THOUGHTS FROM JAMIE

The Radical Depravity of Man

2012-02-12T10:00:00.000-05:00

This morning I listened to a sermon called, "The Radical Depravity of Man", preached by a Pastor named Conrad Mbewe. He is a Pastor in Lusaka, Zambia, which is a cultural and religious context quite similar to that in Uganda. He is also known as "The African Spurgeon."

This sermon helped to to understand things a bit better about the religious context I am ministering in. He said that in this part of Africa you will see many pray the 'sinners prayer', or 'give their lives to Christ', especially when missions teams come in, or when there is a big outreach meeting, but you will rarely see any of those 'converts' after their initial decision.

The reason for this is that our hearts are naturally disinclined from God. The main passage for this is found in Romans 3:9-18. Here Paul writes that “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God." The reason that people don't stick around after a supposed conversion experience is that people need to be transformed supernaturally by God. They cannot do this on their own because on their own they will never seek God.

These are not necessarily new truths for me. But it was insightful to have them applied to the religious context that I currently find myself. What a gift of God that gospel truths can be applied to each culture and context we find ourselves!

For anyone who will be doing ministry in the global south in the next little while, I would highly recommend this sermon to help your theological lenses more accurately interpret the culture.

How to Stay Alive in the beauty of God's World

2012-01-06T01:49:00.002-05:00

This post from Desiring God really spoke to me today. I think we often move around too fast to really appreciate the things on this important list.

In a 1976 lecture, Kilby gave ten steps on how to stay alive to the beauty of God's world:

At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above me and about me.
Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle and an end. I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death, when he said: "There is darkness without and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendour, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing."
I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood.
I shall not turn my life into a thin straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do.
I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work.
I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their "divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic" existence.
I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the "child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder."
I shall follow Darwin's advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.
I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, "fulfill the moment as the moment." I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is just now.
Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life in the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls Himself Alpha and Omega.

Quoted in John Piper, "Sky Talk" (1980).

Which one do you think would best help you appreciate the beauty of God's world?

Join us on a ride to work!

2011-09-16T07:05:00.000-04:00

I thought it would be fun to get some video that would show how a typical day's commute to campus while living in Kampala. Here is what I got!

The first video is near our house and the roundabout you will see is at a place called Nakulabye.

This second video shows what it is like to get through a typical intersection, with no traffic lights!

This clip shows how efficient it is to use a Boda in Kampala. Take note of all the cars we pass on the left. If I were to take a taxi or drive a car, it would take a long time to get accross town. Also, towards the end of this video you will see the main gate to Makerere University (Main Campus). Since the profs are on strike there, we were traveling to Makerere Business School, which is open.

This next video is great because it shows a mom with here two young children on a Boda, as well as us going onto the "sidewalk" to get by the traffic.

This video shows one of my favourite parts of this journey. We are all stopped at a roundabout as the traffic officer allows the people entering Kampala from the north to enter. As soon as he signals them to stop, all of the about 20 or so Boda's along with some cars start at the same time. It is like the start of the Boston Marathon! And their off!

This last video shows some of the landscape of Kampala. Kampala is said to be built on seven hills. It is quite amazing to see all the houses on the hills.

And there you have it. A typical commute to work in Kampala!

Reflections on 3 weeks in Africa

2011-09-11T09:52:00.000-04:00

As of today, we have been in Kampala for 3 weeks.

Highlights

Riding around town on a boda boda
Watching Manchester United on the TV in my living room
Getting a power inverter so that when the main power goes out, we have a backup
Having "househelp" who cleans. She makes our bed so well that it is like living in a hotel... but it is your own house
Vanessa's amazing cooking. I had low expectations for food because of all the rice and skimpy chicken I have eaten in Africa in the past. But Vanessa has made amazing food that it has felt like we are still at home in Canada.
The way Noah and Jude have adapted to life in Africa so well
Praying, singing, and fellowshiping with the local Life Ministry (Campus for Christ) staff.

Lowlights

The loud music from the nearby Guest house every once in a while at night.
Having people call out "Mzungu" at least once every time we go out in the town or nearby market
Generally feeling like an outsider in the culture as people stare at you because of your skin colour
Having to try to barter for a fair price for taxi or boda because people try to take advantage of you because you are white
Trying to balance between wanting to get a fair price in bartering, but also keeping in mind that I have so much more than the person I am bartering with, and so getting overcharged isn't the end of the world.

General Observations on Money and Comfort

Living in Africa is very good for my soul. It is clear to me daily that I have a lot of wealth compared to most people. I do not have to worry about where my next meal is going to come from. This has made me very grateful to God for all that He has given me. In Canada, I am often coveting other people because they have more than me, but it is plain to me here that in comparison to the average person on planet earth, I am stinkin' rich.
I often want to complain because things are harder for me here. I only have cold water for my shower. I don't have a car. I have to worry more about my safety. There are no proper sidewalks where I want to walk. Chairs are less comfortable. And so on. But then I remember that this is how most people in the world live. Canada's comforts are more the exception than Africa's discomforts are, as far as the majority of the world is concerned.

I know that I will go through ups and downs emotionally as I engage with a new culture. In general I am fairly even-keeled, and I expect that to be challenged this year. But overall I would not trade my spot in life for anything else. To know that you are right where God wants you is worth any price. God is going to teach me so many things being here.

Do we really believe what we are saying?

2011-03-23T21:10:00.000-04:00

As many of us discuss Universalism, and what Rob Bell has been up to, this video asks a question that is of utmost importance. If we really believe in Hell, do we act like it?

Do We Really Believe What We're Saying? from The Church at Brook Hills on Vimeo.

Remind me when I get nervous about going to Africa to take 4 minutes to watch this video for perspective.

Summary of the Bible in Two Verses

2011-02-09T09:41:00.000-05:00

This morning I was reading in 1 Samuel. In Chapter 12, Samuel is giving his farewell speech. In that speech, he gives, in my opinion, two key verses as to what everything is all about. One has to do with God's motives, and one has to do with our responsibility.

God's Motives

For the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself. (1 Samuel 12:22)

The reason God acts for us, is because he has decided not to forsake his people, not for our sake, but for his great name's sake. God will always be faithful to his people, because he is committed to his glory. Since he will never abandon his glory, he will always be committed to us. The best news for us is that he is faithful to his glory!

(For more on this idea, please check out John Piper's message called, "The Pleasure of God in His Name". The text from this message is from 1 Samuel 12:22)

Our Responsibility

Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. (1 Samuel 12:24)

Since we are assured of God's favour because of his commitment to His own glory, we can now respond in faithful service to our God. We need to remember the great things he has done for us. For us who know Christ, we have much to consider. God has done good things for us. Now let is fear him and serve Him faithfully with all our hearts.

I call this post a Summary of the Bible in Two verses because I think if you now look at the rest of the Bible through these lenses: God's commitment to his own glory, and our response to his goodness in obedience, it will help make sense of things, and give you a good framework for living the Christian life.

For myself personally, it would not be an overstatement to say that understanding these two things has changed my life.

Blind Bartimaeus

2011-02-08T15:16:00.000-05:00

In Mark 10:46-52 it shares the story of Jesus healing Blind Bartimaeus. As I was reading this passage, a few things stood out to me.

1. Why does Mark record his name? In other passages where healing is recorded, the people being healed are just called "a blind man" or something like that. So as I read this, I wondered why Mark records his name, and his fathers name. This seems strange to me.

2. Why does it say that Bartimaeus threw off his cloak, when he ran to Jesus? If he is blind and sitting by the side of the road, he probably doesn't own much, so why does he lose the cloak? Is this a sign that he gave up all he had to follow Jesus?

3. After healing Bartimaeus, Jesus does not tell him to follow him. In fact, he told him to "go your way".

4. Even though Jesus told him to "go his way", Bartimaeus decides to follow Jesus. This links to point 2. He threw off his cloak and jumped up to Jesus, Jesus heals him, and he follows Jesus.

When I put this all together, this is what I get. Jesus heals Bartimaeus, and although Jesus tells him to go his own way, Bartimaeus follows Jesus. As a result, the disciples, and particularily Peter, got to know Bartimaeus, such that he even got to learn a bit about his family (Bartimaeus was the son of Timaeus according to v. 46). Peter, when recounting this story to Mark some time later mentions this event, and told Mark that Bartimaeus even ditched his cloak, his only cloak to follow Jesus! This impressed Peter!

What thoughts or answers spring to mind when you think of this story?

Idols bow to the One True God

2011-02-07T16:50:00.001-05:00

Today I was reading in 1 Samuel and read about the Ark of the Covenant getting captured by the Philistines. After stealing it, they take it they put it in "the house of Dagon". (Dagon was a pagan God).

The next morning, the people found that Dagon had fallen on the ground and bowed before the Ark.

So the attendants set Dagon back up....

But then the next morning, the same thing happened, and this time Dagon's head and hands had fallen off.

What should we learn from this?

1. Don't mess with the One True God!

2. Your idols suck, so stop going to them for what you should be going to God with.

You can read the story on the ESV Study Bible website!

Leadership Thoughts #3 - Who is really leading?

2011-02-04T16:23:00.000-05:00

I have been getting a lot out of the book, Leadership as an Identity, by Crawford Loritts. Today as I read a few quotes struck me. Here is the first:

When a leader gets to a point at which he or she trusts more in skills, abilities, or experiences to accomplish God's assignments, then he has just walked away from the place of God's blessing and His enabling power.

This quote is frightening, because it is just so easy to rely on past experience to fulfill today's challenges. Most often, things in leadership can become urgent, and so the easy and quick thing to do is to just do it, instead of rely on God through prayer and giving your life over to the Spirit's guidance.

Related to this, Joseph Stowell, former President of Moody Bible Institute says that "leaders fall when they stop following". Loritts, the author of the book I am reading comments on this and says:

Think about that. When a leader shifts his focus from dependably following Christ and begins to think that it is his vision, his idea, his mission that must be advanced, then he has ceased to be God's leader. And, frankly, it's dangerous to follow such a person. At this point there is nothing supernatural about what he does; he is merely a strong personality who can get things done by the force of his will. He may try to camouflage it with a few Bible verses and Christian clichés, but pride and self determination are what drive him.

That last line that is in bold (my emphasis) is a killer! I see myself in that line. It is easy to throw in a verse or cliché, but that does not mean it is from God. I want to be a man that leads people only as I am following Jesus.

For you Christian leaders out there, is this something that you struggle with?

How can we grow in making sure we are only leading as we are following Jesus?

Leadership thoughts #2 - I am inadequate

2011-02-03T09:46:00.001-05:00

I was reminded from the book that I am reading that I need to feel a sense of inadequacy in leadership. In order for me to be successful, I need to rely on God to lead me. I can have strengths and gifts, but it will always be God that causes the growth.

It seems the longer a person is in leadership, the easier it can get to rely on self, rather than God. "After all, look how long I have done this? I have experience and have seen it all before. I can take care of it." I desire to be a leader for the long haul, and it is important for me to be reminded that the more leadership I get, the more I need to feel inadequate, and rely on God, who is adequate for all things.

Leadership thoughts - I can't do it

2011-02-02T14:31:00.000-05:00

I am starting to read a book today called Leadership as an Identity, by Crawford Loritts. I was given this book by my boss as a gift.

A quote from the first chapter stood out to me. The author is talking about the Great Commission, and then comments:

Have you ever considered that you don't have the power to make even one disciple, let alone disciples in all the nations? Have you considered that you can teach someone al the Scripture, help him grow in his faith, and model what it's like to walk with Christ, but you don't have the ability to make that person follow God?

This is critical for me to ask as my whole job revolves around making disciples of Christ. But I have no ability to do that. I cannot do my job. It is a strange thought that causes a few reactions from me:

Scary - I have no ability to cause someone to follow Christ
Relief - God has the ability to do this, and wants to use me to help people follow Christ

What I desire is that God would use me to help change the world by helping students discover Jesus. Because of my inability to do this, I need to rely on God, and constantly ask him to change the hearts of the people I work with. And I need God to work on me, so that daily I become more and more a faithful disciple of Christ.

How do you trust God to help you make disciples?

What I learned from reading Ruth

2011-02-01T14:50:00.000-05:00

Ruth seems to have two main themes, Kindness and Redemption.

Kindness:

Ruth is faithful to her mother-in-law even when she does not need to be.
Boaz is kind to Ruth, by allowing her to glean from his field, in places where she would be safe

Redemption:

Boaz redeems Ruth by purchasing the land that belonged to Ruth's deceased husband.

Another indirect theme is that the gospel is for all mankind:

The author keeps mentioning that Ruth is not from Israel. She is "Ruth the Moabite” as if to emphasis that God is being gracious to her even though she is not an Israelite.
The book of Ruth illustrates that God used people who were not physical descendants of Abraham to be in the line of David, which lead to the messiah.
Ruth is the Great-Grandmother of David

What I learned from reading Judges

2011-01-31T14:58:00.000-05:00

I really enjoyed reading Judges. Often I would sit down to read a big chunk of it (like 8-10 chapters), but I couldn't because I was getting so much out of it, that I wanted to think about it and blog.

Judges shows how the nation of Israel went through a common pattern:

Often when I read about the history of Israel, I get really shocked at how dumb they could be to keep leaving God for the idols of Baal. But then I think about how commonly we in the post-incarnation period leave God for our own idols.

Israel would leave God for years upon years, and then God would send a Judge to help bring them back. For us, we make small decisions daily that either move us closer, or further from God. And this must have been how it was for Israel. Slowly over time they must have made decisions that lead them to Baal, such that one day the tent of God was gone, and the idols were everywhere. I am sure that did not happen overnight.

And so when I get judgemental about Israels unfaithfulness, I should look at myself. Everyday I choose things besides God, and it is only by his grace that I have not strayed far enough to the point that I would be serving other gods.

So I have learned that God is faithful: to Israel then, and now to us as the church. We don't deserve his grace any more than they did. We have all departed from him, and it is only him that keeps us.

As the famous hymn says:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

What I learned from reading about Gideon

2011-01-28T10:46:00.000-05:00

The life of Gideon (Judges 6:11-8:35, Hebrews 11:32)

God calls Gideon a mighty man of valor
Gideon complains that God isn’t acting in the same way for Israel now, as he has done in the past
Gideon gives God excuses
God promises to be with Him
Gideon demands a sign
Gideon gets a sign
God tells Gideon to destroy the altar of Baal in his fathers house
Gideon does it, but does so at night because he is afraid of what family and others will think
Gideon demands another sign from God (the famous fleece)
God gives the sign
Gideon demands God do it again
God gives the sign again
God wants to prove the victory in Battle is His, so he pares down the army of Israel from 32,000 to 300. (see below - Great Story 1)
The 300 men defeat the army of Midian
God gives Gideon further victories over Succoth, Penuel. (Great Story 2)
Isreal wants Gideon to rule over them, but he says that only the LORD will rule over Israel
Shortly after that he asks for some gold from the people of Israel, and he uses it to make an ephod. It says that all Israel whored after it, and it became a snare to Gideon.
Gideon dies

Israel returns to worshiping Baal.

The story of Gideon ends in Hebrews 11 when he is listed with the other great heroes of the faith. It is interesting to note that Gideon was not perfect. He demanded sign after sign from God. At the end of his life he creates this golden ephod which becomes an idol for God's people. He also did many great things. And in the end he is listed as a man of faith.

Two quick observations:

God called Gideon a mighty man of valor before Gideon had done anything. God sees in us our potential, and uses us before we are ready. He then causes us to succeed despite our shortcomings. God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called.
Even the heroes in the Bible are not perfect. God uses imperfect people to accomplish his goal of declaring his glory among the nations. The only perfect one is Jesus, and we should see him high above anyone else. Jesus is a greater Gideon, who perfectly leads his people into battle, and is our perfect Judge!

Great Story 1

In one of the great scenes of the Bible, God chooses the men for battle by how they drink water from the water. The ones who lap up the water like a dog are now the army, and the ones who kneel down to drink go home

Great Story 2

Gideon and his guys are tired and hungry from battle and ask for bread. The officials in Succoth wouldn’t give Gideon bread, so Gideon says that when he gets back from his current battle he will, “flail their flesh with the thorns of the wilderness, and with briers”. After all was said and done, he came back to Succoth and did it! He is a man of his word!

