Relationships 101: Yourself

Pastor Craig Carter Have you ever heard of the Jefferson Bible?  One of our nation’s founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, took a New Testament and with a razor, cut out portions of the text that he disagreed with or considered inauthentic. He then pasted the remaining parts together and constructed his own version of the Bible (which now can be viewed in the Smithsonian Institute).  Most of us would never go to such extreme measures but we often construct a Bible of our own making by omitting or overlooking portions that we find difficult. One such place is in the primary …

Relationships 101: Spouse

Pastor Craig Carter In our current sermon series, Relationships 101, we’ve been learning how to love God, love others, and love ourselves in order to fulfill the Great Commandment given by Jesus.  In recent weeks we have explored Biblical principles to guide our relationships with God, friends, parents and children. This week, my wife Lee and I are writing together to share some insights about marriage relationships. We’ll go back and forth during this message, so just pretend like you are listening to us as you read. C: I have a hard time remembering where I was or what I …

Relationships 101: Children

Lee Carter In our current sermon series, Relationships 101, we have been looking at ways we can honor the words of Jesus when he summarized the commandments and said: “Love God, Love Others, and Love Yourself.”  I’m Lee Carter, wife of lead pastor Craig Carter, and it is my honor to be sharing today on the topic of relating to children. As Pastor Craig often reminds us, life is all about relationships. The primary relationship is our relationship with God through Christ Jesus. It is a relationship based on love and a relationship that empowers us to relate to ourselves …

Relationships 101: Parents

Craig Carter These days it seems like there is a holiday for just about everything and everyone. Just this past week we’ve had Teacher’s Day, Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you!), No Pants Day (hopefully you celebrated that occasion at home), Cinco de Mayo (or as my brothers-in-law of Mexican descent call it, “Drinko de Mayo”), and Mother’s Day.  Most holidays are for a select group of people but Mother’s Day is one that applies to everybody – we wouldn’t be here without a mom … and a dad.  There’s an old adage, “You can’t live with …

Relationships 101: Friends

Pastor Terry Tatum Last week Pastor Craig introduced our new sermon series Relationships 101, by talking with us about our relationship with God. There is no relationship more important than your relationship with God…You have to get that one right! And once you get that one right, you can start working on the other relationships we are going to discuss over the next few weeks.  Today’s topic is our relationship with our friends. And though the Bible is the authority on all relationships, and I’m going to share a bunch of Scriptures about how to be a good friend, this …

Relationships 101: God

Pastor Craig Carter Last week during our Easter services it was good to see a number of young people who have moved away from Bay County and were home for the weekend to celebrate Easter with their families.  I talked to a few of them and most told me they’d be returning to their classes for just a few weeks, with finals on the horizon. Just hearing that word, “finals,” caused a knot to form in the pit of my stomach.  Even though it’s been more than four decades since I graduated college, I still remember the feeling of being …

Don't You Remember?

Don’t You Remember?

Pastor Craig Carter Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! I’ve now been in Lynn Haven for nine years and when I arrived I knew virtually no one. I had known your former pastor, Doug Pennington, for years, but he was leaving town as soon as I arrived … which makes sense, because his departure was the reason for my arrival. ☺ So being new in town, I was happy when I realized that my wife Lee and I would be greeted by a couple of familiar faces, Randy and Sheri Chow.  Randy and I first met when we were …

Crucifying Fear (of Others)

Pastor Craig Carter I am thankful that I have accumulated very few regrets during my lifetime, but if it was possible to relive a particular moment, there is one incident that I wish had never happened.  It occurred many years ago when I was a member of our high school wrestling team. Feel free to take a moment to snicker as you try to imagine me as a big, bad wrestler, which of course, I wasn’t! Instead, I was small and wiry – like Barney Fife. Anyway, it was an away match and we were competing at a school about …

Crucifying Distractions

Pastor Terry Tatum Our current sermon series, “Crucified with Christ,” was designed to take us through the season of Lent (season of repentance) and prepare us for the remembrance of the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. In this series we have discussed crucifying unbelief, pride and excuses. Today we will look at the need to crucify distractions that keep us from living an abundant life with Christ.   There are a lot of things in this world that distract us. I wish I could say that things get better as we get older, but that’s not true for me. …

Crucifying Excuses

Pastor Craig Carter It’s fairly common for us to embark on an undertaking without fully understanding what is going to be involved.  For example, some of us once envisioned ourselves as star athletes only to discover that it required two gut-wrenching workouts a day. Others of us sought the glamorous military lifestyle pictured in TV commercials, then found that it’s “not just an adventure, it’s a job … and a difficult one at that!” Still others of us decided to pursue a college education and were astonished when we realized we would actually have to study … on the weekends, …