When Jesus dwelled among us, one of his favorite ways to communicate his message was through story.  In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark & Luke), one third of his recorded words were his parables—short stories designed to capture the attention of his audience and evoke a response.

Stories are a powerful tool for any communicator, because everybody loves a good story.  Definitions are helpful; Explanations are important.  But a story can take a truth and make it more memorable.  A story can give it flesh and bones and make it practical.  A story is like a breath of fresh air.

I see this on your faces every week.  After a while of listening to my voice lulling you into a restful slumber, I’ll interject, “So the other day…” and you come right back to attention.  Stories can be powerful vehicles for truth.

In our culture, movies are one of the most powerful examples of story. Good movies can make two hours feel like twenty minutes, because they tell stories about people with whom we identify, admire or empathize.  The best movies leave us thinking about our own lives.  And that’s where God comes in.

God speaks in many ways.  He speaks through the Bible, through people, through circumstances.  Sometimes he surprises us with his methods.  Once he made a donkey talk to get his point across (Nope, not a reference to Shrek.  Check out Numbers 22.).  So why couldn’t he speak through Hollywood?  Certainly, God doesn’t speak through every film.  But often, filmmakers create characters, crises and comedies that compel us to look inward and upward.

Starting this weekend, we will fire up the popcorn machine and begin our annual series God & the Movies. In this series, we will look at some of Hollywood’s films to see how God tells his story through their stories.  Bring a friend and come ready to hear from God.

One practical tip: the popcorn tastes better with sweet tea…

NOTE: Because of copyright restrictions, we are unable to reproduce these messages on CD or post them on the Internet.  Sorry for the inconvenience!

This Wednesday night we return from our summer break to our Wednesday Night Bible Study.  We’ll begin this fall looking at the Epistle of James.  This week’s study will examine James 1:1-4.  For those going a season of difficulty, this is the passage for you!  Join us this Wednesday at 7:00pm.  Childrens and youth ministry provided.

Through our study of the Psalms at our weekend services, we’ve seen again and again the important of honesty in our conversations with God. A few weeks ago, I quoted C.S. Lewis who said, “We must lay before Him what is in us, not what ought to be in us.”

Here’s a quotation from a seventeenth century believer who has similar thoughts as Lewis. Whatever you do—just keep talking to God!

“Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, it’s pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you to conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wound of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability. Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself and others.”

“If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want for subject of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back; neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of abundance of the heart, without consideration they say just what they think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God.”

Francois Fenelon
1651-1715

This weekend we talked about being people who delight in the teaching of the LORD (Psalm 1:2a), and I wanted to give you a practical way to learn to do it. One of our favorite axioms around Capital is “We don’t just work through the Bible. We allow the Bible to work through us.” I’ve found one of the best ways to do that is to practice the spiritual discipline of scriptural meditation (Psalm 1:2b).

Most days I will take a short passage of scripture and pick it apart. I dwell on it, asking God what he means. I ask him how it applies to me, and I invite him to work the truth into my heart and mind. Then I try to take it with me through the day, remembering it on the drive time or between meetings. I don’t rush the process. I don’t take on massive amounts of Scripture. Sometimes I’ll spend 3-4 days on one passage. I’ve found this to be one of the most powerful ways God speaks to me.

If you click the link below, you will find a list of suggested verses. I encourage you to read through the list and choose one that especially applies to your life today. If you’ve never done this before, you may want to start slowly. Perhaps spend just five minutes of focus during the least distracting part of your day. Then take it with you. You may want to print them onto a small card, so you can refer to it throughout your day.

May you allow the Bible to work through you, sinking into your heart, mind and soul, that you may know Him more!

Psalm 119:11 – I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

LINK: Meditation Verses

Tonight will be our last Wednesday Night Bible Study before the summer break.  We’ll take a look at the last commandment in our 10 Commandments series: “Thou shall not covet.”  Join us tonight at 7:00pm.  Youth & children’s ministry provided.

I look forward to our study next fall—an exegetical study of the Epistle of James.  Coming in September!

Five years ago last weekend, I became the Lead Pastor of Capital Church.  Over the last five years, our church has grown in many ways—not just numerically.  But I think I’ve grown more.  I have thoroughly enjoyed these last 5 years, and I look forward to many more years of journeying together with you as we discover what it means to “love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength,” and to “love our neighbor as ourselves.”  Thank you for being a part of the journey with me.

