The writer of Hebrews is making a fairly simple point: the way to maturity—solid, biblical maturity—is not becoming an intelligent person but becoming an obedient person.

If you’re like me, not everything on your to-do list or project list gets done. And yet, if you’re like me, it’s vital that certain projects do get done. Of course, the difference in what gets done and what doesn’t get done fundamentally relates to the choices we make in preparation and execution.

Pastor Tavv Shaver planted Evergreen Baptist Church in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. After speaking at the West Coast Baptist College 2014 Church Planting Conference, he spoke with The Baptist Voice about church planting.

Several years ago, I preached at a church about forty-five minutes away from where I pastor. The folks there learned that I was to preach at another church in the area.

The Apostle Paul told the church at Corinth about another church on which God had bestowed a special grace. That church was in Macedonia and that grace involved their giving (2 Corinthians 8:1–15).

In the previous post we looked at three steps to take when you find yourself empty and depleted. Identifying the problem, however—while a great start—isn’t enough. Where do you go from here. I have found two final steps to be needful:

A good website can be a valuable tool to help burden people’s hearts for the work God has called you to do. It is also a very cost effective way to bring people to your field through site and sound, through testimonies and information about your ministry.

God is a miracle-working God! “Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee” (Jeremiah 32:17). Amazingly to me, however, is the fact that He allows us to have a part in the work He is doing. God could do things all by Himself as He did when He created the universe, but He desires to involve us in His miraculous works.

It’s easy to explain why we need renewal because all of us can easily identify with the all-too-familiar sense of depletion. But what do we do when we come to this point? How do we renew?

One event I look forward to each year is our annual summer family vacation. I have always loved this special, memory-making time with my husband and children. And while in recent days the length and locations have adapted to our growing family (yay for grandkids!), we all still enjoy this yearly time together.