Study

Right now I am studying for teaching at my church gathering tomorrow; we're currently going through some spiritual discipline stuff and I am taking a look at worship tomorrow.
Worship is central.
I was just trying to figure out why I wanted to teach on the discipline of worship, then that thought occurred to me. Worship is a hard one though, it can be approached from such a wide variety of perspectives; and not only that, but worship can be applied to so many (all) facets of a believer's life.

And yeah, thats all I have to give you at the moment, I had more but got lost there for a while.

Derek


PS - I am going to try and put stuff up on here more, just so I can be writing more. I feel like I am a monkey who is working on Shakespeare and someday I am going to strike gold!

Peterson

On Reading Scriptures:

What I want to say, countering the devil, is that in order to read the Scriptures adequately and accurately, it is necessary at the same time to live them. Not to live them as a prerequisite to reading them, and not to live them in consequence of reading them, but to live them as we read them, the living and reading reciprocal, body language and spoken words, the back-and-forthness assimilating the reading to the living, the living to the reading. Reading the Scriptures is not an activity discrete from living the gospel but one integral to it. It means letting Another have a say in everything we are saying and doing. It is as easy as that. And as hard.

df

God is always creating

Church Leadership

I've been thinking about church leadership as of late and have come to the following conclusion:

Christian leadership exists to point to Christ

df

Church

Well, church this past weekend was phenomenal! We camped out in Ephesians 5, specifically focusing from verse 21 and on.

Here is what I took away from Sunday

• People have skewed and extremely negative views of this text (specifically relating to the idea of submission)
• This text has been somewhat co-opted and taken out of context by people who fall under the banners of Patriarchal and Complementarian views
• The idea behind this section of Ephesians 5 is that through the Spirit and in a joyful and worshipful manner, believers/followers of Christ are to submit to each other out of reverence for Christ
• An example of this is a wife submitting to her husband (a man submitting to his wife can not be neglected though)
  
• Submission in the Biblical sense is an act of putting another before yourself (think Jesus Creed)
• A man as head of the wife reflects how Christ is head of the church (think of his interactions with his disciples and those around him during his ministry)
• A man is to love his wife like his own body, as Christ loves/loved his bride the church (nail pierced servant) 
• A man seems to have a special task of nourishing and caring for his wife in a way that is not commanded of his wife

I think that is mostly what we talked about, what really came to mind after our formal teaching time at church was the idea that biblical submission is a joyful act of worship out of reverence for Christ, only possible through the work of the Spirit.

Ok, 

df

Listening habits

I use last.fm which is a swell site that keeps track of every song that I listen to with itunes or the ipods that run off of it. Here is the top ten artists that I have been listening to over the past three months.

1. Sigur Ros
2. M. Ward
3. The National
4. Wilco
5. Al Green
6. Arcade Fire
7. Okkervil River
8. Blue Mountain
9. M.I.A
10. Metric

Woot!

Check out the site if you listen to lots of music and for some weird reason want to see what you listen to and get suggestions for other great artists.

Plug over

df

A call to prayer

Below is a copy of an email received this morning, please keep our brothers and sisters in India in your prayers.

This is a request for prayer for YWAM missionaries and their
churches in Orissa, India. The request came from Mable Hurst, an associate of
HCJB Global. Please read and make this a matter of urgent prayer.

Dear beloved sponsors and friends of Good News India. We have
never seen anything like this. We knew that Orissa was the most resistant and
hostile State in India as far as the Gospel is concerned. And we brushed off
the continuous threats and harassment we faced as we went about His work. But
none of our staff imagined that they would see this kind of carnage.... And it
seems to be totally under the radar of the Western Media....
Let me explain..... A militant Hindu priest and 4 of his
attendants, who were zealously going around the villages of Orissa and
'reconverting' people back to Hinduism, were gunned down by unknown assailants
in Central Orissa last weekend. Immediately the Christians were blamed. The
cry rose up...'Kill the Christians!' And the horror began.... In the past 4
days, we have first hand witness to hundreds of churches being blown up or
burned and many, many dozens of Christian tribals have been slaughtered. For no
other reason than they bear the name of Christ.
Night and day I have been in touch with our Good News India
Directors spread across 14 Dream Centers in Orissa... they are right in the
middle of all this chaos. In Tihidi, just after the police came to offer
protection, a group of 70 blood-thirsty militants came to kill our staff and
destroy the home. They were not allowed to get in, but they did a lot of damage
to our Dream Center by throwing rocks & bricks and smashing our gate, etc. They
have promised to come back and 'finish the job.'
Our kids & staff are locked inside & have stayed that way with
doors and windows shut for the past 3 days. It has been a time of desperately
calling on the Lord in prayer. More police have come to offer protection. In
Kalahandi, the police and some local sympathizers got to our dream center and
gave our staff and kids about 3 minutes notice to vacate. No one had time to
even grab a change of clothes or any personal belonging. As they fled, the
blood thirsty mob came to kill everyone in the building. We would have had a
mass funeral there, but for His grace. In Phulbani, the mob came looking for
Christian homes and missions. The local Hindu people, our neighbors turned them
away by saying that there were no Christians in this area. So they left.. We had
favor. The same thing happened in Balasore.
All our dream centers are under lock down with the kids and staff
huddled inside and police outside. The fanatics are circling outside waiting for
a chance to kill. Others were not so fortunate. In a nearby Catholic orphanage,
the mob allowed the kids to leave and locked up a Priest and a computer teacher
in house and burned them to death. Many believers have been killed and hacked
into pieces and left on the road.... even women and children. At another
orphanage run by another organization, when this began, the Director and his
wife jumped on their motorbike and simply fled, leaving all the children and
staff behind. Every one of our GNI directors that I have spoken to said: 'We
stay with our kids.... we live together or die together, but we will never
abandon what God has called us to do.' More than 5000 Christian families have
had their homes burned or destroyed. They have fled
This will continue for another 10 days.... supposedly the 14 day
mourning period for the slain Hindu priest. Many more Christians will die and
their houses destroyed. Many more churches will be smashed down. The Federal
government is trying to restore order and perhaps things will calm down. We ask
for your prayers. Only the Hand of God can calm this storm. None of us know the
meaning of persecution. But now our kids and staff know what that means. So
many of our kids coming from Hindu backgrounds are confused and totally
bewildered at what is happening around them. So many of their guardians have
fled into the jungles and are unable to come and get them during these trying
times.
Through all this, I am more determined than ever to continue
with our goal: the transformation of a community by transforming its children.
Orissa will be saved... that is our heart's cry. If we can take these thousands
of throw-away children and help them to become disciples of Jesus, they will
transform an entire region. It is a long term goal, but it is strategic
thinking in terms of the Great Commission.
What can you do? First, please uphold all this in fervent prayer.
Second, pass this e-mail on to as many friends as you can. We must get the word
out and increase our prayer base for this is spiritual warfare at its most basic
meaning. We are literally fighting the devil in order to live for His Kingdom.
The next 10 days are crucial. We pray for peace and calm to pervade across
Orissa.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please pass it on and
help us to get as many people to partner with us on this cutting edge effort to
fulfill His mandate: Go and make disciples of all nations.... Prayer works!
Blessings,
Chip & Sandy Wanner Col 2:2
MBI Team Facilitators to YWAM frontlines