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Hey friends…
“Whoa!! Wait a minute, Chris. I like the idea of heaven, but I don’t want to go today.” Well…hmm… are you sure? Do you know where heaven is? Do you know what heaven is? I’m thinking Jesus would like to take you there today, but that may not mean what you think it does. Let’s talk about it in Deeper Thoughts below. But first… a few noteworthy items: · IMPORTANT facility expansion update: We are close to “decision time” for our church family as we seek God’s wisdom for our potential expansion. Four key communication and decision steps remain: o THIS Sunday, we will release an anonymous online survey for you to share what impressions you have from the Lord regarding this project. o Sunday, March 30, 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., an all-congregation open dialogue will take a final look at the project, the design, the budget, and the funding. o Sunday, April 6, we will present a confidential communication card to share the specific personal generosity the Holy Spirit is leading you to contribute. § What one-time financial gift could be given between now and August to provide cash-in-hand for construction? § What ongoing monthly designated giving could be given over 2-3 years to fund debt service and/or reduction? o Sunday, April 27, 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., the FINAL decision meeting where our Covenant Partners will consider and vote on the future of the project. · Click here to see a detailed write-up on this expansion project. · Are you interested in taking more ownership of Mt. Hope and you missed last Sunday’s meeting? Click here to let us know you’d like a make-up session. Becoming a Covenant Partner of Mt. Hope will be super-valuable if you’d like to have a key voice in the upcoming decisions regarding our facility and our future. · Ladies: Mark your calendars for our next women’s event, Saturday, March 29, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. as we learn to make jewelry with Joan Lyerly. Cost will be $5.00 for supplies. Click here for more info and to RSVP! · Don’t forget our “Daily Six” video series, six-minutes every weekday to read along with me as we study through the Gospel of Mark. Click here to jump in! And if you’d like to receive daily email reminders, click here for a link to The Daily Six each morning! OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who don’t like the idea of heaven… ever. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… As I am sure you can imagine, I’ve been thinking a lot about eternal life these last few weeks. Not only did my mom pass recently--and knowing the trustworthiness of her salvation has been monumentally important to me—but I’ve also had fifteen other friends die in the last year and half. It should be no surprise that the hope of eternal life matters greatly to me these days. I shared with you shortly after Mom died the beautiful transition she had into eternity. As we were reading scripture over her, I had this strong impression to say to her that Jesus was in the room right at that moment, and that he had come to get her. I said, “Mom, when you see Jesus, take his hands. Take the carpenter’s hands.” And just as I was saying this, in that very moment, she stopped breathing. We were all deeply moved that Jesus had made himself known to her, coming for her in that precise moment with love and clarity. Those words about “the carpenter’s hands” were not original to me. They were spoken directly from Jesus to my buddy Howie. Howard was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer just twelve weeks before he died 17 months ago. A few weeks into his diagnosis, he had a LOT of faith that Jesus was going to heal him. Then, one afternoon while his wife Judy was sitting with him, he fell into a trance and had a vision. Judy testified that she could tell Howie had just left this present conscious world and was seeing something supernatural. In this vision, Howie later told us that he saw Jesus in the room. Jesus reached out his hands and said to him, “Howie, it is time. I can’t wait to show you what I have prepared for you.” As Howie recounted that experience to a group of his close friends that I was privileged to be among, the most remarkable thing he recalled was how he could feel the rough, leathered feel of “the carpenter’s hands.” Jesus is excited to show all of us what he has prepared. “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus said to his disciples—and thereby to us as well. “Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3) We like this promise. But do we fully grasp what it means? Look at the text. First, he tells us we are going to live in the Father’s house. Not on our own. Not left to figure out life by ourselves. We’re going to live with Dad. Secondly, he emphasized the reality of this place—it is not just a warm fantasy to make us feel better about our impending death. “If it were not so, I would have told you.” Finally, he tells us he is preparing this place so that he can come take us to where he is right now. This is where we mistake what it means to go to heaven. Most of us visualize heaven to mean some distant, “not now,” far off location and event where we physically leave this earth (hopefully way off into our 80’s, 90’s, or even older). But heaven is not a distant event. It is right here. Right now. And we should want to enter it. Today. “The kingdom of God [often interchanged by Jesus with ‘the kingdom of Heaven’] does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘here it is,’ or ‘there it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). Did you catch that? The kingdom of heaven is right here, right now—not “over there somewhere,” but right there inside you. Scholars will quickly tell us that the biblical concept of “eternal life” does not simply mean an eternity that begins later, at the point of our death. In fact, the Greek phrase is better translated as “everlasting life,” which again, does not start at some distant point in our future. We are alive right now, and that life will last forever, albeit with a brief hiccup where our temporary physical shell containing our life gets traded in for a more permanent, spiritual container (check it out in 1 Corinthians 15:50-54). Friends, you are already living your eternal, everlasting life. The question is whether you are living it in the kingdom of heaven, or in the kingdom of darkness. This Sunday let’s look at what Jesus has to say about how we get into heaven. He was asked about it directly. The fellow who asked didn’t like his answer. We wouldn’t either, unless we understand something about Jesus’ response that I bet we’ve never been taught. Curious? You gotta come out on Sunday to learn this one thing. Nose around Mark 10:17-31 beforehand to see if you can catch it. Do you want to go to heaven… today? Let’s meet!! Sunday, 10:00 a.m.! Much love… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend
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Hey friends…
How real is Jesus to you? Can you visualize him? What does he look like? Sound like? What does he say to you? What is he doing right now? Or are you simply blank about who he is, other than maybe to picture some dark-haired, bearded fellow with olive skin that you’ve seen on “The Chosen”? Let’s talk about all his good looks in Deeper Thoughts below. But first… a few quick reminders and updates: · Memorial service for Mary Ellen Motz, the mother of Pastor Chris, TOMORROW Saturday, March 8, at 3:30 p.m. All are welcome. · Are you interested in taking more ownership of Mt. Hope? Our version of traditional “church membership” is called “Covenant Partnership.” Join us for a Covenant Partners orientation class and luncheon, THIS Sunday, March 9, 11:45 – 1:00 p.m. Learn about how to become an official member of our church partnership team! · Teens: Youth Group THIS Sunday, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. Chris Bowen will be sharing. Lunch and games too! Contact Jess if your teen needs a ride home. · Ladies: Mark your calendars for our next women’s event, Saturday, March 29, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. as we learn to make jewelry with Joan Lyerly. Cost will be $5.00 for supplies. More info and RSVP to come! · Don’t forget our “Daily Six” video series, six-minutes every weekday to read along with me as we study through the Gospel of Mark. Click here to jump in! And if you’d like to receive daily email reminders, click here for a link to The Daily Six each morning! OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who doubt Jesus looks very good anyway. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… I saw Jesus once. It was September 19, 1986, around midnight. He was in my bed. Not in a creepy, weirdo kind of way. But more like a loving dad, head propped on his elbow, having a lengthy conversation with his teenage son on a camping trip. Now mind you, this vision was not with my physical eyes. My natural eyeballs were only seeing the warm shadows of moonlight on the wall next to my bed. But my spiritual eyes saw him as crystal clear as anything I’d ever seen. “What’s that like, Chris? I have no idea what you are talking about…” Standby. First let me set the stage. I was sixteen years old. I had accepted Jesus as my savior a year prior, but it was only very recently that I had begun to actually follow him. There is a difference. Jesus as savior is about trusting him to forgive my sin. Following Jesus is about consistently doing what he did--and what he is presently doing. Less than four weeks earlier, I concluded that just bumping along as a typical teenager wasn’t enough for me, even if my sins were forgiven and I knew I’d go to heaven. There were three teenage boys in our church youth group who looked different than everybody else. The other ninety of us—me included—seemed content to focus on all the normal worldly interests: sports, hobbies, social status, grades, or… well… in my case, girls. I liked girls a lot. But these fellas were different. They seemed to care less about all the normal stuff. Instead, they were filled with this insatiable zeal for Jesus. They talked about him incessantly, and with great intensity, passion, and joy. They were constantly yammering on and on about him saying this or that to them. It was as if they were in real conversations with Jesus. He wasn’t just an idea, a moral construct, or a system of thought. They acted as if Jesus was literally standing right there in the room… and they could see him. I wanted that. So, I began to tag along behind them. Uninvited. Everywhere they went. It got a little weird. They didn’t even know my name. “Um… hey… uh… man?” they would say whenever I walked up. Eventually they gave in, learned my name, and started inviting me to join their escapades. But their exploits weren’t going to high school parties. They weren’t calling girls. They weren’t drinking beer. Their adventures? Prayer meetings. Yep. These 17-year-old punks would sneak into the church after hours and hole up in the prayer room. They would stand in a circle and read Bible passages to each other. They would memorize Bible verses and have “quote-offs”—seeing who could quote more verses from memory than everybody else. They would turn on the church sound system and pretend to preach to a filled auditorium. They would pace around the room praying loudly for their peers at school or in the youth group. They would be shouting the name of Jesus over situations and boldly claiming the promises of God. I know what you’re thinking right now. You might be visualizing these teens as three serious nerds with zero social skills. But part of what made their passion so attractive is that they were as masculine and outgoing as any young man you could envision—popular, muscular, secure, confident, smart, articulate. They embodied all the natural charisma and good looks of the most popular high school quarterback or homecoming king. Except that their passion was entirely channeled towards the things of God. So, I made a choice. I dove all-in and began to seek Jesus as the real person that he clearly was to these bold fellas. Fast forward to September 19, 1986. It was Friday night football at Park View High School in Sterling, Virginia. We went to the game, not so much to watch football, but rather to walk around and engage fellow students in conversations about Jesus. When it was all over, we huddled in the back of a pickup truck in the parking lot. And we prayed. Hard. I’ve described many times what happened next. If you’re really interested in it, you can click here to see me tell the whole story about the mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit that fell upon us that night. Fast forward to the 11:38 mark for the seven-minute version of my story. When I got home and slid into bed, there was Jesus, head propped up on his elbow, staring right at me. When I tell you that I saw Jesus, it wasn’t anything natural. My literal eyeballs saw nothing. But in my soul, deep down inside my chest, my spirit was on fire. There was an absolute reality to this tangible presence of Jesus in my room. It was as if I could see his personality, his interests, his intentions for my life. Everything I knew about his story from the Gospels became instantly vivid, as if I had been there in-person when it all happened. That night, Jesus moved from being an idea, a character in a story, to a real person. Before you become jealous and wish you could experience something this bold, let me warn you. When we meet Jesus at this level of tangibility, it will cost you everything. Nothing can stay the same about you. You will be compelled--by virtue of the reality of who he is—to live with this same radical, not-normal, over-the-top passion that my three high-school prophet buddies lived. This same thing happened to Peter, James, and John when they saw Jesus. Check it out in Mark 9:1-10. This Sunday, we’ll explore what this might look like in your life and mine… today. Northern Virginia. Busy people. Normal people. Shall we meet? Can’t wait to see you all on Sunday… and to see Jesus for who he really is… right now!! Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend Hey friends…
Do you ever feel like you just don’t get it? Like the spiritual life is hard and complex, and you aren’t sure you’ve got it all figured out? Why can’t God make this more plain? Let’s talk about it in Deeper Thoughts below. But first… there is a LOT going on the next couple of weeks: · Major update on our facility expansion with a “3-D renderings reveal,” THIS Sunday, March 2 during service. We will also update you on the timeline of major decisions we need to make over the next few weeks! · Teens: Youth Group THIS Sunday, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. will be upstairs. Kristie Zoller will be sharing how she has seen God at work in her life. Lunch and games too! Contact Jess if your teen needs a ride home. · NEWCOMERS Lunch, THIS Sunday, March 2, 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Get to know Mt. Hope as we get to know you… Click here to email Sherri to RSVP! · Memorial service for our beloved Frank Finnern is THIS Sunday, March 2—viewing at 3:30 p.m., memorial at 4:00 p.m. All are welcome. · Memorial service for Mary Ellen Motz, the mother of Pastor Chris, will be NEXT Saturday, March 8, at 3:30 p.m. All are welcome. · Covenant Partners orientation class and luncheon, NEXT Sunday, March 9, 11:45 – 1:00 p.m. Learn about how to become an official member of our church partnership team! · Don’t forget our “Daily Six” video series, six-minutes every weekday to read along with me as we study through the Gospel of Mark. Click here to jump in! And if you’d like to receive daily email reminders, click here for a link to The Daily Six each morning! OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who simply don’t care to “get it.” BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… Do you ever feel like you just don’t understand? Like there is really no way you’ll ever get it all figured out? You’re not alone. Like really not alone. Mark 8 is all about perception—seeing who Jesus is and what he is up to. And more generally, it is about everyone—including the good guys—completely missing it. It was exhausting to Jesus that no matter how many miracles he performed, the Pharisees demanded more before they would put their faith in him (Mark 8:11). He was amazed that his disciples continued to doubt how he could provide the resources they needed even though he had performed multiple miracles of provision (Mark 8:17-21). When Jesus plainly shared the coming crucifixion, Peter would have none of it (Mark 8:32). That last biff got Peter labeled as Satan himself. Ouch. Not exactly the affirmation from God-incarnate I would be looking for. The problem Jesus exposed for each of these doubters was their minds being set in the natural realms, not the spiritual realms--not having “in mind the things of God, but [rather] the things of man” (Mark 8:33). We need to learn how to see and think through spiritual eyes and not natural, to see things how God sees them and not how we naturally do. Our natural minds are… well… natural. It comes very naturally to us to think along these lines. We assess reality through our natural impulses and instincts. We follow our natural desires towards what we think is the ultimate goal: Natural happiness. But the spiritual mind is different. It understands reality on the basis of faith, not sight. It believes reality, not sees reality. The spiritual mind believes in a reality based on God’s revelation where spiritual realms and supernatural realities exist beyond our frame of reference. The spiritual mind will even set aside the supposed goal of natural happiness to achieve something far greater—a deep-seated joy and hope transcendent of personal circumstances that settles into the soul of the one who will live by faith and not by the flesh. Have you noticed all the trauma and confusion in our society these days? People by the millions are struggling with identity crises, depression, despair, suicidal ideation, anger, divisiveness, political anxiety, the vilification and demonization of people with different ideas, fear, hatred, jealousy, and worry. And in many cases--if not most—the people suffering these things are the same people demanding we abandon God and embrace, affirm, and celebrate ideologies that are contrary to God’s Word. Those in the deepest despair in our world are often the same people who have decided that God’s revelation is outdated and oppressive to truly abundant life. It is an irony, isn’t it? And one that Jesus promised we would experience if we cling to life through the lens of the natural mind. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it” (Mark 8:35). In context, of course, Jesus was preparing his disciples for coming physical persecution where many of them would indeed lose their physical lives. But there is a broader truth that extends into our everyday lives: “The mind of sinful man [Greek wording here: “the natural mind”] is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful [“natural”] mind is hostile towards God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so” (Romans 8:6-7). The irony of our society is that many believe they have found true life by demanding the normalcy of whatever fleshly, natural impulse occurs to them. Unbeknownst to them, a subtle death has set in upon their souls as they simply cannot be satisfied by the happiness of the flesh. The ups and downs of the natural realm still define their enjoyment of life because it is the only realm in which they live. But the person who will choose to shift their mind away from the flesh will discover a life filled with the Holy Spirit that transcends our circumstances. Hope, joy, peace, and love blossom outside of the weight of natural situations because we know that the natural realm is not the only place in which we presently exist. Does this sound really foreign to you? Way too lofty? Too abstract? Unachievable? Do you feel like you really don’t get this? You’re not alone. Like really not alone. Take a moment of solace that Peter, James, and John were just like you. They even had Jesus right in front of them in the natural realm. And they still didn’t get it. SO… instead of beating yourself up on this one, how about we meet on Sunday and look carefully at how these fellas learned to break free of their natural minds. It didn’t come quickly, and it didn’t come easily. But as their eyes began to open, their entire lives were made different. I wonder if the same could happen to us? Can’t wait to see you all… let’s get Jesus for who he really is!! Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend Hey friends…
What the what? Did Jesus just call that woman a dog? Look… I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to relationships, but even I know that’s a red line that should never be crossed. There must be something more to the story. There is. When Jesus called her a dog, it exposed something about our rudeness, not his. Let’s talk about it in Deeper Thoughts below. But first… a bunch important reminders: · TOMORROW, Saturday, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m.: “Parents Night Out / Kids Night In” (Pre-K through 6th grade). Snacks, crafts, games, movies, and baking goodies for the next morning’s summer camp Bake Sale! Click here to RSVP with Chris Bowen! · Yummy Bake Sale THIS Sunday morning, February 23, to support our kid’s summer camp! · Facility expansion “3-D renderings reveal,” Sunday, March 2 during service. · NEWCOMERS Lunch, Sunday, March 2, 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Get to know Mt. Hope as we get to know you… Click here to email Sherri to RSVP! · Covenant Partners orientation class and luncheon, Sunday, March 9, 11:45 – 1:00 p.m. Learn about how to become an official member of our church partnership team! · Teens: NO Youth Group this Sunday, but consider helping with our Kids Night In or the Bake Sale… Click here to RSVP with Chris Bowen! · Don’t forget our “Daily Six” video series, six-minutes every weekday to read along with me as we study through the Gospel of Mark. Click here to jump in! And if you’d like to receive daily email reminders, click here for a link to The Daily Six each morning! OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who are helplessly ill-mannered. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… It had to have been stunning, to say the least. “It is not right for me to help you,” Jesus said. “Because you are a dog.” Wait… what? Yep. He just said that. Out loud. OK, here’s the more technical translation straight from the Greek scholars: “It is not right for me to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs” (Mark 7:27). Let’s back up for some context. This came after three failed attempts for Jesus and his disciples to get away for a much-needed vacation. They were absolutely exhausted. Their first try was thwarted by a flash mob that tracked their escape and surrounded them, begging Jesus for his attention. Rather than drawing tight boundaries for his team to get the time off they needed--like any good executive leader would do for his staff—Jesus spontaneously ramped up the ministry schedule and gave the crowd the entire day, depriving his team not only of rest, but also of food. All day. Not only that, but he also gave them responsibility for feeding nearly 20,000 people without warning or a plan. (Mark 6:30-44). We taught on this last Sunday… if you missed it, it’s worth clicking here to catch up. Then, Jesus lacked all managerial finesse as he immediately sent them on ahead while he himself got some rest up on the mountain. Having worked all day with only one miraculous late-day meal, the disciples were sent across the lake in the middle of the night, physically rowing against an insurmountable headwind. When Jesus finally had the presence of mind to go investigate his group’s situation, he planned to just walk past—not to actually join them in their miserable task (Mark 6:48). As dawn broke on the weary men who’d been awake for at least 24 hours now, they landed on the remote seashore hoping to just sit on the beach and chill. But nope… the crowds recognized them, sent word all over the region, and mobbed them once more. Boundary-less Jesus couldn’t resist, and the vacation turned once again into a region-wide ministry festival (Mark 6:53-56). Try number three. This time let’s go 30 miles away—which back then, without cars, planes, or trains, would take about as long as you and I driving to Chicago. Surely no one would know them up there along the coastline of modern Lebanon. Enter the desperate woman. The one he called a dog. Her daughter was possessed by a demon. She fell at Jesus’ feet, begging him to drive the torturous devil away. Finally, it seems Jesus recognized what his men needed. “First I need to feed my kids,” he said. He should have stopped there. He didn’t. “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take their children’s bread and toss it to their dogs” (Mark 6:27). At this point, I would be stunned. The woman was undeterred. Without missing a beat, she pushed back that “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs” (Mark 6:28). Jesus was impressed by her pragmatic argument. She got her daughter’s healing. But why did Jesus have to be so rude about it? To understand what was really happening, we need to grab Matthew’s account of this awkward conversation. He was there when it happened. He may have even felt the embarrassment of the trap Jesus sprung on his disciples, flipping the tables on them to expose the issue of their own rude and calloused heart. Matthew: The woman comes and begs Jesus. “Jesus did not answer a word.” Awkward pause. Everyone is looking at him. Someone—maybe even Matthew—finally spoke up about what they all were thinking. “His disciples came to him and urged him, ‘Send her away, for she keeps crying after us’” (Matthew 15:23). That’s when Jesus called her a dog. That’s when she said she didn’t care and would take whatever she could get. That’s when Jesus exploded with joy at her faith and sent her healing throughout the spiritual realms. Friends, Jesus never saw this woman as a dog. He saw her just like he saw every needy person he encountered—like “sheep without a shepherd” and worthy of his intentional compassion (see Mark 6:34). It was the disciples who saw