HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
John 15:8 - By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
Psalm 92:12-14 - The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord Shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing,
It is important that we differentiate between producing fruit and bearing fruit. You see, God calls us to bear fruit not to produce fruit.
Producing – The result of our effort, work and artificial stimulation.
Bearing – The result of relationship and abiding in the vine.
Producing happens unnaturally and bearing happens naturally simply because we are abiding in the vine. Fruit is the outward evidence of an internal relationship. Fruit bearing is not about techniques, amounts and effort…
The yield of the harvest is all about yielding to His influence and allowing His life to flow through ours. The Bible says that out of our very belly, or the core of our being, would flow rivers of living water. God is looking for this kind of breakthrough understanding in our lives. It transforms everything.
The goal of our growth process as Christians is to bear fruit.
God is not as interested in what we do for Him as He is in our lives bearing spiritual fruit. Matthew 3:8 - Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance.
Colossians 1:10 (AMP) - that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord [displaying admirable character, moral courage, and personal integrity], to [fully] please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing in the knowledge of God [with deeper faith, clearer insight and fervent love for His precepts];
A true Christian will live in a way naturally that bears fruit worthy of the repentance and the salvation they have received.
Fruit is our moral character, deeds and actions, our behavior, courage and a deep faith that grows with our knowledge of God. It is not just about the work we do but how we go about doing everything we do. For a long time, the church has put such an emphasis on doing and production that it wore people out. Now the pendulum has swung in the other direction and we tell people that a lack of fruit in their life is not a big deal. Just say you are a Christian - but there is no evidence of spiritual growth or fruit.
God expects fruit bearing. Just as any good parent expects their children to grow up and be moral, loving, caring people who actually do something worth-while with their life. This is not undue pressure it is the result of being a grown-up person and growing up should be a natural progression especially for a Christian who is abiding in Christ and for those filled with the Holy Spirit.
The secret to fruit bearing is to understand how the kingdom of God works. We spend a great deal of time talking about ‘Mustard Seed’ faith. All we need is the faith the size of a mustard seed.
Sometimes we spend so much time on the size of the seed that we miss the entire point being- the POTENTIAL in the seed.
The mustard seed is a small seed but out of it comes one of the largest yields. Small faith is the starting point, but that seed is going to grow into greater faith. While that seed is small it produces not just a bush but a tree. That tree produces more fruit and more seed and out of that seed comes more trees and more fruit and more seed.
The beauty of remaining and abiding in Christ is that our life and the lives of those we touch and reach with the gospel naturally have a perpetual harvest. Out of our abiding in Christ comes a constant, consistent flow of life and blessing. We don’t have to force it, produce it or “make it happen”. Fruit is the natural output of a life found in Christ.
God is doing a special work here at HCC. I am excited at what He will do in us and through us throughout the rest of the year.
You are Loved.
Pastor Marvin and Dawn
HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
Ephesians 6:13-14 - Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
Winston Churchill is famous for his commencement speech to his alma matter at the Harrow School for boys when he said, “never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never, -in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense”.
Vince Lombardi is famous for his quote – “Winners never quit.”
I have said many times that it is ok to think about quitting as long as you know you never will. Faithfulness is all about staying with a thing, a commitment or a person.
All of us face times of difficulty, discouragement and hardship. Many times, the difference between success and failure are those who quit and give up and those who don’t. There is a childhood saying, “quitters never win, and winners never quit”. Sometimes we just have to make the decision, emotionally and physically, to stay at it. You don’t have to fake it until you make it, you just have to keep at it. Marriage, child rearing, a dream, a goal in the workplace or the ministry God has called you to all require a determination to keep going through the good times and the difficult times.
True champions are finishers. Jesus is known as the Author and Finisher of our faith. When He died on the cross, He cried out the words of someone who kept at it- “It is Finished”.
Learn to stand when times are hard and difficult.
Hebrews 10:36 - For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:
Those who have endured are those who have stayed with it until the end. Matthew 24:13 - But he who endures to the end shall be saved. While this verse applies to the end times it is also a great reminder for any situation.
James 1:3-4 (NLT) - For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.
Many times, when God allows you to endure His purpose is not so much in the destination as in what we are becoming. When your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. Having to endure helps us to realize our limitations, weakness and areas we need to develop and strengthen. What once used to feel unreachable and impossible now becomes the normal because our ability to endure has made us stronger.
