Tim Boyd's Blog

We have four televisions in our house.  We have a 42 inch LCD in the living room.  It's hanging, like a picture, over the fireplace.  That's the one where we will watch movies together.  The kids get it all day and mommy and daddy can use it after the kids go to bed.  We have a 32 inch LCD in the master bedroom.  That is where Mindy can watch TV at times throughout the day and it's the TV that Mindy and I get to watch mostly.  There is a TV upstairs in the kids room that doesn't have cable, just a DVD player connected to it.  That brings us to the dining room. We had an old 13 inch TV in there and the sound has finally gone out.  There is just a cable box sitting there.  On Monday I had Eden(2) and Will(4) with me and we headed to the doctor.  Before we got there we stopped at Walmart and I decided to look at TV's.  There are so many TV's there.  I looked at the smaller ones because I wanted to replace the broken TV. ...

As of this morning there are 35 people listening to my podcast.   It is now available on iTunes .  It would be easier to subscribe to it there.  In the next few weeks I will end the podbean podcast.  They have a small free trial and then you must pay.  Using Garageband, iWeb, and iTunes I can make my podcast for free.  So you may have to change where you are subscribing.  Email me tboyd@cowdenchurch.org if you need help with that.

TV programs don't exist without commercials.  Commercials don't exist without people wanting to sell things.  Most commercials are for nonessential items (consumerism).  People don't sell things if people aren't interested in buying things. Our culture is driven by television.  Friends, Seinfeld, and all the other 30 minute programs become peoples perception of reality.  Of course there is "reality" programming like The Real World, Road Rules, The Bachelor, Keeping up with the Kardashians, and tons more.  The more we watch TV and don't interact with people in real life, the more we believe that life is what a producer shows us on TV.  In turn entertainment is creating culture.  Consumerism is driving the entertainment through the sale of ads.  With no ads, there is no television, unless it is subscription based. It's an interesting cycle.  I wonder who came up with the idea of selling ad time to fund producing the show.  Did it ...

The slain lamb is standing on the throne!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tomorrow I am teaching on Revelation chapters 4 and 5.  John is welcomed into the throneroom of Heaven.  No one has ever seen in here. This revelation to John is groundbreaking.  John is up in the throneroom and he sees some peculiar things.  There are animals with eyes all over them and there are 24 elders who are on thrones and wearing crowns. There are four animals that represent all animals.  There is the lion that represents all the wild animals of creation.  There is an ox which represents all the domesticated animals of creation.  There is an eagle that is representative of all the birds of creation.  Then there is a human who represents...well you get the point.  Then there are 24 elders which is eerily close to the 12 tribes of the Old Testament and the 12 disciples added together.  The 24 represents all the people of God in all of time.  They are all there worshipin...

Hey there are 18 subscribers to the church podcast.  Found here:  http://timboyd.podbean.com/  The world is so much different than when I was in High school.  I listen to two podcasts every week and I love them. Mars Hill - Rob Bell Southland - John Weece There teaching and study styles are very different.  I like the balance of them both.  Being a restoration guy I really like Weece's straight-forward style.  Being a music lover I really appreciate Bell's artistry in his sermons.  They are edifying and enriching to me.  If you have time and an iPod I would suggest that you add those two guys.  (I can not believe that anyone would want to subscribe to my podcast!  That's funny.)

I have been dealing with selfishness a lot lately.  My selfishness.  Mindy and I had a pretty long conversation about things yesterday.  It was very good and very hard.  Selfishness has been on my mind for a long time (not intended as a joke, but works well as one!)  I heard a sermon where a guy said that all sin is selfishness.  We are putting ourselves, our problems, our passions, and our selves in front of others. Jesus famous statement:  Love the Lord your God with everything that you have and love your neighbor as yourself.  But Jesus, who is my neighbor?  Oh.  Right.  Everyone (including my wife and kids).  Hmmm. So in my car this morning God spoke words into my heart.  "Yours, not mine."  Everything is God's meaning that everything is not mine. My wife....yours, not mine. My daughter Grace....yours, not mine. My son Willy....yours, not mine. My daughter Eden....yours, not mine. My sermon....yours, not...

