Fourth Friday and other such musings...

So…
Rock Band.
Probably one of the more expensive video games out there. Now it does come with a lot of “stuff” but still, expensive.
And definitely worth every penny (especially since someone else bought it).
So the party on Friday night was great! We had our “old school game night” where the table of three adults and one student just barely edged out Scott Rice’s group to bring home the win. The “Cheating Table” as I like to call them, came in third place. I do have to admit, however, that after a careful investigation of all the evidence, that it appears they did NOT cheat on the iTunes game. How they were given the sheet with all the answers instead of the one with the blanks I’ll never figure out, but all the evidence says that they did not cheat (well, not during that game anyway)
But on to other things…

The Bearer of Good News…
Have you ever had someone say to you “do you want the good news or the bad news first?” It’s always quite a dilemma, isn’t it? I mean should I hear the bad news first and get it over with, then move on to the good news and finish strong?
Or should I do the good news first, then in the midst of my happiness I can hear the bad news and not be so upset because, hey! there’s good news too, and I just heard it.
Me, I always prefer the bad news first. I mean, just get it out and get it over with, then lets move on to the good stuff. That’s where I want to be anyway.
And if I have the opportunity to just be the bearer of the good news, with no bad, so much the better.
That’s the joy of the Christian life. Not only has He saved me, but I have the joy of being able to tell others about it. I don’t have to talk anyone in to anything. God has done ALL the work. First of all, that’s good news for me. If I didn’t do anything to earn it in the first place, I can’t do anything to mess it up. God saved me. Rob didn’t save Rob. Rob didn’t have anything to do with his salvation. God saved Rob. All God. No Rob. That alone is reason for me to celebrate.
But the really cool part is that God wants me to be the bearer of His Good News.

When I think about the Lord
How He saved me
How He raised me
How He filled me with the Holy Ghost
How He healed me to the uttermost

When I think about the Lord
How He picked me up and turned me around
And set my feet on solid ground
It makes me want to shout
Hallelujah, thank You Jesus
Lord You’re worthy of all the glory
All the honor, and all the praise

By James Huey Copyright 1998 CFN Music

So... where is all this going?

We’re going through these “Biblical Doctrines” right now. Where is all this taking us? I mean, are we just learning all this just because? Well, in some sense: yes. We study the Bible because it’s God’s Word spoken to us. The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to us. In the Bible we find not only who God is, but who Jesus is, and what He’s done for us. In discovering who He is and who we are in light of that, things begin to make sense. We begin to understand what the problem is in the first place.
We don’t need psychology books to understand ourselves and others. What we need is to study and understand what the Bible teaches us. When we truly come to understand who we are and who God is according to the Bible, everything begins to make sense.
So as we continue studying some of the Basic doctrines (teachings) of the Bible, it opens our eyes to who we are, who He is, and what He does for us.
When I begin to understand all that God has done for me and what that really means, it fills me with a passion to live for Him. I downloaded a new album last week from a guy named Caleb Carruth. I found the song below on it. It really is a great song written from the perspective of someone who has been changed from the inside out and the response from their heart to God for all He has done.

I Will Call You Blessed
I can’t believe You’re mine, and I can’t believe I’m Yours.
Because only a Master’s hand could have devised and designed our course
Lost in Your beauty, and lost in the freedom
I can’t owe this to myself
What have I ever done that’s this good, this sweet, this right?

With one glance of Your eye, You’ve stolen my heart
All beautiful You are my darling
There is no flaw in You
Now I lack nothing, now there is peace
You have such patience with me; freely You give Your love
You’re so good, so sweet, so right

You are clothed in strength, and You are dressed in dignity
And with You He is saving me
You are all I wanted
You are all I need now
And I will call You Blessed

Gone are the good old days.
I have no need for useless things
I’ve found something better to last me forever
For You speak with wisdom
And faithful instruction
Many noble things, but You have surpassed them all
You’re so good, so sweet, so right

You are clothed in strength, and You are dressed in dignity
And with You He is saving me
You are all I wanted
You are all I need now
And I will call You Blessed

Copyright 2002 Caleb Carruth

Tell your friends...

Remember Apu, the guy who ran the restaurant across from Jerry's apartment in an episode of Seinfeld? When Jerry left the restaurant, the owner said to him 'tell your friends!' He wanted others to know about his restaurant and satisfied customers telling their friends is the best advertisement.

It's kind of the same way with us. We all know the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20. It gives us our mandate for sharing the Gospel. As we learn about our total inability to come to God on our own and that God has chosen us, not because of anything we have done or will do, we need to remember that we are commanded to tell our friends about the Gospel.

Remember the movie “The Sixth Sense” when the little boy said “I see dead people… all the time…” This so vividly applies to our lives. If we begin to see those around us as spiritually dead, why don’t we share the Gospel with them? I know that God rescued me from “the pit of destruction” (Ps. 40). How is that not something to share with others that are still in the pit? The fact that I understand that people are spiritually dead should make me passionate about telling them the Good News.

