Getting Ready For Easter 2011

Here is a letter I just emailed to our church family.  In case you aren't on our email list...


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 Dear FBC Heath Family,

We are very excited about Easter 2011.  This is the best time of the year for believers to worship and honor the Lord!  Let me highlight two events designed to help us do that.

Secret Church

Secret Church will be an event like none you have experienced before.  It will take place on Friday (4/22) night.  We will gather in the worship center and watch a simulcast along with tens of thousands of others accross the country as Dr. David Platt teaches about the crucifixion and the resurrection.  This event begins at 7:00 p.m. and goes until 1:00 a.m. the next morning.  It will be intense.  It will be educational.  It will be inspiring!

Read one of my recent blog posts for more details (click here).


If you are planning to attend, please let us know in one of these four ways:

• Registering on our FBC Heath Secret Church Facebook page (click here).
• Emailing us at SecretChurch@fbcho.com.
• Filling out a Secret Church card in one of our Sunday services and dropping the card in the offering plate or a Connection Box.
• Calling the church office (740.522.5245).

Easter Services

On Easter day we will have services at 9:00 a.m. and 10:45 a.m..  These services will be identical so join us for whichever is most convienent for your family.

Invite your friends and family to join us.  This is such an important day and you have such a good opportunity to encourage people who might not ordinarily come to join us.  I hope you will take this opportunity.

Our focus this Easter will be on the ressurrection, as usual, but maybe from a little different angle.  We will be asking the question:  What if you only had FIFTY DAYS TO LIVE?

Most of us, if we knew we only had fifty days to live would live very differently.  We would squeeze all the life we could out of those days.  We would strive to make those days the best days of our lives.  So… What keeps us from living like that now?

This Easter and in the weeks to follow, we will learn the answer to that question, and we will learn how we can live our lives the the fullest.  This will be a life changing opportunity for everyone who attends.

Here are some ideas for how you can invite your friends, co-workers, and neighbors:

• Invite them to the FBC Heath Easter Service facebook event (click here).
• Ask friends and family the question, "What would you do if you only had fifty days to live?"  Share with them that we will be focusing on that this Easter Sunday.
• Let your friends and family know we have two different service times for their convienence.
• Stop by the church and pick up a handfull of invitation cards.  Hand them out to those you see and those in your neighborhood.
• Pray specifically for six people you would like to invite.  Then call them up and see if they will join you.

You can think of many more ways.  The important thing is to not wait too late.  This is going to be a great day.  I hope to see you and your friends and family there!

(To keep up with new information the week of easter, visit our church facebook page and click 'like'.  That will put our updates on your newsfeed.)

Pastor Noel

Easter Weekend...

It is an early morning at the church... a lot to do today...

I went to the drive through at Tim Hortons this morning and ordered a toasted bagel only to get to the office, open it up, and learn that they had toasted it so much it had turned into 'cinnamon and raisin charcoal'... Oh well...

I am looking forward to the next few days!

Tonight, my family and I are going to do a little Maunday Thursday service at our home. I want to help my girls really focus on the significance of what we commemorate in the next few days.

Tomorrow, we have an event at the church where Dr. David Ball will give a dramatic and multimedia presentation of the crucifixion of Christ. I think that is going to be a great night!

Sunday is resurrection day! We will have three services to accommodate the crowd... you can worship with us at 8:00 a.m., 10:45 a.m., or 6:30 p.m.. It will be the same service in each of these time slots. I hope having these time options will help you as you invite your friends, family, and neighbors to join us for this important day.

See you tomorrow night!

Pastor Noel

It's Monday!

We had a pretty good day yesterday. Good crowds in all of our services... Several first time visitors... A good number of decisions made in worship services...

A few people to thank...

• Choir and Pastor Shawn for the great special just prior to the message in the 10:45 service.
• The Hatfield family for preparing a great meal for our church wide fellowship honoring our recent new members.
• The Dickover's for doing the coffee set-up for the 6:30 service.
• The preschool choir for kicking off the 5:00 service.

I am looking forward to this week!

• We've got a number of people already signed up for the new member's class on Wednesday at 6:30. (Give us a call if you would like to attend and are not yet on the list.)
  
• Today I hope to spend a few hours doing some preparation for my Easter Sunday message and the two messages that will follow.
• I have a few appointments this week with first time guests who have attended one of our services in the last couple of weeks.

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Let me share with you something I read in my devotion time this morning...

Part of my reading was from Joshua 22.

In verses 9 & 10 we learn that the men of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half-tribe of Manasseh left the other Israelites after the war to return to their land on the other side of the Jordan river.

On their way, they built an altar to the Lord.

This bothered the other Israelites because they thought that these men were trying to establish a new place of worship in violation of God's commands.

So the other Israelites decided to wage war against those who had built the new altar.

Just before the war ensued, the leaders decided to sit down and talk. As it turned out, each group had misunderstood the intentions of the others. Once everything was aired out it turned out that everyone agreed on everything!

What a great lesson! I wonder how many 'wars' have been fought between believers simply because we have misunderstood the intentions of others and we have let our pride keep us from sitting down and having a frank and honest discussion.

I pray that I will always have a heart that desires to talk first...

Pastor Noel

Prayer Requests...

