I'm Back!

Michael Jordan famously used those two words in my title to announce his return to the NBA in the mid-90's. My returning to my pastoral role and blogging is much less historic. And while I've been back for a month or so, now feels like the time to share my reflections on my mini-sabbatical.

My TL;DR version I've been telling people is, it was restful but not relaxing. 

It was restful in that spiritually, physically, emotionally I got to a healthier place. Most importantly, I got my heart realigned towards God - an adjustment I knew I needed after being all-around worn down.

It was not relaxing though because it did not go as I had planned. As I'll explain below, a number of unexpected things came up that disrupted my weekly schedule(s).

All-in-all, I think I am walking away from the month off with two major takeaways. 

1) God shows up in unexpected difficulties.

So entering January, we knew my wife needed a outpatient surgical procedure and late in December it was set up. Stress #1 came when we had to hassle with our insurance company and 'upgrade' to a policy that would cover this procedure - at a significant expense. But we did get it covered! Then came the surgery itself, which caused my wife significant pain in the 12 hours post-operation. Once we got the meds worked out it was better but it made her miss two weeks of work. In the post-op consult, the doctor shared that they did find cancer in the skin they had removed. There was a 98% chance they got it all but recommended a follow-up surgery to be sure. 

As that was all happening, we had noticed my wife's car started running weird. The week after her surgery, I took it into the shop and it needed ignition/spark plug work that was going to cost more than the car was probably worth. God provided though. My mom gave us our share of my grandmother's inheritance and it covered that cost. 

Then the following week, a cold virus of some sort went through our family. Yay! Through all of these things, my stress level was redlining. And yet God gently nudged me to the point where I more or less had to 'give up' and say, "Ok God, will you provide and how will you do it?" God's daily provision was evident - and still has been in the aftermath of all of these things.

Stephanie has had her follow-up procedure which seemed to go well. The pain is much less though the procedure was more invasive and complicated. But things are good. God is providing. He is showing up in recognizable ways.

2) I need to "Eat This Book".

This second take-away requires explanation. One of the proactive activities I did on my break was to audit the Spiritual Formation class at Grace College and Seminary.

I actually took it 20 years ago as a M.Div. student but it was with a different professor in a much different format. I had heard over the years about this class and how this particular profess, Dr. Christy Hill, approached the subject. I knew it was the kind of class that would benefit my spiritual life and get my heart adjusted in all the right ways. 

It met my expectations and more. The class requires its students to wrestle with their hearts, their backgrounds, the assumptions and presuppositions about God. As an auditing student, I was not required to do every assignment, thus allowing me to attend to the things that would maximize the personal benefit.

One such assignment I tackled was the extra reading required of the seminary students. I got a referral from a friend who suggested I read "Eat This Book" by Eugene Peterson. It was a great referral and one of the best books I have read in a long time. Peterson is most famous for writing The Message translation of the Bible. To some, he is infamous for that work. 

"Eat This Book" concludes by the author explaining how and why he created The Message. But he gets there by inviting his readers to approach the Bible with a humble but expectant attitude. He offers a layman's version of Bibliology - his theology of what Scripture is. He encourages his audience to work with Lectio Divina the ancient tradition of personally engaging with the Word. He narrates stories of translations and makes a strong case that God wanted to meet us and spiritually form us in His Word.

Peterson is an excellent writer, wonderfully making complex ideas beautifully simple. Case in point is the books title. Three times in Scripture God asks his prophet to 'eat this book/scroll' - most famously in Revelation 10. Peterson unpacks what this means. They didn't likely chew and swallow the literal writings. It was a call to digest, savor, embody God's revelation. God wanted them (and us) to read it for it's transforming value, so His Word would become a part of us. The Bible isn't meant to be read for informational purposes. It's meant to be read so we are conformed into the image of Christ. 

This fresh perspective on God's Word was the exact glass of water my dry soul needed. I've felt worn down and in a lot of ways I know that has been rooted in a dry devotional life. This book hit all the right notes in my soul and I'm already engaging in God's Word differently. Scripture is a beautiful thing. And what the Spirit does in meeting us there is even more beautiful. I need to 'eat this book' and so do you.

