Climb Ridges

this is the air I breath?

2012-01-27T08:36:00.000-08:00

Dust/lint…Airborne dust mite debris…Pollen…Mold spores…Certainbacteria…Most smoke…Smog particles…Odor carriers…Virus carriers…

Yesterday, I changed my furnace filter which is a ratherexpensive, multi-month filter. As I took the new filter out of the packaging, Inoted these things that it is taking out of the air my family breathes in ourhouse.

On the packaging, there are little symbols of each of theseintruders; so for instance, the “airborne dust mite debris” symbol is a drawingof a little bug…

Imagine that thingcrawling around your house because you bought a cheap filter…

Well, not me, baby. I looked at the old filter before Ithrew it away, and am happy to say, I got my money’s worth out of that one.

I’m no furnace filter expert, but I took a close look atthat thing and am sure any scientist worth his or her beaker could identify said dustmites and mold spores by name.

I think that filter got ‘em all. And now a new one is inplace, ready to suck the bacterial life out of any germs who expect a free ridethrough my duct work into my family’s living spaces.

Colossians 3:16 is a great verse. “Let the word of Christdwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your heart toGod.”

You have a filter you know.

We could run our bad attitude, careless words, thoughtlessaction, mean spirit, gossiping story, etc. through the “word of Christ,” whichwould, I’m sure, filter it appropriately. Sadly, the word of Christ often doesn’tdwell in us adequately let alone richly.

I want to be around brothers and sisters who get and giveand live the filtered life, where what comes out is the wisdom expressed inworship…

“psalms, hymns spiritual songs, thankfulness”

It’s close to the end of the month. If you changed “this”filter, I wonder, what has the richly indwelling word of Christ caught?

As if, looking back you could see all those things you didn’t say…Those people you didn’t hurt…

Is it time to put the filter back in its place?

it's a rental

2012-01-23T06:07:00.000-08:00

It was a perfect day for the beach, and my new bride and Ihad the top down in a fun but gutless Mustang.

We...were tearing down a dirt road riddled withpotholes. There was a sign saying something about four-wheel drive a few clicksback, but I didn’t bother getting the details.

My wife began to get nervousabout our adventure and asked if we should be taking a Mustang on a road likethis. Without hesitation, I uttered those three little words that put our mindsat ease and that have been used by most of us at one time or another to justifythe reckless disregard for vehicle degradation:

It’s a rental.

It’s amazing howdifferently we treat things that we own versus rent.

Ownership gives us a senseof responsibility and care. It is ours, and in some way it reflects who we are,so we take care of it.

For several years I drove and old Buick Park Avenue thatmy wife and I bought from her grandfather. It was hot beige with a beigeinterior. Not exactly the ride of choice for a young man...

but it was mine.

Itwas not nearly as nice as the gutless Mustang we rented on our honeymoon, yet Itreated it much better.

My treatment of a car reflects my level of ownershipmore than it reflects the value of the car itself. In the same way, when itcomes to the mission of the church, our responses reflect our ownership morethan any other aspect of the mission.

Our churches have a clear, innovative,Holy Spirit-inspired vision for how God is calling us to proclaim his kingdom,but if we collectively have no ownership of that mission, we will be hardpressed to achieve anything.

God is not limited in accomplishing his plans by our lack ofownership, but he has chosen, for his glory and our joy, to employ us in hiswork, and I don’t want to miss out on that.

- Brad House

God (probably) didn’t give you a verse

2012-01-20T06:16:00.001-08:00

They say all who wander are not lost. Well, I am.

Of all the nonsense I embody, none is more profound than mynon-senseof direction.

I can get lost in the WalMart parking lot.

Part of my dad’s manly prowess as a hunter is the fact thatyou could drop him in the middle of the Yukon wearing nothing but boxer shortsand tennis shoes, and he’d walk to a McDonalds in a matter of hours with a deadmoose in tow.

Drop me in the middle of the 20 acre wood plot across frommy suburban neighborhood and I will never be heard from again.

True story. Several years ago I was hunting on a wooded hillsidein Pennsylvania State Game Lands about 5 miles from my house. I technically knew“where I was” but not exactly “where I was” if you knowwhat I mean. I was forced to call my wife from my “lost” position in the woodsand tell her I would be home late because I was (kinda…) lost.

To make matters worse, my young son was with me and followedme circuitously throughout the forest, looking at me as if to say, “It must beembarrassing to be you…”

Sometimes, I’m surprised he still calls me “Dad.”

After several hours of this, we reached the road and(eventually) the car.

There have been times—a recent spring turkey hunt comes tomind—when I thought I was lost, butsuddenly recognized my surroundings and realized, “this is where I want to be!”What a great feeling. A great feeling,but not much of a “found” strategy: “Keep walking until you recognize yoursurroundings.”

I’ve been thinking about how this serendipitoussort of “finding” creeps into the waywe sometimes study the Bible. I recently read thisarticle and was challenged by the authors opening words. “The purpose ofreading the Bible is not self-fulfillment, although that’s an easy trap to fallinto. There are some questions we can ask ourselves as we read Scripture tomake sure we are reading for the right reasons.”

He goes on to share these questions which I’ll include atthe end. His words here are needed. While we might not actually open the Bible randomly, plant our index finger on a verseand claim it from God, we often do search and apply the Scriptures that way.

This morning I was with a group of men and we discussedthis; beginning with what the author means by “reading for self-fulfillment.” I think itdescribes the verses we pick and choose to apply because they make us happy. Perhaps we deduce a meaningthat meets our need without qualification. One brother noted his fear of anyword that begins with “self.” It often means we’re on the wrong track. Indeed.

I loved @JohnPiper’s tweet on January 14: “Only God is morevaluable than the Word of God.” Yes…

Which means, that God’s “value” is at stake in our journeythrough the Scriptures. Beware of your haphazard and (worse) self-centeredmeander through the holy text.

When you “tiptoe through the truth” and your foot comes downon some warm and therefore assumed "takeaway from God," make sure it’s not just a verse yougave yourself.

Here are the suggested questions from thearticle:

1. What does this passage teach about God?

2. What attributes are on display?

3. What work is God doing?

4. How does the biblical author point us to God in this text?

5. Even though God may not be explicitly mentioned in this text, how is he at work in what is happening? How is he directing "behind the scenes?"

6. How does this passage either reveal or reflect the glory of God?

7. Does this passage over any models of those who miss the point by not seeing God at work and by not focusing on his glory?

8. Does this passage over any models of those who get the point?

9. What can I learn from these negative and positive models?

10. What does this text teach me about my own pursuits and agendas?

11. What selfish ambitions and pursuits do I need to repent of in light of what I just read in God's Word?

12. What have I learned from this text that helps me keep God and his glory at the center of my life?

why we don't build restaurants on the rim of the Grand Canyon

2012-01-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

Not long ago, I traveled with a friend of mine to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the first time for me to see this natural wonder.

As we walked the edge of the canyon at night, we could see the canopy of stars, not obscured by neon signs and strings of electric streetlights. Is this because there is no market for commercial real estate there at the lip of the canyon?

Of course not.

Instead, it is because the area has been protected as a natural park, zoned to maintain the integrity as a wild place.

This is dominion.

A cultivation of space according to its purpose and protection. In another place, a restaurant cooking food and feeding a neighborhood would be an example of dominion. In another, tending goats or the construction of a medical clinic or the building of a dam might be an aspect of dominion.

Starving to death because you can’t cultivate land to provide food for yourself and your community is not dominion, but neither is over fishing a stream so that your grandchildren can’t feed from it, or paving over the land the next generation could use for growing grain, or wiping out the entire population of honeybees so the future generation don’t see the glory of God in their flight, in the taste of the honey...

These are extreme examples.But this principle is seen in the way that God establishes human accountability not just for nature, but also for time.

Humanity is to be active in labor for six days of the week. But a limitless activity isn’t dominion at all; it is slavery. God establishes that we follow his model not only in activity but also in inactivity, in Sabbath rest.

In the cultivation of land and animals, likewise, we are to take into account the best interests not only of ourselves but also of nature and of the generations to come. We then, give the land Sabbath rest. We do not mistreat animals. This is husbandry, not tyranny, and it isn’t a contradiction of kingship but an explanation of it.

From the very beginning, lordship is defined not “like that of the Gentiles,” but in ways that will ultimately manifest themselves in a basin and towel.

Humans are designed to thrive as they express creativity and dominion, in the image of their Heavenly Father. That will look differently from person to person, but it does not change the fact that every human was designed to create and to steward.

- Russell Moore

wow...

2012-01-16T05:36:00.001-08:00

coffee with Bob

2012-01-13T10:48:00.001-08:00

When I woke up Tuesday morning, "Bob" was a name in the church database.

Known to me only by his "pertinent information." Family relationships, important dates, contact information.
Me and Bob were like this…

Not.

When I woke up Wednesday morning, I met Bob. He had called and said he was relatively new to the church, and he'd like to meet me. So, we met face to face. I looked him in his eyes. Shook his hand. Drank coffee with him.

If you're new to a church, or have been there a long time, and have never taken the time to sit down and talk with one of your pastors, let me encourage you to do so…For your pastor's sake.

Here are some thoughts from a pastor's perspective, about conversations like the one I had with Bob.

1. Your pastor is not too busy. This always cracks me up. Hello I'm a pastor with the privileged and honored calling to minister to people. Talking to you is what I do. So please don't apologize for bothering me. I'm not too busy.

2. Your pastor is too busy…Let me explain. Bob kept it simple. "Let's get together and have coffee." While your pastor is not too busy to talk you, his job as a pastor is bigger than talking to you, so keep in manageable. Bob was sensitive to my time and I was sensitive to his. Ask your pastor, "What would work best for you?" I meet with people at all kinds of times which helps me manage my schedule and helps them manage theirs.

3. It won't be awkward. This is not your first date after being matched on E-Harmony for Pete's sake! I know pastors who are introverts, but the nature of most pastors' calling and experience means that "talking to people" is hopefully something they do regularly. If you feel like you're not a good conversationalist, have nothing to talk about, etc., don't let that keep you from connecting with your pastor. The benefits are well worth the risk.

4. Talk about yourself. As a pastor here are some of the things I'm most interested in when I meet new people in a context like this. What/who brought you to our church? What has been your past church experiences? Share some information about your relationship with God. How have you (have you) gotten connected at church? What questions, problems, etc. are you experiencing as you get familiar with the church? Tell me about yourself and your family?
There you have it. Pretty simple eh? That's probably a lot more info. than we can cover over a cup of coffee, but obviously, there's plenty I want to talk about.

5. Don't talk about yourself…too much. Here we go again. Let me explain. Don't be afraid to ask your pastor about his life, family, his dreams and visions for the church.

6. Keep the balance between conversation and counseling. If you're going to drop a bomb on your pastor because of a crisis in your life, let him know that's coming beforehand. But, if you have a spiritual need, and want some advice, by all means take advantage of the opportunity. Some of us get squirrely around pastors and act as if we need to talk in a completely different way. Be yourself! Your pastor will appreciate the genuineness.

7. Be encouragingly critical and encouragingly critical. Be honest if you want to talk about bad things in the church. You are probably seeing things he is not. Pastors I know want to address and work to resolve problems or clarify misunderstandings. At the same time, encourage your pastor. Plan to share one thing with him that you appreciate about the church in general or his ministry in particular. You will never know how much those encouraging words mean to your pastor.

I'm sure there are other things pastors would mention here. If a pastor is reading and feels so compelled please comment.

I'm looking forward to seeing Bob in church this weekend. We already have a lot to talk about.

of roadside ditches and sin

2012-01-10T19:03:00.001-08:00

Watch this:

Read this:
James 1:13-15

I don't know about you, but I see some similarities…

“Welcome to Pittsburgh”

2012-01-09T06:19:00.001-08:00

That's what the pilot said.

"Welcome to Pittsburgh."

Which may seem like an appropriate thing to say on my flight home on Saturday, but here's the catch. We were still in the airplane, and, according to the aforementioned captain, 112 miles from the Pittsburgh airport, preparing for our "initial descent," traveling at oh…several hundred miles an hour I'm guessing.

And he has the audacity to say, "Welcome to Pittsburgh."

Now tragically, planes don't always land perfectly, but I appreciated his confidence. Especially sitting there buckled into that torpedo, I'm glad that he assumed…

We were as good as there.

Confidence.

Something you and I need in this new year. I love how the writer of Hebrews puts it: Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward (Hebrews 10:35).

The confidence of which he speaks is promising but paradoxical, so be confident, not cavalier.

This is not your best life now.

No. In the surrounding context the writer speaks of "enduring hard struggles with suffering," "being publically exposed to reproach and affliction" and "sometimes being partners with those so treated."

He goes on.

"Joyfully accepting the plunder of your property."

These are the kinds of things that make you wad up your confidence and toss it.

As if you are hurdling through the air, hundreds of miles an hour, hundreds of miles from home. Confidence?

Forget about it.

But the writer of Hebrews says, Don't throw it away. You are as good as there. He speaks in the language of a better possession, and an abiding one. A possession which Abraham received as he went out not knowing where he was going…

"Welcome to Pittsburgh Abraham…"

Don't throw away your confidence. In Jesus Christ, you are already there.

Happy New Year.

take away the supernatural and what remains is the unnatural

2011-12-19T05:59:00.001-08:00

I am going to be shutting down here until after the first of the year as we celebrate the high holiness of this week, and enjoy friends, family, and church.

Thanks for reading this year.

It's Christmas. Climb the ridges of the Incarnation…High enough to see over the first ridges to the other ones that disappear into the clouds.

In his oddly simple and beautiful obtuseness, Chesterton nails it with the following observations. Lord willing, I'll see you in 2012. Merry Christmas.

In the round of our rational and mournful year one festival remains out of all those ancient gaieties that once covered the whole earth.

Christmas remains to remind us of those ages, whether Pagan or Christian, when the many acted poetry instead of writing it.

In all the winter in our woods there is no tree in glow but the holly.

The strange matter of the truth is told in the very word "holiday." A bank holiday means presumably a day which bankers regard as holy. A half-holiday means, I suppose, a day on which a schoolboy is only partially holy.

It is hard to see at first sight why so human a thing as leisure and larkiness should always have a religious origin. Rationally there appears no reason why we should not sing and give each other presents in honor of anything—the birth of Michelangelo or the opening of Euston Station.

But it does not work.

As a fact, men only become greedily and gloriously materialistic about something spiritualistic…

Take away the supernatural, and what remains is the unnatural.

- G.K. Chesterton

a deep swift and strong love affair

2011-12-16T05:24:00.001-08:00

Twenty-two years ago today, in what I still consider to be a storybook, fairytale, winter-wonderland wedding, I married the only girl I've ever fallen for…

Yes, years before that day, in all my (barely) post-pubescent and adolescent alacrity…

I fell for Jolynn Hodil, and I've been falling ever since.

Let me explain it like this...

Fishing assumes some things. One is that you will be wading the creeks and streams and rivers you fish. Fish swim in all kinds of water, and whether crossing rivulets or rapids, there is often a sweet deception to it all.

Some rivers earn names that giveaway their clandestine currents. For instance, "Slippery Rock Creek" is one such water way in my neck of the woods…No secret there…

Others guard their potency. And as you wade you are, sometimes literally, swept away by the strength and swiftness, depth and dimension of the water.

And when you recover, very often that is where you want to stay. In these places your quarry thrives. It is deep and swift and strong…

It is here you wish to fish.

With that in mind, consider: From that warm and frosty December wedding night, our love became a small but surging watershed that over these years has taken on many sources in its growing vigor. Now a timid tributary. Now a roaring torrent.

And I sometimes still step into the depths of this love and fall again. Wonderfully surprised by its might.

This is some woman that I have married!

Today I honor Jolynn and celebrate a deep, swift and strong love affair, which we both need more than ever in these days.

When friends who were with us at the headwaters of our marriage as we were with them, now need us to in some ways merge and make each other stronger…

When this little son and daughter I remember have now become a young woman and man making adult decisions and going adult directions…

If a good marriage is as this deep, swift and strong place in the river, than mine is very good.

And this girl I fell for gets me again, twenty-two years later, and every time I am happily swept away.

Happy anniversary Jolynn. I love you.

theology in the face of death

2011-12-14T05:34:00.001-08:00

One of the most intriguing passages in the New Testament in terms of Christ's advent is the song of Simeon.

When this old man meets the Christ child in the Temple, he reacts by telling God that he is now ready to die.

`Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.'

The words are very familiar; so familiar, in fact, that their strangeness has been lost.

To be ready to die is surely odd:

We live in a world which refuses to acknowledge death because we all fear it so greatly and hope desperately that, against all odds, we can cheat it even if nobody else can.

This Christmas, the challenge… is to bring people into the presence of Christ

Not with the unattainable ambition that fear of death, the final enemy, will be taken away; but certainly with the desire to prepare people for death.

And if...Simeon, [is] right, this is not magic or clever or particularly sophisticated:

It involves teaching people the simple, straightforward, unfathomable truth of God Incarnate.

- Carl Trueman

serious joy

2011-12-12T06:23:00.000-08:00

Jesus…demands that we follow him in that painful path of love.

Therefore the joy he demands now is not chipper.
It’s not joy-lite.
It’s nor superficial or marked with levity.

This is the mistake of too many people and too many churches. They think that Jesus’ demand for joy is a demand to tell jokes or weave slapstick into Christian corporate life.

I don’t smell the Jerusalem-bound Jesus in that atmosphere.

Something has gone wrong. What’s wrong is that the aroma of suffering is missing. For Jesus the demand for joy is a way to live with suffering and to outlast suffering.

Therefore, this joy is serious.

It has scars.
It sings happy songs with tears.
It remembers the dark hours and knows that more are coming.

The road to heaven is a hard road, but it is not joyless
- John Piper

I'm thankful and praying for my great friend Patrick today and grateful that he has found a voice.

fish hunting

2011-12-09T06:23:00.000-08:00

I love these commercials, and as an outdoorsman, this one is my favorite. NOTE: This is a longer version than the TV one.

why you can get a boat

2011-12-07T10:31:00.001-08:00

Everyone butchers the [story of Noah and God's covenant with him].

It just frustrates me.

All my kids' Bibles, on this page, have white out and marker. We have to edit all the kids' Bibles, because Genesis 6 is told this way:

Everyone was bad, except for Noah. He was a good guy, so God saved him…That's not what it says.

The Bible says in Genesis 6 that "everyone was doing evil all the time and Noah found favor…" It's the Hebrew word for "grace," in the eyes of God. And then it says, "Noah was a righteous man who walked with God."

How was Noah saved?

By grace…just like the rest of us.

God looked at the earth and said, "They're all sinners. None of them deserves anything…I'll give grace to that guy." That made him a righteous man, and enabled him to walk with God.

Everyone skips that and they tell the story:

Hey you see Noah? He got a boat…You know why? He was a righteous man. You see the other guys swimming (at least for a little while)? They weren't righteous, and that's what happened when you aren't righteous. You gotta swim for it.

That's not true. That's not the gospel. The gospel is that God takes not just undeserving people, but ill-deserving people and gives them grace.

Don't just read:

Noah was a righteous man. He walked with God and got a boat. Be a righteous man, and you get to walk with God, and you get a boat; his name is Jesus.The truth is:

Noah should have died in the flood. He was a sinner just like everyone else, and he received grace or favor in the eyes of God.

The same thing that God does with us. We should die and go to hell (the proverbial flood), and God gives grace to some.

- Mark Driscoll

toward living like florescent orange and sore thumbs

2011-12-05T06:55:00.001-08:00

When "orange" doesn't quite make the statement you want…

There's "florescent orange." (FO)

That's more like it.

