accident

There was a bad one-car accident last night in Rochester.

A high school girl was killed and the other two passengers are in Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne.

Please be praying for them and the family of the girl who died.

The school year started last Thursday, so there will probably be counseling offered at the schools over the next few days.

-joe

colossians 1

Over the summer I'm taking both the senior high and the junior high through the book of Colossians. Today we went over the first 14 verses.

Greeting
1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

Thanksgiving and Prayer
3We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, 5because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, 6which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth, 7just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf 8and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

9And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

My friend, Sarah Costa, recently posted some thoughts on Facebook on the importance of theology in discipleship. And here, Paul, makes the same case.

His prayer for the Christians in Colossae (and for all believers) is that they would be filled with all knowledge and wisdom so that you may be "fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work." He is clear that right teaching affects behavior. He is also clear that the right teaching is the gospel: "redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

Our prayer for believers should be grounded in this. Praying that we would all continue to increase in knowledge of the God who saves so that we could live a life that glorifies him. Amen.

-joe

carson on prayer

D.A. Carson's book A Call to Spiritual Reformation affected my prayer-life in profound ways when I first read it. I recently picked it up again and was refreshed by his practicality and faithfulness in prayer.

One of the most beneficial things I picked up from the book (I know, it seems like I've trivialized it the rest of the book...but, really, this has helped me a ton) was to either speak out loud or at least mouth the words as I pray.

It helps me to concentrate while praying (keeping me from getting distracted from any number of things that swim through my head) and it helps keep me interested while someone else is praying aloud.

I encourage you to try it. You will be amazed at the benefits...and you'll no longer wonder why so many of the prayers of people (including Jesus) are recorded, it was probably because those folks realized the power of speaking prayer.

-joe

p.s. get the book

on to the mission trip

Tonight we had a business-like meeting at youth group to pick a place to go (I had narrowed it down to 7 choices). We are still on the fence, but tomorrow a decision will have to be made to make sure we have the space reserved. Pray that I make the right choice.

I must admit, I'm a bit worried about this trip. Not of the idea of taking 10 kids somewhere far away, not of sharing the Gospel, not of doing work, not of the dangers that may accompany such work. I'm scared that I'll miss the mark on organizing things. It is definitely one of the things that I am worst at doing. Pray that I would be confident, faithful and organized in planning this event. Also, pray for my spirit to be humbled because, in the end, it doesn't matter how good I am at planning the event...it is God who will be accomplishing His work of spreading the Gospel...with or without good organization. But still, I strive to be better at this.

Thankfully I have some great kids who help me out (one who now works for me an hour a week to organize my life at church). Pray for them...they have to work with a bumbling idiot on a fairly regular basis.

Mostly, pray that God would be magnified in the kids of my church and in the lives of those we serve and share the Gospel with. A heart for missions is an amazing thing and the earlier kids catch wind of the Spirit of power in evangelism, the more time God has to do great things through them.

-joe

overload

Well, I'm just now wrapping up my Sunday. I think the late night will probably become a pretty regular occurrence because I now have 25 monthly teaching/preaching engagements. (Most, not all, of these are directly related to my job at the church.)

I think trying to juggle pastoring and my other job while trying to finish school could be a difficult time.

I don't often ask, but I'd like some prayer. Please pray that God would keep up my spirits, that He would give me strength and that my lessons would glorify Him. Also, pray that I'd do well in school and finish my degree in a timely manner, so that I can finally go to seminary.

I hope everyone has a great New Years Eve.

-joe

night light

My light burns longer than everyone else in my family and tonight I needed to share two things.
One is that I have recently begun praying this psalm for the youth in Rochester:

12May our sons in their youth
be like plants full grown,
our daughters like corner pillars
cut for the structure of a palace;

Oh, that God would raise up the young men and women in my youth groups and use them to spark a great revival of hearts and minds in Rochester. I pray that the baby-boomers would see the great love of Christ dwelling richly in the youth and that their hearts would be quickened to that same joy and love.

The second is related to the first...it has to do with evangelism (which must occur to see our sons and daughters grow). Below is a quote found in The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever (which is a great easy read. no theological jargon. no hard to read statements...just down to earth writing in about 115 pages). The quote is by John Stott:

The invisibility of God is a great problem. It was already a problem to God's people in Old Testament days. Their pagan neighbors would taunt them, saying, "Where is now your God?" Their gods were visible and tangible, but Israel's God was neither. Today in our scientific culture young people are taught not to believe in anything which is not open to empirical investigation. How then has God solved the problem of his own invisibility? The first answer is of course "in Christ." Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. John 1:18: "no one has ever seen God, but Bod the only Son has made him known." "that's wonderful," people say, "but it was 2,000 years ago. Is there no way by which the invisible God makes himself visible today?" There is. We return to 1 John 4:12: "No one has ever seen God." It is precisely the same introductory statement. But instead of continuing with reference to the Son of God, it continues: "If we loves one another, God dwells in us." IN other words, the invisible God, who once made himself visible in Christ, now makes himself visible in Christians, if we love one another. It is a breathtaking claim. The local church cannot evangelize, proclaiming the gospel of love, if it is not itself a community of love.

So, let us take up the charge of evangelizing our youth by being a community of love so that God, the invisible, is displayed. And then, then...we will see the fulfillment of our prayer that God would make our sons and daughters like pillars and full-grown trees.

-joe

prayer

ever wondered what the point of praying was?...well...here ya go

-joe
(HT:Vitamin Z)   i in no way endorse or condone any of the answers this man gives for the reason we pray...so..laugh a little