B(ack)log

It's been a while. I feel like blogging, but not putting much effort into it. Perhaps that will turn out for the best.

Louis and I were talking tonight and it got to the point in the conversation where we fell back to the root issue of our young Christian lives of needing to let Christ take charge and be living for Him. It's something that's been on my mind a lot of late - whether or not I'm going forward with my life in Christ and taking courage in that or if I'm going forward with my life simply because I want to prove to myself that I can do it and that I don't need to rely on anyone else, be it man or God.

I am still fairly unScriptured, but ever since an odd night in 2008 I've flown under the flag of the 23rd Psalm.

A Psalm of David.

¹ The LORD is my shepherd;
I shall not want.
² He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
³ He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name’s sake.

⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runs over.
⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD
Forever.

Then on Sunday down at BV the conversation at the table I was sitting at wandered to the subject of journaling - something I've been doing infrequently for a long time. So I popped an entry in last night and in the process flipped back over some past entries at how often the theme for me seems to be that I am not exalting the fact that the Lord is my shepherd. That I am very much taking center stage of my life and not wanting to give anyone else the floor even though I have no real story to tell and no part devised - simply the desire to be seen and admired and beloved. And one entry, likely written shortly after flipping through a certain section of Mere Christianity, shows me starting to state that "even though I haven't given Him center stage, at least He's in the theatre" and then sharply disagreeing with myself. There's always a point where we can no longer dilude ourselves and if I felt that Christ had walked out of my metaphorical theatre it would be much more dramatic and I would certainly go rushing after Him shouting, "Okay, fine, you can have the stage, just come back in!" But as long as He's sitting near the back and I know that He's there and waiting for me to invite Him to take the stage so that He can tell me His story it's so easy to just keep delaying it for want of those things that are not good for me and those things that I cannot obtain. I scream as a child for the food I want but haven't the teeth to chew.

"The Lord is my shepherd." Heavens be praised. It's so much easier that way. Didn't proof read. Deal with it.

update - last Wednesday's meeting

Hey, everybody!

I was charged with sharing the topics and fruits of our directional meeting for Epic last Wednesday, so here goes... (Sorry to be posting this so late!)

Mark Adams, Louis, Jamie, Lynette and I were there.

We all spent a little bit of time sharing and asking questions, but three questions really stood out to me:

1. Is Epic a priority?

2. Are we a priority to each other?

And the question Louis sent out:

3. Do you come to get something out of Epic, or to give?

Louis brought some great scripture references to the discussion, specifically Hebrews 10:24-25, Ephesians 5:1, and Matthew 20:25-28, and felt that God was pointing us in the direction of those verses. He pointed out the leadership and partnership in the verse from Matthew, and hopes that we can become that kind of community with each other.

Louis also called out three issues he felt as a leader of Epic:

- He'd like us to consider appointing a co-lead for him to work with

- He wants to try to work on his communication with the group (and we should also freely communicate our needs to him)

- He doesn't want to make "executive decisions"; he wants to find consensus among the group.

Louis said he felt like he had dropped the ball as a leader, and asked us to forgive him and also consider letting him continue as a co-leader going forward. This was something he wanted the whole group to hear & think about.

We tossed around a lot of thoughts & ideas about Sunday mornings. It felt like we had similar aspirations for, and complaints about, our times together:

- We want continuity / we feel like our overall plan lacks...a plan

- We want everyone to be able to use their gifts for the group...and we want to grow our gifts

- We want to be committed to using our gifts for the group / the church / people as a whole -- to be service-oriented & to contribute

- We want to make sure that other people in the church or in the area know we're here and feel welcome

Some ideas we tossed around for Sunday mornings were:

- for future Sunday mornings: alternate short video series or book with deeper, exploratory bible studies. Jamie would bring in commentaries/research (or we'd borrow from the library), and we'd break into small groups to explore the material together. Jamie would lead us the first few times.

