"and in one instant"

"they were neighbors for years...and in one instant they are no more"

the reality of the tornado in the southeast US and its damages cannot be felt by those who weren't a part of it. It's a reminder of how little we really do control. It's a reminder of how powerful the Lord really is. It's a reminder that we are not made for this world.

we signed up for World Changers: Birmingham, Alabama a year in advance not knowing what would occur. Our plan was to go to Birmingham through the World Changers organization and repair houses of residents in Jesus' name. Now, we await our assignment for what we might be able to do. For those going...we get to be the light of the world for just a few days in a darkened area. For those not, please continue to lift us up in prayer. For more info on our project, please visit: http://www.world-changers.net/

Elements of a "Quiet Time"

For some, a "quiet time" is what we hear of at camps. It's something apparently the "Christians" do in the morning...kind of like brushing your teeth. For some it sounds like a punishment - "go do your quiet time!" Either way, perhaps it was our fault for really not teaching it well. Not only that, I think we've packaged it too neatly and in one particular way...but let's see how we can change that.

1. The Desire of the Heart: The "who" of quiet time is much more important than the "how." Likewise, the "why" is more important than the "when." For the believer, once Christ becomes a reality, there is a flush of desire to know God and to experience Him. He replaces our desires with thoughts of Him and our hearts are turned towards Him. It's as if we've tasted the goodness of the Lord and we're not satisfied with anything else. He becomes our desire and our heart can't help but to know more of him, to learn about him, to walk with him, and to hear his voice. This is drastically different than "well...i guess i better go learn about God because i have to." No! this is like Psalms 42:1-2, "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?" They are never satisfied with where they're at...rather, they'll do anything to receive more of Him. It is no longer a duty but a deep-seated joy. St. Augustine experienced this and writes, "How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose . . ! You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy." (Confessions). This becomes the "who" and the "why." Everything else flows from this understanding.

2. Element of Meditation: There's a time when the believer meditates on a sliver of truth revealed to them by the Word of God. I say sliver because to digest huge chunks of systematic theology eventually turns into a gorging for the soul (if there were such things) and the person gets spiritual bloated or doctrinal indigestion. Allow yourself a sliver of truth to chew on in one sitting. Meditation is the idea of taking something say, "the Gospel" and clearing your mind and thinking through "the Gospel." So for me, I begin to unpack this idea of the Gospel. What does this mean? What is the context of it? How did biblical authors understand it? How did this affect men and women in Christendom? What does it look like for my life right now? What does it NOT mean? What does this mean for my youth? How does the Gospel affect how I disciple? And so on and so forth. It's not easy and it takes practice. The Psalmists understand this and write, "Psalm 119:99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation." Psalm 119:97  Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day." You'll see them say that this "meditation" stays with them all day long. So when they're at the grocery store...they're thinking about the goodness of God's law.

3. Elements of Study: There must be a personal time of taking a hold of God's Word revealed in Scripture and actually studying it. Yes, i mean breaking out your English 101 notes and applying them to the Bible. There needs to be a good portion of your time in deep study of a certain passage and when you walk away from it you can go, "Ok...now I understand the main idea of what the author is saying. I know the context behind it. I know how the biblical principles apply to me & my community today. I'm comfortable enough to teach this to someone." This is hard though. Most people don't want to take the time to actually open their bibles and start asking obvious and hard questions like, "wait...what does this word mean? what in the world is going on in this passage? how does this relate to this part of the bible?" But this is part of actually desiring more of God. You want to study his word in order to find more of Him. The Psalmist would say it like this, "Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statues; and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart, Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it." (Psalm 119:33-35). Also, "In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statues; I will not forget your word." (Psalm 119:14-16). You see, the more you study...the more you understand the character of God. The more you unravel the different layers of God's truth...and in the end this leads to your joy.

