Jesus' Recipe for Popcorn - Part 2

Jesus has a special unique recipe for POPCORN – and it involves us!

JESUS’ RETURN TO GLORY GIVES US GRACE

We know from many eyewitness accounts that Jesus the resurrected Theanthropos (God-Man), appeared for 40 days after He rose from the grave.

During this brief time period, He also interacted with many people in the visible, physical realm of ongoing historical human existence, so that He could strengthen, encourage, and through the Holy Spirit (LUKE 24:45, ACTS1:1-11) to finish His teaching and training of His first disciples.

This post-resurrection period culminated in Jesus’ physical ascent to heaven, even while these disciples watched Him from the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem. The amazing ascension event was followed up immediately, with an incredible angelic promise verbalized to the disciples who had been watching Jesus depart, concerning His visible and physical return in the same way to that same place!

In EPHESIANS 4:8 -10, Paul describes Jesus’ ascension as a visible sign to us, of His absolute spiritual victory over every false authority on earth (the cosmos world system of humanity) and under the earth (the dark demonic network of invisible powers, principalities, world rulers of darkness, and spiritual powers of evil). 

EPHESIANS 4:¹⁰ He Who descended is the [very] same as He Who also has ascended high above all the heavens, that He [His presence] might fill all things (the whole universe, from the lowest to the highest).

In the full exaltation of His ascension back into the Father’s Presence, Jesus fully manifested His triumph over all opposition, both natural and supernatural, completing His mission as the ultimate overcomer.

Jesus passed not only above all lower realms, both physical and spiritual, while destroying the works of the devil in each sphere, but concluded His sojourn on the earth, positioned with His Father together at the maximal spiritual pinnacle, highest over all the created universe and above ALL the heavens for eternity.

Only the Divine Person Jesus, God the Son and Son of Man, could be exalted alongside His Father God, above all the heavens forever!
 

Only the infinite Lord of All, Jesus Christ, could then proceed to fill all in all, which literally means to make complete in every particular, to cause to abound, to furnish or supply liberally, to flood, to diffuse throughout, to pervade, to take possession of and to ultimately control the whole universe, so that from lowest to highest realms might be filled entirely with His boundless Presence! 

As the apostle Paul states unequivocally in EPHESIANS 1:21-23, when Jesus ascended to His throne, He became positioned as the God-Man reigning absolutely over His new creation:

Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named [above every title that can be conferred], not only in this age and in this world, but also in the age and the world which are to come.

The Father has put all things under His feet and appointed Him the universal and supreme Head of the church [a headship exercised throughout the church],  Which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all [for in that body lives the full measure of Him Who makes everything complete, and Who fills everything everywhere with Himself].

Neil Uniacke
Executive Director

Thanksgiving "vignettes"

It’s that wonderful time of the year again…the time we call Thanksgiving. How thankful have you been in the past year? I want to share a few short Thanksgiving “vignettes” with you that call us to reflect on how thankful we really are.
 

Vignette #1: Dr. H.A. Ironside, a well-known Presbyterian minister from Philadelphia in the early 1900s, once walked into a crowded restaurant for lunch. Just as he was beginning his meal, a man approached Ironside and asked if he could join him at his table. Pastor Ironside invited the man to have a seat. Then, as was his custom, Ironside bowed his head in prayer. When he opened his eyes, the other man asked: “Do you have a headache?” “No, I don’t,” replied Ironside. The other man asked, “Well then, is something wrong with your food?” Ironside replied, “I was simply thanking God as I always do before I eat. “

Ironside’s guest then said, “Oh, so you’re one of those guys, are you? Well, I want you to know I never give thanks to anyone. I earn my money by the sweat of my brow and I’ve become successful on my own energy and intelligence. I don’t have to give thanks to anyone when I eat. I just start right in!”

To which the pastor replied: “Yeah, that’s just like my dog at home. That’s what he does, too!”