- assign a person as facilitator/teacher for every four to six weeks, plus assign a gap-filler who could be ready to replace if something came up

- find out what Mark's sermon series(es) will cover ahead of time and base a study around one of those

- leave the church one Sunday a month and do "alternative" sessions - service projects, going and meeting people, etc -- shouldn't feel confined to the room

- break into small groups for prayer more often

- use an entire session for prayer sometime

We also talked about how to make people feel more welcome & how to connect w/ people who might want to join Epic. We thought we could/should...

- talk to new people more! be engaged; don't chicken out and start just talking to Epic regulars

- use the blog more :)

- create a page on the Hillcrest site, and link it to Facebook or our blog

- connect with newcomers via Facebook, rather than requesting their email.

- put Epic email/contact list someplace central, like on our Google calendar or secure place on Facebook page

Finally, we talked about how to use our Sunday mornings & Thursday evenings for the next month.

Today, 4/8, the girls can meet & catch up if they want. Can use today and/or next Thurs, 4/15, to discuss what to do next.

Guys seemed to have plans for today & next Thurs. (?)

Thurs 4/22 and 4/29 will both be all-Epic Thursdays, with some continued conversation around these topics on the 22nd and general fun-time on the 29th.

I think that's about everything -- please add anything I forgot or leave comments about what you're thinking!

Yaaaay Epic!

Epiclogue - 03/07/2010

Today Jamie lead us in an inductive study of Acts 8:26-40. It's the story of Phillip and his encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch. I'll do a quick re-cap & comment some of my thoughts. If you have any thoughts, comment your own. Quick links:
>> ACTS 8:26-40 <<
>> ISAIAH 53 << (the passage the eunuch was reading)

So first off there was a lot of "What??" going on about this Ethiopian dude. He was on his way back to Ethiopia from Jerusalem, sittin' in his chariot, reading Isaiah. So there's a lot of odd stuff there. He was in Jerusalem to worship, so he's Jewish...?...but he's from Ethiopia...and an eunuch (shaky Mohel?)...and the accountant to the queen of Ethiopia....and he's reading Isaiah-which means he apparently has a scroll. These are a lot of weird things to read these days, but it's not unrealistic.

Ethiopia was a huge powerhouse around the turn of the age, up there with Rome, Persia, and China, so if he was the accountant to the queen, he's up there. The passage reads that he was traveling in a chariot, but that's gotta be a poor translation. He's not just standing there on an little platform being pulled by two horses. First off, he's traveling to Ethiopia from Jerusalem. That' a long way to stand. Second off "v38 - and he gave orders to stop the chariot." If it was just him, he's just stop the chariot. If it were a fancy coach, he's order it stopped. If it were a caravan, which we suspected it to be, he would have to give orders to servants to go tell all the different wagons and coaches to stop. But it's not like Phillip was standing on the side of the desert road and happened upon this lone Ethiopian traveler.

"How can I unless someone explains it to me." After looking it over more closely, I'm fairly convinced that his man was a Jewish convert - or at least a would-be Jewish convert. Obviously with all the possible translation issues it's possible I'm reading into this instead of reading it (I'll have to bug Brock about this), but the passage says that the man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, not that he had been worshiping in Jerusalem. This man was the treasurer for the queen of a powerful state, which means he dealt in commerce, which means there were merchants, which means there would naturally be an exchange of customs and beliefs along side those physical commodities. Perhaps at some point he met a Jewish man or learned about Judaism and felt a glimmer of the truth and beauty of the Lord, perhaps even fully converted. It would be easy for him to arrange to travel to Jerusalem so that he could worship the Lord. And after reading all the rebuking that Jesus had to do towards the leaders of the temples, I can very easily see the Rabbi's, Pharisees, and Sadducees of the time taking one look at him and dismissing him. How could he make his convenant with the Lord if the Ethiopian king had already removed his member. How could he perform the rights if he couldn't read the Hebrew passages?

