the church through history

Ed Marcelle on the Resurgence Blog is doing a quick series on how people have “done church” over time in different eras. The fourth installment is about the church during the Industrial Revolution period that is ending. then there is this little teaser for what comes next:

The world had changed. The Industrial Revolution had brought with it precision and control. There was a top-to-bottom pyramid structure that would be, by its nature, successful everywhere it could touch, where its power could be diurnally felt. It would be this very strength that would be its undoing, as the world became electronic and limitless, and to have influence meant never even having to touch when things became high-tech.

That change would be a great shift, and just as the Industrial Revolution made those who were separated from their Agrarian forefathers very different, it was even more so with those who were born on the other side of the Information Age. They found a brave and new world, and with it new ways of incarnating church. These ways would ultimately invert the previous ways. Control would no longer be the virtue, but would become the very anchor that would not allow progress.

If the Industrial Revolution was about standardization, localization, and control, the Information Age was about to demand the exact opposite, and the church would need to understand how it would shift accordingly.

30 years of progress

the Sony Walkman was launched 30 years ago. In honor of this anniversary, the BBC asked a thirteen year old boy to swap out his iPod for one for a week. The results are priceless. Go read the whole article, but here is his astute conclusion.

Personally, I’m relieved I live in the digital age, with bigger choice, more functions and smaller devices. I’m relieved that the majority of technological advancement happened before I was born, as I can’t imagine having to use such basic equipment every day.

I like his assumption that “the majority of technological advancement” has already occurred. He is either suffering from the limitations of being 13 and thinking the world starts and stops with him or he is remarkably prescient or both.

HT to Veronique de Rugy

the cost of sexual immorality

Governor Mark Sanford’s sin of sexual immorality that has been recently publicly unmasked has had devastating consequences for his family, his staff of employees, his state, and for people who admired him from a distance as a straight shooting morally upright conservative politician.

It is yet another example of the truth of something my preacher repeated many times from that Harold McWhorter song: “Sin will take you farther than you want to go, Sin will keep you longer than you wanted to stay and Sin will make you pay a price far higher than you ever intended to pay.”

Twenty-five years ago, Randy Alcorn and a pastor friend listed the consequences in their own lives if they gave in to lust. He has a post with the list up.

I vividly remember meeting with a man who had been a leader in a Christian organization until he committed immorality. I asked him, “What could have been done to prevent this?” He paused only for a moment, then said with haunting pain and precision, “If only I had really known, really thought through and weighed what it would cost me and my family and my Lord, I honestly believe I would never have done it.”

About twenty-five years ago, while pastors at Good Shepherd Community Church, my friend Alan Hlavka and I both developed lists of all the specific consequences we could think of that would result from our immorality as pastors. The lists were devastating, and to us they spoke more powerfully than any sermon or article on the subject.

Periodically, especially when travelling or when in a time of temptation or weakness, we read through our list. In a personal and tangible way it brings home God’s inviolate law of choice and consequence. It cuts through the fog of rationalization and fills our hearts with the healthy, motivating fear of God. We find that when we begin to think unclearly, reviewing this list yanks us back to the reality of the law of the harvest and the need both to fear God and the consequences of sin.

An edited version of our combined lists follows.

Go read the list. Maybe make it a starting point for creating your own version of it. Maybe sit down with your spouse and work on the list together so there is no doubt about the havoc you would be wreaking.

Randy is right that there is something clarifying about facing the actual real life consequences of an action instead of allowing yourself to proceed in the fog of rationalization. The time to take positive action to prevent a problem is right now before there is even a cloud on the horizon suggesting a storm is coming. Use the clear weather to get your boat ready for the storms that will inevitably hit.

HT to Challies.

Right Now (as Van Halen would say)

When Farrah Fawcett died the other day, it was not a surprise as she had been very ill very publicly for quite some time. Michael Jackson dying the same day was shocking.

