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| Gettysburg Veterans - 50th Anniversary (Photo credit: BattlefieldPortraits.com) |
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Gettysburg Veterans, 1938
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Ava-Grace finally takes a nap
Ava-Grace wouldn't lay down for a nap like her mommy wanted her to do. To keep from falling asleep, she stood up at the corner of the couch and cried until sleep overcame her strong little will.Monday, July 27, 2009
US pressure on Jerusalem
"Awake, Awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city.Shake yourself from the dust, Arise!...Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion!" (Isaiah 52:1-2). "'For it shall come to pass in that day,' says the LORD of hosts, 'That I will break his yoke from your neck, and will burst your bonds; Foreigners shall no more enslave them. But they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, Whom I will raise up for them." (Jeremiah 30:8-9).
A July 16th HaAretz headline read, "Obama to set binding timetable for Israel-PA talks". The following weekend Israel's Ambassador to Washington was summoned to the U.S. State Department and told that the Obama administration desired Israel put a stop to construction work at the site of a historic hotel in east Jerusalem. The area in question was annexed along with other Jerusalem neighborhoods following the Six Day War, and part of the property on which homes are to be built has been owned by a Jewish Doctor for more than 20 years. But the U.S. does not officially recognize the part of Jerusalem taken from Jordan in '67 as being part of Israel. In fact, U.S. passports for American citizens born in Jerusalem do not list a "country of birth"-to name "Israel" would be thought prejudicial to a final-status agreement sought in the U.S. sponsored Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
It is not a normal thing for Israel's Ambassador to be 'summoned' for such a directive. This signaled a new and worrying progression in the U.S. Administration's application of pressure on Israel to come into line with its view of what makes for peace in the region. And now there are four high-level American officials being sent to Israel in the space of one week: U.S. Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, U.S. National Security Advisor James Jones, and White House Iranian affairs expert Dennis Ross-presumably to bring influence on Israel to agree to freeze construction in Judea and Samaria, and also to promise to avoid any unilateral action against Iran's nuclear threat.
Following the State Department's action, Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu responded sharply by stating that Israel's sovereignty in Jerusalem is "not up for debate"-nor would she halt building in any part of Jerusalem she desired: "We cannot accept the notion that Jews will not have the right to buy apartments specifically in Jerusalem. I can only imagine what would happen if they were forbidden from purchasing apartments in New York or London, there would be an international outcry." The Jerusalem Post (July 19, 2009, Online Edition) reported that "sources close to the prime minister said that Obama 'had crossed a red line' when his administration began demanding that Israel cease building projects in its sovereign capital."
PLEASE PRAY:
*For Prime Minister Netanyahu to receive Divine guidance and counsel in overseeing the nation and its capital Jerusalem. Pray that any bonds lashing him and his cabinet to directions for the city apposed to those of God, become "non-binding"-and that he be given grace to govern all of Jerusalem wisely and in the fear of the LORD.
*For President Barak Obama-that he heed godly counsel and move in that authority with which he has been divinely entrusted, and only within that authority. That he remember and seek counsel from the God he has testified to be his Lord. That he not presume to lift up his authority to attempt to "bind" Israel. It is and has always been to her God that she stands or falls.
Source: Israel Prayer List
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Colossians 1:3-8: Invitation to Christ-centered life
Focus and undivided attention. That is what you need to be successful whether in rifle marksmanship, basketball, balancing your checkbook, or cultivating a relationship. That kind of centered attention is what Paul invites the Colossians to do in today’s passage. And that center for the Colossian believers, and for us, is Christ.
Pray & Read: Colossians 1:3-8
Contextual Notes: Paul wrote Colossians while a capital prisoner under house arrest awaiting trial in Rome. The Colossians’ pastor named Epaphras had traveled from Asia Minor to Italy to meet with Paul and tell him about issues that put the Christ’s centrality at the Colossian church in jeopardy. Paul’s letter is a powerful statement of the centrality of Jesus Christ written to a church a little confused about his primacy. Today we look at the first full paragraph of this letter to see Paul invite the Colossians to a Christ-centered life.
Key Truth: Paul wrote Colossians 1:3-8 to invite the Colossian Christians to a Christ-centered life, a Christ-centered church, and to be a Christ-centered disciple.
