Starting Wednesday March 24th, we will be studying and discussing the book “How People Change” by Timothy Lane and Paul Tripp on during Bootcamp. ”How People Change” delves into the truth of the gospel and applies it to the messiness of living in a fallen world .With this curriculum you come face to face with your own heart, examine the fruit of your life in Christ and grow in love for others. You will be challenged – and moved – by the shocking hope that the gospel can change anyone!

Topics include:

• united to Christ
• change is a community project
• life as God sees it
• change as God does it
• heat in the real world
• thorns that entangle us
• the Cross gives new identity and potential
• bearing fresh fruit through real heart change

Supper is at 6:15 and the study starts at 7. Please RSVP if you plan on attending supper. The cost of the workbooks are $20 each.

For 6 weeks, Jason will be training Christians and even skeptics on how to make sense of the Bible. Many of you get frustrated trying to study the Bible because you are just not sure what to make of it all. Our intention in this study will be to help you learn simple principles that have helped literally millions of people to understand the Bible.

Remember, this is a six week, every wednesday event, skipping only the Wednesday of the week of thanksgiving. Our meetings will start with a meal, and then we will get to it. Invite anyone you want and lets learn together. Come check us out!

This verse has always scared me:

1 Corinthians 6:9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10) nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Why? I am guilty of about half the things on that list! I am a sinner! I still sin. It is my nature. I love Christ and he paid my debt to sin by his death, but that does not make me sinless! Thankfully, the point of this verse is not that if you did any of the above, God is done with you, the point is that you cannot be saved and make a lifestyle of these sins. We are all guilty of these sins, and many others, and we will not see heaven, except we turn from them.

And this is what the new creature is all about.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old has passed away; behold the new has come.

If we are saved, we are and are becoming, new creatures in Christ. Our love for Christ in true salvation replaces our desire to commit sin. As we grow in grace, these habits and desires to sin fall away, God’s work in our lives produces new desires, out of one big desire to do what pleases Him. The focus of our life changes from doing what we want to please ourselves into doing what God wants to please Him who has done so much for us.

You can’t fake this or achieve it by trying hard. Either your heart has been changed by Jesus and you are empowered to fight the sin in your life by the Holy Spirit, or you are not. Either the old you has passed away, or it has not.  So examine your life often. Are the desires you had being replaced with new ones? Is there evidence of the Lord’s work in your life? Write them down, pray over them, thank God for the work He has done in you. Pray for more.

We are assured that if we are in Christ, we are new creatures.  Let the old creature pass away. Know who you are in Christ.

What comes to your mind when you think of the glory of God? His great works? His excellencies and perfections? His revelation of Himself in Jesus Christ? Certainly, God’s glory is displayed in these ways. But that is not all that the Bible means when it speaks of the glory of God.

The Old Testament word for “glory” comes from the Hebrew word for weight, or heaviness. The idea behind it suggests substance and importance. For example, when Joseph finally revealed himself to his brothers in Egypt, he instructed them, “So you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen; and you shall hurry and bring my father down here.” In other words, he wanted his greatness, his privileged position and exalted status and power, to be reported to Jacob.

In the New Testament, the word “glory” conveys the same idea. A man’s glory is his good reputation. It is that about him which is praiseworthy. Jesus uses the word this way in Matthew 6:2, “Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.” These people made a production of their giving so that the greatness of their generosity would be observed by many people.

So when the Bible speaks of the glory of God it is referring to His worth and honor and greatness. Or, when this word is used of God, we could say that His majesty or supremacy is in view.

All of creation has as its goal and purpose the glory of God. He created everything for His own glory. Everything that exists has its existence from God and for God. Romans 11:36 says, “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.”

John Calvin was correct when he said that creation is the theater of God’s glory. Because this is true, we exist for the glory of God. And just as the inanimate creation has been called to glorify God, so have we. The inanimate creation and the lower animate creatures, bring glory to God simply by being what God created them to be. As Psalm 19:1 teaches, by virtue of their mere existence the heavens declare the glory of God.

But how do we who are His image-bearers glorify Him? Do we fulfill our responsibility to glorify God simply by staying alive? No. People are called to glorify God actively and intentionally.

What is involved in this? What does it mean for us to glorify God? In what activities can we engage to glorify God? Bring this question up to your Life Groups next week. “What kinds of things can we do to glorify God?”

Materialism is just one facet of the root sin of idolatry. But make no mistake, there other forms that idolatry can take and these forms can make you a slave in much more subtle ways. Materialism is one of those things, along with the pursuit of power, that can be easily demonized by most of the upstanding citizens of Western civilization. But how does Western culture view self-worship? The fact is that our society speaks very little of submitting to the commands of God above our own. Jesus said: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). He did not say “God helps those who help themselves.” That was Ben Franklin.

We were created to show the glory of the omnipotent Creator.  This is our purpose in life, this is to be our goal. What is your top priority throughout the week? At the beginning of each day? Is it to glorify God? There are a number of ways we’ve been told by Scripture that we can accomplish this. In order to show His glory, you have to know how. Pick up your Bible and read!

If you are not continually seeking the Father and His will, ask yourself where your love lies. Ask yourself whom you are seeking to obey.

2 Timothy 3:2-5
For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.  Avoid such people.

Paul starts this list off with what I believe is at the core of all idolatry. When people love themselves above all else, they prize their own will and desires above all else. That will manifest itself as simple, greedy materialism or as prideful self-edification or as seemingly honorable devotion to one’s spouse/family above all else (including God) or as a thousand other things. When we decide that what we want is more important than what God wants, we create idols. To God, this is no different than molding gold into the shape of a cow or carving a statue from wood and bowing before it in worship.

To worship is to ascribe worth; to declare something as valuable and deserving of attention. Are we, as individuals, more deserving of attention than the One who designed and constructed the entire universe? The Triune God who set the stars in motion is also the one who devised the atomic makeup of hops and barley. He is also the Author and Composer of the songs of every bird. He designed your fingerprints long before your ancestors were twinkles in their parents’ eyes.

Colossians 1:17
And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

He alone is worthy of glory, honor, and worship.

Are you a Christian?  Do you believe in the person and work of Jesus the Messiah? Do you see that He is the Creator who loved His creation enough to become like it so that He could restore our relationship with Him, which we broke and have no power to fix? If so, prove it.

James 2:18
…Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?-unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Matt 6:21  ”Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”

Ok. So this past Sunday I delivered a message that by all accounts was a pretty hard message. If it makes you feel any better, I really don’t enjoy delivering those type messages but I did it because I passionately believed it was a message we needed to hear. The message was borne out of lessons God has taught me in a real and painful way over the last year and the rampant materialism that is so evident in our American culture.

Materialistic idols are bad and they keep us from pursuing the deep riches of a committed life to Christ. My desire is to proclaim truth so that people can experience a life full of worship and devotion to our King.

The thing that concerns me most about yesterday’s sermon is that some people didn’t connect with what I was saying. While I did rant about our materialistic idols, I did not say that it is wrong to have things. I don’t believe that it is wrong to have cars, or houses, or paintball guns, or name brand clothes, or shoes, or X-boxes. I do believe it is wrong when those things are more important in a persons life, than Christ. We determine what our priorities are through simple diagnostic tests. How do you spend your time, your money, your energy, and your attention? How you answer these questions will show you alot about what you consider to be of primary worth. Sometimes our pursuit of things moves into a sphere they do not belong.  When they do, they have become more than a possession, they have become an idol.

The Bible is clear about how we know when we have made something an idol in our life. When you push God’s clear commands aside so that you can spend time, energy, money, attention, etc. on material things, then they have become idols. When you elevate something in your life to a position higher than God, then it has become an idol. There is simply no rebuttal for this. It is clear biblical truth.

I talked alot about money yesterday. It is our greatest indicator of what our gods truly are because how we spend our money often shows where our heart truly is. This is the wisdom of none other than Jesus. You can try to do mental gymnastics and say that God really doesn’t care about your money, but you will be very wrong. The Bible has a great deal to say about money, and how you spend it. James says that the love of it is the root of all sorts of evil. God specifically tells us to give a tenth of our income back to Him because this will be a primary indicator of where our treasure is. If we willingly surrender a tenth to our provider, then He is shown to be our treasure, at least as far as our money shows it.