I confess that I teared up a bit driving home. Not for grief over either one of them (although I do feel sorry for their families and friends who are directly impacted by their deaths), but over the sense that life is passing by very quickly. I feel like I am in a holding pattern waiting to land and get busy and I really hate being on the bench and out of the game. That feeling of uselessness exacerbates the sense that time is passing by way too quickly.

Anyway, these two deaths make Allen James ask “What would you want spoken of you as family and friends reflect upon your life?”

Knowing that life is short. Knowing that right now (right this very instant) is the only time that we have been given to make an impact for the Kingdom of Heaven, what are you doing? What treasure are you laying up for yourself in Heaven where the moths, rust, and thieves can’t get to it? How are you using the using the unrighteous wealth you have been given to assure yourself of being entrusted with true riches?

When Paul reflected on the brevity of life, the reality of God’s impending judgment was thrust to the forefront of his brain. Immediately after that thought Paul argued that we have to work to persuade those around us to follow Jesus.

9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others…..

20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

So, howya doing with your embassy to the “Right Now” moment you occupy? mine stinks. Let’s do better by God’s grace and in His power.

John Newton on false and wasteful pleasures

Kevin DeYoung has a great quote from John Newton putting in perspective most of the things that we enjoy.

“If you were to send me an inventory of your pleasures, how charmingly your time runs on, and how dexterously it is divided between the coffee-houses, play-house, the card-table, and tavern, with intervals of balls, concerts, etc. I could answer that most of these I have tried and tried again, and know the utmost they can yield, and have seen enough of the rest most heartily to despise them all. Setting religion entirely out of the question, I profess I had rather be a worm to crawl upon the ground, than to bear the name of MAN upon the poor terms of whiling my life in an insipid round of such insignificant and unmanly trifles” (Letters of John Newton, 33-34).

wow!! now this is photography

Check out these awesome pictures and blog post from a fellow Aggie.

So my second technique was using a high ISO to capture as many stars as I could inside the exposure. So how I did that was I cranked up my ISO to about 3200-4000. Side Note: The 5d Mark ii (which is the camera I use) have incredible capabilities and I really got to test them in this shot. Using a high ISO is like using really really fast film back in the day. I set the exposure to about thirty seconds with a low aperture and I can distinctly remember looking at the photo right after I took the first shot and literally my jaw dropping. I hadn’t even seen it in the sky but above the barn was the Milky Way. Those moments were so incredible! I started photographing more and more.

emphasis in original

and then a bit later in the post:

While I was out there in this field in Reagan, Tx I couldn’t help but be still and recognize God. I laid down on my back for  a good twenty minutes and looked back at this year and how he has been using me to bring Glory to Him. How I have had the opportunity to meet random people, travel to the middle east(Qatar), sit in a field and wonder at his creation. As I sit staring at the countless number of starts I couldn’t help but be filled with Christ’s presence. Christ is indescribable.

again, emphasis in original

here is Doug’s Flickr page. check it out.

The Justification Debate

Here is a very useful pdf guide to the differences between N.T. Wright and John Piper on what the doctrine of Justification means. As you can guess, this cuts to the very core of salvation and life as a Christ follower there after. Take some time to investigate this matter for yourself in scripture. This handy dandy four page article should only be the starting point for you as you look into it.

humility

I saw this come across John Piper’s twitter feed yesterday and I was intrigued enough to chase down the link yesterday evening.

JohnPiperApology for being a jerk, and a new attempt at why I don’t have a TV and rarely go to movies.http://ow.ly/fRb4about 16 hours ago from HootSuite

this how he starts his post at the link:

Now that the video of the Q&A at Advance 09 is available, I can look at it and feel bad all over again. Here’s what I regret, indeed what I have apologized for to the person who asked the question.

The first question to me and Mark Driscoll was, “Piper says get rid of my TV, and Driscoll says buy extra DVRs. How do you reconcile this difference?”

I responded, “Get your sources right. . . . I never said that in my life.”