Here is the link to the podcast site:  http://timboyd.podbean.com/ Here are my notes about the seven churches in Asia: Why 7 churches There were 7 churches that John wrote to in Asia.  This was literal because he names them.  This was also figurative because the number 7 represents perfection. So John is writing to the people of his day and to all people in all places that are in all churches. Today we are going to look at the problems that Jesus saw in all churches.  Literally with the 7 churches and figuratively with the representation of the churches.  Does this make sense? If the Bible is alive, like we believe, than it should have something to say to us right now.  It had something to say to those churches around 80 AD.  It had something to say to every christian church that has been around since then.  See why Revelation should not be avoided? Darrell Johnson states, “It turns out that the 7 churches in Asia embody every major issue...

Mindy Boyd is the love of my life.  We met in college and got married pretty young.  I was 21 and she was 19.  In many ways we have grown up together.  We now have three kids and are praying for one more.  We have lived several different places (Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois).  She encouraged me to go back to school last year. She is my strength when I am weak.  She is the most important person in my life. There are two stages of my life.  There was my life before meeting Mindy and my life after meeting Mindy.  I love her with all of my heart and I thank God each morning that she is my wife.

Still working this one through in my head. When we are secure in ourselves and not realizing our dependance on God we begin to be filled with pride.  This may not be the huge pride that is obvious to anyone or really to ourselves either.  It is the pride where we don't lean on God, but just take care of things by ourselves.  It's not the, "I don't need God!"  It's more like, "I guess I didn't think I needed God to help me with this."  "I can do this myself."  We start to squeeze God out of that part and we start to squeeze God out of the bigger parts.  Someone very intelligent once said that God must be in the small parts of our lives or we will never let him in the big parts. That pride leads to selfishness.  Our focus becomes ourself.  It's not the 2 year old kid selfishness.  It's the selfishness where we are always thinking and talking about ourselves.  It may be seen by others but doesn't have to be. Of course, se...

There is no other sermon series that I could preach that would pique the interest that Revelation has.  Since Sunday I have heard some interesting comments: Q: "Hey Tim are you recording these messages?"  Really?  Has anyone ever listened to their own pastor preach a sermon in the internet? Q: "Why did you pick to teach the book of Revelation so early (in your time here)?"  No one would ask my why I picked to teach on the book of Philippians so early.  :) One person is avoiding coming to church because of the sermon series. One person is attending church because of the sermon series. "I have been so excited for you to teach on Revelation!"  Ha!  No one has come up to me after a Christmas sermon and said the same thing. "I wasn't looking forward to this sermon series."  That may be my favorite (you know who you are)! I think its awesome that there is still a book of the Bible that makes most people uneasy or (at least) interested.  No ...

Hey - I got a new podcast.  The current sermon is from this week and it lays the ground rules for understanding the book of Revelation. Powered by Podbean.com

Gcast cancelled their services - so I am currently looking for a new podcasting place.  Thanks for your patience.

As we look at the book of Revelation let’s take some time to understand to lay down some ground rules.  There are a lot of misconceptions and sloppy studies to this book. This book was written to someone.  It was not written to us.  We must see what this book meant to the people it was written to. The word antichrist is not mentioned in the book of Revelation.  The word apocalypse does not mean the end of the world.  It is the word “apocolypsis” and is a meshing of two greek words; “apoco” which means away from and “lypsis” which means “a veil.”  It literally means the pulling back of a veil.  When Jesus died the curtain in the temple was torn.  Now the veil is being pulled back. This book is part of the Bible.  It does not stand alone.  Out of the 404 verses of the book of Revelation there are over 500 references to Old Testament imagery. This book is written to visual learners.  Just like us, different phrases had meaning that wou...

So this Sunday will be the start of my Revelation series.  I am very excited.  I am actually way more excited than I thought I would be.  It really feels like Christmas is just two days away.  I have been preparing for this message series for over a month now.  Each week I will try and post some of the key ideas that I preached about the previous Sunday.  First off let me get to my references: Hughes, Philip - The Book of Revelation Johnson, Darrell - Discipleship on the Edge Lowery, Robert - Blog Nelson's New Illustrated Bible Dictionary Peterson, Euguene - Reversed Thunder Weece, John - Message Series on Revelation in September - October 2009 Discipleship on the Edge is my book of choice.  Peterson's book is wonderful but somewhat over my head.   Johnson's is more understandable.  If you are wishing to read just one book on Revelation I would heartily recommend Discipleship on the Edge.