Holy Affections part 1. photo by Rachel Jones

I don't know why I never realized it before, but I found the answer in a very strange place. I was thinking the other day as to why there is this desire and urge within all of us during Christmas. We desire so many things but it's never enough. We want presents, friends, SNOW, memories, but if I'm really honest I am always looking for something else. I have been seeing this in myself for years and wondered what this desire for something else was all about. Make fun of me if you will but I was driving around looking at Christmas lights the other night, by myself I might add, and got real excited about Christmas but noticed yet again, that I was wanting something more. I finally realized what it was. My desire that was so overwhelming but hard to notice, was the desire of heaven. The desire to see Jesus face to face and worship Him forever. I guess there are certain things about Christmas that bring it out. For instance, I was preaching on the attributes of God the other night using some photos that a friend of mine, Rachel Jones took. One picture was of a tree with snow on it. The very first time I saw snow it reminded me of God's grace, because every time you see snow it makes everything look different. When a landscape has snow on it, it doesn't look the same, it looks clean, pure, and right.
Jonathan Edwards the great preacher of the 1700's called this Holy Affections. Edwards says that, "He who has no religious affection is in a state of spiritual death and is wholly destitute of powerful quickening influences of the Spirit of God." These affections that Edwards talks about are things like a strong desire to be with Jesus and follow Him no matter where He goes, hatred for sin, Godliness, hoping in God's promises, and thanksgiving for Salvation through Jesus Christ. If these desires and longings are nowhere to be found in a person, this is a clear sign that there is no saving faith in the person. For the Christian, there is a longing to be with Jesus now and forever for the supreme purpose of giving Him glory that is due. This Christmas I challenge you to understand the deep longing to be at home with Jesus that lies within you and use it to strengthen your faith in the promise of Jesus that one day He will return to take His Children home!

"And the angel said to me, "Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words of God." - Revelation 19:9

Check out more photos at www.racheljonesphotography.com

Switching to Digital TV

The Most Important Issues In the 2008 Election

Enduring!

Church Planting isn't easy, so for lunch I resort to a bowl of corn! My roommate thought it was funny!

For His Namesake,
JP

Introduction to The Gospel Coalition

Read Your Bible!

Psalm 1:1-2

Paul Tripp: The Need for Silence

Mark Driscoll on Using Words to Arrest Attention

A walk in the woods with Jonathan Edwards

Rev. Edwards spent the summer with his parents in East Windsor and visited Bolton, then a small crossroads hamlet, in June of 1723. In his diary he describes his spiritual reconciliation:
"...there came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite different from any thing I ever experienced before. I thought with myself, how excellent a Being that was, and how happy I should be, if I might enjoy that God, and be rapt up to him in heaven, and be as it were swallowed up in him for ever!"The appearance of every thing was altered. God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in every thing; in the sun, moon, and stars; in the clouds, and blue sky, in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water, and all natureƒI spent most of my time in thinking of divine things, often walking alone in the woods, and solitary places, for meditation, soliloquy, and prayer, and converse with God."

Mark Driscoll on Speaking the Truth in Love

The Shack

A helpful view on the popular book, "The Shack".

Rich Mullins Concert Part #5

4 Lanes of the Emerging Church

How Far? pt.2

The other night I was in Auburn checking out a new church plant and having dinner with a friend. Over dinner my friend and I were talking about creating the lifestyle of time with Jesus in a chaotic day. He was telling me of his days when he was doing mission work in Sudan. A normal day for him consisted of taking prayer walks, reading scripture, mission work, then more reading before he went to sleep. He started talking about the simpleness of those days and of how nourishing it was to his relationship with Christ. Jonathan Edwards, a well know pastor in the 1700's was also known for retiring from his office to spend the afternoon hours strolling in the woods and talking to Jesus. So the question we have to ask ourselves is this - Are we controlling our schedules, or are the schedules controlling us?

"for my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me.

the fountain of living waters,

and hewed out cisterns for themselves,

broken cisterns that can hold no water" -Jer. 2:13

How Far?

On more than one occasion I travel out to my parents house during the week. In all honesty I travel out there more than 2 times a week. I use the word travel because from my house to my parent's house it takes me about 30 minutes. So, there and back is an hour of driving just to go to my parent's house. I don't go out there because I'm a momma's boy, even though that's what my dad says. The main reason I drive out there is simply because the food is that good! I was talking to a pastor the other day that was wondering if people would drive out of the way to come to his church. As he was talking I started thinking about those churches that are 5 minutes away from my house that don't really preach from God's word but speak from their own opinion's and thoughts that randomly pass through their minds. The question that I challenged myself with today is how far will I go to be fed by the Holy Words of Jesus. Not only that but to what areas in my life am I willing to re-order to make sure that I am taking in the goodness of Scripture so that I might love Jesus better. As for my friend I respond, people will drive to great lengths if their is quality food on the table.

Is. 55

Redneck Theology 101

Today Jesus asked to be my friend on facebook and I said no. Of coarse it was not really Jesus but just another idiot expressing their Jesus as their "homeboy". If you ever wanted to know why the Church is sometimes the laughing stock of culture it is because of things like this. I know many people that have nothing against the Holy, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords but will not step into a church because to some Jesus is a "buddy" that ends up as a bumper sticker on someone's honda. I am not sure where it actually comes from or where it is going but I do know that a little respect for the Son of God is not only respected by insiders but also by outsiders. We should fear the Lord and think of Him as who He really is, not as some hippie truck driver making his way through town.

