Ella Fitzgerald

     Ella Fitzgerald spoke to me today. I was sitting in my chair at the office minding my own business and she just sat there on my desk and spoke right to me...or at least it felt that way. I like to listen to music from the 1920s and 30s. I long for the "simple" days where people didn't watch TV but they gathered around the radio or put on one of the family records to listen to the greats like Ella, Duke, Dizzy, and Benny. The tragedy of this story is that I don't have a record from this golden age of music much less a record player to play it on. Sad. Nonetheless, I heard a word from Ella today.

  
     As much as I try to make reading Scripture the primary way I hear from the Lord, He usually speaks to me through music. I guess that's why I love it so. Singing. Playing. Listening. God can really just crawl all over me in a good song.
     Today, as I sat in my chair looking at the Sunday School lesson and I clicked on the tracks downloaded to my computer from Mrs. Fitzgerald. She began to sing about the longing in her heart for love. A man to hold her, care for her, and watch over her. Making her his own was what she longed for. He carries the key to her heart. She sings of this man that will watch over her not as though she needs someone to restrict her, but to free her.
Jesus Christ, ransomed His life for us. We, caught in sin,  were separated from God bound to wander in the wilderness like a sheep without a shepherd. Like an Israelite without a home. Moses, as he broke through the cloud of smoke on Mt. Sinai, came down to find the people terrified of hearing from the Lord. They had seen his power displayed in the smoke, lightening and thunder and they would not even approach the mountain! Moses spoke up in Exodus 20:20 saying, "Do not be afraid, God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning." God did not want the people to ever forget what they had seen at the mountain. He wanted them to always remember His bigness and the power of His greatness. They could learn the hard way, not follow the Lord's commands and feel first hand the consequences of sin... or trust Him.
     This week in Sunday school we are pleading with the kids to trust the Lord. Don't "try" something that they know is wrong so they can "experience life". True life is the freedom that comes with a protector that holds the key to our heart. With a shepherd. With "Someone to watch, over me."

It may be out of left field. It may not be way you've ever thought. Consider it.
Jordan
 “He who fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.” Proverbs 14:26b

Painting the Backyard

     Stacy and I are adding a master bathroom and closet to our house. The addition is coming along nicely but there was a time where we wondered if they were ever going to get started! We were so anxious to have it done we might have even counted the days. Anyway, the day came where they broke ground, then they poured the foundation, added walls, put a roof on and added sheetrock. Today, it has just the basics: walls, doorways(no doors), holes in the wall for plumbing and electrical, and that's pretty much it. Over the past couple weeks, Stacy and I have been feverishly thumbing through the Home Depot website, faucet catalogues, and taking trip after trip to Lowe's and Sherwin Williams. We were not prepared for the sudden need to decorate! I mean it's all on us. There is no tacky wallpaper to build a color palate from and no pink shag carpet to deal with... it's a fresh canvas. We ask the contractor quite often, "What should we do here...?" and without a doubt his general response is, "Whatever you want to do...but can I make a suggestion?"
     Our heavenly Father set before us, about 4,000 years ago, a basis on which to build our love for Him. He laid the foundation and put in the parameters. What follows next, many people miss. Much like the blank slate we have for a bathroom, God has established a relationship with us. We can decorate our worship slate however we want and however we have been gifted and the Ten Commandments, as we are coming to see in Sunday School, are given to us as expressions of worship. Our relationship with God is the foundation with which to build on. The misconception in our society is that all by ourselves we build from the ground up a relationship by which we meet God and learn about Him. Except, that's not at all how it happens. Stacy and I would look pretty silly in out in our backyard painting, laying tile, and trying to put up light fixtures before the bathroom is built!(Reminds me of an episode of the Little House on the Prairie)
     God has loved us from before time began. He has shown us how to love Him and calls us back to fellowship with Him again. He has gifted each one of us in different ways and places us together as a body of believers so that we may worship Him together. The Ten Commandments were designed as a way to get to know God... not merely to get to God. The way to God is clear and specific. Jesus. The way we show our love for God is specific too. "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. "John 14:15


It may be out of left field. It may not be the way you've ever thought. Consider it.
 Jordan
“He who fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.” Proverbs 14:26b

Prerequisites or Results?

