Thank Heaven for Little Girls…

Last Saturday night I witnessed over thirty men having a tea party. Many of them were getting their fingernails polished. Still others were dancing with females other than their wives. OK before your imaginations run wild, I was describing the third annual Daddy /Daughter Date Night sponsored by C3's Men's Ministry. Matt Dumler and the rest of the Men's Ministry team outdid themselves providing an atmosphere of music, food, fun and more importantly memories made with daughters and their Daddies.

"More and more fathers and in some cases grandfathers are becoming aware of their influence and positive role modeling they present by regularly dating their daughters. The research clearly says that Daddies make all the difference in the world," says Kevin Leman, national speaker and author of What a Difference Daddy Makes. "I have tremendously more impact on my daughter than my wife does." The way a father treats his daughter is an indicator of the kind of boy she will later date and the man she will eventually marry.

My friend Rick Claiborn always made a point of regularly taking his daughters out on one on one dates and letting the girls pick the destinations and topics of discussion. It meant SO much to his girls.

If you are the father of daughters I encourage you to teach her by your actions, how a lady is expected to be treated by the boys she will eventually date. And on top of all of that... These are fun memories you will both be making that will last forever!

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle

The Antidote to Bitterness is Forgiveness

¹⁵ Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. Hebrews 12:14-15 (NLT)

The Bible teaches us that the ONLY way to dig up the poisonous root of bitterness that is growing up and troubling you is through forgiveness.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³² Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:31-32

Maybe someone cheated on you. If you do not forgive them, you will be cheating yourself out of peace.

Maybe someone lied to you or stole from you or betrayed you. If you do not forgive them, you will allow them to continue to rip you off by stealing your joy.

Maybe someone abused you by touching you inappropriately. If you do not forgive them, you will allow them to continue to touch you in a painful way.

Most of us assume that if we forgive our offenders, they are let off the hook -- scot-free --. Nothing can be further from the truth!

It is important to understand what forgiveness is not:

Forgetting: deep hurts can rarely be wiped out of one's awareness.

Reconciliation: reconciliation takes two people, but an injured party can forgive an offender without reconciliation.

Condoning: forgiveness does not excuse bad or hurtful behavior.

Dismissing: forgiveness involves taking the offense seriously, not passing it off as inconsequential or insignificant.

Pardoning: a pardon is a legal transaction that releases an offender from the consequences of an action. Forgiveness is a personal transaction that releases the one offended from the offense.

Tomorrow we look at why we MUST forgive others.

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle

Our prayers go out to the families of the victims of the shootings in Hesston.

Do you know of a Dad or GrandDad with a school age girl? Invite them to C3's Daddy/Daughter Date Night this Saturday at 6pm.

Invite those you know who have pre-school - 5^th grade students to check out how affordable a Christian Education at Victory Christian Academy can be.

Bitterness Holds You Hostage

Bitterness affects us all in every conceivable way. Medical doctors say bitterness will affect your physical health. Bitterness has been medically linked to glandular problems, high blood pressure, cardiac disorders and ulcers.  Where there’s bitterness there is also emotional trouble leading to being negative, critical of everyone and everything. Bitterness will also sour your relationships spilling over onto everyone you know.

Bitterness will also affect you spiritually. Because bitterness necessitates that you walk in the flesh, therefore you are not walking  in the Spirit.

All Christians have that choice every day, many times a day, to take a step in the flesh or to take a step in the Spirit.

Listen to what the Apostle Paul says to us regarding what we reap and sow. "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸ The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” Galatians 6:7-8 (NIV)

Sowing bitterness will reap destruction to you spiritually.

Holding bitterness is walking in the flesh…sowing to the flesh, and it will eat you up inside. Instead we are told to walk in the spirit and in doing so instead of being influenced by the root of bitterness, you will be led by the fruit of the spirit.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control." Galatians 5:22

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle

Do you know of a Dad or Granddad with a school age girl? Invite them to C3’s Daddy/Daughter Date Night this Saturday at 6pm.

Is Forgiveness Fair?

“See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” Hebrews 12:15.

Have you ever known a bitter person? Someone who because of a past hurt continues to hold a grudge. Bitterness is contagious. if you are around bitter people it could rub off on you. Bitterness will cause trouble. It will affect your physical, emotional relational and spiritual life The Bible tells us to see that no bitter root grows up and causes trouble. The only way for that to happen is to forgive. All of us have been hurt, lied to, betrayed maybe even abused.

We live on a broken planet where people hurt one another. But if you don’t get grace in your heart, it’s going to make you a hostage of bitterness. Forgiveness is the antidote for the poison of bitterness.

