My Top Ten Favorite TV Shows of 2013

If you know me--you know I love cinema and television. Grew up watching them both and remain devoted to watching them as much as I can--partly for the escapism that film and television provide, but mostly because I love narrative, love the stories that writers and directors tell through their mediums and how they speak to all the issues (both serious and not) that we find ourselves as people and as a culture continually in.

So--with those comments out of the way here are a few more comments. I won't be able to watch nearly as much television anymore thanks to two new girls in my life (the twins, ahem) so I wanted to create this list for 2013 before I totally forgot about what I watched and how it impacted me. Also, these shows are my "favorite" shows of 2013, not necessarily the "critically best" shows I watched all year and it is also only a small number of shows because I don't watch every single television show out there. I wish I could, but I can't. So some famous and critically acclaimed shows that would probably make list simply don't show up because I haven't watched them. Sorry people. Please forgive me. Maybe next year, or next decade.

Alright, alright---now on to my favorite television shows of 2013. In a very particular order.

10. "Amazing Race" (CBS)
I know, I know. Now you are concerned about my critical eye and true understanding of good television. But, have you actually seen the "Amazing Race"? You have only had about the last 12 years to do so. It is just good television to get lost in an hour. And the wife and I have...scratch that...had been watching previous seasons on Hulu Plus--where you have some amazing real life characters, couple after couple who are trying to salvage their relationship from the throes of death by arguing every single leg, and the perennial "old couple" who "everyone else will underestimate, but will win the race", but who no one ever underestimates, but seems to estimate almost exactly right every single season.
As far as "reality" television goes--the exotic locales, crazy contestants, and terrible wardrobe choices of host Phil Keoghan make the "Amazing Race"riveting television.

9. Parks and Rec (NBC)
My lone comedy on the list. But a worthy show nonetheless. It stays fresh and funny every single episode.
Ron Swanson--as good as they get.

8. Top Chef (Bravo)
It remains the best of the crowded network of foodie/cooking shows. Head Judge Tom Colicchio is the best.

7. Downton Abbey (PBS)
The third season righted the ship from season two, though still falling below the glory of season one. The cinematography, acting, and stories were spot on this year. Matthew Crawley, being my favorite character on the show will be missed in the recently started season four, but the this will hopefully allow the show to go in new directions and continue building on its excellent foundation. Just cue the theme music...

6. Parenthood (NBC)
A fairly conventional family drama, but one that continues to turn in poignant performances from its strong ensemble. And now being a new parent I have a feeling I will be watching it in a very different way now. Simple, but rich television viewing on the highs and lows of life that our family alone walks us through.

5. The Fall (BBC)
A violent and palpable series with Gillian Anderson as a detective investigating a series of murders in the UK. The show doesn't pull any punches and can be (to be honest) over the top in its viciousness at times, but it is first-rate storytelling and it kept me on the edge of my seat in every single episode.

4. The Americans (FX)
Besides Broadchurch it was the best new drama of 2013. A story about Soviet Cold War operatives living in Washington, D.C. in the 1980s had a cool vibe and even cooler plot that picked up steam throughout the series.

3. House of Cards (Netflix)
I loved this series. Kevin Spacey was brilliant. And the intrigue and drama and soap opera goodness of the storytelling kept the series taught and immensely watchable. Being able to watch it all in about three days through Netflix certainly helped. Political drama doesn't get any saucier and crisper than House of Cards.

2. Broadchurch (BBC America)
You may not have heard of this eight week series on BBC America. Fear not, it is coming stateside with an American remake. The series sets in on the murder of 11 year-old Danny Latimer in the small, seaside town of Broadchurch. It is anchored by fantastic performances from Olivia Colman and David Tennant as the lead detectives in the case. Broadchurch is the story of a tragic murder of a young boy, but that is only the beginning of the mysteries in the this complex and engrossing television drama.

1. Breaking Bad (AMC)
Vince Gilligan's final season was as good as television gets. What more can be said of Bryan Cranston's mesmerizing performance as Walter White? Outside of HBO's "The Wire" this is the greatest television drama I have ever seen. I am still thinking about moments from the final season and wishing there was one more, but thankful for the way in which this show went into that good night--at its very best.



There you go! My Top Ten! What did I miss? What do you guys like?

RD

I Love You Because I Love You: A Letter to My Daughters on the Eve of Their Birth

Dear Girls,

Who knew that grainy black and white images that most of the time I cannot make heads or tails of would melt my heart so completely? These images are all that I have seen for the past six months of you. But tomorrow I will get to see you (and hold you) in living color.

I wanted to write you this letter on the eve of your birth. I am not sure when (if ever) you will read it, but I wanted to put pen to paper (digitally of course) so that one day you might know what your dad was thinking and feeling the day before you were born and changed my life forever.

First off--forgive me if I struggle telling you apart at the beginning. You are identical twins after all. Other parents tell me I will be able to tell you apart and I trust them, but still...be patient if you can, it’s my first time having identical twin daughters. It will only be your first act in a lifetime of forgiving me!

I can’t wait to meet you tomorrow and hold you and look at your eyes. Whose eyes will you have? How much hair will you have? How the heck am I going to be a dad to two daughters? The nursery is all set for you for both. Who knew they made little mini-hangers? You have some cute little dresses on those hangers that will make it difficult for me to stay mad at you I think. I see how you girls get your dads wrapped around your fingers! I look at your cribs, and your nursery and know that I will spend many a night staying up with you, waking up with you, and just staring down at you as you sleep wanting to bottle it all up forever.

I haven’t even met you yet and I wonder about all the places you will go. As every parent says--they grow up too fast. I don’t think you two will be any different from that. It seems like just yesterday we found out you were in your mommy’s belly and now tomorrow you touch down on planet earth in all your beautiful messiness. I think about who will be become, what your personalities will be like. Will you love books like your dad? Or games like your mom? What will fascinate you and what will you become passionate about?

And let’s not even mention all the boys you are NOT going to date! I hope you like sweatpants and convents. This will be my prayer for you both! But just in case that doesn’t pan out, I pray you meet a man who loves you for who are, who will protect you and serve you, and be willing to give up his life for you. Wow, that last sentence was hard to type--you two getting married seems forever away, and yet time flies by and pretty soon I will be writing another one of these sappy letters on the eve of your wedding day. Jeez.

The truth is I have no idea what being a parent is really like, what being a father is really like. I have no idea what the years ahead will hold for all of us, all the great and glorious days and all the difficult and sad days that will make up our lives. I already want so much for you both and want you to know that everything I am doing is for you good, so that you might grow up to be women like your mom--full of love for the Lord, for all kinds of people, and for things that truly matter. I’m not perfect and I know that I will make a ton of mistakes. I hope, someday, you will be able to see my heart and how incredibly much I loved you.

And why do I love you you ask? Because you are my daughter. Not because of how smart you will be (though I know you will much smarter than me), not because of how beautiful you are (though I know you will be gorgeous girls inside and out), not because of anything you will achieve or do (thought I know you will achieve and do far more than I could ever dream for you both)--I love you first and foremost because you are mine, my daughters, my girls and nothing will ever change that.

