Lent 2016 - Lenten Activities + Prayers - Day 2

[READ + MEDITATE]
Joel 2:12-14
Lent is the Christian season that begins with Ash Wednesday and ends with Easter/Resurrection Sunday. It is a time we intentionally journey with Jesus towards the cross and His death. During this 40-day journey, we’re invited to reflect, repent, and remember.

May God enable us to rend our hearts and repent by aligning ourselves more with Him + His ways.

Lent 2016 - Lenten Activities + Prayers - Day 1

[PRAY] 

Almighty and everlasting Father, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent. Renew us and give us contrite hearts, that we, lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

The What + Why About Lent

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. Followed by Fat Tuesday (Madi Gras), Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the annual Lenten Season. Lent is a time when many Christians prepare for Easter by observing a special period of fasting, repentance, personal study, moderation, and spiritual discipline. Of course, these activities can be observed any time of the year, but the purpose of doing them during the 40 days of Lent is to set aside additional and particular time for reflection on Jesus Christ - his suffering and his sacrifice, his life, death, burial and resurrection. 

The 40 days of Lent are to be marked by repentance. Ash is sometimes rubbed on the foreheads of Christians during Ash Wednesday services as a sign of repentance (e.g., 2 Samuel 13:19; Esther 4:1; Job 2:8; Daniel 9:3; and Matthew 11:21).

 

Now, if you can do the math, you may know there are actually 46 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter. This is due to Sunday's being excluded. Repentance is to mark the 40 days and celebration is to mark the Sundays leading up to Easter or Resurrection Sunday.

 

As with all liturgical season, Lent can be legalistically observed. There are no biblical warrants to observe it and it should be observed out of choice, not any sort of obligation.  Elliot Grudem articulates it well, "...any special attention to the Lenten Season that honors God must include heart-level repentance and real faith, not external obedience to church tradition. So the Lenten Season and its encouragement to take an extended time to focus on the death and resurrection of Christ provides us with an opportunity to honor God...There can be a real value in marking this season, but only if done with a heart that seeks to honor God."

 

Lent is a time when Christians can annually connect with their heritage and their fellow Christians around the world. It's a unique opportunity to live out the "oneness" expressed in Christ's prayer in John 17 as we, together, journey through Lent, asking ask-are there things here that we need to die to? Are there habits, thoughts, and patterns of living in our lives that aren't consistent with the life God intended us to live? 

At the same time, Lent should be a time for Christians everywhere to accept the life and grace that God extends to us-celebrating the cross and resurrection as God's definitive act of redemption in the world.

 

Grace Church and Lent 2016

Our church, Grace Church, is providing Lenten activities each day - GIVE, MEDITATE, or PRAY during the week and CELEBRATE for each of the Sundays lending up to Resurrection Sunday - on our church Facebook and Twitter Pages.

Plus, feel free to listen to a short podcast message by me about Lent and our Lenten Activities.

 

May this Lenten Season will be time growth, personal reflection, repentance, and resurrection for each one of us.

Grace + Peace,

P. Heath

N.T. Wright on humanity being an image-bearer of God

What does it mean to be an image-bearer of God (Genesis 1:27)?

We have been addressing this, in various ways, throughout our current teaching series, CREED: 2016 on the Doctrine of Man.

Here's is N.T. Wright's wonderful answer to this question:

In the early stories, the point was that the Creator loved the world he had made, and wanted to look after it in the best possible way.  To that end, he placed within his world a looking-after creature, a creature who would demonstrate to the creation who he, the Creator, really was, and who would set to work developing the creation and making it flourish and fulfill its purpose.  This looking-after creature (or rather, this family of creatures: the human race) would model and embody that interrelatedness, that mutual fruitful knowing, trusting and loving, which was the Creator’s intention. ~ N.T. Wright, Simply Christian 

The Gay Conversation

In society today, the orthodox Christian belief that the practice of homosexuality is a sin is out of step with the times. This tension is unavoidable.

