if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14
Did you know that God put two new sentences in the Bible? It must be true. I've read it many, many times before and never noticed these things before. These insights are not big enough to constitute a meal, but perhaps can serve as vitamins:
Psalm 50:2b -- "perfect in beauty, God shines forth."A search for beauty, true and lasting beauty will lead you back to God. He is the perfection of everything beautiful. Why do you experience beauty in a clear Spring day? Because God himself is perfect in beauty.
Psalm 50:23 -- The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies meGlorifying God is not a mystery. One of the ways God likes to be glorified is by our thanksgiving. Thankfulness reminds us who is the source of everything good. The fountain of goodness receives the glory when you take a drink and are thankful.
Del would like to invite you to his "late birthday party". This isn't a party for gifts, it's a party to spend time celebrating with our good friend Del.
Come when you can between 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., on Saturday April 28th. The party will be held at the Florea house, 16365 SE Sterling Circle, Milwaukie, OR 97267. Please call 503-653-0294 with questions.
Click here to see pictures from last Wednesday's tug-o-war extravaganza for both the high school and middle school groups. High school vs. middle school, guys vs. girls, leaders vs. students, one on one, we did it all! By the way, you might ask Scott Haugen why there is a hole about the size of his shoulder in the wall across from the Manna Cupboard.
When an element is radioactive, we talk about its half-life. Wednesday was a half-life of a different kind.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007, marked the day Marcia has been a Reavely more than half her life. She has been a Reavely longer than she was an Amunrud. She has been married to me longer than she was not married to me.
Why I figured that out in the first place -- who knows. But this date has several implications for me. Some of them good and others, not-so-good.
Thank you to all who joined us for our Middle School Auction fund raiser for the students our youth support in India. We were hoping to make $450 to double last year’s auction, and instead the evening left us with over $800! We are so thankful to everyone who donated their valuable time, money, and items to be auctioned. Some of the biggest wins of the evening included a beautiful garden bench donated by Dave Froode, a full house cleaning by Patty Alcutt, an hour harp lesson by Andie Haugen, and one hundred Peeps. As you can see, there were also several colorful wins throughout the evening!
This sentence by James Emery White on his Serious Times blog, is one of the most insightful I have ever read:
So the looming crisis in America may not be an increasingly secular culture that wars against the church, as much as the increasingly secular nature of the church itself that has little to offer a seeking world that it does not already have.
Thursday night was the Women's Missionary Fellowship evening event, a wedding shower for brides in Moldova and Ukraine. Four wedding gowns were purchased at thrift stores and four women from the church donated their own wedding gowns. Money was collected to pay the cost of purchasing and dry cleaning four gowns, and shipping all eight gowns to Ukraine where they will be distributed between the two countries. Special guest was Irene Sologubenco who is visiting from Moldova. In addition to working in women's and children's ministries, Irene works along side her husband, Eugene, who is president of Moldova Bible Seminary and co- pastors Chisinau Bible Church. The ladies at the shower had fun creating a tissue paper wedding gown for Irene. A highlight of the evening was when our beloved missionary, Cheri Strahm, telephoned from Kiev, Ukraine to thank the women of New Life Church for making her vision of sending wedding gowns to Eastern Europe a reality.
Last Tuesday about 50 people from New Life Church joined together for a dinner to hear about a new ministry at New Life Church called Father's Heart. We enjoyed a great meal, but also had a chance to hear about how we can help orphans in their time of need.
Olga and Roman Koran shared about their experience of being
adopted into a Christian home from an orphanage overseas. They spoke of the benefits of being in their family and of being in the
family of God. The spoke of the love they felt from God and their parents because of being adopted.
Kerri Tefft spoke about the experience that her family had while serving as respite care providers for foster parents. She shared that this was a ministry almost any family can do. She and her husband both work full time, yet they had the ability to give of their time on weekends to bless foster parents who just need a break sometimes.
Sara Pylate told about the "great adventure" of foster parenting. She shared how the journey of foster parenting had stretched her and blessed her. She shared that the journey is sometimes difficult, but that it also holds many joys.
Nancy Agnor recounted her experience of being a CASA (Court Appointed Special Assistant). She shared about the opportunity that Christians have to be an advocate for some of the most vulnerable people in our world, foster children. She told of the special strength God had given her to endure hearing terrible stories and
keep pressing on.
As a recent adoptive parent, Kerri Corbett shared her desire to start a support group for foster and adoptive parents in our church. She told of how adoption can be a very lonely journey. We need the support of the body of Christ to help us succeed.
Mark Hanson was the Emcee who graciously guided us through the whole evening.
Molly Hanson closed off the evening telling her story of caring for orphans and the impact that it has had on her personally and her whole family. She also shared some vision for the future of our church in this important ministry. If you want to find out how you can get involved, or if you just have questions about the ministry, contact Mark and Molly at markmolly@comcast.net.
We had a marvelous celebration of Christ's resurrection last week. A journey with Jesus begins many times from a D-tour -- Disappointment, Devastation and Despair. The resurrection offers hope enough to bring us through all the detours of life.
Jesus rooted the reality of his resurrection in what the Scriptures said about him. You can read some of those Scriptures here.
"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20 which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come." Ephesians 1:18-21
Middle School Auction –
All are Invited!
You will not want to miss the fun this Wednesday at the Auction with the New Life Middle School class. These commodities aren’t just for 13 year olds. Here is just a sample of what we will be auctioning:
• 36” Television
• 1 hour harp lesson
• One house cleaning
• A new Bulova mens watch
• Garden art by Dave Froode
• And many more miscellaneous items!
