Jul 3

July 4th Weekend

flagandconstitutionThis Saturday we celebrate the birth of the United States of America.  I am looking forward to the 4th of July.  It is great to take time each year to express our gratitude as American citizens for our country, our freedom and the many people over the years who have sacrificed significantly to secure our liberty.

My prayer is that God’s continued guidance and blessings would be over our nation and its leaders. I also pray that we as citizens would truly live in reverance toward God and in ways that please Him. I encourage you to offer up a prayer for the USA this weekend as well.

I am looking forward to this weekend for another reason. I am excited about a new message series that starts Saturday and Sunday called “Faith +.” Beginning this weekend and throughout the rest of the summer we will be looking at 8 qualities that promise us real success. (Take a look at 2 Peter 1:1-11 for a preview!)

Don’t miss our exciting start of this series! For service times and locations check out Church of the Redeemer. Invite a friend to join you.

Have a wonderful 4th of July weekend. I hope to see you for Part #1 of “Faith +!”

Pastor Dale

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Jul 2

Summer Plans?

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Summertime is here.  It’s an exciting time.  People are on the move, filling their schedules with activities and visits to various places.  At the end of the season we usually have a new photograph collection, perhaps some fresh home video footage, an assortment of aches and pains, and general tiredness from the “vacation experience.”

If we are not careful, this season will fly by without leaving any substantive deposit in our lives.  But this does not have to be the case.  With some prayerful planning, the summer months can be a time of healthy growth, memory building and relationship strengthening.

As I think back on our family’s various vacation experiences, the ones that are most meaningful to me are those that enriched our relationships and strengthened our family bonds.  When our family talks of past vacations, we almost never talk about the great sites we saw or the wonderful places we visited.  Our recollections focus on the unique and sometimes funny moments we shared together.  Being with each other and loving each other is what matters most.

With this in mind let me encourage you to adopt four summer goals.  During the Summer of 2009:

  • Focus on your relationships.

In the midst of all your summer plans and activities make the growth of your relationships a high priority.  Isolate two or three relational skills you would like to develop or improve and give attention to them this summer.  Ask yourself what you can do to make your interactions with family and friends more meaningful.  Determine to become a “relationship expert,” not in theory but in practice.  Find a good book to read that will challenge you in this area of growth.

  • Focus on building good memories.

The experiences of life are opportunities to “make memories” that can be enjoyed for many years.  Some of the greatest memories come from the most unexpected events.


Our family remembers a vacation trip we took one summer to a particular mountain “resort.”  The pictures on the brochure were gorgeous.  It was to be a week in paradise.  When we arrived and checked into our quarters we discovered that the photo on the brochure was either very old or of a different place with the same name!  After some negotiations with the front desk we found suitable (and clean!) accommodations.  What started out as a disappointment turned into one of our best family vacations.  It is a positive memory that lingers to this day.

Summer is a great time to make memories.  Don’t become “stressed-out” when things do not go as perfectly as you envisioned them.  When your plans come unglued or disappointments come, turn it into fun, bonding moments.  These memories will be the gold you’ll carry with you for years to come.

  • Expand your relationship horizons.

In short, decide to make some new friends this summer.  Reach out to a neighbor or a co-worker.  Invite them to a barbecue at your home.  Take a walk in your neighborhood and determine to actually stop and talk to people along the way.  Be friendly.  It may not feel comfortable at first, but it grows on you, and other people will appreciate it.

  • Renew your relationship with God.

All human relationships leave us empty if they are not undergirded by a deep and growing relationship with God.  Learning to relate to Him as our loving Heavenly Father, learning to talk to Him and trust Him with the stuff of our lives is the way to peace, internally and relationally.  Allow the Lord to saturate you with His love this summer.  Dedicate time to Him.  Don’t schedule Him out of your life.  Use your summer to seek a renewed love for the Lord.

I hope you will join me in adopting these goals.  I know God will be pleased with us, and others will be blessed as well!

Pastor Dale

Jun 29

Toxic Thinking

“But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against their brothers.”

As I was doing some Bible reading recently I landed on the verse above.  Three words popped from the pages and arrested my attention — “poisoned their minds.”

Instantly I identified with the phrase.  I was immediately reminded of one of the classic traps Satan lays in people’s lives.  He loves to poison people’s minds against God, and against other people.

The context of the verse involves the ministry of Paul and Barnabas in a place called Iconium.  The antagonism they experienced there was linked to lies that had been spread about them.  One group of people with a destructive agenda had purposefully poisoned the perspective of a large group of other people about these two great servants of God.

The same kind of evil activity goes on today.  One of the ploys of our spiritual enemy is to poison people’s minds.  The devil dispatches demonic forces to infiltrate minds with toxic thoughts.  These deceptive, destructive thoughts turn people against God, and more often than we realize, turn people against people.  Satan plants seeds that sprout into looming suspicions about the character and motives of others, leading to strife and separation of relationships, or worse.

If we are not discerning and selective regarding both the internal and external voices we listen to, and the influences we subject ourselves to, we will take in this mental poison.  The results of the contamination are ugly and painful.

poisonHow do we know if our minds have been poisoned?  What are the symptoms?

  • People who have been poisoned in their thinking are usually bitter, skeptical, cynical and critical.
  • People who have been poisoned in their thinking become angry, rigid, resistant, rebellious, disrespectful. negative and judgmental.

