White Christmas!

December 26, 2010

Margaret gets her first "Player of the Week" award

Covenant Players Of The Week: 2010, 

Week Fourteen: Sam Bowman And Margaret Cross

Posted December 8, 2010 

LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN -- The Covenant College athletics scene has

dwindled down to one remaining sport for the fall, 2010 semester; basketball.  Thus, it is only appropriate that this week's players of the week come from the men's and women's basketball teams in the form of juniors Sam Bowman and Margaret Cross.

Bowman receives the honor after his stellar performance on the road at LaGrange College helped the Scots down the Panthers for their first win of the season.  Bowman posted a game-high 23 points and a team-high 14 rebounds in the 56-48 winning effort, while also contributing with two blocks and a steal.  In the Scots second game that week, Sam contributed in all aspects of the game with 10 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals.

On the same night, the Lady Scots Margaret Cross also turned in a solid performance against LaGrange.  Although it was in a losing effort, her 20 points led all players and helped Covenant take a 34-33 lead into the half.  She also posted two assists and a steal in the game.

Sam Bowman

Margaret Cross

Don't like Duke - but this is cool! This one is for you Margaret!!

Thought for Young Men - J.C. Ryle

5 Dangers For Young Men

15NOV

1. Pride

“Young men, do not be too confident in your own judgment. Stop being so sure that you are always right, and others wrong. Don’t trust your own opinion, when you find it contrary to that of older men, and especially to that of your own parents. Age gives experience, and therefore deserves respect. “

2. Love of Pleasure

“Youth is the time when our passions are strongest—and like unruly children, cry most loudly for indulgence. Youth is the time when we have generally our most health and strength: death seems far away, and to enjoy ourselves in this life seems to be everything… ‘I serve lusts and pleasures’, that is the true answer many a young man should give, if asked, ‘Whose servant are you?’”

3. Thoughtlessness

“Not thinking is one simple reason why thousands of souls are thrown away forever into the Lake of Fire. Men will not consider, will not look ahead, will not look around them, will not reflect on the end of their present course, and the sure consequences of their present days, and wake up to find they are damned for a lack of thinking. Young men, none are in more danger of this than yourselves. You know little of the perils around you, and so you are careless how you walk. You hate the trouble of serious, quiet thinking, and so you make wrong decisions and bring upon yourselves much sorrow.”

4. Contempt of Religion

“This also is one of your special dangers. I always observe that none pay so little outward respect to Christianity as young men. None take so little part in our services, when they are present at them—use Bibles so little—sing so little—listen to preaching so little. None are so generally absent at prayer meetings, Bible Studies, and all other weekday helps to the soul. Young men seem to think they do not need these things—they may be good for women and old men, but not for them. They appear ashamed of seeming to care about their souls: one would almost fancy they considered it a disgrace to go to heaven at all.”

5. Fear of Man’s Opinion

“It is terrible to observe the power which the fear of man has over most minds, and especially over the minds of the young. Few seem to have any opinions of their own, or to think for themselves. Like dead fish, they go with the stream and tide. What others think is right, they think is right; and what others call wrong, they call wrong too. There are not many original thinkers in the world. Most men are like sheep, they follow a leader. If it was the fashion of the day to be Roman Catholics, they would be Roman Catholics, if it was to be Islamic, they would be Islamic. They dread the idea of going against the current of the times. In a word, the opinion of the day becomes their religion, their creed, their Bible, and their God.”

~ J.C. Ryle

Thoughts For Young Men, [Moscow, ID: Charles Nolan Publishing, 2002], 18-31.

Great Half-time preformance

This was at the halftime of a  Navy Basketball game.


Pay special note to the gradual response of the audience.


Click on the site below.

>target="_blank">http://blip.TV/play/Ae+9MJOSSA

Read this blog today - gas prices over the last 5 years

An Average Family’s Gas Prices

8112010

Update:  Welcome Challies People!  Care to subscribe? You know how.

As I’ve noted before, I like to keep track of things. Several years ago I started logging all of our family’s gas purchases. I’m pretty sure I’m the first person to ever think of doing that. In the history of the world.

In any case, I thought you might be interested in seeing the cost per gallon for a typical family living. We live in the Northern Suburbs of the Twin Cities of Minnesota. This for the past five years (starting Nov 2005).

