This past Sunday was Pentecost Sunday!  The day that Holy Spirit came and annointed the Apostles in Jerusalem after Christ had risen from the dead, ministered and taught for forty days, and ascended back into Heaven to sit, reigning and ruling, at the right hand of God the Father (see Luke 24:1-53; Matthew 28:1-20; Mark 16:1-20; Acts 1:1-2:4).

Beth and I went to Christ Church Nashville, a church in Nashville that was recommended to us by mentors in the area.  It is an amazing church whose preaching pastor is a Reformed Anglican Priest who felt the call of God to take over from the founding and retiring pastor.  It is certainly a mix of soul, Southern Baptist, gospel, and charismatic all rolled up into one church.  The worship is powerful and moving and the sermons are sound and discerning.  We had previously met with the preaching pastor who confirmed God’s call in our lives and interceeded for us at a moment where we were considering what to do about the coffee house vision God has given us.

I don’t know what we were expecting, just to participate in corporate worship and hear a good sermon.  But the sermon was preached by a visiting pastor, Bishop Thad Barnum of the Church of the Apostles in Connecticut.  He preached a message on Pentecost, but not one that was traditional.  His message was from Romans 5:1:5…

¹ Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ²Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, andwe rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

He confessed that for too long he had been a 1,2,5 Christian.  That is:  putting on the “happy face” that all is well and that all is wonderful while we are at church, even though we are suffering and going through a rough time.  Or, convicting and condemning those in the church and those who are Christians that they aren’t “happy” or “joyful” or “rejoicing in the glory of God” because they ARE suffering and, therefore, can’t really be “Christ-like.”  However, his point was that CHRIST SUFFERED and we, as Christians, who have taken on and been given the name of Christ, WILL SUFFER and that we should REJOICE in suffering knowing that it “produces endurance…and character.”  We should also rejoice because Christ promised that he would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and that He would be with us ALWAYS!!

It is these very times that we are suffering that the enemy wants us to think that we are ALONE, but we have Christ’s promise from Matthew 28:20

I am with you always, to the end of the age.

I recently have experienced a technological freedom that I never thought possible.  I read this blog post by Tony Morgan and thought, “You know what, I think I’ll give that a try…”  You see, I used to be addicted to, consumed by, and personally impressed with how many applications I had installed on my computer and how many colors I had on my Outlook Calendar.  I lived by the lie that “There is nothing like Microsoft” and thought I needed Outlook et. Al. to be productive.

One day two weeks ago, I quite Outlook, Word, etc. and have been transitioning to web-based applications or OpenOffice.org for all my needs.  I use Google Chrome for web browsing (love it!!), Google Apps for email, Picasa for photo albums, and a few others mentioned on Tony Morgan’s blog.  I feel free; I am free; and I know that when I travel all my information will travel with me, I don’t have to worry about leaving a drive or USB key, as long as I have the internet, I have my stuff!

Christ is a lot like this.  He frees us

Over Christmas, while Beth and I were listening to church planting sermons at her parent’s house, I had a huge realization regarding engagement and marriage–that as much as I long to marry Beth and am excited to marry Beth, my excitement for Christ to return so I can live forever in Heaven worshiping and praising God and His Son.  Beth was unsure and wary, but I told her that as much as I wanted to get married, I wanted to see Jesus even more, because then we will be in our perfect, glorified, resurrected bodies!!  What an awesome thing to desire!!

Since that time Beth and I have been following Christ’s example and praying for God’s name to be glorified, for His Kingdom to come, and for His will to be done on the earth as His will is done in Heaven.  We have died to ourself, we have died to our selfish desires, to our desires for each other over Christ, for our desires for job satisfaction over Christ, for our desire for comfort over Christ, and how God has answered!!

While Beth and I love being married and we are excited for all that God has planned for us here, we can’t wait to go home and spend ETERNITY with our Loving Father and Our Lord and Savior!!!

