I happened to run into Pastor Evan today and he thanked me for helping with a project at church this week. I was very appreciative that he noticed my help, but it reminded me of a saying my grandfather told me once.
God is in charge, but don't expect him to do everything for you. He gave you a brain and muscles for a reason.
I have been very thankful for my fellow parishioners who donate their muscle and brains to the daily goings on of the church. So many of my fellow congregates have unique experience and education that they can put to work for the church. I have recently provided a legal document, which would reduce the liability in the event of an accident. I know that there is a wide variety of talents in the church, and I look forward to utilizing many of them for the church. Having just opened a law practice, I am not making a good deal of money, yet. Unfortunately, that means that my weekly giving is not as high as I would hope it to be. What I can do, is provide my expertise.
I know this post seems like a rant, and I would love to simply pray for the things that the church needs, and the things I need. I know that is not enough though. I need to put my mind, my muscles, and my faith together and put in some sweat equity. We as a group, need to work hard to bring in more members to the church, make the church a more appealing place for people to come, and strengthen our faith. I would like to call my readers to arms. I mean your own arms, attached to your shoulders. When the church needs a hand, start with your own. When you are down, give yourself a hand with another 20 minutes of work. This all leads to the old saying that, "God helps those who help themselves".
Congratulations and thank you to those in Hope Covenant Church who have played a role in the vacation bible school. I look forward to future projects with you. Keep up the good work. Hope is a family that I can be proud of. If you would like to join the family, or even catch a glimpse into what a church family can be, visit us on Sunday at 10:00 A.M. at.
Hope Covenant Church
14401 West Avenue
Orland Park, IL 60462-3112
(708) 873-3640
JWC
Friday, June 24, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Hope Covenant Church | You Missed a Great VBS
This blog post will be short because it has been one of the most intense weeks in a long time. This past week at Hope Covenant Church, we have had vacation bible school. The theme of this week was, "Inside Out and Upside Down on Main Street". The church was transformed into a town, and it looked fantastic. The children had a great time and learned a lot about Jesus, the way to treat others, and how important the church can be to your spiritual life. I am going to give you five words. Each of these words will be a future blog post for you to reflect on, but I wanted to give you a preview today.
1. Gratitude
2. Compassion
3. Forgiveness
4. Faithfulness
5. Grace
I would love for you to think about what these words mean. How they apply to your life. And how you can use these words to move closer in your relationship with the Lord. I also want to leave you with the lyrics of the chorus of my favorite VBS song.
Learn to forgive, let the hurt go.
Follow the Lord, let His mercy show.
Learn to forgive, let everyone see.
How good it can be, to share God's forgiveness.
As always with this blog, we love comments and we love guest writers. If you would like to have a post on the blog, email us and we will do our best to get it on the net. If you are interested in a great church family, visit us at:
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Hope Covenant Church | Structure Makes Room For God
To begin, thank you for reading this blog. I have been blogging for a few weeks here now and I have noticed that when life gets wishy washy, there is no room for God. Structure in your life allows you to complete your tasks and pray. If you structure really well, you can even add time to serve others. When life is unstructured, you spend too much time wandering around and not enough time performing your task. In order to achieve your goals, you need to plan first. Once you have a plan, you can implement your plan. I will give you a small couplet to help you before you start anything. That could be anything from your day, your month, a project, or even your life. That couplet is:
1. You think to yourself, "I am going to read the bible more often." So you read it one day and then when the urge hits again, you read a little more, and then you have a frustrating day so you read a little more. The problem with this method is that you have no goal in your reading. Instead, I propose that you set up a schedule for your bible reading. You make a covenant with yourself to read X number of pages, X minutes a week on a certain day, or X chapters in a month. When you have this kind of a schedule, you break down the complex ideas of the bible into manageable parts. You focus on getting something out of the Bible during each session. And most importantly, you read the sections you perhaps would leave out because they are not your favorite.
2. You want to clean up your yard. So you put on your work clothes and head out there. You begin by picking up the leaves in the yard and fill your first bag...and notice you don't have a second bag. You run to the store for more leaf bags and come back home to finish up cleaning the leaves. Next you want to plant your new flowers, and you begin to plant but you don't have any potting soil. So you run back to the store for soil, and so on and so forth. If you made a list of all the jobs needed in the yard and made one trip to the store for everything, you might have time help the elderly neighbor who can't get to her yard anymore.