And if you want to see the Excel File Behind The Data . . .

So . . . do you remember those beautiful days in the fall of 2008?

Rebekah - My Cheerleader!

Competition at Nations Ford HS 10 30 2010.

Cheer Dad is new for me - but it is fun. Proud Dad!

Margaret is starting a new season soon!

Mountaintop MADNESS

BY PETER WILKERSON

On Friday night, students gathered in Barnes Gym to witness Mountaintop Madness, Covenant’s spin-off of the nationwide, college basketball extravaganza otherwise known as Midnight Madness. And, even though Covenant’s version of the event was not held at midnight, plenty of excited fans, players, and coaches still turned out to witness the Scots tip-off the 2010-2011 basketball season.

To start, both the men’s and women’s teams were introduced to the student body. After the formalities were over, the teams held inner-squad scrimmages that showcased and previewed the talented players who will be balling it up on the court this year. After the scrimmages, the night was then capped off by the three-pointer and dunk contests.

The three-pointer contest was won by junior Margaret Cross, who proved that she will once again be a threat from beyond the arc in the upcoming season. And while dunk contests and Covenant College are not usually mentioned in the same breath, juniors Sam Bowman and Chase Foster’s thrilling throw-downs proved otherwise.

For the first round dunk, Foster threw a perfect “alley-oop” over the backboard to the 6’7” Bowman to promptly slam home. The jam was good enough to put them in the final, where the dynamic duo then wasted no time in taking it to the next level. Bowman threw the ball off the glass to Foster, who then headed the ball out of the air and back into Bowman’s hands for the winning dunk.

With the initial excitement of the contests and scrimmages now behind them, the squads will resume focus on the upcoming seasons. The Lady Scots will begin this season with a young team and a new leader in Head Coach Corey Mullins. Coach Mullins was hired this past summer, and has worked tirelessly to prepare the Lady Scots for the upcoming season. With the graduation of All-American forward Erika Forland and the departure of former coach Tami Smialek, the Lady Scots will now rely heavily on Mullins and juniors Cross and Hannah Craft for leadership and scoring this year.

On the other side of the court, the men’s team will strive to improve greatly upon last year’s three win campaign. Coach Taylor and the 11 new players he brought in last season now have a year’s experience under their belts, and should be much stronger this year. Having lost only one senior, the Scots returned every key contributor from last year’s team and added some new faces that will be looking to make an impact. Junior forward Sam Bowman will once again dominate the blocks this year, and sophomore wings Callum Sears and Damien Chaney will look to improve upon their stellar freshman years. The Scots will be extremely young again, but with a year of experience under their belts, they can only improve. And if the dunk contests, three-point showdowns, and intense scrimmages were a sign of things to come, Covenant basketball fans could be in for an exciting 2010-2011 season.

Backyard Deer Season

This was cute - a friend sent it to me - take it will a grain of salt.

Twas the night before elections

And all through the town

Tempers were flaring

Emotions all up and down!

I, in my bathrobe

With a cat in my lap

Had cut off the TV

Tired of political crap.

When all of a sudden

There arose such a noise

I peered out of my window

Saw Obama and his boys

They had come for my wallet

They wanted my pay

To give to the others

Who had not worked a day!

He snatched up my money

And quick as a wink

Jumped back on his bandwagon

As I gagged from the stink

He then rallied his henchmen

Who were pulling his cart

I could tell they were out

To tear my country apart!

'On Fannie, on Freddie,

On Biden and Ayers!

On Acorn, On Pelosi'

He screamed at the pairs!

They took off for his cause

And as he flew out of sight

I heard him laugh at the nation

Who wouldn't stand up and fight!

So I leave you to think

On this one final note-

IF YOU DONT WANT SOCIALISM

GET OUT AND VOTE!

Hunting season is soon!

This is an eight point! There was a six point in the woods but I could not get a good picture of it for you!

Recent Sermon at Harbor Church

Next week, July 11 2010, Harbor Church will host a pastoral candidate that the pulpit committee is excited about presenting. Pray for this very important decision to be made by the congregation. With that in mind I preached this sermon from Jonah. You can listen, download or watch the sermon.

The picture is from my phone as I looked out my bedroom window one morning last week. Do you see them both? Maybe we should call it a deer feeder rather than a bird feeder!

