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The Purpose of God – Romans 8:28-32 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 25, 2009 AM “What is God’s purpose for my life?” I have heard this question expressed in several different forms but always it means the same thing: What is God’s will for me? However I sometimes suspect that what it really means for many of us is that what we want to know is exactly what God expects from us so that we can at do the minimum required of us! But is that truly what we should strive for in life? If God “searches our hearts,” He then knows us pretty well. He may know us better than we know ourselves! Paul tells us that the “Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.” So we find, like Henry Blackaby writes in his book “Experiencing God: Knowing and Doing the Will of God,” that the proper question may not be “What is God’s will for my life?,” but rather, “What is God’s will?” Paul tells us exactly what the purpose of God is in this section of his letter to the Roman church. Let’s find out...

The Power of God – 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 18, 2009 AM Have you ever heard foolish talk? Have you ever received foolish advice? This is the realm of atheist’s thinking. Usually it rests on a circular argument like this: Religion is only mythic speculation, therefore, God does not exist. Why? We find no proof he does. What about creation? It is a random series of events. How? Evolution of molecules like RNA. Where did these come from? They occurred randomly. How? We aren’t sure. If you aren’t sure isn’t that speculation? Yes. If it is speculation, isn’t that “faith” and therefore we have to accept your speculation by faith in how these random events all came together to form life? Yes. Then isn’t this “faith” a religion? Like I said, foolish arguments. For those who say there is no God, I have found it is usually an excuse for them to live an ungodly lifestyle. To do whatever they want, whenever they want, without feelings of guilt, which they blame on humanity...

The Presence of God – Matthew 28:16-20 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 11, 2009 AM The disciples had the presence of Jesus with them every day for a little over 3 years. They walked, slept, ate, argued, laughed, questioned, and discussed with Him everything in life concerning friends, family, enemies, politics, finances, and religion. We often wonder how in the world could they have been so dimwitted concerning who Jesus really was, but we forget that we enjoy the hindsight of the gospel narrative. They had the very presence of God with them daily and they did not understand its significance for their lives until after He was taken from them and had completed His mission. And, herein lies the truth of knowing the presence of God in our own lives as well. After seeing so many miracles, partaking of so many discussions on hillsides; meals together in houses of the rich, famous, and insignificant; watching people’s sins forgiven; folks healed, restored and made whole or brought back to life -...

The Peace of God – Philippians 4:4-9 By Pastor Lee Hemen January 4, 2009 AM What advice do you remember from your parents? You know what I mean. Things like: Button your coat, wear your hat, say “please, thank-you, and you’re welcome.” All of these are great but there are deeper truths that are garnered from life as well. We learn to save for a “rainy day,” to be a little more like ants than grasshoppers, and to seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness. During this coming new year, what advice will you follow? In a world of spiritual and physical strife we often do not find the spiritual serenity we seek. The reason is that we often depend upon ourselves instead of the wisdom and advice we find in God’s Word the Bible. In today’s passage we see several nuggets that if we take them to heart and act upon them in our lives we will find the peace of God we so desperately seek. Let’s find the calm in the midst of the storm that Paul writes about as we seek the peace of God today in ou...