The Hardest 18 inches (45cm)

Within this past week I have had the opportunity to talk with four or more people about the topic of "knowing about God and His desires in our minds, but not in our hearts." And once again, this morning, during a time of prayer, this topic came up in our prayers. So because of this, I thought I would write about it.
I want to start out with a short personal testimony with this topic...
It was about a month before Rebecca and I were going to be married. At the time I had been teaching the youth at CCCH in the book of Exodus. We were focusing on Exodus 3:14 which says, "And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM...I AM has sent me to you." The Lord led me to focus in on this I AM statement of God and really see who He is! So we began to do a study on the names of God and really consider them in our own personal lives. So now it is a month before our wedding and there were many bills that were due and circumstances that had to take place in order for details to work out for the wedding. Fear, Worry, and Concern began to overtake my heart. So I went into one of the other pastors office to get some prayer and wisdom from him. This pastor's name was John Kantorak! Pastor John was someone that I highly respected and looked up to (not only physically, but spiritually). I went into his office and told him all that was going on at the time. I went on to tell him that I already knew the names of God and the definitions of these names and even the verses that he (John) would give me, for I had already been giving them to myself. He then sat back in his chair, smiled at me, and then asked me the following questions:

• Joey, when you compare this to all of eternity, do you think that this is really that big of a deal?
• Joey, do you honestly not think that you will still be here next month after your wedding and that God will take care of all of this?
• Joey, look ahead years down the road, do you still think that you will be here and that this will all be behind you?

To all of these questions, I simply replied that he (John) was right. This situation that I thought was so big at the time would be nothing compared to eternity. I did believe that I would get past this situation, but I wasn't sure how. So that is what I told John. "But How?" Once again, John leaned back in his chair and smiled at me and said, "Joey, you know it up here (pointing at his head), but God wants you to learn it in here (pointing at his chest) and these are the hardest 18 inches that we must go in our lives."

I will never forget that conversation with my good buddy John Kantorak. Currently he is in heaven worshiping the King of kings and I look forward to that day when I will be with him worshiping as well!

You see, so many of us have this head knowledge about God. You might be like me... you know the verses, know the names of God, know the definition of these names, and yet still not be able to move forward because you are fearful and cannot see a way out. I want to tell you what John told me over 8 years ago,

"You may know it in your mind, but God wants you to know it in your heart and these are the hardest 18 inches in your life."

What is the situation that you are currently going through? Is fear or worry overtaking your heart? Consider the following verses... Philippians 4:6-7 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made know to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

Something that we must understand is this. Jesus loves us too much to leave us where we are currently at. Because He loves us, He is molding and shaping us into His image, to be what He has called us to be. And because this is true, our head knowledge is NOT ENOUGH. All of that head knowledge must be applied to our lives. We have to move forward in our walks with Him.

How is that going to happen? BY FAITH! It will be by faith that we will begin to make the change from just the knowledge in our minds to the movement in our lives. Hebrews 11:6 says "Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

So I want to encourage you today. What is it in your life that must make this CHANGE from the mind to the heart? From head knowledge to life experience? Give it over to the Lord today! Lift your eyes and see that the Lord is high and lifted up and in control! TRUST HIM!

PS - regarding my situation before our wedding... God was faithful. He completely provided! Everything fell into place! HE IS FAITHFUL - I can testify of this!

Happy Father's Day

Wow! Tomorrow is Father's Day! A day when the Father's are to be celebrated and thanked. Father's Day is not a holiday that is celebrated here in Deutschland. What's up with that? HaHa
After watching this video, I immediately began to think of two things. 1) I am that dad that my kids are watching 2) My Dad.

I AM THAT DAD
This is something that I often still trip out about. I am a DAD! I know that I have been a dad now for over five years and I still cannot believe it at times. The Lord has blessed my wife and I with the 3 most beautiful children in the world! I am so thankful for each of them. As I consider the statements that are being said in this video, I am reminded of the task, no, the privilege that the Lord has given me to influence the lives of my kids. I know that I do often fall short of what I am called to do, but it is truly my desire and aim to raise my kids in such a way that would be well-pleasing to the Lord. It is my prayer that I can be a faithful example of Jesus to them.

