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Hey, Beloved… The next two months will look a little different around Mt. Hope, but God is at work, and this will be super-valuable to us all. As a part of our Elder Team’s efforts to ensure the highest levels of healthy ministry, connection to God, and sustainable leadership habits, we are incredibly grateful that the Elders are sending Sherri and me on an 8-week sabbatical to begin after THIS Sunday’s worship service. There’s a bit you might want to know and understand about this time. Let’s talk in Deeper Thoughts below…
But first… a bunch of things to tell you…
OK… that’s it for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… A pastoral sabbatical could be misunderstood as a super-long paid vacation. It is much more than that, and the activities of a sabbatical have far more important dimensions for the health of spiritual leadership than just taking extra time off. Several professional lanes—such as academia, ministry, and some medical, research, or law professions—have practiced sabbaticals for centuries as a means of sharpening their leader’s skills, preparing for seasons of heavy-lift, renewing and refocusing the mind and spiritual habits of the leader, and preventing professional fatigue or burnout. Among many great informational resources out there, click here an excellent article published by Focus on the Family that details the history, purpose, and uniqueness of pastoral sabbaticals. In our context, Mt. Hope Church has long had periodic pastoral sabbaticals as a part of our organizational by-laws. Benchmarking with several local churches in Northern Virginia and the Northstar Church Network that Mt. Hope is a member of, our Elders have researched and developed with me and Sherri some important goals we would like to share with you. First, we are breaking our time into three distinct goal-sets. They are:
Secondly, to properly accomplish the rest, refocus, and development goals of the sabbatical, it is important for us to fully unplug from our ministry, which includes committing to no contact and involvement with our Mt. Hope family during this time. While this will be incredibly difficult for us to be disconnected from you whom we love dearly for this length of time, it will allow us to reset our rhythms and focus all our attention on growth and renewal.
Finally, we ask you to join with us in prayer for God’s vision, His fresh word in our lives, and clear guidance and wisdom for the next chapter of Mt. Hope’s ministry that we are excited to see unfold this fall. We return to be with you on Sunday, August 30. I will be teaching THIS Sunday at our 10:00 a.m. worship service and then begin our sabbatical after church. We will continue our study of the prophets with Micah. Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen!! Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend [email protected] Mt. Hope Summer 2026: A Ten Week Journey with the Prophets God’s people had been given a land and a name: “Israel,” which means “Struggles with God.” Century after century, the Israelites struggled to keep their faith and commitment to God. They abandoned the Lord and turned to idols, worldly ideology, and false religion. So, God raised up prophets to call them back to Him. These men of God offered both warning and promise, challenge and blessing. If we will hear their words as the Word of the Lord for us today, we too can receive the promised blessings as we stay faithful to our God! Our Summer Sundays Teaching Line-up: As Pastor Chris and Sherri Eads are away on sabbatical for rest, renewal, and refocus, we are blessed with a tremendous line-up of gifted teachers who will lead us through the Word of God each Sunday:
Our Summer Teaching Pastors Pastor Chris Campbell – Born and raised in central West Virginia, Chris Campbell spent several decades as a youth pastor and teaching pastor, to include four years as co-pastor with Chris Eads at CrossCurrent Ministries (now Acacia Church) in Ashburn, Virginia. Today, Chris Campbell serves as a licensed therapist and founder of Resolutions Counseling in his hometown of Bridgeport, West Virginia. Pastor Will Cravens – For many years, Will Cravens pastored Bridge Community Church in Ashburn, Virginia, before moving to Florida to serve full-time as a missionary and founder of Endurance Leadership. His wife, Sandra, revitalized our Mt. Hope children’s ministry while serving as interim director in 2023. Pastor Phil Holliday – The Holliday family led our own Pastor Chris Eads to faith in Jesus when he was a teenager in Vienna, Virginia. Phil had a long corporate career as an executive with Mobil Oil before “retiring” to serve as Executive Pastor and leadership consultant to several Northen Virginia churches. Pastor Randy Richardson – His greatest passion being relationally driven spiritual growth, Randy has served as pastor of small group discipleship and lead pastor for multiple churches in Massachusetts and Virginia. Today, while his vocation is in the corporate cyber security world, he and his wife, Debbie, continue to powerfully lead small groups at Mt. Hope Church and beyond. Pastor Samuel Sierra – Married to his beloved Evelyn, Samuel Sierra has a powerful story of healing and redemption as he found Christ and overcame profound addictions in his young adult years. Today he serves as an Elder at Mt. Hope and founder of Real Life Counseling, providing pastoral care to scores of individuals seeking a healed life. Elder Jameson Zoller – Son of our retired Pastor John Zoller, Jameson and his wife Kristie have been pillars of our church for decades, leading in multiple ministries throughout the years such as youth, children, and worship. Jameson is a high school English teacher in Loudoun County and serves as an Elder at Mt. Hope Church.
