....Soli Deo Gloria....

i've moved!!!

2007-03-31T16:07:00.000-07:00

well...not really. But my blog has moved.

It is now located at:

http://jroramblings.wordpress.com/

Thanks!!

Both/And...

2007-03-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

In the past week, there is one particular passage from the book "God is the Gospel: Meditations on God's Love as the Gift of Himself" by John Piper that my mind has been mulling over hour upon hour upon hour. Not only has the passage been further exalting the nature of Christ in my soul, but it has also been mortifying the sinful tendency in my heart to exalt the nature of Jenn. I tend to think that I am worth something because I am mostly patient, and often kind, and usually merciful. I end up thinking that I am doing well in my sanctification process because I am sometimes humble and every once in a while meek. In all actuality, the sanctification of Jenn is a long, slow road that has many more u-turns than it should. But I tell myself that it's hard to be both kind AND humble-you get one or the other, but, HA, never really both. It's more of an either/or type of situation here.

But this passage....oh this passage. When I make the oh so feeble and oh so humbling attempt to put my name in these sentences, I once again see my need for Christ, for His blood, for His intercession on my behalf. I once again hear the gospel resonate in my soul and once again I am hit over the head with my sin and Christ's lack of it. The only response I have is to shake my head in disbelief and kneel before my glorious God in overwhelming thanksgiving.

"What I am trying to express here is that the glory of Christ, as He appeared among us, consisted not in one attribute or another, and not in one act or another, but in what Jonathan Edwards called "an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies." In a sermon titled "The Excellency of Christ" Edwards took as his text Revelation 5:5-6 where Christ is compared both to a lion and a lamb. His point was that the unique glory of Christ was that such diverse excellencies (lion and lamb) unite in Him. These excellencies are so diverse that they "would have seemed to us utterly incompatible in the same subject." In other words:

we admire Him for His glory, but even more because His glory is mingled with humility
we admire Him for His transcendence, but even more because His transcendence is accompanied by condescension
we admire Him for His uncompromising justice, but even more because it is tempered with mercy
we admire Him for His majesty, but even more because it is a majesty in meekness
we admire Him because of His equality with God, but even more because as God's equal He nevertheless has a deep reverence for God
we admire Him because of how worthy He was of all good, but even more because this was accompanied by an amazing patience to suffer evil
we admire Him because of His sovereign dominion over the world,but even more because this dominion was clothed with a spirit of obedience and submission
we love the way He stumped the proud scribes with His wisdom, and we love it even more because He could be simple enough to like children and spend time with them
and we admire Him because He could still the storm, but even more because He refused to use that power to strike the Samaritans with lightening and He refused to use it to get Himself down from the cross.

....And that's what makes Jesus Christ uniquely glorious, excellent, and admirable. The human heart was made to stand in awe of such ultimate excellence. We were made to admire Jesus Christ, the Son of God."

2 posts in one day? gasp!

2007-03-25T20:58:00.001-07:00

That's right...it's been all of 10 minutes and I'm posting again.

This time, just to provide you with a link to an article about Passion. I cringed, I laughed out loud, my respect for Piper grew, and I was reminded of my appreciation and overwhelming thankfulness for Sovereign Grace Ministries.

My favorite part:

"Audience screams went up in pitch when Beth Moore took the stage on the second day of Passion '07. No one who watches Moore teach ever forgets her."

I can say with utmost certainty we would all agreement with this statement. :-)

I AM is....

2007-03-25T20:36:00.001-07:00

Jeremiah 29:11. Matthew 6:25-34. Luke 12:4-11. Luke 12:22-34. Psalm 33:10-11. Psalm 57:1-11. Psalm 138:6-8. Proverbs 19:20-21. Isaiah 14:26-27. Ephesians 1:11-14.

These are just a few times in His word that the Uncreated One has attempted to calm my wandering heart and mind. I can feel His Spirit whispering into my ear saying "I cannot plan the end and not plan the means. I have created you for a purpose-to worship Me. But I have also created you with passions in your heart that will allow you to fulfill your purpose. Trust in Me. Rest in My promises. You are My daughter and I love you. Nothing can change that. I will make My name known through you. I will make the Earth resound with My glory through you. Any desire that you have is mere dirt compared to the banquet I have prepared for you. Any dreams that you try to fulfill in YOUR fleshly timing will pale in comparison to the plans that I have for you in My perfect timing. Be captivated by Me-focus your gaze upon Me and never look away. I alone will last. This world and all its things will fade away. I am the Alpha and Omega. Before you were even a speck in your mother's eye, I had already formed you in MY eye-your looks, strengths, weaknessess, your ambitions, your voice, your heart, and your spirit. Every piece of you was made by Me, for Me. I will calm the noise in your soul with My touch. I will alleviate the frenzy in your mind with My peace. I will bring contentment to your fearful heart with My promises. I AM. You were not. I AM. You are not. I AM. You will not be. I AM reigns forever. I AM is worthy of your trust. I AM is deserving of your praise. I AM is the most Beautiful One. I AM is the lover of your soul. I AM killed His son for You. I AM imputed His Son's righteousness to you. I AM looks upon you as perfect. I AM is enough for you.

O Sinful Heart...

2007-03-20T16:37:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine recently posted this on a group blog, and I thought to post part of it, as I was greatly encouraged/affected/reminded of the gospel in reading it.

"I think that I make to many decisions based on how I feel. If I let myself become informed by subjectivity, it will only lead to despair in a fallen world. Yet at times I cannot alleviate this weight that presses in on me so. My heart yearns to be joyful, but it as if my sin will not allow it. I begin to preach myself the Gospel again, but its foundation has been loosened in my life because of sin. It has almost lost its effect. How can I profess something that my life does not support? How can I call myself a child of God and yet live as a forsaken one? How can I sing a lyric that proclaims the sinner that I once was, when I am that now? O' sinful heart, you bring me to despair. I cannot bear my own deceitfulness."

I've gotta say, I think that our theological heroes would be pleased with the biblical accuarcy and heartfelt honesty that is written here. Even more, I think that God the Father is pleased that the writer here so understands the effects of sin, the still deceitfulness of a believers heart, and our continued inability to do anything about it apart from grace.

To read the full post, click here.

HT: Single Focus

sure I'll serve-BUT....

2007-03-11T20:32:00.000-07:00

Imagine the following conversation:

Bob: Hi Jane. There is going to be an opportunity for ministry this week at a local homeless shelter. I was wondering if you would be interested in serving the Lord with us in this way.

Jane: Sure! I would love to serve in that way. I really have a heart for that particular ministry! The only thing is, I'm only available between the hours of 2 PM and 5 PM on Thursdays, because I have school and work and friends and the gym and errands and TV shows. So it better be during that time, otherwise, I won't be able to. And, if there is any messy/yucky work that needs to be done, you're going to have to get someone else to do that, because, well, you know, that really isn't my forte. And, I'm really only going to be able to come if Rose comes too, because it just won't be as much fun serving the Lord if Rose wasn't there. Oh. And I hope it's okay it I complain some of the time while we're serving, because it's going to be hard work, and I want people there to know how hard I'm working. And while we're on the subject of complaining, know that if everything doesn't go exactly the way that I have planned, you'll probably hear some grumbling on my behalf. And I hope it's okay if I pass out a bulletin at church this week letting everyone know that I'm giving up 3 hours of my time in order to serve in this way, because I want to make sure that everyone knows that I have the heart of a humble servant.

I don't know about you, but if I were Bob, I think I'd tell Jane to take her three hours of available serving time and stick them...ahem...um yea, I mean, that I would tell Jane her service was no longer needed. At least, not THAT kind of service.

The Lord really did a number on my heart these past two days as far as serving is concerned. I was asked to serve in this one area, and the events that transpired since then have shone a spotlight on my ever selfish, ever sinful, and ever in need of a Savior heart.

Why do I only want to serve on MY terms? How is that my definition of serving has even come to have anything to do with me at all? Do I only serve so that other people will notice? Do I care more about the praises of man that the praises of God? And who ever said serving was all fun, all the time? Serving is about sacrifice, and denying of self, and dying to self. Will my motives for serving always be half God-glorifying and half Jenn-glorifying?

This past weekend, the topic of waiters was a hot one among some of my friends and I-for one, many of us have experience in the food industry, but also, we recently had a not so positive experience at Olive Garden. As I reflect back upon my time as a waitress, as a SERVER, I'm realizing some things. When I walk up to the table, to introduce myself and to take their order, no matter what kind of day I'm having, I put a smile on my face and try to come across friendly and kind, because their restaurant experience isn't about MY current disposition, or MY preferences, or MY desires. It doesn't matter that I've now pulled a double 3 days in a row, and I seem to permanently smell of food. It's about their current need for something (food) and my current ability to help satisfy that need. I am at their beck and call, and if they need their sweet tea glass refilled 10 times in 2 hours, I'll fill it with a smile on my face each and every time. Why? Because there is hopefully a reward at the end of the evening for me-a nice large tip.

How much more so should I serve outside of the restaurant world in this same way? First of all, we are called to serve one another. But secondly, there is also a reward for us, and an absolutely certain reward at that. There would be some tables, that no matter how impeccable my serving of them was, the tip that they would leave left much to be desired. But when it comes to service as a believer, I know that my Father will be glorified. I know that He will be pleased with my actions and with the glory He receives, and that I in turn, will somehow be blessed. I know what the end result is.

You may be reading this, and thinking "That's all well and good Jenn, but here's the thing. I'm busy! I go to school and I work and I've just got stuff to do. At the end of the day, it really just isn't the right time for me to serve right now. It's not my heart's greatest desire."

Well friend, the greatest servant of all, Jesus Christ, laid down His own desires to submit to His Father's will. He prayed in the Garden, that if it were at all possible, the Father would take this cup, this death on a cross, away...that if it were at all possible God would make His glory known and His people redeemed in some other way. One of the desires of Christ's heart was to have the cup removed-but it was not His ultimate desire. The utmost and foremost desire of Christ was that His Father's will would be done, and in whatever way Christ was called to serve, He would serve joyfully, and humbly, and fully.

Praise God that Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, is always about doing His Father's business, and is always about the glory of His Father. Praise God that He was a servant, doing that which was not the most fun, but that which He was called to do. Praise God that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, is living and breathing in me, because this means that there is hope for me! This means that I am being transformed into the image and likeness of Christ. I am being continually sanctified, and perhaps one day, I will say with my whole heart "I would LOVE to serve you in that way" and mean it fully and completely and to the glory of God.

He has clothed me with the garments of salvation!!!

2007-03-01T14:33:00.000-08:00

Modesty. I’ve already said a lot about it. I think you can tell that it’s a subject about which I am passionate. But it doesn’t really matter what I have said. And it doesn’t really matter that I am passionate about it. What matters is what the word of God says. And it matters that God is passionate about it. He is passionate about purity of the heart, mind, body, and soul. He is passionate about the redeemed being continually conformed into the image of His perfect son, Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Scripture on modest apparel:

1 Timothy 2:9-10
likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness--with good works.

Titus 2:3-5
Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

Scripture on causing others to stumble:

Mark 9:42
Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

Luke 17:1-2
And he said to his disciples, "Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.

Scripture on the Glory of God:

1 Chronicles 16:29
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come before him!
Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness;

(Not in the splendor of beauty or the splendor of yourself, but the splendor of Holiness)

Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world,but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Isaiah 61:10

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

Praise God! I love this Scripture! Marinate in this...you are adorned in robes of righteousness and garments of salvation. PRAISE YOUR GOD!!!

Christian Romance Novels and the Gospel....

2007-02-22T15:55:00.000-08:00

When I first wrote the previous post, some people took issue with it. Especially the part about Christian romance novels. It was said that these are books that thousands of Christian women have read for years, and since they are "Christian" books and sold in "Christian" stores, why would any caution be needed?

This was my response:

My main concern for myself with Christian romance novels is that they are focused on finding your soul mate, not the gospel; not Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That would be a concern with any book. If, at the end of it, I cannot lay the book down and have my soul cry out "To God be the Glory," there is an issue. And of course this goes with anything...music, movies, books, hobbies, etc. I am not trying to put a legalistic slant on what we do or do not do as believers. God created romance. God created a woman's desire to be pursued. God created a man's desire TO pursue.

But greater than all of that, God sent His son the Christ, and was pleased to crush Him, even unto death, so that His name might be sung out unto the ends of the earth. I see an issue when the focus is faith that one day my prince will come, instead of faith that my King has come and is risen and reigns; when the focus is romance, not Christ; emotion, not reality; the soul mate, not the Savior; a wedding dress, not the Wedding Feast; an earthly groom, not Him who was Slain before the foundations of the earth. Romance is not a sin.

These books and movies are not sin, in and of themselves. But when our hearts are more moved upon reading works of fiction than Romans 9, there is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. This is not all girls, at all times, in all places, with all books or movies. But it's more prevalent than we would realize I believe. I would just urge us, as woman, to be sensitive to our sisters in Christ. To make sure that we are speaking into their lives and breathing grace-we do not know our potential love stories and dreams of romance to be true or certain. Christ and Him crucified-the only thing that is forever true and certain.

emotional modesty part 1...

2007-02-18T15:59:00.000-08:00

Ok. This post is perhaps a bit more controversial, and I get that. But it's something I still believe and have seen damaging effects from it since originally writing this, so again, I thought it might be worth posting here.

I am not the first or the only person to bring out this idea. I have heard it from a well known pastor and also a mentor in my life. (Recently as well, Carolyn McCulley brought up the same idea on her blog.)

In the same way that guys are physically stimulated, girls are emotionally stimulated. A guy may be stirred up by a scantily clad woman passing by but for many girls something else pulls at our heart strings even more. It's a conversation over lunch after church one day where you begin to get a glimpse into the heart of this particular man. You begin to be attracted to his heart. From there on, you may read into the tiniest things. You catch yourself adding his last name to yours and perhaps thinking of your wedding more often. You spend more time getting ready for a game night because you know he will be there. An intense emotional attraction can be more dangerous for many of us women than an intense physical attraction.

So, men often struggle with lusting and pornography because of the visual aspect of it-it appeals to that part of their mind and body. Obviously, we would be in agreement that porn is bad in it's very essence. But also, it sets up this perfect physical specimen to which very few real women will ever measure up. It sets you up for disappointment. It focuses on the fantasy, not reality.

In the same way, I would say chick-flicks are pornography for girls. They appeal to our base desire for complete love and tenderness and emotional attachment. I know many girls watch movies such as "The Notebook" or "Ever After." At the end of the movie, their focus is on this amazing leading man who was handsome and athletic and caring and kind and masculine and loved kids and simply perfect in every way. Their hearts begin to long for that and feel neglected without it. Watching these type of movies turns girls on emotionally-which is often our weakest and most susceptible spot. It sets these men up as emotionally in tune and sensitive men that are constantly aware of and responding to their wife or girlfriend's needs. It sets up an emotional standard that men cannot meet 100% all the time. It sets us up for disappointment when you compare the men in reality to these men in fantasy.

How many guys, turn to pornography when feeling lonely or unfulfilled or just bored?
How many girls do you know, in finding themselves single on Valentine's Day, turn to a romantic movie and a pint of ice cream?
Where is the difference? They are the same problem just one is more obvious and on the surface. They are both longing for that which is not true. One is just more publicly viewed as sinful and shameful. Both cause our hearts to lust after things that do not exist.

Now, unlike pornography, you can watch chick-flicks without sinning. But I would just urge girls to be cautious. To view "The Notebook" through a Gospel lens and realize that it's events are just as much fiction as the events that occur in Star Wars. When, and if, you get married, you are not marrying a Prince Charming or a Noah (from "The Notebook"). You are marrying another sinner who is forgiven of his sins and iniquities by the blood of the Christ-just like you. Marriage is not the beginning of happily ever after. It is the beginning of a different kind of sanctification and a training ground for being a humble and loving servant all the time. When any of my friends get married, my earnest prayer is that instead of having stars in their eyes, they would have the cross in their eyes.

David Powlinson addresses it from the romantic novel view and says " The romantic novel genre has even made a crossover to evangelical publishing houses. The sex is cleaned up; the knight in shining armor is also a deep spiritual leader who marries you before sleeping with you. but the fantasy appeal to intimate and romance lusts remain as the inner engine that allures readers."

The only person any man should strive to be more like is Jesus Christ. He should not be trying to be more like any leading man in any Hollywood movie or work of fiction. Christ alone is ideal. Christ alone is to be emulated. Christ alone is to be exaulted and longed for. Christ alone will never fail, never disappoint, and never forsake you.

modesty survey....

2007-02-14T16:46:00.000-08:00

Alex and Brett Harris, along with their sister and others, recently put together a modesty survey. It's on their blog "The Rebelution" and it's called "The Modesty Survey." They asked Christian guys to take it, and have published the results today. I would encourage you to check it out. I've been reading through some of the responses, and here are some of the ones I find most interesting, or at least, worth repeating. Again, this is not directed at anyone nor said for any particular reason other than that it is on my heart, and needs to be on our radar as Christian women.

1. Shrugs, the short shirts and jackets that just cover the chest, draw too much attention to the bust.
59% of guys agree or strongly agree with this statement. They say the shrugs that don't tie across the chest are ok, but if there is a tie across the chest, it is extremely attention drawing for them.

2. Strapless dresses are immodest.
65.9% of guys agree or strongly agree with this statement. They say it makes you look half naked. Also, you spend half the time pulling at the dress to keep it up, which doesn't help them either.

3. Girls can be modest by layering (e.g. wearing camisoles under v-neck shirts to hide cleavage) even if some of the layers would be immodest by themselves.
78.7% of the guys agree or strongly agree with this statement. They say it is a great way to make immodest clothing modest. But there is overwhelming agreement that lace camisoles are immodest as they look too much like lingerie.

4. Wearing pants with words across the backside is a stumbling block.
84.3% of the guys agree or strongly agree with this statement. They say it is as if they are being baited to lust after you.

5. Any shorts that are shorter than mid-thigh are immodest.
83.8% of the guys agree or strongly agree with this statement. A humorous remark was made that most guys wear boxers that are longer than that. They say that when you are standing, it might be ok, but when you sit down, it's usually not.

6. Gauchos are modest.
60.7% of the guys agree or strongly agree with this statement. They remind girls to be careful that they are loose fitting gauchos and not low riders. Many of the guys said they CAN be modest, but often are immodest when it comes to the way they fit on a girls butt.

7. Seeing a girl's chest bounce when she is walking or running is a stumbling block.
76.5% of the guys agree or strongly agree with this statement. They also say that they realizing when you are working out and running, there may be little you can do to stop this. But they ask that you be aware that it is a huge problem for guys and to do what you can to help them and to just be discreet when possible.

8. Wearing glitter lotion is not a stumbling block.
59.6% of the guys agree or strongly agree with this statement. But seriously, I laughed out loud when I read some of the remarks for this one.
"It looks like something a 12 or 13 year old would do. Plus, it makes a mess, and anytime a girl is wearing it I seem to get it on myself and my clothes. Kind of like a pet shedding hair, except it's you shedding sparkles."

"Not a stumbling block. However, you get them all over the church pews and then they find their way onto my face. It's not funny when I have to explain to other people why there is glitter on my face."

The overwhelming majority of guys say that glitter lotion is unattractive and childish. One guy said it was vain because "...flesh was not meant to glitter." They do say that if the glitter is on the chest and downward it goes from being childish to being immodest.

9. Even modest pajamas are inappropriate for a girl to wear in public.
48.6% of the guys agree or strongly agree with this statement. They say that pajamas are for when you are in bed, and guys obviously know that, and so they start thinking about your bed. Basically, PJ's=bed, which means guys are thinking of women and bed all at the same time.

Then, there were a few open ended questions. One of them was "Guys-if you could say anything to your sisters in Christ about modesty, what would it be?" I sooooo urge you to go read some of the answers to this question. Praise God for men that value biblical femininity and modesty and a woman after God's own heart. Some of my favorite excerpts:

"Please don’t take modesty lightly. As your brother in Christ I value the relationship that I will have with my wife someday. When I am tempted because of you I lose a part of myself that I am trying to save for her." (this was by a 16 year old!)

"Would you rather be the tool by which guys satisfy themselves or the beautiful thing God created you to be, pure for your husband? My flesh prefers the former, but my heart pleads for the latter." (this by a 17 year old!)

"God gave you girls huge power over us men as we are wired to respond to a woman's body when it's revealed or hinted at. It's part of God's perfect plan for marriage and yet it's another thing that Satan has twisted and is using against us to make us think that we are not living up to God's standards, since it is like a re-fall every time one of those thoughts crosses our minds, no matter how small it is or how quickly we dismiss it. We know it's not all your responsibility, but you can help."

"Please, please, please take a higher standard in the ways you dress. True, we men are responsible for our thoughts and actions before the Lord, but it is such a blessing when we know that we can spend time with our sisters in Christ, enjoying their fellowship without having to constantly be on guard against ungodly thoughts brought about by the inappropriate ways they sometimes dress. In 1 Corinthians 12 the apostle Paul presents believers as the members of one body - we have to work together. Every Christian has a special role to play in the body of Christ. That goal is to bring glory to the Savior through an obedient, unified body of believers - please don't hurt that unity by dressing in ways that may tempt your brothers in Christ to stumble."

Anyways, I found the survey results to be an interesting read and would encourage you to use some of your idle time this weekend to look them over. Also, remember to read it with an open mind, and be ready for the Spirit to work as He will-convicting, encouraging, blessing, etc. The goal of this survey is neither legalism, nor condemnation. But instead, a greater zealousness for purity by the blood of Christ.

modesty-not JUST for sundays....

2007-02-12T14:05:00.001-08:00

In the coming days, I plan to post here some previously written short essays on dating and modesty-both physical and emotional. This topic has been on my radar again, as Josh Harris has been doing a sermon series on purity recently at Covenant Life, and the Rebelution blog has been doing a modesty survey. Plus, with Valentine's day just around the corner, dating/courting, marriage, guy/girl relationships seems to be the hot topic.

These are comments that I wrote on my friend Ryan's blog long before I had ever contemplated even HAVING a blog. I'm going to edit them some but the heart and soul of what I was trying to get at when I wrote them last spring is still there.

