A little snow

The national weather service says that the Ogden area is supposed to get about 1-3 inches total this afternoon. In the last hour we got about 3 inches. It's really starting to come down. I was just driving in it and you couldn't start from a complete stop without sliding. I saw some cars making left hand turns slide and drive over the curb, and a bunch of people that were trying to go way to fast. Driving in weather like this isn't too bad. It's driving in weather like this with other people who don't drive too well that makes it bad :) Even four wheel drive trucks were sliding. Anyway, I'm also supposed to go to my parent's church for their Christmas Eve service (mine isn't having one this year) and then up to their house where I'll spend the night and tomorrow. Lord willing, we'll all survive the drives. I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and take the opportunity to really reflect on the birth of our Lord. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14, ESV) The Word became flesh. We can't even fathom the depth of this truth. It is too wonderful for us, too lofty for us to attain. Jesus Christ, the image of the Father, emptied himself and took on the likeness of sinful flesh in order to take on our sin and give us his righteousness and has now ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the throne of God. There is no greater act accomplished for the love of his people and the demonstration and sake of his glory than what Jesus Christ did for us and for God and for himself. The Word became flesh. The image of God, the transcendant Word through whom the universe exists and through whom we live and move and have our being, came into time and tabernacled with us. We have seen his glory. He has revealed himself in order to show us the Father in order to transform us into the images of his glory. We beheld the fullness of grace and truth. All grace was demonstrated in him and there is no truth apart from him. He is all in all, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the great "I AM." Praise be to God and to him alone.

Winter

Winter is officially upon us here in Utah. It's been freezing the past couple of weeks with nighttime temperatures getting as low as 11 degrees. However, we haven't really had a good snow fall. We've had a couple of inches here and there, but they usually melt away within a few days. However, we're getting some good storms going through the area right now and the snow's really falling. We're getting thunder and snow at the same time. I've never really experienced it like this. Usually when that happens it's rain mixed with snow. But this is pretty good snow. It is wetter then we usually get here, but it's full-bodied snow. The skiers are going to be really happy. This also means that we will almost undoubtedly have a white Christmas. I know I will because I'm going up to my parents house and they live over the mountains where there is a great deal more snow. All-in-all, it's getting a lot colder and a lot whiter here. If I didn't have to drive in it, I would love it. At least we have a good snowplow system here. I just got a call from my worship leader and, due to the snow, we're cancelling worship practice. Anyway, if you like snow and mountains, Utah is the place to be right now :) The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmaments declare his handiwork.

A little mormonism

This is a good post on some information concerning Mormonism. It responds to a Fox News 21 question interview with someone from the Mormon church and the answers given there. If you want to see the interview itself, you can find it on Justin Taylor's blog. While I was reading this, I thought about Catholocism and the comfort that comes from having a set doctrine from the church that is set down and historically proven and Catholics hold to it. You can easily point to the areas of disagreement and continue from there. The Mormon church is really slippery. Part of this, I think, is because they don't base all of their belief on head knowledge. They don't go around spouting off doctrine. They promote and "evangelize" by talking about their experience, or the "burning in the bosom," or by talking up how great the family life is in Mormonism. If you've ever seen commercials for the Mormon church, the family is the center of everything they believe in. They don't go into anything about their beliefs. In fact, the only reason you know it comes from a religious group is that it's from the LDS church. What this means for witnessing is that when we try to address the doctrine of the church and hold it next to the Bible, they turn quickly to their personal testimony and how awesome their culture is to defend their beliefs and will cease to engage with you. This isn't always the case, but it can often be. My fear and concern is that the Mormon church is starting to look more and more mainstream and Christian. Mitt Romney can give a speech about how he believes Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Savior of the world and all of a sudden, his beliefs are looking more and more Christian to the outside world. Perhaps this isn't entirely due to the Mormon church covering up their "strange" doctrines and obvious inconsistencies, although I believe much of it is. I think some of the problem is that the Christian church is no longer looking as Christian as it should. We don't stand for doctrine. We begin to spout our own personal testimonies and family life and traditions. We shouldn't neglect to talk about how Biblical Christianity does impact our lives, but those must be evidences for the truth, not the foundation for it. We have reverted to experience instead of truth and doctrine in our witnessing and apologetics. We must return to our historical roots and fight for the doctrines and truths that separate us from the rest of the world. If Christians would stand up for the sovereignty of God and his all-suffeciency, the doctrine of justification by faith alone, salvation through grace alone, the inerrance of the Bible alone, the divinity of Christ, the Trinity, etc. then perhaps the world wouldn't confuse Christianity with Mormonism and Catholocism and Mormonism and Catholocism would stop wanting to be associated with us. We need to take a stand on the firm foundation of Scripture alone and seek to show God as glorious and not our mega churches and our institutions (marriage, family, life). If we boast in our mega churches it should be because of the change produced by God through that instrument in the lives of people and the community. If we boast in our institutions like marriage and family and our pro-life causes, then it should be because they flow from a God-centered theology. We have to stop leaving God out of the center (and often the entirety) of our witness. We must boast in him and nothing else. The souls of the people of this nation depend on it.