4. Elements of Prayer: This is a bit different than meditation. While meditation is thinking through God's truths, prayer is pleading & praising in light of God's truths. A lot of people go, "well i'm just not a good prayer-er" or "I don't know what to pray." Well a good start is that you take what you've studied and what you have meditated on and use that as a basis for prayer. So if you studied in Ephesians 2:1-10 the Gospel, and once you've thought it through...then use it as your theme of your prayers. For awhile now, I was taught by my mentor how to pray a bit more systematically (which you don't have to, but it helps me focus). What you do is that you pray in concentric circles. Which means...i start with myself and then i move a little larger and i pray for my closest relationships (family & significant other). Then i'll move a little larger and for me I pray for my youth leaders. Then i'll move out to pray for my youth and then the church. So the circles get larger and larger. But what i'll do is I have a "theme" to my prayers. So like if i were meditating on the Gospel that day...i'd start my prayer like this, "Lord God, I am humbled that you have saved a sinner like myself. I thank you for sending Jesus to absorb the wrath which was meant for me. Please never let me become proud and fool myself into thinking that I deserve anything...always remind me of your Gospel." and it'll move on to, "Dear Lord God...I thank you that you have chosen to save my family in their own respective ways. I pray that you continue to teach the simple Gospel to my father as he pastors your folk in understanding your good news...." So that's what I do. You don't have to follow that...but this is what helps me. You'll see this throughout the Psalms - Psalm 57:2  I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. Psalm 118:25  Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! This is the theme of the Psalms...the writers, being very real people with very real issues, crying out with honestly and hopefulness that the Lord of all will hear their prayers. We do the same.

So go Christian...place yourself under the discipline of having a "quiet time"...for the sake of your joy and for the vitality of your soul. Find out when is the best time for you to do these 3 elements. You might have to break them up during the day. And remember, this is very much like working out...you get sore at first, but with time and consistency, you'll actually start expecting the pain that comes with growth...and maybe even enjoy it.

competition...Jesus Wins!

on one hand, there's no way for religion to compete with the lures of this world...

on the other...there's no way the world could compete with Jesus

"You shall teach..."

Deuteronomy 6:7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

"teach" - verb piel waw consec perfect 2nd person masculine singular suffix 3rd person masculine plural homonym : to repeat, : to speak, or to recite again and again 

let us never stop teaching that the Lord our God is One, is powerful, is timeless, is creator and sustainer, is our salvation, is triune, is gracious, is just, is awesome

let us never stop teaching that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and might

teach them...over and over and over and over and over again...and then some more

Feeling left out

• Remember your focus. Remember that being called and saved by grace is the first and foremost thing in our lives. Period. Remember that the men and women of faith (all throughout history) have suffered and endured for the sake of this gospel. Just read Hebrews 11 and you'll understand a bit more clearly. Remember Christ as he was rejected by the world and was betrayed and denied by those closest. If Christ endured that kind of rejection (and even the turn from the Father) how much more should we expect it? Remember that being a member is not predicated on how we feel at church. Christ first. 
• Try not to over-assume. What i mean by that is don't take the surface action and assume that that is what people are thinking. It's a reverse form of pride called 'self-loathing' We have the Habakkuk & Jonah mentality and go "woe is me". I've learned that most of the time i make up random scenarios in my head when they are necessarily true. But give people the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they just didn't know to invite or it just happened that way. I don't feel like i need to be invited to every thing and if i'm not, i don't take offense to it. 
• Be active rather than passive. For the longest time, i just sat back and waited for people to approach me and talk to me. And when they didn't...i would blame them. If you want to do something with people...ask them to do something. Ask to join. Set up events for yourself. And ask others to come along. But there's a warning about this too - you need to be sensitive to always inviting yourself to things. 
• Evaluate the heart. Why is it so important that you hang out with this particular group or that particular person? Is it because everyone is doing it? Now if those people are ignore you on purpose and they know they are supposed to build community...then that's on them and not for you to worry about. There are TONS of people who need to be part of this community...help them. I need SO many more members of our youth group to reach out to "other" youth. Those who don't typically come to events. 

Growth is hard...playing the game is easy.

Growth is hard because although everyone wants to get there...very few people are willing to put in the work. We get lazy, distracted, overwhelmed, and simply discouraged so we stop and sit. We get excited at the beginning and eventually we go, "what the...nobody told me it was going to be like this."

