Archive for 2020

Hey, MBC Family!

Sermon Recap:

I really connected with two of the illustrations Matt used in his sermon, Choosing Faith over Fear, Anxiety, and Worry: Listen to Wisdom, Learn to Trust God.

First, I identified with Matt’s visual aid of the backpack.  As he packed it full of books, we could all see it get heavier and heavier.  It was easy to picture how that could weigh a person down (Prov 12:25). A heavy backpack is even worse when you try and carry it by only one strap.  Matt and I are about the same age, so I can verify that the “cool” way to carry a backpack when we were in high school was to wear it over only one shoulder.  I even had to go see a doctor for back pain in high school because I routinely carried such a heavy backpack on just one shoulder.  The doctor ordered me to lighten up and use both straps. 

That illustration reminded me a little of my life right now.  I need to lighten up my backpack. And I need to put on both straps.  I need to take out some of the “books” that are causing me stress right now—“books” like how stay healthy during a pandemic, “books” like how to make it through a financial crisis, “books” like how to take care of elderly parents, and others.  Are your titles similar to mine?  If so, let’s put them down together. We don’t need to be carrying around that weight right now. We only need One Book.  Also, we need to put on both straps!!!  Proverbs 3:5-6 says that when we trust God (strap 1) and lean on Him rather than our own understanding (strap 2), He will make our way straight.  He’s got a journey ahead of us, and we can trust that He’ll direct us in the way to go and provide what we need to make it all the way to the end!

Second, I connected with Matt’s description of worry as a leash that can choke.  When Matt described their new puppy, Ruby, wrapped around the pole in his backyard, it reminded me of when Mike and I were first married.  Instead of having kids right away, we adopted two very large dogs—a German Shepherd and a Chow/Shepherd/Rottweiler mix (140 lbs).  We enjoyed them (mostly), and I think they enjoyed being our pets except for when we went to visit Mike’s parents.  No matter how cold or wet it was, our dogs had to stay outside at their house.  And Mike’s parents’ yard wasn’t fenced. So that meant that our dogs spent their time tied up to a tree in their front yard.  Once, Mike’s dad even forgot (at least he says he forgot) to turn off their automatic sprinkler system.  We woke up early that morning to the frantic crying of two wet and shivering dogs, crazy out of their minds, and nose-to-nose with each other because they were completely wound up around the tree. 

Too often, I’m like that.  I start off okay, and I leave plenty of room for my mind to just “roam.”  But if I let my mind wander into “worry territory,” I get more and more frantic.  Before I know it, whatever issue I was struggling with suddenly is bigger and more frightening, and I’m wrapped in a leash of worry around my own tree of despair, barely able to breathe.  A verse that helps me when I find myself in this position is 2 Cor 10:5.  It says, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”  Take that worry!  I use that exhortation to help me cut the leash of worry from my thoughts!  It takes work and concentration, but it’ worth it.  The freedom from worry that follows is glorious.

Finally, a part of Matt’s sermon which made me laugh (besides several of the closed captions) was when he described how he hid the “lunch notes of encouragement” his mom wrote him when he was younger. I can picture Jacqueline Reynolds penning Proverbs 3:5-6 in beautiful handwriting to encourage her son when he sat down to eat his lunch.  And I can picture him trying to keep his friends from reading those notes.  It reminded me of how I used to draw bugs flying airplanes on Mike’s brown paper lunch bags to let him know I loved him when he was in pilot training.  (It’s a stretch, I know…) I can only imagine now how embarrassed he must have been pulling those out in front of his classmates!  However, just like Matt’s mom used an “unconventional method” to encourage her son, we need to use all the tools in our creative arsenal to help the ones we love to stand firm in the Lord against attacks of fear, anxiety, and worry.

Noteworthy:

• The MBC Prayer Team needs YOU!  If you are interested in joining our staff in praying for the requests of the body each week, please reply to this email by clicking here.
• Doug Arendsee’s class “Engaging Mind and Culture” will be starting up again via Zoom THIS WEEK, on THURSDAY nights at 7pm to give more people the opportunity to attend.  This will also hopefully help free up bandwidth in your homes since ReGen and our MBC Student ministry programs are still meeting remotely on Wednesday evenings!  Please email him by clicking here if you’re interested., and he will send you a link to the Zoom meeting!  
• Mike Hogue would also love to have you “Zoom” in for his Sunday night Revelation Bible Study!  Please email him (click here) if you’re interested in joining his 6pm meeting!
• Don’t forget to visit the MBC YouTube channel (click here) to view past sermon streams, “Songs to Encourage,” help for homeschooling your kids, and entertaining Bible stories.  We try and add content almost everyday.  Over the last two weeks, our content has been viewed over 1700 times by over 600 unique viewers!  Next up!  A 14 day fitness challenge for ladies! If you have ideas for new material, let me know by clicking here.  Be sure to check it out! 
• Thank you for continuing to watch the live streams of our service and for continuing to send in your gifts!  We have heard your feedback, and while the closed captions were a good idea in theory, we will be removing them from the stream this week.  Let us know if you have any other suggestions to improve the digital delivery of the service!

