What's up next!

TNT will be taking the next couple weeks off to celebrate the Christmas season. We hope and pray that you have safe and happy holidays!

A couple items of note. We will start back up on Wednesday, January 14th at 6:30 at Third church, room 101. We will be watching Nooma videos and studying scripture for the next semester. We are excited to get to know each other more and get to know and understand God and His plan for our lives.

We also have some social events in the works for the next couple of months. We will be traveling to the big city of Des Moines to watch the Iowa Chops in some exciting hockey action at Wells Fargo Arena. We may even work in some ice skating of our own at scenic Brenton Skating Plaza...the only outdoor skating arena in Iowa! We will keep you all posted on our plans.

Finally, we rejoice with Kyle and Sheila Punt on the birth of their new born baby boy! Caleb Jay was born on December 15th at 7:50 a.m. He weighed 8 lbs and 5 oz. Both mother and baby are doing very well! We actually got to visit the Punts in the hospital on Wednesday as we were caroling. The little guy is cute! We were able to snap the picture and let me tell you, he is every bit as cute as the picture show. Just precious!

Merry Christmas to you all and we will see you in January!

TNT Update!

Hey guys and gals! Just a quick update before you start your weekend. Three things!

1. No TNT this week on Wednesday (11/26/08). Enjoy the Thanksgiving Holiday!
2. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, December 3^rd, at 6:30 p.m. We will be reviewing the first part of a video series entitled “The Truth Project.” I have no idea what this is about, either I spaced off when we talked about it, or they are keeping me in the dark…either is a distinct possibility. (But if you are curious, google it…and believe the hype!)
3. On Wednesday, December 10, we will be reviewing a NOOMA video, discussing how it applies to our lives and opening up the last 30 minutes for you all to give us some feedback. What do you like? What do you NOT like? What would you want to see changed?
4. I lied about only three things in this post. (And you fell for it!)
5. On Wednesday, December 17, we will be going caroling in the community. We did this a couple years ago and it was a big hit! Basically we just go around to different places, singing and passing out cookies. So on 12/17/08, please bring at least a dozen homemade cookies to pass out. And your beautiful voices.

Thanks everyone and again, have a safe and happy Thanksgiving! If you have ANY questions, please let me know. Again, we meet at Third Church in Room 101 at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday evenings. (By the coffee bar..) Everyone is welcome! Later!

James 5:1-12

Hi Everyone!
I really enjoyed our discussion the other night on James 5. If you weren't able to be there you should take a look at the text because wow, it's pretty powerful stuff. We discussed a lot on Wed night including a lot of the deeper meanings in the text. It's always amazing to me though how much we can learn from scripture alone. So here are a few things that I wrote down about the text and have been pondering throughout this week that were pretty clear to me simply from the text....

What we learn about hoarding wealth~
*Leads to misery, corrosion, fire
*Associated with dishonesty, selfishness (not paying the workmen), luxury, self-indulgence, getting fat (really that's in there!!), condemning and murdering innocent men.

What we learn about the Lord~
*His coming is near
*He is the judge
*He is full of compassion and mercy

Traits we want to have~
*Patience
*Perseverence
*Control of the tongue (No grumbling or swearing).

Isn't the book of James great?!? Next week we'll be finishing the 5th chapter and the following week you WILL NOT want to miss! We're going to do a wrap up of the book of James using "The Office" TV show...it'll be AWESOME!!

True, Kind and Necessary

One of the things going through my mind is this idea that Sheila brought up. When we have talked about "the tongue" and it's power in James 3, we talked about how do we know when to say something. There is so much power in this small thing. So, we talked about 3 things to let us know when we should say something.

1) Is it true? This is usually where we stop - yes, this is true, so I will say it.
2) Is it kind? Hmm.
3) Is it necessary. Boy I could save myself some grief and be much more quiet if I would get to number 3.

Maybe the political candidates should live by this. We would have a lot fewer commercials.

A night of service...

