ACNA World Missions Sunday 2-16-20

The Season of Epiphany  is the yearly celebration of the coming of and the sending out of,  the Light of Christ.  Into the whole world as was God's will and plan all along.   This Sunday is World Mission Sunday across the Anglican church in North America.  

I think most everyone here is aware of our mission involvements around the world over the past two decades from our weekly prayers for our "partners in the gospel around the world."

A partner or sister church in NE Rwanda in Ngarama since 2002. Working on a building there that houses a congregation of 1500 and now is the hub of 6 or 7 other sub- parishes!  That partnership led us to the relationship with two young men who are now graduating and entering work with us we hope over the next few months with the Rwandan Hope Project.  A Medical worker and a business student,  named Olivier Welcome and Peter or Jean Pierre Nsingeminye.  Olivier graduated in November and will take his national board's next month and Peter who will graduate this coming November.   We also help one of our own sons of Rez,  Sam Katungwensi, the son of Fr Stanley & Anne Katungwensi.  Sam is a Masters student at Makerere University in Kampala,Uganda in

 Information Computer Technology. 

Along side these we pray for and support a pastor and family in Nazareth,  Israel...  Yakov (Jacob) & Ruth Dolinsky and Congregation Tsur Yeshuati in Upper Nazareth.   

We have supported Bible Translation in Russia and continue to pray for the work of the Institute for Bible Translation in Moscow.  Ask Al Throckmorton about the impact of that work on him and on Russia.

Thank you to Al and the men's group for great faithfulness over many years. 

Missionaries in N Africa, the Middle East,  and many other areas to numerous to mention recieved our prayers and donations over the years.   Your King Soopers and Amazon purchases are some of the fuel for these outreaches and initiatives.   And more is on the horizon,  both locally and globally. 

We've been focused on getting into and paying for this land and building for the past two years or so,  but the day is coming quickly where we will once again lift our eyes to the call that God has on us to engage with his world,  both near and far.

One of my favorite old hymns is entitled The Love of God!

The Love Of God

The love of God is greater far

Than tongue or pen can ever tell

It goes beyond the highest star

And reaches to the lowest hell

The guilty pair bowed down with care

God gave His Son to win

His erring child He reconciled

And pardoned from his sin

O love of God how rich and pure

How measureless and strong

It shall forevermore endure

The saints and angels song

When years of time shall pass away

And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall

When men who here refuse to pray

On rocks and hills and mountains call

God's love so sure shall still endure

All measureless and strong

Redeeming grace to Adam's race

The saints and angels song

Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the skies of parchment made

Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky

Frederick Martin Lehman | Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai

__________________

This is the WHY of missions!  It never changes!  METHODS CHANGE,  MESSAGE DOESN'T. 

We all know the verse by heart.  There are signs at NFL games and on NFL players faces!  It's the most searched for verse on Google ever!  WHY?  CAUSE IT'S SUCH GREAT NEWS! 

John 3:16 ...

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,  that whosoever believes in him shall not perish,  but have everlasting life.  

 And who knows verse 17?

"For God sent not his son into the world to condemn the world,  but that the world,  through him,  might be saved! "

Turn with me for a moment to 2 Corinthians 5.  Bibles are under the chair in front of you.  2 Corinthians, chapter 5, beginning at verse 14

I'm going to read from The Passion Translation: 

For it is Christ’s love that fuels our passion and motivates us, because we are absolutely convinced that he has given his life for all of us.

Skip down a few verses to 16a...

From now on,  therefore,  we regard no one according to the flesh...

Once again from TPT...

So then, from now on, we have a new perspective that refuses to evaluate people merely by their outward appearances. For that’s how we once viewed the Anointed One, but no longer do we see him [OR OTHERS] with limited human insight.

And now 17 -21

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he  is  a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to  be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

AND AGAIN FROM THE TPT...

And God has made all things new, and reconciled us to himself, and given us the ministry of reconciling others to God. In other words, it was through the Anointed One that God was shepherding the world, not even keeping records of their transgressions, and he has entrusted to us the ministry of opening the door of reconciliation to God. We are ambassadors of the Anointed One who carry the message of Christ to the world, as though God were tenderly pleading with them [BECAUSE HE IS]  directly through our lips. So we tenderly plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Turn back to God and be reconciled to him.”

