Merry Christmas - Boldog Karácsonyt!

We had a great Christmas this year. The Christmas Eve service at White Fields was packed, we ate töltött káposzta forint dinner, which is a Hungarian tradition for Szenteste. Ocean cooked the stuffed cabbage for us, and it turned out great; one of the best we've all had, even compared to in Hungary. The nice thing about Hungarian food is that it is designed to be made from scratch, so you can theoretically make it anywhere.

On Christmas Day my parents came over and we had a big meal, opened presents and played and assembled things together. After they left some friends came over to play a board game to close the night. All around a great Christmas. Hope yours was great too!

 

Pastor Chuck Smith Memorial Service and Tribute

A few weeks ago, during our series called DNA: The Building Blocks of Life, I spoke about Pastor Chuck Smith, who recently went home to be with the Lord (click here to listen to it).

Pastor Chuck was a man who was used greatly by God and left a profound legacy. His ministry had a huge impact on my life and on the lives of people around the world. 

A memorial service and tribute to Pastor Chuck is going to be held this Sunday, October 27th at 6:00pm MDT. The service is going to be held at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA, but will be simulcast on the internet so you can watch it live wherever you are at on your computer, tablet or smart phone: http://watch.pastorchucksmith.com.

The story of what God did through Chuck is one that should be shared and heard around the world. I encourage you to tune in on Sunday night and listen to the stories and be encouraged and celebrate a life well-lived for God's glory.

Colorado Floods: How You Can Help

(Mirrored here from the White Fields Community Church blog)
In the last few days we experienced a historic and destructive flood, and so many people have been asking how they can help.
Here are some ways that we as the Body of Christ can shine light in the community:

Pray!

Pray for those affected by the floods, that not only would their needs be met and their hearts comforted, but that as a result of this time of crisis, they would remember how fragile life is and how temporary and fleeting possessions and the things of this world are, that they would turn to the Lord and find hope in the Gospel that goes beyond the circumstances and material things of this life.

Serve!

Jesus said: "Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:16). We encourage you to serve people in our community in the name of the Lord. There are many ways to do that, starting with helping those in our congregation whose homes were affected, to helping neighbors or friends who were affected.As a church, we are working closely with Longmont EOC (Emergency Operations Center) and Convoy of Hope Christian disaster relief ministry to help in recovery efforts, which will begin in the next few days and continue probably for the next few months. We will be looking to put together work teams to be able to go in and help with repairs and clean up. If anyone has special skills, please let us know, so we can help you meet those specific needs. For a list of current volunteer opportunities click here.

Give!

We have started a fund, called "Colorado Relief". You can give to that fund online here. In speaking with the EOC, they are going to help direct us to use these funds to help particular families meet important and specific needs. This is a good option if you would like to help people in our community and aren't sure how, as this will go directly to helping flood victims in our area, without any of it going to overhead.As of now, there are no particular material needs that we or the EOC or the Red Cross have, so we encourage you to give to the relief fund and we use those monies for hurting families as they come to our attention through these organizations we are partnering with.

Identity Issues

Recently, as we have been studying through Ephesians on Sunday mornings at White Fields, we have been talking about the issue of identity, with a focus on who we as Christians have become in Christ.

Identity is so important, and one of our focuses has been the importance of separating identity from actions. In other words, saying: "you are not defined by your actions." Actions are things that you do, but they do not define who you are.

This is an especially relevant message in the time and culture we live in today. Consider alternative lifestyles which are seeking so much to be legitimized and accepted. Essentially, this is an argument about actions vs. identity - however, many Christians have failed to recognize it as such, and as a result, we have a hard time engaging in conversation about these issues with people who think differently than we do.