Almost as soon as it was out of my mouth, I felt: “What a jerk, Piper!” A jerk is a person who nitpicks about the way a question is worded rather than taking the opportunity to address the issue in a serious way. I blew it at multiple levels.

So I was very glad when the person who asked the question wrote to me. I wrote back,

Be totally relieved that YOU did not ask a bad question. I gave a useless and unhelpful, and I think snide, answer and missed a GOLDEN opportunity to make plain the dangers of the triviality you referred to. . . . I don’t know why I snapped about the wording of the question instead of using it for what it was intended for. It was foolish and I think sinful.

So let me see if I can do better now

fantastic. I love this attitude. recognizing the problem and seeking to rectify it. Glad to have the opportunity to admit wrong to the recipient of the wrongness.

Aaron Ivey

Aaron Ivey is one of the worship leaders at the Austin Stone. He released a solo album this week, Between the Beauty and the Chaos. You can download it on Amazon or iTunes

I highly recommend the whole thing. Aaron seems to fully embrace his inner Coldplay to very good effect.

here is a direct purchase button

and here is aaron’s website.

Phiday Photos

We made a trip up to see my Dad’s river place last weekend.

huge old trees

some of my mother-in-law’s flowers

faith comes from hearing

At one of my less regular stops on the blogosphere this morning, I found an excellent example of how to interpret the Bible.

Romans 10:17 says:

17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

what does that mean and what doesn’t it mean? how do you know? Go read John Samson’s article at the link for a full explanation, but here is the nub:

How can someone be sure of the correct interpretation of Romans 10:17? One of the keys – and as I understand it, the most important key to correct interpretation is to know the context. Context tells us what the subject is, what the background was, who was writing, who were the recipients, and so on and so forth. As I hear something being taught, or hear a verse being quoted in support of an argument, my mind naturally thinks of the immediate context of the verse. I train myself to mentally go through this process. This really helps me determine if what I am hearing is true. It helps me to ask questions such as “what was the original purpose of the passage? What was the author seeking to achieve in the passage being quoted?” Often times this process alone has saved me from many a misguided idea. The problem with this is that we all have our blind spots. It takes vigilance to be on guard for error. The most dangerous thing is to never ask questions concerning context, for this is the sure way to error. This is exactly what the cults do – lifting verses out of their setting to seek to deny the Deity of Christ, for example.

another one down

First, watch this 3.5 minute video.

then keep in mind that the only person that a hypocrite is lying about is himself. He agrees that the standard is higher than his actions. He just tries to bluff his way into the world believing that he is meeting the standard.

Finally, Sanford’s lovely wife Jenny has issued a perfect statement. I am so glad that she didn’t stand next to him in the video above.

Her whole statement is great, but here are two bits:

I believe enduring love is primarily a commitment and an act of will, and for a marriage to be successful, that commitment must be reciprocal. I believe Mark has earned a chance to resurrect our marriage.
…..
I remain willing to forgive Mark completely for his indiscretions and to welcome him back, in time, if he continues to work toward reconciliation with a true spirit of humility and repentance.

emphasis added.

Pray for this family during this awful yet self inflicted time.

the President on Iran

Andy McCarthy had a couple of posts on Monday seeking to understand why Barack Obama was so reluctant to criticize the sham Iranian elections, their results and the brutality of the regime in their aftermath.

I don’t know if he is right or not, but these two bits jumped out as being plausible.

