In The Image of God...

So I read a lot. There are others that read much more than I, but I think I read quite a bit. So the book I'm in the middle of is Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe by Mark Driscoll & Gary Breshears. Usually I try to read a chapter in a day or two, but with this book I am going much slower. It's one of those book that is so packed with good/great stuff that I need to plan to read it through once and then go back and re-read it with my highlighter.

This morning while I was reading I came across a paragraph that stopped me in my tracks. I'm in chapter 4 where they speak of humans being created in the image of God. Driscoll & Breshears unpack it very well and then wham I got smacked upside the head. They have just being talking about the implications of being created in the image of God as being both personal and communal, "Furthermore, image is both personal and communal. By personal, we mean that we as individual worshipers must continually ask whether we are good reflections of our God. By communal, we mean that churches, families, and Christian communities must continually ask whether they are good reflections of God to one another and the world." 


So I have to ask myself and you who consider yourselves a follower of Christ, "Are we as individuals, and communal as churches and families being a good reflection of God to one another and the world?"

If so, great, keep at it. If not, what is keeping you or your church from being the image bearers of God?

In pondering thought,
Scott

The Bible is Scary??? Part One Half...

Okay, alright already. I have gotten a lot of good suggestions for some explanation, mostly from Facebook. I have been working on a few of them and look forward to sharing my thoughts. I have been swamped since The Bible Is Scary post and most of the questions need more than an off the top of my head type of answer.

So for a fill in I am answering another persons question that has nothing to do with the topic The Bible Is Scary. The question is, "Why do you have music on your blog?" They were asking because they would scroll through some of the writings but not be able to listen to the whole song. It's a simple answer, just leave the blog page up and listen to music. That's what I do most of my days. I love music, especially worship music. So I just pull up my blog page and listen to the music. Most the time I'm at work, some times we pull up the page to listen while we make and eat dinner. So, there you go, that's why I have music on my blog.

Sorry that I'm not answering the bigger questions yet, but hang on they're coming.

In Christ,
Pastor Scott

The Bible is Scary???

I’ve been listening to a musician named Misty Edwards. She is a worship leader at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, MO. One of my favorite songs of hers is Matthew 25. She puts the parable of the ten virgins to song and it’s AMAZING. I’ve listened to the song so much and read and re-read Matthew 25:1-13 that I think I’m going to ask our pastor if I can preach that passage when we get to it (we are currently going through Matthew as a sermon series).

Jeanette Danielian, the church’s office administrator, was listening to that song the other day. She is one of the most biblically literate people I know and I respect her insight very much, but what she said to me made me chuckle. Once I said that I’d like to preach the passage she says, “That’s in my top five scariest passages.”

What made me chuckle is the fact that she knows which Bible passages scare the daylights out of her. I’ve got ones that scare me too, I just have never thought about trying to figure out my Top 10 List of Scary Bible Passages. I would love to hear some of your top scary Bible passages. I will try to compile a list and then blog about those passages.

Here are some passages that come to mind for me:

Matthew 7:22-24-The “I never knew you. Away from me you evil doers” passage
Revelation 3:16- I’ll vomit you out of my mouth passage
Matthew 14:16- Jesus tells his disciples to feed the 5,000, “You do it.”

These are just a few, but what are the ones that you don’t understand or freak you out? You see I believe in a God who is big enough to handle our questions, so let’s hear’em. I don’t believe God is a boogie man who wants to leave us scared under our covers. Yes, there are passages that freak us all out, but what I love about God is that he doesn’t leave it there. He gives plenty of insight to help us understand him, even the scary stuff. I look forward to your comments.

Blessings,
Pastor Scott

Holy Silence...

I am reading a book at the moment called The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity by Skye Jethani. I am reading it with the church leadership from my church. I just finished the second chapter and have fully enjoyed the book. This second chapter, The Canvas of Silence, focuses on how our lives are filled with words from music, computers, TV and a host of other areas. Because of this we have a hard time letting our minds comprehend the big things in life. Our lives are so filled with the noise of words, read or heard, that we can’t begin to fathom the greatness of our maker.

How do we break from these things that hold us down? How do we create a “quiet time” that goes beyond “quiet” and goes to an Amazing time? “But finding true silence requires more than quieting our surroundings. It also requires our souls. This is the real dilemma of living in a wordy world. Even when we are still and alone, like the minutes before falling asleep in bed, our minds are racing with the images and words we’ve marinated in all day. It is inner silence that eludes us (pg. 33)”.

How do we quite our souls so we can comprehend to vastness of God? How do truly quite our world so that we may hear from God? I challenged myself this morning to go to the river/creek a block away from the house to silence my world. I had to fight against taking my mp3 player or my cell phone or my watch. I also fought against wanting to pray or talk to God. Yes, I did not want to pray. Because I wanted to be silent and know that He is God.

I couldn’t help to wonder why the water spiders (that is what we call the guys that are like spiders that skate on the top of the water) dart back and forth on the water. Or, why the water snails aren’t bigger. They have so much food but seem to only eat what they need to survive (novel concept). God has so incredibly woven this blue ball in which we live into a beautiful dance. I so want to hear that music.

I want to encourage wives to allow their husbands to seek some solitude. Husbands watch the kids for your wife so she can get away for an hour of silence time. But here is the catch. Don’t use that time to nap, to use your smartphone, or to pray (that will come in time). Use that time to ponder your existence, to ponder the vastness in which we live and to ponder the things beyond us. Does this sound to weird for you? It might, but people have been doing just this since the beginning of mankind.

Pondering the bigness of God comes fairly easy to me, but this exercise is a good reminder of his bigness. The bible says we’re “fearfully and wonderfully made”. Can you grasp that, I can’t, but God can begin to help me understand it.

Blessings in your search for silence,
Pastor Scott

The Biggest Worm You've Ever Seen...

So, I've been trying to get our garden ready for this years planting. Yes, I understand I'm a bit behind schedule. While I was weeding the other day Luke and I found the biggest worm I've ever seen. Check this bad boy out:

I wasn't joking. This bad boy was a small snake. I sure hope he brings us yummy veggies later on this summer.