WEDNESDAY'S WORD - RESIDUE - 04/27/16 Sadell Bradley - New Life Covenant Cincinnati

 

SUNDAY WORSHIP 11:00 AM
SUNDAY CLASSES 9:30 AM

225 Wyoming Ave
Cincinnati OH 45215

The Great Room

(Presbyterian Church of Wyoming)

513-212-1131

RESIDUE - is a small amount of something that remains after the main part has gone or been taken, or used.  Ever try to get the price tag completely off of a new shoe? You scrape and add water, but you're no match for the stickiness of that stuff!  Your foot adheres to the shoe as you walk. The price tag is ostensibly gone (means apparently, but not actually). The drink is finished and it seems as if the glass is fully clean...but there's still residue. It's frustrating and annoying because something persists that should have been washed out.  Do you have residue from a past relationship or situation?  Do you carry just a little anxiety, distrust, frustration, or bitterness? Do you have faith but a tiny bit of doubt? Do you desire to move on... but there's just this one lingering issue. "I've almost entirely forgiven..." myself or someone else, but I've got a twinge of regret, or a bit of anger. We're moving to a new place but we can't shake the history of the old one.  Transitions require cleaning up residue to move forward to a NEW day!

It no longer matters what happened yesterday: how the place you used to be in treated you for good or bad; what you failed at, or could have done by now; what you did or didn't get from your parents, etc.  Paul said the thing that he focused on was "forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead." (Phil 3:13) He instructed the Ephesians not to grieve the Holy Spirit. To "Let ALL bitterness and wrath, and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with ALL malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." (Ephesians 4:30-32)

Jesus told His disciples that their message would not be received well everywhere. "If any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them." (Mark 6:11) Residue happens when we just can't let it go...Freedom comes when we can and do! The book of Luke admonishes us to "Remember Lot's Wife." (Luke 17:32)  God had rescued her family, pulled them out of a terrible place that He was judging and instructed them not to look back.  Sadly, residue from the past drew her attention away from God's promised future. Looking back cost her life. She turned into a pillar of salt (Gen 19) and was left right there to forever stare at her former situation. Last week we said it's time to MOVE! Today we're all being urged to release ourselves from any residue and proceed forward into God's plan!

THIS SUNDAY, May 1st,  New Life Covenant is MOVING! You can read about it here.  We are honored to join forces with Pastor Edward Goode and the congregation at
the Presbyterian Church of Wyoming (PCW)  To the left is a photo of the Great Room where we will gather on Sundays at 11am.  We will have 9:30 AM Class in the Youth Room (lower level) and will have a Nursery available and lessons for small children.  PCW is graciously helping us 'nest' and grow to our next phase, and we are strategizing ways that we can serve and bring the Gospel the Cincinnati Region in partnership together! 
WE HOPE TO SEE YOU SUNDAY as we embark upon this next leg in the journey!

New Life Covenant's LIFE Worship Team at   Fountain Square  520 Vine Street Downtown Cincinnati 45202 Urban Outreach's Hope at the Fountain Thursday, April 28th at 7:00 PM  Come out and bring your family, friends and neighbors!

WEDNESDAY'S WORD - MOVING- 042016- Sadell Bradley- New Life Covenant Cincinnati

MOVING - is the process of changing one's place of residence or work. To move means to go in a specified direction or manner; to change position. It can also mean to change from one state, opinion, sphere, or activity to another.  When one moves, it is an action that is taken usually because we are moved - influenced or prompted to do something. Positive moves entail making progress, developing in a particular manner or direction. As an imperative command, MOVE! means get going! hurry up! come on! Stop being stagnant!  At times we must shift internally to have the gumption to make a move God is calling for. He has been requiring a move from some of us for some time. Moses and the Israelites had crossed the Red Sea and were set toward the wilderness. They were circling around Mount Seir for a long time when the LORD spoke, "You have circled this mountain long enough. Now turn north..." Deut 2:3 Make a move! decide and act upon another direction leading to your goal. If you are just celebrating that you made it out of bondage in Egypt and got through the Red Sea, you'll get stuck there. If you stay murmuring and complaining in the wilderness, you'll never see your ultimate destination - the promised land. On Sunday, May 1st, New Life Covenant will be MOVING another step closer to our promise. For the past few years, Sherman and I have participated in a pastors consortium called Mosaix Cincinnati Network: a group of leaders who see the value in establishing and supporting multi-ethnic churches.  These pastors are considering or desire for their congregations to look like Heaven on Earth. We have discussed how beneficial it would be for our churches, most of which are currently mono-ethnic like 86% of US Congregations, to join forces in some way to experience worshiping Jesus and serving Him together. We are taking steps to bridge the racial divide and lovingly walk out One New Humanity like Paul described in Ephesians 2:14-15 between Jews and Gentiles: For He Himself (Jesus) is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace...This is so important for the credible witness of the Body of Christ in America and in our City/Region.  The identifying mark of Christians is the love we have for one another (John 13:34-35). The unity of believers nationwide and worldwide opens the way for pre-Christians to believe that God loves them and sent Jesus (John 17:20-23). We are honored to join forces with Pastor Edward Goode and the congregation at the Presbyterian Church of Wyoming (PCW), in MOVING together by taking a baby step toward the Kingdom Vision of One New Humanity. To the left is the Great Room, the space New Life Covenant will gather Sundays at 11am starting May 1st. PCW is graciously helping us 'nest' and grow to our next level, and we are strategizing ways that we can serve and bring the Gospel the Cincinnati Region in partnership together!  Please pray for our congregations and consider where you need to MOVE!! New Life Covenant's LIFE Worship Team will minister at Fountain Square Downtown at the the Hope at the Fountain event by Urban Outreach Thursday, April 28th at 7:00 PM - Come out and bring family, friends and neighbors!   New Life Covenant Cincinnati Sunday at 11:00 AM  OUR LAST SUNDAY AT Urban Artifact 1660 Blue Rock Street Cincinnati OH 45223 Visit Our Website

