Links to Your World, Thursday April 10

Fast Company: We Hate Ourselves For Spending So Much Time On Facebook. So Why Do We Do It?

 

The world’s oldest message in a bottle was presented to the granddaughter of the sender this week, 101 years after it was tossed into the sea. OZY

 

Showing of Noah canceled after movie theater floods

 

All these people moving to Austin really are from California--and from Seattle, New York City, D.C., Philadelphia, Chicago, and Florida.

 

Fashion Industry Declares Hottest Spring Look Is Upbeat Attitude

 

"People shoot for happiness but feel formed through suffering." David Brooks, on what suffering can do.

 

Dermatographia: Taking an allergy to touch and making art out of it--

 

PBS’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly recently looked at "New Calvinism" in the Southern Baptist Convention.

 

"Some of our liberal friends have been dismissing our warnings about the politics of personal vilification emerging on the left, but here is a case study." The WSJ comments on the purging of Mozilla's CEO over his personal political views. Also, in Time magazine our denomination's Russel Moore wrote an excellent piece about Mozilla caving to activists.

 

Links to Your World, Thursday April 3

Coming Soon: The AromaFork, which will change the taste of your food by introducing interesting odors through your fork.

 

"What's your story?"

 

Actually, I think being a "professional namer" would be pretty fun.

 

Time for some spring cleaning: Decluttr will buy all your unwanted CDs, DVDs, and video games.

 

I liked "The Lost Art of the Unsent Angry Letter." I've written a few angry letters that ended up three-punched in a journal instead of mailed, and I've written a few angry emails where I ended up hitting the "print" button instead of the "send" button. This article says there's wisdom in doing so.

 

10 Ways to Be Outraged on the Internet

 

"God is not helpless among the ruins," Kay Warren said, quoting British Olympian and missionary Eric Liddell. Then she instructed attendees to turn to one another and take those words to heart by declaring: "God is not helpless among my ruins!" Kay Warren, speaking at the recent Saddleback conference designed to help churches address mental illness. Half of registrants were family members of someone suffering a mental illness. Beautiful report on a beautiful effort to adress unbeautiful circumstances.

 

"Having looked at both the despoliation of the earth and the evil in his own heart, Noah recognizes that mankind deserves God's justice. Noah's struggle throughout the film is to obey all that God asks of him. Portraying this inner struggle makes Aronofsky an ideal director for this project. Unfortunately, his directing style is otherwise unsuited for a two-and-a-half-hour epic like Noah." Summarizing Joe Carter's movie review of Noah. And Denny Burk calls it "the midrashiest midrash that ever was midrashed." I haven't seen it yet: Do you plan to?

 

How to Bounce Back

We will react to setbacks with resentment or resilience. It all depends on our confidence in God.

In 2013, Buffalo Bills' receiver Steve Johnson dropped a pass in the end zone, causing an overtime loss to the Steelers. After the game he tweeted out a complaint to God: "I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND IS THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!!"

Most of us have had moments like this, though not so public. But contrast his/our reaction to Bethany Hamilton's response to setback. Eleven years ago she had been ranked as the best amateur teen surfer in Hawaii, and she wanted to use her growing fame to make much of Jesus. Then she lost her left arm in a shark attack in 2003. It's no surprise that at first she wondered why God would let that happen. But she quickly adjusted emotionally, and it's likely the "Soul Surfer" has become a brighter light for Jesus without a left arm than she ever would have as just another surfing phenom.

Just six months after the shark attack, her pastor Steve Thompson said, "She's looking forward to the future. She's asking herself, 'How can I show the world I still have a life and that my life is filled with joy?' She has an underlying trust that God is taking care of her."

That's the key to resilience: Faith. Not the sort of "faith" that says, "If I keep up my end of the deal, God will come through for me and give me what I want." No, but the sort of faith that says, "My happiness is based on God and not on circumstances."

Isaiah predicted that the Messiah would demonstrate this kind of confidence (42:4)--

But I said, “I have labored in vain;I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God.”

This comes from the second of four "Servant Songs" in Isaiah. Chapters 42, 49, 50, and 53 are lyrical prophecies of the Messiah. We looked at the first one last Sunday (listen here), and we'll study the second one this Sunday.

Let's find out from the Son of God how to maintain our faith in God when life knocks us down!

