Pictures from Wild Wacky Wet Wednesday

Here are pictures from 718 last night. We took a break from our usual activities to play some water games. Our teenagers get together every Wednesday at 7:18 pm. All 6th-12th graders are invited!

Enjoy:

Youth Wacky Wild Wet Night

Rain!

Did you get rain last night? Yesterday afternoon we saw the dark clouds roll in. We heard thunder, and I said a little prayer: "Please, Father, give us a little rain." The amazing thing about rain is that we can spend hours and gallons of water watering our lawns and not come close to what the heavens can do for us in fifteen or twenty minutes. It's nice in a world that fights against us all the time to get a few minutes of refreshment as the rain comes down.

That's the way God is. We can give 110% our whole lives and not accomplish what a few minutes of God's work can do in our lives. What's worse is that without God telling us, we don't even know what his blessing looks like. I love what the psalmist writes:

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1 NIV

Are you thirsty for God? Do you know what thirsty feels like? What if you think that feeling is loneliness or stress or a midlife crisis, when you are actually feeling a deep, deep thirst for God? When I was a teenager, Jesus told me something that changed my life. Through the Apostle Matthew, he said:

But seek first [your Heavenly Father's] kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33 NIV

Jesus says it's that simple. We seek God. He meets our needs. He sends the rain. So, how do I seek God's kingdom? In John 3 Jesus tells us that there is one way into God's Kingdom:

In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again... For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
John 3:3, 16 NIV

Belief in Jesus. In Jesus we have God's water--his refreshing spring--within us. He meets our physical, emotional, spiritual and relational needs.

I'm excited that I don't have to water my lawn today because God provided a better solution. If only the heavens' rain was as abundant as the water Jesus provides...

but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
John 4:14 NIV

In the rain... without a cell phone!!!

Tonight I did something I haven't done in a long while. I needed some supplies for church, so I got in my car and headed to Office Depot. It was pouring down rain. I thought I'd give my wife a call to see if the house was still above water. Only, as I reached for my mobile phone, I found out it wasn't there. Then, the strangest thing happened. I felt free. My first thought wasn't, "What if my wife needs to get in touch," or, "What if I get a flat tire?" My first thought was, "Wow. For the next forty minutes no one can get in touch with me. For the next forty minutes I'm in my own world."

I love people. I love being connected. Maybe I need to turn of my phone from time to time.

In Psalm 46:10 the psalmist speaks for God telling the nations:
Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in all the earth.

In the past when I have heard this verse, I thought it meant that believers should take time out from their busy lives to be still. Instead, God is not talking to believers. He's talking to his enemies. The psalmist has written that God makes wars cease. In verse 46 God calls out to his enemies to stop making war against him and trust in him.

I wonder how many of us use our phones, PDAs, computers, iPods and game systems to war against God--to keep ourselves from really thinking about the depth of what he has done for us--to keep ourselves from relying completely on him--to give ourselves a sense of power in the midst of life's chaos--to engage in humanity's quest to prove that we are something apart from our savior.

The Good Shepherd

My wife and two friends celebrated birthdays this week. This morning as I have thought about that, I have thought about my own 33 years. Hopefully, I am just a little over a third of the way through my life--maybe closer to half. Like most of us Homo sapiens I spent the first twenty or so years trying desperately to figure out who I am. Not long after my 22nd birthday I got married. Then, I began trying to figure out who my wife is. (That's still a work in progress.) In the midst of these efforts, like all of us, I had to try and figure out all the other details.

I graduated from college in 1997. Like all college graduates, I had all the answers. Then, a couple years later (on my birthday) my boss took me out to lunch to inform me that I didn't have the foggiest idea what I was doing in my career. He was pretty much right. Now, eleven years later, I'm 33, and about every six months I have to ask myself if I really know what I'm doing--not just in my career but in just about every area of my life.

Here's the beautiful reality: Even if I wake up tomorrow and realize that I don't have the foggiest idea what I'm doing, God does.

You'll never hear me claim to be the greatest pastor around. You'll never hear me claim we have the best church. What we do have is a bunch of deeply-flawed people who know that God loves us so much he sent his only Son to die, so our sins can be completely forgiven. We also know that if he loved us that much 2000 years ago, our completely sovereign God loves us enough to hold on to us and lovingly shepherd us throughout our lives. Jesus expressed this beautifully in John 10:

My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch them from my Father’s hand.
John 10:27-29 NET

So, I thank God for his shepherding. I thank him that I will never be taken from his continual presence and eternal plan--even when I don't get it right--not because of what I have done but because my Shepherd died to pay the price for my sins and by his grace lovingly brought me into his flock. He really is good. Just as Jesus is the one who has made the purchase of my salvation, he will also be the one to sustain it. My confidence is not in me. My confidence is in him to sustain my faith until the end.

