Advice for the young preacher
February 24, 2009
Came across this great advice from Paul to Timothy
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Francis Chan Friday
February 20, 2009
Well first I listened to my buddy Jeremy Chan Blount on his first sermon at Pathway and he really did a great job. Click here for the web page and click on “watch” across from the sermon titled “The Core: So In Love”. Great job , bro. Can’t wait to be there in person to hear another! I’ve been reading again the book Crazy Love and lately God’s really been causing my prayer life to step up and it seems the main focus this month anyway has been all about love and loving everyone I come in contact with. Loving like Christ loves. If you haven’t experienced the preaching of Francis Chan then here’s a taste of him being real.
Psalm 22
February 19, 2009
Great day at work today. Decided that every time I got into my truck I would read a different Psalm. After a few I ended up stopping with one that I just couldn’t get past. Psalm 22 is this picture of Jesus on the cross and you can really visualize the suffering. Many questions come up about the physical aspects of it. Vs 14-17. It reminds me of this description from a book by Joni Eareckson Tada, When God Weeps. I read it awhile back and I found it again, so take some time to read it and read Psalm 22 again and try to visualize or understand what when on between father and son. If you have children, try to picture your own child nailed to a cross and maybe you can get a glimpse of what the Father felt.
The face that Moses had begged to see, was forbidden to see, was slapped bloody (Exodus 33:19-20). The thorns that God had sent to curse the earth’s rebellion now twisted around his own brow….”On your back with you!” One raises a mallet to sink in the spike. But the soldier’s heart must continue pumping as he readies the prisoner’s wrist. Someone must sustain the soldier’s life minute by minute, for no man has this power on his own. Who supplies breath to his lungs? Who gives energy to his cells? Who holds his molecules together? Only by the Son do “all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). The victim wills that the soldier live on—he grants the warrior’s continued existence. The man swings. As the man swings, the Son recalls how he and the Father first designed the medial nerve of the human forearm—the sensations it would be capable of. The design proves flawless—the nerves perform exquisitely. -”Up you go!”
They lift the cross. God is on display in his underwear and can scarcely breathe. But these pains are a mere warm-up to his other and growing dread. He begins to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during this day an unearthly foul odor began to waft, not around his nose,but his heart. He feels dirty. Human wickedness starts to crawl upon his spotless being the living excrement from our souls. The apple of his Father’s eye turns brown with rot.
His Father! He must face his Father like this!From heaven the Father now rouses himself like a lion disturbed, shakes his mane, and roars against the shriveling remnant of a man hanging on a cross. Never has the Son seen the Father look at him so, never felt even the least of his hot breath. But the roar shakes the unseen world and darkens the visible sky. The Son does not recognize these eyes.
“Son of Man! Why have you behaved so? You have cheated, lusted, stolen, gossiped, murdered, envied, hated, lied. You have cursed, robbed, overspent, overeaten,fornicated, disobeyed, embezzled,and blasphemed. Oh, the duties you have shirked, the children you have abandoned! Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled my name? Have you ever held your razor tongue? What a self-righteous, pitiful drunk you, who molest young boys, peddle killer drugs, travel in cliques, and mock your parents. Who gave you the boldness to rig elections, foment revolutions, torture animals, and worship demons? Does the list never end! Splitting families, raping virgins, acting smugly, playing the pimp, buying politicians, practicing exhortation, filming pornography, accepting bribes. You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorist tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves, relishing each morsel and bragging about it all. I hate, loathe these things in you! Disgust of everything about you consumes me!
Can you not feel my wrath?”
Of course the Son is innocent. He is blameless itself. The Father knows this. But the divine pair have an agreement, and the unthinkable must now take place. Jesus will be treated as if personally responsible for every sin ever committed. The Father watches as his hearts treasure, the mirror image of himself, sinks drowning into raw, liquid sin. Jehovah’s stored rage against humankind from every century explodes in a single direction.
“Father! Father! Why have you forsaken me?!”
But heaven stops its ears. The Son stares up at the One who cannot, who will not, reach down or reply. The Trinity had planned it. The Son endured it.The Spirit enabled him. The Father rejected the Son whom he loved. Jesus, the God-man from Nazareth, perished. The Father accepted his sacrifice for sin and was satisfied.
The Rescue was accomplished.
(taken from: “When God Weeps” by Steven Estes & Joni Eareckson)
Funny Friday-Practical Parenting for new parents!
February 6, 2009
Here ya go Jeremy and Nicole!
Clarity or Trust
February 5, 2009
Wow, it’s been awhile since I last posted. Been real busy lately. Gotta chill out, I know. Well since I last posted I was wrestling with a decision about a missions trip to Honduras. And wow, did I wrestle. I really tried to come up with excuses of why I shouldn’t or couldn’t but it all sounded short of really trusting God. I mean do I really live what I say I believe? That I love God with all that I have and all that I am and He will direct and provide? So after much prayer and a peace about it, my son and I are going to Honduras with about 10 others. More info to come.
Heard this today and it was really good to hear. A Mother Teresa story:
John Kavanagh went to Calcutta to work with Mother Teresa. While there, he asked her to pray for him. “What should I pray for?” she asked.
“Pray that I may have clarity,” he replied.
Mother Teresa responded, “No, I will not pray for that.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Clarity is the last thing you cling to,” she said. Kavanagh then remarked that she always seemed to have clarity.
She said, “I have never had clarity. What I always had is trust. So I will pray that you trust God.”
We all face these times. A “conflict of faith” as I think the Experiencing God book puts it. Sometimes we want to know exactly what God’s will is for our lives. But we keep trusting Him first, all along seeking His face.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight. Prov 3:5-6
