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Cornerstone Easter Video Interview

April 14, 2012 in ministry, spiritual with 0 Comments

I wanted to share one of the videos we showed on Easter. It’s an interview we did with one of our church members who had an incredible experience with God during a prayer time at our church. We put it together pretty quickly because we didn’t hear about it until just a few days before Easter.

Ken did a great job. He just sat down and said everything he needed to say in one take.

The music is the song “Quiet” from the band “This Will Destroy You.” I came across them after I heard their music in the movie Moneyball.

I’m very happy with how everything came together for the short amount of prep time I had to put it together.

Tim Keller on Hell

February 28, 2011 in spiritual with 7 Comments

In the midst of the “discussions” going on online about Rob Bell’s new book, I remembered something Tim Keller said in a video I saw a while back.

The video below is from the a talk Keller gave at the Veritas Forums on March 4, 2008, at The University of California, Berkeley. This is before The Reason for God came out and it covers many of the topics in the book. I’d encourage you to check out the whole video, but I’ve set the video to jump to a particular point relevant to the topic of hell (ending around 1:05:50).

In light of all the “controversy” I thought this might shed light on a perspective of hell that many Christians don’t consider. Now I have no idea if this is Bell’s view of hell or not. It’s just that as I watched the video for his new book, this talk by Keller came to mind.

By the way, if you haven’t read Tim Keller’s book The Reason for God, do yourself a favor and pick it up.

I really like his statement: “God only gives you what you want.” I think it puts a lot of things in perspective.

See the Consequence

February 21, 2011 in spiritual, thoughts with 1 Comment

I’ve been reading in Leviticus the past several days as I make my way through the Chronological reading plan of the Bible on youversion.com.

Leviticus is hard to read. It’s list after list of laws, regulations and instructions. There’s a whole section on how the sacrifices were to be performed. When reading through those chapters, I was struck with the bloodiness of that system. It’s not that I didn’t realize it was messy before now. It’s just that I realized that I don’t usually “see” the consequences of my sin.

But that was, in a very visceral way, what the people of Israel experienced on a regular basis. They were constantly reminded that their sin resulted in the shedding of blood. The ground around the altar (and the altar itself) would have been stained by the blood of the animals. They would have heard the animals cry out and smell the odor from them burning on the altar. I’m sure that reminder was a fairly good motivator for holy living.

I don’t think about my sacrifice (Jesus) enough. I need to consider the horrible, bloody experience. I need to take time to stop and remember the great lengths he went to on my behalf. Otherwise, there’s no real motivation to change. My sin is just a “bad habit” or a vice that needs to be overcome. I need to remember that it was my sin that Jesus went to the cross to forgive.

I need to “see” the consequence of my sin.

As I was writing this post, I remembered a video that a friend posted a few months ago. It’s a look at the annual sacrificing of lambs by modern day Samaratians at Mt. Gerizim. It’s not overly graphic, but it might not be pleasant for those with weak stomachs…

Get Moving

February 10, 2011 in spiritual, thoughts with 1 Comment

There’s a scene in Saving Private Ryan that still moves me when I think about it. It’s the part where the translator, Upham, stands frozen in the stairwell as his friend is attacked and eventually killed. When watching it the first time, all I wanted to do was scream “Do something!” at the screen. It’s a powerful moment.

I recently was reading in Exodus 14 about a time when the people of Israelite were frozen in fear. They’ve fled from Egypt and found themselves cornered at the Red Sea. The Egyptian army is advancing from behind. The people cry out to Moses in fear.

Moses’ response is simple. “Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.”

Apparently Moses wasn’t calm himself. In the very next verse the Lord says, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving!” I envision Moses telling the people to relax and then instantly turning around and panicking himself. God’s response? “Do something!”

I think we often get frozen with fear. We hesitate. We avoid making a decision. Maybe we’re waiting to hear a divine voice from above or we just cry out for direction. The simple, practical truth, however, is that we just need to act.

What has you paralyzed with fear? What are you doing about it?

New Year

January 1, 2011 in family, ministry, spiritual with 2 Comments

I’ve noticed a bit of an attack on resolutions this year. Okay, “attack” may be a strong word, and it may not be widespread. However, I’ve come across several blogs that expressed some negative sentiment towards the idea. I’m not sure where this is coming from, but on one of the posts I read, the author expressed her disdain for resolutions. To her, they were never kept, because they were too radical. Instead she said, we should look to improve areas that we are already excelling in. She then proceeded to make goals for what she wanted to do in 2011. Maybe I was missing something, but they seemed like resolutions to me, regardless of what you call them.

Life works in cycles. We need to experience the ebb and flow that these times bring. For me, the New Year is a time to reflect on the past and find vision for the future.

The Past

It’s healthy to slow down and consider the road we’ve been on. For me, 2010 has been marked with transition. I’ve changed my role in ministry, moving from being a Youth Pastor to Executive Pastor). And we’ve moved from Chicagoland to the St. Louis area. This past year has been a time to heal and be restored. I had to let go off some things as a result of our move that were incredibly important to me (family, friends, familiar environment, etc.). The end result, however, is that my family and I are healthier and stronger because of it. It hasn’t always been easy, be we have great new friends and a church family who have walked with us through the process.

I made 3 commitments/resolutions/goals last year.

One-Year Bible Reading Plan – I completed this…though I missed a lot of days and had to make them up along the way.
Read one book per month. – Didn’t make this one, but I was probably more diligent in my reading than I have been in past years.
Spend more time with family. – I’d say this year has been great for our family and we’ve been able to spend a good deal of time together.

Future

Read one book per month. – I wasn’t going to quantify it this year, but I’m tired of not reaching this goal. This one is important to me. I’m at a point in my life, where I realize how incredibly important this is for me. Part of this will involve cutting distractions out of my life (and that will be the hard part).
Physical Activity – I’m not saying I’m going to exercise everyday or anything like that, but I need to be more active. People may role their eyes at me when I say this, but I’m getting older…and I’m starting to feel older too.
Develop my skills in two areas: Design (general principles as well as skill with the tools) and Web Development (specifically WordPress and Joomla!). I like doing this. Setting up WordPress and Joomla! sites is incredibly satisfying to me. I want to hone these skills and learn more about coding and development. I’m certainly no pro, but I’d like to continue growing in these areas.

So, there you go. That’s my list. What’s on yours?