 

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Links to Your World, Thursday March 27

Well, if this isn't a visual illustration of falling from pride into the pits....Watch footage from a skydiver's camera. He accidentally dropped it as he prepared to jump. It was found and returned to him by a farmer and that's when he recovered the footage. The footage will probably show up in a sermon on pride one day...

 

WSJ says Baylor is the “Charleston” in the Big Dance. Do you agree with the dance types of the remaining teams in your bracket?

 

HGTV is in Austin filming Jen Hatmaker's family for an upcoming summertime show. Sounds like it will be a fun program. CT recently interviewed her.

 

Having said that, Hatmaker's not my go-to blogger on everything. For example, she so missed the point of evangelical opposition to World Vision's new (brief) stance toward employees in gay marriages. As usual, the "I'm-so-tired-of-haters" blog post is an easy way to look like you're engaging with a controverisal issue while not really enaging with the the core concern. And if I'm reading her blog post right, it seems her basis for Christian unity is to admit that whatever one believes about homosexuality is just one of several equally valid ways to read Scripture. Not buying this line of reasoning myself. Practicing the biblical sexual ethic is the tough part, not exegeting it.

 

In 24 hours World Vision announced--and then reversed--a decision to allow people in gay marriages to work for the organization. Justin Taylor summarizes a few reactions from evangelicals, including from our denomination's Russell Moore. I particularly liked the thoughtful series of tweets from Matthew Lee Anderson.

 

"From my earliest days of faith, I accepted the Scriptures' right to speak. I also owned my deaf ear. When it comes to reading and interpreting God's Word, the only real confidence I've maintained is in my own sinful hostility. Perhaps holiness was nearer in the answers I would rather refuse. With this approach, many years into marriage, I—a headstrong, egalitarian woman—embraced a complementarian reading of 1 Corinthians 11:3: "But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God." I sought the truth—and made an interpretive decision." You should read CT's "The Accidental Complementarian." I've always objected to the convoluted titles "egalitarian" and "complementarian" in discussing this issue, but until they come up with friendlier words, you should at least know what they're talking about. This article is from a former "egalitarian" who let Scripture do the leading and found herself in the "complementarian" viewpoint.

Ross Douthat explains why liberals need to take religious liberty seriously and not see it simply as what Emily Bazelton has criticitzed as a "shield fundamentalists are throwing up against, well, sexual modernity."

 

Plantiga: "Few people grasp the preacher's challenge. Where else in life does a person have to stand weekly before a mixed audience and speak to them engagingly on the mightiest topics known to humankind: God, life, death, sin, grace, love, hatred, hope, despair and the passion and resurrection of Jesus Christ? Who is even close to being adequate for this challenge?"

 

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When You’re at the End of Your Hope

 

Do you spend your days in Bagamoyo?

Probably not literally, since Bagamoyo is a Tanzanian town on the east coast of Africa. But the name comes from two Swahili words: bwaga means “put down” and moyo means “the heart.” The town’s name probably came from slaves. In the early 1800s, Muslim Arabs would go into the African interior and capture people for slavery. They would march them to the coast and sell them to traders who would board them on ships. Bagamoyo became the name of the place where countless people laid down their hearts and abandoned hope.

Maybe you’re living in a spiritual and emotional Bagamoyo right now. Health issues, frustrations at work, addictions, family conflict—circumstances can make us lay down our hearts and give up.

In Isaiah 42, God promised help for those at the end of their hope. He promised his Servant would come to our aid. “A bruised reed he will not break,” God announces in verse 3, “and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” The Servant’s mission would be “to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison, and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness” (verse 7).

Matthew said that Jesus was that promised Servant (12:15-21). He is your escort out of Bagamoyo. His pardon, precepts, promises, and presence bring us to a place of hope again.

That’s the lesson from the first “Servant Song.”

Scholars have long noted the presence of four “songs” in the book of Isaiah that prophesy the work of Jesus. They’re found in chapters 42, 49, 50, and 53. Starting Sunday, we’re going to see what those songs can teach us about Jesus. We’ll spend the next 3 Sundays on the first 3 songs, and conclude with Isaiah 53 in our Good Friday service.

A study of these songs is a perfect way to prepare for Easter. Each song goes deeper and deeper into the profound truth that the way the Servant serves is through suffering. And it’s a suffering designed for our benefit.

So, join us this Sunday as we study the first of Isaiah’s Servant Songs. It’s time you packed up and left Bagamoyo.

