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ThuThursdayMayMay2nd2013
Tell Me About Jesus: Jesus sent us a Helper
Dear Holy Spirit Habitats,
No of us have had the blessing and benefit of seeing Jesus incarnate (in the flesh). While I can’t wait to see Him face to face, we have no lack of His presence. Jesus made it clear to His disciples and to us that it is to our advantage to have the Helper come and live in us.
You may be saying, “He’s not doing me any good!” “You see me changing, I’m not changing. You see victory in my life? I don’t!” Saying those things (oh yeh, we would never say those things, we just think them) is like saying that your car just doesn’t work very well, never thinking you should start it up rather than just pushing it around.
Jesus speaks to us about His Spirit because He desires for us to take advantage of His power in us. He IS our Helper, He IS the Spirit of truth, He IS the One that convinces and convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Further, He IS the One that guides us into all the truth. We don’t have to keep asking, “Spirit are You there?” HE IS!
So take Jesus at His word. Live in obedience and expect to be powered up by the Helper. Jesus has removed our weaknesses, excuses, and reasons for grumpiness. Jesus places his bow of hope over the gift of His Spirit by saying, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
It’s time to live by faith by the Holy Spirit. Yes it takes practice and is a process, but we all can grow in the Spirit directed life.
This Sunday Pastor Mike will teach from the single greatest prayer in the word, Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer.”
In Christ’s love and service,
Pastor Paul
WedWednesdayMayMay1st2013
National Day of Prayer
Dear North Point Family,
Tomorrow is our National Day of Prayer. This is a great opportunity to join Christ-followers around our nation, to petition Jesus to pour the conviction of His Holy Spirit, our Helper, on our nation (John 16).
Ronna and I will be praying from 5-7pm tomorrow evening with OneCry.com. This is a gathering of thousands, upon thousands of people around our nation, crying out to Jesus as one voice. We so desire for Jesus to hear our cry.
I would recommend that you invite some folks over to your home and do the same thing. If that time frame or plan does not work for you, then find a time and plan that does…BUT DO PRAY!
There are so many issues to cry out to God about. Can you hear the voice of Jesus saying to Peter in the garden, “Could you not watch with me one hour?” Please take an hour or two, for the sake of asking Jesus Christ to change our nation. Jesus IS the only hope for each person, and for us corporately.
IT’S TIME TO PRAY!
In Christ’s love and service,
Pastor Paul
ThuThursdayAprApril25th2013
Tell Me About Jesus: Living Beyond Your Capacity
Dear North Point Family,
No matter how many times we tell somebody to give “110%” they just can’t do it! We only have the ability to give what we have, and assuming we could give everything, that would be no more than 100%.
The places that we meet or exceed “our” capacity, are in exceeding the limits of our finances, emotions, spiritual well being, or time allocation. This puts us into crisis or deficit because we have spent a portion of ourselves or our resources we weren’t suppose to expend.
Living by Jesus’ capacity rather than ours multiplies our efforts for His glory, to accomplish His will, for the sake of His name. There are three areas we discovered in John 15:12-16:4 that Jesus wants to super-charge our capacity. Jesus wants us to live our lives with:
- A love that’s great. This love comes only from Jesus and flows through us to our Christ-following brothers and sisters. It is this love that many in the world observe and say, “I want some of that.” Jesus is honored when His love is revealed through us. That’s supernatural!
- A witness that’s humble. The world (many in it) hate Jesus and so yes, they will hate us when Jesus lives His life through us. Keep in mind though, that some kept His word and will keep His word when we share it. This is what gives our suffering purpose. This is what supernaturally changes lives for eternity! This is what we are talking about!
- A life that remembers. In the beginning of chapter 16 Jesus tells us to remember these things so that we will not “fall away.” In the craziness of life, we need Jesus to bring to mind His promises and hope so that we can live our lives remembering what He has in store for us. Remembering & believing Jesus’ promises empowers our living beyond our capacity.
Jesus’ church at North Point is definitely beyond our capacity. We desperately need Jesus’ love, witness, and hope to effectively minister to one another and our community. We need His power to move forward in Flagstaff, in order to see many come to salvation in His name. We are depending on Jesus for our staff, facilities, and our budget. We even need Jesus to purify our lives and motives in all that we do. We are helpless and our tanks are empty without Him. Our only choice to keep from blowing ourselves up (in one way or another) is to abide fully in Jesus and to live our lives by His limitlessness.
This weekend we seek to learn more about His empowering us through His Helper. Come join us and bring a friend.
In Christ’s love and service,
Pastor Paul
MonMondayAprApril22nd2013
An Important Message from the Pastors
Dear North Point Family,
It was a very busy weekend with our normal worship services, and then our annual business meeting. We continue to see God’s hand of blessing on North Point Fellowship, and it challenges us to respond in faithful service to Him.
