outside is better

Growing into God's house: 1 Peter 2:2-5

This last week my sermon was from one of my favorite passages of scripture. I love 1st Peter because it somehow speaks to the immediate as well as the timeless qualities of faith.

Sermon 8:28:11

Sundays in Scripture: 7.3.11

  I try to take time on Sunday afternoon for a more lengthy time in scripture. Being that I am on the 90 day plan, this  gets a little more intentional, because I want to maintain a different time for deeper study in the day. Here are some reflections that I have had today.

1. Genesis should be read quickly.
This might seem odd. Here we have a gigantic book of the bible, with complicated names and covering a big length of time. Why would we want to read it quickly?

One of the things I appreciate about the 90 day read is that Genesis is read in four days.

I think it should be read quick so we can make some connections in our mind. We need to see patterns that develop in the behavior of those first important people. We need to see the transition from Cain to Abraham. Since we are surrounded by this story, we realize that humans have been doing the same thing since the beginning of time. We always want things to be our way. Only in surrender do we really follow God and His plan.

2. Scripture should be read in blocks
I remember as a kid doing devotionals that had 2 or 3 verses as their focus point. While this might work well for drilling one point in, we develop bad habits for reading scripture. I usually take time on Sunday to read an entire book. If I have a busy afternoon, I will go to one of the smaller letters. If I have time my options grow. You can read the gospel of Mark in two hours, or I will do a large piece of one of the prophets.

Reading scripture like this helps us to see the connections across the entire Bible. What might appear to be a random assembly actually paints an intricate picture of salvation. We learn to recognize things that help us to better understand scripture. This takes place in an afternoon, but these times are simply smaller points on a life with scripture.

Those are just a couple of thoughts. I hope to better develop these Sunday posts to be a tool for all of us in our journey into the Bible.

Sunday Setlist: 6.13.10

I had the opportunity to lead yesterday morning at Nicholasville United Methodist Church.  This is where Meredith and I attend normally, and it is a great place full of friends and a caring community.  Our service this week was part of a series on apologetics, and yesterdays service was focused on prayer and when our prayers aren't answered.

Because of this, I wanted to sing songs that dealt with suffering, but specifically how our God is faithful throughout our life.  This meant dealing with a variety of emotions, and I also wanted to make sure that we sang about how God as Father, Son and Spirit interacts with us.  Part of this intention is understanding faithful acts specific to both the Triune nature and the overall character of God.

The Set:

Blessed Be Your Name
In Christ Alone
Your Grace is Enough (Maher version)
Knowing You
Wonderful Merciful Savior

I think that it went well.  I always try to make sure that a good overall picture of who God is will be presented in the musical section of worship.  This means trying to use specific Triune language and not emphasizing one attribute of God to much.  I also try to make sure that we sing about a specific picture of Old Testament and New Testament.  With that in mind, it sometimes knocks out some songs...and you always have to design around needs of the congregation, but I think this did a good job of that.  I wish that I could have dealt with Pentecost a little more, but that might have been cramming a bit to much in. It is always great contributing to Sunday Setlists.

Holy Words and a Dirty House

Meredith is in Boston for the week, so I am living like a single man for the next few days.  That means living off of BBQ and not changing socks.  I bought a pork loin, whole chicken, skirt steak, and some fish to eat while she is gone. Not to mention 3 six packs of Ale-8-one, which I refer to as Kentucky Crack. I have had the pork loin smoking for an hour already.

My plan is to get ready for the last week of school.  I have a 35 page paper to write and two pieces of liturgy/song lyrics to write.  So I plan on holing up like I am trying to break a smack habit and getting all of this done before flying to DC this weekend. 

The liturgy I am writing is for a service focused on Sabbath.  I am writing a call to worship responsive reading that will talk about the called out community and follow an Apostles Creed/Trinitarian formula.  I am also writing some lyric dealing with the theme of rest from Hebrews 4.  I think that should be interesting.  It is pretty focused on the specific worshiping community and I think that I easily could have written it for the Wesley at Tech.

My Boy Justin is in Africa for a few weeks, if you remember please pray for him.  I already heard one story about a crazy cab ride with a Turkish guy and that was just on the way to the airport in NYC.

Well have a great one.

I believe in God the Father.......

After a nice sabbath day tour of Lexington, I am now home, and getting ready for next week.  I was flipping through the channels and forgot about the History Channel's "Lost Tomb of Jesus" premiere this evening. Now Dr. Witherington has all of the thoughts about it that I can't put together (he is the expert), so go to his blog for thoughts regarding the authenticity of the thing. But my thoughts lie below. I did find it odd how they kept asking us to "Join the Converstation" on the website, how Emergent of them.

Lately some people have said that even if there weren't a heaven they would follow Christ.  I am ready to add to that.....with possible bloody results......

I think even if Christ weren't divine I would follow him.  BUT I believe fully in the incarnation and the atonement of Christ.  I believe that Christ was fully divine AND fully human and all the other things Dr. Coppedge taught me that I can't remember right now.  I have so much faith in the things that have been told to us through the Holy Scriptures that my faith lies in the existence of all of the things that have been revealed to us by God in this world. The divinity of Christ is so tied up in the nature of the Trinity that I can't make a statement to disregard the nature of who Christ is.