Also, this is not an attack, nor specifically directed. This is a topic about which I feel passionately, and these are just my thoughts.

Let's begin with physical modesty....This post was written in response to a question as to whether or not girls should dress modestly in church.

Modesty is a weird issue. Not weird in that there are some gray areas over what is important, but weird in that girls simply do not understand just how visually stimulated guys are. We all struggle with lying and pride, but lusting is something much more common to men than women. It's a sin area that many woman can't wrap their minds around. I've heard many a girl say "It's their problem. They need to just not look at me like that." I think the root of the problem lies in how we, as men and women, relate to one another in Christ.

I'll speak only of what I know many girls do. Often, with each Christian brother that they meet, they look upon him as a potential boyfriend or husband first....then, once they decide he isn't the one for them, they "demote" him to the position of brother in Christ. So instead of being concerned with helping him stay pure because he is their brother, they are concerned with getting and attracting his attention.

In Song of Solomon, numerous times Solomon states "my sister, my bride." Always my sister first. If we, as believers, were to have that mindset, I think it would go a long way towards dealing with the purity thing. Even once married, your spouse is first your brother or sister in Christ, and we are to treat them as such.

Beyond that, it's also a HUGE heart issue for girls. They wear makeup and revealing clothing to get attention and to feel pretty, because that is where their self worth lies. My heart breaks for these girls, but then, it just makes me that much more zealous for the purity of the guys that I know. I have said before "Curses upon the woman that makes my future husband stumble and lust over her in his heart and mind." To an extent obviously, that's just a joke. But it's a heart check for me. Am I causing someone else's future husband to stumble?

So is it important for girls to be modest in church? My answer is a RESOUNDING yes. But why do we need to clarify it with "in church?" If you are going to be a modest woman, you should always be modest. Are you a servant only in church? Are you joyful only in church? I have friends who have "church wardrobes" and "non-church wardrobes" and this simply astounds me. If it's inappropriate before God and fellow worshippers on Sundays, why in the world is it appropriate Tuesday evening? There should not be a dichotomy between the sacred and the secular. Men have a hard enough time dealing with non-believers who dress scantily-the last thing they need is to have to fight this battle when hanging out with their sisters in Christ.

And yes, no matter what you wear, chances are some boy some where will be able to find something to lust after. And yes, it is THEIR sin. They will be held accountable for it. But for the girls who have been talked to about their apparel, who then continue to wear immodest clothing because they view it as their freedom in Christ, this is now YOUR sin as well. You also will be held accountable for it. You may not understand this sin in their life, but once you are made aware of it's existence and your possible contribution to it, I believe that there is now a level of responsibility and accountability on your part as well.

there were People like me...(Part 2 of 2)

2007-02-05T19:17:00.000-08:00

So these people like me....

They too don't settle for ok sermons that are just mostly true doctrine. They too won't settle for songs that mostly center on the cross. Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of people who are passionate about theology. And there are plenty of people who are passion about worship. But Sovereign Grace is a rare mixture of the two. They are passionate about correct theology and biblical truths that are manifested in both the preaching and the worship. It is not an either/or thing, but a both/and thing.

The conference that I mentioned in my last post, well, it was a intellectually strenuous at times. You had to be constantly discerning. You could never just sit and take notes (except for one session). Many statements had to be carefully weighed and considered next to biblical truth. Many conversations happened after the fact discussing whether this lined up with Scripture, and whether this outline point could be upheld by Scripture. Many times a lyric from a song was brought up-as to whether it was God glorifying or man glorifying. We couldn't just worship and learn. How I longed for a theological stress-free environment! Instead, it was a theological marathon.

But this marathon was good for many reasons. One, we all came away having grown in our discernment skills. Two, we all came away with a greater appreciate and love of Sovereign Grace. But most importantly, we all came away with a greater realization of the importance of NOT compromising where the Bible is concerned. We came away more in love with the absolute truths of Scripture and humbled by the pastors in our own lives that seek to make this occur in our churches.

I mentioned before that Sovereign Grace combines both correct theology and passionate worship. John Piper, of course, says it more eloquently than I:

"Singing and knowing. Rejoicing and reasoning. Delight and doctrine. That's Sovereign Grace Ministries. it is so rare, and so needed...so Sing on, Sovereign Grace. And whatever you do, don't stop studying and thinking and preaching about our great Savior."

"God exists to be worshipped—to be admired and treasured and desired and praised. Therefore, the Word of God is written primarily to produce worship. This means that if that Word is handled like a hot-dish recipe or a repair manual, it is mishandled. And the people will suffer. The Truth of God begs to be handled with exultation. And our hearts yearn for this and need it. Something in us starts to die when precious and infinitely valuable realities are handled without feelings and words of wonder and exultation. That is, a church starts to die, without preaching."

"So there are always two parts to true worship. We can say it in two pairs: there is seeing God and there is savoring God. You can't separate these. You must see him to savor him. And if you don't savor him when you see him, you insult him. Or another pair would be this: in worship there is always understanding with the mind and there is always feeling in the heart. Understanding must always be the foundation of feeling, or all we have is baseless emotionalism. But understanding of God that doesn't give rise to feeling for God becomes mere intellectualism and deadness. This is why the Bible continually calls us to think and consider and meditate and remember on the one hand, and to rejoice and fear and mourn and delight and hope and be glad on the other hand. Both are essential for worship."

But this isn't just my opinion or John Piper's opinion-that correct doctrine in our preaching and worship is vital. Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:16-4:4

"All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction,and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing, and his Kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. Fr the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."

Paul charges Timothy, and really, God charges us, with the importance of having sound teaching. The importance of both seeing and savoring Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

So those are some of the things I have learned and found in the last 730ish days. 1) That fear of man is the root of most of my sins which is easily manifested in pride, self-sufficiency, independence, and lieing. 2) It is so important to address possible issues in friendships in the moment. It saves so much time, heartache, and sin. Most importantly, it allows God to continue receiving His due glory from the friendship. 3) Theology doesn't have to exist separate from Passion and vice versa. True doxology flows from a correct theology, and both are absolutely necessary in the believer's life.

there were people like me...(1 of 2)

2007-01-30T15:31:00.000-08:00

There weren't too many people who thought like me. Especially not my age. Most people didn't question the lyrics to the worship songs and the content of the sermons. But I was frustrated. I was confused. It did not seem like the church I was involved in matched with the church in Acts 2. But it wasn't just my church, it was a lot of churches. We seemed to be more concerned with just getting people in the doors than we were with authentically discipling them. It seemed like the God of the Apostle Paul, Martin Luther, and Jonathan Edwards was a much more powerful and majestic God than my God. My God seemed to be small, almost pocket sized.

In youth group, we talked about how God wanted us to live a pure life-abstaining from drugs, sex, alcohol, etc. God wanted us to obey our parents joyfully and share the gospel and serve people across the world. But I felt like I had this pocket Jesus. A Jesus I could pull out at will when I needed help. A Jesus that I could grasp, and comprehend, and understand. A Jesus that was easy.

In the Sunday sermons, it seemed as if the things that were presented were packaged in this user friendly format. It seemed as if things were marketed up in order to attract the consumer-it seemed like a business. I can remember one sermon series entitled "10 Habits of Highly Effective People." Sounds like a motivational series right? It was actually a series on the 10 commandments. It provoked me that we would switch the word 'habit' for 'commandment.' It was as if these were suggestions to follow if you wanted to be a good person, instead of laws that were given to the Israelites in order to show them their need for a Savior.

Also, I was so very frustrated by the songs we would sing. I was so very tired of singing about myself-what I was going to do, what I had done, what I wanted.

Faithfulness, faithfulness is what I
long for.
Faithfulness is what I need.
Faithfulness, faithfulness is what.
You want from me.

Come, now is the time to worship
Come, now is the time to give your heart
Come, just as you are to worship
Come, just as you are before your God
Come

The above songs aren't bad or sinful by any means. But they are man focused. And isn't it always the time to worship? It feels like we are singing to each other, about ourselves. Instead we should sing to our Lord and Savior about Himself. I didn't want to sing about me. I am dirty and unclean and wretched. I wanted to sing about God-who is perfect and holy and looks on me with love, when He used to look upon me as an object of wrath.

Also, I was tired of singing songs that were just "almost" biblically correct.

Crucified, laid behind a stone
You lived to die, rejected and alone
Like a rose, trampled on the ground
You took the fall and thought of me
Above all...

I know a lot of the frustration came from differences in doctrine. But I just didn't think that Christ was thinking about me, above all, when He was upon the cross. I think He was thinking about His Father's glory above all. I think He was thinking about what was being accomplished for the Kingdom above all.

You might be thinking I am crazy. You might be thinking that I am legalistic and over analyzing and over thinking. Trust me, my best friend thinks this about me often! :-) (And it is something that I have to be cautious of. And I love her for cautioning me time and time again.)

But I look at it this way. If Susie has never been to my church before, and then comes one Sunday. Perhaps she is called to respond to the Gospel, which she does obediently by repenting and believing that day. Now, say the first song she sings as a believer says "You thought of me above all." This causes her to think of HER importance. Of HER worth. Of HER good deeds. It's subtle, but trust me it's there and it's dangerous. I think the achilles heel of Christianity today is the believer that thinks he or she is good and therefore DESERVES salvation. It's a slippery theological path.

So all this mumble jumble to say that I was frustrated. And my friends at my church back home listened to me, and they understood what I was saying, but they thought I was over thinking. That I just needed to let it go, and not focus on the bad stuff, but rather the good stuff.

Recently, I myself questioned a friend on this. We were at an event where they were asking people to give money so that they could go take the gospel to unreached people. I didn't feel so led at that moment because I don't agree with everything they stand for. Then, for a minute, I thought maybe that was wrong. Maybe it was ok if it wasn't 100% truth, so long as it was mostly truth. So I asked this friend if perhaps I should give. If perhaps it would be better for a watered down gospel to go out than for no gospel at all. And his response resonated in my heart, and confirmed what I had been thinking at first.
He said "Look at the Bible Jenn. What did Christ do? He didn't present a watered down gospel. He presented absolute truth. Isn't that the example we then should follow? Why settle for less than biblical truth?"

That, my friends, sums up the confusion in my heart before I got involved with Sovereign Grace. We should not settle for mediocre and almost absolute truth and only a tiny bit wrong. We are not called to settle! Christ does not want His church, His BRIDE to settle.
And it was 730ish days ago that the Lord led me to a group of churches where there were people like me....

...to be continued....

erasing shadows....

2007-01-23T15:43:00.000-08:00

So often in friendships, we let little things go by, unchallenged and unbroached. It may be an off the cuff statement. It may be a misunderstood action. It may be the very lack of action. We let these little things build upon one another until all of the sudden, we just break and the friendships are often impacted in a negative way.

Once again, this was something I didn't have a title for until Diane Taulbee mentioned that her and a friend had made a committment to one another and to the Lord. They wanted to actively "erase shadows" from their friendship. If an action or comment by one gave the other an uneasy feeling, they would verbalize their concerns in those moments. This is in contrast to allowing slight hurt the opportunity to fester into a open sore.

I can't say that I have always been successful at doing this in my own life. In fact, I can flat out say that I have intensely failed at this time and time again, due to sin, e.g. self-pity, carelessness, pride.

But I can say this: the concept is more prominent in my mind. The desire to erase the shadows is there. The blessing of friends who understand the importance of this is there. The able strength of the Holy Spirit is within me.

"Be killing sin, or it will be killing you."
~John Owen

Proverbs 8:6-8
6Hear, for I will speak noble things,
and from my lips will come what is right,
7for my mouth will utter truth;
wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8All the words of my mouth are righteous;
there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.

Zachariah 8:16-17
16 These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts;
17 do not plot evil against your neighbor, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this," declares the LORD.

2 Corinthians 6:4, 6-8
4...as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities,
6by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love;
7by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;
8through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise.

730ish days ago....

2007-01-09T11:57:00.002-08:00

Ok. So I know the closing days of December are really when you are supposed to sit and ponder the failures of the past year and hopes for the future. But you see, I was a little busy.

I was a little busy meeting my new nephew, Josiah Scott, who was born on December 21. I was a little busy in Misssissippi getting up at 5:30 AM to shoot Bambi. I was a little busy flying home on a plane and finally doing Christmas with my mom and Jeff and Phillip. I was a little busy packing for Passion and preparing my heart to meet with the Lord. Needless the say, New Years came and went without any thought being given on my part to resolutions or anything along those lines.

In the days since Passion, I have had nothing to do however except sit and ponder. I have had all the time in the world to journal and dream and wonder and regret. And one thing keeps coming to the forefront of my mind.

It was this coming weekend, 2 years ago, that I first walked through the doors of a Sovereign Grace church. It was a little over 730 days ago that I was first introduced to this movement of churches. I can still remember that first Sunday very vividly in my head. The night before, I had looked up directions on Mapquest in my dorm room and hadn't really given it much thought other than that. The service starts at 10 AM. I left my dorm at 9:45 AM. First mistake. It takes 5 minutes to get off campus at 20 MPH. Bad start. Even worse, I start heading south on 13th St instead of north. It takes me about 5 minutes to realize this. So, by the time I'm heading the correct direction, it's already 10 AM. I almost gave up, and thought, I'll go next Sunday. But I didn't, and kept driving along.

I finally (after 3 more wrong turns) show up to the church around 10:20. It's the middle of worship I figure. I'm used to Baptist churches where you enter from the back and can sneak in quietly when you are late and figure who is going to notice you. I'm praying that this is the same situation at this new church.

But alas, God is a funny God. The church meets in a school (because, as we all know, church is about the body of people, not the building itself). They meet in the cafeteria of an elementary school, where the doors are located on the side, meaning you have to walk in and EVERYONE WILL SEE YOU. Even worse, they worship with the lights fully on-no dimmed mood lights here. Which means, as you walk in, LATE, you will catch everyone's eye.

What will they think? They're going to not like me because I am late. I hope I'm dressed ok. What if I can't find Joe and Tara and other people I know? What if they didn't even come this Sunday? What if I have to sit by myself? Man. I'm such a loser. I should just get back in my car and go home. So, instead of walking in at 10:20, I stand in the little foyer, trying to hide from all these strangers, fearful of what they would think of me.

Now, get this. It's gets worse. Some member at the church was also running late. And she's walking up and doesn't know me so she introduces herself and asks if I want to walk in with her. I LIE and say "That's ok. I'm waiting for a friend." This way, maybe she'll walk in there and say "Don't judge the girl who is about to walk in really late. She's waiting for a friend. That's why she's late. It's not her fault."

It was a sad sad day in the life of Jennifer Lorraine.

I didn't really know what all those thoughts and fears were. I would have said I was just nervous, being by myself in a new place. I never saw it for what it was for quite sometime. One day though David Gilland was joking around with me and I was doing something because of my fear of man. I'm sure I shot back some joke in the same vein, but I couldn't stop thinking about those 3 words. FEAR OF MAN. Which really comes down to pride-thinking that anyone would even care to dwell upon me or rest their thoughts upon me, thinking that this world is somehow focused upon me.

So 730 days ago began the destruction of self-of pride, vanity, self-worth, independence, fear of judgment, and fear of man. It's a long and slow path, but in the grace of God, I can see growth in my own life and pray that others can as well.

So as I reflect back on 2006, I can't not think about Abundant Grace Community Church. And as I reflect back on the church, I can't not think about my life before Abundant Grace. In the coming days, I plan to write more things that I have learned since coming to know this body of people. The things I have learned from these people and the sins that have been put to death in my heart as I have grown alongside these people.

It all began, 730ish days ago, when I was running late to church....

midget legs grow....

2007-01-09T11:57:00.001-08:00

panicked...
alarmed...
anxious....
scared to tears...

The day was over 15 years ago. I was 5. The city was Brandon. The place was Bealls. We were shopping. And I was lost. All I wanted to do was sit down and wail. I had lost my mom and my little midget legs couldn't find her anywhere! I can still remember that overwhelming feeling. You're lost and its scary because what if you never get unlost? What if you never find your way out?

It's funny though. Years go by, midget legs grow, and things change.

grateful....
humble....
indebted....
smiling....

The day was 2 days ago. I was 20. The city was Atlanta. The place was the World Congress Center. We were at Passion. And I was lost. All I wanted to was praise my Sovereign God. I had left my group of friends to go drop something off on my own and somehow got turned around in the Go Center and had no idea how to get back to where they were. The 22,000+ other people wandering around didn't make it any easier. But do you know why I was lost? Because for the last 4 days, I had really had to find my own way. I rarely made a decision as to where to go, what to do, when to show up or what to eat. The Lord had blessed our little Passion contingent with men who were gifted and desirous to lead as the Lord has so called them. The Lord had also blessed this contingent with women who were desirous for these men to lead. Being lost wasn't scary. It was representative of just how much these men had lead and just how fully we had followed. Being lost was a moment to praise God.

You see, we girls had been praying for this. Not that I would get lost, but that these men would lead humbly and that we, as women, would follow humbly. That these men were serve us by leading and we would serve them by submitting & allowing them to serve. That the Lord would have both genders playing the roles that we, as Godly men and women, are called to play.

And you know what? It happened. Doors were held. Luggage was carried. Dinner was planned. Seats were saved. Biblical fellowship occurred. Probing questions were asked. Encouragement abounded. God was glorified.

Of course, we spoke up and thanked the guys for their leadership. We praised the Lord for allowing all of this to happen. But I just wanted to take a minute to brag on these God glorifying, Christ exalting, Spirit following male friends of mine. I wanted to tell the world that this type of interaction is not dead. Complementarianism does not just exist among generations of old, but it is alive and well among my generation.

You might be thinking,"So what? big deal. The men led, and you followed. That was nice of you." Oh my friend, it was not just nice of us. It was us, in the grace and kindness of the Lord, mortifying sin in our own lives.

Look at Genesis 3:16:

To the woman he said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."

This is the text in scripture following the fall of Adam and Eve, and all of mankind. When it says "desire" here, this, in the Hebrew, is saying that your desire will be to overpower, to overtake, to rule over your husband (you can see the parallel language in verse 4:7 as well...it's clearer if you know Hebrew, but it is not totally obliterated by the English translation). Women's desire is for the role that her husband is supposed to play.

Women's desire, if left unchanged by the power of the Spirit, would be to control and subdue man for her own gain. (There are of course, negative consequences from the fall for men, but I'm just talking about women here.) So, just the fact that the men were ABLE to lead is reason enough to praise God, but even more so that we WANTED them to lead. This is evidence of God is stripping away layers of self-exaltation and pride. He is replacing those layers with humility and submission in preparation for the roles we will play in the future.

So to my fellow women:

Thank you for submitting. Thank you for creating environments that allowed these guys to lead. Thank you for the encouragement you were to me in reminding me to die to my sinful desires.

To those guys:

Thank you for seeking the Lord. Thank you for growing in the roles that He has set before you. Thank you for leading humbly. Thank you for serving so effectively, efficiently, and kindly. You made it a joy to follow you.

To my God:

Thank you for both justifying us and sanctifying us. Thank you for answering our prayers. Thank you for working in our lives-molding our wills to your will and our desires to your desire. We praise you for your goodness and mercy and kindness. Keep this desire burning. Keep this growth continuous. Keep your glory central. Keep your name anthemed. Keep us mindful of our stance in grace.

PS For any of you hanging off the edge of your seats, I got unlost. I found my friends. And we all lived happily ever after. :-)

~THE END~

Come for Me....

2006-12-12T07:53:00.000-08:00

As I walked slowly out of room T005, I almost succumbed to tears. Tears of exaustion from having not slept well for 2 nights in fear & preparation of this exam. Tears of gratefulness that my exams were finally over. Tears of frustration that I did not fare any better on the exam. Almost tears.
Instead, I pulled myself together and walked over to the ivy covered bench. As I began to organize my bag of exam necessities, I pulled out my Ipod (an absolute vital instrument to my studying routine). I just wanted to put those little speakers in my ears and drown out the world. In God's sovereign mercy & kindness, He knew just what song my weary heart needed in that moment-"Come for Me" by Charlie Hall.

Jesus come & take me away
I long to see your face
and this world is broken
yet beautifully made
Jesus come take me away

Jesus I will patiently wait
until like a vapor I'll fade
help me fulfill all Your dreams for these days
Jesus I will patiently wait

and You'll come again with a shout
like a thief in the night
You'll come riding on clouds
and finally the voice
I have followed for life
has a glorious face that is lit up with light
and You'll come for me
no more pain...peace
no more fear....release
just lost and consumed with my glorious King

Jesus today I am tired
and I need your music to come and inspire
and I give myself to be refined in this fire
but Jesus today I'm so tired

and you'll come again with a shout
like a thief in the night
You'll come riding on clouds
and finally the voice that I have followed for life
has a glorious face that is lit up with light
and you'll come for me
no more pain....peace
no more fear....release
just lost and consumed with my glorious King

and you'll come for me
come for me....
come for me....
come for me.....
come for me.

As I listened to these words, my heart began to soar and I could no longer hold back the tears. But what would have previously been tears of despair, were now tears of longing. I had been looking forward more to the end of exams than I was to the coming of my King. I had been more fearful of doing poorly on my exams than I was of doing poorly in the service of my King. I had forgotten that today will pass...that my life is a vapor. But the Kindgdom of God shall reign forever and ever, and one day, He will come for me.

But today...today I am so tired. I desparately need His song to fill me and inspire me and lift me up on eagle's wings.

And I ache for the day when there will be no more pain...no more fear...no more worries...no more tears...no more heartache. The day when Christ comes back and I can finally see the face of my Lord and Savior-He who chose me, He who died for me, He who loves me. To be able to worship Him face to face, with every ounce of my being. Even now, when I worship with all that I have and all that I am, there is still a part of me that is withheld from Him-a part that is dwelling on that which is of the world and that which will fade. I am brought to tears even as I write this just thinking about that day. THAT GLORIOUS DAY!!!

Perhaps you are also tired today. Maybe the holiday season has drained you of energy. Maybe you also are exausted at the end of another draining semester. Maybe work is just more than you can handle right now. Friend, I think that you, like me, have ceased living in light of THAT day. You are weary in this world because you have forgotten that this is not your home. We are just pilgrim's, passing through.

