Saturday, December 31, 2011

From the Goodman House: Year-End Wrap Up

Happy New Year! Here’s a Goodman 2011 Wrap-Up:

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Links to Your World, Tuesday December 27

"Indonesian girl who was swept away in the 2004 tsunami is reunited with her family." Pastors looking for illustrations: You're welcome.

"The Bible is the model for and subject of more art and thought than those of us who live within its influence, consciously or unconsciously, will ever know." Marilynne Robinson explains why in this NY Times piece.

"There’s a sweet spot of stress: too much stress overloads the system and makes life difficult, but having had too little stress causes similar problems." (Time)

Houston Man Paying $1 Parking Ticket 58 Years Late

The Car of Tomorrow Recognizes Your Butt. I expect some late night punch lines from the comedians on this story.

David Brooks pointed me to Alan Lightman's “The Accidental Universe” in Harper’s. Brooks says Lightman "writes that the existence of life is so incredibly improbable that there can be only two realistic explanations: Either there is a God who designed all this, or there exist many, many different universes, a vast majority of which are lifeless. Many physicists are gravitating to the latter theory." Since there's no evidence for the latter, could there be an emotional reason against the former?

Friday, December 23, 2011

"Oh Wow. Oh Wow. Oh Wow."

Peggy Noonan:

The great words of the year? "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow."
They are the last words of Steve Jobs, reported by his sister, the novelist Mona Simpson, who was at his bedside. In her eulogy, a version of which was published in the New York Times, she spoke of how he looked at his children "as if he couldn't unlock his gaze." He'd said goodbye to her, told her of his sorrow that they wouldn't be able to be old together, "that he was going to a better place." In his final hours his breathing was deep, uneven, as if he were climbing.
"Before embarking, he'd looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life's partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them. Steve's final words were: 'OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW.'"
The caps are Simpson's, and if she meant to impart a sense of wonder and mystery she succeeded. "Oh wow" is not a bad way to express the bigness, power and force of life, and death. And of love, by which he was literally surrounded.
I wondered too, after reading the eulogy, if I was right to infer that Jobs saw something, and if so, what did he see? What happened there that he looked away from his family and expressed what sounds like awe?
...Anyway I sent Ms. Simpson's eulogy to a number of people and spoke to some of them, and they all had two things in common in terms of their reaction. They'd get a faraway look, and think. And if they had a thought to share they did it with modesty....
Modesty when contemplating death is a good thing.
When words leave people silent and thinking they are powerful words. Steve Jobs' last words were the best thing said in 2011.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Review of “Not Your Parent’s Offering Plate”

Non-profits know how to ask people to financially support their worthy causes—and to do so unapologetically. Clif Christopher says that pastors and other church leaders need to learn this skill. I was given a Kindle edition of his book, Not Your Parents' Offering Plate: A New Vision for Financial Stewardship. I read it in one sitting and—since I read it near the end of the year—I made a few “New Year’s Resolutions” as a result.

Christopher says that people give to organizations for 3 chief reasons.

First, they believe in the mission. So, it’s important to constantly communicate how the church is successfully accomplishing the task of changing lives

Second, people give to organizations where the leadership has engaged them with the vision, often personally. So, it’s important for the pastor to know who his donors are, and the pastor has to take the lead in asking for financial support for the worthy cause of the church’s gospel mission. This is a new consideration for me, since I’ve operated for 30 years under the policy that I will not know who gives what. I haven’t decided whether to change this policy, but Christopher makes a strong case that pastors should do so. Regardless of what pastors know about donors gifts, however, donors should know a lot about the pastor’s passion for the cause he wants them to support.

Third, people give to organizations they believe are financially sound. “People do not give to sinking ships,” Christopher writes, “They give to ships that are sailing strong and give every indication of reaching their destination.”

Christopher also encourages pastors and other church leaders to pay attention to three “pockets” from which their people should be challenged in good stewardship.

First, there’s the “Earned-Income Pocket.” Many churches are already successful at challenging people to give from their paychecks and retirement checks.

Second, there’s the “Capital Pocket.” In this pocket are “stocks, bonds, pieces of property, insurance policies, savings accounts, and inheritances we may have received and put away.” Typically, people do not think to contribute from this pocket, but Christopher believes every pastor should always have a list of special projects that he would launch should funding from someone’s “Capital Pocket” become available.

Third, there’s the “Estate Pocket.” Christopher writes:

Every one of us will die one day and every church member we are currently serving will also die. Most of us will be richer on that day than we ever were while alive. No longer will we have need of any of the assets in our life, plus we will have added to our barns all that life insurance we have paid premiums on over the years. First the bad news: none of it will be going with us. Now the good news: you aren't going to need it. YOU ARE, HOWEVER, STILL RESPONSIBLE FOR IT. As far as I can figure, God gave you all of those treasures. They were not given to anyone else-just you, and you are responsible as His steward to determine their disposal.

While about 38 percent of charitable giving goes to religious institutions, these institutions only gets 8 percent of all the estate gifts in America. Christopher says pastors should lead their members to put one simple sentence in his or her will that says, "After all my bills are paid, I want 10 percent of my estate (a tithe) to go to ______ Church."

This book is a quick read (I started and completed it today). As a result, here are a few “New Year’s Resolutions” for my work as pastor:

First: More testimonies of changed lives and appreciation for Hillcrest. We do this, but not near as often. Christopher recommends a testimony every week—in the service or at least written in the bulletin.

Second: More thank-you notes. Christopher recommends 10 a week, hand-written. These should go out to anyone for anything who needs a thank-you from the pastor, but especially to those faithful in giving. He even suggests that the pastor ask the financial secretary or treasurer to alert him of any noteworthy contribution so he can immediately reply with a thank-you note.

