Felicia was born three years ago today.
Looking at her today you would never know that she was born practically dead, was declared to be brain damaged, spent a week in a coma, 2 weeks in intensive care, 1 week in neurology and months in physical therapy.
We will NEVER FORGET what God did in healing her. It is the most genuine miracle I've ever witnessed.
Thank you Lord for the gift of Felicia! Thank you for healing her. She is such a joy to us!
This past weekend we did a marriage retreat up in Estes Park with Rob and Denise Salvato from Calvary Vista. The retreat was a great time of fellowship and refreshment and investing in our marriages.
After the retreat ended Saturday afternoon, we took Rob and Denise up into Rocky Mountain National Park. We made it up to Bear Lake by sunset. The lake was frozen, so we walked out onto the lake and got this view of the backside of Longs Peak - which also happens to be the same view that is the image on the Colorado's 25-cent coin.
Sometime, once I have finished teaching through Genesis on Sundays at White Fields I would like to do a sermon series on the plot lines that run throughout the entirety of the Bible.
For example, I taught a sermon a few weeks ago titled "A Tale of Three Trees", about how really the Bible, the Gospel, is a story of three trees: the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of Calvary. We started in a garden with 2 trees, but we were separated from the tree of life when we sinned at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but because of what God did for us through Jesus on the tree of Calvary we can get back to the tree of life in the New Jerusalem, as seem in the final chapter of Revelation, where it says hat no longer will anything be accursed and the leaves of that tree will be for the healing of the nations. So there it is: the Gospel - we were created for perfection, created to live forever, cursed to death and corruption because of sin, but the message of the cross is the hope of redemption and restoration available exclusively through faith in Jesus Christ.
I didn't even get to talk about a few other important trees in the Bible, such as the tree that was thrown into the bitter water of Meribah (Numbers 20) which made it sweet - another foreshadowing of the Cross! Not to mention the tree planted by the water in Psalm 1 - which ties into another amazing plot line: The River!
There was a river that flowed through the garden of Eden, there will be a river that flows from the throne of God in the New Jerusalem, where the tree of life will be. Ezekiel prophesied about a temple that would be in Jerusalem, which is yet to be built... Zechariah said that when the Messiah comes he will put his feet down on Jerusalem and it will split in half and a river will flow out of it. This river, according to Ezekiel will give life wherever it flows, and it will split and part of it will flow into the Dead Sea, and the Dead Sea will come to life with fish and other living creatures, i.e. the Dead Sea will resurrect from the dead! And actually, this was probably what Jesus was alluding to in John 7, when on the last day of the festival as they poured the pitcher of water out on the dry ground, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, 'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'" He said this standing in Jerusalem, in the place where Ezekiel had prophesied that a river would flow giving life to everything it touched! How amazing is that?
There are other plot lines of the Bible: the story of the Lamb that runs throughout the Bible, the picture of the Rock which is both a foundation, a refuge and even is struck and water flows out giving life to the people. Aother is the picture of bread found over and over in the Bible, and there are more.
Are there any plot lines of the Bible that your personal favorites? Any I didn't mention here?
This is the view I have taking Nate to and from school everyday. The first one is of the Indian Peaks, and the second is on Longmont's namesake: Longs Peak. I got to climb Longs Peak (14,259 ft / 4346 m) this past summer and I hope to do it again this year. The view of the Rockies from Longmont is one of the best on the Front Range.
I took these pictures on Saturday morning while the kids were eating breakfast at the kitchen counter.
Maybe it's just me, but it has often been my experience that victories and progress are coupled with setbacks and difficulties. I used to say in Eger, that I always felt that the way the ministry moved and grew was "two steps forward, one step back". God's Word tells us that the promised land - the land of blessing and victory, the place of taking hold of the things that God has given us in Christ - is a land of hills and valleys. And in the promised land there were still battles that needed to be fought and enemies to wage war against. But of course, the important thing to remember is that the hills and the valleys were both placed there by The Lord and that he has a purpose with the hills, the valleys and the battles that we must fight. He wants to accomplish something greater than just our comfort. He wants to produce the fruit of godly character in us.
