Craziness

Hello everyone,

Sorry I did not update this past week. It's been a busy one, but now I can officially say that I am a graduate of Grove City College, and not only that but I can now officially say I am the Student Pastor at Bessemer Presbyterian!

Nonetheless, because of the whole graduation thing, I've been too busy to get an update in for the past week, but today I preached on the Ascension, and how because Christ reigns as King and Lord, we need not fear death because he has conquered sin and death by His cross and resurrection.

Now I will be gone for the next two weeks in Italy with my grandparents, so "Arrivederci!" and I'll talk with you again after June 5th!

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Hi everyone! Sorry that I'm a little late in getting a post done for the week. Today is Study Day at Grove City, which means finals start tomorrow! That means I've been busy studying (along with playing frisbee golf with the roommates at 11:00 at night, eating pizza and watching the Simpsons, etc...). Yeah, I'm hard at work!

Actually, since I'm graduating next Saturday and have the worst case of "Senioritis," I am having a terrible time finding the ambition to study. Don't worry, I'm managing: however, it's a struggle! Nonetheless, I have my sermon for Sunday done (thank you, Jesus!), so I can give a synopsis.

This week's sermon is titled, "If You Really Love Me..." The texts are mainly from John 14:23-29, and selected verses from Revelation 21 & 22. The basic point of the sermon is summed up well in the following quotation from the sermon: "And that is the power of Jesus Christ in our lives when we truly love Him: he takes our weaknesses and gives us strength to conquer them in His Name. He takes our sins and cleanses them away. He makes His presence known among us, He lives among us by His Spirit and gives us His peace. And His Spirit fills us in such a way that our love for Him leads us to obeying His commands. This is the promise not only to His apostles, but also to all those who believe in Him, love Him and obey Him."

So if you're interested, feel free to come to Bessemer Presbyterian Church at 10:45AM on Sunday. Have a blessed day!!

Fifth Sunday of Easter (Liberalism Strikes!! :-0)

Hi everyone! Now that I've grabbed your attention, I'll explain what I mean by looking at my topic for Sunday. The Scriptures are Acts 11:1-18, Revelation 21:1-6, and John 13:31-35. The sermon title is "All Things New." The concept in these passages is the idea that God, as He declares in Revelation 21:5, "Behold I am making all things new!"

First, in John, we find Jesus saying that He is the true revelation of the Father’s glory. The Glory of God is the nature and being of God. God is, as John tells us elsewhere, love. The idea is that God has revealed his love and what it means to love to us in Jesus Christ. Because of this, we ought to love one another. This is, as Jesus says, "A new command." We are to love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a propitiation and sacrifice before God.

And loving others often requires us to love people that we don't want to love because we don't find them worthy. But no one is unworthy. In Acts, we see this plainly. Here, we see that salvation has now been opened to all people. This was new for the disciples and apostles of Jerusalem, who felt that people could only become followers of Christ by submitting to the law of Moses and being circumcised. Those who had not been circumcised or followed the law were considered unclean. But Jesus appears to Peter in a vision, and Christ says to him, ""Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." (Acts 10:14). Therefore, Peter felt justified in associating with Gentiles, and baptizing Cornelius. And therefore he justifies his actions to the rest of the Apostles, who declare that, "...to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life." This statement opens up Christianity not only to those who by circumcision are part of the covenant, but to all who people who by faith confess Christ as Lord and believe in His saving work on the cross and resurrection.

The idea here is one which cries for unity and brotherhood within the church. There are no more dividing walls. The job of Christians is to tear down the walls which divide us and love one another with a new kind of love and charity for one another. After all, what does it mean to love unconditionally? How can we love one another better? The idea here is not thinking more highly of yourself than you ought, and putting others before yourself in thought, word, and deed. (Philippians 1:27-2:5 reference.)

Now, I have to admit that had I heard such a sermon before the last two years, I would have been suspect of a call for the church to uphold social justice and peace in our world (hence my "liberalism" comment). Some Christians focus far too heavily on this aspect of our mission in Christ, and this has caused problems. After all, many of such persuasion will ignore evangelism, or they will confuse the modern notion of tolerance with love. But in a way, they have something to contribute to our thinking. But we cannot disregard the call we’ve been given in Christ to impact the world with the Gospel of Christ, to proclaim freedom for the captive, sight for the blind and life to the one living in death. But if we do not have the love of Christ in us, we have no motivation to do this. We need to uphold Jesus’ command to love one another, and in doing so, we humble ourselves, and tear down the walls of class, race, culture, and sex. As Paul says in Galatians 3:28, "In Christ there is no Jew nor Greek, Slave nor Free, Male nor Female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus

This is only a taste of what is to come: if you are interested in hearing how it all fits together, come to Bessemer at 10:45 on Sunday!