Parable of Humility

Have you ever suffered from the disease of I-itis?

It’s an easy disease to get. The main symptom is a preoccupation with yourself and a self absorbed attitude in your heart of what you want and desire.

If you look through the Bible, you’ll see story after story that features the theme. The only cure for it is humility and a holy commitment to honor others above yourself.

Jesus knew this when he gave a parable of humility to those at a dinner party he was attending. What caught his eyes were those who gravitated toward the places of honor at the table, instead of selecting lesser seats.

It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t believe in receiving honor, he knew that honor from man was as temporary as the summer wind. True honor means having humility and with humility comes honor from God.

Humility even means replacing your self confidence with God’s holy confidence. It means thinking more highly of others than yourself and living life with the goal of serving others.

That’s what Jesus was trying to drive home to the people at this gathering. He was giving a call to humility and taking us to a higher calling in Him.

This week, seek God and ask Him to help you to walk in mature humility in your daily life. Begin to honor others above yourself and see what happens.

I believe you’ll experience blessings like never before. You’ll find the freedom that comes with serving others and humbling yourself in your heart.

Just imagine what would happen in Bixby if everyone gave honor.

Seek humility and watch how God begins to honor you.

Love,

Pastor Steve

Parable of the Tenant

The first question that needs to be answered in a study of parables is the same question asked by the disciples of Jesus.

“Why do you teach in parables?”

The answer Jesus gave his disciples is that those who seek him earnestly will be rewarded with fresh anointing. Scripture confounds the wise. Knowledge is good for building a religion...not so much for building a relationship. Jesus is always interested in building relationships and will continue to teach people who want a relationship with him.

In Matthew 21:33-40, Jesus tells the Parable of the Tenants. The tenants do not want to abide by the agreement (covenant) they made (cut) with the landowner to share the harvest. They wanted to keep everything for themselves. The tenants even beat or killed the landowner’s servants and murdered his son when the landowner sent them to the harvest to collect his portion.

I believe Jesus taught this parable so He could teach us three critical truths about His kingdom and the steps to gaining His blessings through His covenant relationship with us.

Love God (the Landowner) with all our hearts and minds. He is the one who gives us breath and every good thing in life that we enjoy. Love God and honor Him.

We produce fruit by loving one another. Through love we spread the LIGHT of Jesus to our community.

Give back to God what is already His. God’s kingdom works on the powerful principle of sowing and reaping. Bring God your First-fruits.

Remember, ducks weren’t created to simply waddle through life from pond to pond. God gave them wings to fly. When ducks take flight, they produce the fruit God intended for them.

God gave you special gifts and talents to help you produce fruit in the vineyard God created for you.

This is your year of great possibilities.

Trust God. Waddle less. Fly more.

Love,

Pastor Steve

Celebrate Freedom from Fear

How many times did Jesus tell his disciples not to be afraid?

It seems to have happened quite often. The disciples had a habit of giving into fearful emotion and letting it hijack the efficacy of their faith walk in Him.

Jesus told His disciples not to be afraid because He wanted them to be effective in their earthly ministry and have the abundant life that He came to give them.

He knew it all started with a critical reliance on Him. The disciples had to die to themselves to overcome the spiritual fear that was in their hearts.

I believe we can live a life free from fear today, but only if we renew our minds in Christ and become 100 percent reliant on God in our lives.

Fear is an emotion of our mind. Overcoming it means renewing our mind through the power of His presence and steadfastly walking in His love.

Yes, some fear is healthy and can keep you safe. As Proverbs 27:12 says, "The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it." A healthy sense of fear can be a sign from God to help you stay on the right path and avoid danger.

However, some fear is like a spiritual snakebite. It can paralyze you and keep you from doing the things you could or should do. The disciples experienced this paralyzing fear in their lives and struggled, until they learned to fully rely on God.

This week as we recall the celebrations of Independence Day, make a commitment to declare independence from fear.

Become dependent on Jesus for your daily bread and please, do not be afraid.

Love,

Pastor Steve

P.S. I want to thank everyone involved with “Feeding Families for the Fourth” Outreach this past weekend. It was a tremendous blessing to many families and we are so blessed to have had the opportunity to touch the community in this way. May you continue to be blessed for your obedience and experience the joy of God’s love today. Thanks to all who gave, served or prayed! You are the Church.

Life Made Whole

In the last few weeks, I’ve been speaking about the ways we scramble our lives and how we can make things better in a right relationship with God.

It’s my belief, there’s no habit, sin, or lack in our lives we can’t overcome if we correct our wrong thinking, now. We all need to seek the Lord for a fresh and re-newed way of thinking.

I believe it’s His ultimate desire to see us transformed. But it has to come through a process of learning to be in His presence and to love people.

As a church, our goal is to take people through that process every day to help them find significant living in Him.

It all starts with a commitment to Connect. The leaders at Bixby Community Church are committed to helping you connect with God and encounter Him in a real and meaningful way. By connecting we learn to love.

