Dear Family,

I have been hurt a lot of times. Insulted, punched, ridiculed, patronized, lied about, rejected. But only a couple of times has that pain continued. Only a couple of times has the hurt been so bad that forgiveness is a struggle. But those couple of times still haunt me. I still struggle.

 I will bet you know this struggle. Maybe it's only one or two people or maybe it's a host of people that have hurt you and who you just can't forgive. I get it. We all live different lives, and we all come to church with different baggage. I hope this Sunday, I can encourage you from Romans 12:17-21, from the story of the cross and from real life people who forgave hurts beyond imagining. I hope you will come and worship with me.

Sometimes we need to step back and re-evaluate our lives and the life of the church to make sure we are not letting time be wasted on busy work, frivolous work, or work to prove our self-importance. We also need reassurance in discipleship and reaffirm God's direction in our lives.

The discipline of our discipleship is to help us enjoy our relationship with God.  We are created to value our relationship to God and live in the hope of our relationship to Him.  We are reborn to be Jesus' disciples.

Because of what Jesus did for us and the focus He brings to our service, we are free to find the blessings of serving one another.

To be led by God's commands we should be lead into His love and into Jesus' perseverance.

God forgives us of our confessed sins. This calls us to forgive others. Our forgiveness should empower us to forgive others.

Discipleship is an individual commitment involving actions that lead us to experiencing God’s victories.