Sunday, July 26, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Readings for Sunday, July 26
This Sunday we will be considering the same passage from another angle.
The Old Testament temple was a place of remarkable tension. Everything was fraught with peril. The presence of corrupt people in a holy place always had fatal potential and combustible implications.
It took a great deal of ceremonial washing and such to safely bring wicked people into holy places. It was things like linen ephods and wave offerings and animal sacrifices that lubricated the dangerous spiritual machinery of ancient Israel so that the priests and people could hope to worship with all of their fingers and toes.
We have lost our sense of reverence and have forgotten what tremendous power is at work within us, have forgotten that a power great enough to save us might just as well prove lethal (think Ananias and Sapphira).
We have every right to enter the holy place with confidence but we have no right to enter there flippantly or with indifference. To do so would be to profane the blood by which we enter.
For the blood of Jesus Christ has taken the place of the all the former regulations to lubricate the spiritual machinery of our salvation. It is the blood of Jesus Christ that makes it possible for us to come into the presence of God without dying and the blood of Jesus Christ that makes it possible for God's Holy Spirit to come into us without destroying us.
So working out our salvation with fear and trembling means operating that spiritual machinery without abusing the blood that keeps it from killing us.
Call to Repentance
Ephesians 5:12-14 (page 1822)
Call to Worship
Psalm 113 (page 953)
OT Reading
Exodus 28:31-43 (page 131)
NT Reading
Hebrews 9:1-10 (page 1871)
Message
The Lubricating Blood
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (1778)
The Old Testament temple was a place of remarkable tension. Everything was fraught with peril. The presence of corrupt people in a holy place always had fatal potential and combustible implications.
It took a great deal of ceremonial washing and such to safely bring wicked people into holy places. It was things like linen ephods and wave offerings and animal sacrifices that lubricated the dangerous spiritual machinery of ancient Israel so that the priests and people could hope to worship with all of their fingers and toes.
We have lost our sense of reverence and have forgotten what tremendous power is at work within us, have forgotten that a power great enough to save us might just as well prove lethal (think Ananias and Sapphira).
We have every right to enter the holy place with confidence but we have no right to enter there flippantly or with indifference. To do so would be to profane the blood by which we enter.
For the blood of Jesus Christ has taken the place of the all the former regulations to lubricate the spiritual machinery of our salvation. It is the blood of Jesus Christ that makes it possible for us to come into the presence of God without dying and the blood of Jesus Christ that makes it possible for God's Holy Spirit to come into us without destroying us.
So working out our salvation with fear and trembling means operating that spiritual machinery without abusing the blood that keeps it from killing us.
Call to Repentance
Ephesians 5:12-14 (page 1822)
Call to Worship
Psalm 113 (page 953)
OT Reading
Exodus 28:31-43 (page 131)
NT Reading
Hebrews 9:1-10 (page 1871)
Message
The Lubricating Blood
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (1778)
Friday, July 17, 2009
Readings for Sunday, July 19, 2009
The theology of the body has made a lot of mischief for God's people throughout the years. Some, thinking that the body is evil, have mortified the flesh with the most unpleasant rigors: self-flagellation, extreme asceticism, brussels sprouts.
Others, thinking that the body is immaterial, have indulged the flesh recklessly.
Historically speaking, the church has had a very hard time deciding whether to be suspicious of the flesh or anxious to gratify it. We have taken greater pains to cover up the flesh than we have to make it healthy.
And so we end up in a confused place of mixed messages. Young Christian women are more likely to suffer eating disorders than their non-Christian peers, and pastors are more likely to be soft in the middle than most other men their age.
That's messed up.
So Paul tells us that we are temples of the Holy Spirit. In fact, he tells us to "glorify God in your body." (1 Co. 6:20)
While he says this in the context of a passage having to do with sexual immorality, there are obvious implications for other areas of our lives.
This Sunday we will be discussing what it means for us in terms of our diets. I'm not going to be preaching about gluttony (amounts of food) so much as what is proper for the Christian to put into his or her body. We know that we are at liberty here in a way that our Jewish predecessors were not. And we cherish that liberty.
But what the Old Testament believer avoided in order to go into the temple ought to be regarded with some concern by those who have become the temple.
So the question is what place should things like caffeine and tobacco and empty calories and red dye #40 have in the diet of a believer who is fundamentally at liberty.
Call to Repentance
James 4:8-10 (page 1884)
Call to Worship
Psalm 92 (page 931)
OT Reading
Deuteronomy 14:1-29 (page 296)
NT Reading
Acts 15:5-21 (page 1718)
Message
The Christian Diet
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (page 1778)
Others, thinking that the body is immaterial, have indulged the flesh recklessly.
Historically speaking, the church has had a very hard time deciding whether to be suspicious of the flesh or anxious to gratify it. We have taken greater pains to cover up the flesh than we have to make it healthy.
And so we end up in a confused place of mixed messages. Young Christian women are more likely to suffer eating disorders than their non-Christian peers, and pastors are more likely to be soft in the middle than most other men their age.
That's messed up.
So Paul tells us that we are temples of the Holy Spirit. In fact, he tells us to "glorify God in your body." (1 Co. 6:20)
While he says this in the context of a passage having to do with sexual immorality, there are obvious implications for other areas of our lives.
This Sunday we will be discussing what it means for us in terms of our diets. I'm not going to be preaching about gluttony (amounts of food) so much as what is proper for the Christian to put into his or her body. We know that we are at liberty here in a way that our Jewish predecessors were not. And we cherish that liberty.
But what the Old Testament believer avoided in order to go into the temple ought to be regarded with some concern by those who have become the temple.
So the question is what place should things like caffeine and tobacco and empty calories and red dye #40 have in the diet of a believer who is fundamentally at liberty.
Call to Repentance
James 4:8-10 (page 1884)
Call to Worship
Psalm 92 (page 931)
OT Reading
Deuteronomy 14:1-29 (page 296)
NT Reading
Acts 15:5-21 (page 1718)
Message
The Christian Diet
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (page 1778)
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Readings for July 12
July12, 2009
Call to Repentance
Joel 2:13 (page 1415)
Call to Worship
Psalm 41 (page 880)
OT Reading
2 Chronicles 36:11-16 (page 730)
NT Reading
Hebrews 11:32-40 (page 1876)
Message
The Worst Birthday Party Ever
Mark 6:14-29 (page 1561)
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Readings for Sunday, July 5
Call to Repentance
Amos 5:14-15 (page 1425)
Call to Worship
Psalm 16 (page 853)
OT Reading
1 Samuel 2:1-10 (page 420)
NT Reading
Revelation 2:8-11 (page 1914)
Message
Barren Wombs, Drenched Altars and Us
2 Corinthians 12:1-10 (page 1806)
Amos 5:14-15 (page 1425)
Call to Worship
Psalm 16 (page 853)
OT Reading
1 Samuel 2:1-10 (page 420)
NT Reading
Revelation 2:8-11 (page 1914)
Message
Barren Wombs, Drenched Altars and Us
2 Corinthians 12:1-10 (page 1806)
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