We all know the Mercy Me lyrics that say “I can only imagine, when that day comes, when I find myself standing in the Son! I can only imagine when all I will do is forever, forever worship You, I … Continue reading
A Father’s Love
Being a “child of God” became more real to me just a few days ago. When my daughter was born on January 12, 2012 I got a little taste of what it is like when God looks at us. Holding her in my arms for the first time was one of the greatest things that I have ever experienced. Words can never explain the emotions and thoughts that were pouring through me in those first few hours. Zephaniah 3:17b really stood clear in my mind that day. “He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” From 6:35pm on that day my life changed completely. I understood a new love. Don’t get me wrong I love my wife with a passion very deep. But now I understand that because of that love we now have something that is a part of each of us and represents our love.
God had a love for us that was special and unique. Look around you. Everything that exists was created for us to enjoy! The difference with God’s love is that not only did He have a child that He adored and thought was pretty special…He sent that Son to a terrible place and put Him on a cruel cross! For people that hated Him! It is pretty safe to say that there isn’t a person on this earth that I would sacrifice my daughter for! I have a connection with her that has been created in just a couple weeks…God had a connection with His Son that had existed for all of eternity. Then one day…because of all of our sin…God had to turn His back on His Son.
I would do anything for my little girl. I get it now even more than I did before. God LOVES me! God LOVES you! He is a Father that adores you and loves you…accept it!!!
Glenn Dillon
& The Leaders @ The Place
Ladies Ministry Planning Meeting
Regular meetings are held the first Tuesday of each month from 7-8 in the conference room. We welcome any lady who would like to help.
December Newsletter
Thankful Hearts
This month at The Place we have focused on “Thankful Hearts” of the Bible. We are taking a look at a few people in various situations that were thankful for what they either had in the past, in the present or the promise of what they were going to receive in the future. While I was studying this past week I ran across a portion of scripture that I thought was rather interesting.
The Israelites had been slaves to Egypt. They witnessed the power of God through the 10 plagues. Their prayers of freedom were answered when Moses led them out of Egypt. They were led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire at night. They walked through a parted Sea on dry ground and walls of water to their left and right. They were eyewitnesses to that same Sea crashing down on Pharaoh and his army. Drank water…FROM A ROCK!!!! They built the Ark of the Covenant with their own hands. Witnessed the start of the tabernacle.
These people were spectators to some of the most amazing things that God has ever done. God had provided them with everything they had ever NEEDED. I capitalize the word NEEDED because that is what they were provided with most of the time. In the world we live in we have a lot of “things” or “stuff.” And oftentimes we want more. Sometimes we yearn for more. That is basically what the Israelites started to do. True they were stuck wandering in the wilderness, but they had what they NEEDED. God would send Manna (bread from heaven) on a daily basis to feed His people.
Numbers 11:4
And again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat!”
The Israelites were being blessed with the food of Angels (Psalm 78:25). But they were crying about wanting meat! It is easy to look at their circumstance and shake our heads. But too often we get the poor me syndrome ourselves. We (includes me) start taking for granted the gifts God gives us and we want something else!
In this case God gave these people what they wanted! They cried for meat and He sent it!
Numbers 11:18b-20a
The Lord heard when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month-until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it.
They definitely did not have Thankful Hearts! These people had selfish wants and God answered their prayers! He gave them what they wanted and they vomited meat out of their noses!
This Thanksgiving take some time to look around at your blessings. Have a Thankful Heart towards God and give thanks in all circumstances. And don’t eat so much turkey on Thursday that you vomit it out of your nose!
Glenn Dillon & The Leaders @ The Place
Follow the Leader
“God is a Creator, not a duplicator.” -Francis Chan
I have worked with teenagers since I was eighteen years old, and for the past twelve years I have noticed one thing over and over again. Teenagers have a tendency to follow the wrong things. It never fails…every group, clique, pose’, tribe, pack or whatever else you want to call it has a leader. The head honcho, the captain, the chief, the boss, the person that calls all the shots. Typically the leader of the group is the prettiest, smartest, most athletic, meanest, nicest or funniest person in the group. All others…follow their lead! Unfortunately too many times I have watched these groups follow the leader into trouble or problems they shouldn’t be getting into. Often times they lead them right out the church doors, and they never return.
In the book of Matthew; Jesus was talking to His disciples about the unbelieving “RELIGIOUS” people of that time…The Pharisees. In chapter 15 verse 14 Jesus says: “Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” You see since the beginning of time people have been playing that childhood game of follow the leader. The problem is time and time again people are leading others into unhappiness, trouble, destruction, humiliation and many other issues.
Take a look at your life…is the person you are following…following Christ??? If they aren’t, you are following a blind guide…and you yourself are blind!!!
Place your focus on Christ…allow Him to be your guide! The Bible is a lamp to your feet and a light for your path (Psalm 119:105). Allow it to guide you!
Stop worrying about what others say or think about you and focus on what God says and thinks about you!
Jeremiah 29:11-14A
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord.
Follow Him!!!
Glenn Dillon & The Leaders @ The Place
Your Father Has Written A Story For You!
Recently I have been writing a lot. When Holly and I found out that we were having a baby (a precious little girl we are naming Stella Ann) I began writing in a journal. This journal is “her” journal. I am going to keep writing in this journal and probably a few more journals until a special time in her life when I feel it is the right time to give them to her. I have a few writings that my grandpa wrote and since his passing in 2005 it is always good to go back and read them from time to time. So naturally when I found out our little Stella was on the way I wanted to write…to her…and tell her everything that I can so she knows how much of a blessing she is to Holly and I and just how much we love her.
Then this morning it hit me. God the Father has written a journal for us and about us. The scripture was written by human hands but it was spoken and inspired by my Daddy’s voice! His stories are real and unique. They are intriguing and inspiring. They will make you laugh and make you cry. They will make you shout for joy and be still in awe.
As a kid I struggled with my identity and a lot of that reflected on the fact that I had a father that decided the beaches ofFloridawere more important than his three sons. I always wondered why he never took the time to care and get to know his kids. Then one day I realized that my FATHER had been with me all along. He knew me in the womb; He has each hair on my head tallied up. He can count all the breaths of my life. He is writing my story! He allowed me to go through some rough things and He has brought me out and blessed me with an amazing dad that I don’t share a DNA with, but something deeper. And now He is giving me the opportunity to be a father!
In the pages of scripture God has written a story that has the power to reach each of us in different ways. The rich, the poor, the loved, the hated, the young, the old, the sinner and the saint. It can change your perspective on life; all you have to do is read it.
My prayer is that through a relationship with my daughter she will know beyond a shadow of doubt that her daddy loves her. And through these journals when I am dead and gone she can look back and hear my voice as she reads. Even more importantly, I pray that she becomes a child of God at an early age and can ALWAYS hear HIS voice whispering to her and guiding her all the days of her life!
Psalm 139:16-18
Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.
Glenn Dillon & The Leaders @ The Place
Zumba
Meets Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 6:00pm. Also Saturday at 9:00am. Suggested donation is $4.00.
Ladies’s Missionary Group
Meets Monday mornings at 9:30. Several projects going on for the Huntington City Mission as well as missionaries in Africa and Jamaica. Any one who wants to help will find something they can do.
Regardless of the reason . . . people shouldn’t go hungry in America.
Jesus taught, “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me … Continue reading
