A Prayer (for the great grandchildren)

The timing of capturing Grandma Marge's prayer could not have been better as I was preparing to teach on Judges 1-2 at Veritas. Judges 2:10 is probably the saddest verse in the Bible... what is worse than the next generation missing God? I used this video as an example for what we hope to be about as a church. There are over 30,000 young people about to converge on Iowa City this week...

God, help us to make it difficult for them to escape your mercy. Give us this kind of passion to pass on authentic faith to all who are to come.

The Plague, Cousins, Advice

We had the plague hit our house a couple weeks ago. If you were to walk onto our back porch, you would be instantly attacked by these little specks you can see on the tape...

They almost completely covered our kids, looking like mud moving up their bodies, biting and embedding themselves in the skin. It was terrible. Under a magnifying glass they looked like baby ticks. But our doctor sent them in and an entomologist at Iowa State concluded that they were bird mites.

Lesson: Never let a bird's nest anywhere on or around your house.

After spraying and getting rid of the nest, the plague cleared right before we welcomed family visiting from the other side of the globe. First time together in 2 years!

The cousins loved meeting each other for the first time...

Makai wears his baseball glove at all times. It comes in handy for such a time as this...

The garden is ripe...

Our connection group went to help out a family in our group clean up from the wind storm that swept across central Iowa and hit their town with 130+ mph WINDS. It looked like a tornado hit Vinton...

What would a blog post be without evidence of kids sabotaging a perfectly good batch of banana bars? Imagine me looking down to see this and then yelling, "JETT??!!!!!!" We then go on to play out the scene from Genesis 3:9-12...

Who knows how long this headless star wars figure has been riding with us? Good thing we didn't rear end anyone. He would've been dead...

I mentioned before the challenge of where to find Rob Bell's new book at Barnes&Noble, but the truly formidable task was finding a home for it on my book shelf. I think I'm happy with my decision...

...Lodged between Idiot's Guide to World Religions and Jesus Under Fire. And yet not too far from church history, as a reminder of the nugget of wisdom my friend David Churchill bequeathed upon me the summer of '98...

"When I was a teenager, I never listened to anyone over 30. Now that I'm over 30, I don't listen to anyone under 300."

Filmed in Iowa City?

I deleted this post. See the comments...

What I'm Reading and Watching

First of all, I'm trying to do more of the former and less of the latter... so I'm going to try to make this post sound like I'm doing a LOT of reading and very little TV watching- hardly any. Here's my best shot at it...

"The Online Looking Glass": Ross Douthat is my favorite editorialist. This article is prophetic, and something I have to think about all the time. Why do we feel the need to blog, post our thoughts and pictures online for the world to see? It can lead to the dark place of narcissism.

"Miami Heat Needs to Work on Their People Skills": I'm one of the "billions" that enjoyed watching the Heat lose Sunday night. But why? Mike Lopresti has a good take.

"The Reason for God": This is one of those books that I'm ashamed I haven't read yet. Speaking of prophetic, there's a reason God has put his favor all over Tim Keller's writings and ministry. He's worth hearing.

Team of Rivals: I'll be reading this book for awhile...

"Mere Christianity": This won't be the last time I talk about reading and (currently) listening to this book by C.S. Lewis. Next to the Bible, this is my most frequented book. Writing about it is my way of prodding you to take and read, not throwing out the excuse "I read it once back in college."

"Revelation: God Wins" (itunes podcast or website): Speaking of what I'm listening to... My partner's bro, Bob Thune Jr., just finished rocking this series on Revelation. People ask about my view on Revelation and end times... Bob articulates them in his journey through Revelation with his church, Coram Deo. Revelation is cyclical, allegorical, and as much about the past (the cross) as the future. As GK Chesterton said, "And though St. John saw many strange monsters in his vision, he saw no creature so wild as one of his own commentators." God won, and he will win. God wins. We were going to teach through this at Veritas this fall, but I think we're headed for Luke's two books this fall and spring...

