Balancing Truth and Grace

This week I read the following article:

http://www.sermoncentral.com/article.asp?article=a-David_Kinnaman_11_05_07&ac=true

Although the article is addressed to pastors, it contains some really good teaching about balancing truth and grace that all of us can use in our interactions with both believers and unbelievers. I hope it gives you some good food for thought.

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Spiritual Temperaments

Here is an interesting article by Myra Perrine regarding spiritual temperaments:

http://www.sermoncentral.com/article.asp?article=a-Myra_Perrine_10_29_07&ac=true

In this article the author describes how we all relate to God differently and there is a link to an inventory that you can use to help you discover your spiritual temperament. I encourage you to take the inventory and then I'd love to hear how all of you in our church relate to God. Either post a reply to this post or email me at patdamiani@comcast.net and let me know your spiritual temperament. I'd like to use the results to help in the planning of our worship.

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The Imprtance of Team

I knew I was going to miss Denny when he retired, but it really hit me hard last night after the retirement celebration. In a sense, I felt like I'd just lost a family member or a good friend. These last four years of working together with Denny have been by far my most rewarding years of ministry. After being pretty much on my own for many years as a pastor and church planter, it has been such a joy to be part of a team.

In fact, I probably wouldn't even be in full time ministry today if it hadn't been for a phone call from Denny over four years ago inviting me to get together and to explore the idea of merging our church plant with Thornydale Family Church. It's been exciting to see how God brought those two bodies together and how Denny and I have been able to work together over these past four years. Denny has been my friend, my mentor and my co-worker during that time and my ministry has been so much more effective because of our teamwork.

I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. Isn't that exactly the point Paul made in Ephesians, Romans and 1 Corinthians when he writes about the church as a body with different parts that must work together in order to be effective? I'm thankful that I'm still part of a team. In fact Denny is still part of that team, too - just in a different role now. I'm excited to see what God will do in our midst as we serve Him together.

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Theology and our Worship

I just ran across this article that deals with the importance of theology in our worship:http://www.pastors.com/RWMT/default.asp?id=310&artid=10533&expand=1 As Peter Beck so clearly points out, our theology determines whether or not we're able to worship in spirit and in truth. Without a proper view of Jesus, our worship cannot meet that standard.

Sometimes I think we take it for granted that people know the basics of Christianity so we don't need to talk about them much. But evidence from research like the Barna surveys mentioned in this article show that even those who claim to be born-again Christians often are totally wrong when it comes to their theology.

That's why I think our detailed study of the Book of Ephesians is so important. it has allowed us to go back and either learn for the first time or cement those crucial, basic elements of our theology.

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"Lord" is not fading here

There was a very disturbing article on the front page of the Sunday Arizona Daily Star with the headline "'Lord' is fading at some churches. (http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/179570.php)

The article begins with this paragraph:

God has no gender. And the Lord? There's not much Lord in this church
service.

The article goes on to describe how several local churches have virtually eliminated the word "Lord" from their church services in order to avoid what they describe as "hierarchical, patriarchal images." These same churches have also gone to great lengths to be gender neutral as well. As one pastor commented, "Our...hymnal does have hymns that will say 'Father' and 'God," but the next verse will always then say 'Mother' and 'God'.

To me this represents a very dangerous, slippery slope in which man begins to decide which aspects of God's character that they are going to accept and which attributes they will just choose to ignore or change to their liking. The quote from one deacon illustrates that train of thought: "...the theology is that God is love, period." God is certainly love, but the Bible is clear that He is also holy, righteous and just and that He pours out His wrath on those who refuse to acknowledge Him as He really is. And there is no doubt, He is Lord - there are somewhere around 7,000 Bible references that attest to that fact.

It is not our right to make God into the kind of God we want Him to be. When we do that, we're actually putting ourselves in the place of God and saying that we know better than Him. That's a very dangerous place to be.

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Amazing Grace

My wife and I went to the the new movie "Amazing Grace" over the weekend. I thought that it was a great movie - not only was it well-made, but it was saturated with great principles for life. But there was one line in the movie that I just can't get out of my head. Towards the end of the movie, William Wilberforce went to see his old pastor, John Newton, for some advice. And during that exchange, Newton spoke these words:

"I am a very old man and my memory has gone. But I remember two things: that I am a great sinner and that Jesus is a great savior."

It seems to me that if we could just remember those two things as well, it would revolutionize the way that we live our lives.

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Worship "Concert"

I had the privilege of attending the Chris Tomlin "concert" last Friday night at the Dodge Theater in Phoenix. One of the highlights of the night was that Chris, Matt Redman and Louis Giglio spent nearly an hour talking to a small group of pastors and worship leaders about worship a couple of hours before the concert started. Although we got some good ideas that we can implement in our church, what impressed me most was the humility of these men who God has used greatly in helping people to worship Him.