Third: A list of “plans for the future.” Right now, the great majority of beyond-the-budget giving should be directed to our “Beautiful Thing Campaign” for renovating the auditorium. But Christopher says I should have other things on a “wish list,” too:

Of course you are not supposed to be always building a building. But you are supposed to be always building the kingdom of God. In the right-hand drawer of every pastor's desk there always should be plans for the future that simply need someone to fund them. From time to time these dreams and plans should be shared with the greater church. Like seed to be scattered, they should be spread out occasionally just to see if they might take root. Doing so will cause individuals to think about their capital pocket and what they might like to do with it on a one-time special occasion….In between the building programs at your church, do you really think your members are sitting on these capital assets just waiting for you to need them? No, they are evaluating every year what to do with them, and if you do not speak up you will not be in their plans.

Fourth: Estate Planning. We’ve done a little of this from time to time, but 2012 needs to be a year where we emphasize this again. As we benefit from the sizable estate that a member named Bob Flaherty left us upon his death, we need to challenge other members to follow his lead.

Thanks, Paul Waldo, for the gift of this book! It confirmed some things I’ve been doing, challenged me to kick some of our activities into a higher gear, and convinced me to try some new things.

Review of Fehrenbach's "Lone Star"

Since the first edition in 1968, T.R. Fehrenbach's Lone Star has been the authoritative text for the history of Texas. Academics "have blasted away at the scriptural authority" of the book, writes Michael Ennis for Texas Monthly. "But these 'revisionists' (read 'heretics' if you’re a Texas history traditionalist) have scarcely dented Fehrenbach’s appeal to readers outside the ivory tower."

I just completed the (c) 2000 edition, coming in at 730 pages. The book is largely sympathetic to its "Anglo-Celtic" subject, seen as the main population driving Texas history. The book traces the history of Texas through interaction with the Indian and Spanish-Mexican populations that Anglo-Celts encountered as they moved West, largely from Appalacia. Fehrenbach puts the actions of 19th-century Texans in historical context, a helpful counter to those ready to make shallow jdugments on men and women from the distant past. He also shows how the outrages of Reconstruction following the Civil War contributed to the Texan's suspicion of expectations imposed by distant outsiders, especially those from the Northeast--a suspicion that lasted deep into the 20th century and (arguably) still tinges the Texan mood in the new century.

Winning Ways: Riding Herd

Do you know what it means to "ride herd" over something?

Every region has its unique phrases. People from the northeast refer to something impressive as "wicked good," which is akin to what the southern Californian means by "narly." Everyone in the South know how far a "tad" is when they're asked to "scoot over a tad." And my friends in the Caribbean all know how long its going to be when a repairman tells you, "Soon come, mon."

In Texas, to "ride herd" over something means to manage it, to keep it in line, to direct it toward a desired end.

With that in mind, we need to ride herd over three things: our time, our talents, and our treasure.

The biblical word for this is "stewardship." A steward was someone who managed his master's estate. He did not own it, but he was entrusted with it, and his master would hold him accountable for his attentive care. In the Bible, we are told to be good stewards of the things God has entrusted to us.

I know your mind is on Christmas right now, but 2012 is a week away! And on New Year's Day we'll begin a 3-week sermon series called "Riding Herd: Managing Your Time, Talents, and Treasure." Your 2012 will be a lot more successful if you can be a better manager of these 3 three things, so start the New Year right by learning how!

The series begins on New Year's Day--and don't forget that the special holiday schedule will be in effect: The service will begin at 11:00 a.m.

Thankful for our Musicians! What a great Christmas music program last Sunday! Many thanks to the talented members of our music ministry!

O Come Let Us Adore Him: Join us at 6:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve for our Lord's Supper service. It's always a moving experience to close this service with hundreds of lit candles.

Special Holiday Schedule the Next Two Sundays: On December 25 and January 1, our worship service will begin at 11:00 a.m., and there will be no other activities.

Ministry to our Missionary Families: Be in prayer for the team traveling to Thailand to lead a camp for the teens of our International Mission Board personnel. They leave December 26 and return January 3. The team includes members of our own church: Steve and Amy Cloud, David and Elishea Smith, and Katie Cline.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Links to Your World, Tuesday December 20

“I think there is such a thing as a sensus divinitatis, and in some people it doesn’t work properly,” [Alvin Plantinga] said, referring to the innate sense of the divine that Calvin believed all human beings possess. “So if you think of rationality as normal cognitive function, yes, there is something irrational about [atheism and agnosticism]." Read the NYT piece on Christian and respected philosopher Alvin Plantiga, "Philosopher Sticks Up For God."

Before you buy that e-reader, know that e-books can cost as much--or more--than the print version. So, plop down $100 or so for a device to read 'em, and then pay what you've already been paying for books. Yeah, good business plan. I'm keeping a list of wanted books at this site, and waiting for a better ebook price before getting any version of the books.

Alice Cooper is getting Lady Gaga a Bible and a cookbook for Christmas. Here's hoping for some productive conversations between the friends.

The boom in smartphones and social networks is giving new life to old scams and computer tricks. Think before you click.

Christian History online explaines the real Saint Nicholas and why we have Christmas trees.

"Among the haunting consequences of Facebook and Twitter use is the immortality of ill-chosen words and personal pictures. And for that reason, alone, parents now have to give their children “the talk.” No, not about sex....The talk is about privacy, and the importance of children keeping to themselves things that could harm them later. Need I remind everyone that human resource departments have no problem finding captioned pictures of job applicants sharing, um, lingerie reviews from their junior year in college? Cyberspace never forgets" (Opinionator).

Wasn't Sandusky 'born that way?'

The “Seuss” in Dr. Seuss is Supposed to Be Pronounced “Zoice”

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

”That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate”

If you’re looking for the central passage of Herman Melville’s long (long!) book, Moby Dick, here it is. I just completed the book through Librivox’s free audio recording. This portion below captures Captain Ahab’s hatred of the white whale—and hatred of what what the white whale symbolizes to him:

What's this long face about, Mr. Starbuck; wilt thou not chase the white whale? art not game for Moby Dick?"

