For Those With Ears - Entries tagged "Monday"

The Sunday after Easter Sunday picked right up where we left off last week…passionate worship and a powerful message from God’s Word. It was a no-holds-barred message…like we walked into church and got slammed with a piece of rebar across the forehead! Especially for husbands and fathers.

From three pretty non-descript verses in Hebrews 11:20-22, we learned that Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, with all of the ups and downs of their faith, still managed to pass on a blessing to future generations. We even started by just defining what a blessing even is. I know I sometimes use that phrase a little flippantly. It was hard not to be convicted by this one. If you weren’t in the room for it, check it out online.

Toward the end of the message it got real practical when Pastor Todd built off of some reading he was doing in John Trent’s book, The Blessing. I thought it would be helpful for you to have this. We heard that the formal aspects of The Blessing include loving touch (laying your hands on your son or daughter) and making sure you actually say it; verbalizing the blessing in a clear way. The content of the blessing itself has three elements: (1) Personal Commitment (The Blessing of Love) - “I am here for you”; as you share your unconditional commitment to him/her, to be there for them, as God gives you strength, for the duration; …and that’s going to flow from you knowing that God committed his Son to die on your behalf and that he mediates for you as your advocate before the Father; you know you’re loved and cherished by him; (2) Affirmation of Worth (The Blessing of Identity) - “You are valued”; as you let them know that out of all the children in the world, you’re grateful God gave them to you; affirm their worth and identity in Christ; …and you have to know your value in Christ as his sons and daughters if you’re going to do this for your sons and daughters; and (3) Expression of potential for the future (The Blessing of Purpose) - “You have so much ahead of you”; you see potential in them for a great future, and that their strengths and gifts are things God can use to help their own family, the church and others; …and you have to know what your potential is in Christ (not pie in the sky nonsense, but a faith-filled expectation that God is with you to do exceedingly, abundantly above all you could ever ask or think.

Pastor Roger is going to contribute some further resources for any moms and dads who really want to get on this and make some changes in their homes to ensure they’re passing on a blessing as the patriarchs did.

As far as modeling it…well, you couldn’t miss Brian and Boaz Langford serving on the parking team before the 9 a.m. service. There’s a dad showing his son something good…passing on a blessing to future generations, for sure! Wondering if we can get orange vests to fit the junior parking attendant.

And is was modeled too in Pastor Todd’s interview just prior to the message.  It is always exciting to have people from our church family sense the call to serve in ministry vocationally, and Pastor Todd introduced us to Chad Freeman on Sunday. He’s heading to Harvest Bible Chapel St. Vincent for the next six months to serve as an intern and continue the process of figuring out God’s will and direction for his future ministry. He shared a couple of solid, Scripture-based prayer requests, and many of you pledged by raising your hands to pray for him. As a reminder, here’s what Chad asked us to pray:   

-     Luke 12:31-32  But seek His kingdom, and these things will be provided for you.  Don't be afraid, little flock, because your Father delights to give you the kingdom; and

-     Ephesians 1:17-19 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.  I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the glorious riches of His inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power to us who believe, according to the working of his great strength.

Powerful! 

Between services there was great Welcome@Harvest meeting with about a dozen newcomers to Harvest who are checking out whether or not God is leading them to be part of our church family.

I thought I’d mention too that on Saturday members of our Summer Glasgow Team as well as men from our two MIA groups (Men in Action) did an extensive trimming of the brush that was choking the woods behind our Bayfield Street office. The woods are part of the YMCA property and the crew did this to make the view from the office better as well as to help the Y out with its annual property clean up.

It was a great day together.  And like Pastor Todd said, it just seems to be such a long time between Sundays! Talk to you next Monday from Harvest University in Chicago!

God bless you…and I mean that!

Eutychus

Every time we get together as the church, I just love it. Can’t wait for the next Sunday to roll around after the last of the chairs are packed away and the storage units stowed.  I saw a couple of post-service tweets that nailed it for me…

@hshewfelt Another amazing Sunday @HarvestBarrie!! Run hard: Faith obeys...exactly what I needed to hear!!

@johncoros LOVE WORSHIPPING WITH OUR CHURCH @HarvestBarrie The only thing better will be when we are before His throne #cantwait

Captures my heart exactly!

