Every Day Bible

Observation: What drew the most ‘amens’?

Feb 8

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Enjoyed visiting the ol’ alma matter for Lectures today. Something stood out to me in one of the lectures I attended. The speaker made several comments that were met with yells of “amen.” Within a minute’s time, he made two statements that each were met with an enthusiastic response.

The first statement: “We need to realize that everything–it is all about Jesus.”

The second statement: “We need to remember that the church is worth fighting for.”

The “amen” offered to the second statement was easily twice as loud as the first. That caught my attention.

There are several ways I could interpret this:

We are living in a time in which people have not defended the church against slander, and it is really, really, really important we start defending her. Or,
We like the idea of fighting for something better than we like the idea of personally living for Jesus.

I’ll leave the discussion as an exercise to the readers.

Tags: lectures, priorities

What’s your focus?

Feb 3

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“In the average crisis, the crisis itself gets the attention God should have had. Helmut Thielicke said that during the bomb raids on Stuttgart he used to hear two kinds of prayers rising from the bomb shelters. Most prayed, “Lord, save us from the bombs!” and only a few prayed, “Lord, save us from the bombs.” Most believers cannot really get their minds on God when the crisis looms large. And preaching on a crisis will probably leave people talking more about the crisis than it leaves them talking about God.”

Miller, Sermon Maker p 130

Tags: crisis, focus

The Presence of God in Preaching

Jan 29

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When preachers lose track of God, their sermons get pushier. Not only that, when God is most absent in their lives, they are all the more present. The quieter God gets, the louder they get.

Barbara Brown Taylor raises the same issue:

Sometimes I think we do all the talking because we are afraid God won’t. Or, conversely, that God will. Either way, staying preoccupied with our own words seems a safer bet than opening ourselves up either to God’s silence or God’s speech, both of which have the power to undo us.

So we lose God when he’s quiet, because we’re too loud. We run from him when he gets loud, because we cannot stand the storm of his coming. Either way, we often come to the pulpit without him, having no clear remembrance of our last real conversation.

From Calvin Miller’s “Sermon Maker” page 18.

Tags: preaching

Confederate Dollars

Jan 26

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A Christian who tries to accumulate toys, money, and possessions during life is like a Union soldier who tried to stockpile Confederate currency at the end of the Civil War.

Not only was he a traitor, he was a fool, for his prize was worthless!

Adapted from The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn.

Tags: greed, materialism, quotes

A funny thing about change

Jan 24

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“Nobody wants to change until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.”

Adapted from Comeback Churches.

The Fruit of Repentance?

Jan 8

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In reading Randy Alcorn’s The Treasure Principle: Discovering the Secret of Joyful Giving, I stumbled on this little realization. In Luke 3:10-14, John the Baptist is describing works that show the fruit of repentance. In this text, he interacts with soldiers, tax collectors, and all men. The advice given to each is from the same category. See if you identify it.

He commanded the tax collectors not to over—reach and collect more than they ought.

He commanded the soldiers to be content with their wages and resist the temptation to extort the poor.

He commanded all men to share their possessions with those in need.

All people were instructed to show evidence of their penitent hearts based on their stewardship. Stewardship reveals values. Values reveal hearts. Where your treasure is, Jesus said, there your heart will be also.

Would John the Baptist see fruit of repentance in my check register? How about yours?

Tags: book review, steardship

The Singer’s Beatitudes

Jan 6

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From The Singer by Calvin Miller:

Blessed are the musical, for theirs shall be a never-ending song.

Blessed are those who know the difference between their loving and their lusting, for they shall be pure in heart and understand the reason.

Blessed are those who die for reasons that are real, for they themselves are real.

Blessed are all those who yet can sing when all the theater is empty and the orchestra is gone.

Blessed is the man who stands before the cruelest king and only fears his God.

Blessed is the mighty king who sits beside the weakest man and thinks of all their similarities.

Motorcycle Upgrades: Turn Signal Conversion (Part 1 of NaN)

Nov 16

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So, some of you know a 1993 Kawasaki Vulcan 500 decided to come and live with us. Now that we’ve spent about 1,000 miles together, it’s time to start breaking things.

One of my bigger fears while riding is getting rear-ended. Not much I can do to prevent that one, other than pray and work on visibility. You’ll notice the last post on this blog was about prayer – and this one is on visibility. Trying to cover my bases…

So, I bought a “Turn Signal Conversion Kit” from the Electrical Connection in Knoxville. Cost just under $50, online. (Disclosure: they didn’t pay me to write this review, however, if you’re reading this, folks, I’d be glad to change that…)

The kit is pretty simple: two RED amber LED rings, one for each rear turn signal lens. The rings attach to the lens with included silicon adhesive. Bonus points to the Electrical connection for including the adhesive and alcohol pads for surface prep.

The LEDs get wired to the turn signal power and ground, the brake light power and ground, and the tail light power and ground. When you’re running regularly, the red is illuminated at a low setting, providing additional red taillights. When you brake, the LEDs illuminate at full strength, giving you two additional brake lights. When you turn, the red LEDs deactivate, leaving only your standard amber turn signals, so everything is street legal anywhere in the states.

The installation took me about 4 hours, mainly because I’m an idiot. It took me nearly an hour to find a way to fish the wiring through the turn signal stalks. The stalks were not meant for extra cabling, but several tries later on each side, they went through. Finding the correct power lines wasn’t too difficult: they Hayes manual pages I found online pointed me in the right direction, and a couple of probes with a voltmeter confirmed my guesswork. The kit included vampire clamps (t-taps) that make decent connections, but not that great.

After installing the kit and testing it, Leslie brought her mad PhD soldering skills outside to sure up the connections a bit. I’m very pleased with the final product…so take a look at a quick video:

If you’re looking to add to your nighttime visibility, I’d give this kit an A+. Being LED-based, I didn’t have to worry about it over-stressing the limited power capabilities of this small bike, and it didn’t break the budget. Here’s a link to the manufacturer’s information.

Tags: motorcycle upgrades

Christian Disciplines: Devotionals and Fasting

Nov 4

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Enjoy our last two weeks of discussion from our Christian Disciplines Class.

First, Home Devotionals. God is interested not in our spiritual lives, per se, but in our lives—the whole stinkin’ thing! We discussed this concept in our lesson on home devotionals. How can we season our entire lives with his presence? How can we recognize that our jobs, our retirement, our schooling, and our vacations belong to him? To drive home the point, we discussed developing a “theology of sleep.” Our lives, our existence should be wholly redeemed!

For comic relief (while our toes heal) listen to this “Phone call with God.”

For the class discussion on home devotionals (listen for the tips at the end) listen to the summary here.

Regarding fasting: it’s a hot-button topic (even though we’re silent about it most of the time.) The old adage is that “it’s regulated, but not commanded” is worth discussing, but isn’t that helpful. After all, who would regulate something you don’t expect to happen? The number of commanded OT fast days may surprise you. I hope this lesson stirs your thoughts and gives you one more tool in your spiritual disciplines tool-chest. Listen to the summary of Christian fasting here.

Tags: fasting, home devotionals