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"Come follow me and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19

Month: August 2022

Crossroads

August 27, 2022 /
Matthew Botelho

Crossroads- A point at which a crucial decision must be made, having far-reaching consequences.

Think of all the faith heroes who lived ordinary lives. Many were farmers, shepherds, and fishermen. Every day people like you and me. Many had families to provide for, and most of them faced the same problems we face today. In Ecclesiastes, the teacher says there is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 3:5 “Whatever is has already been, and whatever will be, already is, God repeats what has passed.”

Same problems. Same issues of righteousness and unrighteousness; the only difference being the sets of eyes seeing these same problems—they were from a different generation. As we all stand closer and closer to the coming of our Savior Jesus Christ, I cannot help but think about what was going through their minds and hearts when God called them and spoke the words, “Follow Me?”

For example, take Moses. Exodus 2:11-15 says, “One day, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and looked on their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. He looked this way and that, and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. When he went out the next day, behold, two Hebrews were struggling together. And he said to the man in the wrong, “Why do you strike your companion?” He answered, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid, and thought, “Surely the thing is known.” When Pharaoh heard of it, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and stayed in the land of Midian. And he sat down by a well.”

At one time, Moses was a prince of Egypt. Then a severe circumstance occurred in his life, forcing him to ignore his station and act upon who he truly was. When his crossroads moment came, Moses chose to act. And as a result of that choice, Moses was exiled to the land of Midian. Yet all was not lost. God brought Moses to Jethro’s family. He was the priest of Midian. There, Moses ends up marrying Jethro’s daughter, Zipporah. “Moses agreed to stay with the man, who gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage” –Exodus 2:21.

Now, during his years in the wilderness, Moses cared for his father-in-law’s sheep; he was pretty content with the life he was living. Moses also had a family, a son named Gershom; Moses considered his life to be in order. Until the appointed day, God called him, setting him on a path that took him away from order and comfort and towards the extraordinary.

Instead of caring for sheep, God will now have Moses care for a different flock, His chosen people.

God was ready to deliver His people from 4oo years of oppression. And He’d chosen Moses for the job. “Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. “I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.” Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” –Exodus 3:7-10.

God had now led Moses to yet another crossroads moment. Moses had two paths before him. That’s part of the beauty and love of God; He’s given us free will. Yet, God knew the path Moses would take. Yes, Moses had doubts and fear. We see that in Exodus 3:11. “But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” And we read more about those doubts and fears in Exodus 4:10. “But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.”

How quickly we disqualify ourselves, focusing on our bad qualities, what disqualifies us, instead of seeing what God has already given us—sees in us. God sees the heart. And God knew Moses’s heart.

In one way or another, every child of God has experienced their own crossroads moment in life—or soon will. These moments of decision will not stop until we see Jesus face to face.

Now, I could have mentioned many others in the Bible who’d also faced their crossroads, but we’ll save some of them for the next time we meet, so don’t forget to look for part two of this teaching on Saturday, September 17!

But for now, how you face your crossroads moments in life is what determines how things will work out in your life. As I stated earlier, God loves us and gave us free will. So, it all comes down to what you will or will not do when you stand at your own crossroads. Jesus said in John 15:16, “You did not choose Me, but I have chosen you. I appointed you that you should go out and produce fruit and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask in My name, He will give you.” God already knew your heart, just like He knew Moses’ heart. And He knew which way you’d go when faced with such a choice. Ecclesiastes 3:14 says, “He made everything appropriate in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but man cannot discover the work God has done from the beginning to the end.”

My prayer is this: when you come to those crossroad moments, may God give you, His wisdom. May He speak clearly to your hearts and minds. May you walk in the patience and the love of Jesus Christ. May He reveal all these deep things you are searching for. And, when you hear Him, you do not harden your heart but be pliable, trusting God has appointed a specific time to meet with you. Amen.