TNT had a great night of service last night. We started with a very hearty meal provided by Jen, which everyone enjoyed. I am going to butcher what it was, but it was a Mexican soup over cornbread and was just delicious! (Seriously hoping that Jen posts the recipe right here.) It was a great time of fellowship and I found it very relaxing after a hectic day at the office. (Lots happening with my fantasy football team...plus the waiver wire was busy....)

Then we got to the jobs. Three persons who were more "cooking inclined" took to the kitchen and baked up a storm. 350 cookies later, and they were finished. The gauntlet was laid down for the cleaning portion of the evening, with myself talking smack about my crazy cleaning skills (or skilz as the kids say...). Let me just say that Kyle and Clark answered the bell, and came out swinging... Clark tackled cleaning two windows at a time, one with each hand, cleaning in a clockwise manner with his left hand and counter-clockwise fashion with his right. (Did you just pick up your hands to see how easy that is??) Kyle answered by cleaning three (!) windows at a time, spraying them down with his right foot, using both hands and his tongue. It was impressive. He said it was a little trick he picked up in the Sioux Center plant. I thought I would go above and beyond the call of duty and pick up some trash, but Clark, cleaning some of the windows outside, found a chunk of concrete misplaced under the prayer tower, so, I kid you not, the man picked up the entire tower! I mean, it was just a couple inches off the ground, but I was impressed. The Tower looked a lot better after he put it down too. (See picture depicting the effect.)

All in all a great night of fun and service, answering James' claim that faith without works is dead. "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. 23Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror 24and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like."

(Feel free to use the windows at Third Church to see a perfect reflection of yourself, because those bad boys are clean!)

Favoritism and judgment

The other question that we didn't get to last night was "How do judgment and mercy relate to favoritism?" In other words, how do verses 12 and 13 fit in with the rest of the passage??

Showing favoritism, or partiality, IS judging another person's worth or value. Of course James is making the point that we are judging their worth based on things like clothing, social status, money, appearance, attractiveness, etc. INSTEAD of the things that truly matter (their faith). In that sense we are treating their outward appearance/wealth/etc. as more valuable than Christ.

James sees the opposite of favoritism (or judging) as being mercy. Mercy is at the very essense of the "Royal Law" that he speaks about in vs. 8. James is applying the teaching of Jesus. For more on this you can read the parable of the unmerciful servant found in Matthew 18:21-35 and see that he calls the merciful "blessed" in Matthew 5:7.

Until we meet again I'm praying that the Holy Spirit will continue to mold and shape us to be more like Christ. May we show mercy to others~whether that be to the ornery student in the classroom, the smelly patient who doesn't bathe regularly, or the waitress doing her best to serve us.

Judgement and freedom

Another question that was raised concerns vs12. How are we judged by the law that gives freedom?

All of us are going to be judged after we die but as Christians we are to "Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom." This is Christ's law. As Christians we are covered by the blood of Christ and will receive mercy instead of condemnation in the final judgment. BUT, we will still give an accounting of what we have done so James is reminding us to speak and act as though we're remembering this! The law gives freedom from our oppression from sin. Thank you Jesus!!!

Follow up from 10/1

Hi All!
We had a great discussion last night on James 2:1-13. I loved the questions that you raised. Questions are how we learn~think of how many times Jesus answered a question with another question...anyways, your questions have had me thinking and I hope have done the same for you as well!

Here's the first question that we didn't get to...it is a TOUGH question!! I'd love to hear other's feedback on this too. The question was...How do we determine right and wrong without being judgmental??

This is an interesting question that I've been struggling with for awhille now. I did some research and here's what I came up with so far (by no means does it completely cover the subject). I think we are all scared of the verse in Matthew 7:1-2 where Jesus says, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." I looked up a little about this verse and here was a good quote from biblegateway.com..."Many people have ripped this passage out of context. Jesus warns us not to assume God's prerogative to condemn the guilty; he is not warning us not to discern truth from error" (see 7:15-23). Discerning truth is a must for those of us who know truth. But, as we talked about last night we have all sinned and broken the "royal law" and will all be judged by Christ. Aren't I thankful that He is FULL of mercy?!? So how much more should I show mercy to my fellow sinner!! AGAIN this seems to be all about our heart and our motives (whether or not we are condemning others/judging vs discerning right from wrong).