The LGBT community, for example, is saying: "This is who we are!", whereas Bible-believing Christians are saying: "No, that's not who you are, that is just what you are doing! But that's not who God made you to be!"
When Christians say things like, "Love the sinner, hate the sin", it makes perfect sense to us, and seems like a kind, person-loving statement, however many people these days reject that statement altogether. Why? Because they don't separate actions from identity.
One of my childhood friends has an uncle who is a very kind and generous man. I have interacted with him on a number of occasions at weddings and family gatherings, and have found him to be a kind and thoughtful person. He is also a practicing homosexual. One day I was having coffee with my friend, and he asked me, "Why do you hate my uncle?" I said, "I don't hate your uncle. I think he's a nice person. I just don't agree with his choices and his actions." My friend responded, "But that is WHO HE IS! That is his identity. You aren't just saying what he does is wrong - you are saying that who he is is wrong!"

Do you see why identity is such a relevant issue these days?
What the Bible does is very unique in that it separates identity from actions. Just because you do something, doesn't mean that that is who you are. Take people who commit crimes, for example. Once someone commits a crime, they can be labelled a criminal. But is that who they are condemned to be forever, just because of some bad decisions they made at one time? Is a woman who compromises morally condemned to live that lifestyle, because their actions revealed their 'true identity'?
Basically, this is what Victor Hugo's classic Les Misérables is all about. A man named Jean Valjean, committed a crime. As a result of one bad decision, he is labelled a criminal - a label which he does everything to escape - only to have Javert, a police inspector, hounding him, constantly telling him that he is a criminal, and that that is his identity, and he can never change. A woman, Fantine, who makes some bad decisions and winds up a single mother, is condemned to the label of adulterous - and told that that is not just what she did, but who she is. Jean Valjean and Fantine fight not to be defined by the actions of their past - whereas others like Javert constantly tell them that the labels of criminal and harlot are their identity.

I recently heard a story of one young man who was told over and over by his peers growing up that he was gay. He said, "After a while I thought, 'well, if this is who I am, then I am fighting a losing battle if I resist it. So I might as well embrace it as my identity. And if this is my identity, then I should probably go ahead and act accordingly. After all, that's who I am." Another story I heard recently was of a young woman, who had been abused and molested. She said, "I felt dirty, and after a while I just accepted that as my identity. And since it was my identity, I just went ahead and embraced that lifestyle and acted upon it."
However, neither of these stories ended there. Both of these people heard the Gospel and came to put their faith in Jesus Christ. And both of them came to the point where they said: "I came to realize that my past actions do not define who I am. What people said about me, what people did to me - that's not who I am." And these people turned away from these lifestyles and became Christians, embracing who God declares them to be in Christ as their true identity.

Who you are is not defined by your past actions. When you turn to Jesus Christ, you find a whole new identity in Him: Loved, Chosen, Clean, Forgiven, Redeemed… The list goes on. May you live in the freedom of knowing who you really are and who you can be in Christ.

 

Reunited

I arrived in Hungary on Saturday night; I actually love doing the long flight alone - it's so relaxing!

My friend Laci, pastor of Calvary Chapel in Dél-Pest, picked me up and we spent some time catching up. I always enjoy spending time with him - great guy with great vision, and The Lord is doing a great thing through him on the south side of Budapest.

It was great to see Rosemary and the kids again!

Nate and I got coffee in the morning; his was a milk actually. He's so excited being in Hungary. He's been speaking in Hungarian and been outgoing and friendly with people. He was looking forward to this trip for a long time, and he's having a lot of fun.

Natalie and Suzan got into Budapest by train Saturday night, when I was already asleep, so in the morning, we all went to church and then took the train to Eger, where we were picked up by Jani, Szabi and Kati. Jani and I took Nate and Felicia over to Dr. Krisztina's house, and then we joined the others at the orientation for the camp.

Orientation is something that Rosemary and I used to do, and we took it pretty seriously, but now Kati and Ilona were doing it - and I must say that I think they were more efficient and better prepared than we were! They made bound books of material for each level, and it seems that they have thought of everything. Essentially, they have taken what we handed them, and they have made it better.

From a leader's perspective, this is and should be the goal: to raise up people who surpass you in their accomplishments. It was great to see how the church here has done a good job organizing the camp for the first time completely on their own. Many people have stepped up to fill in the gaps, and are succeeding.

