Thursday, June 21, 2012

Does God still speak? By Camille Waterfallen




What’s up PULSE peeps? I hope y’all are all enjoying your summer! I’ve been thinking about all of you!  I’ve also been thinking about the awesome spoken word that our own Raquel Mooring did at the last PULSE before summer break. In case you missed it, she eloquently and dynamically communicated how summer’s freedom can lead to laziness in our relationship with God. 

Summer’s free time seems harmless until we find ourselves more in relationship with the lifeguards at the local pool than with Jesus. It’s easy to be oblivious to the distance in our relationship with Jesus until an issue comes up we feel like God is being silent with us. Frustrated, we ask, “Where are you, God? Why aren’t you speaking to me?  Do you even speak anymore?”

The thing is, God never stops speaking to us.  We just stop listening.  And, when we stop listening, His voice becomes unfamiliar, and we can’t recognize Him anymore.

In John 16:7, 12-15 Jesus tells His disciples,
But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Helper won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. There is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’”
Did you catch that? As Jesus was leaving earth, He told His disciples He has a lot more to say to them, but can’t right now, so He is sending the Holy Spirit who will guide them into the Truth that He wanted to communicate to them in that moment. In other words, God is still speaking to us, and guiding us, through His Spirit today.
That’s great news.  Equally great news is found in 1 Corinthians 6:19 where it says, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples (dwelling place) of the Holy Spirit?” So, the means by which God has chosen to speak (through His Spirit) lives inside of us.

This is why so many Christians say, “I can’t tell if it’s my thoughts or if it’s God speaking.  What does God sound like?”  He sounds like you…except better because He says things that we wouldn’t say. God speaks to us from the depths of our own soul because that’s where He lives.   We have to quiet ourselves and listen to the Spirit of God inside of us.

The truth is, God wants to communicate with us.  He is already speaking, waiting on us to recognize His voice.  Let’s not spend the whole summer without taking a moment to spend time in His presence.

All we have to do is sit down, close ourselves away with God, and say, “God, speak.” And, He will.  All we have to do is listen.




Saturday, June 2, 2012

Be Trained at Harvest Institute 2012

REGISTER NOW!


What is Harvest Institute?


Harvest Institute is five days of Christian ministry training in five modules:

  • Devotional Life
  • Evangelism
  • Apologetics
  • Leadership
  • Practical Ministry Skills

The Institute includes daily, prolonged prayer and worship, small group practicums, and lunch with the speakers, as well as local outreach times and ministry planning times during the week.

Don't Miss It!


  • August 13-17 at Trinity Church Dallas
  • Cost is $75





Monday, May 21, 2012

Check out our PULSE Blog!


Hey everyone.  Welcome to our new PULSE blog!  Our goal in this is to keep all of us as connected as possible over the course of the summer.

As we learned from Mannie and Raquel at the last PULSE of the semester, one of the greatest tools that the devil will use to deflate our faith this summer is isolation and disconnection.  We know that this blog is only a small effort to intercept the "Summer" agenda against us, but hopefully it will be a catalyst for all of us to maintain fellowship these next few months.

Yesterday at Trinity Church, we were looking at John 15 where Jesus is talking to His disciples about "abiding in the vine".  He told them, as He does to us today, that HE is the vine, and WE are the branches, and that GOD is the vine dresser.  This is a great picture for us to see the relationship that we have with Him.  The branches can only exist and be nourished when they are connected to the source of their nutrition, the vine.  The vine dresser is the one who prunes, cleans up and beautifies the branches.

This weekend, I was trimming some trees in my front yard.  I noticed that one of the branches was completely dead.  Although it was attached to the tree, it was somehow disconnected from the source of nutrition that the tree was offering.  As a result, the branch was dry, irrelevant, and quite ugly.  As the villain in this story, all I had to do was reach up and gently pull on the branch and it fell right off.  It didn't even put up a fight!  It's almost as if it knew that it didn't stand a chance because it was so malnourished.

It's impossible for us to be connected to each other, to our church and to serving God without being connected to Jesus.  All of the services/Bible studies/fellowships/conferences and such will serve us little if we aren't connected, first and foremost, to Jesus.  He is the vine, He is the One who nourishes our souls, and He is the One who will protect us from being snapped off of the tree.  Disconnection from Him causes us to be like that dead branch - dry, irrelevant and spiritually ugly.  The villain will no doubt attempt to snap your branch from off of the vine, but if you are connected to the Vine, He doesn't stand a chance.

This summer, let's resolve to stay connected to the Vine through prayer, reading of the Word, sharing our faith with others, and by maintaining fellowship with one another.  This could be the greatest spiritual summer you've ever had, or not.  The choice really belongs to you.

Please use this blog as a place to connect, fellowship, post prayer requests and praise reports.  I look forward to hearing from each of you, and can't wait until we all see each other again.

Pastor Jerret