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for July, 2009.
By pastorbillwalden
It has been said that the church is a hospital. A place where hurting people go to be healed up by God and His people. A place where the wounded can go and not be expected to do much. In part, I agree with that concept. Church should be a place where the wounded can go and experience healing.
But is church “just” a hospital.
Think about your last visit to a hospital. You went to be taken care of. You expected people to do things for you. If they didn’t help you get better, you got frustrated, because it’s their job to “make you better”.
If they were successful, and you felt better, you left. In fact, you probably couldn’t wait to leave. You didn’t stay to involve yourself with other patients. You didn’t consider the needs of the caregivers, staff, doctors, or nurses. You got better, and then you left.
A church is a hospital, but it is much more. It is a family, a community, a body. If people come to be healed, then good, they should. But if, when they have become healthy (God knows when that is) and then they decide that “their felt needs” have been met, and then they leave, then they have missed much of what Church is designed by God to be. They have gone from being a patient to a consumer. They have gone from being needy to being self focused, or at least ignorant that there are other patients that could use their help.
It is true that one church might help bring healing to someone, who God then directs to serve somewhere else. That person sees the Church as more than a hospital. That’s good.
I am sympathetic to people’s needs for healing. But I know that the Church is designed by God to be much more than a hospital. It is designed to be a family.
Being a patient means you receive. Being a family member means you give. Let’s not do the first and neglect the second.
By pastorbillwalden
“R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Take care, TCB”- Aretha Franklin. 
Almost every Sunday, at the end of our corporate gathering, we have a question & answer time about the message I gave, or about the Christian faith in general.
This week, someone asked: “What is ‘respect’, and what does it look like?”
There are a few different Greek words used in the New Testament that are translated into our English word “Respect”.
Ephesians 5:33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
In this verse, the Greek word is phobeo.
Phobeo- “to fear, to be afraid of, to reverence, to venerate, to treat with deference or reverential obedience.” Expositors defines: “fear in the sense of reverence, spontaneous, obedient regard.”
(Wuest, Kenneth S.: Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament : For the English Reader. Grand Rapids : Eerdmans, 1997, c1984, S. Eph 5:32)
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By pastorbillwalden
I’m a bit behind others, but I am slowing learning how to upload sermon notes and recordings of sermons.
The notes and audio from today’s message can be found under the “Sermon Notes” tab on the left. Colossians 3:18-4:1
When opening the audio file, if you left click it, you can save it to iTunes and load it into your iPod.
Blessings…
By pastorbillwalden
Kids running around after church are the coolest. I get nervous about head on collisions, but I love seeing them run through the sanctuary, climbing over the pews, and having fun.
I love being encouraged in the Lord. It is great to be optimistic, hopeful, and excited about what is next, whatever it is. God definitely changes people on the inside.
Waiting on God in prayer is a good thing. To have a calm assurance that even though anything could happen with people, good or bad, that God is good, and that He wants good for everyone that I care about.
The Word of God is like a sword, like a pillow for a tired head, like a bandage for a wound, like a clear sound to a deaf man.
The weeds in my yard grow faster than my roses. If they get much bigger, I am going to have to put tree stakes on them.
I have some very good friends, my wife being my best friend.
Christians ought to be hopeful in the Lord.
It is better to not be quick to judge or evaluate people, especially other ministers and churches. I am who I am, but I am learning lots by keeping my mouth shut and my eyes and heart open.
I have never, ever regretted going to a prayer meeting. Not once. I often wasn’t excited to go, but after being there, I have always been glad I went.
I can’t ever imagine turning away from Jesus ever again. I did once. I can’t imagine doing it again.
Nehemiah 1:11 O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy…
By pastorbillwalden
Hindsight is 20/20. Young fatherhood is less than that. Listen to an old guy…
O.K. guys…listen up.
1. Recognize that your wife thinks differently than you do about leaving for the weekend.
2. If you have kids, she will want to know that you know what they need, what they eat, where they need to be, i.e. soccer games, ballet recitals, etc. Take the time to listen to what concerns her about the kids, and make notes so you won’t forget.
3. Realize that this weekend, you are Mom AND Dad. Put a hold on any projects you had planned, or any big hobby things you wanted to do. Your wife needs to know that your focus is on the kids.
4. Unless you have thoroughly cleaned the house, don’t plan on having “the guys” over. What is clean to guys isn’t even close to “clean” as far as our wives are concerned.
5. Make sure you have all medical records, insurance cards, and Dr.’s phone number easily accessible and make sure your wife knows that you know all this stuff.
6. Even if you manage to get all this done, please understand that it can be difficult for our wives to leave us and the kids, even though it is only for 48 hours. They love and nurture us and our children, and they will worry about us because they won’t be there to help us with whatever may come up.
7. Sneak a greeting card into your wife’s luggage. Have the kids sign it. Assure her that you are all glad that she gets to have a getaway with the other ladies of the church, and that you will all be O.K.
8. Dads…don’t skip church on Sunday. Yes, it will take much more effort to get yourself ready and get the kids ready. It’s worth it. Get up earlier, and get ‘er done. Your wife will be blessed to know that it matters to you.
9. Start the “clean-up” project hours before your wife gets home. When she walk in the house and sees the dishes clean, trash out, and the kids bathed and in jammies, she will be blessed…and so will you.
10. Remember these verses…
Ephesians 5:28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.
1 Peter 3:7a Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding…
OK guys….get going…now!
By pastorbillwalden
New Video up from March 28 teaching. Palm Sunday.
Teaching starts @ 11:10 in the video.
Click here.
