It's been a while since I've posted something new on the pastor's notes page.  But with the few minutes I have this morning I wanted to share with you some thoughts from my heart.

The first things I want you to realize is that at the heart of everything we do at Flack Memorial there is a conscious effort to honor God and to please Him.  The bible teaches us:

We make it our goal to please him.  II Corinthians 5:9 NIV

Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.  Hebrews 11:6 NIV

This past Sunday we kicked off a new three month campaign called, "Bridge to the Future."  Throughout the months of July, August and September we are calling our church family to rise up and meet the challenge of raising another $25,000.00 to retire the debt on the property that God provided for us at the corner of Lodwick Lane and Wornall Road that will someday house our new ministry facility.

In the last few days it has occurred to me that one of the missing elements in many of the conversations that I have with people regarding this topic is the absence of faith in God.

Some people think that our goals and the vision for the future of our ministry at Flack Memorial is something that is impossible to accomplish to which I respond it has to be.  For the impossible is the realm in which God works.  If we only attempt the things we are capable of accomplishing then we don't need God and the God we worship is weak and powerless.

Why is it that people from my parent's generation would sing with all their heart, "How Great Thou Art" and the people from my generation sing "How Great is our God" but with our behavior, attitudes and belief discount every word we sing.

His power at work in us can do far more than we dare ask or imagine.

Ephesians 3:20 CEV

Good ideas and talent are not enough to do the work of ministry. 

God does his best work in the most impossible situations. 

The Bible is full of stories that demonstrate that there is nothing to difficult to Him. Faith honors God and God honors faith.

"God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible - what a pity that we plan only the things we can do by ourselves." A. W. Tozer

In recent days I have been on my face before God every possible moment I can find in prayer wanting more than anything to connect with Him in a deeper way in my own personal life. 

I have returned to reading through the writings of E. M. Bounds on prayer.  In his book "The Necessity of Prayer" Bounds writes.

If you have an earnest desire to pray well, you must learn how to obey well.  If you have a desire to learn to pray, then you must have a earnest desire to learn how to do God's will.  If you desire to pray to God, you must first have a consuming desire to obey Him.  The absence of an obedient life makes prayer an empty performance.

There are things that God asks of us.  Whether we choose to do them will define us as faithful and obedient or unfaithful and disobedient.

The majority of people who attend church have never read the Bible for themselves. Without personally knowing God and what His word teaches us we are left with our own ideas, human wisdom and resources that will never be sufficient to do the work that God has commissioned us to.

I urge you during this three month campaign "Bridge to the Future" to pursue God in a new and fresh way in your own life.  Go looking for God in a new way in the pages of the Bible.  Ask God to make you a person of great faith.  Take a trip to our new location at Lodwick Lane and Wornall Road and just sit quietly before the Lord.  In those quiet moments confess sins in your life that God points out to you. 

Talk to God about the person He wants you to be. 

Take your Bible along and read from the Old Testament books of Joshua or Nehemiah.  Ask God how He would have you participate in building the bridge to our future.  If He would ask His own son to make a great sacrifice why would we think that He wouldn't ask the same from all of us that are sons of God.

Asking for a great commitment is what God has always asked from His people.  This is isn't something new.

It's a faith thing.  God speaks to the person who takes time to listen.  Let me conclude my thoughts with this final note.  Just in case you wonder if I think this vision is impossible, I want you to know that I have already concluded that by ourselves it is.  But the one thing that I have calculated into this vision that some have not and will not is that I am counting on God to do what is impossible with men.

And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.