CPM just finished up another site. This time for a church! One of our thoughts was to attempt more of a European web look; lots of white space, over-sized photography, and large sans-serif typography.

Another facet to this site was the need for an easy way to tag and categorize the sermon audio, which would be getting updated multiple times throughout a regular week. So again, Wordpress was a solid route to go, so as to meet all of our goals for the client.

We’re stoked on the site, and we’re excited for Calvary Chapel Quakertown to be able to use it for ministry. Enjoy as you check out the work! And be sure to leave any thoughts or comments you might have about it.

“Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in the Lord his God…The Lord raises those who are bowed down.”

Psalm 146: 5, 8

God states He’s the “hope” and “help” of our life. He promises that he won’t be moved or shaken up, or thrown for a loop by what we see as scary, or uncertain, or even a bit loopy.

Growing up I was pretty good at baseball. I love the game. However, one thing I have always feared is the curveball. I can’t hit a curveball to save my life. That’s why I’m so grateful for the help of a designated hitter. Often I was hanging my head from many a strikeout, but with a good “DH” I watch as every pitch gets knocked out of the park.

Just like in baseball, life has curveballs. The only differences are that they are thrown faster, harder, and it’s not a game. I’m increasingly grateful for Jesus’ abundant faithfulness and grace in my life. The times that we might swing and miss or even strikeout, are the moments where we can take hope, we have a friend on the roster that is willing to stand in on our behalf and deliver a grand slam, bringing us all home with him.

Why?

Because Jesus is Immanuel (God with us) He’s right at the center of our hearts willing to offer his stability, peace, and love in and out of every loopy situation we find ourselves in day after day.

“And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

2 Corinthians 12:9, 10

“There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the sacred home of the Most High. God himself lives in that city; it cannot be destroyed or shaken. God will protect it at the break of day.”

Genesis 46:4-5

I like that, this passage states God’s dwelling place. The place He protects, makes glad, and calls home. It reminds me of another passage in Scripture that talks about God’s home. In Ancient Israel the Temple was constructed as the place of residence for worship and ministry unto God. The Glory of God would fall and rest in the most Holy place of the temple, and He would dwell there in the midst of the city of David.

1 Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? ”

God makes His home in you upon Salvation. It’s the place He protects, makes glad, the place he enjoys dwelling in.

“I don’t feel glad.” you say.

“I don’t feel protected”, you say.

“I don’t feel close to God”, you say.

Understand it’s not the city that makes the gladness happen. It’s not the house that makes the home. Sure you might be able to make yourself happy for a bit, but your lasting Satisfaction, your gladness isn’t drummed up on your own strength. It’s brought by the river that flows through the city of your heart.

What river?

John 7:37-38 “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If any one thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

Throughout the bible the Word of God is often described as the living water (Eph 5:26). It’s important we stay in the word, because as we draw near to God, he will draw near to us (James 4:8). The depth that we dive into the water of God’s word is the same proportion we are immersed by Gods presence in our hearts and lives.

I love diving into a pool on a hot summer day. I take a good jump, gather a bunch of spring off the diving board and as gracefully as I can find my way to the water. There’s nothing like the first dive of the summer season, on those scorching hot days it’s nice to be able to find refreshment. In the same way we dive into the pool and come up to exhale a breath of refreshment, we can find ourselves breathing a sigh of refreshment spiritually on those hot days of life where the gladness seems lost, we feel unprotected and shaken up, and it seems as though life is burning you.

Jesus is described as the Word made flesh (John 1:14) Jesus dwells among us, He dwells inside us, and if we believe (John 7:38) He is the river whose streams make glad the city of your heart.

“This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans…And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan…and Terah died in Haran.”

Genesis 11:27-32

As I read this passage I can’t help but notice how rough life was even for the guys and gals in the Bible.

Followed by the introduction of a dad (Terah), and his three sons (Abram, Nahor, and Haran), we go on a rollercoaster ride of news, rising high on emotion as Baby Lot is born to Haran, and then the devastating fall out of Haran’s death. I’m sure Terah was grieved over the fact his youngest died before him. Soon after these events the family is uprooted to a new place. While en route Terah dies, and Abram is thrust into the position of “Head of the Household”. Not only is Abram trying to pick up the pieces of a broken and grieving family, he’s also in a foreign land separated from everything he was once familiar with. To add insult to injury he discovers his wife cannot bear children, bringing the dilemma of not being able to continue the family name (which was a big deal in the ancient Middle East).

Abram was stuck in the territory of Haran, he had followed his father there in obedience and now he is in the place where God, his heavenly father, will begin to command and lead, and Abram will learn to follow his new father.

“Be still, and know that I am God”

Psalm 46:10

Sometimes I find myself forgetting the fact that these biblical heroes got run over by life just like you and I today. It’s encouraging to me to see that even with the difficult life that Abram had, in the end, God worked amazing things from hopeless situations. This gives me a bit of hope in my seeming hopeless situations.

Let’s be real, all of us have had times where it seemed like the whole world was falling apart on top of us, and we get buried alive under the rubble. I’m sure Abram wasn’t exactly stoked in the midst of his current difficulties. However, God had a plan, and He was going to use this broken life and family to establish peace, restoration, and salvation to the whole human race.

“It is only when our lives are hid with Christ in God that we learn how to be silent unto God, not silent about Him, but silent with the strong restful certainty that all is well, behind everything stands God, and the strength of the soul is that it knows it. There are no panics intellectual or moral. What a lot of panicky sparrows we are, the majority of us. We chatter and tweet under God’s eaves until we cannot hear His voice at all—until we learn the wonderful life and music of the Lord Jesus telling us that our heavenly Father is the God of the sparrows, and by the marvelous transformation of grace He can turn the sparrows into His nightingales that can sing through every night of sorrow. A sparrow cannot sing through a night of sorrow, and no soul can sing through a night of sorrow unless it has learned to be silent unto God –one look, one thought about my Father in heaven, and it is all right.”

-Oswald Chambers (If you will be perfect pg.91)

No matter what gnarly situation you might be facing today, remember that God is working the present difficulty together for His future glory… through you. (Romans 8:28) You are part of His plan, and believe it or not He is using you, and your situation, to prepare the way for the arrival of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus essentially takes the broken pieces and returns to us peace. (Jeremiah 29:11)

“I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of His wrath. He has led me and made me walk in darkness and not in light…He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy. Even when I cry and shout, He has made me desolate. He has also broken my teeth with gravel, and covered me with ashes. You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity…Through the Lords mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness…The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord…For the Lord will not cast off forever. Though He causes grief, Yet He will show compassion according to the multitude of His mercies.”

-The Lament of the Prophet Jeremiah (Lamentations 3:1-32)