The Rock Church

God’s Truth

We need God’s truth.

“We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.” — Daniel 9:6

Last week, while shopping, I noticed the clerk wore a shirt that had “Love is Love” printed on it. I have seen that saying everywhere. If time had allowed, I might have respectfully asked, “What do you mean by love is love?” However, there was a long line of customers waiting to check out and it wasn’t the right time. I can guess, though, he would have said something about the “freedom to love who you want to love, including sexually.”

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Loose Lips Sink Ships

During WWII, the idiom “Loose lips sink ships.” was created. People needed to know the effects of careless words and unguarded talk. “Loose lips” could leak secrets to the enemy, spread rumors, or create issues between people groups. Information passed from person to person could have grave results. Especially if the information wasn’t true.

Similarly, this concept was also understood and written about by Solomon in Proverbs 11:13:

“A gossip goes around telling secrets, but those who are trustworthy can keep a confidence.”

Posted in A Word from the Pastor by Tony D'Amico

Justice

God does not turn a blind eye to injustice. To my shame, I can wrongly assume that if justice isn’t served immediately, justice won’t be served at all. As a result, I mistake God’s grace or patience as “looking the other way” when a sin is committed against Him or His creation. I am wrong. God does not “look the other way” when we sin or are sinned against. He doesn’t let anything slip through the cracks. Surely, there is no statute of limitations with God. 

Next time you question His goodness (or His seemingly slow timing) remember this. God is our judge; we are not His. Indeed, it is sinful for us to judge Him. He is slow to anger, but this does not mean He will let sin and evil prevail.

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Secure in Christ!

Being secure (or trying to find a sense of security) can sometimes seem impossible. This is true, even for our church. Over the years, we’ve had numerous trailers and items stolen from our property. If you can believe it, we’ve even had the church truck itself (and the catalytic converter) taken twice!

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Thirst Quencher

Recently, I read a prayer in an old Puritan book that encouraged and challenged me. The Puritan prayer was this: “As the sun is full of light, the ocean full of water, heaven full of glory, so may my heart be full of Thee.”

The Bible is filled with verses that speak of the deep desire for more of God’s presence in our lives.

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Impeccable Manners

“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life” — Philippians 2:14

A few weeks ago, my wife had a great idea. As an end of the year “thank you” gift, she baked a plate of cookies for our older son’s school bus driver. She sent the cookies with Kael and Aiden in the morning. Later that afternoon, they came home with a note from their bus driver:

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True Identity

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” — 2 Corinthians 5:17

I recently gave a message called “Living for God”. As I prepared for it, I was reminded again of how critically important a proper understanding of our identity in Christ is. (Pastor Bryan recently wrote about our identity, also. Seems like God has something He wants us to be thinking about.)

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Freedom

“For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” — Galatians 5:1

Wow! That is an amazing truth for you and me — ones who walk in faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. You are free, so live like it. We are sons and daughters of a Holy God, not slaves who have to work for the favor of our Master. Indeed, we stand firmly free before a God who looks at us and is pleased — because of what Jesus has done.

Posted in A Word from the Pastor by Caleb Yetton

A New Creation

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” — 2 Corinthians 5:17

As a Christian, you and I are no longer who we used to be. Because of Jesus Christ, all of our past sins and failures do not determine who we are. As a result, we’re no longer bound to any kind of pressures from our culture/society about who we NEED to be. As sons and daughters of Jesus, our identity is not determined by what others think or say about us. It is not determined by what we think of ourselves. In other words, our identity has been determined by God Himself. Unfortunately, there are times we can get so lost in our thoughts and expectations from the world, we can FORGET who we are! We need to be reminded of Truth in order to change the way we think of ourselves.

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“You’re already dead.”

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.” — John 12:24-26

Recently, I watched a World War II movie which had the following dialogue between two characters:

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