What a wonderful privilege I have had to baptize all three of my children. Here is a picture from yesterday of Thomas being baptized.
Archives For September 2010
Last week I asked the question, “why are you here?” It is a good question to ask. If you missed the email, you can read it here: http://www.philressler.com/weekly-email/why-are-you-here/ .
Today, I want to expand that question just a bit and ask, “why are we here?” What I mean by we is “the church.” Why is the church here? In this place? In this community? At this time? It is not without a reason.
For the last three weeks, on Sunday morning, I have been sharing with you the vision of Lord of Life Church as we seek to connect people with Jesus and each other. The way we do that is through celebrate, cultivate, and care.
It starts with celebrating what God has done, what God is doing, and what God will do. He is so good. I believe we sometimes take for granted just how good he is. It is easy to get so focused in on the circumstances of our lives that we fail to see his grace being poured out from heaven. Rather than taking an attitude of praise for his marvelous provision, we carry and attitude of complaint.
Second, we cultivate the Word in our lives. This is about discipleship. The Bible tells us to train ourselves to be godly. That I should strive to be more for God today than I was yesterday and to be more for him tomorrow than I am today. It is done one step at a time. Unfortunately, many of us have no plan for growth. We have not thought about the ways to train ourselves to be godly. We go to “church” and maybe attend a Bible Study and then hope that it happens and that some of it sticks. But if we aim at nothing, we will hit it every time.
Third, is care. This is ministering to those who are in need. it is about living for God and others. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says do not worry about what you will eat or drink. He promises God will provide as he provides for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field. I wonder if we sometimes take that verse out of context. We apply these verses when we are going through a difficult time in life. Maybe we lost our job and are going through some tough financial times. But I wonder if the context in which Jesus means to apply these verses is when we take sacrificial steps of faith to serve others. I wonder if he means for us to apply it not because of our need, but because of our generosity, that we would be generous to the extreme, to the point we would need to rely on him to provide.
This is why I believe God has put us here in this place and in this time. To celebrate what he is doing in our lives through worship. To grow in faith and knowledge to increase our capacity to serve him and our neighbor in need. And finally to follow his example to care for others by showing mercy and compassion. I look forward to taking this vision, over the course of the next year, from words into action.
Have a great week!
On Thursday morning I finished the first sessions the Crossways course called See Through the Scripture. I am so excited for his study and believe it is so important for the church at this time. I would ask you to join with me and pray this will be an incredibly transformational experience for everyone who attends. That it will have a significant impact for our church and for the community around us. If you missed the first session there is still time to join us. We would love to have you. Just let me know and we can make sure to get some materials ready for you.
One of the questions I asked the class this week was: “Why are you here?” I think most everyone in the class was thinking about the context of the Bible Study. Many had come to the Bible Study to learn about the Bible and what the Bible is all about. That is good. But at the same time I challenged the class (and you) to think a little bigger? Why are you here? No not why are you at your computer right now reading this email, but why are you here upon this earth at this time.
Furthermore, consider why has God entrusted you with the message of salvation. I am sure most people reading this email believe in Jesus as their Savior. But have you ever thought why you have been given this important message? Most of us would answer the reason I have been given this message is so that when I die, I will go to heaven. That is a good answer, but is that the full answer to the question? Think about it for a moment! Is that answer maybe a little self-centered?
Do you think God gave you the message of salvation (the gospel) to keep to yourself? Of course not. He did give it to you to hoard, but to share it with others. Think about America. We have been blessed in so many ways. Not only do we live in a nation where the gospel message is widely proclaimed, but we have been given so much. The question is why are we getting along so well, when so many others in the world are hurting? Why do we have so much while so many others have so little?
When you think about what you have been given, it all goes back to the question of why you are here. Are you here for yourself or are you here for something greater? I would imagine most Christians in America go to church for themselves. They go because they like the music and they like to be able to take home a few applications from the message to help make their lives a bit better.
But we are here to do more than build our kingdom and make life better for ourselves. God blesses us for a greater purpose than for us to be able to take life easy. He blesses us that we might make life better for others. It is not so we can take life easy, but to be able to work harder to help others in their need. There is no reward in heaven for the marks you leave on the pages in your Bibles. The rewards in heaven are for the marks we leave in the lives of others. Why are you here? You are here to do the work of God!
This is a big weekend we have coming up at Lord of Life. This weekend there will be ONE worship at 9:15am on Sunday. No 8:30am worship! No 10am worship! Just ONE worship at 9:15am! We will worship our ONE Lord as ONE church! Really looking forward to this time together with you.
As many of you already know, I will be teaching a Bible Study this Fall called See Through the Scriptures by Crossways. I felt led to teach this class for many reasons. The major reason I was compelled to teach this class is my firm belief we need to be a church that is in the Word of God. When you go to our church website and look at what we believe, the very first statement in that section is “we believe the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments are the inspired Word of God without error in the original writings, the complete revelation of God’s will for the salvation of men, and the divine and final authority for all Christian faith and life.
That is nice we have this statement written on our website, but do we truly believe this? And do we live it?
Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt has an enrollment of 21,000 students. Maybe what is so fascinating about this school is every applicant seeking admission must be able to recite the Muslim Koran from memory. It is about 2/3 the length of the Old Testament and takes three days to recite it.
What a contrast this is to so many Christians who have enough trouble reading the Bible let alone memorize it. If we are to take serious the call to follow Jesus, it is important we be students of the Word. It is a task that is never complete. Jesus will always be the teacher. We will always be the students.
The goal for the See Through the Scriptures Bible Study is to get us back to the basics of the Word. There are many “book” studies available to teach you what the Bible says. But they are no substitute for the Word itself. Some might say the Bible is too difficult to understand. That is why this study is so necessary. Rather than relying on someone else to open and interpret the pages of Scriptures for us. Crossways enables us to open the pages ourselves and gives us understanding. The goal is to root us deeper in the Word that our faith is not based on a few shallow cliches and slogans.
Crossways is designed with the belief we need to read our Bibles. It is designed with the belief we can understand the message of the Scripture with training. And that we will then in turn be able to explain that message to others. To do so we need to know the story line, the themes that are woven through the story line, and how all this points to Jesus and is brought to culmination through him.
In the words of Dr. Harry Wendt, the author of the course, “We pray that See Through the Scriptures will whet many people’s appetites to become biblical bloodhounds – people who will saturate themselves in the Scriptures and ask constantly “What does this mean? What is it saying to me and God’s people?”
I hope you will consider joining me on this journey. The classes will start on September 15 and 16 and will be offered at three different times in three different locations. 6:30pm in the youth room in the lower level of the church. 6:45am at Papa G’s restaurant in Elburn. And 9:30am in the large conference room in the church offices upstairs. We already have a large number of people signed up, but there is plenty of room for more. Cost for the materials will be $20. That will cover you student guide and work book along with other teaching aides that will be used for the course.
If you are interested in participating. Let me know. You can simply reply to this email or call me at the church office 630-513-5325 ext 39. Thanks for you time and your prayerful consideration of participating.
Have a great week.