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The Resurrection

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We will be gathering this Resurrection Sunday to celebrate Jesus’ raising from the dead. It will be central to our time together, but Easter has also become a time for families to spend quality time together and Heritage is no exception. We will be having a Brunch before our celebration starting at 9:00am in the West Educational Building. Whether this is your first time with us or your first time this week, we want to invite you to join us for this special gathering. There will be food everywhere and plenty of people to meet. Please allow our Heritage family to welcome your family with a plate of food and a friendly greeting.

Though fellowship is important and meaningful, we want to remind everyone why this day is special. Let us start to prepare our hearts by thinking about the wonderful grace shown us through the horrors of the cross, the fear of the grave, and Christ’s triumph over death. He is the reason we sing and have hope. He is the reason for our gatherings and our goings. He is where we place our trust. He, Jesus Christ alone, is the one who takes our place and pays for our sins.

George Whitefield said in his sermon, The Power of Christ’s Resurrection:

It was necessary on our account. “He rose again” (says the apostle) for our justification;” or that the debt we owed to God for our sins, might be fully satisfied and discharged.

It had pleased the Father (for ever adored be his infinite love and free grace) to wound his only Son for our transgressions, and to arrest and confine him in the prison of the grave, as our surety for the guilt we had contracted by setting at nought his commandments. Now had Christ continued always in the grave, we could have had no more assurance that our sins were satisfied for, than any common debtor can have of his creditor’s being satisfied, whilst his surety is kept confined. But he being released from the power of death, we are thereby assured, that with his sacrifice God was well pleased, that our atonement was finished on the cross, and that he hath made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the world…

…God is love; and therefore, could our own wills, or the world, have made us happy, he never would have sent his own dear Son Jesus Christ to die and rise again, to deliver us from the power of them. But because they only torment, and cannot satisfy, therefore God bids us to renounce them.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

Some today argue that it does not really matter whether Jesus was physically resurrected. As Christian apologist, Francis Schaeffer, explained in “The Universe and Two Chairs,” Death in the City, Chapter 9, in Book IV of The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer, how they couldn’t be more wrong:

The Bible says that Christ rose physically from the dead, that if you had been there that day you would have seen Christ stand up and walk away in a space-time, observable situation of true history. The materialist says, “No, I don’t believe it. Christ was not raised from the dead.” That is unbelief. Liberal theology is also unbelief because it says either that Jesus was not raised from the dead in history, or that maybe he was and maybe he wasn’t because who knows what’s going to happen in this world in which you can’t be sure of anything. The historic resurrection of Christ doesn’t really matter, says this theology; what matters is that the church got a big push from thinking he was raised in history. . . . Now I would say that the old liberalism, the new liberalism, and materialism are basically the same. To all of them finally the same word applies: unbelief.

In God in the Dock, C. S. Lewis said:

“The Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertion being that what is beyond all space and time, what is uncreated, eternal, came into nature, into human nature, descended into His own universe, and rose again, bringing nature up with Him. It is precisely one great miracle. If you take that away there is nothing specifically Christian left.”

 

Bonhoeffer on Easter from Letters and Papers From PrisonDated Easter Sunday, April 25, 1943

Today the tenth day is finally here again, so that I may write to you. How glad I am to let you know that I am celebrating a happy Easter here. The liberating thing about Good Friday and Easter is that one’s thoughts turn far away from one’s personal fate toward the ultimate meaning of life, suffering, and everything that happens, and one clings to a great hope.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are wanting to help you grow as much as we can. It is our desire to give you resources which can help you think, meditate, and ultimately worship the Lord with more and more of your heart and mind. Desiringgod.org has made copies of Pastor John Piper’s works available for free as a download. You can click the link on the left and download the book to your favorite device or print it out and read it on those things called paper. Your choice…

In His Steps

By Ministry

The Purpose

With all the talk of “from the neighborhoods to the nations” we might find ourselves asking “What does this look  like?” How do we have a heart for people around the corner from us when we are overwhelmed with all the things right in from to of our faces? Every single day we come in contact with souls facing eternity; souls in need of lasting hope and peace and joy that only Christ can give. How do we see past the surface and give them Jesus?
We will talk about life-on-life successes and failures; about out-of-the-box ideas to share truth in the workplace and neighborhood; about intentionally leaving a legacy of discipleship in our families. There will be time to ask questions and find out from others what are the obstacles and insights others have gained in their areas.
We will look at how God has called and gifted each of us uniquely, to be His minister to people in our sphere of life. Do we even see the people God has brought into our path?  And if we do see them, what next? In His Steps, will equip men, women, and even children to take their place in the Great Commission, leading others to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.

The Schedule

10:30 am Message 1: God’s Calling on Your Life (Worship Center)
12:00 noon Lunch by RSVP/Ticket (Education Building)
12:40 pm Message 2: Walking Through Open Doors (Education Building)
1:25 pm Coffee-Break
1:35 pm Equipping Sessions with 4 Options:
Personal Evangelism… How Do I Start?– Mike McGee
Bible Storying… Telling the Stories of Jesus as You Go – Melissa Hawley
I’ll Go! What Now? (Preparing for Short-Term Missions)?– Chad Puckett
How Can my Gifts Meet a Need in Ministry at HBC? – David Southerland
2:15 pm Coffee-Break
2:35 pm Getting Started!
3:10 pm Message 3: Starting Where You Are! Following the last message, 
(Kent will be giving books and equipping materials to those who have remained for the day.)

Free Books! Are You Kidding Me?

You read that right. Our speaker will be giving away resources to people for coming.  You can go to the book store and buy them or you can come to the conference, get equipped, eat a good lunch, meet some quality people, and get stuff for free. Your call…

The Speaker

Kent Humphreys grew up working in the family business, “Jack’s Merchandising and Distribution”, a general merchandise distributor to retailers. After marrying Davidene, and graduating from the University of Oklahoma (BA), he spent four years in the U.S. Army. He returned home in 1972 to buy the business with two brothers, which he operated for twenty-five years. In 2000, Kent started American Health Diagnostics.

Kent has been a business leader for forty years. While owning and operating a nationwide general merchandise distribution business for twenty-five years, he worked with the nation’s largest retailers. After selling the family business, Kent continued to be involved in commercial real estate and the medical distribution businesses. From 2002 through 2007, he was president of Fellowship of Companies for Christ International, an organization that equips and encourages Christian business owners who desire to use their companies as a platform for ministry. Kent now serves them as a worldwide ambassador for FCCI (Christ@Work).

    For many years, Kent has spent much of his time ministering to business leaders, pastors, and students across the country through speaking, writing, and mentoring. He has spoken in seminaries across the United States and at numerous international conferences. He traveled extensively overseas for many years. Kent and his wife Davidene have written a number of books including: Show and then Tell (Moody Press, 2000), Shepherding Horses, 2006, Christ@Work Opening DoorsImpacting Your Workplace for Jesus Christ  and  Christ@Work in Your Transition, from the Campus to the Workplace, 2010, and Letters to Workplace Leaders and other titles of the My Heart to Yours series, 2011. Kent and Davidene have three children and eight grandchildren, and make their home in Oklahoma City. You can find his books here.

Bible Storying

The following is a glimpse at one of the Equipping Sessions.  Melissa Hawley will be talking about storying the Bible.