Did You See That Little Smith Kid?!

God’s Story: From A to Z

We are insiders to the story of Scripture. It is our story.
We have to learn to read the Bible as a whole. It is one story.
We have to allow the Word to absorb the world and not the world to absorb the Word.
We have to take embrace the presuppositions found in God’s Word, rather than imposing another worldview on our reading of Scripture.
We must learn to read the Bible organically, in terms of itself.
We should read the Bible the same way Peter, Susan, Lucy, and Edmond would read The Chronicles of Narnia: as a story not only for us, but about us.

God’s Story:

1. The God who made everything
2. The God who does not wipe out rebels
3. The God who writes his own agreements
4. The God who legislates
5. The God who reigns
6. The God who makes his people sing
7. The God who is unfathomably wise
8. The God who is coming
9. The God who becomes a human being
10. The God who grants new birth
11. The God who loves
12. The God who dies–and lives
13. The God who declares the guilty just
14. The God who gathers and transforms his people
15. The God who is very angry
16. The God who triumphs

Disclaimer: It is one thing to know the storyline of Scripture, it is quite another to know one’s role within the ongoing story of God’s redemption of creation. It is quite another thing to trust and obey the claims of the gospel.

(These points were taken from D.A. Carson’s book The Gagging of God.)

Gospel Haiku

The King of the Jews

Bore the sins of the world

And guides our journey home.

What’s Wrong With the World?

I am.

This Is Why You Are Fat

Somewhere between finger-lickin’ good and grease dripping from your chin you’ll find that most American dreams end up in heart attacks. If any of the following sound even the slightest bit delicious (or disgusting), you should click here for pictures.

Big Mac-Chicken With Cheese: A McDonald’s Big Mac with cheese, but with fried McChicken patties instead of buns.

Chicken Fried Bacon With Gravy

Behemoth Glazed Donut

Egg n’ Ham Sammich: A regular ham and cheese sandwich but topped with 11 sunny-side up egg yolks.

Deep Fried Oreos With Powdered Sugar And Multi-Colored Sprinkles

Lankford’s Gluttoneer: Half pound prime rib/sirloin/rib eye patty, american cheese, onions, maple bacon, hot link sausage, ketchup and honey mustard.

Chocolate Covered Bacon

The Thurmanator: Two half pound beef patties under a half a pound of ham, covered in mozzarella, american cheese, lettuce, tomato, mushrooms, sauteed onions, pickles, jalapeno peppers and mayo.

Deep Fried Cupcake With Chocolate Syrup And Sprinkles

The Sandwich of Knowledge: The bottom tier contains eight strips of bacon, six sausages and four burger paddies; followed by a second tier of black pudding; topped by a third tier comprised of two diced chicken breasts and six fried eggs.

What Did the Teacher Say?

Wikipedia

is not authoritative.

Or something like that.

Love Wins — In a Cage-Match!

Louisville loves bumper stickers. For real. And there is a Christian bumper sticker on the back of lots of cars in the city that reads: Love Wins. I understand the sentiment and even approve, kind of. But like all bumper stickers, its impact suffers from a diffused ambiguity. Whose love wins? Does human love inevitably win? Wins what? Wins the war, the tennis match, the poker game? The big question that looms in my mind is this: If it’s God’s love that wins, then what kind of divine love wins? This may seem to be a very odd question. It may seem self-explanatory or moot — God’s love is God’s love, right?

Maybe. Actually, probably not. I don’t know. But I would sure like to see the likes of McLaren, Piper, Pagitt, Boyd, MacArthur, Carson, Bell, Driscoll, and Bishop Gene Robinson duke it out in a cage-match to determine who actually knows what they are talking about.

In all seriousness, the point I am getting at is we need to make clear with our bumper stickers and culture-current writings is that the love that wins is a holy love. The love that won on the cross and wins the world is a love that is driven, determined, and defined by holiness. It is a love that flows out of the heart of a God who is transcendent, majestic, infinite in righteousness, who loves justice as much as He does mercy; who hates wickedness as much as He loves goodness; who blazes with a fiery, passionate love for Himself above all things. He is robed in a splendor and eternal purity that is blinding. He rules, He reigns, He rages and roars, then bends down to whisper love songs to His creatures. His love is vast and irresistible. It is also terrifying, and it will spare no expense to give everything away in order to free us from the bondage of sin, purifying for Himself a people who are devoted to His glory, a people who “have no ambition except to do good” (Titus 2:14). So He crushes His precious Son in order to rescue and restore mankind along with His entire creation (Isaiah 53:10-12). He unleashes perfect judgment on the perfectly obedient sacrifice and then pulls Him up out of the grave in a smashing and utter victory.

