Colorado Photos & Audio

I spent last week in Hermit Basin, Colorado with my good friend Jon Kever and a good part of the church he pastors in Dallas, Skillman Bible Church. Jon invited me to attend, and speak at, their annual church retreat. What a great time! These people love and reflect the grace of God, and made me feel an immediate part of their family.

On the last day of the retreat, my sister Kathy came down from Evergreen and got the same warm reception. What a blessing to experience the immediate family fellowship of the body of Christ.

Jon’s sister-in-law Amber missed some portions of the talks while taking care of her little one, so I told her I’d send her links to audio from the first time I gave these talks in the Sunday services at CBC. So here they are. Click the link to download the mp3, or just click the play button to listen on line.

Losing It (Judges 2:6-13)

God Has Spoken (Hebrews 1:1-3) 

Unfortunately, I can’t find the talk from 1 Timothy 2.

Here are some photos from my trip. To see all my Colorado pictures, good and bad, click here.

On Saturday, when the retreat was over, Kathy & I did a little exploring around the area. As teenagers, we went to camp at Horn Creek Camp which is just a few miles away from Hermit Basin. We went on a quest to find a tree where Kathy, our cousin Shelley, and their boyfriends, Norm and Joel, carved their initials in 1974. We only had to look at 2,743 aspen trees, before finding this one. It’s got 3 out of 4 of the correct letters, and the 4th is illegible, so we decided it must be the one.

Here’s a little more of the scenery we saw.

 

What are you doing all day?

People have been asking me this a lot lately. Even though I left my job as Director of Administration at Community Bible Church in January, I’ve been as busy as ever. Here are a few of the things I’ve been doing.

• I’ve been going through the application process to the Ph.D. program in Higher Education at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. This involved preparing for an exam which I took in the middle of May. I’ve now received word that I’ve been accepted into the program, which will start this fall.
• In April, I spent a week in Bonaire, where CBC supports the ministry of International Bible Church. Larry Stack, Jared Rankin, and I were there to propose a new program of leadership support and development to be provided by CBC. Our proposal was enthusiastically received. This is a strategic opportunity to establish a permanent gospel-centered local church on this tiny island.
• One of the results of that was a plan for another trip, which will happen July 10-17. Jomi Holt, Rick Filer, and myself will be presenting a seminar in Bible Study Methods for potential leaders at IBC. So we’ve been working on developing our plan for that seminar. I’ll be returning to Bonaire in August to fill the pulpit at IBC so their pastor Totoram Baran can take a break. We’ll also be working on plans for a series of outreach meetings in October.
• I’m still teaching every Sunday. We’re working our way through Hebrews. You can listen to recordings of this class right here on my blog.
• I’m also preparing a series of talks to be delivered at Skillman Bible Church’s annual retreat in Westcliffe, Colorado, July 19-24. My friend and colleague Jon Kever is the pastor at Skillman, which is in Dallas.
• This week, I’ve added another project to my list. Byron (my pastor for those who don’t know him) has asked me to start working on developing our higher education program at CBC, with an eye to getting started this fall.

I would really appreciate your prayers for these endeavors. Unless God provides, none of this will happen.

CBC has established funds for financial support for my education and for our Bonaire projects. If you can help with either of these, CLICK HERE for more information.

 

The Unveiling of Christ

SIX VISIONS OF JESUS FROM THE BOOK OF REVELATION

Speaking of Jesus, the Apostle Paul wrote, “For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us” (2 Cor. 1:20). Speaking through the Apostle John in the book of Revelation, the Lord himself explains in some detail just how he intends to deliver “all the promises of God.” He does so in himself. That is to say that he is all the promises of God.

“The book of Revelation,” wrote John Walvoord, “gathers in its prophetic scheme the major themes of prophecy which thread their way through the whole volume of Scripture.” Revelation ties the whole Bible together in the person and work of Jesus Christ. So while it reveals how God will bring the history of man to righteous conclusion, it is first and foremost the unveiling of Christ personally. It is all about Christ–who he is and what he does.

The following talk, delivered to the Community Bible Church women’s Bible study, is an overview of the book of Revelation from this perspective. What are it’s Christological themes?

To download the audio, Right-click here and select save.
My apologies for the noise at the end. Forgot to turn the recorder off when I was done.

Click here to get the handout.

 

Privilege & Perseverance Now Online

Click on the link at the top of the page to access recordings and handouts from the class I’m currently teaching, called Privilege & Perseverance: A Study of the Book of Hebrews.

 

Challenges of Discipleship Back Online

A while back, the company that had been hosting the audio files for the Challenges of Discipleship page decided that they would no longer provide this service for free. They also decided that they wouldn’t inform non-paying users. So sometime early in the summer, the recordings on that page simply quit working. Sorry if you tried to listen. And thanks to the one who let me know that the site wasn’t working.

As of today, the Challenges of Discipleship audio is back on line. If you’re interested, just click on the link at the top of the page.

Also, coming soon… I’ll be posting audio from my new class on the book of Hebrews, called Privilege & Perseverance. Stay tuned.