The story of Jesus’ discourse with the rich young ruler is of primary importance in a discussion like this. This man came to Jesus and asked Him how he could get into heaven. Jesus at first gave him commandments. The man felt his confidence rising as he said, “I have kept all of these since my youth”. In other words, this was a man who had lived up to the established religious standards of the day. Jesus pressed further though because He knew this young man’s heart and knew who is god was. So Jesus told him to sell his possessions and follow him and he would have eternal life. The Bible says that the man “went away grieved because he had many possessions”. Jesus knew that his materialism was idolatrous. The question on the table was how one attains eternal life, yet this man was unwilling to trade his stuff for eternal life. This is staggering. This is how strong the idols were in his life.

If you are angry or convicted about this sermon remember that the trade-off is costly. We don’t know if the rich young ruler repented, but if he didn’t, his idolatry cost him his eternal life. If you are genuinely struggling with wanting to be obedient, but still feeling the pull of these altars in your life, you are not alone. It requires a daily surrender and a life commitment, but you can do it.

I pray that God will work in your heart and reveal to you His wisdom.

The beautiful lady pictured above at a ladies tea is my mother. I told her that I would always remember her that way, as a beautiful lady. Growing up the youngest of seven children, I was spoiled to have a couple of years when my older siblings were in school in which I had her at home all to myself. I watched her every move with great interest. I thought she was the smartest, sweetest and strongest woman on the face of the earth. My mother always had a smile for me although she could very easily have been a bitter woman.

My mother has lived a hard and difficult life.

She was raised in extreme poverty, by her mother and a cruel stepfather. She married right out of high school to my father. She experienced years of physical abuse at his hands. She always made sure that we were out of harm’s way and tried to hide it from us so we would love him, but we always knew what was going on. Though she experienced pure hell at times, she never raised her voice and never fought back.

She lost three close family members, including a brother, to the war in Vietnam. She had a baby who only lived for 24 short hours. She lost her mother to cancer. Shortly thereafter, one of her sons was killed in an accident. Her home burned down right before her eyes.

My mother knows pain and suffering, yet she has a strength that is beyond understanding. God is the source of that strength. His grace and mercy is the reason she has such a beautiful heart.

My mother has taught me many things, not the least of which is that being a lady comes from within. It is important how we carry ourselves. Are we being classy or racy? Are we speaking kind words filled with compassion, or are we gossiping and demeaning one another? Are we patient and loving towards our children or quick tempered and hurtful?  Do we have a submissive spirit or are we bossy and domineering? Do we fear the Lord and follow His way or do we rebel and make our own way?

God’s word tells us that women were created to fill a very important role.

Genesis 2:18
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him”.

Genesis 3:20
The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.

Adam could not go it alone so God created Eve to be his helper; women are created to be a helpmate to their husbands. Eve is the mother of all living; God has entrusted  women with the sacred task of continuing Eve’s calling of motherhood.

I told my mother’s story simply to allow for the understanding that even in a life filled with adversity, you can be who God has designed you to be. I am not advocating staying in an abusive relationship. I am saying that whatever your circumstances, God can use it for good if you are willing to follow Him. My mother could have taught her children to hate their father for what he did all those years. She could have taught her daughters to hate men or be staunch feminists, but she didn’t. Instead, she taught us to love. She is the most selfless person I have ever known. She loved her husband despite his abusiveness. She nurtured and cared for her children through great despair. She was self-controlled, modest and kind.

Titus 2:3-5
Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

These are the traits I prayerfully plan to model for my own daughter. I am pretty sure she will be watching. I hope that the portrait I produce in her mind is Godly.

Recommendation: For those of you raising daughters, please consider reading Your Girl by Vicki Courtney. According to Courtney, we are in a war for our daughters’ minds, bodies and souls. This book is a great encouragement for mothers to rely on God’s Word when passing down godly attributes such a worth, modesty and purity.

Some of our Life Groups had a lot of introducing and getting to know each other to do from this last week. This means that we did not get to talk about the heart of the lesson a lot. I figured I would post this background information as my blogpost for the week. Please discuss any questions that you might have with your Life Group Leader or myself.

John 20:21 – Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”

1 Corinthians 9:19-23 – 19For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.

The Greek word for apostle means “sent one”. Biblically it was used to describe the twelve that traveled with Jesus. It is also used to describe Paul, Barnabas, Silas, and others in the New Testament. Today the meaning has changed but the mission that God has sent us on has not.

All Christians in every generation are called to bring the good news of the kingdom into a spiritual encounter with the aspirations and challenges of that culture where it resides. Believers are on a mission from God. To engage today’s world with the good news requires the formation of a gospel community – the church of Jesus Christ – to be a visible representation, witness and instrument of the sovereign outreaching hand of God in our culture. For many Christians this may require a new vision, new ways of thinking, and new patterns of behavior (different styles of worship, life groups, etc.).

Since Christianity is a minority voice in this post-Christian culture, the church must adopt an approach to ministry learned from the foreign missionaries who communicate and relate in understandable ways to the godless inhabitants in their respective cultures (1 Cor. 9:15-23).

The culture around us sees the church as weak and irrelevant. As Christians we have all been sent by God to go into our own city as missionaries. We are to be culturally entrenched and personally involved. We must incarnate Christ’s life in our culture in order to impact this culture for the Kingdom!

My challenge is as we process through our life groups (The Journey Scattered) and our corporate worship (The Journey Gathered), are we living the 10 characteristics of a missional church identified by Scott Thomas the director of Acts 29 church planting network:

1. Committed to the authoritative, infallible, inerrant, inspired Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:14-17; Acts 2:42). The authority of all missionary work is founded in the truth that God has a clear word to communicate to the world.
2. Understands the centrality of the gospel in all aspects of a person’s life (1Cor. 15:1-4; 2:2; Gal. 6:14)
3. Sent by God as missionaries in their own culture (Mt. 4:19; John 20:21; Acts 16:20; 17:6) and to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8)
4. Boldly and intentionally promotes the gospel through church planting globally, collaborative expressions of mercy and generosity.
5. Dependent upon Holy Spirit to use individual as agents for evangelizing (Acts 1:8).
6. Relationships and sacrificial love are the expressions to others in their journey toward faith (Matt. 5:13-16, John 15:12-17, 1 John 4:19-21).
7. Helps others find Jesus in their own way and timing (1 Cor. 9:20-23).
8. Participants are affected in every way through a calling by God to be an agent for the gospel (Acts 4:13, 31-35).
9. Practices its faith in community—groups of people together (Acts 2:42-45; Phil. 1:27). It seeks to participate in true community like our triune Godhead.
10. Worships God in an authentic, personal and evangelistic way (John 4:23-24). We worship a Savior who left us here to be captured by His mission.

Col. 2:2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ,

Col. 2:3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

This past Sunday night, we started knitting, or shall I say, God started knitting.  Not to think poorly of what had taken place at the Journey up until now, but the beginning of our Life Groups signifies the beginning of real depth in relationships at the Journey.  It signifies the beginning of really knowing each other.  Not just knowing about each other, but knowing each other like we know family.  In a very real sense, we go from just being friends to being gospel, blood bought, family.  The greek work for “knowing” each other signifies intimate knowledge that comes through sharing life together, not just sharing a Sunday morning experience together.

The knitting that God is doing, is really different because He is using the thread of love.  There are communities all around us that use different kinds of inferior thread.  They use the thread of commonality or affinity, where people come together around some equally appreciated hobby or recreation such as scrap-booking or softball.  Some use the thread of a cause, such as banning same-sex marriage, or getting a certain candidate elected.  Others use the thread of a subculture, such as Goths, or Southern Gospel music groupies.  All fun stuff, I am sure, but far inferior to the all encompassing thread of love that can bring together scrap-bookers and goths to live in harmony around the diamond that is Jesus and His gospel.

So, as we give ourselves to being known and knowing others truly, our hearts are being drawn together with this golden thread that only grows stronger as sin is covered through forgiveness and grace.  We are all broken in some way or the other, and this is the design of the Holy Spirit to make us whole.  Gospel in community is a powerful thing, and we are only on the front end of this thing.  There is much to anticipate as Jesus manifests His life in us through the relational dynamics of our groups.  This is the jewel of community; that Jesus is revealed and we experience the riches of “full assurance” and are privy to the “mystery” who is Christ in us.  Jesus is our source for the twin treasures of “wisdom” and “knowledge”.  This is the treasure that mankind has been seeking for millenia, usually looking in all the wrong places.  What we know is that Jesus is revealing the mystery of Himself as our only treasure to us in community as we are knit together in love.  How amazing is this?  How have we missed this for so long?  I mean, really….how have we been duped into thinking that we either can’t find Him at all or that He is found in some other way.  American individualism has kept us locked away from the treasure that we all want.

