Family devotional - Week 3

This week we focus on the love Jesus brings to the world.


Emmanuel (God is With Us)
Read Matthew 1:18-23
What difference does it make God actually came to this planet?

Read Ephesians 3:16-19
How can we get excited about God’s love for us than about presents this Christmas?

The Way, Truth, and Life
Read John 14:2-6
Discuss how life in Jesus, living life God’s way, is the best kind of life.
Read Romans 1:16-19
What are some ways in which God’s truth is rejected by this world? How can we stand for truth?
Pray and thank God that he has shown us the way to heaven! We don’t have to guess how to get there.

Beloved
Read Matthew 3:16-17
Here we learn that the Father loved and was pleased with the Son, and are introduced to the name “The Beloved” or “The One God Loves.”
Read 1 John 4:7-12
In verses 9 and 10 we read that God loves us and has shown it by sending Jesus.
Is it possible for us to earn God’s love?
Since we can’t earn God’s love, how can we say “thank you” to him for sending Jesus to die for our sins?
What are some practical ways we can start being more loving towards others in our family? In our neighborhood? At school/work?

Grace and Truth
Read John 1:14-17
How did Jesus display grace while on earth?
In what ways did Jesus display God’s truth while on earth?
Pray that God can help you be more gracious and more truthful.
Thank God for coming to earth and “making his dwelling among us” through Jesus.

Family Devotional - week 2

Week 2 focuses on the coming of peace through Jesus.

Prince of Peace
Read Isaiah 9:6-7. Here we learn that Jesus is a ruler who will bring true and lasting peace to the earth.
What are some of the sources of conflict in our world? In our families?
Pray and thank Jesus that someday he will return and bring an end to all the conflict in the world.

Healer
Read Psalm 103:1-5
Other than physical healing, what are other kinds of healing God can do?
Read Mathew 9:35-36
Jesus had great compassion for people. Who are some people you can develop a heart of compassion for? Ask God to help you do this.

Overcomer of Evil
Read John 16:33
What are some examples of the “trouble” Jesus’ followers face in the world?
Romans 8:35-39
How does it feel to know that Jesus’ love and power is greater than any of these things?
Pray for God to give us his perspective when we go through difficult times.

Peacemaker
Read James 3:17-18
God’s wisdom is pure; peace–loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Which of these is the hardest for you?
What are some situations where you could be a peace-maker?

Family Devotional - week 1

For those of you looking for something to guide your devotions through the four weeks of advent, we are producing a weekly devotional for you and your family. Like our Advent sermons, these all center around names of Jesus. Take some time this week to look at these names of Christ and answer the questions below. We'll have new studies for you each week of Advent!


Hope
Read Jeremiah 17:13; Romans 15:13; and 1 Timothy 6:17
Who are some people around you without hope?
Discuss ways in which you can bring hope to those around you without hope.

Light of the World
Read John 1:4-5, Isaiah 9:2
Turn the lights out and talk about how it feels to be in darkness.
Light a candle and discuss the benefits light offers.
Read Ephesians 5:8-14
Discuss ways in which you can be light in the dark places of this world.
Pray and thank God for sending Jesus as light in a dark place.
Ask God to show you how you can be light in this world.

Savior; Redeemer
Read Psalm 103:1-5
We learned from Matthew 1:21 that Jesus is our savior/redeemer.
Discuss what things Jesus has saved you from.
Pray and thank God for saving you from these things.

Emmanuel (God With Us)
Read Psalm 46:1-11. Note verses 7 and 11, “The Lord Almighty is with us.”
Reflect on ways our lives are different because we know God is with us.

Video Posted to web site

For those of you who missed the August 29 service, or were there but wanted to share this with friends, I've posted the video of Ross Schmiedt that we showed that morning. You can view it either at www.tbclodi.com/TBC/Ross.html or at http://www.youtube.com/tbclodi#p/a/u/0/9u5PbPUkLDM

Feel free to share this with friends who might appreciate it. Praise be to the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Ross!

God's Provision

Pastor Fred Jantz listed 25 ways in which God provides for us, then said he could have listed at least 25 more. It was good stuff, though, and worth a deeper look. So I thought I'd post his list for your further study. Take some time to look over these verses and then thank God for his provision!

