Promises

And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and now all the promises God gave to him belong to you. Galatians 3:29 NLT

According to the Word of God, we're children of Abraham - because of the truth found in what Paul writes in verse 28: "For you are all Christians - you are one in Christ Jesus." What a wonderful piece of knowledge we can hold on to in that! Sometimes we can feel as though we're just a number, lost in the sea of endless faces. Sometimes we can feel as though there is nothing special about us at all, and we'll never end up being significant. But the Truth of God's Word is that we are heirs to a divine promise given by God thousands of years ago. What's more, we are known by name (see John 10:3) and we don't go unnoticed by the Almighty Himself!

God has promised something to you and me - something in this lifetime we have on earth as well as something beyond our mortal life. God's a promise-keeper. He's never broken His promises - ever!

We all know life can be difficult and it can get monotonous. But we need to live our lives as if we have something to look forward to instead of living our lives like it's just another day at the salt mines. We have a promise from God!

Perfection in our Imperfection

"My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9

Yesterday I wrote about Paul's instruction to aim for perfection. We've probably all experienced a little frustration when things don't quite work out the way we hoped, right? For those who constantly aim for perfection and fall short over and over again, it can get a little old dealing with failure.

But Jesus told Paul that God's power is perfected in the midst of our weakness. In our inability to be perfect, God's power shines through even more!

If we pray, "Lord, less of me and more of You." then we're understanding that it's God's power in us and through us that is more important than anything we have to offer in our own strength.

Aim for Perfection

"Finally, brothers, good-by. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you." 2 Corinthians 13:11 NIV

Paul encouraged the Church to live their lives in such a way as to be perfect. In an earlier letter to the Church at Corinth, he wrote them, "Run in such a way as to win." (1 Cor 9:24). He recognizes that we all are imperfect, but our goal should be to wake up every morning knowing our sins are forgiven, God's mercies are new every day and that we are to "go for it" again.

In Galatians Ch 2, he reminds us that even though perfection is the aim, we all miss the mark - even those as accomplished in the Christian faith as the likes of Peter and Barnabas. If those guys messed up, surely we will (and do) fall flat on our face too! But that never should stand in the way of our our aim.

Don't forget about the last sentence of verse 11. When we aim for perfection, the promise is that the God of love and peace will be with us. That's all the motivation I need! How 'bout you?

Dangerous Faith

A while back I posted a blog on Mark Batterson's new book Wild Goose Chase. While reading it, I couldn't help but feel as though he and I had many long conversations about faith, my life and our walks with God. There were so many points he made in his book about pursuing God's call and purpose in our lives that were very similar to the circumstances in my life presently. It was as if Mark and I had been talking about my family's move to Virginia and the launching of City on a Hill Church. Of course, we've never met, and he has no idea who I am or anything about COAHC.

Wild Goose Chase encourages us to break out of the different cages that hold us captive in our lives from pursuing God's purpose for us with real authenticity and real passion. When we pursue God, it often feels as though we're on a wild goose chase because things don't often make sense. In fact, Mark goes on to say that pursuing God is a very disorienting experience!

Our move to Virginia and the launch of City on a Hill Church has been a disorienting process to say the least! There are so many things that just don't seem to make logical sense. Nevertheless, I'm confident that God is calling the shots in this. Who am I to argue?!

If we wait for everything to make sense... If we wait for all of the stars to align and the circumstances to be just right... Where's the faith in that? The example Mark uses in his book and the example I used just recently shared with a friend is found in Joshua Ch 3. God commands the Israelites to carry the ark across the Jordan River. Well, at that time, the water was at flood level. God commands the Israelites, "When you reach the edge of the Jordan's waters, go and stand in the river."

