Good Bye Posterous

Well Posterous is shutting down in a few weeks. This gave me an exucse to start a whole new blog. So if you follow this blog, or any of my others that get this post, I'll be switching to www.whatsupvarners.com. Amber and I will be blogging there and sharing our experiences. We hope you'll join us on this journey during the next season of life. 

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

Reverse Fireworks

Someone posted this already, but I thought it was cool enough to repost. I hope you enjoy them. 

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

I Prayed to Win My Fantasy Football League...And I'm Ok With It

 

The past two weeks I've prayed to win my Fantasy Football league with co-workers. We started our playoffs last week and I barely made it in, like by the skin of my teeth barely. But I didn't pray to make the playoffs. I wanted to win but it was not on my prayer list. It wasn't until I was in the playoffs that I started praying to win. The commisioner of our league, a critic of Christianity, posted on our league that if I won the whole thing that he wouldd go to church. It was at that time that I started praying. I was the underdog facing an oppnent that should have beat me handedly.

As our matchup progressed it looked like I was going to lose until Tom Brady came out of nowhere and scored a ton of points. Something I was frankly hoping against because it would probably mean the 49ers losing, since they're are my favorite team I didn't want that to happen. But I continued to pray and I won my matchup. 

This week I am again facing an oppnent that should beat me handedly. But I am continuing to pray for victory. But why? 

I am praying because I believe that this could be an opportunity for my co-worker to hear the Gospel and respond. This could be a moment that God is using to draw this individual closer to himself. God works in mysterious ways, and he may even use Fantasy Football. 

We'll see if I win this weekend and if I do happen to win if my co-worker stands by his word. 

 

 

 

 

Photo from: http://myglimpsesofglory.com/2012/09/07/fantasy-football-christianity/ found via google search. 

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

Doctrine of Heaven Sermon

I gave this sermon at Rock Bible Church, where I serve as the Youth Pastor, on Sunday 11/25/2012. The primary passage is Revelation 21:1-8.

https://vimeo.com/54377446

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

Thoughts on the Election

Well the day is finally here, the day America votes on another president. This year unlike others it feels as if more is on the line. In previous elections the sense was both candidates had specifics to them but neither would take the country in a dramatic new direction. This has changed. This year there is a sense that the directions are completely different. There is no question that I have a preferred outcome in this election, as I imagine most do.

But that's not what is on my mind. The Christian perspective regardless of who wins is on my mind. Like many I can get caught up in the election cycle and find myself placing a small measure of hope for the direction of this country in the candidates that I am hoping are elected. While it is not wrong to have a desired outcome, it is wrong to misplace hope. 

If you are a Christian you must keep one simple fact in mind. Whoever wins will win because God desires that outcome. So if you are a Christian and your candidate wins, great. If you're a Christian and your candidate doesn't win, bummer but God still has this thing under control. That does not mean that you don't desire Obama or Romney to win, that's perfectly acceptable. But those of us who call ourselves Christian must remember that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And nothing can change that.

Here are two verses for you to keep in mind today, and tomorrow. 

Daniel 2:21 Speaking of God Daniel states "He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding"

And

Romans 13:1 "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God."

May your hope be placed in the King of Kings and Lord of Lords regardless of who wins today. 

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

Vision for the Church Blog Post

Apparently I signed up to receive Redeemer City to City month emails at some point in the last month because today I received an email from them with some highlights over the past month. One blog post got my attention De-Industrialising The Church by Felipe Assis. It is a two-part post that I found intriging. Here are the posts, part 1 and part 2. He says that this is just his speculation. If you have any thoughts feel free to share them. I'd be interested to see what people think.

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

KNOWN TO BE SAVED and KNOWN TO BE LOST

Short article about an amazing man. If you're a Christian would you do this for someone? 

http://baptistpress.org/BPnews.asp?ID=37601

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

Afraid?

What are you afraid of?

 

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

Christ's Death

This semester I'm in a class on the book of Romans. We've been going through the entire book looking at what Paul was teaching in it by the Holy Spirit. A few weeks ago we reached Romans 5 and it has caused me to ponder something about is death. I've been pondering verse 12 and some implications of my own thought. Verse 12 reads "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all men, because all sinned." (Romans 5:12 HCSB). 

What I've been thinking about heavily revolves around the Christian belief that Christ was indeed sinless, that he lived the perfect life free of sin (see 2 Corinthians 5:21). What I've been thinking about is that Christ shouldn't have died, not in a purpose sense but in a consiquence sense. As we see in Romans 5:12 death is a natural consiquence of sin. If sin had not entered the world, death would not have entered it either. This is a difficult idea for us to grasp because death is so real to us, more real than sin at times. By that I mean we consciously grasp death better than we do sin. Since Jesus never sinned he should never had died. I had never thought about this before. It never occured to me that Christ would never have died. Death is so normal to us that we expect all people to die, which is a quality I mistakenly put upon Jesus. If someone were to never sin they would live forever. Every man's death is proof of his sinfulness. 

But then we must ask "Why did Jesus die? If he never sinned then why did he receive the punishment for it?" That is because God put the punishment of the sin of men upon him. This is clearly seen in the 2 Corinthians verse I linked to above. If Christ had not taken our sin upon himself he would have lived forever in a human sense. But God in his infinite love for humanity made Christ sin so that we might be made righteouss. We still face death but we also face eternal life as well, depending on if we have faith in God it will be eternally with him and if we do not place our faith in him it will be eternally seperated. 

On this Good Friday, or any day you happen to read this, may you realize the depth of your sin that Christ himself took upon himself. May you turn to him and receive his free gift of salvation. May you glorify the Lord in his glorious death. 

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

What are you rejoicing in today?

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

This could be the best cereal on earth. Peanut Butter Puffins.

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

Rudy

Last night, the wife and I watched the movie Rudy. We did so at my request. Recently I've found myself with an extreme desire to "get in the game" when it comes to serving as a pastor, but the Lord is withholding this for the time being. Not sure why He is, but that does not change the fact. I've found myself identifying with Rudy as of late. Two scenes of the film really hit me as we watched.

The first is an interaction between Rudy and one of the Catholic priests at the school. Rudy is in the church and praying when they have this interaction:

Father Cavanaugh: [in church] Taking your appeal to a higher authority? 
Rudy: I'm desperate. If I don't get in next semester, it's over. Notre Dame doesn't accept senior transfers. 
Father Cavanaugh: Well, you've done a hell of a job kid, chasing down your dream. 
Rudy: Who cares what kind of job I did if it doesn't produce results? It doesn't mean anything. 
Father Cavanaugh: I think you'll find that it will. 
Rudy: Maybe I haven't prayed enough. 
Father Cavanaugh: I don't think that's the problem. Praying is something we do in our time, the answers come in God's time. 
Rudy: If I've done everything I possibly can, can you help me? 
Father Cavanaugh: Son, in thirty-five years of religious study, I've come up with only two hard, incontrovertible facts; there is a God, and, I'm not Him. 

This scene struck me because of two things. The first is the statement about prayer being something we do in our time and God answering in His time. I'm not exactly sure this is Biblical, but I'm not sure it isn't. I can't think of any place in scripture where He promises to answer immediately. This was a great reminder for me. Like the woman in Luke 18:1-5 

 1 He then told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not become discouraged: 2 "There was a judge in one town who didn't fear God or respect man. 3 And a widow in that town kept coming to him, saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' 4 "For a while he was unwilling, but later he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or respect man, 5yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice, so she doesn't wear me out by her persistent coming.' "6 Then the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 Will not God grant justice to His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay [to help] them? 8 I tell you that He will swiftly grant them justice. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find that faith on earth?" (HCSB)

Now I know it says that He will swiftly grant justice. But we must realize that this is from God’s perspective, not ours. “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” (2 Peter 3:8 ESV) So God maybe swift but it doesn’t appear that way to us, Daniel is another good example of this. 

The second thing about this scene that struck me was the statement about not being God. That is a great reminder. Often we think we’re dictating the situation, but that simply isn’t the case. 

 

The other scene was one with a young Vince Vaughn, yep I said that. In this scene they are at the final practice for the final game of the season and Rudy tackles Vince Vaughn’s character, Jamie O’Hara, and Jamie didn’t care for that much in the last practice. They get into an argument and the head coach, Parseghian, breaks them up and this conversation ensues. 

Ara Parseghian: What's your problem, O'Hare, what's your problem? 

Jamie O'Hara: Last practice of the season and this asshole thinks it's the Super Bowl! 

Ara Parseghian: You just summed up your entire sorry career here in one sentence! If you had a tenth of the heart of Ruettiger, you'd have made All-American by now! As it is, you just went from third team to the prep team! Get out of here!

 

In that moment I had to ask myself “Am I being like O’Hara or Rudy? Do I have the heart, aka the effort/emotion, of Rudy or am I just getting by with my natural talents like O’Hara?” You see Rudy has no natural talent for football, but O’Hara does. Rudy’s devotion to the end goal is what is driving him, O’Hara on the other hand is simply getting by on his natural talents. That was probably the most meaningful moment of the film for me as I watched it this time around. I think I’ve probably got the heart of O’Hara right now, not Rudy. And that needs to change. 

 

I’m not exactly sure how to end this blog post. Here is a question for you I guess “Are you giving you’re whole heart to the task God has given you? And Him? Or are you surviving on the talents He’s already given?”