Troy

Are any of you worn out? Do you feel like the pace of your life has become to fast? Are you overwhelmed by responsibilities and TO DO lists and emails and commitments? Maybe you need Sabbath. In his book The Sabbath, Abraham Joshua Heschel describes this ancient, holy day saying:

        “He who wants to enter the holiness of the day must first lay down the profanity of clattering
        commerce, of being yoked to toil.  He must go away from the screech of dissonant days, from the
        nervousness and fury of acquisitiveness and the betrayal in embezzling his own life.  He must say
        farewell to manual work and learn to understand that the world has already been created and will
        survive without the help of man.  Six days a week we wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the
        earth; on the Sabbath we especially care for the seed of eternity planted in the soul.  The world has
        our hands, but our soul belongs to Someone Else.” *

Does your soul crave rest and refreshment?  I invite you to join us this Wednesday night as we examine the fourth commandment to discover what it means for us today to “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” 

The Wednesday Night Bible Study meets each Wednesday in the Capital Café at 7:00pm.  Children and youth ministry provided.

Last week, we wrapped up our 20-week study of Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi.  Starting this Wednesday, March 25 at 7:00pm, we will begin an in-depth study of the 10 Commandments, discovering that they are not the stubborn rules of an angry God.  They are life-giving principles that give us a blueprint for the way life is intended to be lived—a way that leads to true fulfillment.  Join us this week as we find the life behind the laws.

Kids and youth ministry provided. 

As I prepared for this weekend’s message from 2 Samuel 11 and 12, I came across a beautiful and honest prayer from Walter Brueggemann in his book Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth.

     We yearn, in every season, for your presence
     We know that our hearts will be restless, until they rest in you;
     We are like deer who seek a watering hole in the drought;
     We hear invitations for “all who are weary and heavy-laden…”
                             And approach to you seems ready and easy.
     Truth to tell, we do pant restlessly,
                 but not always for you.
                             Sometimes, instead for security
                                                     or sex and beer and sports,
                                                     or power and success,
                                                     or beauty and acceptance… not seeking you.
     Truth to tell, we know you to be no easy mark,
                 with your rigorous entrance requirements
                             of blamelessness, truth-telling, no bribes,
                             and all manner of neighborliness.
     We yearn for you in every season,
                 making you too easy, imagining you too difficult,
                 bewildered and unsure until you give yourself concretely to us…
                 as you have done and as you do.  Amen.

This weekend we continued our series Chasing After God by taking a look at the life of Saul in contrast to David.  In the process, we observed God’s command in 1 Samuel 15 to “utterly destroy” the Amalekites.  God demands the destruction of all persons and animals—everything!  The harshness of the command scrapes against our contemporary understanding of who God is—especially in light of our modern experiences with such “holy wars.” 

There are no easy explanations for texts like these.  Scholars continue to debate their interpretations in commentaries and academic settings.  You may find helpful this accessible explanation from Eugene Peterson, who writes:

        “One way to account for [these commands] is that God does not stand aloof from our moral
        conditions, but enters them and works with us where we are, working out salvation among us with the
        cultural materials at hand… God’s sovereign purposes are worked out in the most depraved and brutal
        of conditions by God’s descending into them, not criticizing them from above.” (1)

If you would like to study this subject in greater detail, I recommend one of Zondervan’s Counterpoints books.  This series of books provides a forum where opposing theological viewpoints are respectfully debated among some of today’s best Christian scholars.  The edition that covers the topic in question is Show Them No Mercy: 4 Views on God and Canaanite Genocide.  Here’s an excerpt from the back cover:

        September 11, 2001, brought us face to face with the stark reality of jihad. But holy war is neither new
        nor the invention of Islam. The Old Testament writings record what amounts to Canaanite genocide in  
        the name of Yahweh. How do we reconcile this with the teachings of Jesus, who commands us to love  
        our enemies and overcome evil with good? If our theology bears its fruit in our behavior as Christians,
        then we cannot ignore the question of violence in the Bible. Is there continuity or discontinuity              
        between the Old Testament concept of holy war and New Testament ideals? Do we serve the Lord of    
        Hosts or the Prince of Peace—or is God both? How should our actions reflect his character in these      
        dangerous desperately needy times? The four views presented in Show Them No Mercy are quite          
        different, yet all lie squarely within the evangelical tradition. This book gives each view a forum for      
        presentation, critique, and defense. It allows you to compare different perspectives on holy war, divine
        judgment, and the use of deadly force to arrive at your own conclusions on what the Bible teaches.

May God continue to reveal himself to you as you wrestle with these difficult areas of theology.  Grace & Peace!