Este sabado, el cinco de mayo...
This Saturday, May 5th we will be hosting a car wash at the Trinity Rescue Mission to help them raise money. Bring your sombrero, your dirty car, and clothes you don't mind getting wet in! My car is covered in ash right now (from the smoke from the fires in GA - they are in our prayers) and I don't plan on washing it until this Saturday :)! The Trinity Rescue Mission is located downtown (Jax) on the corner of Jefferson and Union Streets. We will be there from 9:30am until about 1:3opm. We will also be serving food (Mexican - what else?) for their lunch time. Please come and join us!
God is opening up many opportunities to help these men and women. We are in need of some older men and women to come alongside this ministry to help mentor these souls who are trying to find their way in life through Christ. Please be in prayer over this need.
See you Saturday!
Monday, April 30, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
A Call To Change
A letter from my Brother, William Hoagland, in it's entirety.
"Just yesterday I was home with some friends when one of them pointed toward the window and mentioned that a cop was running past us. We all moved out the door to see several cop cars rushing by. As soon as they pasted by, a good friend of mine pulled into my yard with a sense of urgency. Although his body had not completely abandoned his vehicle he was already shouting to us, telling us to get in the house. Before we could understand what he was telling us we heard over 15 shots and felt the bullets break the air over our heads. We went back into the house, warning everyone of what was happening, looking out the windows, searching for understanding.
Minutes later we heard part of the story. A man had murdered someone about 300 yards behind the house where we were at. As he fled the scene an under cover cop started to pursue him. The man went over a fence and fell into the school property right beside us. The cop called for backup and the police managed to trap the man at a fence after he had ran through the parking lot. At this point the man reached for his weapon and 4 cops shot him down a block away from the house where we were at.
If you were to draw a point there; where this man died, and with a half mile radius draw a circle, you would probably find over 15 religious buildings, all claiming to be Christian, within the circumference.
Some movements today are fervently dedicated when it comes to building religious production studios. They are about building the biggest, most technological and attractive environments as possible. Their goals include building more edifices in their community, country and even around the world. I guess people within those movements believe buildings change the heart of man and better buildings improve the efficiency. They pour time and resources into these buildings and their weekend theatrical events. There must be something more than just entertainment going on. Would someone actually believe that entertainment changes the heart of man? Yet amongst these many different buildings we find so much evil happening such as the previously mentioned act of hatred. How many more buildings do we have to build, and how many more services need to be organized, for us to make a difference in our communities? I think I speak the truth when I say, buildings do not change the hearts of man, and services do not change the hearts of man, only God changes the hearts of man.
Somewhere we have forgotten that God has chosen not to work through buildings but through people. It seems like we have forgotten that the Great Commission is fulfilled by making disciples and going, not “church planting” and attracting. We have focused our resources into buildings, maintenance and salaries neglecting the poor, the widows, the orphans, the outcast, the oppressed, those in prison and the persecuted. We have become more concerned about the condition of our services instead of the condition of our community.
We, brothers and sisters, have failed! We have failed because of our foolish decisions and selfish desires. When we make no difference in our communities we loose our flavor, we are not being light, and we are not fulfilling our mission. By becoming stale, stagnant and un-influential we leave our communities with no hope; even more, we participate in the death of our community. Maybe that is what the Spirit was trying to teach me when I estimated that there are more than 15 “christian” buildings and there were more than 15 bullets that put a man to his death in our community.
I write this to encourage change; a change of heart and of lifestyle; a change in our communities and in the world. I hope that you as a reader are encouraged to live up to your calling and I also offer two ideas for you to meditate on. I hope that you would not take these ideas and turn them into clichés but instead meditate on them, expecting them to cause some type of change in your lifestyle.
1. Christians need to stop going to “church” & start being the Church; &
2. Christians need to stop loving their services & start loving their neighbors.
May His Kingdom come and His Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven! "
"Just yesterday I was home with some friends when one of them pointed toward the window and mentioned that a cop was running past us. We all moved out the door to see several cop cars rushing by. As soon as they pasted by, a good friend of mine pulled into my yard with a sense of urgency. Although his body had not completely abandoned his vehicle he was already shouting to us, telling us to get in the house. Before we could understand what he was telling us we heard over 15 shots and felt the bullets break the air over our heads. We went back into the house, warning everyone of what was happening, looking out the windows, searching for understanding.
