Tag Archives: The Crossings Eastvale

Down But Not Out

Pastor Rob Norris

Pastor Rob Norris

By Pastor Rob Norris

“We have troubles all around us, but we are not defeated. We often don’t know what to do, but we don’t give up,” (2 Corinthians 4:8).

Have you been through a period of life when everything looked bleak? When it seemed everything around you was coming unraveled? When you hoped the phone wouldn’t ring for fear it would be more bad news?

During seasons like that, I’m often reminded of this story:

Karl, a Norwegian fisherman, had taken his two teenage sons out for a day of fishing. The morning had been beautiful when they started out, but the afternoon turned nasty in a hurry – catching them too far at sea to beat the incoming storm to shore. The wind-whipped ocean began to work into a frenzy, until Karl and his sons were battling for their lives. As darkness fell on their frantic efforts, even the steady beacon of the seaside lighthouse was suddenly extinguished by a terrific bolt of lightning. Hope seemed lost.

But things were actually worse than Karl knew. Lightning had also struck his home and the structure quickly erupted into a fireball. So when Karl and his sons finally staggered ashore, exhausted, he was met by his wife with the bad news.

Strangely, Karl seemed unfazed, much to his wife’s frustration. As he stroked her tear-lined face with his tough, leathery hands, he said, “Don’t you understand, sweetheart? When the lighthouse went out, the glow on the horizon became my compass. The fire that destroyed our house guided us home.”

Tami and I and our family have certainly gone through times when there were “fires” burning. But we’ve also discovered that during these times, these crises have guided us “home,” because they’ve forced us to hunker down in faith, crying out in absolute dependence upon God.

“Lord God, You know what You are doing! We don’t know what You are up to, but we trust in You.”

Live It:  What is an example of a trial you’ve experienced that turned out to have a good consequence from an eternal perspective?

Pray:  That you will face the fires together and that your faith in Christ will grow stronger as you go through them.

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.

Dreaming Dreams

Pastor Rob Norris, The Crossings

Pastor Rob Norris, The Crossings

By Pastor Rob Norris

“So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people,” – Galatians 6:10.

I think one of the greatest needs in the Christian community is for individuals to dream some dreams about how they can use their talents to impact people’s lives for Christ.

Let me tell you about a family that is making a difference. A small family ministry called Standing with Hope provides prosthetic limbs for below-the-knee amputees, not only in the United States, but also in Ghana, Africa.

The process of adding a “skin” covering to make a prosthetic look real can cost thousands of dollars – far too costly for an outreach whose goal is to help as many people as possible be able to walk again.

That’s where the family’s 15-year old son, Grayson Rosenberger, comes in. While noodling over an entry idea for a nationwide science contest, Grayson came across one of his mom’s old, discarded prosthetic legs. He found that by wrapping it in a very common household item, he could give the mechanical limb a realistic shape.

His inexpensive solution? Bubble wrap. Total cost for application? About one dollar.

No, it doesn’t look like skin. But with the right hose or stockings, the prosthetic leg can be made to look real. And for poverty-stricken adults and children in Africa who are often ostracized and teased for the primitive, bare-bones appearance of a fake leg, this is a confidence-creating alternative.

Bubble wrap. Who’d have thought?

Could it be that there is a right-under-your-nose opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives?  Could it be that, if you slowed down and set your mind on seeking God for a way you could really serve Him, He might lay out an idea that’s so simple, you’ll be shocked you didn’t think of it earlier?

Just think. Bubble wrap.

Live It:  Every person and every couple has an assignment from God – a ministry. What’s yours?

Pray:  Express your availability to God, and ask Him to show you the best way to serve.

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.

Bringing It Home

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,” Ephesians 5:25.

By Pastor Rob Norris

Pastor Rob Norris, The Crossings

Pastor Rob Norris, The Crossings

On Valentine’s Day 2005, Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee, and his wife, Janet, restated and renewed their wedding vows along with 4,000 other couples gathered in Little Rock’s Alltel Arena. It included husbands and wives of all ages and backgrounds, celebrating the lifelong commitment of covenant marriage.

One of the most touching stories of the night, however, happened not in the crowded arena, but in a nearby home where a couple was listening to the proceedings on the radio.

At one point, the husband became so moved by the significance of the moment that tears began to well in his eyes. Soon they were streaming down his face. His little son, surprised by what he was seeing, crawled into his father’s lap and asked, “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” No explanation seemed to satisfy the young boy’s curiosity, so he kept asking his father, “Why are you crying, Daddy?”

Finally, the man pulled his son up close and whispered something into his ear. The boy then crawled down quickly and ran to his mom, who was sitting across the room. He took her by the hand, looked into her eyes and explained, “Daddy said he’s crying because he loves you so much.”