So I kinda read an un-fulfilled longing into that statement. And as always when talking about the Jewish leaders of Jesus's time, a parallel can be drawn to Christianity today where the Church focuses legalistically on a list of check-boxed "Do's" and "Don't's" and thereby turn people away from God when we should simply offer our love to them. I'm incredibly grateful that I can say that EPIC has not problem with that. But the Church as a whole does.

Anyways, that's me on "the Ethiopian dude."

The parts we focused on most were Phillip and his interactions and relationship with the Holy Spirit. We thought it was odd that at the first part of the passage it was an angel that told Phillip to go the the road, and then it was the Spirit that told him to go stay near the chariot. We've been reading through different passages about the Holy Spirit. Two weeks ago we read and discussed Pentecost (Acts 2). Last week we discussed Acts 4 where, after being on trial before the Jewish leaders, the disciples many followers prayed for boldness and then their place was shaken and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and went forth and shared Christ boldly.

This week, we read about Phillip. Phillip was a man who had a relationship with the Holy Spirit. He was a man who was able to discern what the Lord wanted him to do. We all have things we'd like to do and we all have ways that's we'd like to serve the Lord, but until we want what God want's we're not going to want to do what God wants us to do. We're just going to want God to want us to do what we want to do. And we are sinful - corrupt. We inherently desire that which isn't good for our souls.

We can't go from being a seed to producing fruit in a Snap. We have to grow in the Spirit. And once we're no longer seeds, we'll be BURSTING! to produce fruit, but even then if we try to produce fruit when we're just a sappling we can do ourselves damage. If we just seek the Lord, if we dig deep roots in the Holy Spirit, we will naturally grow strong branches and pour forth fruit. But the fruit is a byproduct of deep roots. If we just try to produce fruit (which is the sexier, cooler sounding thing to do) without growing in the spirit, we're not actually trying to be a plant, and we will fail to produce fruit, and we will not deceive the Lord (you know, 'cause He's God).

Once we love the Lord, we will be able to hear Him and we'll want to obey. But until then we'll just be like children saying "I want to help by testing the cookies!" and the Lord will just laugh and ruffle our hair and make us childishly angry at Him. Until we actually want to help we won't be told how we can help. I know some of you disagree, but that's what I believe, and I'm the one writing the post. : p

A Little Self-Evaluation

Yesterday, (01/24) we got a bit more personal about our spiritual lives and the varying degrees of progress that we each feel we made throughout the 12 months of the Year of Our Lord 2009. It was good. It was fueled by a self-evaluation that Louis had put together, and I've included a link to it below. I'd really encourage you to take a bit of time and read through it and try to come up with some answers. We'll be going over it again next Sunday. But you don't have to come for the evaluation to be worth your while.

May peace and grace of an absurdly mature nature abound around you this week.


self evaluation-epic.doc

Managing Wealth - Week Two

On Sunday, January 10th, Shannon and Mark led us in another week of discussions about personal finances and how we, as Christians, are called to interact with the green. During the first week (1/3/09) we had talked about the finances, wealth, and poverty in terms of the global perspective. While it's easy to forget it in moments of want or frustration, I hope that each of us is aware that even those who have it bad in the U.S. still have it pretty good compared to much of the world. Our nation is ridiculously wealthy. Therefore even if we don't feel burdened with large sums of money, we should all feel a responsibility to use what the Lord has given us wisely.

Biblical Insight on Finances

What does the Bible say about getting into debt?

• Psalms 37:21 - The wicked borrow and do not repay, but the righteous give generously;
• Proverbs 22:7 - The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
• Romans 13:8 - Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law

Some of the main discussion centered on being responsible and honest with yourself and God's money. If you have debts, you should repay them. We can't be mirrors for the brightness of Christ's love and run from our debts; people will see a pile of "Past-Dues" and a person looking for excuses not to pay. Christ paid our debt of sin to God, not our student loans. Proverbs 22:7 warns against borrowing because, as it says, it restricts you and may hamper your ability to act when the Lord calls you. And some sorts of debt are necessary (mortgages, student loans). Just avoid unnecessary, frivolous debt, right?

