Happy 4th

Happy 4th from Carl Lewis. (This is for Ed)

Retreats...

I've been out of town for the past week, so I haven't really had a chance to blog.

Last weekend I spoke at retreat for Grace Community Baptist in Richmond, and this upcoming weekend, I'll be speaking at a ski retreat for several youth groups from the Charlotte area.

Last weekend's retreat was incredible. It was great to serve alongside friends like Ed & Katie Martin and Josh & Tasha Via. I was humbled and honored to be with them.

This upcoming weekend, I'll get to serve alongside some other great friends for Best Ski Trip 2009!

Praying that God will bring about radical transformation in the lives of students there!

Luther on Faith

"Faith is permitting ourselves to be seized by the things we do not see."

-Martin Luther

Wii Fit

Jennifer and I got the Wii Fit for Christmas this year. It's not even February yet, and I'm slacking off.

Piper's response to Obama's recent abortion policy

Here's a good blog that keeps up with the government's actions on abortion

Classy Sportsmanship

I saw something like this one time. When I lived in Hendersonville, my friend Matt and I went to go see a basketball team called the Tiny Trotters. They were playing much bigger people, and were destroyed. It was bad enough that they were beaten like a drum, but the fact that the 'bigger people' celebrated in an inordinate way filled with taunts made it incredibly awkward.

Hard to Believe

From the opening of Hard to Believe by John Macarthur:

"The first role of successful merchandising is to give consumers what they want. If they want bigger burgers, make their burgers bigger. Designer bottled water in six fruit flavors? Done. Minivans with ten cup holders? Give them twenty. You've got to keep the customer satisfied. You've got to modify your product and your message to meet their needs if you want to build a market and get ahead of the competition.
Today this same consumer mind-set has invaded Christianity..."

Exit!

Just in case they don't see the first two, let's put up another one...

I love the wii, but this is insane...

Spurgeon on Fellowship

Satan always hates Christian fellowship; it is his policy to keep Christians apart. Anything which can divide saints from one another he delights in. He attaches far more importance to godly intercourse than we do. Since union is strength, he does his best to promote separation.

C.H. Spurgeon

Peer Pressure

Jennifer and I were reading John 9 this morning about the healing of the man born blind. One of the interesting parts of the story is the reaction of the blind guy's parents. There's a revealing little parenthesis about them right in the middle of the story. They try to stay as far removed from what's happening as possible. Why?...

"His parents said these things because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone should confess Jesus to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue" (9:22).

They folded under peer pressure. It's tempting to think that only teenagers are faced with peer pressure, but if we do a little digging around in our hearts, we'll find that we often fold under peer pressure as well.

Peter G. van Breeman writes:
"How much good is left undone because of our fear of the opinion of others! We are immobilized by the thought: what will others say? The irony of all this is that the opinions we fear most are not those of people we really respect, yet these same persons influence our lives more than we want to admit. This enervating fear of our peers can create an appalling mediocrity" (quoted in Brennan Manning's "Posers, Fakers & Wannabes).

It's uncomfortably revealing to consider what we do either for the applause of others, or what we do to avoid the criticism of others...

I think I'll start this up again...

I took a 6 month break from blogging, but alas, I think I'll start it up again.