My prayer for you is that the Lord would awaken a fresh stirring in your heart for the day when you "..will see his face." (Rev. 22:4)

"After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great
multitude in heaven, crying, 'Hallelujah! Salvation and glory
and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true
and just; he has judged the great harlot who corrupted the
earth with her fornication, and he has avenged on her the
blood of his servants.' Once more they cried, 'Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.' And the
twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and
worshiped God who is seated on the throne, saying, 'Amen.
Hallelujah!' And from the throne came a voice crying, 'Praise
our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.'
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude,
like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty
thunderpeals, crying, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give
him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her
to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure' - for the fine
linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the
angel said to me, 'Write this: Blessed are those who are
invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' And he
said to me, 'These are true words of God.'
Rev 19:1-9

God's Sovereignty in all things.

2006-11-30T11:29:00.000-08:00

I can see the Lord's sovereignty in so many things in my life.

I can see the Lord's sovereignty in my parents divorce. Were they not to have gotten divorced, I would not have grown up both a Southern Baptist and a PCUSA denomination. If I hadn't grown up in both of these churches, I would not have had the theological sampler plate that I did. This would have made my reformed-charismatic views of today much MUCH harder to come by.

I can see the Lord's sovereignty in Joe and Tara Donato moving to Alachua once they got married. Had they not, I would not have ended up at First Baptist of High Springs my freshman year. Had they not, I would not have left High Springs when the youth pastor did. Had they not, I would not have ended up at Abundant Grace. I would not doing life with these blessed people. I would not be living with girls who are "heavenly sandpaper."

I can see the Lord's sovereignty in my friendships. The fact that Aimee Hill and I used to not like each other at all. And now, she is one of my best friends-as well as her whole family. And my friendship with Aimee led to my friendship with her brother Ryan as well as David Young. My late night conversations with these two guys led to so much theological growth on my part and the Lord used them in profound ways in my life.
The fact that Caitlin Faulk dated Keith Bogart who was best friends with James Barber who went to UF when I was in high school. This meant many trips up to UF and many opportunities to fall in love with Gainesville and to become desirous of going to school here.

All of these things have led me to where I am at...there is no possible way that these events are random happenings. There is no way that these are coincidences. These are the events of my life that have been sovereignly ordained by a sovereign God to give me the theological background I have, in the church that I am in, in the city in which I live-exactly where he wants me to be so that I may serve Him here.

But it is not just big things in my life that cause me to stand in awe at the sovereignty of God. I say this in all seriousness-I can see the sovereignty of God in Florida Gators football.

Stop Laughing! I'm serious! So many crazy things had to happen in order for the Gators to get to the National Championship. Let me explain:

1. The Florida Gators spent the first 3 weeks at number 7. After week 3, we jumped to number 5 because we beat Tennessee and # 2 Notre Dame lost to #11 Michigan.

2. Until week 7, the order of undefeated teams was: Ohio State, Auburn, USC, West Virginia, & Florida. At week 7, Florida beat LSU and jumped to #2. The same five teams were still undefeated and in the top five, the order was just a little changed.

3. At week 8, BCS Standings came out. Florida lost to Auburn 27-17 on the road. The other top 5 teams remained undefeated. There are now only 4 undefeated teams on the road to the National Championship and Florida is #6 in the BCS.

4. In week 10, the next undefeated team fell. USC lost to unranked Oregon State! Florida moves to #4 in the BCS. There are only 3 undefeated National Championship contending teams remaining.

5. Week 11 saw the beginning of the destruction of the Big East. West Virginia lost to Louisville. The Big East emphasis has now switched to either Louisville and Rutgers who are both still undefeated. Florida stays at #4. In front of us are undefeated Louisville now, and Michigan and Ohio State. Texas and Auburn both have one loss (Texas to Ohio State and Auburn to Arkansas).

6. In week 12, Texas loses to unranked Kansas State. Auburn lost to Georgia AT HOME! Louisville loses to Rutgers as the Big East continues to implode. Florida stays at #4.

7. In week 13, USC jumped to #3 and Ohio State and Michigan didn't change. Florida stayed at #4.

8. In week 14, Michigan lost to Ohio State so they dropped to #3. USC moved to #2. Florida stayed at #4.

9. In week 15, USC famously lost to the UNRANKED Bruins!!! We beat Arkansas for the SEC Championship!

That my friends, is how the BCS (and AP rankings for the first 7 weeks). How did the Gators manage to win all their games?

1. In order to beat Tennessee, Florida came back from a 17-7 deficit at Tennessee.

2. In order to beat Alabama, Florida had to come back from a 10-0 deficit at the beginning of the 2nd quarter. Late in the second quarter, Christ Leak, the non-running Florida quarterback, ran for 45 yards down to the Alabama third yard line.

3. In order to beat LSU, Tim Tebow actually THREW his first 2 touchdown passes, and the UF defense racked up 3 interceptions, recovered 2 fumbles, and scored a safety. This is also the game with Tebow's basketball style pump pass to Tate Casey.

4. In order to beat Vanderbilt, Christ Leak RAN (yes RAN) for 2 touchdowns and Florida blocked 2 punts. We also had a messed up snap and the holder threw to Tate Casey for a 2 point conversion.

5. In order to beat South Carolina, Jarvis Moss blocked a 48 yard field goal attempt. This was Moss's 2nd blocked kick that night.

We didn't have an easy Big 10 schedule. We had the toughest schedule in college football this season-I think all would agree to that. We didn't beat every team by 20 points or more the way Ohio State did.
We often barely squeaked out a win. We often got "lucky" as other teams fell to unranked teams. I won't argue with that. But I will argue with the statement that we just lucked ourselves into the National Championship. With all the mishaps and special team scoring and Christ Leak RUSHING and Tim Tebow stiff arming and all the other teams losing....it's not a coincidence. In order for Florida to get to the National Championship, so many things had to just go right. So many things had to be sovereign.

It didn't just happen. God ordained it. Why? Why us and not Michigan? Honestly, I think one reason is Billy Latsko. Billy and his family all go to my church here in Gainesville. Billy walked on to the team in 2002 and was awarded a scholarship in 2004. I think the Lord has heard the prayers of the Latsko family (and the Tebow family). I think that Lord is blessing these two young men and their team. I'm sure there are other reasons for it. But I would bet blessing Billy has a lot to do with it.

God is sovereign. Just look at the Gators journey to the BCS National Championship!

I need Him...

2006-11-16T20:36:00.000-08:00

It is my firm belief that pride is the most deceptive sin of all--at least in my own life, for I suppose I can not truly attest to sin in the lives of others. But I do believe this is my greatest struggle as a child of God.

One of the main reasons for this is that pride can take on so many different forms. It can come in the form of self-preoccupation-being so consumed with ones own self, that the needs of others are paid little or no attention to, for his focus is himself.
It can come in the form of self-exaltation-the need to be exalted and looked upon as good or fun or popular or right or strong or whatever attribute that you exalt. The latter is often how I think of pride.
But I think an the most dangerous form of pride for us as Christians is that of self-reliance-believing that our human self is able to satisfy our human needs in any way, shape, or form.

I find it humbling that in the moments after the Lord has corrected a false mindset in me, I am astonished to see that I ever could have thought how I did previously. This was the situation I found myself in this past Tuesday evening. I was listening to a sermon by Bob Kauflin entitled "Pursuing God's Presence." It was an exposition on 1 Corinthians 12:1-11. Bob's first point was that in order to pursue the presence of God, we need to have a desperate dependence. Paul says in this chapter
"No one can ever say Jesus is Lord, except in the Holy Spirit."
We cannot confess Christ genuinely unless the Holy Spirit enables us too. In order to even confess our belief in Christ, we need the Holy Spirit-we cannot do it on our own.

Bob spoke of hurting his back while helping his son move and, though fine for a while, a week later, he was stuck in bed and was really unable to walk. He says this:
"In that state, I realized how dependent I was on my wonderful wife who did so
much to serve me in that time and help me....I felt my need."

I can not even begin to tell you how the Spirit began to work in my heart at this moment in the sermon. Somehow in my sinful mind, dependence was a weak thing. Only weak people are dependent. But strong people, they are independent and they do not need anything from anyone. I, Jennifer, am strong. I am independent. For example, when my car got yet another flat tire in September, I did not call a brother in Christ for help. Instead, I fixed the situation on my own. I got the spare tire put on, I got myself to the repair shop, and I waited around for 2 hours until it was fixed. I could have called and asked for help, but for whatever reason, I have this self-dependent mindset.

This mindset of course goes even deeper than flat tires. It pervades my life spiritually as well. If I was struggling with scripture memorization, I wouldn't pray for the Holy Spirit to enable my memory and sharpen my mind because this is something that I should not need help with. A 5 year old can memorize Scripture! I was ashamed to go before the throne of God with something as simple as this. I should be able to accomplish this on my own. This goes for most of my sins-deception, judgments, etc. It is as if I am a twenty year old toddler who is stuck in a perpetual state of "No! I'm a big girl. I can do it!"

Toddlers. What amazing things we can learn from them-especially in the area of dependence. I care for a 23 month old twice a week. She is dependent! She needs me to get dressed, to buckle her in the car, to get her food, to keep her clean. It might be said that of course she is dependent, she is physically unable to satisfy her needs. Yes! Exactly! If Ella were to try and change her own diaper, I can only imagine the disastrous effects!! She would be showing not just an inability but also a stupidity in attempting to accomplish for herself something that I am perfectly willing and desirous to do for her (and can do it a million times better).

Do you see the parallel to my spiritual life? I, Jennifer, am unable to satisfy my own needs. It is not a weakness to admit inability, it is wisdom! To realize that I am insufficient, inept, and unable-to realize that I am in need of not only a Savior to meet my spiritual needs, but a Creator-Provider-Sustainer Abba God to meet all of my needs.

Bob also said this
"Dependence is revealed in the asking."
And it is the Spirit who enables us to cry out Abba Father. The Spirit helps us in our weakness.
"Prayer is a sign that we are desperately dependent on God."

It should be no surprise to you then that I told my accountability the area of spiritual disciplines that most needs work is my prayer life. I need to ask the Lord for His enabling Spirit more often.
But praise the Lord that conviction and repentance are not the end. His mercies are new each day-so today, I can come before the throne and admit my need to be dependent.

I will never be able to do well academically if the Lord does not sharpen my mind and provide for me ample study time. I need Him.

I will never be able to take my next breath if the Lord does not sovereignly ordain it to be so. I need Him.

I will never be able to glean anything from Scripture without the Holy Spirit's working in my heart to open my eyes to the truths that are before me. I need Him.

I will never be able to "pick" the right husband for myself without the Lord's discernment. I need Him to correctly form my desires. I need Him to cause me to realize that I will never marry a Prince Charming, but a sinner saved by grace like myself and that the purpose of any marriage (or relationship of any kind) is to serve the Kingdom and bring glory to the Lord. I need Him.

I will never be able to be good enough for God-no matter how many Piper books I read, or how many hymns I love, or how many missions trips I go on. I need Him!

I will never be able to satisfy the wrath of a righteous God on my own. I need the blood of His Son to be sprinkled on my head. I NEED HIM!

Why politics frustrate me....

2006-11-10T08:25:00.000-08:00

Politics make me think about many things. Of course, I think about my views on the war in Iraq, taxes, and abortion. I think about how divided our country is. I think about God's plan for my state, my country, and this world. I think about how disgusting it all is at times. So then, I think about moving to the bush and never coming back!

A few years back, I was all gung ho for politics. I was a dutiful conservative and watched "The O'Reilly Factor" and "Hannity and Colmes" and loved all things "fair and balanced." I loved the "West Wing" (Democrat loving as it was) and "The American President" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington." I was involved in Youth in Government and Mr. Dyches has told me since I was 15 that my name was going to be on a ballot one day and he was going to be there to vote for me. I wanted that! I would spent time debating politics and policy and decisions with my friends. I campaigned for politicians I supported in 2004. I had the buttons and the plans and the zeal for it all.

The problem is, the Holy Spirit was working in me (as He always is, hopefully). He was stirring up within me a sense of discontent with this political zeal of mine. See, the problem was this-I was spending more time trying to convince someone to vote for some man and in turn, spent MUCH less time talking with people about my faith. And it makes me wonder, as believers, how much time should we spend campaigning for politiciains?

I 100% believe that God is in control of all things-including elections. (And for a timely article on God's Providence in Elections, click here.) I also believe that our efforts in trying to turn out more voters and talk with people about the issues at stake are not void. I think that the Lord uses our efforts to cause His will to come about in politics as He does in all things. And I think that we absolutly need conservatives in the political arena.

But when a politician you support wins the race, the glory MUST go to God, not us and our own human efforts. And in those unfortunate situations when a democrat (sorry folks, but I'm a pretty hard core conservative) wins a race, the glory also MUST go to God. There cannot be thoughts of "If we had only worn a blue tie last Friday" or "If we had only passed out more buttons." No matter what human effort we put in, if it is not the Lord's will, it WILL NOT happen! (Think back to the days of hanging chads and pregnant chads. Despite all the effort put in by voter recounters to find all the ballots for Al Gore they could, George Bush still won.) So, no matter what the outcome, the glory must go to God. Period.

But, how involved in the campaigning process should we be? I feel like we should be "campaigning" for God five quadrillion times more than we should be for any politician. I mean, I don't think we should be out on the streets waving "Go God" signs or anything, but those 2 hours that we spend going door to door trying to convince people to vote for a man, how much more redeemable would that time be if instead we went and got a caramel apple cider with an unbeliever and spoke with him about the gospel of God? How much time do people spend sitting around debating policy and politics that could instead be spent in meditation and prayer for the Lord to make his might and power shown among this nation?

And one last thing. I've heard many conservative people pray for George Bush and for Dick Cheney and for other like minded leaders. But how many of us pray for Hillary Clinton, or John Kerry, or Barack Obama? Russell Moore writes "It is easy for Christians to pray for political figures who court our votes. There are several organizations out there devoted to encouraging believers to pray for President Bush. We are commanded to pray for President Bush. But our responsibility doesn't end there....It isn't easy to love and pray for someone who stands at odds with your worldview. But it pleases the God who wants all to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth."

So yes, I care about politics. It shapes the world that I and my children will grow up in. I haven't missed voting in an election yet, and I rue the day that I do. (ahem, Kimmy) But more than that, I care about the glory of God. And if the glory of God can be manifested most in House with Nancy Pelosi as its Speaker, then my prayers, along with Russell Moore and his family's, will be for her.

Think about is this way. Any of the hotly contested elections in our nations history are just that...history. Most of the men are dead and the only people that really know anything about it are historians, librarians, and high school students. But, the cross. Friend, Christ died on the cross 2000 years ago and it is still a living, breathing, effecting thing. The cross alone will last. The cross alone will still matter in 200 years when Nancy Pelosi and the Clintons have long since ceased. Make your life about things that matter. The only thing that matters-to glorify God and enjoy him forever.

Sugar Coated Youth Ministries

2006-11-01T07:48:00.000-08:00

Time magazine recently did an article about youth groups in America. It discussed how youth groups in the 90's presented a watered down gospel in order for teenagers to be entertained and having fun. It then discussed a trend in some churches to do the exact opposite of this by presenting heavy doses of absolute truth and doctrine and scripture.
A quote from the article says this:

"Believing that a message wrapped in pop-culture packaging was the
way to attract teens to their flocks, pastors watered down the religious
content and boosted the entertainment. But in recent years churches
have begun offering their young people a style of religious
instruction grounded in Bible study and teachings about the doctrines
of their denomination. Their conversion has been sparked by
the recognition that sugarcoated Christianity, popular in the 1980s and
early '90s, has caused growing numbers of kids to turn away not just
from attending youth-fellowship activities but also from practicing their faith at all."

You can find a link to the article here.

HT: Al Mohler

CJ @ Southern

2006-10-30T16:49:00.000-08:00

This last week, CJ Mahaney was at Southern Seminary preaching at their chapel services all week. Bob Kauflin was there with him leading worship. What a wonderful experience for these southern baptist students to have experienced a Sovereign Grace worship service!!!

Al Mohler provides a review of the week and has this to say about CJ "He appeared in Alumni Chapel in sartorial splendor. Here is proof. What a friend. What a preacher. What a servant."

The links to the audio of the sermons can be found here. Enjoy!!

The Seriousness of Sin

2006-10-26T18:48:00.001-07:00

So I have been thinking lately about sin, and our reactions to it. I have been thinking a lot of us view sin as simply an inevtiable part of our lives. I have been thinking that a lot of times, what Person A considers sin, Person B just considers a matter of difference in convictions. I have been thinking about our susceptibility to become numb to sin and to participate in that which isn't REALLY holy because it is all in the name of spreading the gospel and showing the world that we as Believers can have fun too. Basically...I have been doing a lot of thinking. And there are two quotes that I wish to share with the world about all of this. But first, to begin with Scriputre.

First of all, yes, Scripture DOES say in Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And I think many of us embrace this and think I have sinned, which means that I WILL sin, so why not sin here-today and now-cause I'm going to sin somewhere on down the road. BUT, Ezekiel 36:27 says I will put my Spirit in you, and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. An expository on this verse that I was reading by Charles Spurgeon talks about the fact that the very Spirit which is God has deigned to dwell in mortal man, and yet we offend Him daily by sinful actions and thoughts and desires.

How is it that we forget that we have the Comforter within us-the Savior left so that the Comforter may come and yet we would rather watch an unpure movie or laugh at an unkind joke. I think that it is because we are so callous with our own sin that we therefore are callous with the Spirit of God within us. I think it is because we don't understand the depravity of our every sinful action that we are not more grieved at the wretched nature of our sinful soul. Somehow, we have gotten to the point where we think that when we sin, it does not offend the Holy God. Charles Spurgeon has this to say:

The Spirit also works conviction. Conviction is more forcible than illumination:
it is the setting of a truth before the eye of the soul, so as to make it powerful
upon the conscience. I speak to many here who know what conviction
means; still I will explain it from my own experience. I knew what sin meant
by my reading, and yet I never knew sin in its heinousness and horror,
till I found myself bitten by it as by a fiery serpent, and felt its poison
boiling in my veins. When the Holy Ghost made sin to appear sin,
then was I overwhelmed with the sight, and I would fain have fled
from myself to escape the intolerable vision. A naked sin stripped of all excuse,
and set in the light of truth, is a worse sight than to see the devil himself.
When I saw sin as an offence against a just and holy God, committed by
such a proud and yet insignificant creature as myself, then was I alarmed.
Sirs, did you ever see and feel yourselves to be sinners? "Oh, yes," you say, "we are sinners."
0 sirs, do you mean it? Do you know what it means? Many of you are no more
sinners in your own estimation than you are Hottentots. The beggar who exhibits
a sham sore knows not disease; if he did he would have enough of it
without pretenses. To kneel down and say, "Lord, have mercy upon us
miserable sinners," and then to get up and feel yourself a very decent
sort of body, worthy of commendation, is to mock Almighty God. It is
by no means a common thing to get hold of a real sinner,
one who is truly so in his own esteem; and it is as pleasant as
it is rare, for you can bring to the real sinner the real Savior,
and He will welcome him.

And also this:

"let us abhor the sin which brought such agony upon our
beloved Lord. What an accursed thing is sin, which
crucified the Lord Jesus! Do you laugh at it? Will you go
and spend an evening to see a mimic performance of it?
Do you roll sin under your tongue as a sweet morsel, and
then come to God's house, on the Lord's-day morning,
and think to worship him? . . . Sin murdered Christ; will
you be a friend to it? Sin pierced the heart
of the Incarnate God; can you love it?"

Do you love sin? Do you pay to be entertained by sin? The very sin which crushed the Son of the Most High God? I hear people say "But this is fun." Friend, God has not called you to live a life of fun. He has called you to live a life that brings glory to Him? He will not ask you one day "How much fun did you have?" Is your life proclaiming the name of Christ? Is your life resonating that glory that is God's through out the world?

I know this can become legalistic. I know that is what this can tend towards. This is right and that is wrong. So then people say they don't want to be legalistic and they have freedom in Christ and yes, friend this is true. In God's gracious mercy though, it won't be this way. But ask yourself. Is the activity that you so wish to do beneficial? Is it good? What is motivating you? Can God receive Glory from it? WILL He recieve glory from it? Is it causing another brother or sister to stumble?

I'm not asking you to be legalistic. I don't want to be legalistic. I just want us to consider that it was sin-murder, hatred, envy, gossip, jealousy, lies, disobedience, etc.-for which Christ hung on the cross. Sin murdered the living breathing incarnate God...will you be friend to it?

Embracing Accusations

2006-10-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

My friend Michael recently reccomended a song to me by one of my all-time favorite groups "Shane and Shane" The song is called "Embracing Accusations" and at first glance, even if you know Shane Barnard, you begin to wonder if his theology has just gone totally off the deep end. It seems to be essentially a song praising the devil, for he is right.

Shane says he was running on the beach one evening before a show and was meditating on Galatians 3:10:
All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written “cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
He said he was overwhelmed with guilt at this truth from Satan...that because he does not follow everything written in the Book of the Law, he is cursed. Satan was trying to tear apart Shane's faith but instead, ended up preaching the gospel to him. Yes, he is cursed BUT Christ paid that death for us, so he is cursed no longer. For this passage from Galations doesn't end there, it goes onto to say in Galations 3:13:
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written “cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

This song isn't on a CD yet so you can't hear a edited version of it, but thanks to the world of YouTube, you can listen to a scratchy yet still amazing performance by Shane and Shane here

These are the lyrics.

Father of lies, coming to steal kill and destroy
All my hopes of being good enough
I hear him saying, “cursed are the ones who can’t abide”

He’s right, halleluia, he’s right
The devil is preaching the song of the redeemed
That I am cursed and gone astray
I cannot gain salvation
Embracing accusation

Could the father of lies be telling the truth of
God to me tonight?
That if the penalty of sin is death, then death is mine
I hear him saying, “cursed are the ones who can’t abide”

The devil’s singing over me an age old song
That I am cursed and gone astray
Singing the first verse so conveniently over me
He’s forgotten the refrain.
JESUS SAVES!!!