But, of course, good preparation is only one piece of the puzzle. What we also need for this camp to be a success is a move of the Holy Spirit, so that the kids would hear the Gospel and it would penetrate their hearts. Please do pray for that!

Speaking of being reunited, one thing I'm really happy about is that our Australian friends Andy and Kim are here at camp again this year, along with many other dear people who have served at camp before, like Geoff and Angela from Syracuse and Shane from Szolnok. One great thing is that a young man named Kristóf who attended camp for many years, whom we shared Jesus with for YEARS, seemingly to no avail, has given his life to Christ, attends the church now, and is one of our main helpers this year! Praise The Lord for that. Another young man, Balázs, who got saved through our first camp in Eger, and has been a staple and cornerstone helper for years, had to drop out because some family members have fallen seriously ill. We will miss him this year; please pray for him and his family members.

Anyway, I will keep posting on here about how camp goes, so keep checking in. In about an hour I am heading up to Felsőtárkány to set up for registration. Camp begins today!

On the Road Again

We spent the past 2 weeks in California. I went to the Calvary Chapel Senior Pastors conference, and got to take Jeff, the administrative pastor from White Fields with me. We had a great time; it was Jeff's first time in a Calvary setting like that, and it made me glad to be associated with such a movement, that, despite the shortcomings of men, desires to remain focused on the work of the Holy Spirit, the teaching of the Word and evangelism.

Jeff drove out with us, but then flew back after the conference. Rosemary and the kids and I spent a few days in Vista and then went up to Los Angeles to visit family. The kids love our family friends up in LA and were so sad to leave. They always make us feel welcome and loved.

On the way back we stopped in Vegas and visited my friend Chris and also got to meet up with Tim and Grace who we know from Europe. They planted a church in Croatia and moved back to the States a year ago. Our kids played together while we got caught up, the we went down to the strip to watch a few of the outdoor shows before hitting the road again.

We drive through the night, only stopping at a rest stop to sleep for an hour, and rolled into Moab, UT at 8:30am. I've always wanted to visit Moab, and wold still like to spend a week or so there rafting and biking and off-roading.

We noticed on the map that we drive right by Arches National Park on I-70, so we stopped by this time. It was an amazing place, but very similar to the other national parks we've seen in Utah: Zion and Bryce Canyon, although we felt that Arches was the least dramatic of the ones we've seen. The arches were cool, but they are hard to see - many of them are remote and have to be hiked to. I was excited to see the Delicate Arch, even though we didn't hike all the way out to it.

Here are some pictures and a video of parts of the park:

 

 

The Comprehensive Gospel

This past Sunday at White Fields I preached on Galatians chapter 3 and how the Gospel is not just how you become a Christian, it is also the means by which we grow as Christians. The Gospel is not just the ABC of the Christian life, but it is the A-Z of the Christian life.

What often happens in the church is that we are good at preaching the Gospel of grace to the unconverted, but as soon as someone receives Jesus we give them a form of the Law - "Do this, don't do that." This is precisely what Paul was referring to when he said: "Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3)

Rather than giving people the law as a means to grow, the model that Paul exemplifies to us is pointing people to the Gospel in order to change their hearts. The law aims to suppress behaviors, but that doesn't bring about the heart change which is at the root of the behavior. The Gospel on the other hand is the power of God, by to bring about fundamental transformation of the heart. If one's heart changes, their behavior will inevitably follow.

I've gotten a lot of positive feedback about this teaching. Give it a listen:

 

Should Pastors Tithe?

I am a pastor. I tithe. I'm not telling you that to stroke my ego - I'm bringing it up, because over the years I have known a lot of people in vocational ministry (pastors, missionaries and other Christian servants who live off of donations) - and the question comes up from time to time of whether or not they should tithe, since the money that was given to them to live off of is from other people's tithes and donations.

Reading through the Book of Numbers the other day, I ran across this:

So you shall also present a contribution to the Lord from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you shall give the Lord's contribution to Aaron the priest. (Numbers 18:28 ESV)

This was written to the Levites - the priestly tribe - who lived off of the tithes of the other tribes. They were required to give a tithe of their income, even though their income was from the offerings of the other tribes.