her as a dog—perhaps, in part, because of their terribly depleted exhaustion, but more likely because of a lifetime of Jewish prejudice towards the Greeks. He exposed the absurdity of their selfish hearts by being absurd himself. The woman saw through the ruse and graciously offered to lick the floor if she had to. Anything for her desperate daughter. We learned last Sunday that Jesus called his disciples to engage a heart of unlimited generosity regardless of how depleted and under-resourced they felt. We faced the “So what?” decision of whether a life of intentional generosity could compel us to trust God for strength, resource, and provision even when it seems impossible. In our weekly Elder meeting last night, one of the fellas reflected on what God had shown him on Sunday. “We should get t-shirts that read: ‘Depleted. Ill-equipped. Ready to serve.’” When we develop a heart of unlimited and unfettered generosity, we step into a fuller aspect of our discipleship in Jesus. The scripture challenges us to discover this: “But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us—see that you also excel in this grace of giving” (2 Corinthians 8:7). This Sunday, let’s widen the circle to understand what living in the grace of giving our all really looks like. Read 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 and see if you can find the link to last week’s Mark 6:30-44 and this Sunday’s Mark 7:24-30! Can’t wait to see you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend Hello, dear Beloved…
Most people I know underestimate themselves, and in so doing, often underestimate God. Let’s talk about it in Deeper Thoughts below… plus, I’ll share an important personal note about the Eads family and its potential impact to our teaching this Sunday. But first… a TON of important dates to put on your calendar: · NEXT Saturday, February 22, “Parents Night Out / Kids Night In” (Pre-K through 6th grade) from 5:00 – 9:00 p.m. Snacks, crafts, games, movies, and baking goodies for the next morning’s summer camp Bake Sale! Click here to RSVP with Chris Bowen! · Yummy Bake Sale NEXT Sunday morning, February 23, to support our kid’s summer camp! · Facility expansion “3-D renderings reveal,” Sunday, March 2 during service. · NEWCOMERS Lunch, Sunday, March 2, 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Get to know Mt. Hope as we get to know you! · Covenant Partners orientation class and luncheon, Sunday, March 9, 11:45 – 1:00 p.m. Learn about how to become an official member of our church partnership team! · Final business meeting and open discussion regarding facility expansion, Sunday, March 23, 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. All are invited to discuss the details of what’s next! · Teens: Youth Group THIS Sunday, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m: lunch, games, and a testimony. Contact Jess if you need a ride home! · Don’t forget our “Daily Six” video series, six-minutes every weekday to read along with me as we study through the Gospel of Mark. Click here to jump in! And if you’d like to receive daily email reminders, click here for a link to The Daily Six each morning! OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who never underestimate the Lord. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… First, on a personal note, an important update on our family: Many of you have been praying for my mother, Mary Ellen, who has battled late-stage Alzheimer’s disease for many months. Mom passed peacefully into the arms of Jesus early this afternoon after a week-long vigil, surrounded by her family, as her perishable body failed. We were praying and reading scripture over her as we saw her breathe her last. Mom had confessed her faith in Jesus; we were asking Him to return for her quickly. As she entered eternity, My sister Beth, Sherri, and I all acknowledged we perceived the precise moment her spirit departed and was committed into the hands of the Lord. We are so very grateful for your many prayers and words of encouragement throughout this week. Plans for a memorial service at Mt. Hope, to which you will all be invited, are forthcoming. Our Deeper Thoughts below were pre-written some time ago. While we may yet make some adjustments to our plans for Sunday based on where our emotions are this weekend, you’ll see these thoughts are actually quite relevant to our present situation. I believe it is valuable to share with you this evening what the Lord put on my heart well in advance of this week. Here goes: On the one hand, underestimating oneself can be a sure path to spiritual health: “Do not think more of yourself more highly than you ought…” (Romans 12:3). But on the other hand, it can also underestimate God and stop Him dead in His tracks: “My power is made perfect in weakness…” (2 Corinthians 12:9). When we think too highly of ourselves, we put chains on God. He is limited by us. We think we can manage whatever challenges we face. And so... we do. We grab the reins, take control of our circumstances, and work in our own strength for the best outcome we can achieve. We’ve just boxed God out. He can do little with our circumstances because we told Him to butt out. But the other hand can even be worse. When we underestimate both ourselves and God, that’s a toxic mix that will stop both of us in our tracks. This poisonous idea suggests that not only are we weak, but so is God. We see our own weaknesses and inabilities with crystal clarity. And then we assume God can’t do anything with them. When we think like this, we are blind to the scriptural revelation that our weaknesses are the specific condition in which God’s supernatural power is most poised to do something huge. When we think too highly of ourselves, we box God out by doing it all ourselves. When we think too lowly of ourselves, we box God out by withholding ourselves from His power. Jesus put his disciples to the test on this. They didn’t know it was an exam. Here’s the setting: They were all tired. Even Jesus. It had been a grueling season of fast-paced, high-intensity ministry. Healings, teachings, conflicts, demonic deliverances—all wildly challenging encounters that would drain the energy out of the most vigorous among us, to include the divine Son of God. When they tried to take a couple of days off to get some rest, a flash mob found where they were hiding and pounced. They needed more attention. More help. More healings. More ministry. It just wouldn’t stop. When I am that drained and the phone rings one more time, my reaction is to get angry. Jesus’ reaction was compassion. He sat them down and began to minister yet again… for the entire day. Night was coming quickly. Peter pulled up alongside Jesus and whispered in his ear: “No one has eaten anything all day. Maybe we should wrap this up and send folks home?” Did I mention the disciples were wiped out before this day had even started? Add to it zero food. Low blood sugar. And Jesus just won’t quit. (“Hangry” is the word that comes to my mind.) Jesus quickly dashed the disciples’ hope for an early dismissal. “You give them something to eat,” he quipped. He returned his attention to the crowd. I spent nearly a decade of my career leading a fantastic team that produced large-scale public events in the aviation sector—airshows, fly-ins, and the like. We would gather 3, 4, or 5,000 aviators on airport tarmacs, even in a few cases more than 10,000 attendees, baking them all day long in the hot sun. How to feed everyone was always one of our most challenging--and expensive—logistical operations. We spent months organizing the food service plan and securing the right catering. A quick, over-the-shoulder instruction to “get these folks something to eat” is not how it works for a crowd this size. At all. The disciples were stunned. “Um… boss… there’s no Costco around. There are no restaurants in the neighborhood. Not to mention the size of this crowd. Do you know how much this would cost?” In today’s Ashburn dollars, they estimated it would take $46,210 to feed everybody. It’s all right there in Mark 6:37. Check it out. “How much food do you have?” Jesus asked. “Um…,” they replied awkwardly, “not much. Five loaves of bread and two stinky fish that John caught last night.” “That’ll do,” Jesus said. “Get everyone organized. We’ll serve them in groups.” I remember those meetings with our aviation event planning team. Hours of discussion of how many catering lines, the server counts, time per consumer through the lines, quantities per plate. It’s quite the operation to figure out. It’s even worse when the food supply will run out right around the 12th customer with still another 5,000 people in line. Friends, put yourself right there in that moment with the disciples. Don’t you feel paralyzed? There is no way the feeble resources they possessed could come anywhere close to solving the problem. Their supply was not even in the same universe as the need. But Jesus demanded they take action. That moment of paralysis is exactly where God needs us. If we will not underestimate Him. You’ll have to read Mark 6:30-44 to see how it all turned out. This Sunday let’s explore together this very key discipleship point. We cannot grow to where Jesus wants us until we recognize two things: 1) The absolute power of God to leverage our weakest parts and our most under-resourced realities for the specific outcome He desires; 2) Our responsibility to step up, regardless of our frailties, to serve and give as if God had already provided a supernatural solution. Prepare to be empowered. God has a plan for you that is supernaturally strong. Don’t underestimate Him. Perhaps you can see the relevance to what the Eads are working through today. Let’s meet on Sunday… 10:00 a.m. Seeing you all will do our hearts good… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend Hey Friends…
