Words

Review | Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

2012-01-10T09:54:00.000-08:00

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As someone who geeks out a little over Silicon Valley history and the birth of the personal computer, the first several chapters of Walter Isaacson's biography of the iconic Apple CEO were particularly engaging. While the rest of the book was not quite as exciting to read, it was still worthwhile.

Isaacson's style is conversational and easy, making for a quick, fluid 571 pages. At times he leaves out details that might better inform certain situations, but this may have be necessary in keeping the focus on Jobs rather than on Apple and its products.

The book doesn't sugarcoat Jobs. Indeed, there would be no point, since his perfectionism and brutality are legendary - at least to those who are fans of Apple. He is presented here as, quite honestly, a jerk. He is also presented as a genius. He is presented as not much of a father but as a great corporate leader. All are probably true.

However, Isaacson does show his bias when it comes to the company Jobs started and saved and its products. Sometimes he seems so in love with Apple, Inc. that it annoys even me! (I'm a proud Mac and iPhone user and Macworld.com reader.)

In the end, the book certainly gives one a well-rounded view of Steve Jobs, his relationships - both personal and professional - and the company he built. Definitely a worthy read.

View all my reviews

Great Bible Giveaway - and Maybe an iPad!

2011-12-08T09:47:00.001-08:00

Starting on November 29^th until December 24^th at the New Living Translation Facebook page Tyndale is giving away lots of great prizes and something free for you just for singing up.
By visiting the giveaway entry page (located on the NLT Facebook page, the link is under the profile picture) and entering your name and e-mail address you'll be entered to win the following prizes:

One random person each day will win a Life Application Study Bible Family Pack (Guys Life Application Study Bible hc, Girls Life Application Study Bible hc, Student's Life Application Study Bible hc, Life Application Study Bible hc, Life Application Study Bible Large Print hc).
One Random person each week will win an Apple iPad 2!

Everyone that signs up gets a free download copy of the Life Application Bible Study – Book of Luke!

Enjoy!

Review | The Historical Jesus: Five Views

2011-10-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

Just a heads up: This one is pretty academic and may not be for everyone. I actually wrote it for a seminary class but thought I'd share it with all of you.

Bethel University professors James K. Bielby and Paul Rhodes Eddy have put together a volume in The Historical Jesus: Five Views that provides a glimpse into the broad range of perspectives found among those who quest for the historical Jesus. Robert M. Price, a professor at Johnny Coleman Theological Seminary, begins the book with the most radical of views, followed by DePaul University emeritus professor of religious studies John Dominic Crossan. The works gradually move through the center toward the conservative end of the spectrum with essays by Emory University professor Luke Timothy Johnson and Durham University professor James D. G. Dunn. Finally, the book draws to a conservative close with an essay by Darrell L. Bock, research professor of New Testament studies, Dallas Theological Seminary.

The Historical Jesus begins with a survey of the quest for the historical Jesus, covering its beginnings in the late eighteenth century to today. Bielby and Rhodes provide the reader with a quick glimpse of each separate quest – or stage of the overall quest – as well as the views that drove it or, at times, brought it to a halt. The editors do not bring their own views to bear. They leave that to the contributors.

Their introduction is followed by each contributor’s essay, in which he puts forth his view. Each essay is then followed by responses from each of the other four authors.

Price’s essay, “Jesus at the Vanishing Point,” is easily the most liberal and radical. He has no qualms about sharing his view with the reader. “I will argue that it is quite likely there never was any historical Jesus” (55). He then proceeds to completely deconstruct the Gospels. He does this by relying on the criterion of dissimilarity and the idea that each of the Gospel stories is simply a retelling of an Old Testament story.

John Dominic Crossan’s work “Jesus and the Challenge of Collaborative Eschatology” reduces Jesus to a simple nonviolent revolutionary whose battle was against the Roman Empire. Though not the Messiah, he says, some Jews saw Jesus as “a nonviolent Davidic Messiah” (120). He attributes those of Jesus’ actions in the Gospels that he deems historically accurate to a political motivation, and the crufixion he attributes to Rome’s standard policy in dealing with nonviolent rebels.

Next comes “Learning the Human Jesus” by Luke Timothy Johnson. His conclusions are moderate when compared to those of his fellow contributors. Leaning more toward acceptance of the Gospels' portrayal of Jesus, he writes that, when taken strictly as narrative, the Gospels provide a valid perspective on the character of Jesus. The question of character “is a question that narrative is distinctly capable of addressing” (173). Johnson still doubts the historical validity of the Gospels.

James D. G. Dunn writes the essay “Remembering Jesus,” in which he accepts a faith-based viewing of the Gospels as a valid historical perspective. He states, “…it is the ear of faith which is likely to hear the Gospels most effectively” (225). Dunn seeks to convince the reader that the right course in the quest is to look for those characteristics of Jesus that can be seen across the Gospels (220). Dunn does not accept all the Gospel material as true, though he is more conservative than prior contributors.

Darrell L. Bock shows himself to hold the truly conservative view in this work. The entirety of his essay, “The Historical Jesus,” gives the reader a view of Jesus as He appears in the Gospels, spelling out His character and motivations as exhibited by His actions. Bock declares that the Gospels’ picture of a “messianic Jesus who saw himself standing at the hub of God’s program and completely vindicated as Son of Man at God’s side” (281) is the most accurate view to take.

In this reviewer’s opinion, Price’s view is the least well-researched. It appears to be based entirely on his own biases and reading of other liberal theologians, rather than on arguments from factual data. The essay’s greatest weakness is his stretching of the criterion of dissimilarity to contend that the Gospel stories are simple reworkings of Old Testament stories. While this reviewer doubts that the criterion in question has any value whatsoever, even the other authors in The Historical Jesus take issue with Price’s use of it. Dunn writes, “Such an extension of the criterion of dissimilarity simply undermines what value it has” (95).

Crossan’s view, while perhaps more informed, is no less biased. He draws upon a great deal of extrabiblical historical knowledge – some of which is dubious at best – but he discounts nearly as much of the Gospel material as does Price. He believes Jesus existed, but his picture of Jesus is shaped by his own values and knowledge of the fishing industry in ancient Palestine (116). Even Price states that Crossan reduces “Jesus to a function of the categories and methods through which he has decided to study him.” (133). Crossan infers in his essay, and outright insists in his response to Dunn, that the Jesus of the Gospels who taught love and pacifism cannot be the same as the Jesus of revelation who will return in violence (234). For Crossan, nonviolence is the one defining characteristic of Jesus, whose life and death hinge on “the crucial difference… between the eschatological kingdom of God and the imperial kingdom of Rome,” which is “Jesus’ nonviolence and Pilate’s violence” (132).

Johnson and Dunn, while espousing slightly different views, straddle the center. Johnson leans more heavily toward the liberal side, and Dunn leans toward the conservative side. However, they both – like the more liberal contributors to this book – rely on sources like Q that may or may not exist to determine which parts of the Gospel are true. For a conservative reviewer, Dunn’s view is easier to swallow, since he accepts faith as a valid historical perspective. Johnson, however, seems inexplicably to accept faith as faith and historical knowledge as something else altogether.

Bock is the one among these contributors who takes the Gospel texts seriously. He writes that the Gospels provide “a multiperspectival impression” that “can be as historical as the autobiographical words of the individual” (251). From there he provides a historical view of Jesus that is drawn entirely from Scripture and, therefore, reads more like a sermon – with generally solid exegesis – than the apparently scholarly views of the other contributors. The only real weakness this reviewer found in Bock’s contribution was that it might have fit better in a different book, but that appears to have been the point of The Historical Jesus: Five Views.

The Historical Jesus is a worthy read, providing opposing perspectives against which to hone one’s views. It strengthened this reader’s trust in the Gospels as the only reliable picture of the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith, who are one and the same.

Woe to you...

2011-09-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

Matthew 23:13-30 - "Eight Woes"

I find the Pharisees to be - perhaps strangely - a strong example of how easily human nature comes between us and the truth of the Gospel. The roots of Pharisaism were in a movement meant to return Jews to right belief and right practice at a time when pagan culture (namely Greek) was overtaking their own culture and religious practices (the period between the Old and New Testaments). Instead, as evidenced in Jesus' words here, they created a set of rules that actually drew them away from what God really wanted.

So, what does this have to do with human nature? Humans like rules. I know, most people would disagree. We don't want to be told what to do, but think about it. We'd rather have rules that clearly define how we get to Heaven (Be good! Don't hurt people!) than deal with this ethereal "relationship with God" thing. It's easier!

Scripture points us to right behavior, but it is also clear that right behavior is meaningless without the right heart. Otherwise, why would Jesus come down on the Pharisees here?

It's also easier when the rules serve to make me look good without my having to worry about other people.

You see, the Pharisees missed the point - the Law never saved anyone, not even a Jew. The Law existed for the people to maintain relationships with God and one another. Hence, the two greatest commandments:'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 22:36b-40
If that wasn't happening, the Law wasn't serving its purpose.

Sadly, many Christians - those of us who live under the New Covenant in which Christ has fulfilled the Law - still want it this way. We want the rules. Even though they don't teach this way with words, many churches teach this way by example. It's not about going to Bible study or Sunday morning worship or putting in time in the food pantry. Those things are all good things, but they must all grow out of love.

This is not to say there is no place in the Christian life for duty. Let's face it. Sometimes, we don't feel like doing the things that we know we ought to do. We should do them anyway because they are our duty as followers of Jesus.

It's a line that is easy to cross, as the Pharisees show us. We must do our duty, but we don't just do it for the sake of duty. We do our duty because we love the God who first loved us and the people whom He loves.

On This Day in 2010

2011-08-24T09:19:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while, I'm surfing Facebook, and I notice an item in the sidebar called "On This Day in 2010." I never really pay much attention to it, but today it caught my attention because it featured the blog I posted last August 24. In that blog, I recounted some amazing blessings that my family received last summer. We sold our house, our debts were paid. Because of those things, we have been freed from so much.

The most obvious benefit is that Kacy is now able to stay home with our daughters. (And we can still pay the bills on just my paycheck!)

But God has done so much more in our family - most of it I still can't verbalize.

If you'd like to read that blog from last year, here it is.

Review | The Walk | Shaun Alexander

2011-08-16T14:06:00.000-07:00

The Walk by former NFL star Shaun Alexander is apparently written for those Christians young in their faith, but its bland, trite style and theologically questionable premise make it a book only someone with a fairly mature understanding of Scripture ought to attempt to slog through. Even then, there would be very little reward in the end.

Alexander’s premise is this: Since “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33 - often translated as “order” rather than “peace”), that He has created a very specific path to maturity in Christ. That path consists of this series of stages: “Unbeliever, Believer, Example, Teacher, Imparter.” (pg. 21)

Up until this point in The Walk, I had actually been pleasantly surprised. I had fully expected it to be another Christ self-help book – “Here’s how to get spiritual power for your life – to be everything you want to be!” It wasn’t, and I was glad of that.

However, Alexander completely lost me here. The passage he quotes as the basis for his sequence of spiritual maturity clearly relates to worship in the church – not the progression of a believer’s growth. While it is true that 1 Corinthians 14:33 is a statement with broader implications, there is absolutely no Scriptural support for this order that The Walk is entirely based upon. Consequently, it took me about six weeks to read this short book because I felt compelled to continually question the author’s credibility. And I continually found it lacking.

He essentially invents his premise and tells the reader it’s from God, and this plagues the entire book.

There are notes of truth throughout the book, and I would encourage any believer from a non-charismatic background to read the final chapter with an open mind. Like Alexander, I believe that there are still miracles out there. We just don’t see them happen because we have cut ourselves off from this kind of working of the Holy Spirit.

At the risk of being too harsh, The Walk turns out to be a more or less useless book. I absolutely would not recommend it.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review as part of the Blogging for Books program.