Psalm 36

In my daily devotions I read Psalm 36 a while ago and I thought I would share some thoughts:

After a long list of the traits and character of the wicked, David caps it with this: "He does not despise evil." It is the character of the righteous to despise evil. We should be very fearful when we cease to despise evil. This is a trait I see lacking in me so often. Often I can hold up and praise that which is good, but I don't want to despise what is evil. I think that's often because I don't want to give up those parts of my life. I enjoy some of those evil things and if I despise them, then I will have to give them up, so I don't shed the light of the word on those areas of my life because I want to expose my own evilness. The heart is indeed desperately wicked, who can know it? This is a sobering reminder.

And after a long list of God's attributes and why the godly flee to him, David caps it with this: "In your light, we see light." When we line ourselves up with God and can be siad to truly be in him we see him. We don't see anything else. When we are enveloped in this marvelous light, all we see is the glory of the light. Our eyes get fixed on Jesus. We were blinded by the god of this world, but then God opens our eyes to see the "light of the glory of the gospel fo Jesus who is the image of God." In order to experience this we must be in the light. In order for this to happen we cannot be prideful (vs. 11). Once pride takes it's foothold in our ives we will cease to be in the light (not in an absolute, salvific sense) and we will not see the light. Pride is a destructive sin and it has destroyed many of the unrighteous. We must not be found with it. Destroy your pride and flee to God in abject humility and he will show you light.

I love the contrast presented here. The first four verses are dedicated to showing the wickedness of the wicked. In the next five verses, David contrasts the wicked - but not with the righteous. He contrasts the wicked with God. In doing so, David exalts comparing ourleves and others to the true standard - God - instead of the false one we so quickly embrace - each other. He also demonstrates that the only true righteous One is God and we all would be like the wicked where it not for God's grace. This contrast is indeed impressive and should be taken not of. Use it to cast down your pride and your view of yourself and exalt your view of God and his loveliness and how deficient sin and wickedness is in the light of the fountain of light.

...............................................................................................................

Even though I wrote that about a week ago, I think I needed to go back over the truth in those verses. It is so easy to compare myself with others and think that I'm okay and that, compared to the rest of the world, I'm doing pretty good. But they're not my standard. God is. And the only way I can stand blameless before the throne is if I'm dressed in his righteousness alone.

I saw "I Am Legend" Saturday and this Psalm reminds me of some of the themes in the movie (really good, by the way). Without giving anything away, there were a lot of contrasts in the movie between light and dark. Dark was when the evil was present, but they hated the light. Light was the only way to defeat the darkness. Then Will Smith quotes Bob Marley when he says in response to racism "Light up the darkness." We don't light up the darkness by focusing on ourselves. We light up the darkness by giving the darkness the true Light. He is the source of all light and he is the only way that light can pierce the darkness and overcome it. We have no light in ourselves. It only comes through God. We must give the world God. Nothing else will do! Show them the light of the world by being lights ourselves. Let your light so shine before men that they will see your good works and glorify God. We can be a light so long as Jesus shines through us. We have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the glory will go to God. We are frail. We need to let the power of God shine through our weaknesses so that the world will see that it is God that changes it and not us. "Light up the darkness" with the only light that really matters - Jesus Christ. God give me the grace and the strength to see this through - every day. I have no strength to do this. I cannot move unless you move me. I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me so that the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave himself up for me. The world needs this gospel. And were the ones who have to spread it. I can't fail in this task anymore due to my lack of desire to despise evil. I must live in the light.



