Church Baptism Video

CC Herborn Baptism 2010 from Joey Roper on Vimeo.

Celebrating Aliyah!

Aliyah's 4th Birthday from Joey Roper on Vimeo.

ALIYAH TURNS 4 TODAY!

Today our little Aliyah Grace turns 4 years old! It is amazing to think about this beautiful little life that the Lord has given to us. You see, 4 years ago today we were in Fullerton, CA at St. Jude Hospital and our beautiful little Aliyah Grace Roper was born! If I just stopped there, it would seem pretty normal (could the birth of any baby be normal - it is always a miracle!), but the story definitely does not stop there! You see, when Aliyah was first born the nurses that were the first ones to take care of her noticed immediately that something was wrong. At first, we didn't notice anything different, but when one nurse came in the room, and then another, and then another, we could tell that something was wrong. The nurses and the doctor that delivered Aliyah were very professional about the whole thing (calm, cool, and collective). There was one that immediately began to encourage Rebecca and I and another one that really began to take over the details with Aliyah. I remember seeing her stick a little tube down Aliyah's throat and pumping air into her lungs. It was quite amazing watching so much commotion all going on at once, but how reassuring it was to hear one nurse say to the head nurse that there was now a steady heart beat and that things were getting better. So what happened? What went wrong? Well, 5 minutes before Aliyah came from the womb, the placenta had burst and for the last 5 minutes there was no oxygen or blood getting to Aliyah! Once we learned that had taken place, we were so thankful that the Lord had given Rebecca a very fast delivery! Had it been any longer ... well, we will not go there.
Aliyah was immediately taken to the ICU there in the hospital and we were not allowed to go see here until about 6-8 hours later. Aliyah was born a little bit after 2:00 am on Saturday, October 28, 2006.
After some things had calmed down, I (Joey) went outside of the hospital and although it was really early in the morning, began to make the phone calls to family, friends, and to a few of our pastors at CC Chino Hills and asked them all to get Aliyah on the Prayer Chain and to begin to pray for her.

The rest of the story is pretty long, but I am going to just sum it up! Starting that morning and going over the whole weekend there were literally thousands of people around the world praying for Aliyah from many different churches and we do believe that on that following morning, around 10:30am the Lord began to put His healing hand upon Aliyah. You see, Pastor Jack from CCCH had prayed with the 2nd service on that Sunday morning and had asked the Lord, by faith, to do "something" that would be noticeable to demonstrate God's healing power. Well, the LORD did just that! It was at about the same time that Aliyah was taken from the breathing machine that she was hooked up to and was starting to breath on her own!

4 days later we were able to take Aliyah home with us! She was truly a miracle! In fact, when we went back to the hospital just one week later for a check up, all of the nurses began to share with us all kinds of stories and declared to us how Aliyah was truly a miracle and how they had never seen a little baby that was in her condition from birth, leave the hospital so quickly, completely healthy!

So here we are four years later and she is celebrating her birthday with all of her friends in her kindergarten class here in Herborn, Germany! We love this precious little girl! She is so full of life, joy, spunk, creativity (especially with her clothing), and so much more!

Thank you Jesus for Aliyah Grace!

Happy Birthday to our little girl!

Hosea Finished & Joel Coming up Next!

Last week we finished the book of Hosea here at CC Herborn.Something that really stood out to me while going through the book of Hosea is how alive the Word of God is! Each week as I would study and prepare I would see how relevant the message is; how this same message is needed for today!
Hosea was called to be a prophet in a very difficult time. He was called to deliver a very difficult message. He was called to live out this message through obedience and marry Gomer. You see, he wasn't only called to proclaim the message, but to also experience, first hand, why the message was being proclaimed.
Israel was in complete rebellion towards God and had gone after many "lovers," (i.e. false gods). Hosea experienced this when his wife, Gomer, went after other "lovers" as well and was even impregnated by them. And yet the Lord would call Hosea to go back once again to his wife and love her once again.
As we read and study this book of Hosea, we cannot but think of how often the Lord has come after us time and time again, forgiven us, and loved us freely. How often have we been like Gomer (who is a picture of Israel) and gone after other "lovers" and looked to them to satisfy our needs, and yet, all the while, it was the Lord who was the One who was providing for us all that we ever needed.
Hosea went on to proclaim to the people of Israel to get rid of these foreign idols and to return unto the Lord. You see, Israel was continuing to make "sacrifices unto the Lord" even though they were living in complete disobedience to Him. They were merely going through the motions. And it came to a point where the Lord told His people that He didn't want to "play pretend" any longer. "You pretend to be My people and I will pretend to be your God." He was done with that. He was tired of His people merely going through the motions of a relationship and He called them back to a true relationship. In Hosea 6:6 it is summarized. "For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." The Lord desired a TRUE relationship with His people!
You see, the message is the same today! God desires to have a true relationship with you and I. He doesn't want us to merely "say" that we are Christians or for you and I to "go to church" so that we can prove our relationship with God. No, He desires that we would know Him. Know Him intimately. Know Him personally. Know Him experientially.(I don't think that is a word, but I love making up words -haha)
What is it in your life right now that has got to go? What idol in your life has got to be laid on the altar of the cross and forsaken? What is separating you from a true relationship with Jesus? May you allow the Holy Spirit to reveal those things in your life so that you can confess them and forsake them and get back into a love relationship with Jesus!