Last week was a challenging week. It wasn't a bad week, just a challenging one. I had two very long days that I don't think I really ever recovered from, several counseling appointments a few of which were heart rending, one day trip to St. Louis, and a few distractions. Sunday was a good day. We had a good service in the morning; the deacons and I did our last day of one-at-a-time Lord's Suppers; and we had two good services in the evening.

I am looking forward to this week. It is starting off well. I got some very good news this morning that I believe is the Lord saying that this is going to be a good week of ministry, full steam ahead...

Here are some things to keep in your prayers...

• I have prospect visits lined up for Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Pray for these families.
  
• Donna and the girls and I are praying about doing our first big family mission trip this Summer. We are going to try to make a decision in the next couple of weeks. Donna is working on passports right now, just in case.
• So far this morning, we've had seven people sign up for our April 1 New Member's class! Pray that we will be able to make connections with all of those God is sending our way.
• We have a leadership meeting (council) this Wednesday where we will be considering some upgrades to our youth ministry.
• VBS meetings this week...
• We are making the last preparations for publicizing our Easter services this year. We have a very special presentation the Friday before Easter, and then we will offer our Easter worship service three times on Sunday.

Thanks for the Prayers!
Pastor Noel

My Easter Preparation - Tuesday

Jesus came into Jerusalem in His triumphal entry on Sunday (even though we focused on it yesterday), and He was arrested on Thursday evening. So what did He do in between Sunday and Thursday?

A few things we know...

He stayed at night in the small town of Bethany. Bethany was about two miles from Jerusalem proper. Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead, and Mary and Martha lived in Bethany, so it is likely that He stayed with them. What must it have been like to be Jesus' host during this last week of His life? This was a week when Jesus' humanity and diety were uniquely displayed and contrasted. I wonder what wonders Mary and Martha saw and heard that week?

There is another thought provoking thing about Jesus staying with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Can you think of what it is? What was the most wonderful, amazing event in the lives of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus? Think about it. And what will be the climatic event of this Easter week for Jesus? Resurrection!

When Jesus resurrected Lazarus from the grave, He was giving us a glimpse of the real 'power of the resurrection' that would be ultimately displayed on what we now call Easter. There is no bibilcal account of this happening, but I wonder if there were not some side conversations between Jesus and Lazarus about what was about to happen. What might Jesus have said to Lazarus? What might Lazarus have said to Jesus? What kind of unusual camaraderie might they have had? One day we will stand next to Jesus in resurrected bodies. What will that camaraderie be like?

We also know that Jesus did some other things between Sunday and Thursday...

• He taught.
• He did at least one miracle.
• He celebrated the passover meal with His disciples.

Let's focus this morning on the miracle Jesus performed. Read these parallel passages of Scripture:

• Matthew 21:18-20
• Mark 11:13-21

Let me answer one question that everyone has when they read these passages. If it was not the season for figs, then why was Jesus upset that the fig tree had no figs? The answer lies in the leaves. A fig tree grows figs first and leaves second. If a fig tree has leaves, then it is advertising that it has figs.

So here was a fig tree, that has one purpose... to produce figs, that is saying by its leaves that it has figs, but is barren. Jesus curses the tree.

Jesus is in the business of doing some fruit inspection. And as Christians we are advertising that there are certain things that are true of our lives and lifestyles. What if Jesus did some fruit inspection of our lives? What if He were to look closely for the evidences that we are fullfulling our purpose? What kinds of fruits would He discover that we are bearing for Him in our lives?

Take a few minutes, and do a little fruit inspection yourself. Not of others, but of your own life. What ways can you see that you are bearing fruit for God's Kingdom and fulfilling your God-given purpose? What fruits would others be able to see? What fruits would the Lord commend in our lives, or what fruits would He say were lacking?

Imagine that you are the tree Jesus sees on the road to Jerusalem... how would you fare?

Pastor Noel

My Easter Preparation - Monday

I shared with my church yesterday (Sunday) that I would post a brief blog each morning this week detailing the Scripture reading and the thoughts of my morning quiet time as I committed myself to growing closer to God through this Easter week. I'll try to have these posted by 6:00 a.m. each morning so you can use these as guides for your own Easter week quiet times if you choose to. I hope this helps. I hope this honors the Lord.

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It was approximately 1,978 years ago that Jesus had his 'triumphal entry' into Jerusalem. This marked the beginning of the end. This marked the beginning of the last days before Christ would be crucified.

This day was prophesied in the O.T....

Zechariah 9:9 NKJ "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.

Read about the entry and the day in John 12:12-50, and then also in Luke 19:28-46.

After you read through these descriptions of what happened on this day, Monday, of Christ's last week before His crucifixion, then pray and ask the Lord to give you today a better understanding of the heart and mind of Jesus.

After you have read the Scripture once and prayed for a deeper understanding of the heart and mind of Jesus, then take a piece of paper, and read through the verses again slowly. This time, write down everything you learn about the heart, mind, and disposition of Jesus.

I will do this and put my list as a comment to this blog post so you can read it. But, you will get more out of this if you do yours before you read mine.

So once you complete your list and spend some time in prayer, then take a look at my list in the comment section of this blog.

Tomorrow we will begin to take a closer look into the meaning of the crucifixion.

Thanks,
Pastor Noel