Wednesday, September 27, 2006

The Ultimate Deception



Before concluding our series on sin, let's recap...
  1. Sin's endgame is to kill you. No matter how harmless, riskless, or secret the wrong doing is, sin wants to tangle you up and ultimately kill you. Sin is ruthless, toxic and focused.
  2. The right YES gets you success; The wrong YES gets you a big mess. When you are faced with decisions, you must choose the right YES. Everyone is tempted and people have said no to temptation and God promises us to help us when we are tmepted. We just have to gathe renough courage to walk away from it.
  3. Last one: The right NO makes room for the big YES.
Sin wants to get you to say "Hell yes." Meaning? That instead of life everalsting, life with out end with God, Jesus in a Heavenly place prepared for us, sin wants us to join it in Hell. Hell is a real place. Prepared by God for the devil, a former angel kicked out of the presence of God along with a third of the angels becuase of pride. God didn't prepare hell for humans. His intentions were that at the right time, he would send the devil to hell with his followers and we would join God in heaven. However, sin is on the loose tryingto get as many as it can join it in Hell. But we must change our "Hell yes" to a "Hell no."

In life the right NO's make room for the bigger YES's. Sin tricks you into thinking that you are powerless and can't say "NO." But with practice and true friend's encouraging you, you can definately say "no" to wrong doing and make room for the big "YES" in life.

She is her mother's daughter


So Cora got treated to her fifth "Build-A-Bear" yesterday from her Papa K and Nana (my parents). And in between those important decisions about what shirt should the doggie wear and what name should the doggie have, we put a bear wig on her and took a picture. Now tell me, red hair and all, ain't she her momma's girl?


Monday, September 18, 2006

Restarting...

LOYC is reinstateing something new (what in the world does that mean?)... Our sports activities. If you are interested in playing basketball or flag football please sign up at THE SPOT this Wednesday.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

The Ultimate Deception [a]

About two months ago, I rented Season 1 of ALIAS and got addicted to it. My wife and were watching two to three episodes everyday. In a month and a half we watched four years worth of show. If you are not familiar with ALIAS, it’s about the life of Sidney Bristow, who started off a s a double agent for the CIA. It has espionage, intrigue, even some convoluted mythology about Milo Rambaldi and plans to destroy the world. Syndey’s father, Jack Bristow, is consistently referred to as an expert of the “endgame.” He plans things out or analysis events and figures out what the agency’s endgame, their ultimate goal, really is.

Sin has an endgame. Sin’s endgame is to kill you. Simple. Yet it does so so subtly, slyly, elusively that sometimes you don’t realize it or choose to forget it. Romans states that “the wages of sin is death.”

Why then, if we know that something actively seeks to destroy us, put us in a coffin, kill us, do we engage in it? Why do we sin? Why is saying “no” to sin such a struggle?

Because sin is the ultimate deception. It looks so good that we falsely believe that “benefits” of sinning outweigh the consequence. Sin presents itself as beautiful, harmless, risk free when in actuality it is highly toxic and dangerous. Sin has one thing on it’s mind: your total annihilation. It will do anything, say anything, promise anything to kill you.

The first part of conquering our battle with sin: Knowing that sin’s endgame is to kill us. If we keep this in the forefront of our minds whenever temptation presents itself, we are more likely to see pass the instant gratification.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Movies, Movies, Movies


  • Charlotte's Web: Did you read the book? I'm sure you saw the cartoon movie. Well, this is a live action film with everybody and there momma in it. Julia Roberts as the spider, Dakota Fanning as herself, it even has Oprah Winfrey and Andre Benjamin. Nice Christmas movie. Watch the trailer. It's nice.
  • Meet The Robinson: It seems like we are being bombarded with CG movies. Some good and some not so good. The premise of this Disney film? Not too sure. A kid inventor, time travel, searching for a family. Comes out next spring.
  • Dreamgirls: It's been pretty much highly anticipated and hyped up. Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, the girl from American Idol. It's a musical about a Supreme's like girl group. If you into singing every five minutes, maybe this'll be good for you. watch the Exclusive Montage to get a feel of the movie.
  • Flushed Away: Looks like claymation but it's actually CG. Tricky, tricky. It's about a rat and a toilet. From Dreamworks. They brought you Shrek so maybe this is good.
  • Happy Feet: This movie was in production before "The March of the Peguins" but since it is computer animated it takes a bit longer I guess. They look cute with thier line dancing selves. Check out Trailer #2 for a spanish song.
  • Jesus Camp: This one seems like the odd one out in this group of movies. A documentary on Children and Jesus, God, religion. It's rated PG-13. Do the director's have a negative spin on raising on children to be Christian leaders? I am not sure. I am suspicious.
  • Everyone's Hero: Last one, for now. A bat, a ball, a kid and America's favortie pass time. No, not watching TV... Baseball.

The Battle For Your Brain [b]

Let's be practical for one second. When we are faced with a fork in the road, a decision needing to be made, we have to be prepared to make the right choices. How do you know what a right choice is? What does a right choice look like? Feel like? Sound like?

In Galatians 5.19-21, there is a list of things that are not good for us. If anything we are watching, listening to, reading falls in line with these things, then we know they are not right for us. If a decision is being made and it feels like jealousy, discord, hatred if it will sound like selish ambition, if it looks like witchcraft, idolatry, drunkenness, sexual immorality... then we know it is not right. We know not to do it. The messgae version of this list is awesome: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community.

So what does a good decision feel like? The list of things that are Godly include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control, goodness, kindness and faithfulness. If something that come sout of our mouths, into our ears or through our actions and it is inline, agrees with these words, then we know they are right.

In 2 corinthians 2.16 it says "But we have the mind of Christ." And instead of looking at this verse like it's impossible, we should repeat it every morning, noon and night. We should look at ourselves in the mirror and say "But I have the mind of Christ!" And start making decisions that are in line with the fruit of the Spirit.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Pose. Click. Send.

Waiting for your pictures. Send 'em in and we will post 'em.
jatwood@liveoakchurch.org

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Quick View

  • The Savannah Bridge Run is a fun event to help you prove to yourself that you can do anythign when you put your mind to it. The run is on Saturday, December 2nd. So you have plenty of time to train. Fill out the registration form and turn it in with $18 by Sunday, September 16th.
  • Get your pipes ready. Dust off the batons. Practice your plate twriling. If your rusty on the yodeling, get to cracking. We are having a Talent Show Case on Wednesday, October 25th. Sign up. booyea!
  • You asked for it (someone did I am sure), so it's back: The Red Dot Awards. Voting begins in November. Get ready. Wednesday, December 20th at 7PM.
  • Orlando, FL anybody? Swan Resort Hotel? Sonfest seems like a long ways off (March 30-April 1st, 2007) but you have to start getting in your money now. The first $23 non-refundable deposit is due Wednesday, September 5. Your slot is not saved until you turn in the money.