk mail of impossibilities
The junk mail of pornography
The junk mail of insecurity
The junk mail of doubt
The junk mail of gossip

but we must reach for Phil 4:8 to get the important mail.

Phil 4:8 Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. (Message translation)


What are you doing to get rid of the junk mail in your mind?

-Pastor Carter

40 Days to Change is about to begin tomorrow and I am excited about the time of prayer, fasting and refocusing. There are times in life when we simply need to get reconnected with God and reconnected with those we love. That is what this years forty days to change is all about having better relationships.

How would you rate your relationships? Don't you want better, more love and less drama, join us in the movement to be more for God. For forty days we will be praying, reading our devotional, and fasting every day seeking God for change in our lives. CLICK HERE to join the movement! Don't get left behind in the New Year!!!!

--Pastor Carter