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Hey there, Beloved… Why is freedom so important to you? Is the impulse you have to both celebrate and defend your freedom simply something political, or does it have roots in your spiritual life as well? I want us to see and know God’s heartbeat on this and how our Christian faith demands something of us in response. Let’s talk in Deeper Thoughts below…
But first… a few quick notes…
OK… that’s it for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… This is a big year to celebrate freedom. We are within just a couple of weeks of the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding upon the principle that all men (and women) were created equal by God, and that the free pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness without the control and coercion of political tyranny is the God-created design of our humanity. (BTW… Fun note: I am a direct descendant of one of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. William Whipple of New Hampshire put his own neck on the line to throw off the tyrannical British monarchy. I have some of his family’s personal books on my shelf at home.) On the federal holiday of July 4, my wife and I plan to walk down to the city park with our close friends and neighbors to watch the Town of Lovettsville light off some airborne explosives to celebrate our freedom. The fireworks are not just intended to be entertaining, even though they certainly are. I love the bright colors, the thump in my chest as they explode, and the silly “oooohs” and “aaaahs” everyone makes when one of those shells proves to be creative. The fireworks have a deeper meaning. They are meant to remind us that freedom from tyranny never comes without a struggle. Usually war. Lovettsville’s [insert your town name] explosives are harmless (and pretty) reenactments of the harmful and deadly shells used in the Revolutionary War of the 1780s and the War of 1812 where we painfully fought to gain and maintain human freedom. Today is another federal holiday, and we would do well to reflect reverently on its meaning, too. While most signers of our Declaration of Independence believed in their hearts the biblical truth that God has created all men and women with equality—formed in the image of God to bear the likeness and design of the Creator—they also were afraid to let that equality to be enshrined in our original, unamended Constitution, bowing to the pressures of culture to separate out women and slaves as unequal in their human rights. In cowering to political pressure, these Founding Fathers—half of whom had biblical theology degrees or served as pastors—violated the revealed truth of Galatians 3:28: “You are all sons [daughters] of God through faith in Christ Jesus… There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ.” It took another war, and more exploding shells, to force and confirm this God-created freedom. In 1861, the United States of America and the newly declared Confederate States of America had it out at the expense of 750,000 American deaths to once and for all settle the freedom of our African American brothers and sisters. In 1863, during this horrifically bloody conflict, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation to declare this freedom complete. But it was not until June 19th, 1865—some 71 days after the Civil War ended—that this message of freedom reached the slaves of Galveston, Texas. Today, our nation has set aside this day to commemorate the good news of freedom and to honor the sacrifice and struggle necessary to secure it. We should all join in this thankfulness. There has been yet another war—and this one perhaps the greatest—to bring to you the personal freedom you enjoy. This freedom is in your interior, in your emotions, in your thoughts, in your desires, in your love, and in your spirit. It is, in fact, the source of our Founder’s belief that God has indeed created equality and freedom as a matter of Divine authority, and any man who opposes such freedom should be overthrown—even by war, if necessary. The war that has been waged against your interior soul has been fought against the greatest tyrannical despot in universal history. His names are many: Satan, the devil, Beelzebub, the Accuser, the evil one. And much blood was also shed to win this war. This war started not with the blood of 750,000 Americans, but rather the blood of the sovereign Lord of the universe, Jesus the Almighty Christ. And then, over the next 2,000 years, best estimates put the number around 71 million Christ-followers who accepted their death as martyrs to bring news of this freedom to every slave to sin throughout the world. Would you pause for some gratitude today? Would you be grateful that the foundation of our political freedoms was laid on July 4, 1776? Would you express great thanks that the message of freedom was confirmed for all Americans on June 19, 1865? And would you worship with great joy that freedom for every soul was purchased by Jesus Christ in 33 A.D.? And what does this call for from you and me? Just like it took the Union Army to enforce the physical freedom already won in Texas, it takes every Christ-follower to enforce by faith in our own lives the spiritual freedom we possess. Stand firm in your resistance to the devil (see Ephesians 6:10-18). Consider yourself no longer a slave to sin (see Romans 6:1-14). And believe and respond to this: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1), not only physical and political freedom from tyranny, but from the spiritual oppression that holds us down when we do not stand by faith in emotional, spiritual, and interior freedom. Let’s meet at 10:00 a.m. Sunday! We will continue our study of the prophet Hosea. He speaks, too, of a deliverance from evil that we do not want to miss. Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen!! Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend [email protected] Hey everybody… What’s your favorite Bible story? Would we be surprised? Maybe one of the super encouraging miracles? Or a character who did mighty exploits for God? Or one of Jesus’s compassionate encounters with a struggling sinner? I bet you my favorite Bible story will in fact shock you. It’s one of the worst stories in there. But it makes me fall in love with God. Curious? Let’s talk in Deeper Thoughts below…
But first… a few quick notes…
OK… that’s it for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… So, we can all agree that God is into morality, correct? Would God ever lead us to do something really bad? Something immoral? The Bible is pretty clear on this one: “God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone” (James 1:13). But what about God leading us to love someone who is caught in deep immorality? Would He ever do that? Check this one out: One time, God told a pastor to marry a prostitute. Yep… you read this right. God led a man of God—a prophet—to marry a woman who openly and publicly sold herself. The preacher was told to build his life with a woman of tremendous unfaithfulness, brokenness, and pain. “When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, ‘Go, take to yourself an adulterous woman and children of unfaithfulness…’” (Hosea 1:2). So, Hosea married Gomer. (A rather unfortunate name, don’t you think?) And then they had kids. And they weren’t all Hosea’s. And they got unfortunate names too: “Not-Loved” was their second kid’s name—the one who likely came about… well… um… through her day-job. Talk about needing therapy when you grow up… “yeah, my mom and dad named me ‘Not-Loved.’” Are you mortified right now? First that I am telling this sordid story in the first place, but then secondly that I am telling you this is my favorite Bible story? “This is all kinds of messed up, Pastor.” Indeed. But it has a purpose. God is not into immorality. God is not into ruining preacher’s lives. God is not into affirming self-destructive behavior. But God is into love. Way into love. God had a personal problem. He wanted to expose the problem to the people He was having the problem with. So, the Lord asked a preacher to live out a lifelong illustration of both God’s problem and God’s solution. God’s problem was that He was in love with a very unfaithful people. “When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, ‘Go, take to yourself an adulterous woman and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.’” (That’s the rest of Hosea 1:2). You see, God’s beloved people were selling themselves into great unfaithfulness, chasing after other gods, other ideologies, other pleasures and pursuits, abandoning their one true God in favor of the shallow lovers of worldly idolatry. And yet, God loved these people as His only wife—His beloved for whom He would do absolutely anything. And before you decide this story is just too gross and click on out of our email, you gotta hear what God… um… I mean what Hosea… I mean what God modeled through Hosea. When Gomer had thoroughly destroyed the heart of her godly preacher-husband, Hosea relentlessly pursued her to return to him, to stay with him, and to love him. He just would not give up. And neither will God. Standing in line at an auction block of slavery where Gomer was being sold by her evil human traffickers, Hosea clung to his thirty pieces of silver and waited patiently for his chance to buy her back [**insert the word “redeem her” here] from her slaveholders so she could be his bride once again. Oh friends… do you see it? “God demonstrates His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). While Gomer was destroying herself and being ravaged by wickedness, Hosea gave up everything he had for her. While we ravage and destroy our hearts by loving worldliness and sin, God gives us everything He has to redeem us back to Him. God called a preacher to marry a prostitute not because He thought that this would be the model for a healthy marriage. Hosea and Gomer did not go on to lead Old Testament marriage conferences. No, God called a preacher to demonstrate through his undying love for a crooked, wayward woman just how much God loves us—we who are also wayward in our own manner. This is going to be an amazing Bible study on the limitless love of God and His scandalous grace towards every single human being. Read Hosea chapters 1-3 beforehand and then let’s meet. 10:00 a.m. Sunday! 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… Do you know the great and joyful promise that God will work out everything in your life for the better? (Hint: check out Romans 8:28.) This may not square well with our perceived reality. Sometimes hardships last for years and might even get worse as we age. But God is not going to leave us to our suffering without also blessing us greatly. Let’s talk in Deeper Thoughts below…