Vignette #2: Many of us have heard of Captain Miles Standish, who came with the Pilgrims in 1620 to Massachusetts. We know the story; that first winter many of their group died. Standish’s wife, Rose, was seriously ill and was confined to the Mayflower, which was anchored in the harbor. Rose’s chills would turn to uncontrollable shaking and there were no medicines to cure her. By spring of 1621, only 5 wives remained of the 18 who had come to Plymouth. Rose was not among them.

Thanksgiving? What was that? The golden dreams of a new world that Standish and Rose had cherished together had evaporated into hollow hopes. And yet Captain Standish joined other bereaved Pilgrims in that first Thanksgiving celebration.

The real test of thankfulness is whether we can give thanks from the heart for what we do have, despite the wounds and pain of yesterday’s struggles. Ours in not some fair-weather faith, but a resilient trust in the midst of pain and struggle. The Pilgrims lived close to the edge of survival. Perhaps that is why they were so thankful.

Vignette #3: During the Great Depression of the 1930s, when it was at its worst, one day a group of men was sitting together discussing the sad state of affairs. One of them was a Methodist minister and college professor, William Stidger. The conversation concerned the decline in commerce and grew more dismal at every moment. But as Thanksgiving Day was near, another minister chimed in: “I have to preach on Thanksgiving Day. I want to say something affirmative, but how can I do that in such a period of depression and gloom like this?”

Pastor Stidger began to think of the blessings HE had enjoyed in life, and the things for which he was truly thankful. He remembered one of his teachers from school whom he hadn’t heard from or contacted in many years. Although it was years ago, he still remembered how she had gone out of her way to instill a love of poetry and literature in him, and Stidger had loved poetry and literature ever after that. So he wrote a letter to this now quite elderly woman. This is the reply she sent him. Barely legible because of her trembling hands, it began: “My dear Willie.” He was thrilled to read that. Stidger was over 50 years of age, balding, and a bit of a “pudgie” seminary professor, and he didn’t think there was anyone left in the world to call him “Willie.” Here is some of what Stidger’s school teacher wrote:

My dear Willie, I cannot tell you how much your note meant to me. I am now in my 80s, living alone in a small room, cooking my own meals, lonely, and like the last leaf of autumn, lingering behind.

You will be interested to know that I taught school for 50 years and yours is the first note of appreciation I have ever received. It came on a blustery, cold morning and it cheered me as nothing has in many years.

Stidger was not a sentimental man, but he wept over that note. There were numerous other notes he wrote during the next weeks, thanking people who’d had a vital part in shaping his life.

Who do you need to thank today?

Submitted by Tom Horst, MA MFT

Marriage and Family Therapist

A Special Blessing

On Friday evening, November 1, 2013, I had the honor of being the invited guest speaker for a Pastor Appreciation Service. The two pastors (a married couple) were my former pastors. I have known them for many years. I was asked to share my testimony and how these two pastors have influenced my life. I talked about how I have "[followed their] example, as I follow the example of Christ." (1 Corinthians 11:1).

I shared about how, through God's help and the help of others like these two individuals, I embarked on a journey from a young single parent on welfare to go on and earn my doctorate in social work. As I shared with those in attendance, I could certainly testify to the truth that "I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13).

I think I was blessed most of all when one of the pastors gave the invitation to accept Jesus Christ following my testimony. A teenage girl came forward. I was very overwhelmed with joy. I went to be a blessing to the pastors by sharing how they had impacted my life. A young woman was blessed as she decided to give her heart to Jesus (I trust that the other people there received a blessing as well). And I was truly blessed by pouring out what the Holy Spirit had given me to impart.

After I ended my story, I reminded everyone that my story is not over. I know this because in John 15:16 it says, "I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit..." I will continue to seek the Lord's guidance and strength so that I can continue to bear the fruit that he has left for me. Will you do the same?

Ann L. Gantt, Ph.D., LCSW
New Hope Counselor

Survival

Fall is a beautiful time of year. The trees change their color, the air is crisp and clean, and the squirrels scamper about to collect food for the winter. I was recently reminded during my devotions one morning that we don't prepare for the "winters" of our life. Winter in our life can be the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the loss of our home or any other type of loss. So how do we survive our "winters"?