[AND HERE IS THE MESSAGE WE CONTINUALLY SHARE !]

 For God made the only one who did not know sin to become sin for us, so that we who did not know righteousness might become the righteousness of God through our union with him.

2 Corinthians 5:18‭-‬21 

We talk a lot here about our Willingness  our Availability and our Obedience.  This is what THAT whole formulation is all about,  friends.   It's all about our going day by day into our every day lives with this motivation, this conviction and the overwhelming love of God in our hearts for others.  Just show that love to others and there's no head banging that is required!   

Just open your mouth and let them hear and see the Love of God in you!

Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the skies of parchment made

Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky

Amen.

2020 State of the Flock - Fr Phil Eberhart

State of the Flock Address

February 2, 2020

Fr. Phil Eberhart

As I write, I am attending to my mother in ICU and have seen, over the past 12 hours a miraculous recovery of capacity to breathe, awareness and some light at the end of the tunnel, for this crisis in her recovery from the fall she had in late December.

I want to thank you all for your prayers for her and for me and our family.  

I think that is where I want to start this year’s State of the Flock address!  Our church is an amazing place – can I say that? God is here and God works among and through us.  That’s not to say that we don’t have our challenges and heart-breaks, but God is with us and works through each one here in specific ways as we yield ourselves to Him and to His purposes.  That is really what this church is all about! That is really what CHURCH should be all about!

For years I’ve talked about how our church is living out the pattern from Acts 2:42-47 and that God will move through us if we are Willing, Available, and Obedient!  Those two things are the heart of our life together here at REZ. So I want to remind you briefly of those things again, with references to how we are doing those things in our life, both inwardly and outwardly in our community.

Acts 2:42 forms the crosshairs of our rifle scope – of our targeting system.  The four things are found in our Anglican Baptismal Covenant and come out of Acts 2:42:

Devoted attention to four areas:

1. The Apostles’ Teaching / The Word of God / Scripture

2. The Fellowship / Community life / Life Together

3. The Breaking of Bread / Communion and Meals together, our Eucharistic Hospitality

4. The Prayers 

These are the Marks of THE Church, of OUR Church:  Devotion to Scripture as the Word of God; Devotion to One Another;  Devotion to Worship and outflowing Hospitality; and Devotion to Prayers.

As we focus on these four areas, things have begun to happen and have come to a mature expression in our life together over the past almost 20 years.

1. A “Real Presence” of God and The Fear of the Lord

2. Signs and Wonders / Miracles of extraordinary power 

3. A Radical Generosity and Common Life

4. Daily Prayer and Worship Together

5. Common Meals

6. Community Favor, Outreach & evangelistic growth

We all know that we have come through an extraordinary time of change, from being a mobile “church in a box” to now owning a church building.  The timing, the finances, the favor, the almost daily miracles we’ve experienced in this past 27 months are a sign of what God intends to accomplish in us and through us on this holy hill.  As we put the finishing touches on the property and building this next spring and summer, we must also begin to focus on the why of God’s purpose and the what and how of His call to us as a congregation in this place.

God is sending new faces already and now the changes and renovation are beginning on the inside.  No, I’m not talking about paint and carpet, about candles and drapes or even stained-glass windows, but of the renovation of our own hearts and spirits, of our own lives, as we now must press into “the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, the Messiah.”  Now, in the words of Paul, we “must take hold of that for which we have been taken hold of by God!”

THE FUTURE HOPE IS HERE

We began this process all the way back in 2004 and 2005 as we started a small “building fund” called The Future and Hope Fund.  Later in 2009 we put money in a “Loaves and Fishes” fund, again in hope of a future property. All of that money and more has now been applied – the Future Hope is here, and like the school boy who gave his lunch to Jesus, our eyes are expectant of the unexpected!  No one knew, except Jesus, what the result of that day was going to be. And in the year and more to come, I believe that we are going to see the TWELVE BASKETS FULL come home to REZ.

We have experienced the feeling of inadequacy that the disciples experienced that day – but Lord, what does “You give them something to eat” mean?  It would take us a year’s budget to just give each person one morsel! We are inadequate to the task! We have known that all along, as we looked at the 1.1 Million needed to do proof of funds, two Christmas’s ago – our first hurdle met and we prayed:  Then on Thursday morning, before Christmas 2017, the text came: 1.3 Million… CASH!

