Divorce Hurts

Thoughts on Calvin

I'm reading "Institutes" by Calvin. I completely reject TULIP, but I love the beginning of his book, and his view/love/respect/awe for God.

Over the next few weeks, I'll post some quotes I like and find relevant. Here is the first batch...

BOOK 1, Chapter 2:

Here is what stuck out at me:
1 - " ..not a particle of light, or wisdom, or justice, or power, or rectitude, or genuine truth, will anywhere be found, which does not flow from him, and of which he is not the cause; in this way we must learn to expect and ask all things from him, and thankfully ascribe to him whatever we receive." THE TRUTH OF THIS REALLY THROWS ME BACK.

2 - "...no, unless they place their happiness in him, they will never yield up their whole selves to him in truth and sincerity." AGAIN, THIS IS A PROFOUND TRUTH, THAT REALLY HITS HOME AS I SEE SO MANY NEW PEOPLE COME TO JESUS AT OUR CHURCH.

3 - "...the pious mind dos not devise for itself any kind of God...nor does it feign for him any character it pleases." WOW!! NOW THAT WILL PREACH!!...and REBUKE!

4 - "Besides, it is not the mere fear of punishment that restrains him from sin. Loving and revering God as his Father, honoring and obeying him as Master, although there were no bell, he would revolt at the very idea of offending him." THIS IS TRUE CHRISTIANITY...SERVICE FOR GOD OUT OF LOVE.

5 - "Such is pure and genuine religion, namely, confidence in God coupled with serious fear- ..." WHICH HE GOES ON TO DEFINE AS "REVERENCE." FUNNY< I SHARED THIS SAME THOUGHT WITH A NEW BELIEVER EARLIER THIS WEEK WHO WAS STRUGGLING WITH "GOING BEYOND SENSATIONALISM."

jeremy
www.fhcchurch.com

Relationships at FHCC

I love my boy, Eddy. He and Nat helped put this together in no-time flat!

No Respect from the Ladies

So today was a great day. First, the weather men got it all wrong by predicting a RAIN-filled weekend on Friday, only to wake up Saturday to a revised forecast of, "Cloudy and cold, with only a slight chance of a ray of sunshine." WRONG! It is warm (upper 60's) and partly sunny.

Second, today I got to hang with the boys...my two sons that is. Christine FINALLY got a day to go to mall without crying kids, which meant daddy got the kids. (It was a great treat for me, and for her.) The boys and I watched "A GOOFY MOVIE" till mid-morning, and I was surprised at how short the movie was, and how many era-famous voices made up the cast. It was a cool trip down memory-lane and Cart loved it too. The jury is still out on Jax's opinion.

Seeing that it was not 10am and I have several more hours with the boys...alone!...I decided it was time for a walk. A long walk that would entertain and wear them out physically. I mapped out my route that would be over 2 miles in length, fulfill "errands" I had overlooked during the week, and even provide a treat at the end. It was sheer brilliance!

A problem arose, however, as we hit pedestrian traffic: women! Particularly older women who felt the need to comment, not on the cuteness of my kids, but on my parenting. Honestly, I was doing nothing wrong, in fact I was doing nothing. I was pushing the stroller, Jax was asleep, and this lady freaked out that he was sleeping in the stroller! "Sir, Sir, your baby is asleep!," she screamed. Duh! No kidding, that's the goal lady.

Then there were the "other" ladies, who didn't care about my kids, but about the fact that I was a guy ALONE with kids. Some (I'm sure) were checking out the cool, good-looking dad for lustful reasons, but I got the feeling that the others were doing the opposite. For some reason I felt that everyone saw me as another "divorce'," or worse yet, "a dad who had the kids 'this weekend'." Maybe I was making all this up, but I'm not so sure I was. Praise God, I am a happily married man, who loves and is loved, by his wife; but I'm glad I could take this walk today and feel this societal shame. As a result, I now love single-dads/moms more.

I don't condone divorce, or ANY sex out of marriage, and I never will; and I am not a big fan of "stay at home dads," but no one should have to feel "excessive" guilt for their mistakes/decisions. Jesus reconciled us back to God, meaning that He took our sin and shame upon Himself to bring us back into a relationship with the Father. Paul then states in II Cor. that we therefore should be in the business of reconciliation as Christians. What this means then is the do not OVERLOOK sin and pretend it doesn't exist, but we address it and allow GRACE(forgiveness) to be extended to the offender.

Our society has no problem seeing sin/faults in others. In fact, we love it when we do find fault in other, but we never go beyond it to offer love and grace to the offender. As a result, there is now a backlash where we REFUSED to see sin, much less address it, and just pretend to live in harmony with one another. Forget that! That strategy has a very short shelf-life as people will either "crack" and explode emotionally, or worse yet fall prone to the sin they're ignoring in another's life or worse. Either way it is a dead end, an therefore the only solution is RECONCILIATION God's way: Address and Extend Forgiveness.

Think about it, if these ladies would have just addressed what they thought was "wrong" in my life, and offered me "grace," not only could I have explained to them that I was happily married and doing my wife a favor, but I could have shared Jesus with them! Love is a verb that draws us to POSITIVE action.

Hope that all makes sense...

Bottom line, I had a great day with my kids and my wife, and I even got a 7/11 slurpee and nachos out of it!!

What is Forest Hills Community Church?

So, I found my camera. Learned how to IMPORT video on my Mac, and VOILA!, we now make videos.

Please check out all THREE FHCC videos and let me know what you think.



BTW, sorry about the wind.

Don't Get Lost in the Dust

God bless consistent Bloggers. I don't know how they do it, but I certainly can't. Too much to do, too much fear of UNNECESSARY scrutiny, and just too much of... well, I'm not sure, but for some reason I just cannot stay consistent with this thing. My apologies to the dozen people who read this thing. (BTW, I love meeting you randomly on the street.)

So, a lot is going on at FHCC. God continues to take this incredible vision and burden He has given me and make it a reality. Our Sunday attendance considers to grow, but more importantly, so does the DEPTH of our congregation. For example, last night we kicked off Round #2 of our New Believer's Class and had 20 people show up!!! That's pretty good since it is like 25% of our church!!!

Now, the really cool part is that about half of these people already "know" Jesus and are solid. They are not necessarily taking the class to solely learn for their own sake, but rather to be better equipped to reach their neighbors. AWESOME! You see these people KNOW that Jesus is awesome, and they want to better be able to share Him with someone else. THIS IS TRUE CHRISTIANITY and the very mission and vision of FHCC. (God forbid we become and "Member's Only Cult.")

So God is doing His thing and I'm just trying not to get lost in His dust. It is very exciting, and really very cool to see total NON-Christians find Jesus and find EVERYTHING they ever needed in life in Him. It's humbling actually...and rightfully so.

Great Service

Today was a phenomenal service at FHCC. A big THANK YOU to all who responded by asking Jesus into your life, and to the rest who simply wanted MORE Jesus in your life.

God is moving in Forest Hills, and I am excited and humbled to be along for the ride.

BTW, FHCC now has its own blog. FHCChurch.blogspot.com Check it out!