December 31

Good morning, Beautiful Church Family!

I've read today's Scripture reading over and over. There's so many things that caught my attention. I love the verse in Malachi 3:2 & 3 that describe God being like a refiner's fire or launder's soap - purifying & cleansing us until we sparkle and His reflection shines in us. Verse 6 declares that He is the Lord and does not change. Surely, God is the same yesterday, today and forever. And because He does not change we are NOT consumed in our sinfulness. In verses 10-12, God tells us to try Him by bringing our tithes and offerings into His house and see Him open up the windows of heaven and pour out blessings so much that we couldn't contain them. All very, very great Scriptures.

Then I read Revelation 22:1-21. Specifically, verses 12-17 jumped out at me. Did you read it too? Christ is returning and His reward is with Him, to give to every one according to his work. He's the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. God spans eternity. He always was and always will be even though we are but a breath, a wisp of air in the great scheme of things in this life. God declares that we who DO His commandments are blessed and will have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city. How amazing that God loves us so much that He lets us work for Him, that He lets us serve Him, that He sets perimeters for our lives and gives us boundaries through His commandments and makes our lives matter!

"And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely." Do you realize the grand opportunity we have right now before us in Hillcrest Church? We have the living water. We are the bride! It's our job, our ministry, our time to call out to the nations of people within Dallas and say, "Come and thirst no more!" Every day people around us are thirsting. They are trying eduction, money, possessions, drugs, alcohol, sex & relationships to feed that thirst, and ultimately some even take their lives because they are so hopeless and find their existance meaningless. It's time for us to step up and call them forth to come and know that Jesus is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." He's the Living Water, the River of Life.

Will you join me more than ever praying for our move downtown as a church body, the Bride? Will you pray for all the divine connections that must take place to plant our church downtown? Will you pray for the eyes of the people's hearts to be opened to see the amazing love of Jesus and to see their filthiness and the need for His righteosness? Will you pray for deaf ears to be opened and clouded minds to be cleared and hard hearts to be softened and dumb mouths to be opened and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord?! Will you join me in finding your voice to speak out and call forth the people who are waiting to hear? Will you serve whole-heartedly to touch the people's lives? to impact generations to the glory of God? You will surely reap eternal rewards when He returns.

I know 2011 was tough for many and great for others. So many tragedies around the world...and yet so many victories. But it's time to press on even more and to run the race even better...whatever that means to each one of us personally. We have a destiny to seize in 2012 as a church body and as individuals! May God bless each one of us to step up and take hold of His calling and purpose for our lives at such a time as this and to run the race He's set before us well.

See you at church Sunday! (If you aren't doing anything for New Year's come to our home to celebrate w/our Life Group and bring some yummy food! We're supplying the games.) :)

Blessings,
Rolanda Green
Hillcrest Children's Minister

December 24

Merry Christmas, Hillcrest Family!

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

I don't know about you, but Christmas Eve at my house is anything but quiet and still. My kids are loud and boisterous. My family laughs as we play games and enjoy one another's company. There's no waiting up for Santa nor going to sleep quickly in hopes that he would soon be here. My kids know the truth and have always known the truth that Christmas means celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, born as a babe in a manger one lowly night.

Maybe its joyful and noisy at your home like mine or maybe it's quiet as a mouse as you celebrate the birth of our Savior alone. Or maybe there's no celebration at all because it's been an especially tough year and your heart is full of sadness and perhaps anger instead of joy and gladness.

Growing up, my home wasn't always full of laughter and joy and neither is it always like that now. Like many of us, David knew tough times. And while he knew tough times, David knew that God was bigger than his circumstances...even those he brought on himself. David cried out to God. David knew God and knew that God is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life" and his only hope.

In Psalm 143 in one of today's Scripture passages, David cried, "Therefore my spirit is overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is distressed." How many of us, how many people around us, are overwhelmed right now this very moment and distressed in our hearts?! But David knew the Answer. He knew the Solution to the aching of his heart. In verse 6 he declared, "I spread out my hands to You; my soul longs for You like a thirsty land." Church Family, are we thirsty for the God Who created us, who created our hearts and knows where we are? Like a cool, refreshing tall glass of ice water on an insanely hot Texas day, do we thirst for more of God?


