Government-Approved Prayer

Al Mohler offers his thoughts on President Obama's troubling practice of vetting prayers before public events in order to avoid any controversy due to ministers using the name "Jesus."

In my opinion, these sorts of things are troubling certainly, but probably point at worse things to come...

Hello, I'm Johnny Cash...

Side Note: This is more or less a shameless reposting of a blog from another site, as listed below. It's worth a look though... For anything coming from my own pea-brain, see my other post from today below...

You need to go to Justin Taylor's blog and check out his stuff on Johnny Cash today, what would've been Cash's 77th birthday. I've put a good bit of it below, but the whole deal is here (JT has links to more stuff on Cash).

First, Mars Hill Church's video bio on Johnny Cash:



From Russell Moore's essay on Cash:

"Johnny Cash is dead, and there will never be another. But all around us there are empires of dirt, and billions of self-styled emperors marching toward judgment.

Perhaps if Christian churches modeled themselves more after Johnny Cash, and less after perky Christian celebrities such as Kathy Lee Gifford, we might find ourselves resonating more with the MTV generation. Maybe if we stopped trying to be “cool,” and stopped hiring youth ministers who are little more than goateed game-show hosts, we might find a way to connect with a generation that understands pain and death more than we think.

Perhaps if we paid more attention to the dark side of life, a dark side addressed in divine revelation, we might find ourselves appealing to men and women in black. We might connect with men and women who know what it’s like to feel like fugitives from justice, even if they’ve never been to jail. We might offer them an authentic warning about what will happen when the Man comes around.

And, as we do this, we just might hear somewhere up in the cloud of witnesses a voice that once cried in the wilderness: 'Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.' "

____________

And, finally, two videos: "Redemption" and his last video, "Hurt"

applying Romans 1:18-32

One of the things that is easy for me not to do while reading through the Bible (as opposed to studying smaller passages) is think through ways of applying the scripture to my life. If I'm honest, there have been several days when I've closed my Bible and went on without letting it engage my mind and my life. And today that was the temptation.

So the challenge for me today - and everyday - is to apply the passage. The goal is life change, and that does not happen without seeking to put what I read into practice.

A couple days ahead in my reading plan, today one of the passages I read was the second half of Romans 1, where Paul describes the "unrighteous" who continue to "exchange the truth about God for a lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator..."

And my question, How does this - with no clear, practical exhortations - apply to my life today?

I thought of a few places, but I want to share one.

The thing for me this morning was realizing that what is going on in this passage is so evil and debase that it is bringing about the wrath of God. And what is going on here? Idolatry, sexual perversions, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, gossip, slander, haters of God, insolence, pride, folly, heartlessness, and ruthlessness.

That list comprises the bulk of cinema and television plot lines. It is the majority of what we see on the front pages of the magazines in the checkout lines at Wal Mart. What is going on here is what Hollywood and mainstream America feeds on for entertainment's sake.

One application of Romans 1:18-32 for me is this: Do not glory in what God hates. As I think about the movies I like (or don't really like but still laugh at and enjoy briefly), all too often they are promoting and lifting up things on account of which the wrath of God is coming to the world. How can I honor those things? I can't. Philippians 4 calls me to think on the things that are pure and worthy and honorable, and the things that bring about the applause of the masses and that are marketed to me by the world are not usually those things.

I am not going so far as to say don't watch movies or don't watch TV or don't listen to music or don't read magazines, I am saying that I need to do so more discerningly.

I've been reading through Jonathan Edwards' The End for which God Created the World recently and one quotation that stood out to me earlier applies here:

"The applause of the multitude very frequently is not founded on any just view of things, but on humour, mistake, folly and unreasonable affections. Such applause deserves to be disregarded."

Lane Kiffin

Ok, Ok, one more quick link. This one is HILARIOUS. If you follow the SEC, then you know about Lame Kitten's tendency to stick his foot in his mouth. (Which is great, b/c the guy's been at UT a month and at this rate he'll be fired for saying something obscenely stupid by mid-July...)

