Tag Archives: Pastor Rob Norris

Home Fires

BY PASTOR ROB NORRIS

Pastor Rob Norris, The Crossings

Pastor Rob Norris, The Crossings

“We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.” (Psalm 78:4)

Five grown siblings came together at the event of their parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. When the time came to express their thanks to each parent for the one thing that stood out above all in their memories, each of them – without consulting the others – thanked their father for his leadership in family worship.

One of the brothers said, “The oldest memory I have, Dad, is of tears streaming down your face as you taught us from Pilgrim’s Progress on Sunday evenings. No matter how far I went astray in later years, I could never seriously question the reality of Christianity. I had seen it in you.”

Whenever the subject of family worship comes up, you may feel guilt at your failure in this area. I understand that. Few things seem harder to pull off or easier to put off. But when you consider the impact this one commitment could make in your own children for a lifetime, what could be more important?

It doesn’t have to be tightly preplanned. Take five or ten minutes before school to read a devotional with your children. Schedule one night a week when you’ll all be home to read a story and Scripture, sing (or make a joyful noise) and have some outrageous fun. Watch for those opportunities to practice “sandbox theology,” turning your children’s everyday events into spiritual training moments.

Don’t miss this: Dad and Mom, your ultimate assignment as parents is to introduce your children to God; His Son, Jesus Christ; and His Word. It may be hard to start and a challenge to continue, but it will make a huge difference in how they finish.

Live It: Talk about what each of you can do to be helpful and encouraging to each other in getting family worship started or in keeping it going.

Pray: Pray for priorities to firm up in your life, for incidentals to be seen for the waste of time they are, and for God’s Word to recapture each of your hearts.

The Crossings meets Sundays, 10 a.m., at River Heights Intermediate, 7227 Scholar Way, in Eastvale. For more information call (951) 847-6836, or visit http://www.atthecrossings.com.

Killing Me Softly

BY PASTOR ROB NORRIS

 

Pastor Rob Norris, The Crossings

Pastor Rob Norris, The Crossings

I have become mute; I do not open my mouth (Psalm 39:9).

A man and his wife were having some problems at home and were giving each other the silent treatment. The husband realized he needed to be awakened early one morning to catch a business flight, but he didn’t want to be the first to break the silence. So he left a note on his wife’s side of the bed that read, “Please wake me at 5 A.M.”

By the time bright sunshine roused him the next morning, it was 9 a.m. Furious, he threw back the covers and shouted to his wife (who was nowhere to be found), “Why didn’t you wake me up like I asked you to?” That’s when he saw, stuck to the lamp on his bedside table, a note in her handwriting that read, “It is 5 a.m. Time to wake up.”

It doesn’t take much to make us angry and create emotional distance from each other. But it does take great, courageous effort to fight through the silence to a place of forgiveness and oneness. Isolation seems to offer us protection, a certain kind of self-preservation. There is a type of peace found in avoidance that appears much more appealing than the pain of dealing with reality.

Silence feels like a security blanket. But in fact, it is one of Satan’s most deadly disguises. The silent treatment is perilously deceptive and ultimately destructive.

When you find yourself tempted to square off against each other, retreating to your corners and refusing to give in, remember that Jesus could have given us the cold shoulder. He could have taken one look at our many, many sins and shortcomings and never sought to draw us out. May His reaching, redemptive love be our model and motivator. We serve a God who both seeks and speaks. Be sure you’re a spouse who does the same.

Live it:   What, if anything, drives you into silence? Discuss what your spouse should do when you are silent.

Pray: That God will show you both what you should do if one or both of you becomes silent.

The Crossings meets Sundays, 10 a.m., at River Heights Intermediate, 7227 Scholar Way, in Eastvale. For more information call (951) 847-6836, or visit http://www.atthecrossings.com.

