The "Gospel" That Is No Gospel At All

How do you feel about this? I feel anger. Lots of anger.

Understanding Scripture

My family and I visited the Georgia Aquarium yesterday in downtown ATL and, as part of that, saw an exhibit on the doomed Titanic (you know the story I hope).

What struck me most was the stuff we were looking at was things that were once very fancy and worth something to somebody. Now ... it's just an artifact. All of the people who were not the fortunate ones died and now all of the people who survived are now dead as well. For these reasons, all I kept thinking of during the exhibit was the book of Ecclesiastes. (go read it).

All of our works will be relegated to dust one day. The eternal life given to us through Jesus will remain. So WHYWHYWHY do we continue to worship the created instead of the Creator?

"This too is like chasing after the wind."

'God Of This City': The Story Behind The Song

We began playing "God Of This City" the week before last to go along with our ReThink sermon series. For those of you that already knew the song, you had probably heard Chris Tomlin's version. However, the song was written by an Irish band called Bluetree. Watch the above video to hear the amazing story behind this song.

Behind the Music

In Darrel's email, he asked "What is your favorite Christmas song? Why? and Do you really stop to think about what the words mean?

Mine is "What Child is This".

What child is this, who, laid to rest On Mary's lap, is sleeping? Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, While shepherds watch are keeping?

Chorus: This, this is Christ the King, Whom shepherds guard and angels sing: Haste, haste to bring him laud, The Babe, the Son of Mary!

Why lies he in such mean estate Where ox and ass are feeding? Good Christian, fear for sinners here, The silent Word is pleasing.

Chorus

So bring Him incense, gold, and myrrh, Come peasant king to own Him, The King of kings, salvation brings, Let loving hearts enthrone Him.

Raise, raise the song on high, The Virgin sings her lullaby: Joy, joy, for Christ is born, The Babe, the Son of Mary!

Of course, the sermon series begins with "O Come, O Come Emmanuel"

I love "What Child is This" because it's a call to recognize that Christ has come. To me it is humbling, yet joyful and hopeful. Haste, haste to bring him laud. Beat feet to praise and worship he who has come to love us, teach us... save us from our punishment sso we can be reunited with the Father. The king of kings, salvation brings.

What is your favorite song????

Good Stuff

"Our churches are getting way to much preaching from our culture instead of preaching to our culture"
Craig Groeschel

I am very excited to me going to hear Craig and Andy Stanley teach at the one day Catalyst conference in Granger IN tomorrow. These guys not only have great ministry but they are Christ and Bible focused preachers rather than culture driven.

Actions & Heart

"Right action without the right heart is in NO WAY pleasing to God."

- Matt Chandler, Pastor of The Village Church in Texas (from the sermon Luke Part 30: After the Heart)

Related: Isaiah 58.

Running Like Pagans

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
- Jesus (Matthew 6:25-34)

I woke up this morning with a worried mind. I'm generally not a person that views humanity in a positive light. I'm a believer in the first tenant of Calvinism (I don't agree with all points of Calvinism but this post is not about Calvinism, so let's move ahead).

Anyway, this financial meltdown had me worried this morning. My mind takes off in a million different directions ('what if the economy collapses and there is another depression?' 'What if I lose my job, how will my family eat?' 'What would the impact be on our church?' and on and on ...)

I believe God the Holy Spirit brings to mind scripture in these situations in my life. Often it's in the form of a song (for instance, Jon Foreman's 'House of God Forever' popped into my head as I was fretting) I've learned or my Bible Drill days coming back to serve me well (I'm so thankful my parents made me do Bible Drill and didn't give in to my childish protests. They were very wise.)

God the Holy Spirit brought the above scripture to my mind as I was in the shower worrying. I really like the line "pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them."

The "kingdom" of Washington doesn't have the answer no matter who is in power. The answer is to seek God's kingdom first.

Filling The Gap of Eternity

Quote of the Day

"We live as though our life belongs to us, and God gets his own compartment. This, for followers of Jesus, is (backwards). God owns all of life, and worshiping God means we must revolve around him, not he us."

Read more here. It's true. Often not easy, but true.

For your consideration...

Last week in our TF7 group we began to discuss how vague the concept of "Spiritual Growth" really is. I mean, I can see educational growth through grades and classes. I can determine growth for my running by examining distances and times. Even in the more abstract areas like relationships, we seem to have an understanding of what it means for two people to grow closer together.

I sat this morning thinking about the vague nature of "spiritual growth", and even did some googling for it. But when pressed by the idea I began to write down my own concept of what I think it means. So here is my definition, offered for your consideration.

Spiritual Growth -- "The lifelong process of integrating the things of God into the fabric of our daily lives."

I've been tweaking it for about 15 minutes now...and even as I typed it I added the words "lifelong process". I could offer explanation, etc...but I just want to leave it and offer it to you for your consideration.

What did I miss? Does this help it make sense? Did I leave something out? Is it still too abstract to be helpful? Be honest...I promise it'll be ok :). I'd like to hear from you...as I surely don't have it all figured out.