2008 Desiring God Conference

I was thrilled to see the lineup for this years Desiring God National Conference (Sept. 28-30th) in Minneapolis. I wasn't thrilled to see the names on the lineup - because God's truth is communicated through vessels of saved sinners - but was thrilled to see the challenging assignments given by Dr. John Piper to each of his guests for this weekend as I know the Word will be communicated in a highly effective way and the Gospel will shine forth bigger than any speaker or talk that is given and Jesus will be made supreme!

Here is a video of Piper explaining why he invited Mark Driscoll to the conference. We will be taking a group from my church in Fargo. Last year 7 of us attended. We are hoping to grow that number this year as this conference is a huge encouragment as we look at "The Power of Words and the Wonder of God"

Hymn Of The Week: What Wondrous Love Is This?

Words: Attributed to Alexander Means

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul.

When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul, for my soul,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul.

To God and to the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb, I will sing.
To God and to the Lamb Who is the great “I Am”;
While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing;
While millions join the theme, I will sing.

And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on;
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on.
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing and joyful be;
And through eternity, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on;
And through eternity, I’ll sing on.

The redone version that I have been listening too is available here.

Evidences of God's Grace

I believe it is good to reflect and praise the Lord as he shows His grace, His undeserved favor to us. This weekend for me was one of those stretches were evidences of God's grace were overflowing. I'd like to share them in three segments with you.

Sunday - June 15th - Shannon and I celebrated 5 years of marriage (Shannon will be visiting her fam in Montana on the 21st). By God's grace 5 years has gone by and I love my wife more and more. What a joy it is to know that she forgives me, carries burdens with me, prays for me, does ministry with me, and respects me all as a response to the Gospel of Christ. In addition to those things she allows me to yell at the television during sporting events, stink up the upstairs bathroom when I feel like, and drink from the bottles/cartons in the fridge (although that hasn't happened since we have children - so that priviledge if you can call it that - looks to be on the way out). I am a blessed man - by my wife's choice - not mine - we celebrated with going golfing and then heading out to eat wings at Buffalo Wild Wings and watch Tiger sink a 20 footer on the 18th hole to tie Rocco Mediate in the US Open. Man I love my wife!

Sunday - June 15th - God's grace has been poured out to me in having a daugter that I absolutely adore. She adores me, responds to me, prays with me before we go to bed, and hardly ever listens to me (we are working on that more and more everyday). I received a gift on Father's Day that consisted of a card with my name on it (although it had scribbled crayon all over my name), a new book on puppies to read to Aunika, and her latest picture from a coloring book. One of her latest fasinations is to put my shoes on and walk around. She must think her daddy is pretty cool to be wearing his running shoes - bet we won't be seeing this for long.

Saturday - June 14th - I got the priviledge of seeing God's grace in the lives of two great friends. I got to perform my first wedding and share how the lives of two individuals can be a reflection of Jesus and the Church. What a joy it was to see two followers of Jesus express their love to each other in a way that glorifies God. God's grace was seen through the weather this day. The wedding was an outside wedding and the rain stopped at 6:20 pm. The wedding was at 7 pm and went from 7:20 to about 8:05. The 50 mph winds and more rain came at 8:20 pm. The two hours that were needed for this wedding were granted as it was calm, sunny and beautiful outside. My favorite part as the officiating pastor was to see a man I admire as a father, who has raised his daughter with a great example of what to look for in a man, escort his daughter down the aisle with a smile on his face and a couple tears in his eyes.
Tuesday June 16-Thursday June 18th - God's grace is given to me in the undeserved gift of having great parents. We are leaving for a while as my parents take my family on vacation to Medora. It is our Christmas gift this year as my parents wanted time with them more than anything. "You can't put a price tag on that!" are the words of my folks.

God's grace is everywhere and shows up most importantly through Jesus Christ. May we know nothing else besides Jesus Christ and Him crucified for evidences of grace flow from that truth!

Going #2 in Space

Check out this video about going to the bathroom in space. As a kid when you first saw astronauts floating around, didn't you ever wonder how they could do that and go to the bathroom. Well here is your answer from a NASA engineer.

6 a.m. Bible Study: I actually got out of bed!

Today I got up for the weekly Men's Bible Study held at MBC. I typically have been a really good sleeper and a really bad discipliner of myself to get up for things that are totally worth it. Anyways I took some notes and thought today's discussion was worthy of providing some quotes on our discussion.

We discussed Pursuing Righteousness vs. Pursuing Wealth

Scriptures looked at in this order:

• Luke 12:13-15 - First part of the Parable of the Rich Fool
• 1 Tim. 6:6-12 - Contentment: especially enjoyed v. 8 - "But if we have food and clothing, with these, we will be content." Lead into v. 11 Pursue righteousness - righteousness leads to being in God's Word
• 2 Tim. 3:16 - training in righteousness
• 2 Tim 4:8 - the crown of righteousness to be awarded
• 1 Cor. 9:24 - 10:6

Some quotes that came up during our time of discussion. We did get into tithing and giving, as it is related to us pursuing wealth.

• "Many times we pursue the lesser of the goals (not Christ) that are before us"
  
• "The unexamined life isn't worth living."
• "Examine motives and what's inside....drill down into your heart - is it pure or is it greed - am I walking by faith or sight?"
• "As we are obedient in our giving - God will do more with the 90% left than with all 100%"
• "I give so I receive God's blessing - We fool ourselves though to always be looking at blessings in the form of wealth. There are disguised blessings: don't get sick as often, car doesn't break down, ability not to hold grudges/be jealous, etc. We always look for the wealth."
• "Pursuing righteousness = Pursuing the things of God. All is a response to being saved (Titus 3:5)."

Saved From Wrath II

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 (ESV) says:

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

What is the "wrath" that is to come? from R.C. Sproul's Saved From What (Crossway, 2002).

• Some scholars believe it is a reference to the impending doom of Jerusalem that occurred in 70 A.D.
• Others see it as a reference to the last judgment.

The ultimate salvation that any human being can ever experience is RESCUE from the wrath that is to come. The RESCUE is in the form a man named Jesus Christ. Do we believe that there remains wrath that is to come? I do, but I believe many don't and chalk it up to, "That is cool for you Brett to think like that, but that's not God - man that doesn't sound fair to me" and go on living their lives without thinking about God's promised judgment and the wrath of God remains on them. I pray for the lost and pray for their RESCUE.

Don't Mess With My Familiar!

We don't like change do we? We love our familiar things and when someone brings a new idea, a different perspective, or an enhanced better option we tend to freak out and start taking ownership of things that really aren't ours to begin with. This was relayed to me the other day as I heard the story of Hockey Night in Canada and the CBC's decision to possibly take away the 40 year old, "second national anthem" theme song that kicks off every broadcast. When Canadians hear this song it is equivalent to Americans hearing the The Monday Night Football Theme Song. When you hear the song, you just know what is being coming - your favorite sport. Canadians aren't too happy as emails flooded the CBC office as a tradition hangs in the balance.

In many ways change represents to people that they lost something, but many times change is necessary to move forward and break free from older, less useful approaches. Discernment is a key area to talk about when making change. Change can be good if done thoughtfully, lovingly, and most of the time slowly to those that may not approve of the change. Change can be bad if done in a prideful way to ram road your own personal agenda through - while usually doing things very quickly without much counsel. Change can be hard as opinions and requests are made on both sides of the issue (with many potential positive and negative results forthcoming).

May we not put too much stock, energy, and passion into our familiar - because change may be on coming at any time!