So here’s to all that lies ahead. To the long nights, to the girl-crazy birthday parties, to the bath tub times, to the running in stroller times, to the teenage year fights and rolling of the eyes. To Thanksgivings and Christmases with two beautiful and messy families you are being born into, to hugs and snuggles, and tears and tantrums. To dancing together and watching football together (hopefully), to showing you the glory of the South and the power of a chicken quesadillas. To praying everyday that one day you will come to know the God of your father, a much greater Father who loves you far more deeply and perfectly than I ever could, and to these verses sinking into your souls-

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am convinced that the best part of my life is about to start and it’s all your fault. I hardly feel ready, but you didn’t ask me, you just decided to come and start your lives and I can’t wait to see what lives you girls will live.
One more thing before I go--and one I hope you will always know--

I love you because I love you.
Always have, always will.

See you tomorrow,
Dad



December 31, 2013

God's Character > Your Circumstances

God's character is greater than your circumstances.
God's character gives peace to your circumstances. God's character gives hope to your circumstances.

This is the reminder that Malachi the prophet has for the people of Judah, a people who have recently returned from exile in Babylon and are living in a desperate time. A time where the religious, moral, and economic fabric of the people of God was at an all-time low.

The circumstances in Jerusalem were desperate.
Harvests were poor. Locusts plagues were eating up crops. There was little economic vitality anywhere in the city.
The city looked like the bad parts of Detroit, still under the ruin of the Babylonian invasion.
The people were morally bankrupt and the priests were no longer worshipping Yahweh as God had commanded them to.

Into this darkness God sends the prophet Malachi to remind His people of the character of God.

Malachi 1:2 begins with this glorious declaration...

"I have loved you" declares the Lord, but the people respond...
"How have you loved us?"

It is not a totally unreasonable question. We are Your chosen people God, but everything around us has been destroyed. Your actions don't seem like love, this doesn't seem like what love looks like to us!

In truth, we have all asked this question, "How have you loved me God?"

We all have expectations of what our life should like that. We expect certain things to happen to us. If I do this then this will happen, if I pursue this then this will happen to me. And these expectations usually revolve around our pursuit of happiness.
And when anything disrupts our happiness we can begin to freak out, when the circumstances we find ourselves in are totally different from what our pre-set expectations of our life then our emotions can being to unravel.

For the people of Judah in the book of Malachi their expectations of what their lives as God's chosen people would look like were probably far different from the reality they were experiencing. And their reality was making them question the love of God.

Malachi runs through the sins of the priests in verses 6-14 of chapter 1 and shows that the priests were going through the religious motions without any fear or awe of the Great King (1:14). The priests had forgotten the character of God, they had forgotten Yahweh and were letting their present circumstances define their worship of Yahweh. And their present circumstances were not creating in them a desire to truly worship God in any real sense.

But the truth of God's love for His people has never changed. The circumstances of the people have changed, but His love for them has not changed. God proclaims "I have loved you".

And this is what God says to you. I have loved you. All that I have done is for your joy, is for your good, and I am calling you to the pursuit of holiness and not the pursuit of happiness.

The pursuit of holiness makes us look more like Jesus and through it all brings you joy.
The pursuit of happiness makes us look less like Jesus, and in the end makes us miserable.

God is holy. And He calls us to live holy lives and He gives us the Spirit to sanctify us and remind us of His covenant love for us. The key to personal revival is found in remembering the God of covenant love, remembering his declaration that "I have loved you." Just look at your biography and see all that God has done for you and then look at the Cross and see the length to which he showed you this love.

When the storm comes we must call to mind this great truth--that God loves us. And we must remind ourselves of the character and nature of God--that is He is good and longsuffering and patient and loving. That he is our strong tower, our refuge, and our peace.

The character of God gives peace to your circumstances.

Whether you are in a good place with the Lord, it can be easy to become complacent and settle. Don't settle. Keep pressing into Him, keep learning about His character and nature, keep growing, and pursuing holiness.

Or you may be in a difficult place and your circumstances may be consuming you--remember His character. Press into His character, hold fast to Him through what you are walking through, through what your family or friends may be walking through.

Desperate circumstances require desperate dependence on Jesus. And in desperately depending on Jesus we give up control and trust the One who made us, who knows us, and who loves us.

He is trustworthy. And He is enough.

Would the truth of God's character and nature rule and reign over all the circumstances of your life, so that Christ's glory might shine through your life and that your character would begin to resemble the character of Christ more and more.

"How have you loved us"? the people ask...

To the one asking the question we can always look to the Apostle Paul's declaration in Romans 5:8...

"But God shows us His love in this way, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

From Fear to Love: A Week in the Inner-City

"Alright, now we are going to head out and prayer walk around the Tenderloin" said Sean Brakey, the mission and intern director for San Francisco City Impact, the non-profit organization that I took 17 people from Door Creek Church to last week, 14 of them high school students.

"What is a prayer walk?" one student asked me.
"We are going to go walking around this neighborhood?" another asked.

We had just flown in from Wisconsin a few hours earlier and had taken a bus into the Tenderloin District of San Francisco, a neighborhood known for its poverty, its drugs, its danger. This was in the inner city of San Francisco and we were about to walk around it and just start praying for buildings and people. Our group began walking around with our intern, Zach O and we stopped first at City Impact's Rescue Mission and huddled around it to get the backstory and to begin praying for the Lord to move throughout that place in the coming week. As we prayed (a holy huddle if there ever was one) people from the streets would come up and stare at us, or ask us questions. There was lots of yelling all around us, police sirens running down Jones Street nearby, and a heartbreaking number of people simply living on the street, some asleep and some laying against a building and staring straight off into the distance.

It was uncomfortable. For the students. For my leaders. For me.
I was afraid. What had I gotten these kids into? What were we doing here? Why didn't we just go do some beach evangelism in Florida?

We fear what we don't know. And I was afraid of the people who lived in the Tenderloin. As we walked around the streets I was tense and nervous, fearful of who might approach us and what awkward conversation we might get into.
How long were we going to be here again?

Monday night rolled into Tuesday and our week began in earnest. We began each day with worship through song and teaching, challenged to give our lives to the "kingdom that will pass, or the kingdom that will last" and then sent out into the Tenderloin to love and serve the people. The students would serve at the school, the rescue mission, the thrift shop, and a variety of other ways to befriend the homeless and the people who made their lives in the Tenderloin.

Tuesday night we were sent out for two hours with a bag of chips to befriend people who were living on the streets. I was with about 10 of our students and I was fearful again. This is crazy. I am a white kid from Wisconsin (by way of the South) and I am going to go and hand out chips and try and talk with people in the Tenderloin? Wouldn't they just laugh at me? What could we possibly talk about?

Fear. Fear. Fear. Me. Me. Me.

It was throughout handing out dozens of chips and getting into dozens of conversations with the people of the Tenderloin (and watching high school students do it as well) that God began to convict me of my fear and my self-centerdness and to grow my heart with love for the people of the Tenderloin.

I spent every afternoon delivering meals and getting into conversations with residents in the apartment communities in the Tenderloin. We would knock on a door, introduce ourselves, make conversation, hand out food, and pray with people if they wanted.

I met Ron and Tony and Cindy and Laquisha and Matt and Roger and Nathan and dozens more people. Every door had a story. And for many of these people this might be the only time they talk with someone all week long. It was a beautiful experience. We were able to share the gospel and pray with and for people door after door.

Of course you are nervous before you knock on a door, who knows who may open the door (and what they might or might not be wearing), but that gives way quickly to a passion to simply talk with people and hear their story, to know them and to show them that we do actually care and that God cares a whole lot more for them.

