I stood in line with 80 other people at the local Cingular store today to buy my wife an iPhone for her birthday.
I played with it for 4 hours - it is stinking brilliant - every bit as good as they say.
The email and web is awesome. The sync with the Mac is brilliant. She loves it. The first phone she has actually used!
From www.guythingblog.com
The activity of church and the pursuit of Christ are two different things - and unfortunately, I believe that is were most Christians, let alone most ministers get lost.
The activity of church is a good thing, it is a necessary thing, but it is not the essential thing.
The pursuit of Christ is THE essential thing.
Yet the activity of the Church is where most people put not only their effort, but gain their comfort.
We should never forsake the gathering of the brethren, to say you have no time for your church, is to say you have no time for God.
To say you have no need of church is to say you are above the divine order of things.
My point is that the pursuit of Christ must be what we encourage people to do. It must be what we urge our people to pursue. It must be what we lead our teams to do.
We have a young staff, in fact a young church, both demographically and chronologically. There is a tendency to either get caught up in or worn out by the excitement of the new activity, a tendency to loose sight of the important in the midst of the urgent.
As their Pastor and leader, I can not afford to let them.
Christ is our goal, church is our means, and reformation will be our outcome.
The activity of church and the pursuit of Christ are two different things - and unfortunately, I believe that is were most Christians, let alone most ministers get lost.
The activity of church is a good thing, it is a necessary thing, but it is not the essential thing.
The pursuit of Christ is THE essential thing.
Yet the activity of the Church is where most people put not only their effort, but gain their comfort.
We should never forsake the gathering of the brethren, to say you have no time for your church, is to say you have no time for God.
To say you have no need of church is to say you are above the divine order of things.
My point is that the pursuit of Christ must be what we encourage people to do. It must be what we urge our people to pursue. It must be what we lead our teams to do.
We have a young staff, in fact a young church, both demographically and chronologically. There is a tendency to either get caught up in or worn out by the excitement of the new activity, a tendency to loose sight of the important in the midst of the urgent.
As their Pastor and leader, I can not afford to let them.
Christ is our goal, church is our means, and reformation will be our outcome.
Samuel Coley, 1868
“A gospel minus repentance, a salvation without conviction of sin, a faith without trust, an assurance by logic, and a religion without holiness - what will it all issue but an eternity without hope?”
Thomas Collins 1838
“Wise men are wedded to usefulness, not methods.”
Samuel Coley, 1868
“A gospel minus repentance, a salvation without conviction of sin, a faith without trust, an assurance by logic, and a religion without holiness - what will it all issue but an eternity without hope?”
Thomas Collins 1838
“Wise men are wedded to usefulness, not methods.”
You have to give up a lot to be a Christian……
You have to give up hell, to get to heaven.
You have to give up bondage, to get freedom.
You have to give up brokenness, to get wholeness.
You have to give up sickness, to get healing.
You have to give up poverty, to get prosperity.
You have to give up fear, for faith.
You have to give up hopelessness, for a future.
You need to give up the old life, to get a new life.
You have to give up loneliness, for One who will be closer than a brother.
You have to give up a lot.
And is that not the wonder of it all….
13 “making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down.”
(Mark 7:13, NKJV).
No effect: to render void, deprive of force and authority
No effect: No sign. No evidence.
Not intentionally, but traditionally.
Tradition - the way we have always experienced it
- the way it has always been done
- the way you have always thought about it or done it.
People may come to church for the GOOD – the lifestyle changes and lifestyle enhancement for a while.
But unless people are introduced to a supernatural Jesus in a supernatural way their regret for the activities of their life will never become repentance from the sin they have committed.
If you remove the resurrection power of Jesus Christ out of Christianity all you have left is a bunch of rules and regulations. That at best make up a religion, and at worst make up a collection of traditions that have been handed down through the generations by men.
The really absurd thing is that they are not even our own experiences, they are the failures and failings of someone else handed down to us.
Many of us have grown up with thoughts, ideas and concepts about God that are experientially based and not biblically based.
If you allow someone to make your world for you, they will always make it to small.
If you allow someone to dictate the size and power of your God to you then they will always do it based on THEIR world view and their experience.
You need a BIGGER authority than your fellow man, or even fellow Christian to discover who God truly is.
Yesterday we cleared out all of the inside of the chapel. I mean gutted the whole thing.
20 people and 9 hours later we were all hammered.
I went to bed by 7 and was asleep by 9pm.
I spoke to Alethia (church secretary) today and she says she hurts in places she didn’t know exsisted! But it looks brilliant.
I am so proud of the church, of how it is pulling together and making things happen.
Check out the pics on the church website .
Does God Exist – A Scientific Inquiry
Does God Exist? The other day I was asked to prove the existence of God. It was a one-on-one conversation with a skeptical friend, who somehow thrust the burden of proof on me. He didn’t want the religious, moral or philosophical arguments — He wanted the scientific “proof.”
Does God Exist – Is a Scientific Approach Possible?
When it comes to the question, “Does God Exist,” there are really only two possible conclusions: God either is, or He isn’t. There’s no half-way. There’s no sliding scale. Whether you’re an atheist or whether you’re a theist, there’s a certain level of knowledge, and there’s a certain level of faith.
I thought for a moment… Can I prove the existence of God — scientifically? In my religious/moral/philosophical experience, He’s been proven to me. However, my friend hasn’t walked the same journey as me. He wants the facts — he wants the naturalistic proof for a supernatural reality.
I came to the conclusion that my friend’s question was a fair one. He deserved my best attempt at an answer. So, I gave it a shot…