Peace Sermon 9-14-14

Peace Sermon 9-14-14

Here is a link to our Sermon from this Sunday.  We will be posting on Soundcloud.
God bless Sermon 9-14-14 "Peace"

This just in...

Our equipment is in, and we are ready to start uploading the sermons shared at the Center of Hope Corps starting this Sunday Afternoon, following the Sunday Services held at the Center of Hope Corps in San Antonio.  

If you're in San Antonio, check us out live, we are located at 521 W. Elmira and start at 9:00 AM Sunday morning.  If you can't join us, check the blog Sunday Afternoon.

We also have shared a audio invitation.  

God blessInvite to listen

"I've Got Peace Like A River!..."

Scripture Thought of the Week, Philippians 4:6-9

“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.  Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.”

We have a children’s Sunday School chorus we sing that talks about having peace like a river in our soul.  I've been thinking lately about Christmas...Yes, Christmas.  It is just around the corner for those of us in The Salvation Army, and I’ll admit, I have found myself getting anxious about it.  When looking at the theme for this month, I noticed it was peace, and I thought to myself “How fitting...”  We can allow things in life to worry and bother us, stealing our JOY even though our God given WISDOM tells us to Look up to the hills, from where our help comes from.  My challenge for us is to remember that.  No matter what may come our way, God can handle it, and we can be at PEACE.  God definitely reveals to us through His word what His wants for us.  Joy, Wisdom and now Peace have all been theme words for this year at the Center of Hope, and God has been showing us that indeed He is always aware of the big picture, even when we are not.  These all seem to tie in to the scripture of the week in Philippians.  The Lord has many things in store for us in the future, and we need to remember that He is in control, and allow Him to have that control in our own lives.  He has a great plan in store for us all, we just need to remember to use wisdom to know that He love us, and has a grand plan in store for us when we let He have control.  We are to keep the joy in our lives no matter what comes our way in life.  Finally, let us remember to have peace in knowing that God is in control.    

Social Media and the Church

I am by no means an expert on Social media and the church.  You will not find my name on any book telling you how you can grow your church, or on how you can use Social Media.  Yet, like many people, I have come to realize that if we are truly going to live up to the potential God has for us, that we find in Acts 1:8, we need to be willing to try things.  Acts 1:8 says, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (NIV)"  What I have becoming to realize more and more each day it that being a witness about God to others is not about the "public face" people see when they meet and interact with us.  Sure, that is a great witnessing tool, and it warms ours hearts when people tells us that they can see Jesus in us and our lives.  Yet, in this day and age, I think, in fact I know at least for me, being a witness for God means so much more than just the Christian me that people see daily.  I have discovered some great witnessing tools in the form of text messaging, and even social media sites.  That is why I believe that in order to live up to the potential of Acts 1:8, of being witnesses to the very ends of the earth, we may need to rethink how we are going to get there.  As a church we cannot discount the potential of very valuable tools as Facebook, Google+, Youtube and other social media outlets.  I know that I use those things on almost a daily basis just in everyday life.  I feel that if the church is to stay up to date and relevant, we as the church as going to have to use them as well.
This is just my opinion, but I do think it is something that we as church leaders, and even as witnesses for God need to be thinking about.  If people look at our Social Media pages do they match our "witness" like that of who we are when they meet us?  Or is there a dichotomy between the Christian "us" we show to others in person, and the Social Media "us".  If you hesitate to add your minister or church friends to your pages because of what you post, maybe, as a Christian, you need to be thinking twice about what you are posting.  Social Media can be a great witnessing tool, but it also has the potential to undermine our witness as well.
 
I am excited that here at the Center of Hope Corps in San Antonio Texas, where I am the officer/pastor in charge we are gaining a stronger presence in Social Media as a witnessing tool.  We have had a Facebook page for about six months, and have recently added a Google+ page.  By the end of September we will also be adding podcast of our sermons, and eventually even create our own Youtube channel to upload sermons that way.

Think about how you are using your social media, and is it a witnessing tool for you.

Thanks and God bless

Captain Jennifer