Archive for the ‘Here’s What I Think…’ Category

Would Jesus Wear Jeans to Church?

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Some of you may have seen the postcard that we sent out to those in the Milwaukee area. We also just had the same poster put up in Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa. The title or catch line is “Would Jesus Wear Jeans to Church?” The concept is not so much about the “forms” of worship, but instead that the inside is more important than the outside. It’s certainly not an attempt to say that Jesus was cool and our church is too. Actually it may be quite the opposite. It’s stating that Jesus broke a lot of the religious stereotypes, and at times offended people with the truth. Our hope and prayer in using this question is to get people to think about what it really means to be a follower of Christ, to be saved by Him, and transformed by Him. For some it’s coming to a point of understanding that their past or outward appearance doesn’t exclude them from a relationship with God because of the grace of Christ. For others, it may wake them up to understand that just because they look “good” to the world that they are far from what Jesus called his “disciples.” Below is what the rest of the postcard and poster says.

Outward appearances often don’t reflect what’s going on in someone’s heart and life. This is an age old problem, even as Jesus walked the earth. Many dressed the religious part but were rotten on the inside. Jesus called these people “hypocrites” (Matthew 23:27-28). Maybe you think Christianity and church are scams because you’ve experienced this hypocrisy. I apologize on behalf of Christians. In addition, maybe you feel as if your appearance or past excludes you from God’s love.

But please, don’t give up on God just yet! I want to invite you to check out epikos church and hear what Jesus taught, lived for, and died for. I invite you to be part of a church where we recognize that all of us are dependent on the grace and hope offered through Jesus Christ.
So come as you are, No need to dress up or hide your tattoos…

If you want a copy of the postcard please email us with your address and we’ll mail one out to you.

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Fish Food

Monday, April 19th, 2010

I should most likely be ashamed to admit that I own “Big Idea’s Jonah—A Veggie Tales Movie.”  I saw it on sale for $5 and I took the bait.  Jonah is a story we’ve heard since we were little kids.  We may have heard something similar to “Jonah ran from God, a fish/whale ate him, and three days later spit him out.”  Many of us have become so familiar with this story that we may have missed numerous points, and have even forgotten that Jonah is a historical book that expresses events that actually took place.  Right now I would really appreciate it if you took 10-15 minutes to reacquaint yourself with this book.  So please stop reading this blog and read the book of Jonah……….

In the last three weeks I’ve listened to two sermons on the book of Jonah.  One sermon was about how Jonah represents the church, and how the church is constantly running away from God.  The preacher went on to talk about how Tar shish (the city Jonah was fleeing to) represented the sins that the church loves while running from God.  The other sermon the preacher stated that Jonah represents every person who has ever been born.  The preacher stated that everyone has some knowledge of God, but runs away from Him because they would rather be in captivity and bondage to the things of this world (so in this sermon Tar shish represented “the world”).  Both of these sermons reflected biblical truths.  Since man is born dead in trespasses and sins, and even post-salvation man struggles and wars with these sins, the situations expressed in these sermons are common.

So how should we as Bible believing Christians view these sermons?  Should we reflect on the preacher’s interpretations of Jonah and thank God that His word has so much “flexibility?” I believe that we should not accept these subjective interpretations, because they reject the clear facts given in the book of Jonah.  I am not saying we write off the truths conveyed through the sermons, but we need to reject the style of interpretation presented in the sermons.

The next logical question could be, “Why should we reject this style of interpretation?” Maybe some of you know…  Pastor Danny constantly pushes us to properly interpret the passage of Scripture we are reading (technical word: exegesis). So what this means, is that when we come to the book of Jonah our job as Bible believing Christians is to ask, who wrote this book, what style of book are we reading (history, doctrinal, poetic, etc), and how do we apply the truths revealed to our lives.  In the case of the preachers above, they ignored the meaning of the text and decided to allegorize the text, so that the text could mean whatever they wanted the Bible to mean. Whoever the author of the book of Jonah was, he had no intention on his text ever being used in such a manner. We should never treat the Bible in such a way.  If we decide to allegorize a text we are no longer depending on the Holy Spirit’s truths given through the text.  As Christians we should find a certain amount of joy sitting under the truths given by the Holy Spirit, and should reject the teaching of those who shove their own meaning into the Bible through allegorical interpretation.

Let’s take a second to look at the book of Jonah (if you didn’t read Jonah earlier please take some time to read it now because I am going to assume you have).  Who wrote it?  We actually do not know.  The book is written about Jonah, but we are not given the name of the author of the book.  Since the book is about Jonah, who is Jonah?  Well, we can know without a doubt that he is a historical person.  We know without a doubt because in 2Kings Jonah is referred to as a prophet, in verse one of the book of Jonah he is mentioned as having a father, and in Matthew 12:39-41 Jesus spoke of Jonah as a literal person in history.  If someone tells you that Jonah was not a real person, remember, their opinion is different than the God of the universe who came in human flesh, died, and rose from the dead…I don’t know about you, but I am going to agree with Jesus.  What is the purpose of the book?  The purpose is to give the readers an account of what took place in the life of Jonah, while showing how God is merciful when He deals with His creation (whether it’s God’s mercy to Nineveh or Jonah).  Yet, since we are seeing how God interacted with His creation, we can determine a few themes from this historical account.