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No condemnation (Romans 8:1)

Salvation (Romans 10:9, 10)

Forgiveness (1 John 1:9, Psalm 51)

Life (Romans 6:23)

Meaningful life (2 Peter 3:18)

Power for living (2 Peter 1:3)

Liberty – Freedom (Galatians 5)

Strength to obey (Philippians 4:13)

Way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Guidance (Psalm 23:3)

Renewal (Isaiah 40:37)

Wisdom (James 1)

His Word (Psalm 119)

Adoption (John 1)

His Spirit (John 14:15)

His presence (Psalm 46)

A hiding place (Psalm 32:7)

Heaven (John 14)

Faith (Hebrews 11)

Hope (Psalm 39:7)

Love (1 Corinthians 13)

Joy for the journey (Nehemiah 8:10)

Tame fears (Isaiah 43:1, 2)

Hears us when we pray (Matthew 6)

Sufficient grace (2 Corinthians 12)

Definition of God's Jealousy

I thought I'd post Pastor Gene's definition of God's jealousy for you. I appreciated his excellent treatment of this difficult concept, and it's worth looking at this compact definition a few times:

"God’s jealousy refers to his deep, passionate, fiercely protective commitment to his own glory, which is the highest good that exists, AND his exclusive claim to our obedience and commitment to him, which is the highest good for us."

I like this definition. It communicates that God really wants what is best for us. And he knows without a doubt that's what's best for us is to be completely devoted to him. Not just a little bit of ourselves, a few hours here or there, and not just a little bit of him, like some jimmy-rigged conception of God we've pieced together from our favorite bits of God, but all of himself, in his magnificent glory and incomprehensible power.

Some weighty things to ponder, and some radical obedience and commitment called for in response!

Update from a home-grown TBC missionary

I thought I'd post an email update a number of us received from Liz Stevahn, who is from our church and is serving as a missionary at Rancho Agua Viva, the camp we have a relationship with in Mexico. You can read more by checking out her blog at http://lizenagua.wordpress.com/

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There was a great group here from Canada (Winnipeg Manotoba to be exact) and they were so fun to be around. They were a group of 15 and they did all sorts of ministry in Ensenada. Every morning we would drive 45 minutes outside the city and do a VBS at a brand new church site at a church called Iglesia Betel (Bethel Church). The Pastor there had only been the pastor for about 6 months, so he was so glad to have a program for kids at his church. In the afternoons half the group would go to another church called El Gran Rey (The Great King) and play soccer and the other half would come back to Agua Viva and do construction for the remainder of the day. We teamed up with the youth from El Gran Rey and on Wednesday we played soccer against some other teams from Ensenada. A lot of the youth we played against were not Christians and we had the opportunity to share the Gospel with them.

There were some really great moments that happened this week that I know I will never forget. One of them was on the day we played soccer against the Ensenada teams and the Canadians gave them all Canadian flags. That was a hilarious moment to see the Mexican kids waving Canadian flags. (You can go to Agua Viva Ministries on Facebook and see the pictures!!)

In this group there was a 17 year old student who was severely autistic and OCD. He interacted as much as he could or felt comfortable doing. He was a really neat kid to get to know, but he was usually stand-offish and standing by himself in the back. On Thursday night we went to the church service at El Gran Rey and we sang this song that talked about when we think about Jesus we just can't stop singing, jumping, or praising His name. I looked over and saw this student in the middle of the group jumping up and down praising Jesus with all he had. Amazing!

There was also a male leader in the group who found out on Tuesday that his wife had a miscarriage and that they lost their 3rd baby this year. He was having a really rough time all week and was just really confused as to why this would be happening to him. At the church service I saw him singing with all his might this song that goes "Victoria la Victoria mia es" which means Victory, the Victory is mine. It talks about how we have the victory of Jesus living inside of us.

These were just a few of the moments that I got to experience this week that made me just stop and stand in awe of what Jesus can do.

In His Service,
Liz

Romania team updates

For those of you not following Pastor Joe on Facebook, here is a digest of some recent activities of our Romania missions team:

From Saturday, July 31: what a great day serving together as a team...we painted at a "post orphanage" facility...they help orphans after they leave the orphanage at 18 to learn to live on their own and start to work...tomorrow will be more relaxing in preparation for camp...pray for energy for the team...we knew these first days would be hard and they were tiring for sure...thanks for the prayers...

From Sunday, Jugust 1: today at church was good...i think we are all ready for camp to begin tomorrow...no more facebooking til Saturday...this is the time to really pray...there are going to be many pre-Christians in the camp, pray for their salvation...pray that the Christ followers would make a commitment to grow even more in their faith...thanks...

