The Gospel and Prayer

Tonight in PowerSource we looked at Hebrews 4:14-16 and discussed how the gospel relates to prayer.

Here is a quote that I shared tonight at the end of the sermon:

"Effective prayer is saturated in the gospel.....You don't move on from the cross to go deeper in prayer. Ultimately, all effective prayer is rooted in the cross.

Think about it. The gospel is the starting point of prayer. Without Christ's blood, you couldn't even approach God. Only in Jesus' righteousness are we invited to enter His presence. There's no mantra we can learn, no catchphrase we can recite, that will move God's hand. We appeal to him based on the person and work of His son. Jerry Bridges writes, "When we pray to God for His blessing, He does not examine our performance to see if we are worthy. Rather, He looks to see if we are trusting in the merit of His Son as our only hope for securing His blessing."

Students of the school of prayer never graduate from the school of the gospel."

C.J. Mahaney from The Cross Centered Life

--Mark

Have you seen Expelled?

On Sunday Dr. Land encouraged the congregation to go see Expelled this weekend because of the case the movie makes against Darwinism and for Intelligent Design.

To view one of the trailers, click here.

The movie is playing at two local theaters this weekend.

The Rave theater in East Ridge at 12:15, 2:50, 5:20, 7:45, and 10:20

The Carmike theater at Northgate in Hixson at 1:00, 3:15, 5:30, 7:45 and 10:00

If you have linked to Brainerd's Blog via the most recent edition of The BBC Mail, feel free to comment on the movie below. To view past editions of The BBC Mail or to subscribe, click here.

--Mark

Romans 7 - 8

Tonight Dr. Land preached on the doctrine of salvation and then we took of the Lord's Supper.

During the sermon he encouraged us to read slowly through Romans 7 -8 at some point this week.

You can read both chapters online by clicking here.

You can read what the Baptist Faith and Message (2000) says about Salvation (Article IV) by clicking here.

Jerusalem Day

The following pictures were taken last Saturday during the Jerusalem day activities. Members of Brainerd spread out across our city to serve the community in a variety of areas.

A picture of our children's ministry planting flowers for residents of a local nursing home

A picture of our children's ministry delivering flowers at the nursing home

Our pre-school ministry putting together care packages for our Sunday Bible Study volunteers

Members of our youth ministry served by doing yardwork for elderly adults

The free car maintenance clinic that was held for single ladies

The rummage sale held in our school's gym

Church Graveyards

Russell Moore has written an interesting article entitled "Should we miss our church graveyards?"

If you have time, it is worth reading.



--Mark

The Weather Channel is Never Wrong

Shortly after getting married and moving to Chattanooga, my wife and I began looking for a church that we could join and get involved in. After seeing the broadcast of Brainerd Baptist's worship service a few times, we decided that we would visit on the following Sunday.

We looked up the time of the morning worship service on the web site so that we would be there in plenty of time.

Sunday morning came and we got up and started getting ready to leave as normal. As we were getting ready I turned the TV on to the Weather Channel to see what the weather was going to be like. Everything was as normal except I noticed that the clock in the bottom corner of the screen was an hour ahead of what our living room clock displayed. I thought to myself that the time difference seemed strange, but continued getting ready.

I went upstairs and mentioned to my wife that it was weird for the Weather Channel clock to be wrong. Moments later, we realized that it was not 9:45 but 10:45 and we had completely forgotten to change our clocks the previous night for Daylight Savings Time.

Needless to say, we did not make it to Brainerd Baptist that morning; although we did make it (somewhat late) to a church that was much closer to our apartment.

I share this story to say, Daylight Savings Time begins this weekend. Don't forget to set your clocks ahead an hour on Saturday night.

