We start a new season and, with it, a new series. We will take about 30 or so weeks to walk through 1st Corinthians.  The Christians in Corinth had a number of practical questions for their founding pastor on how they should live now that the grace of the Gospel had transformed them.  Their questions included how they should relate with one another, with those outside the church, as well as questions about sex, marriage, singleness, and much more. Also, they were crazy.

They were suing each other, getting drunk off communion wine, and one dude was sleeping with his step-mother. So they had questions and Paul gives them answers.

As a church – a new, young one at that – we must  be asking these questions as well. We believe that the Church is a family sent by God to carry out His mission – of proclaiming His glory and grace – to the city we have been sent to. Thus, how we relate to one another and those outside the church, and how we live as a city within the city displaying God’s glory and grace, is determinant upon how the Scriptures answer these questions.

The book will be broken down into mini-series:

- The Christ-Centered Church
- The Resurrection
- Sex, Singleness, and Marriage
- For Love and Freedom
- Spiritual Gifts

We will spend eight weeks on the topic of sex, singleness, and marriage including having Q&A sessions at the end of the sermons. Because of our culture and our average age, those topics are vitally important to address if we are to be faithful to what God has called us to.

My hope is that – at the end – Jesus will be more glorified in our church and our city.

For His Fame,
Pastor Jim

Download the 1st Corinthians Study Guide

The next question is “What does that look like?” I want to answer that question here by sharing the story of what Kaylan and I experienced in Redemption Groups (RGs). After being on staff at two churches in Texas I quit and we moved to Albuquerque to be a part of Mars Hill ABQ because we believed Jesus was going to transform us. We got plugged into Redemption Groups soon after we had moved there. Mars Hill ABQ was about to launch the groups and Kaylan and I were asked to be apprentices. We had no clue what we were getting into, but we submitted to RGs and were instantly amazed at the power of the gospel. During the first leader’s meeting a man confessed a deep, dark sin, and I remember Kaylan’s eyes got really big. We knew that this wasn’t a joke, and there was no turning back. In response,we freely confessed our real struggles and sin to these new friends even though it was a foreign action for us. We drove away that night knowing this was going to be awesome and crazy.

For the first few meetings, as apprentices, we silently sat in awe of the stories shared and the sin that was crushing our participants. As the leaders dug in to the participants they moved past the behavior and got to the idols. It was painful for me to experience because the weight of sin was heavy and dark, but it pointed to how gracious God is by sending his Son to the cross. What Jesus absorbed and accomplished is sweet when our rebellion is seen as it really is. In the moment though, some participants were not seeing the big picture. Their pride was being confronted by Jesus, and one participant in particular wanted to fight a leader. I didn’t respond well either when the group’s eyes were on me. They were asking about how I had been leading Kaylan, which at the time was poor. I didn’t have a visceral reaction, but I was burning hot inside. “Who do these guys think they are?,” I said to myself over and over. It was hard to deal with the fact that I am not god and that I had been stealing glory from Jesus for years. I was debunked as the hero and realized I had put on a good front for a long time. After I cooled down, I received the truth, confessed my sin, and turned from myself as an awful god. As my worship moved from myself to Jesus I was overwhelmed by the freedom and life breaking in. I was no longer scared of my confessing because it was a grace that killed the lie of my self-sufficiency. My self-righteousness was rebellion. I had seen the glory of God and turned my back on it, refusing to depend on the Father. In confession I saw my need and in repentance I could truly worship our glorious King. Out of my identity as his son and the love he has shown me, I could lovingly pursue and lead my wife.

Redemption Groups are not a savior but they can be a means of God’s grace to those who are blind to their sin or in a rut. Prayerfully consider if you should apply to our Spring cycle of RGs at The Paradox. You can find the application here.

Ryan leads our Redemption Groups as the Discipleship and Counseling Director of The Paradox. You can contact him at ryan@theparadoxchurch.com.

We seem to have come to this phrase over and over again during our study of Ecclesiastes. The book’s author, Solomon, nearly demands a kind of silence, declaiming repeatedly, “vanity of vanities!” and calling our earthly endeavors “striving after wind.” How fitting is this term—silence—to describe what Ecclesiastes creates and what it calls for.