Years ago, I ran across a poem entitled, “Don’t Quit”
When things go wrong as they sometimes will, when the road you’re trudging seems all uphill, When the funds are low, and the debts are high, and you want to smile but you have to sigh, when care is pressing you down a bit – rest if you must but don’t you quit.
Success is failure turned inside out, the silver tint of the clouds of doubt, and you never can tell how close you are, it may be near when it seems so far. So, stick to the fight when you are hardest hit, it’s when things go wrong that you must not quit.
Many of us are fighting some pretty big battles and are standing in faith. You are obeying what the Word says “when you have done all, to stand. Stand”. Look around. You are still standing in the strength and power of God and you are not alone. Just like Jesus, we are finishers! Our God is answering prayer. You have sown good seed and in due season you will reap a harvest.
You are Rooted and Fruitful! - You are Loved!
Pastor Marvin and Dawn
HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
Our key verses for 2020 are - Colossians 2:6-7 - As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
Psalm 92:12-14 - The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree, He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those who are planted in the house of the Lord Shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bear fruit in old age; They shall be fresh and flourishing,
John 15:16 - You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.
In the past we have seen many so-called moves of God. They all ended quickly because they were not centered on Salvation and then maturity. (Discipleship) They planted seed. They gave the Word but there was no emphasis on Roots or Fruit. Many of these “moves of God” centered on gifts, being blessed, self-improvement and happiness. There were all kinds of manifestations but unless it produced a desire to know God, to live holy and to win souls it is all flesh. Jesus always related the harvest to souls.
Matthew 9:38 - Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
I believe that we are in for a season of an abundance of rain. God is going to strengthen our roots so that we will see much fruit.
It is important to understand that whenever God speaks of an outpouring it deals with the harvest. The work of the Holy Spirit always is focused on the harvest of souls.
God poured out the rain of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost to prepare the ground. The church has seen almost 2,000 years of sowing and growing. Many have been saved.
There are more people alive now on the earth than at any other point in history. There is a final harvest of souls that God is bringing into His Kingdom. James 5:7 - Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.
On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came in response to a prayer meeting. There are no short cuts and there are no secrets. We need to pray without ceasing and pray with an expectance until we see rain come. We need to pray until there is breakthrough.
James 5:16b-18 - The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
Elijah prayed like he expected something to happen and for God to keep His Word, and so should we.
To have an abundance of rain there must be a hunger for it.
People who are not hungry can take or leave food. People who are not thirsty will go a long time without even thinking about water.
God promises to fill the hungry heart. Sometimes God allows drought and famine so we will crave again. True hunger reminds us that we cannot live long without food or water. When we say we are hungry for God we are saying that we realize that we cannot live without Him and His ways. Matthew 5:6 - Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
I want to ask you what do you hunger and thirst for?
I am proud to say that I serve a church that believes in prayer and in the power of God. Thank you for being a part of the work that God is doing here at HCC. Thank you for being a prayer warrior with a heart for souls and a love for your church. Get ready for an abundance of rain. You may want to start carrying your spiritual umbrella by faith.
You are dearly Loved
Pastor Marvin & Dawn.
HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
Psalm 43:5 - Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.
When we lived in the Northwest, in Portland, OR and Walla Walla WA, I became aware of the term – Seasonal Affective Disorder. (SAD) The Northwest coast is known for its beauty, but it is also known for its rain. Many people do not realize that the Northwest corridor actually gets as much rain as a rain forest. It can be dark and gloomy during the rainy season for weeks on end; because of this, many people suffer from depression that is seasonal. The truth is that a great cure for this is some sunny days and time spent outdoors.
I have found that even people who do not suffer from clinical depression will have seasons of their life that are depressing. Even Godly, capable people will go through seasons of life where they are down and can’t seem to get out of the funk. There may be reasons for it like hardships, difficulties or a season when you are on the go so consistently that you do not have time to really rest.
For some, depression hits during the Christmas and Holiday season. They may be missing a loved one or dealing with the financial hardships and expectations of family or making everything perfect. Depression robs us of joy, steals our energy and can keep us from living a fulfilling and productive life. Some of what we are experiencing is spiritual, some of it is passed down through families and some of it is caused by the situations of life. Some depression is the result of our sinful choices and we are reaping the consequences emotionally.