Looking back to redemption

2011-01-27T09:43:00.000-05:00

Today in my time in the Word I was reading Judges 6. In verses 7-9 it reads:

When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage. And I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out before you and gave you their land. (Judges 6:7-9 ESV)

What came to my mind when reading this, was that when Israel cried out to God, God reminds them of when he redeemed them from Egypt. He points them back to the time that he saved them so that they would remember God's saving power.

Now, in the post-incarnation era, when we are in trouble and need to cry out to God, we should always look back to God's saving power at the cross. It was at the cross that Jesus redeemed us from our sin.

God has always been about saving his people. For Israel, it was from Egypt, and they were to look back and take solace in that saving power. For us, we are to look back to Jesus, and his saving power.

The whole Bible is about Jesus...

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:27 ESV)

My Defence of the Participation and Enjoyment of MMA.

2011-01-26T13:55:00.002-05:00

One of the things that I have enjoyed most over the past 5 years has been watching and following the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). As a quick point of clarification, MMA is the sport, and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), is a type of “league” (and most popular) so to speak for MMA.

Earlier today a dear friend posted on Facebook questioning whether or not Christians can fight in the UFC, and I suppose by extension, whether believers in Christ should watch it.

I have thought about these things before, but I thought this may give me a good opportunity to bring some of these thoughts together. They are by no means exhaustive, but just a few quick thoughts that came to mind.

1. Context makes it allowable

One of the questions by friend asked was “With numerous Biblical commands on us to love our neighbour (Matt. 22:39), be kind and compassionate (Col 3:12), be gentle (Gal. 5:23), how does fighting square with that?” Based solely on these commands, and without any context, it seems to me that body checking someone in hockey, shooting someone in paintball, and maybe even stealing a base in baseball may be prohibited.

It is the context of the action that affects whether it is allowable or not. If GSP and Josh Koscheck went outside the octagon two days after their UFC fight and fought for no good reason, then I would say that is wrong. But, when they enter the octagon, there are rules, regulations, and agreements that make their fighting allowable. The same police officer will break up the fight outside will pay $500 to watch the fight in the octagon.

In the same way in the NHL, when the Leafs play the Sens, and Colton Orr fights Matt Carkner, it is okay, because it is a recognized part of the sport. If they fought on the streets it would not be okay. Context would also allow me to fight someone who came into my house to steal my possessions or harm my family. If I saw the same guy on the sidewalk walking his dog (a different context), it would not be allowable.

2. Paul’s experience with Boxing

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”

(1 Corinthians 9:24-27 ESV)

Paul used this boxing analogy to illustrate a point. He is saying that when we compete, we need to do it compete in a way that will allow you to win. When Paul boxes, he doesn’t do it by swinging at the air aimlessly. I think it is fair to infer from this that he would box by swinging at the opponent, to win the fight.

As a side note, he even says, “I do not box as one beating the air.” Does this mean that Paul personally boxed? I am not sure.

The question that remains is, “Why would he use something for an analogy if the example in the analogy is something wrong in itself?” If we are supposed to follow Paul, as he follows Christ, then why would he use an analogy of something that is by nature sinful? In my interpretation, when he talks about boxing as not to beat the air, he means I box to hit the other guy and win, because that is the goal of boxing. Just like I don’t run aimlessly, I run with the purpose of winning the race.

3. Fight analogies

In addition to the boxing analogy, Paul gives us a command to fight, and said he did it himself:

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6:12 ESV)

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7 ESV)

In both of these verses he qualifies his fight by saying it is a “good” fight”. I think this means there is fighting that is good, and fighting that is bad. His spiritual battle is a “good” fight. We would all agree that someone fighting someone weaker than they are to steal their money would be a “bad” fight. Where does MMA come in? This is where I would argue that it maybe wrong for some, but not wrong for others. For some it is “good” fighting, and for others it would be “bad” fighting.

4. MMA is not illegal

It is legal according to our government. This does not make it right, necessarily, as the government allows things that I do not think Christians should engage in (sex outside of marriage, abortion, etc.) But it does say something that you are not breaking the law of the land by participating in MMA.

5. What is the point or MMA?

My friend, in his Facebook post also said, “But the point of UFC is to hurt your opponent.”

I would disagree with this point and argue that the point of MMA is not to hurt your opponent, but to defeat your opponent. It is obvious that you are going to hurt you opponent if you defeat them, but I still think the distinction is important.

I could also use the analogy of disciplining your child by spanking. The goal is not that they get hurt, but to correct their behavior. But it is obvious that in the action of spanking, the child is going to get hurt. As a parent, the goal is not to cause lasting damage, but temporary pain for the purpose of future correction.

In MMA, the goal is not that they get hurt, but that you win the fight. It is obvious that in the action of fighting your opponent will get hurt. As a MMA fighter, the goal is not to cause lasting damage, but temporary pain for the purpose of winning the fight, and for sport, competition, entertainment, earning a living, etc.

6. Mutual respect among MMA fighters

Mutual respect amongst opponents is some of the greatest honour you will see in competitive sports. When hockey players shake hands after the playoffs, it is usually not with true joy (on occasion it is), but mostly ritual. When MMA fighters embrace after knocking each other around, it shows that the heart behind the battle is to see who is best, and to compete for the prize. Rarely is their a fight held and there is hatred towards the opponent. The vast majority of the time (95% and up in my estimation) are two guys competing like Paul instructs us to compete. To gain the prize.

7. It is okay that it is not everyone’s cup of tea

I am arguing that participating in, and watching MMA fighting can be a wrong for some, and not others. God has made us all different, and so let us embrace that some will enjoy it, and glorify God with it (yes I just said that), and for some it will be sin.

I would love to hear your thoughts and interact more on this!

"balanced life with a little bit of God" = Matthew 7:21-23?

2011-01-26T09:24:00.009-05:00

This quote from Francis Chan in Forgotten God makes me angry. It makes me angry because it is true. It also makes me angry because I see a lot of it in myself:

Nowhere in scripture do I see a "balanced life with a little bit of God added in" as an ideal for us to emulate. Yet when I look at our churches, this is exactly what I see: a lot of people who have added Jesus to their lives. People who have, in a sense, asked Him to join then on their life journey, to follow them wherever they feel they should go, rather than follow Him as we are commanded.

We have our own plans to live like everyone else in the world, and add Jesus in as fire insurance. This is an insult to his Kingship, and we live in danger of Matthew 7:21-23

Forget about God's Will for your Life!

2011-01-25T09:30:00.002-05:00

From Francis Chan's book, Forgotten God:

It is easy to use the phrase "God's will for my life" as an excuse for inaction or even disobedience. It's much less demanding to think about God's will for your future than it is to ask Him what He wants you to do in the next ten minutes. It's safer to commit to following Him someday instead of this day.

In working with students, I often hear talk of wanting to know "God's will for my life". I also often feel like it is a cop out for not wanting to commit to something that they probably know they should do. But, they haven't seen it written out in their alphabet soup, so God's will is still hazy.

I just wish that people would be obedient to what God has revealed, and then concern themselves with what God has not yet revealed. God has revealed so much to us in his Word, and yet we often spend more time thinking about the things he has not revealed!

Shamgar !!!

2011-01-24T11:51:00.001-05:00

Judges 3:31

After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an oxgoad, and he also saved Israel.

Shamgar with his Oxgoad!

He slays 600 Philistines!

Almost looks like a Jedi!

One interesting note about Shamgar is that he was a Judge of Israel, but most likely not even an Israelite. According the notes in the ESV Study Bible, "Shamgar's name is apparently Hurrian, not Israelite, and his designation as “son of Anath” probably refers to the Canaanite warrior goddess Anath. If so, it is ironic that God used a non-Israelite warrior to deliver Israel from its enemies."

I think this guy is just about as cool as Ehud. And with these two dudes combined, Judges 3 could be the best chapter in the OT.

What I learned from reading Joshua

2011-01-13T11:59:00.004-05:00

Central Theme - Promise Fulfilled

Summary Verse: Joshua 21:45

Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

God is faithful to his promise to give them the land

Quite often God says, with regard to an upcoming battle, “and I will give them into your hand”
God is going to make sure that they get the land that he promised
Moses promised each tribe their land in Deut 3, and Numbers 32, and now it is being given in Joshua 13-21

God protects and cares for his people

throughout many battles in the first section of the book, God keeps his people safe.

Joshua is a ‘type’ of Christ'

God has a purpose to give Israel victory in battle, and Joshua is God's chosen agent to bring victory.
One day Christ will battle sin once and for all and achieve a final victory, with us, his people at his side.

Baptism is not the Gospel and legitimacy for Parachurch

2011-01-04T15:01:00.000-05:00

Just reading again in the Word, and this verse in 1 Corinthians 1 stood out to me.

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. (1 Corinthians 1:17 ESV)

1. Baptism is not required for salvation. Paul here distinguishes the gospel (which is the power for of God for salvation -Rom 1:16), and baptism. They are not one in his mind. In fact, Paul prioritizes the preaching of the gospel. If baptism was necessary to be saved, it would be quite mean for Paul to give them the gospel, but leave them short of being saved, by leaving baptizing to someone else.

2. This verse also seems to give credibility to Parachurch organizations. If one of the ways we distinguish the church and the parachurch is that the parachurch does not administer the Ordinances, then Paul here seems to be acting more as a parachurch guy, in the process of church planting.

These are not developed thoughts, but just some fresh, initial reactions.

I would be curious for comments from you on your thoughts on one or both of my thoughts on the text. I am open for push back!

Significant Cultural trends of the past decade

2011-01-03T21:30:00.002-05:00

I read this article today on the Ten Most Significant Cultural Trends of the Past Decade. I would recommend reading the article for an insight into our culture. Here is the list:

Connection
Place
Cities
The End of the Majority
Polarity
The Self Shot
Pornography
Informality
Liquidity
Complexity

I was particularly intrige by #4, The End of the Majority. It is true that there are fewer and fewer categories in which there is a clear majority anymore. This line was interesting to me: "Barack Obama is a minority, but so is Sarah Palin. Republicans are a minority—so are Democrats, and so are independents."

We all feel like we are the persecuted ones, but in reality, in increasing ways, everyone is persecuted and no one has the support of the majority of people anymore.

What stands out as interesting to you?

Biblical deception

2011-01-03T12:11:00.000-05:00

Today I was reading in Joshua and read about Rahab. In this account, she lies to her people in order to save the Israelite spies.

This account describes what happens, and so does not necessarily comment on whether it was ethically okay to do this. According to the events, God does bless Rahab by allowing her to be spared, while the rest of Jericho was destroyed a few chapters later.

In my opinion, Rahab was justified in her actions to do a greater good by lying. I think there are times where it is okay to do something that is normally sinful in order to do a greater good. To clarify, I don't think is is always okay to commit a sin for a greater good. In this case however, I think she was justified.

Other accounts of deception are in Exodus 1 (the midwives), 1 Samuel 16 (Samuel deceives Saul about his true reason for going to Bethlehem).

What are your thoughts on this issue:

1. With reference to Rahab?
2. In general?

Could Jesus return right now?

2010-07-07T13:43:00.001-04:00

I just read a chapter in Grudem's Systematic Theology on The Return of Christ. It mainly looked as the aspect's of Christ's return that all Bible-believing Christians believe. These are things such as Jesus will return as a person, visibly, bodily; as believers we are to eagerly await his return, we do not know when he will return, etc.

An interesting endpoint of this chapter focused on the question of whether Christ could return at any time. To be more specific, could he return right now.... or now.. or now?

The thing that makes this question interesting is that there are some things written in the Bible that are suppose to happen before Christ comes to earth for a second time. For instance, the gospel is supposed to be preached to all nations first. Or there is supposed to be a great tribulation. Or has this happened yet? These are some of the things that are supposed to precede Christ's return. So can we really say that Christ could return right now?

Based on the first reason, that the gospel hasn't been preached to all nations, I was convinced that Jesus not only would not, but could not return until that happened.

Grudem suggests another way to look at it. He suggests that for each sign that is supposed to occur before Christ returns, we can say that it is unlikely, but possible that the sign has been fulfilled already. For me that biggest hang up with this view is the fact that the gospel hasn't been preached to all nations (nations = people groups). But then what does this verse mean? Or this? From these verses I could say that it is unlikely, but possible that the sign has already been fulfilled.

So maybe it is fair to say that it is unlikely, but possible that Christ could return this hour. What do you think?

Wrong numbers and mustaches for the Glory of God

2010-05-25T15:56:00.001-04:00

Today I tried to call a friend of mine, but I guess I had an old number, because the guy who answered the phone was not the friend I was looking for.

After apologizing for the wrong number, the guy, who sounded latino said, "No problem my friend, read the Bible, believe in Jesus Christ, ok?

With a smile on my face, all I could say was, "Yah, thanks, bye"

I appreciated that guy. He was quite winsome, and seemed quite jolly. He probably also had a great mustache.

Suffering for the Glory of God

2010-04-20T10:55:00.002-04:00

I just listened to Matt Chandler and CJ Mahaney's Message from Together for the Gospel 2010 and it really hit me. Many specific things stood out to me, but here are a few that stood out:

God is good no matter what He brings our way. He can do us no wrong.

The greatest thing we can give someone in their suffering is a greater understanding of the gospel. If they know that, they know that even if God seems to be abandoning them in their pain, he did not abandon them at the Cross.

I want to leave a legacy for my family to trust Jesus, so that even if something happened to me, they would not be taken by the lies of the enemy, but that they would trust God's goodness and heart, even if they cannot understand the movements of his hands.

God help me to always preach the gospel, and to suffer well, if you call me to that high calling.

I recommend watching the video of this message; it is well worth your 50 minutes.

Theology Matters

2010-02-19T22:30:00.001-05:00

DugDownDeep_Carnahan.mov from Covenant Life Church on Vimeo.

Friday Night Thoughts

2010-02-19T22:26:00.002-05:00

Sometimes God feels far away. Sometimes we doubt. But does how we feel or think really make a difference about who God is, or what He is up to? God is so much more than us. I am weak. I falter. I have bad days. But this is not so with God. He is from everlasting to everlasting the same. Yesterday. Today. Forever.

Why does what I think, or what others think mean so much to me? What we think is not relevant. What is important is what is true.

God is good. He made all things good. He is worthy of glory.

Life will pass us by too quickly if we do not stop and think. What are you living for? Is what you are living for worth your life?

God is worthy of everything and anything. Stop living for yourself. Live for what matters.

Remembering the unreached

2010-01-10T23:33:00.001-05:00

I have recently had my heart grow for the unreached peoples of the world. This is in part due to our Campus for Christ Winter Conference, and partially due to being able to take some time this week to think about my vision, and what God has called me to do in ministry. There are so many people out there who have no opportunity to hear the gospel. As Christians, this should break our hearts. And it does break my heart. I have committed to pray regularly for the unreached. If you would like to join me in this venture, here is a great place to get some fuel for your prayers: http://www.joshuaproject.net/

Also, I have recently become aware of a dude and his family who are serving the unreached in East Asia. His blog and twitter are public, but if you are interested in following someone on the front lines of this work, check out: http://china.myadventures.org/ or @chinaadventures on twitter.

If you are praying for the unreached, please leave a comment so I can know and seek to keep accountable with you.

Spectacular Sins – Ch 4 - The Fatal Disobedience of Adam and the Triumphant Obedience of Christ

2009-09-03T22:34:00.003-04:00

This is a weighty chapter. Surprise, surprise.

One takeaway is the difference between God ordaining evil, and God permitting Evil. Piper says it this way:

By ordain I mean that God either caused something directly or permitted it for wise purposes. This permitting is a kind of indirect causing, since God knows all the factors involved and what effects they will have and he could prevent any outcome. So his permission is a kind of secondary causing, but not a direct causing.
This distinction is an effort to be faithful to the different ways the Bible speaks about God's relation to events.

So God secondarily or indirectly causes evil. But even when he does permit evil, it is with a purpose. Whether by causing or permitting, God directs events to glorify Christ.

God planned to use the sin of Adam before Adam had committed the sin. Piper says:

For example, in Revelation 13:8, John writes about "everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain." So there was a book before the foundation of the world called "the book of life of the Lamb who was slain." Before the world was created, God had already planned that his Son would be slain like a lamb to save all those who are written in the book.