Its message particularly relevant to believers living in the modern age. Solomon experienced everything—worldly pleasure, wealth, wisdom, work—to a degree that exceeds what’s available to most us—yet he found himself wholly unsatisfied and declared all of it meaningless. In this regard, his book also seems fitting to a post-modern age. How frequently we strive after worldly pursuits but find our self led instead to depression and emptiness! And how unfortunately familiar are we with that feeling, “there is nothing new under the sun”!

It is important to remember, though, that silence and despair is not the end point. In fact, it’s hardly the point at all. After our final study this Sunday, I had the opportunity to talk to a few brothers and sisters to ask them what they have taken away from Ecclesiastes. Elise Hines commented to me, “I felt like I knew what it was about,” explaining, though, how wrong she’d been proven. “I came in with the mindset asking, ‘what else is new?’” Instead, she met a fresh revelation of Christ. “Everything,” she explained, “is meaningless without Christ. . . [but] we have Christ!”

The end message, clearly, is grace. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8). What a gift it is to realize that He alone is our satisfaction, that He alone satisfies the longing in our hearts!

Jenny Cummings, another young woman I interviewed, recounted to me how she has attended church her entire life with an attitude that sought after wisdom. “I was gaining knowledge,” she told me, explaining how even biblical wisdom came to be a distraction which pried her focus from God. Ecclesiastes, she said, “challenges you to be in the presence of God.”

Isn’t this grace? Not to seek, not to do, but simply to rest in Him and turn your eyes upon the cross and what He’s done? “So must the Son of Man be lifted up” (John 3:14). This is not a call to laziness or complacency, but to live in a manner that can only rely on the power of the cross. Josh Kercho told me how realizing that nothing satisfies him how God does frees him from worry. Because of Ecclesiastes, Josh is learning to rest in Him. He professed, “God created me to enjoy Him!”

Justin Pearson re-emphasized, “All the pursuits we have apart from God are meaningless.” Apart from God. Where, then, does this challenge our focus to be? On Christ and on Him alone. As Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Now to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Eph 3:20-21).

by Allison Doornik

We all live for something. Financial, academic, or career success; power; respect; a 2-story craftsman style bungalow with a white picket fence, 2 dogs, 1 cat, and 2.5 children; ability to travel the world; independence; comfort. Our culture seriously idolizes the “ideal” lifestyle, which of course is determined entirely by the individual’s perception of the “ideal” because we are extremely wary of forcing anything on anyone. And our culture drives the message that we deserve the things we want in this life; self-entitlement and self-fulfillment are the prevailing attitudes.

At some point, we all realize that a life lived for “self” is unfulfilling. We then start searching outside of ourselves for fulfillment. Maybe we become involved in community action, take on a cause such as the environment or fighting genocide in Darfur. Maybe we use our families as a means for fulfillment, or our careers. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not bad to be involved in these areas, but eventually all of these will reach the same state of unfulfillment we had in our selfish pursuits. So again, what are you living for?

Yesterday a family friend was killed while out bike riding with his wife (she is in critical condition). The driver of the truck that struck them couldn’t see them because of the sun. It is a tragic accident that has affected many. And this morning I found myself contemplating how I am using the time I’ve been given in this life. There are no promises for an easy, comfortable life. There are no guarantees I will live to be 80 (or 94 like my amazing Grandmother!) So what am I living for today?

Phillipians 1:21-24 ~~ For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

As a Christian, my existence is for nothing less than glorifying God. Everyday. This is what I live for. This is why my life has meaning. So often I forget. So often I let my pursuit of “self” take over. I place other things, other people, at a higher importance than God. But God remains faithful, never failing in his relentless pursuit of my whole self.

What I deserve is death, the justified anger of a creator against his creation who continues to rebel against him. But in God’s unbelievably amazing love for me, he sent his son to live the life I can’t and suffer the punishment I deserved. As Tim Keller puts it, I am so lost and flawed, so sinful, that Jesus had to die for me, but I am also so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. So instead of death, I get eternal acceptance through the blood of Jesus as a child of God.

