Archive for June, 2006
Upcoming Events
June 15, 2006 3:40 pmYou should be getting an email with this info soon! (If you don’t, just ask Mary to add you to the email distribution list.)
five15 RETREAT. Signup for the five15 Retreat ends THIS SUNDAY, June 18. This is your last chance to sign up for the retreat. As you know, we’re headed to Concord Retreat Center in wild, wonderful West Virginia. Your $190 registration covers lodging, meals, tshirt, and more. For $20 extra, join us for a paintball battle. PLEASE: if the financial hurdle is keeping you from signing up, let me or your caregroup leader know. My hope is to have everyone from five15 at the retreat, if possible.
WHITE OAK CANYON HIKE. We’re going hiking at White Oak Canyon NEXT SATURDAY, June 24. Not far from Skyline Drive, White Oak Canyon is a moderately difficult but beautiful hike along a meandering stream to a series of waterfalls. Lovely. No registration is necessary, just meet us here at the building at 8am; please arrange your own ride to and from the canyon. Bring $5 for the park entrance fee if you’re over 17 (up to $10 per family), and don’t forget to pack a lunch and some water.
KING’S DOMINION. Want to have some fun at the park with your friends? Here’s your chance. We’re going together on Monday, July 10. If you would like to buy tickets through us for $32, sign up in the lobby on Sunday morning this Sunday, June 18 or next Sunday, July 2. Even if you don’t buy tickets with us, you can still come! We’ll be meeting at the building on July 10 at 9am. Arrange your own ride, and don’t forget cash for funnel cake.
Got questions? Feel free to ask.
Parents, I hope you’re taking me up on the Summer Reading Challenge. I realize some of you may be reading through Knowing Scripture and The Holiness of God with your teens, but I suspect some of you are taking advantage of this opportunity to dive into Lost In The Middle. If you’re following the schedule, by now you have read the Intro and chapters 1 and 2.
I found these words in the introduction to be very helpful:
“Put the following two Bible phrases together and you will begin to understand the magnitude and practicality of the redemption that could only be supplied by Christ Jesus: “Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time,” and “After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down.” In Scripture’s redemption story, the sadness of the totality of our depravity kisses the celebration of the totality of Christ’s provision. God is satisfied, Christ has sat down, and there is hope for us–a practical hope stretching from now to the ends of eternity. As a result, we come to every topic of our lives as the saddest and the most celebrant people on earth. This functional tension between sadness and celebration results in the kind of practical wisdom that the Bible alone affords. Midlife must be viewed from these two redemptive perspectives.” (p. 23, emphasis mine)
What does this mean for you today, on Thursday, June 15? It depends on your circumstances. Maybe today you’re painfully aware of your own sinful patterns. Maybe one of your kids has sinned against you. Again. Maybe there are steep challenges at the office, or a persistent relational conflict with a once-trusted friend. Maybe it’s something else. Whatever it is, I think Dr. Tripp would tell us to mourn for how sin has tainted and ruined everything, and yet rejoice that Jesus Christ is in the business of redeeming all things, repairing all that now is broken.
These two views are like guardrails on either side of a treacherous road: lose one and risk a fiery crash. If we ignore the reality of sin, we’ll blame all our problems on circumstances outside ourselves, and we won’t be able to offer genuine solutions to our others in their problems. Self-righteousness, bitterness, and anger will likely follow. On the other hand, if we forget who Jesus is and what He has done, there will be no genuine hope. We’ll apply one band-aid after another to our problems, never experiencing the joy and hope of forgiveness. Welcome to idolatry and despair.
The path through mid-life (or old-age or the teen years, or anything in between) must include these two guardrails. Keep both of these guardrails in place and the path through mid-life will be a lot safer. How can you spouse, caregroup, or other mature friends help you view all of life “from these two redemptive perspectives”?
Pray The Truth About Grace
June 14, 2006 8:36 pm
Saturday night, I mentioned several things we can do to be sure that we are amazed by grace. The first is: pray the truth about grace. By this, I simply mean devoting space in your prayer time to reviewing what grace is and how it has come to your life.