When Adam sins, God does not go to his back-up plan. He knows it will happen and continues with his plan to glorify Christ by saving those whose names are written in "the book of the life of the lamb who was slain".

The last main takeaway for me in this chapter was the explanation of Adam as a "type" of Christ. The following paragraph explains it well:

Here's the parallel: People whose transgression was not like Adam's died like Adam. Why? Because they were connected to Adam. He was the representative head of their humanity, and his sin is counted as their sin because of their connection with him. That's the essence of why Adam is called a type of Christ—because our obedience is not like Christ's obedience and yet we have eternal life with Christ. Why? Because we are connected to Christ by faith. He is the representative head of the new humanity, and his righteousness is counted as our righteousness because of our connection with him (Rom. 6:5).

That's the parallel implied in calling Adam a type of Christ:

Adam >Adam's sin >humanity condemned in him >eternal death

Christ >Christ's righteousness >new humanity justified in him >eternal life

And this passage is universal. Every single human you meet is either under Adam, and condemned in sin, or justified and alive in Christ. This is not a wimpy worldview. But wimpy worldview's create wimpy Christians.

HTMF – Stage 1 – Hubris Born of Success

2009-08-18T16:03:00.001-04:00

Don't become lazy in your success. In order to stay on top, you need to continually going hard and thinking of new ways to do your hedgehog better. When you are at your height, coasting will only bring you down.

Do not abandon your primary flywheel in the search of a new flywheel. "Exit definitively or renew obsessively, but do not ever neglect a primary flywheel."

He mentioned a concept from his book Built to Last: Try a lot of Stuff and Keep What Works! I like that!

You must reinvent yourself within your hedgehog. If Beethoven had just kept playing his Third Symphony, we would not have the masterful Ninth Symphony. This strikes a chord for me with C4C in that we need to stay close to our hedgehog, but think of new ways to "sell" our hedgehog.

Great Quote: "When institutions fail to distinguish between current practices and the enduring principles of their success, and mistakenly fossilize around their practices, they've set themselves up for decline."

Why was CCC successful in the first place? Not the specific practices and strategies that worked in the past, but the fundamental reasons for success?

At the end of each chapter, there is a list of "Markers" for each stage of the decline. If you find your company with some of these attributes, it is not a good thing!

Success Entitlement, Arrogance -- Do I see C4C as being entitled to success? I think I sort of do, as long as we are faithful to God's purpose and direction for us. Is that a proper perspective? If I am missing something, what is it?

Neglect of primary Flywheel – I would put Evangelism and Spiritual Multiplication as our primary flywheels. I think there is a strong movement within C4C to remain true to these.

"What" replaces "Why" – Do we know why our good things are good? Or do we just do them because they have been good. If we understand why something is good, we will know when to change the what.

Decline in Learning Orientation – Are C4C leaders continually trying to learn, or do we rest on our ministry knowledge laurels? I can't answer this fully but my impression of our leaders is that they are constantly trying to learn new things.

Discounting the Role of Luck: Is C4C where it is today because we are great? OR have we been lucky? A third thought for a Christian Ministry is are we good because God has blessed us, or because we are good? Or has God given us a strong vision, and we have responded faithfully. I hope it is the latter. But we need to move forward knowing that if we abandon God's enabling for human wisdom, we will be in trouble.

How the Mighty Fall

2009-08-11T11:29:00.002-04:00

A couple years ago I read the book, Good to Great by Jim Collins. It had been quite popular in my work circles, and so I gave it a read. I found it quite interesting and useful for ministry, as well as just general principles for how to make groups of people work best.

Now, a couple years later, Jim Collins has another book out called How the Mighty Fall. While Good to Great was about analyzing how companies becoming great, How the Mighty Fall, as the title indicates, looks at how big companies fall from greatness.

He looks at 5 stages of decline, of which I will do a synopsis of each. They are as follows:

Hubris Born of Success
Undisciplined Pursuit of More
Denial of Risk and Peril
Grasping for Salvation
Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

The reason for reading such a book is to take these principles and to look at what might apply to the organization I work for.

Should be an interesting read!

John Owen – Commending in public only what he experienced in private

2009-08-09T22:46:00.001-04:00

After spending some time reading about John Owen in Piper's Contending for our All, I was struck by many things. But I think the one major takeaway point I want is this: John Owen only preached in public about things that he experienced in private. Over the years in Christian ministry it becomes easy to just say things that are true but that you are not currently experiencing. But people won't be as excited by something you speak about, if you are not also currently experiencing it. As I look back I see this to be true from many of my talks at C4C weekly meetings. I will get passionate about something I know is true because I am experiencing it, and I know that the audience gets excited about it. But if I speak on a solid prayer life when I am not currently experiencing it, it is just words that are true but have no life. So this year I want to speak more about what God is teaching me in my life. This means sermon preparation is more than just study… it is taking time to make sure I am doing things as much as I know them.

Spectacular Sins – Ch 2 - Christ Sovereign over all Hostile Powers

2009-08-07T22:29:00.003-04:00

The central focus verse for this chapter is Colossians 1:15-16:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

In this chapter, Piper seeks to make clear that all things are created by Christ, through Christ, and for Christ. Everything exists to display the greatness of Christ. This includes evil things. Paul includes thrones or dominions in his list of things created for, through, and by Christ. Elsewhere in the New Testament, including later in Colossians, Rulers and Authorities are viewed as evil. So Paul wants us to know that even evil things are created by Christ to display his glory.

Why does he want us to know this?

it is objectively true, not merely opinion or a merely human idea.
it makes clear that Christ alone, not "rulers [and] authorities," is to be worshipped.
our day is not so unlike Paul's. Paul was concerned that, in the pluralistic, intellectual atmosphere of Colossae, Christians could be captivated by high-sounding heresies
to make us valiant in the face of odds that seem overwhelming to the natural eye.
he wants us to see and feel that our salvation in Christ is invincible.

Why does Paul tell us such weighty things? It is because the "antidote for wimpy Christians is weighty doctrine. In Paul's mind, the most massive truths are meant for producing radical lives of obedience".

Piper summarizes the chapter like this:

All things were created by him and through him and for him—even our worst supernatural enemies. In the end, it was they—not Christ—who were shamed at the cross (Col. 2:15). In the end, everything and everyone serves to magnify the glory of our Savior and increase the gladness of his people in him.

Spectacular Sins – Ch 1 – God Sovereign over Human Sin

2009-08-03T21:57:00.003-04:00

This Chapter sets the course of the rest of the book. It starts out by looking at 2 Chronicles 10:15, 18:22, 25:20, three places in the Bible it says that God caused someone to do something that changed the direction of history.

From there, Piper asks four questions that follow from this fact that God is sovereign over human sin:

Why Does God Want Us to Know His Sovereignty over Sin?

Why Does God Not Restrain Sin More Often?

How Can We Have Faith and Joy during the Severity of the Last Days?

How Is Christ Glorified in a World of Sin?

He does not answer them here, but sets them as the backdrop for this book.

In Summary, God is sovereign over human sin. It is in the Bible. So let's try to understand it by asking hard questions and getting solid answers.

Spectacular Sins – Introduction – The Times are Changing

2009-08-03T21:44:00.004-04:00

I started reading John Pipers book: Spectacular Sins and Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ. I decided that I wanted to take the time to blog about it as I recall in the past when I have blogged about books I have remembered more. The quotes in these blogs are all by Piper from the book, unless otherwise indicated.

The general thought of the intro was that things are too soft in the church in the west. We are being coddled:

"It seems to me that Christians in the West are being coddled. We suffer little in the name of Christ. Therefore, we read the Bible not with a desperate hunger for evidences of God's triumph in pain, but with a view to improving our private pleasures."

Part of the problem is that we are missing the Bible:

"What is missing is the Bible. I mean the whole Bible, with its blood and guts and sins and horrors—and all of it under the massive hand of God."

We mostly know the nice parts of the Bible that looks good on hallmark cards. But those parts of the Bible alone won't get us through hard times.

Times are coming when we will actually be persecuted like the church is in other places in the world. When those times come, we will not want to hear "felt needs" sermons. "The aim of this book is not to meet felt needs, but to awaken needs that will soon be felt, and then to save your faith and strengthen your courage when evil prevails"

We will want to know that God is in control and rules over all things, including the suffering of his children.

To say these things is all about love. It is what we need to hear, and so it is loving to say them, although it may seem harsh and overdramatic.

If interested, this whole book can be downloaded free from the Desiring God website at: http://tinyurl.com/cy5blb

A Prayer for Jude

2009-07-31T22:45:00.002-04:00

God, I thank you for the gift you have given to Vanessa and I. I pray that Jude would become a gift to the world as well.

I pray that he would, as his namesake once wrote, "contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints". If there is ever a time when your church needs someone to contend for the faith, it is now. I pray that Jude would be a contender.

I also pray that he would live to display your glory. As John Calvin lived to study and preach your Word, may Jude live to make your name glorified wherever he goes, as he studies and preaches your Word.

I pray that at a young age, Jude would come to know you as his Lord and Saviour, and never look back.

Give Vanessa and I wisdom as we raise him to follow you. May Jude live for your glory!

I pray this in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen!

“Be filled with the Spirit” = “Let word of Christ dwell in you richly”

2009-05-15T15:09:00.001-04:00

I believe I heard this from Piper somewhere... He was comparing Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:18-19. They are structured similarly. Both mention singing psalms, hyms and spiritual songs, and being thankful to God. But in Colossians he instructs believers to "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" whereas in Ephesians the instruction is to be filled with the Spirit.

The implication is that there is a close relationship between being filled with the Spirit, and the word of Christ dwelling in you. So we can be neither people who are only about the Word, or only about the Spirit. We need both to live the Christian life.

Here is a chart of the verses:

Colossians 3:16	Ephesians 5:18-19
	And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery,
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,	but be filled with the Spirit,
teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom,
singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,	addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
	singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,
with thankfulness in your hearts to God	giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father
	in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

I hope to be someone who knows deeply both the Word and Spirit!

Paul ends the Prosperity Gospel

2009-04-27T11:23:00.001-04:00

1 Corinthians 15:19 - If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Paul is in the midst of explaining that there is a resurrection from the dead. Christ has been raised, and so if a person argues that there is no resurrection from the dead, then they are saying that Christ is not raised. This is where v. 19 comes in and says, describing believers in Christ, "If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied."

Why would Paul argue that Christians are the most to be pitied if we have Christ only in this life? It is because assumed with being a believer in Christ is that there will be not "health and wealth", but "trials in tribulations"! For those who believe that being a Christian gets you access to God's treasure chest of Gold and silver, how can this verse line up with your theology? Paul says we are to be pitied if we only have Christ in this life! But if in this life, Christ gets us money and health, then why would we be pitied? It just doesn't add up.

What does it mean to be Male and Female?

2008-12-08T22:18:00.002-05:00

I have been thinking lately about Biblical Manhood and Womanhood.

One of the main things to consider when faced with these issues in the Bible is what is just cultural, and therefore no longer applicable to us today, against what is simply a command or comment on how God wants things for all time (at least here on earth).

These issues are definitely difficult to tread. I think my default position is that I will assume things are permanent commands from God unless it is clear to me that they are cultural. I would rather err, and offend other people, than err and offend God.

I purposely haven't shown my cards here, although those of you who know me know that I usually don't hold them to close to my chest. I hope to slowly talk things out here, as I read and contemplate further.

Disclaimer – None of the things I write on this blog necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the organization I work for

I am still here

2008-12-07T15:20:00.002-05:00

It has been a while since i have been here. April!

But as with all humans, a lot has happened since then. Maybe I will attempt to restart blogging.

What do you think? Should I?

*jamie holds his hand to his ears like hulk hogan to see what the crowd response is*

Nooma 003- Trees

2008-04-15T22:34:00.004-04:00

So here we are in Part 2 of the reviewing of Rob Bell's Nooma Videos. In case you are interested, you can search them on YouTube and watch them there. That is how I am doing it. The parts in quotes below are statements Bell made during this video.

"God never ever forces himself on anybody". This is one of many Rob Bell borderline statements that could go different directions. My concern would be that if God doesn't force himself on me, I stay dead. Romans 3 describes humanity as people who don't see after God. If God doesn't force himself on a dead person, they don't become alive. The way Rob gets away with saying this is that the term 'force' seems inconsiderate in this context. But no matter which word you chose, we must understand that God must use some sort of force to wake us out of our deadly, unregenerate view of Him.

Bell also says, "It's as if God says it's your choice". Again, lets read the verse below and see what choice we would make if the ball was left in our court. Here is the passage from Romans 3:

"None is righteous, no, not one; 11no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good,
not even one." 13 "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive."
"The venom of asps is under their lips." 14 "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness."
15"Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16in their paths are ruin and misery,17and the way of peace they have not known." 18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

Maybe the greatest truth of Adam and Eve is not that it happened, but that it happens". No Rob, the greatest truth is that it happened. Don't try to pass the creation story off as if it is an allegory about your existence. Statements like this is what characterize Bell to me. Safe enough that he can say, "Well I'm not saying it didn't happen...", but tricky enough that anybody can interpret it their own way, and get excited that their warped view of God is being validated by this popular "Bible Teacher". That is a main reason why he is dangerous.
From another part of the video, he makes a few statements about wanting a God like this... , but not wanting a God who would be like that...BUT I don't care what you want God to be like, God is who He is, and if you don't like it, that's your problem! He sounds like a whiny 7 year old that wants this and that, and isn't satisfied unless they get their own way. This may be a surprise to you Rob, but everything isn't about how you want it.
"His finger prints (referring to God) are all over our world. Or maybe it's his world and they're our finger prints" This is one of the strangest things I have heard in a while. I am still, no doubt, baffled by this statement as you are reading this now. OR maybe I'm reading this now, and you are baffled? Ah hah! Now I think I am getting this make people confused and call it theology stuff!
On the plus side, he does say that we are a blip on the radar screen off all eternity and that God always has existed and always will exist. I appreciate that.
I think this video might be the best microcosm of Rob Bell in my opinion. A hint of weirdness, some wacky theology, a few fluffy statements that you can interpret as you please, and some good thoughts.

Reviewing Nooma

2008-04-08T23:57:00.002-04:00

SO my interest has been rekindled in Rob Bell recently, so I have decided to watch some of the Nooma videos and then review them on here.

I watched 002 tonight, which is the "flame" episode. It wasn't heretical, by any stretch of the imagination. His main point was that there are 3 different Hebrew words for the English word love. I won't remember the Hebrew, but they were basically friendship, committed "soul mates"/deep friendship, and the erotic love. And only when a marriage relationship has all three, does it really work.

I can respect that. But he probably spends a bunch of money on all the logs that he burns at the end, and it want that powerful of a point.

Testing

2007-11-20T14:10:00.001-05:00

I found out that I can blog on my new Microsoft Word 2007 and it translates it to my blog. I am trying it out here.

Also, Noah is 3.5 weeks old now and things are becoming real. He will always be around. Looking back, I would say that it is near impossible to prepare for your first child. You just have to experience it. The joys of holding your own son, your own flesh and blood. The struggles of watching him cry and not knowing why. Your sinful nature inside you causes you to become frustrated, but you don't want to be (see Romans 7).

But all in all, it is such a privilege and a pleasure!

Noah...and sports!

2007-11-03T22:00:00.000-04:00

So as you all now know, I am a dad now. Crazy.
Today i had a classic Jamie moment. I was sitting in front of the computer, with Noah on my lap, listening to the Manchester United-Arsenal game on the online radio, and there was about 5 mins left in the game when Noah started crying. What do I do now?!?! "noah, settle down now, daddy wants to hear the end of the game. There is only a few minutes left, buddy." Luckily for me, his soother was an arms reach away so i plunked it in his mouth and it worked like a charm. Phew!

On another sports/Noah related note, the leafs are now 2-0 on Hockey Night in Canada with Noah watching with his daddy!

Finally a post not about sports!

