Sunday, January 31, 2010

Whatcha Got And Whatcha Doin' With It?

"I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the Kingdom of God." ~ David Livingstone

(HT: Piper On Twitter)

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Is It A Sin To Not Like The Doctrine Of Election?

Below I have pasted an article from Piper answering the question, "Is it sin for me to not like the doctrine of election?"

Now the question is a very good one and the answer is as well, so take a moment and think through all the far reaching implications of this issue. Please understand the issue is not just election, but everything else that we may wrestle with concerning...God...as well.

The following is an edited transcript of the audio.

"I believe in the doctrine of election, but I don't like it much. Is it sin for me not to like the doctrine of election?

It's sin not to like the true doctrine of election. It's sin not to like what God likes. I want to say it like that because many people have conceptions of doctrines—all kinds of doctrines—that are inaccurate. And therefore their good hearts dislike them.

So you could say, "I dislike election," and be a good person, because you don't see election clearly. And what you're disliking should be disliked. Or you may be a person who is starting to see it clearly and your old self, which is bad, is rising up and not liking what ought to be liked.

So I don't know whether this person should be chastised or not. The principle would be, "To the degree that you see biblical truth clearly, you should like it."

Hell is a biblical truth. So when I say, "You should like hell," what I mean is that you should like it the way God does.

God, it says, "is not willing that any should perish." God "does not delight in the death of the wicked." God "afflicts us, but not from his heart" (Lamentations 3). So there is in God himself a willing that hell be and a liking that it exists in that big picture. And yet he grieves over sending anybody there.

So the word "like" is just a little bit difficult here, because you're going to have to do double perspectives again.

If God ordains that Jerusalem be destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, should we like that? My answer is both yes and no. We should not like women boiling their children, but we should approve of God's decision that it happen.

And so there's a double perspective in which the things that you see in the small lens should be disliked, whereas what you see in the bigger lens of how God runs the world should be liked."

NLC---Sunday Morning Service Cancelled!

Dear NLC,

I just wanted to inform you that the Pastor's Council has decided to cancel our Sunday Service due to weather. As of right now several of our families are pretty much iced in and will have a difficult time getting to the main roads from their homes. Currently the temperature is 28 degrees with a low overnight expected to be 15 degrees. So it shouldn't change things too much. Our mother church Lakewood has also cancelled services.

Please do not take the morning off. Go ahead and prepare to have a Sunday morning worship time with your family. Be sure to have a time of prayer, singing, and scripture discussion. It will be a sweet time before the Lord and with one another.

Lord willing we'll see you all on Wednesday evening for Life Group!

In Christ,
Pastor Keith

Friday, January 29, 2010

Postmodern Architecture

Excellent question to a threatening post-modern philosophy.

____________________________________________________

From an address by Ravi Zacharias:

I remember lecturing at Ohio State University, one of the largest universities in this country. I was minutes away from beginning my lecture, and my host was driving me past a new building called the Wexner Center for the Performing Arts.

He said, “This is America’s first postmodern building.”

I was startled for a moment and I said, “What is a postmodern building?”

He said, “Well, the architect said that he designed this building with no design in mind. When the architect was asked, ‘Why?’ he said, ‘If life itself is capricious, why should our buildings have any design and any meaning?’ So he has pillars that have no purpose. He has stairways that go nowhere. He has a senseless building built and somebody has paid for it.”

I said, “So his argument was that if life has no purpose and design, why should the building have any design?”

He said, “That is correct.”

I said, “Did he do the same with the foundation?”

All of a sudden there was silence.

You see, you and I can fool with the infrastructure as much as we would like, but we dare not fool with the foundation because it will call our bluff in a hurry.

(HT: JT)

Thursday, January 28, 2010

"Bold With Strength In My Soul"

"On the day I called Thou didst answer me; Thou didst make me bold with strength in my soul." ~ Psalm 138.3

A word from John Gill on Psalm 138.3...

"put him good heart and spirit, when before ready to faint; strengthened his heart and grace in it, particularly faith, and drew it forth into lively act and exercise so that he sunk not under the weight of affliction and trouble, but was filled with courage to withstand his enemies, and with strength to do the will and work of God; this is to be understood of inward spiritual strength."

Ephesians 3.16 "that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man;"

God make us bold with strength in our souls. Make us to stand under the weight of affliction and trouble. Fill us with courage to withstand our enemies, especially the enemy of our own lusts. Make us to do your will and work...for You. Strengthen our inner man with the power through Your Holy Spirit.

Happy Birthday Dad...#70!

Today my dad is celebrating his 70th birthday.  Next to my wife no one has encouraged me and pushed me more to trust God in this life than my dad.  And although we both spent most of the years that we were together in one house NOT honoring God, God has definitely allowed us to use these last many years to talk and discuss more things about God than before. 

I treasure our God-talk together.  And it was sweet to pray with him over the phone this morning on his 70th birthday.

I love you man!

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Who Dat?


Well...I'm not much on blogging about sports, even though I'm a big sports fan. But being from Louisiana and going through the dog days of paper bag wearing fans, I think some congrats are needed. So congrats to the New Orleans Saints for their NFC Championship win tonight.

Wow! Super Bowl bound. It's still hard to believe.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Roe vs. Wade

From a past article a few years ago...

“The most consequential cultural and political event in American history in the past half century was the Roe v. Wade decision of January 22, 1973. An argument can be made that it is rivaled by September 11, but that fateful day did not result in the deep realignment of religious, cultural, and political dynamics resulting from the Supreme Court’s ukase, which established an unlimited abortion license that wiped from the books of all fifty states any legal protection of unborn children. . . This Monday marks the thirty-fourth anniversary of Roe v. Wade. On January 23, 1973, the New York Times reported that the Court had ’settled’ the dispute over abortion. Thirty-four years later, there is no more intensely contested issue in our public life.” ~ Richard John Neuhaus

Read the rest of the article here.

(HT: Denny Burk)

There Are So Many Needs

As I think through all that is going on these days in our country and in our world, I can't help but think that there are so many needs in the church today. This is a good thing, because it demonstrates that the body of Christ is active, marching, and pushing the gospel forward.

There are great needs, whether it is giving money to help rebuild local churches in Haiti to start ministering again through Churches Helping Churches, churches starting new churches, supporting international missionaries that push the gospel into places where it's not, or supporting new works like HeartBeat International to save the lives of the unborn children in America...we simply have a profound number of ways to be involved in making sure that people hear the gospel, the Word of Christ, that grants faith to those who are faith-less. And I'm sure there are a plethora of ways to give to the gospel advance that I haven't mentioned and/or I'm simply unaware of at this time.

Below is a video that I watched this morning recommended from John Piper. Please make yourself aware of this need. It is a video about ministering to the needs of women who have a 'choice' to make concerning their pregnancy in Los Angeles. Help them to choose LIFE! Thank you!

To Pastors:

“A pastor will not be able to feed his flock rich and challenging insight into God’s word unless he becomes a disciplined thinker. But almost none of us does this by nature. We must train ourselves to do it. And one of the best ways to train ourselves to think about what we read is to read with pen in hand and to write down a train of thought that comes to mind. Without this, we simply cannot sustain a sequence of questions and answers long enough to come to penetrating conclusions” ~ John Piper


(HT:Stephen Altrogge)

How To Meditate On God's Word

Stephen Altrogge:

“According to our culture, meditation is the relaxation of the mind to the point where little or no thought occurs. But according to scripture, meditation is the increased focus of the mind with much deep thought occurring. The goal of secular meditation is to empty the mind, the goal of godly meditation is to fill the mind with God’s truth. To put it in a succinct definition, godly meditation is the practice of filling the mind with God’s word for the purpose of applying God’s word.”

He offers some useful practical tips on meditation...click here.

(HT: TC)

But For The Grace Of God...

Below is a portion of a letter that Pastor Mark Driscoll wrote to his congregation on what he discovered while assessing the damage in Haiti...