PRAISE GOD. I cannot gain salation. I would never even come close to earning or securing my own righteousness. This is the song that I sing, I was cursed, but Jesus saves. What Satan has meant to condemn me instead cause me to once again look at the cross in awe and humble adoration and overwhelming praise.

Praise God that I serve a risen King who took my curse upon Himself. Praise God Praise God Praise God!!

These are a few of my Favorite Things

2006-09-19T23:01:00.000-07:00

"The Hills are alive...with the Sound of Music."

Know what that is from? It is one of the songs from Rogers and Hammerstein's "The Sound of Music" which is a movie that I was practically spoon fed from birth (well, that and the Atlanta Braves. But with the way the Braves played this year, I'd bet Julie Andrews could pitch a better 9th inning that half our bullpen!! While singing!)
But, I digress. I can still remember acting out the grand party scene from the musical on our stairs with my little brother and Julianne Reed (we made Phil play 5 year old Gretl. Glad to see that this had no long lasting effects on his masculinity!)

Anyways, another song from this musical is also "My Favorite Things." When the children get scared during a thunderstorm one evening, Maria begins to sing to them a song about her favorite things:

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things...

She says that when she is scared or hurt or sad, remembering her favorite things always cheers her up! Well, I am neither scared, nor hurt, nor sad...but I am STRESSED! And I thought that perhaps sharing with you all some of my favorite things might, A) bring a small bit of happiness into your life as you explore and fall in love with some of these and B) relieve some of my stress as well! So...enjoy my frivolous and silly post.

1) Pandora Internet Radio
My most recent internet obsession. You type in your favorite song or artist and they create a radio station around the key elements of the song. As they suggest each subsequent song, you tell them whether you like ir or dislike it. They then adjust your listening preferences and then suggest another song. I built a radio station around Derek Webb. The songs they play for me now have elements of acoutsitc and electric
instrumentation, sections of strings, sections of piano, major and minor key tonality, vocal harmony, and a dynamic male volcalist.

It's so cool. They have added some of my favorite artists to my radio station just from knowing I like Derek Webb (who by the way is one of my favorite artists. And he now has a website with his latest CD "Mockingbird" available for free download with his blessing. FreeDerekWebb.com)

2) Theological Ramblings

Anyone who knows me the tiniest bit knows that I am not your normal person. One of my abnormalities is the degree to which I love theology.
I am actually studying it this semester with Joe and Tara Donato. Joe put togehter this giant archive of articles on different theological
subjects from which we read each week before meeting to discuss. If you are ever looking for information on a particular topic, chances are, you
can find what you are looking for in the articles section of this website.

3) Movie Ratings

I hate going to a movie that a friend has suggested and then being shocked at the content of the movie. By God's grace, there are numerous websites on the internet that provide a play by play of the good and bad elements of a movie (sexual content, violence, language, and spiritual aspects. This one is my favorite. It's provided by Focus on the Family as well I believe.
They also provide insite on TV's, and DVD's and music. I just usually only use it for movies.

4) Internet Movie Database

I love this place. You can look up quotes and actors and random facts. It's just a basic fun site for when you are bored.

(This is a pretty boring and already known about link. But it can't hurt.)

5) Theologian Quiz

My friend Ryan got this link from his friend Mark. You answer the theology question and then it tells you how similar you are to theologians of the past. I was 78% Anselm and 73% Calvin. Luther was surprising low on mine, and Barth was surprisingly high. Obviously not 100% accurate, but fun nonetheless.

6) Emotional Modesty Checklist

So whenever the topic turns to dating and relationships, typically physical purity comes up. But I am a huge proponent of emotional purity and wish that people would be just as concerned with one as the other. But, when emotional modesty DOES come up, the question is always, "How do you know what's right or good?" On my friend Ryan's blog, the topic has been discussed almost to exaustion in the last half year or so. But a recent post of Ryan's prompted someone to post this comment which I found incredibly practically and useful, as did a group of 6 girls at my house. Hope you enjoy it as well.

7) Treadmill Music Video

So the whole world knows about You Tube. My favoritest thing on You Tube is this music video by "Ok Go." It's...well...in my opinion too amazing for words. And apparently VH1 agrees with me because they performed this on treadmills at some awards show (not sure which one, award shows aren't really my specialty).

8) Google Earth

So you download this thing and it shows you a satellite of anywhere in the world. Type in your address and see your house from space. Seriously. For stalkers like me (honestly, I was a HUGE fan of facebook news feed. Satisfied my curiousity MUCH faster!) it's a great thing. (Just kidding. It's not in real time exactly. And I'm also not really a stalker. But it is still accurate. Makes me feel like I'm in the CIA for all of 5 seconds. Actually, it makes me feel like I'm on the same level as Jack Bauer...which just rocks my socks off.)

9) Free Chick-Fil-A for a year.

Ok. This site ITSELF doesn't actually give you free chick-fil-a for a year. There is something you have to do. What happens is that every time a brand new chick-fil-a opens, the first 100 customers get free chick-fil-a for a year (it comes in the form of 52 value meal coupons. This means a sandwhich, side, and a drink). But, lots of people know this and therefore you have to camp out in advance of the opening. I've now done this twice and the last time we camped out for 22 hours prior to the opening. To some of the adults reading this, this may sound INSANE. But to the poor college students out there, you realize just how stinkin' worth it this is.

This will link you to the page with all the grand openings in the next 60 days. Just call corporate and they will give you an estimated date of opening.

(PS, the gospel is typically presented at midnight as well by the President of Chick-fil-a. Not too shabby in the least.)

10) The Successor

I may be VERY wrong, but I think a lot of the people who read my blog are familar with Sovereign Grace Ministries. If you are, you'll love this link. I'm not even going to spoil it for you for explaining it. (There's even a comment by Mr. Gilland, the worship leader at my church in Gainesville. He's FAMOUS now!!)

(If you don't know what SovGrace Ministries are, e-mail me! I'd love to tell you more about this movement!)

11) Don't Despair!

Remember those stores in the mall that sold pretty pictures surrounded by a black border with a motivational saying on the bottom? In the mid-90's, they seemed to be all the rage. Well, this link is to...the exact opposite of that. For those of you who love satire and sarcasm, this is for you.

My favorites are Ambition, Compromise, Discovery, Loneliness, Mediocrity, Motivation, Potential, wishes,

12) Moleskine

I love to write. Journal. Prayer write. Vent write. Digest Write. Quote Write. Memory Write. Whatever Write.
And I LOVE to do it in my moleskine journal. They've been used by Picasso, Hemingway, and Van Gogh. Oh. And by Jessica Caldwell ;-)

Well friends, that's all I got. 12 of my favorite things which are all somehow linked on the World Wide Web.
Hope that this provided some form of entertainment for you. It certainly made me less stressed and less focused on my checklist of 73.5 things to do before the sun sets on the third day, so I'm grateful for that.

Paper Part 3

2006-09-15T20:46:00.001-07:00

Lewis's problem (and more importantly, God's problem) with our desires is that we do not seek them near as often or with near as much passion as we should. This is a concept supported by great minds of many ages. Freud believed that if we all looked out for our own good, we all would be much happier. Blaise Pascal says that "All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves." It cannot be denied that every action of every day is performed with the hope of it somehow bringing us an increase in our happiness. The debate then is not whether man desires to be happy but more of the nature of God. Did he create man with desires to be suppressed so that we can more honestly praise God or did he create man with desires for happiness so strong and so intense that nothing on this earth can fulfill it?

"Although Lewis believes that all forms of pleasure, fun, happiness, and joy come from God, who gives these freely for all to enjoy, he admits that these earthly pleasures never completely satisfy us. 'We have plenty of fun, and some ecstasy, but they never quite satisfy our yearnings.’ God withholds from us ‘the settled happiness and security which we all desire.' Otherwise, Lewis says, we would think this world our home rather than a place through which we are passing.” These desirable things on earth are shadows and reflections of the greatest happiness and glory of all-God the Father. "There once was in man a true happiness of which now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent, the help he does not obtain in things present. But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself." The world has an inconsolable longing. It tries to satisfy the longing with scenic vacations, accomplishments of creativity, stunning cinematic productions, sexual exploits, sports extravaganzas, hallucinogenic drugs, ascetic rigors, managerial excellence, et cetera. But the longing remains. What does this mean? “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world.”

We will delight most in what we value most. Whether or not we pleasure in something is simply a barometer of how important that particular thing is. If you delight in spending time with your friends but not in studying for calculus, it is probably because your friends are more valuable to you. The man who is in love with a woman does not have to force himself to tell her how beautiful she is. It is a natural result from the overwhelming happiness in his heart. A pivotal quote from Lewis on this subject deals with this. "But the most obvious fact about praise-whether of God or any thing-strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise-lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game-praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds, praised most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised least . . . I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise what ever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: "Isn't she lovely? Wasn't it glorious? Don't you think that magnificent?" The Psalmists, in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. Happiness does not compete with God, idols do...I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed."

You can tell God that the ocean is lovely and thank him for creating it. But would not it bring him more pleasure to see you ACTIVELY swimming in it, surfing in it, picnicking alongside it-that is SEEING his child enjoying what he has created for him. The same can be said of sex. That man who is in love can thank God for his lover and for her body and for her beauty. Wouldn't it make more sense for him to praise God by actively enjoying her beauty and her body and her presence? Freud is not wrong in that the ultimate human purpose is in pursuing pleasure. Sex is a beautiful thing created by a loving God who delights in his child's happiness, but even more so in his own glory. Lewis simply redefined what the pleasure is-the soul's delight in God. "The tragedy of the world is that the echo is mistaken for the Original Shout. When our back is to the breathtaking beauty of God, we cast a shadow on the earth and fall in love with it. The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These things-the beauty, the memory of our own past-are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.”

Sigmund, Clive Staples, and John Part 2

2006-09-10T15:22:00.001-07:00

Here is part two of my paper on Freud and CS Lewis:

Freud said that people's thoughts are dominated by the pleasure principle. This is at the forefront or our minds throughout our existence. Lewis saw the primary purpose in a man's life to be his need to establish a relationship with his Creator. It is only within the confines of this relationship that we can experience happiness. “God cannot give us happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” Without this essential connection in our lives, any other attempt on our parts "...to invent some sort of happiness for themselves apart from God" will be futile. Man may seek happiness in marriage, education, employment opportunities, and sexual encounters. But this happiness will continue to be sought after time and time again with minimal satisfaction. Freud is a perfect example of this endless cycle. He even turned to cocaine as an attempt to lift his spirits and give himself a reason for living. But he would be the last person to say his life was defined by happiness. On one occasion, Freud discussed the elusiveness of his happiness by saying that every time "...you think you already have it in your grasp and it is already gone again."

Freud, and countless others, spend their entire lives searching for the one vice to fill the hole inside of them. They never think to look at God as the object to fulfill this longing. They believe that with God, you must toe this invisible line. God is viewed by so many as the cyber cop in the sky. God would never want us to enjoy these things that the world looks to for pleasure-sex, drugs, and alcohol. God would want us to wear our pretty little outfits and sit with our hands folded in our laps and become little puppets for the great puppeteer in the sky. Most of mankind would probable agree that if that is what Christianity is all about, who in their right mind would want to "buy into" that? It really would be the mentally insane or the feeble minded who called themselves Christians as Freud so often said.

So say this little prim and proper picture is Christianity. What kind of God would that be? This God would have created us with the innate desire and capability to feel happiness and pleasure and enjoy this sexual experience. But then, in order to love him and know him and BE loved by him and BE known by him, we would have to deny ourselves these pleasures and instead become a shell of our former selves? This does not seem to be a very loving or kind or all powerful God. A powerful God would be one who could take those humanly desires and form them in such a way that that can simultaneously bring glory to him and still fulfill our humanly desire for pleasure.

So either our desires will bring happiness to us AND glory to God or those desires will be removed by God. If we are delighting ourselves in the Lord, he promises that he will give us the desires of our hearts. Why then, can one not find happiness in these things apart from this relationship with God? "Lewis warns that although 'all pleasures and happiness is in its own nature good, and God wishes us to enjoy it, He does not, however, wish us to enjoy it without relation to Him, still less to prefer it to him." If one tries to love his wife without loving God he will find it to be an impossible task at times. Logically then, it would seem even harder to love God AND to love his wife because now his love capabilities are being split between two entities. The opposite is in fact true. "When we have learned to love God better than our earthly dearest, we shall love our earthly dearest better than we do now. In so far as we learn to love our earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, we shall be moving towards that state in which we shall not love our earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased." Christ himself said that any man who would lose his life for Christ's sake would find it. If we deny and die to our desire for happiness outside of God, he will bring to us a greater and more magnificent happiness than we could have ever imagined or created apart from him.

Somehow, Christianity has become a religion of unselfishness and this unselfishness does not involve doing good to others but instead doing "...without them [pleasure] ourselves." It is as if we believe God would be more pleased with the repressing of pleasure than in his child's happiness. "If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

...to be continued....

Connecting Scripture to Sigmund Freud to CS Lewis to John Piper

2006-09-03T19:20:00.000-07:00

Last Fall, I took a class at the University of Florida titled "Freud and Philosophy." Basically, it was a comparison/contrast class of Sigmund Freud and Clive Staples Lewis. It was a fantastic thing to be graded upone reading "Mere Christianity" and "The Abolition of Man." However, we also had to write a final term paper. As THIS fall semester has begun, I have had less and less time to sit and tap my thoughts on the keyboard, hence, my blogging has seemingly ceased. So I decided to blog my paper in bits, and perhaps get some feeback from some of you that read this. (Also, since I am incapable of emailing it to Joe, he can read it this way!)

This is not the whole paper. Just a few paragraphs. I'll put a few paragraphs up every other day or so. The basic thesis of the paper is this. Sigmund Freud said that we are motivated solely by the pleasure principle, and that the greatest pleasure we seek is sex. I contend that CS Lewis (and Scripture) would not disagree with the first part of this statement-humans are motivated by the pleasure principle. However, the greatest pleasure is found in Christ. (It's kind of a feeble attempt to connect Scripture, Freud, Lewis, and of course, John Piper.)

So read, enjoy, think, and remember that I am no theologian, so be kind in your critiques!!

(Also, I begin with Freud. So this first post has little biblical truth to it, but it is rather a summary or sarcastic analyzation of Freud's theories.)

Sigmund Freud and Clive Staples Lewis represent two of the greatest minds of the last few centuries. Both of these intellectual giants published volumes of manuscripts on almost every subject one could possibly imagine. Each provides for his readers a different motivation for all of the basic desires-love, family, religion, death, and God. These are the base needs of each individual in the core of his humanity. More often then not they argued from opposite ends of the spectrum and seem to have been irreconcilably split. No where else is this more visible than when dealing with the concepts of happiness and the pleasure principle. On the surface, these men could not have been more diametrically opposed, but when one looks closely, it becomes obvious. Both Freud and Lewis agreed that we are motivated solely by our desire to find pleasure.

Freud states in Civilization and Discontent that the purpose and intent in a person's life is to seek after happiness and, that this happiness is equated with pleasure. This becomes one of Freud's most basic and universally known theories: the pleasure principle. It is the opposite of the reality principle and requires instant gratification; it is unconscious and pays no attention to consequences or reason or to the well-being of others. In Freud's model, this is also known as the id. This “pleasure principle… dominates the operation of the mental apparatus from the start.” Freud believes that all of our other desires and hang-ups can be traced back to either gratification or suppression of our desire for happiness and that it truly is the main focus in life.

If all people purely are seeking to pleasure themselves through sex, should we not all be much happier than we are? Should not life be a series of hookups and one night stands so that woman A and man B can find gratification of this primal urge? Freud believes that the reason for unhappiness and unfulfillment in life stems mostly from the standards that society has placed on sex. The sexual norms do not allow us to satisfy ourselves any time and any place. Therefore we are in an almost continual state of sexual frustration. Even when we are experiencing this pleasure, it is a very time limited thing and can only last for so long. Then we return to the unhappy state from whence we came. In addition, we can not experience this ultimate pleasure until we reach a certain pubescent age. Up till then we are taught that our sexual urges are wrong and something of which to be ashamed.

These two concepts-1) our lack of sexual experience until a "proper" age and 2) this idea of a proper age and proper sexual behavior- tie back to Freud's guilt complex. As we act on these impulses or deny these impulses, we are denying ourselves this basic universal pleasure. Therefore, we begin to experience guilt. It may be the noisy guilt which is characterized by an undeniable sense of wrongness with very little stimulation. It might be on a more subconscious level such as quiet guilt or the silent guilt. Either way, as we refuse to fulfill this pleasure seeking part of ourselves we develop more and more guilt. The irony of this is that as the repression increases, the guilt increases, and the conscious awareness of it this guilt increases. This causes us to dwell more intensely on the repressed desire and consequently, create more guilt.

This seems to point to happiness not being something that should be repressed. It makes no sense for humans to have a constant desire that can never be satiated. In the same way, sexual pleasure seems to not be the pinnacle for our satisfaction. If we have a never ending desire to be happy, why would the only fulfillment for that be something that lasts for mere minutes on the grand scale of things? Perhaps sex is ONE of the satisfying things we can experience, but it seems unlikely that it is truly the end all and be all for our deepest desires.

Blink of an Eye

2006-08-15T19:21:00.000-07:00

This is my last night here in the greater Tampa area and right now, I can't describe how I am feeling. Back in May, I felt this summer would drag on and it would take EONS to get back to Gainesville. Instead, it has flown by in the blink of an eye. I feel like I am leaving part of my heart here and going to find the other part of my heart in Gainesville. There's an overwhelming feeling of "a lot of lasts." My last time in my bed tonight. My last day at work. The last time I wouldn't have to dial 813 before a number on my phone. My last dinner with my mom....I think that's part of the reason I feel so sad. For the first time in my adult life, I have an actual relationship with my mom. Where she seeks my advice and I seek hers....where I respect her and she values me. Where I am not afraid to tell her what I'm feeling or simply say "I love you" for no reason.

This summer, God taught me how to love unconditionally, even when the object of that love has no desire a) for that love or b) to love you back in return. When I was 15-17, I burned so many bridges with my mom that she cared very little if the relationship was to continue in any way, shape or form. Callouses had formed on both our hearts and the wounds from years past had turned into deep, seemingly inpenetrable scars. While God has done a magnificent work in my heart these last 3 years, I had never had the opportunity for my mother to see that-for her to see the gospel at work in my relationship with her. I am often frustrated by my parents views of Christians and the church, and it is with a sorrowful cry that I realize that I also am the cause of their opinons. You see, to me, if my parents told me "No, you can't go to church tonight" I thought they were wrong. In my twisted and sinful mind, it made more sense to be at church than to honor and obey my parents. So my middle teenage years were spent lieing and fighting to do what I deemed to be "good" things. What a greater witness it would have been if I had done the greatest thing and simply obeyed. I can't explain why my theology of parent/child relationships was so off, other than it all comes in God's good and perfect timing. So my parents saw a hypocrite-an wonderful child at church but then a sinful rude girl at home.

God is sweet to have given me this summer what both my mother and I have always wished we had-a best friend relationship. But now, I am moving on. It's as if I'm having my senior summer all over again. Then, I was going to miss my friends. Today, I am missing my family. I hung out with my friends very little this summer, which is weird. Friends have always been so important to me, and if I'm not focused on the Lord, can at times become an idol for me. Instead, this summer was spent with my family-and shocker of all shockers, I ENJOYED that time!! My family is wonderful!

My little brother is my favorite person in the entire world. He is 18 years old, 6'2'', and seems to be too cool for words. But the other day I walked by his room and heard the soundtrack to Evita just blaring away. This 18 year old man is still the compassionate and tender little boy I grew up with.

My dad is a character. That's the only word to describe him. He longs for nothing more than to enjoy each day as it comes. Material things matter very little to him-he would rather spend $80 on a nice dinner than $80 on a bill if it means the family is going to be together, conversing and loving one another.

My step-dad is smart-smart isn't the right word. He is business savy beyond anything. When I was 7, we had no cable and shopped at Goodwill and drove a truck with no air conditioning because he was starting his own real estate office. Now, 13 years later, he is one of the number 1 brokers in the country. My parents own 2 boats, are building a lake, and own 8 or 9 homes. His one office has turned into 8 across the Hillsborough County. I say this not to brag, but to say that he is the most determined and driven man I know, and our family has clearly been blessed by these gifts of his.

My mom. I don't know. I guess I was like one of those horses growing up. I had these blinders up on my eyes and I couldn't see anything in my peripheral. I just saw straight ahead and straight ahead was me. I don't know if she has always been this way because I was blinded, but my mom is at heart a provider. The other day she brought home the Publix sale flyer and it had a bunch of "buy 1 get 1 free" deals. She told me to look through and see what I wanted because she'd go get it so I could take it back to Gainesville with me. Two days later, I look in the pantry and see 2 olive oils, 2 ketchups, 2 oatmeal boxes. It seems so simple, but it's so real. My brother needs to barely utter the words "Mom, we're out of Gatorade" and the next day, the house is stocked with enough Gatorade for an army. She meets people's physical and practical needs better than anyone I have ever met.

But I know that it is time to leave. I am 20. Gainesville is where I am called to be and in the same way that this has been a sanctifying summer, I know the sanctification is no where near completed (and praise God for that!). But the thing is, I'm 20! I graduate next August. This is my last summer as a kid at home. Everyone is getting married and moving and soon, the Brandon that I miss will no longer exist, it will simply be a distant memory. So I soaked it in this summer...I cherished simple conversations with Wade and Ricky. I reveled in Wednesday Night Breakpoint at Bell Shaols. I served Victor with every ounce of my being as often as I could. I ate dinner at home as often as possible. I took my time and breathed with each step I took so that I could remember each face, and each embrace, and each moment of grace.

Hand out the window,
Floatin’ on air.
Just a flip of the wrist,
And I am wavin’ you goodbye.
So long, so long. (Takin' my time, takin' this drive,)
So long, so long. (Wavin' this town goodbye.)
And I will leave under the cover,
Of summer’s kiss upon the sky.
I was certain that the season could be held between my arms,
But just as summer’s hold is fleeting.
I was here but now,
I’m gone. (So long, so long.)
I'm gone. (So long, so long.)

