Watching People Drive In to RC

Yesterday was great. It has been wonderful over the last several weeks to see so many new people coming to RC. We are doing our best to be faithful followers of Christ and to do and be about things that matter in our community. This has been the most fun that I have ever had in any church.We continued to look into forgiveness. This has been such a powerful series due to the fact that so many people have been hurt and deal with the bitterness that follows. We are encouraging people not to "drink the poison" of bitterness. Bitter people can not see their bitterness but only their hurt. Everyone else though can see the bitter person that this person has become. There is only one possible answer to keep from becoming bitter and that is to forgive.Forgiveness means that I fully release the offender from Any debt. It means fully cleaning Any record. It is a promise never to bring up the offense against The Person again (to God, to others, or to the offender)Does that mean that the person does not have to pay for what they have done? No! But it does mean that you are not the one to collect or put the person in your personal jail. We must turn over our hurts to God and let Him deal with it.Trusting in God is crucial and Entrusting hurts are vital in not becoming bitter.This is such a big topic and we will continue this Sunday to talk about Forgiven. I hope to see you there.

Forgiven

Forgiven – is the new series at Roane Church. Last week we looked into how God has forgiven us and set us free and now we continue this by approaching forgiveness that comes through our hurts and how we can forgive others. This is a tough subject to teach where many people will definitely think “if they only knew”. People have real hurts and pain but there is no reason for that hurt to make them into a bitter person. We are wading into this issue and asking people to simply consider where they are. Here are some questions to ask:

• I often replay in my mind the incident(s) that hurt me.
• When I think of a particular person or situation, I still feel angry.
• I try hard not to think about the person, event, or circumstance that caused me so much pain.
• I have a subtle, secret desire to see this person pay for what he or she did to me.
• Deep in my heart, I wouldn’t mind if something bad happened to the person(s) who hurt me.
• I often find myself telling others how this person has hurt me.
• A lot of my conversations revolve around this situation.
• Whenever his or her name comes up, I am more likely to say something negative than something positive about him or her.

I struggle in this area and have kept these questions for several years to bring out and put in front of God as a check in my life. I would encourage everyone in light of Easter to realize all that God has forgiven.

Matthew 18 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?'

Spend time today looking at all the ways that He has forgiven you. Come to Roane Church and approach with us this idea of “forgiven” and all that it means. See you Sunday

Easter @ Roane Church

I love Easter! There is an excitement in the air and everyone is ready to come to church.

Romans 8:1 says 1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.”

I feel that we all need to hear this verse and on this Sunday we came to understand that this is the reason that Jesus died and is now raised from the grave. We are free!!! Free from the past, Free to live our lives, and Free to live in love. This passage begins with no condemnation and ends with no separation. This is great!

If no one has told you today that they love you then I want to tell you that God loves you. This is the purpose of Easter!

Kingston Easter Egg Hunt

I can’t tell you how incredible it was to see 26 people from Roane Church painting faces at the community Easter egg hunt. It was absolutely crazy to see the over 3500 plastic eggs spread out at South West Pointe Park. Whoever shot the musket to begin the hunt made be jump out of my skin but what happened next was great. It only took a matter of 3 minutes for those kids to clean the entire field! Wow! The children of our community are beautiful and the happiness on their faces was contagious. We will definitely as a church continue doing these wonderful events and hope that many others will come and join the fun.