Billy Graham, evangelist, speaking in Madison Square Garden, offered parents six suggestions on how to curb juvenile delinquency:
1. Take time with your children
2. Set your children a good example
3. Give your children ideals for living
4. Have a lot of activities planned
5. Discipline your children
6. Teach them about God.
Proud of my Church family this week… http://bit.ly/ArGqyj
So I guess I must be a little bit of a rocker at heart because I LOVE this song right now… The link above is the album version, the link below is a live shot that’s a little longer. Eat whichever course you like, but give it a few minutes of your life, it’s worth it.
Is fellowship really just about accountability and making friends or something much more missional?
via Francis Chan: I Don’t Need Fellowship to Do “American Church”.
Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then I will be confident. ~ v.3
I don’t know about you, but I don’t tend to wake up in the morning and find an army besieging me, nor do I wake up to find war breaking out against me. It might just be me, but that doesn’t seem to happen in my life. However, for David it did, literally. He literally did find an army against him (more than once to be fair) and he did find war breaking out against him which is why it makes a verse like this all the more incredible. I mean just stop and think about that.
As ruler of a country, when war was coming against him David could respond that his confidence was in God yet when we find the tiniest little thing coming against us we so quickly panic, go into full red alert mode and shut down.
Another thing we should notice here that he doesn’t say ‘When an army comes against me I will hit 40 days of prayer and fasting’, not that prayer and fasting is a bad thing but there’s a key here also. David’s relationship with God was an ongoing, regularly built up friendship so that when these times came, he was already in the shelter of God’s tent (later verse). He didn’t need to find it at that moment when the poop was hitting the fan, he had ALREADY found it years ago, which is why God chose him to be king.
The key to having a confidence like this then, the reason David didn’t have to worry is because he really did have an ongoing friendship with the creator of the Universe and that didn’t change depending on his circumstances, we would do well to follow that amazing example and as a parting thought, for those that want to hyper spiritualize it and apply it to the ‘invisible armies that come against us’, hold you horses folks, because David was being literal, and God proved it here, in 2 Kings 6.
15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.
16 “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
17 And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
18 As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the LORD, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.
There’s a dirty word inside the Church. It’s a word that most people don’t like to talk about, it’s a word that some preachers won’t preach about and it’s a word that some people don’t think affects them in any way.
The problem is that it’s something Jesus spoke a lot about, something the disciples had to wake up and smell the coffee on and it’s something the early Church couldn’t stand the sight of.
It can destroy us, separate us, condemn us and fool us and so as we begin 2012 we’re launching a new series at The Shelter to tackle this head on, in the hope that we all realize not just how far away from God we really are, but much more importantly how much Grace we receive from Him every single day of our lives.
Starting this Sunday at 10am.
