Category Archives: ripple effect

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Why Change is GOOD!

I know I just made some of you cringe with that title.  CHANGE IS HARD!  Each of us have a different tolerance and preference for change and at the same time, no matter what, changing things is difficult.  Sometimes change is a choice and sometimes change happens out of our control.  But no matter what the change, we must learn to see the broader picture of what God is doing.  As many of you know, Luke Fraser has transitioned out of his role as the Robbinsville campus pastor, this means more change for our church.  God is in the process of changing all of us and there is much to learn.

butterfly

“Emerging from a change can be the most difficult thing we face in our lives”

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen..“ Hebrews 11:1

Whenever we face a critical change there are things we need to keep focused on.  Who God is, where He is, and believing he has our best in mind, to name three of them.  This will take an incredible amount of faith.  But trust me on this one, the change can be good.  Our staff talked about change this week in our weekly meeting, here is what we came up with.

5 Reasons Why Change is Hard and What to Do:

1. Fear of the Unknown – WE MUST TRUST THE LOVE OF GOD.  Many times we don’t need to have more answers, we need to have more trust.  Figuring everything out and making decisions to quickly after a change can cause us to panic even more.  Make decisions out of love not fear. “Perfect love drives our fear.” 1 John 4

2. Disappointment – ANTICIPATE THE EXCITEMENT OF SOMETHING NEW.  When you get to rock bottom and disappointment turns into depression, you have to look forward and ask God for a new vision.  What is one new thing you think God wants to do through you?  Mourn the disappointment, have a season of grief, then believe.

3. Lack of Control – TOTALLY DEPEND ON GOD.  Control is an illusion.  The economy, your marriage, your house, your job, your family.  The reality is, we control nothing.  Our job is to let go of control and submit to the process that God has for us in the change.  This has happened several times in my life and as a matter of fact, is happening right now as I right this!

4. I’m Uncomfortable – PRAY.  Maybe I should have put this one first on the list!  I have head this so many times, it is like a broken record, pray, then pray, then pray some more.  Start a new prayer habit and remember, take someone with you.  Have someone check in with you everyday and pray for you as you go through the change.

5. Doubt – SILENCE THE ENEMY.  You have to ban the voices from your head that would seek your destruction.  Doubt is the beginning of deadly pattern.  What you take into your mind can corrupt your soul.  Choose not to listen to what the enemy would say about you and lean on who Jesus says you are.

I know it is difficult, I know it isn’t what you thought it would be, it’s time to increase your faith and trust God simply for today.  He has your tomorrow. emerge from where God has you!

 

2x3.5_bcard

One simple act of obedience can cause a #rippleeffect

Josh

 

This Sunday at 217church:

April 26 – Go Do Good – The Good Samaritan

May 3 – Go Do Right – The Wise and the Foolish Builders

May 10 – Mother’s Day Celebration – Defining Moments

 

Join us at 217church, a multi-site, contemporary church in Mercer County NJ.  217church is a family with small groups in New Jersey and Pennsylvania that meets Sundays in the Hamilton AMC24 Theater 10:00am and Sharon Elementary school in Robbinsville, NJ at 11:00.  Our new Robbinsville/East Windsor Campus meets every Sunday.  If you are looking for a church in East Windsor NJ, Lawrenceville NJ, Ewing NJ, Robbinsville NJ, Hightstown NJ, Hamilton NJ, Mercer County, Middlesex County or Bucks County, PA, we would love to have you join us.  Don’t miss our weekend services. Visit www.217church.com for more information. or watch a weekend message here

 

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Why LOVE Is Worth The Risk

Should you love?  One thing is for certain, whenever you choose to love it is a RISK.  It is actually one of the highest risk activities you can participate in.  There is a song I heard recently that said, “if love was a plane, nobody would get on.”  Unfortunately, choosing not to love hurts you more than anyone. The greatest commandments are clear, they demand everything from you, LOVE, but nevertheless, they are a risk.

