<![CDATA[CANYON LAKE CHURCH OF GOD - RAPID CITY, SD - LifeLine Blog]]>

<![CDATA[CANYON LAKE CHURCH OF GOD   - RAPID CITY, SD - LifeLine Blog]]>Sun, 20 May 2012 04:24:13 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Post Title.]]>Wed, 28 Mar 2012 12:42:37 -0700http://canyonlakecog.com/1/post/2012/03/post-title-click-and-type-to-edit2.htmlMy Dad always told me that God never wastes an experience in our lives, that every juncture of life provides an opportunity for God to reveal something to us about His Character...and sometimes, reveal something about our own. And so lately, God has been showing me something about my own character, really about human nature, and how much I need Him to correct my thinking. I have been working on losing weight, kinda like everyone else my age right now. When I was younger, I could eat a snickers bar and drink a can of coke for breakfast and I was always skinny! Doing that for a number of years, then having kids every two years for about ten years, then making the choice to eat whatever I wanted when ever I wanted it, has left me with weight that is unhealthy and uncomfortable for me to carry. So, I am having to "retrain" my brain to think of food differently! And make a concerted effort to exercise! I am having to retrain my brain on the correct way to choose food for the fuel God intended it to be. He wants me to eat and exercise to be healthy and to be able to serve Him better. I have to confess, I have always looked at food as my "comfort" choice...as though it were something I could control and do with what ever I wanted. The reality is that food, like money, is just a tool, and the choices involving it should be made by God's standard, not mine. My other confession would have to be that I have chosen to see exercise as TORTURE, and not as a way to invest in my health and well-being in order to better be used by God! I've always seen this as MY body, MY food, MY control. But Pastor Julie said it well this morning and Paul tells us in Romans 12:1 & 2, that I should present my BODY as a living sacrifice to the Lord; holy and acceptable, which is my spiritual act of WORSHIP!!!! And all this to be able to know the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God! It seems that when it comes to our bodies, we all want to be able to eat what we want, when we want to eat it. We want to sit on the couch or at the computer or on our "laurels" and not exercise, or workout, or even just take a walk. We want to avoid the things that we know are good for us and indulge in the things we know aren't good for us, and still look like Kiera Knightly or Brad Pitt!!! And you know what, we respond the same to our spiritual health as we do to our physical health! We want to go to church Sunday morning, check that off our "to-do" list, and not invest ourselves any further in our spiritual health. We want to expose ourselves to all the corruption the world has to offer, indulge in its pleasures that we know lead to death, hoard the giving of the gift that was never ours to start with, and avoid partaking of the good that we know we ought to do. All the while we are doing this, we expect to reap the vast spiritual benefits that being a Christian is supposed to offer. We want God to bless us with health, wealth, power, influence, and favor...all without making any effort to retrain our brain to do or be who God has called us to be! Very interesting parallel, isn't it? Don't you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing.

I discipline my [spiritual]body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified. -the Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

KC Bunch,
Assistant Worship Leader
]]><![CDATA[Post Title.]]>Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:54:48 -0700http://canyonlakecog.com/1/post/2012/03/post-title-click-and-type-to-edit1.htmlSo I'm Great, Who Cares? Imagine you are born with a natural abiltiy to throw dryer lint futher than anyone. Not that people sit around and challenge each other to a dryer lint throwing contest.  Either way you are the best at throwing dryer lint. You try and pick up anything else like a donut and anybody even on your best day can beat you. But there is something special about lint, the aerodynamic qualities of the material coupled with the ability of your arm to move in a motion that totally compliments the light fluffiness of the lint causing it to fly miles! So you go through intensive training for this talent, training for years, but for what? Exactly my point.... If you are lost so am I. I am simply trying to show you that we need to get to a point where we can serve and display our abilities with humility. Pride is a huge downfall we all struggle with, and it can and will lead to descruction. One day Jesus and His disciples were doing something, something that Him and His disciples did regularly. They must have been doing something with a lot of down time at this point because a few of them began to argue about who is the best. They so badly wanted to be at the right hand of jesus, which right hand of anyone in leadership was an honor because you were their "right hand man". Yeah that saying goes way back huh? So they were arguing and this causes Jesus to say something that makes me kinda sad, but greatful. He says, "The first will be last and the last will be __________." Hmmmm..... The last will be slow I would guess because they are last. No, He said the last will be first. So wait a second. It takes humility to be the greatest in the kingdom of God. Humility is pretty much not caring that you are in first place. So to get to first place where everyone wants to be, we must first ecome selfless and not caring about being first. That ruins all the FUN!!! The important lesson here is obviously that life and leadership is truly nto about us, but about us, but about others and God's plan. That's probably why not everyone's a leader. It's tough to not care about yourself, but if you can get past yourself maybe someday you will be at the right hand of Jesus, but you will be so humble you will probably let someone else sit there. How do they do that little smiley face in a text, hold on let me try it... :) There is that it?

Aaron Malsbury
Men's & Media Pastor
]]><![CDATA[Post Title.]]>Fri, 02 Mar 2012 22:17:39 -0700http://canyonlakecog.com/1/post/2012/03/post-title-click-and-type-to-edit.html3-2-2012
    When was the last time you thanked God for your fingertips? This was the question that was brought to mind on a beautiful California morning when I just didn't want to get up! I had every opportunity, denial, maybe, should've, could've,etc. on my mind and all I could muster up in response was, "NO! I'm staying in bed today!!" Little did I know God had a plan...again!