WEDNESDAY'S WORD - BITE THE BULLET - 04/13/16 - Sadell Bradley - New Life Covenant Cincinnati

Bite the Bullet - I know, it's a phrase...one that I have been saying a lot lately. It means to decide to do something difficult that one has been putting off or hesitating over. It is to endure a painful or otherwise unpleasant situation that seems unavoidable. The phrase was first recorded by Rudyard Kipling in his 1891 novel, "The Light that Failed." Historically, it derives from the means by which a patient coped with the extreme pain of a surgical procedure without anesthetic -by biting a bullet or a leather strap. The latter seems more feasible to me, but the former makes for great story telling! In philosophy, bite the bullet means to accept the unpleasant consequences of one's assumed beliefs...(Wikipedia) I know, that's deep! Sometimes our pain is really only as deep or excruciating as we imagine it to be. We think doing this thing, or having this conversation is just going to kill us...but that's only because we anticipate it.

Queen Esther bit the bullet- finally summoning up the courage to go before her husband, King Xerxes, to plead on behalf of her people.  She faced potential death for going without being called first. Esther's distress was so great that she asked all of the Jews in Susa to pray and fast for her for 3 days without eating or drinking. Then she said, "When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish." (Esther 4:16, NIV) Now, thousands of years later, we read and celebrate Esther's courage, and the triumph
of the Jewish people over Haman and their enemies.  The evil forebodings and misgivings that were in her heart and mind prior, had caused her to procrastinate in her role as the deliverer. Her cowardice was confronted by her uncle Mordecai,  "Indeed, if you are silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. Who knows but that you were brought to the kingdom for a time like this?"  (Esther 4:14, ISV) Esther's assumption that she would perish if she did the hard thing kept her stalled. She could not do what the Lord had called her to do, or become the deliverer she was meant to be until she bit the bullet. The outcome she thought would result, was really only a figment of her imagination. Not only did she NOT perish, but she has been celebrated as a heroine throughout all history ever since! Releasing control of the outcomes actually liberated Esther and her people!

There are times when God is requiring that we bite the bullet.  The negative ways that we have assumed that things will turn out may be emotionally charged fabrications. Sometimes the only way we'll know is to take that bite!

New Life Covenant Cincinnati Sunday at 11:00 AM Urban Artifact 1660 Blue Rock Street Cincinnati OH 45223 Visit Our Website

WEDNESDAY'S WORD - ALWAYS - Sadell Bradley - 04/06/16- New Life Covenant Cincinnati

ALWAYS- means at all times; on all occasions. Sometimes it means throughout a long period of the past, "She had always loved him." In other cases it means for all future time; forever.  Always means repeatedly and at times annoyingly, "We always have broccoli for dinner!" Finally it is used to convey a last resort; failing all else, "We could always move if this doesn't work out."

I don't know about you, but in my marriage the use of the words ALWAYS and never are fighting words that automatically get push back! Even if 85 to 99.99% of the time we've done or said the thing we've been accused of (and we know it); we cling to that one time or that .01% and say, "I don't ALWAYS do or say that!!" Maybe that's why we're conditioned to devalue the positive impact and consistency of the word always...except when Walmart uses it, "Always low prices...Always, lol!"  The idea that we could constantly be good, loving, reliable, predictable, steady and unchanging is a bit unsettling.  ALWAYS seems impossible, maybe even compulsive...but it's Biblical! 

Rejoice in the Lord, ALWAYS, and again I say, Rejoice! (Phil 4:4) Come on! Seriously? I'm always supposed to be filled with joy? I'm always supposed to be so conscious of God's grace and favor toward me that it fills me up and I joy again?! Yes, Ma'am or Sir! ALWAYS - at all times, on all occasions, repeatedly and sometimes annoyingly to others. Lord, help ME!  Paul affirmed the Philippian church because they had, "always obeyed" whether he was present or absent from them, and urged that they continue to work out the
salvation of their souls. (Phil 2:12)  Always obeyed?!  Really? Peter told the saints to always be ready to give a reason for the hope that was in them. (1 Peter 3:15) The Corinthians were admonished to "be steadfast, un-moveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." (1 Cor. 15:58)  At the  NCAA Basketball Tournament this year, teams wore gear that said they were "ALWAYS Reppin!" representing their allegiance to their school. We're ALWAYS Reppin too! re-presenting Christ to the world.