Chris's Musings

Merry Christmas everyone! :-) " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood   it. There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children b...

It's Christmas Eve.  Santa's coming tonight.... SANTA!!!!!  I know him. I couldn't resist.  I've had a lot of fun with Buddy the Elf this Christmas season.  I'm going to miss him. I wrote earlier that Buddy the Elf was onto something when it came to worship.  Santa was coming.  It was a ginormous deal, and by golly he was going to make sure that everything in that store was first class and ready for the big man's arrival.  In the same way, are we giving Jesus the King of Kings and redeemer of our lives that kind of energy from our own lives? But not only that, I think Buddy may be onto something else. When "Santa" arrives to the Macy's department store, Buddy has all of his expectations built up and wants to reunite with his long-lost friend from the North Pole.  However, when Buddy sees the fat man sitting on the throne, he is sorely disappointed because... "Who are you?  You aren't Santa!" Of course, Buddy didn't ...

I saw a tweet while waiting at Tin Lizzy's with some friends to sit down that made me both laugh and groan.  Following the Texans progress this morning, this one tweet read that this couple got engaged at the Rams-Texans game on the jumbotron.  I "laughed" because I am amused that any guy in their right mind actually thinks this is a good idea, and groaned because some poor girl (if she goes through and marries this guy) is going to have this memory etched into her mind as the single memory of the beginning of their marriage. Of course, she may be that rare 5% of women that actually like sports that would think that a non-intimate proposal on a jumbotron at a major sporting event in front of 80,000 people that care more about who the Rams are going to get with their high draft pick than their relationship is a good idea.  I would hope that, for her sake, that is the case.  But chances are, should was probably hoping for another way of getting asked. While this di...

Good times! Wouldn't you want to serve in a ministry to kids that's THIS cool?

Last weekend, I hosted a dinner party for a group of friends where the menu contained something from the four "elf" food groups (candy, candy canes, candy corns, and.... syrup).  The menu was actually quite good and the movie was of course hilarious. It's also the only Will Ferrell movie that I'd allow my nieces to see without reservation. The way that Buddy, the human raised by Christmas elves, acts in the movie is in many ways absurd.  However, there is one scene that really got me thinking that Buddy the Elf has some great insight into something that many of us pass over at least once a week. There is a scene where Buddy the Elf finds himself in the "North Pole" section of the "Macy's" department store, and the store manager walks in and announces to the store that they are closing and to be sure to get there tomorrow because "Santa's coming tomorrow" And of course, if you've seen the scene, you know that Buddy go...

The precious blood of Jesus Christ redeems Forgiven I'm alive restored set free Your majesty resides inside of me Forever I believe Forever I believe Arrested by Your truth and righteousness Your grace has overwhelmed my brokenness Convicted by Your spirit led by Your word Your love will never fail Your love will never fail [c] I know You gave The word Your only Son for us To know Your name To  live  within the Saviour's love He took my place Knowing He'd be crucified And You loved You loved a people undeserving

Our God, You reign forever Our hope, our Strong Deliverer You are the everlasting God The everlasting God You do not faint You won't grow weary You're the defender of the weak You comfort those in need You lift us up on wings like eagles

This morning, I was out with my small group at Lenox Mall helping Atlanta Union Mission raise awareness and donations through doing a free gift-wrapping service for shoppers at the mall.  I will say that it was interesting having a gift-wrapping crew of 4 guys and a 7-year old boy there, but volunteer talent sometimes doesn't bring much talent. My role, once we got started, was to stand at the main booth and drive traffic toward the gift wrapping area.  In my station, there was a sign on the back with these words:  "Hope for the Hopeless."  I thought it was a good slogan for a ministry that rescues homeless people from the streets and puts them on a path to recovery and hope. I had a lot of conversations with folks this morning, a lot of those looking for the food court, but the most interesting one I had was a guy that took some offense at this sign's words.  He said basically that if they have hope, then they're not "hopeless."  He started to talk ...

Yesterday, I saw a billboard sign on the way to work on 285 that caught my attention.   It said:  "Spouse Cheating?" and was inlaid with a graphic of a gigantic magnifying glass with some information to call a private investigator to spy on the supposedly cheating partner.   My first thought when I saw that was:  Why would anyone that's in this situation that is truly interested in saving their marriage call someone like that?  I'm pretty sure that if your goal is to reconcile that this would be the last thing on your mind.   I later thought that this was actually a good example of the kind of person that I read about in Romans 2 as I've been going through my quiet times there.  This is the part that I'm thinking about: "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's ju...

This blog is a tribute to my family Thanksgiving trip up to Wilkesboro, NC and the journey through western NC and north Georgia that brought us there... I give you, sights and sounds of the South.  What can you expect when you leave the Perimeter? SIGHT:  Lots of boiled peanut stands.  If you didn't grow up in the South, then you probably didn't think you could boil a peanut, much less think that you'd want to. SOUND:   I kid you not, the Christmas song playing on the Western NC country station on the way back was "Santa's Got a Semi." SIGHT:  Way too much "Indian" (Native American) collectables in roadside junk stores.  Who doesn't need a totem pole in their front yard to impress the neighbors? SOUND:  Listening to the man at the quickie mart who is trying to set the Guiness world record for most cigarettes smoked in a lifetime negotiate with the cashier. SIGHT:   Happy pigs on t-shirts advertising barbeque joints.  Do they not know...

