No You Are Not The Centre Of The Universe

In our Tuesday Night lesson last night Matt Chandler was telling us to find out what things stir our affections for Christ (besides the obvious things like good preaching and good music and stuff like that) and to focus on them. One of the things I thought of right away was the massive size of the universe. I love watching little video clips and whatnot that show how HUGE everything out there is and having those thoughts stir my affections for Jesus who created it all.

Here is one little video....

Stirring Affections

Matt Chandler often says that an important question to ask is, "What stirs my affections for Christ? And what weakens my affections for Christ?" And then to obviously avoid the latter while involving yourself in the former.

I know a few things that really stir my affections for Christ. I think I could list a bunch of things. But a couple I'm thinking of right now are great preaching from guys like Chandler and great music with great words by people like Lecrae!

Matt Chandler

Matt Chandler is such a good preacher/teacher. Averil and I have been enjoying listening to him for a while now. The sermons we've listened to most recently called Games People Play (which has 3 parts) are so good and such good teaching. Today as he talked about the widow that gave all she had and how the point is not really about giving at all but is much more profound I really felt enlightened! Check out his sermons here.

What an amazing gift it is to be able to listen to the best teachers in the world over the internet.

De-Churched

Check out the full message here.

Wish I Could Go!

The Rose

Conversation between Men

It is very difficult for men to have very deep relationships with other men. There are several reasons.... Number 1, the monumental issue of pride that is honed into men from the day they are born. Like, have you ever listened to dudes talk? “What did you do last weekend, Bill?” “Went duck hunting. Got a couple. What did you do?” “I killed a pterodactyl. Yeah, man. I mean, he just flew and my gun jammed. So I jumped up and grabbed him and bit a hole in his throat, choked the life out of him and mounted him on my wall. But hey man, ducks are cool. I mean, I used to hunt ducks when I was 7, but that's great for you, man. Did you take your boy with you or something?” I mean, this is it, this is the trump game. It's like every conversation involving a group of males is like a game of spades, where everybody just has the ace of spades. “I spade that...I spade that...well, I spade that...” and around the circle it goes.

- From a Matt Chandler Sermon Averil and I listened to on the way back from Toronto on Monday.

Don't Go To Church

Like most people, I forget most of what I hear in a sermon. But if the little bit that I remember is powerful then it's worth listening to an hour long sermon to hear it. Something that Matt Chandler said that I think will stick with me the rest of my life is this:

"The Bible says very little about going to church, but the Bible says a lot about belonging to a church."

There it is. One little sentence. But so powerful. Don't go to church people - belong to a church!


John Piper says of sentences:

What I have learned from about twenty-years of serious reading is this. It is sentences that change my life, not books. What changes my life is some new glimpse of truth, some powerful challenge, some resolution to a long-standing dilemma, and these usually come concentrated in a sentence or two. I do not remember 99% of what I read, but if the 1% of each book or article I do remember is a life-changing insight, then I don't begrudge the 99%. And that life-changing insight usually comes in a moment, a moment whose value is all out of proportion to its little size. That's why I call it an "immeasurable moment."