BROKEN AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS:

Yesterday morning, I exploded. My wife and I had a huge blow-up, and I exploded. Not the firecracker kind, not the M-80 kind, but the atomic bomb kind of explosion. I had been biting my tongue for months and all of the anger that has been building up inside me finally surfaced. And I’m not proud of it. I offended my wife, and I scared my 4 ½ year old son.

I felt nauseous all day at work as the Spirit of God worked to crush me and my pride at the foot of the Cross. I wanted to justify my actions, point fingers at my wife’s actions, and not take responsibility for all I’d done. This time around was extremely difficult for me to admit my sinfulness, so I wanted to share how that transformation came about.

Because my mind was obviously reeling, I didn’t want to listen to the usual Christian programs I listen to throughout my work day. I was drawn to one talk program in particular, however. The host was Paul Edwards and he was interviewing the president of Peacemaker Ministries . The part that struck me was their conversation about “the gospel’s relevance for today and that it’s not simply a trail of historical events that occurred 2,000 years ago. Jesus Christ is the gospel. The person struggling with _____________ needs the gospel, and God is progressively sanctifying us every day. The gospel is very much for today.”

I didn’t hear an audible voice of God. Whatever you want to call that “voice” inside my head, though, was telling me, “You need Me Mike. You are broken and you need Me. Your wife needs Me. Your sons need Me.”

So, in a freeway median in my patrol car on this snowy day, I finally broke down and confessed my sin to God. I knew the next step was to confess it to my wife and son. In fact, my stomach was knotted all day because I knew I needed to apologize to both of them, but especially to my frightened son. I don’t have any memories of my father ever apologizing to me when I was a boy, and I was scared to death of him. I know he was sorry, but I now know I needed to hear him apologize way back then. My dad needed the gospel and I needed the gospel.

Today, I would be humbled and live the gospel (in spite of how badly I didn’t live it yesterday) to my wife and son. They needed the gospel, so first thing this morning I humbled myself before my pride regained footing and I apologized.

It wasn’t easy.

It didn’t solve all of the problems that rose to the surface, and it didn’t take away my sinful behavior, but it needed to be done anyway. I don’t want to flippantly dismiss my bad behavior by saying, “God forgave me so that’s the end of it.” I know I have a lot of work ahead of me.

The reason I share this is because I marvel that God could use two faithful ministers of His Word on the radio to break down my pride and sift through my anger and resentment to convince me I still desperately needed Him. The best part is the assurance that He has not given up on me and will not give up on me. (And I hope my family hasn’t or doesn’t either.)

HOUSE CHURCH (My reflections):

I recently read Libby’s blog and she mentioned being part of a house church. I, too, am part of a 15-person house church, so I asked her if she would consider posting on her blog what she likes and dislikes about it, what kinds of things they do/don’t do, etc. Here are my reflections on our house-church, "Acts4:9Church".

LIKES:

1. First and foremost, I love the organic nature of our house church. Because there are only 15 of us, discipleship is a bit more organic than what I’ve ever experienced in a “traditional” church. (By traditional, I mean any church not house-church style…not in a derogatory use of the term.)

2. Because we are recognized by the State of Michigan as a church, we can collect monies as would any traditional church. Since we have no paid staff, no overhead costs, and very small monthly expenses, we have a lot of money available for use in what we call “community service projects.” Our only church bills include a post office box.

3. We have a great group of people who are like-minded in our desires to “get our hands dirty” within our community. We are of the mindset that people will be a bit more receptive to the gospel when their needs are met. Not everybody in the group has a gift for evangelism, but some do…and we make sure to include both when reaching out to people.

4. We can study in a variety of fashions: full-group, break-down groups, talking head, video, etc. We study the bible only, but use outside references as references only. Over our 4 years as a group, we have completed studies in Genesis through Judges, John, and Acts, and we are currently in the early chapters of Matthew.

5. We don’t feel any obligation to fit into any denominational belief system. For example, we don’t stress ascribing to teachings like pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib, pre-mill, post-mill, a-mill, pre-wrath rapture, etc. We are free from fitting into a denominational box.

