Sunday the 7th of May (click scripture references for online Bible)

Intense time together in the Message. I pray that we be comforted and discomforted as the Lord is pleased, and not to the comfort of our "sarx"/flesh. Rom.8:9-17

Delicious Food
Joyful Singing
James, LT, Lonnie (sp?)
Laurel, Zach
Zach, Courteney (sp?)
JP, Prari
Lew
Steve, Joan, Caroline, Grace, Christian
Chris, Sheena
Andrew
Tim
Sarah

Prayer and sharing
Silent prayer for 7 minutes...

Time in the word:
Eph. 2
Col. 3
2 Cor. 4:4
Tim. 2:23-26
Hebrews 12:1-4

Casting off our old lives
Rom. 6--becoming more and more deeply, slaves of righteousness...

Not putting our old lives to bed,
but putting our old lives to death.

____________________________________________________________________
a further word about Lew's comments on sexual immorality.

this is a sin unlike others, beloved. It is more serious than the others because of the nature of sexual union. 1 Cor. 6
says that one who sins sexually sins agains their own body, the temple of the holy Spirit...

I warned us about the false idea that we follow God for a "happier life"--for the fulfillment of our desires...

I warned us that we don't follow Christ to get a "better experience", as has been argued in churches lately. Lately, it has been widely spoken that "sex is better" "god's way". This is true, but not in exactly the way it may seem...

as truly as a clean conscience is better than a soiled one
as truly as peace is better than brokenness of heart
so is obedience to God better than the ways of the world...

but the pleasures of sin are real.
it is true that sin is "more pleasurable" than righteousness...
for a time
for a short time
but that short time can be decades long.
Sin doesn't sour as quickly as they tell you on TV. There are gravely disobedient people who are much "happier" than we who suffer in obedience to God. We swim upstream.
And if our obedience to God is rooted in the expectation of "results", "fulfillment", or any other earthly outcome, we are on the wrong track.

Serving God in purity,
abstaining from immorality--it's druglike draw, and promise of fulfillment that is rising like the tide on this generation--
is not to be motivated by our desire for pleasure, or comfort, or anything on this earth...
In fact, it is likely that our lives will be LESS pleasurable--even our sex lives--than those of the unbelieving dead around us, because we are WAITING. Waiting for Jesus' return... And we go against the grain of this world...

We are to live with our minds and hearts on THE THINGS ABOVE. Heavenly things, where Jesus is, are to motivate our daily actions... Our hearts are to be captivated...our imaginations are to soar in the heavenlies with Jesus... "Well done, good and faithful servant..." is the dream of our heart!

So don't believe them when they promise that the best "anything" is God's "anything". Sex down here is tastier to the flesh when stolen... This is why it's so dangerous to motivate our lives out of self interest, and the desire for comfort, pleasure, or any earthly security. We are called to pilgrimage. We are called to homelessness, and the cross. We are promised great peace and joy, and eternal pleasures and reward, at the cost of this world.

Some Scriptures To Consider:
Ps. 73
Proverbs 5:
Proverbs 6:20-35
Colossians 3
Matthew 16:25-27
Mark 8:35-37
Luke 9:24-26

-------------------------------------------------------------

The major portion of our time together was spent in reflection on the degree to which God is calling us to put aside our old ways, not to be too gentle when dealing with our "bad habits" and "struggles", thinking that it's "okay" because we've "been through stuff", but to passionately throw aside the old ways and live out the new life.
Philippians 3:12-21
1 Cor. 9:23-27 has another word about this.
Rom 8:9-17Not giving opportunity to our SARX--ruthlessness in our casting off/putting to death of our Old Nature...

Still Marinatin' on Thursday

I'm still marinating on the goodness of last Sunday Night... I just keep thinking, "More of You, Less of Us."

There is a lightness to Meeting when we can pray for one another, share scriptures, request songs from the books, share a new song, joke and laugh, and cry and mourn, together...

Some of what passes among us on Sunday Nights is so strong--the Spirit is giving us His Word in unapologetic terms... It's amazing to be there...


Peace to all of you...

