Summer is upon us again. People are taking
trips, vacations, and anything they can to
get out of the valley to escape the summer
heat. Now, If you regularly read this
newsletter, you know that I usually send one
out each month. I've done that from the
start. Well, I have to confess that I fell
behind because of a vacation trip during the
time I usually put together the newsletter.
I could have worked around that except that I
could not get on the internet from where we
were vacationing. Hopefully, that will not
happen again.
I had a very humbling experience this last
weekend. I'll try to keep this short. Three
families from our house church went on our
1st annual early summer campout. We camped
at Canyon Point Campground which is at about
8000 ft. One of the things that John Rowden
and I like to do is
geocaching. (If you don't know about this,
go to www.geocaching.com
for information.)
On Saturday we went on a couple of geocache
searches. One of them took us deep into the
forest near Willow Springs Lake. The whole
idea of geocaching is to use a GPS device to
locate the hidden cache using the coordinates
for the cache from the geocaching website. When
we parked my truck at the trailhead, I had
the option of setting the coordinates for
that location in the GPS so that we could
return back. But I did not do that thinking
that I could simply reverse the direction we
were taking to the cache to return. Well, we
found the cache and but returning back we went
north of the lake, away from the parking
location. After 3 hours and coming to the
realization that we had gone past the lake
some distance, a frustrated John (we had his
daughter Toni with us) suggested that maybe
we should pray before we changed our direction.
We did. After a short distance we came on a
road that led right to Willow Springs Lake.
>From there we were able to walk to the
trailhead parking lot. We were gone for a
good 4 hours with most of that in a 'lost'
state. For me, God gave me another lesson is
trusting in Him. I always seem to be trying
to do things on my own. But that almost
never works out for the best. Only when I
trust in my God and Savior, do things always
work out for the best. And, oh yes, I did
learn a valuable lesson. You ALWAYS set the
return
coordinates for the location where your truck
is parked.
There is a couple of new things this
edition. Many people, even Christians, have
a hard time dealing with offense. In other
words, they get offended by someone and can't
forgive them and move on. If you or someone
in your house church is struggling with this,
"The Bait of Satan" by John Bevere may help.
See Debbie Rowden's review of this book.
I promised a section on house church family
members serving in the military. As of now,
we only know of Aaron Spence. We have some
big news from him.
And a quick reminder to let me know of any
new churches or groups that should be on the
website.
Larry
Luke 10:2b
Prayers and Praises
From the Phoenix house churches
- Aaron Spence was home this past weekend for
a quick visit. See the special section on
the military for more information. Continue
to keep him and others serving in the
military in your
prayers. They really need our support.
- Continue to pray the Luke 10:2b prayer
asking God to send the house churches of
Phoenix into His harvest field. Pray for
spiritual renewal within the house churches
of Phoenix.
- Praise God for those faithfully taking part
in the
Valley's Saturday Morning Mountain Top Prayer
Campaign. Plan now to take part on July 7.
- Pray for our family members who don't know
the Lord.
- Pray for those struggling with addictions
such as alcoholism.
- David Croom who is piloting a new
discipleship program with Prison Fellowship.
He will be holding workshops in July to
train others to take this program nationally.
This could have great impact on the prison
population in the US.
Whats Happening
In the house church community
Coming Up:
June 12, 26: Churches in the East Valley
meet for prayer. Call 602-524-9400 or email for
times and location.
June 17: Father's Day
July 7: The Valley's Saturday Morning
Mountain Top
Prayer Campaign. Be sure to plan to be a part of
this movement in the valley.
July 14: Organic Leadership:
Rediscovering Biblical Leadership for Organic
Churches, with Neil Cole (Author of "Organic
Church"), Columbus, Ohio. See the CMA website
for more information.
July 15: 4/11 Leadership Team:
Ephesians 4:11 Discoveries & Applications to
Organic Church Movements, with Neil Cole
(Author of "Organic Church"), Columbus, Ohio.
See the CMA website
for more information.
