Sufficient for all Efficient for Some

The Atonement is what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross, cancelling the debt of our sin, bearing the wrath that we deserve and ensuring for the believer all the benefits of salvation. We live in a wonderful country filled with great people with sincere hearts to help others. We are surrounded by great organizations like Habitat For Humanity, YMCA, United Way, LiveStrong, Feed The Children, Salvations Army.... which show a love and desire to help others in a way that extends care and mercy. The question that needs to be answered in today's context is how does the atonement fit into a society that sees itself as doing so much good in the world.

So, doing good for good sake is not good enough, loving other for the sake of loving others is not enough. What is enough is Christ and the Cross, that is where all that is good and loving starts and ends. We must go to the cross as sinners in need of a savior, we must put our faith not in our abilities to do good or to love, but in God who sent his son to be the substitution for our unrighteousness. The good news is that even in our depravity through God's grace we can enjoy all that is pure, holy, just and loving, forever. The bad news is that those who do not put their faith in God will suffer the wrath of God. He is a Holy God and in order for Justice to be served and in order for there to be everlasting peace He must deal with sin.

I urge you to seek first the one and only God who enables salvation through the sacrifice of His son. If you are not presently pursuing God as the Lord of your life, I plead with you to cry out to Christ, seek forgiveness for the faith that you have in yourself and your own works and ask Him to give you a new heart that puts complete faith in Him and through Christ alone.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinctions: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Romans 3:21-26, ESV

May the Atonement be Effective in your life.

Matt

Heaven, Hell and Bell

There is quite a stir brewing regarding Rob Bell's new book "Love Win's" and I feel it appropriate to deal with the matter here in light of the fact many at Grace Point have seen or used "Nooma" material in a small group. "Nooma" is Rob Bell's trademark video study series consisting of titles such as Dust, Bullhorn, Noise, Flame, Rhythm, Rich... where Bell asks thought provoking questions, tells intriguing stories and leaves the audience to look to scripture for the answers. Inherently the study material itself may not be wrong as it very obscure in its teaching and at face value does not touch on the gospel, the participant is left to fill in that part. The issue with Rob Bells teaching heats up with "Love Wins", even before it's release it has communicated more about Rob Bell's stance on the gospel, Heaven, Hell and the God of the Bible. Through this book, previous books, interviews and his teaching at Mars Hill he has opened up a theology that is deep with questions but shallow at best in Biblical doctrine.

This leads me to the point where Rob Bell has been cleared from the shelves of Grace Point small group material, some may have even noticed the Nooma studies were not listed in our suggested material and this out of concern for his teaching over the past couple years . Not simply because of a three minute promotional video of his new books, but because his teachings do not line up with sound Biblical doctrine have I decided that I will not recommend Rob Bell as someone to look to for truth.

The following is taken from an interview with Christianity Today where Bell summarizes the gospel.

CT: You're essentially reframing the gospel—at least the gospel you inherited, the gospel we have known as the gospel in North America for the last couple hundred years.

Bell: I am leery of people who have very clear ideas of what they're doing from outside of themselves: "You have to understand that I'm doing this and doing this." I would say that for 10 years, I have tried to invite people to trust Jesus. You can trust this Jesus. You can trust him past, present, future; sins, mistakes, money, sexuality. I think this Jesus can be trusted.

I often put it this way: If there is a God, some sort of Divine Being, Mind, Spirit, and all of this is not just some random chance thing, and history has some sort of movement to it, and you have a connection with Whatever—that is awesome. Hard and awesome and creative and challenging and provoking.

And there is this group of people who say that whoever that being is came up among us and took on flesh and blood—Andrew Sullivan talks about this immense occasion the world could not bear. So a church would be this odd blend of swagger—an open tomb, come on—and humility and mystery. The Resurrection accounts are jumbled and don't really line up with each other—I really relate to that. Yet something momentous has burst forth in the middle of history. You just have to have faith, and you get caught up in something.

I like to say that I practice militant mysticism. I'm really absolutely sure of some things that I don't quite know.

CT: How would you present this gospel on Twitter?

Bell: I would say that history is headed somewhere. The thousands of little ways in which you are tempted to believe that hope might actually be a legitimate response to the insanity of the world actually can be trusted. And the Christian story is that a tomb is empty, and a movement has actually begun that has been present in a sense all along in creation. And all those times when your cynicism was at odds with an impulse within you that said that this little thing might be about something bigger—those tiny little slivers may in fact be connected to something really, really big.

And the following is taken from an advance copy of "Love Wins", read and written about by Tim Chailles and Aaron Armstrong.

A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better…. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear. (ibid)

As soon as the door is opened to Muslims. Hindus, Buddhists, and Baptists from Cleveland, many Christians become very uneasy, saying that then Jesus doesn’t matter anymore, the cross is irrelevant, it doesn't matter what you believe, and so forth.