Balancing life online and offline

In this age of technology saturation it's easy to go overboard with our media consumption and internet use. Today in the sermon I quoted an article originally posted on the Breaking Free blog. The article mentions some habits to develop if we are to have a healthy balance of online and offline in our lives. Here is a link to that entry:

http://www.covenanteyes.com/blog/2010/07/01/family-unplugged-how-technology-disconnects-us-from-deep-relationships/

Update from a former TBC intern

I thought I'd post an update from Matthew Lundy, former Youth Intern, for those of you interested in what he's been up to. Pretty cool ministry! Note his request for prayer at the end.

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In the pine forests of rural North Carolina lies Cameron Boys Camp. A branch of the Baptist Children's Homes of North Carolina, Cameron Boys Camp is a therapeutic wilderness camp designed to reconcile troubled boys and their families. For the last year, I have been working at the camp as a counselor (aka: Chief) in the Trailblazer group. My group, ages 12 to 14, live in primitive shelters that we build out of pine logs and heavy tarps.

Campers learn relationship building, personal hygiene, wood carving, cooking, and many other practical life skills.
Camp is also a fully accredited alternative school. Aside from the standard reading, writing, and math, academic activities include menu planing, budgeting, and hands on studies of nature. Our field trips have included a month long, 250 mile canoe trip from the Okefenokee Swamp, down the Suwanee River, to the Gulf of Mexico.

You can be in prayer for me and my fellow counselors, the campers and their families, and the camp for girls that is set to open in the next six months.

I have included several pictures. One of the tent that I live in, one of my group on the Suwanee River, and one of me building a tent at the girls camp.

Shepherd Study Guide

For those of you who wanted to use Pastor Ryan's sermon as a jumping-off point for your devotions this week, and didn't get a chance to write down the scripture passages he encouraged for further study of God's role as Shepherd, here they are:

As Shepherd, God...
Meets the needs of His sheep (Matthew 6:25-26)
Gives rest to the weary (Matthew 11:28-30)
Leads his flock to food & water (John 7:37-38)
Restores & heals (Matthew 9:1-8)
Protects & comforts with rod & staff (1 Samuel. 17:34-37)

Happy studying!

What's your name?

We're getting back into our series on the Names of God this Sunday. Pastor Perry kicked it off on Father's Day with "Father," Bill Kehoe spoke about God our Healer, and this Sunday Ryan Anderson will speak about God our Shepherd. One feature we'll have during this series is members of our congregation sharing about their name. How they got it, if they have any nicknames, if they know the meaning of their name, etc.

I'd be interested to hear about your name. We won't have time in our services to hear from everyone in the congregation, so why don't you tell us blog readers about your name? How did you get your name, how has it shaped you, how have you come to grips with your name? Comment on this post if you're interested in participating.

All-consuming

God wants to be everything in our lives. He wants all of us, not just part. He desires to be placed in the top spot or all our priorities, so that other things, such as our love for family, is a distant second (so distant that it might even be seen as hatred in comparison…see Luke 14.26).

Ryan McGladdery spoke to us yesterday about Colossians 1:17, “[Jesus] existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.” Jesus holds everything in this world together, and without his active intervention, things would spin out of control, both literally and figuratively. We ought to live our lives with Jesus in the prime spot, forming our values and informing our view of the world we live in.

God desires all of us, and hates being relegated to a more trivial place in our lives. We’re going to hear from Pastor Gene later in the summer that God is a jealous God (Ex. 34.14). He is jealous in a righteous way that is totally foreign to our human understanding of jealousy. His jealousy is primarily about over this matter: He wants our total devotion. Israel provoked God’s jealousy over and over by putting idols in place of God. We don’t usually actually worship false gods such as Baal or Asherah, but, as Ryan pointed out, we often put money, human relationships, escapism, food, or other things in place of God as our “sustaining force.” Only God can truly sustain us.

He doesn’t need our love, for he was perfectly complete before he created the universe. But he created us for the purpose of having a relationship with us, showing us his glory, and having his people reflect his character to the rest of the world (Romans 9.23, 2 Cor. 3.18, 2 Cor. 4.6, Eph. 1.11-12).

God wants us to find our satisfaction and sustenance from him alone for at least a couple of reasons. First, it works the best for us. God created us, and he knows how we function best. It’s like operating your car with gasoline, as the manufacturer recommends, rather than dumping carrot juice in to the tank. Second, God wants to bless us and satisfy us completely so that other can see how good and glorious he is. God’s people are the objects of his mercy so that our lives can shout out God’s goodness. We ought to be walking tributes to the grace and mercy of God (1 Peter 2.9-10).

