Tomb of Jesus

There has been much hub-bub about the “Tomb of Jesus” and I wanted to think about a good response to it, but Challies dot com got it pretty good. If this is something you are interested in, please take a minute to read this post.

My basic take on it, is that Jeshua was a very common name, it means basically my God saves, and when you think about the era in which Jesus lived, salvation from the oppressive Roman regime would be something that every mother and father would hope for.

Find a Tomb with the names Mary, Joseph, Judah, Matthew, and Jesus is the equivalent of finding a tomb with the names John, Jane, Joe, Bill, and Will.  doesn’t really tell you much about anything.

And DNA evidence is pretty ridiculous because there is no comparison to anything else.  Verdict: Laughable.

Mondays w/ Mitch

I rent a lot of cars, but I don’t always know everything about them. So a lot of times, I drive for like ten miles with the emergency brake on. That doesn’t say a lot for me, but it really doesn’t say a lot for the emergency brake. It’s really not an emergency brake, it’s an emergency “make the car smell funny” lever.

—  M. Hedberg

Winter Camp 07 – recap

Well it’s been a couple of days, and I haven’t posted on Winter Camp yet.  Honestly, this was one of the best camps that I have ever been it.  I am incredibly grateful that Tim Wicks invited our ministry to be a part of this incredible Camp.

Jeffrey Portmann was the speaker, as always he came across as real and personable.  He has an incredible way of encouraging people.  Every time I’m around him, I leave refreshed and energized. He loves students too and he always encourages my students too.  He Rocks.

The Band was really great too.  Mike Brandow led worship, and they have a great sound and great chemistry.  So that was great.

This camp was also very relaxed.  Which was way cool. Too often camps feel like they are trying to do a million things at once, and craming tons and tons of activities into a small space of time.  This camp was very flexible and that left room for lots and lots of fun.  It was great.

And most importantly God worked in student’s lives.  I had the opportunity to talk and pray with a couple of students who have been struggling, and trying to do the right thing.  So I’m really glad that they made it to camp. God works when we don’t even realize it, and he has been tugging on hearts for some time.

All in all, this was a great camp. And I hope that we can get back to the Firs Chalet next year with this group. It was incredible.

Staff Devotion

As a staff we have been spending some time looking at the fruit of the Spirit.

Today I led the devotion and below are my notes:

The Fruit of the Spirit all find their Origin in the Father.

It’s his kindness that leads us to repentance it’s his faithfulness that keeps us coming back to him.

He never abandons us.  He never forsakes us.

Nothing can separate us from his love.

The picture of the Bridegroom is so strong in the Bible.

As the Bride we are the ones who lose faith.  We are the ones who worry, fear, cheat, but we need to let the Spirit guide us to more complete faithfulness.

How can you grow in your faithfulness to God?

Big God

I went to a meeting tonight.  And the question that I left asking is how big is our God?

The second question that I am asking is how much do we trust him?

Really if we have the most powerful being in the universe on our side then what do we have to fear?  Nothing!

If we are on his mission and following his calling then we can trust His leading and know that he is going to see that all he wants accomplished will be accomplished.

As a church we have many challenges in front of us.  But we have a big God.  We only need tiny little faith.

If you are reading this blog and you don’t go to Creekside Church then please pray for us.  We need all the help we can get.

Changing the World

One of my favorite albums right now is John Mayer’s Continuum. I read something that made me think about the song Waiting On the World to Change. Here are the lyrics. Please take a moment to read them.

John Mayer
Waiting on the World to Change

Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There's no way we ever could
Now we see everything is going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it 

So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
It’s hard to beat the system
When we're standing at a distance
So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change 

Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
When you trust your television
What you get is what you got
‘Cuz’ when they own the information ooohhh,
They can bend it all they want 

So while we're waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
It's not that we don't care
We just know that the pot ain't fair
So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change 

(Guitar solo) 

We're still waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population 

So we keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Know we keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Waiting on the world to change
Waiting on the world to change
Waiting on the world to change

Then I came across these quotes in Soul Cravings:

Is it possible that God created us with the power to create the wold of our choosing?

. . .

It may seem way too simple, but the world will change when we change.

-Erwin Mcmanus

It’s so easy to blame others, to blame God for the problems in our world. But really we are fully capapble to bring change into the world one life at a time. I may be just as guilty as John Mayer on blaming the world’s problems on the previous generation. But there is something inside each of us that desires to bring about a better world. Why wait? Why don’t we step up and fix what we can fix?

Alister McGrath on Richard Dawkins

I know that this isn’t on everyone’s radar but Richard Dawkins recently wrote a book called the God Delusion. In which he attacks all people of faith and tries to make Atheism its own version of Fundementalism.

Alister McGrath wrote a great article on this whole issue, you can read it here.

You can also watch one of the great debates here.

I’m just finishing up Erwin McManus’ Soul Cravings.  It’s a great book but particularly the last section title Meaning discusses the human desire to find meaning and purpose and he talks about the limitations of Science in addressing the deeper questions of life and meaing.  You can buy the book at Amazon and it’s worth it.