Check  out Steve Hayes' review of Caedmon's Call's new CD, Overdressed (here).

Genius guys...best slip and slide I've seen.

Hat Tip: Steve Hayes of Cajun Roast Beef

Mark Labberton, a pastor, writes "The Real Worship War," in Leadership Journal. 

This is an excerpt from this book, The Dangerous Act of Worship.Read more

This story begins with me in the pulpit at my church.  I preach from time to time, although I am not the pastor.  I spent the first part of the sermon talking about a certain activity that I had done that week…a lot…all day…and it was illegal.  Now, rather than provoke the local authorities with details, I think I’ll stay vague about the story. 

On another topic, it turns out that water restrictions have been activated here in Charlottesville and anybody caught running their hose for a long time might get a fine!

The irony was the sermon was all about nature.  The passage was Psalm 8, and I talked about the purpose and beauty of God’s creation and our role in it.  As I preached a sermon about caring for the earth and praising its Maker, turns out everyone in the church was just waiting for me to come down out of the pulpit to let me know how I had just abused the environment beyond the limits of the law!  Yes, irony.  Yes, humility.

I immediately thought of the famous Gilbert Tennent sermon, “The Dangers of the Unconverted Ministry” preached at the height of the First Great Awakening in 1740.  This was a huge revival in the colonies and tens of thousands were turned to Christ.

Okay, stick with me here, people…Read more

     Most of the time, I have the most enviable job in the world.  I have the privilege of attending the births of babies.  From the first months I get to share with my patients those heart-stopping moments:  when the test comes back positive, the babe leaps for joy, the picture shows the boy or girl, the name is chosen, the signs of the obstetrical eschaton are unveiled, the water breaks, the head emerges, and when life's first cry follows the silent first breath.  It is never a stale task--for even the more predictable emotions erupt uniquely when the babies are coming.  In those quiet or loud hours, couples officially become families; the graying generations in the dark corners of the labor room move from branches to trunk on the family tree.  It is the slow expectation of life.

     The slow expectation of Chelsea's death was too hard for me.Read more

I recently returned from a fishing trip with my dad. We spent four days fly-fishing for big bonefish on the coast of Venezuela, coming home with great pictures, a few good stories, and one gastrointestinal souvenir (mine) that kept the memory of the trip alive for a few more days. One afternoon on the beach, I spotted a concentration of dark sea birds hovering just above the water. Fishermen use these groups of birds as a sort of beacon. Wherever there are birds, there are jacks- a type of fish, a really strong fish and a blast to catch. The fish and the birds feed on the same minnows and thus when you see the birds, you can be sure there are swarms of jacks churning the water underneath.

Soon the school had moved on, as evidenced by the now distant pillar of birds. I waded after them but the birds thinned out and I assumed the school had dispersed. As I turned to head back to the boat, the flock of birds regrouped and I saw the telltale splashes of jacks below. Returning to the beach, I sprinted down the sand to catch up with the pillar, finally veering back into the shallows and heading for the birds.

I felt like an Old Testament Israelite, following the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, through the desert. The water deepened as I approached the birds, which had headed back out past a massive shelf, beyond which was deep aquamarine water. I scrambled to the edge, over sharp and brittle coral, occasionally falling through weak points and holes, where rays and poisonous urchins dwell- eyes bouncing back and forth from my footing to the birds, whose presence assured me the jacks were still around.

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Isaiah 1:17: “learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.”

The heart of living out the gospel is summed up in that verse. We understand that call. Jesus says that when we show love to others we are showing love to him. Yet this call extends beyond our charities and our tithes. Wendell Berry in an essay entitled, “The Gift of Good Land,” writes, “The divine mandate to use the world justly and charitably, then, defines every person’s moral predicament as that of a steward. But this predicament is hopeless and meaningless unless it produces an appropriate discipline: stewardship. And stewardship is hopeless and meaningless unless it involves longterm courage, perseverance, devotion, and skill. This skill is not to be confused with any accomplishment or grace of spirit or of intellect. It has to do with everyday proprieties in the practical use and care of created things...”

I often forget these everyday proprieties. I fall prey to an idea that my tithing, volunteer work, and church involvement are the best that I can do to push back the curse of sin. I might buy organic milk sometimes to help those poor cows, but my buying, for the most part, does not reflect a Biblical understanding of stewardship. Read more

On Monday, college students returned to Virginia Tech for the first time since the April massacre that ended with 33 people dead. I have come to know the parents of one of the murdered students, Lauren McCain. Because of my work with a campus ministry, I learned of Lauren’s story and then met her parents at a conference we hosted. My job was to prepare Dave and Sherry McCain for an interview they would do for 5,000 missionaries.

We sat down in a hotel lobby in Colorado to talk about Lauren and how they are doing in the months since she went to heaven. Moments like these feel like I am standing on holy ground. The McCains recounted story after story of ways that the Lord had touched their lives. For example, they were able to join other Christian families in praying in the dorm and classroom where the murders took place. And Dave was able to escort Lauren’s body home to Hampton, Va., (where they live) because a friend knew the undertaker. Dave says he needed that as a gift of closure.

Sherry talked about the fear of all mothers: that one of her four children would precede her to heaven. She remembers asking the Lord three things: “If that is the case, then please let it be painless, fearless and quick.” Later, survivors confirmed that Lauren never saw the shooter enter their German class. The coroner confirmed that Lauren died instantly. And the coroner’s picture also showed Lauren “like she was sleeping,” Sherry told me through tears. Read more

It occurred to me a few days ago as I was reading through the book of Job that Bildad’s response to his suffering friend sounds eerily close to something a person in the reformed tradition, someone like myself, might say - and the reason I use the word “eerily” will become evident soon enough - “dominion and awe belong to God; he establishes order in the heights of heaven.  Can his forces be numbered?  On whom does his light not rise?  How then can a mortal be righteous before God?  How can one born of a woman be pure?  If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, how much less a mortal, who is but a maggot - a human being, who is only a worm!” 

Job’s response to this precise and purely pristine promulgation of doctrine is bitingly sarcastic - “How you have helped the powerless!  How you have saved the arm that is feeble!  What advice you have offered to one without wisdom!  And what great insight you have displayed!  Who has helped you utter these words?  And whose spirit spoke from your mouth?”  When I consider what may have been the tone of Job’s voice I imagine Adam Sandler on one of his emotionally rising tirades.  “Bildad, shut the %$*& up!"Read more

Reggie Kidd, professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary-Orlando, and a cherished friend, writes an essay about how Jesus and the New Creation transform the place of women. This is a beautiful piece in which Reggie names names-- the names of the women he has been privileged to serve alongside in Jesus' ever-advancing Kingdom. Read more