Smorgasbord

Prayer Challenge 1:9-11

Last night at our ISCA Bible study we studied the first part of Philippians Chapter 1. After we read verses 1:9-11, Paul’s prayer for the Philippians, one of our members said “I’d like to have this prayer said for me!”. Here is that prayer:

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. – Philippians 1:9-11 (NIV)

One question we asked was what would happen if we all prayed this prayer for our fellowships and friends every day? What would be the impact on the world? On us? We all agreed that it would be amazing. Amazing!

So here is the challenge we agreed on: Every day this summer we are going to pray this very prayer for each other. It’s very simple. Say the prayer inserting your friends name in the prayer for all the “you and yours”.

Will you join us in this challenge?

What do you think will happen?

Heroes All

Heroes All.

‘There are heroes around us all the time” – Barack Obama in Joplin

Today is memorial day, a day to remember the soldiers who have given their lives for this country. Barack Obama’s quote above reminded me of a song from the TV show Cop Rock. I think I might be the only person in America that liked this show. This 1990 show last only 11 shows but I think it did a great job using music to illustrate important issues.

In one episode one of the characters receives an award for being a hero and then the cast breaks out into a song about heroes. The main line from the song is “If one of us is a Hero, then we’re heroes all.”

It’s a good point. Thank you all of you heroes.

Watch the song here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyM3qhWFuKs

Rejoicing at Death

“Will not rejoice at the death of an unrepentant sinner.”

This was posted by a Christian Friend on Facebook today. I think it’s something every Christian should think about.

If you believe in a real and permanent Hell as a place of eternal punishment, there is nothing to rejoice. The dead are facing torment forever and a living human who has been killed will have no more chances at repenting. I can’t imagine someone rejoicing another person being tormented forever. Our response should be more like Jesus in Luke 19:41-42.

If you believe in Annihilation, the belief that after death our soul is judged and then just ceases to exist. I guess you could rejoice that “the bad man is gone”, but still there should be sadness that this person never got to enjoy the eternal relationship with Jesus that Jesus desired for him.

If you believe in universalism, the belief that all people go to heaven, then you have nothing to rejoice in either – Osama made it there before you and he’ll be waiting for you when you die. (Unless you believe that God can’t judge people (and therefore universalism) but you can if people are really bad! In otherwords, universalism unless you really don’t like the person).

A day will come when God will judge the world (see Matthew 25:31-46 for just one example). On that day those who know and are known by Jesus will rejoice. Until then let’s pray like Paul told us to in 1 Timothy 2:1-6.

Some other verses to consider:

Ezekiel 18:21-23

Proverbs 24:17

Morning Prayer: Almighty God we greet You.

Check out this song. It's such a great way to begin the day:

Ultimate Reality, we greet You

In you the whole Universe is held together

Your life fills every nucleus that has ever been created

You dwell in our flesh and bones

Your Great Liberation is to bring us into loving oneness with you,

so full, that we can no longer feel any separation between us

We greet you, O Supreme One, all pervading, and eternal

The song is in Hindi. I love how the songs starts out slow and mysterious and builds up into a full throated praise of Almighty God. I pray I can begin every day becoming this aware of God. It reminds me of Psalm 5, especially verse 3. When I first become a follower of Jesus I began each day reading and singing Psalm 5. Greeting God and His "amazingness", what a way to begin the day.

Watch the video and greet God this morning (Make sure you check out the comments from the video maker about the images in the video):

Aradhna: Namaste Sate'

If you like the music make sure you let me know, I'd like to bring the band to town soon.

Morning Prayer: Almighty God we greet You.

Check out this song. It's such a great way to begin the day:

Ultimate Reality, we greet You
In you the whole Universe is held together
Your life fills every nucleus that has ever been created
You dwell in our flesh and bones
Your Great Liberation is to bring us into loving oneness with you,
so full, that we can no longer feel any separation between us
We greet you, O Supreme One, all pervading, and eternal

Watch the video and greet God this morning (Make sure you check out the comments from the video maker about the images in the video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4IsuYFQazA

If you like the music make sure you let me know, I'd like to bring the band to town soon.

