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CARM HOME PAGE
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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- Thank you for 1
John 1:9
- Santa Cruz, CA Trip
- Seattle, WA Sponsorship
- Rexburg, Idaho
- Video Camera
- Advertising Space
- Logos Software
- Love and Hate mail
- Same as Last Newsletter
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THE BIBLE
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Bible
Text
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"There will be
silence before Thee, and praise in Zion, O God;
And to Thee the vow will be performed. 2 O Thou
who dost hear prayer, To Thee all men come. 3
Iniquities prevail against me; As for our
transgressions, Thou dost forgive them. 4 How
blessed is the one whom Thou dost choose, and
bring near to Thee, To dwell in Thy courts. We
will be satisfied with the goodness of Thy
house, Thy holy temple. 5 By awesome deeds Thou
dost answer us in righteousness, O God of our
salvation, Thou who art the trust of all the
ends of the earth and of the farthest sea; 6 Who
dost establish the mountains by His strength,
Being girded with might; 7 Who dost still the
roaring of the seas, The roaring of their waves,
And the tumult of the peoples. 8 And they who
dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of
Thy signs; Thou dost make the dawn and the
sunset shout for joy,"
(Psalm 65:1-8).
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Commentary |
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65:1-8, "The
psalmist expressed his conviction that when God
atones for sin He blesses abundantly. The psalm
begins with a mention of mankind’s preparation
to praise God because He hears prayer (vv. 1-2).
The occasion for the prayer was apparently their
overwhelming sins, but God atoned for their
transgressions (v. 3). One who thereby is
brought near to the presence of the Lord will
experience happiness (he is blessed; cf. 1:1)
and satisfaction (with . . . good things, 65:4).
Atonement for sin made possible the praise of
the people and their entrance on festival days
into the courts of the tabernacle (the word for
temple is hekal, a magnificent house; cf.
comments on 5:7) 65:5-8. The psalmist was
confident that God answers prayer; He is the
hope of people in the farthest regions of the
earth. God’s answers to prayer often come by
awesome deeds; this is natural for God. He
demonstrated His power and strength by forming
the mountains and soothing the seas and their
waves. God’s wonders bring fear to people and
songs of joy throughout the world (where morning
dawns and evening fades).
(From the Bible knowledge Commentary.) |
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Welcome to the May 30, 2007
Newsletter
Mini-devotional - Thank you for 1 John 1:9
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness," (1 John 1:9). There was this
young man I used to know in my youth. I would like to speak
to him again so I might rebuke him and correct his errant
ways. I would like to talk sense into him and tell him
how to avoid some serious sins and their consequent future
anguish. But, that foolish young man is gone, never to
be seen again -- I hope. He
is a shadow now, a memory of self-centeredness
and sin, a ghost from a past life.
Yet, that young man has left me with memories that I have
tried to forget. But the
Lord brought to surface a particular sin in a very sudden, unexpected,
and profound conviction. So, I found myself
struggling with a memory and suffering from it with a
newfound pain and shame.
It hurt to remember what I was capable of doing in my youth.
Why did the Lord choose this day, after all these years, to
bring this issue to light with renewed strength and
guilt? I don't know. But, after hours of
trying to ignore it, and avoid God in the process, I finally
chose to confess my sins not only to God, but also to
someone who I love and trust. You see, for some reason
I needed to speak about it. I needed to confess it
with audible words. I don't know why I needed to.
I just did. So, I told my wife about
that old sin and cried while confessing. This sin didn't
involve her, but I needed her to hear it. I needed my
wife to hear my words.
She touched
me with a gentle hand, kind words, and spoke about
forgiveness in Jesus.
But, the most important person I had to confess my sins to was
the Lord. Of course, I know he is eager and willing to
forgive. That is how he is. Therefore, it was with confidence that I
finally approached him, yet again, in confession and, by his grace,
was cleansed once more. I am so glad for 1 John 1:9
and its demonstration of love, commitment, and forgiveness
that flows from the heart of God through the person of Jesus.
God forgives because of Jesus. I am forgiven because
of Jesus.
Are their sins in your life that you have suppressed?
If so, has your suppression moved you further away from God
and caused you to be uncomfortable when contemplating the
things of God? If this is the case,
confess your sins to the Lord and, if need be, to those whom
you have offended. Receive forgiveness, kindness,
grace, and peace from the Lord and only he can give.
God is faithful, even when we are not.
Santa
Cruz, CA Trip
Last week my wife and I drove down to Santa Cruz California
to interview a pastor and check out his church. The
pastor was Dan Kimball and he is the head of an emerging
church called Vintage Faith. As I said in the previous newsletter, the emerging church seeks to reach the lost with the Christian
gospel by adapting to present day culture. There are many
critics of the emerging church as well as proponents.
Some emerging churches are so liberal they aren't even Christian.
But, others are very orthodox. As with most things, there
is is good and bad.