I started teaching the story of Joseph this past Sunday at White Fields. The main doctrine that really summarizes Joseph's life is the doctrine of providence. Providence means that when God seems absent and silent, that is often times when he is doing his most profound work. It means that with God, silence is not absence and hiddenness is not impotence. Providence means that God is working all things for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28).
Part of Joseph's story is that he begged to not be sold into slavery in Egypt, but God did not answer his prayer. But, what we know now is that if Joseph had not gone down to Egypt, everyone would have died -including him. And even more tragically, the Messianic line would have died out. There was no way Joseph could have understood the reason why God did not answer his prayer and save him from the terrible thing his brothers were doing to him. But Joseph is exemplary because he chose to trust in the loving kindness of The Lord, and he chose to trust in The Lord. He walked by faith and not by sight.
The story never tells us if Joseph ever lost heart or got bummed out, or questioned why God allowed this bad thing to happen. All we know is that later on, when he became a powerful person in Egypt, he was able to look back and see the hand of The Lord in everything that had happened to him - both being sold into slavery by his brothers, and being lied about and wrongfully imprisoned in Egypt.
I want to be a person like Joseph who walks by faith in the providence of God. Don't you? Lord, have your way in me, and may I produce much fruit for your glory and your pleasure.
Here's that teaching from this past Sunday if you are interested:
We live in Boulder county, which means that most people here don't go to church, but everyone recycles!
We love recycling, especially since we watched a documentary about the huge island of trash swirling around in the Pacific, with plastics decomposing and being eaten by fish which then go into our food supply...
Many Christians make the case for not being concerned about stewardship of the planet because if Jesus is coming back soon, and the Earth will be destroyed, then what are we protecting it for?
However, I really like having clean water to drink and clean air to breathe, and not having garbage strewn all over the Rocky Mountains, and I'm happy to do my part. I certainly appreciate the fruits of the conservation movement in Colorado with large parts of God's majestic creation being preserved for people to enjoy, and repopulating wild animal populations. I believe that as we see in the beginning of Genesis, God created the world as a garden for man, for his use and enjoyment, and for his stewardship for as long as it was entrusted to his care.
Here's what Mark Driscoll has to say about recycling - kinda sums it up:
"We believe in recycling. We’re all for it. But you’ll die and go to hell with a green garbage can filled with newspapers if you don’t love Jesus."
This was originally posted on the White Fields Church Blog
New Year is kind of a strange holiday, don't you think? I mean, what are we really celebrating? We are not celebrating a great event of history that changed the world, like we do at Christmas and Easter. All we are really celebrating is that we ran out of days on our calendar, and now we need to start a new one!
But the value of the new year is that it gives us a gauge to measure by, it gives us perspective, and perspective helps us to see things more clearly. It also gives us a sense of a new beginning, a fresh start. As Christians, the good news of God's grace is that it means that every day can be a new beginning. Grace is a deep well that we can draw from every day.
I don't know if you are in the habit of making New Year's resolutions. I'm not - but instead I sit down at the beginning of each year and ask myself a couple of questions:
I would encourage you to ask these questions of yourself as well!The reason raising questions like these is beneficial is because they help you to be intentional. If you don't know where you are going, it's really hard to get there!
Over the past few years I have made sure to write down my answers to these questions, and it has been interesting looking back over them and seeing how God has answered prayers that I considered 'humanly impossible' at the time I started praying them! I can honestly say that without exception, each one has been answered, and each year that has encouraged me to ask for even bigger, even more seemingly 'impossible' things. We have a big God, with whom all things are possible (Mark 10:27) - a God who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than we can ask or imagine. (Ephesians 3:20).
I believe that God has many good things in store for White Fields in 2013. May this new year be blessed for you and characterized by a great measure of grace and a closer walk with God.
Many blessings,
Pastor Nick
A few weeks ago Balázs started uploading videos of the sermons at White Fields Community Church to YouTube. You can check out White Fields' channel here: http://youtube.com/user/WhiteFieldsChurch
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