Running High School Graduates and a Chasing Gracious God

Last week I spoke at my daughter’s Senior Chapel. As a Pastor, speaking to Christian School audience, you would think the talk would be on making a great impact on the world with great the Christian education they acquired. Not this time. Using the Biblical book of Jonah, the theme was “Running from God!” Why? The statistics below say that, of the 45 seniors in the 2010 class at least 30 will run from God over the next months and years of college.

Here are some of the findings cited by the Youth Transition Network (YTN), a coalition of some of the nation’s largest denominations and ministries that are working together to help reduce the dramatic loss of youth from the church:

“An Assemblies of God study showed a loss of 66% of their students within one year of high school graduation.”
    
“A Southern Baptist transition project estimates an 82% loss of youth within one year of high school graduation.”
    
“Fifty to eighty percent of high school students walk away.”
    

These are staggering statistics if your child is graduating this year. My concern is Karen, she graduates in late May.

What does Jonah have to say about this crisis?

There are 2 basic reasons anyone runs from God – even prophets like Jonah, Christian young people or even you. They really think that God has a propensity to give us less than the best, and that the world has so much more to offer them. The second reason is that we know what God wants from us and we are unwilling to follow his lead. So the desire is to leave God is the rearview mirror on the way to college.

The problem with that strategy is that you cannot run from God. He loves you so much, He will pursue you!

When you run there are some common characteristics:

            You never run to safety but to dangerous, self-destructive places. The Jews were landlubbers. For a Jew to get on a ship for ANY reason was serious business. But think about it – as Jonah later said, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land." What sense does it make to get in a dangerous boat?

Jonah – don’t get on a boat!  (Have you said things like that to friends? You are doing what? Seeing who? Marrying who? NO WAY – DON’T DO THAT!)

                        Secondly, when you run from God everything seems great at first, but eventually your life tends to unravel. One common result is the tendency to make the worst relational decisions of your life.

            I told the senior class to make sure not to marry anyone while running from God – a serious mistake. Someone needed to tell them!

                        Thirdly, you always hurt the ones who care the most for you, when you run.

The great news for those that truly know the God who made the sea and land is that you cannot win a race with Him. He always pursues. Running and chasing are synonymous with sin and grace. God is gracious to pursue!

            The senior class loved the story I told about how Karen responded to spankings. She was unique compared to our other 4 children. She would fight it, making it much worst for her. Why would parents inflict pain in the form of a spanking or grounding? Good parents know that rebellion and pain must always be linked, even if there is a quick repentance. I think Jonah repented when he saw the big fish but there was still the first 3-day submarine ride he had to endure. The reality for our Christian children, when the parents are not there, is God will link rebellion with pain and it will always bring a result of repentance, because if they are truly one of God’s children, He will not let them go. They will come back, maybe with a limp, or tattoos, or grandchildren.  Even if 75% of High School seniors run from God, 100% of His children will come back. They will come back and God will run to them. (see John 15 in the Bible) Parents be ready to run to them too!

Pictures from this weekend

Great Article about Young People and Church

Read it here.

Inviting People to Church - an hilarious video

Check this out.

Check out the Revamped Advent Website!

www.adventchurch.net

One of our members took our website from mid-90's motif to a more modern look!

Let me know what you think.

There are a number of things we have yet to put on the site so check it often and pray as we launch our Mission Church on the 28th of this month (Palm Sunday) at 6:30 PM in the Southwest Middle School cafeteria!

Should you join a Church?

Last night when the core group of Advent Mission Church was meeting someone asked a very important question, "Why join a church? Can't you just go?"


There was a number of good answers given. One great point is made in
the short article below that I kept in my files for such a time as
this! Read it and let me know what you think!



I sent this an a e-mail this morning to the group and thought my blogger friends would like it too!

John Stott on Church Membership

by Thabiti Anyabwile

Last night I began reading through John Stott's The Living Church: Convictions of a Lifelong Pastor.  A dear member of the church gave me an autographed copy after a visit to London and All Souls where Stott served for so many years.

After reading the preface and the first chapter, I'm a little saddened that I've left this book unread for so long.  It's vintage Stott-- relentlessly clear and biblically centered.  In the opening chapter, he spelled out a couple assumptions undergirding the book, assumptions pertinent for recent discussions here on the blog.

