hill country pink

hill country pink, originally uploaded by bkingr.

an alternate way to link to flickr. only one photo at a time, but here is what it looks like.

blog move

I moved to a wordpress.org hosted blog at bkingrblog.com

Forgotten God

I am reading Francis Chan’s book, Forgotten God. It is very similar to the writing style and approach that Francis took when he wrote Crazy Love (which is on my “read every January list”).

In other words, it is easy to read, challenges assumptions, and dares us to move out of our routines into a powerful relationship with God the Holy Spirit.

Here are a few excerpts from later in the book to give the flavor:

God is not interested in numbers. He cares most about the faithfulness, not the size, of His bride. He cares about whether people are lovers of Him. And while I might be able to get people in the doors of a church or auditorium if I tell enough jokes or use enough visuals, the fact remains that I cannot convince people to be obsessed with Jesus. Perhaps I can talk people into praying a prayer, but I cannot talk anyone into falling in love with Christ. I cannot make someone understand and accept the gift of grace. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. So by every measure that actually counts, I need the Holy Spirit. Desperately.

p. 143

and

But God is not a coercive God. And though He desires for His children to know peace and love and to have wisdom, I have noticed that He often waits for us to ask.

He desires to do more than “help out” a bit. He wants to completely transform us. He wants to take a timid heart and set it ablaze with strength and courage, so much so that people know something supernatural has taken place–life change just as miraculous as fire coming down from heaven.

p. 146

and

I don’t know about you, but I cannot simply muster up more love. I can’t manufacture patience just by gritting my teeth and determining to be more patient. We are not strong enough or good enough and it doesn’t work that way. None of us can “do goodness” on our own, much less all the other elements that make up the fruit of the Spirit.
….
Instead of mustering up more willpower, let’s focus our energies and time on asking for help from the One who has the power to change us. Let’s take the time to ask God to put the fruit of His Spirit into our lives. And let’s spend time with the One we want to be more like.

p. 148

why me?

These are questions we tend to ask when things aren’t going the way we would desire for them to go.  Why me?  Why this? Why now?

Justin Taylor posts an answer tree from David Powlison, “God’s Grace and Your Sufferings,”  in Suffering and the Sovereignty of God (pp. 172-173)..

here is a paragraph from the middle, but you really have to go read and perhaps meditate on the whole thing

As that deeper question sinks home, you become joyously sane. The universe is no longer supremely about you. Yet you are not irrelevant. God’s story makes you just the right size. Everything counts, but the scale changes to something that makes much more sense. You face hard things. But you have already received something better which can never be taken away. And that better something will continue to work out the whole journey long.

I have the Kindle version of Suffering and the Sovereignty of God on my iPhone. Obviously, I need to read past the introduction.

book recommendation

John Piper is making a book recommendation other than the Bible.  Same Kind of Different As Me.

My lovely wife read Same Kind of Different As Me last year and also recommends it highly.

here are some lines that Piper mentioned:

• “Denver and I are not preachers or teachers but sinners with a story to tell.”
• “You never know whose eyes God is watchin’ you through.”
• “I hope people will recycle the love they’ve been givin’ to somebody that’s not easy to love.”
• “This earth ain’t no final restin’ place, so in a way we is all homeless.”
• “Just tell ’em I’m a nobody tryin’ to tell everybody about Somebody who can save anybody.”
• “How do you live the rest of your life in jus a few days?”

Early Voting

Julie and I early voted this afternoon for my boss, Governor Rick Perry. Below is the text of an email that I received from someone else who works for the Governor, explaining why it is important to vote for him in this primary as well as for Justice Eva Guzman.

Early voting is underway. You can vote early through next Friday. The Primary is Tuesday, March 2nd. I encourage you to vote early. Having been involved in the political process for close to 30 years now, I can think of no time in the history of our country and our state that it is more important for you to choose the right leaders. I know that you are all encountering your own issues with this current economy, and there is a lot of uncertainty, and in many cases fear, of what the future holds. I know that you will find it no surprise that I am encouraging you to vote for our current Governor, Rick Perry. I’m not going to give you the political reasons – you can see those on the tv ads that are currently running. I am asking you to support him because he has done a great job leading this state during very difficult times. Things are tough on many Texans right now, but it could be a lot worse if steps had not been taken prior to this current downturn to have Texas in a strong position to weather the storm. Those decisions did not happen by accident. I have had the privilege to see our Governor at work behind the scenes. I know how much he loves this state and the people of this state. He is seasoned and has made the tough decisions that have needed to be made, many times knowing that he would take the political hit. He does not govern by opinion polls or from the influence of special interests. He isn’t looking for the endorsement of newspapers. He represents the businesses and people who work hard every day – The folks like you and me who don’t ask anything from government other than to let us keep as much of our hard earned salaries and business profits as possible to support ourselves, our familes, and help in our communities.