A True Pastor

2011-07-14T08:12:00.000-07:00

But on the next day all the congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying, “You are the ones who have caused the death of the LORD’S people.” It came about, however, when the congregation had assembled against Moses and Aaron, that they turned toward the tent of meeting, and behold, the cloud covered it and the glory of the LORD appeared. Then Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tent of meeting, and the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them instantly.” Then they fell on their faces. Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put in it fire from the altar, and lay incense on it; then bring it quickly to the congregation and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone forth from the LORD, the plague has begun!” Then Aaron took it as Moses had spoken, and ran into the midst of the assembly, for behold, the plague had begun among the people. So he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. He took his stand between the dead and the living, so that the plague was checked. But those who died by the plague were 14,700, besides those who died on account of Korah. Then Aaron returned to Moses at the doorway of the tent of meeting, for the plague had been checked.

Numbers 16:41-50

Say what you will about Aaron. He has his own moments of rebellion and failure, of which the golden calf is not least, but in this moment, I am struck by his courage. He shows us something about what a pastor ought to be.

The Lord has finally had enough of the Israelites’ grumbling and determines to destroy them. (You see, when they grumble against the leadership of Moses and Aaron, they grumble against the guidance of God Himself, who directs Moses and Aaron.) I know I probably would have said, “Go to it, Lord! They deserve it!” But when Moses tells his brother to make atonement for the people’s sin, the priest does not hesitate.

It’s right there in verse 47. Aaron “ran into the midst of the assembly.” As fast as he can, Aaron bravely steps between the people and imminent destruction at the hands of a (rightfully) wrathful God. Without regard for his own safety (plagues are contagious!), he acts quickly, doing what he must to deliver the Israelites from the consequences of their rebellion.

In my opinion, Aaron did several things in this one act. First, he showed grace to the people. They deserved what they were about to receive, but he did what was necessary to give them what they did not deserve: continued life. Sounds like someone else I know. (I believe this is what’s known as displaying Godly character!)

Second, he showed that He loved the people. What evidence do I have for this? It is just my opinion, but I find it hard to believe that someone would rush into the midst of a plague-ridden mass of people whom he did not love.

Finally, he showed faith in God’s plan. If he had not believed God’s promise to give the nation of Israel a land of its own, what would have been the purpose of saving them? He shows great trust that God will do what he promised for the descendants of Abraham despite the destruction that occurs here.

Like all of us, Aaron was human, but for at least this moment, he gives us a picture of a true pastor. I pray that all of us – full-time, bi-vocational, paid, volunteer, church staff, or lay-people – who seek to lead the people of God in some capacity would strive to act as Aaron acts here.

Five Books Every Christian Should Read

2011-07-07T09:10:00.000-07:00

With my review of Eileen Button's The Waiting Place earlier this week, this blog is embarking on a new phase that will see a lot more activity and a greater concentration on book reviews.

With that in mind, I'm going to share with you five books I've read that I think every Christian should read. (If you're interested, here's my list on Amazon.)

The Bible - I know this one probably seems like a cop-out, but too few of us really read the Bible. I struggle with it just like everyone else, but I can say that I read it more consistently now than I ever have before. A few years ago, I prayed that God would give me a greater love for His Word, and He did. (You can read about it here.)

It's the Word of God. It is more important than any other book we'll ever read, and as it shapes us, it shapes the lens through which we read everything else. We should read it in big chunks and study it down to the briefest statement.

I like the NASB because it is a word-for-word translation. The NIV - because it translates ideas more than individual words - is generally easier to read in large sections.

unChristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons - The information in this book may not be news to some people, but for those of us who have grown up in the traditional church culture, it can be world-altering. David Kinnaman of the Barna Group provides in-depth research into the attitudes and reactions of teens and young adults toward the church.

Crazy Love by Francis Chan - unChristian was the beginning of a journey for me and several other folks in my life. God had begun to alter my perceptions of faith and the church not long before reading it, and those changed perceptions were solidified upon reading it.

But Crazy Love took it one step further, showing me what I ought to be doing with those new perceptions. It was no longer enough to follow the rules and be part of the institution of the Church. I had to love God with everything, and that love wouldn't make sense to most people. Read my review here.

Forgotten God by Francis Chan - Yes, it's another Francis Chan book. Yes, I'm a big fan. But this one was the next step on my journey. The Holy Spirit empowers us to live the life God has called us to live. The Holy Spirit does things beyond imagining. We've put Him in a box and written off the miraculous, or - worse - we've forgotten about Him altogether. We neglect Him to our detriment and that of the Church as a whole. Read the review.

Radical by David Platt - Pastor of a megachurch in Alabama, Platt challenges us to turn our backs on the American dream and embrace the call of God to go against the culture around us, focusing first on the Kingdom. Though the book has its flaws - it loses some steam in the middle - its premise is powerful, and for me, was the culmination of many things God had been teaching on this literary journey.

Take the time to read these - especially the first! - and you will be challenged. Your perceptions will be altered. And maybe - hopefully - you'll begin to think a little more like Christ.

Review | The Waiting Place | Eileen Button

2011-07-05T09:25:00.000-07:00

At times beautifully written and at times full of cliché, The Waiting Place: Learning to Appreciate Life’s Little Delays by Eileen Button is a worthwhile read if only for its powerful honesty.

Button – an adjunct professor, newspaper columnist, and pastor’s wife – is a competent writer, but she relies a little too much on trite sayings like “too much month left at the end of the money” (pg. 65) that she seems to think are clever.

She also leans too much sometimes toward corny sentimentality – “When we listen closely enough, we think we hear the angels cry.” (pg.121) Button is at her best when she simply tells the stories. These are stories that don’t need sentimental embellishment to bolster their power (good stories rarely do!), and the book falters when she tries to do so.

There’s little that stands out in her writing style, but I found her honesty so courageous that the book’s flaws were forgivable. Indeed, the beauty of The Waiting Place is found in her honesty. Most of us know that church people often expect complete perfection from pastors and their wives, but Button is brave enough to talk about the struggles of a white, formerly middle-class woman who finds herself applying for WIC, a mother suffering through her child’s horrific birth defect, and a pastor’s wife on the receiving end of both the grace and the venom of the church. Some of these struggles are born out of her self-centeredness, and that is what’s so refreshing about The Waiting Place. She is honest about the struggles and about where they come from.

One of my favorite passages is found in chapter 13. Her description of the church is powerful: “She is loving and life changing; she is malicious and overbearing. She is beautiful; she is ugly. She is as light as day, capable of astonishing kindness and generosity; she is as dark as night, capable of unspeakable evil.”

There is not a great deal of theological depth here, all of the stories in The Waiting Place come back to one thing. Eileen Button and her husband had wonderful dreams about where their lives were going and what God would do with them, but it’s never quite looked the way they’d hoped. That is the waiting place – the place where you wait to become. The problem is – as Button discovered and shares with us – that we spend most of our lives in that place. Button tells us that the trick is to find the beauty – the workings of God – in the waiting.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Worship Music Industry | Right or Wrong?

2011-06-07T12:04:00.001-07:00

Being a worship leader is one of the best things I've ever done. I love every moment of it. It's a blast, it's a challenge, and it's meaningful. It's right up there with being a husband and father.

Like any position of leadership, it's also fraught with pitfalls, the most obvious of which is the lure of fame. Even in a small church like the one of which my family and I are members, it's easy to feel like you're on a pedestal - even if no one else thinks you are. (That being said, it's also easy for others to put you on a pedestal.) You step onto the stage every Sunday morning with the spotlight shining on you. People complement you, tell you how talented you are, want your attention. It's the great temptation of pride.

It concerns me to see the direction of worship ministry in the church these days. There seems to be such a push to record and distribute nationally or globally the music you're doing at the local church level. It's as though your ministry is not relevant or fruitful unless people on the other side of the country are playing your music on Sunday.

I tried to be a musician for a living. I had a band, which many of you know. We made a go of it for a while and did pretty well for an indie outfit just starting out. Things stalled out after a couple of years, and I believe there were two reasons for this. First, it wasn't what God wanted for me (or the rest of the band - at least not at that point in time). Second, I was completely burned out.

After a very short time, it stopped being about Jesus or about the music. It was about booking the next gig. This is the difficulty of music as business - at some point the art is probably going to give way to the need to put food on the table. I was spending all my time trying to book gigs when I wanted to be writing music and touring. And even the little bit of touring we did wore on me because - even then - I felt that my primary goal was selling my product. I don't have the personality of a salesman.

I believe it's even more dangerous to mix business and worship. At that juncture, you're mixing business with something much more pure and noble than art. How can we possibly combine a pursuit of money with our pursuit of the Living God? How can we respond to Him properly when it's all wrapped up in money?

Think about the state of the music industry now? The economy, digital downloads, piracy have all contributed to the atrophying of CD sale, and the labels are trying every bad idea they can think of to get people to start buying again. Apple finally convinced them to let go of DRM protection. They still want to limit the number of devices you can play your songs on. And those things pale in comparison to what they're actually doing to the music!

Pop music has always been formulaic, but periodically, you would see it changed by the random renegade who gets a record deal. The last time that really happened, though, was in the 90s. Suddenly, the face of pop music changed. Much like the music of the 60s, the grunge bands brought us incomprehensible lyrics (a big no-no in the pop formula) and musical experimentation. Then the post-grunge bands rode that momentum and created pop-rock songs with intelligent lyrics that people could relate to.

These days, bands are slavishly shackled to the formula - lowest common denominator lyrics, overly simplified music. The labels are afraid that's the only way they can sell music!

That industry is the industry that is now shaping our worship music. That formula - a formula invented by people whose goal is to make money - is being applied to the way we worship God.

Worship leaders started gaining a national stage via the music industry years ago. Now, we're seeking it. We've created a worship music industry. I have a hard time making that fit with what I know of God and Scripture, primarily because of the way the music industry in general works. Being successful in the music industry requires selling yourself - telling everyone how great you are - and that is entirely antithetical to the teachings of Christ. (Yes, I believe there is a difference between you telling everyone how great you are and your agent or manager telling everyone how great you are. However, I also believe that's a gray area that requires further thought.)

Since when is it right for a worship leader to tell everyone how great his music is? How does a church justify marketing its worship ministry?

And honestly, this isn't limited to music. We see it with pastors. We see it in the focus of the mainstream church on so called "evangelism" that exists only to make our institutions larger. We are attempting to define the success of ourselves, our ministries, our churches by worldly measures.

I'm not saying that it cannot ever be right for a worship leader or a church's worship band to record an album or sign a record deal. But I'm not entirely uncomfortable with saying it's wrong. I believe it's tricky terrain to navigate, and we must be much more careful than we have been up to now.

Osama bin Laden | Celebrating Death?

2011-05-02T07:26:00.000-07:00

Osama bin Laden is dead. That’s the big news this morning.

I believe justice has been done. I believe he deserved what he got. I believe this creates closure for a lot of people whose loved ones were murdered by this man.

I also believe that this is not something to celebrate. As a friend of mine pointed out this morning, God says, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.” (Ezekiel 33:11) This morning another wicked man is in hell. His death does nothing to reverse the horrible fate of the 3,000 people he murdered on September 11, 2001.

Only once in history has the death of one man reversed the horrible fate of others. That man was Jesus Christ. He – the Son of God – died on the cross because God loves all the world. Jesus died for you, for me, and for Osama bin Laden.

Let’s be thankful that justice has been served today but be mindful of the fact that, without faith in Christ, we deserve no better fate than bin Laden.

Favorite Christmas Songs, Albums

2010-12-17T09:38:00.000-08:00

In honor of the season, I thought I'd post of a few of my favorite Christmas songs.

Favorite Traditional Christmas Song: "O, Holy Night" - Yes, every artist has to record it, and somebody at church has to sing it every year, but there's a reason for that! The song remains beautiful - one of the best worship songs ever written!
Favorite Modern Christmas Song: "Born to Die" by Bebo Norman - A beautiful, moving pop song. It captures the truth of the season in a way that's hard to do in under four minutes.
Favorite Novelty Christmas Song: "'Zat You, Santa Claus? by Louis Armstrong - Let's be honest. This is much closer to how we would actually react if some dude showed up at our houses on Christmas Eve. Plus, the song is just plain fun.
Favorite Reworking of a Classic Christmas Song: "Jingle Bells" by James Taylor - "Jingle Bells" as blues! Brilliant!

Favorite Christmas Albums:

Christmas... From the Realms of Glory by Bebo Norman - Songs we know, and some we don't. Some are done in the Bebo Norman style CCM listeners have to come to know. Most are done in a style much more reminiscent of his indie music: simple instrumentation - acoustic guitar, piano, melodica, hammer dulcimer. It's a warm, folksy, introspective, beautiful album. Plus, the brave inclusion of Jackson Browne's "The Rebel Jesus." Highlights: "Born to Die," "Come and Worship," "The Rebel Jesus"
Christmas by Michael W. Smith - Remember when Michael W. Smith used to be a songwriter? This album is odd for 80s CCM. It's a high-church, classical Christmas album with a couple of classic Smitty touches, and it's pretty flippin' amazing. Of course, he had to to include the radio-friendly "Gloria," a pop rendition of "Angels We Have Heard on High." Highlights: "First Snowfall," "All Is Well," "Gloria"
Home for Christmas by Amy Grant - I am not, nor have I ever been, an Amy Grant fan, but I love this album. I even went to one of her Christmas concerts years ago. There are a couple of blemishes ("Grown Up Christmas List" and her insistence on singing along with the choir on Handel's "For Unto Us a Child is Born"), but there are so many classic renditions of so many classic Christmas songs, if you don't like it, you have no Christmas spirit! Highlights: "Breath of Heaven," "The Night Before Christmas," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"

Christmas album honorable mention: Christmastime by Michael W. Smith, Music of Christmas by Steven Curtis Chapman

Worst Christmas Song Ever: "Grown Up Christmas List" - I do not need to defend this choice.

Introverts in Ministry?

2010-11-03T07:52:00.000-07:00

Here's an unofficial poll. I'd like your comments. I'll respond via blog later.

Unofficial Poll: In your opinion, can an introvert be effective in ministry and remain an introvert?

Let me clarify a couple of things.

1) I'm speaking of a real introvert - someone who processes internally rather than externally, someone who draws their energy from solitude and/or being with a small group of close friends or family. Not someone who has low self-esteem.

2) I'm speaking of pastoral staff ministry.

A Good, Good God

2010-09-24T10:46:00.000-07:00

Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, "Will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?"

And Abraham said to God, "Oh that Ishmael might live before You!"

But God said, "No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.

"As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him, and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.

"But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year."

Genesis 17:17-21 (NASB)

As I was reading through Genesis 17, I was struck deeply by this passage.

God made Abram and promise, one that Abram and Sarai almost immediately sought to fulfill on their own rather than trust God. Their action resulted in the birth of Abram’s son Ishmael, and the tension – to put it mildly – between the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Isaac continues to this day.

God answers Abram’s act of faithlessness with… a covenant. It’s like He’s saying, "You didn’t believe me, but I’m serious!"

God changes his name, spells out the blessing, then Abraham responds with… laughter! He absolutely does not believe that God can or will do what He’s promising. "Oh," he pleads, "that Ishmael might live before You!"

At this point, if I’m God, I'm thinking, "Forget you pal. I’ll just wipe you and your family off the face of the earth and start over with somebody else." Thankfully, I’m not Him.

Look at verse 20: "As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him…"

I am overwhelmed by the goodness of my God. He chooses Abraham and holds onto him through all his failings and faithless acts and sin. He blesses the child of that sin. And he blesses the sinner.

Just as God blessed Abraham and his sons – all of whom were as undeserving as we are – God blesses me daily. And he blesses you.

Our God is so good!

A Big 2010 - Houses Sold, Debts Paid

2010-08-24T07:42:00.000-07:00

2010 has been a big year for the Kossum family, so I wanted to share with you some of the ways God has been blessing us.

First, as some of you know, Kacy, Emma, and I moved back to Houston from Florida in 2008 after living there for about 4 years. We bought a house in Orange Park, Florida in late 2005. We knew God was calling us back to Texas and put the house on the market in late 2007 - a short 2 years later. It was only a couple of months before the nation's housing market began to collapse, and Florida has been one of the hardest hit states.

So, our house has been on the market almost three years. Finally today we got word from our realtor that the mortgage company has accepted the most recent short sale offer. It's not technically official, but it looks like the house is sold, removing a HUGE burden from our shoulders.

Thank you God!

In my opinion, an even bigger one happened in July. We were discussing - with some friends and fellow members of Magnolia Creek Baptist Church - how the Bible tells us the church ought to be. That we ought to be meeting one another's needs. It's easy to point the finger at people who don't ever help anyone else, but we also made note of the fact that, in our hyper-self-sufficient suburban American culture, nobody wants to admit when they're in need.

So, inevitably, someone said, "Who has a need? Let's talk about it." I immediately thought, "Well, we've got a huge one, but nobody could help with that! And they probably shouldn't." But I couldn't shake the feeling that God was pushing me to talk about it.

So, I told our friends how, in our poor musician days in Florida, we got in over our heads financially and incurred a lot of credit card debt. Even now, it's hard to admit that, but there it is.

I told them how, when we came back to Houston and were earning enough money, we decided that God's will for our family was to pay off that debt as quickly as possible so that Kacy could leave her job and stay home with our daughter. However, it soon became apparent that we wouldn't be able pay it all off before Emma started kindergarten.

So, our friends basically said, "We've got more money than we know what to do with." In the name of Christ, they wrote us a HUGE check, and we paid off that debt. Kacy will be leaving her job at the end of October.

Praise be to God, who paid our debt and inspired us to pay the debts of others.

Celebrating Toy Story 3

2010-06-17T06:48:00.001-07:00

I don't usually post stuff like this here, but I couldn't help it. I'm a big fan of Pixar, and in honor of this weekend's release of Toy Story 3, I thought I'd post the short that started it all: "Tin Toy."

New Song | Shining Down

2010-04-06T11:51:00.000-07:00

Check out my brand new song, "Shining Down," on YouTube and leave a comment here or on the 'Tube to let me know what you think!

Good Friday

2010-04-02T13:59:00.000-07:00

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.

For finding fault with them, He says,
"BEHOLD, DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD,
WHEN I WILL EFFECT A NEW COVENANT
WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH;
NOT LIKE THE COVENANT WHICH I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS
ON THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND
TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT;
FOR THEY DID NOT CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT,
AND I DID NOT CARE FOR THEM, SAYS THE LORD.
"FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL
AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD:
I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS,
AND I WILL WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS.
AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD,
AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.
"AND THEY SHALL NOT TEACH EVERYONE HIS FELLOW CITIZEN,
AND EVERYONE HIS BROTHER, SAYING, 'KNOW THE LORD,'
FOR ALL WILL KNOW ME,
FROM THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST OF THEM.
"FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES,
AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE."

When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

Hebrews 8:7-13 (NASB)

This morning, Good Friday, as I read through the letter to the Hebrews, I was struck by the enormous compassion that God has poured out on us. It wasn’t a huge, deep revelation. Just a fresh realization of the unimaginable act of love that brought Jesus to the cross.

Time and time again throughout the Old Testament – under the old covenant of the Law – we see Israel fall, and we see the Lord pour out His wrath on the nation. But the writer of Hebrews calls on the prophet Jeremiah to show us that this time, it’s different.

This time, when God found fault with His people, He didn’t just respond with wrath. He responded with a new covenant – one that would cause His laws to be written on our minds and hearts, not just paper or tablets of stone.

Christ was mocked, tortured, and killed. The blood that poured from His veins onto that Judean hillside is what seals the new covenant with God. That blood, which was spilled as payment for the sins of every person, assures us that, if we accept the great gift of Christ, God will remember our sins no more.

That is why it’s Good Friday.

Civility Covenant

2010-03-30T08:18:00.000-07:00

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” – Matthew 5:9

Yesterday I read a surprising piece of news from the world of politics. Christians from the political left and right came together to sign a “Civility Covenant.” I was impressed and heartened by this.

Let’s backtrack to the year 2000, when George W. Bush was first elected President of the United States. What arguably secured his victory was his campaign’s bringing together the evangelical community – conservative Christians – in nearly unanimous support of not only Bush as a candidate but the Republican Party as the sole champion of Christian values in this country. Over the course of that campaign and the eight years of his presidency, we saw the melding of the GOP and the Church into what almost amounted to a single entity.

Maybe this is a subject for another blog, but we just can’t let go of Christendom, can we? The Church was persecuted off and on throughout ancient Rome until Emperor Constantine “converted” and named Christianity the official religion of the Empire. Some of the greatest theologians of the day believed that God’s plan for spreading the Gospel to the world would be carried out by the expansion of the Empire.

But then, Rome fell. Life stank. Church leaders pined for the days of Rome as the world around them was completely altered. But then on Christmas Day in A.D. 800, the Pope crowned Charlemagne to lead the “Holy Roman Empire.” As the joke among historians goes, it was neither holy nor Roman. It wasn’t much of an empire either. But this was bald-faced attempt to regain the glory days of Christendom under Constantine, when the Church held power.

Despite the separation of church and state that is one of the hallmarks of American democracy, somehow we still expect to have a form of Christendom in this country. We wanted George W. Bush to be our Constantine, but he was just our Charlemagne.

American Christians grabbed hold of our new-found political power and clung to it for dear life. We assimilated ourselves into Republican political culture, bought into every bit of it hook, line, and sinker – including the arrogant vitriol of its most respected pundits and radio hosts. So, when the presidency changed hands, we got angry. Some will blame the anger on our Republican congressmen and senators. Some will blame it on the “tea-partiers.” I personally think it’s a symbiotic relationship. The angrier the constituents get, the angrier the representatives get, the angrier the constituents get.

And finally, here we are. American politics has devolved to the point of name-calling and death threats. The smallest detail of the smallest legislation is treated as either God’s Gospel or the vilest heresy – depending on your politico-religious point of view.

It’s not surprising to me that American politics would turn into a stalemated shouting match. What it does is sadden me because so many of the people involved call themselves Christians. That’s why this Civility Covenant gives me a glimmer of hope.

Perhaps we can be the church. Perhaps we can stop judging those who don’t know Christ and stop trying to change hearts with legislation. Perhaps we can make peace.

Haiti Earthquake

2010-01-14T07:55:00.000-08:00

Dear God,

What can I do?

To see such devastation in a land where the people do not have the money to prepare their homes for natural disaster, where the government infrastructure to offer the people aid does not exist, is too great for my heart to bear.

What can I do?

So many are suffering. So many have died. Children alone in the devastation. Mothers and fathers whose children are gone.

Dear God, what can I do? Please, show me what I can do.

(Image from NPR.)

Thousands of people hurt, dying, dead. Homes, businesses, government buildings destroyed.

The devastation in the tiny nation of Haiti seems endless, and the people are desperate. Aid is needed now. It is coming, but time is of the essence. So, what can we do?

Whatever we can. If you can go, go! Help, feed, attend to, comfort the people in need with your own voice, your own hands and feet, your own arms wrapped around them. They need us!

But many - probably most of us - cannot go. We can still send money, food, and medical supplies to meet the basic needs of these people without basic necessities in the midst of this destruction.

Do whatever you can. Just don't wait.

If you are - like I was earlier this morning - wondering what exactly you can do, seek out reputable organizations that are helping and help them. If you don't know where to begin, start here:

Living Water International: Haiti Earthquake Response

Water is one of the Haitian people's greatest needs at this moment. NPR quotes a Haitian doctor's assistant as saying, "There's no water. There's nothing. Thirsty people are going to die."

LWI is joining with other water organizations to provide what is needed in this time of tragedy. So, join me in helping them, in the name of Jesus.

