ConnectPoint

Praise the Lord RC family!

Just one week ago, we remembered and celebrated the resurrection of Christ, reflecting on the fact that God gave His all and His absolute best for us. This coming Sunday, we will celebrate God’s goodness again, but this week we will give our absolute best and all to Him by sowing a first fruit offering.

For this week’s connect point, I want to answer three questions; what the first is, what are the first fruits and their purpose? Do first fruit offerings have any relevance for the believer today, and what can we expect when we sow the first fruit seed offering?

Let’s tackle the first question. What are the first fruits and their purpose?

The first fruits, unlike the tithe, was an offering that God commanded to be brought to the temple and given in advance of each harvest, which was part of three splendid festivals that God commanded every Jewish male to attend in Jerusalem annually. One celebration was in the spring (Passover/Unleavened Bread), one was in the summer (Pentecost/Harvest), and one was in the early fall (Tabernacles/Ingathering).

The first fruit offerings were calculated and given before the harvest, not following the harvest. The first fruit offering was According to Carta’s Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. These offerings were “dedicated to the expression of heartfelt thanks for God’s bounty and the presentation of the beginning of one’s harvest to Him.”

The first fruits offering had a fourfold purpose:

• It honored God as the Source of all blessing.
• It sanctified the remaining part of the harvest by bringing the harvest under God’s authority.
• It assured that the coming harvest would be exceedingly bountiful.
• It demonstrated that the giver could be trusted in the stewardship of the resulting wealth (Romans 11:16; Proverbs 3:9-10).

The second question is: do the first fruit offerings have any relevant meaning for the believer today?

Family, I believe it undoubtedly does. But I also think, just like any seed offering, it must be given from one’s free will. As previously mentioned, the first fruit means giving your best or, in essence, committing what is most precious to you.

Family, it impossible to love without giving. God gave His best, His only begotten Son, yes, born of a virgin. It was His first, His best, His first fruit, and because of that, you and I are saved today. The voices of that first fruit sacrifice still speak, for Christ is seated in heaven at the right hand of God Almighty, as a Priest, making intercession for us, and the blood of His sacrifice speaks better things, purifying and cleansing us (1 Corinthians 15:23).

Family, because of this ultimate sacrifice, God gave Jesus the most incredible thing He could ever give, the church. Yes, you read that correctly. I said, “the church.” In fact, the church is God’s gift to His Son; therefore, you and I are the bride of Christ, the first fruits of His creatures.

James 1:18 says, “He chose to give birth to us through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all He created.”  

The third question I want to answer in this Connect Point is, what can we expect when we sow the first fruit offering? To answer that question in detail, I would need much more room than what is appropriate in a connect-point post, so let me try to summarize it in a few sentences using God’s word.

Jeremiah 2:3 says, “God issues automatic judgment on whoever or whatsoever attempts to devour the people who give the FIRSTFRUIT.”

Isaiah 61:7 says, “Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.”

Nehemiah 13:31 says, “God can be called upon to specially favor the giver of FIRSTFRUIT.”

Proverbs 3:9-10 says, “that in addition to God-honoring the giver of FIRSTFRUIT OFFERING, the giver also enjoys overflowing blessings from the Almighty God.”

1 Sam 2:30b, The Old Testament text further implies that the honor rendered unto God by the giver of FIRSTFRUITS automatically attracts a greater dimension of honor from GOD.

Romans 11:16 says, “If the part of a dough offered as FIRSTFRUITS is HOLY, then the whole batch is HOLY; if the root is HOLY, so are the branches.” Giving the first portion of your finances to God will cause all of your finances to be HOLY for the rest of the year. FIRSTFRUITS causes God to treat your finances as HOLY, giving you favor with GOD because your finances are connected to the FIRST FRUIT OFFERING.

Ezekiel 44:30 says, “The first of all FIRSTFRUITS of every kind and every contribution of every kind, from all your contributions, shall be for the priests: you shall also give to the priest the first of your dough to cause a blessing to rest on your house.”

Family, FIRST FRUITS impart a blessing on your home. Many times a financial blessing is not our immediate need or concern. Having a blessing on your home positions you to have healing in your physical, spiritual, and emotional need for you and your family. When you give FIRST FRUITS, not only do you benefit, but your saved and unsaved loved ones also do.

So, you may be wondering what does this all mean on a simple, practical level, and how do we determine how, when, and how much we should give as a first fruit offering? I believe this may be different for each person but let me offer you a few steps to help.

First – Pray: If your goal is obedience to God, it only makes sense that you would first go to him in prayer. Ask him what you should give and what you should do with your resources. Listen to what he says.

Secondly - Prepare: God calls us to be good stewards of the blessings he gives us. That means knowing what we’re able to give and when. Have a plan in place for all your giving and have an open mind and a generous heart. It’s impossible to out-give God.

