Entries categorized as ‘Scripture’
This past Sunday, Pastor Matt pointed out that at the “Last Supper”, Jesus knew that he was only hours from death. He knew he was going to die. Yet what did he choose to do? He chose to serve.
The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. John 13:2-5
To paraphrase Pastor Matt, he didn’t throw a party or do something reckless like “find a ’suped up’ donkey and see how fast he could get it to go.” He chose to set an example for his disciples and others by living a consistent life self-sacrifice and service to others.
What a powerful life lesson. Hopefully, none of us have just a few hours to live, but many, many years. But we still have a choice. How are we going to live? For ourselves? For others? For God? As a servant?
If you haven’t yet learned the life lesson that “It’s not about you”, I hope you’ll learn it today. As Jesus is credited with saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). Give your life away today. Give it to God. Don’t take it back. You’ll never regret living for Him.
Also, don’t forget to check out Pastor Matt’s new blog!
Categories: Fun · Making Sense of Faith · Scripture · Sermons
My Connection Group, which meets on Wednesday evenings, just finished doing a study on the book of Colossians. In chapter 4, the author, Paul, challenges us to “Devote yourselves to prayer.” It got me thinking about my own prayer life. How “devoted” am I? Which made me think, “What things in life do I know that I am devoted to?” 
Once I made that list, I could then compare how I pray to these and assess my level of devotion. So, what am I devoted to? The quick list is easy to form: my wife, my kids, my job. And then there are the other obvious things that we all do with devotion – hygiene, eating, sleeping. And from there are the other individualized things we devote ourselves to. For me it would be things like softball games, watching “The Biggest Loser” when it’s in season, etc. Essentially, our devotion is measured by our loyalty. The things we do consistently are the things we are devoted to.
So where does that leave me (us) and prayer? If most of us are honest, we would rate our “prayer life” very low on a scale of 1 – 10. There isn’t much consistency. In fact, prayer is a foreign concept we understand little of and see very little benefit from. When we think of prayer we usually think of memorized prayers or phrases we’ve been trained to say, and we see little value in using thing.
So where does that leave us? It would seem that devotion to prayer would be highly unlikely. Does this have to be the case? I don’t think so. Prayer is much less complex than we tend to make it out to be, and is not so much about memorized formulas as it is about learning to simply talk with a God who is more than ready to listen and respond.
This Sunday at The Bridge, Pastor Tim is going to lead us into the Living Room of our hearts where we learn the simplicity of prayer. I hope you will come with an open heart to what God wants to reveal to you about how you can learn to make prayer as natural as breathing and an added area of devotion in your life.
Categories: Church in General · Making Sense of Faith · Prayer · Scripture · Sermons
I am constantly recommending to people the Bible commentary called “The Bible Knowledge Commentary.” Well, it’s on sale at www.christianbook.com. Click here to go directly to the special. You may have to sign up in order to get the best price, but it is going for $32.99 right now (normally $90). Great deal. Don’t miss.
Categories: Books · Making Sense of Faith · Scripture
Thanks to the many gracious women (and men) who submitted pictures of their laundry rooms and were unwittingly entered in to the “Cleaniest or Dirtiest Laundry Room” contest at church on Sunday. Congrats to Debbie G. for having the cleanest laundry room and to Kristen S. for being the gracious winner of having the “dirtiest” laundry room! (See pics below!) 
All of the pictures helped us to introduce the idea that we all have some stains in our lives. For good or bad, we have been “stained” by our family of origen and that is reflected in our adulthood. The Bible says, “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6). In other words, whatever “training” we received in our childhood shows up in our adult years. And, if we don’t make some changes to eliminate the stains, our children are doomed to repeat the same cycle we are in as we pass the stains along to them. It’s time to break the “stain cycle.”
If you missed Sunday’s message on removing family stains, be sure to listen to the podcast of the message by clicking here. And don’t miss this coming Sunday as we continue to exam our “Desperate House Lives” and uncover the scandel that is rocking many homes led by kid CEO’s!
Debbie's Fancy Blue Machines!
Our "dirtiest" laundry room winner!
Categories: Family · Fun · Scripture · Sermons
This coming Sunday (Easter), our church is kicking off a new series of messages called, “Desperate House Lives.” Yes, it’s an obvious play off of the television show “Desperate House Wives.” But here’s the point - our lives as 
individuals or families can reach the point of desperation. The dreams we had envisioned for our relationships or families have taken a turn for the worse. What happened? You happened, that’s what! We are all a product of our upbringing. For good, or for bad, we were all “stained” by the environment in which we were raised. And whether we like it or not, these stains show through in our lives and relationships today. Is there hope? Can we change? Absolutely. Join us @ The Bridge over the next six weeks as we seek God’s wisdom in doing a little “house cleaning” and “stain removal.” Here’s how will spend the six weeks:
- Week 1 – Dirty Laundry
- Week 2 – Kid CEO
- Week 3 – Dynamic Communicators
- Week 4 – The Bedroom
- Week 5 – The Reality of Marriage (and how to turn it in to a Dream Marriage)
- Week 6 – The Power of the Vow
Make an investment in yourself and your family (or future family) by being a part of this series. Click here for directions to our church. We meet at the Kid’s R Kid’s preschool in Morrisville at 10:30am every Sunday.
