One of the Best Albums I Own

Please allow me to recommend to you one of the best albums I own. For years it has played in the background of my studies and prayers. And, it was created by one of my dearest friends.

You can now get Still Waters by Jeremy Mayfield on Amazon.  It is nothing more than Jeremy at the piano; but nothing less than magnificent. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Coffee is Making My Stomach Upset

It's been a few weeks since I have posted anything. I simply haven't had the time, the topic, or motivation to do so. Writing consistently, I am finding, is not something "scramblers" do well; and that is exactly what I am these days - a scrambler.

I have a to-do list a mile long that grows more than shrinks. I put off the tasks I dread most. And those tasks linger in the back of my conscience (as well as bug me in the little red circle on my iPhone!), reminding me that, not only am I a scrambler, I am a procrastinator.

I am also becoming more aware of the fact that there is no neutral existence. If we are not living, we are dying. If I am not getting stronger, I am getting weaker. If it is not being cleaned, it is getting dirty. If I am not trusting in Christ, I am trusting in myself - or something else which usually lingers in the shadow of self.

I feel like the guy who spins a dozen plates at once (or more!) for half-time entertainment. Only I am not so good at keeping all of my plates spinning. I knock some down with my scrambling. I allow others to wobble because of neglect. And I simply forget others.

Plus, I have a sinus infection.

Not only am I scattered outside, but I feel scattered inside. This makes life less than exciting. Hope is now just a religious word. Right now I feel like I am everywhere.

My life is a mess.

Often I feel alone.

But there is something that continues to nag me. A soft but strong warmth that lingers all-the-while. It is personal. Constant. Beckoning me to conversation, it seems, with the air. Invisible, but visible enough to be uncomfortable with using anything other than the word "he" to describe it. So, I will use "he".

He patiently forces me to surrender my timeline, and, to reject every pragmatic method for rest. I am losing my confidence in everything to do that which only he can do. I hate waiting, but it is all I have now.

Coffee is making my stomach upset.

There are no updates.

People aren't answering.

I can barely muster up the desire to read or write.

And so, I am here. Face to face with a God who is spirit and has not a body like men. I don't think it'll work, but I am going to spend time in prayer with this Lord. I am going to take him at his word that he will answer me. I am fully expecting to wait for his response, while at the same time trust he is here with me.

I am reminded of Eugene Peterson's words: "A sense of hurry in pastoral work disqualifies one for the work of conversation and prayer that develops relationships that meet personal needs. There are heavy demands put upon pastoral work, true; there is difficult work to be engaged in, yes. But the pastor must not be "busy." Busyness is an illness of spirit, a rush from one thing to another because there is no ballast of vocational integrity and no confidence in the primacy of grace."

Please pray with me that I will once again - day to day - find my ballast and confidence in the primacy of God's glorious grace.

Free Kindle Book - Honest to God by Joshua Weidmann

While I have not read this book, it does seem to discuss something that is very important to me - honesty and transparency. I am becoming more convinced that these important aspects of the Christian life are the missing key postures in modern Christianity. Transparency is often the difference between hypocrisy and humility. Honesty is what keeps us from being more than image bearers. It affirms what the world already knows about us - that we are not the Image Himself.

I am looking forward to reading this book. Even more, it's free! Enjoy.

You can get Honest to God by Joshua Weidmann here.

The Strange Man Who Sat Next to Me This Morning

I sat down at Starbucks this morning at 5:30. There was no other person around. It didn't take long, however, for the "serge" to happen. People, like me, needed their fix. They needed the bean juice to get their day comfortable and controllable - like yesterday.

As the people came pouring in, I had to put my headphones in my ears to concentrate. Voices, laughs, phone calls, and other types of communication rang throughout the store. It was loud. People were being people, communal, and relational. At times, I just sat and watched.

It was interesting to see how normal this was for everyone. They were all dressed for work. Some had sleep in their eyes. Some, their hair still wet. But this is normal for the morning - normal for people in the morning. The day needs starting. Coffee please.

Something was abnormal though. And he sat right next to me.

He was not normal. He was, in every sense of the word, strange. There were many chairs in the store. He chose the one across from me (its a big table with many chairs). He sat, with his hot tea, and watched.

He wore all black. His hair was wet, but it didn't look like "shower-wet." It looked more like "rain-wet." Only it hasn't rained in Minneapolis in weeks. Like I said, he was strange.

