Where You Can Find Me

You really thought I was back after that last post, didn't you? Me too.

But it's looking like I won't be here often at all so I would like to give you an update on where you can REALLY find me. Here's what's going on:

1) I'm getting more opportunities to publish my writing elsewhere and would like to keep it that way. From the looks of it, I'll be a contributing writer at Burnside Writers Collective. They were kind enough to publish my piece on a recent trip to Istanbul and liked me enough to give me a password to publish faster. I also agreed to write a devotional on the book of James for Forward Edge International, a missions organization that sends over 1,000 people on short term missions trips a year. My students and I were fortunate enough to go to Nicaragua with them. Hopefully more stuff to appear beyond the arenas of personal blogging.

2) The DEVOTE Podcast series did a lot better than I expected. We have a great number of subscribers already and actually numbering in the hundreds of downloads for some of the episodes. I am going to commit to finishing out 22 episodes and then begin to post one a week starting January 1st. I really like how God has chosen to use it. You can read more about the podcast here and you can subscribe to it here.

3) I am really dedicating a lot of my time to my church, Willamette Christian Church and the students there. I am teaching much more and focusing on trying to multiply disciples in the South Portland area through this awesome body of believers. It's a ton of work and I would rather do it than blog. At least that's how I feel most days.

4) I tweet @chrisnye and am on Facebook.

5) I'll also be at home with my wife. I love her tons. No, you can't come over.

Five Years of Sound and Five Months of Silence

Author’s note: I have tried to write this post 11 times. I did count and it is sad.

It’s absurd to think that a blog could last forever, that one small spot on the Internet would carry out a life longer than the author. It rarely happens. My silence on the blog has been necessary as well as intentional (although I doubt many of the readers care or even noticed). But now I’m giving my shout from the darkness, a call out to anyone still paying attention and still (unfortunately) subscribed.

I started this blog five years ago yesterday as a place to put my writing. It was November 16^th 2006 and we didn’t know who Katy Perry was. I have loved blogging. A couple of weeks ago, on a day off, I got extremely nostalgic and vainly flipped through a ton of pages (probably too many), re-reading old entires and quietly giggling to myself at the roughness of the blog in many (most) places. 

The blog has been purposefully silent as I finished the work on a number of creative projects, of which I will gladly tell you about.

1) The DEVOTE podcast series. I am teaching through a series called “Distant God” with my students. The goal of the series is to recognize that God is not always close to us, but that the distance is normally our deal. The series works out the process of getting nearer to God. While there are no tricks (illusions, Michael) to get God into your life, there are practices that people have been doing for centuries and I think they worked. Not sure. The DEVOTE podcast is a series of 22 audio-devotionals done by yours truly. They are 5-7 minutes long and include a passage or scripture and some thoughts on it. All of this is done aesthetically with music, pauses, swells, etc. It is my attempt to take the classic print-form devotional, re-work it and bring to students where they already are: in their tiny white head phones. The first 10 are available on iTunes now: Search “Willamette Students” in the iTunes store or simply click here or here.

Also, stream a sample here. 

2) Better writing (hopefully). During my silence at WAMOS, I actually did not stop writing; I think I wrote more. I have been working on submitting pieces to outside blogs, websites, and publications. One problem with blogging is that you’re the editor and you think your writing is awesome right away. There is a short editing process and it involved one set of eyes. I’m re-entering the world of having someone else give the approval of my verbiage, something I remember loving about writing for newspapers and magazines when I did. I’ve entered the world of rejections and I think it’s making me a better writer.

3) I might still write here and over at a newer Tumblr I began called, A Certain Persuasion, which focuses on the ties between language and belief. Sort of. Please visit every once and a while to see the writing that gets rejected.

Thanks for your patience, I’m hoping to stick around here more. But I must say, because of my silence here, I have had much more creative energy and time. My preaching has certainly improved and I’m hoping my writing/podcasting follows.  

Closer

Thank you for your patience as I have been out of the country and getting caught up as I came back. There has not been much time to write.

