Chuck Hooten

Ava singing Jesus Loves Me

2011-12-23T10:33:00.000-06:00

Abortion Movie

2011-10-04T09:13:00.002-05:00

Watch this and pass it on!

Good Gospel Coalition Post

2011-09-21T08:13:00.001-05:00

This is great...I love the discussion at the 4:20 mark on trends in the church and the love of God!

Baptized Four Times from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

2011-08-03T15:09:00.000-05:00

Great video on how we should approach Scripture with the confidence that it can be, and is meant to be understood. Not only has this played out in Scripture but also how a generation sees morality. Sex, Homosexuality, Divorce, ect... has all been relegated to the realm of, "well Scripture isn't really clear on that". The apparent humility of a generation who says we don't know so we won't judge is nothing more than uncertainty fueled by a desire to be free of the command of God. The Scripture is clear and can be understood and we must proclaim its truths despite the cultural static we will receive for doing so. The gospel is the love of God freeing us from this uncertainty and giving us the ability to know him and to live in the comfort of his will as his obedient children.

Biblical Authority in an Age of Uncertainty from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

The Colonizing of Dreams...

2011-07-16T14:48:00.000-05:00

I just heard an NPR talk host say playfully that the entertainment industry has been in the business for years of "colonizing our dreams". He was excited about it but I got a little sick to my stomach because of how true it is. Much of what people believe is due to the voices they are listening to the most. While most of us like to think about what "free thinkers" we are, the reality is that we are as dumb as sheep and basically believe whatever is cool at the moment. It appears that lots of us have had our minds colonized by this industry that is, for the most part, radically against the kingdom of God. So I propose we get some gasoline and a match and burn those colonies down. This will happen in the form of Scripture meditation and a deep desire to know God intimately. These desires will build different colonies that won't have any room for the dreams that are devoid of Christ. Are there any other pyromaniacs out there?

2011-07-03T08:07:00.000-05:00

Lily turned 6 this week and we had a party and we ate pizza and we ate cake and we had fun! Now this morning she will hit the road with me to Panama City Florida for a camp at the beach with a couple of amazing churches. It's gonna be fun!

2011-07-03T07:46:00.002-05:00

This is worth a look and a listen. If we are believers we have the most important message in the world...speak with conviction!

Chuck Hooten Windermere Worship

2011-06-18T08:13:00.001-05:00

Here is a video from Student Life Camp last week...Worship was amazing as God's spirit moved among us and it was such a privilege to be a part of God's kingdom moving forward in the world!

Morality for the Internet Age

2011-06-17T11:14:00.001-05:00

Morality for the Internet Age

Great article! I see this everywhere including in the church...morality is a big deal.

Download Cards

2011-06-16T19:30:00.000-05:00

This is my new buddy Jack showing off the download cards I am selling this summer. Please pick one up and support one of the greatest ministries on the planet! Taking care of orphans is the heartbeat of God and I am excited to get to play a small part.

Traveling to Missouri

2011-06-15T13:42:00.000-05:00

Dance Party

2011-05-21T14:19:00.001-05:00

I had a few buddies over the other night while Emily was in Knoxville at a baby shower. What ensued was a HUGE dance party in the play room followed by a jam session in the living room. Good times!

Saved by grace, Saved by grace, Saved by grace

2011-05-19T16:31:00.002-05:00

I have been at war with Jeremiah chapter 7. It is interesting that my knee jerk reaction to difficult passages in the Old Testament is often to dismiss them as something that was written to “those other people” a really long time ago. The problem with Jeremiah 7 is that the sentiment and heart of what Jeremiah is preaching is echoed loud and clear within the pages of the New Testament. Here are a couple of passages from Jeremiah 7, preached from the steps of the temple in Jerusalem to the people who were coming to worship.

3Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’
5“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, oand if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
8“Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations?