We have a generation of children today who desperately need to look into the eyes of Mom and Dad and see two people deeply in love with each other, committed to one another for life, and honoring God in their relationship. If God has blessed your life with children, make sure your children know and see your love regularly. Make the marriage they see in you the same type of relationship they’ll want one day for themselves.

Remember Jesus loves you and wants the best for your marriage.

Live It:  If your children were asked to describe your relationship, what would they say? Why not ask them.

Pray:  Pray that your children see real love between two real people for a lifetime.

April Series:  “Legendary” (Make Life Count)

**Join The Crossings for Easter Sunday with an Egg Hunt following the service.

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.

Easter Egg Hunt For All Ages

By Nita Morris

Eastvale – Easter service begins at 10am with a celebration message in the adult worship center.  Kids will enjoy games, and bible stories at Kid’s Church.  A community wide egg hunt will be held immediately following service on the lawn at River Heights Intermediate School.

Adults, come hunt for the egg hiding $100, as your children hunt for their own special egg containing a $5 treasure.

The Crossings Church invites the community to their Eastvale location at River Heights Intermediate School on the corner of Citrus and Scholar Way, 7227 Scholar Way [casual/contemporary].

For further details contact Nita Morris, Director of Community Outreach, at nita@atthecrossings.com

Believe God, Not the Deceiver

By Pastor Rob Norris

pastor-rob-norris-the-crossings“Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies,” (John 8:44).

A Long Island businessman in the 1930s bought an expensive brass barometer to mount in his home. However, when the man pulled the instrument out of the box and started to hang it, the arrow that indicated current weather conditions was pointing hard to “Hurricane.”

Angrily, he pounded his palm on the glass face of the barometer. The arrow didn’t move. He shook it and then banged it on the table. The arrow still didn’t move. This thing was obviously defective. So the next morning he fired off a nasty letter to the manufacturer and dropped it in a mailbox on his way to work in Manhattan.

But sure enough, a storm did roar through Long Island that day. And when he drove home in the afternoon, his house was destroyed … in a hurricane.

You see, there is absolute truth and there is deception.

All of life is a choice of who you will believe. Life is a battle between believing the truth and swallowing lies. And because the nature of our hearts – like that of the man in this story – is to doubt the truth and believe deceptions, it takes a deliberate effort to embrace God’s truth as non-negotiable. If we don’t keep our minds in the truth of the Scriptures on a daily basis, we become easy marks for our constant foe, the devil, who is both “an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14) and “the father of lies.”

So even when the Scriptures teach something you don’t like, it’s always the right choice to believe God anyway. It’s better to know the truth that a hurricane is coming than to mistakenly think you’re in the clear.

What deceptions have you fallen prey to in the past? How have they burned you?

Live it:  What is God asking you to believe today?

Pray:  For daily, deliberate, ongoing discernment.

Our March Series is, “Grace And Truth;” and join us Easter Sunday for an Easter Celebration and egg hunt following the service.

Trusting and believing with you!

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.

Near Beliefs

By Pastor Rob Norris

Pastor Rob Norris, The Crossings

Pastor Rob Norris, The Crossings

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it,” (2 Timothy 3:14).

I’m afraid too many of us Christians don’t know what we really believe. Like a cork in the ocean, driven and tossed by the waves, we bounce from opinion to opinion, influenced more by the last book we read than by a lifetime of Biblical study. We’ve become activity junkies, seldom stopping long enough to decide what really matters to us, too busy to determine what’s really worth living for, let alone worth dying for.

As a result we live our lives based upon “near beliefs.” Near beliefs have just enough truth in them to sound strangely familiar to convictions, yet they’re too weak to inspire us or our actions. Too anemic to influence us to make a decision that demands a sacrifice.

Near beliefs wimp out when a teenager is pushing you out of his or her life. Near beliefs won’t keep a marriage together when romance fades. Near beliefs almost always fall silent on such issues as same-sex marriages and homosexuals adopting children. Near beliefs don’t inspire the courage to change a behavior or to press on against disapproval or opposition from “the herd.”

Near beliefs are to blame for a new brand of Christianity that is epidemic in our homes and churches – a faith that has little flavor, little light and little influence. When near beliefs are our only source of motivation, tough stands are never taken, feathers are never ruffled, and absolutes are held very loosely. Without core convictions to help us navigate, we stand uneasily on shifting sand, and we lack the solid footing with which to stage a life of principle and character.

Today is a call to Biblical conviction. A call to spending time studying the Word. A clarion call to challenge you to determine: What do I believe?

What is needed today is a battalion of believers who follow Christ and stand for Him and His truth.

Live It:  If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Pray:  Ask God for the courage to stand for that which you know to be true.

Join us for our February Series “It’s Not You, It’s Me.”

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.

