October 30th, 2009 by Tim Moore

Most of you know how passionate I am about reaching the lost. God has laid on my heart a passion for sharing the simple Gospel message through a series we are doing called The Truth! Check out the trailer…

As our church gears up for this, I have invited many of the volunteers and leaders to join me in doing 3 things in anticipation of this series.
1) Pray – When we pray, things happen in the spiritual world that we cannot see. We know that our enemy, the devil, will try to bring any and all attacks against us as we move forward to take back ground from him through this series. I am committing to pray everyday for this series before it and through it!

2) Fast – Sometimes when you want a spiritual breakthrough, you need to go the extra mile spiritually. I am going to do a 3 week sweets fast for this series. Starting November 2nd through the last worship experience of the series (Nov 22nd) I am going to give up all desserts and sweets. Often when we fast it refocuses us to what God wants to do rather than what we want in the natural. Many have already said they will join me! I know that when we have done this in the past, we have seen incredible things happen. (Man…I’m going to miss the Ice Cream and Frosties and Halloween Candy and…)

3) Invite – I have challenged our church to invite any friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, classmates or anyone they know that doesn’t know Christ. I have personally set a challenge for myself to invite as many as I can. We never know the impact that can happen on someone through just a simple thing like inviting them to church with us. If you do this, offer to buy them lunch and tell them to be your guest!

I want to expand this to anyone who follows my blog. I invite you to join me in praying every day for the lost in your life and in our community, fast something (sweets, meats, tv, food, etc.) to see God move in a greater way through us, and invite people you care about to hear this life changing message. Be part of what God wants to do through the Church.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. (Rom 1:16)

October 27th, 2009 by Tim Moore

On November 8th we are kicking off a series that I am so PUMPED UP about. I did not plan to do this series at this time, but God laid it heavy on my heart. As I look at the state of those in the church, it concerns me that many who “go to church” don’t know Christ! I told our church this past Sunday that this series is going to be incredibly powerful and one that you need to BRING someone with you to. Why do I think it is going to be powerful? Am I planning to preach my head off? Well, maybe. But that’s not why. This series will be powerful because of verse that by the way has totally rocked my world for the past 2 years!

Romans 1:16
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

When the Gospel is preached, God’s power is released! And it is only by the power of God that people can experience the true transformation of salvation. What many people don’t realize is that this series is not just for your neighbor or friend who doesn’t go to church…but it might be for you! I truly believe there are MANY who go to church and yet still aren’t saved! They have bought a lie from the devil and need to hear THE TRUTH. So here is the “tentative” outline for the series.

Nov 8 – I believe in God and I’m going to hell.
Nov 15 – I go to church and I’m going to hell.
Nov 22 – I prayed a prayer once and I’m going to hell.

Join me in praying for this series every day and that God would use us to reach MANY with the Gospel and that we could see true transformation happen through the Holy Spirit – perhaps even many who have gone to church for years!

October 21st, 2009 by Tim Moore

One thing that I have found always seems to weed out a church faster than anything else is preaching the Truth.

When we preach Jesus and Him alone as the way to heaven…it makes some people mad.
When we preach the truth from God’s Word about anything (sex, money, marriage)…it offends people.

I have seen our attendance drop the moment I started preaching God’s Word about being responsible with HIS money. People don’t want to hear INSTRUCTION from God’s Word. They want to be soothed and encouraged by it. They want to know that everything they are doing is okay. Even when it’s not!

I have wrestled with this quite a bit over the past weeks. And I have come to the conclusion that I must continue to preach God’s Word, even if it offends people. Actually, I believe in many ways it shows the current affair of many in the Church today.

Which brings me to my next series. God is burning my heart to preach a series on the pure and simple Truth – the Gospel. Why? Because I believe there are MANY in the Church today even who are NOT saved. Yes! You read me right. I believe many who go to church each week, worship God (and raise their hands even), and even get involved in small groups who are NOT saved! They look the part of someone who loves Jesus on Sunday but live like HELL every other day. And there are many more in our communities who just don’t know that there is another way!

And it breaks my heart!! I grieve over how many people are playing a game with the Creator of the Universe – who is Holy. I struggle to know that people love what we do here at Crossroads and don’t fully surrender to Christ. It has so burdened me that I am up’ing my “spiritual game” so to speak. I am spending more time in prayer asking God to do something big in our church. I am begging God to move on the people in our church and those we are going to invite in a life changing way! God is putting so many things on my heart about this.

