Spoken Word

I am a lover of art, music, and just everything dealing with culture. Lately, i have been in love with the power of Spoken Word Poetry. It is amazing how God has instilled artistic passions in people for God's own glory. Here is one of my favorites:

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We Are Not Alone

In Luke 4, Jesus was tempted by Satan and Jesus kept Satan at bay. He kept Satan from successfully tempting him by reciting scripture back at him. He didn't use the power and wrath that he had as the Son of God to fend him off but instead he used scripture. Every time Satan tempted Jesus he quoted from Deuteronomy. What if the only thing between us and Satan's temptations was our knowledge of scripture from Deuteronomy?  I don't know if many of us would be successful.

Reading God's Word is essential to our growth, 1 Peter 2:2 "Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation"

Reading God's Word is also essential to our maturity, Hebrews 5:11-14 "About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil."

But even with all that said,.we still make up excuses: "I'm too tired" "I gotta get up early in the morning" "I don't have the mental focus after such a long day to read" etc. We even get discouraged when reading because we aren't getting or seeing the same things everyone else seems to be getting out of scripture. These could be frustrating. I know because I've said all of these at some point.

But here is some advice, whenever we start making these excuses in our minds we have to really think about how high reading God's word is on our priority list. The answer: it has to be top priority.

Now some encouragement, we are not alone when we read scripture. All though out man-kind God has become more and more intimate with us. First, there was the Tabernacle. Then God took on flesh and walked among us. Now God's very Spirit dwells in us. We are not alone when we read scripture because we have the Holy Spirit. Anyone can read scripture but if you have the Spirit you are able to understand it. All this takes time and learning though. But God has given us more than enough by giving us His word. We are to use this Bible we have in our hands to keep Satan at bay and to ultimately have a closer and richer relationship with God.

He Cannot Deny Himself

Yes, it's only Wednesday. Only halfway through the week. But now is the perfect time to remember the goodness of God!

Let's look at 2 Timothy 2:8-13
"Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself."
I love the fact that no matter how much we struggle its for his glory that we persevere and no matter how little faith we have in him He cannot deny himself because he is a faithful God.

Also. all throughout scripture we can see how God becomes more and more intimate with us.  In Exodus 25:8 we see that God was in the temple so that he may dwell with his people, and even when we rebelled against him God wanted to get closer to us. That's when God took on flesh and became fully-man and fully-God and he walked among his own creation. And we still rebelled and we crucified Him. But even after all that God still wanted to be closer to us! So now he is inside of us. That's the Holy Spirit.

He is always in pursuit of us. He is wanting to be more and more intimate with you even if you rebel " . . . for he cannot deny himself."

Under The Authority Of God

In elementary school my father was the police officer who visited the local schools and gave demonstrations to the kids about what a police officer does. He explained gun safety, he taught about the purpose of having a trained police K-9, etc. He would also have a Q&A session with the kids. Most of the questions asked by my classmates were about fighting crime. They asked questions like, "How many bad guys did you catch today?" and "Who are the bad guys?" also "Is it scary being a police officer?" My father loved coming to the schools and I was so proud about having a father who was a police officer. But not only that, he was a real life superhero to me.

I was always the shy and quiet kid who loved playing with his Batman toys, my favorite superhero, by himself. But after word got out on the playground that the police officer was my father I instantly became the most popular kid in school. For a boy who was obsessed with Batman --and pretty much any superhero at the time-- this was huge for me! I started to feel like I had to follow my dads lead and become a crime fighter at my school. Like Spiderman, I said to myself, "With great power comes great responsibility." I knew I had to use my sudden popularity for good to triumph over evil.

The position of my father suddenly gave me the authority to stand up for injustice and for the voiceless in the schoolyard. I would stop bullying and stand up for the quiet kid, because I was once that quiet kid. I would stop kids from taking an extra carton of milk in the lunch line and made sure every game that was played was played fairly. And those kids actually listened to me. They listened because they knew of the authority I had due to the position of my father!