2007-10-13T10:38:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks ago Vanessa wrote a post on her blog about being torn. Torn that is between being on campus full-time, and being at home full-time as a mom.
I am currently going through maybe a similar feeling, although i think the work "in limbo" would better describe it.
For me, besides a week off that I will take immediately after the baby is born, I will remain on campus full-time. Where the "in limbo" part comes in is that I don't know when I will take that week. It could be today, tomorrow, or 3 weeks from now. But at some point in the next little while, i will leave my full-time job to be at home to help with our child and be gone for a week. What makes it even harder is that a week and a half from now, we have our major outreach of the year, probably besides Frosh week, our craziest week. I don't know if i will be there for some, none, or all of it. It is hard to volunteer to do stuff when you cant be sure that you are going to be there. Also, my first year guys Bible study is just getting started, an engineering Bible study just started, amongst other things.
Now don't get me wrong. I will be thrilled once our son is born to take the week off. It is just now knowing when that is which is the hard part. To borrow a term from poker, it is hard to be "all in" on campus, knowing i will be pulling off at anytime.

A United Legend retires

2007-08-27T23:08:00.001-04:00

Today as I checked my usual sites, one of which is Skysports, my heart became sad as I read the news that Manchester United legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is retiring. He will always be known as the super-sub as he always found a way to score late in a game after being subbed on.

Below is footage of the goal he will forever be remembered by. It was the game winning goal in stoppage time to win the UEFA Champions League final, the same year Man U won the treble (Premier League, FA Cup, and Champs League). United were down 1-0 going into stoppage time. As you will see, Teddy Sheringham scored the equalizer and then Solskjaer got the winner. And Kirsten, you will be delighted to know that he is Norwegian.

You Are My Solskjaer (to the tune of 'You Are My Sunshine' )
You are my Solskjaer,
My Ole Solskjaer,
You make me happy,
When skies are grey.
Oh Alan Shearer,
Was f*cking dearer,
So please don't take my Solskjaer away.

This made my day

2007-08-26T23:04:00.000-04:00

This season has started out poorly for Manchester United. As a fan, this stinks. We drew our first two games which we should have one, and then we lost against hated Manchester City, in a game that we dominated and also should have won.
So this morning when we faced Tottenham, and didn't score in the first half, I got impatient and irritable. But then this happened...

This goal made my day. It was a nervous 20 minutes that followed until the final whistle, but even though it is three games late, we finally got our first win! Now let's string a few of them together with a win next week against the Black Cats (Sunderland)

I Love my Wife

2007-08-26T14:35:00.001-04:00

This is my wife. What a cutie. Just look at that smile. She makes makes me happy and here is a short list of reasons why:
- She is easy-going
- She likes sports
- She is hot
- She is loving
- She helps me cut my hair.
- She is caring
- She loves God and has got a strong theological head on her shoulders!
- She will often let me listen to sports talk radio when we are in the Toronto area and actually catch The FAN 590.
- She looks cute pregnant
- She likes to watch fun movies
- She is fun to a hang out with and ALWAYS up for something.
- etc

I am sure for the few out there who still check this blog once and a while, Vanessa has made a great impact on your life!

I love my wife!

Online Books

2007-08-19T15:12:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone,

Just another quick note to let you know that Desiring God now has over 30 books online for free here.

This includes a couple of Piper's great titles availible in Chinese! It is so cool how Piper gives all his stuff away for free, and gets it translated to bless the world!

A question, would Don't Waste Your Life be applicable to people in that part of the world?

Back

2007-08-17T17:55:00.000-04:00

This is just a short post to let everyone know that i am back in the blog world! Here I am! I will update once per week at least! This is my resolution. I will know that i am successful when i get on the singforever bloglist on the left panel of the page. See you again!

I love Sports

2007-06-29T11:43:00.000-04:00

I love sports. If I wasn't married, I would probably spend all my free time surfing sports websites, trade rumour sites, watching games, and then watching highlights from games.

July 1st is a big day. Many of you will be thinking, "Yah, its Canada Day". Well, it is Canada Day, but I am more excited because it is the first day of free agency in the NHL. Time for me to see the Leafs sign a good player and get me excited for the upcoming season ( a season that will end with Mats Sundin lifting the Stanley Cup).

Well there you go. I am back in the Blogosphere.

Captivated by God through the Gospel

2006-10-08T22:53:00.001-04:00

Tonight I decided to watch a video I recorded on my video camera from the US Staff Conference back in '05. It was from a great talk by John Piper called "Captivated by God through the Gospel"

He divided his talk into 5 sections, and so I will give these notes in the same fashion.

What is the Gospel?

2 Cor 4:3-7
What makes the gospel good news?
Justification by faith? Forgiveness of sins? Propitiation? Liberation from sin? Escape from hell? Entrance to heaven? Eternal life? Deliverance from pain?
These things are not the highest, final good. In fact they are useless, unless they give us the ultimate good.
The gospel is the glory of god in the face of Christ treasured and seen as all-satisfying increasingly forever
Justification by faith? So what! Unless it gives us the glory of God in the face of Christ!

What is Lostness?

2 Cor 4:4 - God of this world has blinded unbelievers
Lostness is then blindness to glory of God in face of Christ!
When we share the true gospel and people respond with blank faces, it is because they are blind to spiritual truth, not because there is something wrong with the message.

What is Conversion?

2 Cor 4:6 - God said let light shine out of darkness…to give light of glory of God in the face of Christ
Conversion is opening of eyes to see light of knowledge of glory of God in Christ
Conversion is a miracle!
God has to do for all of us what he did for Paul on the Damascus road. It does not have to be as dramatic, but it is just as miraculous!

What is the Role of Humans in Conversion?

Acts 26:17
We are to open eyes!
God sends us to do what he alone can do!
God will not do it without us.
People get saved through the preaching of the gospel
This is why God uses CCC!
As long as we are faithful to preach the gospel, God will continue to use us
1 Peter 4:11 - let the one who serves, serve in the strength that God supplies so that in all things God will get the glory

What is the Role of Teaching in Conversion?

2 Tim 2:24 - The Lords servant… should be able to teach, correcting with righteousness and God may grant repentance leading to knowledge of truth.
We keep teaching, and if the Lord wills, he will say into their life "let there be light" and they are broken and they are broken, and the light goes on and the devil flees!

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What a great message! These 5 points are so key for all beleivers to understand! I will look forward to listening to the other message he gave, and giving the report!

The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World

2006-10-06T22:53:00.000-04:00

This afternoon I listened to the first talk from Desiring God's National Conference Above All Earthly Powers: The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World. At one point I had hoped to go to this conference, but it just happened to fall on the same weekend as C4C's Summit retreat. But one of the great things about Desiring God is that they have so much free stuff. Fortunately for all who weren't able to attend the conference, the mp3's of the messages are available for free!

The first talk is by David Wells, who wrote the book Above all Earthly Powers which was the motivation behind this conference. He has an English accent (which is cool), but speaks really slowly (which makes him a little harder to follow.

This was a quality talk though. The central message was that Jesus is in a league of his own. There is no equal to him in all of history. He was fully God and Man. He atoned for sin. He lived a perfect life. No one can match him. These are things we need to hear more!

He then goes onto say that the book of Hebrews was written to Jewish believers tempted to fade back into the woodwork. The message of Hebrews is the uniqueness of Christ, and so the author of Hebrews thought that speaking of Christ would be the best way to encourage believers in the face of trial.

Wells goes onto say that our culture is in a similar situation. We are not being persecuted like 1st century believers, but there are many things trying to pull us away from our faith. Challies.com, who did live blogging at this conference blogs Wells saying, "We are so distracted by so many things that it is hard for us to sustain a focus upon the supremacy of Christ in our world and our lives. This is why people come to church looking to have psychological needs met. But sermons only addressing these matters are exercises in futility if the supremacy and centrality of Christ has been lost. In an entirely different way, we in our churches seem to be shrinking back from Christ."

Wells then goes onto show from Hebrews how Christ is separate from everyone else in many ways. He then closes of the message with this key point: Christianity is only about this kind of Christ - Christ reigning supreme and unchallenged and unchallengeable over all of life's enemies. Any other Christ that we offer the world does them no favours. We need to offer the Christ of the Bible, who is above all earthly powers, or no Christ at all.
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You can see Challies summary of this message here
You can listen to the mp3 of this talk here

A New Blog

2006-09-12T23:42:00.000-04:00

Just an update on a new blog that I am part of. Myself and some of my C4C staff friends have started a book review blog.

You can find it here.

O-week begins

2006-09-04T23:39:00.000-04:00

Today was the first day of Orientation week. I'm pooped. A day of handing out Real Life Kits and Sno-Cones. But it was good. We got a lot of people to follow-up who showed interest in our club. Lots to do on that front.
On Sunday night it was the pep rally. It was amazing sitting across from all the first years as they were cheering and chanting and doing all their dances. There had to be a 4000-5000 of them, and we are asking God that 80 would be involved in our movement. It seems so small when you are thinking of only 80 out of a couple thousand. But anyways, things are good and I'm happy to be on campus full-time again for a full year!

Desiring God now updated!

2006-09-02T13:28:00.000-04:00

Great new everyone! www.desiringgod.org has been updated! Take a look for yourself! It is easier to navagate, and now all of Piper's sermons from the past 25 years are availible on the site! Also, you can watch his current sermons on a video player right on the site! So cool! Now there is no reason to ever leave the site! :)

Mark Dever on Evangelism

2006-08-31T21:27:00.000-04:00

Mark Dever is Pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church and Executive Director of 9Marks. On the Together for the Gospel Blog, he wrote this:

"One part of clarity sometimes missed by earnest evangelists, however, is
the willingness to offend. Clarity with the claims of Christ certainly
will include the translation of the Gospel into words that our hearer
understands, but it doesn’t necessarily mean translating it into words that our
hearer will like. Too often advocates of relevant evangelism verge over
into being advocates of irrelevant non-evangelism. A gospel which in no
way offends the sinner has not been understood.

Look at Peter at Pentecost in Acts 2. He wanted to be
relevant. But that relevance gave his words more bite, not less. How
did Peter witness to those he wished to see saved? He said to them, among
other things, “let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus,
whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ,” (Acts 2:36).
Relevant? Yes. Pleasing? No. Clear? Undoubtedly.
Be clear about the fact of sin (Isa. 59:1-2; Hab. 1:13; Rom. 3:22-23; 6:23; Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5; I John 1:5-6). Be clear about the meaning of the cross (Matt.
26:28; Gal. 3:10-13; I Tim. 1:15; I Peter 2:24; 3:18). Be clear about our
need to repent of our sins and to trust in Christ (Matt. 11:28-30; Mark 1:15;
8:34; John 1:12; 3:16; 6:37; Acts 20:21). What would it mean to evangelize
without being clear about what the Bible says about these issues?"

This is a great quote. I think this is a message that needs to be heard by all who wish to be earnest evangelists. The Gospel is offensive, and we don't do anyone any favours by attempting to take the sting out. If you take the sting out, you take the saving power out!

Thoughts on Mark Driscoll's "Missional Ministry"

2006-08-28T23:36:00.000-04:00

Tonight I listened to a sermon my Mark Driscoll called "Missional Ministry". This sermon addressed how to reach different groups of people with the gospel. One of the things I took away from this is that we don't need to reject making the gospel culturally relevant. We don't change the gospel, but we can change the way we present it. For example, if a person going to minister in China got dressed up in a traditional Chinese outfit, and sang a Chinese song to share the gospel, no one would have a problem with that. However, there seems to be a trepidation in the church about becoming relevant to postmoderns. In many ways, I am one of them. I am scared that in trying to reach postmoderns, we will may compromise the purity of the gospel. But is it any worse compromise the gospel, than it is to completely ignore them by not sharing it at all? By the grace of God we need to find a way to reach ever increasing new groups of people with the True gospel of the Bible.

New Desiring God Website and book I am reading

2006-08-28T22:02:00.000-04:00

Here is an exciting note for everyone.....

The New DesiringGod.org Is Coming Soon
Watch for our redesigned website,
providing more content, improved access to all of our content, and many other
improvements, to be released this week.

So check back at www.desiringgod.org soon for the update.

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

Also, I am reading a book called No Place for Truth or Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology. It is slow to start out with, but I am trusting that it will get better as it goes along. I figure that it will be a good disipline to continue with it and not just give up on it after the first chapter. Too often in life we give up on things to early!

Reaching out without selling out

2006-08-18T13:01:00.000-04:00

I have recently been enjoying the writings and ministry of Mark Driscoll. For those of you who don’t know who this is, Mark Driscoll is the founding Pastor of a church in Seattle called Mars Hill Church. He is very straight-up, and doesn’t hide from making bold statements. For a introduction to some of his quotes, take a look at Vanessa’s blog where she lists some of them from his book, Confessions of a Reformission Rev.

Most recently, I have been reading his book called The Radical Reformission: Reaching out without selling out. The book is basically about how to reach the culture you live in. There is a great chapter in this book called "The Sin of Light Beer: how syncretism and sectarianism undermine reformission. " He goes on to say how when it comes to engaging culture, we often fall into one of four camps: Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots and Essenes. Pharisees separate from the culture, Sadducees blend into the culture, Zealots try to rule over culture (through changing the culture by Christian politics whether it be left or right), and Essenes who ignore culture. Furthermore, Pharisees and Essenes would be sectarians (who stay out of the culture), and Sadducees and Zealots are Syncretists who go too far into the culture.

Both sides fail Jesus's command from John 17:13-18:

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may
have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world
has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from
the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify
them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have
sent them into the world.

Jesus said that we are not of the world, but that we are to go into the world. How we find this balance is the difficulty. When you go into the world, you will get "christians" who bring you down for being too worldly, but when you try to take a stand against the world there are "christians" who say you are being to harsh or legalistic.

I think the key is for each individual Christian to be convinced in their own mind what is right for them, based on Biblical principles and their God-given conscience. These two gifts from God are the keys to making our way through grey areas. I pray that God would give our generation a hunger for His Word, and sharpen our conscience so that we would be effective in reaching our culture without selling out to syncretism or sectarianism.

A word from Piper...

2006-08-08T21:45:00.000-04:00

I decided to swing by desiringgod.org today and read a fantastic quote by Piper.

Piper Quote of the Day
"The day you hear that you have cancer, or that your child is blind, or that a mob is coming, you turn away from light books to the weighty ones that were written on the precipice of eternity where the fragrance of heaven and the stench of hell are both in the air."(The Hidden Smile of God, pg. 61-62)

In a day and age where the light books are so easily found in Christian bookstores and the weighty ones are found as easily as a needle in a haystack, the quote rings so true. It is such a reflection of our Lackadaisical christianity. Things are fanciful and pleasant, and so are our books.

So what is an appropriate response? Read a weighty book "that (was) written on the precipice of eternity where the fragrance of heaven and the stench of hell are both in the air."

The Lion and the Lamb

2006-06-02T15:22:00.000-04:00

“A lion is admirable for its ferocious strength and imperial appearance. A lamb is admirable for its meekness and servant-like provision of wool for our clothing. But even more admirable is a lion-like lamb and a lamb-like lion. What makes Christ glorious, as Jonathan Edwards observed over 250 years ago, is ‘an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies.’”
“For example, we admire Christ for his transcendence, but even more because the transcendence of his greatness is mixed with submission to God. We marvel at him because his uncompromising justice is tempered with mercy. His majesty is sweetened by meekness. In his equality with God he has a deep reverence for God. Though he is worthy of all good, he was patient to suffer evil. His sovereign dominion over the world was clothed with a spirit of obedience and submission. He baffled the proud scribes with his wisdom, but was simple enough to be loved by children. He could still the storm with a word, but would not strike the Samaritans with lightning or take himself down from the cross.
“So Christ is a lamb-like Lion and a lion-like Lamb. That is his glory— ‘an admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies.’”
Part of what makes Christ so glorious is the tension between his powerful lion-like qualities and his meek lamb-like qualities. In that balance we see the fullness of all that is to be admired.

Chapter 2 – Jesus is the Glory of God

2006-06-01T23:28:00.000-04:00

“Christ does not exist in order to make much of us. We exist in order to enjoy making much of him. The assumption of this book is that to know the glories of Christ is an end, not a means. Christ is not glorious so that we get wealthy or healthy. Christ is glorious so that rich or poor, sick or sound, we might be satisfied in him.”
“There is no “before” God and no “after” God. He is absolutely there, no matter how far back or how far forward you go. He is the absolute Reality. He has the honor of being there first and always. To him belongs this singular glory.”
“Jesus Christ is the Creator of the universe. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. Jesus Christ, the Person, never had a beginning. He is absolute Reality. He has the unparalleled honor and unique glory of being there first and always. He never came into being. He was eternally begotten. The Father has eternally enjoyed “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature” (Hebrews 1:3) in the Person of his Son.”
“Seeing and savoring this glory is the goal of our salvation. “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me” (John 17:24). To feast on this forever is the aim of our being created and our being redeemed.”

