"I like your smile!"

In reading a helpful parenting book--LOVING OBEDIENCE--by William Richardson... I have been challenged to model the character of God to my children by delighting in them. This is a key element of encouragement... and encouragement is half the stuff of nurturing children. (the other is direction/discipline/correction)

SO.... parents.... here are my notes from this book, hope they help:

7 paths of encouragement:

1.) Acknowledge assets

2.) Catch them doing good

a.) notice

b.) notice verbally

c.) express verbal appreciation

3.) Touch the heart

Appropriate physical touch actually reaches the heart. Look for spontaneous times to tussle hair, tickle or hug/wrestle.

4.) Have some fun

a.) make it fun for you as adult

b.) short times (15-20 minutes) keeps adult from feeling impossible

c.) uninterrupted… treat it as it is—an important meeting—"I won’t answer the phone, door, etc while I’m doing this."

5.) _____to be continued....

Sinclair Ferguson’s excellent little book The Christian Life. WE came across this great quote this week …

When I was a little boy there was a children’s record request programme on B.B.C. Radio. One of the songs, regularly played towards the end of the pro­gramme because of its popularity, was called ‘The Ugly Duck­ling’ sung by Danny Kaye. It told the story of a rather self-conscious little ‘duckling’, mixing with the other birds and feeling very sorry for himself because of his ‘feathers all stubby and brown’. He was rather despised by his fellow birds, and felt something of a failure, especially when he cast a side-long glance at their comparative beauty. Then one day the ‘ugly duckling’ looked down, and saw something marvellous. He no longer had brown, ugly feathers, but was arrayed in the splendid white feathers of a swan! And off he went shouting, ‘I’m a swan, I’m a swan’. Although he had thought he was a duckling, he had never been a duckling. He had been a swan all the time. But the real difference came when he saw what he really was. The recognition of his true identity was the beginning of new joy!

Precisely the same is true of the teaching of this chapter [Romans 6]. The great mistake many of us make is to look only at our sin and failure, and then ask, a little despairingly, What can I do? But our need is not to do, it is first of all to understand what God has done; to see that what he has made us through his Son is a man or a woman who has died with Christ to sin’s dominion and has been raised with Christ to newness of life. We are those over whom sin no longer has any dominion. Like the ‘ugly duckling’ then, I may say: ‘I’m not under sin’s dominion! I am a new creature! I am not what I thought I was, nor what I once was! I’m not an “ugly duckling” Christ­ian, I’m a child of God!’

Sinclair Ferguson

"One sees great things from the valley, only small things from the peak."

--G.K. Chesterton

A building on Parker Road

So easy to type... so much harder to see happen. Thursday our final review with Alachua County takes place. Pray for this evening meeting...
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands!
--Psalm 90

Looking for that one thing....

an excerpt from a great piece....
We all look for it. We all refuse to live without it. We all think we've found it, but it can only really be found one place. What is it that I'm talking about? Well, here it is; every human being is on a search somehow someway to find that solid rock on which to stand. That one thing that they can bank on. That one thing that will keep them upright when the storms of life are raging. That one thing that will remain firm for the duration. That one thing that will give them security when nothing else does. That one thing that will give them that deep and abiding inner sense of well-being that every rational human being desires. That one thing that gives you the courage to face what you otherwise wouldn't want to face. That one thing that you can rely on. That one thing that will keep you safe. Everyone is searching for that solid rock. --Paul Tripp, read all here

Sunday's Song

Sarah Hamersma, Dan Hall and Becky Gilbertson served us well with the song "Depth of Mercy" (typical charles wesley there are tons o' stanzas... i think they did the stanzas i've made bold)

Depth of mercy! Can there be
Mercy still reserved for me?
Can my God His wrath forbear,
Me, the chief of sinners, spare?

I have long withstood His grace,
Long provoked Him to His face,
Would not hearken to His calls,
Grieved Him by a thousand falls.

I have spilt His precious blood,
Trampled on the Son of God,
Filled with pangs unspeakable,
I, who yet am not in hell!

I my Master have denied,
I afresh have crucified,
And profaned His hallowed Name,
Put Him to an open shame.

Whence to me this waste of love?
Ask my Advocate above!
See the cause in Jesus’ face,
Now before the throne of grace.

Jesus, answer from above,
Is not all Thy nature love?
Wilt Thou not the wrong forget,
Permit me to kiss Thy feet?

If I rightly read Thy heart,
If Thou all compassion art,
Bow Thine ear, in mercy bow,
Pardon and accept me now.

Jesus speaks, and pleads His blood!
He disarms the wrath of God;
Now my Father’s mercies move,
Justice lingers into love.

Kindled His relentings are,
Me He now delights to spare,
Cries, “How shall I give thee up?”
Lets the lifted thunder drop.

Lo! I still walk on the ground:
Lo! an Advocate is found:
“Hasten not to cut Him down,
Let this barren soul alone.”

