Will we let Satan Win?

Good Morning Fellowship Family,

I wanted to take a moment to share with you a concern. Last Sunday we announced something different would be presented in this coming Sunday’s message as an illustration. Since that time I have received several calls and comments of concern. Although I understand and appreciate each contact I can’t help but be broken hearted over how some have responded. On Thursday the staff and I sat down to discuss the potential impact of following through with the illustration and have decided that it would be costly to the body of Christ and we will not be using it.

You may think that is why I am broken hearted, but you would be wrong. I am broken hearted over some people’s tactics within the body. Some have resorted to a call brigade to members of Fellowship Church in an attempt to shore up support for their cause. I find it incredibly offensive that some would consider personal preference about tattooing vs. blatant sin of gossip and disunity! Rumors abound and most of them are outright LIES! I encourage you to consider your conversation and also understand that when you speak untruth about the church you are speaking untruth about the Bride that Jesus died for. The implication of that action is left in the hands of a Righteous God.

Fellowship Church began as a dream to be a church that was different, to become a church where everyone was welcomed. This means that we allow people from all walks of life, not just those who look and act like we believe scripture teaches. In fact many in the church have been taught a false system of outward appearance (Pharisaical in nature) rather than an inward transformation. What I most desire as pastor is a church who stops acting religious and starts being Biblical. Our community is filled with people who are broken, hurting and need a loving hand from those who know Jesus. I pray for a day when church happens. Paul wrote these words:
1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (NIV)
19 Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.
20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.
21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law.
22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.
23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
To those of you who have given your trust to the staff who lead Fellowship Church, thank you and know that we value your trust and will protect against violating it. We want to hear from you and will listen to your concerns. Sometimes we will change a course because we heard positive communication that caused us to consider the implications of a decision, but there will be times when we continue forward and lead this church into the future. But please do not call and threaten us, hang up on us when we are talking or use gossip to cause harm to the body, it just will not be tolerated and we will correct you in love. Let me thank those who have called with the right spirit and shared their concerns you truly helped us resolve a difficult decision and I am thankful for your Biblical actions.
I realize that some of you are caught off guard and may be wondering why I would respond this way. There are several reasons: 1) I am tired of people sinning by gossiping about Fellowship Church and will not stand by any longer listening to member comments that I know are untrue. It is enough that the religious community attacks us, but from our own is just not acceptable. 2) It’s time we either decide to do Fellowship Church or not. I love you all, but I also love Jesus and know what he has called us to do. We have been sidetracked long enough with petty differences that make no forward progress in the Kingdom. God has either sent you to Fellowship Church or not, only you know which, so get in or get out! “Pastor, you don’t love us!” YES I DO, I love you dearly, however if you think you can hijack the work of God here at Fellowship you are wrong. Everyone is valued, however, everyone is not in the right place. I realize some of you will stop reading right now and shut down, good, that is what I intended to do. For those of you who are tired of this stuff welcome, I invite you to enjoy the ride. 3) I just don’t have time to keep doing this. I will be 45 in a few days. I will be dead in a few years. But more importantly Jesus could come back any minute. People are dying and going to Hell and we have people intent on helping them get there, I just don’t get it. 4)Right now I believe our church is positioned staff wise, spirit wise and people wise to impact our community for Jesus. Let’s get with it! Now is the time and I can’t wait to see all that God has for us.
So just to be clear and open. Right now I am very frustrated, hurt and honestly mad. A pastor recently preached a message called “Get the Hell out!” Some of you are so caught up in being the spiritual police you are now mad at what I just wrote. Clearly you don’t get it. This pastor talked about all the junk going on in their church, in reality he called it “sin” or if you look at the Bible sin is also known as “Hell”. He invited those who were opposed to his church to “Get the Hell out!” If you are sinning by gossiping and lying about Fellowship Church. If your personal preferences are offended at Fellowship Church and you can’t let go and let God. THEN I TELL YOU “GET THE HELL OUT!” Oh, yeah you can send this to your friends and even point them to our blog http://fellowshipdayz08.blogspot.com, where I have fully posted this email.
I love you all and hope that you can read between the lines if you are a faithful serving, giving and loving member. I value you more than you can ever know, but it’s time to stop this. I will spend no more time on this junk, we are moving forward toward the great things God has for us. If you would like to talk to me please feel free to call or email. God bless you all!
Pastor Craig

Weekly Worship Blog

This week we will look at a song we have done multiple times, Came To My Rescue by Hillsong United. This song was released on their United We Stand CD a few years back and has become one of my favorite worship CDs. We have also done numerous songs from this CD in the past.