I know that when my earthly body dies, I win, because I’ll be with my creator and see my God in all his glory and finally get to worship him without the pull of my flesh and “self” exalting tendencies. But while I am here, while I get one more day to be in awe and wonder at the goodness of my Father in spite of my self, I live to glorify God, to share his goodness in my life. And when that time comes to an end, my prayer is that I’m not remembered for how successful I am, or how many degrees I have, or how much stuff I own, but only that I love God because he first loved me.

by Tara Madrigal

We sat and shared, but we did not wrap our stories up in a nice bow.  We all still have plenty of sin in our lives to keep us occupied for several Redemption Group cycles.  But that isn’t the point.  We all have also gained perspective on our lives and sin that we lacked before.  We aren’t working ourselves into perfection, the Lord is.  We don’t have to try so hard, we just have to trust Him.

I wish I could relay to you the beauty of each individual’s story.   The way the gospel has impacted our lives is so different, yet the same.  We have all been bowing at the feet of a cruel idol, only to see its futility, and be overwhelmed by the work of Jesus, which allows us to worship at the feet of His Father instead.

Are we all fixed?  NO WAY!  But I think our posture has changed.  I know mine has.  I have learned how much I need Jesus, and how much I can’t do anything about it but cry out to God and trust that He is at work in me, redeeming me, moving the Kingdom forward in my life and especially in the world.

I may not be able to tell you other people’s stories, but they can.  I would encourage you to come and hear them yourself as we share and celebrate what God has done, is doing, and will do in our lives.

Ultimately, the purpose of this blog is to bring glory to the God for the good work He is/will be doing in me and others (Psalm 107).  This blog will do that by broadly sharing my thoughts and feelings about the entire process each week, with no identifying information about others or myself.  The hope is that it will help inform others of what to expect and calm their nerves about actually going through redemption groups themselves.

To apply for the next round of Redemption Groups please click here

For more information on Redemption Groups go here. For more posts on Redemption Groups click here.

I have seen the Lord work plenty of times.  But I have never seen the kind of work I witnessed in our group.  We had hit a wall with one of the participants.  There was no clarity, everything was muddied, no one knew what to do, how to move forward.  So, we prayed and asked the Spirit to move, to open eyes, to see what was hidden.  It didn’t happen instantaneously, but within 20 minutes there was a confession that was a thread, which led to the unraveling the veil that had been covering the life of the participant.

It was miraculous.  I felt a sense of wonder, and even joy, that the Lord had worked in our midst in such a way.  There was also brokenness that was revealed.  That weighed heavy on each of us.  I have never felt such a mix of emotions on someone else’s behalf.  I knew that this was the first step in a process that would ultimately result in great joy for that individual, but also felt deep sorrow for where they were at the moment.  I knew that I would look back on that night often when thinking of times that I had seen the Lord move.  It was amazing and somber all wrapped into one.

It was also great to remember that every time I go through the same process, that the same miraculous work is taking place.  And while it can be a bit unnerving to see so clearly the sin that has been hidden in my murky heart for the first time, it really is God’s grace.  In His kindness He leads us to repentance, and ultimately before His throne in worship.

Ultimately, the purpose of this blog is to bring glory to the God for the good work He is/will be doing in me and others (Psalm 107).  This blog will do that by broadly sharing my thoughts and feelings about the entire process each week, with no identifying information about others or myself.  The hope is that it will help inform others of what to expect and calm their nerves about actually going through redemption groups themselves.

To apply for the next round of Redemption Groups please click here

For more information on Redemption Groups go here. For more posts on Redemption Groups click here.

As we are ending our first year and looking towards 2012, we’ll spend some time considering who we are as a church, where God is leading us, and how he has been good to us.

You can help us celebrate and glorify Jesus by telling us what he’s doing in your life. Here are some ideas to help get you started:

• “I have seen God’s grace in my life through _______”
• “Jesus is the hero of my story because _______”
• “I’m grateful to God for _______”

Send us your answers via email to redemption@theparadoxchurch.com

Thanks for your help, and praise Jesus for his work and grace evident in our church!

