Jul 22
-
vandywolfer added a link contribution Paradox Community Church Sermon on James 3 - Taming the TongueTim Wagner of Paradox Community Church Sermon on the dangers of the tongue from James 3. www.paradox.la Read more »
Apr 11
-
vandywolfer added a text contribution Deep waters of purposeI struggle with discern specific purposes in my life. Particularly with career stuff. Maybe this verse isn't speaking to careers, but it challenges me and encourages me all the same. These are deep matters, but there is a way, a method for discerning them. I need to seek more men of understanding...or become one myself! Read more »
Mar 16
-
vandywolfer added a link contribution Love for the City - Tim Keller Sermon on Acts 11Tim Keller argues, using the the expansion of Christianity to Antioch as his example, that the city is uniquely positioned to rapidly spread the gospel and break down walls. I find this perspective so exciting and also challenging. I feel that in LA we've very much taken the approach that the culture/city makes spreading the gospel very difficult. We think people are not receptive and likely 'blame' the lack of our impact on that fact. Keller argues, however, that if you don&#… Read more »
Mar 11
-
vandywolfer added a text contribution BloodReading Lev 17's strong statements about blood and how important God makes the blood of sacrifices underscores how insane it is for Jesus in John 6 to say drink my blood and that you have no place with him unless you drink his blood. Or when he institutes communion at the last supper. He is calling them out in faith to almost violate, or at least replace or fulfill, God's regulations on blood. Read more »
Mar 6
-
vandywolfer added a text contribution Say So!'Let the redeemed of th eLord say so...' This was the wonderful verse that inspires the sweetest time at Young Life camps. After hearing the message of the gospel, everyone sits and waits to see if anyone wants to 'Say so'. Some sweet memories. Why am I sometimes coy when talking of my own redemption? Why don't I say so more? Read more »
-
vandywolfer added a text contribution Chase thos crazy bald heads out of town...Despite the fun Bob Marley lyrics, it must be a relief for the recession (of hair) that has marked my family...hehe Read more »
-
vandywolfer added a text contribution ewwwAll of this skin deep white spots and white and yellow hairs...this is gross. Read more »
Feb 23
-
vandywolfer added a link contribution Changed Lives - Tim Keller SermonI love how Tim Keller can weave a passage that I might gloss over into a cohesive whole. The three stories of transformation are not merely chronological, Paul tells them as a way of highlighting how Jesus' gospel can transform any circumstance. There is no one whom God is incapable of transforming. I struggle with this prayer often, but then I think of my brother's life, and I think of my life, and I have to acknowledge that there is no set of circumstances or experience that are o… Read more »
-
vandywolfer added a text contribution LiturgyEven as my weekly experience has drifted far from the tradition where my faith was planted, the sweetness of the liturgy grows every time I encounter its source text in scripture. I cannot read Psalm 95 without singing. And it is my heart singing to God. Why doesn't my heart sing in other passages...where can I find their tune? Read more »
-
vandywolfer added a text contribution What do we look like after being with God?Moses, as well as Peter & John, were utterly transformed in such a way that it was obvious to outsiders after having an experience with God. This should not be unique to these men. My life should be disarming in its appearance to outsiders after spending time with God. I have his the full story from the two tablets, to the cross, to the persistence of the church to make my face radiant each morning. But it is rarely radiant. God, make my face radiant; make it obvious that I've been… Read more »
-
vandywolfer added a text contribution Giving FreelyIt is such a beautiful thought that the people of Israel were not guilted and manipulated into supporting the church. This was not an obligation or a law. They were given the opportunity to worship with their belongings and they didn't consider their possessions as anything compared to the beauty of the temple of God. They gave more than enough that they had to be asked to stop. Why isn't our church like that? Why am I not like that? Read more »
Feb 4
-
vandywolfer added a link contribution The Furious Love of Jesus - Tim Keller sermonThe first Young Life talk I ever gave was on John 11. Tim Keller blew my mind with how he drew out the human/divine mystery of Jesus in his reactions to Mary & Martha. Also, the idea of jesus being furious towards death was compelling and helps to situate that tension of how God can be sovereign and also condemn death. It is fascinating that he associated the sermon on Lazarus' resurrection with Christmas instead of Easter b/c he felt the sermon exhibited his humanity and incarnation… Read more »
Feb 2
-
vandywolfer added a text contribution Why kill moses?I put a question mark next to this one in the margins. God is complex if not fishy. Read more »
-
vandywolfer added a link contribution Blessed be the Poor - Tim Keller sermonI have often heard pastors say that we are obligated to serve the poor, as it is a given, but not really flesh it out or necessarily live it out. I have felt this compulsion -- largely by the influence of my wonderful wife -- but haven't felt that its draw was purely in line with the other side of my faith that had developed. It almost felt like two strains. I could say, 'The gospel is amazing and has changed my life, therefore I want to share that undeserved mercy with others to sh… Read more »
Jan 30
-
