"If you treated your wife like you treated your iPhone, you'd have a great marriage!"
-Dave Gibbons (HT @darrinpatrick)
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Quotable Monday: 03.01.2010
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The Very First Senior Moment
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Worship: What Really Matters?
"Will our children have to jump over our generation to earlier ones to find the Christian message again? Or will we have celebrated its fullness in such a way that they can remember from our worship what transcended our understanding, but will touch theirs?"-Donald Hustad, True Worship
I wonder what our children will say about worship of God. What will their understanding of the essentials of Biblical worship be? By our action, our tradition, our liturgy, what are we teaching?
We must make sure the music we use for worship does not become the music we worship.
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Dork Anthem
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Go To School. Kill Your Creativity.
I know. I know. It's an easy target. They tell you 'be yourself'. Then they tell you to 'color inside the lines.' They say 'discover who you are'. But then they make you walk in a single-file line like everyone else.
But it's deeper than that for sure.
Sir Ken Robinson makes a compelling case and challenges the way we challenge our children. He wants us to rethink an environment than cultivates (rather than undermines) creativity. But the BIG question is how this affects creativity in your own life, ministry, etc.
Watch and give me your thoughts! VIDEO NOT DISPLAYING CORRECTLY? Click here…
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Have Guitar, Will Travel
Having flown several times with my guitar, I can appreciate this. It seems the throwers at United Airlines destroyed a $3500 Taylor guitar. Dave Carroll, the owner, spent 9 months trying to get them to cover the loss. When he told them he was going to post a song on youtube, they said "good luck with that". Now, with the video in excess of 4 million hits, UA is offering an undisclosed amount of money in exchange for the video being pulled. His response? "Good luck with that".
The guitar gods at Taylor have already sent Carroll two new guitars (seen in the video..).
BTW, if you ever have to fly with your guitar, I recommend doing what has worked for me: a hardshell case, wrapped in duct tape, and damage insurance.
Enjoy!
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The Bible in 90 Days: WHY?
On January 2, 2010, I began the process of reading the Bible through in 90 days using the YouVersion.com online plan. If I stay on track, I’ll finish with Revelation 22 on April 2.
There are certainly other ways to read the Bible other than ‘in 90 days’, but here are the reasons why I’m doing it this way (and why I think it will be helpful to do this every year) :
1. If God made sure his words were recorded for us, why wouldn’t I want to read all of them numerous times?
2. Reading large portions of Scripture regularly slows me down so I can think about life from an eternal perspective. Still within the first 20 days, and I’ve had tearful moments of revelation and times of seeing things with fresh eyes.
3. In my daily life, I am constantly bombarded with images, philosophies, thoughts, reasonings, and attractions from the world, my flesh, and the Enemy. I need large quantities of God’s thoughts, empowered by his Spirit, to resist them.
4. I trust my own thoughts too much at times and it’s good to be rebooted with God’s thoughts as much as possible.
5. Each time I read through the Bible, I’m humbled as I realize how little I actually know and understand God’s Word.
6. Reading a lot of the Bible helps me more easily see how it all fits together, and gives a fresh perspective to the biblical narrative (which perhaps was never intended to be 'nibbled on' in the first place.)
7. As a worship leader and student pastor, I want people’s faith to rest on God’s Word, not my music or my opinions. I want Scripture to be the overflow of my heart, not something I occasionally use for a desired emotional effect or dig into because I have to teach a lesson..
8. As a husband, father of three, and resident of planet Earth, Scripture is my primary how-to manual to marriage, parenthood, and life. You and I should be able to recite it better than the USAmerican pledge of allegiance… if my allegiance is to Christ.
I know reading completely through the Bible sounds pretty ambitious or intimidating. But if I can do it, so can you. There are multiple plans out there from which to choose.
What are you currently doing that's challenging you spiritually?
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Why I Like It
I guess this explains why I love St.Arbucks so much:
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Could’ve Loved You Forever
I don't usually post videos like this…but Monte Montgomery is simply amazing. If you haven't seen the video for 'Could've Loved You Forever', then drop to your knees and give thanks for coming here today..
His playing and arrangement have shades of Eric Johnson, but still a style all his own.
…things really take off around 3:25…
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JDD: Jesus Deficit Disorder
Not long ago, authors Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola crafted 'A Jesus Manifesto: A Magna Carta for Restoring the Supremacy of Jesus Christ." It states that Christians have made the gospel about so many things other than Christ, yet Jesus is the gravitational pull that brings everything significance, reality, and meaning. Without him, things are like busted pieces of a space station floating around in space.
The problem is that we sometimes emphasize spiritual truths or values and miss Christ…and still feel we've obtained something.
What is Christianity? It is Christ. Nothing more. Nothing less. It's not a philosophy, an ideology, or a worldview. Christianity is the 'good news' that Truth and Goodness are found in a person. Community is found in connecting to that person. Conversion is more than a change in direction, or a change in team uniform, but a change in connection to Jesus.
The biggest problem we have is JDD: Jesus Deficit Disorder.
Jesus has become increasingly politically incorrect and his teachings replaced with 'leadership principles'. It is possible to confuse the cause of Christ with the person of Christ. When we say the words 'Jesus is Lord', I'm afraid we sometimes mean 'Jesus is my core value'. Jesus isn't a cause; he's a real person who can be loved, known and embodied. Focusing on his mission is not the same as focusing on and serving Him.
Jesus was not a social activist or moral philosopher. To pitch him that way is to dilute his divinity. Justice cannot storm the gates of Hell. Righteousness can. He didn't come to make us good, but to make us alive.
"May God have a people on this earth who are a people of Christ, through Christ, and for Christ. A people of the cross. A people who are consumed with God’s eternal passion, which is to make his Son preeminent, supreme, and the head over all things visible and invisible. A people who have discovered the touch of the Almighty in the face of his glorious Son. A people who wish to know only Christ and him crucified, and to let everything else fall by the wayside."
As a Christian, I am not called to follow the trends of Christianity, but Christ.
As a Christian, I don't point people to core values, but to Christ.
As the collective ekklesia of God, we may disagree about many things–eschatology, ecclesiology, economics, politics and various statements of faith– but we agree on Christ, the crucified, resurrected, victorious, sinless, living, and returning Lord.
He is our Passion and Purpose and Life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY