bbc spoof on modern tech (blackberry and apple)

This video is sure to get a chuckle if you know anything at all about modern technology.

community via nativity

On the weekend before Christmas, my neighbors and my family got together and did a live nativity in our front yard.  It was all my wifey's idea and she gets all the credit for recruiting and organizing.  She is very gifted in that area.  My wife can get things done that completely blow my mind.  That said, this endeavor was a bit over her head.  The idea came to her just a few weeks prior and there were a lot of pieces she wanted in place in a very short time.  She immediately began asking our neighbors in the community (the same ones that we have been encouraging to meet with us on Sundays) if they would participate.  She also began asking every church in our community if they had any costumes we could borrow for the weekend.  The results were amazing!

After much coercion, all the roles were filled.  The week before the event the Primitive Baptist church across the street had a Christmas play that they invited us to attend.  We did and the ended up giving us some of the props they were using for the scenery.  After a bit of re-engineering, the pieces were transformed into a stable in our front yard.  That saved us a lot of time and money on materials and construction.  But that was just the beginning of God's amazing work.  Soon we had boxes of authentic looking costumes from another local drama that just had their last night.  Everyone was on board and all the pieces were falling into place.  That is when the flu hit...

The day before the nativity we received a call from an entire family of participants that were home bound for the weekend with a horrible virus.  Now we were short and angel, a wise man, and a shepherd.  My clever and determined wife decided to dress as a magi and paint on a beard in order to give us three.  We were just going to settle and be without an angel and one shepherd.  Then at the last minute...and I mean last minute, literally one minute before 7pm (our scheduled start) a little girl we had never met before got permission from her parents and donned our angel costume.  She was well behaved and did a great job!  The entire production was a huge success.  We even made the local news at 11 where Jessica did a great job during an interview of talking about bringing the community together to focus on Jesus.  Painted on beard and all!  A cross dressing wise guy :-)

When it was all said and done I was most amazed at how not only our neighbors but the local churches came together and chipped in to make the nativity a success.  It was the talk of our community.  Pastors called wanting to know how they and their families could get involved.  Everyone seemed to have a great time and although we have yet to meet altogether with these families for a gathering of the church, we did come together and impact our community for Christ.  I'm still prayerful and hopeful that God will continue working to bring us together for much more and most importantly bring us together as the body of Christ in practice.  As we continue looking and listening for ways God wants us to minister in our neighborhood I am also hopeful that the local churches will be equally as generous and supportive.  Time will tell because God is faithful.

Sun Stand Still: A Review

Many people think that becoming a follower of Christ means that you have to leave behind everything fun and exciting that life has to offer and become a part of a boring, religious group of homebodies who get their kicks by talking about how everyone except them is messing up their lives and needs Jesus.  The Christian life is perceived as being nothing more than a schedule of rituals and a list of do's and don'ts.  Christians in general are satisfied with the status quo (rituals and rules) as the sum of our religion and we aren't inclined to seek out the miraculous power of Almighty God at work in the world around us, let alone through us.  Business as usual is the mantra, week in week out, same old same old until we go up into glory.

Stephen Furtick hopes to spur us on to something greater in his book Sun Stand Still.  In this work Stephen challenges all of us to ask God for the impossible.  We should not be satisfied with the mundane, ritualistic, and boring Christian religious events that we fill our weeks and months with.  We should be seeking to do great things for the glory of God by the power of God.  We can dream impossible dreams because nothing is impossible with God and know that He wants to do extraordinary things in and through us because He wants to display His greatness to all creation.  Stephen calls for something far beyond boring and mundane.  He calls us to the audacious faith that the God fearing men and women of scripture demonstrate for us.  To pray like Joshua for the sun to stand still in the sky until he could defeat his enemies.

The author gives numerous examples both from the scripture and from his own experiences that inspired me to seek the vision God has for my life and act on it.  He also did a good job of dealing with the tough issue of unanswered prayer and how these challenges to our faith don't mean that we weren't faithful enough or that God isn't great enough but instead reveals that God had something better in mind and we should continue to trust, especially when things don't go as we plan.  He paints God in a way that displays Him as the daddy who wants to give the whole world to His children if we would only ask.

