Jesus Is Coming Soon!

Maranatha!

What a privilege we have of knowing Christ the Creator as our personal Lord and Savior and soon coming King! What an honor we have of serving him on the earth in our worship. Truly - it is a foretaste of heaven when we will worship and serve Him continually in an everlasting life of worship. 

What a powerful time in the Lord's presence yesterday as well! I have such anticipation of the Lord's soon return. For those who know Him it is a hopeful time -- not a dreadful time. 

Jesus foretells that his coming will take place as a thief in the night when He will comes to "snatch" his church away. It will be in a moment when you do not expect and will happen in the blink of an eye. The Word of the Lord warns us that it will be as it was in the days of Lot and of Noah when evil was pervasive and everyone was going about as normal eating, drinking, and living their lives without any acknowledgement or fear of God. In both stories, if you will remember, Lot and Noah were both taken out of the way (a picture of the rapture) before sudden destruction and the full judgment of God came upon the earth. 

Most biblical scholars believe that the church will be raptured prior to the great tribulation. This does not mean we will not see trouble on the earth. Clearly we will witness great distress (wars, rumors of wars, famine, and pestilences) in the earth. We see these things occurring every day in the news! All of these troubles are described in Matthew 24 but the Lord will appear coming in clouds of glory for his church to catch us away before the worst devastations come upon the earth. Praise the Lord! 

I believe the Spirit is reminding us once again to be serious about our commitment to Christ and to get ready for Jesus is coming back for a bride without spot or blemish. Bible scholars are in agreement that no other prophecies need to be fulfilled before the coming of the Lord and the rapture of the church. The fact of the matter is he could come at any moment. The question is will we be like the wise virgins who were ready or the unwise virgins who were not? Nothing we enjoy or love in this life compares to Christ and what we shall be when we shall see Him for we shall be like Him. 

v. 3 - Let us then be true and faithful trusting serving every day. Just one glimpse of Him in glory will the toils of life repay. (When We All Get To Heaven) 

Thanks and may wherever you go and whatever you do today become a place for His Holy presence to dwell for you are the temple of the Holy Ghost. 

Until He Comes,

Pastor Chad Stafford 
South Metro Ministries

This Week's Schedule - October 1-7, 2012

This coming Sunday's service, October 7th, is on planningcenter now so please check it out at your convenience -- especially the new praise song "Great I Am". I believe this powerful song will bless you and inspire your personal worship this week. We will prepare this song for Sunday. 

I will be sending you reminders about this week's rehearsals, but in the meantime, make a mental note of the following: 

Wednesday praise team and choir rehearsals - normal schedule 
Wednesday 8:30 band rehearsal - cancelled / we will rehearse Saturday 
IMPORTANT: Saturday, Oct. 6th, praise team and band training sessions - 10am-3pm (Praise team - 10-noon / Lunch - 12-1pm / Band - 1-3pm). 

THIS WEEK'S CHOIR ANNOUNCEMENTS!

Choir dress this Sunday, August 26th is red, black, and white.

Parking for the choir is available along the campus side drive and in back parking lot (watch the mud)!

Robe cleaning fees are due this Sunday, August 26th.  There are about 5 choir members that still need to turn in their fee.

This Sunday is the final recruitment day for Voices of Praise so pray for God to send us those that should be part of the ministry and help us spread the word!

Jesus At The Center by Israel Houghton

Check out this upcoming worship song for next Sunday!  Another great song by Israel Houghton.  Jesus be the center...for it's all about you!!!

http://www.ccli.com/CCLITV/Default.aspx?v=c75ea403-b4a0-49e5-b255-3055413e63e2

Copy and paste URL to your browser or simply highlight link and right click and hit go to URL.

Fall Voices of Praise Choir Clinic - September 7-8th

This event is for Voices of Praise members.  BBQ fellowship @ the Moore manor from 7-9pm.  Bring your families for a relaxing time of great food and fellowship.  Children welcome.  No childcare provided.

