Upgrade Your Life

Invest in Your Emotional Health

Interview with therapist Matthew Thames of The Shepard’s Staff Counseling Center

May 25th 2009

Upgrade Your Family Life

Looking for some help to “upgrade your family life”? Check out these resources:

Focus on the Family
FamilyLife.com

Tell Us Your Story
In honor of Mother’s Day, you are invited to share your favorite story about your mother. Just click on the “Comments” link below and tell us about your mom.

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Photo credit: Kaitlin M

May 10th 2009

The Quality of Your Relationships

Today Pastor Jeff Clark spoke about the importance of friendships. He taught us that “the quality of your relationships will determine the quality of your life”. With that in mind, I want to invite you to share your stories. We want to hear your stories of how friends influenced you positively or negatively. Leave your stories in the comments below.

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Photo credit: _Olga_

May 3rd 2009

Upgrade Your Health

Want to upgrade your health? Here are some of our favorite resources:

Healthy Lifestyles

Healthy Eating

Healthy Sleeping

Special Health Concerns

Wellness Centers

Forrest General Hospital Live Well Center - 601.288.7000
The Wellness Center at Wesley Medical Center - 601.268.5010

Apr 25th 2009

Top 10 Health Web Sites

Question of the week:

“Does it really matter what we do with our own bodies? Is it anybody else’s business how we treat our bodies?”

In this series, we are looking at how to upgrade our lives. Jesus made some promises about our lives if we follow Him.

“I come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” –John 10:10

This Sunday, Pastor Jeff Clark will discuss a very emotional subject: health.

To start, here’s ten health web sites to help you upgrade your health:

Apr 23rd 2009

Not Where You Need To Be?

By Jay McGuirk, Minister to Adults (Facebook/Twitter)

One of the really cool parts about this new sermon series is the interactive element that the text-voting gives us. When we were planning out this sermon series, we thought that hearing from the church on some of these issues would give us a good gauge of how people feel about their lives.

Poll

A question we asked on Sunday was “would Jesus say your faith is amazing”? When we kicked this question around in our planning meeting, our staff wondered what the results would be. Jeff Clark believed the answer would be quite high, thinking that most folks who attend church are pleased with where they are spiritually. I disagreed completely (as you may have heard Jeff say in the late service) thinking that the number would be pretty low. Let’s just say he owes me lunch.

Does that mean that I think our church is full of pagans? Of course not!

I spend a lot of time with people from our church talking about their relationships with God. What I hear more than anything else from them is a sense that God is not happy with them. If there was a South Mississippi Christian motto, I believe it would be this: I’m just not where I need to be right now.

You wouldn’t believe how often I hear folks use that statement to describe their spiritual life. The implication is that whatever is going on with them spiritually is somehow falling short of where God wants them to be. Does this describe you too?

I get the sense that an overwhelming majority of church-goers experience a recurring guilt about not living up to God’s standards. This leads them to feel paralyzed in their faith because God seems so far away. So, they show up on Sunday, enjoy the worship and the message, promise God they’ll do better this week only to realize that nothing ever changes, feel guilty and start all over. I know, because I’ve been there too.

How can we break this cycle and experience an upgraded faith?

The suggestions I’ll offer you are nothing novel or new. It’s like finding out that the best way to lose weight is proper diet and exercise…we know that, we just don’t do it very well. If you’re looking to upgrade your faith, then do these things:

If you are a believer, then you have been forgiven of your sins. Live like it! I had this conversation just last week, but part of our problem as Christians is that we don’t live like we believe that God forgives us of our sins. When God forgives us, it is for our past, present and future sins. Romans 5:1 says, “Since we have been made right with God by our faith, we have peace with God.” When we sin, we don’t have to say, “God forgive me,” because He already has! When we understand what it means to be forgiven, then it helps us realize that we’re freed up to serve God, which sin wouldn’t let us do.
Don’t just confess your sin. Repent from it! We ask for forgiveness that we’ve already been given, and we may even agree with God that we have sinned. Where most believers fail is in true repentance. This is a literal “turning away” from sin and turning towards God and his ways. It’s not enough to confess your sin, you’ve got to run away from it. The great news is that we don’t have the ability to do this ourselves, so God gives it to us. 2 Timothy 2:25 speaks of God “granting” repentance, meaning he helps us turn away from sin and towards him.
Obey God’s Word. The reason most people feel distant from God is because they simply don’t believe what He says enough to build it into their lives. When we step out on faith in obedience to God, there is an inherent closeness that comes from trusting Him to guide our steps. 2 John 6 says that love is walking in obedience to God’s commands. Amazing faith doesn’t come from taking huge, illogical actions everyday in the hopes that God will bail you out. Amazing faith comes from simple, humble, day-by-day obedience to the little things we know God calls us to in His Word. Then when the big leaps of faith come along, they don’t seem so big at all.

Want to upgrade your life? Start with the spiritual aspect. It’s the part of your life from which everything else flows. Live like you’re forgiven, genuinely confess and repent from sin, and live obediently. You know it, now live it!

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Photo credit Mike.Hanlon

Apr 20th 2009

Have a Daily Devotional

Devotionals are a great way spend daily time with God in an easy to follow format. Here are a few to get your started:

Do you have a favorite devotional? Share it in the comments.

Apr 19th 2009

Read the Bible Online

YouVersion

If you’re looking for more ways to connect the Bible to your daily life, try YouVersion. YouVersion is an online Bible availible in multiple versions and accessible from anywhere.

Always Availible

Organize

YouVersion gives you tools to organize content that important to you. Add notes, links, images, and videos to any passage.

Community

YouVersion makes it easy to share important content with anyone. It’s easy to connect, share, and collaborate with others.

Read the Bible Daily

One Year Reading Plan
The One Year Bible Reading Plan on YouVersion.com takes you through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice over the course of a year.

Stay on Track
Since you can read the Bible on YouVersion on your mobile phone, it’s easy to stay on track with your daily readings.

Experience it With Friends
YouVersion give you collaboration tools to share what you’re learning with others and learn from their insigths. Invite your friends to help keep you accountable.

Apr 16th 2009

Upgrade Your Life Promo

You can also watch the promo at:

Apr 12th 2009

Upgrade Your Life

When the Bible describes the life of Jesus Christ, it says he “grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man”. Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the complete human–our model of how to live life fully and completely. Why not develop a vision for your own life? It all begins with vision, with having the end in mind. God’s plan for you includes your whole life, not just what you do on Sundays.

Series starts April 19

Apr 9th 2009

Upgrade Your Spiritual Life

Want to upgrade your spiritual life? Here are some of our favorite resources:

Apr 8th 2009