Author: Wesley Fryer
Our Bodies Are Temples for God’s Holy Spirit
Today’s sermon message focuses on how we should act and care for our own bodies, which are temples for God’s Holy Spirit.
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. (1 Corinthians 619-20 NIV)
I used iMovie for iPad to create a narrated version of this sketchnote.
Keep Your Eyes on the Action
Rachel took her academic application tests this morning for ClassenSAS, so she was unable to bowl in the Saturday morning youth league she has started participating in this semester. As a result, this evening she is doing her “pre-bowl” (or in this case post-bowl.) It’s $12 for three games. The bummer is I am unable to join her. It’s an official league bowl, so extra participants are not permitted.
I am testing a post-by-email option for WordPress, and I need to activate this on our family learning blog as well.
My connection to tonight’s bowling and “Eyes Right” is this: Just as we need to keep our eyes on Jesus each day, going bowling with your daughter is all about watching every frame with her. At any time, she could get strike or a spare, and she wants to share those moments with me. It is also important to see frames where she is not as successful, including the occasional gutter ball. Every frame, she is looking back to see if I have watched her and what she did.
I think our own kids, and our spouses, are probably constantly looking at us in the same way even when we are not bowling. Did you see me? Are you watching what I’m doing? Are you experiencing this moment with me?
It is a lot easier for me to use Siri on my iPhone to dictate this post than type it on my laptop or iPad. Bowling time like this is not about having your eyes completely on a screen. It’s about keeping my “eyes right” on Rachel & her bowling lane!
Brene Brown on Vulnerability
Several months ago I watched Brene Brown’s excellent Ted Talk on vulnerability. I highly recommend it.
Today a good friend recommended one of her books, and I’ve added it to my Amazon wish list. I definitely agree that vulnerability is a key element in friendships and relationships. I also resonate with the idea of this title, that we stop trying to force ourselves to live in an image someone else has created for us, and instead discover and embrace the person God created us to become. I don’t think Brene wrote this from a religious standpoint, but I can certainly project that into her thesis just as I have with the “Essentialism” book I finished listening to on Audible a few months back.
Sent from my iPad
God Identifies Us By Giving His Holy Spirit
A powerful & important reminder this morning via Don Boyd’s message at our Friday Morning Men’s Group:
13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. (â€Ephesians‬ â€1‬:â€13‬ NLT)
Identity is so important and I’m thinking about it more as our kids get older. I want to define my identity in Christ. I need to seek guidance and direction from God and His Holy Spirit. Today especially, My eyes are open to the direction God wants me to go in my life.
I know sometimes God brings us into situations of great discomfort to shift our thinking and behavior into a new direction. I think sometimes we bring ourselves into those situations by our own poor choices, but God has mercy on us and lifts us up with His grace when we call upon His name.
Please pray for me to have faith in the promises and truth of God and His word.
It is dark in the valley, but there is light & help above in the heavens.
Do Not Covet or Be Greedy
These are notes from Mateen Elass‘ sermon on Sunday, January 25, 2015, at First Presbyterian Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. Our focus verse today is Luke 12:13-21.
Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.†(â€Luke‬ â€12‬:â€15‬ NIV)
“Contentment means seeking to live simply so we can use our extra resources for the sake of God’s kingdom.”
"Contentment means seeking to live simply so we can use our extra resources for the sake of God's kingdom." by Mateen Elass
— Pocket Share Jesus (@PocketShare) January 25, 2015
Book recommendation: Culture Shift: The Battle for the Moral Heart of America by Dr. R. Albert Mohler
We are stewards of our possessions not owners, everything comes from God and we are called to use our gifts and “things” to further God’s kingdom.
Money can easily become our idol.
The goal of a disciple of Jesus is to have nothing in our daily lives which supplants our love of Jesus Christ.
Jim Elliott: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Old Testament Prophesy About Jesus
We are starting a study of the book of Hebrews today. Here are some verses we read about Old Testament prophesy about Jesus.
