On his blog, Kingdom Living, Matt Dabbs provides a list of the most popular Church of Christ blogs. So if your looking for some Christian money advice, homemaking tips, Biblical commentary, sermon suggestions, news from missionaries, or old fashioned controversy, there’s a great chance you’ll find it on this list.

Even if you’re not looking for anything in particular it can be fun to click your way through the list and see what’s out there.

It is notoriously difficult to develop a definitive measure of the popularity of blogs.  Matt uses Alexa rankings.  Alexa is a small utility that people can download onto their internet browser.  The program then anonymously keeps track of the sites people visits and ranks them.  So a person might have a very popular blog, but if no one with the Alexa utility visits it, then it won’t get recognized at all.  However, despite the obvious weaknesses of this methodology it does provide an objective way of ranking websites and distinguishing popular websites from those that might be out of date or rarely updated.  (To contribute to these rankings you can download the toolbar at this site.)

Having said all that about Alexa, let me say a BIG THANK-YOU to everyone who’s visited Peter’s Patter over the past 18 months.  By some quirk in the statistics this blog is ranked at #7.  It’s my prayer that, in addition to quirky statistics, people are genuinely finding these thoughts, comments, and sermon followup to be encouraging and helpful in their spiritual walk and understanding of God.

….now if I could only get some more comments and conversation flowing…

For those who are interested, the most popular posts at Peter’s Patter over the past year have been:

1. Jesus’ I AM Statements in John
2. Cleansing the Temple – John 2
3. Three Core Values for the church (plus 1)
4. John 21: Do You Love Me?
5. The President & “Childish Things”
6. 1 Cor. 3:9 – You are God’s Building!
7. Interview with the Christian Church
8. You Must be Born Again – John 3

• Read Exodus 13:17-18 here.
• If you missed Sunday’s sermon (October 25) you can listen to it here.

Exodus 13:17-18 tells us that God perceived that taking the shortest route from Egypt to Canaan would result in the Israelites arriving in Canaan unprepared for the battles that they would encounter there.  So God lead them on the longer route through the desert.

I compared the long route through the desert with the commencement of Jesus’ ministry.  The Gospel of John gives the impression that Jesus took the short route.  John 1:29-34 describe the baptism of Jesus and then the rest of the chapter tells of Jesus calling his disciples.  He hits the ground running.  But the synoptics all detail a gap between Jesus’ baptism and commencement of ministry.  No sooner does a voice from heaven confirm his anointing, than the Spirit leads him into the desert for 40 days, where he’s tempted by Satan.  Yes, God lead Jesus by the longer route through the desert.

I receive the impression from many Christians that once a person commits their life to Christ they should expect to start receiving blessings from God.  To be very honest with you, I’m torn about how to respond to this.  On the one hand, a person who submits to God’s rule over their life, receives forgiveness, freedom from guilt, the presence of the Holy Spirit in their life, and membership into the family of God.  There’s no greater blessing than these.  But on the other hand, I am also convinced that Satan likes nothing better than to attack newborn Christians.  He makes life as difficult as he can, trying to destroy faith before it’s taken root.  I believe this is the message of the 4 soils in Matt 13.

Churches seem to do a pretty good job preparing new converts for blessings, but not so well preparing them for obstacles and spiritual attacks.  Perhaps we worry that talking of long desert roads will deter people from committing their lives to Christ’s rule.  I wonder if Christ was thinking this when he spoke to the crowds in Luke 14:25-33 about their need to “count the cost” before deciding to follow him.

Have you experienced a church/person that does a good job of encouraging people to make an informed decision about their salvation?  Do you agree that Christians often get too excited describing the blessings or a relationship with God and overlook the struggles that come with it?  Is this justifiable or a serious shortcoming?

If we accept that young Christians often encounter particular challenges from Satan, we must ask ourselves “How do our churches provide extra support for new converts?”  I try to set up a regular Bible study/discussion with those I baptize, but it often doesn’t seem a priority to them right then.  (Just as newlyweds seldom schedule a counseling session for the week after the wedding.)

Have you seen effective ways that new Christians have been encouraged/supported?  Did you experience difficulties in the first year of your New Life?  What helped you stick with your commitment?

Read Isaiah 42:1-13 here.

Last night I was privileged to speak at Rochester’s Church of Christ Area Wide Worship Service (RCoCAWW).  The theme for the night was “Sing a New Song” which we took to heart with song leaders from half a dozen congregations leading our singing.  I always find these events encouraging as churches with different worship styles, theological emphases, and racial mix, come together to praise God.