The key to understanding Obama, on Iran as on other matters, is that he is a power-politician of the hard Left : He is steeped in Leftist ideology, fueled in anger and resentment over what he chooses to see in America’s history, but a “pragmatist” in the sense that where ideology and power collide (as they are apt to do when your ideology becomes less popular the more people understand it), Obama will always give ground on ideology (as little as circumstances allow) in order to maintain his grip on power.

and

As for “anti-American,” I think Obama’s sense of the term is different from yours and mine. Obama agrees with a lot of the anti-Americanism that we hear from both apologists for radical Islam and the Left (many of whom are the same people). While the mullahs may be “anti-American” as we understand that term, Obama doesn’t think they would be resolutely anti the America that he intends to shape. I think he sincerely believes he could deal with the mullahs and make them less anti-American than they now are, once they realize how he is reversing a lot of what offends them (and him) about America.

emphasis in original

So, do you think Andy has a point or is he slipping round the bend towards paranoid nutterville?

calvinism and holiness today

courtesy of Iain campbell here is a different take than one would expect on the state of calvinism and holiness these days.

here is how it starts:

When I was a youngster and newly saved, it seemed as if the chief goal of all zealous Christians, whether Calvinistic or Arminian, was consecration. Sermons, books and conferences stressed this in the spirit of Romans 12.1-2, where the beseeching apostle calls believers to present their bodies a living sacrifice, and not to be conformed to this world. The heart was challenged and stirred. Christ was to be Lord of one’s life, and self must be surrendered on the altar of service for him.

But now, it appears, there is a new Calvinism, with new Calvinists, which has swept the old objectives aside. A recent book, Young, Restless, Reformed, by Collin Hansen tells the story of how a so-called Calvinistic resurgence has captured the imaginations of thousands of young people in the USA, and this book has been reviewed with great enthusiasm in well-known magazines in the UK, such as Banner of Truth, Evangelical Times, and Reformation Today.

This writer, however, was very deeply saddened to read it, because it describes a seriously distorted Calvinism falling far, far short of an authentic life of obedience to a sovereign God. If this kind of Calvinism prospers, then genuine biblical piety will be under attack as never before.

The author of the book is a young man (around 26 when he wrote it) who grew up in a Christian family and trained in secular journalism. We are indebted to him for the readable and wide-reaching survey he gives of this new phenomenon, but the scene is certainly not a happy one.

The author begins by describing the Passion, conference at Atlanta in 2007, where 21,000 young people revelled in contemporary music, and listened to speakers such as John Piper proclaiming Calvinistic sentiments. And this picture is repeated many times through the book – large conferences being described at which the syncretism of worldly, sensation-stirring, high-decibel, rhythmic music, is mixed with Calvinistic doctrine.

then he goes after John MacArthur and the Resolved conferences, C.J. Mahaney, Josh Harris, Curtis Allen and Mark Driscoll. you should go read it to see what he says.

then he gets to the meat of his coconut:

Most of the well-known preachers who promote and encourage this ‘revival’ of Calvinism have in common the following positions that contradict a genuine Calvinistic (or Puritan) outlook:

1. They have no problem with contemporary charismatic-ethos worship, including extreme, heavy-metal forms.

2. They are soft on separation from worldliness [see endnote 2].

3. They reject the concern for the personal guidance of God in the major decisions of Christians (true sovereignty), thereby striking a death-blow to wholehearted consecration.

4. They hold anti-fourth-commandment views, taking a low view of the Lord’s Day, and so inflicting another blow at a consecrated lifestyle.

Whatever their strengths and achievements (and some of them are brilliant men by any human standard), or whatever their theoretical Calvinism, the poor stand of these preachers on these crucial issues will only encourage a fatally flawed version of Calvinism that will lead people to be increasingly wedded to the world, and to a self-seeking lifestyle.

Truly proclaimed, the sovereignty of God must include consecration, reverence, sincere obedience to his will, and separation from the world.

You cannot have Puritan soteriology without Puritan sanctification. You should not entice people to Calvinistic (or any) preaching by using worldly bait. We hope that young people in this movement will grasp the implications of the doctrines better than their teachers, and come away from the compromises. But there is a looming disaster in promoting this new form of Calvinism.

and then he gets to this:

A final sad spectacle reported with enthusiasm in the book is the Together for the Gospel conference, running from 2006. A more adult affair convened by respected Calvinists, this nevertheless brings together cessationists and non-cessationists, traditional and contemporary worship exponents, and while maintaining sound preaching, it conditions all who attend to relax on these controversial matters, and learn to accept every point of view. In other words, the ministry of warning is killed off, so that every -error of the new scene may race ahead unchecked. These are tragic days for authentic spiritual faithfulness, worship and piety.

