Fervent Love

1 Peter 1:22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart

As I was studying for the message I gave on October 19th God struck me with a thought that I haven’t been able to get past. I shared it with the congregation that morning but I feel I need to expand upon it more in the form of an article. Here it is:

“When we stand before God on Judgment Day you won’t ever here Him say; “You spent too much time loving others, you should’ve spent more time on yourself.”

It made me think about how much time I spend on myself and my interests. I came away from that with a couple of thoughts. First is that Love is an action and not a feeling, Second How am I going to change and lead The Village Chapel to be fervent lovers of others? In this article I want to first lay a foundation for loving others and then layout a game plan on how to do it.

Peter tells us to love one another fervently with a pure heart. Jesus’ second greatest command was to love one another as we love ourselves. Jesus wasn’t telling us that we need to learn to love ourselves before we can love others, He was telling us that it is a given that we love ourselves and that we need to love others as much as ourselves.

Love is an action; it is not some emotion that wells up in us or a passing thought. Love is something that we do towards another person in spite of how we feel about it. Peter also tells us to do it with a pure heart. This means that we don’t do it with an alternative agenda of getting something in return.

Jesus is our example for this. Every act that He did was in obedience to His Father and without a thought of getting anything in return. He final and greatest act of love, the Crucifixion, was done out of the fullness of His love for us.

For us to make a change in how we love we need to look at 1 Cor 13:4-6 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. In this passage we see seven ways how to love and eight ways not to love.

All of these ways of love in 1 Corinthians 13 are actions not feelings. Paul exhorts us to be patient, be kind, bear one another’s problems. These are acts of love that would radically change the other persons life. On the contrary when we aren’t about ourselves (envy, pride, bragging, rude) we are also exhibiting acts of love. Let us be people who are quick to listen and slow to speak so that the number of opportunities to love will increase.

Women’s Missions Trip

The Women's Ministry sent eight women and Tom to the Dream Center in LA. They will be doing street ministry in downtown LA from Thursday thru Saturday. Pray for them as they travel and as God uses them.

Sunday Update

This is a little late because honestly I was recovering from this weekend. Here are a few highlights from the weekend and Sunday Services:

• Twelve men joined us down in Anaheim at the CC Men's Conference. It was awesome to worship with 4000 men and hear some great teaching.
• Had Matt & Peggy Pottenger with us in services. They are headed to Kisumu, Kenya, Africa in January as missionaries. they did a great job and stirred several hearts.
• The Youth Band rocked the house for us. So cool to see Jr. & Sr. highers rocking out. Loved the Hosanna song.
• Taught in the Enduring Word in 1 Peter and it really hit home in our people. Thought I was going to get a standing ovation at one point in the 2nd service.
• Moved the Hospitality inside and it worked well, especially for the women working it.
• The Newcomers lunch was a bunch of fun. Good people and they all connected with each other.
• I am realizing that I can't drive far distances without it tweaking my back. Couldn't move by time I got home.
• Looking forward to what God will do on the Women's missions trip.

Brad Hooks on Sunday

Brad Hooks and his band will be with us again on this Sunday. If you haven't heard him then you need to be at church on Sunday. Get there early because seats will be scarce. We are excited for him to lead us into a wonderful time of praise and worship.

New Church Web Page

For the last couple of months we have been working on a revision for The Village Chapel website. It is finished and live. Go to www.vvchapel.org to check it out.

A huge thank you to Beverly Wolf from Wolf on Web for all of her help.

Staff Prayer

For the last month our office staff has started the work week by gathering for prayer. It has been a really fruitful time as we have seen several requests answered. It has also connected the whole staff to life of the church. As each ministry leader shares needs from their department or people they came across it has generated a bigger heart for the people of The Village Chapel in each staff member.

If you have an email request click the email button to your left and it will go directly to me. Then on Monday morning our staff will lift it up.

New Poll Shows Traditional Marriage in the Lead

There is a new poll out that says that Prop 8 is in the lead 49% to 42% with 10% undecided. You can read it here. What is amazing was that this poll was done by a TV station in San Francisco!

Update: The La Times just posted an article with much more information. Read it here.

Sunday Update

It was our first fall Sunday at church. What that means is that there was a chill in the air and no one arrived on time. It will be interesting to see what happens when the wind really starts to whip up.

Otherwise it was a good Sunday. Teaching through 1 Peter is such a contrast from Luke. Peter is like concentrated OJ. You get so much is such a short space. Enjoyed talking about our Inheritance in God.

