Category Archives: jeremy

Do You Believe In Jeremy?

06 Wednesday Apr 2022

Posted by in Baptism, Christian Habits, Church, grow, Holiday, jeremy, language of God, Salvation, Worship

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My Ant Problem

The other day, I was sitting in my backyard and I was staring at my ant problem. We live on a verifiable ant hill. So, I am always seeing ants around. Believe me. Even though I try to keep them away, they are always around.

As I was sitting there, I decided to use a few fallen Plumaria leaves to redirect the ants and I sort of laughed to myself because the ants had no idea what I was doing. And then I got deep. I remembered the verse in Proverbs 3:5-6 about how God directs our steps and it made me think that we don’t even realize how often God is actual directing our steps. 

Do You Believe?

And then I noticed two ants had gotten on my hand and as I watched them my mind went even deeper. I thought to myself … what if one ant said to the other ant, “Hey, do you believe in Jeremy?” The second ant might respond, “Jeremy? That’s a myth.”

Am I the only one who does this? 

And then I wondered, how could I resolve this dilemma and prove that I exist? Only if I, with all of my knowledge and intelligence about the world, entered their world as an ant. 

An ant has such a finite mind that it could never comprehend what I am as a human being. When I become an ant and I come down to their level that’s when they’re going to realize that Jeremy exists. 

As Easter approaches, we’re reminded that just a few months ago we celebrated Christmas representing the fact that the mission began when God became flesh and lived among us (John 1:14). But on Easter, we celebrate the fact that the mission was accomplished! He came, He lived as one of us, He died for us and then He showed His power as God and He came back to life to prove He is God! 

Believe and Experience Good Friday

We Believe In Jesus!

Man could not comprehend God, so God became man. I guess if God wanted to relate to cows, he would have come back as a cow. If He wanted to relate to birds, he would have become a bird. If He wanted to relate to cats … well, even God can’t do that, cats are satan’s spawn! 🙂 

Believe and Experience Easter

I’m so glad that God took the time to come, to die, and to live … for you and me! I want to encourage you to celebrate Good Friday with us at 7:00PM at our Rancho San Diego campus and join us for Easter services in person and online at Rancho San Diego at 8:00am, 9:30am, and 11:00am; and at 9:00am and 10:45am in Lakeside–because we BELIEVE IN JESUS! 

Why I Started Recycling

02 Tuesday Dec 2014

Posted by in jeremy, jeremy mcgarity, mcgarity, pastor Jeremy, Uncategorized

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Our IMPACT Campaign, “Building a Place for Imperfect People” is off and running and it is changing the way we look at things.

I was reading through Acts 4:32-37 where Barnabas sold a field and brought the money to the disciples. I don’t have a field I can sell but I have continued to consider what God would have us do as a family in terms of sacrificial giving and how it will change our lifestyle.

Something our consultant Bob said recently stuck with me when he talked about our giving testimonies. He mentioned we need to share how we are sacrificing for the Lord to get our church home. Not just that we are going to give and that we are tithing, etc… It was such a good reminder because this campaign isn’t just about giving. But, this whole idea of stewardship and sacrificial giving means our lifestyle will change. It means we will live differently because of what God is calling us to do for Him, for our community, for our Oikos and for those who aren’t here yet.

So, my wife and I have scrutinized our spending, found areas where we can cut and found areas where we can save. AND, found an area where we can put even more toward the IMPACT campaign…. so, yes… I’m recycling… Ok, now, first of all, I’ve always recycled… well, I mean I’ve always put the recyclables in the blue recycle bin the trash company gives me. But, I’ve always hated the thought of taking the smelly, sticky, and ant and fly infested cans and bottles to the smelly, sticky, ant and fly infested recylcle company to get my CA CRV back! But, for IMPACT I will get smelly sticky and ant and fly infested to get more cash to put toward our goal of seeing our church have a home!

It’s just another way our lifestyle has changed as God continues to show us the really important things in life are not things. What we are attempting is historic and will have an IMPACT for generations to come.

Join our journey at http://www.7sd.org and click on IMPACT to see a glimpse at what our future home may look like.

P.S. attached is an actual picture of my most recent trip to the recycler which netted me $15.78. However, including my last trip of $38.18 that’s an additional $53.96 of real money toward IMPACT! —can’t you just smell the awesomeness!

recyle.jpgrecyle

Silence, "The Language of God"

22 Monday Feb 2010

Posted by in God., jeremy, jeremy mcgarity, language of God, pastor Jeremy

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“Silence is the language of God”- Thomas Keating

I’m learning about the importance of silence and solitude. I’ve taught on it for years and I’ve practiced it periodically. I want to flip that sequence.

God will not compete with our noise. He will not shout above the constant barrage of electronic stimulants and information overload. He does not push His way in to get our attention. He waits. Think about that. God waits for you and me.

He waits until we’re quiet enough in mind, heart, and soul, and then He speaks. 1 Kings 19 always reminds me of this….God speaks in a whisper.

He waits until we’ve prioritized Him. He waits until we’ve cleared our cluttered schedule to carve out space for Him (that sounds so ridiculous when I realize HE IS THE ONE WHO GIVES US TIME IN THE FIRST PLACE). Still, He waits.

So often, in my hurry, it’s as if God is speaking another language. I can’t translate the dialect He’s speaking.

It takes pure discipline as I’ve focused my time in silence before Him. Every thought must be held captive and pushed aside so I can have a clear mind, no distractions. My mind goes so many places for several minutes until finally it gets quiet. It’s in the next several moments that I meet with my Lord. These are good times. These are soul healing times. These are times of refreshing.  It’s in these moments of silence that I can translate the language of God

In these moments I am reminded that I am not God, He is. I am not in charge, He is. All my hurry and all my worry is just me taking charge, it’s just me taking control. I need silence as a constant reminder that God is God and I’m not.

So, I’m learning. I don’t want to burn out, soften up, or lose to the enemy. So, I’ll do the waiting. I’ll listen to Psalm 37 and wait on the Lord, it’s the least I can do, He’s waited on me for so long.

A Great Week

20 Tuesday May 2008

Posted by in Church, jeremy, mcgarity, PD, purpose driven, seven sd

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It’s been a great week. We had Sagemont Church from Houston Texas in town for the week helping us with missions work in the Chula Vista community. This is a college group of 22 people that gave up a week of their vacation to make a difference in our community. They are such a great group…what a blessing to have them out here. All their hard work in the community paid off. On Sunday we had our largest attendance since we’ve moved to the theater. It’s exciting seeing what God is doing in such a young church.

Sagemont helped us survey our community and continue to get the heartbeat and pulse of Otay Ranch. Questions that were asked on the survey included: 1. Do you go to church (if yes, we said thank you and moved on). 2. If not, why not. 3. What would a church need to pique your interest to go? 4. Any suggestions for a brand new church starting in your community? After they completed the survey we asked if there was anything we could help them with, i.e., yardwork, etc. We are compiling the information and looking forward to seeing the results so we can better serve the people God has placed in our lives.

Now, I just drove up to Saddleback Church with Koby Orr (our worship leader at Seven SD). We’re at the Purpose Driven Network conference in Lake Forest, CA. It’s great visiting with friends and meeting with National Leaders, learning and growing. I am a learner (according to “Now Discover Your Strengths”..Marcus Buckingham) so an environment like this really fires me up. Just heard a great comment, “the mind can only absorb as much as the seat can endure.” my seat is a hurtin’ man but mind is absorbin’….been here about 10 hours now…lots going on…all good.