With God’s help, we can deal with the SAD and make it through our season and out of the valley. Psalm 23:4 - Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
One of Satan’s greatest tricks is to get us thinking that we are the only one that struggles with seasons of discouragement and depression. He will show us the perfect happy lives that everyone seems to be having all around you. Listen, everyone struggles at times. Everyone has hardships in life. The perfect life you think others have is only because you do not see the complete story of their lives.
It is estimated that one in eight men will have a severe battle with depression sometime in their life. It is estimated that one in three women will have to fight this battle. Women are twice as likely as men.
One thought on this is that women tend to “feel” their sadness and that men tend to “act” out their depression. Sometimes when men are depressed, they do not feel SAD, but they become irritable or angry. They may also immerse themselves in work or adrenaline activities.
Some “religious” people will tell you that if you struggle with depression then you must be involved in some kind of sin and God is punishing or withdrawing from you. Some will tell you if you had enough faith then you would pray more and suddenly just snap out of it. Others say if you had more faith you would live on the mountaintop and be victorious and never feel down. These are Job’s comforters and on behalf of all who have struggled we would like you to keep your unbiblical opinions to yourself! It is important to remember that we were not designed for the mountaintops. Most of our living is done in the valley. Valleys are where the fruit is. Sometimes valley’s get deep and overcast but the air on the mountain top can get mighty thin.
Someone said - “When you are working through depression, you do not lack faith. It is your faith that keeps you going. What you lack is hope.” People who regularly struggle with depression are very often holding tightly to God. When David was in his SAD season, he reminded himself to hope in God. Remember, faith is the substance of things hoped for. When you lack hope, remember that, as long as you have faith in God, you have the substance of what you are hoping for is made of.
Life is full of seasons. If you are always waiting for another season you are going to miss out on the blessing of the season you are in.
Learn to adapt and live in the season you are in. Make peace with the season – not the pain. Somehow, we think that Spiritual lessons just come. They just happen. No, they are learned. That is ok. Here is good news, you CAN learn how to do your season of SAD well. You may never just snap out of it any more than you can snap your fingers and change the weather. Learn how to make the most of the season. There is beauty - even in the SAD seasons. David learned how to do it and so can we!
May you and Your family have a very Merry Christmas
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
I love to teach and preach on the Holy Spirit. It is also one of the most humbling and fearful things I do as a preacher. You see, the Holy Spirit is a person. If I talk about Him incorrectly, I misrepresent who He is. If I just talk about Him to you it will come across as gossip as if He is not here with us.
As a person, the Holy Spirit has a personality, He has character (The Fruit of the Spirit), He has emotions and feelings, opinions, a will and desires. The Holy Spirit loves, He can be jealous, angry and kind. He goes where He wants to go and does what He will do. He is powerful like wind, refreshing like a rain and life giving, unyielding and terrain shaping like a river. He is also as gentle as a dove and as passionate as a flame of fire. He is not just the power of God, He is not just a force to be reckoned with, He is not just the anointing and equipping of God in the life of a Christian. He is a person. Do you know Him like that?
You can hurt a person. A person can be hurt intentionally or unintentionally. There are many ways that you can do that. One way we can hurt the Holy Spirit is by grieving Him. I’m sure you are like me in that you never set out purposefully to bring grief into any of your relationships. The modern idea of grief is to annoy someone, we are “causing them grief” or “giving them grief”; but that is not really grieving someone. I mean if you are intentionally setting out to annoy or grieve someone you really do not have a great relationship in the first place.
Grieved means to make sad or sorrowful, or to make a heart heavy or to disappoint. For some reason there is some big mystery surrounding what it means to grieve the Holy Spirit. The word grieve comes from a Greek word which denotes a pain or grief that can only be experienced between two people who deeply love each other. This word would normally be used to picture a husband or wife who has discovered that their spouse has been unfaithful. As a result of this unfaithfulness, the betrayed spouse is shocked, devastated, hurt, wounded, and grieved because of the pain that accompanies unfaithfulness or adultery.
This tells us, first of all, that the relationship that exists between us and the Holy Spirit is precious! The Holy Spirit is deeply in love with us. Just as someone in love thinks about, dreams of, and cherishes the one they love, the Holy Spirit longs for us, thinks about us, desires to be close to us, and wants to reveal Himself to us.