Ron was 83 years old. He looked a lot younger. We knocked on his door and he opened it holding is his little dog Coco. Ron began talking with me and two students, Sean and James about his life and all the brokenness he had seen over the last 83 years. I asked me if had ever been married and he said he had once, right at the end of Korean War. He married a woman from the Philippines, but she was unable to return to the United States with him. It was in 1953 that Ron returned to the United States. I followed up by asking if he had ever gotten married again, and there was a short pause on his end (which was a miracle since he talked a mile a minute!), and a long look down, as if in that moment he was thinking over all that could have been over the past 60 years.

He finally looked up, his eyes watery and simply replied "No. I never got married again."

We were able to pray for Ron and talk with him about Jesus Christ. He was a believer in "something bigger than us", but not in any "orthodox religion", and said with all the pain and brokenness he had seen over the past 70 years he wondered how it could all happen.

"Ron, do you know that there was One who was broken for us?" I asked him.
"What do you mean" he responded.
"Jesus, God himself, was broken for us, that he took all the sin of this world on himself for us."
"Well, I don't know about that."
"I do," I answered.
"Ron, you have lived a long life and seen way more than I have seen, way more than I will probably ever see, but I want you to see this--that God loves you, God knows you, and God longs for you to know Him, and that that is the truest reality in the world."

Ron stood there staring at me.

I pushed through the silence and asked him if I could pray for him. I prayed for Ron and told him about City Impact and how he could get connected to the church to pursue this more. He was very grateful and happy that we simply stopped to talk with him and hear his story. I was grateful too.

I could tell you a dozen more stories like this of people that we met and talked with and prayed with. As the week closed out we went out on the streets again Thursday night again to hand out chips and pray with people. This time there was no fear, only love. Every block was covered with people we would have a chance to talk with, to laugh with, to cry with, to be human with. It was a joy to see my students out in front handing out chips and starting up conversations. They killed it. God was growing them right before my eyes. Pushed out of their comfort zones into the world, but equipped with the greatest message of all--the gospel. And the gospel is enough.

Our last day in San Francisco was a day off and so we all got into a bus and toured around San Francisco and saw all the tourist sites. We saw the Golden Gate, Alcatraz, the famous Piers, and all the beautiful houses. The final stop on the tour was passing through the Tenderloin.

Our tour guide called out over the microphone, "And we are coming up a district in San Francisco known as the Tenderloin." And when I heard the word "Tenderloin" my heart beat a little faster--not from fear, but from love. I loved this area. I loved these people. Every single person walking around was made in the image of God. So many people of the Tenderloin have been through hell, and yet I heard more "God Bless You's" this week then I ever heard in my life. They were so thankful to talk with us, to see us, and to show us their neighborhood, their home. They are a broken and yet a deeply beautiful people. No different from you and me.

People aren't projects to convert, they are human beings to love. I want everyone to know about Jesus, but here is the truth.
I can't save anyone, but Jesus can. I can't truly deliver anyone, but Jesus can.

I can't, but Jesus can. And Jesus will.

It's His City. It's His Tenderloin. And through City Impact and other Christians in the area the kingdom of God is being seen on the streets of the Tenderloin. The church is being the church--loving in word and deed, pursuing justice and calling people to repentance in and through Christ. Beautiful.

We all stand equal before God. We all struggle in our own ways. We have all sinned. You may visibly see the effects of sin more somewhere like the Tenderloin or Skid Row, but sin and brokenness is a part of the city of Madison, Wisconsin as well. It may look different, but the solution is the same--for the church to BE THE CHURCH and proclaim the rule and reign of Jesus over all things.

It's not about me. It's not about you. It's about Him.

Do you need to go and work with City Impact in the Tenderloin? Maybe, but maybe not. I know what I (and you need to do)--we need to get in the fight, to love our cities and ALL the people in them with the message of the Jesus.

And sometimes love is as simple and profound as going to someone, delivering and sharing a meal with them, and hearing their story.

Hmm...that sounds like what someone else I know spent his whole life doing.

You are Barabbas

You are a Barabbas. I am Barabbas.

Barabbas was a prisoner, a "notorious prisoner" according to the Gospel of Matthew who plays a prominent role in the Friday of Jesus' crucifixion. Matthew 27:15-26 records the episode in vivid detail.

The crowds are heated and growing more angry with each passing moment. Some want for Jesus to be put to death for claiming to be God himself and some, no doubt, are simply chanting along because they want to be a part of the action. Jesus Christ stands before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Jerusalem, and Pontius Pilate tells the people that because it is the Passover feast then one prisoner can be released from the prison.

Matthew 26:17 Pilate said to the people "Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Christ?"

The people chant for Barabbas to be released, to go free and for Jesus Christ to be crucified!

Crucify Him, Crucify Him they chant in verse 22.

Matthew 27:24-26
So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man's blood;[a] see to it yourselves.” 25 And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” 26 Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.

Barabbas goes free, while Jesus is delivered to be crucified.

The guilty goes free, while the guilt-less one takes all of his guilt.
The prisoner gets released, while the Son of God is sent to prison and to the Cross.

It is the great exchange. The great exchange of the Scriptures, and it is our story as well.

We are all Barabbas. We are guilty, we are sinful, we are condemned under the law...

But.

Jesus Christ goes to the Cross to die in our place on Good Friday.
He takes our guilt, He takes our sin, He takes our condemnation.

The Great Exchange. The Beautiful Gospel.

Now, you were Barabbas, but through Jesus Christ you are now a Son, a Daughter--reconciled to God your Father.
A new creation, a new person, redeemed by the blood of the Son of God into his family.

As has been said "The son of God became a man so that men could become sons of God."

1 John 4:10
This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Amen and Amen.

Try to Have a Good Day: Reflections on 9/11

"Did you hear a plane crashed into the World Trade Center?" said my 10th grade classmate Eric Conzemius in the men's bathroom inside Maryville High School.

We were just leaving first period and in the "break" time before 2nd period began.

I thought to myself, I read the paper this morning (yes, I was that 10th grader who read the newspaper) and didn't see anything about it. He doesn't know what he is talking about I thought.

This was before Facebook, Twitter, and social media. And the internet was around, but not a super dominant force like it is now. So my mind went straight to the newspaper.

I walked down the 3rd floor hallway and crammed in with dozens of other students watching images of the World Trade Center towers on fire. Unbelievable. Literally.
We didn't know what to do. We were high schoolers.

The bell rang for everyone to go to their 2nd period class. As I sat in my English class the principal came on and delivered the sobering news of the hour. It was beyond shocking, it just was.

My mind raced back to the year before when my mom and I had walked on top of the World Trade Center tower on a tour. They were so high. They were majestic. They defined New York City and Manhattan. And then I watched on television as they crashed to the ground.

The images were like a movie. Firefighters and police officers covered in soot and smoke and ash. Darkness hanging over New York City. A plane hit the Pentagon, a plane was down in Pennsylvania, unconfirmed reports of bombs at the Sears Tower in Chicago, in Los Angeles, and elsewhere.

I remember walking the halls of the high school and every single room had their television on and scenes of 9/11 were racing through the sets.

The day at school finally ended and I went home to see my mom and brother and my Aunt Tracy who was in town. My dad was out of town--his plane grounded. The images of Manhattan, overcome with smoke were still filling our television.

