Who is your God?

So I am in a new band. We are called Dan Ford and the Goods. I really enjoy playing in it and having fun. On Sunday we had a gig at Lizottes. This raised 2 issues fo me; 1) we had to miss church to play and 2) I was rubbing shoulders with a bunch of other musos.

I was a bit anxious about playing at the same time as church, and I might talk about that issue sometime, but I am going to focus on the 2nd issue for the purposes of this post. I think music is one of many things that people make their god, and it is something that Christian musos need to be careful with.

As I come across more musos and see the love they have for music (and when they don't give God the glory for his creativity) I really struggle. Especially when those musos also happen to be Christians. So often I have seen Christians commit adultery with music, sport, work, family, friends or whatever else.

How do you not though? There are so many good things to enjoy. What are we to do? Remember who your God is. Have a read of Romans chapter 1. Give God the glory as you enjoy his creation and remmber that it comes fro him. But then ensure you are not spending more time loving his creation than you are loving him. If you are, get rid of you music. It is better to enter heaven with no melody than to go to hell singing the greatest tune in history. Or it is better to go to heaven with 0 on the scoreboard, than go to hell as a supposed "winner".

Who is your God? It matters!

Church Planting

I have always been keen to be inolved with church planting. Whether it is overseas or in Australia. But lately there has been this crazy church planting movement where a lot of people have been getting super excited about. Andrew Heard made a few good comments to remind us of the reality of things. He is 13 years into a church plant on the central coast and helpfully has expressed how hard it is. One thing he conveyed, that I found profound, was that even if the church planting movement falls on its head, we need to hold firm to Christ and continue rejoicing in him. But also, I think whatever the cost of church planting, it is worth it. Christ died for me. I can never even come close to paying that back, so what stopping me from giving everything I am to Him??

Godliness

So a while ago I had a short series on Holiness. Here is the first post on that. But over this last week, I have decided its time to get pumpin with some Godliness. As a result I have decided to say no to TV. Kinda easy considering I don't have very good reception. I am saying I can watch the news, sport and kids shows (yeah widget) but other than that I want to stop watching it. There are too many things on there that can comprimise my godliness.

That is stop one on the Godliness Train. So I need some accountablility with that, and if you want to join me on the train, feel more than free to. Ephesians 4:17-5:21 is helpful. But just a snippet: 5:3-4

But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.

Times they are a changin

Yeah so I have had a haircut, moved house, changed jobs and feel like a new man. Actually no, I don't feel like a new man, in fact I still feel lke a teenager. I'm 21 now. What the heck? Anywho, I now live in Terrigal, and I will start working for my church this year. Good times.

And here is a photo of me, possibly at my best.

At the Cross

When Jesus died on the cross He paid for our sin. He took the punishment we deserve, and had God's wrath thrown upon him. Even though He was sinless, and we were sinful, He died for us. What a sacrifice.

But there was more going on at the cross than this transaction. God is passionate for his glory, and so is Jesus. God's righteousness and justice meant that Jesus needed to die if we were to be saved, and for God to display the gloy of his grace. The ammount Jesus suffered on the cross when He was forsaken by his Father, shows how important God's glory was to Him. He was willing to suffer so much for God's glory, which is why God was pleased to bruise Him, because it was out of love Jesus died, and to honour his Father's name.

As John Piper puts it, "every footfall on he way to Calvary echoed through the universe with this message: The glory of God is of infinate value! (John Piper ~ The Pleasures of God)

We need that same passion for God's glory!!

What got Dale angry?

So yesterday I had my first encounter with some Jehovah's Witness people. They rocked up at my house lookin for Todd, and got me instead. Lucky them hey? Anywho, we got chattin and at the start I thought they seemed ok. They seemed to place high emphasis on the Bible and that seemed sweet. There were a couple of things I didn't agree with, until they made one big mistake. They mentioned (just in the middle of something else) that Jesus isn't God. This got me going, and I asked some questions and gave a couple of Bible passages, and they gave me their responses. I personally thought they were poor, and had we been on a debate on TV, I think I would have won, however it got me thinking.

When they started talking about Jesus as being less than God, I got really angry inside. I felt like they had just insulted my King. Well I guess that is because they had. Something essential to the Christian faith, and to salvation is the fact that Jesus is God. The Scriptures are very clear on this point, and no matter how much you twist the words of the Bible, they still say that He is God the Son, not simply God's Son. This is something we need to fight for, because it is very insulting to Him and very belittling of Him. We need to protect our Lord's name. Not cos he can't, but because it honours Him when we do. What an awesome God, how dare we not fight for his glory. I pray that I and anyone reading this blog might come t a greater understanding about the preciousness of God's glory, and so fight fr it with our lives!!

John Calvin

Tonight at Reformation history, Heardy was talking on John Calvin, or more correctly, on his theology. There was a lot of information tonight that was very helpful (including the contrast between Armenianism and Calvinism from the Council of Dort's perspective) but there was one thing that particularly stuck out for me. This was Calvin's view of scripture. It was explained in a similar way to this:

John Calvin viewed scripture to be true, regardless of whether he understood it, or could comprehend it, or how hard it was. It is scripture. He did not bring his logic, or understanding or reasoning into his view of scripture, but took the scripture and let it shape his theology and his life.

While I have heard this view a number of times, seeing it outplayed in the life of Calvin hit me, and inspired me to vigourously take this same view of scripture and apply it to my reading and understanding of the Word. Scripture truly is God's voice.