Tag: God

Bible

Reflections on Ezekiel 47:12

Chris

I had the privilege of preaching again on Sunday, January 25th. I had actually written the sermon for a service back in February of last year, but at the last minute decided that it wasn’t right for the audience or the setting. Instead, it became the jump off point for my latest book project.

As our pastoral staff prepared for the coming of 2009, our lead pastor was searching for a theme for the year. In October we relaunched our home groups program by team-preaching on three of the tribes of Israel. One of those sermons was about Joseph, and the topic of the message was Fruitfulness. Out of that message came three words: fruitfulness, increase, addition. From those words came our theme for 2009: Fruitfulness: Living lives of increase and addition. With the lead pastor ready to launch the theme, I found the opening I needed to preach a sermon entitled, “The Useless Tree.”

Now, I’m not going to tell you a lot about that message because you can listen to it if you’d like. Instead I’d like to share some extra thoughts that came out of a time of prayer this past Sunday night. We have started a four-week emphasis on prayer on Sunday nights, and I quickly found myself jumping into a routine that I enjoyed in a previous church. Out of that time of prayer came the following reflections on Ezekiel 47:12.

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Ministry

Worship at Christmastime

Chris

We have crossed into December, and the countdown to Christmas is officially underway in our house. Our tree was standing for over a week without ornaments until last night. It’s a prelit tree, but it looked a little odd with the middle section blacked out for several nights in a row. That’s one of the issues you run into when you have a lot of ornaments that plug in. Last night we finally added the ornaments.

My wife has found time to add little things all around the house. She bought some new LED candlelights online for each of the windows. Some faux brick cardboard lines the walls of a sitting room, trimmed neatly with puffy white “snow” and all of our stockings. And we hung some paper snowflakes from the kitchen ceiling.

This Sunday, though, I get to do something I rarely have the opportunity to anymore: lead worship. It probably seems silly that a guy who wrote a book on worship suddenly finds himself out of the role. But part of the role I do fill now, as assistant pastor, requires filling in where other needs are, since we have a number of worship leaders in the church.

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Christian Living

How do you know, that you know, that you know?

Chris

In a small group meeting this weekend, I talked about the Theory of the Heart, and I mentioned how one aspect of including our heart in worship is to love God. One of our discussion questions asked how we can fall more in love with God. The answers were your typical Bible study answers: pray, read your Bible more, talk to God, worship. And I heard one member of the group comment, “Man, I wish someone would just give a straight answer.”

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Christian Living

Victory or Peace?

Chris

It’s been almost two weeks since the passing of my father-in-law, but some of the lessons I’ve learned in the past month stand at the forefront of my thoughts and conversations.

I mentioned previously that he was convinced he was under the attack of Satan, and therefore needed deliverance and victory.  Since he slept little in his last months, he would often stay up most of the night watching Christian television.  He called in and signed up for information from an evangelist who promised healing and prosperity and spiritual victory, as long as we sent X-amount of dollars each time we received a mailing.  Books on divine healing would come in and he would read them, he would try the miracle spring water and the Dead Sea salt because he was so desperate for deliverance.

For those of you who might not have guessed from that last paragraph, I am a Spirit-filled believer and minister who believes in what God has provided us through the death of His Son (for example, read Isaiah 53 and 61).  But at a certain point in the dark valleys of life, we need to grapple with whether God wants us to trust in Him for victory, or for peace.

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Bible

Eternal Roles 1

Chris

I’ve been away from writing for a while, so let’s jump into the Eternity series.  Our last post on this topic was aimed at explaining that we are being prepared now for the tasks that will be given to us at the end of time and in eternity.  I quoted from a book called, Destined for the Throne, and if you haven’t read this book, I would suggest you do.  If nothing else, it will get you thinking about concepts that you cannot turn a blind eye to; you must take the time to study, discuss and consider what is delivered in this book.

The Book of Revelation gives a pretty startling picture of Heaven, the troubles that await the end of time here in Creation, and a glimpse into eternity.  With just a quick glance through the pages of Revelation, I’ve found four roles that we can consider ourselves being prepared for in our currently daily lives that we will only later fulfill.  Let’s take a look at them.

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