The most costly love!

What are you thinking about as you wake up in the morning? What consumes your thoughts when you are going throughout your day? I know that I am too often consumed by lesser things. I have a paper due, I have tasks to get done, I have reading I want to finish, I have people I want to meet, I am consumed with lesser things. You may be saying, “Those things seem fine.” I would agree that they are ok to think about but the reality of the Cross of Christ often eludes my thoughts during the course of a given day. CS Lewis in his sermon called the Weight of Glory detailed that all things that are good actually point to the greatest one who is ultimate goodness. Is it possible we are playing in the gutter of lesser goods when the Christ, our Treasure is ignored and not embraced? What do I mean? Well maybe this will help… What is the Gospel reality? What is the message of the Gospel? What is of first importance? Paul says that the message and reality of first importance is that Christ lived, died, was buried, and rose again victoriously (I Corinthians 15:3, 4). This message was not just for unbelievers but for believers as well. How is the message of the Cross affecting your life and relationships? It is the greatest love a man can have as we look at the Cross then the greatest care we can have for those around us is to tell the amazing story that Jesus came to raise us from dead transgressions to life in Him. Our lives have nothing to do with our “glory” and everything to do with His ultimate glory. Who have you told lately of the love that compelled Christ to embrace the cross?

J.C. Ryle (an old guy I highly admire who lived in the 1800’s) once said, “There is a common, worldly Christianity in this day, which many have, and think they have enough – a cheap Christianity which offends nobody and requires no sacrifice – which costs nothing and is worth nothing.”

May that not be the case with each of you as you share the Good News, that if you repent of your sins and turn to Christ, who bled and died to take your sins away. Your friends will never see greater love displayed than in the love of our Savior and Treasure, the Lord Jesus who displayed the most clear and complete love on the Cross!

To Pray?

Winter Fest 2008 was a huge success! It was great just to go sledding (I loved that jump on the side of the hill). I saw that Meghan Ross already had some picture on her Facebook site. It was amazing that we actually had enough snow, since a week ago they were calling for the whole week to be in the 40 degree range. God is so good to answer prayer (even though my hopes and prayers for the Patriots were ineffective).

Well the next Side by Side Youth Fellowship is not until Feb. 24^th but I was wondering what everyone thought of Pastor Paul’s message today? Prayer is something that I have always struggled with when I am in my quiet times alone. I start to pray and then get distracted or I pray through a list and check off that it is done. It has been fairly recently that I have seen God lead me into deeper times of prayer. What about you? Do you find prayer alone to be easy or difficult? Let me know how I can pray for you all as well.

Think about this, Jesus prayed often to His Father. If Jesus needed to pray often, how can we get away with any less without suffering spiritually? One way to start is just to ask God to help you to pray. The Holy Spirit was given as the ultimate teacher of all things so if you ask Him, He will show you how to pray (John 14:26). Paul says several times that we should pray all the time (Ephesians 6:18).

Rather than thinking of prayer as a task I find it extremely helpful to think of it as a dialogue with your closest friend who has all the time in the world to listen and answer you! There is so much more that can be said about prayer but I thought I would leave you with a recent quote I read by the evangelist DL Moody “I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.” Let’s thank God today that He is approachable because of Jesus who died on the Cross for our sins to make us sons and daughters of God.

Light in the darkness

John 1:4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

When you think of sin, what image does this conjure up? There were two images that come to mind. The first is darkness; sin is seen in the Bible as darkness. When Christ came into the world, John states that he is the light of life. Just yesterday when Pam and I were traveling, we stopped at a service plaza to fill up the car with gas when we saw a dog that had gotten loose from its owners and was running through the parking lot with owners in tow trying to catch it before the dog could be run over by cars coming and going. The dog thought that this was a game but in fact this was very dangerous for the dog. Sin is much like this when we encounter it in the world. Sin is deceitful and crafty and in our natural state we are unable to see sin for what it is. Many times we are like that dog that runs from its owner; God wants what is best for us and He sent His Son Jesus to the earth as Savior.

The reality of the Kingdom is that Jesus is the Lamb that takes the sin of the world so our trust is in God not in our own goodness. This brings to mind another image that I also saw yesterday. Pam and I stayed at some friend's house on the way out to Chicago who had three dogs and a kitten. When I went downstairs while holding the kitten I passed by a hanging string that was swinging, well you can guess that the cat was enamored by the string :) Needless to say I received much joy by watching the cat bat the string around while resting secure in my arms. Can you imagine the joy God receives when we turn in repentance from sin and rest in the arms of Christ as we joyessly live in light of the Savior's goodness. Can you hear the Father lovingly laugh in your ear as you rest in His grace and truth?
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Snow!!!

