Embedded Video

Wednesday, July 23rd.

We are having a small wedding (family only), and a pig pickin’ afterwards (it’s a Eastern NC thing-you might call it a barbeque).  We’ve decided to do it so suddenly for a number of reasons, but primarily because of my mother’s health issues. She may be able to be released from the hospital on Friday (which is a miracle in itself), but who knows if and when the leukemia will attack again. She will also be headed to SC to be with family because they can provide supportive care for her 24-7-365. All that being said, Miranda and I both want to get married with her there, and we both wanted a small wedding anyway, so it made sense. We moved our date up (quite a bit, but still quite doable), and will be married at 6:00pm this coming Wednesday. If you can’t make it to the after-party, still feel free to give us a gift! (Shameless plug alert). We are registered at Target and Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Click on the links to see the list. Of course, we’ll always take cash or gifts!

We love one another very much and look forward to displaying the Gospel through our marriage for the world to see! We love you as well, and can’t wait to see you in person!

19 Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
20 My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”

25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.

Jeremiah, in writing this, is lamenting the fall of the great city of Jerusalem, and the tribes of Israel. But the most important thing is that, even in the middle of his lament, he realizes the Gospel: that because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed. It is ok to grieve and mourn. We are affectionate, passionate people with emotions and feelings, because we are made in the image of God. But even in the midst of our most intimate and intense affections, we must keep the first things first: that Jesus is supreme, and worthy of rejoicing in.

Last night, we gathered at the Harmony Church offices for our first monthly prayer meeting, seek. I think it went really well. Prayer is so instrumental to everything we do…because undermining prayer is the sovereignty of God. Ben Tugwell and I actually talked about it this morning at St. Arbuck’s, that in order to pray you first have to believe that God is sovereign enough to accomplish what you ask for….and that He has the right to do it. We prayed for one another in gender-groups, and we had guided alone time with the Trinity as well. I prayed through Psalm 145, and then opened my heart before God. I personally needed that dedicated time. I sometimes have a hard time praying other than “stream of consciousness” prayer, so it was really healthy for me to set time aside. Looking forward to the next one, on August 6th.

• The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol 1 and 2
• Desiring God by John Piper
• The Legacy of John Calvin by David Hall

Excited about these….

The fringe things arise out of me being a Christian, like serving the poor, like serving the homeless. Those things, in and of themselves, are not good news to anyone. It’s just humanity trying to save humanity, which will amount to nothing.

So to Rob Bell, Brian McLaren, Donald Miller, Shane Claiborne, et al: I love what you stand for, and where your heart is. I truly do. You stand for good things. But let us make the main thing the main thing. There will never be A Generous Orthodoxy, A New Kind of Christianity, a Blue Like Jazz, or an Irresistible Revolution without Jesus dying in our place.

By the way, if you’re a church leader out there reading all of Stetzer, Rick Warren, and various other “how-to” manuals, put them down every once in a while, and re-examine the Gospel. The Gospel is the power of God that will grow churches, not the coolest flyers or band:

Romans 1:16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Let us lead one another to the Great Thing: Jesus, who’s glory was shown first and foremost at the Cross and the Empty Tomb.

1 Corinthians 2:1:

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

• First of all, salvation is a process, not a prayer. God works in His people throughout their entire lives, and indeed even after their lives, in order to bring them to Himself.
• Secondly, repentance is not a mantra or ritual, it is a lifestyle. Repentance is literally a changing of the mind that leads to action. Simply saying “I’m sorry” doesn’t cut it.
• Third, we are not saved out of our sin…yet. We are saved from our sins. Even more precise, we are saved from their effects (the wrath of God).
• Fourth, there are three stages of salvation:

1. Justification: This is what we commonly think of as salvation in totality. That Jesus died for us, taking on our sin, and we take His righteousness to be seen before the Father as innocent. This happens in an instant, upon confessing and believing that Jesus is Lord. Here, it can be summed up as salvation despite our sins.
2. Sanctification: This is the process of becoming like Christ. Though we take the righteousness of Christ on instantly before the Father, the actual physical manifestation of this righteousness gradually shows itself through us as we grow with Him. As we see a fuller and fuller revelation of Jesus, we become more like Him over time. This stage takes place over the lifetime of a Christian, and is never completed in this life. We can sum this up as salvation from our sins.
3. Glorification: This is the final stage. That upon the return of Jesus, when we raise from the dead, we are given redeemed, glorified bodies with no corruption from sin. This is the culmination of both our sanctification and salvation. Finally, this is what we long for as Christians desiring to be like Jesus. this is salvation out of our sins.

What a wonderful thought this is: that our salvation is not a wham-bam-thank you ma’am deal, but that even through our salvation, God gives us a progressive revelation (though I hesitate to use that term) of Himself!

• Sunday was amazing! Worship was phenomenal, and the message was well received, I think. Listen to it for yourself on the website or on iTunes: HarmonyGreenville.com
• Check out Pablo’s notes, and the worship set,on his blog: Pablo Mazariegos
• I taught something pretty hard: Romans 9 and Romans 10
• Our website received a link from the first page of a Live.Com search for “Jesus”. That’s good news.
• We had a hard computer crash. Went to buy a new one, and dropped some cash. Got a great deal (do your research to save some money), because I found a package online that Best Buy wasn’t advertising in store. One of those undercover things. Can’t pull the wool over the sheep’s eyes this time…
• God is good.
• Video from Sunday’s service will be posted soon.

And spaghetti, and do my taxes.