A New Soil-Bed For Our Souls

Highland,

As we work through this series together, I continue to hear testimonies from many of you, about how the Lord is at work in your lives! I celebrate His Name as our strong tower with you, Highland. Let us all continue to run to our Lord, who loves us and shields us from our enemies. How I rejoice over you, Highland. To be able to grow in our relationship with Christ together!

In a brief recap of last week’s sermon, as James writes about ‘works of meekness’, we must think about our hearts as a soil-bed. Perhaps, we tend to think of the “fruits of the spirit” as a checklist to regulate our “Christianity” through self-effort. Instead, as the holiness of God’s Spirit is breathed into our hardened hearts, our heart’s disposition is renewed by the Spirit of the Living God.

Since our disposition is renewed by the Holy Spirit of God, then our new nature is going to shape how we live. In James’s statement, our obedience (or our good conduct) allows the works of His spirit to be revealed in us and through us.

As our heart’s condition becomes meek by the renewing waters of the Holy Spirit, a harvest of Gospel-flavored fruits are then yielded. These fruits result in the glory of God being revealed in our lives and the goodness of the Lord being imparted to those around us. Even more specifically, being in right-relationship with our Lord produces the right relationships with those around us, which makes our heart whole. The peacefulness found in His spirit calms the troubled waters of our hearts, leading us to a place of being peaceful with others, even with our enemies. As James says at the closing of his statement, we find our hearts yielding ‘a harvest of righteousness which is sown in peace by those who make peace.’

Sunday Morning Schedule

8am: Doors open
8:30–10:00: Coffee & Conversation & Devotion in our Dining Facility
9am-10am: Sunday School
10am: Sunday Morning Service in our sanctuary (which is our gym)

This Fall classes

Classroom 1: 0-2 year olds: Church Nursery
Classroom 2: 3 and 4 year olds: First Green Room
Classroom 3: Kindergarten-Second Grade Class: Second Green Room
Classroom 4: Third-Fifth Grade Class: Yellow Room
Classroom 5: Tweens & Teen Boys: Red Room
Classroom 6: Women’s Bible Study: Second Orange Room
Classroom 7: Men’s Bible Study (Ongoing throughout the year): First Orange Room
Classroom 8: Tweens & Teen Girls: Blue Room
Red-brick Sanctuary: The Truth Project (begins at 8:45)
Dining Facility: Life Class Devotion (Ongoing throughout the year)

As we look forward to the upcoming Spring Session, if you are interested in leading a class, please let me know. We will discuss. Again, thank you to all who’ve made this semester possible.

update from david klaus this thursday

Highland, so many of you have come around the Klauses and their ministry in Myanmar, and several of you are now in regular contact with Myanmar kingdom pioneers yourselves! For anyone interested in hearing more inspiring stories from the emerging underground church in Myanmar, David Klaus will be hosting a "Myanmar: State Of The Kingdom" interactive Zoom call on Thursday, Sept. 19th from 8:30-9:30pm. You'll learn some context for what's happening in Myanmar, how the body of Christ is adapting, and how you can meet and pray for Myanmar pioneers personally without ever needing to buy a plane ticket. Register for the Zoom call here.

*Highland Cafe — 8:30—11:30, Monday Through Friday mornings.*

highland cafe update

Highland Cafe’ continues to offer the love of Christ to our sidewalks Monday thru Friday, 8:30am-11:30am. To those who serve, thank you for opening your hearts in such a committed fashion! Prayer meeting is held in cafe’ Wednesdays, at 9am.

We appreciate those who’ve helped to stock the cafe’ with bottled water, K-cups & coffee supplies! This is an ongoing way in which you can support Highland in such a small but impactful way! Please consider helping, thanks!

Let’s keep our home clean

Since we have Terry Young cleaning, at this point on Sundays after service, our responsibilities will include:

Classroom Responsibilities

Wiping down desks
Cleaning up art-related stains
Placing chairs on top of the desks
Sweeping the floors

Sanctuary

Pick up all trash
Clean up all spills
Stack and store chairs

Dining Facility

Stack chairs
Fold tables
Sweep floors

This will allow him to come in and mop Sunday afternoons. If you have questions, please connect with me or Megan directly. Thank you!

I love you, Highland.

Rob