When God Promises then Waits

Last Sunday, my sermon was When God Promises then Waits. I was reading this devotional today from Experiencing God Day by Day by Henry Blackaby from November 14 and it fit so well with the sermon from Sunday. Check it out, you can watch the sermon below (for some reason the audio was not recorded for the last 5 minutes of the sermon):

God is Faithful

He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. (1 Thessalonians 5:24)

God never calls us to do anything without faithfully keeping His word and enabling us to do it. We are not always faithful to do what God tells us, but He remains faithful and stands by His word to fulfill what He has promised (Isa. 46:11).

When the children of Israel reached the Red Sea, they might have concluded that God had abandoned His promise to them. The sea was barring their advance, and the murderous Egyptian army was racing to overtake them! Yet God proved then, as He has ever since, that He is absolutely faithful to every word He speaks to His children.

God may have spoken to you about something in particular—a ministry in your church, the way to raise your children, or what you should do in your job. You have obeyed Him, but now you face a Red Sea experience. It seems that what you thought God wanted to accomplish is not happening. Perhaps your ministry has not been well received, or your children are rebelling, or those at your workplace are criticizing your actions. Trust in the character of God. It is His nature to be faithful. The testimony of His people throughout the ages is expressed by the psalmist, who declared: “I have been young, and now I am old; / Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, / Nor his descendants begging bread” (Ps. 37:25).

Regardless of how bleak your present circumstances are, do not lose hope. No one has ever experienced unfaithfulness on God’s part! Allow time for God to reveal His faithfulness to you. Someday you will reflect on what God has done and praise Him for His absolute faithfulness to you.

Celebrate with New Passion on Our Birthday

Hey, friends and family and anyone else reading this! I would love to have you join us at New Passion Church this Sunday, September 11, to celebrate our 2nd Birthday! God has used our small church to make a big impact in people’s lives in just two short years, and we want to celebrate his faithfulness. From 9:10-9:40 am enjoy a pancake breakfast. Immediately following the worship service (begins at 10 am), we’ll have birthday cake and inflatable bounce-houses for the kids.

Invite others to join you this Sunday, we’d love to have you celebrate with us! You can get directions to Patriot’s Park on our website.

Me. Church.

Here is the video that I was going to show two weeks ago for Source Code Week 3 as we looked at
Acts 2:42-47 together. The video was on my thumb drive that was stolen with my backpack in
Costa Rica:

Those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day—about 3,000 in all.

All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity-all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

As funny as the video is and as corny as it seems, you’d be surprised at how accurate this is to the modern American, Consumer Driven, Church and her attendees. You can change the illustrations and have real life scenarios.

You can purchase this video and others like it at Igniter Media.

Costa Rica Update Day Six

First of all, I found out I can share my public mobile uploads folder from Facebook so you can see a few of the photos I have uploaded via my phone, I still cannot upload via my ipad (lame).

Yesterday, Sunday, was our “Celebrate Day” here in Costa Rica. All throughout the week there was a lot of discussion about what we should do on our free day. We originally talked about going white water rafting and zip lining, but the prices increased significantly since the first time the group did that two years ago.
We then talked about going to the beach, which would have been a lot cheaper, but later in the week, it started calling for rain most of the day (P.S. It rains a lot in Costa Rica, especially during this time of the year), so we decided to tour San Jose, Heredia and go to the mall and the souvenir shop.

It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day, but as we were preparing to leave the museum, it started getting cloudy and dark like it was going to downpour on us; and it did, for the rest of the night up until around 10 p.m.

We went to the mall to eat lunch. It was a pleasant surprise to find some places we recognized like Wendy’s, KFC, McDonald’s, and the like. We ate at Wendy’s which above all things served Coke Zero, as did every other place that served Coke products. It is good to see that Costa Rica is at least drinking God’s favorite drink.

Yesterday was challenging as my soreness and exhaustion set in from Saturday’s soccer tournament. I am an old man at 30 years old and I used a lot of muscles that I have not used since my junior year in high school, so needless to say mobility was a slight issue throughout the day 🙂

Today is our last day in Costa Rica to do ministry. We will go to a place called “Moms,” which to my understanding, helps and cares for young, pregnant teens. We will also go back to La Roca for our last visit to hangout with the students and to say our goodbyes.

Please pray for those who we have had the opportunity to serve and invest in that God would continue to do a work in their life, as well, pray for Edwin and his family as they continue to follow Jesus in their ministry to this community through La Roca. They definitely need your prayers. I cannot wait for New Passion to invest in what God is doing through La Roca.