vandywolfer added a link contribution Freedom vs. Narcisism - Matt Chandler on Gal 5Once you get past a lengthy section on the Village Church logistics and building, Chandler builds out a solid perspective on freedom and draws a cool dichotomy with narcissism. I have always gone with the phrase selfishness or self-centeredness to get at this concept, but I think narcissism gives it nice depth. Gal 5 has always been so core to my understanding of the Gospel and the hope that we have. I don't live in freedom...not like Paul who is content in any situation. Chandler'… Read more »
-
vandywolfer added a text contribution Subversive GodGod is so subversive. Pharaoh goes so out of his way to kill and undermine the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham. Then he has Pharaoh's own daughter save the baby that would be God's means for saving his people. I like it. I love thinking about the minutia of the actions....how easily they could have been different. It makes for a good story and a good author of our story. I wonder about the minutia in my life and how God is lining up the little decisions towards some… Read more »
-
vandywolfer added a text contribution Psalm 55:22 - Casting burdensPsalm 55:22 - Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you;he will never permit the righteous to be moved. -- I love seeing the echo and interplay here. I have been praying this a lot lately, I think partially b/c I don't know how to pray for health issues. Read more »
Jan 29
-
vandywolfer added a link contribution Born into the Gospel - sermon by Tim KellerThis sermon does a really great job of laying out the gospel. If you are a christian, then you are necessarily born again. 'Born Again Christians' is not some subset of more radical folks according to God. Keller leverages the metaphor of planting a seed to reveal why some folks can point to a day when they were born again and others, like me, don't know exactly when the seed was planted but know that a faith grew from it...still being born again. God plants the seed. Further… Read more »
Jan 28
-
vandywolfer added a text contribution ShenanigansJoseph, I have to ask, why all the shenanigans? You already had quite a bit of leverage in the situation, why not come out with it in the first place. Need you assert your dominance over some dudes who are starving? Read more »
-
vandywolfer added a link contribution Praying Your Fears - Tim Keller on Psalm 3At first I thought this sermon was somewhat boring, probably b/c I don't think about fear a lot. But Keller manages to turn the ship around and reveal how firmly rooted David's identity was in the confidence that God loved him and then he uses Gen 15 to foreshadow Jesus being split open like the sacrifice of the covenant in order to enforce God's covenant. Le awesome. I was pleasantly caught by surprised and moved by how it came together and pulled so much out of a psalm that I… Read more »
Jan 21
-
vandywolfer added a text contribution A FeastIt is funny how my experiences resonate with scripture more when I'm actually reading more scripture. I never know if that's God rearranging events for my benefit or simply the relevance of scripture to our lives. My eyes are just more open when I'm reading the Bible to see the connections. Last night it was funny to have read this passage and invite some new friends over to dinner. Upon learning that they couldn't come, Becky and I started inviting all kinds of folks to… Read more »
-
vandywolfer added a text contribution Be StillThese verses are some of the most beautiful in scripture. They always captivate me when I encounter them. Upon reading them again, it made me realize how stillness before God has rarely been a component of my faith and especially not now. I have recently experienced a wonderful revitalization of prayer, but this aspect is surely lacking. I find it more simple to raise petitions and give thanks and preach the gospel to myself than to just sit and meditate on God. I hope that as I continue to… Read more »
Jan 14
-
vandywolfer added a link contribution Do this in Rememberance of Me - Matt Carter from The Austin Stone on CommunionMatt Carter makes the discussion of communion all about the gospel. I often get hung up on symbol/more than a symbol, but he does a nice job of pointing to the gravity of the Lord's Table and how Christ prepares us for it. REMEMBER what he did for you. Communion is about the Gospel and so is this sermon, which I like. I may never feel peace on the symbol debate, but I have hope that Christ's blood covers that too... Read more »
-
vandywolfer added a text contribution Another wife (+ concubines!)I'm not going to spill too much ink at this moment, but I suffer from 'cognitive dissonance' when I hear Gen 1 as a proof text of Biblical (1 man, 1 woman) marriage and a few chapters later hear of Abraham's harem (and subsequent offspring) casually mentioned without any indication that there is a problem. I'm cool with taking the new testament and saying, "Okay...that's how it was...here's how it is for you" (like elder qualifications - One Woman Ma… Read more »
-
vandywolfer added a text contribution They had been with Jesus - Acts 4:13Hearing how these dudes saw Isaac and his life and were inclined to say to him "We see plainly that the Lord has been with you" reminds me of what the people said of the uneducated Peter & Co in Acts 4:13 that "...they had been with Jesus." I deeply desire for that to be the experience people have when I interact with them. They would not see me and think I'm great (that is an idol for me) but that they would see me and that I had been with Jesus...that God would u… Read more »
User Info
Name: Ryan Wolfe
User Since: May 2008
Location: Venice, CA
Website: www.paradox.la
Contributions: 35
Tags: 77