I discovered a new (to me) podcast a couple of weeks ago that I’ve found pretty interesting, called White Horse Inn. They are heavy on reformed theology so beware if you are allergic to such things.

The past two episodes have been excellent:
Called By God - I wish I could have heard this and, read Decision Making and the Will of God by Gary Friesen, 5 years ago. I don’t know if I would have or would not have still gone into ministry with Campus Crusade but I know I would have done it with a much different (and I think more correct) attitude and mindset.

What Is Worship - This one has me thinking about how worship is done in every church I’ve been in over the past 15 years. Its not “contemporary vs. traditional,” its that there is a piece missing much of the time. We are self-focused even when we think we are being God-focused. How many times do we sing about what we will do, “I will worship,” “I will praise you,” “you love me,” etc, without putting the focus back on God and what his attributes are and why we worship him. We take verses out of context, build songs around them without giving the full picture. They give some examples early in the podcast, give it a listen.

About White Horse Inn:

Launched in 1990, The White Horse Inn (named after the pub in Cambridge, England, where the Reformation came to the English-speaking world), is a nationally syndicated radio broadcast featuring regular round-table discussions on faith, culture and apologetics. Hosted by Michael Horton, Ken Jones, Kim Riddlebarger, and Rod Rosenbladt, the White Horse Inn aims each week to equip Christians to “know what they believe and why they believe it.”

Though the hosts have different denominational and ethnic backgrounds, the White Horse Inn unites itself on the principle slogans of the Protestant Reformation, such as the sufficiency of Scripture, salvation by grace alone through faith alone by Christ alone, and the importance of a God-centered, rather than human-centered outlook. By renewed attention to these classic and central themes on a weekly basis, it is the aim of the White Horse Inn to bring health and vigor to a church that appears to have in some ways lost its sense of missions.

Bob Lepine of FamilyLife has started a new podcast titled Ear Reverent(iTunes need for link to work.)

His description of the podcast:
“Some people like to blog, but I often sit behind a microphone and interview people. This podcast is my audio blog so-to-speak about faith, culture, church, the arts… stuff that I like to think about.”

The first episode caught my attention. He talks with Jim Henderson who hired an atheist to visit churches with him in order to write a book, Jim and Casper Go to Church: Frank Conversation about Faith, Churches, and Well-Meaning Christians

Give it a listen…

I saw this referenced on another blog I read. Richard Dawkins, one of the most vocal of the “new atheists” interviewed Alister McGrath, professor of historical theology at Oxford University. Alister is one of the most vocal critics of the new brand of atheism and of Dawkins.

First, I find this conversation interesting because it remains cordial and civil even though the two are on polar opposites of the debate. Second, Dawkins isn’t as big of an (excuse my French) ass as he has been in other debates I’ve seen or heard him in.

Richard Dawkins and Alister McGrath

About half way through, Dawkins gets hung up on the point that if God designed the universe and all life on the Earth, who designed God. His line of reasoning is that if life is so complex that it required a designer then God would be infinitely more complex than the life he created. Its is essentially the argument of infinite regress. In other words, if God created life, who created God, and who created that God that created God and so on…

The main assumption that Dawkins is making is that God exists inside the universe instead of a transcendent being existing outside the bounds of the universe. McGrath touches on that but I don’t think he drove the point home enough and let Dawkins drag him away from it.
But anyway, it is a very interesting conversation.

…lays the smack down.

I wanted to say more about what happened to me on Monday but that post was getting too long…

I like being in control. Whenever I drink alcohol, I do so slowly because I don’t like the buzz. Call me crazy but it makes me feel like I’m starting to loose control and I can’t stand that feeling. I don’t think I would like being drunk or getting high from any kind of drug. Even when I’ve taken pain medication, I can’t stand it.

What scared me so much on Monday was I had no control over what was happening to me. My heart was doing crazy things and I couldn’t do a thing about it. All I could do was pray.
I’m sure there is a lesson here for me to learn, I’m just not sure I want to learn it.

As some of you know, one of my brother’s (the next oldest to me) has had some trouble with the law. He had some drug addiction problems and stole some prescription drugs from the hospital a few years ago. He continued to battle addiction through his legal battles, did some time in jail and did house arrest last year. He’s been doing well, staying off drugs (I’ve seen him on them enough to know when he’s on and when he’s off.)
He had some fines to pay as well but has not had the income to get them paid off in time.
Last week, a judge sentenced him to 6 more months in prison. He will have to serve 3. Seems strange to me since he has been paying on the fines and has stayed out of trouble but the law is the law.

He is in the local county jail for now. I went to visit him last night. That was the first time I’ve set foot in a jail. It was just like in the movies, he was behind glass and there was a telephone to talk to the “other side.”

