East Valley House Church Blog

We didn’t meet on May 24 since it was the Memorial Day weekend and everyone had plans for that Sunday. The next week, Sue and I and John and Debbie took a long weekend camping. At times, we have actually had our own church service while camping in northern Arizona. This time we really didn’t set a specific time aside for church. Actually, we were challenged the entire time with things that needed to be fixed.

On Thursday, when we tried to use the propane tank, the regulator was leaking so bad that it would be downright dangerous to use it. I ended up making two trips from our campsite north of Clints Well to the Pine Hardware Store to get the parts and fittings that I needed.

When John and Debbie joined us late Friday, we found they had needed to replace their car battery before leaving town. This of course caused them to be much later than they had expected. On Saturday, after using their car battery connection to power the heater motor on their camper (I know its not really roughing it.), their car battery was dead again. After trying to jump start it unsuccessfully, John and I went down to the garage at Clints Well for advice. They have seen just about everything related to camping and they just advised us to charge the battery in John’s car with my car for at least a half and hour before trying to start it. And it worked. But we did use a lot of time up fooling with that.

In John Eldredge’s book, “Wild and Heart”, he talks about how men are always looking for a battle to fight. This is the way God made us. But how many men really understand that we are engaged in spiritual battles every day. If they really knew that, they would know that all we have to do is resist the enemy to beat him (1 Peter 5:8-9). All we really need to do is take a stand to fight back. I have noticed that sometimes our church plans get derailed because of life’s problems that seem to pop up for no good reason. I know that in many cases its just our flesh. But we have to face the fact that our enemy is there and he will try to upset our Godly plans as often as he can.

This morning, we met at Tom and Nancy’s home. We arrived at the appointed time, 11:30am, along with John and Pat. Nancy was way behind in the meal preparation. John and Debbie and John’s daughter, Samantha joined a little later. We actually started the meal at about 12:30pm. Tom has a mechanic that lives in Tucson and comes up to Mesa as often as he can to service their cars. They have to engage his services whenever he is in town. This morning one car needed a new radiator and the mechanic was working on it. Of course, this required Tom to go and purchase the parts so he had to leave at the beginning of the meal. They have three daughters and one of them locked the keys in her car someplace and needed to get to work. So Nancy also had to leave to help out with that. So our hosts were gone and we started our singing time before Tom returned. Again, I’m not saying that the enemy was definitely causing all these distractions. But don’t you now that he was still laughing all the time.

But we still managed to have a great time of song and study of Philippians 2. We had a very good discussion around v. 2:17 where Paul says that he is being “poured out like a drink offering” on the sacrifice and service coming from the faith of the Philippians. We all agreed that this is Paul’s way of saying that he doesn’t know if he will survive his imprisonment, probably in Rome.

Another passage of interest was v. 19-22. Its so clear that Paul set Timothy higher that his other followers because he says that everyone else “looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ” but Timothy had proven himself in the way he had served Paul. Next week, we continue at v. 2:25.

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This week the fellowship met at our home. One family will be gone for this week and next so we are smaller than normal. The entree this week was Sue’s taco pie; always a favorite. John and Debbie brought a cheesecake desert. Tom, Nancy, and Brian were a little late so, as is our standard procedure, after waiting about 15 minutes, we began lunch. We enjoyed good fellowship around the table.

Much of our talk was around the politics of the day. John and I had gone to the NRA convention in Phoenix on Saturday and we talked about the atmosphere there. Tom and family arrived and we continued to talk about politics. The subject of states rights is a big concern today. It should be a very big concern because the 10^th Amendment that establishes the limits of the federal government’s powers has been usurped for many years. Currently, the present administration is accelerating the continuation of this. This seems to be an area that we all agree.

The elements of communion were set in the middle of the table so that individuals could partake of these as part of the meal. Sometimes Tom will share a Bible passage that relates in some way to the blood and body of Jesus. But today, he didn’t bring this up.

After the meal, we moved into the family room and sang some songs. John’s daughter, Toni, has wanted to sing the song “You Raise Me up” for several weeks. On Saturday, I found the lyrics and the music and we sang this first. Tom discussed how the words seem to be secular but we are applying them to a spiritual truth, that God lifts us up so that we can be more than we could be without Him. Tom is not a fan of contemporary Christian music. I explained to the group that I thought the song was written by a Christian band. Since checking later, I have to say I was wrong. Secret Garden wrote the music and Brendan Graham, an Irish novelist wrote the words.

We sang some hymns and there was some time with Nancy sharing a prayer need. We then went into the section of Phil. 2:7-11 that we were on the last meeting. We had a very good discussion, especially around verses 9-11:

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,

so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

After some good discussion of these verses, an impromptu sharing time began with several folks sharing concerns and prayer requests. We then went into prayer for Nancy’s need and the other shared needs.

We then ended our time with fellowship around the cheesecake dessert.

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On May 3, our fellowship met at the home of John and Debbie.  Sloppy joe was the lunch fare with everyone else bringing a side dish or desert.   We took communion with the meal and sang hymns.  We continued to study Philipians, chapter 2.   We talked a lot about verses 5-11.  This passage exhorts us to be of the same attitude as Jesus.    

I don’t think its really possible to have the same attitudes as Jesus without Him living inside of you.   God looks at those who have accepted Jesus into their lives as the same as Jesus.  Spiritually, Jesus in us is what God sees.  This idea is very significant and can be controversial.  We are not perfect physically, or in our flesh.  And we fail so many times, living in our flesh.  But with Jesus living in or occupying our spirit, we are made perfect, to God.  

