Turning the hearts of the Fathers to the Children

Greetings on this Thursday April 19, 2012.  I am continually amazed at the goodness of God.  This week Mountain view Food Bank once again hosted a "ginormous" food give away to the community.  Numerous miracles happened during the event.  One of the coolest miracles happened as a father and biological father were reunited.  Let me explain. One of our volunteers came running up to me during the event and said, "Pastor we need to talk".  I said, whats going on.  Well this lady said, I have been estranged from my biological father for years and I just saw him in the food line, right in front of me. What happened I replied.  She continued to say that she had not seen or heard from this man for years and the bitterness and unforgiveness was eating at her and last Sunday during church service she was able to release the past to the Lord.  Two days later she would come face to face to try out this new freedom.  It worked, she explained with great joy.  She was able to introduce her family to him as he spent several minutes talking with his daughter.  As she was telling me this story, my heart melted and great tears of joy came flooding into my eyes.  God is the God of Restoration. What we experienced is a fulfillment of the word of God, Malachi 4:6 And he (God) will turn The hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers,Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.” Have you been estranged from your earthly father?  What about your heavenly father?  Today is a great day to release the hurt and allow healing.

Zeal without Knowlege

Good afternoon on this March 22, 2012.

I was thinking this morning in my prayer and devotion time how much I love to pray and read the word of God.  As I mentioned in last week’s blast that I have had to make a concerted effort to get to this point.   The 3 “D’s”, desire, discipline & delight are words I use often.  Today I want to focus on another “D” word.  The word is Discipleship which means in the raw form disciplined or learned one.  As a young Christian I had a zeal for the Lord but my knowledge lagged behind.  My zeal for the Lord often got me in trouble; I would be over anxious to share my faith and drive people away rather than draw them closer.  My first evangelism explosion class was a failure in most eyes.  Let me explain.  Evangelism Explosion is a class taught in the 1980s-1990’s that taught the student the fine art of leading a person to the decision of accepting Christ as Savior.  My terminology is a bit different.  I had just accepted Jesus; my excitement was such that I wanted everyone to know the same freedom, acceptance and forgiveness that I had received.  On a balmy summer evening after the farm chores were completed the only thing to do was to go to the local pub (bar) for some entertainment.  Well on this Friday night I decided to let all my former colleagues know this new found faith.  I walked into the establishment, assessed who was there and then formed a plan to tell them all at the same time.  I jumped on to a table in the middle of the room and “evangelism explosion” was about to hit.  I stopped the band from playing the latest version of “Your Cheating Heart” and with all the vocal strength I could muster I said, if you don’t repent tonight you all are going to go to Hell.  Well the explosion hit alright.  The next 120 seconds were the most explosive I had ever seen or experienced.  I was grabbed, dragged and spat on as I found my way to the sidewalk outside of the establishment.  As I sat there with hands cupped over my eyes wondering what had just happened, I felt a tap on my shoulder.  I looked up to find a young man starring down at me with tears in his eyes as he said, Sir tell me more about this Jesus.  I spent what seemed like hours telling him all I knew, when in reality it was only minutes because my zeal outweighed my knowledge 10 to 1.  I never entered the establishment again but it did begin a life of leading people to a saving knowledge of Jesus.  Over the years my knowledge grew, my compassion increased, and desire for the word of God Grew as I entered to a realignment stage.  The realignment came as I began a systematic study of the word of God.  Let me jump ahead several years.  I just graduated from Bible College and on staff at a church as the Youth Pastor.  My zeal has never wavered, so as a youth pastor I had hundreds of young people accept Jesus.  In the process of “getting them saved” I was contacted by a professor at Dallas Theological Seminary.  We were living in Dallas, Texas at the time.  He said he had been watching me from afar and had witnessed the number of kids we were winning to the Lord.  He said he was starting a new discipleship class at the seminary and I was on his radar to solicit.   I ask him about his program and who he was on a personal basis.  He was a kind man a man of eloquent speech and mannerisms.  He told me that he was Billy Graham’s International director of Evangelism and discipleship and was asked by Dr. Howard Hendricks the then president of Dallas Theological Seminary to teach a class on discipleship.  After I picked myself up off the ground, not really, I said I would pray about it.  That was the fastest and shortest prayer I had ever prayed.  I said Yes, I would love to attend.  I spent the next 2.5 years 3 times a week meeting with Dave Dawson and the class he had handpicked to pour his life into.  At the end of the class we had gone through the bible, memorized hundreds of scriptures and had a great understanding of the Word of God.  My zeal and my Knowledge had just come into alignment.  I have taught this same class to hundreds of people over the years and now here at Mountain View Christian Center.  I am teaching a portion of the class on Wednesday Nights.  I would invite you to come be a part of the first 16 weeks.  I have a great love to disciple people.  To teach the word of God, to have the assurance of Salvation, Answered Prayer, Victory, Forgiveness of Sins and other assurance topics.  Come be a part of what God is doing.

This week I am preaching on the final chapters of the Book of Exodus 31-40.   Go ahead and read these chapters in preparation for Sunday.  You won’t want to miss this weekend.  It may be the best sermon I have ever preached.  While you are coming be sure to invite a friend to come along with you. 

·       March 25th-All MVCC church potluck after 11 a.m. service.  Everyone is invited!   Don’t forget to bring your appointed dish  to the Pot-Luck.

·      March 26th-30th-WOO HOO!! Spring Break for public Schools!

·      March 31st @ 6:00 p.m.  Carman is in the House.  Tickets on Sale Today….$10.00   each. (No child care will be provided) Every person is subject to be charged admission.

·     April 7-8 Weekend of Hope.  Community Breakfast April 7th 7:00 am– 10:00 a.m.

