3 Key Questions for 2011

So what will it look like for you?  Do you have a plan?  I believe the reason we fail come March, is because we begin to think, "How in the world can I keep this up until December???"  When all we should be thinking about getting through today, knowing that "His mercies are new every morning."

3 key questions you must ask if you will do things differently in 2011.


WHEN?  If you don't determine when you will do it, it won't happen.

HOW?  If you don't have a game plan, it won't happen.

WHO?  If you don't have someone walking with you through it, you will most definitely fail.  So who is your accountability? 

The times I have been successful are the times I have continually begged the Lord to do it in me.  I don't have what it takes to pursue the Lord over the long haul.  He MUST do it in me!  If you don't beg him to do it in you, it won't happen...and even if it does, it will be futile.

If you want to read some more about this or you want to know what my game plan is for 2011, check out my personal blog HERE.

Praying for more of Him in 2011!
Dave

A Vision for 2011

The image to the right is a bust that is featured at the St. Louis Art Museum called St. John the Evangelist dated 1500 AD. I saw this image first a couple of years ago at the museum. The transcription talks about the artist wanting to portray his image of John looking upon the cross and the dead body of Jesus. Every angle on the sculpture is pointing down, giving it a very somber feel. If you look at this and study it, you begin to connect with what that moment must have meant to John. I see the passion of a man who loved Jesus deeply.

The elders of North Church want to cast a vision for that sort of passion for Jesus in 2011. This image is one of sorrow, but it is a deeply passionate sorrow. We are praying that 2011 will be a year that our church engages and chases hard after the person of Jesus and that doing so will result in a passion for Jesus similar to the one captured by this sculpture.

We want to encourage you to read through My Utmost for His Highest. This is a daily devotional. This link has each day's reading on it and is very user friendly. If you have never heard of the book or have gone through it before, we want to encourage you walk with us through it this year. We will be blogging consistently about it and encourage you to engage it and engage us as we walk through this together.

George MacDonald said, "Whatever a man does without God he must fail miserably, or succeed even more miserably.” In short our vision for 2011 is that we would pursue God with great vigor in 2011 and live this year with Him.

We have also found a free on line resource from The Gospel Coalition and D A Carson. The resource is a Bible reading plan and short companion commentary. Volume 1 goes along with a family reading plan and Volume 2 goes alone with a secret reading plan.

You will be hearing more about this vision on Sunday in the sermon. If you can't make it on Sunday be sure to listen to the podcast. You will also be seeing blog entries in the coming weeks as well. So we invite you to walk with us in 2011 as we seek to chase hard and passionately after Jesus.

Advent

Last year, North Church produced a booklet designed to read daily through the Advent season. We want to encourage you to share this link and ask someone to read it with you as you wait with expectation for THE COMING

Some thoughts from today

I am bound by time and I am bound by my lack of faith. Time chains me to my worry and stress because I cannot see the coming redemption and glory of the Lord. My lack of faith binds me because I do not trust the sovereignty of the Lord and surrender to His goodness with my family, my church, my friends and my finances.

So I find myself bound in darkness of stress and worry and sleeplessness. My mind races to places of insecurity and doubt and when I arrive at that destination I am willing to remain there.

But the truth is, Jesus is has defeated all darkness in all forms. Any chains that bind me are imagined. KNOW THAT and soak it in to your spirit.

Have a great day in Jesus today.

The Advent Season is here

The Advent Conspiracy is a movement that we connected with last year during this time and we are doing so again this year. Check out the link to learn more about them.

This year it will be a bit different for us as we highlight four different missionaries that North Church is connected with. Each week during Advent we will see a different missionary present who they are and what God has called them to and tell us how we can connect with them.

Here are the four missionaries that we will connect with::

Ryan and Jamie Wagner with Campus Crusade for Christ (November 28)- Ryan and Jamie will be moving from St. Louis to Boulder Colorado sometime this winter to take the gospel to the campus of the University of Colorado. Ryan and Jamie are still raising support and looking for partners for their ministry. You will be given a chance to partner with them.

Vernon and Amber Burger with His Voice for Sudan (December 5)- His Voice's mission is "empowering orphans, widows an church leaders to make disciples of all nations. His Voice reaches out and supports local indigenous churches in The Sudan. There is an epidemic of orphans in the Sudan, so the practical way they are doing this is building, staffing, and equipping orphanages in The Sudan. You can also purchase this song on iTunes and every dime goes to build orphanages in The Sudan.

Dave and Kelly missionaries to Southeast Asia (December 12)- We have been praying with and for Dave and Kelly for more than two years as they take the gospel to this highly populated and gospel suppressing country.

Randy an Hannah Riggs with World Impact (December 19)- Randy and Hannah have are missionaries to the inner city of St. Louis. They help to run ministry center on North Grand in North St. Louis City. Poverty, gangs, drugs, absent parents, and gun fire are all dealt with daily. But God has called them into the culture and has allowed them to see fruit and they have begun to raise up leaders within the culture for the sake of the gospel.

We will be giving you opportunities to connect with time, money, prayer, and other ways to partner with each of these missionaries during the Advent season. Take time to pray for them today and consider how you might partner with them this Advent season.

From the Sermon this week

The Gospel Coalition is an organization of gospel minded church leaders across the globe. This is a tweet from their Twitter account from today that stuck me as I prepared for the message this week. "The gospel doesn’t just make you right with God, it frees you to delight in Him."

Works based justification makes you pay attention to who you are and what you have done and honest evaluation of this always makes you feel the weight of your inadequacies. Faith based justification puts the work on Jesus and what he has already finished and always leaves us filled.

This all reminds me of a verse that I am struck with lately (Genesis 2:25). I long to be so Christ focused that I am naked and unashamed.

Two Points:: Thursday November 18

Point 1

"You are no more capable of doing better than you are of creating new world." A W Pink.

So many of us, even those who seek to know, understand and apply the gospel, are plagued by this need to do better, to be better. I was involved in sports and church as a kid. A lot of my sports teams were very good and we were pushed to work hard, practice hard, give max effort all the time and that would yield success.

In church, I was taught the same thing. Our offering envelopes that got mailed to our house every three months had boxes on them to check off. The boxes were giving, bible brought, bible read daily, Sunday School attendance, outreach attendance and some more that I do not remember.

The point of these boxes was to get the minds of the members to think about such things. But the result that was poured into my conscience was that these are things that I could do to make God happy, to be a good Christian. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of these things. But there is something very wrong with my working to get to God.

Point 2

Genesis 2:25 says that Adam and Eve were (pre-sin) naked and unashamed. Gen 3:7 says that Adam and Eve (post-sin)knew they were naked and so they did things to cloth themselves.

What if we stopped focusing on who or what we are and started to focus on who and what God is? What if that took away this need to try harder or try to cover ourselves? What if our problem is that we are too focused on ourselves and we need to get back to that place in the garden where we were naked and unashamed. Between Genesis 2:25 and 3:7 the physical thing that happens to Adam and Eve is that their eyes are opened to who they are. That is, they are distracted from God and His pure beauty and provision by themselves.