Just to make sure everyone’s synapses are firing correctly and you are getting this, do you notice in the text above that Paul says that our hearts are “being knit together in love, TO reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding…..”  That one little word, “to” is the key that unlocks this text and prepares us for the great adventure of pursuing the treasure of Jesus Christ the mystery.  The great adventure is community.  There is no other thing.  This is the genius of the Holy Spirit, the prism through which we see and walk in light.  Freakin’ awesome stuff.  Praise be Jesus who calls us to be woven together in a tapestry of love with our brothers and sisters in Christ and in the process reveals Himself to us.

Maybe this throws new light on life groups for you.  If it doesn’t, you are dead.  I mean, really…..does this not start a strobe light spinning in your mind?  If it doesn’t, read it until it does.  This means that unless you live on a desert island or some remote place, Jesus will be revealed to you in community.  This makes so much sense to me about why we have not been able to hack our way through the briars of poor understanding in our pursuit of Christ.  We have been trying to find Him through our individualized search when He is most rightly understood in the context of others who are seeking Him with you.  This is a very humbling truth.  It means that you are supposed to walk with others.  Not just that this is the suggested approach, but that you will be frustrated and discontent if you are searching for Him alone.  I have talked to hundreds of people throughout my ministry who have been so discouraged and disheartened by their devotional attempts to connect with Jesus.  Is this you?  Hmmmm…..I think it has been me.  No more.  I am done with my stumbling search for Jesus alone.  Community is where He is revealed most clearly today, and that is where I will search for Him as I am knit together with the members of my life group.

Okay…so I am getting long now.  Blogs are supposed to be short-ish.  I end with this.  Will you consider these things and let it compel you to open yourself up to the possibilities.  The possibility of seeing Jesus more clearly that you ever have before.  Read Colossians 2:2-3 a few more times.  Let it sink in.  I love you all.  I want this for you.  I want Jesus revealed to you like this.

If it comes from sin, it’s a sin.

Anger can result from idolatry. Ask yourself why you are angry with someone, with a situation. Is it because God is not being glorified or because you are not being glorified. People get angry because, like a child, we don’t get our way, things don’t go our way, and the universe at the moment is not how we decreed in our minds it should be. Why should he have a better car than me? envy. You didn’t show up when you were supposed to. I had to go out of my way because of you. You insulted me! Pride. You didn’t do what I want!

Who is the god in these situations, God or you? We all want to control everything around us, we all want what we want, when we want it. We want a job with no work, money with no bills, health without effort, everybody to be on time, do what they are supposed to, respect us, do things our way, and meet our needs. If we’re honest with ourselves, that’s how, deep down, we want the universe to run. To revolve around us. We want to be God. And when we don’t get this, we get angry. How could someone speak to me that way, let me down, talk about me, reject me, fire me, look down on me, cheat on me, steal from me, think someone is better than me. Me me me. And we get angry. Never realizing that all those things others have done to us, we have done to God.

If it leads to sin, it’s a sin.

If your anger leads you to break commandments of God, it’s probably sin. If you are bitter at someone, if you gossip about someone, talk smack about them behind their backs, lie about them, steal, or kill someone because of your anger, I don’t think it’s a stretch to guess that you probably have sinned. There’s two good reasons for this from the Bible: 1) God said don’t lie, steal, kill, gossip or hate,  among other things, and 2) because He alone, not you, is God, he gets to make the rules.

The apostle Paul, writing instructions to a new church in Greece, provides a snapshot of what a church of believing Christians ought to be comprised of, how their lives and relationships are governed:

Ephesians 4:25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Anger stirs up bitterness, drives division, and gives the devil an opportunity to ruin everything good in and around us.  Anger creates a fog that keeps us from seeing others as God would have us see them, keeps us from hearing God’s voice, and can shipwreck our lives.

So how do we handle our anger?

Leviticus 19:17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Go to them and only them. If it as at a person, scripture is clear: we go to them, and speak frankly, and work it out. Especially our Christian brothers and sisters. Gossip is the greatest evil that comes from anger, from envy, from jealousy, from malice, from hurt feelings and bruised egos and self-righteous pride. If you are a gossip, angry at someone because they didn’t do things your way, and you go around talking quietly to your friends about the bad thing they did- you are a gossip and in serious sin. A person forgiven and walking with Christ does not do that. Go to them, speak frankly about it, and work it out. If not, these aggravations will fester into sores, infect you and others, and spread division in a church like cancer kills a body.

Pray for them.

Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

It is hard to remain angry at someone who you are praying for. And Jesus didn’t mean “pray that fire will come down from heaven and burn them to charcoal.” Pray that they will see their error, pray that your relationship can be healed. Pray that division will be reconciled. Pray that God will show you where you are wrong. Pray that both of you will forgive each other, as Jesus has forgiven both of you.

Who is Glorified in Your Anger?

In the end, ask yourself if God is glorified in your Anger, or are you? Nehemiah was one of the most angry men in the Old Testament, a prophet of God with his own book in the Bible. That’s like getting a boxing belt. He’s got his own book. Nehemiah took care of business through a lot of anger. He came out of retirement, rebuilt the city of God’s people Jerusalem that had been destroyed, drove out the corrupt, evil, idol-worshiping freaks who had made the church a flea market and were living and worshiping other gods in God’s house. He beat, punched, kicked and threw all their stuff out in the street. He threatened and cursed them. He gave orders, commanded men, and inspired men to put things right where they had gone terribly, terribly wrong. It’s a wild story. But here’s the deal: he was God’s man for that time, and God was glorified in Nehemiah’s anger. Nehemiah was angry that God’s people were liars who said they loved God and did the exact opposite of what God says. That they disrespected God and made other God’s equal to the one true God. They compromised with sin instead of obeying God.

When can we be angry?

If you want to be angry in a way that glorifies God, be angry at your sin. Be angry at all the ways you compromise with sin and disobey God. Be angry at your laziness, your gossiping, the ways you ignore God by not making time to pray, to read your Bible. Be angry at yourself for not putting God first in your life, before all things, where he belongs. For having other gods like football, shopping, television, facebook, your band, your career, sleeping in or staying up late. These aren’t bad things alone, but God must be first in your life, your time, your schedule, your priorities.  That is God’s rightful place.

What’s Next?

The next time you are angry at someone else, look at the cross, and the brutalized body of Jesus and remember, that’s how angry God was with you, with your sin, and that’s what it took to forgive you. If God did that for you, follow his example. Let that God of anger die on the cross with Jesus, and forgive others, like Jesus.

In the Breaking Free from Insecurity message in two parts, I did not mention one of the most serious effects of insecurity that leaks out on others. It takes place when our insecurities cause us to tear someone else down so that we feel better about us. This is the presentation problem at least.  People love tearing down those who are intelligent, pretty, skinny, and various other preferable states of being. All of this reveals the insidious nature of insecurity;  that we will do anything to be rid of it, and sometimes in our quest to be rid of it we envy those who posses the qualities that we think will kill it.

I have recently been privy to a conversation between a couple of people where they chose to tear down someone who possessed a quality that they envy. I sat there, vexed in my spirit and irritated that I had not dealt with this in the message series. I tried to stop the conversation, to no avail. Those who chose to slander, did not seem to be fazed, unwilling to see their own insecurities. It blinds you, you see. Insecure people envy the qualities that they are insecure over. Fat people envy those people who are skinny. Average people envy those who are very intelligent. Those without vocal skills envy those who have them. Those who are all thumbs, envy those who are crafty and good with their hands. They couch the things they say out of some righteous sense of that which is good and right, but it is envy and it makes one “green”. People always try to reconcile what they are saying with some righteous virtue, but it is never convincing. It is rationalization, nothing more.

The Bible tells us that envy is an exceedingly wicked quality. It separates people, and even causes some to express the poison of their envy when the object of that envy is absent. I have seen it here and there, and it is rotten. Not saying that I am completely free of it,  just discerning enough to know it when I see it.

