Eric's Blog - Entries from November 2009 Back from DavenportHey everyone!
I hope you all had a great week in the Lord. A lot happened last week. My week ended by making a trip out to the church plant in Davenport Iowa with my family. A kind family took all six of us in for the night. We all had a great time. Barbie and I learned a lot, and we left encouraged by how powerfully God is working at this local church!
Summary:
- discussions on commentaries
- sermon preparation time
- leadership discussion with Kent Shaw
- Spent time in the studio as James MacDonald and Wayne Shepherd as they recorded for “Walk in the Word” (the radio program)
- APAC (All Pastors All Campuses) meeting discussion on:
- elder governed churches
- salvation
- charismatic issues
- women in ministry
- Leadership discussion with Bill Mollinari
- Worked on info for James MacDonald’s sermon
- Evaluated sermon of classmate
- Visited a family to bring food who had their house purposely set on fire by their 31 year old son while his 2 yr old was in the house (all kids safe, most of the house is burned) http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=338702
- Professional speaker/ trainer came to talk to us about public speaking
- Visited Harvest Bible Chapel in Davenport with my family and the Training Center team (this church started 5 years ago and now has 2,000 people / many have been converted in this church)
- http://www.harvestdavenport.org
- announced our church plants at all 3 services
- various discussions with pastors at that church
Scripture:
“In the beginning, God…” Genesis 1:1
God has always existed…. He is ultimate reality. All of reality is contingent upon Him. Everything depends on His deciding that it exist – including you and me. The most simple and complex things in the universe all began from the One who has no beginning. Since God has always existed, He is self-sustaining. He will never grow tired, nor will he ever be needy.
Key thought – God is INFINITELY more awesome than we think! We will NEVER cease to be in awe of Him for all eternity. Let that truth grip you today. It will put EVERYTHING in perspective. “Be still, and know that I am God.” Psalm 46:10
 Future reward brings present joyHey everyone!
Below are some updates from last week in the Training Center for me and a couple verses to mediate on.
Summary
- practiced telling personal stories – illustrations
- discussions on the application of biblical texts (ancient world to modern world)
- exegesis (getting the meaning out of the bible verse) on verses from Revelation for James’ preaching series
- the Pastor from the Gurnee, IL church plant came and talked to us about his experiences over the last 2 years as a senior pastor
- listened to various pastors apply biblical texts
- reviewed and critiqued a class mates recent sermon
- several administrative times
- discussions regarding a “potential” moral failure of a lay-leader at one of the Harvest church plants (the situation is in the news in this area… very sad)
- a number of discussions and decisions regarding selling our church property
Scripture
“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven…” Luke 6:22-23
Jesus calls us to think radically different than we would normally think…. Our world would does not have a category that includes suffering and joy together. Jesus however does! As we live with an eternal perspective on life, we will too.
When we step out in faith and seek to engage people with the gospel (the good news that sinners can be forgiven and go to heaven) we will run into situations where people don’t appreciate what we’re trying to do because of their spiritual blindness to the gospel. If these people hate us or revile us etc.., we don’t have to base our joy in their response. Rather, in the midst of this form of suffering (though many in the world are being beaten and killed to advance the gospel message) we can actually REJOICE! Why? Because God Himself will reward us! His rewards will never fade. No one can take them from us. Realization of His future reward will bring present joy! This realization enables us to have a category for how suffering and joy can go together.
Let’s allow Jesus’ promise to spur us on to greater and greater obedience. Let’s allow His promise to free us from the fear of rejection. And let’s reach those around us with the good news that they can personally know God now and forever through faith in Jesus Christ! We’ve only got one life to live – let’s make every day count. “Father, please help us in this!”
Grateful for you all!
 Astonished At His TeachingHey everyone!
It is getting a little cooler out there. We actually saw a house with Christmas lights up yesterday! First time I’ve ever seen that! :-) Also, my wife and I were at the parenting seminar at Harvest in Rolling Meadows and “out of the blue” bumped into Jp and Diane! It was so unexpected that I just stood there in shock. There were 100’s and 100’s of people everywhere and yet we connected. That was pretty cool.
Here’s a summary of what I was involved in last week.
Summary
-
working through James’ sermon while he taught us how he puts together his notes
- discussing financing issues in the local church
- Listening to and evaluating 2 different classmates sermons
- Discussed hospital visits
- Discussed baptisms and practiced them in a tank
- Met with a pastor from Humboldt Park/ Chicago (where my parents are from) and learned about their ministry to prostitutes – VERY touching!
- Involved in Management Leadership Team (discussions of various things happening on all 5 HBC campuses)
- Website discussions
- Counseled a 19 year old (while his family was present) regarding his recent theft, drug use and possession of marijuana (pray for him!)
Scripture
“…and they were astonished at his [Jesus’] teaching, for his word possessed authority.” Luke 4:32
What a privilege to possess the authoritative word of God! What a privilege. It’s easy to take this privilege for granted. We are surrounded by a world of people who look to themselves as the final authority instead of the word of God. What a sad plan... As people, our perspectives are without question – limited. God’s perspective on the other hand has no limits. He always sees clearly and therefore He always speaks accurately. When we read the Bible – we can rest assured that it has ultimate authority! No need to look elsewhere. We got it! Let’s take advantage of our privilege and seek to know and understand the Scriptures better than we ever have. We don’t have to wonder if we’re missing out by not reading the next self help book.
God has spoken – let’s be astonished and listen!
So thankful for each one of you,
Eric Posteluk
 Pray Like JesusHello everyone!
On Tuesday of this week we had to put our cat down. My girls were pretty upset... My 4 year old said, “It’s tearing my heart out!”
The “very next day” my girls told their bus driver what happened and she said that her daughter just found a kitty. A couple days latter we picked him up. The whole family loves him! I’ve affectionately named him “Kojak” J Through this all, I’m reminded how God takes care of us, even in the “little things” (Eph 1:11). What a comfort to know that God sees everything and is always leaning toward us in infinite love.
Here’s an overview of what happened last week. My training has been such a blessing!
Summary
-
Meeting with Kent Shaw (he oversees Harvest Bible Fellowship for church planting) and Bill Mollinari for discussions regarding launching HBC Joliet
- Sermon review of a classmate
- Researching verses in the book of Revelation for James’ sermon
- Various discussions of illustrations in sermons
- practiced telling personal stories
- practiced crafting illustrative stories
- listened to various well known preachers giving illustrations
- Worked on refining Harvest’s doctrinal statement
- Worked on outlining James MacDonald’s new sermon with him
- Went out with Rick Donald (founding pastor with James MacDonald ) and his wife Lynn to meet with 3 different lay-leaders at Harvest
Scripture
“…he [Jesus] would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” Luke 5:16
What an example we have in Jesus! What a blessing to be able to read about His life in the gospels. Jesus knew the sweetness of praying to God the Father. He was a man of prayer. He took time to get away from His responsibilities in life so that He could seek God in prayer. In the Greek (the original language that the book of Luke was written in) it’s clear that this is something that Jesus was doing on a regular basis. We could say that Jesus was “regularly” withdrawing to desolate places to pray.
Let’s follow our Saviors example and regularly take time to get away by ourselves to seek God in prayer. God is jealous for our hearts. He wants to reveal more of Himself to us than we can imagine. He wants to increase our joy and peace regardless of our circumstances. Let’s become more like Jesus and seek God more regularly in prayer!
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