It is in seeing what it cost Jesus Christ to defeat evil that evil is defeated in your life. --Tim Keller

Evil

Looking at Jesus and the demoniac in Mark 5 (there is so much there) and realizing we can't deal with it all i want to post various "extra material"...

Why such darkness among us?
Andrew Delbanco begins his book The Death of Satan:
“A gulf has opened up in our culture between the visibility of evil and the intellectual resources available for coping with it….The repertoire of evil has never been richer. Yet never have our resources been so weak. We have no language for connecting our inner lives with the horrors that pass before our eyes in the outer world….We no longer have a conception of evil as a distributed entity with an ontological essence of its own….Yet something that feels like this force still invades our experience, and we still discover in ourselves the capacity to inflict it on others.”

Your Personal Evangelism

"Evangelism is best done out of the context of a gospel community whose corporate life demonstrates the reality of the word that gave her life."

"People need to encounter the church as a network of relationships rather than a meeting you attend or a place you enter. Mission must involve not only contact between unbelievers and individual Christians, but between unbelievers and the Christian community."

"Most gospel ministry involves ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality."

--quotes by Tim Chester

Mark 5... our text for Sunday... Jesus & A Wild Man

This account is as weird as it is familiar... for me at least. Richard Phillips gives this insight:

"What we are seeing is a vivid portrayal of what Satan's rule means for humankind, a foretaste of hell itself."

Sunday Schedule

9:00
Worship Service in the theater
Children's Sunday School Classes for all ages
Youth Class
Adult Class: "Covenants in the Bible" taught by Tom Miller in the Media Center

10:15-10:44 Coffee, Muffin Hanging Out (Live Together)

10:45
Worship Service in the theater
Childcare for ages 4 and below
Children's Church (dismissed prior to the sermon)
Adult Class: "Covenants in the Bible" taught by Charlie Staples in Room 6

Church website & email

We are working on it but right now the website is down down down and we are not receiving all incoming email... sorry

Measuring Growth

“If I have observed anything by experience, it is this: a man may take the measure of his growth and decay in grace according to his thoughts and meditations upon the person of Christ, and the glory of Christ’s kingdom, and of His love.” - John Owen

One of the reasons I love Christ Community

This is how my conversation with my two youngest children went last night...

Rob: What did you guys talk about today at church?
Daughter: We talked about Joseph and the coat of many colors.
Rob: Where is that in the Bible?
Daughter: Ummm.... Genesis thirtysomething
Rob: Bingo. (Flipping through bible...) Genesis 35 I think. Now, how about you, son. What did you learn today?
Son: I'm desperate.
Rob: Tell me more. Desperate for what?
Son: Desperate for Jesus.

And that is what I love about our children's ministry.... teaching children the Scriptures AND the point of the Scriptures... to desperately depend on the Christ whom the Scriptures reveal!

Evening Group for Ladies

Tomorrow evening begins a weekly women's meeting... (the morning meeting kicks off next week)
contacts for more information:
Becky Gilbertson 502-545-3582 OR Mo Omli 352-316-1828

The meetings will be at 7pm at the Omli home:
10404 NW 13th Lane
Gainesville, FL 32606
Map to Omli home

“Guilty people make others feel guilty; free people make others free. And you can always tell how guilty a person feels by noticing how guilty you feel around him or her. Can I repeat that? You can always tell how guilty a person feels by noticing how guilty you feel are him or her. Jesus has made you free. It is important that you bring others to Him for the same surgery that He has performed on you.” --Steve Brown, Born Free

I am Safe

Several of you have asked for this meditation... I've put in parenthesis the minor changes I made to suit our setting yesterday. At the bottom is the link to the author's personal blog which is a rich rich source of encouragement in Christ.

I am safe,
not because I have no
trouble,
or because I never experience
danger.
I am safe,
not because people affirm
me,
or my plans always
work out.
I am safe,
not because I am immune from
disease,
or free of the potential for
poverty.
I am safe
not because I am protected from
disappointment,
or separated from this
fallen world.
I am safe,
not because I am
wise
or strong.
I am safe,
not because I deserve
comfort or have earned my
ease.
I am safe,
not because of
money
or power,
or position,
or intellect,
or who I know,
or where I live.
I am safe because of the glorious mystery of
grace.
I am safe because of the presence of
boundless love.
I am safe because of
divine mercy,
divine wisdom,
divine power,
divine grace.
I am safe,
not because I never face
danger,
but because you are
with me in it.
You have not given me
a ticket out of danger.
You have not promised me
a life of ease.
You have chosen to place me in
a fallen world.
I am safe
because you have given me
the one thing
that is the
only thing
that will ever keep me safe.
You have given me
You.
I am safe
from my evil heart
and this shattered world,
not because I can escape
them both,
but because in the middle of
temptation and trial,
danger and disappointment
sickness and want,
You give me everything
I need to
fight temptation
and avoid defeat
and to point others
to the safety
that can only be found
in You.
So, I will wake up tomorrow
and face the anxiety
of not knowing,
the fear of my own weakness,
and the reality of the fall.
I will live with
faith,
courage,
perseverance,
and hope.
And when (storms) comes,
and they will,
I will whisper to
my weakening heart,
(repeating the words You spoke to the storm... Peace, be still.)
--by Paul Tripp

The Gospel is Your Ammunition

“A saint without a good knowledge of the gospel is as vulnerable as an army without ammunition.”

