Are You A Candidate For Hope?
Bryan Mowery served us well as he closed out Celebration Midwest 2010. He spoke of hope and the pre-requisite for hope: a discontented heart. We are dissatisfied with the now, therefore we hope for a better future. What are our hopes for God’s great kingdom? He then moved us on from Hebrews 11 to Hebrews 12 so that we might hear the great cloud of witnesses which are now saying to us, “It’s your time.” And with that, we headed back to St. Joseph, Lee’s Summit, Fort Scott and all the other Midwest cities where ‘our time’ awaits.
For those of you who made it to this year’s celebration, I hope you are already looking forward to next year. If you weren’t able to make it this year, mark your calendar now for next year. And go ahead and start saving for it now. A family of four needs to set aside just $10 per week to have the weekend covered. Save your pocket change and get a big jar.
As always it was a great joy to have Terry Virgo with us for the weekend. He started us off so well by reminding us Jesus is our rest, shade and delight. Perfect timing. Many rush from work on Friday afternoon to arrive at UCM, load in kids and provisions and then head to the first meeting. The band has already been there for a day preparing to lead us into the presence of our Savior. And that they did. During his 2nd preach, Terry reminded us of Jonathan and his armor-bearer (1 Samuel 14:1-15). Knowing who they were and what God had called them to, they went for it and started a route of the Philistines. Several years ago as we began to work into Maryville, God spoke the same passage to us and said ‘come on up.’And that we did and continue to do.
Therefore (one of my favorite Bible words), we move forward as Living Hope Church, and as a family of churches, on mission together. We look to our own Northside neighborhood and on to Iowa. We look to Columbia and Springfield in Missouri and the churches yet to be planted there which are already formed in the mind of God. His kingdom is advancing and we are advancing with him.