What about investing and saving money?

• Proverbs 21:20 - In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.
• Matthew 25:14-30 - [FOLLOW LINK: Parable of the servants sewing the masters talents.]

We shouldn't be foolish or prodigal with our money. Nor should we horde it as coveted treasure, because we shouldn't covet anything but the Lord love. If we invest with wisdom and faith and we receive good returns then we glorify the Lord to others through our success and we have more capital with with to do the Lord's work.

Taxes are required, but are they Biblical?

• Matthew 22:15-22 - [FOLLOW LINK: 'Paying Taxes to Ceasar']
• Romans 13:2-7 - ²Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. ³For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. ⁴For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. ⁵Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. ⁶This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. ⁷Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

So why did I leave that long one in? Because it seems to sum up the topic better than anything else could.

What exactly is tithing?
Tithing was introduced in the Old Testament as a law that required all Israelites to give 10% of earnings (money, crops, animals) to the temple.

• Leviticus 27:30-34; Numbers 18:26

Old Testament believers gave from the firstfruits of their crops, not the leftovers!

• Exodus 23:16; Exodus 34:22; Proverbs 3:9-10

The New Testament instructs us to give cheerfully, to give generously and to give regularly. The specifics are up to us.

• 1 Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 2:6-11; 2 Corinthians 9:7; Luke 6:38
  

As a group, we seemed to have a lot to say on the topic of tithing. A lot of folks had really good comments. First off was the disparity between the OT "you must" and the NT "do, ya know, whatever, if ya want". I guess we mainly talked about how, if taxes weren't mandates, very few people would willingly give to the government. Having it written as law simply takes our human tendency of avoidance out of the equation. It simply is. It's simplified. But that's only at the surface level. A lot of what the NT talks about is giving as you feel led to cheerfully give. If you feel led to not tithe, then don't tithe against your will. But don't use the "as you feel led" to tithe less than you feel led to simply because you know you've got this vacation coming up and it'd be really nice to be able to spend another day out there. Tithing should, like all thing, be prayerfully done. God wants our hearts, not our money, and the idea is that once God has our hearts it will bring us joy to give to Him. And a C. S. Lewis point was brought up: he wrote in some writing that you should feel it when you tithe. If it doesn't affect your lifestyle at all, your not giving enough because tithing is a way for us to learn that all things come from the Lord and for us to remove our psychological dependence on a padded pocketbook.

These were the things I took away. As always, if you disagree or agree differently pop up a comment. But I'm through for now.

"That's SO 2009"

Howdy folks, Chris Cook here with another exciting Epic blog post! Over the last four months of 2009 Louis led us through a ton of great topics during our Sunday mornings together. Obviously it's been a bit and I can't even hope to begin to reiterate any worthwhile portion of the discussions we had, but I can post links to the Powerpoints that Louis made for some of the different discussions. See below.

God.pptx
OT violence.pptx
The Bible 3.pptx
What Christians Believe.pptx
humanity.pptx
predestination.pptx

Managing Wealth - Week One

We are tackling the issue of wealth and finances for the next couple of Sundays in Epic. I pray that we will all have an open mind and heart as we look at what God as to say about money, generosity and the heart of the matter.

This week we looked a global perspective of the wealth, discussed the importance of attitude when giving and spending and introduced the idea of managing, not owning, the money God has given us.

For a global perspective on where you stand check out www.globalrichlist.com.

We spent some time this week studying 2 Corinthians 9:6-11 which reminds us that it is not the amount we give but the attitude and purpose that matters most. Since we are simply managers of God's riches, we must use the money he has provided us to advance his kingdom and bring him glory.

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written:

"He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever."

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

During his message at Hillcrest this morning, Darrin Plant said that surrendering was the "Ultimate New Year's Resolution". Is money the part of your life that needs to be surrendered to God?

We will take a deeper dive into tithing, loans, debt, savings and more in the weeks to come... Stay tuned!