There for me the Savior stands,
Shows His wounds and spreads His hands.
God is love! I know, I feel;
Jesus weeps and loves me still.

Pity from Thine eye let fall,
By a look my soul recall;
Now the stone to flesh convert,
Cast a look, and break my heart.

Now incline me to repent,
Let me now my sins lament,
Now my foul revolt deplore,
Weep, believe, and sin no more. --charles wesley, 1740

Cling to the Crucified

Cling to the mighty one
cling in thy grief
cling to the holy one
he gives relief

cling to the gracious one
cling in thy pain
cling to the faithful one
he will sustain

cling to the crucified
Jesus the Lamb who died
cling to the crucified
Jesus the King

Cling to the living one
cling in thy woe
cling to the loving one
through all below

cling to the pardoning one
he speaketh peace
cling to the healing one
anguish will cease

-- Horatious Bonar.....from igracemusic album wake thy slumbering children

Club 45 Dates for Spring

• March 9.2008

• May 11.2008

Marriage Conference tonite 7pm OAK HALL

Valentine's Day & Jesus

an article on "Who was St. Valentine?" by Phil Ryken is here

Be My Valentine
Rev. Richard D. Phillips
On or around the year 270 A.D.. a Christian minister near Rome by the name of Valentine was arrested under the rule of Claudius VII. There were a number of charges against him, according to legend, such as refusing to worship the pagan gods Jupiter and Mercury because of his exclusive worship of Jesus Christ. Valentine also had violated the emperor's orders forbidding wartime marriages, an order apparently motivated by the view that married men would be reluctant to accept long-term service in the beleaguered Roman armies. Valentine, we are told, performed secret marriages against this ban and thus forever linked his name with the romantic ideal.

Some 200 years later, when Christianity had become the official religion of the empire, Pope Gelasius set out to eliminate pagan religious practices. Accordingly, he banned the mid February festival to the god Lupercus, a god of fertility and sensual pleasure. In keeping with the papal practice, however, Gelasius offered a day to commemorate St. Valentine, a sort of "lovers' saint" who might be venerated in Lupercus' place. Unfortunately for the pope, more of the Lupercian ideal of love attached itself to St. Valentine's Day than the Christian mercy and devotion of the martyred priest. This fact is attested to by the prominent role of Cupid in the holiday today, another name for the pagan semi-deity Eros, the son of Aphrodite, who randomly shoots his arrows of passion, into willing, if unsuspecting youths on Valentine's Day.

St. Valentine went to prison for love, and because of love he eagerly ministered to his fellow prisoners and even the guards. One of these guards brought his adopted blind daughter to the Christian priest. Valentine prayed and the girl was given her sight, with the result that not only the guard but his whole household came to faith in Jesus. Fed up with the love-motivated evangelist's activities, the imperial authorities ordered his death by beheading. But before this cruel end, Valentine managed to get off a letter to the once blind girl, in which he expressed his fondness for her, and which he signed the legendary words, "From Your Valentine."

Ever since that letter, or at least ever since Pope popularization of St. Valentine, the longing for love has been declared with the words, 'Be My Valentine". It is certainly right for men and women to long for love, even, yes, for romantic love. The Bible hardly censors the throbbing heart of a man for a woman, as the biblical account of God's gift of the woman, Eve, to the first man, Adam, found in Genesis 2, makes abundantly clear:

The LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. Gen 2:23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man." Gen 2:24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Gen 2:25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

Nor is the Bible scandalized by a woman's desire for the affections of a man. The Bible's Song of Songs begins with this enticing foray:

"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth --
for your love is more delightful than wine... Take
me away with you -- let us hurry!"

Contrary to many of the press reports, God is not scandalized by romance. God invented romance. And yet, given our own culture's obsession with the erotic, to the exclusion of that which is genuinely romantic, we do well to speak with some specificity when we talk of love. And in that respect, we could hardly do better than the words so oft-emblazoned on the greeting cards we share this holiday: "Be My Valentine."

The Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples, "Greater love has no one than this, that be lay down his life for his friends" John 15:13). Surely this aptly describes what we know of that Christian martyr, Valentine, who gave his life in service to others, in fidelity to His Lord, and in zeal to share the Good News with the lost.

Isn't it true, both men and women, that when we scrawl out, "Be My Valentine", perhaps with a tear falling to smudge the paper, out heart's cry is not so much for Cupid's arrow to stoke someone's fleeting desire, but rather for this love which the Bible sets forth not with Eros but Agape. The manly love that puts the woman even before himself, loving her 'as Christ loved the Church, giving Himself for her"; the feminine love that honors and strengthens out of a beauty that is from within. The love that declares, "We love because God first loved us." (1 Jn. 4:19). The love that remembers us with its dying words, even as the martyred saint penned: "From Your Valentine".