The people of Judah were doing some pretty miserable things in and out of the temple. They had begun to worship Babylonian and Assyrian Gods, even moving some of the images into the temple that Solomon had built for the worship of Yahweh. Much of the worship of these foreign gods involved sexual indulgence with prostitutes, and some in Judah, including Manasseh the king, had sacrificed their first born children to the god Molech by throwing them alive into a blazing fire. The issue at the heart of all this was Judah's desire to be accepted by the culture around them. They were a small nation, and were fearful of these superpowers breathing down their necks on every side. This, coupled with the fact that sexual deviance was more appealing to the people than holiness, led them down a path of idolatry and sin. Instead of being the light that God had called them to be, illuminating the goodness and mercy of God, they had taken on the ways of the culture and were worse than the nations God had driven out in giving them their homeland. They were also bold in their sin. Because the temple was in Jerusalem they thought that they were completely safe from the wrath of God. Jeremiah points out one of their favorite phrases, “the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord”. They believed that since God dwelt in the temple he would never destroy it or Jerusalem, thus allowing them a free pass to do whatever they wanted. They were convinced that since they were the covenant people, living in the city of David, they were safe. Jeremiah's message was a serious one of wrath by which God was saying, “I am coming to destroy you, temple or no temple.” And he did. In 2 Kings 25, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar marched into Jerusalem, killed the kings sons before his eyes before gouging his eyes out, thus making that the last image he ever saw. He then burned the “temple of the Lord” to the ground.

This is an amazingly depressing chapter of history. The temple would be rebuilt a couple of times before being destroyed by the Romans, but it never regained the glory of Solomon's temple. Even more scary to me are the parallels to Jeremiah 7 and the church today. We live in a church culture that is in love with the term “saved by grace” and rightly so. The grace of God is the bulwark of the Christian faith and should be cherished and celebrated. However, for some, the grace of God has been sorely misunderstood. For some, the grace of God has become a free pass to do whatever they want, believing that God will just love them and turn a blind eye to their sin. I see this type of thinking running rampant among the twenty-somethings and younger in our church culture. I see a generation that is perfectly fine with couples living together before marriage, sex in all contexts, and who have no problem with any type of media that preaches these same values. I hear church folks, within the walls of the church, talking about movies like The Hangover like it was the funniest thing they have ever seen. The top five songs on Billboard right now while I am writing this are charged with sex and vulgarity, and the reason they are in the top 5 is because people in and out of the church are lapping up the message. In essence we have taken the gods of the culture and set them up within our places of worship and see no problem with it at all. This is a familiar scene.

Many will say, “We are saved by grace, don't be a prude, that is old testament stuff.” I offer these passages from the New Testament that echo Jeremiah 7.

Romans 6
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

1 Corinthians 15
Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.” Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

1 John 3
Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

These passages point to the fact that holiness is still a serious thing for the people of God. So which is it grace or works? The answer is a resounding GRACE! However, grace is the gift of God given to sinful people that cleanses them, makes them a part of the family, and then sets them on a course of love and service for the kingdom of God. It has never been and never will be this ethereal love fest that simply turns a blind eye to sin because we prayed a prayer at youth camp one time. The most famous verse about grace comes from Ephesians 2 where Paul says that we have been “saved by grace through faith,” but if you read the very next phrase it says why this grace has been given and that is so we can do the good works that God has planned for us. Good works are a result of the grace that gives salvation. If the works are not there, chances are that the grace isn't either. We work because we have been given grace and that grace has birthed in us a deep seated love that compels us to live in a way that will please our Father. For many in our churches grace means God looking the other way as we do whatever we want. Terrifying stuff if you ask me!

Baal worship is alive and well among us. You can't watch a game on Saturday or go to the mall without being assaulted by sexual imagery and idolatry. The question has to be, is culture influencing us, or are we through the power of grace bringing a holy and loving God to the culture through how we live? Are we trusting the deceptive words, “saved by grace, saved by grace, saved by grace,” believing that God would never touch us with his wrath? If you look at the statistics there is no difference in the younger generation whether they go to church or not. They are both as likely to see any movie, listen to any song, engage in any sexual activity, and try any substance. We are like the people in Jeremiah 7 who are doing everything that breaks God's heart and then proclaiming as they did, “We are delivered.” We have become Judah. I am praying for a revival among the young people in our country before it is too late. If we do not wake up and heed the words of Jeremiah our churches in America will stand as the temple does in Jerusalem now...in ruins.

New Table

2011-05-18T14:44:00.001-05:00

My wife is an amazingly talented person! She decided that instead of paying a ton of money to get a table for our back patio she would just make one. She came up with this and I think it looks amazing, so now I'm showing it off. Emily, you impress me every day!!!

Getting Ready For Summer

2011-05-17T21:55:00.000-05:00

I know that I’m the worst blogger of all time, but school this semester coupled with traveling every weekend puts a damper on the ole blog time. But I am excited about this coming summer and was praying through some stuff this afternoon, and would love it if anyone who would would pray for me and the guys who will be traveling with me this summer that our ministry would be Kingdom focused and God glorifying. Here is a video I found from last summer from a church we are joining again. Pick out some faces in the crowd and pray away!

Beach Week 2010 from Istrouma Baptist Church on Vimeo.