How the Big Picture Changes Us

I had an excellent conversation with a lady after yesterday's sermon. It went something like this:

Lady: The sermons you've been preaching lately make sense to me.
Me: Yea? How so?
Lady: As an adoptive parent, I can relate first-hand to how God chooses us as His children, with no merit of our own, and places us into His family to love and cherish us forever. When we adopted our son, he hadn't done anything to earn our affection. Yet we chose him and have shared our love with him for his lifetime. We will always cherish him.
Me: That's spectacular. Exactly why the Bible uses an adoption analogy to make its point.
Lady: I believe that as you teach a high view of God and His overall plan it causes us to be captured by the love and beauty of such a wonderful God and it calls us to serve Him with everything we've got. Who wouldn't want to serve such a precious God who would do all this for us and adopt us as His children?
Me: You've got it! Excellent.

As we look at the big picture of God's redemptive plan, we can't help but be moved by such a gracious, kind, and merciful God. That God would send His Son to die for us while we were still sinners (Rom. 5:8) is praiseworthy and magnificent. It's as we look at the grand scheme of God's work in history that we understand God's purposes.

So often as defenders of the truth we look for the perfect answer to every individual question. Yet, it's in the "harmony of the woven fabric of God's revelation" (Dr. James White) where we really begin to understand and ultimately change into God-worshippers.

Read Dr. White's article "Chicken Coop Theology" here. Why does God allow conflict over individual doctrines to exist in the church? "...it is when we are forced by such things to consider the gospel in its fulness that we see it in a new light and appreciate even more its glory."

May we not only study God in the minutia, but let's be a people that also views God from a panoramic perspective. As we do, we'll become people who want to "serve Him with everything we've got!" May God be glorified in your life today!

Merry Christmas!

From the staff at PMC, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

As we recall the birth of our Savior, we are ever reminded of the love of our Father in sending His Son Jesus into His own creation to redeem a people for Himself. Without God's act of mercy and grace, we would stand condemned, left to die in our own sin.

But because God loved us, He provided the means by which the penalty for sin could be paid. By Jesus entering the world, living perfectly, dying, and resurrecting three days later, we can now have reconciliation with the Father! The wrath of the Father toward sinners was satisfied by the substitutionary death of His Son. We must now believe that Jesus was the Son of God and trust Him as our Lord and Master.

May you never forget the real meaning of Christmas! God bless you abundantly this holiday season!

Christmas Eve Communion Service

Each year PMC has a Christmas Eve Communion service. Please bring your family and enjoy the evening.

During this service we will have some congregational singing, lighting of the last advent candle, a short devotion, communion, and a candle-lighting service. I'm looking forward to a special time together with the saints as we celebrate the birth (and life, death, and resurrection) of our Savior Jesus Christ!

This year our program will begin at 9pm and end at approximately 9:45.

See you there!

Saturday Preview

As we head into the Christmas season, our pastoral team decided several weeks ago to do a two-part Christmas series in December. Tomorrow we will be looking at the Christmas story from Luke's angle. Next week we'll tie in Matthew's perspective.

As we look at the birth of Jesus foretold in Luke 1:26-38, consider the following questions:

1. Why was it important for Jesus to be born of a virgin?
2. Why was it important for Jesus to be born a man?
3. Why was it important for Jesus to be born at all?

Come join us as we celebrate the birth of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ!

Ministry is Stranger Than It Used to Be

Dr. Albert Mohler, respected theologian and one of evangelicalism's leading voices, posted an excellent article on his blog titled "Ministry is Stranger Than It Used to Be: The Challenge of Postmodernism."

Those who are interested in the mood of the current culture, defined as "postmodernism," will find this article insightful and challenging. A couple excerpts:

Texts, according to the postmodernists, reveal a subtext of oppressive intentions on the part of the author, and so must be deconstructed. This is no matter of mere academic significance. This is the argument behind much contemporary constitutional interpretation made by judges, the presentation of issues in the media, and the fragmentation of modern biblical scholarship. The rise of feminist, liberation, homosexual, and various other interest-group schools of interpretation is central to this postmodern principle.

In another place,

In the name of postmodernism, anything can be explained away as a matter of interpretation. Games played with language mean that every statement must be evaluated with care. A statement as clear and plain as the first line of the Apostles' Creed, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth," must be evaluated in terms of the speaker's intentions. Does this confession assert belief that God is actually the maker of heaven and earth, or is this a statement of mere personal sentiment?

Click here to read the article in its entirety.

Father, we pray for Your wisdom as we live, breath, and minister in and to our culture. May Your name be exalted!

Saturday Preview

Good afternoon! Let's prepare our hearts a moment for tomorrow's Lord's Day sermon. As we move through John 17 we find ourselves hearing the heart of Jesus as He defines eternal life in verse 3. Some questions as you reflect on John 17:1-3:

1. How does Jesus define eternal life? How is it different from a definition you may have heard? What is the difference between quantity and quality of eternal life?
2. Jesus is specific about the God whom man should know. Jesus says the Father is the "only true God." How would you specify who this "God" is?
3. According to Scripture, there is only one mediator between God and man - Jesus Christ. What did Jesus do that would create that bridge between the infinite and the finite?

Come worship with us as we gather together as a corporate body. We have much to be thankful for as we experience God's grace in our lives. Be prepared to be challenged and encouraged as you think about the goodness of the only, true God.

Modesty

My sister in the flesh and my sister in the Lord, Tonya Eaton, is doing a short series on her blog, Better Than Life, about modesty in the life of a believer.

Enjoy her mini-series and resources by clicking here.