"For roughly the first thirty years of his life, Jesus lived in relative obscurity, swinging a hammer with his dad. Then Jesus spent about three years doing public ministry that included healing the sick, feeding the hungry, training his disciples, evangelizing the lost, befriending the outcast, and scrapping with the ...stuffed-shirt religious types who had taken all the fun out of fundamentalism." - Mark Driscoll

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.

On Spiritual Discernment

"You may spoil the Gospel by substitution. You have only to withdraw from the eyes of the sinner the grand object with the Bible proposes to faith, -- Jesus Christ; and to substitute another object in His place . . . and the mischief is done. Substitute anything for Christ, and the Gospel is totally spoiled.
You may spoil the Gospel by addition. You have only to add to Christ, the grand object of faith, some other objects as equally worthy of honour, and the mischief is done. Add anything to Christ,and the Gospel ceases to be the pure Gospel!
You may spoil the Gospel by interposition. You have only to push something between Christ and the eye of the soul, to draw away the sinner's attention from the Saviour, and the mischief is done....
You may spoil the Gospel by disproportion. You have only to attach an exaggerated importance to the secondary things of Christianity, and a diminished importance to the first things, and the mischief is done. Once alter the proportion of the parts of truth, and truth soon becomes downright error!
You may completely spoil the Gospel by confused and contradictory directions. Complicated and obscure statements about faith, baptism, Church privileges, and the benefits of the Lord's Supper . . . are almost as bad as no statement at all!"
~ J.C. Ryle, Evangelical Religion

You Should Visit Our Blog About Our Ministry

www.ervinsinafrica.blogspot.com

Why a Recession O God?

As you already know and possibly feel, the United States is going through a financial recession. President Obama says it's only going to get worse. 10's of thousands of people are losing their jobs,people are losing their houses, mortgages are becoming overwhelming, banks are drying up! It seems that there is little to no hope for immediate relief. Welcome to the rest of the world. Most of the world are always going through an economic recession at best. But why is God allowing us as a nation to go through this? Is this His judgment for our nation's sins and abandoning His ways? Why is God allowing this to happen.

In Hebrews 13:3 we read: Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.

Perhaps we need the recession in America so the scales of prosperity might be stripped from our eyes that we might see the impoverished reality of the rest of the world! That we might be able to truly live out this command in Scripture; to remember those who " are in prison'.
The people he is talking about are suffering and the people he is writing to are not much better off save that they are not in prison.
What is the writer of Hebrews trying to convey here? Well he goes on further to explain what he means by remembering. First of all we notice the writer says to remember them as though we were with them. Is this very typical of us?

When was the last time that you ever sat around remembering the Christians in Orissa India who are being driven from their homes, beaten and sometimes killed? Do we remember as if we were suffering with them?

We are a part of the same body, the body of Christ! When your foot is injured the rest of your body is going to be effected. When you lose your eyesight the rest of your senses are going to work harder.

O God grant to us the grace we need to be able to remember those who are in the prisons in North Korea and other nations, may we suffer with those believers in Orissa India.
Lord, please do not let us waste this recession. May this be a time marked by the American Church awaking to how blinded we have been in our prosperity and how much of your glory we are missing out on. O Lord, tear the scales from our eyes and take our wealth away.

Also listen to 2 Corinthians 1:1-11

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. 8 For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

Comments are welcome.

Answers to Grace Walk Ch. 2

1. Absolute surrender to God is when you realize that you are nothing and that God is everything so you give all of who you are to God. When a person absolutely surrenders to God they will be at peace, find joy in God, patience, fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5:22-23.
2. Walking after the flesh is not always repulsive to the believer. At times it might even seem more pleasing to the Christian because the flesh makes much of us.. Paul equates waling afer the flesh with looking at his own righteous track record. Before Paul was saved he did many good and religious things for himself.
3. Sad but true a person’s ability often times becomes a liability to them spiritually because he/she is relying on his/her ability to make the righteous. We as Christians can sometimes encourage this behavior in other people by making much of their skills rather than making much of God in them.
4. I agree with Steve that trying to do something for God has bad consequences. When one does something for God, he/she is most likely motivated by a self-glorification rather than God-glorification. Therefore, God will not bless those efforts.
5. Major Sin! Sarah had Abram commit adultery with he maid! The consequences were atrocious. The maid did not really give up rights to her son. Sarah became jealous and the son was torn up because of the dysfunction of the family. History even says that Islam came from His lineage.
6. Brokenness: when a person comes to the place where they realize and feel there is nothing righteous in them and that they are totally wicked and cannot produce godliness without God saving them. I do agree with Steve because God will not give us anything that He cannot do through us.
7. God brings a person to brokenness so that that person might make much of God’s glory and share in its blessings. God allows His children to experience pain so that they can glorify Him in the midst of pain. He refines us in those times.
8. Serving God might be a distraction today because we can easily get enamored with the gifts rather than the giver.