Theme 1: God shows mercy towards those who deserve His just wrath, even if the messenger doesn’t agree.  Right away in the beginning of the book we see Jonah running from God.  Jonah is running, because he doesn’t want to prophesy to the Ninevites.  As we read, we can see that the Ninevites were a wicked people whom according to the Law deserved to be judged.  Jonah is angry when God informs him that He wants to offer Nineveh a chance to repent.  God pushes His agenda to proclaim repentance despite Jonah’s distaste for the task.  God even uses a big fish (or whale…point is Jonah was in the belly of something HUGE and he was under the sea) to accomplish His goal.

Theme 2: God not only rules over and has the right to do whatever He pleases with His creation, but God cares about His creation.  God reveals to a sulking Jonah (the last four verses of the book) that He gave Nineveh the chance to repent, because He cares about them.  God could have sent Jonah to proclaim judgment and then wiped out the Ninevites, and that would have been fair.  Yet, since God is slow to anger and abounding in mercy, He allowed the Ninevites a chance to repent.  God’s offer of peace prior to judgment is a common theme in the Old and New Testaments.

The two themes listed above are not only clearly taught in the book of Jonah, but are consistent with the entire Biblical narrative.  Paul says in Romans 5 “8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” We can know that as Christians that prior to salvation, we too were under the wrath of God.  It was only His love towards us that stayed His hand of judgment.

After listening to the two preachers come up with these “fancy” interpretations, and “cool” sermon illustrations, I guess I was supposed to be impressed…but the only thing that should “impress” us is God’s love for us revealed through the crushing of His Son.  The Incarnation of Jesus Christ reveals that God wants to be known savingly, and according to 1John 4:10 the crucifixion reveals God’s love for us. Isaiah 53 ¹⁰ Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. ¹¹ After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

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Interview with pastor Danny

Monday, April 19th, 2010

This past week pastor Danny was interviewed by Third Coast Digest, a publication in Milwaukee, and here is the article about it: http://bit.ly/arEqWO

As you read through the book of Acts, you see the Holy Spirit empower believers for the purpose of building up Christ’s body the Church.  Also in the book of Acts you see the Apostles preaching and teaching not only in synagogues and churches, but also in public squares. 

After reading this article, take some time to read Acts 17. We should thank God that our Christian life is not meant to be contained to church buildings, but is to be expressed wherever we are able to.  Thank you pastor Danny for your faithfulness to our Savior.

Again here is the link to the article: http://bit.ly/arEqWO

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Public Prayer of Confession

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

As we are studying the book of Nehemiah, there are a couple places where he prays on behalf of the Israelite Community.  As part of the sermon this last week the Worship Arts team put together a Community Prayer of Confession which is posted below.  It is a combination of Scripture and heartfelt confession and repentance.

O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God, You keep Your covenant of love with those who love You and obey Your commands.  (Neh 1) Ascribe to the Lord, O mighty ones, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.  Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness.  The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over mighty waters.  The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic… The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness.  (Ps 29)  Your love reaches to the heavens and Your faithfulness to the skies.  Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your justice like the great deep.  How precious is Your unfailing love!  Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.  (Ps 36)  Save us, O God, by Your name; vindicate us by Your might.  Hear our prayers, O God; listen to the words of our mouths.  (Ps 54:1-2)

·        We’re selfish—we follow our instincts to satisfy ourselves, when You’ve asked us to regard the needs of others above our own.

·        We’re gluttonous (food, lifestyles, pornography, entertainment, clothes).  We confess  wanting to take everything in excess; we indulge in our wants and overlook our needs and those of others.

·        We are moved by trendy giving instead of giving continuously and out of a giving heart.

·        We worry about the forms of worship instead of the true heart of worship.  We are more concerned with what the church can do for us instead of what we can do for the church.

·        In a society of very little persecution, we’re still afraid to defend our faith and the glory of Your name.  We’re afraid that if we speak up, we’ll hurt our reputation.

·        We fail to respect our bodies as the temple of the Holy Spirit.  We’re sexually impure: masturbation, pornography, sex outside of marriage, lustful thoughts.  We allow mental contamination by forsaking the word of truth that You’ve given us and instead chasing the diluted teachings of the philosophers of this age.

·        We’re complacent.  When You call us to fast, we come up with physical limitations.  When You call us to pray, we facebook and clean the house and watch TV.

·        We live in regret instead of grace.

·        We hold grudges instead of forgiveness.  When we do forgive, it hinges on our own conditions.

·        We disrespect those leaders that You’ve put over us—leaders in government, the church, and our employers.

