PASTOR’S JOURNAL
Look What God Has Done
Last Sunday, I mentioned one of my hopes for our church building project is for people to see what God has done, not what we have done. It is a good thing for people to notice all the volunteers that helped to build our church, the donors who gave to fund the church and the organizers who helped to plan the project. Yet, I know our church and those who are constructing this building want nothing more than for God to be glorified through them. Let’s pray that the world around us would look and clearly see what God has done through us.
I want you to notice a few verses that highlight this truth along with a song that has meant much to me that supports this thought.
Acts 14:27 And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that GOD HAD DONE WITH THEM, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
Acts 15:4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared that GOD HAD DONE WITH THEM.
Acts 5:12 And all he assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders GOD HAD DONE THROUGH THEM among the gentiles.
Nehemiah 6:16 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, FOR THEY PERCEIVED THAT THIS WORK HAD BEEN ACCOMPLISHED WITH THE HELP OF OUR GOD.
Song for meditation on this truth “Look What God Has Done” by Ghost ShipSpotify link for the song: https://open.spotify.com/track/39As25S3vyi20L92uYd8KrYouTube link for the: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLmrYxYzINk
A word from Jordan and a call to action
A WORD FROM JORDAN
CALL TO ACTION
- Work Parties: Most Saturdays to come in the near future we will be busy doing something at the church. This Saturday we will be trying to get a huge chunk done on the siding if we have enough help. Would you consider coming out?
- Parking on Sunday morning is often tight, if you can please park in the lot next door to provide space for guests that would be helpful.
- Nursery is looking to make some improvements and will need more volunteers in the future.
- Give to the building project through our donate button: https://www.hopejaffrey.org/giving/
- PRAY! PRAY! PRAY! “So I prayed to the God of heaven” (Neh. 2:4).
The Struggle is Real
Nehemiah 4 and 5
Church, please pray for this Sunday. The sermon will be entitled, “The Struggle is Real.” It will focus on the reality of living a Christian life in a fallen world. Nehemiah and the Jews faced this struggle as they were constantly surrounded by enemies who attack from without but also struggled with internal problems from within. The phrase “the struggle is real” means a lot of different things in today’s culture. Most often today you can see the phrase, “the struggle is real” used ironically in peoples lives to comically lament the difficulties of everyday life and/or the struggles of “first-world-problems.” Which is another phrase that mocks the problems we think are a big deal but really are not. For example, like running out of battery for my new iPhone, when most of the world can’t even afford their next meal let alone an iPhone. Yet, my life seems to be falling apart when I am at 3% battery and I’m not within arms reach of a cell charger. So in all actuality “The Struggle is Real” depicts how petty most of our “problems” in this life really are when we weigh them against the grand scheme of things the entire world faces on a daily basis. People all around the world are struggling to find food to fill their starving bellies, and not to find enough juice to fill their draining phone battery.
We find a very real struggle between life and death and rich and poor in the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah and the Jews are working on rebuilding the wall when they faced real struggles and real problems. They were surrounded on all sides by enemies that wanted to kill them. The task before them was monumental and the conditions were difficult. The pressures from without were getting harder and harder to bear. Yet, the pressures from without weren’t the only problems they had to deal with, because what often proves to be the most disastrous the problems from within. We see this is in Nehemiah chapter 4, when the are people banding together to defend the rebuilding effort and stand against whatever may try to put a stop to God’s work. Yet, what they didn’t expect is the internal strife and oppression they would face in chapter 5.
Nehemiah chapter 5 details a massive problem that plagues many modern churches today. The Jews were taking advantage of each other. Rich Jews were enriching themselves at the expense of their poor neighbors and family members. The problems were many: there was a famine, there wasn’t enough food to go around, many of the farmers were busy working on the wall project and unable to grow food, they had to buy food to feed their families, so they had to borrow money in order to stay alive, and the cycle goes on. So, the richer Jews loaned out money to these poorer Jews and started to seize their property when they couldn’t make the loan payments. Then these same poor Jews were having to borrow even more money in order to pay the high royal tax the Persians had upon them. So the rich Jews loaned out more money and started charging a ridiculously high interest rate on the loans. So basically, certain people were enriching themselves and taking advantage of poor people, and not just any people, but their very own family members, their flesh and blood. These people were so ruthless, that the poor people were having to sell their own sons and daughters into slavery in order to pay their money-lenders. Talk about cruel! Talk about a struggle.