Stance in Grace

2006-08-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

This summer, I have been going to a church ministry for college students. A few weeks back, during the sermon, a portion of the story of the Prodigal Son was read. I couldn’t tell you what the original point of the sermon was or anything else that the preacher said that evening. As the story was read, my attention was firmly in the Lord’s grasp and I feel like I had a sermon spoken straight into my soul. This is what I learned as I meditated on the Scripture that evening and into the next days.

Luke 15:11-32

The Parable of the Prodigal Son

11And he said, "There was a man who had two sons. 12And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.' And he divided his property between them. 13Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. 14And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to^[b] one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. 16And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

17"But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! 18I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants."' 20And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'^[c] 22But the father said to his servants,^[d] 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate.

25"Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. 26And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. 27And he said to him, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.' 28But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, 29but he answered his father, 'Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!' 31And he said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'"

I have always read this and thought “Yay for the prodigals. Run home to your God.” But I have never identified with the Prodigal. I identify with the older brother. He says “What the heck Dad? I’ve been faithful. I have served. I have never really strayed. Where is all of this for me? Where is my celebration? Where are my blessings?” I back that. It’s like I’m saying “Yoohoo…God! Um, in case you forgot, my name is Jennifer Lorraine Romanski from Brandon Florida. I think you forgot to bless me today. I think you forgot to dole out that good gift that I so deserve.”

In a way, I have even been jealous of the Prodigal. Christ tells Simon in Luke 7 that he who has been forgiven of much will love much and he who has been forgiven little will love little. Is that my fault that I had little to forgive? Shouldn’t He love me more because I have always loved Him and have never strayed and have never played the harlot?

Again, what a dumb child I am. I am the harlot. I am the whore. I am the Prodigal too. I’m just a prideful Prodigal, in that I can’t even recognize my own Prodigalness! Luke 7 isn’t saying that God will love the Prodigal more. It is saying that the Prodigal will love God more then the brother because the Prodigal knows just how much he is dependent upon the Lord, whereas the brother is still stuck in his own independence and self-sufficiency. The brother still believes that he is somehow good on his own a little bit. The Prodigal knows he is depraved. The Prodigal knows TRULY what he was saved from. The brother thinks a part of him was worthy of love. The Prodigal knows how incredibly unworthy he was. How selfish that I would not want to celebrate my brother’s return or whatever else God is doing in their lives because I’m too worried about my OWN celebration (or lack thereof).

There are not levels of sin, and there are not levels of righteousness. One iniquity might as well be infinity iniquities. Once sprinkled with the blood, that’s it. I am not saved by grace and then kept by works. I am saved by grace and kept by grace.

I deserve nothing more or less than any of my friends. I don’t deserve to be a student at UF. I don’t deserve to live in the United States. I don’t deserve the amazing little brother that I have. I don’t deserve to worship God. But it is because I don’t deserve any of this that I MUST worship God-this is why I cannot hold it in and remain composed. Instead of focusing on what God hasn’t given me, I must remember that He has given me all that I could ever need. He gave me life through the Messiah’s death. I don’t need a party and a fattened calf. I am ALIVE!!

How sad that this is something I must REMIND myself to remember. What if this were on the physical level? What if I was standing in a field, and a man had a gun to my head and was counting down to the trigger pull and to my death. Then, all of the sudden, another man walks up and puts his child in my place and pulls me to safety. I’m pretty sure that every time I saw this second man, I would remember his son’s death in my place. I’m pretty sure I would remember that I was once seconds from death and now am living. But spiritually, I allow my pride to take hold of my heart. I forget that God killed his son for me and am instead spending my time frustrated because my eye make-up looks weird and thinking about the Braves play-off chances and wondering whether or not I’ll get to watch an episode of Lost tonight.

I need to be rocked. I need to have everything I know shaken upside down. I need to have a life-threatening event happen. I need to suffer. I need to be persecuted. My life has already been too blessed and too easy. Maybe then the Gospel will permeate my every thought and movement. In a sermon on the life of John Bunyan, John Piper says this:

Bunyan's suffering left its mark on all his written work. George Whitefield said of The Pilgrim's Progress, "It smells of the prison. It was written when the author was confined in Bedford jail. And ministers never write or preach so well as when under the cross: the Spirit of Christ and of Glory then rests upon them."

The fragrance of affliction was on most of what he wrote. In fact, I suspect that one of the reasons the Puritans are still being read today with so much profit is that their entire experience, unlike ours, was one of persecution and suffering. To our chipper age (at least in the prosperous West) this may seem somber at times, but the day you hear that you have cancer or that your child is blind or that a mob is coming, you turn away from the chipper books to the weighty ones that were written on the precipice of eternity where the fragrance of heaven and the stench of hell are both in the air.

God is good to love me. God is MERCIFUL to love me. I must remember that God is about His glory. I will never be able to steal His glory from Him, but I am guilty of trying too. I must remember that I stand in grace, and only in grace. I must remember that grace alone has kept me and will keep me.

PCUSA and the Trinity

2006-08-05T19:23:00.000-07:00

I grew up going to 2 different churches because my parents were divorced. With my mom, I went to a Southern Baptist church. With my dad, I went to a PCUSA (Presbyterian Church of the United States of America). For those who are familar with denominational differences, you know just how different these two are. SBCer's are known for their resolute stand against women pastors, their declarations that homosexuality is a sin, as well as many conservative stands on most other doctrinal issues.

PCUSA have woman preachers (in my church, we had a female preacher for the last 10 years), the Session as a whole decided NOT to decide about homosexuality because it is too divisive of an issue, and as a pattern they take a liberal stand on most doctrinal issues. I am grateful for the marriage of these 2 denominations in my upbringing, because I learned solid biblical doctrine at the SBC church while getting a steady dose of reformed theology in the PCUSA church.

I have, at times, shaken my head in dismay by decisions of the leadership in both of these denominations. But the PCUSA assembly has just done the heretic. The PCUSA session passed a policy on alternate names for the Trinity. Now, I don't pretend to be an expert on the Trinity (for that I would recommend the teachings of Dr. Bruce Ware), but these names are tragic.

The allowed alternatives are:
1. Rock, Redeemer, Friend
2. Lover, Beloved, Love
3. Creator, Savior, Sanctifier
4. King of Glory, Prince of Peace, Spirit of Love
(The traditional "phrasing" is "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit/Ghost".)

Now, number 3, I really don't take issue with. I think those are accurate descriptions of the role that each of the entities plays. As for the 4th one, eh...Spirit of Love seems a little hokey too me, cause isn't the Father also the King of Love and the Son the Prince of Love?" The third one just plain doesn't make sense to me. Number 2 seems too small to describe my God.

Here are the “best” ones though. (And by best, I mean worse. Far far worse.)

5. Rainbow, Ark, and Dove
6. Speaker, Word, and Breath
7. Overflowing Fount, Living Water, and Flowing River
8. Compassionate Mother, Beloved Child, and Life-Giving Womb
9. Sun, Light, and Burning Ray
10. Giver, Gift, and Giving
11. Rock, Cornerstone, and Temple
12. Fire that Consumes, Sword that Divides, and Storm that Melts Mountains
13. The One Who Was, The One Who Is, and The One Who Is to Come

There is no distinction between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Number 13 seems reminiscent of the Sunday School illustration that the Trinity is like water. God is Ice, Christ is water, and the Spirit is Steam. The same element is all three. While this is true, water cannot be ice and water and steam at the same time. Along the same vein, God is and was and is to come. Christ is and was and is to come. Same with the Spirit. The same divine characteristics that apply to one apply to all. They are coeternal.

One reason the church gives for giving alternative names is that "Presbyterians should seek 'fresh ways to speak of the mystery of the Triune God' to 'expand the church's vocabulary of praise and wonder.'" The report even begins this way. Merely a way to further express the different aspects of the character of God.

Well, that motive in and of itself seems decent. BUT, there is of course more. Another reason for the change "...is that language limited to the Father and Son 'has been used to support the idea that God is male and that men are superior to women.'" While it is accurate that God is not male, that is the pronoun that God Himself refers to Himself as. That is how Christ refers to His Father.

The report goes on to say “…the church ‘should not insist on the exclusive use of the traditional Trinitarian names, lest we quench the Spirit and even foster idolatry. Such a view would insufficiently acknowledge the divine mystery, would neglect the freedom of God’s children to glorify God imaginatively with all our hearts and minds, and would diminish the joy of knowing God ever more fully.’”

These statements, coming from a denomination that places women over men in ALL positions of leadership are not unexpected. I think it would be easy for people to think "Eh, what's the big deal. So they are changing names. It's not REQUIRED. It's just an option and the motive isn’t really 100% wrong. Know this. The Presbyterian assembly that voted to pass this paper policy also "...sang a revised version of a familiar doxology, 'Praise God from whom all blessing flow'" that avoided male nouns and pronouns for God.
Original:
Praise God from whom all blessing flow
Priase Him all creatures here below
Praise Him above ye heavenly hosts
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
Ame

Alternative:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise Mother all creatures here below
Praise Lover above ye heavenly hosts
Praise Rock, Redeemer, and your Friend
Amen

(Note-This is just a proposed alternative version I came up with. I'm not saying this is actually what they sang.)

Perhaps men in the early church-Peter and Paul and Stephen-and wise theologians-Martin Luther, Charles Spurgeon, RC Sproul, and Al Mohler could refer to the Trinity in one of these ways and their doctrine be no weaker for it (although I think pigs would fly before any of these great men would do so.) But the issue goes much deeper than church leadership. It cuts right into the heart of the congregation and their view of God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. The lay person who refers to God as the mother is going to have an inherently incorrect view of who God is in His very nature. While people are not stupid, they are easily led by those they considered wise-church leaders are considered wise.

PCUSA leaders are conforming to the politically correct culture we live in. If God wanted us to know Him as our Mother, do you not think He would have referred to Himself, at least ONCE, as such? PCUSA leaders should not attempt to disguise their feminist gospel under the banner of understand the nature of God better. Seems like these line up more with the Brian McLaren and the Emerging Chruch than anything else.

No name will ever encompass all that there is to the Trinity. Our imaginations should not attempt to change that.

How Great is Our God!!!

2006-07-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

Frontliners is over....this creates a paradox of feelings in itself. I'm am sad that the constant fellowship and focus on the Lord is gone, but excited to see the ramifactions of such an event!
I can't remember all of the exact numbers, but approximately:

22,000 people were contact in 4 days by the students
The gospel was shared over 2000 times
Over 125 responded (obviously we don't know how many were sincere, but as far as a response goes) to the Spirit of the Lord moving in their hearts.

Those are the cold numbers, but there are so many amazing AMAZING stories.

By Wednesday evening, these students were worshipping God with every ounce of their soul.

On Tuesday afternoon, a group of students shared the Gospel with a Hindu man. When they asked if he would like to become a disciple of Christ's, he said yes. Unbeknowsnt to the students, this man's 10 year old daughter had been hiding behind her dad the whole time and heard everything the students shared. SHe then stepped out from behind her dad and said she wanted to know Jesus too.

On Tuesday evening, my friend Mike, who has been coming to church things for a few years now and is going to PBA in the fall and has a group of friends who have been praying for him for years...Mike became my brother in Christ on Tuesday evening!

On Wednesday, a team of students led 10 people to the Lord.

On a personal level, I am now going to Germany on a missions trip in October, if God provides the funds. I've never been on a missions trip before and am totally stoked about the opportunity!!!

There was a youth group from Louisiana there and the youth pastor shared the story of one os his students. This kid has had a rough year, and wasn't a believer coming into this week. He had had the gospel shared with him hundreds of times, but knew he wasn't a believer...everyone knew. He would have told you he wasn't. The funny thing was, he was totally excited to get to come and share Christ, even though he didn't know Christ. This youth pastor had been praying for this kid for 9 months, and another kid in the youth group had been praying for him for 5 years. On Tuesday evening, God drew this young man's heart towards him and became a believer as well.

Although my team didn't personally lead anyone to Christ, we went to over 250 houses and shared the gospel over 3o times. I can't wait to be in Heaven one day and find out how these seeds were reaped!!!!

Praise God for a good week and for willing students and for a ministry like Frontliners. We were so blessed to have both Kelly and Thomas speaking the word of the Lord over us each night and to be led to the throne of God by the Jason Elam band. My prayer is that each of these 7 men (2 speakers + 4 band guys + 1 sound guy) be blessed as much as they have blessed me and the youth group I am a part of.

*Update-I post none of this to the glory or uplifting of any man-the speakers, Bell Shoals pastors, the students, or myself. I only write of these things so that God's name may be made bigger and His glory be manifested throughout the whole earth*

Frontliners

2006-07-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

Hello all! This is a prayer request post. The church I grew up in, Bell Shoals Baptist Church, is hosting Frontliners this year. What is Frontliners you ask? It is a ministry of Kelly Green's. A church hosts a big crusade type event from Sunday through Wednesday of a week and Kelly and other evangelist come in and present the gospel each night. The frontliners are students from all across the country who have come to join this host church in reaching their community with the gospel. Each day in the morning, the students are trained in how to present their faith and then each afternoon, from 1-4, we go out knocking on doors and sharing Christ and His life, death, and resurrection.

For these students, this is an awesome week. They are equipped with everything they need to share their faith effectively-no excuses. For Satan, this is a scary week (we hope). I shared with my group of students today the story of 2 Chronicles 20. In this chapter, King Jehosaphat, who is a good king, is about to go to battle, and before they go, he gets down on his knees and prays to the Lord. He admits that without God they can do nothing. Then, as the battle is starting, he sends out his worshippers on the frontlines. This isn't about a survey or a presentation. It's about God receiving glory through our worship of Him in telling others about Him.

My team is:
Tiffany, Julia, Hannah, Daniel, Nate, and John.

The speakers are:
Kelly Green
Thomas Young
Stuart Henslee

The band is:
Jason Elam band

Be praying for these kids...these hearts...this community...these speakers. Even if you are totally against "confrontational" evangelism, and instead prefer "friendship" evangelism, pray. God doesn't need us to be friends, God doesn't need us to confront. God simply asks that we share our faith...share the life and death of His Son. Then, if God is drawing that person unto Himself, regardless of our method, or abilities, or capabilities, that person shall profess faith in Jesus Christ.

One more intersting thing before I finish up my little 60 minute break before heading back to the church.
As one who is reformed, many times I get in conversations with those who aren't reformed and their biggest "complaint" against us "Calvinists" is that we use our theological system is a shield to hide behind in not sharing our faith. Thomas Young is a reformed evangelist. I am a reformed evangelist. People use all kinds of things as shields to not share their faith. Often, it may be their theology. It may also be fear, or lack of time, or lack of ability. Whatever it is, it's wrong. We are called to spread the message of Christ unto the ends of the earth. It is refreshing to sit under an evangelist who IS reformed and is still so stinking passionate about the gospel and about lost people. Sure, many preachers are passionate about this. But to hear an evangelistic message on Romans 3, and hear the evangelist explain the definition of propitiation and God's satisfaction in His son's death and that sin is anything that we steals glory away from God...it is a beautiful thing and a thing the Southern Baptist Church needs to wake up too and I thank my God upon every remembrance of Thomas Young because He is a communicator of evangelistic sound doctrine.

Pray for softened hearts. Pray for boldness. Pray for strength-both our own physical strength but also strength of the Spirit. Pray for the church of Bell Shoals. I pray that they see these students worshipping freely, and in the power of the Spirit-lifting hands and dancing and shouting and jumping-and that they then be freed to worship without fear or judgment. Pray that Bell Shoals's love of order and schedule be wrecked. That the Spirit inhabits the sancturay and that the congreation is wrecked for the glory of God.

Sermon Resources

2006-07-20T20:06:00.001-07:00

Sometime in the last month or so, Justin Taylor provided the following links on his blog. I don't know that all who read my blog are nerdy enough to read Justin's, so I thought I'd provide a copy of the links here.

"If you want to hear a sermon on the whole Bible, the whole OT, the whole NT, or overview sermons of each book of the Bible, look no further than these free sermon downloads by Mark Dever. What a gift to the church:

Overview Sermon of the Whole Bible

Overview Sermon of the Old Testament

Old Testament Overview Sermons

Overview Sermon of the New Testament

New Testament Overview Sermons

(HT: Greg Spraul)
(HT: Justin Taylor)"

Mark Dever does a splendid job at summarizing that which seems unable to be summarized. Don't be overwhelmed at the thought of listening to ALL of these sermons. Start with the New Testament and read through the book at hand before you hear the sermon and after you hear the sermon. It doesn't matter how you start, just start reading. Soon, if you are not already, you will fall in love with God's word. Don't pass up this blessed opportunity to get these teachings for free.

Glenn LaRue and the Legacy of Delight

2006-07-16T19:14:00.000-07:00

In the recent past, I had the great honor of being a camp counselor for Bell Shoals Baptist Church in Brandon, Florida. This is the body of believers in which I grew up and the Lord used this church to influence my life in countless ways. It has been an amazing privilege these past two years to be able to give back to the youth group that I grew up in…to serve the youth minister who once so tirelessly served my friends and I and loved my friends and I.

The theme of camp this year was “LEGACY.” The camp verse was Psalm 145:4-5:

4One generation shall commend your works to another,
and shall declare your mighty acts.
5On the glorious splendor of your majesty,
and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.

The first evening, because of God’s sovereign plan and Satan’s clear motive in trying to disrupt that plan, the man who was supposed to be the camp speaker was unable to be there. Instead, our guest-guest speaker was Glenn LaRue. Glenn also grew up at Bell Shoals and went through Victor’s youth group. So for Victor, and many of the other adults there, it was such a delight to see someone they had once ministered too now ministering to them. As Victor said, this was his legacy, being continued on.

So Glenn preached from Psalm 1. First though, he reminded us that though there is a similarity between the words “legend” and “legacy,” there is a crucial difference in their meaning. When you think of a legend, it is often something/someone that is inflated or blown out of proportion. But even if it is true, it very much has a “then” connotation. Legends have very little effect on our lives today. But a legacy, well, a legacy was good then, but even today we are feeling its effects. Okay. So Psalm 1.

1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers.

4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6 For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

He called this “The Legacy of Delight.” In general, we aren’t sure who wrote this Psalm. Most of the Psalms were written by David, so Glenn asked us if we thought it was weird that this random Psalm, probably not written by David, the main Psalm writer, was at the beginning of this book. He reminded us that this Psalm is telling us what the entire book of Psalms is to be about. Look back in verse 1. It begins with “blessed.” This is the first word of the first Psalm of the biggest book of the bible. And it simply means happy. It could say “Happy is the man….” But this is an eternal, lasting, and permanent happiness. Not simply a happiness based on your current state of being.

Then, we got a poetry lesson. A Hebrew poetry lesson to be exact. He said that Hebrew poetry isn’t about rhyming, but instead, it’s about setting up thoughts and parallelism. It is also very highly structured. The first word in the Psalm is “blessed” and the last work in the Psalm is “perish.” This is the frame for what the whole Psalm is about. You have two choices here. Be blessed/happy or be perishing/unhappy.

Then, we had a drawing lesson! (Seriously though, it was good. These kids needed to be shown how to interact with God's word. That though the words are Holy because they are from God, the paper itself isn't.) He told us to put a big bracket around verses 1-2 and write in the margin “TWO WAYS.” Put another big bracket around verses 3-5 and write “TWO RESULTS.” Put one last bracket around verse 6 and write “THE REASON.”

Okay. Two ways. The first way is man’s way.

walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

In my opinion, this was one of my favorite parts of the whole sermon. (The other funny part was this story about Lake Swan and Glenn and Patrick and a giant mudpit. But if you don't know Glenn or Patrick it's not so funny...and you need Glenn to tell it for it to be funny, so I'll just stick with attemping to type my notes.) Glenn said that growing up, his family had always had this verse hung on the wall and he had read it countless times, as many of us probably have. But that he never noticed there was progression here. You begin by walking with the wicked, just kind of chilling out and listening to what they have to say. You progress to participating with sinners. You end with a hardened heart…a mocker’s heart. How obvious once he said it, but I also had never seen the progression before laid out in that Psalm like that.

The second way is God’s way.

Delight in the law of the Lord

Here, delight isn’t just a thinking word. It’s an emotional word. It’s a grounded emotion. It is standing on the law of the Lord. The Law of the Lord is the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation…ALL OF IT. The Law is a means to an end, and the end is the Lord.

Then, there are two results based on your choice of ways. The first is blessing.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither.
Whatever he does prospers

The second is to be wicked.

Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.

So chaff. Be real. That's in the bible tons of times. Do you know what it REALLY is? Other than something to do with wheat? Well, chaff is something that comes from harvesting wheat or grain. Once the dry stalk is cut down, they take a winnowing fork and scoop the wheat up into the air and all the dry crusty stuff flies up into the air and blows away and the wheat, the good stuff, falls right back down.

So choose your way, there will be a result, but most importantly there is a reason for that result.

For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

The God over all is watching over him, he who is blessed.

Psalm 1. A Psalm that speaks of the only two ways for us to walk-in blessing or in wickedness. Towards the end, Glenn was crunched for time but the kids got it. It's black and white. 2 "choices" if you will. My prayer would be that they would look at this Legacy of Delighting in the Lord, and meditate on how to delight in the Lord. From there, their world will be knocked upside as the Spirit reveals to them just how delightful it is to delight in the Lord and His ways.

*Usually, when I type notes, they are from a sermon on tape, one I can listen to over and over until I know that I get what is being communicated. This obviously, wasn't on tape and my apologies if I misquoted or misunderstood anything that was being said."

My random spouting followed by some solid John Newton

2006-07-05T22:06:00.000-07:00

Needless to say, despite the fact that I am a 20 year old girl, I'm tired of the relationship posts. While these sermons have been good, and are good, and will continue to be good, in a way I feel like it is a waste of time. The people that I talk to that don't date to honor God often don't dress to honor God, or talk to honor God, or eat to honor God, etc. etc. The problem isn't that they need to hear a specific sermon series on how to date and how to dress and how to talk and how to eat. The problem is they have a tiny view of Jesus. I like to call it a pocket Jesus. They pull Jesus out of their pocket and dust Him off when they think they need help, then when the crisis is over, the stuff Him back in His little spot until He's needed by them again.