"I am game for his crooked jaw, and for the jaws of Death too, Captain Ahab, if it fairly comes in the way of the business we follow; but I came here to hunt whales, not my commander's vengeance. How many barrels will thy vengeance yield thee even if thou gettest it, Captain Ahab? it will not fetch thee much in our Nantucket market."

"Nantucket market! Hoot! But come closer, Starbuck; thou requirest a little lower layer. If money's to be the measurer, man, and the accountants have computed their great counting-house the globe, by girdling it with guineas, one to every three parts of an inch; then, let me tell thee, that my vengeance will fetch a great premium HERE!"

"He smites his chest," whispered Stubb, "what's that for? methinks it rings most vast, but hollow."

"Vengeance on a dumb brute!" cried Starbuck, "that simply smote thee from blindest instinct! Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing, Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous.

“Hark ye yet again—the little lower layer. All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event—in the living act, the undoubted deed—there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But 'tis enough. He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate that hate upon him….”

"God keep me!—keep us all!" murmured Starbuck, lowly.

“Delight,—top-gallant delight is to him, who acknowledges no law or lord, but the Lord his God, and is only a patriot to heaven”

Preaching Jonah, from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, which I just finished:

The preacher slowly turned over the leaves of the Bible, and at last, folding his hand down upon the proper page, said: "Beloved shipmates, clinch the last verse of the first chapter of Jonah—'And God had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah.'"

"Shipmates, this book, containing only four chapters—four yarns—is one of the smallest strands in the mighty cable of the Scriptures. Yet what depths of the soul does Jonah's deep sealine sound! what a pregnant lesson to us is this prophet! What a noble thing is that canticle in the fish's belly! How billow-like and boisterously grand! We feel the floods surging over us; we sound with him to the kelpy bottom of the waters; sea-weed and all the slime of the sea is about us! But WHAT is this lesson that the book of Jonah teaches?Shipmates, it is a two-stranded lesson; a lesson to us all as sinful men, and a lesson to me as a pilot of the living God. As sinful men, it is a lesson to us all, because it is a story of the sin, hard-heartedness, suddenly awakened fears, the swift punishment, repentance, prayers, and finally the deliverance and joy of Jonah. As with all sinners among men, the sin of this son of Amittai was in his wilful disobedience of the command of God—never mind now what that command was, or how conveyed—which he found a hard command. But all the things that God would have us do are hard for us to do—remember that—and hence, he oftener commands us than endeavors to persuade. And if we obey God, we must disobey ourselves; and it is in this disobeying ourselves, wherein the hardness of obeying God consists.

"With this sin of disobedience in him, Jonah still further flouts at God, by seeking to flee from Him. He thinks that a ship made by men will carry him into countries where God does not reign, but only the Captains of this earth. He skulks about the wharves of Joppa, and seeks a ship that's bound for Tarshish. There lurks, perhaps, a hitherto unheeded meaning here. By all accounts Tarshish could have been no other city than the modern Cadiz. That's the opinion of learned men. And where is Cadiz, shipmates? Cadiz is in Spain; as far by water, from Joppa, as Jonah could possibly have sailed in those ancient days, when the Atlantic was an almost unknown sea. Because Joppa, the modern Jaffa, shipmates, is on the most easterly coast of the Mediterranean, the Syrian; and Tarshish or Cadiz more than two thousand miles to the westward from that, just outside the Straits of Gibraltar. See ye not then, shipmates, that Jonah sought to flee world-wide from God? Miserable man! Oh! most contemptible and worthy of all scorn; with slouched hat and guilty eye, skulking from his God; prowling among the shipping like a vile burglar hastening to cross the seas. So disordered, self-condemning is his look, that had there been policemen in those days, Jonah, on the mere suspicion of something wrong, had been arrested ere he touched a deck. How plainly he's a fugitive! no baggage, not a hat-box, valise, or carpet-bag,—no friends accompany him to the wharf with their adieux. At last, after much dodging search, he finds the Tarshish ship receiving the last items of her cargo; and as he steps on board to see its Captain in the cabin, all the sailors for the moment desist from hoisting in the goods, to mark the stranger's evil eye. Jonah sees this; but in vain he tries to look all ease and confidence; in vain essays his wretched smile. Strong intuitions of the man assure the mariners he can be no innocent. In their gamesome but still serious way, one whispers to the other—"Jack, he's robbed a widow;" or, "Joe, do you mark him; he's a bigamist;" or, "Harry lad, I guess he's the adulterer that broke jail in old Gomorrah, or belike, one of the missing murderers from Sodom." Another runs to read the bill that's stuck against the spile upon the wharf to which the ship is moored, offering five hundred gold coins for the apprehension of a parricide, and containing a description of his person. He reads, and looks from Jonah to the bill; while all his sympathetic shipmates now crowd round Jonah, prepared to lay their hands upon him. Frighted Jonah trembles, and summoning all his boldness to his face, only looks so much the more a coward. He will not confess himself suspected; but that itself is strong suspicion. So he makes the best of it; and when the sailors find him not to be the man that is advertised, they let him pass, and he descends into the cabin.

"'Who's there?' cries the Captain at his busy desk, hurriedly making out his papers for the Customs—'Who's there?' Oh! how that harmless question mangles Jonah! For the instant he almost turns to flee again. But he rallies. 'I seek a passage in this ship to Tarshish; how soon sail ye, sir?' Thus far the busy Captain had not looked up to Jonah, though the man now stands before him; but no sooner does he hear that hollow voice, than he darts a scrutinizing glance. 'We sail with the next coming tide,' at last he slowly answered, still intently eyeing him. 'No sooner, sir?'—'Soon enough for any honest man that goes a passenger.' Ha! Jonah, that's another stab. But he swiftly calls away the Captain from that scent. 'I'll sail with ye,'—he says,—'the passage money how much is that?—I'll pay now.' For it is particularly written, shipmates, as if it were a thing not to be overlooked in this history, 'that he paid the fare thereof' ere the craft did sail. And taken with the context, this is full of meaning.