Let’s be honest. Faith can seem quite silly, especially to those looking in from the outside. I don’t blame them. Do you? It’s not hard to see how our supernatural Jesus might look more like an imaginary friend than an actual, natural, physical reality. So, they laugh at us. But let me ask you (and be honest!): Do we sometimes secretly laugh at Jesus too? Let’s talk in Deeper Thoughts below… But first… today’s reminders are all about kids and us!! · KIDS / Middle Schoolers: We are going to summer camp!! For rising 1st through 8th graders this summer, come with us to a weeklong day camp divided into age-appropriate programs at the Furnace Mountain Camp outside of Leesburg, VA. There are several dates to pick from and we need your help to identify the best week for Mt. Hope to attend. Click here to email Chris Bowen for details! · Parents: Saturday, February 22, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m., drop your Pre-K through 6th graders at the church and go out for a special “Parents Night Out / Kids Night In.” We will have snacks, crafts, games, and movies your kids will love. As a part of the evening, the kids will make goodies for the next morning’s summer camp Bake Sale! Click here to RSVP with Chris Bowen! · Everyone: Come with a sweet tooth and a fat wallet to Sunday morning, February 23, for our Bake Sale to support our summer camp. Gorge yourself on yummies the kids baked the night before and be crazy generous with your donations to help our kids get to camp! · Teens: NO Youth Group this Sunday, but join us NEXT Sunday, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., for lunch, games, and more! · Don’t forget our “Daily Six” video series, six-minutes every weekday to read along with me as we study through the Gospel of Mark. Click here to jump in! And if you’d like to receive daily email reminders, click here for a link to The Daily Six each morning! OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who think Jesus is imaginary. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… Let me tell you about Bunny and Blue Dog. They were very important friends of mine at a very formative age. Bunny was orange. And you guessed it. He was a bunny. The fact that he was filled with cotton ball stuffing is irrelevant to his profound importance in my life. The photographic evidence my mother has of how Bunny comforted me as I lay sleeping in my crib is matched by vivid memories of many joyful antics Bunny and I shared during those pre-school years. Oh, and Blue Dog? Can you guess? Yep. He was a dog. He was blue. Please don’t judge my name selection creativity. I had just learned how to speak. These stuffed critters were my buddies. We had many important conversations as I explored reality and grew up past two feet tall. They soothed me when I was terrified in the middle of the night. They accompanied me to many a Matchbox car race across the living room floor. They participated in the construction of massive Lego cities—and then of course their swift destruction. (Remember, I was a boy. Breaking things was essential.) Bunny and Blue Dog offered me a mountain of counsel, hope, and comfort in a world that was often confusing, scary, and daunting. But as I grew past three feet and headed off to kindergarten, I slowly began to realize something. Bunny and Blue Dog couldn’t actually talk. They couldn’t think. They were not really my friends. Their closeness and intimacy were… well… imaginary. I still have them. In a box somewhere. Maybe I’ll dig them out for show and tell this Sunday. Bunny and Blue Dog once occupied a predominant place in my life. They were an important tool that psychologists call “self-soothing,” which according to Mr. Google is “a technique that is used to manage and regulate one’s emotions and create a sense of calm and comfort.” Self-soothing isn’t bad. In fact, it might be downright necessary. For a three-year-old, a stuffed bunny will do just fine. In adulthood, the bunny belongs in a cardboard box while we turn ourselves to more refined self-soothing techniques: positive self-talk, deep breathing exercises, taking time for self, pampering, mediation, fishing, or a trip to the gym. And sometimes Jesus. Tragically for many people, Jesus is no more real than an imaginary friend who offers a self-soothing path to hope. He is an idea, a figure, a promise. But not someone real. Let’s own it. The assertions of the New Testament are irrational. The Jesus we interact with is invisible. He is accessed only by a choice of faith that Jesus is more than an imaginary friend, but rather a very real spiritual entity with a very real presence and a very real power. I wonder if this is how Jairus’ family saw Jesus when he made an incredibly irrational--and wildly inappropriate—claim. I wonder if they saw his words as nothing more than imaginary. Jesus arrived not long after Jairus’ twelve-year-old daughter had died. The house was engulfed in gut-wrenching commotion, grieving, wailing. Some men met Jesus a few blocks away and begged him not to come. “She has died,” they said. “It is better for you not to come.” He ignored their concerns. When he entered the house, he “saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. He went in and said to them, ‘Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep’” (Mark 6:38-39). Don’t try this at home. This is NOT the right thing to say to a grieving family who can plainly see with their very own eyes that the little girl is dead. So, “they laughed at him” (Mark 6:40). To those who do not understand Jesus by a choice of faith, the words of Jesus will be irrational and nothing short of imaginary. But then let’s also understand what this choice of faith is: a choice to not base our entire worldview on what we can see with our natural eyes. “We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). Even science will admit that we cannot see everything that exists. Spend just a few minutes reading about quantum physics and you’ll get it. Not everything that is real can be seen. And not everything that is invisible is imaginary. If our reality is defined only by what we see in our natural-realm present, we will miss all that God intends to do in our lives. God has a vision for us that is much greater than the vision we have for ourselves. But that vision cannot be fulfilled if we don’t choose to move into a position of faith that sees reality with spiritual eyes, not just natural. God is not an orange stuffed bunny. He is not an imaginary, self-soothing idea. But to see that, we must make a choice of faith. This Sunday let’s explore this together. We’ll see what happened with Jairus’ daughter. And we’ll see what God can do in us. Dig around Mark 5 in advance. Choose faith. Can’t wait… we love each and every one of you. Let’s meet… Sunday… 10:00 a.m.! Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend Hey Friends…