Key Application: Today I want to show you what God’s Word says about Christ-centered living.
Sermon Points:
- Invitation to a Christ-centered life (Col 1:3-5)
- Invitation to a Christ-centered Church (Col 1:6)
- Invitation to be a Christ-centered disciple (Col 1:7-8)
Exposition: Note well,
1. INVITATION TO A CHRIST-CENTERED LIFE (1:3-5).
a. Faith, Hope, Love- 1 Corinthians 13:13
b. Word- of truth, the gospel – stored up in heaven
c. Thanksgiving prayer- Paul is thankful as he prays for these believers that they are living a Christ-centered life.
d. ILLUSTRATION: Like the great tree of Psalm 1, Paul describes living in Christ with the gospel word as the root, the eternal hope as the trunk, faith the branches, and love the fruit of the Christian life. In verse 6 he gives the image of “producing fruit and growing” (NIV), and the image returns in Colossians 2:6-7.
e. APPLICATION: What about you? Have the people at your workplace heard of your faith in Christ Jesus? Or do they hear little beyond your complaining? Is your church family seeing the love you have for the saints? Or have you reached the age or the attitude that the church is here to serve you? A Christ-centered life doesn’t assume the people are here to serve you. A self-centered life does. Which one are you?
2. INVITATION TO A CHRIST-CENTERED CHURCH (1:6).
a. We have a global faith! It’s critical that you realize what God is doing these days around the globe. Here are a few highlights According to the U.S. Center for World Mission in Pasadena, CA:
• 5,600 new churches are opening every week worldwide.
• The Church in Africa is increasing by 20,000 per day on the average; the southern part of that continent was 3% Christian in 1900 and is nearly 60% Christian today.
• Worldwide, Christianity is growing at the rate of 115,000 new believers every day.
• More Muslims in Iran have come to Christ since 1980 than in the previous 1,000 years combined.
• In 1900, Korea had no Protestant church; it was deemed “impossible to penetrate.” Today Korea is 35% Christian with 7,000 churches in the city of Seoul alone.
• In Islamic (Muslim) Indonesia, the percentage of Christians is so high the government won’t print the statistic—which is probably nearing 15% of the population.
• God is creatively sending Chinese believers to reach Tibetans, Hondurans to reach North African Muslims, and Navajos to reach Laplanders. There are currently more than 60,000 non-Western missionaries from over 1,000 non-Western mission agencies. Many of these are serving in places which are hostile to Western missionaries. The political country of India is actually a composite of at least 3,000 “nations” or people groups—the ethne we’re to reach.[1]
- In 1974, approximately one-half of the world's population was beyond the reach of the church, living in unreached people groups.
- Today, just one-third of Earth's inhabitants live in unreached people groups. "The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”[2]
- We have had a great imbalance in our missionary sending worldwide. In 1994, only 1 in 10 missionaries worldwide worked among unreached people groups. But mission agencies like the International Mission Board began to see the imbalance. Today worldwide, 1 in 4 work among the unreached peoples.
- It took 18 centuries for dedicated believers to grow from 0% of the world’s population to 2.5% in 1900, only 70 years to grow from 2.5 to 5% in 1970, and just the last 30 years to grow from 5 to 11.2% of the world population. In A.D. 100, there were 360 nonbelievers for every active Christian. Now, for the first time in history, there is one believer for every nine people worldwide who aren’t believers.[3]
- But of 16,000 people groups worldwide, there are still 6,631 unreached people groups where a child born today will live her entire life without ever hearing about the eternal hope found in Christ Jesus and die in her sins and spend eternity in a Christ-less Hell unless someone goes to tell her. Globally, 2 out of every five people living right now will never hear about Jesus in their lifetime if no one goes to tell them. Who will tell them? Will it be you?
b. APPLICATION: This train is gaining speed, but it still has a long way to go. What is your part in it?
i. Perhaps God is calling you to mobilize missions in this church. The Men on Mission and Women’s Missionary Union need your involvement.
ii. Your calling may be to save lives through the pregnancy care center here in town, and that includes the eternal destinies of the men and women as well as unborn children’s lives.
iii. Your calling may be with Campers on Mission, a statewide ministry which our church is deeply involved in. Our team will be ministering next weekend down east NC.
iv. Our youth are headed to West Virginia on a mission trip in a week, and we need to begin mobilizing for an international trip to Liberia within two years.
v. And what of our church? Have we adopted an unreached people yet for prayer and church planting? Is God is calling us to that?
vi. And what is God calling you to? Missions is not an option for you. It’s not for the professionals. It is your calling. God has a job for you, and it has to do with reaching the remaining 6,631 unreached people groups left on this planet.
vii. Participating with the Lord in growing his church is part of living a Christ-centered life in a Christ-centered church.