Minutes later we heard part of the story. A man had murdered someone about 300 yards behind the house where we were at. As he fled the scene an under cover cop started to pursue him. The man went over a fence and fell into the school property right beside us. The cop called for backup and the police managed to trap the man at a fence after he had ran through the parking lot. At this point the man reached for his weapon and 4 cops shot him down a block away from the house where we were at.
If you were to draw a point there; where this man died, and with a half mile radius draw a circle, you would probably find over 15 religious buildings, all claiming to be Christian, within the circumference.
Some movements today are fervently dedicated when it comes to building religious production studios. They are about building the biggest, most technological and attractive environments as possible. Their goals include building more edifices in their community, country and even around the world. I guess people within those movements believe buildings change the heart of man and better buildings improve the efficiency. They pour time and resources into these buildings and their weekend theatrical events. There must be something more than just entertainment going on. Would someone actually believe that entertainment changes the heart of man? Yet amongst these many different buildings we find so much evil happening such as the previously mentioned act of hatred. How many more buildings do we have to build, and how many more services need to be organized, for us to make a difference in our communities? I think I speak the truth when I say, buildings do not change the hearts of man, and services do not change the hearts of man, only God changes the hearts of man.
Somewhere we have forgotten that God has chosen not to work through buildings but through people. It seems like we have forgotten that the Great Commission is fulfilled by making disciples and going, not “church planting” and attracting. We have focused our resources into buildings, maintenance and salaries neglecting the poor, the widows, the orphans, the outcast, the oppressed, those in prison and the persecuted. We have become more concerned about the condition of our services instead of the condition of our community.
We, brothers and sisters, have failed! We have failed because of our foolish decisions and selfish desires. When we make no difference in our communities we loose our flavor, we are not being light, and we are not fulfilling our mission. By becoming stale, stagnant and un-influential we leave our communities with no hope; even more, we participate in the death of our community. Maybe that is what the Spirit was trying to teach me when I estimated that there are more than 15 “christian” buildings and there were more than 15 bullets that put a man to his death in our community.
I write this to encourage change; a change of heart and of lifestyle; a change in our communities and in the world. I hope that you as a reader are encouraged to live up to your calling and I also offer two ideas for you to meditate on. I hope that you would not take these ideas and turn them into clichés but instead meditate on them, expecting them to cause some type of change in your lifestyle.
1. Christians need to stop going to “church” & start being the Church; &
2. Christians need to stop loving their services & start loving their neighbors.
May His Kingdom come and His Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven! "
Monday, April 16, 2007
One to Remember
In Revelation 2:4 and 5, God tells says, "Nevertheless I have [somewhat] against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Rev 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works...". This passage written for the church of Ephesus is discussing the fact that the church had become complacent and lost their zeal and passion for Christ. His way of helping the church was to tell them to remember from where they had fallen. In other words, we are to remember the high points of our Spiritual life.
Guys, I don't think I am alone when I say that Saturday was incredible. I saw the love of God pour through the Trinity Rescue Mission. I saw people spontaneously praising God. Spontaneously grabbing each other in hugs! I mean come on! It was incredible!
To me, this Saturday was what being a Christian is all about. The greatest commandments are to love God and to love others and that was exactly what this past Saturday was all about.
****Please drop a comment or post and SHARE YOUR EXPERIENCE*****
One of the highlights for me, on a personal note, was with a grandmother named Gloria. After the service and after we had fed the ladies of the shelter, I grabbed some food and let God lead me to the person He wanted me to sit with. Little did I know, that Gloria had fought several Satanic attacks just to be at the TRM that day! Her entire family flat told her not to go. She refused telling them that God wanted her at the TRM THAT DAY! Well, God sat me next to her and prompted me to be bold and ask her where she was in her relationship with God. She told me that she was not saved. Then she sort of looked at me and told me, "Every Christian has a look, a peace on their faces. And Daniel, I want that Peace on my face." I walked with her outside where I shared the Gospel with her. She asked Jesus to be her Savior. When she got back to the table, the women around her were trying to figure out why Gloria was so freaking excited! The burden was off of Gloria's shoulder and this grandmother was beaming from ear to ear!
