You Cannot Serve God and ________

Yesterday our sermon text included Jesus' words: "You cannot serve God and money." In fact, you can place almost anything in the place of "money" in that sentence, and it would hold equally true. I've just finished Tim Keller's book, Counterfeit Gods, and he pointed to a sermon that deals with "soul idolatry"--not the external bowing down to physical idols, but the internal bowing down to the idols that our hearts create for us. That sermon is well worth a read.

Isaac, Moses, Samuel... Christ

Over the last few Sundays I have preached on several births in the Old Testament, each one of which came at a time of crisis and great need among God's people, and/or the world at large. Of all people, New York Times columnist Frank Rich makes an unwitting argument that we need, today, Christ--at a time when, like with these Old Testament births, all the heroes had fallen, and there seemed no hope except for an intervention by God himself.
Rich's column is titled "Tiger Woods, Person of the Year." If you read carefully, you will see the truth that even Rich does not see: the heroes have fallen, and we need a Savior, one who will not disappoint or fail to deliver on a promise. We had hoped it would be ________ (insert any number of names, from Bush to Obama to Sarah Palin in the world of politics, or Tiger Woods, or whoever), and they let us down by _________ (again, fill in the blank as you might). So it must be, until the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ (Rev. 11). "Long lay the world in sin and error pining, 'till he appeared..." "Come, desire of nations, come, fix in us thy humble home." There's more to Christmas carols than we recognize sometimes.

Counterfeit Gods

I picked up a new book today--you see it in the picture. Here is an excerpt (p. xviii):

"A counterfeit god is anything so central and essential to your life that, should you lose it, your life would hardly feel worth living. An idol has such a controlling position in your heart that you can spend most of your passion and energy, your emotional and financial resources, on it without a second thought. It can be family and children, or career and making money, or achievement and critical acclaim, or saving "face" and social standing. It can be a romantic relationship, peer approval, competence and skill, secure and comfortable circumstances, your beauty or your brains, a great political or social cause, your morality and virtue, or even success in the Christian ministry.... An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, "If I have that, then I feel my life has meaning, then I'll know I have value, then I'll feel significant and secure." There are many ways to describe that kind of relationship to something, but perhaps the best one is worship. "

Stewardship and Giving

This Sunday in our series on the worship service I will be preaching on the offering--on giving, tithing. I've never preached specifically on that before. So I wanted to offer those who pay attention here a Bible study on stewardship--not one I wrote myself, but one from the web site of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. Click here to download it--it is a 20-day devotional on the theme of stewardship.
Another resource--I plan to mention this in my sermon--is a one-page summary of the Bible's teaching on giving. You can see that by clicking here.

GodsStory.com

Got someone who is somewhat jaded toward the Bible, and want to get them back on the right foot? There's a neat web site that has a winsome introduction to the Bible. Check it out: www.GodsStory.com.

Reconciliation and Forgiveness at Church

I have been doing a Sunday School class on the Church recently. Here is an article that speaks of bitterness and forgiveness at church, and how the gospel ought to drive us to forgive. Enjoy, and reflect on it.

The Old Testament is about Jesus

This Sunday I will begin a short sermons series on Christ in the Old Testament--this week the story of David and Goliath. And Ross pointed me to an article by Bruce Waltke on Christ and Elijah/Elisha. So for your reading pleasure, and so that you may marvel more fully at how all of the Bible hangs together, and hangs on Christ, here it is. Or, for a shorter summary, you can go here.

Faithful Feelings follow-up

Mary made an insightful comment about my post on Faith-ful Feelings. Take a look at it (scroll down to that post, then click on the comments line; Blogger doesn't permit copy-and-paste, so I can't reproduce it here).
Emotions are indeed affected by sin. We do not have the right emotions because we are sinful. We do not always experience the joy of being righteous in God's sight because of Christ--even though there is hardly anything that ought to produce more joy in us! We do not always weep with those who weep, because we are more concerned about our own circumstances (which may be good) than our sister's grief.
Yet, consider this: our thinking, our reason, is also affected by sin. We sing, "I once was blind but now I see." Once, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, our minds were dead to the gospel. But once God opened our minds to see it, we marveled and embraced it in faith.
May God not in the same way regenerate, make new, our emotions? So that, as part of our sanctification, our emotions are made new, made more appropriate, more fitting to the gospel--just as our minds are? That is where holy affections come from--the same Spirit who opens our minds to grasp the gospel, may he transform our emotions to reflect the gospel.