A short reminder from Penn Jillette

Jesus teaches in Matthew 5, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect.”

Perfect is not the same as perfection.

Perfection demands striving and achieving.

Perfect invites beholding and becoming.

Perfection sets a standard that must be achieved.

Perfect reveals a quality of heart that can only be received.

Perfection breeds performance.

Perfect welcomes relationship.

Perfection excludes others with prejudice.

Perfect embraces enemies with blessing.

Perfection requires people to change before they are accepted.

Perfect accepts them as they are.

Perfection is a curse.

Perfect is a blessing.

Perfection enslaves us with never quite getting there.

Perfect frees us to become.

Perfection reeks of Hell.

Perfect has the aroma of Heaven.

Perfection resigns its victims in despair.

Perfect revels in joy.

Perfection revolves around the protection of self.

Perfect orients around the love of other.

Perfection depreciates through criticism.

Perfect appreciates through encouragement.

Perfection struggles with impossibility.

Perfect thrives in possibilities.

Perfection demands proofs.

Perfect exudes a winsome witness.

Perfection insists on “right.”

Perfect loves “real.”

Perfection smacks of gotcha.

Perfect emanates grace.

Perfection lowers through comparison.

Perfect lifts through Love.

Perfection cries foul and demands its own standard of justice.

Perfect revels in generosity

Perfection emphasizes the letter of the law.

Perfect captures the spirit of grace.

Perfection examines the outward appearance.

Perfect looks on the heart.

Perfection enforces the rules.

Perfect delights in the truth.

Perfection is exacting in judgment.

Perfect forgives flaws and faults.

Perfection exploits sin.

Perfect covers sin.

Perfection traffics in prestige, pride, and power.

Perfect seeks meekness, purity and peace.

Perfection struggles to take the seats of honor.

Perfect takes the last place.

Perfection lives to be served.

Perfect lives to serve.

Perfection stones sinners.

Perfect pardons sinners.

Perfection calculates a tithe.

Perfect puts in their last two coins.

Perfection banishes to hell.

Perfect invites a dying thief into paradise.

Perfection assesses quickly and never gets past the face value.

Perfect seeks deeper for understanding.

Perfection crucifies Perfect.

Perfect rises from the dead and puts perfection in the grave.

(these perfect vs perfection statements are taken from the Asbury Reader from Asbury Theological Seminary)

Some stats on the pornification of America…

1. My sermon this week was on taking next steps. After the 11:00 service I had a college student come up to me and tell me her next step was to get baptized. I can’t wait to see that next step realized!
2. I spent this last week at Dayspring Camp, our high school church camp. I love camp. Seeing students repent and give their lives to serve Christ is a great way to spend a week. I was so proud of our church and our youth staff. And on top of a week at camp, I really love to see the students back in church on Sunday fresh off that camp experience.
3. One word: Afterparty!
4. I also have to say how excited I was to combine two of my loves in a single sermon: track and field and Jesus.

Once again, thanks to Sparrow Creative for this work.

Fort McKinley United Methodist Church was becoming a crumbling symbol of its increasingly troubled neighborhood in Dayton, Ohio—until the congregation’s long-time members agreed to take a risk.

While the 40 remaining attendees pondered what to do with their dying 100-year-old legacy in the community, one member said God spoke: “Satellite church, hook up with Ginghamsburg.” Likewise God … [continue reading here]

You can pick up a bound copy at the Venue68.

Thanks to Sparrow Creative for this piece, and hopefully they are okay with me publishing this booklet.

I’m preaching this week on Jesus’ question:

You of little faith, why are you so afraid?

This question comes because of a storm. A storm that threatened death.

Storms happen. Fear is a reality.

A little wisdom from Eugene Peterson on dealing with these storms:

That he “sticks with us” is the reason Christians can look back over a long life crisscrossed with cruelties, unannounced tragedies, unexpected setbacks, sufferings, disappointments, depressions- look back across all that and see it is a road of blessing, and make a song out of what we see. “They’ve kicked me around ever since I was young, but they never could keep me down.” God sticks to his relationship. He establishes a personal relationship with us and stays with it. The central reality for Christians is the personal, unalterable, persevering commitment God makes to us. Perseverance is not the result of our determination, it is the result of God’s faithfulness. We survive in the way of faith not because we have extraordinary stamina but because God is righteous, because God sticks with us. Christian discipleship is a process of paying more and more attention to God’s righteousness and less and less attention to our own; finding the meaning of our lives not by probing our moods and motives and morals but by believing in God’s will and purposes; making a map o the faithfulness of God, not charting the rise and fall of our enthusiasm. It is out of such a reality that we acquire perseverance.