Category: reflections

McCain’s acceptance speech


(word cloud of mccain’s speech)

Didn’t watch McCain’s speech last night. Figured there’d be nothing new he’d say — figured it would be more of the same “I was a POW” stories that I keep hearing over and over and over again — especially from other folks at the GOP convention.

Don’t know if he tells it as much as I hear it — but I hear it a lot. Makes me wonder if he’s done much of anything since then.

Either way (as I expected) there was plenty of coverage from various talking heads this morning.
I tried to skip most of that and tuned into C-SPAN for a while and then listened to coverage on NPR this morning.

Great coverage by both.

Here are some links and stories I found helpful ::

NPR :: the week that launched the mccain-palin ticket
NPR :: mccain challenges obama, GOP To ‘change’
NPR :: mccain eases convention attendees’ skepticism
NPR :: mccain vows to reach across party lines
C-SPAN :: mccain bio video
C-SPAN :: palin’s acceptance speech
word cloud analysis of 2008 rnc
word cloud analysis of 2008 dnc

I haven’t listened to the whole speech yet but I’ve skimmed it. Will read it all a bit later. You can too.

Read it or listen to it.

I think if either candidate lives up to their promises as president we could see some great changes coming to America. The problem is that both candidates would be forced to work within the same system of checks and balances that all presidents face. And in reality, the President doesn’t make the laws – they simply sign of veto them.

What are your thoughts?


(word cloud of obama’s speech)

quote for the evening

The authority and submission that Scripture envisions gives more authority to the church than does Rome, trusts more to the Holy Spirit than does Pentacostalism, has more respect for the individual than Humanism, makes moral standards more binding than Puritanism, and is more open to the giving situation than “The New Morality”
-John Howard Yoder
As quoted in Reimagining Church by Frank Viola

Lingering Questions

Tripp Fuller shared a great thought today via his blog:

Listening to both parties each night has made me confident that the church really needs to quit outsourcing its vocation.

Makes a world of sense to me. Seems like the less the church does, the more the government feels it needs to step in to care for people. I can agree with much of the Democratic view of things because they see the need to step in and help the helpless. Yet, I still have to question if that’s really the government’s role. If the church really did their job, I think we’d be a lot closer to solving the world’s problems – than depending on the American Government to do so.

Kevin Hendricks and I seem to be asking some of the same questions as well and trying to decide how someone who claims to be a follower of Christ also claim to put country first. Seems backwards to me.

Tripp also shares several questions raised by Warren Carter (who is on the Homebrewed Christianity podcast last week – with part 2 to be posted this week):

Here are Carter’s questions:

What does it mean to be…..

  • rich Christians in an age of hunger?
  • well fed Christians in an age of poverty?
  • vacation-homed Christians in an age of homelessness?
  • overclothed Christians in an age of nakedness?
  • highly entertained Christians in an age of militaristic violence?
  • Sermon-on-the-Mount-shaped Christians in our age of empire?

Finally, thought this was an interesting contradiction in Sara Palin’s speech last night…

First she rips on Obama because “Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America … he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights?”

Then she applauds John McCain because “To the most powerful office on earth, he would bring the compassion that comes from having once been powerless … the wisdom that comes even to the captives, by the grace of God.”

Got answers? The world is listening.

related ::
tripp fuller :: preaching the sermon on the mount and some more substantive lingering questions
barack obama’s acceptance speech
sara palin’s RNC convention speech
kevin hendricks :: country first
SSL :: question for today

Kingdom of God leaders

I’ve been reading Frank Viola’s “Reimagining Church” over the last week or so. It’s been a great companion to go along with Brian’s message series (priests in the hood). The book also seems to apply directly to what I envision for our community groups at encounter (and beyond).

This morning I read Luke 22:25-26:

Within minutes they were bickering over who of them would end up the greatest. But Jesus intervened: “Kings like to throw their weight around and people in authority like to give themselves fancy titles. It’s not going to be that way with you. Let the senior among you become like the junior; let the leader act the part of the servant.

As community group leaders/facilitators/hosts I think Viola makes some great points about what we should avoid striving for and what we should strive for:

  • in the gentile (secular) world, leaders operate on the basis of a political, chain-of-command social structure — a graded hierarchy. in the kingdom of God, leadership flows from childlike meekness and sacrificial service.
  • in the gentile world, authority is based on position and rank. in the kingdom of God, authority is based on godly character. note Christ’s description of a leader: “let him be a servant,” and “let him be as the younger.” in our Lord’s eyes, being precedes doing. and doing flows from being. put differently, function follows character. those who serve do so because they are servants.
  • in the gentile world, greatness is measured in prominence, external power and political influence. in the kingdom of God, greatness is measured by humility and servitude.
  • in the gentile world, leaders exploit their positions to rule over others. in the kingdom of god, leaders deplore special reverence. they rather regard themselves “as the younger.”

