A grueling weekend...but a good one...
First, let me share with you about a book that I am re-reading again. It is titled "Taking God At His Word" - subtitled "Why the Bible is knowable, necessary, and enough, and what that means for you and me." - authored by Kevin DeYoung.
Here is the summary of a majority of the book that the author gives: a handy acronym SCAN
"Sufficiency: The Scriptures contain everything we need for knowledge of salvation and godly living. We don't need any new revelation from heaven.
Clarity: The saving message of Jesus Christ is plainly taught in the Scriptures and can be understood by all who have ears to hear it. We don't need an official magisterium to tell us what the Bible means.
Authority: The last word always goes to the word of God. We must never allow the teachings of science, of human experience, or of church councils to take precedence over Scripture.
Necessity: General revelation is not enough to save us. We cannot know God savingly by means of personal experience and human reason. We need God's word to tell us how to live, who Christ is, and how to be saved."
He goes on to say, "Or to rearrange the order of the attributes, we could say: God's word is final; God's word is understandable; God's word is necessary; and God's word is enough."
That concept of God's word of trumping my feelings many times will be woven into the sermon this week as we see Peter challenging the Christians of the Roman provinces that they need to turn from their ways of sin and squarely put their eyes and very lives on Jesus Christ and His way.
Robin Williams, the comedian, passed away this week tragically, so many videos and posting have been on Facebook. I remember him most from the show Mork & Mindy in the 70's. There was a clip of him doing a comedy routine at a USO gathering. He starts his bit and then retreat starts to play - the trumpet tune played with the flag is being lowered. The whole audience of service men and women turn toward the direction of the flag, backs toward Robin and stand at attention. One of the service men that was attending things on the stage didn't have his hat with him (not in full uniform) and a buddy tossed his hat and he immediately put it on and saluted the flag. Robin didn't know what was going on but respectfully waited and then it was explained to him the discipline on military bases around the world. He went on to use it to make fun of himself, not the practice as the crowd turned back around. (If you find this clip, be aware that Robin used crude language at times.)
This is what struck me. Something trumped the pleasure of having a famous comedian there. Something trumped. Those service men and women had a code that when the trumpet blew they were to face the flag and other things we set aside, even a few extra laughs they could have gotten from Robin. They even made sure they were in full uniform and eyes in the direction of the flag. Wow, does God, does Jesus, does the Word of God trump everything else in our lives? Does it call us to attention and do we stop everything and make sure are eyes are focused clearly on Him? We live in a world that has so much else going on that I fear and I see many Christians not coming to attention on a regular basis before God.
Those soldiers still got to laugh but something trumped and they responded and then went on to the event at hand. I think many times we put the event at hand which usually is to our pleasure and put off the attention to God and we are suffering for it, individually and also as a church around the world, especially in America. Does God have my full attention?
The weekend at Oglesby Union Church was grueling...but it was good. It is amazing to be immersed in another body of believers and observe them among each other. It was refreshing to know that there is another church that is practicing the "one anothers" and many other Biblical commands of submission and respect to the body of Christ. I probably have never answered so many questions in such a short amount of time but we felt that every situation and meeting and experience of the weekend was there for a purpose in the life of that church and also in ours.
We continue to ask for your prayers as the procedures go forward and we continue to discern God's will on all fronts. We ask for God's blessing on both Gaylord Family Fellowship and Oglesby Union Church as we go forward together.
Adam
Here is the summary of a majority of the book that the author gives: a handy acronym SCAN
"Sufficiency: The Scriptures contain everything we need for knowledge of salvation and godly living. We don't need any new revelation from heaven.
Clarity: The saving message of Jesus Christ is plainly taught in the Scriptures and can be understood by all who have ears to hear it. We don't need an official magisterium to tell us what the Bible means.
Authority: The last word always goes to the word of God. We must never allow the teachings of science, of human experience, or of church councils to take precedence over Scripture.
Necessity: General revelation is not enough to save us. We cannot know God savingly by means of personal experience and human reason. We need God's word to tell us how to live, who Christ is, and how to be saved."
He goes on to say, "Or to rearrange the order of the attributes, we could say: God's word is final; God's word is understandable; God's word is necessary; and God's word is enough."
That concept of God's word of trumping my feelings many times will be woven into the sermon this week as we see Peter challenging the Christians of the Roman provinces that they need to turn from their ways of sin and squarely put their eyes and very lives on Jesus Christ and His way.
Robin Williams, the comedian, passed away this week tragically, so many videos and posting have been on Facebook. I remember him most from the show Mork & Mindy in the 70's. There was a clip of him doing a comedy routine at a USO gathering. He starts his bit and then retreat starts to play - the trumpet tune played with the flag is being lowered. The whole audience of service men and women turn toward the direction of the flag, backs toward Robin and stand at attention. One of the service men that was attending things on the stage didn't have his hat with him (not in full uniform) and a buddy tossed his hat and he immediately put it on and saluted the flag. Robin didn't know what was going on but respectfully waited and then it was explained to him the discipline on military bases around the world. He went on to use it to make fun of himself, not the practice as the crowd turned back around. (If you find this clip, be aware that Robin used crude language at times.)
This is what struck me. Something trumped the pleasure of having a famous comedian there. Something trumped. Those service men and women had a code that when the trumpet blew they were to face the flag and other things we set aside, even a few extra laughs they could have gotten from Robin. They even made sure they were in full uniform and eyes in the direction of the flag. Wow, does God, does Jesus, does the Word of God trump everything else in our lives? Does it call us to attention and do we stop everything and make sure are eyes are focused clearly on Him? We live in a world that has so much else going on that I fear and I see many Christians not coming to attention on a regular basis before God.
Those soldiers still got to laugh but something trumped and they responded and then went on to the event at hand. I think many times we put the event at hand which usually is to our pleasure and put off the attention to God and we are suffering for it, individually and also as a church around the world, especially in America. Does God have my full attention?
The weekend at Oglesby Union Church was grueling...but it was good. It is amazing to be immersed in another body of believers and observe them among each other. It was refreshing to know that there is another church that is practicing the "one anothers" and many other Biblical commands of submission and respect to the body of Christ. I probably have never answered so many questions in such a short amount of time but we felt that every situation and meeting and experience of the weekend was there for a purpose in the life of that church and also in ours.
We continue to ask for your prayers as the procedures go forward and we continue to discern God's will on all fronts. We ask for God's blessing on both Gaylord Family Fellowship and Oglesby Union Church as we go forward together.
Adam
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