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Hey friends… There are two things I hope you didn’t miss. If you did, both can be recovered. One will bless, inspire, and guide you in your personal growth. The other will—if you get it—revolutionize absolutely everything about your life. Am I overselling it? Nope. Curious? I’ll tell you more in Deeper Thoughts below…
But first, just a few reminders: · Join us for our Annual Christmas Pageant and Christmas Party, Sunday, December 7, 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. This extremely fun Christmas event has become a Mt. Hope favorite, with our Kids Connect and teens leading us through the story of Christmas followed by a great potluck Christmas fellowship dinner. Click here for more info and to sign up for the potluck and bring some yummy treats! o Parents: TOMORROW, Saturday, November 22 is our first full rehearsal for the pageant, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. · Teens: Youth Group Sunday, 11:30 – 1:00 p.m. Snacks, connection and deep dive discussion. Ping Jess Sauder for anything youth related… [email protected]. · Ladies: Join us for our December Tea and Cookie celebration, Saturday, December 13 from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. at the church. Join us for food, fellowship, games and fun as we celebrate the Christmas season. Click here for more info and to RSVP! · THIS week’s “The Daily Six” continues our super-special six minutes each morning in the Word of God, Monday through Wednesday, on our YouTube channel. We’ll skip Thursday (Thanksgiving), and then Friday have some fun taking you behind the scenes as we produce The Daily Six. If you’d like to receive daily email reminders and you’re not already getting them, click here to sign up! OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and you who actually enjoy missing things. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts: We all miss stuff. Some of it matters; some doesn’t. When it’s a big deal we missed--an important meeting at work, an assignment, a major bill that was due—realizing we missed it can bring a good deal of embarrassment. When it’s something we would prefer to miss--a car accident, a dental appointment, a large hairy spider walking past—skipping it can be a real relief. Sometimes we don’t realize what we missed was indeed something of great value. The first of two things I hope you didn’t miss: On Thursday and Friday this week, two of my dear friends shared vulnerably and powerfully their personal stories of how God’s Word met them during tremendous hardships. Through perseverance and faith in God’s Word, they discovered strength, transformation, healing, hope, and victory. If you missed Thursday or Friday’s Daily Six episodes, PLEASE jump in with us… you will be blessed. Click here to see Melissa Wiggins’ testimony from Thursday and click here to see Mason Duckworth’s from Friday. It will be well worth it. I promise! The second thing you might have missed is far more powerful. And important. Here it is: It is a choice. Did you make it? Or did you miss it? One of the beautiful aspects of being created in God’s image is our ability to choose. Theologically, this is called “sovereignty.” In the common vernacular, we call it “free will.” You have been given the irrevocable privilege to set your own direction by choice. The outcome and results of that choice are often beyond your ability to control. But the decision to start down a particular course of action, thought, belief, or idea is entirely yours. Since some choices lead to better outcomes than others, God often has a strong opinion of what we should choose. He recommends those choices with firm instruction in His Word. But we still have the choice. I wonder if you might have missed the most important choice of them all. I know I miss it sometimes (often?). The choice is faith. · Joshua 24:15: “Choose this day whom you will serve…” · Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding…” · Mark 11:22: “Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God…” · James 1:6: “But when you ask, you must believe…” All these instructions are stated in the imperative. By telling us to do it, it means it is our choice to believe. By telling us to do it, God is recommending this choice as the path to life and abundance. It is our choice, but He really, really wants us to make it. But here’s the twist: The choice to believe God is not to muscle up a mindset modification. It is not so much a choice to change your thinking. It is a choice to change your source. The Bible tells us that faith is a gift that comes from God (see Ephesians 2:8-10). But we are instructed to choose faith. The gift is in the source—where faith comes from. Our decision is to choose the source. Where does faith come from? Romans 10:17—“Faith comes from hearing, hearing the Word of God.” Faith comes from God’s Word. As we hear it—hear it deeply in our soul, listening to its wisdom, owning its truth—faith is formed. But that formation doesn’t happen by osmosis. It happens by choice. When we choose to receive the Word of God as a distinct and final revelation of truth, bold and power-filled faith in God occurs. When we choose to let our faith be guided by our emotions, experiences, expectations, culture, or anything in this world, we’ll have faith—but it will be faith in the things of this life, not in God. This Sunday, let’s meet and dig into this choice. Last Sunday, we talked about choosing the source of our confidence as the Lord and not our own strength. This week let’s open the next layer—choosing the source of our faith instead of being blown here and there by whatever worldly idea is circulating around us. Do a little advance reading if you can… Check out Hebrews 12:1-3, 2 Timothy 3:14-17, and James 1:19-25. Then… let’s meet! 10:00 a.m. Sunday… bring your Bibles and a pen! God’s Word to us will be good. So good. Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend [email protected] (*note the new email address!!)
