1)  SUMMERTIME ANNOUNCEMENT!!  We are MOVING!  Starting this Sunday at 5PM we are gathering at the luxurious Ole Miss BSU.   We are so excited about this opportunity to meet in a great space that will give us a chance to save some money this summer while reaching out to lots of new people.  It’s a win-win!  Hope you will join us for this awesome gathering, especially those of you who will be going home soon!   I know many of you will be busy with Finals madness and Swayze Craziness, but this is going to be an incredible gathering.  And there will be food.  See you there.  AND BRING A FRIEND!  Just go watch us clinch the series with LSU, and then walk right across the street and come find us!  It’ll be great!

2)  Do you feel especially geeky this week?  I know I do.  I can’t believe that we are just a few days away from the Avengers movie.   This is a comic book movie on a whole new level – a crossover nerd-fest that should have never been made!  If you know anything about the amount of red tape that producers and directors have to wade through to get just one of these movies made, it’s kind of amazing that this movie exists.  Even better than simply existing, it seems like they have made it awesome!   From all the stuff I have heard, I will suggest to you that you see this movie with a group of friends, and in a packed theater if possible.  It sounds like it’s going to be one of those increasingly rare, magical theater experiences where the crowd’s reaction is as fun as the film!   It’s going to be huge.

3)  We finished off our ‘Church and Cross’ series this Sunday.  It’s been a difficult study, because really studying the actions and words of Jesus has thoroughly messed with some of my religious assumptions.  This week we looked at Jesus’ view of ministry success, and it was clear that Jesus’ goal in preaching was often to reveal painful truths to His hearers.   The most painful – and helpful – truth that Jesus communicated in the 6th chapter of John was that many of the people who were hearing Him speak didn’t truly love Him.  They liked Him, were curious about Him, or wanted a show from Him – but that wasn’t the same as truly loving Him and being His disciple.  Jesus frequently seemed to run off ‘would-be followers’ who were after Him for selfish reasons, instead of congratulate them for being mildly interested in what He had to say.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that Jesus is constantly challenging these people’s commitment and devotion to Him.   This is still true today.  Our nation is full of churches that are full of people who would absolutely say that they “LOVE Jesus,” but I think Jesus would have some pretty pointed questions for us.     It’s so easy to say words and sing beautiful phrases about our love for Him, but do our lives match up with the declarations we make?  This is obviously important to Him, because Jesus came to reveal to us what love truly looks like, and He doesn’t want people to be confused about ‘following’ Him.  One of the best things we can take from the words of Jesus is the staggering realization that we don’t really love Him like we should.   This understanding will either cause us to reject Him or repent to Him, and as He tells the lukewarm church in Revelation, either response is better than the apathy that defines many ‘Christians’ today.

I know that’s a lot to process, but if you want to hear more about it, we are going to post the sermon soon.  Give it a listen, and more importantly – give these ideas some thought:

Do I really love Jesus?

Am I hungry for Jesus?

Do I ‘follow’ Jesus for selfish reasons?

Will I reject Him or Repent to Him?

See you Sunday at the BSU!

Scripture: John 6:26-71

Description: Curt talks about how true success is found only in believing in Jesus.

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I have received some really encouraging feedback from this week’s sermon, so I will try to put some of those thought into a bloggable format for those of you who weren’t with us on Sunday.  As most of you know, we are currently doing a series called Church and Cross.  As we have been looking at the way Jesus handled certain things, it causes us to reflect on how the church might have fallen short.  This week we wrestled with how the Gospel that Jesus preached often doesn’t resemble the gospel that our churches proclaim.   This topic is hard to fully explain in a small blog post, so hopefully you’ll check out the sermon when we podcast it later this week.

