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Hey friends… We asked last week on Easter, “So what?” Why is the resurrection of Jesus relevant to you? This Sunday, let’s go a layer deeper. Not only “so what?” but now, “what’s next?” Let’s check in quickly about it in Deeper Thoughts below…
BUT first… just a couple of notes to know…
OK… that’s it for today for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts I have a scavenger hunt for you to do before Sunday. Jesus said something very relevant, and I wonder if you know about it. Or could find it. “It’s good for you that I go away,” he said. Jesus bailing out on us seems like the opposite of what we want. I don’t know about you, but my whole goal of faith is to get closer to Jesus, not farther away. I want Jesus active in my life, helping me, being present with me, relating with me. You? So, when he said it’s better that he take off, wha…??? Scavenger hunt: Can you find where he said this? Google might point you in the right direction if you have no idea. Seriously… can you go look it up? Scavenger hunt part two: Don’t just read it and be proud you found it (though, great job in getting there!). Now… figure out the context. What is the point and the goal of why he wanted to bail out? What good will it do you? What do you get in return? Why is that relevant to you? Finally, scavenger hunt part three: Look inside yourself. Do you have what Jesus promised and what Jesus wanted to accomplish thriving within you? Are you uncertain of what it all means? Do you need help figuring it out (which is totally OK, BTW)? I know I’m leaving you hanging. I’m doing it on purpose. (“Thanks, Chris. You’re my bud.”) I am SO excited for you to discover what Jesus was up to after the resurrection. As I have been telling you the last couple of Sundays, Holy Week really wasn’t about all that happened on Holy Week. Yes, the cross was important (understatement of the year!), but it wasn’t the end goal. It was just the beginning. The resurrection was monumental. We learned last Sunday it was so that you and I, too, could be resurrected (see Romans 6:4-6 and Colossians 3:1-3). But wait! There’s even more!! Jesus is bailing out on us in just about 40 days. He will spend some quality time with his disciples for forty days after the resurrection, but then he is out. And he said this is really good. Let’s do this: You do some digging into when and why Jesus said this. Search out the whole context. Ask the Lord to reveal some stuff to you. Pray for God’s revelation to you. Listen carefully in your spirit. Write down your questions and doubts. Then, we’ll talk more about it as we meet for this week’s Resurrection Sunday, 10:00 a.m. sharp… Don’t be late… bring your your Bible and a pen!! Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend [email protected]
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A blessed Good Friday to you, dear friends. Notice I did not say “do not miss HIS resurrection.” You know we celebrate that this Sunday, right? The most important day in all of Christianity is when we contemplate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know you won’t miss it… Easter Morning at 9:00 or 10:30 a.m. I’m not worried about that. I am concerned, however, about YOUR resurrection. *That* one could get missed if we’re not careful. Let’s talk in Deeper Thoughts below…
BUT first…
OK… that’s it for today for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts Roughly one-thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-six years ago there was a violent earthquake in Jerusalem. A massive angel shook the earth as he rolled back a 3,500-pound, five foot tall and one-foot-thick stone, plopped down on it and sat. Gosh… wouldn’t that have been so cool to see? Bam, the angle takes a seat. The Roman guards who were filled with hate and sin “were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men” (Matthew 28:4). “Greetings,” Jesus said to the ladies who had come to the tomb with spices for his embalming. Translate that to modern English: “Hey there, ladies. What’s up?” So cool. But so what? Is this merely a story in the Bible meant to encourage and inspire us? Is this to just create in us a fairy tale image of Jesus’s memory being alive in our hearts? Or did this really, literally occur? And what do I DO with this? This story is not meant to stand alone. This is because it is not just a story. It is a reality. This event was the most transformative experience that humankind has ever known. Not because it happened to one man—Jesus—but because of what has happened to hundreds of millions of believers who have embraced not only HIS resurrection, but also THEIRS. When Jesus died on the cross (remembered today on Good Friday), a grand transaction occurred in the spiritual realm: “When you were dead in your transgressions and sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sin, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross… and triumphing… by the cross” (Colossians 2:13-15). Did you miss it? Your sins were forgiven. Check. The letter of God’s Law that stood opposed to our wickedness was nailed to the cross. Every detail, every code, every regulation we have violated before God was cancelled. But wait! There’s more!! Did you miss it? “God made you alive” (Colossians 2:13). You and I were dead. Spiritual doornail. Done. Failed. Six feet under. Kaput. But then there was a resurrection. HIS resurrection, yes. But that wasn’t all. YOUR resurrection