Fellowship – Your Daily Encouragement

Who You Riding With?

who is in your car?

Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. —Hebrews 10:24–25

If life is a journey, then fellowship is fuel for the trip.

God created you for relationship—with himself and with others. That is what the family of God is all about. The purpose of God’s family is to lift each other up when we’re down and encourage each other when the storms of life rage.

Who are those people you count on? Everyone needs someone—so who is on this journey with you? Who is in your car?

Who you riding with?

Bill Herried is a pastor at CenterPoint Church in Tacoma, Washington and is married to the most extraordinary woman on the planet. Together they have 3 adult children and 4 grandchildren. He has been the lead pastor at CenterPoint Christian Fellowship in Tacoma since 2006. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Washington in Seattle, and Master of Divinity from Corban University in Salem, Oregon—and he loves a good biryani.

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Don’t Do Life Alone

everything’s awesome when you’re part of a team.

The Christian Life isn’t a one-person race. It’s a relay. You are not alone; you’re part of a team assembled by our unstoppable God to achieve his eternal purposes. —Christine Caine

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. —Hebrews 12:1–2

You weren’t meant to do life alone. You were created to be part of a team.

This is why Jesus gathered his team of disciples, and this is why we gather for worship each week. At CenterPoint we say that we believe in the capital C church—the church collected; the church congregated—because we can accomplish far more together than apart.

God is assembling a team in these last days. Don’t miss your opportunity to hand-off to the next generation.

Love you,
Pastor Bill

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Is There A Purpose In My Difficulties?

finding gold in hardship

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. —James 1:2–4

I remember the first time I saw the summer Olympics on TV, the marathoners were running. I watched as the cameras followed alongside them. The runners made it look effortless.

I was in the 8^th grade at the time, and I thought “I can do that!” My parents assured me that these runners had trained for years to be able to run like this.

The announcer mentioned their average speed, and I thought “No problem.” So, my parents suggested that I try running alongside the car and they would pace me. They drove me to a lonely stretch of road and I jumped out and began to run.

I didn’t even last 100 yards, as I watched the car slowly pull away from me.

What I didn’t realize, as an 8^th grader, is that these Olympians had built endurance in their training for years. None of them ran at this pace in the beginning. Each of them built on their endurance by planning a regular daily work out.

Life isn’t a sprint—it is a marathon. And to run for the gold in life will take patient endurance. And the good news is that God wants to come alongside you to build endurance for life.

Jesus’ younger brother, James, tells us that when troubles of any kind come our way—instead of being down-hearted—consider it as an opportunity for great joy.

“Wait—trouble is an opportunity for great joy? Who thinks like that?”

Exactly. Not a lot of people.

How does that work? James continues: “Because we know that the testing of our faith produces endurance.”

Have you ever noticed that troubles—difficulties, etc.—drive us to ask God for help? When times of testing come, the best thing you can do is to go to him for help. As he responds to your request, you become encouraged and your trust in him grows. James calls that “building endurance.”

Then he finishes these verses by declaring the person who allows full development of their endurance will be completely outfitted for the race of life.

If you wanted to build endurance for running, you might Google “marathon workouts.” Marathoners don’t wait for a race to work out, they put a plan in place and then do it.

So, how do we as followers of Christ build endurance for the race of life? Instead of waiting for trouble to come to build endurance, we’re better off putting a plan in place to build endurance in us—even in the good times.

The best pattern I’ve seen to grow in endurance and faith is in the book of Acts. Here is the pattern we see for the early believers:

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. —Acts 2:42

They built endurance in their faith by devoting themselves to the apostle’s teaching (God’s word), to fellowship and sharing meals (that is doing life together) and to prayer.

Then in Acts chapter 5, it gives us another insight into their weekly training schedule:

And every day, in the Temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message: “Jesus is the Messiah.” —Acts 5:42

So, they met in large groups (in the temple) and in small groups (in homes) throughout the week, and in these they devoted themselves to God’s word, time together and to prayer.

At our home church, CenterPoint we work to build endurance for our people in these key areas:

Weekly Worship, Sunday mornings at 10AM. Because of our online presence on both Facebook, this time together is accessible 24/7 throughout the week.
Growth Groups: These are CenterPoint’s groups of 8-10 people who gather for fellowship, encouragement around God’s word and prayer.
Daily personal time with God. One of the ways you can do that is to access our daily Worship and Wisdom reading guide. It will guide you through the Psalms and the Book of Proverbs month by month. You can down load that here.

reading-through-psalms-proverbs-in-a-month-niv Download

Whatever season of life you’re in, this is a great time to build endurance. I hope you can join us Sunday mornings in our large group meeting (either in person or online) at CenterPoint, where you’ll be encouraged and grow your endurance as you follow Christ.

Look forward to growing with you!

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Do You Have a Love Language?

Worship: the language of the heart

But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing the LORD’s praise,
for he has been good to me. —Psalm 13:5–6

If I have a love language, it has to be music. As a song writer, music was a way to express what was going on in my own heart. And I think this is why I especially love songs of worship, because they remind me of the goodness of God.

They remind me:

That he is almighty: he can overcome any obstacle.
That he is all-knowing: he knows every option and solution, and
That there is no place that he isn’t: he is everywhere at once.

The reason I need these reminders is that I easily forget God’s goodness. And it is easy to see my difficulties through these same lenses.

That my difficulties are insurmountable. They can’t be overcome.
That there is probably no solution to deal with them.
That my difficulties follow me wherever I go. It is so easy to view the difficulties of life in these categories.

That is why it is so important to remind ourselves of who He is: that in his power and wisdom, he is able to take care of all these things. But then Jesus takes it a step further—by putting God’s capabilities in perspective.

More than just God, Jesus calls him our Heavenly Father. More than being all-powerful, all-knowing and everywhere at once, he is a Father—the best kind of father. And that he is actively involved in our world for the benefit of his children.

Based on Psalm 13, the verse that opens this post, here is what we know to be true about God:

His love is unfailing, so he is trustworthy. Difficulty in life is a given: you and I will suffer hardship in this life. But we can experience his unfailing love that follows and keeps us through the most unfathomable circumstances. In fact, because of his wisdom, he can take even what someone else may mean for evil and use it for good. He is worthy of our trust.

His Salvation brings me joy. When we follow Christ, we know that the past is forgiven, the present is in his hands and the future is secure. The fact that he is trustworthy extends to all parts of my life: past, present and future. Paul the apostle, essentially, put it this way: “What is the worst that can happen? In this life I have Christ, and if I die, it is even better!” So, his salvation covers every part of our life—even to the world to come.

His goodness makes me sing. It’s a gratitude “feedback” loop. I used to do a lot of live music and if the microphone began feeding back, the sound tech had to pull the mic fader down, or the feedback would continue to get louder and louder. This same feedback loop happens (in a good sense) in worship. He is good to me, so I praise him. And as I do, I discover more and more reasons to worship. This is a life of worship: a recognition of his goodness that we experience here, and the promise of what is coming in the world to come.

One of the weird habits we’ve developed in the pandemic in the last few years is the habit of isolating. Isolation has its place, but if you find it easier to stay at home and just watch Netflix then it is time to break the habit and get together with others—especially for worship.

There was a period of time in my life that I worked on Sundays (it lasted only a few months), and I remember the spiritual dryness that I experienced during that short time because I missed worship.

Don’t miss the opportunity to worship with God’s people starting this weekend. Worship truly is the source of his sustainable joy in our lives.

Is there a song that reminds you of his goodness to you? Share your favorite song, either on this blog or one of the Social Media platforms you found this on. Would love to hear what your favorite song is.

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