Although we long for such love, we will not find it in a card in our mailbox. Many women will not find it in a man in this life, and vice versa. None of us will either live up to such a standard of love, nor find it in so perfectly lived out in our mate, though thoughts of such love should stir our hearts towards it.

And yet there is One who not only fulfills our 'Be My Valentine" longing, but was Himself the author of St. Valentine's love. The Apostle Paul tells us about Him by writing,

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8.

So our desire for belonging is fulfilled in the love of Christ, who tells us "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you" (Heb. 13:5).

Our thirst for One who will passionately and sacrificially love us is satisfied only in Him who for the joy of His love for us "took up the cross and scorned its shame" (Heb. 12:2).

Yes, Valentine was a great lover, and he showed his love by dying for his friends. But "God is love, " writes the Apostle John. -This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love.- not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another' (1 Jn. 4:8-11).

So in the deepest sense, only Jesus can be our Valentine. But in Christ, let us be Valentines for one another, giving ourselves for our brothers and sisters, and also with that special love between a man and a woman that portrays the love between Christ and the Church, For, as John concludes, "if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us" (v. 12).

Contentment

Contentment is the inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, freely submitting to and taking pleasure in God's disposal in every condition.

That is the description, and in it nine distinct things have been opened up which we summarize as follows: First, that contentment is a heart-work within the soul; Secondly, it is the quieting of the heart; Thirdly, it is the frame of the spirit; Fourthly, it is a gracious frame; Fifthly, it is the free working of this gracious frame; Sixthly, there is in it a submission to God, sending the soul under God; Seventhly, there is a taking pleasure in the hand of God; Eighthly, all is traced to God's disposal; Ninthly, in every condition, however hard it be and however long it continue.

--taken from "The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment"
by Jeremiah Burroughs

there are real reasons for the man-crush

My mississippi friends will often ask, "So, Pendley... are you caught up in the Tim Tebow man crush?" What they mean is do you think everything that he does is simply splendid?
They have to ask that because, it is so fun to watch him play and really does seem to be a wonderful young man in many ways.

Similarly, Tim Keller is the object of many a minister's "man crush". A few women find his teaching extraordinarily helpful as well. Anyway, like Tebow, there's a reason... the guy is extremely gifted... and humility is one of those gifts. Tim Keller has a book coming out Mañana. Check out this "man-crush" review:

William Edgar on Keller's The Reason for God:

The Reason for God by Timothy Keller is Christian apologetics at its best. Keller understands skepticism because he constantly interacts with unbelief in every guise in New York City, where he works. He plunges head on into issues such as, suffering, the Bible and science, Islamic terrorism, the exclusivity of the Christian religion, and so on. His answers are always fresh, often surprising, imaginative. His sources range from Bono to Jean Paul Sartre to Jonathan Edwards, and these pages are filled with personal experiences and real-life people. Above all, this book is gospel-driven, in the same way Redeemer Church is, and Tim Keller himself is. If you don't read anything else in 2008, read this.
William Edgar, Coordinator of the Apologetics Dept, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia

The hardcover book is now shipping from Westminster Bookstore for 38% off the retail price. The audio book (for 37% off) is also available. (fyi: Goering's books was expecting 3 copies, don't know about borders or books a million or other locals)

Mark 3:7-19

Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him, for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him. And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.

And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end. But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.

“Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him. And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

wonderful metaphor....

Jesus holds my ankles encouraging me to do a keg-stand from His barrel of unexpired grace.
--b.watkins

How the gospel sets us free...

“The gospel gives you psychological freedom to handle the wrong things that you will do. You won’t have to deny, spin, or repress the truth about yourself. These things don’t make it impossible to know who you are.

Only with the support of hearing Jesus say, ‘You are capable of terrible things, but I am absolutely, unconditionally committed to you,’ will you be able to be honest with yourself.”
- Tim Keller, Journal of Biblical Counseling (Winter 2007)

“Legalism lacks the supreme sense of worship. It obeys but it does not adore,”
--Geerhardus Vos

We are on the calendar

Christ Community Church is on the DEVELOPMENT REVIEW COMMITTEE AGENDA
February 21, 2008

please pray... this is a portion of our move towards constructing a facility that will serve as a place:
--for us to worship & enjoy God and each other
--for the community to use
-- for us to be trained & equipped ... and be sent out

Lent, Day 5, Mark 2:1-17

And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.” And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”

He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.

And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Lent, Day 3

Jesus Heals Many

29 And immediately he [5] left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

Jesus Preaches in Galilee

35 And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. 36 And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, 37 and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38 And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” 39 And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Jesus Cleanses a Leper

40 And a leper [6] came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” 42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 And Jesus [7] sternly charged him and sent him away at once, 44 and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” 45 But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.