I wanted to share this video of what happened in Managua, Nicaragua this past week. My wife and I led 32 students and 6 leaders to the Villa Esperanza for 8 days and it was a life changing experience for all of us. I am so happy my wife came with me as I not only got closer to Jesus in this trip, but I've never felt closer to my wife. We were able to witness horrific injustice and unimaginable beauty in just 8 days together. Something a mentor of mine has been known to say is this: "Shared experiences build intimacy." It's true. Intimacy is complex, especially in marriage, and I feel like there was nothing better for my wife and I to do as we approach our first year than to go to a strange place and learn more about Jesus by serving and being served.

It was a transformational week and I am so extremely proud of my students. We had the whole week with no drama, medical emergencies, or major issues - God truly provided. And I know he provided because we had literally hundreds of people praying for the trip. Because it was so saturated in prayer, God ended up doing remarkable things and for that I'm thankful.

Please take some time to watch this video and thank you for all who were praying for us and supporting us. May God bless you. For the best viewing, make sure you're watching in HD and go full screen with it.

Off to Managua, Nicaragua...with 32 High School Students

On Thursday night, I will send our first team of 30 to Managua, Nicaragua to serve and be served by the Village of Hope, who takes care of widows and orphans living in the city. On Friday, my wife and I will take another 8 down to make a total of 38 people ready to follow God to Nicaragua.

This has been an incredible process of faith. I've been able to watch young high school students raise an incredible amount of money and pray incredible prayers for their friends and people they've never met. 

I'll be with my students and leaders until the end of the month, so needless to say this blog will be extremely quiet. However, I'm happy to point you to our minsitry's blog where (hopefully) we'll have daily updates of the goings on in Managua. The series will be called "Field Notes from Managua" and will include photos and blog entries from team members. I'd love for the followers of this blog to get a piece of what I get to do for a living. I can't even believe I'm paid to take kids to experience God with people who are materially poor, but relationally rich. I'm excited for all of what we have to learn.

Here's a link to the students blog.

We also made this video asking you all to join us in prayer:

The Command is for Doing

A man approaches Jesus and says, "What's the most important commandment in all of the Scriptures?" The answer Jesus gives sounds at first a little dodgy: "Hear, O, Israel the Lord your God is One...and you shall love Him with all of your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your mind, and with all of your strength."

Of all the commands given in the Bible, Jesus reveals that the greatest command is not about doing something, but primarily about knowing somebody.

We want a checklist, we want steps to get to heaven and ways to please God because we want to take care of our own salvation. We want it on our shoulders and in our hands. But, as Jonah reminds us, "Salvation belongs to the Lord" and it is not our condition to save ourselves with good works.

So since we cannot save ourselves, the number one command Jesus gives is to love God. To get to know Him. To begin an understanding of his Personhood and Life. But hold on...

This command dates back to the early days of the Jewish faith and in speaking about this command God says, "The command is very near to you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it."

The command to know God, to love Him with everything we have is very close to us and in our ability for what reason? So that we can do it.

Here lies the connection: While the greatest command is not to do but to love, nevertheless, our love drives us to do something. As Bob Goff would say, "When you love, you do." It's that simple. I love my wife, therefore I do things for her. I love my family, therefore I serve them and spend time with them and do things for them.

Why do we have this backwards? We're so busy trying to go on missions trips, camps, and service projects so that God might think we're awesome and love us. But the reality is we must know His love for us and, in return, be given a love that drives us to do something about it all.

If you love God, you pray to Him and read His word and serve those around you. The Bible also tells us that if we do not love people, we are a liar when we say, "I love God."

This simple command to love God is not about saying we love God, but rather the command is there for us so that we can do it. Saying you love God does not mean you're a Christian. Knowing God produces a life filled with the Holy Spirit and driven to action: We pray, we seek God, we read, we serve, we spend our lives giving to others. The command to love God is meant for doing something about it. Because when you love, you do.

Praying for Nothing

At some point early in our teenage years, every boy and girl has to face the reality that prayer is not a simple discipline. No where is it more honestly and simply recorded than in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain:

“Then Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing come of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it warn’t so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hooks. It warn’t any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn’t make it work. By and by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I couldn’t make it out no way."