But first… a few big things happening…
OK… that’s it for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… Sometimes pain just happens and God has nothing to do with it. We live in a “fallen world,” a reality where good and evil, sin and righteousness, free will and all manner of stupidity dwells unabated. In many cases, the sufferings we encounter in life are simply the result of living in this unideal, sinful, broken world. Illness is most often just our turn with the failing bodies guaranteed to come upon us all. The death rate among humanity is running right at 100% these days, so an illness that captures our end is simply inevitable. When it happens, God is not surprised, as “all the days ordained for me were written in His book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:16). But this does not mean He arbitrarily “took” us or our loved one in cruelty. Unemployment or financial hardship is usually just the result of world or local economies. Greed, fear, and politics that manipulate business decisions and market values flow unchecked from the sinful nature of man. God is nowhere in our politics, fear, or greed. Betrayal from others, interpersonal wounds that sting, and all manner of abuse and atrocity are 100% the free will choice of people who select evil as their course of action. God has nothing to do with these terrible choices. Tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires, and house fires are most often simply corrupt nature doing its thing—a brokenness that beset all of creation when good and evil was introduced outside the Garden of Eden (see Genesis 3). While God has control over the forces of nature (see Psalm 135:6-7), in most cases it seems clear that He is letting the broken forces of nature run as they are. God may not be in the storms whatsoever (see 1 Kings 19:11-13). BUT… sometimes, hardship is indeed a direct intervention of God. Read Hebrews 12:7-12. The scripture is clear. Sometimes discipline is necessary to lead us to the right relational space with God: living in abundant love as sons and daughters of our loving heavenly Father. Sometimes our hardships are God’s created reality to lead us to repentance. When they are, we should repent, not get fussy with God. I’ve met many a person who acts as if God is to blame--somehow unloving and uncompassionate—for the hardships we encounter. But this simply is not true, and it dishonors everything God has revealed to us in scripture. In the cases where our troubles are the simple outcomes of our fallen physical bodies, the corrupt choices of evil people, or the autopilot throbbing of a broken planet, God is not to blame. You can thank Adam and Eve for introducing evil into our experience, and you can be deeply angry at the evil choices of your sinful neighbor. In the cases where God’s discipline is the cause, we can thank ourselves--not blame God—for having an unrepentant heart that leads a loving and merciful God to place some pain upon us to catch our attention and return us to Him. “Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate” (Joel 2:12-13). Did you read that last phrase? “He is gracious and compassionate.” Period. Always. Every time. The prophet Joel wrote during a season of God’s discipline. A horrific infestation of locusts had beset the land of Israel as a judgment designed to lead a wayward people back to God. But this was not the end of the story. God promised boldly, “I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten” (Joel 2:25). This is a clear and present promise. God will restore us from the years of pain involved in bringing us back to Him. Every. Single. Time. Let’s meet… Sunday, 10:00 a.m. sharp… and study the wondrously gracious promise of God to leverage His discipline and restore us to something so much better. Take a little time in advance to read the prophet Joel. This will be encouraging. And then we’ll party outside for our summer kick-off celebration. 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… Oh wow… you DON’T want to miss this and you don’t want to be late this Sunday! Church starts at 10:00 a.m. (um… ahem… tap, tap… not 10:05… not 10:10…) and you really want to be in your seats by 9:58. “Why,” you ask? This is going to be exciting: We are building our entire worship experience around ten powerful testimonies of transformed lives, sharing with them in the holy sacrament of baptism and celebrating who Jesus is to each of us.