2 Corinthians 6:2 “For He says: I heard you in an acceptable time, and I helped you in the day of salvation. Look, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation.” I pray you felt the tug of our Lord Jesus as you were reading this. If you are at that crossroad moment, I pray that you heed His call over you. He is ready to lead you to that defining moment that will bring you out of the wilderness and into the promise. Call out to Him and declare that Jesus is Lord in your heart and every circumstance. Ask Him to wash you clean of your every sin by the precious Blood of our Lord and Savior.

Amen.

A New Net.

August 26, 2022 /
A New Season

Pruning is meant to make room for something, an increase, “the new.” New fruit and growth. And it is in this season we find ourselves—a season filled with pain and joy. Birthing usually involves both; ask any mom! It’s a taking from to bring forth something new and unique.

That said, sonsofthesea is delighted and blessed to welcome our beloved brother, fellow worshipper, and lover of God, Matthew Botelho.

Brother Matt will join us full-time beginning on Saturday, August 27, 2022 when his first teaching “Crossroads” will go live. Our Pastors, Kendra, and I, along with the entire Sonsofthesea family, are excited and blessed to welcome this mighty man of God. We’re all looking ahead, moving forward as one, fishing for men.

Please read on to hear more about Brother Matthew Botelho in his own words:

Greetings everyone! My name is Matthew Botelho, and I live here in Southern Massachusetts. I have been the husband to a wonderful woman of God for the past 17 years and a father to two amazing and energetic boys. I met my wife while we worked together at a local animal shelter, and I genuinely believe there are no coincidences in the Kingdom of God. God knew my help mate would be found in a place where our common passion would bring us together.

Now, our passion and hearts belong to the Lord and serving people.

What an incredible ten years we’ve had, serving God, and allowing Him to shift us and move us on to greater things! Our family has been honored to serve at Highland City Church for the past year. My wife serves as a greeter in our Welcome Ministry, a position she fills with so much grace. As for myself, I have been called to minister in our Prayer Ministry, a role that one should not take lightly. We are called to pray for one another and carry each other’s burdens. To be in one voice, Amen! (James 5:14-16, Galatians 6:2)

In my spare time, and please remember that I am a dad and spare time is scarce, I spend that growing and going deeper in God’s Word. I also enjoy playing guitar to our Lord. But you can mostly find me with my family, enjoying every moment I have with them. May the Lord bless every one of you. Amen.

But I Thought…

August 20, 2022 /
MaryEllen Montville

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” –Isaiah 55:8-9.

We need God’s grace to surrender our wants, our ought to be’s, and should, into His Sovereign hands. God’s grace enables us to stop playing god and start trusting Him instead, putting legs beneath our professions. Without God’s grace, we are power-less. A dead branch disconnected from the Vine. “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” –Philippians 2:13.

We are called, instructed, commanded to surrender our fragile, ever-changing thoughts to God—all of us, in exchange for making room for, more of Him. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” –Philippians 4:8.

To “put on” the mind of Christ—is a choice we must make—daily. Over and over and over again. Sunup to sundown. A laying down that we might take up. Intentionally tearing down, destroying, every idol self has dared set up in opposition to God. “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” –2Corinthians 10:5.

Yielding to God then, our desired outcomes and how we thought our lives were supposed to look and progress. Whether in our marriages, parenting choices, ministry, Christian walk, prayer life, or how we thought deliverance or transformation might look. Surrendering our every expectation on the “how or when,” God, in His Divine timing, will transform us—our hearts, lives, and attitudes; confidently trusting that He will never break His promise. He can’t. “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” –Numbers 23:19.

We are called to understand, recognize, surrender to the fact that He alone is God; we are not. He alone is Sovereign; too often, we are little more than a fly-by-night people.

Many of us love a person, place, or thing, even God’s blessings, today, yet lose our desire for any more of them tomorrow. We witness this Truth unfold before our very eyes when reading Exodus 16. In it, we read about a group of Israelites suddenly freed from their oppressor’s exacting grip. And we read of God’s miraculous power flowing through one man He’d been preparing in the Midian wilderness—his name, Moses. “In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death” –Exodus 16:2-3.