A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.
Prov. 14:30

For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up.
Matt. 27:18

These are two appropriate texts when speaking of the envy that insecurity often produces which in turn leads people into gossip and slander. A heart that is content with who they are, and how God has made them, will have a fulness of life in them. While the person who is insecure and envies will often suffer emotional and even physical symptoms because of it. The writer called it a ‘rotting of the bones’. The Matthew text shows us the darkest side of insecurity and envy. The religious elite who had controlling interests in maintaining the respect of the common people, envied Jesus to the point of demanding his crucifixion. He had won the admiration and the love of the people, due to the fact that He actually had their best interests at heart and He chose to heal them, feed them, and encourage them through teaching them about the Kingdom of God. People who envy, almost always show it by speaking slanderously, ‘crucifying’, if you will, those whom they envy through words meant to cast a negative shadow.

So, I just wanted to alert you to this danger, and ask you to apply the gospel to insecurity that produces envy. It is a hideous beast, and we do well to be wary of it.

What excites you? What brings you immeasurable joy?

No not that. Think deeper. Think of the kind of excitement you would experience at one of those once in a lifetime events. Remember when you got your first car, graduated high school, graduated college, got married, or held your first born child? Yeah… that kind of excitement.

Now that you have some context, think again. What really excites you?

Having a hard time thinking of something aren’t you? There are few things in life that bring such a high level of excitement and joy. Outside of the list above, there are few others that can illicit the same kind of sanguine responses.

As a pastor… no as a Christian, there is nothing that excites me more than to think about the salvation that has been graciously afforded me through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior. It is the standard by which all other joys are measured with none surpassing. It doesn’t require much prodding for me to reflect upon the true sense of happiness that accompanies the thought of knowing Christ chose to pay the debt for my sins, saving me from condemnation and hell.

This joy has been expressed by many Christians over the years. Most all of whom can express it much better than I ever could. Here are a couple of my favorite quotes regarding this joy:

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace; Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it, Mount of Thy redeeming love.
(Robert Robinson)

It’s because of you, people smile at me and they say, what a lucky guy, It’s because of you, I can raise my hands to the sky, And say I’m only happy because of you.
(Keith Green)

Oh come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
(Psalm 95:1)

It is an unfortunate thing for the Christian to be melancholy. If there is any man in the world that has a right to have a bright, clear face and a flashing eye, it is the man whose sins are forgiven him, who is saved with God’s salvation.
(Charles Spurgeon)

We just celebrated Easter this past Sunday. Pastor Jason spoke to us about how the power of the gospel is released through the resurrection. The resurrection was the final step in the redemptive process. When the stone at the tomb was rolled away and He stepped out victorious over death, He gave all who worship Him as Lord and Savior that same authority over death and the grave. This is why Easter is our Super-bowl. This is why on Easter, the worship service has a little more energy, the band plays harder and the congregation sings a little louder. This is why Pastor Jason preaches like he just swigged down three Full Throttles in a row.

So Easter is the day it all comes together in a special way, but it’s not the only day we celebrate our salvation. Everyday we wake up and take a breathe, we should give thanks to God for redeeming us and giving us new life.

Christ is real. He is God. He is the creator and sustainer. There is nothing that can defeat Him. He saves all who follow Him from eternal damnation in Hell. He has a watchful eye over His children. He is our everything!

That is why our faith is exciting. That is why we praise Him. That is what brings joy to those who love and serve Him.

Does your faith in Christ excite you? It should. If it doesn’t check your pulse… your spiritual pulse because there is nothing more exciting than knowing you were destined for the darkness of depravity but brought into the light of salvation.

So, get excited about your faith. Jesus is definitely not boring. Tell everyone you know about Him. Serve and worship our Lord with all your heart.

Insecurity stems from placing belief in yourself and your own abilities when that faith should be placed in God. What is insecurity but doubt in your own abilities and skills? If you stood on the promises of the unchanging Architect and Sustainer of the universe, how could you justify this kind of worry? We’re talking about the God who keeps His eye on the sparrow. We’re speaking of the God who regulates the rotation of galaxies, yet still sees that the jerk who cut you off in traffic didn’t slam into and kill you. If your faith is placed in a being so powerful and so caring and so diligent, what do you have to fear? Psalm 27:1 (ESV) expresses this thought perfectly:

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

What man or woman is worthy of your reverence? Are you worthy of your own? Your spouse? Your mother or father? Even your child? Of every human being you’ve ever met, out of all the people about whom you’ve heard or read, who is/was perfect? I challenge you to name one individual who never let anyone down including himself/herself and including God. Everyone tires. Everyone weakens; even if only on their deathbed. Everyone except the Almighty, His Son and His Spirit.

The first sin in the Garden was trusting our own judgment rather than God’s. When we place our trust in the fallible, broken mess that is man, or anything he has fabricated, and expect that trust never to be compromised, we show ourselves to be fools.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. – Proverbs 3:5 (ESV)

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? – Numbers 23:19 (ESV)

For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. – Malachi 3:6 (ESV)

Unfortunately this image displayed above says a lot about our society today both within and outside the church. Lust is a stronghold that sees its way into most relationships as a normal course of action. Our cultures policy is everything is alright as long as I have permission from my significant other, or it doesn’t hurt someone, or it is just looking not touching. But just as our covetousness can get us into trouble when given an opportunity with material possessions so lust can get us into trouble with our physical and emotional relationships.

I have been married to my wife for almost seven years now and I have been getting progressively better about the way I deal with my affections for her and how my love for her and my marriage stems out of my affections for Christ and His bride. It is only through the redemptive matrix of the gospel that this stronghold can be overcome. God had changed my heart to only have “bedroom eyes” with one woman through transformation of the body, heart, and soul. I used to be an adulterer…now I am just an adult.

As I have been talking with people about this topic in the last few weeks, I have noticed that there’s been some interesting dialogue in our conversation about lust, and the discussion keeps returning to a common theme: what do we need to do to actually experience change? Let me share with you the real life example of a friend Bob.

Bob is happily married to a godly wife, he loves her, they have great sex, etc. The only problem is, Bob also finds himself attracted to another woman – a common friend they both know. He takes Matthew 5 seriously, he wants to stop feeling this way, he prays, he tries to overcome his desires, etc…but it just gets worse – to the point where he’s gone all the way in his mind.

I’m not making this up – this is real, this is the reality of sexual desire. And it’s strong. Now you tell me: what does Bob need to know or do to experience change in his heart? Where does the rubber really meet the road?

This may sound like a familiar problem to many of us. Most of us will not gouge out our eyes to prevent sinning. But this is serious business between a man and woman, a husband and a wife. What would you do? How would you handle your feelings? And now I get to tell you the rest of the story.

In the face of this pressure, my friend Bob did something crazy. He decided he loved his wife too much to keep deceiving her about what was going on inside. So he confessed – he told her about his desires for this other woman. He told her everything. He held nothing back. And her response was amazing.

She didn’t get angry. She didn’t lash out. She didn’t tell him never to speak to this woman again. She didn’t say ‘try harder’. She didn’t say that he better ‘fix it or else’…

Instead, she said, “Bob, I love you, I forgive you, and I am with you – you have to learn how to overcome these desires, and I am going to stand beside you and help you do that, because you are my husband, and I am committed to you.”

In other words, she didn’t say “I will love you because you are faithful, because you are sensitive, because you a good provider, a good leader, a good lover.” She didn’t say “I will love you because you get it right” (performance). Instead she said “I will love you because you are my husband (relationship). I will love you because of who you are.”

Wow. How would you like a wife like that? Can you imagine being a wife like that?

Listen, this is precisely how God deals with us in the gospel – he loves us, and is with us, because of who we are in Christ: sons, not slaves. If God’s favor is based on what Christ has already done, then nothing you can do – not your greatest triumph, not your worst defeat – nothing can change the way he feels about you.

He loves you because of who you are in Christ.

And recognizing that reality is tremendously liberating. It frees us from our bondage.

Bob told me, “You have no idea how this affected me! When my wife responded to me this way, my heart melted! I was guilty, and instead of the judgment and condemnation which I deserved, she loved me in spite of myself, she gave me grace!”

Real grace rightly seen decimates our desires for sin. When Bob saw clearly the nature and extent of his wife’s love for him (because of her commitment to him, not his own fidelity to her), it changed his heart, it tamed his lust. On a scale of 1-10, his desire for this other woman plummeted from an 8 or 9 down to a 1 or a 2.

