What next?

We've finished Revelation. We spent some time looking at unChristian and learned a little bit about being relevant to outsiders. Now what?

I'd like to study a book of the Bible again, but which one?

Here are a couple of suggestions that were thrown out on Sunday:

• Ecclesiastes
• Song of Solomon
• Galatians
• James

I know that others were suggested, but I don't remember what they were.

Feel free to leave comments on this blog post at (www.ignitefaith.com) with your suggestions and even comment on suggestions left by others...just don't be mean.

Looking forward to hearing your ideas!

Jim

Indescribable

I don't know about you, but I really needed that yesterday morning.

On the way home Kathy and I were talking about the video and we both felt like God had, at the same time, smacked us up side the head and given us a hug...which we desperately needed.

Kathy gave me that DVD and another one from Louie for Father's Day. I hadn't had a chance to watch either of them yet. Saturday Bobby wanted to take some of his friends up to Blue for a day of boarding (don't even get me started on how cold it was...0° when we started, 10° by the time we left at 3:30). That meant that I didn't have much time for prep. So, I grabbed Indescribable.

Kathy and I have been (and are still) going through a lot of, for lack of a better word, cosmic discipline. Yesterday we were reminded of both how insignificant we (and our problems) are and yet how intimately God loves us through Christ.

I pray that God used yesterday to speak His Truth into your heart as well.

I thought you might be interested in the image that Louie ended with. I'm inserting it into this post and providing a link.

Enjoy,
Jim

The link is: http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/1992/17/images/a/formats/large_web.jpg.

Christianity Today Poll

I found this poll kind of interesting…mostly because of the results. Reminded me of some of the things we talked about in unChristian.

Anyway…you’ll need to vote to see the results.

Let me know what you think in a comment on the blog site.

unChristian

Tomorrow (21 Sept 2008) we will begin our new study.

It won't be as long as our study of Revelation.

We will be taking a look at a book that I've been working my way through and a couple of others have read. Steve Musser, when he was presenting the DNA for Faith Church briefly mentioned the book unChristian. I had already picked it up but hadn't gotten very far through it. I'm still working my way through it but we thought it would be a good idea for us to quickly go through the book together.

“Mosaics” — born between 1984 and 2002
“Busters” — born between 1965 and 1983

“There are about twenty-four million outsiders in this country who are ages sixteen to twenty-nine.”

Outsiders “admit their emotional and intellectual barriers go up when they are around Christians, and they reject Jesus because they feel rejected by Christian.”

Join us as we look at how to “articulate a ‘kinder, gentler’ faith—one that engages people but does not compromise its passion for Jesus or its theological understanding of him.”

I don’t expect to agree with everything in unChristian, but I do expect to be challenged to be a Christ follower who impacts those around me for the Kingdom of my God and Savior.

Starts tomorrow at 9:00AM in Mod B. Call me (610-533-6909) if you have any questions!

The End and the Beginning...

Revelation: Began 10 Sept 2006

Revelation: Completed 7 Sept 2008

Next: unChristian - “What a new generation really thinks about Christianity...and why it matters” (1 Chronicles 12:32)

unChristian: Begins 21 Sept 2008

unChristian: Complete (probably won't be two years...but it may be your whole lifetime!)

In Genesis, Jesus is...

Were you in church June 15th? If you were you will remember an AMAZING recitation by Lisa Rhodes. She MEMORIZED what follows and delivered it with passion and conviction to the congregation. The band played music in the background and I don't know about you, but I had chills running through my body as it reached it's apex. It's an amazing look at the things Christ is throughout the Bible and the many characteristics He has. Chad was able to get a copy of what she shared and so here it is. - Jonathan

In Genesis, Jesus is the Ram at Abraham's alter,
In Exodus , He's the Passover Lamb.
In Leviticus, He's the High Priest.
In Numbers He's the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.
In Deuteronomy, He's our city of refuge.
In Joshua, He's the Scarlet Thread out Rahab's window.
In Judges. He is our Judge.
In Ruth He is our Kinsman Redeemer.
In 1st and 2nd Samuel, He's our Trusted Prophet.
In Kings and Chronicles He's our Reigning King.
In Ezra, He's our Faithful Scribe.
In Nehemiah, He's the Rebuilder of everything that is broken.
In Esther, He is the Mordeci sitting Faithful at the gate.
In Job, He's our Redeemer that ever liveth.
In Psalms He is my Shepherd and I shall not want.
In Proverbs and Ecclesiastes He's our Wisdom.
In the Song of Solomon, He's the Beautiful Bridegroom.
In Isaiah He's the Suffering Servant.
In Jeremiah and Lamentations, it is Jesus that is the Weeping Prophet.
In Ezekiel, He's the wonderful four faced man.
In Daniel, He is the fourth man in the midst of a fiery furnace.
In Hosea , He is my love that is forever faithful.
In Joel, He baptizes us with the Holy Spirit.
In Amos, He's our Burden Bearer.
In Obadiah, He's Our Savior.
In Jonah, He is the Great Foreign Missionary, that takes the Word of God into all of the world.
In Micah, He is the Messenger with the beautiful feet.
In Nahum, He is the Avenger.
In Habakkuk, He is the Watchman that is ever praying for revival.
In Zephaniah, He is the Lord Mighty to save.
In Haggai, He is the Restorer for our lost heritage.
In Zechariah, He is our fountain.
In Malachi, He is the Son of Righteousness with Healing in His wings.

