Tag Archives: Eastvale Pastor

Pray for your Kids and Grandkids

By Mark Hopper

University of Arizona baseball Coach Jerry Kendal shared a wonderful story at a Men’s Conference I attended in the 1980’s. When Jerry was a young boy he burst into his grandfather’s bedroom while Jerry was playing hide and seek with his siblings. He was startled to find his grandfather kneeling by his bed in prayer. When Jerry tried to apologize his grandfather told him to not worry – he said he was just praying for Jerry.  

I’m sure that every parent and grandparent prays for their children and grandchildren every day. I always prayed for their health and safety.  And I prayed for their faith, their friends and their future.

I prayed that they would have a vibrant personal faith in Christ. Each generation must decide for themselves if they will become followers of Jesus. Parents and grandparents can sow the seeds of faith in the next generation but each one must decide for themselves who they will follow. The Old Testament leader Joshua said he and his family chose to follow the Lord (Joshua 24:15).

Friends are a vital part of a child’s development. This is true for young children and teenagers, too. Friends have a large influence in a child’s development. Teenagers are impacted by peer pressure too. Friends also provide encouragement and reassurance during those formative teenage years. Friends can draw your children closer to God or steer them away from Him. I prayed for good friends with a common faith.

I also prayed for their future. I prayed God would help them in their studies and guide them in their choice of careers. I also prayed they would find a spouse who shared their faith and values.

Author Tim Kimmel wrote a book titled – Extreme Grandparenting. In his book he emphasized how important grandparents are in the lives of their children and grandchildren. One of the most important things they can do is to pray for their children and grandchildren. The Apostle Paul instructed older men and women to live lives that the younger generations would follow (Titus 2:2-4). I’m sure this included prayer. Let me encourage you to pray for your children and grandchildren every day. Pray for their faith, friends and future. Pray for their health and safety too. You will be glad you did and they will too. 

Read 365 more stories and articles (one for every day of the year) in the book Let me Encourage You by Mark Hopper. You can purchase two copies for only $30 plus postage ($5). Buy one for yourself and one to give a friend. Order your copies at mark@efreedb.org.

New Hillcrest Baptist Church Pastor

Nathan King

Hillcrest Baptist Church is pleased to congratulate and welcome Matthew Miles as its new pastor. Pastor Matt has served as an Assistant Pastor at Temple Baptist Church in Lacey, WA since 2017. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree from West Coast Baptist College in Lancas-ter, CA and a Master of Divinity from Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. He and his wife, Rizza, have three wonderful children.

Our church is excited to have Pastor Matt with us starting in July. We invite our community and neighbors to our church every Sunday morning at 10:30am! The meeting location is at Vandermolen Elementary (6744 Carenlian St. Mira Loma, CA 91752). Our church also provides children and nursery programs. In addition, we provide a Chinese service for those that are comfortable with Mandarin. For more information about our church, go to visithillcrest.org or give us a call at 951-357-6737. Please pray for our church in these exciting times!

Pastor Dennis Morales

Pastor’s Corner: Things That Matter

By Pastor Dennis Morales

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, Ihave kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7

Paul the Apostle is nearing the end of his life.  He is contemplating the things God had called him to accomplish.  This is his swansong.  I am immediately impressed with the confidence with which he is able to say “I finished.”  It’s been said that “a wasted life is really nothing more than a collection of wasted days. As God gives us life, each one of us starts the new year with the same number of opportunities—365—that we can choose to either use and invest in eternal things or allow to drift by without taking advantage of the gift we have been given.”  I was walking through a cemetery after afuneral service and my eye caught a headstone that read “a life stillunfinished.”  We would naturally say thatabout anyone that had passed from this world at a young age, but this wassomeone who passed at 78!  I don’t wantto come to the end and think of all the things I should have done or the ways Ishould have stepped out in faith.  Paulcalls life a “race.”  My favorite racesin the Olympics are the sprints.  Theseraces are literally over in seconds, but I am always impressed with the amazingspeed of the athletes.  The race referredto by Paul is likened to a “long distance” run. A long distance run takes faith, endurance, and focus.  Jesus “for the joy that was set before Himendured the cross, despising the shame.” (Hebrews 12:2).  God calls us to focus and invest in thingsthat matter so that we might finish well. 


Calvary Chapel Eastvale Meets Wednesdays at 7pm and Sundays at 8:30 and10:30 am  at Clara Barton Elementary 7437Corona Valley Ave, Eastvale. 

United We Stand, Divided We Fall

By Jeremy Mercer

Our country is more divided than it’s been since the Civil War. With politics creeping into every facet of our lives, from sports to movies to even the church, America is a divided nation. I’m a problem-solver. I always seek to understand so I can find solutions. My thoughts go to an important verse in the Bible. First Corinthians 1:10 powerfully says, “I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.”

 

For human beings, this is often very challenging. However, the Word of God gives us this instruction because (1) it’s what God wants for us, (2) we need to hear it, and (3) by the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, IT IS POSSIBLE! God would never ask us to do something that we could not accomplish. But God DID instruct us to live this way so it IS something we can do.