One of THOSE Moments

A long-time friend of mine currently coaches my high school's basketball team. It has probably only been just over a year since he was hired. He's doing a great job. They had a pretty good season, winning their conference and generally showing promise for the future. 

Part of the off season schedule includes running camps for the younger kids in the community. He does a terrific job teaching the basics and making the game fun. Over the weekend, he shared this video of a young camper winning the championship for his team...after not really scoring at all but trying his best throughout the time.

https://twitter.com/CoachMattMoore/status/1400909445106970625

My initial thought was, "How awesome is this? That little guy is never going to forget this moment".

Then my mind drifted to a basketball memory of my own when I was close to that age.

I was around 9 or 10 years old and my church was sponsoring this community sports clinic at our facility. We'd recently built a gymnasium - or "multi-purpose room" as some insisted on calling it - and our church leadership saw the opportunity to have a Saturday where kids from the community would come and get some instruction in various sports. I remember that we had the option to participate in two sports and we'd go to the station and a coach would teach us some basics and have us go through drills. 

This was like a dream come true for me. I loved sports. I played in imaginary games in my room and in my yard in all sorts of games. I had an imaginary alter ego, "Jonathan Jims" who was an all-pro football player for the Chicago Bears and an all-star hooper suiting up for the Boston Celtics. I played alongside my heroes Walter Payton and Larry Bird and led my teams to championships in glorious fashion. 

Now, as I registered for this clinic that Saturday morning, I had a choice to make - how do I pick which two sports to play? I know for sure they had baseball, soccer, and basketball and think they had a couple others too. I landed on soccer and basketball. The time practicing and learning more about soccer was not very notable as I recall.

The session with basketball was everything and then some. Coach Jim Kessler of Grace College was in charge of this part of the clinic and he had a number of his own team there as well as some Warsaw High School basketball players. I even remember 1984 Indiana Mr. Basketball Jeff Grose was a part of this, though I would ask him years later and he had no recollection of it (though that would be understandable). All of these were giant men and I was a bit in awe of being so close to these heroes.

After running through some basic passing and dribbling drills, they divided us up into two teams and had us play for a few minutes. Now, let me set the scene for you as accurately as I can. 

First, this was a half-court game. The other side of the gym was being used for something else. Second, since basketball was so popular, there were a lot of kids at this station. It may have been only like 8 on 8, but it felt like 15 on 15. Looking back, it is amazing I ever even touched the ball. It was chaos to say the least, but at one point down the stretch someone passed me the ball around the right elbow by the free throw line. I saw an opening and dribbled right towards the baseline and loaded up and shot the ball. It was an off-balance jumper from about 10 feet that bounced on the rim a couple times and dropped in. I remember some of the Grace players sitting out of bounds jumping up and cheering - as this was the first and only basket of what surely was a poorly played-hard-to-watch game. 

A few minutes later, as time wound down, our team fouled the other team. The shooter, a kid from our church named Andy Plank, made one of two free throws. Our team would win the game 2-1 and they selected me and Andy as "players of the game". I got first pick of a prize, either a Lancers Shirt or some bball shorts. I picked the shirt which immediately became part of my clothing rotation and would for years to come. For the record, Andy became a much better player than I did - starting a couple years on varsity while I barely made the team. 

But it was that shot falling that inspired me to pursue basketball. I played some Little League and summer soccer, but basketball became my primary love. That shot gave me the confidence to keep at it after getting cut from my 7th grade team. It gave me the confidence to keep working and make varsity as a senior after two years of JV in high school. It was at the foundation of my self-belief that led me to later play at Grace for Coach Kessler. I was a JV practice fodder player at first but worked to become a valuable contributor to a 25-10 team my final year.

I hope this young man has a similar journey. Maybe he'll let the joy of that moment fuel him into a nice playing career like mine did for me. More importantly, I hope that this thrill gives him confidence in life to keep working at whatever challenge he might be facing.

