Tag: Church

Passion Points – Single Life

On By BrianIn Family Collection, PASSION Points

In keeping with our theme this week, here are some good articles about the single life:

Tim Keller reminds us that singleness is a good Biblical option in a world that either trivializes or idolizes family.

Brooks Waldron considers the meaning of singleness.

Finally, Dave Egner has a booklet in pdf format you can read online that explodes myths, considers Scriptures, and addresses issues related to the single life.  Highly recommended for singles and indeed anyone in the church.

Next week, we’ll continue looking at the single life as we consider benefits, as well as the right focus.

Challenges of the Single Life 2

On By BrianIn Church Life, Family/Single Life

It is good to be single, but there are challenges.  One challenge is self-control, which we considered yesterday.  Another challenge is loneliness.

Challenge #2 – Loneliness

This is a huge challenge for many singles.  I was single for eight years, and it was a challenge to me.  However, it would be good to begin with the realization that marriage is not the cure for loneliness.  There are many lonely married people.  Even in good marriages, your spouse will not meet all your relational needs.  Guys need guy comaraderie.  Ladies need girl friends.  Men and women are built differently, and we need friends of the same gender.  Put bluntly, a spouse is not God – a spouse simply cannot meet all your needs.  Now certainly a spouse can help with this challenge, but so can friends.  To address the challenge of loneliness, we need community – we need family.

As Barry Danylak points out in his book Redeeming Singleness, physical offspring was of high priority in the Old Testament.  And so the physical family was of central importance.  But starting with the prophets who forsaw the New Covenant, and especially in the New Testament, the focus shifts to spiritual offspring, to making disciples (Isaiah 53:10, 54:1, Galatians 4:19, Matthew 28:19-20, etc.).  And so in the New Testament a spiritual family becomes the focus; that is, the church.

Whether single or married, God has provided us with a new family.  God has adopted us as his children.  In Christ, we are brothers and sisters.  Jesus points us to this new family.  Consider for instance, Matthew 12:46-50:

While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Jesus tells us that his disciples are his new family.  Those who believe in and follow Jesus have become a new family.  Or consider Jesus’ words in Mark 10:29-30:

Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.

If we leave our physical family behind, how do we gain a family a hundredfold?  We gain a spiritual family – God’s church.  And how should we treat one another in the church?  Consider Pauls’ words in I Timothy 5:1-2:

Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.

The church is a family and we should treat one another as family. 

To address loneliness, we need community, we need family.  And God has provided us with a new family.  Singles don’t need to marry to find family, they already have a family in the church.  If the church is functioning right, singles can find the community they need in their church family.  “If” of course is the big word here.  How many of our churches are functioning as a family?

What singles need is not be split off into a singles group; they need their church family.  They need the church to be the family God designed it to be.  That means we care for each other and serve one another.  It means we get together during the week for meals and activities.  I’m not talking about church programs here, but people just getting together as family.  It means we invite people over to our homes, and visit in other people’s homes.  It means we call each other on the phone, e-mail each other, maybe use Facebook.  It means we make sure no one is alone on holidays.  It means we celebrate each other’s birthdays.  It means we break free from the individualism of our culture.  It means married folks realize that the church is a family, and that they have obligations to this family as well as their physical one.  It means we act like family. 

This is one of my dreams for the church I pastor – that we would act like the family we are.  That singles and married folks alike would be attracted to our church because they find in it a family.  By God’s grace, we are moving in this direction, though we have a long ways to go as well.  What about your church?  Don’t grumble that your church isn’t like that.  Be the catalyst to change things.  Start inviting people to your home.  Make sure no one is alone on holidays.  Celebrate birthdays.  Start to treat your church as family.

Loneliness is a real challenge for singles, and married people too.  God designed the church to be the family we need.  Let’s seek to be that family!

Easter Outreach

On By BrianIn Uncategorized

Thought I would pass on an outreach resource for this coming Easter.  Two years ago, Crossway put together Christmas packets that included a New Testament, tract, customizable invitation, and bag.  Our church used them this past Christmas, adding some home made cookies and going through our small town caroling.  We also encouraged church families to deliver them to their neighbors or co-workers.

Crossway now has Easter packets with the same components plus an audio New Testament CD.  Our church is planning to hand them out to neighbors around the church, as well as to families that come to our annual kids Easter Egg Hunt.  If you are interested, you can find out more info here.

Passion Points – The Church

On By BrianIn Church Collection, PASSION Points

This weekend’s recommended posts all relate to the church. 

First, a helpful reminder of what the church is.  It is a Bride, a Building, and a Body. 

Our approach to gathering as a church on Sunday will make a big difference.  Tullian Tchividjian gives us a prayer of preparation.  Meanwhile Joshua Harris encourages us to come eager, expectant, and early.  Tim Challies gives us ideas for before the service, during the service, and after the service.  And if you must come grumpy (which you shouldn’t!), Chris Brauns reminds you not to spit in everyone else’s Sunday Dinner (of the Word)!