Thirdly - Prioritize: The whole idea behind a first fruit gift is to put God first. That may be donating an entire week’s income. It may mean that you put tithes, offering, and first fruit on the first line in your overall budget.

Fourthly –  target your seed for a specific harvest: A farmer sows what he has been given to create something he has been promised.  When you plant your first fruit offering, wrap your Faith around it and remember that the Seed that leaves your hand really never leaves your life…but enters your future.

Family, God’s intention is that we live a life of true dominion, comfort, and overwhelming blessings. However, realizing this divine desire depends on our prompt, total, and consistent obedience to God’s instructions, one of which is giving of FIRST FRUIT OFFERING.

Hello to all of my RC family members,

Here in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, we are finally getting some beautiful spring weather which allows us to get outside and enjoy some fresh air. It seems like the winter season was exceptionally long because of the lockdowns due to the pandemic.

While the COVID-19 virus still rages and is causing so many challenges, we must keep our eyes and focus on God. David said in Psalm 121:1-3, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help! 2 My help cometh from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not permit thy foot to be moved; He that keepeth thee will not slumber.”

Family, sometimes life can seem like an uphill climb, can’t it? A despairing man came to see his pastor, and he confessed, “My life is really in bad shape.” “How bad is it?” the pastor inquired. Burying his head in his hands, the man moaned, “I’ll tell you how bad. All I’ve got left is God.”

The pastor’s face lit up. “I’m happy to assure you that a person with nothing left but God has more than enough for great victory!”

I’m pretty sure all of us have felt like that man at some point over the last year, and maybe you are reading this, and you are there right now. Perhaps you’ve felt that nothing you have and nothing you are has value.

But can I encourage you to lift up your eyes and look to God because our help comes from Him. In this current season, we need to be reminded that we still have God. In fact, this is when a person who is imprisoned by doubt or fear or life circumstance finally begins to find the way out. It is when they discover that all they have left is God.

When we feel helpless and hopeless, it is tough for us to take our eyes off ourselves. Our conflict uses up all our energy. Affliction demands attention. But what happens when we look up? What happens when we move our focus from our problems to the power, presence, and peace of God?

When Glynis and I visited the city of Jerusalem, we realized that it was built on a hill. Whenever we read a Bible passage about people on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, we read that those people “went up” to Jerusalem. Many of the Old Testament Psalms were written as traveling worship songs that spiritual pilgrims sang together as they traveled from the surrounding towns to worship in the temple on Mount Zion. As they climbed the hill to Jerusalem, the caravan of people would sing a psalm of praise or lament. That’s why many of the Psalms are titled “A song of ascents.” It means, “A song to sing as you climb up the hill.”

Family, when life seems like an “uphill climb” to you, can you find a song to sing? Psalm 121 begins: 

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills  where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.

In these first two verses, the Psalmist moves his focus from his problems to God’s power. The people of God are climbing the hill to the temple on Mount Zion. They are at the point in the journey where there is a lot of effort expended and no results yet. They encourage each other along the way, and they continue to look up, straining to see the top of the mountain pushing toward that moment when they can join in the worship of God. In the temple, they will find hope and wisdom and joy and perspective in the act of worship. They will find refreshment for their souls.

Why are they climbing this hill? What’s the point of this journey? To worship the Almighty, most Powerful God, the God who made the heavens and the earth. Whatever problems we may bring to worship, we know we are laying them at the feet of a God who created the universe and set the natural laws in motion. When we recall the power of the God we serve, we gain a new perspective on our problems and on the possibilities for God to redeem our situation.

Family, we have the power of God in us, working through us, so listen to what the Psalmist writes next:

3 He will not let your foot slip he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD watches over you the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

This simple faith in God’s constant presence sounds like the faith of a child or the faith of someone who has faced many sleepless nights and discovered that he or she was not alone in their struggles.

Family, I know that many of you feel alone in this season, but Glynis and I want you to know that you are not alone. God is with you, and we are praying for you.

In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, lovers Romeo and Juliet are separated by their families’ deadly feud. Suddenly, during the night, Juliet realizes Romeo stands below her window, out in the garden. When she realizes he is there, she asks how he came. And why he didn’t stay away? After all, this is a dangerous move.

Romeo and Juliet is a story of love, yes, but it is also a story of hate. Suppose the Capulets and the Montagues didn’t hold such intense hatred in their hearts for one another; the story might’ve ended without such devastation (as suicide is – a tragedy). But that is an argument for a different day and some better-educated people.

For now, let’s ignore the terribly tragic ending of perhaps Shakespeare’s most notable work. We will focus on precisely what Romeo says to Juliet, “With love’s light wings did I o’er-perch these walls, for stony limits cannot hold love out, and what love can do, that dares love attempt.”