Well, Beth and I are over halfway done with our Honeymoon and it has been AMAZING so far!!  We have been able to just be with each other and MOST IMPORTANTLY, discuss Scripture and pray and worship our Sovereign God TOGETHER in our marriage, through our marriage, and because of our marriage.  Both of our favorite moments so far have been the after dinner discussions of some religious topic, a particular peice of Scripture, or just worship together.

Sunday night after dinner we were discussing John 2:1-12 where Jesus’ first miracle is turning the water at the wedding party (how appropriate) in Cana to wine.  There are several things to look at in this verse:

• Jesus’ reaction to his mother
• Jesus’ performing the miracle anyway
• Jesus’ mom’s knowledge that he WOULD perform the miracle
• The obvious implications for alcohol’s acceptance in the Bible
• Jesus’ first miracle is at a wedding!
• The symbolism of specific language John uses to tell the story

I want to take this moment to focus on the later point and pull-out three keyphrases that are important to the Christian:

1. “third day” (John 2:1)
2. “My hour” (John 2:4)
3. “the water now become wine” (John 2:9)

First, Jesus rose on the third day after his Crucifixion and Death.  His resurrection gave Christians the assurance of their own resurrection and new life, with Christ, in Heaven.  This resurrection also joined Christ’s bride–the Church–to her Husband–Christ (Galatians 3:29, John 3:29, Matthew 9:15).  This event occuring at a wedding, where two seperate persons become one under the ordination of God, is hardly a coincidence.  Also, Jesus’ first miracle being a representation of his ultimate purpose–AMAZING!

Secondly, throughout John’s gospel Jesus comments on “his hour.”  This is his veiled reference to his Crucifixion.

Thirdly, Jesus institutes the Lord’s Supper through commissioning the bread and wine used in the Passover meal to represent His Body and His Blood, respectfully.  The water jars that were filled with water were the Jewish Purification jars used when a non-Jew converts to Judaism and for the purification of the Levis before entering the Most Holy of Holies–through baptism.  Jesus turns water into wine from baptismal jars, a later-symbol (water baptism) of one’s committment, washing, and new life with Christ!

When I worked as a contractor for the government, and then in the government, one of the things that I was responsible for was designing/preparing/planning exercises and training for disaster preparedness and treaty implementation.

However, I am curious, how many times the church plans exercises for its members? Not the preaching the word to give members and understanding or Bible study to advance their tools to proclaim the Gospel to those they meet, and not giving young men an opportunity to practice their preaching. These are all important and fall under what I would call “training”. But instead, having a culture that allows members to do what exercises do: learn from mistakes.

I believe that so often those in the church are so concerned with “appearing” Christian yet admitting to supposedly “non-Christian” activity (i.e.,sin) will cause others to question and ridicule and mock…

The whole point of Christianity is FREEDOM.

• Freedom from worry.
• Freedom from guilt.
• Freedom to worship!
• Freedom to pray!
• Freedom to PROCLAIM to others!

Paul tells us in Romans that the things that he wishes to do he doesn’t do and those things he doesn’t want to do, he does do (Romans 6:1-15). In other words, he wasn’t perfect!

So, I encourage all of us to have a Christian attitude–accepting and supporting of others!

This is not a post about Mel Gibson’s famous last words in the movie Braveheart, but rather, a post on the wonderful, amazing, opportunity that KNOWING Christ and BELIEVING in his FINISHED work on the Cross (John 19:28-30) provides–freedom!! What an amazing word. Christians are free. Ultimately, we are free from the punishment we would have received for eternity if not declared righteous by the definitive work of Christ as our substitute. However, this ultimate freedom provides us freedom in our life on this earth!!  Hallelujah!!

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 and then continuing in 1 Cor 9:1-26, that we are free from the requirements of the law and that Christians, through his example, should do all things to advance the Gospel, not breaking God’s law, yet not worried about legalism or the rebuke of the weaker, immature Christians.  Paul’s point in 1 Corinthians 8 & 9 is to do all things to advance the Gospel, yet not cause those weak to stumble nor puff up and boast with the stronger, mature Christians.  A Christian’s boasting should be in the saving work of Christ!