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

New Life. Loving God. Loving People.

On By BrianIn All About Love

On Sunday, I finished a three week sermon series going through the theme: New Life.  Loving God.  Loving People.  It is a sort of slogan for our church, with each phrase further defined on our church website and in our church brochure.  The goal was to define what our church was all about (living in response to the gospel) in everyday language that might connect with people.  You can judge how well we achieved our goal (feel free to leave your comments).  As may be obvious, it is directly related to the Three Passions theme of this blog.  Here is the entire thing as it appears on our site and brochure:

 New Life
We all need new life: 
Forgiveness for the past. 
Power to live differently today. 
Hope for the future. 
We have found this new life in Jesus.

Loving God
As we find new life in Jesus, we enter into a loving relationship with God. 
Our joy is to grow in this incredible relationship by spending time with him. 
Our delight is to live each day for him.

Loving People
Our loving relationship with God helps us grow in our love for people. 
We begin to love our families more. 
We seek to be a loving church family that cares for one another. 
We want to serve our community
and share this new life we have found with others.

Christian Complements

On By BrianIn Uncategorized4 Comments

Joseph has been rotting in an Egyptian prison for months.  One day he is unexpectantly summoned to appear before Pharaoh.  It seems Pharaoh has had some dreams that no one can interpret.  But the cupbearer remembered that Joseph had interpretted his dream two years earlier, and so the cupbearer tells Pharaoh.  So Joseph is summoned.  Pharaoh tells Joseph, “I hear you can interpret dreams.”

“So I hear that you are a good plumber.”  “I was told you are really good at golf.”  “I heard you are a great cook.”  “That was a great presentation.”  Someone comes up to you with praise for whatever ability you have.  How do you respond?

Joseph responds to Pharaoh, “It is not in me; but God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”  On my own I can’t interpret your dream, but God can.  Interpretting dreams isn’t my ability; it comes from God.  It’s not about me; it is about him.

How do we respond to praise?  Do we point others to God?  I confess I often just say “thank you.”  They gave me a complement, and I appreciate it.  It seems somewhat awkward to constantly in effect say – “it’s not me – it’s God.”  Does that belittle their complement?  Or look at it from the other side.  If I should always deflect the praise from myself to God, maybe I shouldn’t complement others because it really isn’t about them anyways.  But shouldn’t we encourage each other and express gratitude toward those who minister in some way to us?  Of course we should!  So then maybe a simple “thank you” is a good answer after all.

But maybe there is a better.  Maybe we can both accept the complement with appreciation, and also express praise to God who gave us the ability.  Maybe the one giving the complement can phrase it as both appreciation for the person and praise to God.  Maybe instead of saying, “Thank you for…,” we should say, “I appreciate the way God used you in….”  And maybe our response should be, “Thank you.  I praise the Lord that he used me to minister to you.”  And if it seems awkward, maybe it is simply because we aren’t used to doing it. 

In the end, maybe complementing each other is an opportunity not only to encourage and express (and receive) gratitude, but an opportunity to help all of us lift our eyes to the one who is truly worthy of praise.

Our Delight

On By BrianIn God & His Glory, Virtue of Joy

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!
– Psalm 115:1

God loves us us.  He daily showers us with his many blessings. 
He is a refuge in our trials.  He is always faithful.
He saves us through the cross.  He makes us his children – and heirs.
He loves us with an amazing undeserved love.
And so we want him to be glorified; we want him to be honored.

Our sinful tendency is to want others to honor us, for us to receive the glory.
But as we grasp his great love for us who are unworthy of any love,
we can desire the glory to go not to us, but to him.
It becomes our delight to see him honored in our lives.

How can we honor him in our lives?

We honor him as we obey him, put his will before our own.

We honor him with our thoughts – as we think about him,
and as we thing rightly about him;
as we guard our thoughts to think what is pleasing to him.

We honor him with our lips – as we gather with his people to praise him,
and as we tell others about his glory.

We honor him with our actions – as we do our best for him
in our work, our chores, our studies, and everything else we do;
as we point to Jesus rather than ourselves.

Father, may it be our growing delight to honor you with all of our lives.  Amen.

Are You Devoted?

On By BrianIn Church Life1 Comment

So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.  And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. – Act 2:41-42

Yesterday at church we looked at the example of the early church, which I believe is a good example for us today.  At the beginning of this new year, consider your commitment to the church.  How would you answer the following questions?

Have you received the good news of salvation that Jesus offers?  Jesus died for our sins and rose to give us a new life.  He calls us to repent (turn) from our sins and trust in Jesus as our Savior.  Have you received this good news?

Have you been baptized?  Notice it followed directly after salvation.  Indeed it is an outward expression of our faith in Jesus.  In baptism we identify ourselves with him and what he has done for us.  Have you been baptized?