Please join us! It will be family style (no childcare). All are invited; bring your family, friends, neighbors.

Share this link with friends

We will:

- pray that God would continue to move radically in the life of our church and in our city for His glory
- worship His glorious grace and His work of redemption
- take communion, celebrating the Gospel that redeems us
- hear stories of redemption, I promise that by hearing stories of God’s radical transformation and redemption in the lives of some of your church family, you will see more of the power of God and His grace.

:: Redemption Groups will start again in February.  Please apply here.

:: For more information please email redemption@theparadoxchurch.com

Please join us on at 7pm, Tuesday, November 15th at City Life Center next to Buon Girno coffee shop (915 Florence St Fort Worth, TX 76102) to hear how Jesus transforms people’s lives.

Tuesday night, it began to feel as if the whole point of the process began to click in us all.  We aren’t just digging up sin and idols in our lives just so that we can fix them.  We are digging them up so that we can repent, and trust Jesus all the more for that, and live in the joy of what He has done on the cross.

This week, like a rock to the face of each of us, we were confronted with the active role we take in our idolatry.  There are sins we know we decide to do, and we have owned those.  This night, we were digging up sins that seem to be a result of circumstances that are going on around us.  They seem to be passive sins.  But we, as a group, had to face the ways in which in those sins, we actually are actively choosing to exchange the truth of God for a lie.

Processing through that together, there was repenting, and then worship, as we sang together about how sufficient and beautiful Jesus and His work on the cross really is.

It started to make sense.  We don’t do redemption group to feel bad about ourselves.  We do it to see how insufficient everything else we turn to really is.  When we turn from those things, and run to Jesus, that is where true joy and freedom lay.

Ultimately, the purpose of this blog is to bring glory to the God for the good work He is/will be doing in me and others (Psalm 107).  This blog will do that by broadly sharing my thoughts and feelings about the entire process each week, with no identifying information about others or myself.  The hope is that it will help inform others of what to expect and calm their nerves about actually going through redemption groups themselves.

To apply for the next round of Redemption Groups please click here

For more information on Redemption Groups go here. For more posts on Redemption Groups click here.

That was the question we were posed with as we went around the room and shared.  We have spent several weeks digging up our idols, making them apparent to ourselves and one another, and now its time to get into the real good work: the work of repentance.

I had gone into the evening with a heavy heart.  Repentance was followed by freedom, but it didn’t mean that all my struggles and problems were now gone.  It meant that I had freedom to rely on Christ’s sufficiency instead of my own.  It was good to hear how others had been experiencing the same freedom I had in true repentance, and a realization that the cross was enough.  It was also good to hear that others were still struggling.

Something I have been learning in this process is that when Redemption Groups are over, I will not be fixed, my problems will not dissolve into the background, my perspective will not be permanently shifted to be gospel centered.  In short, I will still have to wake up each day and chose to make Christ the Lord of my life and nothing else.  But, the process that I am learning will be forever impactful.  I am learning the questions to ask myself and others that aid in digging up the idols I am worshiping instead of the Lord.  When I sin now, I am learning that its really an indication of where my heart is oriented, not so much a violation of some do’s and dont’s list.

As we went around the room, it became evident that there are still so many areas of our lives we haven’t even touched on yet, and there were many ways our idols were showing up there as well.  It can be a bit overwhelming.  But when I am reminded that Jesus’ work is enough, even to cover the things that aren’t on my radar yet.

I left feeling hopeful again.  When you talk about the gospel, and apply it to actual stories that are going on in others and in your own, you can’t but help to feel hopeful.  God is doing some amazing work in all of us, and I just feel blessed to see it going on all around me.

Ultimately, the purpose of this blog is to bring glory to the God for the good work He is/will be doing in me and others (Psalm 107).  This blog will do that by broadly sharing my thoughts and feelings about the entire process each week, with no identifying information about others or myself.  The hope is that it will help inform others of what to expect and calm their nerves about actually going through redemption groups themselves.

For more information on Redemption Groups go here. For more posts on Redemption Groups click here.

“Have you repented about anything that has been brought up over the last few weeks?”

I knew I was supposed to do something.

