IN DRASTIC DAYS - PRAY GREAT THINGS!

Advent 2

ADVENT 2 – December 7, 2008

Advent means coming.

We are preparing for the full coming of God’s kingdom:

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world;

the one who follows me will not walk in darkness but have the light of life.”

We light these candles as a sign of the coming light of Christ. (light two candles)

 

The people who walked in darkness


have seen a great light;


those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,


on them has light shined.

—Isaiah 9:2,

 

 And I will lead the blind


in a way that they do not know,


in paths that they have not known


I will guide them.


I will turn the darkness before them into light,

the rough places into level ground.


These are the things I do,


and I do not forsake them.

—Isaiah 42:16,

 

Come, Lord Jesus, our light and our salvation.

Let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Praying for Revival

Prayer Focus Day 4:
Pray that each person in Christian homes (particularly husbands and wives) will be humble in spirit, in order that their prayers may be answered (1 Pet. 3:8-15).

What Do Outsiders Think of the Church

Courtesy of ChristianClips.com

I Have the Best Family Ever!

The only thing I treasure more is JESUS CHRIST

Praying for Revival for 31 days

Prayer Focus Day 2:
Pray that those who have a personal relationship with the Lord will walk in the spirit of humility, as Jesus walked, and live with a daily recognition that pride leads to destruction and that humility precedes honor (Micah 6:8; Proverbs 18:12).

Praying for Revival for 31 days

Join me in praying for Revival for the next 31 days and lets see how God answers our prayer.

Prayer Focus Day 1:
Pray that we as Christians will bow our knees before the Lord at the beginning of each day, so that we may receive His grace daily to live as we should (Jas. 4:6-10).

Eschatology and Mission

"Eschatology is central to any understanding of mission...The gospel is an eschatological message. In evangelism we declare that Jesus is King and that Jesus will be King."

~ Tim Chester

Veteran's Day and My Family

My mother posted this on her blog yesterday:

Today we celebrate Veteran’s Day. There were speeches and parades and plaudits from politicians. For me, this is holiday is personified by my grandfather, my father, my father-in-law and my brother. Men in my family have served in every war and conflict from the Revolution forward. It is somewhat bittersweet when I think of friends who served and did not return from Vietnam. My reflections today are shared by families all across the country and my memories are theirs.

I have my grandfather’s letters written during his service in WW1. He wrote regularly, first from boot camp and later from Europe. It was strange to see those letters, marked “somewhere in England”. Somehow I always thought that was a bit of fiction until I saw the actual letters. He served honorably and returned home. He never talked much about his service, seeing it as just what an Indiana man would do in that situation.

My father volunteered for the Army following Pearl Harbor and was sent to England after basic training, and then to Europe with the invading forces. He rose through the ranks to Tech Sergeant (Sergeant 1st Class in today’s army) and served in a mechanized battalion, commanding a half-track. (An armored jeep with tracks instead of rear wheels capable of carrying supplies, weaponry, personnel). He took part in the Battle of the Bulge and pushed into Germany with Patton. His platoon was trapped behind enemy lines and considered MIA for a time. He was seriously wounded just before the end of the war and was evacuated to England and then home. He was awarded two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and numerous citations such as a sharpshooter award. He was always proud to have served his country and was seriously irritated when the Army told him he wasn’t fit to serve in Korea.

My father-in-law served in the SeaBees of the US Navy, their construction division. After the devastation of the Pearl Harbor attack, rebuilding the port facilities was a high priority. Men with peacetime jobs in the construction industry formed construction battalions to rebuild Pearl Harbor and then to build bases, airfields and support the advance through the Pacific. Their motto was “We Build, We Fight”. Dad served in Hawaii and was later assigned as part of the Iwo Jima attack force. The SeaBees arrived on the island hard on the heels of the Marines and immediately began working to repair an airfield. The field began receiving flights just a few days later. Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945 and Dad’s SeaBee battalion was decommissioned and returned to the US just thirty days later. He mustered out in California and returned to St. Paul, MN to his family, his wife and the son who was born after he shipped out.

My brother served in the “peacetime” army in Germany and at Fort Campbell, KY. He considered making the army his career, but decided against it as he had a young son at home and he wanted to be a hands-on father. Various cousins and nephews have also served.