In order to survive we often have to come up with a "new normal" and it isn't easy to make changes or accept change. With the death of my father this year it has brought with it the beginning of a lot of "firsts" without him: birthdays, Sunday lunches, and soon we will experience Thanksgiving and Christmas without Dad. When my mother died 37 years ago my siblings and I had to bond together with our dad in order to survive and now we have to move forward once again.

So how do we get through all of our roller coaster emotions? My dad's favorite verse was Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." At first it is hard to imagine any good coming from difficult times; however, we don't know the whole story--only God does. All we see is a little sliver.

So how do we survive? We have two choices every day. Either we pull the covers up over our heads and don't deal with the situation or we face the situation head on and turn it into a positive. This is not always an easy task but life isn't easy. How we choose to deal with our "winters" determines who we will become through Christ.

Elaine Campbell, MA, MHC

Jesus' Recipe For Popcorn - Part 1

Jesus has a special unique recipe for POPCORN – and it involves us!

IT ALL BEGINS WITH JESUS’ LIFE AND DEATH

Jesus has a deep desire – to set us free from the constraints of our own pasts, to transform us into His own image, both individually and corporately, and to make us more usable for His Kingdom purposes while taking us forward in fulfilling our true eternal destinies.

In order to do this, He has poured out His own life, and in the end every drop of His blood, to perfectly fulfill all the requirements of righteousness on our behalf, and to ransom us completely.

 

Jesus initiated this pouring out of His life at His incarnation, literally fulfilling the eternal decrees of the Triune Godhead, by leaving behind His pre-incarnate existence as God the Son, and entering into physical reality and human history, as the divine Son of Man, to be birthed and live a fully human existence like each one of us! 

John’s Gospel so eloquently describes this ultimate spiritual reality for us in his 1^st chapter. Capping that beginning section of the chapter, John tells us:

JOHN 1: ¹⁶ For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received [all had a share and we were all supplied with] one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift [heaped] upon gift.¹⁷ For while the Law was given through Moses, grace (unearned, undeserved favor and spiritual blessing) and truth came through Jesus Christ.¹⁸ No man has ever seen God at any time; the only unique Son, or the only begotten God, Who is in the bosom [in the intimate presence] of the Father, He has declared Him [He has revealed Him and brought Him out where He can be seen; He has interpreted Him and He has made Him known].

Jesus’ perfect, pure, sinless life on the earth, His completed work on the cross, His glorious resurrection victory over death, and His ascendant supremacy to His eternally exalted position at the right hand of His Father, are the fountain of all supernatural blessings, the only sure foundation for our salvation, His sanctifying graces to us, and His power given to us for His eternal purposes in and through us.

Out of this same sure foundation, we receive the ongoing present-day work of His continued heavenly intercession for each of us, as well as His release of all the necessary enablement and empowerment for any of us to walk with Him each day in triumph.

 

Neil Uniacke

Executive Director

A Cherished Gift

Have you ever received a gift from someone after they were long gone?

When we were cleaning out my parents house after my dad died, my sister found a diary that my mom had kept for the first half of the year of 1992. Recently, she gave it to me to read. My mother died in 2006 and we had not known that she had ever kept a diary. As I began to read through it, I was at first swept with a feeling of sadness, not because of anything my mother had written, but because I realized it was just a mere two years before she was struck with that awful stroke that changed the rest of her life. She was so active and busy and each day was filled with ordinary things that she would have never guessed she would soon be unable to do. As I continued to read, my emotion changed from sadness to thankfulness. What a blessing it is to have this memory of my 66-year old mother instead of the difficult last 12 years of her life that usually come to my mind. This was truly a gift from her  that I received seven years after she died.  It has brought back wonderful memories of a time when she was uninhibited by the physical and mental obstacles that took over her life far too early.