That amazing Sunday started with great worship. It was so great to see Steve Dobbs up there leading again. And did you find our worship director Jordan? He gave the drummers a Sunday off and climbed into the drum room himself. After the service he told me that he said he got a whole new perspective from in there!

The service closed with Luke on keys and Jordan singing “Holy (Wedding Song)” by The City Harmonic. What a powerful little song. Pastor Todd said that we’d be hearing the song again on Good Friday. It bridged the theme of this past Sunday’s message perfectly into thinking about the crucifixion of Christ and the reality that because of his sacrifice, death’s sting has been removed. So grateful for that! If you want to hear that song, you’ll have to get it from iTunes. No YouTube link to it.

Pastor Todd’s message shredded me as usual. We opened to Hebrews 11:8-19 and heard about the four signs of faith-filled obedience. He was right, we don’t like the notion of having to obey, and his five objections were on the mark for me. And the whole idea of being ready to be in heaven with the Lord, no matter how good it might be here and now, really struck me. We’re made for that better, heavenly country. If you didn’t hear the message, you really need to check it out online.

Sunday was also a pretty big day from a technical standpoint as several pieces of audio equipment that were overdue for replacement got…uh, replaced finally. The audio techs were all geeked-up on Saturday putting everything in place. Aside from a few small glitches, everything went incredibly well. And I know that Jordan and the staff are super grateful for the audio tech guys who put a ton of work into making the sound great each week. Among other things, the new equipment gives us greater capability in quality recording which will improve our radio and online presence and will eventually give us the ability to live-stream to the web as well as produce video for campus sites. So cool! 

While we were meeting in the worship centre, our grade 4-6 Higher Ground kids were having a Seder or Passover meal as a way of better understanding the account of Jesus’ last week on earth and the message of salvation that is pictured in that meal. So grateful for Devyn and Caroline who put so much into their teaching. These kids are blessed! Check out the pics.

 

 

There are only a few short days left to get those Good Friday and Easter invitations into the hands of the people God has put into your life. As Pastor Roger said, they will often come if you make the invitation personal. If you can’t get a print invite into their hands, use this link.

By the way, I just signed up for Twitter (@EutychusBarrie) …so start following me, k?

I’ll be blogging again next Monday. It’ll be, “The Monday Blog about Good Friday and Easter Sunday”. What a weekend we have ahead of us as we remember the death of Christ and celebrate his resurrection to new life!

To him be glory!

Eutychus

It was an amazing March day as we gathered together on Sunday morning. Seems bunches of people were still away for March Break, and yet we had a good group of people worshipping the Lord Jesus together.

The worship was great as usual. The song line up took us vertical in a big way. So grateful for our worship teams and Jordan’s leadership. He introduced a new song that we will be singing together on Easter Sunday. Paul Baloche’s “We are Saved” is not on YouTube, but you can download it for free here and also watch the video by Baloche for the song, “The Same Love”. Very cool!

And about Easter, Pastor Todd let us know that we will have invitations in our hands soon to give to people to invite them to Good Friday and Easter Sunday services. This is the best opportunity in the year to have your loved ones join you at Harvest. Let’s take advantage of their willingness to come and boldly invite them!

Back to the service. With Pastor Mike preaching at Harvest Muskoka, Pastor Todd filled in on child dedications with his daughter Emilie helping out. Pierre and Trina Ouellette brought Chloe to be dedicated at the 9 a.m. service and Daniel and Leanne Roberts brought Crystal at 11:15 AM.  The Ouellettes' dedication was done with a little French and a little English to recognize Pierre’s first language and hopefully one Chloe will speak someday! Emilie read this as Chloe’s verse: Psaume 139:23, “Sonde-moi, ô Dieu, et connais mon coeur! Éprouve-moi, et connais mes pensées!”

We were also strongly encouraged to get our Meredith Andrews concert tickets before they’re all gone! Stop by the office this week and don’t be left out. We were rightly called out for our “late-to-sign-up-ways” and Pastor Todd doesn’t want any of us crying on his shoulder when we can’t get tickets!

The message in Hebrews 11:1-3 was powerful as we considered what faith really is. God does call us to “run with endurance the race set before us” (Hebrews 12:1), and that has to be done even in the face of how hard life is. If you missed the message, check it out here.

I’m looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday at 7 p.m. for our evening of prayer and praise. This is going to be a great time of worship and Word based prayer.

Have an amazing week!

