Football vs. Jesus

So John Piper is pretty much one of my favorite pastors in the world. I watched something on him this morning and felt the urge to watch several more YouTubes of him! I found the one below and watched it several times trying to figure out what I think. Interesting enough, a little bit of what he is saying is what I am preaching in my message Sunday morning on "Celebration." However John seems to say it in a little more powerful way.

Would love to hear your comments on this video. Is John Piper right or has he gone too far?

"umbrella" (Jesus style)

This morning in my quiet time, for whatever reason I started searching on youtube for a video for something to watch that could jump start my morning. I found what I was needing, and I thought I would share it with you all.

This is a remix of Rihanna's song "umbrella." Listen to the words and let me know what you think...

The Son burst forth today!

What a day. This morning was possibly the earliest I have gotten up in a long time - I got up around 5:20! The reason being is that I needed to get to the Easter Sunrise Service at my church. My wife (Alyson) typically gets up around 5:00 every morning, so it wasn’t anything new to her.

But this morning on our way to church, I was struck by the beauty of the sunrise. I wish I had a picture of it, however I forgot my phone at home (that’s what happens when a non-early riser is forced to get up early – they hurry around and forget things!). Yet I can tell you that as I was driving to church I was moved to tears. It has literally been a while since I have seen a sunrise.

As Alyson and I were driving we listened to a CD with a medley compilation that my good friend Rick White gave me that he and his church put together. Just as the morning sun began blinding me as I drove, the song hit it’s climax with “There in the Ground his body lay, Light of the world by darkness slain, THEN BURSTING FORTH IN GLORIOUS DAY, UP FROM THE GRAVE HE ROSE AGAIN (In Christ Alone).” Tears streamed down my face, as I realized that today was truly going to be a day to remember.

And it was.

(Alyson took this picture the other day while also listening to the same song while driving to work!)

2009 definition of Easter

As much as I love the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, etc. I always have a hard time around the holidays. It’s almost like I want to celebrate and enjoy the silliness of Easter baskets, fun toys, and my personal favorite – envelopes with money – but at the same time I am left wondering do these fun things distract away from more than add to the real reason for the holiday.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a blast growing up in North Carolina painting Easter Eggs at my Aunt Karen’s house, and I still understood the true meaning of Easter – my parents made sure of that! But as I continue to get older, the more it seems that either parents aren’t emphasizing the true meaning of holidays anymore and/or our Christian culture has de-emphasized the meanings.

When I was a kid, in 1979, the definition of Easter seemed to be – the holiday celebrating Jesus’ victory over death symbolized by the Easter bunny’s victory over my parents by allowing me to receive and eat as much chocolate as I wanted.

However, now, in 2009, I feel like the definition of Easter is - the Easter bunny died three days ago, but came back to give us Cadbury eggs to celebrate while we wear pastel colors and eat ham (or whatever meat or vegetable you want to place here).

Whether we love wearing pastel colors, eating chocolate, or both, I feel like we need to be careful in what we teach our kids or communicate to those around us the meaning of Easter is. It just seems to me that on many occasions, we can find ourselves having so much fun with things that aren't that important we leave out the things that are. Trust me, I love having fun! I just want us to have fun while keeping focused... 

Am I totally off base here? What do you think? Does the Easter bunny take away from or add to the true story of Easter? Has Christian culture allowed for the secular views of each holiday to completely take over? Is that ok? Is it bad? Should we be made to give our candy back this year? Would love to hear what you all think!

10 Things You Need To Know About Money

1) It’s not yours – it’s Gods. We are temporary stewards (Genesis 1). God claims the right to all property (Psalm 24:1).

2) It can become a god. We cannot serve both God and Money (Matthew 6:24).

3) Money cannot buy happiness. More doesn’t mean better (Luke 12:15).

4) There IS enough money to make this world a better place. If Christians tithed they could meet global need. (2 Cor. 8: 13-15).

5) It’s the hardest thing to give up. Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19:24). The Bible talks about money three times more than it talks about love, seven times more than it talks about prayer, and eight times more than it talks about belief.

6) Tithe is the starting point of a Christian’s obedience. Tithing is a test of our obedience and faith – a test we can’t fake or cheat on (Malachi 3:6-12).

7) Don’t give your money to every ministry. Give to the ministries you will commit to pray for and believe in!

8) Debt is bad. You will become servant to the lender instead of God (Proverbs 22:7).

9) The stock market is not God. Capitalism might be the best economic system our government can put in place, it shouldn't be the guiding force for those of us in the church (2 Cor. 9: 8-11).

10) Giving is an act of worship. Give generously and cheerfully (2 Cor. 9:7).

bringing simple back

Yesterday my wife and I babysat Elias Turner. Some of you may read his parent's (Matthew or Jessica) blogs or follow Elias on twitter. When my wife told me Elias was coming over to play, I immediately began worrying about what in the heck we were going to do. We don’t have any fun toys to play with. I mean, the last time he came over, I had to let him play with the remote control. But this time, we lucked out. Matthew brought over a puppet.

As we all played with this dog puppet, Elias couldn’t stop laughing and giggling. As I've thought about our fun 15 minutes of play time together I was reminded of two things: (1) I'm not as funny as a dog puppet, and (2) so many of us have forgotten about the simple things in life. As I get older, the simple things I once used to enjoy as a kid has turned into much more complex things (blackberry phones and iphones, wii, etc.). But you know what? It's okay to love and play with simple things, and I intend on bringing them back into my life. That simple and inexpensive dog puppet brought so much joy to Elias. When I was younger, the simple things brought me tons of joy too.

So my question to you all is this, what is or was, the simplest thing that brings joy into your life? For me, it’s chopsticks! I love rockin’ out at the dinner table with my chopsticks when we are in some Asian restaurant (that is until Alyson takes them away from me). Whatever that simple thing is, enjoy it, and be a kid again. You deserve it.