The Right Place for Your Gifts
“The incompetency we see everywhere is not because people lack gifts, but because they are not in the right place for their gifts. They are not being stewards of what God has given them. There are plenty of gifts to do all the work that needs to be done everywhere and to do all of it gloriously well–so well in fact, that people would go rejoicing from day to day over how much was accomplished and how well it was accomplished. But the world’s systems, corrupted by the sin of man, place enormous obstacles in the way of each person who attempts to find his rightful place in creation.”
-Finding a Job You Can Love p. 41
The Shema, Falling in Love Forever
Hoping my wife wouldn’t go into labor while preaching, this Sunday I had the joy of preaching the crown jewel text of Deuteronomy, the Shema.
Listen:
Falling in Love Forever
Download:
Falling in Love Forever.mp3
Facebook One-Month Trial Results
My one-month Facebook trial is up. I’ve decided…
that I’m sticking with it.
Why?
Facebook has been fun and it hasn’t sucked up too much time.
I’m probably on Facebook an average of 30-40 minutes per week.
What I’ve especially enjoyed about Facebook:
1) reconnecting with old friends from the 4 other places I’ve lived (Sacramento, Spokane, Santa Barbara, and Saratoga)
2) status updates
3) how Facebook can actually be used to enhance in-person contact with people
Once I get some spare time/sometime after this 2nd Buzzard baby is born (any day now) I’m looking forward to taking a tour of the Facebook campus in Palo Alto from my friend AnneMarie. I’ve heard good things. I think it’s going to be a toss up between Facebook and Google for the most colorful Bay Area work environments.
10 Commandments Sermon
Mark Mitchell preached an excellent, gospel-saturated sermon this last Sunday on the Ten Commandments. Give it a listen.
20 Books To Read In Your 20s
I’m putting together a list for the twentysomethings of my church: 20 Books to Read in Your 20s. I’d love to factor your input into this list. What are some of the books you’d put on this list? Feel free to mention one book, several books, or twenty books.
Preaching Check-up
Rookie preachers, could you use some fresh preaching education, specifically–counsel on how to go about preaching the Bible in a gospel-centered fashion in our postmodern world?
Veteran preachers, would you benefit from a preaching check-up, from taking stock of your preaching by listening to a five-star course on preaching?
If so, I’d encourage you to load onto your iPod this excellent, free course from RTS on iTunes U: Tim Keller and Edmund Clowney, Preaching Christ in a Postmodern World.
I’m 3 sessions into the course. It’s rich stuff.
Taking Your Theology to Another Level
I find time and time again that talking to non-Christians forces me to take my theology to another level. “I pray,” says Paul to Philemon, “that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ” (v. 6). Unbelievers are not satisfied with the pat answers and unexplained terminology that Christians all too readily accept.
…Communicating the gospel cross-culturally and across subcultures causes us to reflect on how much of our Christian practice arises from the gospel and how much from our own culture. Mission is the opportunity to rethink which elements of what we believe do belong to the gospel and which in fact belong to our culture.
God is Not a Vending Machine
The way you pray for guidance forces you to decide if God is just a vending machine to give you what you want within your time frame, or whether you are God’s servant, seeking to do his will within his timeframe.
-James Petty, Step By Step p. 216
Made It. Turning 30 Feels Good. Psalm 30.
FYI, for those of you wondering about the run, I made it and I had a blast.
THE START:
THE COURSE:
THE FINISH:
The run ended up totaling 15 miles. I handled the mileage much better than I’d anticipated. I ended up running the route much faster than I’d anticipated. celebrated by jumping into the ocean and swimming around for about 10 minutes under the full moon while I waited for Taylor to pick me up. Once she arrived we celebrated the run/my 30th with a date at Pasta Moon where I downed a whole large pizza, loads of bread, and a hot fudge sundae.
I have a hunch that this might just be the beginning for me and long distance runs/adventures. I really enjoy pushing my body like this.
The scariest moment in the run came when I had to hurdle a still-twitching dead deer in the bike lane on Hwy 92 that had been hit by a car probably no more than 5 minutes earlier. At that point, running in the nighttime dark along a busy highway with barely any shoulder, I realized that my yellow shirt didn’t do much in the dark and that I’d need to run wisely to avoid the same fate as the deer.
The best part of the run was my enjoyment of God. Praising him for 30 years of life, I spent much of the run meditating on Psalm 30, a Psalm that perfectly fits the season of life I’ve passed through these last 5 or 6 months and the place of healing and joy God has now brought me to:
Joy Comes with the Morning
A Psalm of David. A song at the dedication of the temple.
30:1 I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up
and have not let my foes rejoice over me.
2 O Lord my God, I cried to you for help,
and you have healed me.
3 O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;
you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.
4 Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.
5 For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.
6 As for me, I said in my prosperity,
“I shall never be moved.”
7 By your favor, O Lord,
you made my mountain stand strong;
you hid your face;
I was dismayed.
8 To you, O Lord, I cry,
and to the Lord I plead for mercy:
9 “What profit is there in my death,
if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it tell of your faithfulness?
10 Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me!
O Lord, be my helper!”
11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
you have loosed my sackcloth
and clothed me with gladness,
12 that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!