Eutychus

It is so good to get together with God’s people and the LORD has been doing a great work each week in our hearts and lives.

With Jordan and Roxie away in Chicago for the week to participate in the live worship recording, Matt MacDonald, a member from Harvest Bible Chapel Oakville, brought along Jake McKee and lead worship along with our team.  Matt has been here before, of course, and once again blessed us with his leadership.

I was speaking with a couple of people who were impacted by Sunday’s message in Hebrews 10:1-18.

It was a very powerful message and cleared up a lot for him.  He's understanding the reasons for God’s requirement in the Old Testament as being a precursor for the coming of Christ. And I'm loving that sacrifices are no longer necessary! And loving that God looks at the heart and not the ritual.

Another person wondered what it might be like to get through a message without tears flowing. The reminder that we can’t simply stand still in our walk with Christ hit hard again. To do so is to invite drift in our lives. God’s intention for us is to progress day by day in our walk with him…continually being sanctified. Am I seeing growth?

I stayed for two services because I wanted to hear what Pastor Todd was going to say about the “JESUS” display that’s been on the stage for the last couple of months. He went to point to it in first service and realized that it hadn’t been put out. And he made a bit of a big deal about it. So the crew made sure it was out for second…and then he didn’t even refer to it! Ha!

By the way, in the message, we were challenged to test whether or not we were progressing and Pastor Todd went through a list of things to think about. He went through it kind of fast, so I got it from him. Take a look.

Are you seeing progress…

• in your understanding of the Scriptures
• in your intimacy with the Lord
• in your passion to serve
• in your love for the lost
• in your holiness

Plenty to think about there!

At the end of our time together, Pastor Todd reminded us of two important things: First, this Thursday night, we will be in Collingwood for an Evening of Worship and the Word. Check out all the details. If you live in that area, be sure to join us!

And second, that we start a new section of Hebrews titled, “Run Hard” next Sunday and that the first passage we will look at will deal with, among other things, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together”. The choice, he said, was clear; choose to come and hear a message about faithfully coming to worship, or skip out so you don’t have to hear that.  Wondering what attendance will be like next Sunday?!

Pastor Todd felt a little uncomfortable, it seems, letting us know he and his wife Cheryl were in Orlando last week. They were blessed to be part of the Harvest Bible Fellowship senior pastors and wives retreat and then to tack on some vacation days. He evidently came back fired up to preach! More about that in a sec.

Sunday morning set up—from an audio point of view—didn’t go very well. Still not sure why, but the worship team didn’t really get to practice until about 8:30. That’s late. There were some as yet unexplained technical issues that kept some critical components from working.

As the clock ticked closer to the start of the 9 a.m. service, the prayer team (they walk the halls and rooms prior to the services lifting their prayers to the Lord for all that will go on in the facility that morning) was sent off to another room to pray in light of the technical issues we were facing and the subsequent lack of rehearsal time for the worship team. Within minutes of that happening, suddenly what wasn’t working worked.

In light of the fact that we set up and tear down each week, it is remarkable that we don’t have more issues with our audio equipment. And I know that the church is grateful for the behind the scenes effort that goes into making our worship such a great experience week by week.

All in all, the worship was very capably led by Chad Ballantyne and team and the audio equipment gave us no more trouble for the balance of the morning. What do you say we praise God for that!

As for the message (I said we’d get back to this), it was a tough one; a pronounced warning about being in the church without actually being saved. Pastor Todd was "no-holds-barred" taking on multiple church traditions including our own, citing his greatest fear being that people in our own church might someday hear the words of Jesus from Matthew 7:21-23, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” At the same time, we received such assurance as he pointed to Hebrews 7:21 and let us all know that God’s not changing his mind about us. His love for us is sure. If we are called as his children, no one is ever snatching us out of his hand (see John 10:28). Love that!

If you’ve missed out on any of the Truly Epic series messages in Hebrews, you can listen to them here. I’m certain there’s going to be some great discussions in small groups this week as we digest this one!

Meanwhile, our junior highs and their leaders were off at their Winterfuse retreat in the Muskokas with kids from the other Ontario Harvest Bible Chapels. Pastor Mike reports that little sleep was had and many decisions for Christ were made over the weekend.  Praise God for that! The decisions, that is.

That’s all I have in my notes. Have a great week!