6. Our communion “services” are very warm. We are at liberty to – and usually do – take a lot of time to worship via communion gatherings. We usually pray as we have soft worship music playing as we contemplate the Cross and our sin.

DISLIKES:

1. We’re not a very musical group, so we don’t have a traditional “praise and worship” aspect to our weekly meetings.

2. We don’t have much available for our group’s 5 children. Thankfully, we have a married couple whose passion it is to lead/teach the kids. However, we don’t have any programs that attract other families because nothing much is available for their children. Additionally, the ages of the kids range from 1 ½ years to 10 years…quite a wide spread for meeting their needs.

3. Honestly, there’s not much at all I don’t like about it. I actually like it more than I do a “traditional” church setting.

How about you? Have you ever been part of a non-traditional church like a house-church? What are your impressions/opinions of house-churches? (Don’t worry, I won’t be offended if you think we’re weird.)

AT THE CROSS (From "Why the Cross Matters Most"):

The following is from Chris Tomlinson's (not the musician Chris Tomlin) website. I've included his list "At the Cross" below. I commend you to read the rest. A radio program host in the Detroit area interviewed him, and it was pretty phenomenal.

At the cross…

…We see God’s sovereignty—reigning with absolute control over humanity’s greatest sin.

…We see God’s purpose—making known the mystery of His will prepared before time.

…We see God’s plan—to unite all things, on heaven and on earth, in Him.

…We see God’s judgment—requiring recompense for guilt.

…We see God’s holiness—demanding the perfect sacrifice.

…We see God’s power—crushing the Son of God according to the purpose of His will.

…We see God’s wrath—punishing the wretchedness of sin.

…We see God’s sorrow—wailing as only a forsaken son can.

…We see God’s mystery—the Son, as God, separated from the Father, committing His Spirit to God.

…We see God’s compassion—pleading to the Father to forgive the ignorant.

…We see God’s gift—His one and only Son, bruised and broken on our behalf.

…We see God’s mercy—making unrighteous sinners righteous.

…We see God’s love—Christ dying for sinners.

…We see God’s rescue operation—delivering us from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of His Son.

…We see God’s proposal—pledging Himself to His bride forever.

…We see God’s revelation—the Word of God speaking His last so He might speak on behalf of many.

…We see God’s victory—disarming His enemies, putting them to shame, and triumphing over them.

…We see God’s glory—the name of the Father being magnified for the sake of all peoples.

"THE WORD OF PROMISE" NEW TESTAMENT AUDIO BIBLE: (review)

“The Word of Promise” audio bible is a great idea for audio bibles. It incorporates the multi-voice narration of scripture accompanied by sound effects (coffee pouring into a cup, walking, crowds cheering/talking, birds chirping, etc) and orchestral music.

LIKES:
One of the great aspects of this resource is that one reader/actor is assigned to one biblical writer throughout the entire New Testament. For example, all of the Paul’s letters were read by Stacy Keach, and all of John’s were read by Louis Gossett Jr. I thought these two men did a fantastic! They read as though they were part of the story, rather than simply readers of a story.

DISLIKES:
On the other hand, having one reader assigned to certain characters can be a double-edged sword, especially if you don’t care much for the reader’s style. For example, Jim Caviezel (you’ll probably know him best for his outstanding role in “The Passion of the Christ”) read all of Jesus’ words and I honestly don’t think he portrayed a very good audio-Jesus. He frequently read without what should have been the necessary emotions, and he often read in that airy, gentle, monotone style that so frequently characterizes portrayals of Jesus. Not a 5-star performance, unfortunately.

SUMMARY:
I expected this audio bible to be produced in a radio-theater style, since the preview boasts, “Hear the Bible Come Alive in Dramatic Audio Theater”. I was a little disappointed about that, but many of the performer’s readings made up for the difference. Just don’t expect the quality of audio drama like you hear in “Adventures in Odyssey”, because this isn’t it. It’s simply more of a dramatic reading than an audio theater.

All-in-all, however, I liked this audio bible and am sure others will as well. With a few tweaks in future editions, this could be a knock-out resource for young and old audiences alike!

I am a book review blogger for Thomas Nelson Publishers.