Blessed Be The Name of The LORD

It´s really a song born out of the whole of ´life´, a realisation that we will all face seasons of pain or unease. And in these seasons we will need to find our voice before God. The church (and indeed the world) needs its songs of lament.
A few weeks after 9/11, we wrote the worship song ´Blessed be Your Name´. It wasn´t written consciously in response to those dark events, but no doubt being immersed in the spiritual and emotional climate of those days was an important factor in birthing it. Many people ask if there was a particular life event which triggered off the writing of this song, and in all truth the answer is no. It´s really a song born out of the whole of ´life´, a realisation that we will all face seasons of pain or unease. And in these seasons we will need to find our voice before God. The church (and indeed the world) needs its songs of lament.

The people of God have always had their laments. The Psalms are filled with a whole host of intense emotions and expressions towards God. So many of them were birthed in times of suffering and struggle. Psalm 3 was written as King David fled for his life from his own son Absalom. Psalm 56 was inspired when the Philistines seized him in Gath. In Psalm 57 he´s on the run again, this time from King Saul, and wrote the song whilst hiding in a cave. These are songs formed in the fire of affliction. They are the desperate cries of a worshipper on the road marked with suffering. In fact, Eugene Peterson estimates that around 70% of content in the Psalms is lament-based.

Clearly therefore, songs of lament are a very biblical thing to sing in worship. Yet they are also a relevant thing to sing, for we live in a world full of anguish and heartache. As Christians, yes we live in victory, but in paradox we also exist as strangers in a foreign land, aching for home, and knowing deep within us that the world we see before is not as it should be. So the question is this: if songs of lament are firstly thoroughly biblical, and secondly extremely relevant, then why on earth are there not more songs to help us voice these heart-cries? As Frederich W. Schmidt Jr writes, these Psalms do three things:

´They give us permission to ask our own questions about suffering. They model the capacity to ask questions we might otherwise suppress, but can never escape. And they model how those questions might be asked without fear of compromising our relationship with God or with other people.´


Matt and Beth Redman

The Whole Mass

Romans 12 says for us to offer our bodies to God...

"By bodies he means not only our bones and skin, but the whole mass of which we are composed." --John Calvin

Children, Parents, Teachers, 9am Starts

Since this Sunday is when children and parents can meet our lineup of teachers and see the great curriculum we're using... I thought it would be helpful for parents to be encouraged & reminded.

The reason your sense of inadequacy (to teach children) should not stop you is that some tremendously valuable things can be taught when you don't know the answer to a child's hard question. I can think of two. You can teach your child humility. If you are secure enough in God to show your ignorance rather than bluff and be a hypocrite, your child learns the beauty of humility. --John Piper

9am in the Student Center, Sunday

an interview w/ the drummer from "The Fray"

2 weeks ago i had never heard of THE FRAY... then my son (yes it is amazing to be at this stage) introduces me to one of their songs... then that nite at MANLAND (all hail Adam Means!) I see that THE FRAY has a song used in a promo of a huge hit show (some show about doctors on same network as D.H'wives)... so now I'm alive to the Fray--- that's more than you need

RELEVANT MAGAZINE

Reaching Youth & their Families

Anthony Bradley: Driscoll's Triadic Equations: Why Many Are Losing Enthusiasm For Parachurch Youth Ministries

Wednesday Discipleship recap.

Here are the extended quotes Rob read in Discipleship Course wednesday night:

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All divine life, and all the precious fruits of it, pardon, peace, and holiness, spring from the cross.... Holiness as well as pardon is to be had from the blood of the cross.... All fancied sanctification which does not arise wholly from the blood of the cross is nothing better than Pharisaism.... If we would be holy, we must get to the cross, and dwell there; else, notwithstanding all our labor and diligence, and fasting, and praying, and good works, we shall be yet void of real sanctification, destitute of those humble, gracious tempers which accompany a clear view of the cross."

--BERRIDGE'S Letters

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False ideas of holiness are common, not only among those who profess false religions, but among those who profess the true. For holiness is a thing of which man by nature has no more idea than a blind man has of the beauty of a flower or the light of the sun. All false religions have had their "holy men," whose holiness often consisted merely in the amount of pain they could inflict upon their bodies, or of food which they could abstain from, or of hard labor which they could undergo. But with God, a saint or holy man is a very different being.

