Fridays Are For One Question
For me, it was Castle Greyskull. The Christmas morning I woke up and He-Man’s center of operations sitting under the tree was perhaps the most memorable Christmas morning I had as a kid. That’s what the question today is about, the first in a series of Christmas-related Friday questions:
“As a child, what was the greatest, bestest, most unbelievable toy you received on Christmas morning?”
**The goal of “One Question Friday” is simple: To show that everyone has something funny, engaging, creative, and worthwhile to say. So comment away! Be real. Be creative. Think hard. And check back to see how others answered the question.
His Name Shall Be Called…
There she was. A 14-year-old girl, sitting – or maybe kneeling – face to face with an angel. And she had just heard the most incredible news. She was going to be a mom.
But she was confused. She knew the dynamics, birds and bees and whatnot. So she was right to ask, “How can this be?”
Then the words came back…
“You will be overshadowed by the Almighty…”
“God will be the Father…”
“The child will be called the Son of God…”
“And His name will be…”
Yes! The name! This was the great part. In her culture, the name was everything. It would be a symbol of the child’s essence, a one-word description of the essential nature of His character. So she held her breath a little bit, wondering what this miracle child would be called.
“His name will be… Jesus.”
Really? Jesus? It was a great name to be sure, and it had a great meaning – The Lord is Salvation. It was just a little, well, a little ordinary. Half the kids in Hebrew school would be named Jesus. It would be the equivalent of being named “John” or “Joe” in this century. It just felt… common.
Maybe it should be Maximus. Or just straight Caeser. Something regal. Something befitting a child of this magnitude. Not Joe.
But that’s how God works, isn’t it? Think about it – He infuses the ordinary with the extraordinary; the common with the uncommon. This child, who would not be extraordinarily tall, or handsome, or athletic, who would seem ordinary, is completely unique. And this child would be born into the most common of circumstances, a manger with everyday animals looking on, to completely ordinary parents, would redeem the world. Jesus comes into the ordinary and makes it extraordinary.
And He’s still doing it. He came into me, and into you, the most common of people, and made us uncommon. He made us children of God. And in this ordinary day in Nashville, He will enter in and make hundreds of common moments uncommon.
Jesus it is. The name fits.
Steven Seagal: Lawman
I thought this was a joke until I heard Steven say: “It’s not a joke.”
Apparently, it’s not a joke. And according to Seagal, it’s not a job either: “It’s an adventure.”
I present to you the depths to which reality tv has fallen: Steven Seagal: Lawman.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99E16w0PxCA]
Tim Keller Profile
If you haven’t ever heard or read Tim Keller, let me encourage you to do so. He’s the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, and he’s been doing ministry there in a missional fashion before it was even cool to say “missional.”
But here’s the thing about Keller: In a landscape of church-planters wearing black glasses, tight t-shirts, and tribal tattoos, Keller is… well… boring. He’s bald. He’s pretty old. He wears suits and ties. If you go to his church, you’d encounter classical music and a choir.
But New Yorkers (and folks across the evangelical world for that matter) are flocking to him. So mysterious is his appeal that New York Magazine ran this profile about him. Here’s an excerpt:
Keller is a 59-year-old bald, large-framed man, dressed today in a blue blazer and gray slacks. For those expecting hellfire and brimstone, the first surprise is the voice. Keller doesn’t speak in theatrical, over-the-top tones but in a soft, conversational manner, as if he’s sharing a confidence with a friend. For today’s sermon on a passage from the Old Testament Book of Habakkuk, in which a minor Jewish prophet rails about the misery brought on by the Babylonians in the seventh century B.C., Keller jumps to the recession and what he sees as shameful finger-pointing by both liberals and conservatives. “The Bible doesn’t let you do that,” Keller intones from the pulpit. “The Bible is nowhere near as simplistic, dare I say it, as either the New York Times’ or The Wall Street Journal’seditorial page. You can write that down. Put it on your blog, I don’t care.”
Read more: Why Are So Many New Yorkers Flocking to Evangelical Christian Preacher Tim Keller? — New York Magazine http://nymag.com/news/features/62374/#ixzz0YRnrObK5
You Can't Be "A Little Bad"
Joshua and I were playing action figures, and he kept insisting on being the bad guys. Jana alerted me to this trend, and we’ve been curious about his shift from good guy to bad guy.
Apparently it’s all about the weapons.
Which is comforting in a sense, but nevertheless made me wish that he wanted to be the good guy only. So both Jana and I tried to gently push him that direction. Then he came back with, “You know what’s the best? The best is if you’re just a little bad.”
I get that, especially since to a 5-year-old it means that you can still be the hero and yet have an awesome gun. So you get the best of both worlds.