I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. (â€2 Samuel‬ â€7‬:â€14‬ NIV)
This verse calls us to worship God instead of the idols and images of our culture. How timeless this is, and relevant to us today in 2015!
All who worship images are put to shame, those who boast in idols— worship him, all you gods! (â€Psalm‬ â€97‬:â€7‬ NIV)
A reference to how God will balance the scales of justice, following the sacrifice of His Son, is included in these verses from Deuteronomy:
Rejoice, you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will take vengeance on his enemies and make atonement for his land and people. (â€Deuteronomy‬ â€32‬:â€43‬ NIV)
We discussed how references to Angels (heavenly beings) indicate they are finite and not immortal. In these verses the words “They will perish” can be understood to reference Angels. I have not ever thought of angels as finite.
He also says, “In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.†(â€Hebrews‬ â€1‬:â€10-12‬ NIV)
Sketchnotes About a Sermon on Racism in America
These are my sermon sketch notes from January 18, 2015, at First United Methodist Church in Manhattan, Kansas. The sermon was preached by Pastor Patrick McLaughlin, who is Associate Pastor of Missions & Outreach at FMC. The title of the sermon was, “Would Jesus Call the U.S. a Racist Society?” This is part of a series titled, “Pastor’s Press Conference,” and archived versions of sermons are available online. The initial Bible passage Patrick started the sermon with was Colossians 3:12-17:
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
While these issues are extremely important and timely for Christians in the United States to consider today given our recent events, I was surprised that the “closing prescriptions” offered by Patrick did not include any citations or references to Scripture. Because of this, his message overall was not differentiated from secular “calls to action” for social justice which we hear from different non-profit groups and organizations. The message itself is and was good, but it was essentially “missing Jesus.”
In his sermon, Patrick read verses from Colossians and Ephesians, but his message sounded and felt like more of a history lecture on social justice rather than a sermon in a mainline church. In the sketchnotes, I inserted the words “Let our hearts be transformed by God’s Love and His Word.” Patrick emphasized the importance of us loving each other, and put the focus of action on what WE as human beings could and can do. This made his message strike me as somewhat Gnostic, since it did not emphasize our need for Christ and the idea that WE cannot do anything (including change race relations in our communities and culture) without God’s power and actions.
I think this was the first time I’ve heard a pastor give a personal, racism-based “confession” during a sermon, and I think there was value in this. It took courage for him to admit mistakes he had made as a youth, which particularly focused on using the “N word.” I totally agree that we need to be having dialog within our churches and our communities about how we can constructively move forward with improving race relations. Patrick’s suggestions about “listening to the stories of others in our communities” and “sitting down at the table to eat together” particularly resonated with me. As a Storychaser, I especially agree with the first one, but the second one is an important strategy I don’t think we discuss or utilize nearly enough to promote understanding and the overall strengthening of relationships.
From a technical standpoint, I was able to use a stylus for these sermon sketchnotes (unlike last week) and again used the iPad app ProCreate. I exported my finished sketchnote as an image to the photo roll and uploaded it to Flickr, and also exported it as a video. I imported the video into iMovie for iPad and added voice narration, doubling the time for the playback so I had more time to talk. Lastly I uploaded the combined video using YouTube Capture. Here’s the narrated version:
I added this to my Flickr set for visual notes / sketchnotes. I was visiting FUMC in Manhattan, Kansas, today with my parents. I’m a member and elder at First Presbyterian Church of Edmond, Oklahoma.
If you’d like to learn more about sketchnoting, see my resources on visual notetaking in “Mapping Media to the Curriculum” and my eBook single on “Visual Notetaking.”