In Matthew, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
In Mark, He is the Miracle Worker.
In Luke, He's the Son of man.
In John, He is the door by which everyone of us must enter.
In Acts, He is the Shining light that appears to Saul on the road to Damascus.
In Romans, He is our justifier.
In 1st Corinthians our Resurrection.
In 2nd Corinthians our Sin Bearer.
In Galatians, He redeems us from the law.
In Ephesians He is our Unsearchable Riches.
In 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, He is our Soon coming King.
In Philipians, He supplies our every need.
In Colossians, He's the fullness of the Godhead Bodily.
In 1st and 2nd Timothy, He is our Mediator between God and man.
In Titus He is our Blessed Hope.
In Philemon, He is a Friend that sticks closer then a brother.
In Hebrews, He's the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant.
In James, it is the Lord that heals the sick.
In 1st and 2nd Peter He is the Chief Shepherd.
In 1st and 2nd and 3rd John, it is Jesus who has the tenderness of love.
In Jude, he is the Lord coming with 10,000 saints.
In Revelation, Lift up your eyes, Church for your redemption draweth nigh. He is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords!

Spiritual Guidance

Sunday was a fun day! We spent time in ignite learning about Spiritual Guidance. It continued the study we have been doing through Ortberg's The Life You've Always Wanted. We had a good discussion together. It was a pleasure to be able to present on this topic. Below are some of the notes from the discussion. Some questions we discussed were

1. Describe a time in your life when you felt that God was communicating something to you. How did you know it was God?
2. What is your response when a person says God told him or her to do something?

We discussed how listening to God is a process and that it is focusing on getting us to have two-way communication with Him. We especially want to be mindful of "Spiritual Minlessness" and missing God's presence. An example would be "mental drift" when you read the Bible for a few minutes but your mind was wandering and you cannot recall what you read. The importance of Spiritual Guidance was established through these passages: Psalm 25:9, Psalm 32:8, Proverbs 3:5-6. We also, however, have to make sure we are not like Samuel (1 Samuel 3:8-10) and miss God's leading. We must also go beyond listening but also doing (John 10:27). An important aspect we covered was what Spiritual Guidance is NOT.

1. Not “insider information”…Turning to God in tough times
2. Not a badge of spirituality or importance
3. Not the same thing as being passive

i. Example: Not seeking a job because it would be a sign of God’s will if you get a job without trying…similar to sitting down on a freeway saying “if I don’t get run over by a car then it’s God’s will I be alive”

Then we focused on how to to pursue Spiritual Guidance

1. Listen for the Spirit continually

i. “If we have some discretionary time unexpectedly open up, we can pause and ask God, ‘Do you have anything for me to do?’ Then we can listen for a moment, and if no prompting comes, we simply do what seems wisest. Each time we greet someone tomorrow, we can inwardly ask the Sprit, ‘How can I respond to this person? Do you want to speak or work through me?’”

2. Be relentlessly responsive

i. “Guidance only makes sense for people who are resolved to respond”

ii. “It only makes sense to ask God for guidance in the context of a life committed to ‘seeking first the kingdom’. The only kind of guidance God gives is for living as Jesus would in our place.”

3. Listen for the Spirit’s voice in the words of others (Acts 4:25, John 12:49-50, Matthew 10:18-20)

Finally we discussed in what ways might our daily lives change if we listened for the Spirit continually, such as pausing during the day to ask God for wisdom? We closed with the final two quotes from Ortberg:

“We cannot be transformed if we close ourselves off to the guiding power of the Holy Spirit. We must come to believe – mind-stretching as it sounds – that God really can and does personally attend to us. As long as we are going to pray to the God who spoke the creation into being…then surely we accept the possibility that sometimes He may want to get in a word or two with us.”

God's purpose in guidance is not to get us to perform the right actions. His purpose is to help us become the right kind of people. – Ortberg

So I close this post with two questions

1. What are you doing this week to allow God access to help you become the right kind of person?
2. While studying Revelation on 09/17/06 Jim VanDuzer said, "The voice of God is spoken with the expectation to obey". Are you being relentlessly responsive to the Spiritual Guidance you are receiving through God's leading, through Scripture, and/or through mature believers in your life?

My prayer is that this lesson either raised, refined, or rekindled a desire to pursue this spiritual discipline. In Him, For Him, Through Him Jonathan Davidson

Bells will be ringing...

Congratulations Eric & Stephanie!

We all pray God's blessing on the two of you as you begin your life together!

(Good job on the candle...persistence and the ability to work together to accomplish a task is an incredibly necessary trait in a marriage!)

You guys rock!

Lifehouse Everything - Faith Church Youth Group

In case you missed it last Sunday...this was awesome! What's really cool is that when the "Christ" figure (Matt Rhodes) threw off all the others the auditorium erupted in applause! (Personally...I was already crying by then, but started free flow at that point.)

Oh...and FWIW...Matt had a bad case of sunburn on his back.