Humility Makes Sense, And Worship!

little 5 minute clip that shows how insane my "Christian arrogance" is:

Yom Kippur

Helpful brief bible background on Yom Kippur: The Day of Atonement

Next Step Seminar

Friday eve
&
Sat morn

@ church office

Get all delails at our website

Evangelism is Jesus Christ

The English word 'evangelism' is derived from a Greek term
meaning, literally 'to bring or to spread good news'. It
is impossible, therefore, to talk about evangelism without
talking about the content of the good news. What is it?
At its very simplest, it is *Jesus*. Jesus Christ himself
is the essence of the gospel.

--From "Christian Mission in the Modern World"

Baptizing & Teaching

By speaking of baptism in the context of the divine imperitives, Jesus confirms the essence of the gospel. A holy God not only commands holiness, but He also supplies it. Baptism signifies the wonderful work of Christ shedding His own blood to cleanse us from our sin. By blood He washes us from the guilt of failing to keep His commands. Disciples who carry the message of baptism while proclaiming the holy standards of God communicate the essence of grace.

--Bryan Chapell

Spreading What We Savor

Savoring a vision of a great and triumphant God in worship precedes spreading the same in missions. --John Piper

Primacy of Evangelism

I think we should agree with the statement of the Lausanne Covenant that 'in the church's mission of sacrificial service evangelism is primary' (para. 6, "The Church and
Evangelism"). Christians should feel an acute pain of conscience and compassion when human beings are oppressed
or neglected in any way, whether what is being denied them is civil liberty, racial respect, education, medicine, employment, or adequate food, clothing and shelter.
Anything which undermines human dignity should be an offence to us. But is anything so destructive of human dignity as alienation from God through ignorance or rejection of the gospel? And how can we seriously maintain that political and economic liberation is just as important as eternal salvation?

--John Stott, From "Christian Mission in the Modern World" (London: Falcon, 1975), p. 35.

Holy and Worldly

"Mission arises from the biblical doctrine of

the church in the world.

If we are not THE CHURCH, the holy & distinct people of God, we have nothing to say because we are compromised. If on the other hand, we are not IN THE WORLD, deeply involved in its life and suffering, we have no one to serve because we are insulated. Our calling is to be HOLY and WORLDLY at the same time. Without this balanced biblical ecclesiology we will never recover or fulfill our mission." --John Stott, The Living Church

andy crouch @ his U2

U2 seems to have found a way to wield tremendous power without being consumed by it. They have done so by choosing to spend their power on others, and on pointing to Another.

article

Try something

Prepare:
You can access this week’s CIA and worship folder on our Web site.
Print the folder and read through it as you prepare for Sunday.

Help in understanding Infant Baptism

1. Pratt's video here
This guy is one of the most energetic teachers I've ever sat under-- still can remember his Isaiah to Malachi night class at RTS-Orlando--YET i find his camera presence very calm. Regardless, this is a pretty in-depth video teaching, about 15 minutes, i think.

2. brief one from Ligon Duncan of 1st presbyterian Jackson MS

1. God, in both the Old and New Testaments, explicitly makes a promise to believers and to their children (Genesis 17:7; Acts 2:39).

2. God, in both the Old and New Testaments, explicitly attaches specific signs (respectively, circumcision [Genesis 17:10] and baptism [Acts 2:38, cf. Colossians 2:11-12], to this promise that he gives to believers and their children.

3. Therefore, since God has given an explicit promise to believers and their children, in the New Testament, and attached a sign to this promise, and enjoined us (in the new covenant) to administer that sign [baptism, Matthew 28:19-20], then we should give the sign of the promise he has made to believers and their children, to believers and their children, in humble obedience to biblical command and example. QED.