SIDE NOTE
I want to let you all know that I will begin to write some devotionals from my teachings in the book of Hosea on my ministry web page. You can begin to check out these devotionals that will be in English and German here.

THE BOOK OF JOEL IS NEXT! START PRAYING!

Night of Worship & Prayer

This coming Wednesday night we are going to be having a night of worship & prayer. This is something that we are going to be doing every time that we finish one of the minor prophets. Once we have finished the book, we will spend the following week in seeking the Lord in prayer and giving Him praise, honor, and glory though our worship.
I am personally excited to see what the Lord will do with each of these nights of worship and how He will continue to work in the lives of His people here in Herborn!

For those of you who can come, COME - and may you bring others with you.

For those of you who cannot come, please do be involved through prayer and ask the Lord do to do the work of His Spirit that is needed in His Bride here in Herborn!

24 Hour Prayer Starts Today!

Today, Monday, October 25th - we as a church started our 24 hour prayer for this whole week for our upcoming outreach with CC Downey! We are really excited to be able to labor in prayer this week in preparation of what the Lord is going to do here in Deutschland from November 3-16. Although there were still some open spots, I do believe that the Lord is going to hear the prayers of His saints and will do a mighty work in our lives as well. And since there were some open spots, I though I would get all of you who are reading this blog to get involved and to begin to pray for this outreach. Here is the Prayer Plan that we have come up with for this week:

Calvary Chapel Downey Team: Please pray for them individually

Jimmy Nevarez

Leo Mendivil

Eddie Cardenas

Jerry Davis

Dana Martin

Mark Maciel

Patricia Maciel

Hannah Maciel

Julie Arellanes

Debra Nussbaum

· Health and Travel Safety for the team

· Unity of the Spirit within the team

· For the Lord to prepare the team spiritually, mentally, and physically

· For the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit in every opportunity

· Wisdom in decision making

· For the Lord to prepare our hearts as a church to be a part of this outreach

· For the Lord to prepare and soften the hearts of all of those whom we come in contact with during this outreach

· For divine appointments

· For good weather

· For salvation of the lost

· That we would all be taking steps of faith throughout this outreach

· For the Lord to really work within the lives of those during the prisons outreaches

· That we would not be ashamed to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ

· That the Lord would use this outreach to stir up our church toward outreach and evangelism

· For the Lord to open up doors of opportunity to bring the gospel in the local schools, elderly homes, etc.

We want to encourage you as well to be led of the Spirit as you pray!

• Pray!
• Pray Boldly!
• Pray in Confidence!
• Pray Persistently!
  

James 5:16 “The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

Finishing Hosea!

Today we will be finishing the book of Hosea! I cannot believe it! This morning when I told Rebecca that we would be finishing it, she said, "Wow! That will be the fastest you ever went through an entire book of the Bible!" My response was, "I know, crazy huh! Even faster than going through the 4 chapter book of Philippians!"

Anyways, tonight we will be going over the topic of RESTORATION & the REVIVING of God's people! What a great way to end a book!

For those of you who can come, come and bring others with you! May the Lord be preparing you and I for that which He wants to speak to us tonight!

For those of you who cannot come, please be praying for the preparation, the proclamation, the translation, and the receiving of God's Word tonight!