Do you believe in a God like this? If you want to know more, send me a note: info@crossroadsfortworth.org. We'll talk about this God. We'll talk about his faithfulness. We'll talk about Christ's sacrifice that sealed the deal. We'll talk about his continual presence. We'll talk about the home he is preparing.

I am saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and I will live for God's glory alone.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

During the month of July we will be teaching a series called What's on Your Mind? This series will be focused on answering YOUR questions about God, faith, morality or anything else you can think of. Questions are listed on a poll on both of our blog pages. Please take a minute to let us know which question is most interesting to you. You are also welcome to submit a new question by clicking on the link below.

Click here to add a question to be considered for our July teaching series.

Thankful...

Last Sunday we took a few minutes during our Sunday morning Worship Gatherings to write down what we are thankful for. Here's what our church family said in no particular order:

• Music, food, friends, family
• My loving family
• The Lord Jesus, good health, a place to serve, my church, my family
• My CrossRoads Church family
• Friends who help us with no expectations
• God sending hi son on our behalf, so we cann be free from death and have life everafter with him
• This church and all its support and prayers
• Friendships
• My incredible family
• My race car and the ability to work on and race it.
• Family and friends who are giving and sacrificing for others
• My wonderful marriage. It's been 2 years today!
• Our own facility to have youth
• My family
• Redemption and inner peace and friends who tell you that it's okay to forgive yourself because God already has
• My hubby, my sister & best friend and my kids--they are so much fun and full of joy
• My wife and best friend
• My family and church family
• God's revelation i my life, my family, my home, CrossRoads, my car, God's provision, green lights, good music, genuine people
• My life, salvation, my family, this church, food, sweets, God, Jesus, heaven, the clothes on my back, music, school, youth camp
• God's love and mercy
• A Savior who loved me so much that he died for my sins so that I could have eternal life and my church family
• The gifts God gives me that allow me to provide for my family
• Daughters who love Christ. Support of my church family through many trials in my life.
• A family that loves me, God and all his love for me, forgiveness for my mistakes
• Being here at curch worshiping the Lord. I'm thankful for my family for doing things for me, my friends for always being there for me and also being my friends
• My family and friends
• Being here in this church. It changed my life forever and being here with my girlfriend, too.
• My friends and family
• The relationship I have with my family
• Every day I have
• God providing a home for my family
• Freedom as revealed by God who opens my eyes to his world
• Jesus Christ and many other things
• Finding this church, my loved ones (friends and family), grace
• Freedom from the curse of sin and death, all is forgiven
• That there is nothing I can do to earn my salvation. I only have to have faith.
• My family and friends
• My mom and dad and brother, school, doggy
• My wonderful mother, my loving husband, my beautiful baby boy and this amazing church
• A God who allows me to cry out to him in good times and hard times
• My family, my husband, God's love
• My fantastic kids! My salvation
• This wonderful church

What are you thankful for?

The Americanization of Coffee... and God?

Where do you drink coffee? As long as it's good, I drink coffee anywhere I can get it. For some of us coffee is something we drink because we enjoy it, but let's be honest. Tom Hanks spoke for most of us in You've Got Mail when he called it "legal addictive stimulants."

One of my favorite places to get coffee is this little shop in Grapevine some friends turned us on to called Buon Giorno. It's a little shop where they roast the beans themselves. They have free wi-fi and shelves full of books and board games, but don't go there if you're in a hurry. It literally takes them about five minutes to pour a cup of coffee. Why? Because at Buon Giorno coffee is about the Cheers experience--having a place to hang out where everyone knows your name.

Which brings us to Starbucks. I like Buon Giorno, but I like Starbucks, too. Starbucks has gotten some bad press lately because people are saying they are becoming like McDonald's. Actually, I think what is happening is that McDonald's is offering what people were looking for at Starbucks--only cheaper. For the past ten years Starbucks has developed this process of making coffee that is efficient. You walk in, order your grande, extra-hot, non-fat, triple, no-whip, extra-foam mocha, and by the time you get to the register, they hand it to you, zip your debit card, and you're on your way. The problem? As efficient as Starbucks has become, McDonald's is still quicker and cheaper. So, now Starbucks is trying to change their image and their menu. (By the way, their new Pike Place roast is great. Big, bold taste with almost no aftertaste. It does, however, taste like coffee. If you're a coffee drinker who doesn't really like coffee, stick to your caramel macchiato.)

I think the problem Starbucks is going to run into is that we, Americans, don't usually want to sit and hang out while somebody makes our coffee. We want our stimulant quickly because we are on our way to work. Don't get me wrong, occasionally we like to enjoy coffee with friends or while we're reading a good book, but most of the time we think of coffee as a performance-enhancing drug not a way of life.

