^{Ezekiel 12:25} – “But I the LORD will speak what I will, and it shall be fulfilled without delay. For in your days, you rebellious house, I will fulfill whatever I say, declares the Sovereign LORD.”

There are often times when we actually believe that God needs us to carry out His plan.  Do we not yet know and understand the sovereignty of God?  God will always do exactly what He says He will do!  When we try to impose our plans upon God’s plans, we will surely fail and God can not and will not use us.  The amount of talent that you have been given does not matter to God.  All that matters to God is your heart!  God will greatly use someone with no talents and a huge heart, but He will not use someone with many talents and no heart for His will.  God does NOT need you and your talents, but he WANTS you to use your talents for His will and His glory!  As part of a church plant, God is going to fulfill everything He has promised with or without the people He has brought to do the job.  I am amazed and awed at my Sovereign God!  The way He uses people with little talent to do huge things to help grow His kingdom is simply astounding!  There have been many times along the way where we forget how God is in total control and does not need us at all.  We say, “How is this going to happen without ____?”  God says, “Oh you of little faith, sit back and watch!”  Come be a part of what God has promised He will do here at The Grove Church!  It’s an exciting time to see how God works.  We get to see His sovereignty each week, and nothing can compare to Him!

As I write this blog, I’m thinking of what the Labor Day holiday represents for those who labor for our country. It was started for the union movement to help workers represent their needs so that employers won’t take advantage of them. My dad believed in unions. As a matter of fact, this past summer he was voted in as Vice President of IBEW local 605 . When compared to the kingdom of God, we as believers in Christ are to labor for the kingdom. Know that the bible says works wont get us into Heaven, but only faith can in Jesus Christ. We know that God took a break on the seventh day in Genesis and He says we also should rest. But remember, we as Christians should be laboring for the kingdom with the strength of Christ for “I can do all thing in Christ who strengthens me.” While this does not mean we can jump over a building, we can retrieve strength through Christ when we are doing something for Him. I hope you all have a good Labor Day and God bless!

Care Pastor
Will Parsons

Whether you like it or not, from the time we are born until the time we die, we go through shifts in life. Some that we can mark are junior high, then high school, then its time for most of us to leave the nest and start a career or go to college.  This shift can be very awkward, because for the first time in our life we are putting what we learned from the time we’re born and making it practical.  Then there is young adulthood when it’s the time most people get married -  which is a big step in someone’s life.  Then come children, grandchildren, then eventually death. However, what makes your shifts in life come easier is having Christ with you.  You see, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; but Jesus has come that we may have life, and have it to the full.  In reality, the life of  a christian is not easy. The Bible speaks of persecution and believers losing their life.   The difference is not having an easier life, but having Jesus with you in the hard times.  So whats your choice?  Are you going to give up every thing, ask Christ to forgive you of your sin and save you, and live the shifts of life with His help?

^{Hebrews 9:27-28}

²⁷Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Since last week I have thought over and over about death.  Everyone here on earth has one thing in common:  we will all die to these physical bodies.  Last week, a good friend of mine lost his grandmother.  She was 82 years old, weak and feeble.  Also last week, someone I never met died.  Yeardley Love, a lacrosse player from UVA.  She was 22 years old, healthy and vibrant.  Though the circumstances for my friend’s grandmother and Yeardley Love’s death were very different, they have both met their appointment with death and have now faced the judgement.  Everything I have known and read about both of these individuals have indicated they were both amazing people.  Both were kindhearted and strong women who loved other people.  I pray that both of these women had a relationship with Jesus Christ for our works cannot save us when we reach the judgement seat.  Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”  I believe each of these women’s lives meant something!  I believe we can learn from both of them.  I believe both of them taught us how to live our life, and I believe both have taught us something about death.  It is my prayer that the lives these women lived touch the hearts of people everywhere and through their deaths many will come to a relationship with Jesus Christ! 

So here’s the best part about death.  Christ was sacrificed unto death, but overcame death so that we can be saved from our sins (sin is what causes us to die in the first place).  For those of us who trust in Christ to save us; we will live!  We will die to this physical body, but we will live eternally.  I think back to November when my grandmother was put to rest.  What a blessing to know for certain that she had a relationship with Jesus Christ!  It was so much easier to say goodnight to her than it would have been to say goodbye.  I know I will see my grandmother again one day.  It hurts to lay a loved one to rest and not be able to speak to them and see them everyday.  However, it’s comforting to know that they are living with Jesus!  It’s soothing to know that they are not in pain and do not struggle.  How I long for the day that the troubles of this world pass.  I know when I die, I will enter into a better place because I have a relationship with Jesus Christ!  It’s amazing to know that Jesus died so that my friend’s grandmother can live, Yeardley can live, my grandmother can live, you can live, and I can live!  The lives of each of these people have meant something!  Maybe it was to show you how to live.  Maybe it was to help you think deeper about what happens after death.  Please think about death and what happens when you die.  This life on earth is temporary.  We don’t even know when our time is up.  Although this life is temporary, when we die life becomes eternal.  Only through the grace of Jesus will we spend eternity with Him!  Where will you spend eternity and why will you spend it there?

Spring is my favorite time of the year, especially this year it seems.  After a very cold and dreary winter, I have looked with great anticipation for springtime to arrive.  Well it is finally here! PTL!!!!

What I love about Spring is the warmer weather, the beautiful bluebird days, and most of all, the new life I see in nature as the grass becomes green, the trees begin to bud, and flowers begin to bloom after being dormant throughout the cold days of Winter.  I usually begin to look forward to the arrival of Spring shortly after the New Year.  As January and February drag by filled with their cold gray rainy days, my desire for the warm balmy days of Spring grows greater and greater.  With each passing day, I hope to see an early arrival of springtime weather.  But, no matter how long the winter or how cold and bleak the days may be, I know that Spring is coming.  I am sure of its arrival because that is the way God designed it to be.  I know as the winter draws closer and closer to an end, that soon warm weather will replace the cold, and new life will replace the grip of death winter has had on nature.

We have the hope of another Sping coming as well, when God wraps up the disease of death caused by sin and replaces it with the new heaven and the new earth.  The Apostle Paul spoke of this coming renewal:

Romans 8: 18-25 (NLT)

¹⁸Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later. ¹⁹For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. ²⁰Against its will, everything on earth was subjected to God’s curse. ²¹All creation anticipates the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. ²²For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³And even we Christians, although we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, also groan to be released from pain and suffering. We, too, wait anxiously for that day when God will give us our full rights as his children, including the new bodies he has promised us. ²⁴Now that we are saved, we eagerly look forward to this freedom. For if you already have something, you don’t need to hope for it. ²⁵But if we look forward to something we don’t have yet, we must wait patiently and confidently.

I don’t know about you, but I am patiently and confidently waiting with a springtime hope for this coming renewal of heaven, earth, and of those of us who are a part of the eternal kingdom of God.  Are you sure that you are a part of God’s kingdom? Are you certain of your salvation?  If not, now is the time to get ready.  Springtime (God’s renewal) is just around the corner.