3. INVITATION TO BE A CHRIST-CENTERED DISCIPLE (1:7-8)
a. Epaphras: The faithful pastor of the Colossian church. Paul calls him a dear fellow servant and a faithful minister of Christ. He was also a prayer warrior (Col 4:12). Epaphras was a disciple of Jesus Christ and he was deeply involved with discipling those whom he oversaw. He poured his life into them as Paul did with him.
b. APPLICATION: Mature Christian woman, whom are you mentoring? Church leader, whom are you discipling? The Great Commission is about making disciples. Where are yours? Who are you spending time with and training in the faith? It is the way the church grows its leaders. Young Christian, that yearning in your heart to know how to grow as a Christian over a lifetime is a good one. It is a yearning for a mentor, for a disciple-maker. Have you asked a mature Christian to help you learn how to pray, how to read your Bible, how to talk to people about Christ? Epaphras discipled his church. Paul discipled him. Into whom are you pouring your life?
Invitation: To a Christ-centered life, to a Christ-centered church, to a Christ-centered discipleship.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Helping kids love missions
Ten Ways to Help Kids Love Missions
There are things we can do to help our kids love the nations and the cause of Christ, even though a heart and calling for the Great Commission is ultimately something only God can grant. Here are a few ideas. Click the link above for full article. The outline is below.
1. Pray for missionaries as a family.
2. Read missionary biographies to your children.
3. Draw the whole family into supporting missionaries financially.
4. Find your child a missionary kid pen pal.
5. Entertain missionaries in your home.
6. Take risks as a family.
7. Affirm and nurture qualities in your children which could serve them on the mission field.
8. Teach your children to be world Christians.
9. Read missionary prayer letters to your children.
10. Use missions fact books and resources.
11. Most of all, pray every day that your kids will develop hearts that mirror God’s compassion for the nations and love for his glory in them!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Colossians 1:1-2: Christ's Greetings!
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| Apostle Paul |
When I correspond with many of my West African Christian brothers or sisters, they often begin their letters or emails with an arresting stylistic phrase that mirrors the way Paul begins his letters. Sometimes they are more formal, such as, “Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!” or “May you be blessed with the blessings we find in Christ Jesus.” Often, though, I see something more brief, such as “Christ’s greetings!” That is the title of today’s message because our text today is Paul’s greeting in his letter to the Colossians.
Pray & Read: Colossians 1:1-2
Contextual Notes: Paul wrote the letter to the believers in Colossae about A.D. 62 while he was under house arrest in Rome awaiting trial before Caesar’s court (Acts 28:16, 28-30). Therefore, it is one of the letters called “Prison Epistles” along with Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon. While in Rome, he received visitors from around the world including a man named Epaphras, the prayer-warrior pastor of the Colossian church. He had come all the way from western Asia Minor to Italy to find Paul because he needed help defending the believers from false teaching that turned them away from Christ toward two different directions. One was a loosey-goosey liberal philosophy that was fascinated with the mystical and being “spiritual” with no real clarity as to what they meant by that. The other direction away from Christ was a strict conservative point of view that wanted everyone to follow an enslaving set of rules based in Jewish dietary and non-Biblical religious laws which had a spirit of control at its root – i.e., control by the people who gave out the rules.
Paul is in his early to mid-sixties, has had a lifetime of experience as a Jewish scholar, a missionary, a church planter, and a business owner. A business owner? Remember, he made and sold those expensive Bedouin tents for a living, the first century equivalent of a camper. In that sense I guess he was the original Camper on Mission.
So what would a sixty-five year old with thirty years experience in these areas bring to focus with a church he did not plant and had never visited? His whole focus for the Colossians was Jesus Christ. When it comes down to the end of things, what matters, Paul says in Colossians, is being “in Christ,” being centered on Christ, being “with him.”
