Summing Up Sunday 6.28.09

Each Sunday, I’m led to believe that it’s the best Sunday of my life!  And then…the next Sunday, the Lord adds a cherry on top!  ♪If it keeps getting better and better, O Lord, I don’t know what I’m gonna do!♪ 

Today started out with a nice family breakfast at IHOP.  Let’s just say I really enjoyed my pancakes, but my sugar didn’t.  I cut out of IHOP early to make some copies before Sunday School and get the announcements set up.  To my surprise, I wasn’t the first one to arrive at church.  A cute little couple in a shiny red pick-up truck was already there to greet me (aka: John & Alta Hatcher).  Pancakes + Hatchers = It was going to be a good day! 

After busy morning of copies and setting things up, at 9:59 a.m., I hopped in my car to drive down to the Sunday School building.  Ah, it was wonderful to sing with young saints and listen to the things the Lord has revealed to them through His Word this week! 

Sunday School | 1 Peter 2:11-25 | Bro. Steve Dawson
“Honor everyone.  Love the brotherhood.  Fear God.  Honor the emperor.”  -1 Peter 2:17
Steve connected this passage to Titus 3:1-2, Romans 13:1, Daniel and Exodus 1:15-20.  The one connected passage that popped out at me, though, was 1 Timothy 2:1-4: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.  This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”  Not only are we to honor our President and leaders, we are supposed to be THANKFUL for them.  Authority is given by God and God has providentially placed leaders in authority FOR HIS GLORY! 

Back to the main building, during the song service this morning, I was overwhelmed at the thought of God’s grace: how marvelous, vast, measureless, incomprehendable it is and the fact that He showed it to such a wretched, wicked sinner named Sarah.  Wow!  It is greater than all my sin (and that’s a lot)! 

Sunday Morning | Colossians 3:20-21 | Pastor Steve Wainright
“Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.  Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.”  -Colossians 3:20-21
I am so thankful for the godly parents God has blessed me with.  They have fully obeyed Colossians 3:20-21 and Ephesians 6:1-4 as well as fulfilled Deuteronomy 6:4-9 by teaching me God’s Word from an early age.  (You all know my favorite verse is Psalm 19:14, one of the first Bible verses I could say, thanks to my parents!)  They realized their most important job as my parents was to lead me to Christ and that is exactly what they did.  They live the Gospel in everyday life and it was constantly preached to me.  They have instilled a love for God’s Word me that only grows greater the more I dig and search!  The Lord made them love me so much that they had the love to discipline me.  I pray that I never take my parents for granted.  I pray that my love for wisdom will increase and that this will make both my mother and father glad!  (Proverbs 17:6, 29:3, 10:1, 15:20, 29:17)  Okay, sentimental moment…here are a few of the main points from this morning’s message:
*Parents, teach your children godliness.  The spiritual is what lasts forever.  Put the highest premium on the Word of God, not education and hygiene. 
*Children should want to obey parents BECAUSE it pleases the Lord. 
*Is your desire to please the Lord?  In ALL things?  (Colossians 3:17)
– – – –
After a quick bite to eat (and some extra insulin for those pancakes!), we snatched the Hatchers to celebrate all the Lord has done through the Bratchers!  It was a beautiful celebration you can read more about here.  (Remember to pray for Bro. Harold and Sis. Marie on Monday as they travel back to Manaus!)  I was so thankful to get a picture of the four of them together: a total of 210 years of missionary service in Brazil! 

 

It was so wonderful to see four of my heroes of the faith together! 

 

– – – –

Back to church, after some fun with the Little Lifers, we got into the book of Exodus again! 

Sunday Evening | Exodus 34:8-17 | Pastor Steve Wainright
“And he said, ‘If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your inheritance.'”  -Exodus 34:9
vs. 6-7– Moses saw (heard) as much of the glory of God as he could handle.  When we get a glimpse of the glory of God in the face of our lord Jesus Christ, what effect does it have on our being? 
vs. 8– Moses’ response.  The effect of seeing God’s glory=worship!  You cannot worship appropriately if you have no glimpse of His glory. 
vs. 9– Moses “reprays” (prays for the same thing he has a few other times: Exodus 32:31-32, 11-13; 33:12-13, 15-16; 33:14; 34:7; 19:5)  He based his ch. 34:9 prayer on God’s promises.  He is pleading on the promises of God.  Your prayers will always be answered if you pray God’s promises because He always delivers. 
-Moses is once again a type of Christ.  (vs. 9: “OUR sin…”  ~ “He became sin, Who knew no sin…”)
vs. 10– Make=cut (God cut a covenant with Israel).  God’s covenant with us: The blood is more precious and we have a greater Mediator.  Why?  For His glory!!!!  (Psalm 96:3, Romans 16:26- people are obedient to faith for His glory.) 
-As long as we are on this earth, we have a purpose.  God is at work, therefore we need to be mission-minded.  Why?  So other might be obedient to faith that God might be glorified. 
vs. 11-14– Israel’s Responsibility in the Covenant: Don’t make a covenant with any other nation because the other nations have false gods=downward spiral. 
vs. 14– God shows a little bit more of Himself to Moses: He is jealous (Exodus 20:5- to be fiercely protected)  He is protecting those He loves by demanding loyalty from them.  If you love Him, you will want to follow His commands. 
*What is it in your life that competes with your love for God?  
– – – –
So this might be the record-long blogpost.  Can you tell it’s SuMmEr?!  I guess this day was just that edifying for me and I wanted to share it with you.  To those of you who made it all the way through, congratulations…I think I owe you something!  ;o)

Scripture @ Sunrise 2.12.09

“‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord.
‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways
and My thoughts than your thoughts.'”  -Isaiah 55:8-9

Happy 200th Birthday, President Lincoln! 

As many of you know, I took a class last semester titled, “Lincoln: The Writer.”  I did not even know the title of the course until I went to class.  The time just fit with my schedule well.  Little did I know that I would become a huge fan of Abraham Lincoln and gain a greater respect for the marble man by looking at his intricate writing process. 

So today, on his bicentennial, I share with you one of my favorite private pieces he wrote in the midst of the Civil War and slavery. 

Lincoln’s Meditation on the Divine Will
“The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party; and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect his purpose. I am almost ready to say that this is probably true; that God wills this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By his mere great power on the minds of the now contestants, he could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And, having begun, he could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.”