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."

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)

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!

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

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!

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)

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.

A Concise New Year's Aim...

He must increase, but I must decrease. ~ John 3.30

10 Questions To Ask In The New Year...

I'm a big proponent of reexamining, rechecking, reflecting...just all the "re's" I guess...at the end of one year and the beginning of another.

It's a perfect time to really look back and assess our spiritual strengths and spiritual weaknesses (the good, the bad and the ugly). It's a perfect time b/c it seems that our culture/our world still moves a little slower than normal coming off the Christmas holidays and it allows us a chance to take a spiritual breath and to spiritually think.

So here's some help to that end...

Don Whitney:

The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings. To that end, here are some questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God.

1.What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?

2.What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?

3.What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?

4.In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?

5.What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?

6.What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?

7.For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?

8.What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?

9.What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?

10.What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

Please pray through these by yourself and then make "yourself available" to sit down with your wife/husband and talk and pray through these together. It would make for great table talk during date night. As a matter of fact Stephanie and I will be doing just that this Friday, so we will be talking through these together.

Whitney writes:

The value of many of these questions is not in their profundity, but in the simple fact that they bring an issue or commitment into focus. For example, just by articulating which person you most want to encourage this year is more likely to help you remember to encourage that person than if you hadn’t considered the question.

You can read the full (31 Questions) list here.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Check This Freak Out!

This is bold and beautiful to watch! It all goes down about 3:33 into the video. Is He this holy in Eads?

The Mind Of A Missionary

Young missionaries, when warned they could die in this hostile place, said: "We died before we came here." Colossians 3:3

(HT:John Piper/Twitter)

Love It...Bringin' It From Dockers!

Talking about 'manning up'.

Someone has had enough of the Political Correctness in this country at Dockers, and it's about time!

Check out this man-ifesto from Dockers on their store website.....I'm lovin' it!

What is the most effective way for parents to influence their children?

Gary Thomas gives a great answer to a great question. As parents we should be asking similar questions like this often.

You can click Here to watch Gary's answer in under 2 minutes.

Gospel Centered Leadership

Here is a good reminder from Tullian Tchividjian of what should be the aim of my life as a Christian/pastor/shepherd/leader. I hope this is true of my life now and will always be true.

I hope it reminds you of your own repentance and faith.


In the June issue of Tabletalk my friend Scotty Smith wrote an article to young Christian leaders exhorting them to be gospel-centered in their various roles (for whatever reason I just saw it and read it today). Reflecting on mistakes he’s made and lessons he’s learned over a 30 year span of fruitful ministry, he outlines his exhortation under three headings:

1.Gospel astonishment versus theological cockiness
2.Chief repenter versus former sinner
3.Preaching Christ to yourself versus preaching yourself

Scotty’s timely cry for “an emerging generation of leaders who will live and lead as genuinely as [the apostle]Paul” is painfully helpful, not only for young Christian leaders but for all Christian’s everywhere.

You can read the whole thing here. Please do!