"Now Jonah's Captain, shipmates, was one whose discernment detects crime in any, but whose cupidity exposes it only in the penniless. In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without a passport; whereas Virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers. So Jonah's Captain prepares to test the length of Jonah's purse, ere he judge him openly. He charges him thrice the usual sum; and it's assented to. Then the Captain knows that Jonah is a fugitive; but at the same time resolves to help a flight that paves its rear with gold. Yet when Jonah fairly takes out his purse, prudent suspicions still molest the Captain. He rings every coin to find a counterfeit. Not a forger, any way, he mutters; and Jonah is put down for his passage. 'Point out my state-room, Sir,' says Jonah now, 'I'm travel-weary; I need sleep.' 'Thou lookest like it,' says the Captain, 'there's thy room.' Jonah enters, and would lock the door, but the lock contains no key. Hearing him foolishly fumbling there, the Captain laughs lowly to himself, and mutters something about the doors of convicts' cells being never allowed to be locked within. All dressed and dusty as he is, Jonah throws himself into his berth, and finds the little state-room ceiling almost resting on his forehead. The air is close, and Jonah gasps. Then, in that contracted hole, sunk, too, beneath the ship's water-line, Jonah feels the heralding presentiment of that stifling hour, when the whale shall hold him in the smallest of his bowels' wards.

"Screwed at its axis against the side, a swinging lamp slightly oscillates in Jonah's room; and the ship, heeling over towards the wharf with the weight of the last bales received, the lamp, flame and all, though in slight motion, still maintains a permanent obliquity with reference to the room; though, in truth, infallibly straight itself, it but made obvious the false, lying levels among which it hung. The lamp alarms and frightens Jonah; as lying in his berth his tormented eyes roll round the place, and this thus far successful fugitive finds no refuge for his restless glance. But that contradiction in the lamp more and more appals him. The floor, the ceiling, and the side, are all awry. 'Oh! so my conscience hangs in me!' he groans, 'straight upwards, so it burns; but the chambers of my soul are all in crookedness!'

"Like one who after a night of drunken revelry hies to his bed, still reeling, but with conscience yet pricking him, as the plungings of the Roman race-horse but so much the more strike his steel tags into him; as one who in that miserable plight still turns and turns in giddy anguish, praying God for annihilation until the fit be passed; and at last amid the whirl of woe he feels, a deep stupor steals over him, as over the man who bleeds to death, for conscience is the wound, and there's naught to staunch it; so, after sore wrestlings in his berth, Jonah's prodigy of ponderous misery drags him drowning down to sleep.

"And now the time of tide has come; the ship casts off her cables; and from the deserted wharf the uncheered ship for Tarshish, all careening, glides to sea. That ship, my friends, was the first of recorded smugglers! the contraband was Jonah. But the sea rebels; he will not bear the wicked burden. A dreadful storm comes on, the ship is like to break. But now when the boatswain calls all hands to lighten her; when boxes, bales, and jars are clattering overboard; when the wind is shrieking, and the men are yelling, and every plank thunders with trampling feet right over Jonah's head; in all this raging tumult, Jonah sleeps his hideous sleep. He sees no black sky and raging sea, feels not the reeling timbers, and little hears he or heeds he the far rush of the mighty whale, which even now with open mouth is cleaving the seas after him. Aye, shipmates, Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship—a berth in the cabin as I have taken it, and was fast asleep. But the frightened master comes to him, and shrieks in his dead ear, 'What meanest thou, O, sleeper! arise!' Startled from his lethargy by that direful cry, Jonah staggers to his feet, and stumbling to the deck, grasps a shroud, to look out upon the sea. But at that moment he is sprung upon by a panther billow leaping over the bulwarks. Wave after wave thus leaps into the ship, and finding no speedy vent runs roaring fore and aft, till the mariners come nigh to drowning while yet afloat. And ever, as the white moon shows her affrighted face from the steep gullies in the blackness overhead, aghast Jonah sees the rearing bowsprit pointing high upward, but soon beat downward again towards the tormented deep.

"Terrors upon terrors run shouting through his soul. In all his cringing attitudes, the God-fugitive is now too plainly known. The sailors mark him; more and more certain grow their suspicions of him, and at last, fully to test the truth, by referring the whole matter to high Heaven, they fall to casting lots, to see for whose cause this great tempest was upon them. The lot is Jonah's; that discovered, then how furiously they mob him with their questions. 'What is thine occupation? Whence comest thou? Thy country? What people? But mark now, my shipmates, the behavior of poor Jonah. The eager mariners but ask him who he is, and where from; whereas, they not only receive an answer to those questions, but likewise another answer to a question not put by them, but the unsolicited answer is forced from Jonah by the hard hand of God that is upon him.

"'I am a Hebrew,' he cries—and then—'I fear the Lord the God of Heaven who hath made the sea and the dry land!' Fear him, O Jonah? Aye, well mightest thou fear the Lord God THEN! Straightway, he now goes on to make a full confession; whereupon the mariners became more and more appalled, but still are pitiful. For when Jonah, not yet supplicating God for mercy, since he but too well knew the darkness of his deserts,—when wretched Jonah cries out to them to take him and cast him forth into the sea, for he knew that for HIS sake this great tempest was upon them; they mercifully turn from him, and seek by other means to save the ship. But all in vain; the indignant gale howls louder; then, with one hand raised invokingly to God, with the other they not unreluctantly lay hold of Jonah.