I remember turning on the radio and the traffic reporter was giving updates. This guy was the most happy, jovial, excited traffic reporter ever. Every time he gave updates it was like the highlight of his life. So that is why it was so unnerving to hear him try with all his might to put a good voice on this, but fail to do so.

His words and his tone still echo in my head as he signed off...

"Try to have a good day everybody."

I won't ever forget it. It just stopped me for some reason. The truth was we just couldn't have a good day. It wasn't a good day, it was a terrible day, a tragic day.

And yet I remember how the fire of 9/11 gave way to the most "united" United States of America I had ever seen. President Bush rose to the meet the extraordinary demand of the time with soaring rhetoric and steely resolve. Whatever you think of him, he was everyone's President in those weeks after 9/11 and I will always associate him with how masterfully he led this country following the devastating attacks.

The baseball playoffs, especially the New York Yankees, the start of the football season, and other sporting events gave Americans cause for great unity and refuge. It was an unbelievable time, but a time where I saw the beauty and majesty of this country, of the people who make it up, and the ideals and values that we hold.

I was 15 years old on 9/11. I loved my country on 9/10, but I truly fell in love with my country in the weeks after 9/11.

Out of the ashes we rose.

So I pray for our leaders now, for our brave troops who carry on the battle for freedom in America's longest (and tragically forgotten) war in Afghanistan. I pray for even for our enemies, that they might become peacemakers themselves. And I pray for the world to come, that all (somehow and in someway) will be put right then.

So much has changed in the last 11 years. In some ways it feels as though Eric Conzemius was telling me a plane hit the World Trade Center just yesterday, and in some ways it feels as though it was a lifetime ago.

But no matter how old I get, I will always remember September 11, 2001. And I will always sing out our National Anthem with a little more conviction, a little more passion, and a lot more love for the people I share this great country with, for this beautiful place truly is...

The land of the free and the home of the brave.

Rooted: Reading the Psalms for Life Change

I am starting a new series here on the blog...

ROOTED: Reading the Psalms for Life Change.

This will simply be a chapter by chapter journey through the Psalms. Hopefully, through reading the Psalms we can all become greater praisers of God's greatness in all things!

The Psalms are life-changing words. They are gloriously God-centered and by rooting ourselves in these poems, by letting them take hold of our hearts and affections, we can be changed into greater degrees of Christ-likeness.

Let's read through the Psalms for life change, for deeper and richer worship of God, for a beautiful collision with our Father.

Get "ROOTED" in God by letting Him, His word, get "ROOTED" deep down in your heart.
So here goes...

1. Read (Read through the Psalm)
2. Meditate (Meditate on the Word, Wrestle with the Word, Think on the Word)
3. Pray (Ask God to Shape Your Heart According to Who He is)

1. READ THE WORD

PSALM 1

Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,
2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.
4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.



2. MEDITATE ON THE WORD
a. Where should our delight be? What are you delighting in regularly (is it the gospel? is it your relationships?, is it the prospects of success or your job?, is it trying to please others?, is it your appearance?, it is your own righteousness?)
b. Are you regularly meditating on the character & nature of God?
c. What are you producing in your own life? Spiritual fruit? OR something else?


3. PRAY THE WORD
Prayer is shaping our hearts and minds into the will of our Father. We are praying for His rule, His reign, His will to be established, to be rooted in our own hearts.

Pray for God himself to be rooted deeply into the depths of your heart this day.

Get ROOTED in God by having His Word get rooted in you. Through planting yourself in a daily rhythm of reading, meditating, and praying the Scriptures.

The Dark Knight Rises...He Has Too

I love the movies. Always have. And I love seeing the connections between films and the gospel--how films answer the big questions of our existence.

Why are we here?
What is the purpose of life?
What is good? What is evil?
How can I be satisfied, happy, or fulfilled?

Nearly all films seek to lead us to think about how we answer these or similar questions. The best films don't shout the answer in our faces, but paint a multi-dimensional and complex story that puts the ball in our court, and make us come to terms with what we believe and how that will affect how will then live.

Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy is a cinematic tour de force, making us grapple with issues of justice, salvation, violence, power, poverty...among others. Simple things like that.

Do I believe they are terrific films? Yes.
Do I think they are packed with multiple layers of meaning and significance? Yes.

Bruce Wayne wasn't born as Batman, but as a boy, a boy of privilege and wealth, but from a family that had a desire to use that wealth to help others. His innocent life is shattered when both of his parents are gunned down in front of him.
His father's dying words to him follow him the rest of his life...

"Don't be afraid."

As Gotham City descends into an abyss of moral decay and corruption, Bruce Wayne is compelled to act in a way that he simply can't as a CEO of his company. He needs to become something more--something greater. A man yes, but somehow and someway...more than a man.

A Batman.

He is the Dark Knight. A man taking the law into his own hands in order to restore justice and a sense of right and wrong to a fallen city. This is a city that Batman loves, and he is willing to do anything he can to save it. He continually believes that Gotham can be saved, that it is worth saving...even as the villains continue declaring that it is beyond saving.

The first two films are all building to the epic conclusion of the "Dark Knight Rises". The city again is under siege and in need of its dark knight. Batman returns, but only after being born again in a sense--cast out to a prison by Bane he begins to remember who he is and why he he has become Batman--to protect the people of Gotham from those who wish to harm them, to make sure what happened to his parents doesn't happen to anyone else's parents.

Gotham needs Batman to give everything this time.
The film seems to be building to the ultimate sacrifice of Batman at the very end. This time he cannot just come in and save the day by fighting a few bad guys--this time he has to give everything for the sake of the city.

Indeed, in a conversation with Catwoman towards the end of the film she furiously asks Batman...
"These people don't deserve you. You've given them everything!"
But Batman responds with the end in mind...
"Not everything...not yet."

Batman is on a collision course with death. His fate tied up in the fate of the city he wants to see set free from the captivity it is under. The end of the film shows Batman taking a nuclear bomb east of Gotham out in the ocean with his own plane in order to have the bomb blow up outside of the city.

The bomb detonates and destroys the plane, but the city is saved.
Batman is presumably dead. I thought he was dead. People in the theater were crying.

I may or may not have been one of them. Maybe. Possibly.

Batman gave the ultimate sacrifice for his city, for his people. It was the only way.
I was deeply moved. As I looked back over the first two films I was able to see where Batman was headed, where he had to be headed--to the ultimate sacrifice. And it changed the whole dynamics of the first two films for me--this ultimate sacrifice hangs over Batman the entire time now, from the first time he puts on his suit until the very end.

So it was with Jesus, who from the first moment he put on his earthly suit in a manger had the end in mind. Only looking back from the cross to his birth can we truly see what his life meant and what he was truly about.
He also loved a city, a people, and desired to free them and bring them into a new city, a new world, a new kingdom. His entire life was building toward the cross, toward the ultimate salvation and deliverance for rebellious and wayward people.

Jesus is fully man, and yet he is also something more. As a man he could be a great teacher, a great advisor, a great moral exemplar, but as God in the flesh he could actually be our savior, our true knight, our true King.

The people of Gotham didn't just need Bruce Wayne. In the "Dark Knight Rises" Alfred tells Bruce that the people don't need Batman, they need Bruce Wayne, they need his finances, his intellect, his creations, his business--that is what will really help them. Alfred, Mr. Wayne's 'father' for most of his life since his parents death doesn't want to have to bury another member of the Wayne family. His love for Bruce is selfish, he doesn't want him to die, but live.

But in order for others to live, Batman must die.

The people need something more for evil to be defeated and the culture of death and violence to be halted.

The people still do.

But death is not the end. It wasn't for Batman, or at least it wasn't for Bruce Wayne. Batman, in a sense, does really die in the film in order to save the people. Bruce leaves behind Batman and moves on with his life, giving up the mask in order to gain a greater sense of inner peace.

In order for Jesus to truly be the sacrifice for all our sins, he couldn't just die, he had to rise again. He had too! How else will death truly be defeated? How else will we truly be free? How else can we truly trust that there is light within this darkness?

Jesus really did die. As our savior.
And he really did rise. As our redeemer.
And he really sits at the right hand of the Father even now--calling people out of death into life.

The Psalmist writes of the Lord
"Rise up and help us; rescue us because of your unfailing love."

Don't be afraid...for He has risen. He has triumphed.

And he reigns still. He's the only One who does.

Becoming a "Gospelicious" Person

Are you a "gospelicious" person?

I asked this question in my sermon this past weekend at Door Creek Church. What did I mean? What is a "gospelicious" person?

You can't find the exact word in the Holy Scriptures, but I believe you can find the idea of "gospeliciousness"on nearly every page of the Scriptures.

A gospelicious person is a person "who is overjoyed by the gospel". That is what I mean by the term gospelicious. A gospelicious person is someone who finds deep joy in the gospel, who is feasting on the goodness of God and experiencing the riches of the gospel. That's a gospelicious person.

There are many Christians in church every single weekend, but I don't believe there are nearly as many gospelicious people in church every single weekend. There are plenty of Christians showing up at church, singing along to the hymns, staring at the preacher for 40 minutes, bowing their head for a prayer and then heading off to lunch without being changed, moved, or overjoyed by glories of Jesus & the gospel. That is tragic.

Jesus says that he has come that we would have joy. Joy! But how many of you are actually experiencing anything approaching joy in your life? Sure, there may be moments of happiness here and there, but what of this joy? This gospeliciousness?

How can we become more gospelicious people? Let me set before you a few steps to grow in gospeliciousness.

1. Lament
I know, I know. Lament? Yes. You don't end with lamenting, but you must begin there. You must be a person who is lamenting your sins. The prophet Jeremiah in Lamentations is a man lamenting his sins and the sins of the people of Jerusalem. He realizes how far he and his people have strayed from the will of Yahweh and he begins to lament. When was the last time your sins brought you to tears? This is the beginning of becoming a gospelicious person--lamenting the huge divide between God's holiness & your sinfulness.

2. Repent
Repentance is central to the gospel. Why? Because it is the declaration that you can't fix you, you need to someone else to fix you. Repentance is simply turning away from your sins and towards your Savior. A Christian is a repenting person.
You lament your sin and then you repent for your sin. You declare that you yearn to live a different way. Ah, but you must be someone who is lamenting & repenting your sins in the context of love & not fear.
The gospel says that it is after you have experienced God's deep love for you through Jesus Christ that you are moved to lamenting & repenting.
Don't repent to earn God's love, but because God already loves you. This is vital to gospeliciousness. Lamenting & repenting in light of your standing in Jesus Christ now!

3. Lamenting & Repenting that leads to Joy
Jesus comes on the scene in Mark 1:15 and says "Repent and believe the good news (the gospel". Oh Jesus, always throwing around that word Repent. Why does Jesus always have to step on toes by throwing around the word Repent! Why can't we just believe the good news? Repent? Come on--that's outdated. Repent? How does that bring me joy?
Here's how.

You can't receive mercy until you realize you need mercy.

Sure, in a technical sense you can receive mercy even if you aren't aware that you need it--if someone helps pay a bill of yours or forgives a debt you have, but you don't think you need it you will probably still be happy they did what they did, but you won't truly be grateful for it because you never thought you really needed it.

You can't grasp the glory of cross until you realize how great God's mercy towards you is, until you realize how great your debt was that He paid. If you believe your a fairly moral, good person and you just need Jesus to help you be a better person then you will never a be a "gospelicious" person. But, if you believe that you were dead, that your sins separated you from God, that you were under condemnation, and yet God made you alive, forgave all your sins, and condemned His son to free you then you will be overflowing with thanksgiving, with joy. Joy is found in discovering the cost of the sacrifice of Jesus. And that it brought Him joy to sacrifice His life for yours.

Lamenting is necessary.
Repenting is necessary.
But are those disciplines leading to joy? Are you lamenting & repenting in light of what God has done for you? Is your repenting a response to God's great mercy in Jesus? It has to be. God looks at you in Jesus, and sees Jesus covering all of your sins (past, present, and future). That's a good and gracious God.

The secret to becoming a gospelicious person is to understand how sinful you are and how God's mercy has covered all of your sin AND how there is new mercy available to you every single morning!

Will you stumble today? Yes.
Will you sin today? Yes.
Is God's mercy new for you today? Yes.

He knows your frame. He knows you struggle and fall and that is why Lamentations 3 proclaims "His mercies are new EVERY morning, great is His faithfulness."

The deeper that truth penetrates your heart--the more gospelicious you will become.

On Growing Up, Going Home, and the Gospel

You never really stop growing up. That is what they don't tell you.
"What do you want to be when you grow up?" people ask, but when am I finally grown up? What does that even mean?

Growing up means change. It means transition. And it can be hard.

You start out naked. Then your mama slaps a diaper on you. Then you get a sweet Superman, err...Batman lunchbox. Then you graduate elementary school. Then you get braces. Then you (hopefully) go to Prom and where a terrible tuxedo. Then you leave everything you have known and go to college. Then you find yourself, except you don't really because college isn't that long. Then you get married. Then you...well, you get the picture.

Sometimes I just want to stay in one place forever!

I love visiting my parents house in Tennessee. Emily and I were able to visit with them last month before we moved up to Madison, Wisconsin. It was great to be back in my old room, to see our dogs, and to be in little ol' Maryville, Tennessee. There is something sweet about going home.

When you are teenager you can't wait to get away from home.
Then you get older and all you want to do is visit home.

Life. It's all backwards like that.

Emily and I had to say goodbye to my parents, and then say goodbye to her family in Austin, and then say bye bye to all of our friends in Dallas before we made the move to Madison. And I remember thinking---I wish we all lived together on the same street! Why can't all of our family and best friends just be together?

For those of us in Christ--we never really have to say goodbye. The gospel say that Jesus has come to prepare a home for us in heaven, the place that home was always supposed to be. And our hearts aren't fully satisfied until we are able to go home there.

Madison, Wisconsin is where we live, but it is not home yet. But after several years here it will feel like home. And then, the Lord may call Emily and I somewhere else and we will have to say goodbye to people here. But in Jesus we never really have to say goodbye.

We aren't satisfied with this life because this life is going to fade away, and because God has created us for Him, forever. There is eternity on our hearts, not merely 75 years. Eternity.

One day we all will get to finally go home. Until then, God calls us to to new adventures, he takes us new places, and he reminds us that this place is not our home, but that we are to be calling people to their true home in the world to come.

Eventually, we won't have to grow up anymore. We won't have to move anymore. We won't have to worry about what's next or where we will be in five or ten years. We will be with Him--and that will enough.

There is no place like home. And there is no God like Yahweh, who invites us to enjoy him forever in the glorious world that is coming.

The Joy of Beholding our Sin

Psalm 51:12 "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation"

King David writes Psalm 51 as a repenting response to the sins he committed against the Lord during his infamous incident with Bathsheba. The context for this Psalm is found in 2 Samuel 11 and 12.
God sends the prophet Nathan to expose David to the sins he has committed and in response David composes this Psalm.

Here is a really hard, but necessary thing to do in order to experience gospel-driven joy: we have to behold our sin.
Beholding your sin & feeling the weight of your sin before a holy God is the catalyst for deep joy.

This is extremely important and yet I don't think it is taught in most churches in a way that leads people to the atoning work of Jesus on the cross, but often simply leaves people feeling helpless or fearful because of their sin.

Sin is basically self-centerdness, it is the elevation of you over other people. The Scriptures teach that all people have failed to live under the authority of Jesus Christ for their lives, and have chosen their own way over God's. This is what happens with King David in 2 Samuel and this is what he is repenting of in Psalm 51.

Sin is a gradual numbing to the holiness of God. And this is what has been happening to David in the season leading up to his sins against Bathsheba and her husband Urriah.

David writes in Psalm 51:12 "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation." Let's briefly break this verse down in the context of Psalm 51 in order to get underneath what David is truly saying.

The Scriptures clearly teach that for all of those in God, in Christ your salvation cannot be lost. Christ has secured it forever when He saved you and delivered you, but there are seasons when the joy of God's salvation will wane. We all know this to be true. There are times when we are walking with the Lord, pressing into Him and bearing lots of fruit and feeling deep joy in Him, and there are other times when we can hear the words "God loves you" and it not move us an inch.

I believe that David wants the joy of God's presence, of God's salvation to return to him. And I believe that in order for joy to be experienced we have to confront our inner brokenness before the Lord. "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation." In order to understand how to experience this joy we have to unpack God's salvation.

David writes in Psalm 51:3-4 "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment."
We must always return to this. We must own our sin and continue to be honest with ourselves that we have failed to live as God has commanded us to live and have rebelled against him.

David is owning his sin, and and he is declaring the truth that God would be fully justified to do whatever He seems fit to do with him. God, fully holy and glorious, is blameless and justified to condemn us forever for our sins. This is the hard truth. But it is the truth. Yes, God is love, but his love does not compromise His holiness. And owning our sin starts with owning the fact that we are the problem. And we are in need of new hearts (not just all those 'other' people out there!). You know what I mean...how easy is it to shift the blame for our sins onto others, this is what Adam and Eve do in the Garden and it is something I continually do. But this is not a mark of maturity, but immaturity in the gospel and it has to be stopped in order to be healed.

David writes in Psalm 51:7 "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." David has confronted and owned his sins and now he moves towards his need for purging and washing. God must act to save him, and God must act to save us. We can't purge ourselves and we can't clean ourselves fully.

God can. We can't.

As a Christian, we have been purged and washed by the blood of Jesus. God has purged us and cleaned us, but at an extremely high price--the price of His son. God sends Jesus Christ to not only remove our sins, but to bear them and to die as a substitute in our place. This is great news!

When you begin to understand the depth of your rebellion before God then you will begin to experience the joy found in His rescue of you as well. God has not rescued from something small, but from condemnation, judgment, and eternal separation. He has rescued us from His wrath so that He can save us by His Son.

This is salvation. This is joy. This is the gospel.

Let me encourage you to behold your sin! BUT...Don't stop there. Don't just think about your sin and start chanting "woe is me" all the time, that's not the point. The point is that if you don't begin with your sin, with your need for a Savior then you will never be restored to joy when you experience the Savior's grace towards you. You have to do both--behold your sin and then move to beholding your Savior who fully cleanses you from all of your sins.

Are you beholding your sin?
Where are you running from the presence and purpose of God for your life right now?
Are you experiencing real joy in Jesus or are you just getting by as a Christian?

There is joy to be found in beholding your sin. But only if it leads to gospel-centered repentance that cries out to God to be merciful and then rest in the glorious truth that He has been.

"The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believed, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope." - Tim Keller

SAVED BY WORK: Good Friday Reflection

On Good Friday--Jesus truly becomes the true & greater Savior...

Jesus is the true & greater Adam who doesn't falter in his Garden, but is fully obedient to God unto the point of death.
Jesus is the true & greater Seth who doesn't just provide a way for Adam's family to be redeemed, but for all families of the earth of to be saved.
Jesus is the true & greater Noah who doesn't just provide a way out of God's wrath for a moment, but for all time through the Cross.
Jesus is the true & greater Ark of Noah who truly delivers people from death to life in the ultimate sense.
Jesus is the true & greater Abram who doesn't just rescue us physically from captivity as Abram does Lot, but who rescues & delivers us ultimately from a greater captivity.
Jesus is the true & greater Isaac who willingly lays down his life before his Father in order to show us the great love of his Father.
Jesus is the true & greater Moses who stands in the ultimate breach between man and God and intercedes for his people before the Father.
Jesus is the true & greater Joshua who doesn't just lead his people into the promised land, but becomes the promised land through his death & resurrection.
Jesus is the true & greater David, a King who will establish his eternal Kingdom through death & resurrection by perfect obedience to the Father.
Jesus is the true & greater Hosea who pursues his faithless people with steadfast faithfulness to bring them back to Him.
Jesus is the true & greater Jonah who is sent to another city in order to become peace for them and save from the wrath of God.
Jesus is the true & greater High Priest who enters into the holy of holies once and for all to perfect us through his death on the cross.
Jesus is the true & greater Perfect Tent that is not made with human hands, but with the hands of God to fully atone for sin through his death on the cross.
Jesus is the true & greater Mercy Seat that is not merely sprinkled with the blood of animals, but is drenched with his blood for our sake.
Jesus is the true & greater Lamb who is truly without spot, without blemish, and is slain on our behalf to make us spotless before him.
Jesus is the true & greater Covenant whose death on the cross for our sins covers up all of our iniquities and brings us boldly into His presence.
Jesus is the true & greater Sacrifice whose death on the cross satisfies the wrath of God towards sin and allows us complete access to the Father.

Jesus thirsts that we never would.
Jesus suffers God's wrath that we never would.
Jesus is cut off from the Father so we never would be.
Jesus is killed outside the gate, so that we could be brought in the gate.
Jesus doesn't save himself on the cross so that he can save us by the cross.
Jesus tears the veil in two to give us complete access to the Father.
Jesus is overwhelmed by sorrow that we never would be.
Jesus is condemned so that we never would be.
Jesus becomes guilty so that we never would be.
Jesus becomes unclean to make us clean.
Jesus bears judgement that we never would.
Jesus becomes sin to forgive us all our sin.

The Cross says...

You can't be...
too broken
too dirty
too ashamed
too guilty
too sinful
too filthy
too selfish
too enslaved
too unclean
too untouchable
too hopeless
too unworthy
too defiled
too unlovely
too unwell
too unrighteous
too decadent
too unpardonable
too undeserving
too captive
too evil
too far gone

Never. Ever.

The Cross demonstrates the outrageous love and mercy of God in Jesus Christ--to bring you back to Him, no matter what.

WE ARE SAVED BY WORK.

THE WORK OF JESUS CHRIST ON THE CROSS.

It.
Is.
Finished.

Glory to Jesus Christ, the true & greater Savior who brings us all the way home by his LIFE, DEATH, AND RESURRECTION.

When Jesus Fell

This is a tale of two Gardens.

