www.oneredenvelope.com
Has anybody seen this? As Christians I believe we should uphold the sanctity of Life. I was recently at a Carenet Pregancy Center meeting and I was determined more than ever to be vigilant in the fight against abortion and helping defend those in the fight for life. I was told before the election of our new president that he would be reasonable about issues of abortion despite his previous rhetoric. I guess those people were wrong. I encourage every person who holds the same view as me on the sanctity of life to visit www.oneredenvelope.com and participate. Make your voice known to President Obama and make a difference for the most defenseless amongst us. One last thing, let’s remember to pray for our new president.
Excited about our upcoming series “Greater Than”
Starting easter weekend we will be doing a new series on just how much greater the cross of Christ is than sin. Along with impacting messages people will have a chance to see first hand how the cross is greater than sin. During the series we have three special appearances that should drive the point home. The first is Michael Franzese the former Gambino crime family mobster. The second is Annie Lobert, a former hooker, who now runs a ministry called Hookers for Jesus.(Wow, thats cool!) The third week is a surprise, but it involves the possibility of a high profile murderer… Ill leave it at that. Through it all we know we will see how awesome the cross of Christ is! Is the cross greater than murder? Is it greater than the damage others have done to us? Is it greater than the damage we’ve done to ourselves? Is it Is it greater than my guilt? Come be awed by God with me this April.
Win: Presence, Are you ready for your Suddenly?
- Luke 24:13-35 That same day two of Jesus’ followers were walking to the village of Emmaus…. As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened. Suddenly, Jesus himself came along and joined them and began walking beside them. But they didn’t know who he was, because God kept them from recognizing him. “You seem to be in a deep discussion about something,” he said. “What are you so concerned about?” They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, “You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days.” “What things?” Jesus asked. “The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth,” they said. “He was a prophet who did wonderful miracles. He was a mighty teacher, highly regarded by both God and all the people. But our leading priests and other religious leaders arrested him and handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. We had thought he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. That all happened three days ago. Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, Jesus’ body was gone, just as the women had said.” Then Jesus said to them, “You are such foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted by the prophets that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his time of glory?” Then Jesus quoted passages from the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining what all the Scriptures said about himself. By this time they were nearing Emmaus and the end of their journey. Jesus would have gone on, but they begged him to stay the night with them, since it was getting late. So he went home with them. As they sat down to eat, he took a small loaf of bread, asked God’s blessing on it, broke it, then gave it to them. Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And at that moment he disappeared! They said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts feel strangely warm as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” And within the hour they were on their way back to Jerusalem, where the eleven disciples and the other followers of Jesus were gathered. When they arrived, they were greeted with the report, “The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter!” Then the two from Emmaus told their story of how Jesus had appeared to them as they were walking along the road and how they had recognized him as he was breaking the bread.
I always found this piece of scripture fascinating. I mean, how could two disciples of Jesus have him walking with them and not recognize him? The question for me is less one of surprise as it is of concern that it could happen to me as well. As a matter of fact, I think it has – many times. The last verse there I think sums it all up. these disciple who just had hours of time with Jesus run to the other disciples and tell them how THEY recognized him. The question is, how do you recognize Jesus? How often has Jesus been suddenly by my side an I missed him? The presence of God is sometimes so much larger than how we encounter him or maybe even what we like. Let’s look at some of the way’s “the presence of God” showed up and yet these disciples couldn’t recognize it:
- Stranger – Jesus shows up as a stranger. How many scriptures in the Old Testament and New Testament talk about kindeness to strangers? How many show strangers actually would up being a Theophany.
- Correction – The Bible says Jesus rebuked them for being slow in heart to believe all the prophets had spoke. Sometimes God shows up like Joel Osteen and sometimes he shows up like Joel Stockstill. Neither are wrong. Both are needed, but both are manifestations of God.
- Systmatic Theology- In this passage the Bible says Jesus went through the whole Old Testament trying to dismantle their faulty thinking.
- Community – Jesus as the person who stays even though he is goign somewhere else. He makes it a priority
- Breaking of bread – Of coarse, tradition. Familiar things.
A lot of times the way we encounter the presence of Jesus is not the way others encounter it. I know some people who respect the Lord’s table and honor it, but others find it a time of more than respect but connection with God. The point is, God is much larger sometimes than our own personal revelation of him and often times we can miss God for so many different reasons. I pray that we open up ourselves to a God who is much bigger than our own paradigm.
WIN: Finding God in Expected Places
Going back to 1 Corinthians 14:25 where Paul defines the WIN for the Corinthian church, I find the next verse illuminating and exciting as well. It states:
- 1Cor. 14:26 Well, my brothers and sisters, let’s summarize what I am saying. When you meet, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in an unknown language, while another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must be useful to all and build them up in the Lord.
