Hey Friends…
It is all about the stories. Four of them—exciting, compelling, transforming. You really don’t want to miss this Sunday! First of all, you won’t have to buckle in for an intense deep-dive study of every nuance and phrase in Romans this week (everyone shouts a huge “yea!!!”). But even better, tomorrow will be all about personal stories that confirm the grand truths of Romans. We will see how God put His promise into immediate real-life circumstances right here in Northern Virginia. I’ll tell you more about it in Deeper Thoughts below… But first…don’t miss the details: · Tomorrow is going to be our biggest “don’t miss this in-person” Sunday of the year: o Palm Sunday worship and baptizing our beloved Sam Bluestein who came to Christ this year at Mt. Hope. You’ll love hearing his story of how he came to faith—it’s way over the top fun! o We launch a brand new every-week Middle School program with their own dedicated teaching time, games, and activities. Plan for your middle schoolers to head out with Chris Bowen early in the service. o Then, after church, we will all hang around for a fantastic fellowship luncheon. Chris Nicholson’s world-famous honey glazed ham and your potluck sides will be the perfect conclusion to a wonderful morning. It’s not too late to click here to let us know what you can bring! · Men: Our next Men’s Breakfast and challenge time will be Saturday, April 6. Plan to join us for great food, fellowship, and challenging growth as men of God! · We need your help! Church-wide Spring Spruce Up Workday: Join us for a great time of fellowship while sprucing up the church--Saturday, April 13, 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. We will have lots of opportunities to match your skill levels, abilities, and interests—indoor and outdoor, heavy-lift and light duty…whatever you will enjoy the most. Kristie Zoller calls it “like e-Harmony for a workday.” Don’t miss it!! · Got a green thumb? Our new “Seed Sowers” team is forming to get this year’s church garden and flowerbeds looking great. Click here to jump in! · Help Shape the Next Generation: We have volunteer opportunities both large and small; with the students or quietly behind the scenes; frequent and infrequent. Join us after church on Sunday, April 14, for a no-commitment information and vision-casting meeting. Lunch included!! Click here to let our family ministry team know you’ll be coming! · Mark your calendars for Saturday, April 27 for an all-church “Freedom in Christ” teaching and healing event led by Chris Campbell. Not only will we tighten down our understanding of identity and freedom in Jesus, but we will also step across lines of faith into practical, actualized healing. RSVP will open next week! OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who don’t want to hear a good story. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… One story is 39 years old, the other 39 weeks. The one led--in part—to the other. And yet, while both these stories happened here in Northern Virginia over the last four decades, they actually took place long before the earth was created and are written all over the scriptures. Confused yet? Tomorrow morning, I am so excited to share with you two of the most important people in my life. When I met Phil and Carolyn Holliday, they were a young 30-something couple chasing the suburban dream in our fancy little “keep-up-with-the-Jones’s” neighborhood in Vienna, Virginia. I was a 14-year-old insecure, nerdy (hmmm…that one hasn’t changed), awkward kid with a broken home life. Every day, I rode my bike over the Holliday’s partly because their son Brian was my age and we had become close buddies. (Oh, the shenanigans we got into throughout that neighborhood!) But more than just hanging out with my partner in juvenile crime, I was drawn to the stability of their home life—a family that truly loved one another, a home that was filled with joy and peace, and a mom who had just found Jesus and who was filled with the Holy Spirit. Tomorrow you will meet Phil and Carolyn, and we will share together the three stories of how we each came to Christ one after the other, and how that has led to today. Our three-fold story is from 39 years ago. God wrote about it in a journal He was keeping long before He created the earth: “…all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be,” the Psalmist declares of God’s journaling habits (Psalm 139:16). God selected this story to occur, and the people within it to be cast as the leading characters, long before any of us were born: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world…predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” (Ephesians 1:4-5). God organized and implemented our salvation by the sacrifice of His son long before any sin had demanded a crucified savior: “…the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). Friends, our stories--your story—has been crafted by God from a long time ago, long before you were even aware. Which brings us to 39 weeks ago. I’m taking a little liberty with the exact timing to make it all rhyme, but it was roughly a year ago when I first sat down with Sam Bluestein. He had visited our church for the first time with a healthy sense of confidence--the personality we’ve all come to know and love about him as a young man who is super-clear in his pursuit of truth. And yet, a quick conversation revealed that he was far from knowing Christ. He was seeking, but with great skepticism. He laughs with me now about my brazen confidence in one of our early conversations. I told him the matter was already settled. I told him God had already ordained the outcome and that it was just a matter of time before he crossed a line of faith. He looked a little shocked when I said it; his response was a simple, “we’ll see.” Well… God had already written it before time began. Once the Lord has set His sights on your salvation--a vision He had before He created the periodic table of elements or hung a single star in the sky—it really is only a matter of time if you will lean even the slightest bit in His direction. Yes, there is a part we play in whether or not God’s will is accomplished in our life. It is what we are learning about week-after-week in our study of Romans: “Uncharted Territory: Taking Life Where You Have Never Been.” Our part is to place our faith down upon Him and His promise. The rest is up to Him. Period. Beloved, tomorrow please come in-person if you are able. Hear the four stories--Phil, Carolyn, me, Sam—and how they all intertwine. Celebrate with Sam his confession of faith and his union with Christ in baptism. And then, celebrate with all of us the joy of being a family—united together in this grand eternal story of salvation. Wow…this is going to be such a fun Sunday morning! Of course, we will online-livestream as always for those who truly cannot get here in-person. But if you have the ability… c’mon. This will be one of our best gatherings ever! Can’t wait!!! Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend
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