Gateway Fellowship

I spoke briefly about the inner witness of the Spirit and then interviewed Emily Hibbs about her trip to Brazil last week.

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Cor 2:1-5)

Here we recapped God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, and Scripture, and then moved on to briefly address creation and humanity.It's important to distinguish between what Christians hold in the closed hand (must believe) and what we hold in the open hand (may believe).In the closed hand are that God made all things visible and invisibe, that he is Lord over all things, and that humans are made in God's image with dignity and value, both male and female, made for partnership.In the open hand are questions like, "How long were the days of Gensis 1?", or "How old is the earth?" or "Is complementarianism or egalitarianism the more biblical view?" On these matters, we hold our own conviction while not despising other believers whose beliefs differ from ours.

Sunday morning chat from Stan.

This is a chat about...oh, you know, the universe.

In which we briefly discuss...GodJesusHoly SpiritScripture

This talk is about growing up spiritually.

"Let all the peoples praise you" part 2.

2 Cor 2:14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 

This is based on Psalm 67's invitation to all the people's of the earth to worship God, but mainly the global vision of redemption present within Scripture and the kingdom from beginning to end.You're on a ball in space. Zoom out.

This chat is about the names Joseph chose for his two sons born in Egypt.

“Because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” — Matthew 24:12

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob contributed something fascinating to the Bible: their story. Story is significant. You are hidden in God's story, and he's hidden in yours.Listen to your life.

Part 1 - how sins are differentPart 2 - how sins are alike

For many believers, the cross has been explained as Jesus dying to pay God a debt we owed for our sins. Is this explanation how the early church fathers understood the cross?

“Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” (Phil 4:6-7 MSG)

God is typically more interested in the inward journey than any outward performances.

A friend came to me recently with all kinds of questions and about the Bible.

This one is about gratitude.

A conversation about being and becoming.

"Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord." (Romans 12:11)

“You have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.”(Psalm 30:11)

"As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them." (Luke 24:15)

God establishes physical altars in the world, but a spiritual altar in each heart where we bring things and give them up as worship to God.

David's plea for deliverance in Psalm 30:9 appeals to a glorious presumption: how much God would lose if he lost him."God, if you let this thing take me, you're gonna miss me."It's this bedrock certainty of God's love that he brings with him out of the pit, out of sheol, and into the redemption that ensues.

I made a case that our attachment style affects all our relationship, including our relationship to God. And we can change. And that Scriptural prayers model some very healthy convictions regarding attachment. We started with Psalm 5.Secure, anxious, avoidant, disorganized...

Grounded in God in the midst of troubles...

Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me in the shadow of Thy wings, From the wicked who despoil me, My deadly enemies, who surround me. (Psalm 17:8-9 NAS)

Our Father in heaven,Reveal who you are.Set the world right;Do what's best—    as above, so below.Keep us alive with three square meals.Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.You're in charge!You can do anything you want!You're ablaze in beauty!Yes. Yes. Yes.Smile to Father, Son, and SpiritSmile to yourself.Smile to someone else.I'm home. I've arrived.There's nowhere I need to go, and nothing I need to do.I'm home. I've arrived.I have nothing to earn, nothing to prove, and nothing to pay back.I have nothing to earn because you just love me.I have nothing to prove because you already approve of me.I have nothing to pay back because you cancelled all my debts.What remains? Enjoying You…enjoying me.I'm home. I've arrived.The veil is torn. There's no distance or separation.I'm in You and You're in me, here and now, and forever.Jesus made me one with the Father, so I'm home.You're my home, so everywhere I am, I'm home.I'm home. I've arrived.I'm a blessing. You didn't have me, and you didn't like it, so you made me, and you made me exactly how you wanted me to be. I have the body, the voice, the personality, the sense of humor, the walk, and the laugh you wanted me to have. I make you happy just by being me.I'm a blessing.I'm a blessing and every day I'm a gift You give yourself to enjoy.I'm a blessing and every day I'm a gift you give me to enjoy.I'm a blessing and every day I'm a gift You give others to enjoy.I'm a blessing.I'm a blessed man.My future is bright.And my best days are ahead of me.You're working it out.You're working it out.You're working it out.Everything we've done wrongEverything that's gone wrongYou're working it out, for our good, as we love you. (Rom 8:28)Satan meant it for harm,but You are turning it for our thrivingand the saving of many lives. (Gen 50:20)You're working it out.With you as our Shepherd, Jesus,our hearts will be light, our steps will be easy.You're making us steady, resilient, and serene.Everything is temporary, but You remain.Today I meet pain tenderly — without resistance.I don't avoid, repress, or deny. I let it come, I greet it kindly, and I let it go.Today I meet pleasure gratefully — without grasping.I let it come, greet it joyfully, and I let it go.And when pain and pleasure have passed, I shall remain.Everything is temporary, but You remain and I shall remain.Sunlight is love.Air is love.Gravity is love.All plant life is love.All animal life is love.Sight, sound, smell, taste, touch — all love.Existence itself is love.All things are from, in, and for Him who is Love,and I am in Him who is Love.

Carl led in the Lord's Supper and taught about encouragement.

Occasionally at a Wednesday Whiteboard I give a brief biography and some highlights of people I've been reading...

Psalm 4:4 When you are disturbed, do not sin; ponder it on your beds, and be silent. Selah

An exploration of the question to see how different worldviews answer this, including how the people of Gateway answered.

Psalm 115:2-32 Why do the nations say,    “Where is their God?”3 Our God is in heaven;    he does whatever pleases him.Psalm 116:68aYou are good, and what you do is good.

This talk takes the words of Jesus directed against the hypocrisy of the scribes and pharisees in Matthew 23 and turns them into healthy, positive goals for us to pursue.Yes, it's a 16 point sermon.

Three ways Christianity is utterly unique among world religions, plus a point about apples.

Stan encouraged us to speak life and to be there for each other with encouragement when needed.

This one's about Jesus becoming -- and remaining -- a full human, and some implications of that."And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..." (Jn 1:14)

Jesus often told people that. "This happened because you believed." How do we grow in the faith Jesus walked in?

This talk is about our task as leaders to engage people in a way that invites them to excercise their own faith and collaborate with the Spirit, not just "minister to" them.It's based on the way Jesus engaged the two blind men who chased him down and demanded a meeting in Matthew 9:27ff.

We took time to pray over individuals today. Here's the audio of that if anyone's interested.

Jesus said it isn't the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. And he didn't come to call good folks, but broken people. This is why we've called the church a kind of hospital for souls...

Carl on Matthew 13.

"And Isaac redug the wells of his father Abraham..." (Genesis 26).

This talk is about the motive underneath all other human pursuits.Section 1: Data on HappinessSection 2: A few philosophers (and a mathematician)Section 3: A castrated medieval theologian on happinessConclusion: How Christianity is completely unique.

Does God expect blind faith? Are faith and reason opposed to each other?

We discussed some fascinating quotes from this Stoic Roman Emperor who sought to live a virtuous life. Much of his advice to himself can be helpfully applied to us in our life lived with and for Jesus.

Hope for the broken based on Jesus' words in Matthew 5.

We're made in the image of our Creator, who is creative (Gen 1) and who designed us to be creative (Gen 2).Here's the thesis: To be creative we must allow ourselves the luxury and the discomfort of boredom.The algorythms disrupt this God-given impulse, turning us into consumers.

Tonight we dug deeper into the theme of how we are meant to let go and let God, and what we are meant to hold onto instead of what we naturally do.This was a Wednesday Whiteboard chat.

Some questions and answers after one of my annual week of counseling short term missions students.