[stpaulswired.org] Thoughts from the Journey

Protecting Your Marriage

This past weekend I preached on sexual purity from 1 Thess. 4:1-8, “Avoid sexual immorality.” This is an issue for married folk as well as single. I thought it might be helpful for me as a married man to share some safeguards I use in my efforts to obey the command.

First and by far the most important, is to delight in my spouse. If a person’s heart is captivated by your spouse, then avoiding sexual immorality is much, much easier. I regularly and consciously stir up my love for my wife by spending time with her, playing games together, talking, and serving. We play games and exercise together more than any couple I know: tennis, swimming, disc golf, cards, table tennis, etc. We head up an Alpha ministry together and also host a small group. We cultivate shared experiences, and we regularly praise each other and speak sincere words of love.

Other safeguards: · I do not have women as best friends, and with the women in my life I consider good friends, I am also good friends with their husbands. Sexual affairs start with emotional bonding, and I am conscious to avoid this. · I do not have a woman secretary. My office is off the beaten track, away from other faculty offices here at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, so I do not want to be isolated with a woman. When I hold office hours, I keep the door open. · I do not view pornography and I am very picky/selective about what movies I watch. I do not want to be visually stimulated by someone other than my wife.

I hope this is helpful.

-Jeff Arthurs

Single Sexuality

How can a young man keep his way pure? I can tell you how I have, but I don’t know I qualify as a young man anymore :)

The best way to pursue holiness in sexuality is to make advanced decisions. That’s the best way to steward money as you’ll find out in Financial Peace University. And that’s the best way to steward your sexuality.

When in relationships I…

Date Christians. Jesus Christ is the most important person in my life. If a woman doesn’t know Jesus she won’t understand me, let alone agree to the kind of boundaries I'm committed to living by.

Communicate the boundaries upfront. The boundaries I live by: Hugging, kissing and holding hands. That’s as far as I want to go so I communicate that up-front. Not on the first date mind you but in the early stages.

Take it slow. If you do everything you’re comfortable with up front you’ll naturally want to do more later as the relationship matures. So take is slow. Attraction is there or it isn’t. That’s not generally the part of a relationship that needs a lot of work.

Have private conversations in public places. You don’t have to be alone to have privacy. Restaurants and coffee shops are great places to spend time together. It’s wise.

Never stay over or invite someone to stay over. Sleepovers are for children. It is foolish beyond belief to plan on sleeping over your boyfriend or girlfriends house. Have them stay at a friends place.

What I'm Reading

Lately I’ve been reading through Proverbs and Psalms in my own personal study. As a pastor I’m in the Scriptures every week prepping my next sermon series and looking ahead to future ones. That’s part of my job. And it’s great. But there’s a danger there. If I’m not careful, I can only study the Scriptures for sermons. That’s not good.

So when I don’t have a lot of time for personal study—my study on the prophets will have to wait—I go back to the wisdom of Proverbs and Psalms. Just don’t ask me what I’m learning. That’s between me and God :)

But just to give you a head’s up, after Jeff’s Thessalonians series, I’ll preaching four weeks on Elijah from 1 Kings 17-18. And in the fall we’re planning a book study of 1 Corinthians. But whatever you’re reading, make sure you’re reading the Bible. It contains the words of life. Don’t miss out.

Memorize This

As an application to Jeff’s message today, we suggested memorizing Romans road (Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Romans 10:13). For folks who want to go even further, a great tool for helping memorize Scriptures is the Topical Memory System by the Navigators. You can order the system on amazon by clicking here.

In the TMS packet you are given 60 verses divided into five series: A Series (Live the New Life), B Series (Proclaim Christ), C Series (Rely on God’s Resources), D Series (Be Christ’s Disciple), E Series (Grow in Christ-likeness).

Scripture memory is a great way to both meditate on God’s word and recall verses when necessary. And the TMS system is far and away the best tool for Scripture memory that I know of.

Read These

As an application from Jeff’s message today, we suggest reading a book on the basics of the Christian faith. All three books we suggest are written by seminary professors for a general audience. It’s good to avoid books by seminary professors for seminary professors—they are often unreadable. And it’s good to avoid books by laymen for laymen—they are often wrong about basic Christian faith. But these books are quite accurate and readable—a good combination.

In order from shortest to longest: Basic Christianity by John Stott, Simply Christian by N.T. Wright, and Christianity 101 by Gilbert Bilezikian.

All three you can order all three from Amazon. And if you have the time, I’d suggest reading all three over the course of the year.

La Bandera, Tues 6/23, 6:30-8PM

To the community of St. Paul’s Collegiate Church:

This July, myself and five other women from St. Paul’s Collegiate Church will head to the Dominican Republic for two weeks to serve our great God. We are partnering with Students International and will be working at several different sites, serving many different people. Social work, physical therapy, special education and medicine are four of the areas where we will be stationed. Team members include Ashley Capozzoli, Lauren Evanovich, Kelly Barry, Kim Mauger and Amy Dotson.

