Stop Taking the Bible So Seriously

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Can't believe I'm posting something this irreverent-sounding, but this guy makes a great point. (David Hopwood on the church.wrecked.org site.) The Bible is a living, breathing work of art and truth, not a list of rules combined with a history textbook.

"The more I've got to know it the more I have discovered it's jokes, shocks, puns, wisecracks, pathos, horror, riddles, idiosyncrasies and subtleties."

OK, how about, stop being so serious about the Bible? Still not quite there...

I like to point this out to people who read stories like the woman at the well so sterile-ly. Come on! A single woman was hitting on a rabbi. Trying to make him uncomfortable. It was like a goth teen getting in a businessman's space just to see if she could rattle him. Of course, it ended up changing the woman's life. That's not "serious", that's miraculous! That's the power of Christ - power we actually have at our disposal. (Eph. 1) Much more interesting than a history textbook.

The Bible is full of real stuff like this. That's one of the reasons I love it so much.

Now, of course we should take the Bible seriously. But maybe we just shouldn't be so serious - flat, emotionless, legalistic, angry, you get the picture - about it. It really misrepresents it. It's the living word of God. It's the greatest story ever told! And it's all true... Amazing.

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Pomona Highlights

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I had a great weekend in Pomona last week. Highlights:

• My new BFF Lynn Guerin acted as host for the weekend. A great servant's heart. He is a pretty amazing guy. One of his accomplishments is helping put together the John Wooden Course. Hanging out with John Wooden has got to be so cool!
• Meeting with 27 leaders from 15 churches to talk about men's discipleship. My favorite part was hearing the guys share their struggles and then hear them encourage each other with ideas.
• Went to the Influencers Bible Study on Friday morning with 150 guys. Maybe the first men's Bible Study I've seen singing work really well in a long time. Amazing talk too. "Quiet brilliance", I would call it.
• A breakfast with my friend Angelo Ismirnglou-one of those awesome high-energy, visionary guys. He's going to do great things in the Brotherhood of St. Andrew!
• Then 100+ guys at Pomona First Baptist Church doing a Rewired Seminar. Had a weird experience when I pulled up realizing I had been there before 3 years before. They knew. That's why they brought us back.
• A couple of hours jammin' with Mat Kyser and the men's leaders from The Village Church in Irvine. What a great group of guys. I went to their church on Sunday as well. An amazing service on the topic of adoption. Matt was channeling Mark Driscoll style-wise.

The weekend was fun, and a huge encouragement to me. OK, so I didn't surf. But hey, it's California!

Sunflower Seed Christianity

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Have you ever eaten sunflower seeds? You chuck a bunch in your mouth and crunch on them. You extract the meat part of the seed, and then you spit out the husk. It's trash. A little salty, perhaps, but not edible.

In Revelation 3, God tells the church at Laodicea:

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

Francis Chan imagines presenting the people of his church to God at the end, and having God go, pfft!-pfft!-pfft!-pfft!-pfft!-pfft!-pfft!-pfft!-pfft!-pfft!-pfft! Spitting them out because they are lukewarm. As I watched this great video, I had to ask myself:

Would you be willing to give away as much as you kept?
Would you be willing to sit on the grass every week for church, so the money it would take to build a comfortable building could be used to help others instead?

Are you willing to really teach what Jesus taught? Live like Jesus lived?

This is such a challenge to me personally. 

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Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/akumaru/1157598310/

Intolerance in the name of tolerance is hypocrisy

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Not that I am a big fan of pageants, but how in the world

did we get to the place where a culturally way-out-of-the-mainstream paparazzi blogger would help decide who would represent our country in any kind of international contest? More than that, why are we asking 20-something year old young women to opine on gay marriage and government bailouts? I think that fact that these women had actually thought about these things puts them miles ahead of most people, regardless of age.

Kudos to Carrie Prejean, Miss California, for speaking truth instead of lying to win a contest. I believe your willingness to stand for what you believe will reap you great benefit.

And to the judge who personally attacked Miss Prejean in his blog the next day: intolerance in the name of tolerance is hypocrisy.

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Transformed from darkness to light...but a dim light at first

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Great quote from Pat Morley today in his Weekly Briefing on the nature of discipleship:

"We do not become disciples through a single life-changing event—transformed from darkness to light, yes. But it is dim light. Instead, we become disciples by steady plodding, by the regular intake of God’s word, by a consistent diet of preaching, by constantly rubbing shoulders with fellow pilgrims."

http://www.maninthemirror.org/weeklybriefing/wb319.htm
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Send My Friend Josh to Thailand for a Missions Trip, please!

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My friend, Josh Wayt, is a college-aged guy with a heart for Christ. (He's the one on the right in this picture.) He has only been a Christian for a few years, but he is totally invested in becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. He's been involved with Campus Outreach - a college ministry - for awhile, and he is now preparing to go to Thailand for 2 months of intensive mission work and training.

Would you help Josh out? This is probably one of the toughest times there could be to raise funds for mission work. I am writing Josh a check. Honestly, it's not in our family budget, but we'll make some different decisions so we can help Josh out. Please prayerfully consider doing the same. If just 50 people write Josh a $100 check, he'll have enough, plus be able to help some of his teammates out as well with money from his own connections.

