WHAT I HAVE LEARNED SINCE I STEPPED DOWN FROM MY CHURCH

• On April 30th I preached my last sermon and stepped down as pastor. This has been the most difficult time of my life but it has also been an amazing time of learning. I thought I would simply bullet some of the things that God is both teaching me and showing me.
  
  Jesus Christ is my best friend and we should never forsake cultivating deep communion with Him so that when times of trial and testing come we know where to go for strength and comfort and help.
• Do we really know and feel that Jesus loves us unconditionally?
• Who are you when everything is stripped and taken away? What defines you as a person?
• Faith is easy to talk about until you have to live by it.
• Worry, fear, and stress are very dangerous to your soul. I wonder ho many of us live our lives bound up in all we do by those things inside.
• Do not think that you can control your life or God. If you do, He will show you how out of control you really are.
• I think that the church has much to learn about grace, mercy, forgiveness, compassion, and love in action.In short, the church needs to know about its own sinfulness, the wonder of the cross, and the depth of the Father's love.
• We are all very broken, poor, and needy people, its just that most of us don't realize it.
• I am only a man. I am expendable. Christ can raise me or lower me according to His will.
• When all is said and done, Jesus is all we have.
• Whether we live or die, whether things go well or dreams collapse, the Lord is good!
• God is absolutely sovereign and does what He pleases.
  Everything that we do for Christ is nothing but a grace and mercy.
  I am and always will be a wretched sinner apart from Christ.
• God is not concerned near as much about what I do as He is concerned for who I am.
• Most of us are more wounded and broken than we even begin to realize.
• There are many more reasons what we do than meets the eye.
• John Calvin said that it is harder to know ourselves than to know God. I Agree.
• The cross brings healing to our emotions as well as our sins.
• Some of us are way to religious and not enough loving, merciful, generous, and kind toward others.
• We are more products of our past than we realize.
• Be sure to take care of your soul above all things. If you don't, the time will surely come when you will find out that you did not and you will wish that you did.
• Beware of foolishness in how you think, make decisions, and how you live.
• Friendship is a sheltering tree.
• Fellowship with other believers is much more valuable to me than Sunday church services.
• We all need real friends who who stand with us, love us, forgive us, show mercy, forebear with us, and stay with us no matter what. That is the kind of friend that Jesus is!
• We also need friends who will speak the truth to us and love us anyway. We need to listen to our true friends because God speaks to us through them if we would listen.
• God speaks to us in many ways if we would just be open to divine providence.
• God gave us two ears and one mouth. I am convinced listening is much more important to God than speaking
• The best way to have real friendships is to be a friend to others.
• Do not work so much or seek to acquire things or money too much, because the day will come when you see what a waste it is if you have not invested in your soul, marriage, family, and friends.
• Do not waste your trials, valleys, brokenness, failings, and defeats.
• Look around every day and you will see arrows of love shot to you from the Father in heaven. God visits you every day with so many precious providence's if you would only open your eyes to see.
• When you begin living in the world of divine providence, no matter how bad things are, you can always find numerous reasons for gratitude to God. Something happens in your soul when you become a thankful person.
• I have been very lonely in this life, but I am learning that just as Jesus says in John 16:32, "I am not alone the Father is with me."
• When people are hurting we need to ask the Father to help us really have empathy and compassion. We need to ask the Lord what we can be for others. Most people don't need glib bible quoting, sermons, and pithy sayings, they just need someone to listen, weep, and pray with them.
• God knows what we can handle better than we do.
• Often times when we are overwhelmed in our trials we want relief,escape, and an end. We will tell Him that we cannot handle it. Jesus does not offer us those things until the appointed time is over but He does offer us Himself and His enabling and sustaining grace in order to face and endure them.
• It is one thing to ask God for some help, it is another thing to believe that if God does not help you, you will fail. Many Christians rely more on themselves and others than they know.
• Most of us have a very hard time being quiet and still before the Lord.
• Love is the most important thing in the life and legacy of a believer.
• I am a great sinner, Jesus is a wonderful savior, and on Him and His mercy and grace and kind arms I fall.

Pastor Bill