Dove Awards

Chris Tomlin won 6 Dove Awards this week. Here's a quote (from Baptist Press) by Tomlin about all his awards.

"I am overwhelmed by the whole thing," said Tomlin, who deflected the praise. "I am grateful for the honors, but at the end of the day that's not what impresses God.... He must increase and I must decrease. I know this is nothing that I do; I just know that the presence and favor of God is with me."

Let me stir the pot a little bit.

I'm really glad for Tomlin's remarks, but still, I've never really been a fan of the Dove Awards b/c there's nothing like a bunch of Christians getting together on national TV and awarding and honoring themselves.

Let's just try one passage on for size, Luke 17:7-10 (ESV)...

“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? 8 Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? 9 Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? 10 So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

Any thoughts??? Don't be too hard on me.

Praying for the Rosolowski's

FBC Smithville has been looking for a music and worship pastor. We've found a fantastic couple...Anthony and Jackie Rosolowski. Could I ask you all to be praying for them as they begin to make their way in our direction? They live in Raleigh, NC right now as Anthony is finishing up at Southeastern Baptist Seminary.

They'll be spending the weekend of May 4th-6th with us, and our church will vote to call them here on Sunday, May 6. I remember how nervous I was during the time Emily and I were doing the same thing last summer to come here and pastor.

So, pray that God will work all things out smoothly for them and that this will be a fantastic time of joy and peace for FBC Smithville.

Between Two Worlds (ch. 2)

Chapter 2 – Contemporary Objections to Preaching

Stott lists the 3 primary objections to preaching in today’s world…the anti-authority mood, TV, and a contemporary atmosphere of doubt

• The Anti-Authority Mood

• Thesis of this point is that we live in a time with an unprecedented level of questioning the authorities that be. I agree with this. Stott offers a Christian response to the anti authority mood. Here are a few…

• We need to remember the nature of humanity. We have always been in rebellion. That does not mean preaching is useless.

• We need to remember the doctrine of revelation. He writes quoting another author, “A sermon by its very nature is a revelation, not an exhortation.” I could not disagree more. I think the Scriptures are the complete revelation of God, and our sermons are based on the revelation of God but are not themselves revelation. The purpose of a sermon is life change, exhortation.

• We need to remember the locus of authority. Preachers themselves are not the authority…the Word of God is.

• We need to remember the dialogical character of preaching. Preaching should be a silent dialogue between the preacher and congregation. As the sermon raises questions in the mind of the congregation the preacher should know his audience well enough to be aware of those questions ahead of time and attempt to answer them.

• TV’s ill affects on listening to sermons. Two of his main points about TV and its affect on preaching…

• TV tends to make people intellectually uncritical. This is the critical point…the inability to engage by thinking. I think this is so true. TV is too easy to consume. You only need the intelligence of a lump of mashed potatoes. On the other hand, it takes hard work to dive into the Scriptures. Speaking about the preacher’s need to reckon with their audience, Stott writes, “We can no longer assume that people either want to listen to sermons, or are indeed able to listen.” Wow.

• TV tends to make people morally disordered. Stott writes, “…our understanding of what is ‘normal’ begins to be modified. Under the impression that ‘everybody does it’, and that nobody nowadays believes much in God or in absolutes of truth and goodness, our defenses are lowered and our values imperceptibly altered.”

• Contemporary atmosphere of doubt
  

• Stott writes, “The contemporary loss of confidence in the gospel is the most basic of all hindrances to preaching.”

• He compares the current situation to the apostle Paul’s statement about the gospel in Romans 1:14-16 (under obligation, eager, not ashamed) by writing, “At present the church’s attitude to evangelism might be summarized in exactly contrary terms: ‘no enthusiasm, little sense of obligation, and considerable embarrassment.’”

• Stott offers a handful of solutions. His first is that we need to distinguish between the terms assurance, conviction, presumption and bigotry. I think this is critical b/c it is a good and right thing to speak up when you have done your research and are indeed speaking the truth (assurance and conviction). That being opposed to presumption (speaking w/o truly researching or knowing) and bigotry (blind and obstinate opinions).

This is Hilarious...

I said in the previous post that Emily had been sick for a while...that included a lot of throwing up. During the daytime when I was at work Luke would follow Emily into the bathroom and watch her throw up. So the other day Luke and I were in the bathroom and he walks over to the toilet, bends over, makes a big throw up sound, and then looks up at me and laughs.

We can now ask Luke, "What does mommy do when she gets sick?" and in response Luke will look at you and make the throw up sound. Yes...our son now walks around the house making a pukeing noise.

Don't ever believe that your kids aren't learning as they watch you.

I'm Back for One Post

I haven't posted for a while b/c there has been a ton of sickness in our family lately. Luke is actually doing better. You can pray for Emily. She's doing better but she's lost 12 pounds in the past week from her sickness.

I'll be out for about another week b/c Emily is going to a pastor's wives conference in Dallas, and I'll have Luke for 5 days by myself.

Quick NCAA Question

When the NCAA tournament started a couple of weeks ago I had 63 of my favorite teams in the tournament. When the Final Four started on Saturday, I had 3 favorite teams remaining. Now, 62 of my favorite teams have lost and only one remains. So here's my question...

Will somebody please beat Florida???????

I will be pulling hard for OSU (even though they beat Tennessee).