Thanks from “Mr. B”
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Mike Bradshaw sent this follow-up note about last week’s Summer Celebration:
Parents of Covenant Life Church, thank you for sending your kids to spend the week with Mrs. B, Douglas Doogleberry and me. We had a blast (and learned so much about the fruit of the Spirit)! We had 150 kids attend whose parents are not members of Covenant Life, and we’re so grateful for that. We also had 250 volunteers (200 of them were youth camp counselors). Already looking forward to SC2010!
Kids, you can continue to work on the the lessons at home by using the the review cards handed out at the camp, and be sure to check out the latest Sovereign Grace kids’ CD, “To Be Like Jesus.”
In case you missed them, take a moment to enjoy the photos posted earlier on the church blog.
—Mr. B
June 28 2009 at 11:11 pm
Application for Yesterday’s Message
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Yesterday, I preached a message titled “Change Happens When We Believe the Gospel.” The text was 2 Kings 5:1-15, in which Naaman, a powerful military leader from Syria, seeks healing for his leprosy. God provides the healing, but the means he uses are not what Naaman had anticipated.
You can listen online or download an mp3 here.
Use the following questions prepared by pastor Don DeVries to help you apply the message:
1. As Christians our lives can reflect the wrong belief that we are saved by grace but changed by our own will power. How can that lie lead to self-righteous legalism and/or discouragement?
2. How does the truth that “change is God’s agenda and God’s purpose” fill you with hope and faith that God can change you?
3. Josh shared that change happens when we believe the gospel. What alternative means are you tempted to choose for cleansing and transformation? Therapy? Medicine? Self-help techniques? Religious rituals?
4. If you are not a Christian, do you realize that God has spoken to you in the gospel? Are you willing to respond to the good news of Jesus Christ, repent of your sins and believe on Jesus for salvation?
5. What is one area of your life in which God is calling you to grow and change? What is one passage of Scripture that you can apply to that area of your life that needs transformation (see Phil. 2:12-13)?
June 26 2009 at 11:01 pm
Summer Celebration Photos
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Summer Celebration Kids Camp wrapped up yesterday. Enjoy the photos!
June 25 2009 at 6:11 am
When God Interrupts Your Plans
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Here’s an encouraging letter that Carolyn McCulley sent in a couple weeks ago in response to my message, Who Is My Neighbor? Let’s all be spurred on by her example of responding when God provides an opportunity to care for someone in need:
Josh,
It’s not every week that I have a direct opportunity to apply the Sunday sermon, but I clearly had one today.
As I recall, you wrapped up your sermon about the Good Samaritan by saying we don’t usually find people lying on the street but we should be willing to respond when we do. Or something similar—it was definitely a challenge about loving people even when we are inconvenienced.
So today I was in hyper-speed, running around the metro area preparing for the Sovereign Grace Ministries Mission Presentation shoot. We’re leaving in a few hours for the Bahamas and there is much left to do. But as I left downtown Silver Spring this afternoon with film gear in tow, I saw a girl lying on the sidewalk, crying. I had precious few hours to get about two days’ worth of work done, but I had no question that I was to be interrupted. I knew this was a divine appointment from my Father in heaven. So I pulled over and Drew (the cameraman) and I jumped out to see what was wrong with her. She was an 18-year-old girl with multiple face piercings and some kind of bloody, devilish shirt on (I never did get to read what that was about). She was lying on the sidewalk in a rundown section of town, crying, seemingly unaware of the filth she was lying in.
So I got out and sat down with her and started talking to her. She was very upset, but assured us she was not hurt. She had gotten into a conflict with a friend . . . and was considering killing herself. I immediately told her that this thought was a lie from the pit of hell and that God had created her and given her life because He loved her. And He obviously wanted her to know that because He had drawn my attention to her. I then offered to pray for her and told her to breathe deeply as I did, so as to calm herself down. We talked to her a bit more and then as she calmed down, we offered to give her a ride home. I’m always amazed when people willingly get into my car when I’m a total stranger, but 90 percent do.
She said she had a 4 p.m. meeting with her therapist, so we drove her to that place and continued to reach out to her in the car. I gave her an invitation card to Covenant Life, wrote my name and number on it, and told her I wanted to hear from her because I was concerned for her. Then I asked if she had a Bible and if she wanted mine. She seemed hesitant at first, but I told her there was no expectation. Then she took mine and I put the bookmark in the gospel of John and told her it was a series of intimate portraits of Jesus ministering to people, and that she needed to read this when she felt oppressed or tempted to suicide—at the very least—because Jesus came to redeem all that is wrong with the world. Then I told her about the Sunday message and how this was all no coincidence. She was much more cheerful when we dropped her off, and I’m very glad for it.
I will be short on sleep tonight, but it was exceedingly worth it to have this small Jericho road experience.
Blessings,
Carolyn
June 23 2009 at 2:52 pm
Back From Vacation
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We just returned from vacation last weekend, and I’m diving into working on a new sermon series which I’ll tell you about on Sunday. My kids are living in their Summer Celebration t-shirts this week. We missed you guys.
June 22 2009 at 2:59 am
Love Your Neighbor, Part 3: Application
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Yesterday Isaac Hydoski preached from Matthew 9:9-13, in which Jesus calls Matthew the tax collector and addresses the Pharisees over dinner. Isaac said, “We must remember our own need for God’s mercy and then recognize God’s call to show mercy.”
You can listen online or download the message here.
And here are some application questions prepared by pastor Brian Chesemore:
1. Is there anyone is your life that you have moved into the unbiblical category of “unreachable” and, in effect, “written-off” as beyond the saving power of the Gospel?
2. Reflect on the mercy of God in saving you: Who shared the Gospel with you? Where might you be today if it were not for God’s saving grace in your life?
3. Isaac considered how we have the potential to reflect the portrait of the Pharisee in two ways: self-righteousness and complacency. How do you see either of these tendencies at work in your thinking and hindering your concern for the lost?
4. Because we need God’s heart for the lost, Isaac encouraged us to begin our application of this message with prayer. In what ways do you need more of God’s mercy for the lost? With which specific people have you been complacent in sharing the Gospel? Pray.
5. To whom can you go tomorrow or sometime soon and show the love of Christ? Pray that God would give you the Savior’s heart of mercy and urgency about their need for Him.