I think the concept generally goes like this. We want to make the gospel easy enough so that children will understand it, so we boil it down to "You sin. Christ lived. Christ didn't sin. Christ died. Christ rose. Belive this and you'll be saved." I grew up in a youth ministry that impacted my life greatly and is under the leadership of an amazing man who is passionate about students worshiping God and giving their lives over to Him. But sometimes it felt like I was learning the same things in 7th grade that I was learning in 12th grade, as far as corporate teachings were concerned. It was a struggle, because without the Holy Spirit's pushing to dig on my own and read on my own and His inspiring me with some great older believers, I feel like I would have been bored with God. I think that a lot of the kids I grew up with that fell away, fell away because God was easy to them. They were presented a boxed in God. In the beginning, it's a HUGE box so God seems huge. But as we memorize rote passages and learn the mantra of "Don't drink, don't smoke, and don't have sex" the box gets smaller and we get bigger and God gets smaller and soon, God doesn't amaze us. God doesn't astound us. God is no longer indescribable. (This isn't to say that this type of youth ministry isn't effective. I am a product of it, so clearly God does whatever He wants using whoever He wants. I'm just kind of talking here.)

God is so much stinking bigger than that, and I think we, as a Christian culture have become scared to admit that we don't understand God. We don't want to be seen as uncertain, so we present an easy God...one that people easily can understand and therefore feel that they have easily comprehended Him and then they move onto bigger and better things. THERE IS NOTHING BIGGER NOR BETTER THAN GOD. As Justin Taylor once said "Certain knowledge does not mean exaustive knowledge." I am CERTAIN that God exists. I am not certain of all things pertaining to Him...I am certain of very little. I said this on my friend Ryan's blog a few months back. The Gospel is most assuredly simple. It is most assuredly not easy.

Anyways, all this to say that if we as belivers were to wake up to the fact that we have a living breathing Spirit within us, (another Helper of the same kind as Christ),...I think that that realization would do us, as a body, better than yet one more sermon on dating, or one more blog post on a sermon on dating.

(One thing I've learned from blogs is that people reading this don't know me, therefore they don't know my background or my beliefs and statements I make can be seen as callous and off the cuff, so let me clarify. Sermons on dating can be edifying, sermons on modesty can be edifying, sermons on MOST things can be edifying. I, at this very moment, on July 6th 2006 at 1:10 AM just happen to be tired of the necessity of these sermons. If people would desire God and His Son and His Spirit as much as they desired rules to live a happy and fulfilled life...what a GLORIOUS THING. Secondly, I love my youth group and more than that my youth pastor and his family. And of course, even more than that, I love the God my youth pastor pointed me too. They spoke into my life for 6 years as a student and now I've had the opportunity to serve them back.
So, all this to say, I don't want to post on dating right now. I want to take a break and post some scriptural truths. Many will be from Hebrews (Cause that's the book I was going through). Some will be from Psalms. But for those of you who are reading and following this, I'm just updating you on what's going on.)

Now, because all of the above was just some girl randomly spouting off, I leave you with something to actually trust in and feast upon. A month ago, I sat under the teaching of Justin Taylor on the emerging church in a post-modern culture. Towards the end of his lecture, he quoted a passage from John Newton. While I take excellant and detailed notes, I couldn't get the whole thing down. So I emailed Justin asking for the quote. Needless to say, seeing the name "Justin Taylor" in my in-box was pretty stinking cool. He quickly passed on the John Newton quote on controversy and disagreemnt. He used it was a way to respond to the emerging church. Obviously, it applies it countless other ways. This quote spoke to me and I pray it will do the same for you.

"As to your opponent, I wish, that, before you set pen to paper against him, and during the whole time you are preparing your answer, you may commend him by earnest prayer to the Lord's teaching and blessing. This practice will have a direct tendency to conciliate your heart to love and pity him; and such a disposition will have a good influence upon every page you write. . . . [If he is a believer,] in a little while you will meet in heaven; he will then be dearer to you than the nearest friend you have upon earth is to you now. Anticipate that period in your thoughts. . . . [If he is an unconverted person,] he is a more proper object of your compassion than your anger. Alas! 'He knows not what he does.' But you know who has made you to differ [1 Cor. 4:7]."

John Newton, "On Controversy" [Letter XIX], vol. 1 of The Works of the Rev. John Newton (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1985), 269.

Man with a Maiden Series.....Part 3....Eric Simmons

2006-06-07T20:00:00.000-07:00

This message is entitled "What Am I?" It is a short study on the different roles we have been designed by God to fulfill as men and as women. First, we are different by design. The emotional and physical differences are perhaps obvious, but what is your? And who defines your role? God or the world? Every day we face a world that loves to seduce us and massage us slowly into conforming to their image. Colossians 2:8 8See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Another translation says "...through hollow and deceptive philosophy." This world loves to tell us that position dictates influence. The more you have, the more you are worth. The higher up the ranks you are, the greater you’re worth. The world loves to define our roles by outward appearance. For men, this may come in the form of working out. Do you believe that masculinity deals with strength alone? For women, this may come in the form of fashion and makeup. Do you believe that femininity deals with clothes and cosmetics alone? What defines your view of romance and relationships and sex? Is it the latest TV show or chick-flick or pornography? In God's word, men and women are defined by God himself. Genesis 1:26: 26Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. We are equal in value before God, but with very different roles before God. It is in Genesis 2:18 that God says that man needs a helper. Man needed help. There are differing roles already established by this second chapter in Scripture. Initiator.... Leader.... Helper.... and notice that God defined woman's role before He ever created sex. We must remember that marriage is temporal. I, Jenn, will not be married in Heaven. But I will still be a woman. My role will still be vital. Our roles are reflected in the power of the Gospel to change us. In terms of salvation, there is no difference between men and women. The ground is level at the foot of the cross. Okay okay. All very well and good in theory. But how does this look? How does this play out? There is NO perfect example or outline. It takes humility, it takes faith, and it takes charitable judgments. We must cultivate an understand of the opposite sex in understand how difficult their role really is. As a man-understand you are not really a good leader and it takes great faith to follow you. As a woman-understand that you are very difficult o lead. It takes tremendous faith to step out, initiate, and care for you. Understanding this will protect you from complaining and sinful judgment on both men and women's parts. Is there a way to accurately define was masculinity and femininity are, according to Scripture? Of course. Eric used the definition from Piper and Grudem's "Recovering Biblical Masculinity and Femininity." Masculinity-At the heart of mature masculinity, there is a sense of benevolent responsibility to lead, provide for, and protect women in ways appropriate to man's differing relationships. (The key words here are leadership, provisions, and protection.) Femininity-At the heart of mature femininity is a freeing disposition to affirm, receive, and nurture strength and leadership from worthy men. (The key words here are affirming, receiving and nurturing. It is also important to note that it says worthy men.) General Guidelines for application: 1. Men, ladies are called to help you NOT submit to you. They are called to submit to their husband, not to all men. They are called in their roles to help you. 2. Men, assume the responsibility of leading and initiating in your relationships with women. If you are aiming at nothing, you are bound to hit it every time. If you aren't pursuing friendships with women, do not expect to find a wife. They don't just drop into your lap like Mary Poppins. (And as a side not, women find men who are leaders and initiators incredibly attractive.) 3. Men, initiate conversation. 4. Men, initiate events WITH OTHER'S help. You don't have to do all the work, just lead the way. 5. Men, be a spiritual leader. Set the pace. If you are less mature than a certain women, be provoked to grow. Do not submit to self-pity and passivity and resignation. Eric told this story about his relationship with his wife when they were dating. One day, he asked her "Do I provoke you to love Jesus more and be passionate about Him?" She replied "No. Not at all." So he clarified and said, "Not like CJ provokes you, but just in some small way do I provoke you?" Again she said "No. Not at all. Eric, I have hope for you, but you don't provoke me." Women should be provoked by your example. He challenged the men to stop feasting on the hors d'oeurves of this world and to stop sowing seeds of apathy.
And if you are failing in this aspect, respond by repenting. Don't respond with apathy or self-pity. Self-pity is just uncongratulated pride.
6. Be brothers who protect and look out for women. Be grateful that there are women and you get to serve them. Be aware when women walk in the room. Don't allow your focus to only be on yourself. TREAT THEM AS DAUGHTERS OF THE KING.
7. Be brothers who look to fulfill practical needs for your sisters. For example, when she's moving, HELP HER. Help her with her schoolwork. Change her oil. And if it's a girl you are interested in, break something in her house SO you can fix it.
8. Confront the tendency to laziness and selfishness and cultivate diligence and servant hood. If you think that lazy and selfish hearts go away upon marriage you are GREATLY mistaken. They must be put to death now. Think about when you are at lunch. That first moment when the conversation begins to go from fun and frivolous to fellowship, it's hard. Work through that tiny awkward moment if it exists. And to the OTHER MEN. When a guy actually steps out, don't judge him or mock him under you breath. Support him. Help him glorify God.

General Guidelines for Women:
1. In your relationships with Godly men, encourage and make room for men to practice servant leadership. Let men know when you need help. Encourage men as often as possible when you see them initiate.
2. Look for practical ways to care for your brothers. Pray for them-ask them how and then let them know that you are. Write notes of encouragement. Make him a meal.
3. Feel the freedom to initiate- by using your gift of hospitality. Throw the dinner party, but then have them men pray and lead the conversation. You create the environment for them to lead in.
4. Don't read into a guys actions and initiative and assume he has romantic interested. Say to yourself:
"He’s just a friend. He's just a friend. He’s just a friend. He's just a friend. He’s just a friend."
A man initiating is a man who is serving, not a man who in interested. (And men, when you ARE interested and pursuing, communicate Cleary.)
5. Confront the tendency to sinful judgment and complain. Cultivate charitable judgment and gratitude.

God-in his mercy understands our frame and He knows how we are made. These things should reveal to you how desperately you need God. Lord help me. Lord teach me. It if was simple and easy, you would muss out on the opportunity to realize that God really does exist and God really does reward those who draw near to him.

Man with a Maiden Series....Part 2.....Joshua Harris

2006-06-07T19:19:00.000-07:00

The title Josh's message was "Why Did God Make Me this Way?" He repeated the idea that Eric had said the previous month. Often, at Covenant Life, the idea that God should be glorified in our dating relationships has become twisted into a rules oriented thing that is wasn't intended to be. He gave the example of the game telephone, where the original sentence is passed from person to person and never ends up the same as it began.
For example, the original idea would be that "We want to see relationships that honor God."
This turned into: "You should court not date."
Which became: "Dating is EVIL."
This is now: "If you date, you will go to 'you know where.'"
Then: "Do not talk to the opposite sex.... ever."
Finally, when you don't abide by these "rules" it is "You should be ashamed of yourself...."

It can be easy to be a people that, instead of looking to God's word, we simply try to figure out what the rules are. A lot of times, this rule thing is something divorced from real faith and trust in God. We ask the question "Well, what does God think of relationships?" Essentially, a lot of people are really asking, "What do I have to do to get on the list of people God will bless with a relationship? How do I get in the relationship line?"

Instead, we should be asking ourselves "Is God enough?" Is He more than enough? For every thirst and every need? Not just spiritual thirsts, but physical and relationship thirsts? Is He more than enough?

Psalm 73:25-26 says:

25Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 26My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Upon reading just this passage from Psalm 73 you might think "Psh. I'm not there. Stupid spiritual man." It might be easy to gloss this over as someone who has just come back from a mountain top experience with God. They don't know what real troubles are like. Josh reminds us of the ever-important truth to look at the WHOLE passage...the context. Go back to v. 2.

2But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.

This is a man LIKE ME!!! He has come close to stumbling and slipping. But why? Go on to v. 3.

3For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked."

He is looking at these worldly people and they are doing well. In the following verses, the writer goes on to say that they aren't dieing and they are healthy. They aren't in trouble. The people not seeking to please God are doing okay.

You might be thinking, "I'm a nice, Christian single and I'm really trying to do this whole Godly relationship thing. Be purposeful and waiting and praying. But I'm looking around all the world is engaging in more relaxed and fun dating things. And they're okay. They aren't covered in boils and sores. They are good." REMEMBER. Just because you are serving the King, this doesn't mean your life is going to be all hunky dory.

Here Josh went a little sarcastic. He became sarcastic unhappy single Christian man and said, "They aren't walking with God and they have money and a nice car and a great house and the relationship. But I'm sure on SOME LEVEL they are unfulfilled.... right? I mean, I'm trying to serve God and do things the "right way" and my life stinks and there's no relationship and they have it all. THANK YOU God. This is TOTALLY fair. Good job."

We have to ask ourselves-"Is this all in vain? All this sanctification stuff? All this growth in holiness? The author of the Psalm asks himself the same thing. In v. 13 he says:

13All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.

But then, he says this in verse 15:

"If I had said, "I will speak thus," I would have betrayed the generation of your children."

Were he to truly think holiness and sanctification were in vain, were I to truly think that, I would betray all the generation's of God's people that have gone before me...the people the He loves, that I am called to love.
It might not make sense. That they can live their lives totally without God in mind and yet they seem so happy. Verse 16-17:

16But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, 17until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end.

Their end is this-their final end. One day, these people who flaunt God will answer to God when He rouses Himself. Verse 18-20:

18Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. 19How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! 20Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

Back to relationships specifically. Do you view this GOOD way of doing this as more of a hassle than a blessing? If we are going to err, may we err on the side of upholding God's standards. Do not mock the grace that God has poured out in our midst.

When God is enough, we won't be making relationships a substitute God. I was made for God, I was NOT made for marriage. When that day comes, when I seem Him as He is, we will no longer be married. In marriage, enjoy the bond, but it is not the thing you are living for. Not only don't live for marriage when you have it, but don't live for the thought of marriage. Here, Josh gave an example.
He said to think about the difference of your attitude in these two situations. The first, is awaiting your paycheck in the mail on Friday. The check that you have worked for 10 days for, that you are expecting and, rightly so, feel that you have deserved. Think of the anxiety and nervousness that accompany it. Think now on the surprise check that comes in the mail from your great-aunt Hilda who just up and felt like being generous. Think of the joy in the unexpectedness.

God is enough. He is MORE THAN ENOUGH. Is that how you are living your life?

He closed by reading the lyrics to this song:

"Enough"

You are my supply, my breath of life
Still more awesome than I know
You are my reward, worth living for
Still more awesome than I know

All of you, is more than enough for, all of me,
For every thirst and every need,
You satisfy me, with your love
And all I have in you, is more than enough

You're my sacrifice of greatest price
Still more awesome than I know
You're my coming king you are everything
Still more awesome than I know

All of you, is more than enough for, all of me,
For every thirst and every need

Man with a Maiden Series....Part 1....Eric Simmons

2006-06-05T11:19:00.000-07:00

The way I look at it, anything worthwhile I ever say has either been shown to me through God's word or taught to me by some really really smart men. And stuff that I say that isn't worthwhile is just that-not worth anyone's time to read it. So I figured since I'm the nerd who listens to sermons, why not just keep summarizing solid truth sermons. Anyways, whenever Sovereign Grace comes up, typically Josh Harris and the whole dating bad/courting good thing comes up as well. I'm currently going through a sermon series done at Covenant Life (kind of like the mothership of the Sovereign Grace churches. Covenant is in Gaithersberg, Maryland and is also where the Pastor's College is.) back in 2003 for their singles group. I'm halfway through it and have enjoyed it immensely. I hope you will as well.

The first sermon was by Eric Simmons. It is entitled "Why this Series?" and was orginally given on February 21, 2003.

Eric began by asking us this question. “Have you ever been amazed by something?” In Proverbs 30:18-19, Agur writes

“Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand:

The way of an eagle in the sky,

The way of a serpent on a rock

The way of a ship on the high seas,

And the way of a man with a maiden.”

These are things which Agur just can’t really even comprehend. How does an eagle stay aloft in the air? How does a snake move with no feet? How does a ship stay afloat? How does a guy ever get a girl?

In our day and age, it could be very easy to simply go on google.com and explain away the first 3 things. We could learn about air currents and density and motion and what not. But men and women? Psh. That’s STILL something we don’t get.

In 2003 when this sermon series began, Eric said he counted 11 reality TV shows on the process of dating and guys relating to girls. Joe Millionaire, Elimidate, The Bachelor, The Bachelorette, The Last Resort, etc. In fact, he said that for the season finale of Joe Millionaire, 40 million watchers turned in.

Why are we so amazed with it all? Truthfully, because we don’t know what we’re doing and we want to see other people who have no idea what they are doing mess it up too. We don’t always know how to have genuine, God glorifying friendship, coming together and loving one another and serving one another.

He then went on to list factors that prohibit friendships between guys and girls.

The “Duh” Factor

Face it. Guys are stupid. Guys will say and do stupid things, but 98% of the time they don’t mean it. He gave a couple different examples. One was of a man who was dating this girl and he said to her “I just want you to know this. I am much more attracted to you spiritually than I am physically. Physically, there are others that could beat you, but spiritually man, you are the most attractive woman I have ever met.”

The second was of a group of singles from Covenant Life. This girl had been talking about how she had started exercising and working out and a guy friend responded like this. “Well that’s good. You should keep doing that. Because you’re not really the skinniest girl in the singles group. I mean, you’re not the biggest of everyone, but you’re not the skinniest.”

He said in situations like these, we just shake our heads and think “Duh.”

The “Small Print” Factor

Ladies tend to read into things…not just big things, but EVERYTHING. A look, an e-mail, a kind hello…all of the sudden in a nano-second, she’s got you married with 3 kids and a picket fence.

The Romance Factor

The same feelings that go along with plain old friendship are stored up in the same place as the feelings that go along with love and romance and emotions. Sometimes, we get confused and pull out the wrong feeling in the wrong situation.

The Friends Factor

Even if the guy isn’t saying stupid things and the girl isn’t reading into all things, you’re friends will still be stupid and still read into things. Often, in front of the very person they are talking about in the first place.

The Silence Factor

For girls, this may not be such a problem, but for guys, well…they’ll walk up to a girl and have a whole conversation planned out. They open their mouths, and NOTHING. Just complete and utter stupidity and silence and questioning looks.

The Attraction Factor

Guys never think they look bad and girls never think they look good.

With all of this, how does ANYONE ever get married?

Especially at Covenant Life at this point in time, Eric said that there seems to be this one way of doing things mentality. If you fall outside of these specific dating boundaries, they “You Bad.” We need to learn wisdom, not rules.

For example, do we think that the guy should be the only one with all the feelings and desires at the start of a relationship and that the girl should just step out in faith with nothing in her heart and just rely on God to bring the feelings?

How you think WILL dictate how you act. The goal of this series is this:

That new friendships would start.
That old friendships would deepen.
That courtships would begin.

This is not going to be a series of rules and wrongs and rights. It will be a series of cultivating wisdom.

James 3:17

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, and good fruits, impartial and sincere.

Our dating lives will be one of the most incredible opportunities we will ever have to glorify God to unbelievers. If 40 million people tuned in to watch the Joe Millionaire season finale, you can bet there are some people watching how you handle this aspect of your life.

GUESS WHO??

2006-06-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

Upon seeing this photo on purgatorio1.com, I could not resist posting it here and seeing if you guys could guess who this is. This is someone well known in Christian circles, but I didn't guess correctly who it was. I'm thinking you'll be GLAD to have seen this.

(I must say, the glasses are reminiscent of Elton John.....)

Answer is here....

New Attitude Day #4.....Session 7.....Josh Harris

2006-06-03T15:59:00.000-07:00

My apologies for taking so long to put this last summary up (for those of you who are actually reading.) I feel like the lack of sleep from Na finally hit me this weekend, instead of upon coming home. Also, I want to apologize that this summary will not be as detailed, and therefore not as accurate as some of the past ones. Let’s just say I was running a tad bit on empty!

Anyways, here's Josh's last message.

The message was on taking it back to our communities. He said instead of over cramming our brains with yet one more thing and putting us on overload, he was instead going to kind of summarize the weekend.

He asked us "Where do we go from here?" He said that we want to go home and handle the truth faithfully. When we get home, we WILL BE TEMPTED and WE WILL SIN. It could be easy to look back at the conference days and be like "Wow. I'm good. I didn't sin at all while I was here. I guess I’ve finally got this God thing down." He reminded us that we didn't even have time to eat or sleep, let alone sin. While we were here, indwelling sin was not gone; we just didn't have the TIME to sin like we normally do.

When we sin, we must have a tight grip on the gospel.
Right before Josh's message, we sang the song "Before the Throne of God."

When Satan tempts me to despair

And tells me of the guilt within

Upward I look and see Him there

Who made an end to all my sin

Because the sinless Savior died

My sinful soul is counted free

For God the just is satisfied

To look on Him and pardon me

To look on Him and pardon me

When Satan tempts me to despair, tempts me to self-contemplation, self-awareness, and self-pity, I should not waste time arguing "No! It wasn't REALLY like that." or defending myself "yea, well yesterday, I served in this way, so I'm good." Look up! Look upward! See Him there, He who made an end to all my sin. I must hold tight to my righteousness in Christ.

In talking about Jeff Purswell's message on the Holy Spirit, Josh said this. When you think upon the Spirit, don't go straight to tongues and prophecy. Think instead of the Spirit's power to allow us to cling tight to God in His strength, not mine. In moments of weakness, pray for the joy of the Spirit. When praying for that lost soul which Eric Simmon's encouraged us to ask God to impress upon our hearts-when praying him or her, pray to be filled with the love of Christ. That our actions and words would be controlled by Him.