And I'm thankful to God for giving us these kinds of beautifully gracious moments where pure joy and happiness overwhelm us. I love THOSE moments.

Theology from Parenting

It's been close to a month since my last post. Life has gotten busy and no real strong music has come across my path for #MusicMondays inspiration.

Well, something did dawn on me the other day - kind of a half-baked theological idea - and I thought I might as well process it out via this post. 

See, I've found myself using the phrase "...because I don't want you to get hurt" as I've been redirecting our two toddler-aged boys. "Don't stand on your chair, don't climb up on the table - because I don't want you to get hurt." Our oldest especially is entering the stage where we can explain a little of the reasoning as to why we are saying certain things. Usually we have to keep it basic - both because of his level of understanding and our energy levels. So often I default to "because I don't want you to get hurt" just because it's an easy-enough generality and I know he can get that.

After saying this at some point last week, I realized there could be a spiritual lesson there. If parenting can teach me about how God is our Father (and it can), is this how our Lord sometimes communicates with us. Take away our tiredness, and I think it might. 

God doesn't always explain everything to us. His Word is comprehensive but it isn't always super-detailed. Sometimes he explains why his will needs to be followed. Other times he leaves it at the level of "I don't want you to get hurt". It is easy to question why God sets the standards he does because so often they go against what we naturally want. 

But God sees the bigger picture. He sees how a short-term fix might lead to long-term damage. 

Again, there are plenty of examples in Scripture where he gives rationale for his "rules". Often though it boils down to his fatherly love for us and wanting to prevent us from harm.

Another corollary to this that is not even half-baked (is quarter-baked a thing?) popped into my mind regarding this too. We just celebrated Easter, is there a connection from this idea to Christ's ultimate sacrifice and his resurrection?

In order to shield us from God's just wrath, our brother took our place out of his infinite love, in essence saying "I don't want you to get hurt". 

Still working these things out in my head at this point. If you agree or disagree I'd be happy to hear it in the comments below or via FB/Twitter.

It is not an entirely new idea to me - God wanting to protect us from harm. But it has taken on a new aspect now that I am a dad myself.

Music Mondays - Synonymous Songs

So last week we featured this little mini-series. I'm not sure how long it will last, but I do keep coming up with more examples. 

To review, sometimes you hear a song, and it reminds you of another tune. Maybe it's the words, maybe it's the guitar riff or melody - but some element of it shakes the dust off some musical memory that's been tucked away in the attic of your mind. 

Other times, there's an obvious homage - an intentional sampling of a beat or phrase. Then there are the rare times in my experience where there's an unintentional direct parallel.

Today's set of songs include the first examples of this "phenomenon" that I remember noticing.

As a high schooler, I fully dove in to the new wave of CCM music that was coming out. Bands like Switchfoot, Third Day, Smalltown Poets, Newsboys, and of course dc Talk and Jars of Clay were emerging as credible artists that produced good music. 

Not fully able to differentiate every group, I confused these two artists due to their synonymous songs.

"Kindle" - Between Thieves

Around1997-98, I heard this song on the radio and I'd also been hearing from my friends and Christian magazines about a new group called "Third Day" who had a song called "Consuming Fire". So naturally I assumed this was Third Day. Eventually I realized it wasn't and liked the song enough to buy the album. 

This may be the most obscure CCM artist I've ever featured (which is saying something) but their first album was solid even if many of the songs sounded the same. All these years later, I had forgotten that this song wasn't titled "Consuming Fire" but "Kindle" instead.

"Consuming Fire" - Third Day

Whereas the Between Thieves song is descriptive of the Holy Spirit, this song includes those ideas but also connects to Hebrews 12:25-29. 

For me, this is quintessential Third Day. For all they became as a CCM supergroup, this style is what made them stand out.

Bonus Feature - "All Consuming Fire" - Jennifer Knapp

I had forgotten about this song until I went searching for these others. But I'm pretty sure I had this album at one point so I'm going to include it. It's musical style is far removed from the rock of the other two.

