"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." Have you ever been one of those people who comes up to a person with a tract in their hand with no intention to get to know them? I have. I know that God uses these means. As Jesus said, "do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you." It always felt a little awkward. A prepackaged one-sided conversation you might say. Have you ever been someone who spends their life doing “good” or “nice” things, but doesn't really acknowledge Jesus with their lips? I have. For me it is a constant battle to not teeter to one side or the other, but to simply dwell in Jesus.

I must confess, there has been a huge transformation in my thinking about the church and it's mission. I hope to in the future elaborate on the title of this blog, because these two terms are crucial for what it means to be a missionary. For now I give you a link to a blog that I ran into while reading our pastor's blog. The Beginnings of a Missional Church Plant

Well Heather, here goes nothing...5 worship songs I consider to be weird.

In no significant order...

1. 'Prepare the Way' by Charlie Hall. I think he is using the phrase 'prepare the way' as a call for God's people to clear their hearts for the work of God. I don't know. But what I do know is that when I have listened to this song I didn't get it and I didn't worship.
2. 'I will call upon the Lord'. Yeah it's fun to echo, and the words come from the Psalms. But it's at the point when I hit the 'liveth' I just want to laugh. It sounds so weird coming out of my mouth.
3. 'Micah 6:8'. I feel like I should be singing this song in a bar in Germany or Ireland really loud, along with other men who are singing this song really loud.
4. 'Above All'. The theology of the atonement in this song is weird and quite foreign to Scripture. The verses are great and I love to sing them. They exalt God above everything. Then you get to the words 'you took the fall and thought of me, above all'. How can we look at the cross and think that ME, my worth, was the driving force of His passion? He went to glorify the Father and to uphold the honor and beauty of God's righteousness that I once hated. He was becoming my sin and bearing the wrath of God against me, against the church universal. He was restoring communion between God and man and the whole kingdom of the earth now belongs to Jesus. Everything that was lost at the Fall He has and will make new. The cross isn't just about me, it's so much bigger than that. Yes, Jesus died for us. But, we are not the end. The glory and kingdom of God being restored is the end. These words were so contrary to Scripture that a friend of mine changed the words when he led worship to 'You bore it all to pay for sins, once for all'. Ahhh, much better. Let's sing about what He's really done.
5. 'Party' by Chris Tomlin. I'm still thinking about this one. When I first heard it I thought, "Oh Chris, no you didn't..."

Tim Challies over at challies.com has a great article challenging Christians how to think about this Economic Stimulus Payment we'll receive this month. I hope the title doesn't give the impression that I'm advocating that we only use the money for others. My hope, and what I got out of the article, is to challenge myself and others to pursue our joy in what will last, namely, Jesus. Yes, we should pay off debt if we have it. We should provide for our families. But their are so many needs and possibilities of meeting them if we only pray and dream. You can read the article here.

'And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." Luke 12:16-21

Kimberly and I picked strawberries today at Lane's Packing. It was a glorious day outside. The sun was so bright, which made the ripe strawberries even more visible. Kimberly looked beautiful. (That's all I have to say about that!). Anyway, here is some gee-whiz info about strawberries that I didn't know: 'Madam Tallien, a great figure of the French Revolution, who was nicknamed Our Lady of Thermidor, used to take baths full of strawberries to keep the full radiance of her skin.' ' Fontenelle, centenarian writer and gourmet of the 18th century, considered his long life was due to the strawberries he used to eat.' ' Though originally from the New World, strawberries were considered poisonous in Argentina until the mid-nineteenth century.' 'Over 53 percent of seven to nine year olds picked strawberries as their favorite fruit.' 'Eight strawberries will provide 140 percent of the recommended daily intake of Vitamin C for kids.' 'The strawberry is the only fruit with the seeds on the outside of the fruit.' And what is interesting is that the 'seeds' that you see on the outside are the actual fruit.
















When I consider how many strawberries are produced each year(1 billion pounds each year in California) and that 'on average their are about 200 'seeds' (which are the actual fruit) in one strawberry' I think about Psalm 104. 'You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate,that he may bring forth food from the earth...'(vs. 14), 'O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all...'(vs. 24), 'May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works...' (vs. 31). 'He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together' Colossians 1:15-17. Finally, with Psalmist, 'I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord' Psalm 104:33.

To those who are hungry I set before you a feast that will be released in October. I am so excited about this. The ESV bible is my translation of preference for two reasons. One, it's a word-for-word translation rather than a thought-for-thought translation. The difference is pretty obvious. Here is an explanation from the intro to the ESV: "The ESV is an 'essentially literal' translation that seeks as far as possible to capture the precise wording of the original text and the personal style of each Bible writer. As such, its emphasis is on 'word-for-word' correspondence, at the same time taking into account differences of grammar, syntax, and idiom between current literary English and the original languages. Thus it seeks to be transparent to the original text, letting the reader see as directly as possible the structure and meaning of the original...A thought-for-thought translation is of necessity more inclined to reflect the interpretive opinions of the translator and the influences of contemporary culture." The other reason is that it is readable. Again from the intro: "As an essentially literal translation, then, the ESV seeks to carry over every possible nuance of meaning in the original words of Scripture into our own language." I am by no means advocating that thought-for-thought translations are of no use. In fact I have one, the New Living Tranlation. But if I'm going to study or read, I'm going to use the ESV. You can read more about it here.