I am in a season of life where a subset of my wardrobe includes FO.

Hunting season to be exact.

And so, on certain mornings, afternoons and evenings, I reach for a nice polyester blend vest with big pockets…And don a stylish ball cap…

Both, loudly and proudly, FO.

Granted, not only is it illegal to walk into the hunting woods of western PA without the proper square inches of FO, it is foolish.

Here's another term for you: "High-powered" as in rifles. Whoever came up with that one was brilliant…Redundantly so, but brilliant none the less.

FO helps the average hunter keep his or her "high-powered" rifles aimed at the animals, not at the other hunters, so bring on the FO Carhartt overalls, gloves, hats, boots, underwear…

In this case, sticking out is underrated.

I have however compartmentalized the FO part of my wardrobe. Other than hunting trips, my hat hangs securely on its hook in the basement. My vest is tucked away in a tub with other neon accessories.

Some men embrace the FO vibe. When it comes to American Eagle Outfitters, think more "Outfitter" than "American Eagle," unless of course, you want to shoot the eagle…

However, I am not one of those men.

Headed to the grocery store…black North Face fleece, muted green hat with "Gap" across the front. Yes.

Headed to the grocery store…FO coat with "Gorilla Tree Stands" across the back, and FO hat with "Mossy Oak" across the front. No.

(Not that there's anything wrong with that…)

Indeed, my love/hate relationship with FO has me thinking about the color of my Christianity. Something else that is easily compartmentalized.

The Bible's analogies to light and salt aren't prescriptive for certain seasons. There is a "sticking-outness" to it all. These metaphors speak of lives that constantly permeate cultures that are dark and savorless.

What distinctions for Christ have you ignored? What qualities of Jesus are hanging in the closet? What fruit of the Spirit is packed away in the bin?

You can't just take that off.

Matthew 5:14-16

the bleak landscape of temporal things

2011-12-02T07:15:00.001-08:00

I wish I viewed the temporal things of this life as I do this picture.

I tweeted it Monday morning as I tried to share my miserable experience hunting. I snapped it with my cheap cell phone camera, as I was sitting 15 feet off the ground, in the rain, under a failing miserably umbrella, waiting for a deer to walk into this landscape.

The hashtag?

#bleak

I suppose someone might find this picture somehow beautiful. Perhaps. But look at it long, and you would want alternatives…

Color.

Vividness.

Compared to the things not of this earth, the things of this earth are bleak. Paul tried to put it into words…
"A light, momentary affliction verses an eternal weight of glory."
"Seen things verses unseen things."
"Transient things verses eternal things."
Compared to the latter, the former are like the bleak landscape of this picture.

God is sometimes painfully but always purposefully helping me to see that must stop staring at the picture of the transient things hoping they take on the value of the eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

not the death of the demented, the deluded, or the disillusioned

2011-11-30T06:49:00.001-08:00

Some people see in the cross nothing more than a fine example of sacrificial love.

They cannot find there anything of atonement, of triumph over the powers of darkness, of the satisfaction of God's justice, of bearing away the sins of others.

They see only an example of self-sacrificing love, an example to be emulated.

James Denney gave one of the most trenchant responses to that emphasis almost a century ago:

What would we think, he asks, of someone who ran down the Brighton pier at full tilt, loudly proclaiming his love for the world, and who jumped off the end of the pier and drowned? Surely we would not praise his love; surely we would pity his dementia. For one cannot meaningfully speak of self-sacrificing love unless there is a purpose to the self-sacrifice. The pathetic person's "self-sacrifice" is a tragic waste to be pitied, not a noble example to be emulated.

In exactly the same way to speak grandly of the example of Jesus' love, or even of his identification with human suffering, is entirely meaningless unless there is some end in view.

We must never lose sight of the fact that that end is our salvation—our pardon, our reconciliation to God, our restoration to a proper relationship with both God and other human beings, and ultimately our transformation when Jesus comes again.

That is what gives meaning to Jesus' self-sacrifice.

Mark 10:45

- D.A. Carson

when thankfulness befalls us all

2011-11-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

Soon flies the snow
Now harsh winds blow
Leaves answering the bluster call
Invoke their name and finally fall

Cold and barren without cover
Yet in this season we discover
Thankfulness is in full bloom
Blossoms in late autumn gloom

Growing like a flower planted
Gratitude takes naught for granted
To a certain grateful day
Thanksgiving parts the clouds of gray

And ushers us to greet the Son
When thanks becomes a Christmas one
So may this week prepare you thus
To bless the One who died for us

Happy Thanksgiving.
2 Corinthians 9:15

running red lights for Jesus

2011-11-21T07:47:00.000-08:00

"Stop" rarely has to be defended.

Perhaps at an intersection, someone stops prematurely and is unceremoniously rear-ended, but even then, it's often the person who hits the stopped person who is at fault.

Of course, there are exceptions to this, but "I ran the red light is usually the way the accident report starts..."

Not, "Well, I stopped at the red light..."

Stop. Slow down. Brake. Safe. Comfortable. Harmless.

I was digging into the speech of Stephen just prior to his martyrdom in Acts 7, and John Stott noted something about this complete and cogent defense that Stephen gave.

Stott writes, "Stephen had to develop an apologia for his radical gospel...

An apologia for his radical gospel is one way to say it...

A defense for his foot-on-the-gas-for-Jesus-Christ-GO-gospel.

Stop is relaxing. Go is radical...And has to be defended. Stephen's "religious" persecutors knew this. If he and his GO brethren would have listened to the demand of the council in Acts 4:18, everything would have been cool...

"Just stop OK...?" That way, nobody gets hurt...

What is our gospel? A radical go gospel which needs defended because it is always shaking up the status quo and signaling out the self-righteous.

Let's run some red lights...

Life is short, but eternity is forever.

2011-11-18T07:11:00.001-08:00

Last night, Fred Barnes lectured at Geneva College. His talk was mostly political, but during the Q/A, he shared some intimate details about his Christian faith in general, and his adult conversion to Christianity in particular.

He shared with us an incident in the life of a fellow journalist and colleague, the late Robert Novak; an incident, which Barnes understood as the point of Christian conversion in Novak's life.

Barnes told us that Novak reflected on this incident in his (Novak's) autobiography, in a chapter aptly titled, "Conversion."

I found the story in that chapter in the book online. I want to share it here. First, let me put it in context. Leading up to this incident, Novak writes of himself as someone who, along with his wife, was experiencing spiritual hunger but only she recognized it.

So as this spiritual hunger is slowly fed, Novak writes the following.

On October 22, 1996, I came to Syracuse [University] to deliver the annual Flowers Lecture, partially financed by the conservative Young America Foundation and sponsored by the Young Republicans. Standard procedure for college lectures is a prespeech dinner for the speaker, hosted by the sponsoring student committee. There was one woman on the College Republican's committee, seated across the table from me. She was striking looking wearing a gold cross on her neck.

What happened next may be distorted in my memory and shaped by the religious mysteries that I see entwined in this episode. Without mentioning the cross, I was impelled to ask the woman a question that normally I would not consider posing. Was she a Catholic? I thought she answered yes and then asked me whether I was one.

"No," I replied, "But my wife and I have been going to mass every Sunday for about 4 years."

"Do you plan to join the church?" She asked. I answered: "No, not at the present time."

The young woman looked at me and said evenly, "Mr. Novak, life is short, but eternity is forever."

I was so shaken by what she said I could barely get through the rest of the dinner and my speech that night.

Sometime during the short night before rising to catch a seven a.m. flight back to Washington, I became convinced that the Holy Spirit was speaking through this Syracuse student.

I was convicted by the story of this young woman who had the boldness to speak.

I am often tragically oblivious to what the Spirit of God might do at such a moment, even if I have the boldness to speak.

"Life is short, but eternity is forever." Whether you are a cashier or a CEO.

Who will you be talking to today?

not the wire, the Nail

2011-11-16T06:02:00.001-08:00

It's time for garland, and I don't mean Judy…

The Frey's are decorating for Christmas. The convergence of jobs, extra-curricular events, church, family, friends, holidays, etc. has us digging into the tubs and totes a little early this year…

Sort of a Christgiving/Thanksmas theme going on. Turkeys with Santa hats and all that…

In addition to said garland, other decorative pieces make their yearly appearance, including some wreaths. Last spring, Jolynn took the money from a Pier One gift card and bought a big, thin hammered metal wreath in the shape of a flower. It has been hanging on our front porch since before the summer, and looks very cool…

But not at Christmas. Down it came Monday night. My job: Where to store it.

A couple things you should be reminded about concerning this wreath. One, it's big…Real big. Two, it's thin metal, so it's fragile, bendable. In storage, it has to be hung. Three, it's heavy.

So with these non-negotiables in mind, I began to survey the already stuffed storage room in the basement, looking for that one magic nail that could handle this job over the long winter season.

I found that 16 common stud sticking out of…well…a stud, and fastened the wreath accordingly.

I felt like I was asking a lot of that little nail. "Look dude, we paid a lot for this wreath. For the next couple of months, I need you to 'hang in there.'" Through thick or thin, be that nail…that won't…fail…(uggh sorry)…

I stood back looking at that wreath hanging what seemed rather precariously and realized something.

The nail was only half of the solution. On the back of the wreath is a heavy gauged wire, attached at two places, designed to hang over the nail. The truth is, that nail can sit pounded into a beam, solid and secure for eternity. But that wreath is only as good as that wire…

Well, I'm expecting everyone to do their job. But if I hear that wreath crash to the floor in the middle of some random night in February, I'll know this…

It was the wire, not the nail.

I want to remember this. Because I am not as sure of myself as I am of the wire on that wreath.

Many people are holding on to God by the strength of their trying harder…"If only I can make this wire strong enough…"

You can't.

But you can trust more. The One Who never lets go.

The Nail cannot fail. There will be no crash in the middle of the night.

Matthew 11:28

passionate prayer

2011-11-14T05:39:00.000-08:00

I watched this happen on Saturday.

I was impressed with the passion of this coach's prayer, but then again, anyone can pray passionately.

I was more impressed when I got to hear what was said.

the practical theology of bridges freezing before road surfaces

2011-11-11T07:36:00.001-08:00

"Bridge freezes before road surface," is not esoteric, metaphysical, or cryptic.

There are, I'm sure, some quite complex scientific and mathematical reasons as to why the statement is true, but none of them are as compelling as experiencing the truth of this statement as you are cruising down the highway at say…55 mph, past a sign that says this, onto a bridge that proves its point.

This is how I have come to most appreciate the truth of the statement.

From what many consider the most practical of pens, the New Testament book of James says this:
God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6).

Another statement best experienced "on the highway" as it were.

Simply put…

"Share a time when God opposed you in your pride…" or "Share a time when God gave you grace in your humility."

And, this morning, I did put those questions to a group of men.

Not. "What does God mean by pride," or "Explain the grace of God in humility…"?
But, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." Tell me how that has happened to you…?

The room got very quiet and then very consequential. It's one thing to know something from the Bible. It's something more to experience it very personally, and it's something even more to share the impact of that experience…

In that group this morning we heard stories of God meeting men in their lowest points of unemployment and financial ruin…Of men humbled by God in their arrogance and attitudes.

As a pastor, I am always reminded of the importance of moments like these. When the simple truth of Scripture is understood in its most powerful way; how it is experienced.

Recently in a very good article, Mark Driscoll challenged preachers along these lines. He wrote:
Don't show me how smart you are, because it makes me feel dumb. I assume you're smart since you're standing up talking and we're all sitting down listening. If you quote words in some language I don't know, or quote dead guys to show you're a genius, that makes me feel dumb, which doesn't serve me well. Don't come off like that kid in school that the rest of us wanted to give a wedgie to every time they raised their hand.

Indeed.

The power of bridges freezing before road surfaces is not in the parsing and pontificating about the words on a sign.

Rather, it is in the white-knuckled grip on a steering wheel as I slide across the frozen bridge.

Let's awaken one another to the very way God's Word works when the rubber hits the very slippery road.

people there with book bags

2011-11-09T05:59:00.001-08:00

The hardest mission trip I've ever done was to Western Illinois University.

A gentleman named Phil led that trip. He said to us, "I'm going to go into the middle of campus, I'm going to take a garbage can as my pulpit, I'm going to preach the gospel. I want you all to wear book bags, look like normal students, and when they start getting offended by what I'm saying, ask them what they think about it."

And he used his unbelievable ability to preach the gospel in that way, as a way to draw these folks and then they were engaged with the gospel.

And so in some ways the attractional part of this preaching gift that some people have can be harnessed as long as the discipleship…

as long as there are people there with book bags that are making sure they're being engaged with what they're hearing.

The caricature of the larger church is that we attract but that we don't disciple, and in some ways that's a fair assessment and in some places it's not.

I want to give my life to this one church, if God would be so good to me, to help us put the book bags on.

And if God wants me to be the one to be the fool over there on top of the garbage can, then that's what I'll do. If it's through beaming it in, then that's what I'll do.

I just want to know that when my time is up, I have done everything I can to get the most people into the kingdom. And not to go outside biblical bounds in doing it.

- Ben Mandrell

scrub your heart

2011-11-07T06:37:00.001-08:00

It would seem that a sturdy bar of Irish Spring, or better yet Lava soap is no longer enough.

Unbelievably, "Fresh and clean as a whistle," has room for improvement.

With sparkling and uber-hygenic names like SaniTech and BiochemClean, the days of industrial strength, bacteria eliminating soap pump stations are here to stay.

And, while I made both of those names up, you know I'm right. These little automated, self-dispensing soap stations are located ubiquitously like the safety call boxes along the turnpike.

From college campuses to mall concourses…There they are…Put your hand under here and…

"A dollop will do ya…"

A small round swirl of antiseptic foam is dropped into your palm to be magically rubbed in and protecting you from everything…

Dengue fever to the bite of the tsetse fly.

My pastoral duties took me into the hospital last week, and as I walked the corridors, on every other section of wall was the automated antibacterial dispenser.

I availed myself to every one, and by the time I reached the patient, not only was I ready to pray for the surgery, my hands were clean enough to do the surgery.

Charlie Hall wrote a great song which is simply but deeply profound in its prayer: Give us clean hands. Give us pure hearts.

Last night, I was sitting with Jolynn and listening to the student worship band. My son Christian introduced this song with what I thought were some profound words…The idea that, we wouldn't imagine only washing our hands once a week, and yet, our hearts…that's a different story.

There are plenty of hand cleaning stations, but what about heart cleaning ones?

How and how often will you "scrub your heart this week?"

Where along the way today, and tomorrow will you find soul cleansing stuff to drop into your life and wash away the dirt?

Penitent people find the many God-given dispensing stations of mercy and grace, and use them often. Thanks for that reminder Chich.

John 13:8-11

the Johnny Appleseed of righteousness

2011-11-04T07:09:00.000-07:00

Not long after we moved here to Pennsylvania, Jolynn planted this tree on our back yard to cover a bare spot. It was small and spindley, basically a stick with some leaves coming off of it...

Of course we anticipated what we have now, but I am always amazed when I see what grows from those initial humble efforts...

Amazed when it happens with limbs and lives.

James 3:18 says, "And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace."

Is that what you will be doing today?

Sowing seeds in peace.
A word here, an action there, the fruit of which will be righteousness.

You are planting. In the life of your spouse, or the lives of your kids, your coworkers...

Sowing some kind of seeds.

What kind of havest are you looking forward to?

be a sellout…

2011-11-02T05:35:00.001-07:00

When was the last time you sold something because you just didn't need it?

I had a conversation with someone on Monday about that very thing. The fact that, over time, so much stuff accumulates in our lives and we are scrambling to figure out ways to get rid of it because we just don't need it.

"I'm trying to sell that because I just don't need it."

In Luke's second description of the early church, in Acts 4:34-37, the word "sold" is used 3 times. Verse 37 is the last verse in the chapter, and the first verse of chapter 5 uses the word again. Sold.

Sold. Sold. Sold. Sold.

I think he's trying to make a point.

The early church was a church marked by selling things. John Stott cautions us not to turn this into some false expectation of Jesus' imminent return, or a grand Christian communistic experiment on their part.

"What we should surely do instead," he writes, "is to note and seek to imitate the care of the needy and the sacrificial generosity which the Holy Spirit created."

Where are the selling Christians and churches? Imagine us marked by an uncanny and unnatural desire to just get rid of this and that.

Sold because we didn't need it.

John Calvin notes, "They sold their possessions in those days; in our day it is the lust to purchase that reigns supreme."

It's time to sell.

Look around your church and your closet.

Look closely at what you should be holding loosely.

rutrace

2011-10-31T06:40:00.001-07:00

I heard the coach for Pitt's football team describe the overwhelming emotions when the team comes out of the tunnel for a home game. After listening to that conversation, I paid more attention to the entrances of teams in some of the games I watched over the weekend.

Teams come running out surrounded by fog, flags, and fans. It looks like quite a moment. And the bigger the stage, the bigger the spectacle.

Perhaps you've never had an experience to compare that to. For me, it was on a small scale playing soccer at a small college, but the emotions were no less intense…That moment, when it's on…

On like Donkey Kong…

I still get that feeling when it's time to play in the over-40 fat bald guy indoor soccer league, something Jolynn doesn't understand, but something I hope I never lose.

Sunday, Andy (@resonateloud), my colleague in ministry led us in a song aptly titled Go.

Go. That's it.

And as the writer in Hebrews tells us we are surrounded by the cheering crowd.

But the race can become the rut. Instead of running, we are running out…

of hope…of strength…of faith…

A rut race.

Well, put a little spectacular into your unspectacular.

"Fix your eyes on Jesus." Today.

My feet hit the floor this morning and there was that song:

We're giving all away away…

We're giving it all to go Your way…

Time to Go.

decal deception

2011-10-26T05:45:00.001-07:00

Trout Unlimited sent me a nice letter asking for money. As part of the deal, the also offered several nice gifts that would appeal to any angler. One of these gifts was a TU decal to stick on my car, indentifying me as a TU supporter.

Here's where it gets interesting.

They sent me the decal with the letter.

So, ostensibly I can slap it on my Explorer, telling the world I'm a TU supporter, without even being a supporter.

I'm guessing they figure the free publicity from a proliferation of TU decals on vehicles of non-supporting anglers outweighs the cost of mailing said decals to said anglers.

For the record; Jesus doesn't work that way.

James says it quite clearly: You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone (James 2:24).

For James, notes one commentary, "faith alone" means a bogus kind of faith, mere intellectual agreement without a genuine personal trust in Christ that bears fruit in one's life…

I get that word "bogus."

I'm imagining that awkward day when a fellow angler pulls alongside my decaled truck and says, "TU. It's a great organization, isn't it..."

Bogus window dressing.

Mean it. Because some of the fish stickers you put on your car matter more than others…

Jesus, that’s how…

2011-10-24T06:08:00.001-07:00

How quickly will you get to Jesus this week?

In some conversation or commitment…In a certain success, suffering?

How and how quickly will you make it about Jesus?

I've been thinking about that as I've been studying Acts 3-4, particularly the aftermath of Peter and John's healing of a lame beggar.

You remember that story right? A forty-something year old man, "lame from birth," is spoken to, taken by the right hand by Peter, and "immediately his feet and ankles were made strong (v. 7).

This miracle creates a shockwave of reaction that reverberates throughout the events of chapters 3 and 4.

Twice, Peter answers the question:

How did you do that?

In chapter 3, with the formerly lame man "clinging" to them (Peter and John), his new muscular-skeletal prowess on display, Peter addresses the unspoken question from the crowd:

Why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us?