In reflecting back on Mark Dever and Mike Bullmore's messages on the Word of God, he said we must commit ourselves to the word in a new way. We must pursue and meditate on God's word with a greater zeal than ever before. Be the person at the end of the sermon who goes down front each week. Ask your pastor for application and study your notes throughout the week.
Here, he encouraged the men to lead in Godly fellowship. He assured them that if they are afraid they will fail, fear not, you will fail. But keep at it. Keep practicing. He then encouraged the ladies to let the men lead. He said that they will be times where we can lead better, but to step back, and allow the men to grow into the roles God designed for which God designed them. He encouraged us as ladies to look upon them not as the boys that they are, but the men they will become.
(Here, I want to insert a little blurb of my own, if I may. I have had the great GREAT blessing to be surrounded by a few men who do lead in biblical fellowship and in serving their church and the girls in the church, and for that I am so grateful.
This past week at New Attitude, a large group of us from the Gainesville, St. Pete Jacksonville, and, at various points, some from Orlando, were served wonderfully by a friend named Ryan. Three weeks ago, Ryan had thought ahead and made reservations for 30 at two restaurants near the convention center for lunch both full days. This allowed a large group of us to fellowship and relax and yet still get back for the next session on time. I, for one, was blown away by this. This is what I told him afterwards "Once again, thank you for serving. In God's grace, you served us efficiently, effectively, thoughtfully, and most important, humbly. Men young and old can learn from your example these past few days." This was his response "Jenn, thank you so much all of the encouragement. It really means a lot. And I want you to know you guys made it a joy to serve. I had an amazing time and God, being the Great wonderful God He is, did amazing things in my life." I relate this story neither to lift Ryan up for serving nor myself for encouraging him. Ryan at once turned my praise of his actions intro praise for His God, which I loved. I tell this story rather to say that God is good and He is building my brothers up in this way and I am delighted to watch it happen.

The last thing that Josh said that I really wrote down was that we need to Go Home and represent the truth humbly. We must remember that we have no righteousness within ourselves and then live that way. Again, do we speak the truth in arrogance, or in tears?

We need to cherish the orthodoxy and pass it on.

New Attitude Day #3....Session 6....Eric Simmons

2006-06-01T21:15:00.000-07:00

Eric Simmons began his message on evangelism by asking us this question. “We have been preached the truth this week. What now will we do with this truth?” He said that we have two options. We will either keep it self-contained or we will broaden it into our communities.

Colossians 2:4-9 was the basis for his sermon.

2Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 3At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison-- 4that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

5Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

7Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. 8I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, 9and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.

The first main point was that we need to Think Globally. We need a bigger picture of Christianity. We tend to get so caught up in our small little existence that we love site of the vision. Our life is so full of gotta’s. I gotta get up. I gotta go to class. I gotta go to care-group. I gotta go to celebration on Sunday. What was meant to be delight has turned into drudgery, because our gaze is on ourselves instead of on Christ.

Christ clarified our Mission upon His ascension.

Mark 16:15

15And he said to them, "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

Matthew 28:18-20

18And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in^[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

The rule and reign of the Father has invaded the world? Do we live like this?

Back to the main Scripture, Colossians 4:2-9. Eric pointed out that the church at Colossae is not a church that Paul planted and pastured. Paul was writing this from prison and yet he is still encouraging them. No matter what Paul’s particular circumstances were, he was mindful that the gospel was bearing fruit somewhere in the world. Everyday the kingdom of God is being fully and further revealed. This global vision should inspire me to play my part in God’s vision.

The second main point was we needed to Act Locally. (Comment from me-somewhere in here Eric showed a video that was made in Gaithersburg. They interviewed people in his community and asked them what they thought the gospel was and some questions about evangelist. A sadly funny part was this. When asked “What is the gospel?” numerous people responded with “It’s like, some kind of music, right?” People in the center laughed, but what a tragedy. My friend Josh said this when talking about this short movie at Care-group tonight. “When I heard all these people with no clue as to what the gospel was about, I thought ‘What morons. How can they not know? It’s Christ. Get with it.’ Then I heard the Lord say to me ‘Without me Josh, you were that ignorant. You were that moronic. It is only by grace that you know the gospel is Christ and Him crucified and not merely a genre of music.’” I just thought that was a very cool thought and wanted to share it before jumping back into Eric’s message.)

Eric pointed out that Christ’s mission, this grand vision, wasn’t just for the 12 disciples. I too have been called to this, privileged to go out and tell others. I GET to tell people about my God. I GET to tell people about my Risen King. Do I live this way? Am I excited to share my God’s story? To talk about His redeeming love? Do I just ‘go’ to college? Do I just ‘go’ to work? Do I just ‘go’ to family functions? Or am I ever cognizant of God’s heart in sending me to that particular place at the sovereign time?

He said that we need to look at EVERY Sunday as a sending Sunday (for those not in Sovereign Grace, we are all about church planting, so many a Sunday are specifically church plant or mission trip sending Sunday’s, officially.) It’s not just a church plant or the mission field. At the end of the sermon, it’s not just lunchtime; it is sending time-out into our field, our culture, our lost world. We are missionaries to the world next door.

How can we be an effective missionary? First, we need to pray. In verse 2 of Colossians 4, Paul says to be “…steadfastly in prayer.” This word steadfastly means dedicated, devoted, persistent, and unwavering. Our prayers should be alert, watchful. We should be so filled with His presence that we are ever alert to His moving throughout His kingdom, ever alert to the Sovereign moments He places in our lives to tell others of Him. How should we pray? Verse 3 says “…for an open door.” Paul wants the church at Colosae to pray for an open door for the word. (Think about this. Paul is in prison. He is not asking for his prison door to be opened that he may be freed, but for the prison guards’ hearts to be opened. For his fellow prisoners’ hearts to be opened. He is right where he needs to be, and he is cognizant of that. Jail time has turned into Gospel time. Everything is seen through the grid of the gospel and the kingdom.

Again in verse 4, Paul asks for prayer that the mystery of Christ would be dear to them. Mystery is good. Were we to be all knowing and all confident, we would lose our dependency on the power of the Spirit. God wants fear in evangelism. It makes us desperate for Him and His power. It makes us rely solely on the Holy Spirit.

We should also pray for opportunities. Be warned. Praying for opportunities in evangelism is like praying for patience. It will happen, and it probably won’t always be pretty. It will happen at the most awkward and worst times that your human mind could possibly imagine. But it is perfect and seamless in the plan of the Kingdom.

Besides praying, we must also live. Verse 5 says “Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the best use of the time.” Effective missionaries live a distinctly different live among a specific culture of people. We are to be where they are. Live where they are. Go where they are. We must hang out with the people to whom we are called. Here Eric said that when a missionary feels called to India say, is this what he does? Does he go to India and get married and get a stable job and simply just interact with the Indian people at the store and at the bank and with his neighbors? NO! He would then be a resident. He is specific and intentional in his actions. Do we live like this in America? Do we live like missionaries or residents?

We need to sow the kingdom of God strategically. Pick one person. Have a genuine authentic friendship with them. Pour into them, invest into them. Be love to them. You may be the only example of Christ’s love in their life. Make sure that your conduct matches your message. Enjoy them, love them, and above all, serve them. The world today is saying that we need to be relevant. But relevance is merely a package for truth. It is important, but it is not essential. When the emphasis is more on the shell and the packaging as opposed to the gospel, then we have some major issues.

Think of your language. We need to learn how to communicate with the culture. We should not walk around saying “church words” like sanctification and propitiation and relatable. The culture will not understand what you are saying. But there are certain elements of the culture that we need to out rightly reject. He asked if we all needed to get tattoos, and a nose ring, and wear a Coldplay t-shirt in order to connect with the culture. The answer is no. But if this is you, when people begin to unwrap your packing, they MUST SEE SOMETHING DIFFERENT. They must see grace. (My friend Eric at care-group tonight put it like this. “My unbelieving roommates, when they think of me, do they think of me as ‘Eric, Godly man who is living a pure life different from ours.’ Or do they think ‘Eric. Yea, he goes to church.’” Relevance is good, but not at the expense of truth.)

When witnessing, concentrate on how you say things more than on what you say. Concentrate on your attitude and motives and heart rather than your apologetics. The phrase “…seasoned with salt...” means witty and full of life. We are allowed to have fun! We are allowed to be fun people. In fact, we are called to delight in the Lord.

Do not get disheartened when you don’t see hundreds of people come to know the Lord because of you and your words. Probably, in the end, we are each more likely to be seed sowers than reapers. Eric told this story. There was a girl who worked at a Starbucks that for whatever reason, even though she wasn’t a believer, still felt drawn to this college group on campus and she would come and hang out and discuss and have fun with all these people. They invested in her life but never saw any tangible results. She moved away to New York (from Maryland) and he never really knew what happened with her. Years later, he was greeting people at the door at Covenant Life, and in walks this girl. She said to him “They say you hear the gospel 85 times before you profess faith. For me, it was 86. Thank you for those 85 other times. Thank youfor not stopping at 84.” We will never know, until in glory, the true impact of our lives for the Kingdom of God.

New Attitude Day #3....Breakout Session....Justin Taylor

2006-05-31T22:36:00.000-07:00

So on the second full day, instead of having 3 main sessions, in the afternoon we were allowed to pick our own smaller breakout session to go to. The choices were difficult. You had theological giant Al Mohler doing one as well as Mike Bullmore and Bruce Ware. I couldn’t decide between Bruce Ware’s on the Trinity and Justin Taylor’s on the emerging church. In the end, I went to Justin Taylor’s and I was so blessed by this wise man. It was great to finally hear in person someone who has influenced by life these past years. All I can say is. Praise God for self-proclaimed nerds like Justin Taylor.

The title was something to the effect of “The Emerging Church in the Post-Modern Culture.” He began by defining the Emerging church. The popular definition is “high-profile, youth-centered, contemporary music, and defined by increasing numbers.” He then wanted to make sure we understood the difference between the emerGING church and the emerGENT church.

The emergent church is an actual organization led by Tony Jones. Their website for those interested in it is emergentvillage.com They are a place that cultivates friendship through conferences and books. Leadership other than Tony would be Doug Pagitt, Spencer Burke, Brian McLaren, and Andrew Jones. The emergent church says that they are committed to God in the way of Jesus, committed to the church in all its forms (From Baptist to Greek Orthodox), committed to God’s world (following God into the world-explore and be a part of it), and committed to one another by loving and serving one another. So they are pro-Jesus, pro-church, pro-world, and pro-friendship

The emerging church is a church movement or a church conversation. Wikipedia defines it as such:

The emerging church or emergent church is a diverse movement within Christianity that arose in the late 20th century as a reaction to the influence of modernism in Western Christianity. The movement is usually called a "conversation" by its proponents to emphasize its diffuse nature with contributions from many people and no explicitly defined leadership or direction. The emerging church seeks to deconstruct and reconstruct Christianity as its mainly Western members live in a postmodern culture. While practices and even core doctrine vary, most emergents can be recognized by the following values.

These values include authenticity, missional living, narrative theology, and Christ likeness. They are against isolation and abstract doctrine.

Taylor is quick to point out that while these definitions are good, we need to remember the source. In defining these groups, we could go to the proponents, the detractors, or the confused. The above definitions are from the proponents of the emerging church (including the Wikipedia one, because Brian McLaren and other men helped form that definition).

So Taylor then turns to a book called “Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in a Post-Modern World.” This was written by two Fuller Seminary students named Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger who spent 5 years interviewing emerging churches all across the nation and coming up with the similarities as an attempt to define this movement. In the book, they say that emerging churches are communities who practice the way of Jesus within post-modern cultures. They are followers of Jesus seeking to be faithful in their place and their time.

Taylor then says that since a goal across all emerging churches is to relate to the post-modern world, we need to understand what the post-modern world is. Consequently, we must also look a pre-modern and modern as well.

The pre-modern world is the world before 1700. To sum it up in two words would be “super-natural worldview”. People found truth by listening to religious leaders in religious institutions. Their ultimate reality was the spiritual world and community was more important than the individual. There was no analyzing on your own, no experimentation.

Modernism, summed up in two words would be “scientific world-view.” The focus was reason and logic.

Post-Modernism is typically said to have begun around the 1960’s. People began to question authority. It is subjective and individual truth. To sum it up in three words, Taylor called it “Question Authority World-view.” (Here Taylor told a story that really has nothing to do with anything but I thought it funny and wanted to relate it. He said that in college in Iowa, they had your typical feminist religion professor. On her car, she had a bumper sticker that said “Question Authority.” Taylor said he always wanted to write on it “Says Who?”)

Taylor encouraged us to remember that Biblical Christianity transcends all 3 of these world views.

Eric Simmons (one of the leaders of Na) made an excellent point about why Justin Taylor was such a good speaker on this subject. God has shown him the good and the bad in it. It was very balanced. This is where Taylor moved onto talking about the three movements within the emerging churches.

The first would be the relevants. These people retain all the essentials of the gospel. They are taking the gospel in the historical form but seeking to make it relevant to the culture.

The second would be the reconstructionists. They are retaining essentials but question the historical structure of the church and reconstructing it. This would be a group that would have a house church on Wednesdays.

The third view would be the revisionists. This is the group to be concerned with. (Brian McLaren falls in here.) They are questing and revising both the gospel and the church.

Taylor had said that before we evaluated the emerging church, we needed to understand it. Here we moved onto the evaluating part.

We began first by evaluating their view of the authority of God’s word. He first reminded us of a statement by JI Packer “A half-truth masquerading as a whole-truth becomes a complete un-truth.”

The emerging church would say that the bible is a story, not a fact back. Taylor said that the bible is both/and not either/or. They emphasize only the story, not the doctrine and scripture is both. They neglect the details. But God is in those details. All scripture is God breathed. There was not one word extra. Functionally, they are undermining the authority of Scripture. It may at times, be difficult to see how but he reminds us of the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis. The Serpent (Satan) says to Eve, “Did God really say ‘You may not eat from any tree in this garden?’” (Genesis 3) Satan did not begin with a lie, but with a question. If approached, he could easily say “I didn’t say anything. Just asking questions. Just asking questions.” Satan starts with planting a seed of doubt against God’s orthodoxy. He said that he loved the Na theme of Humble Orthodoxy. He said that he thinks that the emerging church has hi-jacked the term humility. They consider themselves humble because they say “Well, I cannot be sure of truth. What I think is only right for me, not necessarily for you and that is something you have to decide for yourself.” The world looks at this as humble; humble does not equal uncertainty. You can be arrogant in your uncertainty. Humility is about submission. Also, just because you are humble, does not mean you have correct orthodox. He said that there is not an equal sign between humble and orthodoxy, but instead there must be a double sided arrow between the two. They are not equal to one another but are instead necessary for each other.

We then examined their view of the Cross. He made the statement “Atonement is bigger than just substitutionary atonement.” The emerging church will typically never say whether this is true or false, but just that atonement is bigger than that. He quotes Steve Chalke who is to England what Brian McLaren is to the United States. This is from Chalke’s book “The Lost Message of Jesus Christ.”

The fact is that the cross isn’t a form of cosmic child abuse—a vengeful Father, punishing his Son for an offense he has not even committed. Understandably, both people inside and outside of the Church have found this twisted version of events morally dubious and a huge barrier to faith. Deeper than that, however, is that such a concept stands in total contradiction to the statement that “God is love.” If the cross is a personal act of violence perpetrated by God towards humankind but borne by his Son, then it makes a mockery of Jesus’ own teaching to love your enemies and to refuse to reply evil with evil.”

To be honest, after Taylor read this passage, I was so blown away that I didn’t take many more notes on the section of the Cross. I feel like if I try to reconstruct what I THINK I remember him saying it will be totally of, so let’s just move to the next point.

The next point was truth and knowledge. The emerging church’s idea of truth is that absolute truth does exist but that only God knows the absolute truth, therefore it exists but we don’t have access to it. Taylor says that exhaustive knowledge is often confused with certain knowledge. Just because we don’t know ALL there is to know about God does not mean that there aren’t things we CAN know about God. Doubt is not a virtue or something noble to be chased after.

The final point was concerning sexual ethics. Even now in England, the emerging church is question whether sex before marriage is really a sin and Taylor says it won’t be long before that is a prominent question over here. However, he chose instead to focus on homosexuality-specifically McLaren’s point on the subject in his recent book “A Generous Orthodoxy.”

“Frankly, many of us don't know what we should think about homosexuality. We've heard all sides but no position has yet won our confidence so that we can say "it seems good to the Holy Spirit and us." That alienates us from both the liberals and conservatives who seem to know exactly what we should think. Even if we are convinced that all homosexual behavior is always sinful, we still want to treat gay and lesbian people with more dignity, gentleness, and respect than our colleagues do. If we think that there may actually be a legitimate context for some homosexual relationships, we know that the biblical arguments are nuanced and multilayered, and the pastoral ramifications are staggeringly complex. We aren't sure if or where lines are to be drawn, nor do we know how to enforce with fairness whatever lines are drawn.

Perhaps we need a five-year moratorium on making pronouncements. In the meantime, we'll practice prayerful Christian dialogue, listening respectfully, disagreeing agreeably. When decisions need to be made, they'll be admittedly provisional. We'll keep our ears attuned to scholars in biblical studies, theology, ethics, psychology, genetics, sociology, and related fields. Then in five years, if we have clarity, we'll speak; if not, we'll set another five years for ongoing reflection. After all, many important issues in church history took centuries to figure out. Maybe this moratorium would help us resist the "winds of doctrine" blowing furiously from the left and right, so we can patiently wait for the wind of the Spirit to set our course.

The line that blows me away is “If we think that there may actually be a legitimate context for some homosexual relationships.” Much of the leadership of the emerging church seems to embody the idea of 2 Timothy 3:7
“…always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of truth.”

Lastly, we looked at the Alternatives, beginning with a Humble Orthodoxy. Humility is rightly viewing the greatness and grandeur of God. We don’t become humble by hating ourselves and our sins more but instead by viewing our Big God as He is. We must be humble not because we are dumb but because we are undeserving recipients of God’s grace.

Next he said we needed to have Contextualized Confessionalism. Contextualized means we must adopt our communication of the gospel without losing its essential character. He used an example that Tim Keller used. That is the hand shake versus the Holy Kiss. Both are expressions of brotherly love, but in our culture today, a Holy Kiss between two brothers would not express what it expressed back in the days of the early church. So our brothers in Christ present their love for one another in a handshake or a hug rather than a kiss. Still practicing a biblical idea but without confusing appearances. The confessionalism refers to confessing and believing the reformed truths (Sola Scriptura, Solus Christus, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, and Soli Deo Gloria).

Lastly, we must speak the truth in love.

Ephesians 4:15

15Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ…”

When we present our biblical truths, as Josh Harris asked the first evening, do we present our truths in arrogance or in tears?

He closed with a solid quote from Tim Keller to the effect of “We don’t have their level of communication with the culture and they don’t have our doctrine and theology.”

New Attitude Day #3....Session 5....Jeff Purswell

2006-05-31T17:15:00.000-07:00

Jeff Purswell's message for us was on the Holy Spirit. It wasn't what I was expecting it to be on, but it was outstanding.

He asked us the question: "Where does the power come from to live and apply this orthodoxy?"
Orthodoxy becomes functional in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives. We ought to live what we believe. When there's no alignment between our doctrine and our lives, the error is that we minimize the importance of doctrine.

Purswell gave us 6 marks of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
First, is that the Holy Spirit reveals Christ's presence and illuminates His work. The Spirit engenders affections, making sin loathsome and forgiveness precious. This is the ultimate goal of the Holy Spirit's work. All of our thinking about the Holy Spirit must be centered on this truth.

John 14:16-28

16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

18"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." 22Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" 23Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me.27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 28You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and I will come to you.' If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

The disciples lived with Christ. They knew Him. He was their friend. He is now about to leave them and everything they had come to count on and trust on is seemingly going to be shaken and taken away from them. Christ is comforting His disciples in this chapter. Their greatest consolation and comfort was to be found in another helper. In the Greek "another helper" means another helper of the same kind, not a different helper. He will be another of the same. This Helper will be with us forever and in His coming, Christ Himself will be with His disciples. The Spirit mediates us into Christ's presence.

John 16:12-16
12"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
The Holy Spirit will declare to us things concerning Christ. He will open our eyes and hearts to things we could never see/find/know/understand on our own for the glory of our Savior.

2. The Power of the Holy Spirit embraces all of life. The Spirit's work is broad and cannot be confined to narrow strips of our Christian life. The work of God in our lives comes from the same power that spoke the Universe into being. The Spirit is an essential element-He empowers ethical life in all its dimensions. Like breath and blood and brainwaves are to your physical life, so is that Spirit to your spiritual life.
Survey your life for evidences of God's grace. As you spot them, there you will find the work of the Spirit. Christ's work alone makes is possible. The Spirit's work alone makes it actual. I am self-exalting, selfish, and self-absorbed apart from the Spirit's work.
(Here, Purswell injected this important truth. While we desire gifts, this should never overshadow our desire for sanctification and regeneration and justification and salvation.)

3. The Power of the Spirit's is Ongoing and Continuous. A common misconception is to define the Spirit's work in dramatic experiences alone. We think that the Spirit comes in one fell swoop and then departs and we must wait upon him. It's Weapons of Mass Destruction. BOOM! Spirit Work. Wait for another Boom! While these moments in ministry are vital and important we should not confine the Spirit's work to these moments.
Another common misconception is to define Him by a singular point-in-time event. "Yes, I received the Spirit on that day I was saved. Let's move on"
In Scripture, the Spirit is not isolated experiences but ongoing appropriations of the Spirit.

Ephesians 5:17-18
17Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, 20giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Here, where it says "be filled" Purswell reminds us that this is a command (He says it is in the passive voice. Almost like we are to let ourselves get hit in the face. God is the subject here.) We are to be continually and consistently filled-to come under the influence and control of the Spirit. Too often, people think that the power of the Spirit is like a glass of water. You may have a little or a lot-half full or wholly full. You cannot have part of the Spirit. It is the same Spirit in each of us; the power of the Spirit in other's lives is just more evident than in some. There are not two roads of Spirit growth...the upper and the lower. Instead, there is one road and some are just farther along on that road.

