Keith Dudley was our special guest on Sunday and “what can I say”?  He brought a word that related to everybody in the room.  His singing was inspiring and his preaching was informative, penetrating and just “spot on”!!!  All I can do is just encourage you to listen to the message when it’s posted on our web-site.

I know I say this a lot but I want to send out a big “Thank You” to all our Children workers who sacrifice being in the sanctuary to help Pastor Scott and the Children’s ministry.  It’s a “big deal” when a church recognizes the importance of taking care of the kids.  Our kids are receiving a solid foundation of word and worship that is preparing them as teenagers and adults.  Jesus even likened the Kingdom of God to children, so as we promote our children we are promoting the Kingdom.

Ever day we get reports of how people are truly “doing life together”.  Church is not an event it’s a way of Life and at CLC we don’t want to just “do church” but we want to “be the church”.

This week the Staff and I will be attending a Ministers Conference in Forth Smith so pray for us as we attend nightly service and breakout sessions on various topics during the day.  We plan on getting a little R&R as well as ministered to while receiving information on how we can better serve our people as pastors.

Thank you for being such wonderful people and giving of your time, talent and treasure to the work here at CLC.  There are some exciting projects that we will be announcing soon that will enhance our worship experience here at CLC while at the same time help communicate the message of the Kingdom to our community.  Be listening for a special Sunday in May to learn more!!

Doing Life Together,

Pastor Terry

II Timothy 3:7 always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.

What an interesting statement. A group of people who are always learning but just not getting it. What does this mean? It means that this group is learning but the knowledge that they are obtaining is not true Godly knowledge. It is an earthly or carnal knowledge. These groups of people I believe are intellectuals who in their minds have a lot of facts, dates and knowledge but their hearts are not able to believe in faith. I heard a preacher say years ago and I find this statement to be so true:”We have trained our heads at the expense of our hearts”. We have spent so much time developing our head knowledge that we have neglected our spirits. There is nothing wrong with education. As a matter of fact I encourage anyone who can advance their education to do so. There is nothing wrong with that in itself.  It’s when we get to the point that our head knowledge is where we put our trust that it becomes a problem. As Christians we have to learn to trust God in faith when our heads cannot figure it all out. That is the place He wants us to be.

The following verses explain this in detail. Paul addresses a group of intellects who in verse 21 explains: All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.

Acts 17:16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. ¹⁷So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. ¹⁸A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. ¹⁹Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? ²⁰You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.”

Paul preached, taught, and reasoned with them daily for a long time to present to them the message of Jesus. He gave them the eternal truth of the gospel and what was the result? In verse 32 it tells us that some sneered and mocked him, while most of the others said,”come back and we want to hear more about this topic.” After all that time effort and great intellectual discussion, most of the people still did not get it. I see this today in the church. We have more books, tapes, and hours upon hours of sermon notes and conference topics and yet our lives are a mess. We hear the truth but if we don’t obey and do it, then it can have no effect in our life. Paul did however manage to get through to some people who receive the truth and allowed it to change their hearts.

I want to close with a passage that Paul wrote about shortly after leaving Athens. He addressed the Corinthian church and told them the following.

I Corinthians 2:1-5 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.^{[a] 2}For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. ⁴My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

Paul recognized that it was not going to be an intellectual argument that will persuade men to salvation. He recognized that it was the demonstration of the Spirit that produced power and life change. When you allow the Spirit to move on peoples heart it produces godly sorrow and true repentance. Something I have come to understand is when you take a theological scholar and put him in the same room as a 5 year old and give them both the truth of the gospel allowing the Spirit to speak to their heart, at that moment they are both on the same level. They both have the same understanding of “Jesus loves me this I know”. That is the greatest knowledge anyone can ever obtain.