He is not very popular with the current administration in Washington DC. He is taking strong stands every day to protect Texas and her people from what some in the federal government would do to our state, if not challenged. The threats are real and too numerous to discuss in one short email. This is not the time to elect someone who would need time for on-the-job training. The people in office who would pass laws to hurt our state would not give someone a grace period. I would be happy to answer questions or direct you to sources who can answer your questions.

I would also like to encourage you to vote for Justice Eva Guzman for the Texas Supreme Court. The Governor just recently appointed her to the seat she holds on the Court. Justice Guzman is known throughout legal circles as a strict constructionist with an unmatched work ethic. She is a principled, conservative judge. As an associate justice on the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston, she ruled on thousands of civil and criminal appeals, and authored hundreds of published opinions. She was recently recognized by the Hispanic National Bar Association as Latina Judge of the Year and as 2009 Judge of the Year by the Mexican American Bar Association of Texas Foundation. She has also been named Appellate Judge of the Year by P.O.L.I.C.E. Inc. and the Houston Police Officers Union. She has an incredible personal history that I would be happy to share with you. For all of my female friends, you would love to hear about her story and journey to end up making history as the first Hispanic female to serve on the Supreme Court of Texas.

Thanks to each of you for your indulgence as I have shared my opinions with you.

I have met Justice Guzman on several occasions and I have spoken with her at length and in depth about her judicial philosophy as a principled conservative Judge. She is a proven hard worker on the 14th Court of Appeals and I encourage everyone to vote for her in the primary and general election in her race for place 9 on the Texas Supreme Court.

from yesterday’s campaign stop in Austin

Fuel for the Christian Life

Tullian Tchividjian explains that the Gospel is the power of God for salvation as well as fuel for living the Christian life.

HT to Timmy Brister

photoes on phridai

finally, at long last, I have some pictures for the last hour of this friday. From the Nikon F5, here are some taken with Fuji Velvia 50. I have been wanting to try this color saturated film for a while.

hedge on the Capitol grounds

messing with the sun in our front tree

backlit flag

and a bonus view of Samson

Brian McLaren’s new book

Kevin DeYoung thoroughly (pdf 12 pages long) reviews all ten premises of Brian McClaren’s new book A New Kind of Christianity here. Kevin’s describes his approach at the outset:

I want to be fair with McLaren. I want to understand his ideas and evaluate them based on their merits. If I misunderstand a point or misconstrue what McLaren teaches I want to be corrected. Further, I have no desire to engage in ad hominem attacks. I want to discuss McLaren’s theology without vitriol or sophomoric putdowns. I will not assume the worst about Brian McLaren. I will try not to say anything in the cozy confines of the blogosphere that I would not say sitting across from McLaren over a beverage of his choice.

It’s not wrong to ask a reviewer to be charitable, so long as the love does not have to be devoid of the truth.

So what I will not do is pretend that the issues McLaren raises are non-essential issues or that his mistakes are little mistakes. I will not refrain from serious critique because this is only a “quest” or merely an attempt to raise questions. Moreover, I will not attempt to find a middle ground with teaching that I believe to be heterodox. I will not look for a third way when I see Christianity going down one path and McLarenism going down another. I will state my disagreements with this book strongly and warn other Christians strenuously. I am not ashamed for having convictions, and I am not afraid to write as if I understand (truly though not exhaustively) what the Bible teaches and understand that what it teaches is incompatible with A New Kind of Christianity.

No one deserves to reviled. But some books deserve to pilloried.

and then he promptly and calmly proceeds to pillory what needs to be pilloried.

Tim Challies also reviewed the book. His review is shorter and more brutal.

