NewSpring has a great opportunity to help those in need in our community.  On Sunday, November 15th, the Anderson Campus is partnering with Haven of Rest, Anderson Interfaith Ministries, and the Anderson Soup Kitchen to provide food for needy families this holiday season.  You can help by bringing items from the list below.

This is a great opportunity for us to reach out into the community and make a difference.

Please bring any of these items to church on November 15th:

- Frozen Turkey – Frozen Pies – Canned Whole Kernel Corn – Canned Yams – Canned Cranberry Sauce – Stovetop Style Stuffing – Boxed Macaroni & Cheese – Canned Peas – Canned Green Beans – Turkey Gravy Packets

In light of Perry’s comments on Sunday about racism, we have had a few emails and calls on the subject.  I thought I would share this Q&A with you about this issue:

Q: I have a question. Doesn’t the Old Testament teach that interracial relationships are wrong. Being raised in the south, I was taught that it is sinful.  What do you believe about the issue, and is there a Biblical answer?

A: Thanks for your email. The bible has a few commands in the Old Testament in Exodus and Deuteronomy for the Jews to not marry people of other nations. The purpose of these commands was not to stop marriage of people who were different races, but so that God’s people would not marry pagans who did not worship the true God. God welcomes other races in the Old and New Testament who were willing to follow Him and worship Him and allowed these people to become a part of his family (If He didn’t allow this, all of us “gentiles” would be out of luck!)

A similar command is given to Christians in the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 6:14 about a believer not marrying an unbeliever. This command is not about race but about a Christian refraining from joining in marriage with someone who does not know Christ. If two people are believers, there is no biblical reason to keep them from getting married.

There is nothing sinful or unbiblical about interracial relationships. Disapproving of someone based on their race is wrong and not how God desires His people to treat each other. I know that many times people grow up with a certian set of beliefs because a family member or pastor taught them to think a certian way. We all have to be willing to compare what we believe or have been taught to believe with what scripture teaches. When scripture shows us that a belief we have held is not right, we need to turn from that misconception and embrace the truth of God’s word. Let me know if you want to talk about this further or if there are any other questions I can answer for you.

In light of the end times series we are doing right now.  I thought this would be an appropriate Q&A to share:

Q: Can I get your opinion on something? My job is getting hi-tech. They are starting a new program where you have to use your finger print to clock in and out.  How do you feel about this? Is this me taking the “mark of the beast”?  I could use your opinion on this to make me feel better.
A: Thanks for your question.  I do not feel that the finger print scanner is the mark of the beast.  You should have no fear in using it.  The mark of the beast is something that will be implemented by the antichrist and false prophet in the end times.  It will be a thing that the whole world will be forced to do to buy or sell goods and is found in scripture in Revelation 13.  The mark of the beast is not something that someone will take accidentally.  It will be a mark that people will choose to take to take to show their allegiance to the antichrist.  I believe that no true believer will take the mark Let me know if I can answer any more questions for you or help you in any way.

The truth that Jesus is coming back was the focus of my most recent article for the Anderson Independent:

Jesus is coming back. I don’t know if that has been something you have thought about this week, but it is true. One of the main topics we get questions about at our church is the End Times, and what the Bible has to say about the return of Christ. Because of this, last week we started a new sermon series at NewSpring Church called “How to Survive the End of the World.” If understanding what the Bible has to say about the end of the world is something that interests you, I hope you will join us for this sermon series at NewSpring Church this Sunday.

I can’t tell you when Jesus is coming back, nor would I try to predict it. What I can tell you with certainty is that one day we will no longer be on this earth. And Scripture tells us that when we leave this earth, we are going to spend eternity somewhere. So whether Jesus comes back in our lifetime, or we pass away before his return, our mortality and future destination is something we all need to consider.

We don’t like to think about death, about the fact that one day we will no longer be on this earth. In our culture we numb ourselves from the reality of death. We should not hyper focus on death or the end of the world, but we should be willing to wrestle with our own mortality and not avoid the subject just because we don’t like to think about it. We need to live our lives knowing that we are going to leave this earth one day and understand that our days are numbered. Scripture says that understanding the truth that our days are numbered makes us wise.

