Bedouin God

God has always been semi-nomadic.  While his permanent residence is “in heaven”, whatever that means, there is always a sense that God moves among His people.  Before God came down and dwelled among humanity in the person of Jesus and before he took up residence in the hearts of those who follow Jesus, He dwelled among the people of Israel in a tent.  

Not unlike the backpacker who travels through Europe for a summer, God would live out of a specially made tent as the Israelites traveled through the desert on their way to the promised land.  We call this tent “the tabernacle.”  It was the first portable worship center that God used to be among his people.  

But what is so important about the tabernacle?  Come to Horizon the next four Sundays to find out.  With the help of Ben Hughes and Jason Stern, we will explore the significance of the tabernacle through the medium of video.  

Through the Looking-Glass

Ever had that feeling that we are living in a world that just doesn’t seem right?  There is a sense that we are “through the looking glass.”  We are living on the other-side of Alice’s famed mirror in a strange world that isn’t normal.  Things aren’t as they seem.  Our world and our culture seem to be spewing out misinformation and falsehoods.  Yet, many of the people around us seem to believe them. 

We are starting a sermon series that will go throughout the month of April where we will examine the various lies that our culture tells us.  We will try to get our hearts and minds around the truths which will help us see through these lies.  Come hang out with us on Sunday mornings to find out how to navigate in a world that is “through the looking-glass.” 

Something Better Out There sermon

Real Success sermon

It is not about Me sermon

Perception is not Reality sermon

Good Friday Experience

This Friday, March 21st at 6:30pm come out to Horizon’s Good Friday Experience.  Come and experience prayer, meditation and worship all centered around what Jesus did on the cross. This will be a great time to prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of Easter 

Location: Across the parking lot from the address below

6909 Donachie Rd.  Baltimore, MD 21239

Directions from the Towson Circle:

-Take Joppa Rd  

-Bear Right onto Goucher Blvd.

-Turn Right onto Colbury Rd.

-Turn Right onto Donachie Rd.

Map

If you have any questions, call Ryan Casey: 410-746-0712

Brain Drain?

 If you are anything like me, you have already forgotten what you did yesterday.  And if someone were to ask you, “What happened last Sunday?”, the best you could do is give them a blank stare.  I know the feeling. 

 But there is good news.  If you feel that God has been speaking to you through a Sunday morning message but you forget exactly what was said, we have you covered.  We post the sermons on our Message Board a few weeks after they are given.  If you want to refresh your memory on one of the recent messages in the “Extreme Makeover” series, you can also go to a few posts below this one on this blog and click on the links for each Sunday.  

Learning Seminar: How to Read Your Bible

Have you ever wanted to get more out of reading scripture?  Well, this Saturday, February 23rd, we are going to have our first Learning Seminar of this year.  We will get together and look at simple ways to study scripture as well as techniques to read scripture devotionally.

 We will also have a field trip just before lunch, which will help us all understand the bible-study resources that are available.  Make sure you come with your bible, some way to take notes, and some money for lunch. 

If you are interested in getting more out of your time reading scripture, than this Learning Seminar is for you.  We will be meeting at 9am and will be done by 2pm.  So you will still have most of your Saturday left to do what you need to do.  Hope to see you there.

 For directions and more details, go to the Events Forum on our Message Board.  Or just click here.  

Extreme Makeover: Heart Edition

Many Sunday evenings Missy and I sit down to watch TV.  We often find ourselves watching ABC at 8pm. The show that comes on at that time is called “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”  Maybe you have seen it.  

The show starts out with a brief bio on a needy family.  The family has come into a crisis of some kind and are in desperate need of a new home.  Then the design team comes to their house and surprises them with a week long vacation and the promise to completely makeover their home.

 When the family is on vacation that week, the team, with the help of hundreds of workers, overhaul the home from the ground up.  They often begin with demolition.  This is when they completely destroy the old house down to is foundations.  Then the rest of the week, they work like crazy to build a brand new home for the family.  The goal is to complete the house, furniture and all, before the family gets back from their much needed vacation.

 The climax of the show is when the family arrives and they are standing behind the Extreme Makeover bus.  Before they see the house, everyone in the crowd screams, “Move that bus!”  When the bus rolls away the family sees their new home for the first time.  Tears flow, family members collapse in each others arms and little kids jump for joy.

 It gets me and Missy every time.  We know what’s coming.  We know what the end of the show will reveal.  We see it coming.  But it still gets us every time.  Tears well up in our eyes as we sit there in our living room.  The absolute joy on the faces of the family members is too much for a heart to handle.  There is just something about seeing a deserving family have their home made completely new. 

As powerful as that is, there is one thing that can trump even that.  There is nothing like seeing a life completely made new by the power and grace of God.  In our next sermon series we will be looking at the real possibility of a transformed life in Christ.  As we walk through the two greatest commandments, we will gain insight into what it means to have our lives completely renovated from the inside-out.  Helping us dig into the two greatest commandments will be the book “Renovation of the Heart” by Dallas Willard.

 So if you want to know what it means to have your heart completely renovated by God, come out this Sunday as we begin this exciting new series.

 Sermon Series Schedule:

February 3rd:  Vision of a new life

February 10th:  Intention to change

February 17th:  Love the Lord your God with all of your Heart

February 24th:  Love the Lord your God will all of your Soul 

March 2nd:  Love the Lord your God with all of your Mind

March 9th:  Love the Lord your God with all of your Strength

March 16th:  Love your neighbor as yourself 

God Eats Pop-Corn

I grew up going to Sunday School.  At some point in the process of growing up in church I was taught the books of the Bible.  There were various ways that Sunday School teachers helped us learn the books. 

 I remember one teacher taught us a song.  Others used acronyms.  For the collection of epistles found in the middle of the New Testament, I learned a little phrase to help me remember the order.  I learned it as “General Electric Power Company” or “Gas & Electric Power Company.”   Ryan told me a few months ago that he learned it as “God Eats Pop-Corn.”

All of these little tricks were employed so that we could remember the epistles in their proper order: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.  Our January sermon series will be covering these letters of the New Testament.

Each Sunday for the next four Sundays we will take a look at the most foundational, life-changing truths from each letter.  Since we won’t be able to cover every important detail of each letter, we invite everyone to dig into scripture on their own and read these letters throughout the month of January.  And come out Sunday to find out why these letters are so important for our lives as followers of Christ.

Ordinary Miracle

There are things in life that are very ordinary.  We may not even notice that they happen because we are so used to them.  Yet, if we were to stop and take a second look, we come to see that these ordinary things are miracles.  

There is a song by Sarah McLachlan that highlights this truth.  The song was originally used in the movie Charlotte’s Web and is now being featured in a CVS commercial on TV.  Here are just a few of the lyrics:

It’s not that unusual

When everything is beautiful 

It’s just another ordinary miracle today.

The sky knows when its time to snow, 

Don’t need to teach a seed to grow.

It’s just another ordinary miracle today.

A seed growing is a miracle.  The beauty of autumn leaves is a miracle.  The birth of a baby is a miracle.  Yet, these miracles happen everyday. These sort of miracles seem “ordinary.”  This is also true of the birth of Jesus.  Jesus’ birth was an “ordinary miracle.”

In some ways, Jesus was born in an ordinary way into an ordinary world in an ordinary town.  He had an ordinary family with ordinary lives.   Yet in other ways, each event and each person surrounding Jesus’ birth was a miracle.  This truth is what we are exploring this year in our Christmas Series called “Ordinary Miracle.”

Last Sunday – Kingdoms:  Ordinary Kingdom of  Rome, miraculous Kingdom of God

Next Sunday – John the Baptist: Ordinary boy, miraculous mission

In Two Sundays – Bethlehem:  Ordinary town, miraculous event.  

Come out on Sunday mornings and celebrate with us the birth of Christ.   

