Stoned for Jesus

How often are you like me and we hear or read over a passage of scripture as if it is the newspaper and I am skimming to find a headline or a phrase that catches my eye. I think about how many times I have heard and read the story of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14. We looked at this text yesterday in church and it struck me while we were reading it. Paul was stoned and left for dead. I think that he was beaten up and bruised by the stoning, but God performs a miracle and Paul lives. He being Paul gets up and returns to the city. Furthermore he then leaves and backtracks through the cities that he has just come from strengthening and encouraging the believers along the way. He also shares with them that tribulations, trials, persecutions will come and are part of the way of Jesus.

This all struck me because I defintely have never been stoned maybe verbally abused sometimes. This makes me think of my friends in the Navy who are stationed in Japan. They are verbally abused when they take a stand for Christ. We need to look at the example that Paul gave us and get up and be about the business of building into the body of Christ.

Mexico Trip Update

So it is that time of year again where I start running full steam with the Mexico Trip. South Church has been going to Mexico specifically Tijuana for seven years. This is going to be my tenth trip down and my 4th time leading the trip. God has taught me so much over the years that I have been going.

Today we had womens conference at church and I had been asked to do a coffee shop slash latte bar. So we did and we made over 250 lattes Saturday morning and we received 830.00 dollars in donations. That is so amazing because that is more than one house. That money will go towards building one of the homes that will be built while we are down in TJ. Praise God for His faithfulness in providing money and people for the trip.

Depersonalizing God's wrath

One of my pastors had this on his blog. It is scary to think of how close it is to the truth. How important having our foundational truth solidly grounded in Biblical truth. For truths such as this directly affect how I view who God is and who man is.

D.A. Carson:

"In recent years it has become popular to sketch the Bible‘s storyline something like this: Ever since the fall, God has been active to reverse the effects of sin. He takes action to limit sin's damage; he calls out a new nation, the Israelites, to mediate his teaching and his grace to others; he promises that one day he will send the promised Davidic king to overthrow sin and death and all their wretched effects. This is what Jesus does: he conquers death, inaugurates the kingdom of righteousness, and calls his followers to live out that righteousness now in prospect of the consummation still to come.

"Much of this description of the Bible's storyline, of course, is true. Yet it is so painfully reductionistic that it introduces a major distortion. It collapses human rebellion, God's wrath, and assorted disasters into one construct, namely, the degradation of human life, while depersonalizing the wrath of God. It thus fails to wrestle with the fact that from the beginning, sin is an offense against God."

Read more here at Justin Taylor's blog.

Video on Missions

I heard about this.... I have watched this and I pass it on.
I am now held responsible because of the knowledge that I have been given regarding the state of the world. Will you join me in doing something?

You can view the video here.....

"The Gospel is only good news if it gets there in time." -- Carl F.H. Henry

"Go, send, or disobey." -- John Piper



HT: Justin Taylor

Is it really August

I am ashamed that when I looked at the last time I posted.
Well I am back...


Here is whats new:

I am accepted and enrolled to start at Moody in January of 2010

I was given a minivan to replace my old one ( praise God for his faithfulness)

I have been accepted to our local community college and plan to take a few classes this fall

I have reconnected with a friend who I knew when I lived in Florida ( 87-95)

God has brought encouragement through several people this summer

More regular posts to come in the future