2024 April

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April 2024

April 17, 2024

in Discipleship, DTOTD, Jesus

by Brendon

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what the old can teach the new

” Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” – Exodus 1:8

Over the past several months, the Old Testament has been speaking loudly. Not just in terms of learning or academic knowledge, but speaking life to an overworked mind and heart. There have been revelations about certain stories that have been read hundreds of times. There are have been new thoughts about how stories are connected within the context of scripture that were never thought about before. There is a fresh view of why some of these stories are even written down and told and read and taught throughout human history.

Something struck deep however when reading a commentary book on the last book of the bible. Revelation is one of the most hard and, probably, misunderstood books of the bible. It is a masterpiece of images, analogies, and hyperbole that makes anyone question what they are reading. When you dive into the text and you have some guidance, there begins to be a revelation of your own when reading the confusing stories of the great beast or the Scarlett beast or great whore who is torn apart and burned. What was fascinating about a portion of a book I was reading was this:

” This clear link with Egypt reinforces St. John’s emphasis on WORSHIP, for we recall that the ten plagues were not visited on the Egyptians because they were an extraordinary evil people, but for a single reason which had no apparent moral content to it at all: they were determined to prevent Israel from WORSHIPPING God.” – Eugene Peterson, Reversed Thunder pg. 143

Can you let that sink in for a second…….the ten plagues of Egypt happened solely because Pharaoh wouldn’t let the Israelite people worship God the Creator.

Peterson goes on to talk about the concept of worship and how it is central to the life of a Christian because without worship, there is no way we can stay attune to what God is doing and as Christians we should be praying and looking to where God is active to be able to move towards him.

There are a few things here to point out. Firstly, God is a jealous God. Not because other things that he created are bad, but because God created you to BE WITH Him. Think about a time when you felt dried up or burnt out or maybe you were so busy that you hadn’t been able to get to church to worship with others for a while. How did life feel? What were the the feelings and emotions like that ran through your body? What were your thoughts like? When we are not able to spend time in worship being with God, it becomes easier and easier to miss the point of worship, being connected to the God that is jealous for our attention.

Secondly, God will go to no boundary to bring his people to him. Reading through the ten plagues, some of them are crazy! Frogs, millions of frogs. Locusts…..turning water into blood, which would kill anything in the water…darkness…..death of the firstborn. These are some intense plagues that barely changed Pharaoh’s mind about letting the Israelites go. God shows in this situation, as well as in Revelation 17. & 18, that He will do what he must to bring his people to a place of worship. When there are things standing in the way, God will put something into motion that will change the course back to Him.

Lastly, God always provides a way through the darkness. In the case of people of Israel, they were enslaved for hundreds of years and Egypt became accustomed to having such a large force of slaves to build their buildings and take care of their lands. What Egypt didn’t do was realize that the God who brought forth creation, would bring about a way for His people to leave and worship him. Personally, this was something experienced when in a transition period of my life. Darkness overshadowed everything that happened. Whether good or bad, it was clearly a moment of darkness in life that could not be avoided. For some reason though, as God continued to pave a way, the hard part was putting one foot in front of the other each day to continue moving in the direction of God’s call on my life. There is a lot more to say about that season of my life, but to turn it back to scripture, the plague of Darkness was an interesting one, because as the Egyptians were cased in a darkness that they could not see –

” The the Lord said to Moses, ‘ stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.’ So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven , and there was pitch darkness in ALL the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, BUT ALL the people of Israel HAD LIGHT where they lived.” Exodus 10:21-23

For those of you that might be going through a time of darkness where it paralyzes you with fear and makes you stay right where you are, know this, that the old can teach the new. Know this, that God is the light that you are looking for. When you come to Him in worship, the light begins to be brighter. It may be dim at first, but as time goes and worship happens and our actions and heart continue to grow closer to our creator and savior, the light begins to brighten.

April 17, 2024

in DTOTD, HCC, Jesus, Local, Outreach

by cefiggins

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They Don’t Know To Count On Us

It’s pretty well known that sleep is a struggle for me. But one of the blessings of being awake when the rest of the world is asleep is my conversations with God. Now granted, they can be pretty well laced with exhaustion and anxious thoughts but He can handle it. A lot of my worried thoughts center around the pain and suffering in this world. My heart breaks especially for those that suffer in silence and isolation. How will they know that God loves them? I know without a doubt these are some of Satan’s most powerful tools of manipulation and deceit. He convinces so many of us that we are alone. I think worse yet he convinces Christians not to step into others’ darkness, confusion, and loneliness.

