Tour new worship space this Saturday!

Last month we closed on our new worship space in Pflugerville and buildout is underway. Most of those who attend Calvary Austin have never been inside the new space but that's about to change! This Saturday at 9 a.m. we will gather at 1601 W. Pecan Street in Pflugerville to celebrate, pray, and tour our space. We're going to take a group photo and I don't want you to miss it! So come early. Hot coffee and donuts will be waiting!

Why does God allow it?

The day after the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history people are asking, "If there is a God, why does He allow such horrible things to happen?" It's hard to understand. Seems to us that if we were all-knowing, all-powerful, and everywhere-present-at-once, we would never allow things like yesterday's shooting at Virginia Tech. Charles Baudelaire, the 19th century French art historian and poet, put it this way, "If there is a God, he is the devil." Is Baudelaire right? Given the presence of evil in the world, should we conclude that there is no God?

The Bible tells us that God created human beings with freedom of choice. Freedom to love or hate. Freedom to do good or evil. That would seem to put the responsibility back on us. But still we wonder. If the teenagers next door threw a wild party while their parents were out of town, we would blame them but would also think the parents should have known better. So let's just say for the sake of argument that Baudelaire is right and there is no God. You still have the presence of evil in the world. So who do we hold responsible now?

Now let's say for the sake of argument that God does exist. How should He respond to the presence of evil in the world? He could destroy us. All in favor? He could control us. All in favor? See that's the thing. We don't want to be destroyed and we do want to be free. What if, instead, God changed us? From the inside out? Changed our hearts?

If there is no God and we're just animals or machines, then why do we grieve? For me, there is no satisfactory explanation for human personality or our capacity for emotion if we are simply the product of random processes rather than created in the image of God. And if there is no God, how can we even say what is good or evil? Without moral absolutes, morality is simply convention. Whatever a majority - or the elite - decides is moral.

I disagree with Baudelaire. I believe in God and I believe that, in the days ahead, we will see His beauty emerge from the ugliness of what has happend in Virginia. We will see Him in every step away from hate toward love. In every step away from bitterness toward forgiveness. In every step away from indifference toward compassion. And in every prayer for God's comfort and peace to be extended to those touched by this tragedy.

Technically speaking

Last weekend we previewed our summer series called revelation. You guessed it! It's a verse-by-verse study straight through the last book of the Bible. On Sunday morning, I had to cut some of the material I presented Saturday evening. That included a technical section aimed at those well-versed in Bible prophecy. Many people who will attend the summer series will be studying Revelation for the first time. But there are some who have studied Revelation before and who might be wondering what angle I will be taking. So Saturday I said that my take will be futurist and that I am pre-millennial and pre-tribulational. What does that mean?

• When I say that my take will be futurist I mean that, starting with Revelation 4:1, the events predicted haven't happened yet but will happen in the future.
  
• When I say that I am pre-millennial, I mean that I believe Jesus will rule on earth for a thousand years (thus 'the Millennium') and that the Second Coming will happen before the Millennium.
  
• When I say that I am pre-tribulational, I mean that Jesus will take His followers from earth to heaven ('the Rapture') before the Tribulation (the seven years leading up to the Second Coming).

It's been said that every discipline has it's jargon and eschatology is no exception. If you're new to Revelation, new to faith, or just checking things out, please don't be put off by the technical terms. Not only will you understand all this and more by the time the summer series has ended, but you will find each message down-to-earth and easy-to-understand. The revelation series begins the weekend of May 19-20.

revelation preview

This weekend we're going to preview our summer series called revelation. (Click here to watch a short.) As you might guess, it's a verse-by-verse study straight through the last book of the Bible. It seems like people have a love-hate relationship with Revelation. Some people study Revelation to the neglect of the rest of the Bible. Others avoid it thinking that it's too hard to understand. Funny because Revelation means disclosure. And, in the third verse of the first chapter, there's a promised blessing to those who read and hear Revelation. Join us at any one of three weekend worship gatherings to get a piece of that action - that blessing action.

What Easter has to do with your future

Have you ever messed up so bad that you thought it was over for you? You were sure you would be expelled. Or fired. Or divorced. Or arrested. Or dead. And even if the worst-case-scenario didn't play out, you knew things would never be the same. That somehow you had forever changed the trajectory of your life. The moment we decide that we have no future is the moment hope dies. And we can't live without hope.

If you've been to the dark place I'm describing, you know exactly how Peter, one of Jesus' first followers, felt. Peter disowned Jesus - not once but three times - just hours before Jesus was killed. Even after Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to Peter, Peter's future was still in doubt. But if there's one thing the Resurrection teaches us it's that, with God, there's always hope.

That's what we're talking about this weekend. We are offering three Easter gatherings at two locations in the Austin area. Please join us at a time and place convenient for you. Saturday at 6:00 p.m. in Round Rock. Sunday at 9:30 or 11:30 a.m. in Austin. For more, click here.