Is forgiveness fair? Absolutely not. You don’t forgive a person because it’s the fair thing to do. You forgive a person because it’s the right thing to do, and because you don’t want your heart full of poison. You don’t want your heart holding on to the hurt and the hate. But it is not about fairness. It is not about justice. It’s about grace. Forgiveness is free, but it is not cheap. It cost Jesus his life. It cost God his Son. And as Jesus was dying on the cross, with his arms outstretched and the blood dripping down, he said, “Father, forgive them! They don’t know what they’re doing.” As our heavenly father has forgiven us, we are to forgive one another.

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle

Do you know of a Dad or Granddad with a school age girl? Invite them to C3’s Daddy/Daughter Date Night this Saturday at 6pm.

Are You Being Held Hostage?

A hostage is a person or entity which is held against their will by an adversary.

My first memory of a hostage situation was the Iran hostage crisis, where more than sixty American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days (November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981) after a group of radical Islamic terrorists overran and took control of the American Embassy in Iran.

Over the years we have heard news reports of abductions, of teenage girls who are held against their will by their captors who are then raped, tortured and threatened with death.

Now God forbid, none of us will ever have to endure such terror but there are other evil forces which attempt to steal, kill and destroy our emotional and spiritual lives, holding us as hostages.

In this series we will look at what may be your captor? Maybe you are being held hostage by fear, pride, lust, or even jealousy. But I’ve got good news for you. The good news is that our ransom has been paid in full. In the weeks ahead we are going to learn how to truly break free, once and for all, from the shackles that bind us.

Are you bitter? Bitter at God and blaming Him for the bad things that has happened to you?

Maybe you are bitter at a mate, blaming them for what they did to you perhaps ending a marriage in divorce. Maybe you are bitter at a parent who abandoned or abused you, or an employer who mistreated you or passed you over for a promotion.

Every one of us has had someone do something which you found difficult to forgive. Every time their very name is brought up, even if it was years ago, it still sours your stomach, raises your blood pressure rising as if you were reliving the offence again just thinking about it!

If so, it may be that you are a hostage of bitterness. Throughout this week we will be looking at how to be set free from bitterness.

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle

Do you know of a Dad or Granddad with a school age girl? Invite them to C3’s Daddy/Daughter Date Night this Saturday at 6pm.

We Were Made To Worship

This last weekend I was reminded of the power of worship. On Saturday Kael Bloom spoke at our church’s Men’s Breakfast and reminded us that there is healing as we lift up our praises/prayers to God. Then on Sunday hearing C3 Colby’s Worship Director Dave Funk and Roger Cooper sing praises to God I experienced a supernatural closeness to God.

The Bible says in Psalm 22:3 that God actually lives and dwells in our praises. This is the mystery and the miracle of the power and presence of God when we worship! When we worship, we affirm the truth of God’s Word, and it is being rooted deep in our hearts.

Chris Tomlin sings a song, “You and I Were Made to Worship” and I believe that to be true. Every person is created to be a Christ worshiper.   

There is something inherent in the act of worship that enables us to encounter the power of God like nothing else. It is not effective to simply tell someone to stop worrying; stop being proud; stop being self-consumed, distracted, insecure, materialistic or as we talked about on Sunday, bitter. But it is effective to tell them to start worshiping. When we make that decision to fix our eyes on Jesus, we quickly realize that God has already begun to release the grip these tendencies have on us that hold us hostage.

Worship is a declaration of our weakness and God’s strength.  When we worship, the invisible God is at work inside us doing invisible and powerful things. We get realigned, refreshed and refueled; we find unspeakable joy and indescribable peace. We discover the strength of God, which enables us to walk in the truth, live in His presence and see set us free from the things that shackle us.

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle

Join me tonight at the south Wendys from 5-8pm as we help send our Encounter college age missionaries to Haiti this summer.

Free Friday Family Fun Flix TONIGHT @ 7:05pm

Last Fall Debbie and I went to the movies excited to see the latest film from Alex and Stephen Kendricks “War Room”. The Kendricks Brothers in the past have brought us inspiring films like  “Facing the Giants, Fireproof and Courageous". War Room is a compelling drama with humor and heart that explores the power that prayer can have on marriages, parenting, careers, friendships, and every other area of our lives.

In the movie, Tony and Elizabeth Jordan have it all—great jobs, a beautiful daughter, and their dream house. But appearances can be deceiving. Tony and Elizabeth Jordan’s world is actually crumbling under the strain of a failing marriage. While Tony basks in his professional success and flirts with temptation, Elizabeth resigns herself to increasing bitterness. But their lives take an unexpected turn when Elizabeth meets her newest client, Miss Clara, and is challenged to establish a “war room” and a battle plan of prayer for her family.

C3’s radio station 98.5 FM  THE TRUTH  is hosting a free screening of the  movie TONIGHT Friday February 19 at 7:05 PM. War Room is the latest edition in our monthly Friday Family Fun Flix. Admission, popcorn and pop are free.