(We later visited Brainerd, got involved in a Bible Study class and joined the church a few months later)

--Mark

The Church and The Big Give

I don't know what you do on Sunday nights but our family's tradition is to come home from church and make biscuits and eggs for dinner. After we eat dinner we usually end up watching (and probably crying during) Extreme Makeover Home Edition. No one knows how to tell a story better than those guys. Well tonight a new show debuted called Oprah's Big Give. This show is similar to Extreme Makeover in that the hook is helping someone who is in a difficult situation simply for the sake of generosity. In an effort of full disclosure, I must confess I am skeptical of anything associated with Oprah because of the new age religion she espouses and the following she has but I wanted to watch this show to see what it was like...

The show is great! Each team of two people was given $5,000 and the name of a person who needs help. Each team competes to see who can "help" the most. Together the teams raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in 5 days towards helping by organizing fund raisers, getting communities together, etc.

Here's the question I want to ask... "Where is the church on this one?" I love the show and the people that are being helped but why can't the church get creative like this in it's efforts to give? In my humble opinion we seem to do a lot of talking about taking the gospel to everyone but the church has lost it's platform in the world. The community could care less what the church has to say until they know how much the church cares. We've got the most important message anyone could hear and we've been commissioned to share it so we should be real good at finding ways to gain an audience.

I love the creativity of the show and think we can learn something from it. Come on church...let's see what we can do!

--Collin

God of Chattanooga

I am sitting here in my office and God just spoke directly to me! No, not like that...but through a song. As I lead at the BX and the Gathering, God allows me to rub shoulders with literally thousands of people who do not know him yet. Now in generations past (even recent ones) we could just gathering them all up and have a preacher preach heaven is sweet and hell is hot and many would receive the grace that God offers. But these days people seem harder, more religious but callous and uncaring. I know this may seem harsh but I wonder some times if there is still hope for Chattanooga. Is it so religious that people can't find God? Can God really move in Chattanooga to the point that we move from being known for our volunteer and non-profit efforts to being known for our love for Christ?

Then I heard this song and cried..."greater things are still to be done in this city"!

You’re the God of this city
You’re the King of these people
You’re the Lord of this nation
You are

You’re the light in this darkness
You’re the hope to the hopeless
You’re the peace to the restless
You are

For there is no-one like our God
There is no-one like our God

Greater things have yet to come
Greater things are still to be done
In this city

Greater things have yet to come
And greater things have still to be done here

You’re the Lord of Creation
The Creator of all things
You’re the King above all Kings
You are

You’re the strength in our weakness
You’re the love to the broken
You’re the joy in the sadness
You are

For there is no-one like our God
There is no-one like our God

Greater things have yet to come
Greater things are still to be done
In this city

Greater things have yet to come
And greater things have still to be done here

Here's a link to this song by Blue Tree and sung by Chris Tomlin.

--Collin

Podcasting and Sermon Audio

Sermon Audio from Dr. Land is now available on our website. You may download messages individually or may subscribe via iTunes. For more information visit the sermon audio page of our website.

Mere Christianity

In his sermon on Sunday Morning Dr. Land quoted from and recommended the book Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. I read it several years ago and have found it helpful to consult a few times since then.

Here is the quote that Dr. Land shared:


"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing that we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with the man who says that he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God."

C. S. Lewis from Mere Christianity

--Mark

Pray without Ceasing

As I was preparing for Power Source tomorrow night I came across this article that I found helpful. In the article John MacArthur explains what it means to pray without ceasing (from 1 Thessalonians 5:17)

Here is the full article: Pray Without Ceasing

Here is a brief quote:

"To “pray without ceasing” refers to recurring prayer, not nonstop talking. Prayer is to be a way of life — you’re to be continually in an attitude of prayer. It is living in continual God-consciousness, where everything you see and experience becomes a kind of prayer, lived in deep awareness of and surrender to Him. It should be instant and intimate communication — not unlike that which we enjoy with our best friend."


--Mark

One Year Blogging Anniversary

As of this week have been blogging for one year.

Here are a few posts that you may have missed:

• "Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow..." by Ruthie

• Persecution by Lee

• Someone Is Always Watching by Ryan

• The American Dream and a Wasted Life by Collin

• Walking through the hospital by Curtis