Matthew

Times Like These

March 23, 2020 by Tim Sherfy

In times like these, it’s easy to lose our way. The needle on our internal compass seems a bit jumpy. The culture of a 24/7 news cycle can overwhelm with information and confuse us about what to believe. Stress and anxiety threaten to overcome our best intentions and defenses. Times like these bring out the best, and too often, the worst in humanity.

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For followers of Jesus, we can have peace. Our Lord is the Prince of Peace, and His grace and mercy are not in short supply. And yet, we seem to forget these truths when we need them most. Instead of relying on the peace and power of our Creator, we give in to the siren song of the crowd. There is no comfort there. We find comfort only in the arms of Jesus.

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Spring Cleaning

March 19, 2020 by Tim Sherfy

I love when the air begins to warm, and the colors of spring push out the grays and whites of winter. I am not a lover of snow or cold, so my soul gets a little lighter each time spring rolls around. It’s a time to open windows and take long walks outside again. With the arrival of Spring, many of our thoughts turn to the proverbial “spring cleaning”.

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We dust and sweep the corners of our living areas and declutter the storage spaces. Spring is a time of fresh beginnings, and we want everything to be sparkling and new again. If we undertake such chores for our home on an annual basis, why do we not do the same for our eternal souls?

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The Faithfulness of God

February 24, 2020 by Tim Sherfy

All followers of Jesus desire to grow in their faith. We feel if we had more faith, we wouldn’t get so stressed out or worry as much. So, we pray and study; we beg and plead, all the while asking God for more faith. What if we’re focusing on the wrong thing? What if, instead of focusing on our own faith, we focused on the faithfulness of God?

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His love and provision are everlasting. They never fail. He never leaves our side and is always going with us, no matter what we may face (Deuteronomy 31:6). I believe if we grasped the faithfulness of God, the need for our own faith would be almost irrelevant. He is already more than we could ever need.

Can You Be a Christian Without Being a Disciple?

February 13, 2020 by Tim Sherfy

I heard a caller on a radio show ask, “Can you be a Christian without being a disciple?” I have been wrestling with this same thought of late. Before diving in, we should define the terms, so we are all on the same page. The term “Christian” now means many things in our world, but for this discussion, I mean someone who has trusted Jesus is who He says He was and has surrendered their lives to His Lordship.

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A disciple, again for our discussion, is someone who is constantly and consistently pursuing Jesus, desperate to live their lives as He lived His. My inclination is to say you cannot be a Christian if you are not a disciple. I could be wrong but let me give you some reasons for my belief, and then I’ll say a few words about why I might be wrong.

Jesus is Not an Institution

January 13, 2020 by Tim Sherfy

A pastor shared a cartoon drawing of Mary and baby Jesus. In the cartoon, Mary is comforting Jesus and asks if he had a nightmare. Jesus replies, “Yes, I dreamed I became an institution!” I don’t know what your reaction is to this, whether it’s laughter, disgust, or ambivalence. For me, it cut me to the core. What would Jesus think if He came back today to assess the state of the Church?

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What are we doing with and to the plan He has for our redemption? He spent His life showing how we should love and care for others. That is the essence of why the Church exists. God intends for us to represent Him here on earth. Instead, we’ve become just another business organization complete with heavy debts and ever-increasing administrative budgets.