3. About 800 links here

personal rambling about infant baptism, redux

couple big deals upfront

1.) I like alot of non-infant baptizers more than i like alot of infant baptizers
2.) I think many people who reject infant baptism are more faithful Christ-followers than many who accept & practice infant baptism
3.) I enjoy being in a church family and having friends who feel the freedom to disagree and live in harmony

now, a few words on why i cannot reject infant baptism:
1.) i'd lose my job
2.) kidding

I joyfully embrace & practice infant baptism because (these are NOT 'in order'):
1.) it is most consistent with my reading of the whole bible
2.) I grew up seeing it in the United Methodist church, seeing infants baptized
3.) I was converted to faith in Christ in the Presbyterian church, where I kept on seeing it (albeit with new eyes!)
4.) my understanding of the Bible's teaching on children
5.) The willingness God has to tell his New Testament church
"THINGS HAVE CHANGED, STOP DOING THAT!" (like gospel to nations, eat what you want, etc.) would beg the question why He didn't do the same with the sign of the covenant. "Stop putting sign on your children like I've had you do for few thousand years." woulda been appropriate and i struggle to see that Acts 2:38 is that.

I have always been very very sympathetic to my baptist friends (both in CCC and elsewhere) who "just can't see it" in the Scripture. J.I. Packer's words resonate deeply with me:

Certainly, all adult church members should have professed faith personally before the church, and communities that baptize infants provide for this in a rite of confirmation or its equivalent. The Christian nurture of baptist and paedobaptist children will be similar: dedicated to God in infancy, either by baptism or by a dedication rite (which some will see as a dry baptism), they will then be brought up to live for the Lord and led to the point of publicly professing faith on their own account in confirmation or baptism (which some will see as a wet confirmation). After this they will enjoy full communicant status, unless indeed they come under discipline for some lapse. The ongoing debate is not about nurture but about God’s way of defining the church.

How can a ceiling be so exciting?!

Last room on East side

The Fruits of Pain

Many of the finest things in character, are the
fruits of pain. Many a Christian enters trial--cold,
worldly, unspiritual--and emerges from the
experience a little later, with spirit softened,
mellowed, and spiritually enriched.

Missional

Keller

is re-posting as gauche as re-gifting??

As we continue to think about Christ Community's calling to be the people of God in Gainesville---we will talk September 20 about Covenant Succession, a.k.a "getting our chillun saved", or
passing The Faith down to the next generation(s).

So, we will be baptizing 3 members of our congregation. Three members who we will seek, in partnership with their parents, to see profess personal saving dependence upon the person and work of Jesus Christ. To help you u'stand our 'take' on baptism, i submit the following:
(this was posted here on March 10 of this year)
Sacraments:
Q. What are sacraments?
A. Sacraments are holy signs and seals for us to see. They were instituted by God so that by our use of them He might make us understand more clearly the promise of the gospel, and might put His seal on that promise. And this is God’s gospel promise: to forgive our sins and give us eternal life by grace alone because of Christ’s one sacrifice finished on the cross.


Q. Are both the word and the sacraments then intended to focus our faith on the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross as the only ground of our salvation?
A. Right! In the gospel the Holy Spirit teaches us and through the holy
sacraments He assures us that our entire salvation rests on Christ’s one sacrifice for us on the cross.
(from Heidelberg Catechism; 1536, #66 and #67)


Infant Baptism Explanations:
--Why I Changed My Mind, a letter to my daughter
-- Francis Schaeffer's helpful little paper



Baptism is a sacrament of the new testament, ordained by Jesus Christ,
not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church;
but also to be unto him
- a sign and seal of the covenant of grace,
- of his ingrafting into Christ,
- of regeneration,
- of remission of sins,
and
- of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life.

This sacrament is, by Christ's own appointment, to be continued in His Church until the end of the world.

For a contrasting view:
see Spurgeon's "Children Brought to Christ, Not the Font" (awesome title)
and Fred Malone's journey from baptizing babies to NOT

missiom

good stuff from bruce ware:

Understanding the Person and Work of Christ as missional is crucial and central to understanding Jesus and his work correctly. The mission of the Son began long before his going to the cross, or his baptism, or even his incarnation. The mission of the Son began in eternity past when the Father devised his plan by which the Son would be preeminent over the created world the Father designed, planned, and willed to create.

As the Father chose the Son to be his Agent by which creation would come into being, so the Father chose the Son to be his Agent by which re-creation also would come to pass. The Son's mission, then, was from eternity past the mission of one thing—he sought in all that he thought and felt and said and did to do the will of his Father.

