This year, September 2011 – summer 2012, Dan Meyer is taking us through The Way of Jesus. Right now, he is digging into The Way of Life. Which roads do you take in life? Which paths do you follow? Some paths are harder, yet very rewarding. This is typical when you follow the Way of Jesus. Find out more – please join us for worship:
- in the Sanctuary on Saturdays (new! as of October 15 at 5:30 p.m. we offer a contemporary worship)
- Sundays at 8:30am, 10:00am, 11:30am
- Worship Live Stream (live webcast on Sundays at 8:30am and10:00am on www.cc-ob.tv/iworship)
- All messages available at www.cc-ob.tv on our Christ Church media site
- Christ Church of Oak Brook app through iTunes available on your iPhone and iPad and Android.
The book Heaven is for Real was recommended by Dan Meyer during the AFTERLIFE message series. Once I started reading it, I couldn’t put it down. It started out simply enough – a young pastor and his wife have two children. The four-year-old gets sick, but they think it’s the flu especially since the sister gets the flu. Not to spoil the book for you, but the boy survives the illness but over the next year or so, he continues to tell his mother and father what he saw in heaven while he was sick. (I won’t tell you the tears I shed during this part, as a mother of a young child!) The book is written very well, and the glimpses we are allowed into what heaven is really like are amazing.
The boy saw Jesus and often commented on how much Jesus loves the children. The boys said he was sent back to earth because his father prayed for it. The father has never taken prayer for granted since! In heaven, the boy also met his sister – the child that the mother miscarried before this boy was born so he didn’t know about her. The miscarriage happened at only 3 months or so! The list goes on and on – and I was amazed at every tidbit the boy shared with his parents throughout the book.
The author, the father, takes good care to explain why the boy didn’t dream the scenes he saw or that he didn’t know about them from another source, but the complete innocence in which the boy shared makes it clear that it is all from his heart. I loved imagining the scenes in my mind, and it prompted me to study the book of Revelations again.
Did you get a chance to read the book? What are your comments?
That’s what Dan Meyer talked about during this message as part of his AFTERLIFE series. To view all these messages, please visit Christ Church Media at www.cc-ob.tv and click on messages, and then the AFTERLIFE graphic.
In this message, Dan talks about how some of us might wonder how a loving Father can also be such a damning judge. Do you wonder that? Some people are comforted by it – glad that people different from Christians will burn in hell, that they’ll get their ‘come-uppance.’ For others of us, it is puzzling.
But when you love and you see bad things done, you are going to get angry, even wrathful. Here’s a new phrase for us: Purgative Libertarianism. This phrase was talked about in Rob Bell’s recent book, and it means that God uses hell to save people.
Let us know what you thought of this sermon or the entire series and post a comment.
On Palm Sunday, Dan Meyer delivered a powerful message about forgiving God. Do you ever have a hard time forgiving God? Watch, listen, or read the message on the Christ Church Media website: http://www.cc-ob.tv and click on the series FORGIVEN.
Have you ever hated God? There are times when each of us thinks that maybe God is mismanaging the universe. We think we could do a better job of it. For example, the teen who has her fourth abortion, but next door is the couple who has been trying to get pregnant for years.
Dan Meyer shared the story of his uncle, father of four daughters and one son, killed in a car accident by speeding bank robbers. Why didn’t God speed the universe up by just one second? Why not let one bank robber tie his shoe and get to that intersection one second later?
The message of why and how to forgive God is insightful and might change how you view God and how much he loves each and every one of us.
We are evaluating what works well and what needs improvement on our Christ Church of Oak Brook website. After this analysis, we’d like to offer a new website that gives you the information you are looking for.
What are your thoughts? Please leave a comment on this post or email me at Rmontgomery@cc-ob.org. Thank you!
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The April 10, 2011 message on Forgiven started like this: are you a Judas? Have you done something that needs to be forgiven? Instead of hanging yourself as Judas did, maybe you’re just hung up on forgiving yourself?
