Light Blue

Thank You, Normandale Baptist Church

2010-09-20T09:07:00.009-05:00

Dear NBC Church Family,

As we shared with you yesterday in service, our family is being called away to serve elsewhere. I wanted to share a few more of the details with you via this blog that has served as an additional communication tool and resource in my time serving you as discipleship pastor:

After two months of prayerful process, it has been confirmed beyond any doubt that our Lord is calling the Musgrove family to serve at The Village Church (Flower Mound). God is truly in all of this. It's been an astounding process these past few months, but one we couldn't share until just now. Since this all began I have been working with the NBC pastoral staff to ensure a smooth transition so discipleship and spiritual formation ministries do not lose momentum.

I was introduced as Associate Groups Pastor at The Village Church's "Group Connect" this past Wednesday evening, an event that helps people get into small groups so they might pursue biblical community together. My first office day at the Village is September 27th.

As Groups Pastor at The Village, I am charged to personally disciple, mentor, and pastor small group leaders and coaches so they can in turn disciple people in their group. There will also be opportunities to teach.

We are sad to leave NBC. There are just so many formative experiences that will forever make Normandale a part of my family's story: my first pastoral staff position and communal spiritual formation with all of you, Jenny and I being married in the worship center, the birth of Jordan and your outpouring of prayer and hospitality upon his birth, and my recent ordination to the gospel ministry to name only a few. The staff have been so supportive and helped me learn what it means to be a pastor to the people. I will miss serving alongside them and you.

So we are truly living a favorite John Piper quote, "Endings are for gratitude, beginnings are for faith", as the Lord is undeniable in moving me and my family into ministry at The Village. This coming Sunday (9.26) will be our last as members and as a pastor at Normandale Baptist Church. The Lord seems to have been preparing us for this as I preached in August a sermon called, "Godly People Say Goodbye/What You Leave Behind". I was led to this passage as while walking through the recent goodbyes we have all said as a church and the possibility that I could soon be one of them. I commend it to you, if only for the reminder and challenge that if we are living Great Commission lives we will be saying goodbye often. That is the nature of making disciples. Our God brings us together for a time to serve together and then sends us to other arenas where we may be used by Him.

But godly friends never truly say goodbye. We are spiritual family and have a shared inheritance. Our bond and hope and tether is Christ. And in Him we are never truly parted. Our goal is to continue glorifying Him whether we are together or apart.

So just as Paul upon his departures and separations from spiritual friends wrote that he looked forward to hearing further about their faith and obedience, so does the Musgrove family anticipate hearing of our Great Savior continually made famous by the body of Christ at Normandale Baptist Church. All of us who have been a part of this church for this time have reason for great expectation. Soon we all who have served and loved and pressed on together at Normandale during these days will look back and say in unision, "Only God could have done this."

I look forward to the Day with you.

Grace and Peace,
Your servant in Christ,
Jared Steven Musgrove

Godly People Say Goodbye (Acts 20:18-35)

2010-08-18T11:18:00.006-05:00

Christians living rightly

are consistently saying goodbye.

Download the sermon from Acts 20:18-35

Church Membership Matters

2010-06-21T14:22:00.006-05:00

Church Membership Matters because our church must grasp hold of each other in responsibility, accountability, and love.

Part II of the series, "Church Matters"

Download the teaching: Church Membership Matters

Preaching Matters

2010-06-14T12:25:00.019-05:00

Biblical preaching matters because our church needs to hear directly from God and God speaks directly when His Word is preached fully.

Part I of the series "Church Matters"

Download the sermon: Preaching Matters

Hope for Introverted Preachers!

2010-04-28T16:56:00.007-05:00

Just one of many reasons I love Tim Keller. Interviewed in this weeks' World Magazine, Keller talks about how God has prepared him through an introverted personality and love of study to be a gospel-centered preacher in the middle of Manhattan.

The following interview excerpts focus on fighting inferiority and superiority complexes as a pastor:

Q: How did you overcome your "painful introversion"? Are you saying, how did an introvert get to be a megachurch pastor in Manhattan? Very gradually. It is a combination: God called me to be a minister and then decided to prosper my ministry more than a lot of other people's, which was always a surprise. I do not know why. It is not false modesty. I am still not sure why.

Q: Gift and grace? The gift side of it is that God continues to send me people who seem to be helped by the ministry. That overcomes some of your lack of confidence, but the danger of relying on your gifts, saying, "Hey, I am a pretty good preacher, people will come back to listen to me," is that that leads to the opposite of an inferiority complex, a superiority complex, which is probably more deadly. They are both self-absorption.

Q: How do you fight that? As I moved from feeling like nobody likes me to everybody likes me—then you get really famous and nobody likes you again—I had to work on the gospel a lot in my heart. Every time I started to get too big a head, something would come along and God would bring me down. This is the way I think everybody grows. Something would bring me down and I would have to use the gospel to shore up my confidence on the basis of His grace rather than on my gifts. —

Read the rest of Marvin Olasky's interviews with one of my favorite preachers:

"A Wave Came In: How An Introvert Like Tim Keller Became a Great Preacher"

-jsm-

Deep Blue Devotion #4 - Bible Memory Aid

2010-03-03T13:59:00.004-06:00

Originally published in WORLD Magazine, Coverdate March 13, 2010. p. 66

Do you need help memorizing Scripture? MemorizeNow.com is a website where you can paste in a passage and then use tools that aid memorization. You can, for instance, see the text with all the words displayed. With a click you can change the setting so only first letters are displayed. Or, from the full text page, you can click and make some words disappear. Scroll over the space where the missing word belongs and the first letter of the missing word appears.

Couple this useful tool with text copied from one of the online Bibles (See the English Standard Version at gnpcb.org)

|| Deep Blue Devotion || a series of biblically creative helps

at jaredstevenmusgrove.blogspot.com, intended to aid in

enhancing intimate times with the Lord and

deepening personal discipleship. ||

To Men of Faith Who Serve In the Shadow of Others

2010-02-10T13:24:00.007-06:00

Charles Spurgeon's great devotional work, Morning by Morning, gives this word to you healers, counselors, teachers, mentors, and pastors who are "hindmost in honor and esteem" just as the Danites of ancient Israel. In a great sense, Spurgeon's insightful words here define the work of a discipler. This short devotion has ministered to me on countless occasions and I commend it to you, dear Reader. ---jsm-

“They shall go hindmost with their standards.”

Numbers 2:31

The camp of Dan brought up the rear when the armies of Israel were on the march. The Danites occupied the hindmost place, but what mattered the position, since they were as truly part of the host as were the foremost tribes; they followed the same fiery cloudy pillar, they ate of the same manna, drank of the same spiritual rock, and journeyed to the same inheritance. Come, my heart, cheer up, though last and least; it is thy privilege to be in the army, and to fare as they fare who lead the van. Some one must be hindmost in honour and esteem, some one must do menial work for Jesus, and why should not I? In a poor village, among an ignorant peasantry; or in a back street, among degraded sinners, I will work on, and “go hindmost with my standard.”

The Danites occupied a very useful place. Stragglers have to be picked up upon the march, and lost property has to be gathered from the field. Fiery spirits may dash forward over untrodden paths to learn fresh truth, and win more souls to Jesus; but some of a more conservative spirit may be well engaged in reminding the church of her ancient faith, and restoring her fainting sons. Every position has its duties, and the slowly moving children of God will find their peculiar state one in which they may be eminently a blessing to the whole host.

The rear guard is a place of danger. There are foes behind us as well as before us. Attacks may come from any quarter. We read that Amalek fell upon Israel, and slew some of the hindmost of them. The experienced Christian will find much work for his weapons in aiding those poor doubting, desponding, wavering, souls, who are hindmost in faith, knowledge, and joy. These must not be left unaided, and therefore be it the business of well-taught saints to bear their standards among the hindmost. My soul, do thou tenderly watch to help the hindmost this day.

Deep Blue Devotion #3 - Projected Worship

2010-02-02T19:47:00.003-06:00

|| Deep Blue Devotion: a series of biblically creative helps

for enhancing intimate times with the Lord and

deepening personal discipleship. ||

You may have found yourself in the same situation I have: you are in a worship service singing your heart out to words projected on a screen. A thought strikes you: "I wish I knew this song better so I could worship with my eyes closed. Or have the freedom to not be glued to the screen. Or the lead worshipper's guitar face."

I'm a mostly eyes-closed worshipper. I like the minimization of distraction. But there are certain, neigh, many songs I don't know well enough to belt out by heart. So I am somewhat dependent on lyrics projected as I sing. They certainly are necessary (think back to that time last Sunday when the media team skipped or didn't change a slide to the tune. Holy Hush, Batman!).

But I truly dislike being glued to a screen as I sing in worship. It's especially difficult with your head downward in a hymn book (crushes the larynx). So I had the idea of glancing over the dozen or so lyrics on the screen as it changes, then closing my eyes and projecting those words to my Sovereign Father. It's amazing how your brain can pick up the lyrics so quickly and recall them (and it's just fine to peak mid-verse if need be).

Glance back up as the next set of words or chorus pop up on screen, praise and repeat.

Make a joyful noise in worshipping Him this week,

-jsm-

Deep Blue Devotion #2 - Why My Bible Looks Like a Coloring Book

2010-01-20T09:31:00.006-06:00

Deep Blue Devotion: a series of biblically creative helps

for enhancing intimate times with the Lord and

deepening personal discipleship.

As you can tell from my blog title (Light Blue) I'm a color-attuned person. And as such I began a Bible-reading practice in college of using colored pens to underline the words of Scripture as I read. It was encouraging to me this week to meet a brother in Christ who did the exact same thing. This has inspired me to share this in this week's DBD about coloring in your Bible.

The year was 2003. The Iraq War began. Scientists mapped 99.9% of the Human Genome. And Coldplay's "Clocks" was in heavy rotation on radio stations. Half-inspired by a shiny-new package of multi-colored G2 pens, the other half from devotional helps someone gave me, I took the new Bible I bought for myself, took a spin through the Scriptures using the DJ Bible Reading Plan for the first time and employed my use of color thusly:

Crimson: Christ-centered or theologically resonant statements

Light Blue: explicit passages of promise and hope

Black: Sobering passages of judgement of justice

Green: Calls and inspirations to personal growth and spiritual formation

Blue: Wisdom or Proverbial statements

Purple: Unadulterated praise to God

That just happened to be the colors contained in that particular package (there was also a pink pen, but I gave it to my sister. Nothing personal against pink, but, yeah...). There are many other pen colors and highlighters out there, but these just seemed to be the ones that stuck with me. There are myriad passages where the colors criss-crossed because of the richness and multifaceted nature of God's Word.

And as I still use that same Bible in lesson preparation and teaching, it is helpful to my teaching and to my heart to have these color-coded reminders of the variety and beauty of God's Word to us.

You don't have to use my color assignments or systems. You may have your own or another idea of marking in such a way as to remind you of truth in the Word (if so, please send it on). But the most important thing is to be reading and interacting with the Bible. It's okay to write (or color) in your Bible.

For me it's been essential.

-jsm-

Deep Blue Devotion #1 - Bible Reading

2010-01-13T09:35:00.007-06:00

|| Deep Blue Devotion: a series of biblically creative helps

for enhancing intimate times with the Lord and

deepening personal discipleship. ||

Good intentions often fail for simple lack of planning.

One of the best intentions of most Christians is reading the Bible all the way through. But most of us putter out and lose focus, direction, and discipline around Leviticus. Just bein' honest.

Living as a disciple means continually going to the Source of spiritual nourishment and strength. We cannot survive as disciples if we are not having our minds continually renewed by the Word of God as revealed in Scripture.

One of the best helps I have found and utilized to fashion this spiritual discipline in my life is the Discipleship Journal Bible Reading Plan. It is a flexible-yet-structured approach to reading Scripture. You can begin at any time during the year with as many as four readings and as few as one for each day. The plan grants 25 reading days a month, so there is plenty of leeway if you miss a day or two. Or if you find yourself on the 25th of the month having completed all the readings, you may wish to go back and look over the truths you took in or journaled.

Whether you use the DJ reading plan or simply Google "bible reading plans" and find another, the most important discipline is to come to the Word as the Psalmist: "As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?" (Ps. 42:1-2)

As you approach the Word, ask that God would reveal to you His quenching truth and that you would not walk away the same. I pray with you in this.

-jsm-

Discipleship One-on-One

2010-01-06T12:32:00.004-06:00

Disciple-making in a one-on-one context is a constant study and practice for me. What follows here are key lessons learned in my pursuit of the discipline of discipling a brother in Christ in a one-on-one setting.

1. I must first be a disciple myself.

If I fail to put myself daily under the Lordship of Christ Jesus, constantly recognizing my own desperate need for Him to change me, then I've no business trying to lead a younger spiritual brother in the same endeavor. With my pursuit of Christ comes the humility that will be so crucial to my personal growth in Him. I am forever a student-follower of Jesus, so I am first a foremost a disciple who commits himself to demonstrating humility and transparency. It is this mindset which is most crucial in discipling a brother one-on-one.

2. I must establish a friendship with the man who would be my disciple.

Recommendation or rebuke apart from relationship will quickly end any one-on-one discipling endeavor. This is why the selection of a disciple should mirror the aspects of Christian friendship. My disciple is not my patient or client. He must first and foremost be my friend, otherwise anything I say to him will be only as a doctor dispensing a prescription rather than a trusted confidant enacting a spiritual transfer of knowledge and experience. This means I must decide to commit time to him even outside of our set meeting time each week (see below for practicals on meeting times). Whether it is a short text or email message, a phone call, a lunch, a dinner in my home with my family, or perhaps a weekend of camping together, I must look for ways to build a friendship with my disciple. This will be a constant and continual process. Choose to love your way into this man's world. And open your world to him.

3. Based on my disciple's needs, I select books and resources to help him grow in Christ.

No two people are the same. It therefore stands that no two disciples are the same. One man's needs may not be another's. One man may need help growing as a called pastor. Another requires help in the disciplines of the spiritual life. Yet another seeks guidance because of a particular sin struggle. And your disciple may have all of the above. Either way, it is crucial to know the personality and spiritual standing of your disciple before launching headlong into a stodgy curriculum. Disciple-making is organic, not mechanic.

Because of this I usually tell any man I'm discipling my full testimony, all the good, bad, and ugly and how Christ rescued and rescues me from it all. I then invite him to tell me his at our next meeting, again, with the focus being on Jesus Christ's work in our lives. This teaches testimony-telling and models a Christ-centered example of sharing one's story. It also establishes trust, friendship, and will help you understand the story in which your disciple has lived and is living. Testimonies may take two sessions together or more. Time is a luxury you should afford yourself at the outset.

