October 11th, 2009 ~ Receiving Gifts to Give

Are you using the gifts God gave to share with others?

Today's Scripture:

As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

1 Peter 4:10

Imagine it's your birthday and you go into the kitchen where a number of colored packages stacked on the table. The packages are of all sizes and shapes, but you tear into them eagerly as the members of your family look on. The first one opened, you find a little necklace with a heart on it. It's pretty, but the heart has an inscription: "A discerning heart." You open another package, and in it you find another strange item- a little rocket. It also has an inscription: "Boosting others." Still others read "Teaching," "Helping others," and "Exhortation" (challenging others to be their best).

You continue going through the packages, and suddenly you realize these aren't standard birthday gifts. They are spiritual gifts from heaven. On your spiritual gifts from heaven.

On your spiritual birthday-when you started believing in God - God gave you spiritual gifts.

The gifts are intangible, like the ability to encourage or comfort, the power to teach effectively or preach, the talent for leading or giving or helping in spiritual ways. These are personal packages of abilities, talents, and powers that God gives every person who loves him, but the mix of gifts is individualized so that no two people are exactly alike. No one else can help others in exactly the same way you can. Your gifts help you serve others effectively.

Selah people' and friends God gave you gifts for the purpose of service. Use those gifts. Give the multifaceted goodness of God to others. God will give back to you his grace, love, and joy.

"May we use all the gifts God gave us to help serve and bless others. Perhaps you can begin a new life today."

Your pastor,

Rev Patrick Muston

October 10th,2009 ~ Completely New Inside

Are you ready to allow God to change you from the inside out?

Today's Scripture:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:25-26

Reality TV has made a tremendous impact on viewers. It started with one quite successful show and then seemingly exploded into several viewer favorites. One show depicts house doctors who perform a complete makeover of the dilapidated house of someone who sees no other way of making his or her home a castle. The builders come in, demolish the old house if necessary, and rebuild everything. It's a complete makeover, and in the end some happy homeowners have a whole new property to live in.

This is not just a TV show, but also a picture of what happens to people when God changes them from the inside out. Picture God giving a person a "new heart."

God removes the hard, useless, willful, and disobedient heart and puts in its place a new model - healthy and beautiful, perfectly attuned to God and pliant.

This heart wants to obey God, follow his commands, and live out his plans. It is completely devoted to God.

That's what happened to you when you first started walking toward God. Maybe you fought with addictions, bad habits, and wrong attitudes that you couldn't stop. But God offered you hope. He made you over from the inside out. You are still you, and your personality is intact. But the attitudes, ideas, outlooks, and thoughts that fill your mind are different, new, life-giving, and life-enhancing. You are a new person.

Selah people' and friends no matter how much remodeling you need at any point, you can become new with God's presence and help. He changes people from the inside out.

"Make an extreme commitment to Christ and allow him to make that change in you that you've been unable to change yourself."

Your pastor,

Rev Patrick Muston ~Via mobile: The Friendly City by the Sea...Swansboro, NC

October 9, 2009 ~ Working on Your Masterpiece

How can you build your faith today?

Are you looking for the blocks

that will build you into a new creation?

Today's Scripture:

Because you have these blessings, do your best to add these things to your lives: to your faith, add goodness; and to your goodness, add knowledge.

2 Peter 1:5

In 1932, a carpenter began to use his off-season to make children's toys. Pretty soon, the toys were selling so well that he dropped the carpentry business. One of his creations is on of America's all-time favorite toys - something you probably played with when you were a child: LEGO construction toys. The object of LEGO is that you attach plastic bricks to other plastic bricks and keep adding more bricks to the previously laid bricks until you build a wonderful masterpiece.

What a good analogy of a woman or man's spiritual life. As a Christian strives to be closer to God, and to be more like him, we are building. Our foundation is having a relationship with God as we place are faith in him. On top of our faith, a woman builds goodness - she develops qualities such as decency, morality, and kindness.

To make our faith more well-rounded and effective, a woman or man adds knowledge - they study the Bible and learn more about God.

Building faith doesn't come automatically, so a person has to work at it sometimes. You can have fun as you look for ways to be examples of God's goodness here on earth. And you can enjoy learning more about God and his grace and his love for people. It might even be as rewarding and enjoyable as, well, as building something with LEGO bricks. For you it may be dancing for Jesus "My Number One", It may be singing alone or with a friend or group just for him "Blessed Be the Name", it may be just being all that he created you to be and allowing him to use your gifts to build up others.

Selah people' and friends as you move through your life today, look for ways to build your faith. Have your own spiritual treasure hunt, looking for those blocks that will make you stronger and more beautiful than ever.

"May the God of yesterday, today and tomorrow be your foundation as we build ourselves and others up in Christ Jesus."

Your pastor,

Rev Patrick Muston ~ Via mobile: Mount Olive, NC

October 8th, 2009 ~ The Straight Scoop

God doesn't need to offer 32 flavors...He gives us the strait scoop every time!

Today's Scripture:

Jesus Said, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.

John 16: 33

When you want to calm people's anxiety, elaborating on their current problems and then reminding them that more trouble is headed their way is usually not the recommended modus operandi. But that's exactly the approach Jesus took with his disciples at the Last Supper. He explained that he would be leaving them, that there was a betrayer in their midst, and that all of them would abandon him in his time of need. Jesus told the disciples they'd be hated and persecuted and would even face death because of their faith in him.

Jesus' telling his disciples to "be of good cheer" after all of this sounds like a coach telling his losing team to "look on the bright side." However, in ancient Greek telling someone to "cheer up" was not a verbal pat on the back. It meant to take courage in the face of danger.

Jesus didn't offer his closest friends pessimistic predictions or optimistic platitudes. He simply told them the truth.

Part of that truth was that both peace and victory could be theirs even when the world seemed to be falling apart all around them. Jesus challenged his disciples to be over comers rather than to be overcome by their problems. Just like the disciples, you will have trouble in this life. Jesus guaranteed it. However, by focusing on God's power, promises, and presence in your life, you, too, can find the courage and comfort you need to face any trouble that comes your way.

Selah people' and friends the Bible never sugar-coat the fact that life isn't easy. Its overall message, however, is one of hope and healing. You can always trust God to be honest about the good and the bad.

"May we listen to what God has to say good or bad and praise Him for the "Straight Scoop" each and every day."

Your pastor,

Rev Patrick Muston ~ Via mobile: Mount Olive, NC

October 7, 2009- The Hand That Steadies The Plate...

http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=acb9bc99fea1ba5eb0fe

"Wonderful story of true love. To see through the mess of others just as Christ does for us all."

http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=60928caa552278feef5e

This woman defines "Holy Boldness" and exemplifies one being ready and armed with the word of God.

God works in us in through us in so may ways. How has God used you lately?

Are you ready at any time and in any place...how about Wal-Mart?


Rev Patrick Muston, Pastor
Selah Christian Church Disciples of Christ
Four Oaks, NC

October 5th, 2009 ~ Tempered For Transformation

When we like the metal of a sword are tempered God gives us new strength!

Today's Scripture:

When we were baptized, we were buried with Christ and shared his death. So, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the wonderful power of the father, we also can live a new life.

Romans 6:4

My fraternity ΣAE brother, college football teammate and friend Warrior Host and Special Forces Veteran Terry Schappert shared some wonderful examples of both weapons and men that were tempered by being put in the fire either literally or the fire of battle and those weapons as in ancient Greece, when the metal smith "baptized" hot iron by dipping it into water. This act tempered the metal, strengthening it and helping set the specific shape the smith had chosen for the iron to take. In some respects, that's what baptism does for those who believe in God. It tempers them. It helps strengthen how closely they identify with God and their new form of life in a public yet personal way.

The New Testament records many instances of baptism, including Jesus' own baptism in the Jordan River. That's what early Christians did.

Early Christians were immersed in water as an outward sign of the inward change God had brought into their lives.

Time and again in Scripture, one of the first things people did after choosing to believe in God was to ask to be baptized. They wanted to demonstrate to God and to those around them that they were serious about their new found faith. As you and I reflect on this thought today I must ask "Are you serious about your faith?" and "have you been to the water?" Today is yet another opportunity to do so and if you have already been "baptized" in whatever form do you remember what it was all about and are you living out what God has shaped you to be?

Baptism is a symbolic illustration of what Jesus went through to bring about your new spiritual life. Being lowered into the water symbolizes Jesus' death and burial in a tomb. Being raised from the water is a picture of Jesus rising from the dead and beginning a new kind of life, one that doesn't end in death. According to the Bible, baptism doesn't wash away your sins or gain you entrance into heaven. I remind each person young or old that I have opportunity to participate in this solemn act. What it does however is demonstrate your desire to fully live the life God created you to live.

Selah people' and friends different churches have different traditions about how and when people are baptized. Why you want to be baptized, and not the method in which your baptism takes place, is what matters to God. Our true baptism is in the spirit of an everlasting God.

"Join me today in rising up to be the instrument that God has created you to be and may we complete great things in His Holy name."

Your pastor,

Rev Patrick Muston ~ Mount Olive, NC