God is Not Your Bitch

Pardon my french

The title is taken from Mark Morford's provocative article in the San Francisco Chronicle found here- http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/07/24/notes072409.DTL

Read the article, please do it. It embodies a major complaint against all sorts of organized religion (even the kind "that's a relationship, not a religion"). Morford is very thought provoking, and I even agreed with him at a couple spots.

I had seen this video right before I read Morfords article, which happened to be a very personal, precise, and minute grace.

Tim Keller also has these incredible words on what it means to be a Christian, which provides a very fitting reply to Morford's complaint.

http://www.monergism.com/acidtest.html

All three of these pieces helped me understand the infinite yet personal glory of God that works in the heavens, in the earth, and in our lives. It is time to worship

no business

God has no business being human. He has no business getting dirty, being humble, serving people, getting toilet trained, living homeless, and spending three years with people who would deny him and betray him.

But he did.

Winning Races

The sun is rising on football season. For me this is an exciting time, though there are admittetly mixed opinions on the value of sports in America. While human nature will always find ways to twist and debase sports into an idol and obsession, there is a lot to learn and love from the fields of competition. For example, if anyone needs help understanding total depravity- examine the Washington Huskies 2008 football season. More positively, I have been tremendously helped by the perseverance and courage experienced in sports. Paul commonly uses racing imagery in his letters, and it ought to be commonly remembered.

In Pauls letter to the Philippians

"But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way"

In Pauls letter to timothy

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith"

A succesful running lifestyle involves two things- good work and good rest. In the long run you must have those two components. Both are found in Jesus Christ. Most often people think life is all about one or the other. But nobody wants the "most often" results in life do they?

My old cross country coach showed this to our team prior to one of our state meets. It's one of my favorite videos ever.