Narrated SketchNotes on Romans 14 & Luke 14
Today was my first day at our church to use the iPad app Procreate to create sketchnotes of both our Sunday School lesson and today’s sermon by our senior pastor, Mateen Elass. My friend Carol Anne McGuire (@rockourworld) is an avid sketchnoter each Sunday of sermons at her church in California, and I’m very inspired by her work. She posts all her sketchnotes (for sermons and other presentations) to this Flickr album.
#sermonnotes #joytotheworld #visualnotes pic.twitter.com/h50FjZBjSd
— Carol Anne McGuire (@rockourworld) December 28, 2014
I’ve been a fan of the iPad app “Brushes” for years, and created my own sketchnotes for my eBook single and book chapter on “visual notetaking” back in 2013. Unfortunately, however, when Brushes went to verson 3 it was a functional downgrade. The interface got worse, and the ability to export stopmotion-style animations of drawings as shareable videos was also eliminated. As a result, I’ve been on a quest to find a new iPad app to replace Brushes. Carol Anne recommended Procreate, and my initial experiences with the app today were superb. I really like it and look forward to learning how to use it more effectively.
Keep in mind, before I show you my creations today, that the goal of “sketchnoting” is NOT to create great or compelling art. The purpose is to more deeply process the ideas the sketchnoter is hearing, seeing and experiencing, and create a visual product which can be used later to “re-tell” the main ideas and points of the presentation. Sketchnotes are also handy to visually represent key ideas and share them on social media, which is critically important in our “attention economy.” Today I not only used Procreate to create and export static images of my sermon sketchnotes, but I also used it to export video versions which I later narrated using iMovie for iPad. I’ve taught my 4th and 5th grade STEM students the past couple of months how to use iMovie for iPad to narrated the Lego Stopmotion movies they’ve created in our Maker Studio, and those positive experiences led me to try narrating my sketchnotes today. For more information, links and resources about sketchnoting or creating “visual notes,” please see the visual notetaking page of Mapping Media to the Curriculum.
Our couples Sunday school class lesson today focused on Romans 14. Here’s my VERY child-like sketchnote. As a partial disclaimer, understand I forgot my stylus at home today so these visuals were drawn with my finger!
Here is the 14 second narrated version of that sketchnote on Romans 14:
I also shared a few tweets on my @eyesrightblog Twitter channel during Sunday school class.
For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. (Romans 14:7 NIV)
— Pocket Share Jesus (@PocketShare) January 11, 2015
But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment 4 every empty word they have spoken. (Matthew 12:36 NIV)
— Pocket Share Jesus (@PocketShare) January 11, 2015
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths but only what is helpful 4building others up according to their needs (Eph 4:29)
— Eyes Right (@eyesrightblog) January 11, 2015
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. (Eph 5:6 NIV)
— Eyes Right (@eyesrightblog) January 11, 2015
Here’s my sketchnote of Mateen Elass‘s sermon this morning, which focused on Luke 14:25-34.
Here is my 30 second narrated version:
I love sketchnoting, even though I’m not YET very good at it. I know I’ll get better with more practice! I added both of today’s sketchnotes to my Flickr set for Sketchnotes / Visual Notes. I can’t wait till next Sunday when I’ll have more opportunities to practice! Hopefully I’ll also remember to bring a stylus. 🙂
Prayers for Joe Rightmyer
I shared this comment tonight on the Layman Online article, “PCUSA defrocks nationally recognized renewal leader.”
Actions like this by the PJC of the PCUSA Denomination further disclose the spirit of the organization and its leadership. Sadly and tragically, that spirit is revealed to have become divorced from The Holy Spirit.
My prayers are with Rev Joe Rightmyer. I also pray God would change the hearts of those who actions appear to be based on spite rather than love or any other fruits of the spirit.
These actions also highlight the wise course of action taken by HPPC to sever ties with PCUSA. I am thankful to God that our congregation was also able to sever those ties and join ECO. It is wonderful to be finished with denominational squabbles which attempted to take our eyes away from Jesus Christ, rather than [STAY] firmly fixed upon Him.
