If a church reflects an "era" more than it reflects the gospel, it values past culture more than missional engagement.
- Ed Stetzer (on Facebook)

Last night was alumni night at the basketball game between LU and VMI. Thanks to Tim, who is an LU graduate school alumnus, we were able to get into the game for just $5 a ticket. We drove up to Liberty early enough to have dinner with Emily and Nick. After supper, while Laurie and Emily grabbed coffee in one of the student centers, the guys went to the basketball game.

We had pretty good seats in the alumni section. We were up a little high, but in the middle of the arena. There’s really not a bad seat anywhere in the Vine Center. We had only been sitting down for about two minutes when some guy walked up to Nick and asked him if we would like to sit down on the couch at court side. Would we? Are you kidding? Heck yeah! The only thing the guy needed was Tim’s name and the year he graduated from LU. He escorted us down to the couch. Along with being right at court side, LU also provided us with complimentary pop corn and soda. It was really cool!

Unfortunately, LU got spanked pretty badly by VMI. But as an extra bonus, we were surrounded by a small group of very vocal students from VMI. I’m not sure which was more entertaining – the basketball game itself, or the verbal sparring that went on all game long between the students from the different schools. They were hilarious! We had a blast!

John Piper:

But the hard truth is that most Christians don’t pray very much. They pray at meals—unless they’re still stuck in the adolescent stage of calling good habits legalism. They whisper prayers before tough meetings. They say something brief as they crawl into bed. But very few set aside set times to pray alone—and fewer still think it is worth it to meet with others to pray. And we wonder why our faith is weak. And our hope is feeble. And our passion for Christ is small.

And meanwhile the devil is whispering all over this room: “The pastor is getting legalistic now. He’s starting to use guilt now. He’s getting out the law now.” To which I say, “To hell with the devil and all of his destructive lies. Be free!” Is it true that intentional, regular, disciplined, earnest, Christ-dependent, God-glorifying, joyful prayer is a duty? . . . Is it a discipline?
You can call it that.

• It’s a duty the way it’s the duty of a scuba diver to put on his air tank before he goes underwater.
• It’s a duty the way pilots listen to air traffic controllers.
• It’s a duty the way soldiers in combat clean their rifles and load their guns.
• It’s a duty the way hungry people eat food.
• It’s a duty the way thirsty people drink water.
• It’s a duty the way a deaf man puts in his hearing aid.
• It’s a duty the way a diabetic takes his insulin.
• It’s a duty the way Pooh Bear looks for honey.
• It’s a duty the way pirates look for gold.

I hate the devil, and the way he is killing some of you by persuading you it is legalistic to be as regular in your prayers as you are in your eating and sleeping and Internet use. Do you not see what a sucker he his making out of you? He is laughing up his sleeve at how easy it is to deceive Christians about the importance of prayer.

God has given us means of grace. If we do not use them to their fullest advantage, our complaints against him will not stick. If we don’t eat, we starve. If we don’t drink, we get dehydrated. If we don’t exercise a muscle, it atrophies. If we don’t breathe, we suffocate. And just as there are physical means of life, there are spiritual means of grace. Resist the lies of the devil in 2009, and get a bigger breakthrough in prayer than you’ve ever had.

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. (James 1:22)

Tommy Jackson is the pastor of Rose Heights Church in Longview, TX. He’s currently in the middle of a sermon series on compassion. He wanted to find out whether the members of his congregation practiced what they believed, so he arranged for a smelly, drunk man to show up in the parking lot on a recent Sunday to see how people would react to him as they entered for worship. What no one knew, however, was that the person who reeked of smoke and alcohol was actually Tommy Jackson, their pastor.

How did the members of Rose Heights Church do with their new parking lot distraction? A local TV station was there to record it all. The police even got involved. Pastor Tommy then walked out during the service to disclose his real identity.

Check out the full article here...

HT: MMI Weblog

My ‘Geek-o-Meter’ hit an all time high tonight! Click the apple for more information :)

Youth group ended with a bang crash last night! Evidently they just don’t make tables they way they used to! They also say that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well guess what led up to this picture?

1. A game of ‘Hide-n-Seek’ that went awry
2. “Take up the shield of faith...”
3. WWF “Smack Down!”
4. Drama of Matt. 11:12 (NASB)
5. “I don’t need a chair, this table will work just fine...”

Still not sure? You’ll just have to ask one of the teens who were there. One thing’s for sure, last night’s lesson is one that they will remember for a long, long time!

Did any of you see the article in this past Tuesday’s paper entitled, Faith Leaders Share Views? Representatives from Islam, Christianity and Judaism gathered at Patrick Henry Community College to discuss religion and answer questions.

The event was called, “Toward a More Perfect Union: An Interfaith Dialogue on Religious Freedom as an American Heritage.” Evidently everything was cruising along pretty smoothly until the Q&A at the end. The paper reported, “The audience seemed tense when one man challenged religions that do not accept the precepts of the New Testament. Thumping a Bible, he boomed, ‘What about the part that says, “I am the way, the Truth and the Light?”’”

I wasn’t present so I can’t personally say whether the guy was a booming Bible thumper or not (although that characterization does appear to be open to interpretation, because according to some who were in attendance, the guy didn’t “boom” anything, he merely asked a sincere question).

And what an insightful question it was! Apparently he was referring to the words of Jesus from John 14:6 where Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” Isn’t it interesting, that in an interfaith dialogue on religious freedom, that everybody’s ideas on religion were okay – except, apparently, that one. I mean, everything’s fine until some guy quotes Jesus in John 14:6 and suddenly everybody’s tense.

Jesus’ assertion in that verse definitely seems to rankle people like no other. His claim has even been called arrogant, narrow-minded and snobbish. Why? Why is that claim so controversial? I’ll be tackling that question in the message this Sunday. I’ve decided to put our Ephesians series on hold for a week, so that I can address some of the questions and comments that were raised during this interfaith dialogue, particularly the question, “Is Jesus the Only Way to God?”

We had some fun during the message yesterday. I opened the message with the question, “Where are you headed, spiritually?” I was making the point that our growth in the Christian life involves a process, and that process involves change. That’s not limited to the spiritual, it’s also true physically. Change is part of every day life. In fact, it’s been said that the only constant in life is change.

By way of illustration, I rhetorically asked the question, “How many of you have changed physically?” And while everybody was thinking about that, I brought THIS PICTURE up on the screen. No, I wasn’t finishing up a 40 day fast, I actually used to be that skinny! The picture was taken while Laurie and I were on our honeymoon (almost 25 years ago!). What can I say, Laurie had a thing for stick figures, I guess.