I just finished reading "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"

I started yesterday afternoon and finished this morning at work. It's kindof like doing work. Anyways, I wanted to read it again before I saw the movie. We'll probably watch it when we go down to West Virginia. Good stuff even for a kids book.

Big game tonight

I'm pumped about the Colts game so I'm going to post a picture I found recently.


What a great picture...the eyes, the veins, the perfect timing. So I'll gladly give credit to Jeff Gross/Getty Images. I wonder if it's legal for me to reproduce it?

Here's how the sermon went

Click on the link above to read about it.

Seriously though the evening service went great. In that service I did a short devotional on Colossians 3:15-17. We did that right after the opening song. After that I had handed out different verses talking about thanksgiving. We read those, shared thanksgiving testimonies, and sang thanksgiving songs. It was fun.

Sermon notes

Apparently the tape recorder at church is not working right now. So here is my outline and notes instead.

Intro: Death has been all around me lately. Visiting people who have died. Did my first funeral last Monday. Even in sports people have been close to death. Red Wings player, Fischer. All of this death around me has caused me to do two things. One remember the people that have passed. And second it has caused me to look at life. I think it is good for us to evaluate our lives. Do our lives have meaning? Are we living our lives to the fullest? I went to one of my favorite books in the Bible to help me with some of these questions.

I. Death in its time is beautiful. Ecclesiastes 3:1-11. There is a time for everything in your life. And then there is also a time for death. Verse 11 though says that everything, even death, is beautiful in its time. Wow. If we can learn to see death as beautiful, imagine how that would impact our LIFE. If we learn to see death as beautiful it will help us with fear. If we learn to see death as beautiful it will help us in our mourning. If we can learn to see death as beautiful we come closer to understanding God’s view of life.

Transistion: It sounds simple enough. But how can we see death as beautiful? Most of the deaths that I’ve seen recently have actually been pretty ugly. What is beautiful about a painful prolonged death? I think the rest of verse 11 answers that in two ways.

II. “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men;”. KJV says, “He has set the world in their heart”. World there has the meaning of “beginning of” and “without end”. So eternity is an easier way to say it. Eternity helps us see death as beautiful. We know that like war, hate, mourning, killing… all these are temporary things. They are beautiful in their time and their time ends. Death is not a permanent thing. It is a part of life.

III. Verse 11 goes on to say, “yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end”. Even though God has put eternity in our hearts we can’t fully understand it. We also can’t understand what God has done. What God does and continues to do will not always make sense to us. I Corinthians 13:12 says that “we see through a glass darkly”. It just means that we cannot expect our finite minds to understand God’s infinite wisdom.

Example: Story about Laura and Colleen.

So what should we do?

I. Examine our lives. Do we have meaning in life? Eternal meaning in life? How do we have meaning? In order for our lives to have eternal meaning we must trust Christ. Ecclesiastes 3:17. Will you be found guilty at that judgement or will you have trusted Christ to talk you place, be your substitute, pay the penalty for your sins.

II. Then we need to make sure that we are taking advantage of life. Ecc. 3:12 and 13. We should enjoy life. Enjoying life is the gift of God. We shouldn’t spend our lives trying to fill it up with things that are not eternal. We shouldn’t spend our lives trying to make more money. Work is important and even mentioned in verse 12, but it isn’t to be the focus of our lives. We need to enjoy the life that God has given us. Verse 12 also says that we should do good. Do good here isn’t the absence of doing bad. It is action, not refraining from a bad action. Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

What are you doing?

Are you getting your meaning in life from things that are meaningless to God? We try to get meaning from lots of wrong places. We try to build a legacy. Ecclesiastes 12:13 and 14 really wrap it up well for us. You want your life to have eternal meaning? “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.” Fear God and obey Him. That includes salvation, running from evil, and doing good. Those are the ways that we have an eternally meaningful life.

I also threw in some other verses. II cor. 5:8 for death not being permanent. Matt. 6:19-21 about storing up treasure in heaven.

Trial with Sermon prep

I'm preaching this Sunday and thought I'd do something new with sermon prep. I'm going to share some of my prep here on the blog. You can have a chance to be involved. I will read comments that are left and may use some of your ideas in my sermon.