Her first entry of the year reads:

January 1, 1992 Wednesday. The Lord privileged us to greet another year, asleep of course, but that's a blessing too when I sometimes have near sleepless nights. We enjoyed the day quietly at home, watched most of the rose parade on TV from 11 to 1, and ate pork and sauerkraut for dinner. Delicious! The weather was balmy enough in the afternoon for us to take a hike on the boardwalk. (She refers to the wooden steps going down to the park area on their property as the "boardwalk")

On her birthday she writes:

February 3, 1992 Monday. The Lord gave me still another birthday, and it was a good day. I had several phone calls and an invitation to supper at the Clymers (my sister’s family). I was working on the comforter most of the day. We enjoyed a good supper and then played several rounds of Rook. It was a very enjoyable evening!  Soon after we got home, Glen (my brother) called and we talked a long time. It is such a blessing to have a telephone.

And on my parents wedding anniversary she journals:

March 11, 1992 Wednesday. This is our 44th wedding anniversary. That's a milestone we didn't even think about 44 years ago. Although neither of us have had all our expectations met, they have been good years and we thank God for them and for each other.

The end of April and early May she and my Dad took a trip to Florida. I’m pretty sure this is the last time that my parents made this trip by car to visit my brother and his family:

April 30 - May 7, 1992.  We drove to Florida. It was a very good trip. Enjoyed our time with Glen's family, met an interesting couple from Manitoba, Canada, who also stayed at Weaver Villa, and spent several hours with Duane (my nephew) and the V.S. Unit at John's Island.

Several days later she ends with:

May 12, 1992 Tuesday. I'm tired writing in this Diary now, so I'll just be sporadic for awhile. Too much work piling up on me.

 And that is pretty much it.  Except for a few random entries in the next couple months, Mom stopped writing in her diary. Two short years later, her life as she was used to it ended. Although she made some recovery from her stroke, never again could she walk and talk easily or do other activities that she had enjoyed doing with ease. I am grateful for this little glimpse into Mother's world (pre-stroke) and I love the memory that it brings back of days long forgotten.

I like to think of the Bible as a gift as well. Words that were written so long ago, speak to us today. The words often meet a special need in our life just when we need it most.  I have been reading through the Bible this year. Through the first part of the Old Testament I loved the stories about long ago. When I reached Psalms and Proverbs, a song or proverb often encouraged me and I would ponder on it throughout my day. As I move into the New Testament, I know that I will read about the biggest gift of all that God gave to us—His Son and how Jesus gave us the gift of salvation through his death on the cross. If not for the written word how would we know any of this?
               
I am thankful that my mother and God both left me “diaries” to read.

Mary Lehman

Secretary

A Wake-Up Call

Philippians 4:6,7 tells us "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." I know these verses and say I believe them, but I have been worrying over details at work. The Community Closet Thrift Store is part of the Best Kept Secrets Tour in Lancaster County. We need to open early and stay open late. We have no idea how many extra customers we will get and I was not sure we had enough help for the first couple of days. I was worrying.

I woke up the first day of the tour going over those details I still had to finish. Then the rain came--HARD. I got a call from one volunteer that she would be late because the roads were flooded. I worried more.

Then, my son called, "Mom, I'm okay. I was in an accident, but I am okay." After I finally figured out where he was, I put up a sign that said we would open the store late and went to pick him up. On the way, I had to remind myself that the four students who were in the car are way more important than the store opening on time, or than being on a tour.

When I got to the house where the kids had made their phone calls from, there was an ambulance in the driveway with four cold and shaken up students. I was able to take my son home. Daniel already had a scheduled doctor's appointment for that afternoon. God knew he would need to be seen.

As we drove home, I found out the car had flipped and they ended up in a stream. With all of the rain, the driver had lost control on a wet spot. They had to break a window to get out of the car, but they were all okay. They had all had their seat belts on. So, why do I worry about those day to day details? Why don't I let God's peace guard my heart and mind? I trust so little sometimes.

After I got back to the store, the details of the tour no longer overwhelmed me. My son and his friends were all okay. I don't always like how the "wake-up" calls come, but I hope I hear God's voice when He does try to remind me what is important and what is not. Our God is indeed a patient God when we mess up. He lovingly calls us to admit our shortcoming and ask for His forgiveness. He forgives me and tells me He loves me. God's love for me is so very patient. How blessed I am.

Deb Riddell
Closet Manager