Another helpful tool I use within the first three meetings together to help me know areas in which to mentor is the Myers-Brigs personality assessment. This helps me know how my own personality interacts with that of my disciple as well as helping me recognize any potential tendencies or propensities on his part. You can find the assessment here.

4. Meetings should be consistent, intentional, prayerful, and full of Scripture.

A weekly meeting is strongly recommended, allowing at least two hours of time to meet together. Though it may not always run as long as that and may possibly at times run longer, try to pick a time for you both that is fairly open if the Holy Spirit moves. The importance of meeting weekly (with outside times to get together to "hang out") relays a sense of commitment on your part and also teaches your disciple responsibility, while providing stability. Men do not open up if they do not feel safe. A consistent meeting establishes the necessary security for the relationship to flourish. I prefer to disciple men either at my home office or church office, as these are secluded spots allowing for freedom in conversation and prayer. And it makes the statement that I'm letting them into my world.

The meeting must always be intentional. Make it known that the commonalities and interests between you can be discussed at one of the other outside times, but the time spent together each week is for spiritual growth. As the lead discipler, you set the agenda based on the spiritual needs of your disciple. It is imperative that purposeful connection through discussion and Christian brotherhood be the center of the discipleship.

Pray before each session privately. Pray God uses the time wisely and guides you and the disciple. Pray together before the session starts. Pray together, sharing prayer requests, at the close of each session. Corporate prayer bonds believers. It must be a constant and important part of your time together.

Scripture must be a part of all you do. Whether it is correction, rebuking, or training, the Word of God must be at the center. If it is a rebuke, then it must be one using Scripture. Same with correction. If it is training, even if another book of Christian literature is being used, it must be lashed to Scriptural principles. Talk with one another about the Bible reading you are experiencing. Memorize Scripture together each week. These are non-negotiables for the disciple and the discipled.

5. Durations of Discipleship Vary

I may disciple one man for six months. Another for two years. Again, no two discipling relationships will look the same. Ask God to guide you in knowing when it is time to release your disciple. You will sense the Holy Spirit telling you it is time to release this man to go make other disicples. But also be open to Him directing you to go deeper and perhaps for a longer duration. The Lord is Master of your discipling relationship. It is He who calls the shots, not you. So it is He who will tell you both when the parting must take place.

------

In closing, this has been but a brief summation of my approach to one-on-one discipleship. I, like you, will be forever a student in this discipline.

-jsm-

Barna's "Growing True Disciples" Gives Biblical Strategies, Not "New" Ones.

2009-12-29T06:26:00.002-06:00

George Barna’s Growing True Disciples: New Strategies for Producing Genuine Followers of Christ was a pleasant surprise. I have not enjoyed many of Mr. Barna’s latest offerings but found Growing True Disciples to be a refreshing and challenging call to first be a disciple and then a disciple maker. The “new strategies” promised in the books’ subtitle is a bit of a misnomer, however. I quickly discovered Barna was in fact arguing for a very old strategy for making disciples: that model that Christ Himself gave us.

My favorite aspect of this book is the author’s continued emphasis on being radically sold out for Christ, so much so that He is that to which we are most “absolutely, fanatically devoted” (p. 99). This is a theme presented in the first chapter that runs as a coursing river through the manuscript. He then assesses the current state of discipleship, finding our myriad of programs and church “ministries” lacking when it comes to producing truly lasting and life-long Christ followers. He compares the modern church to the example of Christ and the original disciples in chapter 4. There are disturbing numbers presented here: “Less than one quarter of all born-again adults,” writes Barna, “consciously strive to make worship part of their lifestyle.” I doubt many pastors could disagree with the assertion or the numbers backing it up. What is also concerning in the presentation here is that many Christians don’t believe much differently from secular progressives on some key issues (i.e. definition of family, pornography, etc), and an alarming number of Christians do not hold to such essential doctrines at biblical accuracy or actuality of the miracles performed therein (p. 65).

Perhaps most pointed is chapter 5. In it he diagnoses the cause of our discipleship dearth as failure to our overemphasis on programmed, lecture-style education and an abundance of ill-trained small group leaders (p. 94). He does offer a slight glimmer of hope near chapter’s end, though I found his few encouraging words at this point seemingly ineffective when measured against his greater multitude of words to the contrary

The rest of the book focuses on two dozen churches Barna has studied. The author commends these models to the reader with a welcome balance of pros and cons (pp. 105-132). Barna’s candid and insightful analysis is one of the strengths of the book and a good reason for recommending it to pastors and ministry leaders. This fits with Barna’s assertion: “one of the practices I witness in every highly effective church I study is that they borrow great ideas from every place they find them.” This is a good recommendation tempered with the important recommendation to “hybrid” (p. 157) the models copied, fitting them to the specific needs of your church and people.

Augustine As Mentor

2009-12-26T06:54:00.003-06:00

While Smither's Augustine as Mentor reads much like a doctoral thesis (which I'm told was its origin), it is an important look at how one of the great spiritual leaders in history placed discipleship at the center of his life.

The history of discipleship provided by the book's first chapter is worth the price of admission alone. Succinct, rich, and well-researched, the opening chapter lays an important historical understanding of just what it means to be a NT disciple and disciple-maker. I can see the information from this chapter being used to lead church members to a better understanding of biblical discipleship. This first chapter fits within the context of this mostly biographical work, but it can also stand alone as one of the better treatments on biblical discipling that I have read.

The book spends a great deal of space in defining those men who mentored and inspired Augustine; Cyprian, Basil, and Ambrose featuring most prominently. Though the information is extensive, there is a repetition to the discipleship styles and information here. The up side is that one can see this strand of disciple-making mentoring run through the ancient church and influence its people. The down side to this treatment is that it can tend to bog down the reader in repetition.

The second half of the book is a biography of Augustine made a disciple and disciple-maker, with a special emphasis on his continual community of friends and its importance to his ministry.

The book closes with a final chapter of helpful summary points made throughout the work.

With exception of the first chapter on the history of discipleship, this is not the most crucial discipleship book on the market. But it is an incredibly well-researched look at the mentoring methods of a great Christian leader. Great ancillary reading on disciple-making.

----------------

Some rough outlines I made from information gleaned in the book:

Augustine on Christian Friendship

"caritas" is a love for God and neighbor as modeled by the Trinity.

Distinctives of Christian friendship:

- a friend is loved unconditionally because of Christ in him

- it is a bond that is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

- it is completely focused on God and the friends' fight for sanctification

- it is characterized by a common faith

Outcomes of Christian friendship:

- unity, "one heart in God"

- wonderful experience and a blessed outcome (Ps. 182)

- spiritual growth of community

On the Mentor As Disciple

- commitment to ascetic living in the context of community

- humility regarding what one does not know or understand, inviting others' input. Pride is continually killed.

- continuous theological development. the mentor as disciple is forever a student.

- writing (journaling, written works to aid disciples)

- lifelong commitment to growing as a disciple through demonstrating humility and transparency.

Mentor/Disciple Principles

- group context is always considered

- the mentor must be a committed, mature disciple

- selection of a disciple is based on existing relationship/friendship

- sound teaching is the center of discipling direction

- the discipler is a model fit for imitation by his disciple

- the discipler looks for opportunities to involve his disciple in practical ministry

- the discipler is aware that he will release the disciple to lead ministry

- the discipler is a continual resource to the released disciple

The Longest Yard: Making Disciples

2009-12-23T09:21:00.000-06:00

Take a yardstick.

And break it in half.

Keep going until you have the smallest piece possible and you'll begin to get an idea of how we measure success in discipling.

We work in

very.

small.

increments.

Our job is discipleship: being disciples and making disciples. We are to pursue Christ and develop believers from Fort Worth to Calcutta. Just know what you're getting into: the fact track works as well in disciple making as it does in growing roses or godly children, in building muscles or a healthy marriage. There's just no way to microwave church members to maturity. And there's no spiritual steroid we can inject to get juiced for Jesus. No one song, sermon, or small group will change the world in one fell swoop. And they were never intended to do so. These exist to call us up to living in such a way that we daily cause, in ever-increasing increments, Kingdom growth.

In doing the true work of making disciples, all we've got is a lot of tough, emotionally-draining, physically-demanding, Spirit-dependent, back-breaking labor. And this is work that most of us, if we're doing our duty rightly, will never receive any credit for in this world. The human race will care little that you lay your heart down to love your way into the world of an unlovable. No one will stop to give you praise for waking up at Five AM to read your Scriptures. Or applaud your early morning or middle-of-the-night intercession on behalf of a spiritual brother. And no one needs to.

In Luke 17:7-10, Christ talks about the master of an unworthy servant: "Does [the master] thank the servant because he did what was commanded?" Jesus asks. "So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say 'We are unworthy servants, we have only done what was our duty.'" At the end of the day when your head hits the pillow, at the end of your life when the dirt hits the casket, that's all you've got: You were an unworthy servant doing only what the Master commanded of you.

Jesus demands you be His disciple and a disciplemaker.

That's your task.

Wear yourself out.

A bottom-line fixated society that measure success in charts won't get this. Some within the Body of Christ don't get it either. Both will fault us for appearing too slow. They'll complain we didn't capitalize on the trend fast enough. We didn't hit the right market for the message we're bringing. We aren't getting enough people in the seats.

But I remind you, brothers and sister in Christ, we're in the business of love. And love takes time if it is to be truly lasting. Spirit-directed discipleship is the most difficult work of your life. And it's worth every bit of sweat, tears, and blood you put into it.

Discipling relationships aren't slapdash. They take time. Years. There are very few overnight results in discipleship, but there are plenty of lasting ones. Take heart that our influence and dedication aren't measured in flow charts or church budgets, leaps or bounds, but in lives slowly consistently lived and changed for Christ over the years and decades.

Stop and Look at a Rockwell

2009-10-18T20:18:00.014-05:00

Norman Rockwell, the famed painter and iconic cover artist for The Saturday Evening Post, grew up in a hard, tough tenement neighborhood in Manhattan where he would sit on the rooftops and watch the street gangs bloody each other. A far cry from the pictures he painted that still provide a comfort and ease most never experienced. Including Rockwell.

Though many of the pictures are unrealistic of how Americans truly ever lived, they create in the viewers a sense of the way things should be....

That old friends still get together.

That the worst case a doctor can treat is a black eye.

That grandmothers still pray at public restaurants with their grandsons.

And even that the nerdy guy can still get the girl(s).

Every picture told a story. Rockwell gave us the beginning, middle, or end, respectively. The rest was up to us. And we knew that no matter what point we came into the tale it would have a happy ending.

Rockwell's pictures are pure escapism, but they are a calming and hopeful one; a reminder of a simpler, kinder world...even if that world never truly existed. I still find that every once in a while it helps to turn off the news, close my laptop, put down one of the myriad books in the reading stack, pick up one of the several coffee-table-sized collections of Rockwell's work and get lost in the story for a few minutes.

Some favorites I hope you enjoy as much as I do:

"How Useless Stories Become Useful" - The Story from Philemon

2009-10-01T05:38:00.006-05:00

Preached 9.27.2009 at Normandale Baptist in Fort Worth.

You can watch the first ten minutes here or follow this link to the full video or audio download.

Storytelling is No Game...Or Is It?

2009-08-11T17:25:00.014-05:00

A close friend sent me a recent and very well-reported article by Lauren Parker from gamespot.com, Once Upon a Time: Narrative in Video Games, was sent to me via a close friend with whom I have had discussions over the question of whether video games are a new medium for effective storytelling?

For the record, I still think that "Duck Tales" for NES is as good as video games get (of course, it was also the only one I ever beat). And at a close second is this Batman game from 1989... which was about the last time I seriously played a video game.

If my above choices are not enough evidence, I will go on record: I am not a "gamer." But I am increasingly fascinated by the medium and its growth in technology, influence, talent-pool, and, for our purposes here, its impact on storytelling.

I think the article's main idea worth exploring:

"...now, thanks to video games, we can interact with [stories]. When we play a game we are not merely passive observers; we become active participants in the story as it unfolds."

What are we to make of stories in which the "reader" becomes the an active participant in the storytelling? Or to phrase it as the article does,

"...some critics suggest that because games are interactive, their main focus should be gameplay, not story. Others believe that video games can, and do, successfully marry gameplay and story to become an effective storytelling medium. So who is right?"

In many ways, I have observed people connecting to game characters as deeply as many do the characters in film and literature. The more story-driven games seem to create a fantasy world that captures one's imagination (much like a well-written film or book). Players become attached to a character in that they empathize with the character, even feel sad when they "die."

But unlike a book or movie, the player of a game has say in who lives and who dies. The closest comparison is the nearly-defunct "Which Way" books in which readers would choose the fate of characters by turning to this page or another. And even then, the reader was only given the power of two, maybe three choices for a character's fate. Games provide numerous outcomes, especially the newer variety of Massive Multiplayer Games online. So does the observer/player's ability to affect the outcome of the story even make it a true story any more?

While the GameSpot article reports information displaying a split-down-the-middle opinion amongst gamers and game designers, my own conclusion is that the interactivity of video games does, at the end of the day, make them less about story and more about game play. Games may prove as escapist as a good movie or book, but I have yet seen a game survive decades because of the lessons it teaches.

The basis of great story is to provide a beginning, middle, and end that, while it may be entertaining (and really should be), provides an insight or lesson that leads to a new perspective or even a life change. Jesus Christ was the Master of story, in that He took an abstract concept such as "God is grace" and made it real with a story about a loving Father who took back a prodigal son. If many of us were telling the story of the Prodigal, it would have turned out much differently.

And that is the point. Stories exist to teach and present a point made by the author or storyteller. The greatest stories have endured because they have timeless themes, noble language, and call us to consider lofty ideas and ideals. As imaginative and captivating as some of them are, I've yet to see a video game that has stood the test of time to accomplish such a task. And if an 8-bit Scrooge McDuck can't do it, I don't know if anyone can.

-jsm-

'Unfaithfully Yours' // Time Magazine Seeks to Make...Marriage Matter Again (?)

2009-07-10T15:38:00.019-05:00

The July 13, 2009 issue of Time featured a cover story, "Why Marriage Matters", in which author Caitlin Flanagan observes and comments on the alarmingly-increasing apathy of most Americans toward the institution of marriage. I was very surprised to see such a prominent coverage from the media elite over the eroding of, as the cover stated, "our most sacred institution." Ms. Flanagan is a gifted writer who outlines the problem through penetrating analysis.