Couldn’t this also be a beautiful representation of what a loving God would look like coming to comfort His people in the night? “What love can do, that dares love attempt.”

Next week is the week that leads up to the greatest expression of LOVE ever demonstrated; the crucifixion. As we prepare our hearts and minds to celebrate the “LOVE OF GOD,” let us show God how grateful we are for His LOVE that He’s shown us and don’t forget to express His love by loving someone who is hurting this week.

God bless you.

Love,

Bishop

Prayer:

Lord, You answer our pleas for help. You draw near to us when we are hurting; You save us when we are crushed by life. Your Psalmists declare it on every page. Yet we often feel abandoned and alone. We wonder where You are in our suffering; we imagine You are distant or distracted. Instead of taking our complaints and fears to You, we often turn away from You in frustration. We choose to rely more on our emotions than on Your promises and Your character. Forgive us for running from You in our trouble and for trusting our everyday experience more than Your Word. Teach us to trust You—the God revealed in Scripture. Help us lean on You when life is too much. Lord, You are good, and You are pursuing us with mercy.

Amen.

Greeting to my dearest RC family,

Yesterday, while we celebrated Glynis’ birthday, we were reminiscing about the goodness of God, and over the last 20 years since we came to the former RC, which was initially called “Montreal West Church of God.” Maybe you get tired of us telling you that we love and appreciate you, but we do love you, and we are so grateful for the very day and moment that God brought you into our lives. We are so thankful that God allowed us to meet and do His work together.

We are equally grateful for those of you who have joined our family over the years, especially those we have not even met in person yet. We love you and appreciate you and can’t wait to see you in person after the pandemic is over.

I was just telling Glynis about some of the conversations that I recently had with some of you. About how you expressed your love for us and the kind words of affirmation that you spoke. Several people told me how grateful they were and how God used us to change their lives since we became their pastors. Well, the truth is, we believe we got the better deal in this transaction because you all have loved, accepted, and taught us way more than we did you.  

You’ve taught us how to give generously, love passionately, forgive unreservedly and how to accept people unconditionally. It was your desire to learn and follow God’s Word that made us explore and study some of God’s principles and precepts that we were never taught. One such principle was the “First Fruit offering.”

Glynis and I were educated about the principle of tithing and sowing seed but not First Fruits. Imagine how many blessings we missed over the years because we overlooked that principle? Do you know that since we’ve practiced the First Fruit principle, giving God an amount equal to one whole week’s salary annually, it put us on a trajectory that changed our financial situation drastically?

Since we’ve been sowing our First Fruit offerings, tithes, and free will offerings, our financial situation keeps getting better. Yes, there have been many challenges over the years, but we’ve watched God work things out for us with each challenge.

Family, this year, our FIRST FRUIT celebration will take place on Sunday, April 10^th, and we want you to join us in sowing a First Fruit offering and by faith, believing for a supernatural, financial breakthrough for you and your family.

In the book of Romans 11:16, it says, ‘For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. Notice what it says, if the firstfruit is holy – what this means is, if what is given or offered to God is holy, then the rest is also dedicated and holy. Here holy means, ‘separated unto God.’

When we give our First Fruits, we are committing the rest or the whole lot to God, which activates a continuous flow of the blessing manifestly in our lives. The first is the foundation upon which the structure is built. Giving our First Fruits to God lays a strong foundation upon which a massive financial structure stands.

In Bible interpretation, the law of first mention states that the first time a topic is mentioned in the Bible determines the interpretation, relevance, and significance that subject should carry throughout the scriptures. So let’s apply it on First Fruits; Genesis 4:3-7 says, “And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the LORD. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the LORD respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. So the LORD said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted?.”

 This first mention of First Fruits in the Bible shows us three important points:

1) Firstfruits are always accepted by God.
2) Not every offering is acceptable.
3) Giving firstfruits is doing well.

This year I want you to make up your mind to give God your first and the best of your increase, in sowing a free-will offering in the amount of one week’s salary. We believe that this is your year to move “FORWARD” into abundance and supernatural increase.

Make this declaration over your life starting today…

I live by the word of God. I honor God with the firstfruits as I activate the law of abundance in my life. Whatever I touch prospers, I abound to every good work by the supernatural power of God. I am healthy, I am wealthy, and I am wise. My financial progress is evident to all because I apply biblical financial principles. I am rich because of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!!

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Greeting to all of our RC family members, ConnectPoint subscribers and friends!

While in prayer this week, I was thinking about and praying for our amazing RC & ConnectPoint family. I began to think about the word “loyalty” and, more specifically, about your loyalty to God and the church. So, in this week’s ConnectPoint, I want to write about loyalty.