Come on out for this family friendly entertainment.

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle



Come hear Kael Bloom share his story while he challenges you to becoming a better husband, father and man of God. Great food and fellowship as well.

Inspire’s “Couples Night Out”  scavenger hunt and pot luck Saturday 5pm. Bring a healthy dish to share and $10.




NEW MESSAGE SERIES BEGINS THIS SUNDAY @ C3





This Sunday at 8:30am and 10am C3 Colby’s Dave Funk will be leading our Worship Team and Roger Cooper will be providing special music. It’s going to be awesome!

Love Is Not About What You Get But What You Give

This week we’ve been looking at the Biblical concept of love.  

God says that love is a choice.   

God also says love is a matter of action.  

I Corinthians 13 is the Biblical definition of how love acts.  The verses are often read at weddings, called the Love Chapter.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

Look at all the verbs, words that express action.

Love is something we do. But it is not something we do for ourselves, it is utterly selfless.

So how do we love this way?  We can’t. It is not possible without God helping us put aside our own desires and instincts so we can give love expecting nothing in return. The only way we can transform (a verb) our love to the kind of love we are talking about is to grow more like Christ. Surrendering our selfish spirit and allowing His Spirit to control our love life is God’s will for your life.

Have you made the choice to love as Christ loves? Let Him love through you.

With love from your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle

98.5 The TRUTH presents “War Room” Friday at 7:05 Free admission, pop and popcorn.

Inspire’s “Couples Night Out” Saturday 5pm. Bring a healthy dish to share and $10.

What Love Is …and Isn’t

At C3 we are committed to helping to build healthy marriages between committed Christian men and women and the foundation of healthy marriages is love.

There are a couple of popular misconceptions about what love really is. One is that love is a feeling.

A second misconception is that love is uncontrollable. We've all heard people say, "I fell in love."  Like you're walking down the street one day, trip, and fell in love, like you couldn't help it.  There is a real danger of this misconception.

When you say "I fell in love" you're really saying it wasn't my fault, it just happened. That opens the door to say "I fell out of love with you."  "I couldn't help it." That is the big lie satan wants us to buy..

The Bible says that love is controllable.  Jesus commanded that we love each other.  You and I have control over who we love and who we don't love.  We get to choose.  I have control over when I love and when I don't love.  I get to choose.

This leads us to a couple of things that God says about love.  He helps us to understand what it really is.

God says that love is a choice.  "And over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them all together." Colossians 3:14 We must choose to put it on.  There's an action that I take that makes it work in my life.  If it were a feeling, or just an accident, then God couldn't command it.  But He can command an action in our lives.

God also says that love is a matter of conduct.  It's how I act. I John 3:18 says "Let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and truth."  Actions -- that's what love is really all about.  It's how I act towards another person.  You can talk until you're blue in the face but your heart will always be read in your actions.

With love from your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle

98.5 The TRUTH presents “War Room” Friday at 7:05. Free admission, pop and popcorn.

Inspire’s “Couples Night Out” Saturday 5pm. Bring a healthy dish to share and $10.

What Love Is

Last weekend 37 couples from Celebration Community Church Hays & Colby attended a “Weekend to Remember” marriage conference through our church’s UNITE  Marriage Ministry.

At C3 we are committed to helping to build healthy marriages between committed Christian men and women and the foundation of healthy marriages is love.

There are a couple of popular misconceptions about what love really is, based on the fact that love is a word that we use so many ways.  If we're going to really understand how to love somebody we have to start with understanding what love is.

Having just celebrated Valentine’s Day we have heard the word love used a lot. We use or should I say misuse the word love. I say, “I love my wife Debbie”. I also say, “I love Chicago style hotdogs”.  I hope you know there is a big difference between my spouse and a hot dog. We use the same word because we believe that love is a feeling. But love is more than a feeling. Love affects my feelings, powerfully, but it's more than just a feeling.

Biblical love is defined as the unselfish, loyal, and benevolent concern for the well-being of another. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul described "love" as a "more excellent way", more than the supernatural gift of tongues or even preaching.

So when you say “I love you” in a relationship we really mean. I offer you my unselfish, loyal, service. That’s love.

Tomorrow we will see that love is not something that you “fall into”.

With love from your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle

98.5 The TRUTH presents “War Room” Friday at 7:05 Free admission, pop and popcorn

Inspire’s “Couples Night Out” Saturday 5pm. Bring a healthy dish to share and $10

From Your Valentine

I wonder how many of you know the story behind the origins of Valentine’s Day. It is called Saint Valentine’s Day for a reason.  

Approximately 250 years after Jesus was born there was a priest by the name of Valentinus. He lived in Rome during the reign of Emperor Claudius, who believed that only single men would make good soldiers so he issued a royal edict outlawed weddings in the Roman Empire, earning himself the nick-name Claudius the Cruel.