Can I tell you a love story? I’ll warn you, though: it has a break-up in the middle of it like many relationships do. Some of you might have to think back to a younger time in life to recall the ups and downs of early love and those giddy feelings when you finally met “the right one.” Others may recall the heartache of being dumped. Or of the doubt that crept in that this could ever work out. You up for thinking about love? I’ll tell you more--and especially how this relates to you and Jesus—in Deeper Thoughts below… But first… · Ladies: Join us for our annual “Vision Board” event TOMORROW: Saturday, February 1, 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. Click here for more info! · Teens: Youth Group this Sunday, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., with lunch, games, and a personal story from Randy Richardson! Contact Jess if your teen will need a ride home. · Parents: Save the date!! Saturday, February 22, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m., drop your kids at the church and go spend some time alone for a special “Parents Night Out / Kids Night In.” We will have snacks, crafts, games, movies and more that your kids will love. This is for Pre-K through 6th grade. More details to come! · And don’t forget our “Daily Six” video series, six-minute videos every weekday to read along with me as I study through the Gospel of Mark. Click here to jump in this week and catch up! And if you’d like to receive daily email reminders, click here to receive a link to The Daily Six each morning! OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who think crazy is all bad. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… The great theologian known as “Calvin and Hobbs” explains how love works. In the once-popular comic strip, young Cavin told Hobbs, his imaginary stuffed tiger friend, that “true love is when your heart falls out of your chest, drops down into your stomach, and then short circuits your brain.” Anyone who has “fallen in love” can relate to that, can’t you? On top of swelling emotions, there is a definite short-circuiting of most rational thought. Doubts, fears, and cautions get thrown to the wind by the joys, anticipation, and imagination of what life would be like with his special someone. But after time, most relationships will enter a frustrating season. Sometimes it’s a lonely phase. Sometimes it’s a painful period. Sometimes it’s even a dark and broken chapter. The genuine hardships of life eventually catch up with our optimistic infatuation. This difficult season--which attends to almost every love relationship—can be stunning and deeply disorienting. Hollywood and American culture has conditioned us to the falsehood that true love sparks brilliantly and then continues unabated “happily ever after.” The deception is so strong that modern culture demands that when hardships come, it must not be true love. The only safe bet is to bail out. When surrender, sacrifice, and the breaking of our stubborn will is what’s next for the relationship to thrive, America says to bail out. Real love says surrender. The Bible calls this “breaking”. Not breaking up. But breaking— breaking the stubbornness of our selfishness and hardness. Real love must go through the crucible of testing our willingness to break, to surrender ourselves to placing the needs of the other first, even at our own personal expense. Why am I telling you all this? It’s still two weeks until Valentine’s Day, so no, this is not a lecture on romance. No, this is a story about God. It is a story about you and me and God. In human romance, the healthiest and most lasting love relationships almost always hit an inflection point--hopefully while still dating and not inside the marriage—where rejection is on the table. “If you really don’t want me for who I am, this is not going to work.” I know a little bit about this from my 20’s. I dated more lady friends than I’d like to admit. I had a very restless soul, so I experienced more than a handful of conversations just like this. Each time, my immature, long-lasting adolescence clung to toxic Hollywood ideals. The relationship was, appropriately, cut off by the one who had enough self-respect to say, “If you really don’t want me for who I am, this is not going to work.” Friends, the same is true with us and God. God will not accept an unwilling and half-hearted romance with us any more than a self-respecting woman would. If our hearts are not in this, God will reach an inflection point. He will clear the deck. He will cut everything down. But this is where He is different from the girls who dumped me when I was young and dumb. God clears the deck not to end the relationship. His discipline always sees a tiny hope, a little shoot of new growth that could grow up from the stump of that which He cut down. God always sees a straight-line path to a vibrant relationship. The path to that relationship is often in the crucible of testing our willingness to break. This Sunday let’s explore this in one of the most important parables Jesus ever spoke. He refers to our heart as soil that can either be hard packed, filled with rocks, or choked out by thorns and thistles. Only some of our hearts are the soft and well-tilled soil in which our relationship with God can thrive. You can do some advance reading… soak in the whole chapter of Mark 4. See if you can pick up where the breaking needs to occur, and what God will do with it. When you come across Mark 4:11-12, be prepared to be confused. But follow the trail to Isaiah’s prophecy that Jesus is referencing. If you follow the trail through Isaiah 6 (catch especially Isaiah 6:13) to Isaiah 10:25 to Isaiah 10:33-34 to Isaiah 11:1-10, you might see God playing hard to get… just like we talked about above. Jesus is the little shoot that grows up out of a cut down stump (Isaiah 11:1). To mix the metaphors, we are the hardened soil that needs breaking up. Shall we get our shovels out? See you Sunday… 10:00 a.m.!! Much love… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend Hey Friends…
I mean this in the most positive light. Are you nuts? Crazy? Out of your mind? Oh, you’ve been trying to avoid that outcome, have you? I suppose such a moniker isn’t typically at the top of our desired life achievements. But maybe it should be. At least if we want to be like Jesus. I’ll tell you more in Deeper Thoughts below… But first… Some fun stuff at Mt. Hope: · Join our Mt. Hope History Team for a half-day brainstorming session, TOMORROW, Saturday, January 25, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., lunch included. Click here to email Sherri for details and to RSVP! · Ladies: Join us for our annual “Vision Board” event NEXT Saturday, February 1, 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. Click here for more info! · Teens: Youth Group this Sunday, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., with lunch, games, and a personal story from Al Villaflor! Contact Jess if your teen will need a ride home. · Help our leaders pray for you! Even if you prefer to not be in our published church directory, it is super helpful to have your name and a photo of you in our church database so our elders and prayer team can visualize you as they get to know you. Click here to send in a picture for us to add… OR let Dave Firestone snap a picture of you this Sunday after church! · And don’t forget our “Daily Six” video series, six-minute videos every weekday to read along with me as I study through the Gospel of Mark. Click here to jump in this week and catch up! And if you’d like to receive daily email reminders, click here to receive a link to The Daily Six each morning! OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who think crazy is all bad. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… Genuine mental illness is nothing to laugh about or speak of without compassion and understanding. Let’s set that sober subject aside for today, except to say that anyone who battles an authentic mental, emotional, or personality disorder is worthy of our love, support, care, and bountiful respect. “Crazy” isn’t the appropriate word for that deep struggle whatsoever. But there is a “crazy” that is good. You should seek after it. By any measure, things were going amazingly well in Jesus’ life. He was as healthy a person as has ever been. His accomplishments were stunning. He was at the top of his game, successful, famous, surrounded by thousands of admirers and friends. There was nothing in his life that any one of us wouldn’t want to experience. But his family thought he had gone completely mad. They wanted this to stop. Immediately. There must have been a family meeting. “Jesus has lost his marbles,” someone finally said out loud. Perhaps the boldness of whoever spoke up was a welcome relief to the silent tension that had been building for months. None of his brothers and sisters[i] wanted to say it, and I’m sure they feared deeply hurting their mom. She had undoubtedly told the family over and over again of that supernatural visitation of angels announcing Messiah was in her virgin womb[ii]. Perhaps the repeated stories of their eldest brother’s miraculous origins built a tension of its own among his siblings, maybe even a touch of jealousy. It had to frustrate them that Jesus never got in trouble. Talk about a real “middle child” syndrome when your oldest brother is an actual angel… er… um, a member of the eternal divine Trinity. But everyone was an adult now. Childhood jealousies aside, James and Jude and the sisters were genuinely concerned. Jesus was way out over his skis, and the family was paying a high price for his reckless lifestyle. Perhaps it started the day he embarrassed the family by inflaming the whole congregation at the synagogue[iii]. The rage he sparked that day with his