I will try to summarize the main point for you.   In the fourth chapter of Luke’s account of the life of Christ, we get to see why the people in Jesus’ own church turned against Him.  I always thought it was because He was claiming that He was going to fulfill the promises of Isaiah 61 by healing sick people and setting captives free.  Turns out, the people in His church were fine with those audacious claims.  When Jesus asserted that God might send Him to reach ‘outsiders’ like Syrians and Sidonians with this freedom, the church folks became outraged.   The truth is, the work Jesus came to do was much bigger than winning wars for the nation of Israel.   He wanted to proclaim spiritual freedom and life to all who would believe on His name.  But I don’t even think that His ultimate mission to reach the nations was what the people in Nazareth took offense to.

Jesus was ultimately telling these fine church folks that He was going to walk right past them in order to bless the undeserving heathens.  The scandalous reality of His sermon in Luke 4 is that He came to help the poor, oppressed, indebted, and sick – including us church members.  I think those congregants in Nazareth were fine with Jesus helping those poor, sick people – until they realized that He was talking about THEM.   He wanted these nice church folks to repent and see their lives for what they really were.  He wasn’t going to the marginalized and broken because He loves them more, but because they were fully aware of their need for help – and because the religious people didn’t really see their need for His help.

Often in our churches – for the sake of this story, the ‘Hometown’ of Christ – we are far too familiar with Jesus and far too unwilling to acknowledge our sinfulness.  He is more than willing to deal with our failures and weaknesses, as long as we aren’t trying to hide them.   Sadly, I believe in many of our churches we push Him away because we are threatened and afraid of the ugly truth coming out, rather than being overcome with joy that He has come to save wretches like us.

In summary – the Gospel of Jesus isn’t for them.  It’s for us.  It has to be rightly understood among His people, and then we will have something beautiful to offer the world.

Jesus wants to set YOU spiritually free, to make YOU spiritually rich, to declare YOUR spiritual debts of sin are cancelled.

That implies that you have some needs.  And this story tells me that failing to see these needs and respond in grateful repentance is a rejection of Jesus’ work in your life.

So I will end with these 2 simple verses from Luke 4.  Read them and this time, don’t think about the other 7 billion people in the world.   Realize that He is talking about you.    He came to do all this…For You.   I pray you will respond very differently than the folks in the story…

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Luke 4:18-19

Scripture: Luke 4

Description: Curt reminds us that the Gospel is not only for the lost, but for believers as well.

[Pssst. There's an audio clip here. View the full post to listen]

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Scripture: Matthew 10

Description: Curt reminds us that we can join God on His mission as we go about our daily lives.

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Our family devotions were such a wonderful time of Bible study, singing, talking, laughing, and prayer.   It was such a joy to talk about some really profound concepts with my family as we studied the journey of Christ to His cross.   Of all the things I noticed, one simple idea kept my attention this year:

The determination of Jesus Christ.  The effect may be slightly lessened when taken in small chunks, but as you study the whole story it is staggering how determined Jesus was to save us.  From the moment He “set His face toward Jerusalem,” He shows an incredible resolve to accomplish His mission.

It would have been easy to buy into the hype as people chanted “Hosanna” upon His entry into town.   Most of us would have sold out very quickly to hold on to that kind of adulation.  Jesus kept preaching the Word, loving the scandalous, and exposing the phonies, all the while moving closer to the moment when His new ‘fan-club’ would begin to call out for His execution.

Jesus kept His eyes on His calling and mission while His friends began to doubt, misunderstand, and betray Him.  It wasn’t easy for Him to stay true to His calling while feeling utterly alone, but that is exactly what He did.

As He agonized in the garden, He fully submitted to the terrible ordeal of crucifixion.  I hear in His words the full awareness that the choice was His to make.  His love for us was great, but His choice to obey shows us so much more about His love for the Father.   Truly the joy of faithfully fulfilling the Father’s plan was what gave Jesus the strength to endure the horrors ahead.

How could the God of creation possibly endure the sadistic mocking of religious leaders, politicians, and commoners.  Think about the dedication He showed in being willing to humble Himself far below people who literally had no power over Him.  He lovingly, peacefully, and truthfully dealt with sinful people while being falsely accused, unfairly judged, and mercilessly beaten.