Jesus commanded love, He first loved…You have #NOTHINGTOLOSE

love yield risk 4-17-15

“Love teaches us to YIELD, it’s worth the RISK”

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.“ Matthew 22:37-39

All love for a Christ follower is motivated out of the the reality that Jesus loved us first. “While we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8  Caught up in our own lives and our own selfishness and pursuit of things and idols, Jesus went to the cross and laid down his life for us as the ultimate act of love.”  Furthermore Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”  To call yourself a disciple of Jesus, love IS and love DOES.  Our love first starts with Jesus and it must extend to others.  This may be the hard part, but it’s worth the risk.  We are to love enemies, friends, people whom we don’t even know.  We love more fully when we realize, we really have #nothingtolose.

2 Things You Will Have To Overcome In Order To Fully Love People –

1. Fear of Rejection  – EVEN IF EVERYONE DISOWNS YOU, JESUS WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU.  This one is a hard one.  I don’t know about you, but I tend to care deeply about what others think about me.  Most of us want to be accepted and loved, but many times we withhold love because we don’t want to get hurt.  We have all been rejected at one time or another by a person, a parent, a brother, a spouse, or maybe a coworker.  Rejection is real and it can be scarring and devastating to our emotional health.  Especially if we were rejected by a parent at a young age, this is something that can lead to a developmental love disorder.  We manipulate words, use people, and make love a corrupted usury and we hedge our bets against the hurts that can come from rejection.  A failure to trust can create a character deficiency that never fully reconciles us being transformed by Jesus.  Because we are now purchased by Jesus, we are to identify with and resemble a life transformed with the very DNA and new identity of the Holiness of the resurrected Jesus.  “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” 1 John 4:18   You have #NOTHINGTOLOSE

2. Fear of Sacrifice – EVEN IF YOU DON’T HAVE ANYTHING IN THE END, YOU FOLLOWED JESUS!  Fear of sacrifice makes love conditional, this was never God’s intent.  In order to fully love, it can’t be about you.  You don’t love based on what you can get out of it, you love because it is who you are and how you are defined.  Selfless love is perhaps the most significant sign of someone who is choosing to follow Jesus.  Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, “If you have not love you are a loud gong or a clanging symbol.”  This basically means you may be doing lots of stuff, a lot of activity but you are just making noise.  Fear of sacrifice means you are focusing more on your needs than the other persons.  Self preservation, self fulfillment and self centeredness are all driven by fear of losing something.  Control is an illusion and when you love sacrificially, you give control to God and others in order to manifest an evidence of a living God.   You have #NOTHINGTOLOSE

One simple question as I close… Who is God calling you to love today?  Go ahead, you have nothing to lose.

 

2x3.5_bcard

One simple act of obedience can cause a #rippleeffect

Josh

 

This Sunday at 217church:

April 19 – Go Plant Seeds – The parable of the seeds

April 26 – Go Do Good – The Good Samaritan

May 3 – Go Do Right – The Wise and the Foolish Builders

 

Join us at 217church, a multi-site, contemporary church in Mercer County NJ.  217church is a family with small groups in New Jersey and Pennsylvania that meets Sundays in the Hamilton AMC24 Theater 10:00am and Sharon Elementary school in Robbinsville, NJ at 11:00.  Our new Robbinsville/East Windsor Campus meets every Sunday.  If you are looking for a church in East Windsor NJ, Lawrenceville NJ, Ewing NJ, Robbinsville NJ, Hightstown NJ, Hamilton NJ, Mercer County, Middlesex County or Bucks County, PA, we would love to have you join us.  Don’t miss our weekend services. Visit www.217church.com for more information. or watch a weekend message here

 

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When You Need A New Beginning

I LOVE NEW BEGINNINGS.  Easter was an incredible celebration of hope and joy all across our globe.  Never before during Holy week have I been so aware and moved by the kingdom of God across the WHOLE EARTH.  I had the privilege of celebrating Palm Sunday just a week earlier on the continent of Africa in a small church with a Kenyan pastor, with a Danish preacher that met in a Hotel.  A church without a building.  Sound familiar?  I wish you could have seen the children dancing to “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  I wish you could have seen the absolute joy on the faces. I wish you could have heard the message of the hope of Jesus in a small church in a rural countryside with people who have great hope.  I wish you could have witnessed the worship in their beautiful native tongue with drums and exuberant, unrefined, authentic and raw expression. It changed me, forever.