A few months ago, I was swapping songs with a friend and remember something she said when we talked about a few Lifehouse (one of my favorite bands) songs.  Lifehouse is a band of Christians that make good music that talks about their relationship with God but isn't totally known as a "Christian" band.  However, when talking about the songs "Everything" and "Broken," she would always talk about the lyrics in this way:  "I don't know how you can listen to that and not think about God."  Thinking about it and musing over the lyrics of these songs, unless you're mind is really far off from God it's hard to think about the songs any other way, even though there's really no mention of "God" or "Jesus" in them.  It's kind of enhanced my experience listening to their music, which already rocks. I had the same epiphany about Thanksgiving today.  I thought as I was getting my TJ's waffles warmed, my coffee...

About a week ago, I had someone come in to look at this problematic leak that was coming from my upstairs bathroom into my kitchen and creating a mess.  I had finally gotten tired of trying to figure it out and brought in someone who knew what they were doing.  Good news:  we (ahem - he) identified the leak and got it stop-gapped.  Bad News:  In order to really fix the leak and get everything in the house back to normal, the water had to be shut off.  My unit shares it's water with about 7 others, which means that it really could not be an impromptu thing, unless fixing the leak was an emergency.  So, trying to be a good neighbor, we stop gapped the problem and set up a time a week from tomorrow to get everything done.  That's good news.  The bad news?  The leak was with my hot water valve on my tub, so to get everything to "not leak," now I have no use of the hot water in my shower.  Good times, huh?   So - two weeks withou...

Tales from a wine country tour bus: I had a great retreat-ish vacation day yesterday touring the Napa valley in California, touring a couple of wineries and getting to enjoy some breathtaking scenery.  Included on our stop was a lunch stop and town tour of this "rustic" (for California) hot springs town called Calistoga.  It was a good place to retreat... some boutique wineries, great restaurants and coffee shops, and (for the ladies, especially) a number of spas fed by natural hot springs. But what kind of name is "Calistoga" anyways?  Sounds really goofy. The story of the town's founding is that the guy, Sam Brannan, that bought up all of this land made his fortune supplying the gold rush and went into retirement, buying up this land that included these fantastic natural hot springs in the late 1880's.  He had heard about the new resort of Saratoga, NY which was fed by hot springs and wanted, in his entrepenurial mind, to make this new place the ...

I've still got this on the brain.   I like having this on the brain. A couple of days ago, I was listening to Francis Chan's talk:  "You have everything you need" (the newest one on the Cornerstone podcast), discussing 2 Peter 1:1-4 (2 Peter 1:3-4 are my life verses, so I was really into this talk as you can imagine).  This statement has been what I have been musing on... "Do you, really, believe this?" Before asking this question, Francis started out with 2 Peter 1:1 which states in the English Standard Version: Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained   a faith of equal standing with ours  by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:  (emphasis mine) The version I read this verse in before was either the NASV or the NIV, which each states: Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours...

Had to share...  read this part of his last speech to his peeps in Ephesus before sailing to Jerusalem. "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace." - Acts 20:22-24 Seriously. Compared to Paul's determination to finish out the race God set before him, I feel like such a slacker :-).  Bummed knees a week before a race (which has been the physical reminder God has given me this week about "finishing the race" - in this case a literal race) are nothing compared to being stoned, beaten, or put in prison for the gospel.  I will say that it motivates me to look past some of my own puny obstacles and see the gospel and grace as ...

I was reading the story in Acts about Paul's trip to Ephesus, a story I've read many times before.  This morning, a thought popped in my head that I want to think over. When Alexander the silversmith was discussing with his business partners the economic threat that the Way presented to them, he made this statement:   "There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of our great goddess Artemis will be discredited, and the goddess herself, who is worshipped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty." (Acts 19:27).  In a sense, he urged them that if the gospel was allowed to continue to permeate Ephesus and the region of Asia, then their goddess would be stripped of her fame and reduced to nothing.  And as a result, they took action to make sure that didn't happen.  They started a riot. The thought that popped in my head was this:  it is very likely that when God is at wo...

"I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul? I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, so no one can say that you were baptized into my name. (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don't remember if I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power." - 1 Corinthians 1:10...

Last Sunday before I headed to my church to sing at UpStreet, I spent a little bit of time just meditating over life and hanging out in 1 Corinthians 13 for a while.  I found myself there again this morning, because God really spoke to me in that time and I wanted to keep my mind on those thoughts and really let Him work on me more. I started out because, honestly, I can actually from time to time act in ways that are not very loving.  I know that's probably a shock to some of you (okay, not really :) ) but it's true.  So, where better to go and meditate than a passage devoted to defining love. The one verse that really caught my attention had these phrases.... (Love) Always protects Always trusts Always hopes Always perseveres (I'm reading this from my note card right now). I know that this passage is often read at weddings, but the context in which this letter was written was anything but matromonious.  This Corinthian church was rife with problems... massive...

