A Prayer of Thanksgiving after meditating on John 3:16 - .21
LORD
We come before you tonight confessing our love for lies and our love of darkness.
BUT
You out of your great love sent your son
who is the light
who is the truth
into the world
You gave him so that we will find eternal life through our belief in your Son.
Your Son, who came into this world not to condemn us but to save us all.
THANK YOU LORD
THANK YOU LORD
Thank you for giving us your Son who calls us out of our darkness into his light.
Thank you for giving us your Son who calls us out of our lies into the truth.
Thank you for giving us your Son who call us out of our condemnation into salvation.
Salvation that only comes thru the name Jesus Christ.
It is in his name that we praise you in this prayer.
Amen
Showing posts with label Church of Christ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Church of Christ. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
two new video!
hey ya'll
cruise on over to the family life section at the church of Christ in falls church or to sparkyphilms to check out my latest videos. these two were part of a keynote presentation i gave as part of a report on this summer's mission trip to torrington, ct. it was a great trip but the coolest part of it was one of my former students who is now involved in our mission's committee was in charge of the trip. i just went along as eye candy.
cruise on over to the family life section at the church of Christ in falls church or to sparkyphilms to check out my latest videos. these two were part of a keynote presentation i gave as part of a report on this summer's mission trip to torrington, ct. it was a great trip but the coolest part of it was one of my former students who is now involved in our mission's committee was in charge of the trip. i just went along as eye candy.
Friday, September 14, 2007
My Psalm 46
This Tuesday (September 11th 2007) at the area wide minister's/leader's meeting, in remembrance of September 11th and the on going conflicts, Mike Anglin, of the Silver Spring Church of Christ, read Psalm 46. With this Psalm in mind every minister, elder and church leader present prayed. It was a powerful morning and one I won't soon forget. As I listened to all the prayers around me two thoughts came into my mind. First was that the LORD had entrusted us all with a sacred trust to be ministers in His church. A minister is not just someone who works for a church but every believer is called to be a minister. Every believer has been blessed with ministry. We just have to open our hearts and ears to see whom we are to minister to or how we are to minister.
The second thought was to personalize Psalm 46. It is one thing to read an encouraging piece of scripture like Psalm 46 it is another to put yourself into that Scripture. So I rewrote Psalm 46 with "I"s and "mine" instead of "us" and "ours". The truth of this psalm was not just for those who first wrote and or read it. No, the truth is for me and you today.
God is my refuge and strength,
my ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore I will not fear,
though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah
I know there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
I know God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
I see the nations are in uproar and kingdoms fall;
God lifts his voice and the earth melts.
The LORD Almighty is with me;
the God of Jacob is my fortress. Selah
You need to come and see the works of the LORD,
see the desolations he has brought on the earth.
Look He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
He burns the shields with fire.
"Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
The LORD Almighty is with me;
the God of Jacob is my fortress. Selah
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
07 Do - Over
this is my final installment from my series in the family life on God, sex and sexuality. this was part of a class i did for my teens during sunday night live based on a youth specialties curriculum titled "good sex"
Do - Over
Remember the worst sin you every committed with all the guilt and shame that followed? Remember the consequences of that sin? You May still be dealing with them today! Now imagine you have the opportunity to go back and stop yourself from committing that sin. You have the chance to right the wrong you committed. You have the chance to do the good you should have done. We all have sins like this in our lives. Sins that make us nervous that anyone would find out. They are secrets that we have. These secrets hurt us and can hurt others. These secrets make a rift between us and God. We may see no way to make things better.
Amazingly, the LORD has provided a way to make things right. We are given a chance to start over and leave the sin of our past behind. We can not travel back in time and stop the sin, but we no longer need to live as a slave to our dark secrets. How is this possible?
Through the blood of Jesus, true forgiveness and repentance can be found. Jesus paid the price for us to be forgiven. His death on the cross brought us grace and mercy and purchased us back from sin and death. Jesus, our Savior, has done His part. Now it is our turn. Our part is repentance. Repentance has two parts. The first part is confession. We are to confess our sins one to another. We need to tell a trusted brother or sister in Christ our sin secret. Once the secret is in the open the next part is for us to turn our back and walk away from that temptation. We need to identify what the cause of the temptation is and eliminate it from our lives to neutralize its power in our lives. If you are struggling with pornography, install some monitoring software. There is software that will email an accountability partner with a report of any inappropriate websites you visit. If you lust after a classmate in school, ask your teacher if you can change seats or create something you can wear, like a bracelet or ring, to remind you to stop your lustful thoughts. If you and your boyfriend or girlfriend have crossed the line and are sexually active, turn around and come back across the line. Communicate with the other person in the relationship so they know why you need to cool things down. If they reject your desire to have a purer relationship, you should probably break up with them because they aren’t respecting you. If have a “friend with benefits” stop providing the benefits or seeking them out. The other person isn’t really your friend but is using you for sexual favors or you are abusing someone else for sexual favors. If you are the victim or someone else’s sexual sin (through incest or rape) don’t let the damage of that sin create sin in your own life. You didn’t choose what happened to you and you don’t need to be it's slave. This is a fight against sin, sexual sin in our lives. Thank God we don’t fight alone. We have the Holy Spirit inside of us. The Holy Spirit is that part of God that is in all His people that gives us the power to live as His people. Without the Spirit we would not have the courage to say no to sin and live pure and holy lives! Lives that please the LORD.