Came To My Rescue is about God helping us through the hard times in our life. If we call upon the God He will come to our rescue. I think this song is a great depiction of how worship takes place in our lives. 1st we must worship and seek His face. Next we must surrender our lives to Him in obedience and then He will answer our prayers and come to our rescue. Finally the song ends with a declaration and prayer after God has rescued you from you pit that in everything you do God be lifted high in our lives

No matter where you are right now in your life God is waiting on you to fall down to your knees in worship and call upon Him. He wants to rescue us. So do that right now it doesn’t matter where you are or what you are doing just begin to worship the one who is our rescuer.

Mickey

Click HERE to watch video of Came To My Rescue
(Disclaimer: We were having audio input problems on the camera so it may sound scratchy at times from overloading the inputs.)

Came To My Rescue Lyrics:
Falling on my knees in worship
Giving all I am to seek Your face
Lord all I am is Yours

My whole life
I place in Your hands
God of mercy
Humbled I bow down
In your presence at Your throne


I called You answered
And You came to my rescue and I
I wanna be where You are

In my life be lifted high
In our world be lifted high
In our love be lifted high

Set List:
Freedom is Here-Hillsong United
Break Free-Hillsong United
Came To My Rescue-Hillsong United
How Great Is Our God-Chris Tomlin
Today Is The Day-Lincoln Brewster

Where are you looking to find Jesus?

After reading the blog that Stan posted yesterday it got me thinking about where we are trying to find Jesus. Not long ago I saw a movie named Henry Poole is Here, I would not recommend the movie to you unless you have 2 hours to kill that you will never get back. But the point of the movie is, a woman sees the face of Jesus in a water stain on the side of a house and the people of the neighborhood begin to bring offerings and worship the water stain as if it were actually Jesus, and the owner of the home insists it does not look like Jesus. Here is a quote from one of the actresses in the movie about her beliefs:

“I think there is a thirst in culture for some sort of spiritual sustenance and I think the movie kind of feeds that without preaching anything…I think the fact that it is the face of Jesus sort of suits the story and suits the street where the story is set. If it was in another country it would be the face of somebody else.”

Her comments are true there is a thirst for some sort of spiritual sustenance in culture today and so many times we seek that in a frying pan, or water stains, or through self help books, or other people, or even through spiritual/Christian camps. I’ve got news for you if you have crossed the line of salvation seek no more because the same power that conquered the grave lives inside of you. As humans we try to make it so difficult to get to close to Jesus, and there is only one thing that will get us there and that is total surrender of our lives to Him. Jesus is not in a water stain or a frying pan He wants to be in your life and in your heart but you have to let Him in by reading the Bible and being willing to surrender. Will you do that?

Mickey

Yep, its about the food

Some people will tell you that the Good Lord can show up just about anywhere, and lately there seems to be no shortage of religious images seen on commonplace items.



A Texas man he saw this image in his frying pan while he was cooking breakfast for his mother. ( See More Images Of Frying Pan)


Remember the Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich? Well, now it's the Jesus frying pan.

Juan Pastrano, of Prairie Lea, Texas, said he was cooking his mother breakfast on Sunday when he looked close and saw what looks like the face of Jesus etched in his frying pan.

There's no word yet on if the family plans to sell the pan. But if they do, it could really bring in the bacon. A 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich with the image of the Virgin Mary recently sold on eBay for $28,000.

Want To Make your own check out the following link

http://www.jesuspan.com/

Enjoy!

Weekly Worship Blog

Hello everyone this week we are going to take a look at a song called From The Inside Out. This song was written by Joel Houston who is a pastor, worship leader, and pioneer in the country of Australia for a “little, small” church called Hillsong Church, maybe you have heard it.

This is one of my favorite worship songs because so many of us can relate to the lyrics of this song. From the opening line that says “A thousand times I failed, still your mercy remains”, we have all failed but yet God’s mercy remains and the only way to overcome those times when we fail is to be consumed from the inside out. Matthew 23:24-26 is about when Jesus was telling the Pharisees(church people) that they spend so much time cleaning the outside and the inside is filthy. How many of us are consumed from the inside out? Take time this week to clean the inside first and then the outside will also be clean. Give God control of your heart and soul and see what way He can radically change you.