     This week in Student Ministry Sunday School we will be continuing with our discussion of the Ten Commandments. I feel like last week went well with a little different approach to the way we associate ourselves with the Ten Commandments.
     Normally, people associate themselves with the TC much like we would a nice warm fire in our fireplace. Stacy and I made our first fire in our new house last night. At first there was a small flame from some cardboard pieces that I tore up and stuffed under the wood. Then came the smoke. We have an old house and the fireplace is not exactly deep so the smoke poured out into our den and Chloe, our dog, looked at me as if to say, "What have you done now?!" I blew and poked and added more wood then it really got going. As I warmed myself by the fire I thought to myself, what if I just grabbed one of those burning logs and went and sat on the couch... I concluded that wouldn't be a good move but it caused me to think about the sunday school lesson. We approach the commandments our Lord has given us much the same way, we take hold of something that if misused or not properly understood can really cause more damage than good.
     Sure, it is always good not to murder, covet, steal, etc but as someone famous said "Rules without relationship equals rebellion." I made the connection with the students last sunday that as parents you care about your kids because of your relationship with them, therefore you set rules. But if I was to walk into CBC on my first Sunday and list out a bunch of dos and don'ts, they would reject the rules and most likely not like me. God did not do this with Moses on Mt. Sinai. He first established His relationship with Moses and the Israelites when he said "I am the Lord your God."(Ex 20:1) Using the present perfect tense of the word  "am", He let Moses know that He has always been their God and always will be. God did not set up the rules and then desire a relationship with His people and it's the same with us. God does not ask us to shape up and then come to Him. When we first have a relationship with God the commandments become results rather than prerequisites.
     Talk with your kids this week about how as a family you use the TC to glorify God in your relationships with each other? Talk with them about the rules of your household, why they are there, and most of all... that you, like our Lord, are hurt when the rules are broken yet you love your children no less.

It may be out of left field. It may not be way you've ever thought. Consider it.

 Jordan

“He who fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.” Proverbs 14:26b

The Priority

Our Sunday School curriculum is called "Orange". 

The Orange philosophy is taken from the idea that Christ "yellow" and the family "red" combine in a melting pot fashion to create a church that is correctly balanced. When I say church here I am talking about the people, not the building. The church is at home, work, and play because the church is more than a building...it's people... the body of Christ.


We ask ourselves the question, "Where does church belong on my priority list?" I would say that question is incomplete. The correct question does not prioritize church, for as Christians, WE ARE the church! The correct question would be, "Where does Christ belong on my priority list?" The correct answer to this question is... in every slot. Not at the top because if we leave Him at the top and move to another priority on our list, we leave Christ behind to focus on something else. 

What did Paul mean when he said, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."(Philippians 1:21)Well we know what it means to die. When we die as a believer we go to heaven and therefore "gain" a closer walk with the Father. But since when did Christ be come a verb? Can you Christ something? I think what he really meant was that in every part of living, in everything we do Christ is THE priority. 

You want to talk about RADICAL?! What if we had only one item on our priority list? What if instead of putting Christ at the top of our list with family, job, and college football to follow it, what if our only priority was Christ? How would our lives change?

At every family outing, Christ. 

At every long drawn out business meeting, Christ. 

At every college football stadium, Christ.

In everything that we do, Christ.


It may be out of left field.

It may not be way you've ever thought.

Consider it.

 Jordan

 “He who fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.” Proverbs 14:26b

ANOTHER WEBSITE?!

Yep.... another website. 

This one is certainly different than the rest of the CBC websites that have been thrust into your email inbox. I'm directing this one primarily for parents... kids may read it and that is fine, but parents can trust that reading this blog will give you insight into what your children are learning at Crosspoint. Also, I hope to include parenting tools here as well. Now, I am not a parent so you can read this with one eye closed and a hand clutching your left arm but I hope you will take a moment to consider some of these things. The last thing you need is some inexperienced jackleg telling you how to run your family, however, I may not be an experienced parent but I have spent countless hours hearing from YOUR CHILDREN and hundreds of children like yours. I may not have any revolutionary advice from my brain but I hope to certainly point you first to scripture and then give you some tools and advice from great minds in christian parenting and philosophy. 

It may be out of left field.

It may not be way you've ever thought.

Consider it.

Jordan

“He who fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for his children it will be a refuge.” Proverbs 14:26b