On that note, let’s be sensitive to those around us this week. Just like Matt’s mom and her “lunch notes of encouragement,”  we need to get creative and help reassure the people in our lives that no matter how bad this gets, with Christ, we don’t need to be filled with fear, anxiety, or worry.  We just need to have faith and trust in our Heavenly Father.

He’s got this.  And He’s got us, too.

In service to Him and to you,
Heather Hogue

Hey, MBC Family!

The theme of Matt’s message this past Sunday was replacing fear with prayerful dependence on God.  I loved that.  However, in appropriate amounts, fear can be a gift from God.  It heightens our senses and makes us more aware of our surroundings.  It is essential for survival.  So where is the balance between fear and prayerful dependence?  Can we embrace a sharpening of our senses while still maintaining a sense of peace and calm?  As I talked with Mike about intersection of healthy fear and faith, I came up with an example which might help explain how we can have both—a little bit of fear overcome by a whole lot of faith and dependence on our Heavenly Father.

Mike and I both love roller coasters.  I went on my first roller coaster during a choir competition at Hershey Park (Pennsylvania) when I was in the 8th grade, and from that day on I was hooked.  Mike, being a pilot, has always loved amusement park rides that go fast and high up in the air (Except those that spin. Mike hates spinning. In fact, spinning to any pilot is very bad. Go watch the movie Top Gun if you don’t believe me.) So when we have visited amusement parks, we like to “help” our children overcome their innate fear of these high-speed steel trains.  Usually we “help” them by offering some sort of delayed gratification or reward for them to enjoy AFTER they ride (yes, purists might call that a bribe, but hear me out).

To motivate our first-born to ride the “Superman” roller coaster at Six Flags Fiesta Texas, she only needed the promise of a $20 bill. Done. Our son, Josh, was even easier.  He overcame his fear of the “Rockin’ Roller Coaster” at Disney’s Hollywood Studios with the promise of a frozen lemonade. Chloe rode Space Mountain and came home with a Stitch stuffed animal.  Our second-born’s story had a similar beginning, but included a twist.

One trip to Disney World, Abby saw a tye-dyed, rainbow t-shirt at the “Rockin’ Roller Coaster” gift shop and her eyes shined with longing. It was the perfect incentive for us to use to help her overcome her fear.  While she was just tall enough to meet the minimum height requirement for the ride, she was filled with the maximum amount of terror.  This bore itself out as she cried quiet tears the entire time we snaked our way through queue. We finally got to the front of the line.  Mike ducked out to ride in a car with our other daughter, and I was left as Abby’s “Ride Buddy.” 

We strapped in and pulled down the safety bars.  Abby was openly sobbing at this point, and I was starting to feel a blush of embarrassment as others looked at me in harsh judgment.  I continued to console her and reminded her of the prize that waited for her at the end of the ride—the beautiful rainbow t-shirt.  It didn’t help.  By this time, even I was praying that we could just get the whole episode behind us.  Then, one of the ride attendants looked at Abby, at me, back at Abby, and signaled for the ride operator to halt. The. Entire. Ride. 

He approached the side of the car that Abby was on, and got down on his knees so he was eye-to-eye with Abby, and stated with no apology whatsoever, “Young lady, we are about creating magic here.  If you don’t want to ride this ride, your mother cannot make you.” And with that he gave me an evil, condescending glare, as did everyone else standing in the line waiting to ride the next train.  I was mortified and looked away while trying to shrink into the back of my seat. Mike pretended like he had never seen either of us before. “Now if you, and not your mother, really want to ride this ride, you need to give me a thumbs up.  If you don’t, we’ll get you off right here and there’s nothing your mom can do about it. But only look at me. Not your mom. I need to see your thumb up.”

“So what will it be?”

All of us held our breath.  I was almost afraid to look.  But I had to know!  What would she choose???  I caught a glimpse of her fist out of the corner of my eye.  At first, it just looked as though she was getting ready to punch the seat back in front of her.  However, her thumb creeped upward, and before I fully saw what happened, the ride attendant yelled out, “Okay then!” and we took off.