In the first Garden, the Garden of Eden Adam fell into sin. Adam stumbled, Adam disobeyed.
It was God who created this Garden and gave it to Adam and his wife, but Adam ran way from God. Adam chose his will over the will of God, his way over the way of God. And because of this rebellion, this rejection of God Adam and Eve fall into sin and become separated from their Father--their God.

This was the first Garden. Where sin triumphed over man.

Enter Matthew 26, and the final Thursday of Jesus' life before his death.

Jesus goes up to a second garden--the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives.
Matthew writes in verses 36-38

"Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”

Jesus is sorrowful and troubled. Why?
Why is Jesus so sorrowful and troubled? Luke writes, in his account, that Jesus is sweating drops of blood he is in so much agony.
Sweating drops of blood.

We could look to many Christian martyrs, men and women who faced equally brutal deaths for their faith in Christ that do not seem as troubled or sorrowful about their impending death. None of them will be sweating drops of blood before their execution like Jesus is. And yet they are merely men, and at first blush seem more bold and less scared than Jesus is in the Garden.

Why?

Matthew 26:39 holds the answer, and it is staggering.
Matthew writes

"And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will."

Jesus fell.

He fell on his face as he cried to His father for deliverance, to not have to drink the cup.

This cup that Jesus is going to have to drink, this is the cup of God's wrath. This is the cup that began to be filled up in the first Garden, when Adam ran away from God and choose himself over God. This is the cup of God's fury towards sin, towards every single person who has turned away from God and run from Him.

Towards you. And me.

And God tells Jesus that he is going to have to drink from this cup, and Jesus staggers. But, unlike Adam in the first Garden, Jesus obeys the will of God. He falls, but gets back up in order to head to the cross to make peace between man and God. God will now pour out all of His wrath, His righteous anger on Jesus Christ so that He won't have to pour it all out on us.

Tim Keller writes "Jesus doesn't come to bring judgement, He comes to bear it."

Gethsemane triumphs over Eden.
Jesus triumphs over Adam.
God triumphs over sin.

Remember both gardens. Remember the first garden, the garden that we all have lived in and the garden we still sometimes choose. The garden that shows us we are really broken, and really sinful. This is the garden that shows us our great need--our need for a second garden.

Jesus doesn't leave us in the first garden--He brings us into a second Garden, but only because Jesus has first entered into this Garden for us. Only because He has made peace for us, and He has become sin for us.

Jesus sweats drops of blood, blood that will be poured out the next day on our behalf, so that we could be brought near. That we could one day be brought before Him without blemish, without fault, without sin.

Redeemed. Restored. Reconciled.

"But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."
-Ephesians 2:13

Seek Jesus and Break Your Mirror

In the book of Colossians, the Apostle Paul is writing to the Christians at the church in Colossae during a time when they are confronting counterfeit gospels. False teachers and leaders were emerging who were calling Christians to live a life that was not in line with the truth of the gospel (Galatians 2:14). Paul is encouraging the Christians in Colossae to hold fast to Jesus Christ and to the gospel that he has previously delivered to them as the gospel which justifies and sanctifies them for all things.

In Colossians 2:20-3:4 the Apostle Paul outlines (by a rebuke of the false teacher who was teaching in Colossae) two ways to deal with sin.


Option #1: Self-made religion. Law keeper > Law giver.
Option #2: The gospel. Law Giver > law keeper.

The tendency of Option 1 for people within the church is huge, and it remains a massive issue today. Our default mode for how to deal with what's gone wrong in us or for how to make ourselves better, or stronger, or more spiritual is FOCUS ON OURSELF.
We promote the law-keeper (ourselves) over the Law Giver (God).
Self-made religion is an attempt to fix yourself by focusing on yourself. The mantra of self-made religion is "do this", and so we create rules to live by and steps to obey and paths to follow in order that we might be rescued.

In verses 21-22, Paul writes "If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to its regulations--'do not handle, do not taste, do not touch'(referring to things that all perish as they are used)---according to human precepts and teachings."

Translation: Christ death's freed you from the need to obey (or submit) to rules & regulations in order to be justified. What you touch or taste can't save you, only Christ can save you. Law-keeping is no longer enough. The Law-giver is only enough.

Paul goes in in verse 23 to write "All of these things (the commands to 'not taste, not touch, and not handle') have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh."

This is pure theological gold. Paul is saying, yeah yeah yeah all of these rules and things you are doing have an appearance of wisdom. There are hints of wisdom in following all of these rules and in obeying these commands. Christians and secular people do this today by saying "you need to focus on you" to get right, or get healthy, or move on from that break-up, or feel better about your life. Christians might say "I pray to Jesus and even try and follow him, but I have to figure out how I can be better and and I can fix my sin issues, and I can do this". The focus in this approach is self-directed. It's the mirror approach to transformation and sanctification. And it will never really work.

Paul says that when you actually focus on yourself--when you look at yourself and say if I just do this or do that, follow this command harder or say no to all these things you will never be truly transformed and changed. Self-focus does not lead to sustainable life transformation. The focus is on you the whole time, and Paul is saying you can't fix you.

Law Giver > law keeper.

Paul then goes on in Colossians 3 to deliver the gospel-centered option for real change in life. It's time to focus on the Law-giver, and not the law-keeper. It's time to focus on Jesus Christ, on the the things of heaven, on the glory of God.
He writes "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."

There it is. Gospel-centered, Jesus-focused, Spirit-driven change.

Translated: Seek Jesus, and break your mirror.

What are you staring at? Where is your focus? It's time to break your mirror. Free yourself from the crushing weight of believing that by looking harder into the mirror, into yourself, that that will be enough to get you where the Lord wants you to go, to kill your sin, to truly change.

Tim Keller writes "our justification determines our sanctification, our sanctification doesn't determine our justification". Wow, big words Timmy. What does he mean? I don't know.

Just kidding. Kind of. Let me close by explaining why what Dr. Keller said is important.

All other religions of the world promote the idea that your sanctification (the way you keep the rules or ethics of a religion) determines your right standing before God (or whomever you are following). It's what I do and my intensity of focus on myself that drives the change and secures my identity.

The gospel says something entirely and radically different. Jesus drives the change. God sent His son, Jesus Christ, to do everything we couldn't do. In Jesus, we have the ultimate law-keeper. We actually have both the law-giver and law-keeper in one. (Mind blown). Jesus is fully obedient to the Father and fully obedient to the Law. And now, through trusting in His life, His obedience, and His death on the cross we find the basis for our sanctification.

Focus on the Cross. Focus on Jesus. Focus on the 'things above'. This is where true change begins and ends.

If I could paraphrase Jesus...
"Seek first the Kingdom of God...and everything else, well...there really isn't anything else."

Morning Prayer with "The Valley of Vision"

Christ is All

O Lover to the uttermost,
May I read the meltings of Thy heart to me
in the manger of Thy birth,
in the garden of Thy agony,
in the cross of Thy suffering,
in the tomb of Thy resurrection,
in the heaven of Thy intercession.

Bold in this thought I defy my adversary,
tread down his temptations,
resist his schemings,
renounce the world,
am valiant for truth.

Deepen in me a sense of my holy relationship to Thee,
as spiritual bridegroom,
as Jehovah's fellow,
as sinners' friend.

I think of Thy glory and my vileness,
Thy majesty and my meanness,
Thy beauty and my deformity,
Thy purity and my filth,
Thy righteouness and my iniquity.

