Here is a fun one!

Saw this on Justin Taylor’s blog and thought it would just be fun for all of you to watch…

God Satisfying

In a few weeks we are going to be discussing what it means to be fully human from Genesis 1&3…Here is an excerpt from Lewis that will serve as a foundation for our argument.

C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (HarperOne, 1980), pp. 49–50:

What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history—money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery—the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy. The reason why it can never succeed is this. God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other.

Stetzer on “Worship Wars”

Granted, I hate when we call music ‘worship’ not because it is isn’t worship but because of the connotation it brings.  Worship is an all of life experience, which music is a part, and when we call our music ‘worship’ we are just sending the message that now we are going to worship–the rest of the church service isn’t.  Anyways, the following link is a great article on the state of music or worship in our nation.  So I hope you read it and begin to think about it!

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2009/10/ending-the-worship-war-without.html

Theology Night!

WOW…theology night was packed out!  I am grateful for those who came and were interested (or at least seemed…).  I felt that it was a very profitable night studying God’s Word together.  There were a lot of good questions and feedback from you all…so if there are any specifics for next month’s theology night or any general feedback you have please let one of the pastors know for next month’s time.  Finally, I hope that those who were completely new to these ideas we didn’t scare you, and those who are very familiar that we didn’t bore you!

CG Memory Verse

2 Corinthians 5.21

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (TNIV)

Pharisees…Don’t Be One To One

One more thought for today that I have been challenged to think about, especially since there has been so much talk about Pharisees at BBC lately.

Luke 15:28: “[The elder brother's] father came out and entreated him. . . .”

Tim Keller:

[Jesus] is addressing the religious leaders who are going to hand him over to the Roman authorities to be executed. Yet in the story the elder brother gets not a harsh condemnation but a loving plea to turn from his anger and self-righteousness. Jesus is pleading in love with his deadliest enemies.

He is not a Pharisee about Pharisees; he is not self-righteous about self-righteousness. Nor should we be. He not only loves the wild-living, free-spirited people, but also hardened religious people.

The Prodigal God, pp. 75-75

DC*B Church Music

As most of you know I am David Crowder Band fan…(They will be leading the music for the entire new earth)…and they just came out with a new album entitled Church Music.  Here are my thoughts–

The album lyrically is theologically based on Jesus as our ever present King whose love for us is eternal and our great privilege to worship Him (maybe a few too many angelic references for me). The only exception to this might be the song How He Loves, which is  a little over the top.  The chorus is great but the verses are too much for me.  For example, the song states, “We are His portion”…no, actually He is our portion (Ps 73.26; 108.7).  Further, the way we know how much He loves is that He died for us (Rom 5.8), which is entirely absent in the song.  On a good note, they changed some of the lyrics from the original, which is a definite plus (no big wet, sloppy kisses)!

The style of the music takes a little to get used to, but his happens with everyone of their new albums, for me anyways.  I always listen to their new albums couple of times and think, “Yeah, not as good as the last one,” but a week later I think, “Wow, this is wicked good.”  So give it a couple of run throughs before you trash it!

One of the most encouraging songs for me so far is Shadows…Here are the lyrics.

Life is full of light and shadow
O the joy and O the sorrow
O the sorrow

And yet will He bring
Dark to light
And yet will He bring
Day from night

When shadows fall on us
We will not fear
We will remember

When darkness falls on us
We will not fear
We will remember

When all seems lost
When we’re thrown and we’re tossed
We remember the cost
We rest in Him
Shadow of the cross

So just some random thoughts…

Parenting Source

Although I have not read this book on Parenting (will soon though), I thoroughly enjoyed reading the interview.  I think he makes some good points that we as parents should consider in rearing our children. I know that I personally was very challenged…

http://www.challies.com/archives/interviews/the-gospel-the-key-to-parenting.php

True Humility…

One of the areas I wanted to address on Sunday but ran out of time was the issue of humility vs pride.  The following quote by Henry Scougal clearly distinguishes between the characteristics of pride and humility, which are very insightful in examining our own hearts.

Here are some characteristics of pride…

“The proud and arrogant person is a trouble to all the converse with him, but most of all unto himself: every thing is enough to vex him; but scarce any thing sufficient to content and please him.  He is ready to quarrel with every thing that falls out: as if he himself were such a considerable person that God Almighty should do every thing to gratify him, and all the creatures of heaven and earth should wait upon him, and obey his will.

Here is a paragraph on humility…

But, as the chief exercises of humility are those which relate unto Almighty God, so these are accompanied with the greatest satisfaction and sweetness.  It is impossible to express the great pleasure and delight which religious persons feel in the lowest prostrations of their souls before God, when, having a deep sense of the divine majesty and glory, they sink, if I may so speak,to the bottom of their beings, and vanish and disappear in the presence of God, by a serious and affectionate acknowledgment of their own nothingness, and the shortness and imperfections of their attainments; when they understand the full sense and emphasis of the Psalmist’s exclamation, ‘Lord, what Man?’ and can utter with the same affection.  Never did any haughty and ambitious person receive the praises and applauses of men with so much pleasure as the humble and religious do renounce them: ‘Not to us, O lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory.’

So I pray that God will our body a soul of humility.

Just A Quick Thought

As I am studying for the message this thought has just captivated me…

We must not only look for the sin underneath the sin (as we saw last week), but we must also look for the motivation underneath our righteousness.

Hopefully, I will be able to unpack this on Sunday…But just a thought to get us thinking about our walk with God.