Not true.
Absolutely, unequivocally, unalterably not true.

What Jesus does is declare that he,
and he alone,
is saving everybody.

And then he leaves the door way, way open. Creating all sorts of possibilities. He is as narrow as himself and as wide as the universe.

…

People come to Jesus in all sorts of ways.

…

Sometimes people use his name;
other times they don’t.

…

Some people have so much baggage with regard to the name “Jesus” that when they encounter the mystery present in all of creation—grace, peace, love, acceptance, healing, forgiveness—the last thing they are inclined to name it is “Jesus.”

…

What we see Jesus doing again and again—in the midst of constant reminders about the seriousness of following him living like him, and trusting him—is widening the scope and expanse of his saving work.

These are simply samples of where Rob Bell is heading with his teaching, which is very dangerous to the gospel of the Bible. God is a just God, a righteous God, a Holy God and a perfect God and one who reveals himself through his word not through our own understanding. My prayer is that the body of Christ will reflect His glory and His gospel, as it is communicated by the one who created it all. (2 Timothy 2:15, 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Timothy 4:3-5)

Grace, The Power To Change

I love watching the Lord change people from the inside out. It is such a great joy to humbly watch as the Lord works in the lives of those who love Him and respond to a work that can only be completed by a perfect, holy and sovereign God. Looking a little deeper we might wonder how do people change, how do we as believers in Jesus Christ become more like Him. Is it by doing good things, is it by giving a certain amount of money, is it by how involved I am at church? Well, I could be the king at each one the fore mentioned and not be more like Christ. (Galatians 3:3) What I see transforming the lives in those around me is the grace of God, it truly is his love, sacrifice and sovereignty that regenerates and continues changing the lives of those who believe.

"But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 5:20-21

May we look to the power of the cross to see His truly amazing grace and be humbled to the point where we commit ourselves to share in his everlasting love.

Does Your Brain Control Your Heart or Your Heart Control Your Brain?

The question above could be one debated from many different angles, with many different perspectives both physiologically and spiritually. I will let you hash it out while I concentrate on the fact that a healthy mind creates a healthy heart and a healthy heart helps create a healthy mind.

Finally, brothers, whatever if true, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8

The following is a link to a free web protection tool that can help protect yourself and your family from unhealthy material that is so easily obtainable on the internet.
http://www1.k9webprotection.com/

I encourage you as I have done myself to make the smart choice in helping your family keep a heart, mind and soul that is committed to what is honorable, just, pure, lovely, excellent, and worthy of praise by taking the necessary steps in protecting our families from unnecessary temptations.

In Christ, Matt

Discipling South Africa

South Africa 2010
Pray for the Burke family as they faithfully return to South Africa and continue a discipling process that strengthens friends in Christ by enriching them with encouragement, Bible teaching and love.

Tuesday, November 9th
Leave for Chattanooga @ 2:45pm
DELTA Flight 7397
Leave Atlanta at @ 6:45pm
Delta Flight 200
Wednesday, November 10th
Arrive in Johannesburg at 5:05pm
Stay the night in Hammanskraal
November 10th - 15th
Bethesda Children’s Village
November 16th- 21st –
Cosmo City
>Monday, November 22nd
Leave South Africa
Delta Flight 201 @ 8:20pm
Tuesday, November 23rd
Arrive in Atlanta @ 6:25am
DELTA Flight 6455
Arrive in Chattanooga @ 9:25am
www.genesis121.org

The Bible is God Speaking

In a time of many uncertainties we have exactly what we need to guide us, direct us, teach us and save us from ourselves. The Bible is the spoken word of God, God spoke it and man wrote it down. "All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (1 Timothy 3:16-17)

I believe it is helpful to take a look at the present trends in the lives of Christians in order that we can gauge the temperature of our hearts, our minds and our souls. The Pew Forum on Religions and Public Life states in an article titled "Religion Among The Millennials" that young adults are "less religiously active than older Americans, but fairly traditional in other ways." In looking at this article and research what stuck out with me was the lack of belief in the Bible as the literal word of God. Literal word of God meaning as we interpret that here at The Church at Grace Point as; " The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy." From the pew research there is a trend forming in our country in which the Bible is not being seen as the truly inspired and literal word of God.

It is as important as ever that we stop and look at our own life and how our beliefs on scripture are effecting the way we live. We must realize that we can not look to our own logic, our own understanding or what we think todays standards dictate. We must hold fast to what is unchanging, what is 100% true and accurate. When we start veering from the truth we jeopardize sharing in the glory of the Lord as he continues to do a good work in us. We have a choice, we can take the whole scripture as God breathed, without error, and the final authority on every issue or we can try to figure it out for ourselves based on our own understanding. The latter which will certainly lead us in error. We must ask ourselves tough questions. Are we looking to God's word for guidance? Are we applying the full teaching of God's word, not simply picking and choosing what we want to tackle? I prayerfully submit authority to my Lord and Saviour who is perfect and sovereign in every way and choose to prayerfully study and apply the whole spoken word of God to my life, because that is His will.