To grieve the Holy Spirit means that when He looks at our life of sin there is a sense of loss, of intense disappointment and betrayal, just as if someone had died. The Holy Spirit is the One who lives in us, leads us, guides us, teaches us, reminds us, comforts us, seals us, sanctifies us, empowers us, and works to produce the character of Christ in us. He has been sent to reveal the will of God, which is the mind of Christ and to give us the victory in Christ. But when we act like the world, talk like the world, behave like the world, and respond the same way the world does, we cause the Spirit of God to feel shock, hurt, and grief.
When we deliberately do what is wrong, we drag Him right into the mire of sin with us, because He lives in us and goes wherever we go.
Another way we can hurt the Holy Spirit its to quench Him. 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22 - Do not quench the Spirit. (AMP) - Do not quench [subdue, or be unresponsive to the working and guidance of] the [Holy] Spirit.
To quench means to: to extinguish, to suppress, stifle divine influence. You quench your thirst by drinking water and in this sense, this is a good thing, you can also quench a fire by pouring water on it. If the fire is out of control this is a good thing, if it is there for warmth or cooking this is not a good thing. Some people are afraid to let the Holy Spirit work through their lives or churches in supernatural ways. We quench the Holy Spirit when we resist allowing Him to move. We can also quench the Holy Spirit’s work in a church or in our life by refusing to recognize that God is a God of order and not chaos. He is the God of the controlled burn and not a wildfire.
A controlled burn can be raging, hot, glorious and powerful but, like the burning bush that Moses saw, it will consume us but not destroy us. When churches and individual believers are open to the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, they will see the Glory of God.
One of the underlying principles of Harvest is that we desire to live in the presence of God and to live a life of relationship that results in the character of God in our lives and His power through our lives. The Holy Spirit is welcome here because He is God with us. May our lives never cause hurt to Him but always be a blessing and bring Him Glory.
You are dearly Loved
Pastor Marvin and Dawn
HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
It is a popular thing to say in our day that “people are good”. As a matter of fact, there is a song out right now by country singer, Luke Bryan, that is a fun song to listen to. The chorus which of course is sung over and over again says – “I believe that people are good, and most mothers qualify for sainthood”.
There is no doubt that this is a feel-good song. I believe that we should believe the best of people and expect the most from one another. I believe that we should look for the good in people instead of always trying to discover the negative.
I am thankful that we live in the age of grace and mercy where we can be forgiven of our sins and restored to a life of significance.
The truth is that the Bible shows us that, without God, there is really and truly no good person without the work of Jesus Christ. We are not to measure goodness by the standards of this world but by the standards of God’s righteousness.
One of the Devil’s biggest lies is that as long as we are “good” we are ok with God. Jeremiah 17:9-10 - “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.
The Bible says that the heart is deceitful and wicked. The truth is we all know the truth about ourselves, but we can convince ourselves that we have the best intentions and that our heart is right. You have heard me say this before, but our heart is deceitful, we are the only thing in God’s creation that can lie to ourselves and we will believe it. Proverbs 20:6 - Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man? All of us want to believe the very best about who we are but the truth is not one of us is as good as we say. This is the whole reason that God had to send Jesus. It is only through Christ that there is any good in us at all.
Romans 3:10-12 (NLT) - As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.”
The truth is that naturally and without Christ we are generally very selfish and corrupt. The human heart cannot be made righteous on our own and we cannot be changed by ourselves. The only remedy is to experience the loving Grace of Almighty God and to be born again through faith in Christ and receive a new heart that hates evil and delights in the things of God.
There are many Christians that are struggling with areas of sin and flesh in their life and they feel that they are far from God and that if they were closer to God then they would not have these struggles. – Every human heart struggles with sin. We all miss the mark of perfection, this is why it is only through Jesus that we can be made righteous. The truth is that the devout Christian does not happily and purposefully indulge in a life of sinful behavior and attitudes. The heart of a true Christian desires to please God in every way, this is why God tells us that we are to guard our hearts. Proverbs 4:23 -Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
There is such a thing as an evil unrepentant heart. It is hard for many people to grasp the idea that there are really completely wicked and corrupt people in the world.It is important that we recognize when our hearts are turning cold to the ways of God. It is also important to recognize when we are dealing with people who may claim to love God but have completely rejected His ways.
Among the things we will study this month together we will look at the “Signs of a Wicked Heart.” Let us allow God to fully examine every area of our “heart life”. This is so important because all the issues of our life are really a “Heart Issue”. I love David’s prayer Psalm 139:23-24 (AMP) - Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart; Test me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way.
May God bless you and your family this month as we Love Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
You are dearly loved.
HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
Psalm 147:3 - He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
One of the things I have learned in ministry is that all of us have a past and all of us have wounds. Just because you are a Christian does not mean that you have been completely healed from the hurts inflicted by others or the self–inflicted wounds made by our sins or poor choices.
Far too often in Christianity we only deal with the spiritual issues in our lives like salvation, baptism and walking in the Spirit and we fail to address the emotional side of things. As a matter of fact, in many Christian circles talking about our emotions is portrayed as unspiritual and even un-scriptural. This is not true, Jesus came to heal, restore and renew the complete person, spirit, soul and body. Jesus came to set us free from sin, but He also came to make us whole and complete in every way. Psalm 107:20 - He sent His word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions.
The Church is not just a place to learn and it is not just a spiritual family, it is also a Holy Spirit Hospital. We are a place of healing. Many people come from broken homes; people have been wounded by parental abuse, neglect and even because of abandonment by a mother and father. Some through divorce and some parents never stepped up and were a part of the children they helped create.
Some people were bullied in school or suffered from sickness, extreme poverty or even remarkable hardships.
Others carry the shame of addiction or the results of a party lifestyle. Some have experienced rejection time and again from family, friends and even strangers.
When I worked as a foster parent at Real Life Children’s Ranch one of the things I learned from these abused, neglected and troubled children is that salvation doesn’t wash away all the pain and rejection. If it is not healed, we watched as these children have carried their woundedness into adulthood. They have developed habits and ways of dealing with their hurts, but they are not healthy, whole and free. The truth is, all of us, in one way or another, have carried some of our hurts well into adulthood.
All of us have emotions. They are a part of the intricate way in which God made us. Emotions are not a bad thing; they are necessary, and they can be healthy. We must learn to manage our emotions, or our emotions will manage us. One of the goals of every believer should be emotional stability. We are not called to be emotion-less, that is just as unhealthy. A Christian is to live by wisdom not by our gut, our instincts or ruled by our emotions.
Proverbs 3:21-26 - My son, let them not depart from your eyes—Keep sound wisdom and discretion;So, they will be life to your soul and grace to your neck. Then you will walk safely in your way, and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid; Yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden terror, nor of trouble from the wicked when it comes; For the Lord will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.
The truth is that some people feel things more deeply than others and some are freer with expressing their feelings than others. We must not confuse personality with woundedness. Some people never cry, and some are just weepers. Some people feel strongly about things and will intently express it, others do not know how to control their anger.
Feelings are God’s idea. Someone once said to me – “if I could not feel, life would be so much better”. I understand that but think of all the good and enjoyment you would be missed. Feelings help us to function; they help us to love, enjoy, to be aware, to care, to be sensitive.
Hurt is designed to keep you away from the blessing of God for your life. Hurt keeps you where you are when you were hurt and keeps you from moving forward. The truth is many who were abused or wounded in their childhood stay at the age they were wounded at unless they are healed emotionally and grow in maturity. Precious brother and sister, you are loved by a God who desires to heal the deepest wounds that people and that life have inflicted on you. Even if you did things by your own poor choices, we have a God who restores and forgives. This month I am expecting God to do a powerful work in all our lives. Healing, completeness and new life patterns that bring peace through wisdom are ours in Jesus’ Name.
Thank you for joining in our month of Prayer. Prayer is the engine of our church. It is through prayer that lives will be changed, and miracles will abound.
You are Loved.
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
Psalm 25:12-14 - Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses. He himself shall dwell in prosperity, And his descendants shall inherit the earth.
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant.
The Bible is a book of covenants. Understanding the Bible and all we have as Christians concerning God’s love, forgiveness and promises requires us to have an understanding of covenant agreements.
Covenant is so crucial in Christianity that it affects everybody and everything we hold true about our faith and future. You would have never been saved without covenant. Similarly, you have no claims to blessings without covenant. You would still be dead in your sin, and bound by Satan had it not been for covenant.
The notion of a covenant is unfamiliar today. As a matter of fact, when you bring up the word covenant most people do not realize that their Bible is actually divided into two Covenants. The word “Testament” is another word used for Covenant. The Bible is divided into the Old and New Covenant; actually so is all of history. This is why we have B.C. and A.D. All of world history spiritually is literally divided between life before Christ and life after Christ made a New Covenant Possible with God through His death and resurrection. A Covenant – is an agreement or a pledge between two or more parties, like a contract. It is a formal and legal agreement that effectively binds or joins people together. It contains the terms or duties that each party must perform to fulfill the agreement. A covenant can never be forced or coerced, it is entered into voluntarily. It is a mutual relationship.
