Richard Foster

"The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people."

Richard Baxter

"In things essential, unity; things nonessential, liberty; and in all things, charity."

The China girls (Ethan too). 

Happy Birthday 

This is wierd

"God just be Jesus to us." I am not sure of which heresy this prayer is an example; however, it certainly ranks as the most non-sensical prayer I have heard.
-Jeffrey Sykes - Overland Park, KS

Nice. 

JB, You're Gonna Love This

The Holy Observer.

Madie's first haircut (October 2004) 

Group Magazine

Had a good laugh when I looked at Group Magazine's November/December issue. The cover says "Burnout-Proof Your Life." That's gonna go right next to my new book called "Insulate Yourself From Pain." I mean lets get real... pain and burnout are just realities of living in this wacked world. Yes, Jesus is there and yes, we have pain.

Avoiding the Theology Gun

"If God puts no trust in His saints, and the heavens are not pure in HIs sight, how much less man, who is abominable and filthy, who drinks iniquity like water!" (Job 15:15-16)

Theology is the science of religion, anti-intellectual attempt to systematize the consciousness of God. If we take the doctrine of the trinity (which is a noble attempt of the mind to man to put into a theological formula the Godhead as revealed in the Bible) and say--"That is God," every other attempt at a statement of the Godhead is met by a sledgehammer blow of finality. My theology has taken the place of God and I have to say, "That is blasphemy." Theology is second, not first; in its place it is a handmaid of religion, but it becomes a tyrant if put in the first place. The great doctrines of predestination and election are secondary matters; they are attempts at definition, but if we take sides with the theological method we will damn those who differ from us without a minute's hesitation. Is there any form of belief which has taken the place of God with me? We only believe what we conceive of God, and when things happen contrary to that line, we deny the experience and remain true to our theological method. Job is on the right trail.

-Oswald Chambers, "Baffled to Fight Better" p. 76

Oswald Chambers

"Never be afraid if your circumstances dispute what you have been taught about God; be willing to examine what you have been taught, and never take the conception of a theologian as infallible; it is simply an attempt to state things."

A moment of peace in an otherwise rocky friendship. 

100,000 dead in Iraq?

This is disturbing.

Credit

I wonder if the reason why God allowed me to go through this little test the last couple of years was to once and for all eliminate any doubt that I was not a "good person." He let me see the ugliness of pride and control in some people so that I could be sure to know that our righteousness would never cut it. We are all frail, broken and hollow vessels incapable of making the journey to holiness without Christ.

It is because of this that I have concluded there is no one righteous, not even the "righteous." All we have in the end is the sacrifice of Christ and his cross to cling to. A blood stained, messy hunk of wood covered with splinters--a cold place of death. It is here and only here that we can find justification--a justification outside ourselves, beyond our grasp, but one that is grasped because (and only because) Christ has offered it to us.

So when you are tempted to idolize your leadership or someone that you respect because of their "superior spirituality" remember the death of Christ. Remember that beauty rises out of the ashes of the cross. Beauty is a gift to the once walking dead. We cannot claim that spiritual beauty is of our own making but only the result of the true love of God in Christ. This is a love expressed in one of the simplest but most profound verses of scripture: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

So who gets the credit for making it to heaven? Do I get credit because I "lived a holy life for Jesus" or do you because you "attended church every Sunday?" Neither of us gets the credit. The converted harlot will stand before Jesus one day and sing for the goodness of God. The upstanding business man will fall on his face in thankfulness at the mercy of God in Christ. No, none of us will boast because "we made it." We all must look through our tears of joy at the one who made righteousness a possibility: Jesus Christ. Only he gets the credit and that sounds good to me.

Fallujah

After reading about "slaughter houses" in Fallujah I start to understand that taking this city might just be a good thing. See article here. Our reasons for being in Iraq have become hazy for me, but this makes gives me a reason for today.

At a friend's house. 

Shadow

I will find my strength in the shadow of your wings.

Elusive

Peace.

Stupidity knows no bounds

Man attacked trying to convert lions to Christianity.

Red Sox

Old news, but I'm sure glad the Red Sox one. What a classy ending to the baseball season. And beating the Yanks after being down 3-0. Storybook man.

A Clean America

If we want a clean America, we need clean hearts. That has got to start in my heart and in your heart. The best way, the only way for America to be a beacon of hope for our world (Republican or Democrat), is for America to pull it's heart out of the gutter of self interest. When all of us are motivated out of the highest happiness of God and we love our neighbor as we love ourself (as Jesus defined that phrase) we are going to succeed. Until then its all talk and no action.

Don't worry... the above is directed at me too.

Friends

Great to see Clint and Chrissy at Red Robin at Southcenter on Tuesday night. What great folks.

iMac

I had my first chance to fiddle around on the newly redesigned iMac on Tuesday. It was painful. I wonder if I could squeeze the necessary funds out of thin air to get one. I'm no Apple expert, but I am coming to believe that Macintosh is a vastly superior computing experience (to borrow lingo from several mac evangelists). The "Macintosh isn't compatible" mantra is no longer true and I would love to see more people check them out. They make MS Windows XP (which was a big improvement over previous versions of Windows) seem clunky and awkward. I don't believe those who say that Mac is only good for "artsy types" either.

I came away thinking that Macs have everything you need and exclude everything you don't need.

Position

Why does the Christian universe in the west wait for position before it will minister. What is that? What is it that causes us to wait until we are a pastor or until we have been given the title "director" to step out and bring healing for Jesus. In reading Bonhoeffer's "The Cost of Discipleship" I found the following quote referring to disciples:

"These men without possessions or power, these strangers on earth, these sinners, these followers of Jesus, have in their life with him renounced their own dignity for they are merciful. They have an irresistible love for the down-=trodden, the sick, the wretched, the wronged, the outcast and all who are tortured with anxiety."

This kind of ministry doesn't wait for Sunday morning. It doesn't wait for Wednesday night Bible study or any such formal gathering. It is the natural outflow of the true servant of Christ that picks up the hurting where they are at and bandages their wounds. Now if we started living that kind of life we'd be going somewhere.

Deer Mountain overlooks Ketchikan. What a beautiful picture.