I never blame Huck for his views on religion. Huck is a boy. Miss Watson is a woman who has somehow ignored the fact that she doesn't get what she asks for all of the time. That's a little screwy.

These two characters are in our church. I'm mostly trying to persuade the Huck's to consider different definitions of the fundamentals they grew up with, but I also get to meet Miss Watson, who tends to speak for Huck and even answer the questions I direct at him. Both, however, have the misunderstanding that prayer serves one purpose: to get what you can't get yourself.

This is certainly a purpose of prayer: petition. The Scriptures tell us that we don't have some things simply because we don't ask God for them. But it's not solely what prayer is for. Prayer is for meditation, for reflection, for connecting with God, and so many more things.

That's why when Jesus taught his disciples how to pray (after they asked him), he gives us an extremely comprehensive and somewhat broad prayer, which includes worshipful, relational, petitionary, and reflective/repentant language. It's complex.

Overall, when Jesus asked things of his Father, he always put the relationship with God above the request with the line, "your will be done" and a repeating use of the word, "Father." Jesus always kept prayer multifaceted. We don't always get what we want, but God always gives us what we need: access to Him and His throne.

If your prayer is not being "answered," consider perhaps that what you need above your request being fulfilled is a relationship and knowledge of the Almighty. That might not change your circumstance, but it will certainly change you.

Why the Bereans Were Noble in Character

There's this strange passage in Luke's account of the early church where he accounts one group of early believers as more noble than another. The passage is short and reads like this in one translation:

"Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."
-Acts 17:11

I have read that passage before and thought, Ah yes, these Bereans were solid because they received the word with eagerness. That is true. But it is only half of the whole truth.

The Bereans not only received Paul's message with eagerness, but they examined the Scriptures every day to see if Paul was right about Jesus.

First century Jews were not ones to easily give up their faith. Berean Jews would not just shrug their shoulders and follow whatever was popular (which was not Christianity at that time, anyways). In fact, Bereans were some of the most educated of 1st century Jews and Luke says they were more noble because of their eagerness to examine the Scriptures.

One thing that drives me a little crazy is how many of us hear something a good speaker says and automatically believe it. We'll hear one side of something or hear something said strongly with enough authority and we're willing to take it as our own. It's not necessarily a great argument, but the person said it with enough gusto that we assume it to be right. That's what most of cable news is today and I'm afraid some of our churches are leaning this way.

My friend Branden often says in his sermons, "Don't take my word for it, look at the Scriptures and examine it for yourself." The Bereans were not noble in character for just accepting and agreeing with Paul, they did their homework.

Strange thing is, this is the next verse:

"As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men." 

The product of their eager examination was to believe. Not the other way around. Many people blame the movement of Christianity on ignorance. And perhaps, yes, it started with fishermen, but it didn't stop when it reached the scholars.

There is Nothing Safe About Childhood

 "It's a hard world for little things" 

- Rachel Cooper, The Night of the Hunter

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were brothers who spent their lives researching culture and studying linguistics. They also had a knack for folk tales and spent another portion of their life editing, writing and compiling tales for children in their native German language. The result would be Grimm's Fairy Tales, where we get classics like Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, and Snow White.

When the tales were first published in 1812, they were met with fierce criticism because they were too violent, sexual, and "adult themed" to be marketed to children. Many reviewers rejected the first printing and the brothers set out to make several updated editions over the next number of years that toned down some of the graphic content. They removed overtly sexual jokes and turned the "wicked mother" into a "wicked stepmother." But one thing they didn't erase but in fact escalated was the violence in the stories.

That's why we have these old stories about wolves chasing little girls, step-mothers planning the death of young innocent ones, and little boys being run down by malicious candy shop owners. They are "fairy tales" for children however they are extremely unsafe stories filled with terror.

I spend my life with families who have kids exiting childhood. And far too often I meet students who have been told a lie their whole life. They have had parents who were wealthy and supportive and loving, but not honest. These students have been protected from the one reality they need to know: life is dangerous.