Please Encourage Someone Today!

There is great power in the ministry of Encouragement! Today I opened up Facebook and saw I had a friend request, from a person whose name I didn’t recognize. Here’s the message.

"Kevin!!! I saw your comment on T's note and couldn't wait to contact you! You probably don't remember me but my wife and I were new students at BC the last semester that you were there. I sat in on one of the IV Bible studies that you were teaching and fell in love with the Inductive Bible Study! Thank you so much for your service to the Lord back in those days. Those early lessons laid the foundation for the study methods I use today as I prepare my sermons each week. I don't know where the Lord has lead you in the time since you left BC but I just wanted to thank you for serving Him. Blessings Brother! P.S. If you feel like sending a fresh batch of Chocolate Chip Cookies our way I would be more than happy to provide my mailing address!!!!!"

He’s right, I didn’t remember him very well but I looked up his pictures on Facebook and I remembered him. I did lead a ministry at BC for many years and did love teaching students the Inductive Bible study method (and still do!). And look, he not only learned the things I taught but he uses in to prepare sermons each week. For a person in ministry it is so encouraging to be encouraged. It is so encouraging to be told of the fruit of our ministry. This person and I only knew each other for a short time and our time together led to continued growth in the Lord and he is teaching others also. It’s also cool to think that the people who taught me Inductive Bible Study have a part in this heritage too (Thanks Pat Bultema, Chris Nichols, Barbara Boyd, and Paul Byers!)

The Apostle Paul lists encouragement as one of the gifts from God in Romans 12:8 and says if this is your gift the use it – encourage people. In his final words to the church in Corinth Paul says to “Encourage one another” (2 Corinthians 13.11). One of my favorite passages about encouragement comes in Hebrews 10:24-25:

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

The point of these passages is that for some it’s a spiritual gift to encourage people and those who have that gift need to fan it into flame (see 2 Timothy 1.6) and use it. But for the rest of us we are commanded to encourage each other too. Encouragement is a ministry!

So the student mentioned above encouraged me today – out of the blue. I wasn’t expecting it. But it sure made my day. It’s nice to know I made a difference in somebody’s life. My response to his email was to think of someone that has made a difference in my life and send them a note today. I encourage all of you to do the same.

Participate in the ministry of encouragement today.

Blind Boys of Alabama - Wow

For Christmas my wife bought me tickets to the Blind Boys of Alabama concert at the Walton Arts Center. The concert was this week and all this week we’ve had snow and ice and we wondered if it would happen. But last night we ventured out in the ice (the streets really weren’t that bad) and went to the concert. All I can say is wow – what a wonderful and powerful night of worship!

The night started out great when our good friends John and Jane Ray ran into us as we were entering in. It turns out we both had seats in “row P” so we sat down together. It got better when the staff there told us the place wasn’t full due to weather and we could move down if we wanted. And boy did we move down! 3^rd row from the stage! What a view! When singer Jimmy Carter came down into the audience we could reach out and touch him. When the singers urged us to clap our hands if felt like we were sitting right with the band members worshiping together.

If you don’t know the Blind Boys of Alabama you need to check them out. They started out in 1939 at a school for the blind in Alabama. Some of the members have changed over the years but for all these years these men have been singing incredible Gospel music that will make anyone sing out Hallelujah!

A new song for me was "Perfect Peace" (you can here it at their website www.blindboys.com). A great message. I wanted the song to keep going because it’s a message we need so bad in our world. It also fits Fellowships philosophy of Community Groups. Very cool.

They sang their unique and trademark version of "Amazing Grace" that had the audience standing and praising God’s grace.

Another highlight for was when they sang “Spirit in the Sky”. I’ve always felt this song had great overdriven guitars but the singing lack soul to match the guitars. The Blind Boys put that soul in the song! I’ve been humming this song ever since.

Bottom line – we all had a great night of worship in the Walton Arts Center. Thank you Blind Boys!

And thank you Cynthia for such a great Christmas gift!