True Calvinism and worldliness are opposites. Preparation of heart is needed if we would search the wonders and plumb the depths of sovereign grace.

This fellow Masters is very hard to please.

twitter

I took up twittering this weekend. @bkingr, if anybody is interested. I just now found out from vitamin z that John Piper twitters too.

check out his last four tweets.

Liar, lunatic, or LORD. Yes. And let your jaw drop at his wildly over-the-top claim: Before Abraham was, I AM (John 8:58).
about 1 hour ago from HootSuite

God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in (Edwards). Joy in Christ is no caboose.
about 13 hours ago from HootSuite

“Don’t pursue joy, pursue obedience” is like saying, “Don’t pursue apples, pursue fruit.”
about 18 hours ago from HootSuite

That every nail sinks in wood by God’s decree has never made me doubt the value of hammers. Or preaching (Acts 13:48)
4:05 AM Jun 22nd from HootSuite

The Meaning of Man’s Will

R. C. Sproul has a three part series on what it means when we say that man has free will. Fascinating stuff. This is the kind of stuff that keeps a person from swearing off the internet altogether.

Here are the links:

part 1
part 2
part 3

and here is a bit of the introduction:

The term free will as applied to man is often glibly declared with little or no understanding of its meaning. There is actually no unified theory of man’s free will, but a variety of competing, and often conflicting, views about it.

The question of man’s free will is made more complicated by the fact that we must examine it in man, in terms of how the will functioned before and after the fall of Adam. Most important for us today is how the Fall affected man’s moral choices.

It was St. Augustine who gave the church a close analysis of the state of freedom that Adam enjoyed before the Fall. Augustine’s classic concept of freedom distinguished four possibilities. In Latin, they are:

1. posse pecarre–referring to the ability to sin.
2. posse non-pecarre–referring to the ability not to sin, or to remain free from sin.
3. non-posse pecarre–referring to the inability to sin.
4. non-posse, non-pecarre–referring to the inability not to sin.

Considering Adam before the Fall, Augustine argued that Adam had possessed both the ability to sin (posse pecarre) and the ability not to sin (posse non-pecarre). Adam lacked the exalted state of the inability to sin that God enjoys (non-posse pecarre). God’s inability to sin is based not on an inner powerlessness of God to do what he wants, but rather on the fact that God has no inner desire to sin. Since the desire for sin is utterly absent from God, there is no reason for God to choose sin.

Before the Fall Adam did not have the moral perfection of God; neither did Adam have the inability to refrain from sin (non-posse, non-pecarre). During his time of “probation” in the garden, he had the ability to sin and the ability not to sin. He chose to exercise the ability to sin and thus plunged the race into ruin.

As a result, Adam’s first sin was passed on to all his descendants. Original sin refers not to the first sin but to God’s punishment of that first transgression. Because of the first sin human nature fell into a morally corrupt state, itself partially a judgment of God. When we speak of original sin, we refer to the fallen human condition which reflects the judgment of God upon the race.

and here is the first paragraph of part 3.

But what about man’s will with respect to the sovereignty of God? Perhaps the oldest dilemma of the Christian faith is the apparent contradiction between the sovereignty of God and the freedom of man. If we define human freedom as autonomy (meaning that man is free to do whatever he pleases, without constraint, without accountability to the will of God), then of course we must say that free will is contradictory to divine sovereignty. We cannot soft-pedal this dilemma by calling it a mystery; we must face up to the full import of the concept. If free will means autonomy, then God cannot be sovereign. If man is utterly and completely free to do as he pleases, there can be no sovereign God. And if God is utterly sovereign to do as he pleases, no creature can be autonomous.

and where he gets to the meat of the coconut here:

I leave the question of explaining the Fall of Adam by virtue of the exercise of his free will to the hands of more competent and insightful theologians. To blame it on man’s finite limitations is really putting blame on the God who made man finite. Biblically, the issue has been, and always will be, a moral one. Man was commanded by the Creator not to sin, but man chose to sin, not because God or anyone else forced him to. Man chose out of his own heart.