Missed Opportunities 

By Pastor Rob Norris

pastor-rob-norris-the-crossings“God has reserved a priceless inheritance for His children. It is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay,” (1 Peter 1:4).

A man at speaking engagement in Switzerland stayed at a beautiful hotel, compliments of the conference host. Each day, as he walked through the lobby, he passed the hotel’s lavish dining room and smelled the wonderful aromas of delicious entrees and desserts. But, determined to save money, he bought fruit, cheese, and crackers from a local market and lived on that all week. As he was packing to leave, his host asked him how he had enjoyed the cuisine. He stared at him in amazement.  He had not informed him upon his arrival that his meals were included! The hotel had one of the finest chefs in the entire country. He could have eaten like a king.

Let’s think about this and apply it to our own lives. If we are unaware of our wonderful spiritual inheritance, we will miss out on a bountiful banquet which God has prepared for us.

But simply understanding our spiritual inheritance isn’t enough. Many of us live spiritually poor lives because we don’t really believe God. We don’t take Him at His Word. But if God really is absolute truth, then we can and should stake our very lives on his Word.

Satan will do anything to prevent us from fully experiencing the blessings we inherit as God’s dearly loved children. He will try to convince us that the treasure is worthless. Or, he will sow seeds of insecurity and guilt so we feel undeserving. But we must not believe his lies!

Trusting in God’s absolute truthfulness releases His riches. The treasures of heaven that we inherit are claimed by faith here on earth.

LIVE IT:  Find a promise in God’s Word to fulfill a valid need in your life. Make a decision to believe it and hold on to God’s promise by faith without wavering. Because God is absolute truth, I will believe what He says and Live It.

Join us for our January Series, “GOOD INTENTIONS.”

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.

 

Bouncing Ball

BY PASTOR ROB NORRIS

pastor-rob-norris-the-crossings“I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity,” Ecclesiastes 2:11.

There are seasons in life when our work requires more of us than it does at other times; tax season for the accountant; Christmas season for the retailer. Whatever your line of work, it likely has a natural rhythm that spikes at certain times.

But increasingly in our success-driven culture, busy seasons have run together into all seasons. We have allowed the pace to perpetuate itself, driving us at full throttle month after month, year after year. Things begin to come totally unraveled at home, in our marriage, in our relationships with our children. It can happen, seemingly, in a blink.

This reminds me of a commencement address attributed to Brian Dyson, who held several senior management positions with Coca-Cola during his long career. He told a class of Georgia Tech graduates, “Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air: work, family, health, friends and spirit. You’re keeping all of these in the air.

“You soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. It will never be the same.”

You may not get as many pats on the back for being at home to dry the dishes or settle a disagreement or help a child study for a test. You may not receive the same sense of affirmation you feel from accomplishing a work goal or achieving recognition among your peers. But you will be living proof that winning at home first is the key to winning anything of value.

Marriages and families don’t bounce. They shatter. For generations.

Live It: What is your “busy season”? What are the first signs that work is getting out of balance? How can you help each other handle those seasons that demand more of you than usual?

Pray: Pray for the ability to juggle well, and to know which balls can drop without causing major damage.

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.

 

 

Comeback Of The Year

BY PASTOR ROB NORRIS

pastor-rob-norris-the-crossings

2 Corinthians 4:1 – Through God’s loving-kindness, He has given us this job to do. So we do not give up.

It’s easy to become discouraged when we fail. It’s easy to lose heart and stop trying. That’s why I love stories like this one:

For many years, Bob Brenly was the starting catcher for the San Francisco Giants. But because of a last-minute lineup change in November of 1986, he was pressed into duty at third base. Everything was going fine…until the fourth inning.

That’s when Brenly committed not one, not two, not three, but a record-tying four errors in the same inning – including two on the same play. In fact, he almost had a fifth error.

“I missed a head-high line drive that tipped off the webbing of my glove and went into left field,” Brenly said. “If they hadn’t called that one a hit, my name would have stood alone in the record books.”

The home crowd booed. Brenly’s coaches and teammates avoided even looking at him. But his manager left him in the game. Good thing.

When Brenly came up to bat the following inning, he smashed a solo home run. His next at-bat was a two-run single in the seventh to tie the game. And with the final plate appearance of the day in the ninth inning, he stroked a game-winning homer. His manager later commented, “This man deserves to be the Comeback Play of the Year for this game alone.”

If you’ve been trying to branch out of the ordinary – at home, at work, in your walk with Jesus Christ – don’t let a few setbacks get you down. Keep swinging for the fences. And if it’s your spouse who is failing, like that manager, keep on believing in your teammate.

Live It: Talk about any recent failures in your life or your spouse’s life. Discuss how you can encourage each other to stay with it and keep believing.

Pray: Thank God for how He comforts us and empowers us to keep stepping out in faith. Pray for the perseverance to press on.