He then takes them to the reason this happened…

Jesus.

In chapter 4, the high authorities in Jewish religious circles are worried about how this new thing is going to upset the proverbial apple cart (or chariot as the case may be). They ask Peter directly:

By what power or by what name did you do this?

Peter takes them to Jesus.

From the miracle, Peter gets to the Miracle.

Perhaps for you it will be from the mundane, but get to Jesus.

The symptom of a deeper design

2011-10-21T08:05:00.001-07:00

Understanding why community is essential to the life of the Christian and the proclamation of the gospel begins with understanding that we were created for community.

No one really debates the need for people to exist within community. It is not merely a Christian understanding. But belonging in and of itself will never be enough.

Hanging the need for community on belonging is like hanging the need for water on thirst. The need for both is deeper.

Thirst is a symptom of a deeper design—that your body was created to require water to survive. While we can technically survive without community, we don't function properly without it.

The deeper need for community is embedded in the very fabric of who we are; it's part of our design.

- Brad House

do we even need men?

2011-10-19T05:53:00.001-07:00

William J. Bennett:

…Just ask young women about men today.

You will find them talking about prolonged adolescence and men who refuse to grow up.
I've heard too many young women asking, "Where are the decent single men?"

There is a maturity deficit among men out there, and men are falling behind.

Today, 18-to- 34-year-old men spend more time playing video games a day than 12-to- 17-year-old boys.

While women are graduating college and finding good jobs, too many men are not going to work, not getting married and not raising families.
Women are beginning to take the place of men in many ways.

This has led some to ask: do we even need men?

So what's wrong?

Increasingly, the messages to boys about what it means to be a man are confusing.
The machismo of the street gang calls out with a swagger.

Video games, television and music offer dubious lessons to boys who have been abandoned by their fathers. Some coaches and drill sergeants bark, "What kind of man are you?" but don't explain.

Movies are filled with stories of men who refuse to grow up and refuse to take responsibility in relationships.

Men, some obsessed with sex, treat women as toys to be discarded when things get complicated.

Through all these different and conflicting signals, our boys must decipher what it means to be a man, and for many of them it is harder to figure out.

We may need to say to a number of our twenty-something men,

"Get off the video games five hours a day, get yourself together, get a challenging job and get married."

It's time for men to man up.

ice cubes and khaki

2011-10-17T06:55:00.001-07:00

Most worshipping weekends, Jolynn and I can sit in a large modern facility, in comfortable theater seats, with great technology and music…

Sunday, in a working class neighborhood of a southwestern PA town, we sat in old pews, in a little white church with stained glass and a creaky wood floor…

It was a very good different.

D.A. Carson wrote

The Triune God loves diversity—

So much so, as someone has remarked, that when he sends a snowstorm he makes each flake different.

We manufacture ice cubes.

Doubtless the church is in some sense like a mighty army, but that does not mean we should think of ourselves as undifferentiated khaki.

We should be more like an orchestra: each part making its own unique contribution to the symphonic harmony.

Dictators of the right and left seek to establish their brand of harmony by forcefully imposing monotonous sameness, by seeking to limit differentiation.

God establishes his brand of harmony by a lavish grant of highly diverse gifts, each contributing to the body as a whole.

I believe in plodding

2011-10-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

I think it's funny, when as a pastor, someone wants to talk to me and says, "I know you're really busy..."

It seems like everyone says that to pastors.

I usually say, "actually, I'm not."

There's this weird aura that comes with being a pastor where people think you are always busy.
Now granted, sometimes, I am busy. Weekends, for instance, when I'm at the church: busy. But the fact is that I will probably not be too busy to talk to you when you call me on some random Tuesday. (So please, call. You can even take me to lunch...)

And, some pastors seem to revel in this: "They think I'm busy, so I'll act busy." I hate when pastors do that.

Newsflash Pastor I'm-too-busy: Everybody's busy.

Granted, busyness means different things in different lines of work, and so it affects a pastor's work in a different way than it would say a dentist's work.

But, pastors seem to forget that the pastorate provides certain privileges that other jobs don't...

So down with the pastors who always say: "I'm busy..."

OK, with that off my chest but on my mind, I thought I'd share this great little piece on time management. I think what Doug Wilson says here is excellent. I think it's very helpful for pastors, and hopefully for others who are trying to make the best use of time.

A question I frequently get, and which I am generally reluctant to answer, is a question about time management. How do I get everything done?

I don't like to answer this for three reasons.

First, I don't get everything done. The done stuff is visible enough, but the undone stuff is sitting on my desk, staring at me malevolently.

Secondly, I am a firm believer in distinguishing principles and methods and I am afraid that if I talk too much about what I do, or the way I approach things, people in completely different circumstances, or with different sets of gifts, will think that I am saying that this is "the way." Which it isn't.

And third, it seems awkward and self-centered to talk about yourself like you were a template of some kind, as though you were trying to explain to people how you got to be so wonderful. That kind of attitude evokes the "ick" response, and I don't ever want to look like I am doing that.

That said, the question has come up again, and so despite misgivings, I am going to try to answer it anyhow -- at least at a general level. The first part will emphasize principles, the second part methods.

I believe in plodding. Productivity is more a matter of diligent, long-distance hiking than it is one-hundred-yard dashing. Doing a little bit now is far better than hoping to do a lot on the morrow. So redeem the fifteen minute spaces. Chip away at it. For example, I have a stack of six books that I am working through most weekday mornings -- a page or two of each every time I sit down to read. I do the same thing with writing -- if you have time for a little bit, then do a little bit.

Second, maintain boundaries for everything, boundaries that suit the circumstance. When the kids were little and still at home, the daily routine was completely different than it is now that they have families of their own. Generally, pastors need to set boundaries to keep their work from spilling into family time, and not the other way around. So, for example, when we were first married, we set the boundary that I would not allow my work as a pastor (Bible studies, speaking engagements, etc.) take me away from home in the evenings more than three nights a week. Flipped around, I would be home with the family a minimum of four nights a week. My work was restricted to specified reservations, and as my responsibilities grew I had to figure out ways to be more fruitful in those alloted times. When an extra load developed, the idea was to have it land on me and not on the family. If it has to get done now, then get up at five, and nobody else pays. So if you need to, get up at five, but always try to go home at five.

A sixty hour work week is an honest job and a significant load, but a lot of the problems that come to people who work this much happen because of where those sixty hours are placed. It is possible to work sixty hours and still have lots of time left over for family. A week has a total of 168 hours in it. Sixty hours of work leaves 108, and eight hours of sleep a night take away another 56 hours, leaving you with 52 hours a week to play tag with the kids.

Third, measure progress by the extended video, not the snapshot. Set goals for getting things done, but have the time for measuring the goals be extended enough to allow for daily or weekly fluctuations. For example, when I first began to work as a minister I set a goal for my weekly reading, as measured by the month. I wanted to read on average 1-2 books a week, calculated by how many I finished in a month, which would be somewhere between four to eight books. Set hard but reasonable goals, and measure them in reasonably extended time units.

Fourth, use and reuse everything. Act like a Sioux with a superstitious fixation on using every last part of the buffalo. I know that my blogging pace sometimes creates the illusion that I do little other than sit here typing like a madman, but that is really not the way it is at all. Prepare things with an eye on reusing them in the future, and make sure to use (any useful) work from the past. This is how former Credenda articles are shaped into books, sermon outlines are shaped into books, Bible study outlines from fifteen years ago are lightly edited into continuous prose and turned into blog posts and may one day find their way into a book, and interesting quotations from books I have read are posted here with a view to using them as the research background on future books.

Those are some of the basic principles. Here is the second part, the particular details. Saturday is my day off, the day for pottering in the yard, and relaxing my brain by making a dump run in my pick-up. The people out there at the dump must think I throw things away for a living. I go into the office early on Thursday and Friday. Thursday is our weekly elders' meeting at 6 am, and Friday is a men's prayer meeting at 6:30. Monday through Wednesday I go into work at 8, and five days a week come home at five. Wednesday is blocked off as my sermon prep day. Sunday I get up at six to prepare various prayers and exhortations for the service. I have a number of pastoral, counseling appointments scheduled throughout the week, and the rest of the time is taken up by teaching and committee meetings of various kinds. In between these different appointments and events, I write as I have the opportunity. In the evenings, Nancy and I hang out with the kids and grandkids who come over frequently, I play the guitar, read, and so on. It is a full and busy life, but we work hard at preventing it from becoming frenetic. I hate frenetic, which returns us to the previous point on the fruitfulness of plodding. Living this way, we have found that it adds up.

anti-Babel

2011-10-12T05:21:00.001-07:00

And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each was hearing them speak his own language. Acts 2:6

Luke does not draw attention to what he is doing; but in his own subtle way he is saying to us that on that Day of Pentecost the whole world was there in the representatives of the various nations.

Nothing could have demonstrated more clearly than this the multi-racial, multi-national, multi-lingual nature of the kingdom of Christ.

Ever since the early church fathers, commentators have seen the blessing of Pentecost as a deliberate and dramatic reversal of the curse of Babel.

At Babel human languages were confused and the nations were scattered.

In Jerusalem the language barrier was supernaturally overcome as a sign that the nations would now be gathered together in Christ, prefiguring the great day when the redeemed company will be drawn from "every nation, tribe, people and language."

Besides, at Babel earth proudly tried to ascend to heaven.

Whereas in Jerusalem heaven humbly descended to earth.

-John Stott

got gas

2011-10-10T05:04:00.000-07:00

Jolynn thinks I'm too easily amused, but I think this commercial is clever.

biblical bromance

2011-10-07T07:47:00.001-07:00

I'm thrilled to see the word bromance finally make the dictionary.

I typed this in MSWord, and the little red squiggly line that appears rebelliously underneath this newly minted word means Microsoft didn't get the memo yet, but…

It's a word.

And if you're a guy, you need to get with this bromance program Bro'
That's right, I said "Bro'".

The emergence of bromances everywhere is marked by a telltale sign. It is this: We call each other "Bro'" or "Brother."
As in, "Hey bro' it's good to see you." Or, "how's it going brother?"

This works for us men. Emotionally, "Bro'" is perfectly innocuous but, in the manliest of ways, communicates that we care.

And it is something just for us guys. I mean you don't hear the women walking around saying, "Hey Sis'". That won't work. Besides, they have "Hey Girl" and my wife's favorite "Hi Chicka," etc…

So yea men, we got "Bro'" and we should be thankful for it. Granted we have to use it appropriately, for instance, some guys just aren't there yet, so be discerning. Perhaps a "Hey Man," would be more acceptable until they are more comfortable with this.

And please brothers, don't call a woman Bro'. Like when you get frustrated and you're so used to your bromances that you exclaim "c'mon Bro'!"…and it's your wife or girlfriend standing there…

Once upon a time Budweiser tried to convince us that we could say "I love you man," and everything would be OK, but let's face it guys, we might pull that off with our dad, but it's got the "L" word in there…

"Bro'" is all we need. The love is in there…unsaid, but its felt. It's there. It's magical…

And, much to my surprise, I discovered the biblical roots of the bromance. In Acts 1:13, Luke lists the disciples in a different order than he did in his gospel, and the late great John Stott believes there is a bromance reason. He writes about this discrepancy:
The inner circle of four who had been named in the Gospel as pairs of brothers, "Simon and Andrew, James and John" are now "Peter, John, James, and Andrew," putting first those who were to become the leading apostles, and also separating the natural brothers as if to hint that a new brotherhood in Christ had replaced the old kinship. (emphasis mine)

Indeed, in verse 16, the Apostle Peter stands up, and the first thing he says is…Wait for it…

"Brothers."

It would seem the Bible saw this coming…Imagine that…

So to all my brothers out there be aware: I will probably bro' ya, even if I don't know ya'…

going and coming

2011-10-05T05:24:00.001-07:00

And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven" Acts 1:10-11

There is something fundamentally anomalous about their gazing up into the sky when they had been commissioned to go to the ends of the earth.

It was the earth not the sky which was to be their preoccupation.

Their calling was to be witnesses, not stargazers.

The vision they were to cultivate was not upwards in nostalgia to the heaven which had received Jesus, but outwards in compassion to a lost world which needed him.

It is the same for us today.

Curiosity about heaven and its occupants, speculation about prophecy and the fulfillment, an obsession with "times and seasons" – these are aberrations which distract us from our God-given mission.

Christ will come personally, visibly, gloriously. Of which we have been assured.

Other details can wait.

Meanwhile, we have work to do in the power of the Spirit.

We need to hear the implied message of the angels:

"You have seen him go. You will see him come. But between that going and coming there must be another.

The Spirit must come, and you must go—into the world for Christ."

John Stott

what can a piece of meat do?

2011-10-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

Christians sing some weird things.

I grew up singing about clinging to beautiful rugged crosses and fountains filled with blood.

Today, often with hands raised, I join in singing songs accompained now by electric guitars instead of organs, worship leaders instead of song leaders...

But same lyrics:

Crosses. Blood. Weird...

And wonderful. I wouldn't have it any other way.

John Piper said,

Christ was insulted, mocked ridiculed, scorned, derided, parodied, caricatured, and then hung up like a piece of meat and then skewered with a sword to see if he was done or not. This is folly to those who are perishing. What can that piece of meat do? If you are the Son of God, then act like it! The heart of the gospel is the bloody Christ, and that is the apex of the demonstration of the glory of our God.

He is so right.

And so we sing songs like this one that we sang Sunday.

I never knew death could be so sweet

I never knew surrender could feel so free
I never seen such meekness in majesty
That the blood of Jesus was bled for me

And now I sing freedom for all my days
It's only by the power of the cross I'm raised
The King of Glory rescued me

How beautiful the blood flow
How merciful the love show
The King of glory poured out
Victorious are we now

Never knew through these nails would love unfold
And never knew these wounds would heal my soul
I've never seen such beauty and sorrow meet
The blood of Jesus was bled for me
And now I sing freedom for all my days
It's only by the power of the cross I'm raised

How beautiful you are
How merciful you are
How glorious you are
Christ the Savior

1 Corinthians 1:18

does this story "cut" it?

2011-09-30T06:03:00.000-07:00

So this morning one of the brothers in the Friday Morning Fraternity shared the following story which applies to temptation. (Below is one of many examples I found of this story on the internet.)

Here's the problem. One of the guys asked, "Is it true?"

Well...

I'm not sure. I am worried though. The only place I can find it is on websites with names like sermonillustration dot com, or blockbustersermonstory dot com.

I was hoping to find it on like an Alaskan Eskimo history site. If someone can speak to its veracity, please let me know.

The Eskimo’s are among the greatest hunter’s of the world, but there is one animal that is the most difficult for them to catch. This animal has the greatest intellect, keenest smell, and the sharpest eyesight. And yet for the Eskimo’s to survive they must trap and kill this animal before it destroys their way of life. The animal I speak of is the white wolf. The white wolf has a sense of smell that can detect the presence of a human up to 2 miles away. It’s suggested that his eyesight is so great that if man had the same eyesight he could read a newspaper from 150 yards away. It is their eyesight, sense of smell, and their cunning that make them the most difficult animal to bring down. And yet, the Eskimo’s have devised a tactic that never fails. And it is similar to the tactic that the devil uses to attack Christians. The Eskimo’s say there is no sense in going against all the ability that the white wolf possesses. The devil says there no sense in going against the power of God in you. To bring down the white wolf, the Eskimo’s take a knife and sharpen it to a razor’s edge, put it outside and let it freeze, dip it in blood, freeze, again and again until there is a thick coat of blood on the knife. Then they go out into the wilderness and plant it in the ground blade up. The wolf scenting what is on the blade, and sensing that there is no danger, believes he has a free lunch. There is nothing to be alarmed about, so he makes his way to the knife. The blood has drawn him to it, and he licks it and nothing happens, he licks again and again. But with each lick he is working his way closer and closer to what’s going to destroy him.

How many Christian’s have been tempted to give into sin, tempted to mix God’s standards with the world’s, tempted to take that lustful glance, that first drink, to tell that little white lie, to cheat on a test, to cheat on their taxes, or to cheat on their spouse. and have taken that 1st, 2nd, 3rd lick not knowing that their getting closer to what’s going to destroy them. Now, the white wolf gets comfortable and licks faster and faster as he tastes the frozen blood. Then he gets to the blade and slices his tongue but doesn’t even know it, because he is numbed by the bloody ice. Now he is tasting his own blood, but he continues to lick until the blade is clean and his tongue is shredded. He never walks more than a mile before he bleeds to death and the hunter has won. The devil has planted blades all around us. And all he wants you to do is to get comfortable with the first lick. No one will ever see, no one will ever know. Your safe, there is no harm. But with every lick you’re getting closer to the blade, to destruction, to death. The blades that Satan offers appear to be beautiful, desirable, something to be longed for, something that will bring satisfaction & pleasure. But they will destroy your life. Countless Christians have been overcome by things that Satan has set in front of them and they lost everything that was truly dear to them, their home, marriage, family, and friends. I can handle it.

See You at the Pole

2011-09-28T06:01:00.000-07:00

In the late 1990's, I was a young husband, father, and youth pastor in my first full time ministry in suburban Columbus, Ohio.

I remember those cool mornings in September when I would get in my car and drive around to the high schools represented in my youth group observing my students gathered at their flagpoles to worship and pray and be a presence for Jesus.

Today, Elly will take part of this same gathering at her school, and I dropped Christian off early at his school as he prepares to lead worship for the event there.

Life has come full circle in a very good way.

You can read the history of See You at the Pole here.

And check out the promo video for this years event.

Be prayerful for students today, that this event would be a catalyst for some who are weak in their faith. That it would give resolve to the strong, and that teachers and students who gather would be encouraged by a mutual identity in Christ.

1 Timothy 4:12

commit like the chicken and the pig...

2011-09-26T08:07:00.001-07:00

Today it would be a appropriate to refer to the old chicken and pig fable. The point it makes in its various forms is that when it comes to eggs and bacon for breakfast, both are involved. But, for the chicken, only a contribution is required while for the pig a "total commitment" is needed.

I am thinking about that as it relates to doctrines and beliefs. My church is embarking on a sermon series which digs into some serious doctrine, but, when it comes to what we believe, we must understand the difference between non-essentials and essentials, and "commit" accordingly.

One of the great tools I've discovered for doing this is from The Theology Program (TTP), which has been one of the great discipleship experiences in the life of our church. They use the following chart to identify our level of commitment to what we believe. Take a look:

TTP defines each quadrant accordingly:

Situational Relativity: The right and the wrong of those in this category are dependent upon the culture, time, situation, or some other variable. Women not wearing a head covering (1 Cor. 11:5) is a good example. While the women who did not wear a head covering were expressing an underlying sinful principle, the wearing of the head covering itself was not right or wrong. Its sinfulness was dependent upon the cultural expression. The same sin may be expressed in our culture but in a different way.

Autonomous Relativity: This category contains those things that are truly relative. There is no right or wrong. This category is filled primarily with opinions and autonomous customs that are not related to right or wrong. One's opinion on the best song is an example of something that is autonomously relative. There is no one correct answer that exists by itself — it is always relative.

Non-Essential Objectivity: This category contains both doctrinal and non-doctrinal issues that are not necessary for one's salvation. A good example might be the age of the earth. The earth has a definite and objective age. The truth here is surely objective. But at the same time, it is non-essential, because it is not necessary to believe one way or the other as a prerequisite to salvation.

Essential Objectivity: This category contains only those truths that are essential for salvation. This should contain only those truths which you believe a person must accept in order to be considered a true Christian.

I spent some time talking this through with some young adults yesterday, man was that interesting!

gives us an edge...

