sanctuarycg

WHAT WOULD JESUS SAY TO BARACK OBAMA?

The following is my text from my message last Sunday night, What Would Jesus Say to Barack Obama? I thought it might be interesting for people to interact with it. I should note this series was inspired by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw's book Jesus for President. For those who like to get their theological geek on, thinking within my message was inspired by theologians Cornelius Plantinga, John Howard Yoder, Stanley Hauerwas, and Miroslav Volf. Here ya' go...

Welcome to Sanctuary. We are in our third week of our series, Jesus for President. Like I said last week, I have three campaign promises for this series:   

1. I promise to make you mad at some point. Some of you have complained I haven’t made you mad yet. Well, tonight may be your night!
2. I promise to read every e-mail you send me. I will thank you for it but that’s about the only response you’ll get. I’m not going to spend all week arguing politics with everyone.
3. I promise not to endorse one candidate over another. Like I’ve said, I think both candidates could be very effective presidents.

That's My King

A number of you asked about the video we used Sunday night. There are a number of different versions, but here's the closest.

Jesus with skin-on

I got this email from Katie Kuehn, a college student from CrossRoads who took a semester off school to fly to India to work with Mother Teresa's Sisters of Mercy. If you have a second, read the Matthew 25:31-46 and then Katie's email update.

Q and A: How can Jesus be fully God, fully human?

I promised an answer to this question in last night's Q and A, so here it is...

Radical Trust in Christ will Change the Landscape of a Broken World

Sunday night was not a night I will soon forget. As we talked about faith, we talked about it as far beyond belief that God is God, good, real, etc. We talked about faith as "radical trust" in Jesus and His ways, and we illustrated it by teaching us all to stage-dive. Jesus told us if we had "faith and did not doubt" we could move mountains. This world is filled with mountains--hatred, perversion, greed, loneliness, hunger, preventable diseases, idolatry, etc. These mountains will only change when we throw ourselves into the arms of our loving God. In addition, we who are in Christ must be His hands and feet. We must be a community of love, grace, and holiness, eager to catch those who throw themselves into the arms of the Body of Christ (the Church).

I'm going on vacation tomorrow. While I'm gone, I'd appreciate your input. Watch the following metaphor/video clip from V for Vendetta, and tell me how you think it relevant to this phrase: Radical Trust in Christ will Change the Landscape of a Broken World. Who are we in the clip? We do not use bombs to dismantle the power structures of a broken world. What do we use?  (Note: trust me I know V is not a great metaphor for Christ, nor should Christians have vendettas.)

As we move into fall, we must remember who we are. We are a community of Christ-followers living out the story of God. As we do so, the landscape of our lives and this world will change. The Church, gang, is the hope of the world.

Who do ya' know?

A little over a week ago we talked about the five stages people go through before they consider becoming a follower of Jesus.

1. They come to trust a Christian.
2. They become curious about Christ.
3. They become open to change in their lives.
4. They seek God.
5. They come under the rule and reign of Jesus.

We talked about these stages in light of Jesus' story about a Shepherd with 100 sheep. One gets lost, so he leaves the 99 in search of the one lost.

We were specific about the first stage. If we want to help another in their journey to Christ, they must trust us. How do we engender that trust? Two ways:
--COME TO KNOW. Our lives must be shared with those around us. Who is God calling you to know and share life with?
--COME TO SERVE. We are called to serve those near us in the manner of our King. If God has laid someone upon your heart, serve them and love them extravagantly...and do so in the manner of Jesus.

We are not here for ourselves. We are here to love God and love others.

Live the revolution!

DOES GOD STILL HEAL?

This Sunday night we will be exploring the question: Does God Still Heal? We will use Matthew 17:14-20 as our text. (Note: there will be a special time for healing prayer during the service.)

¹⁴ When they arrived at the foot of the mountain, a huge crowd was waiting for them. A man came and knelt before Jesus and said, ¹⁵ “Lord, have mercy on my son, because he has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. ¹⁶ So I brought him to your disciples, but they couldn’t heal him.”

¹⁷ Jesus replied, “You stubborn, faithless people! How long must I be with you until you believe? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.” ¹⁸ Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that moment the boy was well.

¹⁹ Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?”

²⁰ “You didn’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I assure you, even if you had faith as small as a mustard seed you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

What do you think? Does God still heal? What experiences do you have with God's healing?

Jesus' Tomb

Some of you have asked about James Cameron's documentary on the supposed finding of Jesus' tomb and burial box, etc. Here's a link to a decent National Geographic article on it. I chose National Geographic because they certainly have no Christian agenda behind their posting the article. There's plenty out on the web to debunk this stuff.

Christian v. Christ-follower,

Trust me. These take-offs on the Mac v. PC commercials will make you laugh and think. Be sure to watch all three. Click here.

Comments?