It seems as if there have been other more recent songs with this as a title or theme but I'm cutting this off at the three I'm most familiar with.

Book Blog

My Week 2 book that's made a great impact on my life is "The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer. 

I can't remember exactly when first read it, high school or early on in college probably. But from it's first few pages, I knew it was going to powerfully speak to my heart. 

Tozer's been called a modern-day prophet. And he certainly was. Not in the fortune-telling sense but in the conviction and encouragement sense. Prophets in the Bible criticized and energized their people (cc. Walter Bruggemann). Tozer does exactly that as he offers us biblical perspective on what it means to know God. Not just know of Him, but know him closely and intimately and to enjoy the beauty of that fellowship. 

Whenever I feel like my spiritual life has grown stagnant or stale, I go back to Tozer's writings and usually to this book first. It will challenge the hardest of hearts and will inspire the thirsty soul. 

OMG (?) - Music Mondays

We like our pop music simple. Give us a snappy chorus, a memorable beat, fun lyrics and we're good to go. Most of the time, we like our music to give us an escape.

The above is true of both secular and Christian music. CCM can venture into serious subjects and tackle hard questions, but it is still more peppy than profound.

Therefore, it is not surprising then that one of the deepest songs of the new millennium never got popular traction even within CCM circles.

When Jars of Clay released their final big-label album "Good Monsters" over 11 years ago, it was met with critical praise and had decent commercial success. Re-listening to it recently, it's a solid album beginning to end. The fanfare it received was deserved, but the best song, "Oh My God", was overlooked. 

Here's a non-official music video:

It is a song that has stops and starts with emotions varying from melancholy to desperation. It observes how "oh my God!" is found on the lips of many people in many different situations - both in sincere pleas and in crassness. It agonizes over the really discouraging aspects of life and crescendos to urgent cries of "oh my God!"

This interview captures the artist's story behind the song. It confirms what we would suspect, that this song is about wrestling with tough questions of faith and life. 

In the interest of space, I'm giving a link to the lyrics, rather than copy them all here. They are abundant but startling in their depth.

One more thought though. In the 11 years since this was written, I find it interesting how much more prevalent "Oh my God" has become in our cultural vocabulary. It's abbreviation - OMG! - is everywhere now that texting and messaging are the main methods of communication for our younger generations. 

I do find it gratifying to return to this song because it takes a flippant, second-commandment-breaking phrase and turns it back on us. I rediscover the heart of this song all over the Bible, like in passages such as James 5:7-12. Maybe I'm giving to much weight to one song, but maybe this one song has prophetic value. I can say that seeing and/or hearing OMG (or one of the variations) just won't sit right with me anymore, thanks in large part to this song. 

And I think that's good. I'll listen to the peppy, snappy songs that give me some escape. But give me more of this - deep theology and deep questions.

The 12 Best Quotes I Heard at Exponential Conference

This past week, I had the privilege of attending Exponential Conference in Orlando, Florida. It's the largest annual conference for church-planters in the world. 

I am not a church planter but was there to learn, observe, and support our MissioChurch Brethren Church planters. 

It was a blast. 

It was a week of connecting with new friends and old,  being equipped for more effective ministry, and being challenged by world-renowned speakers in the main group sessions.

I tried to take careful notes as much as I could and as I have reviewed them, I've come up with 12 of the most memorable quotes. 

Why 12? It's the number of disciples and tribes of Israel...ok that wasn't the intent. It is the ten that really spoke to me plus to personal ones that you'll want to stay to the end for.

So here we go, in no particular order:

1. "Don't get stuck on the math and miss the mission."
- Albert Tate


2. "The drift of the human soul is always towards self-reliance."
- Matt Chandler 
He may have been quoting someone, but I didn't catch it if he was.

Music Mondays

Last week, we took a look at "El" and "Elohim" as major names for God. While general and common designations, they speak to the Lord's might and power.