Jesus is fully God, and the purpose of all creation was to bring glory to God in the face of Christ.

Seeing and Savoring the Glory of God

2006-05-29T15:04:00.000-04:00

Here are some quotes and thoughts from Chapter one of Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ. I hope they will encourage and minister to you as they have done to me.

“The created universe is all about glory. The deepest longing of the human heart and the deepest meaning of heaven and earth are summed up in this: the glory of God. The universe was made to show it, and we were made to see it and savor it. Nothing less will do. Which is why the world is as disordered and as dysfunctional as it is. We have exchanged the glory of God for other things (Romans 1:23)”.
“The Christian Gospel is “the gospel of the glory of Christ” because its final aim is that we would see and savor and show the glory of Christ. For this is none other than the glory of God.”
“Therefore, in the Gospel we see and savor “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). And this kind of “seeing” is the healing of our disordered lives. “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18).”

This chapter is classic Piper. It seems like a mini God is the Gospel (another great book by Piper) toward the end. Ultimately, the gospel is that God gives us himself. The other things are good, but not ultimate.

Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ

2006-05-25T22:07:00.000-04:00

As I prepare to go to Florida for some seminary classes this summer, one of the books I have the pleasure to read is Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, by the man, John Piper. I think over the next couple days I will post some of my thoughts and favourite quotes from each chapter.

In the Preface, Piper says he is not going to try and prove that Jesus is worthy of "seeing and savoring" by refering to outside sources. He is going to show it by showing who Christ is, and when we see that, we will know that he is worthy of seeing and savoring. Here is how he puts it:

“There is another path. It’s the path I am following in this book. It starts with the conviction that divine truth can be self-authenticating. In fact, it would seem strange if God revealed himself in his Son Jesus Christ and inspired the record of that revelation in the Bible, but did not provide a way for ordinary people to know it. Stated most simply, the common path to sure knowledge of the real Jesus is this: Jesus, as he is revealed in the Bible, has a glory – an excellence, a spiritual beauty – that can be seen as self-evidently true. It is like seeing the sun and knowing that it is light and not dark, or like tasting honey and knowing that it is sweet and not sour. There is no long chain of reasoning for premises to conclusions. There is a direct apprehension that this person is true and his glory is the glory of God”

I would say that this is his thesis for the book... the point he is proving. So stay tuned for some great quotes and personal reflections in the days to come!

CCC ad banned from theatres

2006-05-18T12:35:00.000-04:00

With the Da Vinci Code set to release in theatres tommorow, there is a lot of hype going around. The latest has hit close to home for me, a staff member with Campus Crusade for Christ. I recently found out that Cineplex Odion has banned an ad from CCC. Here is a quote from the webpage, http://www.discussdavinci.com :

"The group behind this blog had planned an in-theatre ad campaign to encourage
The Da Vinci Code movie-goers to come online and discuss what they had seen. In
an unexpected move, Cineplex Odeon decided today the ads were too
controversial and has pulled the spots from theatres in Vancouver,
Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Toronto."

You can see the ad that was banned by going here. I find it hard to beleive that this ad was too controviersial.

You can see the press release from CCC regarding the situation here.

Lastly, the Toronto Star also got in on the action writing an article about what they think. You can read this "intelligent" piece here.

Personally, I think this is really dumb that CCC has had their ad removed from the theatres. This really is an attack at freedom of speech. The whole movie they are allowing in the theatres is pure junk historically, yet they will not allow a 10 second ad in the theatre that points people to a website to discuss the film. This is the world we live in though. Anything goes unless is saying that Jesus is the person that the Bible says He is.

What do you think?

Regaining a Wonder for God's Creation

2006-05-11T10:45:00.000-04:00

This morning I was reading McManus and this paragraph stood out to me:

When your heart is full of gratitude, life paints itself in far brighter
and more vivid colours. The aromas, flavours, and textures of life are so
exhilarating that they take you to places of indescribable pleasure. Life
becomes an endless celebration. Your laughter and joy is the applause of your
soul as you marvel in the goodness of God and the wonder of His creation. There
is always something that fills you with joy and unleashes hope and inspiration.
Gratitude doesn't lead to monasticism; it leads to hedonism, not a hedonism
absent of holiness, but one that erupts out of wholeness.

I originally thought of this stuff when reading The Pleasures of God by John Piper, but was reminded that I need to appreciate the things in life that I often take for granted. Like say trees, or the sky... things that I don't notice or appriciate very often, but if they were taken away, I would be willing to pay anything to bring them back.

I think this quote also spoke to me because it is so John Piper-ish. It is like I was reading Desiring God, but this time written from a different angle and in a place that I did not expect it.

So, when you are out and about today, take time and appreciate and marvel at the things that you usually take for granted, and give glory to God for them.

The Da Vince Deception, Part 1

2006-05-04T19:50:00.000-04:00

I recently finished reading The Da Vinci Code, so I also thought I should read a book that looks at the historical claims of the book, so I could know what is what. The book I am reading is called The DaVinci Deception by Erwin Lutzer. So far, it is full of great stuff on real history.

For those who have read The Da Vinci Code (probably a few), and more for those who will see the movie (probably most of you), here are some facts about some of the events that the book calls into question. I think it will be helpful to know some of this, first, for confidence in your own faith (if you are a Christian), and secondly in evangelism (also if you are a Christian). Enjoy!

Constantine converted to Christianity in AD 312. This was at the time he was fighting Maxentius for the absolute rule of the Roman Empire. The night before the battle, he saw a vision of Christ, and so during the battle he fought with the banner of the Christian Cross and won. Shortly after this, he issued the Edict of Milan which stated that Christians should no longer be persecuted.

Early in Constantine’s rule, there were many disputes about Jesus (i.e. God? Man?, Equal with the Father?, Created?, Etc). At the same time, Arius was teaching that Jesus was a created god, lower than the God the Father. The Church Bishops labeled him a heretic, but his ideas gained popularity. In order to unite the Empire, Constantine called the Council of Nicea to answer these questions. Constantine cared little for doctrine, but more for unity of the Empire. Over 300 Bishops met, and overwhelmingly declared Arius a heretic. The Council also affirmed the divinity of Christ based on Scripture (Col 1:16, John 1:1, Rom 9:5, Heb 1:8, etc). Theologian Athanasius was present, although uninvited, argued that Christ was not similar in nature to God the Father, but the same and equal. The Council agreed and today we have the Nicene Creed. Of the 318 Bishops present, only 5 protested, and in the end only 2 refused to sign the document. Arianism continued to have followers, but from that point on, orthodox Christianity held that Jesus was “God of very God”.

It is debatable though whether Constantine’s conversion was true, since he continued on in Sun worship and used Christianity for political gain. There no evidence however to suggest that before Constantine, Christians believe that Jesus was only a man. In fact the evidence overwhelmingly points the other way:

In AD 110, Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch wrote of Jesus being “God”, “Son of God”, “Christ God”, etc.

In Addition, Polycarp (approx AD 112-118) who was a disciple of the Apostle John, Justin Martyr (AD 100-165), Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons (AD 177), Tertullian (AD 150-212) were all recorded as believing in Jesus as the Son of God, equal to God, and in the Authority of Scriptures. These men lived 150-200 before Constantine converted to Christianity.
Furthermore, many years before Constantine, many Christians were regularly killed because they would not say that Caesar is Lord. This shows that they believed that Jesus was more than just another god, since they were willing to die for that belief.

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"but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." John 20:31

Mailmen, not Editors

2006-04-30T23:32:00.000-04:00

I am realizing that it is going to take me a while to completely unpack all that God taught me last week at “Together for the Gospel”. I feel extremely privileged to have been there. Going to the conference, I knew that I was in for a treat with MacArthur, Piper and Sproul being there. But the other four guys, Mark Dever, C.J. Mahaney, Ligon Duncan, and Albert Mohler, I didn’t really know too much about.

Mark Dever is the Pastor in Washington at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, and also the founder of 9 Marks Ministry. His talk was on “The Pastors Understanding of His Own Role”. The main thing I took from this message was the fact that we are supposed to spread God’s message. We aren’t supposed to pick and choose our own things to share, but simply share God’s message. Dever explained that we are God’s messengers, or mailmen, just delivering the mail that God has sent. Mailmen aren’t supposed to get the letters and then change them to their own fancies. They are just supposed to deliver the goods! The Pastor/Evangelist is the same. God has given us a message in his Word, and we are just supposed to pass it on. It is simple but profound.

In today’s Christian world, too often we are trying to make the message more attractive. But it isn’t ours to change.

Let’s move forward giving the goods that God has given, no more, no less.

The Holiness of God

2006-04-29T12:52:00.000-04:00

I had the privilege this week of hearing R.C. Sproul speak at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary while I was in Louisville for the Together for the Gospel conference. Sproul spoke on the Holiness of God. His talk was so good, but one thing stood out most to me. In 2 Samuel 6, the Israelites were transporting the Ark of the Covenant. . They had placed it on a cart pulled by oxen. At one point, the oxen stumble and the Ark was about to fall to the ground, so Uzzah reached out to stop it from falling. At that moment, the LORD’s anger burned on Uzzah for his irreverence, so He struck Uzzah down and he died.

In his talk, Sproul pointed out that the Lord struck Uzzah down because of two things. One, he broke the command from Numbers 4:15 that if anyone touched it who wasn’t supposed to, they would die. But secondly, Uzzah was arrogant to touch the Ark, even if trying to save it. The reason only certain people could touch it was because they had been set apart by God to do so. Uzzah was unclean (sinful), and therefore it was not right that he touched something that was so Holy. In Uzzah’s eyes, it was worse for the Ark to touch the ground than to touch him. But why is it wrong for the Ark to touch the ground. The ground is just there by God’s will, doing its thing in obedience to God. Although the ground (dirt, mud) is dirty to us as humans, it is beautiful in God’s eyes because it is His creation! To Uzzah, it was worse for it to be touched by the ground, but to God it is worse to be touched by sinful man.

As humans we think far too highly of ourselves. Uzzah did, and he paid the price for it. We also think too highly of ourselves, but for some reason God holds back his wrath. If I was Uzzah, I probably would have tried to be a hero as well.

I pray that God would teach me know see myself more accurately, so that I can fear the Him appropriately. I take too Gods grace for granted far too much, because I because I think I deserve it.

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I have so much more to share from this conference. Hopefully I will process it and get a chance to blog more.

I also just realized you can hear the message from Sproul here: http://www.sbts.edu/MP3/gheens/20060426sproul.mp3

What is God's Will for My Life?

2006-04-14T23:16:00.000-04:00

In my reading today, I came across a great quote by McManus about "the search to know Gods will for our lives". Enjoy:

"The problem is not that we don't know what to do, but that we don't do what
we know... The key to the future is not revelation, but obiedience. When we
submit our lives to what God has made known, the future becomes clearer to us.
When we neglect to do what we know, we begin to live as if we were walking
through a fog. If we are not careful, we will find ourselves condemning God for
being silent, when in fact we have condemned ourselves for refusing to
listen."

I find this quite true in Christian circles that people are looking all around for the will of God for their lives. If we just followed what we know without worrying about what we don't, God could use us so much more. But we over-analyze and before we know it, many oppourtunities are passing us by while we are waiting for them to come to us on a silver platter.

Does Absolute Power Corrupt Absolutely?

2006-04-12T23:31:00.000-04:00

I have heard it said many times that "absolute power corrupts absolutely". For a long time I have bought into it, believing it to be true. It seems that in many situations that a seemingly good person gets to a position of authority, and then all of a sudden, they turn into a bad guy.

Tonight I was reading "Uprising - A Revolution of the Soul" and McManus (the author) made a good point. He said that absolute power reveals absolutely. A person who seemed to be good, but then got power did not all of a sudden turn into a bad guy, he all of a sudden had the power to do whatever seems best to him. It is more an insight into human depravity that so often when people come to power they become jerks.

But now look at God. He is the only one with true absolute power. And what does He do with it? He serves, and He is good.

So in humanity 'absolute' power shows us to be corrupt, while in God it shows Him to be good.

So to answer the question the title of this post asks... No, absolute power does not corrupt, it reveals.

Sometimes I just Don't Know Why I Love Them so Much...

2006-04-12T11:36:00.000-04:00

Like many Maple Leafs fans these days, I am at a loss for what to think. In their last 8 games they have got 14 out of a possible 16 points. They are one of the hottest teams in the league. Yet because of shoddy play during Jan-begining of March, they are out of the playoff picture.

Herein lies the issue. If they do not make the playoffs, have they at least proved that the core of this team should stick together next year, since they have shown they can win? Or is it too late for that, and it is time to just blow the team apart and start from scratch?

With the Maple Leafs, I am ever the optomist, predicting for years now that this is the year they will win the cup. So in line with the optimistic thinking, I say, lets keep the major components of this team together, and grab a handful of free agents, most of all, a legitamate number 1 goalie, ranging in age from 25-34. Is this too much to ask?

And one last tidbit, I definatly think that as long as they test his wrist and it is all good, they should bring back Lindros. During those games in October when Sundin was out, he was our best player on many nights. Bring back Lindros!

Oh yah, and here's to Mats Sundin, who last night took the team by the scruff of its neck and said we are not losing this game, and scored four goals and 2 assists for a 6 point night.

GO LEAFS GO!

God is Good

2006-04-11T17:59:00.000-04:00

Well, well, well... its been a while.

I have so much going on right now. So much to be thankful for. I will start with being at 100% of support. It has been a while in the coming. I am thankful for all the people who we have met with and who have decided to partner with us in our ministry. As I look over the names on our list of supporters I am humbled and greatful to God for his goodness. God has privided.

I am also very thankful that there will be a Stint to Tanzania this year. I am so pleased that there will be a team of men and women who will spend a year of their life pouring into the ministry at the University of Dar es Salaam. In many ways I am sad that I won't be going with them. I have such a heart for that country. But I know that in God's Providence that it is for the best. For one, it will give Vanessa and I another year to develop as leaders on campus here in Canada. In many ways I am still just begining to hit my stride as far as being an effective staff member with Campus Crusade. Secondly, it will mean that since Vanessa and I are still commiting to going Aug/Sept 2007, there will be a team to follow up the team that is going this year. There will be at least 2 solid years of building a movement there. God has a plan for Tanzania and He cares far more for the people there than I do. I will let Him make the decisions.

Well, that is where I am at. Sorry it has been a while, but hopefully this will get me back into the swing of things.

MacArthur on Self Discipline

2006-03-01T23:48:00.000-05:00

Today I read an article (sermon manuscript I believe) on Self Discipline by John MacArthur. It was fairly long, but the more I read and hear MacArthur, the more I enjoy him. It isn't because he is cool, or hip, or parachutes to the pulpit, or does cool videos, but simply because he knows the Word of God, and preaches it, unabashedly. This is what I want for my own life.

I won't get into the practical advice, because you can get that anywhere. The real things that hit me were the Biblical reasons for self discipline. There are three main principles that make-up the foundation of a biblical view of self discipline.

1. Remember who owns you. You are not in charge of you. In fact, not only are you not in charge of you, but you are a slave. You are a bondservant and slave of Christ. "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body." (1 Cor 6:19-20) This is where we need to start. MacArthur goes on to say, "I'm convinced that until to understand that you don't own you, that somebody else has complete mastery and right over your life, you will not have the motivation to be a self-disciplined person."

2. Remember the covenant of your salvation. When you were saved, it wasn't just a one-sided thing. You asked Christ to come into your life and cleanse you from your sins, and become LORD and saviour of your life. Too often we fall in love with Jesus as our saviour... We sin and he saves... Which is true, but that is only part. We committed to living for Christ and dying to self. I don't believe that Jesus is your saviour if he isn't your Lord.