Last Sunday

You know, last sunday (today is Tuesday) we came together and just prayed a lot over each other... We sang from our Songbooks, requesting songs... Lew Shared a "nother" song (not new, just unknown of us)--Sweetly Broken, by Jeremy Riddle...

How do I tell you what it's like? we eat... together... just hanging out...

before that, we all cleaned the house... i was so tired from preaching at Erwin's church... we all started singing, and everyone and i listened to that song by Todd Agnew "My Jesus", and we all talked about the new humility that is being brought to the church nowadays...

then we waited..
silence...
prayer...
praying over each other
anointing with oil...
singing...
prophetic sharing...
words of wisdom...

then we broke to eat the rest of the food...

Mar. 19

i'm writing this on my PDA @ midnight. going to bed soon.

tonight our meeting was prayerful and worshipful... there was a bit of singing in the spirit, anointing with oil, intercession, prophecy, etc...

praise god...

Sunday Jan 22, 2006

These Notes are Rough, but I hope you can glean something from them, guys!
Lew

Recap on Blogs
• Jeremiah Blog
o www.jeremiahbiblestudy.blogspot.com
• Chase House Sundays Blog
o www.chasehousesundays.blogspot.com

On the Centrality of Scripture to your Formation
• Would disgust me to be quoted among you without the Scripture at the center!

We Hate to Be Corrected
• Painful in the past?
o Criticized?
• Criticism is an “-ism schism”…
• Sometimes it’s totally unjustified
• Mostly it’s unkind, ungentle

Col. 3:16
• “Let the Word of Christ in all its richness dwell in your hearts as you… teach and admonish one another in all spiritual wisdom…”
o You are the teachers in the Body
• On a Daily Basis
o This isn’t a message from Lew.
• This is and has been a message from Jesus Christ for 2000 years!

The Job of Teaching and Admonishing one another
• My Eldership
o All the good elders were already taken
o We’re the scum of the earth
o Last in parade
• Suck it up and get walking

Admonishment!
• Role playing with Zach
o Don’t leave your bag/my bag where the cats piss…
• Correcting behavior that has negative consequences…

Our Aversion to Correction:
• Pathologically Averse to Correction
o We avoid it like a stink in a room
• Either get the stink out
• Or you get out
• When We pray together, a lot of times it’s affected by this
o We pray veiled criticisms and admonishments
o We add in our encouragements, too…
• Not to be confused with blessings
• Happens when we have a lot of unsaid admonishments…
o We want Sympathy, but not Correction
•
We’re not to tolerate in our midst:
• Sin
• Worry
• Evil
• Injustice
o We’re to Correct each other!
o
We want the preacher to do it to us all together
• Reducing the impact
• Saving the flesh
We’re to do this for one another!
• You know each other better than any preacher can!
For Example:
• Faithfulness at our jobs!
o Let people know that we are all to work as unto the Lord!
• Lew’s Job
o Not afraid to admit when I do well
There are a lot of places in daily life where you guys are slacking off.
• Some of that matters
• We’re hamstrung
o You don’t allow each other the room to correct…

Pr. 6:23—The commands of scripture (don’t worry)
• inappropriate to worry
o speak the truth in love (eph 4-5) to those who worry
• need to help each other out by speaking truth
• You’re not a worrier!
o You’re a beloved child of God
• 2 Cor 10—mighty weapons to control thoughts
• Rom 8 Same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead…
Prov. 6:23—the corrections of discipline are the way to life
• discipline as a noun is attractive to us
• the verb is abhorrent to us
o punishment
o to train
• fathers beat the sons
• Heb. 12 says that it’s a sign of our membership in the Family of God…
• Do you crave the corrections?
o If you have a thin skin to corrections, you won’t go far in the community of the cross
o
10:17—Heeds Discipline shows the way to life/ignores correction leads others astray
• Empowered dark side
o Indian proverb of two dogs inside the foolish young man…
o Don’t poison each other by your handling of discipline
• don’t want that on your head, do you?
o How thin-skinned you’ve been
o Mad at people who’ve told you the truth
• Become whole and right in your thinking
• For the sake or yourself
• For the sake of those who are affected by your example
o We aren’t walking in the Strength of the Truth of the DGospel,
• We’re surrounded by poor examples
• We’re intolerant of truth in love correction
My job is an Equipper
• I don’t DO this ministry
• I don’t change a neighborhood
• I don’t change my neighbor
• I love you and I equip you!
o Fo ryou to love your neighbor

