Category: Pastor’s Blog

Who in your life comes alongside you to help you when you are in a time of need? Many of us can say immediately that it has always been our families. Some of us can say that we have strong friendships that have helped us through all sorts of “weather.” The Lord seems to place who we need to bring what we need at just the right moments. There are times however when we feel alone and God seems silent. At these precise moments in life we are called, as followers of Jesus Christ, to have faith. “Having faith” involves approaching God with bold consistent—you might even call them stubborn—prayers. The Lord wants us to pray when there is no human solution. He wants us to pray also when there are possibly too many solutions from which to choose.

In our time of need—whatever, literally whatever that need may be—it is only prayers to the Lord that will open our minds to His solutions and quiet our emotions and hearts to wait patiently on Him.

Prayer reminds us in our time of need that the Lord will always work out everything for our highest good.
Do you believe this?
Have you lived it out?

The book of Hebrews encourages us, pointing us to the reason why—as we live by faith— we will always receive the Lord Jesus’ grace, His gift of mercy upon our lives.

Hebrews 4:14-16:
14 Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

This month, ask the Lord Jesus to increase the grace, the gift of His mercy in your life, to meet you in whatever season of need you find yourself—financial, emotional, physical health, relationship issues, and more.

Be bold! Jesus wants you to be! His love is waiting to fill your life with what you truly need; and the first thing we need is Him.

In Christ’s Joy,
Sister Vanessa

What makes something majestic? By the time you receive this note, I will be rejoicing to be with you all again, but now as I am about to hike and go whitewater rafting with my family through the Grand Canyon, the Holy Spirit has been whispering to me non-stop, the word “majestic.” I cannot help but focus on the majesty of Jesus Christ. His majesty makes our lives beautiful and full. The mountains surrounding the Grand Canyon and the diverse geology of the Canyon itself can take anyone’s breath away. What we view as majestic is normally larger than we are and something that we could never easily create with human hands. The Egyptian pyramids were built slowly through human technology but the Grand Canyon is God’s handiwork through and through. The glory of Jesus Christ is that His majesty is not of this world and that His majesty is what powered Him to persevere and walk to the Cross and then rise from the grave in perfect holiness and with the gift of the power to save all of humanity who will believe in Him.

The Apostle Peter, who though he denied allegiance to Jesus three times, understood after drawing close to the Lord Jesus again that:

Embracing Christ and understanding His majesty is
at the core of total satisfaction in life.

Peter shares with us in the book of 2 Peter,chap 1:16

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.

Where is Jesus’ majesty obvious in your life right now?
Ask Him and He will show you.

In Christ’s Joy,

Sister Vanessa

Resting is something we often crave but do not seem quite often enough to receive. We talk about it. Every now and again we see a rare individual who has mastered the art of giving themselves plenty of time to rest day in and day out. These creatures might choose to rest by taking short naps or reading daily. They do not over-schedule themselves or run to-do lists longer than their arms. Allowing pockets of time between activities to laugh and have a snack or just peer out into nature is like breathing in and out for them. Some of these folks even sleep like a rock every night!

God designed us to work but just as much, to be creatures who rest. As we look at the second half of summer, how could you and I “walk” in the Lord Jesus’ rest in our everyday lives? After all, didn’t our Lord and Savior command us to rest?

In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus speaks clearly on the matter:

28 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

When we walk literally with the Lord Jesus and not in front of Him or behind Him, we have rest.

In Christ’s Joy & Love,

Sister Vanessa

Yesterday morning, as I was on a walk around the lake where my family and I live, I had the joy of seeing all sorts of wildlife buzzing around, including my favorite bird—the Cardinal. It has to be the vivid red feathers that captivate me every time, especially against the intensely green shrubbery and trees— thanks to recent rain the Lord sent. My mother says that the Cardinal is one of the Lord’s ways of reminding us of His Presence and Beauty and even His Precision in our lives. My heart is filled with gratefulness for leading my family and I to join the Caldwell Brethren Family at such a time and for the blessed purpose of serving Christ by spreading His love and the message of salvation to the community and the world. My vision from the Lord is that Caldwell Brethren Church becomes a safe haven for people from all walks of life and also a place where our focus is beyond our historic and beautiful church walls out into the lives of those who live around us and even overseas as the Lord leads us to become even more passionate ambassadors for Jesus Christ. Like the Cardinal, we shall fly all about with purpose and joy. Our faithfulness to the tasks to which the Lord has assigned us will come from the power of the Holy Spirit and we will see the new work that Christ is bringing to life among us as we walk in faith.

Thank you for “adopting” Joel, Sidonia, Haley and myself into your family in Christ. We are blessed and feel loved by you all. It is a privilege to live for Christ alongside you as the Apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:7-8, with this singular focus:

7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

In Christ’s Joy,

Sister Vanessa