Joyfully Yours

Overcoming Bitterness

Today's message at church was overcoming bitterness.  Bitterness over something that someone has done to you.  [more to come soon]

Happy New Year!

There's no better way to celebrate the new year than by spending it at church!  Pastor Guy spoke about Past Failures, and how the devil uses guilt to keep us from giving our worries to God.  God has provided us with the "key" to reconciling our past failures, but we must use it!

Key #1 To reconcile our past failures with God, we must receive Jesus personally.

• "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ"  Romans 5:1
• Our sin debt has been paid in full, by accepting Jesus as our personal savior, and knowing that He died on the cross for our sins.

Key #2  We must also agree with God.

• "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."  1 John 1:9
• We must confess what we have sinned, and why we sinned.  God uses failures to build His kingdom and to work through them!

"I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead" Phil. 3:13 NLT

Pastor Guy used an example of carrying a heavy concrete brick in a backpack, then chaining the backpack to himself to show the past failures that we carry with us.  They're heavy, and we feel immense guilt, and can't let it go.  Only when we confess to God the "what" and "why" can our past failures be let go, and be turned into stepping stones for our future.