How many of us when our gut tells us that our neighbor is hurting, or we read the unspoken body language of our neighbors that seems to be that they want to be left alone justify our inactions? How many of us who call ourselves followers of Christ talk ourselves out of connecting with our neighbors in their pain by saying they aren’t friendly, or they aren’t outgoing? How many of us use the phrase “it didn’t seem to be any of my business” or “I didn’t really want to get involved because I don’t know them very well?” Are we surprised when our neighbors don’t trust us to reach out?

They don’t know to count on us.

We live in a world where news headlines and cycles are dominated by war, death, violence, and political and ideological division. No one around us is unaffected by disease or divorce. Everyone is fighting some sort of battle. Satan is convincing us all to withdraw, hunker down, and disengage from our communities. It is a sin for us to ignore the pain around us. Many of us often forget the second greatest commandment Christ gave us: to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). The world needs us more than ever to engage in love and step into our neighbor’s lives with gentleness, patience, grace, and mercy.

How do you do that in today’s climate? Well first, you go to the source of your strength. Our God goes before us, hedges us in on either side and protects us from behind. After prayer, you step out boldly and courageously.

And then you go to your neighbor consistently and lovingly so they know they can count on you,

Pray for Them: Regularly pray for your neighbors, asking God to bless them, meet their needs, and reveal His love and truth to them. James 5:16 tells us there is tremendous power in the prayer of a righteous person.
Serve Them: Look for ways to serve your neighbors with kindness and generosity. This could involve helping with yard work, offering to run errands, or simply being available to listen and offer support when needed. Jesus taught about the importance of serving others in Matthew 25:35-36, highlighting that serving others is akin to serving Him.
Share Your Faith with Love: When appropriate and in a respectful manner, share your faith and the hope you have in Christ with your neighbors. This could include inviting them to church or Bible study, sharing personal testimonies of how your faith has impacted your life positively, or answering questions they may have about Christianity. Sharing our faith is more than having religious symbols on our houses or wearing Christian t-shirts in public. Our faith is a muscle that needs to be worked out over and over again. Our loving faith in God should be evident in our body language, our speech, our social media posts, our financial choices but most of all how we interact with those God specifically places around us. 1 Peter 3:15 encourages believers to be ready to give a reason for their hope but to do so with gentleness and respect.

Don’t let Satan win in your circle of neighbors. This week be bold and courageous in your neighbors’ lives sharing a peace that passes all understanding through a hope in Jesus. Fervently pray to God about how to step into the messiness of people’s lives, how to be present in their pain, and how to love them. Then go, don’t hesitate, go and let them know they can count on you because of your God.

April 15, 2024

in Discipleship, DTOTD, Jesus

by Brendon

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Press Pause –> RESET

” Jesus came and told his disciples, ” I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, GO, and make disciples of ALL the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:18-20

Since the turn of the new year, it has seemed like someone launched a time pod into the future and instead of living life, it has felt like we are just riding this time pod to where we are today. There has been so much that happened since January and it is hard to really understand and imagine how fast the first 3 months of the year went…..

13 Sundays

4 Belong Experiences

New Space Beta Testing

Palm Sunday

Good Friday

Easter Sunday celebrations

A Guest Services and Local Outreach training

Spring Break

Baptism Sunday

The launch of a new space – Discover Harvester

But yet, as the busyness comes to a slow, I find myself yearning for the beginning. I find myself yearning to go back to where it is simple and understandable and life giving.

Not that any of the events or sundays or things that are listed above are not life giving or fun or anything along those lines. But I find myself drifting back to those things that seem simple or the things that we learned as kids. And I wonder, do we make our lives to complicated??

Life is hard. I know. I live it every day just like you do. It is a hard thing to remember every practice, find every document, be at every meeting on time, be in the office, get the to-do list done at the house, clean the carpet where the dog peed, create a healthy and balanced meal and then execute it, and don’t forget that is just for the 4 year old….

Every now and again, I think there are RESET moments in our lives that we all desperately need.

Peter experienced a reset moment in his life with Jesus when Jesus approached him in John 21. Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him and Peter shows he loves Jesus. And Jesus gives a foreshadowing to Peter’s life.

Paul was given a RESET moment on the road to Damascus when Jesus came and approached him in the light. Paul, at that moment Saul, met Jesus and spent 3 days in a house with a scale like blindness on his eyes. Once the RESET moment happened, Paul went on to be one of, if not, the most influential pastor, church planter and writer for all of the Christian faith.

