Oct 21, 2013
Only your love can crush our idols and teach our hearts to fear your name and do your work.
All the Glory, Hank Murphy
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Only your love can crush our idols and teach our hearts to fear your name and do your work.
All the Glory, Hank Murphy
"Our shame was deeper than the sea, your grace is deeper still. You alone can rescue, you alone can save. You alone can lift us from the grave. You came down to find us, led us out of death. To you alone belongs the highest praise."
The Love of God for Us
Last night, I went to an early service at the Brier Creek campus of Summit RDU, where JD Greear used the story of the prodigal son in his sermon. I'm sure I had heard this story used in an Easter service before, but for some reason it had never stuck out and meant as much to me. He broke the story up into 7 parallel points that ran together with the story if you were to replace the father with God, and us with the prodigal son.
God loves us....
Even when you rejected him and broke his heart
As we wander in the darkness
As he brings us back
As he wraps us in his arms when we return
As he baptizes us with grace and makes all things new
When we're too proud to receive his grace
And the last point,
7. We can even ultimately choose to stay outside of God's love forever
It really was a simple explanation of our relationship with Christ, and was made simple yet effective enough to reach everyone who heard it. He also made several applicable points about God's grace that were incredible:
the cross was Jesus running to us and bearing our shame (the father in the storied ran to his son upon his arrival which was a shameful act in that time period)
the cross is not a decoration, it is a declaration
the resurrection was Jesus making all things new
none of us are beyond His grace
All in all, everyone of us is able to receives God's unending grace, it's just a matter of whether or not we choose to accept it and live accordingly. His grace is sufficient
God's acceptance is the power that liberates us from sin, not the reward for having liberated ourselves.
J.D. Greear
Psalm 23
We walk only through the valley of the shadow of death because Christ went before us, absorbing the full impact of death itself.
Hallelujah, what a Savior!
Here we go...
It is crazy to believe that we are about to embark on the exciting journey of church planting. We have been on this journey as a family for nearly 18 months now and it already feels like a blur.
Just last week we put our house on the market here in Durham, NC in attempts to sell it and move into a smaller place. We think it will help us detox from the life of vast square footage and get our minds back to working in the world of very limited square footage. We are thankful to have the opportunity to make changes like this in the comfort of Durham and with the support of our local church.
We would appreciate your prayers as we begin this journey and if you know of anyone looking to buy a home in Durham, please tell them about ours!
b
Notes from 2 Samuel 11 Sermon Message
Sin can destroy your life.
You should be actively engaged in God's plan
Flee temptation
Be captivated by GOD's Beauty
Don't cover up your sin
At Summit, where I attend church services while I'm away at school, we have been in a sermon series called "Search for a King," This is a list of key notes from the message today entitled "Self Destruction."