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Weekend Preview…6/21

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We are anticipating a good Lord’s Day. We’ll probably have some special arrangements to make for children and students in light of the mess. The sermon will be from Mark 15:39-47. Yes, we will be looking at the centurion, again. His confession is a capstone to this excellent book. The focus, though, in the burial of Jesus will be on these three remarkable characters we meet who are followers of Jesus. The centurion demonstrates his following in boldly confessing Christ. The women demonstrate following in identifying with the Savior and serving His needs. Joseph (of Arimathea) shows his following of Jesus in courageously extending honor to Him. We are thinking of what it means to follow Jesus, therefore, which is a huge theme in Mark. Hope to see you there.

Our Basement…

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Our basement at the church has flooded, which leaves me with some theological musings…

1) Is this depth of water level what liberal scholars really think Pharaoh and his army perished in when chasing the children of Israel out of Egypt. (They say that the children of Israel actually crossed the Sea of Reeds, which was just a few inches deep.) The only problem is the drowning of those chasing. Just a thought.

2) Our insurance company says that this isn’t covered because it isn’t an “act of God.” (I jokingly told our treasurer we should sue on theological grounds. You see, we believe in God’s providence, which means that He is sovereignly in control and governing ALL THINGS. Not an act of God. Ha! I can read the headline now, “Local Church in KS Sues Insurance Company Over Doctrine”. Oh, well. NO need for mean-spiritedness.)

3) There has to be some sort of ramifications for Baptists and Presbyterians with all this water.

Oh, well. God is gracious and we are trusting Him to provide the means and take care of us. When you pray, ask God to endow us with wisdom.

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Jesus Is the Christ…

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Thought we had a glorious morning service, surveying the wondrous cross. The sermon, The Christ (Even In Death) from Mark 15:33-39, is online. There were many applications. I mentioned three:
1) I’m struck by how Scripture-saturated the Son of God was. In His most desperate hour and incredible suffering, He ran to the Scriptures, specifically Psalm 22:1 for comfort.
2) I’m amazed at how we try to sew the temple curtain back in two by placing religious deeds before the Gospel.
3) I’m convicted that the boldness of the centurion should stand as a challenge to us all to say with our lips “Truly this man was the Son of God.”

What applications struck you?

DeYoung on God’s Will

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Kevin DeYoung has written a helpful book on knowing God’s will. There are lots of books in this genre, but this one is practical and very helpful. I would highly recommend it. Here’s a review from Team Pyro. You can also check it out on Amazon and WTS Books.

From the back cover:

Hyper-spiritual approaches to finding God’s will don’t work. It’s time to try something new: Give Up.

Pastor and author Kevin DeYoung counsels Christians to settle down, make choices, and do the hard work of seeing those choices through.

Too often, he writes, God’s people tinker around with churches, jobs and relationships, worrying that they haven’t found God’s perfect will for their lives. Or–even worse–they do absolutely nothing, stuck in a frustrated state of paralyzed indecision, waiting…waiting…waiting…for clear, direct, unmistakable direction.

But God doesn’t need to tell us what to do at each fork in the road. He’s already revealed His plan for our lives: to love Him with our whole hearts, to obey His Word, and after that, to do what we like.

No need for hocus-pocus. No reason to be directionally challenged. Just Do Something.

You might also want to check out Kevin DeYoung’s breakout session at Next entitled, fittingly, Just Do Something.

Preview – Christ

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For the past few Sundays, we have consistently been looking at Jesus and who He is. We have seen the amazing suffering He endured and sought to get some measure of hope through it. This Sunday, we will continue our survey of the wondrous cross by seeing how Mark 15:33-39 reveals Jesus as the Christ (Even In Death). Hope to see you this weekend.

Advance 09 Audio

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More free audio is available online from the latest conference: Advance 09. Here’s a summary:

Mark Driscoll – What is the Church?
Tyler Jones – The Resurgence of the Church
Bryan Chapell – Communicating the Gospel Through Preaching
Matt Chandler – Preaching the Gospel to the De-Churched
Ed Stetzer – Keys to Understanding the Church and Kingdom
J.D. Greear – Planting is for Wimps: Revitalizing a Church Around the Gospel
Eric Mason – The Ultimate Shepherd
Mark Driscoll – Ministry Idolatry
John Piper – Let The Nations Be Glad, Part 1
Q & A with Piper, Driscoll, Greear and Stetzer
Danny Akin – Marks of a Healthy Community of Faith
John Piper – Let The Nations Be Glad, Part 2

Carson @ Next….

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This AM, back at the Y, I listened to D.A. Carson’s sermon at NEXT on the Incarnation. I would commend to you all the audio from this conference. Here’s a summary of his talk.

A few things stuck out to me:
1) His statement that the doctrine of creation necessitates responsibility on our part was an excellent point. I really hadn’t put that together with the masterful words Carson employed. This really opened my eyes to truth.
2) The way the readers of John’s Gospel would have read the opening verses. From a Bible-study method standpoint, this was helpful.
3) The practical manner in which Carson urged us to hold the incarnation.

This was very helpful. Listen and benefit from this as well.