 

 

Forgiveness for a Price

Pastor Rob Norris

Pastor Rob Norris (image courtesy of Google Images)

BY PASTOR ROB NORRIS

1 Peter 4:8 says, “Most important of all, love each other deeply, because love makes you willing to forgive many sins.”

I don’t know anything at all about what caused it, what led up to it, or even what came of it. But I’m sure it was hard for people not to notice a full-page ad in a Jacksonville newspaper one morning that read: “Please believe the words in my letter. They are true from my heart. I can only hope you will give me the chance to prove my unending love for you. Life without you is empty and meaningless.” It was a full-page, $17,000 advertisement, and plea for forgiveness.

According to the ad’s author, his wife of 17 years had left him two weeks earlier. She was living temporarily with her parents in a gated community, beyond the reach of her husband. Even her cell-phone number had been changed to keep him from contacting her. But relatives told him that she had indeed seen the large display ad and had left the room crying.

I pray that they were able to work things out. But, again, not knowing the circumstances, this still goes to show you that marriage, unlike any other human relationship, is the joining of two hearts into one flesh. The pain of living at a distance, even temporarily, feels like a limb being torn away. We can’t think straight. We can’t enjoy ourselves.

This is why your marriage must be a place where mercy and forgiveness are regularly being asked for and extended. Given, received and embraced. None of us are able to always be everything our spouse wants us to be. Only through the power of grace and forgiveness can you live through seasons of disappointment – with yourself and with one another – and come out feeling united again. It might even save you $17,000 and even more heartache.

Live it: Is there anything between you two today? Is there anything that you need to ask forgiveness for, or forgive one another for, right now? Just do it.

Pray: Thank the Lord for His full forgiveness of our disappointments and for the ability to extend the same to each other.

Eastvale: God’s Building Program

Pastor Rob Norris, The Crossings

Pastor Rob Norris, The Crossings

BY PASTOR ROB NORRIS

 

“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on a rock,” (Matthew 7:24).

In the 1870s, when the citizens of Swan Quarter, North Carolina, began looking for a piece of property for a new church building, their sights fell on a nice piece of elevated land where the structure would be reasonably protected from coastal flooding. But the landowner had more lucrative plans for the property and declined their offer.

So the church was built on another site and dedicated on Sept. 16, 1876. Within a matter of days, however, a monster hurricane reached landfall at this precise location. One casualty of the storm was the brand new Swan Quarter United Methodist Church, which was lifted up off its pilings by the surging tide of storm water and carried north—floating, intact—and then inexplicably east, eventually coming to rest on the very tract of land its leaders had originally requested. As legend tells it, the property owner came with trembling hand to sign over the title deed to the church.

Yes, God is in control. Since 1994, as I have attempted to walk with God, on more than one occasion I have had to admit that I don’t have the foggiest idea about what He is up to. He is God and I am not. I don’t understand the loss of a child, a chronic or terminal illness, the death of a young mom or dad, and a thousand other things that make zero sense, humanly.

What I do know from the Scriptures is that God has a unique purpose for every person and for everything that happens to us. He made us to trust Him, regardless of the circumstances. And that is reflected in the new name of that Methodist church in North Carolina that God moved to solid ground: Providence United Methodist Church.

Live it: What are you or a family member facing right now that is testing your trust in God? What are your alternatives?

Pray: Confess any lack of belief in God that He is in control, and express your faith that you want to trust Him because He does know what He is doing, even if you don’t.

The Crossings meets Sundays, 10 a.m., at River Heights Intermediate, 7227 Scholar Way, in Eastvale. For more information call (951) 847-6836, or visit www.atthecrossings.com.

 

Eastvale: Temperature Control

BY PASTOR ROB NORRIS

Pastor Rob Norris

Pastor Rob Norris (image courtesy of Google Images)

“Doing what is right will bring peace and rest.  When my people do that, they will stay calm and trust in the Lord forever,” Isaiah 32:17.