"And now behold Jonah taken up as an anchor and dropped into the sea; when instantly an oily calmness floats out from the east, and the sea is still, as Jonah carries down the gale with him, leaving smooth water behind. He goes down in the whirling heart of such a masterless commotion that he scarce heeds the moment when he drops seething into the yawning jaws awaiting him; and the whale shoots-to all his ivory teeth, like so many white bolts, upon his prison. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord out of the fish's belly. But observe his prayer, and learn a weighty lesson. For sinful as he is, Jonah does not weep and wail for direct deliverance. He feels that his dreadful punishment is just. He leaves all his deliverance to God, contenting himself with this, that spite of all his pains and pangs, he will still look towards His holy temple. And here, shipmates, is true and faithful repentance; not clamorous for pardon, but grateful for punishment. And how pleasing to God was this conduct in Jonah, is shown in the eventual deliverance of him from the sea and the whale. Shipmates, I do not place Jonah before you to be copied for his sin but I do place him before you as a model for repentance. Sin not; but if you do, take heed to repent of it like Jonah."

While he was speaking these words, the howling of the shrieking, slanting storm without seemed to add new power to the preacher, who, when describing Jonah's sea-storm, seemed tossed by a storm himself. His deep chest heaved as with a ground-swell; his tossed arms seemed the warring elements at work; and the thunders that rolled away from off his swarthy brow, and the light leaping from his eye, made all his simple hearers look on him with a quick fear that was strange to them.

There now came a lull in his look, as he silently turned over the leaves of the Book once more; and, at last, standing motionless, with closed eyes, for the moment, seemed communing with God and himself.

But again he leaned over towards the people, and bowing his head lowly, with an aspect of the deepest yet manliest humility, he spake these words:

"Shipmates, God has laid but one hand upon you; both his hands press upon me. I have read ye by what murky light may be mine the lesson that Jonah teaches to all sinners; and therefore to ye, and still more to me, for I am a greater sinner than ye. And now how gladly would I come down from this mast-head and sit on the hatches there where you sit, and listen as you listen, while some one of you reads ME that other and more awful lesson which Jonah teaches to ME, as a pilot of the living God. How being an anointed pilot-prophet, or speaker of true things, and bidden by the Lord to sound those unwelcome truths in the ears of a wicked Nineveh, Jonah, appalled at the hostility he should raise, fled from his mission, and sought to escape his duty and his God by taking ship at Joppa. But God is everywhere; Tarshish he never reached. As we have seen, God came upon him in the whale, and swallowed him down to living gulfs of doom, and with swift slantings tore him along 'into the midst of the seas,' where the eddying depths sucked him ten thousand fathoms down, and 'the weeds were wrapped about his head,' and all the watery world of woe bowled over him. Yet even then beyond the reach of any plummet—'out of the belly of hell'—when the whale grounded upon the ocean's utmost bones, even then, God heard the engulphed, repenting prophet when he cried. Then God spake unto the fish; and from the shuddering cold and blackness of the sea, the whale came breeching up towards the warm and pleasant sun, and all the delights of air and earth; and 'vomited out Jonah upon the dry land;' when the word of the Lord came a second time; and Jonah, bruised and beaten—his ears, like two sea-shells, still multitudinously murmuring of the ocean—Jonah did the Almighty's bidding. And what was that, shipmates? To preach the Truth to the face of Falsehood! That was it!

"This, shipmates, this is that other lesson; and woe to that pilot of the living God who slights it. Woe to him whom this world charms from Gospel duty! Woe to him who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when God has brewed them into a gale!

Woe to him who seeks to please rather than to appal! Woe to him whose good name is more to him than goodness! Woe to him who, in this world, courts not dishonour! Woe to him who would not be true, even though to be false were salvation! Yea, woe to him who, as the great Pilot Paul has it, while preaching to others is himself a castaway!"

He dropped and fell away from himself for a moment; then lifting his face to them again, showed a deep joy in his eyes, as he cried out with a heavenly enthusiasm,—"But oh! shipmates! on the starboard hand of every woe, there is a sure delight; and higher the top of that delight, than the bottom of the woe is deep. Is not the main-truck higher than the kelson is low? Delight is to him—a far, far upward, and inward delight—who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self. Delight is to him whose strong arms yet support him, when the ship of this base treacherous world has gone down beneath him. Delight is to him, who gives no quarter in the truth, and kills, burns, and destroys all sin though he pluck it out from under the robes of Senators and Judges. Delight,—top-gallant delight is to him, who acknowledges no law or lord, but the Lord his God, and is only a patriot to heaven. Delight is to him, whom all the waves of the billows of the seas of the boisterous mob can never shake from this sure Keel of the Ages. And eternal delight and deliciousness will be his, who coming to lay him down, can say with his final breath—O Father!—chiefly known to me by Thy rod—mortal or immortal, here I die. I have striven to be Thine, more than to be this or mine own. Yet this is nothing: I leave eternity to Thee; for what is man that he should live out the lifetime of his God?"

He said no more, but slowly waving a benediction, covered his face with his hands, and so remained kneeling, till all the people had departed, and he was left alone in the place.

“The world’s a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow”

The pulpit is ever this earth's foremost part; all the rest comes in its rear; the pulpit leads the world. From thence it is the storm of God's quick wrath is first descried, and the bow must bear the earliest brunt. From thence it is the God of breezes fair or foul is first invoked for favourable winds. Yes, the world's a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow.

Chapter 8, The Pulpit

Moby Dick, Herman Melville

Winning Ways: If Not Us, Then Who's Going To Do It?

The animated classic A Charlie Brown Christmas airs on one of the major television networks every holiday season. This year, there's even a critically-acclaimed app for your mobile device that's built on the beloved Christmas special.

But the show almost failed to see any air time when it was first proposed back in 1965.

Two producers working closely with Charlie Brown creator Charles Schulz remember their desperate efforts to first convince a network to show the special. All the major networks were hesitant. Finally, one agreed, and the great cartoonist got to work.

A memorable part of the animated tale occurs when Linus answers Charlie Brown's plaintive cry, "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?" Linus walks to center stage, requests a spot light, then recites from Luke 2 the biblical account of Jesus' birth. "That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown," he concludes.