occurred, too. “We were therefore buried with him…into death [our sins were nailed to that cross, and our sinful bodies were spiritual buried with him in that tomb] in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4). “If we were united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection” (Romans 6:5). This has tremendous implications for our lives… *IF* we will not miss it. “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Colossians 3:1-2). Beloved, if this physical resurrection really took place; if that big and tall angel sat so hard on a 5-foot boulder that an earthquake rocked the city; if the God of the Universe embodied in Jesus could not be held down by the grave… then you and I need to respond. There is a setting of our hearts and minds that we are called to do. There is a change of focus that will change our reality. In short: We need to show up for our own resurrection because Jesus showed up for his. Let’s talk more about this as we meet for a mighty Resurrection Sunday, 9:00 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. sharp… Don’t be late… bring your friends and your Bible!! Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend Hey there, friends… Building on our thoughts from last week, what is the goal of our Christianity? Good Friday is one week from today; Easter just 9 days away. So what? What does this really—practically—do for us? Might the whole goal be something different than we think? Let’s talk in Deeper Thoughts below…
BUT first…
OK… that’s it for today for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts I asked you a direct and somewhat poignant question last week. Here it is in case you missed it: Have you matured past your faith only being about confirming a ticket to heaven and having God answer prayers for your wants and needs? And, as I emphasized last week, this question is not to shame you at all. It is to offer you something amazingly better. This Sunday, I want to go a layer deeper on something I think we can all relate with. It’s in the lane of forgiveness. I believe that many of us—maybe most (*I know this is true of me)—began our faith journey with Jesus focused on the forgiveness of sins. When I was first introduced to Jesus, that was what I needed him for. I didn’t want to go to hell when I died. I knew I was sinning a bunch and didn’t want God to be mad. Someone told me Jesus died to forgive my sins, and I’d better ask him into my life so those sins would indeed be forgiven. Awesome deal. Count me in. I’m saved, praise God!! As I got older, sin became less frequent. Maturity does a thing or two for us. But also as I got older, the less-frequent sins sometimes became more consequential. Enter the story of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11. If you’ve been with us on The Daily Six this week, we have explored this tragic story of the “man after God’s heart” spiraling into tremendous, gut-wrenching, life-destroying sin. Adultery, cover-up, murder. It was a BIG deal. On one front, I hope David’s story encourages you that even the most godly among us can still blow it—meaning that you are not a freak when sin trips you up. You haven’t lost your place with God. But it still matters. Sin is still a BIG deal. And this is where we enter the goal of the story. Over the course of this week, we’ll move through the holiest cycles of the Christian calendar—from Palm Sunday through Good Friday into Easter. The meaning of these sacred days is unmistakable. Messiah has come as King of the Jews to die on a cross so our sins can be forgiven. Death could not hold him down; three days later he rose victorious over death and hell, and we have been set free! But do we misunderstand the goal? David knew that he needed forgiveness of sins. Check. So do I. But wait… there’s more! Forgiveness of sins is only the beginning. This Holy Week, let’s look at the life of David and how God met him in the most horrific cycles of his life. Read Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 in advance—two beautiful chapters of the Bible he wrote while tumbling through this worst of moments. We will see something sure to broaden the goal for us… and it will be far, far more abundant than just the forgiveness of our sins. Curious? Then, let’s meet! Sunday, 10:00 a.m. sharp… Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen!! Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend Hey there, beloved… Question for you: Why are you a Christian? What good does it do you? What do you hope to get out of having a relationship with God? These are critical questions. And while there may not be right or wrong answers, what we feel and believe about these things determines everything about how and why we live out our life with God. More on this in Deeper Thoughts below…
BUT first…a few quick updates…
BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts My little 12-year-old self was terrified of our house burning down in the middle of the night. We had a neighbor’s home catch fire down the street, and you can image how that effected my immature little brain. I had just recently been introduced to the idea that God exists by my buddy Chris Foley who lived across the street. In between wintertime sledding down his steep backyard hill and summertime playing soldiers in the woods, Chris explained to me who Jesus was and how to be born again. I saw an excellent deal in what he offered. First, I could be sure to not go to hell when I died, which held an eerily similar fear to my housefire phobia. And secondly, I could ask God every night before I went to sleep that He’d prevent our home from burning down. That’s all kind of cute, isn’t it? As I matured a bit, my newfound pivot from atheist to Christian broadened only slightly. When I finally gave into accepting Jesus and truly being born again at the age of 14, the assurance of heaven became more real, and the prayer requests evolved to things 14-year-old boys are concerned with—namely God’s favor with the young ladies I was growing fond of. It would be another couple of years before I realized Christianity was far bigger and much more meaningful that just a ticket out of hell and a God to whom I could appeal for a few key things I wanted. May I ask you a poignant question? While I trust that most of our readers have a greater natural maturity than pre-teen little Chris, have you matured past your faith only being about your eternal security and your hope in God’s blessings and provisions for your wants and needs? This question is not to shame you at all. It is to offer you something amazingly better. I think a great number of Christians haven’t been told that God offers something SO much more meaningful and life-transforming than access to heaven and an audience to our prayer requests. Certainly, many believers have never experienced anything more. How do I know this? I listen to how we pray. Again… please… feel no scorn in this. But stop and consider: When you pray, do you simply and only ask God for things? They may indeed be quite important things. We pray for a loved one to get over their physical ailments (this is our most common prayer request, and almost exclusively what we pray for in group settings). We might pray for an unemployed friend to get a job. Or we might ask God to comfort someone we know who just lost a loved one. These are good things to pray for, and the Bible tells us to do so. But I almost never hear someone pray out loud for an internal, spiritual transformation. It’s super-rare to be in a small group where somebody boldly and persistently asks God for His tangible presence to fill their hearts. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been with a brother or sister who fell on their faces before God in a group setting to plead with the Lord for His healing of their souls rather than the healing of their bodies. It’s almost unheard of to see someone crying out to God in deep, heartfelt repentance. People kneeling at the altar at church on a Sunday just about never happens. It didn’t used to be this way. Wind the clock back just 30 years ago or so. At least in the Fairfax County church I grew up in, there was a deep and passionate appeal to God at the altar every Sunday where I would see dozens of adults kneeling around prayer benches at the front of our sanctuary. Loud voices could be heard as they cried out to God for His mercy over the hardness of their hearts. Believers would weep for the presence of the Lord to wash over them. The response to a sermon from God’s Word was bold and hungry as believers came forward to offer God their whole hearts in prayer that He would help them align with this biblical truth. In short, these believers were believers for much more than receiving heaven and help. They hungered for the tangible presence of God, where an abundant life of joy and a clean and holy conscience was the outcome of their faith. They wanted to see God in their spirit. They wanted to hear God’s voice in the inner quietness of their soul. They cared far more to find God’s heart than to get God’s help. King David longed for this same thing. And as He broke through his own hardness of heart, he found the tangible presence of God which was filled with crazy levels of joy. Would you like this kind of breakthrough? Do you know how to get it? This Sunday, I want to explore this from a rather unlikely text of scripture. Dig around 2 Samuel 6 and 1 Chronicles 15 for a bit before Sunday… it’s where we were all week on The Daily Six. Then, let’s meet! Sunday, 10:00 a.m. sharp… Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen!! Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend [email protected] … your clocks… (and your heart??) Don’t forget that Saturday night we change over to Daylight Savings Time. “Spring forward” to have one hour less sleep before church…yippie! But then, let’s meet to discover the heart change that God can bring when we are willing to surrender all our ambitions to the One who knows far better how to get us to our best life! More on this in Deeper Thoughts below…
BUT first…a few updates…
OK… that’s it for today for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts There is a type of heart that God wants for us. Some of us are there, some are not. All of us can gain this heart… it’s a heart that God Himself will forge in us if we let Him. Jesus explained the heart problem we have. He used soil as the illustration, revealing that our hearts are found along a spectrum of hardness to softness. Read all about it in Matthew 13:1-23. Heart problems are serious. In the physical realm, hardened arteries lead to big difficulties. Stuff gets hardened enough, the surgeon needs to go in and replace a few things. In the spiritual realm, the greatest of all Surgeons promises a full-blown heart transplant: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). Do you notice who is the one replacing the heart? Often in Christian spirituality, people hear teachings about the things in our hearts that have gone wrong. We hear that we need to surrender destructive patterns in our hearts—pride, ambition, controlism, etc. We hear teachings like we’ve been reading about King Saul and King David where God “does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). We hear all these things, and then immediately go to work trying to change our hearts. We try to fix what we’re told is broken inside. But what if the role I play in a spiritual heart change is not what I think it is? It might sound really silly, but can you imagine me assembling all my tools by the bathroom mirror and planning to handle my own clogged artery bypass? Not possible, correct? In the natural realm, the only role I could play in my own heart surgery is to show up for all the appointments and surrender to the surgeon. Lay down. Surrender my plans. Clear the calendar. Submit to the surgery. And it would save my life. In the spiritual realm, the surgery is no different. I have no more power to change my spiritual heart than I do my physical one. The Great Heart Surgeon alone has the skills and ability to do the transforming. But I do have to show up for the surgery. First, I must recognize the need to see a doctor and be diagnosed (spiritually: Be in the Word of God to learn what is unhealthy about me). I must attend the pre-op appointments to learn what needs changed (spiritually: Be in the Word and learn what a clean heart looks like). I must accept the Surgeon’s authority and wisdom to renovate my heart (spiritually: submit to the Lordship of Jesus over everything I value, believe, and desire… let Him change my mind on all manner of ideas). I must clear my agenda for the many weeks of the Surgeon’s work and recovery (spiritually: surrender my plans and ambitions to the Lord). Then I must show up and lay down in the operating room (spiritually: get on my face before the Lord… go to the altar… surrender). Friends, we need profound change in our hearts. We all do. But those changes cannot be driven by us. We play a huge part—we must show up and surrender to the surgeon. But the change of heart belongs to the Lord. And if we show up, He promises us He will do the surgery. As we study the Old Testament characters of Saul and David, we are looking in on the very messy lives of Israel’s first two political leaders. Men of great power, the pressures and temptations they faced were astronomical. Both were men that God could have worked with to accomplish great things for His people. But only one had a heart that was ready to respond. Join us this Sunday as we continue our new mini-series exploration of “Finding the Heart of God.” We will see some parallel patterns we likely have with their story… but not so we can come away with a heavy heart and assemble our own surgery kit by the bathroom mirror. We won’t be able to fix ourselves… nor do we need to. We have a Great Physician who promises us SO much better care! I can’t wait to be with you all on Sunday, 10:00 a.m. sharp… Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen!! Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend [email protected] 703-999-4845 (c) Hey, Beloved… Will you join us in prayer? Tonight from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m., the Elders are gathering at the church to seek the face of God once again about the future of Mt. Hope, and in particular, the big decision our congregation will be making on Sunday. We would love for you to join us for any (or all) of our time together tonight. Come pray with us (come and go as you like) as we seek God for wisdom, provision, guidance, resource, and most importantly, His anointing. But why do we need to pray? Don’t we already know what God is doing? Do we really need to ask Him for something He already has in the works? Great questions. Let’s talk in Deeper Thoughts below… BUT first… the reminder details…
Other important stuff to know:
OK… that’s it for today for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts Why do we need to pray about everything going on? Hasn’t God already directed our course? Don’t we already have a collective impression of what He wants us to do? Isn’t the momentum among our people obvious? Don’t we already have a solid plan that we are convinced God is leading us to? This is exactly why we need to pray. “To a man belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue” (Proverbs 16:1). “In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps” (Proverbs 16:9). “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end is leads to death” (Proverbs 16:25). You might have read these passages earlier this week if you were with us on The Daily Six. (If not, click here to jump in and hear the impression God has been giving me over the last many weeks.) You see, prayer is not simply asking God to do what we want God to do. In fact, that’s really not godly prayer at all. Oh, we’ve mastered the art of telling God what we want. We know how to make a list, and “please, Mr. God, would you do it this way?” I think God might recoil a bit when we pray like this. Last Saturday at the Guys Growing Godlier men’s conference a few of us attended, my good friend John Ackerman so wisely put it this way: “Prayer is not about getting God to provide me as much comfort in my life as divinely possible. God does not work at my beck and call. Prayer is not about getting better and better at getting God to do what I want Him to do… what I think He should do because I already