Click here to view the Good Friday video. To those of you who are squeamish around blood, I caution you this video is pretty bloody.

You can read his biography here.

The following list of songs are the top 25 songs I have played the most in iTunes since Kimberly and I got the iBook. The picture was taken straight from my iTunes library with Grab, another cool feature on the Mac. Thanks Josh P. for showing me that. By the way, thanks Heather for sharing your list, now here's mine.

Thanks to Josh over at the Smoak House for this one.

Jason

Have you ever been around someone who forgot to put on deodorant? I'm really speaking to the men here. Guys, have you ever been around someone who forgot, or just refuses, to put on deodorant? It's bad isn't it? To me it's so bad that if said guy isn't apologetic about the smell, I either have to say something or go away, depending on the circumstance. If I'm working with the guy, I say something. If I'm waiting in line behind the guy, I move to the next line or pray one opens up. Well, during my workout at the gym today I smelled really potent body odor. So, as usual, I look around, but there is no one else around the machine I'm using. As I continued with my repetitions I continued to smell the odor, but what I noticed is that it became really strong when I lifted my arm up. Then it dawned on me, I forgot to put deodorant on. Then reality set in and I realized that I was that guy. Then shock set in at how bad I smelled. Then I ceased from doing exercises that involved lifting my arms. The end.

In case you are misled, I am not a fan of Joel Osteen. I do not wish to promote any of his books. My only purpose for the above picture is to compare it with the one below.
















Notice any similarities? If not, maybe a couple of more observations will help. What do you notice about Jesus? Yes, that's right! He isn't real, he is plastic. Now, watch the video below.




If you haven't made the connection by now, go back and read the title. Enough disapproval has been blogged about Joel Osteen that I almost feel like posting this is pointless. Notice I said almost. I have been looking for a good way to use my Jesus action figure picture for a while, and this seemed like a really good opportunity.

I was reading this hymn this morning and I was illuminated. I've either read or sang this hymn before, but until now I never 'saw' what I was reading. The last verse of this hymn sums up our whole worldview. The keyword here is 'sums'. There are so many implications and applications from having a cross centered view, or rather a God-centered view, of all of life. Here is the last verse of the precious hymn.

Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure,
By the cross are sanctified;
Peace is there that knows no measure,
Joys that thro' all time abide.

“It is the cross that gives God his credibility. The only God I believe in is the one Nietzsche (the nineteenth-century German philosopher) ridiculed as ‘God on the cross.’ In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?

In the course of my travels I have entered a number of Buddhist temples in different Asian countries. I have stood respectfully before a statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing around his mouth, serene and silent, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time, after a while, I have had to turn away. And in my imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn pricks, mouth dry and intolerable thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken darkness.

The crucified one is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us, dying in our place in order that we might be forgiven. Our sufferings become more manageable in light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross, which symbolizes divine suffering.”

- John Stott, Why I Am a Christian, 63 Taken from the blog Of First Importance

“I do believe that the very angels have never wondered but once and that has been incessantly ever since they first beheld it. They never cease to tell the astonishing story, and to tell it with increasing astonishment too, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born of the Virgin Mary, and became a man. Is he not rightly called Wonderful? Infinite, and an infant — eternal, and yet born of a woman — Almighty, and yet hanging on a woman’s breast supporting the universe, and yet needing to be carried in a mother’s arms — king of angels, and yet the reputed son of Joseph — heir of all things and yet the carpenter’s despised son. Wonderful art thou O Jesus, and that shall be thy name for ever.”

- Charles Spurgeon, taken from the blog "Of First Importance."

Apple brought the fun of a photo booth to me, Kimberly, and Amanda. Oh what fun it is to pose on an iSight camera!

Fun Photos

Below is a project I've been working on. My sister sends me tons of pictures of my two nieces (Selene who is 2 yrs. and Kalyse who is almost 1 yr.). So, I just took some of them and made a slide show out of them.

Christ has a gate far beyond all our thinking –
Hidden the key, and the lock no man knows;
Free as the wind in His secret appearings,
Sweetly He comes and then strangely He goes.

Ours but to seek Him with impatient patience!
They only thrive who will wait for His love,
Yet in the waiting besiege Him with weeping,
Making ado till He comes from above.

Christ by His dealings would fashion and mould us;
Carving out baseness, corruption and sin,
Making us perfect by pain and by wounding,
Forming His Father’s fair image within.

Daily we mar all our prospects of heaven,
Stumbling we falter, yet Christ makes us whole;
Kindly He lifts us with glimpses of glory,
Till all its splendour shall rise on our soul.

Faith Cook, Grace in Winter (Carlisle, PA.: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1989), 68. Copied from the blog Of First Importance.

Pain. Grief. Healing. Hope. Love. Joy. Providence. These are the themes of 'bella' . Not a single cuss word or sex scene. The character development is so good and the storyline so gripping, that, you will feel like you have walked beside the characters themselves. I thank God for Alejandro Monteverde and Metanoia Films and pray that He will raise up more men and women in Hollywood to produce films like this one. If you're due a date night with your spouse, I highly recommend you use it to go and see this great movie.