St James Tampa

How meditation and study bring us closer to God.

Rev. Dr. Candace Lewis D.S.

For God to rebuild our lives into something new & holy, we need to check-in and commit. 

God rebuilds things to restore relationship with Him.

When God builds something, the “Work” is accomplished in record time.  But, the work on the workers just begins.  

With any project, there will be opposition.  Nehemiah opposes the opposition!

To ensure sustainability of a project, we need to secure support & logistics.

A secure foundation is necessary before rebuilding can take place.    

A healthy mind is like rich soil, ready for new ideas to be planted and grow.

Creating a healthy time balance in our lives based on Godly principals exude joy!

Our lives are fully revealed when our lives are lived fully for God.

The soul can be thought of as the center of our identity. Too often, we “lose our soul” to everything else that tries to define us.

Money can have all sorts of power over our lives. Realizing God is Lord of our finances allows us to experience freedom and health.

In God, who is three-in-one, we find the perfect source & expression of community.

A healthy emotional life is a matter of the heart.  The Lord grants us anew heart in Jesus Christ and a new emotional life with God’s Holy Spirit in us.  

We are not to stay on the launchpad, we are to be rocketing forward and reaching our FULL potential in Him. Join St. James at 9:30 or 11am tomorrow, as we Reach Full Potential together!

The disciples were focusing on “small” visions for Jesus: restoring a political kingdom. Jesus calls them to focus on the grander vision: being His witnesses to the ends of the earth. He provides them a means to carry out this vision in the Holy Spirit. And when the disciples are caught focusing on Jesus going up to heaven, the angels remind them to focus forward into their future. 

The disciples return to doing what they know, fishing, yet they catch nothing. When Jesus shows up and asks them to go one more time in his way, they catch an amazing amount. When we allow Jesus to persevere over “what we think we know”, he takes it and multiplies it!

All of us have doubts about a vision for the future, and Thomas is the epitome. Jesus reveals God’s grace to cancel our doubts. Yet, in some ways, Thomas also gets a bad wrap. He wasn’t so much doubting, as standing in his convictions: “I need to see it to believe it”. Jesus reveals that our convictions must rest in him, and not in what we see. Our conviction in Jesus is the true armor against any doubt we might have.

Mary didn’t know who she was without Jesus. But, when she focused on who she was with Jesus, everything changed. Being aware of whose she was, and who she was, gave her vision for her life, and her mission to the disciples (and the rest of us).

The disciples are gathered in Upper Room out of fear. We all have fears when we consider a new vision/the future : letting go of the past, inadequacy, who will go with us?

Mary, Peter & John were all acting upon what they thought they knew – Jesus was dead and in a tomb. In Gospel John’s account of this, there are no angels when they first get to the tomb. In this story, for them to see the vision of Jesus’ resurrection, all they had was faith & belief. They had to focus on what was unseen, not seen.

Expectations provide one thing, but experience is something totally different! In Jesus, we experience full life change and transformation!

Don’t let the stones on the ground become a better worshipper than you!

When we accept Jesus, our lives are completely transformed to have a new heart in Christ.

“Not my will, but thine be done.” He is willing to go through the ultimate trial for us, and we can do the same with Him in us.

The powerful truth of the Gospel still is: even from the Cross, Jesus asked God to forgive us specifically when “they do not know.”

Like the soldiers at the Cross, we too can easily dismiss Jesus, through our familiarity with the story, our prejudices, or distractions. The Cross of Jesus brings it all back to clear focus for us.

Lent, the season before Easter used for personal reflection and spiritual growth as we pursue a better understanding of the life and death of Christ.

We express our worship of God through every little thing we do. Let us live the "God Life," not for us, but for God.

When we discover our true inner core in God, out outer lives and mission reveal God's glory! 

Training up children. Why do we do what we do? Are we just reciting words or do they eventually take shape and mold into who we are?

Every group has an inextricable, yet tangible “core.” When we join our individual core into a community of faith, our individual core is transformed, protected, and strengthened. We personally, in turn, affect the core of the group; to transform, protect, and strengthen it

Only a strong, solid foundation will support strong building. We’ll see how Jesus is the cornerstone of our sure foundation, and what we can build because of that.

Proverbs 4:23 "Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it [spring] the issues of life." Which speaks to "The Core" of who we are, love and relationships.

Alignment is truly revealed through testing. When our core is centered in God, we can withstand any test the devil might throw at us.

To begin this new life, we need to draw from the source of eternal life, the Lord's Holy Spirit.

God gives a vision of the end goal to inspire a new beginning. 

The love of God in Jesus Christ becomes the ”Who” that overcomes all our “hows”.

When we allow Jesus to become the center of our lives, we have true peace for everything else.

Our lives too often resort to doubt and fear. Zechariah’s story reminds us that God desires for us to live with more hope.

These Psalms offer both lament and thanksgiving. The reality is that both of these exist in our world, and they exist for all of us. The hope, though, is that God is present in it all, and in it all for all of us!

God has already done the work, we are called to be His laborers going into the fields consistently to reap the Harvest

God has already done the work, we are called to be His laborers going into the fields consistently to reap the Harvest

The Ministry of Jesus, and work of the Holy Spirit, opens our hearts and minds to consider the points of view of ones we deem "unholy"

Jesus exemplifies a heart of peace for everyone, being people as created in the image of God.

Evangelism takes care along the journey. We must invest into the relationships first.

The Seeds we plant in the name of the Lord are of extreme value, and amazing potential. Are we planting seeds that will bear fruit, or seeds that will bear weeds?