Starting Something New

As of this September, our care group will be working through the book of Hebrews. We want to invite you to join us as we walk through what has been deemed as the 'most comprehensive collection of information on Jesus Christ - outside of the gospels and the revelation.'

It will be an interesting and hopefully an interactive exploration. This means that you will have the option of doing as much or as little work with the material as you wish. There will be an email option for those who may want to remain somewhat anonymous. I encourage your feedback and comments. I really want this to be as effective as it can be as well as honoring to Jesus as it can be.

Just click on the title and you will be transported to the new blog. Have fun,

peace

give me a break

OK, so we've heard and seen the ads for how restaurants are offering your hamburgers and sandwiches in the form of a wrap. This is to help us feel that the restaurant is looking out for our best interest. Its like they are trying to help us feel better about the healthy choices we are beating ourselves into while at the same time trying to cater to our 'indulgent' side. I mean really - do you want your Big Mac in a wrap? Do you want that Italian meatball sub in a wrap instead? Here I am as a discerning consumer trying to switch my love of the bread slice for the healthier wrap. It's thinner, has less volume and it even tastes bland - all the pre-requisites for a healthier tomorrow.

Until now.

My darling wife - who happens to have graduated from University with a science major - sheepishly (yet with that cute smile she gets when she knows she is right)tells me that the wrap I am about to consume is boldly ling to me and that any thoughts of 'healthier' choices should be cross-referenced with the nutritional notes on the package. In a half-mocking, half 'I can't believe it' tone I refer to those sections where the math does not lie.

To my horror I discover that one measly, skinny, ridiculously thin and flimsy freak of the leaven has more calories, more fat, more sodium and more carbohydrate than two - yes that's right two - pieces of my beloved yet "bad for me like oil to a duck" slices of bread. Well, snap. I lose it. What a joke. What a waste of my time and effort. By the time I have forced myself to consume two of those discs of displeasure I could have enjoyed five slices from the bread bag of fun. Never again. People, stop buying into the lie and return to the freshly baked loaf of goodness. Besides, has anyone ever seen anybody dip a plain wrap into their gravy? I didn't think so.

Too Long

Hey everyone,

Its been too long since we've shared a blog together. I just wanted to send a link out there. This is an important topic and we need to include somewhere in our gospel talks with those whom God brings into our lives. If it was one of the most important issues that Jesus taught, can we consider it any less important?

http://www.redeemer.com/news_and_events/articles/the_importance_of_hell.html

out.

a King, a Lamb, a Bridegroom

Some thoughts as I read and prepare for Isaiah 63-64.

How is Christ to be glorified and how does He reign if His followers will do nothing about their sanctification?

Do you feel Christ-followers subscribe to the idea of sin as; "the sworn, deadly, do anything at all costs, enemy of the Lamb?

Why would God allow the Human's sinful condition to persist on it's demonic and destructive ways?

Does God exist for His people or does the Church exist for her Bridegroom?

feel free to respond...

To Whom Shall I Be Compared?

Isaiah 40:1-32 (ESV)
¹ Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. ² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. ³ A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. ⁴ Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. ⁵ And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” ⁶ A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. ⁷ The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. ⁸ The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. ⁹ Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” ¹⁰ Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. ¹¹ He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. ¹² Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? ¹³ Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? ¹⁴ Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? ¹⁵ Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. ¹⁶ Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. ¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. ¹⁸ To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? ¹⁹ An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. ²⁰ He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. ²¹ Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? ²² It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; ²³ who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. ²⁴ Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. ²⁵ To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. ²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing. ²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? ²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. ²⁹ He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. ³⁰ Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; ³¹ but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

If God can intimately care for the universe, can He not do the same for the people who have been bought by the blood of the Lamb?

What hinders His people from living out the truth, grace and power of Isaiah 40?