With the changing of our name from Bible Believers Church to REDEMPTION CHURCH, we have a new church web address. Please be patient with us as we seek to update everything on the site. The web address is…
http://redemptionchesapeake.org/
We have also started a new blog with a new address. To continue following what is happening at Redemption please click here…
Please come join us for our marriage class that begins tonight at 7pm. Here is the opening paragraph of the notes to get you hooked! Just kidding. But it does set out the agenda for the class to get you interested.
The premise of this ‘class’ is that ultimately marriage is not about you. It was not made for you, nor was it ultimately designed for you. Our culture with its Oprah-laden and Dr. Phil mentality is telling you just the opposite. They are telling you how to have fulfilling marriages, and how to get along with your spouse so that you can find enjoyment in your marriage. In addition, our culture is even now moving away from marriage altogether. Our culture is now not even bothering with the whole marriage thing. They argue that marriage just complicates life, since, as they think, we are not going to be together forever. A wrong view of marriage has even infiltrated the American evangelical church. Here I want to be careful so as not to offend many, but most of the popular Christian marriage books out there are using God to make your marriage better, rather than teaching how we are to use our marriages for God’s designs. In these marriage Christian self-help books there is a subtle shift away from God-centered to self-centered marriages, even though they use the Bible!
Marriage has a much grander purpose and design that we realize. Now, please understand that marriage definitely involves us, and when viewed from a correct biblical perspective brings us joy and satisfaction. However, marriage is ultimately about God, not us. Many of us would probably mentally assent to such a statement, yet we either fail to appropriate this understanding in our marriages or fail to understand how our marriages are all about God. This class, therefore, will be centered on how are marriages are to be God-centered, and, then, specifically show how the Gospel informs us how to have God-centered marriages
If I were to ask you this question, what is the biggest sin in the church? What would you say? How would you answer this question? I received this quote from a friend and found it very insightful and challenging for our church. Ed Stetzer wrote,
“If I preach about gay marriage, everybody cheers. If I preach about sin you can hear the amens ring. But those aren’t the real problems. I tell people that the biggest sin in our church is you sitting there doing nothing and still calling yourself a follower of Jesus.”
Hope you all are safe and warm this Sunday morning and rejoicing as a family in the resurrection of Jesus for us. In our last faith verse, Psalm 145.8-9, we focused on the character of our God, or who He is. This next faith verse focuses on how His character is revealed to us. So because He is gracious and merciful, He has forgiven us through Jesus’ blood.
Colossians 2.13-14
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Here is a sweet quote from Martin Luther on music being a gift from God.
“A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvellous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs.”
I have been really impressed to share how valuable music is to our Christian lives. I cannot fathom how someone apart from a dead heart can sing a song about the redemption we have in Christ and not be overjoyed, to which I have found myself in this place many times. It stems from a cold, deceptive heart that does not understand the Gospel. However, if week after week there is still no joy and excitement, well, then, you just might not get music or its impact upon your life. Men, we usually have a harder time to get excited about music. In fact, on many occasions I have talked to men who ‘endure’ the music for the preaching. Men, we should be leading our church and our families in our singing from a heart that is enthralled with the love of God in Jesus for us. Please understand that I am not advocating that we all need to jump around and raise our hands because many who do this also are not truly worshiping (not in our church, of course!). I am just asking, “Does music about the Gospel excite your soul and cause you to rejoice in God?”
By the way a ‘clodhopper’ is both a very heavy shoe, and a foolish, clumsy person. So don’t be a clodhopper!
Colin Marshall and Tony Payne have written a book entitled The Trellis and the Vine in which I came across this very challenging paragraph…
“A Christian without a missionary heart is an anomaly. The missionary heart will be seen in all kinds of ways: in prayers for the lost, in making sure our behaviour offends no one, in gospel conversations with friends, and in making every effort to save some… We have to conclude that a Christian with no passion for the lost is in serious need of self-examination and repentance.”