A couple things to know about this…
AND… A few other important things to know:
OK… we’re already way too long for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails… So, with that… C’mon out on Sunday, 10:00 a.m. sharp… This will be one of our most powerful services all year long! Don’t be late… bring your Bible and a pen!! Much love to you all… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend [email protected] Hey beloved… I want to tell you about something I recently experienced, and a special invitation to the people of Mt. Hope Church. I’ll give you a quick heads up in Deeper Thoughts below and then share a little more detail on Sunday morning. Also, as you know Sunday is Mother’s Day, and we do plan to honor all of our ladies—whom I think most of us would agree are the “better half” of humanity. And, to cap it all off, we’ll continue to dig into God’s Word in our series “Knowing God.”
BUT first… a bunch of things happening…
OK… that’s it for today for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… It doesn’t take much effort watching the news to recognize that our nation is profoundly and sharply divided along many important cultural, political, and ideological lines. Some of these divisions are systemic to humanity; some are more immediate conflicts that flow out of short-term political or sociological situations. Some systemic divisions that are commonplace to all of fallen humanity’s history--a result of the nature of sin inbred within each of us—also find pockets of intensity rising up in the more immediate conflagration of current cultural issues. One of these matters that bridges both the systemic and the short-term is the often-troubled relationships between various people groups, races, and ethnicities. Systemic fear, bigotry, racism, and prejudice find its roots in the earliest echoes of Adam and Eve’s knowledge of evil in the Garden of Eden. Read almost any page of the Old Testament with the smallest measure of historical context and you’ll see hatred, fear, discrimination, and prejudice between just about every tribe and people. Spend a little time contemplating the outcomes of the Tower of Babel incident in Genesis 11 and we can see where fear and division got its start as a global human problem. In Genesis 11, God confused the languages of humanity so that we could no longer unite in horrific humanism and godlessness. But this isn’t where He wants the story to end. God had a plan all along to reunite us—not in godless humanism, but in the redeemed, healed, and God-empowered baptism of the Holy Spirit. Genesis 11:1-9 tells of our division’s beginning; Acts 2:1-11 tells of the Day of Pentecost’s reuniting of diverse people under the power of the Holy Spirit. Fast forward to the relatively more “short-term” experiment of the American people. We represent just a handful of centuries among millennia upon millennia of divided, sinful, hate-filled humanity. In our short story, division and oppression between races and ethnicities has been a tremendous theme, as you know. Great strides were made in the elimination of slavery in the 1800s and the pursuit of Civil Rights in the 1900s. We have much to be thankful for and to celebrate--not the least of which is to recognize that almost all of those advances were led by people who were filled with the same Holy Spirit who poured out on the Day of Pentecost. But any honest glance at our present culture must admit there is a long way to go for every tribe, tongue, race, and ethnicity to be truly honored and united as the Holy Spirit desires. Enter this unique opportunity I was recently invited into, and another unique invitation that has been extended specifically to the people of Mt. Hope Church. Six weeks ago, I was invited by the Northstar Church Network--with whom Mt. Hope is deeply connected and I serve on their Board of Directors—to be one of ten white pastors to join ten Black pastors for a two-day intensive retreat exploring what needs to be done to bring greater unity and reconciliation between believers and churches of both races. It was a sacred and special conversation as these 20 shepherds poured out their hearts and experiences as it relates to their story with race and division. I have much to tell you about what I am learning from these beloved new friends of mine. More on that in the weeks and months to come. But for now, let me tell you three quick things, and then we’ll talk more. First, we were each paired one-to-one to build an intentional relationship—one white pastor, one Black pastor. I’ve begun building a wonderful new friendship with Pastor Charles Whitaker who shepherds the River of Life Church in Temple Hills, MD. What a beautiful and godly man. Secondly, the larger group of 20 pastors have continued to meet. We have planned two joint worship evenings to begin the dialogue—to not only experience each other’s cultures with as many of our people who could attend, but to also share publicly the discussions and learnings we have begun. The first of these nights will be held in Landover, MD, Sunday night, May 31 at 6:00 p.m. More on this to come… but mark your calendar… because… Finally, Mt. Hope Church has received a personal