P.S. I Am Legend is a really good movie. If you go see it, look for the analogies to Christ and the light/dark metaphors. It's really cool.

Due to popular demand...

...here is the link to pics of the house I looked at: http://utahrealestate.com/reports/photo/index.wfr?types=&find_listno=748489&ptype=p_res

Unfortunately I couldn't post them directly here, and I didn't have my camera with me when i went to see it. But hopefully this will sate your curiosity :)

House Search

Recently I've been looking around at houses in the downtown Ogden area with my friend who's also a real estate agent. After seeing a bunch of houses that I wouldn't want to buy at all, I finally found a house that very well might be a great house. It has three bedrooms and one bath, a little more than 1500 square feet, a fireplace, plenty of living space, a killer kitchen, and a sane floorplan. It is also in the price range I've been looking for. If the Lord wills, this could be a killer place to buy. You might ask why a guy my age would be looking to buy a house instead of renting until marriage or beyond. I've come to learn that my knowledge of the will of God is much more limited than what I once thought it was. God gave me a general direction to press toward when I was 17 and as I continue to grow toward that goal, God continues to whittle down the generalities and bring me to the exact place He wants me to be in and the work He wants me to do. With that in mind, God appears to be leading me to make my home in Ogden for the foreseeable future and seek to be a light to that city. Ogden has a lot of crime and there doesn't seem to be much of an effort on the part of Christians to make an impact in the heart of the city. Most of the churches that are "successful" seem to be found in the suburbs. As far as I can tell, there really aren't many God-entranced, Bible-preaching, Gospel-centered churches in the city and God seems to be leading me to that area. So with that in mind, I've been looking at houses in the area in order to live among the people that I would be ministering to and evangelizing. Anyway, the reason I'm bringing this up is that I would really appreciate your prayers for wisdom and discernment in this search. I desperately need to be focused on God's will in this situation and not just on my own desires which seem to so often conflict with God's. May my ways be His ways, and His thoughts my thoughts. Sola Deo Gloria

Youth Group and some randomness

How great is our God!!! For the second time in about as many months I got the cold that's going around again. A couple of days ago, my throat hurt so bad I didn't even want to drink water. Even now, the sore throat has gone away, but it's left a bad cough behind and my voice isn't strong at all and it sounds a lot different then normal. I save you the details about the crud in my throat as well. Anyway, I started the post this way because every time I've needed to sing or teach or go to an interview or anything like that, God has given me enough strength and decongestion to speak and sing clearly. We have youth group on Wednesday nights and this night I had to lead the whole thing because all of the other youth leaders were at a funeral. So this meant I had to do all the small group teaching (we're going through the "Truth Project" dvds - really good) and I normally lead worship. God gave me the strength to do all of it. And then, in the small group we were talking about evolutionists and Rom. 1:18-20 and all that good stuff and I started bringing the gospel to bear on it and emphasizing that we shouldn't go around calling them stupid and thinking ourselves superior to them, because we all used to be like that. And I was getting some of their thoughts on this and my only senior started busting out the gospel and how amazed she was at it and the incredible love that Jesus displayed toward those that were crucifying Him and just marvelling at our Savior. She's one of the deeper ones in the youth group and I know that she pursues God and loves God and is saved, but I've never really heard her just talk about the gospel that way and really be that affected by it. And I couldn't help but wonder if God is using the gospel series that we're going through to really bring home the amazing grace God has bestowed on us and how awesome heaven will be because God will be there and how that really makes death gain. I don't know if that's the case, but I hope God's used it in a small way in her life to bring her closer to God in that way.

Plus, I can't thing of a song more upbeat than "Sugarpie, honeybunch" or whatever the name of that song is. I was just at the grocery store on my way back home and they were playing that song and you just felt like singing along with it and dancing. Praise God! He's given me a really great night and it's nothing of me! I didn't do anything to make tonight cool. It was all God. How great is our God!!!

A little Newton

“Though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say that I am not what I once was, a slave to sin and Satan. And I can heartily join with the apostle and acknowledge that by the grace of God I am what I am.”
- John Newton

This came from the blog, firstimportance.org. It's an awesome site. I highly encourage visiting it. And what truth is embodied in this statement. What a glorious reality that we are no longer slaves to sin and Satan. And praise God that we will yet be glorified! We will not stay in this state forever.

No mercy

"He that is appointed to kill an enemy, if he leave striking before the other ceases living, does but half his work."