2011-09-23T05:50:00.001-07:00

manly service even if you are not the better swimmer

2011-09-21T05:55:00.001-07:00

The intuitive nature of the following quote might be so obvious that it fits in the "duh" file for you. But for me, it was quite distilling.

If gender is a modern day cultural Gordian knot. There is something in this quote that, at least at one level, unties a lot.

At the heart of mature masculinity is a sense of benevolent responsibility to lead, provide for and protect…

Suppose a man and a woman (it may be his wife or sister or friend or a total stranger) are walking along the street when an assailant threatens the two of them with a lead pipe.

Mature masculinity senses a natural, God-given responsibility to step forward and put himself between the assailant and the woman. In doing so he becomes her servant. He is willing to suffer for her safety. He bestows honor on her. His inner sense is one of responsibility to protect because he is a man and she is a woman.

There is a distorted and sinful masculinity that might claim an authority and leadership that has the right to tell the woman to step in front of him and shield him from the blows and let him escape. But every man knows this is a perversion of what it means to be a man and a leader.

And every wife knows that something is amiss in a man's manhood if he suggests that she get out of bed 50% of the time to see what the strange noise is downstairs.

She is not condemned as a coward because she feels a natural fitness in receiving this manly service. And she may well be more courageous than he at that moment. She may be ready to do some fearless deed of her own.

A man's first thought is not that the woman at his side is weak, but simply that he is a man and she is a woman.

Women and children are put into the lifeboats first, not because the men are necessarily better swimmers, but because of a deep sense of honorable fitness.

It belongs to masculinity to accept danger and protect to women.

- John Piper

cold cuts and compromise

2011-09-19T06:18:00.001-07:00

I'm assuming that with all the great deli's and bar food in the greater Pittsburgh region, I've certainly consumed Boar's Head meat somewhere along the way. Recently, I heard a radio spot for their meat with the following tag line:

Compromise elsewhere.

What a great slogan. They just put everyone on notice.

If it's a choice between the cheap laundry detergent or the cheap deli meat.

Skimp on the soap, not the bologna.

Compromise elsewhere.

With their excellent challenge, Boar's Head had me thinking as I wandered through the grocery store last night…I'll buy the off brand Ginger Ale, but I'm not eating generic pickles. I'll save a few bucks on cookies for Christian's lunch, but when it comes to toilet paper…

Well, you get the idea.

It's Monday. With a week's worth of decisions to make and directions to go, where are you going to compromise? Sometimes we are just such a pushover for our flesh or so called friends or devilish foes, convinced that we can compromise there.

"Looking at that is harmless."

"Treating her that way won't matter."

"He'll get over it."

"I'll just do it this one time."

"No one will know."

Instead, take this attitude…Compromise elsewhere.

There's a lot at stake. C.S. Lewis was exactly right,

Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make everyday are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of.

If you wouldn't buy the cheap salami, why would you commit that sin?

Genesis 39:9

Gramps.

2011-09-15T16:51:00.001-07:00

Abram Barley.

That's Gramp's name. Abram Barley. He is my maternal grandfather. And this past weekend he celebrated his 100^th birthday, surrounded by his family and friends from near and far. This is my family's picture with him smiling for the camera. As you look at the picture to Gramp's right is Grandma Arlene and to his left is his brother Earl, who oh-by-the-way happens to be 102.

The church fellowship hall was awash with late summer humidity, good Lancaster County PA food, the conversation of friends, cousins and grandkids who haven't seen each other in a long time, and the seemingly endless rambunctiousness of many great grandchildren.

When I told one of my friends about Gramps, he said that Abram Barley sounds like the name of a man who would live to be 100. He's right. It's a sturdy sounding name and indeed Gramps has been a sturdy man, in more ways than one. I've always lived a considerable distance from Gramps, but he and my late grandmother Mimi were always part of my life. I can remember holidays and vacations as a child when we visited them on the farm. They always made the trip in their truck from eastern to western PA for the big events, graduations, weddings, etc.

As I celebrated Gramps long life on Saturday, I knew I would want to share this picture and some of my fondest and most indelible impressions from him.

1. He is Gramps to everyone. If you knew him personally, he would be Gramps to you too.

2. He has a great sense of humor. You could count on it, that if you brought a girlfriend/boyfriend for a visit, he would look at her/him confused and say, "That's not the girl/boy who was with you last time you came." Followed by nervous laughter from you and a twinkle in his eye. He also taught me the merits of the "armstrong heater" which is the best way to warm up a car or any other space, whereby you slip your right arm carefully around your significant other and snuggle accordingly. I still use it with Jolynn often.

3. Many words describe Gramps. Farmer is one of the best. For many years he was a tobacco farmer. That process was always interesting to me. As a child I can remember riding on a tractor with Gramps and it had a little wheel on the steering wheel that he could grab and turn with. I remember being amazed at how he could drive that machine.

4. When I was a little older I remember a trip to see Mimi and Gramps. He took me to the silk mill where he worked during the Great Depression and told me all about it. I remember sensing the urgency of that time when the world was seemingly falling apart. I remember that we were taking something out of that old mill and in doing so I dropped it on my knee and thought my leg was going to fall off, but I never said anything because I didn't want to sound like a whiner.

5. I vividly remember that in Gramps' bathroom was always a copy of the United Methodist Church's quarterly devotional. It always sat on the sink. Apparently morning constitutional meant morning consecration. Gramps loves to sing. I remember standing next to him at the Methodist church and you could always hear him sing. He also knows a lot of poems and would recite them regularly.

6. When Gramps would come to western PA for a visit, he would always take a day and drive into Amish County in New Wilmington, PA. For many, the Amish are the only minority that you can basically insult, make fun of, or otherwise ridicule. However, Gramps grew up with the Amish, worked with them, knew many of them personally and understood firsthand the virtues of their communities. For me as a child these day trips mostly meant lunch at a restaurant, ice cream later, and other surprises. But I also remember trips to blacksmith's and harness shops where Gramps would talk intelligently in low tones with the white-bearded Amish men as I would look around mystified by the implements that looked like something out of an episode of Gunsmoke. At one of these shops, Gramps bought me an Amish toy for $4, which sits on my bookshelf today. It has a propeller and there is a secret the Amish man shared for making that propeller turn one way and then the other. For a long time, the secret to that toy was something only Gramps and I knew.

7. One of the most meaningful events that Gramps shared in my life was when on September 27^th 1998, I was ordained as a pastor, and Gramps prayed over me at the end of that service. It was important to have him there. More important that he would have something to say at that moment in my life.

8. I believe Gramps has had a firm grasp of God's sovereignty and will. Jolynn and I were reflecting that 100 years brings many pleasures, but also pains. Abram Barley has seen his share of both. And yet I've always sensed in him a spirit of gratitude to God for his blessings, and a spirit of willingness to live under the hand of an almighty God who gives and takes away.

So today on this humble blog, it is my privilege to honor my grandfather, Abram Barley. Gramps.

If you're interested you can read more here about his long and amazing life.

Psalm 71:18

18 things to say for your birthday.

2011-09-11T04:26:00.001-07:00

Rarely have I posted on Sunday. But this is not just any old Sunday.

Today. I have an 18-year-old daughter. Ellysa Jane is eighteen.

This is big.
So big, that I am posting it on Sunday, and I am going to take the time to say 18 things to you Elly. Yes. I said eighteen. Nine of these things are my significant and sometimes silly observations of your life Elly. They are things mom and I love and laugh about when we think of you.

Nine of these things are sober and serious things I want to tell you. They are things I see you pursing in your life and pray you will continue to pursue.

Happy birthday! Here we go…

1. I love your eyes! I waxed poetic about this several years ago. Those big beautiful eyes were the first thing your mom and I remember about you at birth, and they continue to amaze and daze.

2. I am stirred by your heart for missions. You have tasted the air of other places and faces. You understand that Jesus is very much at work around the world and you want to join him there. I hope Cross-cultural ministry will continue to be a regular part of your life.

3. I am touched by your love for children. It is evident in your face and your grace here. The tenderness you have for little ones, as a big-cousin or a babysitting-caretaker, is a gift that I love to see.

4. I love that you always have a plan. In some ways I'm smiling because at one level, maturity has simply been the thing that gives you more access to a better plan. You are always headed somewhere with your someones, or planning the next trip to Getgo, a football game, or the infamous "study group" at Eat-in-Park.

5. More than just your love for Jesus, is your love for his church. If someone asked you, "Is there such thing as a churchless Christianity?" You would say, "…uh…no." The church has obviously been central in our lives, but instead of being one of those pk's ("preacher's kid" for the layman) who gets bitter, church is a place you love. I've heard of coaches having kids who are gym rats. You my dear are a church rat. And I love that about you.

6. You think Christianly about your life and the world. It is very much something that a Christian parent hopes and prays for. In other words, I see that you care about what God cares about, in friendships, in vocation, in education, in leisure, in work, in dating and marriage. Ellysa, keep that compass calibrated by the Word of God. It will matter more now. The stakes are higher as you enter adulthood.

7. OK here's something: thanks for finally joining Twitter! You knew I couldn't let this go right? I told you a few years ago that Twitter will be the next big thing, and now, you are the Twitter queen. Seriously, we share a love for technology. I will need you to keep me as hip as possible in my old age. Please, don't let me become one of "those kind" of weird old guys.

8. I love your work ethic. I'm proud of you for getting a steady job throughout high school. You come from family on both sides who know how to work, and who understand that all work has dignity. You are surrounded by friends and family who are educated, uneducated, blue-collar, white-collar, but with a common conviction. Work hard. And you do. Don't be afraid of hard work.

9. You Ellysa Jane are a good friend. One of my favorite things to do is look on Facebook at pictures of you and your friends, behaving badly in Walmart or worshipping together on the mission field. Build your network of friends. Make and mature them wherever you go.

Ok, enough of that. The first 9 have been emotional as a flood of memories passed through my mind. The following 9 will be no less easy emotionally as I think about the woman you will someday be. Here goes…

10. Grow Ellysa. Take the virtues that make you the woman that you are and never stop growing. Increase as Jesus did in wisdom, stature, in favor with God and with man. Become more committed to the ways of Christ and more curious about the world around you. Grow. Philippians 1:6

11. Discern criticism. Elly, listen to me. You will be criticized. Sometimes so painfully that it will make you cry. Sometimes it will be unfair and hateful. Sometimes it will be fair and helpful. Learn the difference. Learn toughness from those who throw stones at you wrongly, but more important, learn tenderness toward those who love you enough to criticize you rightly. Proverbs 27:6

12. Value humility. They say if you think you're humble, you're not. It's true; humility is elusive. I think the devil knows it will put us in such a great position with God, so pride becomes a constant battleground. Let any applause for your life or application from your life make much of the One who deserves the honor. James 4:10

13. Realize the power of prayer. Elly, the hardest spiritual discipline in my life has been consistent faithful prayer. Cultivate it better. Make prayer the living breathing reality of your existence. Communicate regularly with your heavenly Father, flinging yourself onto His mercy and grace. 1 Thessalonians 5:17

14. Be content. Here's the hard truth that you already know: Someone and something will always be there to tempt you to want it more, better, richer, quicker, prettier, faster, etc... Adults are more sophisticated, but struggle just the same with this. Listen, with all your good striving to become, be content. It seems like some of the most severe problems some people have in life are rooted in discontentment. Don't be like that. Rejoice in what God gives you, and use it for his glory. 1 Timothy 6:6

15. Be principle based rather than practical. If public high school has prepared you for anything, it has prepared you for this. Sometimes, you could do practically anything based on the influences around you and even within you. God has graciously given you principles to live by. Press into those when the pressure is on. Live by those principles, not as God's onerous obligations but as his good gifts because they are. Live by them. James 1:17

16. Keep passion. Think about the things that light your fire Jane? Never lose your enthusiasm for those things and for your life. We are surrounded by the cool dispassionate types and the Eeyores of this world bringing everybody down. Don't succumb to that. Keep your passion Elly. Acts 11:23

17. Comparisons kill. Keep Jesus as the Model Ellysa. Your beauty, your brains, your being is there. In Jesus. All else is tricking shadow. As damaging as criticism can be, constant comparisons that set you up for failure can be debilitating. Jesus is more than the reason for the season. He is the reason for every season of your life. So look to him not around at others. 1 Corinthians 11:1

18 And finally this. Proverbs 31: 30-31. "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates." Some time ago, based on a good recommendation for a book I was reading, I began to pray a verse over you, and Christian and mom. This is the verse I pray over you and will continue to pray over you. May it set the tone on the first page for this exciting and important new chapter entitled "18-years-old" in the book of your life.

Happy Birthday Ellysa Jane. Climb Ridges. I love you so much.

presentation and imitation

2011-09-09T08:50:00.001-07:00

Festooned is a fun word.
It means something is adored or decorated or bedecked.

And it applies to fishing because the fisherman’s tackle box, fishing vest, boat, etc. is festooned with assorted lures and lookalikes with promises to appear, smell, feel, taste, etc. so much like the real thing that fish won’t be able to resist it.

Right.

Here’s what I’ve discovered. In my own collection of lures and flies, many of those things are decorative. When fly fishing, I actually find myself turning to a few tried and true flies that produce time and time again.

I fish with one friend who knows all the best lures for bass, and yet he would rather throw a certain colored jig most of the time because it produces.

There’s a reason for that.

I was recently reading an article in one of my favorite fishing magazines and the author was talking about fishing a particularly challenging stream. At the end of the article, he noted that most general patterns will work because, as is the case with most fishing, its more about presentation than it is imitation.

There. Someone said it.

In other words, you can have thousands of dollars worth of flies and lures and fishing attractors, but if you don’t fish them well…If you don’t take into account things like water temperature, current, visibility, etc.

Forget about it.

It’s more about presentation than it is imitation.

There’s a lesson there. The apostle Paul was clear for followers of Jesus in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

Imitation is not the problem. It’s not like we have to look lots of places for Who to imitate. We look to Christ.

So for us, the question is all about presentation. Our Christian lives are yes, festooned, with the truth of Jesus, but what happens when it comes time to “fish”…

to actually present him…In the currents of culture, the waters of the world. How are we representing and presenting Jesus Christ?

Titus 2:10

A good awkward

2011-09-07T06:04:00.001-07:00

"Thanks for being here, and please don't take this the wrong way, but…

This is not for you."

That's the awkward truth of the Lord's Supper every time we offer it in our churches as it relates to people sitting there who do not believe the gospel.

I will be honest and say this has created no little consternation for me at times, conducting communion services. While I have no problem following the biblical command to say who should and should not partake, I always want to say this as thoughtfully as possible.

For instance, this weekend in my church alone, the pastors distributed the elements of the Lord's Supper to five different services. I can only guess how many of the people seated here were a) not believers in the gospel and in Jesus Christ as Savior and b) had no frame of reference for why they should or should not partake of communion.

Imagine sitting there, being that person and hearing, "Please don't take this…"

Now again, because most pastors I know, myself included, aren't going to soft sell that message, it has led some churches to close communion to only members, or celebrate the Lord's Supper at a more "controlled time" when it is just the "the family" and such awkwardness doesn't have to be explained to "seekers."

As difficult as it may be to warn unbelievers, I've always felt not only compelled to be has biblically straightforward as I can be, but also to not hide communion away from unbelievers.

Yesterday I read some clarifying things that DA Carson said about this good kind of awkward.

Properly observed, the Lord's Supper is to have a kerygmatic function. The word kerygmatic comes from the verb kerysso, "to proclaim": Paul says that by this Supper we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes ([1 Corinthians] 11:26)—though he uses a different verb here. Normally the verb is found in an evangelistic context: we proclaim or announce the Gospel to people still unconverted. If that is what Paul means, than one of the functions of the Lord's Supper is—its kerygmatic function—is evangelism. Certainly I have been in churches where that is the case. Unbelievers are part of the service. They are warned not to partake, but are encouraged to observe and reflect on what they see and hear. Something of the significance of the rite is explained, perhaps its function as a witness to Jesus the bread of life who gives his life for the life of the world (John 6:51). The ordinance and the word together proclaim the Lord's death.

1 Corinthians 11:27-29

I think about those guys all the time

2011-09-02T05:09:00.001-07:00

In his 2003 book Flyboys, James Bradley tells the story of U.S. military pilots (the "flyboys") who flew in the Pacific theater in World War II. It is a well written book which captures the brutality and heroism of war, the clash of cultures and customs. It is at once remarkable and unsettling, and reminds me again that the very much care free life I lived in my late teens and early twenties, and that my son will likely live in his, was missed by an entire generation of young men who bravely served and died for this country.

"Boys" indeed.

One who served was George Herbert Walker Bush. Bradley's personal interaction with him was especially meaningful as Bradley talked with Bush about the events of 67 years ago today; September 2, 1944, when Bush was shot down over a Japanese island, Chichi Jima. Bush radioed his two crewmen, Ted White and John Delaney, telling them to "hit the silk," or bail out. Only one of the two crewmen bailed out, and that man's parachute never opened. Neither White nor Delaney survived. After releasing his bombs on the target, Bush then bailed out himself. Had he been captured by the Japanese on Chichi Jima, he would have faced a certain tortured death the likes of which Bradley detailed horrifically in the book. Instead, Bush was rescued by the submarine U.S.S. Finback and spent a month on the sub.

Bradley quotes the former President about this time on the Finback,

I'll never forget the beauty of the Pacific, the flying fish, the stark wonder of the sea, the waves breaking across the bow. It was absolutely dark in the middle of the Pacific. The nights were so clear and the stars so brilliant. It was wonderful and energizing; a time to talk to God. I had time to reflect, to go deep inside myself and search for answers. People talk about a kind of foxhole Christianity where you're in trouble and you think you're going to die and so you want to make everything right with God and everyone else right there in the last minute. But this was the opposite of that. I had already faced death and God had spared me. I had this very deep and profound gratitude, and a sense of wonder. Sometimes when there is a disaster, people will pray, "Why me?" In the opposite way, I had the same question, "Why had I been spared? What did God have in store for me?" One of the things I realized out there all alone was how much family meant to me. Having faced death and been given another chance to live I could see just how important those values and principles were that my parents had instilled in me. And of course I loved Barbara, the girl I knew I would marry. As you grow older and try to retrace the steps that made you the person that you are, the signposts to look for are those special times of insight. I remember my days and nights aboard the Finback as one of those times, maybe the most important of them all. In my own view, there's got to be some kind of destiny, and I was being spared for something on earth.

Bradley then writes powerfully about the following exchange with the President.

President Bush asked Bradley if, in his research for the book, he had any more information about what happened to Ted White and John Delaney. Bradley did not.

Bush said, "It still plagues me if I gave those guys enough time to get out."

To which Bradley notes, At that moment I was looking into the eyes of arguably the most accomplished and successful man alive. George Herbert Walker Bush had led a storied life as an athlete, war hero, businessman, Congressman, ambassador to the United Nations, ambassador to China, head of the CIA, vice-president, president, and father of the [then] current president. He had been in love with only one woman since he was 17, and they were approaching 60 years of marriage.

But in George Bush's eyes, I could see the same survivor's guilt, however illogical and unfounded…

For a few heartbeats we were both still, and then as if to break the emotion of the moment, he uncrossed his legs, stood and pushed his chair against the wall…I glanced up when he didn't walk back to his desk. He was standing at his large office window. His hands were in his pockets causing his sport jacket to rumple a bit. The Texas sunlight illuminated President Bush's face. Staring at the sky, the former flyboy said, "I think about those guys all the time…"

Jesus, the name that charms our fears

2011-08-31T05:39:00.000-07:00

Listen to David Crowder sing and tell some of the story of the hymn "O for a thousand tongues to sing."

