The Gospel is About Jesus Before It's About Us

"The gospel is not that God would help us become righteous enough for him. The gospel is that Jesus was righteous in our place and died the death we should have died so that we could be given his righteousness as a gift in his place. The Christian life, you see, is not about moral improvement. It’s about Christ working the power of a new life in you and through you." JD Greer

https://jdgreear.com/blog/confidence-comes-clearer-view-god/

Why We Should Listen to Those We Disagree With

https://www.ted.com/talks/zachary_r_wood_why_it_s_worth_listening_to_people_we_disagree_with?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tedspread

Comsuming on Sundays

"What an awesome Sunday for being more consumed with the glory of God than being a worship consumer." Scotty Smith

Missions and the Church

"A church should not simply have a missions department. It should wholly exist to be a mission." Tim Keller

A Model of Perseverance

A lesson in perseverance...

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/apr/21/sarah-sellers-the-nurse-who-stunned-the-world-at-the-boston-marathon

"Men of whom the world is not worthy"

"Men of whom the world is not worthy"

http://blog.godreports.com/2018/04/christian-missionary-waterboarded-by-isis-in-prison-led-40-to-christ/

What Happens to the Church When We Forget Jesus's Call to Die?

"One of the reasons the church is anemic is because we have preached a gospel that doesn’t require people to die to themselves." Jeff Vanderstelt

The Gospel and Community

"Community is more than just the result of preaching the gospel; it is itself a declaration and expression of the gospel." Timothy Keller

Something We All Need to Learn From: Why Jake Locker walked away from football

Awesome story on why Jake Locker walked away from football.

Spoiler Alert: He started asking the question what kind of person do I want my daughter to know me for being (informed by his growing faith in Jesus).

https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/04/18/jake-locker-nfl-2011-draft-tennessee-titans-why-he-quit

Formation: In Everything We Do, We Are Training Ourselves What to Love, Pursue, Desire, Live For

People choose all sorts of educational options (public, private, parochial, homeschooling) for very different reasons. Christians at times intentionally choose each of these options because of their faith. Some even choose all the options at different times because of their faith. And we should not seek to be judging others for the options that they choose.

Regarding the issue of formation, the biggest issue is what sorts of things are we training ourselves towards: in how to see, in what we desire, in what motivates us. This world is no friend of grace in this, but instead our secular culture embeds skepticism, a critical spirit, selfishness, and a scoffing of all things religious. Our screens are the biggest carrier of shaping how we think and what we long for. This worldview that excludes God and celebrates self is often embedded in our schools and peer groups.

For ALL students, secular ways of thinking and desiring are at play to form them in ways that are contrary to human thriving, to thinking Biblically, and to living for the glory of God, from what they take in through screens, to things that we say and do as parents, to influences of peers, to the own sinful desires and practices, to unhealthy things that happen to them in schools and churches, to secular influences (which can even come from churches and Christian schools as well...to understand my what I am getting at read James KA Smith's How Not to Be Secular...which is a very insightful and non-moralistic book despite the title).

What is going to counteract and overcome these things that so powerfully shape how we see life and what we live for?

The most powerful influence, especially as children are younger are parents. Yet as parents, we are going to screw many things up, which is why we need a village to help us disciple our children towards Christ. As kids get older, their peer group has a primary shaping influence. Beyond that there are many other formative means: school, family, friends, etc. In this array of options, healthy Gospel-centered Christian schools can be a great formative tool, as Melissa and I have witnessed through Providence. And yet the most important and potentially transformative, IMO, is the church. Over the last 15 years, we have seen the church, in all its not flashiness, awkwardness, and yet faithfulness and Gospel-centeredness radically transform many lives.

I think this is one of the most important discussions that we as God's people need to have. As we work through how to pursue healthy positive formation In this, we should be very slow to judge one another or to suggest that we have arrived on the surefire answer. As Isaiah 7 says, "unless we are firm in faith (resting in the Lord), we are not firm at all." God alone is the Rescuer and Transformer, yet He uses means to accomplish His work, to formatively shape His people, so that we will not be conformed to this world, but that we would be transformed by the renewing of our mind (and desires and motivations) to test (and pursue) what the will of God is: what is good, pleasing to the Lord, and His intent.

Prayer for Filling

"Father, whatever fills our hearts fuels our thinking & shapes our speaking. So, we choose to set our minds, hearts, and affection on you. Fill our hearts so full of the beauty and grace of Jesus, it’ll be difficult to shame, hurt, or marginalize anyone today." Scotty Smith

The Sacramental Life: God Walks Everywhere

"We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with God. God walks everywhere incognito. ...The real labor is to remember, to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still more, to remain awake." C.S. Lewis

"O LORD, you have searched me and known me!

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from afar.

You search out my path and my lying down

and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,

behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.

You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is high; I cannot attain it.

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,”

even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you.

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

If I would count them, they are more than the sand.

I awake, and I am still with you.

Search me, O God, and know my heart!

Try me and know my thoughts!

And see if there be any grievous way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting!" Psalm 139

Lig Duncan T4G on 2nd Commandment and Racism

The Gospel Is Substitutionary AND Transformational

"The Gospel eliminates earning, not effort; merit gained, not muscle applied; penance, not repentance; worldly sorrow, not godly sorrow; dead works, not working for God's glory." Scotty Smith

What Our Responses to Conflict Reveal

Avoiding conflict = Cowardice
Savoring conflict = Aggression
Redeeming conflict = Christian

Scott Sauls

Do You Know the King?

Grateful for our Risen Savior! The disciples did not expect to find Jesus raised from the dead, but then again our God always exceeds our expectations in ways that we don't expect and that we often are slow to accept. Most often we have to see the impossible to believe, and even when we see it, it is sometimes not enough.

Do you know the True King?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzqTFNfeDnE

What Difference Is the Resurrection Making in God's People?

"The problem, after all, is not belief in the resurrection, but whether we live lives that would make no sense if in fact Jesus has not been raised from the dead." Matthew Hauerwas via Alan Hirsch