What an amazing hope we have in Jesus!  

As we do on most occasions, we ended our time praying for the needs of our families.   We agreed that we would not meet on Mother’s Day, providing a chance for everyone to spend time with thier families.

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The fellowship did not meet on Easter because everyone had family gatherings or something planned.  Sue and I actually had our own sunrise service which I will discuss on my blog, Desert Streams.

One of the interesting things about home church meetings is that you can change meeting places and times fairly easy.  Over the years, we have met different nights of the week, different locations, like coffee shops and even church buildings.  I find the flexibility with these types of meetings very helpful.  Of course, some don’t find it practical or necessary.  But when you have a small group, and most everyone can agree on a change, I see no problem with it.  But at the same time, we do need some type of stable schedule and if one family is going on a weekend trip, that should not be a reason to upset the schedule for everyone.  Oh well, enough of that.

Anyway, by consensus we decided to meet at Tom and Nancy’s home on Thursday night instead of Sunday.   Unfortunately, John and Pat could not make it but the rest of us were able to be there.  The food this night was a Mexican meal with all the fixings for tacos.  A do-it-yourself type of meal.  

After the meal, we moved to the living room and sang some traditional hymns.  Tom and Nancy’s son Brian is a very good piano player so he provides the music when we meet at their home.  Most of us enjoy hymns although some of us also like the contemporary worship music.  John and Debbie’s daughter, Toni, requested that we sing “You Raise Me Up”, a song made popular for Josh Grogan.  Our hosts had the music for that so we did our best to sing it.  I’ll get the lyrics copied for our next meeting because everyone didn’t know the song.  See below for a video of the song sung by Seleh.

We then continued our study through Philipians.  We started at the beginning of chapter 2.   After reading the first few verses, we discussed what we had read and what we are learning from the verses.   

Verse two is something I want to study a little more.  Paul says “then make my joy complete by being like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.”   I brought up the fact that a group should be like minded in their purpose.  And what is our purpose?  I see it as being salt and light in a lost world.  I don’t get the sense that we all agree on this.  So, the question to be answered as time goes on is this:  Can we agree on what our purpose as a fellowship is?

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Sunday we met at John and Pat’s home in east Mesa.  They have a beautiful home in one of the older neighborhoods.   The lots are all landscaped in a desert style.  But there is a very unique quality to the backyards.  There are no walls separating the backyards that you see everywhere else in the valley.  So its very open and quiet.   And of course, everyone has one or more citrus trees in the yard.

John and Pat have an open gazebo in their back yard just large enough for a round table with 6 or 7 chairs around it.  This is where we enjoyed our time on this day.  The weather was absolutely perfect.  Birds were singing.   There was a breeze most of the time.  We enjoyed fellowship around the Lord’s Supper that included the bread and cup of communion.  

During the meal I talked about the movie Sue and I had seen on Friday night.  We saw “The Cross”, about Arthur Blessitt’s call to carry a cross to every country of the world.   He carried a 12-foot cross across America first and then all around the world.  The movie documented many of the miraculous things that happened during the 38 years he did this.  I shared some of the things with the group.  

We began a discussion of Christian persecution.  Arthur Blessitt went through some of the countries that persecute Christians but God protected him from harm.   Christians here in the US really have no idea of the persecution that our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world have to endure.    Are we really blessed here in the US or are we irrelavent?

John added that in his experience, the internal battles going on inside of many Christians is a form or persecution.  The culture that we live in tries to draw us away from our relationship with Jesus.   The secular people and values that we come face to face with every day help create that friction.  

As I thought about this later, this is really the subject of the book I have been reading (listening actually), called “The Fine Line: Re-envisioning the Gap between Christ and Culture” by Kary Oberbrunner.    This book is all about Christians living “in” the world and not “of” the world.  Kary sees three groups of Christians, the “separatists” who separate themselves completely from the culture, the “conformists” who go too far in conforming to the culture, and the “transformists” who have learned how to be in the culture while working to transform the culture.  

I see many in the house church movement too much like the separatists that Kary talks about.  Many of them are just not comfortable being anyplace that is secular and don’t know how to talk to people who are not Christian.  On the other hand, there are others that try so hard to reach people that you can’t distinguish them from the non-Christians.   We need to find the balance that Kary talks about in his book.  I recommend it to every Christian.

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A beautiful day outside.  Good food to share.  The communal bread and cup.  Four families meet together for Christian fellowship.  Hymns are sung.  The Bible is opened.  And everyone is free to contribute according to the gifts provided by the Holy Spirit.  The only teacher is Jesus.  Prayer for a family struggling with trust of their child.

Discussion led us to 2 Corinthians 4:8-11:

We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.   For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 

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Welcome to the new WordPress hosted blog for the East Valley House Church.  Since this is my first attempt at a WordPress blog hosted on Godaddy, it will be under construction for a time.

The intent is to learn how to set up these hosted blogs and at the same time, put my thoughts down about house church in general.

We are in the east valley of the Phoenix, AZ area.  We are currently 4 families that meet on Sundays around 11:30am for a meal and our church fellowship time.  We are all pretty mature Christians and sometimes struggle because we are not always on the same page doctrinally.  But we all love Christ and we all agree that that is the most important thing and is what brings us together.

I’ll talk more about this later.

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