Missional Living

Since today is Quotable Monday (which keeps me honest in my reading, knowing that I'll have to post something earth-shattering on Monday)…..here are some things I've run across while reading Leonard Sweet's "The Gospel According To Starbucks".

On art, Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680): "Art should create stupor in the beholder." 

LOVE it.
 

On church, T.S. Eliot (uber-poet of the twentieth century) liked to tell of a sign outside a baker's shop advertising bread for one dollar a loaf. "A man enters the shop, hungry for bread, and imagining the fresh smell of bread hot from the oven, only to find that inside the shop all that is for sale are copies of the sign advertising bread…..the Church today is much like that shop." 

Put those in your latte and let 'em brew. If you've got thoughts, I'd love to hear them.  

Yup. My pre-ordered copy of Len Sweet's newest book, The Gospel According to Starbucks, arrived today from Amazon. Sweet, indeed. I'm excited to get into it tomorrow…

Also, Dazzle, our local mom-and-pop coffee shop, has a new thing called a Six-Shooter: a 20oz cup of coffee, six shots of espresso, and a shot of mocha.

Sweet Lord. Tomorrow is going to be a great day.  

It’s never really too early to start shopping for that perfect gift for your sweet thang. Candy? Flowers? Jewelry? A nice romantic night on the town? What’s a guy to do? 

Easy. Stop looking at porn.

Consider the facts about porn:

• Generates approximately $1 billion annually with growth projections to $5-7 billion over the next 5 years, barring unforeseen change (NRC Report 2002)

• 74% of adult commercial sites display free teaser porn images on homepage (Child-proofing on the World Wide Web: A survey of adult web servers 2001, (NRC Report 2002)

• 345% increase in child pornography sites between 2/2001-7/2001 (N2H2, 8/01)

• 25 million Americans visit cybersex sites between 1-10 hours per week (MSNBC Survey 2000)

• The U.S. Customs Service estimates that there are more than 100,000 websites offering child pornography – which is illegal, worldwide (Red Herring Magazine, 1/18/02)

• 9 in 10 kids 8-16 yrs. have viewed porn online, mostly accidentally while doing homework (UK News Telegraph, NOP Research Group, 1/07/02)

Women are beautiful—because that’s the way God made them. We are naturally attracted to them. (If you’re not, then there is probably another website out there that can help you with that problem.) But for all those that are attracted to women, we need to put into perspective women’s beauty. Our flesh seeks to distort and destroy God’s ultimate plan for relationships between men and women. He did not create women for us to be able to click onto a poorly designed and cheesy website and look at them naked. He did not craft the woman’s body so we could pay $3.95 a month to look at naughty pictures. There is so much more to God’s plan.

You need to understand that attraction is from God’s heart, but lust is from ours. And the guys at XXXChurch have some great resources for addressing that lust. And not just for men. Women. Parents. Students. And, yes, kids. You owe it to yourself, your family, your marriage, and your friends to check them out. 

Get their FREE internet accountability software (Mac or PC) here.

Check out the No Ho Pledge, the Prayer Wall, the Porn Patrol, and all the great stuff at XXXChurch.        

I've just about finished Boyd's God At War …finally. It's been an awesome book. And, although I've already blogged about it here and here , things are seeming to come to a head.

The focus of our mid-week small group last Wednesday was the proverbial question of 'if God is all-powerful and all-loving,why do bad things happen?' And, although mankind has wrestled with that question (perhaps since the fall), I think there is one vitally important fact we didn't fully touch on in our groups: We are at war.

Granted, I know that the topic war is about as popular as a Carmen concert these days. Nevertheless, Boyd makes a pretty compelling argument that Jesus' ministry on earth was foremost an act of war. Jesus came to overthrow Satan and his kingdom/dominion/rule over this earth, and set up a new Kingdom/dominion/rule over this earth. Everything He did was an act of mutiny. An act of overthrowing the current ruler of this world (Satan) and establishing a new Ruler. From casting out demons, to healing the sick, to eating and drinking with outcasts…all of which was a revolutionary bucking of the system, upsetting the current rule.

Of course, this battle cry is not what you'd expect. It's not 'gear up with your carbine gas-powered, semi-automatic AK47 and take the palace' kind of marching order. It is 'take up your cross and follow me'. 'Feed my sheep.' 'Love God and love your enemy.' It's establishing a rule of Kingdom living. It's a war in which love and peace reigns and, as Don Miller says, we are called to hold our hands agains the wounds of a broken world and stop the bleeding.

