Because of Your Love

Often when we read through the scriptures, the voice in our...well, My head takes on the form of a boring old pastor who's zeal for life equals my zeal for athletic activity. I read and it's just words on a page. BUt I found that if I engage...if I think about what my Savior has done for me and what He is doing in me right now, then my heart starts to overflow with gratitude and affection for Him. Then Romans, which i've read a gazilion times with no real thought about it, it becomes this earnest letter from a man who's affections for Christ are overflowing onto a page, you know? The angst behind Pauls words becomes more and more apparent. Paul knows the greatest thing is CHrist and knows that you need to know it, too. Jeremiah calls it "fire, shut up in my bones" It's got to come out. LEt your affections for Christ come out today, Jon. Live a life worthy of the grace you have been given. Because of Christ's love for You, jon, be the best.

In Defense of "Depth"

This is from my new blog. I'm slowly making the shift to all things google. This blog will shut down at some point. til then, let me know what you think.



I've been struck by a couple of things written on some other blogs and, in one instance, a job posting for a church. The job posting for a church said something to the effect of "...you must love evangelism, so big John Piper fans need not apply"- as if John Piper is anti-evangelism.
I know this one guy, and you know who you are, who routinely says things like, "I'm not spiritually 'deep' " or "I don't know theological stuff, but..." That's the idea and I'm sure this person will rip me for misquoting. But that's not the point. The point is that people who have great spiritual depth in their relationship with Christ should be admired and copied. The deeper someone goes in their personal relationship with Christ will take them to areas of effectiveness, wholeness, and satisfaction they never dreamed. Paul was a proponant of spiritual depth.

Ephesians 3:16-19
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

and in Philipians 3:7-12
7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.[c] For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
Pressing toward the Goal
12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.


Time and time again, we are prompted by God to go deeper. The writer of Hebrews tells the jewish believers that they should be deeper than they are, but are still on Spiritual milk, when meat if for the mature. (Hebrews 5:11-14)
A life that follows Christ, but does not grow is not effective.

With that said, there is a danger for those who go deeper to avoid putting their faith into practice. I must admit that I've fallen into that trap many times. But I believe that as we become more and more like Christ...going 'deeper' in our relationship with Him..we will find that it is impossible to ignore the scriptures and we MUST put them into practice. We MUST love one another, feed the poor, clothe the naked. We must Love God with ALL our heart, soul, MIND and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves. Depth brings this. John Piper's deep. He's effective, too.
It is a lie from the enemy that tells us we're too "busy" to go deeper or that it's not important. Depth brings effectiveness. Depth brings that "it factor" that so many pastors are looking for. Wrap your life around God...go DEEP. The world around you will NEVER be the same. Too many capital letters? Response?

NEW songs, recording, life

One of the biggest parts of launching this new ministry is recording something that represents who Christ is and who He is making me. We're in the process of doing that. Check out these videos below and you can hear some of the process. God has been so faithfu, providing each part as needed. Whether that's money, time, or sanctification, He's right there doing exactly what He does. There are still many costs involved in getting this little project completed. If you feel God wants to use you to help finish this, please shoot me an email or comment on this post. Also...let me know what you think of the songs.

jon








New EP Pre-Production

Yes We Can!

Remember that chant at Obama's acceptance speech? Catchy, right. It's the American way of life, you know? It's the idea that you can pull yourself up and "be somebody". There's one major problem with this way of thinking. We can't. Ever.
This is the profound difference between a relationship with Christ and religion. Every other religion on the planet tells you to accomplish this or that...follow these five pillars, or seven steps, or drink this punch when this comet comes and we'll all get whatever version of bliss they come up with.
Have you ever read through Leviticus or even the ten commandments in Exodus? How are those going for you? You got those down? I don't. Not even close. Except the thing about "knowing" your father's sister or things like that. That's just gross. After writing in Romans that we become conscious of sin through the law, Paul writes this.
Romans 3:21-24
21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

No one can attain perfection. It isn't something that we can work up to. If we could, Christ died for nothing (Galatians 2:21)

so No...you can't.

But Christ can...Christ did. In Colossians 1:27, Paul tells us the great mystery of life. Christ in you....Christ in me...the hope of Glory, the hope of being right...the hope of not failing.