Covenant is a special spiritual agreement in a class of itself with physical and spiritual implications. This means that keeping it will bring incredible blessing and breaking it will bring deep consequences.
Covenant is God’s natural initiative and response to human wellbeing, needs, problems, and predicaments. It is based solely on God’s love but according to His grace and wisdom, and includes His mercies, compassion, favor, blessings and justice.
The ultimate example of covenant relationship is that of Christian marriage. Ephesians 5:30-32 - For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Make no mistake, Christian marriage is never a CONTRACT, it is more than that. It is a covenant. Obviously many now enter into marriage as a contract because they want so-called security upon divorce so that they can share properties.
– As a Covenant, true Christian marriage is founded on a solid foundation of a lifetime commitment to begin with. And that’s why God categorically states, “I hate divorce”. Divorce means that somebody lied and could not be trusted. Covenant is made now and is not only a promise to do something now but to keep doing it in the future. It is not kept based on emotion, but on our word and our commitment. There is a reason that both the Old and New Covenant are known as the Word of God.
Luke 21:33- Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
Something powerful happens in the lives of believers who know their covenant. They stop wishing and start hoping, they come to God boldly, and they walk by faith trusting God because they know that they are loved. They stop living powerlessly enslaved to sinful habits but are free from the vices that squeeze the life out of others. They know that they are loved and they know who they are because it is all clearly spelled out.
The New Covenant is the source of unshakable faith. It is through the covenant that we know God will fulfill His promises. So if we are unaware of our covenant we have no real understanding that enables us to walk in faith and by faith. As Christians we are able to walk by faith because we have a Savior who became the mediator of a better covenant between us and God.
I look forward to what God is doing in all of our lives. We are in a special season here at HCC. Let’s continue to press forward as we receive all that God has for us.
You are Loved!
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
James 4:8a - Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
John 15:4a - Abide in Me, and I in you.
As a pastor, I have grown concerned over the casualness with how we treat God. I am not talking about dressing down when we come to church. I am speaking of the same casualness that treats most relationships as disposable, take it or leave it. It is the way many people are now treating their spouses. The way we look at our phones and social media when we are actually sitting at a table or the same room with people that are actually there. By casual I mean we treat nothing as truly special. We walk through nice carpet without taking our shoes off, and walk over people or talk over people that really just want a little bit of face time and attention.
Intimacy is what we call the experience of really knowing and being known by another person.
At Harvest our Mission statement is “To know God and Make Him Known”. It is vital that we truly know God before we can introduce Him to others. There is a huge difference when I am introducing my children or my wife to people or a good friend than when I am trying to introduce someone I just met, barely know or just learned their name.
When we hear the word intimacy in our sin saturated culture all we think of is romance or sex. This is the shallow end of the pool and in truth has very little to do with true intimacy unless it involves a husband and wife. Intimacy is: closeness, it involves really knowing someone, familiarity, kindness, openness, transparency, attachment, warmth, togetherness, tenderness, respect and real communication, with or without words.
We frequently use spatial language when describing this experience. An intimate friend is someone we feel very close to; they know us at a deep level. If something happens that damages the intimacy with our friend, they feel distant from us. Or a person who doesn’t know us intimately knows us at a superficial level. True intimacy is not spatial but relational. We all know what it’s like to be sitting right next to a person with whom we feel distant and we can feel close to a person who is four thousand miles away.
When God invites us to draw near to Him it has nothing to do with actual distance and everything to do with relationship. Psalm 73:28 - But it is good for me to draw near to God. We have been asking ourselves many questions over the past few months. I want to ask you another one. Would you consider yourself to be intimate with God? A few weeks back I felt the Lord whisper in my spirit one word INTIMACY. God said, "Marvin, I want to be close to you and I want to be close to my people. Many are coming to Me, they are going to church, some are praying but they are rushing out of my presence. Tell them I long for intimacy. I know them, what I desire is for them to know Me. I want to answer their prayers but I want to spend time with them". Hebrews 11:5 (Amp) - By faith [that pleased God] Enoch was caught up and taken to heaven so that he would not have a glimpse of death; and he was not found because God had taken him; for even before he was taken [to heaven], he received the testimony [still on record] that he had walked with God and pleased Him.
