Going...going....gone

In order to post more content and have the ability to manage that content in a more useful way, Grace Baptist Church blog is morphing into two blogs...one will be my own blog, For His Glory with anything that I deem interesting, maybe some of it will interest you. There will also be a new blog on the Grace Baptist Church web site in short order. If you use feedburner or some other RSS program be sure to re-route it to the new blog. -Blake

A BIG shout-out to DADS!!!

Okay, so Fathers’ Day was last month, but here are a few ideas for celebrating your dad anyway (trust me, he deserves it!) This is a perfect time to honor your father – he won’t even be expecting it!

Easy ways to celebrate your dad

Do something with your dad: this offers encouragement, appreciation, recognition and honor
Talk to your dad
Play with your dad
Find out what your dad likes and get interested in it too
If you can’t come up with any ideas, take a risk and ask your dad what he might want to do
Take him out to eat or for coffee
Ride a bike, take a walk, play games (bowling, board games, arcade), shop (if your dad’s into this)

Do something for your dad: this shows him love, care and honor
Tell others how great your dad is
Tell your dad how great he is
Beat him to it – think of a chore your dad usually does around the house that you could surprise him by doing

Do what your dad says: This brings him honor and joy
Your dad has good advice for you
In Proverbs, Solomon gives his counsel: "Hear, my son, your father's instruction, And do not forsake your mother's teaching; Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head, And ornaments about your neck" (1:8-9, NASB).
As we thank and praise God for our dads, it’s an honor to our dads.

For those of us who have loving, Christian parents, let's never forget to thank God for that. Honor the opinion of your parents, talk to them, allow them to share their knowledge with you; I guarantee that you will receive the treasures God offers through your dad and mom. Dads have tough jobs that usually go unnoticed. Honor your earthly father and heavenly Father today in a special way!


Resources: I am sure there are tons more out there, these are just a few I’ve stumbled upon.

Devotions for dads and sons

Particularly, encouraging your sons to learn from their fathers

Raising sons to be godly men

Another link for raising sons

Grace Baptist Church--God's wonderful mess

There words were encouraging to me today:

"The church is not a theological classroom. It is a conversion, confession, repentance, reconciliation, forgiveness and sanctification center, where flawed people place their trust in Christ, gather to know and love Him better, and learn to love others as he has designed. The church is messy and inefficient, but it is God's wonderful mess--the place where he radically transforms hearts and lives." (Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands, Paul David Trip. pg. 116)

BJ

New 9Marks Newsletter

Be sure to look at the new 9Marks Newsletter found here at 9marks.org . This is a monthly publication that contains helpful articles, resources and book reviews.

BJ

Christ is Not a Culture

We were blessed to hear the Word preached by Don Kim, a staff member of Trinity Baptist Church in New Haven, Connecticut this past Sunday. What follows are just my notes – by no means a full transcript; nor a commentary. If you missed being with us, enjoy and if you were there, use this to refresh your mind and spirit of what we’ve been taught.

Colossians 1:15-23

Christ is Not a Culture

Strange things were going on at Colossae. They were infiltrated by pagan thoughts and ideas. A new moon celebration, worship of angels. The Book of Colossians was written in response to Gnosticism; this idea that there was a secret saving knowledge. Our own culture, in some ways, is embracing this. Through sensations like the Da Vinci Code or even the recent (this past week if you were watching the news) supposed lost tomb of Jesus. Never mind that the scientific DNA tests prove it could not be Jesus, people still embrace the idea because people are so hungry for the deconstruction of Christianity. What Paul had taught the Colossians had lost its luster. Paul is writing to tell them that Jesus is better than you think – He’s the substance – the reality – not a fad or a culture.

Why and how is that?

1. He is not a creation of His creatures. He is beyond our logic. He is the image of the invisible. He is above all. He is the authority over creation. Who are we to dictate who God is? Francis Collins, a scientist who is known for his work on the Human Genome project wrote a book entitled The Language of God and in it makes a case for God as a scientist. We struggle with the fact that there is suffering in this world. Oftentimes, if you are sharing your faith, the first objection is why does God allow suffering? God is so far above our logic and understanding.

2. Christ is supreme. Jesus is the head of the church, not the culture of the church. Fox Faith – “Films You Can Believe In” was created to meet the culture of Christianity. Look at the tremendous success of the Chronicles of Narnia movie or The Passion of Christ. We are living in an age of pragmatism – where doing church matters. It’s empty. So often in America we are trying to sell the church as if it needed a marketing strategy. There’s an actual pitch – give us 22 minutes and we’ll give you the world – a fast-food sort of church service. Where is the shared experience in that? Where is the fellowship, the worship that is Biblically constructed? It is easy to have the appearance of the culture but that’s not what Christ desires to be. He is the head. We boast in Christ crucified, not church attendance. If Christ is supreme – if He is truly the head of the church, how do we submit to Him? → We submit to Christ in private prayer. The puritan Thomas Brooks wrote The Secret Key to Heaven: The vital importance of private prayer – (Thomas Brooks was one of the most influential people in the life of Spurgeon). A man is certainly that he is secretly. He may sweat on the stage, but be cold in the closet. Christ is the head, He doesn’t have to be the culture.

Lastly, Jesus came into the world for reconciliation, not condemnation. Christianity is so heavily associated with condemnation. The world wants to shy away from fire and brimstone. Even select portions Jonathan Edwards’ sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is included in school anthologies to perpetuate the idea that Christianity is only negative. Reading John 3:16 and following we learn that the world stands condemned but there’s a message of reconciliation. Jesus came to reconcile, not to condemn. Jesus is better than anything we could think or imagine. But there is a caveat, a condition; we must repent and surrender to His grace.