If you don't want to help this way, find another way. But please help.

Vote for me this week!

2009-10-26T06:39:00.000-07:00

I just informed you over the weekend that my song "I Am Yours" was chosen to be part of the FQWorship.com songwriting event. Well, it will be playing on FQ RADIO this week, beginning today. They plan to have all the songs for this week up on FQ RADIO on Monday morning before noon central time.

Beginning on Monday, FQ RADIO will be on the front page of the site. Anyone can go to the site and vote. You will just have to enter your email in order to vote. Only one vote per person per week. So please go to FQWorship and vote for my song and tell everyone you know to come and vote for my song!

(FYI, All songs should be in random order.)

The top song chosen from this week will be played in the FINALS on week 4. (Today starts week 1)

Thank you!
Jud

Vote for me on FQWorship.com!

2009-10-24T21:07:00.000-07:00

I've got exciting news: My song "I Am Yours" has been selected to play on www.FQWorship.com's FQ Radio as part of their worship songwriting event! And you can vote for it to win! (There are no prizes - just opportunities for the song to be played on FQ Radio, which will allow the song to be heard by many other worship leaders, bands and songwriters.)

You must be a member or e-mail subscriber of the site to vote. The basic membership and e-mail subscription are free, and the e-mail subscription box is at the top of their homepage. (www.FQWorship.com is a worship planning site that was started by Chris Tomlin and a team worship leaders with great features and song selection and a very reasonable price. If you're a worship leader, I'd encourage you to check out one of the paid memberships.)

"I Am Yours" will be played during one of the following 3 weeks (they are not informing me ahead of time which week it will be played):

Week 1: Oct 26 - Nov 1
Week 2: Nov 2-8
Week 3: Nov 9-15

A new playlist will be posted each Monday starting October 26. You can vote for one song each week. The top song of each week will be included in the Finals (Nov 16-22). Other songs may be included in the Finals also. The top song will be announced on FQWORSHIP.com on Nov 24.

Your vote could really help open some doors for me as a songwriter. Thank you so much!

Review | Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit | Francis Chan

2009-09-04T12:18:00.001-07:00

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Anyone who’s read my blog for any amount of time knows of my respect for Francis Chan, and you probably know how much I loved his first book Crazy Love. And I – apparently – was not the only one! Crazy Love had a pretty big impact. The book sold 250,000 copies in its first year and has been translated into more than ten languages.

Needless to say, I was pretty excited to get the opportunity to review Chan’s latest book Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit, which was released on Sept. 1.

Let me get this out of the way: it’s exactly what you would expect. The title gives the whole thing away. (That’s not a bad thing!) Chan approaches this book with the same warm and relaxed style with which he wrote Crazy Love. He delivers the same disarmingly subtle profundity.

The reason for Forgotten God? It’s found in the introduction: “While no evangelical would deny His [the Holy Spirit’s] existence, I’m willing to bet there are millions of churchgoers across America who cannot confidently say they have experienced His presence or action in their lives over the past year. And many of them do not believe they can.”

Chan argues convincingly that we have neglected the astounding gift of the Holy Spirit to the point of forgetting him. In the end, he weaves together biblical truths and life stories to show us what remembering the power of the Spirit might look like.

I only wish that characteristic profundity were a little more prevalent. There are definitely moments of truth to chew on in the early chapters, but I felt like Chan was taking an exceptionally long time to get where he was going. Prior to Chapter 7, the most touching, engaging, and thought-provoking parts of the book are really the biographies between chapters.

But it all really does pay off in that last chapter. Chan pulls together all the details to paint a picture for us of a Spirit-filled life. And some readers may actually be disappointed that he doesn’t give a by-the-numbers method for achieving it. He just wants us to ask the hard questions: look at the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23 and “ask yourself if you possess each to a supernatural degree.” Pray that the Holy Spirit would come upon you. Obey His promptings when they come. (How many of us have stifled His power in our lives by ignoring Him?) Stop depending on yourself and follow the Holy Spirit into situations that require you to depend only on Him.

All told, Forgotten God is not quite as powerful as Crazy Love, but it is definitely a worthy – and needed – follow-up. The truths in Forgotten God enable the kind of life Chan calls us to in Crazy Love. It’s the Spirit that, in Chan’s words, “Give[s] us a love strong enough to motivate courageous action.”

View all my reviews >>

Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit by Francis Chan

Worship Online?

2009-07-30T06:24:00.001-07:00

Is it possible to worship online?

It's a question churches have been asking since the World Wide Web began to gain popularity in the 90s, and it's now a question more and more churches are taking seriously - including ours. I'd like to share with you a couple of brief thoughts on the idea.

Worship is often defined as ascribing worth to God. It is the glorification, the magnification of our Creator. Can we do this online? I think the answer is easily, "Yes."

Glorifying God: This is an easy one! Anything you post online can be used to glorify God. Photos, artwork, blogs, music, videos - if they are created at God's leading to bring glory to Him, then that's what they'll do! And of course, putting them online allows for the possibility of other people being able to experience them, which hopefully means that God will get glory from those people as well.

Encouraging community: You can worship God on your own, and it's easy to see how the web could facilitate that. However, the Bible over and over impresses upon us the importance of community. Hebrews 10:25 tells us specifically not to "give up meeting together," and this has been the argument of many against online worship.

So let's get this straight: An online community is not the same as a real-world community. Therefore, an online worship gathering can never take the place of a real-world worship gathering.

Take, for example, a social networking site like Myspace or Facebook. In those virtual places, you can be an idealized version of yourself - or someone else entirely. Even if you choose to be honest about yourself online, your Facebook friends don't physically interact with you on a daily basis. They don't hear how you speak or see your gestures or facial expressions. They don't really experience your family dynamic. They don't experience all the little second-nature (or even first-nature)things you don't post on your profile. They don't really know you.

But people who know you in the real world can really know you if you allow it. And if those people are your online friends, they get to see your silly cell phone self portraits and the pictures of your kids that you post online. They get to read it when you update your status with something you thought was funny or profound. When you the post the video of the kid who got blasted on laughing gas at the dentist's office, they might even watch that. (They're more likely to watch this.) When you forget that Myspace is not private and post a blog about how your life is over because your boyfriend dumped you - with all the associated gory details - they'll see it.

My point is, you can get to know some things about your online friends (if they're honest), and you can get to know a lot more things about your real life friends. If you can have both in one relationship, it simply gives you another level of interaction.

So, what can happen online is the strengthening of existing relationships - and thereby the strengthening of existing communities. We can't give up getting together - that's where real, deep relationship happens - but when you've had a busy week and you only have five minutes to check your e-mail, Twitter, or Facebook, you can have some little idea of what your friends are up to. That keeps the connection open.

I believe we can use this to expand and enhance worship in our churches! We can post our creations, write our thoughts, e-mail a prayer, and others can partake! We can post a worship event on Facebook and invite our friends!

It's a wide open world, so - as a worship leader - I decided to perform an experiment. I created a Facebook group for my worship team and anyone else who wants to join. We're going to work together to discover how God wants to use this incredible tool - the internet - to bring glory to Himself.

How do you think we can use the internet to enhance and expand worship? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Review | From Eternity to Here

2009-07-27T12:08:00.000-07:00

From Eternity to Here: Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God by Frank Viola

My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Frank Viola’s latest book, From Eternity to Here: Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God is not an easy one for me to shove into a loved-it or hated-it slot on the shelf of books I’ve read. I was outraged, inspired, impassioned, incredulous, and challenged by this book.

From Eternity to Here tells of “the ageless purpose of God” in three parts, weaving what the author hopes is a compelling story that – as the subtitle suggests – dates from before time began.

I found two problems early on – one disappointing from an intellectual perspective, one spiritually disturbing.

First, I was a little disappointed to find a rehash of ideas popularized, though not originally conceived, by John Eldredge, an author whose works (Wild at Heart, Epic) have touched my life in pretty profound ways. Viola seems to borrow from Eldredge and others the idea that we are all born into the story that God is telling, though in his mind it’s a romance rather than an epic. To my relief, the book doesn’t take quite the straight line from this point that it appears to be on.

However, much more disturbing is the whole premise of part one – that God’s ultimate passion is His bride. Some reading this review may find nothing wrong with that statement, but based on my reading of Scripture I have to disagree with it. God’s ultimate passion is His glory. Everything that God does or commands serves the ultimate purpose of bringing Him glory.

Move on to part two, and we find that God is homeless and longs for a place to dwell. The God of the universe who is perfect and complete is homeless?

By this point, I just can’t believe the ridiculous statements I’m reading, and I’m finding ludicrous even much more mundane statements. Then, I read the statement that is very nearly the final straw for me – and would have been if I hadn’t promised to review the book! Viola writes that the house God is building or has built, which he has equated at one time or another to both Christ and the church, “becomes indistinguishable from the Builder.” Add to this the statement later that “the church is Christ,” and the most serious error of this book is obvious: Viola is putting God on our level.

The author has a lot of ideas here that I love. He speaks of the church not just as a group of people but – in turns – as a community, a colony, a family, a new species, even a single organism. These ideas are engaging, intelligent, and biblical. He writes, “The body of Christ exists to express God in the earth” and that “the conversion of lost souls is the means toward that end,” not a goal in itself.

One of my favorite statements from this book is this: “…one of the highest revelations you and I will ever receive is to see the church as Christ in corporate human expression.” Beautiful and true! The church is not an institution or a building or an event. It is us, and we are – in a very real way – the body of Christ, His physical expression in the world.

He also writes, “One of the greatest problems in the Christian faith today, I believe, is that Christians are taught to be salt and light in the world as individuals[emphasis mine:],” and, “…the great need of the hour is for Christians to begin learning how to gather together and embody Christ in a shared-life community where they live.”

These statements can be mind-blowing. Viola insists that the pictures of the church as the bride and dwelling place and body of Christ are not just metaphors but concrete truths. He sees and expresses the need for all its members to hold a much higher view of the church.
The problem is definitely not his high view of the church but his low view of God. The church is the body of Christ, but the church is not Christ. We are not to be equated with Him.

Christ embodies us – the church – but we cannot contain His limitless nature.

View all my reviews >>

The following bloggers are posting a review or Q & A with Frank Viola on his bestselling book FROM ETERNITY TO HERE today, Tuesday, July 21st. You may order the book at a discount at www.FromEternitytoHere.org – it’s also on audio book. Free discussion guide, sample chapters, interviews, and a free audio of the first chapter are available on that site also. Here are the bloggers who are participating:

Jay Becker - www.jaybecker.org
Mark D - http://deadmanstravelog.blogspot.com
Igniting Hearts - Kimber Britner - http://www.ignitinghearts.blogspot.com/
Karyn - http://tiger-kar.blogspot.com
Barefoot Preacher - http://thebarefootpreacher.blogspot.com
Every Day Angels - www.WeAreEverydayAngels.com
FaithEngineer - http://www.faithengineer.com
Kristen Schiffman - http://dancinginthemargins.typepad.com/
CrossPointe: The Church at Bevo - http://churchatbevo.blogspot.com/
Crazy Love for God - crazyloveforgod.blogspot.com
Amazima Ministries - oatsvallteam.blogspot.com
Down to Write Honest - http://downwritehonest.com
A Beautiful Mess - http://blnorth1105.blogspot.com/
The Blakes on a Mission - www.theblakesthailand.blogspot.com
Eric Jaffe - http://www.ericjaffe.org
Reconnect with God – www.Reconnectwithgod.org
2nd Cup of Coffee - http://www.2nd-cup-of-coffee.blogspot.com
Nolan Bobbitt Website - www.nolanbobbitt.com
Klappyanne - www.xanga.com/klappyanne
Daveingland - http://www.daveingland.com
Randi Jo Rooks - http://seedsinmyheart.blogspot.com
Ephesians Five – http://ephesiansonefive.blogspot.com
Michael Bayne - http://www.michaelbayne.net
Encounter Church Helena Blog - encounterhelena.org
Thoughts B4 Conviction N2 Action - tsharrison.blogspot.com
Edevotion - http://www.e-devotion.blogspot.com
Seeking After - http://seekingafter.blogspot.com
Eric Powell - www.encounterhelena.org
Borrowed Light - http://fbcnewlondon.blogspot.com

Reading From Eternity to Here by Frank Viola

2009-07-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

I'm part of the blog circuit for Frank Viola's new book From Eternity to Here. My review should have been done a couple days ago, but due to circumstances beyond my control, I haven't finished the book yet. Should have my review up in a couple of days for those who are interested.