I also believe that as a pastor I am called to lead by example, even when no one knows about it. This goes for giving, evangelism, and a number of different areas. I truly believe that giving to the work of the Lord is not only God's way of raising money and furthering the Kingdom, it's also his way of raising kids and furthering our spiritual growth - not to mention that it is a privilege. It is a simple fact, that a ministry like the one I'm involved in is constantly struggling with the things we would like to do, but are not able to do because of our limited financial resources.

Is this the Law? I don't believe it is. You don't have to tithe. That won't affect your standing before God. But generosity is a Gospel virtue. So is evangelism. This is how the Apostle Paul encouraged people to give to the work of God: he pointed them to the Gospel.

I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:8-9 ESV)

Working Hard or Hardly Working

I am teaching through Galatians these days at White Fields; it's one of my favorite books - I call it the Manifesto of Grace.
And one of the most profound statements in that letter is:

I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Galatians 2:21 ESV)

I ran accross this quote in one of my commentaries:

The deepest heresy of all, which corrupts churches, leavens creeds with folly, and swells our human hearts with pride, is salvation by works. "I believe, that the root of every schism and heresy from which the Christian Church has suffered, has been the effort to earn salvation rather than to receive it; and that one reason why preaching is so ineffective is that it calls on men oftener to work for God than to behold God working for them.

- John Ruskin

Now, that's probably not totally true - many of the early schisms in the church, e.g. the Arian controversy, were about the nature of God and the deity of Jesus, but salvation by works is certainly a key Gospel issue, as Paul makes clear.

Heading Home

Today was my last day in Eger. As excited as I was to be in Eger this past week, I was totally ready to go home this morning. I miss my wife and kids, and I realize that God has bound my heart up with Longmont and the ministry of White Fields, and entrusted the ministry here to others.

I went to Tesco and OBI, I needed to mail a few things and buy a few gifts, but the main goal was to find a way to take Túró Rudi back home to America. I picked up some Kinder Tojás and Kinder Szelet and then went over to OBI to get a hűtő táska.

Afterwards I met Dani in town for a coffee and then went up to say goodbye to Tünde and Julcsi. Jani came up to Budapest with me, along with Ilona and Judit. When we left Eger the weather was cold but fine, and about half way to Budapest it started snowing, and got worse and worse. I think it might be still snowing outside.

Here in Budapest I'm staying with Laci Németh, pastor of Golgota Dél-Pest, and Kyle Eckhart from Golgota Szeged came up to say hi and catch up. Great guys doing great ministries that The Lord is blessing. It was good to hang out and catch up. Laci lives near the airport, so he will drive me in the morning. My plane leaves at 6am, so we will leave early.

It's been a good trip. I'm so glad that I got to come and support Jani and Tünde and the church in Eger. Please continue to pray for the Hernádi family, for the city of Eger and for the work of God in Hungary, especially through the Golgota churches.

 

Thank You Video from the Hernádi's

 

Longs Peak from Bear Lake

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.

 

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Plotlines

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?

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Thoughts on the Providence of God

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:

 

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New Year Musings

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:

1. What are the things in my life that I have been doing that I need to repent of?
2. What are the humanly impossible prayers that I am praying this year?

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

 

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Check out White Fields On YouTube

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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What a Year...

2012 was a big year for the Cady family...

About this time last year we were getting ready to make the big announcement that after 10+ years serving in Hungary, we had been called to serve The Lord somewhere else.

It was in January that we handed over the churches in Eger and Heves, and by March we loaded up everything we owned into a container to be shipped across the sea. By April I was leading White Fields and by May we had bought a house and moved to Longmont.

After a year characterized by transition into this new place of ministry, I'm ready to be settled in and focus on forward progress and Gospel impact here in No. Colorado. We have some ideas...

Please pray for a great harvest of souls here in Longmont and a deep work of God in 2013.

 

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