Paul was so right! (Imagine that!)
Philippians 3:12-14 (CEV) I have not yet reached my goal, and I am not perfect. But Christ has taken hold of me. So I keep on running and struggling to take hold of the prize. My friends, I don't feel that I have already arrived. But I forget what is behind, and I struggle for what is ahead. I run toward the goal, so that I can win the prize of being called to heaven. This is the prize that God offers because of what Christ Jesus has done.
Paul, arguably the greatest example of a Christ-follower we have, said it so well in these verses. He says that although he wants to be perfect, he knows he is not. But none the less, he continues to strive to live the life God wants him to live. The wording he used is that of an athlete training…always wanting to be better and to eventually be the best. The goal for our relationship with Christ should be the same: always determined to be more like Christ and to be as close to Him as possible. This means we should do the obvious things like reading our Bibles, praying and LISTENING/DOING what He says. But in the CEV translation above, Paul says Christ has taken hold of him and he runs towards the goal to be more like Christ. I think when we do the obvious things, we are sort of walking, maybe jogging towards the goal…but when we are doing the less obvious things like refusing to gossip, sacrificing our time to serve others, being an encourager instead of a critic, thinking of others instead of ourselves, admitting when we make a mistake, correcting our mistakes, choosing joy in our situations, being patient and all the other things the scriptures teach us…then we are running towards the goal. A lot of people are walking…they read their Bibles, they pray, they even listen/do sometimes…but I believe few are running. I know personally I need to run faster…what about you?
Pastor Ray said something last night at Pastor Brian’s ordination service that hit me right between the eyes! He said, “As goes the pastor, so goes the church.” In my case, “As I run, so runs the Denton campus.” So I had to take a look at how hard I am running towards the goal of being more like Christ…and I realized I can run much harder! It’s not that I have intentionally not run hard, it’s just that sometimes as we have to jump over obstacles in the way we tend to slow down…we even get tired. But Paul says in Philippians 4:13 I can do everything through Him who gives me strength…so even when we are tired, we can still run in Christ’s strength. So, this is my recommitment to run as hard as I can after the goal of being more like Christ so that the people of High Rock community Church and the Denton campus in particular, can run as hard as they can as well. Let’s no longer choose which parts of the race we want to run, but run the entire distance with everything we have in Christ.
Let me start running here by admitting and correcting a mistake I made yesterday. In the message, I made a misspeak when I said Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Life(ToL) in the Garden of Eden, instead of saying they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil(ToKGE). I can only chalk it up to a brain cramp…yes, pastors have those , too! Just to clear it up, I know the difference and just said it wrong. But it’s important that everything I say from the pulpit is Biblically accurate so let me correct it. in Genesis 2 we read about how God created the Garden of Eden and in the middle He planted the ToL(which represents eternal life with God) and the ToKGE(which represents separation from eternal life with God). Then God put Adam in the garden to tend and keep it, but gave him specific instructions not to eat from the ToKGE. In Chapter 3, after God created Eve, we read about how satan in the form of a serpent tricked Eve into eating from the ToKGE, and then Eve convinced Adam to eat from it as well…and sin entered the world. Adam and Eve quickly learned the guilt and shame of sin and tried to hide from God…but they also learned it’s impossible to hide our sin from Him and WE are responsible for our choice to sin. The point of the message yesterday (in case you missed it because of my mistake) was that when faced with our bad choices, we cannot blame someone else…our choices are OUR choices. We must choose how we act, react and interact in every situation. Our happiness/joy/contentment cannot be based on what others do around us, but how we allow God to work in us and through us.
So why the long blog? Just to say I’m not perfect, but Christ is molding and making me into the person and pastor He wants me to be. I’m not there yet, but I’m going to run as hard as I can after Him, no matter how much the struggle. My prayer is that you will do the same!
Pastor Ron
Isaiah 40:31
Who have you told?