Stott writes:

First, I am assuming that we are all committed to the church.  We are not only Christian people; we are also church people.  We are not only committed to Christ, we are also committed to the body of Christ.  At least I hope so.  I trust that none of my readers is that grotesque anomaly, an unchurched Christian.  The New Testament knows nothing of such a person.  For the church lies at the very centre of the eternal purpose of God.  It is not a divine afterthought.  It is not an accident of history.  On the contrary, the church is God's new community.  For his purpose, conceived in a past eternity, being worked out in history, and to be perfected in a future eternity, is not just to save isolated individuals and so perpetuate our loneliness, but rather to build his church, that is, to call out of the world a people for his own glory. ... So then, the reason we are committed to the church is that God is so committed.

A little later, Stott meditates on Acts 2:47 and the hints there of the early church's commitment to evangelism.  Acts 2:47 reads, "And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."  One of the truths Stott directs us to is:

The Lord did two things together.  He 'added to their number... those who were being saved.'  He didn't add them to the church without saving them, and he didn't save them without adding them to the church.  Salvation and church membership went together; they still do.

In our day, we unfortunately have broken apart what the early church seemed to view as a natural, necessary, and seamless chain of events: gospel preaching and evangelism, leading to conversion and baptism, leading to church membership and communion.  It's difficult to imagine that Paul or Peter or John could conceive of something called a 'Christian' that was not a baptized, communing member of the church.
I think Stott is absolute correct when he refers to such creatures as a "grotesque anomaly."  Part of what is critical to healthy community in the church is the conceptual and temporal tightening of the events
in this chain.  The clearer these things are (the gospel, conversion, the practice and meaning of baptism, church membership and the privilege of communion) and the more joined together they are in practice the stronger will be the ties that bind the church.  Loosen these and you unravel the church.

Two of my favorite joke topics - blondes and cats

Look closely - Blondes will not get this one!

Next Great Fridge Magnet!

Interesting Factoid

Youth and Anxiety

Preaching the Gospel to myself and Harbor Church

In early December I started something new in my life. I am an interim pastor as well as a church planter. Presently, the launch group/core group/Advent Mission Church meets on Sunday nights at 5 PM in my home. Thus, my Sunday mornings have been used to speak in other churches and visit the Steele Creek Churches in the SW portion of Charlotte.

I was approached by my good friend Bill Heard, former pastor of Harbor Church, if I was willing to preach and help lead the church he founded 14 years ago -- not as a full-time pastor but as an interim.

What is an interim - I don't really know.  What I do is preach every Sunday and I chair the elders meetings every month. I don't know how to care part time, or lead part time. I do like the freedom to talk about what I see as an outsider -- but who wants to be an outsider. I have never really held back saying what I see anywhere I have ever been. So I don't know what an interim pastor is but I do know what I want it to be.

I want to affirm the ministry that has been done in the past. I lot of blood sweat and tears - long nights, many prayers, joys and heart aches.

I want to be used to help prepare this church for the future - not just another pastor to move into town but for what God wants to do in Mooresville.

I am asking God to teach me, mold me and prepare me too. I desire God to grow the church and to grow me in the process.

If you would like to listen to the sermons I preach you can link to the church using my blog list. They have a poor camera that shows me with little hair but you will recognize the voice. I am presently preaching through the letter of James.

Prayer for 2010

I read the following on the blog of a fellow PCA pastor, it ministered to my soul and I hope you find in helpful too!

Scotty Smith, Pastor for Preaching, Teaching and Worship at Christ Community Church in Franklin, Tennessee, wrote this gospel-soaked prayer that he wrote early on January 1st after reflecting on Joshua 24:14-15:

Most gracious Father, I’m sitting here sipping fresh coffee watching flames dance in the fireplace, early into the first day of the New Year, and I’m a most humbled and grateful man.

How I praise you that I’ve begun this New Year with a little better understanding of the gospel than I had last year… and the previous years. I’m already praying that I can say the same thing this time next year. For in the gospel you’ve given me everything I need for living… and for dying.

I respond to Joshua’s bold charge to the Israelites, not with a list of New Year’s resolutions about me and what I’m gonna do this year for you. Rather, I begin this year resolving to abandon myself more fully to everything Jesus has already accomplished for me… to the specific things he intends to do in me… and to the ways he purposes to live his life and mission through me. He is the promise keeper, not me.