In the attempt to keep their children "innocent" and "free," parents tell their children a different type of fairy tale, a modern American story: everyone loves you because you're special, you are good at everything you try, and if you work hard enough and be a good little boy or girl, you'll be successful. Also, you'll never die.

Of course the language is not as blunt, but this is what we tell kids with our actions. We tell them all of this under the banner of "protecting them." They can't see certain things because it will damage their innocence, ruin their good heart, and give them a bad name.

But doesn't Scripture tell us such a different story? It's a lot more similar to Grimm's Fairy Tales. The horrific truth of life is that nothing about childhood is safe and everything about everyone is dangerous. The Bible says that there is no one who lives correctly, that the world is filled with people who will try to tear you apart, and you and I are contributors to the madness. You don't teach your son to disobey. He's already pretty good at that.

One time I was speaking at a conference and I mentioned that I am slow to trust people. Afterward, a woman came up to me and said, "You're a pastor and you don't quickly trust people - that seems kind of backwards. Wouldn't the Christian thing to do be to assume the best about people?" But the problem is that the Bible actually assumes the worst about everybody. I am slow to trust people because most people are looking out for their own benefit and not the common good.  

What I've realized over time is that I am also slow to trust others because I have no trust in myself. If no one is "good," then neither am I. Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, and all of the characters in those old stories made mistakes of their own that nearly cost them their life.

This is why the Bible tells us to "Trust the Lord" with all of our hearts and "lean not on your own understanding." Because of our crooked hearts, we see the world around us as either "not so bad" or too terrible to ever expose to our children. The trick of parenting becomes shepherding kids through their own brokenness, letting them in on the tragedy of the world at the same time as you let them in on the goodness of God.

We are right in desiring for our children to never be corrupted, but we must remember that we cannot save them from this world. That's why God, the best Father, sent His perfect Son Jesus to be corrupted for us so that we might be delivered from evil. This phrase "delivered from evil," should emphasize the word "deliver," for it infers that we are to spend some time amongst wicked things, namely ourselves. It's useless pretending there's no big bad wolf. God rescues us from it all.

Until then, we train our children in the understanding that enemies abound, and our greatest adversary is closer than you think, closer than under your bed or in your closet: it's right under your rib cage.

Tweet It and You've Got It

Some friends and I were recently talking about broadcasting ideas onto the Internet; the limited editing, the quickness at which we fall in love with an idea, and how we publish something with such ease that remains in one "space" forever.

The conversation turned to how we communicate things we're learning about God and how the "publish" or "share" or "tweet" button gives the idea a type of permanence and championing. It's there. Forever-ish. And people recognize you as thoughtful and sort of sharp. They "like" it, comment on it, or retweet it. Instantly, you feel good about it all and never have to revisit that thought.

I realize how easy this is: you feel convicted by an eternal truth, you write it down, and share it publicly and then make the dangerous but easy step of convincing yourself that by tweeting or sharing it online, you've mastered it.

Think it. Tweet/Blog/Status Update it. Boom. Mastered. Never have to think about that one again. Strangely dangerous.

Also, I've got to mention to irony that I'm sharing this in a blog post right? No matter the incongruity, I find myself struggling deeply with this idea: Just because we share a truth does not mean that it has changed our life, that it has sunk in at all.

Right now, I am sharing with you about how we too quickly share truths that they never sink deep enough to change us. Now that I've shared it, can I just continue on blogging and tweeting everything I think?

I don't think I need to have "mastered" everything I share, but I do need to be sure that it's done something in my life. Because you can't take people to a place you've never been. Right?

[Insert Apocalyptic Pun Blog Title Here]

With all of the verses that were thrown out on the Internet over the past couple of weeks, the ones that stick in my head are ones like this: "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."

That's from 2 Timothy 4. It is, in my opinion, Paul's best advice to his protege, Timothy.

Why? Because there's something very off about the human heart, that is, about my heart: we hear what we want to hear.

