Oh Yeah!!!

What happiness for those whose guilt has been forgiven! What joys when sins are covered over! What relief for those who have confessed their sins and God has cleared their record.

Psalm 32:1-2 The Living Bible

What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have him, this Father of our Master Jesus! Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we've been given a brand-new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven—and the future starts now! God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The Day is coming when you'll have it all—life healed and whole.
I Peter 1:3-5 The Message

People Get This Language

Offer Hope - Steer Away From Speaking Christianese

Often we use terms like salvation, sin, eternal life, and even God in our connversations and are confident that they hold the same meaning for the person to whom we are talking. In fact, we do this all the time without much deliberation. However, when we are speaking to someone from another culture, familiar terms that we think convey what we mean may not be communicating precisely what we want to say. This suggests that we must carefully define what we mean by our terms and concepts in our evangelistic conversations.
Beyond Opinion, Ravi Zacharias, p.212

HCC Summer T

BACK

FRONT

Thinking...

Easter is so much more than a Sunday.

Biblical Passages To Read

Matthew 26,27,28

Mark 14,15,16

Luke 22,23,24

John 19,20,21

Today

Today is worth more than all things.

Know The Lord

Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him, and he will respond to us as surely as the coming of the dawn or the rain of early spring. Hosea 6:3 TLB

Thinking Of Easter

Teamwork In Ministry

I had the privilege of meeting with Horizon's Hospitality Team last night and sharing just a little of my heart with them about ministry, touching lives, and making disciples. This team has done a great job and the people on this team are faithful to God, their families, one another and the Kingdom of God. I see in this team and in other teams in Horizon two very important ministry team ingredients. First, the team members understand and seek to practice that the teams purpose and the team's success is greater than their own personal interest. Each team members brings their personal interest to the team and yet realizes that they are to help the team accomplish it's purpose within HCC. Second, These people give of their time and realize that they need to be a responsible team member that follows through with individual responsibilities and team responsibilities for the sake of the team and for the sake of the Gospel. Their are other elements that are positive about this team and other ministry teams in HCC, but these two are very important and are being fleshed out by the Hospitality Team. I thank God for the team members and how they are helping make disciples.

The Symbol For Christianity

The Gospel Is Ultimate Victory

"The gospel is the ultimate story that shows victory coming out of defeat, strength coming out of weakness, life coming out of death, rescue from abandonment. And because it is a true story, it gives us hope because we know life is really like that." King's Cross, Timothy Keller, p. 230

The Word, Then Go

...the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins... Luke 3:2b and 3a

John heard from the Lord and then went out. Many of us go without hearing from the Lord. As a matter of fact in the American church only 3 out of 10 of the leaders in a given church spend time with God. Place ten leaders in a room and ask who is spending regular time with God in prayer, reading Scripture and and seeking to hear from God and maybe three will will own up. The others will have numerous excuses and even downplay the time they need to be spending with God. I know this because I meet with pastors regularly and because I have experienced it myself as a leader. Leaders and followers of Jesus going out before hearing from God. Preachers (myself included) preaching without hearing from God (spending time with God). Team Leaders leading not yet hearing form God. Parents seeking to parent and raise children without a word from God. How needy we are to hear from God. How dry and parched our souls because we are in need for a word from the Lord. It will come if we will spend some time in the wilderness. God is speaking, moving, working, preparing and when we will take some time to slow down and take a stroll in the wilderness we will hear from Him. The wilderness does not have to be the wilderness. The wilderness can be anywhere you can slow down physically, mentally, socially, spiritually and hear from God as you pray, read his Word, have your devotional time and hear from God. This morning my wilderness was on the back porch, at times it is in the blue chair in the family room, it occasionally is at a local park, or in a night walk, or early morning hours of sleeplessness when I get out of bed and listen. Please, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, the local church, yourself and those who do not yet know Jesus Christ ask God to forgive you and then empower you so that you will discover the wilderness. Spend time with God.

When John heard, he went out. The Word came and he went. As John spent time in the wilderness God was preparing others, the way, the circumstances and John so that as he went out others were receptive. This is absolutely beautiful. WOW. Look at Luke 3 The people are inquisitive, they are curious about the message and the man. They have questions that are seemingly sincere and their hearts are stirred. God is at work. John spent time with God, God spent time with John. God did His thing in the hearts of people and as John steps out he steps into God's work, because of the wilderness time. Spend time with God and step out. Step out in His power with His message of hope. God is moving right now in the hearts of people and in the circumstances of their lives. His message of hope is simmering in their lives and you have the opportunity to cause a stirring of questions that can lead them to accept God's love. What an opportunity. Experience the wilderness and go. The Word, Then Go.

Life

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26

Jesus As A Teen

41 Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. 42 When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. 43 After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. 44 Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” 49 “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house? 50 But they did not understand what he was saying to them. 51 Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. Luke 2:41-52

Hope

Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty forever beyond its reach. The Lord of The Rings Triology

The Bond

"What binds [Christians] together is not common education, common race, common income levels, common politics, common nationality, common accents, common jobs, or anything else of that sort. Christians come together ... because they have been saved by Jesus Christ .... They are a band of natural enemies who love one another for Jesus's sake." D.A. Carson

Bless Children

The people brought children to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. The disciples shooed them off. But Jesus was irate and let them know it: "Don't push these children away. Don't ever get between them and me. These children are at the very center of life in the kingdom. Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in." Then, gathering the children up in his arms, he laid his hands of blessing on them. Mark 10:13-16

Speak No Evil

"Talk low, talk slow, and speak less." - John Wayne "Bite your tongue before it bites you." - The Eating Deacon

Hope

Discovery

The more I discover God the more I realize with great pain, sorrow, joy and hope that my discovery is of God and by God and that God is far greater than even my discovery which leads me to bow my head and raise my hands in victorious humility. Thank God.

Self In Christ

The more we get what we now call "ourselves" out of the way and let Him (Jesus) take us over, the more truly ourselves we become ... our real selves are all waiting for us in Him .... The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and upbringing and surrounding and natural desires. In fact what I so proudly call "Myself" becomes merely the meeting-place for trains of events which I never started and I cannot stop. What I call "My wishes" become merely the desires thrown up by my physical organism or pumped into me by other men's thoughts .... It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His personality, that I finally begin to have a real personality all of my own .... [Nevertheless], you must not go to Christ for the sake of [a new self]. As long as your own personality is what you are bothering about you are not going to Him at all. This is a C.S. Lewis quote from Mere Christianity

No Religion At All

The renowned British minister Dick Lucas once preached a sermon in which he recounted an imaginary conversation between an early Christian and her neighbor in Rome. "Ah," the neighbor says. "I hear you are religious! Great! Religion is a good thing. Where is your temple or holy place?" "We don't have a temple," replies the Christian. "Jesus is our temple." "No temple? But where do your priests work and do their rituals? " "We don't have priests to mediate the presence of God," replies the Christian. "Jesus is our priest." "No priests? But where do you offer your sacrifices to acquire the favor of your God?" "We don't need a sacrifice," replies the Christian. "Jesus is our sacrifice. " "What kind of religion is this?" sputters the pagan neighbor. And the answer is, it's no kind of religion at all. King's Cross, Timothy Keller p.48