Anywho, here's a link from Third Saturday in Blogtober with a fictional meeting between Kiffin and UT's AD, Mike Hamilton. ... Genius ...

Kurkjian & Stark on Chipper and the Braves

The Worldwide Leader has two good spots on the Braves right now worth checking out. The pieces are the usual, looking at the past success of the Braves and comparing it to what's going on in Atlanta today. This practice, I imagine, will continue until Cox, Chipper and Glavine head outta town (5 years more years for Chip?).

Anywho, here's the links:

Jayson Stark on Atlanta's starting pitching, yesterday and today. Well worth the read for the Braves fan. Stark's thoughts (one year after he predicted the team to win the World Series): "This could be a team capable of a big turnaround."

Tim Kurkjian on Chipper Jones, making him out to be Chingaachgook, the Last of the Mohicans. Chipper gives his take on finishing his career with the Braves, winning the batting title, playing in the WBC, as well as, briefly, on steroids & A-Rod, saying "I think A-Rod, with or without steroids, is a Hall of Famer. Same as Barry Bonds." Interesting, Chipper.

(1) Obama, (2) Jesus

So a poll came out today from Harris Interactive of who Americans view as heroes. I'll give you a hint, the title to this blog wasn't something I came up with...it's how America ranked 'em. True story.

As far as commentary is concerned, all I'll say regarding the order of the first two spots is this: I'm excited (honestly) about Barack Obama's presidency. This really is an historic moment for our nation. Do not read this post as a knock on this event for our country. This poll just underscores the increasing secularization of our society and the overwhelming need for gracious biblical proclamation and teaching to take place.

Here's the top 15:

1. Barack Obama
2. Jesus
3. Martin Luther King, Jr.
4. Ronald Reagan
5. George W. Bush
6. Abraham Lincoln
7. John McCain
8. John F. Kennedy
9. Chesley Sullenberger (pilot that landed the US Airways flight in the Hudson R.)
10. Mother Teresa
11. God
12. Hillary Clinton
13. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
13. Billy Graham
15. Mahatma Ghandi

A few observations:

-Interestingly, God made the list twice. God the Son came in at number 2 and God the Father (at least I'm assuming that's who they're referring to) came in at number 11. I'm trying to find the positives here, people.

-While John McCain lost to number 1, Barack Obama, in the elections, maybe it's comforting for him to know that he could've beaten John F. Kennedy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and George Washington (who came in tied for number 16), three of America's most prolific and influential presidents.

-Somehow, America's least popular president ever (depending on which media source you listen to), George W. Bush, made the top 5. Maybe the guy wasn't viewed as so bad after all, ey?

One more thing:

As for reasons given to call someone a "hero", the number one answer given (89%) was this: "Doing what is right regardless of personal consequences."

Isn't this a funny answer coming from our relativistic, "what's right for you isn't right for me" society? Maybe there is an embedded sense of right and wrong after all...

statistical shift in the NBA

Just got finished reading one of the most fascinating articles I've read in quite some time. The NY Times story is about NBA player Shane Battier (formerly of Duke and now playing with the Houston Rockets) and how the Rockets management is now crunching stats in the same way that much of baseball (famously, Theo Epstein) does.

Eye-opening in this piece are the stats of Kobe Bryant, whom Battier has famously kept off-balance in their last few encounters. For instance, how 'bout this: "Since the 2002-03 season, Bryant has taken 51 3-pointers at the very end of close games from farther than 26.75 feet from the basket. He had missed 86.3 percent of them."

And, in this number-crunching manner, Shane Battier, averaging a meager 6.1 points per game this year, is one of the best players in the NBA. Seriously.

For sports fans, this is a must read. I kid you not, 10 years from now the basketball landscape will look much like baseball statistically-speaking, affecting not only how games are analyzed, but how teams are built and trades are made.

kohls

So I guess because my diverse readership hails from around the globe (or, uh, around the I-85 corridor between Atlanta and Raleigh), I at least ought to use the medium to provide occassional updates on the Life of Steph and Bert in addition to my rantings about sports, politics and Christianity. So here goes...

