Chuck Hooten

We are in tn at a dnow with seven different churches. Wade Morris is speaking this morning on psalm 1. Pray for these students if you get a chance this weekend. And pray for us because our vehicle will only start when we jump it off which stinks because it’s cold today!

We took our girls to the little fair up the road tonight and it was hilarious. Lily rode the alligator roller coaster by herself, then her and Ava rode some boats and the carousel. A dude at the throw a ping pong ball in the cup and go home with a rabbit game told me that he worked for the power company and that he had seen rabbits housebroken to go in a litter box. I’m not sure that I would want to come home at night to a bunny rabbit hopping around the house. He also said that one lady had a pet skunk, that she had altered so it couldn’t spray, that also lived in the house. After watching a dude spend ten dollars to win a blow up basketball we went home. Ahhhh the Moody fair!

In line to vote right this second. They are saying three hour wait. Ahhhhh!

My neighborhood is the greatest ever for candy distribution. There were hundreds of kids, but one butterfly and one chicken (or duck?), stole the show.

I was accepted into Beeson Seminary’s MDIV program this week! I have wanted to go to seminary for a while and decided to take the plunge and apply just to see what happened. Now I have to figure out how to pay for it and whether or not to start in January, or defer until next fall. Pray with me as I seek out what the next steps are in this journey.

We went camping with my family last weekend.  Our tent was on a slope.  There were rocks underneath. Lily snored all night.  Ava didn’t sleep at all.  I had a blast!!!

Welcome to the new site! I’m going to use this page for a while because I’m tired of myspace. I would love for you to subscribe to the feed and check back now and then to see what is new.

I ate at 5 Points Grille last night for the first time and it was pretty darn good. I can officially recommend the Basil Chicken Pasta thingy to any hungry downtowners. The conversation was good as well and got me into the word this morning praying over our response and responsibility to one another in the church. I heard a story of a church that is being sued by members within the church because they don’t like where the church is headed. They are not suing because of sin in the pulpit or the staff, they simply don’t like the way the rest of the people want to go. The suing people are definitely in the minority but since they have been there the longest they feel that the church is “theirs.” Of course this is a load of crap, but for a lot more reasons that even a first glance might indicate. Yes they know that the Bible says not to sue other believers, but their response is that suing is, “the only way we can get our way.” If you are a believer reading this you must understand that this effects you just as much as it effects the people in that church.

1 Corinthians 3:16-17
Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.

The word you in these verses is plural. We together make up the temple that God dwells in. We are the temple of God together, and we together make up something that is holy. It is the same idea that Paul will go to later when he says that we are one body. When one member of the same body suffers, the rest of the body suffers. So, when a bunch of idiots in another city start suing their local church, we all should feel the pain of our holy temple being destroyed. The problem is that we don’t really care. Church is a place that we go to not a thing that we are. We should start from the beginning.

God made a covenant with Abraham and said that he would make him into a great nation. This nation was Israel and their job was to be a city on a hill that would light the way to God. They failed. Now the church is on the scene and its our job to be a city on a hill that will light the way to God. I’m not sure how we are doing. The cool thing about big cities is that when all the lights are on you can see that city from forever away. Those satellite photos of the earth at night are cool because you can see the big cities of the world clear as day from outer space. The lights together are seen from far away, but if you were to put your house on a semi and move it out into the desert the only people that would see your lights would be the people in your front yard. WE LIGHT THE WAY TO GOD TOGETHER. This personal relationship stuff has gotten out of hand. Yes there is a place for personal devotion and prayer but the fact of the matter is if you are not an active member of the temple/body universal you have no personal relationship to turn to anyway. We are baptized into one Spirit, one body, on temple, one everything. You are not the bride of Christ and I am not the bride of Christ. WE are the bride of Christ.

A change in the way we view the make up of the church would change a couple of key areas. There are probably a lot more but these are the ones that came to mind. If you think of more please tag them on.

Love

If I see myself as unimportant and dead apart from the total make up of the temple I begin to care a whole lot more for those who also make up the temple. If we suffer we do it together and if we have success we do it together. If the leg is cut the hand will bandage it. None will be poor, none will be hungry, and none will be cold. On the flip side we will love in rebuke as well. None will be stingy, none will be aloof, and none will act as more important than anyone else. We won’t allow it. (Oh yeah, and if anyone sues a local church we will kick their butts to the curb so fast they won’t have time to respond at all)

Outreach

We have pushed outreach onto the leaders and missionaries of our churches. Again WE are a city on a hill. WE have to do this thing together. One guy off in a hut apart from the temple will not shine very brightly. We will point the way together. If you are not reaching out in the name of Christ with the body then our light is not shining as bright as it could and we are all suffering for it.