confrontational sermon nearly got him killed. And since it was a small town, Joseph’s whole family must have lost respect among their lifetime neighbors and friends. Even Joseph’s carpentry business likely took a hit. It got worse. Jesus started holding healing services where thousands lined up to get their deliverance. A stately and long-respected gentleman from the synagogue was suddenly screaming out with demonic voices as a hidden evil within him was exposed and cast out[iv]. The crowds were quite excitable as all manner of physical ailments and disabilities were miraculously healed[v]. I don’t know if you’ve ever attended a Pentecostal healing service, but the mood and emotions can get a little uncomfortable for the more stoic among us. The family hit their breaking point when he started picking fights in public with the most respected religious leaders in town[vi]. They grew up learning everything about God from these teachers of the law. The Pharisees were their tribe: their people, their denomination, their comfortable tradition. And now Jesus so infuriated them that they were plotting to kill him[vii]. The Pharisees were certain his power was from the devil[viii]. He had to be stopped. I’m guessing that’s when they had the conversation with Mom. “We have to go get him,” they said to Mary. “He has gone too far. He is embarrassing our family. But worse than that, he’s going to get himself killed. And we know that’s going to break your heart, Mother. We know how much you love him.” Who knows how that conversation went over with Mary. I bet there were a lot of tears. She finally relented. “Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind’” (Mark 3:20-21). Mary came with his brothers. Perhaps her loving demeanor could melt Jesus just enough to hear their concerns and come home with them. To avoid making a scene, they asked someone else to go inside and quietly tell him his mother was outside. Jesus’ response was heartbreaking. “‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ he asked.” The rejection was like a knife through Mary’s heart. “Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, ‘Here are my mother and brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother’” (Mark 3:33-34). To his family, Jesus was crazy. To Jesus, his crazy followers were his new family. Friends, the real Gospel--the full Gospel—is foolishness to the common person[ix]. It is way too intense. It is way too supernatural. It is way too emotional. It is way too consuming. It is way too non-religious. Until you have tasted this Gospel’s power, it will feel foreign to you, scary, over-the-top. It will be crazy. I say you should want this. Do you? This Sunday let’s slow down and consider the lifestyle of Jesus and his disciples. Let’s give ourselves some room to feel a bit uncomfortable, to be a little skeptical. But let’s give it an honest look. Do we want to be as crazy as Jesus? By the way, his family finally came around. His brothers James and Jude wrote two books that made it into the New Testament. Mary stood by his side at the crucifixion[x]. They were all there at Pentecost[xi] and received a mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit[xii]. You and I should come around too. If you want to do some advance reading before Sunday, dig into all the footnotes I’ve offered below my signature line. Wow… he is crazy. Shall we join him? Much love… See you Sunday!! Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend Hey Friends…
We have a problem. It can be solved, but only if we recognize how deep it is. If we keep seeing it as “normal,” we won’t want Jesus to fix it. We won’t even recognize that he could. Instead, we’ll only look for Jesus to fix a few shallower aspects of our lives. While a shallow healing is certainly enjoyable, most of us are oblivious to the far greater life we could experience if Jesus healed our deeper issue. What to know what it is? More importantly, do you want it to be healed? Let’s talk in Deeper Thoughts below… But first… four important events, and two video links: · THIS SUNDAY: We are watching the forecast suggesting 1-3 inches of snow may arrive during church. We will keep monitoring and will email you Saturday evening with our plans for Sunday service and youth group. · Let’s PRAY!! THIS Saturday, January 18, sometime between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., come pray with us at the church to seek God for our future, with a worship night at 6:00 p.m. Click here to let us know what time to expect you—or if you’re out of town, when might pray from afar! · Join our Mt. Hope History Team for a half-day brainstorming session, Saturday, January 25, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., lunch included. Click here to email Sherri for details and to RSVP! · Ladies: Join us for our annual “Vision Board” event Saturday, February 1, 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. Click here for more info! · Did you miss our facility expansion update last Sunday? No worries: click here to see our current plans for expanding Mt. Hope, learn about our next steps, and discover how you can participate. Please be patient with some poor audio coverage of folks’ great questions; it gets fixed a few minutes in. · And don’t forget our “Daily Six” video series, six-minute videos every weekday to read along with me as I study through the Gospel of Mark. Click here to jump in this week and catch up! OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who prefer shallow living. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… When I was 19 years old, I had major reconstructive jaw surgery. It was incredibly invasive. And painful. Not to ruin your appetite, but the short story is they had to cut my upper jaw completely out, set it on the table, pull some bone from my hip, stuff it up in my face to make new cheekbones, and then tie the jaw back into a new position with large titanium screws. My upper jaw had never grown to its normal adult position; the doctors didn’t want me living with a severe underbite and an even uglier face than I have now. Staring down the barrel of this obviously wretched procedure, I prayed hard. My ask was simple. “Jesus, miraculously prevent any pain. Please.” My surgeon assured me Jesus wouldn’t answer (oh, I tried to tell him all about the Lord) and that I should be prepared for a very rough summer. I prayed. Miraculously, God obliged. But only partly. He left just a touch of pain unhealed to simply make His point. I can imagine that wry little grin on His face as He told the archangel to “hold my holy water and watch this…” My agenda was no pain. God’s agenda was more precise. And far more bold. I didn’t know I needed what He had in mind. But when He delivered, it changed my life. As I laid in Reston Hospital for three days of recovery, my face swelled to the size (and color) of Charlie Brown’s “The Great Pumpkin.” My college buddies stopped by to see how I was doing, but when they walked in my room, they immediately turned around and left. They thought they had the wrong patient as I was totally unrecognizable. My hip was screaming in pain from the bone graft (oops… did I forget to ask God to prevent that specific pain?). But my face and jaw were completely painless. That, the surgeon later conceded, was indeed a miracle. (No, he didn’t get saved.) But more miraculously, those three days in the hospital became the most meaningful intimacy with Jesus I have ever experienced in my life--before or since. With unmistakable clarity, Jesus Christ was distinctly present with me in that room. Wave upon wave of a mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit cascaded through my spirit for three days straight. The Word of God flooded my mind. I experienced irrational levels of joy even as I lay with eyes closed, gritting teeth over the searing bone graft pain. A spirit of perfect love I had never known washed over my emotions and my soul. My heart pivoted to an irreversible devotion to the Lord and a surrender to His lifetime authority over me. It has driven me ever since. The bold faith you see in me every Sunday comes, in part, from that precious, pain-filled, glorious hospital visit in the summer of 1989. Why am I telling you all this? Because I think we often (maybe usually?) ask for the wrong miracle. So did the paralytic’s buddies in Mark 2:1-12. They understandably wanted a healing from their friend’s life of physical pain. But Jesus would rather perform the miracle of Levi’s spiritual healing in Mark 2:13-17. “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’” (Mark 2:5). When Jesus met the crooked mobster Levi he said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mark 2:17). I told you earlier we have a problem. Jesus wants to heal it. But the problem is not first and foremost the physical or emotional