Our First Communion

Have you ever been STRESSED OUT? Maybe I should rephrase, are you STRESSED OUT? Stress is something that we all have…way too much. I like what Winston Churchill said about stress, “When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.” I find that it is very seldom the big things that stress me out. I have never worried for any length of time about whether our house will catch on fire or if I will get caught in a hurricane or if my tire will blow on I-70 (now that I mention it, I probably should check my tires ☺).

Do you want to know what gets to me? The little things: a pile of bills, a list of small tasks, a dirty car, a mind that is working to remember all the things I haven’t written down, etc. etc.

This may be a stretch, but imagine the feeling that you have when you get a whole bunch of little details done and somehow hit delete in your brain and you feel totally liberated from the to do list.

In a unique way this is what we are going to do on Sunday when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. We have planned the service for you to have time to reflect on your own spirituality during the past weeks. There will be time to read Scripture, sing, listen, pray and then remember the fact that Jesus allowed His body to be broken and His blood to be shed.

Often we fail to find or make time to really focus in on our own spiritual life. This is one reason why God has commanded us to partake in the Lord’s Supper…to remember Him. There are so many times in our hectic lives that we fail to remember Him and each time is another mark on the list. The Lord’s Supper provides an opportunity for Him to erase all the times we forgot God in our daily lives and then remember Him together as a church family.

If you are reading this and are not sure about the Lord’s Supper, you do not have to participate. In fact, it is much better not to participate than to participate unprepared. There are several great passages that you can read to prepare for the service. I suggest reading Matthew 26:17-30 as well as 1 Corinthians 11:23-34.

We will also have the “Church Charter” available after the service to sign if you would like to be a member. This will be available to sign during the entire month of July for those that agree with the doctrinal statement and church covenant.

I hope you have a “New Life” day….the way life is meant to be!!!
Troy

Confessions

It has been said, “Confession is good for the soul.” So here goes…I have a disease called “selective hearing disorder.” Although, this is not life threatening, it does take its toll on me. It can be dangerous, for instance, there was the time when I had just settled into the couch after a long day, my whole body had just relaxed, Sports center had just returned from a commercial break, and all of a sudden I hear (I mean, I don’t really hear it…it could be that squeaky garage door or maybe even something from next door…) a scream from upstairs that sounds an awful lot like S-P-I-D-E-R.

Now I have been through this drill before….Leigh-Ann sees a spider. In reality (I hope you are reading this Honey) the spider has probably been there all day and will continue to be there until I get up to go to bed. In addition, I think spiders are valuable…maybe in the time it takes me to get up there, the spider will have a few more minutes to catch a few more smaller insects in its web. So after careful consideration, I make the decision. Due to the fact that I am not completely sure I heard Leigh-Ann (99.9% is not completely sure) and even if in fact it was Leigh-Ann, by stalling I could help her in the long run by allowing the spider to trap more insects, I decide to wait.

By now I have totally lost track of Sports Center and am holding my breath waiting for the next loud T-R-O-Y (usually this is within 5-10 seconds depending on the size of the spider). This is where my disease (selective hearing disorder) can become dangerous J. So I have learned a few coping mechanisms. This may be helpful if you have ever experienced some of these same symptoms.

First, I become very involved in what I am doing (back to Sports Center). Then I get really comfortable (one ear against a pillow) and start to doze off. When Leigh-Ann comes down the stairs looking for me I wait until she is right next to me and then sort of jump awake. This buys me some time to think of a way to dart upstairs and kill the spider before getting killed J (If you are still reading this Honey…I love you). Once the spider has been disposed of Leigh-Ann is so relieved she will forget to ask why I couldn’t hear her. This is fine because “selective hearing disorder” is hard to explain as you can see.


Wow! I feel good now that is off my chest. So good that I think I will preach on it Sunday. Not exactly “selective hearing disorder,” but a strain of it that affects our spiritual life. Often we know what the right thing to do is and we fail to do it. Just like me on the couch we think of excuses and then rationalize our failures.

Jesus told his disciples in John 4:34, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” Jesus was committed to a life of obedience. Without getting any further into the sermon for Sunday, I encourage you to spend some time reading from John 4:31-42. I also hope that you will join me in praying for God to work in our lives as we study His teaching.

I hope you have a “New Life” day….the way life is meant to be!!!
Troy

Father's Day

I am pumped!!! Tonight, Leigh-Ann, Alexa, Sophia and I are going to pick up our refurbished “Barbie 4-Wheeler.” A few weeks ago, a friend gave us this kid-sized, pink and white beauty. It just needed a new battery….soooo after speaking to Herb (a regular Jack of all Trades) I found that he had experience fixing kid-sized 4-wheelers.

But, he doesn’t just fix them….he makes them better. He upgrades them to Hot-Rod status….He changes the wiring unit, so the 4-wheeler can use a lawnmower battery with much higher cranking amps (translation: it goes fast). This is cool for so many reasons:

• Since I was very young, I dreamed of having one of these cars…now I can relive my childhood days through the girls.
• I am very confident we (Campbell racing) will beat anyone who decides to race us (including her older, boy cousins ☺)…watch out Danica Patrick.
• With the extra torque we can pull a trailer and maybe I can train them to pick up all the sticks in the yard.
• The new battery is able to go for hours at a time without needing a charge so even when the girls get tired, I can take the pink and white beauty out for a spin.
• Before Herb changed out the battery, it was dead…it had the components to move….wheels, accelerator, brakes (I hope), etc. but without a battery it was useless. He made something that was worthless, useful.

