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Hey Friends…
“I’ve got the controls,” my flight instructor said tersely, issuing a command to let him handle the airplane for a moment. I had just screwed up and I knew it. He let quite a bit of silence transpire as I sat there with my hands neatly folded on my lap, looking out the window at the countryside below. “I want you to tell me what you were trying to do back there,” he finally said. A longer moment of silence. “I honestly don’t know,” I replied. “I could tell,” he snapped back. I’ll explain--and tell you how this relates to Jesus—in Deeper Thoughts below… But first… · Are you reading the Acts of the Apostles? Join the Mt. Hope family reading through this important biblical book detailing the first Christian Church as we seek to understand “The Normal Christian Life.” Click here to download this week’s study guide and jump in with us! o Also, check out “The Daily Six” video series and join me every morning, Monday through Thursday, as we work through Acts verse by verse. Click here to subscribe to our daily reminder emails, or just go to our YouTube channel and pull up The Daily Six videos each day! · Let’s pray fervently together! Just as in the early church, the Mt. Hope family is gathering THIS Sunday night, 6:00 p.m. for an evening of prayer, worship, and seeking God for our future. We will provide an important update to our facility expansion plans, pray fervently for God’s provision, and seek the Lord for the future of the ministry and culture of Mt. Hope Church. · Ladies: Join us for a one-day women's retreat featuring Cynthia Campbell and "The Steps to Freedom in Christ" with a special focus on the importance of forgiveness. Saturday, October 19, 9:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. at Mt. Hope Church. Click here for more details and to RSVP! · ALSO… a new 7-week Ladies Bible Study led by Audie Hall kicks off on October 8 exploring “Jesus & Women in the First Century and Now”. Click here for more info and to RSVP! · Please be in bold prayer for our Family Life Ministry Resident Chris Bowen and especially his wife, Krista, who was diagnosed very recently with an acute form of leukemia. Chris will need to avoid crowds so as to not risk her compromised immunity as he supports his wife. This presents a huge opportunity to consider joining our kids and teen ministry teams--even if just temporarily—as we depend on dedicated volunteers to backfill roles Chris may not be able to fulfill in upcoming days. Click here for a full update from Chris Bowen. OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who love being out of control. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… I was practicing a rather delicate procedure in pursuit of a new aviation certification. It was an advanced skill set, learning how to land an aircraft that has no forward nosewheel, but rather two main wheels below the wing and a swiveling mini-wheel on the tail. In layman’s terms, it’s kind of like learning how to drive a grocery shopping cart backwards at a very high rate of speed. Most pilots have a touch of ego about them. The culture of aviation breeds bravado. It is not so commonplace to admit when you need help. After this attempted landing had bounced through four or five porpoise moves up and down the runway, my instructor told me to let go. “I’ve got the controls,” he said, first to save his own life, and then to make his teaching point. As we climbed away from the embarrassment, he let me linger in silence for a bit. Maybe he was allowing for a few moments of shame to soften me for the lesson. Or, more benevolently, perhaps he was allowing me to come to my own conclusions on what I had done wrong. The learning occurred when he asked me precisely what I was trying to accomplish. “I have no idea,” I replied. As the aircraft bounced up and down along the runway, I had no clue what to do. So, brilliantly, I just kept wiggling the controls back and forth in hopes that something would do the trick. It did not. You can see the core problem here, can’t you? No one was really flying the airplane. I wonder if we ever do this with our spiritual lives. My flight instructor could see that I was randomly and helplessly twisting the flight controls in search of a solution to a terribly failed landing attempt. I wonder how often our Creator watches carefully as we twist and turn and wrestle and wiggle the circumstances of our life in the vain hope that something will rescue us from the chaos. He knows all along that we have no idea what we are doing. No one is really flying our lives. We’re not letting Jesus handle the controls, but then again, we are not in control either. Aviation culture breeds bravado that seldom humbles itself to let someone else be in charge. Human nature breeds the same in everything. The goal of good flight