I've been a little deep lately in my blog, and I feel like I need a little balance here.  So today, I start up a series of blogs entited "Worthy and Unworthy" - in which I rate things as "worthy" or "unworthy" (based on nothing other than my opinion, of course).  Feel free to disagree with me if you wish... I probably won't get offended :-) So let's get this started: Ketchups  This is a topic that my friend Josh Adams has brought to some attention, with a discussion on his Facebook page about the fact that he will actually bring Heinz ketchup into a place if they serve something else.  While I'm a huge fan of Heinz, I do think there are other worthy ketchups. Worthy! Heinz - The original and still the best.   McDonalds - I don't know what it is, but their ketchup and fries form a powerful duo. Whataburger - This ketchup that Whataburger own-brands is some really amazing stuff.  It's got a kick that you don't see in...

I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side - Psalm 3:5-6 This morning, this analogy (better than the one I had the other day) came into my head.  It sort of came from the psalm I read in my quiet time this morning, and it sort of relates to this whole waiting thing. Suppose that the challenge that you are facing is like a season with your church league basketball.  I played with my Bible Study class in the Second Baptist league when I lived in Houston (It's obviously more exercise for me than real competition if you've ever seen my game).  Suppose you're a team like mine looking for the elusive goal of the league championship, and you're up against the best team in the league... one where a couple of guys played some college ball and really shouldn't be in "church league" if you know what I mean.  Do you think that my team of 10 guys that were pulled at th...

A few months ago, I wrote a blog about what to do when you are waiting... and even featured the song from Fireproof that is getting a lot of radio airtime right now (I obviously like the lyrics to it).  This morning, I figured I'd list a few things that I am doing now in my season of waiting, as long or as short as it is at this point in my life.  Of course, you look at some of the things on my list and you'll probably agree with me that I'll keep some of these around. 1.) Traveling to places in the world that need to see the love of Jesus demonstrated and supporting ministries across the world attempting to reach their communities and nations for Christ. 2.) Training for (and going to run) a 1/2 Marathon (October 31st) 3.) Helping Buckhead Church make the childrens' environments in UpStreet amazingly fun and modeling devotion to Jesus to kids that will grow up to be leaders in the future.  Last week's craziness:  the penguin costume. 4.) Planning a dinner club...

I had dinner last night with my fusion group, and in one conversation we got to talking about this "taste test" game that we all played in fusion last Sunday.  Basically, we had to taste a particular product and then "guess" which brand it was. I'm not going to lie... once I picked the ice cream dead on I was the go-to guy for our team ("Seperate Checks" - which won :)  ).  I picked 4 of the 5 items on our list, of which the only I missed was the cookies that everyone missed (I'm also not a big "Chips-Ahoy" guy).  The item that got us ahead in this competition was the peanut butter, which was either JIF, Peter Pan, or Kroger own brand.  I'm not brand loyal in peanut butter except that I don't like store brand stuff, so when I tasted the peanut butter and it wasn't sweet enough I knew it was generic, and we were the only team to pick the Kroger.  My status as a taste-ringer was secured at that moment. I got to thinking this...

I've been reading over Hebrews 11 in my quiet times lately, and really mulling over how "faith" is defined and explained in this essay... An essay about: 1.) What faith is. 2.) How faith is lived out. The book of Hebrews is essentially an apologetic argument that being made right with God through grace by faith didn't start when Jesus Christ put his sandals down on the ground, lived a perfect life, and died for us on the cross.  This writer makes the point in a lot of detail that grace and faith has been God's M.O. with human beings since Day 1, since even before Moses yelled to Pharaoh "LET MY PEOPLE GO!"  It's always been about a relationship based on trust in God, and never about Law or rules. But what is faith?  There are as many definitions of this word as there are religions, and even groups of Christians.  What is it and how do we live it out practically? I'm sure if the writer of Hebrews heard you say that, he'd probably say...

I got one of the biggest compliments that I think I could get from a friend of mine.  We were standing outside of Urban Flats after a dinner club outing, and we got to talking about "nuggets of wisdom" - which was a question in my "Guess Who?" get-to-know-you game that got vetoed - and this friend tells me that the best piece of wisdom that he's heard actually came from... I couldn't believe it.  I think I'm pretty smart, but that's a big compliment.  When I heard him rehash the conversation we had on the way back from Labor Day Retreat, the light bulb turned on.  I suppose that if what I shared on the long, 9 hour drive home from Destin was worthy of my friend bringing it up in front of a group, then I should probably share on my blog as well. The idea came from something said at LDR by Joel Thomas at the opening session.  He said something about the fallacy of "Dating to get married" that I have always known but have never heard it ta...