Thou has loved me everlastingly, unchangeably,
may I love Thee as I am loved;
Thou hast given Thyself for me,
may I give myself to Thee.
Thou hast died for me,
may I live to Thee
in every moment of time,
in every movement of my mind,
in every pulse of my heart.

May I never dally with the world and its allurements,
but walk by Thy side,
listen to Thy voice,
be clothed with Thy grace,
and adorned with Thy righteousness.

Praying Prayers that Change Us & "The Valley of Vision"

I have read prayers from the Puritan prayer book "The Valley of Vision" several times while I have preached, and continue to pray through it in the mornings and in devotional time with Emily. It is a powerful example of prayers that are God-centered, Christ-saturated, Spirit-reliant, and doctrinally rich. So often my prayers are very shallow and merely a recitation of things that I want from the Lord or that I want the Lord to do for me. It is not unbiblical or sinful to ask the Lord for things, but if that is the greatest extent of my prayer life then I really don't have a biblically-informed prayer life at all, or a prayer life that is connecting with the Lord and providing revitalization for my soul in any way.

The Valley of Vision was written by the Puritans. Don Sweeting, President of Reformed Theological Seminary writes "The Valley of Vision is a book of prayers drawn from a largely forgotten deposit of Puritan devotional literature. Its writers were both serious Christians and serious pray-ers. No names are attached to the individual prayers, but the introduction tells us that the prayers come from those in the Puritan tradition such as Thomas Shepherd, Thomas Watson, Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, Isaac Watts, Philip Doddridge, David Brainerd, and Charles Spurgeon."

The Valley of Vision will help you develop more God-soaked and Christ-exalting prayers, and create a greater desire to pray upwards and outwards to a majestically glorious God who desires our prayers. Many have said that prayer is the real work of the Christian life, but how few of us (me included) truly do pray and how many of us who pray truly pray out of an overflow of deep love for the gospel and desire to be more filled with the fullness of Jesus Christ?

Prayers spring from need. A vital and growing prayer life flows from a heart that is dependent on God for all things. God calls us to pray because we are a people of great need (and prayer acknowledges that need)--in need of His grace, His life, His joy. God invites us to pray to Him that we might receive from Him...Himself. We are called to pray without ceasing by the Apostle Paul. This doesn't mean we spend all of our time with our eyes closed, but that we cultivate lives which are lived with humility before God and dependence on God--and that from our prayers our lives start to take on a gospel-centered shape.

Prayer is shaping our lives to be in line with the heart of Jesus.

I will be posting prayers from The Valley of Vision on the blog, and pray that they help you depend more readily on prayer for all of your life, for the greater glory of God in the world, for your deeper joy, and for a growing heart and mind that is caught up in things above---that you might be encouraged to live more faithfully to the One who prayed regularly for you, that in seeking--we would find Him--ever available.

The first prayer below is entitled The Valley of Vision

The Valley of Vision

Lord, High and Holy, Meek and Lowly,

Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.

Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells the brighter thy stars shine;

Let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death,
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty,
thy glory in my valley.

The Gospel and "The Hunger Games"

Emily and I went to see "The Hunger Games" Friday night with millions of other people around the United States. The energy in the nearly 500 seat theater (one of four at the AMC we were at) was palpable. Emily had read the books, but I had not and so I had little real information up front about what was going on. There was a death match? A love story? The future? I really didn't know what to expect and I wasn't expecting terribly much from a film that seemed to be marketing to teenagers and younger (and older) women.

But, while the wife was laid out with her wisdom teeth recently I played the hero card in a valiant attempt to placate her pain by buying her tickets to the Hunger Games on its opening weekend. And now it was time to pay the piper--I was going to see it.

The book, exactly like the film "is written in the voice of sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives in a post-apocalyptic world in the country of Panem where the countries of North America once existed. The Capitol, a highly advanced metropolis, holds absolute power over the rest of the nation. The Hunger Games are an annual event in which one boy and one girl aged 12 to 18 from each of the 12 districts surrounding the Capitol are selected by lottery to compete in a televised battle in which only one person can survive."

The boy and girl who are selected from each district are known as "Tributes", and they serve as reminders of when the Capitol destroyed a now extinct "District 13" because of their uprising against the regime. Now the Hunger Games exist to remind the people of the honor of fighting for their own survival, of the glories of battle, and for the sheer entertainment that the televised games provide to the people in the Capitol--and also, I think, that the people would continue to pay the debt for their rebellion and uprising.

The Hunger Games trilogy actually follows the biblical narrative of Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Restoration. Professor Alvin Reid writes about the Hunger Games...

"The Hunger Games begins with this new world, moving quickly to the depiction of depravity: the sacrificing of children. Though the leaders use fear to keep people in line, Panem’s President Snow states the truth: “Hope is greater than fear.” Ultimately hope will come in the life of the rescuer, the Mockingjay named Katniss. Ultimately, Panem is overthrown, the rebellion succeeds, and young people – those chosen to be the sacrifice -- become the key players in the rescue. Finally, in the Epilogue, you find this rescuer named Katniss with her family, restored."

In the film it is clear that someone must die in order that someone might live. The debt the people owe because of the rebellion must continually be paid. The Capitol must punish the Districts for their rebellions years ago, but they must also offer hope, a sliver of hope that they can be rescued. They offer this by allowing one person to win The Hunger Games--opening up the possibility that all is not lost in this broken world they exist in. The debt has been paid--for now.

However, the Hunger Games do not only occur one time--they occur every single year. There must be an ongoing Hunger Games. One Hunger Game is not enough to remind the people about the rebellion or to appease the Capitol. The film recounts the 74th Annual Hunger Games. The girl or boy who wins the Hunger Games does not die, but they are not truly free because they are still enslaved to the Capitol, and the next year all the people must await another Hunger Games.

The book of Hebrews powerfully recounts how the people of Israel had to continually offer up sacrifices for their sins. Every single year they had to offer sacrifices. The writer of Hebrews writes "For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins."

The people of Israel and the people of Panem are in the same boat. Unable to save themselves. Unable to deliver themselves. You can feel the angst. You can feel the need for someone to ultimately and eternally rescue the people. An annual Hunger Games is not enough--it is simply a continual reminder to the people that they are enslaved to the Capitol. The film is clearly setting up Katniss as the figure with the power to ultimately reverse all that has gone wrong. She will overthrow the Capitol, she will rescue the people, she will finally deliver them from their poverty, brokenness, and slavery. Ahhh...if only she wasn't a work of fiction.

The writer of Hebrews, however, gives us a beautiful work of nonfiction--a true and greater Tribute, a true and greater hope, a true and greater Katniss. That is Jesus Christ. The ultimate rescuer. The ultimate deliverer. The one who really does bring us all the way home because of His great love for us, His people. The writer of Hebrew writes "And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."

It is finished.
Through the offering up of Christ's life on our behalf, in our place, for our sin. The debt has been paid. We have been freed.
This is the gospel message.
We all ache for a greater rescue, for someone to come and really save us and free us. In Jesus--we get it.

In fact, Suzanne Collins writes this at the very end of the final installment of the series of Katniss “What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again.”

The Apostle Paul, writing to the people in Ephesus (and us today) in Ephesians 1 writes-- In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth."

We have been forgiven. We have been rescued. We have been redeemed.
We have been brought home.

Hungry No More.