The Gospel In Life (Week 1)

This week, we begin our new study by Tim Keller called, Gospel in Life - How Grace Changes Everything. In our first discussion we take an in-depth look at what it means to be a child of God in the city of man. After all we are to be in the world, but not of the world...so, what exactly should that look like? We also discuss God's purpose for the City and how we as followers of Christ can help to recover and restore that intent in the cities where we live through service. Many other interesting things are discussed as well, including a brief discussion on "How Should We Then...Drink?!".

Awesome and insightful time as always. Can't wait to see what happens in the weeks to come...

 

 

To read the article/essay that I made reference to writing, here is the link:

 

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

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Brave New World

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.

- (Colossians 3:2 ESV)


In the age of storage wars, cupcake shows

And movies about parking lots

Our longing for the ultimate entertainment experience

Has left us searching the bottom of the cereal box

For a prize that doesn’t seem exist…

So now, we’re being led to believe that the very notion

Of something other than our present reality is a myth

Score one for boredom in the win column

Because this Brave New World experiment

Has left us empty and solemn

With a penchant for comedy

And a love for treasure-seeking

Only to find that here, the moths and rust destroy it

So we inevitably end up with neither

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

- (Matthew 6:19-23 ESV)

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

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Zeros & Ones

Eventually, it all comes down to zeros and ones

Whether it’s the sum of your bank account

Or the last day to come

Credited with a federal deficit

From an act of confederate arrogance

Lord, grant leniency for our inconvenience

Because the ledger won’t ever find a balance

No power to the people –

Dying on empty bellies and wallets

But the no. 1 killer of the nations

Is that they perish for a lack of knowledge

Deprived and depraved

Because I don’t give a damn

About the rising poverty level

And the notion of goodness is a sham

The more zeros I need in my bank

To put one gallon in my tank

My daily bread goes missing

And so does my thanks

They say the love of money

Is the root of all kinds of evil

And these churches love stacking dough

To keep raising up steeples

Bake it but don’t break it

Pressed down and shaken, but not stirring

The collective conscience of the people

To feed the needy and to serve them

Salvation’s army shouldn’t ever come to harm me

Whatever happened to the Great Commission

Or showing faith, hope and charity?

Hilarious giving is no laughing matter

When you serve the Suffering Servant

It’s not an option – Follow after Him

To be born as an orphan

Doesn’t turn you into a bastard

To get the message crossed up

Leads to evangelical disaster

The first will be last

And the last will be first

The first death leaves you breathing

But the second lays down the worst

So stop selling headstones

And returning people to slavery

Strive to share the truth in love

With the utmost transparency

Christ bares the scars

As a reminder of the cost

So that we can openly display our weakness

To show the glory of the cross

A not-to-do list is always sealed with a hiss

And wreaks of self-righteous piety

That deserves to be dismissed

Spiritual amnesia

Leads to legalistic procedures

That spit in the face of grace

And gets it backwards for unbelievers

Because you can not have “gay sex”

And still be a wreck

You can not put lips to liquor

And still be a mess

Behavior modifications

Don’t necessarily mean you have the Savior

It just makes your public appearance acceptable

But leaves your private life unsavory

No, the task of salvation

Isn’t to make you a better person

Or for you to appear perfect and blameless

To a world that’s starving and hurting

We’re just the finger pointing at the moon

Which gives us light by reflecting the sun;

So in the end, it just goes back to the beginning

It all comes down to zeros and ones…

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East of Eden

"But let us now, as in bad plight, devise

What best may for the present serve to hide

The Parts of each from other, that seem most

To shame obnoxious, and unseemliest seen,

Some Trees whose broad smooth Leaves together sew'd,

And girded on our loins, may cover round

Those middle parts, that this newcomer, Shame,

There sit not, and reproach us as unclean".

So counsell'd hee, and both together went

Into the thickest Wood, there soon they chose

The Figtree....

John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667), Book IX, lines 1091-1101.

Unknown –

Living bad to the bone

Thinking like a three year old child

Even though my body’s fully grown

Traded the very best 

For an absolute mess

Now the stress is gonna to kill me

While I’m breaking a sweat

Wet from the waist down

Because I’ve pissed away my future

Wife was dead wrong 

And the serpent’s a bad tutor 

Passed over the fruit of the vine

For knowledge not mine

Only to whine about the outcome

Because I fell for the lie

 

Hook, line and sinker

This shattered image is tanking my demeanor

Until a Fisher of men stepped in

And played the role of Redeemer

My disease was my disease –

Couldn’t see the garden for the tree

So I went from naked and unashamed

To using the foliage to cover me

Until it begins to wither away

In the heat of the day

And the ground is spitting up seeds

Because it’s starting to betray me

Reminds me of where I come from

And where I’ll be going 

We’re all keepers of a dirty little secret

With nothing to show for it

 

No “S” on my chest or bulletproof vest

Is going to stop the fate of a defective heart

And a mind covered in darkness

Living east of Eden for committing high treason

Forgetting all the while 

That we never had a good enough reason

To leave it all to chance

And face the coin toss 

To see who’d get to be the boss

In the land of the lost

Found by the Good Shepherd 

Because he paid the cost

To bring us into the fold

Never again to be tossed

 

Laid it all on the table

No Cain because he’s able

He truly is his brother’s keeper

And his hand is stable

The one true Prodigal

Who makes life eternal possible

By justification through his blood

For completely unworthy hostiles

 (Genesis 3)

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Zeros & Ones: The Prodigal God

In this study, we look at the parable known as the "Prodigal Son" (Luke 15:1-3; 11-32). With the help of Tim Keller, we get new perspective on the traditional belief and perception of this teaching of our Lord; discovering the two ways of "lostness", the need for divine initiative in salvation, Who the true Prodigal is in this parable, and Christ's role as the true elder brother (his righteousness v. our self-righteousness)...

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Zeros & Ones: Importance of the Resurrection (Week 4 Finale)

We finish up our excellent study on the implications of the resurrection of Christ with a lively in-depth discussion on how the eyewitness account of Thomas can be applied in our own lives and our evangelism, what the implications of the resurrection are in this life and how it gives us hope now in the face of death, and finally, how this changes us forever.

 

 

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Zeros and Ones: Importance of the Resurrection (Week 3)

We continue our study and discussion on the implications of the resurrection of Christ...
This week as we go further up and in, we cover the significance of the Last Supper leading up to the resurrection and the validity of the eyewitness accounts. Also, how the resurrection serves as hope for us in our current lives when faced with trials and suffering and how this translates into the hope that we articulate in our evangelism.

 

 

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)