know what needs to be done.” Oh… and this is important: “Prayer is neither magical incantation nor mere ritual; it is relational conversation grounded in faith.” Prayer is not asking God to do things. It is seeking God for His direction, wisdom, provision, and guidance for the plans He has for us (see Jeremiah 29:11-13). It is searching for His voice—that SO quiet internal impression that the Holy Spirit is speaking. Prayer is a conversation where we listen more than we talk, where we surrender more than we press for something, where we bask in God’s love more than we hunger for a particular outcome. So yes… we are gathering tonight to pray. Not to ask, but to seek (see Matthew 6:33). Not to get God to do anything, but to hear God’s heart. Would you join us? Tonight, anytime from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Or Sunday at 9:15 a.m. Or pray on your own at home (click here for recommended prayer points). Let’s seek the Lord together in bold surrender, calling on Him to be near to us. “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed” (Proverbs 16:3). Not because we got the incantation right, but because we got our hearts right before the Lord. I can’t wait to be in God’s Word with you on Sunday as we begin a new mini-series exploration of “Finding the Heart of God,” Sunday, 10:00 a.m. sharp… Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen!! Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend [email protected] Hey friends…
...But He is speaking. Jesus said that “my sheep know my voice” (John 10:4, 14-26). If we are “in Christ,” the inner places of our spirit are indeed subtly tuned to know and hear the impulses of the Holy Spirit as His Spirit interfaces and witnesses to our spirit (see Romans 8:16). But for most of us, this voice is foreign. We may not think we have ever experienced it. And if we have, we may not recognize that we have heard Him… partly because He is SO quiet. More on this in Deeper Thoughts below… BUT first… A call to prayer and decision…
Other important stuff to know:
OK… that’s it for today for you email skimmers and you who don’t want to hear God speak… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts There might a bit of FOMO (fear of missing out) when you hear people say “God told me this…” or “God said…” If you’ve never known for certain that you have heard His voice speaking to you, you can easily spin off into “what’s wrong with me? I must not be as spiritual as they are.” OR… “God must not want to talk to me because I am too sinful,” etc… Some of our problem with hearing the voice of God is that we have misunderstood what this means. We likely have unrealistic impressions of what someone else has experienced when they say God spoke to them. When God speaks to me, it is not audible. It is not bold. It does not come with ANY emotions. I do not feel more spiritual. I am often not in some uniquely holy space. When God speaks to me, it is so stinking silent… so quiet… merely a subtle impression deep inside me somewhere. What is different for me is this: I have learned to recognize the voice of God by learning to differentiate between the impulses in my spirit and the normal instincts of my flesh. This takes a lot of cultivation and even some experimentation. It is a very subtle difference that took me years to distinguish between a silly idea that was emerging from my own desires that I hoped was God’s voice and an actual word from the Lord. Learning to recognize my own selfish motivations and choosing to surrender them to God is an important first step. But the other problem we have with hearing the voice of God is that He is indeed so stinking quiet. God could be his own Seinfeld episode about the “quiet talker.” Have you ever met one of these people? I know a few. They speak so softly that I really cannot hear what they are saying. I often ask them politely if they could speak up. They repeat themselves, but no volume increase has occurred. Do you know who I’m talking about? God is one of those people. Ugh. May I introduce you to Elijah? He was one of those really anointed, really powerful men of God who lived a life of extreme devotion. He loved God so much that he was willing to put it all on the line to force his entire society to face the Living God. He staged a contest between the Lord and all the prophets of a wicked false religion that had captivated all of Israel. The event was stunning. God moved in power. Elijah was a spiritual champion. Could you read all about it before Sunday? 1 Kings 18. But then the discouragement set in. He got seriously depressed. And he struggled to hear from God. THIS we will press into on Sunday. We will discover some really important truths and a practical “pro-tip” about God’s super quiet voice. I can’t wait to be in God’s Word with you on Sunday as we wrap up our exploration of “Hearing the Voice of God.” We’ll see you this Sunday, 10:00 a.m. sharp… Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen!! Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend [email protected] Oh, friends… don’t miss this Sunday if at all possible! Way more than “Super Bowl” Sunday at night, this Sunday morning is our super-important Annual Celebration meeting! God has put a strong word on my heart that will tie together where we have been in our Old Testament study with where God is leading us in the weeks and months ahead. Read Acts 20 and Colossians 2 beforehand and let’s talk! More on this in Deeper Thoughts below.