Tim Keller... Why Christianity is Hard to Believe

Redeemer Presbyterian Church has made available free audio of teachings by Tim Keller. These all relate to the book released this month

There will also be an active website on the day the book releases... February 14

The Trouble with Christianity: Why It's so Hard to Believe it

Exclusivity: How an there be just one true religion?
Suffering: If God is good, why is there so much evil in the world?
Absolutism: Don't we all have to find truth for ourselves
Injustice: Hasn't Christianity been an instrument for oppression?
Hell: Isn't the God of Christianity an angry Judge?
Doubt: What should I do with my doubts?
Literalism: Isn't the Bible historically unreliable and regressive?

Lent, Day 2... Mark 1:14-28

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

16 Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” 18 And immediately they left their nets and followed him. 19 And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. 20 And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

Jesus Heals a Man with an Unclean Spirit

21 And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. 22 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. 23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28 And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.

Ash Wednesday doesn't have to be weird

Lots of folks freak about observing in any way Ash Wednesday... it doesn't have to be weird... think of it as a day to meditate upon Genesis 3:20 where God says to Adam (and humanity)..... "for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

"Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return." We are only dust and that is reason for humility. But God used the dust to create us in his image. That is reason for joy and gratitude. And even though we shall return to dust, we shall be raised again. That is reason for hope.

Mark chapter one, verses 1 thru 13

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

As it is written in Isaiah the prophet,

“Behold, I send my messenger before your face,
who will prepare your way,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”

John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

HEre is the link for the mark reading plan

Thinking a bit more about marvelling at Christ

John Piper is correct when he objects to the common but false assumption that,

“…intense emotion thrives only in the absence of a coherent, exposition of doctrine… True worship, like true preaching, insists and demands that the affections are to be ignited rather than extinguished by biblical truth…our concern with truth is an inevitable expression of our concern with God…Not to care about truth is not to care about God. To love God passionately is to love truth passionately…”

Read Through Mark During Lent

Mark 1:1-13

Perhaps you want to join me in reading through the Gospel of Mark during Lent. Our own Chipper Flaniken put together a really simple reading plan... here are the 1st two days...

Wednesday Mark 1:1-13
Thursday Mark 1:14-28

the rest of the reading plan will go up on church website (which is working!!) on wednesday

Recall the kindness

In those moments when we are overwhelmed by our flesh and failure, we must recall the kindness of God that saved us from our foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved, malicious, envious, hateful hearts (Titus 3:3-7). We must recall that when we were enslaved to sinful desires, it was the kindness of God that led Him to pour out His Spirit upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:6). It is the kindness of God, not His severity, that leads us to repentance (Rom. 2:4).

It is the gentle and tender yet all-powerful voice of the “Friend of Sinners” (Matt. 11:28-30) not the thunderous and ominous voice of the Lawgiver (Exodus 19, 20:18-21; 34:29-35) that moves the believer’s heart to confess sin and long for God. We must hear the voice of God calling to us in the Gospel, otherwise we will be like Adam and Even who hid in fear (Gen. 3:10) or like the Children of Israel who stood at a distance in fear (Ex. 19:21). --John Fonville

The Greatest Gift

“The greatest gift I can give to my fellow-Christians is the gospel itself. Indeed, I love my fellow-Christians not simply because of the gospel, but I love them best when I am loving them with the gospel!" --M. Vincent

Come to Jesus Every Day

Last week when visiting with an old friend I confessed my tiredness and shame at struggling again and again with many of the same sin patterns I had when he and I were in close contact. I basically said, "Is this normal?" He said something much like this:

“Oh! sweet language of the precious blood of Jesus! If you have come to that blood once, you will come to it constantly… If thou hast ever come to the blood of sprinkling, you will feel your need of coming to it every day.” - Charles Spurgeon

Relishing the Beauty & Holiness of Christ

“The foundation of all holy affections is in moral excellence and the beauty of holiness. There is a love of holiness for its own sake that inclines people to practice holiness. Holiness is thus the main business that excites, draws and governs all gracious affections. No wonder then that all such affections tend to holiness, for men will be united to and possessed by that which they love and desire. (i.e. people do what they love to do). And what has been observed of the divine teaching and leading of the Spirit of God in gracious affections will show a tendency toward a universal, holy practice. The Holy Spirit gives the soul a natural relish for the sweetness of what is holy and for everything that is holy as it comes into view. He also intensifies a dislike and disgust of everything that is unholy.” --Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections

RP: This is why it is so important to ask the Spirit to hold sway in our affections!!

Help Each Other Live with a "God's Story" mentality...

“The central work of God’s kingdom is change. God accomplishes this work as the Holy Spirit empowers people to bring his Word to others. We bring more than solutions, strategies, principles, and commands. We bring the greatest story ever told, the story of the Redeemer. Our goal is to help one another live with a ‘God’s story’ mentality. Our mission is to teach, admonish, and encourage one another to rest in his sovereignty, rather than establishing our own; to rely on his grace rather than performing on our own; and to submit to his glory rather than seeking our own. This is the work of the kingdom of God: people in the hands of the Redeemer, daily functioning as his tools of lasting change.”

