Submitted by Trey_M on Thu, 02/02/2012 - 14:47 from Trey Morgan, View Original Posting
Dump Day 2012 is three months from today (May 2nd). For the past three years we’ve helped raised money for the ministry that takes place at the dump in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Dump Day 2012 is necessary to replenish the dump fund because the dump fund provides…
Submitted by Sunset Alumni on Wed, 02/01/2012 - 20:04 from Nick Perez, View Original Posting
“See you tomorrow.” “See you next week.” “See you next time.” We say these things so effortlessly and (sometimes) thoughtlessly. We take for granted that we will be alive to see so-and-so tomorrow, next week, next time. Someone has said, “Man proposes, but God disposes.” James addresses the thoughtlessness of first century Christians who assumed too much. Since they made such a grand assumption, they became arrogant and over-confident in self. This section of Scripture “prohibits an arrogant, boastful attitude that neglects to take into account the transitoriness of this life” (Moo 153). James’ typical style is to ask pointed questions. In honor of that, the following outline is presented in question format.
James 4.13-17 (ESV)
13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—
14yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
15Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
Submitted by Sunset Alumni on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 20:43 from Nick Perez, View Original Posting
People fight all the time. Turn on the TV and one will hear about the latest fight between a celebrity couple. Tune into the news and one will hear about violence all over. When people get upset they usually settle it with hostility. What happens when that hostility finds its way into the church? Although it is difficult to pinpoint all the details, it seems evident that the saints to whom James wrote were coming to blows regularly. Imagine that – here are people who are to pursue peace and reap a “harvest of righteousness” that is “sown in peace by those who make peace” (3.18). Yet among these brethren who should have been peaceable, “fights” and “quarrels” were breaking out, possibly in the assembly (2.2). Two thousand down the stream of time we might look down upon our brethren. But how many church league softball fistfights have broken out or, worse, were instigated by our hands? Into this calamity, quarreling, and fisticuffs, James speaks a better word, indeed, the Word of God
James 4:1–12 (ESV)
1What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this that your passions are at war within you?
Submitted by odlerp61 on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 20:07 from Bob and Terry Odle, View Original Posting
God’s power has broken in on our world. God’s presence is once again in the midst of human beings. God’s new creation has been inaugurated and will one day be consummated in all of its glory.
All of these realities find expression in and are confirmed by the resurrection and enthronement of our man, Jesus.
Jesus was raised from death. He was not merely resuscitated–brought back to mortality, only to die again. He transcends mortality, he has vanquished death, he has removed sin, he has gone before us into God’s new world as the first-fruit of many more to come. He restores all that was lost in the fall of humanity.
Submitted by Trey_M on Mon, 01/23/2012 - 15:55 from Trey Morgan, View Original Posting
First, I must make a confession … I’m on Pinterest (find me here). Yes, to my men friends … you may want to take my man-card, BUT to this point … Pinterest has been pretty good to me. Let me explain…
Submitted by odlerp61 on Tue, 01/17/2012 - 00:10 from Bob and Terry Odle, View Original Posting
Christianity had a humble beginning indeed: from 12 to 120 to thousands upon thousands. And now? The largest religion in the world.
But when we take a close look at its beginning we ask, “How did it even get off the ground?” And when we look at its internal problems we ask, “How has it survived and flourished for 2000 years?”
Resurrection power, that’s how. The power of God that was not expected has been unleashed. And it changes everything.