MY DAD
When I think upon this video, I am definitely reminded of my dad. I know that I have a dad that deeply loves me and is interested in my life. As I am a father now, and my kids are asking for this thing or that thing, I immediately begin to think about my dad and all of the things that he did for me or bought for me. I know that he truly invested into my life. When I think about how much money I cost him to just buy me shoes, sometimes once a month, because I would go through them that quick, it is crazy. Not to mention all of the food, clothes, sports and all that goes with them (and I played a lot of sports), food, sporting events that we went to, food, and more food. And I also have three sisters! WOW! It is no wonder why when we tried to make a contract to get an allowance, gave you and mom the spiel on how we will do such and such and then you would pay us such and such, that when it came time to the first pay day you said, "I provide food for you to eat and clothes for you to wear, that is enough." I totally laugh about it now!
Dad, I love you so much! I am so thankful for you! I am so thankful for all that you have done and continue to do for my life! You have done way more than I could even ask for! It is my prayer now as a father, that you would know that I still do watch you and am influenced on how you live out your life! Thanks for being my dad! You are truly the best!

I LOVE YOU DAD!
HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

Worship Series Starts this Sunday!

This coming Sunday pastor Edmund will be teaching at two different churches, one in the morning and one in the evening! I am pretty excited for him and have been praying that the Lord will speak through him in a mighty way!
Because of this, he has asked me to teach this Sunday here at Calvary Chapel Herborn. So this is what we are going to be doing; we are going to be starting our new series on the topic of WORSHIP. This series will be taking place only on Sunday mornings and evenings when pastor Edmund is out of town or is sick. So this Sunday will be more of the introduction with this whole series.
I am personally excited about this series! I am excited to see what the Lord is going to want to do in the hearts of His saints here in Herborn. I do ask all of you to please be praying for all of here at CCH to have ears to hear what the Spirit will want to say to the church. Pray for me, as I study, to clearly be hearing from the Lord and be praying that the Lord would change us from being rebels into worshipers!
Thank You!

Weltmeisterschaft 2010 (World Cup 2010)

World Cup 2010 has been here for a week now and the whole world is watching in (well, most of it!) I personally have been excited about watching some of the games of the world cup this year. You see, I played football (soccer) all of my life! I love it! And so now to be in a country where almost everything will be shutting down to watch the game ( I will be honest) is pretty exciting. I have never in my life seen such an excitement over the World Cup! I love it!
Today Germany will be playing against Serbia at 13:30. I cannot tell you how many people that I have talked to who have let me know that their whole business will be shutting down and they will be watching the game! How crazy is that! And I live in a little village! I wonder what it is going to be like today in Berlin! And this is only the 2nd game! What is it going to be like when Germany advances on. Now I know that all things are possible (like Switzerland beating Spain), but after watching Germany play the other day, I have got to confess, if they keep playing like that, they will definitely end up in the finals!
Today the USA will be playing Slovenia at 16:00! As I have been talking with some of the people here in Germany who really know and do actually play the sport of football, they are quite surprised on how well the US did against England last week. Now I know that the England goalie really messed up on that shot and so the goal was more of a gift, but hey, we will take it. I think that England was lucky that the shot from the American at the end of the game hit the pole or else they would have won! I personally think that the American team does have a chance to be moving on to the further rounds of the tournament!
I actually had this thought today - what will happen when the US would play against Deutschland? That will be great! I look forward to it! (if it happens)

So until Deutschland and USA meet in an actual game - GO USA! GO DEUTSCHLAND!

MRSA Results

Hello Everyone
I just got off the phone with the doctor and he said that Aliyah definitely does have MRSA, but the rest of us do not have it. We have faithfully been putting on the medicine that the doctor has prescribed us and Aliyah's spots have been getting better. Please do continue to pray for Aliyah in the midst of this. She physically is doing great! She is running around and full of life and energy as normal. Please pray that the LORD would completely heal her from this!

thank you

Love the Roper Family

The Need of the Holy Spirit

Tonight we are going to be continuing in our Wednesday night series, "Calvary Chapel way of Ministry." Tonight pastor Edmund will be focusing in on the Need of the Holy Spirit. How important this study will be! For those of you here locally, come and join us on this important topic in the study of God's Word. Also - come join us for a time of worship and fellowship.