She writes: "No other single force is causing as much measurable hardship in this country as the collapse of marriage." She first cites the recent extra-marital affairs of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford and former presidential candidate John Edwards. Both men violated the vows of their marriage and had emotional/sexual relationships with women younger than their wives. Both men apologized publicly. Flanagan noticed an omission from these apologies and the seemingly countless others like them: "The one thing both men refused to admit was that, back in the heyday of these affairs, they must have been having a blast."

After reciting portions of the praise-laden emails sent between the respective adulterous couples:

"[The adulterous couples'] actions were so blatantly self-centered...These two humanitarians were engaged not only in worshipping each other's high-mindedness but also in destroying another woman's home, hobbling her children emotionally and setting her up for humiliation of titanic proportion...Adultery is not about sex or romance. Ultimately, it is about how little we mean to one another."

She also addresses the psychological distress and damage divorce brings upon children, citing that "few things hamper a child as much as not having a father at home." Flanagan cites feminist sociologist Maria Kefalas: "Women always tell me, 'I can be a mother and a father to a child,' but it's not true" Growing up without a father has deep psychological effects on a child. "The mom may not need a man," Kefalas says, "but her children still do."

This is a fascinating analysis considering the source. The ideology of most modern feminists is that men are not needed in any capacity for a woman or children to be successful. A biblical worldview would call each man who marries to love his wife as much as Jesus Christ loves His church. Women, as children of God, are to be cherished, built up, and protected by men. Unless a man or woman is called and gifted by God to remain single, then they should seek to marry for life so that they might experience in marriage a testimony of the grace and love of God.

There also seems to be an increasing awareness in secular circles of a truth many Christians know from Scripture: that the father is the crucial factor in the development of children. That is, a father in a stable, loving marriage to a woman. Co-habitation, writes Flanagan, doesn't never works. She cites Heritage Foundation research fellow Robert Rector,"When children are born into a co-habitating, unmarried relationship...they arrive in a family in which the principals haven't resolved their most basic issues," such as those of sexual fidelity and how to share responsibilities. Flanagan writes that once stress enters into a co-habitation situation "things start to fall apart." And then the man, she writes, "is out the door."

On the subject of marriage and children, Flanagan refers to the recent high-profile bust up of Jon and Kate Gosselin of Jon and Kate Plus Eight fame. Flanagan admits to enjoying the show in its initial episodes because she saw it as "an enterprise dedicated not to making [Jon and Kate] happy but to taking care of a cavalcade of children they had produced, that they were laboring at something more significant than their own pleasure." But began to detest the spectacle the show had become, especially after the couple decided to divorce over indiscretion.

Jon still claimed to love the kids after he'd had a fling with another woman, but the couple filed for divorce. "As though loving the kids and doing right by them were unrelated events," observes Flanagan. And in this statement she pinpoints a hypocrisy of our divorce-happy culture: divorcees claim to love the children, but are unwilling to do what is best for them by working through their marital issues, forgiving the other, learning to trust again, and then continue to raise their children together in the way they should go.

Flanagan calls for a true introspection on the part of readers to decide "What is the purpose of marriage?" writes, "America's obsession with high-profile marriage flameouts -- the Gosselins and the Sanfords and the Edwardses -- reflects collective ambivalence toward the institution."

And to drive her point home, she asks the reader to consider their own future,

"The current generation of children, the one watching commitments between adults snap like dry twigs and observing parents who simply can't be bothered to marry each other and who hence drift in and out of their children's lives -- that's the generation who will be taking care of us when we are old."

Flanagan writes, "A lasting marriage is the reward...of hard work and self-sacrifice." This is as close as she comes to providing any an answer to the cover's promise for a plan to might make marriage matter again. She is right in asserting selfishness as the reason a partner or partners walk away from the commitment of marriage. Sin entered our world and has stripped us of the ability to be truly selfless. The only hope for marriage is that both partners come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ; that He is supreme in both partners lives, inspiring the sacrificing love He Himself inspired when he gave up His life on a cross and then rose again to show Himself supreme over all. Marriage exists as perhaps the greatest vehicle of sanctification, of helping us learn to love another as Christ loves us, with all our fears, foibles, and outright failures.

I am with Flanagan wholeheartedly in this, her article's closing statement: "What we teach about the true meaning of marriage will determine a great deal about our fate." With this soberly in mind, we move on as a culture to consider what will be our defining statement on marriage. And our future.

Reflections from England: June 17-30, 2009

2009-07-02T15:23:00.004-05:00

There is always more work to be done.

This is a conviction under which I constantly labor in ministry. The balance is knowing when to take a God-directed Sabbath to reflect, recharge, and recognize all the ways the Lord has worked in recent days. And then get ready to go full tilt all over again.

Never have these statements been more true to me than over the past two weeks of mission work in England and the past two days that I have been home. A large part of me feels it is torn between two countries as I fell in love with the people of England; the believers we were privileged to meet and minister alongside became fast friends and partners for Kingdom work. And that is a testament to the spirit of unity that can only exist among fellow believers in Christ Jesus. We came together for the gospel and what follows here are my own personal reflections on two weeks that will forever have an effect on my life and ministry.

"This is a country that has pretty thoroughly rejected the Gospel..."

These are the words of an English pastor friend when explaining to our team the spiritual state of England and the magnitude of the work that is to be done there. This is a great tragedy, as England was once one of the major forces for the work of the gospel in the entire world. It was scarcely 100 years prior to now that the preaching of Charles Spurgeon helped reignite a passion for winning souls to Christ in the country. But modernism/postmodernism come at a great spiritual cost, one that England has paid dearly.

The hope I have, however, is twofold: Firstly, it was proven to me that there is a strong remnant of faithful believers in Great Britain. The Lord is not finished with this country as He has left many strong workers to contend for the gospel. It was my privilege to meet many of them: Pastor Paul Newman of Whitley Bay Baptist Church, Helle Sewell, David and Miriam Lennox, and many others in the Tynemouth area. Seeing their hearts for God and for the English people testifies to me that we cannot give up on England because our great God has not.

Secondly, this "loss" of the gospel may indeed have run its course. After spending a week in the schools of the Tynemouth area speaking to Religious Education classes about the truth of biblical Christianity, I walked away burdened by the darkness the enemy has cast over the hearts of young people in England. But I also have hope because seeds of the gospel were planted and the Word of God never returns empty! I saw many faces light up as we unabashedly shared Christ in the classrooms. Many sessions began with "gotcha" questions but would mostly transform into very personal requests for Christian truth and worldview to be explained. At the center of it all was the gospel. It was an incredible opportunity the Lord opened for us. We pray these doors into the schools of England continue. What I have seen in the schools is that the young people are nearly ignorant on the story of Christ so when told with prayer and power it is moving to them. It may well be England rejected the gospel, but it may also be that a resurgence in the hearts is around a hard-fought corner. Time will tell as we continue our work.

One young man, 12 years old, particularly touched my heart as he stayed after our first class to ask us how he could become a Christian. He said, "I want to move to America so I can become a Christian." It broke my heart to hear that his parents had no place for religion in their home and that this boy felt he had to leave his country in order to follow God. We had many lunches and talks with him about his life and about the hope of Jesus Christ. It is my conviction that the Holy Spirit is at work in his life and he will come to Christ very soon if he has not already since we left. It was a sad parting our last day in the schools. There were shared tears with this boy and promises to write which I very much intend to keep. There is opportunity now for further explanation of truth and possible discipleship through letter-writing.

And there is indeed hope for England, for the brief reasons I have lifted above and many more that our great God is working to ensure. This will be a subject of great prayer and reflection for me in the coming weeks and months. Because with the gospel of the glory of Jesus Christ, there is always more joyful work to be done.

Mission Britain

2009-06-15T14:11:00.003-05:00

Very excited to be leaving this week for the UK. A team of youth and four adults from NBC will be going into the public schools of Whitley Bay for a week of representing Christ in the religious education classes. We will also be spending a weekend doing a DiscipleNow with youth who are believers. Pray for our team and the hearts of the students and adults with whom we will interact. Pray that, as with Lydia in Acts 16, the Lord will open their hearts to pay attention to what is said.

Who Is Jesus?

2009-05-22T06:44:00.007-05:00

Discipleship Defined

2009-04-22T04:24:00.003-05:00

You can view here the first ten minutes of "Discipleship Defined." You can continue watching/listening by clicking the link at the end of this preview.

The Apologetic of Francis Schaeffer: Still Very Much Needed

2009-03-11T17:38:00.005-05:00

Here is audio from the Francis Schaeffer: A Mind and Heart for God conference at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary on Nov. 7-8, 2008.

This particular address from Jerram Barrs focuses on the apologetics of Francis Schaeffer. I found the message quite engaging, even as I have begun reading through Schaeffer's complete 21 works recently.

Schaeffer has much to teach us still about engaging our modern culture as intelligent, compassionate, stalwart Christians. This message is one such glimpse of the man and his ministry. May it challenge, equip, and spur you on in living and providing witness for the Kingdom.

A Christian Response to Homosexuality (And For That Matter, All Sin)

2009-02-05T06:26:00.012-06:00

This is a text version of a teaching originally given to church members at Normandale Baptist Church during the Pastors' Bible Study on Wednesday, February 4th, 2009.
-----------

The issue of homosexuality has become perhaps the most divisive since the contentions that led to America's Civil War. But the fight today is taking place on the political front instead of the backcountry battlefields. It is the pressing issue of our time and our response will define the evangelical church from this point on. Battle lines are being drawn, especially in light of November's passing of Proposition 8 in California, and every body of Christian believers will be forced to make a choice if they have not already.

Though it breaks my heart to write this, I believe the fighting will only increase. The incredible division in our country between those who would celebrate homosexuality and gay marriage as acceptable and those who would oppose it on grounds of biblical authority is only to chasm more. So what are we as the church of Jesus Christ going to do? How will we respond in an intelligent, loving Christian manner to those in the culture living a homosexual lifestyle or arguing for gay marriage?

The favorite proof text of some Christians and many gay rights activists is Leviticus 18:22:You shall not lie with a man as with a woman; it is an abomination. Christians with little biblical knowledge (far too many, I fear) like this passage because they see it as a quick and easy quote against homosexual behavior. Proponents of gay marriage also favor the passage because it is surrounded by commands to refrain from eating pigs (11:7) and shell fish (such as shrimp, or catfish; 11:10). As was featured in the fairly recent "Proposition 8 Musical" online, gay activists think the Bible lists a lot of mandates from God for which Christians no longer argue. At first glance this argument makes Christians look unintelligent and hypocritical. Christians who can only quote one seemingly obscure passage of the OT don't do much in practice to refute this.

The Leviticus passage is near the end of a section that builds up to the crux of the book's argument and demand from God: "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" (19:2). God as Creator has the right to make such a demand, but man, despite his best efforts, cannot attain such righteousness on his own. That's the thrust of Leviticus. Holiness is to encompass ALL of one's life and living, every sphere of a person's existence. These were to be rituals of grace to the ancient Israelites; each one a picture of God's character and requirements. But again, no matter the effort, no man can attain this holiness on his own because we are all of us trapped in rebellion against God. We need a Savior because just following moral mandates will not purify a person to stand in the presence of almighty God.

Romans 1:18-27 is a text far too many Christians 'forget' in the discussion about homosexuality, either by ignorance or fear. But a Christian response will argue the truth in urgent love, because a refusal to warn one of coming consequences or imminent danger is unloving. So, even though this was as difficult for Paul to deliver as it is for us today, this passage of Scripture is a not-to-be-delayed warning. To all of us.

The passage IS us. All of us. Sin, whether it be homosexuality or greed or gossip, is an act of unbelief. Mankind has a guilty knowledge of God meant to keep him on the moral up-and-up, but the Romans passage paints the tragic portrait of the consequence of rejecting God: one becomes "futile in their thinking" and their hearts become "darkened." When this happens, a human being begins to go further and further into perversion, even rejecting one's very base biological insticts instilled in us by the Creator.

Homosexuality, just as much as bowing down before a bronzed bull, is idolatry. All sin is idolatry according to Romans: "Claiming to be wise, they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles" (1:22-23). Paul argues that homosexuality is the prime example of this, as the homosexual act is itself a worship of an image as much like oneself as is possible to find. It is a literal exchange of the image of God in us for the image of a mortal man. This is "worshipping the creature rather than the Creator" (1:25).

The height of this rejection of God is that "women exchanged natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error." Hard words. It is difficult to come into the contact with the truth that a man reaps what he sows. This "due penalty" of rejecting God is an increasingly empty, sad, dependent, obsessed, and in some way, abusive lifestyle. Perhaps not at first. Maybe not even for a long time. But inevitably and irrevocably unless Christ comes to redeem the man or woman consumed by homosexuality. This desperation birthed in sin and cultivated by continued refusal of God leads to hatred.

The angry picketing and, in some cases, violent attacks on religious persons and organizations in the wake of the passing of Proposition 8 is an indicator of the fervency the gay movement has to discredit and destroy the voice of the religious right. The greatest threat to full societal acceptance of homosexuality is not a political, racial, or educational group, but conservative Christianity. This is why is it imperative Christians have an intelligent, cogent response in the face of continuing attacks in the form of psychology, equality, legality, morality, and even theology. The country's intellectual elite have had great success in marginalizing a Christian response largely due to a lack of intelligent Christians stepping up to the plate. We must have our hearts readied and our minds sharpened to engage the culture with the loving and life-changing message of Jesus Christ.

The only way to begin this process is to ourselves turn to 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and realize that each and every one of us has the potential to be such a sinner; if not a practitioner of homosexuality, then something just as awful. "...neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God" (6:9-10).

If that list of rejections against God doesn't appear to indict you, then see v. 11: AND SUCH WERE SOME OF YOU. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (emphasis mine).

Let me repeat: if you are reading this, you have all the potential to fall into homosexuality, or greed, or drunkenness as the next guy. There exists more of a propensity toward homosexuality in some than in others, true. Same with alcoholism. Or pedophilia. But a propensity or disposition toward any of these does not make it morally acceptable. As far as sexual sin goes, realize that none of you past the age of puberty is sexually pure. You've either given your body away outside of marriage, lusted after another person, or acted upon a lustful feeling through porn or masturbation. So don't think too highly of yourselves, "for such were some of you." We are none of us sexually pure. Or completely holy. Nor can we become so outside ourselves.

This truth has to humble us and spur us to share Jesus Christ all the more. We who have been "washed...sanctified...justified" by Christ must have the love and broken heart He had when encountering and confronting sinners, be they homosexuals, swindlers, or just plain unlovable people.