Links to Your World, Thursday March 20

Want some data-driven help creating your March Madness bracket? Nate Silver's new FiveThirtyEight blog has a forecasting model that "calculates the chance of each team reaching each round, taking into account a composite of power rankings, pre-season rankings, the team’s placement on the NCAA’s 68-team S-curve, player injuries and geography." Here it is.

 

5 things Christian women (and men) should do when using Facebook

 

5 emails you should send every week

 

OK, maybe I'm a bit of a Stoic.

 

A 3-pound iPhone case to help you tone your biceps and forearms while you access your phone. Well why not?

 

You can help the National Archive transcribe WWI war diaries into their digital record.

 

Did you read the story about individuals from around the world who hold keys that, when combined into one master key, have the power to reset the internet? I thought it was an early April Fools joke at first.

 

Baylor men's basketball coach Scott Drew: Putting his players' spiritual lives first.

 

 

 

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The Wonder of Thunder

Bob and Pat Moulder were listening to the rain pelt the roof of their Mississippi house early Sunday morning when the phone rang. It was their son, David, calling from South Korea. He was a helicopter pilot stationed along the demilitarized zone. As they talked, a booming clap of thunder shook the windows.

David asked, “What was that? It sounded like an explosion.”

“No, just thunder,” said his mother. “It’s been raining here all week.”

There was a long pause. “David, are you still there?”

“Yes, I’m still here. I was thinking about what Mom said—‘Just thunder.’ Other than the two of you, know what I miss the most? Thunder. We have rain, wind, snow and some violent storms, but it never thunders. I miss the thunder.”

When the Moulders got off the phone with their homesick son, Bob collected his tape recorder, a large golf umbrella and a lawn chair and headed for the door.

“Where are you going?” Pat asked.

“I’m going to record our son some thunder.”

“Bob, the neighbors will think you’re crazy.”

“David won’t,” he said, and went outside. For the next 30 minutes Bob Moulder sat under his umbrella in the driving rain and flickering lightning. With the tape player rolling, he recorded "half an hour of the finest Mississippi thunder a lonesome man could ever want to hear." The next day he mailed the tape to David with a single note: "A special gift."

In Psalm 29, we see another David who was fond of thunder. He was fond of it because it reminded him of the awesome power of God—power God used on David’s behalf.

Charles Spurgeon said that thunder is "the church bell of the universe ringing kings and angels, and all the sons of earth to their devotions."

Meditate a moment on a thunderstorm, and like David you will say, "For my need there’s more power available from God that can be found in a hurricane!" This Sunday at 10 we'll let Psalm 29 remind us of the wonder of thunder. Join us!

 

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Links to Your World, Thursday March 13

Love this! Mad skills at such a young age:

 

"Oscar Mayer has created an app that wakes up sleepyheads by recreating bacon cooking in the pan....The iPhone dongle will only be available to the winners of a contest run by the company’s Institute for the Advancement of Bacon. The lucky recipients, all 4,700 of them, will receive the smartphone attachment necessary for the scent." (OZY)

 

A Mississippi funeral home says it found a man alive and kicking in a body bag hours after the coroner pronounced him dead. (story; update)

 

Here's a way to keep articles from unwanted websites from appearing in your Facebook feed. Of course, I'll miss finding out which character you are from Girls.

"American Christians are about to learn what it means to live in a country where being a faithful Christian is going to exact significant costs. It may not be persecution, but it’s still going to hurt, and in ways most Christians scarcely understand. Maybe this will be good for us. Maybe. We’ll see." Rod Dreher.

 

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Links to Your World, Thursday March 6

“Two million out of nearly 12 million scientists are evangelical Christians. If you were to bring all the evangelical scientists together, they could populate the city of Houston, Texas.” (report)

Oscar nominees posing for photos with their younger selves. Some made Photoshop skills here.

Austin is #4 on the Top 10 list of most gridlocked cities. No duh.

I'll have to read some Auden now.

"Some opposition to same-sex marriage is rooted in bigotry, and some isn't. Assuming otherwise is itself prejudice rooted in ignorance." This article is an important part of the conversation, by Conor Friedersdorf for The Atlantic.

"[Microsoft] Office is a favorite solution for the workplace, and if Office for the iPad was available I'll bet companies would make sure it's on most of the tablets." Yup.

