Chris Howlett

Doing Good

“Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.” ― John Wesley

The Christian ethic is a positive ethic. Some religions’ highest aim is simply to cease from doing evil, but Jesus calls us to actively do good. “Do to others as you would have them do to you” is the ethical call of Jesus.

I’m so thankful that Jesus not only acted in a way to defeat evil, to stop evil in its tracks, but that he positively moved in order to bring healing and wholeness, to contribute positively to humanity, and to call his followers to do the same.

What are you actively doing to establish the Kingship of Jesus in the world? With whom are you sharing God’s story of hope? How are you making life better for persons who need someone to bless them?

Don’t just avoid causing harm, but do something positive, do some good!

The Feast of St. Valentine

Icon of St. Valentine

Today is the Feast Day of St. Valentine. Plenty of confusion exists over his identity due to several early martyrs sharing this name. One of the most popular stories, and the one that relates closely to how we commemerate this day, is the story of the Roman priest martyred as a result of his assistanting Christian couples during a persecution of Christians under the Emperor Claudius. Apparently, they were forbidden to marry, and in order to help them celebrate their love for one another, Valentine married them in secret. He was beheaded for his efforts outside the Flaminian Gate at Rome in the late third century. So, today, as you spend time with your "Valentine," remember the man who gave his life for love.

Struggling with Insecurity?

“The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.” – Steve Furtick

Few people put their struggles on display on Facebook or Twitter. It’s usually the happy things, the high times, the fun vacation photos. No one posts the pic of the kids running late for school or the house cleaning chores, the mundane every day kind of life that most of us experience. So, we face the danger of throwing a little self-pity party because our lives don’t seem to measure up.

But that would be a tragedy. Because it is in the seemingly mundane that life happens. Every day, one day at a time. It is in the routine, even boring and sometimes monotonous existence, that real life is enjoyed. Yes, enjoyed.

There are mornings that I really get tired of driving the kids to school, but then I think about the conversations we share. Some days it’s the most conversation we have. I wouldn’t trade that time for anything! It is in preparing meals, eating those meals, helping with the homework, planning the transportation for activities, crashing on the couch after an exhausting day next to your spouse, it is in the everyday that love is lived.

We may not enjoy a highlight reel every day, but we do live lives that we will one day look back on with humble thanks that God enabled us to spend them with people, people we love, and people who love us.

God's Vice-Regents

“Stewardship - It’s not just about giving money, it’s about giving everything.” – Anonymous

The theme verse for the message series, "Trust," was Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’” The word “dominion” is a Kingdom word. It means to rule or reign. God has appointed humans as his vice-regents in order to exercise his purposes, plan, and will in all creation. That’s an amazing thing to realize!

The vice-regent, or image-bearer, does not exercise his or her own will, but rather the will of the one in whose authority he or she serves. So the whole of the created order has been placed in our hands and we are serving God’s Kingdom with everything we are and everything we have. In this series of messages, we are considering how we use the precious gifts with which God has entrusted us, Time, Talent, and Treasure, for God’s will. We are Stewards of God’s gifts.

As we mediate on this incredible reality, I pray that we will more faithfully and fruitfully manage the God’s resources. We are so amazingly blessed and God wants to bless us even more and use what he has given us as a blessing for others so that the Kingdom of God will come and the will of God will be done on earth the same way it is in the realm of heaven. This is our true vocation.