practical christian living

"'everything bad [the ungodly] can seize hold of in our life is twisted maliciously against Christ and His teaching. the result is that by our fault God's sacred name is exposed to insult. the more closely we see ourselves being watched by our enemies, the more intent we should be to avoid their slanders, so that their ill-will strengthens us in the desire to do well.'

as believers we should seek to be exemplary in every aspect of our lives, doing our best for the sake of Christ and His gospel. our work, play, driving and shopping should all be done with a view that unbelievers will be attracted to the gospel that they see at work in our lives."

(the content of this post as well as the title comes straight from tuesday's devotional by jerry bridges... the quote within the quote is from john calvin)

hitting the homestretch

so you have your gregorian calendar, your lunar calendar, your fiscal calendar, your liturgical calendar, your school calendar, your chinese calendar... but my calendar, of course, is the quiz season calendar. i don't remember if i was born in the year of the monkey or the rabbit or the rat, but i DO remember that i graduated in the year of luke. and crazy enough, i keep track of when others graduated in the same way.

well, i've just about come full cycle again. there are just over two months left with this gospel which is so full of treasures. it seems like so long since the days of meditating on Luke 1:4.

this morning i had the opportunity to speak at chapel for the christian school (the first time since they became our new downtown neighbors), and i expanded some on saturday's quiz devotional. i read a good portion of chapters 22 and 23 (thank you whitney and joey and justin - you got my head in these ones a lot) looking at different people's reactions to who Jesus is. we focused most specifically on the thief on the cross who understood his just punishment, Jesus' undeserved death AND the fact that Jesus alone had say over his eternal destiny. (Luke 23:39-43; 2 Corinthians 5:20-21)

anyway, i just came away from that time marveling at the goodness of God as He has opened up the whole of the book throughout the year and enabled me to pull further illustrations from earlier in the book even as i spoke today about chapter 23! what an exciting process, what an amazing God!

little did i realize that i was about to receive a multiplied blessing... in checking my email before heading home to put out pap's trash, i read a missionary update from the sawka's who work in Bible translation in zambia (ironically, ken used to teach at the christian school). i'll share a paragraph:

Because their language has been neglected and is not well known outside their own area, the Soli have been called ‘the hidden language group’ of Zambia. They number well over 50,000 speakers but have never had a book published in their language. We hope to have the first book in Soli by the end of this year, and it will be a book of the Bible!!

and below that paragraph is a picture with this caption: "first drafts of the gospel of luke in the soli language"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yeah, this living and active Word that has been unfolding anew for me this year will be the first thing that these people EVER READ IN THEIR LANGUAGE! praise God - may He open hearts and eyes!

***please pray for the sawka's in their translation work, for our quiz teams as we wrap up the local season and head for nationals in st. louis AND for the christian school... i would love to see them add Bible quizzing next year - especially since they are now down here close!

2 randoms from last night

first, on lost, there was one of the greatest lines... ever. during a particularly tense situation, jack asked ben "how can you read?" ben's response: "my mother taught me how." totally deadpan... i LOVE it!

second, i've been reading a devotional by jerry bridges, holiness day by day. last night's was dealing with Titus 2:11-12. he gives a very helpful and convicting definition for "ungodliness":

"ungodliness in its broadest form basically comprises disregarding God, ignoring Him, or not taking Him into account in one's life. it's a lack of fear and reverence for Him... a person may be highly moral and even benevolent and still be ungodly."

i've definitely been chewing on that one a bunch! the coolest part? God's grace trains us to renounce ungodliness! :)

post super bowl thoughts...

the number of late games (4:15 start) that the steelers have played this year coupled with the fact that evening church is 6-7 and youth group 7-8:30, i haven't seen many entire games this season. however, more than once, we spent the first 10-15 minutes of youth group listening to a tense final few minutes on the radio as they pulled out dramatic wins...

with that in mind, after i got over the initial shock and disappointment of fitzgerald's go ahead touchdown, my first two thoughts were very similar to mike tomlin's post-game sentiments: "well, at least they have more than 2 minutes on the clock," and "i'm sure they can pull this out, it's what they've been doing all year."

oh, we did youth group before church last night, so i got to catch the end of the first half and all of the second half AND the steelers beat the cardinals 67-60 in our annual youth group table top football super bowl. (we play 7 minute quarters)