Come back Saturday morning from 9am-3pm for a power-packed day of new music learning, worship teaching, and skill training!!  Lunch and childcare is provided.

Coming this Fall 2012...A South Metro Ministries Christmas Musical!

Coming this Fall 2012...A Brooklyn Tabernacle Christmas! Well...kind of...the music will be the same but as much as I enjoy the BTC we will not be calling the musical the above "ABTC", so do not worry.  Instead, the musical will be called "A South Metro Ministries Christmas" featuring The Voices of Praise.

Be sure to be at our upcoming choir clinic on Saturday, September 8th to preview this inspiring gospel Christmas musical and to receive your practice and study CD's!  Merry Christmas early!!

http://wordmusic.com/a-brooklyn-tabernacle-christmas.html

Copy and paste the above URL link to your browser or simply highlight link, right click your mouse, and hit "Go to URL..."

Freedom to Change (Accepting God's Grace and Walking in the Spirit Turns our Have-to's into Want-to's!)

Someone said, “God is in the business of turning our have-to’s into want to’s.  God wants us to realize
His love and acceptance for us is not due to our own self-effort but solely because of unmerited grace.
Understanding and living by this truth will cause us to “want to” follow His word and embrace His commands, not as a response to an expected “code of conduct” but as a response to His love and acceptance for us.   It’s not that we “have to”, we now “want to” love him with all of our heart, soul, and strength.  To the person walking in the knowledge of His grace it is no longer a ‘head’ matter, but rather a ‘heart’ matter.   Our attitude should be one of ‘wanting’ to know Him, wanting to serve Him, and wanting to please Him.  This is true love!  We want to obey Him because we understand that He unconditionally loves and accepts us, therefore we want to demonstrate our love for Him.  As the beloved of God, we are now set free to walk as Jesus walked.  (1 John 3)   By grace, we are liberated into the life of love that can and is willing to endure whatever the cost so that others may come to understand God’s love for them.  

The Apostle Paul said, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty!”  The liberty he is speaking of
here is not freedom to do what we want, how we want, and when we want—but it is the freedom to
change!  The Spirit of liberty gives us the freedom and power to do what HE wants, how HE wants, and when HE wants.  Freedom to truly change!   This is radically different from the way the world around us lives.  The world is enslaved to the power of sin over their lives.  They are under the dominion of Satan, controlled by the sinful nature, and they are powerless to change on their own.  But thanks be to God who gives us the victory! He has set free those who call upon His name, broken the power of sin and the control of our sinful nature, and He has replaced the spirit of the world with His Spirit turning our 'have-to's' into 'want-to's'.


As someone has poignantly observed:  We don’t walk in the Spirit by overcoming the flesh, we overcome the flesh by walking in the Spirit.  When we walk in the Spirit our focus is upon Christ - not self.  When we walk in the Spirit we do not focus on how we can defeat the flesh, instead, we focus upon the ONE who already overcame sin and gave us the power to walk in His victory.  The key is Christ, for apart from Him we can do nothing but through Christ we can do all things!  When we walk in the Spirit our attitude is focused on the joy and privilege of serving Him rather than the drudgery of religious duty and obligations.  What am I saying?  I am saying that when we walk in the Spirit our have-to's become want-to's!!!  We now want to walk blamelessly before God - we now want to offer Him an offering in righteousness - we now want to offer our bodies as instruments of righteousness and as living sacrifices - we now want to joyfully serve and obey Him - we now want to make sacrifices of the flesh to bring Him greater glory and honor - we now want to serve and help someone in need - we now want to put an end to sinful addictions - we now want to attempt to love our enemies!  Christ will turn your have to's into want to's if you will just accept His grace and free gift of love every single day.  Let us make it our goal, therefore, to walk in the Spirit (of grace) daily so we can extend this grace to others and live to glorify God rather than please the flesh and gratify the desires of our base sinful nature.  God has so much more for us.  Let us live up to our calling in Christ Jesus!