Happy MLK Day family and friends, I hope each of you are doing well, and that your year is getting off to a good start. This has been a wonderful week and weekend for my family and I and the DUCC family. Hope you enjoy this week’s Monday Moments.
MLK: Celebrating the Life & Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
As the years go by I am growing more and more grateful the legacy of MLK. I have been afforded so many opportunities due to the sacrifices that he and others made in our nation, and I want to live a life that expresses that gratitude not simply through words by through impact. There are several events going on to celebrate this great legacy. Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the Harrisonburg & Rockingham County NAACP MLK Celebration where one of my mentors, Pastor Art Dean, was the keynote speaker. He brought an excellent and encouraging word for us to abide by. Special shout out to the NAACP for their faithful work in our community and keeping all of us on track to making our city and county a better place. It is my hope that not only today, but this week you will take some time to reflect on our history, examine our present, and prepare to make our future as a nation a better place for our children and grandchildren to live.
Marriage Seminar:
Last night we kicked off our first Marriage Seminar for the couples at our church. These seminars are facilitated by Carl & Carolyn Stauffer who regularly attend our church and serve with us in many ways. We are grateful for their time and ministry to the couples in our church. It was a blessing to see 9 couples gathered together on a Sunday evening to enrich and grow their marriage. I believe happy and healthy marriages make happy & healthy churches.
Don’t Hate Congratulate: Jealousy
This week we covered our 3rd emotion: Jealousy. Jealousy is one of the least admitted emotions by people. I realize that often times jealousy is used in the same vain as envy, but they are different. There has been a pattern over the past few weeks with looking at the good and bad of these emotions. This week we covered Jealousy that Ruins Relationships, and Jealousy that Restores Relationship. Taking a look at the 10 Commandments, we see that the 1st 5 Commandments instruct us on how to relate to God, and the last 5 Commandments teach us to relate to one another. As we read Exodus 20, we see in the 2nd commandment that God Himself is a jealous God. Which means He passionately loves us, and He has the right to be jealous for us because we are His and should not give worship, adoration, or complete devotion to anything or anyone before Him. Good jealousy comes from a place of purity and rightness in the eyes of God. For instance I have the right to be jealous for my wife, and no other man should have the time or joy that I get to have my wife. She is mine, and I am her’s no 3rd parties.
Now in the 10th and final Commandment we are instructed not to covet after anything that is our neighbor’s. It is in this Commandment we see God teaching us that sin begins in the heart. Bad jealousy is when you feel like God owe’s you something, therefore seeing what others have stirs up jealousy, envy, and covetousness. While we may often have feelings of jealousy, it is how we handle those feelings that makes the difference. The antidote to jealousy is celebrating other’s good fortune, success, and accomplishments. So to sum it up, Don’t hate…Congratulate! For further study I encourage you read James 4:1-10 and Romans 12 this week.
Expand Update:
Our EXPAND campaign is still on the move as we are pressing to raise $20k to renovate our new space for classrooms, restrooms, and new lobby/meeting space. This is pretty exciting to see things coming together so quickly. New walls are going up, and we are making flooring and design plans. We encourage you to continue to pray and give towards this vision. Please visit our website: http://www.ducchurch.org.
Living in Freedom,
Pastor Chris