I hope and pray that we’re all being leaders/facilitators/hosts that fit in with the kingdom of God model and not the gentile/worldly model that surrounds us everywhere we go. I also pray that each of us are encouraging our group members to do the same. By becoming servants to all, leadership will be a natural extension to them all.

Prayer for today life

Tim and/or Rebecca (probably the former :-)) share this on their family blog today. I think its a fitting prayer for me right now.

The prayer comes from John Piper’s book Taste and See

O Lord, by the truth of your Word, and the power of your Spirit and the ministry of your body, build us into people . . .

Who don’t love the world more than God,
who don’t care if they make much money,
who don’t care if they own a house,
who don’t care if they have a new car or two cars,
who don’t need recent styles,
who don’t care if they get famous,
who don’t miss steak or fancy fare,
who don’t expect that life should be comfortable and easy,
who don’t feed their minds on TV each night,
who don’t measure truth with their finger in the wind,
who don’t get paralyzed by others’ disapproval,
who don’t return evil for evil,
who don’t hold grudges,
who don’t gossip,
who don’t twist the truth,
who don’t brag or boast,
who don’t whine or use body language to get pity,
who don’t criticize more than praise,
who don’t hang out in cliques,
who don’t eat too much or exercise too little;

But
who are ablaze for God,
who are utterly God-besotted,
who are filled with the Holy Spirit,
who strive to know the height and depth of Christ’s love,
who are crucified to the world and dead to sin,
who are purified by the Word and addicted to righteousness,
who are mighty in memorizing and using the Scriptures,
who keep the Lord’s Day holy and refreshing,
who are broken by the consciousness of sin,
who are thrilled by the wonder of free grace,
who are stunned into humble silence by the riches of God’s glory,
who are persevering constantly in prayer,
who are ruthless in self-denial,
who are fearless in public witness to Christ’s Lordship,
who are able to unmask error and blow away doctrinal haze,
who are tough in standing for the truth,
who are tender in touching hurting people,
who are passionate about reaching the peoples who have no church,
who are pro-life for the sake of babies and moms and dads and the glory of God,
who are keepers of all their promises, including marriage vows,
who are content with what they have and trusting the promises of God,
who are patient and kind and meek when life is hard.

reminds me of this litany from Shane Claiborne:

may they both ring true in my life.

the good news according to Mark

.

I woke up quite early this morning.

Around 3 I pulled myself out of bed and opened up my copy of The Message to finish reading the good news according to Mark.

As I read through it, several things crossed my mind.

  • Matthew seems to write from the mindset of proving to the Hebrews that Jesus was the fulfillment of all the prophecies within the Hebrew Scripture
  • Mark seems to write from a mindset of encouraging his readers to give all they’ve got for the cause of Jesus

Along the way a couple passages really jumped out at me and stirred my heart and soul.

In the 4th chapter of his letter, Mark writes:

With many stories like these, he presented his message to them, fitting the stories to their experience and maturity. He was never without a story when he spoke. When he was alone with his disciples, he went over everything, sorting out the tangles, untying the knots. (mark 4:33-34)

I’ve always heard and known that Jesus used stories to relate to people, but Eugene Peterson really makes the language/idea pop when he suggests that Jesus presented his stories according to each group’s experience and maturity.

The NIV translates it this way: Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand.

It seems like we could take a lesson from Jesus when we’re trying to explain Biblical principals to people. Tell it like we would a story. Don’t try to impress people with your big doctrinal words. Don’t try to overdue the theological ideas. Break it down and tell the story in a way that makes sense to your audience.

The second passage that really grabbed me was a few pages over, in chapter 6.

Jesus wasn’t able to do much of anything there—he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them, that’s all. He couldn’t get over their stubbornness. He left and made a circuit of the other villages, teaching.

That jumped out at me and really comforted me this morning. It helped me to realize that even Jesus, the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Son of God couldn’t force people to change. Their stubbornness won out sometimes – even in his hometown.

I can often get frustrated when I see a lack of change in people I may be ministering with/to. But it’s really not up to me — it’s up to the Holy Spirit to convict hearts. I’m just called to continue living the life.

What do you think? What are you reading this week? Anything you really like in Mark’s telling of the good news?