But I've lived just long enough to realize that what I desperately want to be true is certainly not true. Well, not all of the time at least. With physical realities and science, this is easy. When something is able to be proven over and over, no matter how you "feel" about gravity we know that it's true. Your dreams of flight will stay in your slumber.

Our metaphysical realities are much more difficult to harness. And if we begin with the basis that humans are generally good people and that you and I have hearts that are "in the right place," then we quickly build up a solid trust of our own heads.

Religious, secular, or spiritual people have this issue. And it's ultimately what ended up blowing this whole Harold Camping/Family Radio Apocalypse thing way out of proportion. Camping was able to communicate this and garner enough publicity to reach those who genuinely and desperately wanted this to be true. And in America, all you have to do is strike a heart-string and you've won people's lives.

The Los Angeles Times reported on some Family Radio Followers' reactions to the Non-Rapture and told the story of Keith Bauer, a 38 year-old truck driver who took the week off of work to travel the US before the Rapture with his family. He pulled his kids out of school and took off for 10 days.

"If it was his last week on Earth, he wanted to see parts of it he'd always heard about but missed, such as the Grand Canyon. With maxed-out credit cards and a growing mountain of bills, he said, the rapture would have been a relief."

Keith didn't need God, Keith needed a rapture, a way out of his life - he wanted to hit the restart button because he was losing lives fast. As Christians, we've gotten very good at getting out from under the Bible and truth by listening to our Pastor when he says, "What God really means here is..." or "This isn't what it looks like..." when most often it really is.

We look for ways out of what God says because normally what he says is really difficult to understand and ever more difficult to practice.

I don't blame Keith because he's a lot like me. He wanted his circumstances to change and wanted God's help with that, instead of recognizing that the common denominator to his circumstances was the one thing he is unwilling to give up: himself.

What's Wrong With Everything

Sometimes, you hear something or say something so often that the meaning is stripped.

Earlier this week, Senator Rand Paul was commenting on the rising fuel prices and the Senate's dispute over taxing big oil companies when he said, "We're going to raise the cost of the oil companies by raising their taxes, which means you'll pay more at the pump. It is economic illiteracy and it is what's wrong up here in Washington."

"What's wrong here in Washington" is a favorite rhetorical phrase uttered by most of our politicians on both sides of the isle. Along with "the American people want..." and "Our Founding Fathers didn't mean…”, claiming that something is wrong with Washington is just something you start saying when you work in national politics.

The irony of Paul's comment (and many others) is that he's a Senator working in Washington and the son of a long-time senator. He is a part of the broken system. He is a cog in the messed up wheel. And by the way, I only single out Senator Paul because he was the most recent guy to say it.

When you look at our language in the church, not much is different. Many pastors (myself included) have uttered the phrase, "we live in a broken world," or "the problem with the world is..." And with one breath and half of a sentence what the politicians in Washington and we have just done is distance ourselves from the very problem we have created.

Paul is a piece of the broken Washington machine and we are a part of the broken world. To say that “the world” is destroying all we know that is good, excellent, and beautiful is to excuse our hearts from their own brokenness and sit atop our own prideful spirit.

Just because you prayed a prayer for Jesus to “come into your heart” (another empty rhetorical phrase) does not mean you are done with brokenness. Repentance is not a one-time show; it is a process, perhaps even a lifestyle of turning our hearts back to God. When you surrender to God, you don’t end your brokenness instantly, you begin the process of being made into the image of Jesus. And that’ll take your whole life.

Until then, you and I are not the solution to what is broken, we are what is broken. And Jesus is the solution. We place our hope in the fact that he’ll go on making all things new - us included.

N.T. Wright Settles It...Again.

A number of months ago I wrote about my problems with Stephen Hawking's atheism and found that many people had the same issues. His latest philosophies and writings have been met with much debate and not a whole lot of praise.

Most recently, my hero and international man of legitimacy, the scholar N.T. Wright posted a great piece in the Washington Post's "On Faith" section. He, along with many, are disappointed in Hawking and others's weak Biblical intellect and simple Christian worldview:

"It’s depressing to see Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant minds in his field, trying to speak as an expert on things he sadly seems to know rather less about than many averagely intelligent Christians...