His glasses were thicker than normal. It looked as if he fixed them on the end of his nose; only, it was probably because they ran down their anyway. Why fight the inevitable?

His teeth were also strange. I never saw them, but only the way they made his mouth bulge.

He was truly unlike the other hundred people (or so) who walked in this store. Not only did he look different, he didn't communicate. He talked to no one but himself - at least for a moment. The movement of his mouth was enough to make me look up from my book.

His presence made me feel uneasy. I immediately looked at all of my possessions - my watch, my pens, my coffee cup, and my books. I made sure they were not in his space. I made room for him. But my motive was not so noble.

As I read about pastoring, I was convicted that this man sat next to me while I was completely uncommunicable. I had headphones in (is it ok to end that sentence with a preposition?). I was looking down, reading. I was less than inviting. So I took my headphones out in an effort to be more accessible.

Thirty minutes later, no words from this man. No words from me to this man. As he rose from his seat, I noticed his hand was deformed; curved under as if he was pointing toward his own elbow. And he walked with a noticeable limp. He was also noticeably alone.

This was probably common for him. He was probably used to talking to no one.

I wonder why he came to starbucks to sit so long. Why did he look so intently at others? Why did he come to a place where hundreds of people walked in and out, talking, drinking...relating?

Why did he sit across from me?

Why didn't I say anything to him?

I had just read about Christ touching a leper. But I didn't communicate anything at all to the obvious outcast who sat across from me.

By grace, never again.

Why We Don't Like Christ's Commandment to Love Our Neighbor

Jesus' command to love our neighbor is ambiguous for a reason. It lacks particularity in order to keep us from taking the reigns of his Kingdom. It keeps us off of his throne. In our sin, this command makes us uneasy and so we pass it off as impractical. We need something more.

And so we tend to respond to the command, not with obedience, but with another question, "Who [particularly] is my neighbor?"

The question, while religious and with a perceived willingness to follow, is less than obedient, and is ultimately an attempt to keep control over our own life. We all do it. It is man's rebellious, but polite, attempt to tell Jesus "No." It is the kiss on his cheek, while we betray him in our hearts.

Consider a few points while we take a closer look at the man in Luke 10 who responded to Jesus this way.

First, we see man's sinful hesitation after receiving a clear command. Should Christ have spoken this command and immediately ascended, the man would never have had the opportunity to respond. He (apparently) would have been left without clarification, and thus with an excuse to dismiss the command altogether.

This would leave the man guiltless, not having enough information to obey. His lack of love would be Christ's fault, not his. And so the verse goes, "But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:29).

Second, the desire for particularity turns Christian discipleship into a religious checklist, rather than a sacrificial lifestyle. You get the idea that, should Christ have responded, "That man over there is your neighbor", the man would have gone and done some good deed for him and considered his work done. As soon as the charity case seemed to have been freed from distress, the man would have considered himself freed from discipleship.

By then Christ would have been off to another town, and unable to physically give him another particular command. How convenient.

Third, Christ's command keeps Christ in control. Jesus, being the Sovereign Lord of the universe, who is in control, command, and who is always close (now by his Spirit in us), determines who our neighbor will be, when they will enter our lives, and how they will infect, inconvenience, and disturb us. It is almost as if he introduces them without us expecting or knowing. The man wanted to know who his neighbor was right then. Christ told him a story that left him feeling as if his life would be constantly threatened by the possibility of having to love.

The man would be completely dependent to know who to love, how to love, when to love, and why to love. He tried to trick Christ into submission. But Christ wrestled him down.

Fourth, Christ's command keeps us "not in control." Each and every one of us has neighbors. Those people are in our lives by his sovereign design. He chose them and their location, as he chose ours (Acts 17). They are the people we live around, work around, and do recreation around. They are also the people in need around us - the poor, the orphans, and the widows. Should we be left with our own imagination to determine a particular person to love, we would surely pick the easiest ones.

But Christ, being in control, places them in our lives. He knows who we need to love better than we do. And because the command is more ambiguous than we'd like, we are always dependent and at attention. We are always waiting the next neighborly introduction.

Fifth, the fact that this man [seemingly] didn't know who his neighbor was was indicative of his guilt, not an indication of his ignorant innocence. He should have known who his neighbor was. He was simply trying to remain innocent while unloving.