But first… Here’s what we’ll be doing right after church: · We will receive 14 new Covenant Partners into partnership. · ALL Covenant Partners will renew their commitment to partnership. · We will consider the appointment of two new Elders to the church, as well as a couple of new members to our Board of Administration. · We will unveil the “final” design of our facility expansion plans (to include 3-D walk-around videos), share the final budget estimate, and prepare you for the next super-important decision to be made… which is a “go/no-go” decision in front of us. Please… everyone attend! Our Sunday morning service at 10:00 a.m. will tackle the Word of God for us; our Annual Celebration meeting after church 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. will tackle the various appointments and the building discussions. We will livestream both events for those who are out of town or sick… but if you’re here… please join us in-person!! Other important stuff to know: · Teens: FIRE Youth Worship Night TOMORROW… Saturday, February 7th, 6:00 – 8:30 p.m. – pizza, music, devotional, discussion, and sharing… a perfect opportunity for teens to build a deeper connection with God and each other! We’ll be INSIDE (‘cuz it’s super cold outside!). o And… no youth group Sunday morning, but plan to join us at the Annual Celebration meeting and learn all about where the church is going! · Ladies: Join us Saturday, February 21, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. as we make prayer and gratitude journals to deepen our relationship with God. Click here for more info and to RSVP! o Men: While your ladies are out, join with us for an all-day men’s conference with Christian Fellowship Church and Reston Bible Church on Saturday, February 21, from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. The focus is “Guys Growing Godlier.” Click here for more info and to RSVP! · Parents: We are putting the same challenge forward to kids to bring their Bibles every Sunday for Kids Connect. If you have questions or would like help with an age-appropriate Bible for your kids, contact Chris Bowen at [email protected]. · A memorial service for my stepdad and Mt. Hope member, Larry Motz, will be held on NEXT Saturday, February 14, at 11:00 a.m. All are welcome. · Young Adults: Come hang out with Chris and Sherri (and each other!) at their home, Friday night, February 27, 6:30 p.m. – whenever. Yummy food and great fellowship included. Text or call Sherri at 571-437-3127 for details and to RSVP! OK… that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who don’t want to hear any cool vision. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… I’ve told you a few times lately that God has gripped my heart. Hard. There’s a problem in our national context that He wants to solve… and indeed can solve. But far more importantly, God wants to solve a serious situation in your heart and mine. Oh… and in fact, if the latter gets done (my heart, your heart), it’s a small but mighty step towards solving the other, larger national problem. “There you go again, Chris. Way overselling.” Perhaps. But maybe not? Colossians 2:9 tells us that “all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form….” In other words, everything that makes God who God is was entirely embodied in Jesus Christ. OK, you got that, right? We’ve been taught that our entire Christian lives… Jesus is God in the flesh. Copy. But how does this solve anything here in America or here in my messy heart? That’s found in the very next phrase: “… and you have been given fullness in Christ” (Colossians 2:10). Whoa. Hold the phone. Slow down. Pause. Re-read. Did you catch it? Everything that makes God who God is has been embodied in Jesus, and in Jesus, all that fullness has been poured into… wait for it… you. Friends, this is not just symbolic hyperbole. This is not just warm fuzzy religious encouragement. This is the Word of the Living God. This is a profound promise of the Bible: that everything God wants to be and to do in your life and in our world is found in Jesus Christ, and when you and I choose to be in Jesus, all that “everything” God wants to do is right there available to us. We’ve been seeing hints of this throughout our Old Testament teaching series called “Knowing God.” Character after character over these last 40 weeks, we have seen men and women who encountered God in such profound and supernatural ways. Perhaps we are envious of their experiences. Perhaps we feel so much less than them as we look at our own journey and don’t see such life-altering encounters. OR… perhaps we just haven’t discovered yet how to “hear the voice of God,” and what the prerequisites are to experiencing this fullness. There’s a clue in the phrase “in Christ.” I’ll explain on Sunday. But first, would you slowly and carefully contemplate Colossians 2:1-12? See if the Lord can show you something