This week is the best chance to invite your friends to HRCC and actually have them show up. We have some great things going on this weekend that will give you a chance to do what we talked about this past weekend: Share hope.
First, we have the High Rock United service Friday night at East Rowan High School. This will be the most exciting service we have ever had! We will have a meal @ 6:00. At 7, we will be lead by a praise team made up of the worship leaders from all 3 campus, as well as other members from each team…they will rock! We will then have a time a baptism for members of all 3 campuses…when you come up out of the water in front of all those people it will sound like Carolina just won the national championship all over again! (If you would like to be baptized, please let me or one of the pastors know.) Then, we will observe the Lord’s supper together and reflect on its meaning…it will be a powerful time of remembering what Christ did for us!
Second, on Saturday we will be having the Helicopter Easter Egg Drop...Yes, I said helicopter! At 11 in Denton and 1 in Kannapolis, we will have a helicopter fly in a drop 10,000 Easter eggs on the fields of Denton Elementary and Forest Park Elementary, respectively. Each egg will have some kind of prize in it, with 25 having a special number in it to qualify that child to win prizes like a plasma TV, an X-Box and Grocery gift certificates. We will have inflatables, games and free food! We need more volunteers to help so don’t be shy, let me know. PLEASE INVITE EVERYONE YOU KNOW!
Third, and most importantly, we will celebrate Easter Sunday at 10:30am at the Denton Campus. We will be starting a new series titled “Lie to Me.” This series will look at the lies the world tells us and the ones we tell other people. Sunday we will look at the greatest lie ever told…come Sunday and find out what it is! This will be a great day to wrap up a great weekend! Easter Sunday is one of the most attended Sundays of the year and it even draws those who might not come to any other Sunday service. Don’t be afraid to invite anyone…everybody needs Jesus!
Ron
Matthew 28:5-6 The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.
Who's Packing your parachutes?
How do we feel about the people around us? The ones we work with, serve with and worship with…are they really important to us or are they somebody we just tolerate? Do we think we’re smarter than them or our role is more important than theirs? I think this story will make you stop and think…it did me:
I recently read a great story about Captain Charles Plumb, a graduate from the Naval Academy, whose plane, after 74 successful combat missions over North Vietnam, was shot down. He parachuted to safety, but was captured, tortured and spent 2,103 days in a small box-like cell. After surviving the ordeal, Captain Plumb received the Silver Star, Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit and two Purple Hearts, and returned to America and spoke to many groups about his experience and how it compared to the challenges of everyday life. Shortly after coming home, Charlie and his wife were sitting in a restaurant. A man rose from a nearby table, walked over and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!" Surprised that he was recognized, Charlie responded, "How in the world did you know that?" The man replied, "I packed your parachute." Charlie looked up with surprise. The man pumped his hand, gave a thumbs-up, and said, "I guess it worked!"
Charlie stood to shake the man's hand, and assured him, "It most certainly did work. If it had not worked, I would not be here today."
Charlie could not sleep that night, thinking about the man. He wondered if he might have seen him and not even said, "Good morning, how are you?" He thought of the many hours the sailor had spent bending over a long wooden table in the bottom of the ship, carefully folding the silks and weaving the shrouds of each chute, each time holding in his hands the fate of someone he didn't know. Plumb then began to realize that along with the physical parachute, he needed mental, emotional and spiritual parachutes. He had called on all these supports during his long and painful ordeal.
How many times a day, a week, a month, do we pass up the opportunity to thank those people around us who are "packing our parachutes?" I know I’m guilty of doing it and know what it feels like to have it done to me. Just today I was thinking of people I needed to call to say “Thank you!” to for all they do to allow me to do my ministry at HRCC. And, then tonight in a conversation I felt like someone around me forgot we were on the same team. I don’t want to miss the opportunities to show appreciation and do want to miss the ones that say I’m more important than someone else. We all need parachutes…thanks to all of you who pack mine…I plan to take care to pack yours.
Pastor Ron