This may sound pretty simple on paper but it is a difficult path in real life. It is not easy to tell another person about our sin. To admit we were wrong and need to change. It is not easy to change relationships we are in to make them pure and holy. It is not easy to turn away from selfish desires that we have been saying yes too for so long. It is not easy to deal with the pain and consequences we may have caused through our sexual sin. It May not be easy for a long time but in the end it will be worth the reward that we as the children of God have been promised.
Do - Over
Remember the worst sin you every committed with all the guilt and shame that followed? Remember the consequences of that sin? You May still be dealing with them today! Now imagine you have the opportunity to go back and stop yourself from committing that sin. You have the chance to right the wrong you committed. You have the chance to do the good you should have done. We all have sins like this in our lives. Sins that make us nervous that anyone would find out. They are secrets that we have. These secrets hurt us and can hurt others. These secrets make a rift between us and God. We may see no way to make things better.
Amazingly, the LORD has provided a way to make things right. We are given a chance to start over and leave the sin of our past behind. We can not travel back in time and stop the sin, but we no longer need to live as a slave to our dark secrets. How is this possible?
Through the blood of Jesus, true forgiveness and repentance can be found. Jesus paid the price for us to be forgiven. His death on the cross brought us grace and mercy and purchased us back from sin and death. Jesus, our Savior, has done His part. Now it is our turn. Our part is repentance. Repentance has two parts. The first part is confession. We are to confess our sins one to another. We need to tell a trusted brother or sister in Christ our sin secret. Once the secret is in the open the next part is for us to turn our back and walk away from that temptation. We need to identify what the cause of the temptation is and eliminate it from our lives to neutralize its power in our lives. If you are struggling with pornography, install some monitoring software. There is software that will email an accountability partner with a report of any inappropriate websites you visit. If you lust after a classmate in school, ask your teacher if you can change seats or create something you can wear, like a bracelet or ring, to remind you to stop your lustful thoughts. If you and your boyfriend or girlfriend have crossed the line and are sexually active, turn around and come back across the line. Communicate with the other person in the relationship so they know why you need to cool things down. If they reject your desire to have a purer relationship, you should probably break up with them because they aren’t respecting you. If have a “friend with benefits” stop providing the benefits or seeking them out. The other person isn’t really your friend but is using you for sexual favors or you are abusing someone else for sexual favors. If you are the victim or someone else’s sexual sin (through incest or rape) don’t let the damage of that sin create sin in your own life. You didn’t choose what happened to you and you don’t need to be it's slave. This is a fight against sin, sexual sin in our lives. Thank God we don’t fight alone. We have the Holy Spirit inside of us. The Holy Spirit is that part of God that is in all His people that gives us the power to live as His people. Without the Spirit we would not have the courage to say no to sin and live pure and holy lives! Lives that please the LORD.
This may sound pretty simple on paper but it is a difficult path in real life. It is not easy to tell another person about our sin. To admit we were wrong and need to change. It is not easy to change relationships we are in to make them pure and holy. It is not easy to turn away from selfish desires that we have been saying yes too for so long. It is not easy to deal with the pain and consequences we may have caused through our sexual sin. It May not be easy for a long time but in the end it will be worth the reward that we as the children of God have been promised.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Boundaries
here is another installment of my series on sexuality connected with the special series i am doing for the upper room on sunday night's these have all been published in the family life of the church of Christ in falls church
Boundaries
This is the 5th in a 7 part series re-capping the discussions we are having on Sunday nights in the Upper Room about God and sexuality.
I realize this is a "family program" so this morning I am going to strive to stay as PG rated as possible.
A question that many teens struggle with is "How far is to far?" What is the line? When does it move from appropriate displays of affection between a boy and girl friend to it being something that they should not do? What is ok for two single people to do together before it becomes a sin? The answer is both a simple one and complex at the same time.
First the simple answer. Last Sunday night I had a line for progression of "activity" that a boy and girlfriend might engage in. It started with holding hands and ended with sexual intercourse. Along the way you have hugging, massaging, kissing, caressing and so forth. I drew the line at kissing! As you move from kissing along the line, body parts that are normally considered private parts start to be exposed and touched. This touching awakens feelings, desires and hormones that are hard to control. Lust starts to grow and lust is a dangerous sin.
