The Temptation of the Christ

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Continuing on through our Christology, we arrive this week at the Temptation of the Christ.  This event reveals Christ’s holiness.  He was set apart, and while he was fully God, he was full man, and he never sinned.

In his 33 years of life, he never rolled his eyes behind his mother’s back.  He never kept more money than he should.  Never had one lustful thought concerning a woman.  Never used his words to demean another.

After his baptism by John, Scripture teaches that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the Devil himself.  It also seems a test like Job’s in that God is leading Christ to the wilderness to prove to Satan his undeniable holiness.  What’s interesting is that while Satan is a worthy adversary, his tricks have not really changed.  He’s not the most creative of sorts.  His temptation to Christ was the same as the temptation in the Garden of Eden: “Are you sure God’s Word says…”

He still uses it today, doesn’t he?

Here are some things to note:

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Mothers, Let Mothers Mother

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Mothers, let mothers mother. I’m a guy.  I know I shouldn’t weigh into things of which I cannot empathize with, but I feel like this word is necessary.  It is absolutely astounding the pressure that mothers put on other mothers to raise their children the same way they do. In our years of parenthood, we constantly run into other mothers …

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Recap from Songwriting Retreat

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North Side is blessed with some wonderful musicians.  I’m blown away I get to even be a part of this talented and godly group.

We also are blessed with some wonderful songwriters.  While different members have written songs, we have never written songs together.

Until Saturday.

I hauled everyone up in our house.  Split everyone into teams.  And then I was amazed by how the Holy Spirit led our time together.  Here was the secret to our time together:

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Make More Money

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Money is a tool. Money is not moral or immoral. It is amoral. It can be used for good or bad. Money in of itself is not evil. The love of money is the root of all types of evil (1 Timothy 6:10).

In fact, God is not against you making more money. It’s actually a good thing. Read Ephesians 4:28 and find out why:

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Go and Sin No More

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What a wonderful day to be a part of North Side!  Services full of some excited worshipers is always a great way to start a Sunday morning!  Jeff’s message on John 8:2-11 (The Woman Caught in Adultery) was absolutely incredible.  I learned a ton, but I was just reminded yet again concerning God’s amazing grace.  So, so good.  Make sure to check it out online.

We want to remind everyone about the Marriage Getaway.  We need to know today if you are going with us or not.  Sign up here on the City.

Today, we worshiped to:

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The Consecration of the Christ

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This week in Bible study, we focused on the consecration of the Christ.  This stage shows off Jesus’ immensity.  This period, spans age 2 to age 30.  This time period covers the largest section of Christ’s life with the least amount of information, but it mainly focuses upon Christ growing and John the Baptist pointing towards him.

Info to remember from this Christology section:

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This is My Love, and This is My Friend

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Happy Valentine’s Day!  For all you married fellas out there, I want to let Scripture remind us of some truths to help us love our spouses better.

You need to focus on your wife more. She needs your undivided attention. In order to focus on her properly, you might be interested concerning how she focuses on you. While, hopefully, she is physically attracted to you, she also is attracted to things other than merely your impressive physique.

What is it about you that your wife would say was most attractive?

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Pharisees and Tax Collectors in Your Worship Services

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Sunday was a full day of ministry with the highs and lows.  We had great services, I had a wonderful group time, got to preach at Lander’s FCA, and so much more even in between.  While we had many great moments yesterday, we also had 2 of our members pass in the night.  Working in a church, you deal with so many different issues in a day.

That’s why Sunday morning when I’m leading worship is one of the most unique times of my week.  My unique vantage point reveals so much of where people are.  As I invite people to stand and worship the living God, different levels of engagement are present.  Our passage we studied in C-Group last night reminded me so much of every worship service.  Because in every worship service there are Pharisees and tax collectors present:

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Who is Jesus to You?

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It was a powerful time together as the church this morning!  We started off our services with a rousing reading of Phil. 2:1-11 and went straight into the worship set focusing on the words: “every knee will bow and every tongue confess.”  We used a 5-piece acoustic group this Sunday which was a fun, percussive setup.

Today, we worshiped to:

We also promoted the Marriage Getaway through a fun means.  Here is the video we shared:

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“Hot Mama!”

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Oh, be careful little eyes what you see.

Amanda was picking Obadiah up from church nursery the other week and we realized that they really pick up and kids say the craziest of things.

We never saw this one coming.

