January 31, 2012
"The gospel, applied to our hearts every day, frees us to be brutally honest with ourselves and with God. The assurance of His total forgiveness of our sins through the blood of Christ means we don't have to play defensive games anymore. We don't have to rationalize and excuse our sins. We can say we told a lie instead of saying we exaggerated a bit. We can admit an unforgiving spirit instead of continuing to blame our parents for our emotional distress. We can call sin exactly what it is, regardless of how ugly and shameful it may be, because we know that Jesus bore that sin in His body on the cross. With the assurance of total forgiveness through Christ, we have no reason to hide from our sins anymore."...
January 6, 2012
I'm at a season of life where it seems like it's time to slow down. Nothing is working quite right anymore. I need glasses for aging eyes and anti-inflammtories for aging joints. I forget names and what commonly used household gadgets are called. Solitude invites me to steal away (which I enjoy doing at times!) while a growing family and new church lovingly require me to get even busier than ever. The commercials say Benny and I should be anticipating retirement after all the years of being in the throes of parenting and pastoring. Sometimes I envy those who can....
March 29, 2012 | 1 Comments | Category: Member Testimony | Tags: evangelism, church life, About Us, gospel, grace, humility, lake Nona, Lake Nona Church, Prayer, Redeemer Church, testimony, vision
Along with evangelism prayer can often seem like the most excruciating discipline of a Christian's life. But perhaps unlike evangelism it is not so much a result of forgetful negligence, but rather our seemingly half-hearted, faith-deficient offerings before God that lead us to feel God's proverbial pebble in our shoe...
Keep ReadingMarch 20, 2012 | Category: Musings of a Pastor's Wife | Tags: Prayer, Faith Rising, healing, miracle, testimony, Sheree Phillips
(This is Part Two of this story. Please see yesterday's post for Part One.) The day my Uncle Rocky died I was heartbroken, but I knew I had to tell Josh and Jaime. I still remember feeling perplexed and disappointed. I didn't remember ever believing so strongly that God would heal. I had so wanted them to witness a real miracle......
Keep ReadingMarch 18, 2012 | Category: Musings of a Pastor's Wife | Tags: Fellowship, Lake Nona Church, ministry, miracle, Prayer, Sheree Phillips
Our friend, Frank, has been doing a Sunday evening mini-series on prayer. While it's likely I heard him do a variation of these messages in the 90′s at a former church, his words have been freshly challenging and encouraging me. As a small group of us sat our family room listening to him teach last night, the Lord began to show me how easily I'm tempted to discourage...
Keep ReadingMarch 12, 2012 | Category: Musings of a Pastor's Wife | Tags: Redeemer Church, testimony, ministry, miracle, Lake Nona Church, grace, Fellowship, church life, Benny Phillips, Sheree Phillips
History isn't very important to a lot of people. But my husband was a history major who has transferred his love of history to our family. Sometime I will have to blog about the competition five of our kids engaged in with the same college history professor… This morning at Redeemer Church history was on display. ...
Keep ReadingMarch 6, 2012 | Category: Musings of a Pastor's Wife | Tags: About Us, ministry, Faith Rising, grace, humility, ladies, Redeemer Church, Lake Nona Church, Sheree Phillips
Do you remember the point I repeated my last post? Our faith-filled obedience to God pleases Him and sanctifies our work. The good news is that while the type of work we do differs, God's pleasure is the same whatever our work is!...
Keep ReadingMarch 1, 2012 | Category: Musings of a Pastor's Wife | Tags: forigiveness, New Beginnings, Sheree Phillips, lake Nona, Redeemer Church, Orlando Church
A couple of years ago my son, Jesse, preached a message on the importance of seeing the place into which God has put us as a divine calling. The text was 1 Corinthians 7:17: "Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches."...
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