Archives For February 28, 2010

The Gravity of Sin

March 30, 2010 — Leave a comment

This week, I’m re-reading / listening to John Piper’s “Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die“.

This hit hard:

“Sin is dishonoring God by preferring other things over Him.  Sin is not small, because it is not against a small Sovereign.  The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the one insulted.  The Creator of the universe is infinitely worthy of respect and admiration and loyalty.  Therefore, failure to love Him is not trivial—it is treason.  Since God is just, He does not sweep these crimes under the rug of the universe.

‘[God] loved us and sent his Son to be the [wrath-absorbing] propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:10)'”

-John Piper

Final [and way overdue] post on Francis Chan’s book: Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit.  [I team taught through the book last quarter in Sunday School at church and decided to blog about the book.]

Posts from other chapters:

I’ll plan on giving a synopsis and review of the Forgotten God DVD Resource in a separate post.

Chapter Six: “Forget about God’s will for your life

I think one of the things that I appreciate about Chan’s books are his chapter titles.  Chapter six is a perfect example.  He takes one of the core things that Christians concern themselves with and turns it on it head (hopefully I’m not the only one here…) – that being our focus on knowing God’s will for our lives.

The big thought here is that we often miss, even ignore the Holy Spirit’s leading and prompting with our focus on knowing or figuring out God’s will for our lives.  Chan is not saying to totally ignore this – but the key is not to be so consumed that everything else (people, life, opportunities, etc.) take a back seat to our search, even quest for God’s will.

I don’t think we purposely do all this, but it can and does become a distraction.

Living out the chapter title is a huge step of faith and certainly involves depending upon the Spirit for courage – trusting that things, situations, people are placed in our lives for a purpose.

Continue Reading…

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

Psalm 139:13, 16

Every time I hear this song, I’m amazed, humbled, and filled with hope.

Beautiful Things
Michael & Lisa Gungor

All this pain
I wonder if I’ll ever find my way
I wonder if my life could really change at all
All this earth
Could all that is lost ever be found
Could a garden come up from this ground at all

You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us

All around
Hope is springing up from this old ground
Out of chaos life is being found in You

© worshiptogether.com songs

I think sometimes we wrongly think that the only people who make a difference or have “impact” for God are the “professionals.”  You know, the pastors, evangelists, worship leaders, authors, etc.

Sure, as Christ Followers we’d never say that out loud; but we think it and often act and even live like it.  We know the passages in the Bible that talk about every part [or person] of the “body” [or church] being important; but we often equate ourselves as the “pinky toe” – you know…necessary, but usually not seen (except in season).

I read a verse today that reminded me that, in addition to the “professionals”, it’s regular folk that make a difference or have “impact” for God – in some cases even greater than the pros.

Erastus, who is the city’s director of public works, and our brother Quartus send you their greetings.

Romans 16:23

Here, at the end of his letter to the churches in Rome, Paul mentions a bunch of specific people to greet and also lists people who send their greetings.  For whatever reason, Erastus’ job is listed instead of simply calling him a fellow worker, friend, or brother.

Honestly, when I first read this, I thought Eratsus was the sewer coordinator for Corinth; but a check of the Greek shows that he was the city treasurer.  At any rate, dude was not a church “professional” as we usually categorize people.

Anyway, Erastus’ job title just struck me and reminded me that we all are important and contributing parts of the body of Christ.

REMEMBER: It’s not just for the “Professionals”

– Dennis…just a regular, old, security [φύλακα] dude.