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Newspring Coming to Greenwood

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dI’ve been asked by a few people lately: “So what do you think about Newspring coming to Greenwood?” Normally, it’s also been followed by other phrases to express their thinking.  I’ve heard: “Do you think ya’ll will lose members?”  “What kind of church do you think it will hurt the most?”  “I heard they take your bank routing number when …

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Sermon Remix: 2011

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I’ve mentioned in the last couple of weeks some pretty exciting stuff coming up for North Side Worship this year.  I’ve talked about how we plan on discipling our church through our worship ministry.  I shared with how I felt the Holy Spirit was leading to a pretty big initiative and our team jumped at all the opportunities.  Let me now share our 1st offering coming your way very, very soon.

In many of our previous recordings, we have included a spoken-word track.  On Overcome, it was a message that was trimmed down from 40 minutes to 4 minutes with some music written for the piece.  The sermon served as a catalyst for the entire album and really summed up a lot of how God was leading our church at that time.  Jeff was originally against the idea because he didn’t want to have a lot of focus upon him.  I was able to talk him into it, and since we have released that album, I have heard more encouraging words concerning the track “Don’t Give Up” over any other track on the entire project.  It is powerful.

And I’ve always wondered: what would it be like if an entire project was dedicated to a sermon remixes?

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The Worst Sign I’ve Ever Seen

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We’ve been remodeling our home recently which has had me out getting different needed things for the house.  One day, as I was rushing through an aisle, a sign grabbed my attention.  I do believe that it is the worst sign I’ve ever seen.  It is unfortunately honest for many men, but it makes me want to vomit.

And it reads:

“I’d rather be lost at the lake than found at home.”

Does it make people chuckle as they go by?  Sure.  Do we know men who this sign (or a variation of this sign) should belong to?  Probably, and that is why it is so tragic.

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The Sin of Unbelief

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This text was sent to be after service and I think it summed up today’s worship.  At North Side, we are not dictated by a worship formula. We are not tied to any tradition.  I’ve been given the freedom to lead from the text we are preaching from.  Today, was one of those days of not going way back, but just going a little bit back.

It doesn’t matter how old it is, a good worship song is a good worship song.

Today, we worshiped to:

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“Did You Adopt Him from Chile or Something?”

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Our family is different.  We understand that.  We have embraced that.  We wouldn’t ever, ever change that. While statements we received early on in our family pilgrimage used to shock me, they no longer shock me anymore. At lunch the other day, a random elderly woman pointed at my son with a darker complexion and asked, “Did ya’ll adopt him …

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The Anticipation of the Christ

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At North Side, we’re all about discipleship.  In addition to discipling our worship team on Wednesday nights, I am also discipling a great group of college students right now.  These guys come over to our house on Wednesday nights and we get into the Word.  This semester, I am teaching this group, and our worship team, through the gospels.

We are doing a Christology of sorts.  A study of the life of Christ is normally organized around speculations or disagreements instead of simply going to the text.  In this study, I am using 14 main events or categories of Jesus’ life to get a clearer picture of the historical figure and the world-changing Savior.

Last night, we discussed the Anticipation of the Christ.  We actually started in our previous session by teaching through the entire Old Testament in one night.  I told the big picture of God’s plan from the beginning.  The blank page in between the testaments reveal a 400-year period of silence where God said nothing to his people.  While Israel waited to see if God would speak again, God brought a word in the Word himself!

In John 1, the apostle teaches that Jesus was that Word in the beginning at creation, and not only was he with God, he was God.  Just like the light that God created with a simple word in Genesis, at the fullness of time, the Word appeared and was the light of man.  The darkness could not overcome the light, the Word, the God in flesh who dwelt among us.

During this study, we also looked at the reasoning and information concerning the difference of the 4 gospels.  Four gospels were written because 4 authors had 4 specific audiences that they were educating concerning Jesus:

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Discipleship Through Worship

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I mentioned recently that our worship team is embarking upon some pretty exciting stuff.  I’ve struggled with how to share our plans – in parts or all at one time, but for right now let me give you a couple pieces of the puzzle.  As our team has met together, our time has focused on one verse in particular.

Colossians 3:16 says: Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

I am very big on reminding people worship is all about God.  And that is true.  But in that glorification of God process, there is also a discipleship element.  This verse is shocking to me in some ways.  As Paul reminds his people to let the biblical message abide within oneself, he reminds us that we are called to teach one another – through worship!  Our worship should be so biblical and so memorable that it makes theology more portable.

That is why we are going to focus in 2012 that our worship ministry is going to focus on: discipleship.

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North Side Would Fail Church Growth 101 Class

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Saturday morning, leaders from North Side gathered together to continue on this journey God is leading us.  We talked about discipleship.  We celebrated the lives that are being changed, and yet we also focused upon those people who are still struggling to follow Christ.