Why Revival Tarries

Well I finally finished this book this morning by Leonard Ravenhill. I slowly read through this book as it is a very powerful and challenging book. Even when I finished it I thought, I should start all over and read it again. I might very well do that! It is such a radical book and it has really challenged me in so many areas of my life!
I am not sure if you have read this book or not, but I would strongly encourage everyone of you to get it and to read through it as soon as you can! I know that you will be radically challenged as well in how you are living your life as a believer in Jesus Christ today in our generation.
I don't know about you, but I want to see God do such a work of His Spirit in our generation! I do believe that Jesus will be calling His Church home really soon, but until that time, I do want to see an outpouring of His Spirit in our day! It is always great to read about it or hear about it, but I want to see it happening today, where I am at, here in Europe, in Deutschland, now! But I have been challenged in this book that if I really want to see that, then there are some things in my life that are going to need to change.

You know, I wonder....
How much do we really want to see God pour out His Spirit upon the lives of His people like on the day of Pentecost or any of the other great revivals of the past? I mean, the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb.13:8), right? But what I wonder is whether or not we are willing to let the Holy Spirit change our lives and conform us into the image of Christ? Are we willing to let Him reveal the things in our lives that need to go? Are we willing to let them go? Now I am not going to try to play the role of the Holy Spirit, but I do ask you this one question...

What is it in your life right now that you really need to let go of so that Jesus will truly be the very passion of your life?

Put that before the Lord and ask Him to do what is needed in your life and then begin to pray for our generation that so desperately needs Jesus!

Romans 10:14-15

This past Monday, I (Joey) had some errands to run in the morning. Some of them did not take as long as I thought that they would and so I decided I would do some grocery shopping for my wife. I called her and let her know to send me a list of what she wanted and so while I waited I bought something small to eat and drink at the bakery within the story. I had my Bible with me and so I continued to read through Romans. I was in Romans chapter 10 and I began to read the following verses...

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!"

As I was reading these verses, an older gentleman asked me if the place next to me was available. His wife then came and sat down next to him. As he began to set his food down onto the table, he looked over and asked me what I was reading. I went on to tell him that I was reading the Bible, but in English. I couldn't believe it! Here I was reading these verses and then this couple comes and sits next to me and asks me what I am reading. What do you think I did? That's right! For the next 20-30 minutes I had the opportunity to share with them the Gospel and why I believed that we need Jesus as our Savior. (Just so you know, this was all in German. I know that I always write that down, but I still trip out that I am able to do this! Thank you Jesus for helping me!)
The couple was pretty open to talking about the Bible, Jesus, etc. but they were pretty closed to considering Jesus as God and their need for salvation. I do praise the Lord for this opportunity and do pray for many more!
As I look back at this past Monday morning, I do see how the Lord totally ordained that moment and how he opened the door. I just had to be willing to go through it! I do continue to pray for this couple and pray that the Holy Spirit continues to work on their hearts the truths of the Word that I shared with them, but I also do pray that we will run into each others paths once again!

I want to encourage each of you today to begin to put yourself before the Lord and ask Him to open those doors of opportunity that He has set before you. May you and I be those who are sent to bring the good news!

Psalm 46:10

psalm4610 from Joey Roper on Vimeo.

Video of the Kids

Adventures on the Slide from Joey Roper on Vimeo.

Hosea 13

Tomorrow we are going to be looking at Hosea chapter 13 and will once again be looking at "Israel's Greatest Mistakes." Last week we read through chapters 12 & 13, but were only able to get through chapter 12. But I do believe that the Holy Spirit has been and is continuing to lead us through the book of Hosea and so I am once again excited to see what He desires to speak into our lives tomorrow night!
For those of you here in Germany, come on out and let the Lord speak to you and also minister to you as we have a time of abendmahl (communion).
For those of you who cannot come, please be praying for the following:

• Preparation
• Declaration
• Translation
• Salvation

God Bless!

Church Baptism

So here we go, once again. We have changed our date for our church baptism for the final time this year! We have experienced some bad weather days on the scheduled dates, so we have finally reserved a spot for an indoor location on Sunday, October 17th!We do want to ask all of you who are not able to come to please be praying for this service and that the Lord is truly glorified in all of it! I do pray for all of those that are making this public demonstration of their faith in Jesus Christ will also be doubly blessed on this day!