The man healed of his blindness from birth in John 9. Jesus meets this man that is born blind and Jesus uses this RESET moment to show God’s power here on earth by healing this man’s blindness. The man is known and is questioned because he was the man that was blind, but because of Jesus he was not the same.

The woman caught in adultry in John 8 was given a reset moment also when Jesus stepped in front of her and got every single person to drop their stone. Jesus was the only one left when he bent down and talked to the woman and showed her compassion and mercy and love and forgiveness.

RESET’s are not just for video games when you are losing and want to start over. There is going to be a moment in time when we all need to find Jesus in a RESET moment just like the ones listed above.

Why a RESET?

Because when we begin to think and rely on ourselves more than we rely on Jesus and the Holy Spirit, thats when we fall short of everything we are asked to do.

Including, the great commission that Jesus gave us to GO into the world and make disciples of all nations.

When we get overrun with busyness and schedules and plans and all of the things that come at us in life, we begin to slip away from the foundation of our lives which should be Jesus. And as we see in the accounts above, when Jesus is the reason for the RESET,

then we can be reminded that Jesus promised he would be with us to the end of the age. ( see above )

Another one of these foundation scriptures to think about this week:

” Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me. There is more than enough room in my Father’s home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.” – John 14:1-3

Jesus wants to be a part of your RESET. Let him be.

April 3, 2024

in Child Welfare, Guest Services, Local, Outreach, Safe Families for Children, Uncategorized

by cefiggins

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April 2024 Newsletter

Welcome to our April 2024 newsletter!

We are thrilled to share with you the latest developments in HCC’s Local Outreach ministry and our mission to unleash hope in St Charles County. Firstly, we would like to express our gratitude to all of our volunteers who continue to serve consistently to build relationships with our neighbors in St. Charles County. Continue to share information, opportunities, and prayers with your friends and family. You all are GREAT ambassadors.

In terms of our recent activities, Local Outreach volunteers have been BI-ZEEEE! We cooked and served hundreds of pancakes at Harvest Ridge Elementary, we served at The Sharing Shed, we assembled gifts and wrote thank you cards to local school teachers, and we served at Barnwell Middle during their Kona Ice Days.

With more and more people finding their way to Harvester we need more and more Guest Services volunteers. In particular, more Parking Lot volunteers would be great! Check-in with Brendon to see what that would look like. Local Outreach and Guest Services had their first fellowship meal in March. It was just a nice time to come together over a fabulous potluck meal and get to know each other better with no other agenda. Together, we can make a real difference in the lives of those who need it most. Thank you for your continued support! Enjoy this month’s newsletter!

DID YOU KNOW? April is Child Abuse Prevention Month & Foster Care Awareness Month

The zip code 63376 which runs through the cities of St. Peters, Cottleville, and parts of St. Charles has the highest substantiated rate of of child sexual abuse. This is one of the reasons we are partnering with the Child Advocacy Center to bring the free Stewards of Children: Darkness to Light Training. EVERY adult needs to protect all children. As the saying goes, knowledge is power and eliminates fear. Join us on April 11th 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. in the Large Conference Room in the lower level of the Offices to learn how to prevent and protect children from experiencing abuse.

We are also excited to announce that we will be hosting an informational meeting for Safe Families for Children on April 23rd from 6 p.m.-8:30 p.m. in the FLC. Safe Families for Children hosts vulnerable children and creates extended family–like supports for families through a community of devoted volunteers meeting is for families that would like to learn more about becoming a host family. This meeting is also for those who want to support host families with things like babysitting, transportation, meals, and resources. Register for one or both of these events on the HCC website or email Carissa at cfiggins@harvester.cc

Safe Families for Children

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Matthew 18:6

A Few Ways You Can Prevent Child Abuse

Know the signs: Consider attending the free Stewards of Children Darkness to Light Training on April 11th in the Large Conference Room in the lower level of the Offices from 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
Join millions around the world for the 30th anniversary of Blue Sunday, April 28th, a day of prayer for child abuse victims. Wear blue to church to show your love and advocacy for child abuse victims.
Invest in the lives of at-risk children
Speak up! If something doesn’t feel right – SAY something
Join us on April 23rd at 6 p.m. to learn more about Safe Families for Children– an intervention for families before foster care gets involved.
Join our HCC group that provides meals, transportation, or babysitting to HCC Safe Families, foster families, and adoptive families.