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Pastor Mark’s Daddy Christmas Tips

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Are very helpful and online at The Mars Hill Blog:

1. Dad needs a plan for the holidays to ensure his family is loved and memories are made. Dad, what’s your plan?
2. Dad needs to ensure his family is giving generously during the holidays. Dad, who in need is your family going to adopt, bless, and serve?
3. Dad needs to carve out time for sacred events and experiences to build family traditions that are fun and point to Jesus. Dad, is you calendar ready for December?
4. Dad needs to not let the stress of the holidays, including money, cause him to be grumpy with Mom or the kids. Dad, how’s your joy?
5. Dad needs to make memories and not just give gifts. Dad, what special memories can you make this holiday season?
6. Dad needs to manage the extended family and friends during the holidays. Dad, who or what do you need to say “no” to?
7. Dad needs to schedule a big Christmas date with his daughter(s). Dad, what’s your big plan for the fancy Daddy-daughter date?
8. Dad needs to schedule guy time with his son(s). Dad, what are you and your son(s) going to do that is active, outdoors, and fun?
9. Dad needs to help get the house decorated. Dad, are you really a big help to Mom with getting things ready?
10. Dad needs to ensure there are some holiday smells and sounds. Dad, is Christmas music on the iPod, is the tree up, can you smell cookies and cider?

These are all great tips. We have plenty of ways to serve your families at Crestview as well:

Thanksgiving Dinner, Sunday Nov 21 at 6PM
A Thanksgiving Offering to advance the Gospel in Australia
Hanging of the Greens, Sunday Nov 28 at 6PM, where you and your family can serve others
An Advent Series of Sermons, beginning Sunday AM, Nov 28

Honor Christ by leading your families well this holiday season.

Weekend Recap – Suffering & Discipline

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Yesterday, because of my study leave, Graham Hill filled the pulpit here at Crestview. His sermon, Following Jesus In Suffering, from Mark 8:27-37 and further thoughts from 1 Peter 4 is online. I really appreciated this word and really felt that it challenged us to joyfully embrace all that God has for us in following Jesus as our Lord.

In the PM, we continued working through Thabiti’s book and read mark 7: A Healthy Church Member Seeks Discipline. Our group had a great discussion and really sought out some healthy application of ways we can embrace both formative and corrective discipline in the local church.

What a rich Lord’s Day…now, for grace to live it.

The Past Week

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I know it was a slow blogging week for me (with my last post coming nearly a week ago recapping the weekend of 11/7 at Crestview). Last week, my leadership team gave me the privilege of a study leave in STL. I spent a few days there, studying a lot in the Covenant Seminary library. They were a great help to research I was doing on the book of Hebrews, prepping to preach that in 2011. I had many ambitious goals to attain last week and by God’s grace nearly all of them were complete. I had hoped to completely read through a commentary, but didn’t get that done. The big items of extended meditation, prayer and study on the book (Hebrews) as well as the develop of AM & PM preaching plans with appropriate Scripture Memory emphases were completed. So, I am still digging out of being gone, but very grateful for my time away.

Weekend Recap – Community and the King

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Today was a great Lord’s Day. In the AM, we wrapped up the book of Colossians by looking at Colossians 4:7-18 and a sermon entitled Gospel Community, showing how God intends for the church to relate to one another.

In the PM, we looked at how the OT promises to David as God’s forever king in 2 Samuel 7:8-16 point to Jesus in a sermon entitled God’s King.

Both of these sermons get at glorifying God by submitting to all that God is for us in Christ. In the AM, we flesh out the Gospel in community. In the PM, we need to remember that Jesus is God’s forever King and live in that reality. Much grace was shown by God in unfolding these words to us.

God, His Glory and the Food We Eat…

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Here’s some must reading for you as you think about eating: the cover story of Christianity Today — A Feast Fit For A King. I’ve written recently on changes in my thinking and life about diet and food. This latest article in Christianity Today highlights a balance between the health food movement and how we should think about food. The author Leslie Leyland Fields, has a couple of great quotes that I loved:

As Christians, under obligation to the God who created our bodies, and as Americans, who continue to lead the industrialized world in obesity rates, we should foster a healthier diet. As believers urged by the Apostle Paul to “take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ,” we should be more thoughtful about food production and our treatment of God’s creatures and his earth.

And, then, a little later,

As Prostesants, our food practices have relied far too heavily on a single New Testament passage, I believe, Peter’s vision of a sheet full of formerly unclean animals let down from heaven. God’s command to “rise, kill and eat” (the supreme-meat-lover’s favorite biblical scene), in my opinion, has been used to justify a kind of gustatory free-for-all.

How shall we use our freedom in Christ? Freedom is never given for license or for self-indulgence. If our freedom ends in mindless consumption, abuse of the earth, exploitation of God’s gifts, and mistreatment of our bodies, then we have allowed our appetites to enslave us again.

Or even one other section:

Why have we ignored food for so long? Why are we not attending more seriously to Paul’s injunction to literally “eat or drink…for the glory of God”? Beyond a quick word of thanks before meals, have we seriously considered how our eating and drinking either reveals or suppresses the glory of God?

Wherever you may come down on the issues, one thing is certain: we exist for the glory of God. Let’s seek to honor Him, then, even in the seemingly mundane details of what we eat and drink.

Practicalities…

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With Fall upon us (FINALLY!), we are doing some odd jobs, so I thought I might drop a couple of hints…

After cleaning your ceiling fan, know which way it should run. The simple rule: counter-clockwise in hot weather (summer), clockwise in cold weather (winter).

Also…here’s a coloring sheet from Sojourn Kids. This is a printer friendly pdf or jpg.

If you can’t read it very clearly, it reminds us “Wind these clocks in Spring and Fall, daylight savings time for us all.” That’s right, this Sunday, November 7th, don’t forget to adjust your clock before you go to bed (it FALLs back an hour then). Hope this helps.

Ask These Questions of Yourself, Men, … I Dare You…

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From Tullian…

He offers these for the men of his church “to understand and embody the life-giving power of the Gospel in their daily lives.”

Do you rejoice in position, power, accomplishments, entitlement, control, degrees, knowledge, status, authority, numbers, and rank?

Or do you rejoice in service, mercy, sacrifice, pastoral care, love, prayer, prudence, grace, relationships, and repentance?

Are you proud or humble? Do you put others before yourself?

Do you find your daily security and significance in your own accomplishments or in Christ’s accomplishment for you?

Do you seek first place or last place? Do you boast on yourself or on Christ? Do you talk about yourself a lot? Are you prone to envy and do you get defensive easily?

Do you weep with those who weep? Do you love people and look for opportunities to serve and shepherd them? Do you revel in self-confidence or self-sacrifice?

Do you have people in your life that you confess specific instances of sin? Do the people in your life find it easy to correct you?

This is what true Biblical manhood looks like. Examine your heart and where it is found lacking…REPENT!