Apparently, it originally had 19 verses. Nine. Teen.

For what ever reason, I haven't been able to get this song out of my head recently. Here's my favorite verse:

Jesus the name that charms our fears
That bids our sorrows cease.
'Tis music in the sinners ear,
'Tis life, and health, and peace.

Enjoy.

Does your church have great parking? So what.

2011-08-29T05:59:00.000-07:00

Obviousy. I went here for the food.

And when you read "bad parking." You have no idea. This restaurant in the North Carolina coastal town where we were on vacation has absolutely the worst parking ever. There is no parking lot really, just a dirt road that makes a big circle in front of the restaurant. You pull your car in wherever you can. It is dirty, chaotic, and you just hope you don't get hit, parked in, or worse.

What the back of this tshirt doesn't tell you is that the physical restaurant itself is bad. There is no A/C (summertime North Carolina). Ordering is a chore. There isn't nearly enough tables or chairs, so after you order, you stand around with everyone else, watching the lucky few who are eating, waiting your turn in the heat, standing there like cattle...

Furthermore, the tables and chairs that are there are makeshift and miscellaneous picnic tables and such, and folding or plastic lawn chairs. Oh and you eat on paper and styrofoam...Everything is disposable.

And...

This place is packed all the time. People love the food.

If you leave because you don't want to wait or put up with these hassles, they probably won't miss you, and thanks for making room for someone else.

I asked Elly to get a picture of this tshirt which is one of the restaurant's promotional items.

Seriously. Think about this. They sell their reputation partially on "Bad Parking."

Here's what cranks me up about that. No church would ever put this on a shirt. Most of the churches I know of absolutely obssess about all things impressions oriented...

Is the parking lot clear.
Is the childcare perfect.
Are the greeters friendly.
Is the building clean.
Is there a spot for visitors right at the front.
Is the sermon relevant.
Do we have good videos to make people laugh.
Do we have good videos to make people cry.
Is the music hip.
Are there enough options.
Is our literature awesome.
Etc.
Etc.
Ad Nauseum.

How 'bout a little more of this: Every weekend, the glory of God and the reputation of Jesus Christ is on display in this place, and especially in the preaching. Other than that, we'll take good care of your kids, but it might be crowded, parking is bad, and we don't spend a lot of time or money on frills.

I know many will argue that all the attention to detail does accomplish the glorifying God and honors the reputation of Jesus. I understand, but I think we quickly lose perspective of what's important.

It's the great Food, not the great parking.

sweet recess

2011-08-26T04:05:00.000-07:00

WARNING: Poem alert.

I recently read this poem Sweet Recess by Geoffrey Brock. And I really like it. It's a complex poem. I like that too. The more you read it, the more it says. And, here is what it says to me. (I know that sounds subjective, and while you shouldn't do this with inspired Scripture, you can do it with an uninspired, albeit well written poem.)

To me, this poem is a reminder of how quickly we take for granted and no longer see the little things in our lives, as well as the big ones.

Until.

Until that time when it is as if "God stoops to whisper..." And in the whisper remind you. Of the beauty of a moment.

Or of the one you love.

It’s odd: the sacred world can pass for years
Unseen, then fill your eyes, stopping you still,
As if God had stooped to whisper in your ears
Look there: the nuthatch on the kitchen sill,
Feathers ruffled to fatness against the cold;
The neighbor’s listing shed, its siding (white
Once, gray and peeling now) recast in gold
By early evening’s alchemic light;

Or one you love framed in the entryway,
Wholly herself, and you for once abstracted
From fierce desire, its lenses and scaffoldings,
And left by language, which will not convey
The sense of stupid wonder that, though muted,
Fills the cage of your ribs with a riff of wings.

Duck. Duck. Goose.

2011-08-24T05:45:00.001-07:00

Samuel said, "Goose."

God said, "Duck, Duck, Duck…"

Not so fast Sam.

And he should have known better. He already has a big mess and yet is afraid to pull the plug on King Saul who got where he did more because of this than this.

It's interesting that in 1 Samuel 16, when Samuel rides into Bethlehem, with the anointing horn apparently burning a hole in his pocket, he makes a decision as soon as he sees Jesse's first son Eliab.

He says, "Look at the size of this kid! He's got to be God's man!
OK actually he said, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before him."

"Goose."

And God said, "Or not…"

"Duck."

D. A. Carson observes, This is a lesson that must be learned afresh, especially in our day, for our day loves images more than reality. Even some preachers devote more thought to how to "dress for success" and how to develop a compelling and authoritative voice than they do maintaining a pure heart.

He's right. What are you fully but unduly compelled by, committed to or convinced of? How have you jumped ahead of God? Cried goose before even going one time around the circle.

God is looking for a little more patience, a lot more discernment…

Duck. Duck. Duck…

So learn from Samuel as he learned from God. It's interesting that when he gets to the end of the parade of Jesse's present sons, instead of hastily assuming it was time to move on, he wisely asks,

"Are all your sons here?"

Ah, that's what I'm talking about! Patience. Discernment. And…

"Goose!" As "the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward."

vacation rumination

2011-08-22T05:57:00.000-07:00

Ah the women in my life...

Well, the girls, and Chich and I returned from a great beach vacation. Which I continue to highly recommend.

As I did last year, I'd like to share some of my observations and experiences with you.

-Jolynn and I figured out that we have been going on beach vacations together since 1988 which is the year we got engaged. I love that girl!

-For the first time, we left for the beach at 10pm and drove all night. I did fine except for a short stint south of Beckley, West Virginia. Elly, who was awake and ready to grab the wheel, said I was rubbing my face, mumbling to myself, and making some weird noises.

-Wytheville, Virginia is the cheap gas capital of America: $3.29 a gallon. Booyah...

-I recently bought a Garmin Nuvi 255w GPS which was the best $100 investment I ever made. I call the male voice "Lee" and he kept me awake and on course the whole way there and back. Sometimes he sounded frustrated when I took a wrong turn, but I love this thing. Why would you not use a GPS? If you don't like them, please help me understand why.

-Technology marches on. My family and extended family had 4 laptop computers, two ipod touches and a smart phone among us, and I assume we're not the average techies. I felt like there were enough devices to run a small country. Ridiculous.

-Thinking I was Rocky or something, I ran about 2.5 miles the first day, on the beach, in my barefeet. I am still recovering from the blisters.

-Beach houses have outdoor showers. I like that. Our's also had a hottub which is not a perk in North Carolina in August. I got in it once and thought I was going to explode.

-We experienced several shark scares where someone on the beach spotted an alleged fin and cleared the surf. The first time, I grabbed my nephew and walked on water to shore. The second time, there was a fat guy farther out in the water and I figured all I had to do was beat him to dry land.

-As it turns out, there never was a shark as far as we know. We did get to see two large manta rays and several porpoises. A kid who was fishing hooked one of the manta rays and hung on for dear life running down the beach as scores of us followed him. It was very exciting and ended when the creature snapped his line.

-Coming home we made great time. Virgina and West Virginia have generous speed limits of 70 mph. We literally hit the Pennsylvania line on Interstate 79 and for the first and only time in the trip, sat in construction traffic or crawled through 55 mph speed zones. Look, I love PA, but c'mon!

-I read Tim Keller's King's Cross and listened to the audio book of James Bradley's Flyboys which is an amazing story about WW II fighter pilots in the Pacific.

There you have it. I tweeted some while I was gone, but took a break from this humble blog.

Jolynn and I have been reflecting on God's goodness to us over these many beach trips. Always safe travels, great weather, family, friends, etc. These mercies are not always guaranteed and should not be taken lightly. I trust you were able to be refreshed as I was this summer, and can also count your blessings.

It's good to be home.

feeling good about a clean toilet

2011-08-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

I enjoy this publication. In the summer 2011 issue, Hunter Baker had some great advice about job experience for soon-to-be or recent college graduates. His recommendations resonate with me especially in light of what I've been hearing from some folks in that demographic.

His words in italics, my non-italicized comments

1. Don't rush into a career and take advantage of EVERY job you hold. Don't worry that you are determining the rest of your life. I had a job in a local drugstore right out of college that helped me save money and taught me a lot about working. If you keep your mind active you can benefit from every work experience. Think about how the operation runs. Try to understand things from the manager or owner's point of view. Work on doing what your boss needs you to do. Take satisfaction in the completed task. I can remember feeling good about a freshly mopped floor or clean toilet Today I have that same feeling when I give a good lecture or write a good article.

I couldn't agree more. My "careers" at first Pizza Hut and then United Parcel Service were great experiences mostly because of what Baker writes here. I found tremendous satisfaction in a well loaded package car as it prepared to hit the neighborhood. Also to Baker's point, I grew and worked in a culture where hostility was the norm for labor vs. management. But few things served me better than understanding things for the bosses point of view. I tell my son these things about his budding career at ChickFilA...

2. Be curious about the people above you. In saying this, I absolutely do not mean that you should be a suck-up. People see through that. What I mean is that you can find your way by learning about the experiences and decisions of your bosses and senior employees. View their lives as stories VERY relevant to your own. NOTHING has benefitted me more in my working life than asking questions about the lives and careers of co-workers and superiors.

This point reinforces what Baker said in his first point. Sometimes the boss is "the man" and we often have a case of "stick-it-to-the-man-neosis". Some of the people I have worked for have been jerks. But some of them have been incredible people with incredible stories. Baker is right to challenge this always antagonistic notion and recommend that young workers be very curious about and committed to the people they work for.

3. Avoid the accumulation of consumer and housing debt when you are young. You need to be able to move. You need to be able to change jobs. You need to be able to return to school if you decide you want a different career. Travel light. You are still figuring out who you are and what you want to be.

There are parts of this point that I learned later in life than I should have. I couldn't agree with Baker more here. I will tell you this. I meet many young people who don't want to move away from mom and dad, or where they grew up, or their friends, or their network yada, yada. Here's what I usually tell them: "Get over it. Jump off the cliff. Move far away to where you don't know anyone." It is easy for me to say because I married a pioneer who loves new places and adventures. And we boomeranged away from where we grew up for about 15 years and then back. I can tell you that we wouldn't trade those years and experiences for anything. "Travel light" young person looking for a job...Travel light."

4. Learn how to sustain attention away from electronics. In the future, the person who is able to devote their attention to the substance of a meeting and contribute meaningfully is going to look like a superstar.

Wow. What a great point. Even five years ago, this point would probably not have had to been made, but now, Baker is spot on. After sitting through countless meetings where everyone (including me) is checking their phones or email, and after at least one job interview where the INTERVIEWEE was texting DURING the interview. Baker's right. The person who can contribute significantly to the social networking that's going on IN THE ROOM will be a superstar.

5. OK, here's one that I would add. In the first jobs that Baker alludes to, make sure you do as many things as you can on that job. Make yourself irreplaceable. I tell my kids this all the time. In my initial jobs, I learned how to do everything from pouring beer from a tap properly to overseeing hazmat spill cleanup. Such diversification and willingness to do whatever needs done was modeled to me by my dad and has served me well everywhere I've gone.

"the other pole"

2011-08-10T05:42:00.000-07:00

In my nightly Bible reading with my family, I read a selected narrative in the canon, but every night my children beg me to read “the one about the snake.”

For some reason they love to hear about Moses combating the fiery serpents in the wilderness with the bronze serpent on the pole and about the afflicted finding healing when they look at the emblem of the very curse that’s killing them.

My little boys don’t have a morbid fascination with venomous snakes among the wandering Israelites. In fact, they are never satisfied to end the story there.

They wait in silence until we turn to what they call “the other pole,” the picture of the cross of Christ.

That’s when I tell them how mysteriously this seemingly helpless, executed man confronted the snake of Eden right there on “the other pole” and finally did what God had promised since the beginning of history.

He crushed its head.

He went out beyond the gates of Jerusalem to “where the wild things are”—and he conquered wildness forever.

They seem to sleep better hearing that.

And so do I
- Russell Moore

Jerry Springer’s next guest: Samson

2011-08-08T07:14:00.001-07:00

I think Samson would have loved reality television.

Seems the addiction to these programs is often fed in the moments when some washed up celebrity or raised up nobody shares their deepest and darkest secrets.

Part of the shock and seduction for mesmerized millions is that moment when that person says that…
On television…They said that.

We can't believe it, and it titillates for awhile…until the next show offers a better drug.

In Judges 16:17, Samson was worn down by Delilah and finally, after teasing her and tormenting her accomplices, we read this:

"And he told her all his heart."

Simply stated, but it changed everything. When Samson did this, nothing would ever be the same.

His Esau-like birthright was long hair, the symbol of Spirit strength and when he shared his heart for Jacob-like porridge in the form of a woman, he lost everything.

When you tell all your heart, everything changes. For bad…

Or for good.

With whom do you share the deep things? In whom do you confidently confide?

Because when you tell all your heart, everything changes…

Guard your heart, and tell it to the One who can tell you everything that you ever did.

stunning strike

2011-08-05T05:17:00.000-07:00

This happened Tuesday night. This wizard's name is Marco Fabian. He plays for Chivas de Guadalajara, a Mexican soccer team.

Don't talk. Just watch.

Remember this if anyone ever asks you, "Why do they call soccer the beautiful game?"

American football...Eat your heart out...

He doesn't crush us

2011-08-03T05:27:00.000-07:00

Satan’s…principle work in the life of the believer is not temptation, but accusation.

He wants absolutely to paralyze us with guilt and shame.

And yet here’s the difficulty…The Holy Spirit who is trying to sanctify us is bringing us under conviction and will point to the same sin Satan’s accusing us of!

So how can I know the difference? Whether it’s the accusation of Satan or the convicting power of the Holy Spirit?

The only thing I can say there is that experientially, when the Holy Spirit convicts me of sin, there’s something sweet and liberating about it.

He doesn’t crush us.

You know the bruised reed he doesn’t break [Matthew 12:20]...

Where Satan wants to crush us with our guilt.

-R.C. Sproul

One of the good thoughts that came out of this discussion...

prayer as warfare

2011-08-01T05:33:00.000-07:00

Of course, all our churches have prayer lists for the sick…

...and many churches go over these lists line by line in the Wednesday night prayer meeting or in the home Bible study group.

But let’s be honest, aren’t most of these “prayer requests” more akin to a news bulletin or public service announcement?

When is the last time you saw a church follow the command of the Holy Spirit as to what to do for the sick, as found in James 5:13-15?

When is the last time you saw a diseased-ravaged Christian call the elders of his church for anointing with oil and fervent prayer for healing?

Perhaps if such were more commonplace, the wounded among us would have less reason to drive past our churches to seek out the self-appointed apostle in the carnival tent down the road.

- Russell Moore

How did I get here?

2011-07-29T13:10:00.001-07:00

This little fellow (girl?) was working his way across the parking lot when I pulled into the church this morning.

It might as well have been the Sahara Desert for him. And for all the waxing eloquent about the plodding virtues of the tortoise verses the hare…

Slow does have its disadvantages.

He barely flinched when I snapped this picture as if to say, "Dude, this is not the zoo. Can you get me somewhere cooler, wetter, and a little more protected? Someplace...more...turtlely?"

Which I did.

I slowly untangled the pieces of grass caught under his shell and now, thanks to a new government program, he has been relocated to an undisclosed location where he can start a new life.

"How did I get here?" can be a clarifying if not searing question…

For box turtles in parking lots…

For prodigals in pigpens…

For lukewarm churches that have left their first love…

For many of us.

If you're at that place. Don't keep crawling across the parking lot.

I hope you have the wherewithal or the Whowithal to get back to where you belong…

GENESIS 31:13

John Stott 1921-2011

2011-07-27T11:24:00.001-07:00

It is thus that the Book of Revelation leaves the church—waiting, hoping expecting, longing, the bride eagerly looking for her bridegroom, clinging to his threefold promise that he is coming soon, and encouraged by others who echo her call 'Amen. Come Lord Jesus.'

Meanwhile she is confident that his grace will be sufficient for her until the eternal wedding feast begins and she is united with her bridegroom for forever.

I think and hope that my readers will have been impressed by the picture of Christ that John has painted in the book of Revelation—the eternal Christ who never changes, but who challenges us to follow him today.

We have seen him now supervising his churches on earth, now sharing God's throne in heaven, now controlling the course of history, now calling the world to repentance, now riding on a white horse to judgment, and now promising to come soon to claim and marry his bride.

- John Stott, for whom there no longer is "meanwhile…" No more "waiting, hoping, expecting, longing…" Who's faith has become sight.

not the greasy smarmy person…

2011-07-27T05:34:00.001-07:00

Don't imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call "humble" nowadays:

He won't be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who's always telling you that, of course, he's nobody.

Probably all you'll think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him.

If you do dislike him, it will be because you feel a bit envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily.

He won't be thinking about himself at all.

There I must stop.

If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step…

The first step is to realize that one is proud.

And a biggish step, too.

At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you're not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed.

- C. S. Lewis

JEREMIAH 13:15

what Mr. McGrew knew

2011-07-25T05:40:00.001-07:00

Though the fig tree should not blossom,

nor fruit be on the vines,

the produce of the olive fail

and the fields yield no food,

the flock be cut off from the fold

and there be no herds in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord;

I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

God, the Lord, is my strength;

He makes my feet like the deer’s;

He makes me tread on my high places…

- Habakkuk 3:17-19a

In the fall of 1985…a lifetime ago, I entered Bible college as a very immature, sheltered and wide-eyed teenager. It was a good and safe place to nurture the faith I was making my own.

One of the first classes I had that fall was an Introduction to Theology with a gentle and godly, smart and seasoned professor named Ben McGrew.

These verses from Habakkuk were some of the very first things he told us about God.

He knew.

That before all the terms and theories and theodicy, before pen hit paper or mind hit matter. We needed Habakkuk’s calibration.

Someone has said that a true Christian testimony goes like this: “My life was pretty hard and I met Jesus. It’s gotten a lot worse, but He’s worth it and one day I’ll be with Him.”

Indeed. And there’s probably a theological word to describe that testimony, but it’s a hollowed concept if it is not underpinned with the kind of perspective Habakkuk iterated in these verses.

They were on my radar this weekend.

I prayed them over a sister in our church is who facing surgery this week and potentially devastating test results.

Over a brother who is battling advancing cancer. He and his wife and I prayed through tears.

Over a good friend who has seen a relationship go very bad…

As I carried their burdens with them this weekend, I remembered the wise words of Mr. McGrew and what he knew.

That Habakkuk’s agrarian losses are palpable and personal…

That we will all feel the losses of our own figs and fruits, fields and folds, flocks and food at some point.

And that the first thing is not mental gymnastics with questions of can God create a rock to heavy to lift…

But the meaningful question of can God be trusted when everything is gone.

That’s what I want to know, and it’s probably what you want to know.

And it’s what Mr. McGrew knew. So that’s what he started with.

Turning to the pages of an obscure Old Testament prophet, he told us what he knew was true.

the perpetual outrage machine

2011-07-20T05:08:00.000-07:00

There is a real danger of a self-vindicating, self-protecting kind of mentality showing up even in the way we as Christian churches speak to and about the unbelievers in our communities and neighborhoods.

As I write these words right now, I’m sitting in a coffee shop in my community. Outside my window there are two cars, one brandishing a bumper magnet of a “Darwin fish,” the early Christian emblem of the fish, growing legs with the word “Darwin” inside. Next to it is a car, I’m guessing owned by a Christian, with a bumper sticker of the Darwin fish being devoured by a larger Jesus fish.

Is this really an evangelistic tool?

