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Join the Pursuit!

To find God is to begin a lifelong pursuit of Him. This sounds like a contradiction or a bit of nonsense, but it’s true. When a man falls in love with a woman, he does not ask for her hand in marriage that he may end his pursuit of her, but only to begin it in earnest. So it is and should be in a person’s relationship with God. When a person is called by God and surrenders his life to Him, he has found God in fullness and secured the promise of spending eternity with Him in heaven. But what salvation also wins for the believer is a newfound peace with God that leads to fellowship, intimacy, and real friendship with Him. Too often, our church’s pulpits and programs have taught that a person’s pursuit of God ends in baptism and that’s a terrible mistake. To those whose growth in God has been stunted by such spiritual malpractice, A. W. Tozer has written a wonderful word of challenge and encouragement. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God reads like a modern day prophecy written to a people in exile and offers the would-be pilgrim a clear pathway back to the Promised Land. A group of us here at the church are reading through this book and meeting on Sunday mornings at 8:30 to discuss what we’ve learned. We’d love to have you come and join the pursuit!

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Our Sunday Roundtable- Week 4

Should parents childproof their house or houseproof their child? What do speedbumps say about a city’s opinion of its citizens and their integrity? Do chastity belts produce good Christian girls?

Too often modern man is caught trying to pick the lock on Eden’s gate as he works to make a world with “no alarms and no surprises”. Our anthropology today has man’s nature being something altogether good. Any evil actions must be the result of poor nurturing and nothing else. Man doesn’t need to change; his world does. In The Terror of a Toy, G.K. Chesterton gives us an antidote to this error in essay form. We’ve all been bit by the viper and its venom is in our bloodstream, but this Sunday’s discussion should be good and timely medicine!

Click Here to read The Terror of a Toy for Week 4

 

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Our Sunday Roundtable- Week 3

Somewhere in the Sonoran Desert in Scottsdale, Arizona you’ll find the frozen remains of Ted Williams. Somewhere in San Juan, Puerto Rico you’ll find the old bones of Ponce de Leon. And somewhere in the foothills above the Dead Sea you’ll find the sodium chloride reduction of Lot’s wife. Death is difficult to live with. It doesn’t do to run from it. It’s not living to dance with it. And it’s not right to spit at it. The Bible thinks it best to be prepared for it by beating the old stinger to the punch. While the world conspires to have us either embrace death or think nothing of it at all, the church is called to dispel the power of death by welcoming it into our consideration and calculation. As we look this week at an old tale and a couple of famous poems, let’s look to sit with the enemy – uncloaked and without his scythe.

 

Click Here to read the selected readings for this week

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Our Sunday Roundtable- Week 2

How is it that we freely do so many things we despise?  Perhaps we’re not so free after all.

In Shooting an Elephant, we have a haunting, brutally honest confession of a powerful man, powerless to do what he knew was right.  This wonderfully written little essay by George Orwell serves as a rich mountain for us to mine; providing the coal to fire a discussion of our own powerlessness in the face of unending societal pressure.  I hope that, as we gather for this Sunday’s roundtable, we’d be as sober in our assessments of ourselves and as unflinching in our pursuit of the honest truth.  Are you tired of shooting elephants?

 

Follow this link to read “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell.

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Our Sunday Roundtable- Week 1

The same fire that heats your home can burn it down.

Passion is a blessing from God and few would want to try and live and love without it.  But the same passion that can stir your heart can break it as well.  In Austen’s Powers, Jennifer Farrara compares the passions of two of literature’s most famous leading men and offers many reflections into matters of love, romance, marriage, and our relationship with God.  Some of Farrara’s insights are a little provocative and I’m not sure I share all of her convictions.  That said, I think there’s a lot here that merits discussion and there’s much to apply to our relationships with each other and the Lord.  Please take time to read the article and consider joining us for a roundtable discussion of it this Sunday morning at 8:30 in room #208 in the Family Life Center.  Hot coffee and a homemade treat will greet you at the door!

Click Here to read the article for Week 1

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