We laid out a strategy that is a little different for a church our size.  In fact, North Side would fail Church Growth 101 class if we were taking it.  Let me explain:

Church growth these days is all about the large groups.  Get more people in the seats and that means that you are winning.  What we are finding is that it is easy to fill seats, it is hard to disciple people.  And in our current church culture in America, people are church hopping, filling out commitment cards, getting baptized, and then dropping off the face of the earth!  The parable of the Seed and the Sower should scare us enough to realize that we might be giving people false assurance of their salvation that way – they need to be discipled!

Here’s some things I took away from Saturday:

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The Words of Eternal Life

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I had a great reason to miss North Side this morning (my niece was being dedicated at her church), but I still missed being with North Side this morning.  It is wonderful to know all the talented, godly people that our church was led by today.  In addition to some wonderful worship leaders, we had a promo for many new groups that have recently formed, and a fantabulous message from John 6:41-71 which I can’t wait to listen to.

Today, we worshiped to:

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Fire Hats, Skin Coloration, and Growing Up

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We took the boys to Firehouse subs one night this week when Eli made an interesting discovery.  As one of the workers gave them fire hats, he looked up at the picture above the door (see above) and wanted to inform me of something peculiar. “Daddy, look.  Those boys look like Obie and Eli.” “Really?  Huh, they kinda do.  Why …

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The Sins of Omission

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If you were raised in church, you were probably warned concerning certain sins. Oftentimes, different churches have certain sins they really highlight to which they really want you to abstain. It seems that Christianity is often perceived as the “thou shalt not” religion.

In your experience, what are the top 5 sins that you have been taught to avoid?
Thou shalt not have premarital sex?
Thou shalt not drink, smoke, or chew (or date girls who do)?
Thou shalt not curse?
Thou shalt not gamble?
Thou shalt not take the Lord’s name in vain?

Did you ever know that there are sins of omission? These are the failures to do the “thou shalt’s.” Take a moment and read James 4:15-17.

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The Republican Candidates’ Bickering (And How It Is Like Many Churches)

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As we watched last night what seemed like the 84th debate for the Republican party this election season, I was reminded of a few things: 1) I wouldn’t want the job of president, 2) I respect all of their knowledge because just to run, you have to know a ton of info concerning a ton of stuff, and 3) the Body of Christ in America looks a lot like these candidates.

Let me explain.  As these debates have continued, the dialogue has gotten increasingly nasty.  I actually remembered one of the first debates when Newt Gingrich was being lured by a moderator to attack some of the candidates around him.  He replied something to the effect that the issue at hand is not to attack other Republicans, his issue was to get the current Democrat president out of office.  Basically, the guys and lady on the platform were not the enemy, Barack Obama was the enemy.

My, how things have changed.  While the remaining contenders beat each other to shreds, their “enemy” is rallying support to face a bloodied Republican nominee in the near future.  By the time this round is over, the contender will be a weary mess to face the incumbent.

And it is just like the Body of Christ in America.

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Are You Paying Attention to Your Children?

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It’s impossible to teach your children anything if you don’t first have their attention. With children though, oftentimes, you can’t have their attention until they are sure they have yours.

Think through the last week, the last month, or even the last year. When was the longest time recently that your children had your full attention? Think about what that time was:

When: ____________

Where: ____________

What did you do: ____________

What did you talk about: ____________

It is very interesting that the actual last verse of the Old Testament speaks to fathers giving their children attention.

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Bread of Heaven

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Pretty fantastic morning with North Side.  John 6, celebrating communion, spontaneous worship, planned worship, and so much goodness.

Jeff’s message concerning God drawing us to Jesus was very powerful.  My salvation is as secure as the hands that hold it.  Loved our time together focusing on the cross.  Felt led early this morning to be doing some worship from the piano as people walked in today.  I gathered Leah and Woody and said, “I’ll start in the key of F, just follow me.”  And they did.  Special time as we entered into his gates with thanksgiving.

Today, we worshiped to:

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It’s Always Better With People Like This Around

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Tuesday night, I huddled up members of our worship team and shared some direction I’ve been feeling for 2012.  As we completed our last recording project, God had been pressing on my heart a few different things, and over the course of the last couple of months, through prayer and study, I really have fleshed out a direction that I feel like would be honoring to God.

The only problem with sharing it with this group is: the plan sounds kinda crazy.  It’s very different.  It’s pretty ambitious, and there’s a lot that someone could look at say, “There’s no way that’s gonna happen.”

In that meeting, I was shocked to find something completely different.

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I Wish My Life Would Change

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You want a better life than you have right now.