It wasn’t too long ago that I wrote about Brian McLaren and got in trouble. Reflecting on seeing him speak at a nearby church, I suggested that he appears to love Jesus but hate God. Based on immediate and furious reaction, I quickly retracted that statement. I should not have done so. I believed it then and I believe it now. And if it was true then, how much more true is it upon the release of his latest tome A New Kind of Christianity. In this book we finally see where McLaren’s journey has taken him; it has taken him into outright, rank, unapologetic apostasy. He hates God. Period.

Both of these men have done us a service. Books such as McClaren’s need to be deconstructed and called out for the heresy that they are. As Mark Driscoll says, we have a duty to shoot the wolves.

UPDATE: Amos and Story

At her blog, Jamie Ivey has been posting updates regarding the integration of their two newest family members, Amos and Story, into the family. The latest update gives a glimpse into how difficult adoption can be.

Amos asks me every day why I love him. I’ll tell him I love him and he looks at me and says why do you love me? I hate this question. I have never had to explain this Cayden, Deacon or even Story. They have never questioned my love. Amos does daily. Not only in his heart, but he vocalizes it too.

pray for the Iveys as they love and parent these four precious children that God has given them. Pray for Amos to realize that he is here to stay with parents that love him simply because God gave him to them for that purpose.

see here for background information.

the Holy Crap must go

Walter Russell Meade lays down his marker. its a good read. I especially like this bit, but the whole thing is good:

The Christian churches in the United States are in trouble for all the usual reasons — human sinfulness and selfishness, the temptations of life in an affluent society, doctrinal and moral controversies and uncertainties and on and on and on — but also and to a surprisingly large degree they are in trouble because they are trying to address the problems of the twenty first century with a business model and a set of tools that date from the middle of the twentieth.  The mainline churches in particular are organized like General Motors was organized in the 1950s: they have cost structures and operating procedures that simply don’t work today.  They are organized around what I’ve been calling the blue social model, built by rules that don’t work anymore, and oriented to a set of ideas that are well past their sell-by date.

Without even questioning it, most churchgoers assume that a successful church has its own building and a full-time staff including one or more professionally trained leaders (ordained or not depending on the denomination).  Perhaps no more than half of all congregations across the country can afford this at all; most manage only by neglecting maintenance on their buildings or otherwise by cutting corners.  And even when they manage to make the payroll and keep the roof in repair, congregations spend most of their energy just keeping the show going from year to year.  The life of the community centers around the attempt to maintain a model of congregational life that doesn’t work, can’t work, won’t work no matter how hard they try.  People who don’t like futile tasks have a tendency to wander off and do other things and little by little the life and vitality (and the rising generations) drift away.

As I like to put it, there is too much time and effort required to simply “feed the beast.” How do we create a structure that can accommodate growth by massive multiplication? Bigger structures can’t be the answer or any part of the answer.

HT to Joe Carter at First Things.

doctrine

Big new book from Mark Driscoll is coming soon.

Doctrine, What Christians Should Believe

Looks good. here is the table of contents:

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 – Trinity: God Is

Chapter 2 – Revelation: God Speaks

Chapter 3 – Creation: God Makes

Chapter 4 – Image: God Loves

Chapter 5 – Fall: God Judges

Chapter 6 – Covenant: God Pursues

Chapter 7 – Incarnation: God Comes

Chapter 8 – Cross: God Dies

Chapter 9 – Resurrection: God Saves

Chapter 10 – Church: God Sends

Chapter 11 – Worship: God Transforms

Chapter 12 – Stewardship: God Gives

Chapter 13 – Kingdom: God Reigns

why its a bad answer

Beldar has some thoughts on why Debra Medina’s answer to Glenn Beck was not just bad, but was actively disqualifying in her race for Governor.

Those aren’t just wrong answers, they’re disqualifying answers. Public servants, to be effective at all, must be able to make good judgments. Indeed, they must be able to make good judgments even with less than perfect and complete information. And that’s especially true of those in the executive branches of government.

….

Medina’s attempt to cast blame on her opponents for this kerfuffle is pathetic. Of course her opponents will make the most use they can of her screw-up — Hutchison because Medina had become perceived as a threat to knock her out of second place, Perry because he hopes he might squeak in with a majority and avoid a run-off. With this Obama-like refusal to accept responsibility, Medina has compounded her original offenses and further demonstrated her lack of political stature.

