The Gospel and Neighbors Kids

I got a chance to share the gospel with the neighborhood kids this week during our move.

I stepped out to load a few boxes into the trailer and I heard the other kids talking with my daughter about how you get to heaven. They didn’t seem to know.

I asked my daughter Taylor, “What are you guys talking about?” She brought all the kids over to me and we began to talk. I was able to tell them that there is no other way to heaven except through trusting in Jesus. He died to take the punishment that we deserve for our sins and he promise us eternal life if we believe in Him and follow Him.

I followed up by asking if they thought they were Christians. One said she thought she was (let’s pray she is!), the other didn’t know. They went back to riding bikes and I went back to loading boxes. Let’s pray for God to bring conversions to the people around us. Even 8 yr olds need to hear the gospel.

Posted via email from Chris's posterous

Moving (#1)

We are making the first of a double move this weekend....we have a renter who is moving in here by the end of the month. We are renting from our friends Jason and Tiffany month to month until we find a location up in Peoria that works for us....God has been very kind to provide this arrangement for us!

I will continue blogging after we get settled in....

The Prodigal God

Looking for a fantastic exposition of Luke 15? I knew it. I've got just the book for you - The Prodigal God by Tim Keller.

It was recommended to me by a friend a couple of weeks ago and I got my hands on it. It tells the story of the parable of the prodigal son, the one who squanders his inheritance and life and comes back home to beg for forgiveness. It tells the story of an older son who never left, never squandered his money, never dishonored his dad, but was equally guilty of wrongdoing.

Dr. Keller does a masterful job of exposing sin for what it really is - it's not just lawbreaking, but lawmaking. It's putting yourself in the place of God and demanding to be rewarded for your morality. It's an unwillingness to submit to the Lordship and authority of Christ. Both the prodigal younger son and the moral older son were guilty of sin.

Only Christ was the true elder brother - the one who was both moral and submitted. He was chaste and compassionate to sinners. He is our example and our substitute for sin, so that we can repent of selfish younger brother sins and self-righteous elder brother sins. Only then will we experience the true hope that the gospel provides for us.

Go get your copy and let me know what you think!

The Foundation: God's Word Part II

Hebrews 4:12 says, "The Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

The Bible is a living book written under the inspiration of the living God. We should expect Him to use it to sift our motives, to challenge our thinking, to inspire our love. We come to His word not reluctantly, but because we believe that it is the only source of saving truth in the world. They are truly the words of eternal life.

When we come to God’s Word, we don’t come as judges or critics. We don’t come as those evaluating God – the way we might a popular TV show. No, God’s Word evaluates us. It critiques our lives and motives. It does it thoroughly and penetratingly. And it leaves us devastated in ourselves and longing for the grace of God.

But as we peer into the Word - as worshippers gazing up at the waterfall of God - we see the torrents of his love for us in Jesus Christ. We feel the power of the mighty cross and its washing away of our sin. We taste the refreshment of forgiveness and it satisfies our souls. We bask in the promise of eternal life with the Life Giver. And we go to the Word again and again and again.

May Grace Church be a body of believers who drink deeply from the Word of Life. May it be the foundation of all that we say and do.