Visio Dei Birthday and Business

On Sunday night, November 4th, at 7pm, we are going to be holding a
'Visio Dei Annual Report/Celebration Thing'. This is really code for
what used to be called a 'b*s*n*ss m**t*ng' but I can't bring myself
to call it that so we are going to have cake and celebrate the fact
that God has let us be a church for a year.

However, at this Celebration, we will have some time where we talk
about where we are as a church plant and where we are going. We'll
cover how things are going financially, how we're structured for
accountability and how that will change in the next 1-2 years, and
what major issues lay ahead for us. We'll also answer any and all
questions that people want to ask.

Please let your home groups know ASAP. This is only a week and a half
away, but I wanted to get it done before I go to Israel because after
I get back we run into the holidays and this still gives us two
Sundays to let people know about it.

Thanks,
Jeff

Podcast

Daniel mentioned that he got the idea for this weeks lesson from a podcast. He suggested we go listen to it. So, I thought I would try to help those who might need a little direction on how they can get to the podcast. There are many ways, but I am going to give you the two that I think are the best.

1. Download the podcast directly from the Mars Hill site.
   To do this, go here. The very bottom podcast should be August 5, 2007, Here Am I - Ed Dobson. If you click on the mp3 link, the file should start downloading. You can then play the file in your favorite audio player, e.g. iTunes, Windows Media Player, WinAmp, etc..


2. Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.
   To do this you will need to have iTunes installed. If you do not have iTunes, and you do not know how to get it, choose option 1. If you have iTunes here's what you do.
   • Open iTunes.
   • Click the iTunes Store link on the left.
   • In the Search iTunes Store field at the top right enter:
     Mars Hill Bible Church
   • The top result should be named Mars Hill Bible Church. Click the Subscribe button.
   • Click the Podcasts link on the left. You should see a Mars Hill Bible Church podcast listed.
   • If the arrow beside Mars Hill Bible Church is not pointing down, click on it. It should turn down and you should see 12 sermons listed.
   • Here Am I should be in the list. Click GET
   • Now, you should be ready to listen to this sermon and any others you want to.

NOTE: Mars Hill only publishes their last 12 sermons, and Here Am I was given 11 weeks ago. So, if you want to get it, you need to get it soon. When they put up this Sundays sermon, Here Am I will go bye-bye.

I hope this helps.

-Shannon

AAS-C Event on Nov. 10th

The Edenton home group has signed up to help the AAS-C deliver Thanksgiving baskets, and they have invited us to join them in delivering them. They need people and trucks/suvs/minivans to pickup the baskets at a church in Cary and deliver them to various locations around the Triangle. We are talking about ~200 baskets. So, there will be plenty of work to get done.

Let me know if you are interested in helping out. Also, if you are going to help out, let me know if you have a vehicle that can be used to transport the baskets.

-Shannon

Work It

Here is the quote I shared at the end of our Philippians 2:12-13 study:

God’s working in us is not suspended because we work, nor our working suspended because God works. Neither is the relation strictly one of cooperation as if God did his part and we did ours so that the conjunction or coordination of both produced the required result. God works and we also work. But the relation is that because God works we work. All working out of salvation on our part is the effect of God’s working in us...We have here not only the explanation of all acceptable activity on our part but we also have the incentive to our willing and working...The more persistently active we are in working, the more persuaded we may be that all the energizing grace and power is of God.

John Murray
20th century Scottish Theologian

Jeramie's Timely Teaching

Last night, Jeramie led us through a passage in Philippians 1. We took "the long way" to get there, via Ephesians and Acts. Where we ended up was in a discussion of Paul having great perspective. Though he went through many trials in his life, he could see them as being for the greater good because "in spite of, and sometimes because of" his trials the gospel was being preached.

This was a good message to hear because we all can get bogged down by life. Sometimes things happen in life that we are not ready for, that we can't control, or that we would not want to happen. But, as Lisa said, we have to remember that God sovereign and He is good. We have to be able to "pirouette and the entire dance".

No one is claiming that life is going to be easy all the time. We just have to hold fast to the fact that we have a God that loves us, and cares for us, and says in his word that he will not give us more than we can handle.

Jeramie's teaching was timely because he and Joye are currently going through a rough time with their house. You can read more about that on his blog, but the gist is that their AC broke, and thus they have been displaced from their home, and just when they thought it was going to be fixed, the AC repairman caught the outside of their house on fire. Let's hope that Jeramie and Joye can put into practice what we talked about last night.

Who else has something going on, or has had something, that requires them to keep things in perspective?

Colossians 1:17

Colossians 1:17--He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

There is a method of reading scripture called "lectio divina" (divine reading). It is a process of reading scripture, then meditating on the words, phrases, or verses that jump out at you. You may read the same scripture multiple times... each time having a different result. Why do certain things stay with us, when others pass without effect? Maybe those are what God wants us to hear, see, and know at that moment.

Tonight...out of the entire book, Colossians 1:17 resonated in my heart. The world is ever changing. My own life has gone through some major changes in the past year. It is a completely different life that I'm still learning how to live. God continues to take my life apart and reorder the pieces, creating a new picture. I used to question why and search for reason. Now I know, that it's in His plan, and the results will be more than I could ever have imagine. Faithfully, I have laid my life before Him, and consequentially, He is holding me together. Tonight, that's what I needed to hear.

Colossians 1:1

I was listening to a talk the other day, and the speaker told a story about a teacher he had in college. He attended some bible college, so his experience might have been different than yours. He said that the professor asked them to read a passage in scripture and write down any questions they had about it.

I took this approach the other day while I was reading through Colossians. The book starts off this way...

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Here are a few questions I came up with from verse 1:1.

1. Who was Paul? I know, people spend their entire life researching this subject. Maybe it would help if I knew a little more about him.


2. What does it mean to be an apostle of Christ Jesus?
   1. What does it mean to be an apostle of anything?
   2. Can you be an apostle of something else?


3. What does he mean by "by the will of God"? If Jesus is God, does he mean an apostle of God because God willed it?


4. Who was Timothy?


5. "Our brother"... Who does our refer to? Paul and the Colossians? Us? All Christians?


6. Why does the letter start off this way?I assume this was the cultural norm, but maybe there is more to it.


7. Is this a formal letter or a personal letter? Was there a difference in that day and age?

In the talk, the students each came back with a question or two about the passage they had been asked to study. The professor was livid. He admonished the students for their arrogance. He asked if they claimed to know everything else about the passage; All but a few things.

It made me think about how little I know about the scriptures, and how much I just read over without considering what is actually being communicated.

I have a lot to learn. We have a lot to learn.

Race for the Cure

I mentioned that Traci wanted to get a team from visio dei together to participate in the 11th Annual Triangle Race for the Cure. Well, I signed up and registered a team. It would be great if we could get a good showing from not only visio dei, but also from our home group. I know several of you have participated in the past.

Here is the link to the visio dei team page.

I hope you will all sign up.

-Shannon

Welcome All Ye New Bloggers

To all you who are new to this arena of communication, I want to exend my warmest welcome to what I kindly refer to as the blogosphere. I rather enjoy this medium as it allows me to express my thoughts in a place where they are documented and I can return to them if I choose.

I hope that you all will find this blog to be a useful tool to share ideas and thoughts. Remember the blog does not generate new content on its own. It will only be as good as we make it. So, feel free to share what you're learning, to rant about whatever it is that's got you all worked up, or to simply share what's on your mind.

I look forward to hearing from you all.

-Shannon