While the Bible helps fill in the gaps as to how mighty God is and what kind of powerful Deity we worship, it goes even further by using "El" as compound description for God (i.e. "God of Israel", "God who sees", "God Most High"). 

Next Sunday we'll be looking at close to a half-dozen of them, but the most famous is undoubtedly "El Shaddai" (which means 'God Almighty'). 

It became well-known in the early 80's when Amy Grant sang it on her breakout Age to Age album. Originally written by Michael Card, it does a masterful job of succinctly telling the redemptive story of God from Abraham to Jesus.

Here's Card's version with helpful lyrics that translate the Hebrew he incorporated into the song:

 

Music Mondays - El, Elohim

I don't know exactly what next week's sermon will look like as we study the names "El" and "Elohim" that are used of God in Scripture. 

I do know that at least part of it will want to reflect the worshipful declarations of this son, because it gets the significance behind those names:

 

This is God in His holy place

This is God, clothed in love and strength

 

Sing out, lift your voice and cry out

Awesome is our strong God, mighty is our God

Sing out, raise your hands and shout out 

Awesome is our strong God, mighty is our God

Music Mondays

"We're back and better than ever!"

That's how my favorite morning sports radio personalities describe their show and I think it may apply here to since I took all of July off from blogging. I actually didn't realize it had been a month, but that's ok.

While often times my music selections deal with what has happened in the past week or what the topic of my sermon had been the previous Sunday, this time around I'm looking ahead. We're going to be doing a mini-series on "The Names of God". And I came across a perfect song to highlight what will be our first name next week. 

So in looking ahead to "Adonai", I present a song of the same name by former Christian super-group Avalon. 

There's nothing really to add, the song pretty much nails it.

Music Mondays

My most recent Music Monday selections have related to my sermon series through the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. 

One that quickly came to mind from yesterday's message on Habakkuk was this song from Bethel Music:

Habakkuk is a book expressing confusion at the work of God. "How could he let his people go on in their sinfulness?" "How could a Holy God use a wicked empire to punish a people more righteous than they are?"

In the end, God shows up. He reveals his greatness and majesty and it satisfies Habakkuk, who to paraphrase the end of the book concludes, 'even if my present circumstances are more wasteland than oasis, through it all my eyes are on you and it is well with my soul.'

Habakkuk and this song both challenge us to embrace the proper spiritual perspective. We are called to embrace the view that even if our problems seem overwhelming, we can trust in our Great and Awesome Creator.

This 'story-behind-the-song' clip is worth checking out too.

Music Mondays

Yesterday's sermon was on the book of Zephaniah. 

Zephaniah checks all the boxes of what OT prophets did, in three succinct chapters.

• He criticizes God's people and pagans for their wickedness. Along with that criticism comes vivid descriptions of promised judgment.
  
• He energizes the faithful to persevere through adversity by describing the future hope and restoration God will bring.
  
• He calls the people to repent and seek the Lord's presence before it's too late.

Read works by Dr. Walter Bruggemann and/or my former professor, Dr. Brent Sandy and you'll discover Zephaniah fits the prophetic mold to a 'T'. 

Given that summary of the minor prophet, crafting a worship service around the book didn't seem particularly natural. Our worship planners didn't even know the specifics but knew the broad strokes. Honestly though this seemed like one of those weeks we didn't tie the worship to the sermon in real specific ways.

Yet the way the Lord brought things together did just that. Zephaniah's a book describing how God is the one whose powerful wrath we need saved from, but he's also the only one who can protect and deliver us.

The song we used to close the service captured that idea well in my view. It's a newer 'classic' by Michael W. Smith. Simple yet deep in it's biblical descriptions of who our Lord is. 

Music Mondays

Our current sermon series is a study on the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. Yesterday we looked at Hosea. 

Hosea was a prophet of God called to marry a woman who God promised would break their marriage vows and cheat on Hosea. God asked Hosea to do this because it signified Israel's spiritual adultery and unfaithfulness towards their Lord. 