3. Obedience is part of faith. When Christ called to you, "repent and believe" you obeyed. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Eph 2:10). We were created for good works. This means to obey. Faith without works is dead. MacArthur says, "If there aren't any of those good works, if there's no obedience, then there's no true saving faith".

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This really challenged me as I am naturally very undisciplined. But face it Jamie... you are not in charge. You have been bought by Christ's blood. I need to preach to myself a lot!

Mothers Sues Over Unsuccessful Abortion

2006-02-24T02:04:00.000-05:00

I was reading Justin Taylor's blog today, and came across a post that made me sick in my stomach. A mother is suing because she attepted to abort her twins, but one of them lived, so she wants compensation for having to raise the daughter that wasn't murdered:

This has to be one of the saddest stories I've read in a while. The BBC reports that a woman in Scotland sought to abort her twins. Unbeknownst to the mother or to the doctors, one of the babies survied the attempted murder. So now the mother is suing the hospital for compensation, seeking damages for the "financial burden" or raising the child.

"I have got a child now that I wasn't planning to have and I believe the hospital should take some responsibility for that," she said.

"They should have known, or at least warned me, that I might still be pregnant when I left. It has totally changed my life and my parents' lives.
(My emphasis.)

"I still don't know if, or what, I am going to tell Jayde when the time
comes. Maybe when she is nine or 10 I will sit her down and explain it to
her."
Try to imagine that conversation. Then weep at the depravity. Then realize
that we would act in such a murderous, self-centered way but for the grace of
God. May we cling to the cross, and cry out to God for both mercy and justice.
Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

This story is so sad on so many levels. Abortion is so wrong, and an article like this just shows that the problem is selfishness, and not taking responsibility for one's actions. It is more convenient to murder the unborn child than to raise him/her. I pray that one day soon our society would see the evil of abortion and end it, in the same way we saw the evils of slavery in years past and ended it.

From "Good to Great" to "Built to Last"

2006-02-24T00:30:00.000-05:00

This is the final chapter of Good to Great. It is about taking a company that is great to the stage where it will continue to be great. The author of Good to Great, Jim Collins actually co-wrote a called Built to Last based on this concept. It was actually written before Good to Great. Good to Great, he says, is more of a prequel to Built to Last.

This chapter I suppose then is a summary of the concepts in Built to Last.

Enduring Comapanies don't merely exist to make money. In truly great companies, profits and cash flow become like blood and water to a healthy body: They are absolutely essential for life, but they are not the very point of life.
Enduring companies have core values that drive what they do. They preserve this core values while endlessly adapting their strategies to a changing world. Strategies change, values remain.
Enduring companies set BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) in front of themselves that fit within the Hedgehog concept. Like the 1960's NASA moon mission, a BHAG captures the imaginationa and grabs people in the gut.
To remain great over time requires, on one hand, staying squarely within the three circles while, on the other hand, being willing to change the specific manifestation if what's inside the three circles at any given moment.
Greatness doesn't necessarily mean more work; it means more work doing the right things.

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I may read Built to Last sometime down the road as I have enjoyed reading Good to Great. Who would have known that I would enjoy a business book? I did though, and found that I could apply many of the concepts from the business world to my own life, and my ministry. Between this book and 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I have read 2 books that I would have never thought that I would enjoy, but have. Its good to read widely, I am learning.... but as long as it doesnt come at the expense of the other theology type books!

The Flywheel and the Doom Loop

2006-02-23T23:59:00.000-05:00

This is the second last chapter in the book, Good to Great, and it was actually one of my favourites. I enjoyed the concept. The concept being:

Good-to-great (g2g) transformations often look dramatic, revolutionary events to those observing from the outside, but they feel like organic, cumulative processes to people on the inside.
No matter how dramatic the end result, the g2g transformations never happened in one fell swoop. There was no single defining action, no grand program, no one killer innovation, no solitary lucky break, not miracle moment.
Sustainable transformations follow a predictable pattern of build-up and breakthrough. Like pushing on a giant, heavy flywheel, it takes a lot of effort to get the thing moving at all, but with persistent pushing in a consistent direction over a long period of time, the flywheel builds momentum, eventually hitting a point of breakthrough.
The comparison companies tried to create a breakthrough, instead of slowly generating momentum. They lurched back and forth, failing to maintain a consistent direction. This was the Doom Loop.
Those inside the g2g companies were often unaware of the magnitude of their transformation at the time. Only later, in retrospect did it become clear. They had no name, tag line, launch event, or program to signify what they were doing at the time.

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I learned from this chapter to just keep going in doing the right things, instead of being worried about creating some sort of quick program to become great. Just keep pushing on the flywheel and let its momentum build up!

Technology Accelerators

2006-02-17T15:03:00.000-05:00

Another chapter down in Good to Great, this one called "Technology Accelerators". Here are the main points:

Good-to-great (g2g) companies think differently about technology than do mediocre companies.
G2g companies avoid technology fads and bandwagons, but are pioneers in carefully selected technologies.
The key question is whether or not a specific technology fits into your Hedgehog Concept. If yes, then you need to be a pioneer in it; if not, then you can settle for parity or avoid it altogether.
G2g companies use technology as an accelerator of momentum, not a creator of it.
G2g companies react to technology change with thoughfulness and creativity, driven to turn unrealized potential into results. Mediocre companies react, motivated by fear of being left behind.

A Culture of Discipline

2006-02-16T22:24:00.000-05:00

Today I read the chapter in Good to Great titled "A Culture of Discipline". Here are some of the main ideas:

-Sustained great results depend upon building a culture full of self disciplined people who take disciplined action, fanatically consistent with the three circles.

-A culture of discipline involves duality. On the one hand, it requires people to adhere to a consistent system; yet, on the other hand, it gives people the freedom and responsibility to do their job within the larger framework

-The most important form of discipline for sustained results is fanatical adherence to the Hedgehog concept and the willingness to shun opportunities that fall outside the three circles.

-The fact that something is a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" is irrelevant, unless it fits within the three circles.

-The purpose of budgeting in a good-to-great is not to decide how much money each activity gets, but to decide which activities best fit within the Hedgehog Concept and should be fully funded and which should not be funded at all.

-"Stop doing" lists are more important than "to do" lists

The Hedgehog Concept

2006-02-15T22:05:00.000-05:00

This concept was one that I had heard of before reading this book. Our staff team in McGuelpherLoo was interested in implementing it to our ministry. So I will now explain what it is:
The Hedgehog Concept is a simple concept that flows from the deep understanding about the intersection of the following three circles...
1. What you can be the best in the world at (and what you cannot be the best at.)
2. What drives your economic engine,
3. What you are deeply passionate about.
The reason it is called the Hedgehog concept is because of a trait that a hedgehog has. Everytime the hedgehog is attacked by a predator, it just rolls up into a little ball, and it is completely covered with spikes so that nothing can harm it. It doesn't try to learn new ways to protect itself; it doesn't need to. It has an effective way to protect itself and it sticks to it.

For ministry, the economic engine circle does not really apply. We would look at the concept in as far as the other 2 circles. For Campus Crusade for Christ, we find that our Hedgehog concept is Spiritual Multiplication. For those out there that don't know what that is, you will have to ask me later, or else I will head off in a huge tangent!

All in all, I think this is an effective tool for thinking about what your focus should be. I think it applies to not only companies, but ministries, and also individuals. Think about what you are passionate about, and what you can do really well, and do that! It seems simplistic, but in order to enjoy work and be effective over the long haul, it would seem to me that these 2 criterion are necessary.

Confront the Brutal Facts (Yet Never Lose Faith)

2006-02-07T23:28:00.000-05:00

I read another chapter of Good to Great today. It was a good one, and by chance (who am I kidding, I don't believe in chance) one of my fellow CCC staff referred to this principle in a conversation we had today.

Here are some key points from the chapter:

All good-to-great (g2g) companies began their process to greatness by confronting the brutal facts about their current reality.

When you make the effort of confronting the brutal facts, the right decisions often become self-evident

g2g companies create environments where people have the opportunity to be heard, and so by default, the truth is heard

Creating a climate where the truth is heard involves four basic principles:

Lead with questions, not answers
Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion
Conduct autopsies (analyze a situation), without blame
Build red flag mechanisms that turn information into information that cannot be ignored (allow people to bring up shortcomings before they leave because the situation hasn't been addressed)

G2g companies faced adversity, but they faced it head on, and then emerged from the adversity stronger

The Stockdale Paradox: Retain absolute faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, AND at the same time confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.

Charisma can be a liability as well as an asset in leadership, as your personality can deter people from bringing you the brutal facts.

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An interesting chapter... The key point from this seems to be the Stockdale Paradox. Being able to hold both faith and brutal facts at the same time. Sounds like a spiritual lesson as much, if not more than a business one.

A Biblical Call to Pursuing Godly Wisdom

2006-02-06T00:12:00.000-05:00

I got back to reading When I Don't Desire God by John Piper today, after feeling the urge to read some good book after reading a post by Albert Mohler, who is the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (with such famous students as Uche Anizor, Chris Shipley, and the recently graduated Arvind Balaram). His post was basically responses to questions about reading. It is a great post, and if you want to read it click here.

Anyways, I found this chapter I read today very helpful. It was practical advice about "How to Wield the Word in the Fight for Joy". I was struck by many things, but this stood out as something that needs to be trumpeted to our generation:

I have the profound sense that many people who complain of not being able to
rejoice in God treat the knowledge of God as something that ought to be easy to
get. They are passive. They expect spiritual things to happen to them from out
of nowhere. They don’t grasp the pattern of the Bible expressed in Proverbs
2:1-6:

"If you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with
you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to
understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for
understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden
treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge
of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and
understanding."

Look at all those aggressive words: “receive . . . treasure up . . . make your ear attentive . . . incline your heart . . . call out . . . raise your voice . . . seek . . . search”—if you do these, then knowledge of God will be yours. Not because you can make it happen. The giving of the knowledge is still in the hands of God: “For the LORD gives wisdom.” No, the pursuit of the knowledge of God is not because you can make it happen, but because God freely chooses to bless seeking with finding. The pattern is seen in 2 Timothy 2:7 where Paul says, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” You think. The Lord gives. Our thinking does
not replace his giving. And his giving does not replace our thinking.

I think we have a tendancy to be passive in our pursuit of God. We are used to being spoon-fed spiritual truths at church in Sunday, through a well packaged sermon (or maybe even a video...). But this passage from Proverbs states that we need to "seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasures". If our only pursuit of the knowledge of God comes from a sermon on Sunday, and maybe the odd scripture reading and a 5 minute devotional, then we have failed the scriptural call to pursuing Godly wisdom. I count myself as an offender.

I hope that I can turn the corner in my own walk. One of the ways I want to do this is by memorizing Scripture. I will begin by doing a verse a day until I have memorized Romans 8. I hope that through this I can see and love and worship God in fresh and life changing ways, as well as be an encourgement to others to "lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely" and pursue Christ with all we have!

First Who...Then What

2006-02-01T22:03:00.000-05:00

I finally got back to reading Good to Great. Today I read chapter 2 - First Who... Then What. I won't give a chapter summary as much as I will report what I think can be applied in my life.

Good to Great (g2g) leaders began the transformation by first getting the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figured out where to drive it. The key point is not necessarily to just get the right people, but to ask the 'who' questions before the 'what' questions.

The comparison companies often used the "genius with a thousand helpers' model - getting one person to come up with the ideas and enlist capable helpers to make the ideas happen. As soon as the genius leaves, however, the model fails.

The g2g leaders were rigorous, not ruthless. They made tough decisions when needed in order to help the company and the individual, not just for the sake of a shake-up.

When in doubt, don't hire - keep looking.
Only grow as big as you have capable people to lead the growing number of employees.
When you need to make a people change, do it!
Before firing, make sure the employee isn't just failing because they are in the wrong job.
Put your best people in the biggest opportunities, not your biggest problems.

G2G management teams consist of people who debate vigorously in search of the best answers, yet unify behind decisions.

Compensation/rewards should not be used to motivate good things from the wrong people, but rather to get and keep the right people.

People are not your greatest asset. The right people are.

Whether or not someone is the "right person" depends more on their character than their skills or knowledge.

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I was struggling internally reading some of it, thinking about whether Christ would have looked at it this way. I think things like looking for character over skill is something Jesus would agree with. I also think that choosing the right people is generally a good concept. Jesus selected the 12 disciples out of many others who He didn't choose. We just have to watch our motives. I think that as a Christian leader I have to be concerned with the development of the person as much as if not more than picking the right person to do the job best. It is interesting that in the Discipleship group I lead a Guelph we are reading "The Masterplan of Evangelism", and just looked at the chapter on selection on the same day I read this chapter from "Good to Great".
Interesting...

Rob Bell - Hip Dude with Cool Videos But Be Wary!

2006-01-26T16:53:00.000-05:00

Today I came as I was checking out a blog I frequent, I came accross a book review of Velvit Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell. I was quite interested to see what it said because I had seen one of Rob Bell's videos and saw his book in a store. For those of you who do't know Rob Bell, he is a the kind of guy who puts the 'hip' in discipleship. He's got the bleached blond hair, the post-modern coffee house intellectual glasses, etc.

Anyways, the book review brought up 5 problems with Bell's writing. All 5 being in conflict with what the Bible says.

1. His View of the Bible as metaphor
2. His Understanding of the Christian Faith
3. His View the Nature of Sin
4. His View of God’s Faith in Man
5. His view of the Nature of the Atonement

The most scary was Bell's view of God's faith in man. Here is is a quote from the book review with the Bell's words in italics:

The self-ward bent of Bell’s teaching continues when he speaks of God’s
faith in man. Bell adopts his self-professed rabbi Ray VanderLaan’s teaching
that Jesus chose his disciples just like every other rabbi of his day - because
he believed in their innate abilities. In one of the most painful parts of the
book, Bell reminds us of the story found in Matthew 14:22ff. where Peter rushed
out of the boat to meet Jesus walking on the water. Peter began to sink and
Jesus rebuked him for his lack of faith.

“Who does Peter lose faith in? Not Jesus; he is doing fine. Peter loses
faith in himself. Peter loses faith that he can do what his rabbi is doing. If
the rabbi calls you to be his disciple, then he believes that you can actually
be like him. As we read the stories of Jesus’ life with his talmidim, his
disciples, what do we find frustrates him to no end? When his disciples lose
faith in themselves.....Notice how many places in the accounts of Jesus life he
gets frustrated with his disciples. Because they are incapable? No, because of
how capable they are. He see what they could be and could do, and when they fall
short if provokes him to know end. It isn’t their failure that’s the problem,
it’s their greatness. They don’t realize what they are capable of....God has an
amazingly high view of people. God believes that people are capable of amazing
things. I’ve been told I need to believe in Jesus. Which is a good thing. But
what I’m learning is that Jesus believes in me....God has faith in me.”

In fact, according to Bell, God has such great faith in the abilities
of men that Jesus “left the future of the movement (the church) in their hands.
And he doesn’t stick around to make sure they don’t screw it up. He’s gone. He
trusts that they can actually do it.” This is a shocking reinterpretation of the
Christian faith. When the gospel becomes the message of God coming to earth and
dying on a cross to help men believe how great they really are--something is
horribly amiss. This has the stench of blasphemy.

I completely agree that this has the stench of blasphemy. According to the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 1:26:

Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise
by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But
God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak
things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world
and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that
are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in
Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God that is, our righteousness,
holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast
in the Lord."

With all this in mind it must be said that when I first saw the video with him, I enjoyed it. I think it had a great message. I guess this just shows that we need to be careful. Just because a guy has a cool video or two doesn't mean that we should listent to his every word.

Another thing that came to mind was that because the video I saw was cool and hip and had emotional music, it had more effect on my emotions as opposed to my head knowledge. For instance, if a 60 year old preacher in a suit on Sunday morning gave the same message, it would not have had the same impact. Maybe guys like John Piper and D.A. Carson should give their sermons with cool music and just casually talking while walking towards the camera and more people in the post-modern mindset would appreciate it. I guess this goes to show that the medium has a large effect on the message.

If this has interested you I encourage you to read the whole review, which is linked at the top of this post.