Key Truth: Paul wrote Colossians 1:1-2 to greet the Colossian Christians and demonstrate that we should honor Christ in our vocation, our character, and our witness.
Key Application: Today I want to show you what the Bible says about living in Christ.
Sermon Points:
1. In Vocation: Does your life follow Christ? (Col 1:1)
2. In Character: Does your life honor Christ? (Col 1:2a)
3. In Witness: Does your life reflect Christ? (Col 1:2b)
Exposition: Note well,
1. IN VOCATION: DOES YOUR LIFE FOLLOW CHRIST? (COL 1:1).
a. Letter writing: In the ancient world, the standard form for a letter was to put first who it was from and then next to say to whom the letter was addressed. There was a practical reason for this. Instead of folding a piece of paper and placing it in an envelope, the letters were rolled up for delivery by hand to the addressee, and it was rolled so that on the outside one could easily read the TO: and FROM: while the contents remained private. That is why the letter begins with the writer, “Paul . . .”
b. Apostle: means “One sent to execute a commission.” It is used because the apostles were sent out by Jesus Christ to preach his gospel, and to establish his church.[1]
c. APPLICATION: You may say, but the Apostles are dead and gone. Yes, that’s true, but God send out people every day to do his work. In Galilee after his resurrection, Jesus Christ commanded his followers to go and make disciples of all the nations (Matt 28:18-20) and in that sense we are all sent to execute a commission.
d. Will of God: not by his own choice or will, not self-appointed, but God-appointed. Christ submitted himself to the Father.
e. Timothy: Why does Paul mention Timothy? Pretty simple. They know him. He was from the city of Lystra in the region (Acts 16:1-3) and prominent at the great church at the large city of Ephesus downriver at the coast where he at one time would serve as pastor. Perhaps Timothy was Paul’s secretary who wrote down the letter (Col 3:18). Timothy was Paul’s closest protégé and friend.
f. APPLICATION: In your vocation, your life calling, does our life follow Christ? Are you where God wants you? Are you doing what you are doing these days because you decided yourself to do it or because the Lord called you to it? Did the Lord open to you the opportunity to be in the business you are in? Is your choice of education and school and major a choice that was submitted to him? Can you sit here and be honest with yourself before the Lord and say that you know you are in the center of God’s will for your life? If not, why not? Is what you are doing simply what you decided you wanted to do on your own without any submission to the Lord you claim, and you brazenly expect God to bless whatever you are doing? Then who is really in charge of your life? Who really is Lord? Today is a good day for you to submit your life afresh to the Lord, your vocation to the Lord, your education and major to the Lord. Some here may not know Christ as Lord. Did you know that it is God’s will that you become a believer? That he has great love toward you and wants you to receive him as Savior and Lord?
2. IN CHARACTER: DOES YOUR LIFE HONOR CHRIST? (COL 1:2a).
a. To saints: lit. “holy ones.” The word “saints,” ἅγιοι hagioi, means those who are holy, or those who are devoted or consecrated to God. The radical idea of the word is what is separated from a common to a sacred use.[2] Did you know that the Scripture calls a believer a saint? You don’t have to be made a saint by the Catholic church to be one. When you receive Christ as Lord and Savior, God designates you as a saint. You become a “holy one,” not because of anything you have done, but because Christ’s sacrifice has covered you and your sin. Are you comfortable being called a saint? You are one. You’re a saint. It’s the truth.
b. Faithful brethren: true and sincere believers in Christ, constant and persevering in the faith of him; faithful to the Gospel, and their profession of it, and to Christ, whose name they bore, and to one another, to whom they stood in the relation of brethren:[3]
c. APPLICATION: In your character, does your life honor Christ? In your work, do you work with the character of Christ? You know, your character is always showing. When you charge irresponsibly on your company’s account, your character is showing. When you take home supplies and tools that don’t belong to you, your character is showing. Do you tell off color jokes or laugh at them? Your character is showing. Do you have colorful language? Your character is showing. Are you being unfaithful to your spouse? Your character is showing.