When you enter a room — whether it’s a Sunday School class, a company meeting or maybe a lunch event — it’s usually not very hard to gauge the mood of the place.  It’s warm, it’s cold, it’s engaging, it’s distant, it’s comfortable, or it’s stuffy.

Anybody can be a thermometer.  We are not called to be thermometers in our homes but thermostats.

That’s because thermostats don’t just read the temperature. They guide it. They determine how warm or cool the home environment will be.

In the same way, parents determine whether a home environment will be fun, peaceful, authentic, or full of grace.  Will it be a quiet sanctuary from the hard press of life?  Will it be a place of joy and celebration and fellowship?  Many parents today feel helpless in adjusting the climate of their home. They feel as if they can’t control the predominant tempo and rhythm of the day. They’ve grown weary of fighting the TV-watching, video game-playing, or tuned-out isolation of individual family members.  In the process, far too many homes have lost a sense of purpose and direction.  They’ve become little more than random activity centers, with no grown-ups willing to set the tone.

I encourage you to counter the frantic, frenetic pace of modern life by creating an environment that limits the endless noise of bustle and commotion.  Train your children to be still and read a book, to interact, to ponder and to create.

Don’t be a thermometer. Set the temperature.

Live it:  Take a look at the thermometer.  What is the climate in your home?  Now name some of the things you love best about the way your home operates.  Talk about how you can reset the temperature of your home.

Pray:  Ask the Lord to unite your family around similar convictions; and where you meet pockets of resistance, pray for the determination to keep pushing for your principles.

Join us Easter Sunday at 10 a.m. for a celebration service and egg hunt.

Trusting and believing with you,

Pastor Rob

The Crossings meets Sundays, 10 a.m., at River Heights Intermediate, 7227 Scholar Way, in Eastvale.  For more information call (951) 847-6836; or visit their website at http://www.atthecrossings.com.

Eastvale: Avoiding the Traps

Pastor Rob Norris

Pastor Rob Norris (image courtesy of Google Images)

BY PASTOR ROB NORRIS

Psalm 31:4 – Protect me from hidden traps and keep me safe.

Try to picture this scene: With 50,000 men watching intensely, a 15-year-old young man (Trent, blindfolded and barefoot), begins stepping cautiously across an outdoor stage. Before him are a dozen steel animal traps with their jaws wide open. Each is labeled with words like Peer Pressure, Drugs and Alcohol, Sexual Immorality, Rebellion, and Pornography – the “traps” that can easily ensnare teenagers today.

On the opposite end of the platform stands the boy’s father, Tom, anticipating his son’s every move. After two tentative steps, the boy’s third step places him directly in the path of the biggest snare on the stage, a bear trap powerful enough to absolutely crush his leg. It had taken three grown men just to set it.

Before his son can raise another foot, Tom yells into the microphone, “Trent, stop! Don’t take another step!” Circling the traps, he positions himself in between his son and the bear trap. After whispering some instructions, he turns his back to the boy. Trent eagerly places his hands on his father’s shoulders. Then slowly, they begin navigating the trap field together. When the two finally reach the other side and the blindfold is removed, the father and son hug each other.

The applause at this Promise Keepers event swelled to a thunderous standing ovation across the stadium. Above the roar, the host said, “Men, that’s what God has called us to as fathers; to be there and guide our children through the traps of adolescence!”

For Tom and Trent, the trap demonstration was a setup on a stage. But for you and your child, the traps of adolescence are all too real and treacherous. Don’t allow your children to risk the journey on their own. Grab them by the hand, watch your step, and move out together. Let God guide you through.

Live it: What do you not know about the traps in your child’s world? Make plans to find out.

Pray: For God’s ongoing protection over your children and for your ongoing vigilance as their parents.

Join us at The Crossings, Sundays at 10 am.
Meeting at River Heights Intermediate School.
7227 Scholar Way, Eastvale, CA 92880
951-847-6836
http://www.atthecrossings.com
Trusting and Believing with you!