in His own words well before you hear any of my words. I’m 1,000% certain that anything He speaks into your spirit will be WAY more transformative than anything I have to say. But like the Apostle Paul, my long-winded words (see Acts 20:7-9) come from a deep, deep burden for “declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27, ESV). It’s burning in my heart. When we see it… when we step into it… when we live from it… everything changes. In me, in you, in our church, in our people… and maybe if enough of us truly live in Christ, even in our nation. Hmmm… I can’t wait to be in God’s Word with you. We’ll see you this Sunday, 10:00 a.m. sharp… Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen!! Stay warm… Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend [email protected] Hey, there, beloved… Wow… we missed being with you last Sunday with the snow, but SO many of you joined us online for our 35-minute special snow-day service (Click here if you missed it!). That was so fun and special!
It looks like the snow is staying away this Sunday, so let’s meet in person, shall we? AND… let’s “try this again” to get started on our “Hearing the Voice of God” teaching, baptism, and some amazing testimonies. Details and other stuff to know: · Ladies: We are POSTPONING our women’s event (originally scheduled for TOMORROW, January 31) to NOW be Saturday, February 21, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. as we make prayer and gratitude journals to deepen our relationship with God. Click here for more info and to RSVP! o Men: While your ladies are out, join with us for an all-day men’s conference with Christian Fellowship Church and Reston Bible Church on Saturday, February 21, from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. The focus is “Guys Growing Godlier.” Click here for more info and to RSVP! · Teens: No youth group this Sunday… BUT…. Join us for FIRE Youth Worship Night NEXT Saturday, February 7th, 6:00 – 8:30 p.m. – dinner, connection, worship, devotional and discussion… it’s sure to build deeper connections with God and each other. · Parents: We are putting the same challenge forward to kids to bring their Bibles every Sunday for Kids Connect. If you have questions or would like help with an age-appropriate Bible for your kids, contact Chris Bowen at [email protected]. · THIS Sunday we will continue our teaching series on “Hearing the Voice of God”… and we will be BAPTIZING Raegan Farley, one of our awesome teenagers. Way cool! o Also… we will interview Ryan and Jess Sauder and Samuel and Evelyn Sierra in consideration of their appointment as Elders of our church. o A Q&A and meet and greet with the Sauders and Sierras will follow the service for those who want to dig deeper into their stories and their faith. o Please note: The parking lot and sidewalks have been cleared of snow, but as with most pavement in the area, there is still some patchy ice in various spots. Please come prepared with appropriate footwear and use caution! We will have some extra greeter fellas in the parking lot to help escort anyone who needs an extra hand! · THEN… everyone please join us for our inaugural Annual Celebration and our next Covenant Partners business matters discussion, NEXT Sunday, February 8, 11:45 – 1:00 p.m. Everyone is welcome as we celebrate what God is doing at Mt. Hope, cast vision for what’s next, reveal next steps in our facility expansion, and our Covenant Partners will vote on key decisions! · A memorial service for my stepdad and Mt. Hope member, Larry Motz, will be held on Saturday, February 14, at 11:00 a.m. All are welcome. · Young Adults: Come hang out with Chris and Sherri (and each other!) at their home, Friday night, February 27, 6:30 p.m. – whenever. Yummy food and great fellowship included. Contact Sherri at 571-437-3127 for details and to RSVP! · For our faithful givers to Mt. Hope… thank you for your generosity and support of God’s work in our church! AND… giving statements for your tax records have been sent via email to those from whom we have good email addresses. If you would prefer a paper statement mailed by USPS, please contact Terre Morgan at [email protected]. If you haven't received a statement either way, check your email spam folder, and if it's not there, please reach out to Terre. OK… that’s it for now. We’ll see you this Sunday, 10:00 a.m. sharp… Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen!! Stay warm… Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend [email protected] Hey, friends… With over 6 inches of snow and ice scheduled to arrive from our Heavenly Father by mid-morning Sunday, and the Virginia governor’s declaration of a winter storm emergency asking us to stay off the roads, we are CANCELLING in-person worship services this Sunday morning. BUT… we are still going to meet “virtually” on the livestream at 10:00 a.m.!! Please join us… details below!!