Samuel and the Epistles: I'm reading the ESV in a year. I'm not loving the ESV, mostly because it doesn't follow the most natural lingual paths. On the other hand, it's more literal translation colors in certain parts of the text. For example, this morning in Colossians 2:18 the ESV uses "asceticism" where the NIV uses "false humility." An argument could be made for either word choice, but I hadn't heard "asceticism" used before in that passage and it seemed to help me understand what Paul was conveying. Next year I think I'm going to give the Holman translation a shot.

Joshua 6 and related commentaries: I'm preaching on the fall of Jericho this week at Veritas. Last week Jeff took one for the team, taking on the issue of circumcision in Joshua 5.

Now to the candy section of life- what I've been watching:

I just subscribed to FreddeGredde's youtube channel thanks to Todd Wallace's twitter post.

Ryan Seiler's "Greener" music video

Sarah Palin's explanation of Paul Revere. That's just plain sad; enough to end someone's political career.

I recorded the Republican debate last night but I'm not sure if I'll get around to watching it. I'm a little jaded when it comes to politics right now, but I know I should be informed and prayerful for our leaders and country.

Truth be told, the reason for less tv watching is seasonal. NBA finals are over, who cares about baseball until late September?, and we have a 3 month lull until kickoff of college/NFL football.

For now, I'll get back to pretending I like to read more than watch tv...

youtube

This article in usatoday fascinates me... Read it here. Yesterday I spent some time at the skatepark. I often wonder why, considering the only shredding I'm doing these days is my finger... (Don't worry Veritas softball team, I'm hoping I'll be good to go for tonight):

All the talk with the locals here at the Iowa City skatepark revolved around youtube drama. So I thought the timing of this youtube article was interesting. Everyone in the world with a computer, camera, and internet connection has access to this "gold rush".

Some quotes...

"Interacting with your audience through video is unquestionably a new dimension for TV as we know it, and people are inventing new content formats all the time...YouTube has democratized the concept of the professional"

"What [consumers] do care about, however, is being entertained, and in that sense we're in a new Gold Rush era..."

I wonder what this means for the church. Here are a few common responses...

1. Fortress... by creating our own subculture. Because we all know God needs his own "tube" and social networking site.

2. Withdraw... by cutting the internet cable

3. Engage... by being the most innovative and creative in a way that reflects God.

What does #3 look like? I'm not sure. Ideas?

Words

This year my blog has been mostly neglected. Here's the pathetic stat... 12 posts in the last 5 months.

For the first time in a LONG time I felt like I had some "creative" space. No visitors, nice back porch weather with a perfectly placed breeze, and a thought provoking book (Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln) are the ingredients that led to this epiphany...

I love ideas, and I love the words needed to communicate them.

In fact, that's what inspired the metropuritan blog a few years ago. I started blogging to sharpen my writing skills, share excerpts of my life, and hopefully bring a little encouragement to others on the journey. I'm sure there was a little narcissism mixed in. Me and everyone else with a blog, FB and Twitter account.

As I read on this utopian day, some phrases jumped out at me, renewing my desire to read and write more...

"[Lincoln] read and thoroughly read his books whilst we played. Hence he was above us and became our guide and leader." (a childhood friend's recollection of Lincoln) p. 49

"Books became his academy, his college. The printed word united his mind with the great minds of generations past...It was through literature that he was able to transcend his surroundings. He read and reread the Bible and Aesop's Fables so many times that years later he could recite whole passages and entire stories from memory... With remarkable energy and tenacity he quarried the thoughts and ideas that he wanted to remember...once he obtained paper, he would rewrite it and keep it in a scrapbook so that it could be memorized. Words thus became precious to him, never...to be lightly or indiscriminately used." (p. 51-52)

In Lincoln's own words, in some advice to a law student, he said, "Get the books and read and study them...The books, and your capacity for understanding them, are just the same in all places...Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other thing." (p. 54)

Well, hopefully I've found enough inspiration to churn out a few more than 2.4 blog posts per month for the rest of 2011.

In other news related to "words"...

I got my tweeterfeed updated and therefore these blog posts will be synced to my FB and Twitter (not sure why it ever stopped...). I had to tell the world on FB about this important news and nearly hit "send" when I noticed the "w" missing from "twitterfeed". As a pastor, I could've been fired for a status update with "ti..." Nevermind.

