Top 10 Reasons Why This Will Be A Super Sunday

10. With the additional opening of the back doors for entry, now every space in the parking lot is a great parking place.

9. Cool parking lot ministry attendants to enhance safety and maximize space.

8. After worship we get to celebrate God and his work as we feast together.

7. The authority of God’s Word will be proclaimed without apology.

6. Amazing children’s ministries that care for our children and lead them in worship.

5. Engaging and believing in the awesome power of prayer.

4. Four letters: XLII

3. The name of Jesus will be lifted high in worship.

2. You will be equipped to add forgiveness to your friendship tool kit.

1. Worshipping God together is the best way to start the week!

Offering to Rockford Rescue Mission

Last Saturday PM, we purposed to give the entire offering collected (except for the checks marked for Base Camp - building fund) to the ministry of the Rockford Rescue Mission here in town. The Mission's work is to help people move from homelessness and despair to hope and healing in Jesus Christ. When the evening ended I was handed a note displaying the amount raised -

$11,445!

I thank God for the generosity of this church. May God mulitiply what was raised to reach many men and women with the gospel of hope.

My trip with James MacDonald

Last week I had the privilege of accompanying James MacDonald on a trip to my old stomping grounds, the Master's College and Seminary. He was asked to speak at the Truth and Life Conference hosted by the college. This was a first for James to speak in those circles so I was hoping to help him make a strong connection as best I could. The other reason for me going was to spend some time with him and learn from the man. We have had a blast. James never stops. His mind is always whirling and the sarcastic jokes are continually flying so you have to be on your toes.

Here's a picture of James in a Q/A time with conference speakers, John MacArthur and David Wells...
This is James teaching at the Master's Seminary...

This is me and my mother and father in law with James...

Here a picture of Andy and his wife with James at the conference...

Construction progress

As you can see from the pictures, the auditorium is under construction to open it up so that we can get 450 people in there at one time. It also gives us a normal shape to the auditorium which creates better acoustics.

Every time I enter the building I immediately go in to see what work has been done. I love it. It's fun to see the changes and even do church in the "warehouse" look. When it is all done, we will have greater space to grow and greater heigth in the room so that we fix two projector screens left and right of the stage giving better visibility. We should be set for the years to come....in the auditorium. Next step will be extra offices and more children's space when God bring us more people.

All of this focus on facility can be a bit dangerous since our mission is to spread a passion for the supremacy of God and to liberate a generation with the life and love of Jesus Christ. We must understand that the work done on the facility is simply setting up the Base Camp to help us fulfill the mission. It certainly isn't the mission. Let that be clear.

In order to keep it clear it our minds while the work is going on, we are planning to give our entire offering this Saturday evening (Jan. 26) to the Rockford Rescue Mission. The last time we did this we raised 12k for the work of the mission which we partner with. Jesus told us that we should put our treasure where we want our heart to go and that is why we are doing this. At Harvest Bible Chapel, we are on mission and we do not want to be distracted by anything even if it's a good thing - like setting up the Base Camp.

Read the whole Bible this year!

Being a Christ-follower is a life of faith. We are not watching and listening to Jesus move from village to village like the first century followers. What we know of Jesus comes to us through a book - a book that contains the very words of the Master. Nevertheless, even the those who were eyewitnesses to the miracles and teaching had to take a leap of faith if they were to become His true disciples. The truth had to be digested with their whole being (Jn. 6:48-51). The way in which we see the glory of God in the person of Christ is through the reading of the Bible. The Holy Spirit uses the written word of God (Bible) to show us Jesus and to energize and sustain our faith.

This year let's read our Bibles clear through asking the Holy Spirit to illuminate the glory of Jesus to us. Let's fill our minds with truth that the Spirit will use to change us and make us more like our master. What do you say? Have you ever read the Bible clear through?

Here is a plan that leads you through the Bible chronologically which is a little different than reading it cover to cover. It means that you are reading it from the oldest books to the newest books.

If you would like to take up this challenge and you are an attender at HBC Rockfold, we will purchase you a ESV Bible if you can complete this challenge by December 31, 2008.

If you're starting now, my suggestion to you would be to begin reading at the current date and then try to make up what you missed whenever you can.

California, pt. 3

As you can see the weather was beautiful. Here we are in Malibu at Paradise Cove on a perfect day.