March 24, 2018 Hey GCT:  This Sunday is the beginning of what Christians call “Holy Week” or "Passion Week."  Holy week is made up of the eight days from Palm Sunday to Resurrection Sunday.  We are not commanded in Scripture to celebrate Holy Week as the Church but wow - why don’t we!  Eight of the most important days in history for the believer and the Church.  We have such a great opportunity to...  Read More

March 16, 2018 Hey GCT:  As we learned last week, God is all about words - dialog - communication - discourse - chatting - heart to heart - connecting.  God loves words.  He created us to speak words.  He has great intentions for every word that comes from our heart.  Unfortunately, many times our own sinfulness takes hold of our hearts when our desires, wants, intentions and emotions have been cr...  Read More

March 9, 2018 Hey GCT:  Words seem so innocent don’t they?  We use words to love our family, direct our schedules, describe our experiences, accomplish our jobs, teach our children, order food, bring life to the ones we love and sometimes mame, destroy, wound, divide and threaten those that we love the most.  We say words without thinking about what they will do to the receiver.  Using words seems...  Read More

March 3, 2018 Hey GCT:  Why does God make such a big deal about Christians being free from any kind of stealing?  Because, God really dislikes stealing.  In fact He dislikes it so much He made it the subject of one of the Ten Commandments for every generation of all time - Commandment #8: Do Not Steal.  But why?  Because stealing is the absolute antithesis of the character and image of God.  Our H...  Read More

February 23, 2018 Hello GCT:  How often does anger hurt your family, your work relationships, your neighbor, you, God?  Usually, anger makes us do one of three things or maybe even all three.  Anger has a tendency to make us:1) Clam anger up and hold it all in2) Throw anger up on other people verbally and physically3) Talk anger up amongst our neighbors and not deal with the problemWe see clearly ...  Read More

February 17, 2018 Good Morning GCT:  A great life-changing reminder this morning is that we worship a God who is Truth.  Our Savior is the Truth.  We are in Him who is the Truth.The Spirit within us is the Spirit of Truth who leads us into all Truth.  We are heirs of Truth.  We are brothers and friends with Jesus Christ, the Truth.  We have been justified with Truth.Truth saves us.We have been mad...  Read More

February 9, 2018 Hey GCT:Can you list three areas in your life that you would really like to change for your own personal holiness and the Glory of God?1.2.3.Have you tried and tried to change but still you have not won the battle over these three areas?Have you become cynical that real lasting change can really happen?Have you given up changing?Ephesians 4:17-24 clearly describes that CHANGE IS A...  Read More

February 3, 2018 Hey GCT:  So, think with me… tomorrow if we have 60 believers present in worship, we will have 60 believers who have been given at least one gift from the Ascended Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit (Eph 4.7).  That means that there will be 60 unique but united manifestations of the power of Christ through his children.  What are these 60 manifestations of the power of C...  Read More

January 27, 2018 "Aren't you so excited to see what happens!" - One GCT brother proclaimed this week.  They were referring to all of GCT praying for God to reveal more clearly personal giftings of the Holy Spirit that we discussed last week from Ephesians 4:7.Each one of us has received a gift from the ascended Christ through the power of Holy Spirit for the purpose of "equipping the saints for th...  Read More

January 19, 2018 Hey GCT:  This Sunday we will be back in Ephesians 4:4-6 as we look at the SEVEN - "ONE" statements that Paul gives us to remind us of how to walk worthy to the calling we have been called IN CHRIST.  Because we have been made righteous, holy and blameless as sons through Jesus Christ we are to walk worthy of that calling and part of that walking is thinking correctly as the: ONE ...  Read More

January 12, 2018 Hello GCT:  Remember the two parts of Ephesians?1) Who we are in Christ! Ephesians 1:1-3:21.  Paul clearly tells us what our Father in Heaven has accomplished in Christ for us. It is truly amazing -   Please read this again before Sunday.2) The call of God for us to live a life WORTHY of the exceedingly great favor God has shown us in Chapters 1,2,3.  Chapters 4-6 are how we are t...  Read More

