This weekend, we welcomed our very own Pastor Jimmy Stanton to the pulpit to remind us of the call we have been given. Mount Everest,...a mystical place that even with it's costs and dangers draws hundreds of people every year to it's Summit! The top of the world, the pinnacle, some succeed but some become part of the hill. Even so, many think Everest is worth the cost. In Luke 6, Jesus calls us to a different Summit...the Summit of Love. The real question is do we feel it's worth the price?... Jesus says, "This is Love," and calls us to take the risk.

This weekend, we welcomed Pastor Nate Boven as he shared with us during our Easter services. Easter is the cornerstone of our faith. Everything that we base our hope on is set on the foundation Jesus overcoming death. The resurrection of Jesus is the "Anchor for our Soul." But is the resurrection reasonable to believe? Or do we just have to accept it by "faith." This weekend Pastor Nate demonstrated that the supernatural, world altering event of the resurrection, based on reason and not blind faith. The "Anchor for our Soul" holds because it is based on truth and reason.

God adopts us into his family and calls us to serve in the family redemption business. One of the primary ways that we can do that is through partnering with him in prayer. He taught us to pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." He desires his rule to manifest into every corner of the planet. The main way this happens is when people give their lives to him. When a human heart becomes born again, God's kingdom expands. This weekend we explored how to pray for those who have not yet received Christ.

God calls us to participate with him in the redemption story he is unfolding in our time. One of the best ways to do this is through prayer. Often we deal with busyness or disappointment in prayer. But, God teaches us to persevere in prayer and not to give up. This week we continued to learn and grow in the power and principles of prayer.

This week we continued with part two of our series to help us grow in the practice and power of prayer. We learned the importance of praying the Scriptures as they give us a solid basis for our prayers. We can pray the prayers and the principles found in the Bible to help us touch heaven to change earth. We also explored how we can use these prayers to move forward with the addition of a new church building.

God is unfolding his plan of redemption. He calls us to walk in covenant partnership with Him personally and then representatively. One of the primary ways we can do this is through prayer. Abraham, Josiah and Elijah, show us how we can intercede for God’s heart and will to be manifested in our world. This weekend, we looked at common hindrances to prayer and how to overcome them so that we can touch heaven and change earth.

When God looks at the world He sees a lot that should be different. The fallen nature of creation and mankind has caused great hurt and pain. When God wants to change the world, he calls us to live as champions for the hurting and helpless. He takes His heart and awakens our hearts. His passions become ours, his dreams become ours. He then moves our hands. Josiah didn’t let the reformation in his heart, his worship, and his passions stop at his heart. It came out in his hands. It came out with actions that matched what God was doing in his heart. A reformed heart can’t help but have reformed hands.

God has given us His Word to help us define and realign reality. When Josiah discovered the Book of the Law, he was grieved at how far the nation of Judah had come from where they had started, how far off they were from the standards of holiness, and who they were called to be as a chosen nation. His response was to read the Word, inquire of the Lord, and respond in humility to what the truth of the Word told him. We are called to do the same. Without the Word, we are left without any corrective way to navigate the ideas of our culture and protect the truth of the gospel message. We need the Word to be the mirror to show us things that God wants to change and allow Him the freedom to cut away those things that hinder us spiritually. Finally, we need the Word to give us direction along the journey; avoiding snares and traps that may be set to distract us from being who God has called us to be individually, and as a church.

We are born to worship. We don't have to try. It's just what God made us to do. As we continue to look into the life Josiah, we see that he placed a priority on bringing the temple back to its prominent place in the nation. The temple for Judah was a place for worship. As New Testament Christians, we take the temple with us wherever we go, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We explored this theme this week as we looked at the importance of living our entire lives as worship unto our Lord.

Humans are a passionate people. Our passions provide us energy, direction and motivation. One of the keys to success in life is to be passionate about the right things. As we continue our study of the life of Josiah, we find his passions directed his life to be great for God. When God is your ultimate passion, how you measure success changes. We live with eternity in mind. This weekend we looked to yield our passions back to our maker, allowing him to prune and guide our time, talent and treasure.