I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

The pastor of my local church is Matt Chandler. For those that do not know, he suffered a seizure last Thanksgiving morning. When he went in to find out what was going on, they found a tumor in the front of his brain. They scheduled the surgery to have it removed, and then tested it. In response to the pathology results, they came up with this plan. There are some additional video updates from Pastor Matt here and here, that are both very encouraging.

It has been a hard and trying time for our church the past month and a half, but at the same time it has been a very beautiful thing to witness. The strength, courage, openness, and hope radiating from Matt and his wife Lauren is simply amazing. The church has been praying for them in large settings, small settings, and personal settings for the past month and a half – I don’t see that letting up anytime soon. Matt has been back at the church preaching as passionately as ever the past two weeks. The latest video update is below, but I encourage you to visit his blog, and leave your comments there.

Francis Chan presents how so many Christians live in a safe little bubble their entire life, awaiting one thing: death. All the while hoping that when death, comes it is quick and painless. It seems so boring, yet so many of us get caught up in it. It’s so easy to forget that we need to live by faith. He will provide, even if it’s not what we want, it will most assuredly be what we need.

This is an extremely powerful sermon jam, and extremely professional. It was created using Adobe After Effects and footage from The Passion of the Christ. I can tell a lot of work went into making this video. It was used at Granger Community Church where the live band went from this into a cover of David Crowder Band’s Here Is Our King. I bet it was a very exciting thing to witness live. The sermon is by S.M. Lockridge, and it is called Seven Way King. I haven’t heard of Lockridge outside of this sermon jam, but the way he mingles poetry and preaching is very well done.

You can also watch this video roll into Here Is Our King via the GCC media player.

The following is a list of the top ten sermons I heard in 2009 – in the order of date preached. I also want to note that this list is only for sermons preached in 2009. I heard a lot of great sermons from other pastors ranging from 1970-2008 for the first time this year, but this list doesn’t include them. I’ll probably make a post about those sermons in the future.
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Francis Chan’s humor is right on the money.

From Reformed Theology

I’ve gotten this question so many times. People always think God is love, and love alone, because of the New Testament. Yes, God is love, but his justice is love. His judgement is love. His glory is love. This is what people don’t want to accept though.

The thought that all religions are dumb is a belief itself, since it cannot be proven 100%. So Bill Maher has faith in something!

Sadly, when I hear people like this I tend to get mad rather than extending the grace that Christ extended to me. Jesus can save anyone, anytime, from anything – including Bill Maher. Rather than bad mouth him, I should be praying for him.

I do agree that religion is very destructive to the world. What Bill Maher misses is the fact that biblical Christianity is not religion; Jesus hates religion and came to destroy it. I wish Bill Maher would read The Reason for God, but on top of that I pray God would open his eyes to the beauty of knowing him.

Prior to a few days ago I had never heard of Thomas Sowell. I found this video on a blog I like to read, and thought it would be interesting to pass along. Perhaps he is a nutjob, perhaps he makes sense – I just thought the video had some interesting information I’d never heard before.

I’m not sure who edited this video down, but his commentary is immature and really takes away from what is being presented.

After watching the video skip down to the comments for additional thoughts from myself and others.

Source: Voddie Baucham’s blog.