We try to maintain sanity without looking to God, but grow even more confused. Psalm 40 teaches us that waiting for the Lord paves the way for transformation. ...

The Psalms are the poetry of the passions, the songs of the Jesus. They are meant to change you. ...

This Sunday is Pentecost. Pentecost is the time of the Christian year when we celebrate the day the Holy Spirit first indwelt believers in a permanent, continuous, abiding way. Read Acts 2:1-21 to see this amazing event. There are at least three aspects of Pentecost to celebrate: 1. God's Spirit Indwells Believers. In the New Testament Jesus said that His Father would sen...

Most Sundays I leave another sermon or two in the notes section of what I actually preach. In preparation for last Sunday I re-read C.S. Lewis' sermon "Weight of Glory" and was captured again by the beauty of God's glory and the joy of finding my rest in Him. Below is part of what I did not have time to say in the sermon (you're welcome... Yes, I saw you looking at your ...

God's Word intends to change you. See how he works in you to do that. Read Luke 2:8-14 again after listening to Sunday's semon and consider these questions: What is something you have seen that weighs a lot? What did Pastor Blake say that the word glory means? What does that say about God's character? What are two responses to the God's glory in Luke 2:8-14? Which ...

Don't show up Sunday tired and worn out from the weekend. Start preparing today. Gathered worship will be far richer for you and for all at Trinity....

There are good moments to practice fasting and confession of sin. Lent provides such a time if it can be used as a tool not a rule for your sanctification....

"Self-indulgence is the enemy of gratitude, and self-discipline usually its friend and generator. That is why gluttony is a deadly sin. The early desert fathers believed that a person's appetites are linked: full stomachs and jaded palates take the edge from our hunger and thirst for righteousness. They spoil the appetite for God." - Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., Presiden...

I mentioned in a recent sermon that the word Peter uses for "elect" means "to pick out" or "to select out of a number." Paul uses this verb in Ephesians 1:4, "he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us" Peter chooses this word to remind us that we are part of God's chosen people. In the ...

Two hundred years after the Bubonic plague killed half the population of Europe, John Hess, a pastor in Breslau, Germany, wrote to Martin Luther to seek advice. "Can a Christian flee from a deadly plague?" It was not a theoretical questions since black death, small pox and other contagious diseases still festered across Eurpean landscapes and towns in 1527. In reply Luther...

What do we do when Jesus let's bad things happen? John 11:28-44Rev. Scott Mitchell, Pastor of Community Formation God intends to change you by His Word. How is He at work in you to do that? Read the following passageand consider these questions. READ John 11:28-44 (ESV) [28] When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, "The Teacher is...

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. - Eph 5:15-16 As we continue to practice social distancing for the sake of the most vulnerable, here are ten resources for Trinity to help redeem the time. 10. First things, first. Our elders and deacons long to see you and hear your voice. ...

This Sunday we will pray this prayer over all our medical providers. Thank you! We invite everyone at Trinity and beyond to join us in praying for Tulsa Metro, those in medical professions, and those ill with sickness and fear. This liturgy is from Every Moment Holy by Doug McKelvey. O Christ Our Healer, There is no end to malady, sickness,injury, and disease in this...

One of the most difficult aspects of this moment in time for me is staying away from others. We may not be able to gather for corporate worship, but we may served the Lord by social-distancing to honor our father and mothers, bearing with the infirmities of our older citizens. Honor in the fifth commandment cuts three ways. It means performing the duties we owe to those w...

Any discomfort with the oddity of watching worship online doesn't need to interfere with the excitement and celebration of the resurrection of our Lord! ...

Email sent at 1pm on March 13, 2020. Executive Summary: a) 10am Worship continues with special preparation for communion. b)Love (not fear) leads us to sacrifice for the most vulnerable. c)Practice healthy self-care. To all Trinity Members, Attenders, and Guests, The Corona Virus/COVID-19 continues to impact ourworkplace, schools, community, and wider economy.This ...

There are good moments to practice fasting and confession of sin. Lent provides such a time if it can be used as a tool not a rule for your sanctification....

