“Unexpected Surprises”

You had them before, you know, those unexpected surprises.  Someone does something for you out of the blue and you’re like, “WOW!  Didn’t expect that!”  You open a letter and it is from someone you haven’t talked to in years.  We all have had those unexpected moments. 

Some friends of ours gave us a gift certificate for “Dinner for Two” to a very nice local restaurant in Raleigh a few months ago.  I decided to wait and use it for Terry’s birthday.  Yes, I’m cheap!!!  But, think about it, it was my only way of taking her to a really nice restaurant so that has to count for something.  Anyway, I decided to take Emma with us and the three of us went this past Saturday night on Terry’s birthday.

I was very impressed with this restaurant.  Very classy, sheik, and a great atmosphere.  We had made reservations and were immediately seated upon arrival.  Si was our waiter and so I gave him the gift certificate upfront because I wanted him to know we had it, you know, NO surprises.  He put it in a black folder in his waist band and we began our experience.

I’ll have to say the food was great and service was fantastic.  I don’t think I could have asked any better.  For her birthday celebration, Terry and I ordered a couple of drinks and Emma Grace had a Shirley Temple (one of her favorites).  After the meal was over we decided to order coffee and dessert and I’ll just have to say, if you go to this place to eat, order the chocolate over chocolate cake with ice cream.  You will not be sorry.  Maybe a few pounds heavier, but not sorry!

We were ready to get our check, pay, and head home.  I knew what the two lowest priced entrees cost, so I knew about $50 would be taken off our bill and I would owe the rest.  Si brought the bill and I looked at it and said, “Si, wait a minute.  What about our gift certificate?”  “Oh,” he said, and picked back up the bill and walked away.  The bill he laid down was somewhat north of three digits.  I guess I didn’t realize French Press Coffee and dessert would have been quite that much, nor that a glass of wine would be $15.  But, hey, it’s my wife’s birthday.  Si, came back in just a couple of minutes with the new bill and said, “All, we are charging you for are the two drinks you and your wife had” and he walked away.  What?  Wait!  The certificate was only for two, 2 entrees, nothing else.  Man, what an unexpected surprise.  The bill had gone from north of $$$ to $20.  What a blessing!!!

As we walked to my truck Terry and I both said, “Well, that was unexpected.”  The word got stuck in my mind driving home and I began to think about the unexpected surprises during the last week of Jesus life.

We are in the Lenten season and are now close to Holy Week.  Think about it from His disciples perspective.  He just asked for a donkey colt to ride into Jerusalem.  Surprise, the prophecy on display.  Jesus clears out everyone in the temple.  Surprise, there is such a thing as righteous anger.  He tells them that one of them, one of the twelve, will betray Him and he tells them this at the Passover Meal.  Surprise!!!  “What?” ”Surely not I,” was their response.  They are even surprised when walking to the garden that night to hear, “All of you will flee from me.”  They were surprised He was arrested.  I think they were surprised He allowed them to arrest Him.  Every time before He slipped away untouched.  They were surprised that on Calvary’s Hill, their Lord would be crucified, but He was!

But folks, their biggest, grandest, most beautiful surprise came when the women came to the tomb and heard, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.  He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said…”  “Go and tell His disciples…” Matthew 28:5-7  Though they had been told, they did not expect that one.  “He Has Risen.”  The greatest “Unexpected Surprise.”

This Easter, what if you allowed yourself to experience the Resurrection of your Lord anew?  What if your experience on Easter morning was, “OH LORD!!! Thank you for the empty tomb!”  The unexpected surprise for me is that the resurrected Jesus has called me to be His, one of His chosen.   He took on my sin so I wouldn’t have to.  He conquered death so I could!  Greatest gift, greatest surprise ever!!!

Have you experienced the unexpected surprise of the resurrected Lord in your life?  If not, please do, for it will be the greatest surprise, the greatest gift you have ever received.  There is no doubt about it.  And if so, celebrate anew this Easter the resurrected Savior, your Lord, and give thanks!  

Let us come and Worship the LORD!!!

Blessings my friends,

Pastor Marty                   

Worship, Grow & Serve 

                     

“The Same Truth Is a Must”

“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder comes true, concerning which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods (whom you have not known) and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams; for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all you soul.  You shall follow the LORD your God and fear Him; and you shall keep His commandments, listen to His voice, serve Him, and cling to Him.”          Deuteronomy 13:1-4

My family drove up to Boone last week to visit our son who is going to school there.  Of course one of the things you have to do for a college student when you visit is FEED THEM!!!  I mean, it’s like you feed them the entire time you visit.  You would think they never eat.  And many do not know this about my family, but we eat Mexican food at least once a week (sometime twice.)  So when we asked the 4 kids we had with us on this trip the first place they wanted to eat, well, we ended up at the local Mexican restaurant in Boone.  