All true faith is born out of intimacy with Christ. It is impossible to have faith that pleases God without intimacy with Him. Intimacy is a closeness that comes with a yearning for Him, a desire to walk and talk with Him. According to scripture it was Enoch’s intimacy that pleased God. Enoch is never mentioned doing one miracle; He never built an ark like His grandson Noah, who also had a testimony of walking with God.
When someone walks with you and is intimately involved, together you begin to think the same, you have a heart and a passion for the same things. You each maintain your individuality, but you also become like each other. Intimacy will make you like minded and like hearted. This is why we have the mind of Christ. To have someone’s mind is to know what they know and to know what they think.
Intimacy leads to fruitfulness John 15:5 - “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If we abide in Him we will bear fruit because without Him we are not capable of truly being fruitful by ourselves. Without God you can be creative and you can even be successful in the eyes of the world. But without a close walk with God there is no true fruitfulness.
I believe God is calling all of us to a deeper more meaningful, personal walk with Him. Let’s do that individually and as a church.
Remember you are loved.
Pastor Marvin & Dawn
HCC Monthly Harvest Seed
The word RESET means – to set again, or to begin anew. Think of all the things that come with a reset button. Our phones come with the ability to return them to factory settings. - Our homes have electrical breakers that allow us to reestablish the flow of current when they have been tripped. – God has designed our bodies so that when we break a bone they are able to be reset and heal and become strong again. God gave our children a reset button that helps the parents adjust an attitude problem; it is located on the Gluteus Maximus and is activated when the hand of reason is firmly applied to the seat of knowledge.
A reset is needed when things are not functioning they way they were designed or intended to function. A reset is a lot like a “do over”. It allows us to get back on track and to begin again in a new and fresh way.
Salvation is God’s ultimate reset button.
2 Corinthians 5:17- Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Without Christ we were lost, sinful, dirty and completely on the wrong road of life. Without Christ we were dead in our sins and we were enemies of God. Salvation set’s us free from the curse of sin and death. Salvation resets our relationship with God the Father. Once we could not call ourselves clean, but through the blood of Jesus Christ we are not only clean but righteous. You, as a Christian, are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. 2 Corinthians 5:21 - For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Sometimes we need to hit the reset button by un-cluttering our lives. Most people live cluttered lives. Their daily schedule is as full as the closets in their house; filled with all kind of things but very little of it used. When Jesus called the disciples He told them that they were to travel light. Luke 9:1-3 (NLT) - One day Jesus called together his twelve disciples and gave them power and authority to cast out all demons and to heal all diseases. Then he sent them out to tell everyone about the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. “Take nothing for your journey,” he instructed them. “Don’t take a walking stick, a traveler’s bag, food, money, or even a change of clothes. Jesus was reminding them of the power and necessity of a simple life. Many of us look forward to a time of spring cleaning in our homes. It freshens things up. Sometimes our homes don’t need a spring cleaning, they need a time of de-cluttering. A few months ago as we were praying God started telling many of us that He wanted to do a new thing in our church. He showed us that in order to do that we needed to simplify our ministries and our schedules and we needed to physically de-clutter our church facilities. We went on a massive cleaning binge and literally hauled away over a ton (that is over 2,000 lbs!) of unused things that we had been storing for years. We needed to unpack the worthless unused things that were cluttering our space and slowing us down.
What emotional baggage are you caring that is hindering you from walking in God’s fullness for your life?
What unrealistic expectations are you holding onto that Christ never put on you that cause you to be emotionally bogged down?
Matthew 11:28-30 (NLT) - Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
~ Someone said that– Expectations are premeditated resentment.
Many people are trying to run their race weighed down by anger and resentment that was brought on by unmet expectations that you decided, if they were not met, you were going to be unsatisfied. Listen, it is time to un-clutter. Un- Cluttering means simplifying. There are many of us that have no room in our schedules for God to do anything.
In order to reset, we need to make sure to honor the Sabbath. There is a lot to teach about the Sabbath but for the idea of resetting we need to grasp hold of our need for another R-word - REST. A Sabbath day was to be set apart not only for worship but for rest. Holy means to be set apart. Jesus said honor the Sabbath Day and keep it HOLY. Rest is a Holy thing. For some of us this is a word of God for you. It is time to hit the reset button on your rest schedule.
This summer we are allowing God to “RESET” areas of our lives and our church. Take some time to rest and be renewed.
You are loved,
Pastor Marvin & Dawn