Worship

William Temple: For to worship is to quicken the conscience by the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination by the beauty of God, to open up the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.

The True Gospel

In Tad Thompson's book: Intentional Parenting, he writes the following: The good news of Jesus Christ is not that you can become a better person. Or that God has given us the secret to wealth, purpose, and a peaceful life. Or that some special prayer is the "open sesame" for the gates of heaven. The biblical gospel can be understood by keeping in mind four essential elements that summarize its content: *God is the sovereign and holy Creator of the universe. *Man has rejected the sovereign and holy rule of God. *Jesus is the eternal Son of God who came to rescue sinners. *The gospel demands that all people respond in repentance and faith.

Christ-Centered Expositions of Ezekiel

Through the Lord's grace, my friends: Danny Akin, Tony Merida, and David Platt have invited me to participate in a commentary series they are publishing. My portion will be: Christ-Centered Expositions of Ezekiel. Of course, after I was assigned Ezekiel I questioned the actual level of my "friendship" with those men! Currently, the goal is to have a manuscript to the publishers by December 2014. Fortunately, the only parts remaining for me to complete are...all of them! The first facet will be to study and prepare Christ-Centered expositions of Ezekiel to our faith family at Trace Crossing. The second phase will be to take those sermon notes and turn them into commentary chapters. The good news is that Ezekiel is a succinct, clear, and concise little ol' 48 chapter book! With a 10,000 word count limit, I'm aiming to maximize the content. Oh, and then there's that wheel in the sky keeps on turning thing that Ezekiel sees. No worries right? Well, pray for us. Pray for the study, the proclamation, and the formatting that lies ahead. As always, the purpose of studying Ezekiel is never just for information, but for transformation, so pray most importantly that God will use His Word to further conform our faith family to the image of Christ.

Goals for Trace Crossing for 2012

In January, the elders presented the following goals to Trace Crossing for 2012. By God's grace, some of these goals have already been achieved, while others are still works in progress. I'm posting them here today, so you can know what we have been and continue to be striving toward together at Trace Crossing in 2012. GOALS FOR TRACE CROSSING IN 2012 Because of the Gospel and in the power of the Gospel, we will strive to equip the members of Trace Crossing to live for the good of others and God’s glory. I. THE GOSPEL WORD *Strive to see each member be able to articulate the Gospel clearly and concisely (God, man, Christ, response). *Encourage daily thinking on the Gospel, so that Christ is the motive and means for all we do. *Complete our exposition of Ephesians *Complete our study in Luke, Genesis, and Acts in LifeGroups *Sing the Word, pray the Word, preach the Word in each worship service II. THE GOSPEL COMMUNITY *By the end of 2012, develop a regenerate church membership list. *Seek and develop additional LifeGroup leaders. Train, equip, and encourage LifeGroup leaders on an ongoing basis. *Help members identify and use their spiritual gifts. *Strive to see Titus 2 relationships develop where the older men are mentoring the younger men and the more mature ladies are mentoring the younger ladies. *Continue to encourage the once a month women’s meetings. *Develop a weekly men’s prayer time. *Continue to seek the Lord’s direction in location change. Emphasis upon giving to building fund. Clearly communicate our motives in moving. *Continue to model prayerful support of sister congregations *Have communication boards in the worship center that provide key information we want everyone to see and remember. *Develop welcome packets and process for after service *Develop a collegiate and young professionals ministry III. THE GOSPEL ADVANCING *Praying for each of our members to lead at least one person to Christ in 2012. *Help members identify gifts/talents/expertise that can be used to help train, equip and reach out to local neighborhoods (safety seminars, financial seminars, sewing classes, resume development, etc.) *Encourage cheerful and sacrificial giving to missions. *Send more Trace Crossing members on mission than ever before. *Continue to develop strategic global, Gospel partnerships *Continue to seek out areas of Tupelo where new works or specific ministries could help advance the Gospel. *Display maps of the world and Tupelo in our building and highlight areas where we’ve gone, where we give money to support, and where we are specifically interceding. *Complete documents for SEBTS to be able to house theological education at Trace Crossing. *Bless Tupelo in some tangible way through doing and giving.

The Sufferings of Christ

Here is the conclusion J. C. Ryle felt we should be led to as we consider Christ's sufferings:

"And let us learn from the story of the passion always to hate sin with a great hatred. Sin was the cause of all our Savior’s sufferings. Our sins twisted the crown of thorns; our sins drove the nails into his hands and feet; on account of our sins his blood was shed. Surely the thought of Christ crucified should make us loathe all sin. As the Church of England Homily of Passion says so well: 'Let this image of Christ crucified be always printed in our hearts. Let it stir us up to the hatred of sin, and provoke our minds to the earnest love of Almighty God.'”

Atonement

A couple years ago, I had the privilege of leading the children at CrossPoint through material from Kids 4 Truth that centered on the atonement. Here is some of what I shared with them:

Christ’s atonement met four needs we have as sinners:
1. We deserve to die as the penalty for sin.
2. We deserve to bear God’s wrath against sin.
3. We are separated from God by our sins.
4. We are in bondage to sin and to the kingdom of Satan.

Here’s how Christ’s atonement met the needs above:
1. Sacrifice – Jesus died our death (Heb. 9:26)
2. Propitiation – Jesus took God’s wrath (1 John 4:10)
3. Reconciliation – Jesus brings us back to God (2 Cor. 5:18-19)
4. Redemption – Jesus paid the ransom to set us free (Mark 10:45)

Quotes from Knowing God

As a staff, we are reading through J. I. Packer's "Knowing God" and discussing what we read on Thursday mornings. I was particularly encouraged by the following:

"There is tremendous relief in knowing that (God's) love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench his determination to bless me."

"There is, certainly, great cause for humility in the thought that he sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow humans do not see (and am I glad!), and that he sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself (which, in all conscience, is enough). There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, he wants me as his friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given his Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose."