Sunday, July 31st

As we continue our study this week on The Choices We Have When it Comes to Healing, we will be unfolding another choice that God gives us in the healing process – “The Choice to ‘Feel’ Your Life.” God created us with the ability to experience feelings, or emotions, and at times they can be very powerful forces that produce positive and negative results. The misconception among Christians at times is that real Christians should experience a real peace at all times regardless of the situation. But what about when we are deeply wounded by others? Should we cover up the painful emotions of being hurt by pretending to be at peace? Is it possible that this approach is more harmful? Further, is it possible that healing (and a real peace) can only come once one has had the opportunity to truly experience and express the way he/she is really feeling? Join us this Sunday @ 16:00 as we unfold, through scripture, this choice God gives us and also expose this dangerous misconception that does more harm than good. We are praying each week that you will find healing and renewal as you experience life more fully and abundantly.

From July 24th...

This week we will again pick up our study on "The Choices We Have When it Comes to Healing." We are all in need of healing. Sometimes it's physical, other times it's emotional. Still yet it can spiritual, or a combination of physical, emotional, and spiritual. As we introduced the study a few weeks ago, we looked at how Jesus gave the crippled man (John 5) a choice to be healed. Also, Naaman (2 Kings 5) was given a choice to be healed. In the case of the crippled man, his choice to be healed, and be a fully functioning person physically, presented him with new challenges and expectations that were not going to make life easy. He was willing to make the choice and endure the hard work to experience a more full and abundant life.

While it's not often easy to understand God's will in healing, we do see that he gives us more choices then we often think. This week we will be looking at the choice we have to Connect With Other People. Denial can be a very powerful thing and often we deny God's help by thinking that, "All I need is God and no one else." We think, "maybe I need to pray harder than before or commit more scripture to memory, then I will get better." But this is a form of hiding or even rejecting God's plan for us to heal as He desires for us to connect with other people. Join us this Sunday as we unfold this topic and make the choice to accept healing in your life!

Coming Sunday, July 10th...

We are excited about the next study that we will be introducing this coming Sunday that will carry us throughout the summer. It has to do with healing and the choices we have. Ultimately, it is God's desire to heal us spiritually which often causes us to confront our physical and emotional wounds. We all carry some sort of wound along with us that is in need of healing in order to grow more into the people God created us to be. God, with all his wisdom and power, often gives us the choice. In the Gospel of John ch. 4 we find Jesus interacting with a man at the pool of Bethesda who had been sick and lying by the pool for many years. Surprisingly, instead of approaching the man and healing him, Jesus asks him a question - "Do you want to be healed?" This is a powerful question that begs consideration from us today. We all need healing of some sort. I hope you will join us on Sunday afternoons this summer as we get in tune with how God created us to be by unfolding "The Choices We Have When It Comes To Healing."

From June 23rd...

Life is certainly full of ups and downs, isn’t it? It is during the disappointing times of life that depression can settle in and threaten to consume us. In Psalm 77 we see a depressed individual express a prayer of complaint and a cry for help from God. This coming Sunday at TIF we will continue to look at some significant aspects of prayer as we examine Psalm 77. In particular as it relates to life’s depressing times. As we do this, we will identify important characteristics to prayer that will help us better communicate with God during depressing times. I continue to be amazed at what these ancient prayers can teach us about our own pray lives and in essence help us grow into the people God designed us to be.

From June 12th...

Have you ever heard or come across the statement – “God helps those who help themselves.” I was reading an article this week that talked about how this phrase is often thought to be found in the Bible and, in turn, how some people view God. These people would be surprised to know that this phrase is not found in the Bible and neither is any sort of concept that would support this sort of perspective about God. In fact, this phrase promotes a self-centered approach to solving our troubles and burdens. In Scripture, particularly in the Psalms, we find people who have shifted from a self-centered approach to solving their problems, to a God-centered approach through prayer.

This coming Sunday we are going to begin to explore the topic of prayer, specifically by looking at the brutally honest prayers that are found in the Psalms. There is much that we can learn about communicating to God through prayer when we examine this brutal honesty. Not one of us is free from troubles or burdens in life and it’s my hope that each of us can grow through this experience together by learning what brutal honest prayer is.