Psalm 90:12 says, “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

When we realize our days are numbered it forces us to live every day with focus and purpose and keeps us from going through the motions and assuming that we can put important things off until a later date. “I’ll be a better husband one day.” “I’ll make it up to my kids next month.” “I’ll deal with that issue another day.” We are not promised later. We don’t know for sure that we have tomorrow to do what we need to do. We need to live well today. Serve our spouse today. Make time for our children today. Today we need to listen to the Lord and be obedient to him.

There is one other thing we need to consider today and not put off until later. How are you personally planning on getting to heaven? We need to think about where we are going to spend eternity and what Jesus says about that. Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus says that he is the only way to eternal life. Some of you that are reading this believe this and some of you do not. Scripture teaches that there is one way to get to heaven. It is not about how good we are. It is not about what we do. It is about believing that Jesus Christ is God and has paid for our sin. Jesus is coming back. Before we leave this earth, we need to consider our relationship with Him.

Q: I have an addiction to pornography and I know I need to take steps to stopping it. i was wondering if you could tell me how to stop the habit.  It would be great to know what someone else has done that has helped them overcome this issue.

A: Thanks for your email.  I would be more than happy to talk with you about this and answer any questions that you have.  The first thing I will tell you is that this is a sin that you can overcome.  God wants to set you free.  The fact that you have a desire to be free is evidence that God is at work in you and is wanting to do this work in your life.

We have to realize in overcoming this issue that the problem is not masturbation or porn, the problem is lust.  As men we have to take our thoughts captive and choose not to look lustfully at a woman.  Not an easy thing to do, but not impossible either.  We need God to change our perspective, and we need to ask Him to help us see sin the way He sees sin.  God also wants to teach us to die to our perceived “rights.”  As believers, we are united to Christ.  That means we are united to him in his death.  Dead men don’t have rights.  I don’t have a right to satisfy my sinful nature.  I only have the right to be obedient to what God calls me to do everyday.

God can set you free from this.  He wants you to be free.  That freedom starts by knowing the truth of scripture and applying it to your life and meditating on it so that when you are tempted to sin, you can run to God’s truth and take those thoughts captive.

A huge part of this is setting up proper boundaries and accountability for yourself.  To do this you have to identify the times and places you are weak and place healthy boundaries around yourself to avoid giving into those temptations

Some resources that I have found to help with setting up boundaries/accountability are:

- a book called: Every Man’s Battle

- A free online resource/article called Porn Again Christian

- The best computer software I have ever seen to help with a porn addiction is covenant eyes.  It does have a monthly fee, but it is a great accountability software.  There is also a free accountability software at www.xxxchurch.com that is excellent.

- I would also recommend that you get involved in a fantastic online ministry/biblestudy that is free called www.settingcaptivesfree.com

Many men that I have counseled have said that setting captives free helped them more than anything else.  I hope this helps.  Please let me know if I can help with anything else.

Q: I am a married man and very much in love with my wife.  We communicate well and there are no secrets between us.  I mention that because I want you to understand that she and I have already spoken about this and she knows everything.I am faithful to my wife and we are very intentional and conscientious about living lives that draw us closer to God.  While I have always been faithful in flesh, I have had a string of recent dreams where I have been adulterous.  The women in the dreams are nobody I know or have seen before.  My question is not “what does that mean??”, but rather what your advice might be on ways to ensure that my wife and I work together to overcome this.  It’s causing no marital discord, but I want to make sure that we are diligent in making sure that doesn’t happen and give Satan so much as a hairline crack to get his fingernail into.  I am praying for God to do this in my life and while he doesn’t need my help, I am a husband who wants to make sure I’m not going to fall into the trap of neglecting my wife by way of inactivity.

A: Thanks so much for your email.  That is a great question.  And I will start off by saying that I love your heart and how you are trying to honor God and your wife in everything you do.  I know that pleases Him.  I think the fact that you have been open with your wife about all of this speaks volumes about your communication and openness with her.  I would encourage you to continue to communicate to her about things like this.  In that, make sure you are communicating to her that she is your standard of beauty and that you have no desire to look elsewhere for getting your needs met.  The only other thing I can tell you to do to involve her in this process would be to have her pray over you before you go to sleep.  Get her to intercede for you and ask God to protect your mind even while you are sleeping.  There is power in asking our spouses to pray for us when we are troubled with something and it communicates to her your vulnerability and need for her to be involved in working through this with you.