I had been festering over all my sinfulness and not bringing it all before the Lord, laying it at the cross, praying for Him to make me new and help me to worship Him and Him alone. But, when I don’t trust the Lord’s control in my life, when I make Jesus’ work on the cross small, and when I worship my own ability, control, and desire, it is hard to see a need for repentance.

Another participant was struggling in a similar way, with a similar unrepentant heart. We both felt in control, and to an extent, that salvation was still something that needed to be earned, or that we could at some point in time feel good enough to receive. We both needed to repent, and were led there by the group.

We both prayed with the group. I don’t cry often. I don’t like crying. But I wept as I asked the Lord for forgiveness and prayed that He help me move toward worship of Him.

After a group like that, I expected that my heart would feel heavy and I would feel guilt or shame. I felt lighter, and as I walked to my car, this feeling of freedom swept over me. I worshiped the Lord all the way home. Had my perspective really shifted that quickly? The next day, that lightness was still there, and anytime I felt myself begin to be weighed down, I would remember that prayer, and would ask God to continue the work in me He had begun. A day turned into two, and three, and so on. I really believe that I have been given a new perspective that has allowed me to walk in the freedom of the cross instead of the bondage of my idols.

I have been a believer for a while, yet I am still surprised how new and fresh the gospel feels and how often I find myself not understanding it or trusting in it. The Lord has been gracious with me to help me understand that true freedom doesn’t come from doing right, but from living in the implications of the cross as an adopted and forgiven son.

Ultimately, the purpose of this blog is to bring glory to the God for the good work He is/will be doing in me and others (Psalm 107).  This blog will do that by broadly sharing my thoughts and feelings about the entire process each week, with no identifying information about others or myself.  The hope is that it will help inform others of what to expect and calm their nerves about actually going through redemption groups themselves.

For more information on Redemption Groups go here. For more posts on Redemption Groups click here.

As we continue along in this process, a couple of things have begun to happen that I did not expect.

The first is that as we begin to uncover our own personal idols, I have found that we all struggle with the same thing.  We fail to recognize the power of the cross in our lives.  We have all seen it at some point, felt the power, or else we wouldn’t be following Jesus, but somewhere along the way, we lost it.  We felt like we could earn our salvation, or that we don’t deserve it, or a myriad of other excuses.  In reality, we just have failed to hold onto our only hope, that Jesus’ work on the cross saves us and it is completely and utterly enough.

As that sinks in with me, I also started to observe something else taking place.  Out of that realization in my heart, and in that same realization occurring in the others in the group, we have begun to feel broken for one another.  I consider myself to be a fairly sensitive individual, and often feel empathy for others in their pain.  But, there is a new burden for the others in the group building in my heart.  I desire for them to feel loved, to see that Jesus is enough, to lay down their anxieties, fears, idols, and embrace Him as Lord of their life and redeemer.  And I noticed that others feel the same for me.

As I begin to believe that for others, to speak that over them in group and pray it over them through out the week, it becomes easier to believe it about myself.  If He is enough for them, then surely He is enough for me as well.  He can/will/is redeeming us all.

Ultimately, the purpose of this blog is to bring glory to the God for the good work He is/will be doing in me and others (Psalm 107).  This blog will do that by broadly sharing my thoughts and feelings about the entire process each week, with no identifying information about others or myself.  The hope is that it will help inform others of what to expect and calm their nerves about actually going through redemption groups themselves.

For more information on Redemption Groups go here. For more posts on Redemption Groups click here.

I was aware that I was asking the wrong question, but every part of me was frustrated that there was clearly not going to be an answer to it.

Last week, I left group feeling convicted and extremely broken.  I had realized how deep my desire to do my way out of sin really was, and how integrated it had become to my identity.  And I didn’t know what to do about it.  As we hashed that out in group, it became clear that I mourned more the fact that I would always fail at doing more than I mourned the fact that I had sinned against the God of the universe.  I wasn’t sad about my sin, but that I couldn’t do anything about it.

