The Rock Church

Third Culture Reality: A Metaphor for the Christian Life

 “Lord, through all the generations you have been our home!” — Psalm 90:1

Our team had a full day with the European missionary kids. The older kids (12-19) had a hike, devotional, polar plunge in the Adriatic, rock climbing, board games, and a night game of kick the can. For kids 11 and under, they went swimming, played tag, looked at tide pools, skipped rocks, did an obstacle course, watched a movie, and played video games. It was a full day that hopefully gave their parents essential rest.

Posted in Missions, News by The Rock Church

Grief is an Oversized T-Shirt

Yesterday (October 23) marked three years since my father passed away. In previous posts, I have shared some of the things the Lord has guided me through so far on this path of grief. With that in mind, today will be the latest entry into that diary.

But first, a story. As children, my brother and I would oftentimes get our dad a t-shirt for his birthday. We’d get ones with his favorite rock bands on them. I always wanted to wear them to school, but they were obviously too big for me. However, as I got older, I began to grow into the shirts that once drowned me as a child. Today, I still have most of my dad’s shirts. You’ve probably seen me wear many of them often. 

These memories have me reflecting on this thought:

Posted in A Word from the Pastor by The Rock Church

What Would Your Nickname Be?

The dads in our amazing Youth Group teach each week’s lessons. This year, they’ve been covering several character sketches of men and women from the Bible. We’ve learned about both good and bad character from them.

In turn, I taught on the character of Barnabas. I’ll ask you the same question I asked the youth and their parents.

“Based on what those around you know about you and see in your life, what would your nickname be? What are you known for?”

Posted in A Word from the Pastor by The Rock Church

What Do You Want?

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” — Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV84)

We recently asked our kids for Christmas gift ideas. Some of them went above and beyond the call of duty. They sent us their “Wish List” from Amazon! Welcome to the technology age. This electronic wish list certainly proved to be very helpful. Specifically, it showed us that our kids took our request seriously; they knew what they wanted. I think God wants us to have the same heart attitude.

Posted in A Word from the Pastor by admin

Transformed

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” —  2 Corinthians 5:17

I recently gave a message called “The Transforming One.” In it, I talked about the importance of accurately understanding our identity in Christ. I can’t stress that enough. The Bible says in Proverbs 23:7, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” (NKJV) Who I think I am, absolutely affects what I do. For this reason, there is power in understanding our God-given identity. 

Posted in A Word from the Pastor by admin

Be Defined by Good Habits

Author F.M. Alexander said, “People don’t define their futures, they decide their habits, and their habits decide their future.”

We all have habits. They range from the mundane (like brushing our teeth or what we listen to on our way to work) to practicing an instrument or creating art. Habits can be amoral, while others can be sinful. Whatever type it is, it will affect you (positively or negatively).

Posted in A Word from the Pastor by Tony D'Amico

God’s Doing

I’ve been reading a book called “A Body of Divinity.” It was written in 1692 by a Puritan named Thomas Watson (I love the Puritans). 

The chapter on the covenant of grace explains how much better it is to have that covenant than the previous covenant of works. He said something that I had to re-read a few times. Then I had to stop and think about it for a little while. I oftentimes have to do that because his excellent illustrations of truth and significant points about God’s Word challenge me. This particular point encouraged me so much that I wanted to share it with you.

Posted in A Word from the Pastor by admin

The Goodness of God

“But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.” — 1 Peter 2:9-10 (NLT)

I’ve often shared these verses with people in an effort to help show the “Goodness of God.” Especially when they’ve made a mistake or experienced some sort of mishap and are feeling down. And quite frankly, for many of us, that happens frequently. Without a doubt, this truth is for all of us.

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True Identity

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” — 2 Corinthians 5:17

I recently gave a message called “Living for God”. As I prepared for it, I was reminded again of how critically important a proper understanding of our identity in Christ is. (Pastor Bryan recently wrote about our identity, also. Seems like God has something He wants us to be thinking about.)

Posted in A Word from the Pastor, Uncategorized by admin

A New Creation

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” — 2 Corinthians 5:17

As a Christian, you and I are no longer who we used to be. Because of Jesus Christ, all of our past sins and failures do not determine who we are. As a result, we’re no longer bound to any kind of pressures from our culture/society about who we NEED to be. As sons and daughters of Jesus, our identity is not determined by what others think or say about us. It is not determined by what we think of ourselves. In other words, our identity has been determined by God Himself. Unfortunately, there are times we can get so lost in our thoughts and expectations from the world, we can FORGET who we are! We need to be reminded of Truth in order to change the way we think of ourselves.

Posted in A Word from the Pastor by admin