But what happens is because know better but refuse to move forward is that we do everything else instead of truly growing. We'll get preoccupied with secondary issues and think that it's the same as growing. We'll simply neglect the core issues and settle for other stuff. But you end up deceiving yourself. You go back to living from one event to the next. And maybe you've learned to disguise it by cloaking it in religious lingo. So you hang out with church friends and call it "community" when there's really no genuine biblical community that ever comes out of it. You get together and sing "Christian songs" and listen to "Christian artists" without there ever being any true worship. Don't fall into the trap of playing the game. Because you can do everything that looks right and feels good without any true sense of transformation. Justify it all you want...but what ends up happening is that you slowly become conformed to a pattern of religion while your heart is never transformed at all (Rom. 12:1-2)

And my biggest fear is that sooner or later you'll notice you're just playing a game but never have any intention to grow...so you'll pick up your bags and find the next big "thing" in town (another youth group, another speaker to listen to, another whatever...) You never really bought in and truly wanted to grow deep. Dear friends...examine your own heart and see if there's any truth to this. If so, repent and turn from your ways...plug in and "do what you did at first."  Do the hard work of discipline and work hard at growth.

You go and tell me...

Thoughts on Exodus 5:22-33

"Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, we shall die...Go near and hear all that the LORD our God will say and speak to us all that the LORD our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it." (vs. 25-27)

The Israelites were worried for many reasons. They made excuses. They had a chance to encounter the LORD for themselves but instead they pawned it off to Moses. "You go for us. You do all the hard work and we'll promise to do what God says."

When you refuse to personally encounter the LORD your God you are forced to live vicariously through another. It is why we are enamored by theologians, stories, music...what I lovingly call "Christian Hollywood." But what's worse is eventually we get bored and we soon replace even the desire with trivial things and fool ourselves to believe God's stuff and God are one in the same.

Protect us from ever getting to this place. Help us remember that things were to point us to Jesus, not replace him. Help our church on this front.

Sermon Notes: "Context of the Cross" Ephesians 2:1-5

The Context of the Cross | Ephesians 2:1-5

I. Introduction a. Need a proper context for Easter next week

1. Not church attendance or the Easter bunny
2. Exegesis of the passage: Let the text speak for itself

II. Context of Ephesians

1. Paul writes to the metropolitan, socially & ethnically diverse, church congregation in the major city of Ephesus.
2. Paul writes with the angst of a pastor and with a message primarily for those who would call themselves “Christian”.
3. Keep in mind:
   i. The main idea of the passage
   ii. How many times he addresses the Christian

III. “AND YOU”

1. Those who would call themselves “Christians”
2. Talking to the church AND to them as individuals. Not some random person, but you personally

IV. “WERE DEAD”

1. Passive tense meaning literally “morally and spiritually deficient”
2. Completely unable to do anything about it.
   i. Not paralyzed but no life whatsoever
   ii. Helpless
3. Spiritually hopeless and continues to fall without any hope of getting better.

V. “IN THE TRESPASSES AND SINS”

1. “Trespasses” – violations of divine commands
   i. Exodus 20 (Deut. 5)
2. “Sins” – offenses against God in thought, word, or deed
3. Problems: i. We really don’t believe that we’re sinners – we believe that “sin” is something that is similar to murder or rape or smoking or cursing ii. We marginalize sin – “Well everyone does it…so it’s alright” iii. If we are sinners, we can always find someone worse off than we are… “we’re not that bad” iv. We don’t understand what this passage means
4. Romans 1:
   i. Worship other things other than God (idolatry)
   1. Worship ourselves 2. Worship money 3. Worship comfort 4. Worship our children
   ii. Believe that we’re smarter than God
   1. Pride 2. We ignore the commands of the bible “Oh it’s only for the scholars… I’m just a member” 3. We don’t trust God to govern our lives
   iii. We cease to acknowledge God and we take his things and make them our own.
   1. Guilty of neglecting God’s rich and perfect plan for your life over and over again.
5. Crushing reality:
   i. You and I know the weight of “trying” to be better people.
   ii. How many times have you tried to get out of a sin or even find meaning in life and just find yourself falling back into the same junk over and over again?
   iii. YOUR WERE DEAD IN YOUR TRESPASSES AND SINS