Join us Wed., Dec. 24, at 4:30 p.m., for our Christmas Eve Service.

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.

 

 

 

 

Love at Sublevel

BY PASTOR ROB NORRIS

Love one another, even as I have loved you (John 13:34).

Pastor Rob Norris, The Crossings

Pastor Rob Norris, The Crossings

Danny Akin, a seminary president with the bold audacity to write a book on sexual intimacy, shares this true, touching story:

A woman had been diagnosed with breast cancer so severe that the doctors had no choice but to do a radical mastectomy. And like most any woman who awakens from this unsettling surgery, the blow to her self-esteem was deep and profound. Not only was she dealing with the loss of her breast, but she could see in the mirror how her hair was matted and her face was swollen from reaction to the antibiotics.

One day during her hospital stay, when her husband entered the room, she burst into tears. “Look at what I look like!” she moaned through her sobs.

Immediately, he left the room and returned soon thereafter with a cart of shampoo, creams, and lotions. He picked her up in his arms, carried her to the sink, and set her down on his lap. Then leaning her head back over the basin, he washed her hair. He combed it out. He blew it dry. Then with unsteady hand, he applied her makeup the best he could—blush, lipstick, mascara.

She looked at herself in the same mirror that had earlier sent her into convulsions of vanity, and saw someone she recognized: herself. She was back again. All because her man had loved her well through those crucial moments when her world had been crumbling around her.

Today, even though this woman’s experience with breast cancer qualifies as perhaps the lowest point in her life, one of her favorite moments from all of her marriage has become those few precious moments in her hospital room – when her husband loved her in a way any woman would have understood.

“Husbands . . . , live with your wives in an understanding way” (1 Peter 3:7).

Live It: Tell each other about a time when your spouse’s love spoke volumes to you.

Pray: Pray that God will always keep you sensitive to the exact expressions of love your mate needs from you, at any individual moment.

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.

Inside Baseball

BY PASTOR ROB NORRIS

 

“I know that you want truth to be in my heart. You teach me wisdom deep down inside me,” Psalm 51:6.

Pastor Rob Norris, The Crossings

Pastor Rob Norris, The Crossings

Sometimes in the midst of correcting your kids, you can easily lose sight of the main reason you discipline them in the first place. It’s not just to get their clothes picked up, or to eat the meal you’ve prepared, or to stop hitting a sibling. The reason for discipline is to develop inner character, the kind that knows and is learning how to respond to life’s challenges.

The core of a baseball is made of hard rubber. But imagine if the core were marshmallow. What would happen as the string wrapped around it or when a bat smacked it hard several times? It would smash into a mess.

It’s the inside that counts; the character you’re growing in your children. As life begins to happen, as circumstances and decisions begin to wrap around them, it’s their character that will hold them together.

Tami and I define character as “response-ability” – the ability to make the right choices in response to authority and to life’s circumstances. From the time your children leave the cradle, your work as a parent is to turn life situations into teaching situations, growing their “response-ability” one day at a time, teaching them how to respond to you, to others, to life and to God.

In the next few days, you’ll have plenty of opportunities either to overreact to your children’s behavior or to address the roots of their development, and to deal with externals or to train their hearts. Remember, you’re growing character here. It’s only the ones who grow strong at the center – especially as character is strengthened by commitment to God’s Word – who are able to hold up to the challenges they will face in life.

Live it: One of the biggest challenges to a parent is building character on the fly, in the midst of a busy schedule and a family with a multitude of different needs. Talk about how you can take advantage of natural teaching opportunities to train your children in how they should respond.

Pray: Pray for God to give you the discernment to know what issues need to be addressed and what issues you need to let go.

 

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.

 

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.

Eastvale: The Crossings Kids Camp

the-crossings-eastvalePress Release

FREE – Kids Camp
Sunday June 29, 2014 – Tuesday July 1, 2014; 5pm – 7:30 pm
River Heights Intermediate School 7227 Scholar Way, Eastvale, CA 92880

Theme: Agency D3 – Discover. Decide. Defend.

Register your kids for Agency D3 to investigate the exciting truths about Jesus. They will be briefed on their mission at Headquarters. As Special Agents, they will examine evidence in the Evidence Vault, create cool gadgets in the Lab, hone their skills out in the Training Grounds and enjoy dinner in the Break Room.

This will be their biggest investigation EVER as they discover these truths through games, crafts, music, stories, etc.

Dinner is provided every night.

Register online at http://www.atthecrossings.com

For further details contact Terra, Director of Children’s Ministry at terra@atthecrossings.com

The Crossing Church/Eastvale
Meeting Sundays at 10am
@ River Heights Intermediate
7227 Scholar Way
Eastvale, CA 92880
http://www.atthecrossings.com

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.

 

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)