Passion LA Conference

This past weekend was the Passion LA Conference down at the Nokia Theater.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the Passion movement, it's not related to that Mel Gibson movie that came out a few years ago. Passion is aimed at university-aged students, and it is a movement to awaken this "next" generation of believers to be passionate followers of Christ.

The conference featured worship leaders Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and David Crowder, and the main speakers were Louie Giglio and Francis Chan. Each session featured an extended time of worship singing, and a message from one of the speakers.

Both of these guys are great speakers, but I personally thank the Lord for the gift of Francis Chan. If you've never heard him speak, you seriously need to. His church is down in Simi Valley, and it's called Cornerstone Community Church. If you haven't heard him, go to their website, and download one of his sermons (they have both audio and video).

Francis spoke on Saturday morning, and he talked about a number of things, one of which I wanted to share with all of you. He explained that over the last two years or so, he'd been rethinking the ways we do church, and in a greater sense, Christianity, and in an even greater sense, Western Christianity. He had asked himself, "how much of my faith has been fed to me through traditions, and through people's opinions?" He pondered being stuck on a deserted island with just the Bible, and reading it through without any outside bias or influence, and what conclusions he would reach.

He said that upon completing the New Testament, he would have a HUGE expectation for the Holy Spirit. Jesus spent a lot of time reassuring his disciples that when he was gone, he was going to send another that was just like him to be with them, and not just be with them, but be IN them!

Francis looked at the day of Pentecost in Acts, and talked about some of the amazing things that the Spirit of God did (for those of you who might not know about Pentecost, it's basically the beginning of the church, and some pretty amazing things happened to help it get on its way).

He then asked us how much we think of the Spirit, and how obvious it is that He (the Spirit) is living within us? He reflected on the idea that if a believer and an unbeliever stood side by side, there should be some kind of difference in the believer because of the real Spirit of God living in him! What difference is the Spirit of God making in your life??!!

The Spirit lives in us to comfort, guide, and convict us. How sensitive are we to his leading in these areas?? After the sermon, we had a time of silent reflection and meditation led by Louie Giglio. He explained that in Scripture, the Spirit is said to convict of three things:
1. He convicts of sin in our lives that we, as believers, need to repent of

2. He convicts of righteousness, that when believers feel weak and defeated by our sin, he assures us that we are redeemed children of God

3. He convicts the unbeliever of judgment, that they would know and understand that their sin must be punished, and if they accept the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross, their deserved punishment is placed on him, and they stand justified and redeemed before a holy God

Take some time to be still before God. Maybe after you've spent time in his Word, and had some time to pray; be still and listen. Sometimes we check off our "quiet time" as another thing on our long to-do lists for the day, and we don't give God time to speak to us. Ask for the Spirit's conviction in your life, whether of sin, or righteousness, and think about how he is leading you. The Holy Spirit is an equal part of the Trinity, and he's just as much God as God the Father, just with a different role. Think about it, the very Spirit of God Almighty resides within you, as a seal and assurance of salvation! Let's make more of an effort to be aware of him and seek his leading!

Preparing For Worship: January 27th

Hey everyone, sorry I didn't post yesterday. When I've gotten into the habit of posting on a certain day, not posting leaves me riddled with guilt! I know it's probably not a big deal to you, and I know the world will go on without my Friday "Preparing For Worship" post!

I was helping my wife get her final semester grades in for her students at Village Christian yesterday morning/afternoon, and then last night went with our college/young adult ministry, Shelter, to the Passion conference down at the Nokia center in LA. It was a good night, and I'll probably talk a little about it next week when I have time to blog, but as it is, I've got to get ready to go back again today, so I gotta make this quick!

This Sunday Pastor Todd's preaching from 1 Timothy 6:1-2, regarding how slaves and masters should interact. I mentioned John MacArthur preaching at the Truth and Life Conference, and how he said that the Bible neither condemns nor condones slavery, but rather tells slaves to act like Christians, and tells slave owners to act like Christians, and leaves it at that.

