Chuck Bridges Blog

With the temperature of the mornings dropping a little more each day our thoughts are certainly on this changing season. To be honest, I am so looking forward to “cooler” temperatures. After so many weeks of intense heat and drought, I look forward to wearing a sweatshirt and boots.

This is also another great “Season” for those of us who invest our lives in a NT church. It seems that this season causes some to get “plugged” back in to the life of a church. Summers just seem to have some “spiritual drought” to accompany the dryness of our land. Personally, this past summer brought some unique challenges for me. I was reading some of my journals from July, August and September this morning. It is enlightening to look back and see God’s hand working through both good and bad circumstances in our lives.

This little exercise brought back to mind something God revealed to my heart back in July. As I sought His guidance through a very difficult season of life, He reminded me that there are certain things that must be present in our lives if we are going to “grow” through the various seasons we will face. These are the “Irreducible Minimums” which I wrote about during some “drought” times.

No matter how long I have been in ministry or how much I read or what new insights I learn, there is absolutely NO REPLACEMENT for the basics of spending quality quiet time with God every day! Even when I convince myself that a few minutes reading God’s Word followed by a few minutes of ‘prayer’ are my “Minimums” God reminds me that He is the Creator of NEW things! He has NEW experiences reserved for me. If I just DO what I always DO these experiences will elude me.

We all need times in our lives when we “RENEW” some things that have become “stale.” Just like the smell and taste of fresh bread, God has some “fresh” things to add to our lives IF we refuse to allow life’s circumstances to squeeze Him out.

***Remember to pray for our youth and leaders this weekend at D-NOW! God always does some incredible things in the lives of everyone who participates in these “seasons of refreshing.” And don’t miss this Sunday’s services as we celebrate in Worship ALL that God is going to do this weekend. Pray for Pastor Ricky (and his family who have been under attack with physical sickness), Lisa Freeman, Jonathan Elrod who will be leading worship, all the other adult leaders and of course the young people. We are claiming the victories in their lives knowing that their spiritual awakening will spark a fire in their homes.