These men all considered it an honor to serve in defense of their country. I grew up hearing the history of the military men in our family, but these I knew well. I honor them every day, and especially today as we celebrate all the veterans who have served with honor. My prayer today and every day is that the men and women currently serving will be protected and come home with honor to their families.

What is the greatest need of the church today?

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."

Mt. 5:6"

"My soul thirsts for God, for the living God"

Ps. 42:2

"O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you;"

Ps. 63:1

"Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger; and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."

Jn. 6:35

"Hunger and thirst vividly express desire...for the deepest spiritual famine is hunger for the word of God."1  We hunger and thirst for many things in this world and they leave us wanting more. The things of this world grab our attention and we are to easily satisfied. 

Many are asking these days, 'what is the greatest need of the church today?' The answers offered abound, and many have pinpointed great needs but they miss the big picture. A.W. Tozer wrote, "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us." 

This is true because all the we feel and do flows out of our thinking. If we look at the church in America and its practices we clearly see that there is some disturbingly wrong thinking about who God is. 

"The one thing we most urgently need in Western Christendom is a deeper knowledge of God. We need to know God better." 2  Jesus said that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness would be satisfied and that those who come to him and believe would never be hungry or thirst. His promise is that rivers of Living Water will flow out of our hearts through faith.

My soul is greatly comforted by these great promises from our God and King. My question is, 'where are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness?' Where are the people who will cry out with the psalmist, "my soul thirsts for God, for the living God."?

I pray that the LORD would give you an ever-deepening desire for him and an unquenchable hunger and thirst for righteousness.

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, 'Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.' Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long.

In Jesus' name. Amen 3

1. D.A. Carson - Expositor's bible Commentary, Matthew 1-12
2. D.A. Carson - A Call To Spiritual Reformation
3. A.W. Tozer - The Pursuit of God

Hungry?

Jonathan Edwards argued for this in a sermon that he preached on Song of Solomon 5:1. The text reads, “Eat, friends, drink, and be drunk with love!” Edwards drew out of the text the following doctrine: “Persons need not and ought not to set any bounds to their spiritual and gracious appetites.” Instead, he says, they ought

“to be endeavoring by all possible ways to inflame their desires and to obtain more spiritual pleasures. . . . Our hungerings and thirstings after God and Jesus Christ and after holiness can’t be too great for the value of these things, for they are things of infinite value…[Therefore] endeavor to promote spiritual appetites by laying yourself in the way of allurement…There is no such thing as excess in our taking of this spiritual food. There is no such virtue as temperance in spiritual feasting.”

Therefore, be encouraged that God made you to rejoice in him. Do not settle for any lesser joy. Lay yourself in the way of allurement. That is, fix your eyes on the all-satisfying treasure of Jesus Christ who loved us and gave his life as a ransom for our everlasting joy. [ John Piper in What Jesus Demands from the World, pp. 90-91]

HT: Tony Reinke

One Point Calvinism

J.I. Packer said, "The very act of setting out Calvinistic soteriology [the doctrine of salvation] in the form of five distinct points (a number due, as we saw, merely to the fact that there were five Arminian points for the Synod of Dort to answer) tends to obscure the organic character of Calvinistic thought on this subject. For the five points, though separately stated, are inseparable. They hang together; you cannot reject one without rejecting them all, at least in the sense in which the Synod meant them. For to Calvinism there is really only one point to be made in the field of soteriology: the point that God saves sinners.

HT: Scott Thomas

Please Pray for Me

I am heading out for my quarterly Prayer Retreat at the Wilderness Fellowship. Please Pray that my time of prayer and fasting will be fruitful and that I will clearly hear the voice of my LORD during my three days in the woods.

Thank you for your prayers.

I Got One!!!

I am happy to report that I purchased an ESV Study Bible today from Westminster Books for 40% off. Go get yourself one!!!

Thou Lovely Source of True Delight

1. Thou lovely source of true delight


Whom I unseen adore


Unveil Thy beauties to my sight


That I might love Thee more,


Oh that I might love Thee more.

