on the walk

I was able to preach today.  I am always grateful when I have that opportunity.  You can catch the audio here.  As always happens when I get to preach, I always have a few leftover thoughts that I wish I could have shared but ran out of time.  I won’t bore you with all of those, but I will share just one choice quote that had to leave on the cutting room floor.

(Actually in the spirit of honesty, this is really more of a paraphrase, I am working from memory.  You can find the original somewhere in the middle of The Great Divorce.)
C.S. Lewis once said something like this:

Anything no matter how good, if it is not given to Jesus, can drag you down into hell.  Likewise, nothing, no matter how evil, if it is given over to Christ can keep you out of heaven.

The truth of that quote sustains me in my darkest times and challenges me in my brightest.

Today in the sermon we all had a rock.  The rock represented those things that are obstacles to our following after Jesus.  Things that we will nto release into his control but instead cling to on our own.

When I  went to church I was pretty sure that I knew what my rock was going to be.  It was as if I was pre-scripting the encounter I was going to have with God based upon the script I have used so many times before.

But as I stood in line holding my rock, I was startled.  I got off script.  I asked God, “What is holding me back from following you?”  And with surprising clarity, I knew.  It wasn’t a sin issue.  That was what I planned to do with my rock.  But that wasn’t it.  I have long ago surrendered the evil in my life over to Jesus and I trust he can handle it.  Instead I was confronted with something good.  Good plans that I have for my life.  Plans that are admirable and important.  But nevertheless they were plan that I had not surrendered to God.  They were my big plans.   How many half-deals I have struck with God offering him most of my life as long as I still get to pursue these big important plans of mine.

And suddenly to my great greif, that was my rock.  Those good plans, those plans so precious to me were my rock.  I was glad that the line moved slow.  It took me a while get up the nerve to set my rock on the stage.

I’m still not exactly happy about it, but I feel a great peace.  I don’t pretend that the temptation to those plans won’t return, but for the moment, I feel a great release of conflict.  I feel like I am following.

on the walk

-Ethan

I got to hear two great sermons today. The first was at our main service. I hope to post on it in a couple of days. The second was at Fuel which is the Sunday evening youth service at Mountain. Seth Harkins was the speaker and he spoke on Jesus walking on water. Continue Reading »

This post continues from signs 4a In that post we were reflecting on Luke 8:40-56 and the sermon based on that topic. We are noticing that this is miracle that happens in a context of access issues. (We did not get to the biggest access issue of all which is also dealt with in this passage: death.)

The flip side of these access issues is the issue of faith. Jesus credit the women’s faith as instrumental in her healing. Then when the bad news comes for Jairus, he challenges, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” Just believe. Just do faith. This is the new access card. Trust Jesus. Faith in Jesus is all that a leprous woman needs. Faith in Jesus is all that a desperate father needs. Continue Reading »

Our final sermon in our series on Luke was this week. You can find the whole series here. This week we encountered two miracles wrapped up into one story. Our text was Luke 8:40-56. It is a wonderful story with two great miracles wrapped into one story. I hope to reflect on the sermon itself in a following post, but first a reflection on the miracle. Continue Reading »

I was talking with my friend Kevin Bobrow about the encounter with the woman and Nain and he reminded me of one of my favorite treatments of this text. Instead of focusing on the miracle as we did in the last post, instead we focus on the actions of Jesus that created the context for the miracle. Let’s take a look. Continue Reading »

Today we encountered Jesus on his way, followed by disciples and crowds, when he meets a funeral procession. This is the third sermon in a series from Luke. It is called Grace Anatomy and it is looking the nuts and bolts of grace through the eyes of Luke.

The text today was taken from Luke seven, and describes the encounter that Jesus has with a widow from Nain. In that encounter Jesus raises her son from the dead. There is a lot to learn from this text. I hope to have a follow up post to talk about how we can learn to live in this way. But first, whenever we encounter Continue Reading »

Our current sermon series at Mountain is on the character of Christ as great healer and is based on various accounts from Luke chapters 5-8. This last Sunday Ben talked about Jesus’ encounter with the paralytic. You can check out the text and the sermon online.

This is a perfect story to examine as we try to understand the signifying nature of miracles. Continue Reading »

We began a new series today at Mountain. We are unpacking the great mystery of grace in a four week series called Grace Anatomy. This week was Dermatology, and we examined the story of the leper from Luke 5:12-16. It is in many ways an unremarkable healing story. But Luke offers a detail that reminds us of Christ’s singular compassion. Jesus heals with a touch. Ignoring the rules of his culture and the demands of good hygiene and health, Jesus touches the leprous man, and the man is made clean. Continue Reading »

This Saturday, the small group team at mountain is hosting a worship event. We hope to explore the nature of Christian leadership as service. Our central text is John 13.

In this text John describes the Passover feast that Jesus and his disciples held on the week of Jesus death. Before the meal, Jesus washes the feet of the disciples and calls them to a similar life of service. Continue Reading »

Today was the second Sunday in our God’s Frat Party series, as we talk about our Fraternity letters, Kappa Delta Pi. Today was Delta. It was a great day and powerful message. If you want to check it out, here it is.

The main point of the sermon was that as Christians we are called to be slaves (doulos) of Christ (and God) and therefore we are commanded to serve (diakonos) one another. It was a powerful reminder of our identity in Christ and the calling that flows out of that identity. Continue Reading »