First, let me say thank you for your commitment to God, to the Resurrection Center and your local church. The reason why your lead pastors are still here is because of your loyalty to the work of God.

Before the pandemic, I used to say that our members get to vote each and every week if they want us to be their pastors with their feet. Meaning, if you show up for church on Sunday, it meant you wanted us to be your pastors. Today, each person gets to vote if they want us to be their pastor by the click of a mouse. We want to say thank you for your vote.

Almost every day, I hear something about “cancel culture” or “call out culture,” but whatever happened to being loyal even if all your expectations are not being met?

In the midst of the current “cancel culture” or “call out culture,” loyalty seems to be a thing of the past. Many people are loyal to a person, place, or thing as long as their place or thing meets all of their expectations. But is this realistic? Is it possible for my wife, my church, my employer, friends, or even my God to meet all of my expectations?

See, I believe that there are times that we all need to be called out and held accountable for our words and actions, but what happens when we appoint ourselves the arbiters of right and wrong and also the judge and jury, rather than the Word of God?

We live in a melting pot that offers an alternative to everything in life. Think about it. Today, you can change churches with a click of a mouse on a computer. If you don’t like something that a pastor or a leader says, you have the power to cancel the pastor with a simple click and to let the world know you disagreed with him or her.

We actually live in a time when if you don’t like something that’s written in the bible, you can simply find another leader, denomination, or bible version that agrees with your views.

Family, every day, our loyalties and allegiance to Christ are tested. They are tested by the sinful pull of the old nature, the temptations of the enemy, who is an expert in seduction and luring people’s hearts away from Jesus and the godless world system. The world is relentless in its effort to get us to march according to its rhythm.

It inundates us. It overwhelms our senses. All through the images that flash before our eyes, the headlines that we read, the soundbites that echo in our brains, and the godless teaching that we are being force-fed by many of our educational systems, especially our so-called institutions of higher learning.

When we become desensitized to the godless philosophies of our day, we will slowly start to accept their message, believe it to be true, or at the very least see it as an acceptable alternative.

As it always has, this world is running away from God as hard and as fast as it can. If we are not careful, we will be caught up in its stampeding retreat. To be loyal and stand firm when the current of popular thought is flowing in the opposite direction of where we are headed takes courage.

We need to be loyal to God’s Word, even if that means we will be ridiculed, pressured, and/or ostracized. The truth will no longer exist if we allow God’s Word to become irrelevant and nonexistent. Many in our current culture want to “CANCEL” the Bible. They want to mold and shape it into whatever they want it to be depending on their current situation, feelings, personal reality, or perception.

Family, understand there is an objective foundational reality that determines right and wrong, that society should be built upon, that lives should be built upon. It is not left up to the whims and wishes of the powerful elites or the majority. Objective truth is and always will be found in the Word of God. We cannot walk away from that but must become more loyal to its principles and precepts.

Think about it, we now live in a world of universalism. Universalism says that all beliefs are equal and valid. It says that your Jesus, like my Buddha, Mohammed, or whatever other belief you may hold, are all different paths headed to the same destination.

It takes courage to say, “No! All roads don’t lead to heaven. Only Jesus, the eternal Son of God, God sent, born of a virgin, fully God and fully man, perfect in every way, never sinning in Word, thought or deed, dying a substitutionary death on the cross for sin’s penalty, rising from the dead, ascending to heaven and coming back again to take his church home is the way to heaven and that every person will be judged based on whether or not we have a relationship with God through Him.” That takes loyalty because the world does not accept that Jesus.

We live in a world that not only doesn’t know right from wrong, but they can’t distinguish male from female. They have corrupted God’s design of gender and sexuality. In this day and age, it takes courage to say boys are boys and girls are girls, that boys who think they are girls don’t need to be in girl’s locker rooms, and girls who think they are boys don’t need to be in boy’s locker rooms.

In this day and age, we need to be loyal to the fact that God designed marriage to be a relationship between a man and woman, not a man and a man or a woman and a woman. In this day and age, we need to be loyal to the Word of God that says that homosexuality is a sin. In this day and age, we need to remain loyal to the fact that God demands and expects sexual purity in what we see, think, and do. (Pornography is sin, fornication (sex before marriage) is sin, adultery (sex outside of your marriage relationship) is sin).

Family, many battles are being lost for the next generation. But we must become more and more loyal to God and His Word. More than ever, we need men, women, teens, boys, and girls who know the Word and are willing to be loyal to, live in, and by the Word.

See, living for Christ at every age has been difficult. You will be misunderstood. You will not be the majority. However, remain loyal and be courageous. Do Good! Speak Truth! Share Jesus! Live Holy lives! Show Jesus!