Dave Bowman

More Blues

Ready for some more blues? I am!! This weekend we're going to be talking about another thing that gets us stuck in the House of Blues - WORRY! Let's face it, this is one we all have to deal with so this weekend we're going to be unpacking an honest-to-goodness solution for worry. Not just a way to turn down the worry...not just some stress management techniques, but a SOLUTION!

And, once again, we have some GREAT music planned for House Of Blues Pt. 3, so invite a friend and get here Saturday at 6:00 PM, and Sunday at 9:30 & 11:00 AM. Be sure to get here early to hear the band crank up some great blues music during the countdown clock!!

See 'ya this weekend!!!

Gettin' Ready For M25

Some scenes from tonight's M25 packing party at NHC. Packing up food, stuffed animals and NHC gift bags for 400 families!

Forgiveness FAQ 2

I'm posting some frequently asked questions about forgiveness this week as a follow-up to our subject this past week at NHC. So here's FAQ #2...

How can I forgive when they haven't even apologized?

One of the biggest struggles in making the decision to forgive is the idea that I have to let go of what that person did to me - regardless of whether or not they say, "I'm sorry." Let's face it, when we've been hurt we want to hear those words. We want to know that they're taking responsibility for our hurt. Sometimes it would be nice if they'd even grovel a little bit!

But that doesn't always happen. Sometimes the person may not know that they hurt you. Or them may not care that they hurt you. They move away. Sometimes they die before they apologize. When the apology doesn't come it makes it hard to forgive and we want to be off the hook. "They didn't apologize, so I don't have to forgive." But here's what the Bible says...

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3:13

One question: Did Jesus wait for us to apologize for our sin before he went to the cross for our forgiveness?

When someone hurts us it's hard to forgive, but we need to remember that forgiveness is about our freedom. When we wait for an apology we stay locked up in our bitterness. We allow that person to control our lives and our emotions.

So make the decision to forgive...just like Jesus forgave you!

M25 Food Drop This Weekend!

Matthew 25:35 "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."

This weekend we're going to feed 400 families at NHC!!! That translates into 14,000 pounds of food, toiletries and supplies that will be handed out to needy families right here in our own back yard. How awesome is that?

Major props go out to Leah Rade, Jeffrey Husen, and the NHC Community Groups, who are riding herd on this major outreach project.

Way to go NHC!!!

Forgiveness FAQ's 1

So, what does forgiveness have to do with Chilidogs and Cheesefries? I have no idea, but I do have some answers to other questions about forgiveness and I promised I would post some of them this week, so here goes.

Forgiveness FAQ 1 - Is it possible to forgive and forget?

You've heard that one before, haven't you? Forgive and forget! There's only one problem - it doesn't work. Forgiveness, even the supernatural kind, doesn't wipe out your brain's hard drive. Some smaller things you will be able to forget, but there are some hurts that are so big that they never leave your memory.

The key question is what do you do when those memories come up? If you want to experience real healing you make the decision to keep forgiving. This is what makes Jesus' words to Peter in Matthew 18 so important...

"Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times." Matthew 18:21,22

Jesus' answer is that you keep forgiving and keep forgiving and keep forgiving. And frankly, the deeper the hurt, the more times you're probably going to have to forgive. Every time the memory of that hurt comes up, you forgive again.

So, if I do that won't the memory go away? No, but here's what will happen. Over time as you continually make the decision to forgive the pain of the memory gets healed. You still have the memory, but it just doesn't hurt like it used to.

Weekend Rewind

• We have a little saying amongst the NHC staff: It’s the weekend, stupid. In other words, we put a LOT of effort into our weekends. The weekend is when we really get the chance to impact lives and help people encounter God. We worship, teach the Word and lead people to Jesus. And because we’re a simple church, we don’t do a lot of other things. So, when a weekend service hits on all the cylinders, we get excited. This weekend was one of those weekends.

• Worship was great today. I love doing communion and it was so appropriate for us to do it today. It fit right into what we were talking about in Pt. 2 of House of Blues.

• It was really awesome hearing the sound of ripping paper when we all ripped our forgiveness papers together! The sound of freedom!

• Saturday night was rockin’ and rollin’ this weekend. If you haven’t tried a Saturday night service, give it a shot. You get everything that would get on Sunday and then you can sleep in Sunday AM!

• The new service schedule seems to be working out well. Shifting to 6:00 on Saturday and 11:00 for the second Sunday service seems to have put us back on a more workable schedule. But, like many things around NHC, the new times aren’t written in stone. Don’t be surprised if we change it again!

• Spent some time doing advance work on our next two series. Our next series is going to be a 3-week series on prayer called, Vertical. Then that puts us into the Easter time frame. This year we’re kicking off a series on Easter for MEN! We’re calling it Ultimate Fighter and I’m really pumped! I think this is going to be one of the best series we’ve ever done.