My concern is that this is also the way we think about God and his family (church) most of the time. We occasionally reminisce about a meaningful experience we once had, but we really go to church to get our dose of God for the week as we scurry about the rest of our lives. This Sunday I encourage you to go to church and savor the words you hear. The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 10 that the words of the gospel literally save our lives. They sometimes sting, but after the shock of hearing that I don't contribute anything to my salvation, the truth that Jesus has done it all for me gives me peace and hope. Then, there's God's family. You can find hope in a few songs and an effective description of the Message of Jesus, but church can be so much more... You can find people who will love you and care for you when life is hard. You can find a place where people encourage you and remind you that God loves you--even when you blow it.

This Sunday come see us at the place God's family hangs out. If you don't already have someplace to go, come see us at CrossRoads. When you get to church, get some refreshments and find a comfortable place to sit. Then, say a little prayer. Tell your Heavenly Father thanks for sending his Son to show his love by dying for us. Ask him to introduce you to someone this morning who will be there for you when life gets hard to encourage you and remind you what Jesus' has done for us. Then, when someone comes to say "Hi", expect God to answer that prayer.

If you're looking for God, he has a place for you. Respond to him by going to find that place.

I'd love to see you Sunday!

I like to cook...

I'm one of those guys who enjoys cooking. Of course, I only cook manly food. My favorite food to cook is stir fry. A couple Christmases ago my parents got a wok for me. Three or four times a month I pour some peanut oil in that wok and fry up some chicken and veggies. I guess stir fry is manly food.

One thing I can't do without when cooking is a timer. I don't usually set my timer, though. When I start my food coking, I usually start my timer at zero and let it count up rather than backward. This gives me a better perspective on how long something has been cooking. I guess that probably makes me weird. The important thing is that regardless of which way my timer counts, the food still gets done.

This Sunday I'm going to elaborate on an idea we scraped the surface of last Sunday. I threw out the idea that the time our faith in Jesus becomes most significant is at a funeral--especially our own! In our world where we can fix just about everything with medicine or surgery, I think it's hard for us to remember that one day we're going to be done--regardless of which way we have our timer running.

We all need hope for our own funerals. The Good News is that we really do have hope when we're done. Come hear about it this Sunday!

The fragrance of life...

2 Corinthians 2:14-16 NIV
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.

One of the hardest senses for me to understand is my sense of smell. My wife and I have recently been house hunting. Every house had a different smell. Some smelled clean--they had a hint of lemon and bleach. Some houses smelled like animals. Don't get me wrong. I love animals, but the smell of animals inside a house doesn't give me some internal drive to purchase it. Probably the most interesting smell I noticed while house hunting was the smell of my grandparents' house. I can't place what the smell is, but there were a couple houses we entered that drew up deep emotions and memories. For some reason God has created us in such a way that our mind attaches certain aromas to emotions that are very central to who we are.

I guess that connection between our sense of smell and the core of who we are is what makes these verses from Paul's letter so powerful. Can you imagine the emotions of the Father when his Son was executed on our behalf? Can you imagine how deeply he must have felt grief that his only Son was dying a painful death, crushed under the punishment for every sin of every person who would ever believe in him? Can you imagine how great the joy as he knew that Jesus' death would usher every believer into the intimacy of his own family? It's with these deep emotions that we see Paul describe how we smell to God. He describes us as the aroma of Christ to our Heavenly Father. Paul goes on to tell us that our odor is not only powerful to God but to the people around us. As we love the people around us and share the words that describe Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf, we are the fragrance of life to those who are saved by God's grace. God's message through our words is the aroma that transforms the very heart of the people around us, by the power of God's Spirit, to give them new life through faith in Christ.

Who is going to be smelling you today? How are you going to show them God's love? How are you going to put words to God's love by telling them about God's gift to them in Jesus' sacrifice?

Thank you, Father, that through faith in your Son we are the aroma of Christ to you. Make us faithful to spread the fragrance of knowledge of Christ to others today.

Lost and found...

I lost something important to me this week. One of my most useful possessions is my iPod. It's nothing fancy--doesn't even have a color screen. It was given to me when one of our members got a new one. One of the coolest hand-me-downs I've ever received. We preachers get a lot of stuff handed down to us. Yesterday I misplaced it. I don't know about you, but I get pretty obsessive when I lose something I know I can't replace. This time was pretty bad. I was almost to the point of grieving when there it was--right where I left it...

Jesus tells us the story of a woman who lost a coin. You can read it for yourself in Luke 15. When she finds it she throws a party. As I studying this week, I was thinking about the cross. Jesus came to earth to die for humanity on a cross--probably one of the most gruesome, dishonorable ways to die. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus died joyfully. Why? Because he knew that his death would give back the most important thing to him--his creation. He knew that when his life expired, the struggle with sin would be finished, and the punishment of everyone who believed in him would stay nailed to his cross.

What makes today, Friday, March 21st, good? I once was lost but now am found even though it cost Jesus his life.

