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Why repeatedly hearing the Gospel is important

Last week I posted a video on the core message of Christianity. This week I am following up on that video with a little more on why as Christians we need to hear this gospel message over and over. The scripture passage that I am using is Ephesians 2:1-10.



Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Welcome back

Today I return to blogging with a video post sharing a little about what has been happening since the summer. I also take time to share the core message of Christianity.

10,000 Reasons

I haven't been blogging with much regularity lately and I will share more on that later. I came across this Matt Redman song this morning and wanted to share it.

Aging Rockstars

A number of years ago I had the chance to see my first Van Hagar concert. (That's the Sammy Hagar version of Van Halen for the uninitiated.) I was a Van Halen fan while in high school but never went to any concerts. I mean I didn't go to any concerts. So as an adult I have gone to a few concerts in order to "catch up" on seeing some of those old favorites. Some shows–like U2–have been better than others–such as the aforementioned Van Halen. One of the things that struck me about the Van Halen concert was that the songs were obviously originally written and sung when the group was much younger. Some of the songs just didn't fit and others were kind of creepy.

Enter Tim Hawkins:

 

Hope you enjoy!

 

Only God's Love is Steadfast

I am always amazed and blessed that God gives me the opportunity to share his Word. Here is my sermon from May 20, 2012. The scripture passage is 2 Samuel 10 and read from the ESV.

Caine's Arcade

When a child combines imagination and initiative the results can be outstanding.

 

Caine's Arcade via Free Range Kids

 

The "fake" Michael Jordan

 

The people who make ESPN commercials can be quite brilliant at times. But this video leads me to wonder if it would be better to be the actual Michael Jordan and getting mobbed everywhere you go or the "fake" Michael Jordan and constantly disappointing people?

God Spares the Guilty

I once again had the privilege of preaching at Faith Community Reformed Church this past Sunday. The sermon is based on 1 Samuel 24 where David spares King Saul's life.

One of the important lessons that I learned was the importance of having water handy. My mouth was dry and a had a bit of a tickle in my throat.

Monumental

Kirk Cameron's latest project:

What if I make a bad decision?

I came across this video last week and it fits well with the topic of God's Plan for my life. It tackles the question regarding our decision-making and how that fits into God's Plan. What happens if I make a bad decision and screw up God's plan for my life?

Previous Posts:

Does God have a specific plan for our lives? Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3

Freedom in Christ

Source: Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology via Tim Challies

 

 

God is King, God is Sovereign, God is Calling Us to Obedience

I had the honor of preaching this past Sunday at my church. The sermon was based upon 1 Samuel 3 and here is the video. One word of caution is that I had to boost the volume and there is a very loud cough at about the 35 second mark.

Normally I have been posting my sermons on Vimeo but because of their upload limits I had to post this one on Youtube. I will probably be migrating all of my sermons to Youtube in the future.

Face to face with the Lion

The zoo allows us to come face to face with wild animals in a way that we would never be able to do in the wild. The video of this three year old little girl going nose to nose with a lion illustrates this very well.

Of course we call them wild animals for a reason.

1 Peter 5:8 reminds us that we face an adversary that has been compared to a lion.

"Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."

It can be very easy to forget just how dangerous it is to be around evil and sinful things. We might think that we are protected like that little girl but there is no safety glass to keep us from getting mauled. It is best if we just try and steer as clear as possible from these things.

Costas on NFL Celebrations

This is too priceless to not share. Bob Costas, one of my all-time favorite sportscasters, takes NFL players (and their coaches) to task over the silly and selfish celebrations. "Act like you been there before," has always been a good piece of advice that I wish more players would take to heart. 

My all-time favorite player is Walter Payton. When he retired, Payton lead the NFL in all-time rushing yards as well as all time rushing touchdowns. His touchdown celebration usually involved spiking the ball or throwing it into the crowd. He was the best and he didn't showboat. He acted like he had been there before and like he expected to be there again. 

I would love to add to Costas' commentary but he said it better than I could have said it.