A quarter of respondents thought an MP3 was a Star Wars robot, and other misunderstood common tech language here.

Working on this Sunday's sermon on Psalms 8 reminded me of this old Keith Green song. Yes, I'm ancient.

 

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What the Sky Wants to Say to Those Who Will Listen

"Something happened to these kids. They learned much more and grew much more."

That was the conclusion of one Harvard researcher after examining kids who loved sky gazing. If that's true, what are we missing if we just go through life with no real regard for the vast canopy above us?

The researchers were investigating an educational program called "For Spacious Skies." Boston newscaster Jack Borden started the project after an epiphany. 

"I had never really noticed the sky before," he said, recalling a memorable hike. "But that day its beauty, majesty and fragility just overpowered me."

He wrote a 32-page booklet for school teachers, sketching out ways that the sky could stimulate learning. When Harvard educators evaluated the impact of the For Spacious Skies program, they concluded that artistic, musical, and literary skills improved much faster for sky gazers than others.

King David was a sky gazer, and in his poetry he reflected on what he learned while staring upward.

In Psalms 8, it was the night sky that caused him to marvel at how small he was in the universe and yet how big he was in the priorities of God.

In Psalms 19, it was the day sky that prompted praise for the bright revelation of God to the whole earth.

In Psalms 29, it was the stormy sky that made David gasp in wonder at God's power.

Across the next 3 Sundays, we're going to let the beloved poet teach us how to be sky gazers. Our series is called Sky Lines: What the Sky Wants to Say to Those Who Will Listen.

When I was in high school, I briefly considered a career in meteorology. (Maybe I just wanted a job where I could be wrong fifty percent of the time and still get paid.) This Bible study takes me back to my early fascination with the sky. It's a fascination we should never grow out of. Join us for this study each Sunday at 10!

Women's Ministry Mini-Retreat: Our new ladies ministry is called "Wings: Women in God's Service." One of their first projects is a "mini-retreat" on Saturday, March 29, 8:30am - 2:00pm. The cost is $10, which includes breakfast and lunch. For more information and to register online, go to www.hillcrestaustin.org/wings. 

Assessing Someone’s Heart

I’ve had a few people ask me for this. It’s the list of questions I referenced in last Sunday’s sermon: Do You Focus on Outward Appearance or Inward Character? You can listen to that message at HillcrestAustin.org/Sermons. When making “people decisions,” these questions help us assess a person’s heart.

What drives them? What motivates them? What gets them out of bed and out the door?

How easily do they break promises and commitments?

Is their outlook on life generally positive or generally cynical?

Do they have a respect for other people?

How do they handle setbacks?

Do they know how to make the first things in life the first things or are their priorities upside down?

Do they learn from their mistakes or simply repeat their mistakes?

What other questions would you add to the list?

Links to Your World, Thursday February 20

Austin Moon Tower

Fascinating look at Austin's historic "moon towers."

 

Round Rock is inside the top 15 most romantic cities, according to Amazon data. Wait: Round Rock?

 

"At every education level, the 25- to 32-year-olds of 2013 confronted a higher unemployment rate than past generations did when they were stepping into the workforce." (story)

 

What do Downton Abbey, Wendy Davis, TED Talks, and President Obama have in common? They are uncomfortable talking about abortion. Good reading, this.

 

It's not everyday you get an opinion piece in the NYT basing social policy on a pretty good reading of the parable of the prodigal son.

 

God changes lives: "Rosaria Champagne Butterfield spent more than a decade of her life as a leftist lesbian English professor specializing in queer theory at Syracuse University. She was in a committed homosexual relationship, served as the faculty advisor for a number of gay and lesbian student groups on campus, and co-authored the first successful domestic partnership policy at the university. In 1999, everything changed. Rosaria had what she refers to as a "train-wreck conversion": she came to Christ and committed to pursuing a life of "holy sexuality"—a commitment to either heterosexual marriage or celibacy. She is now married to a Presbyterian pastor in Durham, North Carolina, where she is actively "living out the means of grace," raising four children, and sharing the testimony of God's redeeming love at churches, colleges, and universities around the world in the midst of one of the most controversial topics in church and culture today." Read an interview.

 

The largest mental health center in America is jail and the only way to get treatment is to be arrested. "It really is one of those things so rich with irony: The same society that abhorred the idea that we lock people up in mental hospitals, now we lock people up in jails." (Nicholas Kristof, quoting Cook County sheriff, Thomas Dart)

 

Correction to My Comments on “The Princess Bride”

I don't like to be wrong, but I do like this correction!