Has there ever been an atheistic evolutionist who has seen such a thing and concluded, “You know, Darwinism is crazy. Where can I find a gospel tract to show me how to believe?”

I doubt it.

Instead, much of our rhetoric is less about persuading unbelievers, or maintaining the faith of believers, than about, as Thomas Merton put it a generation ago, our search for “an argument strong enough to prove us ‘right.’”

That’s why we caricature the views of our opponents in a way that can get loud “amen” in our own settings but leave our children completely unprepared for the more careful, nuanced arguments they find when they actually encounter the viewpoints we’ve lampooned.

What is the end result? The end result is the self-referential Christian rhetoric that not only fails to persuade outsiders but also fails to protect our own children and grandchildren from what we’re afraid of exposing them to in the first place.

That leaves us with what amounts to, in the words of one secular critic, little more than “a perpetual outrage machine.” In fact, our overheated “culture war” rhetoric represents the pitiful sound and fury of what William Faulkner once called “an enraged impotence.”

- Russell Moore

"I have 687 friends...This is living..."

2011-07-18T06:02:00.000-07:00

Yea, right...I love this punch-in-the-face to social networking commercial...

living with the bumblebees…

2011-07-15T10:23:00.001-07:00

Mine is a pitched battle with bumble bees.

I have spent an inordinate amount of time this spring and summer, trying to convince these would be buzzing denizens, that hewing a hole into the interior of my wooden porch railing is unacceptable.

I've awakened many mornings to small, fresh piles of sawdust as if so many little loggers were hacking through the lumber that is my back porch with their just right sized chainsaws. A quick tap on the railing followed by the telltale buzz and rumble tells me certain residents have been working overtime…

Apparently, bumble bees can chew…Very well.

I have tried several approaches. Standing guard like a towering Godzilla, newspaper in hand, swatting mercilessly at any of the striped flyers who have been presumptuously cleared for a landing.

Despite the carnage on the ground…Smashed and smeared…A warning to bumblebee brethren everywhere…

There is always one more.

Then I have creatively employed all sorts of amalgamated materials to try and block their access to my wooden edifice they call home. I've covered the railing with everything from plywood to stove pipe; filled in their thumb-sized burrows with Elmer's wood glue.

Resistant and resilient. They remain.

Indeed I need the Orkin man to stand in my yard challenging these portly little stingers to a fight.

Alas, I have succumbed to their takeover. At least I put a dent in their colony I tell myself. So, that's good enough. I've withdrawn and accepted ample but at least smaller piles of sawdust in the corners…

I'm living with the bumble bees.

In Joshua 15:63, as Joshua leads the 12 tribes through a sanctioned albeit scorching conquest into Canaan we read, But the Jebusites, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the people of Judah could not drive out, so the Jebusites dwell with the people of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.

The comment on this verse from the ESV Study Bible is telling:

How is it that the people of Judah "could not" drive out their foes? Surely the god of the Jebusites is not stronger than the God of Judah! Perhaps statements of what Israel "could not" do are to be read as early evidence of spiritual slippage—of failure to follow the Lord wholly…

"Spiritual slippage."

God is stronger, but what if I lack the resolve to act accordingly…willing to live with the Jebusites…

Or the bumble bees…

Some sin or situation harbored, handled, and happily accommodated.

In spite of the grace of a God who will show up and show off, how have you foolishly failed to drive out your foes?

Oprah needs a huntin' show...

2011-07-13T05:56:00.000-07:00

I consider myself a confident guy, but it's a little scary to enter a world where my concerns are among the least considered in the universe.

[Gayle] King's gushing interview with celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito made this male intruder feel even more uncomfortable. "How may things do men do that are maternal and generous and are meant to take care of other people?" DiSpirito intoned as King murmured in agreement. "Very few things. But when you cook for someone you are being sensitive. You are doing it because you want to do what moms do."

No, Rocco. Guys cook because they want to eat.

Indeed. Sounds like the Oprah Winfrey Network needs a huntin' show...

Read the rest

ditches and canyons…

2011-07-11T06:27:00.001-07:00

A good caution here on simply using the Bible as a list of common solutions for a list of common problems…

Sometimes use of Scripture…has the feel of stepping across a ditch (easy!) and sometimes it has the feel of stepping across a canyon (impossible!). The challenge really is how to bridge the gap between an ancient biblical text and a present-day life situation.

How do we attempt to bridge that divide?

Did you ever wonder why publishers sell the New Testament packaged together with Psalms and Proverbs?

Why not sell the New Testament with Leviticus and Esther? Or the New Testament with 1 and 2 Kings and the Minor Prophets?

A value judgment is being made.

The New Testament, Psalms, and Proverbs are deemed more relevant for contemporary life. The New Testament is included because it's about Jesus and the church. Proverbs makes the grade because of all that pithy, helpful, concrete advice. And the Psalms are important because of the emotions they evoke and because of their use in worship…

But where would you turn in Scripture to address anorexia and bulimia? Or…the challenge of infertility?

Should you counsel [a couple] to separate in the midst of their troubled marriage?

Should Christian parents homeschool or sent their children to public schools?

Is it OK to place your children in daycare so you can work?

How do you help someone who obsesses about the contamination of objects around her and washes her hands repeatedly, to the point of bleeding?

What does the Bible say about helping a child diagnosed with Asperger syndrome? Or a person diagnosed with bipolar disorder?

If you have a passage that you think quickly captures any one of these issues fully, I would almost guarantee that your hearer will find it superficial or irrelevant.

- Michael Emlet

shattering ideas…

2011-07-08T06:57:00.001-07:00

This morning, I spent an hour talking with some fellow Christian men about the Book of Habakkuk, as we prepare to hear it preached through at our church.

And, this morning, because of that discussion, some of my ideas about God where strengthened...

And some were shattered.

It was at least the second time this week that has happened, and it's been very good for me. Not easy, but good.

C.S. Lewis, wrote
Images, I must suppose, have their use or they would not have been so popular. (It makes little difference whether they are pictures or statues outside the mind or imaginative constructions within it.) To me, however, their danger is more obvious. Images of the Holy easily become holy images-sacrosanct. My idea of God is not a divine idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it himself. He is the great iconoclast. Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks of his presence? The incarnation is the supreme example; it leaves all previous ideas of the Messiah in ruins. And most are 'offended' by the iconoclasm; and blessed are those who are not.

This shattering is what brought Habakkuk from taking on God to trusting God. From challenging God to answer his complaints to committing himself to God with joy…

God reminded Habakkuk that the "righteous shall live by faith." Our ideas of God submit to that, not the other way around.

Which means, some must be shattered. Regularly. New categories for God emerge, not to offend, but to bless…

I wonder, what should absolutely be smashed? What environment and encouragements do you live it that keeps you honest about your "not divine ideas…"

Habakkuk 3:17-19

slowing down rightly...

2011-07-06T06:18:00.000-07:00

Keeping with the "over the hill" theme...

Two comments that I found helpful...

When D.A. Carson said:
To my mind one of the wisest transitional steps I’ve seen in the people I admire [is] to be honest enough with yourself to recognize the decline of strength and that means, if you’re wise, you decline in multitasking. If you can do quite a lot of things and do them well because you have the strength, then you don’t have the strength to do them, sooner or later you have to stop doing them all because you’ll do them all badly. You’ve got to start dropping “this” and “this” off. And then you may go a long time doing a small number of things as well as you ever done them. I pray the Lord will give me wisdom to slow down rightly.

When Tim Keller said:
As I’ve gotten older, the somewhat diminishment in stamina forces me to say I’ve got to be more careful about how I use my time…I can’t do that like I used to. But at the same time I say I probably never should have done it that way. So I actually feel like my age is not necessarily in any way a means of second class diminishment. I actually think I’m going to be a lot more balanced.

Piper Talks with Carson, Keller About Succession Plans at Bethlehem from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

over the hill

2011-07-01T05:28:00.001-07:00

According to certain reliable statistics, I'm "over the hill."

That can't be good.

I am in the decade of life that is, at the very least, at the metaphorical top of the hill.

I'm feeling the pressure of this. A recent commercial I saw identified a problem called "Low T". The sufferer is a dude who is 45—one year older than me. This poor fellow has lost everything from his ability to golf to his desire for his wife.

Should I be worried?

While my desire for my wife is still going strong (thank you very much), I lost my desire for golf in my early 20's…

You know I've been thinking. This "over the hill" metaphor is all wrong. As if, climbing up the hill in my 20's and 30's was the fun part, and now….Well it's a hapless headlong descent toward the end…

Well. That's just wrong. For instance. It doesn't work that way on roller coasters. Imagine your favorite ride without any "over the hills…"

It also doesn't work with mountain biking. Trust me on this one. There is no joy in riding an uphill only mountain bike course (this is especially true for your legs and butt).

Perhaps because of "Low T" mountain biking is also something I've lost my desire for, but when I have been mountain biking, I very much looked forward to going "over the hill…"

Regardless. Here I am…Ready to head over the hill.

And whether it's climbing the hill, being on the top of it, or going over it, I am enthusiastic about my journey.

For more than 2 decades, I've walked with the same girl. And let's just say… She's got a way about her... Today, as she celebrates another year of life, I celebrate another year of having her in mine.

And now if we are over the hill, and this really is the "harder part," we are ready. Perhaps I will have to carry her sometimes, and perhaps she will have to carry me.

That's ok. I trust her, and she trusts me.

Happy birthday Jolynn. The view is great from here. And I can't wait to keep going with you.

PSALM 128:3

the one-haired man is not king

2011-06-29T05:50:00.000-07:00

Jolynn gave Christian and me a haircut before he left for Mexico.

Recently, I've noticed how much less time it takes her to cut my hair. In the middle of this last five-minute-or-so buzz, she ran her fingers over the top of my head and said, sympathetically...

"Oh Matty..."

Here's what that means:

"There's hardly anything left to cut up here."

She is so gracious.

"Only take a little off the top," is no longer part of my vocabulary. For, there's not even a little to take off.

My hair is, at best, growing horizontally, out from the sides of my head. If ever I was stranded somewhere for a long period of time without a trim, I would undoubtedly emerge with the oddest looking hair. Like a thick grass skirt around my head and a hole in the middle...

And so, I keep everything cut short and hope for the best.

Bald brothers...those who have accepted it and those who are in denial. I've shared them on this blog before, but hear again the words of Carl Trueman:

Baldness is nonetheless a great gift from the Lord, in that it imposes a certain dignity on the aging process by cutting off the various less dignified options (e.g., ponytails, which shouldn’t be sported by anyone over 30; and mullets which, frankly, should not be sported by anyone, anywhere, anytime. Period.). Dreadful toupees abound in the church, along with frightful transplants, and the ubiquitous 'comb-over' or 'sweep.' The latter seems predicated on the false notion that, if you have six hairs to stretch across the barren landscape of your otherwise shiny pate, nobody will notice that you have gone completely bald. Or perhaps there is a belief somewhere that, in the country of the bald, the one-haired man is king. Come on, gents, parade your baldness with pride and accept the dignity which your divinely-imposed hair loss brings with it.

Leviticus 13:40

not to fly…

2011-06-27T05:44:00.001-07:00

The "empty nest" is and is not a metaphor.

It is a metaphor if you are a human parent whose children have left home. It is not a metaphor if you are a bird parent who actually lives in a nest…

Much like the robins who set up shop in my landscaping, concealed in a weeping cherry tree, raising a family in what has heretofore been a covert operation. Recently I was watering some flowers, saw a movement in the tree, and noticed the well placed condo.

Upon discovery, the chicks were already very far along, and we watched these birds work, tending tirelessly.

Saturday, it all came to an end.

I obviously cannot appreciate the urge to fly, but I imagine that it is pretty powerful. If you could, you would. And Saturday, that right which is afforded to most all fowl large and small, caught up to the family of five living in my weeping cherry tree.

"Attention on the flight deck…You are cleared for takeoff…"

This morning I watered the same flowers and peeked under the canopy that hides that home. It sits empty.

Fledglings took flight. A reminder that what was a safe and secure place to start, was never designed to serve as a retirement community for five growing birds.

The collective feathered Elvis' have left the building…

The coop has been flown.

The three little volcanoes that extended out from that secluded stick bowl have been served:

"Find your own grubs. Dig up your own worms."

Fly away. It's time.

I read something recently that has me flapping my wings…(that was a metaphor)

"In many ways the more tranquil you feel, the more endangered you are. As you find yourself curving around the soft corners of your life, maybe you should question the quietness of it all."

Safe and secure, comfortable and blessed are a good thing right? But what if you're too big for the nest? What if you've decided not to exercise your option to fly?

Maybe you should question the quietness of it all.

2 Corinthians 1:9

I'm not the only one moving to Jesus...

2011-06-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been so inclined
Yeah, is it on your mind
The thought we're the Lord's lone protege
Well I thought we were the only hope
Yeah, the world's safety rope
Americana has come, come to save the day
Imagine my surprise
To realize

[CHORUS]
Everywhere I go I can see
I'm not the only one
Moving moving to Jesus

I went down to Mexico
Mi amigo
And I found Jesus living outside the USA
Imagine my surprise To realize...
[CHORUS]

This is a great tune from a great band named Audio Adrenaline. Audio A takes me back to so many great memories when Jolynn and I were investing in students.

Well, I've come full circle. Today both my high school student children are going down to Mexico on a mission trip to see Jesus...living outside the USA.

1 Corinthians 16:9

take the desert island test

2011-06-22T03:48:00.000-07:00

What does the testing of Jesus’ desire have to do with whatever you’re going through right now?

Take the desert island test.

Years ago a friend was telling me he feared he was unrepentant over a temptation he’d seemingly overcome years before.

“I’m afraid all I’ve done is put myself out of the way of opportunity,” he told me. He said he knew that was the case because if he were alone with what was tempting him, alone on a desert island, with no one around and no way that anyone would ever find out,

“I’d just do it. I know I would.”

Ask yourself that question now. Imagine you could do anything, you could make it happen exactly as you wish, and could then go back and reverse time so that it had never happened—no consequences for your life, your work, your family, or Judgment Day. What would it be? Whatever comes to mind might be a pretty good insight into where your desires are being farmed.

Jesus endured the desert island test. He was indeed in a deserted place, with no one around, and no one—no one of flesh and blood anyway—would ever know if he’d yielded to temptation. But he stood there, trusting and obeying, for himself and for you. Tempted and found obedient to God in is desires, Jesus is an able High Priest and head of a new humanity.

He is able, through the Spirit, to conform our desires to his own, being other directed toward God and neighbor.

In the meantime, there are voices all around you asking, “What do you want?”

- Russell Moore

I did...

2011-06-20T07:20:00.000-07:00

You did. But would you again?

That’s the question now isn’t it?

Twenty-five years married is a milestone.

Some couples, struggling through, can’t imagine making it 25 more days let alone 25 years, and sadly, marriage as an institution has become filled with so many caveats and qualifiers, that for practically any reason they choose, they don’t have to.

Well several Friday nights ago, in spite of and in contrast to this modern marriage malaise, there was an hour of clarity, celebration, and commitment. My friends, Rick and Kathy, in front of family and friends, and before God, renewed their wedding vows after 25 years of marriage.

Christian marriage was held up as the honed and hammered treasure, the sterling and sparkling gem that it is. It’s every brilliant and glorious facet on display.

Christian marriage shined. Let me share 5 reasons why it shined so brightly…

1. Jesus was made much of.
I came away with the distinct impression that had Jesus not invaded the lives of Rick and Kathy, their marriage would be as the debris on a shoreline, sadly like so many marriages. Instead, Jesus transformed each of them individually and both of them together. Jesus did this. And He got the credit. Who is the couple doing marriage in yourself and for yourself? Press into Christ. In marriage as in all things. He must be preeminent.

2. A son heaped praise upon his parents.
Marriage usually produces children, and Rick and Kathy’s is no different. Their son Sean, blessed his father and blessed his mother with words of laughter and love. For most of us this only happens when we are dead. What an honor for Rick and Kathy to hear Sean speak these words over them when they are alive. Parents, what ways are your children walking in? How will your example become the fodder for the words they use to call you blessed some day? What a great thing to not wait until the grave for these words. To hear them and be humbled by them was tremendously honoring.

3. Everyone knew that twenty-five years of marriage has been happy and hard.
We heard about the seasons of fighting, fear, and failure, times when either of them could have walked away. And I wonder…Are you, perhaps young in marriage, looking down the road, wondering what will come? Here’s truth: It will be a happy road, but it will be a hard road. And I saw two people who faced and embraced each season, learned to run to God, forgive each other, and arrived together with joy in Christ.

4. Passionate love was on display.
I saw embrace, emotion, twinkles in eyes, a loooooong kiss, raw, romantic love. Rick and Kathy love each other. Who is the couple that will make it twenty five years gritting it out for convenience or necessity…for the kids or for financial reasons? Becoming merely roommates or strangers. Hear this. Keep love alive. Arrive in 25 years as Rick and Kathy have. In love.

5. Christian community is an obvious and integral part of marriage.
Rick and Kathy were surrounded by the people like Jolynn and me who have lived life with them. Some there have known them for a much longer time than Jolynn and me, and some for a much shorter time. We were all there. We…The church was there. The ceremony could have been a church business meeting minus the arguing and voting. We, the church, are Rick and Kathy’s spiritual family. We’ve sung and studied the Bible together, been to picnics with each other, walked through the valley of the shadow of death holding on to each other, laughed hysterically together, reared our kids together, shared our prayer requests with each other…held them accountable and have been held accountable by them…Rick and Kathy live in the community of saints, so of course they would celebrate their marriage with the “family”. Couples, you need each other. But you need the church just as much.

Thanks Rick and Kathy for a great display Christ’s faithful love for the church. In a few fast years Jolynn and I will reach this milestone. We cannot wait, and Rick and Kathy reminded every couple: we can do it. We can make it…thriving! With Jesus Christ at the center and love very much alive.

GENESIS 2:24

honor your father

2011-06-17T07:20:00.000-07:00

The Friday morning fraternity.

Sounds exclusive or something. It's actually a group of men...a diverse group of men in my church, with whom I've been meeting for several years. Every Friday morning at 6:30, we gather to study, pray, and laugh together.

I love these men. And today was particularly special as we celebrated Father's Day. Each man took a turn sharing several things about their dad; a little bit about his life, one story that they remember vividly, and the thing they have learned the most from their fathers. It was a good time.

Remember, I said this is a diverse group of men, some younger, some older. Some of us lost our fathers many years ago, Some of us recently, some of us still have our dads with us. So the stories were as diverse as the men that shared them.

Let me share several common tributes that emerged in our recollections today, as well as a challenge to dads who might be reading.

1. Hard work. Many of these brothers have dads who put in long hours on different shifts for scores of years in steel mill and factories in western Pa. Perhaps their dads weren't around as much as they would have liked, but to a man, there was tremendous respect for dad's work ethic.

Dad. This one's easy. Give your kids a good work ethic, especially your son.

2. Great memories are usually found in simple things. Many of these guys shared very simple and common stories that have remained their greatest memories with their fathers. From hunting and fishing trips to boat rides, to playing catch.

Dad, are you doing the little things? Your kids don't need all the money in the world to lavish temporal gifts so they remember you fondly. What they need is a surprise trip to get ice cream, a random hike on a sunny Saturday, a project to do together. Something simple. These are the things we remembered today. Don't neglect this.

3. Integrity. Several of the guys shared stories of hearing about their dad from other people. Even after their dad was gone, they would meet someone who worked with their father and greatly respected him. One brother noted about his dad's integrity that some people are not the same at home as they are away from home, but that his dad was the same in every environment. He greatly respected his dad for this. As he should.