Why? Because seeing his wife’s love for him rejuvenated his own love for her; recognizing why she loved him (relationship, not performance) changed the affections of his heart.

What I’m saying in all this is that we don’t conquer our lust merely by trying harder (although a heart set free by love most certainly will try hard) – rather, we conquer our lust by learning to love something better, by realizing how it is that Christ loves us. We conquer our lust by seeing the grace of the gospel.

On a side note, here are some other thoughts I wanted to share from my marriage and life/ministry experience:

1. Making love is neither what society constantly portrays it as nor what the enemy entices us to imagine that it is. We are made to think that sex, even with a spouse, is mostly about seeing someone nude, getting physical sensations, and fulfilling animalistic needs. But God made sex to be the deepest consummation of true love that there is. The marriage bed is where they can physically and spiritually consume each other in love, not lust.
2. When Satan tries to entice you with lust, he is attacking your marriage, either current or future. Many Christians who used to be into pornography or pre-marital sex will tell how on their wedding night, when they saw their wife or husband nude for the first time, they couldn’t get the mental images of all the naked people they had seen before out of their minds. It was like there was a harem that was pressing in on them while they wanted to be with just each other. For the unmarried person, exposure to lust and especially blatant pornography makes the wait for intimacy with that special someone much harder, since he has been exposed to sexual images. Trust me; marriage is not like a pornographic film. When the pizza man comes, you pay the bill. There is no corny music playing in the background and ninety eight percent of the women you encounter will never be doing the Cirque du Soleil acts that you see on the screen. This stuff messes up true intimacy in a marriage (and marriage is about intimacy and not sex).
3. Remember the example of Joseph from Genesis 39. When Potiphar’s wife presses in on him and starts to strip him of his clothes, he flees. He does not try to explain why this isn’t right. He doesn’t fall madly and deeply in love with her. He doesn’t use the grace of God as a license to sin and make up for it later. He runs away leaving the coat that he was wearing in her hands. When lust starts peaking its head around the corner at us and grabs us by the coattails, we should be looking more like an Olympic track star than trying to look like a Greek god who wants worship for himself/herself.
4. Modesty is an important measure for men and women. While there is nothing wrong with grooming ourselves and making ourselves presentable to the public (good hygiene is missional), there is a problem when it comes to the “flaunt it if you got it” mentality. You “got it” from your genes and I can’t recall one biblical example of “flaunting it” for the Kingdom. We all have a personal responsibility in keeping ourselves accountable to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ in the area of modesty.

Community is a theme that runs throughout scripture.  God has always been calling out a people for Himself, beginning with Israel and continuing with the church.  Even when the Jews were dispersed among enemy nations during times of captivity, they organized themselves into groups and ultimately formed synagogues (Jewish communities of worship and teaching) where they could serve one another and carry out their beliefs.  It was natural, therefore, for Jesus to develop a community of followers and for Paul, Peter and other church planters to start “new communities” wherever they went as they proclaimed the gospel.

These new communities began as small groups just as Jesus modeled with the 12 disciples (Mark 3:14; Luke 6:12-19). Over fifty times in the New Testament the phrase “one another” is used to describe our relationship to other believers. We are instructed to love one another, encourage one another, pray for one another, accept one another, bear one another’s burdens, and build up one another. One of the ways we can obey these commands is in a Life Group! We really do need each other. God never meant for us to go it alone in the Christian life.

Life Groups were an integral part of the early church structure.  They were small enough to allow individual members to minister to one another, use their spiritual gifts, and be discipled in the teachings of Christ.  In addition, they were vibrant and life-giving communities where evangelism could take place as unchurched people watched a loving and compassionate community in action.  Life Groups not only built up the church, but were vehicles for reaching a lost world for Christ.

In the coming weeks, we will be talking about Life Groups at the Journey. We will be experiencing a second “launch” with our Life Groups into our communities. These communities within communities will be one of the primary ways that we push against our culture and help our friends and family wrestle with their issues of faith. I encourage each of you to get as excited as I am about the mission that God is sending us on in the West Metro Atlanta area.

I told you 2 weeks ago that my favorite team used to be my idol. I went to the University of Illinois and am a big college sports fan. So the most obvious claim to my passion and devotion was the sports teams from Illinois. The way I lived demonstrated that Illinois football was my functional savior who took me to sports fan heaven. Since the football team was my god, I was a member of and worked to bring about the football team’s kingdom. To that end I was on mission, witnessed and evangelized for the football team: I sought people out to discuss the football team, and if they disagreed with me, I sought to persuade them that my god was an awesome god. I supported the football team financially and worked for their glory by attending football team church (the game), worshiping their glory in song (every school has a fight song), raising my hands in worship of the team (or to throw a signal at the referees for hurting my god). I took communion at football team church (consumed sodas, hotdogs and some pretty bad nachos at the games), met in a community group online to study the team and praise their glory (online message board and game day chat), listened to sportstalk radio to be discipled and motivated, and to grow in my faith that my team did not suck but was actually awesome. Through several rough seasons, I really, really prayed that their kingdom would come, and that their will to win more than 2 games would be done. It was a lifestyle, demonstrating that my idol, my false god, was the Illinois football team, and that I was a member of, and working for, the Kingdom of Illinois football. No matter how much I hallowed its name, my god was not awesome.  Each week the Top 25  polls came out, there were many gods before it.

In all this, I was guilty of breaking the first commandment, and I was outside of the Kingdom of God because God was not my King, and I was not working for His kingdom. That lifestyle is what we’re talking about, last week and especially tonight: living the Kingdom of God. There are countless other gods, kings, kingdoms and wills to be done. There’s the kingdom of the company, where we work for the glory of our employer. There’s the kingdom of politics, where we work to bring about the kingdom of a politician who will fix everything the last god broke. There’s the kingdom of physical fitness and health, NASCAR, Harley Davidson, pro golf, social networking, Apple computers, and Animal Rights. Several eras in American history are defined in large part by the idolatry of the culture. In the 1960’s and 70’s the false god of self, and individual freedom was worshiped through fornication, drug abuse, and praised with worship songs written and inspired by these activities. In the 1980’s the god of money inspired incredible greed at the expense of everything and everyone else. Wherever there is idolatry, there is a false god, and so a false religion arises, and the devotees of that false religion are working to bring about the kingdom of that god. The Lord’s Prayer, and elsewhere, tells us that The Kingdom of God coming, and the Will of God being done, are linked. Which Kingdom do we work for on a daily basis? Because we all work for some kingdom to come.

If you get a chance today, look at some verses with Kingdom of God in them, and consider what other kingdoms are out there, and want us to work for them.  Look at your own life and see what kingdoms you might be working for, where God is not the King.

Paying taxes can be a grace gift that God has designed for you so that you can receive much needed help when you need it.  Getting your refunds is usually very timely for most people.  This is the grace of God to you.  It was His grace to give the money to you the first time when you were making it last year.  It is His grace now that comes to you in the form of a refund at the time when you most need it.  Some of you, and I know this from past experience, have received healthy refunds even though you paid very little in last year.  I remember several years past when this kind of grace was shown to me.

I have to ask the question though.  Where did you get it?  I mean….where did this money come from?  Do you understand the origin of this money to be from the hand of God, or have you configured your mind to think of it logically and rationally so that you think about money paid in, a certain return due to tax credits, dependants, etc…

I’ll answer the question for you.  God gave it to you.  Plain and simple.

James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation of shadow of shifting”

Am I making sense now?  So the implication is clear.  Are you clearly revealing to God that you praise Him as the Giver of this gift, not simply by praising him verbally, but by offering a tenth or more back to Him in worship?  If we prize the gift more than the Giver, then we will use every penny to meet our needs and wants.  This, my friends, is idolatry, plain and simple.  If, we love the Giver more than the gift, we will demonstrate this through the worship of giving Him what He has asked of us, a tenth off the top, before anything else is spent.

Have you, or are you being faithful in this.  Are you demonstrating that the Giver is your highest treasure and joy?  I pray that you will.  I pray that all of us will reject this functional idol and live to the Glory of God.

This past Sunday at the Journey, we slowed down to take a look at the contributions that have been made by a group of people who are more than twice my own age. Sunday was a monument of sorts. It was intended to honor five senior citizens who have lived their lives that God might be glorified through their faithfulness.

