Act like men

 

This is one of my favorite verses to remind me that God made me able and I can stand firm. It doesn't mean be hard. It means love unending. Feel free to tell other men about FWM. They can text FWM to 419-419-0005 to join.

There are significant differences between men and women. I'm not going to speak to the differences except to say men should be men. Be on the alert-pay attention, heads up, something is happening. Your response to whatever happens around you must be to stand firm as a follower of Christ. We can love and love more deeply because we are strong in Christ. Indeed this new command which Jesus gave us remains. And accordingly we remain if we walk in love. Real men don't quit. We don't quit loving. We don't quit standing. We don't quit following Jesus. 

The spoiled rotten stubbornness we had a lost person was just our unability to quit standing warped by the devastating effects of the Fall. Your tantrums have no place here but your loving perseverance will serve as constant proof to yourself and to watching world that you are a man and a man following Christ. 

Faith over Fear

 We are individually equal because we are individually unique. You can actually be different from every other person by letting the power of God flow thru your experiences, background, and borders. God set these things up so that you might look around for Him. (Acts 17) and having found Him realize He was never far away at all. 

 

 

Courage and wisdom are the two sharp edges of a mighty sword that will carve a swath through the enemies of justice and mercy in this day. Flowery I know, but the bottom line is: God's people are supposed to be courageous and wise. Fear Not. Do what you have to do but set the standard as what God says you have to do, not what someone-anyone else says.   

 

Whether it is New Heights Fellowship Baptists Church of East Toledo or not, you are meant to function as part of a local body of believers. One of our Personal Trainers may be able to help you sort out which body, what is a body and what isn't, or you may just want to listen to the voice of God and let Him point you in the right direction. We are willing. He is patient. But it's time.  

 Worshipping with other believers is just one of many things that we simply miust do and the fact is that wearing a mask all the time, praciticing social distancing, and other COVID enforced activities has caused a side effect of people becoming more distant and less friendly. We MUST not go down that road. 

We must be the embodiment of our father's love and we must be actively learning better how to do so every day. He will bless us as we pour ourselves out for kingdom causes. We must brook no excues and instead choose to live with complete adn unwavering loyalty to our Go adn one another. Love! HUgs must happen, be careful if you must, but hug. Gifts must happen, be cautious but give. Service must happen Be cautious if you want but never, ever quit Denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following daily after Jesus!

 

Please accept the truth about Jesus Christ and begin anew today to live your life for Him. Then be wise and Courageous in Christ with response to Covid-19 and every other threat that comes along.

Hope to See ya Sunday,

Pastor Daniel R. Stevenson

Psalm 112 Acrostic paraphrase by the Body of NH

Psalm 112-English Acrostic (Written by NHF attendees August 25, 2019) Hallelujah! A man who fears the Lord is blessed, But this man greatly delights in His commandments. Children of his will be mighty on earth; Deemed blessed in the generation of the upright. Extreme wealth and riches are in his house, Forever his righteousness endures. Guiding light arises in the darkness for the upright; He is gracious and compassionate and righteous. It is well with the man who is gracious and lends; Just in judgement He will maintain his cause. Kept unshaken he will always be; Likewise, the righteous will be remembered forever. Messages of evil, he will not fear; Naturally, trusting in the Lord, His heart is steadfast. Oh, his heart is upheld, he will not fear, Persevering until he looks with satisfaction on his adversaries. Quite willing He has given to the poor, Righteousness of this man endures forever; Sovereignly, His horn will be exalted in honor. The wicked will see it and be vexed, Ultimately, gnashing his teeth and melting away; Villainous desire will perish.

March 2015 current facets of Stevenson ministry

I'm excited to be looking forward to my first book signing at the Book Nook in Monroe. The Life Station is in the middle of NE5 which is all of our partners helping to find new partners. We have a $5554 gap in projected giving to overcome before the end of the year if we are going to keep functioning at current levels and actually we expect the levels to increase. We keep seeing people get saved and recommitting their lives and that's awesome! However, many new people come all the time to get help which means more people hearing the gospel but it also means more people to feed and serve. New Heights has just moved into her new building and we are working on final inspections.The net step is getting the multi-purpose room ready and then getting the sanctuary ready. Walking the hall is a blessing. Anyone who's interested can check out our facebook page at facebook.com/newheightstoledo.