Almost 10 years before we had placed a stake of dedication under a tree at the entrance to the King Soopers store across the street, at the invitation of the then manager of the store.  It said: “I HAVE FOOD YOU KNOW NOT OF – MY FOOD IS TO DO THE WILL OF HIM WHO SENT ME, AND TO FINISH HIS WORK!” (Jn 4:32-34) Now in 2020, we are bearing the fruit of that dedication and living out its last phrase.  In this place, we are to “do the will of Him who sent us, and to finish His work!”

Over and over and over again, for two plus years, we have seen the hand of God provide our needs on almost a daily basis – certainly a weekly basis!  And now we are turning our hearts to be obedient to the Lord, as we pass out fish and bread – like the disciples of old in that desert place. The watched in amazement as the baskets kept filling up with pieces of fish and loaves of bread!  And joy began to well up in them – indescribable joy, at seeing the Hand of God at work. This is our joy today.

The miracle of REZ Anglican is not yet fully completed.  We’re still passing out the fish and the bread.

And we will continue in this work, until we see that, like the school boy, we’re going to end up with 12 baskets of fish and bread left over!  O God, give us some left overs!! Holy Left Overs!!

THE CALL IS NOW

We are in a season of fulfillment.  God is fulfilling His purpose for us and for His whole Church.  It is a time of Kingdom fulfillment and advance. We are being called to PRESS IN to all that God has called us to be and to do – notice the order there:  TO BE and TO DO. We’ve learned that our ways are not God’s ways. And so often, our speed is not God’s Speed. This year we reviewed the lessons we learned last year in GODSPEED.  God is calling us to BE SOMETHING before He is calling us to DO SOMETHING! This is where we start.  

Our BEING depends on Him first, and us second.  In David’s prayer of repentance, he prayed “create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me… uphold me with a willing spirit.”  Our prayer is first of all that God cleanse us of sin and uphold us with “willingness.”  It has to all start with God – if we start with us, we will be lost! All the grace is His and it is IN HIM that we “live and move and have our being.”  He is the one who gives us a willing spirit, a willing heart, to follow hard after Him and to press into all He has for us.

We move with Him as we move from Willingness.  But the greatest obstacle to our BEING IN HIM is our distraction and busy-ness.  We are simply too busy for God! Our schedules get in the way of prayer and devotion – we try, but our days start at 4 am – and the pressure of living in today’s culture is mounting almost daily.  One of the Word’s we got as a parish this past year said to us simply, “Many of you are weary! I AM NOT!” God is not weary as He moves forward with His plan for salvation in the world. God is not weary of our building process!  God is not weary of the world. He still loves it and still seeks those who are lost in it. Our willingness and our availability – making room for God to work in and through us – are the keys to what God is intending to accomplish through this church.

As we attend to our willingness and to our availability then The Spirit of God takes us, like an offering of bread and wine, and gives us to others that He is inviting into His family.  Like the loaves and fishes, like the bread and wine of Eucharist, we are blessed, we are broken, and we are given, as a people to the world. As we experience this in our daily lives it looks just like the disciples being sent out ahead of Jesus!   We are blessed to be a blessing – so we bless with His Peace those we are sent to. If we are available to Him, we are available to those He sends us to. Availability isn’t just spiritual its physical – its real time actual physical presence with those that God sends you to.  It may be hanging out with them, buying a meal or a coat, it may be emotional support, it may be just friendship and hospitality.

Whatever it is its availability!  If we’re available we are going to see needs.  If you see a need, you’re in the game! Because the next step is meeting that need.  As we are able and as we rely on God’s ability (the ability part of avail-ability), we are called to meet needs – real needs for real people.  Its there that we encounter our need to obey. The disciples needed to obey Jesus when He said, “You go feed the people.” They didn’t have resources to match the needs.  They didn’t have means or methods figured out. They only presented to Jesus what was at hand. “Five loaves and two fish! But what is that against such a need as this?” We are always going to be in NEED of God’s intervention, if we are doing the stuff God wants us to do!  He won’t do anything that requires us to have LESS FAITH!

