The Well begins In-Person worship 10:00 this Sunday at Riverview, the new school in Thompson River Ranch. Pastor Bill will start a new series on “God is Able” because we all have times where we are not able, and we need Him to do the impossible!
Bill Stevens
April 2, 2020
You are now quarantined at the house with your spouse and children. You are required to work from home and simultaneously homeschool you children. How do you order you daily life so you don’t go crazy? The question actually sounds like something out of a survival book or a life or death situation board game!
Stephanie and I have actually been doing this for years, until the older kids were able to go to high school. So our adjustment has been very easy and following are some tips we have learned.
Love God, Love wife, Love children, do your God-given work.
This will help you remember, when work is frustrating to you, these other relationships take precedence over your work. So if you have a bad day at work, don’t take it out on your kids or spouse.
You can probably and should sleep longer if you can. You don’t have any commute or any distance to drive for lunch. Use that extra time for rest since the emotional stress of our national situation is going to be heavier than any other time. But when you get up, get dressed and ready for work like you would normally do. There is something therapeutic in this routine.
Don’t fixate on the difficulty of homeschooling, because it is not as difficult as you might think. Of course if they are like trying to teach their ______ (insert grandparent’s name here) then you become more and more thankful for teachers! LOL!
Seriously, it takes less time than an eight hour day to teach your children at the house. Most of it can be done in half the time, especially if they are elementary age. Why? You are the teacher and you have to teach twenty-five children or your two. Which is going to take longer? #commonsense.
So use every moment to teach. Fun things Stephanie has done is read to them every day because there is power in hearing something read to you, use chocolate chips for math, make cookies for fractions, follow a recipe for learning to read and follow directions, and anything you may do normally in the house that you can use to teach them key principles.
Screen time? Documentaries are better than mind numbing junk tv. But hey! We all like chips and cookies too, especially during stressful times, so don’t be a madman.
Help them grow spiritually. Read the Bible to them daily and pray with them. The Jesus Storybook Bible is amazing or just reading from one of the Gospels like Luke or John which are very engaging.
This is imperative especially if you are both working from the house. You need a start time and an end of work day time. Work hard then “go home.” When work is over, walk away from it. Walk away from the texts, the emails, the meetings, everything. Go home and kiss your wife, and enjoy your family.
They are not your coworkers, don’t treat them like they are. Your children are not an interruption but the gifts you prayed God would give you. Tell them you love them and hug them more, unless you are symptomatic! If you are quarantine yourself in a room and have them feed you quesadillas by sliding them under the door! Some of the best therapy you can give your children is just ordering your life well, being calm, loving them, pointing them to trust Jesus, and doing your work faithfully.
God gave us a Sabbath day to rest, rejuvenate, and worship Him. It was for rest and spiritual rest, not work, not everything else the world has to offer, but to rest. Your body needs it, your soul needs it, and you entire family needs to know how to get in good spiritual rhythms with God during these times.
Connect with us and we will keep you in the loop of what is happening. But also, let us know what kind of needs you are facing! If you want we will send you info on how to grow in your relationship with Christ.
Hey Dads!
Sometimes our attitudes aren’t what it needs to be and it hurts our families, marriage, and especially our children. We can sometimes, not purposely, give our children a very bad idea of what a “father” should be. When this happens, our children get a bad idea of what who their “Heavenly Father” really is. We are given the responsibility and charge to carry the title of “father” and in turn represent our Heavenly Father’s love to our children.
If you are anything like me, I fail miserably at times, and our Heavenly Father knows this and that is why He sent Jesus to teach us about Him and His ways. Jesus gives us eight attitudes that change our lives, our perspectives, and our relationships amazingly.
Follow along as I write and teach on these eight powerful relationship changing attitudes that help us to become the men God wants us to be. And mom’s these can be applied to you just as much as it does to dads! So please don’t feel left out.
Blessings
Pastor Bill Stevens
The Kingdom of God and the USA
July 4, 2019
“Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” Revelation 11:15
We live in the best country in the world, but it is sooo far from perfect. Everyone has a great desire to live in a perfect world, but that will never happen through the means of people. Why? We are all broken and have broken and imperfect desires. Simply put, if we were in charge, our corrupted selves would still create an imperfect corrupt country and world. We yearn for a Kingdom, ruled honestly, justly, in love, where we can live life to the full without fear for anything or any of our needs. God, King Jesus, is returning to create such a Kingdom here on earth.
We have an inner desire from someone great to be in charge, a Savior to fix us and fix our world. God who created the universe and set his affections on this world which He created is the Savior we need. He stepped out of Heaven, in the person of Jesus Christ, fully God and fully Man who revealed the ways of the Father and died on the cross for us to have forgiveness, peace with God, and an amazing quality of life called “Eternal Life” which also guarantees us a home in His Kingdom. His first coming was to help fix us through faith in Him and His death on the cross. His resurrection proves He can fix us, create in us a new heart with new and right desires, and to reconcile us to God the Father. But His second coming will not be for His crucifixion. His first coming was for us to understand His glorious love, mercy, and grace.
His second coming will be in such creative power that the entire world will be dissolved and He will recreate it perfectly, with all of those who had become His followers. His Kingdom will come in greatness, power, defeat of all enemies of good and of those who reject Him as King.
America will cease to exist, as will Russia, UK, and even Israel. There will be no nations and national divisions as we know today, because we will be ruled by King Jesus. Friends, I am celebrating the 4th of July today enjoying American Independence, but the USA and American values are NOT the answer for the world or America. The Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and all other parties do not have the answer. Should you vote and serve this nation? Yes, vote your conscience and serve this nation, but remember King Jesus is the Answer for you, your world, this country, and our world.