Im excited by this whole idea that with the special graces we all have on our life can be used together at any given gathering under the direction of the Holy Spirit to belife changing for people who are present. Here’s something that i find interesting that I learned by reading Gordon Fee’s commentary on 1 Corinthians. The spiritual gifts list Paul lays out in 1 Corinthians 12 was not meant to be a comprehensive list. Why do I say that? Because this verse in 1 Cor 14 could easily read today something like, when you come together one may have a gift to get people to participate in singing and praising, another may have a gift to get people to work together to make things understandable in a creative way, one may be able to put together a video illustration, etc, etc, but make sure they are useful to all. Each and every gift the Holy Spirit gives us can give us a revelation of God and connect us with his presence. I’ll share more on this tomorrow when I talk about Luke 24. Anyways, I recently came across this website called iamsecond.com. It gave me some great material for our upcoming series on “the power of the cross.” They had this interesting testimony by Jason Castro the American Idol runner up from last year. He talked about his revelation of God through a summer camp he attended. Check it out:
Win: Marked By the Presence of God
A couple of years ago I read a book called Finding God in Unexpected Places by Philip Yancey. In the introduction to this great book he made a statement that was very sobering to me. He said and I quote, “…for many people the church can be the least likely place to find God.” While I was reading the book for the purpose of learning how to see God more in my every day life, I was struck by the idea that someone could come to church looking for God and walk away not encountering him. Shouldn’t people be able to find God in expected places? Many say, “Of Coarse!”, but does it happen as often as we’d like. Recently I was at a meeting with a para-church organization. They had called different Sr. Pastors together to inform us of their ministry but also to get our input on how they could partner with us better. We approached the subject of how people were receiving Christ in this ministry and they were referring them to our churches. A few of the pastors began to tell of how difficult it was to transition these new believers into the church because they often could not relate at all to most of the worship service. These people who have already heard of Christ, accepted him, and now go to church show up only to be puzzled? Understand, I am not telling this story because I think Im better than these pastors or I think every person who comes to Mt. Zion walks away experiencing God, but because I fell that we should STRIVE to make sure they do experience him. The God who created us. The God who we were made to have relationship with. The God who loves us should be evident in our services. I want God to help me to do my best so that any person that comes to church can experience God. I Cor 14: That seekers who come to our worship experiences will walk away saying “God is really there among them!” That is the WIN! More tomorrow…
Win part 1
I hope everybody’s enjoying our new series on Win. Its been great talking about the direction of the church and I appreciate all the encouraging emails, notes, conversations, and cards I have received. Mt. Zion/Cornerstone, you are the best. This week we talked about the first “WIN”. We want people to encounter Jesus at our services. Look at this text:
- 1Cor. 14:25 …they will fall down on their knees and worship God, declaring, “God is really here among you.”
Paul defines the win for the Corinthian church and it is the same win we are looking for today- that seekers will be impacted and say “God is really here among you.” Sometimes we only have one shot at it and we want to make it count EVERY TIME! The thing that strikes me is the context before and after this verse clearly illustrate that in order for this to happen their has to be a cooperation between us AND God to allow this to take place. As a matter of fact, in 1 Corinthians 14 illustrates that well intentioned people unknowingly can actually work against the win. Paul says that seekers can walk away confused (1 Cor 14:9), Freaked out (1 Cor 14:23), and/or not impacted (1 Cor 14:16). Notice Paul never says that anything that is happening is not genuine, but in fact affirms the gifts (1 Cor 14:17). His call is more to make people remember the Win. He knows spiritual gifts are essential to the win happening but there has to be wisdom, common sense, and values alignment to let the win take place. Through the cooperation of the spiritual gifts God has given us in a healthy environment the possibilities of what can happen are captivating. Seekers can come to a church and run out declaring (great word by the way in the greek) “God is REALLY there amongst them”. More on this tomorrow, but I hope that is a “Win” that everyone can agree on. That the people that you know and I know who don’t know Jesus can come to our church and experience the reality of Christ!
Keurig: Im in Love!
My mother-in-law bought me this nifty little coffee machine for Christmas. I Love it!!! First off, its convenient. It requires little to know clean up with no waste. Every time I made a pot of coffee at home I would always have a lot of waste, now I have none. Second, It makes a perfect cup of coffee every time. The pods have the perfect grind for the perfect cup of coffee. Third, Keurig offers Coffee People coffee. Coffee People was my favorite coffee while I was in college. (Now, if they can only get a machine that offers the Black Tiger milk shakes i used to get I’ll be set and I promise God I wont ask for anything else as long as I live 
) Every morning I can have a a cup of Black Tiger which brings back memories of my coffee runs with friends in between classes. Im enjoying my Keurig so much, I thought I’d share my joy with all of you!
Bill Hybels…Need I say more?
I saw this before but somebody recently posted it on youtube.com All I can say is Bill is the man. What a great servant of the kingdom. I actually heard Bill for the first time at a conference at Dallas. I got rocked. It is one of the most significant experiences in my life. This clip is classic Hybels. Humble, wise, straight forward, articulate and from the heart. Enjoy!