Romans 12.1 says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship.” I’ve heard it said that the problem with living sacrifices is that we keep walking off the alter. Let’s daily re-commit our whole selves to God, placing our whole life on the alter so that God can work his grace and mercy in us, and through us bring glory to himself.

Books, brick, and mortar

I just purchased our "summer reading" books at Vine and Branches bookstore in Lodi.

In case you haven't heard, Pastor Perry encouraged the congregation to read three books along with him while he's on his sabbatical this Summer. They are:

The Holiness of God by R. C. Sproul
Crazy Love by Francis Chan
The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller

I'd strongly encourage you to pick up a copy of each of them and read them with us this summer. I'd also encourage you to buy them from your local Christian book store. Why? Here's a story:

I was trying to find a Christian bookstore while on vacation recently. In both Seattle and Portland I had great difficulty locating one. Many Christian book stores I had frequented in the past had been shut down. (I was able to find several good stores in Salem, Oregon however). I don't want to drone on about economics and e-commerce, but I do want to offer an encouragement to support your local Christian book store. It's great to have a great one in Lodi, where we can look through books, get exposed to products we might not otherwise encounter, and learn about events happening in our local Christian community.

I know you might save a few bucks here or there by shopping online (or maybe not! Sometimes there are great sales and discounts at local stores), but can you smell the pages online? I think not.

"I serve at the pleasure of the president."

This line has been used in TV shows and movies about the presidency, and by real-life servants of real presidents. It ran through my mind yesterday morning when Pastor Perry spoke about 1 John 5.3: "In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome..." It is an honor and a delight, he said, to serve God. It's not drudgery or joyless duty to live for Christ. Living a life worthy of the calling we've received is what we were created to do, it's what makes us feel most truly alive. (Eph. 3.16-4.1)

The Apostle Paul longed to be in heaven with the Lord, to see him face to face, yet he knew that life here on earth had a great purpose: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain" he said in Philippians 1.21. Every breath we're given is a gift, meant to be used to serve God and not for our own pleasure.

Let's shift our focus. Let's remind ourselves and those around us that we exist to serve God. We were created to love and serve God, and it's a delightful thing. The moment we begin to feel that God's commands are burdensome, it's time to renew our minds through time in the Word, time with God's people, time meditating on Christ's sacrifice, and simply serving and obeying. These things will help us get our focus back where it belongs.

A Family Affair

Yesterday we honored mothers. Why are mothers so important to God? Why fathers, for that matter? Aren't we all just people, individuals whom Jesus loves? What is the big deal about families and the roles we each play, whether father, mother, sibling, child?

As Pastor Perry said in his sermon yesterday, "Home is where we learn to live with other people; to forgive other people when they are wrong; to extend grace when it is difficult; where we learn that love is more than a feeling; it is a deep and abiding commitment that overcomes our feelings." I'd like to explore that concept a bit.

Families were a part of God's original design for humanity. When he created humans, he made a husband and a wife (Gen. 1.27). You probably remember the dramatic unveiling of woman, the perfect compliment for the man (Gen. 2.18-25). We see in that story that God had joined the husband and wife together in a special, "one flesh" connection. He created them as partners in the work of filling the earth and subduing it (Gen. 1.28).

It's been said many times from the pulpit that families are the most basic unit created by God to spread his glory and character through the earth. Sadly, however, the state of families is often far from a clear reflection of God's glory and character. We can look at sitcoms, or actual families all around us, and point to symptoms of dysfunction, but even in the Bible we find many bad examples of families living out their God-given purpose.

In the very first family, Adam, Eve, Cain, and Able (and certainly other sons and daughters as well, Gen. 5.4), we find a breakdown when Cain murders his brother because of jealousy. It doesn't take any longer than the first generation to realize the devastating effects of sin on families.

The priest Eli, who mentored Samuel, robbed glory from God with his family dysfunction. Eli's sons were crooked and were stealing from the people and sleeping with women at the entrance to the tabernacle (1 Sam. 2.12-17, 22). David, one of God's "Good Guys," had a family life that was less than healthy, including a son that murdered all his brothers (2 Sam. 13.30.

It's not all gloom and doom. There are some good biblical examples of family, though. Ruth followed her mother-in-law Naomi back to her homeland of Israel, became a follower of the one, true God because of Naomi's example of faith (Ruth 1.16). Timothy became a faithful follower of God because of the godly example of his mother and grandmother (2 Tim. 1.5).