Our Sunday morning worship service included a time when we honored these five who supported me as I led a painful but necessary transition here at the Journey. They endured much as we moved from the old irrelevant church form to the gospel driven form that we now see. As a result this new form has enabled us to become more relevant and authentic in our faith which has allowed us to share the gospel with those who were previously un-reached.

After the worship service, we had a dinner in their honor and sang happy birthday to the oldest of our group who is turning 90 years old. Our worship band turned a poem that she had written in 1938 into a punk-rock styled song that shook the place. It was an amazing day.

The present and future of the Journey is the legacy of these seniors. They have sought to live the remainder of their lives to ensure that un-reached people might come into relationship with Jesus through our gospel community. This past Sunday a congregation of mainly 20 somethings said a collective “thank you” for the sacrifices of this group. May the legacy of the Journey be faithful to the legacy left to us by this group who have sought to live their lives for the Glory of God.

Oneal Morris, Lola Morris, Ellen Moreland, Sherri Ritchie (not pictured June Price)

The Journey crew... or a at least a big part

The despair of the soul is hard to put into words.  The fact is, that the soul may be in despair due to one of a number of things.  For the Christ follower, the despair of the soul is often a beautiful thing, although not necessarily to the soul in despair.  I say, “beautiful”, because of what if often reveals about a person’s desires.  When a person who has been drawn into relationship with Jesus begins to experience the changes that Jesus brings with him, it is often an agonizing process.  It is beautiful in the sense that what we are often witnessing is a soul that is in the process of releasing its tight grasp of control over its person, and the invitation to Jesus to come and take the reigns of one’s life.  Remember, there is yet the desires of the flesh or “old nature” that wars against this release of control.  This “old nature” no longer has dominion in the life of a Christian, but it seeks still to sabotage every effort at personal and spiritual renewal.

When a person goes from living in darkness to living in the light of God’s grace and love, there are many personal practices that are exposed as those things that no longer belong in the life of this “new” person.  The soul despairs of the rottenness of previous and still current behaviors, realizing that these things that were so cherished before, no longer have a place in the new administration of Christ in our lives.  So, there is this struggle that takes place because the new heart of Christ in us loathes these things while the “old nature” tenaciously clings to them.  There is a war within us and the presence of despair tells me that Christ is unseating the old powers that once reigned in our lives.  Not only are they unseated, but they are replaced with new desires and passions.  As the beauty of Christ dawns on us, we begin to see in Him all that we need to be content, all that we need to be right with God.  So despair is quite natural, or should I say spiritual, in this scenario because despair is the realization that we are not sufficient and our rottenness works against us in our efforts at self-justification.  Therefore, only Christ will do for us.

So we can say that despair is what opens our eyes to the beauty of Christ, because he alone is the goodness that makes us right with God.  He alone is the source of our hope.  When our soul is disturbed it is because more of the worldly, materialistic bent is being wrenched from our grasp by the powerful and liberating work of Christ in us.  As this is happening, it is uncomfortable to the soul.  If you are a new Christian, or you are becoming a Christian, this is not an uncommon experience.  Be encouraged, God is at work in you and as the verse above states, God is the “help of your countenance”.  What this means in common vernacular is “God is the one who lifts your face”.  In other words, God transforms the downcast soul, to the soul that realizes its position and place in Christ, “co-heirs” with Him.  So, He will lift your face, he will heal your soul, and your joy will be made full.  Hang in there.  God loves you and will not leave you in despair.

The Journey began as a dream about a year and a half ago.  God has certainly done extraordinary things in the last year and in particular, in the last 3-4 months.  In these last few months, I have had the opportunity to enter relationship with people who are helping to make the Journey what it is today.  I look forward to getting to know you more in the future as God expands the mission and vision of the Journey to include more and more people who are eager to pursue God’s purpose for their life and the church.  I am thankful for all of our new Journey folks.  

Some of the people that I am the most thankful for, will not read this, because they are not the “computer” types.  If you attend on a Sunday morning, you might be struck by the fact that even though we are VERY contemporary in our worship style, complete with loud music and movie style screens and graphics, there are 5 or six 70 somethings and even an 89 year old who are there, week after week.  I owe them tremendous thanks that they have stuck with me through 5 years of real hardship at the previous church so that we could do what we are doing now at the Journey.  They are leaving a legacy of faith, having refused to go quietly into the good night.  They believed against the odds, that God still had a design for vibrant ministry in the building, formerly known as Davis Chapel Baptist Church.  I am thankful for those souls who refused to give up or give in.

We have others at the Journey, some who have been here as part of the previous ministry, and others who have come since the inception of the Journey.  The significant thing about these people is that they give.  They give of themselves so that the Journey can be what it is and what we hope it will become.  They give hours and hours in service to the kingdom life at the Journey, and for them, I am thankful.

Lastly, I am thankful for the grace of God shown to me over the years.  I have been pastoring for about 13 years now, with most of those years being unfruitful in worldly estimation.  Many of these years have ben spent invested in the painful work of pruning.  The cutting away of dead and useless things so that growth could come from the central vine, is no fun at all when people are the things that need to be pruned.  It is a grievous work, but in God’s wisdom, He has now seen fit to allow me to begin to sow and see a harvest of developing fruit at the Journey.  I am flushed with emotion as I contemplate what has already happened here and what will happen as we go forward.  God has been gracious to me and He shows me new grace every day, and for this, I am thankful.

Can you say this?  I guess I mean more than if you are able to verbalize it.  Do you identify with it?  Are you hungry for the presence of God.  Is satisfaction in Christ something that you experience on a regular basis, or do you find yourself running to other streams to drink you fill.  The world has so much to offer us, and much of it can be described as the good gifts of God.  Are you content with the gifts, or do you have an insatiable thirst for the giver.

These are all questions that I am asking myself right now.  I am struggling with the lethargy in my own heart and soul.  I can say that I “want” to want Christ passionately and desperately, but that is different than saying that I want Him.

Are you following me?  What I mean is that as I read a text like this, I can almost feel the palpable sense of desperation that the writer had for communion with God.  He was not simply satisfied with the benefits and blessings of His God.  He craved the presence of God Himself. Don’t get me wrong; the blessings of God are beyond compare, but if we are content with them….find our satisfaction in them rather than in the giver, it is idolatry, and we must repent of a misappropriation of worship.  God alone deserves our affections of worship and true contentment.  

All of this brings me to a quest of sorts.  I have to see Jesus.  I want to do whatever it takes to push through the degrees of separation that have me seeing  Christ as through a bar filled with smoke.  I want to be drawn up near to Him to savour the sweetness of His closeness.  I want to hear from Him as one man hears his friend.  I have had his gifts, and I will not be satisfied with them when only He will do.  My thirst for Him is increasing.  Is yours?  Do you thirst for him as the deer who has been running from the hunters for hours and hours thirsts for the refreshing water from the brook?  If not, shouldn’t you?

Join me by meditating on these verses over the coming days.  As we approach Thanksgiving, wouldn’t it be awesome to praise Him for the nearness of His presence and the touch of His hand rather than simply the gifts that He gives.

To be honest, I am surprised that I am able to type right now because I find myself in that straight-jacket, unable to find resolution in an intensely critical area.  The difficult thing is that sometimes, even when we cry out to God in desperation, He seems to be very far away.  He is silent.  How do we truly surrender things to God that have us by the throat?  How do we cast ourselves on the provision of Christ in ways that both magnify the grace of God and resolve the inner tension that we struggle with.

I feel ashamed to admit this, but I don’t exactly know.  If I really knew, I would be free from this nausea that is controlling my stomach right now.  I know the answers that I give people when they come to me.  I tell them about God’s perfect plan and that God “causes all things to work together for the good for those who love God and who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).  And then I look to the words of Jesus in Matthew when He tells us not to worry about circumstantial things but rather to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and God will see to the other things (Matthew 6:25-34).

Knowing these things is simple.  Being able to trust them with every fiber of our body so that we can have the peace of God concerning them, is something all together different.  Right now, I know these things to be true, but I still want to throw up.  My crisis is not resolved.  I know that the deficiency is in me, and that God’s word is reliable.  The problem is my faith.  A man who Jesus healed, was asked by Jesus, “do you believe that I am able to heal you?”  The man said, “I believe Lord, help my unbelief”.  I am that man.  I believe in the sense that I know that God can, but I am stuck in the throes of unbelief that God will.