...Hawking is working with a very low-grade and sub-biblical view of ‘going to heaven’...Of course, the old set-up of the ‘science and religion’ debate was itself deeply influenced by this same worldview, and needs realigning. In fact, the ancient Christians would have been shocked to see their worldview labelled as a ‘religion.’ It was a philosophy, a politics, a culture, a vocation... the category of ‘religion’ is part of the problem, not part of the solution."

You can read the whole thing here. N.T. Wright is the Anglican Bishop of Durham, England and is the author of several scholarly works, most notably his take on the resurrection entitled, The Resurrection of the Son of God, which is freaking huge.  His best, most accessible work is called, Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense and I think most of you should look into reading it. Maybe. Ok. Do it.

The Right Match

A fish is a sweet animal because it can breath underwater. Fresh green grass is beautiful and on a sunny day it doesn't get much better than taking a nap in it under a tree. Put that awesome fish with that fine grass and you'll get a dead fish in the grass. Also, an embarrassing clean-up process.

We know this rule: the combination of two things need complimentary characteristics that makes them work well together. Opposites attract. She's outgoing and he's shy. That fish has gills and fins that work perfectly when underwater and not that well on the grass (believe me, I tried it once when I was little and my dad got really mad at me and I spent that night in my room, grounded because he just paid for that fish and that's his money that he works so da -- just don't do it).

When my brother and I were little, my dad would make Mac 'n' Cheese. My brother loves Mac and loves cheese, but would never touch Mac 'n' Cheese. Why? He didn't think they went together well (I know, and he's in therapy so we're happy).

Nature tells us that often times we are most free when we are set up under certain restrictions of a complimentary match - when we have found a mate or a habitat we can best exist with. But what we end up doing with our lives is parceling ourselves out to everything we find awesome. We put a little bit of ourselves with a girl, a little bit of ourselves to our family, and most of ourselves to school or a job. We even split our time living in one place and buying another house that we can relax in.

Instead of finding our whole self in one place, we take pieces of ourselves and dish it out to a ton of different things we think are good. And they are good, but is it the right match?

Christians are really good at messing with this. How often do you hear someone list out their priorities as "God first, family second, and ministry/work third"? I hear it all the time. We have our "God time" in the morning so we can have "work time" during the day and then "family time" at night (except when a good game is on, then you have "me time").

Did Jesus do this? Did he have neatly blocked time frames to "be with God" and then "do ministry" and then "hang with his homies." Not at all. In fact, there are multiple times where Jesus is trying to get to a secluded place to rest and people bother him. He doesn't say, "excuse me, but you're interrupting my quiet time." No, he serves them.

And why?

Because you live one life and you are one person. God is not a device that you turn on and off and neither is your family. Every decision you make is a spiritual decision and every word you say is a spiritual word.

God is our perfect match, but only when our whole life is given to Him and defined by Him. Giving one day a week to God is not what the Scriptures have told us, giving our very lives to God is exactly what the Scriptures have told us. Placing all of who you are under the freeing restriction of God changes not necessarily what you do, but how you go about doing everything.

Us with God. That is how life is supposed to work. The difficult thing is realizing that the "us" part is more complex than you might think and the "with" part is more dangerous than we would like.

A Safer World?

Something that has changed in our globalized world is that we're able to hear "America" react to major events instantly. We're able to hear how everyone is handling everything all of the time.

In an event like yesterday's, my Christian brothers and sisters become increasingly confused: do I agree with people who are happy or do I agree with people who are calm about it all? Do I "love my enemy" right now or do I rejoice in the death of a wicked man?

With the spread of communication much authority has been lost, so we hear everything and decide quickly. That's why you get high school students saying they agree with a certain position because "it just makes sense." What they mean by that is, "the person who said that made me feel better." The loudest voice wins.

On the flip side, the beauty of the interconnected age is that it gives a critical thinker tons of resources. If you can tune out the noise to enjoy the music of healthy discourse, you'll have a sound opinion and a better view of the world. And in our critical thinking, we realize that everything is not so simple.