I found Dan to be polite and knowledgeable about
Christian doctrine. He is definitely orthodox (though
he seems to approve of women pastors).
After attending the church service I was definitely
encouraged. Though some emerging churches leave much
to be desired, I thought his church was doing a good job of
reaching out to the culture in Santa Cruz.
It was Memorial Day weekend and there were over 200 people
attending the 7 p.m., Sunday evening service. You have
to remember that this is in Santa Cruz, perhaps the drug
capital of California and is heavily situated within a surfing
and new age type culture. The fact that 200 people, mostly
young, chose to attend a service on Sunday evening was great
to see.
Dan preached a message on the deity of Christ and I thought
he nailed it very well.
In fact, I felt comfortable in the service and would have no
problem attending it again in the future.
In a couple of weeks I hope to go to Seattle and,
Washington, and attend to other emerging churches. One
is quite orthodox and the other, well, I'm not sure where it
stands. It should be interesting and I'll continue my
research and writing on this.
Finally, we drove down on Saturday, attended two churches on
Sunday, and came back on Monday. In all, I drove about
26 hours and traveled over 1600 miles (including a wrong
turn that cost us two hours). Needless to say, I was
quite tired when we finally got home. Why didn't my
wife and I
fly? Because CARM didn't have the money for airfare
and car rental. It only cost about $150 in gas for the
round trip since my car gets 33 miles per gallon.
Whew!
Seattle, WA Sponsorship
As I mentioned in the last newsletter, I still plan to
travel to Seattle, Washington during the weekend of June 9
through 12th. There are two emerging churches there and
I would like to attend both of them. So, I'm looking for
sponsors to cover the costs of gas and hotel.
This is the same as the last newsletter: Ryan Turner is a student at Norman Geisler's Graduate school
who, Lord willing, will graduate next year with a Masters in
apologetics. He has expressed a very strong desire to
work with CARM. Ryan will be flying out to Boise on June
8 and will stay here for 10 days, in our home. This is
so he can check us out to see if he wants to make a commitment
to work with CARM by moving here next year. Anyway, I
plan to drive from Boise to Seattle with Ryan and stay there
for two, three, or four days while we check out two emerging
churches and also, hopefully, the Discovery Institute that works
with intelligent design theory.
Again, if anyone would be willing to sponsor us for our trip
up there (hotel and gas), please let me know. Or, if someone
has a spare couple of rooms in their home for a few days, that
would be fine, too. My car gets great gas mileage and
has GPS navigation so directions aren't a problem, nor is traveling
an hour (or less) to get to the churches should we find lodging
at a distance. So, if you want to help out, please contact
me at matt@carm.org.
Rexburg, Idaho
Next weekend, I might also be going to the east side of
Idaho to a city called Rexburg. The plan is to go
Saturday night, get a hotel, and attend a church service the
following morning. There is a Calvary
Chapel opening up there in the midst of a very heavy Mormon
population. I was told that cover Chapel had some
difficulty with the Mormons during a preliminary "test"
service in that area. I wanted to attend, take notes,
and support this pastor and congregation in their difficult
task. I'll let you know if and when I go and what
happens
Video Camera
Man! researching video camera
stuff is tedious. Is there anybody out there who knows
enough about video cameras to be able to give me a
recommendation? I need a camera (or two) that is high
enough quality to produce DVD presentations, has an audio
input jack, and will produce video that can be edited on a
computer. Does anyone have any recommendations?
Oh, one more thing. I have $2000 to work with to
either get one camera or two. I would prefer to have
two cameras to produce videos with different angles, not to
mention to have a backup. However, it might be necessary to buy a single
camera and work with that.
Again, I'm looking for somebody
who has some expertise in this area and could make
recommendations. By the way, which is
better, 3ccd, cmos, or HD? And, I have concluded that
I probably should use MiniDV for storage. I'm
open to suggestions.
Advertising Space
Are you interested in purchasing
advertising space on CARM? If so, please let me know at
matt@carm.org. CARM
gets about 400,000 unique visitors a month.
One more thing, I'm new at the
idea of having someone advertise on CARM. Of course,
whoever did would have to be acceptable to CARM is a
Ministry. Also, does anyone have any idea what would
be acceptable rates for charging for advertising on CARM?
If you know, please contact me at
matt@carm.org and let me
know. Thank you.
Logos Software
By way of reminder, if any of you
are interested in perhaps one of the very best, if not the
best, Bible programs available, please check out
http://www.logos.com/carm.
I use it all the time. If you purchase
software through the CARM link, you can get a discount and it
helps to support CARM as well.
If you get anything at Logos, use
CARM as the coupon code during checkout.
Love
and Hate Mail
CARM is constantly getting e-mails of thanks and praise
and condemnation. Here are a few...in the raw. (At
the suggestion of a reader, the hate mail is first so that the
last taste in your mouth, is the love mail).
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Be fishers of men, not keepers of
the aquarium
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