Fine Young Man

For the last few days, Kristy has complained about smelling skunk in the kitchen of our house. I didn’t think anything of it. I thought that maybe a skunk had wandered through our backyard (just off the kitchen) and or had been killed on the road below the house. We also have a small dog that goes in and out of the house into the backyard. The thought crossed my mind that Doggie may have tangled with a skunk outside. However, everytime the dog passed me, I hadn’t noticed any rank odor coming from it.

This afternoon, Kristy yells out, “What kind of coffee are you making?” I answered back, “Seattle’s Best Breakfast Blend. Why?” “Your coffee smells like skunk!” she replied. So, to Seattle’s Best coffee: this would not be a good ad or commercial for your Breakfast Blend!

A Tweet from Paul Young, the guy who wrote The Shack:

Barth wrote: ‘God will not be God apart from us.’ Participation is essential to relationship as is communication. Prayer is both.

My friend, Brad, emailed me this week’s sermon notes this morning. He’s using a Dell laptop give-away email he received this past week. The ad promised a “free” laptop if he was eligible. It contained 12 pages of “fine print.” As it turns out, the fine print only speaks to how one might qualify to compete for the laptop. It does not provide the laptop; it only makes one eligible. So it is with the law. As Brad puts it, so many get tangled up in the “fine print” that they never get to compete for the prize. That’s a good thought.

I put that with my sermon for tomorrow. We are preparing for 2 weekends of visits by youth minister candidates and I wanted to help set the proper mindset, if possible. So, I’m using 1 Corinthians 3 and talking about the responsibility we have to build well. It occurred to me that often in church we get so entangled in the “fine print” that we are ok when young people grow up and quit Jesus or even lose their faith because of how unChristian we behave as we debate the fine print. That is unacceptable. I was reminded how firmly I am convicted about this. The main thing is to help all our people, especially our youth, have their own walk with Jesus. If we fail at that because we are distracted, shame on us.

I spoke with my friend Rick today. Somehow during the phone call, we revisited an episode that happened at IHOP one morning over breakfast. We had finished the meal and had talked about everything from theology to telling jokes. It was a good time. The waitress came up, refreshed my coffee, and gave us the bill. I asked if we paid her and she said we could. That’s all I said.

Rick, however, quick-witted as he is, asked her if she was going to pick up his tab. That launched her into a conversation with him about how all her check was going to pay insurance on her new car. Her boyfriend had surprised her with a used truck (new to her) and she was obviously excited about it. The deal he made with her is that he got her the truck, but she’d have to maintain the insurance. That went on for a good 5 minutes.

Here’s the kicker: the whole time I was thinking, “Rick and I were talking about important things, not some stupid truck.” I’m ashamed to say, but I judged this waitress unworthy of having a conversation with. I am ashamed of that. Rick did not, and I’m thankful for that. He engaged her (he’s very good at it) and you could tell that she just wanted to tell someone about the joy that this gift brought. I want to be more like Rick and Jesus, for that matter.

One thing I’ve been concerned with my whole vacation week is the amount of anger I have. It took me literally 2 days at the beach to basically calm down. I don’t know where it’s coming from, bit I now know what to do. I didn’t have to teach class this last sunday morning even though I was preaching the meeting. The man teaching spoke on how God’s grace helps us deal with anger. He used the parable of the man who had been forgiven an impossible debt who then went out and put another in jail for an insignificant debt. I need to start there with my anger.

Tied to my anger is my gut. I’m very intuitive which can be good but is mostly bad especially with Kristy. She does somethingand I assess her motives in a flash. Ha! I’ve got her! Then she tells me her reasoning which makes perfect sense and which I had not thought of. Next comes my apology. Like I said, my gut is good at helping me sense a person’s hurt, but I haven’t learned to control it yet.

Excerpt from John Mark Hicks blog regarding “Systematic Christian Doctrine”. You can read the entire post here.

Ellen T. Charry has argued that the function of Christian Doctrine is aretegenic, that is, it is “conducive to virtue” or it generates a virtuous life (By the Renewing of Your Minds [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977], p. 19). The purpose of Christian doctrine is character formation, spiritual formation. Theology should give the people of God an identity (a sense of calling and status) and equip them with normative ideas and values that shape them into the image of Christ. The function of Christian doctrine is practical—to build a community which images God. Thus, the goal is neither polemical victory (to glory in being “right” on every issue) nor theological ingenuity (to glory in a “new” idea). It is pragmatic. Christian doctrine should serve God’s intent to seek a people that share his values and holiness in communion with him.