What is the Good News? HE SAVED ME! (Titus 3:4). When we come to the understanding that God chooses us, this should give us a new passion to share the Gospel. This should be a tremendous motivation. Understanding that God personally chose me causes me to respond in thankfulness and joy and excitement. It drives me to want to share that with others. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says “we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” This moves me to echo in my life “woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.” (1 Corinthians 9:16) I can’t not preach the Gospel. I can’t not tell others about it.

The more I understand about my own radical need for God and how He shows His personal, intimate love specifically to me, the more I want to tell others about who He is and what He has done in my life. In Mark 1:15, Jesus says, “Repent and believe in the gospel.” I must not only do this myself, but I must tell other spiritually dead people the same thing. I must implore them on behalf of Christ to repent and believe in the gospel.

I implore you. "Tell your friends..."

So how does this impact my life?

So. God chose me just because He wanted to. If He decided show His love specifically to me, then it should consume all that I am. It should so penetrate my being that everything I am, everything I do, and everything I say reflects that. I get wrapped up in doing everything to thank, honor, and glorify Him. This whole concept brings me to a proper understanding of what worship is: Living my life in response to who He is and what He has done for me.

I love Him because He loved me. (1 John 4:10) I didn’t start loving and worshiping Him because I had it within myself. He gave me so much when He saved me. I really can’t ever thank Him enough, but I can do my best to live the life He has called me to live (Eph 2:8-10).

My response to all this is that I am overwhelmed with not just who He is but what He has done for me. The whole idea of Predestination makes it so intimate and personal. He chose me! He came to die .for me. (Titus 3:4). He chose me before the foundation of the world. Now that’s amazing!

The Dreaded "P" Word...

So we're on this path of "Biblical Teachings..." for the next few weeks. Last week we learned how the Bible teaches that we are totally spiritually dead. A dead person doesn't have the ability to respond to God. We are unable, of ourselves, to do any spiritual good or come to God. We have to be regenerated by God.

So this week, we're learning what the Bible teaches about Predestination, the dreaded "P" word. The word and concept are all over the place in the Bible. Since it's a Biblical concept, and not something that some man or council of really smart people came up with, we need to understand it. We need to seek to understand what the Bible teaches about it.

Our starting point tomorrow will be Romans 9. We'll of course jump around alot as well, but that's the starting point. Way back in 1613, a group of really smart guys called the "Synod of Dordt" wrote that God chose certain individuals for salvation before the beginning of the world. He chose them based solely on His own gracious will and desire. He did not make this choice based on anything they might do. Those He chose, He will bring to an understanding and belief in the Gospel." These guys had it right.

There are alot of people who have a misunderstanding of what Predestination is. They think that Predestination somehow doesn't work with God's love. We'll be looking into all this and seeing what the Bible truly teaches this week.

Remember that all five of these weeks (starting last Wednesday 1/9) all fit together. Last week's "you're spiritually dead and have no ability to respond" is brought around with this week's "God chose you for life" message.

Come and bring your Bible. A student asked me one time, "Can you tell me some verses about predestination?" I simply replied "all of them." Now obviously, that was a bit of an exaggeration, but what I was trying to tell him was this: It's all over the Bible. Not just in a few places in the New Testament. We'll see what the Bible really teaches about it tomorrow.

See you there!

P.S. If you missed last week, you can download it and listen to it. Go to www.ibchighland.org/six33 and go to "downloads." You'll find it there titled "Biblical Teaching #1 Total Inability."

Second Saturday - Fourth Friday

Santa Monica…

So everyone who didn’t go to Santa Monica totally missed out. It was a great time. I always love a trip to the beach. And if you ever go there, make sure and cross the archway pedestrian bridge.

So we ate lunch at Bubba Gump’s. Amazing! Their food was certainly good. Although I must say that you should never let Ben Carlisle be in charge of the sign that calls a waiter over to the table. Our waiter wouldn’t let him be in charge of it about 10 minutes after we sat down.

The rest of the day was nice and relaxing. We just walked around and up and down the promenade. Didn’t make it down to Venice where the legit crazies are. But as you walk up and down the Third Street Promenade, you almost get the feel that you’re somewhere in Europe. There are certainly a lot of people speaking in a random assortment of foreign languages. It was kinda cool…

As for pulling out of the parking lot, I hate driving over those spikey “do not enter” driveway things. Even though I know they’re not going to pop my tires, I still hate it…

Our Fourth Friday thing is next Friday and it’s going to be a crazy game night in the HS Bldg. We’ll have food-a-plenty (of course) along with Guitar Hero 3 and a Wii on the big screens. And for those of you who remember the old “en fuego game night” – we’ll be having a little table vs. table competition as well. Don’t miss it!

For Second Saturday in February we’re playing lazer tag in Orange County again. That’s ALWAYS a great time. I love lazer tag… See you there!

It's all fun and games until....