Divine Empowerment

But to accomplish this mission, the Son had to take on human nature and live as one of us. While he was fully God, he also was fully man. And as man, he needed divine empowerment to obey the Father, resist temptation, and fulfill the mission the Father sent him to carry out. The Spirit's indwelling presence and power on the Son was necessary for the Son to accomplish what he did. Only as the Spirit-anointed Messiah could this Christ be our Savior.

To see the mission of the Son correctly requires that we see him in Trinitarian context. Both the Person and the Work of the Son are fully inexplicable apart from seeing the Son's relation to the Father and the Spirit. Getting the Trinity right is crucial to getting the mission of the Son right.

more here

Seasoned Gator Lunch!

The Aim

The aim of all true education is to deepen and broaden confidence in God. This is what keeps learning from leading to pride—or should keep learning from leading to pride. All true learning, all true knowledge reveals that we are dependent on God and must depend on him or perish. Knowledge that leads to self-sufficiency rather than dependence on God is not true knowledge but flawed knowledge. It is like an archeologist who finds a beautiful ancient painting, but hides it in a locked case and travels around giving lectures on how clever he was to discover it, but never bringing it out for all to admire, lest the beauty of the original treasure detract from his own achievement in finding it. --John Piper

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii [3] and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

Mercy Links

article:
Biblical Guidelines for Mercy Ministry in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA)

audio:
Tim Keller

Neighbors	Download
Blessed are the Poor	Download
Blueprint for Revival - Social Concern	Download

Justice	Isaiah 58:1-14	Download

book: When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor... and Yourself by Steve Corbett & Brian Fikkert

College Students!

Lunch (free & home-cooked) after worship service tomorrow.

9am Classes; 10:30 worship service

How is the ministry of mercy ordered in Christ's church?

In the structure of the general and special office

a. The office of all believers
b. The office of Deacon

a. The office of all believers
Every Christian is bound to manifest the compassion of Christ in the love that he shows to others in Christ's name. Every Christian is a priest (I Pet 2:9) offering up deeds of mercy and service as a pleasing sacrifice (Heb.13:15-16). All of us will have the reality of our faith judged by our mercy (Matt25:35-36; James 2:12-13). Therefore, the work of benevolence is not primarily a work discharged by special officers on behalf of the church. It is primarily the loving action of the members of the church. This is the more evident when it is recognized that benevolence is a stewardship of grace, not simply of goods. The ministry of mercy is carried out by Christians individually; it is carried out by Christian households, particularly in showing hospitality. It is also carried out by groups of Christians acting corporately. The necessity of parachurch groups being formed for the ministry of mercy is an irregularity that arises from the complications of denominational division rather than from any problem with the association of Christians to discharge the calling of the general office. Christians who are members of different denominations may and do unite in associations to carry out the ministry of mercy. In the unity of an undivided church, groups of Christians formed for ministries of mercy would properly be under the ruling office of the church, and would either cooperate with the deacons of the church or be supervised by them.

Mercy is about God

Deeds of mercy provide a foretaste of God's goodness
Our deeds of mercy have a double implication: they point forward to the promise of the new heavens and earth; they also show the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise in the pouring out of the love of Christ through the Spirit. Visiting the prisoner is an example of this: we minister hope to the prisoner, for we proclaim the liberty to the captives that Christ will bring (Lk. 4:18). While the final day of Christ's jubilee is yet to come, it is already present in the saving power of Christ's Spirit.


The ministry of mercy is an offering of praise
The sacrificial system of the Old Testament is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. In thankful praise, we bring to him the offering of ourselves and all that we have (Rom. 12:1,2). We have the privilege of stewardship, using for his glory our time and possessions. The risen body of Christ is not with us so that we might anoint his feet, but we have the poor with us, to serve in his name (Jn. 12:8). Paul shows how the offering for the poor saints in Jerusalem abounds to the praise of God (2 Cor. 9:12-15). The ministry of the Philippian church to the apostle's needs is "a sweetsmelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God" (Phil. 4:18). The author of Hebrews describes the sacrifice of praise of the New Covenant: first, the fruit of our lips, then, "to do good and to share" (Heb. 13:15,16).

taken from position paper

1st song tomorrow; read/pray thru 'dis

All Creatures of Our God and King
Words: Saint Francis of Assisi. Music: German tune.
All creatures of our God and King,
Lift up your voice and with us sing. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam,
Thou silver moon with softer gleam.