John Owen - The Mortification of Sin (pg. 51 as cited in Overcoming Sin and Temptation)

We are appointed to this task. This is our job on this earth. God has given us an enemy, a means, and a motivation (be killing sin or it will be killing you). If we fail to completely accomplish this task then we have completely failed. Sin must be crushed. This reminds me of sports. In sports, a championship team is characterized by what is called "smelling the blood in the water." When they knock a team down they put their foot on the neck and go for the kill. They show absolutely no mercy toward their opponent. They leave no doubt. So it is for us. We must leave no doubt. No mercy for sin. Kill it and kill it now. I love how Piper characterizes this battle. He says that we as Christians need to have a "mean streak." This isn't a pleasant affair. It is bloody and dirty and we must have a mean streak. In the case of sin we must have a bloodlust and seek its absolute destruction. There is no room for anything but violence. May God give us the grace to be steadfast in this battle and give us the strength to persevere. Praise God that he has already claimed the ultimate victory over this enemy and has given us all we need to see the battle through to its glorious end.

Glorious Dawn

Glorious Dawn

Give me ears to hear and eyes to see.
Wake me up to see your beauty.
Oh that glorious dawn, that glorious dawn,
As into your presence I am drawn.

And we cry holy, holy, holy
Holy is the Ancient One.
We give glory, glory, glory
Glory to the Risen Son.

Frail and sin-filled man that I am,
I put my trust in the slain Lamb.
My God, by grace, passed over faithlessness,
For glory, to demonstrate his righteousness.

And we cry holy, holy, holy
Holy is the Ancient One.
We give glory, glory, glory
Glory to the Risen Son.

Perfect glory and depraved man
Combine, for glory, grace to land.
To impart the vision of the risen Son
At glorious dawn, we are transformed into one.

New York: Day One

This is actually the only day of the trip that I took pictures. We took a red-eye flight out of Utah at 9 pm MDT and arrived in Denver at 10. Then we had a two-hour layover and flew out at midnight and arrived in New York at 6 am EDT. It was still dark when we flew in and we got a really good view of the skyline from the air. It was really amazing to see the Statue of Liberty in the harbor and then to see the Empire State building and the Chrysler Building and a big empty space in between them where the World Trade Center stood. After we landed we took a van service to the church in Brooklyn where we would be staying and then we slept. Sweet sleep. We woke up around noon and we decided to do some sight-seeing in Manhattan. We didn't have to be back at the church until 6 pm so we had a few hours. All of my pictures are from this short period of time. I also only have building and scenery shots, nothing really of our group. However, a bunch of other people took photos throughout so hopefully I'll get some of those and post them accordingly. Anyway, here are my pictures.

This was my first view of Manhattan after getting off the Subway. Really cool architecture



I took this one from the shore of Battery Park.

This one was also from Battery Park.

This is Wall Street.

This is the bull at the beginning of Wall Street. If you've seen Hitch, then you're familiar with the other end of the bull. There were about 50-75 tourists standing around taking pictures of the bull so this is the best one I could get.

This is ground zero. It was amazing how massive the hole really was. Off to the left there is a subway running through it and that cement hole in the middle was probably part of the parking garage underneath the towers. It was really sobering to see the aftermath of 9/11.

Anyway, those are the highlights of my first day. If I get any more pictures from the others, I'll post those, but for now you'll have to settle for my descriptions of what we did. God Bless.

Happy Reformation Day

Today is the 490th anniversary of the nail heard round the world.

Just letting you all know, I made it home safely. New York was amazing. Seeing the sights was pretty cool too. The mission trip made a big impression on me and brought me to tears on a number of occasions. (I know, I know, crying isn't manly, but I think this kind is acceptable.) I will be posting a much more detailed account soon, but for now I just want to say:

Happy Reformation Day

O What great things our God wrought 490 years ago today that continue to shape this world and bring many to the greatness of knowing Christ!

New York

I leave my house in about an hour to go to New York with my church's youth group and the youth group of our mother church. We're going with an organization called Center for Student Ministries and we will be doing a lot of work with the poor and homeless. It's going to be pretty crazy. Hopefully I'll come back with some good stuff to write about, maybe even a few pictures to post, and most importantly, a little bit more transformed into the image of Christ.

Train up a child...