Another word debacle came when Ava kept leaving the "r" out when she was telling me about this new book she was reading, "Little Britches". She had no idea what she was saying, and I was left wondering what kind of books Leatha had put on the kids' summer reading plan.

Speaking of bad words...I'm determined that my kids hear every bad word in the book from my mouth before they hear it on the playground. That's another blog entry for another day...

For now, I'm resolved to get back to the basics... reading and writing.

Errrr...wait a minute... the NBA finals start tomorrow. Shoot. Go Mavs.

Santa Claus is coming to town

Here are some thoughts from Bruce on Santa...

And some even better thoughts from Driscoll...

http://blog.marshillchurch.org/2010/12/13/what-we-tell-our-kids-about-santa-pastor-mark-for-the-washington-post/

Peter Kreeft

Friday night I had the privilege of eating dinner with Peter Kreeft, one of the great Christian philosophers of our day (pronounced Krayft, as in "Beethoven"). Pictured below...Me, Pete, Alex, and Dan.

Here's what I learned from the conversation:

Kreeft came across as a black and white guy, which I didn't fully expect. Alex, a brilliant guy in his own right, and Kreeft discussed how hard we should be on Karl Marx. Kreeft put the deaths of 100 million people on him, while Alex encouraged us to learn something from what he had to say. They also got into a similar discussion about Rousseau, who I know little about.

When I asked Kreeft what he thought about the new atheist movement (Hitchens, Dawkins, etc), he dismissed them and their arguments as unoriginal. "If you want to read a real atheist with consistent arguments, read Nietzche." I asked what modern books are must reads if we want to understand modern thought and he dismissed them all. He basically said that although they are marketable and appeal to the masses, they don't hold a candle to the philosophical rigor of previous thinkers. He said there's nothing quite as brilliant as Locke and Kant, and modern minds just can't appreciate it.

I disagreed with him.

I said, "I'm pretty sure that the contemporaries of Locke and Kant probably had a hard time reading them as well. When I read "Critique of Pure Reason" and "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" in college, they were almost unreadable. It's said of Kantian philosophers that they are angry people." Alex had my back with Kant, saying that even Germans read Kant's translated essays in English, because they are so difficult in German. But Alex wasn't much help on defending Locke, because he's an expert on him.

Kreeft basically said, "Your generation watches too much TV and doesn't have the mental capacity for it."

He's probably right.

I should wrap this up so I can get back to the Olympics...

Other things I found interesting:

He had never heard of Mark Driscoll.

He hates computers.

He thinks part of the hope for unity in the church is a "charismatic experience." He said the last 3 popes were all baptized in the spirit and performed exorcisms.

He said he's Catholic, not Jesuit, "The Jesuits are like Yankee fans, there are a few good ones."

Regarding Lent fast... "Last year I gave up alcohol, but I found times where some Scotch would've been nice to wash down a bad taste in my mouth. So this year I've gone to increasing alms to the poor. This has made more sense."

Why Evangelicals are often quicker to embrace him than Catholics... he said he always tries to emphasize "Mere Christianity", as C.S. Lewis did.

He thinks preaching should be more narrative and story based than systematic and expositional. "Who wouldn't choose Matthew over Romans?" he asked.

He called his spiritual life, "messy and unorganized, just like everyone else's."

Overall, this guy is brilliant and did a masterful job speaking at our Veritas forum. I could count all the "and um you knows" on no fingers. Filler words were noticeably absent. Every word was profound and perfectly placed. It was an honor to hang out with a man that we will look back on as one of the greatest Christian thinkers and most prolific writers. Period.

Middle East History Quiz

I was motivated this afternoon by a lecture given by Bob Blincoe, head of the Frontiers mission organization. I had the feeling that I wasn't worthy to be in the presence of such an apostolic man of God. I was informed and inspired (and I laughed, which made it all worth it- Bob cracked me up). I wanted to get on a plane and go to a hostile place to tell people about Jesus (with a smile of course)

Let me share some of what I learned. I decided to do it in the form of a quiz. That way you can see if you are as ignorant as I was 4 hours ago...