I especially love Psalm 143 verses 8 through first part of 11, where David - thirsty for God - petitioned, "Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for in You do I trust; cause me to know the way in which I should walk, for I lift up my soul to You. Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies; in You I take shelter. Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God; Your Spirit is good. Lead me in the land of uprightness. Revive me, O Lord, for Your name's sake!" Whether times are good or bad, rich or poor, ugly or beautiful, may this be our prayer. May we hear God's lovingkindness and trust and hope in Him. May we know the way in which we should walk, and may we know His will. God is good. God is loving and kind. May we know Him better than ever before and walk with Him closer than ever before and may our spirit be revived in Him!

Peace and Merry Christmas!
Rolanda Green
Hillcrest Children's Minister

December 17

Good morning, Hillcrest Family.

God is so incredibly good! His plans for our future as a church and as a church body are so incredibly good. May He be glorified continuously in our midst as a church body and in our homes and families and all aspects of our lives.

There's so much good reading in today's Scripture portion. I love Revelations. I want to concentrate on Psalms 136, however. The passage starts off in verse one, "Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever." The passage declares, "give thanks to the God of gods and to the Lord of lords!" Then Psalm 136 lays out the things God does to which we say, "Thank You."

God is great. God is huge. There's a song that I love to sing with the kids, "My God is so big, so strong and so mighty; there's nothing my God cannot do for you." We see His greatness throughout Psalms 136. Yes, God loves when we see Him in His glory and greatness. He loves it when we praise Him. And yet, there's something more to this passage. "For His mercy endures forever" echos through the passage over and over and over. Obviously it's a pretty important statement. So what does it mean?

The word "for" that begins this statement is a function word used to indicate purpose or an intended goal. "Mercy" is compassion or forebearance shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one's power. Another definition states that mercy is a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion or the compassionate treatment of those in distress. "Endures" means to undergo without giving in as in hardship or to regard with tolerance and acceptance, to remain firm under suffering without yielding. As I read the words of Psalm 136, I realize God's greatness in light of my humility and smallness. I see my need for Him. Man is born sinful. We sin, and our sin pains the holy God who created us. And yet, over and over and over, He moves on our behalf compassionately to draw us to Him. He doesn't write us off as losers or hopeless. Instead He reminds us that He remembered us in our lowly state and that He rescued us from our enemies.

For His mercy endures forever. Can you hear His love? God isn't just puffing up His chest declaring that He's great and man is worthless. He's crying out, "I love YOU...and I forgive YOU...and I did these things for YOU!" How can we not but look to Him and give thanks? Thanks for His mercy. Thanks for His perseverance. Thanks for His love. Thanks for His greatness. If only we truly understood just how deeply God loves us and those around us, how could we not help but live in a state of thankfulness and gratitude and love no matter what the circumstance, putting away unforgiveness and bitterness and selfishness.

Today, I bless you in the name of Jesus to comprehend along w/the saints the width and length and depth and height of the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge and to be filled with the fullness of God. I bless you to know and understand that for YOU His mercy endures forever in Jesus' name, amen and amen.

Have a wonderful day! See you at church tomorrow.

Blessings,
Rolanda Green
Hillcrest Children's Minister

December 13

Psalm 132


The early part of this chapter describes David’s fierce love for God’s presence.
He determined in his heart that he wouldn’t retreat, relent or rest until he had secured a sanctuary in which his God may dwell.
David was not only a seeker of God’s presence, but a protector of His glory. His heart longed for the Lord to have a place of rest. A place where the nations would come and worship the Almighty.
David’s vision to build God a dwelling was fulfilled when his son, Solomon, built the temple in Jerusalem. The city God officially ordained as His sanctuary.
Verse fourteen is so beautiful as God declares of Jerusalem, “this is my resting place forever.” As I read the following verses, I realized they relate directly to believers. In the Old Testament, God ordained the temple of David as his dwelling. With Christ’s death and resurrection, came the death of the Old Covenant and the birth of the New Covenant. Under the New Covenant, God’s presence no longer dwelt in the walls of a building but within the chambers of man’s heart.
If I replace Jerusalem in the last portion of this chapter with the word, “you”, we see God’s sacred design for man from the beginning. A chosen dwelling for His presence.
“For the Lord has chosen you, He has desired your heart as His home. He has declared you shall be His resting place forever!”

Now I pray that we may be unrelenting as we seek more of God’s presence and fierce in the protection of His glory. What holy and sacred vessels we are as carriers of His presence!