So I had an interview with Kohls yesterday, and for those of you praying for my job hunt I ask that you keep doing so. I should find out something soon (within the next week) about this one.

It was a weird interview. They're opening a new store in the WF (that is, Wake Forest... is this town hip enough to call "the WF"?) and are hiring about 130 part time employees to run it. Apparently that's the way to go these days - staff everything with part-timers. Good for the store, bad for many of the workers, but so it goes. Kinda makes me think of this cartoon I saw on Wilhite's blog: (click on it to enlarge)



That cartoon was originally published fifteen years ago, by the way...

Gotta love Calvin and Hobbes. If I could, I'd keep a book of them by the toilet along with my handheld Yahtzee game and Golf Digest magazines. (Steph's not going to like me revealing my man-throne secret stash on the internet...)

I wonder if they'll have a Calvin and Hobbes book in the Kohls employees' bathroom?

Anywho, the interview was a group one (to speed up the process for them of interviewing 1000, literally, candidates) and so I was sitting around a conference table with 11 other folks as the interviewer asked five questions to each of us. Afterwards, he had to go "check to make sure all the forms were filled out correctly", and the " " marks aren't there to signify a direct quotation. He actually came back and asked for me and two others to stay behind because we "didn't fill the forms out correctly", he ushered the others out of the room and shut the door to inform us that we've made the cut. Whew.

I felt like I was auditioning for American Idol...only this guy wasn't Simon Cowell and (thankfully) I didn't have to sing. Which, if I did, I would find myself on one of those first few shows where they make people look like fools.

So anyway, apparently I'm going to find out soon if I get another interview after I filled out a few more forms yesterday behind closed doors. Hopefully though they'll be more honest throughout the rest of the process...

So there it is. If you're of the praying sort, pray that I am gainfully employed soon.

And while you're at it, send up a little prayer for a Calvin and Hobbes book to be in the employee bathroom.

great interview to read

C.J. Mahaney recently did a GREAT interview with John Piper (that I think was a form he filled out...see response to "What do you do for leisure time?" Kinda funny...).


Here's one blurb:

CJ: "What single bit of counsel has made the most significant difference in your effective use of time?"

Piper: "A great tree will fall with many small chops. Pray daily for grace to keep chopping."


Take five minutes, read the interview and be encouraged.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

three messages

Note: I attempted to put up the below post on Friday. I tried unsuccessfully for quite some time to get the video messages referenced below to stream directly on the blog from the SEBTS website. Sorry for the inconvience of having to use *gasp* a link! Also, I'll drop some thoughts from the recent conference with Driscoll, Mahaney and Akin soon.

We have Chapel twice per week here at Southeastern Seminary, and so far this semester it has not disappointed. Thursday, Mark Driscoll gave an excellent sermon on the differences between "Religion" and the Gospel, and the other three chapel services (preached by Daniel Akin, David Nelson and Jimmy Scroggins, respectively) were equally compelling. You can go to the SEBTS chapel website, click on the message you want, and either watch it online or download the audio version.

Here's three quick blurbs on the first three chapel messages:

SEBTS President Danny Akin's message - "Passing on God's Truth" - was a very strong message from 2 Timothy 2 about this generations call to pass off the baton to the next generation. Included is a passionate and thought-provoking call to consider world missions. This is a highly recommended way to spend 30 minutes...

David Nelson (Dean of Faculty, SEBTS) followed up Akin's call to follow the Great Commission by clarifying what exactly the Great Commission is. "What we mean by the Great Commission" is a great exposition of Matthew 28:16-20, especially for those of us (like me) who struggle with doubt.


And finally, Jimmy Scroggin (pastor of First Baptist, West Palm Beach, FL) gave a message centered around the struggle with pride that many serving in ministry roles face. While the message is application-centered towards seminary students or those in "full-time ministry," the principles in "A Warning to Young Men in Ministry" are valid and meaningful for everyone. A great message from a great preacher...

heads up...

just a tip...there's a free shipping deal going on right now at Monergism Books, if you put in a code you can find on Challies.com...

it's under a post from 2/2.