Given the diverse audience, many of whom had never heard of me before, I worked to keep my presentation upbeat and entertaining.  This meant I didn’t get bogged down in a lot of exegesis and included plenty of “fluff” to keep people engaged.  But I believe my topic still had an important message that I hope people will relate to.

The phrase “sing a new song” occurs several times in the Psalms (33, 40, 96, 98, 144, & 149), Isaiah 42, and Revelation (5:9 & 14:3).  The Isaiah passage seems to give the most context to this phrase, so that’s where my talk was concentrated.

The first 9 verses of the chapter describe the changes God is going to bring upon the world through His servant.  He’s going to restore justice (v1, 3-4), open blind eyes, free captives, release those who sit in darkness (v7).  Verse 9 provides a succinct summary of the preceding verses, “See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare.“  God continues to redeem His people and His creation.

In the context of God’s creative and redemptive activity the appropriate response of His people is to “Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth.“  It seems to me that the new actions of God require new songs of praise from His people.  Our worship should respond and react to the presence and activity of God in our lives.  This may seem like a fairly simple conclusion but I think it has some practical application.

Just as I’m a fan of Bible translations that use contemporary English, I believe that if our songs are to be meaningful to us they should reflect God’s working among us today.  While we might comprehend the imagery of lighthouses, anchors, and lifelines, are they natural ways for us to express our relationship with God?  For me to worship genuinely from the heart, I need to use words and experiences that reflect my thoughts, not just the range of my vocabulary.

This is not just a rant against traditionalism.  I have observed that songs from different generations have different emphases.  While hymns from the the late 1800’s and early 1900’s often praise God for his actions, very few of them actually thank Him.  Many hymns written during WWI and the Great Depression look forward to eternity and heavenly reunion with loved ones.

Contemporary praise and worship songs also have gaps in their repertoire.  While many songs express our love to God, there is shortage of recent songs appropriate for communion.  I also have a hard time recalling many songs that encourage the church to reach out to a lost world in the way that the old “Throw Out the Lifeline” does.

So the application of this exhortation to “sing a new song” involves a thoughtful selection of songs that prompt the worshiper to consider God’s involvement in his or her life.  Sometimes this older songs will best accomplish this purpose, but sometimes God’s new activity requires new songs.  The church needs to embrace our modern songwriters who speak of and for God…even if the styles or repetition of lyrics don’t always seem natural to us at first.

Of course, there’s a whole lot more to be written on this topic, eg. How does the above discussion apply to music styles?  Can music styles prevent us from singing from the heart?  It is also distinctly possible to apply this “new song” instruction to simply transitioning from a lament to praise as we witness God at work.  It does not necessarily mean each of us should compose a new song each week.

At the end of the day I believe the principle of “singing a new song” means that our worship is to interact with and respond to God’s movement in our lives. I have previously written an article discussing how our regular monetary offering to God can be similarly interactive.  So I guess I’m 2 down with 3 to go.

Discuss how song selection impacts your worship experience.  Do some songs make your worship less heartfelt than others?  Do you find that the effort of learning new songs is worthwhile?  Can you recall an occasion that a new song has spoken to you?  I’d love to read your comments?

• Read Exodus 12 1-11 here.
• If you missed Sunday’s sermon (October 18) you can listen to it here.

New Testament Christians, that I know, tend to avoid spending too much time in the Old Testament.  I think this is a shame.  We can learn so much about God from the Old Testament.  We also gain understanding into how the New Testament relies upon and builds upon the Old Testament.  From understanding the Old Testament better, we better understand Jesus, who observed the Old Testament law.

Things we might learn from the Passover meal and the events it celebrated:

Lamb Roast

• The blood of the Passover lamb provided salvation for the Hebrews – 1 Cor. 5:7 refers to Christ as the church’s Passover Lamb.  (see also Jn 1:29, & Rev 21:27)
• Faith & Works: The Israelites needed faith, but they also needed to act.  They had to paint their doorframe with blood.  Just staying indoors and trusting God would have ended in death.
• Is Baptism a work? For Church of Christ members (and others) who believe that baptism plays a role in one’s salvation the Passover provides a good example.  The blood around the door didn’t save anyone.  The Hebrews actions in putting the blood there didn’t give them any merit.  They were saved by God’s grace when they followed God’s instructions.  Did God need to see blood to know who His people were?  No.  But would He save them without this action on their part? Again, No.
• The importance of putting God first: In Exodus 12:2 God gives His people a new calendar that begins in the month that He delivered them from Egypt.  This was radically different from the calendar they kept in Egypt.
• The importance of community: According to Exodus 12:4, small households were to share the Passover meal with other families.  This was not a time to be alone.
• Give God your Best: I believe Exodus 12:5 gives some of the earliest instructions concerning acceptable sacrifices, and immediately we see that the lamb is to be “without blemish”.  God demands more than our leftovers.
• God’s Grudge with Yeast: In Exodus 12:14-20 God institutes the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  During the seven days of the feast, if anyone has yeast in their house, they’re to be “cut off from Israel”.  That seems pretty extreme.  There’s not a lot of explanation given in Exodus as to why God doesn’t like yeast, except in 12:39, where their flight from Egypt was so urgent that they didn’t have time for dough to rise.  The New Testament sometimes equates yeast with sin & false teaching (Matt 16:6-12, 1 Cor. 5:6-9).  But it’s not always a bad thing.  In Lk 12:1 Jesus calls hypocrisy “yeast”, but in 13:18-21 the kingdom of God is compared to yeast.
• Deliverance from Slavery: The whole concept of God delivering His people from slavery to a Promised Land resonates with Christians who view themselves as having been rescued from the slavery of sin and delivered to an eternal Promised Land. (Rom 6:15-23)
• The Lord’s Supper: Since Jesus was celebrating the Passover with his disciples when he instituted the Lord’s Supper we should be able to apply something from that original setting to our celebration today.  Most evangelical churches seem to prefer “Lord’s Supper”, or “communion” rather than “Eucharist” (which comes from the Greek word for “thanksgiving”) to describe our commemoration today.  However, since the Passover was a celebration of thankfulness and all the Last Supper accounts have Jesus offering prayers of thanks, maybe we need to emphasise thankfulness more as we come around the Lord’s table.

That wasn’t actually what I intended to write about today, but I think it’s a good topic.  Can you add anything to this list?  Do you think some of my suggestions and connections are reaches?  Please join the conversation by leaving a comment.

• Read Exodus 11 & 12 here.
• If you missed Sunday’s sermon (October 11) you can listen to it here.

Hi everyone.  I’m back from a week’s vacation, so it’s taking me a while to get back in the saddle of blogging.  But here I am.  I’m continuing this series from Exodus, “Becoming People of God”.  This week we’re looking at the institution of the Passover.

This passage contains so much depth I think I could dwell here for a month or more.  As I read Exodus 12 this time, I realized that the Hebrews celebrated the first Passover before the Passover actually occurred.  That first night they they celebrated their salvation before they’d been saved!

While I suspect that many Hebrews that night followed Moses’ instructions out of fear, they still expressed an element of faith.  At a minimum the believed that God could/would carry out His threat of killing the first born sons.  At a higher level, many of the people celebrated that night out of faith that God would bring about their release that night.  They ate that meal as if God had already delivered them.

Jesus demonstrated a similar example of faith at the Last Supper.  The account of the Last Supper in Luke 22 emphasises Jesus’ forward view.  Twice, in vs 16-17, he looks beyond the cross to a future meal with his disciples in the kingdom of God.  Even when he looks forward to the cross he speaks with faith that God will complete what He has begun.  When he says “this is my body given for you“, he speaks of a future event.

My pet peeve is that when we participate in the Lord’s Supper today most of the time we do so looking backward, not forward.  We look backward at the cross.  We look backward at our sins.  We remember the suffering Jesus went through on our behalf.  Yet this one dimensional approach to communion omits the promises Jesus gave his disciples.

It’s appropriate for us to remember our sins, but why not do so in a context of celebrating their forgiveness?  Why do we not do a better job of remembering Jesus promise of the future meal with him?  Why do we not spend our time around the Lord’s Table remembering that he’s coming back for his saints?

Even 1 Corinthians 11:26, (the classic backward perspective passage due to the instruction “examine yourself“” in v 28, but more on that another time), looks outward when it describes the Lord’s Supper as a proclamation, not a commemoration.  It also looks forward by say that we do this “until he comes“.

At the core of this discussion is the issue of how we live out our faith.  Do we live as though God’s promises are already completed? This was the challenge for the Isrealites at the first Passover, and for Jesus at the Last Supper.  As we participate in the Lord’s Supper this is the question we should be asking ourselves.  In earlier posts I posed the questions this way, “Most of us believe in God, but how many Christians actually believe God?“  Read those posts here.

Do you agree or disagree?  How do you approach the Lord’s Supper?  Please leave a comment!