A Family Serving

I wanted to send out a letter of thanks to all those who made the trip I took to Central Asia possible. I could not of asked for a better time visiting with, encouraging and delivering heart warming gifts to family serving in what other missionaries have called the end of the Earth. The Lord certainly answered prayer in providing the means for getting there, for purchasing items for the Vaughn's and for leaving them with some funds to be used at their discretion. Thank you for your gifts and your prayers.

With the money that was given we were able to fill two trunks with items that they just can't get where they are, some necessary items and some just to lift their spirits. For the kids especially it was like Christmas; K'Nex(lego like toys), Whale Wars the series, Bible study materials - Crazy Love, Beth Moore..., Man vs Wild the series, chocolate chip cookie dough mix, Bible word puzzles, tow ropes for pulling vehicle out of ditches, beef jerky, candy, board games, various cooking items, a lot of vitamins, Mario Brothers Wi game for the boys and a Safari Wi games for the girls, and many other miscellaneous items. The money left over from purchasing these items which totaled just over $1,000 was given for which they plan to use to help with the expenses for a vacation for the family. They have currently been working hard and living in tough conditions for over a year without a break and the funds will certainly help in getting their family of seven to a place where they can get a break and get refreshed a bit.

There are many highlights to the trip and if I had to categorize them I would do so in three separate areas: 1) Being a part of sharing the gospel in a place where 90% of the population is Muslim, 9% are non-religious and 1% are Christian. The people of this country I would best describe as hospitable, friendly and conversational but also unethical and immoral in many ways. They will often invite you into their home where they will serve you the best of what they have. One gentleman even invited us to stay with him and said that if we came he would kill a cow for us. The people of this country have many great qualities that I myself have learned from bu they need to hear and respond to the gospel in a major way. It was a true delight to be a part of three different conversations we had with nationals where my brother in-law through friendly talk opened up the gospel first to a taxi driver, on another occasion to an Imam (Mulsim priest) who we picked up on road as he was looking for a ride to the next village, and also to a barber and those in the shop listening in on the interesting conversation at hand. Of course my part in these conversations was extremely limited as I do not speak the language but was able to pick up on various words and was able to be a part through praying and delighting in the name of our Lord and Savior being proclaimed. In each situation it was a big honor to be a part of worshiping our Lord by sharing our need for his saving grace. 2) My second highlight of the trip would have to be spending quality time with the family encouraging each other. We were able to spend hours in conversation as we traveled by car and foot through a good part of the country, whether it was to and from the capital city, in and around the capital picking up various needed items, to and from villages where their "company" has water and bridge building projects going or simply back at the house during the evenings. It was certainly a joy to talk about and listen to their lives on the mission field, the things they enjoy and the things that are difficult. We talked of course about family, about church, about missions philosophies, the people they serve and are working to reach, about theology and more. I also enjoyed time talking with my sister in-law, who I am mentioned to one of the workers at the soup kitchen where they serve that Trichelle is the sister that I didn't have growing up. I being the middle of three sons. My conversation with my Sister in-law is usually what Yaunette relays to me, so it was so nice to get to hear her heart and about her life first hand. And of course my nephews and nieces who I have had the privilege of being at their births, changes their diapers, sharing in countless hours of their lives as we lived just four doors down in previous years. On the trip it was a pure joy playing games, seeing them laugh, talking about what they want to do with the rest of their lives, seeing them enjoy the company of each other and the respect they have for their parents, the nationals, their teammates and myself. 3) The third highlight would have to be the refreshing of my spirit and the encouragement I received through watching the Lord work in subtle but amazing ways. I feel somewhat guilty about this due to the fact that while I was away Yaunette was diligently taking care of our kids, but my prayers is that as I was refreshed she would be also. Through seeing prayer answered in the preparation for the trip, through studying the Word as I had the privilege to be the guest speaker at their Sunday church service, through morning devotions as my internal clock would not let me sleep past 5:00 AM, through experiencing the lives of my family on the field and God working through them I was encouraged.

To close things out as I could go on for much longer, we got a call yesterday from my sister in-law, and Yaunette was able to spend the good part of an hour talking with her sister. I won't go into detail about the conversation but she wanted us to know that the Lord has really been speaking to them over the past few weeks. In many different ways, including the trip that you made possible and prayed for, God has made his will evident to them as they have searched and prayed for clear direction on some very important decisions they have been weighing heavy here recently. So I want to thank you again for letting the Lord use you, for praying, for giving, for encouraging, for worshiping our Lord and Savior and helping the name of Jesus Christ be proclaimed to the ends of the earth.

In Christ, Matt