discomfort we would prefer he take away. Our problem starts with a shallow, intellectual-based faith that sees its goal as getting from Jesus pragmatic solutions to our temporary physical and emotional needs. We choose to intellectually agree with the doctrines of the Bible so we can get God’s help with our immediate pains and struggles. But Jesus would prefer to forge inside us an everlasting, abiding, and all-consuming intimacy with God. To do this, he needs to heal our sinful hearts, not our ailing bodies. This Sunday let’s look into the life of that paralytic, the spiritually foul Levi, and his motley crew of unsavory scoundrels. Let’s see the supernatural things Jesus did with them. And let’s consider if we are asking for the right miracle in our lives. One more reminder: Let me personally help you spend 12 minutes to abundance with Jesus every day from now until Easter. It is intrinsically tied to the very thing we’ve just finished discussing—forging an irreversible intimacy with Jesus. Let me do it with you. Click here for our “Daily Six” video series and come along with me, Monday through Friday, as I read the Gospel of Mark and pray for God’s revelation in it. Just six minutes together, then you talk with God alone for six minutes more. And if you’d like to receive daily email reminders, click here to receive a link to The Daily Six each morning—or you can just find the videos on our YouTube channel every day. Let’s ask Jesus for what we really need… There's a profound miracle waiting for us if we’ll recognize we really need it. Much love… See you Sunday!! Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend Hey friends…
Why do anything that’s pointless? Life has enough pressures and responsibilities as it is, so why spend the energy keeping up with something that has no value? Now, if you’re taking the time to read these first few sentences, you obviously value Jesus enough to at least open an email from a church. But look out!! Even among those who deeply cherish their faith, there’s a trap we can easily fall into where we end up missing the point altogether. I’ll tell you more in Deeper Thoughts below… But first… a BUNCH of cool stuff is happening: · Do you pray? Click here to watch today’s “Daily Six” about praying like Jesus prayed. Let’s spend just six minutes together to look at the whole point of following Jesus. More on this in Deeper Thoughts below. · Want to see some drawings of Mt. Hope’s potential future? Hang around after church THIS Sunday to see the current draft of our building expansion concept, give us your feedback, and talk about next steps. 11:45 a.m. until…? · Let’s PRAY!! Plan 30 minutes on Saturday January 18 sometime between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. to come pray with us at our next prayer vigil to seek God for our future, with a worship night at 6:00 p.m. that evening. Click here to let us know what time to expect you! · Join our Mt. Hope History Team for a half-day brainstorming session, Saturday, January 25, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., lunch included. Click here to email Sherri for details and to RSVP! · Teens: Join us for youth group after church this Sunday, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.! · Ladies: We are collecting items to take Uruguayan missionaries: brand-new or “like new” women’s clothing items of ALL sizes; accessories (jewelry, scarves, etc…); and unopened toiletries. Bring these to the BLUE room at church by January 26. Also… mark your calendars for Saturday, February 1 for our next get together. Click here for more info! · This Sunday is going to be AWESOME!! We’re baptizing our 17-year-old buddy, Coby, who has been on a wildly transformative journey with us. You’ve got to hear his story in detail! And any skeptic you know… invite them. they’ll get a lot out of it. OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who enjoy pointless activity. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… Why are you even interested in being a Christian? I told you last Sunday that dry, life-less, boring religion has exhausted me since I was a kid. And there is plenty of lifelessness running around religion. Just ask the average churchgoer across the nation: “What did you get out of last Sunday?” Depending on the type of church, the answers might be muddled. For some, faith is really about a social life. Church and religion fill a void by being surrounded with decent people. The morals are quite respectable. The conversations are polite. The generosity of others is encouraging. For others, accepting Jesus is all about fear. With the death rate running right at 100% these days, we all carry a subtle fear of the afterlife, and the message that our sins can be forgiven and heaven assured--and of course hell avoided—is a fairly motivating reason to become a Christian. But is that all you want out of Jesus? Nice people and a comfortable eternity? Or are you hungry for something more? I am. I am ravenous for an authentic spiritual life that is truly substantive, truly transformative, truly supernatural. I am desperate for an experience with Jesus, not just an intellectual affinity with him. And I am so hungry for this that I will rip up any lifeless religious activity that keeps me from him. This next week, we’re going to read in Mark 2:1-12 about a group of friends who were so intent on getting in front of Jesus that they literally ripped the roof off Jesus’ home to climb inside the packed-out house. The crowds were so thick and so hungry for Jesus’ words that not a single person would give up their little square footage to let another needy person get near him. We’ll read about this together on this coming Monday’s “Daily Six.” When was the last time you saw a church so full, and people so hungry to get inside, that people were breaking down walls or tearing off the shingles to get in? Oh, you’ve never seen that? Huh. I wonder why not? When was the last time you were so desperate to get with Jesus that you knocked down your entire schedule and ripped your ceiling open with the intensity of your prayers? Hmmm. Friends, forgive me if I’m being a little too punchy. Consider it my own version of roof-remodeling in search of a personal encounter with Jesus. And I want you to join me. Here’s the deal: There’s only one way to get this kind of experience with Jesus. It’s to go where he is. To do what he did. To inquire and listen to God the way Jesus connected with the Father. It’s to receive the things he received, and to reject the things he rejected. It’s to… hang on… here’s the punch line: it’s to be with Jesus. When we get with Jesus, we will experience what he experienced. And from that, we can do what Jesus did. And from that, we can have a relationship that is not lifeless, dull, boring, and ordinary. Check it out in the scriptures before Sunday morning, and then let’s talk: Mark 1:10-11. Jesus submitted himself to God and then he heard God’s voice. “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” That’s what I’m talking about. That’s an experience with God: His voice; His revelation; His confidence in our relationship. That’s what I am starving for. You? Do you want to hear this--like, really hear it—from God? Not hear it from the preacher, but hear it directly from the Father? If we want this kind of interactive experience with God, we must do what Jesus did. “Follow me,” Jesus said to two guys while they were at work (Mark 1:17). Follow me. Do what I do. Then you will have the relationship. What did Jesus do to get this? Let’s talk Sunday. But until then: Have you been giving God a daily “12 minutes to abundance?” It’s not too late to start. We are challenging everyone to lock 12 minutes with Jesus on top of a specific thing you already do every single day—getting ready in the morning; or eating breakfast, lunch, or dinner; or coffee break at work; or commuting to or from work, school, the gym, the store, etc. (sit in the parking lot for 12 minutes with Jesus). Every. Single. Day. Let me personally help you. I will do it with you. Click here for our “Daily Six” video series and come along with me, Monday through Friday, as I read the Gospel of Mark and pray for God’s revelation in it. Just six minutes together, then you talk with God alone for six minutes more. And if you’d like to receive daily email reminders, click here to receive a link to The Daily Six each morning—or you can just find the videos on our YouTube channel every day. Let’s follow Jesus together… it’s the entire point. See you Sunday!! Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend |
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Jesus said, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, & with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” - Matt. 22:37-39
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