 

Opportunities for Spiritual Growth

Last week we talked about what it means as a community and as individuals to “grow together toward Christ.”  This is the third part of our vision statement.  We as a community want to be more than just a group of people who hang out.  We want to be more than a group of friends who sing songs together on Sunday mornings. 

 We want to be the kind of community who’s center is Christ.  He is the One we all revolve around.  He is the glue that keeps us together.  He is our source of life and hope.  More and more we want Horizon Church of Towson to be a place where people can feel loved and welcomed as they grow in their spiritual maturity. 

We already have some tools that may help in your spiritual journey.  Since we don’t have a building of our own, it is harder for us to provide a library of resources for our community.  So instead, we have created an on-line library of books that people in our community have found helpful for their spiritual growth.  You can find it on our “Boards”.  Go to the forum called “Spiritual Food” and you will see a expanding list of resources to help you grow.  A quick way to do this is the click on the “Spiritual Food” link to the left of this post.

We also realize that sometimes the sermons on Sunday mornings get forgotten easily.  I am often the one preaching and sometimes I forget what was taught on Sunday mornings!  So for all of us who don’t catch everything the first time around, we have posted our sermons on-line.  Again, you can find these on our “Boards.”  Go to the forum called “Sunday Series Downloads” and find the sermon series that you want.  

A quick way to do this is to click on the “Past Sermons” link located to the left of this post.  Each sermon is in an easy to download mp3 format.  There are some folks in our community who listen to past sermons on their way to work as a way to focus their mind on God before a tough day. 

The resources mentioned above are great ways to take advantage of the Horizon community in your individual spiritual growth.  But there is no better way to grow than to be a part of a small group of people who are journeying through life together.  We call our small groups “Link Groups.” 

On Tuesday nights, Paul and Shannon lead a link group together.  Jonathan Banks also leads a link group on Tuesdays.  On Wednesday nights, the Reichleys and the Stephensons lead a link group full of couples and Ryan and Jenn lead a link group at Jenn’s place.  On Thursday nights, Aaron, Cassie and Scott lead a link group together in Towson.  There is a link group out there for you.  If you really want to “grow together toward Christ” there is no better place for this to happen than in a link group. 

There are lots of ways to “grow together toward Christ” at Horizon.  It begins with each one of us asking ourselves, “How am I making sure that I am growing spiritually?”  Along with this question, we must also ask, “How am I helping others in our community grow spiritually?”  Answering of these questions must be a priority in our lives.  If you have ideas that you think would help Horizon “grow together toward Christ” then please let us know.  This is what we want to be about as a church. 

Come out this Sunday to learn about how we try to empower each person in our community through multiplication. 

Community in Process

Last Sunday we fleshed out the second part of our vision statement, “Connecting people to community”. There is something really unique about Christian community. Or at least there should be! We broke down Acts 2:42-47 and Acts 4:32-35 and saw just how radical the early church really was. It seems a far cry from what we see around us today but our church is taking very specific steps to make that vision a reality.

What you truly value dictates what you are and who we are as a community didn’t happen by accident. We have made it a point to value shared life, giving to those in need both inside and outside our church, team leadership, transparency in how we live, and link groups where people can be truly known.

Our church community is still a far cry from the incredible picture that we see in Acts. Most times we don’t have to look much further than in our own mirrors to see why these types of community don’t exist today. Giving selflessly of our money, our energy, and our time is completely counter-cultural.

It is going to take a complete effort from all of us to really follow the model of community that God has laid out before us. We are a work in process but we have the joy of pursuing this together.

Paul knew the power of community and valued it immensley. In Philippians 1:3-6 he wrote: “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

There is power in being in this journey together. We are not just individually in process but we are in process as a community. There is so much room for each of us to step up in order to take our church to the next level.

As a community we don’t just want to hangout and stay the same. The final part of our vision statement declares our desire as a community and as individuals to “grow together toward Christ.” But what does this mean and how do we do this at Horizon? We invite you to come out this Sunday and find out.