I know that my dear old Southern Baptist Convention is a non/anti-creedal church.  Those of you who know me, know good and well what I think about the creeds. I think that at no other time in history besides the time they were written do we need the creeds more than we do now.  Just watch the History Channel (there are so many programs about Religion now, I can't call it the War Channel anymore), and you can see a wrong portrait of who Christ is that oddly enough matches up with the arguments regarding Christs nature in the 1st through 5th century. So even if we have issues with the use of Creeds, we need to remember their original purpose.  If you don't know why their were written, go wiki the creeds (Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian) and find out.

But for now, let us remember exactly what we (the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church) have held to over the last 2000 years.

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.

He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit

and born of the Virgin Mary.

He suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended into hell.

On the third day he rose again.

He ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting.

Amen.

the rush

After a semi-productive weekend, filled with running sound, video editing, studying and writing. I am about to crash after my rabid 4 hour run of work after my Sunday Sabbath.

It has been awhile since I wrote a straight out blog post, not dealing with anything really, just a personal update. I wonder why I just don't do this sometimes.

It was a really great first few days of Lent. I also have been really trying to practice sabbath as JD talks about, and today was a somewhat success. I did cheat a bit however and write a bit of poetry after my morning shower.

downward dance,
with you I descend
know me and shape me
Christ my friend

WOW

Found this little article here, about the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic Church being in a formal dialog that might result in a unification of the two churches.

I really can't fathom what that would mean. For someone who always makes the joke that I am a closet Catholic this seems pretty intense.

On another note....Meredith and I tried to go to 2 Southern Baptist Churches this morning. Neither was a success, one was closed? and the other had a drastic style of orientation dealing with the entrance of the church vs. the entrance into the sanctuary. For a more detailed description of this event, go check out Meredith's blog.

Since I think of myself as a pretty ecumenical person, it seems odd that I am going back to my non-creedal Southern Baptist roots. This is a process that we have been praying about, and we think it is the right thing to do. I am not sure if he said this, or in what wording, but my friend Alan quoted Stanley Hauerwas saying something life "Stay with the people who screwed you over".  It really scares me to jump back into this ship, but I am certain it is where I need to be at the moment. Now, we just have to find a church to be active in.

incarnational blogging

So I have been giving the idea of incarnational blogging alot more these last few days. A challenge was placed to really examine what it would be to look at blogging from that angle. I still am putting a few things together but really hope to have them up in the next few days.

To jump to something altogether but not really different.

Today at church I saw something alot cooler than I think I ever have. My wife and I have been attending The Rock/La Roca for the last month or so. It is a multi-ethnic congregation that has Spanish and English services, with both cultures being used in both ( so there is not a "favorite"). I haven't been there enough to really be a good spokesperson, but check out their site. The pastor is relatively new to the church, and Aaron is a great guy. When church was starting I saw a few of the Hispanic participants putting some ear-buds in. I realized that they had little translators that would translate the whole service. But when the sermon started Aaron also said that we had some Congolese participants in the back and he would be translating for them as well. So the entire sermon he swapped back and forth from English to French. Meredith and I were really excited to see this. We are starting to pray this week about God wanting us to join and become members of that family. So that is itself is a really cool thing, but we are more excited about being in a worshiping community that is doing some great things in it's community.

sunday

Last year I spent Sunday afternoons relecting on my week, so I have not posted on this lately. But since my wife and I are church shopping I thought about giving it a little life again.

This week we worshiped at Perkins Chapel African Methodist Episcopal church. We really dug how nice everyone was. It was small ( around 12 total), and they tried to get both me and my friend Adam on the preaching schedule. It was great worshiping with them, and I am glad we went.

Here are a few night writing pics from last spring. I thought that I may have put these up before, but I really want to try to work with this idea alot more in the future. I am keeping my fingers crossed because I may get a job this week and I need to start trying to get my creative juices flowing more.

way to early

last night we packed justin and charis off and sent them to jackson. i really dont want to talk about it.

so i have had  a really hard time with them leaving. I know that for some reason our3-4 years together and with meredith as well being brought into the fold. marriage didn't change anything (for both couples), we were still really commited to being friends and being there for each other.

I am not one of the cats that wants everyone to pile into them same big old house and live together in the same room. But I am committed to living in community with others. So i look forward to the day I can live around them again.so thats is where I am at right now.

I have been thinking alot about transportation next year. Thinking about driving, and/or biking (either manual or on a motorcycle). its funnny how in high school i was the guy that wanted to nuke the whales and I have now turned into a tree-hugger. i guess it come around to you.

i am reading romans. i like it. and that is it for now.

edit>>>i had to add this<<<<<

I am sitting here in a coffee shop that I normally dont go to. But I have time to kill on a sunday morning. it is interesting seeing the people that come into this place on sunday am. it is know as a "christian coffee house" not by advertising, but by the people group that have claimed it. but i have come here at all hours off the day and the transition is always great to watch. it goes from smooth jazz in the morning to radiohead and wilco at night. maybe i will take pictures one day?