Sermon Snippets

I'm quoting Liam Neeson from Taken in my sermon this week. Specifically, this:

Why? Because it's a Ministry Skills Sunday!
Just as Mr. Neeson was well-equipped in a variety of ways to seek out and find his kidnapped daughter in that movie, we as Christians need to be well-equipped to successfully deal with the trials and tribulations of our lives. And a Ministry Skills Sunday is a special week in between series where we equip ourselves with knowledge and practical insights regarding various skills needed in the Christian life.

This week - Prayer. It is not a Liam Neeson-type skill that will help us overpower a bunch of bad guys. Though it does help us in spiritual fights.

Prayer is a crucial skill Christians need to acquire. It is vital to our own spiritual health and the fundamental tool God has ordained to involve us in His Kingdom purposes (Matt. 6:10, 9:37-38).

Ok, using Liam Neeson to make a case for sharpening our prayer skills may be a stretch, but in whatever scenario we find ourselves in, prayer has to be a skill we utilize.

Music Mondays

Of all the criminally underrated, overlooked, and forgotten contemporary worship songs I've been chronicling , this is my favorite.

This isn't one of those contemporary songs that needs a full band to play super loud. In fact, it's best when sung by a crowd led by one guitar and a soloist. Matching it's minimalistic musical qualities are the lyrics, which concisely and appropriately express everything our worship should be. I don't know why it never gained popularity within the American church, though I have a theory that it was too easily parodied. But this is an absolutely pure worship song - extolling Christ's greatness and his grace as well as expressing our devotion to him. 

Music Mondays

I can't honestly say these songs are contemporary worship classics that have unfairly been forgotten over time like the others over the past several weeks. But I'm featuring two songs this week that were fun mainstays in my youth group days. Both were catchy and simple songs that featured MOTIONS to the lyrics. Sure by the time I was an upperclassman, they various hand and arm movements seemed hokey, but they were a fun kind of hokey.

(Editors Note: I picked two of the sort-of/totally awkward-to-watch videos because they had motions. These aren't the motions I learned, but it seems that those fluctuated greatly from church to church and state to state. But be forewarned, these aren't videos of the highest quality.)

Sermon Snippets

I'm sure most of us have heard the clever, semi-profane axiom about what assuming does. While the Bible doesn't put it quite like that, it does make a strong case concerning the dangers of assuming.

Proverbs is littered with it's own axioms meant to show just how bad assuming and presuming can be. Proverbs can certainly be very deep and theological, but this is just another example of how practical and real it can get in this compilation of the sayings of Solomon.

A couple of my favorites that I'll spend some time on tomorrow are 21:2 and 20:24. There are certainly many ways we can fall into the trap of assuming in life, but these two encompass two of the most common mistakes we make. 

21:2:
A person may think their own ways are right,
    but the Lord weighs the heart.

Here we are warned about assuming we know what is best and right about ourselves. We can easily fool ourselves into thinking we are doing something for the right reasons and we can easily deceive ourselves into believing what we want is what is best in a given decision.  Unless we evaluate our thoughts, desires, and heart through the lens of Scripture, we can easily trip ourselves up.

20:24: 
A person’s steps are directed by the Lord.
    How then can anyone understand their own way?

Our thinking about the future is another common area where we can let ourselves assume too much. In William Ernest Henley's famous poem, Invictus, he defiantly concludes: 

  

It matters not how strait the gate,

      How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

      I am the captain of my soul. 

 

Proverbs begs to differ. As does James 4, which states

 

 ¹³ Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.

We are not the master of our fates, that God's prerogative. And to assume other wise is to risk disaster, disappointment, and difficulty. We must entrust our plans to God and allow him to captain our souls.

Music Mondays

This song became popular thanks to a Michael W. Smith cover in the early 2000's, but I will always remember hearing it first at the summer camp I've mentioned in previous posts. 

This is a unique song among its contemporary peers as it involves singing parts, albeit simple ones compared to the harmonizations of older hymns (or in some cases what you could do with older hymns).