I may not know you personally, but I am sure of that fact. You want more money in your bank account. You wish your boss saw you were deserving of a promotion. If you are married, you wish your wife saw that you were right all the time. If you have children, you would jump for joy if they just obeyed you the first time you gave directions. You may be somewhat pleased with your life right now, but you deeply wish it was better. You earnestly desire a blessed life.

We all desired to be blessed, but are we willing to receive the blessing?

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Courageous in Lancaster

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I had the extreme privilege to go and minister with Second Baptist Church Lancaster, SC last night. They were having a “Courageous” weekend, and I got to serve their church in some really special ways.

They had a men’s only screening of Courageous on Friday night.  Sunday morning, their pastor, Brian Saxon, had preached on fatherhood.  From 4 to 6, I taught a large group of guys who gave up a Sunday afternoon nap and a football game concerning fatherhood.  We took a 5 minute potty break, but we got into God’s Word and talked about what it meant to lead our homes.

At 6, I got to preach to the entire congregation.  Adam Langley and his crew did a great job leading worship – so wonderful to be led by him!

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Walking on Water

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What a great day at North Side!  It was such a blessing to be able to lead at North Side for the first time in 2012.  Jeff was back in the house as well from his travels and boy were we in for a great time worshiping Jesus!

His message was plain ridiculous.  It was a great message about Jesus walking on water and how all the people around Him were looking for something other than Jesus.  So, so good.  Listen to it here.

In addition to celebrating some baptisms, hearing a report from United Youth Worship, we also were blessed to hear from Jason Allen who served on our Africa team.  What an incredible testimony of God’s power over there.

Today, we worshiped to:

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“Are You Calling Gloria?”

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I had a wonderful time with a lot of extra time with the family over Christmas.  We played together, worked together, and even cooked together.  Obadiah (pictured above) and Eli gave me more funny comments than I could possibly handle.

One of those happened on a drive home on New Year’s Eve.  Two of our dear friends were nearing the due date for their baby girl.  I was calling them to encourage their baby to come out already and stop making her mom so uncomfortable.  Once I got the voicemail, I began to say things like: “Get out of your mom’s belly!  She’s tired.  We want to see you.  Stop messing around in there and come out already!”

What was said next almost made me pull over.

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You Are My Portion – United Youth Worship Recap

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We had an incredible night of United Youth Worship last night.  Still beaming from how these students worshiped Jesus.  Love seeing the shift in the room last night.  Below are some pictures taken by the talented Paige Stumbo.  We will be posting some more pics on Facebook later.

You are more than enough for me, Jesus, more than enough for me.

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Storytellers: “My Portion”

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Wednesday evening, area groups are gathering together for United Youth Worship at North Side.  Details here.

I’m honored to be a part of a collective of worship leaders leading that night.  Very, very excited about our time together.  Leading up to it, Ben and I talked about working on a worship song unique for the event.

In my Bible study, I was recently impacted yet again by the portion of the Levites.  As land was being distributed to the tribes of Israel, the priestly Levites were denied the right to land.  Before you think they got gipped, look at what they got:

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Should You Divorce Someone with Alzheimer’s?

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Weeks ago, Pat Robertson said something that shocked me (even for Pat).  He said that it was acceptable for someone to divorce his or her spouse if they developed Alzheimer’s since it was a “kind of death.”  It flabbergasted me.  Not only was it an offense to marriage, it was an offense to the gospel.

And it also reminded me of another Robertson that knew something about this topic.

Robertson McQuilken was experiencing his dreams. Serving as President of the Columbia International University, he was training and equipping ministers that were serving all over the world. When his wife, Muriel, displayed signs of Alzheimer’s Disease, Robertson had a choice to make. Many encouraged him to send Muriel to a home because he really could not help her. That way, he could continue to follow God and the calling on his life. At night, he would often get her ready for bed to discover that her bloodied feet had traveled back and forth the road to the school anxious to be reunited with him.

His choice was simple. The following is some of what McQuilken stated in his resignation speech to the school:

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The Health of Your Heart

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What a powerful day today!  Band, singers, choir, tech team did awesome today!  All I did was give an announcement and be led in worship by some fantastic people.  Wonderful prayer time.

Loved that one of our host team preached for us today.  Jerry Rentz, door greeter extraordinaire and elder at North Side, brought the Word today!  He did great.  Love his passion and his authenticity.  Learn from him so much!  He shared a lot of what God has been teaching him in 25 years of dedicated service in prison ministry.  When he said that some of the most passionate, godly men he knew were behind bars, it woke me up.