Click HERE to see video of From The Inside Out

Also make sure you join us this Sunday as we continue the Marked series and we talk about being enslaved. I hope all you can come and bring someone with you. Until Sunday.

Mickey

Sunday’s Set List:
I Will Go-Starfield
Glory to God Forever-Fee
From The Inside Out-Hillsong
My Deliverer-Chris Tomlin
Hosanna-Hillsong


From The Inside Out Lyrics:

A thousand times I've failed
Still your mercy remains
And should I stumble again
Still I'm caught in your grace

Everlasting, Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending, Your glory goes beyond all fame

Your will above all else, my purpose remains
The art of losing myself in bringing you praise

My heart and my soul, Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out Lord
Let justice and praise become my embrace
To love You from the inside out

Weekly Worship Blog

Another newer song that we introduced last week was Alive and Running from Kristian Stanfill. This is the 1st track on Kristian’s new CD Attention go get it if you don’t have it, it is an awesome worship CD, and he is from ATL.

This song comes from the Great Commission which is found in Matthew 28:16-20. The title of this song says it all, that we are alive and running to the world to bring salvation to every part of this world. Christ died not just so we could go to heaven when we die, if that were the case when we accepted Christ we would leave this earth and go to heaven. He died so we could live a life pleasing to Him and do His will. I blogged about it a couple of week ago that living in God’s will is not always easy, but to be alive and running to the world you have to be willing to go across the street before you can go around the world. Click HERE to see video of Alive and Running

This Sunday we are continuing our Marked series and we will be talking on Galatians 3 and the title of the sermon is No Pain, No Gain. It’s going to be another incredible Sunday so make sure you are here and you bring a friend

Sunday’s Set List:
Alive and Running-Kristian Stanfill
Everlasting God-Brenton Brown (Lincoln Brewster version)
How Can I Keep From Singing-Chris Tomlin
Fire Fall Down-Hillsong

Alive and Running Lyrics:

Salvation came to us
Now we are free forever
Made alive by the Savior's touch
Now death can't hold us under
Right here, right now, come bring Him adoration Rise up, sing out, this song of joy and freedom

We have seen the Son
Jesus, risen One
His light came down to us
Now we're alive and running to the world

Beauty revealed to us
Our eyes are wide with wonder
Caught by the brightness of
The glory of the Father
Our eyes, have not seen, something so captivating We'll go, where You lead, to the ends of the earth proclaiming

There is none shining brighter
Than the Son of the Father
Who has come to bring freedom
To the heart of man

You shine brighter than the brightest light that the world could show

Weekly Worship Blog

Worship Blog 8-9

Your Love

Welcome to this week’s edition of the weekly worship blog. We will look at a song by Chrystina Lloree Fincher called Your Love. This past Sunday was the 3rd time we have sung this song and I really think it hit home this week. Celeste did an absolutely phenomenal job in both services singing this song.

This song is about the greatness of God’s love. We all know John 3:16 that God loved us so much to send His Son for us and it’s by His blood that our “deepest stains are clean”. There is no more shame because Christ has bought our sin when he died on the cross. He did all this just because He loved us. So it is by His love that everything in our life has been made new. Thank God for Jesus.

Sunday was a great day we saw 6 people accept Christ and others want to learn more about starting a relationship with Christ. As you worship this week remember that Galatians 1 says that salvation is not anything that man has made up or gotten from any other person, but salvation comes from God. I love having the privilege of seeing God working in people’s lives, and seeing people surrender to Him. This is awesome, Thank You GOD! I can’t wait until next week

Sunday’s Set List:
Alive and Running-Kristian Stanfill
Salvation is Here-Hillsong
Your Love-Chrystina L. Fincher
All Because of Jesus-Steve Fee
Revelation Song-Gateway Worship Version

Mickey

Click HERE to watch video of Celeste Singing Your Love

Your Love Lyrics:

Your love is unfailing
Your mercy pours over me
Your grace is never ending
Your glory revealed in all I see

And I will lift you up
I’m singing all my days

Of Your Love
Your Love
Your Love

It’s your love that rescued me
Your love has set me free
By the blood my deepest stains are clean

There’s no more shame
You’ve given me the only thing I ever need
My chains are gone I am free

You are You are the great I am
I’ll never be the same again
You are your are the great I am
I’ll never be the same