Showing posts with label Testimony. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Testimony. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Touching Letter
"I spent about three weeks listening to this show. Not because I liked what they were talking about but rather because it was hilarious when these over-bearing bible-bangers would just get exploded on by someone who didn't want to hear what they had to say. At some point during this I was laughing at them and I remember saying through laughter, 'God, if this garbage is real, you need to open my eyes. This seems like a scam to me.' Sometime during the third week, they found a guy that was exceedingly convicted by the walk through of the Ten Commandments. The guy never hesitated when he was asked, 'If you were to stand before God in judgment do you think you'd go to Heaven or Hell?' The guy replied, 'Hell.' He had what I remember being a very somber voice. When asked if that concerned him, he simply replied, 'Yes.' ... This day it wasn't funny. This day I sat there thinking, 'This guy is me.' As I heard Ray explain the Good News to the gentleman on the air, I fell apart. I started to cry like a baby. I could hardly see the road as I worked the semi into the wayside rest. I stopped, pulled the breaks on, went back into the sleeper, hit my knees and I've never looked back. I spent almost two hours repenting and praying for forgiveness. I spent the rest of the day listening to Christian radio and talking to God."
Originally Posted in the Living Waters Weekly Update on January 31st 2011
visit them at http://www.livingwaters.com/
Monday, January 31, 2011
Mining the Archives: Luther Gets Saved in Habakkuk
The book of Habakkuk, a small book of prophecy tucked toward the end of the Old Testament, was written in about the 7th century B.C. Six hundred years later, it was instrumental in the writings of the Apostle Paul, and some 1,500 years later, in the life of the great reformer, Martin Luther. The following is adapted from a sermon Pastor Mark gave as part of a sermon series series on the prophetic book in 2003.
“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.”
Habakkuk 2:4
A lot of pastors are in ministry trying to pay God back rather than just trusting Jesus. Martin Luther was one of those guys: his incentive for ministry was to pay God back. He was going to study theology, and he had the mind of an attorney.
Luther tries God v. man
Luther saw God as a judge and as a prosecuting attorney. He saw himself as a defense attorney. He realized that God’s case against him was that he’s a sinful man unfit for heaven and forgiveness. So he picked up ministry, he picked up the Scriptures, he started to study, trying to find a way to defend himself against this case that God has made against humanity.
He came to the conclusion that God has an airtight case: we’re all wicked. That’s the only thing that is absolutely provable in Christianity is the evil of the human heart. That’s why we lock our doors. And that’s why we have jails. That’s why we have attorneys. That’s why we have prisons. That’s why we are reticent to even extend a hand of friendship to a stranger because we know not whether they are a friend or foe.
Luther said, “You know what? God’s case against humanity is a winner. We’re bad. And especially if God is judge, can’t lie to him. And if God is prosecuting attorney, you’re not gonna beat him. There’s no way out.” So he decided was he was going to study the Scriptures and find all the things that God wanted him to do, and then he’d do those so God would like him.
The Pursuit of Perfect Penance
And he tried really hard. Really hard. Harder than any of us. He became a priest, which meant no wife, no sex, no kids. He actually went that far. He became a monk and a pastor and a professor of theology. He said, “Not only that, since sin requires punishment, I’ll punish myself. I’ll sleep on an uncomfortable bed or the floor. I’ll eat terrible food or starve myself so I rack my body.” And he actually did have intestinal problems for the rest of his life. “I’ll avoid all worldly pleasure. I won’t laugh. I won’t have a good time.”
And this guy was so racked because he was such a clever and clear-thinking mind. When it came to the Scriptures he realized that, in light of God’s Word, he was doomed.
What the monks would do usually is they would send the men into confession with a priest. And you would go in to the priest and you’d tell him all your sins, and then he would absolve you and proclaim forgiveness upon you, and they’d go do their work as monks. (We Christians do the same thing except for our priest’s name is Jesus. He’s our high priest. We go to him and confess our sins, and he died for them and he pardons us and grants us forgiveness.)
Confess? Yes. Hoe? No.
The problem was Martin Luther would be in there all day, every single day. He realized that even the way he confessed sin was a sin, so he would confess his sin and the way he confessed his sin. And then he realized that the motive for confessing his sin was a sin. So he would confess the motive and the mean and the sin. Right? Because it’s not just doing the right thing. It’s doing the right thing in the right way for the right reason. And the other monks thought, “He must be lazy, trying to get out of the work. He goes in there and prays all day so he doesn’t have to go out and hoe the garden.”
Finally, the priest said, “Enough already. Can’t you be in denial like everybody else and just go hoe the garden? Everybody else is in denial. Can’t you just say, ‘Well, I had a bad thought and we say blah, blah, blah, now move on?’”
Luther said, “No. I was reading the Scriptures and it says, ‘Be perfect.’ It says, ‘Do everything.’ It says, ‘Obey God.’ It says, ‘Motives count.’ It says, ‘Method counts. Everything counts.’ I’m not making it.”
And Luther became so depressed that he was almost at this place of suicide and coming apart. And then something amazing happened.