Dad: Guard your integrity. What would your kids hear about you from the people you work with? Are you the same man?

4. Learn from hardship. Many of these men had fathers who grew up in and through the Great Depression, World War II, and for some there were great personal tragedies. Many saw their dad stand taller as a result of the difficulties in life. These men were amazed at the resilence and good that came from their dad's hardships.

Dad: Does calamity make or break you? Are your children learning how to deal properly with adversity? How are you learning and growing through whatever hardships come your way? What is your reputation in suffering?

5. Know Jesus Christ. Some of us in the room this morning had the privilege of a rich Christian heritage. Some are still praying for our dad's to know Jesus Christ, some saw their father's die without knowing where they stood with Jesus Christ.

Dad: Are you saved? If you have not repented of sin and trusted Jesus Christ alone for everything here and in the life to come, you are lost, and you need to be saved. It is as simple and as urgent as that. There is no greater gift to give your children this Father's Day.

When we were done this morning, one guy noted how it would be great to be a fly on the wall in 20 years and hear our grown children talk about us. Indeed.

Dad, what will your kids say about you? You have a very important job. One you can't do without the good and gracious guidance of God who gives us everything we need in Jesus Christ to be great dads.

Happy Father's Day. You deserve it.

Great wrath awaits those the world thinks are little sinners.

2011-06-13T04:03:00.001-07:00

I'm finishing this book by Tim Chester

Among the great things he provides are these six arguments Satan uses in tempting us, together with model responses courtesy of John Flavel. Notice, he wrote this at some point in the 1600's…The 1600's!

It is so timely. There's reason for pause and real power here.

1. The pleasure of sin

Temptation: Look at my smiling face and listen to my charming voice. Here is pleasure to be enjoyed. Who can stay away from such delights?

The believer: The pleasures of sin are real, but so are the pangs of conscience and the flames of hell. The pleasures of sin are real, but pleasing God is much sweeter.

2. The secrecy of sin

Temptation: This sin will never disgrace you in public because no-one will ever find out.

The believer: Can you find somewhere without the presence of God for me to sin?

3. The profit of sin

Temptation: If you just stretch your conscience a little, you'll gain so much. This is your opportunity.

The believer: What do I benefit if I gain the whole world but lose my own soul? I won't risk my soul for all the good in this world.

4. The smallness of sin

Temptation: It's only a little thing, a small matter, a trifle. Who else would worry about such a trivial thing?

The believer: Is the majesty of heaven a small matter too? If I commit this sin, I will offend and wrong a great God. Is there any hell to torment little sinners? Great wrath awaits those the world thinks are little sinners. The less the sin, the less the reason to commit it! Why should I be unfaithful towards God for such a trifle?

5. The grace of God

Temptation: God will pass over this as a weakness. He won't make a big deal of it.

The believer: Where do I find a promise of mercy for presumptuous sinners? How can I abuse such a good God? Shall I take God's glorious mercy and make it a reason to sin? Shall I wrong him because he is good?

6. The example of others

Temptation: Better people than you have sinned in this way. And plenty of people have been restored after committing this sin.

The believer: God didn't record the examples of good people sinning for me to copy, but to warn me. Am I willing to feel what they felt for sin? I dare not follow their example in case God plunges me into the deeps of horror he cast them into.

GENESIS 39:9

keeping up with the Millers

2011-06-10T06:34:00.001-07:00

Wednesday night, I picked Christian up from the Millers.

He was there for the middle school student ministry midweek event. At the Millers. In fact, I saw the schedule for student ministry events this summer. It says, "At the Millers" alot.

Let me tell you a little bit about the Millers. Their property is very nice. A swimming pool, a big yard for volleyball, a nice pavilion, a great bonfire pit. A sweet grill, and lots of other awesome stuff…Very nice.

And for the average youth pastor, who looks at such a property longingly in the summer, there are three key words: Location. Location. Location…How to get scores of screaming middle schoolers from the church to that promised land every week.

Well…

The Millers live a stones-throw from the church…(Can I get a Hallelujah?).

OK, but that's only half the battle. "The Millers" have to be willing to open their very nice property to scores of screaming middle schoolers every week…OK think with me here…there are probably only about….a million things that could go wrong if that many kids come to your house…

Someone can/will get hurt. They could burn the house down. Kids will pee in the pool. They use a homemade slip and slide for Pete's sake! By August, there will be a streak down the gentle slope in the yard that looks like a cow path…Etc…Etc…Etc…

So why is it that week in and week out, whether it's middle or high school students or any other church gatherings, the Millers say, "Come on over…Yea, set up the slip and slide. Trash the yard. Swim in the pool.

Have a ball…"

Well, I'm convinced that they know they have a nice place, but somewhere in their orientation to Jesus, they hold on to it loosely…So loosely as to slip through their fingers on a regular basis and bless others.

I hope that if you don't know "the Millers," you know "some Millers" where you are. Or, perhaps you are "the Millers" where you are. If that's the case, on behalf of the Body of Christ, and screaming middle schoolers everywhere…

Thanks.

LUKE 12:13-21

on taking heed…

2011-06-08T05:39:00.001-07:00

Walt Mueller recently wrote:
To be honest, there was once a time when I would have reacted to the story by lobbing self-righteous verbal stones in Weiner's direction. Life, knowledge, insight into self, and a load of people I know who march together with Weiner in this growing parade of consequences and self-induced shame . . . well. . . when we look into the face of Anthony Weiner and listen to his words, we should see and hear ourselves. None of us is above any of this, and we're all one bad choice away from having to stand behind that podium ourselves.

This well-stated warning was written in regards to the increasingly sordid details about Anthony Weiner.

Jeremiah 17:9 isn't in the Bible so much to warn me about the hearts of others as it is to warn me about my own heart.

"Deceitful above all things" and "Desperately sick"

Really Jeremiah?

Yea. Really. And right. And pointing at me.

It is with Mueller's admonition to self evaluate that I have read the story of Jim Tressel's woes as the now former coach at Ohio State University, and the analysis of what he knew and didn't know about what went on illegally between players and people.

This article, among the host of what's been written about this fiasco, really caught my attention. Conspicuous in the article were the following two quotes which identify Tressel first as a Christian:

There was the Christian who lifted kids out of troubled neighborhoods and built a football "family," Cochran says, and there was the coach who claimed to have been kept in the dark after he had assiduously avoided the light. "What bothered me was that the family knows," Cochran says. "Inside the family everyone knows what's going on."

And secondly as a man who values the Bible:

Tressel was, at best, woefully ignorant of questionable behavior by his players and not aggressive enough in preventing it. At worst, he was a conduit for improper benefits, as Clarett alleged. The latter interpretation is suggested by a story that has long circulated among college coaches and was confirmed to SI by a former colleague of Tressel's from Earle Bruce's staff at Ohio State in the mid-1980s. One of Tressel's duties then was to organize and run the Buckeyes' summer camp. Most of the young players who attended it would never play college football, but a few were top prospects whom Ohio State was recruiting. At the end of camp, attendees bought tickets to a raffle with prizes such as cleats and a jersey. According to his fellow assistant, Tressel rigged the raffle so that the elite prospects won -- a potential violation of NCAA rules. Says the former colleague, who asked not to be identified because he still has ties to the Ohio State community, "In the morning he would read the Bible with another coach. Then, in the afternoon, he would go out and cheat kids who had probably saved up money from mowing lawns to buy those raffle tickets. That's Jim Tressel."

I am Christian. I value the Bible. There is not much else I share with Jim Tressel. But that's enough. Enough because my stage to make much of Jesus Christ might not be a Big Ten, nationally ranked, powerhouse college football team. But it is the stage God has given me to be faithful on. And I am not somehow immune from the things that mark Tressel's failure.

In considering what these two quotes expose, I've been asking myself a few questions about the deleterious tendencies of my deceitful-above-all-things and desperately-sick heart:

1. What do people understand a Christian to be based on the kind of Christian I am?

2. What are the most searing hypocrisies in my Christian life? What are the things that someone would look at and say, "He talks this, but he does that?"

3. "Inside the family" what does everyone know about me? My wife? My kids? What do they see as my great hypocrisy, my failures? What will my kids hold on to someday as my poorest example to them?

4. What is my "end game"? What do people see as the goal of my life, my strivings, my passions, my efforts? What am I willing to sacrifice so that I can get that…?

5. Who asks me the tough questions and gives me the hard challenges when I contradict my Christianity? Who doesn't need to be notified after failure because they are in place to help prevent it? Who is on the front end to call me out before the fact instead of trying to clean me up after it?

THEREFORE LET ANYONE WHO THINKS THAT HE STANDS TAKE HEED LEST HE FALL. 1 CORINTHIANS 10:12

FOR IF ANYONE THINKS HE IS SOMETHING, WHEN HE IS NOTHING, HE DECEIVES HIMSELF. GALATIANS 6:3

I went to someone else's church

2011-06-06T06:35:00.000-07:00

So what if you're a professional drywaller?

I can imagine that people who are, notice poor drywalling jobs...Alot.

Think about it. Drywall is basically everywhere. And if you are someone who hangs drywall for a living, you would be surrounded by the work of other people who do what you do.

Constantly evaluating. "Bad seam there...That corner is uneven..."

Well the drywall jobs that I've done demonstrate clearly that I am not a professional drywaller.

I am a professional pastor (apologies for the word professional), and I had the weekend "off," which, if your a pastor means, I didn't go to church.

Well, I did go to church, but not my church. Not my job. Jolynn and I visited another church in another town, where no one knew us. (I say "no one." Perhaps someone at this church knows me, but I didn't talk to anyone I knew.)

And I noticed other people's work. In no particular order, let me share some of my observations:

1. We were greeted at the door by two nice and smiling young women, but they pretty much forced me to shake their hands. Right away I thought about all the hands they had been shaking up to that point. Kinda gross. Why do we do this. I think greeters should hand out the bulletins and be done with it. I mean imagine if the Walmart greeter wanted to shake your hand...I don't think so...

2. The lobby was buzzing, but no one was in my face. I like that. We were allowed to hit the ground and get our bearings. It's like at the store when you want to browse and someone gets all up in your grill..."Can I help you..." And you're forced to explain yourself...At this church they were friendly but gave us our space. Nice.

3. We wanted to attend a venue ("venue" is church speak for a service that runs simultaneously with the main service in another room, or venue, with live worship and the sermon on video. I am involved leading one of these in my church so I always like to check them out in other churches.). There was no signs to clearly get us to the venue. We had to ask someone, who was very nice and pointed us to a hallway, but better signs would have helped.

4. We peeked in the venue and left (for now). We wandered into the main service. The room was FREEZING. They had a countdown clock on the screen taking us to service start time. I like that. This worship center would have seated (guessing) 600 or so people. It was nearly empty. It did fill up later. One thing that really amazes me is how late most people come to a church service.

5. Lights came up and a woman led us in a song. Good musicians. But we left again and went back to the venue.

6. We walked in and there was coffee and donuts holes. Coffee was strong. People (especially children) were picking up the donuts with fingers...kinda gross. Again, we weren't accosted as visitors which I liked. Countdown clock here too. I like that. Room was FREEZING. Maybe 100 people in the room. It filled up later (see point 4).

7. The band was totally unplugged. A guitar/lead singer, woman vocalist, dude on the bongo. Good musicians. The room was dark (like the venue I lead). I don't like dark. Why do we do this?

8. We sang and then had a greeting time. We do this in our church. Again, shaking hands with the strangers who have been shaking hands with the strangers...Not for me. The woman in front of us; very friendly, introduced herself by name. Jolynn got into a conversation with the woman behind us (of course).

9. We sang just enough songs. But most people were not singing, another weird phenomenon I've noticed other places. Dude came up gave some announcements. He had cool glasses. I liked the bulletin. It was very simple, clear. Enough info. but not too much. They have some classes this summer that look very interesting to me. They listed their financial situation in the bulletin weekly/yearly giving, and how far they are behind budget. Not sure about that.

10. Time for the sermon. Screen was high def. and right on the platform so it looked like he was standing there. Very nice! Preacher never opened a Bible. In fact there were no Bibles. Most people didn't have Bibles. The passage was written on the notes, and when the preacher would read Scripture, he did so from a sheet of paper he was holding. Odd. I did not like this. His sermon was not bad or fluffy, but c'mon. Show me your Bible bro'! One other thing about the sermon. He kept saying, "I think we have that on the screen..." And they did, but he said that before almost every graphic. Distracted me.

11. There was a front door in the venue that people could come in and out of during the service. Very distracting. Someone should block that door.

12. We didn't sing at the end. I liked that. Venue pastor closed with a little prayer time. It was nicely done.

So yea...I went to someone else's church, and there you have it....

the white knight

2011-06-03T07:49:00.000-07:00

In 2002, after we had moved to and lived in the great state of Indiana for a few short years, we were in the market for a car.

I remember one day Jolynn, who has better taste and sense about cars, drove home in a beautiful 1996 white Ford Explorer. She said, "I think we should buy this..."

I remember thinking to myself, "Man I could see myself driving that Explorer..."

Well, after, countless oil changes, several sets of tires, two serpentine belts, a few batteries and alternators, and lots of great memories, AND, much to the chagrin of my wife...

I still can see myself driving that Explorer...at 200,000 miles...

Long live the white knight...

God is never bored...

2011-06-01T03:29:00.000-07:00

What if a man’s ‘life and joy were so gigantic that he never tired’ of routine? [G.K. Chesterton wrote]:

A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, ‘Do it again’…

Perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but he has never got tired of making them.

It may be that he has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition of nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore.

We grow so easily bored with life. We are weary with sin induced futility. But God is never bored by life. He is life. His joy and life are so gigantic that he never tires of sunrises and daisies; of beauty and life and joy…We worry that eternity will be boring. But this is because we are dead and tired.

We look for joy in sin and are quickly bored and always moving on in search of more. We grow weary in our futile pursuits of ever-greater excitement. But in eternity there will be a ‘rush to life’ running through our veins. Our ‘life and joy will be gigantic’ so that each moment will bring fresh ecstasy; each daisy will be a fresh delight; each sunrise a fresh wonder. We will cry to God: ‘Again, again, do it again.’ Now we are old and tired and cynical. But then we will be young again; forever young; forever delighting in God.

-Tim Chester

important conversations between pieces of clay

2011-05-25T03:34:00.000-07:00

Two statements really stood out to me in this video. Both related to our own hubris:

A word to anyone, especially pastors I think, but to anyone who would communicate God's truth:
In Romans 9, God compares me to a piece of clay. He says, you’re like a piece of clay and I’m the Potter. And so just that...I thought, “Wow, that means I’m like a piece of clay, trying to explain to other pieces of clay what the Potter is like.” Think about that for a second. It shows the silliness for any of us to think we’re an expert on him. Our only hope is that he would reveal to us what he is like and then we can just repeat those things.

A word about the reality that "God is still God and I am still not":
In Isaiah 55 God says, “Your thoughts are not like my thoughts. And your ways are not as my ways…As high as the heavens are above the earth, that’s how much higher my ways are than your ways. And that’s how much higher my thoughts are than your thoughts." So when we begin with an argument with, “Well, I wouldn’t believe in a God who would..."
Who would what? Do something you wouldn’t do? Or think in a way that’s different from the way you think? Do you ever even consider the possibility that maybe the Creator’s sense of justice is actually more developed than yours? And that maybe his love and his mercy are perfect? And that you could be the one that is flawed?

Harold Camping and the Freddy Kruegering of God's judgment

2011-05-23T05:50:00.000-07:00

There is so much funny and so much sobering about the recent NOT end of the world. Tom Gilson writes well about the latter. Amidst the torrent of analysis, I think his is the best I have read. His horror-movie metaphor is spot on.

He writes,

I’m picturing someone in my mind who doesn’t know if God is for real, but doubts he’s ready to meet him if he is. The prospect is unsettling, even fearful. And then the thought: what if Camping is right? But he knows that’s just dumb. At worst, it’s a kind of horror-movie fear.

No one really believes this is The Day...However frightening the thought of meeting God this very day might be, it’s a thrill no more dangerous and only slightly less entertaining than in a movie. He knows in a few hours he’ll be past it. At the end of the day he’ll have his coffee and laugh at himself for letting that “what if…?” creep into his mind: “Silly me, to let myself even wonder about that!”

Like other would-be prophets before him, Camping has trivialized the Day of the Lord. This is Camping’s crime: he has turned it into an entertainment piece. He gives the atheists something else to laugh about in Christianity. That’s bad, but it’s not the worst thing. He gives the doubters and seekers reason to laugh at themselves: “Silly me, to wonder about that! I’ll be more careful not to let those kinds of thoughts bother me from now on.”
LUKE 13:1-5

you do not have to be a sociopath to discover what depravity means

2011-05-18T06:48:00.000-07:00

The most thoughful of those who are converted later in life wish they had not wasted so many of their early years. Now that they have found the pearl of great price, their only regret is that they did not find it sooner.

More importantly, those who are reared in godly homes are steeped in Scripture from their youth. There is plenty in Scripture and in personal experience to disclose to them the perversity of their own hearts; they do not have to be sociopaths to discover what depravity means.

They will be sufficiently ashamed of sins they have committed, despite their background, that instead of wishing they could have had a worse background, they sometimes hang their head in shame that they have done so little with their advantages...

and frankyl recognize that apart from the grace of God, there is no crime and sin to which they could not sink.

It is best by far, to be grateful for a godly heritage and to petition God himself for grace that will see you through old age.

- D.A. Carson
PSALM 71:5-6

Do chickens have large talons?

2011-05-16T06:23:00.000-07:00

With a nod to Napoleon Dynamite in the title, and with apologies to any chicken farmers reading, this might be the quirkiest things I've ever posted.

It captured me for several reasons. First, I love short stories. I have several paperback collections of short stories which I read often. (Kudos to the literature teachers in my past who shared their passion for these many little masterpieces.) Second, I like good writers who use language, vocabulary, and literary device well. Third, I just plain love words (which explains the blogging)...

So this is from a short story called "The Egg," by Sherwood Anderson. It is a brutal but eloquently detailed rant against...chickens. It was written in 1920, so I'm hopeful that chicken raising technology has overcome many of his desperate observations...

He writes,

If...I am a gloomy man inclined to see the darker side of life, I attribute it to the fact that what should have been for me the happy joyous days of childhood were spent on a chicken farm.

One unversed in such matters can have no notion of the many and tragic things that can happen to a chicken. It is born out of an egg, lives for a few weeks as a tiny fluffy thing such as you will see pictured on Easter cards, then becomes hideously naked, eats quantities of corn and meal bought by the sweat of your father's brow, gets diseases called pip, cholera, and other names, stands looking with stupid eyes at the sun, becomes sick and dies.

A few hens, and now and then a rooster, intended to serve God's mysterious ends, struggle through to maturity. The hens lay eggs out of which come other chickens and the dreadful cycle is thus made complete.

It is all unbelievably complex.

Most philosophers must have been raised on chicken farms.
One hopes for so much from a chicken and is so dreadfully disillusioned. Small chickens, just setting out on the journey of life, look, so bright and alert and they are in fact so dreadfully stupid. They are so much like people they mix one up in one's judgment of life.

If disease does not kill them they wait until your expectations are thoroughly aroused and then walk under the wheels of a wagon-to go squashed and dead back to their maker...

Vermin infest their youth, and fortunes must be spent for curative powders...

In later life I have seen how a literature has been built up on the subject of fortunes to be made out of the raising of chickens. It is intended to be read by the gods who have jut eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is a hopeful literature and declares that much may be done by simple ambitious people who own a few hens...

