Midweek Thoughts Again

Hola,
In about 4 months our team will be going on a trip to Mexico, so i figured i would start off the blog with a Spanish greeting. Your welcome.
I hope the last 3 weeks have been challenging to both the men, women, married and single. It is amazing to me that the scriptures are timeless, with no need to change from culture to culture. Some would say the things we have been talking about are really outdated and not for us. They would say gender roles and differences are simply a historical idea that we have finally outgrown. However, after the last three weeks i hope it has become evident the the Bible simply has it right. It is my desire that the men of the Journey would know what the bible says a man is and live it out. It is a high call to be the man the bible calls us to be, and we all have a life of growing ahead of us. It is also my desire that the women of the Journey would be strong women who love Jesus, love the scriptures, love there family, love there church family, and are all the bible says they are.
For the sake of our future generations, may we step up and fight, to be biblically faithful in everything that we do. I believe the the great commission in most effectively lived out when men are men and women are women living on mission together as the church.
This Sunday will be our last Sunday in this series. We will be finishing up with Role of Women in the Church. The texts we will be from 1 Cor. 11 and 13, Titus 2, 1 Tim 2, Acts 16, and Luke 2. We will be taking communion Sunday night as well.
If your at work or school or sitting at home when you read this know that you are being prayed for today. Take a sec and think about someone you know and see everyday that does not know Christ. Live like Jesus and Pray that God would move!

Recommended Sites: Here There are over 5000 sermons and teachings from men and women.

Recommended reads
Feminine Appeal Carolyn Mahaney
The Chandlers Blog :Link to 2. 25 Inches to the Right and 4 Inches Up (To the one who thought that was funny last time. There it is again. Haha)

music listening to
Coldplay Viva la Vida

Midweek Thoughts "Issue 3"

Hello Readers,
Well hey again to all you out there on the edge of your seat excited about the new blog post. I hope you week is going well and challenging so far. I have had a great week so far, other than losing bad in our game monday night. I have gotten my roof fixed and worked out (as you will notice on Sunday) for the first time in over a year, and bunch of other stuff in the last couple days.
If you have been with The Journey the last couple weeks you know that we started up finished the first half of the roles series. This week we are going to be talking about The Role of Women in the Home. It is funny (Not Really) that in the last 50 or so years feminism has successfully made "Tabbo" a housewife and a stay at home mom. We are going to talk a little bit about this. For the record i do not believe it is wrong for married women to have jobs, so don't freak out.
I know that at least half our our church is single. It would be easy to look at these subjects and ask "What does this really have to do with me" if you are single with no kids. This stuff kinda just seems to be for all the married people. Well i hope as we have seen the last two weeks and as we see in the weeks to come, that it is essential unmarried to know the differences between men and women in Gods perfect plan. I believe it helps us all, to look to the bible and have God define for us who we are called to be. We are not just "Persons" we are men and women. It is easy to get into a lot of trouble when we tell God that we "Know" better than He has designed. This week we are going to be all over the bible. We are going to spend some time in Proverbs 31, Ephesians 5 and in Titus 2. Hope to see you all Sunday.
Recommended Read on the Subject
-Let Me Be a Woman by Elisabeth Elliot
-Feminine Appeal by Carolyn Mahaney

Pastoral Epistles

I love 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. These letters are often called the "pastoral epistles". I have posted below, the outlines of these three letters out of the ESV. Check this out, and open up your scriptures and read. You will be challenged! I will be posting soon about why i love these letters.


1 Timothy

Chapter 1
1-2 Greetings
3-11 Warning against false teachers
12-20 Christ came to save sinners
Chapter 2
1-15 Pray for all people
Chapter 3
1-7 Qualifications for Elders
8-13 Qualifications for Deacons
14-16 Mystery of Godliness
Chapter 4
1-5 Some will depart from the faith
6-16 A good servant of Christ Jesus
Chapter 5-6:2
Instructions for the church
Chapter 6:2
2-10 False Teachers and True Contentment
11-21 Fight the Good Fight

2 Timothy

Chapter 1
1-2 Greetings
3-18 Guard the deposit entrusted to you
Chapter 2
1-13 A good soldier of Christ Jesus
14-26 A worker approved by God
Chapter 3
1-9 Godlessness in the last days
10-17 All scripture is God breathed
Chapter 4
1-8 Preach the Word
9-18 Personal Instructions
19-22 Final Greetings
Titus
Chapter 1
1-4 Greetings
5-16 Qualifications for Elders
Chapter 2
1-15 Teach Sound Doctrine
Chapter 3
1-11 Be Ready for Every Good Work
12-15 Final Instructions and Greetings

Midweek Thoughts "2"

