Growing Together Blog

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Written by Sparky Pritchard Friday, 05 March 2010 14:40

How Close Are You to Jesus? That heading caught my attention as I was looking through a publication called Revive.  How can you measure that?  Are there things that I can do to encourage intimacy with the Savior?  The editors of that magazine provided a list of questions for personal evaluation.  Here are just a few for us to consider.

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Written by Sparky Pritchard Friday, 26 February 2010 14:52

Ask yourself a hard question: “If you as a Christian had been living in Holland during WWII and the Nazi occupation … if you had heard of Hitler’s “final solution” to exterminate those who were considered to be a threat or inferior … if you knew that for Jews living around you it was either “hide or die” … what would have been your “personal solution” to this dilemma?

For a watchmaker named Casper ten Boom and his family, it was their choice to hide the Jews from the threat of the death camps even at the risk of their own lives.  Casper’s two daughters, Betsie and Corrie, showed equal compassion and courage with Corrie later saying that they were simply “the skin on the hands of God” that brought protection to those souls.

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Written by Administrator Friday, 19 February 2010 14:07

Here’s a thought-provoking parable from Pastor Mark Dever:

“Nose and Hand were sitting in the church pew talking.  The morning service, lead by Ear and Mouth, had just ended, and Hand was telling Nose that he and his family had decided to look for a different church.

‘Really?’ Nose responded to Hand’s news.  ‘Why?’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Hand said, looking down.  ‘I guess because the church doesn’t have what Mrs. Hand and I are looking for.’

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Written by Sparky Pritchard Friday, 29 January 2010 15:22

In the providence of God, this was one of my devotional readings on Monday morning following our Annual Meeting.  It comes from the pen of Philip Yancey in his book, Grace Notes (p. 45).  The piece is called, appropriately, “God’s Gamble.”

“‘There are two things we cannot do alone,’ said Paul Tournier: ‘one is to be married and the other is to be a Christian.’  In my pilgrimage with the church, I have learned that the church plays a vital, even necessary role.  We are God’s ‘new community’ on earth.

“I am aware, painfully aware, that the ideal church is a mirage.  Many churches offer more entertainment than worship, more uniformity than diversity, more exclusivity than outreach, more law than grace.  Nothing troubles my faith more than my disappointment with the visible church.