Tory Farina

Pump Up the Jam!

"Pump up the jam while your feet are jumpin..."

I felt like that after Sunday. I don't know why anyone would not want to be apart of HPC... the band was Smoken... E had a great thought to share... Mike is energizing and I felt like last Sunday I came to play!
Did you notice how sweet the set was... sometimes I just want to brag up on our church. I want to tell people hey... check this place out because it is the funnest environment to develop your faith. I do it often but I know people are like... your the pastor you have to brag up your church. I want to tell them... I am the pastor and so I shouldn't be surprised by how good our church is but I am and that makes me more excited about our future and out potential to reach this region.

WK1 of "The dirty dozen" opened with a bang! and a harmonica. Next week should be good as we further humanize the discipes and get into there lives.

Here is how to pump up this series... my challenge to you... My challenge to me... Lets read the four gospels in the next five weeks. That is a little over 1 book a week. Doable. they are not huge books. Ask yourself these questions.

1. Which disciple do I identify with?
2. WHat would it have been like to walk with Jesus?
3. Would I have stayed the course and made it through his death and reserection?
4. What does my being a disciple today do to the decisions I make about how I live my life?

Pump Up the JAM and ride with the Dirty Dozen... Next week... YOUNG GUNS!

MOMS ROCK!

This Moms day I think we can be proud... The Sunday was a great day. The weather cooperated with me. I had been telling the late night news team to change the forecast but my cable hookup seems to only be working one way. But wow it was beautiful.

The service was a blast... worship Rocked I feel like we have gotten a little deeper as a church in worship lately. My message came off really well.

I spent some time trying to rally our men around the goal of living there families potential. I am convinced that how the dad goes so goes the family. it is important for single moms or parents without dads to make sure that they find men in the church that can provide that male encouragement that all young kids need.

I challenged us as a church to seek God First and let our families flow from our relationship with God. He is to be our ALL. Our kids will be in our home for a short time but our relationship with God and to our spouse is forever.

I am challenged that if we can save one family we save there kids. And we can change there lives. If we save a few families we change a city... and if we save a church full of families we can change the world.

We finished the day by giving out nail files to all the ladies. I was talking to someone and a lady pulled hers out from across the room and gave me the thumbs up with a big smile:) I went to talk with her and she said, "thank you for the gift." I said something like, "we are always trying to find fun usable gifts to give our ladies and I have never meet a lady who didn't like a nail file." She smiled big and said, "And this is a GOOD one." Yes it was! So ladies enjoy your good nail files.

The pod cast is up if you want to listen to it...

Click here to get your own player.

Good Green Theology... Not making it to sunday

Ok... I am going to throw this out quick... It was a message I was thinking about sharing but I couldn't come up with a practical do this with this thought.

Caveat... I always want to leave you with a practical do this with this message. Sunday morning is for application of the word into our daily lives. There are other times and places for good biblical thoughts that form other thoughts but don't have as much practical application (It is called a University... JK... I love Universities and want a masters some day.)

Check out the Noah Story... Noah was found righteous above all other humans and was commissioned by God to build a boat to save the animals and humanity from destruction.
Genesis 5-9

Genesis 7

1 The LORD then said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made."

God was not just getting ride of the rotten people on the Earth God was cleaning House...the Earth completely wiping it clean.

Genesis 8

  1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17

20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it."

22 "As long as the earth endures,
       seedtime and harvest,
       cold and heat,
       summer and winter,
       day and night
       will never cease."

Genesis 9
1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

I have always read this as a covenant with man and God... It was much more than that. It was a covenant with all of creation including man and God... WOW. God cared enough about the animals to make a way to save them from total destruction just like he did for man. This is for shadowing something super cool that is to come.

Jesus came we know and ushered in a new way of living for man but there was also an interesting thing that God spoke in Revelations about what would happen to Earth.

Revelations 21-22
1I saw Heaven and earth new-created. Gone the first Heaven, gone the first earth, gone the sea. 2 I saw Holy Jerusalem, new-created, descending resplendent out of Heaven, as ready for God as a bride for her husband. 3-5I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God. He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. Death is gone for good—tears gone, crying gone, pain gone—all the first order of things gone." The Enthroned continued, "Look! I'm making everything new. Write it all down—each word dependable and accurate."

Revelations is a tough book to fully understand. That is meant to be. When ever you are using future speak or prophecy it is cryptic because it is something that is not yet and is hard to fully put into words... However. This is a powerful revelation that God will make all things NEW... including the EARTH. Refining it and repairing it. As our earthly bodies will be remade into heavenly bodies so our earth will be transformed into a heavenly earth.

Pretty cool isn't it? Often there is confusion about our final destination and ultimately, Ill tell you when I get there, but scripture does say that the New earth is our final home.

So next time you want to trash your body because you think Ill get a new one or trash the Earth because it doesn't matter... Think about how it would feel to be God and have your creation trashed by itself. I hope this makes sense since I will not be explaining it on Sunday... I have another Hot thought that I think will be a little simpler to get across.

 

Going Green Notes... and Process

Download who_owns_the_earth_wk1_we.doc
Just in case you wanted my notes... Here they are. It could be fun to match up my message with my notes. compare what jokes were on the spot and which ones were scripted and best of all see what I left out on Sunday.

Here is my process...

• Any where from 3-4 months out (usually) we pick a trimester blog of series and titles. sometimes we are clear on content other times we work it out on the way to 0 hour.
• about a month out I start gathering material and thinking bout the topic. I pray and look for what other people have written or said about the topic.
• the week that I end a new series I take a half a day and map out what I want to do for the next few weeks. This is always flexible and it gives me a chance to run the ideas by Elizabeth or my dad and mom or Paul Stewart.
• then I write the message with what I have gathered and  TRY and get my notes to Courtney by Thursday night. I hope that happens this week
• I toss it around and flip it over and think about it night and day and often rewrite or edit it on Saturday. Some days It is an overhaul and other days it is a miner tweak.
• Sunday I get up... go over it  and print. Always 2 sided and in my 3 ring binder. Then I head over the the theater by 8:30 run through the power point and help were needed and pray with the team.

That is my process. it lends itself to be messy but full of a lot of prayer and a tremendous amount of thought and study. I appreciate the prayer you give because each week i have to gather the Word of God and serve it out before a group of people who need to hear something Life Changing. It can be a lot of pressure... I LOVE IT!

Hope it helps. if you are a pastor reading this It would help me to hear your process.