Do You Give Thanks to the Glory of God?

"True gratitude or thankfulness to God for his kindness to us, arises from a foundation laid before, of love to God for what he is in himself; whereas a natural gratitude has no such antecedent foundation. The gracious stirrings of grateful affection to God, for kindness received, always are from a stock of love already in the heart, established in the first place on other grounds, God's own excellency."1

You might hear many people giving thanks to God, but for what reason? Perhaps people thank God for the death of Jesus Christ on the cross because to them it shows God makes much of them. Sadly enough, I think this is all too often the case. Simply put, we often give thanks to God with wrong motives. Like Jonathan Edwards says, we need not give thanks or gratitude to God because of something he has done for us for that is rooted in self-love. I.E. being enamored with the gifts rather than the giver. In fact, we need to give gratitude to God for who He is in Himself, in His character, in His excellency. That is how we fulfill 1Cor. 10:31 in giving thanks to God to the glory of God. If we fail to give thanks this way, then we are simply reverting back to the way unsaved people give thanks, namely in a self-love manner.

Listen to what James 4:3-4 says:
"3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."

Many of us are like this toward our Lord. We are like a wife who asks her husband to fund her adulterous affairs and passions. The problem is not our asking nor is it our thanking. The problem lies in our motive of thanking and asking.

I think we can take several things away from this lesson.

1. Do you even thank God?
2. Are your motives of thanking God rooted in self-love or in God's excellency?
3. Will you endeavor to purely thank God and have God centered gratitude?
3. We need to check our motives to see if they are self-oriented or God's glory oriented.

May you all have a wonderful day of thanksgiving rooted in pure grattitude to God and others.

God bless,
Michael.




1. Jonathan Edwards. Religious Affections, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 2, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959, orig. 1746, p.247.

Response to first 3 Questions of Chapter1 in Grace Walk

1. The biblical meaning of success in the Christian life is explained by our realizing how truly evil we really are and how truly holy and awesome God is and our need for His redeeming us from our evil selves. When one comes to understand this, then I would consider them successful. The Apostle Paul put the biblical meaning of Christian success like this: “For to me to live is Christ, to die is gain.” Jesus put it like this: “The greatest in the Kingdom is the servant of all.” Most Christians have no idea that this is what biblical success in the Christian life is. Most Christians have been heavily influenced by Arminian leanings in Church practice and theology and lack a true understanding of the Gospel's necessary centrality to not only salvation but all of life after salvation.

2. The motivation-condemnation-reconciliation cycle is a very descriptive term for how most people live their Christian lives. It is particularly so in the Fundamentalistic realm of Evangelicalism. There are several problems that come from this cycle but there is one overarching issue that must be addressed and dismantled, namely a problem of motive. The motive is self! The whole cycle is based upon you and what you can do a how you can achieve God’s acceptance and grace after salvation. Secondly, people are trying to feel saved. Therefore the second problem is an existential problem. People should not base their relationship with God upon feelings! Ever! The third problem I see in this cycle is one of theology. It seems that this cycle promotes wrong theology, namely, that God expects you to keep and attain spiritual righteousness by works. Christians are called to trust not try! Trusting happens when a person comes to the understanding that they are more evil then they ever thought and completely incapable of producing anything Godly or spiritually righteous and then trusts in God’s good news of redemption!

3. 19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. 20 Now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.
21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. 22 But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,

According to Galatians 3:19-25 the purpose of the law was to bring us to faith in the promise of a coming messiah that would do we can do, namely fulfill the law and pay for our failing God’s righteousness. A Christian who lives under the law is what I call religious. His/her profile is that of keeping lists in order to achieve what they deem righteous in the eyes of God. That list can be made of various great things turned evil like reading the bible, praying, going to church, winning someone to the Lord, singing a hymn, encouraging people, caring for the orphan and widow. None of these things are evil only the motive of the religious person is evil. His/her motive is evil because it seeks to satisfy oneself in what one does for God instead of simply being satisfied in God himself.

Our Next Study will be Grace Walk.

