called to stand here

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?