VI. “IN WHICH YOU ONCE LIVED FOLLOWING THE COURSE OF THIS WORLD, FOLLOWING THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR, THE SPIRIT THAT IS NOW AT WORK IN THE SONS OF DISOBEDIENCE”

1. Don’t forget that he’s addressing Christians
2. You followed the ways of the world
3. You followed the “prince of the power of the air” – Satan…
   i. Who is still at work right now

VII. “AMONG WHOM WE ALL ONCE LIVED IN THE PASSION OF OUR FLESH, CARRYING OUT THE DESIRES OF THE BODY AND THE MIND”

1. 2x Paul reminds the church that it is not “us” verses “them”.
2. A real believer never forgets this fact
3. A real believer remembers where they came from. It is an oxymoron to see proud church people. It makes no sense for church people to judge anyone who comes
   i. through this door or
   ii. those they meet in the grocery store or
   iii. those they see on TV
4. “look at those sinners” – “they should be more like me”

VIII. “AND WERE BY NATURE”

1. Greek word for “birth”
2. We don’t choose to be sinful we are born into sin
3. Ex. Children – nobody needs to learn how to sin d. It is our nature to always choose sinfulness over righteousness
   i. What is the first thing you do when you slam your hand?
   ii. Is it hard for you to love those who treat your wrongly?
   iii. What do you do in the middle of suffering? iv. It’s our nature to be selfish, prideful, judgmental, etc. And if you had any victory over it it’s not because “you did it”, but because of God’s grace through his Son.

IX. “CHILDREN OF WRATH, LIKE THE REST OF MANKIND”

1. God responds by giving you want you want (Romans 1)
2. God responds by storing up wrath for your constantly belittling his name and glory.
   i. Punishes according the severity of the offense
3. 3x Paul reminds the church
4. “But what about my good deeds” – Isa. 64:6 “all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags”
5. “Isn’t God loving? Why can’t he just forgive us?”
   i. The love of God is paired with the justice of God.
   ii. For him just to “forgive you” would be for God to endorse the belittling of His name.
   iii. There must be justice paid…and we do not have the ability to pay (we’re dead in sin remember?)

X. “BUT GOD” a. Notice that you have nothing to do with this passage

XI. “BEING RICH IN MERCY”

1. Does not run out

XII. “BECAUSE OF THE GREAT LOVE WITH WHICH HE LOVED US”

1. His love is not predicated on us…nothing that we do. We can’t earn his love.
2. “But he doesn’t know what I’ve done!!!”

XIII. “EVEN WHEN WE WERE DEAD IN OUR TRESPASSES, MADE US ALIVE TOGETHER WITH CHRIST – BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED”

1. In the middle of your sin b. GOSPEL
   i. Passion
   ii. Context of absorbing wrath

XIV. Conclusion

1. Christian:
   i. This is our foundation
   ii. This is why we celebrate and worship – not because of our greatness, but because of His.
   iii. CBC members – this is the main point of church. You forget this and church becomes another event during the week.
   1. Don’t you ever think this is “us” verse “them”
   2. Don’t you ever think that being a Christian is about being “morally good people”
   3. So love people and serve people because of the love that you have been shown while you were sinners
2. Visitors & those who have yet to receive this free gift:
   i. This passage is “present tense” for you 1. “you are dead” 2. “you are following” 3. And you are still under wrath
   ii. Where is your hope? Where will your salvation come from?
3. We must understand the context of the cross.

The Gospel Coalition 2011

Coming: Thoughts and Notes

Day 1 Lessons Learned:

1. Have much to learn about everything
2. Hopeful of ministry
3. Much teach and preach the Gospel

"Husband of One Wife"?

What is the meaning of “Husband of One Wife”?

The phrase comes from the qualification of elders and deacons in 1 Timothy 3:2; 3:12; Titus 1:6 the Greek translation of (mia/j gunaiko.j a;ndra) literally means, “husband of one wife”. The phrase as presented is the same for elders and deacons.

Our goal is always to allow the biblical authors relay their authorial intent within their own biblical theology and it is ours to understand their interpretation.