There is so much more that I could write about this topic but I'm curious to hear some thoughts from YOU!!

The Parker Dog, Lady . . .

I can't help but blog about my mentioning of Lady, the Parker dog, last night. Perhaps this blog can be one of my outlets that will lead me to a better relationship with this canine. (Basically, I am going to ramble a little which may be good for me but not as much fun for you . . .)

So, here's the deal, Justin has had Lady since he was a junior in high school. She turned 15 this month (in September). She was very jealous when Justin and I started dating and would put her nose down between us when we would sit together on the couch.

Eventually, they grafted me into the family and she would protect me (and Jarrett too) from anyone who would threaten us.

Why wouldn't this be ok with me? Lady is a good dog. Just don't leave your socks or undergarments laying around. You will see them again it will just be the next day out in the yard. It's amazing what will go through her digestive tract! Justin actually saved a pair of Jarrett's socks once - cleaned them up and he was good to go . . .

Anyway, Lady is a DOG. I have never considered myself a dog person and she came with Justin. I have tolerated this quite well but more recently has become more inconvenient. My biggest issue is that she sheds which requires more house maintenance. I also don't like to be breathed on or brushed up against on hot days. When I am on the floor playing with Jarrett, when I pick him up, I have to use a lint remover on him and me before we leave the house.

As I am writing this, I am saying to myself, "it's so trivial isn't it ". . . My point of writing? Well, to keep you updated on what I learn about what Lady represents for me. It's not logical to be so angered by the canine so there is something there . . . if any of you have insight, feel free to let me know.

In the meantime, me and my lint remover will be close by.

And, finally, we get to this question of religion. Which many of us in the room last night said we recoil at that word. We don't like being called "religious." But this scripture can help us with what that really means and it's great news! If we were truly "religious" in this way, people would love Christians and "religious" people!

James gets to this point to Accepting the Word and Doing the Word but what can this lead to? Religious "practices." It looks good but it becomes mere ritual and not Christ-centered. So James lists 3 penetrating dimensions of religion that are acceptable to God:

1) Control of the tongue - how many sins can you think of that are caused by our tongues? James obviously knows this is a big deal and dedicates chapter 3 to address it. Just to let you know, James is not addressing if we sometimes have an unbridled tongue it's if we have an habitually unbridled tongue.

2) Help those who cannot help themselves = orphans and widows. These two persons in NT days were helpless without men to take care of them in their Patriarchal society. It was up to Christians to lend a charitable hand to meet their needs and help them in their plight. And this is not just to give money but to be personally involved with them. Hands-on caring.

3) An unpolluted life - I think this comes back to the question from the beginning - what does a righteous life look like? This may look different for everyone but certainly includes what this passage addresses - quick to listen, slow to speak and become angry. Listen to the word AND do what it says. Watch what you say and help those who can't help themselves. That may be a good start to this unpolluted life.

Any other ideas?

I love how this passage involves our Words, our Hands, and our Hearts. I am challenged to my core and the dog is my test :-)

Looking in the Mirror

The mirror = the Word. The word speaks of the Old Testament.

When we look into the Word, we see, literally, the "heart of our birth". The longer one looks at the mirror, the more we begin to see our flaws, blemishes etc. (Some talked about when we see ourselves on video, the camera doesn't lie . . . or how about the great 360 mirror on What Not To Wear? Nothing is hidden. . . ) The mirror - the Word - allows us to look at ourselves but also to gaze upon the face of God.

So we have 2 pictures - one person who "looks at their face in the mirror and, after looking at it, goes away and forgets what he looks like." The 2nd picture we get is a person who "looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues to do this."

The first person may have scripture memorized, know the books of the Bible, know stories, etc. They have accumulated knowledge but clearly, that is not enough!

The second person is gripped by what they see in the mirror - and keeps on looking! The "perfect law" refers to the OT Scriptures and the teachings of Jesus because he came to fulfill the law. They see the sin in themselves and they also see the holiness of God. Like Paul says in Romans 7:24, "What a wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?"