3. You have a project at work, so you figure you will start the project, and as you start, you get a new great idea and so you take the project in a different direction. Then as you work on the project some more, you get yet another great idea and take the project in yet a third new direction. By now, your co-workers are so tired of taking the project in one direction and undoing it to go in your next better direction that the project loses momentum and force. If instead, you sat down at the table with your team and planned the project; every creative idea could come out before the work starts and once the final plan is in place, the staff can each take a step and no step is left undone. No typo is left unedited. No organizational chart un-copied.
Plan Your Work,
Work Your Plan.
If you can keep this simple couplet in mind before you start anything, I guarantee you that you will have a more successful day and more time to do the things you wanted to do. This applies to everything. I will give you three simple examples.
1. You think to yourself, "I am going to read the bible more often." So you read it one day and then when the urge hits again, you read a little more, and then you have a frustrating day so you read a little more. The problem with this method is that you have no goal in your reading. Instead, I propose that you set up a schedule for your bible reading. You make a covenant with yourself to read X number of pages, X minutes a week on a certain day, or X chapters in a month. When you have this kind of a schedule, you break down the complex ideas of the bible into manageable parts. You focus on getting something out of the Bible during each session. And most importantly, you read the sections you perhaps would leave out because they are not your favorite.
2. You want to clean up your yard. So you put on your work clothes and head out there. You begin by picking up the leaves in the yard and fill your first bag...and notice you don't have a second bag. You run to the store for more leaf bags and come back home to finish up cleaning the leaves. Next you want to plant your new flowers, and you begin to plant but you don't have any potting soil. So you run back to the store for soil, and so on and so forth. If you made a list of all the jobs needed in the yard and made one trip to the store for everything, you might have time help the elderly neighbor who can't get to her yard anymore.
3. You have a project at work, so you figure you will start the project, and as you start, you get a new great idea and so you take the project in a different direction. Then as you work on the project some more, you get yet another great idea and take the project in yet a third new direction. By now, your co-workers are so tired of taking the project in one direction and undoing it to go in your next better direction that the project loses momentum and force. If instead, you sat down at the table with your team and planned the project; every creative idea could come out before the work starts and once the final plan is in place, the staff can each take a step and no step is left undone. No typo is left unedited. No organizational chart un-copied.
I will help you with starting to live your life according to this couplet. Say right now with me, "Until today, I did not structure my life as well as I could. So from this day forward - I will "Plan to Work, and Work My Plan.
If you would like to know Jesus better and have a great time while doing it. Come to Hope Covenant Church and be part of a great church community. Keep in mind our summer schedule. Service is now at 10:00 A.M.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Hope Covenant Church | Saul's Conversion Acts 9:1-18
It would not be too hard to imagine the movie trailer. You probably even had the preview guys voice in your head. What the real miracle was though, was Saul's direction. It was two simple orders. 1.) Get Up, 2.) Go. That was all there was to the direction. When someone tells you to Go, what is your first response. I know mine is Why, What for, Why can't you?Who has blind obedience to simply act. Which ironically is the title of the book this story is in, "Acts". To simply act is a blind faith of trust in the one ordering you. The American way of questioning everything is, in my opinion, a great way to live. I, as an attorney, question everything that is said or written. It is not only my job, but it is my passion. I like to find fault in things. It is rewarding to find room for improvement. It is even tempting question everyone's motives because there may be "a better way". When it comes to the Lord though, do you think you can come up with a better way? Do you, John Q. Averageguy, think you can find a better way than the Lord. Of course your answer is no, but I would bet you would question the order. It is simply the nature of an independent society. Much like Ananias does later in this chapter, you would probably ask the Lord, "Are you sure?" "Do you know what you are asking me?" You are not alone, I am confident that my response would be one of question.
My plea, for both you and me, is this; Don't waste time looking for the right moment to act. Don't wait for others to open the door for you. Don't let a lack of motivation slow you down. Just Go. I will repeat that...Just Go. The only person who can stop you from following the order...is You.
If you are in the Orland Park Area and are looking for a church to attend, I would encourage you to visit:
Hope Covenant Church
14401 West Avenue
Orland Park, IL 60462-3112
(708) 873-3640
I am a newer congregate at the church and can attest to the warm and welcoming feeling you get from the members at the church. God Bless you and keep you. Good luck on your journey with Christ.
Jonathan W. Cole
P.S. I know this is unusual, but the church is going to be losing a driving force in the near future. I would like to personally wish Pastor Ryan Cooper the best in his future endeavors and I hope the we keep in touch. The church will be losing a major asset, and the church family will miss him. Thank you for your service to the church, God Bless your family.
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