Shortly after the dancing and rejoicing over freedom gained had stopped, the grumbling began in earnest. So did the suspicious glances and doubting. Seemingly gone from their memory that moment when Moses stood, lifting his shepherd’s staff high in obedience to God’s command. The water responded by standing erect, solid as any wall. Gone too, it seems, the memory of how they’d crossed between that wall of water from slavery into a land promised them by God on a bone-dry sea bottom no less! Talk about an oxymoron! Not so much as one person getting stuck or being left behind, nor did one cartwheel sink into what should have been little more than muck. The Israelites suffered no loss that day. Some scholars say more than half a million people stepped onto that dried-up seabed as slaves, yet every single one of them stepped out the other side free men—more, sons and daughters: a chosen people, God’s own.

And as incredible as all that is, I am not here today to exalt God’s ability to deliver a race of people from oppression—though He has and can, nor to tout that He is the God of miracles—though He is.

No, today I’m here to cast light on just how easy it was for the Israelites, is, for you and me, to forget not only who and Whose we are but also about our ignoring God’s great mercy. “Then Moses told Aaron, “Say to the entire Israelite community, ‘Come before the Lord, for he has heard your grumbling.'” While Aaron was speaking to the whole Israelite community, they looked toward the desert, and there was the glory of the Lord appearing in the cloud. The Lord said to Moses, “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them, ‘At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God” –Exodus 16:9-12.

Brothers, God’s Sovereign Hand is covering us daily—a Pillar of fire by night and a Cloud by day, still: protection and provision.

Somehow, the Israelites soon forgot how Moses had “suddenly” shown up, used by God to deliver them from Pharaoh’s deadly grip, and how every plague sent upon Egypt failed to reach them, their livestock, or households. Having left the bloodied door posts from a Passover past far behind them, they forgot God had been shedding innocent blood since the Garden that He might save His people. In their grumbling, they forgot God was still in their midst. That He still loved them, was guiding them, and showed Himself faithful, that He might save them—despite their failing Him. “The [presence of the] LORD was going before them by day in a pillar (column) of cloud to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light, so that they could travel by day and by night” –Exodus 13:21.

Yet the Israelites just couldn’t see it.

But now, before you go thinking, “how could they have missed God? He was right there with them, for Pete’s sake!” Remember, child of God. He lives within you, and you still miss Him daily, too.

The Israelites missed God because He wasn’t their focus, “lack of” was their focus. Self, that little g god, was their focus. All of us will miss God. His presence in our lives. His instruction, mercy, His move. We’ll miss the blessing obedience offers as we submit ourselves to those Godly shepherds, He has placed over us as long as we are focused on our flesh. As long as we live in “, but I thought it should,” look like, come

package as, even feel a certain way, instead of living as Jesus taught us, in complete submission to God. “In reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” –Ephesians 4:22-24.

Beloved, Isaiah 55:8-9 reminds us that our thoughts, how we think, life ought to go, look, and feel are not God’s thoughts or ways—far from it! They’re not the way God, who created and sealed us in Himself, has planned for our lives to go. “And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot” –1 Peter 1:17-19.

I encourage you to surrender yourself afresh to God, Beloved. Leaving behind your every, “but I thought….”

And Friend, I encourage you to ask this All-Knowing God, whose ways are far above your own, into your life as Lord. Know this: God can and will deliver you from any situation, bondage, addiction, from the exacting grip of any lie spoken over you or any lie you’ve believed about yourself. Trust that He knows what’s best for you. I know this to be Truth—because He did it for me. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” –Jeremiah 29:11.

Fixing Your Heart on God.

August 13, 2022 /
Kendra Santilli

“For my people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves— cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.” –Jeremiah 2:13

In Jeremiah, Chapter Two, God describes Himself as the fountain of Living Water, reminiscent of how Jesus referred to Himself in John 4:13-14. Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Could this have foreshadowed who God’s Holy Spirit would be to us?