Anyway this was on my mind. There is a lot more to say but I will leave it here for now. I would love to chat with some of you on this for sure. It is pretty important.

“I found this on a blog by a guy named Tim Hughes. Look him up he writes good music. Great stuff here!”

Obedient to God’s call

Richard Foster writes,
‘Just as worship begins in holy expectancy, it ends in holy obedience. If worship does not propel us into greater obedience, it has not been worship. To stand before the Holy One of eternity is to change.’

As we gather to worship our hearts and minds are filled with the love of Christ. An encounter with the heart of God changes us. It’s often in worship that God breaks our hearts with the things that breaks His. We suddenly become aware of the poor and hurting all around us. We become sensitive to the needs of others. We become desperate to see the transformation of society. God empowers and equips us to make a difference. Worship first, service second.

You see ‘worship without mission is self-indulgent. But mission without worship is self-defeating.’

So often the danger can become that as the church we get caught up in just looking inwardly. How do I feel? What’s happening to me? How am I being blessed? We can try and make it a quick fix, a commodity. Our worship is self-indulgent.

But true worship will bring us to a place where we say, like Isaiah, ‘Here I am send me.’ God there’s a world that’s in desperate need of your love and forgiveness. Whatever it takes - Lord send me.

The key though, is that it comes from a heart of worship. It’s not a sense of guilt and duty - it’s an overflow of our worship. What we do in here, must affect those outside.

I love the sign one church has over the exit door that everyone leaves from. In bold letters the sign reads,
‘YOU ARE NOW ENTERING A TIME OF WORSHIP.’

Genuine worship will impact the way we live. As we are changed into the image of Christ, we live differently. We are transformed to transform.

There’s a passage in the Scriptures that terrifies me.
Amos 5

To the Israelite nation who had trampled the poor forcing them to give their grain, who had built for themselves vast mansions at the expense of the poor treating them unjustly, the Lord says,

“I hate, I despise your religious feats; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (21-24)

God’s heart is clear – the songs we sing and the offerings we bring, are totally meaningless unless that are offered out of a lifestyle of worship. A Lifestyle that includes an active participation in caring for the poor.

The danger can be that all too often we read these passages, we study them, and we listen to countless sermons on them and are challenged in the moment and vow to live differently, all be it sincerely, but the truth is that nothing changes.

It’s like I read these passages, like Amos 5, and in effect I rip them out of my bible.

Or Matt 19:21-22, when a rich young man who approaches Jesus asking, ‘what good thing must I do to get eternal life?’ To which Jesus replies, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.’

“No, Jesus can’t actually mean that, there must be some sensible theological explanation”

Or Jas 1:27 – ‘Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.’

“He can’t mean that I actually have to do that”

Issues of poverty, justice and money are all over the bible.

It’s the 2nd most prominent theme in OT – idolatry being the 1st.
1 of every 16 verses in NT is on this subject
In 1st 3 Synoptic gospels it is 1 in every 10 verses
In book of Luke it’s 1 in every 7 verses.

If you start ripping out all these passages, pretty soon you are left with a bible full of holes. As Mark Twaine says, “It’s not the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that scare me, but the parts I do understand.”

Worship is the total alignment of our heart, soul, mind and strength with the will of God. And if God’s will is that we care for the poor, then surely as we worship we will find we are led to the poor, and if we love Jesus we will gladly follow.

God is with the poor and He is with us, if we are with them. It’s not a burden, it’s an adventure!

Worship is our highest calling. There is nothing in this life that we can do of more importance. It is our duty and joy to worship God. If we want to live lives that affect the world around us, we must start by worshipping and looking to Jesus.

It’s as He meets with us one to one that we are changed, healed and restored. It’s from these encounters that we are then envisioned to live differently and to see the world changed. As the song goes, ‘Lord send revival, start with me.

That’s why worship is such a key value. When we worship we are often left overwhelmed by God’s glory. We open ourselves to God’s change. We become obedient to God’s call.

I believe if we want to see the re-evangelisation of the world and the transformation of society then we must learn what it means to worship God.