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Weekend Preview – Psalm 34

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For the next couple of Sundays, Crestview will be looking at Psalm 34.  This coming Lord’s Day, in particular, we will be thinking about prayer in this Psalm.  Those who cry to the Lord are heard.  We are called to praise. There is so much for us.  Over on Twitter, I’ve been tweeting meditations on these verses.  I would encourage you to read this Psalm and think about what it means for your prayer life.  If you are interested in some of our Week of Prayer resources, they are available here.

Weekend Recap – Jesus, Word in the Flesh

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My sermon from 12/25/11 from John 1:14 entitled Christmas Truth is online.  In this talk, I tried to simply and helpfully point to how Jesus, both His coming to earth and displaying glory, as the true meaning of Christmas.    Sorry that I was a little slow in getting it up and the link posted.  We’ve been busy this week with holiday plans.  Hope you have a great week looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.

He’s Here

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Tonight at our church’s Christmas Eve Carol & Candlelight Service (6-6:30PM), this video is shown from the Jesus Storybook Bible.  I love incorporating something like this to help children visually see the amazing wonder of Christmas.  Enjoy.

Weekend Preview – Word Became Flesh

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This coming Sunday is Christmas.  My advent series through John’s Gospel will culminate this Sunday as we look at John 1:14:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Christmas is really about this truth.  The Word, Jesus, became flesh like you and me and lived among us.  He came and displayed glory and this glory was like glory from the Father: it was full of grace and truth.

This week, continue to marvel at God become a man and come this Lord’s Day anticipating a sight of His glory as we unfold this amazing verse and wonder at the Incarnation.

Weekend Review – 12/18/11

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We enjoyed a great Lord’s Day yesterday morning at Crestview.  Our children sang to open our service, we sang great carols exalting our Savior, and had a great morning in John’s Gospel.  My sermon, Receiving Jesus, from John 1:11-13 sought to give 3 aspects of receiving Him.  He’s often missed by people, and He’s received by believers, who are born of God.

In the evening, we gathered to watch Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God on DVD.  This worshipful time helps us see how the Bible connects together to point to Jesus.  All in all, it was a terrific day.

Receive Him!

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This coming Lord’s Day, we plan to continue to work through John’s Advent account and specifically hone in on John 1:11-13. In these verses, we are told something shocking on one level: Jesus’ own people rejected Him. Humanly speaking, it is almost unfathomable that the Creator of all things could come to His people and they would reject Him, but that is precisely what happened. But, Jesus was received. He was received by those who believed in His name and lest those who believe start to puff themselves up in self-righteous thinking, John reminds those believers that it wasn’t some magic decision they did of their own will, but it happened because they were born of God. This holiday season, have you received Jesus or rejected Him. Receive Him by believing in His name and in so doing prove that you are born of God.

Christmas with Capital “C”

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It seems that with all the church’s preoccupation with keeping “Christ” in Christmas (which is a good thing) we can be dangerously close to missing Him ourselves.  I could agree more than with what Jared Wilson recently wrote in a post entitled This Christmas, Don’t Let Jesus Distract You from Jesus.  He writes: 

There is a great danger this Christmas season of missing the point. And I’m not referring simply to idolatrous consumption and materialism. I’m talking about Christmas religiosity. It is very easy around this time to set up our Nativity scenes, host our Christmas pageants and cantatas, read the Christmas story with our families, attend church every time the door is open, and insist to ourselves and others that Jesus is the reason for the season, and yet not see Jesus. With the eyes of our heart, I mean. 

I suppose there is something about indulging in the religious Christmas routine that lulls us into thinking we are dwelling in Christ when we are really just set to seasonal autopilot, going through the festive and sentimental motions. Meanwhile the real person Jesus the Christ goes neglected in favor of his plastic, paper, and video representations. Don’t get distracted from Jesus by “Jesus.” This year, plead with the Spirit to interrupt your nice Christmas with the power of Jesus’ gospel.

I wonder if we aren’t guilty of missing the True Light of this season ourselves?  So how about it?  Will you “plead with the Spirit to interrupt your nice Christmas with the power of Jesus’ gospel”?  Do this and see if this doesn’t end up being a Christmas you’ll always remember.

Weekend Recap – 12/11/11

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After fighting off the flu all day Saturday, God seemed to smile upon me and I was able to fulfill all my “pastoral duties” on Sunday.  So, the sermon from 12/11/11AM is now online.  It was entitled True Light from John 1:9-10.  Specifically, it focused on how Jesus the True Light of the world entered the world, demanded a response and was rejected by the world.  I think this gives us confidence in taking our witness to the world and encouragement in awing the Savior this holiday season.

All the items up for affirmation at our church’s Annual Meeting passed as well, which means we are bringing David Lansdowne back on as a lay elder and Cameron Wood will enjoy his first term as a deacon.  The 2012 Budget was also affirmed.  Exciting stuff.

In the PM we had one small group to unite them all (meaning all the small groups came together at church) for a holiday party.  We enjoyed fun, fellowship and food.

Hope you had a great Lord’s day and continue to awe your Savior this holiday season.