                April 8th Community Easter Service at the King Fine Arts Center 10:00-11:30 a.m.

·  April 10th  Call in for Idaho Food Bank Box

· April 12th Mvcc Board Meeting

· April 15th  Sunday Ladies Pie Auction Fund Raiser

· April 17th  Food Box Give Away

· April 21st Men’s Breakfast 7:00 a.m.

· April 22 Pizza with the Pastor

· April 23-25th  District Council in Nampa

· Fish coming Soon…..

·      LOVE & RESPECT classes have started.  Every Friday for 13 weeks @ 7p.m. FREE Dinner is served @ 6p.m. (donations are appreciated).  Sign up at the information center today.

·      Wednesday morning Men's Prayer @7 a.m.  “Could you not Tarry  One hour.”  

·      Sponsor MVCC Bookstore online!  Check out the website or the information center and order your merchandise today!

·   The Book of the Month Club is starting soon… The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson

·   Do you know of  anyone who is  hearing impaired  who would come to church service if they know we offered signing of the preaching?   Yes it is official.  We have a team who signs during the first service.

·      Order your FOOD PANTRY fundraiser pies at the Information Center today.  Please pre-pay $8 each.  Chocolate, Strawberry, Coconut Cream, and Lemon Meringue.

Raking leaves in a wind storm

Good afternoon on this February 23, 2012.   I was thinking this morning about the wind storm that blew through the valley yesterday.  The news reported gusts of up to 52 miles per hour.  I saw the results of the wind as trash was scattered everywhere, trees and debris was strewn over the landscape.  My thought was this as I looked out my back door to find all the neighbors leaves from this last fall in my yard against the house and of course had found their way into our garage.  Did my neighbor purposely decide to rake the leaves into the wind yesterday or was it an act of nature that just happened.  In either case I am left with a mess to clean up.  My thoughts were this.  If we as Christians would take responsibility for our own mess, issues and problems, God would give us the grace to walk through them.  How many of us have currently or in the past just left our mess and prayed for the wind to come up in hopes that our issues would be blown away “in a Miraculous Way”.   In a book that I recently read entitled QBQ, the question behind the question by John Miller, Mr. Miller addresses the issue of personal responsibility how we address it, deal with it or ignore it.  He tells of a story of the gas station attendant who ignored the customer who wanted coffee telling him, the coffee was not his department.  How have we as a society come to this?  It’s not my fault, it’s someone else’s.  At this point could I go to my neighbor and say, hey your leaves blew into my yard so I demand you to come clean up your mess? Do I hope another wind storm comes up and blows the leaves into another neighbor’s yard?  What do I Do?  The real question is, why did my neighbor allow this to happen?  To cut to the chase we all must take responsibility for our actions and not pile our junk on others…. Can I get an amen…. Or ouch…

Some really cool things have happened since last week.  I had contacted a National trucking company in hopes they would donate a refrigerated freezer trailer to our food bank.  The first contact was back in May of 2011.  The director of transportation said that was a possibility however it may take a while so call back.  Well in 2 weeks I called back to hear the same speech.  In 2 weeks I called back to hear the same thing.  I called every 2 weeks since May of last year.  Well the good news is late last week a 53’ refrigerator/ freezer trailer was delivered to Mountain View Christian Center.  It is in amazing shape with great bones, tires and components.  The director of operations and transportation said this, “You got this gift because you were so persistent”.   In addition to this there is a family business in the church that has taken it on themselves to have all the lettering and signage put on the truck.  Wow what blessing.  My theory is we don’t have money problems we have vision problems, because money will follow well managed vision.  One other really cool thing we are working on is a master Platt plan of our grounds, we own 10+- acres.  In a recent board meeting the issue was discussed and passed unanimously and though it was a grand idea. As I told the board I wanted to blend the vision past with the vision present to the vision future. I had a long conversation with Pastor Doyle Fulkes who was the pastor here at MVCC for 21 years and who led the charge to relocate the church to the present site. He had great ideas that we will be able to start the process.  We have employed the number one master planning church architect in the region.  Mark Hillis is a man who I have worked with in my previous life that is gathering data and ready to start the process.  I will keep you posted as to the progress.   

Here is what’s happening at MVCC.

Hope to see you this weekend at service.  Be sure to invite someone to church with you this weekend.

  Be sure to visit our web site… WWW.MvccChurch.org.

We Love you all,

Pastors Jim & Joy Powell

· Feb.27th-ALL church annual “Church business meeting.”

·      Feb.29th-New Wednesday evening classes are set to begin. *Financial          Peace* Ladies discipleship *Study God’s Word!          

·      Feb. 29th-Financial Peace University with Dave Ramsey hosted by Steve Lubinski.  Information is available at the information center.  It’s not too late to sign up.

·      March 1st-The Rock & Worship Road Show in Boise.  MVCC  Youth groupwill meet here @ 3:30 & leave promptly.  See Pastor Dan today if you plan to attend.   

·      March 2nd-LOVE & RESPECT classes are set to begin again for those who      missed it last time around.  Every Friday for 13 weeks @ 7p.m. FREE Dinner is served @ 6p.m. (donations are greatly appreciated).  Sign up at the information center today.

·      March 3rd-Courageous Men’s bible study 8a.m.-9a.m. Taught by Pastor Jim Powell.  Please sign up at the information center.  Books are $7 each.

·      Fundraiser-Youth KFC fundraiser!  See Pastor Dan or any youth attendee to get your ticket $10 each!

·      February-is Ladies month to share a testimony of how God is alive in your life, LIVESTREAM with Penne Main.  Sign up at the information center.

·              Sponsor MVCC Bookstore online