God is calling us to BIG THINGS.  How do I know that? Because GOD IS BIG and HIS PEOPLE are called to do BIG THINGS – things beyond ourselves – things that only God can do!  Things that according to Paul are “beyond all that we can ask or even imagine, in our wildest dreams.” This is why we say, at the end of the day, “The Kingdom of Heaven has come near you.”  Our Big Thing is the furthering of the Kingdom of God among us and through us into the city, the State and the Nation. “His Kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven!”  

TWELVE BASKETS FULL

Great things have been prophesied about this Church, not the building, but you the people and the work that God is going to bring forth in and from this place.  They include words like 

OIL -  There is OIL (Anointing and Supply) that you do not know about coming your way.  The week after we heard that word, we received $10,000 in our PayPal account! It is both “fiscal oil in our lamp” and “oil of anointing in ministry” – coming to us as we bring vessels to let it fill!

PRESENCE -  God’s Presence is here in this place, on this Holy Hill.  He has set it apart for His dwelling place and people are being drawn to it like moths to a flame.  We are carriers of His Presence, not only here but everywhere we go, in the community and in the world.

EAGLES -  There are going to be ministers and ministries released from this hill into the city and into the world.  Those who will learn to wait on the Lord in order to rise up. And the eagles will be both young and old, male and female, as God pours out His Spirit on them.

HEALING -  A hallmark of the early church and of the church throughout the ages, where the Spirit of God as active and moving, was healing.  So it is today, and we have been prophesied a movement of healing like those of old. Days long healing services are coming – they are in God’s heart.  Can we avail ourselves to His ability in this?

The IN-BETWEENers  - God has said that He is sending those who are to fill in the gaps in this church body.  We are going to see those coming who are to fill in the gaps – to make the Body whole and able.  We will be blessed with new people, some who are coming back to the Lord and some who have never been His before.

The JOHN MARK’s -  God has called me to restore those who have been hurt by ministry, who have been set aside, as John Mark, Peter’s young cousin, was by Paul.  I am to be a Barnabas to those who God presents to me, an encourager, a healer and one who sets them back in ministry. [In fact it was John Mark who became Peter’s “scribe” in the years after he was “thrown away” by Paul and that narrative formed the core of our Synoptic Gospels, the Book of Mark.]

You may be weary, God says.  I AM NOT!

Friends, the State of the Flock does not depend on us; not on me, or you or the staff or the board, or the finance committee or the construction workers.  It depends on God. The State of this Flock depends on God and His Power. Like the school boy who gave up his lunch, we are simply watching as Jesus blesses, breaks, and gives the offerings we bring.  It all depends on Him and His ability. Our part is to ask for a willing heart, to make ourselves available – to avail ourselves to His ability, and then to be obedient to His direction, step by step.

We are living out the vision of Jesus for His Church – a group of friends, committed to His Word, devoted to one another, worshiping together, extending hands of hospitality, healing and hope to our neighbors, all undergirded by prayer of every kind.  That is the State of our Flock.  

In Jesus Name and by His power and grace.

Fr. Philip D. Eberhart +

Fr. Phil Eberhart +

Rector

The Baptism of Jesus

Baptism of Our Lord
Jan 12, 2020
Fr Phil Eberhart

Mt 3


Turn in your bulletin to the passage in the Gospel that we just heard read. A tiny few verses that starts with a protest from John, the Baptist.

The question i want to consider this morning is simply WHY? It's the question that John himself asked of Jesus! He protested at first, questioning the necessity of this act by the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" I think it's a good thing for all of us to question it and to consider Christ's response. And ours.

Let's pray...

Lord Jesus Christ. You are "the Word made flesh. " God incarnate, yet you came in the humility of a son who "grew in both stature and in favor, with God and with man." You intentionally identified with us in our need as you initiated your ministry among us on earth. Send your Spirit to open our eyes and ears, Lord. Help us to see all you want for us in the sacrament of Baptism, as we follow you step by step. Growing in our spiritual stature to a useful maturity and walking daily in your footsteps in this world. In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

First of all I want to refresh our memory of the definition we have of what this sacrament is and what it means.

In seminary we had a whole semester, 3 or 4 hour class on this. You're getting a rock skipped on the surface in about 15 min this morning. Fasten your seat belt. Sacramental Theology .05!

First our definition from the baptismal catechism or teaching...
A Sacrament is "AN OUTWARD AND VISIBLE SIGN OF AN INWARD AND SPIRITUAL GRACE!"