Make checks out to Campus Outreach Florida. And they can be sent to him at 45 South Lake Jessup Avenue. Oviedo, FL. 32765. Here is Josh's support letter:

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope this letter finds you and your family well. In the past two years I have become increasingly involved with a ministry at my university called Campus Outreach. The Lord has been so faithful in using this ministry and its leadership to teach me more of Himself and His will for my life. I am truly excited about His call to labor and build laborers for His kingdom. God has blessed me with the opportunity to go to Thailand this summer for further training and experience in this call.

On May 29th, myself, and seven other students will be departing for our two months of training and service in Khon Kaen, Thailand. Khon Kaen University has been staffed for over twenty years by Campus Outreach. Our group will be teaming up with the staff and students from Campus Outreach Thailand, and assisting them with their service and ministry to the surrounding community. Every morning our group will receive training in the word and evangelism. The latter half of our days will be spent ministering on the local campuses for several hours. This ministry will include
building relationships with students, evangelism, and hopefully, the opportunity to lead bible studies.

The trip is being funded entirely through donations. The total cost will be five thousand dollars. This will include housing, food, and any other expenses. I am very excited about the opportunity to serve and to minister, and ask that you would join me in ministry. I am asking for your support and prayers for this trip. If you are able to assist, please forward any donation to me with the check or money order payable to “Campus Outreach Florida.”

I thank you in advance for your prayers and support. God bless.

In Christ,

Josh Wayt

So please join me in supporting Josh. Send him to Thailand with me!

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Mark Driscoll on Men Who Act Like Boys

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“Too many men act like boys, and too many boys think ‘if I get married it will make me a man.’ And it never works like that. Boys who get married don’t become men, they ruin women, and sometimes children along with them.”

I love this guy's ability to communicate Biblical, reformed, covenant thinking in up-to-date terms.

http://tinyurl.com/cwr9yl or watch below.

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pain

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Talking to my friend Kevin McMillan last week about my son who suffers from migraines and my daughter who has some stomach issues. Kevin can relate. Since I've known him as a seminary student moonlighting here at Man in the Mirror, Kevin has bravely fought Crohn's Disease. (Kevin might not say "bravely", but since I never actually saw him cry, I'll call him brave.)

We were talking about a profound statement my son had made after a middle school youth group retreat. For some reason, the retreat theme was 'suffering' - I know, odd for 10-12 year olds. But even though the kid has these migraines that hurt so bad they make him puke his guts out, he told me that some people suffer a lot more than he does. And when he has a migraine, he is thankful that it's not worse. Pretty deep for a 10-year-old (at the time).

Kevin made a profound statement, at that point. A great observation:

The greatest pain is the pain in the moment. But the
One who created the moment is greater than the pain.

When you're going through your own pain, it can be so consuming. You might not feel like you can ever survive it. Why? The greatest pain is the pain I am experiencing right now. But, in the midst of that pain, the comfort is that God is the One who created the moment.

Peter says that character is produced through suffering. Perhaps part of developing character is learning the lessons from the pain: I will get through this. I am stronger than this struggle. I can do all things thru Christ who strengthens me.

We can say those things so easily. Perhaps one of the "gifts" of suffering is that it helps us learn to believe them.

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photo credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/missrogue/522823385/

x-treme rock climbing = x-treme victory

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the first sport climbing series competition in florida for 2009 was this past weekend. the whole family went on the 4 hour drive down - left at 5 am. ugh!

the gym - x-treme rock climbing miami - was extremely cool. high walls, roof climbing, even a stalagtite.

cassidy was awesome. she climbed in the youth female b category and she WON! this picture is actually from the bouldering competition she won last month, but it's a cool picture of her hanging off a climbing wall.

you can actually watch her climb at the miami gym here. she makes a scary move at the end that looks like she's going to fall - but she just goes for it and holds on, hanging by one hand.

jackson couldn't compete with his arm still in the cast. we go to the orthopedic doc tomorrow to find out if he (a) keeps the current cast, (b) gets a new cast or (c) gets the cast off and starts rehab. obviously, we're hopin' and prayin' for option c.

the team aiguille kids - our gym team from aiguille rock climbing center in longwood, fl - entered 8 of the 10 divisions and won 5 of them, taking 1-2-3 in 2 of them. our kids really, really climbed well, especially for the first competition of the season. we're proud of them all.

coaching rock climbing is way different than coaching soccer. that's for sure!

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the bobblehead gospel

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working with david delk on a new series called "the bobblehead gospel". not sure if we'll keep that title. it's based on the concept that too often we create this watered down version of the gospel that is basically designed to sound good. it's not really about following jesus, but about using him to make us feel better about doing what we want to.

here's a couple of videos for the song 'plastic jesus'. one is just a bobblehead jesus with billy idol singing the song in the background. great version of the song. the other is from one of those all-time classic movies, cool hand luke, where paul newman's character sings it when he finds out his mother has died. not sure what the connection is between the song and his mom - maybe it was her favorite...but i digress.

i'll write some more about each of the lies of the bobblehead gospel we are teaching about. who knows, maybe you'll see it in a book some day. enjoy the videos!

Sing it Billy, Sing it!

What a great piece of movie making

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