Theology is neither metaphysical speculation nor polemical exchange, but the applied story of God toward the goal of character formation—to be formed into the image of Christ. As Paul told Titus, if we will teach Christian doctrine (stress the theology of Titus 3:3-7), then the Christian community will be full of good works (Titus 3:8). This is the kind of “teaching” that is “good and profitable.” A community is shaped by its doctrine; it will become what its doctrine is. Teachers and preachers pay heed. Doctrine must be aretegenic if it is to be biblical.

What theology does Paul have in mind? He summarizes it in Titus 3:3-7. If Titus would have a vibrant community of faith, he should stress this: (1) the triune work of God—the Father who loved us through Jesus the Son and renewed us through the Holy Spirit; (2) our utter fallenness and thus the need for redemption; (3) the divine initiative for our salvation, the motive that moved the divine initiative, and the divine work which accomplished it; (4) the nature and means of our salvation as our redemption is not only forgiveness by the grace of Jesus Christ but transformation by the power of the Spiorit; and (5) the creation of a community of believers with eschatological hope.

Stress these things, Paul told Titus, and the people of God will be dedicated to good works (transformed living in service to others). They will avoid foolish controversies and quarrels about the law (polemics will not be their focus). They will be God’s people who image Christ in a fallen world; they will be a people who live according to the age to come rather than fashioned by this present evil age.

Some suspect that wrist watches are on the way out because of cell phones. So, the 1000 watch project has been born to commemorate this time in history.

Regarding swine flu, one news correspondent commented that the media had helped people because more information leads to less fear. Not sure I’m buying that.

Yesterday, I listened as Neil MacFarquhar was interviewed about fatwas in the Muslim faith. Fatwas are clerical interpretations of the Koran for everyday living. As you might expect, there are as many interpretations and applications as there are clerics. Some find a cleric who will give them the answers they want. One key question that was asked: How do you determine the best or right answers out of the myriads of voices? 

A listener wrote in this morning that it is no different than Christianity or any other religion. I would agree.

This question is also relevant for my class this Sunday on 1 Corinthians 14.

“The Bible contains the precepts of truth. Jesus is the Person of truth. The Spirit is the power of truth.” I heard this quote from the late Adrian Rogers.

I had lunch at Senor Tequila’s in Maumelle with my preacher friends from the Little Rock area. It was great as always.

These steps led back into history. They once led to some bunkhouses for those building Carpenter Dam on Lake Hamilton. They were also rented after the dam was built by a couple of gambling mobsters who were wanted by the FBI. The local police coveredfor them until they could get out of town.

A friend just experienced the 5th burglary of their property. The investigators know who did it, but refuse to arrest the teenagers. Have things really changed?

Paul's reasoning in Corinthians

We’ve been digging in to 1 Corinthians 11-14 and discussing the interaction between men and women in worship. I’m toying with this drawing to capture Paul’s rationale for the instruction that he gives in the section about how the Corinthian women are to behave in the assembly. I think the main force of his argument is his understanding of the creation story.

So, Question #1: Is the action consistent with the story of God in creation?

Question #2: What message is this action sending culturally for us?

Question #3: How have the churches worked through this action in the past?

After that Paul brings in both the culture at large and the custom of the churches. I put these in the creation story because each of these operating independent of the biblical story have the propensity to miss the mark regarding the relationship of the genders. I think Paul is adopting these as support of his argument as long as they are reflecting the reality of God’s creation.

How men and women interact in worship becomes a discussion of 3 different environments in which we exist – the biblical story, the tradition of the churches, and the cultural proprieties of our day. I think this might provide a pair of glasses through which we can view and think through the ways both men and women can participate in the work and worship of our church.

I have begun to catch up on the podcast from Rob Bell. Yesterday, I was listening to him work through John 1. In the sermon he was talking about affirming the powerful life force (logos & zoe) that we see at work around us everyday. He specifically implicated parents.

Kids have a very sensitive zoe-meter. They know when “life” abounds and when it doesn’t. His conclusion was to affirm zoe in our kids’ lives wherever we see. He said we should be saying “yes” so much to everything that is good that when we have to say “no”, it means something.

I am thinking about my interactions with Holley. They are “no” most of the time. It is killing her life force and I don’t want to do that anymore.