Similarly, insisting that she’s just vindicating the public’s right “to ask questions” is entirely disingenuous. “I support free speech, including the right to espouse crackpot positions,” one can say. But this sort of wink and nudge and phrasing of ridiculous accusations as “mere questions” can fool no one.

more here. Read it all.

photos on phriday

J Pete needed a portrait made.

here is the bokehed view from the back mike at the Texas House

and Natalie snagging a rebound at the last game

wow! bye bye Debra

Debra Medina is in the Republican primary for Texas Governor and has been making some progress in the polls against Governor Perry and Senator Hutchison. There was even some talk based on recent polling that she could finish second ahead of the Senator.

I think that talk will be finished after this morning’s appearance on Glenn Beck’s radio show. As Glenn Beck says at the end of this clip 9/11 trutherism is “the fastest road back to 4%”.

stick a fork in her, she’s done:

UPDATE: here is her campaign’s response:

I was asked a question on the Glenn Beck show today regarding my thoughts on the so-called 9/11 truth movement. I have never been involved with the 9-11 truth movement, and there is no doubt in my mind that Muslim terrorists flew planes into those buildings on 9/11. I have not seen any evidence nor have I ever believed that our government was involved or directed those individuals in any way. No one can deny that the events on 9-11 were a tragedy for all Americans and especially those families who lost loved ones.
The question surprised me because it’s not relevant to this race or the issues facing Texans. This campaign has always been about private property rights and state sovereignty. It is focused on the issues facing Texans. It is not a vehicle for the 9-11 truth movement or any other group.
The real underlying question here, though, is whether or not people have the right to question our government. I think the fact that people are even asking questions on this level gets to the incredible distrust career politicians have fostered by so clearly taking their direction from special interests instead of the people, whether it’s Rick Perry and the his HPV mandate or Kay Hutchison and voting for the bank bailout. It is absolutely the right and duty of a free people to question their government. Texas does not need another politician who tells you what you want to hear, then violates your liberties and steals your property anyway. I fully expect to be questioned and to be held accountable as Governor, and that’s the underlying issue here: should people be questioning their government. And the answer is yes, they should be.

The question from Glenn Beck was: “Do you believe the government was in any way involved in the bringing down of the World Trade Centers on 9/11?”

The only response to this question by someone with genuine aspirations of being Governor of Texas is a firm and perhaps indignant “NO!”

Medina’s actual response was “I think some very good questions have been raised in that regard,” Medina replied. “There are some very good arguments, and I think the American people have not seen all of the evidence there, so I have not taken a position on that.”

It doesn’t matter how surprised she was or how off topic she thinks the question is. The answer she gave Glenn Beck is unacceptable outside of a small fringe.

UPDATE II:

just let her keep talking.

Verge 2010

I wasn’t able to go to Verge 2010 last week, but I watched quite a bit of the streaming video. It was some amazing stuff. Many of the thoughts and beliefs with which I have been struggling for the last seven years were echoed from the stage. just amazing.

In particular, two things that I heard have been rattling around my brain all week.

The first was in a breakout session on church structure. the question is whether we are structured for addition or multiplication? we say that we want and expect growth by multiplication, but our structures can’t accommodate anything other than addition. Think about it. If 100 people came to Christ this week in your church, then it would be an exceptionally great week that would be remembered for a long time, but nothing would really have to change. But if 1000 came, then we would have a problem. We might have to add another service more child care more parking etc. If 3000 or 5000 came, then we would be completely overwhelmed.

Our structures cannot accommodate the growth that occurred on the day of Pentecost when Peter preached or the the growth that occurred after the healing of the lame man from the Beautiful Gate.

The second thing was a throwaway comment by Hugh Halter. He mentioned Acts 8:1 and the fact that Luke was probably having a little joke when he wrote it. It says that the believers were scattered because of persecution, “except the apostles.” the word apostolos means “messengers, sent ones”. Thus it says the believers were scattered except the sent ones.