And as the story unfolds, once his wife has left him, Hosea goes and takes her back. Why would he do such a thing? Because it is a picture of how God loves Israel so much that He will redeem them. 

The entire book is an astounding object lesson about the love of God and our awful sinfulness. 

I became enthralled by the book and its story in high school when I heard the song "Gomer's Theme" by Third Day (Gomer being Hosea's wife). It is off of Third Day's second album and powerfully summarizes the book of Hosea while speaking to our own condition and predilection to go astray.

 

Music Mondays

It is freezing cold outside right now in Northern Indiana and we got our first legitimate snow overnight - and are expecting more this evening.

It's times like this I like to daydream about summer, laying out at the beach while soaking in the hot sun. I like to imagine swimming, although as a guy in my 30's I don't do it with the same enthusiasm as when I was a kid. What I do find enjoyable these days is swimming in the ocean or Lake Michigan when the wind and/or boats are creating waves and choppy seas.

This summer I had the opportunity to travel to the Philippines on a missions trip. I documented the trip on this blog and detailed how we used basketball to share the gospel. One afternoon, when we had some free time, we visited a beach near Subic Bay. It was a super-humid day, as most are. I remember the water was warm and it also happened to be fairly windy so the waves were pretty good size. 

A couple times as we were jumping into the waves, I would rise up out of the water to get my bearings and get knocked over by another one I didn't see coming. A couple times it almost knocked the wind out of me, but it was a lot of fun.

What does that have to do with music? 

Well, shortly after returning home, I heard this song and it took me back to that day on the beach and getting momentarily bowled over by the water. And as this song pictures God's love unrelentingly coming at us, I thought about how God's love should affect my soul with the same force that those waves affected my body. 

There is more to this special song as it exalts God and His love and then expresses how that strengthens us and gives us courage. I'm pretty sure any time I hear this song I'll think of the Philippines and likewise any time I get crushed by a wave, I'll think of this song.

One final note: if I'm ever unmoved by the lyrics "You are for us, You are not against us" - if that doesn't wreck my spirit at it's core - I will know I have some serious issues with my heart. What a truth: that we undeserving people have been graciously made His.

Answering Criticism of the Bible

Several months ago, I planned to preach on the basics of biblical interpretation in a sermon called "How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth", which I did yesterday.

It is interesting how the timing works with something like this, because last weekend I discovered the latest Newsweek magazine cover story was on basically the same subject. Now if you were to read this article and compare it to my sermon, you would quickly discover they each coming from opposite points of view.

If you are new to these issues, or new to the Christian faith, that article may seem to bring up some troubling questions and inconsistencies about what we call 'God's Word'. It certainly tries to make the case that no one with serious intelligence would take the Bible as fully true and totally sufficient for life and doctrine. 

And while I think it makes some unfair arguments that ignore the complete scope of the issues, I do think it is good for Christians to interact with these criticisms and be ready to properly respond to them. So I am interrupting my semi-regularly scheduled posts on music to offer responses to the various points the article makes. 

Before getting into the specifics, let me preface it all with this:

I grew up in a conservative, Bible-believing family that went to a church of the same ilk. After attending a public high school, I went to a conservative, evangelical college majoring in Youth Ministry and minoring in Biblical Studies before attending the same school's well-renowned seminary where I completed a Master of Divinity in Pastoral Ministry. Given all of that background, nothing in this article is new to me. At one point or another, I had studied and interacted with everything that article brings up. The author paints a picture of evangelicals as having our heads buried in the sand when it comes to these supposed 'weaknesses' of Scripture. Undoubtedly some of us do, but any Christian college and seminary education worth its salt will consider and evaluate opposing arguments, studying them in depth. 

And that is more than I can say for this article.

But let's weigh these criticisms and evaluate their validity.

