Pause: with Pastor Aaron

          As you begin to read this, you need to know that this is not an a+b=c plan.  While sometimes I wish that God would move that way, I feel like it would take away the mystery and turn God into our vending machine.  That is not what we should want, nor is it what He wants.  God is in this for a long term relationship.  The question my friend is, "What are you in for?"      If you are in for relationship, understand that it is God who reached out first to you.  We call this reaching out 'prevenient grace'.  He does this because we can not grasp Him without it because we are totally depraved, unable to connect with God.      So God reaches out, and as He does He supplies all that is needed for us to reach back.  We call that moment conversion.  It is when we come to the conclusion, "I am a sinner and I need a savior.  Jesus is the savior that I need."   This i...

I hate when I mess up.  In my desire to do the right thing, I hate when I give up the fight and simply resort selfishness.  I know better, and I should do better.  It separates me from fellowship with God.  I'm left to do life on my own.  I can live in this state, disappointed in myself and embarrassed to see God, or I can not... Today I choose to not.   Today I choose to not let the enemy have one more moment interfering with my fellowship with God.   Today I choose to say yes to God and no to sin and its influence and its authority in my life.  Today I embrace a God who promises He will never leave us, and He will never let us go (Heb 13:5b).  Today I embrace forgiveness. Forgiveness is not an every depleting vault.  Forgiveness is a state of being.  Forgiveness is a statue or a tower standing tall against the skyline.   Forgiveness is about reconciliation.  Forgiveness occurs when I turn from my own direction to...

When I was a boy I went to Sunday School where I learned the chorus, "He's got the whole world in His hands." Somewhere along the way, as a young man, I learned about a sermon preached by Johnathan Edwards called "Sinners In the Hands of an Angry God." I took both ideas an adopted a mindset that God is waiting in heaven to unleash His wrath upon me for every sin and failure I commit.   I lived in fear of failing God.   I lived in fear of punishment.   I lived with a perception of He was just waiting to show me what a worthless excuse for a Christian I actually was. This is the wrong way to embrace the Christian life.   Make no mistake about it, God hates sin, however let me talk a moment about propitiation.   Gotquestions.org defines this as " The word  propitiation  carries the basic idea of appeasement or satisfaction, specifically toward God. Propitiation is a two-part act that involves appeasing the wrath of an offended person and being r...