So we see from Chapter 5, that the struggle is real. Not ironically but in reality, the struggle of sin was very real to them. But this is why one reason why I love scripture and the way God’s Word is so real. Because this could have been left off the pages of scripture. Chapter 5 doesn’t have to be there in order for the story of Nehemiah and his restoration project to take place. Yet, it is there, in all its messiness, it is there. You see, scripture is messy because people are messy. We are sinful and God’s Word is ultimately about God who comes down into our mess and cleans it up. He doesn’t tell us to clean up for our mess ourselves, but instead he comes and cleans it up for us. Nehemiah could have easily left off these gory details of in-fighting and oppression of the poor,and instead paint himself as the perfect leader of a perfect people. But he doesn’t, he details this problem and he also details the resolution to the problem. It is boiled down to the Fear of the Lord. The people didn’t fear the Lord’s commands on their lives and they certainly weren’t loving others like God had loved them. Instead, they did only as they pleased and as they wanted to do in their sight, not in the sight of God. Nehemiah reprimands the nobles for stealing from the poor and exacting high interest on their families in chapter 5 verse 9 when he says, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?” Ultimately, Nehemiah summarizes, just like Solomon did, the end of the matter, “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing whether good or evil” (Ecc. 12:13,14).
So please prepare your heart for Sunday and if you can get a head start by reading through Chapter 4 and 5 of Nehemiah in order to be ready for what God will do in our hearts this Sunday.
Because of Christ,
Reflection on Easter and Rebuilding in Nehemiah
Reflection
As I reflect back on our services this past Easter weekend, I am overwhelmed and overcome by happiness and joy, because I see this church “walking in the truth” (3 John 1:4). Our Good Friday service was incredibly sobering, but in a good way. We were able to see a large crowd come out on a Friday night to reflect on God’s sacrifice for us. We focused on the Truth of God being slain on the cross by His people who are trusting in the lies of the devil. Yet, our hope is that the truth will prevail and the Truth of God is what sets us free (John 8:32). Then on Saturday, volunteers showed up in the morning to work on our church building. They prepped siding, painted trim, and attended to various other projects in preparation for the siding party coming up soon. Then many of those same volunteers who worked the morning at the church building site drove over to Mascenic to help out with Easter set-up as they and many others readied the high-school for our Sunday service. This meant bringing all the worship equipment and the millions of different doo-hickies, and thingy-ma-bobs and cords needing to be plugged into their rightful place. They decorated signs and prepared the cafeteria to serve Easter brunch. I helped out where I could, but mostly marveled at the team effort that I witnessed that Saturday.
Then on Sunday, several of the same volunteers and others showed up early to ready the food, warm-up for worship, run mic-checks, and hook-up technical equipment, hide eggs for the kids and so much more. God’s people were at work and so was He. God showed His hand in the service as He greatly blessed His Church’s effort. I don’t have exact numbers but several people estimated that we served over 450 people Easter brunch and around that same number were able to sit in on the worship service and heard the gospel preached. I was able to speak on John 14:6 and John 20. We focused on how “Jesus is the Life” and how he came from on high all the way down to us to conquer death so that He could take us up again with Him. Down is the new up. We also talked about how we have come full circle in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, from garden of Eden to the garden tomb. From harmony to hostility to harmony again. From life to death to life again. Praise be the Lord for his marvelous and indescribable gift of grace (2 Cor. 9:15).
Rebuilding
This month we are going to jump back into our sermon series in Nehemiah. We will be covering chapter 3 and some of chapter 4 this Sunday. I couldn’t help likening what I witnessed this past weekend to what I read in Chapter 3 and 4 of Nehemiah. Because Nehemiah 3 is a long list of names and projects. Many of the names are hard to pronounce and many of the projects and locations are foreign to us, sounds boring right?. Well actually, this list is incredibly important and exciting for us to take a closer look at and is incredibly relevant to us as a church today. Because when I look at the long list of names given in Nehemiah chapter 3 and see how they kept accurate records of the ones involved in this ginormous building project, I think of all the people at Hope Fellowship who, day after day and week after week, selflessly serve behind the scenes in order to see the gospel advance and the Lord’s church grow. There are obviously too many volunteers for me to name, but you know who you are. I want you to know that it is encouraging to see all of you pitch in and get the job done. For those of you who haven’t found your place to help out in the church or are still hesitant at the idea, that’s OK. I want you to know that we have a place for you when you are ready, but don’t wait too long because at this rate someone might take your spot. Because when I look at the people who built the wall in Nehemiah’s day, I see regular ole’ people who gave of themselves to see God’s work finished. For us today in 2016, God’s work will never be finished until He returns. But take heart because there is true joy in serving Jesus. I agree wholeheartedly with the Apostle Paul that, “I will gladly spend and be spent for your souls” (2 Cor. 12:15).
