GCV Blog

A note from Phillip Reyes, thanking Grace Church of the Valley for the prayer and financial support received for his short-term missions trip to Thailand.

Sometimes I think too small. Sometimes in the rightness of “stick-to-it-tiveness“, of “wherever you are, be all there,” of “keep your heart where your body is,” I can lose sight of the grandness of God’s Gospel plans. We need to pour our energies into the mission field right around us. But there’s a whole forest of God’s Gospel work beyond these trees. We are part of an entire disciple-making plan that is global in scope. We’re in our own “ends of the earth,” and it’s certainly right to work for Christ’s kingdom right here. But it also helps to remember that we are part of something so much bigger than just our valley.

It’s here. It’s that time, every four years or so, when politics and parties and choice and a better country and red and blue are headlined on every newspaper, magazine, and TV set. And it’s times like these that I feel some of the greatest tension between being an American and being a Christian. I am grateful to be an American. I count it as the grace of God that I’ve been blessed to be born and raised in such a free and prosperous nation. Praise the Lord, being a good American is not currently at odds with being a Christian.

It’s here. It’s that time, every four years or so, when politics and parties and choice and a better country and red and blue are headlined on every newspaper, magazine, and TV set. And it’s times like these that I feel some of the greatest tension between being an American and being a Christian. I am grateful to be an American. I count it as the grace of God that I’ve been blessed to be born and raised in such a free and prosperous nation. Praise the Lord, being a good American is not currently at odds with being a Christian.

Recently one of our sons shared a joke with me. The funny part was that it was one my father frequently told me as a boy. After the laughter, the reality hit him, “I am becoming my father!” Later on another reality hit me, “Disciples are like their teachers.”

So Josie and I had cause to reflect this week. We have been here one month. Here means two hundred miles north of the forty mile radius we have lived our entire lives (with the exception of Josie’s first four in Mexico). One month is thirty days of the the thirty years of marriage we celebrated this week. Thirty years is five grown children and four grand children later. I am tempted to mention the thrill of what lies ahead, but then I would have to include that in the body of this note. At the moment my heart wants to look back and in.

As we head into the fall, I’m thrilled with what God is giving us the opportunity to do in our student ministries. We will be “launching” leadership teams in Jr. High, Sr. High, and College/Career starting in September. Student Ministry is not an end in itself though, we have a goal or mission we are seeking to accomplish. As we minister to our young people, our desire is to take them from being children and bring them to maturity in the faith (Eph 4:11-16).There is nothing wrong with being a child, but many people stay childish long after they should have grown up, and many Christians stay children in the faith long after they should have been showing signs of maturity. Godly maturity lis someone who is God-loving, Word-filled, Ministry-minded, and Making-Disciples (Duet 6:1-9). Our desire is to engage in a student ministry that God would use to do a radical work of maturing in the lives of many teenagers. Our mission is to minister to our students and families in a way that would bring about God-loving, Word-filled, Ministry-minded, Disciplemakers.

I’m always on the lookout for good Old Testament resources. It seems that no matter how hard I work at it, the most challenging, perplexing, and disturbingly distant parts of the Bible are in the Old Testament. I know the whole, entire Bible is breathed out by God and profitable. (the New Testament says so). Getting to the profit, however, is frequently challenging. So reviewing these guidelines by Julian Freeman were good for me, and I hope they will be for you too.

Newton continued his encouragement to Ryland, pointing him to trust in God and not Ryland's emotions or perceptions of God's blessings. Ryland would swing from despair that he was failing spiritually to concern that he wasn't being tested enough. Newton deals with both these extremes.

I'm eagerly anticipating our annual BBQ and Baptism, which is just about a month away now. Each year, it's been such a delight to be together, eat some great food, and celebrate baptisms together. This is also a golden opportunity to serve our church family, and we certainly need your help! Below is a list of the service opportunities, so if you could look over the list and see where you'd like to serve I'd love to hear from you this week.