Post #250 - and appropriately a sermon...

Today's post is the 250th post on the blog.  Thanks for reading along.  Appropriately, the 250th post is a sermon post.  Here are the notes for this week's sermon.  As always, you can get the audio and notes in PDF at sermons.heritagepark.org.

Christmas 2010

Joy

Romans 5.2-5

Rejoice:  you’re under only grace

• Some think God relates to them on the basis of their performance.
• If you are in Christ, you are under grace and only grace. 
• Anything and everything that comes to you is Father-filtered and for your good.
• We have a bedrock of firm footing:  God is for us. 
• The realm of grace reminds us this isn’t all there is, leading to joy in what will be. 

Rejoice:  your trials have purpose

• Endurance – the ability to stick to something.
• Character – tested, hammered, proven that glorifies Jesus.
• Hope – the same hope for what will be.
• No matter our trial or reason for it, God is with us. 

Heisman (?)

So I'm not usually one to follow a ton of college football.  Being a Baylor graduate, our football season tends to be the warm-up for the sports in which we're actually competitive.  My standard response to the Aggies and Longhorns and others who are football crazies goes something like this:  "Well, basketball season's coming."  This year was wonderfully different and we're bowl bound while the Longhorns sit at home.

But this leads me to Cam Newton, the Auburn quarterback.  He's the hands down frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy, the award given for the outstanding football player who exhibits excellence with integrity.

And here's my question:  if you were a Heisman voter, would you vote for him?

Excellence he has, no doubt.  28 passing TDs.  20 rushing TDs.  Even a receiving TD.  I think he threw the ball enough to get it past the moon or something and Auburn's the #1 school in the nation in the BCS polls.

But what about integrity?  He apparently has none.  There is at least one scandal surrounding him and his recruitment process and how much he knew and when he knew it, how much he took and when he accepted it.  It's Reggie Bush all over again.

But Reggie gave back his Heisman.

And so we're in this cultural melee where "excellence with integrity" means, apparently, not as much as it used to.  My guess is that he'll receive the Heisman.  And then about 3 years from now he'll have it stripped from him or have to return it (a la Mr. Bush).

And if so, then it's not just the kid from Auburn who has an integrity problem.  It's all those who voted for him.  And they represent what we'll accept in society.  And therein lies my issue.

But that's just me thinking thoughts...

Spiritual Junk Email

I was thinking about the continuance of spam email that comes into my inbox.  I get a lot - some of it true spam, some of it junk from people who can't resist the urge to forward without going to Snopes.com first.  And then I thought about the spiritual junk that comes into my life.

It comes from quips and quotes that have their place in culture but can't be found in the Bible.  Most famously:  "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps" becomes "God helps those who help themselves."  The problem isn't with the quotes necessarily, it's that sometimes I believe the lie within them.

It comes from pressures that I don't need and don't want but are there.  Seemingly, they deal a lot with children.  Are they good enough, smart enough, reading at a high enough level, popular enough, involved enough?  Though I'd like to pass it all off on children, those (and many other pressures) are mostly about me.

It comes from a pace that tries to sprint through a marathon.  Get here.  Get there.  And hurry!  The organizing principle of life actually becomes a calendar instead of the calendar reflecting the organizing principle of life.  Love shrivels and the demands get more frantic.

I have to delete spam in my inbox.  Probably need to do the same in my life.  And replace it with something worthwhile.

But that's just me thinking thoughts...

Hip Hip Hooray - it's Cast Off Day

The title of the blog was the song our youngest and I were singing on the way to Dallas this morning.  Why were we headed to Dallas?  Therein lies the point of this blog entry...

When we adopted our daughter, she was born with arthrogryposis, which is the technical name for bilateral wrist drop.  Essentially, her arms were down by her side in the womb and her hands formed bent both downward and outward.  She hasn't really missed a beat in life and can pretty much do whatever the stink she wants to do because she's determined (like her mom) and stubborn (like her dad).

But we live in a wrist-neutral world, so setting them to neutral was an option that we explored.  Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children came across our radar and we applied for their care.  They are a Masonic charity organization that cares for orthopedic cases in children up to 18.  And their care is stellar.  We have never been treated so well.

They have high-quality staff and volunteers there.  One thing that struck Ginny and me the first time we were there was the nature of the volunteers who were there.  Certainly there were older folks around.  But at night, it was almost exclusively young people - collegians and young professionals.  I even asked why one guy helped out.  His reply?  "Well, I was in the hospital a lot when I was a kid and I know what it's like.  So I come by to try to make a kid's day better."  He was 19.  I don't know many 19-year olds who think like that.  But every Friday, that guy is there.

Answering a brief objection:  you don't have to be a Mason or even agree with them to receive care from TSRHC.  But I am grateful that God used them to minister His mercy to my family.

If you're in the Dallas area, I encourage you to check them out.  They're a worthy charity.

But that's just me thinking thoughts...

Quotable on Tuesday

I read this during my study for the retreat I did over Thanksgiving weekend.  It's been with me a while and I figured it's a good time to roll it out.  O, for more God-knowers with pens like this...