Prov. 12:1
• Loves Discipline/Loves Knowledge
• Hates correction/is a fool
• Foolishness is criminal in nature
o Lawbreaking
Deep folly ground in
• American independence is a spiritually criminal state…
• In Xist, of course I can’t make it
o Jesus not a crutch, he’s a stretcher
• If you don’t love correction…
• I love it.
• It helps me
Pr. 13: 18 Heed correction
• You have to be wrong!
• Exposed
• Confessional
• Honest acceptance
• Admission of guilt/folly/fault
• We must crave it
o I didn’t join this to be covered
o I started this to be healed
No wonder Bible study is boring
• You can’t use it!
o First sign of correction is “harrumph!”
• You know what’s wrong with you?
• Look honey, don’t worry!
 I don’t want to pray! Angry response…
o Just confess it and agree with correction and don’t fall into shame!
o Be patient with your self!
o Be gentle with others!!!
• You’ll all become mature and strong!
•
Don’t hold back just because you’re disqualified.
• The Message is true when it lines up with Scripture
o Been being spoken since before the foundation of the earth!
o Confession of sin can be followed by gentle correction!
• This never fleshes out in a haughty, condemning way!
• Fruit of Spirit
• 1 Cor. 13 love
Judging/Condemning
• Two kinds of Judging
o Condemnation
• Bigotry
• exclusion
o Discernment
•
o Matthew 7
o Luke 6
o Discernment vs. Condemnation
• Your worrying is killing you and I can’t just sit by and watch it happen
• Take care of each other!
o I would want you all to help me as much as you possibly could…
Why are we all so Thin-Skinned?
• It doesn’t matter!
• We must trust and change!
• Accept yourself, by Grace.
• Receive Love from God (believe it)
• Listen to the Truth
o Recognise it by knowing the scriptures!

End of transcription. More on audio…

Ephesians 5:21 Submission to one another: Medicine for this Sickness!
• Recognizing Christ when he’s speaking through another Christian
• Looking past the vessel to the contents
• Honoring the Word when it comes from someone whose flaws you know…
When you get as close as we all are
• You need to be able to admonish each other
• Pray with each other
• Challenge each other
• Correct each other
We are to be SAFE
• Without a love for correction,
o We’ll never be safe for one another…
AUBMISSION Next week
• Blog page on it
• Search page from Ephesians on
o This is gonna help you come to love correction.
5:21
• Submit
• One another
• Reverence
• Christ
o Do you recognize Him in each other?
o Those of us who are walking in this stuff
o Living in this life
o In whom this life is living
o When this is in you, Christ is in you (not bread and wine, the holy Spirit).
• Did you ever just know that someone is/is not a Christian by the Holy Spirit
 Then you listen to what they’re saying
How could anyone prophesy in a group like ours?
• It’s not safe to correct us!
• We don’t WANT it!
• The Bible says we are to LOVE IT!
o Thanks to all who help every Sunday!
• But until we’re submitted to one another out of reverence for Christ, you’ll be hatin on the prophets.
We Got bent by the World
• Christ is refashioning us like a bent sword
• Restoring us to sharpness, usefulness, beauty, dangerousness
o Hammer
o Fire
o Anvil
o Striking
• Discipline
• Correction
• Admonishment
 Heb. 12
• Don’t sweat “sons”! Men are the Bride of Christ!
This is the beginning of a conversation.
• I’m ready for you to correct me!
Rule of St. Benedict
• Good example of how Xians fleshed out this submission…
• Check it out on the Web.
•
So Don’t we have growing to do?
• Sign He’s training us
• Some of us have never known a good, disciplining father
o You do, now that you know Xist!
Mercy and Peace…
Until we love correction:
• We aren’t safe

Sunday Night January 15, 2006

Notes and Scriptures from Jan. 15

This is rough, guys, but bear with, and read the scripture references! Don't take my word for it...