I love you all and can't wait for our next visit to the Trinity Rescue Mission on May the 5th!
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
This Saturday... April 14th
We will be at the Trinity Rescue Mission downtown to demonstrate Christ's love through service and experience Christ's love through fellowship with the wonderful souls that are sheltered there. If you have any clothes (in good condition) that you would like to donate, bring them on down! Another thing I noticed was that they need hangers for the clothes that are donated. Also, they collect things like toys and gifts for the children. Many of the mothers who are sheltered there cannot afford things like birthday presents or Christmas presents so they get to "shop" through the donations to pick out a gift for their child. So the date is Saturday, April 14th, from about 9:30am until 2:00pm, at the Trinity Rescue Mission on the corner of State and Jefferson. Be there or be square!
Sunday, April 8, 2007
The Lord is Risen Indeed!
As the sun rose this morning, I had the privilege of celebrating the resurrection of our Lord in worship with about 2,000 of our Moravian brothers and sisters. For those who don't know, the Moravians were the earliest Christian reformers who followed in the footsteps of the martyr John Hus after he was burned at the stake in 1415 for leading a protest against the oppression of the Roman Catholic Church (yes, they even predated Martin Luther).
The Moravians were the first to emphasize a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through the atonement and covenant of His blood. In fact, it was a Moravian pastor named Peter Bohler who spoke of this personal relationship with a young Anglican priest during a trip from London to Oxford in 1737. The young Anglican left there very troubled and would later accept Christ as his personal savior. That young priest was John Wesley.
The Moravians were among the first in America to share the gospel of Christ with black slaves and Native Americans. In the earliest days of our country, they built churches were slaves could worship. Even before the civil war, some Moravian churches began integrating making them some of the first churches to allow slaves to worship alongside whites.
At Christmas, the Moravians celebrate the annual "love-feast" where all church members and guests gather as a family for a combined meal (usually sweet bread and coffee) and candlelight worship service to celebrate the birth of our Lord. In East berlin during the turmoil of 1989 Moravians gathered as usual to celebrate the love-feast. In the background they could hear the roar of the growing crowd gathering to tear down the Berlin wall. East German guards stood their ground with orders to shoot anyone who tried to jump on the wall. The Moravians brought their love-feast to the wall area and began giving the hungry, freezing guards their sweet bread and coffee. The gaurds were forced to drop their guns in order to accept this welcomed gift. With nothing to stop them, the protesters broke through and rest is history.
The Moravian Church's national cemetary ("God's Acre") is located in Winston-Salem, NC. All Moravians who desire can be buried there. All Moravians are buried in the order they die according to their marital status and gender. There are no family burial plots or gaudy moseliums. All headstones in the cemetary are the same size and height and equidistant to each other. This is rooted in the Moravian belief that all of God's children are loved equally and none is more important than any other.
Moravian worship services are liturgical and contemplative. One way to describe their worship style might be "reformed liturgical". In other words, the liturgies are rooted solely in scripture and are by no means vain! Today's sunrise service began outside the Home Moravian Church in Winston-Salem (Old Salem) and concluded in the "God's Acre" cemetary. To give you a picture of the size of this cemetary, think Arlington National. As we moved toward the cemetary there were 30+ piece brass bands stationed throughout the valley playing Easter hymns antiphonally. As we gathered on the hills of the cemetary to watch the sun rise, the 6 brass bands slowly streamed down to the front to form the largest brass band I have ever seen!!!
We faced east. The sun was peeking over the horizon. We lifted our praise to our risen Savior with hymns like this:
"Lord, your body ne'er forsake,
ne'er your congregation leave;
we in you our refuge take,
of your fullness we recieve:
ev'ry other help be gone,
you are our support alone;
for on your supreme commands
all the universe depends."