He is a God who triumphs.
He is a burning cyclone of passionate love.
Holy love wins.

It’s been said that a half-truth masquerading as a whole truth is a complete untruth. So true. And convicting, because we do this so often. These bumper stickers are just one tiny example of our culture’s insistence on accomodating half-truths and it puts us in danger of declawing and domesticating the mighty King, whose presence made demons scream in terror and death flee in shame. He came on an invasive, dangerous, and unwelcome mission of mercy to cut open and expose what was hidden in men’s hearts (Luke 2:34-35). His coming was not to be marked by peace and tranquility — He came to impose a test of absolute allegiance. He forced people into a divisive crisis of choice (Matthew 10:34-39). The peace He came to bring first triggered a war. He was on a guerrilla mission to infiltrate territory controlled by His enemy, raid his camp, and set the prisoners free (Mark 3:23-27; Luke 4:18). That’s why from His carpenter’s tool belt there also hung a sword.

That is why I love this Jesus — but fear Him, too.

Read this book.
The God Who Smokes

Sojourn: The Movie

It appears that some casting is being done for the new film coming out next Fall…SOJOURN: the movie. Check out the casting call so far…

Worship Arts Pastoral Assistant Jamie Barnes played by Moby.

Pastor of Counseling Robert Cheong played by B.D. Wong.

Pastor of Group Life Chad Lewis played by Jeremy Sisto.

Teaching Pastor Daniel Montgomery played by Dane Cook.

Worship and Arts Pastor Mike Cosper played by Best Buy Geek Guy.

Check out the Sojourn TravelBlog!

I Love Germantown

Great coffee. Solid books.

And bacon-covered donuts…

Am I in heaven?

The Good Life

Remember that work done, when it is good work, honors God’s work.

There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. Ecclesiastes 2.24

Mac Daddy

Viruses are blah,

Or so says Bill Gates. Who cares?

My Mac is just fine.

Why am I always right?

It’s been confirmed. I have a knee-jerk reaction to conflict with my wife that looks something like this: Why did you do that? What were you thinking? Who did you think was going to take care of that? Why do you think I am wrong? Can’t you see that I am always right?

Ok. Now that last question isn’t one I’ve ever voiced, but it is certainly the underlying presupposition of most of the conflict in my life. Dare I say that most of the quarrels in my life arise because of I fail to misunderstand the source of my own anger and frustration. I fail to see the idolatry of my own heart.

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Jeremiah 17.9

When my desire for something other than Christ becomes the supreme desire in my life, I begin chiding my wife and harboring resentment. Essentially what I am doing at that moment is blaming her for the deceitfulness of my own heart! When I wake up in the morning and find myself nagging at her it is not because she is a sinner. I nag her because, in her actions (sometimes good, sometimes bad), she is stomping on the idols in my heart. What a truly humbling moment it is when you realize your heart is being ruled by your desire for comfort instead of Christ, and in your sin you can’t believe that your very own wife would make life so uncomfortable for you.

Ouch.

Isn’t it wonderful that the promise of the New Covenant is a new heart? Maybe a better way to phrase it would be to say a “new and being renewed heart.” Every day I need a renewed heart (and mind). Please pray for me, my wife (and future child), and the community we are apart of as I continue to place my faith in future grace.

WARNING: Baby On the Move

This morning I woke up with a lil’ glimmer in the eye and an extra swagger in my step as Jessica and I found out this morning that there will be a little bundle of joy added to our ranks in October. This truly is the year of living dangerously!

Bring it on October 16th!

Psalm 139

Let us now rejoice

For his works are wonderful

I know that full well

I before E, except after C

This is no exact science

My teacher was way off

What a persistent little lie