A Look Back & Move Forward

Dave Mullen, a pastor friend here in Manchester, and I were sharing about our common interest in Jonathan Edwards, and he was able to point me in the direction of a marker in Enfield, that indicates the location where Edwards once preached.  I paid a visit to it was was moved by thoughts of what God had done through this man.

Edwards sermons are at the heart, simple and gospel centered.  

Sin is a deliberate disobedience to the will of God.  Sin is our nature.  Sin separates us from God the creator.  Being separated from God means hell is in our future.  Our sin must be judged by God.  God is a good judge, meaning he does not take bribes, or anything else that we try to trade up with him.

The Good News is that God made a way for us not to be separated from him and our sin can be pardoned.  Jesus, the son of God, came from heaven to earth to live a sinless life, and since the penalty of sin is death,  Jesus sacrificed or stood in our place to take the penalty that we deserved, because he loves us.

This is best summed up in John 3:16:

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life".  God's grace is unearned and unmerited.  It just because he loves us.

What God did with Edwards in the 1700s, he is still doing today.  

My prayer is that your heart is being warmed by God.  That the Good News of Jesus Christ is news that you want realized in your life.  My prayer is, just like the Great Awaking in New England of the 1700's, that you would be awakened by the Gospel of Jesus.

Shoot me a email with your questions TimLyda@bellsouth.net

God truly does love you.

Live & Love Like Jesus,

Pastor Tim 

LifeSong Manchester

Manchester is now our new home.  Lynn and I have been here for 2 weeks now, and fall more in love with the town everyday.  To love a town means you love the people.  We love the people!  In meeting so many people, business owners, residents, and people who are serving the community, the sense that the Holy Spirit is moving in this New England town is obvious. 

Everyone we talk to at this point is very open and find it interesting that a new church is coming to Manchester.  We are hearing comments such as, “I have so many questions about God”, I hope that you have a Saturday night service because I work on Sunday”, and “Your a Pastor?, I didn’t know I could have a relationship with the priest”.  There are times of sowing, times of watering, and times of Harvest.  The scriptures say that "the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers or few".  This certainly is a time and place of harvest.

There has been so many times in my life that I have been disobedient from God’s plan for my life, but not today.  And today I ask that God pour out my life for his glory.

Numbers 14:24

But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me fully, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it.

The USA Today quoted the PEW organization that 1 in 5 are without religious affiliation.  More people are checking “None” in surveys.  In general, this is a true statement in New England, but we all worship something such as other people and relationships, or our stuff.  In Goshen Connecticut a white bison was born last month, and many Native Americans are visiting the town to worship…that’s no bull J
I see a little something different in this town.  People in New England are just simply tired or even broken by religion… the hypocrisy, the inability to live by certain rules or standards.

LifeSong Manchester is a community of people who most of all are in love with Jesus.  Everyone you ever come into contact with has a story to share, at LifeSong we listen and honor those stories.  We also believe that we are all a part of a greater story, God’s Story, and we want to be a place where we can help you enter into his story in a real and authentic way. 

We are beginning as a small group of people who all want the same thing, to transform lives and communities through Jesus.  It has become obvious to me that people in Hartford county really do want a relationship with God, they just don’t want to play games and be fake.  Me too! 

Our launch date is not yet set, but when we have met the milestone of 4 to 5 small groups of people sharing life together it will be time to launch.

We will be known in our community as a safe place to explore faith in Christ with others who are on a spiritual journey.  We know it can and will get a little messy, but I believe that as we start living authentically God smiles and says it’s “A beautiful mess”

Planting The Gospel,

Pastor Tim