Emmanuel Christian Fellowship – McGregor, TX

Jimmy asked me last night what I really took away from the conference.  I thought I would share the 5 things I took away.  I know they will not be as powerful second-hand as they were there….but they are powerful truths!!!

1.  When your plans are changed unexpectedly and often annoyingly…look for what God is doing. Sheila said she gets excited when plane flights, etc  change, because she knows God is ordering her path and SOMETHING He WANTS is in the works. What a great way to train our minds to think!   It will help us avoid stress and keep us looking for God around every corner!  What a great trade off!!!!

2.  Be present now.  Do NOT wait for a better, easier, more exciting time in your life.  LIVE NOW!!!  LOVE NOW! Set off “JOYBOMBS” every where you go and everyday!  God wants that for each and every one of us!

3.  No matter how hard things get…how dark…how broken….THE SHEPHERD ALWAYS KNOWS WHERE TO FIND YOU.   Sheila Walsh learned this in a psychiatric ward while  under suicide watch!   AMAZING!

4. Remove the veil that keeps you disconnected from your husband, your kids, your family, your friends, etc.  The veil keeps everyone at a distance.  (Some veils are thicker than others)  The key to breaking through the veil and to really being open to genuine relationship… is TRUSTING GOD!!!!  It is knowing that humans have the ability to hurt you, leave you, die, etc….but deciding to trust and lean on GOD will free us up to drop the veil and love others because our hope and trust is not rooted in a person!  IT IS ROOTED IN CHRIST! EASIER SAID THAN DONE….but WOW!!!!  I want that!!!

5.  We also got to listen to Karen James’ last phone call to her husband as he was freezing to death on a mountain and she could not rescue him!!!    UNBELIEVABLE!!  I was sobbing….and I realized that my husband is NOT stranded on a mountain in danger of freezing to death…he is RIGHT HERE!!!!!   I can love him and hold him and honor him right now!!!!!  That is a powerful concept that can change EVERYTHING!!!!!

lorna : )

The final scene in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory includes these lines:

Willy Wonka:  “How did you like the chocolate factory Charlie?”

Charlie:  “I think it’s the most wonderful place in the whole world.”

Willy Wonka: ” I’m very pleased to hear you say that, cause I’m giving it to .  It’s alright isn’t it? I can’t go on forever and I don’t really want to to try. So who can I trust to run the factory when I leave and take care of the Oompa Loompas for me? Not a grown-up. A grown-up would want to do everything his own way, not mine. That’s why I decided a long time ago I had to find a child. A very honest. loving child to whom I can tell my most precious candy making secrets.”

Charlie:”So that’s why you sent out the golden tickets.”

Wonka:  “That’s right. The factory’s yours Charlie and you can move in immediately.”

Charlie:” Well what happens to rest of the……..”

Wonka:  “The whole family; I want you to bring them all.”

The factory is ours. Do we come as children or as adults, as know-it-alls? Will we run it as we see fit or will we listen to the precious secrets of the Master Chocolatier and steward it His way. The Oompa Loompas are ours to take care of. And the whole family is invited.

Either the writer here knew exactly what he was doing, or he fell face first into truth. It really doesn’t matter does it?

PA

Recently, I found myself on the receiving end of a double-barrel sermon preached impromptu, by a sister in Christ as I sat on her sofa. I was there to deliver something and we began to talk about the subject matter of a recent sermon about why we attend church services. We talked about worship mainly, because that seems to be the most powerful draw for us. As we talked, she slipped a word in  that pierced me and has been bouncing around in me ever since. The word was expectancy.

As she spoke, she became more and more impassioned and if I would have had a hidden microphone with me, we would be hearing it the next time I am in the pulpit. I’ll try to paraphrase: “Do we have any expectation that God is going to do something on a Sunday morning? Do we show up ready to worship a God that might actually change something in our lives or is it simply a matter of dragging ourselves into the house, for whatever reason, listening to the music, and enduring the sermon? Do we grasp the truth that pure worship, in whatever form, tears down walls and breaks the chains that bind us? That it actually creates a pathway for God to come in and transform us. DO WE REALLY EXPECT GOD TO DO SOMETHING?