Refrain:
O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thou rushing wind that art so strong,
Ye clouds that sail in Heaven along. O praise Him! Alleluia!
Thou rushing morn in praise rejoice,
Ye lights of evening find a voice.
Refrain

Thou flowing water pure and clear,
Make music for Thy Lord to hear. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou fire so masterful and bright,
That givest man both warmth and light.

Let all things their Creator bless,
And worship Him in humbleness. O praise Him! Alleluia!
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,
And praise the Spirit, Three in One.

you can get the whole folder HERE

Larry & Kathleen Eubanks

Larry's testimony from August 30 is online HERE.

Larry is Coordinator of Research Programs for the Department of Animal Sciences Meat Science Section.

Kathleen works and manages the family farm in Wacahoota.

Their two grown sons live in town, Scott and John.

They are the proud grandparents of Will & Katie. (Thanks to John & Emily Eubanks)

Helpful articles for bible students

Understanding Scripture correctly (II)

Understanding Scripture Correctly (I)

couple things

s1.) Women's studys begin today
morning and evening
morning happening now
evening is 7pm at Gilbertson's, see website for details

2.) After WCMT series we're doing
Psalms of Ascent (Psalm 120-134), might be "Songs of Ascent"

Truth shall set you free

The common idea is that unqualified confidence in the Bible leads to narrow-minded inhibitions and crippling restraints on what you may think and do. The truth is that such confidence produces liberated living--living, that is, which is free from uncertaintly, doubt, and despair--which otherwise is not found anywhere. The one who trusts the Bible knows what God did, does, and will do, what God commands and what God promises. With the Colossians, the Bible-believer understands "God's grace in all its truth" (Col. 1:6), for the Christ of Scripture has become his Savior, master, and friend. --J.I. Packer, Knowing Christianity

Mission

Monotheism remains the essential basis for mission. The supreme reason why God 'desires *all men* to be saved and come to the knowledge of the [same] truth' is that 'there is *one God*, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all ...' (1 Tim. 2:4-6). The logic of this passage rests on the relation between 'all men' and 'one God'. Our warrant for seeking the allegiance of 'all men' is that there is only 'one God', and only 'one mediator' between
him and them. Without the unity of God and the uniqueness of Christ there could be no Christian mission.

--john stott From "Our Guilty Silence"

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus

We must put the evidence before us that reading, pondering, memorizing, and studying the Bible
will yield more joy in this life and the next than all the things that lure us from it.

There are many different reasons why the Bible has this joy-producing
effect. I don’t want to minimize this diversity or belittle the range of benefits that the Bible has in our lives—more than any of us realizes. But I want to stress that ultimately, in and through all its benefits, the Bible leads us to superior and lasting joy because it leads us to Christ, especially to see his glory and enjoy his fellowship. All the varied benefits are beneficial finally because they show us and bring us more of Christ to enjoy.

-- John Piper

Sweet sweetness

Projector hung in new room

God and words

"I sometimes marvel that God chose to risk his revelation in the ambiguities of language. If he had wanted to make sure that the truth was absolutely clear, without any possibility of misunderstanding, he should have revealed his truth by means of mathematics. Mathematics is the most precise, unambiguous language that we have. But then, of course, you can't say “I love you” in algebra."

--Eugene Peterson, in "Eat This Book", excerpts found (there's more!) here

To extend the range of our listening

The intent in reading Scripture, among people of faith, is to extend the range of our listening to the God who reveals Himself in word, to become acquainted with the ways in which He has spoken in various times and places, along the ways in which people respond when He speaks. The Xn conviction is that God speaks reality into being--creation into shape, salvation into action. It is also a Xn conviction that WE are THAT which is spoken into a creation shape and a salvation action. We are what happens when the word is spoken. So we listen in order to find out what is going on--in US. Ezra Pound's H. Selwyn Mauberly expresses the zest of this kind of reader/listener:

"Tell it to me, all of it, I guzzle with outstretched ears!"

