God Keeps Rockin My World

God is doing some amazing things here at IC Church of Christ! Sometimes I just shake my head and say, "God is good!" because I know it's not me and all Him. For the last month I've been playing the role of nurse for my lovely wife Suzi as she has been recovering from major knee surgery. Everything with the recovery has gone well and we are almost back to normal.

During the last month my schedule has been anything but normal...I've been more nurse then parent. My routine was thrown off big time and needless to say that can be frustrating. But in those moments of frustration I was able to find peace in what was most important (taking care of my wife and family) and that God would take care of the rest.

Well during the month of January God has rocked my world. Not only has He taught me a valuable lesson about peace, but He continues to work some amazing things here at IC Church of Christ. We had the second largest attendance month (the largest was in September) since I've been here...in January of all the months! Then to top it off we came in $14,000 under budget for our building project. Just another incredible sign that God is working. All of this when I was the least available for the church and the most available for my family. Do you see why all I can say is, "God is good!"

So what have I learned from all of this? Jesus' words ring true,
"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well." ~ Mt 6:33

The King & I: A Love Story from Song of Songs

I'm about to do something crazy and insane, for roughly 10 weeks we are going to study in depth the Old Testament book of Song of Songs. To say that I’m a little bit nervous about the whole idea is an understatement. Talking about marriage, sex, the roles of men and women is just a little nerve racking...especially if it borders on PG-13. Thankfully, the Bible says a lot about those subjects and I won't have to rely on my wisdom but God's. So why undertake such an endeavor? We are going to do this study because it’s long overdue and we desperately need to hear what God’s Word says about those subjects.

Let me explain. In our day, people devote an extraordinary amount of time, money, and energy in pursuit of sex, making it the most popular religion in the world. God tells us that people attempt to satisfy their thirst not by drinking from his streams of living water, but instead by drinking from man-made toilets (from Mark Driscoll's translation of Jer. 2:13). This disturbing metaphor rightly describes our culture’s current thirst for smut and sin. In Romans 1:24–25, the Apostle Paul says that people either worship God their Creator and enjoy his creation—including our bodies—or people worship creation as God, and in sexual sin offer their bodies as living sacrifices (which is the definition of worship in Romans 12:1). Paul goes on to explain that those who worship creation invariably worship the human body because it is the top of God’s creation. In this mix up of rightful worship, sex becomes a religion and the sex act a perverse sacrament.

Christians throughout history have struggled to determine how this can be done. Some have chosen to essentially kill their sexual desires out of a fear of temptation to sin. Some lead destructive lives of secret sin that are eventually exposed, causing much embarrassment. Still others are simply confused and uncertain of how to speak to their spouse and children about sex, unsure of what is compatible and incompatible with the teaching of Scripture.

The study of the Song of Songs is meant neither to kill our desires nor permit them to flow into deadly sin. Rather, this series is an attempt to cultivate our desires and channel them toward our spouse according to the wisdom God gives us in his Word. We will learn about gender, dating, marriage, and sex as God intends. I tell this to you for two reasons: 1) Please be in prayer over this whole series—for me, for you, and for whoever attends that morning. This series can be life changing. 2) Make every attempt to attend each week of the series and or listen to the message on line. You are going to have you eyes opened…I guarantee it.

Sermons I Listen To

On Sunday I was emphasizing Jesus' teaching regarding "hearing the word and understanding it" (Mt 13:23) and how important it is to immerse ourselves in as much of the Word of God as possible. I shared four practical ways to do this:

1) Read/Listen to the Bible. There are many good, readable translations available as well as a number of dramatized audio Bibles. Remember, 5 minutes in God's Word is better then 0.

2) Get to church. A good preacher works to make the Bible practical and relevant to the listener. Your regular attendance provides you with a great resource that can really help you come Monday morning.

3) Listen to sermons online/podcast. As a preacher of God's Word, I'm dependent upon other preachers to encourage me and feed me the Bible in a practical and challenging way. In the message on Sunday it told you that I would share some of the preachers I listen to. If you are a subscriber to iTunes you should be able to type in these names and find their sermons. Click on the "Subscribe" button and the sermons will load on to your iTunes player automatically. If you don't have iTunes you can probably Google the names and find their sermon sites. Here of a few I listen to, or would recommend:
- Andy Stanley (North Point Ministries)
- Southeast Christian Church (Dave Stone/Kyle Idleman)
- Erwin McManus (Mosiac Church)
- Perry Noble (NewSpring Church)
- Rob Bell (Mars Hill Church)
- Ravi Zacharias (Heavy Stuff - For you deep thinkers out there)

4) Read some good Christian literature, there are so many great resources available. Obviously some are better than others so in a future post I'll list out some good books that you might want to check out.

A Little More of Grace & Peace in 09

There is a phrase that the apostle Paul uses to open most of his letters,

“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

It’s a phrase that often flies under the radar—probably because one doesn’t really settle into paying attention until one is past the greeting. However, Paul’s greeting of “grace and peace” is loaded with all kinds of good stuff. So much so that I’ve decided to use the theme of “grace and peace” as a focus for my 2009. Why? Well, simply put I could sure show more grace and live with a little more peace. Let me give you an example.

While Suzi was in surgery (my wife Suzi recently had knee surgery) I was in the waiting area…waiting, when in came a weird dude with his wife so she could check in for surgery. I say weird because he was walking around pretending to read the Braille on all of the signs, he was just flat out being weird. So upon seeing this guy I had entirely written him off just because of one thing I saw him do—I didn’t extend to him much grace. Well, guess what happens? This man’s wife end’s up having almost the same identically surgery that my wife Suzi had, with the same exact surgeon. Oh, it gets even better. Later that day after Suzi had been settled into her room we find out that she is going to have a roommate and you guessed it, it was this strange guy and his wife! And who says that God doesn’t have a sense of humor? But here is the kicker, the guy’s name is Tom.

Now when all of these things were coming to my attention I was immediately reminded of the sermon I had heard the day before from Sunday (Sunday Goshit had preached for me the day before) about remembering that everyone is made in the image of God. This man was made in the image God and I had chosen to not to extend grace to one made in the image of God—and someone to whom God had chosen to extend grace to. I had seen one moment in a man’s life and had written him off…like I knew his whole story. So not only did I not extend him grace, but I was not at peace with him. Why did his actions bother me so much? He may have been acting weird but I do too.

Do you see why I need more grace and peace in my life? Do you see why the apostle Paul opens so many of his letters with the phrase, “grace and peace?” How can Christ followers be influencers in this culture if we are going to look at people and assume we know who they are? How can we as Christians share the grace of God with the world if we are not able to extend grace with the people that we come in contact?

So the next time you meet a person on the bus, in your favorite store, at work, or sitting next to you at church (don’t be shocked, it will happen) remember that you don’t know their whole story. There is a reason why they are doing what they are doing. Instead of classifying them as strange, weird or just plain crazy why not instead extend to them grace and live at peace with who they are.

“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” ~ Philippians 1:2