I have been thinking about us. We have been sent and yet we continue to stand congregated together. Makes me wonder how long God will forestall persecution so that we get “scattered”. Why can’t we self scatter?

current bookshelf

my current bookshelf of books that I am reading looks like this
Amazon.com Widgets

quite a stack on my nightstand

twitter thoughts

here is an interesting essay from George Packer in the New Yorker about twitter.  Here is how the meat of it begins:

The truth is, I feel like yelling Stop quite a bit these days. Every time I hear about Twitter I want to yell Stop. The notion of sending and getting brief updates to and from dozens or thousands of people every few minutes is an image from information hell. I’m told that Twitter is a river into which I can dip my cup whenever I want. But that supposes we’re all kneeling on the banks. In fact, if you’re at all like me, you’re trying to keep your footing out in midstream, with the water level always dangerously close to your nostrils. Twitter sounds less like sipping than drowning.

and just a bit further down:

Carr wrote. And: “Twitter becomes an always-on data stream from really bright people.” And: “The real value of the service is listening to a wired collective voice … the throbbing networked intelligence.” And: “On Twitter, you are your avatar and your avatar is you.” And finally: “There is always something more interesting on Twitter than whatever you happen to be working on.”

This last is what really worries me. Who doesn’t want to be taken out of the boredom or sameness or pain of the present at any given moment? That’s what drugs are for, and that’s why people become addicted to them. Carr himself was once a crack addict (he wrote about it in “The Night of the Gun”). Twitter is crack for media addicts. It scares me, not because I’m morally superior to it, but because I don’t think I could handle it. I’m afraid I’d end up letting my son go hungry.

go check out the rest. good stuff on a Superbowl Sunday evening.

HT to Justin Taylor

interview

here is an interview with a man that will likely not be alive at the end of this year. fascinating difference in perspective even though any of the rest of could die this year too.

There is a tendency that’s especially strong in Calvinist circles to read Romans 8:28, “All things work together for the good,” as though it says that “All things aregood.”  I heard some of that, and that hurt me too.  I am not blaming anyone else; I am sure this is more my fault than anyone else’s.  These are honest opinions, if (I think) probably misguided, and they were delivered by completely well-meaning people.  But hearing repeatedly that suffering is discipline from a loving Father, and that my circumstances are all gift — no curses, they are all blessings — made me feel sometimes as though God were coming after me with a baseball bat.

It’s impossible for me to hear and absorb those messages and then also think that the God of the universe actually loves me.  I got close at some points to losing my faith, to seeing God as having declared Himself my enemy.  It’s hard to worship your enemy.

The pain and the cancer in themselves are not good, then, and yet we as Christians believe that God can bring good out of evil.  Not to paper over the negatives, but what good has God brought out of it?  What lessons has God taught you, or how has He shaped you?

My experience of cancer especially is that God is just so eager to bless.  I find blessing all over the place, not in the cancer itself but all around it.  It would almost be easier to answer what blessings I have not found.

…..

Many people wonder what it will be like when they learn that their death is drawing near.  Is there anything that surprises you?

Yes, absolutely, but I think that this is just another one of many, many pieces of divine mercy.  One thing that has certainly surprised me is just how easy it has been to absorb that message that I’m going to die soon.

I will probably not survive 2010.  Yet that message is much easier to take than I would have expected.  I don’t fully understand why.  I would have thought that the knowledge that I am very likely in my last year of life would lead me to dwell on the dying.  A certain amount of that is unavoidable.  Death hangs in the air.  It’s as though I am living with an hourglass right in front of my face.  You cannot look away from it.  You cannot close your eyes to it.  It’s always there.  But actually I think it has led me to dwell more on the living.  It sounds really trite to say that things that seemed like very small matters seem really precious to me now.  It’s no novel thought — but, in my case, it really is true.

photos on phriday

Too gray and wet for too many days for any picture taking this week. here are some oldies.

Moo goes camping last fall

all this rain makes me think the bluebonnets are going to be great this year. I am ready for them to get here.

and this year in the bluebonnets, I will have the nikon F5 and Fuji velvia. hmmm

effect of literature

Kevin DeYoung wonders what hath literature wrought?

I agree strongly with his conclusion:

I’ll take passionate and logical romantic rationalism over the tired tirades of false dichotomies any day.

plus, I enjoy his perfect parallel prose. anyone who reads here long knows that I adore appropriate alliteration.

handling criticism

Tim Keller has some useful insights into handling criticism.

