Where Are The Men?

Here’s a great follow-up to yesterday’s post. This is a video by Darrin Patrick, who is a pastor in St. Louis and leader of the Acts29 church planting movement.

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Lucky

I just read a column by Jon Foreman (of Switchfoot) called “This Is What Luck Smells Like“. Foreman talks about how being next to a guy who smells bad on a transAtlantic flight leads him to meditating on how thankful he should be that he can smell. And how we choose to see our lives,

“Maybe luck is a choice. Yeah, maybe luck is a choice. A choice to be thankful for the myriad blessings that you have rather than complain about the few smells that are unpleasant. Seems like luck doesn’t pour out like it does on the beer commercials: the young, rich, good looking, famously lucky few turn out to complain more often than their “unlucky” contemporaries. Maybe luck is a choice chosen by those whose roots sink deep into the grounds of community, sacrifice, family, worship and service. Yes, maybe luck is a choice.”

He was getting personal with me, I know what he’s talking about. I mean, I’m not a pessimist, but it doesn’t take much to set me grumbling. Then he ends it with this, which finished me off:

“But I’d like turn in my grumbling rights. I’d like to burn the authorization that I was born with, the authorization to complain, moan, and sigh heavily. I’d like to surrender my weapons of privilege. Here and now, I lay them down.”

This is something to think on, maybe a great New Year’s Resolution: to surrender my weapons of privilege.

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And another Christmas gem

And another Christmas gem from the greatest singer-songwriter in Memphis (my opinion, which is nearly infallible).

 

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Big Gospel, Big Music

(1) Big Gospel:  I really appreciated this post by Tullian on the size and centrality of the gospel.  (Short version:  it’s huge.)  As Darrell Bock says when talking about his new book, “I think the church gets what it pays for when it treats the gospel as a momentary transaction.”  I’m going to be reviewing this book for TGC and may say more on the topic later.

Tullian picks up some nice comments from Keller, who elsewhere offers creation, cross, and crown as “three biblical perspectives” on the gospel.  These two pastors are offering potent, mainstream Reformed thinking here.  I’ve ceased to be surprise when I meet young pastors who aren’t well-trained who admit how little they emphasize (say) the resurrection, in favor of talking about the cross and justification repeatedly.

(2)  My friend Caleb Sigler has a nice song you can listen to for free, out in advance of his new album.  Very nice singer-songwriter pop, way above K-Love grade.  Caleb is the Worship Arts Resident at Christ City Church in Midtown.

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Gospel Vulnerability

I listened to a talk by Michael Ramsden (of Ravi Zacharias Ministries) yesterday, you can hear it at http://www.rzim.eu/confirm-newsletter-signup. He was contrasting the philosophy of morality of John Gray, a prominent atheist author, with Christianity. You’d have to listen to get the argument, I couldn’t do it justice here. In his explanation of the Christian view, he emphasized the following comment:

 “the gospel is the most powerful when we are at our most vulnerable, it usually doesn’t advance by a mighty demonstration of strength”

He tells two amazing stories to illustrate the lesson. It really is a powerful talk, and the above quote just hammered me. Most of what I think about doing as a Christian is imagined from a position of power or authority.

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Apologetics Resources

 Here’s an e-mail I received from a friend about a news service being offered by Ravi Zacharias ministries. Their website and daily podcasts are goldmines.  

RZIM Zacharias Trust and the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics are launching a ‘breaking news’ service aimed at providing up to the minute Christian responses to public challenges to the faith. Our speaking team includes John Lennox, Alister McGrath, Ravi Zacharias, Amy Orr-Ewing, Michael Ramsden and Os Guinness. We hope that their responses will benefit you in your conversations with others.

A good example of what we would include is last month’s full-page article written by Oxford Professor John Lennox in The Daily Mail responding to Stephen Hawking’s new book The Grand Design. The article entitled ‘As a scientist I’m certain Stephen Hawking is wrong. You can’t explain the universe without God’ can be viewed at http://www.rzim.eu/stephen-hawking-and-god <http://www.rzim.eu/stephen-hawking-and-god>

I thought you would be interested in this service. If so, all you need to do is go to this link http://www.rzim.eu/breaking-news-signup <http://www.rzim.eu/breaking-news-signup> <http://www.rzim.eu/breaking-news-signup <http://www.rzim.eu/breaking-news-signup> > and register. We only anticipate sending these emails from time to time as challenges arise.