But isn’t this how most people in the world, even the “good” ones, approach matters of spirituality? Even those of us that call ourselves Christians try to be mostly good and entertain just a very little bit of bad. One of the most striking places this world view is blown apart is in the writings of John the beloved disciple.
Have you ever noticed how black and white it is with John? Everything is either light or dark. It’s truth or lie. It’s death or life. No middle ground at all. He’s constantly saying that the light has no part with the darkness. Or that the truth has no place in a liar. For John, there’s no such thing as “dawn” or “dusk.” There’s only light or dark, all or nothing.
So where does that leave us, the people who want to be mostly good and just a little bad?
This same John, for which there is no middle ground, is the one who recorded in John 3 the words of Jesus, that we must all be “born again.” And for John, either you are or you aren’t. The first time you were born, you were bad. Oh, you might have moments when you stumbled into goodness just like an occasional star might temporarily light up the night a bit, but the darkness is still overpoweringly present.
But the second time? Well, that birth is of the spirit. And the second time, we came out good. Because the second time, we got the goodness of the One who was all good and no bad.
For those of us who want to be just a little bad, we would do well to be careful with what we want. Perhaps we are more bad than we think we are. Either that, or we need to remember that we’re good because of Jesus. And we need to quit pretending we’re something we’re not.
Weekends Are For Kids
The day started off with a bang around here.
With Thanksgiving over, we set about ringing in the Christmas season. And we love Christmas.
L-O-V-E Christmas.
So we hauled out the tree, added some lights and a snowman to the house, and listened to Christmas music all morning. Joshua started feeling pretty sluggish, and by 12:30 he was sleeping on the couch under a blanket.
1:15 rolled around and you guessed it – he woke up with fever. So off to the hospital we go.
And if I could vent here for just a moment. We moved into a house built in 1957 about a year and a half ago, and we love it. It’s a great house in a greater neighborhood. But moving in, we got a home warranty protection from America’s First Warranty cause we knew some stuff would break.
Well, last Friday night the heater went out. It was blowing, but it was blowing cool air. So we called the warranty company on Saturday morning. We didn’t hear anything back until Monday, when we learned that apparently they “misplaced” the work order. A technician came out on Monday and said they had to order a part for the heater.
Tuesday came and no part.
Wednesday no part.
Thursday was Thanksgiving.
Friday, no part.
This morning they told me it would be Monday before they could come. That’s 9 days without heat. Now I know I don’t have much to complain about given our status in the world at large, but man – I am upset. I can’t help but think that going 9 days without heat might have contributed to my son going to the hospital. As you might imagine, I’ve had several really fun conversations with the company already today, none of which have been close to satisfying to me, especially since this is the 4th service call we’ve made about the heating / AC unit in the last year.
So any chance there’s a high level exec from America’s First reading our blog? If so, boy – I’d love to grab about 10 minutes of conversation with you.
Hopefully Joshua won’t have to stay overnight. We’ll keep the blog updated…
Fridays Are For One Question
Thanksgiving is a great time to reflect about who God is and what He has been faithful to do in yet another year of our lives. It’s also a great time to eat. So rather than going with the standard “What are you thankful for this year?” question, let’s talk about food.
“What did you eat this week that knocked your socks off?”
**The goal of “One Question Friday” is simple: To show that everyone has something funny, engaging, creative, and worthwhile to say. So comment away! Be real. Be creative. Think hard. And check back to see how others answered the question.
Happy Thanksgiving from the Swedish Chef
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-OFXUaMIv8&feature=player_embedded]
10 Things to Remember When Your Child is Disobedient
Let’s face it – we as parents are all in the business of discipline. It’s a huge chunk of what we do. I found these suggestions to be very helpful.
From Ruth Simons:
1. You disobey the Lord…and He is the perfect Father.
2. His kindness leads us to repentance.
3. God disciplines those He loves.
4. Your child’s disobedience does not measure your value any more than his obedience showcases your achievement.
5. Your child’s disobedience teaches you dependence on God.
6. And sometimes it’s more than dependence He’s after, it’s complete desperation for Him.
7. Your child is clearly a sinner, and needs to hear the truth of the Gospel, and see it lived out through you.
8. Times of correction serve to remind, or establish within your child, his own sense of need for a Savior.
9. It’s not good behavior you really desire…you want his heart.
10. Your child is a person, not a project.
I also had this thought. If so much of our job as parents involves correction, doesn’t that translate over the Lord as the perfect parent? I tend to pay little heed to the fact that the Lord is in the business of disciplining me. Perhaps He is doing so far more than I would care to acknowledge.
Great TV Commercial
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4WrUuyx1Ds&feature=player_embedded]