Harvest Christian Fellowship Blog

We Are a Learning Church

—Acts 2:42

Welcome again to the Harvest Community Blog. If you’re new to the Harvest Community, be sure to read our previous blog posts where we shared how the first two cornerstones of the HCF Community are being a worshiping church and an evangelizing church.

The third cornerstone of the Harvest Community is being a learning church. We are dedicated to God and His Word. As we read the accounts of the early church, it becomes clear that they too were a learning church. Acts 2:42 says, “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship. . .”

Notice that Luke writes that the church “continued steadfastly.” Keep in mind that this means not only that the apostles taught faithfully and continually but that the congregation was faithful to “continue in”-learn and keep growing in-what was taught. They were attentive to God’s Word.

The first-century church taught and learned the Word of God because the Bible is not just words on a page. Its words are alive, and through it the Holy Spirit spoke to them. Like the first Christians, learning about the Bible is a key part of a present-day believer’s relationship with God.

As Harvest Community members, we are committed to devoting ourselves to God and His Word. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we understand our calling not just to learn about Christ, but to receive, believe in, and possess a personal allegiance to Jesus and His teachings.

We understand that if we want to be like Christ and to think like Christ, then we must learn who He is and what His ways are through studying the Bible and then living His Word daily by His grace.

Studying God’s Word is what makes us a learning church and is what enables us to know God and make Him known.

Community Commitment

As a part of the Harvest Community, are you dedicated to Christ and His Word? Have you pledged your utter devotion to Jesus and His teaching? Are you committed to studying the Bible so that you might know God and make Him known in your life and ministry? And finally, are you dedicated to living God’s Word so that you might be pleasing to Him and bring Him glory.

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This Friday, July 3rd and Saturday, July 4th, our Harvest Office, Bookstore and Café 3:20 will be closed. All studies will be postponed as well. Our normal hours will resume Sunday, the 5th.
From all of us at Harvest Christian Fellowship, have a happy and safe Independence Day celebration!

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There will be fireworks in the Fellowship Hall as Musician’s Network celebrates our great God through praise and worship this Thursday night, the 2nd. Aaron Adame will share a devotion and as always, our gifted musicians will offer a time of instruction in beginning and intermediate guitar, bass, drums, vocals and songwriting. It’s a great time of encouragement, instruction and fellowship and it all starts at 7pm. Come ready to worship and bring a friend!

* Please note: No children under 12 can be accommodated during instruction time.

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We Are an Evangelizing Church
We commit to a willingness to proclaim the gospel with boldness.

“And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved”
—Acts 2:47

In last week’s Harvest Community blog, we shared that the first cornerstone to the Harvest Community is being a worshiping church.

God is looking for those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. And the first step to worshiping in spirit and in truth is to make a confession of saving faith in Jesus Christ and complete devotion to Him. Only then can we magnify God and our outlook toward Him.

The second key to Christian community is a direct result of the first. Healthy, worshiping believers will naturally reproduce themselves. When we are glorifying God, when we are magnifying Him, and when we are worshiping Him in spirit and in truth, we will want to share our faith.

As we read the accounts of the first church, it becomes clear that everything the first Christians did culminated in evangelism. As Acts 2:47 says, “And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

Proclaiming Christ was never seen as optional. Evangelism happened regularly as the early believers worshiped God in spirit and in truth. As they did so, they aroused not only curiosity but also admiration and earned an audience with unbelievers.

The early church also understood the urgency of sharing the gospel. Paul put it this way to the church at Corinth:

“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christs behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:20–21)

Notice that God is making His “appeal” through us. And Christ is “imploring” unbelievers through us. The God of the universe is pleading with fallen humanity through us. God has called us to be ambassadors for Christ.

Jesus’ command to preach the Good News was intended for the entire church—not just the disciples, or pastors, evangelists, missionaries, and outreach ministries. We must all desire and ask God for a sincere burden for the lost. We must all be willing to look around every day to see what part we can play in God’s amazing plan of redemption.

