Category: God - Steve Squires

Help Even When We Fail

4/7/2014

There have been times in my life that I have wondered how God could be so faithful to me while I actively disobey His Word. A great example of this is found in Numbers 11 (click HERE to read the chapter). In this story the Israelites are complaining to God that they have nothing to eat - even saying that they were better off in Egypt as slaves! They were complaining that God was not giving them enough. God's answer was to give them manna. The Israelites continued to complain that they did not have meat to eat - again, saying they were better off in Egypt. Once again, God gives them their meat - so much that they learned not to complain!

While this drama continues to unfold, God continues to take care of the Israelites by providing them with great leadership. God blesses 70 of Israel's elders to send His Spirit to in order to prophesy and "help (you) carry the burden of the people so you (Moses) won't have to carry it alone" (vs. 17). Despite Israel's rebellion, God makes sure she has proper leadership to lead her out of Sinai.

There is a short lesson here: God provides for His people despite their own rebellion. For us today, we can know that as we struggle with sin God will still sustain us - even in our worst days.

If you are in your worst day - take heart, trust God to provide for you. The provision is not for your glory or because you are doing anything right, it is for His glory because of

Seeing Beyond the Blinding Light

3/17/2014

I drive to work everyday from Hampstead on rt. 121. When you drive a road as often as I do you learn all of the curves and bumps - I'm sure you've had the same experience. Another thing I learn is where the sun will be relative to the direction of my car. In other words, I learn the spots on my journey where I will be blinded by the light as a drive.

There are only a few choices available to me. First, I can turn around the car and return home - not likely. Second, I can come to a stop until the sun has moved - that's dangerous. Lastly, I can trust what I know about the road, despite mI have to trust that the road is there, even when I am not able to see it - the same curves that were there yesterday are there today.

Throughout our lives each one of us will be blinded by some difficulty or challenge: anger, hatred, health scare, job change, etc. These situations will make it difficult to see that path that God has for us. When this happens, we need to trust that the road is still there and keep walking, driving, running, etc. God is still there with a plan regardless of what we see or don't see.

This is where faith comes into - believing God is working and acting in our lives despite not seeing Him or the way He has created. No matter what gets in the way, we need to be confident that God is working to provide a path for us to accomplish the work in the Kingdom that He has planned for us.

Even when you are blinded and can't see God, trust Him and believe that the Holy Spirit is working in your life.

God's love is furious.

3/16/2014

Tonight Brookridge is having a concert - No Greater Love. The concert is focused on how great God's love is for us. Here is a pic of one of the songs we did. If you like what you see you can go to www.brookridge.org to get more info about the Brookridge community.

Also check us out at 10:30am on Sunday morning.

No greater love - God's love is furious for you!

Bring on the Hard Stuff

2/17/2014

Lately I have been thinking a lot about difficulties; not the small difficulties, like the interminable time spend at the DMV, but difficulties that shake you to the core: health problems, financial problems, etc. I have noticed that we spend a lot of our time reacting to difficulties, perhaps most of our time. The ubiquitous nature of difficulties or trials begs us to ask the question - "what is the meaning of all of this?" or "what is going to come of all this?"

The Bible speaks to this idea of going through trials and what we can expect when we are going through and come through the other side:

2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

James here gives us an encouragement that goes something like this: " find some solace in your trials because you will have something come from them, you will grow in faith and learn how to persevere through trials that will come." Trials are training. Even though God doesn't cause all of your trials, He can use them to strengthen you for other conditions in your life. We have a tendency (understandably so) to try to avoid trials, but sometimes they are imposed on us. We can do two things at once: ask God to take the trial away from us and also ask for courage to go through the trial and learn something from it.

It's not one or the other, it's

Rich Mullins - "Step by Step"

1/21/2014

I was playing some of my old worship CD's this week and I came across a Rich Mullin's album. It was very influential on me in my early colleges days as I struggled to make my faith my own. This is a video of Rich (now deceased) performing a signature song, "Step by Step." Enjoy!

Your Worship Depends on You!

8/21/2013

Worship on Sunday isn't like fast food - your way right away!

Wonder how YOU can serve YOUR CHURCH on Sunday . . . here are some ideas :)

Before the Service

Read the passage in advance
Pray for the gathering
Greet newcomers (act like you are the host)
Think strategically about who you should sit with
Arrive Early

During the Service

Sing with gusto (even if you can’t sing)
Help with logistics (if there’s a problem, help fix it)
Don’t be distracted
Listen carefully
Be aware of your facial expressions (you may affect others and discourage preachers)

After the Service

Connect newcomers with others
Get newcomers information
Start a conversation about the sermon
Ask someone how they became a Christian
Stay late

Read this on Pastors.com, but can't remember the author.

Small Leaks Cause Big Damage

7/22/2013

Our family has a 33' travel trailer that we use for vacations throughout the year - others may hate it, but we find it a lot of fun.

