Hope

I have been thinking about Hope a lot lately. I mean in the biblical sense. In casual conversation we may say, "I hope the Cardinals win." or "I hope it doesn't rain on Saturday." When we use hope that way we mean wishful thinking. I have no assurance that the Cardinals will win or that it won't rain on Saturday, my desire is for a win and no rain, but I really only have wishful thinking. When the Bible talks about hope, especially or hope in Christ as Christians the word means something completely different. Hope carries this meaning in Scripture, the absolute assurance of something you don't fully have yet. Here is my favorite passage about the absolute assurance of God's promises in Christ, our hope.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
(Heb 6:13-20)

Here is how secure our hope is in Christ. It is dependent on God being God. God swears by Himself and makes an oath with Himself that all of His promises will be fulfilled in Christ. God connects His promises with His very character and person. If our hope in Christ fails, God isn't God. Talk about hope security!

Podcasts

I am a big fan of the podcast. I am sure that part of that is I am a big fan of audio. I have always enjoyed music and audio books, so it would follow that I would enjoy podcasts. There is a huge variety of podcasts out there. I started with sermons by some of my favorite and most respected preachers, guys like John Piper and Mark Driscol. Then I discovered the interview podcast. I really enjoy the catalyst and fermi podcasts that expose us through interviews to some of the top thinkers and practitioners in ministry, theology, and culture. I have also discovered the old time radio podcasts which are simply old time radio shows like the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and the Abbott and Costello show. There's more, much more, perhaps too much more. What are your favorite podcasts?

The Earthquake Scare

On Friday, June 13 at around 6:45 pm central time an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale shook Iwate Prefecture in Northern Japan. Now, my youngest son, James, is visiting Japan with a group from his school from June 9 to June 26. At about 7:25 pm central time on Friday, June 13 I was informed about the earthquake and immediately got the location of the quake from Fox News website as Iwate Prefecture. I then looked at James' trip itinerary to see where he was in Japan. I was then faced with the very unwelcome surprise that James was in Iwate Prefecture. I spent the next 2 hours; looking at maps to determine how far James was from the epicenter, monitoring aftershocks, making phone calls, and sending e-mails. Finally, I got a response from someone in the International Exchange Office in Iwate Prefecture in broken English that said all of the students were safe, then shortly after the email one of the students on the trip called his parents to tell them everyone was safe and that parent called the rest of us. It was a very harrowing experience. Here are some thoughts from that experience.

• My son is in the hands of a Sovereign God.
• Prayer and the prayers of others is very comforting.
• Friends who attend you in a crisis are of immeasurable value (some friends were over when I got the news.)
• The quick and easy access to information via the world wide web is a blessing for which I am grateful.
• My wife is a strong woman of great faith.
• I am deeply grieved for those who do not have faith in God to sustain them during times of difficulty, fear, doubt, anxiety, and trouble.
• Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith.

We got an email from James today, the first since he left on the trip. This is what he had to say about the earthquake

The earthquake was pretty sweet and since my family`s home is in the mountains it was violent.

Not only did the boy get to go to Japan, he got to experience a 7.0 earthquake that was "sweet" and "violent" That email totally made my day.

New Project

Hey some of you who read this blog may be interested in another project I have going on. I have a blog called Transplant Your Life. It is actually the IBSA Next Gen blog. You can find it here. It will be a challenge to try to keep up with two blogs. Many of you are probably chuckling about now because you know I don't keep up with this one very well. Here are a few reasons why I think this will work.
1. The Next Gen Blog is part of my job. I had better keep up with that one.
2. The two blogs are going to be very different in content. This blog will continue to be more about personal thoughts and experiences and the other one will be about trends, resources, and issues concerning next gen ministry.
3. I think the practice of regularly posting in one will make me better at posting in the other.
4. I keep telling more and more people about my blogs and feel an obligation to give them something to read.
5. I will try real hard (I know that is lame but I really felt like I needed five reasons)

So tomorrow I will tell you about the great earthquake scare!

Community

Thursday, June 5, 2008 this date is significant because we launched a community group meeting in our home. Some folks from our church family attended and I think we had a very good start. Let me just briefly give you the purpose of the group. It is to be both a Gospel centered and community centered group. That means we will equally emphasize biblical study and building authentic Christian Community (which we can only know through biblical study) We began with a meal together and conversation and then moved into a Bible study time. Here is the text we studied,

And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
(Act 2:42-47)

We noticed the activity of the early church, what they did and how often they did it. It was amazing to see how connected the early church was to each other. They studied together, they spent time getting to know each other, they ate together, they prayed together, and they were with each other doing these things daily. They shared their possessions with each other and they cared for one another's needs. Wow, what a picture of authentic Christian community! We realized that this is an example of the Church being the Church. We also concluded that we don't have community approaching this example, and we want it. The most amazing part of our discussion was the realization that the early believers were devoted to building this kind of community as it says in the text. We decided we would never have this kind of community if we too aren't devoted to cultivating it. We were also struck by the result of this kind of Christian community, the Lord adding daily to the number being saved. Wow, the power of community in evangelism!
Here is the other text I thought we would study, but we ran out of time.

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
(Tit 2:11-14)

This passage talks so much about the wonderful, amazing, glorious grace of God expressed in Christ that brings us salvation. We get a beautiful and powerful description of the effect of that grace in our lives to transform us. One of the transforming effects of God's grace in Christ is that it makes us into God's people. We are a community of faith, because Jesus made us into a community of faith by his grace, through his sacrifice and triumphant resurrection. In a very real way, when we live in authentic Christian community, we are living the Gospel. When we fail to live in community we are missing out on part of the effect of salvation in our lives. We sell ourselves short, we miss out on a blessing, and perhaps worst of all we misrepresent the Gospel.