Mark Driscoll and My Desert Temptation

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We were driving our rental car around cactus-lined streets on the first day of our snowbird getaway to Scottsdale, Arizona when we realized exactly where we were. We were only a few blocks away from a place of podcast infamy and evangelical intrigue: Trinity Church — AKA, Mark Driscoll’s new church.

It’s not every day that I am near the church of a man whose rise (and fall) was the topic of thousands of Twitter threads, blog posts, and podcast episodes about podcast episodes. That Sunday, we learned, Driscoll was starting a new sermon series titled “Real Romance: Sex in Song of Songs.” Perfect…………………………….

Read the rest at Mark Driscoll and My Desert Temptation - Mockingbird (mbird.com)

Philip Yancey on Facing the Canon [Good]

Philip Yancey, author of Vanishing Grace is a great interview about his love of Grace.

Ringing in the New Me

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t’s the time of year when our New Year’s resolutions slowly begin to unravel. It doesn’t usually happen all at once, of course. A cheat day here, a provoked outburst there, compounded by the multiplication of days and weeks, and what once felt possible eventually becomes fanciful. Even my best intentions can’t always hold up to the temptation of a Chick-fil-A milkshake. 

Every new year is filled with hopeless optimism that I can truly change. At the beginning of this year, I took time to look back and reflect on all the ways that my life is different than it was just 365 days ago. I moved to a new state, I got a new job, I got engaged. Life has changed in some sizab………………………

Jesus in a Tuxedo T-shirt

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In the place you least expect, Jesus finds you.

One of my all-time favorite movie scenes comes from the 2006 Will Ferrell movie “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.” You probably know the one. The scene is at a dinner table and Ricky Bobby, a successful if aloof, NASCAR driver, says the prayer before everyone eats. A disagreement breaks out between Ricky and his wife because Ricky repeatedly prays to “Sweet Baby Jesus.” She doesn’t think he always has to pray to a baby; “it’s a bit odd and off-putting to pray to a baby” she tells him.

He responds, “Well look, I like the Christmas Jesus best and I’m saying grace. When you say grace, you can say it to grown-up Jesus or teenage Jesus or bearded Jesus or whoever you want.” Later, Ricky’s friend and teammate, Cal, chimes in, “I like to picture Jesus in a tuxedo t-shirt because it says like, I want to be formal, but I’m here to party too. Cause I like to party, so I like my Jesus to party too.”…………………………

Love's Pure Light: Christmas With The Herdmans

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In the nights leading up to last Christmas, I read Barbara Robinson’s The Best Christmas Pageant Ever to my daughter. She was in third grade, and I had fond memories of my third-grade teacher, Mrs. Koenigs, reading it to our class almost thirty years prior. Though I remember being skeptical when she announced the title. I’d been in Christmas pageants. What could possibly be worth writing a book about? Harried parents herding miniature bathrobe-clad shepherds and sobbing tinsel-haloed angels to the front of the church to sing “Away in a Manger” before returning to the pews for a droning, by-the-numbers message followed by more Christmas music? In my mind, a book called The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, written by an adult, was going to be a slog. I had it in my head that “best” in the eyes of an adult meant perfect, as “being good” seemed to elicit praise from adults,…………………..

Ready or Not, Here He Comes

You haven’t been left behind. You’ve been chosen, elected, hand-picked.

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ere we are with Thanksgiving gone past in a flash. November is ending and the December holiday craze has begun. Are you ready? I know I’m not. I don’t do Black Friday and haven’t purchased a single gift. I have my mind elsewhere, with only two weeks left in fall semester. That’s fifteen hundred minutes of class time until finals. Six classes and I still have some month-old papers to get graded. And don’t get me started on Christmas plans. On second thought, maybe you should get me started, because I might just be ready in 25 days.

I tried to warn my students about this when we first looked the syllabus back in August. I told them there would come a day when they look at the list of course work and papers and test they would have come the end of the semester and wonder how they ever got to that place. Well, both those students and their professor have landed in that spot. Who in the world plans to fall behind? Who puts together a to-do list that will be completed two weeks after a dead…………………………..

Lord of All

Read the Whole Article at Lord of All (1517.org)

In Rome, the mausoleum of Caesar Augustus has recently been reopened to the public after many years of neglect. This place of the dead, located north of the old city along the Tiber River, is once again on the tourist map and alive with activity.

Augustus, whose real name was Gaius Octavius (or Octavion), was a man of great ambition. This is evidenced by the fact that he began designing his own mausoleum even before he was named the emperor! It is the largest cylindrical tomb in the world, originally crowned with a large bronze statue of the great leader, and surrounded by pillars and a plaque listing all of his accomplishments.

Octavion’s career began after the betrayal and murder of his famous great-uncle Julius Caesar by Brutus on March 15th (the Ides of March) in 44 BC. At the time, a comet appeared in the sky that was so bright, it could be seen …………………………

Sleeping in Church

Read whole article at From Issue 21: Sleeping in Church (https_mbird.com)

As a preacher, I can proudly say that I’ve never bored an audience so thoroughly that someone fell asleep and fell out a window. (“Fell asleep,” okay, yes. But never “fell out a window.” I know, it’s a low bar.) I plan to give the apostle Paul a little dig about that if, as I hope, I get to meet him someday………………….

Rethinking Luther, Rethinking Myself

I Was Sure of my Self-Righteousness, and Grace Sounded Too Easy

In college, I liked to trash-talk Lutherans when I was drinking. I didn’t do this all the time, but it certainly wasn’t an isolated incident. 

“The guy who wrote On the Jews and Their Lies is the guy you want to rally behind?” I would ask with a self-satisfied smirk on my face. Reader, I don’t blame you for wanting to get in a time machine and punch 22-year-old me square in the jaw.

I was sure of my self-righteousness. I thought sola gratia and sola fide sounded too easy. I wanted to work for my sanctification. I wish I could say that I didn’t actually have such a reactionary stance towards grace, but I did. I was drunk on a cocktail of works righteousness…………………………………………………..

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Rethinking Luther, Rethinking Myself - Mockingbird (mbird.com)

Finding Grace Within The Walls Of Leagalism

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He leaned back in his chair, its squeak distracting him from what he wanted to say. He leaned forward, his hands folded on his desk next to his little sign: President So And So. He was that important, I don’t even remember his name.

Gosh this is formal, I thought.

“Well Janell, I called you in here because I’m concerned about what kind of Bible you’re using.”

Oh. Right. This again.

Fresh out of my private Christian high school in the fall of 2001, I willingly and knowingly admitted myself into an Independent……………………………………………………………

It's Not Just Me (It's Everybody)

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The car radio can be a dangerous thing. You’ll be running errands or about to pick your children up at school when, all of a sudden, a song takes you by the hand and says, “It’s time for a good cry, don’t you think?” For me, the latest song to do such a thing is the new single from Weyes Blood, “It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody.” 

Sitting at this party
Wondering if anyone knows me
Really sees who I am
Oh it’s been so long since I felt really known…………………………………………….

ONE BIG (UNHAPPY) FAMILY?

Let me tell you the one line that will send me screaming from any new church I visit.

It’s not: “Would you like to join the property committee?”

Nor is it: “Our organist Ethel has been with the church for eighty years and she’s still going strong!”

It isn’t even: “We went through a kind of split lately but it’s really OK because those people were saying and doing these things and honestly we’re better off without them.” (Well, I might run from this church, too.)

The one line that raises my hackles and sets me on high alert is to all appearances innocuous, innocent, and charming.

It’s this: “Our church is one big family.”

Noooooooooo!

What’s wrong with this? Let me count the ways………………………..

Where We Were Always Meant To Be

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my book group spent this past summer reading through Wendell Berry’s Jayber Crow, a fictional book of strung-together memories and reflections of a wizened old barber in the small town of Port William, Kentucky. The book is filled to the brim with thoughts on “rootedness” and “place.” Jayber Crow hasn’t ever left the state, and he’s barely left the small town, but the story should serve as a reminder that you don’t have to travel the world to think deep thoughts and reflect on what it is to love……………………..

Rise and Fall of Mars Hill Podcast

I have talked about this Podcast a few times now. For the last year we have talked about power. This podcast is about that and its corruption in one of the biggest churches in the world. Its very interesting.

The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill | Podcasts | Christianity Today

Founded in 1996, Seattle’s Mars Hill Church was poised to be an influential, undeniable force in evangelicalism—that is until its spiraling collapse in 2014. The church and its charismatic founder, Mark Driscoll, had a promising start. But the perils of power, conflict, and Christian celebrity eroded and eventually shipwrecked both the preacher and his multimillion-dollar platform.

God For The Skeptic

I don’t want to be bound by anything. I want my boundaries limitless. I don’t want anything to stop me, hinder me, or throw a wrench in my affairs. And when God demands that he will be God and I must remain human, fallible, and perishable, I react as if someone is coming after me with a straitjacket — buckles waving in the air, sleeves ready to bind me, and a locked and padded cell awaiting me. I fear that being a Christian will imprison me. Like St. Augustine, I pray, “God grant me chastity, but not yet. Grant me religious fervor, but not if people will think I’m weird. Grant me a clean heart, but let me giggle at something smutty now and then. God, give me a future, but let it be on my own terms. And keep that damn straitjacket of religion far away.”

DNF

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I came to with a blur of faces standing over me. “Let me finish,” I mumbled. “Please, please let me finish.” I tried to get up from the stretcher but was gently pushed back down.

“We need to make sure you’re okay first,” someone told me. “We need a doctor to clear you.” I nodded and lay back down. I told myself that I would be fine, that I just needed to start running again.

A man who I assumed was the doctor came over to my stretcher. He looked me over. He asked the nurses, “She threw up?”

Enduring the World

Read the whole Article at https://mbird.com/everyday/enduring-the-world/

Like most people, I’m not immune from feeling the pressure to be perfect in this world. For me it often manifests in body image stuff. I’m prone to compare myself to others, even those in superhero movies, and find my lack of a six pack distressing. Whether it’s because of this insecurity or because of my love of sports, I’ve always been rather familiar with the inside of a gym………………..

Tales the Carpenter Told - Mission of God

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Jesus’ father was a carpenter. Presumably his father was a carpenter as well. And his father before him. We might well imagine a few generations of tradesmen, passing their sophisticated engineering knowledge down from father to son: how to hang a plumb line, sharpen a hand saw, or level a wall. Jesus, likewise, would have learned the highly specialized craft from a young age. Alongside the usual religious education for children, Jesus and his siblings would have at least helped his father in the family business. If your roof caved in from a windy storm, Jesus would have been handy with a bow saw. Everything changed, however, when Jesus turned thirty. Leaving behind his auger, Jesus went into the kingdom o………………..

Learning Limitations When There Is No More Room

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In my younger years, I was often complimented for my firm grip. Physically, I mean. I was skinny as a stick and not at all strong, but I could hold on tightly to something or someone and they’d have a hell of a time prying me off. My dad used to call me spider-monkey because whenever I was awake when he left for work or home when he returned, I would climb up his legs, wrap my skinny-as-sticks-arms — my brother, for his part, called me “twig” — as tightly as I could around them, and cling for dear life. It was a feat to loosen me……………………

Christians and the 2 Kingdoms Edited by Ed Scott

Martin Luther understood that Christians inhabit 2 worlds: the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God, or the secular and the spiritual. In response to many questions from people about how to relate to the government, he taught the theology of the 2 Kingdoms to guide Christians to be responsible citizens in both realms. For our statement of faith today we review some of these teachings, compiled,

edited and paraphrased from Luther's Works into a catechetical format by Pastor Scott.

Luther says, we must carefully distinguish between the two governments. Both must be permitted.. The spiritual.. produces righteousness, the secular helps insure external peace and prevents evil deeds. Neither one is sufficient without the other.

Why do we need 2 forms of government, one secular and one spiritual?

Because no one can become righteous in the sight of God by means of the secular government. [For that).. Christ's spiritual government is needed. And we need secular government because Christ's government does not extend over all people since Christians are always a minority in the midst of non-Christians. (LW, Vol. 45, p.84)

You mean we can't get all we need from one or the other?

No, because where secular government or law alone prevails... hypocrisy is inevitable... For without the Holy Spirit in the heart no one becomes truly righteous, no matter how noble and fine the works he or she does. On the other hand, where... spiritual government alone prevails over land and people, there wickedness is given free rein and the door is open for all manner of rascality... aw. Voi 45, p. 84

What responsibility does a Christian have to the secular government?

Christians, among themselves and by and for themselves, need no law or sword, since... a true Christian lives and labors on earth not for himself alone but for his neighbor... [However}, because the sword is... necessary [in] the... world in order to preserve peace, punish sin, and restrain the wicked, the Christian submits... willingly to the rule of the sword, pays his taxes, honors those in authority, serves, helps, and does all he can to assist the governing authority, that it may continue to function and be held in honor.... (as well as for the] benefit to others.

Can Christians serve the state or work in government?

[You mean people in law enforcement, jurists, lawyers, politicians and others of similar function...? Yes they can, since for external peace there must be those who arrest, prosecute.. and destroy the wicked, those who protect, acquit, defend and save the good. Therefore, when [Christian professionals] perform their duties... [to] help the law and the governing authority function.. there is no peril in that; they may use their office like anybody else would use his trade as a means of livelihood. LW. vi 45, p. 103)