Do you love me?

Peter, do you love me? This was the question posed by our Lord to the Apostle after Peter’s denial of Him the night of His crucifixion. Notice that Jesus didn’t ask him if he believed in Him, or if he had professed or confessed Him, or obeyed Him or even if he had placed his trust in Him. No Jesus asked Peter if he LOVED Him.   

Our Lord knew that on the very night he denied Jesus, Peter had professed that he would never fall away. That night, he had participated with Jesus in the most intimate of times, the first communion service and sat under Jesus’ most passionate and personal teachings. And only hours before his denial, Peter had come to the defense of His Lord by drawing a sword. If anyone expressed evidence of devotion for Jesus, it was Peter. If ever their was one who should not have denied Jesus, it was Peter. But he did.

In asking the question, ‘Peter do you love me’, Jesus was probing the very heart of one who had not known the weakness and depravity of his own soul until that night. It was only after being confronted with his great falling away, that Peter truly understood the depth of the mercy of our Lord and the freedom of forgiveness. As Peter ran from the courtyard and wept bitterly, he demonstrated his repentance of his great sin. And having just seen in the ‘look’ of Jesus (Luke 22:61), the immeasurable grace and offer of forgiveness, he could not help but love the One who would forgive so great a sinner. For love is the natural response of forgiveness shown.

What if we were asked today if we loved Jesus? As a Christian, we might find ourselves confused when asked if we belong to the elect, if we have truly professed Christ, or if we are a disciple of the Savior. But there should be no confusion or doubt when asked, if we love Jesus. If we have wrestled with our sin, turned from it’s appeal and experienced the liberating forgiveness of Jesus Christ, then we cannot help but say with some confidence that we love Him.

How is it with you today? Do you love Jesus? If the answer is no then evaluate if you truly are of the faith. If you answered, yes, then celebrate this Easter week with renewed assurance of Jesus’ love for you and His unending mercy and grace in granting forgiveness to His repentant children.

soli deo gloria

Happy Children or Holy Children?

Is it our responsibility to make sure that our kids are happy?  Me thinks not.  Read this blog I came across, not sure of the author’s views on all issues but she sure makes sense on this one.                                                                                              I don’t want my kids to be happy!

soli deo gloria

Truth Seeking

During the past couple of weeks in our expository overview of the book of Acts, we have been examining the accounts of three ‘conversions’; Simon the magician (not a true conversion by the way), the Ethiopian eunuch, and Saul of Tarsus.  A point which was not lost in the passage of the conversion of the eunuch, was that he ‘went to Jerusalem to worship’.  The question raised during our study was ‘what did he find when he arrived in Jerusalem’.  Did he find worship or did he find  pomp and circumstance, ritual, and traditions of men?  As one on a journey to truly worship, a ‘truth seeker’, he could not have been satisfied.

The point made was this, may we at Center Hill, always find ourselves committed to the proclamation of the entire truth of God’s word.  May we always preach and teach good doctrine, so that those who hunger for the truth of God’s word find it in the ministries of CHCC.

I read with great encouragement, the blog of Tim Challies entitled Ruined for Anything Else would invite you to read his blog by simply clicking on the title.  He states the issue much better than I.  The good news, there is a resurgence back to teaching and preaching of sound doctrine in many churches.  Truth seekers, take heart.

soli deo gloria

Child Advocacy Center presentation

In a continued effort to provide information, encouragement and protection  to our church families and the families of Jefferson County, Center Hill will be hosting a presentation of Jefferson County’s Child Advocacy Center, on February 23 at 7:00 PM.  The presentation will be conducted by our own Pat Berger who is Jefferson County’s Victim/Witness Coordinator and a Child Forensic Interviewer.  She has worked with crime victims for 17 years and the past 8 of those years in Jefferson County as part of District Attorney Jeff Burkett’s office.   She has seen the heart breaking devastation physical & sexual abuse has on children, their families and the community.  Pat is committed to reaching out to child and adult victim’s of abuse with any and all support at her disposal.  Come and hear her heart and the commitment of the Jefferson County District Attorney’s office  to victims and to justice.  