As the Harvest Community, we are committed to a willingness to proclaim the gospel with boldness (see Acts 2:47). This is our duty.

Our commitment to evangelize requires each and every HCF Community member to be willing to take steps of faith to try and initiate conversations about Christ through the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

Like the early church, the Harvest Community is committed to worshiping in spirit and in truth and to sharing our faith with boldness and a sense of urgency. We commit to this and wait in hopeful anticipation for the Lord to add to the church daily those who are being saved.

Community Commitment
As a part of the HCF Community, are you committed to a willingness to proclaim the gospel with boldness through the empowering of the Holy Spirit? Have you purposed it in your heart to be willing to initiate conversations about Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection? Are you willing to look around you to see what part you can play in God’s plan of redemption?

Tags: evangelizing

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Join us for our next Courtyard Fellowship on Saturday, June 27, as we host the Harvest premiere of the movie Fireproof. The showing begins at 7:00 P.M., so come early for dinner at Cafe 3:20.

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This is the first of the four articles on the keys to community found in Acts 2.

Worshiping Church: A confession of saving faith in Jesus Christ and devotion to Him (Acts 2:41, 47)

The Bible reveals to us that God created humanity with a capacity to know, love, and worship Him. Worship is that place where the heart of God and the heart of His children meet together. The Bible also tells us that God is looking for those who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth.

True worship always magnifies God and our outlook toward Him. As God is magnified, everything else becomes insignificant. We begin to see beyond our circumstances and limitations, our fears diminish, and our spirits become refreshed.

Community is essential to the type of worship that magnifies God. We need one another in order to worship God the way He intended. By arranging us as members of His body, Jesus determined that we would need Him and each other for our spiritual growth and maturity. We as individual Christians will never worship and serve God to our fullest apart from one another.

As with all communities, the first step is to join. But unlike the communities the world offers, Christianity does not require you to create a profile or pay a membership fee.

True Christian community begins in no other way than with a confession of saving faith in Jesus Christ and complete devotion to Him. Christian community, in other words, is not founded upon a commonality of age, gender, nationality, or economic status. It’s founded upon saving faith in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Joining the Christian community, therefore, begins by confessing a saving faith in Jesus Christ and devotion to Him. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus. No Christian community is any more or less than this.

The Harvest Community builds its foundation upon that very confession. To belong to Christ means to confess saving faith in who Jesus is and what He has accomplished. Only then can we worship Him in spirit and in truth. Only then can we magnify Him and our outlook toward Him.

As Harvest Community members, we are united together by our faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior. It is in Him and through Him that we become a truly worshiping church. It is because Jesus condemned sin on the cross and defeated the effects of sin and death when He rose again from the grave that we are able to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Belief in Christ is what makes us a worshiping church and what makes us the Harvest Community.

Community Commitment
It might seem elementary, but the first question for us wishing to be a part of the Harvest community is, are you a believer? Have you made a clear and firm commitment to follow Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior? Is your life dedicated the worship of God? Are you willing to conform every area of your life to God’s will?

Tags: worship

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Make plans to join Pastor Greg for another tour of the Holy Land. The trip is scheduled for May 10-21, 2010. Airfare costs have been lowered so pick up a flyer at the Information Center on Sundays between services or by going to to the church website by going here.

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Summer’s here and there’s no better place to beat the I.E. heat than to head to the beach! Harvest’s Surf Fellowship will meet this Saturday, June 20, at Bolsa Chica State Beach- Lifeguard Tower 20. They’ll meet every other Saturday after that through September. This is a really great way to spend the spend the day with your family and fellowship with other families. Join us for worship, devotions, food and fun in the sun! Pick up a flyer on the Patio between Sunday morning services or call the Church Office for more information at 951-687-6902. You can also visit the Harvest Surf Fellowship website here.

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