Here’s the plan for Sunday: · We have a 35-minute pre-recorded worship and teaching service in the queue on our YouTube channel… AND… IMPORTANT… this will run as a livestream with the live / real-time chat open so we can connect with each other, give thanks to God, pray together, etc. o We encourage you to join us LIVE and on-time (it’s a super-short service)… I’ll be teaching right up front, kicking off our new mini-series called “Hearing the Voice of God”! You won’t want to miss it! Here’s how: · Click here to open the “Premiere” stream on YouTube which will open at 9:55 a.m. on Sunday OR… you can just go to our YouTube channel and find it there in the “Videos” tab or our YouTube “Home” tab. · Join us in the chat to say hello, give praise to God, offer prayer requests, etc. · I’m going to be super-short in my teaching… just 22 minutes (whaaaa???? Yep! Miracle. Anointing. God is moving…), and my teaching will begin right around 10:04 a.m., so don’t be late!! · Then we’ll have a few minutes of worship… wow, the worship team nailed it this week, and God’s anointing is on it. · We’ll pray, and we’ll be done! This will be a rich time in the Word, and the “virtual” worship and fellowship will be encouraging. NOW… a few other important things: · NEXT Sunday we will continue our teaching series… and we have a BAPTISM of one of our teenagers. Way cool! o Also… we will interview Ryan and Jess Sauder and Samuel and Evelyn Sierra in consideration of their appointment as Elders of our church. A Q&A and meet and greet will follow the service for those who want to dig deeper into their stories and their faith. · THEN… everybody please join us for our inaugural Annual Celebration and our next Covenant Partners business matters discussion, Sunday, February 8, 11:45 – 1:00 p.m. Everyone is welcome as we celebrate what God is doing at Mt. Hope, cast vision for what’s next, reveal next steps in our facility expansion, and our Covenant Partners will vote on key decisions! · Ladies: Join us NEXT Saturday, January 31, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. as we make prayer and gratitude journals to deepen our relationship with God. Click here for more info and to RSVP! · Men: Join us for an all-day men’s conference with Christian Fellowship Church and Reston Bible Church on Saturday, February 21, from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. The focus is “Guys Growing Godlier.” Click here for more info and to RSVP! · A memorial service for my stepdad and Mt. Hope member, Larry Motz, will be held on Saturday, February 14, at 11:00 a.m. All are welcome. · For our faithful givers to Mt. Hope… thank you for your generosity and support of God’s work in our church! AND… giving statements for your tax records have been sent via email to those from whom we have good email addresses. If you would prefer a paper statement mailed by USPS, please contact Terre Morgan at [email protected]. If you haven't received a statement either way, check your email spam folder, and if it's not there, please reach out to Terre. OK… that’s it for now. We’ll see you online this Sunday, 10:00 a.m. sharp… Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen to the table… and your cup of coffee… and your blankets… stay in your PJ’s… Can’t wait… it’s going to be fun!! Stay warm… Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend [email protected] |
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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