CSM’s worship night, ROOTED,

took place last Friday night… and was pretty darn awesome! For those of you unable to attend… check out these videos that were shown during the evening.

Look out for photos from the evening as well as a recap video, coming soon!

This year, we have selected ROOTED for the night’s title and theme. Derived from Ephesians 3:16 -18 the night will focus on how we, as believers in Jesus, ought to be rooted in love, and how the more we make Him our “root,” our source, the bigger the picture of His love and His plan for us becomes.

ROOTED will include, but is not limited to, various forms of worship such as; Worship through music, dance, drama, visual arts, and spoken word. Everything we do in life, can act as worship unto our Maker and Savior and it is because of that fact that we include variety, rather than make the evening only about the music.

The main purpose of ROOTED, like all of our nights of worship, is to experience God through powerful, expressive, vibrant worship; to break away from our routines and show our devotion to Jesus. To allow for no limitations, boundaries, or comfort zones, but instead display passionate, unrestrained worship to Him who displayed passionate, unrestrained love… for us. Our goal is to encourage everyone participating, young and old, into deeper intimacy with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit through responsive forms of worship. Our hope is to inspire fellow believers to dig deeper; to take root in the love of Christ and tap into the full potential he has for our lives.

It’s gonna be an awesome night!

I was thinking about how amazing and mysterious God is. Sometimes we think we know what the best scenario for our life is. Usually because it’s easy or because we think it makes sense in our “finite” minds. Tim spoke on Monday at college group about how we all go through tough times and how we ought to look to God and trust Him no matter what. Watch this video and see how God worked in this mans life. God is good, God is true , and God is sovereign.

Today’s message in high school was on idols that we have in our lives. We focused on a phrase found in 1 Samuel 12:20, “empty things”, as well as the story of the golden calf in Exodus 32. So, as promised, here are some resources for further study.

First of all, go read Exodus 32. Fantastic and crazy stuff. Also, read the story of Samuel and Saul in 1 Samuel 8-12. Sounds like a lot of reading, but it’s fascinating and reads like an action movie.

Speaking of movies, check out this short clip from The Skit Guys entitled “Idol Worship”. It really makes you stop and think.

Then click over to American Idolatry, a brief explanation of idol worship in America from Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church, Seattle.

I have 2 book recommendations as well. The first is Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller, of Redeemer Presbyterian in New York. I really enjoy Dr. Keller’s teaching, and he’s smarter than anyone you and I know. For those of you who love ninjas or anything kung-fu related, check out Deadly Viper Character Assassins. The book is a fun read and although only loosely related to our topic, it covers the seven deadly sins/idols we adopt.

In addition, for those of you who are John Piper fans, I found an essay that he wrote on Acts 7 and stiff-necked people.

That’s it for this week.

Be blessed.

<Tim>

My message today, although covering a variety of topics, focuses on the relationship between free will, God’s will, wisdom, and worship. Here are a few resources for you to follow up with.

First of all, please read the entire book of Ruth. As you do, consider how the phrase “as it turned out” points to how God is working behind the scenes.

As you read Ruth, I’d suggest following along with the Redeeming Ruth sermon series from Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Pastor Mark Driscoll brilliantly shows how God’s hand is at work in Ruth’s life, sustaining her and guiding her through all seasons of life. You can also check out John Piper’s sermon on Ruth, entitled Sweet and Bitter Providence.

Speaking of brilliant preaching, check out Matt Chandler’s message on Destiny and Ephesians 1. Chandler, who preaches at The Village church in Dallas, has boatloads of passion. You should also check out his blog here, where he discusses his battle with cancer. The journey starts on November 26. He also adds vlog updates of his progress as he goes through chemo.  Click here to see the first of his videos (it starts on Dec. 6).

Finally, a few books. I recently ordered Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe from Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears. Amazing book and sermon series from Mars Hill Church.  The topic entitled Worship: God Transforms is great, and illustrates how we’re made to worship Him. The new book Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller also artfully dispels the idea that we’re made for anything less than God. And finally, A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis includes his journal entries from the period of time immediately following the death of his wife. Amazing and powerful stuff.

Enjoy.

<Tim>

For those of you who want to study further on the topic, here are a few ideas.

Listen to some sermons.  You can click here to find many sermons from John Piper, or click on one of the sermons below to hear from Mars Hill Church’s Mark Driscoll.

It’s All About Jesus: Humility

Humble Christians

Humble Pastors

In addition, I recently read the book Humility: True Greatness by C. J. Mahaney.  It’s a quick and fantastic read and a reminder of how far off of God’s path we all choose to go.