"This is shocking. The love of God is not God's making much of us, but God's saving us from self-centeredness so that we can enjoy making much of him forever. And our love to others is not our making much of them, but helping them to find satisfaction in making much of God. True love aims at satisfying people in the glory of God. Any love that terminates on man is eventually destructive. It does not lead people to the only lasting joy, namely, God. Love must be God-centered, or it is not true love; it leaves people without their final hope of joy."
- John Piper

A Tip For Pastors

Whether you’re the pastor of a large church like Covenant Life or the only pastor of a new church plant, determining priorities is crucial to shaping a schedule that is faithful to God’s expectations for you. In this second excerpt from the forthcoming Leadership Interview podcast, “The Pastor and His Time,” Josh, Jeff, and C.J. discuss these biblically defined priorities; the common, albeit well-meant, interruptions; and the importance of educating your church on your priorities. All this in order, C.J. says, “to most effectively, uniquely, specifically, and broadly serve those who have been entrusted to your care.”

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Joshua Harris: Are there any priorities (or, really, not priorities) that you see creep into a pastor’s life? What are some of the temptations that you would think are out there for a pastor to get involved in that really isn’t [a priority]?…

C.J. Mahaney: There are legitimate distractions on a daily basis. There are distractions that I think are created by the active presence of indwelling sin. Certainly there are distractions in the context of ministry. There are distractions provided for us in the context of our culture. These distractions are absolutely endless in their variety and in their consistency, which is why it is so important for pastors to be clear on their calling, role, and priorities. And to recognize that if you don’t prepare for a given week by identifying those roles and creating appropriate goals in fulfillment of those roles, your week will attack you, and you will end up devoting more time that week to the urgent than you do to the important.

Jeff Purswell: And I think that is particularly a temptation for pastors, because a lot of those distractions you mentioned, C.J., will emerge from legitimate needs. And that’s precisely what happened in Acts 6:1–7, the first time you have the crystallization of specialized responsibilities for pastors. There were real, pressing, legitimate needs [related to feeding widows] that needed tending to. But the apostles recognized that it wasn’t their need to attend. They needed to raise up gifted leaders to tend to those things while they specialized in what they were called to do: attention to the Word of God and to prayer (v. 4).

And so I am sure a lot of pastors listening are aware of many legitimate needs. We call them distractions, but they are real, pressing needs. But that doesn’t mean they are the solution to those needs directly, or that those needs become immediate parts of their to-do list for the week.

CJM: Each pastor enters into each week aware that the requests made of him in a given week will exceed his capacity to respond and fulfill those requests. Therefore, if I haven’t in some way determined what is most important and uniquely important for me to do in a given week, I will find myself responding to these urgent, and often legitimate, requests and end up busy throughout the week, but not productive and not ultimately fruitful at the end of the week.

I think it is of critical importance for pastors in particular to enter their week aware of what is most important, what is uniquely important for them to do in order to most effectively, uniquely, specifically, and broadly serve those who have been entrusted to their care. This will inevitably involve some form of specialization, and must be informed by some awareness on the part of the pastor of his limitations.

So a lot depends on whether one is pastoring alone, or whether one has a pastoral team. But regardless of the size of the pastoral team or the size of one’s church, what we are saying applies to a pastor.

JH: That’s good. I just was thinking as Jeff was referencing the care for the widows, the distribution of food, that it is so important. As pastors we are really receiving our priority list from God. I think it is so easy to allow that priority list to be written by other people, you know, the people in your church.…

CJM: You must have a pastoral team supporting you and specializing in particular ways, so you can inform the church specifically of the role of each pastor and how each pastor exists to specialize and to serve the church. In that way that individual that you just described—who you want to care for and not disappoint—you can inform that individual that you are not simply declining to serve that individual through, say, pastoral counseling because you are pursuing some unrelated purpose. No, you are seeking to serve them and the entirety of the church by specializing in particular ways, and other pastors have been trained and provided to care for their souls in this regard. And you cannot devote yourself to all the possible tasks and opportunities and needs, or else you will not serve the church.

JH: We are in a larger context at Covenant Life, but I think the principle still holds even for a guy who is pastoring by himself. He needs to involve other members of the church, small-group leaders, people who can come alongside of him. And ultimately, the good news here is that that is so much healthier for the whole church, for people not just to be looking to that one guy, but to be realizing the grace that flows through so many different means.

CJM: He does, indeed. And he needs to inform or have someone, like a fellow elder, inform the church of what his unique role is, so that the expectations of church members are clear in their hearts and minds. That pastor who is pastoring alone—prior to the formation of a plurality—needs to make clear to the church that he is devoting himself primarily to this task of study and teaching in order to serve the entire church. Other provisions can be made for the important need of biblical counseling through other individuals, who might not even be staff members or part of the pastoral team at that time.