Here is a new band that I have really been enjoying lately. Meet “Reilly the Band.” I keep watching this music video by them and keep seeing the redemption that Jesus offers shown throughout the video. When we deserve wrath he gives grace instead. Watch and be encouraged!
Pastor Josh
The next few faith verses will be structured this way:
This month we want to meditate on the character of our God toward us, which he has most effectively demonstrated in the sending of his Son for us. We can, therefore, be confident that all of these attributes of him towards us are trustworthy because of the redemption we have in Christ Jesus.
Psalm 145.8-9
The LORD is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 The LORD is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.
The Plant Denver survey trip went amazingly well. God was very gracious to us! As most of you know, Brock, Steve, and I traveled out to Denver for four days to survey the area for their future church plant. We were asking the Lord specifically for two things: (1) to establish friendships with local, like-minded pastors, and (2) to reveal a location within the Denver area for the church plant. So here is what we did during the trip, and then will close with how God very specifically answered our prayers.
Saturday: Brock was able to serve his parents who came up for a visit, which was a sweet time for them together. Steve and I traveled through downtown Denver surveying the area. Then, at night, we met with Jason Janz and Josh Larsson who are the elders at Providence Church, an inner-city church that just started two years ago. The meeting ended very sweetly and will be a huge contact for Brock and Steve when they get out there. Jason and Josh also shared some areas in the city that would be ideal for a new church.
Sunday: We went to church at Fellowship Denver in the morning and met with one of their elders, Hunter Beaumont, in the afternoon. We were greatly served by Hunter’s very Gospel centered message on community in the morning. Then in our meeting in the afternoon he was extremely gracious towards us and shared how God had used him to start Fellowship Denver, which is now almost three years old. He had also shared with us some good locations for a new church plant, which were pretty similar to Jason Janz’s suggestions. We finished our day at the Pepsi Center watching my Cuse Boy light up the Utah Jazz with 37 points! (That is we went to the Denver Nuggets game)
Monday: We were supposed to meet with another pastor in the morning but he was ‘holed’ up in his bed and unable to make our meeting. This, in turn, turned out to be pretty good as we took this day and drove all around the two areas that God had been impressing upon our hearts. Josh Larsson, one of the elders at Providence, is also a realtor called us into his office in the early afternoon to show us an area in Denver that is going to be growing in the next few years. This ‘happened’ to be one of the areas we were looking into. So we went and checked out this area, and more on this area later. In the evening we went to dinner with some of my family that lives in Denver and had a very encouraging time with them.
Tuesday: Our first meeting of the morning was with Jeff Nine who is ‘up’ on the networking of all the church planters in the Denver area. He was extremely helpful showing us the city and where people are currently planting. We, then, showed him the two areas where we we felt God was leading us, which he then informed us that there were a few new church plants in one of the areas and none in the other area. In fact, he said he was thinking about church planting in this second area because of its location and need for a church. Our second meeting was with a realtor who had a great handle on the city of Denver. He showed us where the city was moving, flourishing, dying, and where the rich and poor districts were located. We then ate some lunch and flew home!
Summary: God answered both prayers very specifically. Regarding contacts, God gave several like-minded pastors for Brock and Steve to rely upon and be useful for future help and encouragment. Further, each contact brings something different to the table to help them. Regarding location, it was interesting that in each successive meeting God kept narrowing the location, especially during the last meeting where Jeff Nine really confirmed a location that was in need of a church. This was also the location Josh Larsson brought to our attention, and an area Hunter had spoke of. So it seems that God really directed us to this very specific area in the South Central Denver. We want to thank all of you who prayed for this trip! And we want thank the Kindness of our Great God to answer these prayers!
May 21-28, many of our singles and young married couples will be attending the NEXT conference hosted by Sovereign Grace Ministries. Here is a song written and sung by Judah Groveman at the last NEXT conference. We just recently introduced this song at BBC and what a song it is. I encourage you to take the 5 minutes and listen to it. I believe it will be a blessing to you.
“By This We Know Love”
Pastor Josh