No one's race, gender, or sexual "preference" should be their identity. We ultimately fall into two classifications: those who will spend eternity suffering because we continually rejected God and those saved by nothing of themselves but by the grace and love of Jesus Christ. I rejoice to identify only with Christ and His suffering, I glory in His resurrection from the dead. And because of this I am moved because of His forgiveness of my moral impurities. He rights my wrong relationship with God and readies me to minister intelligently and lovingly. This must be our attitude when ministering to those identifying themselves in word and practice as homosexuals. We minister as the formerly hopeless who now have a Great Hope to share. It is only in Christ that we will ever experience true unity with one another and be healed and made made holy.

Community

2009-01-27T06:41:00.005-06:00

My wife last night reminded me of what a cornerstone community is in my life and living. Distinguishing the shadows cast by those closest to us are the best way to illuminate a life. Here are few reflections from this realization:

My first acknowledgement of community came at the lack of it I felt in junior high and high school. Somewhere in there I decided to start asking God to send me some people. It didn’t have to be an extensive assembly; it was probably better if it wasn’t. I just wanted some fellows who shared my values and my conviction for Christ. The brothers I instinctively knew I was supposed to have around me weren’t there. So I prayed long and hard for them. And waited.

Then came college and Brothers Under Christ, a national Christian fraternity whose chapter at the University of Oklahoma had just taken off. It was purely providence to landed alongside these men and spent 4 years of my life praying together, playing together, comforting, sharpening, and protecting each other; constantly pointing one another to Jesus Christ, our King who is unashamed to call us His brothers. It was with these men who taught me how to learn, lead, disciple, and love my brothers deeply.

Coming to seminary, being an adult, moving on... community didn’t’ come along as easily. And then I walked into Normandale Baptist Church one November and found spiritual family in a room full of short-term strangers. They’ve since grafted me in and granted me the privilege of serving them in leadership.

And then there’s my wife, Jenny, who teaches me more about my God, myself, and my fellow mortals than I could ever learn alone. She is my constant companion and community.

I don’t mean to be overly sentimental about this, but it’s true. These people are family. And this truth of community and its influence on the course of my journey waves like a banner over my calling and ministry. I hope to encourage and engender community and discipleship in those God allows me to touch.

Blue Lanterns Arrive Just in Time

2009-01-16T08:53:00.010-06:00

DC Comics and writer Geoff Johns have delivered a super group for we melancholy/INFJ superhero fans.

The Blue Lantern Corps was introduced a few months ago in the pages of Green Lantern, but

this past week we got a real fleshing out of these guys and their purpose in GL # 36.

The Blue Lanterns differ from the other Lantern corps in many ways. Whereas Green Lanterns draw from their willpower, Red Lanterns from their rage, Sinestro Corps (Yellow) from fear, and several others that operate along the same lines (Orange - avarice, Indigo - compassion, Sapphire - love, and the coming dreaded Black Lanterns -death); Blue Lanterns draw their power from that which is considered most powerful: hope. And the ongoing saga of the Lantern Corps forshadows the Blue Lanterns will play an integral role in the approaching War of Light.

The other corps recruit their members by arbitrarily allowing the rings to seek out individuals that have the right stuff for each corps. The Blue Lanterns (like all great melancholys) take the personal approach and recruit one-by-one. These aliens from all different space sectors undergo three days of training and are then offered membership as a Blue Lantern if they so decide.

Geoff Johns again displays his remarkable insight into myriad aspects of the human condition by focusing on the development of the Blue Lanterns as the INFJs of the universe. He gathers, slowly but surely, a group of individuals whose hope is great and who have the ability to channel that hope and use it to inspire others.

The Blue Lanterns aren't the flashiest corps, and much in part to the absence of true understanding and grasp of hope in the universe, their numbers are small. But they serve an important function as their rings can heal wounds, neutralize the corruptive effects of the Red Lantern rings, and recharge a green power ring to twice its maximum power level. The blue rings are quite unique because, unlike the other power rings that draw from the willpower aspects of the wearer, they act on the psychosis of the individual targeted by the Blue Lantern.

So thank you Geoff for creating a corps to which we melancholys can really relate!

(end of geek-out post)

"On Knowing Ourselves" - Thomas a' Kempis

2009-01-15T12:44:00.007-06:00

Let's just call this one a "guest post."

Since one of the focuses of "Am I Blue" is to encourage and edify others in personal introspection and spiritual development and discipleship, this posting of a particular section of Thomas a' Kempis' The Imitation of Christ seemed quite appropriate.

--On Knowing Ourselves--

We may not overtrust too much in ourselves, for we often lack grace and understanding. There is little light in us, and even this we easily lose through carelessness. Moreover, we often do not realize how blind we are. We often do evil, and we do worse in excusing ourselves. Sometimes we are moved by passion, and mistake it for zeal. we rebuke small faults in others, but overlook greater faults in ourselves. We are too quick to resent and feel what we suffer from others, but fail to consider how much others suffer from us. Whoever considers his own defects fully and honestly will find not reason to judge others harshly.

The spiritual man puts the care of his soul before all else; and whoever diligently attends his own affairs is ready to keep silence about others. You will never become interior and devout unless you refrain from your criticism of other, and pay attention to yourself. If you are wholly intent on God and yourself, you will be little affected by anything outside this. Where are you when you fail to attend yourself? And when you have occupied yoruself in countless affairs, what have you gained, if you have neglected your soul? If you really desire true peace and union with God, attend to yourself, and set aside all else.

Keep yourself free from all worldly entanglement, and you will make good progress; but if you set great value on any worldly things, it will prove a great obstacle. Let nothing be great, pleasant or desirable to you save God alone, and whatever comes of God. Regard as empty comfort all things that derive from creatures. The soul that loves God regards as worthless al things other than God. God alone is eternal and immeasurable, filling all things; He alone is the true comfort of the soul and joy of the heart.

Are Animals People Too?

2009-01-06T12:56:00.007-06:00

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have inundated the holiday airwaves with new ads featuring the music and persona of Sarah McLachlan. These seem to run each commercial break (often during the course of just one program) on major networks over the recent holiday season and into this new year. McLachlan's "Angel" or the sacred "Silent Night" plays over images of cute dogs and cats, making the commercial akin in spirit to those of organizations that help underprivileged or starving children.

While animal cruelty is a moral atrocity and a matter that should be dealt with seriously, these commercials are over the top. Simply by choice of music (especially "Silent Night"), the argument is made, however emotionally, that there is a spiritual tone in their plea to save these animals who have been left on the streets to die or have experienced abuse becuase their owners were inconvenienced or grew tired of them.

Might I interject and say there is an entire population of human beings who are being killed, not just left on the street, because they are considered an incovenience. I considered unborn children as I listened to the lyrics of Silent Night: "round yon virgin/mother and child/holy infant so tender and mild" played over images of dogs and cats! Does this make sense to anyone? How have we elevated animals to such lofty heights and yet kill unborn human beings so easily? The ad makes use of music meant to honor Christ's birth and majesty to further the idea of animal equality, however so subtle.

The commercial itself is really a tragic signal to me that two groups have now merged: the extreme left animal activists and the sympathetic animal lover. The message in this ad appeals to both. And its presentation and underlying message compliment much more radical attempts in recent years to give more and more rights to animals. Consider Britain's proposed "Animal Welfare Bill" of 2006, granting pets...oh, sorry, how un-PC of me...granting "companion animals" some of the very rights given to human beings.

It really says something about a culture when they continually devalue human life and dignity while simultaneously elevating the "rights" of animals. The recent ad by the ASPCA does highlight the very real and relavent problem of animal cruelty, but perhaps more critically, its delivery and tone show us that the radical animal rights movement is gaining ground.

'Flying in Iraq With Superman'

2009-01-02T10:01:00.008-06:00

A cool story for you fans of Big Blue...

The Louisiana-based 1-244 Assault Helicopter Battalion is made up of superheroes.

A-Company is named after Superman...B-Company is named after Batman, and then some.

Read 'Flying in Iraq with Superman' from the Times Online.

Thanks to you guys in the 1-244 and all our brave men and women serving to keep us safe!

"Is the Bible Literally True?" - Implications in the Culture War

2008-12-15T09:07:00.006-06:00

Can the Bible be taken literally? Is it authoritative?

These questions were raised last week in ABC's interview with President Bush. It was raised also by Newsweek in an article claiming the Bible could be used to argue for gay marriage.

Theologian and cultural commentator Albert Mohler has been at the forefront of this debate over the past week. Below are links to his resources in regards to the debate. They are highly commended resources .

Turning the Bible on its Head - Newsweek Goes for Gay Marriage

Al Mohler and Newsweek writer Lisa Miller square off on NPR's "Talk of the Nation"

"Is Creation Compatible with Evolution?" - A President Weighs In

2008-12-09T09:34:00.005-06:00

An ABC Nightline interview with President George W. Bush this past Monday evening (12.8.2008) traversed the territory of the president's religious beliefs. Conservatives and Christians have long respected the president for his outspoken faith in God and Jesus Christ, even when those on the left would lambaste him, claiming his religion was being forced upon us and should not influence policy making. Though not an issue of policy, per se, the interview revealed something of President Bush's worldview that this evangelical found troubling.

From the transcript:

Asked about creation and evolution, Bush said: "I think you can have both. I think evolution can -- you're getting me way out of my lane here. I'm just a simple president. But it's, I think that God created the earth, created the world; I think the creation of the world is so mysterious it requires something as large as an almighty and I don't think it's incompatible with the scientific proof that there is evolution."

He added, "I happen to believe that evolution doesn't fully explain the mystery of life."

I appreciate the president's concession that he is "out of [his] lane." I would respectfully appeal to the president (whom I am convinced is a brother in Christ) and countless others who are misguided to believe evolution is compatible with Christianity. [NOTE: President-Elect Barack Obama has also made similar claims.

I will first note I am a student of theology not biology, so this blog is not going to bite off more than it can chew. But since this particular argument of science and religion occurs so often, as in this interview with our 43rd president, I will make a few assertations here as a young pastor and concerned cultural warrior.

I argue for the Bible's teaching that "In the beginning God created." Divine intelligence existed before the world was created, and this intelligence is the Creator and cause of all life. Even if we allow for some type of evolution process over time, there is no evidence to show that the process would even get started because for evolution to occur there must be an existing organism to evolve. To understand everything else, we must first realize that God created everything and gave loving mandates for how life should come about and exist.

Phillip E. Johnson of the University of California at Berkely writes, "Almost all illustrations of 'evolution in action' in textbooks or museum exhibits...involve no increase in complexity or appearance of new body parts or even permanent change of any kind. Small-scale, reversible population variations of this sort are usually called microevolution, although 'adaptive variation' would be a better term."

More from Johnson: "It is misleading to describe adaptive variation as 'evolution,' because the latter term commonly refers also to macroevolution...Charles Darwin assumed that macroevolution was merely microevolution extended over very long periods of time. Biology textbooks, museums, and television programs still teach people to make the same assumption, so that examples of macroevolution are used as proof that complex animals and even human beings evolved from simpler organisms by similar process."

Johnson affirms the greatest flaw of the theory of evolution "is that science has not discovered a process that can create all the necessary information" needed to coordinate the complex functions taking place in plants and animals. There is simply too much going on. Even Richard Dawkins, perhaps the most famous advocate of evolutionary theory flying in the face of religion, admits we're so biologically complicated that something had to initiate creation. He believes it to be ancient alien visitors.

Attesting to the theory of evolution also robs man of the imago Dei, or image of God that is imbued in each human being. This is fact affirmed by Scripture and science's own assertations of a necessary higher power. It is unfortunate the president and far too many other Christians have been dupped by supposed scientific evidence to the contrary.

Another disturbing statement from the president is that he prays to the same God as those with differing religious beliefs: "I do believe there is an almighty that is broad and big enough and loving enough that can encompass a lot of people."

So according to this, can Allah (or the god of any other religion) also be the Christian God?

No.

And, briefly, here's why: Theologically Muslims believe Allah to be "one God." They think the representation of God and Jesus in the Bible is in error and an affront to Allah. They would certainly not affirm the God of the Christians is the same and their Allah.

Evangelical Christians affirm a triune God who is one, but also three distinct personalities: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is unique among all religions and is not affirmed anywhere outside of the Bible and Christian theology. No other religion will accept God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as revealed in the Bible. The God of the Bible cannot be changed to any other "god" presented by any alternative religion. It is not the same God.

In closing, I pray for President Bush and other brothers and sisters in Christ: that this shrewdly cast veil of deception through "science" would be lifted and God would be glorified all the more at the realization that He is ultimate Creator and man is the pinnacle of His creation. May we all marvel at the complexity and majesty of this truth even as a hurting, bitter, and unbelieving world refuses this most basic of truths.

***President Bush also commented in the same interview that he does not believe the Bible should be taken literally. I will write on this in the coming days.

'Spectacular Sins'

2008-12-03T12:40:00.008-06:00

I must admit I took a roughly three-year break from reading John Piper. I had read so much of his printed work that I found myself beginning emulate his style, so I laid off soon after When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight For Joy helped jolt me into deeper spiritual truth and discipline that has carried on to this day. (That book has a reserved spot in my Top 10 books concerning faith).

And I may be adding another: I received a free copy of his most recent, Spectacular Sins (And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ), at the Desiring God conference this Fall and found time to read it one day over the Thanksgiving holiday.

The book is classic Piper. And that is hardly to say the book, its prose or purpose, is stale. Anything but. Dr. Piper still moves the pen (so to speak) in such a way as to stir one's heart toward the deeper truths of the faith. In this case, his opening salvo is prophetic in telling his reader that the time's are changing and everything we as Christians have come to expect, be it creature comforts to cultural acceptance, is about to be ripped away as Satan grows more powerful.

He writes in the book's introduction:

The sources of this difficulty will be pervasive sin...Tragedies and calamities and horrific suffering and sinful atrocities should not take Christians off guard. 'Beloved, do not be surprised by the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you' (1 Peter 4:12). They are foreseen by God, and he foretold them for us to know. God sees them coming and does not intend to stop them. Therefore, it appears that they somehow fit into his purposes."

This is not comfort reading. You won't feel good reading this. But you will feel buttressed by essential understanding of how that which is intended for evil by Satan and fallen men is actually part of God's plan and purpose.

Shocking? Yep.
Hard to wrap your head around? Oh yeah.
Spiritually nourishing? ...like gallons of green tea to your soul.

Piper describes in chapter 3 the reality of God governing every move of Satan:

"...God permitted Satan's fall, not because he was unable to stop it, but because he had a purpose for it. Since God is never taken off guard, his permissions are always purposeful. If he chooses to permit something, he does so for a reason - an infinitely wise reason because he is infinitely wise. How the sin arises in Satan's heart, we do not know. God has not told us. What we do know is that God is sovereign over Satan."