I couldn’t see much of her during the actual ride, but after the first loop, I did see that she managed to crack a tearful smile.  By the end of the ride, she was beaming.  Not only had she conquered her fear, she knew a prize was waiting for her in the gift shop.  The rainbow t-shirt.

So how does all this relate to corona virus and Matt’s sermon on overcoming fear with prayerful dependence?

  My point is this–Abby was able to overcome her fear because:

1. She wanted the reward.
2. She trusted us. 

She knew that we would be faithful to our word. If she faced her fear, we would reward her in the end.

Break. Break. Life is hard.  Life is also scary.  Sometimes, it feels like a roller coaster.  (Do you see where I am going with this?)  However, our Heavenly Father has made a promise to us.  Many promises, actually. Including, but not limited to:

• He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5b-6).  
• We can do all things through His strength (Phil 4:13).
• He will reward us when we remain steadfast under trial (James 1:12)

These rewards may not be on this earth, but they are coming.  And according to Ephesians 3:20, they’re exceedingly, abundantly more than we could even ask or imagine. 

Sometimes, we just need to grab onto our heavenly Father’s hand, suck in our breath, and get ready for the ride.  It might feel too fast. Too steep. Too scary.  But God’s got this.  He designed the ride.  He knows it isn’t going to fail.  And He has promised us a special reward at the end. The fact that God raised Jesus from the dead shows that He is all-powerful.  He can be trusted to do what He says. And, just like the rainbow on Abby’s desired t-shirt can remind us, God always keeps His promises.

Noteworthy:

• To be honest, we’re all kind of watching to see how the COVID-19 crisis will play out.  Mike and I live in Tarrant County and as of midnight tonight, we are ordered to stay in our homes.  We’ve heard that Ellis County has issued their own order.  While we won’t be in the office, I know the entire staff wants to stay connected to all of you.  Please continue to email us your prayer requests, questions, and feedback. (Click here)  While there won’t be someone there answer your calls, PLEASE leave a voicemail!  This goes straight to my inbox as an email.  I WILL CALL YOU BACK!
• The building will now be closed, but we want to do everything we can to stay connected to you. In fact, we will be live streaming our Wednesday night youth worship and teaching time on our Facebook page and our YouTube channel.  I will send out these links as they become available tomorrow. We are particularly excited to have people join us because the worship and teaching will both be led by Ezekiel Garcia, one of our youth pastor candidates!  Youth will have the chance to join small group breakouts via zoom after the main session by clicking on one of the following links:
  • Middle School:  Click here
  • High School: Click here

• I hope you’ve gone ahead and subscribed to our YouTube channel!  Click here This is where we will be live streaming all of our sermons from in the future.  In addition, we add new content almost everyday, and I have curated playlists for encouraging songs, Bible stories for kids, devotions for women, KETO recipes, movie reviews, and Bible study aids.  Matt will also be launching his “Psalms to Calm the Soul” series there soon.  And we’d love to put up even more of your content!  So record yourself playing a favorite hymn on the guitar or piano. Talk about something the Lord has been teaching you.  Share a way to get through a tough teaching day with your kids.  And send me the link to the video.  I’d love to include you in this online community.
• As I mentioned, the service this Sunday will be live-streamed again on our Facebook page and our YouTube channel.  Please make an effort to pray for each other. Stay plugged in and connected to your LIFE groups.  In fact, the Revelation study LIFE group will be “zooming” starting this Sunday. Don’t feel like you had to start from the beginning.  Mike would love to have you join the study.  Email me (click here) for more information if you are interested in joining this group.

So while you may feel like you’re riding an out-of-control roller coaster, know that the One sitting next to you has the whole world in His hands.  He’s got you.  And He’s got this.  He’ll reward those who choose faith and prayerful dependence over fear.

In service to Him and to you,
Heather Hogue

Sermon Recap:

Title: Looking Out for Others

Passage: Philippians 1:27-2:11

The Context: Christ’s joy in the midst of difficulty

The Call: Experience joy as you live as citizens of the gospel

The Conduct: Display the gospel through humble concern for others

The Challenge: Put Christ and the gospel on display.

While there are plenty of negatives that come with the current situation surrounding the coronavirus, I must admit that I like the way it has brought our family together.  It even helped me write this update.  We sat with three of our four kids home tonight around the dinner table, and I asked everyone to help me think of examples of compassion for the update.  However, I tried to phrase my request without sounding like a Sunday school teacher so I asked, “What is the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?”  Josh described a time in fourth grade after we had moved from Texas to Washington, DC when a classmate asked him to come sit at his lunch table because Josh was all alone in the cafeteria.  Mike mentioned a time when his parents endured six months of living apart during the week, so Mike wouldn’t have to move his senior year of high school. 