Christian worship becomes the place to call one another to celebrate the collective imagination, the shared history, the true saga beneath all stories, the gospel which brings human flourishing for the blood-bought lambs, and through them, hope for the world. God’s story of redemption is our story, too. We must tell it and show it and live it together. It is the foundat...

God intends His Word to change you. See how He works in you to do that. Read John 6:1-15 and work through these questions: Share a time when you felt God asked you to experience something that seemed unfair (An experience to endure, a command to obey, etc). How did the experience affect your faith or doubt in God? What does John intend his original audience to like and...

We are returning to our exposition of the Gospel of John this Sunday, and I'd like to reintroduce you to the historical context and purpose of this Gospel, a favorite of many. The Apostle John writes his gospel from Ephesus sometime near the end of the first century (70-100AD) to call Jew and Jewish proselytes in Asia Minor to believe in Jesus, the Messiah, and to strengt...

Within the growing Tulsa Metro population Trinity is a training ground in which we learn to integrate the gospel into all spheres of life and work--whether at home, on the job, or at school-- viewing ourselves as a gospel-centered people who believe grace changes everything. ...

There are good moments to practice fasting and confession of sin. Lent provides such a time if it can be used as a tool not a rule for your sanctification....

As the end of the year approaches,I want to personally thank you for your generosity to Trinity in 2018. God continues to bless our church and supply our needs. In addition to our general giving needs, we pledged to pay off our land in two years and begin investment into the design of our facility at 7660 N Memorial Dr. What a remarkable and historic year for Trinity! ...

First off, "apologetics"is a reasoned defense of the faith. To teach "apologetically" does not mean to apologize for the Christian faith, but to defend it. Okay, now to the meat of this post. In light of Sunday's sermon on the great commission, I want to link an article that addresses the need for pre-evangelism today. Pre-evangelism is the process of listening to others ...

How do you suggest handling differences of opinion (in a marriage) about the pledge amount? I know we I need to be on the same page, but I fear we are not... Please advise. And yes, I’m praying....

Trinity'sFall Festival provided a glimpse for how we could use our land at 7760 N Memorial Aveto bless our neighbors. Imagine a church in a park like settingwith areas tocampout, hike, relax near the creek,roast smores around a campfire, playultimateFrisbee or football, and enjoyGod's creation on Trinity's property. An oasis. A place of rest. A gospel outpost. On Saturd...

Elephant in the Room: Striving to Rest Rev. Scott Mitchell God intends to change you by His Word. How is He at work in you to do that? Read the following passageand consider these questions. READ Exodus 20:8-11 (ESV) [8] "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. [9] Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, [10] but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your...

The Psalms are the prayerbook of God's people who are striving to be faithful to the Torah as they await the coming Messiah. So, the very context of the Psalms itself assume a posture of waiting. The Old Testament believers who wrote the Psalms, David (73), Asaph (12), Sons of Korah (11), Heman and Ethan (2), Moses and Solomon (3), and anonymous (49), longed to see the p...

"Jude: Don't Trust Me"Rev. Scott Mitchell, Pastor of Community Formation God intends to change you by His Word. How is He at work in you to do that? Read the following passages and consider these questions. READ Jude 1-10 [1] Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: [2] May mer...

There is a lot of speculation about angels in modern culture. Christmas is a good time to reflect on their role in God's Kingdom. ...

Advent. This first season of the Christian year is a time to focus our attention on Jesus Christ’s birth and as well as on his Second Coming when he will return to redeem all of creation and rule with all power and authority. ...

Psalm 44, "Uncensored Hearts" Rev. Blake Altman, Lead Pastor God intends to change you by His Word. How is He at work in you to do that? Read Psalm 44 and consider these questions. TO THE CHOIRMASTER. A MASKIL OF THE SONS OF KORAH 1 O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old: 2 you with...

Psalm 7, "Song for the Slandered" Rev. Blake Altman, Lead Pastor God intends to change you by His Word. How is He at work in you to do that? ReadPsalm 7and consider these questions. WE ARE CHANGED BY GOD'S WORD Psalm 7(ESV) 1O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and deliver me, 2lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it i...

