I Corinthians 15.

Beau Hughes delivered it tonight. He covered a good chunk of I Corinthians 15 and it was weighty but it was good.

“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.” // I Corinthians 15:1-2

I want to stop settling for the good and start striving for the best. I don’t want to worship comfort. I want to “die daily.” I want this chapter to speak to me always, reminding me of the Gospel, reminding me to never stray from the core of my beliefs. I want to live my life so that I may look like a fool if in the end there is no Christ.

“If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” // I Corinthians 15:19

“If the dead are not raised, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.’” // I Corinthians 15:32

Encouragement.

I just did a search online for the word “encourage” in the ESV translation of the Bible. Interestingly enough, 25% of the “encourage” passages are found in Acts. I listened to Acts (yes! audiobook rocks!) before my last mission trip and it did exactly that — encouraged me — through the beginnings of our early church. Many miracles happened, thousands were converted, and the disciples acted bolder than they had while Jesus was still on earth! As a church, they gave and received encouragement which no doubt, is key to a healthy community.

So, this is my proposal to my online community. Send me some Scriptures of encouragement!

It could be your favorite passage (please no ceremonial laws, you comedic theologians!) or maybe just one you feel led to share. *Don’t send me the passages word for word, just the chapter and verse. This will ensure I will open up my Bible to find it!* Although my primary objective will be to serve the locals there, I don’t want to forget you guys. And what better way to connect everything altogether and encourage each other than with God’s Word?

So leave me some comment love or you can even e-mail me at theneener[at]gmail.com. Your homework is due by 3pm Monday because our flight leaves later that day!

“‘Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.’ So Paul stood up…!” - Acts 13:15-16

The hypocrisy of worship.

Um, if you don’t read Anne Jackson’s blog, you should today.

how many times do we get this backwards?

step 1: get people to a weekend service.
step 2: encourage them to “feel” the song.
step 3: inspire their hearts to fully unite and engage with the father’s love for others.

the heart comes before the words. before the song. and well before the weekend service.

One of my pet peeves is when people complain about weekend services. Especially at The Village Church where we are quite spoiled with a gifted teacher, Matt Chandler, and a passionate worship leader, Michael Bleecker. So spoiled that we complain when they aren’t doing what they do best. So what if the Holy Spirit draws Bleecker to pray and “interrupt worship songs?” So what if Matt decides to take care of some internal church business instead of preach some life altering message, especially since you brought your visitor along? So what if we sang your least favorite tunes and had a guest speaker?

This is something I have to be reminded of as well. Church lives outside of that building. No doubt, it helps, but we shouldn’t rely on a weekend service to change a non-believer’s life. We shouldn’t rely on having our favorite songs, uninterrupted to bring us to the foot of His Throne. We shouldn’t rely on a few guys to be the source of our spiritual nourishment.

“Empty worship. God sees it.” Yikes, man, yikes.

Community.

I tear up almost every Sunday night. It’s embarrassing, but true. I wouldn’t consider myself a very emotional person, but there is something that tugs on my heart every time I watch Extreme Home Makeover or Oprah’s Big Give. There is something about the community coming together to help out a person or family. There is something about random people pulling together their resources to meet simple, yet necessary needs. And these people not only meet their needs but go above and beyond.

It’s strange when that person is you.

My friend D’Ann who I met at Texas Tech lives in Fort Worth where she attends seminary. She is also a member of The Village Church so she makes the trek every weekend to hang out and hit up church. What I did not know is that she is involved with a Bible study with members from another church, Wedgewood Baptist. (Yes, that Wedgewood.) Apparently, they covered the topic of “faith” a few weeks ago and it was laid on their hearts to help out someone in need. And for some reason, D’Ann threw my name out there. Her unemployed Asian friend that is heading off on a mission trip with the daunting task of asking for more money since she just took the same trip eight months ago. And what’s crazier is that they decided to help me out.

Tomorrow night, I will be in Mansfield, Texas to eat spaghetti and meet these people that have decided to extend their hands out out of their city limits. I will meet the people that have graciously put together this dinner to raise money for me which I will give to The Village Church international missions funds towards my trip. Tomorrow night my heart will be full of joy, knowing my pride kept me from asking many people for help for this trip, but God has provided this random group of people to love on me.

This small group has reminded me that community isn’t just the neighborhood I live in or the church I attend. Community extends quite further than that and my hope is that I don’t forget this truth.

(that is the flyer they made up for the dinner! there’s even a facebook event!)

All-nighter recap.

I have successfully transitioned from normal people hours to strange night shift hours. I’m not sure if I should consider it a success, considering there’s no specific reason why I switched my sleeping schedule around. I slept all day Sunday, then decided to really start my day by going to church at 7pm.

Flat Matt brought it and spoke on unfulfillment, the seemingly unattainable goals and expectations we have out of life. He explained the three ways to respond to “life’s disappointments”: blaming other people, things, or events, blaming self, and giving up. We dug into Romans 5:12-17, tracing death, sin, and the cause of this “need for perfection, wholeness” back to Adam and the fall. Although we each have individualized sins, our major sin was inherited and imparted to us in the womb. But, we have been gifted righteousness and grace through Jesus Christ. The resolution to the sermon didn’t make sense in my head, but I have a feeling that’s a summation of my spiritual conflicts as of late.

I spent my “afternoon” eating Panda Express and watching Ugly Betty. I picked up disc one yesterday and had to rent disc two tonight. I had never watched the show before, but having Blockbuster Online, I tend to rent random things such as this. This show has a lot of heart. It’s refreshing to have the heroine be a physically unattractive girl with awkward traits, but with such honesty and integrity. It’s goofy, but worth watching.

I spent the rest of the night attempting to write, redesigning the blog, and notably, checking out the Q&A session from Mars Hill’s first part to their newest series, Religion Saves and Nine Other Misconceptions.

I listened to half of the sermon the other day which was interesting, but if you want the on-the-fly, honest, graphic questions and answers, watch as Pastor Mark Driscoll answers questions texted to him after their last service. This is a church that is unashamed to talk about the “dirty things,” which “dirty” or not, should not be ignored. It’s not for kiddos or the faint of heart, so if you’re neither, check out the Q&A session here.

AT&T is coming to setup their U-Verse stuff between 8am and 10am today (which is in twenty minutes!) I am quite stoked to get rid of Time Warner, especially after the one month I had no service. Maybe I should take a nap before they get here.