Lately I have had the privelege of being around a bunch of little kids. And I don't say that sarcastically :) Between the families at my house church and my friend and his family that I hand out with at least once a week, I'm around about a dozen different kids during the week and only about two of them are older than 10. The rest are younger than 6. It's been a very interesting experience. For instance, at my house church three out of the last four weeks one of the kids has thrown up. I meet with my friend every Tuesday night and he has five kids under the age of six and I usually spend some time reading to them while also trying to keep them from falling off of barstools and telling them to get off the table. I'm starting to wonder what God has in store for me in the future and if he's using this to train me for something. To be totally honest, I'm kind of terrified. Don't get me wrong, I like kids and I look forward to the day when I will have some of my own. But I'm terrified that I won't be a good father. There is so much that goes into it and I know I'm going to make a ton of mistakes and I just pray that the mistakes that I do make aren't too severe. The very prospect of being a father really makes me grateful that God is a sovereign God and he will keep me and my wife and kids. He's in control. I couldn't even imagine wanting to be in total control over the situation. I would totally screw it up. Anyway, the reason I brought all of this up is because being around this many kids has caused me to think a lot more about how to raise them and the verse that keeps coming to my mind is Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it." If God ever blesses me with a wife and children I think this verse will define much of my parenting efforts. If I want to raise my children and in a God-glorifying manner, then I must train them up in the way of the Lord. If I want them to be not just good kids but good adults that seek after the glory of God, I must raise them to love and seek after God through the Bible. I must constantly be teaching them the Bible and the gospel and how everything is about the glory of God and that it is in seeking that glory that we will be satisfied and find eternal life. There is no greater parenting method than to train your children in the word of God. What a God-given blessing that my parents thought that way and constantly taught me the Bible. I can only pray that God would give me the grace to do the same for my kids. Praise God that he is a good Father and a sovereign Lord and he leads us in the way everlasting and provides for us the ultimate example of the kind of fathers and mothers we should be.

Gospel Series

I never blogged about it, but about two-and-a-half months ago I accepted the position at my church as youth leader. I'm not paid staff or anything, but I teach the youth (grades 7-12) Sunday mornings and I'm one of the youth leaders for our Wednesday night gathering (we combine with our "mother church"). So far we have gone through the book of Ruth, and the last two Sundays I have taught on heaven and hell. In teaching about hell, I centered on II Thess. 1:6-10. One of the phrases really caught me, and that is verse 8 where it says "dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus." After teaching about the eternal torment of hell and that it is those who don't know God and don't obey him that will endure that, I was deeply struck by the need to preach about what the Gospel is. In order for us to obey it, we must know it, and by knowing the Gospel, we will know who our God is. So I came up with a tentative eight-part series on the Gospel. Let me know if you have any feedback or additional topics that would be helpful to cover. Anyway here's the series:

The Good of the Gospel - God
The Object of the Gospel - Jesus
The Dilemma of the Gospel - Man
The Means of the Gospel - The Cross
The Effect of the Gospel - Sanctification and Glorification
The Enemies of the Gospel - Legalism and Antinomianism
The Power of the Gospel - God's Sovereignty and Evangelism
The Purpose of the Gospel - The Glory of God

That's it. Let me know what you think. God bless.

Response to my pastor

This is a response I just sent to my pastor about an article that he sent me and wanted my thoughts on it. In short, the article sees problems in the maturity level of believers in today's church and encouraged the development of small groups and discipleship to correct the problem. Anyway, I thought I would share my response with you.

