Archive for 2012
Confessions Of A Dork Wizard
Blog | Ryan Callihan
Here is something that a lot of people seemingly don’t know about me. I am a huge nerd. It surprises me when people are taken aback when I can recite the entire script of The Empire Strikes Back or when I reference minute plot details of Harry Potter (by the way Duane, a Muggle is not a half-breed. It’s a person without magic ability. You were thinking of Mudblood. No hard feelings). It’s never been something that I try to hide– it’s kind of a part of me.
During my childhood, when all the other kids were out doing “sports things” and trading baseball cards, I would be watching Star Trek or pretending I was a Power Ranger. Different worlds, magic, and the epic struggle between the powers of light and darkness have resonated with me do as long as I can remember. I would create my own worlds in my head where I discovered that I had some sort of mystical ability or power that made me something more than what I am, something special. I would use my awesome magical training (and usually ability to fly) to fight the bad guys and amaze everyone.
Oh, and save the world of course.
July 1st – Summer Theo 101 Course Begins
The following classes will be offered this summer 2012 during July & August (07/01/12 to 08/19/12):
Theo 101 – Theology of the Resolved
An 8-week course covering the range of theological beliefs essential to the gospel. Topics include: the existence of God, the truth of the Bible, the depravity of humans, the good news of Jesus, the order of salvation, and the role of the church, art & culture. This class is necessary for membership in The Resolved Church. Sunday Evenings from 7:00-8:00pm.
Mission and Magic
Mission and Magic | The Book of Acts | 8:4-25 | Pastor Duane Smets
This an exegetical and expository sermon on Acts 8:4-25. It covers two main topics: (1) The spreading out of the Gospel and the Church to reach other people groups. (2) How the Gospel is radically different and opposed to magic and motives which seek God’s gifts and power rather than God himself. Each of these topics are then looked at in comparison to how acceptance works in the Gospel. This sermon was originally preached on May 13th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego,CA.
June 3rd – Summer Kickoff Service and Luncheon
Upcoming Event | Summer Kickoff
Come join us for our 2012 Summer Kickoff Service and Luncheon!
On Sunday, June 3rd we’ll be joining as ONE for service and a luncheon. This is our 7th year as The Resolved Church. We have seen a lot of Jesus’ work and he has blessed us with a growing church family. Since going to two services in September we have wanted to bring the services together every once in a while to keep the community united. On June 3rd we have a chance to do just that and celebrate 7 years as a church, the summer season, and most importantly Jesus, all together.
What: Church worship and service together in one place at one time. Luncheon after.
Where: Crill Hall in Cooper Music Center @ Point Loma Nazarene University.
When: 10am
Why: To celebrate Jesus together as one in the Summer time.
June 28-30th – Changed By Grace Conference
Upcoming Event | Changed By Grace Conference
Don’t miss this great week of training at IBCD – June 28-30, 2012 in Escondido, CA. The Summer Institute consists of the and two pre-conferences:
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Check out this promo video on the whole week of training:
The main conference is Thursday-Saturday, June 28-30. Tim Lane from the Christian Counseling and Education Foundation (CCEF) is the keynote speaker. Julius Kim, Jim Newheiser, and John Sale will be the other general session speakers. Workshop selections will give invaluable information for everyone interested in helping others by the power of the gospel, through the Word of God.
The pre-conference on the Basics of Biblical Counseling is with Dr. Jim Newheiser and will include an overview of the basic principles of biblically consistent counseling as well as instruction on how to apply those principles to typical problems such as depression, fear, worry, and anger. The distinctions between psychotherapy, Christian psychology, and biblical counseling will also be discussed. This course is applicable to fulfill the 30-hour NANC certification requirement.
The pre-conference for women only on the morning of June 28th from 9:30-1:30pm is with Elyse Fitzpatrick and Jessica Thompson who will be speaking on the topic of “Who Do You Think You Are?” So many of us struggle with our identity…We wonder, Who am I? What does my Christianity tell me about myself and how that truth impacts the way I live my life? Join Elyse and her daughter Jessica for three hours as they unpack what the Bible says about who we are in Christ and what that identity means about how we should live.
Cost varies depending on what you register for. To view registration options go to:
A Genuine Confession
Blog | Robert Knox | A Genuine Confession: A Reflection After Two Years in Law School
I am not very good at public confessions. I know that is because pride is an idol for me. I care too much that other people respect me. But holding onto sin is worse. Not only is sin something that results in bad for me, but sin also separates me from the One I love.
I am the Prodigal Son’s Older Brother
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And [Jesus] said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40.