The last thing I will challenge you on is to not believe lies that you are doing something wrong in this situation.  Having a dream like this is not sin.  Sometimes the enemy can even use things like this to distract us and get us off focus.  If that is the case, scripture calls us to take our thoughts captive and run to the Lord with the things we are struggling with.  We cannot control what we dream about or what happens while we are asleep. Therefore, we should not allow the enemy to put guilt on us as a result of those things or believe for a second that we have sinned as a result.  The only exception to this would be if we are allowing lustful thoughts in our minds during the day, then it is possible for these things to show up in our dreams. In that case, the dream itself would not be sin, but the actions that led to the dream would be (dwelling on lustful thoughts).  I don’t feel this is the case with you and I am not assuming that this is what you are dealing with at all, but as men we must always be on guard with what we look at and what thoughts we dwell on during the day.   Examine what sort of images you are taking in and ask the Lord to reveal to you if anything needs to change in this area.

I hope this helps, please let me know if I can help you with anything else.  I hope you have a wonderful week.

Here is another video of what our team in Kenya has been doing this week.  They are on their way home later today so pray for their protection.

Our current missions team in Segera has been there for almost a week.  We have heard amazing things about this trip including the fact that around 15 people have confessed Jesus as their Lord and God after our team has shared the Gospel with them.

We sent several doctors on this trip to do medical missions, here is a video of one of them yesterday talking about what they have been doing and the impact the trip has had.

We are getting ready to begin the NewSpring premarital class again.  If you or anyone you know are engaged to be married, or if you are dating and close to getting engaged, we would love for you/them to join us.

The class will start on Tuesday, Sept. 1st at our Anderson Campus. It will be a 5 week class and will be held every Tuesday night in Sept.

On our Greenville Campus we are going to offer the premarital class as a weekend seminar.  It will be Fri night Sept 11th and Saturday Sept 12th. We will start at 6pm on Friday night and go to 9:30 pm.  (the first 2 sessions of the class) Then we will teach the last 3 sessions of the class on Saturday from 9 to 1.

During the sessions we will discuss many subjects, including God’s plan and purposes for marriage, marital roles and responsibilities, communication skills and conflict resolution. We will also be discussing many expectations people have for marriage including…how to fight fair, how to meet each others needs, dealing with in-laws, daily life, children, how to grow spiritually together, work expectations, how to deal with money,and wedding and honeymoon expectations

Here are the details:

Date: Begins Tuesday, Sept 1st (continues for 5 weeks, every Tuesday in Sept.) on Anderson Campus

and Sept. 11th and 12th at the Greenville Campus

Time: 6:30 – 8:30 pm on Anderson Campus,

and 6 to 9:30 on Friday night & 9am to 1pm on Saturday at the Greenville Campus

Cost: $25

Register: click here

Questions: please call the church office 226-6585 and ask for Lanna Johnson,

or email her at lanna.johnson@newspring.cc

On June 11-20 I had the honor of going on my second trip to Kenya.  I am going to share thoughts from both of those trips soon.  My friend Will Rodes was on that trip and put together an incredible video to share what we experienced in Kenya with everyone at NewSpring this past Sunday.

While we were in Kenya we got to work on 2 major projects that you will see in the video.  The first project was fixing a large concrete water tank.  The tank had a lot of deep cracks in it that we had to chisel out and repair and we also cleaned out the inside of the tank and patched holes.  Very soon the pump for the water source that fills this tank will be repaired and a community of around 1,000 people will not have to walk miles any longer to get water.

The other project we did was to pave the floor of a school with concrete.  We started by digging out the current dirt floor that was in the school and then finding and placing large rocks as a foundation for the floor.  Then we mixed the concrete by hand on the ground and used wheelbarrows to pour the concrete for the floor.   As a result over a hundred children that attended that school no longer have to sit all day with their feet in the dirt, this was enabling a parasite that lived in the dirt to enter under the children’s toenails and eat away at their  feet; The new concrete floor will help to alleviate that problem for the children.