In yesterday's sermon, I mentioned that The Princess Bride was a film about a fictional book by the same title. I read somewhere that the book didn't exist until preadolescent girls who saw the film started asking where they could get the book referenced in the film. Turns out I had bad info. Paul Waldo wrote me this correction yesterday:

A minor correction to your sermon this morning:  You said the book was written after the movie.  In fact, the novel was published in 1973, written by William Goldman, one of my favorite writers (Novels: Marathon Man, Magic, and others. Screenplays: Butch Cassidy, Papillon, All the President’s Men, The Right Stuff, and others.) 

By the time the The Princess Bride came out in 1987, I had read it myself, and I had read it to Erin and Amy.  I later read it to my son David.  Erin and I went to the sneak preview when the movie came to Austin in 1987, and we were surrounded by people who had read the book.  We were all nervous about whether the movie was going to accurately recount the best parts of the book.  We all agreed later that it had done an admirable job – probably because Goldman also wrote the screenplay. 

I recommend the book.  It takes some of the things in the movie to considerably more depth.  And I love the writing style of Goldman – he is a master storyteller.  But there are some aspects of the book that the movie improves.  The best example:  The grandfather/grandson scenes replace an irritating set of side notes in the book, where Goldman pretends he is abridging boring parts out of the full-length version of a book written by S. Morganstern – keeping only the good parts.  The movie does that better. 

Anyway… not important, but just for the record… the book came first.

That was a needed correction. Thanks, Paul!

Guest Post: What’s With Twilight?

Our new Sunday morning series, Movie Messages, is generating closer looks at the themes of popular films. Here’s Terry O’Daniel’s take on Twilight.

I tried to avoid the Twilight craze. When I saw Stephenie Meyer at the Texas Book Festival in 2006, I didn’t know who she was. All I saw was her seated at a table inside a large outdoor event tent with a line of what appeared to be teenage girls stretching out the opening at the other end. Many of these girls wore tshirts with a boy’s name on it, which meant nothing to me. Years passed. I would see women my age reading one of her books while waiting for a child to finish a swim class or sitting in a doctor’s office waiting room. I shook my head in amusement. How were these books so popular with such a broad age of young to middle-aged women?

About a year ago while driving to visit my mother, I stopped to refuel the car. I had my then-11 year-old daughter with me. I was approaching the cashier, a young man in his late teens or early 20’s. He was ranting about how frustrated he was with girls who thought Edward or Jacob were realistic standards for a boyfriend. He was complaining about how unfair it was to real-life guys (like himself) who couldn’t live up to the expectations of girls who believed they deserved nothing less than an Edward (or Jacob). I honestly had no idea of the qualities he described but tried to show some compassion for the clearly tortured young man.

Recently, my husband brought home a DVD of Twilight. I grimaced. “Really?” I asked. But, we sat down to watch it together. Sure, the male lead was an attractive actor, but I remembered seeing him in another movie a year or so earlier. He didn’t overwhelm me in any way. In fact, I remember thinking at that time that he was the Twilight actor and wasn’t so amazing to spark a huge craze with almost 12 million Facebook fans to his fictional character of Edward Cullen.

Then, I started to see the character of Edward Cullen in Twilight. I thought about it after the movie was over. Sure, there is that dark side of him being a vampire (but it wasn’t his choice to become one and he fights against those urges) that is unavoidable. But, his true self is shown to Bella and his “family.” He is loyal, faithful, generous and selfless. But more than that, he is powerful and godlike (as described in the book) in both appearance and abilities. He can read minds, has super speed and strength. His love for Bella is unconditional, self-sacrificing, protective and like that of a parent in the sense that he would rather disappoint her than have her be hurt or damaged in any way. He is unwavering in his devotion, unchanging in his commitment to her and not offensive in any mere human way. But the real and lasting thing he can give Bella is immortality. It hit me with such a powerful realization. He is the image of Jesus. He is greater and more powerful than any human, judicious and careful in his reactions, self-sacrificing in his love, always putting her best interest ahead of her more limited judgment. Protecting her soul and virtue is crucial to him.

