But that is easier said than done, amen?! So, as an appropriate launch for our Fall season and the implementation of Growth Groups, we’re providing you with 10 ways to diagnose your spiritual health. They’re based on a book by Donald Whitney called, uh, Ten Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health, interestingly enough. Buy one and read it along the way for further insight.

Our main scripture passage to remind us of our call to continue growing in the Lord is Colossians 2:6-7, which says, [6] Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, [7] rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving (English Standard Version). We’d like to encourage everyone to memorize these 2 simple verses during our series.

Here are the questions we’ll be asking ourselves during this series:

• Are you thirsty for God?
• Are you governed increasingly by God’s Word?
• Are you more loving?
• Are you more sensitive to God’s presence?
• Are you growing more concerned for the spiritual and temporal needs of others?
• Are you delighting in the bride of Christ?
• Are you increasingly practicing the spiritual disciplines?
• Are you still grieving over sin?
• Are you a quicker forgiver?
• Are you yearning for heaven and to be with Jesus?

Here is a helpful description from a book review on Amazon.com:

The book is laid out in seven brief chapters which aim to uncover the extravagant (prodigal) grace of God, as revealed in this parable. Keller shows how the parable describes two kinds of “lost” people, not just one. Most people can identify the lostness of the “prodigal son,” the younger brother in Jesus’ story, who takes his inheritance early and squanders it on riotous living. But Keller shows that the “elder brother” in the parable is no less lost. Together, the two brothers are illustrations of two kinds of people in the world. “Jesus uses the younger and elder brothers to portray the two basic ways people try to find happiness and fulfillment: the way of moral conformity and the way of self-discovery.” Both brothers are in the wrong, and when we see this, we discover a radical redefinition of what is wrong with us. “Nearly everyone defines sin as breaking a list of rules. Jesus, though, shows us that a man who has violated nothing on the list of moral misbehaviors may be every bit as spiritually lost as the most profligate, immoral person. Why? Because sin is not just breaking the rules, it is putting yourself in the place of God as Savior, Lord and Judge just as each son sought to displace the authority of the father in his own life.” As these quotes hint, Keller’s exposition of the two sons lays the groundwork for a penetrating analysis and critique of both moral relativists and religious moralists, showing that the latter are just as lost as the former. What both need is Jesus, whom Keller presents as “the true elder brother,” the one who comes to our rescue at his own expense. Through his grace, we are given hope and invited to the great feast of the Father.

Here are the series details:

• “He Welcomes Sinners” (Luke 15:1-10) – June 6
• “Give Me My Share” (Luke 15:11-32) – June 13
• “He Refused to Go In” (Luke 15:25-32) – June 20
• “Everything I Have is Yours” (Luke 15:1-6, 25-32) – June 27
• “We Had to Celebrate” (Luke 15:11-32) – July 4

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday mornings!

“Wait, do you mean like an ‘onomasticon’?”

Umm, yes, actually… we do.

“That’s what I thought.”

Yeah… right.

Well, this is exactly like that but totally different. The goal of this Theosaurus series is to define God words so we can have language to express deep truth at the ready. It’s about theological literacy and knowing God. But it is also about knowing how to think clearly about sometimes complex theological concepts so our everyday interactions can be peppered with truth that a lost world desperately needs to hear! For some, it’ll be an education in big fancy God words. For others, it’ll be a refresher course and reminder to sprinkle their conversations with the gospel.

“Oh please, don’t bore me with big fancy God words. I know enough, uh… what do you call those things?… Oh yeah… words. I know enough words to describe God.”

Clearly.

Well, can you imagine trying to describe profound truth about an infinite God using just words from a McDonald’s menu?! Yeah, good luck with that. It takes more than talking about the big “Ronald McDonald in the sky” to describe some of the incredible truths revealed to us in the Scriptures.