Jon Furman works down the hall from me and saves me from a lot of mistakes. I suggest, amidst the noise, you listen to Jon's summation of the noise and his call to us to remember that it pains God to pronounce judgement on his creation.

“Say to them; 'As I live,’ says the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?”- Ezekiel 33:11

Even at the death of an evil man, we can make some evil remarks about it all. True followers of Jesus do not react wickedly to evil. Just because a dangerous man falls doesn't mean we get out from under God's call on our lives. We don't get out of jail free, remember.

Certainly, as our President said, the world is safer without a guy like Bin Laden around. But let's remember that we also are extremely dangerous individuals. Evil does not just exist in a suburb of Pakistan, it's trying to make its way out of our own hearts. This much is clear: we need Jesus just as much as the next guy.

Is There Anything Right About the USA Today Website?

I have to admit, I never went to USAToday.com until today and I made that decision for multiple reasons. One, if your newspaper design is terrible, it's close to guaranteed that your website will make me want to blow chunks. Secondly, I'm pretty sure Yahoo! News just buys USAToday stories anyways.

But I was sent there for the first time and decided to get a look at their home page and OHMYWORDWHATTHEHECK

 (Please click on the image to barf)

This is what happens when you stop caring. So many things to pick apart, but can we just start with a simple question: Why do you have an ad for the 2010 Census in your upper right hand ad-space? And why is it so pixilated? It is nearly May of 2011 so I'm pretty sure the guy who forgot to fill out his census will see this ad and still think it to be too much of an effort. If the Census paid top dollar for this, then good on you, USAToday.

Secondly, your front page story is on the fifth Fast & Furious movie with a promise that it delivers "high octane entertainment." But not to be missed is the assorted list of top headlines to the right of Vin Diesel as if he were curious in the top stories, which include: Mariah Carey's twins, warning for homebuyers, and the third most popular article (second list of sentences as you move right from Mr. Diesel) "Casey Abrams says he growled too much."

America!!!

What's the worst website design you've ever seen? I'm talking like this bad.

The American Gods

One of my favorite quotes is from A.W. Tozer and it goes like this: "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."

Baylor University sociologists Paul Froese and Christopher Bader have contributed what seems to be an excellent study of what American people think about when they say, "God." 

95% of Americans believe in "God," so the issue obviously becomes one of definition. Who is this God? I find it increasingly helpful to have a name to the God we worship as Christians, saying the name of Jesus is a quick way to separate and tear down misconceptions people hold in their mind when they think about "God." Nonetheless, there still lies many divisions in our definition of "God" and the role he has in the universe.

Froese and Bader have released, America's Four Gods: What We Say About God - and What That Says About Us and I've been holding out for the paperback. Thankfully, the wonderful people at Duke's Faith & Leadership posted a great article summarizing a lot of the scholarly ground work included in the book. In the results of the study, Froese and Bader find these common adjectives amongst most Americans:

• The Authoritative God: God is like a literal father, both engaged as a positive force in the world and a judge of the behaviors of humankind. Suffering can be the result of social and individual sins.
• The Benevolent God: God is mainly a force for good in the world, a being who answers the prayers of individuals and comforts the suffering.
• The Critical God: God is less likely to be concerned with moments in the lives of individuals, but will mete out judgments in the next life. This is a popular image among the poor and oppressed, the authors state.
• The Distant God: God is a cosmic force that sets the laws of nature in motion, but does not get involved in day-to-day events or movements.

Read the whole thing here. 

Taking Jesus For All That He Is

It is difficult to find somebody who disagrees with Jesus' teachings. No matter what someone thinks about Christianity, when they are shown the raw teachings of Jesus they are impressed and inspired. Mostly. But Jesus being Lord over all and the Son of God? That seems like a stretch, they say.

On face value, I totally agree. I mean, the guy said some good things, but can't people who say good things also have messianic delusions? In fact, Mark Oppenhiemer of The New York Times said this exact thing (quite out of the blue) a month ago in his article about the new C.S. Lewis Bible. And I've thought about that when I was first getting into this whole Christian thing.

