One of my favorite groups, Indelible Grace, is now on iTunes. I am thrilled to have their music available to even more people. If you haven’t heard of them, check it out.
Indelible Grace now on iTunes
Category: Church/worship
Democrats and Republicans agree: Preaching is not outdated
Erik Raymond, at Irish Calvinist, has a cogent post about how politicians deliver their important messages to the masses:
Does this not sound a bit old fashioned to the sophisticated evangelical pastor? After all, we are told by many ‘experts’ today that talking to people in large chunks of time is not effective. Furthermore, it is often said to be arrogant and archaic to stand up behind a podium and have people sit down while you talk.
But what do you see at the National Conventions? A speaker, a podium, a crowd seated, an appeal to action, and even propositional statements! What’s more, we have panels of talking heads dissecting everything about the speeches with the tenacity of a hyper-calvinist in a Methodist church.
Come to Jesus
Today was a great day at church, and it was something different. First of all, I had the opportunity to lead the first- and second-graders in Sunday school. Our lesson was based around the passage in Mark 2:1-11 where Jesus heals the man who is paralyzed, but not before he forgives the man’s sins.
The way the lesson went, we talked about what the man’s biggest problem was. He was paralyzed, but Jesus did something else first. He forgave him. Now, there are many ways you can look at that passage, and it’s a great one. What we talked about was that we have to realize that we have a need greater than anything we can see about our lives: our sinful hearts. And there is only one person who can heal us: Jesus Christ. So we all need to come to him. Whether he solves all the things we see as wrong with our lives is not as important as our heart problem.
Another thing we talked about, which fit in nicely with the main service, was the friends who lowered the paralyzed man through the roof so he could get to Jesus. These men didn’t heal him, but they did something great for the man. As part of our battleship series, we prayed for the list of people we call POWs — prisoners in the spiritual battle for our souls. Even though these images aren’t the same, the idea is in that we need to bring people to Jesus so he can save them. It’s not us, but God uses our efforts to save sinners.
I asked the boys and girls if there was something that was special to them that they could tell me about. I heard about special birthday presents, their pets, their family. We then talked about how Jesus is more special than any of those things. If that’s the case we should want to share him with those we meet. Otherwise, we are not loving. That is the goal before us.
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Battling with compassion
As I continue to think about the recent series of sermons being preached at my church, Berean Bible Church, I dwell on the image of the battleship and what that means for my life. Today, I have been thinking about Jonathan Edwards and his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”
A few weeks ago in Sunday school we were talking and it came up in discussion that Edwards’ sermon was something that everyone should read. We are fortunate in this age of the Internet that things like that are only a click away. If you are unfamiliar with Edwards, you can always go to Wikipedia, where you can learn about him. About his famous sermon, you’ll find:
This sermon was the very embodiment of a traditional “Hellfire and Brimstone” sermon of the Great Awakening. Edwards’ invoked horrific imagery with the intention of persuading his audience through fear of their own damnation. This sense of fear was apparently so great that during the sermon, according to Stephen Williams (a witness who recorded the events of the sermon), Edwards had to ask for silence from the overwhelmed crowd so that he could finish. When performing this sermon, Edwards would read it in a quiet, calm voice that commanded silence from the audience. Any disturbance would have been noticed, making it easier to gauge the reaction of the congregation as a whole. The subject matter of this sermon was not uncommon for Edwards. Invoking Hellish images was part of a greater arsenal of Gospel topics that Edwards commonly used throughout his catalog of sermons.
But in this day and age, “Hellfire and Brimstone” doesn’t go over well. We are told to love people, not scare them. But if you read through “Sinners,” you will see that making people aware of the existence and the clear path to it we all face is ultimately a loving act. How?
In his message “Two Motives for Missions, Or One?” John Piper explains that compassion pursues the rescue of perishing sinners. If we are truly loving, we cannot go about us each day with blinders on as people are perched on the precipice of hell.
We are battling sin and Satan and hell not just for ourselves, but for the glory of God. When we, out of compassion, work to rescue perishing sinners we bring glory to God by not by just warning them away from the punishment of hell but by luring them to the pleasure of Christ.