Because of my family’s habits, I have eaten in just about every Mexican restaurant in every town I’ve visited or lived.  Here is the deal!  I’ve noticed that in all of these different restaurants, they all have something in common.  It is #5.  Yes, #5 on the menu.  #5 on every menu is 2 beef enchiladas, rice and beans.  Always!  

This has to be passed along to new restaurants that open.  We had a new Mexican restaurant open in Moore County and the first thing I went to when I opened the menu was to see if the #5 was 2 beef enchiladas, rice and beans.  Yep!  There is was.  The exact SAME meal.

While I was eating in Boone on that Monday with the family, eating my #5, I thought about one of my Bible readings from Deuteronomy in recent weeks (the passage above).  And my crazy mind went to, “wait a minute, there is something about every Christian living, preaching, teaching the same truth.”

If the truth is distorted, twisted, or false, that’s a problem.  Unfortunately, this happens all the time.  It happens in churches, with preachers, with congregational members.  False teaching, false doctrine is lift up as “truth” when all they are giving you is words with no real truth.  Some of you are saying, “Marty, please!”  But wait minute!  Truth is important.

If you are listening to the dreamers, the false prophets (preachers), it may be a test to see if you truly know God.  Do you truly love Him with all your heart.  Just because they say it does not make it true.  You have to test scripture with scripture.  And here is the thing, God says, fear Him, listen to Him, serve Him, and keep His commandments.  If you are listening to His Word being distorted, then there is a problem.

Moses goes on to say, that those dreamers and prophets that are spreading false teachings will be put to death.  Or in other words, they will face eternal separation from God.  

The “Same Truth is a Must.”  We have to teach, preach, and share the same truth from God’s Word.  You cannot take His Word out of context to make your desires or your agenda seem to be His.  His “truth” is the only truth.  Oh, the dreamer can make it sound so real and even, as this passage tells us, do signs and wonders, but that does not make it “truth.”

Paul tells Timothy, his preacher brother in Christ, to beware of false teachers that can lead you astray.  This message still holds true.

I know I can go into just about any Mexican restaurant and order a #5 and have the same thing.  We should be able to go in any Church and get the same truth, GOD’S WORD!  As long as I’m the pastor at HOPE EPC of Raleigh, you can be sure the truth will be proclaimed.  His Word Preached!  The same truth is a must!

Blessings my friends,

Pastor Marty                   

Worship, Grow & Serve 

                     

"Live Into the Light"

“This is the message we have heard from Him and announced to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”  1 John 1:5

After Terry and I were married we began to look for a place out in the country to purchase and make our home.  Living in the country has its plus and minuses, but we do love where we live.  One of the minuses of country life (or at least where we live) is that there is no cable or internet service.  So in 2004 we decided to go the satellite TV route and see how that would work for us.  Well, it is 2017 and we still have the same satellite company providing our TV service.  

One of the pluses to satellite TV is all the Pay Per View channels that are available.  We don’t watch them, but they are available.  What we do is this though, about once a month we allow the kids to choose a movie on PPV that is appropriate to watch and we purchase it for a 48 hour period for them to watch.  We did that this past Sunday evening.  The movie we rented on PPV was “Trolls.”

I’m sure if some of you have younger children or grandchildren you have seen this movie.  Let me say as an older adult, I thought the movie was silly and was so glad I did not pay $13.50 per ticket for each member of my family to see this movie in the theater.  $5.99 was pushing it once I saw it.  Ok, enough criticism.

Trolls is a movie about, of course Trolls, that live in a Troll tree in a town where the Bergens live.  The Bergens are characters in the movie that live in despair, have no happiness in life, and are dark with no color.  On the other hand the Trolls are colorful and happy and have a positive outlook on life.  So the Bergens believe that once a year, if they eat a troll, they will become happy.  Of course this is not very enticing to the Trolls, so they run away from Bergen Town to save their life.  Unfortunately one of the Bergens find them and take a number of the Trolls captive.  The Troll Princess, Poppy, sets out on a mission to find and save her friends from the Bergens.  But she needs help and solicits Branch one of the strong male Trolls.  Branch has no color though.  Why?  He has no happiness.  I won’t go into why he has no color here, but he is as dark as the Bergens.

During the rescue mission, Poppy and Branch get caught and all the captured Trolls are put in a pot to be served as a meal to the Bergens.  Here is where I said to my wife Terry, “Well, that would preach!”

Poppy had all her color and all her wonderful positive outlook on life, in that moment, leave her.  She found herself in despair and sadness.  As you saw the sadness come over her, you saw her color turn to darkness, just like Branch and the Bergens.  As her color left her, so did all of the other Trolls who flourished with color.  Now all the Trolls lived in darkness until Branch stepped up and began to sing (the movie is filled with some great songs).  As Branch began to sing, the color in him and in the other Trolls began to return and their happiness, their resolve to move forward and not remain in this darkness and despair came back to life.