While the program was in development, the producers cautioned Schulz about putting the scene in the special. They were convinced the religious message wouldn't go over well with the network.

Undeterred, Schulz faced both producers and said, "If not us, then who's going to do it?"

So true. And there's a lesson there for you and me.

We have co-workers, friends, and relatives who still need to understand the Christmas message. Someone once told us, and now we need to pass it along.

As Schultz would say, "If not us, then who's going to do it?"

It could start with a simple invitation to a Christmas program at church:

A holiday fellowship hosted by your Bible study group.

This Sunday's choir performance, Hope Is Born, Emmanuel, at 10 a.m.

The Christmas Eve Candlelight service at 6:00 p.m. on the 24th or the Christmas Day Celebration service at 11:00 a.m. on the 25th.

Our hope is that activities like this will give you an opening to explain why Christ's coming has become important to you.

Our friends may not be as explicit as Charlie Brown, but they're still wanting an answer to the question: "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?" Be Linus to someone this season!

Tom

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Links to Your World, Tuesday December 13

Awesome Gingerbread Houses. Awe. Some.

A frugal Noël: Follow these tips to fill your Santa bag without emptying your wallet

Men's Health ranks America's saddest towns. Austin gets a happiness grade of "B."

Russell Moore: Women, Stop Submitting to Men

From the Department of the Really Obvious: Studies show that generosity is as important to a successful marriage as commitment and sexual intimacy. Successful couples say or do at least five positive things for each negative interaction with their partner.

"A test for the show MythBusters went awry and sent a cannonball out of a bomb range and into a nearby residential neighborhood in Dublin, California. The cannonball, which took an unexpected bounce off a safety berm during the test, traveled 700 yards outside of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department bomb range where it was fired, hit a sidewalk, crashed through the front door of a home, traveled upstairs and went through the bedroom of a sleeping couple....The cannonball didn’t stop in the sleeping couple’s bedroom. After leaving a 10-inch hole in their wall, it crossed four lanes of traffic and bounced off the roof of Ming Jiang, whose mother was watching his 10-month-old son inside his house....The projectile finally crashed through the window of a minivan and landed in the vehicle. Surprisingly, no one was injured in the incident" (Wired).

"According to a recent Codex Group survey, 39% of those who purchased a book on Amazon looked at said title in a bricks-and-mortar store first before heading online" (story).

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Tips on "Staying Hitched"

Tourè for Time suggests "five completely anecdotal and unscientific tips on staying hitched." Believers can come alongside suggestions like this and reinforce them.

1. Know that the grass ain’t greener.

Love the one you’re with, and work through the problems you know.

2. Fight fair!

Are you using those heavy conversations to work on resolving problems or dumping negative emotion and resentment onto your partner?

3. Be good, giving and game

What each member of a couple owes the other in the bedroom.

4. Never stop flirting

Chase and court as you did when you could count the number of dates you’d had on your fingers.

5. Find mentors

It’s extremely valuable having an older couple to talk to about the problems you’re having which they’ve probably already had.

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Winning Ways: King David’s King

You can change lives with questions.

Well, not just any question. In The Holy Wild, Mark Buchanan highlighted some really awkward questions from real-life courtroom cross-examinations. My favorite exchange has to be the following:

Q: “Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?” A: “No.” Q: “Did you check for blood pressure?” A: “No.” Q: “Did you check for breathing?” A: “No.” Q: “So then, is it possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?” A: “No.” Q: “How can you be so sure, doctor?” A: “Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.” Q: “But could the patient have still be alive nevertheless?” A: “It is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.”

I guess that’s proof that not all questions will change your life—or even win a court case. But Jesus asked some questions that were meant to re-orient a person’s entire worldview. In Matthew 22:41-46, he asked his opponents four: What do you think about the Messiah? Whose Son is He? How is it that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls Him ‘Lord’? If David calls Him ‘Lord,’ how then can the Messiah be his Son?

He was referring to the universal Jewish expectation that the long-awaited Messiah would come from the line of King David. He wanted them to see that expectation as a correct but incomplete explanation of the Messiah. So he took them to Psalm 110, in which King David said, “The Lord God said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.” And Jesus asked, “How can the Messiah be both David’s son and his Lord?

Jesus left the question unanswered in hopes that the riddle would wriggle into their souls and re-orient their whole worldview. He wanted them to understand that he was the root as well as the fruit of David’s line.

It’s actually what the story of Christmas is all about. As we sing in Hark, the Herald Angels Sing—

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Hail the incarnate Deity

Pleased as man with man to dwell

Jesus, our Emmanuel.

Join us this Sunday @ 10 as we wrap up our 9-week study on King David. We’ll look at King David’s King, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.

_____________________________________

Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to 1200 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Links to Your World, Tuesday December 6

How A Charlie Brown Christmas almost didn’t happen

"Christmas [songs] are, if anything, the visiting relatives of the musical world: They show up at the same time every year, stick around a little longer than one might prefer, and set the tone of virtually all family entertainment while they are in town. A December without them would be strange and slightly lonely, yet the prospect of their absence tends to be, by one week in, a reason in itself to look forward to the new year" (Nathan Heller for Slate).

As lake levels drop in Texas, objects long submerged are being revealed, attracting the attention of historians, anthropologists, criminal investigators and, in one case, NASA. Read the NYT story here.

12 Days of Christmas: The Partridge, Rings, Drummers Will Cost You $101,119

The Talmud says a name is a child's first gift. Bonnie Rochman for Time says it can also impact the child's future. Choose wisely, parents.

Related: 2011's Most Popular Baby Names

Are edible newspapers in our future?

Here's how people look at your Facebook page: profile pics matter, and content on top is next, followed by who your friends are.

"Praybook is a simple and systematic way to organize your Facebook friends into a daily prayer list. You may choose a monthly, quarterly, or yearly rotation, selecting a manageable number of friends you will pray for each day."

