Listening to K-Love on the radio in the car the other day I heard a story about a little boy and a school of starfish that I would like to share.

The story goes that there was a little boy at the beach and an older gentleman noticed the boy would walk two or three steps, stop, pick something up and throw it in the ocean. After the old man noticed the boy do this for several minutes he went over and asked him what he was doing. The boy explained that he kept finding starfish on the beach and he was “saving” the starfish by putting them back in the water. The old man stopped the little boy, pointed forward to show him that there were starfish lining the beach as far as they could see and said he should quit because he couldn’t make a difference anyway. The little boy stopped for a moment, took a step, picked up another starfish, put it back in the ocean and then looked at the old man and said, “Well, I made a difference to that one.”

As the Parable of the Lost Sheep teaches us, God’s love for each of us is so great that He seeks out each one of us individually and rejoices when we are saved.  Before you were a believer, God sought you because you are worthwhile. God loved us so much that He sent His one and only son to die on the cross for each of us individually. Can you imagine Jesus looking at your life and saying, “Well, I made a difference to that one!”

As Christians, we need to show the love of Christ by having a heart like the little boy in the “starfish story”.

 

Those who have served well gain an excellent standing and great assurance in their faith in Christ Jesus. 1 Tim 3:13

Today the eldership brings before the family at Summit the names of three men to serve as deacons.

-Steve Proctor, his wife Candy and their 3 children, Gage, Maddox, and Morgan.  Steve is currently directing our education ministry.

-Jim Painter, his wife Carissa and their 2 children, Eli and Alexa.  Jim is currently running our special events and taking care of our fellowship meals.

-Jimmy Hutchings, his wife Laura and their 2 children, Caleb and Cade.  Jimmy is currently our safety coordinator.

1 Tim 3:8-11 Deacons, likewise, are to be men worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine and not pursuing dishonest gain.  They must keep hold of the deep truths of the Faith with a clear conscience.  They first must be tested and then if there is nothing against them, let them serve as Deacons.  In the same way, their wives are to be women worthy of respect, not malicious talkers but temperate and trustworthy in everything.

Brothers and Sisters, as you can see by these four verses we have selected three good men.  These three also have faithful wives and have children who love the Lord.  We have been through this process for the last four months interviewing and talking with several men from our congregation.   Some felt they had other commitments that would not allow them to fully serve at this time. After much prayer, we feel these three men are worthy to be Summit’s next Deacons.

If you are in opposition of any of these men holding the position of deacon at this time, we ask you to write your concerns in letter form and give it to the Elders before 8/24. If there are no objections, we will appoint these men during our Sunday morning worship on August 25th.

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, SERVING THE LORD. Rom 12:11

 

Do you have days when you start your spiritual race strong but then trip along the way? Many of God’s greatest have stumbled along the way.

• Moses when he murdered a man.
  • David when he committed adultery and had the
  husband murdered.
  • Peter when he denied Jesus THREE times.
  • Judas when he betrayed Jesus.
  • And the chosen disciples when they fled.

Tripping along the way should not be the final chapter of your spiritual story. For Judas Iscariot – it was. So, how do you stop Vacillating so that you can be
Victorious?

1. Pray for strength and guidance (lead us not into
   temptation but deliver us from evil).
   2. Pay attention to your attitude by getting enough SLEEP & EXERCISE – and by EATING
   correctly and MEDITATING on God’s word.
   3. Take preventative action. Know yourself – learn to recognize your weaknesses:
   a. What places should you avoid?
   b. What happens to you emotionally when you are “triggered”?
   4. When tempted, do you use the Sword of the Spirit by quoting it to yourself?
   5. Do you have an accountability partner of the same gender (James 5:16)?
   6. Are you continually repenting and confessing?

Friend, Peter, and the Apostles finished strong – and so must we!

 

I Peter 4:10 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Jesus made it clear in the parable of the talents that the Master has blessed us all with talents and we need to be using them.  The servant who hid his talent was called “wicked and lazy” by the master and was cast into “outer darkness.”  The servants who used their talents were called “good and faithful” and were told to enter the “joy of the master.”   Jesus followed up that parable with a description of judgment day.  For those who saw people in need and served them, they shall inherit eternal life.  But those who did not serve the least of those in need, they shall go away into eternal punishment.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 4 that Christ gave gifts to all those in the church.  These gifts are to be used to equip God’s people and build up the church.  In verse 16, Paul said that when each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the who body (the church) is healthy and full of love.

It was great to see so many young people discovering new talents, learning how to use them and serving the community.  It was a week filled with lessons for life in learning, working and serving.  We can all be encouraged by this group of young people who spent a week of their summer learning and serving.  Even more, we should all be inspired by them to use our talents in serving our community even more.

