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Hey friends…
It’s such an ambiguous thing, is it not? And yet, most would agree it’s the most important thing in life. We all long to be loved. We all know we need to love. The people, animals, interests, and experiences we love are the most cherished aspects of our lives. Oh, and we love God, too, right? But do we ever stop to measure our love? Do we ever check in on how well we are loving? Do we even know how to measure it? Let’s talk more in Deeper Thoughts below. But first… · THIS Sunday, March 30, 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., we will have a super-important all-congregation open dialogue to take a final look at our building expansion project in advance of very critical decisions we will be making. o We have exciting new 3-D graphics to show you, a comprehensive budget plan, strategies to address new challenges that have arisen, and some guiding biblical principles to explore. o We will livestream the meeting from our homepage (use the same livestream button you use for Sunday service). Please attend in person if you can, but also don’t miss if you are away. · NEXT Sunday, April 6, we will present a confidential communication card to share the specific personal generosity the Holy Spirit is leading us to contribute. o What one-time financial gift could be given between now and August to provide cash-in-hand for construction? o What ongoing monthly designated giving could be given over 2-3 years to fund debt service and/or reduction? · Sunday, April 27, 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., our FINAL decision meeting where our Covenant Partners will consider and vote on the future of the project. Other Exciting Happenings: · Teens: Youth Group this Sunday, 11:30 – 1:00 (*ish)… we’ll end the same time the congregational meeting does. Contact Jess Sauder if you’d like to get youth group emails or if you need a ride home: [email protected]. · Ladies: THIS Saturday, March 29, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Learn how to make jewelry with Joan Lyerly! Click here for more info and to RSVP. · Help Mt. Hope look better! Join us Saturday, April 12 for a morning workday to spruce up the campus for Easter. Details and RSVPs to come. · Speaking of Easter: TWO Easter worship services at Mt. Hope: 9:00 and 10:30 a.m., Sunday, April 20. Kids Connect will be at 10:30 only with an Easter Egg Hunt to follow at 11:45 a.m. · Don’t miss this coming week’s “Daily Six” video series… Click here to jump in on our study of the Gospel of Mark. 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 love anything or anyone. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… If you were told something was absolutely the most important thing ever, you’d stop and pay attention, wouldn’t you? I remember my first day of flight training. It was really my second “first day”—I had done a bunch of training in my teenage years, only to set it aside when I answered God’s call on my life for ministry. Thirteen years later, when I finally had a bit of disposable income, I decided to pick it back up and start my training all over again. “There are three things we are NOT ever going to do, prioritized in this order,” my new flight instructor sharply commanded just after we finished our pleasantries and hellos. He was deadly serious. “First, we are never going to hit another airplane.” Check. That sounds bad. (We especially understand this after seeing the terrible tragedy at Reagan National Airport this January.) “Second, we are never going to run out of gas.” Got it. Sounds wise. “Third, we are never going to violate airspace,” by which he meant that we would carefully obey all the FAA’s rules and regulations regarding permission to operate in various areas called “airspace.” I don’t like legal trouble, so count me in! These instructions were seared into my mind--repeated every flight by my instructor—until they became an immutable instinct throughout the hundreds of flight hours and more than two decades of flying that followed. As you can imagine, there are TONS of other things important to the complexity of flying an airplane. But NONE were even close to the importance of staying alive, particularly supported by his first two instructions. Every time I flew, I was constantly vigilant, constantly on the lookout, constantly rehearsing those instructions. There was never a moment that I didn’t think, pay attention, and measure my conformity to those goals. More than once, that incessant vigilance kept me alive and kept me out of trouble with the FAA. Jesus also had two incredibly vital instructions. I wonder if we think, pay attention, and measure our conformity to those goals as much as I did my flight rules. Or do we simply not think Jesus’ commands are deadly serious? “One of the teachers of the law…asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’” (Mark 12:28) Had I asked my flight instructor this same question at any point before, during, or after training, he would have been instantly precise and commanding. Don’t hit another airplane. Don’t run out of gas. Don’t bust airspace. Jesus was precise too: “‘The most important one,’ Jesus answered, ‘is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” (Mark 12:29-30) Rule number one when airborne: Don’t hit another airplane. Rule number one when following Jesus: Love God with your entire heart, soul, mind, and strength. Failure to do this is as spiritual deadly as midair collisions are physically. You see, Jesus is warning us to be vigilant not just that we love God, but that we love God with everything in and about us. Love comes in many forms and many intensities. We can love iced sweet tea. We can love puppy dogs. We can love our spouse or kids. We can love our jobs. We can love a sunset. Some of us can even love cats. All of these are indeed love, but they occupy vastly different degrees of our hearts, minds, and energy. They each have different measurements. (Uh… at least they should… if I love my wife Sherri with the same intensity that I love Steez peach green tea—or vice versa—we have a serious problem.) So, how well do you love God? With what intensity? With what focus? With what urgency? And how do we measure this? Before we assume we know how to love well—before we think, “I love people just fine, thank you”—let’s dig into Jesus’ words throughout the Gospels. Let’s take this as deadly serious as my flight instructor made me take my flying. Let’s meet this Sunday and explore how Jesus measured love—we can find a few hints right there in Mark 12. One of them is to recognize his most important command has a sequel: “The second is this, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:31) This is why I love each of you. And I am vigilant to what that means. Let’s discover this--and loving God as the greatest—together on Sunday! Can’t wait… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend
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Hey friends…
Apologies for the negative opener, but I want to catch your attention. Nobody aims to fail at things that matter, right? I mean, I’m all for failing at underwater basket weaving. But flunking something as monumental as communicating with the God of the universe might be worth a second look to be sure we’re not blowing it here. Many Christians I know secretly think they are no good at prayer, even if they won’t say it out loud. Let’s talk more in Deeper Thoughts below. But first… important news: · Mt. Hope is growing! Click here to see a detailed write-up on our “decision time” for our church family as we seek God’s wisdom for a potential expansion of our facility. Four key communication and decision steps are essential:
· Teens: No youth group this Sunday. Parents - if you would like to be added to the Youth Group email list, contact Jess Sauder: [email protected]. · Ladies: NEXT Saturday, March 29, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Learn how to make jewelry with Joan Lyerly! Cost will be $5.00 for supplies. Click here for more info and to RSVP. · Wanna help Mt. Hope look better? Join us Saturday, April 12 for a morning workday to spruce up the campus for Easter! Details and RSVPs to come. · Speaking of Easter: Make plans to bring friends and family to one of TWO Easter worship services at Mt. Hope, 9:00 and 10:30 a.m., Sunday, April 20. Kids Connect will be at 10:30 only with an Easter Egg Hunt to follow at 11:45 a.m.! · Don’t miss this coming week’s “Daily Six” video series… We've got a really neat destination to study the Gospel of Mark together. 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 ever want Jesus to answer you. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… I was 12 years old the first time I opened a bible. Ever. My neighbor buddy across the street had been sharing faith with me in between our wintertime sledding adventures and making army rifles out of fallen branches so we could play war in the woods. He was 10; his passion for Jesus was contagious. So, I asked my mom for a bible. I’m not sure how I stumbled across this verse from the Gospel of Mark. Its wild promise captured the mind of this imaginative little 12-year-old. My shiny new bible was the “Good News Translation,” a perfectly simplified text for pre-teenagers: “When you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it, and you will be given whatever you ask for” (Mark 11:24). Oh yeah. If this is how this Jesus thing works, I’m in!! Being a future pilot with an insatiable fascination with everything aeronautical, I asked Jesus for an airplane. A real one. I told him he could place it in my backyard overnight, please. Friends, please don’t laugh. I was standing boldly on my new found faith in the mighty Word of God. I distinctly remember getting on my knees on my bed. I had my little Good News Bible opened to Mark 11. I had one of my many airplane books spread out to the intricate technical drawings of a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 airliner. I got really serious. I dug deep to muster all the faith I could in Jesus and the Bible. I took a deep breath, squinted my eyes, and I prayed. Hard. I went to sleep that night as giddy as a child on Christmas Eve. I had found the promise of the Word of God. Whatever I ask for, believe, and it will be given. Wow… praise Jesus. You’ll never believe what was sitting in my backyard that next morning. Nope. Not an airplane. Just the shaggy grass that Dad thought his 12-year-old son should now be mature enough to run the lawn mower over. Talk about disappointment. But can I be honest with you? Decades later, with two theological degrees from an esteemed Christian university, thirty-five years of career ministry under my belt, countless people led to Christ, discipled, and encouraged by my faith… and still… time-after-time I am disappointed with the silent outcome of my bold praying. You? Do you ever feel like the things that you muster the boldest faith for are the things that seem to go completely unanswered? Do you ever feel like you know you have prayed properly, prayed hard, dug deep to muster up your faith, and stood on the scriptures… only to find deafening silence in return? Do you ever feel like your prayers have simply failed? Jesus promised us the opposite. Here is Mark 11 from the slightly more refined New International Version: “‘Have faith in God,’ Jesus answered. ‘I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.’” (Mark 11:22-24) So, what gives? Where is my airplane? Most Christian grown-ups--myself included—have built up a defensive mental model to explain away the disappointment. We stack up all manner of theological clarifications to justify why God does not give us the things we ask for in prayer, even though He says right here that He will. But what if the reason we don’t get what we ask for is not because the promise has a bunch of unspoken theological caveats? What if God’s Word is not like some complicated life insurance policy with lots of hidden exclusions tucked away in the fine print? What if Jesus meant exactly what he said in Mark 11? What then? Maybe we don’t understand what to ask for. “C’mon, Chris… he said whatever….” I know. This has been my problem with this text, and I’m guessing yours too. So… let’s unpack it carefully together this Sunday. Let’s allow the Word of God—in its whole—to speak to us and see how we are to pray. For real. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to fail at certain things, but certainly not at prayer. Let’s step in and see where Jesus can take us! Oh… and one more personal note. I want to express my immense gratitude for such an outpouring of love from so many of you last Sunday as church happened to land on my 55th birthday. The congregation’s attention and intentionality were way over-the-top and wildly unexpected. Thank you for the expression of love. It was abundant. Much love… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend 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 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 |
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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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Ashburn, VA 20148
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