The complex answer to the above question centers around lust. Jesus teaches us that lust is a sin. Lust is not a physical action but a mental activity. It is a desire for something that is not ours. David and Bathsheba give us an excellent example of how lust is dangerous. David while on his roof sees a woman taking a bath. If at that moment he turned and went back into his castle the story would be over and no sin would have been committed. Instead David lingers and allows his lust for Bathsheba to control him. He commits adultery in his heart and then in his bed. His sin started when he lusted after her. He had not held her hand or even spoken to her but he saw her with his eyes. The lust line is different than the physical line. The lust line is something we must control by relying on God's power at work in our lives. It is ok for a guy to think a girl is pretty or a girl to think a guy is cute but if they linger and allow their minds to thing about what it would be like to make out with him or to undress her with his eyes the thoughts have moved to sin.
Why? Why is there even a line? Again two reasons really. First, we are called to live pure and holy lives. Our bodies are not our own but we belong to God because we were bought with the blood of the Lamb. Our bodies are temples to the Holy Spirit. We are not to take our bodies, our temples, or someone else's temple and use it for temporary pleasure. Secondly, it is through relational and sexual intimacy that a man and a woman are united in marriage. The LORD created sex to unite a man and woman. If you are uniting in a temporary relationship with someone you are miss-using a wonderful gift the LORD has given us.
Finally, I know that there are people who are reading this who have crossed the line or are actively crossing the line. I hope this encourages and challenges you to get yourself and your relationship back into a proper relationship with the LORD. He offers us grace, mercy and forgiveness with all our sins, even sexual ones. The LORD, through the Holy Spirit, gives us the power to live pure and holy lives. Even if we allowed our own desires to lead us into sin, He calls us to a new life and to leave our sinful lives behind.
Next week: Responsibilities!
Boundaries
This is the 5th in a 7 part series re-capping the discussions we are having on Sunday nights in the Upper Room about God and sexuality.
I realize this is a "family program" so this morning I am going to strive to stay as PG rated as possible.
A question that many teens struggle with is "How far is to far?" What is the line? When does it move from appropriate displays of affection between a boy and girl friend to it being something that they should not do? What is ok for two single people to do together before it becomes a sin? The answer is both a simple one and complex at the same time.
First the simple answer. Last Sunday night I had a line for progression of "activity" that a boy and girlfriend might engage in. It started with holding hands and ended with sexual intercourse. Along the way you have hugging, massaging, kissing, caressing and so forth. I drew the line at kissing! As you move from kissing along the line, body parts that are normally considered private parts start to be exposed and touched. This touching awakens feelings, desires and hormones that are hard to control. Lust starts to grow and lust is a dangerous sin.
The complex answer to the above question centers around lust. Jesus teaches us that lust is a sin. Lust is not a physical action but a mental activity. It is a desire for something that is not ours. David and Bathsheba give us an excellent example of how lust is dangerous. David while on his roof sees a woman taking a bath. If at that moment he turned and went back into his castle the story would be over and no sin would have been committed. Instead David lingers and allows his lust for Bathsheba to control him. He commits adultery in his heart and then in his bed. His sin started when he lusted after her. He had not held her hand or even spoken to her but he saw her with his eyes. The lust line is different than the physical line. The lust line is something we must control by relying on God's power at work in our lives. It is ok for a guy to think a girl is pretty or a girl to think a guy is cute but if they linger and allow their minds to thing about what it would be like to make out with him or to undress her with his eyes the thoughts have moved to sin.
Why? Why is there even a line? Again two reasons really. First, we are called to live pure and holy lives. Our bodies are not our own but we belong to God because we were bought with the blood of the Lamb. Our bodies are temples to the Holy Spirit. We are not to take our bodies, our temples, or someone else's temple and use it for temporary pleasure. Secondly, it is through relational and sexual intimacy that a man and a woman are united in marriage. The LORD created sex to unite a man and woman. If you are uniting in a temporary relationship with someone you are miss-using a wonderful gift the LORD has given us.
Finally, I know that there are people who are reading this who have crossed the line or are actively crossing the line. I hope this encourages and challenges you to get yourself and your relationship back into a proper relationship with the LORD. He offers us grace, mercy and forgiveness with all our sins, even sexual ones. The LORD, through the Holy Spirit, gives us the power to live pure and holy lives. Even if we allowed our own desires to lead us into sin, He calls us to a new life and to leave our sinful lives behind.
Next week: Responsibilities!
Thursday, November 30, 2006
mike cope sings the classics
mike cope is the preacher at the highland church of Christ in abilens texas and a blogs at preachermike.com. if you aren't a member of "the church" this might not be as funny to you as it is to me but no matter what name is on your church's building this is very funny!
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