There is one part that is not so fun and that's the maintenance of it. Take the tires for example: there are four of them. Each one has to be taken care of because if one blows it can leave us in a precarious situation. I check the PSI every time we go out and make sure that they are in good shape.

They usually are . . . until today.

I noticed that one of the tires was low and getting lower by the hour - the thing was going flat fast. This trailer is not like a car, it doesn't come with a jack - it's 7,000 lbs - definitely need a professional. We belong to Good Sam's club (like AAA for trailers) and they came out and voila - they switched the tire out for the spare and left it for me to look at.

As I examined the tire I had a hard time finding anything - until I looked closer and ran my fingers around the tread. There it was a 2" flat head nail completely buried in the tread. On reflection I realized I probably picked up the nail before my last trip as I noticed the tire was a little low then. So it has been three weeks that this huge nail has been draining air out one of the most important items on my trailer. The good news is that I took the tire in and for $18 they removed the nail and plugged the hole - good as new!

It got me thinking about our Christian life. There are a lot of aspects of our lives, but one of the most important aspects of it is our faith - belief that God is going to do what He says He is going to do. There can be a lot of things in our life that allow our faith to "leak" out of our lives. So are easy to recognize; some like my nail are not evident immediately.

Keep a vigilant eye on your faith; don't let anything drain it. Watch what goes in

Watching Your Pop Culture

6/17/2013

Those at BRCC know that I am relentless in my insistence that people examine their media intake. The Bible teaches us that our bodes (including our minds) are temples of the Holy Spirit (click here). We are to protect our body as it doesn't belong to us, but to God who has redeemed it with the work of Christ on the cross.

Steve Turner has just come out with a great book on the subject - POPCULTURED. Simply put, in the book Turner reminds us (especially Christians) that we cannot haphazardly consume culture - they have a responsibility to "watch" what they take in to protect their temple.

Here is a link to a review of the book on Christianity Today's web site - check it out!

Rough Discipleship

6/5/2013

Today I as reading a passage from Luke, 9:57-62. The picture is basically a picture of what seriously following Jesus looks like:

57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

This is really full passage, but I thought I would pull out just one idea that is not brilliant at all: being a disciple of Jesus will always cost us something.

One example of cost is time (forget $$ or energy, time seems to be the most valuable thing). Being a disciple means we have to give time to following Him. Let me suggest that one of the most important places we give time is in weekly fellowship and worship. Hebrews 10:25 reminds us not to stop meeting with each other, but to value the time of community we have each week.

Here's the deal if you don't know - you can't come to church one Sunday a month or even two a month and expect to be a full part of the community of God. Save having to work on Sundays, we all need to be faithful on Sunday morning. Even those who work on Sundays can be a part by listening to teachings online and being a part of a small group. Let's be clear: working on Sundays are an exception to the rule in general. Most of us at BRCC don't work on Sunday.

What we do have on Sunday is a myriad of other things that we tend to think are more important - kid's sports, doing lawn work, etc. Now before you get worked up, I'm NOT talking about vacation. We all need a rest and sometime that means we miss Sunday mornings (I even miss a few each year - my hypocrisy has limits :). Vacations are a good and healthy thing and so is spending time with family. Commitment to something is not an issue

Do you consider fellowship and worship BEFORE you think about vacation and being gone on Sunday morning? What is the cost that you pay time-wise for being a follower of Jesus. "Redeem the time, for the days are evil" Ephesians 5

Deciding Your Priorities

5/30/2013

This morning my daughter (5yo) came rushing in my bedroom while I was still half-comatose. In a loud voice she yelled "I can't find a tank top!!!!" Needless to say her high priority for finding a tank top was not very important to me. My priority was shaking off sleep and getting in the shower. Don't get me wrong, I was willing to help her, it just had to be at my pace . . . I certainly wasn't ready for her pace :). Eventually the problem solved itself (amazing) and she decided to switch outfits (on a side note I'm more than a little worried that my 5yo already has outfits, but that's for another post).

This little 5 minute exercise in frustration and priorities got me thinking about our priorities and God's priorities. So often our priorities don't match up to God's priorities. What is close to God's heart is not close to our hearts. We're not bad people, per se, it's just that we get crossways of God and we forget that we (as little Christs) are called to reflect who God is - and this includes his priorities.

In Isaiah 55:6-9 God reminds us that we need to seek Him - this includes His ways and priorities. God makes it clear - our ways are not His; in order to know His ways we need to seek Him:

"6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways
    and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
    and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Seeking Him starts with the acknowledgement that His ways should be our ways. Once we can convince ourselves of this we can take the next steps of actually seeking Him. Our seeking first begins with the fact that God has sought and found us. This fact becomes the basis for our own seeking - know that God is available and "for us." Seeking on our side comes in Bible reading and prayer.

Today challenge yourself to question your own priorities - are they set by God or by yourself? Are seeking God's ways or just following your own?