Mind-blowing art made on coffee.

"The best approach to Facebook privacy is to assume that there isn’t any. If you’ve got photos, affiliations or peccadilloes that you prefer to hide from the world, the worst possible place for them is Facebook, no matter what your settings. But for stuff you want to share–hey, there’s no better place" (Time).

The 40 Most Shared Links On Facebook

Monday, December 05, 2011

“Listen well. There is nothing more that he needed to say.”

"What more can he say than to you he has said?"

Let that rattle around a minute. I don't know how you read Scripture. But there is a way to read Scripture that leaves you wishing God had said a whole lot more. How did Satan become evil? Why does Chronicles add zeros to the numbers in Samuel and Kings? How did Jonah avoid asphyxiation? Who wrote the book of Hebrews?

And those aren't even the questions that most often divide and perplex the church. Wouldn't it have been great if the Lord had slipped in one killer verse that pinned down the eschatological timetable; that resolved once and for all every question about baptism; that specifically told us how to organize church leadership and government; that told us exactly what sort of music to use in worship; that explained how God's absolute sovereignty neatly dovetails with full human responsibility? Only one more verse! And think what he could have told us with an extra paragraph or chapter! If only the Lord had shortened the genealogies, omitted mention of a few villages in the land distribution, and condensed the spec sheet for the temple's dimensions, dishware, decor, and duties. Our Bible would be exactly the same length-even shorter-but a hundred of our questions could have been anticipated and definitively answered. Somehow, God in his providence didn't choose to do that.

It comes down to what you are looking for as you read and listen. When you get to what most matters, to life-and-death issues, what more can he say than to you he has said? Betrayal by someone you trusted? Aggressive, incurable cancer? Your most persistent sin? A disfiguring disability? The meaning and purpose of your life? Good and evil? Love and hate? Truth and lie? Hope in the face of death? Mercy in the face of sin? Justice in the face of unfairness? The character of God? The dynamics of the human heart? What more can he say than to you he has said? Listen well. There is nothing more that he needed to say.

--From Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, John Piper and Justin Taylor, ed.

Saturday, December 03, 2011

Beauty for Ashes

This designer turns AK-47s into jewelry. There's a sermon illustration in there....

Free Bible App

If you haven't downloaded the free YouVersion Bible app for your mobile device, now's the time. Here's one minute on YouVersion worldwide:

Thursday, December 01, 2011

LeaderLines: Partnerships For Reaching Texas

You’ll see a new line item in the proposed 2012 annual budget. The line item will expand our partnerships for reaching Texas with the gospel.

In addition to our participation with the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT), the proposed 2012 budget gives us a chance to partner with fellow Baptists through the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC).

Here are answers to some questions you may have.

Why should Hillcrest participate in two Baptist state conventions?

Plain and simple: The decision enables us to partner with more Baptists to reach Texas with the gospel.

The Christians who most closely share our faith convictions in our state are in two conventions: the BGCT and the SBTC. Think about leadership training, youth rallies, church planting, river ministry, disaster relief, and many other important services. If you want to find people doing these things who most closely share our faith convictions, you’re going to find them in both the BGCT and the SBTC.

So, this decision isn’t about deciding which convention got it “right” in debates from 30 years ago. This decision is about the 21^stcentury realities of partnering with other Texas Baptist churches. You may strongly prefer the policies and personalities of just one of the two conventions, but participating in both the BGCT and the SBTC allows Hillcrest to engage with all other Texas believers who most closely share our faith convictions. We want to be involved in Super Summer (BGCT) and the Student Evangelism Conference (SBTC). We want to support river ministry (BGCT) and the Ezekiel Project (SBTC).

Will this mean a reduction in support to our historic ties to the BGCT?

No.

Historically, our support of the BGCT has been a percentage of our undesignated receipts. The 2011 budget committed 2.7 percent of our undesignated receipts to the BGCT, and the 2012 budget will commit 2.7 percent, also.

That should result in $27,000 to the BGCT in 2012. By contrast, we propose we send $1,200 to the SBTC.

(By the way, the $100 a month we propose to the SBTC will not come out of our support of the local Austin Baptist Association or our support of the national Southern Baptist Convention. Like the BGCT, we support the work of these partnerships through a percentage of our undesignated receipts. Those percentages will not change from 2011 to 2012.)

What process did our church follow in making this decision?

The Missions Committee has the responsibility of submitting the missions budget to the congregation, but it seemed best to include the deacons in on this decision, also. So, in the summer, members of the Missions Committee and the deacon body met together with representatives from the BGCT and the SBTC. After a week to pray, the members of the Missions Committee and the deacon body met again and decided to include the SBTC with the BGCT in our 2012 budget.

This joint decision is reflected in your copy of the proposed budget. The church will have a chance to discuss and vote on the 2012 budget in December. This Sunday, December 4, you can come to a “Q&A” from 4:30-5:30 p.m. in O-107. This is an informal time for people to ask any questions they have about our budget and budget process. Then, on Wednesday, December 7, join us in A-161 for our special called business meeting to discuss and vote in the 2012 budget.

If you have any questions, drop me a line or give me a call! God bless our church as we look for ways to partner with other believers to reach Texas with the gospel!

________________________

Each Thursday I post my article from "LeaderLines," an e-newsletter for church leaders read by more than 350 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "LeaderLines," sign up here.

"You set the standard with your actions. The words can come after"

"There's almost a faith cliche, where (athletes) come out and say, 'I want to thank my Lord and savior.' As soon as you say that, the guard goes up, the walls go up, and I came to realize you have to be more strategic. The greatest impact you can have on people is never what you say, but how you live. When you speak and represent the person of Jesus Christ in all actions of your life, people are drawn to that. You set the standard with your actions. The words can come after."

Kurt Warner, on advice he would give to Tim Tebow from his own experience as an outspoken Christian.