and specific invitation from Pastor John Jenkins, who is considered by many in the Black community to be the most profound shepherd of our generation—a “bishop” to all of the ten Black pastors who participated in our conversation last month. His church is hosting the first worship night on May 31. On Wednesday this week, Pastor Jenkins extended a personal invitation to you Mt. Hopers—that for any of our congregation who would make the Sunday night trek to Landover for the worship night, he wants to host us for dinner before the meeting in appreciation that Mt. Hope is the farthest church from the event. I’ll share more personally with you on Sunday about all this; I have a sense in my spirit that we have a special opportunity to have a seat at an important table of healing in our Nation’s Capital. So, with that… thanks for reading. C’mon out on Sunday, 10:00 a.m. sharp… We’ll continue digging into the Old Testament, honor our ladies, and seek the face of God for what He is doing among us! 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… We have been working our way through the Old Testament for an entire year at Mt. Hope! Can you believe it?? Are you tired of it yet? Has it inspired you? Empowered you? Scared you? Discouraged you? Encouraged you? Let’s take a quick look back and then let’s see what is coming. More on this in Deeper Thoughts below.
BUT first… a bunch of things happening…
OK… that’s it for today for you email skimmers and those who hate long emails… BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… Many believers shy away from the Old Testament for a lot of very understandable reasons:
Add to these facts that we no longer live under the Old Covenant, and it becomes really easy to assume that it is frankly irrelevant to us. Why spend all the effort to dig through thousands of stories, complicated poetry, cultural history that is lost to us, names that we cannot pronounce or keep track of, and all of God’s yelling if we don’t live with the same God from way back then? Wait… did you catch it? Is He a different God from then until now? Because Jesus Christ revealed God in the flesh--a God of absolute grace and mercy that seems so unlike the (seemingly) angry God of the Old Testament—we think that we live with a different God. But are we sure that’s true? There is indeed a different relational dynamic with God that we experience in the New Testament. It is awesome. It is SO full of grace, love, intimacy, and power… IF we will live up to the New Covenant’s call to us and opportunity for us.** ** Side note: Something the Elders are significantly praying through this weekend is that for many modern American Christians (and we imagine many in our congregation), we have never been exposed to the “whole counsel of God” that the New Testament reveals. There is so much power revealed for us than many of us have never heard of or seen. Therefore, many modern believers unwittingly live their Christianity more similar to the Old Testament’s call to moral conformity than knowing or living from the power of the Holy Spirit available to us. We are working this weekend to hear from God a blueprint for how to boldly impart to each of you this whole counsel of the New Testament… standby for more news!! But Jesus was super-clear about the place of the Old Testament in our lives: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets [the Old Testament]. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). The life of Jesus Christ was to accomplish and reveal the end game, the purpose, and the goal of the Old Testament—to restore our lives to God’s fullest desires for us by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul explained its value for us to understand who God is and how He relates to us: “These things [the Old Testament stories] happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11). The patterns, struggles, temptations, and failures of the people of Israel are merely a visual snapshot into our own personal struggles, failures, and impulses. How God responds to them is a revelation of how He feels about all of us. BUT… as we read the Old Testament carefully and through the lens of God’s ultimate revelation of grace, mercy, and healing that come to us in Jesus Christ, we cannot miss that in every story of failure in the Old Testament, and in every place where God pleads with His people with stark and intense words, He is doing so with their full redemption and healing in mind. The God of the Old Testament is the same God as the New Testament: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Jesus is all over the Old Testament, from the very first verse to the very last. Though he’s not mentioned by name as his physical birth as a human had not yet occurred, his presence and activity among God’s people as a member of the Trinity is unmistakable. This Sunday, let’s review everywhere we’ve been so far, and look forward to where we are going next. We’re getting to the best part, where God begins to reveal all the details of His end game—the life and ministry, the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the outpouring of His Holy Spirit into our hearts. Do a little advance reading before