Help Me Love Them

2009-06-29T13:12:00.000-07:00

Even though I am not as far along as Paul was in his passionate love for the church, I thank God that there have been key points in my life when God has rescued me from the pit of cynicism. I recall the days when I was finishing college and starting seminary. The mood in the late sixties was inhospitable to the local church. I can remember walking the streets of Pasadena on Sunday mornings in the fall of 1968, wondering if there was any future for the church – like a fish doubting the worth of water or a bird wondering about the reason for wind and air. It was a precious work of grace that God rescued me from that folly and gave me a home with the people of God at Lake Avenue Church for three years and let me see in the heart of Ray Ortlund, my pastor, a man who exuded the spirit of Paul when he looked out on his flock and said, “My joy, my crown of exultation.”

John Piper – Desiring God

Desiring God – the seminal work by pastor, teacher, and author John Piper is – I’m firmly convinced – impossible to read without some heartbreaking conviction. There were many moments of self examination and tears when I finally got around to reading it – something I’d intended to do for years. The most wrenching, though, came when I read that passage. The word “cynicism” jumped off the page, burned itself into my eyes like I’d stared at the sun.

Read my blogs over the last year and a half, and you’ll see my responses to things God has been teaching me over the last several years of serving on church staffs, being in a band, and becoming a father. But you’ll also see a man on the verge of hopeless cynicism.

I’ve been hurt. I’ve been hurt by the people I’ve looked up to – the ones I’ve looked to for compassion and leadership – by the people I’ve tried to serve. By the time I recorded my second CD with the Jud Kossum Band, I’d been through an emotional and spiritual beating, and I was getting angry and morose.

I knew that I couldn’t let myself fall off that brink, though, and I’ve been battling that cynicism ever since. There have been times when the only emotion I could feel when it came to my interactions with church was bitter distrust. I’ve begged friends and pastors for prayer, so that I could feel something meaningful again, learn to trust again, learn to love the church. I’ve said the words “I forgive” again and again, but I always felt like I needed to keep saying them because there was always that one scrap of unforgiveness hanging on for dear life.

That’s why this paragraph hit me so hard. I knew exactly what Piper was saying. I knew exactly where he was coming from. In that moment particularly, my heart ached for that “precious work of grace.” I begged God for it with tears in my eyes. “Show me how to love the church.”

A couple of days later, I read this:

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Ephesians 1:15-23

My heart broke yet again, and those words of Piper’s came flooding back to me. I longed to be truly grateful for my church.

As the tears started to rise again, God reminded me of all the times that I actually have been grateful for the loving family He has blessed me with at Magnolia Creek Baptist Church. I have been grateful for the way they welcomed me and my family. I have marveled at the way they pray and care for each other and genuinely love being together. I’ve been deeply moved by my pastor’s love and acceptance and respect of them and of me. They have their shortcomings – as any church does – but their love of one another is not one of them.

I couldn’t help myself. I began praying along with Paul the words of this epistle. I could not stop giving thanks for my church, and God impressed on me four items of prayer (at least!) that I should keep bringing to Him. I want to share them with you, and I pray that if you’re struggling with bitterness like I am, you would pray for these in your context as well.

Keep thanking God for the church family He has blessed you with. (Eph. 1:16)
Pray that He would open the eyes of the church body – beginning with you – to wisdom and the knowledge of His character. (v. 17)
Pray that your church’s eyes (beginning again with you) would be opened to the hope He gives. (v. 18) We need #2 and #3 in order to forgo the lesser pleasures of this world and seek the greater pleasures of God. That’s what will make our churches what God intends them to be.
Finally, pray that you and your church will know that God’s power is for you. (v. 19) As believers, we have in us the same Holy Spirit, the same power that raised Christ from the dead. (See also Romans 8:11.) Therefore, we have the power to live the life to which we are led by the knowledge of God’s character and the hope He gives.

Review of Francis Chan’s Crazy Love DVD

2009-05-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

Crazy Love is a beautifully filmed and produced small group resource. There’s a warm, friendly, genuine feel to each of the 10 chapters.

Just as he did in the book Crazy Love, Francis Chan talks to the viewer like an old friend who is desperately in love with Jesus and wants the same for you. Each 10-minute chapter is a vignette, a slice of Chan’s day. He talks about what it means to really love Jesus while he makes his breakfast (chapter 1), goes to the grocery store (chapter 3), puts his kids to bed (chapter 10).

While going about the mundane activities of his day, he beckons the viewer to more. Standing in the market, he asks, “…how do you have these supernatural times when you’re doing mundane and boring things?” Then he says, “I want to be standing in a market and think about the blood of Jesus Christ.”

While the specific content is not exactly the same as the book, thematically, the chapters cover the same ground, but the video serves its purpose by turning the book’s more individual purpose to a community-focused purpose. For instance, near the end of Chapter 8, Chan says, “…the truth is, to live out biblical Christianity in the American church, that’s a very difficult thing, and you really need each other for that.”

Each chapter ends with a probing question to be discussed by the group, which is more or less standard. Like the book, however, the questions Chan asks feel disarmingly simple but dig deeper than some viewers may be used to.

The subject matter is strong, but the strength of this small group resource in delivering that subject matter is its warmth – generated not just by the NOOMA-esque settings and quality of the video, but the authenticity of Chan’s style – which draws the viewer in and – in my opinion – makes the viewer think a little harder about these subjects than another approach might have.

I’d recommend this video resource to any small group leader.

On Twitter

2009-05-16T09:19:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let my readers know I'm on Twitter now. Here it is.

Confession for a Change

2009-03-18T18:01:00.000-07:00

Proverbs 28:13 (New American Standard Bible)
13 He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper,
But he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.

Sin thrives in the darkness.

And yet, when we sin, the first thing we do is shove that nasty little sin into the back of the closet, turn off the lights, quietly close the door, and hope no one noticed what we were doing. We’re afraid of being found out. If anyone knew what we’d done, we’d be ostracized.

I wish I could say that wasn’t true. There are some sins the revelation of which probably would get you ostracized, but that’s not the way it should be.

I’ve written before about the bent of people in the church – everyone really – to hide their indiscretions, to wear masks. And I’ve written about the need to be real, but this is different. This isn’t about what hiding our sins does to the church as a whole. It’s about what it does to us as individuals and our relationships with God and others.

I confess to you that I have sinned. (Whoa, seriously?!) In fact, I may be sinning right now. You don’t know!

I confess to you that I have hidden my sins, and when I did, here’s what happened. I became a slave to them. You see, there’s a lot of talk in the Bible about darkness/evil/sin and light/goodness/righteousness. I think that’s more than just a visual way to think about the difference between God and Satan or sin and righteousness. I think it tells us something about the nature of these concepts.

Let’s talk about darkness. You can’t see in it. Therefore, things can be hidden in it. It’s really easy to get lost in the darkness. It is – by definition – devoid of light.

Now, how about light? When a room is lit up, you can see everything. It’s impossible to hide in an open, sunny, expanse. You can generally – given the absence of other obstacles – see right where you’re going in the light. Light drives away the darkness.

Let’s compare sin and darkness. Attachment to sin can “blind” you to what you should do. Or, if you like, it can cause you to “lose your way.” (Take a look at Romans 1:18-31 to see how sin takes root and leads to more sin.) We all have a tendency to hide our sin. Sin is the exact opposite of righteousness – there is nothing good in it.

Hence, my opening statement: Sin thrives in the darkness. It grows and breeds and takes over. But once the light shines on it…

This is confession. Shining the light on our sin.

It requires humility to truly confess your sins. Therefore, a true confession requires not just speaking them aloud, but forsaking them, i.e. repentance. It is in this repentance that we find compassion. God shows compassion to those who confess and forsake their sins. What does this mean?

Remember how God hardened the hearts of those people in Romans 1? They became, as Paul later writes, “slaves to sin.” (Romans 6) I believe that sin’s power over us is found in the darkness, and when we shine the light on it by confessing, its power is broken. We are then free to become “slaves to righteousness.”

So, to whom do we confess? To God, of course. He has the power to forgive us and deliver us from our sins, but let’s be honest. We confess sins to God, but it’s still really easy to hide them.

I believe God calls us to confess our sins to our fellow believers. (See James 5:16.) This means we must trust one another, and that’s a near impossible thing to do when you can’t tell if the face someone is showing you is real. But we must trust one another.

So, confession is a powerful instrument of God in freeing us from bondage to sin. But there is an even greater impact.

I sincerely believe that if you find one fellow Christ-follower that you think you can trust and confess your sins to that person, this can be the beginning of change in the church. Masks will fall away. True faces will be revealed. People will be humbled before God, and they will see him do amazing things (2 Chronicles 7:14).

I’ll close with these words spoken by Alistair Begg during an exposition of Hebrews 3:13: “God has determined that it is in our relationships with one another that we are strengthened and equipped.”

My Thoughts on the Presidency (and the President)

2009-01-20T11:55:00.000-08:00

I think we’re all aware that today is a great day in the history of the United States. Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican – or neither – you know today is big.

Today our first African-American President was inaugurated. It’s a day to be proud of our nation. The dream of racial equality is coming true. It’s also a day that I find myself a little sad – and more than a little embarrassed – about the state of civil rights in America. What took us so long?

Like millions of Americans, I am ready for change, and President Obama speaks of change my heart longs to see – a change in the way the politics of our government work. (For the sake of full disclosure, let me say that I did not vote for Obama.) A change in the petty arguments, the partisan divisions.

His words are beautiful and paint a portrait of an America I think most of us would love to see – one defined not by consumerism and narcissism, but by generosity and kindness.

But I’m not sure that government-enforced wealth sharing is really the way to go.

And the fact that Obama’s record is extremely pro-choice is terrifying to me.

My prayer is that God will grant him the wisdom to lead our nation and the humility to serve our nation. My hope is that he will be just as great a president as some think he will be.

Jud's a Loser

2009-01-16T07:03:00.000-08:00

Today is going to be another short entry because it serves simply as an invitation. I've begun a journey to better health and less of me. Literally. And I want you to be part of it.

I'm on my way to being 80 pounds lighter, and I've started a new blog to chronicle the journey called "Jud's a Loser." The first entry will be there today, Jan. 16, 2009, describing the beginnings.

My hope is that you will help keep me accountable, and that those of you who are also struggling with your weight will find some encouragement.

Click on the link above and join me in the journey.

(For those of you wondering when I'm going to do another "real" blog entry here at Words, not to worry! I'm planning a new full entry on Monday, Jan. 19, which - in addition to being Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - is the first anniversary of this blog!)

Snowing in Houston!

2008-12-10T18:46:00.001-08:00

So, it's pretty amazing. It is actually snowing in Houston. I don't really have much to say about it except it's the COOLEST THING EVER! And I posted some photos on Photobucket. Click the pic above to see more.

Review of Francis Chan's Crazy Love

2008-11-13T12:31:00.000-08:00

Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
First of all, I am a HUGE fan of Francis Chan. If you haven’t heard his message from Passion 07, go download it on iTunes now!

Crazy Love is disarming in its charm and conversational tone – so much so that at times you may find yourself wishing for more meat only to realize you’re still chewing on the last chapter. Chan writes the way he speaks – like he’s just telling you what he thinks. He puts on no intellectual airs, though the issues he addresses go deeper than the great majority of Christian books today.

