Spiritual

Satan Is Cool With Your Christian Values

May 13, 2009, by 2 comments

I just read this summary of this message, by Russell Moore, titled “The Devil Votes Christian Values: Why We’re Tempted to be Glorified Satanists Rather than Crucified Followers“.

I can’t wait to listen to the whole thing.

Listen to how he articulates some really powerful truths about how slippery the slope of idolatry can be:

Satan does not mind family values–as long as what you ultimately value is the family.

Satan does not mind social justice–as long as you see justice as most importantly social.

Satan does not tremble at a Christian worldview. He will let you have a Christian worldview as long as your ultimate goal is viewing the world.

He goes on to challenge pastors:

Read more →

Proverbs 4:7

March 5, 2009, by No comments yet

I read this in the Scripture this morning, and I thought the ESV wording is really interesting:

The beginning of wisdom is this: get wisdom,

and whatever you get, get insight.

Recent Youth Teachings

January 22, 2009, by No comments yet

We’re currently studying through the book of Acts with the youth at our church body.

A complete library of the teachings is available under downloads at www.CCRaleighYouth.com

Here are mp3′s of the teachings from the past couple of weeks (It’s me on the 1st and 3rd, and Mike Davis on the 2nd and 4th):

(I’d love to hear any feedback you might have)

Suffering

January 19, 2009, by No comments yet

Here’s a terrific post from Scott Knight at  TheResurgence casting some perspective on suffering.

This is from a pastor who is training to be an amateur ultimate fighter!

It starts like this:

As I write this blog, my body aches from the effects of training at a fight club with men who are much younger than I am. One of my toes is sprained, I think I broke my thumb, I have bruises on my face (which my wife is not fond of), and I tore a chunk of flesh completely off my big toe. None of these are injuries that would keep me from training, but they are very inconvenient and annoying! I made a comment about my aches and pains to one of the professional fighters after practice and he had a very interesting response. It was a bit unexpected, but it made me think. He said:

“There is an easy way to end your suffering: just stop training.”

As he walked away, he threw in, “See ya next Monday!” He knew that I am not about to stop because my goal is not to be pain-free. My goal is to be in shape and improving as a competitor. But his comments have caused me to think about suffering, so I want to share with you some training principles about suffering that you can apply to your life as a follower of Christ.

Read the whole thing here

Prayer Requests

December 22, 2008, by 2 comments

Hey Friends,

If you have a minute, I would really appreciate your prayers this week.

My mom and dad are both going to get back some really important test results.

My dad will get his MRI back to find out what it’s going to take to get his back fixed. His back has been bad for years, but it keeps getting worse. I spent the weekend with him, and he literally could barely walk around the house. He hasn’t even been working full days, and he’s a workaholic.

Please pray for there to be good news and for God to lead my folks to the right guy to give my dad the right treatment. Or better yet, please pray for God to heal him entirely.

Mom’s deal is a little more personal, but please keep her in prayer also.

Thanks!

(Josiah is praying with you)