Pastor Todd will explain the pertinence that this passage has for us in our work relationships, and how we can glorify God all the better in our work week. (What?!! Glorify God at my job?! Some of you may think that sounds impossible :), so you better be there!)

We'll also spend time singing songs of praise to God and to Christ, beginning with "Nothing But The Blood Of Jesus" as a call to worship. We'll have a time of worship through announcements, and then have a chance to affirm Steve Stark and Darren Utley as those God has risen up to elder leadership in our church. This should be a great time as we thank God for blessing us with faithful, godly leadership, and as we begin this important process of building an elder board.

Steve Stark will then give us a short update on God's provision in the financial life of Crossroads. God has indeed blessed us, and provided for our needs, and financial stability is one of those great blessings! Steve will explain that to us, and we will worship through our thanksgiving and praise!

We'll respond to God's goodness and blessings by singing "Blessed Be Your Name" for this is surely a time that God has given to us, and we respond by saying "blessed be your name!" We then will focus on God's greatest gift to us by singing "That's Why We Praise Him" rejoicing in the work of Christ on our behalf. And we'll finish the set with a song of God's sovereignty and greatness with "Lord Jehovah."

Pastor Todd will then bring us the Word, and afterwards, I'll share a song called "From The Inside Out" that I hope we'll all be able to sing together soon. Then we'll go out into the world asking for God to stir a passion in our hearts that the world cannot explain, and that our hearts cannot contain as we sing "Stir In Me," replacing the phrase "I come to worship You" with "I live to worship You" committing all of ourselves to the Lord.

I don't have time to link all of the song titles to samples this morning, but I think we've done all the songs (save for the one I'll share) before, so hopefully it'll be a great morning of participation, and God will be greatly honored and glorified in our meeting together!

See you then!

Preparing For Worship: January 20

Greetings again everyone!

It's been a busy week on my end with the Truth and Life Conference, orientation meetings for substitute teaching in the Hart school district (thanks Lord!), and getting a new puppy! But I look forward to gather again together with you this Sunday, and exalt the glorious name of God!

We're going to sing "Immortal, Invisible God, Only Wise" and "Your Grace Is Enough" at the beginning of the service to call our hearts together to corporate worship. Both those songs help us to gain perspective on how glorious our God is, and how he calls we wretched sinners out of our bondage, and into his glorious life!

We'll continue worshiping through a time of announcements (if you're not sure how to do that, check out last week's post HERE) which are that Shelter meets this Sunday night, there is a special Foundation youth and then continue singing with a newer one I introduced a couple weeks ago called "We Trust Your Will." (the lyrics can be found HERE) After that we'll sing two songs that focus our minds and hearts on submitting and seeking Christ and his beauty with "I Fix My Eyes" and "We Fall Down." Both these songs come from passages in scripture, (Psalm 27, and Revelation 4) and it would be a great way to prepare in addition to reading the text Pastor Todd will be preaching from.

Pastor Todd will finish up 1 Timothy chapter 5, with a passage that talks about elders, and also about the nature of sin within the body. Be sure to read this passage as you prepare for worship.

We'll close with one song at the end that calls on God's graciousness that he would "Give Us Clean Hands" and a pure heart, that we might be a generation of those that seek his face. I think it will be a great way to drive the sermon home, and to send us out into our world as we go.

Happy preparation!

Doulas

No, not those birthing coaches.

It's the Greek word for "slave," and it appears close to 150 times in the New Testament in reference to the believers relationship to Christ.

John MacArthur talked about this last night at the first session of the Truth and Life Conference over at Master's College.

In order to avoid "negative connotations" about the word "slave," 99% of our English Bibles translate all but one use of "doulas" as "servant" or "bondservant" and according to MacArthur, this results in a watered down understanding of the Lordship of Christ in relation to us.