Chan loves God’s Word. He loves Jesus, and that completely comes across in this book. He is speaking in Crazy Love from the same place in which many Christians today find themselves – the place where we have realized that all is not right with the bride of Christ.

He calls us on to the radical life in the voice of a loving, laid-back dad.

View all my reviews.

A Day at Hyde Park

2008-10-28T07:46:00.001-07:00

We arrive at Hyde Park Studio at 10 a.m. on Oct. 27, 2008.

Rod Drake (my bass player) and I spend the first half hour or so helping Ryan Booth (the engineer) and Joe Green (my drummer) set up the drums and all the equipment. If you don’t know, recording drums is the most tedious part of the process. It’s like recording eight instruments at once! Every one has to be checked, and all the levels have to be right before you can lay down the first track.

So we do that.

Then I lay down a scratch track – a quick run-through of the song with vocals and acoustic guitar so everyone has a point of reference. (You can’t just set a drummer loose to play. They’re crazy! Just kidding.)

So for the next three hours, while Joe does an AMAZING job on the drums, Rod and I sit around. This is the majority of time in the studio – sitting around. Then you get to listen to the same drum track over and over while the engineer edits three takes into one seamless performance.

Joe goes to bring back lunch for everyone. Since the bass is plugged directly into the system, there is nothing to be miked, so Rod just sits down in the control room with all of us and begins recording the bass line. This goes really quickly.

We make a few changes as we go, which often happens in the studio. Once you start to hear it all together in that context, you begin to have ideas you never considered before. Of course, when you’re limited to one day of recording, you can’t spend too much time on those crazy ideas.

We eat lunch, and Rod finishes the bass track. He does an amazing job, but it still doesn’t sound like a song yet.

Then, we all tear down the drums and unplug all but two microphones. Ryan mikes up my acoustic guitar, and we pretty much breeze through that in just a couple of takes. We sit around for a little more editing and listen to it about a hundred times. It’s starting to sound a little like a song at this point.

Next, I set up my Stratocaster and effects pedals in the control room while Ryan runs a cable through the wall and connects me to a Vox AC30 in the other room and mikes it. Again, the electric guitar parts go quickly.

Then we plug the keyboard directly to the system and I run through some keyboard stuff in a couple of takes.

Then, I go into the vocal booth and do three takes of lead vocals.

All this while, Joe and Rod are sitting around. (Oh, the fun!!!) After each instrument, we listen about 4,000 times to little bits and pieces or the whole thing.

Now, it sounds like a song.

Then, Rod goes into the vocal booth to do harmony, which goes really quickly because Rod is a great singer and he only has to do harmony on a few lines.

Then, we pack up equipment and carry it downstairs while Ryan sets up more mikes for the final task of the day.

Joe, Rod, and I team up for “gang vocals” or, as Ryan calls them, “group vocals.” (I like my name better.) You know, in a song, when it sounds like a whole bunch of people are yelling the vocal line? Those are gang vocals. Love ‘em!

This was an idea I’d had for the chorus. I thought, “It will really give the chorus some energy.” The more I thought about it, the more doubts I had that it would actually work. But we decide to give it a shot, and it sounds flippin’ sweet!

So, we head back into the control room and listen about 400 more times while Ryan edits and tweaks. The song sounds freakin’ amazing!

We’re done for the day at 8 p.m., so we pack up and head home. All of it takes about 10 hours. And it is AWESOME.

Writing a Theme Song (lyrics included)

2008-10-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

Well, we’re slated to hit Hyde Park Studios in Houston, Monday morning, Oct. 27, at 10.

It’s been quite the roller coaster ride getting us to this point. A good friend who was going to play lead guitar had to back out pretty early on, but God provided an amazing replacement (Ryan Truso, former guitarist for Jeremy Camp, who will also be mixing the project.) We had an engineer lined up who then disappeared off the face of the earth. That was fun!

But it’s all ironed out now. Ryan Booth at Hyde Park will be laying the tracks down for us.

Oh, and by the way, “us” is me on guitars and vocals, my new friend Joe Green on drums (a very talented percussionist), and my old friend Rod Drake on bass (and maybe keys). Those of you who’ve known me since the Standing Still days will remember Rod as Standing Still’s bass player.

I said in my last blog that I’d write about the challenges of writing a “theme song,” which is essentially what I had to do with “You and I.” When my friend the missionary wrote me and asked me to do this, I was excited about it from the first moment. As a more or less unknown songwriter, you don’t get a lot of requests for songs, so I was really looking forward to the challenge.

It has always seemed to me that if you approach a theme song just as a theme song, it’s doomed to mediocrity. You have a specific message that may or may not be readily relatable to every listener, and when you write pop or rock songs, you want to write songs that people relate to. Think of just about any movie theme song that has the same name as the movie. “Ghostbusters,” any of the James Bond movies. Those songs are generally not very good. (I’ll be the first to admit that I LOVED the Ghostbusters song when I was a kid. But I was a kid! Who you gonna call?!) There are, as always, exceptions, like Carly Simon’s “Nobody Does it Better” from The Spy Who Loved Me or Madonna’s “Die Another Day.” But for every “Live and Let Die,” (How could that title NOT work in a rock song?!) there are at least 12 of “Another Way to Die” (by Jack White and Alicia Keys from the new Bond movie Quantum of Solace. I’m sorry. It’s awful.)

So, I approached it a little differently – although I’m sure that I’m not the first songwriter to do so. I tried as much as I could to internalize the details of the theme “Engage Russia,” which is the name of the new project the video production I’m writing for is highlighting. I watched videos of the same kind highlighting other missions projects.

Then I thought about it all. A lot. I looked for aspects of the theme that really hit home with me. I thought this idea of walking in someone else’s shoes, of stepping into and living someone else’s life in order to better love them for the cause of Christ – this is something that touches my heart and will touch the hearts of a lot of people.

So, that was really the big challenge. Rather than just try to write a song around theme, I need to find the aspect of it all that would make a good song.

And I think I did. And you can judge for yourselves – at least on the lyrics. Let me know what you think!

You and I
by Jud Kossum
9/30/2008

Verse 1
We’re separated, you and I
By countless words and ways
Unrelated, you and I
Our paths will cross today
I’ve decided just to try
To live life where you do
We’ll be the start of something new

Chorus
I want to stand where you stand
To engage, to see the change
I want to reach out my hand
In Jesus’ name

Verse 2
We are so far, you and I
On two sides of the earth
But here we are, you and I
In a common place of birth
I will walk by your side
Because your pain is just like mine
Let’s walk together, you and I

(repeat chorus)

Chorus 2
I want to stand where you stand
To engage, to be the change
I want to reach out my hand
In Jesus’ name

Bridge
Though we walk down different streets
We live through the same days
Though our hands may never meet
Our hearts are just the same
And I want to love you
Just like Jesus loves you

(repeat chorus 1 & 2)

Learning to Let Go

2008-10-07T07:29:00.000-07:00

For a while now, I have sensed that God is calling me to let go of music. Not to totally give it up – I am, after all, a worship leader – but to lay down my aspirations of having a band and being on stage outside of my responsibilities at my church.

So, not long after finalizing a new lineup for my band, I made the decision to put it on indefinite hiatus. There may be some of you reading this who are upset by that. I imagine there are many more people out there that are pretty much indifferent. Of course, if you’re indifferent about that, you’re probably not reading this!

God just wanted me to relinquish control. Often in leading a band, I operated from a place of fear. Not in the creation and performance of music or in leading worship, but on the business end of things. Especially with booking, I got really hung up on making phone calls, trying to convince people to hire us. It got to the point where I didn’t actually have time for the music! Of course, that’s always a danger when you’re a professional musician. That’s why people get booking agents and managers.

But God has other things He wants me to focus on. I have a wonderful church I’m serving as Interim Worship Leader. I have an amazing wife and daughter. God has been calling me to lay down music for a long time. In fact, I’ve felt that call since before I formed the Jud Kossum Band back in Florida.

But somehow I know that music will always be a big part of my life. I love to write and to record. Somehow, I think God’s still going to give me the opportunity to do those things.

In fact, He’s given me at least one opportunity already. I made the decision to lay down my music career last Monday. On Tuesday, a friend from back in Florida who is now a missionary in Moscow, Russia, sent me an e-mail. He asked me to write and record a song to be used in a video they are producing to highlight a new project called “Engage Russia.”

From the moment I first read the e-mail, I have been excited about this project and felt God’s hand on it and sensed that He was saying, “Run with this, Jud!” I wrote feverishly for two solid days and – with the help of a couple of very patient editors – came up with some lyrics that fit the theme and really resonated with me as a writer and believer. (I’m going to blog later about the challenges of writing a theme song!) Now, I’m getting together with some of my old songwriting partners to complete the music.

And God worked even beyond the initial opportunity! I’ve received offers from recording and mixing engineers to use their services for free. I’ve gotten great deals from mastering studios. God has worked it out so that this project will be of the highest quality at very little cost. I am just incredibly excited about that!

He wanted me to let go, and He took control.

It seems like this is how it always goes with us hard-headed people. We want to have control. We’re afraid not to. But when we let go, more often than not, God takes it and makes it exactly what we needed, and sometimes exactly what we wanted.

C'mon, Get Alienated!

2008-08-21T14:12:00.000-07:00

Jesus demands a reaction. When people encounter Him, whether during His physical ministry or today, we can’t face Him without some sort of response.

In Matthew 8, just after Jesus heals two demon-possessed men and sends the demons into a herd of pigs, which then run into the water and drown (v. 28-33), we see this interesting reaction:

Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region. (v. 34)

Inevitably, as so many passages of Scripture do these days, this verse draws my thoughts to today’s American Church. I just can’t help it! Almost daily, I see how different the Jesus of the Bible – and even the Jesus we preach – is from the Jesus we live.

When was the last time your church purposefully did something that they knew had the potential to drive people away? In my experience, most churches will do everything in their power to steer clear of such a situation, but we see over and over in Scripture that this is not how Jesus operates. He never avoids anything that might drive people away.

Now, it is true that He often found Himself in situations where people clamored for Him. In fact, He sometimes had to sneak away in the early morning hours to spend time alone with His Father because so many people were seeking His attention, but we see plenty of stories like the one in Matthew 8.

Jesus drove the demons into a herd of pigs. Maybe the pigs were important to the town’s economy. Maybe Jesus' antics scared the townspeople. I don’t know. But I’m confident that Jesus knew He was going to drive people away with this stunt.

I’ve blogged on this before, but Jesus spoke in parables so people would not understand. (Matt. 13:13)

Rather than fight a revolution and rip the nation of Israel from the imperious claws of the Romans, Jesus died a criminal’s death for our sins. Not exactly the way to draw people in, is it?

The truth alienates people.

Jesus said, “…the truth will set you free,” (John 8:32), but He also said that people would hate us for following the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He also said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matt. 7:13-14)

My sincere hope is that we’ll stop focusing on what will draw people in, and start focusing on the Truth – Jesus.

Update on Chapman Family

2008-08-07T06:36:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't seen this, Steven Curtis Chapman wrote a great article for CNN.com following the tragic loss of his daughter Maria. Also, SCC will be on Larry King Live tonight (Thursday Aug. 7) at 9 ET/8 CT.

Review of Shane Claiborne's The Irresistible Revolution

2008-07-24T08:27:00.000-07:00

The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical by Shane Claiborne

My review

The Irresistible Revolution is a book written from a place of love by someone who has put his love into action, and as such, I would recommend it to anyone who can read around its sometimes glaring flaws to find the challenging truths that make up the bulk of the book.

Claiborne writes with humor, kindness, and humility. He challenges the status quo of American Christianity, calling us to love the poor. He shines light on and brings into question beliefs and practices of both conservative and liberal Christians. Above all, he challenges all of us to know the poor. He writes, "I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor." How else can we truly love them? Claiborne goes on to say, “I truly believe that when the poor meet the rich, riches will have no meaning. And when the rich meet the poor, we will see poverty come to an end.”