Here’s one way this could work: next time you sit down to pray, hold off on the requests for a few minutes. Devote your time simply to giving thanks for the grace that God has shown you in and through the gospel. If you can’t think of anything to pray, you’ve got a wonderful guide in Ephesians 2:1-10, and other verses like it. Just review the truths contained in the verses and thank God for how you’ve been changed. A prayer from Ephesians 2:1-10 could sound something like this:
Father in heaven, I need to be reminded that I was once dead in my transgressions and sins. I rebelled against you by doing what you have forbidden and failing to do what you have commanded. BUT YOU made me alive in Christ Jesus. Thank you for doing for me what I could never do for myself. Thank you for doing for me what I would never have dared to ask. I have been saved by your grace alone: I am a trophy of the immeasurable riches of your grace in kindness toward me in Christ Jesus. Thank you for grace. And thank you for the grace to believe. You are a good God, and the giver of good gifts, and I give you all my thanks!
Now try your own. Ask your parents what other verses you can pray from to promote gratitude toward God for His grace.
Saved By Grace
June 13, 2006 7:07 amSaturday night we started a three-part series of summer messages called “Refresh.” This first message was called “Saved By Grace” from Ephesians 2:8-10:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Two simple points here: 1) Christians are saved by God’s grace, and 2) Christians are saved for good works. We spent most of the time on the idea that we are saved by grace (hence the title). I used a couple different stories to try to explain what grace is like. This one has always been helpful to me:
If a homeless guy walks by my house on a hot day and I offer him a glass of water, that a nice gesture. Polite. Neighborly. But it’s not really what grace is like. Now, imagine that while I’m offering that guy a glass of water, he notices that my house has old windows-he decides I’m an easy target. So he comes back that night and breaks into my house, steals my stuff, murders my son, sets fire to my house, and spits in my face. Then, after he is caught and arrested, I rebuild my house, drop the charges against him, and invite him to live with me, and give him the best room in the house, and let him share in my food, my money, drive my car, and so on, that would be a little bit like what the grace of God is like. That would be a small picture of how God has been gracious to us. Because each of us is more like the homeless guy than the homeowner. God shows us his grace when he invites us into his house even after we killed his Son.
Are you amazed by grace? If not, you need to be reminded about the truth about God’s grace. You need to pray the truth about grace, sing the truth about grace, and read the truth about grace. I’ll be coming back to each of these over the next couple days.
“By grace you have been saved through faith…”
US v Czech Republic
June 12, 2006 11:06 am
Monday Matters: 06/12/06
10:08 am
Vince served us yesterday by teaching us what it means to “earnestly desire the spiritual gifts” from 1 Corinthians 14:1. He explained that the spiritual gifts are so important because they connect us to Jesus Christ, equip us for ministry, and reveal the power of the gospel.
Vince gave us six ways that we can grow in the spriritual gifts:
- Seek God, the gift giver. Ask him to show you what gifts you have been given.
- Inquire of your caregroup leader or pastor: what needs are in the church right now. Find out what would build up the church and work backwards from there.
- Assess your motives. Having a gift doesn’t equal maturity. But pursue maturity with humility.
- Have your abilities assessed by others.
- Seek opportunties to try it out.
- Use your gifts, and fan them into flame.
Ask your parents this question for application: how can I fan into flame that gifts that God has given me and use those gifts for the good of the church?
The Meaning Of Soccer
June 10, 2006 11:03 am
Dr. Mohler posted to his blog yesterday about The Metaphysical and Geopolitical Meaning of Soccer. I love that title. In the post, he lifts quotes from a couple key books on the game of soccer, and assembles them to help us appreciate the significance of soccer around the world. One of the quotes that stood out to me:
And at the grand finale on July 9, as many as a billion people - one-sixth of humanity - are expected to watch 22 men, adept at propelling a piece of leather around, compete for the ultimate victory in team sports.
It amazes me that so many will devote so much attention and adulation to so few for so long. Ultimately, there is only One who will command the enduring attention of the world’s population:
“And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” Revelation 5:13
FIFA World Cup 2006
June 9, 2006 1:17 pm
The 2006 FIFA World Cup opens today in Germany to the delight of millions of football (soccer) fans around the world.
The US squad debuts Monday against the Czech Republic. If I’m doing the math right, the game will start at 11am our time, at the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
I refer you to four posts I did in January about God and Sports:
