A Spirit-Imbued Character

We usually desire to have God rescue us from trials, in spite of the fact that we know God often uses those trials to further our character. Francis Chan says, "we care about our comfort a lot more than we care about our character." He goes on, "most times I don't think about my character, I just wanna be happy, I want all my problems to go away."

Medium and Message

Words Remain

Mason Jar Music Presents... Josh Garrels from Mason Jar Music on Vimeo.

The Church

Prezi

New Ideas on Prezi

Thorns

I’m starting to believe

that as a Christian to achieve

That zoe type of life

I must rival and strife

because Paul pleaded with God thrice

to remove that thorn in his flesh which tormented his life

But God said, “No.”

Why?  Perhaps to show

that the grace of God is sufficient for you

for in your weakness you are made perfect, which is true

the Bible does not state what affliction made Paul weak

But, because of this weakness God had to be constantly seeked

so I delight in insults

or hardship or persecution, that makes life difficult

for when I am weak I’m actually strong

and my need for God, my soul will long

He rains on the unjust and also the just

so in God’s consults I must trust

so I’m not just grateful

but also thankful

for these infirmities

‘cause they put a stamp on my heart that God I will always need

         -Nu Creation

What's Your Type?

Go here to discover what your personality type is...


According to this methodology there are nine personality types, each with a different approach to life and method of coping/achieving.


I am a '7' which is called 'the Enthusiast' by this particular site.  They describe me as follows:


The busy, productive type. Sevens are extroverted, optimistic, versatile, and spontaneous. Playful, high-spirited, and practical, they can also misapply their many talents, becoming over-extended, scattered, and undisciplined. They constantly seek new and exciting experiences, but can become distracted and exhausted by staying on the go. They typically have problems with impatience and impulsiveness. At their Best: they focus their talents on worthwhile goals, becoming appreciative, joyous, and satisfied.


Interestingly enough, my 5 year old son Zane is the same as me...

Constancy

"The secret of success is constancy of purpose."

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

Sarafina and Randy on Your Wedding Day

I pray that God always wraps you in His loving arms,
and any loved ones Saraphina has back home that,
that generation, and the next generation, and the next generation,
will never succumb to harm.

I pray that God stretches out His mighty hand,
and not only bless you with children,
but with grands, and great-grands, and great-great-grands.

I pray that God always shows you favor, and favor isn't fair you see,
but I pray that He always shows favor to thee.

I pray that God's love would reach,
and bless Minister Randy with mighty words to preach.

I pray that the course that Sarafina's voice takes,
opens up heaven's floodgates and pours down blessings in the amount of
the Great Lakes.

I pray that God always keeps you,
and blesses you,
and protects you,
and favors you,
and loves you.

I pray that from you, raise up mighty warriors of God,
that stand for God,
and fight for God,
and screams, "Hallelujah," for God,
audibly loud!

I pray that my only plea would always be,
that God's grace upon thee would last an eternity.



-Nu Creation

Consumerism and Mission

The Church in the West has built a model of church growth that attracts people to attend congregational events, and ultimately join a local congregation, by providing services to the individual.  A local church will provide excellent child-care, professionally played music, state of the art facilities, and ministries specially tailored to individual desire.

This has resulted in a Church where individual Christians choose their congregational affiliation based on the fulfillment of personal desire.  Christians might live on the West Side of Buffalo, but attend worship services in Williamsville, or even further away.  This is not entirely problematic in and of itself; one person leaving their neighborhood to worship and witness elsewhere has little effect, but when the entire church pursues this same pattern of relationship, there is a deep disfunction that settles on the Church.

The Mission of God consists in getting the salt out of the salt shaker and into every corner of society, but when the salt continues to seek out larger and larger salt shakers within which to seclude themselves from the world, that mission suffers.  The Mission of God requires each and every Christian to take personal responsibility for seeing God's Kingdom Come to the little corner of the earth that they inhabit, this is impossible if we refuse to labor towards the blessing of the place we are at, and instead seek our own blessing by going elsewhere...

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This doesn't mean it is a sin to drive past one worship service to attend another, but rather this is a check on our motives.  God called Paul to leave Jerusalem, and then to leave Antioch; it would have been sinful for him to stay when God said, "Go."  This is not about which congregation we choose to belong to, but about how we make that decision.

People want the Church to provide child care, excellent music, air conditioning, clean carpets, good teaching, hot coffee, and a single's ministry with lots of attractive and wealthy members.  God wants the Church to provide people who will live for His Kingdom, love each other sacrificially, work tirelessly for justice, and live their lives as a shining light in a dark world.  We must chose which list we will use to determine the course of our lives, and the course of our Church.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer tells us that, "discipleship is not an offer that man makes to Christ."  What this means, simply put, is that God is offering us an opportunity to get involved in His project, He has no real desire to get on board with our agenda.  He is not merely a planet in our sky, important and beautiful, but ultimately in orbit around us; rather He is the sun around whom we must find our orbit.

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What this all boils down to is this: Consumerism is the enemy of Mission.  Consumerism, simply put, is making decisions based upon the fulfillment of personal desires; I will do what satisfies my needs.  Mission, simply put, is making decisions based upon the fulfillment of God's desire to bless other people.  When the Church embraces consumer values we eschew missional ones, and vice versa.

Zoe

Sin and Psychology

"The most experienced psychologist or observer of human nature knows infinitely less of the human heart than the simplest Christian who lives beneath the Cross of Jesus. The greatest psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is. Worldly wisdom knows what distress and weakness and failure are, but it does not know the godlessness of man. And so it also does not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness. Only the Christian knows this. In the presence of a psychiatrist I can only be a sick man; in the presence of a Christian brother I can dare to be a sinner. The psychiatrist must first search my heart and yet he never plumbs its ultimate depth. The Christian brother knows when I come to him: here is a sinner like myself, a godless man who wants to confess and yearns for God’s forgiveness. The psychiatrist views me as if there were no God. The brother views me as I am before the judging and merciful God in the Cross of Jesus Christ."
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community)

Labor

"Set me a task in which I can put something of my very self, and it is a task no longer; it is a joy; it is art."
Bliss Carman (1861-1929)

Zoe

Zoe has heard
cause she knows God's word
that He will not allow a sparrow
to peril
Zoe knows Jehovah loves her more
than a mere bird

God confesses
that He dresses
the lilies of the field
He suits Zoe in ruffles
cause its in His will

He is Yahweh
the only way
and at His feet grace and mercy lay
Zoe is fearfully and wonderfully made
Her skin is the perfect shade

Zoe's eventual height
will be a testimony to God's wonderful might
Even Zoe's petite size
was given to her as a heavenly prize

God even blesses
Zoe's lovely blonde tresses
Because God said
that Zoe was fearfully and wonderfully made

- Nu Creation

New Friends from Canada

Resurrection

My Tears

my tears are my joy
because of the boy
who became the man
who commanded such righteousness
that the devil's plan was destroyed

my tears are salted happiness
because of Mary's great sadness
that her son's actions
was the the most loving madness

my tears are streams of freedom
because of heaven's inhuman reasons expressed
through the one blessed
to steal the keys to satan's kingdom

my tears are tracks of praise
to the one raised
from the dead
that the devil fled
in a haste

my tears will never flow
in an amount that will show
that my decree
should be
eternity
in hell's inferno

my tears will never show
no matter how much they flow
to express
the amount of my happiness
because I see and I confess
because I know I am truly blessed

- Nu Creation

The Gutter by Craig Gross

Craig Gross

The Gutter

From the founder of a group that goes into pornography conventions to share the love of Jesus with people involved in the making, producing, acting out, and consumption, of pornography, comes a book about going into the darkness carrying the bright light of Jesus' love. Full of wonderful stories (including one about City Ministries "Night Strikes" in San Francisco, for those of you back home) about God's people going places religious people wouldn't dare tread; shining love and hope into them. "Don't be angry at the dark for being dark, be angry at the light for refusing to shine in the darkness!"

Death of a Church

How To Be Someone's Friend when you Disagree

For those of you who don't know, the official Vineyard position on ordaining women, is to leave the issue up to the local church. That means that there are Vineyard churches who ordain women, and those who do not. Here is something the Vineyard put out in 2006 to help people navigate this unique position.

GUIDELINES FOR HOW TO LIVE
WITH PEOPLE IN THE VINEYARD
WHO HAVE A DIFFERING PERSPECTIVE
February 15, 2006

I. General Guidelines For Relationships

A. Accept that their view is a matter of conscience in obeying the scriptures.
B. Obviously, this mutual respect has to be worked out by listening well to one another and by careful use of our language so as not to show any disrespect to one another.
C. Abstain from using emotive or impugning language.
D. Endeavor to hear and understand one another.
E. Although it is quite acceptable to state what you believe on a point of disagreement, the basis for your views, and what you believe the possible consequences of accepting the differing view could be, these should be done without personal attack or judgment on the one who disagrees with you, and should be expressed with humility.
F. Show the costly side of loving one another by considering the high importance of the interests of others and putting such consideration into actual practice.
G. Speak respectfully about the various views.
H. Acknowledge that this is one of the "debatable issues" where good Christians can disagree in good conscience.


II. Guidelines on The Issue of Women as Senior Pastors

A. It should not be implied or assumed that those who believe that women should not be senior pastors are women-haters, etc.
B. Mutual respect means that those who believe women cannot be senior pastors must recognize that those who do are committed to the scriptures and are not heretics or among those who believe the Bible is not inspired by God. They simply happen to read the scriptures differently on this point.
C. Those who do not believe women should be senior pastors should not show disrespect to women speakers or women pastors in any of the gatherings. They should bless these women and treat them as true sisters in the Lord.
D. Include women, who happen to be senior pastors, in the guideline of showing the costly side of loving one another by considering the high importance of the interests of others and putting such consideration into actual practice.
E. Respect local churches who do not ordain women by not pressuring them to change their view.