Just bein’ real here.  I know pastor’s aren’t supposed to have trouble like this.

Abraham is my new favorite person, because he teaches me so much about faith.  A man who believed for 25 years that God would give him an heir well past his prime and way past Sarah’s child bearing years.  Against the odds, he continued to believe.  He had his hiccups in his faith-walk, but he hoped against hope that God would do what He had said.  I need the faith of Abraham,….”Lord, help my unbelief”.

I just want to identify with some of you who may be going through something similar.  Sorry I don’t have the magic elixir.  I certainly wish I did.  I would drink the whole bottle.

Community is happening at the Journey in a very organic, natural way.  Relationships are being forged, and people are coming together in an atmosphere that was designed for this to take place.  I am incredibly thankful for this.  As I stand around before and after our worship gatherings, I marvel at the connections that are being formed.  Many people who were living rather disconnected from others around them are finding immediate acceptance within the Journey.

To everyone who has been coming for the past 4-8 weeks to gatherings at the Journey, I want to say, “keep it up”.  God is establishing something that is very different from the normal church culture that I have been familiar with for most of my life.  No longer is church simply an event to attend and then rush to the next appointment in your life.  It is instead a group of people with a shared sense of direction who are doing life together.  We certainly have a long way to go, but our genesis is very encouraging.  The challenge for us is to see this loose knit community tighten around a shared gospel mission.  People at the Journey are praying that God will begin to fashion us into a body of people who, although varied, may share the same sense of mission to the disconnected around us.

This is why some of you are drawn to the Journey, because it’s honest.  And this is why I am so encouraged.  We seem to be really connecting with more and more people every week and we haven’t even launched with weekly services yet.  So, as I write this, I am praising God for His grace at the Journey.  This is all His doing.  The fact that we get to be involved in a work like this is a privilege that many pastors never receive and we certainly don’t deserve it.

We launch next week.  The wave that we are riding is swelling to greater heights and we need your help to sustain and even increase the momentum that God is giving us.  We need you to pray and we need you to invite.  Get your friends, family, co-workers and anyone else to come to a service soon.  The buzz will increase, people will hear, and we will offer to them the same thing that was offered to you.  This is our promise to you.

Mission is what we are about.  We are here to continue the work that Jesus began.  This is who we are.  This is who we will always be.

If you have been coming to the previews and you are attracted to the Jesus who bears our burdens, finds us and sends us, then we hope that you will walk with us in the future by becoming a part of the Journey community.   We hope to be a group of people who do life together as we pursue the mission that Christ has called us too.  If this happens, it will be because people like you decided to do more than to live for your own convenience.  I know it sounds lame, but “The Journey needs You”.  We need people who are willing to do their part as we get ready for Launch on the 21st.  Two services every sunday takes a lot of logistical support, and I am scared.  Don’t leave me like this.

Now is the time when I need to hear from some of you concerning the depth to which you are willing to involve yourselves in the Journey.  I perceive that several groups might be involved in various ways.  I know that some of you are committed to other churches on Sunday mornings and I applaud that.  I need to know though, if you are willing to do your part for the ministry that you receive at the Journey on Sunday evenings.  What I mean is this, are you willing to be a part of the Journey, although you may be committed to a church that you attend weekly on Sunday mornings.  During the previews, we heavily taxed the small group that we have as a part of our core group with nursery childcare, children’s church, coffee pub duty, setup for communion, lighting candles, audio, video, lighting, cleanup etc…  If you are a part of the group that comes on Sunday nights, then we need you to help us with being on a nursery rotation, maybe helping with Audio or video or lighting if you have experience, or one of a number of other things that we need people to help with.  You can serve the Kingdom in two places, which I think is awesome.  The world needs more people like this.  You are consuming which is just fine, but we need you to produce as well.  We won’t make you leave if you don’t, but we will work on making you feel guilty.

Some of you are attending churches that you aren’t actually serving in because that is what you have always done, but you are finding us a better show.  We are flattered,….really, but we aren’t trying to fill the place up with people like you….no offense.  We need people who will serve.  You may want to go back to your church and not serve there. We hope to have alot of people involved so we are not trying to lean heavily on anyone,  we just need everyone to do their part.  So, if you want to come lick the Journey like a big sucker, I will tick you off continually.  We do have a mission and if you just want to stand around and watch other people do it, I will mock you (one of my spiritual gifts) tirelessly.

Another group has been coming and this is the group that we are the most excited about and the most lenient with.  Some of you who are coming were not previously going to church for whatever reason.  Some of you have come to one or two previews and are still just checking us out.  We are glad that you are here.  Maybe you are discovering that the church is not necessarily like you thought it would be.  You be the judge if that is a good thing or a bad thing.  Here is what we propose to you.  As you are ready, you respond to one of the challenges that we will regularly offer to serve in the church in some capacity.  We can sure use your help, but we will give you some time before we start jacking you up.

Some of you realize that you are in churches that are not a “fit” for you.  Maybe they are real uptight, and you like to laugh.  Maybe they are real religious, and you dig Jesus.  Maybe their music reminds you of a funeral , and you like rock and roll.  Maybe they are totally inward focused and you believe that the mission of reaching people with the gospel is central to the church.  Whatever the reason,…. you don’t fit there.  If you have come to one or more preview services, you have experienced a normal Journey worship service.  You decide.  Do you “fit”?  If so, it’s time to plug in.  We need people like you.  We expect Christians to do their part.  Having said that, we will help you to find a place where you can serve and find fulfillment in the process.

So, what I am trying to say is this,…We need people who are willing to be a part of the support structure of the Journey.  If you are willing to be one of these people, then let me know.  Consider this a personal letter from me to you, and your part is to respond as you see fit.  Or you can just dismiss me as a dude that rambles alot.  You decide.

We again had a great service and Jason finished his “Simply Jesus” sermon series reminding us how important it is to live our lives missionally. The music was great.  It was cool to have a new guitarist on stage with us…thanks Stephanie!  We are still looking for some other guitarist, so let us know if you or you know of someone who can help.

I talked about “The One who Finds You” for about 45 minutes.  I hope that I did not lose any of you along the way.  The ADDHD folks in the room may have had a hard time hanging on and sitting still, but not so as I could notice.  This “One who finds You”, of course, is Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.   If you have been spiritually dazed and confused as of late, Jesus will find you and help you to return to Him.  Maybe some of you got “found” Sunday night and Jesus lifted you out of the hole you have dug for yourself.  I would love to hear from any of you who experienced anything like that.  Or, if any of you think that I am in a hole and need to get a life, just let me know.

I hope that a few people got another step or two closer to getting “found”.  “Lost” is not a cool place to be and maybe some of you are starting to recognize that.  You are on the right track.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life,…..”  If we walk with Him then we are on the “way”.  If we believe In Him, then we are in the “truth”, and if we live in Him, well….then we are in His “life”.

I am hoping that what is happening in the early phases of life at the Journey is beginning to resonate with some of you.  I hope that it shakes some chords in you so that you feel compelled to be a part of the action.  There are always people who hang out on the sidelines of the game, never getting involved, and ultimately never experiencing the “life” of the game.  We need people who will get off of the sidelines and join the players in the game.  If all of this is weird talk to you, let me be clear,  “We need people to help us, and since, you are a people, then I am talking about you.”  I know that some of you who are coming are faithfully attending other churches.  That is great.  I am just asking that you would pray and ask God what His will is for you.  If you have a heart of mission and the edgy mission of the Journey is compelling to you, then maybe God intends for you to be with us in some way, even if you maintain valuable relationships with another church.

I think that Kingdom living is bigger than a “your church, my church” mentality.  We need to find out where God would have us most effectively serve His mission in the world.  We are the tools that God uses to bring in the Kingdom.  Sometimes, God may have us involved in the ministry of more than one church; not simply as consumers, but as producers in the Kingdom’s economy.  Ministry in the future will require some “out of the box” thinking to help us break out of some traditional molds of ministry.

I would love to sit down with anyone and answer questions over a cup of coffee or lunch.  We can discuss how you could possibly be involved here at the Journey.  On September 21st we launch weekly services at 10am and 7pm and we need folks who want to be on board with us to help as we get ready for that Sunday and all those that follow.  The “Journey” that we are on is sure to be one of excitement and growth for everyone involved.  If not, maybe it will be no worse than dull.  We do have “full throttle” energy drinks to keep you awake at least.