Eutychus

Happy New Year!  Though it felt more like a daylight saving time shift to head in for a 10 a.m. service!  It struck me that for a lot of volunteers there is just as much work for one service as there is for two.  I sure appreciate those who join me in getting things ready.  I thought it was great for Mike to point out that the real heroes are those who work and then come to church.  I know a couple of people who often have to come straight to church from work.  I guess I shouldn’t be too quick to judge if I see someone nodding a little!

One thing I learned from Mike’s message is that my new BFF (Best Friend Forever) is the one who is a truth-telling person.  I don’t always like to hear it but I need someone who is not letting me off the hook.  I need a Nathan, and then I need to agree with God about the truth and throw myself on God’s mercy.  Actually, though I need to be confronted once in a while, I need more of a compatriot that is walking with me and regularly encouraging me to do better!  That is what is actually happening in my small group! I heard someone comment that Mike’s last point could be a whole other message.  We really are knit together and influence each other.  I’m glad for that and I’m beginning to realize the responsibility it puts onto my own walk with Christ.  If you missed the first message of the New Year you can hear it here.

Thanks to Joel for leading worship and introducing a new song.  You can get familiar with it below and the whole set list is here.

While we don’t know what 2012 is bringing, it was good to be reminded that just as God was faithful in 2011 we can trust him each new day.  I was glad to hear how Pastor Trevor and Heather Peacock are leaning on him for their daughter Hope.  Glad to be able to share our senior pastor with the Calgary Harvest Bible Chapel.  I’m looking forward to hearing how it went and pray their congregation was encouraged.

I’m on day two of my new Bible reading plan.  Looking forward to the changes my small group will see in me, and that I’ll see in them this year.  Some of those guys really need some work!  :-) 

Peace,

Eutychus

I remember a while ago, Todd just mentioned burgers in a message and lots of people went out after the service to get one.  If that is the power of suggestion I can’t imagine how many went out for prime rib yesterday!  Mark Rotolo presented a tantalizing aroma all through the services.  He has a great servant’s heart and lots of skill!  He made a dinner for one of the small groups a while ago.  If you need an excuse to join a small group … well, just saying!

In Hebrews 5, the author is making the point that many believers who should be able to handle more advanced teaching from the Word ("eating meat") were instead satisfied to continue on with only the very basics of the faith ("drinking milk").  We don't want to be looking for milk, but rather we want to be eager to dig in to the meat of the Word.  Although some people try to avoid being used as sermon illustrations, I'm guessing that Dale Chapman and Chris Harrison weren't complaining at all about being the diners in yesterday's illustration!

 

I hope none of us misses the point of the illustration.  God wants us to dig into his Word and really feed on it.  In 1 John 2:14 he says, “I write unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.”  What a great picture of what God’s Word brings; strength and victory.  I want more of that so I’m looking forward to the next few blogs where Pastor Todd promised some practical help.

In the meantime I’m going to review that new song Jordan and Miranda taught us.  Wow!  You can listen to it below and if you missed the message you can get it, sans aroma, right here.

I came across this e-devotional that I thought you might find helpful.  Without prayer nothing else matters, so Daniel Henderson reminds us to be “careful, prayerful, thoughtful and peaceful" in this devotional which you can read here. 

Speaking of prayer we all need to continue to pray for God’s direction about a Clearview campus.  Mark your calendar to join in praying next Sunday evening at 6:30 p.m. at Tim and Roxie Shaw’s.  It’s open to everyone and it isn’t so much pausing in our busy schedules to make time for this as it is intentionally getting together to do some work in the kingdom.  for more info.

During the announcements, Mike told us about what a great job Harvest did in supporting the gift baskets for the orphanages in Haiti and Nigeria.  All of the kids will get Christmas baskets and there's money left over to go toward other important projects in those countries.

And Mike was also talking about the Christmas Eve services that we're all looking forward to on December 23 and 24 (both at 7 p.m.).  Invitations are available so make sure you pick up a handful next Sunday to use to invite others to join us for these great worship services.  You can also point people to this page of the website for all the info.

Going to get some prime rib!  #hungry #Jesussatisfies

Peace,

Eutychus

10 years, Disney and Swords, Oh My!

Celebrating 10 years of Harvest in Canada, round two, check. Yesterday concluded our second celebration Sunday -  why not celebrate 10 years five times? I know I’m pumped for more!