God tells Jeremiah that He alone is the fountain of Living Water, its Source. Through Jeremiah, God asks his people, “what more can you possibly need?” Jesus’ saying that He can give anyone Living Water is groundbreaking to those who know the Scriptures. If Jesus can provide this Water, it must surely be the Spirit of God flowing from the Father Himself.

Within Jeremiah 2:13, God paints a beautiful picture of humanity seeking fulfillment in things that don’t last.

A cistern is a secondary source of water. For example, a cistern would hold water from rainfall. These cisterns could dry out quickly and wouldn’t fill again until there was an overflow from something else or another rainfall. A fountain, like a spring, is a primary source of water. A constant flow of water from which you can continually draw. God is telling Jeremiah His people have abandoned Him for a secondary source of belonging. They have abandoned the True Source for a low-quality, unfulfilling version. One that will leave them sick spiritually and, ultimately, would destroy them.

I see some of us in this picture—today’s Christians that is.

A people who too often neglect God for a lower-quality source of fulfillment, still, I invite you today to read the message found in the book of Jeremiah as a call to humble yourself and return to the Father.

The book of Jeremiah is centered around a prophet in the Old Testament by which this chapter was named. He came from a line of priests in a town called Anathoth, believed to have been about 3 miles Northeast of Jerusalem. We know that Anathoth was still part of the Israelites’ territory because the settlers there were priests from the tribe of Benjamin, one of the 12 tribes of Israel. Because of the amount of lamenting we read from him, Jeremiah is known as “the weeping prophet.” At first, I thought he was just an emotional guy, but as I dove into this book, I realized his weeping resulted from a touch from God that had given him a heart for God’s people—Jeremiah’s heart was hurt by what hurt God’s.

While judgment seems to be a theme threaded throughout the entire book of Jeremiah, we also feel the ache of God’s heart for His people.

We read of God’s desire for His people to be restored to Him before His judgment comes. While the Bible does not talk much about Jeremiah’s life before becoming a prophet, it tells us Jeremiah came from a line of priests, indicating he grew up learning the scriptures. He was not rogue when God called Him. Following the examples of the prophets in the Old Testament, Jeremiah was mentored before stepping into his calling. Jeremiah had submitted himself to the Temple’s work and to serving Anathoth’s people when God called him to be a prophet. The interesting thing about God calling Jeremiah is that his tribe was outside Jerusalem. Year’s prior, King Solomon had banished this tribe from the Temple into Anathoth because of their disloyalty to him. Their being banished tells us Jeremiah came from a line of priests who could only serve the people to a degree but could no longer offer sacrifices in the Temple.

Why would God call someone from this family instead of a priest with full access?

Asking this question of you, Christian, asking it of us all, why would God call sinful people only to banish us from His presence? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again- God is not afraid of our past, status, or reputation. He has a way of redeeming what seems lost to fulfill His divine purpose. Jeremiah had a specific assignment: to restore the hearts of God’s people to the Lord.

Jeremiah was called to talk to God’s people about God, above interceding for them; God already knew their transgressions and hearts were callous towards Him. The funny thing about this is that we often expect God to force people to choose what’s right, but our praying usually has to be coupled with action. “Faith without works is dead” –James 2:20.

We can pray for our brothers until our dying breath, but if we never open our mouths to sharpen them or tell them about Jesus, we will have only made it halfway. Praying for someone is what prepares their heart. Actions plant the seeds the Holy Spirit will water. Excuses don’t work with God. Jeremiah was a young man who tried to use his youth as an excuse to avoid his calling, but God nipped that in the bud by telling Him that he was purposed for his calling long before he was born. “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” –Jeremiah 1:4-5.

In that moment, the Bible tells us, “The Lord reached out his hand, touched my mouth, and told me: I have now filled your mouth with my words. See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and demolish, to build and plant”– Jeremiah 1:9-10. Jeremiah is then filled with the Spirit of God and calls Israel out on their sins as a nation. He also begins to feel the sadness of Israel’s repeatedly turning away from the God who had saved them—time and again. I get the sense that God felt the betrayal by the people that He had chosen long ago to be His family. Remember, the first commandment of the Mosaic law is this: “you shall have no other god before me”– Exodus 20:3. Yet again, Israel had worshipped other gods, even making an idol of the Temple. “Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” –Jeremiah 7:4.

Israel had turned the Temple into a god instead of turning to God, seeking His presence.

The Temple became Israel’s cracked cistern. What’s yours?

If turning God’s Temple from their Source into a “cistern” wasn’t grievous enough, the Israelites also turned to pagan gods. Any other source save God alone, any cracked cistern, will never sustain you and will cause a depletion of your soul’s life.

Maybe your cistern is a significant other? Perhaps it’s your children, church, pets, home, your money? Where are your attention and affections focused? If Jesus is not the first thing that comes to mind, you’ve found a cistern.

God wants your heart.

He aches for you to come Home, tapping back into the Fountain of Life, His Living Presence in you, His Holy Spirit. Jesus is rich in love and mercy, and He abounds in blessings. God wants to bless you and provide for all of your needs. God wants to fill you with the joy and peace that can only come from His Pure, Living Water.

Hebrews 13: 8 reminds us: “God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” He wanted the hearts of His people then, and He wants them still. He wanted a family then, and He wants one now.

We were made for God, and in Him is where true peace is found.

Ask God today to expose your “cracked cisterns.” Then, ask Him to fill you with His Spirit, which will cause you never to thirst again.

And friend, if you have not asked the God who gives all who ask His Pure, Living Water, ask Him today. Drink deeply, and be satisfied. No cistern you have used to date will truly satisfy your longings as Jesus can. “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” –John 4:13-14.

Perspective.

August 6, 2022 /
MaryEllen Montville

“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,” –Philippians 3:20.

“To wait is to learn the spiritual grace of detachment, the freedom of desire. Not the absence of desire, but desire at rest. Waiting does not diminish us any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy”–John Eldredge.

I read somewhere that having and maintaining a proper perspective in this life will help us reflect on the importance of our priorities. As Christians, Jesus should be our priority, loving Him, firstly and wholeheartedly, passionately—with abandonment. Expecting at any moment, we’ll see Him. Right now, today! Our brothers, the Apostles, lived with this level of expectancy. We ought to be praising God, worshipping Him with all that is in us—throwing off all pretense, any thought of how mere men may perceive us, our worship. I’m talking about the type of abandonment King David once demonstrated for us. “Then David came dancing before the LORD with abandon, girt with a linen ephod, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.” –2 Samuel 6:14-15.

David had little concern for the thoughts of men. His heart was bent on pleasing and honoring God. We would do well to take note of David’s example.

Yet how easy it is for us to be deceived, for me to be deceived. Forgetting, even momentarily, there is a world just beyond the veil, our true home. Easy to be lulled into believing that what we see, taste, and touch, those we can wrap our arms around, looking into their eyes, is all that there is. Now, being all there is. The firm earth we stand upon and the four walls that enclose us, our home. But that is a lie—a delusion. “For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” –Hebrews13:14.

This world is not your home, Beloved Sojourner. “For this world is not our home; we are looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven” –Hebrews 13:14.

I am here to remind you of Jesus’ promise to you, child of God. “In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and welcome you into My presence, so that you also may be where I am” –John 14:2-3.

We forget, temporarily, I pray, that though we serve a God we’ve yet to see face to face, save in the eyes and smiles, in the expressions of those we love. Those whom God permits to walk a while with us, that we might be afforded some fleeting glimpse of His beauty or fairness, His passion or the peace left in His wake. This God we’ve yet to touch, wrap our arms around, look into His eyes; this withstanding, Jesus is more real than the most real thing before us! Realer still than your spouse’s hand in yours or that beloved child, snuggled up against your side, warm.

God, more perfect than any precious newborn babe or the most magnificent sunset or seascape ever witnessed, more beautiful and majestic than any mountain or rolling green plain. More regal than the Lion He created. Holy, Perfect, more precious than silver or gold, nearer to us than our next breath or heartbeat, this, in some small part, is our God. “O Lord our God, the majesty and glory of your name fills all the earth and overflows the heavens. You have taught the little children to praise you perfectly. May their example shame and silence your enemies! When I look up into the night skies and see the work of your fingers—the moon and the stars you have made— I cannot understand how you can bother with mere puny man, to pay any attention to him!” –Psalm 8:1-4.

So let me ask you this. When was the last time you just laid back on some sunny day or still, star-filled night and just let your eyes drift upward or out? Even if you were sitting in your car, in traffic instead, staring out through some rain-soaked windshield?

When did you last intentionally contemplate spending your eternity with Jesus?

When was the last time you purposefully shifted your perspective from this world to the next—your real and true home, and thought about what it will be like the second you’re afforded the unfathomable privilege of looking into Jesus’ eyes? Or of hearing His voice for the first time? Or even the feeling that might overtake you when His hand touches yours—reaching for you, His Bride? Such thoughts equally blow my mind and make me giddy—simultaneously! Leaving me with that feeling in the pit of my gut one gets from the first major drop on a rollercoaster or when you witness something so profoundly beautiful that the awe of it robs you of your breath, stopping you in your proverbial tracks! And this, in the natural. How much more the supernatural!

How about when the Holy Spirit so stirs within you that it’s no great leap to understand another person has taken up residence there? Yet, in that second of eternal birth, rapturous, our finally seeing Jesus face to face will far exceed any vivid description any one of us might come up with. Any beauty wildly imagined. Indeed, our every hope and longing will be realized in that instant. Every heartache, all questioning, washed away. Was I good enough, did I do enough, put to death, finally, in the One who gave it all for you and me?

We will be like Him, scripture says. Transformed, living eternally in the very presence of our God. Oh, glorious day! Maranatha! “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” –1 John 3:2.

Consider this your reminder, dear sister, brother, and new friend. A reminder that what you see and touch and hold dear now—is quickly fading away. Conversely, God is, quite literally, drawing nearer and nearer daily. So I encourage you to shift your perspective. To fix your eyes and hope, to, quite literally, bet your life on Jesus. “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” –1 John 2:15-17.

Friend, if your eyes and thoughts have been so fixed on the things of this world that you have not considered the next, I pray that you’ll do that today. Please, don’t let another day pass without asking Jesus to open your eyes to the Truth. He is Truth. “Lord,” said Thomas, “we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” –John 14: 5-6.

To everything, there is a season…

August 5, 2022 /
MaryEllen Montville

Dear friends, brothers, and sisters, in Proverbs 16:9, Scripture informs us, “A man’s mind plans his way [as he journeys through life], But the LORD directs his steps and establishes them.”

As sonsofthesea is God’s ministry, the Lord has removed our sister, Stephanie Rogers, from this ministry, so I have released her in obedience. Doctrinal beliefs no longer allow us to serve together as one. Maintaining unity in the Body of Christ and within this ministry with which God has entrusted me is essential for its growth. “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought” –1 Corinthians 1:10.

Our parting was peaceable and mutual, maintaining the bonds of brotherly love, and our team thanked our sister for serving alongside us for a time.

Kendra, our pastors, and I pray over every seed the Lord has sowed through Stephanie’s teachings over these past months. And as we release her, we bless her. Asking that God cover, protect, lead and guide Stephanie as she stepped out into her new season. Please, friends, we ask that you cover this ministry in prayer as we fast and pray, seeking the Lord’s wisdom and guidance, moving confidently forward in all God has for us; the work of spreading God’s Word.

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