Go to battle. Do it for love and the supreme satisfaction of knowing Christ.
For a great talk about Jonathan Edwards and his life, go here.
Worship is for the entire family
I love to go to church. We only have one service at our church, and it happens to be on Sunday morning. But it is a special time for me to be there with my spiritual family and worship my heavenly father.
But I know that not everyone shares that passion. And, usually, those people are the youngest among us. Being at church is something that, in our society, is becoming an increasingly unique experience. After all, we are not prone to gather and stay in one place for that long. Thus, it becomes hard for children to appreciate, let alone adults.
That is why I found this article to be so useful in helping my children — and other children, I hope — learn to appreciate being in the service from a young age. We don’t give them enough credit for what they can understand. If we really believe that our children can grasp enough to be saved at an early age — and I really believe that — then we should also encourage our children to be a part of the service, as best they can, as fellow worshippers.
HT: Desiring God
John Piper says “Don’t Waste Your Pulpit”
First of all, I am not a pastor. I will say this: I am glad that my pastor values the word of God and does take time every Sunday to explain it to us. In the clip below, John Piper exhorts pastors to preach God’s word and not their own thoughts. It is a tragic thing when churches become places of topical discussion when we know that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing though the word of Christ.”
AWANA awards night
Last night was Awards Night at our church’s AWANA program. AWANA? What is it, you say? AWANA is a program for children that, according to its Web site, “helps parents and churches worldwide raise children and youth to know, love and serve Christ.” Go follow the link to find out more about it, it’s quite the program.
Because I work evenings, I don’t help out there. My son is involved as a clubber (like in a member of the club) and my daughter volunteers. Every Wednesday, dozens of kids show up at church to play games, listen to an adult tell them how to live as a Christian and learn verses from the Bible. If they learn enough verses or complete enough assignments from their workbook, they earn things. Not that learning the precious word of God is a bad thing, but AWANA is there to make Bible memory a fun thing. And these kids have fun.
Maybe I worry too much, but I pray the verses these children are learning are sinking into their hearts and making them tender for God. I think it does happen because every year there are children who will come to Christ. It is a beautiful thing. But, like anything, there are those whose hearts remain hard. The fun and games keep their minds from the hard truth that they are sinners in desperate need of a savior. After all, how much fun is it to know that you are doomed to hell unless you come to Christ?
It is a delicate job trying to keep 20-30 children happy while also getting them to learn what God says about who He is and what that means for them. I am thankful for the adults who volunteer their time to listen to children recite verses or give them counsel. It’s important because there are many kids whose only relationships with Christians occurs on Wednesday nights.
So I sat and watched all these children receive awards for their work (or lack of work, in some cases) during the year. My prayer for these children, my own included, would be that these years in AWANA aren’t pushed aside when they are too old to be clubbers but that they are treasured as a time when their thirst for God and his word increased and they turned to the Bible.
Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! — Psalm 119:1
Who sent this?
I came across a post from Dan Phillips over at Pyromaniacs detailing his receiving this card at home and which church sent it. I think we can all relate to the situation, so I think his way of dealing with it is challenging, convicting and thought-provoking for all of us who call ourselves Christians.
Read all these posts, they’re right on.
http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2008/01/preaching-good-news-part-one.html
http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2008/01/preaching-good-news-part-two.html
http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2008/01/preaching-good-news-part-three.html
Tags: Evangelism, The Gospel
Bill Clinton has a dream
We’ve all been there, but maybe not when we’re sitting in front of everyone else in church and we happen to be the former president of the United States.
It’s good to be one of God’s people
This afternoon and early this evening, my family and I had a chance to gather together with our church family for a hayride. It was a beautiful, sunny, windy afternoon and just the right kind of fall weather for such an activity.
While it was a purely social activity, I couldn’t help come away feeling blessed by being together with people who love God and, because they do, love to encourage others. It has been a hard week at my house and there was some consideration given to not going at all. After all, the reasoning went, we could use the rest and time together as a family. This kind of thinking is not unusual, I think, in circles among Christians. There is a real danger, I think, of almost worshiping the immediate family and turning it into some kind of idol.
Rockstanding 
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