This theological truth has INCREDIBLE implications with how we view the sins of Satan, others, and ourselves. My own personal sin is permitted by God. For the same infinitely wise reason he permits Satan to roam the earth for a time, "he who is able to keep me from stumbling" (Jude 24) will however permit my stumbling sometimes because it will glorify His Son. God permits NOTHING that does not eventually lead to the glorification of Christ. And though I fall, I will rise (Micah 7:8-9) and no one will snatch me from the Father's hand (John 10:27-30).

Yeah. And that's just the surface of this barely-100-page read.

Piper then walks through several small chapters focused on spectacular sins from Scripture, including: Adam's disobedience, Joseph's being sold into slavery by his brothers, and Judas' betrayal of Christ Himself.

Chapter 5 is of particular interest to this writer, focusing on the pride of the people of Babel. As I wrote in a previous post, half the world's population now lives in cities; making urban missions the most important field for the harvest in the coming century. And Piper's theological treatment of the first metropolis is eye-opening:

"Then Genesis 11:1-9 drops the bomb on us. It wasn't obedience after all [to build the city]. The people weren't spreading to fill the earth. They were clustering. God came down and shattered their disobedience and made their clustering impossible. He confused their language and brok humanity into many peoples and languages."

Further:

"His will is not that we find our security in cities but in God whom we gladly obey."

He argues that God uses the sin of Babel to glorify His cause in the world: "We humans are far too evil to be allowed to unite in one language or one government. The gospel of the glory of Christ spreads better and flourishes because of 6,500 languages, not in spite of them."

I pray this short synopsis/review has whet your appetite to delve into the deep truth presented in this small volume. I highly commend it to you. With the times changing as rapidly they are and persecution of all types on the very near horizon, John Piper rallies the Kingdom army through presenting all-important Scriptural truth that will make you uncomfortable even as it comforts your soul. His admonition to readers of Spectacular Sins serves also to rattle you out of your complacency and challenges you to begin exploring the truth of how God works through even the most vile of sins: "Wimpy worldviews make wimpy Christians. And wimpy Christians won't survive the days ahead."

Going to Town - Why Urban Missions Are Key to the Spread of the Gospel

2008-11-20T15:35:00.008-06:00

“…for I have many in this city who are my people.”
(God speaking to Paul upon his ministry in the city of Corinth – Acts 18:10)

“Human History will ever more emphatically become urban history.”
John Grimond, as interviewed by The Economist [London], June 2007.

How the World Went to Town

Human history did not begin in the metropolis. The ancient peoples’ lives were dominated by the need for food, most of which was found in the isolated rural areas. Only about 11,000 years ago did man begin to form what we would consider a village. Small communities gathered for the purposes of protection in larger numbers or geographic advantage provided by rivers or hills located near food sources. They also came together in community for spiritual purposes and joint worship. From this humble point on man’s maturation and expansion would forever be linked with the city.

Over the past six millennia, the urbanization of man has progressed in ways unparalleled by any prior human history. The modern era has seen an unprecedented rise in the number of people living in urban areas, from only 3% of the world’s population in 1800 to the early 21st century numbers exceeding 50%.[1] The Economist of London, a leading world news organization that conducts several important studies each year, published in May 2007 the findings that by year’s end over half the world’s population would be found in urban areas. This has since become reality. Over half the people on the planet now live in cities. “Wisely or not,” the reports authors write, “Homo sapiens have become Homo urbanus.”

Cities in the 21st Century

People still come to the modern city for the base reasons they did all those millennia ago: trade, camaraderie, education, medicine, and even worship. With modern advances, from medicines allowing folks to live longer than ever before to the intricate highway systems decreasing the distance between any desire, these quintessential requisites for an attraction to the metropolis have been further diversified in their demand and fulfillment. The small-town youth who leaves for the big city in search of their dreams only to have them dashed by the reality of citified hardship is a favorite among writers and a telling archetype in its own right and popularity.

Cities supply more jobs, forcing many to leave rural homes to find employment and livelihood in the city. All major political decisions take place in cities. Nearly all of the cultural norms and beliefs have their genesis the city, be it political activism or the latest fashion trends. An interesting observation on cities in this young century centers on the fact that many who move to the city, though they are surrounded by people, hardly know anyone or are known themselves. Sought or not, the city provides an incredibly effective anonymity. You can get away with almost anything.

The past 50-year period of increasing city-dwellers “consists mostly of poor people migrating in unprecedented numbers…It is thus largely a phenomenon of poor and middle-income countires,”[2] according to The Economist’s report. Because of this some of the greatest poverty on the planet is found in cities, as are increased crime rates and family hardships or abuse. On the other hand, “the rich world has put most of its urbanisation [sic] behind it”[3] because the cultural elite completely dominate and control the urban landscape.

21st Century cities are still places of great corporate worship, albeit, worship of the culture and not of God. Albert Mohler writes, “When belief in God recedes, belief in culture takes its place, especially among elites. Secularism creates an opportunity for art and other cultural forms to claim transcendence, and the elites celebrate and venerate art in almost sacramental terms.”[4]

A Biblical View of the City
Cities mentioned in the Bible are rarely viewed in favorable light. This is often due to the presence of sin run rampant in these places and the majority of the citizens’ heart being far from the things of God. Sodom may be our first example of a city gripped in the vices of the world, where abominations such as rape and sodomy are seen as everyday occurrences and accepted as the norm. Even Jerusalem in the time of Christ was so sinful and far from seeking the heart of God that Jesus Himself wept over the city and it’s sin. Other biblical cities for which the biblical authors were concerned or called to judge: Ninevah, Tyre, Sidon, Babylon, Gomorrah, Corinth, and Rome.

The Bible observes that as sinful people gather to live an enclosed area they very often give themselves over to passions and lust of the world rather than to the things of God. When one considers the biblical and current illustrations of the city, we see there is reason from church history and our own experience to be wary of embracing the city as a place of deliverance, when instead it may be viewed as a vehicle for accelerated damnation.

Yet God still has a heart for the peoples of the cities. Jonah may be our first biblical model of the metropolitan missionary. Called to go to Nineveh, a city filled with pagans, Jonah was to preach the truth of God to its fallen inhabitants. This reveals God has a heart not just for the people of the countryside or those communities already centered around His Word, but on those great metroplexes of old in which there also dwelled many who were not yet of His sheep pen (John 10:16). Paul’s last major place of witness on his second missionary journey took place in the city of Corinth, where God confirmed to Paul in a vision that the preaching of Christ would have success because there were already people of God in the city and many more who would come to God through Paul’s ministry (Acts 18:9-10).

The Great Commission Includes Cities
Christ did not intend His disciples of any age to neglect the urban centers of the world when He issued the Great Commission. In fact, if you look at the model of Christ’s ministry, He often went into the places where people gathered (the temple, etc) to open the Scriptures and teach from them. Paul and other apostles followed this model in their own ministries. Just as what happens in cities dictates the direction of culture and society, so to does the advancement of Christ’s kingdom in the cities serve to increase the number of true worshippers serving the one living God.

Rising to the Challenge of the Cities
In his article, “The Challege of the Cities,” Roger S. Greenway defines several challenges faced by those who would pursue urban mission.The first being that of the extreme poverty often found in cities that calls the missionary to consider proclaiming “the gospel of God’s love and [demonstrating] the Gospel in a practical way.”

There is also racial, ethnic and cultural diversity to consider, so the urban missionary may have to adapt quickly to any number of cultural differences or religious pluralism. While some missionaries may wish to give attention to one group, they must be prepared to reply to others who have no religion or whose felt needs are unlike those of their preferred people group within the city.

Greenway also reports that there is a shortage of workers in the city because “many missionaries are so disturbed by the noise and traffic in cities, the pollution, social problems, crime and crowded housing, that they prefer to work in rural areas.” Also, there is a major practical issue of the higher cost of living and survival in the city.[5]

These matters must be considered prayerfully by any who would minister in the city. As with any kind of evangelism, we begin to reach the cities by providing the need of every human heart: salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. While not discounting outlying and unreached villages far away, there is an urgent need in the next quarter-century to target the ever-increasing cities for Christ. The cities should send the missionary heart soaring because these metropolitan areas represent the world in microcosm. In some cases hundreds of cultures, nationalities, and religions can be found within blocks of each other. With this in mind, the church as a whole must give great attention to the urban areas if we are to continue impacting a seemingly shrinking world with the gospel of the glory of Jesus Christ. For as the cities go, so goes the rest of the world.

----------------------------

[1] Staff. “The World Goes to Town,” The Economist [London], 3 May 2007.
[2] Staff. The World Goes to Town.
[3] Staff. The World Goes to Town.
[4] Mohler, R. Albert. “The Great Challenge of the Cities – ‘The World Goes to Town.’” 4 June, 2007. http://albertmohler.com/blog_read.php?id=954
[5] Greenway, Robert S. “The Challenge of the Cities,” in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, 553-558. Paternoster, 1999.

DOWN FOR THE COUNT: ...But Not Out. How the Men of God Begin to Rescue Male Intimacy from the Homosexual Agenda

2008-11-02T16:26:00.034-06:00

PART 2 of DOWN FOR THE COUNT: How the Homosexual Agenda Delivers a Near-Knockout-Punch for Male Friendship.

--------------------------------

We've briefly defined a crisis in Part 1. Let's now have a blog-length look at the solution, men.

I'm addressing all you gentlemen directly because it is only from your godly leadership, approach, and passion that we will be able to affect any change in the perceptions of male friendship and make a difference in the lives of men who struggle with same gender attraction and a society that is increasingly accepting it as the norm.

For us to get up, dust ourselves off, and make progress in combating the homosexual agenda, we have to model healthy, intimate, God-honoring male friendships. Set the example for your sons and other men by following the example of David and Jonathan found in 1 Samuel 18 - 24.

Selfless love conquers sexual perversion.
David and Jonathan were committed to one another and were fearless in expressing these sentiments:"...the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul...Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul." (1 Samuel 18:1, 3)

There is a selflessness in pure, God-centered male friendships that will never exist in a homosexual relationship. Homosexuality is not about selfless love, but is, at its core, a selfish act concerned with worshiping the form of someone who mirrors your own self/body. Though soul ties are made in any type of sexual encounter, a knitting of souls is something completely, wholly and holy set apart.

Real men don't need sex to relate to one another. They need the common bond of Jesus Christ. I imagine as Jonathan listened to David explain to Saul how God strengthened him to face the giant Goliath something was stirred in Jonathan's spirit. He saw in David a heart much like his own and initiated a covenant of friendship and brotherhood, expressed in words of loyalty and actions of selflessness and esteem.

Charles Spurgeon perhaps stated this connection between men of God best:
"Whenever I find a man in whom the spirit of God rests, the Spirit in me leaps to hear the Spirit in him, and we feel that we are one."

Love men rightly and affectionately, bearing each other's burdens.
And as soon as the boy had gone, David rose from beside the stone heap and fell on his face to the ground and bowed three times. And [David and Jonathan] kissed one another and wept with one another, David weeping the most. (1 Samuel 20:41)

There is an emotional intimacy displayed between these two men whose friendship has been affected by events outside of their control. Jonathan's father, Saul, has vowed to kill David. The two men must now part. And they are unafraid to display their innermost feelings and affection in a healthy display.

Men need to be unafraid to put an arm around a comrade's shoulder. Brothers should greet one another firm embraces. My own uncle, an army sargeant, kisses the side of my head each time I see him. Men in battle often hold one another when the fight is done. This is a necessary action of affection stretching all the way back to the Greek catharsis, in which men would attend tragic theater to weep and hone their emotions. This helped them on the field of battle face their fears and grieve healthily after battle's end.

Jonathan empathized with his covenant brother because he loved David's heart as much as his own. The two men had been through much at this point. But now more than ever, David, the man who would be King of Israel, needed strong arms to hold him and cry with him. It was healthy, it was intimate, it was God-honoring, and it even now flies in the face of a culture trying to sexualize any affection between men. It makes a statement still today, as will your example make in the life of the man you would call 'friend.'

There are many other aspects and examples to pursue and parse here. But blogs are meant to be snacks, not full-course meals. I pray you have been inspired and challenged by these scribblings to stand up and fight: fight for the men in your life, fight for true friendship, fight a warped agenda by setting an example that impacts individuals and changes lives.

We can do this, men. Decide today to take a stand and we can do this.

-------
RESOURCES

Part 1 is linked above.

If you are reading this and wish to further explore the subject, I commend you the following article. It is exquisitely written and very thorough: A Requiem for Friendship: Why Boys Will Not Be Boys and Other Consequences of the Sexual Revolution

If you are a man struggling in the area of same-gender attraction, I would direct you to an online ministry called Living Hope.

DOWN FOR THE COUNT: How the Homosexual Agenda Delivers a Near- Knock-Out Punch for Male Friendship -- PART 1

2008-10-24T10:44:00.004-05:00

"Aw, dude! They're gaaaayy!"

That was the near-exclamation I heard a few years ago at a midnight screening of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. It came from behind me in the darkened theater during a tender scene where friends Sam and Frodo held each other and cried as they said their final goodbyes. I was annoyed at the college guy's comment but not shocked at the immaturity or allegation leveled at the hobbits. Though there were a few snickers from his Frat Pack, most of the audience, I think, chose not to acknowledge him vocally (much in part to the arresting storytelling onscreen). But I don't think my fellow audience members dismissed the comment in their minds.

Apparently I wasn't the only one who had this kind of experience at Lord of the Rings. Anthony Esolen, an English professor at Providence College writes in his exceptional article, A Requiem for Friendship: Why Boys Will Not Be Boys and Other Consequences of the Sexual Revolution, of the same thing happening when he watched the movie.

I've noticed similar reactions at the mention David and Jonathan's deep friendship (beginning in 1 Samuel 18). When I was younger I sometimes felt shamed to say this was one of my favorite stories in the Old Testament because people would say D & J were gay lovers. But even a teenaged, theologically young Jared Steven Musgrove was pretty sure the Bible wasn't propagating THAT. But many were making arguments to the contrary. Rembrandt's rendering of Jonathan going to comfort David at Horesh (1 Samuel 23:15-18) is used in this wrongful argument because it shows David in a submissive position before his friend. (In reality , he was showing honor to his friend).

