Hey Friends…
It was a stunning prediction. It would be tough for anyone paying attention to deny the reality and power of God as a result. Hardened or ignorant hearts missed it. And many still do today. You might not have ever heard about it. But I’m confident that when you do, it’ll knock your socks off. Wanna hear the play-by-play? I’ll tell you more in Deeper Thoughts below… But first…. · Men—don’t miss our big, yummy, full-cholesterol men’s breakfast and Christ-following challenge THIS Saturday, July 13, 8:30 – 10:00 a.m. This month’s men’s ministry event will be the full-service bacon & eggs & pancakes deal with a great time of fellowship, focus, Word, challenge, and prayer. C’mon out on Saturday morning! · Women—next up for you is our ladies prayer walk and fellowship time at Morven Park NEXT Saturday, July 20, 8:30 – 9:30 a.m. Click here for more details! · Youth & Parents—we’re experimenting with the right programming model for our teens and need your feedback! The power of being a small church—and therefore a small youth group—is that we are a family, not a program. This enables us to pivot our programming each week to custom tailor the experience for exactly who is present. As the summer months have lots of travel and less-predictable rhythms, Chris Bowen wants to keep a pulse on who’s around each week to ensure our Sunday programs are spot-on for your teen. Please be sure to stay in touch with him—240-422-6287 (c). · Kids & Parents—mark your calendar for an important after-church parent’s luncheon on Sunday, August 25, 11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. We want to explore your ideas and family needs for long-range planning of our kids and family life ministries. We’ll share what’s upcoming this fall, and have you help co-create our direction for the future. This is a don’t miss event… yummy lunch provided! · A memorial service for our beloved Mike Anderson who unexpectedly passed away three weeks ago will be NEXT Saturday, July 20, 2:00 p.m. at the church. All are welcome! OK…that’s it today for you email skimmers and those who prefer to stay in the dark. BUT… Some Deeper Thoughts… Jesus stunned them. I bet he would have caught your attention too. At first, it was his preaching. He wasn’t dull and rambling like all the other rabbis everyone had grown up around. There was fire in his presentation. “Who is this guy?” they asked, incredulous that the earthy carpenter’s son from small town Nazareth could command such an audience. But it was more than just his charismatic oratory skills. It was the content, too. Jesus spoke of God as someone we could access and relate to—a fatherly Deity driven by mercy and grace. He exposed and annihilated the religious leaders’ hypocrisy and judgmentalism. He performed dazzling miracles of healing and compassion. He attracted the most unlikely of followers, later transforming them from crooks, thieves, and addicts into spiritual giants and evangelists. And then he got himself killed. This is where the hard-hearted stopped paying attention. Widespread noise about a resurrection kept a few curiously at hand. But for most, the brutal crucifixion was enough to turn their heads away and wonder in disbelief that perhaps he hadn’t stayed dead. It was only later that people started adding up the math. Thousands of people began to put their faith in Jesus as his disciples carried on the miracles and commanding grace-filled preaching. Scholars began to look carefully at what had been written about Messiah centuries before. And they were once again astonished. You see, prophecy never gives us perfect foresight. It is not supposed to. Nor could it. But prophecy fulfilled stuns us with its precision. Have you ever read the prophecies of Daniel? It will knock your socks off if you understand the details. With remarkable precision, God revealed the exact date of Messiah some 500 years before Jesus was born. No one recognized it ahead of time, so few were able to pick Jesus out of the crowd of Jewish babies as anyone significant. But after the fact, an ancient prophecy that nailed the date precisely would make them sit up straight. Daniel was a powerful political leader serving in a corrupt, tumultuous kingdom in which many Jews had been exiled. Despite all the political depravity surrounding Daniel’s day job, he was a devout believer and a resolute prayer warrior. One night, as Daniel was faithfully reading the scriptures, he stumbled upon a prophecy written 67 years earlier where God told Jeremiah that the Babylonian exile would last precisely 70 years. Daniel did the math; he realized they had three years left to their political captivity. He dropped to his knees and sought God with prayer, fasting, sackcloth, and ashes (see Daniel 9:1-3 and Jeremiah 29:10-14). That’s when God stunned us later students of Messiah’s coming. With precision, God answered Daniel’s prayer with another revelation. There would be exactly 483 years from a decree by Daniel’s boss to rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah would be on the scene, be put to death, and then God would start wrapping up all of human history. First read through it (see Daniel 9:20-27), you’ll likely feel a bit lost; the language and imagery are quite confusing. I’ll make sense of it for us on Sunday. But if you want to do your own research, click here for a rather detailed article. Bottom line: The decree to rebuild Jerusalem came. Then, exactly 483 years later, Jesus. Bam. Mic drop. God is smart. Why am I telling you all this? (And why should you keep reading such a dense letter… if you’ve not bailed out just yet?) First, God has always been in the business of revealing His play-by-play game plan. Prophecy’s precision should build our faith that He is indeed real, engaged, and intentional about what is coming. But what’s more, Jesus looked his disciples square in the eye and told them to sit up straight regarding Daniel’s prophecy. When asked about the precise timing of the end of the world, Jesus told his disciples there was just one marker. One thing they needed to pay heed to. One event that would be the sign and trigger of it all. And it was from Daniel’s prophecy: Daniel 9:27. That sounds like something we should sit up and pay careful attention to right here in 2024, does it not? Jesus: “So when you see standing in the holy place the ‘abomination that causes desolation’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand [a parenthetical comment added by gospel author Matthew]—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains” (Matthew 24:15-16). In other words, when you see Daniel 9:27 coming to pass… run. It is in those days—the days when this prophecy has been precisely fulfilled—that “the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky…he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call and…gather his elect from…one end of the heavens to the other” (Matthew 24:30-31). This is the play-by-play. This is where we need to sit up straight. This is when the end is near. “So, when is it, Chris?” Well… Jesus revealed it. I will explain it. But not until Sunday morning. You gotta show up. It will knock your socks off. And it will knock you to your knees. Sunday morning, 10:00 a.m. in-person (best!) or online livestream (if you’re home sick ‘cuz I infected you with the zombie virus…) It’s gonna be good… Here we go… Chris Eads Mt. Hope Pastor Friend
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