The entire community is invited to attend this meeting to learn first hand about Jefferson County’s Child Advocacy Center and it’s benefits to the children of this and surrounding counties.

We as Christ’s church in this community have a repsonsiblity not only to the spiritual welfare of those in our midst but also to meet the physical and emotional issues when they are evident to us.  Let it be said that Center Hill is a place of hope for all hurting people.  Remember Jesus’ own words in Matthew 25:40 “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

soli deo gloria

Strengthening our families

It is imperative that the local church strengthen it’s nuclear families if it is to accomplish the great commission of ‘making disciples’ first in Jerusalem and then in the uttermost parts of the world.  God has ordained the family as the primary agent responsible for the raising of children as the next generation of ‘Christ followers’.  This responsibility is not to be abdicated to the church.  More and more as a society we are relinquishing our right and responsibility as parents to the government.  But just as frightening and more concerning to me as a pastor is the fact that many Christian parents have resigned as the primary counselor and teacher of the precepts of God and allowed the local church to become the main tutor in their absence.  Deut 6:6-9 says it quite clearly ‘ And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.’

Sled riding 2010

We at Center Hill are committed to strengthening the families and equipping them to become all that God has intended them to be.  To that end, we have on a regular basis, scheduled family events.  Events to supplement the Bible centered teaching in our Sunday School, and Awana.  Events which are Christ centered and family oriented.  Case in point, our recent church sled riding party.  What a great time.  Just check out the pics on ‘Our People’ page.

In the coming weeks, we will be sponsoring movie nights, scrapbooking parties, outdoor treks, and picnics as the weather warms.  It is our intent to teach and preach the Word of God in every avenue we are given and to make available events which allow families to nurture biblical parent and child relationships and educate parents in the knowledge of our Lord.  We will do what ever we can to outfit our families to raise children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

Sled riding 2010

soli deo gloria

Boring sermon, Pastor!

One of my greatest fears as Pastor is that I make  the Word of God boring as I take the pulpit each week.  It is the very Word and thoughts of the God of creation and it is astounding to think that He has chosen to even communicate with His creation.  What is man that He is is even mindful of us?

Then to think that He has entrusted to this earthen vessel a message for His people through His Word, humbles and strike fear within me.  Pray for discernment.  Discernment not only on my part but on the part of the hearers at  Center Hill Community Church.  Discernment to distinguish between opinion and truth, between traditions of man and the commandments of God.

But preaching and hearing is obviously a two way street.  We hear often of the responsibility of the preacher to preach soundly but is the hearer just a passive sponge without any duty?  No, the scriptures are very plain that to those who much as been given much will be required.  The principle is clear, act on what God has revealed to us.

As the Puritan Pastor Richard Baxter said, ” Remember that all  these… sermons must be reviewed, and you must answer for all that you have heard, whether you heard it…with diligent attention or with carelessness; and the word which you hear shall judge you at the last day. Hear therefore as those that are going to judgment to give account of their hearing and obeying.”

As a Pastor, I am grateful for the people of Center Hill.  They do discern, they act on what they hear, they allow the Word to change them, they challenge me.  Oh for this to continue.

Below is a 2 minute video from John Piper which sums up my heart of the Word of God and it’s appeal to the true child of God.  Pray that we at Center Hill never treat the Word of Creator God as boring!

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soli deo gloria

Unspeakable tragedies

This week has once again shown that we live in a fallen world.  Best defined as ‘unspeakable tragedies’ have occurred around the world and also right here in our midst of western Pa.  The earthquake of Haiti, claiming tens of thousands of lives and the murder of Pa. State Police Trooper Paul Ritchey, while responding to a domestic dispute call, serve as reminder that something is terribly wrong within creation.

I call them ‘unspeakable’ because most of us cannot find the words to describe our feelings or to express our condolences to the victims’ families and survivors of the Haitian disaster and especially to our neighbors, the Ritchey family.  I wrestle even as I write, to justify my even commenting on these tragedies.  As a Christ follower, as one who believes in a sovereign God ruling in every affair of man, as a believer placing my trust in the fact that God is good, merciful and just, how do I respond to the grief and the apprehension of those left behind?  What actions should I be prompted to?  Or do I remain silent?  With humility and fear of sounding trite, I offer the following.

