Jason Sneed Simple Thoughts

Weekly Points To Ponder – June 6, 2014


Points To Ponder

Missouri principal wows crowd, angers atheists with guarded ‘God’ references – Foxnews.com

A Missouri high school principal who garnered thunderous applause and a starring role in a viral video for a commencement speech in which he repeatedly invoked God in ways to dodge First Amendment objections has atheists seeing red.

Lebanon High School Principal Kevin Lowery can be seen on a 3-minute YouTube clip reminding graduates that the nation’s motto of “In God We Trust” can be found on U.S. currency and in Francis Scott Key’s original version of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Lowery also wryly noted during the May 23 commencement that even though “God is reflected in the very fabric” of the nation, it would be inappropriate to mention The Almighty at a secular ceremony.

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Mission Trends: 4 Trends for Churches to Consider – The Exchange

Despite what many think, the church in America is not dying (and no serious researcher thinks that). However, there are some challenges and changes to be considered.

When we consider missiology, part of the discipline includes considering how churches relate to their culture. Since we live in changing times, it’s worth thinking through what current cultural changes mean for future church engagement of that culture.

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Five Things Every Christian Needs to Grow, Revised & Expanded [Kindle Edition] – FREE

How do I pray? How do I study the Bible? How do I worship? How do I serve? How do I become a good steward? These are the questions every Christian should be asking. The answers are what every Christian needs to know.

WHY CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT CHRIST IS TOXIC – Verge Network

Alan Hirsch says, “…Folks, Christianity without Christ: dangerous, toxic, evil even…It’s non-sense and it’s dangerous stuff. Who wants Christianity without Christ? And the only way you get Christianity with Christ is to do discipleship, because that’s how Christ gets into us.”

(Watch Video)

Fathers, Are You Blessing Your Children? – Children Desiring God

Fathers, do you and other men in your church regularly speak blessings over your children? Do you wish that you did, but perhaps need some help getting started?

Pastor David Michael started blessing his daughters every night when they were 7 and 10 years old. He had seen The Blessing, a film featuring Gary Smalley and John Trent (copyright©1991, Thomas Nelson), and was inspired and challenged to be a blessing to his family. As he considered the calling and responsibilities of fatherhood, he felt moved to pronounce Aaron’s blessing from Numbers 6 over his girls.

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Jason Sneed Simple Thoughts

Equations To Live By

Growing up I hated math. Ok, who am I kidding, I still hate math. I am sure this comes as no surprise to my high school and college teachers. Math is all around us, and as far as I know, I will be using it until I take my last breath.

There are two equations I want to draw your attention to in the Bible:

1. Transitive Property of Equality

Just about all of us have seen or heard of this equation. The more familiar terminology of this equations would be as follow: If “A” equals “B” and “B” equals “C”, then “A” equals “C”.

Paul is writing to the church of Corinth and told them to follow this equation. He says in I Corinthians 11:1 – “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ”

See the equation? If we (“A”) would look at Paul’s life (“B”) and do exactly what he did and follow the example that was set by Christ (“C”), then our lives would begin to look more like Christ!

I so want to be able to say of my life, “A” = “C”!

2. Simple Subtraction

Addition and subtraction are more my type of math, but even then it can be very, very hard! Let me explain. John 3:30 has to be one of the hardest equations for me to figure out and live by! Why? John 3:30 says, “He must increase, but I must decrease”.

See the difficulty in this equation?

“I want to be king of my own life and I know what is best for me. I don’t need any help making my life turn out the best”. This is the way most Christians today want to live their lives, and I have to say that there are many days that I say the same thing. Do you see the problem with the first sentence in this paragraph? It is full of “I” and “Me” and not full of “HIM”!

Most people today are rewriting John 3:30 to say, “I must increase, but He must decrease”! We would never agree to this statement out loud, but by the way we live our lives, this is exactly what we are saying.

Even with the fact that I HATE math, I do understand that these two equations could change our lives completely. In fact, both of these equations work together. If we are imitators of Paul, who was an imitator of Christ, then we are becoming more like Christ, which in turn is going to increase HIM and decrease us.

Don’t you just love math?!?!