The Heartcry Missionary Society is a missions society based out of Muscle Shoals, AL. They have some very healthy distinctives and seek to ground all they do in good theology. Paul David Washer is a leading part of this organization.
Their latest magazine is now online and contains some excellent information on Missions and Methodology.
Sunday’s sermon, Jesus: Risen One, from 2 Timothy 2:8-9 is now online. I thought we had a great morning. The fellowship around tables is always an encouragement. But being able to gather together and celebrate the Lord’s conquering of death was amazing. I was especially convicted by those two closing applications: 1) Will you remember Jesus when you are heading to work Monday AM and 2) Will you endure, confident that God will be by your side in the midst of whatever suffering you face?
I feel exhausted after the events of today, but greatly encouraged.
Thought I would wrap together some of the excellent posts I’ve seen related to Good Friday and Easter…
John Piper posts A Conversation with Death on Good Friday
GirlTalk give some practical tips, including how to make resurrection cookies. They also link to these videos:
Rick Gamache’s Crucifixion Narrative was again useful in my life.
Justin Taylor had many excellent posts.
Visit these and other sites and let your meditation on this special week continue.
It occurred to me this morning that I hadn’t posted since Monday. I had a pretty busy week pulling together our Good Friday Service (which went quite well and allowed us to focus on the death of our Lord) and our Easter Service.
Our Early Time starts at 8AM tomorrow, we will sing the Easter Song and In Christ Alone, and hear God’s Word announce the incredible news that “He Is Risen“.
After a breakfast/brunch and Sunday School, we will return for more corporate worship. Our text is 2 Timothy 2:8-9. There will be much boasting in the Gospel and, specifically, giving glory to God’s Son for all that He accomplished in it. Set your heart on Him this weekend and we will see Him glorified.
The sermons from yesterday are now online.
In the AM, we had a great time seeing spiritual weakness displayed by Jesus from Mark 14:26-31. I found the article by Steve Young in the latest Briefing to be helpful in exposing a particular weakness in my life. I hope God uses His Word to spark serious work in our lives towards humility.
In the PM, it was interesting to see how God continued to woo His people by overwhelming them with love in Hosea 3:1-5. We must be characterized by genuine, costly love is our message is to be one that is God-centered. Hosea learned this lesson and we would do well to do so.
Hope you have a great week. Be watching the church website for our Holy Week Devotional to aid in your worship of this Savior.
Yesterday, someone mentioned to me about the Time Magazine article toting “New Calvinism” as the #3 idea changing the world right now. I think Thabiti’s comments offer us a helpful way to think about things like this. Specifically, Thabiti doesn’t want us boasting in anything except the cross (sounds like what Paul said in Galatians 6:14).
Just finished up sermon manuscripts for the weekend, looks like we are going to be seeing some amazing things.
In the AM, after singing songs related to Palm Sunday, we will look at the theme of “Spiritual Weakness” from Mark 14:26-31.
In the PM, continuing our series on Hosea, we will explore Hosea 3:1-5 and how love works to overcome our sin. We are doing a song called “Broken Cisterns” in this service. Take a look at the lyrics before the weekend.
(Thanks, Tony)
I was just thinking this afternoon about how gracious God was to us this past weekend. Normally, one wouldn’t think of a near natural disaster as a blessing, but this weekend was. Here are some thoughts I had on this…
First off, our hearts are with Central Christian Schools. The roof fell in on their cafeteria, but God, in His grace, allowed no children to be present and used this to possibly save other schools from the same fate.
Related to the Missions Fest (Eyes Open Weekend), here are some thoughts…
1) God was gracious to allow Freddy Wyatt to get here and get rest. Some of you may be familiar with the break-neck speed at which life operates for those of us in ministry. We don’t really have set hours and get calls of all kinds. The life of a church planter takes this demand and simply intensifies it. Freddy and his family have been going non-stop since moving to NY in October. This weekend allowed him to get rest. God was gracious in this way.
2) God demonstrated grace to us in what was shared last night. What an incredible evening. Freddy did finally get to speak (check out the audio of it), and was able to challenge us to share the good news of the Gospel with others. The meal was fantastic (Thanks Adam!) and getting to fellowship with the saints was a huge blessing. The praise team did an excellent job in pointing us to the Gospel (Thanks Arwen, Kathy, Chris, Conor, Jandee, Theoden and Elrond). There were just blessing after blessings happening last night and after being cooped up all weekend, getting back with the saints was a welcome relief.
3) God allowed some to finish the project at Open Door. We had 3 projects to accomplish this weekend. 2 were cancelled due to the weather, but some faithful workers were able to finish putting some new paint on the walls of the Crisis Pregnancy Center yesterday. Praise God for that.
God was at work in more ways than we know. We should simply praise Him with hearts of thanksgiving–not only for the incredible benefits of the Gospel we daily walk in–but for the weekend in which His glory was manifest.
I enjoyed watching this today. It reminded me how prone I am to complain in today’s world. Watch and be inspired to be content.