Every time I've sung it in a church worship setting, it's always been arranged in a straightforward way with men singing their lines and women singing theirs. There's certainly a beauty to it, yet it always falls just a bit short by my high standards. Why, because when I was originally introduced to it, the men sang their lines the first time through as did the women - and then they switched parts the second time through.

Personally I always found the women's part - the rapid fire singing of the various names of Jesus-  to be superior. So in my ideal world, both genders get to share the full force of this song. But alas, I continue to be let down (just a bit). Oh well, I'll get over it. After all, it's the message of the song, not how it is sung that is most important.

Music Mondays

As a new 'old school' worship song that's being overlooked as a classic, I must admit that I haven't always like this song. I can't exactly tell you why, but as someone who is naturally sarcastic it may have to do with the fact that I find it ironic that some worship leaders can play a song called "Forever" for what seems like forever. My opinion changed after I purchased this album that contains the version of the song in the above video. It is probably my favorite worship CD top to bottom and it put the song in a context that led me to re-evaluate my judgement.

Truthfully though, I also find it unusual to get all pumped up about God's eternality. It's something my mind can't really grasp and thus makes it that much harder to relate to. But the awesome thing about God and His Word is, the more you meditate on Him, the more you appreciate all that He is.

Psalm 102 is one special passage that helped me understand this divine attribute in a better way:

²⁵ Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
    and the heavens are the work of your hands.
²⁶ They will perish, but you will remain;
    they will all wear out like a garment.
    You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
²⁷     but you are the same, and your years have no end.

Hallelujah!

Replying to a Reply re: Dispensationalism

My friend Dave Lester, whose blog had compelled me to write this, responded on his own blog to my rambling discussion. Not only does he write fairly, but he is able to deftly handle the pertinent issues. Below is my response to his response originally left as a comment on Facebook.

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Dave - excellent post, a much better response than my post warranted.
Let me just say this up front, my Progressive Dispensational views only have like 10% relevance to my end times views...PD is much much larger than defining what will happen in the End of Days. And I'm not sure being PD requires one to be pre-trib, just pre-mill (I think).

We virtually agree on everything regarding Revelation/prophecy - thanks Dr. Sandy! I'd probably be a preterist and a futurist. It related to their day and a day still to come. And the whole point is we must be faithful and trust God's sovereignty.

I do feel like one of the big misconceptions of end times theology is this default to "no one knows the day or hour". I agree that is true - Jesus said it after all - and Paul does say in 1 Thess. 5:3 that it will come like 'a Thief in the Night' (bad movie reference #2). But we also read in THE VERY NEXT VERSE, 1 Thess. 5:4, that this return of Christ WILL NOT SURPRISE those who are faithful and 'not in darkness'. In other words, those who are faithful during those days will see it coming. Not in a specific way where we can set our watches by it, but there will be clear signs that the end is near. I believe this is also the point of 2 Thess. 1 and 2. Thus all of those who lazily say "I don't hold a view, it will all pan out in the end" risk falling short of Scriptures exhortation to be sober-minded and anticipate Christ's return.

A couple minor quibbles with your post:
- I'd quibble just a bit that the 7 yr trib is not in the Bible at all - not in Revelation yes. But this is where we dispensationalists start referencing Daniel and the 70th 'week'. But that's really not important to your point.
- In the end, you just connect some dots differently than I do - saying that if there is a 7 yr trib, than that contradicts Jesus' words that 'no one will know the day or hour'. Other than my above point, I'd add we pre-trib folks mostly believe that relates to the rapture (Jesus referring to the general Day of the Lord arriving, further revelation specifies it as the rapture). So Jesus' statement still stands (again qualified by my above point) that no one will know the day or the hour as it pertains to the rapture.

I guess this could have been a separate blog post after all. Didn't think I needed to, but I may just copy and paste this to make it an official reply to your reply.
- Lee