What Is Covenant Theology?
Guest Blog | J.I. Packer from The Economy of the Covenants between God and Man
God’s covenant of grace in Scripture is one of those things that are too big to be easily seen, particularly when one’s mind is programmed to look at something smaller. If you are hunting on a map of the Pacific for a particular Polynesian island, your eye will catch dozens of island names, however small they are printed, but the chances are you will never notice the large letters spelling PACIFIC OCEAN that straddle the map completely.
Similarly, we may, and I think often do, study such realities as God’s promises; faith: the plan of salvation; Jesus Christ the God-man, our prophet, priest and king; the church in both testaments, along with circumcision, passover, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, the intricacies of Old Testament worship and the simplicities of its New Testament counterpart; the work of the Holy Spirit in believers; the nature and standards of Christian obedience in holiness and neighbour-love; prayer and communion with God: and many more such themes, without noticing that these relational realities are all covenantal in their very essence.
As each Polynesian island is anchored in the Pacific, so each of the matters just mentioned is anchored in God’s resolve to relate to his human creatures, and have us relate to him, in covenant. Biblical doctrine, first to last, has to do with covenantal relationships between God and man; biblical ethics has to do with expressing God’s covenantal relationship to us in covenantal relationships between ourselves and others; and Christian religion has the nature of covenant life, in which God is the direct object of our faith, hope, love, worship, and service, all animated by gratitude for grace.
Our theme is the life-embracing bedrock reality of the covenant relationship between the Creator and Christians, and it is high time we defined exactly what we are talking about. A covenant relationship is a voluntary mutual commitment that binds each party to the other.
Whether it is negotiated, like a modern business deal or a marriage contract, or unilaterally imposed, as all God’s covenants are, is irrelevant to the commitment itself; the reality of the relationship depends simply on the fact that mutual obligations have been accepted and pledged on both sides. Luther is held to have said that Christianity is a matter of personal pronouns, in the sense that everything depends on knowing that Jesus died for me, to be my Savior, and that his Father is my God and Father, personally committed to love, nurture, uphold, and glorify me.
This already is covenant thinking, for this is the essential substance of the covenant relationship: God’s covenant is precisely a matter of these personal pronouns, used in this way, as a basis for a life with God of friendship, peace and communicated love. Thus, when God tells Abraham, “I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you . . . to be your God . . . I will be their God” (Gen. 17:6-8), the personal pronouns are the key words: God is committing himself to Abraham and Abraham’s seed in a way in which he does not commit himself to others. God’s covenant commitment expresses eternal election; his covenant love to individuals sinners flows from his choice of them to be his for ever in the peace of justification and the joy of glorification.
The Church and the Story of God
The Church and the Story of God | The Book of Acts | 6:9-8:3 | Pastor Duane Smets
This an expository sermon on Acts 6:9-8:3. It covers the challenges of dealing with numerical and ethnic growth in the church as well as the importance of preaching and having deacons. This sermon was originally preached on May 6th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego,CA.
Black White and Red
Blog | J.D. Bale | Black White and Red: Jesus, The True and Better Rick Grimes
You might be arriving almost a decade late to the party, but if you own a TV in America right now, you probably know about The Walking Dead—“a continuing story of survival horror.” At the center of the epic is Rick Grimes, the perspicacious revolver-wielding moral compass of the zombie apocalypse. Rick is painted as the White knight who leads a small group of survivors through the Black night of human history. Moral crisis is a key theme throughout, and is much more obvious in the comics which are intentionally illustrated in Black and White and every shade of Grey.
At a pivotal and defining moment in the story, Rick finally cracks and is forced to compromise his moral values in a very public way. When he sees the horror in the eyes of his friends and family, he begins to preach, saying, “You people don’t know what we are. We’re surrounded by the dead. We’re among them—and when we finally give up, we become them! We’re living on borrowed time here. Every minute of our life is a minute we steal from them! You see them out there… You think we hide behind walls to protect us from the walking dead… Don’t you get it? We ARE the walking dead!”
In that moment it becomes clear that The Walking Dead is not about moral compromise— it’s about moral failure. Rick Grimes’ epiphany amounts to this: There is White, and there is Black, but nothing in between. What we know as “Grey” is just an optical illusion—a much more fashionable shade of Black. Compromise is not a means of survival but an evidence of death.
To Serve: Be Served
Guest Preacher | Mark 10:35-45 | Brad Hutchinson
This is an exegetical and topical sermon looking at Jesus’ words to James and John concerning service as a means of greatness. This sermon was originally preached on April 29th, 2012 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