Families are a laboratory for love. If we can learn to love within our families, we have a much greater chance to love others. It is relatively easy to show "love" to strangers, acquaintances, or casual friends, but it becomes much more difficult in the laboratory of the home, where we see one another day in and day out, and are more intimately acquainted with one another's faults and shortcomings. We quickly extend grace to perfect strangers when we let someone go ahead of us at the grocery store, but won't let our spouse off the hook when they make a mistake.

It's easy to say we care about the institution of the family, to wear a T-shirt or apply a bumper sticker in support of family values, even to vote for propositions that protect a Biblical understanding of family. It's much harder to live out godly love in our families. But the latter will likely have much more impact on our world. Our neighbors, friends, and relatives need to see what faithfulness looks like. Even when it hurts to keep our promise.

Only by looking to the sacrificial example of Jesus can we hope to love unconditionally. Lord, help us learn how to show love in the family. Help us to live out that love in a world that needs to see it.

Our deceitful hearts

Last Sunday Pastor Perry quoted Jeremiah 17.9, which says:

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

When it comes to faith, our hearts, our emotions, can be poor indicators upon which to base our decisions in life. At times, we might feel far from God, whereas he's always close to us. (James 4:8) At other times, we don't feel any kind of distance from God, but we ought to because our actions have broken our fellowship with God.

About one hundred years ago, an author named Finley Peter Dunne coined the phrase "Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable." I believe 1 John 3.19-24 speaks to this idea. There are some who need the comfort of knowing that even though they feel afflicted by guilt over their sin, God loves them deeply (Ephesians 3.16-18). These people need to know that if they belong to Christ and have asked for forgiveness, there is no condemnation for them (Romans 8.1; 1 John 1.9). Even though their hearts condemn them with guilt, they can know that "God is greater than our hearts" (1 Jn. 3.20).

Others among us, however, don't feel the guilt we ought to because of self-deception. Read Jeremiah 17.9 again if you don't think it's possible. Sin breaks our fellowship with God, though our relationship with God can never be lost. Think of a disobedient child: they will always be children of the parent, but sin and rebellion breaks fellowship until there is repentance and restoration.

The best place to be is in a right relationship with God, in which sin is dealt with and repented of, and we can live boldly for God. We can have the kind of relationship described in 1 John 3.21-22, where it says, "if our conscience does not condemn us, we have courage in God’s presence. We receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him." This kind of life is not about self-gratification or asking so that we can please our human pleasures (James 4.3), but John is talking about a life lived to bring glory to God. This kind of living is all about asking "What can I to today to please God and advance his agenda in the world?" If we ask for things in keeping with this line of thinking, we can be sure God wants to give us what we ask for.

Family Resemblance

Dear friends, we are already God’s children…we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. (1 Jn. 3.2-3)

As the father of young children, I wonder from time to time if I am messing my children up. Lysa TerKeurst, our Treasures of Christmas speaker from 2009, even has a book out called “Am I Missing Up My Kids?” Maybe some of you parents out there sympathize. At times I think, “What weird traits, annoying habits, or sinful tendencies are these kids going to pick up from me?” I hope they pick up all the good traits and toss all the bad ones. They already say things that I say, do things that I do, and there’s not much I can say to reverse this. Imploring kids to “do what I say, not what I do” is a useless proposition.

I’m not saying that this tendency of kids to emulate parents is all bad. Hopefully I am modeling good behavior as well as bad, and they are picking up on this. I read my Bible in the mornings, and they notice this. If I get busy doing something else first, one of my kids will often say “Daddy, don’t you want to get your Bible?” My point is this: for good or for ill, our children will always tend to behave like us.

When it comes to our Heavenly Father, do we have this same pattern of emulation? God tells us to “be holy, because I am holy (Lev. 11.45). Do we start acting like God the longer we know him? His habits ought to "rub off" on us, just like our earthly parents' habits do. In God, there are no bad habits to pick up, only good ones. Habits like unconditional love, compassion, faithfulness, truth-telling, and graciousness are ones that should be "rubbing off" on us.

Let’s pray that we can each start acting more like our Heavenly Father, that people would recognize a “family resemblance” in us. What if people who observed us said, “Hey, you must belong to Jesus Christ’s family. I can tell it by the way you’re living.” That could be pretty cool.