It’s the need for Jesus that draws us to a character like Edward. Seeing someone with flesh, who displays such love and power, who can offer immortality, is almost too much to resist. We all long for such a perfect (or near perfect) love and to be free from the frailties of this human life. Is someone like Edward a realistic standard for a boyfriend or husband? No. There are aspects of his character in many good young men. They should take heart. Knowing that Jesus is the longing we feel can help relieve the pressure to measure up. We all feel like the ordinary and flawed Bella next to Jesus.

Thankfully, we really do have Jesus and can look forward to the promise of eternal life and heaven beyond this earth. For now, we are here, all flawed and needing grace from one another while we wait for our Savior to rescue us.

Duck the Halls with Duck Dynasty coverage

Had enough of the Duck flap yet? Several blog posts getting some re-posting on my Facebook feed simply complain about the perceived insensitivity of Robertson's comments. (I'm looking at you Jen Hatmaker and Ann Voskamp). Caution against poor communication is needed, of course. But caution alone, um, "ducks" the issue. Here's a list of the better responses I've seen.

Here's the original GQ interview that caused A&E to put Phil Robertson on "hiatus" (whatever that means).

Albert Mohler: "The Apostle Paul made the same arguments, but worshipers in the congregations of Rome and Corinth did not have to put hands over the ears of their children when Paul’s letter was read to their church....[But] even as most evangelical Christians will likely have concerns about the way Phil Robertson expressed himself in some of his comments..., the fact remains that it is the moral judgment he asserted, not the manner of his assertion, that caused such an uproar....So the controversy over Duck Dynasty sends a clear signal to anyone who has anything to risk in public life: Say nothing about the sinfulness of homosexual acts or risk sure and certain destruction by the revolutionaries of the new morality. You have been warned."

James Poniewozik: Once A&E takes action on what they perceive as offensive in Robertson's comments, "you’ve got the opposite problem — with deeply religious viewers who like the Robertsons for their faith. They’re going to see it as you punishing him for saying out loud what he believes, and maybe for what they themselves believe, and what they believe is the word of God. You’re punishing him, in their eyes, for being one of them."

Rod Dreher: "It must be said that one of the most irritating aspects of the New York media environment is how narrow and monocultural it is, while flattering itself that it is cosmopolitan, diverse, and tolerant. You think Phil Robertson is bigoted? I have been around and worked with liberals in Washington and New York and elsewhere whose opinions were so obnoxious and dismissive of those not like themselves that they make the Duck Commander sound like Dick Cavett. Anyway, one thing I’ve learned from where I grew up, and from all my travels, is how easy it is to demonize people, and how short-sighted and stupid it is. We all do it. We shouldn’t. All of us have had to sit at Thanksgiving tables and listen to uncles or cousins or family friends say dumb, even ugly, things about Those Not Like Us. Sometimes we speak out against it. Other times we hold our tongues and reproach ourselves later for our silence. Still other times we hold our tongues and say inwardly, “Bless her heart, she has no idea what she’s saying.” But unless the relative or friend is a truly wicked person, we grant them grace because we know their limitations, we know that there is good in them as well as bad, and, if we have any moral self-awareness, because we know that we may be in a position one day to depend on the grace of others when we show our ignorance."

Thabiti Anyabwile: "I think Mr. Robertson spoke what a lot of people think and feel but are not accustomed to expressing–for good or ill. His visceral reaction is the reaction of most who stop to think about the actions in question. That he should be beaten up for it is expected. That many should stand by quietly while he is… is sad. Soon they’ll come around for us, too."

Wesley Hill, a gay man committed to living the biblical ethic, points out what Phil Robertson got wrong about same-sex attraction.

Larry Alex Taunton in The Atlantic: "The message A&E’s decision sends is that there is zero tolerance on television for Christians who are conscientious objectors to homosexuality. More than that, it implicitly suggests that the campaign for tolerance has advanced to a campaign to pressure 45 percent of Americans to recant their beliefs and endorse a lifestyle to which they are opposed, conscience be damned. We stand at a crossroads. The country must decide. Is the endgame here to be that orthodox Christians will henceforth have no voice within their own culture? If so, does this mean we have become a nation of bullies, forcing conformity while calling it tolerance?"

 

Winning Ways: Thankful People Are Healthier People

“If you want to sleep more soundly, count blessings, not sheep.”


That's the advice of Dr. Robert Emmons in his book Thanks! It's an account of his work in the developing field of psychology called "gratitude research."

