Thursday, June 25, 2009

The King of Pop is Dead!

Michael Jackson died at age 50 today. This is the man who basically gained the whole world! He is one of the only truly world-wide icons of our day. Justin Taylor wrote this concerning MJ

"I remember once looking at the liner notes from an album of his, and he quoted the final lines from William Ernest Henley's famous poem, Invictus:

I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Those are not the words you want written on your tombstone."

It is truly sad to say that this man really did gain the whole world and lost his own soul. May we use this as an opportunity to spread a passion for the gospel of God to all people. May we learn from Michael that gaining the world does not give true identity and does not provide true happiness. This man completely struggled with the core of his identity. We all saw how this effected everything about him. Let's pray that his children and family will see the futility of his pursuit and find that true identity is in the God who created them.

I am gospelist

I am a gospelist there is no other way to put it. The gospel is the power of God for salvation to all who believe. This is the same power God used to create the universe and everything in it. The power to create life. This same power is used to create spiritual life within us. He uses the gospel to make us alive.

Sunday School Highlights

This past Sunday we continued our journey through the book of Deuteronomy. We began to explore the first section of the book's summary statement 'God chooses His people, His people must choose Him.' Therefore, we studied the first aspect of how God chose the Israelites as His special people. It wasn't because of their righteousness but out of His love for them. Remember what kind of people they were? They were insignificant to the world, they were slaves turned vagabonds wondering in the desert. They were small and stiff-necked. All more the reason for God to turn from them, but no. He embraced them with love and showered them with grace. Just think of our own salvation. Each one of us has a past, has a history, has string of issues that follow us each day. That past tells us that we are like the Israelites, undeserving of the Lord's grace and love. Just take some time and meditate upon these verses, Eph. 1:3-4. What comes to your mind?