·        We get drunk.

·        We gossip and alienate people instead of acting as a unified body of Christ.  We include only those we like and only those we comfortably “connect with” and forget what true fellowship is.  We no longer view church as the body of Christ and instead view it as a social outlet.

·        “…if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that You, God, find our desires not too strong, but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because we cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.  We are far too easily pleased.” –c.s. lewis

God, in spite of all this and because of all this, we recognize Your grace and You abounding love that forgives us.

Have mercy on us, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out our transgressions.  Was away all our iniquity and cleanse us from our sins.  For we know our transgressions, and our sin is always before us.  Against You, You only, have we sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are proved right when you speak and justified when You judge.  Surely we were sinful at birth.  You desire truth in our inner parts; You teach us wisdom in the inmost places. Wash us, and we will be whiter than snow.  Let us hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed and rejoice.  Hide Your face from our sins and blot our all our iniquities.  Create in us a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within us.  Do not cast us from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from us.  Restore to us the joy of Your salvation and grant us a willing spirit to sustain us. (Ps 51)

O Lord, we pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servants and who delight in revering Your name.  (Neh 1:11)

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What’s Hot & What’s Not

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

The following list is something that I shared as part of our 3 part sermon series entitled Sex.Dating.Marriage.  The sermon titled “Dating with Purpose” (which you can listen to online by clicking “Media” and “Online Sermons”) was basically making the case that God has either called you to be single or called you to be married…or if you think about it logically you will either be one or the other.  Either way you should pursue those with purpose.  Dating then is the step between singleness and marriage and dating should only be entered into for the purpose of Marriage and conducted in a healthy biblical way.  The world tells us, and unfortunately we buy into it, what we should look for in a future spouse.  I made the claim that “The church should have the most beautiful women and the most respectable men.”  This list contains a few things that help us to identify and become beautiful and respectable.

Guys-What’s Hot

• A strong and evident walk with Christ (Matthew 7:15-23)
• Being a leader in your church (1 Thes 5:12-13, 1 Corinthians 15:58)
• Quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger (James 1:18-20)
• Good steward of finances.  Avoids debt, appropriately spends, saves diligently, and gives generously (Proverbs 22:7, Proverbs 22:9, Proverbs 21:5, 2 Cor9:6-15)
• Old fashioned chivalry (1 Peter 3:7)
• Stands up for righteousness (2 Timothy 2:22)
• Understands and applies scripture (Psalm 119:1-16)
• Defines relational intentions (Proverbs 24:26)
• Admits faults and wrong doing (Proverbs 28:13)
• Protects (1 Cor 13:7)
• Taking initiative in pursuing women (Proverbs 18:22)

Guys- What’s Not

• Wandering eyes (Matthew 5:28-30)
• When hobbies become obsessions and waste time and money: video games, hunting, sports (Exodus 20:3)
• Objectifying women (Ephesians 5:23)
• Dating for selfish gain (Colossians 3:5)
• Self-absorbed and Prideful (Proverbs 21:24)
• Weak, passive, and insecure (2 Timothy 1:7)

Girls-What’s Hot

• Devoted to Christ, active in prayer (1 Peter 3:3-6)
• Exhibits the fruits of the Spirit Galatians (5:22-25)
• Modesty  (1 Tim 2:9)
• Nurturing heart (Proverbs 22:6)
• Gentleness (Colossians 3:12)
• Confidence (Proverbs 31)
• Empathy (Romans 9:12-16)
• Supportive (Gen 2:18)
• Willing to be lead (Ephesians 5:22-33)
• Manages her home and family (Proverbs 31, 1 Tim 5:14)

Girls-What’s Not

• Dressing provocatively (Proverbs 7:10)
• Gossip (1 Timothy 5:13)
• Endless talking (I timothy 5:13, Proverbs 27:15)
• Alluring and seductive (Proverbs 5)
• Negative attention seeking (Proverbs 9:13)
• Materialistic (1 Tim 2:9)
• Surface Christianity and superficial  (Matthew 23:28, 1 Samuel 16:7)

Disclaimer: Many of these principals could be applied to guys or girls it’s just some Christian principals to help re-enforce the sermon about dating Beautiful Women and Respectable Men in the church.  This is not an exhaustive list nor is every bible verse in parenthesis a direct  hermeneutical interpretation.

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let’s get this thing going…

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

welcome to the first official post for the brand new epikos blog.

but instead of a random blabbering about anything quite yet, we’d love to hear what you want this blog to be. the categories we have so far are “media review” for whatever albums/movies/books/etc. have just dropped, “theology” for something more than surface level religion, and “here’s what i think…” for your thoughts about… life. but we want to know what else you want to see on this blog.

also, just as a heads up, there will be multiple authors on this blog, so the views may not always exactly represent the direct views of epikos. but isn’t that the idea? to facilitate discussion?

if you’re dumb, surround yourself with smart people; if you’re smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you…

here’s to some good discussion…

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