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

In Good Company

Today I read an article by Christianity Today titled A History of Darkness. It describes a condition that Christians have often experienced throughout history that has come to be known as The Dark Night of the Soul. 

If you are a genuine believer, one who has accepted the Lord Jesus Christ and repented of your sins, I'd encourage you to read the article. You might at some point in your life encounter this condition. But be sure that your separation from God is not your own doing through sin or withdrawal from God. For there are 4 reasons God might seem far from us. 1) We do not have a genuine relationship with him 2) We have unconfessed sin in our lives 3) We've walked away from God, which I suppose is a form of sin 4) He has withdrawn the feeling of His presence so that we will come to a truer understanding of who He actually is. 

Here is the article. http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2011/fall/historydarkness.html

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

Being a Preacher

I saw this post on preaching by Mark Driscoll and I really liked it. Some great points to remember. 

http://pastormark.tv/2011/11/07/16-things-i-look-for-in-a-preacher

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

Why Language is Important...Or Why Greek is Awesome

Please note that I have very little knowledge of New Testament Greek. So if I am incorrect about something below please know that it was not intentional. Ok now that I've put that out there let's discuss something awesome.

Today in Greek class we were discussing John 1:1-5 in the original language of Greek, which is awesome I might add. We've learned enough in our class thus far that we can at least recognize a good portion of what it going on. 

Here is how the HCSB reads "¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ All things were created through Him, and apart from Him not one thing was created that has been created. ⁴ Life was in Him, and that life was the light of men. ⁵ That light shines in the darkness, yet the darkness did not overcome it." I've just started using the Holman Christian Standard Bible and I really like it in some places although I'm normally an ESV guy, and here is one of those places. 

Before we go any further let's discuss something about Greek. In Greek verbs can express different time periods when an actions occurred as well as the way the action has occurred, is occuring or will occur. This is called the Tense and Voice. Thus far we've only learned a small portion of these, but something significant was pointed out in class today by our professor about this particular passage and it comes out in the HCSB. 

If you notice in the passage everything is in the past tense except shines, which is exactly how it occurs in the Greek. The tense and voice express that it is a continuing action and everything else is a past occurence. It as if John is saying "this all happened in the past but the light is shining up until today and will continue to shine indefinitely." This is something John's original readers would have picked up on immediately. If you also notice it is clear that the darkness tried to overcome the light in the past but failed. 

Now I'm not an expert at interpretting Greek passages but this struck me today. The light is continuing to shine even till today and the darkness tried to overcome it but failed. Jesus is the light of the world that continues to shine today and the darkness can't do anything about it. It tried once but it failed. If that is the case why are we affriad to speak up about the light? Why do we let things concern us when the light has overcome the most powerful thing that is in the world? 

Here is my encouragement to you...consider how the Light continuing to shine changes the way you live. What will you change because the Light is shining and nothing, I mean nothing, can overcome it? 

 

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

The Arrival of the King

Here is my most recent sermon. I gave it on 4/17/11 at FBC West. It was our Palm Sunday service and the title is The Arrival of the King. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. 

<p>The Arrival of the King from Jon Varner on Vimeo.</p>

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

Life Without Worry

This is a sermon I gave at Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church on 4/10/11. The title is Life Without Worry and the passage for the sermon is Philippians 4:4-7. I'd love your feedback. 

http://youtu.be/WVkwh4DUWiM

http://youtu.be/DG7d2njBuvg

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

The Flesh

I've been reading a book on fighting sin and wanted to share this quote with you. "You can feel the hostility of the flesh whenever you approach God - it makes real love for him into work: Digging around the Bible to find a juicy new insight to impress your small group is like sailing the Caribbean, but poring over the Scriptures to find the Lover of your soul is like skiing up Mount Everest. Conjuring up a happy mood with some music you don't even know the words to is like solving 2 + 2 with a calculator. But savoring the glory of Christ and his tender love until your heart is softened toward him is like using mental math to calculate pi to the thousandth place. And giving a birthday present to your best friend is like forcing down some double-fudge brownies. But giving up your extra bedroom to a homeless person in the name of Jesus is like eating the Rockies for breakfast." - Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy Within

Where do you see the flesh most at battle with God?

Soli Deo Gloria,
Jon

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

Inspiring Young Girl

A young girl (9 years old) decided to raise money to build a clean water well, to the tune of $5000. Yikes! That is a ton of money for a 9 year old. Read about her story here: http://www.parentdish.com/2010/06/30/california-second-grader-sets-goal-for-clean-water-worldwide/

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous

Study Habits

I found this NY Times article on study habits. If you need to study or know someone who does you should read it. http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=654664&single=1&f=26
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Posted via email from jcvarner's posterous