Jesus, the Crucifixion, and Sagan's Contact

Christianity isn't going to the cross at first and moving on from there to deeper things.  It is going to the cross and going deeper into it.

I was flipping channels last night in a 20-minute attempt to clear my brain before bedtime and ran across Carl Sagan's Contact with Jodie Foster.  In the scene I'm describing, they're at the Mall in DC where she and the pseudopriest Matthew McConaughey are talking about her reasons for going.  Right before the romantic kiss and the mutual confusion that ensues, this conversation happens (slightly paraphrased).

MM:  Why do you want to go?  You, not humanity, but you?

JF:  Ever since I was a little I wanted to know if there was more.

MM:  Why would you risk losing everything?  Is it really worth your life?

JF:  To find out our purpose in the universe?  I think it's absolutely worth a life.

That got me thinking about a person who gave His life.  In that death we find salvation through forgiveness and the imputation of righteousness.  But we also find our God-glorifying purpose on display.  And there's love on display, powerfully portrayed in the sacrifice.  Then there's victory over the spiritual forces of darkness.  And reconciliation to God and one another.  And the promised healing whereby He will set the whole world right again.  And on and on we could go.

So much happened at the cross.  So much is revealed.  So don't fall for the mindset that the cross is the beginning and then from there you move on.  The cross is like the spring in the middle of the City of God - the place life begins and is sustained.  Move deeper into it, not away from it.

Two idols, some poles, and high places

Secret sins are every bit as dangerous as known sins and must be dealt with just as ruthlessly.

I'm reading through the books of the Kings right now as I journey through the Bible this year.  One creepy theme keeps showing up and does so in sequels like the never-ending Friday the 13th movies.  That theme is the good kings and their response to the sins in the land.  They dealt with most of them, but the text testifies that they didn't tear down the asherah poles or destroy the golden calves or knock down the high places where the people offered incense.  It never attempts to explain the political or leadership pressures they faced that caused this course of action.

And this has me thinking (and praying):  where am I unwilling to deal with sin in my life?  Are there places in my life where I am not dealing with the sin that remains, no matter the reason or rationale or excuse or justification I might give?

Search me and know me.  Find out if there's any wicked way within me.  Lead me in the way everlasting.  Amen.

My Girl is in Haiti - how do I blog?

FYI to the four of you who read this blog, my sweet and wonderful wife is in Haiti doing mission work with YWAM.  Please pray for her and follow the adventure here:  4uruthie.blogspot.com.  I'm managing the chaos around the house solo this week.  So if I blog a little less, I'll fall upon your grace.

Thanks in advance,
Trent

Sermon Notes from Sunday 5.9.10

As always, our webmaster extraordinaire makes the sermons available at:  sermons.heritagepark.org.  With the limited number of notes provided below, you might want to get the sermon and follow along.

Through the Roof

Mark 2.1-12

Where are you?

• Listening Crowd – hearing the truth and checking Him out.
• Faithful Friend – bringing another to the Master.
• Desperate Paralytic – offering nothing but hoping for anything.
• Religious Observer – right answers but wrong assumptions.

What will it take?

• Overcome the obstacle of others.
• Overcome the obstacle of hindrance.
• Overcome the obstacle of perseverance.
• Overcome the obstacle of obedience.

Will you trust?

• Do you believe that God always does what is best?
• Do you believe that He gives us what we need?
• Will you glorify Him no matter what?  

Psalm 19, part 4

The Word of God offers more satisfaction than possessions or pleasure.  So our deepest desire is satisfied as we gain Him through it.

More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. (v.10)

Sometimes I don't desire to read the Bible.  Is that okay to say (and still be a pastor-type)?  Most of the time, I do anyway.  And on the backside of my encounter with the Scripture is a type of satisfaction.  Not the kind of self-satisfaction that delights in the self-righteousness and self-discipline and screams, "Look at me!"  It's a different kind of satisfaction.  It's a kind of satisfaction that enlarges the soul more than any activity I would replace it with could ever do.  Even when it's dry and dusty (which happens sometimes too), I know there is soul-enlarging goodness happening.

That's the power of the Scripture that gives us God.  It trumps the gold of materialism and the honey of hedonism.  It gives me the one thing my soul longs for.  The one thing I was made for.  It gives me God.  