"The devastation there is more horrendous than you can possibly imagine. Within the first few hours on the ground to research the state of the church, we saw multiple collapsed churches with members’ decomposed bodies trapped inside; we saw multiple churches with the decomposed bodies of church members baking in the sun on the sidewalk outside of what used to be the church entrance; we saw a teenage boy shot in the head just feet away from a Christian seminary that was housing 5,000 refugees, most of whom were children; and we watched a twenty-four-year-old Christian man pull the body of his twenty-six-year-old brother, a worship leader, from the rubble."

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Churches Helping Churches

For those of you who are participating in the efforts with Churches Helping Churches here is an update from Pastors James MacDonald and Mark Driscoll.




Mugged By Ultrasound

You will need to take a few minutes and read an article from the Weekly Standard.

It is an article that is addressing why so many abortion workers are turning pro-life. It will make you both cry and rejoice. I read a short bit from Kevin DeYoung's blog. You can read the whole article here.

Please continue to pray for abortion workers!

The Enemy Within

At the end of last year I asked our church to give me their list of books that have made a spiritual impression on their lives. As a pastor/shepherd I wanted to see what our people are reading and also I wanted to read several of their suggestions (which was almost 100 books). Out of all their recommendations I have chosen to read six books recommended by our congregation in 2010.

So I have been reading The Enemy Within by Kris Lundgaard that was recommended. This is an excellent book and it is addressing the very issue of indwelling sin that we are studying and preaching through in James chapter 1.

I wanted to highlight something that Lundgaard says concerning how the "flesh pumps up our heads and shrivels our hearts." He says,

"A person with a big head and a small heart can learn the doctrines of sin, yet never be convicted of sin. He can learn the teachings of grace and pardon and the great atonement for sin, yet never feel the peace of God that passes understanding. When the flesh gets a person to the point that he can sit under the teaching of the Word, and even delight in it for its intellectual beauty, yet not be changed, he has snuffed out the wick of his first love." (p.118)
We must be serious about the sinful pride of knowledge. It is true that we can attain knowledge without it ever changing us. Therefore as pastors, leaders, and as Christians we must pray as Paul prayed for the Thessalonians...

"for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction..." ~ 1 Thessalonians 1.5

This is a good word!

Two Mistakes in Thinking about the Redeemed Life

Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Beyond Doubt (p. 89):

"People tend to make two mistakes when they think about the redeemed life.

The first is to underestimate the sin that remains in us; it’s still there and it can still hurt us.

The second is to underestimate the strength of God’s grace; God is determined to make us new.

As a result, all Christians need to say two things. We admit that we are redeemed sinners. But we also say boldly and joyously that we are redeemed sinners."

(HT: JT)

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Churches Helping Churches In Haiti

Over the last week I'm sure you all have heard and seen the devastation of the earthquake that hit Haiti and then the 5.9 aftershock today.

If you haven't already heard about Churches Helping Churches I would like for you to consider being a part of the "spiritual" efforts to help restore the Haitian people through the local church.

Pastors Mark Driscoll & James MacDonald have together formed a ministry called Churches Helping Churches. This ministry is rooted in Galatians 6.10 “…let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

You can read the aim of their ministry by clicking on their ministry link here.

Stephanie and I were at my computer reading an update on their work when Stephanie said that we need to be a part of this spiritual effort. So we are. We have just submitted our donation and I'm encouraging all of you to be a part of this effort which will not only rebuild the physical island of Haiti, but more importantly the spiritual rebuilding of souls through local churches.

We are a kingdom minded people, therefore when the church is hurting we hurt and we help. We minister so that the gospel will advance. It is clear throughout scripture that the gospel advances quicker under trials and sufferings. This is a plain and simple truth, therefore this may be a time where God is bringing 'new life' in Christ where there once was no life in Him at all.

So we are participating in this effort with the body of Christ!

May God bless His church in Haiti!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Pastoring Through Music

Our worship leader at NLC, Tom Owen, has compiled for our church a pretty good list of websites that offer solid biblical music. He sent out this email to our church to shepherd our people for individual worship, family worship and to even prepare us for some of the songs that are coming to our church in the near future.