Pastor Joel Anderson from Harvest Bible Chapel in Orlando brought the word. A great message out of Revelation. A “CHARGE” and an encouragement! I’ve never heard a bugle here at Harvest until now, but I’m pretty sure that we need to work that in for next week. Can someone talk to Jordan about that? Anyone play the bugle?

Speaking of Jordan, the band introduced a new song to us yesterday. A song entitled “Joyful”, a song based on the old hymn with a new chorus about our saving God. Check it out below! Sounds like a keeper.

Worship was great overall yesterday, I love how the celebration Sundays are including these Storyline videos, Sheena Jorgenson really laid it all out for us yesterday. I totally respect that vulnerability and it’s awesome to see the lives that our God can change. When our hearts our softened to his Word he really can transform us! If you missed the video yesterday, definitely check it out below!

Back to Joel now. He’s been hassled so much that he’s from warm, sunny Orlando, and Todd certainly gave it to him during the announcement bit! Joel came with his guns fully loaded though (or maybe just his bags packed?) and brought Todd and Cheryl up for a little “Orlando makeover”. Second service was probably a little less shocking I’m sure!  If you missed the great challenge we received from Joel's message, be sure to listen to it online.

If you saw the sword Joel brought, you might chuckle a bit when you hear he forgot to take it out of his carryon on the flight home! Hope TSA was ok with everything! (#churchprops)

Hopefully you were able to stop by the kiosk in the lobby where the young adults were hosting a display for "If They Were Mine". This Christmas we're joining up with CHIPROM in Nigeria and Freedom House in Haiti to provide Christmas gifts for children in these orphanages.  Our Harvest Young Adults are leading the charge so you can stop by to see them at the booth in the lobby for the next two Sundays and donate some money to bless children this Christmas.  All your donations will be used to purchase gifts and take care of practical needs for those less fortunate. Rally around this campaign and show the love of Christ!

A great Sunday again indeed! So grateful that we're getting used to saying that…praise the Lord for what he’s doing in our church body!

Eutychus

I didn’t really hear about anyone getting caught with the time change.  But I still got a jolt when I saw the time on my car’s clock!  

Things got pretty serious though, as we were reminded that we ought to give an accounting for the freedoms we have.   If I can swing it I want to join the staff down at the Cenotaph to honour our soldiers on Friday morning. 

The message was a powerful reminder to be diligent now for the accounting we will give.  I loved this summary statement:  “Go ahead and live the life you want to give an account for.”  That makes it clear that I am responsible for my choices in areas like money, time and abilities.  God misses nothing and his Word speaks directly into my life about these things.  I am so thankful to be part of a body where so many are responsive to these things, and willing to publicly submit to the scrutiny of God’s Word.  What were some of the things God was speaking to you about?  This song, below, that Amy sang during that time is still moving me!  How great is it that when my sin is exposed, God “clothes me in robes of righteousness,” and “covers my nakedness with grace”?

It was a great time affirming Mike Armstrong as a pastor.  Harvest is blessed to have him as part of our leadership team and blessed to have his wife Angie pouring into the lives of so many at Harvest.  They are proven and faithful and I love it when Mike “brings the Word!” 

I was moved, again, praying the Scriptures together in our evening prayer meeting.  We prayed through the values that define who we are as Harvest Bible Chapel.  There was rejoicing and tears and supplications and lots of gratitude. 

And while we were busy with all of this, it’s also good to know that our new radio program, Time to Change, featuring Canadian Harvest Bible Fellowship teaching pastors, launched on Sunday at 11 a.m. on Life 100.3. 

Have a great week remembering the one who set the standard for loving sacrifice!

Eutychus

We’ve been hearing about The Valley of Vision off and on for a bit now. Pastor Todd talked about it several weeks ago and he tweets a few excerpts several mornings a week for those who follow him on Twitter or Facebook. As we quietly prepared for worship on Sunday, Jordan read an entire prayer from this powerful collection of Puritan prayers and devotionals. For those who are into e-books, you can get the Kindle version of The Valley of Vision from Amazon for $0.99. 

Pastor Todd took us through Hebrews 1:4-11 where we heard that nothing (not even angels) should stand in the way of our worship of Jesus Christ. Like a lot of you, I wrote down something at the end of the teaching time that I’m eager to get rid of in my life because I know it keeps me from worship at times. 

The message helped us see that Jesus is much superior to angels—as cool as they are to us. We went through that “job description” for angels pretty quickly, so if you are one of those people who might want to study that part again this week, here’s the list he worked through:

The unnamed angels who appear most often in Scripture carry out a variety of tasks—all designed to serve God…

• Worship and praise - This is the main activity portrayed in heaven (Isaiah 6:1-3; Revelation 4-5).
• Revealing - They serve as messengers to communicate God's will to men. They helped reveal the law to Moses (Acts 7:52-53), and served as the carriers of much of the material in Daniel, and Revelation. 
• Guiding - Angels gave instructions to Joseph about the birth of Jesus (Matthew 1-2), to the women at the tomb, to Philip (Acts 8:26), and to Cornelius (Acts 10:1-8).
• Providing - God has used angels to provide physical needs such as food for Hagar (Genesis 21:17-20), Elijah (1 Kings 19:6), and Christ after his temptation (Matthew 4:11).
• Protecting - Keeping God's people out of physical danger, as in the cases of Daniel and the lions, and his three friends in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3 and 6).
• Delivering - Getting God's people out of danger once they're in it. Angels released the apostles from prison  in Acts 5, and repeated the process for Peter in Acts 12.
• Strengthening and encouraging - Angels strengthened Jesus after his temptation (Matt 4:11), encouraged the apostles to keep preaching after releasing them from prison (Acts 5:19-20), and told Paul that everyone on his ship would survive the impending shipwreck (Acts 27:23-25).
• Answering prayer - God often uses angels as his means of answering the prayers of his people (Daniel 9:20-24; 10:10-12; Acts 12:1-17).
• Caring for believers at the moment of death - In the story of Lazarus and the rich man, we read that angels carried the spirit of Lazarus to "Abraham's bosom" when he died (Luke 16:22).

Prepared by Dr. John Bechtle

And if you want to dive head first into “angelology” (yup, that’s a real field of study), you should check out Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. After the service, one couple told me they were pulling out their copy of that book to go deeper into what angels are all about.

Pastor Mike prayed with thanks for the tenth anniversary of Harvest Bible Chapel Barrie…actually the tenth anniversary of Harvest in Canada since we were the first one planted outside of the Chicagoland area. Pastor Todd mentioned at the end that this past Sunday marked the official launch of the church back in 2001. He also let us know that while this past Sunday was pretty low key about that, celebration Sundays are coming up in October, November, February, April and June with some great preachers coming in to help us give glory to God for all he has done.

Some reminders that have been passed on to me to pass on to you while I’m writing…

-       Don’t forget the Memory Project (Get it? Fon’t forget the memory project!). Sign up to receive a weekly reminder by text to your cellphone. We’re still working on Hebrews 1:3 this week;

-       Last Sunday, September 11, Pastor Todd and Pastor Roger took about eight minutes to talk about our new ministry year launch and a bunch of things related to it. You can listen to that short update below.

-       If you’re in a small group already, you’ll be starting the book, Transforming Prayer this week. Everyone is pretty pumped about what this will mean for our church as we live out the pillar, believing firmly in the power of prayer;

-       And finally, (this was a long one!), we have a night of prayer coming up this Sunday, September 25. Our Clearview campus prayer group will be joining the rest of us at Timothy at 6:30 p.m. to begin practicing the things we will be learning in Transforming Prayer.   

That’s it for me for now. Hope you have an amazing week!

Eutychus

1. I don’t have much to offer (fear of what others think);
2. I’ve been burned in the past (fear of being burned again);
3. I don’t have time (fear of being too busy);
4. I won’t be very good at it (fear of failure); and
5. I might be good at it (fear of success/it may require more of me).

• Be specific v7c
• Face to face v7d
• Make an appeal to
  • the conscience v8
  • sense of community
  • to their worship of God v9a; and the mission to make disciples v9b

• Have a specific action plan v10-11
• Establish accountability v12b
• Seal the deal with a formal prayer of commitment v13a

I watched as Haitian pastors walked up to put their own offering into a cardboard box at the front of the worship centre.  Today I'll see the same happen in a church in Deschapelles.

For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.

• Acts 1:8 – We have the Holy Spirit
• Psalm 119:105 – We have the Word of God
• Acts 2:42-47 – We have the people of God
• Matthew 28:19-20 - We have purpose