New Friends

Resting Alone I rest with mixed emotions tonight. It's been an incredible two weeks. We spent the last two weeks serving with mission teams from Mississippi. We were literally all over the city serving and spreading God's influence. We saw over fifty people make first time professions of faith between the two weeks, baptized ten this week and thirteen last week. We gave away thousands of expressions of God's love, looked evil in the eye and triumphed in many ways. We packed up our church's belongings and prepared to move out of our Main Street location, we built walls at the Heffner building and did a dozen other construction projects there including an awesome sign out front. New Friends But here's what's hard. I met people I really like. When you meet new people you really like and then they leave you, it's really sad. I met people with a heart that beats with the same beat mine does. 

This seemed to be one of the constants the last two weeks. New Friends leaving Now it's over and we are praising God for all He did. Still, some of these people I will not see again until we are worshipping God together at the tree in heaven. We may cast our crowns down together. We will give Him praise and in some amazing way that begins now, fifteen hours apart, our praises are united because of the character of the one we praise. Just the same as I sometimes feel inadequate to praise Him and He helps me, I now feel inadequate to let them go, go back home to their families, to their sports teams, to their jobs, to their friends back in Mississippi, back home. New Friends lost to time... This hurt runs deep. In a way that I can not explain it makes me feel lonely. However, in my loneliness I always find comfort.

 I am comforted by my family that stands by/with me. I am comforted by my church which is small in number but powerful in God's power. I am comforted by the ache in my butt muscle that came back while I was running my home run in my last regular season at-bat in our last regular season game, which we lost, by the way. I am comforted by the thought of the rainbow that stretched across East Toledo seemingly from the Heffner area to the Northwood Baptist Church Building area where we will be meeting for a couple of months. It appeared in the sky just as we were finishing cleaning up the block party that was our last official event on Main Street. I am comforted by the thought of a future slightly more populated with professing Christians and Christians actually living for Christ as they should. 

Comforted Most of all, I am comforted that I am not alone at all. I know in whom I have believed and I know that He is able to keep until that day, that which I have entrusted to Him. Jesus is with me although it does not appear that He will do the miracle of freeing me from using the spell checker and who cares anyway. 

The spellchecker works fine. To the mission teams: To the mission teams that are leaving to go back to normal, if, I hope, changed lives, we will miss you more than you can imagine. God be with you every step of the way and reach for New Heights in Christ every day! Don't worry about me I'll be alright. See ya at the tree! Dan Stevenson newheightsfellowshipchurch.org Think Again (A book to buy...)

Forty-Six days left!

46 days to what?

So, about six months ago God laid upon my heart a thing. We have affectionately dubbed it the 7-7-11 vision. It is a vision of what the ministry will be on 7-7-11. I 'm not sure about the whole thing really but I know it is a call to be something more than we have been.

Forty six days to 7/7/11

7-7-11 is forty-six days (if I'm counting correctly) away. It is a certain thing that if we arrive at that date and the goals have not been reached and we have not done all that God has allowed us to to fulfill the goals-then we will feel responsible. We must get the gospel out and show people that we love them. At that time of year when most people are making all kinds of plans to get too busy for God a number of New Heightsers or New Heightsians or New Heights peoples or whatever are making plans to get busier than ever for Christ.

Eighty outreach events in Forty-Six days
Over 80 outreach events most of which are servant evangelism type events are now scheduled with one lead persons name assigned for each event and the details (time, place, type of events recorded on a master calendar with other church events.

Eighty outreach activities in 46 days! Is that not a God thing? The whole thing will culminate with an outdoor service on 7/7/11 at which we hope to baptize a number of folks. Who knows what's actually going to happen? Well, God of course!

We are Reaching New Heights in Jesus!

Pastor Dan Stevenson
www.newheightsfellowshipchurch.org