April 30, 2011

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time."  I Peter 1:1-5

Hope has been afloat this week.

Of course, the week began with Easter. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the source of all hope. There can be no hope without a Risen Savior. With a Risen Christ there is nothing that can defeat or destroy our hope! At least for as long as He lives!

Also, there was the hope that came from the wedding of the royal couple, William and Kate. New beginnings can be times of hopefulness. Certainly we hope that this lovely young couple will find great happiness together and everything they hope for will be realized.

There is the hope evidenced in the hearts and dreams of the dozens of young men involved in the NFL darft this week. After successful high school and college careers they are hoping to be drafted by an NFL team.

But true hope is rooted and grounded in Christ's mercy. Because of the sacrificial death of Jesus God extended His grace to us in mercy rather than treating us with the justice we deserved.

A second source of hope is in the new birth! This refers to a spiritual birth that is necessary due to the fact that we are born into this world with a sinful nature and that nature is dead, or non-responsive to God. So, in order to have a hopeful future there must be a new birth or a regeneration of the soul. The Spirit of God must be allowed to bring life to your soul through faith. You will be born again - born into hope!

The third source for hoping is highlighted here as well! And it is the living hope that results from the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fact of His resurrection proves that Jesus has conquered death brings hope for all who receive Him by faith!

Fourth, this hope is secured in Heaven! And because it is secured in heaven it can never perish, spoil or fade!

Do you have that hope or are you just hoping that you catch a break? The difference between hoping and having hope is as wide as eternity. Hoping won't get you to Heaven. Having the hope that comes form a personal relationship with Jesus will!

April 29, 2011

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."   Hebrews 11:6  

If you want to please God you have to have a clue about faith because without it you cannot please Him. And, if there is someone you need to please it is God!

What is involved in this faith thing? To give a simple answer to a profound question, faith is one part belief and one part expectation. Who do you believe God is and what do you expect from Him?

How important is that? Very!

Therefore, the "E" in H.O.P.E. is EXPECTATION. You cannot have hope unless you expect something good to happen because you are trusting in Someone good.

For the 2011-12 year at Fredericksburg Wesleyan Church, along with our emphasis on Holiness and our focus on Outreach and our concentration on Prayer, we are going to elevate our expectations. We are going to expect God to do amazing things because He is an awesome God.

What are you believing God for? What are you expecting from Him?

At FredWes we will expect God to show up! We will cultivate an environment of expectation.

Whenever we gather in His name, whether on a Sunday morning for worship or Sunday evening for LIFE Group or any other time, we should expect God's Spirit to be there. We should expect that He will come to bless and come to convict and come to cleanse and come to heal. What is the point of coming to church if you don't expect God to show up? And if you do come and are not expecting Him, He could show up and you would miss Him.

Do you expect to meet God when you go to church? Do you expect Him to show up when you have your quiet time?

And, do you expect growth to happen in your life? Do you expect growth to happen in your church? Do your expect in your LIFE group? If not, why not?

You can be sure of this, if God shows up, growth with happen! Things will change!

The men and women listed in Hebrews 11 are there because they expected God to do something unexpected. Abraham expected a son. Noah expected deliverance from a flood. Moses God to speak when he climbed Mount Sinaii he expected God to meet Him there. And God did!

Our third emphasis for expectation deals with our expectations of others in whom God dwells - the people of God.

What should we expect from Christians is Christ-like attitudes and Christ-like behaviors. Not only should we expect it but we should encourage it when we notice it happening. We should humbly and firmly confront a believer if we detect words, conduct, or attitudes that are not consistent with the nature of Christ. We should set our expectations based on what the Bible sets out as a standard for the people of God.

Are you living up to what you expect from a follower of Christ? Are you living up to what He expects from you as His follower?

At Fredericksburg Wesleyan Church we will build an environment of expectation. We will expect God to show up and we will expect growth to happen because God has shown up. And we will expect those who call themselves Christians to experience a real personal presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Over the past several years we have had a year of moping as we dealt with a church split. Some people did not measure up to what we recognize as godly behavior. We did not measure up to their expectations and stress resulted.

That was followed by a year of coping and we tried to adjust to a loss of attendance and offering and momentum. Out of that came a period of groping as we struggled to discover who we could count on and what we would become.

