My first “Thank You” goes to God. He is the one who “enriches us in every way so that we might be generous in every way” (2 Coritnhians 9:11).
My second “Thank You” goes to people like Mark Driscoll, James McDonald, and anyone else who has helped to start the “Churches Helping Churches” initiative.
My third and final “Thank You” goes to you Redemption Hill Church. A few weeks ago, we extended to you the opportunity to strengthen the Church in Haiti through your giving and, by God’s grace (2 Corinthians 8:1), you responded by giving $6,816.00 toward the work of rebuilding and strengthening the Haitian Church.
Please be encouraged when you remember that, although this amount of money can barely even begin to address the challenges that our brothers and sisters in Haiti face in the aftermath of the earthquake, your giving will cause the Church in Haiti to glorify God–the greatest thing any church can do.
The apostle Paul said it this way:
2 Corinthians 8:12-13
…The ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others…
Today marks the start of the second week of our Lenten Journey. Many of you have joined us on this journey and some of you have just lost track of time and would like a re-do.
Well, let Week 2 be a ‘take 2′ for you. Download the guide and join us starting this week. We’re all going to pick a food or a meal to fast from this week and as we do we’ll pay attention to ‘what is it like to begin to assert some mastery over your body. How does your body/mind respond to that? If you forgo a whole category of food, consider: What is it like to deny a craving? Is it easy or hard. How does that craving grow the more you deny it? Does it eventually become easier? Why?
We’ll also reflect through Scripture on the ideas of sin, rules (legalism) and judgment. But we don’t just reflect, we take our reflections and use the Lord’s Prayer as a guide to turn our reflections upwards and see how the gospel deals with what we discover about ourselves.
So, if you missed week 1, this is new week and a new opportunity to join us in the Lenten Season and by God’s grace, experience a ‘Springtime of Faith’.
Today is the first day of the Lenten Season and we have prepared a guide that will help you use this time (46 days) in a more purposeful and intentional way. It’s is not meant to be a new rule that you are to follow…this guide is simply a tool that I pray will allow us to make the most of this time. In it you will find:
This Lenten journey may not be like one that you have done in the past…you can blame my influences on that one.
Beg…borrow…and sometimes steal…that’s how things get developed sometimes. I’m an information junkie…I have files a few inches deep spread around the office and the house on different topics. The writing of this journal was the product of a lot of research and other people’s work. So, it’s good to know who you can beg, who will let you borrow and who doesn’t mind if you outright steal from them when you are putting things together.
This would have been a very different guide if it weren’t for the work of Bob Hyatt as well as the generous guys at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville. These guys, as well as others, have produced some amazing prayer guides over the years that spurred my thoughts and direction when it came time to putting this together…and crazy props to my wife who took it and make it look like something that needs to be read and getting it online.
So, I hope that you use this guide and join us in this journey as we seek to ‘lose the things that can’t truly satisfy‘ in order to gain the only true satisfaction that can be found in Jesus.
This is the continuation of Matt and Betty’s wonderful letter of encouragement to us…
Third, use the snow school closings as a gift from God to “nudge” your community groups to the point where worshipping together like you did this past Sunday is a natural part of your DNA. And use it to draw those who regularly attend RH but who have yet to affiliate with a community group to the group that is nearest to their place of residence. These groups are the heart and soul of Redemption Hill, the places where everyone can be real and grow and minister to each other in a natural and fruitful way.
Finally, we want to share that our group at Kaleo has a wonderful ministry to a local homeless shelter, and are part of their family. Once a month the meeting takes place at the site of the shelter and involved their residents. It is amazing to see what God does! There are actually three ways these groups can help grow the church and each member.
Every group at RH should pray about at least one group ministry to needy people in the community; second, subgroups of two or three should come together to form accountability groups to meet weekly, study Scripture and support each other by prayer and confidential exchanges that focus on specific areas of weakness and temptation and seek to hold each other accountable; and finally, each member should be learning how to disciple others, and then actually doing it as a natural element of the Christian walk.