Friendship: The Love That Can No Longer Speak Its Name
Call it the Brokeback Effect even though it's been going on long before that particular piece of 'cinema' was released in 2005. Now any time the culture sees two men embracing or enjoying the other's company our cultural conditioning kicks in and we question in our mind their intentions. It's why a college-aged camp counselor can't comfort a crying kid by hugging him (He might be feeling him up!). It's why we're suspicious if we see an adult male helping a little boy in a public restroom (He may be a pedophile!). It's why two guys sitting across from each other at Starbuck's having a serious talk raises eyebrows (They might be on a date! I've actually had to deal with this one personally while having coffee with a buddy). There's no such thing anymore as "we're friends" between men. It can no longer be that simple and pure. Our culture now demands there be MUST something scandalous when two men are alone together.

How did we get to this point?

It think it's because healthy, intimate, and God-honoring male friendships have become so foreign to us that when we see them with skin on we automatically assume scandal. We're so scandal-sensitive that impropriety is that with which we are most familiar. We're trained to look for it around every corner by media and an overarching society of suspicion quickly losing its ability to conceive of anything truly pure and good. Most men have never been through battle and blood with a buddy the way Frodo and Sam or David and Jonathan experienced. And because of this, wedded with the increasing call for acceptance of "the love that dare not speak its name," men are alone and confused and afraid.

ALONE

Men are alone mostly because no one's shown us a healthy way to have friends. Many of our fathers made it without friends, why can't we? I would answer simply that it just doesn't work. And we men know that instinctively. We are made to be friends with other men and share deep spiritual things from our hearts. But because of a lack of modeling on this and a fear that we'll be labeled "gay," we isolate ourselves and don't develop a substantial relationship with any man.

CONFUSED
A growing percentage of boys are being forced to ask sexual questions at far too early an age. With porn of all types rampant and free on the Internet, it's really no surprise many guys are exposed to sexuality in all forms before many of them even hit puberty proper. They're called "gay" on the playground only so many times before they may start thinking that maybe they are. Parents provide a PC in their son's bedroom and online they go "exploring." In my experience speaking with college men who have been very open and honest with me about this, gay porn is a growing entry drug into a lifestyle men were never meant to enter. This pollutes their ability to invest healthily in friendship with other boys and creates relational deficiencies whether the porn is straight or gay.

AFRAID
This fear I mention sums up several points in this article and plays out in two major ways : 1) the boy attracted to girls is afraid he'll be labled "gay" if he seems to be close friends with any other boys. Or, 2) the boy may be feeling like he's attracted to other guys and fears getting close to any of them, or is afraid he'll be "found out."

Wrapping Up the Part 1
There are more directions and avenues we could explore. And I have here made some broad statements for sake of brevity. The purpose of this writing is not to do an in-depth article but to begin a conversation. In Part 2 I will set out to provide some helps for picking ourselves up off the floor and fighting back against an agenda that would rob men of God's gift of friends.

See you in a few weeks for Part 2.

RESOURCES
If you are reading this and wish to further explore the subject, I commend you the above article I mentioned. It is exquisitely written and very thorough: A Requiem for Friendship: Why Boys Will Not Be Boys and Other Consequences of the Sexual Revolution
If you are a young man struggling in the area of same-gender attraction, I would direct you to an online ministry called Living Hope.

Comparing Preachers

2008-10-12T18:44:00.008-05:00

I've become consciously concerned as of late at the propensity of our podcasting generation to critique the preachers and sermons of their own church against those they religiously listen to on podcast.

Podcasting sermons on the web is a brilliant and amazing avenue to share biblically-centered preaching to those who may not otherwise be able to attend a service. It's encouraging to the believer who has to commute and would rather spend his transit time growing in grace and knowledge than learning lyrics to pop ditties that won't survive the decade. And that is only one example of why I am grateful for podcasted preaching.

But I fear what it becomes for many of us who listen regularly is an avenue for comparison to the preaching we hear in our own congregations on Sundays. I've observed a few ways this works itself out, the first being the most common:

1. The podcaster is so enamored with the podcasted preacher that he then unfairly holds (whether consciously or subconsciously) his home pastor to the same standards of a John Piper or John McArthur or Mark Driscoll, failing to recognize those men shepherd specific congregations with express needs first and foremost; and if it goes unchecked, this attitude may further harden the well-intentioned mind and heart to a failure recognize and encourage the strengths and ministry of his own pastor's preaching and how it fulfills the spiritual needs of his local church.

2. Playing off the feelings of the first point, the sermon critic becomes so to the point that he fails to plant himself at any local congregation and become what C.S. Lewis referred to as a "church connoisseur" who flits from church to church, sampling every sermon against what he considers his competently cultured taste buds. Fewer places do I see this more than collegiate Christians or seminarians who cut their teeth on Matt Chandler and refuse to join any church that isn't The Village. This attitude is unbiblical and displays an immature understanding of the function of the local church in the life of the believer living in an area in which ministry can and should be done.

3. As a natural outgrowth of all of the above, the radical Christian podcaster decides no local church will suit his acquired tastes or standards and decides to pursue a 'private spirituality' apart from a local body of Christ. His weekly feast of five podcasted sermons from the most popular preachers will suffice for his sanctification...

Wrong.

The natural digression displayed above is one I've seen more often than I would have thought possible. The attitude behind it is one of unabashed pride in the form of snobbery. It also betrays in the offender an immaturity in grasping the essential place of the local church body (and its lead pastor) in the continued march to maturity in Christ.

Don't try to hold your pastor to any other man's standards, no matter how good you think they may be. It's an attitude akin to holding your wife to the standards of other women in media. The pastor of your local congregation is fashioned for a specific ministry in that community. Instead of driving two hours to attend a church for the sermonizing, try finding a local, Bible-believing congregation in which you can serve and not just pew-sit (or podcast in your jammies). Bible-saturated preaching is essential, this we know. But so is establishing relationships with fellow believers for the purpose of sharpening and discipleship. Be involved with what God is doing through believers in your area. Just like those pastors and church members in the local congregation, He has you in this place for such a time as this.

Responding to Election Anxiety

2008-09-09T14:06:00.008-05:00

I read this article back in June just before my wedding and realized I was a candidate for 'news fatigue.' I suppose my entire generation is at risk, according to the report, but I find myself especially susceptible during this absorbing political season.

We have to be careful, though, friends. Balance your news with the Word of God. When I don't I not only get news fatigue, I also get gloomy about the future. And that is unacceptable for a child of the King who has the hope of Heaven. I will confess, however, as election anxiety creeps in I begin to somehow start putting faith in people (yikes) and (Lord, forgive me) politicians (who are often the lesser of two evils).

But in my time with the Lord this morning I was reminded of an important truth in my reading through Proverbs:

"The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will."

--Proverbs 21:1

I am thankful that I serve the Sovereign of the Universe, who is actively involved in the affairs of men, bringing history to a God-glorifying apex. No matter the outcome, this election will not throw off the plans of God the Father. It was sweet to be reminded of this promise and I'm carrying it with me into this November 4th and beyond.

The Friends You Need

2008-09-06T07:00:00.008-05:00

Not long ago a close friend of mine commented on another close friend of mine: "How did you fall in with him?" (Isn't it always fun to bridging two friendships together?)

I didn't have an answer. "I just did," I guess. "Divine providence?"

Ever sat around in your group of friends and have a moment? An epiphany of sorts that though you may have prayed for friends, you never could have conjured up this group in a million years. I feel this way often when I reflect on my friendships.

There are men in my life whose presence defines friendship. Many of them I consider my own family ... my brothers. I always say to Jenny that should God grant us children, they'll have about 8 uncles.

These are the friends for whom I prayed for years as a teenager. They're the friends I wanted, but even moreso, they're the friends I needed.

Each one balances me and enhances me as a man of God in ways I could not have provided myself in any other way. I think there have been moments of humility where I felt undeserving of such friends, and then there have been moments where I pause, wondering how, out of all the people in all the world, I ended up with THESE people...

But that's who I got and I'm stickin' to 'em. And I'm proud of each of them. I'm even more grateful to God for them.It just confirms to me that You don't get the friends you want, you get the friends you need.

You can read about just a few of these men in an earlier post.

'Spiritual Depression' Happens to Us All

2008-09-03T15:51:00.008-05:00

If you've been a believer for any amount of time, you're familiar with the feeling.

It's like your...off, somehow. You're not connecting with God for some reason, even after you've asked Him to search your heart and reveal to you any unconfessed or secret sin. You are praying your guts out. You read your Scriptures hoping to feel real again. Your relationships with people may be going well, but you don't feel connected to anyone. There's no reason to be in a desert but you are anyway.

And you are not alone. Not by a long shot.

It is spiritual depression, the subject of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' classic, "Spiritual Depression: It's Causes and Cure." And it will affect us all at one point or another. Actually, probably several points.

A few months ago I realized something in me was...off. I couldn't explain it or understand it. It felt familiar but not. I kept thinking I had done something to get myself into this desert. There seemed to be no reason for feeling in a funk. My first sign of hope came from Scripture, specifically from the transcript of Christ's temptation in the desert in Luke 4. I noticed Jesus was "led by the Spirit in the desert." He didn't do anything to get himself there. The Holy Spirit led the Lord Himself into the desert for a specific purpose. Much of my spiritual journey in this season is shared in my recent sermon over Luke 4:1-15 at NBC this past July.

I began to learn I was not alone in facing spiritual depression. "The fact remains," writes Lloyd-Jones, "that there are large numbers of Christian people who give the impression of being unhappy. They are cast down, their souls are 'disquieted within them', and it is because of that" the late London minister calls attention to the subject in this collection of hard-hitting, refreshing sermons.

This book has been an oasis for me. I especially appreciate that Lloyd-Jones distinguishes that there are certain personalities who are hard on themselves, given to unhealthy instrospection. This kind of insight pervades the book. He writes,

"Some of us by nature, and by the very type to which we belong, are more given to this spiritual disease called spiritual depression than others. We belong to the same company as Jeremiah, and John the Baptist and Paul and Luther and many others. A great company! Yes, but you cannot belong to it without being unusually subject to this particular type of trial."

Further:

"You cannot isolate the spiritual from the physical for we are body, mind and spirit. The greatest and the best Christians when they are physically weak are more prone to an attack of spiritual depression than at any other time and there are great illustrations of this in the Scriptures."

Lloyd-Jones defines in his book an important and vital issue most Christians face but never really define or defeat because they are blinded to it. I'm thankful for this volume and give it the highest recommendation I can.

You Are Not Special.

2008-08-26T11:27:00.013-05:00

Recent events in friendships and ministry have prompted much thinking centered on the subject of what drives us to think we are any better than the next fella and can “get away with it.”

Smart, smart people fall for this trap all the time:

“Just once won’t hurt.”

“This is the last time, I swear. No more.”

“I understand this better than other people.”

“I can control it.”

“It won’t affect my friends.”

“My wife won’t find out.”

Oh yes. I know you, dear reader. Well enough to know that if some of these exact statements haven’t crossed your mind verbatim (which they most likely have) then the spirit of them is one with which you are at acquainted on a first-name basis.

Whether it’s too much meth, masturbation, meds, Mountain Dew, fetishism, homoeroticism, Michelob, emotional red light specials, M&M's, your modem or misappropriation, WE ARE ALL GUILTY of thinking we’re special…that we can overthrow addictions we’ve seen conquer all other takers.

“But I’m different.”

Bull.

Forget all those self-esteem workshops you got in elementary school where you sang about how unique and unrepeatable you are as a person. Your addictions don't know that tune.

You’re not ANY different. You are a human being with the same tendencies, capacities, scars, emotional needs, physical desires and aptitude for addiction as the next guy. Your poison may be different than your BFF’s (you’ll pick one corresponding to your specific personality and pain), but the outcome will be the same across both boards.

“But I’ve studied this stuff. It was my major in college. It’s my job now. I know all the signs.”

How many doctors self-medicate and become addicts? How many cops/criminologists are morally crooked? Ever heard of a porn-addict pastor? Think of your high school guidance counselors and how many divorces they’d been through.

Still think you’re the exception just because you’ve surrounded yourself with knowledge? That BA, 3.99 GPA means jack squat in this arena, pal.

"I'm offended!"

Me too! I was taught in D.A.R.E. to consider myself incredibly crunk! The truth has a way of kicking you to the curb as far as presuppositions go.

Self-Esteem Generation, listen up: You don't deserve a sno-cone after losing that account. No free Saf-T-Pop because you got a paper cut (closest you get is sucking on said lacerated finger). Your mom is not on her way to tell your boss off because he passed you over for promotion (he didn't get the memo about you being "gifted and talented"). There are no trophies or white ribbons for "participating" in life.

And as far as your dirty little secrets go...they're not any more dirty or little or secret than any other sinner's.

Now I've devastated you. What next?

“For real, just yesterday I told God this would be the last time. Ever. No going back.”

It’s a start, I guess. But let’s be honest in admitting cold turkey is never that easy. Depending on the depth of your addiction, it could take you years to thrash the habit. And it’s probably something you’ll spend a lifetime vigilantly guarding against and keeping at bay. If you just got out of drugs, awesome. But know the prediliction to them has been ingrained in you – possibly for years depending on the length and depth of your habit. That’s just the way things are this side of Heaven: we are imperfect beings in imperfect flesh. We can train our bodies for bad. And because we’re so good at working out our sin natures, old habits die hard. Very hard. You won’t achieve any lasting, true victory over your demons under your own power. Your self-control is shot unless it is steeped in Holy Spirit.

The first step in maintaining victory over any stronghold is realizing how vulnerable you are. You are not special. You have flesh crawling all over you that looks for every opportunity to destroy your spirit. And that’s the story of every human being.

Overcoming addiction and its ilk is directly related to you submitting to the fact that you’re just not that big a deal. One of the key factors in people who are mentally disturbed is their complete and utter self-absorbtion (try that one on for size…)

So get over yourself. See in the Scriptures that we’re all of us accosted and marred by sin. Just because you shut the door to shoot up and the teenage girl is beginning to show means nothing. You’re both in need of a Savior. Get over yourself, press into Christ, and start being truly exceptional in the only lasting work: furthering the Kingdom of God.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:1-10

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

2008-08-21T11:24:00.007-05:00

I forgot how sanctifying public transportation can be. When I was a ministry associate at BYX I traveled most every other weekend (usually by plane, sometimes by car) to a different university. Those times sitting in airports waiting, riding in planes, driving for hours... those were some of the greatest, most focused times of spiritual growth I've experienced in the past three years.

Granted, I didn't spend ALL the time alone. I talked to some folks too. I mean, there was that flight to Jackson when I chatted it up with R&B singer Brandy, not realizing it was her until a little girl asked for an autograph at the baggage claim. But when it comes down to it, I'm more of a Neal Page (Steve Martin) than a Dell Griffin (John Candy) when it comes to planes, trains, and automobiles. Chalk it up to temperament.