I can just imagine the Israelites' responses:
"What? Are you kidding me?" (lack of belief)
"The water is at flood level! That's too dangerous!" (lack of faith and trust)
"But I'll get wet and messy!" (focused on ourselves instead of what God wants)
"God, I thought we were going to cross the river!" (presumptions)
"This is the ark we're talking about here, God!" (as if we know better than God)
"Where's the whole parting of the Red Sea miracle thing, Lord?" (wanting circumstances to look the way we think they should look)

It was not until the Israelites feet touched the water's edge that God receded the waters and allowed them to cross the river to Jericho. Not a second too soon, not a second too late. Perfect timing...

God wants us to experience life with Him through dangerous faithful living. Safety is overrated! (Disclaimer: I'm not talking about jumping out of an airplane without a parachute and testing God.) If God calls us to something for His purpose in our lives, our response should simply be obedience - regardless of what we think the circumstances should look like, regardless of our presumptions about God. It's through this type of obedience that we escape from the cages in life to experience freedom the way Christ intended for us!

To Protect and Serve

The recognized motto for police departments is "To Protect and Serve". I've been reading in our local newspaper about how our police departments (town and county) have been making a difference in our community. It's one of those things we take for granted until we need help ourselves.

In our weekly prayer meetings at Reformation Lutheran Church, we've been praying for our police departments and the officers. We've been praying for divine protection and supernatural insight and wisdom in solving crimes and arresting criminals.

Today, we're going one step further to demonstrate our appreciation for those who "protect and serve". We're serving lunch to the Culpeper Town Police Department. I'm excited to just let them know how much they mean to us and how much God loves them!

What A Weekend!

We had our first service at Sycamore Park Elementary last night. Gotta love doing a church service in a new venue. We had fun and look forward to growing into that venue.

Today was a blast. Went to the Redskins game. It was my fourth Skins game over the last five years. Each time I've seen them live, they've won. Wahoo! Hope my streak continues...

Love, Peace and Chicken Grease

What a world we live in, eh? The stock market is all over the map. We're at war in two different countries. People are losing their homes. No one's sure who's going to be leading this country in a few months. Finding a good-paying job is really difficult these days.

How can we possibly have peace in the midst of this chaos?

Jesus warned us that life will be tough. His warning, however, isn't given without consolation.

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33 NIV

This weekend at City on a Hill Church, we're continuing our series on the Fruit of the Holy Spirit. My message will be on peace - what it is, what it looks like in our lives and how to get it in spite of the difficulties - and even tragedies - we all experience in our lives.

Please join us! Saturday @ 6pm - Sycamore Park Elementary School, Culpeper.

The End of Our Rope

With the economic downfall, lots of folks are finding themselves at the end of their rope. There's seemingly nowhere to turn.

In 1 Kings Chap 17, there's a story of a widow who is at the end of her rope. She has nothing but a handful of flour in a jar and little oil in a jug. Elijah finds her gathering sticks as she tells him, "that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die."

Elijah bursts on the scene in response to God's direction. Elijah gives the widow an assignment. I love that when God shows up in our lives and gives us direction - calls us to do something for Him - our focus switches from self-centeredness to other-centeredness. Elijah was God's ambassador who served as a reminder to the widow that God has purpose and vision for her - even the lowliest, poorest of people.

God has purpose and vision for us all. Our economic status... our social status... nothing changes the Truth of that. It's liberating for us to remember, that when it seems we're at the end of our rope, God loves us and has not forgotten about us. Switching our focus from what we perceive as desperation to opportunity to surrender to God's plans can be the start of a whole new life!

Next Level

I'm really excited!

Ever since the Lord first began to reveal His vision for City on a Hill Church to me, there was never a goal to have a minimum number of people committed to our church before we began serving the community with our services and outreaches. Different churches have different visions. We're all unique to a large degree, and if the vision is authentically from the Lord (and not of human origins), then we should celebrate God's creativity.

The Lord has impressed upon me over and over again in our start-up process that it doesn't require 20, 30 or 40 people to be the Church. Every single one of us is the Church. Each one of us is a member of the Body of Christ. Every single Christian is equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit. There's great potential in making an impact in every single one of us.