And all that was really confirmed when the "concert" started. This wasn't really a concert, it was a worship service. There was no "opening act" followed by the "big star." Chris, Matt and Louis just worked together to help 5,000 people worship God together. All the focus was on God, not on the people on the stage.

I've been thinking a lot about how we can achieve that same kind of worship in our church. Let me know if you have any thoughts.

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Set Free

After looking at Paul's description of redemption in Ephesians 1:7-10 on Sunday, I was really struck by the fact that our daily Bible reading for that day also focused on the whole concept of redemption. In Romans 7-8, Paul gives us an even more detailed account of how we have been set free from slavery to sin. Aren't you thankful that Jesus has paid the price to set us free from a way of life that leads to death? And aren't you grateful that "there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus"?

If you didn't get a chance to read Romans 7-8 yet, I want to encourage you to take the time to do that this week. And then I hope that you'll respond to God in prayer, thanking Him for setting you free.

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The Gospel According to Jack Bauer

Many of you out there probably know what a big "24" fan I am. In fact, it was really hard last night to decide whether to go to the U of A basketball game or stay home and watch the premier of "24". But since I could record "24" on the DVR, I went to the game, which may have not been the best decision, since my Wildcats lost. But at least today's a holiday, so I can watch last night's 2 hour premier before I watch the next two hours tonight.

I was also glad to learn that there are some good spiritual lessons to learn from "24", too. Pastor Mark Driscoll wrote about some of those in his blog: Mark Dricoll blog. What a relief to know that I'm not the only Pastor out there addicted to "24". But it's even better to know that Jesus died for me.

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Three Funerals

A friend sent me an interesting email this morning. It centered on three funerals that were held last week - one for former President Gerald Ford, one for James Brown and one for Saddam Hussein. I'm not sure who originated these thoughts, but I thought they were well worth our consideration:

"All three men, President Ford, James Brown, and Sadam Hussein had choices in their destiny. Today they have all three stood in front of the God of this universe with those choices unveiled and judged. God allowed us to see three men yesterday.

President Gerald Ford, a man whose faith in God and service to his country was eulogized by many speakers during the solemn and dignified ceremonies which marked his passing. A man of character and integrity, not perfect but made righteous by his faith in Jesus Christ. It was in this righteousness he lived out his life as a servant to his fellow man and his country. Great men and dignitaries attended his funeral. All coming to pay respect and honor to a man most deserving.

James Brown also was eulogized in a funeral ceremony befitting his life choices. There was blaring rock music, gyrating bodies, costumes, and great sensual displays of revelry to portray the contribution this man had given through his life to his fellow man. He lived a life of drugs, alcohol, immorality and rock music. He was heralded the father of Rap music and the inspiration of Michael Jackson's greatness. His funeral with all of it's theatrics was befitting the excess of waste his life portrayed.

Then we had the gruesome hanging of Sadam Hussein. His death as gory as his life. A brutal murderer and dictator, hung by his neck and secreted away in the middle of the night to an unmarked grave. Thousands of Iraqis celebrated his death for through his life he had brought untold misery and death to many. A man so wicked that it seemed the world breathed a collective sigh of relief at the pronouncement of his death.

Three men, three men who left their mark on the entire world, three famous men. All three have now stood before their Creator to answer for the choices they made in their life as you and I will someday. There is only one choice and Gerald Ford's life exemplifies the nobility of choosing to walk in harmony with The Creator through the acceptance of Jesus Christ as his Redeemer. James Brown choose to walk in the flesh. His life's work glorified the flesh and his death magnified the flesh. Sadam Hussein choose evil. He was a narcissistic megalomaniac. His life glorified evil and his death was gruesome.This all played out in one day. God painted a great picture for mankind."

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Lofty Goals

As those of you who were there last Sunday know, I've challenged us as a congregation to shoot for some pretty lofty goals this year:

• To read through the entire Bible this year (See www.thornydalechurch.org for a link to the reading schedule)
• To memorize the Book of Ephesians as I preach through that book.

I've had several people comment about the fact that those are some pretty high expectations. And they're right! But as Michaelangelo said:

The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

In other words, if we don't set any goals we'll reach them, but what good is that? But if we set some lofty goals and get only part way there, we'll certainly be better off.

That great philosopher Yogi Berra put it like this:

You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.

You've gotta love Yogi. In this case I think he hit the nail right on the head. So I'm looking forward to the journey together this year. Let's see just how close we can come to meeting those goals!

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