I think he's right on in most of his assessments. A couple of minor nit-picky things like using the term saints for mature Christians. Paul even called the Corinthians saints. We don't want to create a catholic mindset where we elevate mature Christians over immature ones. We are all one in Christ and we don't want to create division where the Bible doesn't and in fact fights vigorously against it (Eph. 4:2-6). But overall I think his analysis of the problem is right on. Modern day evangelical churches are producing baby Christians - Hebrews 5 Christians if you will. The level of immaturity is even such that we are losing (perhaps even lost entirely) our distinction from the world and we cannot accurately gauge the salvation of most of the people sitting in the seats in front of us. Not that we are the judge of the people's salvation and relationship to God. May that never be! I would hate to think about me judging anybody's salvation. What I mean though, as I'm sure you know, is that all we can look at is the fruit in a person's life and if the American church today is producing fruit, it is small and produces little impact. There is an aspect where I don't fully line up with the solution that is being offered. Let me say, first, that I think small group discipleship and accountability are key. If we lack that, then we miss out on half of the equation and we won't achieve the fullness of God's blessing for us and we won't fully achieve the measure of a mature Christian and thus our church bodies won't achieve the full measure of a mature man. We must have small groups. We must encourage tight knit relationships (Col. 2:2 - being knit together in love). We must have close relationships founded upon, grounded and established upon, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is my concern with the emphasis on small groups. The emphasis on small groups seems to think that if we just had good small groups then all our problems would disappear, or at least a good deal of them would. And my response to that is how often in scripture do we see the writers putting an emphasis on small group fellowship, above and beyond that of the larger fellowship? To be sure, there are examples. Acts 2 comes to mind as well as all the portions of scripture that talk about the group that Paul took with him. He was never without Barnabas or Silas, and it seemed he always had disciples around him as well, such as Timothy and Titus. He also spent a great deal of time with Aquila and Priscilla as well. In fact, at the end of most of Paul's letters he sends greetings from a great deal of people that were with him. At the end of II Timothy Paul urges Timothy to return to Paul quickly because only Luke was with him and everybody else had either abandoned him or gone into ministry in other parts of the world. All that to say, we have a great list of examples of small group fellowship and how needed and beneficial it is. If we think we can go it alone and be the American lone ranger Christian, then we have got it all wrong. We need each other, particularly in a smaller group as these examples illustrate. But my question is where do we see the gathering into small groups encouraged or commanded in Scripture? I'm just working off of memory, but I can't think of a single passage that relates small group fellowship specifically to spiritual growth. Large group fellowship is most definitely encouraged and commanded (Heb. 10:25 among others) but I can't think of any verses that specifically talk about small group fellowship and discipleship.

Rather, what I think you see more often in the Bible is an emphasis on preaching and teaching truth, specifically that of the gospel. You see this in passages like Eph. 4:11-16. What comes first? People gifted to preach and teach and expound upon the truth of God's word, and by so doing they equip the people who hear them to grow themselves up into a strong and mature body. What's interesting about this passage is that it links maturity to a knowledge of the Son of God and unity. And the end goal of all this is that we attain to the measure of the fullness of Christ. As it has been said before, when you train a cashier to spot a fake 20 you don't have them look a bunch of counterfeits, you have them look at and study the real thing until they are so accustomed to seeing the real thing that spotting a fake is easy. We all are, as Christians, called to be like Christ, so the only way that we can truly be like Christ is if we look at Him constantly. When Paul came to the Corinthians his goal and his means of making them mature Christians was to preach Christ and Him crucified and at the end of I Cor. he says that this is of first importance. When Paul wanted to correct heresy in the Galatian and Colossian churches he told them about Christ. In fact, in Colossians 2 Paul tells us that the way to be firmly grounded and established in the faith is to know and understand and gaze upon Christ. When Paul wanted to give the Philippians a reason for joy he talked about nothing other than Christ. When Paul wanted to have fellowship with the Roman church he wrote the book of Romans and then called the whole book the gospel in chapter one. In Rom. 1:14-17 Paul tells the Romans that he longed to preach the gospel to the believers there. Not to unbelievers, but believers. I think the church has made a huge mistake in thinking that the gospel is what brings us from life unto death and then the rest of our Christian lives is training separated from the gospel. I've been thinking about this and writing about this a lot lately and the short end of it is I believe that it is the gospel that saves us and, if you will excuse the word choice, it is the gospel that keeps us saved. As you know, I fully cling to and believe in the perseverance of the saints and that it is God's power that does it, but I believe that the means that God uses to do this is through the gospel. And if I went into some of the thoughts I've been having about all this and reasoning from the scripture, then this e-mail would get far too long. But the basic gist is that I believe all texts speak of God as seen through the face of Christ (II Cor. 4:4,6) and we must focus on Christ in order to produce transformation into the image of Christ in the lives of those who profess belief. So my conclusion about this article is that it is right in that we focus too much on programs and we have weak (even blasphemous) preaching and teaching, shallow books, and a self-centered gospel. But the answer isn't encourage small groups. The answer is preach and teach in such a way that people see the face of Christ and leave transformed into the image of Christ's glory and then those small group fellowships develop much easier. Granted, because of our nature and our individualistic culture we must encourage small group fellowships from the front, but I guarantee that it will be much easier when the congregation is gazing into the face of Christ and not just going along with some program that tells them that the Bible and God is all about them