For the first time this week, I contemplated another evidence of His unbelievable commitment.   His refusal to die until His work was finished.  I am quite sure I wouldn’t make it past the scourging.   He could have given up at any time, but He knew what He had to do.  Each time He fell under the weight of that cross, He could have  stayed down, dying in the street instead of on my cross.  But He had already decided to finish His mission, so He pushed His traumatized body back up and continued towards that skull-shaped hill to be my substitute.

After all that, they still laughed.  They mocked Him, cursed Him, and made sport of His entire ministry.  My God was hungry, thirsty, exhausted, in shock, naked, and in more pain than we can possibly imagine.  Quick question, if you were omnipotent, what would you be capable of in such a moment of extreme weakness?   His mind-blowing response: Father, Forgive them.

Soon after this, He declared – “It is Finished.”

And Death itself was unable to stop Him from completing His mission.  He’s alive.  I know Him.  And I was able to celebrate His victory with millions of His followers around the world yesterday.

All because He didn’t quit.  He knew what God had called Him to do, and He let nothing stand in His way.

A few final observations:

1)  There’s nothing weak about Jesus. Too many people confuse His mercy with weakness.  These people usually find it difficult to reverently fear Jesus because they subconsciously see Him as a humble, crucified carpenter instead of the Omnipotent, Resurrected King of Kings.  There has been no greater demonstration of real strength in history than in the life of Jesus Christ.

2)  I can live with that kind of strength – because He lives in me. I forget this.  I think a lot about what I can’t do.  I must continually remind myself that the same power that enabled Jesus to complete His mission is living inside of me.    I shudder to think what could happen in the church today if we really understood that the Spirit of God lives inside of us and really wants to use us to advance His kingdom.

3)  I let too many stupid things stand in my way. When I see all that Jesus overcame, it really exposes how pathetic I am.   I can throw a pity party for myself over the most trivial of difficulties, and suddenly my walk with God is stalled or derailed until I manage to climb out of my self-induced funk.  But I’m just as prone to get caught up in the good things.  I can get so content and satisfied with where I am that I stop being faithful to my personal mission.  It is incredibly easy to get distracted by good things and stop striving for the best things.

I must remember Jesus.  He didn’t let discouragement or difficulties stand in His way.  He didn’t settle for performing miracles and astounding crowds with His teachings.  He finished His mission.

And with His help, so will I.

I guess what I’m trying to say is…  This Easter, I’m more amazed by Jesus than ever before.

I hope you can say the same.

Before the Throne

Artists: Charitie Bancroft & Vikki Cook
Links: lyrics/chords, iTunes

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I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord

Artists: Timothy Dwight & Kyle Kite
Links: lyrics/chords

Community

Artist: Ross King
Links: iTunes

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Oh God of Love Enable Me

Artists: David Duncan & Kyle Kite
Links: lyrics/chords, mp3 (acoustic track from my living room)

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Church of God

Artist: Kyle Kite
Links: lyrics/chords

Scripture: John 15:12-17

Description: Curt takes a look at what it means to lay down your life for your friends.

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1) Review of Sunday
2)  Preview of Easter
3)  Assorted Randomness

Now that you know what’s coming up, let’s get to it!

1)  This Sunday we had another great gathering.  Our current study – “Church and Cross” – has been incredibly helpful to me.  This week we discussed how Jesus commanded His followers to lay their lives down for each other in John 15.   I have to be honest, it came as quite a shock to me to think of this verse in a way other than ‘be willing to die for each other.’   Honestly, I don’t think that is really what Jesus is talking about at all.  He is talking about living as He lived: sacrificially, humbly, and servant-heartedly.   He is reminding us that love always costs us something.  If we want to be a Christ-like church, we must be willing to love each other by laying down our lives.  This requires a lot more than patience and tolerance, and it will produce the kind of community our world is desperately seeking.   Many churches have focused on programs or strategies to the exclusion of building an intimate community of faith within the church.  Admittedly, I have struggled with this:  it’s MUCH easier to do church that way.  After this Sunday, I have new resolve to help our church grow closer to Jesus and closer together, trusting Him that it’s more fruitful and powerful to do it His way.

