Sweet Smell of Success

I just love it when things go well - as Matt Redman sings -

blessed be Your Name
when the sun's shining down on me
when the world's all as it should be....

But how do we respond to the success in our life - Jim Collins just wrote a good book - How the Mighty Fall that deals with companies and how they fell or died after having had success. There are a lot of great parallels for Christ followers in this material as well.

This Sunday - we wrap up the Survivor series as we deal with Surviving Success and we also find out who will win Survivor Horizons.

Visit the Horizons Facebook page and let us know how you handle success or what was your recent success.

Talk at you soon

Rich

How to Handle Conflict

One of the best questions we can ever ask ourselves about any situation we are facing is - Am I responding to this situation in a way that God can bless?



First, let me say how much I love Horizons Church and it's people - that mean you :)



We are so blessed as a church by so many wonderful people who serve, pray, support, encourage and give their best for God and for their fellow friends who attend Horizons.



However, for all of us there will come a time when there will be conflict - do you know that the Bible even teaches us how to respond to conflict in a way that will honor God - join us this Sunday to discover how.



Also - go to our facebook page and join in the discussion of how you have handled conflict - you can click this link - or visit the updated Horizons family page on our website and click on the message board button.





Talk at you soon.



Rich

It's not whether you win or lose...

...its how you play the game. In the game of life, we have to make decisions in the moment. That moment is often defined by how we have lived our past; how we have surrendered those ugly parts of ourselves to His grace and sought the power of His wisdom to learn from those experiences and to build a moral warehouse that will serve us well in that moment of decision. This Sunday, I kick off a new series that will use the TV show Survivor as a backdrop to talk a look at what the Bible teaches us about playing the game of life, dealing with conflict, disappointment, and even success.

Also, Happy Mother's Day to all of our wonderful moms. Walking through the hallway at our facility this morning, I was able to view some of our moms gathered and supporting each other during the MOPS(Mother's of pre-schoolers) meeting. I will have a special Survivor themed game for a couple of moms in each service.

Talk at you soon.

Pastor Rich

New Day

Wow! this past Sunday was truly awesome. For me personally but prayerfully for many others as they made a decision to start a new journey. It is a journey that is without absolute certainty except that God has a plan. God has a plan and purpose for each of us.

I think one of the biggest challenges we find facing the church (its people) is that they don't believe they can or that they could be a spiritual hero. We almost always think of those in the bible and the stories we hear about others as someone that we could not be. Yet upon further review we see that the heroes of bible are just human beings. There has been only one Jesus..the Son of God. Everbody else is on the same playing field.

Sunday I felt with all sincerity that God had called me to lay a challenge before the congregation to understand the call, and to answer it. My encouragement is not to give any excuses about culture, past, skills, education, career, or anything else. The simplicity is also the complexity..it is just go...Take a step. See where and what all that God will do in life.

To everyone that felt the Holy Spirit tug on their heart to start a New Day with new perspective to take on a new Journey. Get ready ..Pray that "God use me" prayer and then start to look for opportunities for they will come. God will and wants to use you to expand His Kingdom.

Be blessed and be a blessing,

Pastor Jay