In a moment where the cultural consensus has completely flipped, many who hold to the historic belief avoid the depth of this conversation at all costs. The risk of saying the wrong thing, offending a new friend, being extreme or worse yet—unloving, quiets the dialogue. Yet privately, Christians are desperate to address this important topic with love, clarity and biblical conviction. Is there really a way forward that demonstrates both truth and grace? We believe there is.

Here's a great resource (podcasts) to help you wrestle through the gay issue...

EPISODE 001 
CONTEXT: OWNING OUR HISTORY

As our culture’s affirmation of gay sexuality grows, what does this mean for Christians and the Church? In this episode, we address why we created this series and the tensions that exist around the Church’s posture towards this conversation. David Kinnaman, President of the Barna Group and co-author of the forthcoming book, Good Faith, is one of several contributors giving insight on the latest research on Christians and extremism. 
Key Contributors: Debra Hirsch, David Kinnaman, Caleb Kaltenbach, Tim Keller, Julie Rodgers

EPISODE 002 
THEOLOGY: NOT WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS, BUT WHAT IT MEANS
One’s theology will determine everything about how they engage the gay conversation. In this episode, the Christian view of identity, sexual ethics and historic belief about human flourishing comes under the microscope. We define terms and consider how historic Christian arguments interact with the newer, gay-affirming points of view. From Leviticus to Paul, we address Jesus’ words around this topic and explore the Christian perspective on sexual design, gender difference and marriage.
Key Contributors to this podcast: David Gushee, Wesley Hill, Tim Keller, Scot McKnight, Preston Sprinkle

About Q:
Q was birthed out of Gabe Lyons’ vision to see Christians, especially leaders, recover a vision for their historic responsibility to renew and restore cultures. Inspired by Chuck Colson’s statement, “Christians are called to redeem entire cultures, not just individuals,” Gabe set out to reintroduce Christians to what had seemed missing in recent decades from an American expression of Christian faithfulness; valuing both personal and cultural renewal, not one over the other. Re-educating Christians to this orthodox and unifying concept has become central to the vision of Q.

Find out more about Q here.

2016 Bible Reading Plans

Happy New Year Grace Church family and friends! It's 2016!

Many Christians take the beginning of a new year to evaluate their Bible reading habits, and then change or begin a Bible reading plan. We would like to encourage you to consider reading and listening to the Word of God more throughout 2016.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. 

Psalm 119:105

For your convenience, we’ve compiled a list of Bible reading plans for you to choose from. Maybe in 2016 you will read more of the Bible each day. Perhaps you’ll slow down your reading/listening and, instead, spend more time considering what you read. Whatever it is you’re looking for in a reading plan, you should find it below:

Grace Church Reading Plan

This reading plan is something I (Pastor Heath) continue to come back to. It has helped me grow in my biblical comprehension of the whole storyline of the Bible. The Old Testament reading plan is designed for you read through the entire Old Testament in year. For your benefit, it is (somewhat) set up in historical order and that is why you will find books interrupted in the middle with the reading of another book (example – Job will be read in the middle of Genesis). The New Testament study plans are designed to guide you in uniquely studying the New Testament by reading and rereading one book (sometimes two or three books) per month.

Duration: Two years 

Download: PDF

52 Week Bible Reading Plan

Read through the Bible in a year, with each day of the week dedicated to a different genre: Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy, and Gospels.

Duration: One year 
Download: PDF

5x5x5 Bible Reading Plan

Read through the New Testament in a year, reading Monday to Friday. Weekends are set aside for reflection and other reading. Especially beneficial if you’re new to a daily discipline of Bible reading.

Duration: One year 
Download: PDF

Chronological Bible Reading Plan

Read through the Bible in the order the events occurred chronologically.

Duration: One year 
Download: PDF

The Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan

Four daily readings beginning in Genesis, Psalms, Matthew and Acts.

Duration: One year 
Download: PDF

ESV Daily Bible Reading Plan

Four daily readings taken from four lists: Psalms and Wisdom Literature, Pentateuch and History of Israel, Chronicles and Prophets, and Gospels and Epistles.