Here's the rough idea. I've been faced with death alot lately. So I'm going to share two big ideas. By the way, I'm not the normal preacher. I avoid alliteration and the three point rules and all that stuff that I actually find very boring. I try to have 1 big idea and I try to present it in a way that will make you think about it again in the coming week. This week I'm having two big ideas.

First big idea is that we don't have to fear death. I will focus here on Ecclesiastes 3. Sing it with me, "To every season, turn turn turn...". Verse 2 says that there is "a time to be born and a time to die". Then verse 11 says "He has made everything beautiful in its time". Death, when in its time, is beautiful. I don't want to argue about the sovereignty of God and the in its time business. I want to focus on the beauty of death. Verse 11 goes on to say "He has also set eternity in the hearts of men;". This leads into point 2.

Second is that when death happens around us it makes us look at our own lives. Does your life have meaning? Does it have eternal meaning? We look to lots of things for meaning in life. I have 1 trophy in my house. I have won a fantasy basketball league once in my life. Do I get my meaning in life from fantasy basketball? People like to talk about leaving a legacy. People look to many things for meaning in life. Some have buildings named after them. Some get as much money as possible or as many things as possible. Some try to help as many people as they can. But I want to look past having earthly meaning and look to eternal meaning. Verse 11 of Ecclesiastes 3 says God has "set eternity in the hearts of men". He has caused us to want meaning in our lives.

So what must we do to have eternal meaning?

First we must be pure. Matthew 5:8 says "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." How many of us are pure? Ugh. I John 1 says that God is all the way pure and cannot have any impurity around him. "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." Verse 8 says "If we claim to be without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." We are not pure. We are all sinners. The good news comes in verse 9. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." We can be purified. We can "see God". But there is more to it than this. (I realize I just scared the pants off the good conservative Baptists that will read this. "more to it than this") Hebrews tells us that we aren't just purified to be with God. We aren't purified to just wait for Him to come and let us spend eternity with Him. Being purified isn't about heaven. Being purified is about getting eternal meaning. And that starts now. Hebrews 9:14, "How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse" (that purifying thing again) "our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God." Why are we cleansed? So that we can serve. We get eternal meaning by serving the living God.

Ok so there is some rough ideas. I'm going to go read some commentaries and think about this some more and will edit it more later. I wanted to get some rough ideas out there though so you can get thinking about it too. Please feel free to leave comments.

Kevin Garnett

I have been wishing for a while now that KG would become an Indiana Pacer. I like Jermaine O'Neal and all but I'd rather have KG. I'm thinking that maybe the wish comes closer to coming true every day. Here are some KG quotes.

Speaking of Kevin Mchale, "Kevin has a very, very high basketball IQ, but managing egos and things, I don't think he wants to do that."

He says that Mchale, "wanted in his heart to coach, but he didn't want the responsibility of being a coach."

Talking about those two quotes he says, "I don't feel I was disrespectful to anybody. Everything I said, everybody knows that's how I feel. Last year, it was pure hell for me. It was a circus."

I'm hoping the big tent stays in Minnesota but the "big ticket" , KG's nickname, comes to Indy.

Oh the weather outside is...

This book was very depressing

I bought this book while on Mackinaw Island. Everything was 40% off because they were closing the island for the winter. The book started depressing and then pretty much stayed depressing all the way through. The book follows a family, the Laments, through their moves around the world and their trials at every spot. The title says it all.

Snow again today.

This is the view out of my office right now.

This is what happens when a redneck discovers the web

Follow that link and see what I'm talking about.

Oh and note that this is from "Northern Michigan's News Leader".

here

Michigan = Canada

One of the guys from the fantasy nba league recently was insulted by my suggestion that Hobart is really Chicago and fired back that Michigan = Canada.

Here's 3 proofs that Michigan = Canada or anywhere else that is really weird.

1. These are pictures that I took last night.


2. Schools were closed today. Not for snow. Schools here are always closed for the opening of deer season.

3. This picture is from a town here in Michigan. Towns up here have what they call Buck poles. You bring your buck and hang it in the middle of town for everyone else to see.

Ok here it is.

Apparently the guys from one of my fantasy basketball leagues are interested in this blog. I haven't posted here in a month but there are enough archived posts to keep you busy until I put some new stuff up.