4. The power of the Spirit is aimed at our personal sanctification, mutual edification, and evangelistic witness. (In short, Godliness which is internal and then Service and Witness which are external.)
This sums up what the Spirit is after. If you aren't pursuing these things you are not going to experience the Spirit's power. It doesn't mean you are lacking the Spirit, you just aren't getting all of His power (this goes back to the point above about the glass and the road.)
Galatians 5:16-25

16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.25If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.
Purswell reminds us that this is a promise, not a command (other theologians would disagree, that it is a command.) The fruit of the spirit are suggestive, not exhaustive...these are not the only things we should strive for, they are just some examples of the Spirit's work within us.
The Spirit also will drain us of self-concern and imbue us with concern for others. The focus of all spiritual gifts is always others.
As for witnessing, every time in Acts that the Spirit comes, they preach. They share the gospel.

The power of the Spirit should include a discernibly dynamic dimension. Regardless of what you think of spiritual gifts, when believers encounter the Spirit, things happen.
Galatians 3:1-5
1O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by^[a] the flesh? 4Did you suffer^[b] so many things in vain--if indeed it was in vain? 5Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith--
Paul here is battling legalism. Having begun in the Spirit, are you now striving in the flesh? Paul points to their previous dynamic experience of the Sprit. Charismatic are often too mechanical in their approach (with a map of how the Spirit will/should work). Others have a Cray uncle approach to the Spirit. "Oh yea. That's uncle. We don't really talk about him. He's here in the corner, but we just let him do his own thing and leave him be.

6. The power of the Holy Spirit meets us as we passionately seek God and dependently serve God. God's spirit is a gift. You can never earn it or work your way into it or manipulate God into giving it to you. Apart from humble seeking and dependent serving, the desire will often go unfulfilled.
James 4:8
8Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
God is particularly near to those who draw near to Him.

Purswell then asked the question "How do we respond?"
The Bible commands attitudes toward the Spirit. It enjoins us to posture of heart.
We should be desperate. We should be aware of our need and absolute dependency. We need to abandon all thoughts of self-sufficiency. Does your soul thirst for God and your very flesh faint for God (Psalm 63)? If you are not desperate for God then you are satisfied with something else.
We should be grateful. We overlook His work, and we take credit for His work.
We should be Hungry. Ever-pursuing, ever-asking, and ever-trusting. Are you hungry or are you reluctant? Do you thirst after righteousness?

New Attitude Day #2...Session 4....CJ Mahaney

2006-05-29T14:59:00.000-07:00

The last session of the evening was led by none other than CJ Mahaney. I cannot tell you the anticipation with which I was looking forward to hearing the Lord use this man in person. I have listened to and benefited greatly from CJ but have never heard him live. I think most of my friends were just as excited for me as I was.

With all the other men who spoke, I was writing furiously, trying to capture what they were saying with my pen as well as my heart. However, with CJ I quickly gave up trying to write down his words but instead just ended up sitting there and let them permeate my soul. This post won’t be as long or detailed, but I am going to attempt to relate to you some of the power of CJ’s message.

CJ’s text was Isaiah 53.

1Who has believed what they heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3He was despised and rejected by men
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
6All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.

CJ begins by referencing the question in verse 1. “Who has believed?” The answer is that no one has believed without a prior calling. Until we were called, we were would never believe. Verses 2 and 3 speak of the appearance of Christ. He was a promising person appearing in a failed land. He had no form, no beauty, nothing that we should desire Him on our own. CJ says that he believes if we were to see a picture of Christ and the 12 disciples, we would be most unimpressed with the Savior in His physical form. No one would have guessed Him to be the Savior and apart from God’s gracious self-disclosure, no one has a clue who the Savior is.

In verse 4, the prophet begins to speak of the Reality…the divine reality. The suffering servant is revealed as the promised Savior. He suffered FOR US and BECAUSE OF US. Ten times in three verses we encounter the pronouns “we” “our” or “us.” We all would tend to claim “I didn’t do it” or “it’s not my fault.” Not here. Neither Isaiah, nor God will allow this. This is the part we played. I played. You played. Martin Luther said “We all walk around with His nails in our pocket.” My sin necessitated the crucifixion of the Christ.

He suffered as our substitute. We see the language of substitution in these verses in the words “bourn” “substitution” “carried” “wounded” “crushed” “chastisement” “stripes” and “laid on Him.”

While I am busy straying into sin and playing with dangerous temptation, He was killed for me.

“When we look upon the gruesome and deformed flesh of Christ upon the Christ, we need to reckon anew that we are actually looking at ourselves, for He died in our place. (John Calvin.)

“We are in debt to Christ specifically for this-He died in our place. This is the mainspring of all our joy, peace, and praise.” (JI Packer)

“One is taken aback by the focus of the cross in Revelation. Heaven does not ‘get over’ the cross, as if there were better things to think upon.” (Jim Elliff)

In verse 10, we see the significance of the Cross. It reveals the Father’s love for guilty sinners like you and me. “It was the will of the Lord to crush Him.” Who really killed Jesus? If we are honest, and in agreement with Isaiah, the answer is the Father. God was ultimately responsible. CJ then told us to think of combining John 3:16 with Isaiah 53:10: “God so loved the world that he CRUSHED His only begotten Son. “(emphasis mine.)May we never look at this Scripture the same again.

I cannot get across in words CJ’s message. I don’t have the words to adequately express it. It was more than the words he said, it was his tone, his posture, the Spirit speaking through him. Someone on the New Attitude blog was able to express the emotion behind CJ's meditation better than I.

“Who killed Jesus?

The Father. The Father killed the Son. Feel God's love for you revealed in this verse. He crushed his son. For you. He crushed Him. He bruised him. He punished him. He disfigured him. He crushed him. With all of the righteous wrath that we deserved. That's what the Father did.

So great was his love for sinners like you and me.

C.J. repeats the words slowly. Clearly. Passionately. They sound like fire and feel like rain. The air is still in…”

He crushed Him. For you. He crushed Him. He crushed Him. He crushed Him. He crushed Him.

I don’t know if you are able to feel the impact of the word of God CJ spoke but a friend of mine, named Nick was able to. I want to share with you his story-at least, as much of it as I know.

Before coming to New Attitude, He was bitter towards God, an enemy of God. He cared nothing for the things of the Lord. His friends had been praying for his soul for years. At the first session, I was sitting next to him and could feel his apathy. The Lord gave Josh Harris a word that evening that I believe was for Nick. That was the beginning of a 24 hour process. The second evening, after CJ’s powerful sermon on Isaiah 53, we stood to praise the Risen Savior. For the first couple of songs, Nick was sitting in front of me, looking around, distracted and not participating in worship. (Then again, why would he worship a God whom he did not yet abide in?) Josh again had a word. He gave a call to Christ. Nick was surrounded by believers praying for Him and petitioning God on his behalf. You saw Nick sit and listen and become captivated by Josh’s words. He then put his head in his hands and began to sob. Within moments, he was up out of his chair and walking towards the front. Yesterday evening, on May 28, Nick became an heir in the righteousness of Christ.

After the session was over, Nick was still down front and a group of his friends made their way to him to begin to pray with him and rejoice with him. I had the privilege of accompanying his friends down there. Nick at once fell upon his needs and his brothers in Christ knelt at the throne with him. There was singing and praising and rejoicing and tears and shaking. God had been faithful and sovereign and good, as He always is.

New Attitude....Day 2....Session 3....Mike Bullmore

2006-05-29T04:53:00.000-07:00

Mike Bullmore had the daunting task of showing us how the gospel connects to every part of our every day life. He told us that as humans, we have been given by God certain capabilities and capacities. None of these capacities are neutral. CS Lewis said "There is no neutral ground. Every second of every day has been claimed by God and consequently counter-claimed by Satan."

The first question that he asked us was whether or not the gospel is actually functioning in our lives? Do we clearly understand how the gospel relates to all areas of life-jobs, marriage, finances, friends, parents? He said that one of the clearest marks of a growing and maturing Christian is the ability to see how the gospel connects to all things. A man once told him that "All our problems come from some failure in not applying the gospel."

His first main point was to set up a Biblical paradigm-a biblical pattern of the functioning of the gospel. He asked us to imagine 3 concentric circles. In the center most one is Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:3 says that "...Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures." Paul says that this is a matter of FIRST importance. He said that he "...resolved to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." This is the crux upon which all other things are based. The gospel needs to be connected to thoughts, feelings, thinking and behaving. This is where the gospel wields its influence.
The next circle, a little wider than the first but centered upon is called "The Truth Implications" or Gospel Truths. Gospel truths are being born out of the gospel. He gave a few different references starting with Romans 5:1:
1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Because of the gospel we are now at peace with God.

Romans 8:1
1There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Because of the gospel we are now liberated from sin and bondage to it. Without the gospel, when faced with our own sin we would either go to self-achievement or depression.

Romans 8:32
32He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Because of the gospel we know that God will give us all we need.

Mr. Bullmore then asked us to think of a giant flywheel. Some 50 feet high in the air made of solid material. This hefty and massive thing takes a long time to get into motion, but once it gains momentum, there's no stopping it. It has power and strength and might. If you connected anything to it, the new object as well would be fueled by the momentum of the flywheel. The same is true of gospel truth. It may take a while to get used to living it out in all ways, but once you do, the momentum of its effects cannot be stopped.

The last and outermost circle is called "Behavioral Implications of the Gospel" or Gospel Conduct.
Philippians 1:27 states:
"Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ..."

The gospel is meant to function by very specifically conforming our behavior to its truths.
For example in 1 Corinthians 6:18, Paul says:
8Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20for you were bought with a price.
Paul does not subscribe to a general moralism in saying "just be good." He reminds them first of the gospel "You were bought with a price." THERFORE glorify God in your body. The gospel is the flywheel, sexual morality is the object attached to it that will gain momentum.

Ephesians 4:32
32Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
We are to live this way because of what was first done for us by Christ.

When you connect the gospel to all things, you are not just leveraging the logic, you are harnessing the power.

He then said that he would be satisfied to close the scriptures and sit down and be down with the sermon. However, Josh Harris and Eric Simmons asked him to give us some practical application pointers so that is what his next section was on.

He said to start with our own lives first...my own deepening love for the gospel. Am I cultivating a deep personal appreciation for the gospel? Am I faithfully reading God's word with the purpose of connecting it to every aspect of my life? Am I rehearsing the truths of the bible? Do not let vagueness persist. Do not let fuzziness persist. Have a map of the Scriptures stores in your heart.

Second, pick one area of your life and learn how to bring the gospel to bear on it. The example he gave was suffering. How does the gospel bear the fruit of joyful endurance in the midst of suffering? Christ did not suffer so that I may avoid all suffering. He suffered so that in my suffering I may become more like Him.

Let gospel connections inhabit your conversation with others. Have biblical fellowship.
Isaiah 50:4
The Lord GOD has given me
the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word
him who is weary.
(The church that I am a member of is blessed by God to have men of faith who are passionate about this subject. I pray that God would bring this into each of our lives.)

Remember, the greatest good of the gospel is that God gives himself to us.

John Piper had a quote to the effect of "Jesus himself and all that God is for us in Him is our great reward. Forgiveness is not the main result of our salvation. Fellowship with Christ is the main result. "

For my generation, there is an unusual pressure to define ourselves by lesser things: our age, our singleness, our look, or one-dimension of Christian experience made possible by the gospel. What we must ask ourselves is this. Is the gospel enough? Is God enough? Is Christ enough?

"But a man in not so inclined to give up when he sees in panoramous." When you feel discouraged and troubled and full of turmoil and disillusioned, the increasingly clear panoramic vision of the gospel is what will steady your feet and allow you to declare Psalm 73. "Whom have I in Heaven but you...As for me, the nearness of God is my good."

New Attitude Day #2-Session 2 by Mark Dever

2006-05-28T22:31:00.000-07:00

The first session this morning was Mark Dever. His seemingly impossible goal was, in one hour, to show us God's redemptive plain throughout the entire bible-from Genesis to Revelation.

He began with a brief summary of what people have thought about the bible in the past. For example, Voltaire said that "the bible would vanish within 100 years." He said this 200 years ago. A dictionary of the USSR back in the 80's said the definition of the bible was "a collection of different legends, mutually contradictory, issued over the years by various churches."
Many however, do respect the bible. However, it is more often bought than read. He then set out beginning with a small background of the books of the Old Testament.

The OT is made up of 60 books by 30 authors over a span of 1500 years. Martin Luther said that "The bible is alive. It speaks to me. It has feet, it runs after me. It has hands, it lays hold of me." Throughout history, there have been examples of people who have said that portions of the bible are untrue, but most evangelicals today would say that they believe the book in its entirety is truth. However, Dever says that we do basically the same thing by ignoring large parts of the bible. We study the New Testament typically and only look to the OT for pretty stories and just memorize a couple of Psalms and Proverbs to pull out of our pocket as needed. The OT is vital. God's revelation of Himself in Christ is definitely revealed in the NT. But the OT forms the setting, the context, for the coming of the Christ.

The OT sets up a Particular History. There are 3 categories of books. Law (Genesis through Esther), the Writings (Job through Song of Solomon), and the Prophets (Isaiah through Malachi). The Law is the narrative of the history of the Israelites and can further be broken down into the Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy) and then the history (Joshua through Esther). The Writings are the experiences and are more personal which is why it is often easy for us to turn to them when in need of an encouraging word. The Prophets are more of God's commentary on the story of His people spoken through the prophets.

The OT is full of God's Passion for His Holiness. God's righteousness is clear in the OT. Often, people say that the God of the OT is mostly an unjust and angry God. This is wrong in so many ways. The OT puts atonement in the context of a relationship (Mark says that atonement is actually an Anglo-Saxon word that actually means "act one ment" or reconciliation.) Atonement is an expression of God's commitment to His own Holiness. God is angry, angry at the destruction of His creation. Do I get angry when someone sins against me? Yes. But that is NOTHING compared to God's anger over someone's sins against Him because His holiness is NOTHING compared to mine. Atonement is linked with sacrifice as the way God will assuage His wrath, His way of establishing reconciliation. Sacrifices were present in the OT in the lives of Cain and Abel before the laws were ever recorded. It seems to be something that is innately within us to satisfy Him. Sacrifices are brought by those who are grateful and not guilty, those who are instructed, not ignorant. God was using sacrifice to establish this concept in our minds-our need for a sacrifice of blood that is without blemish. The sacrifices were never the point. It was for us to see that we could never do it on our own. Annual sacrifices were to show that we were in a continual state of sin. There was no perfect and final animal sacrifice.

The OT is a Promise of Hope. Exodus 34:6-7 says:
The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation."
How can this promise be true? How can God both forgive and punish? How can those be characteristics within the same God? The answers lie within the NT. God has an unwavering commitment to oppose and punish sin. His patience and loving forbearance in dealing with those whom He created who then made themselves His enemies by disobeying His commandments is evident through Scriptures. The hope lies not in Israel's history or their sacrificial system. The system taught, it did not save. The sacrifices offered affected the forgiveness of no one. The promise of the Messiah is where their hope therein lay.

The New Testament tells the story of Christ. It answers the promises made in the OT. Even though Adam and Eve rebelled, God would not let it thwart His plan. Dever used a quote by John Stott. Stott says something along the lines that a man who loves his wife also loves all her pictures and letters because they are her letters and images for him to love and cherish. But the man would be a fool to love the pictures and letters more then the wife herself. In the same way, we are to love Scripture because it is the portrait of Christ. But we would be fools to love the word more than we love the Savior. The bible is to show us Christ so that we may the focus of our hopes and the fulfillment of all our longings in Him.

The NT tells the story of the covenant people. We are to be pictures of what God's character is like. When we celebrate communion, we remember Christ's purpose. The New Covenant in His blood. So how does God forgive the sins of His covenant people and yet still punish the guilty? In Christ. This is how God can be both loving and holy at the same time. In Revelation 5, John hears of a Lion. When he looked, the Lion had become the slain lamb. This is how God can forgive and punish. We are the new covenant people who have become genuinely holy, not by the blood of a bull but by the blood of the Lion-Lamb. I am evidence that God keeps His promises. Revelation 22:4 says "They will see His face." This is the climax of the bible. The immediacy and satisfaction of faith no longer but instead the seeing and savoring of the Christ. Christ's resurrection was the first-fruit-the more important and yet first of many resurrections. All our hope is in His resurrection but because he has rise, so too can we.
All the promises made by God in the OT are kept by God in the NT.

Dever then asked what our disappointments in Christ were. What job or school or dating relationship are we longing for and upset over our lack of having. He told us to study them and meditate upon them. The ruins of our own cherished plans are often the first steps in HIS sovereign plan for our lives. God allows His children to experience disappointment time and time again so that we may turn to our only hope-Christ.

Dever ended with a quote from the Chronicles of Narnia series by CS Lewis.

“And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

Our job is to do what Adam and Eve did not do. To believe God’s word and to trust in His plans. We are not yet what we will one day be.

New Attitude Day #1...Joshua Harris

2006-05-28T05:08:00.000-07:00

Well, this is my first attempt at blogging and I'm starting out with a lofty goal of summarizing solid biblical preaching. This could be a sad sad attempt on my part so please pardon any infallibilities.

So, I'm part of a movement called Sovereign Grace Ministries. At some other point I'll go more into exactly what Sovereign Grace is, but in short it is a church-planting group who embraces reformed theology and worships God passionately and vibrantly and with all their heart and soul and spirit. A few years back, Joshua Harris was led by the Lord to do a singles conference where we young believers could learn from the men seasoned in the faith, who have walked out their faith and have much wisdom to impart to us. It is called New Attitude.

So anyways, tonight was the first evening of the conference. After much worship and preparation and being led to the altar of the Sovereign Lord, Joshua Harris began his first sermon. He based it upon the text of 2 Timothy 2:14-26:
Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: "The Lord knows those who are his," and, "Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity."

Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

His main focus was on what it means to be a generation approved by God (v. 15). He said that we must first handle the truth faithfully. Our approval before God is directly tied to how we handle the word-the gospel-the message of Christ. Back in verse 8 of chapter 2, Paul tells Timothy to remember Jesus Christ. Why would Paul have to tell even Timothy such a basic thing? Simply because the greatest temptation of every generation is to subtly move beyond this central truth, and pervert the true gospel in some form.
Joshua said that so often in our generation we like to be the innovators, the people with the cool ideas and the snazzy new fangled program, but we don't do the responsible thing so well. We don't stand the test of time. We like to be looked at as the latest and the greatest. We take a solid truth and change it as we sit fit so that it fits our latest angle best. He said that we have not been called to evaluate or reinvent truth. We have been called to present it and preserve it and pass it down.
But because this truth is the same for all of time, we get bored with it. We don't want to do things that same as the generation before us, so we flirt with error because we don't want to be bothered with following the pattern. But, we as believers have not been called to cut and paste God's truth to fit our ideas.
We cannot be flippant when it comes to Orthodoxy (a commitment to the teaching of the established truths in God's bible.) And truth needs to be defended from outward attacks as well as personal apathy. The outward attacks come from the age of moderation that we live in. Our peers believe that truth is not absolute. What works for you may or may not work for me and that's just peachy (that's a shout out from Jenn to Whit). The inward attacks come from when we do not apply the truth personally.

That was Josh's second point. In order to be a generation approved by God we must apply truth in our own lives. Truth that is divorced from living practice is hypocrisy. He warned us to be cautious in the truths that we apply however. Do we believe something because it is fully backed up in Scripture or simply because it is what tradition and those that have come before us have taught? Man errs. That is fact. God cannot err. That is an even GREATER fact.
He also warned against many of the Christian writers that are so being embraced by our generation. Just because a writer can accurately describe all that you are feeling and all your turmoil and all you questions, this does not mean that the medicine they prescribe is in line with God's scriptures.
Paul also warns Timothy to flee youthful passions. Often this is used to talk about sexual lusting, but if you read it in context with the chapter, Paul is talking about much more than just sex. John Stott calls it "...self-assertion, headstrong obstinacy and arrogance." When we see sin in our lives-do we casually stroll away from it, or do we flee from it with all our might? (I'm reminded of the scripture that says there is to be not even a hint of impurity among you. Also, there is a line in the movie "Walk the Line" that this makes me think of. "God gave us a great big apple, See! He said don't touch. He didn't say touch it every once in a while, He didn't say take a nibble when you're hungry. He said Don't Touch It! Don't think about touchin'it. Don't sing about touchin' it. Don't even think about singin' about touchin' it!”) So often we think, how close can I get to sin without it affecting me instead of how far away from sin can I get.
He posed a heart revealing question for many of the students. He asked whether or not we have grown comfortable with our current level of holiness. He said that compromise is not sophisticated and it is not mature. It is just sin-plain and simple.

Josh's third point was that we must represent the truth humbly. Apart from humility we will be Pharisees. How do we relate to those who disagree with us? Do we argue over non-essentials that, instead of edifying the body, merely serve to distract from the true gospel. We must remember that we did not create truth or copyright truth. Truth was instead handed down to us. Grace was handed down to us. Mercy was handed down to us. How can we then not hand down grace and mercy to those around us?
Josh said that the first time he encountered Calvinists in high school "They were mean. They were clickish. They were spiteful. I guess they were just predestined to be that way." (As a caveat, that was a joke, for which he later apologized for.) No matter how correct their theology may have been, their attitude was so severe, that he was turned off from any things that he had to say. When I am talking with those that I disagree with, how do I present the truth? Do I present it in arrogance or in tears? Do I present it with an attitude of "I'm right. You're wrong. Either get on board with me or suffer the consequences" or is rather "I have been such an undeserving recipient of grace and mercy. Thank you my God. Thank you my God."

The theme of New Attitude is "A Humble Orthodoxy." Joshua wound down by summing this up. Truth by itself is not enough. Humility in and of it self is not enough. Neither truth alone nor humility alone will save anyone. Both are necessary. Both are vital. We must present truth in an attitude that embodies both the love and compassion of the Savior himself.
He ended with a quote by Mark Dever from the Together for the Gospel blog. "What we need is humble theology--theology which submits itself to the truth of God's Word.”Liberal" theology--theology which does not view Scripture as finally trustworthy and authoritative--is not humble before the Word. Churches which are tentative and decry dogmatism may sound humble, but it is not truly humble to do anything other than to submit to God's Word. Christian humility is to simply accept whatever God has revealed in His Word. Humility is following God's Word wherever it goes, as far as it goes, not either going beyond it or stopping short of it."

Why try to rediscover what has always been true??