I've asked him if he wouldn't mind me posting his email to our church here on my blog. And with his permission here it is...
_____________________________________

Below are some links to some of the music we are doing and will do at church. All the music you will find on these sites are great.

There is a link to RUF.com that will have a lot of the actual sheet music to the songs we are doing in church, if anyone is interested.

http://www.igracemusic.com/

http://www.igracemusic.com/hymnbook/home.html (RUF)

http://www.sovereigngracemusic.org/

http://www.sojournmusic.com/albums/

http://andrew-peterson.com/index.php?s=gl&nid=76657

http://www.leadworship.com/GloriousCD/Glorious.html

http://www.worshipmusic.com/paulbaloche.html

Thanks Tom! You've been a means of God's grace to all of us at New Life Church. We thank God for you brother!

Never Blame God For Your Sin!

I've been preaching through the epistle of James for several weeks and in the context of this Sunday's message James 1.13-17, I thought that I would quote Piper from his twitter page.

"To be caught in secret sin is a horrible thing. Only one thing worse. Not to be caught."

So here is a reminder of the origin of temptation and sin...

"Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust." ~James 1.13-14

Monday, January 18, 2010

Nothing Can Compare

Pastor Jordan Thomas over at Grace Church posted today a very meaningful video clip from John Piper on the relevance of the scriptures.

Once again Piper speaks as an ambassador from God pleading with God's people to participate in the "excitement" of God speaking and communicating to the world about Himself. Nothing can compare with this joy!

I Pulled It!

A very first as a dad.

Yep, I pulled Micah's loose tooth this weekend while visiting family in Louisiana. It was a great moment for father and son. One I will remember forever. Take a look at a son who is proud to be without a tooth.

Man, he is digging it! I forgot how much a kid feels grown up when a tooth is pulled.

I love you Micah!

Pastor Kelly Seely

Allow me to introduce you to a good friend of mine. He is Kelly Seely and he is the pastor of Shelby Forest Baptist Church in Millington, Tennessee. He has recently started to blog and I wanted everyone to meet my good friend.

He is one of the biggest supporters of our church and I'm grateful to God for his friendship and the way that he leads as a pastor. He is a giant physically (very tall...lol) but pastors with a gentle and gracious spirit. He lives what he preaches and one of the things that I appreciate about him the most is that he is constantly knocking on the doors of his community making pastoral visits to those who probably have no pastor. I love that about him...praise God!

I know you'll be encouraged by the way God is working in His life. You can read his blog by clicking here!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

What Have You Prayed For Recently? And Has God Been Answering The Way You've Been Praying?

I read this over at Life2gether and thought it was a pretty simple approach to measuring our prayer life. I really like the idea of maintaining focus on what we've been praying for and how much of our aim in prayer has been tuned to the will of God. It helps to look back and remember what we prayed for two-three months ago. Good little post here.

___________________________________________

Recently I was talking to my twin brother on skype and he brought up a good question to diagnose your prayer life:

What are 3 answers to prayer you’ve had this past year?

This is a great question because it makes us think about what we’ve been asking God to do and whether or not we’ve remembered what He has done. No doubt, prayer is more than just getting an “answer” from God, but sometimes we need to remember to ask him things like a little child believing that he will answer. How does a child ask? Here’s what Paul Miller says in his book, A Praying Life:

•What do they ask for? Everything and anything.
•How often do children ask? Repeatedly.
•How do children ask? Without guile. They just say what’s on their minds.

May we pray like a child this year believing that God can do more than we could ask or think!

(HT: Life2gether)

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Introducing Gene Veith

Just added a new blogger to the list...Gene Veith. I was first introduced to Veith around 1997-98 in a Faith & Culture class while at Criswell College in Dallas, Texas. It has been many years since I read his book Postmodern Times, but God really used Veith and his writings to introduce me to the way culture changes, works, and counters Christianity. Therefore giving Christians an understanding in order to counter the culture with the gospel.

I wasn't aware of his blog until this morning, so I'm looking forward to reading his intriguing thoughts on Christianity and culture each day.

Enjoy.