1. Much of the first quarter of the article deals with issues of textual criticism and transmission of the text (i.e., "translations").  When I first started reading, I was afraid they were going to ignore the transmission process altogether, but the author does describe how the Bible was passed down from generation to generation by scribes copying the Word.  The article undersells the care given to the process and the accuracy that was sought and attained. Yes there are many 'variations' in the the copies of Scripture we have today and we do not have the originals. But what the article fails to recognize is that there is 98% agreement between all of the copies we have.* And no variant puts any serious theological issue in doubt. And when there are variants in play, most cases involve clear evidence which favors why one option was picked over another.
   And the examples the author uses are flimsy when investigated in depth.
   • I would have to Luke 3 more closely, but given my general knowledge of these issues I would guess that Luke 3:16 uses "answered" not because of a scribal mistake, or a 'missing question' , but because it fits with the previous verse and it fit ancient Greek writing styles. 
   • John 7:53-8:11 is widely recognized by evangelical Christian scholars as not part of John's original book - and most good study Bibles include notes like this to explain:
     There is considerable doubt that this story is part of John’s original Gospel, for it is absent from all of the oldest manuscripts. But there is nothing in it unworthy of sound doctrine. It seems best to view the story as something that probably happened during Jesus’ ministry but that was not originally part of what John wrote in his Gospel. Therefore it should not be considered as part of Scripture and should not be used as the basis for building any point of doctrine unless confirmed in Scripture. (ESV Study Bible)
   • The issue with Mark 16 is essentially the same, with most Bibles providing similar commentary that describes how some manuscripts have the verses, some do not. They are left in the text because they are consistent with the rest of Scripture.
     
     
     If you've made it this far, keep reading after the jump for further response to the major points the article asserts.
     
     

Music Mondays

As a new 'old school' worship song that's being overlooked as a classic, I must admit that I haven't always like this song. I can't exactly tell you why, but as someone who is naturally sarcastic it may have to do with the fact that I find it ironic that some worship leaders can play a song called "Forever" for what seems like forever. My opinion changed after I purchased this album that contains the version of the song in the above video. It is probably my favorite worship CD top to bottom and it put the song in a context that led me to re-evaluate my judgement.

Truthfully though, I also find it unusual to get all pumped up about God's eternality. It's something my mind can't really grasp and thus makes it that much harder to relate to. But the awesome thing about God and His Word is, the more you meditate on Him, the more you appreciate all that He is.

Psalm 102 is one special passage that helped me understand this divine attribute in a better way:

²⁵ Of old you laid the foundation of the earth,
    and the heavens are the work of your hands.
²⁶ They will perish, but you will remain;
    they will all wear out like a garment.
    You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
²⁷     but you are the same, and your years have no end.

Hallelujah!

Music Mondays

When I was growing up, I was not a perfect child. 

That sentence probably shocks those of you who know me, but even though I gave my life to Christ at an early age and wanted to please God, I often failed and sinned. And when I got caught, shame and sorrow would set in my heart. 

I remember one time when we lived in Merrywood Trailer Court, my dad told me not to kick my soccer ball towards our neighbor's trailer because it would dent in their plastic siding around the bottom of their mobile home.

Well, I didn't obey and continued to play how I wanted to until my dad noticed the 'damage' I'd done. He sternly confronted me and probably spanked me - though that wasn't the most traumatic part of the episode (I don't even remember if he did or not). What the worst part of the whole thing was he made me go to our neighbors and personally apologize for messing up their siding. The siding could easily be popped back in - but that's beside the point - I had directly disobeyed and damaged someone else's property. I said I was sorry and they accepted my apology and I made sure I never did that again. 

Getting caught and the shame of personally apologizing led to me repenting. That's how a lot of life is - negative consequences warn us to avoid certain behaviors. From speeding tickets to IRS audits to personal relationships - our behaviors are often guided by avoiding and minimizing bad consequences. 

All of those sorts of examples make Romans 2:4 and the above song feel like a cool breeze on a hot summer's day. God certainly warns us of negative consequences throughout Scripture, but He also is just as forceful with Grace. When properly grasped within our souls, His Kindness will bring us to repentance. It's His Love that is better than anything else in life.