A.W. Tozer on the Holiness of God

...A new channel must be cut through the desert of our minds to allow the sweet waters of truth that will heal our great sickness to flow in.  We cannot grasp the true meaning of the divine holiness by thinking of someone or something very pure and then raising the concept to the highest degree we are capable of.  God's holiness is not simply the best we know infinitely bettered.  We know nothing like the divine holiness.  It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible, and unattainable.  The natural man is blind to it.  He may fear God's power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine.


I'm with Tozer here.  Nothing in our concept of God would dream up holiness.  And yet our hearts long for something "other."  Therein is the deep calling to deep.  We were made for admiring the beauty of holiness and worshipping the Holy One, yet sin twists our minds so that we would never create it on our own.  But it's there, built into our imago Dei and reflected in the yearnings and desires of our hearts that we may only sense when it's very still and the only thing moving at 3am is the ceiling fan.

But that's just me (and Tozer) thinking thoughts...

Christmas Spending, Wisdom, and a Small Insect

So I'm reading through the book of Proverbs right now, trying to live in the wisdom that it espouses.  At least once a year, I read through the book, one chapter per day for 31 days.  It's a practice I encourage you to adopt.  There are so many gems in here.

So on to today's reflection.  In 6.1-11, Solomon contrasts two very different financial situations.  They apply both to individuals and to nations (Congress, are you listening?).

The first person is the person who has pledged his goods to his neighbor to buy something he wants now.  I'm sure none of us are in that situation (to MasterCard or AmEx or the next generation...).  Wisdom says to run to the neighbor and work it out right then and to do so with intensity:  like a gazelle caught by a hunter and trying to get away and flee.  Dave Ramsey's "gazelle-like intensity" comes from 6.5.

In light of our Christmas and Congressional spending as of late, sounds like a good reminder.  Admittedly, our family is not a "no credit and no credit card" kind of family like Mr. Ramsey.  But we can write a check for every expenditure.

The second example is the Ant.  She works hard.  She saves.  She plans ahead.  She has plenty when it gets bad and plenty when it is good, though (honestly) probably not as much as others have when it's good because she's always putting away from when it's bad - and it inevitably gets bad.  The sluggard, in contrast, merely wants to nap.  But when snoozing, poverty and want come along and commit robbery.

Which do you want to be?  And equally as important:  how are you going to get there?  What practices do you need to change to get there?

But that's just me thinking thoughts...

Sermon Notes from Sunday 12.5.10

Here are the sermon notes from 12.5.  As always, you can find the notes in PDF and the sermon audio at sermons.heritagepark.org.  In this particular sermon on the Advent theme of peace, I tried to tie the cross to the incarnation.  May God grant us ears to hear and courage to obey.  Amen.

Christmas 2010

Peace – Romans 5.1

What does God give?

• Peace = wholeness (shalom)

Why does God give peace?

• Spiritual Fracture:  with God.
• Relationship Fracture:  with others.
• Nature Fracture:  with the world around us.

How does He give peace?

• It is not by our earning peace.
• Our best, most perfect efforts would only balance the scales.
• Peace comes by righteousness that is ours by confidence in Jesus Christ.

Isn’t this Christmas?

• Jesus had to become fully human for us to be saved (Heb. 2.17).
• Gregory of Nazianzus:  What is not assumed cannot be saved.
• The incarnation is essential to His saving work.

You probably have seen this...

So you've probably been passed this email or have seen it on Facebook or YouTube.  However, it's the Christmas season and I absolutely LOVE the Hallelujah Chorus.  And I love that, whether or not these folks are people of faith in Christ, they proclaimed incredible Truth at a food court in a mall, right beside a #1 with cheese and no tomatoes with fries for the side and a Dr. Pepper to drink...

Peace

This is the second week of Advent.  I'm not sure we, as a church, do it in the order that everyone else does.  But this week is the week we think about Peace.

I have done a lot of thinking about peace this week for various reasons (not the least of which is I get to preach about it on Sunday).  God brings us His peace - shalom - wholeness and does so through Jesus Christ.

Why do we need it?

The answer (and a preview for Sunday's sermon) is clear:  we have no peace - shalom - wholeness.  We have brokenness.  There is the fracture of our relationship with God because of sin.  There is the brokenness in our relationship with one another.  And there is the cracked relationship between us and the rest of Creation.

Brokenness is everywhere.  So God brings peace - shalom - wholeness.  Right in the midst of the ugliness is this beautiful thought.

Enjoy that this week as we head toward Sunday.

After such a crazy fall, I can tell you I'm ready for Christmas season.  One thing I'm noticing in my own heart after such a long couple of months is a tendency toward apathy.  I guess being tired can bring that kind of response.

Going to war for my own heart and joy includes hearing this morning from Solomon in the book of Proverbs.  "Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way and have their fill of their own devices.  For the simple are killed by their turning away and the complacency of fools destroys them" (Proverbs 1.29-32 ESV, emphasis mine).

Did you see what I saw?  Apathy (complacency in the text above) destroys.  Turning away from the Lord, even by not pursuing Him, means that same Lord will let us have what we want - the fruit of our ways, the fill of our own devices.  Romans 1 has a lot to say about that.

So this is an exhortation to me and you and everyone else:  stay in the fight.

Christ is worth it.  He's the greatest treasure anyone could find.  His passion for us is not waned by our passion for Him or lack thereof.  His love has not stopped flowing toward us freely and fully.

But that's just me thinking thoughts...