Thank-you everyone and keep up the good work!
— Jordan
Are we keeping our promises?
We expect politicians to keep their promises but are we, the church, keeping ours?
Today I want to challenge you to get out and vote, but when you do, I want you to take a step back and think about your own responsibility to keep your promises as a disciple of Jesus Christ. As a Christian, I recognize my responsibility to personally magnify God’s glory. Therefore, I can’t sit on the sidelines and expect someone else to do it for me. That goes for my church, the government, or even my next door neighbor.
Too often, the truth is we look to someone else to solve our problems. We want change and we expect a politician to bring that change for us. But what if we decided as a church, we were going to change because we have been redeemed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. What if as a family, we decided we were going to change. What if as an individual, we decided we were going to change. Change what, you say? How about less sitting on the sidelines calling out for change and more living out the change the gospel demands.
What if we changed the way we thought about change? Instead of always looking to someone else for help; we looked to Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the one who can change us from the inside out. What if, we started looking to Him for the power to change our hearts desire to see our culture change. We no longer desire the sin that so easily besets us, but instead desire to see people changed by the love of Jesus.
What does that mean? That means for us as a church, we will be the light Jesus intended us to be (Phil. 2:15). We will feed the hungry, as he fed the hungry (Matt. 14:13-21). We will give to the poor, as he gave to the poor (Matt. 6:1-4). We will care for the sick, as he cared for the sick (Matt. 4:23-25). While doing all of this we will open doors to share the good news of the gospel. For feeding, giving, and caring are well and good, but Jesus changes temporal suffering into eternal joy (John 16:20). Politicians can only change so much, but a gospel motivated church sharing the love of Jesus can change the world for eternity. Gospel motivated Christians don’t sit on the sidelines and refuse to vote because they are sick of the establishment. No, gospel motivated Christians vote because they want to be good citizens of this earth reflecting their good standing as citizens of heaven (Rom. 13:1-7; Phil. 3:20). We seek to do our part in voting, but also in keeping our promises as citizens of heaven to represent the kingdom of God here on earth. That means sharing the love of Jesus to our Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
So get out and vote, but remember that it is in God whom we place our trust. He is the one who will keep His promise to one-day return and complete the work he began in us (Phil. 1:6). And until that day, our responsibility is to represent the love he showed to us to everyone in everyway we can.
To Study or Not to Study
Studying the Bible can be a daunting task. Where do I start? How do I go about studying?! I mean I haven’t studied anything since I was in high-school. I am a visual learner. I am too busy. The list of excuses goes on and on.
Living by the Book by Howard Hendricks is an excellent tool to enhance your study by equipping you with tools on getting more from the Bible. Let me give three helpful tips from the book that Howard Hendricks gives as his “bread and butter” of Bible study.
- Observation – What do I see?
- This is probably the best place to start as you learn to study the Bible. Take a verse. One verse. And observe every single thing you notice in the verse. Think like a detective. Literally nothing is too small or too big for you to notice. Write down everything. Be the Sherlock Holmes of Bible study.
- I like to individually write out each word on a separate line and then write my thoughts and observations underneath that word.
- The goal is to stockpile as much ammunition as you can. This ammunition will load up the weapons of interpretation and application. Too often we try to interpret the Bible and apply it to our lives without actually observing what it is saying.
- Interpretation – What does it mean?
- Application – How does it work?
Try it out for yourself. Pick a verse this week and study it out. Begin by simply observing every single thing that comes to mind. Look up cross references and definitions and everything you can think of. Record that information. Store up your ammunition. Then you can begin to interpret and apply it later on. For now, OBSERVE. OBSERVE. And OBSERVE some more. I’ll give some more insight in the coming weeks about how we actually interpret and apply these observations.