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands

Tomorrow is "Fat Tuesday"

What to make of Lent? This is difficult for many people.
There is no biblical command to observe Lent and therefore you don't have to do anything.
There is a human tendency to create a religious system by which to feel right with God, and some use Lent to that wrong end.

So why bother? I have found that I need every chance I need to "start over". So I will enter this Lenten season with a renewed commitment to:
-- look to the cross as my righteousness
-- give up my idolatry
-- find my identity in Christ
-- love my neighbor
-- etc
And I might just decide to cut out something I love as a constant reminder that whatever I cut out is usually far more "lovely" to me than is Christ and His gospel. So... if you want to do some thinking on Lent... here are some links.

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on February 6th
--Higgins article here

Oh, by the way... the idea of "Fat Tuesday" is this, in my understanding...
Lent is the period when you say, "God burn off the dross of my sin. Remove anything that hinders me from knowing the depth of your love for me and your world." Well, Fat Tuesday is when you realize... I will go crazy and grow neurotic during this time of repentance if I don't bathe myself in the love of God... God provides me an ongoing feast of grace. Only a person full of the love of God can truly have the emotional wealth to look at his/her sin. At least that is my understanding.

“The good news of the kingdom is not freedom from hardship, suffering, and loss. It is the news of a Redeemer who has come to rescue me from myself. His rescue produces change that fundamentally alters my response to these inescapable realities. The Redeemer turns rebels into disciples, fools into humble listeners. He makes cripples walk again. In him we can face life and respond with faith, love, and hope. And as he changes us, he allows us to be a part of what he is doing in the lives of others. As you respond to the Redeemer’s work in your life, you can learn to be an instrument in his hands.”

- Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands

Sermons are Up!

The 2008 Sermons are now on our church website...

Sermon, January 6.2008 on Mark 4:35-41

Sermon, January 13.2008 on Mark 5:1-20, Part I

Sermon, January 20.2008 on Mark 5:1-20, Part II

Sermon, January 27.2008 on Mark 5:21-43

“Whoso then can rightly judge between the law and the Gospel, let him thank God, and know he is a right divine…This place, touching the difference between the law and the Gospel, is very necessary to be known, for it containeth the sum of all Christian doctrine. Wherefore let all who love and fear God, diligently learn to discern the one from the other, not only in words, but in deed and in practice; that is to say, in heart and conscience.” --Martin Luther

He's the defender of the weak

Saturday afternoon, listening to the musicians in the other room prepare a new song that has tremendous potential... Everlasting God.

It has these lines which fit amazingly with what we see of our Jesus in Mark 5 as He heals a little girl and a struggling woman...

You’re the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need

Here are the rest of the lyrics:

Strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord,
We will wait upon the Lord
We will wait upon the Lord (repeat)
Our God You reign forever
Our hope our strong deliv’rer

You are the everlasting God
The everlasting God
You do not faint ..You won’t grow weary
You’re the defender of the weak
You comfort those in need
You lift us up on wings like eagles
Copyright 2005 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

The lyrics are taken from Isaiah 40:28-31Isaiah 40:28-31 [28]Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. [29]He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. [30]Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; [31]but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

This text is from the ESV Bible. Visit www.esv.org to learn about the ESV.

.

The melody is singable but creative. It has a wide range and some syncopation, but most congregations should be able to pick it up fairly quickly.

Jesus and the little girl in Mark 5

Notice what Jesus did in that little room. He took the little girl's hand. By doing so--by touching a dead body--Jesus Himself became ritually unclean (just as He had done when the women with the hemorrhage had touched His garment [see Leviticus 15]). He shared in her death in order to deliver her from it.

Later, on Calvary, Jesus would again share in death. This time it would be our death. He would become 'unclean' for our sake, and bear God's judgment against our sin. In a sense what he was doing here was but a preview of what he would do then. It was also a preview of what He will do at the end of time, when He will take us by the hand and say, "Arise! That will not be in secret, but in public: 'every eye will see Him.' Even those who mocked him that day will see Him--and will mourn, this time for themselves (cf. Revelation 1:7) Sinclair Ferguson

Marriage Conference Feb 15-16

insert pithy & persuasive comments here

You can sign up sunday during the worship services

THE sign of humility

“Remember this—all the sighing, mourning, sobbing, and complaining in the world, does not so undeniably evidence a man to be humble, as his overlooking his own righteousness, and living really and purely upon the righteousness of Christ.”

- Thomas Brooks, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ

Look simply and directly and instantly . . .