Psalm 84, "Homesick for God" Rev. Scott Morris, Reformed University Fellowship at the University of Oklahoma. God intends to change you by His Word. How is He at work in you to do that? ReadPsalm 84and consider these questions. WE ARE CHANGED BY GOD'S WORD Psalm 84(ESV) 1How lovely is your dwelling place,O LORD of hosts!2My soul longs, yes, faintsfor the courts of t...

Psalm 90, "Teach Us to Number Our Days," Rev. Mike Ford, Reformed University Fellowship at the University of Arkansas. God intends to change you by His Word. How is He at work in you to do that? ReadPsalm 90and consider these questions. WE ARE CHANGED BY GOD'S WORD Psalm 90 (ESV) 1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. 2 Before the mountains ...

Being Human - Rev. Brent Corbin...

Point: By the chisel of gracious conflict, Christ's image is formed in you. I. Gracious conflict is a tenderLOVE. (4:8-20) Paul's concern for the Galatians (8-11): Paul's history with the Galatians (12-14): Paul's questions to the Galatians (15-16): Galatians 4:8-20, 8Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.9B...

Adoption: Community - Rev. Blake Altman Galatians 3:24-29 (ESV)24So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.25But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,26for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.27For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.28There is neith...

Read Galatians 3:23-4:7 The Point of the Sermon: Are you a slave of the house or a son of the Father? Paul compares those who live under the law as slaves while those who live under grace as sons and daughters, able to cry out to the Father as a dependent child cries to his parent. Community Group Questions: Paul argues in Galatians 3:23-4:7 that identity Christians ...

There are good times to practice fasting and confession of sin. Lent provides such a time if it can be used as a tool not a rule for your sanctification....

The essential mark of a Christian is not how far you have progressed in sanctification, but on what you are relying to get there....

Read Galatians 2:15-16 Point of the Sermon: There is an infinite chasm between knowing (v. 16a) that we can be justified by faith in Jesus Christ and believing (v. 16b) that we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ. Sermon Outline: I. What is justification? II. The Knower's Dilemma III. The Believer's Assurance Community Group Discussion Questions: Paul uses the ...

Read Joshua 24. You'll be able to listen to Sunday's sermon here. Find a Community Group near youhere. Community Group Questions: Why do you think it was necessary fro Joshua to recount and review God's grace-filled history of Israel? Do you find the mysteries of God -- the darkness you sometimes endure -- difficult to accept? Does God's honesty of showing you the ha...

Read Joshua 23. Share Sunday's sermon here. Community Group Questions: What is the role of the church in nurturing and discipling our children, the "next generation"? Why does scripture remind believer so often to "remember"? Blake mentioned two ways of viewing the Christian life that undercuts the power of the gospel? What are those two ways? How is the gospel to be...

Listen to this week's sermon"Cutting Edge of Grace or Judgement" Community Group Questions: Read Joshua 5:13-6:25. How have you seen God display his glory in your life in uncommon ways? The Jews categorize the Old Testament books differently than we do. They view Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Book of the Twelve (the minor prophets) as latter prophets, and Joshua, ...

This week's sermon is from Joshua 8. Listen to the sermon here. How would you say you feel between God's promises, stuck in the middle of the "conquest" without knowing what to do next? What are the little things that you are tempted to leave God out of, thinking you can handle them for yourself? In what ways have you seen "serpent theology" in the life of the church?...

Read Joshua 22. Community Group Questions: How have you seen 1) gracious confrontation and 2) gracious commendation of one another in the church today? Is there a fear to exercise church discipline against believers in our local churches today? Why or why not? Have you ever had a godly anxiety for things that you have seen happening in the church? How would you pract...

Read Joshua 10 in preparation for worship. Community Group Questions for November 27, 2016: Why is the picture of Christ as a warrior so uncommon today? In what ways does Christ reveal Himself as a warrior today? Are you amazed when God answers your prayers? If so, why? In what areas of your heartland, have you given up the fight? How do the sacraments (baptism and...

In preparing for the sermon this week, I found myself reflecting on Joshua as he came up from Gilgal to defend Gibeon against the five kings. In Joshua 10:12 he prayed: "At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the sons of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, 'Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and moon, in the valley at A...

