Tag Archives: fireproof

Jano23

Chase

0

Agape Newsletter - January 22, 2009 - Special Scottish Preaching edition.

Hello all, and welcome in to another info packed Agape newsletter.

Don’t forget that each of these newsletters, as well as several other posts are published weekly on our blog at Pinsonchurch.com/blog - Check it out for yourself, and tell your friends about it. Featured articles this week: The prayers of Joseph Lowery and Rick Warren at Barack Obama’s nomination, as well as a couple of amazing nature videos showing two remarkable birds.

Here’s a quick summary of all that is going on in the newsletter:
1. David McConnell preaching Sunday on holiness (see below)
2. New member’s class February 1st
3. Angel Food pick up Saturday @ 9:30am
4. PRAYER 9:15 am SHARP.
5. The Nest, homeless outreach Tuesday night
6. Kenya/Tanzania prayer
7. Food Pantry.
8. Super Bowl party. (Sunday night, February 1st - details forthcoming)
As noted above, David will be bringing the word this Sunday, and I’m looking forward to it. Here’s a preview from David to give you an idea of what to expect:

Strive for … the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Hebrews 12:14 (ESV)

What a verse! Too often, modern Christianity has regulated Holiness to an incidental role in our faith. Being Holy is viewed as minor consequence of our belief in Christ, perhaps not as important as Grace. Yet, the Word tells us that without Holiness, we will never be with Jesus. That shakes me, and I hope it does us all. Sunday morning we will dive into the Word to see that Holiness, in both the OT and NT, is much more than a minor consequence of our faith. And we will take a look at a beautiful dynamic of scripture: we are commanded by God to be something that we can never be on our own.

Also, please note that the New Member’s class is coming up a week from Sunday (February 1st). If you are interested in joining Agape, please let me know, and you can be included. The class lasts a little over an hour, and a home cooked lunch will be provided (thanks Jennifer!). The class will begin shortly after church is over.
We have three missions related announcements for the week: 1. Angel Food pick up will be this Saturday at 9:30am in the foyer of the church. If you ordered Angel Food, don’t forget to come pick it up! Also, The Nest homeless ministry will take place next Tuesday (January 27). If you’d like to help serve food, or work with John Talley on the evangelism team, then you should be at the church around 6:00pm, and be ready to leave for downtown at 6:30pm. Finally, we will be doing food pantry next Wednesday (January 28), and we need volunteers to help carry food and minister to the people that come for food. The busiest time is from 6 to 7 pm, so come early if you can!
As you may have noticed last week, we are now having corporate prayer in the sanctuary before small groups meet. I invite you to come meet us at the front of the sanctuary for prayer this Sunday at 9:15 am (we will start on time this week). If we would see revival come…if we would see true evangelism happen…if we would see more missionaries sent out…if we would see the hungry fed, then we must become a people who will prioritize prayer. As J. Herbert Kane said, ““Water cannot rise any higher than its source, nor can the mission overseas be any stronger than the supporting church at home. A sick church can never save a dying world…Throughout history, revival at home and missions abroad have always gone together.” Come pray with us Sunday!!

Speaking of prayer and missions: a team from my previous church is currently in Kenya and Tanzania right now, leading medical clinics, working with an orphanage, and holding evangelistic crusades. Thus far, I understand that 900 people have made decisions for Christ, and many more have been helped medically and otherwise. Please pray for grace on that team, as well as pray for the pastor leading that group, my friend, Michael French - he has become somewhat seriously ill on the trip (as has his son Caleb), and this is limiting his ability to do much of anything. Also please pray for the family of Charles, who has been the mission liaison and driver for that church for several years now. Charles was killed in a mugging this week, right before the missions team arrived in Kenya.

Speaking of prayer, please also remember Emerald, the baby of Tamiko (not sure I’m spelling her name right) who has been visiting with us from Olivia’s house, and has expressed an interest in joining Agape. Emerald was to have major surgery this morning - please pray for her to be covered in grace!

Finally, I close with some inspiring, challenging, interesting or fun links for you to check out:

John Piper, Al Mohler, Mark Driscoll, and Chuck Colson weigh in on the inauguration Tuesday: CLICK HERE

Fireproof the movie in 60 seconds. (don’t watch this if you haven’t yet seen Fireproof. Go see it.) CLICK HERE

Tim Challies writes about sin’s effects on us via an interesting (and disturbing) clean up that he assisted in. Part 1 ….Part 2 .

Past The Popcorn (Christian movie review site) has a nice interview with Kirk Cameron up: CLICK HERE

How to hack (or mod) your Bible to add extra ribbon bookmarks! (I am not skilled enough to do this myself…) CLICK HERE

Ron Jones types a passionate letter to Barack Obama on abortion. CLICK HERE

I look forward to seeing you this Sunday!

Chase

Jano07

Chase

0

Pastor’s Thoughts: Leading Your Heart (by J. David McConnell)

Leading Your Heart

YouTube Preview Image

A few weeks ago my wife and I went to see the movie Fireproof. Many of our friends had seen it and highly recommended that we go. Overall, the movie was fantastic. I must say that the acting…well, no one in it will win an academy award. But…it was well put together, with a good script and a cast of people that you were fond of by the time it was over.