Which kind of person are we? Do we look into the mirror and act upon what we see? Are we a part of a process of looking & doing, looking & doing, looking & doing?

If we are looking and doing? How is this lived out for you?

James closes with a beatitude: if we hear and do the word, one will be blessed in ALL they do. (Wow, really??) That's what the scripture states . . . :-)

Word, Hands and Heart

Last night we had the joy of studying James 1:19-27. I like what Sheila did last week so I am going to blog a few different posts . . . here's some beginning thoughts. . . on vs 19-22

There is a triple duty in responding to the word
1) Quick to listen - listening is not a passive - it's active and it takes hard work! Oral communication and listening was cruical and if it wasn't done lead to spiritual impoverishment. The scriptures (they only had the OT at the time) written down were not mass produced so much was communicated orally rather than read.

How do you practice listening?

2) Slow to speak - basically, James is telling us to think before we speak. Prov. 10:19 is a good one for me who likes to talk . . . "When words are many, sin is not absent - he who holds his tongue is wise.

How do you practice being slow to speak?

3) Slow to become angry - It's easy to rationalize our anger. We say that we are just "brutally honest" or "frank" about things. We even blame the pressure we are under. An angry spirit is never a listening or teachable one. (YIKES!) If we don't listen to the word, we act out of our own selfishness which certainly can escalate anger. Prov. 29:11 "A fool gives full vent to his anger but a wiseman keeps himself under control.

The reason we act in such a way is listed in verse 20, "anger doesn't bring about the righteous life that God desires."

What is righteous living?

Basically, if we wish to benefit from the word, we must get rid of the sins it reveals to us - when we do that, we are ready to "humbly accept the word . . ."

What about that?

Other Questions

A few of the questions from last night are excellent discussion questions and I would love to hear what you all think about them since we ran out of time last night...Here they are...

*What does perseverence look like? (vs 3, 4, 12) Is it situational, big picture or both?

*What does "every good and perfect gift" look like? (vs. 17). Do I view my trials as good gifts if they are producing spiritual maturity?

*"God is tempting me" (vs 13). Why would someone think that??

Firstfruits

Another question raised was about firstfruits (vs 18). One of the groups mentioned it being the first of the harvest...YES!!!

James' readers would have been familiar with the term because Jewish custom was that firstfruits were offered to God in gratitude and recognition that all comes from Him and belongs to Him. To find out more about the term firstfruits look up all the places in scripture that talk about it (in a variety of ways)...Deut 26:9-11...1 Cor 15:20...Rev 14:4...Jer 2:3.

The image of firstfruits is an expectation of the ultimate fruit-bearing goal of God's work in us. It is a high calling to have God's character of holiness more and more clearly reflected in us...Thus, we all should present ourselves as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-2) to Him (similar to the Israelites offering of the first of their harvest).

Reminds me of Kevin's action step...Take time to be holy...

The Test

One of the unanswered questions last night stems from James 1:12 where it says "when he has stood the test". What is this test? The phrase is hoti dokimos genomenos or "when he has become approved as by test". There will be diverse trials and tests and we can trust the Lord to use them to grow our faith. How many tests will we have...who knows!!! I believe this might also just mean "life" cuz much of life is a test! Once we are "approved" we will receive the crown of life--full enjoyment of HEAVEN!!

This raises a few questions...

*How do I react when various forms of testing come into my life?

*Do I live in the future, waiting for my circumstances to improve, or do I live in the present seeking to see the hand of God in all that comes to me?

Follow up from 9/17

Hi All!
I just want to thank all of you who were there last night at TNT...you did an awesome job at getting to the nuts and bolts of James 1:1-18 and brought up some wonderful questions. I am really looking forward to getting to know all of you better!!

This is an invite for all of you to begin blogging...you do need to have a google account which is easy to set up and then you can comment on posts. If you would like to author a "post" just let me know and I'll get you going:)

I've decided that I'll post all of the unanswered questions separately so that we can have conversations about the individual questions...hopefully that will make sense as we get going...

