The movie was emotionally draining for me as a husband who loves his wife. The basic idea of the movie is a newly married couple goes through immense hardship after the wife loses all her memory of her life after high school, her marriage and her husband.

What is interesting is that the movie was based on a true story. Below is the actual couple who underwent the tragedy. As you watch, notice that the thing that kept the husband chasing after his wife even when she didn’t recognize him from a stranger was his commitment to keep the vow he made to her before God.

A refreshing story in the midst of an increasingly weak view of promises and faithfulness.

The classic writer Mark Twain’s suggestion, “When a boy turns 13 put him in a barrel and feed him through the knot hole. When he turns 16, plug up the hole”, reflects an ancient communal frustration of what to do with adolescents who are struggling to transition from childhood to adulthood. Many parents wring their hands in worry as they contemplate the decisions made by their aging children. Godly parents search the Scriptures looking for insight on how to raise young adults, who are no longer mere children. The difficulty is that the Bible is silent about teenagers, as adolescence was not a mindset in that culture. However, this lack of specific instruction does not necessitate reverting back to Mark Twain’s methods of “controlling” young adults.

Perhaps Mark Twain was onto something significant though, as historically the age 13 seems to begin the transitional years from childhood to adulthood. Many cultures have ceremonies celebrating this arrival of adulthood, although the exact age varies greatly from age 7 in some Hindu cultures to as late as 20 in Japanese celebrations (Wikipedia: adolescence). Jewish Bar and Bat Mitzvah have become cultural institutions unto themselves. However, these elaborate parties have significant spiritual roots in the Old Testament. Dating back to the time after the Exile, Jewish leaders sought to teach their children the Hebrew language to be able to read the Torah. Not wanting to see their faith extinguished with age, the synagogue schools become a primary method for the instruction of reading, writing and speaking the Hebraic language. “Young boys attended once they reached the age of manhood at thirteen” (Anthony, p. 35). This rite of passage entitled the boy to privileges and responsibilities of adult men, such as serving with other men in the synagogue and in the courts (Anthony, p. 35).

Providing a “language” for their faith was, and still is today, a primary need for adolescent faith development. This is why at CORE we focus on teaching the Bible and all that Jesus taught (i.e. theology). 2 Timothy 3:16,17 highlights the purpose of Scripture to equip young men women to live and pass on to others the doctrine of God. The Hebrew roots of CORE Fellowship are also found in the educational roles of Old Testament priests. While only boys were allowed to participate in formal education, older boys from the tribe of Levi were apprenticed by older priests (Anthony, p. 28). Elisha’s “company of the prophets” listed in 2 Kings 4:38 provides another type of leadership training group that was present in Ancient Israel. These “prophets schools” are an example of God’s design to rise up the next generation of Spiritual Leadership through mentoring that begins in the family and continues through the larger spiritual community.

These various methods of spiritual instruction would look very similar to Connection groups at CORE today. Small groups of adolescent boys gathered around the local priest or prophet, being mentored in the duties of the synagogue or the teachings of Scripture. The continuation and expansion of faith in the generations to come, we can assume, was their goal, as would be the same for us today.

The model established by God through God’s people to reach future generations can be described as such: begin religious instruction in the family home as spiritual practices, add knowledge through the larger community of faith (i.e CORE gatherings), and provide mentoring from key spiritual leaders for specific practices and duties. Our hope is that you will greatly benefit from this spiritual pathway to Loving God and Loving Others.

Join us every Wednesday night, 6:45-8pm, at South Shores Church’s Lisa Page room for a discussion on parenting teenagers.

This week, Feb 22, we will be discussing developing morals and values in our teens that honor God and the family.

If you have any questions, please call Pastor Dave @ the church office (496-9331 X102)

The Bachelorette and Fishing for Men: A woman’s view on the Bachelorettes strategy in hooking their man. “A Wild Thing uses a fly-fishing approach toward relationships, but a Wise Thing rejects the worldly idea that in order to get a guy, a girls needs to manipulatively toss out the bait and reel him in. She seeks to be godly, above-board, unpretentious, and without guile in her relationships with men.”

An App for Sharing the Gospel: Two Ways to Live is a familiar resource for South Shores Church youth staff. It is a simple six point presentation of the gospel (see online version here) that is easy to use, clear and to the point. I love how it frames the gospel within the overarching framework of the Biblical story beginning with God as the loving ruler and creator of the world. Anyhow, they now have Two Ways as an app. I highly recommend getting it because you never know when you will have the opportunity to share the good news with someone and this is a helpful tool to have! Also, check out the Christianity Explored App that has a gospel presentation video and videos answering hard questions.

The Freedom of the Regulative Principle: Does the Bible proscribe how Christian corporate worship should look or are we left to our own devices in thinking up how to lead God’s people in services? “Why try to improve on the elements we know were pleasing to God and practiced in the early church?” In other words, the regulative principle gives us the freedom to unapologetically to go back to basics. And stay there.”

God Really Cares About the Lost: “Just as the housewife sought for her missing coin, so God seeks out the lost, those who have rebelled against Him and His ways. He does not shrug His shoulders at the thought of one missing person. He stretches out His arms, ready to sacrifice Himself to bring back the lost soul in need of Him….I’m overwhelmed with gratitude when I consider how God lovingly pursued me. But this story reminds me of my need to have the same missionary heart that God has.”