In the immediacy of the situation let us pray.  Let Peter’s prayer as he sank on the water, “Lord, save me” be enough.  When we know not how to pray let Peter’s example of crying out to His only Savior, Jesus Christ, be our example.  Let us pray for the families and survivors that God grant His grace and comfort which surpasses all of our human understanding.  At the end of the day, we need to pray and we need to encourage the victims to also cry out to their only true source of rescue.  God is our ‘rock and our salvation’.

Next we need to reach out.  Let us not be simply spectators in an age of  immediate and constant news casts.  Let the images of hurting victims and of grieving families, be the catalyst to spur us to action.  Go, send aid, alleviate suffering, counsel or simply compassionately listen as grief is shared.   Comfort one another, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

Lastly, let us fervently ask God to send, in a mighty way, His ‘good news’ of His son Jesus Christ to all who were affected by these tragedies.  The Gospel is the only thing which brings true comfort and lasting peace.  God has reconciled man to Himself through His son Jesus.  Yes we live in a fallen world, and unspeakable tragedies happen, but our hope, our comfort lies in the fact that through repentance of sins and faith in Jesus Christ, we look heavenward and see not our Judge on the throne of creation but our Father.  We see our ‘Daddy’, with out stretched arms longing to embrace His hurting children.

To the Ritchey family, many eulogies and memorials will soon be written, as rightfully they should be. Paul stood for something beyond himself and  willingly faced the threat daily for a cause greater than his own safety and for that we, as a society, are most grateful. Let him be an example of selflessness to all generations.   Our most profound condolences go out to you.   But if in those quiet moments the memorials fall short, know this God; loves you and longs to comfort His children. Call out to Him and He will be found.

“Lord, do not allow us to suppose upon your will in the midst of our calamity but use these moments to draw us ever closer to the arms of a loving Father.  Grant comfort and grace to those in need and spur each of us from easy complacency to action.  Allow your Gospel, to go forth with power in a hurting and fallen world”

soli deo gloria

The good, the bad, the beautiful

The good, the bad, the…………….beautiful?  Not exactly a raucous sounding Clint Eastwood movie is it?  But it is a picture of the church found in Acts 4:32 through 5:14, the recounting of Ananias and Sapphira.  The good in that all who had need in the church were finding that need met through other members of this body.  Especially well pictured for us in the person of Barnabas.  The bad in the sin of Ananias and Sapphira.  Not the sin of greed, as supposed by many, but the sin of spiritual deception as posed by these two believers to the church and ultimately to God.

So where is the beautiful?  Doesn’t this story end with the immediate deaths of this husband and wife team?  ‘Falling down and breathing their last’ seems more like a violent ending to a Clint Eastwood movie of the old west than a conclusion to a church service in the first century.   But the story really doesn’t end there, for Luke continues in verse 14 with the fact that ‘more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women’.  Isn’t it interesting that the Holy Spirit recorded for us that the fastest growth spurt of all time for the church followed on the heals of such a traumatic event?

I realize that the scriptures place this verse in the midst of a passage that records ‘many signs and wonders being performed by the apostles’, and this could explain the great growth of the church.  But the scriptures also places it immediately after God’s judgment upon sin in His church.  Verse 13 says that ‘none of the rest dared join them’ but that the people held them in high esteem.  Why did the unbelievers not dare join them?  It was because they saw that this body of believers not only demonstrated the love of Christ toward each other in meeting physical needs but also took sin in their midst very seriously.  Here is the beautiful in this story.

God takes sin seriously in His bride, the church.  It is His purpose to present us holy and blameless before the Father and will go to great lengths to ensure her holiness.  It is a beautiful thing when the church functions properly in holiness and unity as the Psalmist says, ‘how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!’

It is apparent that God doesn’t always discipline His children’s spiritual deception as severely as He did Ananias and Sapphira, or as Donald Barnhouse said, ‘each church would need a morgue in it’s basement and a mortician on Pastoral staff’.  But the lesson for today’s church and it’s members is that we need to judge ourselves of personal spiritual deception.

