There is a very interesting blog post by Tim Ellsworth on his Sports, Christianity and Culture blog.  He gives some good advice on how to think about preaching.  I must say that I have given this a lot of thought in formulating my own view of preaching over the years.  It has been a great help to me to be in the shoes of church member, ruling elder, seminarian, and now pastor.  It is my hope and prayer that I preach the kinds of sermons that I desired to feed the souls of my family and me when we were members of a church.  (And it doesn’t hurt that we were blessed by our pastors at the time, who included the current Professor of Preaching at Covenant Seminary).   I sure resonate with what Tim has to say, and I hope you will encourage me to continue to preach from the Bible, to preach Jesus, and (especially!) not to try and impress you all the time with Greek and Hebrew!

 Link to the blog post.

I have great respect for John MacArthur, even though he and I do not share the same views on baptism or church government.  As I was looking at his blog this week, I saw an excellent short series entitle Practical Thoughts on an Enduring Ministry.  As I have mentioned to the good people of Christ Church on numerous occasions, it is my intention (Lord willing) to have a long and abiding ministry among you.  MacArthur has some excellent thoughts on this subject that I would encourage you to read:

Practical Thoughts on an Enduring Ministry Part 1

Practical Thoughts on an Enduring Ministry Part 2

Practical Thoughts on an Enduring Ministry Part 3

May God bless all of us with the grace of perseverance in the ministry. 

Many of you may have noticed the preciptious dropoff of blog posts, and bulletin announcements sicne the turn of the year. You may have even wondered if I am going to be bothered with this anymore. All I can say is:

1. I’m sorry
2. I’ll try and do better
3. This is a good model for how we should handle our devotional commitments for the new year.

If you are like me, you have struggled by now with keeping up with the commitments you may have made to pray, read the Scriptures and other things. You may have even noticed that I have not been able to keep up with my desire to post some thoughts about how to do those things throughout the year (yes – I am still planning to do that!). But what I am going to do is to stand up, admit my failings, and press on. (pull)That is a microcosm of the Christian life. We experience failure after failure in this life as we still deal with the remnants of sin and the sanctification process.(/pull) But we also know that through Christ we can do all things (Phil. 4:13) and that it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that we are who we are now in Christ. As a matter of fact, we are going to look at what characteristics/traits the Holy Spirit works in us (called the “fruit of the Spirit”) this Lord’s Day in worship. Paul describes the fruit of the Spirit – or what Christian should look like – in Galatians 5:22-26. You will notice that no where is “perfect” to be found. That is what we will be (by God’s grace) in glory. Until then, we must cultivate the fruit of the Spirit in ourselves and others. So please show patience and kindness with me! This week we will come together not only to hear the Word of God and apply Paul’s description of the fruit of the Spirit to our lives, but we will also be continuing our readings through Psalm 52 and Matthew 14:1-21. We will praise God by singing several wonderful hymns: Holy God We Praise Your Name (#103), O The Deep Deep Love of Jesus! (#535), and Jesus I Live to Thee (#516). You can download a copy of this week’s bulletin and listen to the music for each. We will also be singing a Psalm this week by concluding our service with Psalm 9 (to the tune of “Immortal Invisible”). The words are a wonderful reminder of why we are to be thankful for all the Lord has given to us and done for us: I now will give wholehearted thanks to the Lord, And all of Your marvelous works will record. In You will be glad and exultingly cry, And praise to Your name will I sing, O Most High. When backward my foes were all turned in despair, They stumbled and perished because You were there. For You have defended my judgment and cause; You sat in just judgment upholding Your laws. The Lord will eternally sit on His throne, Establishing it for His judgment alone. In righteousness He’ll judge the world from His seat And unto all peoples shall equity mete. The Lord is a stronghold, a lofty strong tower, For all the oppressed in their troubles’ dark hour. Those knowing Your name, Lord, trust You for Your grace; You have not forsaken those seeking Your face. May the Lord bless you as we prepare to worship together!

The national media has been giving attention to the Baker Road pig races held on Friday evenings in the property adjacent to the site of the planned Katy Islamic Association. This is an obvious effort on the part of the locals to disgust the Muslim neighbors in the hopes they will sell out and move elsewhere.

While we stand for religious liberty it is time for some clear minded thinking about the subject. Dr. Randy White has written a bold and well-articulated letter to the editor of the Katy Times this week. You can read it at this link.

http://www.katytimes.com/articles/2007/02/08/opinion/01oped.txt

Pastor Greco often reminds us that “nobody grows in fuzzyland”.Let us beware of encouraging heresy for the sake of protecting freedom of religion. As RC Sproul says, “You are allowed to be wrong but it’s not OK to be wrong.” Too many professing Christians have no clear idea of what the Bible teaches or what the gospel really is. The gospel proclaims that Jesus is Lord; that in Him alone is there salvation from the just wrath of God toward all sinners. There is no cross in Islam; no atonement; only hard work and personal effort to keep the law. The religious rat race of trying to earn salvation is even more foolish than the pig races.

Flee fuzzyland now.