Happy Birthday, Mr. Cash

Had he not died in 2003, Johnny Cash would've been 77 today.

The man is a legend. The world is poorer for him being gone.

The Sheer Awesomeness of The Gospel

NOTE: This post was originally authored and posted here by my friend Jared Wilson (of The Thinklings blog and The Gospel-Driven Church blog). It is excellent and I got his permission to repost it fully here.

Once there were two brothers. You know their story, more than likely. One was wasteful, exploitative, wanton, licentious. One was rigid, moralistic, uptight, legalistic. Two brothers with two personalities and two sets of attendant sins. But their father loved them both and all that he had belonged to both of them equally.

This is how staggeringly awesome the gospel of Jesus is.

Two sisters. One is a busybody, the other kinda poky. One rarely Sabbaths; the other makes every day a Sabbath. The prescription for both is focus on Jesus.

Two Americans. One is a practicing homosexual and proud of it. The other is a practicing Baptist and proud of it. One trusts his feelings, the other trusts his actions. Both are in desperate need of Jesus for pretty much the same reason.

This is how wonderful the gospel of Jesus. It's the skeleton key for all of humanity.

Medicine doesn't work this way. You don't treat spina bifida with drugs for leukemia. (At least, I don't think you do.) You don't give a decongestant to a kid with athlete's foot. For every condition, there is a specific treatment. Different symptoms, different fixes.

But the gospel isn't like that. It fixes everything.

We all exhibit a multitude of symptoms for our conditions, running the gamut from self-indulgent immorality to self-satisfying morality. Opposite ends of the spectrum and everywhere in between. Whatever your symptoms, the gospel is the answer.

There is no problem, pain, or perniciousness outside the universe-spanning scope of the gospel.
The gospel carries with it resurrection power.

So Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, rich or poor, smart or dumb, well or sick, bad or good . . . the gospel is the power to save for all who believe.

The gospel is the antidote to everything.

Mark Your Calendar, Plan to Attend

WHAT: One in Christ Service
WHEN: Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 4 p.m. EDT
WHERE: Washington (IN.) High School Gymnasium, (608 E Walnut St. Washington, IN 47501)
Get A Map (Google Maps).
WHY? This is a communion service dedicated to the purpose of glorifying Jesus Christ.
John 17:21: ‘That they all may be as one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in You, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, 30 A.D.)
WHO CAN COME? Anyone.
OTHER INFO:
Speaker: Ken Idleman, Senior Minister of Crossroads Christian Church, Evansville, IN.
Music Worship: Narrow Path, worship band of Christian Church of Jasper, Jasper, IN.

For more information, visit the official Web site, www.oneinchristservice.com.

Has the Blog Died?

Has the blog been over taken by facebook? Cause I can tell you my facebook gets more busy every day. Is there not that much interesting going on in our lives? For whatever reason our once active blog has slowed down. Post only happen every once and a while. Comment on the post we have are few and in between. Not complaining, just wondering and entertaining. Anyway here are a couple more questions you can answer just for fun:

What is the best movie you have watched the last few months?
If your life had a soundtrack what songs would be on it?
What book are you reading currently?
What has been your favorite sermon series at CCJ recently? (If you attend or Podcast.)

House of Hope Update

The House of Hope Orphanage in Haiti is getting closer to completion by the day. In April we are planning to take a team down to finish some things on the building, install a water system (Well, pump and filtrations system) and some other odds and ends.
As soon as the building project is completely done we will start moving toward operation right away. Support and funds for the day to day operation to get underway is budgeted into the CCJ mission budget. We are in the process of finding and hiring good Christian house parents and then start taking in children nearing the age of 3. The reason for that specific age is because the children must be 3 to begin attending the church schools that the churches there operate. We hope to start with 4 to 8 three-year olds that will form a family and start realizing the hope that we have dreamed of. Please continue to pray for this mission. In addition to prayers we will always be in need of financial support as well as physical support from short-term missions groups.
Thanks be to God for everyone who is allowing Him to use them to make this hope a reality.

Two Down, Many More To Go

(Images from Feb. 4, 2007)

I've been archiving photos over the last little bit tonight and am feeling nostalgic. Then I remembered that today is Feb. 4 - two years in the current building and we're getting ready to radically change things again.

In the words of the song, "Greater things are yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city."

Mark in "The Media" (Super Bowl Party)

(Photo from the party from Valerie C.)

CCJ's Associate Pastor Mark Messmore was interviewed as part of this story for the Evansville paper about churches and the Super Bowl.

Check it out and then go subscribe to a much better paper. ;-)

Squirrelly

Some of us were getting a little "squirrelly" the last few days. Even though we were snowed in without electricty for 82 hours, we counted our blessings and there were many.