The story, of course, made the movie. I don’t cry at movies, actually I don’t cry a lot ever…but I will say that I came close. The guy in front of us was dishing out napkins to his wife in huge quantities, and then turned around and gave my wife some as well. Thankfully, I didn’t have to take any from him (which would have required that I surrender my manhood card immediately). Interestingly enough, it wasn’t so much the scripted words that made me emotional. As I sat there and watched this movie, and the deep love being portrayed from a man to his wife – I realized how much God really loves us. I know, you are thinking ‘wow, what a deep thought: God loves us.’ But just seeing someone love someone else so much that it physically hurts them and to realize the only way we can have that capacity is because God gives it to us, and then to realize how imperfect we are and that we are not capable of loving anyone even a fraction of how much God loves…well, I was overcome. Oh, How He Loves Us.

Anyway, let me get to the point of this blog. A friend of mine had told me about a particular line in the movie that really impacted him and when I heard it, I was equally struck. The line went something like this: ‘we don’t follow our hearts, we lead our hearts’. I was thinking about how often we make decisions based on emotion, or how we feel. It might be a relationship decision, a financial decision, a decision on where we should worship or whether we should go to worship at all. We decide whether or not we should forgive someone, or whether we should serve God or tell others about Christ. This list goes on and on…but I can’t tell you how many times I have seen someone making what I felt like was a bad decision, while saying ‘I feel like this is the right thing to do’.

My own life is the same, as I have often based decisions on how I feel. As a matter of fact, a lot of my sin is based on doing what I feel like doing, instead of what is right by God. In the past year and a half, I can’t tell you how many times I ‘knew’ what I wanted to do in ministry and what I felt like God wanted me to do. Only to find out that it wasn’t God’s plan. I am so thankful for doors God has shut, that I would have walked through based on how I felt at the time. The problem is our hearts are born corrupt and with an inclination to evil (see Genesis 8:21), so sometimes following our hearts is not the right thing. Even with good intentions (wanting to follow God is a good thing) feelings can be deceptive. Our hearts, our feelings, are susceptible to deceit and temptation. We have to be aware of that fact.

So, this would lead to a question of how do we live out our lives? How do we make decisions, both big and small and trust that we are doing the right things? How can we know God’s will for our lives and what he wants us to do? Well, I think we can find a lot of direction on that in Philippians 2 (v. 12-13): work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Within these verses, Paul is not teaching us that salvation comes from works, but rather he is encouraging the readers to put their salvation into action. In other words we are to ‘work it out’ referring to living out what we are taught and what we know to be true. We are to do this ‘with fear and trembling’ meaning that we are to live our lives understanding we are totally and completely dependent upon God; we can accomplish nothing for Christ apart from the power of God within us. And that is the beauty of what Paul reveals to us, that it is God who works within us (our hearts and minds) to mold our desires (will) into His desires for our lives. At the same time He empowers us to accomplish what He gives us to do.

We really want God to e-mail us, or write in the sky what His plans for us are; what it is that He wants us to do in life. But, the picture we see most often is that we get up day by day by day and we do our best to live out our salvation. We pursue God through prayer, His word and by our actions (putting His word into practice in our lives). And as we do this – step by step and day by day – we trust that God is working in us to lead us where He wants us to go and that He will not let us make a mistake. If we are totally dependent upon Him for everything and we pray for direction and wisdom, God is faithful to lead us and bring us to the places and the tasks He has planned for us.

This is a far cry from decision-making that is based on how we feel. The life that Paul implores us to live is a life desperate for God, desperate for Him to mold and change our hearts to match His will for us. And we are kept from bad decisions or incorrect choices, by the power of our Savior. He is more than capable of bringing us where we need to be, the safest place in the world, directly in the middle of God’s will.

For HIS Glory

David McConnell
Family Pastor
families@agapepinson.com

Jano07

Chase

0

Agape Newsletter, 12-29-2008, Special Atheist says Send More Christian Missionaries Edition!

Hello all,

I know we didn’t have an e-newsletter last week, so this week you should get a special bonus - one extra issue. Wow! What a bargain!

I’m writing early in the week to let you know about a few things:

Of primary importance is the fact that this Wednesday night, at 7:00pm we will be ending 2008/beginning 2009 by having a worship and prayer gathering at Agape. We will worship and pray together for about ninety minutes or so, and be led by several different worship and prayer leaders. This should be a great time to put a powerful ending on 2008, and prepare us for all that God is calling us to do in 2009. We must seek first His Kingdom!

When we come together to worship and pray, we are imitating one of the chief activities of heaven. Check out Revelation 5:He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song: ”You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (verses 7-9)

As Howard a. Johnston has said, “When the prayer-life of the people of God comes to be the dominant feature of Christian experience, the power of God will sweep the earth with the victories of grace.” Come and Pray!!!

Also, some have wondered about year end giving to Agape. My understanding is that your gifts can count towards 2008 as long as they are brought to the church or postmarked in the mail by this Wednesday, December 31st. Our mailing address (should you need it) is: p.o. box 746, Pinson, Alabama 35126.