 

2. Thy glory o’er creation shines


But in Thy sacred Word


I read in fairer, brighter lines


My bleeding, dying Lord,


See my bleeding, dying Lord

 

3. ’Tis here, whene’er my comforts droop


And sin and sorrow rise


Thy love with cheering beams of hope


My fainting heart supplies,


My fainting heart’s supplied

 

4. But ah! Too soon the pleasing scene


Is clouded o’er with pain


My gloomy fears rise dark between


And I again complain,


Oh and I again complain

 

5. Jesus, my Lord, my life, my light


Oh come with blissful ray


Break radiant through the shades of night


And chase my fears away,


Won’t You chase my fears away

 

6. Then shall my soul with rapture trace


The wonders of Thy love


But the full glories of Thy face


Are only known above,


They are only known above

Pointway Update

On September 14, 2008 we officially launched Pointway Church in Brainerd/Baxter, MN. We had 142 people join us for that first service and 106 and 114 respectively at the services that followed. We are excited about what the LORD is doing in and through us and we rejoice greatly when we consider his mighty works.

We have moved from the Gathering Season to the Developing Season and we have a lot of work to do. We have gathered and now we must work to integrate people into the life and ministry of Pointway Church.

We are overjoyed because we know that the Holy Spirit is strong within us and Jesus Christ has manifested his presence in glorious ways. It is the greatest joy of life to worship the King and watch him transform people's lives through the mighty power of the gospel. 

This is just the beginning - the best is yet to come!!!

I am going to the store

Asher and I were playing outside yesterday when he said, 'bye bye daddio'. I asked him where he was going. He said, 'to the store'. I asked him why he was going to the store. He said, 'to get some marshmallows and a book.' I asked him how he was going to do that since he was not allowed to ride his bike in the road. He said, 'This is a green truck, like grandpa's.'

Asher is to smart for his own good.

Shake the World

"Give me one hundred men who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I will shake the world." 

— John Wesley

Brainerd Dispatch covers Pointway Launch

Baxter church opens Sunday

By HEIDI LAKE

Staff Writer

BAXTER - Gone are the days of felt banners and potpourri wreaths adorning the walls of the Christian Missionary Alliance church on Highland Scenic Drive in Baxter.

Formerly known as Heartland Alliance Church before it disbanded, the building is now home to Pointway Church.

While the same denomination, Heartland and Pointway were, in many ways, opposite in terms of presentation and target audience.

The Rev. Steve Erickson, Pointway's pastor, said the average age of Heartland members was 70. In its final months as a church, attendance dwindled, forcing the church to close its doors in June.

But the doors didn't stay shut for long. Pointway Church is having its first official service at 10 a.m. Sunday.

The Rev. Steve Erickson paused in front of Pointway Church in the former Heartland Alliance Church building in Baxter. Pointway will have its first service at 10 a.m. Sunday. Brainerd Dispatch/Heidi Lake  » Purchase reprints of this photo.

"I'm really excited to see the vision that God gave me for this church become real," Erickson said.

The opening of Pointway Church has been 10 months in the making, Erickson said. They've held four preview services in that time and are averaging about 50 people - mostly in their 20s and 30s - at those Sunday morning services. Erickson finds the numbers encouraging, considering little advertising has been done to promote the preview services.

During the months of preparation, Erickson said ministries have been established, workers are in place, and this Sunday they hope to pack the church with new faces.

"The Lord's in control, I trust him to do his thing," Erickson said.

This Sunday, Erickson plans to preach about God's plan and purpose for the world and the individuals in it. Children's programming will be available for youths in sixth grade and younger. There will be a band playing music geared toward younger generations.

"We'll be putting our own flavor on old songs," Erickson said of the updated musical style. "It's modern worship geared to reach our generation."

When Erickson initially came to the lakes area to start Pointway, he said there was no intention for Heartland to close.

He was looking into renting a school or other meeting locations when the Heartland building became available.

Erickson and other core team members have since been busy updating the church building and planning and preparing for Sunday. He said the church building and the 7.25 acres of land it sits on, a value of about $500,000, was given to Pointway for free. Computers and a sound system have also been donated.

Erickson has helped start churches in the past, but has never had the lead role in the process.

"It really takes an amazing amount of work to plant a church," he said.

Now, on the verge of Pointway's inaugural service, about to see a longtime dream become reality, Erickson's emotions are running wild.

"I'm exhausted and excited, overwhelmed and overjoyed at the same time," Erickson said.