Sept. 15: Evangelism In Depth Seminar
with Ed Waken at Fellowship of Grace PCA
7825 W. Deer Valley Road Peoria, AZ 85382.
If you didn't get an invitation, email Ed Waken
for more information.
For other upcoming house church related
events around the country, see the House2house
events page.
Military News
For the house church families
If you have family serving in our military,
please let us know so that we can list them
with any news. Please remember them with
your love and prayers.
(If the embedded video does not appear above,
go here.)
Aaron Spence, Debbie Rowden's son, who
we have been
reporting on
regularly, is in the Navy stationed at
Whitbey Island
NAS, WA. He completed his sea training and
is expected to join his unit currently
deployed on the USS Nimitz in the Indian
Ocean. They are on a 6 month rotation so he
will be returning to station within 6 months.
But the big news for his family is that he
flew down to Phoenix over the weekend and
proposed to Elizabeth De La Rosa. He has known
Liz
for a long time but has been serious only a
couple of months, or at least thats what he
says. She is a 3rd grade teacher
who is scheduled to depart for Army basic
training July 3. She will be a chaplain
aide. Well, she accepted. It will be
interesting to see how God blesses this
relationship. They
have not set a date yet.
More news to follow. Send Aaron an email.
Bradley Pontious, son in law of Larry
and Sue Johnson, left for Army basic training
and is now at
Ft. Benning, GA. He will be completing basic
in July and is expected to go directly to Ft.
Gordon for his job training. His family will
try to attend the graduation and see him
briefly. They are not sure how this will
happen. Please pray for them.
Resources
For the house church
Each newsletter, we try to present some new
resources for the house churches. If you
have found a book that you would like to
share with others in the house church, write
a short review and email to me. I'll get it
in one of the next editions.
This month
Debbie Rowden reviews a classic book that
should be on every believer's bookshelf.
The Bait of Satan, by John Bevere
reviewed by Debbie Rowden.
'Jesus said, "It is impossible that no
offenses should come" (Luke 17:1). It is not
a question of opportunity to be offended, but
what your response will be.'
Satan sets the trap and waits for the
unsuspecting Christian to pick up the bait of
offense, consume it, and then when it has
been taken in let the root of bitterness grow
in their life. Then these bitter Christians
try to pass on the seeds of bitterness, like
a virus, to other believers. The book asks
the hard question, What do you do when
someone offends you? Do you immediately
forgive them or do you set about defending
yourself, rallying others to your cause, or
do you move along to the next group of
unsuspecting believers towing your bags
filled with bitterness?
Someone once said that "bitterness is like
drinking poison and hoping the other person
dies." Once the bait has been taken in we
become separated from God's will and all
areas of our life begin to suffer.
Eventually we are full of anger, resentment,
pride and hopelessness. All our
relationships begin to have problems but the
most important reason we should forgive
others is that Jesus said, "For if you
forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly
Father will also forgive you. But if you do
not forgive men their trespasses, neither
will your Father forgive your trespasses."
(Mat. 6:14-15)
This book is written with the traditional
church in mind but all home church leaders
should read this book. It is important that
they recognize what is driving some of the
people in their groups. The home church is a
welcoming place for offended believers having
been hurt by the traditional church. It will
also help believers take a close look at
their own life, ask some hard questions of
themselves, and make some changes if need be.
John Bevere has written this book to answer
some tough questions for both long time
Christians and new believers. The book is
well written and can be used as a personal or
group Bible study as each chapter has a
devotional supplement. It will make everyone
take a good look in the mirror.
Just as we celebrated mothers last month, we
do the same for fathers this month.
Remember that fathers carry a heavy
responsibility in the Christian family. But
the Bible is our operating manual for
managing our families. Because after all, it
was written by the creator of the universe.
Psa 2:7 I will declare the LORD's decree: He
said to Me, "You are My Son; today I have
become Your Father.
Psa 89:26 He will call to Me, 'You are my
Father, my God, the rock of my salvation.'
Psa 103:13 As a father has compassion on his
children, so the LORD has compassion on those
who fear Him.
Please email me with any ideas for future
newsletters.