The question is… Are you follower of King Jesus? Followers of King Jesus are citizens of the Kingdom of God and will be part of His Kingdom forever, even when Old Glory stops waving and the kingdoms of this world are dissolved.
Blessings
Bill Stevens
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“We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5
Have you ever let something get in your head, consume your thoughts, and then only to bring you pain? We all have. It is called being a human. If the wrong things get in your head, it can spell disaster for your life, and for those closest to you.
God created everything perfect in the beginning, then Adam & Eve let some wrong thoughts get in their head, then in their heart, and ultimately in their actions. Adam’s actions brought death, pain, and suffering to the entire world.
We are all prone to letting the wrong things get in our heads everyday: fear, anxiety, worry, lust, pride, bad advise from others, offenses, injustice, suffering, the desire for more stuff, wealth, pleasure, depression, sadness, unmet expectations, anger, broken trust, betrayal, jealously, greed, hate, racism, and even ageism.
We are all prone to have the wrong ideas about how we should live our lives and how life should be lived. God is the Answer for us as we enter into a personal relationship with Christ, and God has the answer for us as we seek to understand His ways of living, and how life should be lived.
The biggest and most dangerous thing that gets in our head and controls our heart is our own selves. Yes, I. I am my own worst enemy and you are your own worst enemy. Pride – thinking too highly of myself. Yes, we are all prone to think too highly of ourselves, our abilities, our heritage, our upbringing, our resources, and our ______ whatevers. When pride takes deep root in our lives, we become arrogant. The difference between arrogance and pride, is that the arrogant don’t even realize how proud they are.
Begin today by tell God, “Father, I need you to help me have the right thoughts about myself, others, stuff, life, and You. Please help me.” Then open up God’s Word, the Bible, and begin with the Gospel of John or Luke. Read how Jesus lived his life toward others, toward God, and toward Himself. Ask God to help you have His attitude and thought life. Jesus will bring peace to your struggle. He brings peace to mine!
Blessings!
Bill Stevens
Are you being troubled and grieved by trials that sadden you and make you weep? God is not out to get you, He loves you! Trials are something you are going THROUGH not getting stuck IN. God will not leave you there forever, He will deliver you.
The Apostle Peter, one of Jesus’ key leaders wrote this.
“So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world” 1 Peter 1:6–7 (NLT)
Trails test the reality of your faith. They reveal the impure things of your that that must be removed so you can have a pure faith, solid, secure, and unwavering. Like gold heated to the melting point 1,948 degrees Fahrenheit, the impurities rise quickly to the surface at that heat level. What is rising to the surface in your trial? Fear, anxiety, worry, and anger all seem to bubble up to the surface first.
Our Refiner, King Jesus, speaks to us in our trials when these things rise to the surface. He helps us recognize them, pull them away and slowly learn to trust Him more and more in our trials. He keeps purifying us in these trials so our faith would reflect the faith of Jesus Himself.
Imagine the temptation of Jesus to dive into fear, anxiety, worry, and anger at the prospect of being betrayed, beaten and going to the cross for humanity who had rejected Him. The night before His crucifixion, He was sweating great drops of blood, crying out to God the Father for some other way, but yielding fully to the Father’s will, saying “Not my will but Thine be done.” He was to face a death like no other man, taking the punishment for all the sins of all humanity upon Himself. Jesus struggled through this trial and got his eyes firmly fixed on the Resurrection that the Father had promised and the place of honor at the right hand of God that was His when He ascended.
He went through the betrayal and the crucifixion as no other man. His eyes were on the promise of God to Him and not on the pain and trouble He was to face. He went through it powerfully, magnificently, and perfectly. He went through it with peace and love, not anger and anxiety. He went through it with an unwavering trust in the Father’s love for Him not a fear that God was out to get Him. He knew the Father was going to deliver Him. His spirit and mind were settled upon following the Father’s and doing things God’s way. This is why the Word of God calls Jesus, the Author our Faith. He wrote the manual on faith and exemplified how we should live by faith.
So remember, when the heat is turned up in your life, and you are being grieved by various trials, that the ugliness of fear, anxiety/worry, and anger are being scraped away from your soul. Peace, love, joy, and an unwavering trust in God is being built in your life and the ugliness is being removed.
How do you know there is an end to these trials? The Goldsmith would stand at the furnace clearing off the impurities that rise to the surface. He knew he was finished purifying the gold when He could see the perfect reflection of His face in the pure gold!
So it is in our lives, when we face fiery trials. We are NOT being punished, but God is transforming us into His beautiful perfect reflection.
Trials are for your beautiful transformation into Christlikeness. Keep trusting God through your trials and know that He will deliver you through them! Sit down today and read quietly 1 Peter 1 and let God’s word soak in your life. Rest in His love for you. Tell Him everything that is bothering you. Thank Him for changing you and that He is going to deliver you through this troubling time.
Don’t give up!
Bill Stevens
Hey Friends,
Has America gone so far that it cannot be fixed? No! I believe God is able to turn this country around. Please come to this important two part message series on how God can heal our broken country, world, families, friends, and even our lives. This is NOT a message about politics, how to vote, or even protesting. I will be speaking on what the early church did in Bible times and how they helped heal their broken world by tapping into God’s power!
You don’t want to miss this!
Bill Stevens, Lead Pastor
May 19th – 10:30 at Comfort Suites by SCHEELS Sporting goods.
May 26th – 10:30 at Comfort Suites by SCHEELS Sporting goods.
Sponsored by:
