EASTER @ Grace Point

 

“From death came life, from sorrow came joy; this is the hope of Easter.” -Aloo Denish Obiero

Easter is the glorious foundation of our faith - we celebrate the most significant event in the history of our world, the resurrection of the Christ Jesus our Lord. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth: 

17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. 18 In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! 19 And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. 20 But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died. 21 So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. 22 Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. 

1 Corinthians 15:17-22 NLT

Because of Jesus and the resurrection, we have hope and we have new life in Christ. 

Sunday morning we will celebrate the resurrected Lord beginning at 7:00 am with and Easter Sunrise service at Community Fellowship Church in Christ (515 Lakeshore Road, Talbott) I will be preaching and our worship leader, Lydia de Santos will be leading the music. Refreshments will be provided, and everyone is invited (bring your own camp chair)

At 9:00 am we will gather for worship at Grace Point. The message is titled "Why Do You Still Doubt?" and will focus on Jesus's interactions with Thomas following the resurrection. If you or someone you know has ever struggled with spiritual doubts, I encourage you to be there. 

Following the service, the kids will have their annual Easter Egg Hunt. Kids need to bring their baskets, but eggs will be provided. They will all receive Easter Treat Bags from Ms. Cecelia. Also following the service we will have a brief "finger-food fellowship" in the fellowship hall. We are asking our members to bring some light snacks for refreshments and it will give us an opportunity to fellowship while the kids are finding eggs. 

I believe we are going to have an amazing time of worship and fellowship on Easter Sunday. I hope you will plan to join us!

Worry into Worship - Battles into Blessings

As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.  When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.  So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. Exodus 17:11-13 (NIV)

I have several friends and family members who are facing some tough times and much of it is spiritual warfare. As I was praying this morning God brought to mind the story of the Israelites battling the Amalekites in the Valley of Rephidim. It was the first major conflict the Israelites had experienced since coming out of Egypt. According to Deuteronomy 25:18 the Amalekites attacked Israel from the rear, attacking first those who were weary and worn out from the journey. The enemy often focuses on those who are tired and struggling. 

Moses called on Joshua to choose out some men for battle and go fight the Amalekites at Rephidim, and Moses would go to the hilltop and stand with the staff of God in his hand. As the battle rages, as long as Moses holds his hands in the air, the Israelites have the upper hand. But when his arms get tired and his hands are lower, the Amalekites have the advantage. Moses is joined by his brother Aaron and another man, Hur. When they realized what was happening, Aaron and Hur brought a stone for Moses to sit on and they stood one on each side and helped him keep his hands in the air. As a result, Joshua defeated the Amalekites at Rephidim. 

As I was reading the story again, it hit me that raised hands are often a sign of praying, worshiping, and praising God (see Nehemiah 8:6, Psalm 134:2, 1 Timothy 2:8, and others...) As long as Moses' hands were raised, God's people were winning the battle, but when the hands dropped, the enemy gained control of the conflict. As long as God's people are praying and praising God we are winning the battles, but when we stop praying and praising we begin to be defeated by the enemy. 

In this world, we will have trouble. We have been set free from the Egypt of our sin and we are journeying to a Promised Land of eternal salvation, but for now we live in a world infected by sin and infested by an enemy who seeks to kill, steal and destroy (John 10:10). There will be battles, and they will come when we are weary, tired and worn out from the journey. The key to victory in the battles is to pray, worship and praise the Lord until the victory comes. 

Sometimes we will grow tired in the battle, and we will need some "Aarons" and "Hurs" to help us. We were never meant to fight alone, so don't resist help from God's people. And sometimes it will you who need to be an Aaron of Hur for someone else; don't let those opportunities pass you up - others need you too. 

By the way, though the Amalekites were defeated that day, that wasn't the last time the Israelites had to fight them. But God made a promise that one day He would "completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.” (Ex. 17:14) The battle you are going through now won't be the last one you will fight; the enemy will continue to harrass and attack as long as he can; but we have a promise from God that one day the enemy will be removed and will never disturb the people of God again (Revelation 20:10). Until that day, fight the good fight of faith, and use the weapons pf prayer, worship and praise to experience the victory God has promised you!

KIDS DAY

Great day of worship yesterday. The kids did a great job leading the worship. Our two young speakers did an amazing job; very evangelistic. We've got a bright future @ MVBC!

Seeing the kids yesterday fueled my fire for VBS. We're just two weeks away from our biggest outreach event all year. Saddle Ridge Ranch is going to be a blast! We're going to be "Rounding Up Questions and Driving Home Answers!"

We need all hands on deck for a great VBS:

• We need prayer warriors to be praying now for children to come, hearts to be open and lives to be changed!.
• We need floaters to be available to help out where needed. We won't know all of our needs till the week begins, so we need people just to show up with a "how can I help" heart!
• We need ENCOURAGERS who will love on our workers and our kids. Encouragers are kind of like the oil in a car engine, they keep things running smooth.

Our goal for VBS is to help kids connect to Christ and then help them and their families to get connected to the community of faith. Don't let the enemy keep you from being involved in God's great work!

Big thanks to the Wilmoths and the Ellis's for a great Spring picnic last night. We had about 120 people out at Cedar Pond Farms and it was a blast. We have some very serious Cornhole players - we may have to start a league (BTW, there is an American Cornhole Association - www.playcornhole.org) Thanks for coming out. One of the best things I heard last night was, "I got to know some new people tonight." That's one of the main reasons we do these things - build relationships in the Body of Christ. Thanks again to everyone who came out.