10 Reasons I Love This Place
Over at MEBC Vision I posted 10 Reasons I Love This Place. Check it out and be sure to sign up for email updates.
GB
Archive for December, 2010
Get A Plan!
A great way to read the Bible is to use a daily reading plan. Some of you might want to wing-it from day to day. But a steady diet of the whole counsel of God over the course of a year is a great way to feast on God regularly. Here are two sites with multiple reading plans:
YouVersion Plans (there is an iphone/ipod/ipad app for this site!)
Currently I am doing the Robert Murray M’Cheyne plan, but I am tweaking it some to fit my style. It normally takes you through the Old Testament once in a year, and the New Testament and Psalms twice in a year. I have taken a more relaxed approach that doubles the time. So it will take two years for the Old Testament and one for the New Testament and Psalms. This allows me to “smell” my way through the text and not rush just to check off a list. This may not be the approach that you take. You may want to go hardcore and do the Bible In 90 Days plan! Whatever you do, just remember; God’s greatest desire is not for you to get through the Bible in 2011, but for the Bible to get through you!
A Good Resource For A New Year
If you struggle with procrastination and productivity, this is a great read. Its a series of blog articles by CJ Mahaney called Biblical Productivity. You can download it for free here!
Merry Christmas 2010
Merry Christmas! We love you all!
Greg, Heather, Cross, and Baggins
Words Fail To Fill
Is there anything great in the world that excites you, that you go out of your way to see or hear? Christ made it! And he is ten million times greater in every respect, except sin. If you took all the greatest thinkers of every country and every century of the world and put them in a room with Jesus, they would shut their mouths and listen to the greatness of his wisdom. All the greatest generals would listen to his strategy. All the greatest musicians would listen to his musical theory and his performance on every instrument. There is nothing that Jesus cannot do a thousand times better than the person you admire the most in any area of human endeavor under the sun. Words fail to fill the greatness of Jesus.” (John Piper, Come Thou Long Expected Jesus)
Subscribe To The MEBC Vision
In case you didn’t know, we’ve launched a new Metro East Baptist Church website! We also began a new blog for MEBC called The Vision. Be sure to click over and subscribe via email, Google account, or RSS!
GB
My Top 10 Books of 2010
10. Derailed by Tim Irwin
Fantastic book about leaders who derailed themselves due to pride, self-sufficiency, and lack of contextualization.
9. Meeting of the Waters by Fritz Cling
Interesting, and somewhat controversial, look at what will shape the global church in the years to come.
8. Gospel Powered Parenting by William Farley
A challenge to parents, mainly fathers, to fear God and apply the Gospel in order to shape their children.
7. The Making of an Atheist by James Speigel
A great perspective on how atheism is rarely intellectual, but moral.
6. Money, Greed, and God by Jay Richards
A biblical defense of capitalism. Fantastic!
5. Sticky Teams by Larry Osborne
Perhaps the best resource for day to day church leadership that I have read.
4. The Heresy of Orthodoxy by Andreas Kostenberger
A great response to the current influence of Bart Ehrman and others regarding the integrity of the New Testament.
3. Leaders Who Last by Dave Kraft
Lots of insight from a seasoned leader.
2. What Did You Expect by Paul Tripp
Still working on some things because of this book!
1. The Narnian by Alan Jacobs
The best biography I’ve read on Lewis or anyone else! Loved it! Get it if you like Lewis!
Do Something Radical For Christmas
What is different about how Christians celebrate Christmas from how the rest of America does?” Is there any difference? Does putting up nativity scenes make us different, that is, as long as Santa is bowing down to baby Jesus? Does writing CHRISTmas on cards make us any different? Does giving three gifts to our kids (like the Magi allegedly gave to Jesus) make us different? Does the constant use of the slogan Keep Christ in Christmas, do it for us? To be honest I dont know. We can easily slide into legalism and self-righteousness when discussing this topic.
But I would challenge you with one thing: Do something radical for Christmas! Do something you have never done for Christmas either with family or alone. Do something that stretches you. Do something that reveals that Christ, not BlueRay Disc players or leather recliners, is your treasure. Here are a few ideas, not rules to be sure, but ideas:
-Fast on Christmas Eve or the day after Christmas
-Buy lunch for the person behind you in line, see where the conversation goes
-Use your Christmas bonus (if you get one) on missions
-Scratch off an item on your shopping list and give the money away
-Read the book of Matthew on Christmas Eve
-Walk through a graveyard this week, contemplate your death, rejoice that Christ came to save sinners
-Contact an enemy (someone who has hurt you, betrayed you, etc.) and express your concern and love for them
-Read Radical by David Platt
-Buy lunch for the person behind you in line, see where the conversation goes
-Use your Christmas bonus (if you get one) on missions
-Scratch off an item on your shopping list and give the money away
-Read the book of Matthew on Christmas Eve
-Walk through a graveyard this week, contemplate your death, rejoice that Christ came to save sinners
-Contact an enemy (someone who has hurt you, betrayed you, etc.) and express your concern and love for them
-Read Radical by David Platt
Perhaps you have more ideas, feel free to post a comment. But pray about doing something that will detach your heart from everything but Christ. I grant that these things may benefit us more than others, but maybe that needs to happen.
GB
Jesus and Santa: Friends or Foes?
What do we do about Santa Claus? Do we emphasize him at Christmas? Do we let our kids tell him what they want for Christmas when we are at the mall? Are Santa and Jesus friends? This can be a sticky issue. Here is a list of pros and cons when it comes to Santa.
Cons:
Its lying to your kids.
He undermines Jesus.
It focuses on things instead of God.
He is legalistic (He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake!).
Pros:
Santa is a giver.
Imagination is often lacking in Christians, God made the imagination.
He is in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (this one carries weight to me).
My parents told me he existed, I turned out okay (I think!).
He is Jesus’ helper.
Id love to hear some of your feedback on this! If you are reading this via email or Facebook, please click over to the blog and enter into the discussion by clicking the COMMENTS link.
GB
Follower of Jesus. Husband to Heather. Father to Cross and Rhyse. Owner of Baggins. Pastor of Metro East Baptist Church
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