training is that the student pilot will fly exactly like the instructor when they are alone. The goal of Christian discipleship is that the Christ-follower will live exactly like Jesus in everything we do. But just like in flying, the Christ-following disciple cannot just hope something will work itself out. Someone needs to fly the airplane; someone needs to fly our lives. The Holy Spirit had just been poured out upon the early Christian believers. It was a stunning event, replete with miraculous signs and wonders. The curtain between this world and the spiritual realms had been pulled back. The crowds were amazed. The disciples were emboldened. The world would never be the same. Peter stood up among the crowd and explained what they were seeing. “This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel,” he said. “‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people’” (Acts 2:16-17). But this mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit was not meant to be mere entertainment. It was not just a novelty, nor was it a freak show. It was a declaration of authority. Peter concluded: “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Most of us are more than willing to let Jesus be our “Christ,” which means “savior.” We absolutely love the idea of Jesus rescuing us from our mistakes, just like I was really glad my flight instructor saved me from that terrible landing. But how many of us are truly ready to let him be our “Lord?” “Jesus is Lord” means he is in control. It means he flies the airplane. It means he leads our life, directs our choices, and determines our destination. “Jesus, take the wheel” may sound refreshing. Until he takes us where we do not want to go. Until he asks us to surrender something we do not want to give up. Until he tells us something we do not want to hear. “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’” Jesus asked, “but do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46) Jesus goes on to use a different metaphor than my aviation example. But the point is the same. Jesus suggests that the one who listens to his words and does what he says will be like a man whose house is built upon the rock; the floods came and the house withstood the storm (see Luke 6:46-49). This Sunday, as we continue our fall teaching series “The Normal Christian Life,” our beloved Pastor Will Cravens will take us into the words of Jesus to settle who is truly in control of our lives. Who is flying your airplane? Who is in control of your life? The stakes are high. My bet on the best pilot is Jesus. But we’d better be willing to hear him say, “I’ve got the controls,” and then let go. Much love to all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend
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Hey Friends…
Anybody want to put the brakes on God? I’ll admit it might not be the smartest idea. But let’s be honest. Sometimes we are afraid God will do something, give us something, or lead us somewhere we do not want. So, we may very well unconsciously pump the brakes when God is trying to move. And then other times, we really are crying out for God to do what He has promised, and it seems He is nowhere to be found. Even in those cases, is there any chance we might unknowingly have our foot on the brake pedal? Let’s talk more in Deeper Thoughts below… But first… a few important happenings… · Are you enjoying “The Daily Six” video series? We’ll continue every morning Monday-Thursday to help you study with us through the Book of Acts. Click here to sign up to receive the daily reminder emails, or just go find us on our YouTube channel! · All-Church Workday TOMORROW, Saturday, September 21, 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Come fellowship with an amazing group of people and help spruce up the church facility and campus! Fun, laughter, hard work, and pizza all included! · Kick-Off Prayer and Worship Night – Sunday, September 29, 6:00 p.m. – Join us for a very special night of worship, seeking God, guided prayer, and discussions about our Mt. Hope future. As a church family, let’s seek the face of God for our future, to believe God for supernatural provision for our facility expansion, and to listen to the Holy Spirit for each of our individual callings. · Do you want to connect with others at Mt. Hope? Did you know we have an online church directory? You must sign up to participate… we’ll have resources and information for you on Sunday. We’ll even grab a profile photo of you if you’d like! · Ladies: Join us for a one-day women's retreat featuring Cynthia Campbell who co-led our workshop on "The Steps to Freedom in Christ" a few months ago. Cynthia will be revisiting some of those concepts, especially the importance of forgiveness. Saturday, October 19, 9:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. at Mt. Hope Church. Click here for more details and to RSVP! OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who prefer God stay right where He is. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… Let’s level-set on one important truth: God wants to move in your life. Period. The prophet Joel said it this way: “‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit on *all* people…even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days’” (Acts 2:17-18). Last Sunday, we began to explore this biblical promise. We looked at the distinct difference between the ongoing, consistent “indwelling” of the Holy Spirit—which every believer has without condition—and the specific event of being “baptized” or “filled” with the “outpouring” of the Holy Spirit. These are two distinctly different works of the Spirit in our lives. If you missed last Sunday’s teaching, or if you feel like it’s still foggy for you what all this means, I’d encourage you to click here to pull up the video and dig in. It is not a question that God wants to pour out His Spirit upon you. Jesus called this a “gift that my Father has promised” (Acts 1:4). As a gift, it is not contingent on anything you do. We do not earn it. As a promise, it is not subjective to shifting whims or conditions. God won’t be swayed. “So, why don’t I see it? Why doesn’t God get moving? Why do I read about this “outpouring” of the Holy Spirit, and I’ve never seen it or experienced it in my life? Why doesn’t God do what He wants to do? Isn’t He all-powerful? Can’t He just do it?” We often wonder why God has not moved more powerfully in our lives. But a firm belief in the integrity and inerrancy of scripture will confirm that God keeps His promise without fail. God wants to move in your life and mine. Period. *But*… these next two sentences are super important: His promise is unconditional in the sense that He will not be swayed away from keeping it. But His promise is not without conditions. Did you catch that? His promise is unconditional in the sense that He will not fail to keep it. But there are conditions that must be met for God to be able to fulfill His promise. If the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the promise of God for every person--including you and me—why doesn’t God get done in more believers what He has promised to do for *all* believers? Is it possible that we have a part to play in this? Is it possible that we are the ones who are holding back the outpouring of the Holy Spirit? Is it possible that we are stopping God’s movement in our lives? Acts 2:37-38 lays out two important prerequisites for being filled (baptized) with the Holy Spirit: “When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” Do you see the prerequisites? The first is repentance, which means to pivot away from all that is opposed to God in our lives. The second is salvation—to be certain we are “born again” by receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior (see John 1:12 and John 3:1-18), which Peter expressed as being baptized in water* in the name of Jesus. (* Remember an important distinction here: The word “baptism” is used in two entirely different meanings in the same teaching in Acts. “Baptism” is a word that simply means to be “immersed.” When we are baptized in water in Jesus’ name, this is a symbolic event we use to express our faith in Jesus and our salvation. When we are baptized in the Holy Spirit, this is an entirely separate experience of God’s power poured out into our lives (see Acts 1:4-8).) This Sunday, as we continue our fall teaching series on “The Normal Christian Life—Not Weak, Not Weird, Not Wandering,” I am going to tell you a powerful, hope-filled, and yet tragic story. We’ll look carefully at the scriptural prerequisites for God’s movement in our lives. Then, let me illustrate it with a very noteworthy example of how this works. Throughout history, there have been many, many powerful outpourings of the Holy Spirit. Some you have heard of; others you have not. Massive changes to human culture often result from these outpourings. One of these would have absolutely revolutionized America’s struggle with justice and equality had it been allowed its full course as the Holy Spirit fell upon tens of thousands of believers in a humble dirt-floored warehouse all day long, every single day, for three years. Society was about to pivot as the worst leaders of human oppression fell under conviction, repentance, and transformation. And then one man stopped God dead in His tracks. Let’s not be that guy. Join us this Sunday to discover the hope and promise of God’s outpouring, learn how we can do our part to be in position for it, and what we could do to stop it (so we will NOT do that!). Gonna be powerful… here we go!! See you Sunday… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend Hey All…
He refused to explain the Bible to us. He wouldn’t tell any of us. We were a group of four teenage fellas who had gotten really hungry for all that God had for us. Our youth pastor, Scott, had been teaching through the Book of Acts just like we are doing this fall at Mt. Hope. When he spoke about the Holy Spirit from Acts 1 and 2, we were completely lost. So, we went to Scott. “What does this mean,” we asked. He refused to say. It was maddening and brilliant all at the same time. I’ll tell you why in Deeper Thoughts below… But first… LOTS of important things coming up: · Ladies… TOMORROW, September 14, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. put on your cowboy boots and hat and come line dancing with us! Click here for more info and to RSVP! PLUS… SAVE THE DATE for Saturday, October 19 from 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. for a One-Day Women's Retreat at the Mt. Hope Pavilion! More details to come! · All-Church Workday… come hang with an amazing group of people, all while helping spruce up the church facility and campus on NEXT Saturday, September 21, 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. · Kick-Off Prayer and Worship Night – Sunday, September 29, 6:00 p.m. – Join us for a very special night of worship, seeking God, guided prayer, and discussions about our Mt. Hope future. Through the fall season, look for a series of powerful prayer and worship gatherings, prayer vigils, and at-home guided prayer experiences. As a church family, let’s seek the face of God for our future, to believe God for supernatural provision for our facility expansion, and to listen to the Holy Spirit for each of our individual callings. · Also, as we refresh our vision for prayer as a church, look for a brand-new prayer wall and prayer cards this Sunday morning. Plan to share your prayer needs with us. Individual prayer partners will carry each prayer need before God and follow up with you until God supplies the answer. We’re getting serious about seeking God in fresh and powerful ways! · Do you want to connect with others at Mt. Hope? Did you know we have an online church directory? You have to sign up to participate… we’ll have resources and information for you on Sunday. Oh… and Dave Firestone will have his camera along to grab a profile photo of you if you’d like! OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who prefer to not understand scripture. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… You’d think a good youth pastor would be super excited to tell his fired-up teenage boys all about the Bible. Especially when they ask. But nope. He refused. He had a method to his madness. And it worked. You see, Pastor Scott was wandering into a section of scripture that just about every other church in our tradition steered well clear of. Historically, there had been some churches who had taken these passages of scripture and wandered into a little bit of weirdness with them. Since there had been a lot of confusion about the subject in those days--and in some cases, some fairly dangerous misuse of the topic—churches like ours had all but abandoned teaching on the “baptism of the Holy Spirit.” It was considered too risky. People might misunderstand. Folks might get swept into false doctrine. Some might get overly emotional. Others might feel alienated and fearful. So, most pastors in our church tradition just skipped this part of the Bible altogether. But there was a problem with that strategy: Jesus didn’t skip over it. He told his disciples to press in: “Do not leave Jerusalem,” Jesus said, “but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4-5). “What does this mean, Pastor Scott?” we eager teenagers asked him after the youth service one night. (An important note if you are somewhat theologically astute… you might recognize these terms: We were not in a “Pentecostal” or “charismatic” church whatsoever. Our church was just like Mt. Hope—a middle of the road, evangelical, Bible teaching church with a fairly calm and mainstream worship style.) We stood there anxiously awaiting Scott’s explanation. He quietly opened his Bible, thumbed back to the same passage in Acts, and read it out loud to us again. Then he closed the Bible and looked at us. We waited. He stared. It got awkward. “Um… Scott, so what does it mean? What is this ‘baptism of the Holy Spirit’? What does it look like?” He opened his Bible again, read the passage aloud, closed it again, and continued his creepy stare. About a week later, all four of us made an appointment to meet with Scott at his home to talk more about this. In that context, lazing on his massive 1980’s puffy blue couch, he gave us more time. This time when we pressed him, he opened his Bible and read us a bunch of passages--Luke 3:7-17; John 14:15-17; John 16:7-15; Acts 1:4-8; Acts 2:1-12; Acts 4:31; Acts 8:9-25; Acts 10:1-48; Acts 19:1-7. “Now we’re getting somewhere,” we thought. And then we verbalized the question everyone had out loud: “So, what does this look like? When the Holy Spirit comes upon us, how will we know? What will it look like? What will it feel like?” You can probably guess what Scott did next: He opened his Bible, began to read the passages again… Scott never added a single word of interpretation. He offered no explanation. He did not give us a model of what it looked like. He never showed us a video. He did not take us to a church service where people talked about it. He refused to give us any instruction whatsoever. Brilliant. This did two things. First, we got super hungry. We could not be content without knowing for ourselves what God had for us. Without Scott giving us any guidance except the raw words of scripture, we were certain there was something we didn’t yet understand, and God was going to have to reveal it. This led us to seek God fervently. When God answered, it was obviously God. Secondly, Scott brilliantly protected us from an over-emotionalized, experience-seeking, theologically distorted error that some folks in more charismatic traditions had fallen prey to. He forced us to find only what God was revealing, not what man would impose upon us. Friends, I wonder if we have been undersold on this topic. Some of our churches have avoided it altogether, leaving us entirely unaware of what God intends for us from this text of scripture. Others have run headlong into it with a zeal and enthusiasm that over-emphasizes and hyper-emotionalizes it, taking it where it was never intended to be. This Sunday, would you trust me to unpack these texts with you and give you some clarity? I’ll be a little more forthcoming that Pastor Scott was—you are adults, and we can handle sorting this out together. But I also promise you that we will discover a scriptural promise that fits right here in our own tradition and style without getting weird. If you have any background with this topic that makes you a bit nervous, I’ll take really good care of you, explain the controversies that surround the topic, share my take on scripture, and explain why Mt. Hope is who we are with it. Do some reading in advance… the texts are all up there where Scott read them to us. Then, let’s seek out the scriptures together!! Much love to all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend Hey Friends…
Let’s get back together again this Sunday! Three reasons: First, simply because we miss seeing everyone all in one place together. Now that summer is over, let’s meet! Secondly, we are launching a brand-new fall teaching series that I believe will have profound impact on how we follow Jesus. But perhaps most importantly, I want to find out if you and I are weirdos, or if we are just plain normal. “Whoa, Chris… hang on… did you just call me a weirdo?” Well, before you get offended, hear me out… more on this in Deeper Thoughts below. But first…wow… a TON of stuff happening as we kick off our fall season: · TOMORROW, September 7, 11:00 a.m: join us for a memorial service to celebrate the life of our dear friend Chris Nicholson and share a delicious meal afterwards in his honor. For those able to bring a potluck dish, please click here to sign up for what you’ll bring. If you want to try your hand at one of Chris’s great recipes, click here for some of his favorites! o IMPORTANT: So our hospitality team who worked so closely with Chris can attend the memorial service--rather than being downstairs fixing everything up—if you are bringing food, please arrive no later than 10:50 a.m. so we can get your items staged and the team upstairs for service. o If you are unable to attend, you can click here for a livestream of the service in real-time. This link may also work for later “on demand” viewing. · THIS Sunday, we launch our new fall teaching series “The Normal Christian Life: Not Weak, Not Weird, Not Wandering.” This series will be an intensive study of the Book of Acts—a bold snapshot of what following Jesus looks like when it is truly “normal.” More on this in Deeper Thoughts below. · Also this fall, look for a series of powerful prayer and worship gatherings, prayer vigils, and at-home guided prayer experiences. As a church family, let’s seek the face of God for our future, to believe God for supernatural provision for our facility expansion, and to listen to the Holy Spirit for each of our individual callings. I’ll tell you more about this on Sunday. · Jump into a small group this fall! We’ll be working through the Book of Acts together, and there’s no better time to get involved with a fresh start. We’ll tell you more and give you a path to involvement on Sunday! · Ladies: Put on your cowboy boots and hat and come line dancing with us on Saturday, September 14 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. Click here for more info and to RSVP! PLUS… save the date for Saturday, October 19 from 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. for a One-Day Women's Retreat at the Mt. Hope Pavilion! More details to come! · All-Church Workday… come hang with an amazing group of people while helping spruce up the church facility and campus on Saturday, September 21, 9:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and you who are very certain you’re not weird. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… What has been your experience with religion? With Christianity? Can I tell you mine? I grew up in a fairly agnostic home. My folks never really wanted much to do with religion. We had a perfunctory little bit here and there—Christmas Eve and occasionally Easter; for a couple of years, we tried the “family goes to church every Sunday” thing at the local Presbyterian church. It was mediocre at best. Anyone remember those little clip-on neckties? They were a perfect fit for miniature 8-year-old Chris. I got very little out of church. All I remember the minister talking about were the funny cartoons he read that morning in the newspaper. For real. That’s all I remember. Nothing about Jesus. Nothing about the power of God to transform me. Nothing about the need to give my life over to Jesus and be saved. And certainly nothing about being filled with the Holy Spirit and God’s anointing. Simply put, to me, religion was lame. Church was even more lame, Christianity irrelevant. And I never heard about the radical, life-transforming, world-altering, filled-with-power side of Jesus Christ. This led 8-year-old Chris to grow up to be the very wise 10-year-old Chris who boldly declared on the religion page of his Cub Scouts badge book that I was an atheist. I did not believe in God. When I told my parents that was what I was writing in my book, they shrugged. Then at age 14, I met Phil and Carolyn Holliday. Their son Brian promised a robust social life at their church’s youth group which might satisfy my new-found interest in young ladies. So, I went. And hated it. At first. But then I saw the power. The youth pastor was a total fanatic, his eyes filled with fire and passion. Many of the students would raise their hands and adore God--sometimes even weep—during worship. Teens were devoting all their energy to living for God. They prayed with authority and boldness. They expected the miraculous, and at times, they saw it. They went “witnessing”—a 1980’s version of going door-to-door to tell strangers about Jesus Christ and ask them if they wanted to be saved. New teenagers came to youth group in droves, and almost every one of them gave their lives to Jesus the first time they showed up. One night, we went “witnessing” at the Park View High School football game over in Sterling. The fire in our souls was so intense that for hours after the game, we sat in the back of Guy Wilson’s pickup truck and prayed for the Holy Spirit to baptize us with His power—just like Jesus instructed his disciples to seek in Acts 1:4-8. Jesus answered. I was forever different. My parents thought I had joined a cult. But what I had tapped into was real Christianity—not the stale, lifeless, going-through-the-motions drudgery of the old churches we had visited. This was authentic. This was power. This was transformation. Why am I telling you this? I believe that far too many Americans—even many American “Christians”—experience faith as a drudgery at worst, and at best, a mediocre adjunct activity to their otherwise super-busy lives. What’s worse, most Americans think that’s the normal state of religion. To them, it’s all that Christianity is meant to be, and all that it is capable of being. When Americans see someone over-the-top, super-devoted to Jesus Christ, they consider them a fanatic. Someone weird. Someone really abnormal. But when we read the New Testament, crazy intensity about Jesus is described as if it were just plain normal. The power of the Holy Spirit is standard. Seeing the promises of God fulfilled is ordinary. Radical Christ-following--even to the point of persecution and death—is typical. Do you see this kind of Christianity these days? Do we see it even here at Mt. Hope? Let’s go “all in” to look at the vibrant Christianity of the Bible. Let’s be bold and honest enough to look in the mirror and see if we are anything like the “normal” pattern of Holy Spirit-filled, supernaturally empowered Christ-following that the New Testament describes. Or are we something less “normal”? “The Normal Christian Life: Not Weak, Not Weird, Not Wandering.” Are you up for discovering what this really looks like and how to step into God’s very real plan for your life? I am. I need this. I hope you’ll join me. Here we go… Sunday morning, 10:00 a.m. Let’s meet!! 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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