Sunday if you can: Genesis 2, Deuteronomy 6, and Ezekiel 36. I think these are the most important parts we’ve read thus far. And then let’s dig into what’s next!! Can’t wait to see you 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] Hey friends… Did you know that you have a spirit? Most of us have heard of the “Holy Spirit” (hint: He’s the good guy in the story). Most people have a vague awareness that some “evil spirits” are messing around out there (the bad guys). But what do you know about your spirit? We all have one. Some are dead within us; some are brilliantly alive. But how steadfast and willing is your spirit? Let’s talk 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 The concept of a “spirit” is a bit vague and mysterious. That’s sort of the point, since a “spirit” is something that operates in dimensions mostly unfamiliar to us. I just asked Mr. Google “what is the definition of a spirit?” He came back with two things. One matched our topic today; the other was a picture of several bottles of booze. Human beings have been talking about spirits for as long as history has been recorded. Ancient religions all addressed the presence of spirits, typically with much fear and anxiety. Superstitions abound in various primeval rituals to ward off “evil spirits.” Other religious practices sought to connect us with good spirits who would aid us with the basic necessities of life such as food, water, and warmth. Almost every religion in history has also acknowledged that we all have our own personal spirit within us—a part of us, not something distinctly separate from us. Here’s how the great Google A.I. Overlord defines it: “A force within a human being thought to give the body life, energy, and power.” And from the more academically tested Oxford Dictionary: “The non-physical part of a person which is the seat of emotions and character.” The Bible speaks of three different kinds of spirits: The Holy Spirit; evil or “unclean” spirits; and our spirit. I know you’ve heard of the first two, but have you considered lately both the existence and the condition of your spirit? When King David was in serious trouble, he was keenly aware that the problem might be rooted somewhere deep within his spirit. Even though he was known as “a man after God’s own heart,” (1 Samuel 13:14), David had crossed just about every conceivable moral boundary known to man. He abused his power, took advantage of a married woman, impregnated her, tried to cover it up through complex deception, and finally murdered her husband so he could marry her and dodge political scandal. It all miserably failed. When confronted by the prophet Nathan about this great evil, the man who had such love for God broke in weeping repentance. He wrote Psalm 51 right in the middle of his crisis. (Side note: When God uses an adulterous, lying, murderous thug to write the Holy Word of God right smack in the middle of a moral collapse, this should inspire us that His mercy and love can meet us in the middle of whatever problems or sins we are dealing with. No matter how far gone we might think we are, we are never beyond the reach of our holy and loving God to do amazing things within us.) David instantly knew what he needed God to do for him. He knew where the problem was and therefore knew exactly what needed to be fixed. “Create in me a pure heart, O God,” he cried out, “and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). Did you see it? He needed a changed heart and a renewed spirit. His heart needed to be clean; his spirit needed to be steadfast. Oh… and there was one more thing: “grant me a willing spirit to sustain me” (Psalm 51:12). Checklist: 1) Pure heart; 2) renewed spirit; 3) steadfast spirit; 4) willing spirit. How are those things going in your spirit? Jesus promised radical help with all four. God Almighty promised the same thing centuries before Jesus. 585 B.C. – God speaking: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you… I will put my Spirit within you and move you to follow my decrees…” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Pure heart. Renewed spirit. Willing spirit. Check. 33 A.D. – Jesus speaking: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth… [He will] teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you… [and] guide you into all truth” (John 14:17, 26; 16:13). With us forever = steadfast spirit. Check. The whole point and the entire promise of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to place within us a new heart, a new spirit, and the Holy Spirit to be our guide, Counselor, Comforter, Advocate, and friend. David instinctively knew he needed this gift even 1,000 years before Jesus promised and fulfilled this. So, how is your spirit doing? Is the promise of Jesus being radically fulfilled in you? Or does your spirit need some maintenance? Let’s talk more about this 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] 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] 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 |
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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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