I had the amazing opportunity to spend the weekend with my original "kids": Bethany, Becca & Ben, my amazing cousins. I surprised them & showed up uninvited for a small reunion they were having at Becca's GORGEOUS home in NE Georgia. We had a wonderful time, just being together. Sure am proud of those guys!
Friday, my lifelong friend Kathi was able to drive over for the day. We picked up from when we last saw each other (almost a year ago!) and talked non-stop! There's just something about "old" friends that God knits together...
This morning I went to Andy Stanley's church North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, GA. Get this, in honor of the July 4th weekend, the opening song was John Mellencamp's "R-O-C-K in the USA" the band was amazing, the vocalists impeccable and it had all the trappings of a rock concert... but not to the point that the Gospel was ever watered down or made light of...
The speaker was Scot McKnight, writer of "The Jesus Creed". You can read more about it here, or check out his blog here. The main premise of his sermon, (and his book) is what he calls the Jesus Creed coming from Luke 10: 27:
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself."
But he also took it a step further and included one of my favorite portions of scripture:
James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:
to look after orphans and widows in their distress
and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
to look after orphans and widows in their distress
and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Maybe you should read that again... I'll wait...
Let's look at this a second: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this..." That tells me that EVERYTHING else in our religiosity is NOT PURE and FULL OF FAULT...
Enough of my sermonette for the night - I'll do my best to update this more often...
think on that passage & let me know your thoughts... good night...
Let's look at this a second: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this..." That tells me that EVERYTHING else in our religiosity is NOT PURE and FULL OF FAULT...
Enough of my sermonette for the night - I'll do my best to update this more often...
think on that passage & let me know your thoughts... good night...