He noted that many people in America of African descent have, by this time in history, only a historical memory of slavery, and very few actually have any direct connection to it. They are much further removed from the whole thing than the people in the first century. The use of the word meaning "slave" would have caused a much bigger response back then as opposed to now.

The Bible neither condones nor condemns slavery, it tells Christian slaves to act like Christians, and it tells Christian masters to act like Christians, and that's where it leaves us. But the picture of a slave-master relationship is quite possibly the best, and most perfect picture of our relationship to Christ. To be sure, Christ is also our Redeemer and Friend, but the idea of a slave master explores every reality of what it means to follow Christ.

He alone buys us, to him alone are we accountable for discipline and reward, he alone is responsible for our very being (Acts 17:28).

We are called to die to ourselves, to pick up our cross, and follow him. It's an intense calling, but one that is infinitely worth the cost. We are saved from sin and death, from eternal separation from God, and from eternal punishment for our sin. We look forward to spending our eternity in God's heaven, worshiping and praising him forevermore. And while we live, we have the honor and privilege of being slaves of the Most High.

MacArthur mentioned that it's been said that in the Roman Empire, the slaves of Ceasar were some of the proudest people in the empire. How much more then should we be proud to serve and follow Christ!

Challies on "Errors And Contradictions In The Bible"

Tim Challies' third post on the inerrancy of Scripture is up now on his blog.

This has been a great little mini-series on this subject, and once again, I encourage you to check it out, especially if you've never given a great deal of thought to why we believe the Bible is "inerrant" (if you're not sure what we mean by "inerrant," that's probably a good enough reason to check out the articles).

Click HERE for Post #3 "Errors And Contradictions In The Bible"

Click HERE for Post #2 "What Does 'Inerrant' Mean?"

Click HERE for Post #1 "Are There Errors In The Bible?"

Tim Challies On The Inerrancy of Scripture

Tim Challies (www.challies.com) just posted his second blog entry on the inerrancy of Scripture. For those of you who may not have ever thought about why you believe and trust in the Bible as the perfect Word of God, these posts are very informative and accessible.

Click to read "What Does Inerrant Mean?"

Click to read the first post: "Are There Errors In The Bible?"

Preparing For Worship: January 13, 2008

We're gonna have a little change of pace this Sunday with our worship singing.

Does anyone remember going to summer camp and sitting around a campfire while a couple guys with acoustic guitars led in singing?

Well we're gonna revisit those glory days this Sunday as Jeff Cooper ("Coop") and I strum our acoustics and lead in singing.

We'll start with our "Blues-grass" version of "Come Thou Fount" (we had a lot of fun with that last time) as a call to focus our worship on God, and to ask that his Spirit would be at work among us as the body of believers gathered together to glorify his name.

Darren Utley will let us know about some important things coming up for Crossroads, including Pastor's Coffee, Friday Fellowships, and Men's Breakfast.

If I could insert a "Worship Director Moment" here, I'd like to address the "announcements" portion of our service. Sometimes the announcements can seem like an interruption in our service of "worship" can't they? I'd like to suggest that this has to do with our understanding of worship, and not with the way we do announcements.

Here's an example:

Have you ever heard the stories of churches where the style of music has been a divisive factor in the life of the church. "I can't worship with that style" or "I just love the 'worship' (we know that most of the time they mean the music).

God's Word says in 1 Corinthians 10 that whether you eat or drink, to do it all to the glory of God, meaning WORSHIP God in every aspect of your life. Music is a great aspect, but it is not the ONLY one. In those divided churches, there is a need for grace and even "longsuffering" with each other out of a desire to serve each other as we serve the Lord.

In the same way, announcements are opportunities for us to get involved in the lives of others within the Crossroads body, and as we listen to what's going on in the coming weeks, we can be considering and asking God how he might have us be involved in those things in order that we might edify and serve each other as unto the Lord.

I'll be talking about that more later on, it's kind of a passion of mine that we expand what we think of when we think of "worship."