Joshua 9, "The Trouble with Common Sense," Rev. Blake Altman Community Group Questions: Have you ever been fooled by someone and it got you into trouble? Some might call Israel's oath keeping "eating crow." When has your folly lead to such crow-eating dinners? How do you respond to people who say, "If God is sovereign, then why did he not stop you from making that mi...

Here is a brief reason why we don't see the ending ("For Thine is the Kingdom...") of the Lord's Prayer in the gospel accounts. ...

This summer give yourselves permission to stop and meditate on the truth of God through the Songs of Jesus. This July and August we will explore the Psalms together in corporate worship. Many of us have read the Psalms but rarely have we meditated upon them. Practicing prayerful meditation on God’s Word will prepare us to respond in faith and repentance during Sunday wor...

We are looking this spring at the church and the implications of the church for our vitality, life, growth. When Scripture speaks of the church, it never gives us an official definition. "The Church is this." Instead it gives us images. Pictures. Metaphors for the Church. Scripture does this to help us see that the church is not static. It is growing, moving, reforming. Th...

In response to my post on Lent someone asked about fasting. What is it? Pastor Blake, Thank you for this! Very informative and helpful information. I have a novice question... What IS fasting, traditionally? Is it abstaining from all food? Just meat? Anything you'll miss? Is it from Sun up to Sun down, or 24/7? And is the point to remind us to pray? Pray about what sp...

We saw a principle emerge from Matthew 6:5-15 last week: Resting in the eternal love of the Father leads to a consistently active prayer life. Prayer in most religions are weighed by repetition or length. But Jesus gives us a pattern of prayer that is short and simple. Let me help you remember what we said. Muslim prayers in the Koran are poetic, very sublime but they must...

What is Advent? Since the fourth century, God’s people have especially yearned for Jesus’ second coming during a four-Sunday celebration leading up to Christmas, a season called Advent. ...

Christians throughout the ages have prayed using a technique called lectio divina - a slow, contemplative praying of the Scriptures. Lectio divina is a latin phrase that literally means “divine reading.” This ancient practice has been kept alive in the Christian monastic tradition. It is not a mystical reading of Scripture; it is rather an extremely practical way of p...

Trinity's vision is what we want to see in the future. The mission is how we are going to accomplish what we hope to see. The vision motivates. The mission activates. I want you to see both side by side: Trinity's Vision: To see grace change everything by bringing social, culturally and spiritual renewal to Owasso. Trinity's Mission:to enjoy the Triune God by showing tha...

As I'm preparing to preach on James 2:8-26, I'm reminded of an important era in American religion that I want to share with you. One of my colleagues at the university where I was a campus minister was a friend named Paul Raushenbusch. He was the Associate Dean of Religious Life and is now the senior religion editor at the Huffington Post. We disagree on almost every theo...

How does one live out the gospel in parenting? There is an old tale that Martin Luther once told about a drunken peasant who falls off his donkey to one side only to get back up and fall off to the other. Christians, Luther says, are like the drunken peasant. We fall over to license on one side, and then get back in line with the Gospel (Gal 2:14) only to fall the other d...

Some things seem so random they must be from God. Today, I was working on the Trinity Order of Worship for this Sunday while on the train from Princeton Junction to NYC. Somewhere between the Call to Worship and formatting the first song, a 40-something-year-old man in business-casual attire came up to me with his hand out and said, "Hi, I'm Steve. Do you want to talk abou...

On the drive to NJ/NY, somewhere in Ohio, a lady from Rock Tavern, NY called my cell phone to ask where we got our church's vision and content on the website. I told her Trinity's story, of our many committed brother and sisters, of how Chad Steven helped us with the design while I wrote the vision and mission. She wanted to know how we got to our understanding of discipl...

Remember that I want this blog to be practical but sometimes big ideas lead to extremely practical conclusions. Read ahead knowing that this post is going to get practicaleventually, I promise. This morning as I was preparing for tonight's service, my father-in-law forwarded me a book review from the Wall Street Journal written by Bradford Wilcox, a gentlemen I've never m...

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