The Prelude to Nehemiah and Timeline
Nehemiah: Rebuilding, Restoring, and Redeeming
In this post I would like to introduce our first sermon series of 2016, starting January 24th. I have been praying about what God wants us to learn from His Word this year and what part of His Bible He wants us to study. Embarking on a sermon series is kind of like shoving off to sea on a ship headed for a destination, but unsure of how the voyage will fair or how long it will take. However, I know God has a plan for this series and a purpose in burdening me with this study. This voyage through the book of Nehemiah will be exciting. In the book, there is a little bit of something for everyone. The book has a varied mixture of literary styles: a general’s diary, a governor’s report, a civil record, a management handbook, and a memoir. The main character is Nehemiah who is an inspiring leader soldiering on through thick and thin. He leads the Jews back to Jerusalem to raise the walls of Jerusalem back up from the ashes. He leads from ruins to restoration. He helps repair, rebuild, and restore the physical city, but more importantly reforms the spiritual condition of the nation of Israel.
The story of Nehemiah is relevant for us all because this is exactly what God has done with us. We were scattered in exile. We were lost and wandering. We were seeking our own with little thought of God. Yet, through his providential direction He has brought us home, rebuilt our lives, and given us a place at his table as his sons and daughters. Through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ we are restored to “Eden-like” communion with God. Man once walked in the cool of the day in the garden side-by-side with God, but because of sin we are now afar off. Yet, when we draw near to God he draws near to us. When we trust in Him, He comes to live inside of us. We have a comforter and a guide and through Him we come boldly to the throne of grace to receive help in time of need. In the time period of Nehemiah, we see the Israelite nation in an extreme time of need. But what did God do? Did he leave them in their desolation? No, he redeemed them, just like He has done for us. Praise God for His marvelous redemption.
The plan is to begin our study in Nehemiah by first setting the scene. To do so, we will look at the books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Ezra. These books took place right before and during Nehemiah and will provide helpful background information to help us understand historical implications surrounding this time period.
A New Year’s Resolution To Do Less
Happy New Year! Our baby girl is going to be born any day now. I guess she liked 2016 better than she liked 2015.
Every new year brings excitement and anticipation for what could be. 2015 brought many changes for my family. Jamie and I went from wondering where we were going to live and what we were going to do, to finding have a place where we want to spend the rest of our lives if He so desires. That place is the center of His will which right now has us serving the amazing people at Hope Fellowship Church. God has blessed us with new life as we have been anxiously anticipating the coming birth of my first daughter. I’ve learned that God’s timing is best. He knew when the right time was for me to come to Hope Fellowship Church. And God knows the right time for my daughter to be born. This 2016, I will be celebrating a fresh start trusting in God’s perfect will for my life.
Maybe this year instead of choosing to do more you should choose to do less.
Solomon is warning us against the dangers of always having both of our hands full of things that are vain, like striving after something you’ll never catch: the wind. He says, better is a handful of quietness. Quietness could also be translated as rest, calm, or patience. So think about this practically. Maybe you might need to cut back in a few areas in order to find your rest so you can start to give back. When was the last time you read your Bible? When was the last time you prayed for your family? When was the last time you volunteered to serve God’s people at your church? I’m too busy, is often the cry of our American dream mentality. Yet, Solomon’s wisdom says, let go and let God.
So I challenge you this year to find a handful of quietness. The best place to find that quietness is to find it with God. In the hustle and bustle of life it is easy to get distracted from our relationship with the God of the universe. We say, “hang on God, I’m too busy right now.” God says to us, “Be still and know that I am God.” So this year, be still, slow down, do less, because when you do, you are able to do more.
We’re Almost There
We are almost there! I can’t help but sing the words in this song, “Almost There” with Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith. (Glad nobody can hear me as I type:) I know how incredibly ready Jamie and I are for our baby girl to come and I can’t even begin to imagine what it was like for Mary and Joseph. All the stress and all the mess that comes with birth, not to mention the travel they endured, plus the difficult conditions they went through in Bethlehem. How were they not just overwhelmed? This song certainly brings all the eagerness, frustration, and confusion into perspective. I know the word perspective is a word Jamie and me have thought a lot about lately. You carry this child and endure this pain in order to deliver something far better. In a much greater way, Jesus came and endured all the pain and mess of this world to deliver for all mankind something far better: salvation. One day Jesus is coming again, but until then, we are almost there.