If any of you have questions that you want answered via email, then let me hear them.  If they are not ridiculously absurd, I will reply to them.  If they are absurd, I will probably mock you.

The music portion of the service went great.  It was great to have our new friend Tommy playing bass with us.  We are really lucky to have Caleb, Bryan and Tommy helping us out right now as we get going.  Don’t forget these guys can’t help us out forever, so if you know of someone who can play guitar let me know!

Jason hit a home run with his sermon.  He really is a gifted communicator, but don’t tell him I said that.  It is a primary purpose in my life to keep him humble.  None the less, it is an awesome thought to consider that we have a God who pursues and finds us.  Maybe God will help him find a real house so he won’t have to live in that mobile home mansion in the video!

Doing Life together is one of the things that defines us here at the Journey. Real Community is something that must be intentionally pursued. The world that we live in is fragmented and tends to leave people isolated from one another in this race type environment. Go to Starbucks and you’ll see what I mean. People go to this community place so that they can ignore one another. Go figure.

A key Bible passage for us here is Eccl. 4:9-12: “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.  And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.”

This passage emphasizes the value of relationship and community. Why do we choose to remain alone? Why do we stay on such a superficial level with almost everyone? Even at many churches, people do not allow themselves to be known for fear of what everyone will think of them. No one wants to be judged, and most of us have enough rotten trash in our closets to keep us in hiding.

The one thing that is hard for us to swallow is that if we are actually known by others, healing flows from that. We all have enough dysfunctional crap in our lives that we need constant healing from the good hand of God. The way that God chooses to heal us is through relationship, we just miss out because we keep it at arms length most of the time. I am not saying that we do not have friends, but how often do we really let people know us? Especially those who can apply the healing activity of God in our lives.

Enough of my rambling. I want to tell you about some of the opportunities here at the Journey for you to deepen relatioinship and get plugged in here with people who have decided to do life together here.

We are still in formation stage in many ways, with our previews being a large part of our focus right now. Many of you were able to be apart of our first preview, and hope you will be apart of our second one. Apart from this focus on the previews, we are having a weekly meeting on Wednesday nights starting at 6:30. We have a pot-luck dinner where everyone brings something that they either cooked or bought from a gourmet restaurant like Taco Bell and we share in the variety together. About 7:30 we begin a bible study called “Gospel Christianity”. This is a great class for those who have been Christians a long time and for those who may not yet have a relationship with Christ, as well as those who are still new in the faith. It is a discussion oriented class with great curriculum that helps us to get deeper and answer questions about the “Gospel” of Jesus.

Currently, we do meet every week on sunday mornings at 10 am. This meeting does not yet feature the whole band but is a great opportunity for people to further get to know each other and feel out what being on the launch team is about. Folks start showing up as early as 9:15 am to drink coffee, eat some doughnuts, and just hang out to talk till service starts. For the next few weeks, we are taking the time on sundays to go deeper into the preview messages with people having the opportunity to ask questions and talk through the issues. The mornings of each preview are spent in prayer and then we send out everyone to public places to hand out flyers and cards with information about our preview services.

September 21st will be the day of our weekly launch. This day and all Sundays afterward, will feature a 10am and a 7pm worship service, where we rock the place every service. Be sure to tell your friends and co-workers about the previews and Launch dates. They are as follows:

August 24th-7pm preview
Sept 7th-7pm preview
Sept 21st-10 am and 7pm Weekly launch.

The Journey is gaining momentum from the responses of interested people. Help us keep it going. The best way for people to hear about the Journey is for people like you to tell them about us. See you soon.

The worship service went off without a major hitch which is a great accomplishment considering the fact that so many of us were working on very little rest because we stayed up here to all hours of the night the previous week. There were a lot of new faces in the crowd that we hope to see again at our next preview service August 24th.

It was great to see so many kids in the back. I felt sorry for our infant nursery workers though.  When I checked in on them during the service, all five kids were crying…loudly!  Anyway, thank God for people with more patience than me.

There seems to be so many plastic spiritual imitations out there in the modern church.  Our great desire is to be real, and for the focus of all that we do to be about Jesus and His mission.  This group of guys is going to be used in phenomenal ways in the future.  God will raise up leaders from them and will affect future generations through their faithful and tenacious commitment to the faith “once for all delivered.”

I look forward, with great anticipation, to see what God will do through these men and those who will come after them.  God be praised for their future obedience and victory.

We generally think that we are pretty good people and the chief of the apostles, Paul, admitted that in his flesh dwelt no good thing. But, somehow, we think that we are pretty good people. We need to agree with scripture that we are bad people and we do bad things. Romans 3:10-18 is such a vivid picture of what we are really like. Ultimately we are like snakes that have turned aside to run after the things that work for the destruction of others and ultimately ourselves. We reject God’s plan for us and wallow around in the filth of our own sinful dysfunctions. Do you get it, “you are bad”. You are very bad and I am very bad. Jeremiah 17:9 said that the heart is desperately wicked above all else and is even beyond our own comprehension. This means that you need to repent a lot. Every true believer should have a worn out spiritual path to the place of repentance. Even though we realize that our repentance does not make us more lovely to God or more acceptable in His sight, we must, as David did in Psalm 51, seek the continual cleansing that comes through confession. Now, don’t misunderstand me. I believe that Jesus cleansed us once and for all on the cross when He atoned for all of our sin. But there is a cleansing that 1 John 1:9 speaks of which is the acknowledgment of sin so that we can enjoy the fullness of relationship.

Most of you will remember times in your life when you really screwed up things with your parents. You were rebellious and through your disobedience you built a wall between yourself and your parents even though you knew that they still loved you. You did not cease to be their child. You had, though, lost the joy and intimacy of relationship with them because you stupidly went your own way to your own detriment. David prayed, “Lord, restore to me the joy of your salvation”. He had acknowledged His sin and chosen to live in the forgiveness that was purchased at the cross. If I am even remotely observant, many of you are living lonely lives because you are unwilling to make peace with your “badness” because it means a holistic admission of guilt and that is more than uncomfortable and it is detrimental to the store-bought self image that we have.

Some of you do not have a relationship with Jesus and so you cannot live in forgiveness. The penalty of your sin is still bearing down on you and you may be suffering under the delusion that you must perform well enough or God will not love you. You need to come to Jesus today. He will take your burden and replace it with His very own friendship. He delights to show you a better way. A way in which you can admit your sin without fear of condemnation because Jesus paid the debt that you owed. In fact, Colossians says that your debt, which is composed of all of your sin and failure, is canceled out if you come to Christ in faith. Come to Him. Do it now. Don’t pass up the beauty of relationship with Christ so that you can walk alone with the crushing weight of your inadequacy.

Others of you are Christians but you are trying to live your life according to some pathetic performance chart where good behavior translates into real spirituality. You are trying in some perverted way to show that you are deserving of salvation and you are tragically mistaken. You too need to come to terms with the enormity of your own sin. Not so that you can feel the weight of condemnation, but so that you can realize the amazing nature of Grace. You need to learn to repent because through repentance, (which is a gift of God) you exalt the gracious nature of God while confessing your own loathsomeness. the church reformers of the 16 century named the biblical discussion of human sinfulness,  “worm theology”.  A true understanding of our sinfulness is the exaltation of God’s compassion for sinners. Repentance feels good because we get to rest in the gracious nature of a loving God. If you are not doing it regularly, start, How about now? Don’t pass up the wonder of intimacy with your savior by clinging to your “self-esteem”.

The plan has been kick-started by efforts to build partnerships and raise funds to support the church for the next few years while it gets on solid footing. We have received both pledges for monthly financial support and one time monetary gifts . We have established partnerships with other churches who plan on supporting us financially and sending workers to help us in the coming months as we prepare for our launch. Though we have received a good first response, we still have a ways to go. We will be speaking at several churches and meeting with many individuals over the coming months asking for financial support .

We have a lot of people ask how they can help. The number one thing you can do is pray. Pray for the following:

• Pray for the people of the Journey and their leaders.
• Pray for the people of Mableton and Austell.
• Pray that God would bring us new people to be on the launch team.
• Pray that the property we are selling closes soon.
• Pray that we will be able to raise the financial support we need.

There are other ways to help. As mentioned above we need financial support so let us know if you can help out. We are also looking for individuals or groups who will come up this summer and do some work. We’ll let you know more on this later.