There were 6 or 7 visitation stalls. Down at the end, a lady was visiting with a guy that looked somewhat familiar. While my brother was talking to my mom, he wrote on a piece of paper that the guy was Bobby Bassett. He murdered a woman and three kids a few years ago, buried them in a wooded area by a creek.
In the stall next to us, there was a lady talking to an older guy. That guy looked familiar to me as well. I thought I had seen his picture in the paper not long ago for child molestation. When I got to talk to my brother, he whispered in the phone that the guy next to him was in for child molestation. I was right, I did see the guy in the paper.

I stood there, as my mom was talking to my brother, thinking about the terrible crimes these guys standing a few feet from me had committed. Unspeakable crimes. How could these women still care enough about them to take the time to visit them in jail? They didn’t deserve any love at all. What kind of women were they that they could over look what these guys had done and still tell them that they loved them?

Then the obvious hit me. We are all criminals in God’s eyes. We have all broken his law and are all undeserving of love from anyone, let alone God’s love. But he gives it to us anyway. He extends grace and mercy.
Just like the ladies visiting the criminals at the local county jail. They were painting a picture of grace for me and they didn’t know it.
I don’t know the circumstances of their relationships but I know that they cared enough about these “undesirables” to visit them.

Those guys deserve to be where they are and I’m glad they are behind bars where they cannot do any more damage to society. But they have also had all hope removed from their lives. Maybe the grace and mercy extended by those that still love them will give them hope and desire to change…

Do you ever stop and look at the moon? …
I mean, really stop and look at it. Studied the details you can see with the naked eye. Studied the edge of the shadow on a non-full moon.
I did yesterday morning as I got out of the car in the parking lot at work. (Thanks to daylight savings time, its dark when I get to work.) I caught a glimpse of the moon and just stood in awe looking at it. It looked almost just like the picture up above.

As I stood there, I tried to comprehend the distance I was looking across. However many hundreds of thousands of miles that is, huge to me but small compared to the vastness of our solar system, which is an almost immeasurable fraction of the size of our galaxy which is just an average sized galaxy out of hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe. Which was created by a boundless God. That all went through my head as I stood there studying… and I don’t even smoke pot.

Then I started remembering looking at the moon when I was about 8 years old. At the time I thought for sure that I was going to be an astronaut when I grew up. I didn’t even question it. I looked at the moon imagining what it would be like to walk on it one day, because one day I would walk on it. I remember what it was like looking at something with that intense awe and wonder, even anticipation. I remember it but I can’t manufacture it again. I now know I will never be an astronaut and will never walk on the moon. It would be so cool to be able to forget those facts and look at the moon in that way again…

I’ve been meaning to write a blog about the coaches in the Super Bowl this week. Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith, who, if you haven’t heard already (maybe you live in a cave) are both bla… I mean African-American.

First, let me say that I think its great that our society is progressing and that stereotypes are breaking and that race is becoming less and less of an issue. The NFL has made great leaps in the past 20 years in the area of race.
However, I think those barriers are mostly gone in the NFL and the hubbub over the past two weeks as been nothing more than politically correct self back-patting. There have been black head coaches in the league for some time now so it was only a matter of time before one of them made it to the Super Bowl.
The P.C. stuff is out of control if you ask me. Its to the point where a black commentator (Shannon Sharpe) has to stop himself mid-sentence on national TV to keep from saying “black coach” in order to defer to the politically correct and more ambiguous “African-American.” (Side note, I went to college with a white girl from South Africa. She got her citizenship, making her an African-American.)

OK, on to coach Dungy. He’s had some great comments on the whole thing over the past two weeks. He’s said that he is glad to be a role model for black kids to look up to and to know that they have the potential to reach such heights. But he has also done something else, he’s been sure to say how his Christian faith has shaped him as a coach and a person.

He told of how he experienced discrimination as he interviewed for coaching jobs, not because of his skin color but because of his demeanor and his attitude. One interviewer asked if he became coach would the team be the most important thing to him. He said no, that his family would come before the team. He didn’t get the job.

That has long been the critisim of Dungy. He’s too soft. That’s what they said when Tampa won the Super Bowl the year after he left. Dungy built the team but he couldn’t get them there. They’ve done the same thing since he’s been in Indianapolis. He even had some of his onw players saying it (remember the ‘idiot kicker’ comments?) The same sports media that is putting him on a pedestal because of his skin color were the same people cutting him down for his personality and, indirectly, his faith.
His style is atypical of an NFL coach. They are usually red faced on the sideline, cursing, belittling players on and off the field. Those are the tough guys, those are the guys that win championships. Not Dungy, he lets his faith inform his coaching. He has a quite but firm sideline demeanor. He treats his players with respect, treats them as men. And, here’s a shocker, they respond as such. And now he’s collecting the dividends, playing in the game that’s the ultimate goal of every player and coach in the NFL.

