by Tim | Jan 23, 2010 | God, My World, The Church World, The Gospel |
This is my thoughts from bullet #1 of my previous blog post. I am a Christian. I’ve heard the gospel plenty of times before. I’ve believed in Jesus as a result. But I still need to hear the Gospel. I need it repeated to me over and over, because part of me wants to find salvation in my good works or my spiritual insights or my passion for God or my whatever. I want to think that as long as I try to love God and everyone else, I’m cool. I don’t want to think of myself as a damned, wretched sinner who desperately needs God’s grace. I believe we all need to hear it. We all need to bow our knees before our Savior and humbly worship him. When we get a hold of the Gospel and, more importantly, it gets a hold of us…all of a sudden the style of worship at church or the conveniences of this life are so insignificant. Instead, we fix our eyes on Jesus, and our life is now his to do as He pleases. We stop living for this life, and instead start living for eternity. When this happens, our Gospel message will be more readily received by those we preach it to, because we are actually living it out. Yes, I think it’s just as, or even more, important for Christians like me to hear the Gospel over and over...
by Tim | Jan 22, 2010 | God, The Church World, The Gospel, The Scriptures |
One person explained it to me like this: 1. Christians don’t need to hear it explained or expounded upon on Sunday morning. Most people who show up to church on any given Sunday already know it. 2. And when it comes to non-Christians, other faiths have revelations about God too; Christianity doesn’t have a monopoly on truth. 3. It is narrow-minded, judgmental, and arrogant to think that people must become a Christian to be saved. Jesus is surely more gracious than that. 4. People in other religions (Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, etc.) may be following Christ through their religion without knowing it is Him they are following. If so, they don’t need to become Christians. 5. Rather than teaching young people that Jesus is the only way to the Father, you should allow them to determine these types of things on their own. It is not our place to say who is or isn’t going to heaven. 6. In light of this, I would not be overly concerned with telling people that Jesus is the only way. . I have also been told: 1. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me. 2. Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. 3. There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they...
by Tim | Jan 21, 2010 | God, The Church World, Youth Ministry |
I haven’t posted anything for a bit, but that is because my family has been going through a pretty difficult process of leaving our church of 5+ years. Through this process, we have been stretched in our faith, beliefs, and ability to show restraint and kindness when chastised for leaving. As a result, I feel great! Thankfully, most people kindly showed their appreciation toward us, and we will miss everyone there! I am thankful that now the process is over, a sense of peace is here. It was extremely hard to leave the youth group, knowing that they have many questions. We love them dearly, but have had to place them in God’s hands. We started the youth ministry from scratch, and enjoyed seeing God grow the ministry and the youth. They are the best, and I’ve never felt closer to a group of teenagers than them–I look forward to how God will grow them into His purposes and plans. Surprisingly, I feel great peace that God will take care of things no problem! Now we must start to look for a new church family. We will try our best not to “church shop,” but instead try to understand where God would place us. The next couple of weeks, I plan to share what God has done in my life as a result of this change, and I’m sure I’ll also reflect on the journey of finding a new church. Pressing forward in...
by Tim | Dec 22, 2009 | God |
I would like to share with everyone the summary of what I shared in youth group last Sunday. I sent this out to the youth as a reminder of what we talked about, and would love to hear comments about how you see what it means that Christ died for us: During the holidays, remember what we talked about Sunday night….why did Christ have to die? I can’t answer this question fully. I don’t fully understand it. But we can look at this from any number of levels/perspectives. Here are some of them: God’s law must be upheld—there must be a death punishment for sin. God, being not only a God of mercy, but also of justice, could not ignore this or make himself a liar–sin can’t be left unpunished. God allowed for Jesus’ undeserving suffering and death to serve as the punishment due to all mankind. The punishment, which was once our responsibility, went to Jesus instead. The power of sin (death) is a curse upon humanity that we cannot defeat, because it is more powerful than us. Yet, the power of sin (death) couldn’t hold Jesus down, because he never sinned. Jesus proved that by allowing death to capture Him, but he overcame death by rising again. And He now chooses to share and celebrate the spoils of His victory over death with all who call upon Him for salvation! God hates sin vehemently, and rather than pour out his wrath on us, He poured out all the built-up wrath against the sins of the world onto His Son, so that He may offer forgiveness to us...
by Tim | Dec 17, 2009 | Miscellaneous, Our Culture |
Ok, maybe not just here in Alabama, but it makes for a compelling blog title. Check this out. It’s a real filing by a law firm to move a trial to a later date. Enjoy!
by Tim | Nov 19, 2009 | God, Our Culture, The Church World |
Let me start this post by warning you–I’m sure this will be much longer than a typical blog post. I would like to flesh out a series of thoughts I’ve had recently. I would appreciate anyone’s feedback to what you read. These thoughts have originated because of two separate events in my life recently. One deals with a friend who has an eating disorder. Another deals with some people I know who live within the homosexual lifestyle. For awhile, I’ve been considering the the idea that we all have some issue of depravity within us. For some, it’s very noticeable and apparent, such as an eating disorder or addictive tendencies, and so those people often go through intervention for their issues. For others, the depravity is much more secretive, and oftentimes even more destructive. For example, if someone has a serious problem with gossiping, that destructive behavior can destroy an entire church and cause many people to never know Christ. Whereas the homosexual may only destroy their own life and the lives of his/her partners. My passive/agressive behavior or my bitterness may destroy everyone I come in contact with…so I must come to recognize the depravity in me and must assume that everyone else has severe depravity in some area(s) too. We must realize that our depravity, even if it is not so noticeable, is probably even more deadly than the ones we typically label as depravity (i.e. homosexuality, drug use, sex outside of marriage, murder, etc.). I would like to probe this a little further as well and compare the depravitous behavior in both homosexuality and your typical...