Level 5 Leadership

2006-01-12T16:51:00.000-05:00

"You can accomplish anything in life, provided you do not mind who takes the credit" Harry Truman

As I read the chapter, I was underlining key points, and was ready to summarize it all for this entry when I found that the author had a chapter summary at the end. I figure that the author can summarize his point better than I can, so I am just re-writing some of his key points. I think they get the general message of what I learned from this chapter. The only thing you miss is the many examples of where these points were actually found.

Another quick key point is that "Level 5 Leadership" is a term the research team came up with after analyzing the 11 CEO's, as oppose to a fixed ideology that they are applying to these leaders. These are the things that stood out in the good-to-great CEO's from the comparison CEO's (CEO's from companies that were in the same industry and time as the good-to-great companies).

Here are the findings:

Every good-to-great company had Level 5 leadership during the pivotal transition years. "Level 5" refers to a 5-level hierarchy of executive capabilities, with Level 5 at the top.
Level 5 leaders embody a paradoxical mix of personal humility and professional will. They are ambitious, to be sure, but ambitious first and foremost for the company, not themselves.
Level 5 leaders set up their successors for even greater success in the next generation, while egocentric Level 4 leaders often set up their successors for failure.
Level 5 leaders display a compelling modesty, and are understated in value. In contrast, two-thirds of comparison companies had leaders with large personal egos that contributed to the companies demise or continued mediocrity.
Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable desire to achieve results. They are resolved to do whatever it takes to make the company great, no matter how big or how hard the decision.
Level 5 leaders display a workmanlike diligence. They are "more like a work horse than a show horse.
Level 5 leaders look out the window to attribute success to factors other than themselves. When things go poorly, however, they look in the mirror, and blame themselves, taking full responsibility. The comparison CEO's often did just the opposite - they looked in the mirror to take credit, while looking out the window to assign blame for disappointing results.

I like a lot of the qualities mentioned here. The only one that I am cautious of is the "doing whatever it takes to make the company great". I guess I just need to watch out for being pragmatic, letting the end justify the means. As a Christian leader I need to make sure that all steps along the way are honouring to God. I don't think what the author was talking about contradicts this, but it is just something to watch out for.

Moving from "7 Habits" to "Good to Great"

2006-01-05T14:10:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned when I began blogging about the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I was asked to read 4 books on leadership by CCC, in order to develop in that area. I just finished reading 7 Habits and so now I am moving onto a book called Good to Great by Jim Collins. The subititle of this book is, "Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't"

The general theme of this books seems to be contained in the opening lines:

Good is the enemy of Great. And that is one of the main reasons why we have so
little that becomes great. We don't have great schools, principally because we
have good schools. We don't have great government, principally because we have
good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is
so easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority of
companies never become great, precisely because the vast
majority become quite good - and that is their main problem.

The first chapter outlines the process the author took in making this book. He wanted to study various companies that became great, and how that happened in order to squeeze out some principles that could be applied elsewhere. He ended up finding 11 companies, that after 15 years of being good, made a jump to become great, and then have lasted at least 15 years being great. He also found 11 other companies for direct comparison, meaning that they are in the same field of business as the corresponding good to great company, and had similar resources, etc, but never made the jump to great. He also found 6 unsustained good to great comapanies, which after a year or two of greatness, fizzled back down to being good.

The goal of reading this book for myself is to find and apply some of these principles that the author finds, in order to become greater in ministry, as well as life in general. Again, as with the 7 Habits, I hope to blog about some of the key things I am reading. I know what you are saying... Boring... but what can I say...It'll help me remeber what I am learning, and if I am just reading without applying, then I am not taking heed to the words of James 1:22-25:

22But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who
looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24For he looks at himself
and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25But the one who looks
into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer
who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing

I know the author is refering to the law, but I think there is definatly an applicable principle here for us all.

Anyways, I will leave it at that, here comes "Good to Great"!

Ramsey Clark, What are you doing with your life?

2006-01-05T01:23:00.000-05:00

As most of you know, Saddam Hussein is on trial for various things including war crimes. What you may not know, however, is that the person representing him is a man named Ramsey Clark. Ramsey Clark is a former U.S. Attourney-General under the Democratic Lyndon Johnson Government.

Now if you are thinking, how did this poor guy get stuck representing Saddam Hussein, think again. This guy wanted this case, and actually makes a living of representing people such as Saddam. A few years ago, he represented war criminal Slobadan Milosevic, former president of Yugoslavia who was responsible for the ethnic cleansing of many Albanians. Prior to that, Mr. Clark represented Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, a leader in the Rwandan Genocide. In addition to these people, he also has represented lesser known war criminals, as well as some involved in the Nazi concentration camps.

I am not completely sure why Mr. Clark wants to represent these types of people. I know that he is anti-Bush, anti-war in Iraq, etc, but I don't think that would be enough reason. But I do think that there might be something wrong with him. This guy went as far as even claiming that some of the killings Saddam ordered were justified. This is from an online encyclopedia: "Clark claimed that the massacre of 148 Iraqi Shi'ite men and boys in 1982 during the Iraq-Iran War was justified, as: "He [Saddam] had this huge war going on, and you have to act firmly when you have an assassination attempt".

My thoughts are... what are you doing with your life? I mean, what sort of pleasure can you get from defending, and giving council to these sorts of people. This doesn't mean that I think they aren't entitled to recieve legal council, but you think that it should be hard to find people who would even want to represent these sorts of humans, let alone one person who wants to represent them all.

Going through life with Christ

2006-01-03T22:53:00.000-05:00

One of the cool things about being a Christian is that you can begin the day knowing that God created the Universe. After that, everything else just falls into perspective. I mean, as a Christian I believe that God loves me, and has a plan for my life, including the small details.

I can’t imagine waking up believing that the world came from a big bang or random molecules coming together to form this universe. I mean, the reason I know that the sun will rise tomorrow is that God made it to do so. The sun rose yesterday, it rose today, and I am certain that it will rise tomorrow. Now if the world came from random chance, then why is the world so ordered? I don’t mean that we will always feel like or lives are in order, but that there are many examples (including the sun rising every day) that show that this universe couldn’t have came from random chance, but instead intelligent design.

Also, if the universe did happen to come into existence by some random chance, then what is the purpose of life? As humans, we are just accidents that just happened to be smarter than all the other living creatures? We hope to live until 70 and then die, and then what? One person said it like this: “If there is no God, than life is as meaningful as arranging furniture on the sinking Titanic”. I mean, it might be nice to fluff the pillows, but this ship is going down!

Or what value does it give to our day-to-day lives? We go to work for 8 hours a day, working for a company so that the CEO gets big bucks, go home, watch TV or go on MSN, go to sleep, and then go back to work. That doesn’t sound so good to me.

But getting back to waking up and knowing that God exists created the universe, and loves me makes all the difference. I know God created me to have a relationship with Him, and that I can make a difference in this world by introducing other people to this God, and then when I die, I get to spend eternity with Him. Knowing these truths makes the little things in life that bother so many people, fade away and seem insignificant in view of His glory.

Just think, this is how God looks at the earth...

How hard can it be for him to manage my problems? God is good.

Habit 7 - Sharpening the Saw

2006-01-03T19:54:00.000-05:00

Habit 7 is taking time to sharpen the saw. We can labour for hours trying to cut down a tree, but if we take 5 minutes to sharpen the saw we can do it in minutes. Sharpening the saw is investing time into the greatest asset you have – you. It is renewing the 4 dimensions of your nature – physical, spiritual, mental, and social/emotional.

The Physical Dimension

This involves taking care of our physical bodies – eating healthy, exercising, and getting enough sleep. Most of us think that we don’t have time to exercise. But if we think about it, 3-6 hours of our week out of 168 in a week is a worthwhile investment, especially if we consider the tremendous benefits we would gain in the rest of our 162-165 hours of the week. A good exercise program doesn’t have to be with a gym, but should allow us to grow in three areas: endurance, flexibility, and strength.

One of the greatest benefits we will get from exercising is the experience of developing habit 1 – Proactivity. Many times we won’t feel like exercising, but if we can overcome that by looking at the benefits of exercising, and follow through in doing it rather than wimping out, we will see ourselves grow.

The Spiritual Dimension

This dimension involves who you are deep down, and renewing that centre in order to keep focused on what is most important. Spiritual renewal involves an investment of time, and it is a quadrant 2 activity that is important, but rarely gets done because it is not urgent. Martin Luther said, “I have much to do today, so I need to spend an extra hour on my knees”.

The Mental Dimension

Most of our mental development comes from our schooling. But once we graduate, does that mean we are done learning? It shouldn’t. Proactive people find ways in order to develop in this manner, whether they are in a class taking a course or not.

One great way to continue growing in this dimension is to read. You can go into the minds of the smartest and brightest in all of history. The person who doesn’t read is no better off than the person who can’t read.

Another way is to write. Journaling or blogging is a good way of keeping track of what life is teaching you. Also, writing letters or emails to people that go beyond the shallow and into the deep allows us to grow and learn from others.

The Social/Emotional Dimension

This dimension focuses on habits 4-6 and dealing with others. In order to be effective in this avenue, we must be in line with our principles so that we can be free to let others see into us. When this happens, we are able to be open, which in turn allows others to be open, and we can all be more effective.

We can also help others by seeing their potential, even if they are not currently meeting it. We can help them in becoming proactive. When this happens both you and they can get more done.

In all these 4 area we need to practice balance. Ignoring one area hinders the others.

The Upward Spiral

Renewal is the principle that empowers us to move on an upward spiral of growth and change, of continuous improvement. Moving in an upward spiral requires us to learn, commit, and do on increasingly higher planes. If we are learning a lot, but not committing to it and applying it, we are fooling ourselves if we think we are becoming more effective.

Habit 6 - Synergize

2005-12-22T16:20:00.000-05:00

The exercise of all the other habits prepares us for the habit of synergy. Simply defined, synergy means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The essence of synergy is to value differences - to respect them, to build on strengths, and to compensate for weaknesses.

Many people have not really experienced even a moderate degree of synergy. They have been trained to fight for themselves, and be defensive and protective in communication and interaction.

Synergy is effective because it gets the most out of everyone, instead of one or two people leading, with the others feeling like their opinions haven't really been considered. A good attitude to have when thinking of synergy is this: If a person you are dealing with disagrees with you, then there must be something they see that you do not, and you should seek to understand what they are thinking. They have a perspective, a frame of reference that you need to look at.

Negative Synergy

When we run into negative synergy, we see things like politicking, back-stabbing, rivalry, second guessing, etc. It is like trying to drive down the road with one foot on the gas, and one on the break. And then as we continue and try to move forward, we try and give it more gas before we slow down and consider taking off the brake.

Levels of Communication

There are 3 basic levels of communication:

The lowest form of communication comes from low-trust, low cooperation atmospheres. When the situation is like this, the general result is people being defensive, and the end result is a Win/Lose or Lose/Win situation. A few people get their way, most don't, and everyone walks out frustrated.

The middle form of communication is respectful communication. People are fairly mature and will listen to each other's ideas. They communicate politely, but not empathically. This usually ends in people not really understanding where each other are coming from, and a compromise is met. No one walks away fully happy, but something was accomplished, just not the best.

The third level is where we meet synergy. The synerginistic position of high trust produces better solutions than originally proposed. The high cooperation allows people to give an idea, and allow it to be constructively critiqued, so that every has a say, and the end result is mutually agreeable and better than the original.

An important part of synergy is valuing the differences. This means we understand that all people see the world, but from a different perspective. This is where people see their own limitations and shortcomings, and values what others have to say in those areas. When you become aware that someone sees something differently, you say, "Good! Help me see it how you see it!"

We need to understand that life is not always a dichotomous either/or, but there are always third alternatives.

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As always, I cannot include each and every example and illustration the author uses. It seems to me though that the best way to learn about synergy is not to read about it, but to experience it.

Habit 5 - Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood

2005-12-21T21:45:00.000-05:00

Seek First to Understand

Imagine going to get your eyes checked. The optometrist after briefly listening to you takes off his glasses and says, "Here try mine on. They have helped me." You try them on and they just make things worse. He says, "Well there is something wrong with you then because these glasses have helped me for years".

After this experience, you probably wouldn't go back to this optometrist. You wouldn't have much confidence in someone who prescribes before he diagnoses. But in communication, how often do we take time to diagnose before we prescribe?

The author begins this chapter by saying that the single most important principle he has learned in interpersonal relations is to seek first to understand, then to be understood. Typically, most people do not listen with the intent to understand, they listen with the intent to respond. While the other person is talking, they are thinking about how they will respond even before the person is finished speaking.

The highest form of listening is called "empathic listening". This is listening with the intent to understand. With this form of listening, you seek to put yourself in the other person's shoes, so that you can understand why they are saying what they are saying. This does not mean that you have to agree with what they are saying. But you want to understand as best you can what they are saying.

Communications experts suggest that only 10% of communication is expressed in words. 30% is our sounds, or how we say it, and 60% is body language. With empathic listening, you listen not only with your ears, but also with your eyes.

Empathic listening is important because it gives you accurate data to work with. Instead of projecting your own autobiography on the person, you are dealing with the reality of what is in that persons head.

Empathic listening is also risky. You need to be secure in yourself to listen well, because you open yourself up to be influenced. It is a paradox in a way, because in order to have influence, you have to be influenced.

Generally, when we listen, we tend to respond in one of 4 ways:

We evaluate - We either agree or disagree
We probe - we ask questions from our own frame of reference
We advise - we give council based on our own experience
We interpret - we try to figure people out, to explain their motives, their behavior, based on our own motives or behavior.

There are four developmental stages in empathic listening:

1. Mimick content:

Son: "Dad, I've had it, school is for the birds!"

Dad: "You've had it, school is for the birds"

2. Rephrase the content:

Son: "Dad, I've had it, school is for the birds!"

Dad: You don't want to go to school anymore"

3. Reflect Feeling:

Son: "Dad, I've had it, school is for the birds!"

Dad: "You're feeling very frustrated"

4. Rephrase the Content and Reflect Feeling:

Son: "Dad, I've had it, school is for the birds!"

Dad: You're feeling very frustrated about school.

When you do it this way, you show you are listening by repeating what the other person said, while allowing them to correct you if they feel you have not heard right. This may not even be your fault most of the time, but the speaker is just refining even what they are trying to say in order to communicate best what they are trying to get across.

Seek to be Understood

Now as you move to seeking to be understood, it is important to present your ideas clearly, specifically, and most important, contextually - in the context of a deep understanding or their paradigms and concerns. When you do this, you significantly increase the credibility of your ideas.

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This chapter has actually been the hardest to summarize. I have left out so much that helps round out all that I have already written. One of the biggest things I have left out is a huge part of the Son and Dad dialogue, which shows how we would usually respond, and the author critiques it as it goes on. It is really helpful to see how we usually respond in order to fully show how we should respond. When the dad responded with evaluate, probe, advise, interpret, the son shut down and didn't share what he really wanted to. But when the father responded by rephrasing the content and reflecting the feelings, the son eventually shared how his teacher told him that although he is in grade 10, he is reading at a grade 4 level. It really showed the difference using this principle could have if used. So in some ways you need to read the whole chapter to get the full effect, but in other ways, you could just look at the title, "Seek first to understand, then to be understood", and that tells you all you need to know.

God's Plan in The Horse and His Boy

2005-12-21T09:55:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I finished reading the 3rd book (chronologically) in the Narnia Series called, The Horse and His Boy. At first it was hard for me to get into as much as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, or even The Magician's Nephew. I think that is because when I read The Magician's Nephew I knew that the story was important as to the creation of Narnia, as well as learning about where the wardrobe gets its power, etc. And then of course with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe it was interesting because of the recent release of the movie, and that it is just such a famous story. So then when I arrived at The Magician's Nephew there was no hype or anything. As the story went on though I began to enjoy it more and more, and in the end found the book fun and entertaining.

One of my favourite parts of the book was when Shasta finally met Aslan. He was just nearing the end of a long journey to inform the Narnians about the coming attack of the Prince Rabadash from Calormen. Shasta was tired and hungry when Aslan met him. Shasta first feared for his life in Aslan's presence because he had never heard of Aslan, and that he was good. Soon Shasta learned that through many of the difficulties of his journey Aslan had been there, and even in some cases, Aslan had caused the difficulties. The book goes on to record Aslan saying:

"I was the Lion." And as Shasta gaped with open mouth and said nothing, The
Voice continued. "I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the
cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the
jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the Horses the new
strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time.
And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a
child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight,
to receive you"

Shasta learned that through the events of his life, Aslan had been there. He also learns that although at the time, some of the things Aslan did seemed bad, in the end they worked out for Shasta's good.