That kind of information, in my experience, is just often not communicated to the church, and therefore individual church members are vulnerable when they make a particular request. They call the office with an expectation that the pastor will respond to their request. But when the pastor declines, if sufficient explanation isn’t given, then the individual is not just disappointed, but offended, and all this can be avoided if there is a clear definition communicated to the church about the role of that particular pastor. And that, again, applies as the pastoral team grows into a plurality.
HT: JT

November 1st

This next Saturday we are going to the Milton Corn Maze. Meet at the church parking lot at 6 pm. Can't wait to see everyone there.

This has got to be one of the most well-made Christian movies I have ever scene. The whole movie storyline is centered around the gospel. I was definitely edified and entertained at the same time while watching this movie. I urge all of you to be a good witness to the world by going out and supporting this film. The gospel is EXTREMELY clear. It was presented by using 'The Way of the Master' evangelism. The movie stars Kirk Cameron, who is currently one of the leaders of 'The Way of the Master'. The story applies to everyoen in the family. To read more about the moive click here and watch the trailer below.

John 15:12-17, 'An Exegetical Look at Friendship'

John 15:12-17

15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. 7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

13: The extremity of our love for each other is to the death.

In your love to one another, it should be a self-sacrifcing love. One that will give up what you want or prefer to do in order to be there for your friend.

Jesus performed this to the extreme even when these men were only friends in name!

14: For the disciples to constantly do the will of Christ they are constantly assured of their friendship with him. That they will abide in His love. We do have a responsibility here!

15: When a servant is told to do this or that, he is not given an explanation as to why. He just expected to complete the task. With friends its different.

A friend is a confidant. By this time Jesus had told his disciples all that he heard from the Father:

- Why he was sent to the earth. 3:16

- Why he was going to lay down his life. 10:11

- What he would do at his return. 14:2,3

- How a man could be saved. 3:3

Also, the tasks of a servant are often hard and heavy. But the yoke of Jesus is easy and the burden is light. Mat. 11:25-30. especially in light of human tradition and ordinances. Mat. 23:14, they were servants, they were slaves to it. But these disciples were friends.

16: Just because the disciples were Christ’s friends does not mean that they were on equal playing ground as him. On earth friends usually choose each other. With Jesus, he chooses you. It’s one-sided in its origin. These words emphasize the free, independent spontaneous love of Christ!

The ground of God’s love for us never lies within us, but always in himself, for even apart from His love for us, God is love.

Let’s see this divine love in other passages:

Dt. 7:7,8; Dan. 9:19; Rom 5:8; Eph. 1:4; I John 4:10; 1 John 4:19

Abiding in Christ is rewarded by fruit-bearing and answered prayer. A disciple prays for fruits. Fruit pleases God. He asks God to give whatever is in accordance with His will. He asks not as if He himself has any merit, but solely on God alone.

In us abiding in Him and in His choosing us to be friends, God has one purpose namely for us to keep on loving one another.

Here is the logic:

- In myself being unlovable, I cannot keep loving my brother.

- Unless I constantly reflect on the love of Christ for me.

- Not only do we love Him because He first loved us, but we love each other because He first loved us..

- Our love for each other is an extension of Christ’s love for us. Look at Rom. 5:5

"hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

Apple Orchard Trip

Here's a link to where we are going on Saturday: Apples!

What does the word of God have to say about friendship?

A Systematic look:

Ps. 25:14*

Prov. 16:28

Prov. 17:17

Prov. 18:24

Prov. 27:6

Prov. 27:10

Jas. 4:4

Jn. 15:13-15*

Biblical Foundation for friendship

Foundations of biblical friendship – Gen. 1-3

a. God as a friendship in the Godhead relationship Gen. 1:1

b. Men and women were created for relationships. Gen 1:16-28

i. A relationship with God.

ii. A relationship with other people.

c. Sin is the destroyer of relationships/friendships. Gen. 3:1-14

i. Sin destroys man’s friendship with God.

ii. Sin destroys man’s friendship with each other.

d. The hope of true friendship being restored. Gen. 15.

i. The promised seed.

ii. The promised redemption of relationships.

True Friends

A Biblical Theology on Friendship and Relationship
Over the course of the next few weeks, we are taking a journey through the Bible to discover what God has to teach us about friendship and relationships. Come join us at 9:30 every Sunday morning for these eye opening times in God's word.

New Hope Uganda Video on Youtube

Click here to view it.