So, with that we're taking COAHC to the next level with the group of people we have.

-Services will begin at Sycamore Park Elementary School beginning this Saturday - 6pm.
-Moving from mp3 and iWorship video to live worship this weekend
-Serving the community in relevant and practical ways: prayer walks around the schools, "Dollar Drop" at Target & Wal-Mart, serving lunch to Culpeper Town Police Dept to name a few.

God reminded me the other day, "Don't waste your time worrying about 'doing church' and just focus on 'being the Church'." What a wonderful reminder!

Making Excuses

When God appeared to Moses in the "burning bush incident", Moses made several excuses as to why he shouldn't be chosen for this task. I always find it interesting to note that we often make excuses so that we don't have to be obedient to what God's calling us to do.

"I'm not talented enough."

"I don't have enough experience."

"I'll never get the respect that's required for that kind of task."

God simply reminded Moses and reminds us that He is with us. That's all that really matters, isn't it?

Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world.

What excuses are you making today?

Soccer Season Begins

It was "Sports Saturday" in Culpeper with all the rec league soccer and football teams playing games. Abby Rae is playing soccer for the BlueJays. It was so fun to see the little kids running around chasing the ball. Who knows what the score ended up as, but when Abby Rae kicked the ball in the net for her very first goal ever, we may as well have won the World Cup!

We're still learning the concept of team instead of self, but I think we'll be okay. Some great life lessons are learned in team sports - stuff that can't be learned anywhere else as far as I'm concerned.

Field Trip

Today I get to go with my oldest daughter on her field trip to Graves Mountain. Looking forward to having that "Daddy time" with her.

Feminist Debate Confusion

It's practically a given that an overwhelming majority of conservative, evangelical Christians vote Replublican in the upcoming Presidential election, right? After reading a recent article published by FOXNews, I wonder how Sarah Palin's candidacy for Vice President may affect the votes.

Many evangelical Christian families turn to Focus on the Family and James Dobson's opinions when it comes to some tough issues within the household. There has been a great deal said from Dobson and Focus on the Family with regard to women in the workplace versus staying at home to raise children. One example is this interview done ten years ago. He hasn't backed down from that viewpoint since then either.

Meanwhile, Dobson has offered his endorsement of Palin publically. Dobson's endorsement is in spite of the fact that Palin has an infant at home with Down's Syndrome which obviously requires a great deal more attention that a healthy child.

I think there is a great deal of confusion on what Dobson really believes and endorses when it comes to this matter. I don't know Dobson personally, so I can't obviously write with certainty, but I believe it's obvious what his views are on the subject. In the interview linked above, he says clearly, "The issue, then, is not whether a woman should choose a career and be a mother, too. Of course she has that right, and it is nobody's business but her's and her husband's. I would simply plead that you not allow your family to get sucked into that black hole of exhaustion. However you choose to divide the responsibilities of working and family management, reserve some time and energy for yourselves."

The real difficulty comes with our current election ballot. Can Palin be Vice President and still have enough energy to be the mother that her family needs her to be? I'm not sure we can know the real answer to that prior to the election.

Caterpillars and Boxes

One of my three daughters, Emma, found a caterpillar in the road last week and decided she'd bring it inside to save it. Mommy made a box with holes in the top. Some twigs and leaves were placed inside the box with careful consideration for interior decoration and meal planning. The caterpillar, it was decided by Emma, was female and was named Cutie Pie.

It's always funny to watch young children with animals - especially small, fragile animals. There seems to be this perception with kids that all living things are invincible. I wonder why that is.

It seemed every time I walked into the kitchen, one of the girls was handling the caterpillar. Every once in a while, we would hear, "Oops. I dropped it. Sorry Cutie Pie." When Cutie Pie was in her box, she always seemed to crawl in this one corner and hide. I wonder why.