Jesus said great things, sure, but when it came to it, after he said these great things and got a following he just started thinking a little too highly of himself and said some things that weren't true.

But hold on...

In an examination of Christ's teachings, it becomes pretty clear that every one of his commands is actually rooted in his Messianic identity (the fact that he is God). Observe, just my top three favorite teachings:

Do you like his teachings on love? They are based in the fact that He is love. He is the source and creator and sustainer of all love.

Do you like his teaching on peace? They are based on the fact that he is peace. He is the source of the Sabbath and the creator of the seventh day.

Do you like his teachings on forgiveness and loving your enemies? It is based on the fact that he was killed by his enemies and yet he died forgiving them.

You can't separate Jesus' teachings from who he is because one informs the other. An examination of Christ's words show us that His teaching is founded upon a claim of who he really is. Biblically speaking: commands are always rooted in promises.

I stole that last line from Jeff Patterson. DEAL WITH IT.

Seeing Through

A guy who works with me at the church once said, "Think less about cool and more about Jesus." I like that. When I heard that I took it to mean that whatever we do should be see-through.

Many people love the worship music at churches and say they go "for the music." Some people obsess over the Bible teaching and say they go "for the teaching." They say things like, "it's just so solid" or "the music leader is so wonderful." Or what about the building? "The facility is really nice."

These are kind compliments, but they miss the point.

We see all over the Bible that Jesus is the point. If you look closely at the Greek, Jesus wasn't building his church on the rock of Peter, he was building his church on himself, the Rock of Ages. And if you listen to his words about the Holy Spirit, you'll see that the whole idea of the Spirit is to point back to Jesus. And if you listen to the Risen Christ's words to the men on the road to Emmaus, you'll understand that the entire Old Testament was a testimony of the Messiah to come, who would be named Jesus.

He's the point.

And so we like the music. And we love the teaching. We like the buildings and we enjoy the classes. I end up meeting a lot of people who are Christians because they found a nice little niche in the Evangelical sub-culture. They can act like a Christian, like Christian things, and enjoy Christian friends. But can they see through all of that?

Jesus, for all of us, gives the tangible form of the intangible. As the Scriptures tell us, he is the image of the invisible. He is the point because he is very clear and specific.

So churches like ours sings songs, opens the Bible, and gathers together in order that we might see Jesus. The problem becomes when we forget that all of this stuff is see-through.

In an age where everyone is "spiritual" and many people "go to church," let's remember that we go to church to meet Jesus, sing songs to Jesus, and we open the Word so that we might know Jesus.

The Bible is not the point. The Church is not the point. The music is not the point. The Community Group is not the point. Jesus is the point. And we make these practices so that we might be reminded of Him and the riches that are included within. All of our rituals are but windows.

But they are important because windows show us where to look. Nobody puts a window in place to view the garbage dump, it's a crummy view. No, if you're building your house you put windows by the beautiful view of the river or the mountains. Likewise, we point our teaching, music, and services toward the wonderful view of an accurate picture of a good God.

When you go to Easter service tomorrow, don't just look at the music, teaching, or people; try and see through it all - for there you may find God himself.

In the Garden for the Win

Just got back from the Rose Garden where I watched our Blazers come back from being down 23 in the third quarter, to win by 2 and even the series 2-2. At the height of our deficit, I looked at my buddy Alex who generously took me to the game and said, "This is not the playoff experience I was hoping for." I was so wrong. This WAS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR. And while I mostly blog about following Jesus, I thought I would take one post for a shout out to those Blazers.

I actually have enjoyed reading the local Dallas writers after this win. It's hilarious to read an article titled, "Mavs blow by Blazers in the 3rd, silence crowd" to Tim MacMahon's lead, "The Mavericks managed to blow a 23-point second-half lead, an unbelievable collapsed even by the standards of Dallas’ disturbing recent playoff history."

It's a great day to be a Blazer, that's for sure.

The Greatest Speech of All Time

I had to...I. Had. To.

HT: John Finnerty Design