I had someone come up to me after 1st service and say, we better watch out or some church may hire our greeter as their preacher.  He then said, “How could you not hear God speaking to you today?”  I agree.

Today, we worshiped to:

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When God Reminds You of Something (Resolution Confirmation)

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I had a great time with North Side college students this week at Passion 2012.  We joined @45,000 other college students for worship.  Pretty special time.  Hence, I was getting a lot of time to blog while out there due to busy days and 3-4 hours a sleep a night.

During the downtimes (which were minimal due to all the great stuff going on), I was working hard on the Resolution small group Bible study since my deadline is the new few days.  I would normally find a chair or section of carpet to plant myself down and work hard on finishing the Bible studies.  I had a crazy experience there that was funny and reminded me of the awesome opportunity to be a small part of what is going on with this Courageous resource.

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Feeding the 5,000

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Happy New Year’s everyone!  We started out 2012 in a fantabulous manner at North Side this morning.  I had the privilege of coming and worshiping with my family and being led by some wonderful people!

First off, Ben Hjalmer, our student pastor, preached for us on Jesus feeding the 5,000.  He preached his face off!  I love getting to hear Ben speak because of his genuine passion, but he took it to another level today.  It was fantastic.  I still got my bag, and planning on giving what I got and watch Jesus do amazing things with it!

We also were privileged to be led in worship by our student band.  This group leads at the Peak on Wednesdays.  At North Side, we always include our students in leading worship, but I can honestly say, I have never heard a group so polished and known a group more committed.

I told this to the group afterwards that it’s typical to hear people say: “That group did great for a bunch of teenagers.”  Unfortunately, I can’t say that.  They just did great period.  Teenagers, adults, you name it, they were a great group of worship leaders all around.  As tight as could be, as focused as could be, I closed my eyes and thought these guys could be musicians much older and experienced than what they were.  They love Jesus and are committed to His Church.  They were and are fantastic!

Today, we worshiped to:

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Blog Break

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I’ll be up and running again in 2012, but for now: family time and house projects.

Christmas Service

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We had a wonderful worship experience this Sunday as we celebrated Christmas.  Eli especially loved getting to play with all the candles on stage. We worshiped to: Christmas Offering – North Side Worship Winter Snow – Audrey Assad The First Noel – North Side Worship Angels We Have Heard on High – North Side Worship Joy to the World – …

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Santa Claus is Worth Remembering

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Since reposting Mark Driscoll’s article on redeeming Santa Claus, I’ve had a lot of good conversations.  I was also sent the following article from Dr. James Parker.  I had the privilege to sit under his teaching in a Philosophy of Religion course at Southern Seminary.  In addition to being brilliant, he just might well be the funniest person I have ever listened to in my life.  This article has been posted in a couple of different places, and I thought it was a fantastic, enlightening read.  Enjoy:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP) — In reflecting on this season of the year, I have often wondered how a Martian reporter would write a story about Christmas in the United States. If one only had the dominant cultural icons of TV, movies, news media and retail stores, my guess is that the Martian-viewing audience wouldn’t have a clue as to what Christmas is about.

They might think it has something to do with snowmen or reindeer or retail store sales. And if any particular person rose to the top in the public’s awareness, it would be a jolly secular guy at risk for stroke or cardiac arrest who likes to dress in red and let his beard grow.

Rather than just bemoan this fact, I assert that we need to reimage the myth of the modern-day Santa Claus.

Most people simply do not realize the rich ancient heritage behind the Santa Claus story. The secularized and sanitized contemporary version pales in comparison with the deeply Christian ethos and content of the original.

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“Christmas is for Jesus! And We’re Gonna…”

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Amanda is taking the boys to help with Meals on Wheels today.  At breakfast, I was trying to tell the boys that since it’s Christmas, we need to serve others because Jesus came not to be served, but to serve (Mark 10:45).

They were excited, but what Obadiah said next had me rolling in stitches (or wondering if he was a prophet).

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Why Are Kids So Angry These Days?

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Kids are angry. So many of this up and coming generation seem to have more than a chip on their shoulder. They are angry. They are volatile. They are unable to restrain their fists or their tongues.

With every year, the culture seems to be driving families apart. In Paul’s instructions to the Romans, he describes what a depraved culture looks like. In a list highlighting homosexual sins, malicious acts, and haters of God, Paul also includes that a culture devoid of God will be characterized by children who are “disobedient to parents” (Rom. 1:30).

Have you ever wondered why it seems like this next generation is so angry and so disobedient? While we can blame media influence or peer pressure, in reality, one of the main reasons comes from within the home. Take a minute and read Ephesians 6:4:

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