Thursday Night Worship

This Thursday night we are having another night of worship.

Come one come all!

Last worship night was pretty powerful, and I think that as we continue to do this it will just get more and more powerful.

Verse of the Day

Verse for the Day: Galatians 1: 10

"For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ."

How often do we seek approval from people? It seems that the motif for so many of our lives is seeking the please those around us... and if this reigns overall it can only mean that serving God falls by the wayside.

Which is more important to you?

idols

I have just started to read Timothy Keller's new book "Counterfeit Gods". So far it promises to be a great read just like everything of his.

I was thinking on the subject of idols and I remember one of my professors saying how we can focus on the idols of money, power, sex and all of that, but that the most insidious idol is our view of God. What he meant was that if we start to change who God is in our minds to allow us to do what we want, we have effectively made an idol. And it would be the most dangerous because it might appear just like the true God on the outside and we might not even realize that it is an idol. It really makes you think and it really shows the importance of knowing God and theology.

So is your God the one that you have crafted to fit your pleasure? or is your God the one found in scripture?

Control

God is in control. That might sound like a very "Christian" thing to say, it is one of those phrases that is thrown around by people who want to try to explain away a hard time or to try to give comfort to people in the midst of a personal tragedy. For whatever reason this has been a popular and well known saying. There are many that fall along the same category, such as "God has a plan", "God works in mysterious ways", and others. But do we believe this?

Do we honestly believe this? I am not talking about just believing like we know it to be true, or feel it to be true, but believe it so much that it bleeds into how we live and how we act and how we think about this world. Because that is what it means to truly believe that God is sovereign... it means that we know, we act, we think, we are who we are totally based on God being in charge and in control.

Proverbs 16:33

"The lot is cast into the lap, but every decision is from the Lord."

Compare and Contrast

Compare and contrast. Those used to be my least favorite questions in school. The teacher or the book would present two different things, be they systems of thought or different items, and they would ask you to compare and contrast. They wanted you to list what was similar about the two and also what was different. I might have disliked these questions because they required you to know everything about not only one thing but two. I remember for many homework assignments and on not that few of test comparing systems and also contrasting them. I would have to rack my brain to think how are these similar and how are they different. The great thing about this was that once you have done one, compare or contrast, the other was easy to do. You just had to list everything you haven’t mentioned. I was reading a Psalm the other day and I could not help but think of compare and contrast.

Psalm 36

1Transgression speaks to the wicked

deep in his heart;

there is no fear of God

before his eyes.

2 For he flatters himself in his own eyes

that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated.

3The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit;

he has ceased to act wisely and do good.

4He plots trouble while on his bed;

he sets himself in a way that is not good;

he does not reject evil.

5Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens,


your faithfulness to the clouds.


6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;


your judgments are like the great deep;


man and beast you save, O LORD.

7 How precious is your steadfast love, O God!


The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.


8They feast on the abundance of your house,


and you give them drink from the river of your delights.


9For with you is the fountain of life;


in your light do we see light.

10Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you,


and your righteousness to the upright of heart!


11Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me,


nor the hand of the wicked drive me away.


12There the evildoers lie fallen;


they are thrust down, unable to rise.

Compare and contrast, that is what David is doing here in this Psalm. He starts with humanity. He speaks about our sinful nature in that our hearts listen to transgression and we do not fear God. This is so interrogated in our condition that we flatter ourselves to the extent that we no longer see our sin in our lives. We have blinded ourselves to our true state by thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to. We speak deceit and we no longer do good. We don’t only talk evil but our actions are evil. Every aspect of who we are is tainted. Humanity is in the grip of evil so much that it is the thing we think about, before we go to bed and right when we wake up. We think on things that are evil and how we can get away with evil. We don’t fight it, we have given in and dwell in it.

Humanity is than compared to God. And through this comparison the majesty of God is made known and the fallen of man. That is the great thing about compare and contrast, it really lets us see where you can place things relative to each other. When compared to humanity God couldn’t be more different. Where man is supremely wicked, God is supremely good. His love is so vast that it can’t be measured. All of what he is, is so great that it is greater than the heavens, it reaches to the clouds, it is bigger than mountains, it is deeper than the seas. It is the love of the Lord and his vastness that allows people to take shelter under him. People find comfort, love, safety, refuge under God. God sustains and nourishes us. He provides and cares for us. He is the light and the life.

When compared to this, humanity couldn’t seem smaller. Compared to God we know our place in the world. This shouldn’t get us down. It shouldn’t be a source of despair. The focus is on the greatness of God. God is great, so great that he leaves humanity in the dust. It is for this reason we worship God.

So compare for yourself….

College Worship

We are planing on having our College Worship night this Thursday. we have not been able to have one yet, so this should be a good time to get away from studying and worship with some fellow students.

It will be a time of signing and a short message.

pour

I was just at my grandpa's funeral this pass week (sorry for having to cancel the worship night). It was a very moving time and hard in many ways, but also a great time to celebrate my grandpa's life. It is times like these that can get you thinking and wondering about your own life. If there is one thing that I can take away from this is that we need to make the most of every moment and really invest in people. That is what my grandpa did and the church was packed.

So let us really pour into those around us.