On May 3rd, MBC College and Career will begin meeting at a new time and location. By God's grace, the Spanish Ministry has recently purchased their own building and began meeting there. This means that the room they were using has now come avaliable during second hour service. The church has graciously given College and Career the right to use that room for our Sunday morning services. Therefore, beginning on May 3rd, we will begin meeting at 10:30am in the new addition directly behind the gym.

This is a huge blessing for our ministry. In times past we've been rushed and quite limited by time. We've also had a difficult time getting folks there, because arrive at 9am was just too early for some. I'm really looking forward to the opportunities this move brings. Please come join us on May 3rd for C&C Sunday Mornings. Immediately after the service, we'll be going out for lunch together. We hope you'll join us!

This Tuesday and Thursday we are meeting at a new location. Matter of fact, we'll be meeting at this location for the next 9 weeks. For anyone who hasn't been attending Tuesday/Thursday community groups, this week is the last night to join one until June. If you're interested in getting involved please call Dan @ 612-4848. I hope the picture below helps you get an idea for where "The House" is in relation to the church.

Tonight at our meeting for Community Groups, we discussed what it meant to be a missional community. Here's a video from Austin Stone Community Church that shows you how one community group showed love to their city.

Missional Community-Austin Life Care from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.

Steven and I attended a SEBTS chapel last week where we heard Mark Driscoll give a sermon about nine differences between the Gospel and Religion. Here's what he said..

1) A religious person says, "I obey so that God will love me". A gospel centered person says, "God loves me therefore I'll obey him".

2) Religion sees good people and bad people. The Gospel realizes that there's really just bad people and Jesus. Gospel centered people realize that they are always in need of repentance. Christians are called to live a life that is characterized by repentance. J.I. Packer says, "Heretics are people that don't practice repentance".

3) Religion is about getting something from God. The Gospel is about getting God (just him not all his stuff). Religious people keep God's rules so they can stiff arm God into giving them whatever idol they want. What does this look like? This looks like the guy or gal who gets upset when they don't get that job they wanted or their relationship breaks because they thought that God owed them the life they've always wanted - after all they keep their life 'clean' and always attended church. In the end they only obeyed God so that they could get what they wanted, namely a life with the right man or women, the job they always wanted, health, wealth, you get the idea.

4) What follows is this: Religion sees hardship as punishment. The Gospel sees hardship as disciple from a loving father. Gospel centered people remember that sin was judged/punished on the cross. The scripture says that there is no condemnation for those who are IN CHIRST (Romans 8:1).

5) Religious people are keenly aware of other people's sins. Gospel centered people are aware primarily of their own sins.

6) Religion deals only with external issues (what you eat, drink, where you go, how you dress). The Gospel deals with maters of the heart. Gospel centered people understand actions based on the intent of the heart.

7) Religious people are constantly uncertain about their salvation because God's acceptance of them rest wholly upon their performance. And we all know we're inconsistent, therefore, our assurance is up one day and down the next. Gospel centered people can wake up every morning and tell God, "Nothing I can do today can make you love me more, and nothing I can fail to do today can make you love me less". The Gospel gives us certainty about our standing with God (1 John 5:13).

8) Religion is about self-righteousness, but the gospel is about gift righteousness. The understanding that my righteousness is a gift ought to make me live a life of increasing humility.

9) Religion results in pride or despair. The Gospel leads to a holy happiness. Gospel centered people rest content, and are free to spend their lives for God in Joy.

One of the most hated words in the English language is the word "Discipline". For some of us this word makes us think of our parent's favorite instrument for spankings - maybe a switch from a tree in the yard, a paddle, or a frying pan ;) The scriptures also speak of disciple. In the scriptures, discipline is something that happens to you (like in hebrews 12), but is also something you do to yourself. Seem crazy doesn't it? Sometimes we speak of what's called Spiritual Disciples. I heard a pastor just today call them "Spiritual Rhythms" of our lives. I think he used this word just to avoid calling them disciplines. But his refinement of the term does help us some. Our lives do easily get out of rhythm and we need to reestablish correct beats, rhythms, patterns, and habits in our lives.

Paul said this to his son in the faith, Timothy, "Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness" (1 Tim. 4:7). For those who are in Christ by faith, Christ likeness is where we're headed (Romans 8:29). But that doesn't mean that we get lazy and put our lives on cruise control. No way! The scriptures are clear. For those who are in Christ will walk in the way that he walked and will continually fight the fight of faith.

I've been rereading this book called "Spiritual Disciples for the Christian Life," and I just love the opening illustration. The point of the illustration is to show that discipline without an end in mind is drudgery, but when we see the purpose of our discipline it gives us joy in it. The illustration is this: A boy is suffering through a routine guitar practice in his room playing "Home on the Range". From his room he can see his friends playing football outside, and he longs to throw down his guitar and join them but he can't. His mom told him he had to practice. However, in his discouragement an angel shows up. The angel gives him a vision of a young guitarist playing a beautiful classical piece before a packed house at Carnegie Hall. The boy is quite taken by the richness of the music and the skillful way in which the young man's hands slide ever so fluidly up and down the fretboard. The boy asks the angel who the young man is, and he replies, "Oh, that's you in a few years". The young boy is amazed to say the least. He immediately picks up his guitar and begins to practice again with a renewed zeal.

Oh that we would train ourselves for godliness now knowing who we will become later. A couple things to do.

1) Find a reading guide and read your Bible consistently. Below is a link to a blog w/ many different yearly reading plans. Most of these have you reading 2-4 different places in the Bible each day.

http://theologica.blogspot.com/2008/12/bible-reading-plans.html

2) Also, go right now and buy a journal book of some kind. Barnes and Noble has tons of these things. Journal in it if that's your deal. Write about what God's doing in your life. Write down things that you've heard that captivate you, and meditate on those things. Write down prayer requests and struggle in prayer over them. Get serious about knowing God. The key to remembering stuff in life is this: Write it down! Oh and bring that book to small group and write down others requests and pray for them.

Finally, here's a sermon I heard this morning. If you're a single guy, then you really need to hear the last part of this. It was a real kick in the tail.

http://www.sebts.edu/chmessages/resource_2429/01-27-09_Dr_Daniel_L_Akin....