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Look away from yourself. Cease to probe that rankling, ulcerous, incorrigible heart. Look simply and directly and instantly at one object - at Christ bearing your sin in his own body.” - J.W. Alexander

Like an infant in a cradle

"See to it that you fasten your attention on God's Word and stay in it, like an infant in a cradle. If you let go for one moment, you have fallen away from the truth. The one intention of the devil is to get people away from the Word and to induce them to measure God's will and works with their reason." ~ Martin Luther

Your hope is evidence that He is for you

Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. Psalm 119:49

“The argument is that God, having given grace to hope in the promise, would surely never disappoint that hope. He cannot have caused us to hope without cause. If we hope upon his word we have a sure basis: our gracious Lord would never mock us by exciting false hopes. Our great Master will not forget his own servants, nor disappoint the expectation which he himself has raised: because we are the Lord’s, and endeavour to remember his own word by obeying it, we may be sure that he will think upon his own servants, and remember his own promise by making it good.”

- Charles Spurgeon

Grace is the grand and only resource for us all

“It is well to be poor, when the knowledge of our poverty serves but to unfold to us the exhaustless riches of divine grace. That grace can never suffer any one to go away empty. It can never tell anyone that he is too poor. It can meet the very deepest human need; and not only so, but it is glorified in meeting it. This holds good in every case. It is true of every individual sinner…Grace is the grand and only resource for us all. It is the basis of our salvation; the basis of a life of practical godliness; and the basis of those imperishable hopes which animate us amid the trials and conflicts of this sin-stricken world. May we cherish a deeper sense of grace, and more ardent desire for glory! ---C H MacIntosh, 1860, Notes on Leviticus

Martin Luther King

John Piper sets up a reading of MLK like this: All you have to do to find some good word from MLK is Google his name. His "I have a dream" speech has some powerful lines. He dreams that some day his children "will not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character." That cry is as important today globally and locally as it was in 1963.

In my judgment the "I have a dream" speech was not the apex of King's eloquence. That is reserved for certain passages in "Letter From a Birmingham Jail" (April 16, 1963). Here is the most powerful word from King I have ever read:

Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dart of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six- year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience.

Christians who are sensitive to the depth of their sin are a lot easier to be with, because they are not as inclined to be judgmental. --Richard Lovelace

Take not the devil's perspective

If our sins weigh heavier in our mind than our potential for grace and effective service to God and others, we must be taking the devil's perspective. God wants us to be realistic about ourselves. But genuine realism does not lead to caving in under a sense of worthlessness. That is not realism; it is believing the devil's lie. Yes, realism leads us to a sense of weak­ness. But it leads also to Paul's assertion: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil 4:13). Paul says elsewhere, "He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses ... for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor 12:9‑10). --Richard Lovelace

Dwelling on that which enslaves... and He who frees

This fella Legion has captured the attention of many of us as we looked at Mark 5 last week and tomorrow. And it has me thinking and praying about our addictive behaviors... and the love & power of Christ.

I . . . was bound not by an iron imposed by anyone else but by the iron of my own choice. The enemy had a grip on my will and so made a chain for me to hold me a prisoner. The consequence of a distorted will is passion. By servitude to passion*, habit is formed, and habit to which there is no resistance becomes necessity. By these links . . . connected one to another . . . a harsh bondage held me under restraint. --Augustine

*(passion for anything--- diamonds or drugs, position or power, grades or times, relationships, etc)


Batter my heart... John Donne

Batter my heart, three person'd God; for, you

As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;

That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow mee,'and bend

Your force, to breake, blow, burn and make me new.

I, like an usurpt towne, to'another due,

Labour to'admit you, but Oh, to no end,

Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend,

But is captiv'd, and proves weake or untrue.

Yet dearley'I love you,'and would be loved faine,

But am betroth'd unto your enemie:

Divorce mee,'untie, or breake that knot againe,

Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I

Except you'enthrall mee, never shall be free,

Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee.

Thursdays with John Owen

On Thursdays I meet for an hour for prayer, accountability, laughter, etc with 3 other men. We are reading together through a book by John Owen called, Of The Mortification of Sin in Believers... this book was written about 300 years ago and speaks of things we all wrestled with this morning. It is basically one long meditation on Romans 8:13:

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Owen has thrown cold water on us... reminding of us that we have an enemy and the sooner we realize it the better. He asks, "Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work to fight sin? Are you seeking to be always at it while you live? To cease not a day from this work? Be killing sin or it will be killing you." (You can get the book, under cover with 2 others for a cheap rate here: )

links on demons

what are demons?--Demons, very good& brief article by J.I. Packer here

I'll try to point you to resources in case there is something you want/need to pursue more info on....
--Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices by Thomas Brooks.... you can probalby get a paperback for $5 or read it online here


i haven't gone thru these... but both men I trust and respect... so this would be a good start

Spiritual Warfare Part 1 - God's Control Over Demons
Vern Poythress (mp3)

Spiritual Warfare Part 2 - God's Redemption from Demons
Vern Poythress (mp3)