I don't travel nearly as regularly anymore. Just my short commute to NBC. But the other night I decided to take the train from Fort Worth to Plano to see one of my best friends. We've been meeting up semi-regularly for dinner since we both graduated from OU and moved to the DFW metroplex...it's just that we live on opposing sides of the 'plex, so getting together takes some commitment. This time it took the form of a two-hour train ride to and from. But it was a refreshing time of sitting with Jesus, Martin Lloyd-Jones' Spiritual Depression, and my iPod. Melancholy's thrive on introspection and there's fewer better places to do so than solitary plane, train, and automobile rides.

I'm glad I don't have to ride the TRE or DART every day. But my little journey the other evening yielded amazing results: I got to spend some great time with God, I met a delightful older Christian couple (who'd spent the day touring the art museums in Fort Worth) and got to share with them about the ministry of BYX and my thoughts of discipleship. And, of course, there was Steve-O, who is that side-by-side friend from whom I receive such great encrouagement and love whenever we meet or talk.

Sufficeit to say, I'm very much looking forward to my next train ride. And who says I have to have a set destination? What if I just went for the round trip? Five bucks ain't bad for some focused time with the Lord. And intense people watching.

iPhones May Be the Closest We Could Ever Get to Green Lantern Rings

2008-07-29T14:24:00.013-05:00

At the risk of sounding culturally irrelevant (not a large risk, mind you: I bought the new Coldplay album the day it came out...on iTunes!), all these new phones scare me.

Mostly because I fought email addiction in college. And won. But it was bad for a while, folks; we're talking every-two-minutes-or-less checking of the inbox. Perhaps you've experienced this or it's sister Facebook addiction where you click that 'friends' button every two minutes or less just to see who "is hating the 100-degree heat,' or 'is trying to study,' or, a personal favorite from Anonymous: "stepped on a baby kitty and hopes that it doesn't go retarded!! poor baby"

Really?

My inclination to all things electronic has become even more apparent to me in marriage. The other evening my wife and I were watching a movie during our weekly date night at home. I was into the movie, I was digging the alone time with my baby...and then the email notification on my Mac (2 points for relevancy) went off in the other room. Like a trained seal I sprang up from my couch, my wife, and Robert Duvall to see what kind of message comes into my email on Thursday evening.

It was a Facebook update (the forces combined!). Someone commented on my photo. Naturally I was compelled to respond IMMEDIATELY, lest I be considered culturally irrelevant. (Who wants to see a response the next day? "That joke was soooo last night at 9:45")

It made me start thinking about how tied to technology I have a tendency to be. I have started making some slight changes (see linked article below) and it hasn't been easy, but my wife's been patient with me through the process.

Now can you imagine this scenario if I had email/facebook on my phone?!?!? I could do anything! Anytime! Anywhere! I wouldn't have even had to get up and walk to the next room.

Kinda like a Green Lantern power ring, which gives its user great power over the physical world and can accomplish almost anything its user imagines. This ability is increased

or limited only by the the wielder's will power, imagination, and savviness with the ring. The ring can give instant analysis of any situation, object, substance, or threat. It connects its wearer instantly with any other member of the 7,200-strong Green Lantern Corps. It allows the wearer to fly. It even has to be charged every now and again or it'll run outta juice. (Now, the power rings are even starting to come in other colors of the "emotional spectrum"...like blue for hope, or red for rage).

I'd never stop using a Green Lantern ring if I had one.

And I know would take some Green Lantern-strength willpower to tear myself away from a phone that can connect you to anything or anyone. So for now I'm playing it safe and trying to be wise in readying myself to recognize when a technology is taking over my relationships or ministry.

And maybe, just maybe, I'm holding out for the iPhone that enables its user to fly. Now THAT I'll stand in line for!

---

Pray for us all as we continue to exert control over the miracles of technology, ever vigilant against those miracles becoming strongholds used by the eneamy to distract us from Christ and His Kingdom work.

Here is one Christian philosopher's helpful ruminations; I commend them to your consideration and discernment.

Student of the Human Heart

2008-07-06T10:03:00.004-05:00

"If we will observe the relationships that go on between human beings, we will receive a graduate-level education."

--Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, p. 74.

The study of "non-verbal" books, as Richard Foster would call them, has been a theme of my life. I am fascinated by the human condition; that is, why we do the things we do, our facets, our personalities, our fallen state, our contradictions, our desires, our inherent need of a Savior, etc.

Foster is correct in that being observant of the lives surrounding us as well as those found in history and literature provides incredible insight. Great wisdom can come from experience tempered with a Biblical worldview.

I find support of this type of study in the wisdom of Solomon. From Proverbs 24:30-34:
I passed by the field of a sluggard,
by the vineyard of a man lacking sense,
and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns;
the ground was covered with nettles,
and its stone wall was broken down.
Then I saw and considered it;
I looked and received instruction.
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest,
and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
and want like an armed man.
(emphasis mine)

In the same vein, the book of Ecclesiastes is Solomon's own confessional autobiography in which he shares his personal reflections on life and all he has observed and experienced; the godly and the fallen. Great impetus for us to make the study of the human heart a top priority to practice.

I am reminded as I write of an earlier blog very much in spirit with this. Linked here are a few meditations of mine on how learning from others' poor examples has allowed me to avoid some pitfalls of my own: Mistakes Not Taken, Scars Not Received

Following the Leader

2008-07-02T14:26:00.006-05:00

The Institute for American Values released a study on June 11 entitled Is Religion an Answer? Marriage, Fatherhood, and the Male Problematic. The findings conclude church involvement and devotional activity “increase the odds that fathers will get and stay happily married to the mothers of their children and foster higher levels of involvement and affection with children.”

This should come as no great shock to the Christian male or family. The Family of God SHOULD naturally foster through its ministries –from baptisms, to Father’s Day sermons, to men’s ministry – a moral responsibility that calls men to sacred character.

The “Male Problematic” as defined in the Institute’s report (father’s shirking spiritual leadership and responsibility) has been plaguing us since Norman Rockwell painted his famous and prophetic, “Sunday Morning” piece for the cover of the May 16, 1959 edition of The Saturday Evening Post.

I sense many of you are with me in my stance that I’m not going to take this slouching and hiding like the central figure in Rockwell’s painting. No longer. Not this generation. Not this church. Not these men.

As the Body of Christ at NBC, it is the heart of our leadership to see men grow into who they are made to be by their Creator: strong leaders who stand on Scriptural principle, who are spiritually fit and able to fight for their church, their families, friends, and their God. Part of this training up of sturdy men, husbands, and fathers is facilitating a place where men can be who they were meant to be.

This Fall promises to be exciting for the Men of NBC. Our Men’s Ministry Council, comprised of myself, Ronnie Staats, Jared Starr, and Austin McKnight, are meeting, praying, and sensing a very strong and unified direction for the NBC Men’s Ministry.

We have adopted a quote from our Pastor’s recent Father’s Day sermon to wave like a banner over our men’s ministry: “As the man goes, so goes the family; as the man goes, so goes the church.” The response to the invitation that June morning for men to commit anew to serving God and leading their families was very powerful. Seeing that many men at the front of the church, kneeling before God, praying together… it was a glimpse of spiritual champions fed up with emasculated manhood. It was a final confirmation that the Spirit is indeed moving in the hearts of our men. Personal conversations with some of you men have only led to a stronger sense of this in recent days.

Beginning in September we will initiate Men’s Fraternity, a radical call to help one another explore the critical issues we all face by standing side by side, back to back, and doing spiritual battle together. Trying to go it alone doesn’t work so we’re going to challenge one another in the coming year to walk with other men in following God’s leadership in our devotional lives, families, friendships, and church. I think it’s really just the beginning of something quietly epic.

This might not be for everyone though; as with any true and great spiritual undertaking it will require sacrifice and vulnerability. In Men’s Fraternity we will tackle issues regarding wounds of family and loneliness, among others. Through time together and in small groups of 4 to 5 men, we’ll call one another to drop the pretenses of the “male problematic” to get real about the baggage our mutual enemy uses to make us ineffectual in the fight off faith. Through fellowship, accountability, brotherhood, and unity, we will walk together to spur one another toward love and great deeds, a Biblical view of manhood guiding and igniting the warrior’s spirit granted each of us by our great King.

Don't Run Red Lights Because You're Afraid of Facing Yourself for a Minute

2008-06-23T11:32:00.001-05:00

"We are all in such a hurry, we want everything at once. We believe that all truth can be stated in a few minutes. The answer to that is that it cannot, and the reason why so many today are living superficial Christian lives is because they will not take time to examine themselves."

--D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, 'Spiritual Depression' p. 12

Jared's JLA

2008-06-02T09:39:00.005-05:00

From Jared and Jenny's wedding program comes these scribblings about the men in our wedding whom God has used to make me into who I am today.

----

Greg McElroy
Pastor, Mentor and life-long friend

If ever I (Jared) had an older brother in this life it is Greg McElroy. He has been a part of some biggest days in my life. Greg was there to walk with me when I first wrestled with God’s call to ministry. A few years later we were licensed to the ministry together. He was with me to buy Jenny’s engagement ring, and consequently I got to be with him that same day when Kelli called to tell him they were expecting Elijah. God even used him to point me toward Normandale Baptist Church, where Jenny and I have found a church home and place of ministry.

This man has discipled me in a most profound way. He has been my voice of reason, my guide, and my best friend. Greg invited me into his world and showed me how to invite others into mine. Because of him I am a better disciple of Christ. I will be a better husband, father, and minister because Greg McElroy loved me and invested in me. I love this man deeply. I am incredibly proud to have him here today, the biggest day of my life yet.

Tyler Wilson
Best Man - BYX Little Bro

Tyler is the first man with whom I had the privilege of doing one-on-one discipleship. I saw so much of my own heart in him that I felt compelled to make a difference in his life. What I didn’t expect was how great a difference he would make in mine. Much in part because of how God moved in our time together do I now find myself a pastor of discipleship. God used the two of us, through times of laughing, crying, talking, praying and serving together, to reveal to us both the directions and purposes of our ministries. I wouldn’t be where I am if not for Tyler Wilson.

It has been a great privilege to grow with him in BYX and now see my little bro maturing into his own man and minister. It is with great love, humility, and joy that I have him stand by my side today as best man.

Steven Hardebeck
Groomsman - BYX Brother, College Roommate

Steven is a fighter whose indomitable spirit inspires the men around him to stand firm. He’s the man in my life who has stood by me in some of my finest moments and those where I felt most defeated. We have both been through very joyful and low times together in our spiritual walks and friendship. But through it all God has moved our hearts to continue the fight for each other.

Steven just doesn’t give up. He is my model for standing in the gap for a brother…the embodiment of a friend loving at all times and a brother born for adversity (Proverbs 18:17). It is one of the great joys of my adult life that our sincere friendship and love for one another as brothers is continually grown and strengthened by God.

Steven also stands with me today representing the fine gentlemen of 725 Schulze: Tom Crawford, Matt Courtney, and Blake Isernhagen. I had a most incredible house of men with whom to live and share my college life.

Joe Thomas
Groomsman - BYX Brother, Creative Consultant

There are those blessed few friends whose presence in your life has all the impact of a comet pulled from orbit. Upon meeting Joe Thomas I knew I was in for a friendship unlike any other. Always up for any adventure, he reminds me to laugh well and often; usually just as much at myself as at the inconsistencies and strange truths of life. He knows me well enough to call me out when I’m being less than the Jared he knows. A constant creative force and perceptive as anyone I’ve ever met, he’s the first person across whose desk I pass any creative ideas or writing because I know his input will help it defy some gravity.

But just as important as all that is Joe’s unfaltering loyalty to his friends. The champion of celebrations, seizing the moment, and his friends’ well being, he can be depended upon to be there for you and be all for you. I love this man for his warmth, versatility, and devotion to God and Spirit-led relationships. Joe’s bright friendship has changed me for better and for good.

Chris Lorenz
Groomsman - BYX Grand-Little Bro, Cell Group Member

One of the finest men I know, Chris’ character speaks volumes. He will sit and listen with earnest heart while you spill your guts. He’ll then encourage you with truth and a much-needed hand on your shoulder.

Chris has grown so much in the time I’ve known him. From a boy with lots of questions to a steady 1 Peter 3:15 man “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in” him, he always responds with his characteristic gentleness and respect. He is able to do so because of his persistent chasing after God and his unabashed application of truth to life’s situations. His honesty, truthfulness, and genuine love of his brothers in Christ are second to none and a great influence.

Austin McKnight
Usher - Brother In Christ

Austin is one of the bravest, most insightful young men I know. In the time he and I have been meeting for discipleship he has become a close friend and treasured younger brother. In him I have a kindred spirit with whom I share many interests, points of view, and a passion for the Gospel in engaging culture as an intelligent Christian.

His pure heart, discerning empathy and great potential are continual encouragements to me in ministry and my relationship with Christ. I see in him the character of Proverbs 20:5. It is a privilege to be a part of his journey as he grows into a guardian, teacher, and sage drawing out purpose from the deep wells of the human heart.

Austin desires to be a force for Christ in the academic arena. And from what I’ve seen so far, he will be some day.

Derek Ensminger
Usher - BYX Cell Group Member, fellow OU Tour Guide

Derek became a great friend to me through BYX and our working together long, sweltering summers at OU Recruitment. I knew when the opportunity presented itself that I had to have him in my cell group. The year and half we spent together with Kevin and Chris was one of the best experiences I carried from college, and the Lord used that time to fortify my friendship with him.

Derek is a man whose heart beats for the lost to come to know Christ. He goes after those in darkness, serving as a son of light (John 12:36) in meeting them where they are and representing Christ. I see his compassion and boldness and am led pray those attributes increase in me. I look up to him a great deal.

Kevin Gaddis
Usher - BYX Cell Group Member

One of my favorite guys to ever pledge BYX. I loved having him in cell group because his passion for seeing someone come to Christ profoundly impacted our group and fraternity.

Everyone knows Gaddis is a genius. But what truly sets him apart and makes him special is how his godly heart guides his intellect. Kevin truly loves the Lord and people with an honesty that motivates those around him to do the same. This was certainly how he inspired me in our time together as a cell group. Much like our NBC mission statement, Kevin lives to know Christ and make him known.

How It Happened

2008-05-27T10:05:00.004-05:00

In great anticipation and expectation of my upcoming wedding on June 7, I wanted to post the following story from our wedding program.

Jared Musgrove and Jenny Thompson met amid a flurry of church activity the morning of October 15, 2006 as first-time visitors to Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth. Walking to the sanctuary they chatted and discovered their Oklahoma connection, Jenny's beauty making it easy for OU-grad Jared to quickly ignore the fact she was an OSU alumnus.

They sat by one another in the balcony during the service, both walking away afterward hoping to see the other again. Soon after this first meeting, Jared was led by the Lord to join Normandale Baptist Church and Jenny stayed at Travis for the time being. A month and a half went by in which they were increasingly on each other’s minds, but were unsure as to how they would get back in touch.

Hopes were realized when Jared finally tracked Jenny down and asked her to coffee early that December. That first date was an evening from which both walked away with a sense that the other was someone unlike any they’d ever met. Jared went home intent on a second, third, and fourth date. Jenny went home and stated to her friends that she “could marry a man like that.”

-------

The Sunday afternoon of September 23, 2007, Jared led Jenny to the first-row balcony pew at Travis Avenue Baptist Church where they met nearly one year before. They sat in the empty sanctuary, reminiscing and laughing at how the Lord had had grown and deepened their relationship since that day.

“I have something I would like to read to you,” Jared said, taking a piece of parchment paper from his pocket and unfolding it. Jenny did not think this out of the ordinary as Jared often wrote something and read it to her on an occasion or in a place of significance to both of them.

Jared began to read, “Beautiful the marriage of Christians…..”

Jenny admits not hearing much of what was read after that third word. Jared was just hoping his voice wouldn’t quake and give him away. As if the third word hadn’t already.

He finished reading, looked into Jenny’s eyes and said, “Jen, that is what I want for us. I want us to be all of this. I love you.” He got down on one knee in front of her, brandished a small black box, and, opening it, said, “Jennifer Marie Thompson, will you marry me?”

Jenny’s “YES!” was instantaneous and breathless. Jared couldn’t stop smiling as he shakily took the ring from its perch and began to slip it onto Jenny’s right ring finger.

“Um, Jared, other finger.”

“Oh. Right.”

Nerves, you know.

After the ring had been applied properly, they kissed and held each other. In the dimly lit sanctuary, they prayed together over their future, committing it to the Lord and giving thanks for each other and God’s faithfulness in their lives and relationship. The Lord authored a beautiful story for the two of them and at this moment their whole hearts melted in gratitude, loving Him and each other all the more.

---

"...Not Many Super Anythings Anymore"

2008-05-15T14:55:00.006-05:00

This is a little on the fly, but I thought the recent continuation of a conversation on the deeper side of superheroes between myself and Sir J. Austin McKnight had the beginnings of some good thoughts and was appropriate (and fun) to post here.

I will likely follow this up with a more in-depth blog on the subject at a later date...

Austin McKnight wrote
There would be real Jokers and Lex Luthors in the world, but most of them suffer from the sin of laziness. No Hitlers recently because people are lazy. I count it a good thing... as long as the heroes aren't suffering from laziness as well. There just aren't many super anything anymore.

Jared Musgrove wrote
I agree with you, but would like to believe if an evil like that ever came about, we'd oppose it. Preferably with capes on, but that's just me

Seriously though:"There just aren't many super anything anymore."
That's sadly true. No one holds standards of excellence anymore. In anything.

Austin McKnight wrote
Somedays I feel I have excellent standards, but really, no. These guys in movies and the fictional people in books and comic books are not just in our imagination. According to Platonic thought, we can only conceive of what is possible. That means that the heroes and the villains are both possible.

Jared Musgrove wrote
Oh, totally. We've seen them before. Of course, not a Superman or Batman, or Joker or Lex Luthor, but we've seen Hitler and Sadaam. The real world sadly knows little of some of its greatest men, the real heroes.
We latch onto Superman because he's a snapshot of what we'd like to think we'd do if we had the abilities (in the form of powers). We would like to think we'd make a choice to help and protect people from evil...to fight it and vanquish it. It's a very primal instinct and we've been displaying in through story since the beginning of time (Hercules, Odysseus, etc. Superheroes are just our modern mythology) When, in reality, believers have these abilities not in flight or heat vision, but in Christ and by the power of the Spirit. If only more of us really worked on refining our God-given abilities to be more Spirit-driven to the point of being epic.

Adding to this and keeping with the theme, I read this phrase from the novel, The Last Days of Krypton by Kevin J. Anderson, which focuses on all that led to the planet's destruction:

"Everyone had been forced to be 'average' for too many generations. One cannot constrain an ever-growing thing without consequences. If society inhibited the bell curve too long, radical spikes would appear at either end. Some anomalies took the form of unorthodox geniuses like Jor-El (Superman's Kryptonian father) and Zor-El (Jor-El's brother), while others were heinous criminals who demonstrated their 'genius' through violence and destruction rather than creation. Like the Butcher of Kandor. Like Zod."

Knowing and Being Known

2008-04-22T13:38:00.001-05:00

It all started the morning of February 26 with Psalm 44:21, For he knows the secrets of the heart. That truth just cut me up. It ached. And the onslaught continued for many mornings afterward because of the living and active Sword "which pierces the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12) :

Romans 2:26b, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
Matthew 23:26, "First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean."
Psalm 69:5, O God, you know my folly; the wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.
Mark 4:22, "For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light."
1 Corinthians 10:12, Therefore, let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
Psalm 90:8, You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

Over these past months, these passages have provoked both intense pain AND incredible joy my soul because I've been reminded my God knows me THAT well. It has been a true realization to me as I've had shown to me some sins of selfishness I'd been harboring for a while and maybe didn't even realize it ("secret sin" can be that which is intentionally hidden and that which is unintentional, but it's all still sin).

So I've been on a road to being obedient in admitting these to God, myself, as well as brothers and sisters from whom it is right to seek forgiveness. In much the same way as mentioned above, it stings AND relieves to know I have those people in my life who know me well enough (in some cases, better than I know myself) to call me out when I'm being a jerk or worse. Jenny is one. Greg is another. Man, they call me on the carpet and they're usually spot on.

If you feel there is a disconnect with the Lord, you need to check your end by asking Him to reveal to you any unconfessed intentional or unintentional sin. Go to the Bible (perhaps a few of the above passages) asking Him to use the Word to convict you. It's uncomfortable, but growth and change always are. When that sin is revealed confess it to Him (use Psalm 51), knowing that when "we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and PURIFY us from ALL unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Ahh. It doesn't get more refreshing than that!

Pray for people to hold you to an unwavering biblical standard. We all long to know others deeply and be known ourselves. The Lord Jesus Christ does this for us. He gave us a letter in the Bible that can read our thoughts and intentions backward and forward, revealing our very hearts. He's placed the ability in godly men and women to apply that Word to do the same. Even David, the "man after God's own heart," was called out of his sin with Bathsheba by God's man, Nathan.

Thank God for His correction through His Word and His children! May you be blessed by His knowing your inmost feelings and intentions yet still loving you. May God place great men and women in your life by whom you can be known and know in return.

Casey, 1992-2008

2008-04-22T13:29:00.000-05:00

Casey

1992-2008

Somebody Chose to Love Their Way into My World

2008-04-17T11:39:00.000-05:00

Saw this in class today. It really touched me because I am the son of two of the most amazing teachers and coaches I know.

I saw many parallels to discipleship in this vignette.

Remember: It's all about loving your way into someone's world with a compassion that could only be fueled by Christ.

http://makeadifferencemovie.com/

Cloud of Witnesses

2008-04-09T19:22:00.001-05:00

I've felt less like myself the past five days. Maybe due to a little extra stress. And some lack of sleep, though that part was certainly not of my choosing. Suffice it to say I've been "off" after having been on my game for quite some time. Today was starting out to be no different, so I prayed to God this morning to reignite whatever it was in me that was missing. To renew me.

Boy, do I serve a loving, faithful, and steadfast God! Today was going to be all about research for an upcoming paper. Library. All afternoon. I wasn't looking forward to it. The despondent weather didn't help matter, just gave an excuse to be more melancholy.

But then I ran into some friends at the library. Greg and Tyler, even though they may not have known it, ministered to me greatly in those afternoon hours. Because of their power of presence, their laughter and their insight I feel like Jared again. My Savior God utilized my great cloud of witnesses to uplift me and care for me for a while.

Oh, and someone put an anonymous card in my box at the church that said, "Thank you for making an eternal difference. You are loved." There was also a $25 gift certificate to my favorite restaurant included. :-)

Take a moment to call up a friend, facebook them, or write them a letter telling them how much they mean to you. My guys and that anonymous church member probably had no idea I was down in the dumps, but God used them mightily because they made themselves available.

May we all be obedient and do the same for those the Lord has placed in our lives.

Stones

2008-04-03T17:14:00.000-05:00

Joshua 4:8-9
And the people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded and took up twelve stones out of the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of people of Israel, just as the Lord told Joshua...and Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood: and they are there to this day.

This above passage takes place as the Israelites are completing their 40-year sojourn through the wilderness and entering the Promised Land. To mark the occasion, so that no one may forget what God has done for them, the Lord commands a monument of 12 stones be erected.

The theme of setting up "stones" to remind myself of what great works God has done in my life has been recurring in my heart consistently since Christmas. I'm sentimental, but I don't think overly so. I mean, when I move, I don't have a super-difficult time getting rid of what needs to go. Pull it out of the box. Have the memory. Move on....unless it's a stone. I mean a REAL stone. Not those fake things we haul around and rent storage buildings for unheard-of prices to hold on to. I'm talking about the GOOD STUFF.

I've given thought to what these stones may be for me. In my case, starting at the top (those which are not as strong, but still of import) to the bottom (those stones which are cornerstones) I would first offer up the physical objects. In my office hang my journalism degree from OU, my President's Leadership Class Award, my Outstanding Senior Journalist plaque, along with my ministry license and baptism certificate.
I don't look at these and see Jared-achievement. I see them as markers of grace God has given me. Each of these represents a goal God gave me, in some form or fashion, and the working toward achieving that goal, and the goodness of God in giving me the strength to do so; with exception of the baptism certificate, which is meant to symbolize a very special day in the life of 8-year-old Jared, and his current-26-year-old counterpart who still thrills at what Christ has done for Him and strives daily in His strength to be obedient.
They were all special times because God was in them every step of the way. So I am humbled when I see them, and love telling people how God has guided my education and spiritual formation.

My books are next. The important ones like Lectures to My Students, Les Miserables, Chosen By God, When I Don't Desire God: How To Fight For Joy, Organic Disciplemaking, Systematic Theology, Gates of Fire, to name a few. These books and their shelf-companions are my friends and some of the best teachers I've ever had.

There are also the photos. Of family. Of friends. These speak of the blessing of people in my life. Those who've changed me for the better. Who've changed me for good. I love pictures. They're little pieces of time you can hold in your hand...just don't smudge!

So much better than the novels and other books there's my journal passages and Bible underlines, scribbled notes, and highlighters marking my growth in grace and knowledge of the Word under the Spirit's guidance. I sometimes just go back and read through an old journal or see a note or underline in my Bible and I'm transported back to when my pen first hit that page. I remember what it felt like to struggle, love, doubt, pray, and trust like I did.
You need to journal. If you don't, please start. It's not as hard a discipline as you might think. Make some stones with your pen strokes to remember the greatness of God at all points of your life.

But at the base.... the greatest stone markers of my life are the people. They go along with the photo idea, but the real people are so much better than ink-jetted glossy paper. The men and women God has guided in shaping me are, ultimately, those for whom I will stand before God and give account and praise and honor for how I loved and treated and grew alongside.
People-Stones are the best, because they're each and every one huggable and conversational and a phone call or memory away. These stones have names: Dad, Mom, Jenny, Jenna, Tyler, Austin, Mr. Singleton, "Greggie", Joe, Chris, Steven...
Oh, I could go on. These stones have supported me and spoken truth into my life, each and every one. Without these, I would not be the man writing before you now. They've each loved me and allowed me to love them deeply. For that I will never have sufficient words.

So there's some of my stones? What are yours?

Mistakes Not Taken, Scars Not Received

2008-03-12T21:09:00.000-05:00

I've thought a lot lately about mistakes. Not the ones I've made today or last week or even a few years back, though there have been plenty.

More like mistakes not taken. The kind I tried to convince myself into taking back in high school, mostly, where even though you knew it'd all end badly, you wanted to "be bad" and do it anyway.

Riiiight. Me be bad.

Well this is to let you know I sure thought about it. Often.

There, I said it and sent it out into the virtual void.

This line of realization began nearly a month ago as I was sharing my testimony with someone who's becoming a close friend. I mentioned a few of the mistakes not taken from my later high school years...one in particular that another guy took before I got the chance. My friend observed, "It's almost like he made the mistake for you." And the truth is he did.

So why was I spared? I meet so many people whose mistakes have cost them dearly. So many who've had their lives altered, perhaps even deeply wounded by the mistakes they've made. I feel my life has been altered because of scars not received from mistakes I might have made if only given the chances, which, thank God I didn't feel I had at the time.

In fact, that's the story of the Christian life. All true believers are changed because of scars not received. Christ took our sin and scars upon Himself. And by His wounds we are healed. Each of us, no matter the mistakes we've made and the disfigurements we've inflicted on our lives are received into utter cleanliness and purity through belief in Christ. That's a truth that NEVER gets old to me, but it's being renewed afresh tonight.

Just as I can't boast in my own salvation but in the Provider and Commencer of that salvation, in a smaller measure I can't boast that I was somehow smarter than everyone else in avoiding some of the pitfalls of puberty. It's just that God in His grace wouldn't let me get very far.

Before you think I'm some pious braggart, let me assure you this is a comprehension that's cut me to my core. I don't think I was smarter than anyone else and somehow saw through a bunch of the traps, deftly avoiding while others dropped headlong. I only think God, for some reason and apart from anything I ever deserved, let me learn from other people's mistakes. This was a grace, pure and plain. But I didn't deserve it. And my heart breaks even now when I think of those whose sin got the best of them. I pray the Word I sewed then has taken root since, or that somehow they have been led to Christ. What I deserved was to screw up my life any way my mucky mind could come have come up with. I feel I've had what pride I've got in me destroyed this evening and been made thankful for grace again.

I hope I can keep learning this way; that somehow my mistakes will be minimal. I pray for that kind of wisdom.

But bad mistakes...I've made a few and I'll keep making some. But my prayer tonight is one of great humility before a loving God for granting me a grace in my growing-up years that I didn't deserve. He still gives me that grace. And I only pray He'd keep growing me in discipline and wisdom and love. That He'd keep my heart open to advice from the godly.

Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day.

---Proverbs 23:17