Emmons and his colleague Michael McCullough decided to test whether an attitude of gratitude had any real consequence on someone's life. They asked participants to respond to a weekly questionnaire where they self-reported their sense of well-being, physical health, and level of exercise. But before the weekly report, some participants were told to list five things they were grateful for, some were told to list five annoying things from the past week, and some were asked simply to simply write down five "events or circumstances" from the past week.

After ten weeks, the researchers found that the group that was regularly told to express their gratitude also scored higher than other participants on overall emotional outlook, optimism, increased faithfulness to physical exercise, and better sleep.

The results of this research shows that what we're supposed to do this Thanksgiving Thursday could benefit us all year long. If you were a subject in Emmons' research, what five things would you say you're grateful for this week?

I'm grateful for you, church family. As I looked around the gym during our Thanksgiving Pot Luck Feast last Sunday, it made me glad again to "do life" with the Hillcrest Family!

I'm grateful for my assistant, Jami. I'm not nearly as organized, thoughtful, or creative as she makes me look!

I'm grateful for my wife. In the midst of our life's joys and griefs, she maintains faith in God, energy in her many responsibilities, and deep loyalty to family and friends.

I'm grateful for my country. Never take for granted the freedoms and opportunities we have here.

I'm grateful, so very grateful, for my salvation. I'm awestruck that, among all the rebellious race, God would draw this rebel to himself--and at the cost of his own Son.

Start the habit of counting your own blessings. There's health in it!

______________

John Tierney, "A Serving of Gratitude May Save the Day" (http://goo.gl/D4F8ZW)

Dave Munger, "Does 'counting your blessings' really help?" (http://goo.gl/ohNHrP)

Robert Emmons and Michael McCullough, "Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life" (http://goo.gl/8so8Oa)

__________________________________________

Subscribe to "Winning Ways" and

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Links to Your World, Tuesday November 26

 

Time magazine asks 16 famous people what they're thankful for. Here's Rick Warren's answer.

 

Woman Who Had Almost Formed Healthy Sense Of Self Rejoins Social Media

 

Middle-Earth is now on Google Maps.

 

If you could lick the internet, what would it taste like?

 

"Instead of just putting up internet filters so we can control what comes into our computers, perhaps we should put up an “honor filter” that will help us control what goes out of our computers." Do your Facebook posts "honor everyone" as the Bible commands?

 

Colin Woodard says North America can be broken neatly into 11 separate nation-states, where dominant cultures explain our voting behaviors and attitudes toward everything from social issues to the role of government (Time). Do you agree that Austin is in the nation of Greater Applalacia?


 

In the study reported here, the value of a typical urban congregation’s contribution to the local economy at $476,663 per year.

 

"The Disney films The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King present, in their respective order, the story of a believer’s life from conversion, through lifelong repentance, and end with the return of the Lord to restore His people and His world" (Okay...).

 

This guy has some pretty good arguments for finding coffee in scripture (tongue in cheek of course).

 

"The dying are still the living, and their inherent worth is not diminished simply because their remaining moments on earth are few" (Joe Carter, on end-of-life care)

 

The Atlantic: The president is urging families to talk about health insurance when they get together for the holidays. What could go wrong?

 

"I wanna know what u doin', where u at, where u at? But the Thou is an unknowable unity & not an object to be scrutinized." @Justin_Buber, my new favorite Twitter account to follow: A mash-up of Justin Bieber tweets with Martin Buber quotes. Also, check out KimKierkegaardashian (@KimKierkigaard) for a mash-up of Kim Kardashian tweets with quotes from the famous philosopher. Such as: "@KimKierkegaard: Birthday in Vegas. Danced all night. One tries in vain to forget one's melancholy in distraction, at a distance from it."

 

Ed Stetzer: "I believe the trajectory toward greater acceptance of homosexuality will continue. However, there will always be a sizable minority of people, often people of faith, who hold minority views. Increasingly, Americans will have to wrestle with how to be tolerant in more than one direction." Color me skeptical that the culture will be tolerant in more than one direction. I predict religious liberty will take some real hits in the near future.

 

Because of texting line breaks are replacing periods

Periods are now considered aggressive

This will take some getting used to

 

Winning Ways: Plodding Visionaries

Hillcrest is a church of plodders.

Thank God.

