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5 Great On-Line Resources

I am a bit of a history nerd. In fact, I think everyone should love history. Most of the time when someone tells me they hate history it is usually because they had a bad history teacher, or several. I was fortunate to have experienced the opposite. My passion for history has always fueled my study of the scripture. When we seek to know the contemporary situation the Bible characters were in, the Scripture comes alive. Have I already lost you?

Our prayer at The Park is to equip saints for the works of ministry. I hope the weekly messages and these resources will serve you to that end. We have one week left in our detour series then we launch into a study on the book of Mark. Come early and I will buy you a cup of coffee. See you Sunday.

5 On-Line Resources
www.followtherabbi.com
Ray Vanderlaan is, in my opinion, one of the greatest Bible teachers alive. If you ever have the chance to tour the Holy Land with this man then jump on it. If you don’t have the cash, then check out the site. The faith lessons and datafiles are rich with information.

www.desiringgod.org
This site contains the bulk of John Piper’s teaching and writing. If you don’t know Piper, you need to. I can safely say he has changed everything about how I read the Bible. If you like to read, buy a copy of Desiring God. It will blow your mind.

www.ccel.org
The Christian Classics Etheral Library is a free resource hosted by Calvin College. Type in a verse or passage you are studying where it says “search library.” The wealth of information stored here could keep you occupied for the better part of a decade.

www.dentonbible.org
Tommy Nelson is the Senior Pastor of Denton Bible. He is an exceptional expositor of scripture. Many people know him from his Song of Solomon series. If you liked that then check out his weekly sermons.

www.monergism.com
How far down the rabbit hole do you want to go? If you want to dig really deep then this is the site for you. You will find articles from Tim Keller, Alvin Plantinga, Blaise Pascal, Norman Geisler, and many others. Warning, break out your dictionary for this one.

Please pray for the children and staff in the Abandon Baby Unit.  The Abandon Baby Unit is located inside University Hospital, which has collapsed. Our contact, Shannon Sedgwick Davis, has given us the following information…

These children are most likely still in the back in a 15×30 room. They have no water, food, and now, I fear, none of our staff has been able to get to them.  Some of the children my have tried to run but many are crippled.  All  of them are very ill.  Many have terminal conditions.  One of the little girls, Emanuella (we call her Nanan) has been in this room since 2002.   I am truly afraid for them.

At this time many of our staff members are unaccounted for.  We have spoken to our In country- Director Rapheal Chenet.   The roads are impassable all of our vehicles were rendered useless.   There is no phone service.

The Abandoned Baby Unit is inside the HUEH (the University Hospital near the collapsed Palace) on Rue Mgr Guilloux.  There are in the very back of the Pediatric section very close to the morgue.

Here are the children’s names…

Send Prayer & Money to Haiti,

Be the church, then Go to church
Most of you are aware of the earthquake in Haiti.  The Park Church hasn’t had it’s first meeting yet but I am asking you to be the church before we meet.  Join us in sending money to Haiti.

CNN Reports, A major earthquake struck southern Haiti on Tuesday, knocking down buildings and power lines and inflicting what its ambassador to the United States called a catastrophe for the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation.Several eyewitnesses reported heavy damage and bodies in the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, where concrete-block homes line steep hillsides. There was no estimate of the dead and wounded Tuesday evening, but the U.S. State Department has been told to expect “serious loss of life,” department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington.”

What we are doing, please join us…

• Some of you have already started tithing to The Park, thank you.  We are writing the first Park Community Church check to relief work in Haiti.
• We have a friend flying out to Haiti on Saturday.  I will be updating information on the city as we are asked to help.  (click the city button in the left column to register for the city) We may need you to help load a plane of supplies this Saturday. If you want to help sign up on “the city” for updates.
• World vision is on the ground and accepting donations… http://www.worldvision.org/
• Children’s hunger fund is sending aid… http://www.chfus.org
• Pray

We begin meeting this Sunday @ the rose theatre.  We will give you updates on how you can help this Sunday during our service.
In His Grip,
Scott

As I type, I am off the grid.   I woke up this morning with a new resolution, to take myself off the grid till noon on Wednesdays.  So far I have been successful.  But i won’t lie, it hasn’t been easy.  My iphone is an awesome tool but it’s a curse as well.  I am finding myself carrying a low grade fever at all times when I allow other people’s agendas to interfere with where I am trying to be fully present.  It’s that little nagging sensation, “maybe something cool is happening somewhere else?”  My son Chase plays with my old cell phone, a black motorola razor.  Even last night i was thinking about that little phone and wondering how i survived without text messages, web browsers, twitter, facebook, linked-in, and a dozen other random ways to talk with people.  What’s really crazy, i lived an entire 25 years of my life without even having a cell phone!  So i am fasting; the e-mail clients are off, the cell phone is inactive, and the web browsers are shut down.

Now i am not one of those radicals, taking a complete digital fast.  I am going to have to work up to this.  But as i consider my time and the little i have to actually focus in and listen to God I am realizing all the great communications tools become a barrier between me and my first relationship.  As I focus into pray. with my cell phone active, I am really just saying, “God I’m good spending time with you unless something better comes along.”

He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.” Genesis 32:28

Jacob prevailed when he finally surrendered.  Had he not surrendered the battle may have lasted his whole life.  When we emerge from resisting God it is fitting we receive a new name.  The battle, where we face off against God, will mark is for the rest of our lives.  The new name is a new identity.  After we have finally submitted to the leadership of God we are different people.

The goal of our Christian life is transformation lived out, to be a city set on a hill.  If you have resisted God and finally come to a place of surrender will you tell others?  Will you live differently in the future?

More times than not, despite our new identity, we still resist God.  Even with a new name we lock arms. How can we be transformed?