Similarly, if a particular person doesn't come to mind when we hear the word neighbor, we are in a dangerous situation. If we are not neighboring, we are not loving. If we are not loving, then we will ultimately be burning (John 15). The same goes with words like widow, orphan, and impoverished.

Finally, this command is the greatest blessing in our lives. Loving means dying. And in the Christian life, dying means truly living. As we go around frantically trying to save our lives, we are ultimately losing them. But, when we are at Christ's attention, loving those he places in our lives, we lose our life - and while this losing hurts, we know and feel that he has saved us.

Children Bombarded by Porn While Watching Disney!

Whether an accident or not, it is absolutely unacceptable. Repairing what has just happened in these children's lives, in a matter of minutes, is beyond the abilities of any court, company, or counselor.

I remember images from when I was 9.

FOX Carolina 21

This should remind all of us to be in more diligent in protecting our children from adult content. There is probably nothing this mother could have done to protect hers. Sometimes evil is unavoidable, and we are simply left to handle its consequences.

You can read the full article here.

Pornography Harms is another great site that I frequent often for news, updates, and ways to be active in fighting against this wicked industry.

Why Does God Allow Sin to Remain After He Saves Us?

Why does God save us and allow us to remain sinful? There are few "problems" more relevant and significant than this in the Christian experience. A person sins and is immediately confronted with the question, "How can I say I love God when I obviously don't love him enough to stop sinning?"

Some then wonder why the Lord allows sin to linger. Some wonder if he actually exists. Some wonder if their faith actually exists; or, whether they will soon be lugging around the label associated with hypocritic Christianity.

In this post, I'd like to list some reasons why the Lord chooses to allow sin to remain in our lives.

The first two reasons come from John Owen (of course I will paraphrase and spare us both the sanctifying headache).  Owen states that sin remains in our lives, as an ember of a flame, dwelling, but without its previous dominion. There are times when the Lord fans this flame to allow us to smell its stench, to get its smoke in our eyes, and to feel its burn in our lives.

This reminds us who we are and what we are capable of. It keeps us humble, dependent, and repentant.

This makes his sanctifying power more recognizable. David knew it well. At one time he could not keep himself from women. At another, he would not consider the virgin in his own bed. Likewise Abraham, who did not trust the Lord with his wife Sarah, later trusted the Lord with his most beloved son Isaac. This is the Lord's work of saving and sanctifying sinners.

To sum up the first two reasons: The Lord allows sin to dwell in order that we would regularly see our own weaknesses, as well as regularly see his strengths.

Another reason is that we continue to live (after we are saved) in a world with those who are still enslaved in sin. Lingering sin is the plank in our eye, in light of which we must view the moral specks in other eyes. There is something that happens when a person knows their sin well as they engage with others in redemptive conversation.

There is a humility about them. There are no walls around them. They know what it feels like to be gripped by wickedness. They know what it's like to be at war within themselves. They know what it's like to need Christ every hour.

This humility is necessary in evangelism. It is necessary for love, forgiveness, patience, and peace.

Without a constant reminder of our own need of Christ, we become self-reliant, judgmental, and less-than-relevant to the culture around us. Unfortunately, too many churches fail to see the plank in their own eye. They fail to recognize the flame that continues to burn within them. And people, being pretty darn smart, stay away. No one wants to be smacked in the head with a plank! No one wants to be burned by a self-righteous tongue.

The world knows what it feels like to wrestle with sin. This is why artists like Eminem and Lil' Wayne continue to top the charts. They fail, however, to identify the problem. In the words of Eminem, "I can't tell you what it really is, I can only tell you what it feels like..."

On the contrary, many Christians know what the problem is, but fail to admit they know what it feels like. And this is why most Christian media fails to reach, with any sort of significance, the dying world around us. We say, "I can tell you what it really is, but I can't tell you what it feels like."

The Lord allows sin to remain in us so that we can say to a dying person, "I can tell you what it really is, and I can tell you what it feels like. Let's walk through this difficult, but rewarding, life together."

Like it or not, the Lord uses sin in us to bring about his redemptive purposes.

Finally, he allows sin to linger so that we will continually long for heaven. We all must realize that sin will have its final day. This life is but a vapor. Our battle with sin is a short one. This world is obviously not our home.  Soon and very soon, we will go and see the King. That glorious day will inaugurate endless years of sinless relationship with the Lord and others - without tears, without pain, without conflict, and without sorrow.

And he will get all the glory. Why? Because his name is Jesus, the King who saves struggling sinners still.