2011-12 is now a time to begin hoping again! We will put our hopes in God and demonstrate that hope by seeking Holiness, by doing Outreach, by Praying and by Expecting. We will expect God to have favor on us as we live according to His will and in obedience to His Word.

What is your plan?

April 28, 2011

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  Philippians 4:6-7

"God is great and God is good....."

"Now I lay me down to sleep....."

"Our Father, which art in Heaven....."

You have no doubt known those prayers for as long as you can remember. Practically every child is taught to pray but not every child is taught why. Is it for good luck? It is to stay on the good side of the "Big Guy"? Does it have more to do with superstition that with spirituality?

I have been sharing the four points of emphasis for Fredericksburg Wesleyan Church in 2011-12. These points form the acrostic "HOPE".  The "H" is Holiness and the "O" comes from Outreach. You have probably figured that the "P" represents Prayer. Prayer will be a third point of emphasis for the coming year.

This is not to say that prayer is not important today. It is! All this year we have been calling FWC family to Friday Fast and Prayer and God has been faithful to answer.

For 2011-12 we will call our people to private personal prayer. We will encourage FWC family members to start and maintain a personal prayer journal. That journal will include prayer requests, prayer concerns and answered prayers. Having the discipline of filling an empty page will be motivating. Tracking the answered prayers over time will trace the Hand of God in your life.

So, how is your prayer life? You would know if you had a journal!

 

And we will form prayer partnerships. Primarily, through our LIFE groups we will challenge our people to pair up with a partner to pray with and pray for and keep one another accountable. The Bible teaches that where "two or three are gathered together God is there"!

 

So, how is your prayer life? Do you have a prayer partner?

 

Occasionally we will have powertime, an evening dedicated to extended prayer and praise times with the worship team where we can come together and call on God in behalf of our church and our families our community and our nation.

 

There is no hope without prayer! Prayer is at the heart of hope! For 2011-12 we will be putting our HOPE in Holiness, Outreach, and Prayer!

 

 

 

 

April 27, 2011

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Acts 1:8

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, if you have come to know Him as your Savior, it is because someone witnessed to you. Through the way they lived, and the words they said, and because of the quality of their walk they made the Christian faith seem credible to you. You had to investigate their claims because of the integrity of their lifestyle.

As this verse reminds us, Christians are called to be witnesses for Jesus Christ wherever we go. During 2011-12 in our Year of Hope emphasis will be a call to Holiness and a call to Outreach.

What will that involve? What does the call to outreach ask you to do?

For Fredericksburg Wesleyan Church, the call to outreach means we will ask you write and memorize your personal testimony. Like most people, you underestimate the power of your story of how you became a follower of Christ. Anyone who values you as a friend will find your story important. It is important that you prepare a two or three minute of what your life was like before you believed in Christ, how you came to know Him and how He has changed your life. We will call our people to work on these testimonies and share them in their LIFE Groups.

Also, our challenge to outreach will involve a target list of three to five non-believing friends for whom you will regularly pray and interceed for their salvation. You would not be a Christian if it had not been for a person who loved you enough to pray for your salvation. We have been doing this for about 18 months at FredWes and have regularly seen people from these lists crossing the line of faith.

Being prepared to share your faith and being faithful to pray for your friends are two big pieces to the outreach puzzle.

Third, you will be asked to demonstrate the love of Christ by touching your friends with acts of kindness. It may be a card to encourage or springing for lunch. Perhaps you could help with yard work or offer to babysit to give a friend a night out. There are dozens of ways to touch others with the love and grace of Jesus if you are looking for them!

So, the Year of Hope will involve an emphasis on Holiness and on Outreach.

What are you doing to witness for your Lord? If you don't consciously and intentionally make an effort to have a positive witness, you will unintentionally become a negative witness. I am sure you don't want that.

Will you formulate your testimony? Will you have a target list? Will you touch others with the goodness and grace of God?

April 26, 2011

 "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”  “Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”  “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God."  II Corinthians 6:14-7:1

For Fredericksburg Wesleyan Church, this Sunday is New Year's Day. Yes, it begins our 2011-12 Fiscal and statistical year. We begin the counting all over again.

2011-12 is going to be a Year of Hope at FWC. I am not just talking about hopeful thinking or wishing and hoping, I am talking about a plan to bring hope to the people of FredWes.

This coming year we will focus on four points of emphasis that will guide our sermon preparation, our LIFE Group studies, our fellowship and the personal attitudes and actions of our individual live.