He calls us from the isolation and – ironically – crowd-focused mentality of the church we have built in America to an all-encompassing love.

The problems come when Claiborne misuses Scripture to make valid points. For example, in Chapter 12, he makes reference to 2 Samuel 7, in which David decides to build a temple for God – a “permanent residence,” so to speak – but God tells David that he is not the man to build a temple. Claiborne uses this passage to validate his point that God doesn’t want us constructing multimillion-dollar church buildings. “God just digs camping,” he writes, seeming to completely ignore the next part of the passage, in which God says that David’s son will build Him a temple (v. 12-13).

The point is valid and he could have simply relied on Acts 17:24 (God does not live in “temples built by hands”) – a verse he references in the same paragraph – to make it, not to mention the time he spends prior to this talking about the church’s misguided endeavors to draw crowds, from which the desire to build these “temples” grows.

These instances of scriptural manhandling are not numerous, but they stick out like the Crystal Cathedral and will probably lead many readers to completely dismiss Claiborne.

The end product, though, is a challenging, convicting work that needs to be read. Christians should read this book for Claiborne’s heart, even if his head is not always in the right place.

View all my reviews.

Don't Let Me Forget

2008-07-02T08:27:00.001-07:00

This morning, as I spent time with God, I felt a heaviness. So many things are wonderful at this point in my life: my family, my church, my job. But there are a few things – one major thing, in fact (the home in Florida that we can’t seem to sell) – that are weighing on me.

I am a person with an often volatile personality. I’m prone to periods of depression and doubt, and just as prone to get hyped about the dumbest things from time to time. (No, I’m not bipolar!) Yesterday and into this morning, I was in one of the down periods. My wife and I are trying to make some decisions about the future, trying to work some things out regarding the house. These impending decisions – and the situations that created them – were bringing that heaviness that I felt. And they were bringing doubt – doubt about God and His grace, about my personal struggle to grasp holiness.

So, I had some waffles and sugar free syrup (regular syrup is just too sweet for me!) and a cup of coffee, and I bowed my head. I just told God, “I’m doubting You right now, but I don’t want to doubt You. I want to trust You. Help me trust You.”

I cracked open my Bible, and – among other things – I read Colossians 1:15-22:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation…

He reminded me who He is. Jesus, the one with authority over all creation. Jesus, creator of all things. Jesus, who holds all things together. Jesus, the Risen One. Jesus, the fullness of God in flesh. Jesus, who – through His blood – reconciled me to God.

God commissioned His Son, Jesus, to become a man and give His body for us. Why? So that God could “present [us] holy in His sight.” We need to be holy, and God wants us to be holy.

When I’m reminded of this, I can only worship!

Don’t let me forget, God. Don’t let me forget who You are, what You have done, what You continue to do.

Don’t let me forget!

Love the Word

2008-06-12T06:20:00.000-07:00

Your word, O LORD, is eternal;
it stands firm in the heavens.
Psalm 119:89

His Word was before the beginning.

His Word is without end.

It will always be, and it will always be true.

There is nothing you or I can do to change it. Society’s mores change with culture, and we – even we, followers of and believers in Christ that we are – begin to judge right and wrong by the fluctuating opinions of the fluid culture around us rather than the rock of God’s eternal Word.

I the LORD do not change.
Malachi 3:6

He never changes. Why, then, do we, His followers, condone an unmarried couple’s living together? Why do we say that only love matters, not the gender of the lovers? Why do we divorce at a higher rate than the rest of Americans? Why do we end the lives of our unborn children? Why do we, children of God, lack compassion for the poor? Why are we so ready to go to war – personally, religiously, politically?

We treat God’s Word with irreverence. We do not believe that it is eternal. We do not believe that He never changes, or, if we do, we believe that someone must have made a mistake or inserted his own opinions into His “word.”

We must return to a place where God’s Word is revered as the greatest revelation of Him in our possession. It is not a document prepared by men to coerce their agenda on others, but a revelation of God’s holiness, justice, love, grace, and mercy given to the human race.

Because I love your commands
more than gold, more than pure gold,
and because I consider all your precepts right,
I hate every wrong path.
Psalm 119: 127-128

I’d like to challenge you to pray through Psalm 119. This Psalm is an acrostic poem (each section correlates to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet) with 22 sections. Take one section a day. Read a verse, then pray that verse to God in your own words. If you do this from your heart, I believe you will begin to love God’s Word more than you ever have. (I can say this because I have done it, and through, God has done exactly this.)

Let us recapture a love for God’s Word.

Steven Curtis Chapman's Daughter

2008-05-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven’t heard the news, Christian artist Steven Curtis Chapman’s youngest daughter Maria Sue was killed yesterday. She was hit in the family’s driveway by an SUV driven by her brother.

Maria was the youngest of six children. (Steven and his wife Mary Beth have three biological children and three they adopted from China. Maria Sue was adopted.)

On a special “In Memory of Maria” page on Steven’s personal blog, his manager, Jim Houser, writes, “Your prayers are needed for all in the Chapman family. This is a family who has so generously loved and given to so many. Just hours before this close knit family was celebrating the engagement of the oldest daughter Emily Chapman, and were just hours away from a graduation party marking Caleb Chapman's completion of high school. Now, they are preparing to bury a child who blew out 5 candles on a birthday cake less than 10 days ago. These words are unthinkable to type.”

Steven Curtis Chapman has been a huge influence on me as a musician and worship leader. His music has helped me through some of the most difficult periods of my life. I know that I don’t really know him, but he feels like an old friend.

My heart breaks for him and his family. Having a young daughter myself, I can only imagine the shock, the pain that you just can’t push away. The deep sorrow. As a father, the one thing I refuse to EVER think about is my daughter’s death. But in my darker moments, the thought does seep in, and it’s more frightening than I can explain.

Some friends of mine recently lost their teenage daughter – a young lady who had briefly been a part of my youth ministry in Florida. I saw all of this in their faces, their tears.

I think it’s safe to say that Steven, Mary Beth, and their children are living in a nightmare world right now.

I cannot even begin to imagine what their son is going through. How do you learn to live with something like that? How do you learn to forgive yourself?

My hope and prayer for this family is that they love each other through this, that they can forgive and somehow find God’s blessing in these appalling circumstances.

If you would like to express your condolences to the family, you can do so here. (Click on the comments link.)

God Uses the Weak

2008-05-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

God has been teaching me so many things over the last four years about how He really works. So many people – from everyday church members to pastors – believe the line that “God helps those who help themselves.”

Church leaders struggle for the next great method of church growth, the perfect model upon which to build their church. They say things like, “People who say numbers don’t matter don’t have numbers.” They are always working to create the next big event, and unless more people show up for this than for the last, the event is a failure. In difficult times, they believe they must hide their weaknesses at all costs. In a building campaign and the money isn’t flowing in as expected? They absolutely CANNOT let their people know they’re concerned about it. Smile, proclaim God’s blessing, and talk it up.

And many believers live their lives the same way.

But the Bible teaches exactly the opposite. I believe the Bible teaches that we are to embrace our weaknesses! Let me give you three examples.

Jacob and Esau

Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, pregnant with twin boys, feels them jostling one another in the womb. She begs God to tell her why. (It’s unclear whether she believes them to be fighting or they are just causing her uncommon discomfort – as if the plain old discomfort of pregnancy weren’t enough!)

The LORD said to her,
"Two nations are in your womb,
and two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger." – Genesis 25:23

Though they were twins, Esau was born before Jacob. That made Esau the oldest and, therefore, Isaac’s rightful heir. Jacob was destined to always be second to his older brother. But here God promises Rebekah that, somehow, Jacob would become the more powerful of the twins. We know that, through lack of faith and deceit, Rebekah helps her younger son secure Esau’s birthright, making Jacob Isaac’s heir instead. I can’t help but believe that God would have worked it out without their help!

In every way, Esau was just expected to be the greater of the twins. He was Isaac’s firstborn. He was a manly man – a hairy-armed, carnivorous hunter. Jacob – by all appearances – was a mama’s boy. But God turned expectation on its ear. He was going to make the weak brother strong.

So Esau fathered the Edomites, and Jacob – whose name God later changed to Israel – gave birth to God’s chosen people and, eventually, the Messiah.

Jesus

For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God's power we will live with him to serve you. – 2 Corinthians 13:4

Jesus taught with words, but He taught even deeper lessons by His example. He stepped into the dirty sandals of a desert-dwelling Jew, a manual laborer, a Roman subject with no rights to speak of. He is the Prince of the Universe, and He gave it all up. Not to lead a political revolution. Not to win people with beautiful words. Not even to teach us what was right (though He did).

He possessed all power, all authority in heaven and on earth, and He gave it up to die. For us. He never fought back. He willingly stepped into the arms of death for us. The ultimate act of submission. He completely relinquished His strength, and “He was crucified in weakness.”

That is how Jesus loves people. “…the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28)

In the ultimate act of weakness, Jesus made salvation available to all the world. What does that tell you about how God works?

Paul

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. – 2 Corinthians 12:7-10

I saved Paul for last because he has the most to say on the subject. Plus, I love this passage. Part of my calling is to share with the church what God teaches through Paul’s words here.

We can accomplish big things all on our own. Bet you didn’t know that! But we can’t accomplish exactly what God wants to accomplish.

We are all weak and broken. Paul is telling us that God wants us to know this, admit it, and let Him do His thing! Embrace your weakness because when you realize you can’t do anything and God works through you, all the glory is His. And that’s what He wants. That’s why He made you.

Think about it.

In order to be saved, the first thing we have to do is realize we’re sinners, right? (I’m not trying to start an argument about the validity of the so-called “Sinner’s Prayer.” In fact, I’m not even talking about that.) Before we can accept the gift of salvation, we have to know we need it. The evidence that we need it is our sin. So, we have to recognize that we sin in order to accept this gift.

We have to admit weakness right off the bat!

So, why do we stop admitting weakness? Why do we pretend we have it all together when we go to church on Sunday? Are we afraid that everyone else will judge us? Maybe they will, but they don’t have it all together either. We have to start admitting weakness again so we can become the church again.

Think about this: despite the rise of megachurches, no county in the United States that we know of has a larger church population than it did 10 years ago. (Thanks to John Piper.) That means that despite all our attempts to bring people in, we’ve just been swapping folks between churches for the last decade! And in fact, people in their twenties are leaving the church in droves. They’re looking for something real.

So let’s start being real. Admit our weaknesses. Admit to real life. Become the real church again.

I believe this is the key to seeing God move in a way we haven’t in years. If we start being real – admitting our weaknesses – then God’s power will be made perfect in our churches. He will do absolutely mind-blowing things. He will revive us, and Americans will be won to the Kingdom again.

When we are strong, we get whatever we get. But when we are weak, then He is strong.

Called to Suffer

2008-04-07T15:21:00.000-07:00

Within the last couple of years, I’ve come to realize something that has eluded me somehow for my entire Christian life. For more than 15 years, I did not realize that, as a follower of Christ, I’m called to suffer.

It’s expected of me.

God never says, “I want you to suffer.” I believe our suffering pains Him, just as the suffering of Jesus did. But this truth is implied throughout the New Testament. Followers of Christ will suffer.

A couple of examples:

Luke 9:23 - Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (This verse is about sacrificing ourselves more than suffering, but suffering is implicit in the act of taking up a cross and walking to our deaths.)

Romans 8:17 - Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Paul’s entire ministry is marked by imprisonment, sacrifice, danger, and suffering – as he points out here.)

There are many more, but these were two of easiest to use in this context.

We are expected to suffer for the cause of Christ. Scripture assumes that – when we live as followers of Christ ought to live (i.e. as Christ lived) - we will not be comfortable. When you accept Christ, you accept suffering.

What does this mean for American Christians? Let’s face it. We don’t suffer for the cause of Christ in America. We are not persecuted. We are not in danger because of our faith (yet). In fact, as I have mentioned in this blog before, security (financial and physical) is arguably the primary goal in the life of the American Christian (just as it is in the life of American non-Christians), and it is an achievable goal. At least our idea of security is. Does this mean we’re missing something integral to the experience of being a child of God?

Yes, I believe we are, myself included.

So, what do we do about this? Move to a foreign nation where Christians are hated and persecuted and killed? This may be God’s call for some of us, but true followers of Christ are needed in this nation just as much – if not more – than they are needed in nations where the Church is forced underground. There is vibrancy, a depth in these churches that is sadly absent in most American churches. As some have observed, we’re a mile wide and an inch deep.

I believe a good first step is to find a way to share in the sufferings of those who suffer for the cause of Christ.

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'”

Matthew 25: 34-40

I believe we are correct in referring to anyone in need as one of “the least of these.” However, I think an even more correct (if that’s possible!) application is to apply this to our brothers and sisters in Christ, since the King in the parable does so (v. 40).

My personal not-quite-complete application: Help your fellow Christ-followers who are sick, hungry, thirsty, lonely, hurting, or imprisoned for the cause of Christ. Give money, food, drink to the poor. Help out a struggling church at home or abroad. Go to the Voice of the Martyrs Web site and check out some videos and stories about the persecution our siblings are suffering at the hands of those who hate Jesus. Invest your time, your money, and your heart in them. If you can’t think of an organization to support, investigate some of the ones I’ve linked to.

Above all, don’t just read stories or watch videos about someone’s suffering. Do something.

They are sharing in the sufferings of Christ. In this way, so can we.

We Have Forgotten God

2008-03-06T11:56:00.001-08:00

I recently read Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s classic novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. It honestly wasn’t an enjoyable read (then again, I don’t think it was supposed to be), but Solzhenitsyn is considered such a great thinker, I had to give it a shot.

He paints a pretty convincing portrait of the bleak life of a prisoner in a 1950s-era Siberian work camp in the Soviet Union. It’s freezing cold. The food they’re offered is unappetizing, to say the least. The most striking aspect of the novel, though, is Ivan’s attitude. More than once, he says something like, “This is the good life!” when he gets an extra hunk of bread or bowl of mush. And he takes pride in his work, even though he will get absolutely no benefit from it – just more mistreatment from the guards.

But the thing that hit home with me the most was a passage near the end of the book in which Ivan is speaking with a character called Alyoshka the Baptist. Here’s an excerpt:

"The thing is, you can pray as much as you like but they won't take anything off your sentence and you'll just have to sit it out, every day of it, from reveille to lights out."

"You mustn't pray for that.” Alyoshka was horrorstruck. “What d'you want your freedom for? What faith you have left will be choked in thorns. Rejoice that you are in prison. Here you can think of your soul. Paul the Apostle said: 'What mean you to weep and to break my heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Ivan is without hope. He’s in prison for no good reason, and he doesn’t understand Alyoshka’s perspective. Ivan’s world was full of cruelty, self-preservation, and grief.

The cruelty of that society was summed up by Solzhenitsyn himself in a speech when he said, “We have forgotten God. That is why all this has happened.” The Soviet government had forgotten God. Therefore its only purpose was to create an order that served the nation’s power-mongering leaders. Since they only cared about themselves, their government could be as cruel, suspicious, and tyrannical as they wanted it to be.

Subsequently, the people of the Soviet Union forgot God and lost hope. That’s what we see here in the passage. Alyoshka hoped in the Lord. He knew there must be a purpose to his imprisonment even if he didn’t know what it was. He knew that Christ holds everything together, that all things work for good for those who love Him. If God wanted him to be imprisoned or even die, he was joyfully ready (hence his quotation of Acts 21:13). Ivan didn’t have this hope.

While we don’t see this level of cruelty and paranoia in the US, we can still see the effects of the same attitude. In its subtlest form it has invaded the church. The very thought of going to prison for the cause of Christ is foreign to us. True, that doesn’t happen in America, but think about this. If we attempt to do something for God and it ends badly, most commonly, we think, “It’s hard. God must not want me to do it.” So many of us believe God’s greatest goal for us is financial security. We avoid suffering at all costs. We don’t go to places like Haiti because the political environment is too volatile. It would be dangerous for us. And when someone decides to go to a dangerous place for the cause of Christ, we often criticize them.

We have no hope, no reason to risk, no thought that suffering could be the right thing to do. Why?

America has not become like the USSR, but it’s coming. Attitudes in this country have already shifted against Christ. And while we fight to change those attitudes (and I believe we should), our church is slipping further away from His teaching, and our nation is becoming less and less tolerant of us. (I believe those two are interconnected, by the way. See “Hated and Highly Regarded.”)

But maybe that’s what God wants. Look at places in our world where the church is persecuted. It is growing. The people are serious about Christ – in many instances serious to the point of their own death. This attitude is alien to American Christians. We are like Ivan – looking for an extra bowl of mush when the glory of God’s kingdom is waiting for us if we’ll only hope in Him and take a chance. So what if they put us in prison? So what if they kill us? They cannot kill the soul.

But instead, in this nation where we are more or less accepted, we have become content, complacent even. Possibly complicit in our own downfall.

Why are we this way? Because we have no hope. Because we have forgotten God.

Hated and Highly Regarded

2008-02-17T07:15:00.000-08:00

Nestled in amidst the passion, boldness, love, persecution – the absolute beauty – of the early Church, we find in Acts 5:13 the words, “they were highly regarded by the people.” It’s true that Jesus said, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26) So, what’s the catch?

This passage in Acts is interesting because we see a dichotomy – not in the behavior of the Church, but in outsiders’ perceptions of it. A verse earlier, we read that the people saw miracles performed by the apostles. We also see the early Christ followers gathering in Solomon’s Colonnade – that’s part of the temple, the seat of Jewish worship. The Jews – all the people – saw them together in fellowship and worship in this very public place.

We can probably infer as well that the people saw how the members of the early Church lived on a daily basis – that they refrained from sin, that they treated people with respect, that they spoke with boldness about the One who made them different – Christ.

I believe this is why the people held them in high regard. Outsiders daily saw these Christians not just living by the rules, but they saw Christ living through His Church. It was evidenced by authentic worship, charity, love for each other. They saw there was something special.

But verse 13 also reads, “No one else dared join them” in the colonnade. Nobody wanted to be seen with them. Despite the fact that these followers of the Way healed people, showed kindness to one another, lived pure lives, nobody wanted to be too closely associated with them.

Which is to be expected. And yet, in Acts 4:14, “more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number.”

They lived as they should, shared grace and love with one another, lived by the Word of God. They scared people, made outsiders want to avoid them, yet this Church was highly regarded, and its growth was unrestrainable.

I’m reminded of a message by Francis Chan in which he referenced the Parable of the Sower (Matt. 13:1-9). Jesus sat by the lake. Large crowds gathered. He told them this parable that, in all likelihood, made no sense to them. His disciple had to come ask Him what He was talking about! When the disciples asked Jesus why He spoke to the people in parables, He responded, “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.” (Matt. 13:13)

He taught in parables so they would not understand. Only the ones who cared enough to chase Him down and ask for the answers would understand.

Francis Chan said, “If Jesus had a church…, His church would be smaller than mine.” Why? Because we try to teach so everyone can understand. We shy away from teachings that may be hard to understand or that step on toes. We try to draw people in with events and programs. But Jesus taught so that people would not understand unless they sought Him out! And that comes through an act of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus didn’t obsess over the next great method for getting people to listen to Him. He drove them away!

So why are we so obsessed with reaching the most people possible? Because that’s the way our world works. The measure of success in this world is, “How many people bought my product?”

But Christ is not a product. He’s the source of life.

Acts 4 shows us that when we live as Christ lived, teach as Christ taught, love as He loves, the Holy Spirit will do something amazing. Though people disdain to be seen with us, they will highly regard us. Though no one else dares join us, the Spirit will draw people to us, and the numbers of the Kingdom will grow.

But that growth isn’t guaranteed, and it’s certainly not a measure of success. The measure of success for the Church is, “Are we a presentable bride?”

Entrenched

2008-01-19T08:40:00.000-08:00

Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. One day the older daughter said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man around here to lie with us, as is the custom all over the earth. Let's get our father to drink wine and then lie with him and preserve our family line through our father."
Genesis 19:30-32

Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, burned and smashed to rubble by the wrath of God. The inhabitants of those two cities had become so warped by sin that He apparently felt they needed a fresh start.

Lot and his daughters had escaped the firestorm by mere moments. They were the only ones. And they, in fact, hadn’t wanted to leave. The angels who came to destroy the city told Lot over and over, “Get your family, and get out of town!” Finally, they had to take him by the hand and drag him out.

Even then, Lot’s wife looked back one time too many and was turned to a pillar of salt, and Lot himself refused to go further away than the town of Zoar on the outskirts of Sodom.

Lot had become so entrenched in the culture of Sodom that imminent death by burning sulfur wasn’t enough to make him want to leave! His sensibilities had become so warped that he even thought it acceptable to offer his daughters to a mob of perverts rather than let them rape the men who were guests in his home (Genesis 19:1-8). Why couldn’t he just say, “No?”

Then comes Genesis 19:30-32. Lot and his daughters – apparently all that were left of his family – left Zoar to live in a cave (what the heck is that about?!). So his daughters decided it would be a good idea to get their dad drunk and have sex with him so they could “preserve [the] family line.” I can’t help but think this is the direct result of Lot’s allowing his family to live in that twisted culture, of his entrenchment in it, of his unwillingness to leave it behind. If your right hand causes you to sin…

This leads me to think about today’s church in the United States. And I don’t mean the church as an institution. I mean the people of the American church. We have become so entrenched in our society’s attitudes, thought processes, and goals that we’ve forgotten who we are. It’s nothing new to say that Jesus told us to be in the world and not of it, but we are indistinguishable from it.

In many of our churches, the good Christians are the ones who own successful businesses, those with the beautiful new homes in the desirable neighborhoods, the great jobs and 52” plasma TVs. The great goal for my life when I got out of high school was to graduate from college so I could get a good job. (Good job = good money.) And that’s the goal that Christians are setting for their kids today, too.

Greed and materialism have sunk their toothy jaws into the flesh of the church, and like rabid pit bulls, they won’t let go until we stop struggling. We’re just twitching a little. It won’t be long now.

We give, help others, love, when it doesn’t hurt. We sacrifice only when it’s not a sacrifice. What would David think? (2 Samuel 24:24) Individualism has swallowed the church whole, the digestive process breaking it down into non-functioning pieces. The church doesn’t function as it should when we separate ourselves. We are all members of one body, and the body needs all its parts to function properly.

Pride makes us hide our faults and alienate others because of theirs. We ought to be loving each other through them.

According to 2002 Barna Group research, “More than two out of three adults and more than four out of five teenagers argue that truth is always relative to the individual and the circumstances. While most of these people describe themselves as followers of Christ and say that the Bible is accurate in all of its teachings, they nevertheless believe that truth is based on feelings, experience or emotion.” If we each make our own truth, how can we hold to a faith that says, “No one comes to the Father but through me?” We’ve allowed this relativism to seep into the foundation of our faith, making our faith meaningless.

What does this mean for upcoming generations? In the January-February 2008 issue of Relevant – a magazine targeted toward college students and twenty-somethings – 53% of those polled said a Christian can support abortion rights. Thirty-seven percent said that gay rights is the least important issue for presidential policy. Only 22% said that abortion was the most important issue for presidential policy. (Illegal immigration took the top spot with 39%.)

Issues like abortion and gay rights have been tent pole political issues for conservative Christians and the religious right for years. It would seem – based on this unofficial survey – that these views are beginning to shift. Our entrenchment in individualistic, consumerist American culture has given the next generation permission to embrace that which we condemn.

If Lot thought it was okay to give his daughters to a gang of rapists, and his daughters thought incest was okay, what will our children believe?