And part of what it shapes in me is perspective.  The Bible, in enlarging the soul and defeating the trite (though powerful) desires of the flesh, gives me a sense of what's real.  It helps me see what's true.  It "gives light to the eyes" so I'm not guessing in the dark.  By it, I see the rest of the world and can keep it in perspective (thank you, CS Lewis).

Psalm 19, part 3

Wisdom isn't a simple matter of been-there-done-that.  Wisdom is a matter of God's revelation in the Bible being applied to my life.

The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.

I love it that the Bible calls itself the testimony of God.  It is the word of God about God given to us by God.  It is the revelation of Himself to us.  To my knowledge, no other religious text makes such a claim.  Yet one more reason the Bible is unique and should be heard.

Some would have you believe that wisdom comes from experience - whether experience in a particular area of expertise or wisdom in surviving a particular experience (such as a surviving a head-on collision).  I don't doubt that perspectives shift when those kinds of things happen to us.  I don't doubt that some people are wiser plumbers, electricians, engineers, surgeons, leaders or preachers because of experience in a skill.

But the wisdom of the Bible is a wisdom about life.  You know people who have been through relationship after relationship, situation after situation and it never seems to get better.  Their cycles aren't cycles at all, but rather spirals that go deeper, faster, and more destructive with each iteration.  Wisdom doesn't just come to us by living through those things.  Wisdom comes from listening to the God of the Universe who speaks through His Word to us and applying that Word as the best way to live.

Psalm 19, part 2

The reason we keep the law of the Lord is not to make ourselves perfect but because it's honoring to Him and the way He says is best to live.

The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul.  Those are powerful words from the pen of David.  One of the reason they're so powerful is because they're universal.  I cannot think of a person alive today, yesterday, or tomorrow who doesn't need a serious restoration project on his soul.  We're all messed up, cracked, fading, unstable, broken, bruised, and generally destructive to ourselves and those around us.

While the law of God is not the source of our righteousness, it is the course of it.  It is the path by which we honor Him and live in the way He says is best.  It honors Him by treating Him as holy but also smart.  And it turns out for our best - the restoration of our jonesed up souls.  Holiness and wholeness are not opposed to one another.  They're cause and effect.

Sermon Notes from Sunday 5.2.10

Audio to this sermon can be found here:  Jesus Goes Outside (our comfort zone)

Jesus Goes Outside

Mark 1.35-45

Jesus is at work outside our comfort zones today.  We are left with two options:  miss out or join Him.

Outside our Practices

• His life and ministry are shaped by His practice of prayer, not vice versa.
• Pray using the Bible as a guide.
• Pray using the calendar as a friend.
• Pray using the response of spiritual warfare.

Outside our Movements

• He left the success of Capernaum for the ministry in unnamed townships.
• His glory was coming, but first the Kingdom needed proclamation and demonstration. 

Outside our Ministry

• He retreated and redirected, but He’s not aloof.
• He stopped for someone who offered Him nothing.
• He touched the untouchable, making clean the one who made Jesus “unclean.”
• He healed the one who (possibly) deserved it least.

Outside our Command

• We don’t understand His commands but are still accountable to them.
• We can trust that everything He says is best for His Kingdom.  

GREAT post

There is a GREAT post from my wife on sanctification and joy and the process of both.  Find it here:

Blog Link

Psalm 19, part 1

Pulsing with energy and mystery, the stars of the universe are communicating a singular message:  God is amazingly glorious.

I watched with fascination last night a Discovery Channel special on the universe and Stephen Hawking's thoughts on it.  For those of you who don't know, Stephen Hawking is the leading theoretical physicist in the world, the black hole specialist on the planet, and the smartest guy in any room.

Hawking talked about the power of stars, the energy still out there in the universe, and the deep darkness and danger of black holes.  Though, to my knowledge, he's not a follower of Christ, his explanation and the accompanying dramatization of how things happened, are happening and will happen in the universe made me think about David's take on the universe too.  The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky shows forth His handiwork.

Whether billions of years old or several thousand years old has been a debate for years now.  It's actually uninteresting to me.  I have my opinions, but they're just that - opinions.  What does matter, though, is the receptivity of my heart to the message in the stars.  Will my heart, life, mouth, actions respond mirror that message?  Will I say, "Yes!  Glory to God!"?