Categories: Church in General · Family · Fun · Making Sense of Faith · Odd · Scripture · Sermons
We just finished up a sermon series at church called “In The Zone.” The series was primarily about money and possessions and how to use them in such a way as to honor God. One of the coolest things I learned in preperation for the series was how God wants to open the “floodgates” of blessings on our lives if we will honor him with the way we manage our possessions. God says in Malachi 3:10:
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.
Interestingly, this word, “floodgates” is only used a few times in the Bible. The first time it was used was in the context of God’s judgment on the world through the flood in the time of Noah:
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. Genesis 7:11
In the same way that God opened the floodgates to pour out all the water for the flood, he wants to open the floodgates of blessing on our lives if we will honor him with our possessions/finances. What a promise. In these difficult economic times, we have all the more reason to put our trust in the promises of God with our financial lives.
Categories: Church in General · Making Sense of Faith · Scripture · Sermons
The devotional reading this morning from the “Indeed” devotional magazine referenced the scripture Isaiah 43:1-7. What amazingly encouraging words that God gave to his people Israel, which I believe hold true for God’s church today: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. “ God wants his people to know that because we are His, we have no need to fear. Never mind the storms of life – raging, rising waters; a trial of fire – He will be with us. We will not be overcome. We will not get burned. We are His. What amazing confidence we can have for our present and our future as we learn to believe, accept and trust in the promises of God. Below is the rest of Isaiah 43:1-7. I would encourage you to read it and then pick up your Bible and read the next 2-3 chapters of Isaiah as well. And pick up an “Indeed” devotional at church on Sunday!
1 But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel:
“ Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are Mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you.
3 For I am the LORD your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
I gave Egypt for your ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
4 Since you were precious in My sight,
You have been honored,
And I have loved you;
Therefore I will give men for you,
And people for your life.
5 Fear not, for I am with you;
I will bring your descendants from the east,
And gather you from the west;
6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’
And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’
Bring My sons from afar,
And My daughters from the ends of the earth—
7 Everyone who is called by My name,
Whom I have created for My glory;
I have formed him, yes, I have made him.”
Categories: Making Sense of Faith · Scripture
We’ve been studying the Bible book of 2nd Peter in my “connection group” so far in 2009. A lot of the content has been about truth and error, discerning truth, avoiding false teachers, how do we know the Bible is true, etc. As a result, I’ve been able to recommend to the group a few websites that they may find helpful in answering tough questions. A couple of them are already listed in the links on this blog as “Answers to Tough Questions.” Also, add to your list www.probe.org and check out www.Peterkreeft.com as well.
On a slightly different note, I’ve noticed a lot of people using the New Living Translation (NLT) of the Bible lately. I was curious as to its origin and how accurate and what type of translation it is/was. Sometimes I’ve found it helpful, and other times I’ve found it to be a little inaccurate compared to what I see other translations saying. Also, there are two version of it already, with fairly substantial differences in many verses, which is frustrating.
Anyway…you can learn more about the NLT at www.newlivingtranslation.com and I particularly like their little chart on the differences in translations at this link.
Categories: Books · Connection Group · Making Sense of Faith · Scripture
So I’m reading TIME magazine the other day, thanks to a generous friend who has paid for my subscription, and I come across an ad for the “Green Bible.” Most of us know about the “red letter” editions, where the words of Jesus appear in red ink while everything else is in black text. But The Green Bible is for the nature lover and environmentalist where the over 1,000 verses in the Bible that relate to nature are all printed in a “pleasant shade of forest green.”
The idea behind this new edition is that “creation care”–the Christian catchphrase for nature conservancy–”is at the very core of our Christian walk.” I’m not so sure that I agree with this “core” value put forth in the introduction to the Green Bible by Evangelical eco-activist J. Matthew Sleeth, but I’ll withhold judgment until I get a chance to pick up one for myself.
Categories: Books · Church in General · Fun · Helping Others · Making Sense of Faith · Scripture
September 2, 2008 · 1 Comment
Due to an insane amount of trouble with our internet access over the last week, very little blogging or web surfing or emailing has occured. My apologies.
Anyway…I’m reading in the Old Testament these days – no specific reason, just landed there in the “minor prophets” and started reading. I read Zephaniah 3:17 this morning and was reminded of an old song we use to sing in my college fellowship and what a great verse this is:
The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.”
It’s hard for me to imagine a God who rejoices with singing over his people. He delights in us like we delight over our kids.
Categories: Church in General · Making Sense of Faith · Scripture