If you do not know how to disciple others, get the Master Life course materials and go through them with a small group of RH members and friends. Or review some of the excellent materials published by the Navigators.
In conclusion, we cherish your prayers and are staying very connected with you all through the church web sites. We may not regularly be making entries on the community site, but rest assured we review it frequently, and do not perceive ourselves as separated from you in Jesus. And that is the only way that counts!
There will be more storms, both physical and spiritual. There will be more lost jobs, more serious illnesses, more heartache as we live and serve God in this fallen world—in the midst of a fierce spiritual battle. But we all have Jesus, and we have each other as dear brothers and sisters in Christ. The best remedy for dealing with life’s challenges is to focus on meeting the needs of others and then watch as God provides for your own needs in ways that glorify Him and lead others to His Throne!
Pray for your pastors, and grow in ministry gifts in ways that will enable you to carry some of their burdens and thus multiply the Kingdom impact of Redemption Hill.
We do not know the path that lies ahead of us. And we are content not to know. That is our path of faith and trust. We expect God to do with and through us all that He wills and to do it to advance His purposes and glorify Himself among all peoples. We hope and pray that this will include our continued ministry on this side of eternity, but we are ready to go to the other side whenever He wishes.
Beloved, pray for us, and that God would use us here to advance His Kingdom.
Greet all the brothers and sisters for and from us.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, now and forever.
Galatians 2:20
Perspective can be defined as that which brings a true understanding to the relative importance of things…if there is something that we desperately need in this day and age it is perspective.
I believe that perspective is one of the greatest gifts that God gives us through the lives of others…until we lift our gaze from ourselves, how can we truly know the relative importance of things…how can we have perspective?
For months we have been praying for and with our dear friends and Redemption Hill family members, Matt and Betty Bristol. These two saints are in Houston serving as Gospel Ambassadors in the Anderson Medical community…a community that focuses on serving those with cancer. What makes this all the more humbling, is that they are there serving others with the Gospel of hope and redemption while they are fighting a cancer that has reared it’s head in Betty’s body.
Not content to be simply be treated for cancer, these two amazing people see their presence at Anderson as a mission field that they have been dispatched to by their king…King Jesus. Their capacity to trust God and serve Him fearlessly in the face of their own struggle while surrounded by a world of hurt and despair brings a perspective to my life that is desperately needed.
It’s a perspective that is needed for all of us. That is why I am so grateful that they have taken the time to write a letter, an epistle, to their friends and family here at Redemption Hill. Over the next 2 days I want to share this letter with you. I pray that it is an encouragement to you…and I pray that it helps to bring perspective.
To the saints at Redemption Hill, Richmond, USA
Grace and peace to each and all of you, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
We are far from you in miles and time zone, but very much with you in our hearts and in the power of the Holy Spirit, who provides us the ability to live and serve in the spiritual realm, depending on God’s provision from one precious day to the next.
Our journey to Houston has now lasted over three months, and we know not how long it will last. But it has not been a burden, but thanks to God’s provision, it has been a joy and cause for continuous thanksgiving.
Never have so many all around the world been lifting us up, never have we been so blessed! We have been adopted by the saints at Kaleo, a sister church of the network of churches known as Acts 29. They have been serving the Lord for 6 years now, and look and feel very much like Redemption Hill. We have become part of a community group and meet on Thursday evenings (when we are able).
We want to encourage you all in several important respects.
First, get to know the complete Acts 29 network, study their web site, and when you travel to a place near one of their fellowships, visit and worship with them and encourage them. You are a part of a dynamic movement of God that will transform American and ultimately all western ideas about what it means to be “church.”
Second, prepare now for dealing with major spiritual attacks; they will come—the only questions are when and how. I want to commend to you a new book by our dear friend and now fellow patient at MD Anderson, Avery Willis—author of the Master Life discipleship series and a pioneer in last frontier missions. It is called “Learning to Soar: How to Grow through Transitions and Trials.” This book is designed to be used in group study, and churches across the country are starting to use it in significant ways. See www.learningtosoar.org.