I think you all know where I am going with this, as Christians we have the authority of an almighty, heavenly Father to stand up to injustice. Proverbs 31:8-9 "Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy." When God created us he breathed life into our lungs. We are to open our mouths and use that very air that God has given us to speak against evil and injustice.

There are so many injustices in the world today. Pray about what God is calling you to stand up against. God could be calling you to stop bullying, to rise up against abortion, to stop domestic violence, to stand up for battered women, or to be a voice to 27 million voiceless slaves in the world right now. I don't believe Jesus was telling us to be passive when he told us to turn the other cheek (here, Jesus was talking about individuals who are seeking revenge or to punish an other individual. This can be discussed on another blog posting) but he gives us Romans 12:21 "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." We can stand firm under the authority of God to be real life superheros for God's glory by standing up for the voiceless. For Paul wrote Romans 8:31&37, "If God is for us, who can be against us? . . . we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."

My Sabbatical by Jonny Herrera

I am getting married! God has shown me undeserving grace in pairing me with Kimberly West! This is why I am taking a sabbatical from ministry duties at LoveCity Church. So that Kimberly and I are able to build a foundation. I am excited! I am excited because of Ephesians 5:31-33 "'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband."

Paul gives an awesome illustration to couples about what marriage is suppose to be like: Christ and the Church. But that isn't even his full point about marriage that Paul is trying to make. the point is that the relationship between Christ and the Church is eternal and that marriage is not. Our marriage is suppose to be a reflection and pointing upwards to Christ and his gospel. We are to be a parable of the gospel and with us being a parable we have roles to fulfill.

The role of the wife is to portray the church: a church that loves and serves the world and finds the glory that is in Christ. And the mans role is to portray Christ: the mans is to show Christ to the world, a savior that loves and will sacrifice all that he has for the church (Bart Box). I think John Piper puts it best,  "And therefore the highest meaning and the most ultimate purpose of marriage is to put the covenant relationship of Christ and his church on display. That is why marriage exists. If you are married, that is why you are married."

This is why I am excited to take this sabbatical. Because I don't want to make little of the meaning of my upcoming marriage with Kim. I don't want my worldly emotional or romantic love to be the core of my relationship with Kim. By doing that i am saying that my lustful drive for Kim is greater than my love for God. My marriage will be a reflection of the gospel. A reflection of Gods holiness and grace. This will be the foundation to our marriage: a reflection of the greatest love story of all-time: Jesus.

It's not too late to join us on our Advent journey

This past weekend we started our Advent series called Anticipating. We encourage you to join us and bring a friend.

One of our students in the youth group had a unique idea this advent season. With all this talk of the world ending on 12-21-12 she felt convicted to read one chapter of Revelations everyday starting on December 1st. The idea behind is to remind us that the end comes on the God's terms and not our own. On December 21st we still have one more chapter of Revelations to read and when December 22nd comes around we will read it and be reminded that it is God alone who determines the end.

In this season of advent or remembering the time spent waiting for the Christ, we are currently waiting for the Christ to come again, but that time like His first coming will be determined by Him so until then let us continue to worship Him by loving those He has placed in our lives- family and foe, believer and unbeliever, friend and stranger.

Join us Sunday for the 2nd installment of Anticipating and on our Revelations Journey.

WE NEED YOUR TOWELS AND SOCKS!!!

As your know FIVE|14 aka our college missional group is heading to the dome. They will be leaving for Atlanta at the end of the month to go to Passion 2013. They need your towels (new or gently used) and socks (new). So when you are out shopping to get your elders those perfect Christmas presents to show how much you appreciate them and all that they do please grab a towel and a pack of sock. We would love it if everyone in the church grabbed some every time they went shopping. Our students want to go to passion with purpose and force. They want everyone to know Love City is on a mission. 

The towels and socks student took last year were sent from Atlanta to the northeast to help those who were affected by hurricane sandy. You never know what God is going to use your two fish and loafs for. Please help our students fill their vehicles with towels and socks. You can bring them sunday mornings or contact Jimmy@lovecitychurch-cedarhill.com.