Eat, Lust, Rest

Hi Five Oakers, The weekend’s coming and there are a few things I don’t want you to miss:

THE WEEKEND

Eat, Lust, Rest. This weekend’s sermon in Exodus.

HELPFUL LINKS 

// Have you read The Hunger Games? Going to the movie? Check out “The Theology of the Hunger Games.”

// And catch Christianity Today's review of the movie here.

// Have you seen the "Noah" trailer? Russell Crowe as Noah. Anthony Hopkins as Methuselah. Bad Guy: "I have men at my back and  you stand alone and defy me!" Noah: "I'm not alone." Chills.

ONE MORE THING

I don’t do well in the dark. If I’m up before Lois, it’s about six steps from the bathroom door to the bedroom door and most of the time I miss the mark. I regularly run into things in the dark. I’m always off course. Quickly.

Most of us struggle with the spiritual disciplines of daily Bible reflection and prayer. There are lots of reasons. I went to the young adult group that meets on Thursday evenings at the Robbins’ home last night. People shared why they struggle with it.

I shared a variation on an insight Bill Wilson recently shared with me. We struggle to read the Bible because we don’t recognize how dark our world is and how much we need God’s light to help us stay on his path. I often talk about God’s Word as a meal. We need daily nourishment. But it’s also a light. It lights our path. We are often so discipled by our culture and steeped in its assumptions about life (i.e., its worldview) that we can’t even see when we’re straying from God's path for our lives.

I discover in six steps or less that I’ve strayed from the path to the door. I hit a dresser in one step. I  trip over some the decorative pillows in two. I hit a wall in six. Unfortunately it often takes longer to hit something in real life when we’re stumbling in darkness. And collision is often far worse in its ramifications.

Read, Reflect, Pray. Daily.

See you on the weekend.

Blessings, Pastor Henry

Sermon in 10 Tweets

“Step into the Sea” (Exodus 14-15) in Getting Unstuck for Dummies, a series in Exodus:

1. Exodus offers a deeply biblical approach to recovery from the sins that derail us, the struggles that dog us & the scars that define us.
2.  “I thought God would honor my decision.”
3. Resentment toward God can creep into your life and you can get stuck spiritually.
4. “If God has accepted me by grace alone, then I can’t expect anything from him. I owe him everything and he owes me nothing.”
5. If y0u express your resentment & admit your acting like an “elder brother,” prepare to love God deeper than you ever have before.
6. “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm. Watch God save you. All you have to do is shut up.”
7. Sharing your resentment is healthy; staying resentful indefinitely is not.
8. You can’t change your emotions on the spot, but you can change your focus.
9. You’re stuck because, ultimately, you don’t trust God enough to step into the sea.
10. “They had it easy? They didn’t know I would be plunged to the murky sea and drown for you on the cross.”