"Ev'ry other help be gone, you are our support alone." The next time you buy that can of Moravian cookies at the grocery store, you can now be reminded that there is a great story of faith behind that name. May each of us follow the Moravian example by emptying ourselves of "self" so that we may be filled only with Christ.
The Moravians were the first to emphasize a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through the atonement and covenant of His blood. In fact, it was a Moravian pastor named Peter Bohler who spoke of this personal relationship with a young Anglican priest during a trip from London to Oxford in 1737. The young Anglican left there very troubled and would later accept Christ as his personal savior. That young priest was John Wesley.
The Moravians were among the first in America to share the gospel of Christ with black slaves and Native Americans. In the earliest days of our country, they built churches were slaves could worship. Even before the civil war, some Moravian churches began integrating making them some of the first churches to allow slaves to worship alongside whites.
At Christmas, the Moravians celebrate the annual "love-feast" where all church members and guests gather as a family for a combined meal (usually sweet bread and coffee) and candlelight worship service to celebrate the birth of our Lord. In East berlin during the turmoil of 1989 Moravians gathered as usual to celebrate the love-feast. In the background they could hear the roar of the growing crowd gathering to tear down the Berlin wall. East German guards stood their ground with orders to shoot anyone who tried to jump on the wall. The Moravians brought their love-feast to the wall area and began giving the hungry, freezing guards their sweet bread and coffee. The gaurds were forced to drop their guns in order to accept this welcomed gift. With nothing to stop them, the protesters broke through and rest is history.
The Moravian Church's national cemetary ("God's Acre") is located in Winston-Salem, NC. All Moravians who desire can be buried there. All Moravians are buried in the order they die according to their marital status and gender. There are no family burial plots or gaudy moseliums. All headstones in the cemetary are the same size and height and equidistant to each other. This is rooted in the Moravian belief that all of God's children are loved equally and none is more important than any other.
Moravian worship services are liturgical and contemplative. One way to describe their worship style might be "reformed liturgical". In other words, the liturgies are rooted solely in scripture and are by no means vain! Today's sunrise service began outside the Home Moravian Church in Winston-Salem (Old Salem) and concluded in the "God's Acre" cemetary. To give you a picture of the size of this cemetary, think Arlington National. As we moved toward the cemetary there were 30+ piece brass bands stationed throughout the valley playing Easter hymns antiphonally. As we gathered on the hills of the cemetary to watch the sun rise, the 6 brass bands slowly streamed down to the front to form the largest brass band I have ever seen!!!
We faced east. The sun was peeking over the horizon. We lifted our praise to our risen Savior with hymns like this:
"Lord, your body ne'er forsake,
ne'er your congregation leave;
we in you our refuge take,
of your fullness we recieve:
ev'ry other help be gone,
you are our support alone;
for on your supreme commands
all the universe depends."
"Ev'ry other help be gone, you are our support alone." The next time you buy that can of Moravian cookies at the grocery store, you can now be reminded that there is a great story of faith behind that name. May each of us follow the Moravian example by emptying ourselves of "self" so that we may be filled only with Christ.
Monday, April 2, 2007
The Flower
On Wednesday evening March 28 our aunt, Wanda Richardson, went home to be with Jesus. We buried her body this past Saturday. It was a beautiful ceremony and yet peculiar. Peculiar for two reasons. First, this is the first funeral for my mom's family where there were very few tears. It was very much a celebrated homegoing rather than a farewell. Second, for the first time a member of my mom's family asked, no insisted, that the gospel be presented at their own funeral. Aunt Wanda's final concern as she left this world was her lost family members and friends (two in particular).
She lived a full and Godly life. She was a faithful member of Calvary Baptist Church in Maclenney, FL for 26 years. The only way I know of to honor her life is to share Christ with someone who is hurting, to demonstrate the love of Christ with those in need and to live the gospel of Christ every day of my life.