I am continually amazed our our youth programs. Our Student Ministry takes up the whole left side of the auditorium and more during worship. Our Childrens ministry has kid waiting ten minuted early for it to start. Totally telling the difference having Tom and Christin full time.

My wife was commenting about how many people joined the church during summer. Totally cool but the directory that we handed out yesterday is now pretty obsolete. Finding it more difficult to remember everyone's names. Looking forward to connecting with a lot of new families at our New Comers Lunch on the 19th. We always see incredible fruit from those.

I think there is a competition starting to brew amongst the ladies who bring treats for after the service. Saw a plethora of them and they were good. Keep up the good work.

Missionary Update: The Dokes

Many of you sponsored one the backpacks for inner city children in Denver. Here is the update from the Missionaries Dewayne and Amy Dokes:

Summer has come and gone.  It has been one event after another for God to show His glory.  We enjoyed seeing how God poured out His grace, love, and
spirit among the people.  We started the summer with the Backyard Bible Club.  The theme was “The Call of God: God is calling people to be a part of His family”. 
God brought 43 kids through out the week to participate in learning more about who Christ is.  The last day, we had 10 kids admit that they are running away form the
Lord.  The following week we took 24 kids from the neighborhood to Legacy Christian Fellowship to take part in their VBS.  It was a blast to see the kids get a double
dose of our Great God.
 Then from there we moved right into Back2School Celebration mode.  Dwayne spoke at five churches in 5 weeks.  What a blessing.  A huge blessing came
from all of you who helped raise support for 700 children in our community to receive a backpack with school supplies.  1 Corinthians 12:14, For the body does not
consist of one member but of many.  We wish we could thank you all in person.
 On August 9th for the Back2School Celebration, we had over 175 people from 11 different churches come serve along side of us and show the Lord’s light to our
community.  We had 10 different booths, puppets, worship, a balloon artist, and an gospel illusionist.  The testimonies from the prayer booth were such evidence of how
the Lord was moving in the hearts of the families that attended.  We were also honored to have Denver Police Department (District 2, our neighborhood) and the Gang
Unit come help serve the children.  It was a blessing for both the community and the officers involved.  The Chief of Police heard about the event and is looking forward
to getting DPD more involved next year.  Two boys got saved after playing a soccer game with the wordless gospel soccer ball.  The worship team let the children play
congo and play the guitar.  It was a day of God pouring His love among the people.  “Who is this King of glory?  The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory”
 Many of you have asked about Jerry who was shot in June.  Jerry is healing well but emotionally is scared.  He is afraid to come out of his home to play with
other children.  He did come out to the Back2School Celebration.  This was the first time that he had been out of the house.  Dwayne, Sergeant Lombardi, from the
Gang Unit, and Pastor Lonnie from Legacy Christian Fellowship prayed for him and his family.  His mother was so blessed that Dwayne prayed for Jerry and her family. 
See picture at urbanministriesdenver.com.
 The Democratic National Convention was a huge blessing.  Thank you for your prayers for the city and the serving law enforcement departments and chaplains
that were involved with keeping the peace.  Dwayne was down there for 4 days and walked about 24+ miles.  He was blessed to minister to the officers that were
downtown.  What a hugh testimony it brought to the law enforcement about our God we serve.
 October is going to be a huge stretch for our family.  Dwayne has been given the opportunity to travel to Nigeria, Africa.  He will be joining and leading a mis-
sions’ team of 6 people from Calvary Chapel Castle Rock.  Dwayne leaves Denver on October 6th and returning October 27th.  He will be helping out in an orphan-
age, a prison, and helping teach at a church and pastors retreat.  If you feel led to help with the costs of this trip please send support to U.R.B.A.N. Ministries with a note
referring that it is for the Africa missions trip.  Be praying for safety for Dwayne and the team as they travel and for their health.  Aimee will continue with the Sparrow’s
Nest studies while Dwayne is gone.  Pray that we can get men to serve during those dates and also for them to commit one Saturday a month after. 
 Looking down the road to our next outreach we will be having our 4th Annual Pre-Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, November 22nd.  We have a team of 2
awesome cooks coming from California to help out.  Pray for this opportunity to open our house to the kids and their families and our neighbors. 
 On a personal note we were blessed to celebrate Ezekiel’s 5th birthday.  He is now a proud wearer of an Afro!  He has not cut his hair for one whole year! 
Ezekiel and Trinity are our worship leaders and Moses, who will turn 7 in October, is our evangelist.  It is awesome to see the Lord use our children for His glory!  Titus is
now 6 months and is a ray of sunshine with his huge smile!
Planting Seeds of Hope,
The Dokes Family