"The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man." - Ecclesiastes 12:13

Can God Judge Me?

The Glory Of Obscurity

John Knox (1510-1572) is widely known for leading the Scottish reformation and starting what we now have today, the evangelical Presbyterian denomination. Knox is also known for the early tracings of church and state which gives us the freedom to meet together for Church services without state interference. John Knox was a great preacher and was also put in prison with 120 pastors who were persecuted for preaching the word of God in Scotland. John Knox was buried in the old Church graveyard until the Church decided to pave over it and sell the space to a used car dealership. You can now pay your respects to the great reformer at his final resting place in Scotland, that is if you can get one of the used car salesman to move the KIA in spot 23!

"But I am afflicted in pain; let your salvation, O God, set me on high" Ps. 69:29

Grow Up!

You would of thought that there was a dark force out there preventing me from seeing the 4th movie in the series of Die Hard flicks. But I am proud to say I finally sat down and watched it the other night. What a movie, I loved it and was wondering if God was calling me to change my last name to McClain instead of Pond. Not too long after watching the movie I sat down to do some studying for a upcoming d-now I am preaching in February and to my surprise I saw some similarities between our hero John McClain and Paul. Before you think I am becoming a heretic before your very eyes let me explain. I would have to agree with Pastor Mark Driscoll in Seattle that too many men in our culture today don't want to have anything to do with Church. It's not so much that they don't love Jesus, but that when they see men in the Church today they see a bunch of pretty boys in the choir that love to skip down the church hallways sucking on lolly pops. On and did I mention that a lot of these men are still not winning the fight on kicking porn out of their houses, or learning how to be Godly husbands and fathers. In the language that we read in Paul's letters to Timothy, Paul uses language not too different than our kick Butt friend John McClain. Paul urges Timothy to not be shaken up by people questioning him because of his young age but growing up spiritually and being a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Paul urges Timothy to watch out for people with bad agendas who carry bad doctrines that want nothing more that to disrupt God's household and invade the minds of good lay people. The more we read of Paul's desire for the Church the more we can see that God is not wanting some goofy and wimpy men, but wanting some men of Godly integrity and men of the word to influence the world for one reason alone, the renown of Jesus Christ.

New year, Old story....

If you’re a blog reader I would begin to wonder why in the world you are reading this one. It does not get updated that often and when it does you may not see words but pictures or even videos. Sometimes it makes me laugh about how much we write in blogs while wondering if anyone ever truly reads them. At any rate, it’s a new year, and with a new year we expect new things. However, we cannot forget that what we live for, or rather whom we live for is nothing new, but it’s a lifestyle that is based on a true story not more than 2000 years ago. But are we bothered by something that is that old.
If you notice Christian culture in our country you will notice certain dissatisfaction with something as old as the gospel. More than a few years ago there were many folks that decided that we need to be like Paul, all things to all people. Our churches need to be relevant and opened to non-Christians. People should wake up on Sunday morning and having the option of going to church or going to the beach, they should pick going to church everyday and twice on Sunday. Besides, if our Jesus is irresistible why should church be any different? I totally embrace this idea, and for one reason alone, - these folks still held on tightly to the foundation of Christ and solid doctrine. They did not abandon old and trustworthy truths. Now we see something different in our world today. We see a group called the emergent church, a group that wishes to not only change the way church is done but change the way we read scripture, change our convictions, and make our theology more flexible like a trampoline (and example used by a guy named Rob Bell).
The Gospel does not need to be changed, we need to be changed. When we notice our lives becoming stagnant and dull, we need to realize we are stagnant and dull not the gospel. It’s a time where we embrace the same story as the early apostles did and grow in our process of learning what Christ wants to do on this earth and in our lives. I will never forget the story of my friend and mentor, Jay Ridenour. In his senior year of college, Jay went on a mission trip to Bolivia. The team traveled around village to village for a few weeks showing, “the Jesus film” to people who had never heard the gospel. The film was a simple brush of the life, death, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. After going from village to village carrying all kinds of audio/video equipment they came to the last village of their trip. As the movie began to play Jay was approached by a woman who had asked him to hold her baby so she could watch the film. As the film came to the part of the crucifixion she began to weep out loud, so loud that it was almost a disturbance to everyone who was trying to watch the movie. While the lady was disruptive as she began to cry more and more, the team of students became excited as the thought that she would be the first person to want to know more about this Jesus. When the end of the movie came the team rushed to the translator to ask if the woman had any questions about this story of Jesus. The team was quickly informed that this woman who had become too emotional from seeing the brutal execution of Jesus on the cross had a unique story about herself. The truth was that this woman had heard of the gospel before, in fact she had heard it many times. The fact of the matter was that this woman had been a Christian for nearly 40 years, and heard the gospel when she was a little girl. In her eyes, the gospel was as new to her as it ever has been.
In light of a new year I hope your prayer is that we embrace the old but glorious story told to us in the trustworthy pages of the Holy Scriptures. We do not have to do many great things this year; we just have to be mastered by one thing that is very great. May the gospel of Christ Jesus continue to amaze you this year and overflow in your daily life for the glory of the kingdom of God.

For His Namesake,
JP