Interactive Sermon

Preparing Our Hearts

As you prepare to gather tomorrow and worship the Lord as the Body of Christ, know that I will be with you in Spirit - from the other side of the world.  Our G.O. Team and I will be gathering tomorrow morning with our friends at the Arandis Christian Church in Arandis, Namibia, and enjoying the teaching of Pastor Tresford Banda and the hospitality of the congregation there.

At Christ's Church, Elder Richard Griffin will be bringing a message from the book of James.  If you'd like a headstart, give James a summary read before tomorrow morning.

Shari and the music team have put together a great set of music.  Prepare to lend your voice to the choir of praises!

Knowing that you will be gathered together in His name there, and that we are gathering in His name here, is a glorious thing.  I'll look forward to being back with you soon.

Conversing Thru Ecclesiastes pt. 4

Continuing a collective read and share thru the book of Ecclesiastes.  Read up.  Join in!

Picking up, again, where we left off...

Ecclesiastes 2:12-16

v. 12 - Solomon turns his consideration to a comparison of wisdom and foolishness.  Certainly our parents weren't lying to us all those years when they championed wise decision making over reckless abandon.

v. 13 - And sure enough, that's what Solomon found: there is an earthly benefit to wisdom over folly.   While there is benefit in this lifetime of wisdom over foolishness - as light is better than darkness Solomon illustrates - it too is fleeting as he will conclude in the middle of verse 14.

v. 14 - It is better to have eyes and see rather than to be blind and stumble through this life.  Notice the 'but'.  But, in the end - here it is again - it doesn't make a lasting difference.  The same fate awaits the wise as awaits the fool.  And indeed, this is the truth he works out over the next two verses.

v. 15 - Rather discouraging isn't it.  It strikes me that this must be discouraging, so as to point our hopes to a bigger plan.  If it is not for something else - something other - than there is not advantage to wisdom that lasts.  Again, the word meaningless is used.

v. 16 - Here is the 'lasting' part of the thought.  In time everyone dies.  In time everyone will be forgotten.  In time their contributions will be lost.  In time it will all prove to have been utterly temporal. 

What do you do with that?

Technorati Tags: Interactive Sermon, Ecclesiastes, Online Bible Study

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Gone To Namibia

The G.O. Team departs today for Namibia.  That means that as you read this I am winging my way towards the African country of Namibia with 17 teammates, intending to come alongside our partners there in ministering to the country's many HIV/AIDS orphans and vulnerable children.

Through the marvel of technology (and some advance planning on my part... see, I told you there was a God!), posts will continue here on a somewhat regular basis for those with an Interactive Sermon appetite.  We will be blogging live from Namibia on our team site www.namibia2007.blogspot.com putting up journal pages, photos and video clips as we're able.  Please link over to that site and follow our trip, pray and converse with us there.

Thank you for your prayers and concerns on our behalf.  Talk to you soon.

Preparing Our Hearts

We have an exciting worship service planned for tomorrow morning.  Remember that starting tomorrow we roll back to our Summer Schedule, which means one Sunday Morning Worship Service at 10AM.

Mike and members of the worship band who put together the CD Change The World will be leading us in song, playing many of the songs from that new disc.  We will have some special inclusions in our time of praise and worship - I know you will be blessed.

During the service we will be commissioning missionaries amongst us: Daryl & Gina Erickson for mission work that they will be undertaking later this year in Ethiopia with World Medical Mission, and also members of our 2007 Team going to Namibia, departing on Monday.

If you like an advance look at the text we will consider together, give a look at Esther chapter 4.

I really look forward to gathering with you tomorrow.  Together, as we worship the King of Kings - we will change the world.

Conversing Thru Ecclesiastes pt. 3

Continuing a collective read and share thru the book of Ecclesiastes.  Read up.  Join in!

Picking up where we left off...