Lovie Smith was originally hired into the NFL by Dungy. Lovie has followed much the same pattern as Dungy in form and style. And he leads with his faith.
Both coaches are good men, and good friends. Whoever wins, the best man wins.
Tony and Lovie are good for the game not because of their skin color, but because of who they are as people and because of their faith.

I found a pretty cool blog the other day by Doug TenNapel.

If you remember the video game “Earthworm Jim,” he is the artist that did the art work. He’s done album covers for a few Christian musicians (Terry Taylor, Five Iron Frenzy), comic books and tv shows.

He’s a little rough around the edges but writes some entertaining posts that ususally make a point and make you think.

http://www.tennapel.com/

I found some excellent New Testament study guides here:

New Testament: Introductions and Outlines

There is one for each book of the New Testament, giving notes on authorship, dates of writing, purpose and theme. And each includes an outline of the book.

There is quite a conversation going on over at the G Sides about the Church, politics and how much the Church (along with Christian organizations) should be involved

Rowland (former worship pastor at our church) made a good point about churches returning to and focusing on what is important. In it he said:

You wonder if so many churches are just spinning their wheels doing all the programs and even praying so hard for “the Spirit to come down”, but it never happens because they forget the basics….the poor, the destitute, the lost. Makes me think we just need to return to the basics of preaching the Gospel, Worshipping, feeding the poor, visiting prisons, etc…

Why do we separate out “worship” from those other things. “Worship” has become a euphemism for singing songs. I’m not picking on Rowland here, I do the same thing and most other people do too. I typed “worship” into the search on BibleGateway.com, only one verse actually mentioned music along with worship.

The whole assembly bowed in worship, while the singers sang and the trumpeters played. All this continued until the sacrifice of the burnt offering was completed. 2 Chronicles 29:28

A good majority of verses use some variation of the therm “bowed down and worshiped.” Several also talk about serving along with worshiping, that is, putting actions to our worship. I love music and singing praises to God and it is definitely part of worship but worship is so much more.

So Rowland wasn’t wrong but all of the things he listed are worship, not just music. We worship God by humbling ourselves before him (bowing down), and making ourselves available to be used by him, to put actions to our worship.

As I’ve been reading my Bible the past two mornings, I have been going over Matthew 6:25-33. In light of my last post, it is something I am needing to learn right now. I didn’t go looking for that passage, as so often happens, it just happened to be the next chapter as I’ve been reading through Matthew and it ended up being very applicable to my current situation. 
But, I did go back and revisit it yesterday and I kept coming back to this phrase:

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness 

I’ve read that countless times, heard people talk about it, even sang about it but I’ve never really thought much about how to actually do it.

How do you seek first his kingdom and righteousness?

I don’t know. I think I have an idea, there are all kinds of things I can do, good works, reading my Bible, praying, etc. But is that really what “seeking first his kingdom and righteousness” means?

I’ve got questions, time to look for answers.

This Sunday we had a guest pastor who gave an overview of Proverbs. As he was speaking my mind began to wander and I started thinking about my favorite verse in Proverbs: As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. Proverbs 26:11*

Pretty gross but it is memorable and gets the point across.

That led to me thinking about other crude and gross verses in the Bible which then led to to thinking about our Christian culture and our emphasis on being “proper” and “polite” and “dignified.” Sure, all of those things have their place and we shouldn’t be rude and crude just for the sake of it but sometimes it is necessary.

Toward the beginning of Ezekiel, God has him lay on his side and drink specific amounts of water and eat specific amounts and types of beans and grains. Somehow, its all supposed to symbolize the siege of Jerusalem or something. Then God tells him how he is to cook it:

Eat the food as you would a barley cake; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel.” The LORD said, “In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them.” 

Then I said, “Not so, Sovereign LORD! I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead or torn by wild animals. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”

“Very well,” he said, “I will let you bake your bread over cow manure instead of human excrement.” Ezekiel 4:12-15

Alright, that’s just gross.

Ok, that stuff is sort of borderline. I could see a pastor explaining it from the pulpit, maybe a few people would be offended but no big deal. Its just poop, its not like it was crude talk about sex. That would be going too far.

Uh oh…

Later in Ezekiel, God is talking about Jerusalem and using the metaphor of Jerusalem being a prostitute:

There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses. So you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when in Egypt your bosom was caressed and your young breasts fondled.

Ezekiel 23:20 

Uh… did he just say “genitals like a donkey?” And I’ve never seen a horse’s emission but I get the picture.

Now, that crosses the line of decency. You just can’t talk about that stuff in church, it wouldn’t be proper.

*You know the song “As the Deer?” “As the dear panteth of the water so my soul longeth after you…” I’ve always wanted to make a version called “As the Dog.” “As the dog returns to vomit so a fool repeats his fol-ly.” It’ll be the next “Lord I Lift Your Name On High” I tell ya!]]>