Wow! Trust me, it was longer, louder, and more eloquent than I can convey through written words. At one point, I wondered If Jesus was about to walk in the room, slap the beans out of me to get my attention, then throw His arms around me in pure love. Honestly, I’m not convinced He didn’t. The cool thing was this. This sermon was not angry, personal, hopeless or even directed at our body. I truly believe it was the word of the Lord for the Body of Christ at large. Are believers walking out of the door everyday fully expecting God to DO SOMETHING today, tomorrow, or real flippin soon. Better question: Are believers even walking into their own churches expecting that the God they claimed had the power to save them will show up and minister to them???

I think sometimes we’re afraid to expect, afraid to believe, because when the results differ from what we had in mind and more importantly, what others have in mind, we think we’ll look silly and fraudulent. So God becomes only as powerful to us as our brains will let Him be. We must remember that He is a God that shows up and we should expect Him to. He has a track record. They expected more wine at the wedding. DONE! She expected to touch His robe and be healed. DONE!  They expected Him to heal Lazarus. Nope, He went further and resurrected him.

Maybe we should give the Guy a little more credit and begin to expect Him to do the things we tell everyone else He’s capable of.

With much Expectation,

PA

Sunday, October 31st

We are working on a plan to have our service behind the Herings’ house on the 31st.  Outdoor church is a GOOD THING!  Just a reminder for everyone. We will post a definite notice once we have nailed everything down.

Paul

Last night in my home, there was a series of events that in and of themselves were relatively forgettable, but taken as a whole, produced a kind of death in the end.

It started with my wife, kids, and a neighbor kid playing a little game on their knees with a volleyball. They were simply hitting the ball around to one another trying to keep it in the air. They positioned themselves (2 against 2) across the room from each other and pretended there was a net in the middle. Very simple, very pure, very fun! Of course as the game went on, there began to be some complaints about where the invisible net actually was in relation to the ball that just went over or under it. This debate led to the next logical conclusion. Tie a string from a tall bedpost on one side of the room, to a wooden bar stool sitting on a toy box on the other side of the room. “Oh yeah, this makes perfect sense.”

The game was quickly transformed. It became defined and we could now quantify aspects of it. It was amazing how we were able to add some regulations and some goals to make this little game as “official” as we could. The competition grew and we had us a good old fashioned show down. But one or two games would never be enough. The phrase “2 out of 3″  eased it’s way into the mix. Of course it did. That’s what you say immediately after you get beat at something.

Now let me ask you a question. How many of you have kept tucked in the back of your mind, that a bar stool with a string on it is still perched upon a toy box in the direct line of fire of four grown people who now believe that they are in the knee-volleyball Olympics? The answer is all of you, with the addition of, “these people are idiots!”  My wife said it was like it fell in slow motion. She said she could just almost reach it as it plunged into the skull of……….. Yes, the neighbor kid. You know, the head bleeds a lot.  Not to worry. He’s all stapled up and good to go. I even expect his mom will let him come over again someday.

The thought is this:  It all began with something simple and pure. Life was very good and joy was everywhere.  Then we added rules and boundaries. Then competition drove us toward tournament thinking where we could REALLY see who the best would be. And in the end, all we ended up with was blood on the floor.

Sounds like what we have a tendency to do with church. The believing life at it’s core is very simple and pure. It produces much joy and life. Maybe it’s too simple because as we begin the over think things, the addition of rules and regs are right around the corner. But even after we get our rules in place, we need some forum in which to display our “correctness” in thinking and our vision for the world. Activities and programs can quickly become the tournament where we will shine. And for all our efforts to push and strive and prove our dominance in spirituality, works, and righteousness, we usually just end up with blood on the floor. The beauty and joy of a pure and holy thing has evolved into something that ends in carnage.

So keep your knees on the floor, your eyes on the unseen, and don’t anchor your rope to anything unstable.

P.A.

For those that missed it, here are direct links to the series of sermons that Mike mentioned in his 9/19/2010 sermon:

A New Covenant – The Truth About Freedom Part 1

A New Covenant – The Truth About Freedom Part 2

A New Covenant – The Truth About Freedom Part 3

A New Covenant – The Truth About Freedom Part 4

I listen to every message preached at ECF.  Most of them I hear two or three times.  On Sunday, August 8th, 2010, Jimmy Hering preached what may have been the most powerful sermon I’ve heard since my tenure at Emmanuel Christian Fellowship.  Not only is it timely, but the prophetic “calling us out” is RIGHT ON!