Jesus was RESURRECTED so you could have a new beginning…

Ray Hug

Post baptism celebration from Easter weekend

“Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.“ Matthew 28:6

Then fast forward a week later to being home with my church family at 217church in New Jersey.  The people whom God has chosen for us to walk alongside and experience the joy of the church with every week.  Friday we celebrated the death of Jesus in a public elementary school.  We cried, mourned, shared communion and sang together remembering the pain of the cross, The self sacrifice of Jesus, and the ultimate purchase of love.  Saturday we baptized 6 more into His church and His Kingdom, and then Sunday 650 people strong worshiped and declared a RESURRECTED SAVIOR, sins forgiven.  Jesus’ act of obedience to go to the cross created the ultimate #rippleeffect!  We all need a new beginning, Here is what to do when you need a New Beginning.

Four Things To Do When You Need A New Beginning –

1. Acknowledge the Past – So many times we can think that just because we aren’t where we want to be, Jesus wasn’t right there with us helping us through.  Just because you don’t see and recognize Jesus, it doesn’t mean he wasn’t there.  He has been pursuing you for your whole life.  You past is your narrative of how he brought you to where you are now.  A new beginning happens when you acknowledge that Jesus has ALWAYS HELD you close.  Even though you avoided and walked away, Jesus never stopped pursuing.  “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way;”  Isaiah 53:6

Question. :  What is one thing to thank God for in your past?

2. Consider His Price – You have been purchased.  What Jesus did for you on the cross was nothing short of a miracle.  He endured, suffered and died for you.  If you have never come into a relationship with Jesus,  Your new beginning is now, if you feel as if your spiritual walk is stale, the cross gives us hope that his mercies are “new every morning.”  Many times we wander away from God because we have forgotten to focus on the price paid for us.  Unfortunately we focus on ourselves.  You have been paid for.  “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;”  Isaiah 53:5

Question:  What is your deepest pain that Jesus has forgiven?

3. Believe in His Providence – Hope!  You must hope.  Anything less than hope is you believing a lie about yourself.  Providence involves your future and no matter what you have been believing, you are a child of God.  The will of the Lord WILL be done through you and as hard as it may be to see, we must believe in faith.  We may not see the future, but he has it covered.  “the will of the Lord shall prosper in His hand.”  Isaiah 53:10

Question:  What are you believing God for in your future?

4.  Depend on His Protection – This may be the most difficult part of it all.  You can’t just hope, you have to put the hope into action.  Practical steps of following Jesus on a day to day basis.  You have to depend on Jesus for your healing, daily.  The enemy will try to convince you of your guilt, you may even start to depend on your own pride, pleasure, power, or even your possessions for comfort, emotional strength and security.  THOSE things are a lie.  It is only the resurrection power that can heal your wounds.  Not a person, place, or thing.  David committed adultery, Jonah ran, and the Israelites made idols for their security.  All we need is Jesus.  This verse is all you need for your new beginning…

“…and with his wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5

 

2x3.5_bcard

One simple act of obedience can cause a #rippleeffect

Josh

 

This Sunday at 217church

April 12 – Go Sacrifice – The rich young ruler

April 19 – Go Plant – The parable of the seeds

April 26 – Go Do Good – The good Samaritan

 

Join us at 217church, a multi-site, contemporary church in Mercer County NJ.  217church is a family with small groups in New Jersey and Pennsylvania that meets Sundays in the Hamilton AMC24 Theater 10:00am and Sharon Elementary school in Robbinsville, NJ at 11:00.  Our new Robbinsville/East Windsor Campus meets every Sunday.  If you are looking for a church in East Windsor NJ, Lawrenceville NJ, Ewing NJ, Robbinsville NJ, Hightstown NJ, Hamilton NJ, Mercer County, Middlesex County or Bucks County, PA, don’t miss our weekend services. Visit www.217church.com for more information.