Do not be led astray by it. It was not written for you.

Go hunt for gold on the frozen hills of Alaska, put your faith in the honesty of a politician, believe if you will that the world is daily growing better and that good will triumph over evil...

But do not read and believe the literature that is written concerning the hen.

It was not written for you.

Jeremiah was not a bullfrog...

2011-05-13T10:35:00.000-07:00

Nor did he have it all together...

This quote from 19th century British statesman John Bright, ahead of its time, reaches into our therapeutic culture of imbalances and disorders where everything has a label and a little pill…

Jeremiah refutes the popular, modern notion:

That the end of religion is an integrated personality, freed of its fears, its doubts, and its frustrations.

Certainly Jeremiah was not integrated personality. It is doubtful if…he ever knew the meaning of the word “peace.”

We have no evidence that his internal struggles was ever ended, although the passing years no doubt brought an increasing acceptance of destiny.

Jeremiah, if his “confessions” are any index, needed a course in pastoral psychiatry in the very worst way…The feeling cannot be escaped that if Jeremiah had been integrated, it would have been at the cost of ceasing to be Jeremiah!

A man at peace simply could not be Jeremiah.

Spiritual health is good; mental assurance is good; but the summons of faith is neither to an integrated personality nor to the laying-by of all questions…

But to the dedication of personality—with all its fears and questions—to its duty and destiny under God.

atheists dying well

2011-05-11T06:06:00.000-07:00

If that comes it will be when I’m very ill.

When I’m half demented either by drugs or by pain, but I won’t have control over what I say. I mention this in case you hear a rumor later on.

I mention this because it happens and the faithful love to spread these rumors (that on his death bed, Hitchens converted!) I can’t say that by then the entity that wouldn’t be me wouldn’t do such a pathetic thing, but not while I’m lucid…

That was Christopher Hitchens' response to Anderson Cooper in a CNN interview, in which Cooper asks him whether or not he would "hedge his bets" against all things theistic in the face of a creeping cancer that threatens his life.

Hitchens recently wrote this. I am a huge fan of Hitchens the writer and speaker. He is brilliant. This piece is a great example of that. His grasp of literature, language, vocabulary, and in this piece, dark humor and irony is remarkable. He writes unflinchingly of cancer's specter,

On a much-too-regular basis, the disease serves me up with a teasing special of the day, or a flavor of the month. It might be random sores and ulcers, on the tongue or in the mouth. Or why not a touch of peripheral neuropathy, involving numb and chilly feet? Daily existence becomes a babyish thing, measured out...in tiny doses of nourishment, accompanied by heartening noises from onlookers, or solemn discussions of the operations of the digestive system, conducted with motherly strangers. On the less good days, I feel like that wooden-legged piglet belonging to a sadistically sentimental family that could bear to eat him only a chunk at a time. Except that cancer isn’t so ... considerate.

What is not remarkable but rather tragic is his encroaching death, as if any death were not so. But what makes Hitchens' so palpable is that an overt anti-god sentiment is one of the marks of his life and career; a body of work that demonstrates how much he hates the idea of god.

But god, any god, has a lot to do with how one processes death, especially someone as outspoken at this man.

As a pastor, there have been those times when I've talked with someone facing the reality of death. I've heard some wish they were right with God, hope they were right with God, or knew they were right with God.

But to face death, to "go off into the night" with disdain for the idea of God...

This is Hitchens commitment.

Indeed we speak of Christian's "dying well." What does it look like for an atheist to die well? This is an odd notion.

For my part, I pray that the rumors may soon be true. That this exquisite writer could embrace the "pathetic" thing because it is the right thing.

FOR I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL, FOR IT IS THE POWER OF GOD FOR SALVATION TO EVERYONE WHO BELIEVES...ROMANS 1:16

as a candle flame which becomes invisible

2011-05-09T06:15:00.000-07:00

Some guys go to the gym in the morning. Some guys go to the woods. While it probably wouldn't hurt me to go the gym, I'm in the latter category.

The spring of the year is a great time to hunt, not just for the love of hunting, but also for the manner in which the woods is literally exploding to life. We have had as wet and cool of a spring as I can recall, and yet, nature will not be denied.

I entered the woods twice last week nearly 45 minutes before daylight, experiencing two spectacular sun rises. Even if you don't hunt, you should try this. As the sun breaks the horizon, seemingly every creature that can make a noise does so to welcome it's warmth.

I made my way to a small field isolated in the midst of a heavily forested area. The side of that field was lined with big dogwood trees displaying their strata of beautiful white flowers. I thought that very few people ever see these trees in their brief spring glory, and yet they were there screaming beauty with their blooms.

I've experinced a host of wild life in addition to the turkeys I'm hunting. Squirrels and rabbits, whitetail deer and grouse. A coyote and a fox. Many of these creatures, bearing and rearing young...All busy with nature's new responsibilities spring will bring them.

All this new life serves as such a grand metaphor for sermons I've been hearing from 1 Corinthians 15. Sunday we read verse 51: "Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed..."

"I tell you a mystery..."

How enticing is that? Who doesn't want the inside scoop on a mystery?

I thought to myself. Paul "tells" us a mystery, but it is still a mystery is it not. Knowing much of what we shall be is limited by what we are. We get hints and highlights. We know the basics and the best. But the details...Ah the details.

It's still a mystery.

A wonderful mystery. John was exactly right, "what we will be has not yet appeared..."

Indeed. And in our not knowing, we recognize and revel in the hints that color what we know:

"We shall be changed."

C.S. Lewis said it well (Read this carefully, the metaphor is deep):

"We know not what we shall be"; but we may be sure we shall be more, not less, than we were on earth. Our natural experiences (senory, emotional, imaginiative) are only like the drawing, like pencilled lines on flat paper. If they vanish with the risen life, they will vanish only as pencil lines from the real landscape, not as a candle flame that is put out but as a candle flame which becomes invisible because someone has pulled up the blind, thrown open the shutters, and let in the blaze of the risen sun.

blowing the bad theology out of your butt!

2011-05-06T10:15:00.000-07:00

There is a great line in the movie School of Rock, where Jack Black's character Dewey Finn is working to "cleanse" his students after a lukewarm and apathetic rendition of a classical music piece.

In presenting them with the passion of rock music he says, "it [rock music] will blow the classical music out of your butt!!!"

What a great line.

Let's hear it for clarity.

I was thinking about that in a moment of Easter afterglow. The best sermon I heard this Easter was this one from Mark Dever at Capitol Hill Baptist Church.

"Underwhelmingly" titled: "Jesus rose from the dead," it is slightly more than an hour long, and is pure unadulterated resurrection, gospel, and Jesus...

It will blow the...

You get the idea.

It is a great sermon. A clear and clarion call to...well to the implications of the title: Jesus rose from the dead!

Here is a little taste:
Those of us who are Christians can sometimes I think become dull to the startling claims we make at the very center of our faith.

It’s there in the Lord’s Supper. It’s there in baptism. It’s there as we read the Bible and as we hear it preached.

We believe—let me just be clear on this in case anyone is forgetting this or found nice, vague words to put over it to disguise it—

We believe that the bodies of Christians will at the return of Christ be raised incorruptible, immortal, powerful, glorious…meeting together with the Lord himself and all other Christians, never to be parted again.

Now this claim is a little too contrary to science, to reason, to universal human experience to be embraced by many today, even by many who claim to be Christians.

[But] the disciples did not “sense a subjective presence of an echo of the eternal meaning…”

That is not at all what we see in the gospels.

The body of Christ was not in the tomb because he had been physically raised. He wasn’t there anymore. He was gone.

where's the beef?

2011-05-04T06:10:00.000-07:00

The recipes for manna in the cookbook from the ladies' auxilary of the children of Israel is pretty straightforward.

-Ground it in handmills
-Beat it in mortars
-Boil it in pots
-Make cakes out of it

What does that taste like? Well it tastes like "the taste of cakes baked with oil."

I'm not sure who the first person was to say, "You know what this needs? Meat." Indeed there was a "rabble that had a strong craving."

"I'm sick of this manna. I need some bacon."

The ensuing narrative details a craving that led to an outcry that led to an intervention that led to a ridiculous ingathering and ingestion of quail which led to...

Judgment and death.

Does that bother anyone else? I was talking to Jolynn about it this morning. OK like I love a lot of food...Let's take..kettle cooked potato chips. Love them.

But imagine only kettle cooked potato chips every day. Probably on the third day of kettle cooked potato chips over....kettle cooked potato chips, I would develop a rather strong craving for a ham sandwich with cheese, mustard and a Clausen pickle...

In the same way the children of Israel remembered "the good old days" in Egypt when they went freely to the farmers market and had fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, garlics...

I'm mean c'mon...Imagine some of this manna stir fried with garlic...

Jolynn ever the distilling voice, simply said, "they were complaining. That's the point of the story. They complained and God judged them for it. If you complain. God will judge you."

She should blog...

And she's right (again).

Here's a hard lesson. In what situation right now does God want you "satisfied"?

God says, "here's the manna, and for right now: Enjoy the manna."

And you say. "I'd like the quail too."

Achievement and advancement are commendable...The stuff of great commencement speeches and leadership books.

But today I took some inventory of the places where God wants me to be satsified. To wait for him. To trust him. To eat the manna. Ground it in handmills...Beat it in mortars...Boil it in pots...Make cakes out of it...

NOW THERE IS GREAT GAIN IN GODLINESS WITH CONTENTMENT. 1 TIMOTHY 6:6

would the preaching in your church change if Jesus wasn't raised?

2011-05-02T07:46:00.000-07:00

First Corinthians 15:14 says, "And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain."

The statement comes as part of the cumulative case the Apostle Paul is building for the absolutely essential truth of the resurrection. It's impact is monumental. Indeed this weekend, our pastor reminded us that if there is no resurrection, then...

-Preaching is useless
-Faith is useless
-We are false witnesses
-We are dead in sin
-The dead have no hope
-The hope of the living is irrational

"Christ is risen." Not merely Easter "feel-good" renewal to go along with our eggs and bunnies. It's a reality we live in and depend upon.

But this little qualifier from verse 14 has me thinking about the fact that the preaching that would be in vain if the resurrection wasn't true, would be preaching that points to the resurrection of Jesus.

My mind went to Paul's eloquent sermon in Acts 17, which has been held up variously as the reason we should use videos when we preach and why its important to base sermon series on TV shows or movies.

Arguing about the value of those things is for another blog post, but what is interesting about the sermon in Acts 17 is how it pivoted on...you guessed it: the resurrection. "Now when they heard the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, 'We will hear you again about this'" (verse 32).

If the resurrection of Jesus is not fact, that sermon would be in vain. And not because Paul quoted from poets or used the unknown God as a prop. Those things were great. But the resurrection of Jesus gave the sermon its distinction.

I wonder...How many sermons were preached yesterday that wouldn't have been affected one bit if the resurrection of Jesus wasn't true?

What kind of preaching are you putting up with in your church?

Paul's making a strong case here in 1 Corinthians 15. A certain kind of preaching would be in vain if the resurrection isn't true. Sadly, not all preaching today would change one bit if that were the case.

What is the content of the sermon you listened to this weekend? Did you come away having heard distilled things about who Jesus is? Clear lines that Jesus draws? Distinctive things that Jesus says?

Or

Did you hear a lot of stuff that you could hear next Sunday whether or not Jesus life, death, and resurrection had anything to do with it or not?

everything came together...

2011-04-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

This is another hunting post from the "if-you-have-to-ask-you-wouldn't-understand" file. If you find hunting offensive, or at the very least uninteresting (my lovely wife) then consider yourself warned.

Let me tell you about the convergence of things that must take place to shoot a wild turkey gobbler (male) in the spring:

1. You have to find the gobbler. In some places, they are so plentiful, they border on pesky. So some people have said to me, "Turkeys are easy to find. If you want to shoot one, come to my backyard..."

Ok, well I appreciate the challenge of that, but here's the dealio: I probably can't actually hunt off your deck (let alone the ethical question of whether or not I would want to if I could), so hunters do need to find turkeys in their natural habitat: the woods.

2. You have to find a gobbler who wants to talk to you. Turkey gobblers gobble (Get it?). You can hear them. But, that's only half the battle. When you call back to them seductively, they must be interested enough to talk to you.

3. You have to find a gobbler that can be wooed away from its natural instinct which is for the hen ("you" in this case) to come to him, instead of him coming to you, especially if he has other "women" with him.
As if that counterintuitiveness wasn't enough to overcome, turkeys are very fickle about what they will put up with to come to you. They don't like to be called downhill, they will almost never cross water, they don't like woods that are too thick, they are watching for natural predators like foxes, coyotes, etc.

4. You have to find yourself adequately patient. Sometimes you wait mere minutes and he comes running throwing caution to the wind in love with the sound of you...Other times you wait hours for a gobbler to meandor his way to where you are. Sometimes he will shake the ground with his gobbling the whole way. Sometimes he will not make a sound and just show up on the horizon.

5. You must be prepared for the gobbler to show up at any place within your field of vision. The only sure thing here is that he will definitely not show up where it is easiest for you to put the smackdown on him. You will probably have to contort you body and your gun into an awkward positon to get a decent shot.

6. As you're thinking about 5, consider this: You cannot move. Turkeys have incredibly potent eyesight. Just look at one. They are basically a periscope on feathers. They will bust your twitching nose, shaking knees, moving head, itchy finger, etc. So if you have to move to get the right shot, do so, but don't move.

7. You have to decide when to take a good shot. Said gobbler might come in alone, with other gobblers, with other gobblers and hens ("real" female turkeys), and you get one in this part of the world, so you can't just shoot into the group and let God sort them out. Furthermore, you're usually armed with a shotgun here, so this isn't long range, we're talking 30 to maybe 50 yards, perhaps in an open field, but likely in a wooded area. Plus, remember, unless you have decoys (fake turkeys) sitting out, he's come to you, the sound of you. So if you are calling, he's looking for you and at you. All this after sitting still for perhaps an hour or more (see 4), needing to move to get a good shot (see 5), and not being able to move (see 6).

Ok, got it...

Well...Christian shot this gobbler Saturday. Needless to say, everything came together...

How sweet it is...

I HAVE BEEN HUNTED LIKE A BIRD BY THOSE WHO WERE MY ENEMIES WITHOUT CAUSE. LAMENTATIONS 3:52

the glory of the pastures…

2011-04-27T08:28:00.001-07:00

Add a little sunshine and warmth to 20 plus days of rain this month and…

All heaven breaks loose.

I'm convinced that my house would bloom or blossom something if it could!

My weeping cherry tree is in its full glory with the neighboring dogwood coming on fast.

Rogue dandelions, chuckling in their yellow deviousness, mock the chemical cocktail that I hoped would rid my yard of their existence.

Greening trees release an assortment of pre-leaf fodder which blows across my walks and clogs my gutters, as they prepare for the next stage of full blown foliage.

Among the bursting flora, one volunteer has caught my eye. Apparently, the previous homeowner planted a row of tulips along an unlikely strip of grass in my side yard. These tulips were afterthoughts, or castoffs, or perhaps the careless work of children who just wanted to plant something with mommy.

Mostly what grows are the light green shoots distinguishable as tulips, portending beautiful bulbs, but they grow there, promising everything, producing nothing, until, after the fourth or fifth round of mowing, they are mercilessly eliminated.

This year is different. One bulb has emerged. As if to say, "We can do it if we want to," a fragile looking but beautifully colored tulip comes up and out with the sun, reigning over the green wannabe stalks surrounding it.

I'm enjoying that particular flower's defiance of the odds, reminded that it, along with the multitude of growing things that give spring its name have all come…

And will go.

The literary power of here-today-and-gone-tomorrow flowers is not lost in the biblical record.

Jesus comforted in contrast to flowers: "Consider the lilies of the field," he said. "how they grow…" "If God so clothes the grass of the field…will he not much more clothe you?" (Matthew 6)

But in one of the similes of Psalm 37, David condemned in comparison to flowers. "Like the glory of the pastures…" are "the wicked…" are the "enemies of the Lord…" What an interesting way to put. If ever there's envy of the enemies of the Lord, David warns, look at the nearest blooming meadow. Soon the splendor is spent. So it is with the enemies of God.

So where do your loyalties lie? Whose will you be in this brief blossom of a season called life?

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE? FOR YOU ARE A MIST THAT APPEARS FOR A LITTLE TIME AND THEN VANISHES… JAMES 4:14

that same night

2011-04-22T06:26:00.000-07:00

With the Apostle Paul the pastor repeats:
The Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread.

Oh let that pastor murmur those words, the same night, with awe.

For who among us can hear them just before receiving the gift of Christ's intimacy and not be overcome with wonder, stunned at such astonishing love? The context qualifies that love. The time defines it. And ever and ever again, these words remind us of the times:

The same night in which he was betrayed-

"While we were still weak," says Paul, "at the right time Christ died for the ungodly." Not for the godly and the good, but "while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."

Then!

That same night!

When absolutely nothing recommended us. When "we were enemies." Enemies! In the night when his people betrayed him-the night of intense enmity-the dear Lord Jesus said, "This is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many."

Then!

Can we comprehend the joining of two such extremes, the good and the evil together? In the night of gravest human treachery he gave the gift of himself.

- Walter Wangerin

cups of water along the way

2011-04-20T05:49:00.000-07:00

Consider the marathons you may have watched over the years.

Perhaps you've watched portions of the Olympic marathon. Who among the runners at the Olympics trains for many months and runs long, exhausting miles without thoughts of crossing the finish line, surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses cheering?

Who among the runners of any such race train and strain for anything less than the finish line?

Who among runners endure such punishment to the body for a lesser prize than finishing or winning the race?

Who runs the race for cups of water along the way?

Yet we in the church seem more enamored by the water on our way to the finish line than by the finish line itself. We have lost our way and have gone chasing after the cupbearers who promise a sip of refreshing water, when the finish line awaits with its prize unclaimed.

Are we to deny the water of the Spirit who has come to comfort our race? Of course not!

But we must never take our eyes off the joy set before us. We must fix our eyes on that prize- Christ in eternity. The race is not about the water along the way, but the prize at the end.

- Ted Dekker

THEREFORE SINCE WE ARE SURROUNDED BY SO GREAT A CLOUD OF WITNESSES, LET US ALSO LAY ASIDE EVERY WEIGHT, AND SIN WHICH CLINGS SO CLOSELY, AND LET US RUN WITH ENDURANCE THE RACE THAT IS SET BEFORE US HEBREWS 12:1

hey, that rhymes!

2011-04-15T11:19:00.000-07:00

It's Poetry Month. Who knew!
I'm not afraid to say, I like poetry. I've tried my hand at it here and here. I shared one of my very favorite poems here.

A little known fact about me...In junior high I won second place in a poetry writing contest...Got a little ribbon, medal, and everything...

So with all the awkwardness that came with puberty, at least I was an award winning poet...Not sure whether to laugh or cry about that..

Anywho, here we are: Poetry Month. Let me share another of my favorites:

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

-Robert Louis Stevenson

Here's what I love about this little poem.
I love the rhyme. Read the poem aloud. It is at its best when read like that.
It is simple. The idea for this poem is beautifully not complex. Sometimes the simpliest things are the most powerful.
It is vivid. Don't know if you've ever been in the woods during a snow storm, if not, I feel sorry for you. It is visceral and magical. Stevenson so captures that with the little poem. And, as he describes the horse, I can almost hear the bells shaking...
Futhermore, I love the mystery of this poem. Stevenson writes, "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep...Exactly. Yes, they are. I have been in those woods. I can see them.

It's Poetry Month.

Respect the poem.