Vision Week...

last night we took a break from our journey through the life of david to talk about the value of out-of-the-ordinary experiences. about the fact that we need out-of-the-ordinary experiences in our faith journey to change us forever as we come back to the ordinary.

much like jacob as he wrestled with God before as he crossed the jabbok river...we need these experiences.

as because we need these experiences, we are setting up an out-of-the-ordinary experience this coming week. inviting everyone and challenging everyone to come to what we are calling vision week.

the basement at campus house will be completely transformed into numerous different spaces, and will be open 24 hours from monday at 8am until thursday at 9pm, for people to come and encounter God in different ways.

we also have a few other specific things that will be going on, including:

prayer -

there will be 36 hours of continuous prayer happening during the first 36 hours of vision week. we want to have someone in the prayer room here in the building continuously for those 36 hours. we have half hour time slots for people to sign up for. if you were not at dig last night and didn't get to sign up for a prayer slot but would like to, you can send me an email at cchbrad@gmail.com and i can let you know what times are available.

fasting -

we are challenging people to fast next week...to intentionally remove something ordinary from their lives (food or something else) in order to create an out-of-the-ordinary scenario that will cause people to seek God and encounter God.

worship -

worship will happen in a bit of an out-of-the-ordinary way next week as well. monday, tuesday and wednesday nights at midnight there will be low-key, informal, acoustic worship happening in the basement in the midst of the vision week stuff.

meal packaging for people in africa -

we felt lead to bring something into this out-of-the-ordinary experience that would align us with God's heart for social justice. and this opportunity to package meals fell into our laps.

we have set a goal. by the end of next week we want to package 360 meals. the meals we are packaging cost $1.20/package. so, that means that if 60 people will each bring $7.20 we will meet our goal. so, if you will bring cash next week...you will find in the space in the basement an area where literally for every $1.20 you bring you personally will put food into a package, seal it, and put it into a box ready to ship to africa.

community wrap-up thursday @ 9pm -

we want to gather together at the end of this out-of-the-ordinary time together to worship a bit and to share how we have encountered God in different ways.

i believe there is great potential in what this coming week holds. i pray that it will be a time of deepening relationship with God in a way that people walk away with a limp like Jacob did...knowing that they have been forever changed as they continue in the ordinary.

so...it you are around warresnburg, will you consider coming and spending some time in this space during the week ahead?

and if you are not around here, will you consider praying for what is going on here, that people would encounter God in new ways and walk away changed?

Life of David [1 Samuel 28 & 31]...

last night we looked at the end of the life of saul. the night was sponsored by this guy. and really not so much by this guy...but by his most notable phrase...

"i pity the fool"

the night was brought to us by the phrase "i pity the fool" not because saul was dying...but because as his life was coming to an end, he was convinced that God had turned away from him and would not answer him...when in reality God was right there, but saul's unconfessed sin and disobedience issue was keeping him from connecting with God.

isaiah 59 gives insight to this where it says...

"Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, not his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things."

and so we must ask ourselves...when we feel like God has turned away from us and will not answer us...are there unconfessed sins and disobediences that are keeping us from fully connecting with him.

because we can be assured that if there is sin and disobedience in our lives, it will causes barriers and disconnection with God.

Life of David [1 Samuel 27, 29 & 30]...

cheap grace...

deitrich bonhoeffer coined the term...

he wrote about it this way...

"Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession...Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate."

God calls us to something far deeper than cheap grace.

romans 8:38-39 says:

"For i am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to seperate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

in the wake of those words, how can we not wake up to an understanding of grace that is far deeper than cheap.

we must encounter God's true grace...and the outpouring result will be 1 Peter 4...

"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms."


if you are interested in listening to this whole teaching, you can check it out by clicking here...

Life of David [1 Samuel 25]...

beauty...true beauty...beauty based in shalom...based in the way that God intended things to be...

always has the potential to do two things...