Kevin DeYoung introduced the term "plodding visionaries" to the blogosphere:

What we need are fewer revolutionaries and a few more plodding visionaries. That's my dream for the church -- a multitude of faithful, risktaking plodders. The best churches are full of gospel-saturated people holding tenaciously to a vision of godly obedience and God's glory, and pursuing that godliness and glory with relentless, often unnoticed, plodding consistency.

Instead of falling for the mirage of overnight revolution, plodding visionaries know that the kind of change Christ brings comes through a long obedience in the same direction. And that means joining a congregation and sticking with it even when you find her dull, predictable, and oh-so-imperfect. "If we truly love the church, we will bear with her in her failings, endure her struggles, believe her to be the beloved bride of Christ, and hope for her final glorification," he says. "The church is the hope of the world -- not because she gets it all right, but because she is a body with Christ for her Head."

This Sunday we’ll observe the Lord’s Supper and then we’ll take a look at one faithful plodder you’ve never heard about from the book of Nehemiah. It’s part of our sermon series called “Still.”

In preparation for our study, why not commit to a few of the following actions? This is from DeYoung’s suggestions for how to be a plodding visionary:

Become a member of the church you’re attending.

Stay there as long as you can.

Join the plodding visionaries.

Go to church this Sunday and worship in Spirit and truth.

Be patient with your leaders.

Rejoice when the gospel is faithfully proclaimed.

Bear with those who hurt you.

Give people the benefit of the doubt.

Say "hi" to the teenager that no one notices.

Welcome the old ladies with the blue hair and the young men with tattoos.

Volunteer for the nursery.

Attend the congregational meeting.

Bring your fried chicken to the potluck like everybody else.

Invite a friend.

Take a new couple out for coffee.

Give to the Christmas offering.

Sing like you mean it.

Be thankful someone vacuumed the carpet for you.

Enjoy the Sundays that "click."

Pray extra hard on the Sundays that don't.

And in all of this, do not despise the days and weeks and years of small things (Zechariah 4:8–10).

Here's to plodding visionaries. May our tribe increase!

Links to Your World, Tuesday November 12

I'm posting this at 9:10 11/12/13. Clever huh?

 

Kind of hard to argue against the importance of accomplishing these items on this old "to-do" list from Johnny Cash:

 

"Much of what God has made is inherently funny, ridiculous, and infused with sheer delight. Consider the humor in a penguin's waddle. The adorable fluff of a baby chick, a bear scratching its back on a tree, monkeys who pick bugs out of each other's hair. Puppies that spend hours playing, fall asleep wherever they land, then wake and start playing again. The unbelievable combination of traits in the platypus, which European scientists actually believed was an elaborate hoax when they first encountered it in 1798....Perhaps an arresting sense of awe is not the only appropriate way to express our appreciation of what God has made. Our laughter and "aww" can be forms of worship too. Simply noticing and attributing God's works to him is an act of worship. And I believe he is honored in our delight" (Amy Simpson)

 

"We can point cautiously to three large areas that recent data indicate are major contributors to divorce: finances, Facebook, and pornography....Finances, Facebook, and pornography reduce to man’s three great disordered values: money, power, and sex; and these three in turn are merely the failed versions of the three true values that guide human life: faith, hope, and love." (post)

 

Under Obamacare, you're much better off being single or cohabiting than married. Here's one couple considering divorce and cohabitation to make their insurance work.

 

"Has Obamacare made it un-P.C. to be concerned by a serious burden on my family’s well-being?" (NYT) This woman needs a new set of Facebook friends.

 

Sermon Illustration Alert: "People recalling embarrassing events tended to want to apply face creams, a study found. These people also were more likely to want to hide behind large, dark sunglasses than people not feeling embarrassed" (WSJ).

 

Taking a weekly tech sabbath.

 

Links to Your World, Tuesday November 5

Star Wars Imperial Forces invade Kincade paintings:

 

Looks like those Kincade paintings could use the intervention of a few honest-to-Force Jedi knights. Yeah, "Jediism" is a real religion.

 

Proposed new Texas state flag in a project redesigning all 50 state flags

 

Announcing "The United States Devil Map," highlighting the many U.S. landmarks named after the Devil and Hell.

 

When is a Bear like a Duck?

 

"Dude" abides...and evolves. Whether you're saying "Dude" to express approval or disapproval of what your friend did depends on how you say it. Here's an article on the history of "dude."

 

Wine for Cats.