Until someone loses an eye. Yeah. Like that happens all the time. I mean honestly, when was the last time you were playing around with some friends and someone lost an eye? I used to say “you’re not having any fun UNTIL someone loses an eye…”

"That was Crazy!"
"Man that was tight!"
"I laughed so hard I almost threw up!"
When was the last time you just had FUN? There are many things that we choose to do for just plain fun. Personally, I like movies, working out, the beach, and hanging out with my friends when I just want to kick back and have fun.

But there's a deeper side to "fun." We can do all the "fun" activities of life and still not have what we're really looking for. Even as Christians we sometimes miss out on the joy that we could experienceThe book of First John opens with "we write these things to you so that our joy may be complete." Now that sounds pretty good to me. What does "complete joy" really look like? If you could have "complete joy" the next time you hang out with your friends, would you want to? What about the next time you go to a concert or to the beach? I know I would.

As I look at the rest of First John, I see a couple things that we can do to truly have "complete joy" in our daily lives.
Obviously it starts with being saved. If you're not saved, you will never experience true joy.
But if you are a Follower of Jesus, guess what? You have everything you need to live an amazing, fun, joy-filled life! Really.

If you read through the rest of First John (5 quick chapters) you'll see a word repeated 20 times. If you look up the word, it means "(1) to accept or act in accordance with. (2) continue without fading or being lost."
The Amplified Bible describes "abiding" this way: living and remaining in communion with and in obedience to Christ. So in order to abide in Christ, we must simply act in accordance with Him.

Look at His example.

Walk as He walked (this doesn't mean wearing sandals, even though I'd wear nothibg but sandals given the choice). We do stuff every day. In all of the stuff you're doing ask yourself "am I walking as Jesus walked?" If Jesus went to my High School, would He be doing this?

The second definition is the cool one. The "continues without fading" part. This is the flip side of abiding. When we abide in Him, He abides in us. That's when our joy is made complete. When He is abiding in us. There are a couple other "themes" in First John, but I'll talk more about them in the coming days.

For today, ask yourself "how can I abide in Christ today?" I pray that you abide in Him and in his Word and that you have an amazing day full of "complete joy."

Let's Get 2008 Of to a Good Start…

Okay – so last year was last year.
Let’s get things off and started on the right foot this year.
I want this year to be a year where I’m saturated in God’s Word.
Only when we’re consistently saturating ourselves in Scripture can we be truly living the life that God calls us to live. If we claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, we must first of all read the book that tells us who He is.

Here’s the plan:
Let’s start with the book of 1 John (it starts on page 1827 in my Bible). It’s only 5 chapters long. Read through as much as you can of 1 John each day for the month of January. Those that went to Mexico this past year were all encouraged to read through James each day in December. For those of us who did it, we can truly say that we really know James. I found myself seeing it apply to my life pretty much every day. In conversation after conversation, it came up. I really enjoyed reading through the same passage of Scripture daily for a month. I can say now that I really know James. One student told me that it seemed to get shorter each day he read it.

So for January, let’s all read the book of 1 John each day. I think it will be amazing to see what God does in and through us when we’re all really focusing on His Word and going through the same passage of Scripture together daily. If you can’t manage to read all five chapters each day (which should only take about 15-20 minutes), read as much as you can and finish the next day.

I have always believed that one of the single most important factors in being a Christian and actually growing in our faith is spending time daily in God’s Word and prayer. If you’re not reading God’s Word consistently, you’re not growing. Remember the word “Christian” and “Disciple” are basically the same thing. It’s someone who is a Follower of the Way of Jesus.

In Philippians 4 we read: “But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Let’s look forward and “press on” as we “seek God first in everything_24.7.365” this year.

---> A few semi-random things:

FIRST
If you don’t have a good Study Bible, you need to get one. There are two that I use and recommend. Either one of them would be great.
1. The MacArthur Study Bible in NASB.
2. The Reformation Study Bible in ESV
Both are great and I use both of them on a regular basis. On Wednesdays, I'll be primarily using the ESV as I preach. Our Pastor preaches from the NASB on Sundays.

SECOND
Check this blog from time to time. I’ll be updating it once or twice a week with my thoughts and stuff that’s going on in the HSM at Immanuel. As we go through this journey together I’ll be writing about where we’re going. And please make comments and leave feedback. This blog is called “SIX33 Thoughts” for a reason. I want to see us really grow ourselves first, and then see God adding to our number.

THIRD
There’s a great online daily devotional that I recommend. Go to
http://www.gty.org/Resources/DailyDevotion and check it out. (I'm sorry you can't click the link. I'm still figuring out how to do that...)

Have a great year and I’ll see you at SIX33 on January 9 at 6:33! It’s going to be a great year and we’ve got some really good stuff coming. It won’t be “business as usual.”



P.S. Don't forget about the HSM website: http://www.ibchighland.org/six33 It's got current info about alot of stuff. We're always updating it. If you want to know about Camp this year....