Dan Meyer gave us a very powerful message about forgiving yourself. He told the story of a friend who, by accident, killed his best friend when they were teenagers. Dan also told the story of how he himself met with someone in prayer, and Dan promised to return to meet with this man to pray with him again. But life got busy and Dan didn’t get back to see him before the man was let out of the hospital. But that man went on to kill his mistress and then himself. Yes, Dan had to learn how to forgive himself.
To watch, read, or listen to this sermon, visit Christ Church Media at www.cc-ob.tv and click on Sermons under Forgiven.
Let me know if you have had to forgive yourself about something. Leave a comment or email me at Rmontgomery@cc-ob.org.
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In Genesis 50, it’s the story of Joseph. Dan Meyer paints a picture of Josheph’s plight. His brothers beat him bloody and sold him into slavery. He got dragged hundreds of miles across hot sand. Then thrown in jail, left again to die. And he was just a kid when all this happened. So how can Joseph forgive his brothers?
Dan offered this list on HOW TO FORGIVE:
1. Condemn the wrong.
2. Relinquish your right to get even.
3. Release wrong doer from guilt.
4. Practice redemptive remembering. (Joseph said to his brothers: You intended to harm, but God intended otherwise.)
Is your suffering worse than what Joseph suffered? He forgave.
Is your suffering worse that that of Jesus? He forgave.
To watch, read, or listen to this sermon by Dan Meyer, please visit http://www.cc-ob.tv/search.php?series_id=100&category=Sermon
On the second sermon of the series FORGIVEN, Dan Meyer talked about WHY FORGIVE? He used the story of Jane and Ralph. When Ralph asked for forgiveness, the only thing Jane had left was her self respect. If she forgave him, wasn’t she giving up the only thing she had left -her self respect? She couldn’t give that up, could she?
Matthew 7:2-3 says the way you judge others will be used to judge you. That puts a whole new light on things for me. If I have a hard time forgiving someone, I trade places with them. That helps me to forgive, because I want to be forgiven. Another thought: what if we were justly punished for every transgression? Wow.
Dan offered these reasons for WHY FORGIVE?
1. Because God forgives us as Christians.
2. Because we are to want to become more like Jesus.
3. It helps your heart.
4. It improves our world.
Another powerful point – Jesus saved his toughest critique for those who critiqued others.
You can watch, read, or listen to this sermon in on the Christ Church Media website at www.cc-ob.org, click on Media in bottom left corner.
We are now in the Lenten Season, the 40 days leading up to Easter, when Christ died for our sins. Have you tried to relive these days as Jesus did, knowing he would be crucified in just a few weeks’ time? I’ve tried to imagine myself in my work day, reading with my six-year-old at night, texting to my 14-year-old after her school day … all the while knowing that in about one month, I would be murdered. I know I would be distracted, unable to focus, and angry. How forgiving would I be? Yet Jesus was.
Sunday, March 13, marks the start of Dan Meyer’s Lenten sermon series: forgiven. This is how Dan describes this series. “Nothing so shapes the health of our character, or defines the quality of our relationships, or determines the direction of our destiny like forgiveness. If you’ve ever longed to feel it, give it, or understand it more deeply than you have, then this series of messages is for you. Come discover what it means to live in the power of this word: forgiven.
When we first started to work on providing the Live Stream on the internet, we were very excited. But a glitch here and a formatting problem there … the project started to drag out. That is why, the first day it worked, you could hear cheers from all over the country. We had volunteers sitting in their homes in Illinois, some on vacation in Vermont, and one in Colorado.
I remember I was visiting my in-laws in Florida. It had been a cold winter for them and the days were just warming up 70 degrees, but my girls were still in the pool … lips purple from the cold water. But they were determined to be in a pool!
My brother-in-law was in daily dialysis following a serious fight with cancer. We had prayed for Rob and his wife Chris for months, but this was the first time we’d seen in him a few years. His attitude was great. Being there on his patio, sipping coffee, and worshipping all together was so wonderful, so peaceful. I hope you have some of the same experiences with Worship Live Stream.
When you are unable to join us in person, please join this new online community to worship. Use the Live Chat and Order of Worship (only visible on Sunday mornings during worship) and look on the Connect and About sites for more information.
Peace and Grace,
Renee Montgomery
Media and Communications Director