In Acts 1:8, Christ gave his disciples a commission to reach Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. 

Notice where he started?  Jerusalem…right where they lived.

Jesus Christ give us the same commission, that is to reach those where we live (Jerusalem), those in our greater community, such as our state (Judea), those who live in neighboring areas (Samaria) and those who live internationally (the ends of the earth).  Given that we are called to the same ministry of reconciliation as those first disciples, where should we start?  That’s right…our Jerusalem…right where we live.

This summer we are kicking off a new evangelism program at Harvest Fellowship.  Sure, we will continue to give to both North American Missions and International Missions, as well as State Mission Offerings; however, we are also going to focus more than ever on reaching “Our Jerusalem”.  We are going to seek to reach out to our friends, our families, our co-workers, and our neighbors, because we want them to know the joy that comes form a relationship with Jesus Christ. 

Will you join us in reaching out to “Our Jerusalem”?

We all know the story of the conversion of the Apostle Paul – how he was a rabid persecuter of those who followed the Way (Christianity), until his fateful encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus.  However, who we often forget about is the simple disciple named Ananias, whom God chose to be the instrument of Saul’s healing and the one to lay hands on Saul, sahring the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Where would we be without Ananias and his faithful obediance?  For starters, we would not have the Apostle Paul.  Sure, God could have reached Paul with another person, but he chose to reach him with Ananias.  Without Paul, we miss a huge chunk of the New Testament writings, as well as our model for effective  missions and church planting.  We have all of this because God chose to use Paul as an instrument.  But, before God used Paul, He used Ananias to reach Paul.

Most of us will never be anything like an Apostle Paul – planting churches across the globe, writing treatise on theology, or preaching to the most influential people of our day.  However, ANY one of us can be like Ananias.  If we are just faithful to share the gospel with those wohme God places before us, who knows if God will chose to use one of us to reach the next Paul?  Obedience is everything!

Please join us as we study the book of acts over the next couple of months.  We will be seeking God’s guidance as we study how Christ grew his in it’s formative years, and how he would have us follow His example!

This last Sunday, we looked at Jesus’ vision for His church, as outlined in Acts 1:1-8, as well as the strategy that he has given us to be successful witnesses for Him.  I urge you to read the rest of Acts chapter one, so that you be prepared for this Sunday’s message.  May we all be good students of the Word, so that we might be equipped for every good work (2 Tim. 3:14-17).

As we have recently finished studying the book of Romans, during our Sunday morning worship, I thought this would be the perfect time to discuss the real freedom that we have in Christ!

Jesus paid the unltimate price for our sins, so that we might have true freedom: freedom from sin, death, and ourselves.  He also wants us to have the freedom that a relationship with him brings to us.  God doesn’t want us to participate in “religion”, he wants a personal “relationship”.  This is why Paul write to us in Romans 14 about accepting those who do not worship God like we do.

A relationship with God is not about rules and regualtions, it is about experiencing Him in a real and life changing way.  The “rules” that God wants us to follow are the laws of liberty and love.  Jesus told us that the greatest commandment is to love God, and that the second greatest commandment is to love others; He told us that if we follow these two laws, then we will follow all of God’s other commands as well.  He wants us to experience true grace and love, without judgeing one another on how or when we worship.

So, don’t be quick to judge others on their worship style, the day on which they choose to worship, or how they dress for worship.  Instead embrace each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, as we all seek to share God’s word with our communities!

Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, is also our High Priest.  As we continue our look into the book of Hebrews during our home Bible studies, we find Christ’s unique qualifications for this esteemed position. 

He is the only being in history who was completely human and yet completely without sin.  This means that he experieced everything that we go through in our daily lives, but somehow remained perfect.  This is because he is truly God in the flesh.  He made himself one of us, just so that he could pay the price for everything that we have done wrong, or ever will do wrong in our lives.

For more information about how Jesus is our perfect priest, please read Hebrews chapter 7, and feel free to join in on a discussion in our Biblical Discussions page!

This last Sunday, in our worship service, we discussed the function of the local church and how God says we are to function.  We looked at Romans chapter 12 and saw how God expects us to behave as Christians, and how He has placed each of us into the body of Christ and has given each of us unique gifts that are to be used within that body.  We discovered that was ALL need each other, because none of us can accomplish everything that God wants done within His church and within our local communities by ourselves.

I hope and pray that you were encouaged by the message last Sunday, and that you eagerly seek for your gifts and talents to be used by God in new, exciting and life-changing ways!  If you are not currently a member of Harvest Fellowship and want to learn how you can plug into this exciting ministry, please contact us…we would love have you on board!

As we continue studying the book of Romans, we will see one word, in particular, keep popping up…sin.  However, we often don’t understand the biblical concept of sin, or at least we don’t act like we do.  So, before we go any deeper into Paul’s letter to the church at Rome, let’s define and discuss the topic of “sin”.

The term “sin” is actually an ancient archery term meaning “to miss the mark”; that is, “sin” is anything but a perfect bulls-eye.  So, when God talks about sin in our lives, He is talking about anything that we do, think or say that is not absolutely perfect in His sight.  That means living a perfect, sinless life means to live 100% in a godly way and to think 100% godly thoughts every minute of every day of our lives.  I don’t know about you, but that kind of perfection is way out of my league!

We often think of sins as the major discrepancies..things like murder, adultery or blasphemy.  But, God says that every evil little thought we have about the bad drivers that cut us off in traffic, every little “white lie” that we tell in order to spare someone’s feelings, and every rumor that we spread are just as ”sinful” in the eyes of God as murder, adultery and blasphemy. 

This is why we all need the grace of God in our lives.  We all need Jesus’ great gift of salvation from our sins and from ourselves.  We all need to accept Him as our personal Lord and Savior and to allow Him to do the miraculous work of cleaning up our lives!

Most of the Apostle Paul’s letters were written to either individual people or churches that Paul knew personally.  The book of Romans, however, is completely different.  Paul wrote this fantastic letter in order to introduce himself to the members of the church at Rome, and to give a confession of faith.  He used the first part of the book of Romans to discuss theology (the study of God), and the second part to teach them how to put that very theology into practice.

Romans gives us insight not only into our need for the grace and love of God and and how to obtain eternal salvation, but also how to put our faith into action, both in our personal and public lives.  Found within its pages is instruction on everything from living in hope an love, to our duties to civil authorities.  Simply put, the book of Romans is practically a “how to” guide on living a life that is obedient and glorifying to God.

Following Father’s Day, we will be spending the next several weeks digging into this wonderful book as we seek to better understand God, and just as important, how to allow the Word of God to direct our daily lives.  So, grab your Bible and start reading Romans today, and expect God to change your life as you study this unique and challenging book! 

Last week, in our Home Bible Study, we dove into the book of Philemon; we learned that if we truly love God and others, we will seek peace with others.  We also learned that we will yearn for peace between other believers, and seek to aid others in the restoration process, rather than to cause dissent and strife.

Unfortunately, our sinful nature often tries to get in the way of these proper spiritual desires.This causes us to seek after our own interests, instead of the interests of others.  No where is this trend more prominent than in our family life.  Rather than always seeking to esteem those closest to us, we often hurt the ones we love the most.

Fortunately, God has given us a blueprint for resolving such family conflict.  The Apostle Paul outlines this peacemaking plan in Ephesians 5:21-6:4.  If you are having a hard time resolving conflict in your family, I urge you to study this convicting passage of Scripture this week, and join us Sunday, June 8th in our morning worship service and we discuss conflict resolution within the family.