The obvious picture C.S. Lewis is portraying is that through all the events of our life, God is working through them. Sometimes we don't understand why He is doing the things He is doing, but it doesn't mean that in the end they won't work out for our good. Romans 8:28 says:

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose."

This verse gives me perspective for life to know that when things are difficult, there is a purpose and plan for it all, even if I cannot see it at the time.

Habit 4 - Think Win/Win

2005-12-15T17:11:00.000-05:00

The first thing we learn from this chapter is that there are 6 paradigms of human interaction:

Win/Win
Win/Lose
Lose/Win
Lose/Lose
Win
Win/Win or No Deal

Win/Win

Win/Win is the frame of mind that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all interactions. With a Win/win solution, both parties feel good about the decision and committed to the plan. Win/Win is based on the paradigm that there is plenty for everybody, and that one's success does not depend on another's failure.

Win/Lose

Win/Lose is based on the fact that for me to win, others must lose or be less than me. Most people have been deeply scripted in this mentality. We think that our parents love us more or less than our siblings based on what we do. It is not who were are that shows value, but what we do.

Lose/Win

"I lose, you win", "Go ahead, have your way with me", "Step on me again, everybody else does", "I'm a peacemaker. I'll do anything to keep the peace." People who think Lose/Win are quick to please and often get stepped on. They are intimidated by Win/Lose people and let others have their way in order to be excepted. Both Win/Lose and Lose/Win are weak positions, based in personal insecurities.

Lose/Lose

When 2 Win/Lose people get together, the most common result is Lose/Lose. When one wins, the other wants to get back at them, and it generally spirals downward until both lose. Someone who cares more about hurting someone else than their own good ends up in a Lose/Lose situation. They may cause damage to the other person, but they have lost something in the process.

Win

A person who doesn't care about what happens to others, but seeks the best for themselves. Generally in the context of no competition.

Win/Win or No Deal

Higher than Win/Win, Win/Win or No Deal means that if we can't find a solution that benefits us both we will not force a solution. When you have No Deal as an option in your mind, you feel liberated because you don't need to force your solution on someone, you can be open. If you can't reach a Win/Win agreement, it is better to settle for No Deal than risk souring the relationship with one of the other options.

The author goes onto explain that there are 5 dimentions of Win/Win. It begins with character, and moves towards relationships, out of which flow agreements. Then it is nurtured in an environment were structures and systems are based on Win/Win. Then finally in involves process.

1. Character

Character is the foundation of Win/Win, and everything else builds on that foundation. There are 3 character traits essential in a Win/Win paradigm.

Integrity: This is the value we place on ourselves. We need to know ourselves, and truly understand what constitutes a win for ourselves

Maturity: This is the balance between courage and consideration. It is the ability to express one's own feelings and convictions balanced with consideration for the thoughts and feelings of others. If I am high on courage but low on consideration, I will think Win/Lose, and try to dominated my opinions on others. If I am low on courage, but high on consideration, I will think Lose/Win, and let others steamroll over what I believe. Therefore high courage and high consideration are essential to Win/Win (See diagram below).

Abundance Mentality: This is the paradigm that there is plenty out there for everyone. Many people are scripted with the Scarcity Mentality, that if someone else earns a piece of the pie, there is less pie out there for me. The Abundance mentality, on the other hand, flows out of a deep inner sense of personal worth and security. Even if someone else does well, I can still contribute and excel.

2. Relationships

Relationships are key in the Win/Win paradigm as you need to have built up the "emotional bank account" in order to have a fruitful Win/Win relationship. Win/Win agreements are rarely easy to establish, and the less of a relationship you have with the other party involved, the harder it is to reach the agreement. All in all, where there is no solid relationship, there is little chance of a win/win agreement.

3. Agreements

In the Win/Win agreement, the following 5 elements are key:

Desired Results need to be identified and given a timeline
Guidelines as to the parameters within which the results are to be accomplished
Resources identify the human, financial, technical or organizational support available to help accomplish the results
Accountability sets up standards or performance
Consequences specify- good and bad - what does and will happen as a result of the evaluation

Both parties need to be clear on each of the 5 elements and agree to follow them in order to achieve success in the agreement. An agreement such as this takes the focus off the methods and onto the results. It gives the parties involved freedom to complete the task as they see fit, as long as they can achieve the goals of the agreement.

4. Systems

Win/Win can only survive within a framework that supports and encourages it. If you talk about Win/Win, but reward Win/Lose, you have a losing program on your hands. The spirit of Win/Win cannot survive in an environment or competition and contests. The problem is generally in the system, not the people. If you have good people in bad systems, you get bad results.

5. Processes

4 Step Process:

See the problem from the other point of view. Seek to understand where the other person is coming from and what they are trying to achieve.
Identify the key issues and concerns involved
Determine what results wound constitute a fully acceptable solution
Identify possible new options to achieve those results

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And so ends Habit 4. I realize that this habit seems to focus on business relationships, but I think that these basic principles will help in all human interactions, including family and friends. What do you think?

Moving from Personal to Public

2005-12-14T23:15:00.000-05:00

The first three habits were based on things to improve your personal effectiveness. The next three habits focus on how to be effective in the context of your relations to people around you. In the book there is a chapter in between habit 3 and 4 called, "Public Victory: Paradigms of Interdependence". This entry is based on that chapter.

Private victory precedes public victory. You can't have the fruits without the roots. It is important to understand and grasp habits 1-3 before moving onto 4-6.

The author then goes on to explain a concept called the emotional bank account. Like a financial bank account, the emotional bank account receives deposits and gives withdrawals. Each person you interact with has a different account with your name on it. But instead of money, you deposit things like time, courtesy, kindness, honesty, etc. You withdraw by doing opposite things like breaking promises, lying, being rude, etc. In order to have good, effective relationships you need to have a good balance built up with that person in order to have their trust. The higher the account balance, the higher the trust.

Six Major Deposits

There are various different types of deposits, so I will outline six deposits the author mentions as important.

1. Understanding the Individual
Seeking to understand someone is one of the greatest deposits you can make. If you don't understand the person, you may not understand what for that person constitutes a deposit. You may appreciate something that may be annoying to them, and while you think you are making a deposit, you are actually making a withdrawal.

2. Attending to the Little Things
Little courtesies and kindnesses are so important. Small discourtesies , little unkindnesses, little forms of disrespect make large withdrawals. In relationships, the little things are the big things

3. Keeping Commitments
Keeping a commitment or a promise is a major deposit; breaking one is a major withdrawal. If you break a promise, the next time you make one, people won't believe it. But if you keep them on a regular basis you build trust which spills over into all areas of your relationship.

4. Clarifying Expectations
It is important at the beginning of any task to clarify the expectations. People will judge based on what they perceive as the expectation. We create negative situations by assuming because we are thinking one thing, and the other person is thinking another, and then both parties are disappointed when their expectations weren't met.

5. Showing Personal Integrity
Integrity includes, but goes beyond honesty. Honesty is telling the truth - confirming our words to reality. Integrity is conforming reality to our words. In other words, keeping promises and fulfilling expectations.
It is also being loyal to those who are not present. By doing so, you show the person you are with that when they are not present, you will also be loyal to them.

6. Apologizing Sincerely When You Make a Withdrawal
When we make withdrawals from the emotional bank account we need to apologize and do it sincerely. We also need to commit to not making that same withdrawal again, or else the apology seems insincere, and therefore becomes another withdrawal.

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One final point I got from this chapter is this: Relationship problems are opportunities to be relationship builders. When you have a problem with someone, you can choose to keep it this way by not confronting it, or your making a solution yourself while not including the other person. Conversely, you can choose to attempt to fix the problem by looking for a mutually beneficial solution to the problem, which in the end fixes the problem and also builds into the relationship.

Habit 3 - Putting First Things First

2005-12-13T13:14:00.000-05:00

This post has been a while in coming. I had hoped to read this book quicker, but found that I needed to take more time with each habit if I wanted to get the maximum impact from it. I also have been pondering over my own life purpose statement, which the author wanted to be completed (at least in draft form) before reading this chapter. So I have that done (in draft form), so I will post it later, and post this chapter now.

In habit 1 we realize that we can change and we are in charge of our own lives, not the outside factors. In habit 2 we envision what we want to see happen with our lives. Now in habit 3, we put these things into practice. It is the day-in, day-out, doing it.

Effective management is putting first things first. While Leadership decides what the "first things" are, it is management that puts them first, day-by-day, moment-by-moment. Management is discipline, carrying it out.

The area of time management can be captured in a single phrase: Organize and execute around priorities.

The most important thing I learned from this chapter is the Time Management Matrix (see picture above). It goes something like this... There are two factors that define an activity - urgent and important. Urgent means it requires immediate attention. Urgent matters are usually visable. They press on us; they insist on action. A ringing phone for example. Who among us can let it ring without checking the display to see who is calling?

Importance, on the other hand, has to do with results. If something is important, it contributes to your mission, values, goals. We react to urgent matters. Important matters that are not urgent require more initiative, more proactivity. If we dont practice habit 2 and know what is important, we are easily diverted into responding to the urgent.

So Time Management Matrix goes something like this...

Quadrant 1 = Urgent and important
Quadrant 2 = Not urgent but important
Quadrant 3 = Urgent but not important
Quadrant 4 = Not urgent and not important

Quadrant 1 includes things that are crises or problems. As long as you focus on Quadrant 1 a lot, the crises will continue to grow and never be complete.

People who spend too much time in Quadrants 3 and 4 end up living irresponsible lives. Effective people stay out of 3 and 4 because, urgent or not, they aren't important.

Quadrant 2 is the heart of effective personal management. They are things like building relationships, writing a personal mission statement, long-range planning, exercising, preventative maintenance, preparation - all those things we need to do, but never do, because they aren't urgent.

The only place to get time for Quadrant 2 in the begining is by cutting out quadrany 3 and 4 activities. You can't ignore the urgent and important activities of 1, although that quadrant will shrink in size as you spend more time with prevention and preparation in quadrant 2. You have to be practive to spend time in quadrant 2 as quadrants 1 and 3 work on you. To say yes to quadrant 2 you have to say no to quadrant 1 and 3. The enemy of "best" is often "good" (i hope to read the book "Good to Great" soon which is written based on that principle. The importance of a solid personal mission statment is so that you can refer to it and say no to quadrant 3 and 4 things because you have a bigger "yes" burning inside.

And so there it is... if you actually read all that, congrats. Reading this is a quadrant 2 activity if you go out and apply or study these concepts more, but a quadrant 4 activity if you look at it and don't at least consider it for your life. Which will it be? I hope for myself that writing this will turn out to be a 2 and not a 4.

So Great a Salvation

2005-12-02T14:24:00.000-05:00

One of the cool things about working with Campus Crusade for Christ is that that encourage you to take a day away from the ministry once a month in order to just take time to be with God. So I get to spend a day reading, listening to sermons, studying God's Word, listening to worship music, praying, etc.

So today, I was listening to my fav christian bands, The Supertones, and one of my old favourite songs by them called "So Great a Salvation". It is a quiet song written about quiet time with God.

I was encouraged by this song again today concerning how great God is, and yet He desires us to seek out a quiet place and spend time with Him. It doesn't seem to make sense, but that is God's desire. Sometimes I get too caught up in bigger things that seem more important. So here is my prayer for today:

Woke up this morning
And I just had to thank God for my life
Just read through James' book
Start to pray and ask God for a wife
It's a time of devotion
As I sit and speak to my God unseen
Why should He listen?
Well I love Him and He's in love with me

Why me God?
Why should You choose me?
On your team God, can You use even me?

I think a few years back
On a road that headed to nowhere
Now that You found me
I can see that You were always there
So great a salvation
But to You my Jesus what am I worth?
It's quiet times like this
I feel I get a glimpse of Heaven right here on earth

Oh, hold me in your arms of love
Sometimes I swear I feel your heartbeat
I could never ever thank You enough
But here's my life for whatever it's worth

Fighting for Joy like a Justified Sinner

2005-11-09T21:20:00.000-05:00

One of the other books I have been reading recently is John Piper’s When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy. I haven’t been reading it as deeply as I probably should in order to get the full profit from reading it, so I decided to do a blog on one of the recent chapters so I could allow it to sink in a little deeper. The chapter is called “Fighting for Joy like a Justified Sinner”

One of the main points of this chapter was to learn the fact that we need to preach the gospel to ourselves regularly, and especially during times when we are going through a wilderness time in our walk with God. What I mean by this is that we need to constantly go back to verses that talk about how God has transported us from the Kingdom of Darkness unto the Kingdom of Light. God made us, sinners who deserve judgment into justified sons and daughters.

One of the things that cause us as Christians to distress is confusing justification and sanctification. Justification is the immediate act when we become Christians that takes us out of God’s judgment. We are immediately in perfect standing legally before God. Sanctification, on the other hand, is the process we go through in this life of becoming holy. It is a process and will not be complete until with are with the Lord in heaven. Piper says this about the difference:

Both are gifts, and both are bought by the blood of Christ. They are inseparable
but different. Both are by faith alone. Justification is by faith alone because
only faith receives the declaration that the ungodly is counted righteous.
Sanctification is by faith alone because only faith receives the power to bear
the fruit of love. It is crucial in the fight for joy that we not confuse or
combine justification and sanctification. Confusing them will, in the end,
undermine the gospel and turn justification by faith into Justification by
performance. If that happens, the great gospel weapon in the fight for joy will
fall from our hands.

In the next section of the chapter he speaks about “becoming what you are”. As Christians we are justified. Now we need to see ourselves as justified:

One of the ways the Bible talks about our action in relation to our standing in
Christ is to command us to become what we are. For example, using Old Testament
ceremonial language Paul says, “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new
lump, as you really are unleavened” (1 Cor. 5:7). In other words, become what
you are. You are unleavened (sinless in Christ); therefore become unleavened
(sinless in practice).

I think this simple truth really ministered to me. I don’t have to do something on my own to earn anything. I am simply becoming what I already am in God’s eyes. And it is not like after being justified by faith alone we now need to become sinless on our own. We just need to be progressively becoming more and more obedient and less and less sinful in the power and strength that God provides through faith.

The chapter goes on to talk about how Micah fought for joy and various other things, but this is the part that really ministered to me. I am thankful to God for John Piper and is writings and how God has used him to help many Christians around the world take their joy in Christ.

Habit 2 - Begin with the End in Mind

2005-10-31T23:41:00.000-05:00

The chapter began with the author asking the reader to picture themselves at their own funeral. Then to imagine what the reader would want the people giving the speeches to say about them. When you come up with what you would want said about yourself, you see what are the most important things to you. These are the things you should be making sure you accomplish in life.

If you begin with the end in mind, you can make sure, on a day-to-day basis that what you are accomplishing during your day is actually something that is important to you.

One of the most important things I took from this chapter so far is the fact that you can busy yourself with many things, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you are being effective. The world will give you many things to keep busy with, but unless you keep a tab on what you are doing and making sure that it is in line with your end goal, you could busy yourself with many things that don't really matter.

Beginning with the end in mind is based on the principle that all things are created twice. For example in construction, the architect builds every detail of the building on paper before a single nail has been hammered in. It is the same thing with our lives; if we do not plan ahead as to what we want to be accomplishing, we by default empower other people and circumstances to shape our lives. We will be constantly reacting to things around us instead of proactively makings sure that we are the architects in our own lives.

Beginning with the end in mind is a practice of personal leadership. Leadership works at directing the ship, whereas management makes sure the rowing is being done effectively. If we are not leading out in the direction we want to go, it doesn't matter how good managers we are, as we will only be effective in going in the wrong direction. Effectiveness does not depend solely on how much effort we expend, but on whether or not our efforts are focused on going in the right direction.

We need to make sure we have clarified our values and goals before we start expending energy and efforts that could possibly be leading us in the wrong direction. One way we can make sure we are always effectively moving in the right direction is by creating a personal mission statement. With this statement, we can compare our actions on a regular basis to what we have written as our most important goals.