1. There are some that would say this phrase would mean that those who have been divorced would disqualify him from being either an elder or deacon, since they would be the husband of two wives. This would be an unlikely interpretation for several reasons:

a. In context with the rest of the qualifications, Paul is referring to a man’s present status, not his entire past life. The language used is interpreted as accusative, present tense. There is no assumption that Paul is referring to his past or entire life.[1] If we did refer to the entire life of a person, there would be nobody eligible to be an elder or deacon.

b. Paul could have easily put a prohibition on divorced men, but he does not. See Hebrews 10:2; Heb. 9:26; and Jude 3 for the Greek construction of perfect participles to mean committing the action and continuing it. The language for divorce was already present in that day (c.f. 1 Cor. 7), so if Paul really wanted to say that a man cannot divorce, he could have simply just said it instead of using ambiguous language.[2]

c. MacArthur writes, “Some people think ‘the husband of one wife’ means that if the pastor has been widowed and remarried, he is disqualified. Romans 7:1-6 makes it clear, however, that if a man’s wife dies, he is no longer bound by that union. So that cannot be the meaning here.”[3]

d. For a man who has been divorced prior to conversion, there ought to be a significant period of time in which he has been able to heal from that period of his life. The qualification still stands within the greater list of requirements given in 1 Timothy and Titus. The change of character is that which the fruit of the Holy Spirit is evident.

2. There is another interpretation that the phrase “the husband of but one wife” means that the man must be married. However, this interpretation is quite unlikely. It is clear that Paul was not married as well as the Lord Jesus. A better interpretation for these verses would be that if a man be married, let him not be a polygamist nor unfaithful to his wife. The command is not one of absolute exclusivity. To further argue the point that a deacon must be married would also be incorrect. There is no reason for Paul to put the requirement of deacon higher than that of an elder when clearly the elder position is to govern the New Testament church as an overseer. Furthermore, the issue of deacon and elder is not contingent on their marital status, but like the rest of the qualification, the context refers to the integrity of his life in Christ.

a. We would also have to assume that Paul knew the critics that would be reading his letter. Because of the high elevation of the natural order of that of an elder, Paul could have easily required marriage. I would agree with Theodore of Mopsuestia when he writes, (o]j agagomenoj gunaika swfronwj ebiw meta tauthj prosecwn auth kai mecrij authj orizwn thj fusewj thn orexin) “He who marries one wife, lives with her prudently, keeps to her, and directs to her the desire of nature”[4] Again, if Paul wanted the elder/deacon to be single, he would have simply told them, “pastors have to be married or be the husband of a wife.”

b. To continue to argue that single men or married men who have no children cannot be elders/deacons would be to go against 1 Corinthians 7:8-35. Strauch states, “the qualifications regarding marriage and children should not be construed as commands to marry and to have children…single men and childless, married men can certainly be pastor elders…of course the sexual conduct and home management of single and childless men must be above reproach, just as it must be above reproach for married men who have children.”[5] Again, to say that an elder must be married would contradict what he teaches in 1 Cor. 7 (c.f. Matt. 19:12)

c. Systematic theologian, Millard Erickson also agrees, “that he Greek phrase (mias gunaikos andra) should not be seen as prescribing that a church officeholder be a married man, but that he be what we would call a “one woman” type of man. That is, Paul is not prescribing a minimum of one wife, but a maximum.”[6]

3. Thus the best interpretation of this phrase is that of marital fidelity in marriage and purity. We should interpret this passage, within its context and with Paul’s understanding, as: If a man is married, he must be faithful to his wife. If a man has children, he must manage his household well.

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[1] Alcorn, Randy. “Meaning of “The Husband of One Wife” in 1 Timothy 3” http://www.epm.org/resources/2010/Feb/23/meaning-husband-one-wife-1-timothy-3

[2] Grudem, Wayne. Systematic Theology. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 916-917.

[3] MacArthur, John. Pastoral Ministry (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 2005), 68-69.

[4] Dibelius, Martin and Hans Conzelmann. The Pastoral Epistles. (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972), 52.

[5] Strauch, Alexander Biblical Eldership. (Colorado Springs: Lewis & Roth Publishers, 1995), 77-78.

[6] Erickson, Millard. Christian Theology. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academics, 1998 ), 575.