I'll see you on Resurrection Day!

Everything CrossRoads

If you are looking for a good way to keep up with everything going on at CrossRoads, below you will find a link to a web feed that will keep you up to date with our Upcoming Events, Pastor's Blog and Picasa picture page.

What is a web feed? Here's a site that gives you a pretty good idea of what a web feed is and what it is good for: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_feed

Here's the link for the feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/crossroadsfortworth

Don't forget that Easter is this Sunday. Come worship with us and bring your kids for Easter Egg Hunts after each service!

Click here for help setting up our web feed.

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Why We Hunger...

This past Sunday we talked about fasting. That's something we don't generally make a big deal about at CrossRoads, but I thought in light of the Easter season, it was worth spending some time talking about. During the 40 days leading up to Easter, the church celebrates Lent. Lent is a time of prayer, fasting and self-denial that leads up to our remembrance of Jesus' death on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter Sunday.

So really, what's the deal with fasting? One of the best resources I've found on the spiritual side of fasting is a book by John Piper: A Hunger for God. Piper explains that fasting is not about trying to earn God's favor. (We can never earn God's favor. Instead, we receive God's favor as a gift through faith in Jesus.) He also points out that fasting is not about trying to manipulate God to get him to do what we want. Fasting is about increasing our hunger for God. Piper points out that in a world full of good things--many of which are God's gifts--it's easy to become satisfied with God's gifts and lose our hunger to know him. We have all been guilty of neglecting to pray or read our Bibles regularly when things are good, haven't we?

My prayer for you this week is that you would be reminded of your hunger for God. I would encourage you to take some time this week to refuse to be satisfied with the stuff around you--maybe even food for a day--to really focus on your hunger for God.

Psalm 63:1 NIV
O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.

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Happy Valentine's Day!

What do you have planned for your Valentine today? Maybe you've got roses on the way to her and have a big night of dinner and a movie planned. Maybe your like me and are looking forward to a quiet night at home with the spouse you love more than anyone else--home cooked meal, movie in the DVD player. That can be a great night if your life is as crazy as ours is. Isn't it great to be in love?

I saw a movie yesterday that reminded me what love was about. One of our drummers and I went to see Cloverfield. It's a classic love story: Boy meets girl who becomes his best friend. Boy gets camcorder and falls in love with best-friend-girl. Boy with camcorder loses girl because he's stupid and can't make promises. Boy with camcorder runs across Manhattan to try and rescue girl from enormous monster that is eating the city alive.

Let's be honest. What is love really about? Romantic love is about promises--specifically one promise that's made between a man and a woman that they will love each other until death parts them. What a great promise! The reality of our world is that this promise is hard for us to come by. Last night at seveneighteen, our Wednesday night youth meeting, one of our teenagers asked a question about love that implied, "What happens when the promise is over?"

Where do we find life-long love? The Bible tells us about a God who expressed his life-long love by giving up his own life for us. This Sunday we'll be looking specifically at God's promise for us. His promise is not only for life, but the Apostle Paul tells us that not even death is going to part us from his promise.

Today as you think about love, spend a few minutes thinking about God's love for us. Then, let your love promises reflect God's love-promise to us.

Romans 8:38-39 NIV
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

18 and 1

Well, football season is over. The New England Patriots missed the perfect season by one game. Have you thought about what that must feel like? They would have been the first NFL team ever to go 19 and 0. Now, with one loss, not only did they not have an unprecedented perfect season, but they also missed out on their 4th NFL championship in 7 years. Maybe the 90s Cowboys are still the best team ever? I don't know about you, but that kind of feels like the story of my life. I get so much right sometimes, but then, just as I'm about to win, I come up short.

This week we are beginning a series at CrossRoads called Love Wins. It's a story about the one man who did not not come up 18 and 1. Better than that, his perfect victory is also the ultimate expression of God's love for us. The Bible tells us that Jesus is the perfect expression of God's love. The Bible tells us that Jesus is the one and only Son of God (John 3:16). This means that he is the same essence or being as God the Father. Jesus became completely human. He faced all the pain, suffering and temptation we face in this life. The difference was that he did not ever fail to live by God's law.

One night during the Jewish celebration of Passover Jesus knelt in a garden to pray knowing that he faced his own Super Bowl. That night he would be dragged by armed guards an illegal trial that would lead to his execution on the cross. That was Jesus' Super Bowl after his perfect season. After passing every test and temptation, Jesus faced his biggest challenge knowing that the next day he would give up his life for humanity.

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 1 John 4:9

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Check out our pics!

We just added pictures!

You can click on the link below to check out pictures of our recent events. Check back soon to see more of what's going on at CrossRoads.

http://picasaweb.google.com/crossroadsfortworth.org

If you'd like to add pictures you took at our events, send them to info@crossroadsfortworth.org.

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