January 5, 2018 Good morning GCT:  This first Sunday of 2018, even though it is going to be a frigidly cold one, I want to answer some hot questions together to warm our hearts.  Did you know that we named our distinct local body of Christ, GRACE COMMUNITY OF TOPSAIL, for the purpose of communicating that we value greatly COMMUNITY?  But what does our heavenly Father expect us to share in this COM...  Read More

December 21, 2017 GCT:  I hope that your Christmas season is Joy-Filled.  I want to encourage you to look at the nativity today and let it fill you with JOY.We have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Romans 5:1Slavery to sin has ended.The devil confounded.Demons take flight.Paradise is unlocked.The curse is taken away.The power of death is broken.Sin is removed from us.Error is driven ...  Read More

December 15, 2017 Hey GCT:  I have been reading the book Hidden Christmas by Timothy Keller.  Yesterday I came across a section that reminded me how great the truth of Jesus is this Christmas. I could not cut this down any more than this.  Please take a moment to read and rejoice in our Savior!“The greatest person in the history of the world was born in a manger and came from Nazareth.  It’s throu...  Read More

December 1, 2017 GCT:  This Sunday we are seeking to comprehend a promise difficult to grasp in Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us…  That means that it is impossible to ask for too much since the Father's giving exceeds our capacity for asking or even imagining.Paul's extravagant praise of God refl...  Read More

November 23, 2017 GCT:  When you think about the dimensions of God’s love for you on this day of Thanksgiving do you think in terms of ounces of megatons, inches or miles?  Rejoice today that you will never deplete the dimensions of God’s love for you.  God’s love for you goes beyond human comprehension, measurement and calculation.  His love for you is beyond understanding but Paul prays an amazi...  Read More

November 17, 2017 GCT: Amazing thought this week from Ephesians 3:10. God’s amazing multi-faceted wisdom is being declared to angels and demons as all of us broken believers from different backgrounds and with difficult histories come together and are UNITED in this thing called church, also known as the body of Christ on this Earth.  Every function of GCT, united together, as Christ’s body declar...  Read More

November 3, 2017 Hey GCT: This Sunday John Zino will be leading us through Ephesians 2:11-16 while I am enjoying hanging out with our youth on a crazy fun Fall Retreat. The Scripture for this Sunday starts with a command for us to remember how dismal life is like without Christ and then quickly reminds us, once again, of what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us on His cross. "BUT NOW," Jesus as o...  Read More

October 27, 2017 “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me!  I once was lost but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”  Amazing grace really is amazing!  In Ephesians 2 we are reminded that there is nothing boring about God’s grace.  It is the most amazing thing in the universe.  It is more amazing than family and friends, careers and cars, quarks and quasars, galaxies and...  Read More

October 20, 2017 GCT:   It has ben difficult to get past Ephesians 2:5-6, The Father, “made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenly places in Jesus Christ.”  All of these verbs are past tense.  This reality stretches the human mind to comprehend all the implications in our present daily life that...  Read More

October 11, 2017 Hey GCT:  God is rich in mercy!  God has great love for us!  God the Father has made us alive TOGETHER with Christ!  God has raised us up WITH Christ in the heavenly places!  God is showing us the immeasurable GRACE in kindness IN Christ Jesus!  All of these are realities that God has intended us to be joyfully experiencing daily IN Christ.  These are not just facts to ponder but ...  Read More

October 5, 2017 Hey GCT:  This Sunday we will be looking at the reminder of the bad news of the Gospel in Ephesians 2:1-3.  We will be reminded of who we WERE before God made us alive together with Christ (v. 4), the good news of the Gospel!  Can you take a moment and read Ephesians 2 and ask yourself the question, “How can I love and praise God on the basis of these truths in 2:1-3?”   How can yo...  Read More

April 7, 2017 Hello Church:  As we enter the week that we call Easter remembering the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ will you join me in meditating on what happened at the cross with this verse -  2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, SO THAT we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”Join me in considering the implications of the cross of C...  Read More

Thursday, January 26, 2016 Psalm 2:1-6 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, an...  Read More