Mass Exodus

Well, for some reason I got really convicted by Francis Chan's sermon a week or two ago and as a result I have been led to read the book of Exodus.

The whole new testament is about Jesus and his teachings and the creation of the church, but the old testament is a narrative about God appearing for the first time, and making the Hebrews his chosen people.

I am looking forward to learning more about God and his moving in the days of Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Caleb, and the 4 million Hebrews that left Egypt and wandered in the desert for 40 years.

Hard though to put away my mental picture of this guy.....

Learning about Site Specific Browsers

Had some fun tonight creating Site Specific Browsers for the ol MBPro.

Thanks to Fluidapp.com, it is painfully easy, and creating dock icons is quite fun.

Here's a screen grab.

Go to Fluidapp.com, download the easy software. Determine which sites you go to most, plug them in and enjoy a single browser view.

Here's what it looks like in action.

Had a great time in Baltimore last weekend. Got to see the Bengals and Ravens with my good friend Tom. Such beautiful weather, and great times with good people. While I always hate missing church, I was so glad to be able to spend time with my friends. Everytime I get to be in the company of those who I love and respect, I feel a little taste of heaven on earth. The fact the Bengals got a win was a slice of heaven too. I am truly blessed.

Upon This Rock (Literally) I Will Build My Church

Peters House in Capernaum from Mars Hill Church on Vimeo.

Great stuff coming from MarsHill lately. Pastor Mark Driscoll is in the holy land this month, and some of his videos are up. Great stuff, he is so knowledgeable, I would love to take a tour there with him.

Pursuit of Holiness

Know Free Grace, and its power in your life...............AND SIN NO MORE

Holiness is something I think we tend to ignore. I know to my own fault I don't nearly fight enough to stop sinning. I don't know how I became so ho-hum about this, probably my sin nature. However, we see that Jesus after healing he warns us that if we neglect the holiness we are called to we will perish forever.

Jesus himself, saying that if we make light of the gift, we will perish.

It is my hope that this week I can take a small step in pursuing holiness with a pure and just passion. It needs to be something that I crave, something that is meditated upon. The power of the holy spirit is so great, I know it can move me to personal holiness and it can use my example to bring those seeds I have planted around me to harvest.

The 7 Day Challenge

from jdgreear.com by Pastor J.D.

In case you mentioned, or need clarification... the challenge for the Summit Church is for the next 7 days to say everything positive that comes into your mind about someone else (or jot a note to them).

This challenge is built on two assumptions:

• God's words are not just true words, they are life-giving words (Prov 4:22; 10:11). God calls things not just as they are, but as they could be, as He wants them to be, and as He can make them to be. He did not merely say, "Abraham is sterile," He said, "You will father a great nation." He did not merely say "Lazarus is dead," He said "Lazarus come forth." God "calls into existence the things that do not yet exist." (Romans 4:17). So, we also must not only speak true words, we must life-giving, power-filling, en-couraging words. Otherwise, we might, like the 10 spies, speak words that are true but are still considered evil because they are not done with respect to what God wants to do in a situation (Numbers 13:32).
  

• The spiritual gift of encouragement is one of the most valuable, and most overlooked, of all the spiritual gifts. We tend to assume the strengths in people's lives and notice/point out the weakness. I believe we should reverse that. We should assume the weaknesses, and notice/point out the strengths. One of our primary roles as the body of Christ is to see God’s the traces of God’s work in someone’s life, no matter how faint, and fan that into flame. Jesus spoke words of life and hope, not words of condemnation. Jesus held a crown above our heads and urged us to grow our way into it. We should do the same (John 1:17; 7:46).
  

So, there it is... it's out there. Give it a try. 7 days... everything positive you think about someone, say it. If you do it, I can pretty much guarantee you it will change your relationships. Let me know how it goes!

If you missed the message, it is here.

Do Something Today, So You Can Laugh At It Later

Listening to an old Francis Chan sermon and he says something like this,

"Do you realize that our bonds on earth will last far longer than you can imagine? 100 years from now, 1000 years from now we will be together in heaven, as children of God. It's gonna be like, 100 years from now, Me and Ben will be in heaven, and I will say, remember that time at Cornerstone when we thought about us talking to each other in heaven 100 years from now? That was in like 2005, and here we are in 2105 and its happening?"

Francis goes on to say something that is kind of convicting for me, he says,

"We don't think about Heaven enough."

Honestly, heaven to me isn't something I think about much and in some ways that is good, and other ways that is bad.

How is it good? Well, I guess it shows that my faith isn't motivated by me wanting to simply share in eternal life and wanting to avoid the fire.

The bad? Well let's see, I don't think of the eternal fate of my friends enough, so I don't have urgency in trying to urge them to accept Christ. I don't think about how my actions on earth echo in heaven, and how my constant failures must be acknowledged before my maker and mighty king. Oh this list could go on forever.

I guess what I am trying to say is, I really want to think about heaven more.

I wish I had this overwhelming fire in my loins that kept me forging always ahead to expand the kingdom of God. I want so much to be a soul winner, and to be someone who helps others find Christ, but without a heavenly disposition it feels ill fated. I wish that the idea of FOREVER really resonated within me and that I could grasp the greatness of the fact that after my life on earth is done, my eternity will be spent praising Jesus. Grasping the greatness of heaven is something I wish I could do. I wish I could get you to do it too.

In the mean time, listen to this song, and download it on itunes when you get a chance. It is the new Steve Fee song, Glory to God Forever.

Try to think about the Forever part of it.