While I may despise Facebook on principle, I was finally sucked in a couple of weeks ago. When I tried to become friends with Mark Driscoll, I was unable to do so because apparently Facebook has a limit on the number of friends you can have (5000 I believe). So I had to become a fan of his. Is Facebook just utterly lame?
Mark posted a nice sarcastic video on his “fan page” to express his despair at the fact that I cannot be his friend (well, not me personally, but the collective “we” that may want to be his friend).
Here are a couple of interesting questions to ponder:
What if God’s wrath is not a caveat, qualification, or even a counterpoint to his love, but an expression of it? What if God grieves sin less because it offends his sensibilities, and more because he hates the way it distorts our perceptions and separates us from him?
Even though I spent two weeks in San Diego, I’ve still got 5 weeks left before this quarter is finished. And then I’ve still got another two years before I graduate in May 2010. When I am done, I will have earned a Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership (MATL). This degree is a sort of hybrid between an M.A. in Theological/Biblical Studies and an M.A. in Organizational Leadership. If you know me well, you know how much I love interdisciplinary pursuits, so this program fits me well.
I’ve been asked a couple of times recently what the purpose is of such a degree. Actually, the possibilities are numerous: entrepreurship, non-profit org. management, business leadership, church planting, etc. Another question I’ve been asked is how I plan to use this degree. In the short term, it is giving me the opportunity to learn more about leading in my current business and ministry environments. In the long term, well, I’ll save that for a future post. Although eventually I would definitely like to teach at the university/graduate level and this will require a Doctoral degree. Oh, man, I guess I’m going to end up as Dr. Doolittle whether I like it or not.
Doug Wilson has some very thought provoking insights on how we derive our sense of justice.
Step out of your desires for a moment. Learn to look at your life as though you were watching a movie, and “you” were a character up on the screen there. View your wants dispassionately, with a sense of justice that is not fed by the simple fact of your desiring. This is the heart of what Jesus provided for us in the profound ethic of the Golden Rule.
I had the opportunity to preach today at the First Baptist Church of Kingsburg. My message, titled Foolish Things, is an exposition of 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. In this passage, Paul reminds us of the foolishness of worldly wisdom and calls us to radical dependence on God and all that he has done for us in Christ.
As part of my preparation, I created an exegetical diagram of the passage that reveals some of the underlying parallels, repeated ideas and emphases of the text. If you want to study this passage in more depth, I hope this will be a useful tool for you.
Mark Driscoll’s 4 Questions to Ask When Preparing to Preach (with some of my added thoughts/interpretations).
What does it say? (Exegesis, original languages, grammatical constructs, idioms, literary context)
What does it mean? (Hermeneutics, interpretation, historical context, authorial intent, original audience)
How or why do we resist it? (Assumption of natural resistance, rebellion, hard-heartedness, objections, dismissals. Puritan preaching—predicted resistance and then apologetically addressed those objections to defeat and disarm them)
How does this apply to our mission? (What has God called us to? How does this text have a person, family, ecclesiastical application? How does it apply to our specific mission? How are we called to live out this scripture as transformational agents in the world?)
It has been a while since I’ve had an invitation to preach, but I’m excited that I’ll have the opportunity coming up in a few weeks. While meditating upon possible topics, I was drawn to I Corinthians 1:18-31 where Paul compares the wisdom of God with that of the world.
This passage is loaded with dichotomies and contrasts. I love how Paul uses poetic devices and word plays to make his point that the cross puts worldly divisions to shame and removes all ground for personal pride and boasting. Paul brings us back to the centrality of the cross.
I’ve created an exegetical diagram that reveals some of Paul’s parallelism and visually highlights some of the greek word plays which he employs. There is so much in this passage, it’s going to be tough to cover in one sermon.
I wonder if the whole “excellence in praise and worship music” phenomenon we’ve seen over the past few years—for all the good it’s done—hasn’t also had some less-than-desirable effects on young Christians. I wonder if it hasn’t created a generation of functional mystics who gauge their relationship with God by emotional experience rather than the objective reality of redemption.
Good thoughts from the Pastors Conference at Bethlehem Baptist in Minnesota:
There are 3 qualities in God’s father-son relationship that we should try to emulate in our own relationships:
1. The father makes the son a part of what he’s doing.
2. The son does the will of the father.
3. Father and son outdo one another in showing honor to one another
My good friend Tony (who also happens to be my father-in-law) shares from his heart why it is so important to daily live out a life of redemption and forgiveness.
Everyday Theology by Kevin J. Vanhoozer et. al. is a great introduction to the process of cultural exegesis. In order to facilitate the process of cultural exegesis, I have created an overview outline that provides a model for everyday theology. This model is meant to assist the cultural agent in the process of exegeting culture.
I recently discovered some really cool bible charts that I created for hermeneutics class at Talbot way back in 1997. Man that was a long time ago. I like this visual approach to outlining books. If these are helpful to you, let me know.
