Passages

In preparing for a funeral that I am leading this afternoon, I was reflecting on many scriptures. These were especially encouraging to me:

Matthew 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

I Thess 4:13-18 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the word shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Satan's Lies or God's Truth

Satan says: You are a sinner because you sometimes sin.

God says: You are a saint (one declared righteous by GOD ) who sometimes sins.

Satan says: You get your identity from what you have done.

God says: You get your identity from what God has done for you.

Satan Says: You get your identity from what people say about you.

God says: You get your identity from what God says about you!

"You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."(Mark 1:11 NIV)

56 years!

Oh, how I hope that one day I will be able to send someone an email like this. I received it this morning:

Pastor Noah,

....I will not be able to attend the meeting tomorrow evening as it is our 56th wedding anniversary and I usually take the bride out to a special meal under the stars or at the seashore...

Thanks,
Lew

Happy 56th anniversary to Lew and Helen Good!!

Every Member Ministry...People are Stepping up and Stepping out!

Can I be honest with you for a minute? It used to be that the same people seemed to do everything at CCF. I want to tell you that is changing! Last night there were 5 new people at Worship Team practice! Tricia informed me that there are more new people pitching in with the launch of Capi’s Kids than we have ever had before. New people are stepping up to the plate at CCF. I love the words of Ephesians 4:11-13 that speak to the importance of every member ministry:

He is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.

I love this passage and its focus on the importance of everyone being gifted by God to contribute something to the body of Christ! Whenever Ephesians 4 is followed…when we do it God’s way—amazing things happen that are way bigger than any of us!

Here is why this works so well…check this out…It is an all around WIN:

1. The equippers (pastors) win each time they see God greatly use the volunteers they have recruited, loved, trained and empowered.
2. The volunteers win because they get the thrill of moving from the spectator sport to the playing field. They become instruments in the hands of God and oftentimes lock in and buy in to the ministry!
3. The community wins because they receive the service of a loving, unified and powerful force of ministry.
4. And of course the architect of the whole plan wins because God has the pleasure of seeing his children carry forth his grand focus of his kids working together to fix a broken world.

Chew on these thoughts today.

How would you like to buy a home for $4,780?

When we started Staff Meeting today, Brother Lew (who celebrated his 80th birthday) shared something with us that he thought we may find interesting. While he was cleaning out some files at his house, he ran across a brochures for the homes in Landover Hills, MD when they were being built 65 years ago. Here is a picture of the brochure. The prices may be hard to see, but they are as follows:

• For the lovely 2 bedroom cape well equipped....the sales price was $4,780.00 and the monthly payment would be $33.10 (now, one meal out at a restaurant!)
• If you could splurge, you could go for the larger 3 bedroom colonial for $5,000.00 and the monthly payment would be $34.60.

Or...you could but one today for $250,000. Just much older and way more beat up. Are you kidding me?

Short Week

Love the break that Labor Day offers....but do not love the heavy load of stuff to climb through the day after. Today I am looking down the barrel of a short week that includes sermon prep, a Board Meeting and a Capital to get ready for print. Gonna be an intense one. Pray for me.

One of the things that I miss the most on weeks like this is think time, which often effects the blog....and you know how I enjoy blogging. We shall see if I get an epiphanies or time to share them this week.

With love to you!

Directly to Angola

Yesterday, I saw New Orleans Mayor, Ray Nagin hold this news conference. Something about his leadership as he spoke was especially impressive (especially in comparison to the last hurricane). He made it very clear what would happen to looters during and after this storm. Very clear! I think there are appropriate times that all of us need strong and clear leadership. There is something that feels very good about it.

Watch this. Listen close to the ending words. Pretty funny.

Click here for the video on CNN.