MRSA Update

Today, we as a family, went to the doctors office for a check up. Since Aliyah does have MRSA, we had to all be tested to see if we have it. The doctor simply took a sample swiping in each of our noses to send to the lab. So during next week we will find out the results. So please be praying for complete healing for Aliyah and that none of us would have it as well.

here are the kiddos in the doctor's office

Something else that we want you to know is to be praying also for me (Joey). Since I have Psoriasis and Arthritis, I am taking a medicine that basically helps my arthritis, but breaks down my immune system. Due to this, I am more susceptible to catching different sicknesses. So at this time, the doctor is a little concerned for me as well, so please be praying for that.

Once again, we are so thankful for all of you and your prayers!

Love the Roper Family

Praise & Prayer

Hello Everyone!
We want to give all of you an update with our current situation as a family. Two things took place today for us. One will lead to a giving of Praise and the other will hopefully lead you to Prayer.

PRAISE
Today, a brother here in the church and I went and met with the owners of this possible house that we have been looking into in our village to move into and signed the contract! We are totally excited about this and look forward to moving into our new place in September. We truly want to offer this up as a praise report because the LORD truly opened up the door for this wonderful house. To keep it short, we had been praying and looking for a new apartment ever since we arrived back here in Deutschland and were not finding anything available in our village (which we really feel called to stay in) that would be big enough for us. Then a few weeks back we had a night of prayer and worship. I made the prayer request known, the saints here in Herborn prayed, and the next day I received a phone call about two open places here in the Herborn area. One in Herborn (downtown) and one here in Herborn-Seelbach (our village). We immediately met with the people that evening and Rebecca and I really loved it! Since then, we have been going back and forth with prayer and conversation with the owners. Today it became official; we will be moving into this place. We get to start renovating on August 10 and will officially move in once we get done! PRAISE JESUS! It is still really close to the church (walking distance), closer to the kindergarten and future elementary school (walking distance) and even closer to the local park (spielplatz)! Thank you so much Lord! Please do be praying that we find the help needed to renovate this new place!

PRAYER
Today we received a phone call back from the doctor's office about some test results of some skin situation that has come to pass with Aliyah for the past month. Two days ago they simply took a sample and sent it to the lab and let us know to call them next week to find out the results. Well, after two days, THEY CALLED US! I had to go back to the doctor's office today to get a new medicine and all of us will be going tomorrow to see if we might be infected with this bacteria. The name of the bacteria is called MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). We are still looking into all of this and will keep you posted as to what will take place! You can look it up if you are interested.

OUR PRAYER
We believe that GOD is greater than all of this! We know that Aliyah has been going through so much with her health over this past year, but we know that all that God has to do is simply SPEAK and He can bring forth healing! Please do pray that this bacteria infection would be healed within Aliyah and that it does not spread to any of us! Pray that we will have the practical wisdom on how to take care of Aliyah and the other kids as well in the midst of this!

Thank you very much, once again, for your prayers!
We love you all and are so very thankful for you!

Love the Roper Family

Zertifikat

Hello everyone!
Well, here is a picture of my Zertifikat (Certificate) that I received from my German lessons! I passed! I have actually had these results for quite a while, but I wanted to wait to share with all of you until I actually received my Zertifikat, which I finally picked up last week. The level that I needed to achieve was to B1. If you look closely on this picture or just double-click it, you will see that:

• On the listening and reading (Hören/Lesen) I received the level of B1.
  
• On the writing (schreibe) I received the level A2 (which is actually a little lower of a level - but hey the German language is hard! Still learning.
• On the speaking (sprechen) I received the level B1.
  
• And the complete results was that I passed!

I do not in any way say that I have the complete German language down at all, but am just excited that I did pass this test and look forward to continue to learn and apply this language!

Please do continue to pray that we, as a family, would be able to understand and communicate in the German language!
THANKS

New Series starts tonight!

Tonight we are going to be starting a 5-week series that is entitled "Calvary Chapel Way of Ministry." There has been some new people in our church that have been asking about how we as Calvary Chapel do ministry. What is our stance with the Word of God? How are we seeking to equip the saints? What is the difference between Calvary Chapel Herborn and some of the other local churches in the local villages? What is the role of the Holy Spirit in our church? What do we believe in regard to Evangelism? These are just some of the topics that Pastor Edmund will be teaching through during the month of June.
We do invite all of you who are here in the local area to come and join us these next 5 Wednesday nights. Especially if you call Calvary Chapel Herborn your home church. We look forward to seeing you there!

Red Rain Outreach Video

Red Rain Outreach from Joey Roper on Vimeo.