The Trinity

How often have you guys thought about the Trinity - what kind of impact it has on our beliefs, is it really a core doctrine, why the need for the nicene creed, and how it affects our day to day lives? I have to admit I haven't really thought a lot about the Trinity...ever. I've known that it was a core belief. I've known the basic tenants of it since I was a child. I've even known how to defend it at a very basic level for a long time. But I've never really thought long and hard about it before. Until recently, that is. The Trinity has been at the forefront of my mind a lot lately, and I've come to realize just how utterly essential this doctrine is to everything that we hold. It affects our beliefs, it affects how we view God, it affects how we view ourselves, and so, not surprisingly, it does have an impact on how we live our daily lives. We must live our lives in light of a trinitarian worldview. We need to know that God has always been in relationship with God and has loved that relationship for eternity past. There has never been a time when God lacked perfect fellowship. Simply put, the Trinity destoys all our hopes of being the center of God's "life." God has always been the center of God's "life" and He has never needed us. The Trinity is a wonderfully humbling thing. And oh how wonderful it is to be humbled by a loving God who loves showing us how perfect He is. Hopefully, Lord willing, I'll be posting more on this subject in the future. I'm sure they will be pitiful in light of this glorious truth, but I pray that I will learn so much more of the nature of my God through this study and be brought so much lower than I currently think myself to be. God bless.

...it was the worst of times

What an awesome thought that this earth is the worst of times for us! It will never get any worse than this life. I was talking about this with a friend of mine today and we both had had pretty rough days at work in general. Things just hadn't gone too well. And we both were filled with joy at the thought that the glory that awaits us will make all of this look like nothing. Our time down here doesn't even compare to what awaits us. What a hope we have in Jesus. We have died with Him and our life is now hidden in Him awaiting the time when we will be revealed with Him in glory. I love how I Peter 1:8-9 talks about our lives here on this earth. Right now we don't see Jesus as we will at the revelation of His glory (I Jn. 3:2), but we love Him and believe in Him and because of this glimpse we see now in the word we rejoice with joy inexpressable and full of glory. Let us take rest in that. We rejoice explosively because of the little bit that has been revealed to us about our Savior. Imagine what heaven will be like!

God loves being God

Lately, I've been looking at a lot of cool things in creation. Last Saturday, I watched part of a show on the Discovery channel called "Blue Planet." In the one we watched they took a submersible two miles down to the floor of the ocean. Down there there is no light. The weight of the water is a pulverizing 3800 pounds/square inch. The temperature at the thermal vents is around 750 degrees. It's an amazing world. And at the bottom of this world there are animals that create their own light called bioluminescence. This light helps them catch food and evade attack. While I was watching that the thought struck me that even in the darkest places, there is still light. The analogy is pretty obvious in that even in the spiritually darkest places, there is still light. It might be small and weak, but it is still there and it still illumines and transforms. The show continued and they showed these incredible creatures that looked alien. I had never seen anything that looked like them. And the amazing thing is that even under all that weight of water, their physical structure looked more delicate than anything I've seen above water. And then today, I got on the hubble telescope web page and looked at amazing pictures of far away galaxies and stars. I realized that these things have been there since God spoke them into existence during the first six days of time itself and man had never seen them. God didn't create creation for man. God created everything for God. God loves being God. God loves displaying His glory for the very sake of demonstrating the overflow of His nature even if man isn't there to appreciate it. It brought to mind Job 38:25-27: 25 “Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt, 26 to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, 27 to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass?

God brings rain on land where there is no man because God wants to pour it out and show the greatness of His glory. We are not the center, we never were the center, and praise God we never will be the center. He was, is, and always will be the center of everything and in Him everything lives and moves and has their being. All things are from Him, through Him, and to Him, to Him be the glory forevermore. We were made to feel small.

D. James Kennedy

D. James Kennedy died earlier this morning in his sleep. From what I understand (which isn't much) he had been having some health problems lately and had decided to retire from his ministry. I never knew much about him but I was aware of him and some of his impact (especially as it related to ECT) and from what I've read lately he was a faithful servant of God and served the church in America greatly. I'm sure he will be greatly missed by many. Another saint has gone home. Praise the Lord!