All the proceeds are going to the children our middle school have been sponsoring in India for almost two years! The child sponsorship through Dalit Freedom Network (dalitnetwork.org) provides clothing, food, and most importantly, Christian education to children who are a part of the lowest caste system and would otherwise have no access to education. 
Join us this Wednesday, April 11th, from 7:00 to 8:30 pm in the Middle School room (upstairs).
Last year’s auction raised $225 for our students. This year, we are hoping to double that amount. Please join us for good prizes and a great cause!
I was asked about my sources for the messianic prophecies. I found the number of prophecies to be greater than 300 from Hope of Israel. Jews for Jesus has a video about prophecies of the Messiah. Clarifying Christianity and Messianicprophecies.net are sources you may also find useful.
Every Sunday morning I rise early and pray. I also add two things to my quiet time regimen. I read a couple prayers from Valley of Vision, a collection of Puritan Prayers (That is why so many of them end up posted here on Sundays). And I read a chapter in Charles Spurgeon's, The Pastor in Prayer. The Pastor in Prayer is a collection of Sunday morning prayers by the Prince of Preachers.
This morning it was a particular blessing. Just by "coincidence" I read his prayer from Easter Sunday Morning entitled, Risen with Christ. The great thing is that Easter wasn't referenced only the date, March 28, 1880. I used yesterday's post to learn that that particular Sunday in 1880 was Resurrection Sunday!
Any celebration of Easter apart from the Resurrection would certainly be meaningless and empty. Here are some resources you may want to consider as you think about whether Jesus truly rose from the grave.
Chick Publications offers an online comic book tract about the Empty Tomb. I had the whole collection of these tracts when I was a boy. This Was Your Life was the most well known.
Here are some excerpts from the Case of Christ that focus on the resurrection of Jesus.
Here is a summary and outline of Josh McDowell's evidence for a resurrection. The layout on this page is exceptionally good. You can explore questions you are particularly interested in.
Dr. William Lane Craig of Talbot Seminary offers these two articles for those who want a more scholarly consideration of the empty tomb. Here is the sequel.
May your meditation on and hope in the resurrection of Jesus be sweet! See you on Resurrection Sunday!
It is a mystery to many of us when Easter will be. Here is more explanation than you ever wanted to know about how you can know the dates for Easter from the U.S. Naval Observatory.
Wondering how often Easter falls on Ken's Birthday (4/8) or Judy's (4/16) or Allie's (4/2) or Nancy's (4/23) or Cris's (3/22) or Rowena's (4/11) or Hannah's (3/31) or any day between March 22nd and April 25th? Suppose, say, Judy was 125 years old, here you can see the number of times her birthday would fall on Easter, even if she lives to be 250! This page lists dates by number of occurances, percentage of occurances, and sorts by date or by year when her birthday would be on Easter.
Wanting to prepare for Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? Here is a site that explains the different types of calendars and how they impact the dates for Easter.
In some of my Spring cleaning I ran across some pamphlets that I'm throwing away. They are about how and why to have a quiet time written in 1973 by Hal Schulz. I do want to keep the wisdom, but don't want to keep the pamphlet, so here are the main ideas:
What is a quiet time? "A quiet time is a time alone with God, having fellowship with Him through the Bible and prayer."
Saturday was a fun day at New Life Robinwood. Over 30 people showed up for our Church Beautification Project (AKA Work Day). For over 5 hours these volunteers worked very hard to make the church look beautiful for Easter.
It struck me that this was one of our best attended non-Sunday events in a long time. The church property really looks great! We truly do want to put our best foot forward to the community on Easter.
The question that occurred to me was whether we would put the same amount of effort into preparing our hearts for worshiping our Risen Savior this Easter. I was reminded that Jesus had some of his harshest word for the Pharisees who wanted to look good on the outside but were full of hypocrisy:
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Would you take some time this week to prepare your heart to worship Jesus on Easter Sunday?
Here is a map that lists the events of Jesus' last week. I hope it helps you love him more for what he suffered for you! (Click on the picture to enlarge).
First Wednesday Prayer is this week at New Life Robinwood. Come pray with us from 7:15 PM-8:15 PM.
For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. Eph 1:15-19 NIV
Here's an update from high school group's Cosmic Bowling excursion. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Everyone seemed to have a psychedelic time...including Sponge Bob!
New in Our Library:
CDs:
Avalon: Oxygen
Lifescapes: Praise & Worship Live!
Songs 4 Worship: Holy Ground
Magazines:
Sports Spectrum/ March & April 2007
(one is in children's library & one in regular library)
Children's Library:
The Animated Stories: The New Testament (audio cassettes)
Main Library:
Creative Correction by Lisa Whelchel
The Music of His Promises by Elisabeth Elliot
The Road Unseen by Peter & Barbara Jenkins
Joshua and the Flow of Biblical History by Francis A. Schaeffer
World Aflame by Billy Graham
A Future and A Hope by Lloyd Ogilvie
Joeleen Montgomery, New Life Librarian
Brian and LaVonne Buhler
Josiah, Emily, and Noah
Serving with Ideas in SE Asia
Brian and LaVonne work with a group called the Dalits, the lowest Hindu Caste. These people are considered outcasts and are not given opportunities such as education and jobs because of their family caste. Brian and LaVonne partner with an organization that is providing education and advancement resources for the Dalits. Brian works on computers, helping to keep up a child-sponsor webpage for the students in the education classes. LaVonne teaches courses training Dalits who want to be teachers.
Please pray for:
• Their children’s education. Their oldest, Josiah, has had problems with bullies at school, and there have been problems with his teacher as well.
• With additional ministry needs, they are in need of an additional $465 a month in support.
• Students in LaVonne’s classes, and students in the elementary schools who are striving to change their lives and their place in the caste system.
