The God of People

Have you noticed how hard we work for relationships. Sometimes that work does not work because we aren't working right. We are working hard but not working smart, our priorities are out of whack. I often see relationships change because one party is looking at the other and hoping for them to earn their love, trust and acceptance. We serve the God of people in an effort to find acceptance, security, love, identity, and purpose. What if we started with serving God, and then allowing our other relationships to be fueled and directed by the Holy spirit. But, no we love to do it our way, the human way and put God on the back burner. We put His word, His instructions for life, His how to manual to the side. It is time for all of us to allow God to be not only our savior but also our Lord. Jer 17:5 says "Thus says the Lord, "Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind. And makes his flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the Lord." Turn your heart to the Lord and learn to die to our self so we can really live. Blessings and prayers as we head to the season of Celebration - Easter.

God of a Second Chance

I need a second chance at some things, how about you? I have heard this referred to as a redo; but the thing with life is that when we commit certain acts, the consequences are already in place. We need a second chance to get what we missed the first time and to get a fresh start moving forward, even beyond the consequences or maybe in spite of them. I do believe that God is in the business of second chances even, third, fourth,etc. He is a God of great grace; something we could all grow in personally.

On Sunday, we are going to examine the process of a restart and conclude our Life in 3D series; and yes put an end to the cheesy 3D videos(have to be at the service to see them- for those of you who have been you know what I am talking about - for everybody else - just take my word on it).

Pastor Rich

Amazing People

I want to take a moment to say that we have some amazing people in this church family. I wish to brag on my team, the staff, and its many volunteers. Why? Because they get it- Ministry. We do these tasks, prepare our strategies, take on things all for the right reasons. To bless people and empower them to become fully devoted followers of Christ.

Recently on a weekend we held a Friday night prayer event, hosted a Saturday ladies breakfast, ministered at the Micah Respite house in Fredburg, held both Sunday services, held a membership class simultaneously to services, met with one of our First Impressions team, and then on Monday had a team at Head Start serving another meal to those folks.

Wow! Many moving parts all bringing God glory in the service to His Kingdom. I love it. I really love people taking initiative to get things done. This four day time is outside of our regular team that goes to the Prison, or the team that goes to the Homeless shelter. Every Tuesday we have life group meetings at the facility. Things are happening and we have an amazing group of volunteers and staff. How about that Chili dinner, how about our kids and youth staff's. See what I mean...Amazing people doing good work.

Thanks to all of you that make Horizons a going, growing church. You rock.

Blessings

Pastor J

Supernatural Generosity

I'm still blown away by the supernatural generosity that our church shared in the past Sunday. Over $4000 was given through the spontaneous offering we collected for two special families in our church.

During Sync, we have looked at the special relationship we share with God and with other Christ followers. Koinonia is the biblical word that represents that unique relationship. On Sunday, we will conclude with Admonish One Another.

We normally view the concept of admonishing someone from the negative. In other words, correcting and warning or confronting. But there is also a positive aspect of admonoishing someone through encouragement and coaching. See you Sunday.

Pastor Rich

The Wonder of Prayer

Let me just get this out first - sign up for the worship and prayer night on February 25 from 6-10P - here is the link - http://www.horizonschurch.com/event-3

This night is designed to give you an opportunity to cultivate your spiritual growth. We will have open times of prayer and worship and special workshops designed to help you grow in your understanding of prayer. We even have a special workshop designed for kids and parents to attend so that families can talk learn about prayer together.

I love this amazing link we have with our Heavenly Father. During sync we are talking about our wireless connection with God and others; and prayer is a great vehicle for us to connect to God. I still remember encountering God through prayer at the young age of 6 - my mom tells me I used to pray consistently as a young boy and remember God's presence being strong in my life from a very early age. As a pastor at Horizons, I long for all people to connect to God in the same way.

See you Sunday as we look at how God calls us to Share with One Another. Something very special is going to take place on Sunday; don't miss this awesome service.

Pastor Rich

Acceptance

When I was 12 years old, there was a lot of transition and turmoil in my life. My dad had just resigned from a church in Radford, VA and was completing a secular job; so my mom moved us(me and my brother and sister and grandmother) to Lakeland, FL. We were waiting for dad to come join us, and we were pretty poor. We lived in one of those long term motels on the outskirts of town(much like you see along the older parts of Route 1). We stayed there for a few months before moving back to Virginia when dad started pastoring a church in Woodbridge.

During the time that we were there, I was struggling with being accepted. The school I attended had kids who had the nicer clothes and lived in town and they knew I was an outsider. It was a tough time. Where we lived there was this ragged dog that we befriended and accepted into our home - he was tattered and looked like he had been abused and was not well taken care of. Each day, we would feed this dog and try to get him back into shape. I came to love this little creature that most people would have been disgusted with. In alot of ways I identified with this dog who had been rejected by others and it was with a sad heart the one day he stopped coming around and shortly after we moved away. It is not often that I think about that dog; but as I am preparing for Sunday he entered my memory. How many of us have rejected others much like that dog had been. How many of us maybe feel like that little dog - tattered and abused by others, rejected by men.

On Sunday, we are going to examine acceptance from a Biblical perspective. We will talk about how God loves and welcomes and calls us to love and welcome the beautiful and the rejected, even ourselves.


See you Sunday.

Pastor Rich

What is this thing called Love?

That was a great delirious song. I guess it still is. No, I;m sure it still is. Ok enough Rich - move on.(what does it mean when you talk to yourself in a blog?)(also, you may want to look into a rhapsody subscription if you don't have one - it's a great way to listen to songs without the itunes requirement of a purchase)

A lot has been said about love; we actually preach about it quite a bit as well. A reason for that is that love is the foundation of all that we do and of our relationship with our Heavenly Father. It is the great commandment and the greatest of the graces. The truth is we will have a life long quest to understand and pursue this grace.

Sunday, we begin a new series called Sync and we will start by examining the biblical relationships we have with each other. The bible uses the word koinonia to describe these relationships; so come and discover what these loving relationships are about.

See you Sunday.

Pastor Rich