Consequently, to probe the answer to the how of man’s sin is to enter the realm of deepest mystery. Perhaps all we can do in the final analysis is to recognize the reality of our sin and our responsibility for it. Though we cannot explain it, certainly we know enough to confess it.

wow. These are from the book How Can I Know God’s Will by R. C. Sproul and here on this page are downloadable MP3 lessons on it.

more on perspective

courtesy of vitamin z, here is something that I have thought of before from Chris Brauns, Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers for Complex Questions and Deep Wounds

“If we begin to get a glimpse of the vast glory of God, we will realize that many of our conflicts are like two ants arguing about which is taller while standing in front of Mount Everest.

“We quibble over some infinitesimal difference of opinion while the vastness of Almighty God soars into the heavens.

“We need to stop looking at one another relative to ourselves, or, better yet, stop looking in the mirror. And we need to turn our eyes to the loveliness of Christ in his Word.”

Of course I have thought of it more like us living in Who-ville thinking we are really all that, while in reality we are nothing more than a speck of dust on God’s lapel.

And then I think that even though we are truly infinitesimal in the grand scheme of things, God reached down in love to reconcile us to Him even at the cost of His own Son.

If He would do that for us, then surely we can forgive those who trespass against us.

singing my song

Joe Thorn is singing my song. I love to sing and I firmly believe there is a song for every occasion. Singing is a wonderful way to express thoughts, fears, feelings, hopes, concerns, dreams. Sometimes when no song lyrics come to mind, I will make them up. My kids feel like they live in a musical sometimes.

here’s a bit of Joe. be sure and read the rest to see his suggested remedy when you don’t feel like singing.

People sing about the things that capture their hearts, things that give them joy, or allow them to express sorrow. People sing of heroes, victory, longing, and hope. Does anyone have more reasons to sing than you? As a sinner who has been forgiven, a slave who has been set free, a blind man who has received sight, a spiritual cripple who has been healed – all by the gospel, you have real reasons to be known as a man of song!

modern fatherhood

Dr. Mohler hits a glancing blow at something that really bothers me about the way fathers are portrayed in current popular culture.

Fatherhood has been marginalized and the rule and authority of fathers have been depreciated, ridiculed, and continuously redefined. From the Berenstain Bears to The Simpsons, fathers are all too often the object of ridicule or the subject of the laugh line.

I hate that the dad is always the clueless out of the loop buffoon. I like playing the clown for my kids and making them laugh, but I resent having to compete with a dominant cultural view of my role that says I don’t have anything useful to offer the family except being the last one to know whatever is going on.

That is one of the reasons that I like the show Hannah Montana. Billy Ray Cyrus has elements of the out of the loop buffoon in his character, but he always ends up knowing more than the kids thought he knew about what was going on. He provides wisdom and comfort when they need it, discipline when they need it and generally makes them obey him.

Dr. Mohler attributes the cultural marginalization of fatherhood to feminism and I think he is correct.

The marginalization of fatherhood can be traced to many developments, but one prime source of this marginalization is the intellectual class and its radical commitment to ideological feminism. Fatherhood is now an ideological category that is inescapably linked to everything from patriarchy (considered to be the original sin) to popular culture (where the intellectual elites exert a very significant, if indirect influence).