Dear Father, that’s why serving you is much more than merely “desirable.” It’s the greatest privilege possible… the most honored calling conceivable… the purest delight imaginable! For Jesus is my Joshua—the one by which you have already saved me… and are presently saving me… and, one Day, will completely save me. With no sense of embarrassment or cliché, I gladly say, JESUS SAVES!

Knowing you by grace and being known by you in Jesus, makes throwing away my idols less like a painful sacrifice, and more like a liberating dance. For all my “empty nothings” have ever given me is momentary pleasure, along with lasting disaster. Remind me of this all year long when I lose “gospel-sanity,” and am tempted to think otherwise…

So my humble prayer and earnest longing for this New Year is this… for me, my family, and the household of faith of which you have made me a part… that we will consider our lives worth nothing to us, if only we may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given us—the task of testifying (by word and deed) to the gospel of your grace. (Acts 20:24).

So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus name, with great anticipation and much thanksgiving.

A Bible Scholar has predicted the rapture of the church for 2010

Do NOT BELIEVE IT! You can read more here.

Here is some of his reasoning:

The number 5, Camping concluded, equals "atonement." Ten is "completeness." Seventeen means "heaven." Camping patiently explained how he reached his conclusion for May 21, 2011.

"Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.," he began. "Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that's 1,978 years."

Camping then multiplied 1,978 by 365.2422 days - the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year.

Next, Camping noted that April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days. Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500.

Camping realized that (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500.

Or put into words: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared.

"Five times 10 times 17 is telling you a story," Camping said. "It's the story from the time Christ made payment for your sins until you're completely saved.

"I tell ya, I just about fell off my chair when I realized that," Camping said.

It is better if you simply live in light of the truth that God keeps his promises and we have a mission until He return. Let's be diligent to do what He has called us to!

I remember his teaching way back in 1988 - he was wrong then too!

Question for you & me for 2010

Copied from Don Whitney

Ten Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year or On Your Birthday

Once, when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. "Consider your ways!" (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them, and to evaluate their slipshod spirituality in light of what God had told them.

Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It's so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we're going and where we should be going.

The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings. To that end, here are some questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God.

1. What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?

2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?

3. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?

4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?

5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?

6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?

7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?

8. What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make this year different from last year?

9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?

10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

In addition to these ten questions, here are twenty-one more to help you "Consider your ways." Think on the entire list at one sitting, or answer one question each day for a month.

11. What's the most important decision you need to make this year?

12. What area of your life most needs simplifying, and what's one way you could simplify in that area?

13. What's the most important need you feel burdened to meet this year?

14. What habit would you most like to establish this year?

15. Who is the person you most want to encourage this year?

16. What is your most important financial goal this year, and what is the most important step you can take toward achieving it?

17. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your work life this year?

18. What's one new way you could be a blessing to your pastor (or to another who ministers to you) this year?

19. What's one thing you could do this year to enrich the spiritual legacy you will leave to your children and grandchildren?

20. What book, in addition to the Bible, do you most want to read this year?

21. What one thing do you most regret about last year, and what will you do about it this year?

22. What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly this year?

23. In what area of your life do you most need growth, and what will you do about it this year?

24. What's the most important trip you want to take this year?

25. What skill do you most want to learn or improve this year?

26. To what need or ministry will you try to give an unprecedented amount this year?

27. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your commute this year?

28. What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better this year, and what will you do about it?

29. If those who know you best gave you one piece of advice, what would they say? Would they be right? What will you do about it?

30. What's the most important new item you want to buy this year?

31. In what area of your life do you most need change, and what will you do about it this year?

The value of many of these questions is not in their profundity, but in the simple fact that they bring an issue or commitment into focus. For example, just by articulating which person you most want to encourage this year is more likely to help you remember to encourage that person than if you hadn't considered the question.

If you've found these questions helpful, you might want to put them someplace—in a day planner, PDA, calendar, bulletin board, etc.—where you can review them more frequently than once a year.

So let's evaluate our lives, make plans and goals, and live this new year with biblical diligence, remembering that, "The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage" (Proverbs 21:5). But in all things let's also remember our dependence on our King who said, "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).