Tyson Kirksey

Not too long ago I visited a church out of town and listened to a sermon where the speaker cited Romans chapter 7 in the message. The minister made the explicit point that in chapter 7 Paul was referring to his pre-conversion state, or a pre-conversion man in general.

As irony would have it, today’s morning drive podcast began a series with John Piper on Romans chapter 7 and how Paul is not referring to pre-conversion, and how the battle with sin is a life-long battle. I instantly remembered back and thought how interesting it was for me to hear two sermons from the same text with diametrically opposing views in the course of a week or two.

Now, it never surprises me when Piper disagrees with a local CoC preacher. And from what I can tell, this is a century-long debate that will go on for centuries to come. Regardless, I’m interested in your thoughts. I know several of you have dug into this deeply…what’d you find? Anything to help me out?

Tyson Theology

For those of you outside of the DFW area, let me introduce you to 89.7 PowerFM. Commercial-free Christian alternative music around the clock, playing bands like Kutless, Pillar, Kids in the Way, Skillet and others. Thanks to PowerFM, I can stand driving a car with a missing CD player (and forgive the one that stole it).

A co-worker and I have signed up to play in the first ever PowerFM Golf-A-Thon. We’re going to play 50 holes in one day! I’m trying to raise a minumum of $1,500, so I’m appealing to you for help. If you can spare a few bucks and would like to pledge a per-hole donation to help this financially-struggling radio station, please click here. To encourage sponsorship (and so you don’t feel like you’re paying for my day of fun), I’m matching $0.25 for every dollar donated. Every amount is appreciated, even if you can only donate $0.50 a hole.

Tyson Music, Theology

I brought this analogy up in small group last night while talking about do battle in the heavenlies…see if you follow. In the original Star Wars movie Luke is learning the ways of a Jedi from Obi-Wan Kenobi. Do you remember the difference in their light sabers? Color, but also strength, thickness and length. While Luke’s was no drinking straw, Kenobi’s saber was noticeably more powerful.

The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit, according to Eph 6. The more Word we have in us, the stronger our ability, along with the Holy Spirit, to defeat the flaming arrows of deception thrown by Satan. In essence, the more we know the Word, the stronger our spiritual light saber is to defeat the enemy. Thicker, stronger and more reach. This is exactly how Jesus battled in the wilderness while being tempted. Three times…it is written.

How much more should we be in the Word, solidifying our values and beliefs against the ageless truths of God? Oh, what a change we would see in the phyiscal realm if we could win more in the spiritual.

Tyson Theology

I really enjoyed reading this year’s report on the happiness of America. Of no surprise, the more often you worship, the happier you are. What was a bit surprising to me however, was the correlation between money and happiness, especially after hearing Sergey Brin, one of the world’s richest men, say this:

You always hear the phrase, money doesn’t buy you happiness. But I always in the back of my mind figured a lot of money will buy you a little bit of happiness. But it’s not really true.

This is something we’ve been talking about in small group lately…what is happiness, really? I think there is mass confusion over the term, and we in America have made it out to be something it’s not. In America, happiness is living the American dream, a big house, a new car, a six-figure salary and early retirement. When you ask someone who is living this lifestyle if they are happy, I suspect they would be more willing to agree simply because their circumstances equate to our general view of happiness. They think, “Hey if I’m not happy, who is?”. Regardless of the bitterness in their hearts or the discord in their homes, they think “this must be happiness”. Conversely, the poor family who is struggling to pay the bills and yet have a life of contentment and fulfillment are more likely to disagree when asked about happiness, simply because their circumstances do not fall in line with the common wisdom. They might think, “well, I’m pretty happy, but I sure don’t add up to much so there must be more”. And thus the myth persists that money can buy happiness.

If you ask me, true happiness and fulfillment is found in a intimate relationship with Jehovah, God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit. Outside of him, all happiness is only temporary. Will it make me happy to move from my apartment to a house next month? Sure, it might satisfy a desire for a month or so. But if I can’t be happy in a small apartment, I can’t be happy in a mansion. If I can’t be happy in my Honda riceburner, a Toyota Supra wouldn’t change a thing.

“Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
“Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.”

Tyson Theology

We all know that it just takes one wrong prophecy to prove a false prophet. You’ll be glad to know that TV psychic Silvia Browne is now disqualified. She just happened to be on George Noory’s live radio show when the West Virginia mine tragedy was unfolding (actually it was the tragedy after the tragedy). Here’s some excerpts:

Noory: “Had you been on the program today, would [you] have felt if — because they heard no sound — that this was a very gloomy moment — and that they might have all died?”

Browne: “No. I knew they were going to be found. I hate people that say something after the fact. It’s just like I knew when the pope was dead. Thank God I was on Montel’s show. I said, according to the time, it was 9-something and whatever Rome time was. And I said he was gone, and he was.”

Of course the events were unfolding. In just a matter of minutes, the entire situation changed. Here’s Browne’s thoughts now:

Browne — who was still in the studio taking questions from listeners — had to say something. Now she was just riffing: “I don’t think there’s anybody alive, maybe one. How crazy for them to report that they were alive when they weren’t!” Then she added: “I just don’t think they are alive.” She cleared her throat, and there was a deafening pause.

Minutes later…

She blurted: “I didn’t believe that they were alive.”

Noory: “What’s that, the miners?”

Browne: “Yeah, I didn’t think — and see, I’ve been on the show with you, but I don’t think there’s any that are going to make it.”

Noory: “They say there are 12 gone. I think we threw you a curveball, we were telling you after the fact.”

Browne: “Yeah, no, I did believe that they were gone.”

OK…just a little fun for you on this slow Thursday.

Tyson Theology

We’ve all been through or heard about enough church splits to make us vomit. I was excited to hear that our church The Branch and another church (with baptist roots) are considering a merger! Our vision for the future is “one church, multiple locations”, and the opportunity to join with other believers who share the same core beliefs may be God’s way of kick-starting that initiative. With churches growing and dying all over the place, I really pray that God will begin a movement in this area to join believers together in a mission to preach Jesus Christ crucified across the metroplex.

Oh, that we would love our church sign less and Jesus more, for the sake of His kingdom in our world!

Tyson General, Theology

We’re in the middle of an annual series on money and material possessions at church, and again it is convicting. We’re asking tough questions and dealing with matters that hit close to home for a lot of folks, primarily because we cherish our stuff (right?). A few weeks ago we talked about decisions, and how we always choose according to what we value most, with no exceptions. Now we’re talking about money, a God-given substance to measure value within a society. Money represents value for us, though in different proportions. A millionare and a homeless man will value a one-dollar bill differently, though it has no more or less intrinsic value for either. As believers, how should we value what we own, whether little or much? In Acts, one man sold a field to provide for a brother who had nothing. Crazy? Stupid? Investment? Should a believer try to get rich? John Wesley said “make as much money as you can, and give away as much as you can”. Agree?

Tyson Theology