Source Take Your Vitamin Z via Tim Challies 

Crazy Days and Feeling Distant from God

Yesterday was one of those crazy busy days. One of those days where I was busy from the time I got up in the morning to the time I went to bed. Our normal time to get up during the week is 4:45 for my wife and about 5:15 for me. Yesterday had me out of bed by 5 (although I had been awake since 3 which is another story for another day) and we were out the door by 6 which is a half hour early. 

We stopped at Panera for breakfast and after dropping my wife off at work I headed downtown to help my sister-in-law set up for her upcoming art show. It is a very big show at the Merchandise Mart called One Of A Kind and features incredible hand made art. My sister-in-law takes old windows, doors and furniture and turns them into pieces of art. Some of my favorite things of hers are old maps that she takes and mounts behind old windows. Right now she has an old 1944 Army Corps of Engineers map of France and a 1959 map of New York City that are both really nice.

After setting up the show I had to head back home to pick up my wife and head to the dentist. After we finished with the dentist we decided to stop to get dinner. By this time it was getting pretty late and we had nothing in the house except Thanksgiving leftovers that are getting a bit long in the tooth. When we finally got home it was almost time for bed.

I share this because it is days like yesterday that cause me to think of the following video:

It can be so easy to feel distant from God. While Dr. Powlison's advice is initially aimed at how to counsel a person asking about feeling distant from God, the video is worth watching for everyone. He asks some very simple questions that can help get at the nature of why we might be feeling distant from God.

The first question he looks at is what God are we feeling distant from? It is a great question in that we can often have an image of God in our head that is quite inaccurate. He then goes on to talk about how things happening to us or things that we do can cause us to feel distant from God. We live in a fallen world that is quite broken. Part of that brokenness can be seen in the sin that we commit and part of that brokenness can be seen in the suffering that we endure. Both of these things can feed into our feeling distant from God.

In a day like the one that I had yesterday it can be very easy for me to not take the time that I need to take in order to feel close to God. It is not that God has moved away from me but rather that I have moved away from him.

Fortunately we have a God that is seeking us out when we are lost and is eagerly awaiting our return to him. We have a God that desires to have a relationship with us and to be close to us. 

Source CCEF via Justin Taylor

Intentions Speak Louder Than Actions

The story of Balaam and his talking donkey is a very interesting and cautionary tale. One of the biggest lessons that we can learn from it is that why we do things is just as important as doing the right thing.

Sermon on Balaam and his talking donkey given at Faith Community Reformed Church on 11/20/2011. It is based on Numbers 22:22-35 and I read from the ESV.

My Next Garbage Can

Our Golden Calves

It's easy to condemn the Israelite people for telling Aaron in Exodus 32 to make them a god to worship but we do the same thing. The difficulty in identifying our false gods is that we are not always obvious about it.

This is a sermon given on 10/16/2011 at Faith Community Reformed Church. It is part of a series journeying through the Old Testament. The scripture passage is Exodus 32:1-20 and read from the English Standard Version.

The Importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls

In what is a very exciting project the Israel Museum and Google have collaborated together to create a digital copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls. So far they have digitized five scrolls. Overall the Dead Sea Scrolls include some of the oldest copies and fragments of the Hebrew Bible, which Christians call the Old Testament. My Hebrew is not quite strong enough for me to recognize much of characters used in the Isaiah Scroll (the Temple Scroll text is easier to recognize) but it is very interesting to see these scrolls in such detail.

The first video is a quick introduction to the project and the second video is a lecture by Dr. Weston Fields on the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Dr. Fields video is a very interesting lecture on the history and importance of the Scrolls. He discusses the importance of the scrolls at around the 19 minute mark to about the 27 minute mark of the lecture. The one sentence summary is that the Scrolls show how well the process of transmitting the scriptures was handled. It means that the Jewish people were able to transmit their texts very well and this is important in that it gives us the confidence that our Scriptures are reliable in terms of literary accuracy.  

From the Israel Museum in Jerusalem:

The Dr. Weston Fields Lecture:

Further Reading:

Is the New Testament Text Reliable? 

Bazinga!

This may be one of the funniest clips from one of the funniest episodes from one of the funniest shows on TV. (At least through the first 2 and a half seasons.)