Hope everyone's week has been good and challenging for you so far. Thanks for the feedback from all you blog readers from last week, glad some folks are reading. Big air high 5 coming your way right now, if you are reading this week "1,2,3, High 5!"
Last Sunday night we kicked off our "Roles" series with "Role of Men in the Home". We talked about the differences between male "Domination" and male "Headship". In our culture, headship is wrongly associated with domination. I presented the differences between the two as we dove into Gen and Eph. and just let the scriptures challenge the men. It is clear in the bible, that male headship in the home is used as an analogy for male headship in the church. This week we are going to be in the book of Titus, looking at the qualifications for eldership in the church.
I believe one of the biggest problems we have in the church today is unqualified leadership. Church governments are set up in unbiblical ways with bad leadership, which leads to all kinds of problems. The bible lays out for us clear restrictions and requirements laid on any man that aspires to be and elder in the church. This is what we will be talking about Sunday night. For anyone who would like to read further about biblical eldership check out this link http://theresurgence.com/alexander_strauch_1997_biblical_eldership.
I would also say to any man who wants to lead in any way that he should know well 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. To the ladies, i hope last week was helpful for you as well. If you think your husband is dropping the ball, pray for him. Men I hope, pray and trust that we would "Step Up" and lead. See you all Sunday night. Bring someone from you work or school if you can.

Music i listen to while blogging. U2 "no line on the horizon". Great album!

Jared

Midweek Thoughts

Well Hello,
Its 8:30 and my brain is not all the way fired up yet, i've only had two cups of coffee, so hopefully i can get through this real quick. Hope you all are having a great week so far. Keep your eyes open today, remember why we have jobs, go to school and do the things that we do(Mat 28).
Today I want to let you know about the next four weeks, and give you some resources that will be helpful for you if you want to study on your own. The next four weeks we are going to talk about the roles of men and women in the home and church. I know that gender roles are laughed at anywhere outside of the church context. However we must let the bible dictate what the truth is, even if that means we go opposite of the culture. We have gotten to a place, even in the church, where the uniqueness of the sexes are completely blurred. The result of this has been that newer generations are clueless about what it means to be a man or a women. If you would look about 2 1/2 inches to the right you will see that i have listed out links to blogs and websites. These are sites that i have found to be biblicaly faithful and very helpful. There is a link to "The Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood" that has tons of info with free stuff, and great books recommendations for men and women. Also check out "The Chandlers" blog, there is a ton of stuff to read written by Lauren Chandler about God and family. The resurgence.com also would be helpful to check out.
This week we are going to primarily be in Gen. 3 and Eph. 5, as we dive into the culturally unclear but scripturaly clear role of Men in the home. We (The Journey) are complementarian (Not Egalitarian)meaning we blieve men and women complement each other as they operate in there God given roles.
Love you all and praying with you as you are doing you missionary work at your job or at school.
Hope to see you all there Sunday night!
Jared

Bigtime Summary of the Bible

Old Testament= Jesus declares in John 5 that the Old Testament is about Him. This means that all of the bible is about Jesus. So what can we get out of the OT. The OT shows us that we cannot attain righteousness on our own. In Exodus 20 God gives His people the ten commandments “Basics of Morality” and yet commandments in its basic form, people are unable to keep. The OT teaches that we cannot be perfect, that we are born enemies of God, and that there will be a Messiah that comes to take the punishment for our sin and accomplish what we cannot.

New Testament= The New Testament is all about Jesus accomplishing for us what we cannot accomplish on our own “Perfection”. Humanity since the Fall “Adam and Eve” have all been born enemies of God “Eph 2:1-10” and this provides a big problem because God must punish evil to remain just. God's wrath leans against all of humanity and the only way wrath is satisfied is on the Cross by Jesus “Isaiah 53” or in eternal torment in Hell. We must have our hope set on Jesus. “Me” focused Christianity leads one of two ways: 1 Despair “I cant be good enough” 2 Pride “Why cant others be as good as me”.

Jesus is the Hero. Your sins “Past, Present, Future” are paid for. Future Grace (Security) gives us the only fuel for genuine obedience to Jesus. Our status with God is based of Christ perfect consistency and not our inconsistency.
2 Cor. 5:21
Titus 2:11


Some Texts to Review

1.John 5
2.Exodus 20
3.Ephesians 2:11-10
4.Isaiah 53
5.2 Corinthians 5:21
6.Titus 2:11


by Jared

Blog Updates

I have spent the last couple days updating my blogs. I hope the updates can be somewhat beneficial for anyone who actually checks this out. We live in such an awesome time that so much information is just a few clicks away. I have listed out, over there on the right side of my page, a bunch of sites and blogs that have been very helpful for me. There is tons of free information from podcast , to downloadable books, and videos. The Resurgence has a bunch of conference videos and enough information to keep anyone reading for a long long time. Desiring God is very similar with endless amounts of free material.
A few years ago I went through the (I'm Mad at Church) stage. I have always been kinda cynical about what I thought was really stupid (Some of Which was) and was quick to throw stones. It seems to be easy to point out everything that is going wrong. However things have seemed to shift in my brain from being frustrated to being very excited about “church”. Check out these sites and blogs and it will not take very long to see that God really is doing some awesome things. The future looks very bright!
And the best thing. Just to help “the Church” these sites give this stuff all out for free! Awesome!

Oh and "MidWeek Thoughts" will be up Wed!

Hope you all are having a great week!