2)  If you weren’t with us this weekend, you might be asking, “So what are we doing for Easter?”  Well, we know that many of our ‘regulars’ will be visiting their traditional Easter celebrations on Sunday.  (BTW, Hope you guys have a great time!)  After thinking about what God has been teaching us, we decided we would do things a little differently for our Sunday gathering.   Instead of going bigger and flashier, we will be having a simple Easter gathering and meal at the OCC at 5PM.  I know some of you won’t have the chance to go home for Easter, so you can just join our church family’s celebration.   We will eat together while we gather, and we are simply asking you to bring something edible.   If you are planning on attending, please let us know on our group Facebook page what dish you will be bringing.   I am also hoping some of you will consider helping us by sharing a song or a word of testimony during our gathering – if so, please let us know.  I am so excited about our  celebration of the resurrection of Jesus as we Share a meal, Share our Stories, and Share in His Joy.

3)  Ok.  I think I can give you a few little random nuggets this week.  Nothing mindblowing, but here goes…

Even I am super excited that our Baseball Rebels got it done this weekend.  So in their honor:  Love is Gone.

Still haven’t seen the Hunger Games movie – but I think this video is hilarious.  You will too. (and a little sad)

I made a super retro playlist of songs for my family that we are playing this week as we talk about Easter.  Exposing my kiddo to lots of old school 80s & 90s songs is fun and occasionally embarrassing, but we are rocking these old songs out!  Personal fav – Crowder’s laid back cover of Because He Lives.

I’m on the record that I think the 80′s were an awesome time to be a kid, but can you imagine how awesome it is for these little fellas that a full scale Avengers movie is coming out while they are still kids?  They actually get to see a movie that is equivalent to all of our back yard play sessions while we grew up.  So cool.

Have a great week!

Curt

In our gathering this Sunday we studied John 17.  In this amazing chapter Jesus reveals a lot about His plans for the church as He specifically prays for us.   I hope you guys join me in reflecting on our past church experiences, and thinking about how our churches can be more Christlike from here on out.

As we discussed Sunday, it’s impossible to look at the churches in the Bible and not see the crucial importance of deep community.  Sadly, many of our churches  are overstressed, overprogrammed, overwhelmed, and still in desperate need of community.   We want our church to be a group of people who are full of joy, full of hope, and full of love for Jesus and each other.  I know many of you are busy, and the weather has just been too delightful to come inside, but we would love for you to gather with us this weekend as we continue this study – learning more about how Jesus lived, and how we should live as well.

We will get the sermons from the past few weeks posted soon.  The audio quality may not be outstanding, but I hope you’ll check them out if you haven’t been with us on Sundays.

The UM big event is this weekend.  There will be lots of opportunities to serve our town.  If you haven’t yet, I hope all of you students check and see how you can be involved.

It’s been a good week for funny/weird links.  Here’s a few.

If you were wondering if it is possible to like Star Wars too much…. The answer is yes.  Methinks this guy should convince you…

Some guy made a bunch of movie posters in an 8-bit Mega Man art style.  It made me feel nostalgic.  Or is it old?  We actually thought these graphics were amazing!

You think you are good at Draw Something?   Check these out and be humbled.

Battle of the Geeky iPhone cases….  THIS? or  THIS?

This is one of the greatest stupid things I have seen in a while. Ever wonder what would happen if Chuck Norris took Pac Man’s place for a day?  It’s Epic.  (the other ones are pretty good too…)

On that note, I’ll leave it with you.  Have a great week!

Curt