Upcoming Sermon!

Hello Everyone!

For those of you who don't already know, I'm going to be preaching at Household of Faith Community Church this Sunday.

I'll be preaching from John 12:27-36. The title of the sermon is 'The Son of Man to be Lifted Up'.

You're more than welcome to come and watch me present my first sermon. :)

Please pray for me as I prepare to present it on Sunday.

FYI- Our church address is 4335 Williams Highway. If you need directions, just leave a comment.

Thank you for your prayers!
-Aaron

Courageous!

Check out the Announcement of the latest Sherwood Pictures movie production! (Sherwood Pictures is a church film production company that produced Facing the Giants, Flywheel, and Fireproof)

www.courageousthemovie.com

Our family watched the announcement and we're all looking forward to seeing it! But more than that we're very excited to see the impact it will have the viewers. The message is one that our family has been jazzed about for a very long time... Challenging men to be servant leaders in their home.

The Plot
Four men, one calling: To serve and protect. As law enforcement officers, they face danger every day. Yet when tragedy strikes close to home, these fathers are left wrestling with their hopes, their fears, and their faith. From this struggle will come a decision that changes all of their lives.

With action, drama, and humor, the fourth film from Sherwood Pictures embraces God’s promise to "turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers." Souls will be stirred, and hearts will be challenged to be ... courageous!

A Look At Their Budget
Facing the Giants- $100,000

Fireproof- $500,000

Courageous- $2,500,000 (projected budget)


Pray for Sherwood Pictures and the production of their latest movie- Courageous!

God bless!
-Aaron

HOFGP.ORG- Updated Look!

We have yet another version of the Household of Faith Website! It's still under construction but the main theme and look of the site is up and running!

WWW.HOFGP.ORG

Check it out! And let me know what you think!

-Aaron

P. S. I was considering titling my post as- "Fresh New Look! Same Great Church!".... but I thought maybe that'd be a little bit overboard. I dunno... sounds like something you'd see on a Ranch Dressing bottle... not on a church website. ...whatever.... :D

Manly Indeed :)

Here are some photos I took 2 Sundays ago. We went shooting at the Phillips with Nathanael. It was super fun!

Thoughts on Proverbs 3:5-6

⁵ Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

⁶ in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

For some reason this verse has been in my head for the past few weeks or so. I've heard it many times before and it has always been one of those 'nice' verses that I just listen to without thinking about what it says. But I wanted to really consider what it means. Here are some thoughts I had on the verse.

It says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." .....with ALL your heart....

I was recently reading in "The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life" that when scripture refers to 'heart' it rarely means your emotions or feelings. It's referring to your will, to your decisions.

With that in mind, trusting in the Lord with all your heart is a conscious decision to trust God. "I will trust you God." It means to trust Him in EVERY decision and choice you make.

Someone who truly trusts in the Lord with ALL their heart is a very confident person.

Why? Because they know that God is sovereign over the decisions they make and if they make a bad decision they trust that God's infinite grace and mercy will cover for their mistake. Am I a confident person? .....Are you a confident person?

Trusting in the Lord with all your heart is NOT an overwhelming feeling or emotion like butterflies in your stomach.

The reason I say this is because all too often we wait for the 'feeling' or 'emotion' to come before we decide to trust in God. And then when it's gone we wonder if we really trusted.

Trusting in God is a DECISION. The emotions are only the frosting on the cake. They may or may not be there when you trust God. But it shouldn't matter what you're feeling, God commands you to trust in Him.


It's similar to the love of a Godly man for his wife. The man may not always be overwhelmed with those butterflies and feelings toward his wife but he still loves her. As in he's decided to love her; to be her man; to be faithful to his vows to her; to love her for life.

And he shouldn't be dependent on his emotions to love her. That means he loves her even when he doesn't feel giddy about her; even when they've had an argument; and even when they're both droopy-eyed and grumpy in the morning.

The culture doesn't understand this. So many marriages are broken because couples think that love is a feeling or emotion. It's not! It's a decision of the heart! Yes, there are butterflies and feelings but they aren't the cake. They're just the frosting.

Similarly, so many Christians DON'T trust in God because they think it's a feeling. It's not! It's a decision of the heart!

Does that make sense? I hope the marriage analogy hasn't confused you.

Trusting in the Lord is a decision that you make regardless of your emotions.

If you're like me, you know that your emotions are all over the place. Some days you feel really happy, other days you feel really depressed. I think it's something that's part of our fallen nature... we can't control our own emotions.

But what we can do is make the right decisions for God and be patient for our emotions to fall into place. And they will.

Trusting in God may be hard at first but if you keep making the right decision to not worry about anything, the peace and happiness will come. It will.



Well, I'm going to have to cut this post in half and finish it another time.

I encourage everyone to read the whole chapter of Proverbs 3. You can read it here.

If you have any comments don't hesitate to post them.

God bless!
-Aaron

The Treasure Of Jesus

What can I do
How can I live
To show my world
The treasure of Jesus

What will it take
What could I give
So they can know
The treasure He is

If I can sing
Let my songs be full of His Glory
If I can speak
Let my words be full of His Grace
If I should live or die
Let me be found pursuing this prize
The One that alone satisfies
The Treasure of Jesus

And if I can sing
Let my songs be full of His Glory
If I can speak
Let all my words be full of His Grace
And if I should live or die
Let me be found pursuing this prize
The One that alone satisfies
The Treasure of Jesus

-Steven Curtis Chapman (from his song- "Treasure of Jesus")

The Joy of a Christian

No thoughtful person can question the fact that, for the most part, the Christian life, as it is generally lived is not entirely a happy life. A keen observer once said to me,

"You Christians seem to have a religion that makes you miserable. You are like a man with a headache. He does not want to get rid of his head, but it hurts him to keep it. You cannot expect outsiders to seek very earnestly for anything so uncomfortable."

Then for the first time I saw, as in a flash, that the religion of Christ ought to be and was meant to be, to its possessors, not something to make them miserable but something to make them happy; and I began then there to ask the Lord to show me the secret of a happy Christian life.

- Hannah Whitall Smith
(1832-1911), author of 'The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life'