June 25, 2010
Blogging Break
Obviously, I’ve been on a blogging break but now we are headed out on vacation (to Washington DC). I will resume blogging when I return after the July 4th holiday. Stay safe and enjoy your summer.
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June 21, 2010
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
When I was in seminary, a friend introduced me to a series of books that blew me away. Remember, I did not grow up in a home where C.S. Lewis was read so I didn’t know anything about “The Chronicles of Narnia.” He gave the “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe” and I read it two days. When I returned it, he made my day by telling me there were five more books! I read the entire series in about two weeks.
In seminary, it was expected that I would read Lewis’ classic works like “Mere Christianity” or “The Great Divorce.” But most of my friends just assumed that everyone had read the Chronicles when they were children.
I read once that Lewis wrote the Chronicles to provide children with a framework for understanding the Gospel. Little Johnny reads the Chronicles when he’s a child and then when someone tells him about Jesus dying on the cross to rescue us from sin he thinks, “That’s just like Aslan dying on the stone table to rescue Edmond from the White Witch!” He gets it. There’s a category in his brain for such things because of the books.
I also read that C.S. Lewis did not want these books made into movies because he was convinced that they could not do Aslan justice. Alsan, as the representative of Jesus, deserved dignity and royalty. If you have ever seen the BBC adaptation of the Chronicles, with the furry puppet Aslan and atrocious special effects, you understand why. But Lewis died in 1963, (the same day as JFK’s assassination which meant the obituary of the greatest writer of the 20 century was relegated to page 13. Somehow I think he wouldn’t have cared), and could have never imagined CGI rendering that makes Aslan come alive with majestic brilliance.
Out of all the Chronicles, my favorite, by far, is “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.” I’ve seen both movies and enjoyed them immensely but I’ve been waiting for the Dawn Treader. Well,I need wait no more. Christmas 2010 the Dawn Treader sails again.
Enjoy the trailer. I can’t wait!
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June 17, 2010
A Prayer about our “Stuff”
Scotty Smith writes a blog for Gospel Coalition called “Heavenwords.” Scotty is the founding pastor of Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN, right outside of Nashville. His blog posts are prayers based on Scripture passages. With the economy the way it is right now, I thought it would be helpful to share a post he wrote the other day. It’s called “A Prayer About my Stuff.”
Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle. Do not eat the food of a stingy man, do not crave his delicacies; for he is the kind of man who is always thinking about the cost. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. Proverbs 23:4-7
Dear heavenly Father, this has been a crazy and stressful season in our economy. Some of us who thought we’d be retired in a couple of years are now thinking it’s ten, if at all. Some of us have lost jobs, even homes. Some of us are selling stuff; having stuff repossessed; having to move; some of our marriages are being stressed to the point of ending; and some of us are being tempted to steal for the first time. Others of us are holding tighter to our stuff than ever and are exerting great energy just to get more. Lord, we need wisdom for ourselves and for our friends.
Father, though the issues vary and we dare not generalize, bring the perspective of the gospel to bear as we think about our relationship to “stuff”. Where have we been presumptuous? Where have we assumed the right to excess? Why did we think only first century disciples of Jesus would ever actually have to pray for daily bread? Where have we gotten use to a lifestyle of having so much stuff to the point that we actually call abundance “need”?
In our “iWorld” of new gadgets and cool widgets, help us to ponder the reality that over half of the population on the earth exists on 3 of our American dollars, or less, a day. Father, rather than setting our gaze on riches, help us only to glance at them. Give us restraint, Lord Jesus. Holy Spirit, if we would wear ourselves out for anything, let it be to become rich towards God—to have the gospel so penetrate our hearts that we cry out with spontaneous joy, “who do I have in heaven but you, O Lord, and being with you I desire nothing on the earth… YOU are my portion, sovereign Lord.”
And Father, if we’ve become the stingy man or woman who is always thinking about the cost, forgive us and free us… forgive me and free me. Let our hearts be so smitten with you, Jesus, that we’re primarily thinking about how to be grace-meisters in generosity, not curmudgeons in hoarding.
Lord Jesus, you who were outrageously rich in all things became incomprehensibly poor for us, so that we, who were desperately poor in sin might be made immeasurably rich in grace. So very Amen, I pray, in your most enriching and liberating name.
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June 10, 2010
Good Grief?
As many of you know, a high school student was killed yesterday diving off of Manville Bridge. We opened the church to any students who wanted to meet and, at one point, had about 50 students and parents there. The grief was real and raw and was expressed in a variety of normal ways.
Grief is like that. It has “stages” like denial, bargining, anger, fear, depression. But it is uniquely personal and no two people grieve the same way.
A couple of years ago, I preached a sermon called, “Good Grief?” You can read it here.
Pray for the Slown family and for all of his friends as the terrible truth and finality of death becomes more real to them.
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June 08, 2010
The passing of Dana Key
Yesterday, one of the “greats” of Contemporary Music passed away. Dana Key, the one half of Degarmo and Key, was a musician, writer, producer, and, most recently, the pastor of a small church in Cordova Tn. Last year, I wrote a blog on Dana Key. D and G were the first Christian concert I went to and I was amazed at their musical excellence and their passion for the Lord.
Pray for his wife, children, and church as they mourn and celebrate a life well lived.
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June 07, 2010
Do as I say and do?
We all know that our children are watching us all the time. This should make us shudder. They see it all - the good, the bad, the ugly.
We have an amazing opportunity to help show the them the way but we have to make sure we are not saying, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
I found this video and flirted with using it in the sermon for this Sunday morning. It is disturbing and intense. Several people said that they thought small children in the service might be upset by watching it.
I know this - it will make you think about how you are setting an example for your children!
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June 04, 2010
Rest in Peace Miss Ellie!
Well, the sad news came today that Miss Ellie died. Miss Ellie was the reigning “Ugliest Dog” in the world. You can check out the picture here.
You know, sometimes things are so stupid that they are funny - like Napoleon Dynamite.
Sometimes things are so ugly that that they have a surreal beauty about them.
Not this dog! She’s just plain ugly!
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June 02, 2010
Resurrection Dance
Brian Sullan passed this along. When’s the last time you danced for joy because of Jesus?
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