As we dug into others in the group, I began to see this as a theme.  We want to be able to acknowledge the cross when we fail, but at some point, we want failing, sinning, to be a problem of the past.  Everything gets turned around to be about me.  My journey, my story, my happy ending, and how I can bring that about, with God’s help.  That is not what redemption is about.

Redemption is about laying down all other causes and goals to be about the story of God’s glory, which He is delighted to tell in my life.  It won’t look like a story that I would write for myself, but that’s because I am not the author.

I am not the author.  I shudder to think of the work the Lord has to do in my heart for me to actively believe those words are true and live them out in my life.

I am beginning to see that this whole process is about letting go and not doing anything.  Letting go of past hurts, letting go of current sin, letting go of control, letting go of my story and leaning into the better one, even when it hurts.  Especially when it hurts.  Then I can’t do anything but worship the Author.

Ultimately, the purpose of this blog is to bring glory to the God for the good work He is/will be doing in me and others (Psalm 107).  This blog will do that by broadly sharing my thoughts and feelings about the entire process each week, with no identifying information about others or myself.  The hope is that it will help inform others of what to expect and calm their nerves about actually going through redemption groups themselves.

For more information on Redemption Groups go here. For more posts on Redemption Groups click here.

After some teaching we broke into our groups and got right down to business, and as we began do dig deeper into a participant, as I anticipated, I felt like we were digging deeper into me as well.  Our leaders were not pulling any punches, minimizing any sin, or trying to soften any blows.  It was an all out assault on idolatry and sin in the life of the participant, and I loved it.

I loved it because I felt like there was so much that I identified with in the other that I was able to pull out meaningful insight without being under the spotlight.  Maybe I was agreeing too much, or reacting too strongly, or something, but eventually the spotlight turned its ugly eye toward me, and I was horrified.

Horrified, because as proven in its previous focus, the spotlight, much like the Eye of Sauron, pierces flesh and bone, or at least it seems to.  As we pressed into my life, sin just came out of everywhere, and I really only had time to acknowledge it and move on to the next sin.  In the end, my idea in my head, of a person who struggles with a few big things and not a lot of little things, was shattered.  I realized how sin infests every fiber of my being; even the parts of me I thought were good.

The drive home consisted of a very open and honest conversation with the Lord, as has much of the time since.  But I have also found myself angry.  Why am I this way?  Why is sin in every part of me?  And graciously, He keeps pointing me back to the gospel.

I am sitting in this realization for now, not quite sure when and how to move forward from here.

Ultimately, the purpose of this blog is to bring glory to the God for the good work He is/will be doing in me and others (Psalm 107).  This blog will do that by broadly sharing my thoughts and feelings about the entire process each week, with no identifying information about others or myself.  The hope is that it will help inform others of what to expect and calm their nerves about actually going through redemption groups themselves.

For more information on Redemption Groups go here. For more posts on Redemption Groups click here.

To say that vulnerability is difficult with a group of people you have really just been introduced to would be putting it mildly, but we all knew (kind of) what we had signed up for.   For some of us, there were obvious signs of discomfort and agitation at having to bear our lives before the group, but everyone was gracious and encouraging.  Now the easy work of unveiling ourselves has been done.

Why did I leave feeling overwhelmed?  Each time someone shared their story, I found that I identified with so much of it.  Our idol worship may flesh itself out in different ways, but it was shocking to find that I had so many objects of worship besides The Redeemer Himself.   I thought that I had myself figured out going into the group time.  “Here are my big struggles, here is where I am with them, the end.”  But, each time someone shared, I would hear myself say, “oh I do that,” or “I think that way too.”  I began to realize that sin has infested every area of my life, and that this is process is going to be revealing a lot of it.

What I realized last weekend is that as the groups continue, as we dig into one another’s lives and try to bring out the deep idols of others, that we would also be doing the work of bringing those idols to light in our own hearts.  It’s an overwhelming task, with so much to dig through. We have 10 weeks to get it done.  I am at a loss for how this is actually going to work.

My prayer moving forward is that we would all be teachable, open, and that the Lord would make us willing and able to see where we need Him to step in and redeem us, because we all do.