When we connect with God we will be lead by Him to connect with His people. We encourage you to connect with other people who are connected to God.

The next step in the process is to help you Grow. Through our Wednesday and Sunday services, Business Fellowship, leadership training, children’s classes, adult Sunday school classes, youth gatherings, prayer meetings, social media and Daily Bible Reading, we want to help you grow in your relationship with the Lord Jesus. Growing in Him helps us to be renewed in our minds and hearts.

How do we develop right thinking and better beliefs? By training! Through classes and Bible study, more light will appear in your life to help your beliefs line-up with what is true.

The final step in our process is to Serve. In fact, that’s the reason we connect and grow …to serve God and to serve the needs of others. By serving God and serving others we will have the greatest opportunity to impact the fourth generation.

Life is made whole by connecting, growing and serving.

I’m very blessed to connect with you as your Pastor, to grow together, so that we can serve and impact Gen 4.

Don’t miss our July 4, Sunday morning service. I will be preaching a powerful lesson on freedom. We are all in a form of bondage to ourselves. Let’s make this 4th of July Celebration, a life changing weekend as we learn to celebrate freedom from our limiting beliefs.

Please help us Feed Families on the Fourth. Visit our website if you would like more information. BCC will bless 100 families with a great basket of food on this holiday weekend. Be a part of the giving!

Love,

Pastor Steve

Fatherhood Made Whole

Fatherhood MINUS the father is simply the HOOD.

Too many Fathers are MIA from their homes. It’s clear the attitude of the world and many believers toward Fatherhood and parenting today has become an issue of convenience, rather than a responsibility in our homes.

I believe, however, we can become the parents God wants us to be if we’re willing to do what it takes to renew our minds today and align our hearts with right thinking in Jesus.

As the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 4, we need to seek for the attitude of our mind to be renewed with fresh anointing from God, in His presence. It all starts with fresh anointing from God.

Make it a habit to bless your children with meaningful touches and words of love. Begin to speak to them in kindness and show them how valuable they are in God’s sight. Offer them a glimpse of God’s purpose for their lives and plans for their future. As often as possible, speak INTO what you see for them in the future. Speak to their possibilities.

I believe you’ll see a real change in their hearts as you train up your children in the way they should go. They’ll see you as a parent who wants only to build them up and love them as Jesus does.

Fatherhood becomes whole...when we bless our children as we have been blessed by God.

Let's keep fathers in the hood.

Love,

Pastor Steve

Learning Made Whole Blog

Are you closer to God today than you were last year at this time? Are you healthier, wealthier today versus last year? Are you happier?

If your answers to these questions are no, then maybe you're not learning from the lessons in your life. Learning impacts our beliefs at the point where we make our daily decisions. If our beliefs don’t change according to what we learn in life, then how will our decisions produce a positive outcome?

The reality is if you don’t make changes based on your learning…then the quality of your decisions will show it…and so will the outcomes in your life. We all need to learn that there is a vast difference between knowledge and learning. "Knowledge puffeth up." Learning causes change to occur in our life.

Consider King David in the Old Testament. David knew God and understood His precepts. Sadly, David, a man after God's own heart, struggled to learn. After David sinned with Bathsheba, he prayed in Psalm 51:10, "create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." David asked God to show him how to learn because his sinful nature was clearly getting in the way of his spiritual growth. He cried out to God with a strong heart seeking change.

Maybe you're like David and need a fresh touch from God to help you to learn and create true change in your life. Maybe you need a breakthrough that will help you apply your understanding to know God in a new and intimate way.

Whatever the case, I want you to know, your learning can be made whole through God’s fresh anointing today. Walk in the light of His Word and seek His face.

Flee from darkness and seek FRESH anointing from God today. "Here a little, there a little, precept upon precept, line upon line.

Stay out of the shade!

Love,

Pastor Steve

Reality Made Whole

We all have our definition of reality. This is a great time of year to think about how we define what is real in our lives.

Summer is when most of us go on vacation, weekend getaways, or head to the lake to have fun and relax. Most of us think of our our vacations or get-aways as an "escape from reality."

There are many, however, who want and seek a more permanent change in their everyday reality. These folks change jobs, churches, or even spouses in hopes of finding happiness and filling the emptiness they feel in their hearts.

I think people are unhappy in their lives because they have an unreal view of reality. They’ve been sold on the notion that a happy reality is gained through the pursuit of wanting more and getting more stuff. "I want it all and I want it delivered!"

We are on a constant search for bigger, better, new and improved. We shop. We buy. "But I still haven't found what I'm looking for."

We can search everywhere for contentment…but until we have contentment with Godliness, as in 1 Timothy 6:6, then we’ll likely never find true peace and joy.

Reality is made whole when we are content in the presence of God. Contentment comes from right thinking and right thinking comes from a pure heart before God.

Pray this prayer with me today. "Create in me a pure heart, Oh God."

Contentment will produce a Christ-filled reality.

Love,

Pastor Steve