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… three things you really shouldn’t miss. Hey there, friends… today’s Friday letter contains a profound word of encouragement for you. There is also a heartfelt honor we need to share. And there are three friends you MUST not miss. I’ll tell you more in Deeper Thoughts below…
But first, THIS weekend is big…so much going on: · Teens: Don’t miss FIRE Worship Night… TOMORROW, Saturday November 15 from 6:00 – 8:30 p.m. Join us at the Mt. Hope Firepit for pizza, connection, music, sharing, and prayer. PLUS, a campfire and s’mores! Invite a friend and dress warmly! o ALSO: Youth Group Sunday, 11:30 – 1:00 p.m. Snacks, connection and deep dive discussion. Ping Jess Sauder for anything youth related… [email protected]. · Ladies: TOMORROW, Saturday, November 15 is our annual “Friendsgiving” event--11:00 – 1:00 p.m. at the church. Join us for food, fellowship, games and fun as we celebrate our many blessings. Turkey and ham are provided; bring a side dish to share… oh, and bring a friend, too! Click here for more info and to RSVP! o Also… save the date for December 13 for our Christmas cookie exchange. More details to come! · TWO memorials for our loved ones this weekend: o Priscilla Shi was a beloved friend to many of our congregation who knew and worshipped with her at CFC and Bridge Community Church. Pastor Will Cravens will lead a memorial service TOMORROW, Saturday, November 15, at 3:00 p.m., at Christian Fellowship Church, 44505 Atwater Drive, Ashburn. All are welcome. o Our church family will celebrate the memory of our beloved Gordon Cavallero THIS Sunday morning through a brief segment during church. · It’s time to mark your calendars for our Annual Christmas Pageant and Christmas Party! This extremely fun Christmas event has become a Mt. Hope favorite, with our Kids Connect and teens leading us through the story of Christmas followed by a great potluck Christmas fellowship dinner. 5:00 – 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, December 7. Click here for more info and to sign up for the potluck and bring some yummy treats! · THIS week’s “The Daily Six” is going to be super-special– six minutes each morning in the Word of God, Monday through Friday, on our YouTube channel. If you’d like to receive daily email reminders and you’re not already getting them, click here to sign up! OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and you who prefer to not know what I’m excited about. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts: Three things that I am sure will bless you: 1) A profound word of encouragement; 2) an important honor to share; 3) three friends you MUST not miss. A word of encouragement: Have you felt a heaviness about the character-after-character, story-after-story study of the Old Testament we’ve been calling “Knowing God”? I know that I have. Literally every single person we have studied so far has been embroiled in either some great sin or some great tragedy or hardship in their lives. Adam and Eve started us off by gobbling on the forbidden fruit which poured evil into every human life to come. Yea, team! Smart move. From there, their first kids brought jealousy and murder to the table. Noah had to build a boat to save creation from God’s grand reset of humanity. Job picked his sores with broken pottery while trying to stay faithful to God after losing everything. Abraham impregnated his house maid. Isaac let his wife be taken by the king so he could go free. Jacob stole his brother’s birthright. Joseph was sold into slavery and ended up imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Moses murdered an Egyptian and spent 40 years as a fugitive… On and on it goes. Tired yet? But so many of you have been telling me that oddly, the repetitive cycles of sin and rebellion we read over and over again in the Old Testament have given you hope. We read these Old Testament stories to learn how God relates with humans. We see ourselves in them—cycles of sin, rebellion, tragedy and hardship that are an inextricable part of our lives… thanks again, Adam and Eve! But more hopefully, we see God’s grace and mercy over them. Fast forward to Jesus. Beyond these sinful cycles, we read the New Testament to find out how it all works for us NOW, and who we can become NOW. You and I see ourselves in the Old Testament characters for sure. But the New Testament tells us we do not need to stay parked in their story. In fact, the New Testament is “confident of better things in your case—things that accompany salvation” (Hebrews 6:9). This Sunday, we will begin a new mini-series within the context of our larger study of the Old Testament. Circling through the New Testament book of Hebrews, we will discover the link between the Old and New covenants of God. We’ll see what this has all been building towards. “Confident of Better Things,” we’re calling this mini-series. Bring your Bibles and a pen!! An important honor to share: Gordon Cavallero was a core part of our church family for a number of recent years. Super-quiet, he was always faithful, generous, and loving. You probably met him either at the back sanctuary doors where he often served as a greeter, or at a church-wide workday which he never missed, or out in the parking lot with Jeff Lyerly being your first “hello” on Sunday. Shortly after he passed a few weeks ago, his family met privately to memorialize him. To offer you the chance to honor his memory and celebrate his life, we will focus about 10 minutes during our worship service THIS Sunday to remember Gordon. His family sent us some beautiful photographs and words to share with you. Three friends you MUST not miss: Starting THIS Monday, we will begin to air two weeks of our Daily Six video series that in my opinion will be some of the most meaningful content we’ve ever produced. I will sit with my wife, Sherri, and two of my great friends—Melissa Wiggins and Mason Duckworth—as we study the scriptures together. They will share their own stories of how the Word of God, and our Old Testament characters in particular, have transformed their lives. Their stories are compelling, encouraging, and convicting. You’ll have a hard time not opening your Bible after these episodes! Jump in with us each morning, Monday through Friday, on our YouTube channel. If you’d like to receive daily email reminders and you’re not already getting them, click here to sign up! OK… that’s it. Shall we meet up? 10:00 a.m. Sunday!! Much love to you all… 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
42507 Mt. Hope Road
Ashburn, VA 20148
[email protected]
703-729-2707