Sunday is always the highlight of the week because that is when Pam and I can worship corporately with all of you @ KGC. This week we really missed getting together with everyone because of the snow cancellation. We still had a great time together listening to a sermon by John Piper and meditating on deep theological truths, but something still was missing. It got me to think about how wonderful and crucial community is to us who are part of the Body of Christ. Think about it, it is so wonderful to be in fellowship with other believers while growing together into Christ-likeness. The Holy Spirit is always sweetly evident within the church service as we worship in song and in the Word together in community. What does community look like to you? How can we live out Christian community together?

Hebrews 10 gives us a good picture of what this means...

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (verses 19-25)

Let me know what you all think!

Aslan is on the move!

"It's she that makes it always winter. Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!" said Mr Tumnus to Lucy.

One thing that cannot be denied is the fact that stories hold much weight over our attention. When we hear a good story we cannot help but listen. Eugene Peterson once said that for every book written on good theology there should be five novels written illustrating it. We need great minds like Tolkien and Lewis to draw us into the story for the sake of helping us think through how we are living out the Salvation that Christ has purchased at the cross. How are we to Worship Walk & Witness the Gospel in our every conversation? With that said we must think deeper about these stories and others that are written out there.

Any good and sophisticated story can be traced back to an understanding of God and His interaction with humanity. While C.S. Lewis advocated a view of the world that pointed to God, the Golden Compass is the inverse of this view. God is truth and because of the Holy Spirit, we can see (I Cor. 2:6-16) what God has done is marvelous. This is to say the wisdom of the Gospel is not the conventional (natural) wisdom of the world. Pullman, the author of the Golden Compass, has stated several times "I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief." In fact Dr Mohler has dealt with this content in depth on his own blog. If you have the time I think that Dr Mohler's treatment on the subject is well worth the time in order to interact with your friends about the movie. There is an awful lot that can be said about this subject and he has done the work to help us think through this clearly.

Now my question to you is what should we do in response to this movie? How can we allow for discussion amongst our friends who have seen it? What can be said that will make our interactions redemptive and Spirit filled? Are you looking for open doors that God has put in your path as your dialogue with friends? Do you see this movie as an opportunity to witness what God has done for the world by sending His Son?

My prayer is that it would not be always winter and never Christmas! May the truth of the Gospel roar through the land with great joy and jubilation!

“I’ve come at last,” said he. “She has kept me out for a long time, but I have got in at last. Aslan is on the move. The witch’s magic is weakening.”

Scary Day

Today is often associated with scary images. Imagine this…

Tomorrow you wake up and there is no Bible that you can read. In Fact, the only Bible you know of is in the church in town and it is only in Latin (which you don’t know).

This was the situation 490 years ago and it was a little known monk called Martin Luther on October 31^st nailed 95 theses on the door of Schlosskirche (castle church), this was the way that people entered into debates for thought (I guess kind of like web logs today).

It was this young monk that stood up to the powerful church and monarchy of the day. He eventually would spend much time in the room pictured above translating the Bible from the original Greek and Hebrew into modern German. God used Martin and other godly men to bring the Bible to the common languages of the people. How is your time in God’s precious Word lately? Have you ever taken God's Word for granted?

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. -Hebrews 4:12 (ESV)

The first and chief article is this: Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, died for our sins and was raised again for our justification (Romans 3:24-25). He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29), and God has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6). All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works and merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood (Romans 3:23-25). This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law, or merit. Therefore, it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies us ... Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls (Mark 13:31)

-Martin Luther

Change

Change is in the air as we start to see the hints of color on the trees around the Merrimac valley. I am continually struck by the extravagant beauty of this season of change. How awesome is our God to create even the trees to change amazing colors in the autumn! As we continue to think about God and how he has transformed us, think about this verse…

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. –James 1:17

That is an amazing concept that boggles the mind. God changes us but is Himself unchanged. This reality of God is redemptive and transforming for if God is not one to change and we are changeable by Him then our hope is not solely in our ability, but it is in Him that we experience true redemptive change.

The Gospel instructs us in this as we look to Christ we see that He is the one who has saved us from sin and our hope is in Him. This should cause us to be dependent upon the Savior of our souls, for we can delight in finding that Jesus as our Treasure. When Paul wrote of this transformation he used the illustration of Moses in the Old Testament. Remember when Moses came off the mountain his face was radiant for he had been changed by being in the presence of the Lord (Exodus 34:29). Paul does not stop there but states that we too, being in Christ, have now experienced this transformation by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. –II Corinthians 3:18

This is a process as God changes us, more and more, into Christ! So my question to you as you read this is… How are you being transformed to Christ-likeness? When you look back over the year do you see the grace of God in how he has changed you? How are your times in His presence? Are you soaking in the Word and allowing the Holy Spirit free reign to change you?

I pray this year finds you, like the leaf, colored with the grace of Christ and changed to be more like Him!