“Why do you call it a ’sporadic series?’” Because we’ll go one-word-a-Sunday for a week or two (or five?) between other series here and there. It will fit in well when the calendar doesn’t want to cooperate with our preacher’s plans. (”I know, rude, isn’t it?!”) For example, Dr. Mike Sweeney, President of Emmanuel School of Religion, will be preaching Sun, Apr 18, and then we’re starting Theosaurus with Baptism on week one, Sun, Apr 25. Here’s the schedule for this first installment of Theosaurus:

• “Baptism” – Apr 25 – 2 Kings 5:9-14; Matthew 3:13-17
• “Lord’s Supper” – May 2 – Exodus 12:43-51; Galatians 2:11-14
• “Mother” – May 9 (Friendly Reminder… This is Mother’s Day!) – Matthew 23:36-38; John 19:25-27
• “Incarnation” – May 16 – Colossians 2:6-12; John 1:1-4, 9-14
• “Holy Spirit” – May 23 – Genesis 1:1-3; Acts 2:1-4; John 14:15-20

So, actually, it’s more like five straight words! (”Remember ‘or five?’”) After this first installment of Theosaurus we’re starting our (more serial-like) series called “The Prodigal God” for 5 straight weeks. At the beginning of “The Prodigal God” we’ll be launching our new Growth Groups (small groups) for the summer and they’ll be sermon-based (look in the bulletin for each week’s curricular focus for more.) Then we’ll probably do another week or two of Theosaurus… maybe… if it works well with the calendar. See? Clear as mud?

“Why the name ‘Theosaurus?’” Because “theos” is the Greek word for ‘God’ and “saurus” means ’storehouse,’ or ‘treasury’. “Oh, okay. Makes sense.” Well yeah, but does it make sense that “peruse” originally meant to study hard and now it is often used to mean giving a cursory glance? “Huh?!” Lemme explain… In our postmodern world where words are constantly being deconstructed and relativized, sometimes to the point of rendering meaning, uh, meaningless, we must take care to ensure we Christians understand what we mean when we make truth claims about God. Did you know that, in modern intellectual property law precedent, policing words and trademarks is the responsibility of the owner of that particular word or brand? It might be okay if the world steals benign words like “peruse,” but what happens when they start stealing “redemption” or even “God”? And while “Theosaurus” is certainly not about legal action against non-Christians’ use of supposedly Christian words, it is about being a people whose language communicates the gospel in ways a needy world can hear!

“What kinds of words will we study?” Oh, lots of ‘em… kinds (of words), that is. They will range from relatively simple words you may have heard numerous times before like Baptism, Communion (or The Lord’s Supper, or maybe even Eucharist), or Stewardship to nerdy sounding words like Atonement, kenosis (”Keno-what? And why didn’t you capitalize keno-what?”), Redemption, and Justification.

Come join us for this interesting study of some cool God words we’ll define from Scripture so we’ll be equipped to know God deeply and share the gospel with winsomeness and tact!

We’re kicking off a new sermon series called “Don’t Go Solo (in 2010)” that will take us right up to Easter and will focus on encouraging one another to do the work of producing Christian koinonia, or “fellowship” (see these links for more about koinonia: Definition of “Fellowship” in the Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Scriptural use of word “Fellowship” found on NetBible.org.) Let’s face it… We all at times feel lonely and isolated. We could all use more koinonia in our lives!

• “Alone in the Garden” (Genesis 2:8-18) – Feb 21 – God doesn’t want us to be alone.
• “Alone on Top” (Exodus 18:13-23) – Feb 28 – The need to share responsibility.
• “Alone in the Palace” (2 Samuel 11:16-26) – Mar 7 – The isolating effects of sin.
• “Together With Friends” (Matthew 9:10-17) – Mar 14 – The need for friendship.
• “Together in Transformation” (Mark 9:2-13) – Mar 21 – The long process of change.
• “Together on the Path” (John 6:60-70) – Mar 28 – Sharing the burden of the cross.
• “Together in Celebration” (John 20:19-22) – Apr 4 – Celebrating the resurrection.

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday mornings!