good thought from the conference

apologetics is a word for defending our faith. todd burden from inbounds ministries, who is a basketball coach, was talking about how we need to be good at defense. BUT that defense should always be with a mind towards offense. in this analogy, what is our offense? THE GOSPEL. if i can defend my faith, but can't share the truth of the gospel, i have done NO GOOD! i must ALWAYS keep eternity in sight.

just sharing a sweet quote for thought...

i've been reading "the supremacy of Christ in a postmodern world." i would highly recommend it, as well as the conference messages that make up the book. here's a deep one for ya:

"it's the very nature of joy to be a spontaneous response to something that you value. joy comes to you. it rises spontaneously as witness to what you treasure. and therefore it reveals more authentically than anything else what your treasure is. 'for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also' (matt. 6:21). joy is unique in its capacity to witness to what we treasure." john piper

who'd have guessed?

so we were watching the trailer for the desiring God national pastor's conference (i wish i could be there, but we'll just watch the videos when they're on the web :)). i'm particularly excited for sinclair ferguson and mark driscoll. the irony? as we watched the trailer, i said, "hey, you know what that background music is, don't you?" sadly, neither matt nor mike could tell. matt has the excuse of being just a wee lad who's perhaps too young to remember... mike, however, he was at a bunch of the concerts with me!!! i guess i'm on the cusp of popular culture...



can you tell what it is? here's a beautiful bootleg that brings back so many memories...

you've got alot of nothing to say
you've got alot of hate to spray
you've got alot of nothing to say
yet your life is the meaning of temporary

on the significance of names...

so last wednesday was that annual occurrence when i say to my quiz team... "alright guys, saturday's the first quiz and we've gotta come up with a name!"

everybody started flippin' through luke and we came up with a few interesting ideas... but finally settled on one we were pleased with "sawdust in your brother's eye." now is the time to put that name to good use - the marketing, the quality quizzing, the application...

since allison's already started on the artwork portion, i've been kinda meditating on the application part (since that's the part that's my strength... ok - i like doing the artwork, too) - and i was just thinking back on last year's team and the way it turned out...

onesiphorus. yeah, we settled on that one cause daniel was learning 2 timothy 1, and he said "that sounds like a refreshing dinosaur." real deep. but definitely the kind of logic that could not be defeated at the annual naming conference! (yeah, we all have a kinda warped sense of humor). so throughout the year, our team graffiti tended to be a picture of a poorly drawn dinosaur taking a shower (remember, i had two years of college in an art related field! - and somehow the hand gesture became a sort of shower head motion with the arm and hand). the shirts we made came out pretty sweet and unique, and the shower caps that we wore for the tournament and championship quiz DEFINITELY caused us to sweat!

still, my favorite part was the application... and how'd it come about? bad language skills! onesiphorus... not necessarily easy to say, even tougher to spell... so to help out scorekeepers, i started to pronounce it (wun see for us)... well, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that there are two numbers in there... 1 & 4... and that si is "yes" in spanish... and us, well, that's a plural pronoun. so one day in our team devotion time i shared this verse:

"for all the promises of God find their Yes in Him [Jesus Christ]. that is why through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory." 2 corinthians 1:20

there's only 1 si 4 us! it's Jesus! He is the Yes to all the promises of God :) so cool - such a big thought sparked by our wackiness.

hopefully, the sawdust'll take us in a meaningful direction as well!




well, time to get to studying luke...

i like lists (and alliteration)...

our pastor began a series on sunday entitled "back to basics" - about practical things that we do as christians to grow in a life of godliness. well, sunday's messages were about worship - and the real thinker for me came from the statement, "your worship determines your witness" - ie. what i value, treasure, esteem is what i talk about the most... (chew on that one)

the Scripture for the morning message was 1 chronicles 16:23-30 which is part of david's song of thanks when the ark was brought back to jerusalem... what really grabbed me in that passage was the idea of God being praised in "all the earth" and "among the nations" (see previous post "praying for the nations") - how do the nations come to worship Him? through our witness... what is the source of our witness? OUR WORSHIP!

as i glanced back through the entire song of thanks... i noticed that i had numbered stuff at the beginning of it (i like to number lists), 14 imperatives (fancy english class word for commands) that i have spent the last couple of days meditating on:

oh give thanks to the LORD;
call upon His name;
make known His deeds among the peoples!
sing to Him;
sing praises to Him;
tell of all His wondrous works!
glory in His holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!
seek the LORD
and [seek] His strength;
seek His presence continually!
remember the wondrous works that He has done,
[remember] His miracles
and [remember] the judgments He uttered,
2 Chronicles 16:8-12

teach me, O Lord, to worship You aright that the nations may know of Your name! (beginning with my neighborhood)

i walked down the street...

so last november, i moved to my own place (next to my grandparents - to be closer to them when they need stuff and to help them out). of course, this new place is in town, which is quite a change for me... i'm used to my neighbors being pretty much all relatives or cows!

now, it would probably surprise some people just how much of an introvert i am... cause i can totally come out of my shell in situations where i'm comfortable or in ministry situations where i sort of "force outgoing."

anyway, sunday morning was a first for me... i got up early before sunday school and church and just walked down my street. (which was pretty cool cause the river was covered with fog - did i mention that i live right on the river? - and i saw a great blue heron sitting on a rock down by the shore) - but honestly - i was a little nervous about taking that walk. why? there were PEOPLE in those houses... who might SEE me!

so i sit back now and think "wow, what a chicken" (not the first time i've thought of myself in that manner... lol) - and praying "God give me opportunities to reach out to those PEOPLE... my neighbors..."

"for God did not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power, of love and of self-discipline." 2 tim. 1:7

oh, and by the way, who came to speak in sunday school and church... a young missionary serving in east berlin... who shared how much he and his wife have been stretched out of their comfort zones there - but amazed at the opportunities that God has opened up! :)

gotta love our thematic God!

praying for the nations...

first of all, then, i urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. this is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 timothy 2:1-4

these verses have really been on my heart this week. school has started back up, which means that we're back into the tuesday morning before school at tim horton's thing with myself and some students. last school year, we got into the habit of praying for the country of pakistan - being updated by missionary friends that we know there. it was my prayer that the prayer time together would help the students to grow in their prayer life AND to get a bigger view of the world.

it is so often easy to get self-centered and narrow minded. this was definitely reinforced to me by a pastor friend from zambia who emailed me last week. zambia's president died of a stroke last week, and i had heard nothing of it from u.s. news sources! they must now hold elections within 90 days.

so i'm praying for pakistan - as they replace musharref, zambia - as they look to elect a replacement for mwanawasa, zimbabwe - as election turmoil and suffering continues surrounding mugabe, and the united states as we prepare for the november elections. (and for iraq, afghanistan, iran, georgia, russia, sudan, etc.)

i am prompted by God's command to pray for these leaders. (pleasing God is a good thing ;)) i am encouraged that "there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God." (rom. 13:1) i am expectant that this is all "for the sake of His name among the nations." (rom. 1:3)

after this i looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" revelation 7:9-10

p.s. a good reminder quote for those of us voting u.s. citizens: "and ye, o peoples, to whom God gave the liberty to choose your own magistrates, see to it, that ye do not forfeit this favor by electing to positions of highest honor, rascals and enemies of God." j. calvin