THE HARDER IT GETS

Jack Thompson, our family's long time pastor shared a lesson with my Father many years ago about human behavior, our "fallen state" and what happens when we get older. Dad shared with me this week a story and since this coming week is Father's Day, I wanted to share a lesson I learned from my dad. It was from a message about the most famous author of the New Testament, the Apostle Paul. 

Paul was an incredible follower and wrote more books than any other disciple/apostle in the entire New Testament.  His words are so powerful and the truism of how "hard life can get" even when you do the best you can to follow God really is something worth studying his writings.

This unique follower of Jesus, Paul shared that he was the "least among the apostles" and later in life called himself, "chief of sinners".  What was Paul trying to say to all of us.  The older you get, the harder it gets to follow God, the more you realize how much you need Jesus, His mercy and His love.  No, its not about how life gets easier, but about the more we find out, the more we know, the more we learn when we are surrendered, the more we recognize how important our relationship with Jesus really is.

Our senior pastor when I am in Oklahoma City, Craig Groeschel from Lifechurch is preaching on the Christian Athiest this month. This is a book he wrote several years ago about a real lifestyle of faith.  His message on Sunday pointedly talked about how we can know someone, but not really KNOW them.  The question for each of us is do we really KNOW Him or just know about Him?  I believe if we know and have a relationship with God, talk to God on a regular basis, reach out to Him with our adoration, our petitions and our worship we will live differently.

Paul was tormented wasn't he?  He would say, "Why do I do the things I do and not do the things I should do?" Yet, he had gone through a major transformation when he gave his life to God on the Road to Damascus.  Because Paul dealt in REALITY. He was real.  This week, Coach Hoffman at Mercer shared with me that the WORD for the basketball season next year is REAL.  I do believe its time to be real.

Each and every day we can live in truth, in Veritas or we can live life under a mask, not dealing with reality. Christ said, "I am the way, the truth and the life and no man comes to the Father but by me".  Our faith in Christ is more than a religion, its a way to live. Jesus didn't say, "Follow Christians", instead He said, "Follow me!"  So do we follow Him the way we should?  Only you can answer this question.

A final note about THE HARDER IT GETS, I can honestly say THE MORE LOVE YOU WILL FIND IN HIM! I can actually call Jesus MY HEALER because He healed me. Its true, love is the most powerful of all weapons and He loved you and I in a way we never deserved.  The more we can understand His love, the more we can lean into the words of truth found in the scripture.

PRAYER UPDATE

We are happy to report some really wonderful miracles have been happening in the lives of many people our entire team has been praying for and I just want to say "thank you" to all those in the V300 who have been so faithful to undergird each and every prayer request.  Don't stop, this is why being a part of an ONLINE prayer team is so important.  Thank you V300 churches for being faithful, praying for us every week and being so faithful to remember us all in prayer.  

This is an important week in Los Angeles so please remember our team in prayer. We truly believe in the coming months we hope to have some exciting film news. Thank you again for your continued prayers. Please remember to keep our V300 churches in your prayer requests.  Our entire V team is praying for you and hope you enjoy our character study online!

In Veritas,

Kevin