Have you committed yourself to a local church?  Again it followed directly after baptism: they were baptized and then added to the church.  Not only added, but as v42 reminds us, they were committed.  Many seem to want to follow Jesus apart from the local church, but the Scriptures indicate that we are to commit to a local church.  Have you?

Are you devoted to the apostles’ teaching?  Note the context is the church.  Are you committed to gathering with the church each week to hear the Word of God taught?  Or do you only come occasionally?  Do you come with an attitude of anticipation?  Are you devoted?

Are you devoted to the fellowship?  Fellowship speaks of a relationship.  Are you committed to cultivating your relationship with your brothers and sisters in Christ?  Do you gather regularly with each other?  Are you caring for each other?  Are you bearing with each other, and forgiving when needed?  Are you devoted?

Are you devoted to the breaking of bread?  This most likely refers to the Lord’s Supper.  Do you gather with your church to celebrate together Christ’s sacrificial death for you?  Are you seeking to keep the remembrance of Christ central in your life?  Are you devoted?

Are you devoted to the prayers?  Again, the context is the church.  Are you committed to gathering regularly to pray together with fellow believers?  Is this a priority in you life?  A regular event?  Are you devoted?

Go through those questions again.  Do you need to grow in your devotion this year?  In what ways?  What changes will you start to make this week?

Church Is Cancelled – Now What?

On By BrianIn Church Life, Family/Single Life, Heart

The winter storm closed most of the churches in our area this morning.  So how should we respond when we hear that church is cancelled?  Let me give you six suggestions.

1. Disappointment.  We should be excited about the opportunity to gather with God’s people in God’s presence each week for worship, discipleship, and fellowship.   Naturally there will be a sense of disappointment when that opportunity is taken away.  If there is not that sense of disappointment, we must ask ourselves why.  Have our hearts grown dull?  Have we lost interest in fellowship with God and his people?  Lost the hunger to worship and grow?  Certainly we might be thankful that we do not have to brave the winter mess, but to actually be excited about having no church and lacking a sense of disappointment says much about our hearts.  Our hearts should reflect the Psalmist’s heart who wrote in Psalm 42:1-2:  As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When shall I come and appear before God?  If this is not our response, we must examine our hearts.

2. Trust.  God is sovereign; he is in control.  Our lives are in his hands.  If his plan is to send a winter storm so that we can’t meet together as a church, then that is his business.  We may be disappointed, but we should also trust that God knows what he is doing.  Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10).

3. Rest.  This Christmas season is hectic.  Today was supposed to bring not only morning services but a Christmas party and Christmas caroling.  Now suddenly everything has been called off.  Perhaps in the midst of all of our busyness, God knew we just needed a break, a chance to stop and rest.  So perhaps perhaps part of our response is to take the opportunity God has given and rest from the all the hustle and bustle.  Rest was part of the Sabbath principle anyway, wasn’t it?

4. Family Worship.  We may not be able to meet as a church, but we can certainly still meet as a family to praise God and study God’s Word.  Whether there is one or two or four or twenty or any number in between in your family, you can gather to worship.  Sing some songs of praise from a hymnal or chorus book or with a praise CD.  Discuss a passage of Scripture together or listen to a sermon on the radio or internet or from a CD.  Gathering as a church to worship is important, but if you can’t, gather to worship as a family.

5. Personal Time with the Lord.  You have been given the gift of a whole day.  In addition to worshipping as a family, why not spend some personal time with the Lord in prayer and His Word.  Perhaps read part of a book that will challenge you to grow in the Lord or encourage you to look to God in your trials.  Don’t waste the day – invest it for your walk with the Lord.

6. Family Time.  Enjoy time together as a family.  Talk.  Laugh.  Play a game.  Do something together.  Again, don’t waste the day – invest it for your family.

Walking All Over Your Idols

On By BrianIn Idolatry Quotes, PASSION Quotes1 Comment

In Ephesians 4:31, Paul tells us:  “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”  Tim Chester in his book, You Can Change, makes these illuminating comments on this verse:

These behaviors all have two things in common.  First, they all involve other people.  Second, they’re all symptoms of thwarted and threatened sinful desires.  Often we can’t spot sinful desires.  But when they’re threatened or thwarted by other people, we respond with bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, and malice.  One of the great things about living as part of a community is that in community people walk all over your idols.  People press your buttons.  That’s when we respond with bitterness, rage, and so on.  And that gives us opportunities to spot our idolatrous desires.  God is using the different people, the contrasting personalities, in your church to change your heart. 

These are important words for the church today where many Christians whose idols are walked over simply find another church or leave church altogether.  But God placed us in the church to help reveal our idols, to change us, to draw us nearer to him.  So next time someone irritates you, consider why.  What idol are they walking all over?  What sinful desire in your heart is your response to their actions revealing?  That other person isn’t the problem.  The idols in our hearts are the problem.  Together we can identify our idols, and with God’s help turn away from our idols to serve more and more the one true God.