Cool thoughts from Sam Allbery @ http://allberry.blogspot.com/

Friday, March 28, 2008

Star-gazing


Three things to think about next time you're staring up at the stars:


God's glory


The sky is God's daily blog. Each day the message is unchanging, and yet brought to us in an unending variety of ways. In eloquent silence we have the glory of God proclaimed to us (Ps 19:1). We're reminded of God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature (Rom 1:20). The stars remind us of the scale and dimensions of his creation. The greatest understatement in history has got to be Gen 1:16 - "He also made the stars", as if a casual aside. They speak of his might and our need to worship him. If we see our smallness before the stars (Ps 8), we should also see his greatness.


God's gospel


Abraham is urged by God to look up at the stars, and even to attempt counting them (Gen 15:5)! Imagining the scene without the faint orange glow of light pollution is hard, but Abraham would have seen the night sky lit up like a Christmas tree - a canopy of numberless twinkling lights. "So shall your offspring be", God says to him. Redeemed humanity really will be a vast number, as hard to imagine as the starry night is to take in, and yet what an encouragement. If it's tough soil which God has given us to work on, we can take great comfort. It will not always be so. Christ's people will not be the handful in a lifeboat, or the straggling survivors huddled in a shelter. Each night-time glance at the heavenlies is an opportunity to believe the gospel again.


God's people


As we strive to live together as God people, struggling to share the mindset of Christ as he went obediently and sacraficially to the cross, purging complaint and argument from our communal life, heading a step at a time toward the blameless lifestyle to which we are called, we shine like stars in the night sky (Phil 2:15). Our unity in Christ, worked out in our relationships with one another, sets us apart as clearly as a bright star against the pitch black of night. Our collective Christ-mindedness makes us the glow-in-the-dark people; our fellowship itself becomes a poweful witness: our illumination in this generation hold out the word of life to it. Our shine is not from better health, better looks, better teeth, better success, but from better minds as we follow the example of Christ and consider one another's needs before our own. [Optional cheesy finale: We become the bright stars that the wise follow to find Jesus :-) ]
Labels: God, Stars

Against Music*
by Greg Gilbert

I think the entire evangelical world ought to put a moratorium on any kind of instrumental music, and just chant psalms in their worship services—for the next ten years.*

I’ve been amazed since becoming an elder in a local church just how dependent many Christians are on a certain style of music, or certain level of excellence in music. How many times have you heard someone say, for example, “I just can’t worship in that church.”? Or “I just don’t feel like I’m connecting with God there.”

Of course there can be a lot going on there, but I think that many times if you press in on statements like that, what you find behind it all is not very far removed from “I don’t like the music there.” People don’t put it that starkly, mainly because if you do it sounds silly. But I think that’s a lot of what people mean when they say, “I can’t worship there.” The reality is that a single flat-back piano just doesn’t gig their emotions as much as a full electric band does. They don’t get that “transcendent feeling,” so they get discouraged and end up saying they “can’t worship.”...



http://blog.9marks.org/2008/02/against-music.html

Home Alone: Do We Still

Need the Local Church?

Jim Elliff
The down-the-street local church is not the only show in town anymore. We are able to enjoy faith-building messages, listen to the latest Christian music, and explore the rich diversity and variety found in the most noted Christian gatherings, all with the click of the mouse or the touch of a button.

Many local church pastors now say, "The world is my parish," just as did the horseback-riding evangelist, John Wesley. But they mean this without ever going out of their own studio or auditorium! Some are communicating to millions.

It is not unusual for savvy web users to feed from many sources during a given week. Avid cable television viewers can watch the world's premium communicators any on almost any day! Some listen to Christian radio all day long. In fact, you can hear and see Christian leaders on your handheld media device while eating a hamburger in the local fast food restaurant.

For some time we have been losing the aura of significance once automatically assigned to the local church...


http://www.bulletininserts.org/homealone.html

As a general rule, you want to be very careful abou thte way you speak about other men's ministry. Though I obviously have grave reservations about some of the things that are done in these churches, I am deeply grateful to God that he has used these men to spread his gospel. We should also be deeply grateful to these men for sacrificing and striving to see the gospel go forward. I don't know all of them personally, but I would verture that many of them may be better husbands, fathers, leaders, and disciples of the Lord than I will ever be.
Does that mean I approve of their methods? Not at all. Does that mean that I think their methods aren't at times wrong and unhelpful? Not at all. But I am thankful that God uses crooked sticks(like me) to strike straight blows.

Michael McKinley

http://blog.9marks.org/2008/01/speaking-of-coo.html#comments

"True faith is not an opinion nor is it mere assent that the gospel is true, nor is it belief in a God in general.
True faith is specifically a faith in Christ.
True faith is a firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence (goodwill)towards us founded on the truth of the freely given promise in Christ both revealed to our
minds and sealed upon our hearts through the Holy Spirit
True faith is unwavering.(at heart believer's are on the side of faith against and opposition against doubts and temptations...)

In faith we prick up our ears and listen to God's word and close our eyes to the doubt and lies of the world.

Mike Reeves teaching on Calvin.

at www.theologynetwork.org

http://theologynetwork.org/historical-theology/getting-stuck-in/introducing----john-calvin.htm

‘I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept, or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf... the Word did everything.’
Martin Luther

from www.theologynetwork.com

"The main benefit that is obtained by preaching is by impression made upon the mind in the time of it, and not by the effect that arises afterwards by a remembrance of what was delivered." (quoted in Richard A. Bailey and Gregory A. Wills, The Salvation of Souls, Wheaton, IL: Crossway, p. 11).


http://blog.9marks.org/2008/02/jonathan-edward.html

(by Thabiti A.)


You reminded me of a similar sntiment I read from Jonathan Edwards.

http://www.benarment.com/history_in_the_making/2006/02/what_to_think_a.html about people leaving churches

http://www.benarment.com/history_in_the_making/2006/03/raising_up_othe.html raising up leaders

http://www.benarment.com/history_in_the_making/2006/09/the_craving_for.html vulnerable leaders

http://www.benarment.com/history_in_the_making/2006/10/worth_the_price.html church planting tips

http://www.benarment.com/history_in_the_making/2006/10/my_favorite_blo.html fav blogs

http://www.benarment.com/history_in_the_making/2006/11/secrets_boycott.html

http://www.benarment.com/history_in_the_making/2006/12/on_communicatin.html

http://www.benarment.com/history_in_the_making/2007/01/10_lessons_on_h.html church planting

http://www.benarment.com/history_in_the_making/2007/05/those_who_arent.html#comments (comment #2)

http://www.benarment.com/history_in_the_making/2007/05/how_to_warm_you_1.html

http://www.benarment.com/history_in_the_making/2007/08/the-gospel-of-b.html hospitality