First, you should look to see if there is a kernel of truth in even the most exaggerated and unfair broadsides. There is usually such a kernel when the criticism comes from friends, and there is often such truth when the disapproval comes from people who actually know you. So even if the censure is partly or even largely mistaken, look for what you may indeed have done wrong. Perhaps you simply acted or spoke in a way that was not circumspect. Maybe the critic is partly right for the wrong reasons. Nevertheless, identify your own shortcomings, repent in your own heart before the Lord for what you can, and let that humble you. It will then be possible to learn from the criticism and stay gracious to the critic even if you have to disagree with what he or she has said.

go check out the rest.

personal election

here is a beautiful essay by Tim Challies about Mary Magdalene at the tomb of Jesus and what it means for Jesus to have called us to life by name.

As I read these words, I think of the way Jesus called me and the way he has called countless numbers of men and women to himself. Like Mary I was once unable to see Jesus for who he is. I saw a man who may as well have been a gardener. He was a good man, a moral man, and maybe even a great man. But he was just a man. Only when Jesus called me by name was I able to see that him as the God-man. Only then was I able to see him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Only then did I really and truly know him. And only then were my eyes opened so I could see and my ears unstopped so I could hear and my heart renewed so I could believe. Like Mary, he called me by name.

family reengineering

you may recall a previous post on my blog regarding a liberal anthropologist’s case against homosexual marriage.

today I present a conservative atheist’s questions about reengineering the family. worth a read. I like Heather’s ending the best:

These are not easy questions. The deprivation to gays from not being able to put the official, public stamp of legitimacy on their love is large. If one were confident that gay marriage would have at most a negligible effect on the ongoing dissolution of the traditional family, I would see no reason to oppose it. And fertility technology is hardly the only source of stress on families; heterosexual adults have been wreaking havoc on the two-parent family for the last five decades in their quest for maximal freedom and choice. The self-interested assumption behind that havoc has been that what’s good for adults must be good for children: If adults want flexibility in their living arrangements, then children will benefit from it, as well. Perhaps children are as infinitely malleable as it would be convenient for them to be. But if it turns out that they thrive best with stability in their lives and that the traditional family evolved to provide that stability, then our breezy jettisoning of child-rearing traditions may not be such a boon for children.

The facile libertarian argument that gay marriage is a trivial matter that affects only the parties involved is astoundingly blind to the complexity of human institutions and to the web of sometimes imperceptible meanings and practices that compose them. Equally specious is the central theme in attorney Theodore Olson’s legal challenge to California’s Proposition 8: that only religious belief or animus towards gays could explain someone’s hesitation regarding gay marriage. Anyone with the slightest appreciation for the Burkean understanding of tradition will feel the disquieting burden of his ignorance in this massive act of social reengineering, even if he ultimately decides that the benefits to gays from gay marriage outweigh the risks of the unknown.

so. what do you think?

the spell is broken

Fouad Ajami pronounces the Obama Spell to be broken. do you agree? Here is the intro:

The curtain has come down on what can best be described as a brief un-American moment in our history. That moment began in the fall of 2008, with the great financial panic, and gave rise to the Barack Obama phenomenon.

The nation’s faith in institutions and time-honored ways had cracked. In a little-known senator from Illinois millions of Americans came to see a savior who would deliver the nation out of its troubles. Gone was the empiricism in political life that had marked the American temper in politics. A charismatic leader had risen in a manner akin to the way politics plays out in distressed and Third World societies.

There is nothing surprising about where Mr. Obama finds himself today. He had been made by charisma, and political magic, and has been felled by it. If his rise had been spectacular, so, too, has been his fall. The speed with which some of his devotees have turned on him—and their unwillingness to own up to what their infatuation had wrought—is nothing short of astounding. But this is the bargain Mr. Obama had made with political fortune.

There is some evidence that winter in Narnia is giving way to spring here as well:

Other faith leaders are more pointed. Obery Hendricks, author of The Politics of Jesus, used to dial in to regular conference calls between the administration and prominent clergy, but recently he’s stopped, citing frustration and fatigue. “Is he listening [to religious leaders]? Frankly, I don’t know. They have the influence of window dressing.” The White House, he adds, is “patronizing and condescending,” especially to black clergy. “Many of the ministers feel that way.”