What I disliked about the book is the over use of certain vocabulary and terms that he coined like "Sun Stand Still prayer", audacious faith, and page 23 vision.  I also was disappointed that Christ did not take more of a central position in his reasonings as to why God hears and answers our prayers and shapes the things we should be praying for.  Someone who enjoys reading Joel Osteen and the word of faith clan would really dig this book.  There is not alot of talk of man's sin condition and only a few light hints regarding our need of the power of God for salvation.  I know that this wasn't the subject matter for the book but I don't think we can skip through all the blood and death of Christ Jesus and jump to the right standing with God with new life and power.  He totally dropped the ball as far as providing a solid foundation for the audacious faith he calls for.  A stronger focus on the gospel would have greatly strengthened his encouragements to the saints and challenged those who already think of God as a cosmic slot machine.

I would recommend this book.  It has elevated my expectations for God to do what is impossible for me and rekindled my prayer life to ask for things I know only Almighty God can do.  I think we can all use that kind of encouragement.  As long as we are seeking to diplay Christ more fully to a dying world we can be sure that the Spirit of God will empower us for that work.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review

but receiving can be really good

I wasn't hoping to receive anything this Christmas.  Usually I don't even have a wish list.  This utterly frustrates my wife because she doesn't know what I want.  What I want every year is for everyone to be enthralled with the love God has shown by taking on sinful flesh and laying his life down to bring us back to himself.

This year I was pleasantly surprised.  My lovely wife and best friend bought me two gift I didn't know I wanted. A Kindle and a ticket to the Ligonier Conference next March in Orlando!  She even purchased books from some of the speakers that will be at the conference and had them pre-loaded on the Kindle!  I have a lot of reading to do!  The list is as follows:

Feed My Sheep:  A passionate plea for preaching by R. Albert Mohler

Doctrine:  What Christians Should Believe by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears

The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee

Prophetic Ministry by T. Austin Sparks

The ESV Study Bible (Kindle edition)

(soon to come) Think by John Piper

I just finished Sun Stand Still and I will be posting a review of it soon.  I also received my booksneeze book for review this week.  Not to mention wifey bought me another T. Austin Sparks paperback book entitled God's Spiritual House.

I'll be busy for a while.  Merry Christmas everyone!!!

better to give than to receive

Today is Christmas and like never before I have experienced this year that it is much better to give than it is to receive.  The Lord has truly blessed us in the most remarkable ways this year. In recent months my wifey has been selling fudge like crazy.  It started as an experiment to see if she could raise some extra spending money.  It turned into the cup that runneth over.

With money from the fudge sales, our usual money we set aside for giving, and recent side jobs that have exploded all over my calender this past month we have been able to provide trees, decorations, gifts, clothing, meals, and toys to several families that otherwise would have gone without.  Looking back I am amazed at what God accomplished.  I still have a hard time believing it.

It has given us the opportunity to participate in what Christmas is all about.  Christmas is about the incarnation of God to accomplish what we could not accomplish for ourselves.  Our family hasn't done anything that compares to that monumental work for the salvation of sinners but what we have done is glorified God by providing for those He has placed in our lives this season.  It has been a tremendous blessing to experience the joy that comes through serving Christ Jesus, especially during this season as we reflect on the humility He displayed by becoming like us in order to save us.

How has God used you to display His glory during this season?

new book for review: Jesus Inquest

Thanks to Alan for the heads up, I have also signed up to review books for BookSneeze .  They will send me free books for doing reviews for the books.  Nice!

The first book I chose is The Jesus Inquest The Case For and Against the Resurrection of the Christ by Charles Foster.  It kinda looks like Lee Stroebel's A Case for Christ but it is all about the resurrection and sounds like it may be more exhaustive in that area.  I like apologetics and so I think I will enjoy this very much.  Here is the rundown from Booksneeze:

An unbiased examination and compelling courtroom presentation revealing the undeniable facts of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Intelligent, fair, and remarkably compelling, The Jesus Inquest argues the case both for and against the resurrection of Christ. Point-by-point, Foster, in turn as both barrister X and Y, leaves no theological stone or dissenter's rock unturned as he digs for answers and the truth. In the end he is more convinced that Jesus is real, that He did rise again, and that He lives to offer forgiveness and hope to all who come to Him."

I like the fact that the author will present the case from both sides.  More often than not, when making arguments we (or at least I) tend to present a strong case for our own argument and put it up against a strawman from the other side.  This should be good.

the way to the promised land: faith

So I signed up for the Blogging for Books program about a week ago and my first book for review has arrived. I began reading it last night and it has turned out to be much more than I bargained for. Let me explain.

I didn't give the title much thought as I picked it. It was the authors teaser that caught my interest. Now that I have read the beginning and I see how the title fits with the teaser, God's providence has been displayed for me personally in the most marvelous way.