The two Sacraments of our Lord are Baptism and Holy Communion. Both have an outward and visible part ...
water... wine... bread. Common things that are now accompanied by God's Amazing Grace... they are carriers, doorways, touch points between the visible and the invisible... between the material created world and the eternal, uncreated world. "The means of Grace and the Hope of Glory..." from our Great Thanksgiving prayer.

A sacrament always has two parts...
The outer, visible, symbolic matter and the inner, invisible Grace of God - that which is symbol and that which is "real."
I like to call sacraments "matters of the heart."

So baptism... specifically Jesus's baptism...

In the creed which we will say momentarily we affirm our belief that Jesus was ... "the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father."

Of one being with the Father!

So why did Jesus, who we believe these things about, need to be baptized by John who was "preparing the way in the wilderness" with a message and a baptism of REPENTANCE. Jesus had nothing to repent of. He was the sinless, spotless, sacrificial Lamb of God. Why?

Let's look at Jesus words here... his answer to John's query... John's protest.
His answer to John was four words...
TO FULFILL
ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS.

1st ... look at WHERE we are. We are at an intersection. The scriptures tell us that Jesus came in "THE FULNESS OF TIME. " May I suggest to you that this moment is the Intersection between Time and Eternity. This point in history is "The Fullness of Time." That point where the Eternal action of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the whole of Salvation History, meets the material created world with intention and ...

2nd. Identification!

Here is the WHAT in this moment. Jesus, at the initiation of his earthly three-year active ministry is being obedient to the purpose of God in Christ to fully identify with Sinful Humanity, here in our need for Repentance! Jesus himself must lead us back through from this earthly, physical and sinful universe to our rightful place with the myriads before the throne of God, enthralled in wonder, love and praise!

To Fulfill All Righteousness...

Paul, in one of the churches earliest hymns, tells of the emptying... the Kenosis... in Philippians 2:8. "Who being in the form of God, emptied himself..."

That process of kenosis actually begins in earnest here at the Jordan. Thus John's question and Jesus's answer. An interesting paradox were seeing. The self-emptying of Jesus was to FILL FULL ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS!

All Righteousness...

The word appears in the NT over 90 times. I just want to refer to two of them...

Rom 5:21
...as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans is Paul's Gospel! He builds the case that 'God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself." That we cannot get to God on the basis of our righteous deeds, but must come through the Righteous One, Jesus his Son.

It's here that Jesus's baptism takes on the fulness of All Righteousness. The Great Exchange begins here...

2 Cor 5:21
"He who knew no sin, became sin for us so that, in Him, we might become the righteousness of God! "

Jesus identifies with us fully, even submitting to baptism as a sign of his Obedient Self Emptying, to fully "become sin for us" that we might fully, in him, become the Righteousness of God.

And we do that by following Him into the waters! The mystery of your baptism is this Great Exchange! Because of Jesus' self-sacrifice beginning here at the Jordan and ending at Calvary and in his resurrection from the dead, we have a pathway to become like him! It is our own baptism that is for us, just like Jesus, an entry point... a doorway... a portal into Him... into union with Christ Jesus, where and only where is found the fullfillment of All Righteousness. In Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let me pray again...


Lord Jesus Christ. You are "the Word made flesh. " God incarnate, yet you came in the humility of a son who "grew in both stature and in favor, with God and with man." You intentionally identified with us in our need as you initiated your ministry among us on earth. Send your Spirit to open our eyes and ears, Lord. Help us to see all you want for us in the sacrament of Baptism, as we follow you step by step. Growing in our spiritual stature to a useful maturity and walking daily in your footsteps in this world. In the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 

Christmas II - Mtr Barb Russo

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/21168092

Audio file of Christmas II Sermon by Mother Barb Russo.

Christmas Eve 2019

https://www.spreaker.com/user/4720376

Click for audio file of Fr Phil Eberhart Christmas Eve sermon

THE BEST GIFT ... EVER! 

Christ the King Sunday with Africa Pix

Christ the King Sunday
November 24, 2019
Fr. Phil Eberhart


I feel like I need to be three people this morning - a trinity ... or maybe just wear three hats.

The regular sermon hat... this is the last Sunday of the Church year and our subject is Christ, The King!