Anyhoo,

After worshiping through announcements, we'll continue singing, and we'll explore that theme of serving one one another, as it is also what Pastor Todd will be preaching on.

We'll sing "Be Glorified" which is a commit to submit song that asks that God be glorified in us. We'll build on that with "Change My Heart Oh God" again realizing that he is the Potter and we are the clay to be used as he wills. And right before Pastor Todd comes we'll sing "Humble King" which reminds us of the example of Christ, that we might follow his example and be each other's humble servants for the glory of God.

Pastor Todd will then preach from 1 Timothy 5:1-16, and like I've said before, a great way to prepare for our worship service is to read the passage and be familiar with it.

After the sermon, we'll respond with the song "May The Words (Psalm 19)" and "For Your Glory," both of which commit our lives to be used by God for his sovereign purpose and for his glory.

Hope that was helpful, and will give you some things to think about as you prepare to gather together with the Crossroads family, and as one body, proclaim the name of our Lord!

Does The Bible Have Errors And Contradictions?

Read a great post from Tim Challies on this topic.

The Bible is constant target for attacks on Christianity, and since it is the final authority for our faith, it's probably a good idea to have a good grasp on why we trust it as such.

This is Tim's first in a series of posts dealing with this, so keep checking his blog for the rest.

Click Here to go to the post.

For future reference, his blog is located at www.challies.com

Stones

We are stones. Deep huh?

Darren Utley taught Foundation last night, and we went through 1 Peter 2:4-8, talking about Christ as our cornerstone, and how we are all being built up as a spiritual house in Christ. That means what we do in our own individual stones affects the stones around us, and that is a responsibility that we must take seriously.

Peter says that we're being built up to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices. To the first century Jews, this probably sounded a little crazy, as they had been subject to the Old Testament system of sacrifices for hundreds of years, and they had never been allowed to offer up their own sacrifices. The priests were the mediators between the people and God, and therefore were the ones who were responsible for offering the sacrifices. Only the high priest could enter that most holy place in the temple where the physical presence of God resided.

Peter's telling them that because of the work of Christ on the cross, we now have that most holy place within each of us, and that the very presence of God is within us by his Spirit!

I appreciated Darren's transparency and humility as he talked about the implications that this truth has for us as we battle daily with sin. When we sin and disobey God, we are defiling the very presence of God that dwells within us, but at the same time, we have immediate access to a guaranteed and instant forgiveness; all we need to do is confess and repent. Darren shared that he struggled with this sometimes because we all have those sins in our lives that we are continually repeating and battling, and when we commit the same sin for what seems like the billionth time, there is a sense of shame and guilt that can keep us from confessing.

How silly we are as humans, to be walking around with the most holy place, the very presence of God, in us, and think that we can hide or keep our sins from God when we are too embarrassed to confess! How silly to not tightly grasp hold of the promise of forgiveness when we confess, and the knowledge that...

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. -Psalm 103:11-13

So keep your stone pure, be mindful of the stones around you, especially our cornerstone of Jesus Christ, and the very presence of God within us because of Christ's death on the cross!
When you fail, own up to it, take responsibility, and come boldly before the throne of grace, and claim the blessed sacrifice of Christ as payment for your sin, confess, and be forgiven!

Preparing For Worship: January 6th

Welcome to 2008! I count myself blessed to be part of such an awesome community of believers such as we have at Crossroads. I can't wait to see what this year has for us!

As we prepare for this Sunday, we can't help but think of God's goodness and faithfulness to us in giving us a new church home! We're going to spend a lot of time singing songs that rejoice and celebrate God's leading in the life of our church.

We'll sing "To God Be The Glory" as a call to worship and recount the "great things he has done" in providing for our needs!

John Book will come and share a few ministry/fellowship opportunities and then we'll greet and welcome each other and also our visitors.

We'll continue our celebration singing with "Blessed Be Your Name" which reminds us that whether times are plentiful, or lacking, when God gives, and when he takes away, he is still on the throne, and therefore we cry out in every circumstance "blessed be your name!"