God Will Give You More Than You Can Handle: John Newton, writer of Amazing Grace, wrote a song about God answering prayer. The song doesn’t turn out quite how you may except it to and that’s the whole point.

John Piper Books for $5 Each: Please don’t miss this deal. Stock up. John Piper will be read, discussed and rejoiced in for centuries to come.

That Lovely, Lovely Man: This is heart wrenchingly beautiful. A man speaks about his experience with an eldery lady who can’t go to church because of her health conditions: “She loves her Bible. She particularly loves Romans 8, Proverbs 3, and Isaiah 53. She loves to read the Gospels, and she talks about “that lovely, lovely man” of whom she reads, and how he lived and suffered and died for her, and her eyes fill with tears as she talks about how her eyes fill with tears whenever she thinks of how they hated, and spat at, and slaughtered “that lovely, lovely man.” You see, she knows him.”

And now watch a monkey demonstrate amazing acrobatic abilities in attacking a man:

From the uploader…

This is at the cafe inside the Memphis Zoo. The manager of the cafe told me that the alpha male monkey noticed me the second I walked in the door and started going crazy, because, as the alpha male, he feels threatened by tall males. So she told me to go stand by the window and turn my back on him and that he would “attack” me…

And attack he did…

I would like to let you know about a lady who belongs to the church which I serve. She can barely leave her home at present because of her physical condition, itself substantially the result of a botched operation several years ago. She has been close to death on several occasions, and is currently in hospital. Although she often grieves over her pain, and has often expressed a desire to be free from it, her great complaint and most often-expressed desire are that she might be able to gather with God’s people on the Lord’s day to worship him.

When I go to see her, she often looks pale and drawn. I take her CDs of the sermons, and she listens to them and then sends them on to others so that they can also enjoy the ministry. She tells me that all she really has opportunity to do is to read and to pray. She is not a well-educated woman, and often excuses her lack of learning, but her Bible, she says, is a “Godsend” (I smile when she says this kind of thing, because she has little idea how full and accurate is her speech). She loves her Bible. She particularly loves Romans 8, Proverbs 3, and Isaiah 53. She loves to read the Gospels, and she talks about “that lovely, lovely man” of whom she reads, and how he lived and suffered and died for her, and her eyes fill with tears as she talks about how her eyes fill with tears whenever she thinks of how they hated, and spat at, and slaughtered “that lovely, lovely man.” You see, she knows him. Sometimes I almost think she sees him. She talks to him and walks with him. She loves him absolutely, personally, really. To her, Jesus of Nazareth is not a collection of doctrines, not a list of facts, not a remnant of history, but the God-man who loved her and laid down his life to save her from her sins before rising again from the dead, and who now lives and reigns and cares for her and all his flock.

Old Hymns for Our Day from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

Recently, I came across something in Charles Hodge’s biography that made me stop and think:

At the christening of Andover Seminary in 1808, Timothy Dwight spoke of how Americans, “insisted that their property…be managed by skillful agents, their judicial causes directed by learned advocates, and their children, when sick, attended by able physicians,” yet were “satisfied to place their Religion, their souls, and their salvation, under the guidance of quackery.” (Paul Gutjahr, Charles Hodge: Guardian of American Othodoxy, p. 95)

What does it say about us and our beliefs if we think an untrained doctor could harm us, but we are unafraid of an untrained pastor? Why is it that we seek the service of qualified men in so many areas that are so less important than the right handling of the gospel? Do we see it to be important for our pastors to be as qualified, trained and able to do their work as a doctor is for his? Worthy of reflection.

Also, on a less serious note, I thought the use of “quackery” merits him a gold star.

Strive for holiness…

God is serious about our pursuit of holiness, our growth in Jesus. He is their to work within us and work through us, but the Bible clearly says He will not do the work (of sanctification) without us.

Walt Russell offers some great insight about pursuing holiness, being transformed and the Spirit’s work:

God the Holy Spirit’s delight is in transforming us into the image of God the Son in our mental and moral choices (Galatians 4:19). Although this is a supernatural transformation that only God can do, God, as part of HIs dignifying of us, will not do those things for us that He has deemed us capable of doing ourselves. And one of our responsibilities is to hear or read the Word of God regularly and to hide it in our hearts (Psalm 119:11). God will not violate our sanctity by force feeding His Word to us. We must choose to feed on it ourselves in response to the wonderful wooing and enabling of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Does the Holy Spirit enable us to read and meditate on God’s Word? Absolutely! Will the Holy Spirit do the reading and meditating for us? Absolutely not! This is our choice and our responsibility in response to the loving prompting of the Holy Spirit. Within this dynamic interaction, the more we respond to the Holy Spirit and choose to digest God’s Word, the more the Holy Spirit has to use to transform us. He brings these truths to mindl He prompts us to implement them in our lives; He convicts us when we violate them; He leads us more precisely because we have greater knowledge of God’s ways; and so on and on. The more we know and ponder the Word of God, the more we give the Holy Spirit to use in the transformation of our souls. (Playing With Fire, p.85)