Glorious Mud

So they took Jesus ... [and] they crucified him ... Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” ... written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. (John 19:16-20 ESV) I am thoroughly enjoying reading Tim Keller's King's Cross .  In his chapter called The Turn , this sentence caught my attention, "In condemning Jesus, the world was condemning itself" (102).  This got me thinking. When Jesus was crucified, the inscription posted above Jesus head was meant to be ironic.  We don't know why Pilate posted it - was it Pilate's way of trying to completely humiliate Jesus?  Was it Pilate's tribute to Jesus, a man he knew was innocent but thought was insane?  Was it a passive-aggressive dig at the Jewish leadership for cornering him into crucifying Jesus out of self-preservation - an act he otherwise didn't want to do?  Who knows. While we can't say why Pilate hung that sign, we can say that...

Last summer I started a fence project in our yard. It took a year, but it is now mission accomplished! We had some unique challenges since we have an odd shaped yard. It's shaped like a baseball diamond sketched out by a drunk guy. And there is an easement running along the back, so we couldn't just go to the property line. Even so, we needed an area fenced for the dogs and our pool. We considered building a privacy fence all the way around the yard - but didn't like that because it made the yard feel too closed in. It would also have looked pretty dorky because of the way our yard is shaped. So Lauren came up with a great idea - fence off just less than half the yard with both privacy fence (along the back and front to keep the dogs from barking at people) and picket fencing facing the rest of our yard to open it up. She also liked the idea of building raised beds along the fence for her flowers and vegetable garden. It took me a little while to warm up to...

OK. This is funny. You're welcome. Awesome Mascot Dance at Halftime - Watch more Funny Videos

I wrote here a while back on the importance of protecting the church from wolves.  My thinking was stirred on this subject again a couple weeks ago when I attended Scott Thomas' Gospel Coach training. Scott compared the process of gospel coaching to the biblical mandate to shepherd the flock.  To coach, then, is to know, lead, feed, and protect individual sheep in the flock.  Since wolves are an ever-present danger to the sheep, we, as Christ's under-shepherds, must be always ready to use the staff to fight off these predators. Scott led us to consider again Paul's warning to the Ephesian elders in his farewell address: Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw awa...

Wow.

I was talking with one my leaders at church the other day about why we want to move away from traditional accountability groups specifically for our men (though we are doing the same for our women).    We are moving to a gospel-centered Fight Club model instead. Why? Because in a street fight, the gospel-centered Fight Club will beat the traditional Accountability Group into submission every time. It is just better and more effective. Why? First – accountability groups tend to be single-issue focused. Guys join accountability groups to help them because they look at porn or they spend too much money or they have problems controling their temper. The result is a group of guys who are all struggling (and failing) with the same thing in the same ways. This causes the guys involved to start looking at their struggle as an isolated unhealthy behavior instead of as a manefestation of a deeper heart issue. Gospel-centered Fight Clubs, on the other hand, pool guys togethe...

We live in a hurried and distracted world.  We are overstimulated and bored.  We are driven to do more, achieve more, schedule more, and yet feel more disconnected, more left out, and more guilty about what we can't be part of.  As a culture, we know how to work hard, play hard, and escape even harder.  But we don't know how to rest. As a result, most of us are running dangerously close to complete melt down.  We are frayed and coming undone.  I think Weezer said it best (well, maybe not the best... but it will work) in their song Undone (better known as the sweater song).  It's a silly little song - but look at the lyrics. If you want to destroy my sweater Hold this thread as I walk away Watch me unravel, I'll soon be naked Lying on the floor, lying on the floor, I've come undone. How many of us are so frayed that if that one thread were pulled - we would be naked on the floor curled up in the fetal position.  So we spend our time tryi...