--from Eugene Peterson's book, Working the Angles (emphasis EP's)

5 foundation principles of the knowledge about God which Christians have:

1. God has spoken to man, and the Bible is his Word, given to us to make us wise unto salvation.
2. God is Lord and King over his world; he rules all things for his own glory, displaying his perfections in all that he does, in order that men and angels may worship and adore him.
3. God is Savior, active in sovereign love through the Lord Jesus Christ to rescue believers from the guilt and power of sin, to adopt them as his children and to bless them accordingly.
   
4. God is triune; there are within the Godhead three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and the work of salvation is one in which all three act together, the Father purposing redemption, the Son securing it and the Spirit applying it.
   
5. Godliness means responding to God's revelation in trust and obedience, faith and worship, prayer and praise, submission and service. Life must be seen and lived in the light of God's Word. This, and nothing else, is true religion.

HERE is rest of chapter one of KNOWING GOD, by J.I. Packer

excerpt from Knowing God, chapter 1

On January 7, 1855, the minister of New Park Street Chapel, Southwark, England, opened his morning sermon as follows:

It has been said by someone that "the proper study of mankind is man." I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God's elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.

There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, "Behold I am wise." But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumbline cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass's colt; and with solemn exclamation, "I am but of yesterday, and know nothing." No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God....

But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe.... The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.

And, whilst humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead's deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subject that I invite you this morning.

These words, spoken over a century ago by C. H. Spurgeon (at that time, incredibly, only twenty years old) were true then, and they are true now.

--read the whole chapter here

Google it

The 1st chapter of Packer's "Knowing God" (a book for the ages, literally).

It is entitled, "The Study of God"
Worth reading, twice!

.

The Holy Church

This Sunday we will state the Apostle's Creed, with a change.

Instead of "holy catholic church" we will say
"holy Church". The elders made this decision in an effort to allow more people to exuberantly proclaim their unity with the Church of Jesus Christ across time and space.

Look through it, not AT it

This echoes Jesus' words in John 5, to me:

“The Bible is like a telescope. If a man looks through his telescope then he sees worlds beyond; but if he looks at his telescope, then he does not see anything but that. The Bible is a thing to be looked through, to see that which is beyond, but most people only look at it; and so they see only the dead letter.”

--Phillips Brooks (author of O Little Town of Bethlehem)

Read, Mark, Learn

not a bad prayer to write in your bible and use often..

Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

--1549 Book of Common Prayer

Word AND Holy Spirit; Mind AND Heart

"..let us hear no more of the fanatics who make the excuse of the Spirit to reject external teaching. For we must preserve the balance which Luke established here, that we obtain nothing from the hearing of the Word alone, without the grace of the Spirit, and that the Spirit is conferred on us not that He may produce contempt of the Word, but rather to instill confidence in it in our minds and write it on our hearts." --John Calvin, more here

Johnny is commenting on Luke's summary of what happened with Lydia in Acts 16

"The Lord opened her heart (work of Holy Spirit) to pay attention to what was said (work of her mind)

Community Group options

Remember that the BEST way to experience this WCMT series is to round out your week of study by discussing and praying with a community group about these truths.

There are 2 tonite, call leaders for directions
Jonesville Group (near church property)
Frank & Suzanne Matthews - 331.3463
Wednesday 6pm

Kenwood Group (Off tower Rd.)
John & Tara Gallagher - 337.1468
Wednesday 6pm

can't talk much about it

but i hear some fellas in town are getting together to hang out and watch the
FIRST
college football game of the season

Thursday 7 o' clock pm
SITE: Calico Jack's

and that all are invited

We need to be reminded

Grace is the fuel of obedience and the foundation of hope.

Without its regular suppport, we quickly resort to self-dependence or private despair.

The maturest believers most appreciate regular nourishment from the truths of God's love.

--Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Worship