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For Those With Ears

FriFridayMayMay3rd2013

Forgive Freely

Posted Friday, May 03 2013 @ 10 AM byTodd Dugard Tagged From the Cave 0 comments Add comment

Your marriage (current or future) has no chance without forgiveness. Lots of it.

In fact, there’s no hope for any relationship of any kind apart from a commitment to forgive when offenses happen.

They always happen.

On Sunday we’ll continue our series “It’s a Family Thing” looking at “Priority #3: Forgive Freely” in Proverbs 17:9. I’ll prepare you ahead of time…this is a seven-point message from one verse in Proverbs. One powerful little verse.

This could be a life-changing message for many. Come ready for that.

Come ready to hear from God. You can do that by getting your heart and your head in the right place…

-       give your offering online before you come on Sunday;
-       read the weekly bulletin to find out what’s happening at Harvest;
-       pray through the Weekend Warriors list and ask God to do a deep work in your own life;
-       read Proverbs 17:9 and maybe even memorize it before Sunday (not hard!);
-       invite someone to come along with you by asking them to “Come and See” what God is doing in our church;
-       listen to the great worship songs we have lined up…we had an amazing time last week with twenty vocalists and musicians on stage, and this week we’ve pulled it way back to just two. And it too will be powerful!

This is the final Sunday preview blog. Watch for a new, enhanced e-bulletin in your email inbox next Friday. We’ll post a link to the new e-bulletin on our Facebook page and Twitter account as well.

See you Sunday,

Todd

WedWednesdayMayMay1st2013

Hospitality

Posted Wednesday, May 01 2013 @ 7 AM byAmy Passafiume Tagged No tags 1 comments Add comment

“Hospitality” – a word that sends shudders down the spines of many <grin>…I was one of those people, but I’m growing. You see, it’s not that I don’t like spending time with people, I love people…but having them into my home and "entertaining" seemed daunting (okay, sometimes it STILL seems daunting!).

I had this idea in my head that my home had to be PERFECT to receive guests – not so! My home simply needs to be comfortable so that people feel welcome. When I visit someone I’m not there to inspect their house, I’m there to see them…I should give my company the benefit of the doubt that this is their attitude as well. Hospitality is much more about my heart than my home. Hospitality doesn’t have to mean elaborate five course meals with place cards and centerpieces! And it also doesn’t have to mean that it’s been on the calendar for a month or two (WHAT!?!) – it CAN be last minute or even unexpected…sometimes these are the sweetest visits.

God’s Word is pretty clear…let’s look at a few verses:

1 John 3:17-18
But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Romans 12:13
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

1 Peter 4:8-9
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

Seems to me like we don’t really have an excuse to get ourselves out of this! I recently heard about a couple at Harvest who are striving to invite a small group of people (from outside their small group!) over on Sunday evenings to share a meal with them because they want to get to know people more – how great is that!?! I am by no means a hospitality expert…but I’m working on it!!

Here are some simple and practical ideas that you could do to grow in hospitality:

1.   Pray – ask the Lord to put some people on your heart that you could show hospitality to…then be obedient when the opportunity arises
2.   Open up your home - invite someone (or a few people) over for a meal…if that seems a little too much right now there is nothing wrong with inviting them over for dessert and coffee…or even just a cup of tea!
3.   Make a meal (or some mini muffins). If someone has recently had a baby, had surgery or has been feeling under the weather, making them a home cooked meal and delivering it to them can be an incredible blessing and display of hospitality.
4.   Meet your neighbours. My mom was such a great example to me in this way. When new people moved onto the street she would bake them something and deliver it with a note that introduced our whole family, told them where we went to church in case they were looking for a church, informed them what day garbage pick up was and gave them our number in case they ever needed anything…this was a great bridge into our neighbours' lives. Have a bonfire and invite your neighbours. Bring them a meal if you know something is going on in their lives…by building the relationship it makes it easier to put an invitation to church into their hands!

If you have any other ideas please feel free to comment and share!!

MonMondayAprApril29th2013

The Monday blog about Sunday

Posted Monday, April 29 2013 @ 10 AM byEutychus Tagged Monday 1 comments Add comment

Well, it was an AMAZING Sunday of worship! The Black-Gospel inspired worship was off the charts! So good. Pastor Todd was right to fire up another song at the end to close off the service. I am so grateful for the time that our expanded team (there were twenty musicians and vocalists on stage) put into making that an unforgettable morning of worship together.

The powerful worship set up a powerful time of conviction in the Word of God. Pastor Todd brought us message two of seven in the "It's a Family Thing" series in Proverbs. The bumper video that started the sermon was timely given that the Habs and Leafs played the night before.

There's no question that fans of both teams are LOYAL to the end and that was the subject matter for this message: "It's a family thing to pledge your loyalty to one another." Here are the five proofs of loyalty Pastor Todd shared:
1. Give it up. (Sacrifice);
2. Say it out loud. (“I’m for you.” “I love you.”);
3. Follow through. (Words are not enough. Actions required!);
4. Take the fall. (He said this was the hardest! Let my reputation suffer? – Hard!); and
5. Remain under. (Will I still be here when the smoke clears?).

Good stuff for sure. If you have not yet heard or seen the message, check out the audio or video (ready soon) from Sunday.

Sad to say, this is my last Monday blog about Sunday. Things are changing up at the Harvest office in terms of how information is flowing. The number of people reading this blog each week is super small and that has sealed our fate. I'm grateful to those of you who have been faithfully taking the time to read this post each week, but there just aren't enough of you to carry on. New ways of getting the message to you are being unveiled in the coming weeks, so watch for that.

It's been fun!