The German Theologian Reads the Turkish Apostle Who Reads the Judean Prophet
He was studying the book of Psalms, and it brought him back to Romans 1:17, where Paul quotes Habakkuk, which led him all the way back to Habakkuk 2:4. Over 2,000 years after it was written, that same little verse that exploded for Paul, exploded for a guy named Martin Luther.
Luther writes, “There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: The righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely the passive righteousness, which the merciful God justifies us by faith. As it is written,” he quotes Habakkuk 2:4, “he who through faith is righteous shall live. Here I felt that I was altogether born again and have entered paradise itself through open gates. Here a totally other face of the entire Scriptures showed itself to me.”
Martin Luther got saved in Habakkuk 2:4.
The Reformation Takes Form
And out of his understanding came what we call the Reformation, the cleaning up the understanding of the gospel and the recognition that “I don’t save myself. Jesus saves me. I don’t need to be good. Jesus was perfect. I don’t need to please God. Jesus did on my behalf. I don’t need to work my way to God. God has humbled himself and come down for me. I just need to trust him, and he will take away all my sin and he will love me and forgive me and adopt me into his family.”
“He will then give me a new heart. He will give me a new life. He’ll make me a new creation. And then all these Scriptures that I know are good I will begin to live in accordance with those Scriptures by grace because it’s grace that saves me and it’s grace that empowers me to honor God, through the Holy Spirit that the Son of God will send into me so that it’s no longer I who live, but it’s Christ who lives in me and through me and often times in spite of me. And then God gets all his glory and I get my redemption and I trust him, not me, and it’s about him, not me, and he’s God and I’m not.”
And 2,600 years after Habakkuk writes this little verse it’s still working because God said it. That’s how God still transforms and loves and heals and forgives and redeems people.
God says, “Know who I am. Don’t fight me. Trust me. And once you have, keep trusting me until you see me, and then your faith shall be sight.”
At this point, I call you all to response. Last week a number of people came to Christ in this church. They stopped worshipping themselves and started worshipping Jesus.
If you’re a non-Christian, that is what you need to do: Your trust needs to be in Jesus, not yourself. His death, burial and resurrection, not your morality or spirituality or sincere or insincere attempts. You recognize your sin. You own it, you name it, and you ask Jesus to forgive you, and he will. And you trust him and belong to him and walk with him. And he will give you the grace to become the person that he intends for you to be. He’s good from beginning to end.
There is a wealth of resources in the Mars Hill media library, including over 500 sermons preached at the church, some dating back to 2000. Many of the sermons don’t have video, much less a sleek intro video with scored backing track, just grainy, scratchy audio of a younger Pastor Mark. But the truth of the gospel and the relevancy of the teachings last. So, from time to time, we’ll repost bits from those archived sermons here on the blog so that they can be useful to you in your discipleship. (And because we’ve been studying the Gospel of Luke for over a year now—with another year to go—it’s good to shake things up and learn something from a different book every once in a while.)
Originally Posted at http://blog.marshillchurch.org/ On January 30th 2011
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Suffering.....
T4G 2010 -- Session 8 -- Matt Chandler from Together for the Gospel (T4G) on Vimeo.
Originally Posted at www.theresurgence.com/blog by Mike Anderson Director
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Be a light to the world...
A Great Teammate and a Great Ballplayer Every now and then a person does something that gets noticed. This past weekend at the CFBL Wood Bat Classic, I was impressed by one particular young man. Many of you know that I was was struggling to keep the fields playable. After doing yet another field rake I was dreading raking another field but on I went to prepare a field for the Lyman/Olympia game. As I began to rake a young man behind me said "Coach can I help you get the field ready?" I turned around and this young man began to rake the mound and stayed with me until the field was ready to play again. I chatted with him a little as we worked together and he was extremely polite. We finished and I thanked him. I also made sure that I told his Coach, Rick Bennett, that a kid wearing #14 on his roster helped me with the field. As the games began I was particularly interested in watching Lyman (new team on the block) so I gravitated to their game. This same kid who had helped me rake the field I found out later was named Jonathan Lemelin. He was on the mound for this game and man he was bringing it. Hard throwing righty with good change of speed and control. If an ump missed a call his body language was quiet. I kept thinking he looked very poised out there. It was easy to see that his pitching was giving Lyman hope after suffering 2 losses in pool play. His pitching stats? 5 innings strong with 10 Ks. As if his pitching wasn't enough, Jonathan went 3 for 3 with a walk, 2 doubles off the base of the wall, scored two runs and hit the only HR of the weekend. A mammoth 320 foot bomb (yes with a wood bat). While his statline was certainly impressive, that isnt what initially caught my attention. It started when he came out to unselfishly help me when he should have been warming in the bullpen. It continued when I watched him encouraging his young teammates. The lesser talented kids were the recipients of high fives, encouragement and praise from Jonathan. The way he speaks to his coaches, treats his teammates and conducts himself with class was refreshing and represents what the CFBL is all about. It was a pleasure watching him lead his team. I didnt want to let the moment pass without recognizing this young man. I know we all have a few like this on our rosters and I want to encourage all of you to recognize sportsmanship and good citizenship like I saw in Jonathan this weekend.
Jim Boghos
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