Here's how: lately I have written about my thoughts and struggles as I left the "Egypt" of the traditional church and entered into the "wilderness" of a time between that and entering into the "promised land" of a more organic assembly of believers. Right now I am in the wilderness. In the book Stephen Furtick inspires audacious faith by using Joshua as our example. You see, after Moses died, Joshua was determined to lead Israel into the promised land and one of the prayers He made to God to accomplish this monumental task was he asked God to make the sun stand still in the sky while he defeated his enemies. God answered his prayer, they entered into the promised land and the rest is history.

Do you see why I am so excited about the potential impact of this book? Acting on audacious faith to enter into the promised land, that is precisely what I needed to hear! What wonderful good news! I am very eager to finish the book and when I do I'll post my review. Same bat time, same bat channel.

who's preaching?

What comes to mind when you hear this question? If you are like most, immediately your mind sees a man on a stage behind a pulpit sermonizing to a listening audience. Why? Where do we get this practice from?

To the astonishment of many, this practice (along with nearly every other practice in organized church services) has unbiblical and pagan roots. Yet, many well meaning pastors and teachers participate in this performance week after week. For most preaching a sermon on Sunday is a necessary event. In fact, the sermon is the central portion of protestant worship services. This is due to the understanding that the gospel (good news) must be preached because news only comes through words. This is true, but if weekly prepared sermons were Gods intended vehicle for the proclamation of Jesus Christ, why is it absent from the New Testament record of early church gatherings?

I believe that preaching (speaking, telling) the good news of who Jesus is and what He has done is a necessary response to the life changing power of the gospel for every believing follower of Christ. Every believer should tell the good news to everyone they come into contact with, believer and unbeliever alike.
The gospel changes lives and only by preaching the gospel (good newsing) will lives be changed. I long to see church gatherings where the gospel is preached not by one paid professional, but by everyone who has experienced the transforming power of Christ for themselves.

Lets good news one another instead of having one who good newses all the others.

desperate persistence

Mr. Grumble has left the building.

Everyday I find myself tempted to grumble to God for calling me out of Egypt and into the wilderness. If you have been reading my blog you probably know by now that I use Egypt as a symbol of organized religion.

Having faith that God will bring me through to complete my journey is my only refuge and hope.  I miss having regular fellowship with my brothers and sisters that are still in the institutional church.  I love and miss them all very much. Knowing that the only real fellowship we can have is in Christ; that is my most comforting thought.  All is not lost, relationships built are not wasted.  I haven't left the people in my heart and spirit but I could no longer remain present with them in the services and programs.

Jesus may be known in the institution and in the wilderness but he is experienced in his fullness in the promised land. We are still united in Christ (at least in thought) but I want it to be more real.  No polite cordiality, no programs to hide behind, no paid professionals expected to do all the work, no systems to maintain and be devoted to to.  Just Christ in us, that is what I want to be a part of.  Christ is all and in all.  He is the beginning and the end.  The firstborn from the dead.  He learned obedience through what he suffered.  Oh! how I want to know him more!  To know more fully what it means to be IN him and have him IN me and to be a part of a gathering that is devoted to putting all our energies into building one another up IN Christ.

I want him in his fullness, I'm done with good enough.  God help me not to grumble or to turn back.

Blogging for Books

I read a lot and I always think about writing a review of the books I read but I never do it.  I don't know why, I guess I'm a slacker.  Alan has pointed me to a program called Blogging for Books where I can get free books if I write a review on my blog about them.  This is cool.  I get books for free and I also get pushed toward doing reviews of what I read.  It will be good practice and hopefully will become a habit of mine to share my thoughts on all the books I read.
The first book I chose is Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick.  He wrote his own teaser for the book and it sounded edgy, like something my wifey would say.  We all know how much I love her and if you have ever read her blog you will see why this reminds me of her writing.

"This book is not a Snuggie. The words on these pages will not go down like Ambien. I’m not writing to calm or coddle you. With God’s help, I intend to incite a riot in your mind. Trip your breakers and turn out the lights in your favorite hiding places of insecurity and fear. Then flip the switch back on so that God’s truth can illuminate the divine destiny that may have been lying dormant inside you for years. 

   In short, I’m out to activate your audacious faith. To inspire you to ask God for the impossible. And in the process, to reconnect you with your God-sized purpose and potential."

    —STEVEN FURTICK, from Sun Stand Still

I am very much looking forward to reading this book and doing my first "official" review.  Thanks to Alan for the referral and to Multnomah Publishers for this awesome program and opportunity.