Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Been a long time a comin'

I was going to do this on Sunday evening, but I was not able to. I thought for sure that I would have internet access where I was at, but alas I did not. Then did not get back home until about 11:00 last night, so here I am now trying to post for the first time in months. I am glad that there are so many that cared enough to keep this going through the comments section. I will try to put up a new post at least twice a week, with a few exceptions.

Today I would like to get your opinion on the schedule at the church. Comming from the perspective of the youth, what do you think about the schedule of having lunch and finishing up by 1:30? Would you like to do something similar to what Jake started when he was here? And finally I would like to know what kind of things you would like to see done with Wed. nights.

Sorry Jordan, for leaving you mostly out of this post, but I would like your feedback as well. Even though you cannot attend on Wed. on a regular basis anymore, since you moved away, you still know how things were going and can still give feedback as to what you would have liked to have seen. Now I have to go so I can study. Will post again soon.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Left Hanging Again

Sorry again. It has been a weird few weeks. Not an excuse to be lazy, I have had the time to post, I just keep not doing it. I had a great thought though. I thought maybe I could do a little expositional teaching on this blog instead of coming up with a topic and then posting on that. Let me know what you think. I have been doing this in our family worship times at home and have truly enjoyed. It is not heavy stuff, just a little bit of insight into the word of God. Things that might make you think, maybe some things that you have not heard before. Let me know what you think, guys and gals. I will try to put something up this afternoon, if I get a chance. Just had a few minutes and wanted to let everybody know that I was not completely dead yet.

In the service of Christ,

Chris

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Praise

I was studying for my lesson tonight and was cought with something today. I had read this many times and did not think of this, but for some reason it came to me today. In 1 Sam. 18:7 as Saul and David are returning from a campaign against the Philistines, the women came out and greeted them with a song--"Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands." Now, for me, there has never been anything wrong with this for me. I always looked at it as these people were showing their affection for he who had been anoited as the king of Israel (even though this was not common knowledge, I always assumed that the Lord was just giving the people affection for David, even if they were not sure why).

But today I saw something new in this verse. While I still see that God is preparing the peoples hearts to accept David as king and allowing them to lose their affection for Saul, I think there is more to this. Think of when Moses led the people out of Egypt. He brought them to a place where he then proceded to miraculously part the waters of the Red Sea. Moses had led the people through the Sea on dry land and had saved them from the hands of the Egyptions. But whom did the people give credit to for all that had been accomplished that day. Ex. 15 has the song that the people sang and then in verse 21 Miriam answers in agreement to the people, "Sing to the LORD for He is highly exalted." The people gave credit to He who truly deserved it--Jehovah, the Lord and Sovereign of all things.

But contrast to what the people claim as Saul and David return. Here they give credit to David for his ten thousands and Saul his thousands. No one gives praise to the true "hero". No one gives praise to God. He who had guided the rock that struck Goliath and knocked him down. The people worshiped and praised man over God.

Do we still do this today or are we better than the people in David's day? The answer is obviously that we are still guilty of this sin today. How often do we talk about the singers of songs and not the object of their songs? We give praise to the singer but not He who gave the artist their skill. We put up pictures of our favorite bands and pay a lot of money to go see them in concert and buy their CD's, yet we forget to give anything to our God who has supplied all that we have to us. It is He who owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

How often do we raise up the preacher and not who the object of his preaching is. I find myself doing this with my pastor. He is a spiritual giant to me. I look to him for guidance. I try to emulate him. I do this because I know that he is serving Christ with all that he has, but sometimes it is easier to follow in his footsteps than in the steps of Christ. Sometimes it is easier to look to him than to Christ. Sometimes it is easier to give him praise instead of God who is the only one worthy of our praise.

I am not trying to say that we should not support those who sing and preach about Christ. We definately should. I am not saying that we should not have spiritual leaders that we try to emulate. We definately should. But I am saying that we cannot forget that our praises should always be upon He who truly deserves it. Let us not forget our God. Let us not forget our Lord. Let us not forget our Saviour. May he receive all our praise.

In the service of Christ,

Chris

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

I would like to know what everyone is reading right now, so for this current post I was wondering if I could get some comments letting me know what you are reading in Scripture and also if you are reading anything outside of scripture(even if it is not "Christian"). Will post again later this afternoon and will look at the comments then.

In the service of Christ,

Chris

Monday, April 21, 2008

Over a month

Well it has been over a month since my last post. I am officially the worst blogger ever. My readership has dropped off the end of the world and I may never regain them all. I am the chief of all bad bloggers. But that is ok! Paul said he was the chief of sinners and he was chosen by God to be a great leader. He was a man that tought others about the greatness of Christ.

Now by no means am I comparing myself to Paul, but there is hope that eventually I may still encourage others through my irregular posts. May God bless me and this blog. See you all tomorrow.

Yes, you heard correctly, tomorrow. Until then,

In the service of Christ,
Chris

Monday, March 17, 2008

No Post

I am terribly sorry for my lack of posting. I had anticipated posting last night, but I got caught up in my search for a laptop and failed to update my blog. I am horrible. So then I was going to take the day off of work today because I did not have any caterings today. But I just got a call for a catering so I will have to go to work and will not be able to post this morning. I will try to get someting on here this afternoon or evening. But in the meantime this will have to do for an update. Sorry, again.

In the service of Christ,
Chris

Monday, March 10, 2008

Homeschooling Terror

As usual it has been almost a week since my last post. I promise I will try to get better at this whole thing. Just bear with me.

I wanted to give everybody an update just in case you didn't already know. There has been a decision made by a California Court of Appeals that basically states that it is unconstitutional for a parent to decide to homeschool their children. I will give some more information at the bottom of this post, but I just want everybody to be in continual prayer for this matter. Think of what could happen if this is not overturned. Other states may soon follow. Let's pray that this decision will be overturned by the California Supreme Court, but ultimately pray for God's will in this matter. After all he is sovereignly in control of this situation and His will is what is best for us.

Here is some more info from Dr. Albert Mohler's blog.

Like a bolt from the blue, a California appeals court has ruled that the
state's parents have no constitutional right to homeschool their own children.
In a flash, a child welfare case that no one had noticed has become a flash
point of controversy in the nation. Will homeschooling be ruled illegal in
California?
Here is how The
San Francisco Chronicle
introduced the story:
A California appeals court
ruling clamping down on homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials
sent shock waves across the state this week, leaving an estimated 166,000
children as possible truants and their parents at risk of prosecution.
The
homeschooling movement never saw the case coming.
"At first, there was a
sense of, 'No way,'" said homeschool parent Loren Mavromati, a resident of
Redondo Beach (Los Angeles County) who is active with a homeschool association.
"Then there was a little bit of fear. I think it has moved now into
indignation."
From The
Los Angeles Times
:
Parents who lack teaching credentials cannot educate
their children at home, according to a state appellate court ruling that is
sending waves of fear through California's home schooling families. Advocates
for the families vowed to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court.
Enforcement until then appears unlikely, but if the ruling stands,
home-schooling supporters say California will have the most regressive law in
the nation. "This decision is a direct hit against every home schooler in
California," said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, which
represents the Sunland Christian School, which specializes in religious home
schooling. "If the state Supreme Court does not reverse this . . . there will be
nothing to prevent home-school witch hunts from being implemented in every
corner of the state of California."
The court's decision states that
California's compulsory education statute does not allow for parents to teach
their own children as an exemption. Instead, the only teachers qualified to
teach children under the law are those with official teaching
credentials.
The decision is sending shockwaves across the homeschooling
movement nationwide. In California alone, over 160,000 families homeschool their
own children. Some believe that the number is actually far higher.
In any
event, the requirement of teacher credentials has long been used by the public
school systems and teacher unions as a ploy to shut down competition.
In the
most important section of the court's ruling, the 3-judge panel ruled that
California parents have no constitutional right to educate their own children.
As the decision reads [see full text
here
]:
The trial court's reason for declining to order public or private
schooling for the
children was its belief that parents have a constitutional
right to school their children in their own home. However, California courts
have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a
constitutional right to home school their children. Thus, while the petition for
extraordinary writ asserts that the trial court's refusal to order attendance in
a public or private school was an abuse of discretion, we find the refusal was
actually an error of law.
The words, "parents do not have a constitutional
right to home school their children," are nothing less than explosive. Even as
the court's decision is expected to be stayed pending appeal, some parents are
already making clear that they will move their families from the state if
necessary.
As The
Los Angeles Times
reports:
Glenn and Kathleen, a Sacramento-area couple
who requested that their last name not be used for fear of prosecution, home
school their 9-year-old son Hunter because their Christian beliefs would be
contradicted in a public school setting, Glenn said. He is troubled by the idea
that his son would be exposed to teachings about evolution, homosexuality,
same-sex marriage and sex education ."I want to have control over what goes in
my son's head, not what's put in there by people who might be on the far left
who have their own ideas about indoctrinating kids," he said. If the ruling
takes effect, Glenn vowed to move his family out of state. "If I can't home
school my son in California, we're going to have to end up leaving California.
That's how important it is to me."
This is a controversy that demands the
attention of all parents. After all, if parents have no constitutional right to
educate their own children, what other aspects of the parent's choices for their
own children lack protection? This question reaches far beyond educational
decisions.