Eastvale: One Impossible Possiblity

BY PASTOR ROB NORRIS

Pastor Rob Norris

Pastor Rob Norris (image courtesy of Google Images)

“Bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.”

 Colossians 3:13

Are there things that someone has done to you that you think you could never forgive?

You are not alone. Ron Luce, president of Teen Mania Ministries, shares a story that many can identify with.

Ron came to faith in Christ as a teenager after enduring an abusive home life. Not long after his conversion, God began to convict him of his need to forgive his mom for the evil things she had done and said to him as a boy. Things like hitting him in the face, crushing a cigarette butt out on his back, telling him when he was 13 years old, “Why don’t you do me a favor and kill yourself?”

Initially, Ron reacted with typical human disbelief. How could he forgive his mom? She didn’t deserve it. But in time, God broke through, and Ron decided he needed to forgive his mother.

So Ron started carrying around Scriptures on little cards–verses about forgiveness he could meditate on and memorize. He began desperately praying that God would give him the ability to give up his right to punish her. It wasn’t easy, and it didn’t happen overnight. But one day as a senior in high school, he remembers praying, “Lord, You need to reach my mom and touch her, because I love her.”

He couldn’t believe what he’d just said. “I love her?” He had never spoken those three words before in his entire life! “But I do love her. I do love my mom, and You’re the One who put it there, Lord. You must have done it.”

We can forgive, because He forgave us. He shows us a better way. A way of freedom from bitterness and punishment. Christ does it through us, and He can do it through you.

Live It:

What impossible injustices–things you’ve grown weary of dealing with on your own–do you need to hand over to Christ? Make a list and ask Him to lead you to full forgiveness.

Pray

Pray for whatever He must do in you to free you to forgive.  Meeting at River Heights Intermediate School,

Sundays @10:00 7227 Scholar Way, Eastvale, CA 92880 951-847-6836 http://www.atthecrossings.com.  Trusting and Believing with you!

Pastor Rob

 

One Impossible Possibility

Pastor Rob Norris

Pastor Rob Norris (image courtesy of Google Images)

 

By Pastor Rob Norris

Bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.
Colossians 3:13

Are there things that someone has done to you that you think you could never forgive?

You are not alone. Ron Luce, president of Teen Mania Ministries, shares a story that many can identify with.

Ron came to faith in Christ as a teenager after enduring an abusive home life. Not long after his conversion, God began to convict him of his need to forgive his mom for the evil things she had done and said to him as a boy. Things like hitting him in the face, crushing a cigarette butt out on his back, telling him when he was 13 years old, “Why don’t you do me a favor and kill yourself?”

Initially, Ron reacted with typical human disbelief. How could he forgive his mom? She didn’t deserve it. But in time, God broke through, and Ron decided he needed to forgive his mother.

So Ron started carrying around Scriptures on little cards–verses about forgiveness he could meditate on and memorize. He began desperately praying that God would give him the ability to give up his right to punish her. It wasn’t easy, and it didn’t happen overnight. But one day as a senior in high school, he remembers praying, “Lord, You need to reach my mom and touch her, because I love her.”

He couldn’t believe what he’d just said. “I love her?” He had never spoken those three words before in his entire life! “But I do love her. I do love my mom, and You’re the One who put it there, Lord. You must have done it.”

We can forgive, because He forgave us. He shows us a better way. A way of freedom from bitterness and punishment. Christ does it through us, and He can do it through you.

Live It:

What impossible injustices–things you’ve grown weary of dealing with on your own–do you need to hand over to Christ? Make a list and ask Him to lead you to full forgiveness.

Pray

Pray for whatever He must do in you to free you to forgive. Meeting at River Heights Intermediate School. Sundays @10:00 7227 Scholar Way, Eastvale, CA 92880 951-847-6836 http://www.atthecrossings.com.  Trusting and Believing with you!

Pastor Rob

Pastor Rob Norris

Pastor Rob Norris (image courtesy of Google Images)