For too long have we made decisions about our commitments and declarations contingent upon our emotions, feelings, fears and our wounds.  If ever there was a message for us to dial-into…it is that one!

Let me encourage and implore you to listen to that message via podcast!  There is a link right here on this website.  I promise you will not be sorry!

Lord I pray that you stir us in the depths that only you can reach!

Much Love, Much Hope!

-Mike-

ECF,

We will be coming back together this Sunday after several weeks away to worship, fellowship, pray, and receive teaching from another honored guest.

Dave Johnson will be joining us for two meetings–10:30am and 5:00pm–and will surely bring his gifts along for our benefit.  Please be in prayer about all that God will do on Sunday and also how you might bless Dave financially. He serves many people in his home church and is making a very special effort to be with us.

I am excited about our next season together. Sunday will be a great day to kick it off.

Paul

Patti and I just returned from Romania.  The land and people are beautiful, but one of the small “loves” we have there is that traditionally the breakfast served includes fresh grown tomatoes.  There is usually also fresh cucumbers, peppers, onions included, but something from a garden somewhere is always present.  Would you hand me the salt and pepper please?

I woke up this morning thinking that a garden doesn’t actually need the fruit it produces.  It just does its thing.  We plant and it produces.  Fairly simple concept.  It doesn’t get caught up in how we arrange the seed, till the soil or make demands about fertilizer or water amounts.  It just does what it does contingent upon the watch-care of the gardener.  In other words, THE GARDENER (that would be me and you) need the fruit and produce…not the garden itself.

Webster defines garden as:  (a piece of ground, often near a house, used for growing flowers, fruits, or vegetables). In the context of our spiritual lives, the church can be our garden.  I’ve said it a thousand times, “the people need to give more than the church needs money”. The people need to sow, the people need to tend to the weeds, the people need to water what it has planted.  Too often we are hungry for God’s power, God’s provision, God’s protection, God’s blessing yet we are not willing to make “sowing” investments that put us in the arena of receiving a blessing.  Of course, the garden requires nothing of you.  It places no demands whatsoever.  But you, on the other-hand, need to sow.  Why?  Because it is directly related to what you reap!!!

ECF, July is the month where the Elders encourage you to go deeper into rest, deeper into your relationships, deeper into the heart of the Kingdom.  It’s not a vacation from responsibility and stewardship of God’s garden.  If fact, it is the opposite.  It should be the time to sow more, plant more, steward more.  Maturity is sober about these kinds of things! Keep sowing!  Be intentional with your giving.  Make sure you plant what the Spirit directs you to plant.  Be intentional about actually getting your seed into the hands of the Elders.  That is what mature stewardship looks like.

Let me implore you to improve the garden in July.  Take it to another level.  Position yourselves and prophesy to the empty baskets!  Claim the increase that lie hidden in the depths of God’s soil.  Faithful diligence pays off!  Patti and I are praying in agreement for your rich harvest!

-Mike-

This Sunday, June 27th, will be our last Sunday together (in the building) until our celebration on Sunday, August 1st. July is intended to be a time of rest, vacation, church in the home, various kinds of fellowship, etc., etc., etc. I think we get the picture.

I would encourage everyone to be praying about August 1st and the arrival of our guest, Dave Johnson. He is a dear friend of Mike Paschall, but please don’t let that taint your image of the man. Seriously, Mike and Dave have been in covenant for many years and Mike considers him as solid a Bible teacher as anyone anywhere. I think we are going to be very blessed to have him in our midst.

Please be praying for Dave and consider what God might have you to do financially while he is with us. Below is a very short bio written by his wife Bonnie.  Sounds like these are our kind of people. Meaning, they ain’t all right, but they sure are good!

David Johnson has been the senior pastor at Church of the Open Door in the Minneapolis, MN area since 1980 – and they still like him (well, most of them)!

He & his wife Bonnie have 4 adult children and 6 grandchildren – they still like him too. What else do you need to know?  He’s a great guy!

Paul