Do we pretend a righteousness we don’t possess?  Do we try and persuade others that we are great prayer warriors when we know that prayer is simply used at meals and bedtime.  Do we lead others to believe that we have it all together spiritually when we know that we are spiritual wrecks?  Ananias and Sapphira’s sin was not a casual misrepresentation but a willful falsity seeking to lead the church to believe they possessed a deeper spirituality than truly existed in their lives.  Today’s church must rid itself of deception among it’s members and live transparent before God and each other.  As Paul says in Ephesians ‘having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.’

Let this year be one in which we as the church speak the truth in love to each other.  For judgment should begin at the household of God.  It is time for the evangelical church to become so distinctly different than the rest of the world that we give people something to convert to.  Let that distinction begin with our truthfulness to one another.

soli deo gloria

It’s Christmas Eve

Today is Christmas Eve.  The big crescendo is about to reach it’s pinnacle.  With great anticipation, children and many adults will fall asleep tonight wondering what the mystery and marvel of tomorrow will bring.  What will it bring for you?  Presents, fixed family relationships, good will, peace?

As we end the Advent Season tonight with a candlelight service at Center Hill, the question will be asked, Why did Jesus come anyway?  Why would the God of creation manifest Himself in the form of a human to live among us, when we, His creation, had so despicably rejected Him?  Was it simply to spread good will and a general proclamation of peace on earth?  Or an exhortation to give of ourselves to those in need or even to some how be kinder to our neighbor than our past records?  If that is our understanding of the angelic host’s song to the shepherds, than we have missed the true gospel message in this Christmas season.

Jesus came to seek and to save the lost, to be a ransom for many.  The proclamation that first Christmas night says “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased”!  Don’t miss the gospel, the ‘good news’, of the angel’s voices for the well meaning quotes of today’s Christmas cards.   Christ’s coming was only good news to those with whom God is pleased.  The stark reality is that the very need for a ‘savior’ assumes the desperate plight of man.  We are at war and not peace with God.  He has provided a way of reconciliation though His son, Jesus.  Those ‘with whom He is pleased’ are those who have by faith placed their trust and obedience in this Christ child and His finished work on Calvary’s cross, some three decades later.

We at Center Hill, trust that you have understood the reason for His coming and not simply ‘the reason for the season’.  May you say this year, that ‘peace is with me, for God is pleased with me’.  God is only pleased with us when we have by faith, trusted and obeyed His son, for reconciliation.

Merry Christmas and Peace with God!

Soli Deo Gloria

Christmas responses

How do you respond to the Christmas season? With anticipation, merriment, frustration or maybe even apathy? At CHCC, we have been looking at several different biblical characters and their responses to Christmas or in particular their response to Emmanuel, God with us, over the past couple of weeks. What has become very evident about the responses to the Messiah’s coming, found in the story of the first Christmas, has been that it reflects different attitudes about worship of the God of creation.

We have looked at the Magnificat and found that Mary’s response was one of a humble servant who’s soul magnified the Lord. This from a teenager of 14 or 15. King Herod responded with hostility and the Jewish leaders with apathy. Apathy, which by the way, led to open hostility ending in our Savior’s murder three decades later. And this week we saw the joyful worship from the most unlikely persons, Gentile pagans, the Magi.   These astrologer magicians ascribed to our Savior the dignity, honor and worship due Him through joyful giving of their sacrificial gifts.

It has been a great opportunity for us to evaluate our own responses to the Christ of Christmas. Have we found ourselves humbly submitting to the leading of a sovereign God in our lives and ‘rejoicing with exceeding great joy’ as we approach to worship the King of Kings. Or do we miss the Messiah even though He’s manifested Himself in our very midst and time. Never let it be said of us, as it was of the Jewish leaders, that we have responded with indifference. When confronted with the truth of the Messiah and the Good News that ‘God is with us’ we are forced to make a decision. Will we worship Him this Christmas or find ourselves missing the Messiah for our celebrating of the season?

Soli Deo Gloria