1. Where did the Kurds flee after Saddam Hussein systematically wiped out Kurdish neighborhoods in the early 1990's?
A. the mountains
B. Baghdad
C. their basements
D. Syria

2. What did the U.S. military do to lure them out of the place they had fled?
A. built a big bonfire
B. set up a tent city for 25,000 people
C. shined a spotlight in the sky
D. Fireworks to show victory

3. Who (wrongfully) took credit for the successful relocation of hundreds of thousands of Kurds to their homeland by American troops?
A. England
B. Germany
C. The U.N.
D. Russia

4. True or False. The Kurdish Gov't is hostile to Christians.

5. T or F. The Kurds consider themselves Iraqis.

6. Baghdad was founded in...
A. 2000 BC
B. 352 AD
C. 762 AD
D. 1902 AD

7. Baghdad was destroyed in
A. 480 AD
B. 1258 AD
C. 1972 AD
D. 1980 AD

8. 1919 marked the end of...
A. British rule in Iraq
B. German control of the Middle East
C. The Ottoman Empire
D. The rule of Saud in the Middle East

9. True or False. Gertrude Bell made up the modern boundary lines in the Middle East following WWI.

10. What nation exerted their authority in the Middle East following WWI, by installing Ali to rule Arabia, Abdullah to rule Jordan, and Faisel to rule Syria/Iraq?
A. Brits
B. Germans
C. Americans
D. French

11. T or F. The current king of Jordan speaks more English than Arabic.

12. King Faisel of Syria/Iraq, who ruled in the early-mid 20th century, made the statement
A. "You have given me a country that does not really exist."
B. "These people will be able to survive better as a democracy than as individual tribes working against each other."

13. Lt. Col. John Nagle said recently that we forgot all the lessons learned...
A. 2500 years ago by the Jews living in Babylon
B. 60 years ago by American troops who preceded our military.

14. Iraq and Iran fought from
A. 1976-1984
B. 1978-1984
C. 1980-1988

15. T or F. The Brits came to Iraq's rescue to finally overcome Iran.

16. The U.S. sent a special envoy to take Iraq off of the list of nations favoring terrorism and human rights violations. The leader of the envoy went to personally shake hands with Saddam and assure Saddam of our support. That special envoy of Reagan was led by...
A. Madeleine Albright
B. James Baker
C. Henry Kissinger
D. Donald Rumsfeld

17. T or F. Saddam received the permission of the U.S. to invade Kuwait.

18. Saddam invaded Iraq on August 2nd,
A. 1989
B. 1990
C. 1991
D. 1992

19. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad employs 1,000 U.S. employees. How many of them speak Arabic?
A. 2
B. 5
C. 88
D. 680

20. The Gospel is spreading ______ among the Kurds.
A. Slowly
B. Rapidly

21. T or F. Northern Iraq is a dangerous place to live.

Answers:
1. A 2. B 3. C (America singlehandedly did all the work) 4. F (They protect minority rights) 5. F 6. C 7. B (by Genghis Khan's grandson Molugu Khan) 8. C 9. T (This might've been the most profound insight- the boundaries are synthetic, not historic. Therefore, we're trying to defend and unify a country that has will never have unity- that comes from tribes, not boundaries made by a westerner 90 years ago) 10. A 11. T 12. A 13. B 14. C 15. F (America) 16. D 17. T (After Saddam asked about a possible Kuwait invasion, US Ambassador said, "We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflict" 18. B 19. B 20. B (God is doing great things there, and the hate of Islam that almost wiped them out has made them more open) 21. F

Must read worldview article

For those of you who have been to Europe... Did you feel the same chilling effect of human secularism I feel when I'm over there?

A family means a mom and dad in their mid to upper 30's with (maybe) one child.
Religion is merely a historical fact, not a present reality.
Churches are museums that also serve as a place for funeral and wedding ceremonies.

My fear is that it seems to be traveling west. This is a must read article.