• Matt. 25
o Urgency (Rick)
• Urgency speaks of consequences
 Activity
• If we “buy oil”/get ready/filled with Spirit
• We enter the wedding
 Inactivity
• Not ready/filled w/Spirit
• We are left out.
Self-Preservation (Matt 25, Matt 10, Acts 2:40)
• Legitimate motivation!
• Acts 2 “Save Yourselves from this perverse generation”
• Matthew 10 “be afraid”
o Gehenna/trash heap
• Who wants to be thrown on Gods trash heap?
 What will you find there?
• The demons?
• The damned?
o And it is burning
o Valley of Ben Hinnom was where they burned their sons and daughters in the fire. That’s what gehenna, the place, was in the day of Jesus.
• I said they burned bones there. Not true. But in the days of Josiah, it had become a place of infant sacrifice.
• King Josiah desecrated it…
• It was a symbol of demons
• I don’t want to be one of those who get lost to God in this way!!!

Luke 16 Recap:
• Parable set in terms we could understand
o Money
o Jesus got demanding and bossy about money
o And scary!
o Correlation between this world and “light”
• This world is darkness
• Not your home
• 1 John (only 5 chapters) don’t love the world
 it’s passing away
 lust of flesh
 lust of eyes
 pride of life
o Use money to get friends
• Make friends withthosse of high status!
 Not “nobodies”. Somebodies
 And who is greater than Jesus?
• Matt. 25: He is the least of these!
• James 1
o Rich are low
o Poor are high
• First are last, last are first
Metanoia
• Turn your mind around!
o Repent!
• Romans 12—reneweing of the mind. Not in conformity with the world!
• Our New Language (of the TURNED MIND) Praise
o One of the most important things of ourlife
o Eph 4 ane 5
• Thanksgiving is our new language
• Much better to be silly in praise than to be fitting in with the typical complaining and bitterness
•

Scripture lists are necessary
• Radical life change required
• Consider what you’re getting involved in!!!
• Is it a cult?
• Or is it the Gospel?

Mt. 25—seriously get your heads into it and get it into your head!
Renewing of the mind!
• Five categories:
o Hungry
o Thirsty
o Stranger
o Sick
o Prisoner
• Repeated severally!
• When it’s repeated, it’s important!
• Four times repeated! Hello!

2 Cor. 13:5
• classic prooftexting! Check it out!
• Paul has been calling them throughout the letter to return to faithfulness to the way
o Harsh even
• Smitty reads it.
• “How dare you question my faith?”
o we dare very well question you!
o It’s for your own good
o And for the Lord’s pleasure
• We’re bold to question each other!
• JP shares:
o Ephesian elders warned Acts 26
• The evil comes from within
• Watch out
• Be on guard
•
Making a Scripture list is so important

Greed:
• In terms of people in this room
o So soaked in greed that we can’t even see it
o So out of touch with poverty
o That I think it’s like

Christmas Eve.
• We’re about to receive precious gifts from God our father
• The opening of the kingdom to our hearts is a convicting, painful thing, but we’re being HEALED!
o Nehemiah 8:10—
• They were utterly undone when they learned what they had been missing!
• They are weeping, but Ezra and Nehemiah were telling them to rejoice and celebrate
 It’s natural to weep when we realize we’ve been on the wrong path.
 It’s supernatural to rejoice when we are shown our wrong…
• Mt.5 Second Beattitude
 Blessed are those who mourn
• Happiness in grief!