Blessings,
Lauryn

December 8

One of the surest marks of spiritual maturity is the God-given ability to control our anger. A verse from our reading from today in the Book of Proverbs, chapter 29, verse 11 declares this character trait is a mark of wisdom:

A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.

The real problem with anger is not what we feel, but what we do. As the Apostle Paul put it in Ephesians 4:26, “In your anger do not sin…” or in other words, “When you are angry, be careful that you do not sin.”

As we go through our daily lives, things sometimes happen that arouse strong emotions within us, but with God’s help we do not have to say or do everything we want to say or do! As we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us in those situations, He will give us the self-control that we need to avoid responding in unrighteous ways. This precious reality prompted Paul to tell the Galatian Christians that self-control is part of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:23) and that walking in the Spirit is the key to overcoming the impulses of our “flesh,”

“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (Gal. 5:16)”

Anger management classes or techniques can help us, but at the end of the day our greatest recourse when dealing with anger is the power of the power of the Holy Spirit.

While we may sometimes be tempted to think that we do not have any control over our what we feel, in the Ephesians passage the Apostle commands us, “Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. (vs. 26-27)” From his perspective, we have a choice to make as to whether or not we will continue to be angry from one day to the next. He wants us to realize that nursing, harboring, or deliberately feeding our own anger opens our heart to demonic influence. As another verse in Proverbs puts it, “Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control. (Prov. 25:28)” When we choose to stay angry at anyone for any reason for any length of time, we become incapable of exercising spiritual authority over our enemy, Satan!

This very real danger is perhaps part of the reason behind the following biblical injunctions to work very hard at maintaining peaceful relationships with other people,

“Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”” (1 Peter 3:8–12)

“Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” (Hebrews 12:14–15)

Here is the “bottom-line”: We cannot be wrong with our neighbor and be right with God.

Ongoing anger is a symptom of other, deeper issues and has far-reaching consequences. 1 Timothy 2:8 links our liberty in prayer to an absence of anger and arguing. Galatians 5:20 lists “fits of rage” among some of the most serious sins in the Bible, flatly stating that no one who lives like this will inherit the Kingdom of God. Proverbs 22:24 instructs us, “Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn his ways and get yourself ensnared.”

One of the most valuable practical lessons I have learned about anger from my years of dealing with people is that a person who is continually angry with others is usually even more angry with themselves about something or another. Perhaps they find it difficult to forgive themselves for some past deed. Perhaps they are losing their ongoing battle with a specific sin that they themselves find so egregious that it fills them with shame and guilt expressed through rage. Or perhaps they have been deeply hurt by something that was done to them and have become so bitter about what happened that they are mad at the world and everyone in it.

Whenever you encounter this kind of anger in others or if you experience it yourself, remember this: Jesus Christ is the answer! He came to bring forgiveness for what we have done and freedom from what we have become! At the foot of His cross, there is peace and victory through the power of His Holy Spirit!

Pastor Mark

December 7

"Celebrating the Season Whatever Your Circumstances" Psalm 126:4-6

No Christmas This Year
We won’t have a Christmas this year, you say
For now the children have all gone away
And the house is so lonely, so quiet so bare
We couldn’t have a Christmas that they didn’t share.

We won’t have a Christmas this year, you sigh,
For Christmas means things that money must buy.
Misfortunes and illness have robbed us we fear
Of the things that we’d need to make Christmas this year.

We won’t have a Christmas this year you weep
For a loved one is gone, and our grief is too deep.
It will be a long time before our hearts heal,
And the spirit of Christmas again we can feel.

But if you lose Christmas when troubles befall,
You never have really had Christmas at all.
For once you have had it; it cannot depart
When you learn that true Christmas is Christ in your heart. (Author unknown)
Our joy is a spiritual reality anchored in Jesus, not in external circumstances. That’s why you can have joy even when your world is falling apart, even when Christmas is far from what you want it to be.

We can be joyful when our restoration is far from complete. Jesus is the foundation for our joy. As long as we have Jesus in our life, no one can rob us of the joy He provides. When we feel depressed struggling with our problems, we can turn to Him and ask for His help. He will give us what we need to have JOY IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCE.

So whatever circumstances you are in at this Christmas season, REJOICE even in PARTIAL restoration. Thank the Lord for what He IS doing for you even if it is not complete. Have faith and confidence for the future. Ask the Lord for what you need. Let His joy come to you as you give him your burdens and anxiety. Don’t wait for God to do it all. Move into an attitude of joy by doing what you can do in “this day”, because the Lord made it for us to rejoice and be glad in. Celebrate the Season Whatever Your Circumstances and grace and mercy will follow you.