Ultimately, the purpose of this blog is to bring glory to the God for the good work He is/will be doing in me and others (Psalm 107).  This blog will do that by broadly sharing my thoughts and feelings about the entire process each week, with no identifying information about others or myself.  The hope is that it will help inform others of what to expect and calm their nerves about actually going through redemption groups themselves.

For more information on Redemption Groups go here.

The book of Ecclesiastes is the perfect study for us in our culture, in this time (as it is for all cultures and times as “there is nothing new under the sun”).  Ecclesiastes systematically removes each card from our delusional, man-made house of cards until it leaves us with nothing “under the sun”. It reveals life apart from God as what it is: meaningless, chasing the wind. Life apart from God becomes, as Kreeft put it, “a wild-goose chase with no goose” and an “unmerry merry-go-round”.

So when we are left with nothing “under the sun” our only option is to turn our gaze (and our hearts) “beyond the sun”.  Unfortunately the noise of our footsteps created by our meaningless pursuits of meaningless-nesses is enough to drown out any beckoning that might slow us down enough to listen.  We need silence. Kierkgaard wrote, “If I could prescribe just one remedy for all the ills of the modern world, I would prescribe silence.  For even if the word of God were proclaimed in our modern world, no one would hear it.” Ecclesiastes creates silence.

We will see in our pursuit for the meaning of life that we must find the fountain – the source – of life in order to find the meaning; in order to define our purpose we must go to the Definer to first be defined.  Ecclesiastes turns life around in our hands so that we can look closely at each facet: work, sex, money, power, justice, wisdom, relationships, time, youth, worship, and suffering. Do they satisfy? Do they bring joy? What is their use and purpose? And after careful examination, after creating the necessary silence in our heart, soul, and mind, it will be clear that, “the point is simply this…without the kind of faith in God that is larger than life and therefore worth dying for and therefore worth living for, without a faith that means trust and hope and love, without a lived love affair with God, life is vanity of vanities, the shadow of a shadow, a dream within a dream” (Kreeft).

We must drink deep of the Water that satiates the thirst Ecclesiastes creates.  Hear the Word that fills the silence it provides.  Feel the weight of the Glory of God that is beyond the sun.

My hope is that when we are done we will have a deeper understanding of the Gospel, and a passion and pursuit of Jesus that dwells deep in our church family, for our joy and His glory.

For His Fame,
Pastor Jim

Pre-Redemption Group Thoughts

When I talk to others who are about to join me in this process, they seem a bit nervous about digging up their deep sin issues in such a confrontational way.  Maybe I am being naive, but I do not feel that way, and perhaps that is just more evidence of how the Lord has been working in me in the last year and half.

I grew up in church and have heard the gospel preached as long as I can remember, but I don’t think I ever really let the gospel be true in my life until I started to really surrender the darkness in my heart to the Lord.  Going through redemption groups, for me, is a way to continue to lean into the gospel and bring to the light those parts of me I want to remain in the darkness.  It can be scary, but I have experienced so much freedom from pressing into those areas with the gospel that I find myself more excited than afraid.  I look forward to continuing that process, and to learning better ways to engage and combat my sin.

I also have this eager anticipation about going through this process with other people who don’t necessarily have the same sin struggles as me.  Satan tries to steal, kill, and destroy.  The best way to do that to us is isolation.  I know I have felt isolated in my sin more often than not.  Isn’t that funny?  We all sin, yet we all think our sin makes us uniquely shameful.  In reality, the only thing that connects us to each other besides the fact the God loves us is that all of our hearts are oriented to sin.  I think it will be good to embrace the gospel with a group of sinners together.  I am excited about seeing other people experience freedom, to encourage them to that end and to be encouraged to walk in freedom in my own life.

My hope and prayer, above all, is that by going through this process, God gets glory.  I hope that as I realize the depths of my sin that my perspective of God’s bigness changes.  I hope that I realize how much more in need of Him I really am.  I pray that whatever healing or heart change I experience, that it is He gets the glory and not myself.  Psalm 107 has really been my prayer for this time, for all of us.

1 Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good,
for His steadfast love endures forever!
2Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,
whom He has redeemed from trouble
3and gathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.

Psalm 107:1-3 (ESV; emphasis my own)