Spiritual Warfare Part 3 - God's Empowering to Fight Demons
Vern Poythress (mp3)

Demons
Sam Storms

Defeat of Devil-Demons
Sam Storms

Doors to Demonization
Sam Storms

Nature of Demonization
Sam Storms

"Go and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." Jesus in Mark 5

"Hear my voice when I call, O Lord; be merciful to me and answer me." (Psalm 27:7)

I stand before you with shoulders bent and hands that are empty... I am quite aware of the
duplicity of my heart,
the evil of my choices,
and the failure of my behavior,
but I am not afraid
because I stand before you
with one argument,
with one plea.
This argument is enough.
This plea is sufficient.
This argument is the only thing
that could ever give me
courage,
rest,
and sturdy hope.
So I come before you
with this plea;

your mercy.

Your mercy is my rest.
Your mercy is my hope.
Your mercy makes me bold.
Your mercy is all I need.
Your mercy
tells me you will hear.
Your mercy
tells me you will act.
Your mercy
tells me you will forgive.
Your mercy
tells me you will restore.
Your mercy
tells me you will strengthen.
Your mercy is my
welcome,
plea,
and my rescue.
I rest in this one thing,
You are mercy
and
You will answer. ---Paul Tripp (entire post/prayer here)

The Health & Wealth of the Community

Sarah Hamersma is leading a reading group that looks intriguing.

When the Adulteress Went Home

After Jesus rescued the adulteress from stoning in John 8, have you ever wondered what it was like for her to go home?
this brief article is mainly about freedom from guilt and confidence in Christ... a quote
When I… feel guilty… and hopeless because of yesterday's failure… I need the grace of forgiveness based on a great past substitutionary sacrifice on the cross, that covers all my sins… and I need the grace of promised help from Jesus today and tomorrow.
--John Piper ... (whole article go home)

Labor of Love Live

Perhaps a new favorite Christmas song of mine...


great lyric...
It was not a silent night
There was blood on the ground
You could hear a woman cry
In the alleyways that night
On the streets of David’s town

And the stable was not clean
And the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
Had no mother’s hand to hold

It was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love

Noble Joseph at her side
Callused hands and weary eyes
There were no midwives to be found
In the streets of David’s town
In the middle of the night

So he held her and he prayed
Shafts of moonlight on his face
But the baby in her womb
He was the maker of the moon
He was the Author of the faith
That could make the mountains move

U2 and Francis Schaeffer

random collection here..but Both of these are important... you might can live without the U2 but not the schaeffer...

U2 movie in 3D
Schaeffer quote:
“If we have sinned, it is wonderful consciously to say, ‘Thank you for a completed work,’ after we have brought that specific sin under the finished work of Christ. The conscious giving of thanks brings assurance and peace. We say, ‘Thank you’ for work completed upon the cross, which is sufficient for a completely restored relationship.

This isn’t on the basis of my emotions, any more than in my justification. The basis is the finished work of Christ in history and the objective promises of God in the written Word. If I believe Him, and if I believe what He has taught me about the sufficiency of the work of Christ for restoration, I can have assurance, no matter how black the blot has been. This is the Christian reality of salvation from one’s conscience.

For myself, through the thirty years or so since I began to struggle with this in my own life, I picture my conscience as a big black dog with enormous paws which leaps upon me, threatening to cover me with mud and devour me. But as this conscience of mine jumps upon me, after a specific sin has been dealt with on basis of Christ’s finished work, then I should turn to my conscience and say, in effect, ‘Down! Be still!’ I am to believe God and be quiet.”
- Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality

The Lewis quote about 200 years from now

“The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or the other destinations." lewis (full quote)

Women's Morning Bible Study STARTING NOW

Lost Women of The Bible... I know what you are thinking... "At least they'd ask for directions!"
Starts today... Tuesday Jan 15

• January 15-March25
  Tuesday Mornings @ 9:30-11:00am
  @ The home of Tara Gallagher (Map)
  "Lost Women of The Bible" by Carolyn James
  Led by: Rebecca Schackow & Lizette Crosson
• All women are invited to come and join us as we study the women of the Bible,
  and how they relate to us today.
  Childcare is provided, but please call Leslie Marshall to let her know you will be using the childcare so that we may have a better count for supervision (332.8336).

Calvin quote on Mark 5

In the person of one man Christ has exhibited to us a proof of his grace, which is extended to all mankind. Though we are not tortured by the devil, yet he holds us as his slaves, till the Son of God delivers us from his tyranny. Naked, torn, and disfigured, we wander about, till he restores us to soundness of mind. It remains that, in magnifying his grace, we testify our gratitude. --John Calvin on Mark 5

How Demons Work

C.S. Lewis, in his book "Screwtape Letters" pictures an experienced demon (Screwtape) mentoring his nephew, Wormwood, in how to be an effective demon... He does this through writing letters... this one on how to keep a new Christian from following “The Enemy” (who for demons is the living God).

