My New Ipad & The Big Green Phone

I am officially changing the name and look of my blog.

Why? Well, it may very well have to do the fact that I just recently was given an Ipad. Being given an Ipad has a way of changing your thinking on more than just electronics. I have almost officially transitioned from out of date to up to date. I say "almost" because I still do not have a FaceBook page, and I still wear a number of shirts that were cool in the 90's.

I am very encouraged however by my recent emergence into relevance. The transformation has come none to soon, since my Mom has had her Ipad for almost a year now. I don't think I could have lived with myself much longer knowing that my Mother was culturally more in sync than I.

And now to The Big Green Phone...

I have never owned a big green phone but I imagine if my house phone was big and green (and yes I realize having a house phone does once again call my cultural cutting-edge-ness into question) I would probably tend to answer it more. It's very difficult not to answer a really big green phone. For one thing, the bigger the phone, the bigger the ring; and for another, well, green kind of grabs you unless you're color blind (I never claimed this blog would be deep...although it will sometimes...and this I now officially claim).

I want The Big Green Phone to represent a curious, captivating call to Christ centeredness (mental bonus points for alliteration would be appreciated).

I am of the opinion that Christians need a good bit more of Christ in all of life. The categories I'm thinking about include: Family, food, work, play, vacation, education, church, movies, music, budgeting, friends, service, romance, clothing, shopping, thinking, and blogging. Of course the list doesn't end here, it just goes on until we finally reach Christ in all things!

The Big Green Phone is a wake up call! It's an attempt to challenge those who know Christ and those who don't to find their satisfaction and security in Jesus Christ who will have preeminence in all things (see Colossians 1:18)! 

So here we go...RING. RING. Some calls are worth answering...I hope this blog will be one them.

The Kingdom of Heaven

In Matthew 4 we learned that Jesus began his brief preaching career with the basic message of  repentance and the nearness of the kingdom of heaven (4:17). The "gospel of the kingdom" was the basic content of his teaching ministry from the very beginning (4:23).

So when we come to chapter 5 and 6 (today's reading), it should be no surprise that the topic of the kingdom of heaven is front and center! But what is this kingdom of heaven?

A somewhat well known movie from a few years ago is replaying occasionally on cable channels these day by the name "the Kingdom of Heaven". The story is about a troubled young man (played by Orlando Bloom, who is probably a nice guy in general, but definitely no Mel Gibson when it comes to the art of wartime speech making, a.k.a. William Wallace) who finds a kind of inner redemption by defending "the kingdom of heaven", or Jerusalem during the time of the crusades. So is Jerusalem then the kingdom of heaven that Jesus refers to in Matthew 5&6?

I think not. In Matthew 4 we learn from Jesus that the kingdom of heaven is something that is "at hand" or near.  Now John the Baptist had already been proclaiming the nearness of the kingdom of heaven (3:2), which was a definite hot topic among the Jews of that day. Jesus takes up John's basic message because Jesus was actually the one who was ushering the kingdom in! Though Jesus the kingdom had officially dawned, "...on them a light has dawned" (4:16).

So, in chapters 5 and 6 we discover that the kingdom of heaven is really important because it's a place where blessing or happiness happen (5:3,10),  a place where entry is apparently very desirable (5:20), a place where reward and blessing can be stored up (6:20) and the place where God is in some special way (5:16, 48; 6:1,9,32).

With all this in mind, how does the dawning of the kingdom of heaven both then and now in Jesus Christ effect all the challenges and troubles we face during this earthly life? The answer according to Jesus: we don't need to worry but to trust our heavenly Father (25-32) and we do need to focus all our energies in the kingdom direction (6:19-21, 33).

That's enough biblical meat to chew today! But do chew on...

New Testament- The 90 Day Challenge!

From the Heart of Your Pastor:

90 Days in the New Testament!

Here we go! I want to encourage every one of you to pick up your Bible today and jump into a 90 day journey through the New Testament with us. If you want to mature in your spiritual life, and if you desire to spread a passion for the glory of Christ in your family, neighborhood, school, workplace, community and beyond...then you must fill your heart and mind with the transforming Word of God!

I assure you, at the end of 90 days you will not regret your devotion to God's Word if you take this journey with us. But I'm guessing you will miss out on huge blessing if you don't join us in the journey!

Today in Matthew 1-4 I was personally struck by the house life of Jesus...four homes that Christ moved to and how they all fulfilled prophesies hundreds of years old. Bethlehem, Egypt, Nazareth and then the Zebulun/Naphtali region.

If you have recently moved or have moved from one community to another a good bit in your life, then you might find this intriguing as well...New friends to make, new grocery stores or middle eastern markets to navigate through, new community cultures to understand and adapt to, a new church or synagogue to take part in...Jesus experienced similar moving woes that many of us have...One big difference however, when Jesus moved into a new town all of heaven took note and prophecies of old come crashing into clarity! The one who just moved into town was the savior of the world...even if he was just helping his parents with the moving boxes.

When Jesus moved into his last place of residence the prophet Isaiah likened it to a light dawning in a place of darkness (Matthew 4:12-16). How awesome is that?!

May the light of Christ shine on us and out of us today...now that he has taken up his residence in us by the Holy Spirit!

May you have strength and desire to fill your heart up with TRUTH....for 90 days and beyond!

Side by Side,

Pastor Steven