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On our recent marriage retreat
Posted on September 9, 2008, by danny beteta, under church.
On this recent retreat….
We enjoyed this past weekend at Palm Desert!! 9 couples joined us at Palm Desert Best Western and we had a blast! As Pastor John said, we all need maintenance in our marriages and that’s just what we did in this past retreat!! We really enjoyed it and hope that the next time around many of you can join us!! We talked about what does a healthy, successful marriage look like? The answer to that question is that marriage it’s a team effort. I invite you to read Acts 18. In this chapter you will find a couple, Priscilla and Aquila that were always mentioned together, worked together, learned together, and taught together! In our marriages we need to learn to trust and respect each other. We need to protect our marriages by setting up boundaries and by continually adjusting those boundaries. When money comes between the couple check these verses: Genesis 2:24; Matthew 6:21, 24–33; Philippians 2:3, 4:19; 1 Timothy 6:6–10; Hebrews 13:5 and discover the Eternal Principles
—one: We look at money differently. It’s just money and this is not your God!!!
—two: We can accept our differences. Men and women look at money differently, but we need to accept those differences and agree in how we spend our money together!!
—three: God owns everything. Do I dare say more??
—four: We can serve either God or money. I hope you choose to serve God!!!
Here are a few tips to Keeping Your Christian Marriage Strong and Healthy
Step 1 - Pray Together: Set aside time each day to pray with your spouse.
Step 2 - Read Together: Set aside time each day, or at least once a week, to read the Bible together.
Step 3 - Make Decisions Together: Commit to making important decision together.
I’m not talking about deciding on what to eat for dinner. Major decisions, like financial ones, are best decided as a couple. One of the greatest areas of strain in a marriage is the area of finances. As a couple you should discuss your finances on a regular basis, even if one of you is better at handling the practical aspects, like paying the bills and balancing the check book. Spending secrets will drive a wedge between you faster than anything else. If you agree to come to mutual decisions on how the finances are handled, this will strengthen trust between you and your partner. Also, you won’t be able to keep secrets from each other if you commit to making all important family decisions together. This is one of the best ways to develop trust as a couple.
Step 4 - Attend Church Together: Get involved in the church together.
Step 5 - Continue Dating: Set aside special, regular times to continue developing your romance. Once married, couples often neglect the area of romance, especially after the kids come along. Continuing a dating life may take some strategic planning on your part as a couple, but it is vital to maintaining a secure and intimate marriage. Keeping the romance alive will also be a bold testimony to the strength of your Christian marriage.
God bless you!
Pastor Danny
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On hope during difficult times!!!
Posted on August 25, 2008, by danny beteta, under church.
The Olympics came to an end last night and the event was televised around the world. Bob Costas and the other analyst for NBC said one thing that I really liked. They said something along the lines of “we saw hope for these past two weeks, hope of a better world…” That is what Life’s purpose is “to bring life to the valley!” We are called to offer God’s hope to a lost world! We are to offer hope in the midst of despair!
We know that hope is a very necessary commodity for our well being. As human beings, we tend to look for hope in a lot of wrong places. You probably know what I’m talking about!! But, just because people look in the wrong places for hope, and just because a lot of people get their hopes destroyed due to circumstances, it does not mean that there is no hope available to every person who looks in the right direction. The apostle Peter says in his first letter: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3)
A living hope! A life giving hope! We have a living hope that is sure and unwavering, a hope that is rooted and grounded in a living relationship with God!!! This living hope assures us that God is with us in the midst of our trials and tribulations!!
This life was not designed to be easy or free from difficulty or sorrow or suffering.
Too many people base their whole lives on this false belief that says life should be easy. We all have struggles; we too have financial collapses; we too have people break their promises or act terribly toward us; we all worry about bills, house payments, etc. We all face health problems. We all face death. There are no exemptions just because you are a Christian. Life is not easy. But this hope, this living hope will keep you going.
In the midst of your disappointments, take comfort in this, “I have a living hope in our Lord Jesus Christ and he is getting me ready for glory!” and it will make the trials easier to bear.
Peter continues to write, “and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:4-9).
The trials and difficult situations we encounter in our lives will result in praise if we keep grasping to the arms of our Living Hope, our Lord Jesus Christ! Down deep inside every Christian heart is a joy that cannot really be stopped or contained. It is a joy that is not natural; a joy that is not emotional; it is a joy that is rooted in your relationship with God, that continues to grow as you endure trials, and a joy that nothing that can happen to you can get down into your life will be able to destroy that which God has placed there in the core of your soul.
The true Christian should be the most joyous person that walks the earth. This joy should show out through your eyes, through your face, through your expression, through your body language, through everything about you. Everything about you should speak to others about your relationship to the Lord God who has saved you, through the death, burial and resurrection of His own Son. God loves you with an everlasting love, and that should put a smile on your face, gladness in your heart, and a light in your life and a bounce in your steps that speaks about Jesus.
My friends, this is the Living Hope!!! The glory of the Christian life… in the midst of a hopeless appearing world, and we can share it with others who are still searching for hope! Be the church!
Pastor Danny
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On change…
Posted on August 18, 2008, by danny beteta, under church.
On change…
That’s a word that not a lot of people like… “CHANGE.” But, it is a constant in all our lives!!! Incredible changes have taken place in the past hundred years. Even in the past 5 years we have experienced tons of changes!! The rate of change is so great and fast that we barely catch our breath before another blast of change slams into us. Everything we’re familiar with is changing.
If you don’t believe, take a look at your daily lives… Let’s start with looking at yourself in the mirror… you’ve changed since yesterday!!! In the most insignificant way, you already lost about 100 hairs (average person in America). That in itself is changing your physical appearance!!! I know that was a corny example, but we are forever on the move - doing things, eating stuff, working, jogging, writing, marrying, divorcing, having kids, starting school, shopping, paying bills - you name it - we’re doing it! The pace is in a thin line between mad rush and being insane. People are coming and going twenty-four hours every day. The interstates and most of our streets are choked with traffic - it never stops. Do I dare talking about the changes in technology?? You get my point! Change is constant. I recently read that more than two hundred years ago George Washington traveled from Virginia to Washington D.C. by horseback. It could take him ten days traveling at a speed of twenty five miles per day.
Today astronauts can enter a space shuttle and travel at twenty five thousand miles per hour. At that speed you could fly from New York City to San Francisco in eight minutes.
With all these advances in air travel it is possible to have breakfast in New York, lunch in Dallas, and dinner in Los Angeles — and have your luggage wind up in Mexico.
So why is it that we dislike change so much? Why is it that we are so against change?? Is it because we forge that God never changes!!! All things change, but our God remains in control and constant through it all!!! He is faithful and does not change his nature! In Malachi 3:6, it says, “For I the Lord do not change!” These words in Malachi were spoken in a time of great change: Worship had become flippant and causal as people gave their leftovers to God. The moral law of God was being disregarded, especially concerning marriage. Divorce was a national disgrace. The Lord’s command to tithe was being ignored to the economical detriment of the nation. Neither priest nor people took seriously the threat of approaching judgment. In that kind of world, the Lord was reminding and warning His people that He had not changed. In the midst of our dislike of things changing, in the midst of our confusion because we don’t see anything, one fact remains constant… God is with us 100% of the time!!!
We have a promise in Isaiah 43 (one of my favorite chapters in the Bible!) that God is with us in the midst of change… “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” God is still present in the midst of change!! So when you are feeling like everything around you is not constant and is falling apart… remember God’s promise… in the midst of change, He is creating something new for you!!!
Face all changes on your knees, praying and seeking God’s help!
Pastor Danny
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on swimming, Olympics, races, and Life Groups!!!
Posted on August 11, 2008, by danny beteta, under church.
As my family and I were glued to the TV last night watching four Americans beat the French swimmers to win their gold medals by a fingertip, I could not stop thinking about Philippians 3:14, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” What an amazing race that Jason Lezak finished for the Americans. It was an awesome race where three or four teams beat the world record previously held by the U.S. before Lezak won with a new world record giving the US another gold medal in these Olympics.
Our biggest conversation when we see this kind of races is, “can you imagine preparing yourself for 4 years and then, no medal??” That must be hard! Our Christian lives are a race…
Later on, back in China, when interviewed later, some of the swimmers who were the “losers” of the race said that this was not their last race. That has to be our attitude as believers. We are running a race set before us and when we fall, we cannot just stay there!!! When we lose one battle we cannot stop the fight. God picks us up and moves us to finish the race! In order to run this race, we must have devotion and be committed to Christ! These Olympians train for years, months, weeks, days, and many hours to swim a race that lasts less than 4 minutes!!! We are running a race that will last our entire lives!!!
We must train by reading the Word of God, by being devoted to the Lord, by worshipping him, by having a commitment to grow, and by relying on our teammates. As Pastor John said in his sermon on Sunday, “I need my brothers and sisters, to watch my back!!” That’s the aim of Life Groups! Life Groups and LifeChurch are the places where we meet one another! Life Groups is the place where you can encourage one another, where you can “train” with one another, where you can lift each other up and get the tools you need to continue the race before you!!
I encourage you to join a Life Group at LifeChurch; we are starting in two weeks!! You will find that in the small groups, we grow as individuals, but we grow as the body of Christ. The apostle Paul relied on small groups for his ministry and had a steadfast determination:
He would not quit. He would not turn back. He would not give in. He would not throw in the towel. He would not slow down. He pressed toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
If you want to be a winner in this race of Christianity you must have a spirit of determination, strong commitment, and devotion to the Lord. Sometimes you have got to put some energy and effort in your daily lives for the Lord Jesus Christ. Victory doesn’t come easy. It takes a lot of sweat. But, if we can be determined, have devotion, be committed, and seek the support of each other, we will say with the apostle Paul, “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal…” (Phil. 3:13)
Pastor Danny
