Update...I know...It's about time!

So...the update that everyone's been waiting for is finally here!

The first monthly Flood Zone was this past Sunday and reports are that everyone had a great time. The next Flood Zone will be October 3 from 7-9 at the WECC building.

Wednesday Night Deep End is still going strong. We are digging our way through the Doctrine of Christ. It's been a bit perplexing at times, but I guess that's all you can expect when you have an infinite and incomprehensible God!

We are planning on heading up to Lynchburg for Scaremare on October 15. We'll leave from our house at 4 and return late that night. You'll need $8 to get in, some money for Pizza (a few bucks) and money for Waffle House after we're done going through the house. This is a great time to bring friends since they will have fun and also get to hear a clear presentation of the Gospel. Make sure you let me know if you want to go so we can have transportation for everyone!

The following weekend, the 22nd, we have some tickets for House of Fate in Tungsten. If you are interested in going to this, let me know. This is another great one to bring friends to. Tickets are limited, so first come first serve!

Thanks to Kevin and Amanda for taking the lead on the Christmas party. More details to come with regard to that.

Hope everyone is having a GREAT school year. We are already over 5 weeks in here at Crossroads. It's flying by! Summer will be here before you know it!

Where my heart is today...

A song by Jimmy Nedham called "Rend"

"Even now," declares the Lord, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning."
Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
Joel 2:12-13


Jimmy Needham - Rend

You’ve been tarnished
And you’ve been stained
And all the varnish you’ve used to cover up with is peeling away

Yet even now, return to me with nothing less
Than your wounded, broken heart
Cling to Me, your gracious King
Be shattered glass of empty jars and rend
Rend, rend, rend
Rend your hearts

You’ve been tarnished
And you’ve been stained
And all the varnish you’ve used to cover up with is peeling away

I don’t need a grand display
Show me that your heart has changed
I don’t need a show
Only just to know your own heart breaks

The Good Things Vol. 4

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Contemplate & Consider Vol. 21

From City of God by St. Augustine on why the good and the wicked both face similar sufferings:

"This being so, when the good and the wicked suffer alike, the identity of their sufferings does not mean that there is no difference between them. Though the sufferings are the same, the sufferers remain different...The fire which makes gold shine makes chaff smoke...In the same way, the violence which assails good men to test them, to cleanse and purify them, effects in the wicked their condemnation, ruin and annihilation. Thus the wicked, under pressure of affliction, execrate God and blaspheme; the good, in the same affliction, offer up prayers and praises. This shows that what matters is the nature of the sufferer, not the nature of the sufferings. Stir a cesspit, and a foul stench arises; stir a perfume, and a delightful fragrance ascends. But the movement is identical."

City of God, Book I, Chapter 8

What is Freedom?

When people think of freedom they often think of a life without boundaries. An autonomous life that does not have to submit to authority but can do whatever the heart desires whenever the heart wants it.

What's interesting about this idea of freedom is that it often leads to slavery. Slavery to selfishness. Slavery to success. Slavery to sin.

Think about it.

The freedom that is believed to come from lots of money could lead to slavery to success and maintaining the lifestyle that often comes with lots of money. More slavery.

Freedom to do whatever you want could land you in addiction. More slavery.

Freedom from worrying about others makes you just think about yourself. More slavery.

Real freedom is not without boundaries but living in what the Psalmist describes as the wide open spaces of God's precepts.

Listen to Psalm 119:32:
"I will run in the way of your commandments for you set my heart free"

Freedom is found in the midst of boundaries!

He goes on in verses 43-45:
"And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your rules.
I will keep your law continually, forever and ever,
And I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts."

The freedom that the Psalmist rejoices in is a freedom with boundaries.

Freedom is not found in autonomy (I'm in charge of myself. I do what I want when I want) but is found in surrendering to the boundaries God has established. When we step outside of those boundaries, we are no longer in the wide open spaces of freedom, but we are in the constricting, suffocating, barely able to move woods of slavery.

We only come to truly recognize the joy of the freedom found in God's "wide open spaces" through Jesus Christ. John 8:32 and 36 show us that freedom is found only in the Truth and that Truth is realized in Jesus Christ alone!

This week live in the joy of the wide open spaces that God has created for us in the safe boundaries of his precepts (teachings). Enjoy the freedom. Stop testing the boundaries and longing for the woods of slavery.