Third, use the snow school closings as a gift from God to “nudge” your community groups to the point where worshipping together like you did this past Sunday is a natural part of your DNA. And use it to draw those who regularly attend RH but who have yet to affiliate with a community group to the group that is nearest to their place of residence. These groups are the heart and soul of Redemption Hill, the places where everyone can be real and grow and minister to each other in a natural and fruitful way.
To be continued tomorrow…
As explained in the previous post, our service has moved to homes across the city today. ”Lead Me.. Deliver Me” / 31 minutes:
(USE THE FULL SCREEN BUTTON IN THE BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER TO EXPAND THE VIDEO)
Reflection Questions:
- How does Jesus’ teaching on prayer release you from the pressure of “praying well” when other people are around?
- In your own opinion, which desires of yours might you be asking God to change when you say “lead us not into temptation?”
- Think about the last time you felt temptation building up inside. How would you describe the “way of escape” that God provided for you?
Well, we’re snowed out of Holton tomorrow, but we will be gathering as Redemption Hill to listen to God, pray and celebrate together in homes around Greater Richmond instead of Holton Elementary. As part of the gathering, we’ll be watching the next sermon in the Lord’s Prayer Series: “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.”
2 years ago this month, I was in a pinch trying to find a place to host our initial info meetings for Redemption Hill. At the midnight hour, a new friend named Chris Thomas (who is the associate pastor at Grace Covenant Presbyterian church in the Fan), went to bat for us with his session and made a way for us to meet in their little chapel on Sunday nights for about 8 weeks.
Well, with what looks like another white out this weekend, Chris and Grace Covenant came through for us and allowed us to use that same chapel today to gather some friends and film a sermon in case we get closed down again this Sunday.
So, stay tuned to the site for the latest updates on our service plans…and if the city shuts us down again, get together with your family, friends, neighbors, community group…whoever…and watch Raymond teach us what it means to pray “Our father in heaven…lead me not into temptation but deliver me from evil”.
(remember those days below…?)
If you’re like me you have had countless responses to the snow in the last few days…from joy to frustration. But what about awe…what about wonder….what about worship?
I’m serious, has the snow over the last few days moved you to worship God, the Creator and Sustainer of all?
If not, maybe it should.
How so?
I’m glad you asked, I came across this meditation that I had downloaded years ago from John Piper. I used it one Sunday evening the week after we were canceled by a snowfall. Just as I was those years ago, reading this today drew me to worship…I pray it does the same for you (b/c it looks like we will be getting more of the white stuff this weekend).
Let me give you a brief Biblical Meterology lesson.
We were cancelled because of a snow storm, but what does that have to do with knowing God?
To see that we need to see where snow comes from.
Well, the sky. The sky? Frozen water will come out of the clear blue sky?
First it starts out as just water. Water will have to be carried in the sky from the ocean, over several hundred miles and then typically, be poured out from the sky onto the land.
Carried? How much does it weigh?
Well, if one inch of rain falls on one square mile of land during the night, that would be 27,878,400 cubic feet of water, which is 206,300,160 gallons, which is 1,650,501,280 pounds of water.That’s heavy. So how does it get up in the sky and stay up there if it’s so heavy? Well, it gets up there by evaporation. What’s it mean? It means that the water sort of stops being water for a while so it can go up and not down. I see. Then how does it get down? Well, condensation happens. What’s that? The water starts becoming water again by gathering around little dust particles between .00001 and .0001 centimeters wide. That’s small.
What about the salt? Salt? Yes, the ocean is salt water. That would kill the grass and crops. What about the salt? Well, the salt has to be taken out. Oh. So the sky picks up a billion pounds of water from the sea and takes out the salt and then carries it for three hundred miles and then dumps it on the land?