On Sunday morning, I noticed the box on the kitchen counter with Cutie Pie in it. Cutie Pie didn't look so good. She seemed to be much shorter in length and wasn't moving. I asked what happened to Cutie Pie and Mommy responded, "She's turning into a butterfly. We need to put her outside so she can have her freedom." Ohhhh... Okay.... And the girls keep asking for puppies and kittens. Maybe in a couple of years.

Opening Day

Being bi-vocational has its advantages, but things can also get incredibly hectic. Had one of those weeks last week...

Today's opening day for the NFL season. Am enjoying watching the games. Didn't enjoy watching the Skins get pummeled on Thursday night though. Could be in for a loooong season.

Fulfillment of the Law - Part 2

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." Matthew 5:17 NIV

How can Jesus say this when Paul writes in Romans 10:4 "Christ is the end of the Law." What can Jesus mean when He, Himself, broke the Jewish Law during His ministry: e.g., healed the sick on the Sabbath, didn't observe the handwashings? In fact, Jesus was condemned and crucified as a law-breaker.

"The Law and the Prophets" refer neither to the ten commandments nor to the Jewish Oral and Scribal Law that consist of the man-made rules and regulations for the Jewish people. Instead, "the Law and the Prophets" refer to the Old Testament Scriptures (the first five books of the Bible are known to Jews as "the Law" and the other books are collectively known as "the Prophets"). Jesus gave the Law its full meaning by helping us understand the Spirit of the Law and not just the letter of it. Jesus also fulfilled hundreds of prophecies written down by the Prophets of old demonstrating that He was the Messiah.

Fulfillment of the Law - Part I

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stoke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:17-21 NIV

This is one of the passages of Scripture that we tend to gloss over because it seems so convoluted with concepts of obedience and grace, righteousness and sin and punishment and reward. I would like to spend the next week going through this passage and spotlighting some of the Truths contained within it. These Truths will help us understand who Christ is in our lives and His expectations for us.

Let’s first focus on the context in which Jesus is teaching. He’s just finished the Beatitudes and is teaching His disciples the remaining message of the Sermon on the Mount. He’s speaking to Jews primarily who are all too well familiar with the religious leaders of the day: Pharisees and Sadducees. The religious leaders were well known for their external righteousness. Their mission in life was to follow the Law – every letter of it. Jesus notices, along with others, that the religious leaders lived one way externally, but their hearts did not necessarily follow. That’s why Jesus said, “but whoever practices and teaches these commands…”. Practicing and teaching are two separate things. How often we do one without the other!

On another occasion, Jesus demonstrates His frustration at these so-called religious leaders by saying, “You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” (Matthew 23:27-28 NIV)

In Matthew 5, Jesus simply tells us to be authentic – be authentic in our following of God’s commands. The apostle John reiterates a similar message over and over again (John 14:15, John 15:14, 1 John 2:5, 1 John 5:3) in that the fulfillment of God’s commands – our obedience – is the demonstration of our love for Christ. The two cannot be separated or divided.

Attending Prayer Vigil in Honor of Kelsey & family

COAHC conducted a condensed/abbreviated service on Saturday night in order to give an opportunity for all to attend the prayer vigil at Culpeper United Methodist Church in honor of Kelsey and her family. The vigil started at 7pm, but I wasn't able to arrive until about 7:15.

I was pleasantly surprised at the turnout. There wasn't a parking space anywhere to be found and people were litterally overflowing out of the front doors into the parking lot. There were people from different churches around town. What a wonderful demonstration of community unity and support! My heart was touched.

Several select people shared their thoughts and prayers for the Orndorff family and for Dr. Cook and his family. I couldn't help but notice that more than one person used the expression, "Let's be a city on a hill." God continues to speak to his children in Culpeper. What the enemy meant for evil, the Lord will use for good and His glory. I'm certain that Kelsey's death and memory will be used by God, to unite and build His Church.