Monthly Archives: February 2010

Time to Worship (February)

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The blizzard of 2010 and various circumstances allowed us to worship at different places this past month. Most of it came in the form of family time and personal reading. But we did deal with a lot of sluggard/laziness during this time. Time just slipped away this month.

So this past Sonship meeting was good in which we continued Chapter 7 on Repentance. True repentance is often confused with fake repentance. Things like groveling, offering sacrifice, blame shifting, coming up with great insight on your sin… these things are not true repentance.

So what does true repentance look like? It is an acknowledgement of your sin, turning to God, asking for forgiveness for specific sins and also seeking help. There is a humility, there is joy, there is knowledge of your forgiveness in Christ and freedom in being no longer in the bondage of sin. There is freedom in knowing that you no longer have to justify or atone for yourself. Christ has done it.

There’s also community when we repent we recognize that we are sinners and that we are no better than other people. We humbly acknowledge that other people’s failings are due to their very definite need for Christ… and so we respond with GRACE. An unrepentant person doesn’t see this. An unrepentant person sees only the sin or failings or weakness of that person. The repentant person sees that it is Christ that the other person needs and calls and prays and leads the other person to Christ in order to restore.

With true repentance will come change, but it will be an internal change that will manifest itself outwardly. It is not the other way around. This all coincided with my re-listening to Tim Keller’s sermon series on the Prodigal Son. He mentioned another thing about true repentance that we see God as beauty rather than duty. My prayers will be more and more adoration for God rather than requests from God. We seek relationship with Him opposed to just his blessings.

Thank you Jesus. This is exactly what I (we) needed for such an extended period of laziness. Lord change me and mold me… to be a son.

Would you be free from the burden of sin?
There’s power in the blood, power in the blood;
Would you o’er evil a victory win?
There’s wonderful power in the blood.

There is power, power, wonder working power
In the blood of the Lamb;
There is power, power, wonder working power
In the precious blood of the Lamb.

Worship Time – Sunday School

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This sunday was special for me. I shared a little at how God was working in my life and since it was Valentine’s day, shared a little how God brought my wife and I together. The sermon was on Husbands from Ephesians how husbands are called to love his wife as Christ loved the church.

We then went to our main study, which I wanted to share a little about what was going on in Haiti. Hopefully we could spur one another on to love and good deeds. Something I had hoped for the high schoolers. We watched a short flick concerning Haiti and went over some brief bible verses.

One of the questions I asked concerning what should we be doing? I shared 1 corinthians 12 where Paul said that if believers were part of one body and that if one part suffers we all suffer. We touched on Micah 6:8 were God desires his people to be people of justice and mercy. We looked at the Great commission and also Acts 1.

One student said something interesting to the effect “not bringing bibles” meaning either bible studies were irrelevant at a time like this or there wasn’t much need for Christians/evangelism. I acknowledged he was partially correct (i.e. the kidnapping missionaries, overly zealous people with lack of resources) but people also need hope. I think with all the relief efforts to bring healing and shalom through physical restoration, medical operations, amputations, rebuilding of infrastructure, etc. People also need the Gospel. Haitians (and us) need to know the supremacy of Christ in these times of crisis.

Hopefully seeing the devastation and hearing the testimonies spurred something in my students. I pray for the Holy Spirit to move them as He has moved me in many ways. Lord, use us and make us instruments for your glory and for your namesake.

Amen.

Worship Time – Confession: Snow Days

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The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside!” or, “I will be murdered in the streets!” – Proverbs 22:13

The sluggard says, “There’s a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!” – Proverbs 26:13

I struggled this week to say the least. I think God has been gracious to me especially during this time. It started last Saturday traveling home from church in which I felt like I could have died. It didn’t help that I didn’t heed my wife’s advice in staying put or finding another ride.

The snow had been falling for pretty much the whole day and the roads were slushy. My truck is rear wheel drive and I hadn’t put weight in the back to get proper traction. On one hand I knew God was with me. There were times when I knew I would not have made it home had it not been for plow trucks providentially plowing the way for me from 495 to 66 (especially the exit ramp).

As I was nearing home I had a near fatal slip out. Not being fully prepared and probably should have been more careful in driving in this weather, I skidded out and my truck spun 360.

Fortunately the few cars behind me were far enough to stop in time to avoid me and I stopped early enough to avoid hitting the side wall. I thanked God for saving me, but I was also quite shaken up. A slew of emotions kinda got to me which showed me where my heart was and still is.

After I got home, I hugged and kissed my wife and girls. By the grace of God I made it home. Like I said a slew of emotion got to me. Bitterness at church and even God for being out in the snow that day and having almost left my kids fatherless and wife widowed. I was embarrassed for not having listened to my wife. I was thankful though that God brought me home safe.

Anyways, my heart was full of varying degrees of stuff. So on Sunday we decided to play it safe and stay home despite responsibilities and commitments we made for Sunday worship/sunday school. On one hand I felt some guilt for not being able to make it but on the other hand I felt it was actually responsible as a father to keep off the roads. I battled within whether I was lacking faith by not trusting God on Sunday or whether I was just a sluggard afraid of the “lion”. It could have been a combination of both.

I think I understand where the sluggard is coming from now. To be honest, I was still a little bitter for having to be at church on Saturday where my life was almost taken. And because of this “Lion” we stayed home on Sunday and it actually continued all this week as well. A funeral on Monday, snow on Tuesday/Wednesday and possible for snow on Friday, I decided to stay home from work for the week.

Not that I am afraid of the snow, not because I don’t trust God will keep me safe, not because I can work from home, but because on Saturday around 4:30PM I almost got into a car accident and that really bothered me.

God have mercy.