Duration: One year 
Download: PDF

Historical Bible Reading Plan

The Old Testament readings are similar to Israel’s Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament readings are an attempt to follow the order in which the books were authored.

Duration: One year 
Download: PDF

Reading Guide for ADVENT 2015

Advent means coming or arrival; especially the coming of that which is eagerly awaited. For the Christian church, the Advent (which is the four weeks leading up to Christmas) is a season of worshipful expectation and anticipation. Traditionally, Advent is divided up into four reflections (Hope, Peace, Joy, Love) which culminate into the Christ reflection on Christmas Eve. (We celebrate and observe these reflections through the Advent Wreath each year.)

Let’s prepare our hearts and seek the Messiah in the Scriptures this Advent season. 

Here’s a reading plan during Advent.  Enjoy.

ADVENT 2015 - "Let Every Heart Prepare"

Advent is the beginning of the Church Year for most churches in the Western tradition; and the purpose of having church seasons, such as Advent and Lent, are to create meditative rhythms in our life together. These corporate and communal rhythms are all based upon the true and sure foundation that Jesus is the Messiah, the Lord and King of all!

Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is always the Sunday nearest November 30, and ends on Christmas Eve, December 24th. It's a season marked by expectation + anticipation in preparing to celebrate the coming of Jesus.  Traditionally, Christmas begins with Christmas Day, December 25, and lasts for 12 days (The Twelve Days of Christmas) until The Day of Epiphany, January 6, which looks ahead to the mission of the church to the world in light of the Nativity and/or Jesus’ Baptism (depending on your Christian denominational traditions).

The word Advent means "coming" or "arrival." The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his First Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent. Thus, Advent is far more than simply marking a 2,000 year old event in history. It is celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of creation will one day be put to rights. That is a process in which we now participate, and the consummation of which we anticipate.

ADVENT 2015 at Grace Church:

This Advent, 2015, we are meditating on this simple, yet intricate idea: LET EVERY HEART PREPARE as we spend the four weeks of Advent looking at how each of the four Gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke, + John) introduced the birth/coming of the Messiah.

Some Advent Reflections:

This Advent season, spend some time reflecting on the following questions:

• What are you waiting for?  What’s the next “big thing” you want to see happen in your life? 
• What is it that you think will complete you and make you happy? In other words, what are you hoping, longing, and preparing for? 
• Does the way you answer these questions match the way you live? If not, what needs to change?

Questions to Help us Practice Gratitude

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

Happy Thanksgiving Grace Church! God is good; and we have much to be grateful for.

Thanksgiving reminds us of the importance of the practice of gratitude, something we neglect far too often. 

Listen to the PRACTICING GRATITUDE.

Keeping in consideration the biblical fact that every good gift is from above, here are some reflective questions to help you (and your family) practice gratitude this Thanksgiving:

• What person are you most grateful for this year and why?
• What happening or event are you most grateful for this year and why?
• What life lesson are you most grateful for this year and why?

Thank you for being a part of the Grace Church family. You are a blessing! I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends. 

Grace + Peace,

P. Heath

Practice Gratitude

We have so much to be grateful for. 

Everywhere we look, in every conversation, in every dollar earned, spent and given, in every moment lived, and in every emotion experienced, we have much to be grateful for. Oh sure, there are always things not going well in everyone’s life; but in spite of and even in the midst of those inevitable troubles and pains, God has been and is very good to us.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

Take a look around.  Try to count all the “good” things in your life. You’ll lose count!

Thanksgiving reminds us of the importance of the practice of gratitude and appreciation, something we neglect far too often.  Sometimes, the source of our angst and underpinning frustration (with just about everything!) is due to our lack of perspective. We have much to be grateful for.  May we learn to see, acknowledge, and be grateful.

We have so much to be grateful for!

May we give God the praise of thanksgiving that he is so worthy of receiving.  May we look at our loved ones, acknowledge the blessing they are to us, and be grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving,

P. Heath