called to stand here

What a concept: doing work that we get paid enough so we can retire our debts in addition to paying our regular bills! I dreamed of that until I was in my 40s, with only a few years of achieving it in my 30s. The balance of time and attention spent doing that career-type work while still being kingdom-focused is one of the biggest challenges I've encountered. The wife-and-kids factor intensifies this by an order of magnitude. In fact, you asking these questions is evidence that you've entered this new level of conflict that is the normal christian living-in-the-world not wanting to lose sight of our kingdom calling. Welcome to the battle! So now what? you're doing this as a child of God's. You bring this challenge before him, and it's been a topic you've asked others to pray for, too, I suspect, even as you have brought it to me. That's a good thing, and a critical component of what will become its successful resolution. The presentation/conside...

An email from my son: I just came across this article and thought it might give you some insight about Bethel: http://www.rogereolson.com/2010/08/14/is-there-one-evangelicalism/ Roger Olson was a professor here (and the liberal arts school to which he refers is Bethel). He captures many of my reasons for ambivalence toward the term evangelical. I'd enjoy hearing your thoughts. My reply: There's no telling what our friends will do or say. They're free to behave as heros or goats. I don't know the specifics of the "inquisition" that Dr. Olson refers to, but I suspect it's Piper's ax-grinding (some might say "witch hunting") regarding Boyd's doctrine. Despite this report that makes me sad about how people on all sides perceived and experienced the episode: even if Piper's approach was completely wrong, it puts me in the same position I find myself when someone I love, like a child or my wife, does something I cannot abide: do I bre...

Babel from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo . This is all interesting in hindsight, but the article I read sometime in late 2008 should have gotten my attention, but didn't. It's titled " The Tower of Babel Indicator " and highlights the economic crashes that have followed shortly (or coincided with) the completion of the new tallest building in the world. The new Burj Dubai is that building. Good thing my treasure isn't on Earth!

I had a wonderful conversation with my nephew Joe earlier this week, and we talked about the difference between calling God "master" and "husband" (see Hos. 2:16). The Hebrew is illuminating: master = Baali and husband = Ishi (transliterated). The Lord's invitation today is to call him Ishi, which is a call to the forerunner generation to come forth. But Joe had some more questions emerge after we parted, so he emailed me some questions. Joe: remember when we were talking about the bride/bridegroom analogy in the Bible? you were saying that now is the time for the church to embrace and come to understand that analogy better. here's my question. do you think there is anything different about this generation of the church itself? why do you think this generation is ready to embrace this analogy, and other generations weren't ready? Ted: my reason isn't necessarily based on scripture, but observation. When the deliverer was ordained to come to lea...

Listening today to D.A. Carson's exposition on 3 John , in which he interestingly arrives at a college ministry application, with female and male college student issues clearly delineated. His insights for young men got my attention: they need to know more about how to lead their wives (should they get married in the future) in a way consistent with Eph. 5--by being willing to die for them. Which leads me to consider this as a topic for the Prepare men's discussion group this fall: leadership. Start with a film in which leadership plays a key role , whether overtly or more incidentally; then follow it up with a conversation that smokes out the implications of how the characters in the story we just watched used effective or ineffective leadership technique; what are the takeaway concepts? how can we apply these principles to our lives as Christians in a very secular public university?

Matt Chandler has brain cancer. He is going through a harrowing sequence of symptom, diagnosis, surgery, chemo- and radiation therapy. He's doing this very publicly. He's a pastor of a church in Dallas , and continues, as he's granted strength, to teach there, and a couple of months ago at a conference . I recommend this video below as an amazing example of a theology of suffering followed by example of how to stand and pray with those in the midst of trial and affliction. God's kingdom advances when we do this right. Preparing Your Church for Suffering

Long ago, far away, the hope for a future included the hope for heaven. Nowadays the culture I live in looks for heaven only on earth, and the 'yearning for' in our souls is mostly a yearning for images and experiences. In earlier ages, there was a greater yearning for belief and ideals (Schudson, Michael. Advertising, The Uneasy Persuasion : Its Dubious Impact on American Society. 1984. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 209-233). Not that beliefs and ideals are dead in the culture. One of my sons is especially committed to an activist/anarchist community culture. But even there, the fascination (or obsession) with images and experiences is great. He works hard to contribute to the graphical presentation of the struggle. (Schudson has some really interesting things to day about socialist realist art.) My other sons are devoted to academia, and we might think there the culture would be like a star leading the pilgrim to ideas, if not ideals and beliefs. But today there was a report ...

Today I'm reading an article on John Sailhamer's view of creation —called "historic creationism" as opposed to the more familiar creationism. In his book, Genesis Unbound (1996, and out of print), he points out that the original Hebrew account describes creation in two separate bits: Genesis 1:1 as the creation of the cosmos over an indeterminate span of time and verses 2-31 describing the six days of preparing the land for man (Adam and Woman ) to occupy.* This invites us to view the creation of the universe in terms that don't require the contention between science and faith that is so familiar with creationism. In addition, it creates a framework that reveals some very interesting connections between the days of preparation (this is an interesting revelation: the days described in Gn 1:5, 1: 8, 1:11, etc., as the first day, the second day, etc., have typically been seen as days of creation rather than days of preparation; think about Jesus' statement, ...