Emmanuel

“And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.” The announcement in John gives even more significance to the Word of God. We enter the Christmas season acknowledging the arrival of God’s Son. Emmanuel God with us! Immediately following Christmas is the welcoming of the new year. We choose to enter the new year with the same acknowledgment of God with us.

This year HPFC will again feast on the presence and the Word of God as we begin the new year. Friday January 1st we will gather at 7pm and begin our Word Feast acknowledging the presence of God in our lives through an extended time of praise and worship. Be prepared to also speak out the Word the Lord has been revealing to you.

Saturday morning we will congregate again around the Word of God. During lunch we will fellowship during the prep and enjoyment of the meal. Filling the afternoon with continued testimony around God’s Word. Saturday evening we will have Jon and Helen Jenkins join us as Jon opens the Word and we enter into a new phase of Word Feast. This year we want to recognize the anointing that is within us and the releasing of this anointing to the task God has called us. Jon and Helen will join us Sunday night and Monday night as well. Sunday morning I will also focus our attention on the presence of God in our daily lives and His desire to manifest His presence through us. What an exciting time ahead, celebrating the arrival of Emmanuel and His continued presence among us!

Thanksgiving

November! Here we are entering the holiday season, which starts with Thanksgiving. What a great place to start, giving thanks for the incredible season of harvest the Lord has allowed us to share. We have seen God do incredible things and yet we understand and know He is not finished. And we also have the assurance that He who has begun this good work is faithful to complete it.

Take occasion this month to inventory the answers to prayer you have experienced this year and give thanks. Practice every day giving thanks with a grateful heart, rejoicing always, unleashing the attitude of gratitude that simply brightens everyone’s day while simply irritating the devil to no end! I will give thanks to the Lord at all times and His praise shall continually be in my mouth. I love God, I thank God and when I say Jesus it is a good thing! Happy Thanksgiving HPFC

Change

Steptember! There are many changes taking place here at HPFC. Steptember references that September will see the landing of many of those steps or at least some of the clarifying of our steps. Proverbs 3 exhorts, “5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” We admire this in Abram when he steps out in obedience to God’s invitation to go to a land I will show you. It can create a different challenge when we receive our own invitation.

I would encourage us to trust in the Lord. This is not a one-time invitation it is daily acknowledging that He is and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him, or if you will, those who lean not own their own understanding. As a leader we receive opportunities to walk people through these exercises. If asked why and the only answer is God, are we lying? Are we holding out? We can look at strengths and weaknesses and constantly make changes as “better” qualified people are made available. Family circumstances can bring about changes. But the only time changes are beneficial and healthy are when God.

If this is true we better walk in a relationship with God that gives us a confidence that He can direct our steps as we direct others. In the world they say that is why you get paid the big bucks. Well I don’t know about that but I will say it is a responsibility that comes with the privilege of being a pastor as opposed to simply a preacher.

Change Stars

For whatever reason, the line from Knight’s Tale has popped in my thoughts, “Can a man change his stars.” This asked by a boy some seven years old, to his dad a thatcher. The dad says yes as he hands his son off to a Knight. Without continuing the story line let me simply bring out an observation. The dad was willing to give up custody of his son for his son’s future to be changed. What are we willing to give up for our future to look different than our past or the past of those that have shaped and molded us. True there are parts of our heritage and training that require no change, but I dare say we each have components of our lives that if changed our future would be as different as a thatcher and a knight.

Do not get caught up in the “class” mentality nor the “us and them” syndrome. Simply allow yourself to ask how far, what depths would I go to “change my stars.” From a fisherman to a fisher of men or from Pharisee to apostle to the Gentiles! What might be the result of putting my life in the custody of God and fully learning His ways?

Camp Courtney

Camp Courtney

The summer camping season is almost upon us. Many have been raising monies, setting schedules and “pulling teeth” to tend to all the details.  I write to say thanks to not only those that have seen to the above but leant their support financially and physically.  The closing of fundraisers, collection of registrations and the writing of checks does not complete the task required for an exceptional camp experience.  Continued effectual fervent prayer is required for the experiencing of Spirit-filled, Word empowered, life changing, gift manifested camps.

 

Let us not grow weary in petitioning God for the time ahead at Camp Courtney.  HPFC is sending students and leaders as will many other Foursquare churches.  The following weeks the camp will be filled with participants from various church families.  Through prayer individuals, families, cities and nations can be forever changed to the glory of God. Pray with expectation believing that God is and that He is truly a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him!  Jesus display the power that has set Your name above every name!