Wouldn't it be perfect to honor one of God's flowers by sharing the love of Jesus with a homeless person today, or showing kindness to a street kid, or reaching out to a battered mother, or sharing the gospel with someone in jail? If you have two working hands and two working feet, nothing should keep you from joining Danny and Meredith at Trinity on April 14th!
I found a poem that expresses the essense of aunt Wanda's life far better than I could. Read it and let it bless you today.
THE FLOWER
George Herbert
How Fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean
Are thy returns! ev’n as the flowers in spring;
To which, besides their own demean,
The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring.
Grief melts away
Like snow in May,
As if there were no such cold thing.
Who would have thought my shrivel’d heart
Could have recover’d greennesse? It was gone
Quite under ground; as flowers depart
To see their mother-root, when they have blown;
Where they together
All the hard weather,
Dead to the world, keep house unknown.
These are thy wonders, Lord of power,
Killing and quickning, bringing down to hell
And up to heaven in an houre;
Making a chiming of a passing-bell,
We say amisse,
This or that is:
Thy word is all, if we could spell.
O that I once past changing were;
Fast in thy Paradise, where no flower can wither!
Many a spring I shoot up fair,
Offring at heav’n, growing and groning thither:
Nor doth my flower
Want a spring-showre,
My sinnes and I joining together;
But while I grow to a straight line;
Still upwards bent, as if heav’n were mine own,
Thy anger comes, and I decline:
What frost to that? what pole is not the zone,
Where all things burn,
When thou dost turn,
And the least frown of thine is shown?
And now in age I bud again,
After so many deaths I live and write;
I once more smell the dew and rain,
And relish versing: O my onely light,
It cannot be
That I am he
On whom thy tempests fell all night.
These are thy wonders, Lord of love,
To make us see we are but flowers that glide:
Which when we once can finde and prove,
Thou hast a garden for us, where to bide.
Who would be more,
Swelling through store,
Forfeit their Paradise by their pride.
She lived a full and Godly life. She was a faithful member of Calvary Baptist Church in Maclenney, FL for 26 years. The only way I know of to honor her life is to share Christ with someone who is hurting, to demonstrate the love of Christ with those in need and to live the gospel of Christ every day of my life.
Wouldn't it be perfect to honor one of God's flowers by sharing the love of Jesus with a homeless person today, or showing kindness to a street kid, or reaching out to a battered mother, or sharing the gospel with someone in jail? If you have two working hands and two working feet, nothing should keep you from joining Danny and Meredith at Trinity on April 14th!
I found a poem that expresses the essense of aunt Wanda's life far better than I could. Read it and let it bless you today.
THE FLOWER
George Herbert
How Fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean
Are thy returns! ev’n as the flowers in spring;
To which, besides their own demean,
The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring.
Grief melts away
Like snow in May,
As if there were no such cold thing.
Who would have thought my shrivel’d heart
Could have recover’d greennesse? It was gone
Quite under ground; as flowers depart
To see their mother-root, when they have blown;
Where they together
All the hard weather,
Dead to the world, keep house unknown.
These are thy wonders, Lord of power,
Killing and quickning, bringing down to hell
And up to heaven in an houre;
Making a chiming of a passing-bell,
We say amisse,
This or that is:
Thy word is all, if we could spell.
O that I once past changing were;
Fast in thy Paradise, where no flower can wither!
Many a spring I shoot up fair,
Offring at heav’n, growing and groning thither:
Nor doth my flower
Want a spring-showre,
My sinnes and I joining together;
But while I grow to a straight line;
Still upwards bent, as if heav’n were mine own,
Thy anger comes, and I decline:
What frost to that? what pole is not the zone,
Where all things burn,
When thou dost turn,
And the least frown of thine is shown?
And now in age I bud again,
After so many deaths I live and write;
I once more smell the dew and rain,
And relish versing: O my onely light,
It cannot be
That I am he
On whom thy tempests fell all night.
These are thy wonders, Lord of love,
To make us see we are but flowers that glide:
Which when we once can finde and prove,
Thou hast a garden for us, where to bide.
Who would be more,
Swelling through store,
Forfeit their Paradise by their pride.
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