Next is a new song that I want to introduce called "We Trust Your Will." The two blog posts right before this one are about this new song. I wrote it shortly before leaving my old church to follow God's leading here to Crossroads. I was taking a step of faith, Crossroads was taking a step of faith, and San Gabriel was taking a step of faith, each one of us trusting God to lead, provide, and enable. Check out the recording and short blurb below.

We'll finish the set with a hymn of celebration that believers have sung since the 1920's: "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" which is pretty self explanatory, and entirely appropriate to our current state!

Pastor Todd will bring us God's truth from the next section of 1 Timothy, which is a call for both personal and communal integrity and example.

We have the opportunity to respond by celebrating communion together. As we do this, we'll sing a couple more songs that focus on the death of Christ for our sin. "Forever My Love" and "Amazing Love (You Are My King)" are two familiar songs that we'll finish our time together with.

So that's what's going on this Sunday. See you there!

We Trust Your Will

Here's a recording of my new song. Hopefully you'll be able to acquaint yourselves with it before Sunday so we can sing it together easily!

New Song This Week

Hey everyone, I want to introduce a new song this weekend, and I'm in the process of recording a version to put on here, but I just accidentally deleted everything I'd worked on to this point, so until I finish it, I wanted to at least let you know what it's about.

As many of you know, we got the building that we've been interested in! We now have a more permanent church home for the next few years; how exciting! As we've all heard Pastor Todd say, God has his perfect plan for our church, and as we prayed, he has placed us exactly where he wants us to be!

That's what this song it about, trusting in God's sovereignty. It's called "We Trust Your Will," and here are the words:

(Chorus)
We trust your will oh God
We trust your sovereign plan
Your ways are high above us
Your wisdom, oh how glorious!
When we can't see your plan
Lord help us understand
Though we can't see your purpose
We trust your will is certain!

(Verse 1)
You gave the law to Israel your chosen race
Its perfect statutes pointing us to your grace
Just as our fathers were saved through faith alone
We pray each day our trust and faith in you would overflow

(Verse 2)
You sent your Son to rise up to do your will
To save your children, for sin his blood was spilled
He was obedient unto the point of death
We pray the strength to follow him and trust your sovereign plan

(Bridge)
Though I walk through the valleys
Lord I will fear no evil
I'll follow you in paths of
Righteousness for your name's sake
Surely Lord all your goodness
And all your loving kindness
Will follow me every day I live to trust and praise you!

The verses are examples from scripture of how we trust God's perfect plan, and rely solely on him, and not on ourselves.

The first verse talks about the Old Testament law, and how it opened our eyes to how sinful we were, and made it completely obvious that we could not keep its decrees perfectly. The children of Israel had to offer blood sacrifices for their sins, but it was always their faith in God, not anything inherent in the sacrifices, that was "credited to them as righteousness." So even though we live "on this side of the cross," we still aspire to the faith of our fathers (Moses, Abraham, Noah, etc.).

The second verse talks about our perfect once-and-for-all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He came as a submissive and obedient son who was obedient even unto death on a cross. His perfect life, sacrificial death, and ascension from the grave to the right hand of the Father fulfilled all that the Old Testament system of sacrifice had pointed towards. We now claim the perfect blood of Christ as payment for our sins, and are subsequently justified, and spared from the wrath of God, and guaranteed eternal life in his presence! So we aspire to the obedience and trust that Christ had in his Father's perfect plan, and that's what we sing about in this song.

The bridge is an adaptation of the familiar 23rd Psalm, and talks about how we know that God is faithful, merciful, and he is never off of the throne, so when we are faithful to follow him, we know he is a perfect and reliable guide, and that when we do follow him, that his grace, mercy, and loving kindness will also be with us!

So I'll try to finish the recording soon, but chew on the words and ideas of this song. It's so appropriate to where our church is; trusting in God's perfect plan for us as his body, and rejoicing in his glorious sovereignty!