I’ll give you a few links to check out here, so nobody feels too shortchanged:

*****     In this month’s Pastor’s Thoughts section on our website, David McConnell shares about how he cried and cried at a recent movie that he and Alyson attended. (I think it was Conan the Barbarian). You should read about it on our website:  http://agapepinson.com/pastors_corner.htm (Warning, I may not be portraying David’s article in as accurate a light as possible, in fact, I’m probably embellishing just to get you to read the article…….my wife made me add this disclaimer)

*****     As goes the family, so goes the church: http://www.crosswalk.com/marriage/11597516/

*****     Me and my dirty mouth! http://www.christianitytoday.com/tcw/2008/novdec/6.22.html

*****     Atheist says, Africa needs God!” (I’m not actually joking here): http://online.worldmag.com/2008/12/29/atheist-says-africa-needs-god/

*****     In other news of the unexpected, a famous lesbian couple in California (Melissa Etheridge and Tammy Lynn Michaels) are defending Barack Obama’s choice of Rick Warren to lead the inaugural invocation prayer: http://christianpost.com/article/20081229/melissa-etheridge-lesbian-spouse-defend-pastor-rick-warren.htm

*****     This is… curious, Satan’s Ministers Await Satan’s Arrival: http://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/johnshore/11597524/

I look forward to seeing you Wednesday night at 7 - be sure and invite a friend!

Chase

Jano07

Chase

0

Agape Newsletter - 10-17-2008 - Economic Crisis part 1

Hello all, all and welcome to the third week in October edition of the Agape newsletter. Among our highlights this week: A missions yard sale Saturday at 8:00am, A message on the Economy this Sunday morning at 10:45am, and a Crossroads message Sunday night on how the sacrifice of Jesus saved us from our sins. Read below for more details:

This Week’s Schedule:
SATURDAY OCTOBER 18 at 8:00 AM: Don’t forget that the missions team is having a yard sale at Agape tomorrow (Saturday) morning, beginning at 8:00am. Come one, come all - find some great bargains AND help our missions outreach fulfill the calling of Jesus (Matthew 25:31-46) and love our community.
Sunday, October 19 - 8:30 - Corporate prayer. Prayer is so critical in the life of the church, so please join us in the back of the sanctuary to lift up our hearts to God.
Sunday 9:45 - Small groups
Sunday 10:45 - Morning worship and word. This week I will be bringing a message that is centered on all of the issues raised by our volatile economy. What is going on? Why is the stock market struggling so much? What does it mean to you and me? And, most importantly, where is God in all of this, and what should our response be as the people of God?! Come join us and have a listen to this very unusual message, as well as seek God and bless His name in worship and prayer. If you know somebody who has been effected by the economic crisis currently, or has been interested in it, then please forward them this email and invite them to come join us this Sunday!
Sunday night: 5 pm - Crossroads. Most of us know that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross makes it possible for us to enter heaven, right? But HOW does that work? Why did it work? Here’s David’s summary of what he will be teaching on this Sunday night at Crossroads: The Cup Christ came to secure our eternal redemption from the rebellion of Genesis chapter 3. But how did He do it? Was it the nails? The crown of thorns? A beaten and bloodied trip up an ancient hillside? How did the sacrifice of Christ secure forgiveness of all sins, for all times for those who would believe? Would we be surprised to hear that it was not what was seen on that day that saves us, but what was unseen? Please Join us October 19th at 5pm.

Wednesday night, October 22nd - Back to Matthew this week, as we’ll be tackling the 10th chapter of Matthew - a most challenging, yet refreshing passage of scripture. We will also have food pantry that night, beginning at 6:00.

Friday night - Family Movie Night with fun and games and much more!

Well, normally, I would try and type something interesting, funny, spiritual, inspiring, or antagonizing to Auburn fans in this space, but alas, I’m babysitting Kassidy while Janet is taking Chloe and John Caedmon to the doctor (they have bronchitis - pray for them please!), so I’m not able to concentrate enough to type much of anything worth reading, so I guess I’ll just close out with some hopefully high quality linkst.

This Week’s Links:

*****     Thinking about World Hunger Month….Did you eat breakfast today? (I did: 1 bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats, one bowl of Rice Chex): http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2008/10/how_hungry_are.html

*****     Deep Truths of the Bible for Children (good children’s books with a deep Christian message): http://www.ligonier.org/blog/2008/10/deep-truths-of-the-bible-for-c.html

*****     This will be a bit controversial, I imagine. I am posting it less for it’s political content, and more for it’s incisive commentary on the importance of being pro-life: http://www.albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=2630

*****     Fireproof 1, Religulous 0 http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2008/10/religulous.html

*****     Real Preachers of Genius; Mr. Mega Church Seeker Sensitivity Guy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb9DF16Fx8k&feature=related (Please note - this video lampoons seeker sensitive churches and touches on the Emergent movement. I’m including it here only because of it’s amusement value, not because I necessarily agree with some of the issues the video raises. For me, it’s a mixed bag)

I look forward to worshipping with you this Sunday!

Chase