1. to stop us dead in our tracks

2. to bring us back to what is right and true


last night, we look at a beautiful illustration of this in the life of david as he encounters a woman named abigail in the bottom of a ravine. david is caught up in a moment of sin...full of anger and rage and vengeance. abigail represents beauty.

here's a eugene peterson quote that sums up well much of the teaching:

“When some Abigail or other shows up – a sudden beauty in song or face, in aspen or iris – we see ourselves in a larger, truer light. David had been living in the huge, vast world of God – God’s love and redemption, prayer and holiness – and it nearly got away from him as he pursued his puny, small-minded revenge. Abigail’s beauty – her double-edged beauty of character and countenance – recovered the beauty of the Lord for him. Abigail on her knees put David back on his knees.”

paul talks in 1 corinthians 10:13 about the fact that when we are tempted, God will provide a way out. and yet, in the moment when we feel sin barreling down on us, it can feel challenging to actually recognize that way out.

and i wonder if more than anything, our inability to recognize that way out, is a result of the fact that we have lost our eyes and appreciation for beauty. that we need to allow beauty, true beauty, to cause us to stop dead in our tracks and to be brought back to what is right and true.

what if in our moments of temptation, when we are caught up in anger and rage, we actually went out hunting for beauty. believing that it would realign our compass and bring us back to our true north.


if you are interested in listening to the entire teaching, you can check it out here.

“When

Life of David [1 Samuel 21 & 22]...

last night we entered in to the story of 1 samuel 21 & 22 and saw that david continues to turn to God as his sanctuary...as his place of refuge...as the place he goes to when he needs filled up. and we observed then, that in the first two verses of chapter 22, some 400 people are drawn to david. an absolutely beautiful picture.

my guess is that as a result of the sanctuary david turned to, he had an aroma about him that attracted others. it was an aroma of where he had been.

was it the aroma of Christ that paul talks about in 2 corinthians 2:14-15?

saul on the other hand, went to the sanctuary of the world. as a result, his aroma was that of the world...an aroma that drew others in to his evil-dominated imagination...and left them turning to the ways of the world as well.

the story leaves us pondering two questions...

what sanctuary are you turning to in your life?

what aroma are you carrying?

Life of David [1 Samuel 20]...

in chapter 20 of 1 samuel we SEE the friendship between jonathon and david playing out in a unique and deep way.

however, it was back in the beginning of chapter 18 that we were TOLD about the beginnings of their friendship. there it says that they "became one in spirit". but what does it mean to be one in spirit?

the hebrew word for "became one" is "qashar" and it means "to be knit together". to become one in spirit is to be knit together. being knit together was what made jonathon and david's friendship unique.

i think it is being "knit together" and "one in spirit" that Jesus is talking about when he is asked, "what is the greatest commandment of them all" and he replies, "love the Lord with everything you've got and love your neighbor as yourself". (Mark 12:28-31 - my paraphrase)

but what is the root of being knit together...of loving your neighbor as yourself.

i believe it goes all the way back to the beginning of everything. in genesis 1, God says, "let US make make man in OUR image", and these words show us that from before the beginning of everything, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit were living out this commandment of loving God and loving neighbor as yourself. perfectly. and it is this image that we, every single person in the world, is created in.

and so what is at the root of being knit together?

it is the way we were created to be. it is shalom. it is rightness, wholeness, completeness. it is the way things were in the garden of eden. it is the way things will be in heaven someday. all knit together on one long scarf.

so how might you change and how might the world change if you started viewing everyone as someone you are knit together with?

Monday Book : The Reason for God...

the reason for God, by timothy keller, is simply a fantastic book! one of our community groups is spending this semester learning from it.

first off, keller is an absolutely fantastic communicator. i don't know that i have encountered many who are better. and more than that, he is an incredible thinker! consequently, there is probably nothing he has written, or said for that matter, that i wouldn't recommend. click here to check out both his writing and teaching.

specifically, the reason for God, is a compelling look into why we believe what we believe. keller takes the tough questions and answers them simply and concisely; yet profoundly and convincingly. if you struggle with tough questions like "why do bad things happen to good people"...or if there are people who surround you that struggle with these questions...or if you have a desire to more fully grasp why you believe what you believe...then this book is for you.

i can almost guarantee, if you pick up a copy, you will not be disappointed.

and in light of thinking about a book like this...

what are some of your toughest questions of faith? what are your most important questions?