Another Ordination Picture

Praise God for providing another elder for the church! It is exciting to see what God is doing at DPC.

Another

Ruling Elder Mike Herbert

ordination

This coming Sunday we will be ordaining and installing Mike Herbert to the office of Ruling Elder at DPC. We'll have a lunch afterwards! Ordination and food- what more could a church want? I hope to have some picture of the service and lunch to post later.

return to blogging

It's been to long- blogging should be some sort of disciplined activity. But when the time crunch is on somethings got to go. We've had a lot going on at DPC since I last wrote (November, Yikes!). We've had joys and struggles- real life. We've elected a new elder, we've had sickness, surgeries, birth, death and baptisms (adult and infant). We rejoice and mourn and live life before our God and maker. We rejoice. It is good to belong to Christ our savior who stays with us, who is loving and faithful- in plenty and in want, in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health all our days.

Praise God for His faithfulness over the past six months.

Blessed be the Name of the LORD!

sacrifice matrix

This chart was put together by Gene to help with the Thursday morning men's study. We are studying The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses, by Vern Poythress.

Thanksgiving picnic

Here I am with some of the men from Goodtree Church.
Desert Palms had a joint picnic with Goodtree Church this past Sunday. You can see some of the pictures here. The food was great!

Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf

Through the strength of one they all prevailed; they would crush their enemy and come through in triumph and gladness. The truth is clear: Almighty God rules over mankind and always has.

I'm rereading Beowulf, this time with one of the boys. Well, I should say with one that is interested- the other is more of an interloper. Prose, even with swords, monsters, chain-mail and spear, is hard to listen to up to a certain age. Reading Heaney's translation out loud is fun. With the alliteration and archaic words and vivid battle scenes its a real attention grabber for son #1. It's fun to watch and listen to him learn. The ideas are new- he's actually learning, not deciding if he agrees or if someone is right. He did corrected me on my pronunciation of Beowulf's people, the Geats. He said, "Daddy, next time you come to this word say it like this." I think he was right. It is good to be reminded that we are to learn from the people around us, even or maybe especially those younger. We should seek to keep that youthful thirst for knowledge and pray it is tempered by experience, godly wisdom, and God's standards.
Man, the picture of Beowulf, the great mead-hall, and the warrior thanes is riveting. Beowulf ripping Grendel's arm out of socket and clean off is pretty vivid too.

cultural diversity

Desert Palms Church will be hosting Goodtree Community Church starting Nov 18th. Goodtree is a Korean, presbyteryian church. One of our passions at DPC is to see the kingdom of God grow and also for us to be directly involved in helping plant churches. God in His providence has given us this opportunity to help with that mission. We've been praying diligently for this church and are looking for God to do great things with them, and their pastor Rev. Kim, in the Korean community.

Golden Mouth

J.N.D. Kelly's "Golden Mouth: The Story of John Chrysostom Ascetic, Preacher, Bishop" is a great read. I remember Bishop Meletios, Bishop Flavian (after Mel.) and John being interesting characters in church history. This book brings their times and especially John Chrysostom's story to life. John was born c. 349, was a priest in Antioch, was a contemporary of Jerome and would become bishop of Constantinople.
Here' a brief section from the book:
[Chrysostom writes of] the Christian's need of a humble and penitent heart, constantly aware of his sins and of the terrible judgment awaiting him, sustained always by a burning love for Christ. One by one John analyses the gospel commands- commands which, he insists (somewhat unconvincingly), are not really onerous- and remorselessly lays bare the way Christians whittle them down, observe them in a purely external sense, or quite frankly ignore them. The trouble is that they are still victims of pride and complacency, taken up wholly with worldly satisfactions. Businessmen go to endless trouble to make material gains, but Christians, to whom heaven is promised, are reluctant to make any sacrifices to obtain it. This applies just as much to clergy and monks as to lay folk. An informed outsider could be excused if he concluded that Christ has no more determined enemies than his so-called 'crucified' disciples. What Christians need is the true contrition which gives wings to the soul. Like Paul, they should be fired by the passionate yearning for Christ which raised him to the third heaven. Like David, they should humble themselves in tears and throw themselves penitently on God's mercy."

Good stuff

Resume posting

Well, as happens with tons of half-way bloggers, I haven't posted in months. I've thought about posting- just haven't done it.
Life has been busy at Desert Palms. We are growing and getting a clearer vision for where the Lord may be taking us. We just had our first vision banquet and it was great. Lots of good response and a collective joy to be together and focused on Him. I look forward to looking back in a year to see what God has done with us!

no preachers in Heaven

Nevin in the intro to Schaff's POP makes the passing statement that "there will be no preachers in heaven." What a great thought, the struggle will have ceased and only worshipers will be needed.

Catch up!

I'm currently reading the principles of protestantism by Phillip Schaff. Amazing read. Writen in the 1840's he could have just been at one of our presbytery meetings or our general assembly. Reformed churches don't change much and thats good and sometimes not so good. He speaks about making war on error within the church (we do that a lot you know) without throwing out the truth of the factions we are struggling against( unfortunately we're likely to do this to). For instance the idolatry of the church of Rome is evil, yet much of the forms and liturgy do in fact declare the Gospel of Christ in a biblical fashion. This doesn't make the idolatry (bowing before statues, praying to Mary as an intercesor as part of worship) ok- in fact it makes it more serious. But we must not throw out all things that even hint of organized liturgical religion along with the idolatry. We might as well be quakers. Actually it should be natural for us to keep those biblical (mainly Old Testament, temple) forms. As Protestants, our protestation should not be a continual abandonment but a continual struggle for Reform and building upon what God has given the church in history.
The church today is still fighting old battles. Hopefully we wont throw the baby out with the bath water. Fortunately God is in control!

Mr. Wordy

One of my elders calls Matthew Henry "Mr. Wordy" - goog stuff, lots of words. Well, in one of his usual large piles of words Mr. Henry writes, "- “We hear what is said amiss, and see what is done amiss; but Christ looks at the root of bitterness in the heart, the blindness and hardness of that.” this comment stems from observation on Mark 3 and we see Jesus, with amazing clarity, getting to the heart of the matter. It is by the power of the spirit that believers don't dwell in bitter, blind, hardness of heart- although many can often spend time there we don't stay and that is because of what Jesus has done and because He has sent His Spirit.

The start

Having been here three full months now, I'm starting to get a general feel for the valley. I'm sure that a whole lifetime here would not be enough to really grasp the changing and fluctuating culture here. But, we feel as though we are starting to at least be familiar with Chandler and the area surrounding Desert Palms Church. Our desire is to see God move mightily here in this East Valley town. The Lord continues to bring people to us and to flesh out a really strong team of motivated individuals to reach Chandler and minister to this community in the name of Jesus. May His will be done and may His Kingdom come!