But it is still war. A war in which Satan and all of Hell are fighting against the armies of Heaven. A war which we have simultaneously 'already won' and 'not yet won'. It's a war of rescuing those that have been wounded by the Enemy, loading them in the MediVac, and LifeFlight-ing them to the Great Physician. It is a war in which we are called to put on the armor the God Himself wears…which sounds like pretty serious business.

So, why do bad things happen? Unfortunately, there will be casualties in every war. And we are still in jihad over the Kingdom (yes, every war is about what someone believes about God). Divorce? Rape? Abuse? Neglect? Pain? Hunger? Murder? Guilt? Shame? All part of the war we are in. Sometimes, we are even shot by 'friendly fire' from our own 'soldiers'.

But the good new is this: the King is coming… 

Granted, I'm a wuss. 

For many people around the country, snow and ice are a part of life. But I live in central Texas. So when we get 'snow' and ice, we freak out: we break out our ski bibs, dig out the gloves and hide under the covers. Any mercury below 32 degrees is too cool for my Texas blood. 

And you can forget working out or (especially) running this past week. Thanks, but no. I'll stay inside with my bunny slippers and a piping hot mug o' Starbucks……..

Until today, that is.  According to AccuWeather, I've got a little window of time when the temp will soar to 37 degrees and the rain will hold off….just around 11am. And the best part is I can now keep tabs and calculations on my mileage over at Favorite Run. It's an awesome site. I can calculate routes/mileage, along with water breaks and bathroom locations. (One drawback: our area is growing faster than Google maps can keep up, and some of the streets around my neighborhood aren't on the map yet…but that's somewhat typical)

Nevertheless, I can get back to training. I'm still not sure I'll be ready for the Austin Half-Marathon in February (which is, btw, Austin's greatest opportunity for organized pain…), but I've got a few weeks to see if I can stay injury free. Either way, I'm learning a lot about our mental, physical, and spiritual DNA. In fact, there are tons of runs to check out at RunTex. And a handful of us are committing to at least one a month. Check 'em out and join us!

One final thought before I hit the bricks. I ran across the following quote last November and it's stuck in my brain…especially now that I'm still committed to my workout.

"There is only so much that the body can endure. After that, the mind and the spirit take over."

I haven't blogged in the past few days because of the crazy weather. As we thaw out and return to some kind of normal routine, I'll begin posting thoughts and ramblings again.

But as proof, here's the pic of the 20 inches of snow we had yesterday in Austin!

Here in Central Texas, we're under a Winter Storm Advisory/Watch. There are about 4 days in the year that we have a snowball's chance of …snowballs. So, we've spent our MLK day cooped up from icy roads, freezing precip, and a pretty stiff north wind. 

Cool.

Tonite, it's supposed to get worse. Tuesday is forcasted to have a high of a whopping 28 degrees I last heard.

Reminds me of another reason why Jimmie needs an iPod: B.B. King and Albert Collins' duet of "Stormy Monday"(recorded live, 1993). Get it here. Order up a Drive By (20 oz. of coffee with a triple shot of espresso, add a dab of 2% leche), close your eyes and let the soul roll. Take 6 minutes out of your day and enjoy.

"Well they call it Stormy Monday, but Tuesday's just as bad."  

Daddy like…

In the opening of Galatians 6, Paul admonishes 'those who are spiritual' to 'gently restore' another believer who is ensnared by sin. But to watch out, that 'you too may also be tempted.' In doing so, we are carrying each other's burdens…

So, how does that flesh out? If someone in church leadership is 'caught in sin', how are they restored? Does it matter if they are lay leaders or paid staff? How does the praxis of restoration play out in our church culture? Have you seen it played out effectively and scripturally anywhere?  Yes, Jesus restored/reinstated Peter after his denial, so how does that fit in? How do we take those who have fallen into sin and help them become, again, men and women who are able to 'feed my sheep'? 

There are the beginnings of a great discussion, I think, going on over at David Davault's blog.…weigh in and let's see what develops.

You can see the video of Darien being baptized over at YouTube.

(If I was cool, I'd learn how to embed it here. But until someone smarter than me can show me how, you'll have to click the little link.)