Poison doesn’t disappear from the mind without intentional action.  It has to be cancelled, neutralized, counteracted or flushed out with an appropriate antidote.

Poisoned minds need immediate intervention.  When our thoughts are toxic, we need:

  • Help from people who are uncontaminated in their thinking — an adjustment of our tainted perspectives from people who are spiritually mature and healthy and who can help us spot the symptoms of contamination and warn us of the consequences.
  • Truth that will cancel, neutralize and counteract the lies that poisoned us.
  • A fresh baptism in the love of God that flushes away the hard deposits created by the poison in our soul.

Has your mind has been poisoned recently?  The good news is that an antidote is available.  Jesus is able to detoxify your thinking.  Ask Him to do this in you today!

Pastor Dale

Jun 25

Obstacle Elimination

Faced any obstacles recently?  From irritating encounters with heavy traffic during a daily commute to deep relationship rifts that stand in the way of peace in our home or productivity in our work place, obstacles are real and are all around us.  Sometimes it seems that life is one continual obstacle course.  About the time we conquer one challenge, another one appears!

A simple definition of an obstacle is “a thing that blocks one’s way or hinders one’s progress.”  It is anything that slows us down in pursuit of an objective or that stops us from achieving a goal and moving forward in a journey.  Obstacles can be spiritual, emotional, relational, financial or physical.  Usually they are a combination of these.  And they often show up at the most inopportune times.

Obstacles cannot be ignored.  They demand attention and require energy to address.  When an obstacle pops in front of us, it steals our focus.  It is all we can see for the moment.  It looks bigger and badder than our resources, and we usually feel like it will never go away.

How do we deal with life obstacles?  We learn a helpful lesson about “obstacle management” from a man in the Bible named Joshua.

Joshua was charged with the task of taking God’s people into the Promised Land.  After spending 40 long and painful years wandering around a desert, Joshua and the Israelites under his care were most certainly ready to enter and settle their families in Canaan.

floodedriverPoised and prepared to go into a land flowing with milk and honey, Joshua and the people ran into a major obstacle.  Between them and the placed they had dreamed of for 4 decades was a flooded Jordan River.  On the brink of a new beginning, their future was threatened by circumstances they had no control over and no power to change.  What were they to do?

On the eastern shore of the over-flowing Jordan Joshua and the people of God learned a valuable lesson, one we need to remember.  God showed them that He is the obstacle eliminator!  He pushed back the waters and miraculously took them into the Promised Land.  A quick reading of Joshua 3 will give you the details of this great story.

What are the lessons for us.  Here are a few to consider:

  • No obstacle is a match for God.  He really is an obstacle eliminator!

  • God sometimes uses obstacles to redirect our steps — to keep us from dangers we cannot see.

  • God sometimes uses obstacles to slow us down so that we do not get ahead of Him and hurt ourselves or others in the process.

  • God always uses obstacles to refine our character and grow our faith.

The Lord used the obstacle of the flooded Jordan to show His people His power and to build their faith.  Your obstacles provide the same kind of opportunity for you — an opportunity for God to show you more of His power and an opportunity for your faith in Him to grow!

Pastor Dale

Jun 22

Renting or Owning?

Recently I caught part of an interesting conversation that prompted me to think about a very significant life principle.  I overheard several men discussing a mutual friend who was evidently in poor health.  One gentleman commented about his ailing friend; “He has health problems because he treated his body like a rental car for 65 years!”

ownIt was the phrase “like a rental car” that grabbed my attention.  What did this man mean by the statement?  From this guy’s perspective, his friend had abused his body consistently over time.  He had failed to physically care for himself in responsible ways for decades, and was now paying the price for his neglect.  He had not owned the maintenance of his health.

This man’s comment caused me to contemplate a very basic question.  What is the difference between renting and owning?

Think about the last time you rented a car.  Chances are you didn’t do anything extra in caring for it.  You didn’t have it washed and waxed before turning it in to the rental company.  You didn’t take it  to a garage for a tune up or an oil change.  Mostly likely you didn’t even clean out the trash that accumulated in it during the rental period before you retuned it!  Why?  Because it wasn’t your car.  It didn’t belong to you.  It wasn’t your responsibility.   You had no attachment to the car and no concern for its regular maintenance and longevity.  You were a renter, not an owner!

Unfortunately this mindset sneaks into lots of areas of life.  All too often we go through life as renters, not owners.

How many people:

  • Treat their marriages like a rental agreement?
  • Never really own their job assignments and responsibilities, or own only selective parts of their duties?
  • Use and abuse relationships through systematic neglect?
  • Consume the benefits of church, friendships, employment, etc. without contributing to the success, care and maintenance of these things.
  • Trash things that are precious and valuable.

What is God’s perspective on the “renting versus owning” question?

God designed us to be owners, not renters!  Going back to the beginning of time and the creation of humanity, God called us to treat life, relationships and responsibilities as “owners” not as “renters:”

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.  God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.  Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’”  –  Genesis 1:27, 28


“The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”  –  Genesis 2:15


These passages call us to fully embrace the responsibilities and opportunities God gives us.  He wants us to steward the blessings and resources He has provided to us as “owners,” not “renters.”


How about you?  Are you renting or owning?


Pastor Dale