Blown Away! Journey to CHR Launch Day!

Yesterday as we are in month 6 of the preparation process to launch Church at Hampton Roads in Chesapeake Virginia I get this text from my wife Sarah.  It included a picture of a card and a check for the church plant.  


It was an amazing reminder that God is the one driving this thing and not us!  The check was for thousands of dollars.  The card basically said, 

 ...we (the people that gave the check) had been talking about what we were going to be doing for vacation with the money we had saved prior to going to bed last night, whether to go to the beach or skiing.  But I (the wife) woke up last night and God told me to give the money to you instead.....God has big plans.....love xxxxxxxxxxxxx

I sobbed.  It was a powerful moment where God gently reminded me again in this journey that saying, "yes" is where the power, the provision and the peace is.  It is in obedience to Him, which is true worship, that all we could ever hope for or imagine awaits us and all who submit to Him, His plans, His desires.

God You are truly faithful, constant and devoted to those who truly aligned with You.......and I love you regardless of what I could ever receive just because you are worthy of it....

Joel

Drink The Cup...

We at times may wonder why our lives are the way they are and we may have a hard time submitting to the will of God.  I believe this in my life has really boiled down to a lack of trust and selfish ambition. Ephesians 1:4 says, "For He chose us before the creation of the world..."  Revelation 13:8 say about Jesus, "He was the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world."  


What I am getting at is that God sees the big picture.  Even if at times we doubt it due to the things we are asked to endure.  He (God) created the world with a specific purpose, He created you with a specific purpose and He is well aware of your situation, after all, He is the orchestrator of working good out of ALL things (Romans 8:28)


Jesus, in John chapter 18, is in the Garden of Gethsemane.   He is about to be bound and drug before the religious leaders of His day that would ultimately crucify Him and ridicule Him before all.  This is when Judas betrays and leads the mob to where Jesus is so that they can arrest Him and Peter lashes and cuts of the ear of Malchus who was the slave of the high priest in an attempt to defend Jesus.


Jesus turns to Peter and says these amazing words of worship and submission, 

"Sheathe your sword!  Am I not to drink the cup the father has given me?"

The cup represented the things Jesus was about to endure.  It represented the will of God for Jesus's life.  The reason I believe Jesus had all power and all authority was not only because He was fully God in a human form but that He was fully submitted to the Father, He trusted Him and was only interested in fulfilling the master plan that was laid out for Him before the world began.  For us this is great news, it confirms there is a Creator, He made EVERYTHING with specific purpose and WE CAN TRUST HIM!  I love it!

The greatest thing you can do today is worship God through your joyous submission to what He is doing, join with Him and when all is said and done we will look back and see the incredible detail He put into writing our stories and why He asked us to do the things He did.  

CONCLUSION BY JOEL BROWN

When you come to a situation in the next few hours where you know you will have to die to your desires and plans in order to get through something do not get frustrated!  Say to yourself,  "am I not to drink the cup the Father has given me?"  TRUST HIM...

Joel