that God is kind

A Thanksgiving reflection on the truth of Romans 2:4:
The kindness of God should lead us to repentance.

Years as roads come to an end
Where December and Christmas live
But one more exit around the bend
November Thanks to give

And what will mark the season's offer
The gratefulness expressed
New praise this year to God I proffer
Revelry of the blessed

For I give thanks that God is kind
To me or anyone
With limits and a feeble mind
Taste what kindness has done.

His kindness sees desired end
To not neglect the goal
The kindness of the Greatest Friend
Repentance of the soul

So kindness grows this sacred fruit
To turn and change a heart
And when it takes its sovereign root
In life a brand new start

Happy Thanksgiving.

what did you expect?

John the Baptist.

Camel-hair wearin' prophet, locust-eatin prophet, desert-livin' prophet.

I'm jealous.

JB had a reputation, and really, compared to him. I do not at all.

In Luke 7, Jesus asked the crowd, "What did you go out into the wilderness to see?"

"What did you expect?"

It's sad. I wouldn't even warrant the question.

There's a lot of lame and listless out there. With zero reputation there is zero expectation. Passions for God and for life have been buried and the expectation is exactly what you get:

Nothing.

We should wish to be the wild men. With other wild men and women. In a wild church. With the wild reputation…

Our reputation…Shockingly intense and inspiring…That Christ could ask of the crowds around us, "What did you go out in the wilderness to see. What did you expect?"

what if there’s not wind?

This was a good interview in the November Christianity Today. Among Michael Horton's metaphors that I found helpful was this one:

I think of a sailboat decked out with all of the latest equipment that tells you where you are and where you need to be. It plots your course, but it's a sailboat, so you need wind in your sails. You start out and it's a beautiful day with wind in your sails. You're out in the middle of the ocean when the wind dies down. You're just sitting there dead calm. And your radio tells you that a hurricane is approaching. But all your sophisticated equipment will not be able to get you to safety. What you need is wind in your sails.

A lot of Christians, especially people who have had dramatic conversion experiences, go sailing out of the harbor with wind in their sails. They are so confident in Christ and what he has done for their salvation, and that gospel wind is in their sails. Yet after two years, they have heard just one imperative after another. They have lots of course plotting, lots of books on how to do this and that. They've read every manual on spiritual disciplines. They have heard their pastor tell them they need to pray more, to read the Bible more, to evangelize more. Now they are dead in the water. There's no wind in the sails.

Paul calls the gospel "the power of God unto salvation," and I don't think he meant the power of God just unto conversion. The gospel remains the power of God unto salvation until we are glorified. Calvin once said we need the gospel preached to us every week, and the Lord's Supper to ratify the promise, because we are partly unbelievers until we die.

what do you know about Kit Carson?

If you were assigned a research paper today, what would you research?

The question came up at dinner last night. Christian is writing one on guitars, his buddy's doing one on global warming, so we're talking about this…

Interesting …Remember the research paper? Outlines, note cards, bibliography, footnotes, Turabian and MLA citation styles…

Wow, perhaps just the thought of it makes you all panicky. Perhaps you absolutely hated it all along the way in your education process.

I loved it. I remember fondly manifold research papers:

Kit Carson, the frontiersman was for Mrs. Tarr when I was in like 4^th grade. I still have the document. I drew a picture of Kit Carson for the cover (crayon on construction paper). Kit Carson was the man!

Later in middle school I wrote a paper on the human nervous system. I remember biting off more than I could chew. I remember sketching diagrams of the nervous system freehand…I am not an artist…I remember a lot of words I couldn't pronounce…

In high school I wrote a paper on Hebrew poetry. I remember it helped me understand Psalms better, I remember I got it done and not much else…

In college, I remember writing some grueling papers for World Civilization, a class on the Book of Isaiah and one on Matthew (I went to Bible college). I don't remember much else because I was playing soccer and in love with Jolynn…

In seminary I remember several papers, one on Philistine temples (what was I thinking…I didn't draw any pictures). I also wrote one on the pneumatology of Jonathan Edwards. I remember thinking the intellectual sound of that would impress the prof., which it did not do. Indeed he thought I had reached way to far encompassing too much with the topic, and nailed me for poor source selection in my bibliography…

Ouch…

Finally I remember a paper in my last year on Second Temple Messianism, which was very interesting. I loved the class, I loved the prof., and did well on that paper…

Can't wait to read Chich's fascinating take on the history of the guitar…Long live the research paper and here's to the good old days in the library…

the caveat of disaster

Everything is pretty straightforward and apparently good with the sons of Issachar…The sons of Benjamin…The sons of Naphtali…The sons of Manasseh…

Pretty common "begat" fare…In the case of the aforementioned Naphtali, for instance…

His sons, "Jahziel, Guni, Jezer, and Shallum, the descendents of Bilhah…"

Representative of names and more names we cannot pronounce…

This list of descendents is from 1 Chronicles 7. And proceeded accordingly until I came to verse 20 and the descendents of Ephraim.

"Ezer and Elead…whom the men of Gath who were born in the land killed, because they came down to raid their livestock."

And there is more commentary:

"Ephraim mourned many days…His next born was named 'Beriah' because disaster had befallen his house." I understand that "Beriah sounds like the Hebrew word for "disaster."

And then, as quickly as that "disaster parenthesis" comes, it goes. And we are back to standard genealogical stuff:

"A daughter Sheerah…A son Rephah..begat so and so… And so on…"

"Because disaster had befallen his house…" May I linger there?

In the 'normalcy' of life we are surrounded by unique stories, and sometimes they are devastating. Disastrous.

This week I prayed with someone who's family was rocked by a violent, senseless crime…Today I saw relatives of victims of 911 on TV making sense of the upcoming trial of the 911 masterminds.

"Disaster has befallen their houses."

And they will never be the same…

In my life or the lives of others, the caveat of disaster may mark the unfolding routine. And then there must be room. Room for pause and prayer when life is suddenly and violently shaken by calamity.

“I missed you too daddy”

How many children through how many wars have carried the burden of a father who was in harm's way wondering if they would ever see him again? No cameras were there, yet the pain was the same. This moved me…

transfer growth

In church culture "transfer growth" is code for the wrong way for a church to grow. Simply put it's when a church does something or some things "better" which draws people from other churches. Kinda like Wal-mart negatively affecting the mom and pop stores in town. OK, I get that. And having been in churches on both sides of the transfer growth spectrum, I know the ire it raises in churches that are losing people, and the guilt it brings for the churches who are gaining them.

James MacDonald recently brought some welcomed if not contrarian clarity to this. Importantly, this statement was in the context of the priority of evangelism, and he was stating that transfer growth is never an excuse to avoid the priority of evangelism. However, this was his take on transfer growth:

I know a lot of churches that are growing, are growing by transfer growth…[People say,]"That's just transfer growth…" I like transfer growth. I like it a lot. I heard someone say a long time ago, "We don't believe in stealing sheep, but we are growing green grass." Jesus said, "Feed my sheep." And I got no problem with people leaving churches where the word of God is not prioritized, where they're not being fed, where they're not being grown in their faith. However, transfer growth is never an excuse to avoid the priority of evangelism…

Yes.