Adoption

I was going through the 300+ blog posts that had accumulated in my google reader over the past 4 days and found a link to a great resource for churches looking to start adoption funds.  How amazing would it be if the church took seriously its call to care for widows and orphans?

Adoption lies in the future for Jennifer and I. The who, what, when, where, questions still lie unanswered, but the reality is already in our hearts. As the website above points out, money is one of the hardest challenges to overcome with adoption. While money is a big challenge, it is also a strong and powerful reminder to me of the gospel.  See, the price that Jennifer will have to pay in order to become the father and mother of one who is father and motherless will be thousands of dollars. When I think of this great financial cost I am always reminded that Jennifer and I were adopted by God at the greatest of expenses… the very life of his son (Gal 4:3-7).

Church… adoption beats in the heart of the gospel. Let us take seriously the call to care for the father and motherless. Let us give ourselves and our money to make the grace of God in adoption known to the world.

Justin Holcomb

I was browsing my professor’s church website this morning and came across a text of one of his recent sermons.  Let me just say, if I lived in Charlottesville, I might have to become Episcopal so I could hear this every Sunday.

Pastors - Don’t Waste Your Pulpit

Just another reason I love John Piper!

Lyric snob

I’m a snob about a lot of things…one of them…worship song lyrics. I don’t recall exactly when it started, i have a sneaking suspicion that it’s ryan’s fault though. I realize that there are some songs/lyrics that (i assume) are intended to be sung, “in faith”…like, “In all I do…I honor You”. Because surely the songwriter didn’t think many (or any??) could sing that without lying to God. Regardless I usually add words in to make me feel less like i’m lying…& if the song just strikes me as completely wrong, won’t sing it at all….i’ll just praise God in my head.

We got off on a tangent about this in class 2wks ago. It was funny to me how many others apparently do this.

I had a little chuckle today as I changed some lyrics to a song we sang (that i REALLY dig btw):
Where you go I’ll go
Chorus:
Where you go I go
What you say I say
What you pray I pray
What you pray I pray

Bridge:
Though the world sees and soon forgets
We will not forget who you are and what you’ve done for us

Jenn’s version:
Where you go I wanna go
What you say I wanna say
What you pray I wanna pray…ect.

Though the world sees and soon forgets
Help us not forget who you are and what you’ve done for us

course who am i kidding, it should probably be: “where you go I wanna wanna go…ect.” but that doesn’t really fit with the timing as well.

Monday’s Musings on Sunday’s Sermon

Last week I finally got around to taking the expository listening quiz that ryan found so interesting. It was slightly convicting to be honest.

Don’t go expecting Jenn’s weekly musings or anything though….they will remain as they are, random & not well thought-out.

Without further ado this is what I heard on Sunday:
Ecclesiastes 9:1-12

God is in control/sovereign, even when we think things are bad/out of control.
I’m generally ok with this. I realize there are times/areas I try to control & it doesn’t mean i enjoy suffering (or seeing it), but generally speaking, I’m quite aware of my inability to make things work….and I’m quite comforted by the fact that “even if I don’t know, God does & he’s stronger & smarter than me”. What I don’t like is the thought of senseless suffering, which is what it would be if God were not behind it. I esp. enjoyed the C.S. Lewis quote on “the problem w/pain”: “God is more interested in your holiness than your happiness” (sorry if that was misquoted).

Everyone Will Die. Most of us would live differently if we knew exactly how much time we had.
I was reminded of a quote from the movie, “Crazy Sexy Cancer” when she said, (again, probably not exact): “Cancer isn’t killing me, it’s forcing me to live.”

If you’re alive there’s still hope.

Life is short & time is stolen, sucked away by hate & bitterness.
Um, yeah. Let’s not do that.

“push pause on your fast-paced life”
I believe the exact phrasing was, “share a meal together” at which point I got a little sidetracked thinking about food….mmm…..

Work hard b/c your significance is not WHAT you accomplish but WHO you accomplish it for
that would be God, right?

Church Websites

Most of them are seriously LAME… Here is a great one:

Grace Central

Also, this has to be one of top 10 church names ever (Drew, another one down)… Grace Central… SWEET!

Finally, read their explanation of the church service. I LOVE the explanation of why they sing lots of hymns.

(Asher’s) Monday musings on Sunday’s (school) sermon

Not an exact transcript, but this is pieced together from 2 conversations we had yesterday about his class:

R - So what did you learn about in class today?
A - Jesus… and Matthew.
R - Oh, what did you you learn about Jesus and Matthew
A - He was a co-wek-ter… a…
R - tax?
A - Oh, yeah, a tax collector. He was Jesus friend.
R - Was Matthew Jesus’ disciple?
A - No, he was a co-wek-ter… uh, tax co-wek-ter.
R - Did you learn anything else?
A - People didn’t like co-wek-ters but Jesus loved them.
R - Wow, that’s great. Jesus loves everyone and he teaches us that we need to love others. Do you want to know what daddy learned in church today?
A - Yeah.
R - “Yes Sir”
A - Yes sir.
R - Daddy learned that God made everything in the world and that He is in control. And that God puts people in charge and that he needs to obey them. Just like how God put mommy and daddy in charge of Asher and you need to obey them. Cool huh?
A - Yeah
R - So, what did daddy learn at church?
A - God made everything… like the earth, and the stars, and trees, and that painting, and that chair, and lizards, and dogs…
R - and…
A - and that God is in control and he puts people in charge.
R - Thats right son, God is in control.

Monday musings on Sunday’s sermon

After a long hiatus, it has returned…

Sunday was great. I don’t know how many times I can say how much I love CrossPointe. This Sunday we were a little late as we are still trying to gauge the commute to church so we immediately rushed the kids to children’s church and then us into the service. It is pretty cool… the church ALWAYS starts on time. So, if you (or us in this case) are 5 minutes late… you’ve missed the first song… So, yeah, we missed the first song.

The sermon this week was on Ecclesiastes 9 and was throughly refreshing and challenging. Chan spoke about a very touchy subjects for people, namely authority. Specifically he addressed our relation to natural authority and how that reveals a lot about that is in our heart in regards to God’s heavenly authority. It was so refreshing to be reminded that when I grumble about natural authority (like a boss) that I am ultimately grumbling about God’s authority… not only that, but I’m grumbling and complaining, most often, just about opinion. It was also cool that Chan stepped on our proverbial toes by mentioning that this applies to spiritual authority as well. Something about that really struck me and I realized that it had been a while since I had thought about spiritual authorities in my life… not much more progressed in my mind… but that is lingering in there. From here Chan discussed God’s sovereign authority. Again, another crowd pleaser. He bridged from Ecclesiastes to Job 38 (”Dress for action like a man; I (God) will question you and you make it known to me…”) where we are reminded of how God responds to Job when His authority is questioned. Then we went over to Romans 9:19-21 (again, another crowd pleaser). The beautiful thing was Chan’s reminder that this God who reigns and rules over all things is the same one who holds you firmly in his hands when he says:

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38-39

Indeed, at that moment I am quite happy to be reminded that God is sovereign. In the end we were taken to Colossians 1:15-20 and stared at the beauty of God in the face of Jesus.

We then entered into a time of worship that was one of the best I’ve experienced in a while. It began with singing Jesus Paid it All

Chorous:
Jesus paid it all
all to him I owe.
Sin had left a crimson stian
He wased it white as snow

We sang this while entering into communion and then continued by singing 2 songs I’ve never heard but reminded me of how much Jesus did for me on the cross. My heart was humbled before my king… communion was so sweet this morning… for those moments I am truly thankful.

Interesting

I stumbled across this link to a survey on expository listening for a M.Div student. The mere phrase was interesting to me. If you have 5 min, go take the survey and help the guy out.

Church update

I really wanted to do a “monday musing on sunday sermon” post yesterday, but alas, no time… so, in short:

Church was great. Started in Ecclesiastes and Solomon’s quest for intimacy “under the sun” and then went back to the garden in Genesis where Adam and Eve botched the intimacy between man, woman, and God… and then traveled to Ephesians where we see Christ restoring intimacy between man, woman, and God.

The bible preached from beginning to end… I LOVE IT!

… and I am SOOOO thrilled about communion every week… I actually look forward to responding to the sermon by taking communion… I really dig CrossPointe.

Next Page »