Thank you to all who taught, shared, served and helped in any way to make the Summit Servants Week of Service a success.

 

The wife and I have temporarily banned ourselves from Amazon. We find it just too easy to spend on this platform. I really liked the “One Click” buy button. It was so convenient. Need some coffee? Just click the button. Need an extension for the power washer? Just click the button. And for the most part, we didn’t receive “cheap Chinese” junk either. The products were usually good. And if perchance we were not 100% happy – guess what – we just sent it back.

Sinning is even easier. It could be just a look and a thought. As Jesus said in Matthew 5:28 (ESV) — But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

As a result, in this world, we have a constant war between guilt and grace. This battle will last until we breathe our last breath. And it is precisely this battle that will keep us moving forward towards perfection (Mt. 5:48) and our Heavenly Home.

But we are in danger when we get rid of guilt through redefining or denying sinful behavior. Rather we should keep making amends through confession, repentance, and restitution.

Friend, would you consider banning yourself from the contaminants in this world because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Pt. 1:16).

 

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. – James 1:22

These two trees are identical in almost every way.  They are planted only a few feet apart, have the same amount of sun and water, are the same age, same species and are planted in the same awful soil.  Yet one is full and green in the heat of summer and the other is withered and mostly brown.  During the spring, there is no discernible difference in the trees.  So, what is going on with them?  To be honest, I have no idea.  But I see two lessons for the Christian in these two trees.

First, we should understand that we can’t reliably tell what is going on inside a person’s life.  The person may appear to be thriving in every area of life yet be on the brink of withering away.  As Christian family we need to be open with our brothers and sisters about our struggles before the leaves fall off.  Even lush trees encounter drought and disease.

Second, we should take care to always be cultivating our spiritual health through the spiritual disciplines in our lives.  Time in prayer and Bible study plus active engagement in worship and a ministry of the church triggers growth in the roots that sustain us in Christ.  When inevitable crisis comes into our lives, we need all our spiritual strength to overcome.

If your spiritual leaves are falling, please ask for help from your brothers and sisters or the elders directly.  I don’t care very much what happens to that tree, but the value of your soul is the blood of Jesus.  Daryl, Billy and I love every member at Summit and will help you anytime.

 

There are times that sitting in pews are convenient. However, that is not the way it was with Jesus and His 12 disciples when they sat down for their last Passover Meal (John 13). They were sitting in a circle – and that meant, nothing was hidden.

 

A mere six days earlier Jesus is in Bethany – at the house of His good friends. After supper, Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with very expensive ointment – and everyone notices. Now, this was a good thing – and you would think everyone was thinking good thoughts. But noooo, one of the twelve, Judas, goes to thinking obnoxious thoughts about this precious event (John 12:3-11). The point is, when you sit in a circle, you are vulnerable. Very little is hidden. And what is revealed will either illicit good or bad fruit.

 

You can come to church, sit down in a pew, and for years no one will notice that you have a love for VERY COLORFUL SOCKS. But, sit down in a circle, and all will be revealed. Similarly, stinky feet. Surely, at least one of Jesus’ close friends had VERY STINKY FEET. I can imagine that everyone knew who it was. And that everyone observed with dread as the first foot escaped, wiggled free from the hot clammy confines of the sandal – and then the second followed that scandalous path.

 

Surely all who observed were focused more on the obnoxious aroma than their precious Passover meal with Jesus. But Jesus was certainly not imbibing in this cup of stinking thinking. Instead, He puts on the clothes of a slave and approaches that obnoxious foot. Gently, He takes the most despicable part of mankind and carefully washes off our stinking shame. He repeats these washings 24 times.

 

1 Corinthians 6:9–11 (ESV) — ⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

 

Judas revealed his heart to be in line with Satan, the “accuser of the brethren”. Friend, this ought not to be so with us. We have been cleansed. So, the next time the imperfections of the brethren are revealed, be kind by keeping your focus where it needs to be.

 

Recently Carson and Tristan started pitching lessons to prepare for their first kids pitch league later this fall. For an hour one day a week for the four weeks they will go to pitching “training camp”. During the lesson they went through a series of drills teaching them proper pitching mechanics and throwing motion to improving their performance.

1 Timothy 4:7-8 (NLT) “⁷Do no waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives’ tales. Instead, train yourself to be godly. ⁸Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”

As a great amount of training is needed for athletic activities, so too we must train diligently for the Christian life. Such training takes time, dedication, energy and continued practice.

As we must repeat exercises to stay in shape or improve our performance, so we must steadily repeat spiritual exercises to be spiritually fit. When we do this, we become better Christians and live according to God’s will. We must all commit ourselves to the Christian life. Such a life will be considered blessed in both this life and the life to come.