It is important to the six of us that we share our mission with the St. Paul’s community.

We invite you to join us for a classic DR meal, a short presentation about the trip and a night of fun! We will host “La Bandera” on Tuesday June 23rd from 6:30-8:00PM in the Lower Café at St. Paul’s. Children are welcome and encouraged to attend. We are suggesting that each person who attends would donate $10.00 to this mission and ultimately, to God’s Kingdom. We hope and pray that you will join us in preparing for this trip.

You can email dominicanrep2009@gmail.com with any questions or to RSVP.

Thank you and God Bless you all. Chelsea Williams

Leadership Summit

LEADERSHIP SUMMIT.

"The Global Leadership Summit is a trusted, high-caliber event that’s designed to transform Christian leaders on behalf of the local church with an annual injection of vision, skill development and inspiration."

We are excited to remind you that we are once again participating in the Leadership Summit hosted by Willow Creek Church. This year’s Summit will be held on August 6th and 7th at First Cathedral in Bloomfield via live video feed. In addition to Bill Hybels, speakers and faculty this year include: Henry Cloud, Carly Fiorina, Patrick Lencioni, Tim Keller, Tony Blair, David Gergen, Bono, Dan & Chip Heath, and more!

This is a world-class conference that has significantly impacted leaders in local churches across the nation. You definitely do not want to miss it.

The cost to attend is $145. Register online by clicking HERE (Tickets are $100 if you currently sponsor a child through World Vision. Contact beth@stpaulswired.org to receive the promotional code.).

If you have any questions, contact Beth@stpaulswired.org or Bob@stpaulswired.org

Saturday Serves!

Interested in helping out at St Paul's this summer? Please come to Saturday Serves on July 18th as we beautify the church grounds. We will be mulching, weeding and trimming.

We are looking for a few people to help lead this project. If you are willing, please contact Bob@stpaulswired.org.

You can sign up on the bulletin board in the lobby or indicate your interest on your weekly Connection Card during one of the services.

We look forward to seeing you!

He Ain't Superman

Comic book movies don’t seem to be losing any steam. Apparently there is an infinite, inexhaustible reservoir of material to draw from. But the classic super-hero remains: Superman.

From another planet, Superman seems human but he’s not. He can fly. He can see through objects. He has a strength none can match. We can admire him, but we can’t be like him. He’s not one of us. He isn’t a man; he’s Super-man.

Jesus ain’t Superman. He is one of us.

The earliest church heresy wasn’t a denial of Jesus’ divinity. No, the earliest church heresy was a denial of Jesus’ humanity. It’s called docetism from the greek verb meaning “to seem, to appear”. Jesus seemed human, appeared human but wasn’t. He seemed to be hungry, thirsty, tired but wasn’t. He seemed to be tested, tried, tempted in every way we are, but wasn’t. He seemed to die on a cross, appeared to die on a cross, but didn’t.

There are so many problems with this line of thinking, let me just name two. First, if Jesus isn’t really human, then humanity’s sin remains. As Anselm explained the predicament clearly centuries ago: only God can atone for sin, but only man needs offer atonement for his sin. Enter the God-man, the divine/human mediator: Jesus Christ. Second, if Jesus isn’t really human then humanity has no model for life. We can’t be like Jesus. We can only admire him from afar.

But Jesus ain’t Superman. He is one of us.

But how did he do all that he did? By the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was conceived by the Spirit, baptized by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit, and was raised to life by the Spirit. And the same Holy Spirit that empowered Jesus is available to us today.

And if Jesus ain’t Superman, I’m not either. You’re not either.

We do not have chests of steel. We are not faster than a speeding bullet. We cannot leap tall buildings in a single bound. We are not invincible. But we do have the Holy Spirit.

And as far as I can tell there’s no kryptonite equivalent to the Holy Spirit. To tell the truth I’ve never really liked Super-man anyway. He’s too one dimensional. He can do everything…until someone brings kryptonite and then he can do nothing. Lame. I never really grew up wanting to be Super-man anyway. Hulk, sure, Wolverine, even better. But not Super-man.

And ultimately the super-hero we should all grow up wanting to be like is: Jesus Christ. He one of us. And by the power of the Holy Spirit we can be like him.

Jazz Improv

This morning at our Jazz service we did some improvisation. For some reason we couldn’t get audio from Jeff Arthurs sermon Saturday. So I got up and preached the message I heard Jeff give yesterday. I don’t think we’ll make a habit of it, but all things considered the service went well.

The good news is we fixed the audio problem and so there shouldn’t be any trouble for tonight’s service. And I’d encourage the folks at the jazz service to listen to the original message online. Jeff preached an exceptional message yesterday. I gave a passable summary of that message. But listen to the original. It’s well worth your time.