And I ask you to join me! Get up a little earlier. Spend 5 more minutes in prayer. Ask God to do something we’ve never seen before. Pray against the devil’s schemes to keep this from happening. And believe with me that God is going draw MANY to make REAL life changing commitments through this series that begins November 8th!

October 20th, 2009 by Tim Moore

One thing that separates a good quarterback from a great one is the ability to read a defense and call an audible. Even though it is important to go to the line with everyone knowing the play, if something doesn’t look right or feel right, then a great q-back will make an adjustment.

Sometimes we must do that in church leadership as well. As we see what God is doing or what the needs are in our church, it might lead us to call and audible. If we are going following the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we must be okay with this. I would much rather be part of what God is doing than just invite God to be part of what we are planning.

God is leading me to call an audible with our next series. I can’t get it out of my mind. We had a great series planned with some kickin’ music and all the weeks were outlined. It is something I’ve wanted to preach on for a couple years now. But, something is pulling me to call an audible. Now I’m praying like mad that God does something bigger than I could imagine. Who knows what God has in store, but I pray that I will always be open to calling an audible when needed!

What do you need to call an audible on right now in your life? Is God leading you to make a change that you weren’t planning? If so, do it…He will never lead you the wrong way.

October 15th, 2009 by Tim Moore

Sometimes I find myself in situations where I desperately want to hear from God. I might have a big decision that needs to be made and I want to know that I’m making the right one. So I am driven to spend more time in God’s Word and get up earlier so I can spend more time in prayer. I say, “Okay God…speak now.” And almost everytime I do that, I never get the answer…then. That’s frustrating!

But then, at a time when I’m not focused in deep prayer or reading God’s Word, the confirmation or answer will come. It’s the weirdest thing. I have felt God confirm things in my heart while on phone conversations with people, listening to someone else preach, or just driving down the road. I can’t figure out God. I don’t know why He does that.

I am learning that the most important thing we can do is ALWAYS be listening for Him. I believe God speaks to us through so many ways, but most of the time we are so tuned into other things we don’t hear him speaking. When we constantly talk with God throughout the day and stay tuned into His Spirit, we can hear his voice so much more! (John 10:14-16)

Does that mean I don’t need to get up earlier or spend more time with Him? NO!!! I believe God uses that time to PREPARE me to hear from him. To get me in tune with Him first. If I don’t TUNE into his voice in those quiet times, I don’t believe I will RECOGNIZE Him at other times.

Check your frequency… Get in tune with Him and you will begin to hear his voice…even at times when you least expect it.

October 14th, 2009 by Tim Moore

I was pondering this thought early this morning.

Man’s idea of success is not always God’s idea.
Man’s idea of failure is not always God’s idea.

Let’s face it, we often measure our own success or failure based on what people think. The boss didn’t like my presentation. My co-workers didn’t like my idea. Everyone loved my joke, I must be great at telling them.

The truth is…what we consider success and failure is not always what God considers. For me as a pastor, I can let success ride on how much people liked a sermon or the number of people who show up for a service. But even that may not be successful in God’s eyes. Likewise, I might consider a lack of response or attendance to lead me to believe I have failed…when in God’s eyes I may not have!

The only way to know if we are successful or not is whether we are doing what God has called us to do. If God calls me to preach a message that people don’t want to hear…I might be a failure in the eyes of man but a success to God. Am I okay with that?

So the next time you are ready to own a success or a failure, ask yourself whose opinion are you basing it on. If it is on what other people say or think, you will be happy one moment and miserable the next. Live your life to please only One!

October 9th, 2009 by Tim Moore

Enjoy today’s blog entry via video!

October 7th, 2009 by Tim Moore

One of the worst traps we can find ourselves in is thinking we know best. When we think that we have the corner on anything, we have lost it. Let’s face it, all of us have an ego. Some learn early on to check their ego at the door when they leave home, others carry it with them all the time. Unfortunately, our ego will often keep us from becoming our best…

1) What are some of my weaknesses that I need to address?
2) What can I learn from those over me?
3) What can I learn from those under me?
4) What resource do I need to help me learn…?

The moment you stop learning…you stop growing.