3. IN WITNESS: DOES YOUR LIFE REFLECT CHRIST? (COL 1:2b)
a. The salutation, and which stands in this form in most of Paul's epistles
b. Grace: This word, χαρις means “favor.”
c. Peace: This word ειρηνη means “concord, safety, and prosperity.”
d. To you: Paul greets the believers at Colossae in these two ways, a Greek way and Jewish way. This was a multicultural church. He is greeting them in their culture and affirming their culture as part of whom they are. Culture and diversity are good things. The problem is when those words are hijacked by people who use them to stamp out the exclusivity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God created culture, not some self-declared elites in Chapel Hill or Washington DC, and culture is a beautiful vision of the variety of worship that may be offered to Christ. That is why it is just fine to tailor the worship style and music and the setting to the culture we are reaching whether on the mission field or among our own subcultures. (Rev 7:9). So then why aren’t many of our churches multicultural? Because it’s easier to associate with people like ourselves. The only problem with that is it does not mirror the example of the early church.
e. From God our Father: The father of all Christians. The teaching of the “brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God” is a false teaching that originated with liberal theology of the 19th century. If you are not a blood-bought believer in Jesus Christ, the Father is not your father (Col 1:21-22).
f. ILLUSTRATION: Do you think an Hispanic should have to learn the English language to become a Christian? That would be ridiculous, right? In the same way, we must change our methods to communicate effectively the timeless message of Christ among the nations. There are of course limits to contextualization, but God has given us opportunities for beautiful variety among believers around the world.
g. APPLICATION: In your witness, does your life reflect Christ?
Invitation: When the American evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman was in London, he had an opportunity to meet the founder of the Salvation Army, General William Booth, who at that time was past 80 years of age. Dr. Chapman listened reverently as the old general spoke of the trials and the conflicts and the victories he had experienced.
Chapman then asked the general if he would disclose his secret for success. "He hesitated a second," Dr. Chapman said, "and I saw the tears come into his eyes and steal down his cheeks," and then he said, "I will tell you the secret. God has had all there was of me. There have been men with greater brains than I, men with greater opportunities; but from the day I got the poor of London on my heart, and a vision of what Jesus Christ could do with the poor of London, I made up my mind that He would have all of William Booth there was. And if there is anything of power in the Salvation Army today, it is because God has all the adoration of my heart, all the power of my will, and all the influence of my life."
Dr. Chapman said he went away from that meeting with General Booth knowing "that the greatness of a man's power is the measure of his surrender."
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Bonhoeffer on "Mychurch"
Church fellowship can get killed by people who think church exists to serve "me," that "this is my church, and it will be done the way I want it done." Others have honest ideas of certain ways they think church ought to be, for example, a certain worship style, the manner and frequency of the Lord's Supper, whether the congregation should vote on a certain issue, what color scheme the sanctuary should have, or how to handle announcements in the worship service.
One who wants more [in church life] than what Christ has established does not want Christian brotherhood. He is looking for some extraordinary social experience which he has not found elsewhere; he is bringing muddled and impure desires into Christian brotherhood.
When people drive their own visions of church over the top of what Christ has established for our fellowship, difficulties can arise as Dietrich Bonhoeffer notes:
One who wants more [in church life] than what Christ has established does not want Christian brotherhood. He is looking for some extraordinary social experience which he has not found elsewhere; he is bringing muddled and impure desires into Christian brotherhood. Just at this point Christian brotherhood is threatened most often at the very start by the greatest danger of all, the danger of being poisoned at his root, the danger of confusing Christian brotherhood with some wishful idea of religious fellowship, of confounding the natural desire of the devout heart for community with the spiritual reality of Christian brotherhood. . . .
Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream [i.e., "the way I want things done in my church"].
The serious Christian, set down for the fist time in a Christian community, is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and to try to realize it. But God's grace speedily shatters such dreams.
Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves. By sheer grace, God will not permit us to live even for a brief period in a dream world. . . . The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community the better for both.
A community which cannot bear and cannot survive such a crisis, which insists upon keeping its illusion when it should be shattered, permanently loses in that moment the promise of Christian community. Sooner or later it will collapse.
Every human wish dream that is injected into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be banished if genuine community is to survive.
He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial. (Life Together, chap. 1)What do you think about how best we my preserve Christ-centered fellowship in our churches?
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