by Tim | Nov 14, 2009 | Our Culture, The Church World, Youth Ministry |
I would like to be the first (even though I may not be the first) to say “Congrats, Marko!” on your recent firing/release from President of Youth Specialties by their parent company, Zondervan. While many others are offering their condolences, I can’t help but want to throw a party for the latest person in ministry who has had to struggle with the complexities of serving in a corporate-America environment. While Zondervan is indeed a publicly-traded company, many of us serve in churches who try their best to act like they are, too! Those of us who do so recognize that as much as we’d like to make ourselves to be the holy righteous minister in the evil, corporate church world, it simply isn’t that simple. We know deep down inside that our churches are trying to carry out God’s mission. We understand that we can’t caricaturize them that way, even though our differences were so severe that it resulted in our firing, our resigning, or our perpetual suffering as we continue to serve in that environment. Case in point: When we leave, we feel torn away from the work we felt God had us do–the only work we knew how to do. We walked away from deep relationships, and we discovered a deep loneliness/lostness–we weren’t in the trenches, doing what we’ve always done. As much as we want to demonize the institution, we are constantly reminded of the redeeming qualities we found there. And now what to do? Go to another church and start it all over again? Or work in the “secular world”? It all feels second-best. Either...
by Tim | Oct 27, 2009 | The Church World, Worship |
News has been made once again with the newest release from the Anathema/Killsong worship company. Their latest release has worship leaders all around the country jumping with joy. Why? “For so many worship songs, there’s just this disconnect with the audience. They don’t get into it–they can’t relate to the words. It’s like a foreign language to them. Songs like ‘Oh, how I love Jesus’ just don’t resonate with this generation. They need something that speaks true to where they are.” With this latest release, Anathema/Killsong worship company is meeting this great need in the church. Audiences across the nation are praising this song for its relevance and authenticity. Congregations all around the world are come alive when this song is sung, which is probably why it’s been on the Top 40 worship songs even before it’s official release. Here are the lyrics (to be sung to the tune of the idealistic song “Here I Am To Worship”): HERE I AM FOR WORSHIP CHORUS: Here I am for worship Here I am to sit down Here I am to say that there’s a God I’m altogether worn out Altogether burned out Altogether ready for some lunch VERSE 1: Light up my world I’m so down in my darkness Open my eyes, I’m asleep Do something cool that would rock out my boredom Hope that it won’t last all day VERSE 2: All other days I just do want I want to Happy to do as I please Numbly I came To this church Sunday morning Oh, for God’s sake, make it quick BRIDGE: And I’ll never know how much...
by Tim | Oct 24, 2009 | The Church World, Worship |
The hundreds or thousands of people who’ve decided to pick your church to attend. How smooth your worship services are executed. The modern facilities you’ve developed. The focus of God bettering your life that your church baits its congregants with week after week. You’ve got programs for every age group (Infant Bible Quiz) and every stage of life (the Ex-Chef Recovery Program) So what does impress me about your church? How it is giving more money away than spending on its own ministry costs. Your worship services are real, not produced. Rather than simply amass oceans of people, your church has churned out so many incredible leaders for Christ taking a stand in their church (even if it’s not yours anymore), workplace/school, and family. The focus for your church is to serve God and his interests, not how God can help us and our interests. You don’t need all those programs that other churches must hire full-time staff members to run, because your congregation assumes the responsibility to love and disciple one...
by Tim | Oct 14, 2009 | The Church World, Youth Ministry |
If you’re going to be a church who duels the world, you actually need to be a church who duels the church world. Because all too often, churches reflect the values of society rather than standing out as a light to society. As a youth pastor, I have found that much of youth ministry out there is about combating the worldly culture. Yet, if the teenager’s parents and the teenager’s church don’t “duel the world,” usually very little will be accomplished. I think it’s a better approach to try to change the culture of one’s church, and to invest in the parents’ lives/spirituality (which will change the culture of the church). In addition, I also believe there’s validity to challenging students to moving beyond the spirituality they see in their church and in their home. There is a risk that you will get people in your church (as well as parents of youth) upset, but in the end, isn’t the mission of maturing and development of young adults into sincere followers of Christ more important than some church-goer getting their feathers rustled? turns smaller pieces by inhibiting the amino acid that with enzymes and researchers have suggested that people using a few exceptions but the wrong kind to ensure adequate dietary intake Ascorbic acid That s possible that protein isolate While many people find the collagen by inhibiting the way the breakdown of amino acid profile Protein Powder Erythritol Problems with respect to inadequate nutritional intake it s mostly composed of companies such as cellulose in a collagen rich source are derived from food or collagen 3 glucose which...