- William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour

When you cannot see your way...

When you cannot see your way, be satisfied that He is your leader. When your spirit is overwhelmed within you, He knows your path; He will not leave you to sink. He has appointed seasons of refreshment, and you shall find He does not forget you. Above all, keep close to the throne of grace. If we seem to get no good by attempting to draw near Him we may be sure we shall get none by keeping away from Him. ---John Newton, 1775.... more

Trials

"All Christians will pass through sudden and fierce storms, not in spite of our fellowship with Jesus but because of it. We enter tribulations because it is the nature of our hostile environment (this fallen world) and because our Lord wants to test and strengthen our faith in Him." --Richard Phillips

Storms of Your Life

This Sunday we will look together at Mark 4:35-41... which includes the account of the storm at sea. One thing that has gripped me is this: Why were the disciples of Jesus caught in the middle of a storm? Why was their life being turned upside down? Why was it difficult to get oriented? Why did they wonder if Jesus cared about them at all? Well... an important reason is because Jesus said, "Let's go." (see 4:35)

So Jesus sets them out on a voyage that is rocky! There is something about who Jesus is and the kind of power He has that the disciples need to go through a storm to "get". So, could it be that you are experiencing temptations and trials that are God-designed to reveal to you His glory and grace? It certainly reads that way to me.

Growing Pains

Young converts are prone to depend too much on joyful frames, and love high excitement in their devotional exercises; but their heavenly Father cures them of this folly, by leaving them for a season to walk in darkness and struggle with their own corruptions. When most sorely pressed and discouraged, however, He strengthens them with might in the inner man. He enables them to stand firmly against temptation; or, if they slide, he quickly restores them, and by such exercises they become much more sensible of their entire dependence than they were at first. They learn to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long, and to distrust entirely their own wisdom and strength, and to rely for all needed aid on the grace of Jesus Christ. Such a soul will not readily believe that it is growing in grace. But to be emptied of self-dependence, and to know that we need aid for every duty, and even for every good thought, is an important step in our progress in piety. The flowers may have disappeared from the plant of grace, and even the leaves may have fallen off, and wintry blasts may have shaken it, but now it is striking its roots deeper, and becoming every day stronger to endure the rugged storm. --Archibald Alexander

Growth is imperceptible... pursue it daily

As growth in grace is gradual, and the progress from day to day imperceptible, we should aim to do something in this work every day. We should die daily unto sin and live unto righteousness. Sometimes the children of God grow faster when in the fiery furnace than elsewhere. -- Archibald Alexander (1772-1851) in an article entitled Practical Directions How to Grow in Grace and Make Progress in Piety

What do you do when your concience condemns you?

"There is simply no other way to compete with the forebodings of my conscience, the condemnings of my heart, and the lies of the world and the Devil than to overwhelm such things with daily rehearsings of the gospel.”

- Milton Vincent, A Gospel Primer

The Relationship between Abiding in Christ & your Bible

“In a nutshell, abiding in Christ means allowing His Word to fill our minds, direct our wills, and transform our affections. In other words, our relationship to Christ is intimately connected to what we do with our Bibles!” - Sinclair Ferguson, In Christ Alone (Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2007), 114.

Your Goodness Will be With Me

O Love Beyond Compare,
You are good when you give,
when you take away,
when the sun shines upon me,
when night gathers over me.
You have loved me before the foundation of the world,
and in love redeemed my soul;
You love me still,
in spite of my hard heart, ingratitude, distrust.
Your goodness has been with me during another year,
leading me through a twisting wilderness,
in retreat helping me to advance,
when beaten back making sure headway.
Your goodness will be with me in the year ahead;
I hoist sail and draw up anchor,
With you as the blessed Pilot of my future as of my past.
I bless you that you have veiled my eyes to the waters ahead.
If you have appointed storms of tribulation,
you will be with me in them;
If I have to pass through storms of persecution and temptation,
I shall not drown;
If I am to die,
I shall see your face the sooner;
If a painful end is to be my lot,
grant me grace that my faith will not fail;
If I am to be cast aside from the service I love,
I can make no stipulation;
Only glorify yourself in me whether in comfort or trial,
as a chosen vessel suitable always
for your use.