We had a number of very significant votes and actions that took place at our meeting. Briefly, those items included, the accepting of 23 new members, affirming Doug Gee for another term as elder, Steve Ewing for another term as deacon, both Kyle Maycumber and Dylan Barry as new deacons, and the approval of our 2013/2014 Budget.
But certainly, the most significant activity of the meeting was the announcing that Pastor Mike McDonald would be the new Senior Pastor at Faith (EFCA) Church in Albuquerque, NM. I will let Pastor Mike take the remainder of this email to share the great news of God’s blessing.
Trusting Jesus for both North Point Fellowship and Faith Church,
Pastor Paul
Almost 9 months ago, God began to move Becky and I down this road by simply asking me the question, “Will you yield yourself to Me?” I had taken the day to seek God on a number of things, and that question was front and center coming out of that time. In the coming weeks we simply wanted to obey and we felt that God brought us to the place where he placed Faith Church in front us. Our sense was that He “wanted us to pursue this.” At that time, we thought that meant submitting a resume and going from there. Obviously, it meant more than that. We are really excited about the church, the people and what we see God doing and wanting to do there.
There are a few things that I expressed yesterday at the business meeting that I want to repeat here because I believe they are important.
First, we are not leaving because I’m dissatisfied with my job or have some issue with Pastor Paul or the elders. Nothing could be further from the truth. I love those guys beyond measure and it’s SO painful to think about not doing ministry with them. We are leaving because God is calling us to go. It really is that simple.
Second, we are leaving because I firmly believe that Jesus is who He says He is, and that eternity really will be WAY better than anything we could think of or imagine here. I currently live in a palace, in a beautiful mountain town, near family, in a great neighborhood and on and on I could go. But I recognize that this is both temporary and fading, which makes a move to a place that at initial glance may be less desirable than here (emphasis on initial glance) not as big of deal. I’m not in it for the next 40 or 50 years and all that I can accumulate, I’m in it for the Savior and the eternity I’m going to spend with Him and you all beyond that!
Third, I can’t even begin to express how thankful, grateful, and appreciative we are to you all. Know that this has been anything but an easy decision. You can’t imagine the tears and heartache that we have felt at the thought of leaving this phenomenal community. To give you an idea, I’m literally crying as I write this. Please know how deeply you are loved by us, and how much we will truly miss you. I have been so blessed by so many of you, and will forever be connected to and indebted to North Point.
So why go? Because when I read the book of Acts I see a lot of guys who were temporarily willing to set aside great friendships and relationships because they wanted to be a part of a transcendent movement of God. I want that! I hope you do too. For some, God will never call you to leave. For others, your day is coming. For all of us, God help us that we would be willing to do whatever He calls us to.
Thank you for loving and caring for us in such incredible ways!
For His Name,
Pastor Mike and Becky
FriFridayAprApril19th2013
Tell Me About Jesus: Hanging with Jesus
Dear North Point Family,
When it’s time for your children to leave home and go out on their own (or pay rent), you feel a little behind in having given them all that they need to be prepared to face the world as an adult. But, good news, they can always call home (I didn’t say come home).
Jesus on the other hand, perfectly timed all that He taught and gave His disciples in order that they would be prepared for Him to leave them…physically. In this instruction, in the early part of John 15, Jesus is explaining that their attitude needs to be one of dependence, not independence. Jesus makes it clear, that they, and all who follow Him, need to hang closely with Him in order to mature fully through this life. Jesus draws a clear line by saying, “for apart from Me you can do nothing (v.5).”
As you evaluate the quality of your character, and if it is growing in Jesus’ image, consider these benefits of abiding in Jesus:
- Hanging with Jesus is necessary for fruit. If you don’t hang with Jesus, you can’t live for Jesus.
- Hanging with Jesus is a “no brainer.” The benefit of a clean heart, a productive life, and an open communication line with God comes only through Jesus.
- Hanging with Jesus has transcendent results. The very thing each human heart longs for, to see the glory of God, comes to us exclusively through our abiding in Jesus.
Simple math demonstrates how to have a life that gains all the benefits of hanging (abiding: to remain for a long time) with Jesus. Here it is: PROXIMITY + TIME = MATURITY in JESUS. The closer you are to Jesus, for a longer period of time, will yield a rich life of maturity in Christ that will bear much fruit. It’s the only way to grow in your relationship to Jesus and to bring glory to God; you must abide in Jesus, the Vine.
This Sunday we will discover how this “hanging” equips us to live a life beyond our capacity. Don’t forget about our annual business meeting from 12:30-2:00 pm Sunday after second service.
In Christ’s love and service,
Pastor Paul
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