Don't love the world, but love lost people

As we heard this morning, if we love the world system and its values, love for God gets pushed out of our lives. Indeed, being controlled by our sensual desires, living for pleasure, will quickly blunt our love for God. Indeed, Paul says in 1 Timothy 6.6-10:

...godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Note that it isn't money or the "stuff" of this world that is a problem, but a live for them. Misusing God's good gifts, misplacing our priorities, will be sure to get our life out of whack and away from God's will.

If we live according to God's priorities, we will indeed look odd to the world around us. This doesn't mean, however, that we should try to be strange to the world. We shouldn't try to offend people by appearing as condemning, judgmental, prudish people, but instead we should love lost people. Jesus loved lost people, Jesus hung out with lost people. W ought to care enough about lost people that we are in touch with their needs, hurts, and hopes, and we ought to bring Scripture to bear on those things. We have real answers to the questions and problems people are facing, but if we're out of touch with lost people, we have fewer opportunities to share the hope Jesus gives.

There is definitely a balancing act to obeying our mandate to "Be in the world, but not of the world." The key in relationships with lost people is to frequently ask ourselves (and trusted Christian friends) whether we're influencing our lost friends more, or if they're influencing us more. I loved Pastor Perry's analogy to scuba diving. We need the "fresh air" of the Word, fellowship, and accountability. These things help remind us of God's priorities. But we still need to be in the water, living for Jesus as we encounter people who are drowning, who desperately need to breath the air.

More than a potluck

Christian fellowship is often associated with "fellowship suppers" or "pie fellowships," or something involving donuts. Now don't get me wrong, I love food. I'm actually salivating a little bit when I think of how many great pies I've had at our church. I also think food can play an important part in bringing people together: it gives us a great reason to sit around a table and chat. Lots of great ministry opportunities can arise as we learn about each other, discern each other's gifts and needs, and so forth.

However, Christian fellowship must go farther than this kind of thing. John says in 1 John 1.7 says,

"...if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."

When we have a right relationship with Jesus, we can relate to others in a way that non-Christians cannot. One of the results of the Fall of humanity in Genesis 3 was that shame was introduced into human relationships, and with it all kinds of barriers. Only when we're made whole in Jesus can we start to relate to others in a more healthy way, with some of the barriers removed.

The kind of fellowship John invites us to includes confession and accountability (1 Jn. 1.9; James 5.16). It includes encouraging each other and reminding each other of our ultimate destination, heaven (1 Thes. 4.15-18). It includes all sorts of growth as we prefer each other above ourselves, learning about the unique way God made each of us (Phil. 2.1-4). Fellowship means bearing one another's burdens, praying for and serving one another (1 Cor. 12.26). And I could go on...

My point is that true fellowship is something deep, something infused with the Holy Spirit, something that brings edification and growth to us and others, and something that pleases the Lord. Since we've been covered by the blood of the lamb, we have the opportunity to participate in this kind of fellowship. Let's do the best we can to grow in this area. Because fellowship doesn't just happen, we need to seek out these opportunities, be these kinds of people, and in so doing become more like Jesus.

Blog referenced last Sunday

I thought some of you might appreciate reading the whole blog entry about the Starbucks Jesus, Hippie Jesus, and so forth that Perry referenced on Sunday. It's from Kevin DeYoung, a blogger for The Gospel Coalition.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2009/06/10/who-do-you-say-that-i-am/

In that vein, do you have any other "idolatrous" versions of Jesus that you think infect our culture? Let me know!

Who do you say Jesus is?

Jesus asked his disciples in Matthew 16.13, "Who do people say that I am?" This question elicited a number of responses, none of them correct. Then Jesus asks his disciples again in verse 15, "But who do you say I am?" Peter gets the right answer when he says that Jesus is the Messiah, the very son of God. Jesus affirms that answer in the verses that follow, and says "My Father in heaven has revealed this to you."

The question about Jesus' identity is not one with multiple correct answers. Survey members of our society about who Jesus is and you may get as many unique answers as you have responses. But this lack of agreement about Jesus doesn't change the fact that Jesus is who he says he is. He is the one and only Son of God, and Savior of the world. As Pastor Perry mentioned this morning, what we choose to believe about Jesus doesn't change who he is.

It is essential that we get the right answer to the question of who Jesus is. There is only one right answer, and it's our hope and prayer that you accept the Bible's testimony about who Jesus is, that you take Jesus at his word. Our understanding of life's purpose and our place in this world depends on it. And our eternity depends on it.