Do you know this Jesus? If you do, what will you do?

MEJ

Sermon December 17

If the Lord wills we will look at Isaiah 51:1-52:12 this Sunday. We will be focusing on the fact that Christ's Presence is what brings Joy to the Christian.

In preparation:
Read 50:4-11
Pray about what you read


The passage is speaking of God's Servant, Christ Jesus.
Ponder these things:

1. Did you notice that in v. 4 Christ speaks to the weary?
Can you remember accounts from the Gospels in which Jesus speaks to those who are weary? What were His words to them?
What situations cause you to feel tired, weary or anxious?
Does Jesus address those? (Matthew 11:28; John 11:25; Matt. 28:20)
-No matter what your load is today the Savior is able to care for you.

2. Did you notice that in v. 6 Christ endures anguish on the behalf of His people?
What suffering is this speaking of? Notice that Jesus "gave His back to those who strike."
How does this echo what is found in John 10:17-18?

--Verse 10 is true today! If you are walking in Darkness put your trust in the Lord! What a Savior!

Preventative Maintenance

Thabiti Anyabwile has a set of great posts regarding church splits and how to prevent them. What he says is well worth your time to read. You can find them here: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; and Part 5.

Read and think about the implications.

-BJ

The Word!

I was blessed today in reading this passage by John Frame in his book, The Doctrine of God:

"One way to summarize the Bible is to say that it is the story of God’s word to human beings and their response to that word in belief or unbelief, obedience or disobedience, acceptance or rejection. At each point in the biblical history the word of God is the thing at issue…The first recorded human experience is that of hearing God’s words, words that defined the purpose of human life:

And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Genesis 1:28

God’s word also comes to Adam, commanding him to work and care for the garden (2:15), and forbidding him to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, while permitting him to eat from the other trees (2:16-17). At this time, God’s word alone is the issue. Adam has no independent means to determine the consequences of eating the forbidden fruit. Like Abraham later, Adam has to make his decision on the basis of God’s word alone.

Then the serpent comes to Eve, essentially substituting his word for God’s word, pitting his own authority against the authority of the Lord. “You will not surely die,” he says (3:4). In the contest between one word and another, Eve chooses that of a talking animal over that of her gracious Creator. Unlike Abraham, she follows the enticing evidences of her sense and her unaided reason (v. 6a). Adam joins her in eating, rather than excercising godly authority over her (v. 6b). From that sin follow the curse and all the miseries of life here and hereafter (vv.14-19). (pgs 90-91) "

Dear Christian, isn't it true that we tend to rationalize and find ways to escape the commands of God's Word? We have not traveled far from our first parents. This is why in our worship--individual and corporate--we must give the primary place to hearing God's word and responding to it with faith and obedince. Have you done that today? Have you listened to God's word to your soul?

It's been a while!

This week's sermon:

Is there something in my eye? Matthew 6:22-24

We’re OK !

In our Sunday night sessions we have begun a study of I John. We have looked at the introduction for two weeks, I John 1:1-4. The question was raised: “Was it necessary for Christ to come in the flesh? What did it accomplish? What does it mean to you?” Firstly, God required a sacrifice for our sins, but all men since Adam were sinful, so it was necessary for Christ to become human to sacrifice himself for our sins – as a sinless sacrifice, the spotless Lamb. He could do this only by being God and thus without sin. So it was absolutely necessary. Secondly, we looked at Hebrews 2: 14-18:

“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Christ can be our merciful high priest because He was a human who was tempted like us, and yet was without sin. So in addition to the Atonement, we end up with a high priest who mediates for us continually before the throne of God, and yet as truly human one we can relate to.

While we were discussing this on Sunday night, it occurred to me that there was another effect of the Incarnation (not that it was necessarily God's main purpose, but of course He thinks of everything!), is that it makes it OK to be human. John was writing his letter during a time when the heresy of Gnosticism, and also (and more appropriate to my line of thinking here, Docetism) was making inroads among the churches. Besides teaching that knowledge is superior to virtue, and that only a nonliteral interpretation of Scripture understood only by a select few was correct, they taught (like some Greek philosophers) that matter was inherently evil while only the spirit could be good. Docetism taught that deity cannot unit itself with anything material, including the body. Therefore one could live a sinful life without concern. The Gnostics also believed that there is no resurrection of the flesh.

But all their arguments are undone in Christ. Because in the Incarnation, God took the form of a human, lived a sinless life, and died and was resurrected. It seems very interesting to me that while God is a Spirit, and the angels are spirit beings, and we have a spirit, God intends for us to remain around forever with a body, (albeit a glorified one). And Christ himself will reign over us with His bodily form. So the Gnostics and Greek philosophers had it it all wrong! We are God’s creation, intended for His glory, and so it is great to be a human! While we can't live totally sinless lives, we can, through God's power, begin to come closer than the unregenerate human -- we are made in the image of God and it does matter how we live.

While Gnosticism and Docetism died out centuries ago (seemingly), I think we are seeing a resurgence of it again today. I recently read an action adventure called "Map of Bones" by James Rollins-- sort of a DaVinci Code without the blasphemy. Its story line included references to “Gnostic Christians,” and long-lost mysteries and secret knowledge maintained by a few. So as ever, we need to be on guard.

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phillipians 2:5-11

posted by d. rogers