For more information on Pointway Church, visit www.pointway.org.

HEIDI LAKE may be reached at heidi.lake@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5879.

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Pointway Church Online

Pointway Church Online is up and running! Please visit our site and check out what is happening.

Pointway Church

Pointing People to a Life Transforming 

Encounter with the Kingdom of God

Thanks to Christy Brown of BROWN DESIGN

for her amazing work on our website.

LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK PLEASE!

Gospel-Centered Community

When we use the word 'church' we are almost always miscommunicating both to the Christian and the non-Christian. It seems we've lost the battle with this word. Why should we use a term where we are almost always communicating the wrong thing?

Church is far more than a community of religious people, it is a whole new order. 

~ Steve Timmis

Substitution

Sin is Humanity substituting itself for God - 

Salvation is God substituting himself for you.

~ J. Stott

Family Adventures

Today is Every Day

 

Every Day

 

Words and Music by 

Joel Sczebel and Todd Twining 

 

Verse 1 In Your grace, You know where I walk 

You know when I fall 

You know all my ways 

In Your love, I know You allow 

What I cannot grasp 

To bring You praise 

 

Chorus Thank You for the trials 

For the fire, for the pain 

Thank You for the strength 

Knowing You have ordained 

Every day 

 

Verse 2 Your great power is shown when I’m weak 

You help me to see 

Your love in this place 

Perfect peace is filling my mind 

And drawing my heart 

To praise You again 

 

Bridge   In my uncertainty, Your Word is all I need 

To know You’re with me every day (repeat)

Thanks Devil

I am learning to be thankful in the midst of opposition from the enemy. The devil has been active to derail the great work that Jesus Christ is doing in planting Pointway Church in Brainerd/Baxter, MN. 

This morning as I cried out to the LORD of all grace and mercy he encouraged me with the truth he has revealed in his glorious word.

"For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God your may receive what is promised.

For, yet a little while,

and the coming one will come and will not delay;

but my righteous one shall live by faith,

and if he shrinks back,

my soul has no pleasure in him.

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls."

~Heb. 10:36-39

I am so thankful for the devils attacks because they drive me to the throne of God and there I find comfort and strength to wage the good warfare. I know that we will prevail and the gospel of the kingdom will advance.

Soli Deo Gloria

O Help My Unbelief

1. How sad our state by nature is! 


Our sin, how deep it stains!


And Satan binds our captive minds 


Fast in his slavish chains


But there's a voice of sov'reign grace, 


Sounds from the sacred word:


"O, ye despairing sinners come, 


And trust upon the Lord."



 

2. My soul obeys th' almighty call, 


And runs to this relief


I would believe thy promise, Lord; 


O help my unbelief!


To the dear fountain of thy blood, 


Incarnate God, I fly;


Here let me wash my spotted soul, 


From crimes of deepest dye.



 

3. Stretch out Thine arm, victorious King, 


My reigning sins subdue;


Drive the old dragon from his seat, 


With all his hellish crew.


A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,


On thy kind arms I fall;


Be thou my strength and righteousness, 


My Jesus, and my all.

 

But there's a voice of sov'reign grace, 


Sounds from the sacred word:


"O, ye despairing sinners come, 


And trust upon the Lord."



 

© 2007 Justin Smith Music.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

THIS IS MY PRAYER AND MY SONG

A Song of Great Comfort Today

Cling To The Crucified

1. Cling to the Mighty One, Cling in thy grief
Cling to the Holy One, He gives relief
Cling to the Gracious One, Cling in thy pain
Cling to the Faithful One, He will sustain

Chorus: Cling to the crucified, Jesus the Lamb who died
Cling to the crucified, Jesus the King
Cling to the crucified, Jesus the Lamb who died
Cling to the crucified, Jesus the King

2. Cling to the Living One, Cling in thy woe
Cling to the Loving One, Through all below
Cling to the Pardoning One, He speaketh peace
Cling to the Healing One, Anguish will cease

3. Cling to the Bleeding One, Cling to His side
Cling to the Rising One, In Him abide
Cling to the Coming One, Hope shall arise
Cling to the Reigning One, Joy lights thine eyes

© 2007 Kevin Twit Music (ASCAP).
Used by permission. All rights reserved.