Blessings!
Shaun Estrada

Hello, Hillcrest Family!

35 years ago, a little girl knelt beside her bed and prayed for Jesus to come into her heart and be her Lord and Savior and pledged to live for Him. I was three years old. I've heard people argue that a child that young can't possibly understand the decision she was making. And yet, I totally did. You see, my mom and my Sunday School teachers taught me and showed me the love of God in Jesus Christ. I felt and knew His love in a way that impacted my life and won my heart for life...not just a few menial childhood years. I knew that I knew that I knew that God loved me, and I loved him. And furthermore, I felt the conviction of the Spirit and knew that I was a sinner in need of a Savior.

I John 3:16 says, "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." The Word teaches us that we love because He first loved us. You and I are capable of love, loving God and loving others, because He first loved us. And when we realize fully His love for us, how can we do anything but love others and lay down our lives for them? John admonishes us to love in deeds and in truth not just with words. Love is what motivated us to go out Thanksgiving morning and make and deliver 150 plates of food to the less fortunate instead of staying home and cuddling w/our families and enjoying ourselves. Love for God and this city is what motivated us to vote for and support the move downtown. Love is what moves us everytime we forgive someone who hurt us even though it stings. Love is what moves us to humble ourselves and prefer others above ourselves.

Reading in Daniel today I was blown away by how detailed God is and how amazing His love is that He would chose a mere man to relay such a strong, powerful and detailed message. How amazing that such a huge and powerful God loves, really and personally loves, each one of us enough to lay down His life. To save us...and not just let it end there...but to actually talk to us and move us and be concerned with every detail of our lives. Who are we that God would love us so much? Oh, that the world would know His perfect love...really, really know His perfect love.

Some people claim to make decisions for Christ at a young age, then walk away doing their own thing, their own way for many years before recommiting their lives to Him. But for me the love of my heavenly Father was so real despite the alcoholic father that I had that I couldn't help but lay down my life for Him and live for Him forever and ever. The love of Jesus made a difference in me AND WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THIS CITY!

God bless you, Hillcrest. Thanks for allowing me the privilege of serving you and your children. See you Sunday.

Blessings,
Rolanda Green
Hillcrest Children's Minister

December 1

In order to become a follower of Jesus Christ, we have to turn away from the path we are walking in and head off in a completely new direction. This act of turning around is called “repentance” in Scripture. Without repentance, we cannot experience salvation.

It is as if at some moment during this Christmas season, someone is standing behind us holding a beautifully wrapped gift. They are calling our name in an effort to get us to turn around so they can place it in our hands. They bought the gift and wrapped it and brought it to the party because they want us to have it. It cost them so much money we could never feel we deserve it, so much that it is hard to imagine it is really meant for us, but all we have to do for it to be ours is accept it…and the only way we can accept it is to turn away from what we were looking at and focus our attention on the one who is giving it.

Before we give our hearts to Jesus, every single one of us is like a traveler who has lost our way. We are doing wrong things and we are headed in the wrong direction. Through the death of His own Son, God purchases our forgiveness and comes up behind us, calling our name, trying to get our attention, ready at any moment to wipe our sins away and give us eternal life. All we have to do in order to receive His salvation is turn away from our sin and look to Him.

Because we have turned away from the direction we were walking in and have begun to follow Jesus, with every passing day our life changes more and more into what He is calling us to become. After He has given us our brand-new life, when we make mistakes and commit sins, we discover to our amazement that He is ready to forgive us all over again and to plead our cause before God in heaven. The only thing He requires is that our heart and our attention stay focused on Him.

The Apostle John put it this way in our reading for today,

“I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world. And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. If someone claims, ‘I know God,’ but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him. Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did.”

In the rest of that passage, John talks about the love God puts in our hearts when we repent from our sins and trust Him for salvation. Loving others is one of the clearest signs that we have turned around and have begun to follow Him. During this holiday season, amidst all of the hustle and bustle, as we give and receive gifts with those who are closest to us, may the Lord help us to always remember the greatest gift of all, the new life Jesus brings when we open our hearts to Him. May the Lord help us all to love others the way He loves us…!

Pastor Mark