Oh, and I would just encourage you to invite a friend next week:)

Wednesday September 17

Hi All!
We are starting our study of the book of James this week at TNT!! I just wanted to post a little something about this week since I've had some questions about details. Here's the scoop...we'll start at 6pm with FOOD. This week we're going to have a potluck so just bring a dish to share. If you have children, they are welcome to eat with us and then you can take them to nursery when we're done eating. We will be meeting in room 101. After our meal we'll study James and we'll end promptly at 8pm. For further discussion we will be posting things on the blog so that people who want to continue the discussion can blog about it during the week.

SO...here's what you should bring along...

1) food to share
2) A Bible if you'd like (not a requirement but might be helpful)

We'll see you all Wednesday night!!

New things

I love the changing of seasons and all the new things that are starting this fall. I'm anxious to get TNT started again and I'm really looking forward to catching up with everyone. So on my subject of "new" things, I'm probably a little slow with this, but this morning was the first time that I have listened to one of the recorded sermons directly from my laptop.

Anyway, I was out of town last weekend, but have heard several comments about Kevin's message. Whoa. Direct, clear. I now understand why people have described it this way. If you missed it (or didn't know you could listen to it), here's the link. http://www.trcpella.com/pages/page.asp?page_id=14148

I'm curious if anyone has thoughts about this message . . .

I hope to see everyone Wednesday night at 6:00!

Fall Kickoff

Hi All!
Thought I would get a little information out there about our fall kickoff! We hope a lot of you can make it!! Here are the details...

September 10: Fall Kickoff at West Market Park at 6:00 pm.
Bring $3.00 and your own meat to grill – drinks, sides, and table service provided. We'll have bocce and some other yard games. We'll all be praying for good weather!!

Following our fall kickoff we will be meeting on Wednesday nights from 6-8pm at Third in Room 101 & 102. We will eat together and then study the Word. We're going to be going through the book of James this fall. James addresses taming the tongue (wow do I need help with that one!!), submission, prayer, trials, and A LOT of other things that are so applicable to our lives. I can't wait to start! Oh, and there is childcare provided if you need it.

Signing off for now...

Service Project!

Okay, so everyone keeps wondering what exactly we get to do for our first service project. Well I am here to tell you...wonder no more! Here are the details...

When: Saturday, September 20th, 2008
Where: Melcher-Dallas, Iowa
What time: Meet at Third Church lower parking lot at 7:50 a.m. (Not a typo. I know it is early, but this sets up a wonderful nap in the afternoon.)
What we are doing: We are helping a men's group at Third clean up a property in Melcher. There will be lots of out doorsy type jobs. Mowing, trimming trees, cleaning gutters, trimming, pulling weeds, raking leaves.

Jake - what should I bring? I am glad you asked. You should bring your positive attitude, comfortable work clothes, older shoes, a rake if you have one, work gloves, a smile, and a strong back. (Strong back optional.)

We will only be working for about 4 hours and will be back by 12:30 p.m.

This will be a huge blessing to a family in Melcher and really spread the love of Christ. Please consider helping out!

Any questions or comments, let me know!

Starting blog and the Olympics

The month of August has flown by! I miss Wednesday nights with my fellow TNT'ers and look forward to September coming. This week, a decision was made to study James this fall. The feedback we recieved from our last meeting in July was very helpful! Thanks for your honesty. And one of the things we wanted to start was this blog. So here we are.

I would also like to state as I watched the Olympics last night, watching 2 of our fellow Iowans compete is such a blast. Props to Lolo Jones and Shawn Johnson. Medal or not, these two women are incredible competitors. Talk about running the race with endurance . . . if I could be so diligent about my spiritual condition as they are about their physical condition. . . But I guess that's where grace comes in. There's no grace at the Olympic games. When you hit the hurdle, too bad. If you step out of bounds, points deducted. But with Jesus, thank God, there is grace. It's not about how hard I have to work - it's about admitting I need Jesus - he is my strength! He is the power I need to live life well and I don't have to have a perfect performance.

Waterfight

On August 14th TNT took part in the Annual Waterfight at Thursdays in Pella! Although they didn't walk away from the competition with the trophy they had a lot of fun and got really wet! The TNT supporters were so proud of their fight to the finish!!