One More Thing

Hi Five Oakers, The weekend is coming and I have a few things I want to share with you.

The Weekend

Don't waste God's warnings. There are a lot of warnings from God in the Bible and most of them regard in what or in whom we will place our trust. It's an act of grace when God says, "Thou shalt not." And this weekend's passage, 1 Samuel 8, is one of those acts of grace. Israel is about to put their trust and seek their security as a nation in something other than God in spite of God's explicit warnings.

We're not all that different. We often say the right things about trusting God, but in our hearts we're trusting something else. How can we learn to put our ultimate trust in God alone? What happens when we blow it? Come and see.

F.Y.I

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra on "Pew: Evangelicals Stay Strong as Christianity Crumbles in America--Amid changing US religious landscape, Christians ‘decline sharply’ as unaffiliated rise. But born-again believers aren't to blame.

3) Evangelicals convert many and retain their kids - Pew found a "remarkable degree of churn" in the US religious landscape. But evangelicals are the “major exception” to the national pattern of Christian decline, and the only major Christian group in the survey that has gained more members than it has lost through religious switching.

One More Thing

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."—Martin Luther King Jr.

10 Tweets

Here's last weekend's sermon in 10 Tweets, The David Story (1 Samuel), “Dedicating,” 1 Samuel 1:1–2:11

1/ What does it mean to really dedicate our children (or anything else we value highly)?

2/ The David Story amazingly begins with a story of a woman, Hannah, deeply disappointed with her life.

3/ Out of her disappointment and depression she makes a crucial decision leading to dedicating her child to God.

4/ We can't dedicate our kids w/out coming to conviction that God is supreme & his glory is most important.

5/ In Hannah's day, children brought not only personal fulfillment but tied to family and national security.

6/ Hannah trades her dream for God's dreams and purposes.

7/ She sets aside her idol, her god, to make her life about serving & glorifying God.

8/ An idol can be a good thing that becomes an ultimate thing. Can't live without thing.

9/ Make a habit of reminding yourself that your children belong to God, not to you. Parenting is stewardship.

10/ Battle idolatry in your own heart by seeking your identity in God and investing in God's dream.