Valentine secretly continued performing Christian marriage ceremonies and was thrown in jail for performing them. Valentine stayed faithful and cheerful while in prison, communicating with the young couples he had married who came to visit him throwing flowers and notes up to his window to support him.

One day, he received a visit from the blind daughter of one of the prison guards. Her father allowed her to visit him in his cell and they often sat and talked and prayed for hours. Through a miraculous healing from God her sight was restored.

Valentine was sentenced to die undergoing a three part execution involving beating, then stoning, and then decapitation.

On the day Valentine was to die, February 14, 269 A.D he left behind for the prison guard’s daughter a note thanking her for her friendship and loyalty. He signed it, “With love from your Valentine.”

That note started the custom of exchanging love notes on what was later to be called Saint Valentine’s Day. Now, every year on this day, people remember Valentinus, but hopefully we will remember the valentine of love that God has sent to us: His Son Jesus.  

With love, from your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle

Without Love Nothing I Accomplish Matters.

Last week leading up to Valentines Day  we have learned that:

If I don’t live a life of love, nothing I say will matter.

If I don't live a life of love, nothing I know will matter.

If I don’t live a life of love, nothing I believe will matter.  

If I don’t live a life of love, nothing I give will matter.

Today we learn that the Bible teaches us:

If I don't live a life of love, nothing I accomplish will matter.  

1 Corinthians 13:3 in The Message paraphrase says, “No matter what I say or what I believe or what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.”  

You can rack up an incredible list of personal achievements.  You can get your picture on the cover of Time magazine.  You can win the Nobel Peace Prize.  You can have enormous accomplishments, be entrepreneur of the year, build a billion-dollar company, have incredibly great successes in your field of endeavor.

But the Bible says it isn’t worth squat if you don’t love.  The Bible says relationships are more important than accomplishments.  Life is about relationships not accomplishments.   

One day you’re going to stand before God when you die.  And God’s going to evaluate your life.  When He evaluates your life, He’s not going to look at your bank account.  He’s not going to look at your list of achievements.  He’s not going to look at your grades.  He’s not going to look at all your sports trophies. 

God is going to evaluate your life on one basis – your relationships.  God is going to ask, “How much did you love Me and how much did you love other people?”

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle

Without Love Nothing I Give Matters.

Without Love Nothing I Give Matters.  

In the last few days looking at the Love Chapter 1 Corinthians 13  we have learned that:

If I don’t live a life of love, nothing I say will matter.

If I don't live a life of love, nothing I know will matter.

If I don’t live a life of love, nothing I believe will matter.  

Today we learn:

If I don’t live a life of love, nothing I give will matter.

“If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, but I didn’t love others, I would be of no value whatsoever.”  1 Cor. 13:3  

Can you give for selfish motives?  Absolutely!  Giving is not necessarily always loving.

Some people give in order to get back.  That’s not love, that’s selfishness.

Some people give out of guilt, trying to ease their conscious, giving trying to make up for something they did or did not do in the past. That’s not love either.

Some people give to control other people.  Parents and spouses do this all the time – they manipulate others by giving or withholding.  That’s not love.

Some people give for prestige, for glory, for honor.  They want a little plaque with their name on it that says, “Look!  I'm a great giver!”  That’s not love.

You can give for a lot of wrong motives, and the Bible says if I'm not giving in love, none of my giving counts.

Try something weird today for Valentine’s Day. Give something to someone as a random act of kindness without expecting ANYTHING in return. Now that’s love!

Your pastor and partner in ministry.

Kyle

Without Love Nothing I Believe Matters.

Over the last couple of days we have learned that:

If I don’t live a life of love, nothing I say will matter.

If I don't live a life with love, nothing I know will matter.

Today we see that if I don’t live a life with love, nothing I believe will matter.  

There’s a myth that being a Christian, a follower of Christ, is just a matter of believing certain truths.  Nothing can be further from the truth.  Following Christ is much more than believing intellectual facts or doctrinal truths.  It is all about living a life of love.  

1 Corinthians 13:2 says, “Even if I have the gift of faith so I could speak to a mountain and make it move, I will still be worth nothing at all without love.”  

It takes more than belief to please God.  You may say, I believe in Jesus!”  Well so does the devil and you won’t find him in heaven.   Why? Because  the issue is not do you believe in Him.  The real issue is do you love Him.  

The Bible says, “If I say I love God and hate other people, I'm a liar.”  1 John 4:40.

We can’t say that I'm right with God and be out of sorts with other people.  Relationships with others affect my relationship with God.  If I don't live a life of love, nothing I believe will matter.”  You better believe that.   

Your pastor and partner in ministry,

Kyle