Storms

Last night was one of the worst storms I have ever had to drive through. I was driving an old 15 passenger van with very bad shocks. The weather was very windy, lots of lightening, and lots of rain, (for Bullhead). I couldn't drive faster than 30 mph or the wind would blow the van in the other lane, literally. In fact it blew one of the palo verde trees over. It was a pretty big tree that the kids had a rope swing in. So, being the young college student living with the 70+ year old couple, I got the task of taking care of it. Actually I didn't mind very much, except that at 11:00 it was already 108+ degrees. Good thing is that I was able to use an old reciprocating saw on most of the branches. I only had to use the axe on the thicker branches and the trunk.

Temple of God

I heard something interesting the other day. A rerun of one of the late Pastor Adrian Roger's sermons was playing early Sunday morning. In the sermon he said that there were no seats for the priests to sit on in the temple. I had never really thought about it before, and it may seem insignificant at first, until we realize that the temple was a typology of the Messiah. The priests never sat down because their work was never finished. There were always new sacrifices to atone for the people's sins. When Christ made His sacrifice, however, He cried "it is finished" and now He sits at the right hand of the Father. He sits, because His sacrificial work truly is over. There is no more need of continued sacrificed, Jesus paid it all!

Psalm 90

This is a sermon I am currently working on. First I break the passage down into logical sections and then break those sections down into a main idea with sub-ideas.
This is a very rough outline, later I will edit this post when I have the final draft finished.

Psalm 90:1-17

Infinite God

1 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

I. LORD, He is YHWH, "I am that I am" -the self existing one.

II. Formed the Earth, The Creator was never created.

Finite Man

3 Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.

4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.

6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.

I. Destruction-"dust," from dust we were formed, to dust we return.
II. Methuselah lived 969 years, not even a day in God's sight.

Sinful Man

7 For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.

8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

I. God is merciful, but also just.
II. God knows everything we do, open sins as well as secret.

Departing Man

9 For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.

10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath.

12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

I. Man lives an average of 70-80 years, as a tale that is told=a sigh.
II. Number our days, don't be frivolous, but diligent and discerning.

Gracious God

13 Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.

14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.

16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.

17 And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.


I. The mercy of God brings joy in our lives.
II. Our work comes to naught, unless God is in it.

M-theory

I was watching PBS about String Theory, www.superstringtheory.com or M-theory as it is now known. One thing that confuses me is that scientists are still talking about the big bang as if it really happened, and not only that as if it is the only way the universe could have been created. The really odd thing about M-theory is that they postulate that the big bang happened when two parrellel universes collided causing the needed force to scatter into existence the millions of particles. The question that scientist still have not answered is where did all the matter come from? And now the questions are, how did the parallel universes come into existence? Don't get me wrong, I am neither confirming nor denying the existence of strings. But I am denying the process of macro-evolution as creating our universe. God created it. Is it so much easier to believe that a parallel universe collided into our universe and caused the big bang and that for the past 4+ billion years we have slowly evolved from a one celled being into the intelligent life that we are now than to say, God said it and it is? In either situation you are left with one option, either matter has always existed into eternity past and is the uncaused cause, or God has always existed into the past and is the uncaused cause. The problem with matter being the uncaused cause is that matter does not have intelligence and therefore could not produce intelligence, the problem with God being the uncaused cause is that if God created us than we must answer to Him when we die.

long summer

Well for the two people out there who still read my blog, I realize I haven't updated or added any new posts for quite a while. I have only 3 weeks left before I go back to college. This next semester I will only be able to take 4 credits towards my major, everything else I have already taken or conflicts with my schedule. The good thing is that I am able to take 3 credits towards my master's degree this semester. Hopefully I can arrange it so that I get my master's a year after my bachelor's degree. We'll see. But the purpose of this entry is to share what I have been doing for the summer, not what I will be doing in the future. Anywho, I have been helping in Bullhead City as a youth pastor. I started in May and am continuing until the 18th of August. The teens are great. They have really grown this past summer despite me being their pastor. God has really worked in their lives whether they realize it or not. I have about six teens that come regularly, and a few visitors that come once in a while. Two of my teens and I went to Camp Ironwood a couple of weeks ago and God was really working on them, and myself. Unfortunately, after a great spiritual high at camp, the cares of this world and the daily grind have taken their toll on their decisions. They are great people, but they struggle. They are teenagers, and still have a lot of maturing to do, just like we all did. Besides working with the teens doing youth activities and teaching Sunday school, I am also working with the kids in a children's choir, painting the church and occasionally preaching for Sunday services.
I have been busy, but I have learned a lot of practical things that they don't teach you in college. For instance I have had to answer questions I never even thought of, or never thought about having to explain to my teens. One of my teens asked me how I know that my religion is the right religion. I was driving at the time and wasn't able to think of a satisfying answer, so the next day, in Sunday School I answered his question. Unfortunately he wasn't there, his family was, but for some reason he wasn't. My answer was basically an apologetic. I explained that I believe in the Bible because of the Bible. That the Bible never has and cannot be proven contradictory. That there are no errors in the Bible and that the Bible was inspired from God. I also used some philosophy. One of the main goals in philosophy is to explain the problem of the one and the many. I believe that the Triune God of the Bible explains the problem of the one and the many. There is only one God, yet He has three distinct Persons. God is at the same time One, and Three. I showed them also that the basics of almost every religion, except the Christian religion of the Bible, is based on works. There is only one religion based solely on Faith in Christ alone for Salvation. Mormonism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, and Islam are all based on works for salvation. I don't think that God is just going to say, "majority rules, I guess it'll be a works based salvation." But rather it is "God rules, and what He says goes." And He has spoken to us in His Word the Bible, (I Tim. 3:16).
I am going to miss the people here at Bullhead when I go back to IBC, but I am thinking about coming back if God leads me here again. I certainly do have a burden for them and want to see them serve God with their lives.