“My dear Wormwood, I wonder you should ask me whether it is essential to keep the patient in ignorance of your own existence. That question, at least for the present phase of the struggle, has been answered for us the High Command. Our policy, for the moment, is to conceal ourselves…. I do not think you will have much difficulty in keeping the patient in the dark. The fact that ‘devils’ are comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you.” --CS Lewis

In The Problem with Pain, C.S. Lewis states that people will “enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore self-enslaved.”

C.S. Lewis fans

This is a cool website where you can read articles about C.S. Lewis...

Charitable Giving Statements

FYI, the financial powers-at-be tell me that they are sending out the documents of 2007 giving this week... which will smoke the January 31 deadline the gov't requires.

Reformed University Ministry--RUF

RUF launches Tuesday and Steve is teaching through the I Am's of John's gospel.

Any students who are not already connected with a campus ministry should check this out.

George Washington

Last week i was reading a book with my 6yr old, i think it was called, THE CHILDREN'S BOOK OF VIRTUES... and it had a nice little thing about how George Washington was fighting a losing cause early in the war. GW goes out to pray and some fellow overheard his prayers and returned home to his wife and said:

The colonists will win the war. I have just heard George Washington praying and God will answer his prayers because he is so brave. Now, I love George Washington... and i'm glad (and proud) to be an American... but i couldn't let that go. I asked: Do you think God answers his prayers because he was brave? Why would God listen to anyone? I recommended Jesus to my son as his (and his dad's!) only hope, but not very eloquently. Well, here is what I should have told my son:

“It is the gospel that makes prayer possible. Christ, the Mediator of the new covenant, by whom justification and sanctification are promised, is also the Mediator who makes your prayers accepted by the Father (Hebrews 4:15-16). The Holy Spirit, who gives you the new birth, who unites you to Christ, who sanctifies you, and who shows you the things of Christ, is a Spirit of prayer (Zechariah 12:10, Galatians 4:6). He is like a fire inflaming your soul, and He makes you mount upward in prayer to God. Prayerless people are dead to God('s goodness and power).”

--Walter Marshall, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification

I believe the gospel... for you, not myself

“I don’t have a hard time believing the Gospel is true…for you. God loves you and accepts you and wants to do good to you. The problem is, I have such a hard time believing it’s true for me. Luther nailed it when he said that we are born with an inborn suspicion that God is not for us. Like a bass note in a terrific song, I battle almost daily the constant thumping that because of my failures, sins, and selfishness, I do not have God’s favor. He seems to be never satisfied. So what is the answer? How do I keep on keeping on? The life and death of Jesus tells me that the lie is just that, a lie. God is satisfied because He was satisfied with Jesus; and I am in Him and He is in me. That’s the antidote to the inborn suspicion—the Father is for me, because of the cross of Jesus. So daily, it’s a fight of faith; to believe the Gospel is true for me.” -Tom Wood

Demons & Pigs & Jesus

asking about the relationship between the demons and the pigs: Once Jesus has forced the demons to name themselves, they know defeat is immanent and they grovel. Apparently the most
the demons can hope for is to be left in their home territory rather than being
banished to the wilderness or to ruins. (These places were considered dangerous
to human beings because demons wandering and lurking in such places were
desperate for human hosts.) While demons would not normally want animal
hosts, Jesus was now master of their fate, so they bargained. It seems likely that
Jesus was able to accomplish a dual purpose. Banishing the demons permanently
and ridding the territory of an animal that since Moses was unclean to Jews.
When the demons enter the pigs, they immediately rush down a steep slope into
the lake. Animals have no resistance to the demons’ great urge to destroy life.
Mark writes nothing about the spirits leaving the pigs and therefore, we are to think that they remain in the water. Other ancient literature leads us to believe that demons considered this fate worse than having no host at all. --from the Mark Study Guide of Redeemer PCA in Manhattan

No matter how scared you are... DO NOT ask Jesus to leave you

Mark 5 they ask Jesus to leave and He does. The idea that Jesus might go away if you ask him to has terrifying implications. --Jeff White

Evil, Suffering, and Our Joy

If heaven is a compensation for all the stuff you have always wanted but never going to have, that is one thing, but if the new heavens and new earth is our hope, and it is - and therefore we have a restoration of everything you ever wanted - the new heavens and new earth will make every horrible thing you every experienced nothing but a nightmare… and as a nightmare will do nothing but infinitely, correspondingly, increase your future joy in glory, in a way that it wouldn’t have been increased if you had never suffered it. And that is the ultimate defeat of evil. To say evil is an illusion or that you are going to be compensated for it is one thing, but to say that evil will be in the end the servant of your joy - that’s astounding. The Christian hope does not just compensate you for your suffering, it undoes it - it absolutely undoes it. Our momentary affliction achieves an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. --Tim Keller

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.