Do Be a Do Bee

Okay, maybe you've never heard the saying!  However it runs rampant through Scripture that God is interested in us not only coming to Him and hearing Him, He wants us to do what He says.  Thus, do be a do bee. In Luke 6 He says it this way.  47 "Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: 48 "He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.

 

In James 1:22 we are exhorted, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”  In Rev. 3:20 Jesus speaks, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.  I do not share this to announce workdays or to say straighten up folks and get busy.  I simply want us to be cognitive of God’s charge for us to be faithful to His instructions, to put action to our faith.  We are seeing God do incredible works in our lives and families and many times there have been defining actions that immediately preceded the wow moment only God could do.  Again, do be a do bee and don’t be a don’t bee!

Cheerful Giving

Cheerful Giving! No I am not asking everyone to open up the wallet and give it up. I am asking us to open up our hearts and give it up. Yes I recognize there are many different entities that would desire to monopolize our lives and many times stress comes when we feel it impossible to complete the task tugging at our schedule. Well, what is the answer? Cloning! I do not think so. What are the roles God has called me to? What are the priorities He would assign to my life?
When we discover these roles and goals we may then give ourselves to the plan of God, cheerfully, not grudgingly or of necessity. And God is able to make all grace abound toward us, that we, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have abundance for every good work. These are from 2 Corinthians 9:7-8. Verse 6 says, “He who sows sparingly, will reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7so let each give as he purposes in his heart.” Our heart must be pure in purpose and pure in acting upon said purpose. Then we will see our “gifts” multiplied to completing every good work.

Culture

Culture! My major in college being sociology, I have been “trained” to study culture. It stands to reason one’s surroundings influences their being but how does a group go about creating a new culture. Perhaps you have heard insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Most have never seen a culture shift because they have never united with a group and determined to be “influenced” by different forces.

The church has been a force in many people’s lives, but at times has fallen short in creating an atmosphere where God’s ways truly are reflected by His followers. Can a church change its culture? And if so, how? One suggestion I heard from Pastor Wayne Cordeiro in Hawaii was find someone ahead of you in the direction you want to go and pace yourself watching and learning his ways. One facet of life I learned that has changed the culture of our home and now our church is journaling. Pastor Wayne and the New Hope family have taught so many this practical and spiritual discipline of life!

Another individual who greatly influences my life is Pastor Jerry Dirmann. In July of 2008 God revealed Jerry was more than a friend and a co-laborer he is an Apostle in my life and the life of HPFC. The Rock in Anaheim has created a culture of believers walking in God’s ways by building solid lives using OSL discipleship training. We at HPFC are partners now in providing OSL to our church family.

On Tuesday mornings at 6:00 am Jeff Davis and myself have united with men from Christian City Church of Greensboro praying for our region. A culture has been created that has said enough is enough of the spirit of racism, religion, poverty and sexual immorality over our cities in the Piedmont Triad of North Carolina. Approximately 70 men are presently choosing to forgo another hour of sleep or getting an early start in the office and instead are diligently seeking the heart of God for His deep things for our culture.

Yes our culture shapes us until we chose to shape our culture! I declare we are changing the culture of HPFC because we were created not to have church but to be the church that walks in God’s ways bringing an awareness of Him to those caught in the “insanity” of life.

Wineskins

New wineskins for new wine! Make sure to pick up your new wineskins for the upcoming year that you may properly handle the new wine guaranteed to be distributed. The buzz has been communicated nationally as well as locally. I know you say you have heard this before. Well we should have, God’s mercies are new every morning. That being said we at times forget to equip ourselves to be pliable for the new days outpouring.

Our journaling helps renew our “mind” which is a common place for new wine to be stored. However if our mind continues to stay on the things we have always focused on we will crack under the pressure of the new wine. We also create a fresh mind when we allow our conversations to be filled with God’s truth. This can be challenging because most of us have so many other things we “need” to catch folks up on or do we? The Scriptures give great examples of little time spent discussing the problem, more time discussing the solution, a little more on the recommended action and a whole lot of time discussing the Kingdom which we are to function and the contrast between the ways of the world’s culture and the ways of God’s culture.
New wine available daily in reality you must provide your own wineskin!