But it can’t just dump it. What do you think would happen if the sky just dumped a million pounds of water? So the sky dribbles the billion pounds water down in little drops. These drops have to be big enough to fall for one mile or so without evaporating, and small enough to keep from crushing the grass or grains.
How do all these microscopic specks of water that weigh a billion pounds get heavy enough to fall (if that’s the way to ask the question)? Well, it’s called coalescence. What’s that? It means the specks of water start bumping into each other and join up and get bigger. And when they are big enough, they fall. Just like that? Well, not exactly, because they would just bounce off each other instead of joining up, if there were no electric field present.
Here’s where it gets interesting. Our sovereign God created this unfathomable process, and when the temperatures in the atmosphere are at a certain level, these microscopic particles that gather together begin to freeze. Their bonds take on a different form.
If it stays there, it’s just sleet, frozen water, ice crystals. But when the temperatures are just right, these microscopic bonds, that are formed by the transference of heat in the colder atmosphere, are strong enough to stay together as they fall. Multiple crystals all together.Now, from water in the ocean, evaporated, purged of its salt, weighing over a billion pounds, is frozen, bound together in crystal form, able to fall over a mile, and retain it’s absolutely unique shape.
The average size of a snowflake is 15mm. That means that just to dust the ground of 1 square mile, approximately 8 TRILLION, 475 BILLION, 33 MILLION, 600 THOUSAND had to fall. And we had several inches of snow. That means that tens of trillions of the most beautiful works of art fell to the ground last Sunday night.
Sounds like a narrative for children, right?
Uh…wrong. On the first night of our training here at Soma Communities, I, along with 30 other church planters and leaders could not wait to get into the first session. Anticipating this week for quite a while, we were excited like 3rd graders on the first day back to school. We whipped out notebooks and laptops, ready to write down everything these successful pastors had to say. So the first words spoken could not have been more of a shock… “Its time to put all your notebooks and laptops away. In three 3-hour sessions, you are going to listen to a story…”
Well, as you can imagine, I was quite put-off. A week away from Redemption Hill and the wife/kids, 16+ hours of travel, hundreds of dollars… so I could listen to a story? I was prepared for preaching, strategy, and expertise. Not this.
But what happened during these 9 hours was incredible. We listened to masterful storytellers read a series of the most basic summarized chronological narratives from the bible. I’m talking Adam and Eve, Cain and Able, Noah, etc… And after each 8 to 10 minute story, we didn’t break out the commentaries or the lexicons. We answered questions like, “What did we learn about God from this story?” ”What did we learn about people from this story?” And to add insult to injury, we were made to feel even more childish: we were only allowed to answer questions based on what we heard in the stories so far!
But were the answers juvenile? Hardly. It was some of the most honest and intellectually rigorous wrestling with the biblical text and theology I’ve ever experienced. Were we bored? We were held in rapt attention for 9 hours, each story adding layer after glorious layer of God’s master plan of rescue and redemption for sinful man.
And at the end, did we protest spending 9 hours we would never get back on bible stories? No. We worshipped.
Over the years, I have been convinced, as all good theologians should, of God’s choice and calling that brought me, a helplessly self-centered rebel back to himself. But simply hearing the Story of God from Genesis to Revelation read to me helped me see something so profound.
God is not part of my life story. I am a part of God’s story. One that is still unfolding and one that God has written and with all his divine power is executing and will execute flawlessly. It may sound too simple, but I relished hearing about man’s persistent rebellion and God’s persistent mercy, ultimately realized through Jesus’ death on the cross for MY sins. It made me realize that God’s grace has and will triumph over my own sin and rebellion and that God’s plan to wipe away every tear will perfectly and eternally restore everything that has been ravaged by sin.
So, I am looking forward to getting back to Richmond and reading and listening to God’s story with Redemption Hill. My guess is that as we do we will feel like I did: treated a little too much like a child. But as Jesus tells us in one of the stories… the kingdom of God belongs to such as these and we and all of Richmond will be better for it.
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