 

We must allow the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God (1 Peter 5:6), to forgive each other, and to bring us into true unity, as God wants for His church to be. Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Imagine if we lived that!

 

I believe the church is to be the answer, or rather, to be an example of the answer to the world. Jesus did tell us, after all, to be “salt and light.” (Matthew 5:13-16). We must each choose this. I am choosing this. Will you choose this with me?

Jeremy Mercer is the lead Pastor at Connection Church in Corona California

Location: 1441 E. 6th Street, Corona, CA 92879

Phone (951) 737-2822

Email office@connectcorona.com

Service Time: 10:30 am Sunday

The Overwhelming, Never Ending, TOUGH Love Of God

By Rohmon Merchant

“Nobody feels sorry for you!”, that is an actual statement I say to myself almost as a daily declaration. It is a way to motivate myself to live life on a grander scale, and when I feel overwhelmed and frustrated to realize, “Hey, man of faith! Yes you, the one who made a conscience decision to spend the rest of your days walking by faith and not by sight! Are you really going to sit here and feel sorry for yourself” Trust me, it’s much easier said than done, especially when you find more and more people have found a way to experience both the spoils of their selfish ambitions and sanctity of their Christians beliefs. I will venture to say when difficult times comes to those people (and it comes to everyone) their true understanding of God truly shows and it becomes a testimony or lack of. One of Jesus’ greatest traits is his compassion for people, and what we are starting to see more of, is that people seem to confuse compassion for pity. When I hear people speak to me on what they are believing God for, or how they believe God see’s their situation; it shows that there is a level of thought that God would change their situation “just cause” or “God wouldn’t let that happen to me” attitude. Could it be that God feels sorry for us? Your walk with God should be that, a walk, a continual progression through life. If we are always focused on our self, then when problems come we could look to God like a superhero that would change everything without anything from us. Not saying he needs us to help in any way, but God does want us to walk through our freedom and healing, because he doesn’t feel sorry for us but because he has compassion for us.

For example, Jesus went to a blind man from birth, took mud in his hands spit in it and rubbed it in the man’s eyes, then told him to find a certain body of water and wash his own face off. If God had pity for him there wouldn’t be an encouraging course of action that is connected to his faith. Christ didn’t make it simple for him, he can’t see, getting around his town would be tasking. How then is he to get up, find Bethesda, and wash his face, with mud and spit dripping from his eyes. Its sounds insensitive but Gods healing is always manifested more through the strong and not the ones who see themselves as the victim. That’s not just one time, we hear it after a lot of Jesus’ miracles, “Take up your bed and walk!”, “Remove those death Clothes!”, “Go home to your daughter, and do not fear!” We hear it frequently, through the scriptures and we can see that the Lord not only asks us to do tough things, but through those moments is where we find the power behind Christs love. His overwhelming, never ending, tough love of God. (see what I did there?) Instead of merely feeling sorry for us, Jesus moves us into action. He uses these moments to get our minds off of our self and our problems, and he motivates us to do something about it. I know it sounds like I’m being tough, but they are a lot of people who waste so much time staying in their woes waiting for God to finally feel sorry for them, when in reality “tough love” is what Jesus often used to set people free.

 

In The Spirit

Pastor Jeremy Mercer

To say I grew up in a Christian home is an understatement. My parents are devout God-fearing people. That is anything but a negative statement. On the contrary, they are respected and loved by everybody and with good reason. My parents are wonderful and absolutely the “real deal.” They’re not perfect, but they genuinely strive to live as the Word of God instructs.

One of the phrases I heard most growing up was “be in the Spirit.” You have to be “in the Spirit,” “walk by the Spirit,” and “live by the Spirit.” “The Spirit” is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. Now I know many people have differing views on how the Holy Spirit operates in the modern world and in the daily life of a Christian. Whatever those views are, growing up, I knew being “in the Spirit” was very important.

Revelation 1:10 tells us that the Apostle John was “in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” The Lord’s Day, being Sunday, the day Christ rose from the dead. It also gives us the important fact that John was “in the Spirit.” John was conscious of being surrounded by the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit! Wow! What a way to live!

We can live that same way every day; if we choose the continual awareness and pursuit of God. Christians often times make life-altering choices by our natural human understanding and thinking, not cognizant of the Holy’s Spirit’s presence and help. I’m ALL for using the brain that God gave us to think, reason, plan, and strategize as best we can. However, often times that isn’t enough. I am thankful that God gave us the Helper…His Holy Spirit. I want to live every day “in the Spirit” like the Apostle John did.

In 2018, not just on “The Lord’s Day” but every day, let’s be “in the Spirit.” Let’s worship God, pray, and listen to the Word “in the Spirit!” Let’s be conscious and receiving of the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit! We will begin to see things differently in our lives. Obstacles will become opportunities. Problems will lead to promotion. Pain will turn to peace. We’ll encounter God and be forever changed, empowered and filled with joy! Let’s be intentional about living every day, starting today, “in the Spirit!”

Jeremy Mercer Lead Pastor

Connection Church

1441 E. 6th Street, Corona, CA 92879

http://www.connectcorona.com/