Observations and recap from Sunday’s service and meetings.  Kind of an appropriate title on Super Bowl Sunday…

• Coach Bob and I were blessed to view several sessions of a conference in Austin, Tx on Friday and Saturday called Verge.  On Saturday, although we were observing online, we sensed the presence of the Holy Spirit in our midst, and there in the meeting.  You can read some of the powerful Twitter stream comments from those who attended by clicking on #verge10.  It was a confirmation to us of the direction we are headed in at Second Chance Church as well as an indicator that there is a move of the Holy Spirit going on right now…. something is going on.
• Acts 2:17 tells us that “In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people”
• We are praying for and anticipating that outpouring on the people of Second Chance.  I believe we received a small dose of that on Sunday.
• Our music had moments of sheer joy, and deep reverence for God.  There is something incredibly powerful and compelling when people are singing directly to the Lord.
• “How Great Is Our God” was such a moment when we had nothing but voices singing at the end…. powerful!
• The incredible truth of God’s forgiveness overwhelmed me yesterday and it was enriched further by Casting Crown’s “As Far As The East Is From The West” based on Psalm 103.
• Personally challenged by the need to forgive… and frightened by the reality of how we handcuff God when we choose not to.
• Service was followed by a brief presentation of our approved Vision Budget for 2010.
• Blown away at the hours and effort put in by Steve McKown, our Business and Finance Captain, and by Jim Varda, our Campus Development Captain.
• Truly anxious to see how the rest of 2010 unfolds and where we will go!

In my effort to find a video clip to use as an illustration in last week’s message, I came across a series of commercials that are some of the funniest I have EVER seen…. love these.  Enjoy!

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

I never cease to be amazed at the number of people who simply can’t come to terms with the reality of God.  I look around me and I see the evidence everywhere I turn… in the intricacy of a flower, the strength of a tree, the beauty of the sky, the smile in a face, the variety in a snowflake, the words of scripture, and the confirmation in my own heart.  It all calls me to worship and give my life to a creator God.

But there are many that just can’t make peace with that.  And yet, everywhere you find mankind, you find him involved in some sort of worship.  In the absence of a God, that’s truly hard to explain, isn’t it?  What is it in the heart of a man that compels him to give himself to something larger…. something greater?  The simple answer is that it is the way God designed us.  We have a need to worship… we have a need to express our faith in something bigger than ourselves.

Those who deny the existence of God, will often scoff at the need to worship.  I can recall the ex-Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura, proclaiming that religion is a “crutch” for weak people.  And yet in the end, we all worship something.  We all express faith in some way.  If not God, then we will redirect it toward something else.

To say that global warming science has taken a hit in the last few months would be an understatement.  A more appropriate assessment is that the wheels have fallen off the wagon.  Intentional fraud and cover-up has been revealed in a systemic fashion.  It’s not just the “leaked” emails anymore… it’s much broader than that.

All of which has brought many people to a new conclusion about the truth of global warming and a reassessment of our reaction to it over the last twenty years.  In a revealing article about this, Michael Barone made this fascinating observation:

The secular religion of global warming has all the elements of a religious faith: original sin (we are polluting the planet), ritual (separate your waste for recycling), redemption (renounce economic growth) and the sale of indulgences (carbon offsets). We are told that we must have faith (all argument must end, as Al Gore likes to say) and must persecute heretics (global warming skeptics are like Holocaust deniers, we are told).

People in the grip of such a religious frenzy evidently feel justified in lying, concealing good evidence and plucking bad evidence from whatever flimsy source may be at hand.

Whatever your take on global warming may be at this point, you must confess that Barone’s observation is spot-on.  The global warming movement bears all the trappings of a religious commitment…. minus God.

Bob Dylan via last.fm

So what does all this mean?  Bob Dylan once advised us that “You’re gonna have to serve somebody”.  And in fact we will.  We are divinely designed and created by God to do so.  So, if you are a Christ-follower, I urge you to realize this simple truth, and let’s point people to a genuine faith… a life-changing faith… an eternal faith… worshiping and following a real God.

Related articles by Zemanta

• The End is Nigh: How the Religious Language of Global Warming is Failing (treehugger.com)
• Chris Wallace: ClimateGate an Example of How Global Warming Has Become a Religion (dakotavoice.com)