I somehow found the strength to open my Bible and turned to Luke 12:7 Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. - I read fast and hardly payed attention. I read again -Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Before this instance I had always turned to The New Testament for comfort and security, but today, I read the scripture differently. God broke down the walls of selfishness and revealed EXACTLY why I should get out of bed! Not because I had to, or because I should, but because of what He had created and had done! I became overwhelmed with great fullness. Did God really take the time to NUMBER THE HAIRS ON MY HEAD?! He either did or he didn't and since I believe in the Bible as the word of God ... HE DID!

I went out of the room that day changed, I was intended to be here for a reason! Thank God! I actually appreciated my very fingertips and thought, ' A master craftsman wouldn't spend precious time working on something that was useless and unimportant.' Imagine how much careful planning and consideration it must take to create a human being! How many times do we just sit, listen, and thank God for the fact that our hearts beat? The idea that a fist sized ball of tissue pumps inside our rib cage and actually keeps us alive is mind blowing!     Do we ever consider how many times we breathe in one day? I won't even go into the process that happens when we breathe... Absolutely MIND BLOWING!! God has intricately woven you into existence. Each and every part of your body serves a purpose. He has done the same with your life. An intricately woven path that, like our bodies, is not what we would like to see sometimes. The good news is that God is awesome and God always wins. Today we have a choice to accept his will for us. We can embrace the miracle that God has created (our lives) or go back to sleep!

Mark Falcon
Youth Pastor
]]><![CDATA[Reaching Out]]>Fri, 24 Feb 2012 16:30:02 -0700http://canyonlakecog.com/1/post/2012/02/reaching-out.htmlJesus is passionate and at most times; straight forward about being inter dependent with people who are around us. Isn't the whole premise of being named as His follower to follow Him? You know, not in name, but in Character. So, when you begin to really deny yourselves and pick up and carry your cross, daily; you will be on your great adventure of following Jesus.

At first glance, you may not think that you have much in common with someone you really don't know and anyway, who has the desire anymore to even reach out to someone you don't know. I mean, the media is full of news about how crazy people are and you just never know!? I'm not suggesting you pick up hitch-hikers or randomly befriend people; or am I?

I'm only suggesting that you accept that God has a way of putting people in your path that can potentially be people who you do need to reach out to. It could be reaching out with a smile, or small talk, you know casual conversation, or perhaps even the most life altering question you could ever ask someone? Like, do you know Jesus?

Sometimes you will benefit from the encounter and other times, the other person needed you. Either way, whether you or the other person realize the benefit of each other, it's the willingness to reach out that matters to God.

I'm just sayen.....

Julie Norwood
Lead Pastor
]]><![CDATA[One Last Time]]>Sun, 24 Jan 2010 20:39:52 -0700http://canyonlakecog.com/1/post/2010/01/one-last-time.htmlAs I stand in my kitchen preparing Sunday dinner for my family, my hunger is rapidly growing as the smell of a roast is simmering in the crock pot, corn bread in the oven and sweet peas and brown rice on the stove. “YUMMY!” I lift the lid of the crock pot to spot check the roast, this thought goes through my mind. “Ah, one last meal with meat before our church starts a 21 day Daniel Fast tomorrow.” As quickly as the thought comes to me, this thought comes, “That’s how my people look at sin.” I said, what do you mean God?

The comparison is this: the fast is equivalent to a life with God, a life of things of God, a commitment to live for Him. The meat is equivalent to sin. People choose to partake of sin one last time before they begin a journey with God much like we are partaking of meat one last time before the fast begins. The problem is this: that one last, tantalizing partaking is never enough and often times, the one last time turns into a lifetime. The Bible tells us the wages of sin is death and while our intention was to only partake one last time, we end up entangled in our sin.

We fail to see the dangers of sin and therefore, we justify our longing for one last time. I guess it comes down to this: we wanted to eat the meat today because we knew we would be without it for the next 21 days. It was totally to satisfy our fleshly desire…..and that’s what sin is all about.

]]><![CDATA[Finding God in S&H Green Stamps!]]>Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:54:37 -0700http://canyonlakecog.com/1/post/2010/01/finding-god-in-sh-green-stamps.html

Recently I was reminded of S&H Green Stamps. Ah, yes back in the day when you could get something without money. Even though you had to spend money to get the stamps; who cared? I remember feeling I had hit the jackpot when the person paying for their groceries in front of me refused their stamps and graciously said, “Give them to her.” Are you joking, of course I want your stamps.

The joy of S&H Green Stamps was the feeling of accomplishment that accompanied filling up a book and then ultimately redeeming the books for goods at the local S&H Green Stamp store. Eagerly looking through the catalog finding that special item you longed for and then the goal of saving the stamps to get it. I long for those days; I tend to think life was simpler when S&H Green Stamps were around.

Although at times the stamps were a nuisance. I mean they did require you to lick each stamp, which was discussing now that I think about it. And some people didn’t see the value in the hassle of keeping them. And then there was the time element, some people didn’t want to wait to collect the stamps needed to get what they wanted. Your allotment of stamps was dependent upon how much money you spent at the grocery store.

Even though the stamps had an ultimate reward, they required you to do something to get the reward. In my pastor’s minds eye; I can see the parallel of God in S&H Green Stamps.

We all have the same choice to receive God or not. Some of us strategically hunted out stores that offered the stamps, much like many of us who strategically hunt for God; to see Him, to hear Him, to share Him with others because we know the ultimate reward is worth the work and the wait.

Sure living for God requires us to “lick the stamps”, aka good works, deeds, prayer, walking in faith and love; but we long for the hitting the jackpot feeling that accompanies carrying out His plan in our lives, communities and people’s lives.

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