My last blog post was posted on June 10th.  It has been 10 weeks and 76 days.  During that time, as most of you know, I took an 8-week sabbatical to rest.  In this post, I’ll provide some insight into why this was necessary and share a few things I’ve learned.  Once I was back from sabbatical, I attended…

Hallelujah, what a Savior!  This morning (Monday), I wanted to read the resurrection narrative from Luke’s gospel.  I was reminded anew what a glorious Savior we serve.  I sent this to our elder team:  “When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31 And their eyes were…

Genesis 25 is a bit of a bear.  There’s the death of Abraham and Ishmael—the transition to Isaac, and the introduction to Jacob and Esau.  As I stated in my post last week, Genesis 25 was on the docket for this past Sunday.  However, once I started looking at it more closely, I had no idea how to cover it. I broke into separate sermons.  We will cover Genesis 25:12-34 this coming Sunday.  

But there are two things from this Sunday’s sermon that I’d like to expound on a bit more in this post.

Sunday’s sermon was a ‘sweet spot’ for me. I struggled with anxiety for much of my early Christian life.  I wanted to please God and do His will, but I was always worried I was missing it.  I was taught about God’s ‘perfect’ will and that, if I missed it, I would not be in the ‘center’ of God’s will.  It created tons of anxiety.  Things started to change one night when Major Ian Thomas spoke at our church on that topic.  He talked about how God actively led His people and that God’s goodness met them as they obeyed Him. After his sermon, I asked, “Major, I want to be led by God.  How can I be sure I’m in the ‘center’ of His will?”  His reply stunned me.  He said in a wonderful British accent, “My dear son, God is already leading you.  You don’t have to worry about that.” 

I haven’t done the math yet, but since the beginning of the summer, my preaching schedule has been the lightest it’s been in years. I feel it in my soul. I love preaching at CLF. Sometimes, like Sunday, it’s like we’ve come into our family room at our house and we’re rejoicing in Christ and learning from Christ. It’s amazing to me how comfortable it is to preach at ‘home.’ I know from other pastors, in other places, their churches don’t feel this way. I’m grateful for this.

I tried to do this on Sunday with this statement:  CLF exists to equip people to worship Jesus, serve Jesus, and love others.  I said that a few times.  While this is not our written ‘mission’ statement (we’re working on that), it does define what we’ve tried to do and what we believe is our part in the Great Commission.  Our goal over the next several months is to ensure that every ministry in our church accomplishes this mission.  We want to equip people to worship Jesus, love Jesus, and love others.  And we want to do this in community together.  

Sunday, we were introduced to one of the most mysterious yet intriguing characters in the Bible, Melchizedek. As I said in the sermon, we don’t know much about this guy, but Hebrews 5 and 7 give us the biggest references about him.

Over the course of our study of Genesis, we will bump into some weird or odd stuff.  And because of the pace with which we’re covering Genesis (so we’re not in it for 8 years), there will be times when we can’t cover all the perspectives on particular things.  Sunday was one of those days, and Genesis 6:2 and 4 are two of those verses.

Sunday, as I got up to prepare for our Sunday gathering, I knew that preparing my heart was more important than re-reading my sermon manuscript.  The Lord was working on me, and I knew it.  There were issues in my heart that needed to be addressed before my Maker, and He was already pursuing me. So as I bowed my head to pray at my kitchen table, He graciously reminded me that my identity was not in what I was about to do (preach and lead CLF), but my identity was found before Him.  I was made to worship God and represent Him on this earth.  I am a child of God before I am anything else.  That’s my true identity.

This past week as I was reading through the gospel of John, I came across this verse in John 7:16, “So Jesus answered them, ‘My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.’”  As I sat and considered this statement, there were a few things that struck me: 1) Jesus’ humility continues to amaze me, 2) Jesus’ understanding that He was here to do His Father’s business,  and 3) this is our calling as Christians and every pastor’s calling.  

This week’s edition of musings will be more like ramblings.  It’s been a few weeks since I last posted anything, but I thought I would touch on several things in this post that might be of interest.  

There is simply too much to talk about when it came to my trip to the Phillippines. Here is a trip report that attempts to describe how grateful I was to be part of this ministry team.

Bruce’s sermon was fantastic.  It was clear, challenging, and faithful and made us long for Jesus more.  I think if the Apostle Paul were writing about men today, Bruce Wells would be one of those who have the interests of Christ in his heart and who have given their lives for the Lord.  I’m grateful for Bruce, and I know you are as well.  

Our last two weeks, previous to Sunday, were incredible Sundays at CLF.  One of the challenges of church ministry is to fight the urge to hit home runs every week.  Jeffrey Jo, being with us…home run.  Easter Sunday…home run.  Someone asked me last week:  “How do we follow Easter?”  My reply was that we keep doing what we’ve always tried to do…be faithful to God and His word.

The servants at CLF humble me.  So many gifts on display…givers, gifts of hospitality, mercy, compassion, teaching, discernment…the list could go on and on.  But what makes the gifts function so well at CLF right now is the posture people have toward Christ and one another.  This is something never to take for granted and something that only the Lord has done.  Praise God!

and see how redemptive history plays out, leading up to Jesus’ coming. Personally, I was freshly affected by this series. I was reminded of great truths of God’s love for us in Christ, of the wonderful thought that we can experience the joy and peace that’s in the Godhead, and how Jesus really is the Genesis 3 Champion. It was a great privilege to walk through this with our church.  

I’ve got to admit, these Advent sermons are growing on me:). I’ve really enjoyed the sermon prep, and I’ve been deeply affected by what I’m learning again. Thinking through big themes, like hope and peace, in the Bible has been a delight to my soul.

From Thursday-Sunday of this past week, our elders (pastors) and our wives went to Sunriver for our annual Elder/Wives planning retreat.  I thought I would take a few moments in this post to talk about why this is important and what we do while we’re there.  

During Bill’s sermon on Sunday, I was really encouraged by his introduction as he compared the division in the Church in Corinth, with the joy that we have experienced at CLF.  But what I appreciated about the introduction, was the lesson in his sermon on the importance of humility.  

Here’s what I desire for CLF:  I want us to be courageous to make decisions that we have prayed about, researched, and we believe are best for us and our families, without the fear of being criticized or falsely accused.  Further, I want us to be a church that can have openness of dialogue on very hard issues, be able to disagree, yet not hold one another at “arms length”.  

In Sunday’s text, we ran into 1 Corinthians 15:29 that’s just really hard to translate.  So, without giving you hundreds of different approaches/interpretations of this, let me just offer two of them that I think are the most plausible.

The Church gathered on Sunday mornings is a cosmic event. It’s a moment in time when we gather together to say, “Jesus is King.” It’s a moment when in unison, we sing praises to the One true God.

In both sermons I thought, “with the treasure that I have in Christ, why do I not read God’s word more and pray more often?”  My prayer is that I will apply the things I’ve heard from these two wonderful men.  

Sunday was amazing.  When we go to the baseball field, I get the unique privilege being in the 1st base dugout until it’s time to preach.  The viewpoint from down there is awesome.  I can hear the crowd singing, see the entirety of the group, and watch.

I literally can allow situations to dominate my thinking, my time, and my headspace.  (Anyone else?) And, because I’m naturally persuaded by my own arguments or ideas (which is pride), I have a tendency to not listen very well to another perspective.  Or to put it in the above metaphor, when the Lord tries to pull the binoculars away from my face to correct how I look through them, I anxiously pull them back to the way I like them.