It is in filial, full-hearted love to God that much of true holiness consists. And this cannot even begin to be until the sinner has found forgiveness and tasted liberty, and has confidence towards God. The spirit of holiness is incompatible with the spirit of bondage. There must be the spirit of liberty, the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. When the fountain of holiness begins to well up in the human heart, and to fill the whole being with its transforming, purifying power, "We have known and believed the love that God has to us" (1 John 4:16) is the first note of the holy song, which, commenced on earth, is to be perpetuated through eternity.

We are bought with a price, that we may be new creatures in Christ Jesus. We are forgiven, that we may be like Him who forgives us. We are set at liberty and brought out of prison, that we may be holy. The free, boundless love of God, pouring itself into us, expands and elevates our whole being; and we serve Him, not in order to win His favour, but because we have already won it in simply believing His record concerning His Son. If the root is holy, so are the branches.
We have become connected with the holy root, and by the necessity of this connection are made holy too.

Forgiveness relaxes no law, nor interferes with the highest justice.

Human pardons may often do so: God's pardons never.

Forgiveness doubles all our bonds to a holy life; only they are no longer bonds of iron, but of gold. It takes off the heavy yoke, in order to give us the light and easy.

The love of God to us, and our love to God, work together for producing holiness in us.

Terror accomplishes no real obedience.

Suspense brings forth no fruit unto holiness. Only the certainty of love, forgiving love, can do this. It is this certainty that melts the heart, dissolves our chains, disburdens our shoulders, so that we stand erect, and makes us to run in the way of the divine commandments.

Free and warm reception into the divine favor is the strongest of all motives in leading someone to seek conformity to Him who has thus freely forgiven him all trespasses.
--H. Bonar

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No gloomy uncertainty as to God’s favor can subdue one lust, or correct our crookedness of will. But the free pardon of the cross uproots sin, and withers all its branches. Only the certainty of love, forgiving love, can do this…
--Horatius Bonar, 19th century

The 5 Initiatives

Worshipping God
We are committed to pursue a worship service which offers God great praise and helps people find their identity and calling in Christ. The preaching this Fall will focus upon this initiative.

Permanent Facility
We are diligently seeking to build a permanent facility on the 9 acres God has given us on Parker Road. This entails working with an architect, land engineer, and conducting a capital campaign in 2007.

Authentic Community
Christ Community, though already a place of genuine community for many, needs to seek more paths to allow newer and other "unconnected" folk an opportunity for building relationships.

Leadership Development
God has kindly given CCC godly and gifted men to serve as temporary elders. We are zealously pursuing the raising up of local men to serve as elders. The congregation will receive instruction and be asked for input in October.

Ongoing Corporate Renewal
If we as a church family are not experiencing the grace of God... we will devour one another and not give a wit about the brokenness around us. If we are renewed by the gospel, we will be agents of change. We seek to be instruments in the hands of the Redeemer, knowing that we who are giving help to others are in need of being helped by God.

Forgive me

On wednesdays my posts will be more numerous and targeted toward what i'm teaching that nite in Discipleship Course (at Hope Church 7:15pm)

We are memorizing a good chunk of Romans 3... some advantages already...
1.) Personally, I've been amazed how stress is on Faith, receiving, Jesus
2.) Discipling others: good conversations with my children as they check up on me and my memorizing... when was last time they saw me memorizing scripture?
3.) Fun. Y'day i left before Olivia (age 8) awoke. My note asked her to read Romans 3 and to pray for me to be able to memorize it (yes i'm a late starter!). When i got home last nite and started to go thru it... Olivia said, "Dad. I didn't read Romans 3. You asked too much... more than alot." --- which my U2 friends will love and pick up on.

Et toi?

What good does it do ya?

I've always been stunned by the summarized answer given in the Shorter Catechism (SC) to that question:
The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are, assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.

Assurance, joy, peace, increase, perseverance!

What produces true holiness?

From horatius bonar (with RP add ins):
The love of God to us, and our love to God, work together for producing holiness in us. Terror ("God will get me if I don't straighten up.") accomplishes no real obedience. Suspense ("Am I loved and accepted by God? Maybe this act of 'obedience' will secure it... maybe.") brings forth no fruit unto holiness. Only the certainty of love, forgiving love, can do this. It is this certainty ("Jesus has purchased me and made me acceptable to God... I'm good with God!") that melts the heart, dissolves our chains, disburdens our shoulders, so that we stand erect, and makes us to run in the way of the divine commandments.

--came across this while prepping for Discipleship Course tonite at 7:15pm at Hope Church

Romans 3 Memory Work shortened!

I've heard from some that they didn't receive the update on work due tomorrow night at 7:15, prior to Discipleship Course.

You are only responsible for Lessons 1-5 (NOT 6) and Romans 3:21-26 (NOT verses 19 & 20)

Now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

We are NOT supposed to do this!

Use this site as a reminder... but couldn't resist these 2
1. Women's Fall Study Starts Tuesday (day after Labor Day) at 10:45... details at link
Christ Community Church - Gainesville Florida - Women

2. My (Rob) Discipleship Course starts 7:15 Wednesday at Hope Church

Free Music

FreeDerekWebb.com is the place you can find
an opportunity to get a great album at no price...

a bold--Keith Greenesque--move by derek webb to pass on profits
Publish Post
great lyric and sound... warning: WILL challenge your allegiance to Jesus over and against money, comfort, and the good ol' USA

Strong Enough to Admit Weakness

Sunday you will have the opportunity to receive prayer as you come forward to receive the communion elements (i.e. the bread & cup).

If you have never had it down--or it has been a while--there is something powerful about having someone pray aloud for you.

So if you are tempted to sit down and ask to be prayed for... follow that feeling!

Bono, Jack Miller, and Andrew Pendley

The merging of thoughts:
1.) My Guilt
Recently as i've been preparing to teach a discipleship course on "Experiencing Grace" I've been accused by my enemy. "Rob, you should teach how to build skyscrapers... you've come closer to that than to 'experiencing grace'...."

2.) This morning while driving Andrew toward school we listened to a brief portion of a Jack Miller lecture on experiencing the grace of God. I think there was some part of me passively saying, "Son, here is a guy who knew Jesus. I wish I did. Listen to him and know the Jesus Jack Miller knew."

3.) Then i remembered a quote i came across last night (in a good article on U2's music)

As Bono stated on Larry King Live, “I cannot live up to the songs that I write and that we play in U2. I’d like to say that I do and I want to [but] I’m not like that as a person. That’s why I’m writing those songs. That’s what I aspire to become.”

Bono has said that he was drawn to Martin Luther King and Jesus because they were men of peace and he wasn’t.

And i remembered hearing in a Rolling Stone interview with Bono that he was very given to violence as a youth and still struggles mightily with it.

SO... (here's how an scattered guy experiences grace)

It doesn't have to be hypocritical to teach on something you are seeking... it can be HOPEFUL. And somewhere in the process i realized... that it was Jesus who binds all 4 of us together. Bono, Jack Miller, Andrew Pendley, and me.

First Community Groups Meeting a success. Over the past 2 years God has graciously grown this ministry to where we currently have 6 groups meeting weekly that involve over 6o people at CCC. Last night we met to begin the process of strengthening and unifying this ministry as one of the key ministries in our church. We discussed ideas of better support in the forms of more teaching resources, more encouragement from the pastors, how much better the website has gotten for communication, and how essential these groups are in the life of CCC. We looking for ways to get more people involved and praying for new leaders as we hoep to have new groups begin in 07.

"If you want to kiss the sky, you better learn how to kneel."

This line from Mysterious Ways has always sounded so cool and rung so true to me. It has been my privilege to pray Fridays at 9am with several CCC folks. We've been asking God to "come down" (Is. 64) and visit with us in our corporate gathering. And has He!

This fall one of the 9am "classes" will be a prayer class, with a laboratory right there! This is a great opp for you to learn to pray.