H.O.P.E. will be an acrostic made up of the four great themes we will unite around this year. In that acrostic there will be four great themes for our focus on 2011-12. The first one, the "H" if you will, stands for holiness.

In 2011-12 we will be calling for each of our members and regular attenders to emphasize personal holiness.

What does that mean? What will I be expecting from my people?

Paul gives an excellent brief explanation of what holiness looks like and how it happens.

First it means guarding your relationships- "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God."  II Corinthians 6:14-16

You can never experience holiness if you are not in intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. He is the source of all righteousness and you cannot be in an intimate relationship with God and at the same time have intimate relationships with evil friends. (Not my word But God's)

So, if you value having an intimate satisfying relationship with God then you must closely guard your heart and mind at all times during the day. You must resist every temptation that comes at you. You must renounce all sin in your life and repent of it. Call on God for strength to stand in it. If you do, you will have a good chance to say "no" to sin and "yes" to obeying Jesus!

You must read and memorize His Word daily. The Psalmist said, "I will hide your Word in my heart that I might not sin again you". A regular reading of the Bible and taking time to meditate and commiting it to memory will help develop a heart for hearing and obeying Him!



Holiness renouncing sin and not being casual about sinful thoughts, attitudes, or behaviors. Allow God's Spirit to search your heart and be quick to repent when He convicts you of a sin.

The evidence of holiness is righteous living - "Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God."  II Corinthians 7:1

2011-12 is a year of H.O.P.E. and that begins with holiness. Will you answer the call to personal holiness?

April 25, 2011

"Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"  John 11:25-26

This is quite a claim made by Jesus! Very confident and quite comforting!

If you will live and believe in Jesus, and if you allow Him to live in you by faith, you will never die!

However, there ARE several things that WILL die when you die and I feel compelled to point those out.

When you die, suffering dies. The moment you slip away from your earthly body and into eternity with Jesus - your suffering is over! Forever!

When you die, sorrow dies. At your last breath in this life, you are done with sorrow! Once your spirit enters into the presence of God there will be only joy! Sadness has no place in Heaven! You will shed no more tears. You will know no more heartbreak!

When you die, sin dies. If you die in Christ and enter into His paradise you will enter a safe, secure, sin-free enviornment. Not only will you be free from sin but you will not have to deal with temptation either!

So, you see, death is final - final for the things that are not worthy of God or right for eternity!

As we bring the Easter Holiday to a close I just wanted to remind you of a few reasons why it is the pivotal event in all of human history! You will never die, but all the things that make your life difficult or painful will die!

He's alive! You will live! Your heart-ache and hardships won't! Your crises and crosses will become crowns!

EASTER SUNDAY! April 24, 2011

"The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”  Matthew 28:6-10

I want you to try and put yourself in the place of these women who went to the tomb in the early morning hours of that first Easter. But I want you to imagine that instead of going to the burial place of Jesus, you are going to the grave of your mother, or your father, or your child, or that of your best friend. As you approach you are struggling with that same old sense of sadness that always grips you when you visit here. But this morning is different! For when you get there the grave is open. Your sadness turns to shock, then to horror, but then you hear the voice of your loved one and you turn immediately toward the sound.

You cannot believe it! You blink once and then you blink again. There stands your loved one - alive and well! In fact, they look better than they ever! Without thinking or speaking or without consciously moving you find yourself locked in a warm tight embrace! They are alive! They are back!

Can you imagine the joy? If you can you may begin to understand what these women experienced outside Jesus' tomb that morning.

Sound impossible? That is precisely what happened that morning! These women arrived grieving and ready to prepare a dead body but found a risen Savior Who looked better than they had ever seen! They were filled with joy - and wonder - and hope! All the grief and despair of the last two days was gone! He was alive! He arose as He had said!

Easter is about life! Powerful life! Resurrection life! Eternal life! God's life! The only thing that died that morning was death!

Oh, about that scenario involving your loved one! It has happened! Because of the atoning death and because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, your loved one IS alive - more alive than ever! And some day their grave WILL be empty and you will see them in their glorified body! That very same type of glorified body the women saw that morning by His tomb!

"So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;  it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;  it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven. I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”  “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."  I Corinthians 15:42-58

Celebrate! Rejoice! He has risen from the dead! He arose as He said! He is alive! Hallelujah!

HAVE A BLESSED EASTER SUNDAY!