Be blessed (humbly!).

<Tim>

I’m watching Gladiator right now and it stirs something in the heart of a man. For those of you that haven’t seen it, it’s the story of a man who is wrongly punished, and fights to avenge the death of his family and change a crooked government. It’s the story of how one man can fight and make a difference.

And in some ways, that’s why we go to Mexico. Obviously we’re not going to fight with swords and shields, or with tigers.

But we will be in a war.

We go to Mexico, to a different culture and a different world. We’ll be taking loads of supplies, a team that is well equipped, and a message of hope and life.

And in some ways, our fight is huge. We battle against language differences, massive cultural differences, hurts and scars on the hearts of people, and most of all, a spiritual battle, against Satan and his demons who would love nothing more than to hurt us, to destroy our hearts and our souls and our ministry and our hope in our God.

Yet our fight is small. We engage in battles with coloring books and crayons, with cinder blocks and mortar, with Bibles and journals, with our simple loaves and fish.

But we fight because there is so much at stake, and because our small contribution can help change the whole.

We got to Mexico to tell those souls about the Jesus who loves them, who died for them, and who is returning one day to take them home.

And though we fight with crayons and loaves and words, God can use those simple things to change lives or meet the needs of many.

Like the little boy with the fish and loaves in John 6, we are small and fragile and we have little to offer, but God will use anything we have for his good purposes.

And we get to enter into the battle, alongside our Jesus, whether our weapons of choice are crayons or scrapbooks or soccer balls or simple words.

As we get ready to leave for Mexico and enter into battle down there, would you pray for our team? Pray for our team’s effectiveness, that we’d have unity like a family, and that we may make the name of Jesus famous.

I’m so excited for what is ahead of us, and for what God will do during this trip!

As Maximus rightly says in Gladiator, “What we do in this life echoes in eternity.” As we head to Mexico, we go to do work and fight for eternal things. Our efforts in Mexico will echo in eternity, so we fight with all our hearts.

<Tim>

Today we launch the third service.  I’m excited.  We’re about an hour and 15 minutes out and I’m excited to see how the service goes! A lot of people have put in a lot of work to get this service off the ground, and I’m hoping that we see this service become yet another place where people can come and hear about Jesus.

This morning in high school we talked about the old self vs. the new self, or the flesh vs. the Spirit.  Paul writes a LOT about these contrasts, and how we need to be careful to not let the old self win (the patterns and habits that we lived in before we knew Jesus) and that we need to follow the new self (the promptings of the Holy Spirit, living the way that God intended for us).

Here are a few passages to focus on to get a little background on the old and new self: Romans 7:14-25, Ephesians 4:22-32, Colossians 3:5-11, 1 Peter 4:3-5, 1 Peter 2:9-12, Galatians 5:16-24.

As you read those passages, keep in mind that God is so good to us that even when we’re tempted to sin and go back to the old self, God gives us a way out (1 Corinthians 10:12-13).

And remember that God has made us to live differently because we’re not from this world.  Our home is elsewhere.  Like Romans 12:2a says,  “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Sherman the giraffe is a good example of that (see above picture).  He is covered in blue and purple spots.  Kinda random, but he’s different in a good way.  He stands out and chooses to be different from other giraffes. Yet he’s still a giraffe. He has spots, a long neck, and like horn-thingys atop his head. And like him, we need to be like other humans (being genuine, showing our failures and our victories, our hopes, our dreams, etc.) yet remaining different because we’re not like all other humans (we have the hope of Jesus in us, and he has changed us from the inside out- “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God.” Ezekiel 36:26-28)

Be bold, and different, and confident in that.

Not creepy different, or weird different, but with humble confidence- you have the love of God, and His Spirit within you.

<Tim>

A few other things/ideas that I walked away with:

God uses men in the Bible to pull out of other men what He has put in them (Paul and Timothy, David and Johnathan, Jesus and John, etc).

When you receive an invitation from God to work for him, the only available position is slave.

Luke 12:42, 47-48 Jesus says that to whom much is given, much is required. As God’s children, we have been given much, and we are invited and expected to give much.

Bishop Sherwood Carthen said during the conference “I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I know God will see me through.”

We also heard a christian comedian who was pretty funny, and a few testimonies that were pretty powerful. All in all, a day well spent.

Next conference: Synergy 2010, next Saturday, March 6. See you there.

<Tim>