Then I decided to turn the tables and asked, “What has been the nicest thing you have ever done for someone else, outside of our immediate family?” This was seemed trickier and was met by silence at first. However, our daughter, Abby, described how even though she was in a highly competitive advertising program sequence at UT, one semester she took on an additional project– which meant a lot of extra work for her– to help a classmate who didn’t have a partner. I asked why that was so “nice,” and she explained that since the advertising world is so competitive, no one ever really wants to risk helping anyone else. I followed up with, “What do you think made you different than everyone else?  Why were you willing to help?”  And she said something really interesting.  She said, “Well, I guess I was just confident. I knew I was doing well enough in the program, and that made it easier to be willing to sacrifice for someone else. I knew I stood at the top of the program, so I didn’t have to worry.”

Her comments, in light of Matt’s sermon on Sunday, really struck me.  We are told to be compassionate and to love our neighbor.  As we are hearing in the news every day, our compassionate actions (social distancing) can actually save lives. Yet we see people doing just the opposite.  They hoard toilet paper and cleaning supplies or worse– blatantly ignore requests from public officials to limit their interactions with other people. Why is this?

I submit: it is difficult to show compassion if you’re not confident in whom you’ve chosen to follow. If you’re trying to get through this crisis in your own strength, by your own wits, and through your own ingenuity, it’s going to be hard to be compassionate and show the humble concern for others Matt spoke of in his sermon. News flash: you have misplaced your confidence.

There are SO many verses that speak to where we should place our confidence:

Psalms 71:5—For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth.

Jeremiah 17:7 But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.

Hebrews 13:6 So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”

Luke 18:9-14  The parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.  As Jesus gets ready to ream the Pharisees for their pride and unrepentant spirits, He starts out by describing their misplaced confidence– “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else…”

And there are so many more.

To truly be compassionate and show the humble concern for others that our Lord and these times require, we must put our confidence in Him and not in our own flesh.  We should stop trying to manage everything on our own.  It’s impossible in these times anyway.  We need to put our confidence in Christ.  He’s got this. Coronavirus and all.  Then and only then will we have the real freedom to sacrifice in humble concern for someone else.

Save the date/Ongoing:

Well, sadly enough, this section of the update is pretty empty.  This breaks my heart a little as I take the first part of our MBC mission “To glorify God and make disciples by bringing people together through the gospel…” as my personal challenge.  However, we are going to do our best to use technology as a way to bring people together and help keep you connected to the body here at MBC.  We will be live streaming our service again, so look for details about that in the coming days.  In fact, keep checking your email, Facebook, and Realm as we are using these to make sure we get decisions out.  We also have some creative ideas to meet you across the distance using programs and apps like Zoom, FaceTime, Marco Polo, and possibly even our own MBC YouTube channel!  If you have expertise in any of these areas, or you just want to get involved, shoot me an email (click here), and I’ll make sure to include you as we ramp up these offerings.

Final thoughts:

Please know that we are here for you!  We are keeping the MBC office open during its normal hours (9am-3pm), so if you have any needs, concerns, or you just want to talk, give me a call (972-723-0002)!

And speaking of confidence, I’m going to steal Paul’s words, “I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in YOU

will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6).

In service to Him and to you–even during these crazy times,
Heather Hogue

This Friday and Saturday, March 13th and 14th, women from MBC will be attending a “mini-retreat” for the Hope 2020 Conference at The Avenue Church in Waxahachie.  I just checked, and there are just a few seats remaining if you want to join us to hear Liz Curtis Higgs and Lysa TerKeurst.  Get your ticketshere.  We hope you can join us!

Wednesday, March 18th, is our next Family Meal Night!  Please register on the website or in Realm now for a yummy enchilada dinner and surprise Mexican dessert so we know how much food to prepare.  $5 per person, $10 max per family suggested donation.

Opportunities for Service & Discipleship:

We will be putting on an Easter program for inmates and their children at the Venus Correctional Facility on April 4th.  Then, on April 5th, we will have a church-wide picnic and Easter egg hunt.  Both of those activities will require A LOT of candy. We would appreciate any sugary sweets you are able to provide for these events. Please bring donations of candy and/or filled Easter eggs to Heather in the church office or Lydia in the Children’s Ministry wing of the building. Thank you in advance for your help!

Final Challenge:

Remember to pray at 1:11 each day for:

1 person to share your faith with

1 person to come to believe in Christ

1 person to personally disciple in 2021

And pray for opportunities to demonstrate splagchnizomai.  May the Lord give us hearts of true compassion–especially for those who need it most.

In service to Him and to you,
Heather Hogue