I could not help but think about this verse from 1 John, “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”  In the darkness we can hide.  No one will see us.  In the darkness most of the crime happens and sin runs rampant.  In the darkness of our souls, anxiety, depression, and despair can take over and we can loose all meaning of life.  But when God is our focus and we don’t loose sight of His presence in us as believers, His Light shines.  Branch started with a song that brought hope in a dyer situation.  For us, we see the Light of God in Worship, in His Word, in a friend or family member.  We see God’s Light in the Christians music we sing, the fellowship we enjoy, the hugs and kisses of loved ones and fellow believers.  We see the Light of God in His creation around us.  None more so than this time of the year, Spring Time, as creation comes to life with flowers and leaves.  Just begin to look around you and you will see the Light of God, that is if His Light is in you.  With out Him, we tend to have the attributes of a lost world, those of darkness.

So my question to you today is “Have you tapped into the Light of the living God?”  I can tell you that the more you allow HIS Light to shine in you and through you, the less the darkness of this world will taint you.  The more you live into His Light, the less darkness people see in you.  The more you let your LIGHT shine, the more people around you will be effected by it.  The more you live into the LIGHT, you can begin to kiss the darkness good by.

Branch and Poppy were able to save the Trolls and even more, show the Bergens that they could have Light in them without eating a Troll.  Light comes from the soul and its source is from God, for “God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all.”  AT ALL folks.  Live into this Light!

Blessings my friends,

Pastor Marty                   

Worship, Grow & Serve 

                     

"Covered"

As the HOPE family knows, we have been working on the Courtyard and Playground areas of the church.  We are just about finished, well, once this next workday is complete.  But things are shaping up nicely.  I believe when it is done, the entire area will be something we use and enjoy as a congregation.  

Since we are having a workday this coming Saturday, we have ordered several different materials to be delivered this week.  The first delivery came on Monday which was 5 tons of pea gravel that we will be using as ground cover.  The last loads of top soil and gravel we received were dumped at the front part of our property near the road and we had to load it in wheel barrels and truck it back to the work area on the side of the church.  Lots of loads, as you can imagine, were made.  So I asked the driver on Monday if he could back his truck over the grass area and dump the pea gravel closer to the work area, which he was glad to do.  But he made a suggestion to me that made a lot of sense.  He asked if I had a tarp I could put on the ground to cover it so that the gravel could be dumped on the tarp instead of the bare ground.  We had a tarp in the back storage shed and I went and got it and we spread it out over the ground covering the area where the pea gravel would fall.

Now of course some spilled over the border of the tarp.  The driver apologized to me for that, but I said, “No Problem!  It’s covered!  We’ll clean it up.”

I got to thinking later that day about the cover on the ground.  This cover (tarp) protected the ground from the gravel.  It kept the ground immediately underneath the covering from having to be cleaned.  And the fact that the covering was there, actually made it much easier to clean up the “spill overs” on the ground where the tarp did not cover.

We begin Lent today.  Lent is a 40 day period prior to Easter Sunday (excluding Sundays) where, as we journey again toward the cross of Christ, Calvary, we examine ourselves.  Yes, of course, we should examine and confess year around, but certainly the emphasis of Lent does give us food for thought in this journey.  So as I thought about the events of Monday with the “Covering” (our tarp), my mind flashed to the “Covering” provided by Jesus Christ and His blood.  He has covered us as believers.  Glory to God!  Psalm 32:1 and 85:2 reminds us of that covering.  Psalm 32:1:  “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered!”  Psalm 85:2: “You forgave the iniquity of Your people; You covered all their sin. Selah.”

But what about the spill over?  What happens to that?  In Matthew 8:24 we read: “And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep.”  You all know this story.  Jesus and His disciples were on the Sea of Galilee and a violent storm arose and the waves were covering the boat or in other words, spilling over from the sea into the boat and they were afraid.  Jesus was asleep and woke up to their fears and mostly screaming.  Save us Lord!!!!  Wouldn’t we be doing the same?  But this spill over, or the high waves covering the boat was no problem for Jesus to take care of.  Two words spoken, “Be still” and the waves were calm.  No more spill over!  No longer were the waves outside their borders.  Jesus had it covered, even the spill over.

He has us covered, even the spill over.  There are times we fail.  We shouldn’t, but we do.  But even in those times, He has us covered.  His blood from Calvary covers us completely and even takes care of the spill overs.  This Lenten Season, why not use these next few weeks to take a look at your life and see where you can limit those spill overs.  Yes, they are covered, but it is His desire that we sin no more.  It is His desire that we realize what is spilled over is covered, taken care of, so there is no need for Him to address that again.

We all can use some examination every now and then.  We all can see what needs to be cleaned up and then confess to Him knowing, we are “Covered!” Thanks be to God!

Blessings my friends,

Pastor Marty                   

Worship, Grow & Serve