Legend of the Dogwood Tree

The legend of the dogwood tree, author unknown.

When Christ was on earth, the dogwood grew
To a towering size with a lovely hue.
Its branches were strong and interwoven
And for Christ's cross, its timbers were chosen

Being distressed, at the use of this wood
Christ made a promise, which still holds good:

"Not ever again shall the dogwood grow
To be large enough for a tree, and so
Slender and twisted it shall always be
With cross-shaped blossoms for all to see.

The petals shall have bloodstains, marked in brown
And in the blossom's center, a thorny crown.

All who see it, will think of Me,
Nailed to a cross, from a dogwood tree.
Protected and cherished, this tree shall be
A reflection to all, of my agony."

The picture was taken last April in my back yard. I don't know about you but I am soooooo ready for green grass, colorful flowers, the smell of a fresh Spring rain and lots of Serotonin (sunshine)! It's been a difficult winter for me. Being a parent of a child with a deadly disease, I have a new appreciation for how much pain God must have felt when His son was being mocked, beaten and nailed to the cross.

How do we do it? How do we make the pain go away? I know God, love God, trust God.....but am having a really hard time dealing with the heartache. I "know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him" (Rom. 8:28). I can have joy in my heart because I know "God is in control" and I know the scripture "think on these things" (Phil 4:8) but it doesn't help.....there's got to be something I'm missing! Any ideas????

Your Problem, My Problem

Do you struggle with a specific sin? If you're human, you probably do. Have you tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried (etc.) to overcome a specific sin only to succeed for a bit, then go right back to it again and again? If you're honest with yourself, you know you have.

Matt Chandler, of the Village Church in Dallas, Texas, has a sermon called "A Theology of Struggle" that is FANTASTIC in looking at something we all face ... struggling with sin.

Download the mp3 here. It is WELL worth your 40 minutes.

You can get other sermons here along with study guides and transcripts of some sermons.

Also, this weekend at CCJ, we will be tackling the problem of the human race in a sermon called (appropriately enough) "The Problem," the first sermon in a series called "The Gospel Uncensored."

For The Men (And Little Boys Who Need To Become Men)

... because we need to be talked to strongly.

Go see "The Promise"

I would highly recommend anyone to go see “The Promise” - the play on the life of Jesus that’s showing at Antioch Christian Church, in Washington.
I went with some folks from my small group last night. It was excellent. The set and costumes were beautiful. The actors and actresses knew their lines - and they could sing! The whole thing was well done.
The play runs through Saturday. It’s free, but you have to order tickets at 812-254-2651 or 812-254-2413. There’s information about show times under the news section at CCJ’s Website.
Don’t miss this!

Do We Hate People?

Penn Gillette of comedy/magic duo Penn & Teller gives some great insight into the mind of an atheist (he's a very anti-Christ person).

Darrel passed this along to me and pointed out the line that we all need to think about: "How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize" (if you REALLY believe in a God and heaven and hell).

I think it's important to note that the man who presented Penn with the Bible was very respectful and honest with him. We need to be reminded, even if it's by an atheist.

Changing The World

Our motto is 'Love God. Love people. Change the world.' Part of seeking to change the world through the love of Jesus is understanding where the world is and where it is going.

Time Magazine has listed 10 Ideas Changing The World Right Now.

1.) Jobs Are the New Assets
2.) Recycling the Suburbs
3.) The New Calvinism
4.) Reinstating the Interstate
5.) Amortality
6.) Africa: Open for Business
7.) The Rent-A-Country
8.) Biobanks
9.) Survival Stores
10.) Ecological Intelligence

Which do you find most fascinating?

A Church or A Club?

A message for hard times. Perhaps the most difficult two minutes to put into practice in today's society.

It's Not Us, It's All Jesus

I read this today and it made me think of CCJ. Hopefully, this will give us all a bit of perspective.

Jesus (was) looking at less than 500 people after His resurrection and telling them that they are responsible to make disciples of every ethnic group; every tribe; every nation (Matt. 28:18-20).

At the time, the world population was an estimated 181 million. Jesus was addressing a microscopic speck of the population and telling them that it was up to them to go to the different people groups who didn’t live in the area, speak the language, and 99.4 percent who held to a different religious system other than Christianity (World Christian Encyclopedia).

Jesus made one last promise, however, that made the impossible, possible. He promised the church then and now that He would empower them with His Holy Spirit until He returned. That same Spirit is alive and empowering us ...

I was thinking about this yesterday quite a bit (specifically about how God's providence works in our lives to put us in places we wouldn't probably choose on our own). We moved to Indiana from Tennessee in Nov. 2000 because I got a job at the best small paper in America (though I didn't know it was the best at the time - it was a job I could use my degree in and it wasn't delivering pizzas anymore). Through this job, I acquired knowledge and skills I didn't previously have. We also found a church home that, in my admittedly limited thinking, is probably the reason God put us here in the first place. At CCJ, we have seen is grow from 20-something to nearly 700 in attendance each week in just under 9 years.

But, here's the beautiful part, even after I'm long gone, Jesus will still be at work through CCJ to change the world. Part of our motto is "change the world." That seems a bit audacious for a church of just under 700 people in a relatively small town in southern Indiana to claim to want to do. However, we have about the same number as Jesus looked at after the resurrection. And look what He did with them.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:23-26)

What Matters to Jesus

As I have been studying the Sermon on the Mount for our current sermon series I was reminded on a traveling evangelist who had two sermons he preached everywhere he went. Listen to the titles. “The Things That Upset Jesus That Don’t Upset Us”, and the second was, “The Things That Upset Us That Didn’t Upset Jesus.”

I love those and I wonder what things do we as Christians sometimes get uptight about that don’t really matter to Jesus. Then I wonder if there are many things we kind of overlook that really upset Him.

I know worry would fit into the latter category. We look at worry as a respectable sin yet to Jesus it shows a lack of trust in God. Wonder about some other examples?