Taking Spiritual Responsibility/Gaining Spiritual Maturity
• Nehemiah 8
o They take responsibility
• Ezra reads the law
• They realize their state
• They understand
 in mourning
 in action
• They take responsibility
 Jubilee practices
• major reform!
 Celebrating at table
 Shares for the poor
 Shares to the levites

o The American ChurchWe have Neglected
• Why?
 Doesn’t matter!
 It’s not our fault
 Or it is!
 But it’s not important why!
 It’s important to realize that it’s our RESPONSIBILITY!
• Grow up now! Maturity!
o If you’d grown up 100 year s from now…
o And the environment were poisonous…
o You would be RESPONSIBLE to fix it!
 Well the environment is poisonous with Greed. And you and I must fix it!
• We must take responsibility for it and fix it…
o It might be inherited from our forefathers
o It might be because of unfaithful leaders
o It might be totally just the water we swim in
o But it is OUR responsibility to reform it!
• To be reformed by Jesus/the Word
• To be transformed by the renewing of our minds!
 To let that Word work its way out in our lives


…This is as far as I was able to get transcription of the audio notes… do with it what youcan…

Submission

Hey, look at the Later New Testament references to Submission (click on the Title, up there). This is the answer for our "Correction" blues...

Get in it and GO GO GO GO GO!!!!!!!!!!!

Correction

We're talking about Correction this weekend. Most of us hate to be corrected. We hate to find out that we've been doing something wrong. This is rooted deeply in us because our culture has been independent and proud... No kidding.

But as we look at the scripture and what it says about correction, we'll see that we really can't get our lives straight without others "setting us straight".

Submissiveness to the Truth is the Key!

When any one of us speaks the truth in love, we are beholden to listen!

Sunday Jan. 8

This sunday, like last, was really different for me.

by the way, i've found that the notes are "copious"--there are a LOT of notes to transcribe from the audio file on this week's time in the word--so I'm going to make this blog entry about the EXPERIENCE of sunday night, trying to fit in all the scriptures about it, too...

Well, the sunday before, we were in Luke 16, looking into the issue of how we use money in this life, in the light of the topical emphasis on GIVING.

We established that Jesus is calling us to:
not serve money and God--you can't
use our money, tainted as it is, to make FRIENDS with people who will welcome us into "eternal dwellings", or "tents of eternity", as my Jerusalem Bible puts it...

What are the "tents of eternity", and who has good ones?
Answer: the tents of eternity refers to the final kingdom dwelling/state that we have in Christ.
the poor are the ones who have the good ones...

James 1:7 puts the poor in high rank
Matthew 25 puts the "least of these" in high rank, too.

we are made to fear, as we consider that God will treat the poor of this world as rich in the next...
Jas. 2:5

Then we went on to be terrified by the
next parable in Luke 16, about a Rich man and a man named Lazarus.
We noted a lot of things there, but the point made us fear, lest we forget Lazarus in our own life, seeing that Jesus described a judgment that rewards the poor...

conclusion?
it seems that the way to blessing isn't just to HELP the poor, but to BECOME the poor!

Look at Luke 6! (remember, this is a series on giving) and see how blessed the poor are! look at the curse of the rich!
Woe is us if we pile up wealth in this world! Woe!

So that was a recap of Jan 8th.

That was the point!

The notes are available from me. email me and i'll send them... They're transcribed from audio...

This week's Notes

good morning everybody!
It's 720 here at my house.
the day started with prayer and praise
I read john 15, 16, 17, and Psalm 69 this morning to start the day...
I had a cup of Earl Grey and a cup of Green tea
got Tim to the bus stop
got aaron, Pappa, and Lil D to school in time for breakfast
got Seth installed on Public Television
with a PBJ
and a cup of juice
and now i'm gonna get the notes to you from Sunday Night.
I'm so happy that you were there...
wasn't worshipping with song great!
I love to sing praises, no matter how bad i've been.

the scriptures say, "it is fitting for the upright to praise Him". Well, I'm not sure about how "upright" i may seem to myself, or the rest of the world, startign with Judy, but I know that Jesus' blood has wiped my sin out. It's out of the picture (Rom.5), and now I walk with God! And I know that Jesus has credited me with righteousness by faith, and if I abide in Him (John 15), that righteousness will bleed through me into this life in the world.

So I have hope, as I praise Him, that "He who began a good work in [me] will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus."
and "when he is revealed [my] life will be revealed" (Col.3), (1 JOhn 3)

that's always my hope when I praise Him, never that I have behaved well, or that I somehow have lived up to something... always spiritual poverty and hope! Amen?

I'll end this intro post and the one above it will be about Sunday Night.