A good caution--as long as you get around to that last part: The words.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

“I knew about the Council of Nicea, but no one had ever told me how to lead my own council meeting”

This is the complaint so many of us have of our seminary training, despite the fact that most of us deeply loved our time in the academia’s longest master’s program. From James Emery White:

Toward the end of my seminary degree, just before I started my doctoral work, I received a call from a church near the school asking me to consider coming as their interim pastor. It was an established denominational church in a county seat town near the seminary. The interim turned into a full-fledged invitation to serve as their senior pastor.

Yet when I, as a new pastor, was asked to officiate my first wedding, my first funeral, my first baptism, and my first communion, I was totally clueless. So why did they ask me to be a pastor? It was assumed that since I was nearing my graduation from seminary, I knew what I was doing.

I didn’t.

It didn’t get any better.

I needed to raise money to meet the church’s budget, and there had never been a class on that.

I wanted to try and grow the church numerically by reaching out to the unchurched, and my coursework had never touched on it.

I had a problem with a combative and disagreeable deacon, and I searched through my seminary notes and found nothing.

I found I needed to be in the office for administration, in my study to prepare my talks, in people’s lives to stay connected to the community, and in my home to raise my family – and there hadn’t been any instruction on how to manage that.

It was becoming painfully clear how little my seminary education was actually preparing me for the day-in, day-out responsibilities of leading a church.

I knew about the Council of Nicea, but no one had ever told me how to lead my own council meeting.

I knew about the Barth-Brunner debate, but not how to handle the breakdown between two Sunday school teachers when one was asked to start a new class, for the same age-group, from the existing class.

I knew the significance of the aorist verb, but not how to parse the culture to know how best to communicate.

I could tell you the leading theologians of the 16th century, but not about leading and managing a staff.

This is why so many people look back on their seminary education with a critical eye.

It’s why pastors will go to a two-day leadership conference headlined by seasoned leaders passing on their insights for effective ministry, and feel like they gained more in those two days than they had in their entire three years of seminary education.

It’s why quickly after graduation, Melanchthon gets dropped for Maxwell, Luther for Lucado, and the seminary’s continuing education program for the latest Catalyst event.

We need seminary. We don’t want to lose the necessary academic side of things. But we also need seminaries to realize they do not exist to serve the academy, but to serve the church.

The rest.

Winning Ways: What Are You ‘Counting’ On?

When you come to your census, I hope you will come to your senses.

Everyone comes to his census eventually. King David did, literally. In 2 Samuel 24, David ordered a count of the fighting men at his disposal. Even Joab thought the plan detestable. Joab was always willing to do the dirty work to keep David in power, but even he said, “David, you don’t want to do this.” If even Joab objected, you know this isn’t going to end well. But David had his way, and enrolled every man eligible to fight.

What motivated this count? Arrogance, or ambition, or anxiety. That is, David wanted to boast in his strength (arrogance), or he was plotting a military campaign without direction from God (ambition), or he felt his nation was threatened and wanted reassurance (anxiety). Whatever the motivation, though, it betrayed a loss of faith in God.

Like David, you come to your census when you look to something other than God for your self-worth and security. In his remarkable book, Counterfeit Gods, Tim Keller calls this idolatry. “An idol,” he writes, “is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, ‘If I have that, then I'll feel my life has meaning, then I'll know I have value, than I'll feel significant and secure.’”

But when you come to your census, I hope you come to your senses!

David is our guide here. The moment that Joab reported the number—that number David hoped would feed his self-worth or relieve his anxiety—it was upon hearing the report that David was conscience-stricken. “I have sinned greatly,” he said. The consequences were costly: The very thing David had depended on for his worth and security—the number of his fighters—was reduced by 70,000 through plague. But David’s repentance and God’s mercy brought an end to the crisis.

Like David, we come to our senses when we return to full trust in God. In Jeremiah 9:23-24, God says, “The wise must not boast in his wisdom; the mighty must not boast in his might; the rich must not boast in his riches. But the one who boasts should boast in this, that he understands and knows Me.”

We all need help in coming to our senses. So, join us this Sunday @ 10 as we let this important story develop us.

_______________________________

Each Wednesday I post my article from "Winning Ways," an e-newsletter that goes out to 1200 subscribers. If you want to subscribe to "Winning Ways," sign up here.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Links to Your World, Tuesday November 29

25 most-used passwords including, yes, "password."

How to save $10,000 by next Thanksgiving

Feeling like a flaba-flaba? Learn to trash talk across the centuries with Jonathon Green’s new book, Green’s Dictionary of Slang, a 6,200-page lexicon.

6 types of college class hand-raisers.

"The science of learning is demonstrating that the ability to make accurate estimates is closely tied to the ability to understand and solve problems" (Time).

Ignorance may actually be bliss. By remaining unengaged with the details of an important issue, individuals feel they can maintain dependence on another party to take care of it.

Voters Prefer Deep-Voiced Politicians

Poll shows that 100% of grandsons are talented.

"High school and college students may be “digital natives,” but they’re wretched at [web] searching. In a recent experiment at Northwestern, when 102 undergraduates were asked to do some research online, none went to the trouble of checking the authors’ credentials. In 1955, we wondered why Johnny can’t read. Today the question is, why can’t Johnny search?... Good education is the true key to effective search." (Time)

When people view a virtual version of themselves digitally aged by several decades, contributions to retirement accounts go up by 30 percent (story). I wonder if that would also drive us to develop our character, too.

"Willpower can indeed be quite limited — but only if you believe it is. When people believe that willpower is fixed and limited, their willpower is easily depleted. But when people believe that willpower is self-renewing — that when you work hard, you’re energized to work more; that when you’ve resisted one temptation, you can better resist the next one — then people successfully exert more willpower. It turns out that willpower is in your head" (NYT).

Listen to Chard deNiord read "Augustine's Pears" here.

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