Sermon text for June 28th – Hosea 11:1-4

This week we’re going to talk about the covenant that God makes with His people…hope you can join us:

1 When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 The more they were called,
the more they went away;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals
and burning offerings to idols.

3 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;
I took them up by their arms,
but they did not know that I healed them.
4 I led them with cords of kindness, [1]
with the bands of love,
and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,
and I bent down to them and fed them.

Click here for the sermon text.

Back from a week with our A29 family…

Cheryl and I had a great time in Vail again seeing old friends and meeting new ones, including Gerald Mwebe who is a church planter/pastor in Kampala, Uganda. Very encouraged about the state and the direction of the network as a whole and it seems as though some doors have opened up for some great things to happen regionally (i.e. NW Washington) as well.

Online Resource for Following the Current Iranian Turmoil

Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic Monthly has contributed to the coverage of the recent chaos in Iran following last week’s election by posting not only video but also tweets from people on the ground in Tehran and other cities. Provided we can trust these, they paint a picture of an oppressive government that is more than willing to take extreme measures (including spraying the crowds by helicopter with chemicals) to maintain peace and order. I’m not going to even presume I know that the election results were fraudulent, but that in no way justifies the kind of brutal suppression of Iranian citizens that we are witnessing.

Please join me in praying for the Iranian people, esp. our Christian brothers and sisters.

Sermon text for June 21st – Hosea 1

New series beginning this weekend. Don’t forget that it’s also Father’s Day.

1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

4 And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, [1] for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 7 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”

8 When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. 9 And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People, [2] for you are not my people, and I am not your God.” [3]

10 [4] Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children [5] of the living God.” 11 And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

Click here for the sermon audio.

NYTimes – City of Whispers

Helpful op-ed piece by Roger Cohen re: the current chaos in Iran.

Farewell, Old Friend

Just found out that One Way Books – an old haunt of mine back in the Pullman days – is closing its doors for good. Lots of memories from that place, including:

• Busby’s Bible studies – incl. Foundations for Marriage
• Pinochle marathons
• [my personal favorite] Hanging out at lunchtime in the downtown store with Rodger watching Al devour an entire baked chicken from Safeway or Dissmores – much to Scott’s utter dismay

Anyone else care to contribute a memory or photo?

Sermon text for June 14th – Ephesians 5:8-10

The last in our series on the will of God:

8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), 10 and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

Click here for the sermon audio.

BBC – Zimbabwe Girls Trade Sex for Food

Here are a couple quotes to chew over:

Unemployment in Zimbabwe is thought to top 90% and many cannot afford to pay for food, medical care or school fees.

The deputy head teacher of a large school with 1,500 pupils east of Victoria Falls told the BBC that hundreds of her female students are now selling their bodies for whatever they can get.

“It could be books, it could be biscuits, chips, some even just to be given a hug.”

[...]

There is also evidence that many girls are being targeted by child traffickers, Save the Children’s country director Rachel Pounds says.

They are thought to have plans to send young Zimbabwean girls to South Africa to work as prostitutes during next year’s football World Cup finals.

Please read the entire article as well as watch the accompanying video.

Piper Sermon Jam – Treasuring Christ

QOTD – Packer Defines Evangelism

How, then, should evangelism be defined? The New Testament answer is very simple. According to the New Testament, evangelism is just preaching the gospel, the evangel. It is a work of communication in which Christians make themselves mouthpieces for God’s message of mercy to sinners. Anyone who faithfully delivers that message, under whatever circumstances, in a large meeting, in a small meeting, from a pulpit, or in a private conversation, is evangelizing. Since the divine message finds its climax in a plea from the Creator to a rebel world to turn and put faith in Christ, the delivering of it involves the summoning of one’s hearers to conversion. If you are not, in this sense, seeking to bring about converstions, you are not evangelizing; this we have seen already. But the way to tell whether in fact you are evangelizing is not to ask whether conversions are known to have resulted from your witnes. It is to ask whether you are faithfully making known the gospel message.

- Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God (Downers Grove: IVP, 1961), p. 41.