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Christ in the Souk

This is a video from the Lausanne Conference describing how God is working in the Middle East and North Africa. If you want to read more on this you can check out “Light Force” and “Secret Believers” by Brother Andrew, or “Which None Can Shut”, by Reema Goode. Brother Andrew also has a website called Secret Believers. In the words of Ravi Zacharias,””Brother Andrew and Al Janssen reveal the amazing stories of those who witness the love of One they once refused and passionately searched until they found Him, even in the face of great opposition. Theirs is a testament to meekness, grace, and triumph, and a call to every follower of Christ to mirror their example.”

Here’s the link to the video (it’s a little slow to load, but worth the wait):

http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/resources/detail/11511

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Couldn’t Be Happier

We went to see “Wicked” at the Orpheum last week. If you’re not familiar with it, it is a musical that tells the “untold story of the witches of Oz”. I won’t try to explain the whole story, but there is a song towards the end of the show called “Thank Goodness” sung by Glinda, the “good” witch, that is pretty poignant: 

That’s why I couldn’t be happier
No, I couldn’t be happier
Though it is, I admit
The tiniest bit
Unlike I anticipated
But I couldn’t be happier
Simply couldn’t be happier
 Well – not “simply”:
‘Cause getting your dreams
It’s strange, but it seems
A little – well – complicated
There’s a kind of a sort of : cost
There’s a couple of things get: lost
There are bridges you cross
You didn’t know you crossed
Until you’ve crossed…

And if that joy, that thrill
Doesn’t thrill you like you think it will
Still –
With this perfect finale
The cheers and ballyhoo
Who
Wouldn’t be happier?
So I couldn’t be happier
Because happy is what happens
When all your dreams come true
Well, isn’t it?

Glinda finds herself being celebrated by all of Oz and seemingly about to marry the man of her dreams. But in the midst of it all, she begins to realize what she has given up to get “what she wants”, the compromises that she has made. It is an all too familiar picture of our culture. We are promised “happiness” just right around the corner, in a bigger house, a sexual encounter, winning the big game, … only to find that it all ultimately leaves us wanting just a little bit more. As Paul told the Philippians let us “lay hold” of the “prize” that will give us true joy.

“12Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 15Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. 16Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

17Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. 18For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”     Philippians 3:12-21

 

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Our Job? Getting Less Popular

John 1:37-38, Hood’s unauthorized translation:

John saw Jesus as he walked by and said, “LOOK!  That’s the Lamb of God!” Two of John’s disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

May that pattern be duplicated by all of us.  We speak the gospel.  When people hear us, they follow Jesus rather than us.

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Being Present

Last week I took Zach to visit Wheaton College in Chicago. Wheaton is a Christian liberal arts college. We called on Wednesday to try to set up meetings with a couple of faculty and staff on that Friday. We were amazed when they let us know that they were able to set up several meetings, including the campus Chaplain. One of the meetings was with the director of Urban Studies, Dr. Noah Toly. We both knew when we walked in his office that this was going to be a great visit. He was completely engaging and in Zach’s words was “so present in the moment”. Zach’s comment was accurate and really hit home with me. What a great description of Jesus as we see him in the gospels, that He was “present” with each person He encountered. Here we were, a high school junior and his dad. Dr. Toly had no idea whether we serious about Wheaton or Urban Studies, or even if Zach could get in the school. But there he was, fully giving us his attention and energy, when I’m sure there were a million other things he could be doing. I thought of how many times I have been in a similar circumstance but have not been “present”, of how often I am not faithful in the many small things God puts in my day because I’m trying to do something bigger or “more important”. I have no idea if Zach will get to go to Wheaton, or if he will ever study under Dr. Toly, but I do know that in his faithfulness in the way he received Zach and me he has already started teaching us.

http://www.wheaton.edu/urbanstudies/

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