• The M25 Food Drop is NEXT SATURDAY!! NHC, because of your generosity in the Christmas offering, we’re going to bless 400 families in our community with enough food and supplies for an entire month. WHAT AN ABSOLUTELY AWESOME THING GOD HAS ENABLED US TO DO!!

• Been a long day. Duke just won. I’m going to bed.

P.S. I'm going to follow up this weekend's message with some posts of forgiveness this week. I'll probably do some FAQ's because a message like this one always stirs up a lot of questions. Soooo, if you have a question about forgiveness feel free to post it in the comments section. Can't guarantee that I'll be able to answer every question, but I'll try to get to the biggies.

House Of Blues II

This week...

    More great music!

    How to let go of the bitterness that traps us in the HOB!

    Get here EARLY for some great blues music!

    Another chance to invite a friend!!!

    Saturday, 6:00 PM/Sunday at 9:30 and 11:00 AM

  

Weekend Rewind

• Great kick-off for House of Blues this weekend. Lots of fun, lots of music, lots of guests and most importantly – lots of people praying to commit or recommit their lives to Christ!

• Lots of changes today too. New stage set up. Loved the new location of the video screens. Having all the screens hanging on the stage makes the video seem larger. Plus, it focuses everyone’s attention on the stage rather than having to look at the stage and screens separately.

• Loved the new seating arrangement too. We pulled everything in closer to the stage, which gave the room a much more intimate feel. It really made every service feel more energetic and pumped up.

• The band did an absolutely AWESOME job today, pulling off some great blues music to match our House Of Blues theme. We went from Stevie Ray Vaughn to Johnny Lang with a couple of great worship tunes in between. And the band will be playing more blues during the countdown clock before all of the services in this series, so GET HERE EARLY!

• We also changed the service schedule this weekend. Saturday night moved to 6:00 and the second Sunday service moved to 11:00. It’s a little tight making the changeover between the two Sunday services, but everything seemed to work pretty smoothly today. We’ll see how it works over the next few weeks.

• With all the changes we made this weekend I have to give HUGE PROPS to all of our various serving teams who made it all happen. The Programming team, Tech team, Welcome team, Parking team and Grounds team all deserve extra pats on the back! Way to go teams!!

• Had lots of people tell me they needed this message today. I SO believe in what we talked about today and what we’re talking about in this series – Jesus wants us to live in the freedom that he came to give us. But we have to participate in the miracle. We have to have the “want to” when it comes to getting out of the House of Blues. And I’m pretty sure Billy Graham would never have done it, but it was a fun “shock-value” moment to hold up a pair of stretched out thermal underwear in my sermon! (If you weren’t there you can watch the video later this week at newhorizonchurch.tv)

• Looking forward to next week. We’re going to be talking about one of the biggest things that keeps us stuck in the House of Blues – bitterness. And we’ll be sharing communion together next weekend. Should be an awesome weekend.

• This weekend wasn’t all smiles, though. At the end of this past week we lost a friend. Carlton Miles, who was a big part of our music ministry for many years, passed away. Carlton was a man who inspired many with his life, his music and his heart. I stopped in for the wake on Saturday night and listened as former music students, friends and fellow musicians eulogized Carlton. It was obvious that Carlton’s influence was a positive, encouraging presence in many lives. We, along with so many others, will miss him.

• That’s it. I’m out and headed for bed.

House Of Blues Pt. 1

This weekend we're kicking off our new series, House Of Blues and I think I can honestly say this is one you won't want to miss! The music is going to be HOT and the message is going to be something that everyone (including myself, so I'll be preaching to myself too) needs to hear!

If the truth were known, most of us have something that keeps us from experiencing the freedom that Jesus came to give us; it may be bitterness over something from your past, anger at your circumstances or the people around you, or maybe you're so worried about tomorrow that you can't enjoy today.

In this new series we're going to be talking about how to break into the freedom that God wants us to live in, and we're starting this weekend with the ONE THING that we all need to have to break out of the House Of Blues.

BTW, YOU DON'T WANT TO BE LATE THIS WEEKEND!! IN FACT, YOU WANT TO GET HERE EARLY!! The band will be cranking up DURING the countdown clock before the service with some great blues music.

Uhambo Kids are geared up and ready to go. Spiked, and Club 56 will be rockin' the house. It's going to be an awesome weekend. Invite your friends and plan on being here Saturday night at 6:00, or Sunday at 9:30 or 11:00.

See 'ya this weekend!!

Starting This Weekend!

We're kicking the blues old school this weekend! Be sure to get your friends here!