Dr. Mohler then spends some time looking at an article by Bradley Wilcox dispelling modern myths of fatherhood and concludes with this reminder:

Christians have a special stake in this argument, for we believe that fatherhood is not just a social construction but a matter of biblical importance. Though informed by sociological analysis and encouraged by academics like Bradford Wilcox, our confidence in the role of fathers is based in the fact that fatherhood is a role that is honored, dignified, and defined in Holy Scripture. The Christian father is answerable to a far higher calling, but the data surveyed in Brad Wilcox’s essay serve as a reminder that fatherhood is a gift to all creation and that the evidence of the Creator’s design for fatherhood defies all the ideological efforts of so many to subvert fathers and fatherhood.

accountability

My sister sent me a link to this open letter to pastors on the importance of recognizing danger and taking steps to avoid it. Although it is addressed to pastors, it applies to everyone. If you care at all about avoiding a shipwrecked life and ministry, take the time to go read the whole thing.

here is sample:

I do, however, want to comment on pastors shipwrecking their lives and the lives of their families. I have been involved in ministry all of my life, the past 27 as a staff member or pastor at three different churches, and I have seen stories like Gary’s over and over. The details vary, but the end result is the same; total devastation. The key question is not what happened, but rather how can we avoid the same fate. Here are some random thoughts:

1. If you think you aren’t vulnerable, you are already toast
I had a counseling professor in college who said that the pastors who are in the most danger of a moral shipwreck are the ones who think it will never happen to them. If you think you are too honest, too faithful, or too transparent to ever be involved in an affair you are skating on very thin ice. David never thought he’d sleep with Bathsheba until he saw her naked; then he couldn’t think of anything else. You can steal money, you can get involved in pornography, you can cheat on your spouse, and you can lie to your family. Every day of our lives we have to remind ourselves we are vulnerable to complete moral failure.
…..
You don’t wake up one day and decide to shipwreck your life. You do it one stupid decision at a time. As someone who has seen this happen again and again and again I am begging you to take action today because it will happen to you.

photo phriday

here are my sister’s sons hamming it up. I had one flash to camera left and one mounted on the camera bouncing off the white ceiling. Both set to TTL.

here is the picture from which I cropped my current header.

and a snap from the trip home yesterday evening while I waited at a stop light.

iPhone 3.0 OS update

I have spent an evening with the updated operating system for my first generation iPhone. I must say that I really like it and I wonder why they couldn’t have done some of these things from the get go.

I can’t tell you how many times in the last year and a half I have turned the phone sideways on email trying to get slightly larger font to read and the bigger key board. Now that it is here, what can you say except: ahhhhhhh! finally.

cut and paste seems to work pretty well. that ought to help with the mobile blogging, but not much of that going on anyway, so not that big a thing. I hear that the twitterers among us are very excited about it though. Maybe now that it is possible, I will find it more useful than I think, but there have been very few times that I have wanted to be able to copy text on my phone.

I love stock charts and I am glad there is more information available on the built in stocks application. again, though, this is something that should have been available a long time ago.

I still want to upgrade to the 3G S for the better camera, increased storage, and video. But that will have to wait for funds to aggregate. In the meantime, this OS upgrade is very much appreciated.

learning vicarious suffering

courtesy of vitamin z, I saw this quote from Tim Keller:

“You need to get used to this reality. Once you become a parent, for the rest of your life, you’ll never be happier than your unhappiest child, because your heart is tied to your kids. That is a way of learning the gospel because before you have kids you don’t really know what it means that God suffers for your sins. He has to. He has to suffer for your sins, because when you have children you suffer for their sins. Your heart is tied up to them.”

Worship CD from Austin City Life

Austin City Life will release its first worship CD on June 28. Here is their myspace page where you can preview the tracks.

here are some of the distinctives of ACL’s approach to music:

City focused
Gospel-centered
Martin Luther on the Spirit
High Colossian Christology
Ancient hymns to progressive tunes
Reflective worship that builds and crescendos
Integration of Gospel, Community, and Mission in the song writing

nate navarro is one of the three worship leaders and he already has music out.

Keep in mind that Jonathan Dodson is firmly of the opinion that God is not your girlfriend or boyfriend.

iPhone OS 3.0

today is the day for the OS update release. This is the page for download.

Nothing yet.