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

Having begun to look for meaningfulness in human endeavor, Solomon continues the pursuit, this time considering pleasure, projects, wealth, and self-indulgence.  Will any of this bring lasting meaning?

v. 1 - Notice the word 'but' in the middle of the verse.  It's as if Solomon is agreeing with the thinking of his day - indeed the thinking of our day - that surely pleasure will be of lasting comfort.  That but suggests that we should be somewhat alerted, this doesn't deliver as promised.

v. 2 - Laughter is a good thing.  Doctors will tell you that.  Laughter has a medicinal quality to it.  But, once again, it is fleeting.  Note the question: What does that accomplish?  Nothing that lasts forever.

v. 3 - Solomon tried drink and folly.  It's interesting to me his choice of words here: "my mind still guiding me with wisdom".  It's as if he was trying to bury his disappointment of 'wisdom's discovery' that all things are fleeting. In the end, the truth of that realization couldn't be covered.

The end of verse 3 Solomon declares that he's looking to see something that will make a lasting difference in the world.  Maybe we all know that longing.

v. 4 - Solomon undertook great projects.  There is some satisfaction in that - completing something you've toiled over.  But, it too is fleeting.

In 1992 I enrolled in a Bible College in Central Florida.  The campus of this school was a former hotel and sales center for what was, 20 years earlier, a prestigious area of new development right outside of Disney property.  So, in their day, the buildings that this Bible College purchased to call 'home' were state of the art.  By the time I was at the school they were state of decline.  A few years ago I drove thru the former campus - the school having closed it's doors the year I graduated (I was hell on that place, eh?).  The buildings had been vacant for years, they were overgrown with weeds and falling down from neglect.  They were now in a state of disrepair.  Then I read in the newspaper that the property was donated (millions of dollars... to free) to the local community to train firefighters.  In other words, they burned the joint down!  State of ashes.  So I figure 30 years.  30 years from state of the art to a pile of rubble. 

v. 5-9 - Solomon amassed all sorts of stuff.  Herds, vineyards, slaves, servants, a harem (that means... you know that that means), entertainment, parties, more so than anyone, anywhere.  And again that line appears: "my wisdom stayed with me".  He couldn't get past the reality - all this is fleeting.

v. 10 - This reads as if he almost said, 'Okay, I'll even turn it up another notch!'  It's as if he went hog-wild.  And, he found some pleasure.  Let's be honest, there was pleasure along the way.  But...

v.  11 - This verse begins with the distant cousin of the 'big but' - the big 'yet'.  Yet, Solomon slowed down to collect an appraisal - it was still all fleeting.

This entire book is going to contrast the temporal with the eternal; what is fleeting with what is lasting.  What pursuits do we find ourselves on to affect meaning in this life?

Technorati Tags: Interactive Sermon, Ecclesiastes, Online Bible Study

A Pit Viper Or A Velvet Elvis? pt 7

Continuing my parallel reading and review of John MacArthur's 'The Truth War' and Rob Bell's 'Velvet Elvis'.  You can order copies of both of these books by clicking on them in the left hand panel of this blog.

Through chapter 6 in each book... interest in one gaining; interest in the other waning.

Bell's 6th chapter is entitled 'New'.  He contrasts an all-too-common understanding of sin and sin nature heard in the church today with the Scriptures and the concept of newness in Christ.  He contrasts the oft-heard teachings of things we should not do, and those things that we should do - read the Bible more, pray more, serve more and so on with the bigger picture of our identity in Christ.  His opening salvo is framed in the sentence, "It seems as if becoming a Christian had given him (a friend) more things to feel guilty about."  He concludes that if we taught people more about who they are - their identity in Christ - they wouldn't have to be told what to do.  "The point", he argues, "isn't sin management.  The point is who we are now." 

Bell gives a very clear gospel presentation in this chapter.  Anyone (like MacArthur) who wonders if the emergent has a grip on Gospel Truth need look no further than this chapter.  He clearly articulates that there is a choice to be made: either Christ or an answer of your own invention.  The remainder of the chapter, Bell calls our attention once again to the living out of the gospel here and now - not as a 'after we've died' hope, but a present hope and reality.  This is Kingdom of God living/teaching/theology.  I really like Bell's progression.

John MacArthur, on the other hand, is slowly losing my interest.  His 6th segment is entitled 'The Evil of False Teaching: How Error Turns Grace Into Licentiousness.  Let me remind you that I do like John MacArthur and I respect him as one of the foremost Bible teachers in our day.  However, I'm tiring on this book.  This chapter is his third in a row expounding on Jude 4 (not a chapter... a verse... Jude 4 - and I've looked ahead, he continues for a fourth straight chapter in his chapter 7).  This man could write a four volume commentary on a paragraph!  I feel like I've been warned.  And warned.  And warned again.  He turns up the concentration a notch in this chapter as he enters into the difficult doctrinal and philosophical implications of the co-existence of God's sovereignty and the fact of evil.  I must admit, this is an excellent theological teaching, but has me dozing a bit, reminiscent of seminary.  I had a professor in seminary tell me once, "There is no 45 minute sermon that can not be better in 30 minutes."  There is no lesson in 4 chapters that cannot be...

Near the close of his 6th chapter, MacArthur asserts 'How to spot an apostate'.  Look!  I see one.  Right there!  Just kidding.  He concludes that they are, first of all, ungodly and given to lewdness.  You guessed it.  He goes right into naming names and making a case against the leading Emergent voices.  Here, he is just plain wrong.  He quotes Brian McLaren as saying that we ought to take a five year break from speaking about homosexuality.  He quotes an article that appeared in Christianity Today last year - an article that I read and blogged about here.  Mac takes the quote horribly out of context, and horribly away from what the article was actually about.  He lists Donald Miller, Mark Driscoll and Tony Campolo by name.  Then he concludes by saying that the defining straw in identifying an apostate is their "denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ."  He has a problem here.  Though they may be quoted in Christianity Today and appear wishy-washy on homosexuality; may write a book championing liberal political views; be a cussing pastor; or write about one in approving terms in a book of their own; none of these men named would deny God or the Lord Jesus Christ as being the One and only true God.  Oops.   

Darinisms ~ I am downright enjoying Elvis.  I am beginning to tire on Truth War.  I'm hoping for a breath of fresh air soon.  At the risk of sounding like one of those emergent apostates, can't we just get along?

Technorati Tags: Interactive Sermon, John MacArthur, Rob Bell, The Truth War, Velvet Elvis

What's On My Mind?

A mind is a terrible thing to chaste... uh, paste... uh, haste... How does that go again?

Look Who's Lurking ~ Yep, this might just get interesting.  I got a call from Barack Obama the other day.  Not from Barack personally, from his people.  They invited me to a meeting to talk religion with Barack.  Not Barack in person, Barack on a television.  And not really to talk with him, but to listen to him.  And not really to... I declined.  But should Fred call...

Thank You Governor Lynch ~ This may just be the only thing Governor Lynch and I see eye to eye on.  My asthmatic lungs thank you, sir.  3 Chords thanks you.  (I mean, now that my ministry includes 'singer in a bar band', wheezing is a big concern.) I cannot wait for those dates we have booked in the fall.  Shenanigans won't be the same without the wheeze.

4 More Nights In My Own Bed ~ Yep, the countdown is on to Namibia 2007's departure.  Lots of Namibia preparations are on my mind right now.  Through the wonders of technology, you should see an uninterrupted flow of posts here from me while I'm gone (insert creepy Twilight Zone music here) but you will want to look at our Namibia 2007 blog to see my journal updates, pictures and videos that we will post while we're on the ground in Africa.

A Hot Date With A Blonde ~ I need to stop blogging and go meet my wife.  Lunch with my favorite person in the whole world awaits!

Technorati Tags: Interactive Sermon, Fred Thompson, Barack Obama, John Lynch

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Moving On... Maybe

Interactive Sermon Exclusive!

Thank you to all of our 3 Chords Cohorts.  News this morning is that we were chosen to move on to the Finals in the Milford Idol Competition against the winner of next week's Semi-Final round between a solo artist named Jessica and the band Crazy Jane.  That's the good news.

The bad news is that the same notification of our win last night also lists July 3rd as the date for the Finals face-off, and I will be in Namibia.  So, either 3 Chords will be three persons that night, or the hosts of this contest will need to delay the Finals a couple of weeks for my return.  We have contacted the powers that be to inquire about that.

So, thanks again for your stellar support last night.  It is a privilege for us to have so many friends come out and share the evening with us.  We will keep you posted on just what our moving on to the Finals will entail as soon as we know.

Technorati Tags: 3 Chords & A Cloud of Dust, Shenanigans, Milford Idol