Soli Deo Gloria,

Eutychus

FriFridayAprApril26th2013

Pledge Your Loyalty

Posted Friday, April 26 2013 @ 9 AM byTodd Dugard Tagged From the Cave 0 comments Add comment

The whole idea of being loyal has fallen on hard times. Generally, people today are distrustful and fickle. We fall in and out of favour with others, in and out of love. Commitments are never binding, but temporal and conditional. In fact, I might even go so far as to say that not only is loyalty not valued, it is despised and mocked as being foolish, naïve and old-fashioned.

Somehow that doesn’t sit right with me. It flies in the face of what God has to say about it, and how the follower of Jesus Christ ought to live his or her life. Loyalty, according to Proverbs, is actually a desirable and noble virtue for those who are wise.

As we open that book on Sunday and continue in our current series, “It’s a Family Thing”, we’ll see just how loyalty ought to be playing out in our marriages and families. Set this as a priority for your home: It’s a family thing to pledge your loyalty to one another.

As you prepare for Sunday…

- Read these verses: Proverbs 3:3-4; 16:6a; 20:6; 21:21 and consider what they say about loyalty;

- Pray through the Weekend Warriors update;

- Read the Sunday bulletin;

- Give your offering online;

- Listen to the powerful worship songs we have lined up to sing.

And a word about that worship time. DON’T MISS IT! Jordan has lined up a worship team and some songs that are going to lift the roof off of the place! It is “Gospel Sunday” so you had better have your “gospel pants” on (as Jordan would say).

One more thing: readership of these blog posts has been puny, pathetic, and paltry. And so, we have been revisiting and re-evaluating all of our communication strategies trying to find the best ways to get information to our church family. Among the new strategies that will be implemented will be a new enhanced e-bulletin that will have a blog-like opening paragraph. It will replace a number of current communication tools including this blog. Thank you to the small number of you who were actually reading and benefiting from this blog. We have to be a good steward of the resources God gives us and sadly, your number is too small (very, very small) to warrant the time and energy that has been going into it. So we’ll be finding a new way to do all of this better. Changes will be rolled out before the end of May.

See you Sunday!

Todd

WedWednesdayAprApril24th2013

Prayer Walk

Posted Wednesday, April 24 2013 @ 1 PM byMike Armstrong Tagged Prayer 0 comments Add comment

I want to take a moment to let you know about a really great night that we have coming up - our annual prayer walk. This has been something that we've done several times with our students at Harvest Youth in the Spring. We've found it to be a great way to rub shoulders with what's happening with our city and get a face to face encounter with what God's doing. The essential purpose of prayer walking is to seek God's blessing, mercy and transforming power - both for the community, and for ourselves as God's servants in the community. Here's a taste of how we pray as we walk:

· Pray for discernment -- seek the gift of seeing the community through God's eyes, and to discern what God is already doing among the people; ask God to reveal what you need to know to inform your prayers for the people, events, and places in the community. Be bold to pray out what God puts on your heart.

· Pray for blessing -- over every person, home and business you encounter; for God's intervention in each life, so that each one can be fruitful in God's kingdom; for God's will to be done in this community "as it is in heaven" (Matt. 6:10)

· Pray with empathy -- see and feel what residents live with every day; offer intercession for those things that express brokenness and grieve God's spirit, and give thanks to God for the blessings and gifts that exist in the community.

· Pray from Scripture – pray from God’s Word, prayers based directly on God's Word can be especially powerful. You may want to bring a Bible with key passages highlighted, or copy verses onto note cards.

· Pray in God's power -- allow times of silence for God's spirit to speak to you, or for you (Romans 8:26). Ask with confidence in the power of Jesus' name (John 14:12-14).

· Pray for the Lord to send labourers into the harvest.

· Pray for God’s greater glory to be revealed in our city.

· Pray for leaders: Pray for people responsible in any position of authority - for politicians, teachers, police, administrators and parents.

· Pray for peace: Cry out for the godliness and holiness of God’s people to increase to substantial peace. Pray for new churches to be established.

· Pray for illumination of truth: Celebrate the faithful revelation of his truth to all peoples through ordinary people. Pray that the eyes of minds would cease to be blinded by Satan so that they could come to knowledge of the truth.

· Pray for salvation: Praise God for his heart’s desire that all people be saved. Name specific people to be saved. Pray for club and bar owners to come to Jesus Christ and for God to tear down the immorality and raise up godliness in Barrie.

· Pray for the homeless and needy: You will see evidences of homelessness and brokenness as you walk. People caught in addiction, mental illness, abuse and other bondages need Jesus to set them free. Pray for agencies, such as the Barrie Food Bank, the Salvation Army, The Busby Centre, and the Out of the Cold Program and various youth centers.

· Pray for the church: Ask for healing in relationships, that there be no wrath or dissension among God’s people. Ask that God would make his people, men and women alike, bold in faith, expressive in worship and passionate for holiness.

· Pray for our schools: Pray that Christian teachers and students would stand boldly for Jesus Christ and that salvation would come to our schools. Pray for the downtown schools such as Barrie North Collegiate, Central and Prince of Wales

· Pray for businesses: Pray that Barrie’s businesses would be successful and that our Christian business leaders would shine for Christ, stand for righteousness and integrity and be a model to the business world in our city.

· For sin to be exposed and cleaned up: Pray that God will illuminate himself in the face of drugs, alcoholism and prostitution, bringing redemption to people caught in these sins (bars, clubs, strip clubs, etc)

We would love you to join Harvest Youth as we pray for our city. It's all happening Tuesday, May 7 from 7-9 p.m. and we'll be meeting at Memorial Square downtown Barrie. Our youth small groups will be walking around praying together and you're free to make up groups of your own and do the same. We meet together at Casa Cappuccino at about 8 p.m. for hot drinks. If you have any questions, contact me at marmstrong@harvestbarrie.ca.

Mike