I have recently started reading a book called "A Gospel Primer for Christians" by Milton Vincent. It is a devotional reading of sorts. The premise of the book is that the Gospel should be taught to believers just as much as it should be to unbelievers. So after the introduction it is broken down into small sections designed to be read each day to focus your thoughts on the good news of Jesus Christ.
Something I never realized is that the Gospel is the only thing in Scripture that is referred to as 'the power of God.' So here is today's reading:
"A Cure for Distrust: Every time I deliberately disobey a command of God, it is because I am in that moment doubtful as to God's true intentions in giving me that command. Does He really have my best interests at heart? Or is He withholding something from me that I would be better off having? Such questions, whether consciously asked or not, lie underneath every act of disobedience. However, the gospel changes my view of God's commandments, in that it helps me to see the heart of the Person from whom those commandments come. When I begin my train of thought with the gospel, I realize that if God loved me enough to sacrifice His Son's life for me, then He must be guided by that same love when He speaks His commandments to me.
Viewing God's commands and prohibitions in this light, I can see them for what they really are: friendly signposts from a heavenly Father who is seeking to love me through each directive, so that I might experience His very fullness forever."
Tim was kind enough to e-mail me a copy of an article he read last week entitled "6 Reasons Every Pastor Should Blog". I think he was gently hinting at something -- so maybe you'll begin to hear from me a little bit more on this site! :)
One interesting fact that you may not know about me is that I am a collector of fortune cookie wisdom. My wife Megan almost always opens the best ones.
While most of them are really stupid, there are some that are really good. Here are the two most recent pieces of wisdom.
"Your heart will always make itself known through your words." I think they stole that one frrm the Bible (Matthew 12:34). The other one says, "Many a false step is made by standing still." The only Biblical connection I can make of this is that we are called to walk by faith and trust our Lord for wisdom and direction when the next steps seem unclear.
Happy Monday to all the readers out there in cyberspace! I wanted to take just a minute to plug our upcoming Spring Celebration concert with pianist Roy Webb. The concert is Sunday night, May 18, at 6:00 pm, and I think you'll really enjoy hearing Roy play. The music that night should be a mix of many different styles, so there will be something for everyone! Please be telling your friends too -- especially if they like piano music! You can even print a flyer right from our website. Or...you can check out sound files from Roy's CD by following that same link.
As we have in several past Spring Celebration concerts, the Worship Choir will be participating in the program as well. Singing with guest artists is such a neat opportunity for our choir, and I hope you can be there for this great night of music!
Since I brought up the resources available at www.CornerstoneConcerts.com, let me take a couple minutes to pass on some other great links you may not know about.
Almost every Wednesday during worship choir rehearsal, we take a break from singing to "Breathe, Refresh, And Intensely Listen"- our "BRAIL Time", if you will. I try and find a video or audio clip for the choir that lends itself to discussion afterwards. We'll watch different worship leaders, listen to different sounds and songs, and just evaluate what we see/hear...the good, bad, and ugly....all because we're trying to learn, improve, and get better.
Not only that, but in researching more about Idol, I found that the AI singers actually performed the song twice. Once with the word "Jesus" replaced...and then the next night with the "correct" lyrics.
The whole situation has led to a lot of controversy (which Idol is no stranger to, by the way)...Christians upset that the word Jesus wasn't used the first time...non-Christians upset at their favorite television show proselytizing...you name it, somebody's complained about it.
And the whole thing made me stop and ask myself, "What do I think about this?" When one of our most loved worship songs makes it to one of our nation's most-loved TV shows...is that a good thing?
I admit to going through the range of emotions and reactions as I watched the show live last week. Here's a short, stream-of-consciousness version:
"Wow, that's Shout to the Lord...that's cool that's on American Idol...but it's kinda weird too...I doubt all those people are Christians...they really look like they're worshipping...hmm...it's really easy to appear you're worshipping...why would Idol put this song on...that sounds really good..."
End stream of consciousness. :)
Anyway, as I was preparing to show the clip in choir rehearsal, I found an article online by Josh Harris, a well-known pastor and author (I Kissed Dating Goodbye, Stop Dating the Church). He had written an initial blog post about the AI/Shout to the Lord story, and then when it received such a huge reaction, followed it up with some closing thoughts. As I read Josh's point of view, I decided he did a great job of summing up the different reactions to this interesting song choice, and explaining what a logical Christian reaction should be. Check out the article on his site here.
"My Jesus, my Savior, Lord, there is none like You."
Let those words ring in your heart and life this week - and maybe start praying for a chance to share with one of Idol's 30-million viewers what they really mean.
Molly and I spent all of last week in Texas during her spring break...and it was wonderful! On Monday the 24th, we flew into Houston and headed immediately to Galveston, a beach town on the Gulf about 45 miles away.
We were in Galveston four nights -- I told Molly that was "her" half of the vacation. We stayed in a hotel right across the street from the Gulf of Mexico, hung out by the pool, walked on the beach, ate too much, and all that fun stuff :) Very relaxing...
By Friday, it was time to relocate to downtown Houston...we spent the last three nights of our trip there and went to the Galleria (one of the country's biggest malls), three NCAA basketball tournament games, a baseball game, my uncle and aunt's house, and a church service at Lakewood (one of the country's biggest churches). Very busy...
And guess whose half of the vacation that was? :)
It really isn't fair to divide vacation in halves, I've decided...especially because Molly was a good enough sport to come to an NBA game with me...during the first part of the trip...and on our wedding anniversary :)
But we ate a candlelight dinner downtown at a really nice Italian restaurant, so I'm calling it the perfect celebration evening! (It doesn't matter that we completely lucked into this restaurant and it was the only dining option around, does it? :)
All joking aside, we really did have a great trip. It's nice every now and again to get away from the daily grind and spend time together without a set schedule. Thanks to those of you who asked how everything went...and now I'm looking forward to getting back up on stage Sunday and worshipping with all of you!
As part of this year's Most Wanted List campaign, we're hoping to invite 1,000 friends to attend our Christmas program, The Richest Family in Town, in the 1,000 hours before the first performance. You can find more information about our production at: SpringfieldChristmas.com
I have recently started reading a book called "A Gospel Primer for Christians" by Milton Vincent. It is a devotional reading of sorts. The premise of the book is that the Gospel should be taught to believers just as much as it should be to unbelievers. So after the introduction it is broken down into small sections designed to be read each day to focus your thoughts on the good news of Jesus Christ.