The missionary hat... having just come back last week from Africa... some want to see pics and hear stories.

And the big hat in the back... is the wrap up of our Giving ... our generosity campaign for next year's pledges. So far we've gotten in three maybe four!
If you want to be thinking about that, we're going to actually give everyone some time to pray and fill it out before leaving today! Every bulletin has a tear off last page for your use!

So let me put on my Africa hat first... actually my South African Rugby hat. They won the world cup in Japan three weeks ago!

Time in Africa was great. I went to attend the graduation of our medical student, Olivier, from the University of Rwanda on the 8th.

It was a soccer stadium ceremony with the Prime Minister as the speaker! There were several thousand graduating.

Our Olivier graduated with honors and has been chosen to represent the medical school with his professor at a symposium on Community Health in Istanbul in early December! He will sit for the national board's exam in March. 

That will grant him a license to practice in Rwanda, everything except surgical procedures.

Needless to say, we had a joyful and bumpy ride to home in Ngarama, with the diocesan Archdeacon, a friend since my 2007 trip, joining us. We were welcomed at the Parish by the new pastor and the old one, both Jean de Dieu! We grew in fellowship and partnership more deeply through this celebration of one of their native son's success.

I was also able to meet with Peter, our business student, who graduates next year. Both of our young men are anxious to get to work and make a difference in the world, and we're hoping they will work with us in their respective capacities in the Rwandan Hope Project.

==================================

Let me switch hats to the regular Rez hat. The thing about Christ, the King that I want to bear witness to is the concept of His Sovereignty!

We really don't have any idea here in America how to even think about having a king! We just need to say it.

Sovereignty means that God thinks He's in charge! That he's in control. ... like ACTUALLY in control!

We have developed a history here at Rez of expectation! We expect that God is going to set up what we call "divine appointments." Meet ups, new faces, God-incidences... things that prove He's in charge and in control, no matter what the circumstances appear to be.

Just one Africa story here... on the morning I was flying from Kigali to Johannesburg, I and Pius went to our favorite coffee shop for breakfast. I was scheduled to meet the new bishop of Kigali. He didn't make it. Fr. Stanley did make it.

But wait there's more!

There was a bible study with American business men going on at the next table!
We engaged a few of them in conversation on their way out and it turned out the three guys that talked with us were the owner and a board member of Asiili Oils, a moringa oil producer in Kigali that we've known about for two plus years. And a missionary who works in Rwanda with Farming God's Way. Both of these contacts are vital to the agricultural development that we're engaged with in Rwanda! And as it turns out was a precursor to my time in South Africa.

Nothing is wasted in God's economy, nor in God's time! As Oak used to say, "His ways are perfect!"

So let me key off of that thought to encourage you to consider your commitment for this next year. Because of all these divine appointments I was headed to the airport at 910 for a 1010 flight!

It was clear that all that had happened in the hour before was straight from the Throne! And so, rather than feeling anxious about possibly missing the flight I thought of what I've been preaching about for a month:

This is a Rez translation...

"Live, I beg you brothers and sisters, with your eyes wide open to the mercies of God! Give yourself fully to Him as a living sacrifice. It's the most reasonable response you can have as you worship God for his amazing grace, favor and provision."

I was suddenly at complete peace on the way to the airport. He had all of this "in hand! " And He has all of this "in hand. "
And everything that concerns you ... every one of you... is well "in hand."

That, my friends, is what it means for us to have Jesus Christ as King!

Let's pray.

Tear the back sheet off of your bulletin and hold it.

Great and holy God, our Father.

We declare our whole trust is in You.
With all our heart we trust in You Lord.
Say it...
With all MY heart I trust in You Lord.

We declare that we are not leaning on our own understanding.
Say it...
I LEAN NOT ON MY OWN UNDERSTANDING.

We declare our acknowledgement of You in all our ways...
I ACKNOWLEDGE YOU LORD IN ALL MY WAYS.

We declare that Your ways Jesus, will be ours...
I WILL WALK IN YOUR WAYS, LORD, AS YOU LEAD ME DAY BY DAY.

And so, Lord, work in us and through us as we commit our way to you.

For the sake of your kingdom, Lord Jesus, and the fame of your name.

Amen

Audio of Mother Barb Russo on the Case for the Resurrection

https://www.spreaker.com/episode/19959867