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Created on Monday, 14 June 2010 07:04

Written by David Crabb

In our study of the book of James we have reached James 4:1-4 which deals with the topic of worldliness. Over the last several weeks we have done a study of the Scripture's teaching on worldliness looking at the definition of worldliness, what worldliness looks like, and finally how we can overcome worldliness. Yesterday morning I promised to post these questions which are based off the passages we considered together and are designed to help us discern what is worldly.

1. Does this activity, thing, or pursuit take my heart away from God?
2. Does it sabotage my communion with God and my walk in the Spirit? (Note: this will often differ from person to person depending on our circumstances, past experiences, and particular sin struggles)
3. Does it undermine or seek to displace my relationship to Christ as the power of my life? (e.g. a moralistic, external code as opposed to a true-heartfelt worship)
4. Does it attempt (is it designed) to do so?
5. Does it feed the self-centered, appetite-driven, God-hating part of me called the flesh?
6. Does it inflame my desire to disobey God's commands?
7. Does it produce pride, contention, immorality, or any other behavior contrary to the love of God and the love of others?
8. Does it lure me into obsession with what is earthbound and temporal versus what is heavenly and eternal?

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Created on Monday, 24 May 2010 12:15

Written by David Crabb

Dear Church Family,

Yesterday morning we finished our seven week Newcomers Class with a time of question and answer. One of the questions that we addressed was the question of why we use the type of music we do in our church services. Of course this is a broad and particularly divisive issue in churches all across our nation. Some churches have responded by literally dividing their congregations according to musical preference and holding multiple services based on these preferences. Other churches have responded by attempting to read more into Scripture than is there regarding music, insisting that everyone in the church adopt a certain application. In both cases, the result is division. 

The desire of the leadership of our church is to be faithful to Scripture--by not stopping short of what Scripture says on this subject, thus violating God's law; and by not going beyond what is written, thus holding people to a man-made standard. We also desire to earnestly endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph. 4:3). 

Towards this end, I have written a brief overview of what I presented to the class yesterday. It is certainly not exhaustive and there are better things written on the subject. But it represents my prayerful attempt to lead our congregation in faithfulness to Scripture with a spirit of charity towards each other. You will find it attached below. By God's grace, I trust it will be helpful.

Your Pastor,

David Crabb

Attachments:

Thoughts on Music For Our Congregation.pdf

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44 Kb

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Created on Thursday, 22 April 2010 02:49

Written by David Crabb

In last Sunday's sermon (AM), I mentioned some recent attacks on the deity of Christ, including attacks even on the popular level (I mentioned The Da Vinci Code). The example given in the message, was the popular assertion that Jesus never claimed to be God and the apostles (and early church) never thought him to be God. He was only determined to be God later (usually in A.D. 325). We showed how that was untrue from our passage for that day, James 2:1.

Afterward, someone in the church asked me about other passages in the New Testament that claim that Jesus is God. There are lots of passages that we could go to (e.g. John 14:9-"He who has seen me, has seen the Father"), but I've copied a chart below that shows the passages where the Greek word for God (Theos) is used of Jesus.

Jesus Is God: Specific Examples Where Greek Theos (“God”) Is Applied to Jesus