How does this relate to Sunday???

Well, it is Father’s day, so you never know what kind of stories I will share. We are also going to continue our discussion about the woman at the well. Here is where the similarities begin. We discovered last week that she was a useless, lonely outcast that Jesus took time to befriend. He then offered her “Living Water.” She was confused at first and then after realizing that He was the Messiah, she gratefully accepted.

She experienced firsthand the joy that can come when Jesus gives us New Life. The “Living Water” makes us completely new from the inside out. Our old sinful heart is replaced with a new heart that has different values. Christ offers New Life to each of us no matter our background. This is truly the greatest news in the world (even better than a new 4-wheeler). God is offering the gift of salvation through His son Jesus and when we accept this gift He accepts us as His child. What an incredible way to celebrate Father’s day…with a new Heavenly Father.

I hope you will plan to worship and learn with us on Sunday at 10:45am. If you cannot come, the sermons are available on our resource page.

I close with a thought from John 4:23, “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.” God is pursuing you to worship Him!!!

I hope you all have a great weekend and I hope that you will pray with me for God to do great things in the lives of all who are a part of “New Life.”

Troy

Obey your Thirst

Image is Nothing, Thirst is Everything, Obey your Thirst… This is Sprite's marketing mantra. The message is to drink Sprite, not for the image, but because of the taste. Now I am not a marketing genius, however if I am going to drink for the taste, I would probably choose something better than carbonated sugar water with a touch of lemon.

Not to burst any marketing genius's bubbles (no pun intended), but as refreshment, soda is soda. It won't make you feel anything more than filled up with sweet water that fizzes. It won't pay your bills, save your marriage, solve world hunger, or promote world peace.

These must have been the thoughts (well maybe not exactly…J) that raced through the mind of the Samaritan woman in John 4:13-14 when Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Jesus was promising that His water (even though He did not have a bucket with which to draw water and He was physically thirsty Himself) would save relationships, solve world-sized problems, promote world peace and a plethora of other things.

Sunday, the sermon will be from John 4:1-15 and it is entitled, "The Ministry of Christ-Life Touching Life." We will take an in depth look at the story behind the story of the woman at the well. We will analyze her frame of reference and look at the way in which Jesus was able to touch her life-eternally.

I invite you to join with the group in this historical discourse that has obvious application for today. I also remind you to spend some time reading the Scripture passage and in prayer to prepare for worship. I can't wait to see you on Sunday!

Blessings!
Troy

Meeting Needs

It was in 1943 that Thomas Watson, the founder of IBM, observed of computers that there would only be a need for three or four in the whole world, a prediction which Big Blue itself (and various others!) went on to show to be completely false. And presently, the number of computers across the world is beyond counting. They are an integral part of the fabric of life as we know it today.

Why are computers so important?

They meet different neesd that we all have…some of us have a need to read e-mails, manage our calendar or contacts, find information on the web, write a word document, edit a movie or probably millions of others needs.

Computers are valuable because they meet a need!!!

At New Life we do not exist to sell computers, HOWEVER we do have something that meets the need of every person alive today. Our target audience is literally worldwide. We have the Gospel that will change lives. Blaise Pascal said “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”

Today, we had a great time sharing after school snacks with people of all ages and backgrounds at the Chouteau Projects. Whether it was the single dad raising a special needs daughter by himself and trying to stay away from all the bad influences in his life or the Muslim family of 13 from Somalia or the grade school kids with no parents home or the teenagers literally looking for trouble….they all have a need for the transformational power of the Gospel.

Not only do the people all around us have a need for our Gospel message, we all have a need for them. We need different types of people in our lives to encourage our personal spiritual growth. We need to see them though eyes of compassion as Jesus saw the multitudes. We need to take a few steps in their shoes. We need to hear their stories and feel their pain. God has called us to learn from them as He has also called us to share with them. As New Lifers, we should always be humble enough to learn from anyone and bold enough to share with anyone and as we do we will be the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This Sunday I am preaching from John 3:22-36 on “The Glory of Christ: Life expressing life.” We will see firsthand how our Christian walk affects the way we view and treat others who are successful. Through God’s grace we can not only walk in newness of life we can also express newness of life. I hope you will be able to join us for the service. If for some reason you are not able to attend we are posting the sermons on the website www.newlifekc.org under “resources.”

Announcements to remember:

• This Sunday night we invite everyone interested in church membership to join us for our first of four membership sessions from 6:00 – 7:00pm. We will spend approximately 25 minutes discussing the details of membership and then we will spend the remaining time in prayer.

• Our Wednesday evening Bible studies will transition to the topic of discipleship. We will spend the month of June studying discipleship through the four genre’s in the New Testament (Gospels-narrative, Acts-transitional, Epistles-practical, Revelation-prophetic). After completing this four week study we will take a break for July 4 and then on July 11 we will begin our first 40 Day journey together. This can also be found on our website under resources and then discipleship.

• July 1, 2007 is the date we have set to be our “Charter Sunday.” We are planning to observe the “Lords Supper” during the morning service and also invite all who agree to the church covenant to sign the charter as initial members.

I hope you all have a great weekend and I hope that you will pray with me for God to do great things in the lives of all who are a part of “New Life.”

I close with the words of Paul to his close friend Philemon in verses 4-6 of that Epistle, “I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and all the saints, and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.”

Troy