Pack of Tissues

We are so glad that you were the special one to receive a pack of tissues while you were out and about in Indian Trail!  Those tissues were packed up by our sweet children of Sardis Baptist Church.  Their purpose?  To spread the love of Jesus.  They are learning what it means to help others - just like Jesus did.  You see, Jesus came to this earth to help those who don't know Him, to be raised to life.  He came to love, encourage, to teach, and to die for each one of us.  We would like to help you in anyway possible.  We are His hands and feet and we want to serve.  Please join us at Sardis Baptist Church for Help for your Journey!

Pride

Pride....how would you define it?  If you know how to define it, do you think
you could identify it?  Pride can be defined as a feeling that you are more
important or better than other people.  Ouch....I can identify with that and
especially in my own heart, pride has reared it's ugly head.  Where do we go for
guidance and direction? We turn to God's word....it is our weapon.  Get out the
child training bible and begin to look at it as your sword of the Spirit, your
weapon of offense! 

Proverbs 21:4 says "haughty eyes and a proud heart! the lamp of the wicked, are
sin!"

Proverbs 16:18 reads like this, "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit
before a fall."

This is what King David wrote about The Lord in 1Chronicles 29:11 , "Yours, O
Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the
splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the
kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.


When we know who The Lord is and what Jesus Christ did for our sin, we are ready
to repent and be set free from all things, especially pride. If the Holy Spirit
has convicted you and identified an area of pride in you today, pray something
like this...

I exalt you O Lord!  You are above all, over all and creator of all things. In
you alone can we boast. Thank you for the cross of your son, Jesus Christ. Thank
you for your forgiveness when I fail.  Forgive me of my pride, help me to
identify it in my heart and dig it out from the roots. I need your word. Thank
you Father... Amen

Stumbling Block or Stepping Stone

I was able to go on a wonderful camping vacation last week in the mountains.  It was breathtaking to see all of God's glorious creation in massive forms!  Huge mountains, spectacular waterfalls, enormous boulders were all reminders of the magnificent ways that God spoke everything into existence!  At our campsite, we found a creek that you could travel out to the middle of via a whole bunch of stones. 

At first it was so hard to walk across all those stones.  We all kept falling and slipping and just plain struggled to get across.  These rocks were definitely stumbling blocks for us.  After a while, we realized that there was a more effective way to get across them.  We figured out which type of rocks were slippery, how to test a rock to see if it was wiggly, and how to map out our path so that we would have adequate rocks to get across.  This totally painted a picture in my mind of how we view our paths in life.  We can either view things that happen or circumstances as either a stumbling block or a stepping stone.  When a situation arises, we can look at it as a major pain, a stumbling block, that ruins our day or week and can alter God's plan for us.  Or we can view them as stepping stones.  Things that are placed in front of us that God wants to use to teach us, move us, and direct us onto His path for us.  Jeremiah 29:11 says - For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  God's plans include stepping stones.  He does not want to harm us and cause stumbling blocks in our life.  He wants us to be successful.  What are your stumbling blocks in your life?  I asked the 3rd - 5th graders in Awana what some stumbling blocks for them could be.  They told me they have fear, they have bad habits, they talk too much, etc.  We also talked about how they could be a stumbling block for someone else.  We then decided to commemorate the lesson by painting a reminder to turn our stumbling blocks into stepping stones.