Christ offers us perfection. All we have to do is take it...walk in it. Everything that's screwed up with you and me died with Christ on the cross. All things will be presented in perfection when He comes again. Til then, we have access to the power of Christ. Romans 8:28. The same power that raised Christ from the dead live in you and me now. We have access...how will you respond?

New things: John 6:55

I love being a Dad. It's awesome. It's almost the best thing and I can totally see why some parents set their kids up as gods in their lives...super cute, pooping, crying, no motor skills gods. I love it. My son's obsessed with cars and shoes. We've got a fashionable man in the making. I hope he doesn't discover hair product too soon. Anywho, my daughter has long, chestnut hair and bright blue eyes. She's 3 and is communicating really well now. She'll come up and hug you and say "I love you, too" even if you didn't say it first. It's adorable. My son comes up and hits you, then laughs manically. It's great. That's not the point of this post, though.

With the help of some great friends, I have started a ministy. In Response Ministries exists to teach, lead, and equip people to find genuine satisfaction in a relationship with Jesus Christ through worship and service. That sounds so official, right? We're incorporated and in the process of obtaining non-profit status and recording a new EP called "Center of it All". So, if you have a lot of money burning a hole in your pocket and want to help us out...:) The idea behind the ministry is that Christ offers real, total, lasting satisfaction in a relationship with Him. Our job is to lead people to that and to teach and equip them to remain in that satisfaction. Our verse is John 6:55 Read the context around it to get the picture. I'll post a sermon later. The short version is that Christ offers the real version to the things that only offer temporary satisfaction. Specifically that means leading people in worship and teaching/equiping the church's leaders to lead them to live lives of satisfaction in Jesus.
So we're working on a new EP. Here's a video from pre-production. check jonwebbministries.com often for updates and I"ll post more videos as we get it done. But I"m serious about the money though. or if you want to have us come to your church, that'd be great. But most of the people that read this go to my church and I"m already there so...
New EP Pre-Production

Politics

Ok...so I've got a lot of stuff rolling around in my head. Sean Penn's oscar win and subsequent speech kind of triggered it. So...
There's this move in the american evangelical church towards social justice. This is a GREAT thing. For WAY too long, this group of the church has pushed social issues back in favor of a shallow evangelism. By that I mean a focus on conversion and not Disciples...or the number of baptisms versus the number of mature followers of Christ if that makes sense. So this is great. The Love God puts in us for all people is showing. Sunday mornings are becoming a safe place for really screwed up people again. There is genuine love for the poor, the orphans, the widows, the prostitutes and homosexuals. It's a good thing. The Church is listening to culture to respond.
On the flip side, there is a generation before that has railed against culture and ignored the signs of the downward spiral. This spawned the current attitude both in the church and out. So when someone like Sean Penn starts talking about issues about which he is so obviously passionate, there is this group that turns it off and ignores it. Then they wonder why people don't want to come to church. It becomes a perpetual cycle of "us against them". So...an older generation of Christians perpetuated a legacy of hate or apathy maybe.
However, in youth's backlash against this older way of doing things, some important issues have gone overlooked. There is a large group of Christians...genuine followers of Christ that voted for Barack Obama. This is mostly due to his stance on certain social issues. Hope and change, you know? Social Justice has become ultimate. I think that some of these folks forget that Social Justice has been entrusted to the church. So...my ADD is kicking in and most people don't read this so there. I'm done.

Best Christmas Song Ever

I love playing songs for pre-schoolers. Here's how this classic went this week.

Rudolph the rednosed reindeer (DER!)
Had a very shiny nose ( lye-bull)
and if you ever saw it (saw ih)
You would even say it glows (lye-BUL)

All of the other reindeer (DEER)
Used to laugh and call him names (spiderman)
They never let poor rudolph (spiderman)
join in any reindeer games (spiderman)

Then one foggy Christmas eve
santa came to say (spiderman)

I think you get the point, right?
Mitchell, the little boy who came up with this, said spiderman each time like he was trying to subliminally tell me what he wanted for Christmas. It was Hilarious. I had to start over a number of times, I was laughing so hard.