Chris's Musings

Yesterday, after a long work week, I took off out of the city and away from the busyness of life and technology to go hike the Panther Creek Falls trail with a group of friends.  I have been looking forward to this hike for a while because a.) Panther Creek has been on my "really want to do" hikes for a while, and b.) I hadn't had the opportunity to get up to the mountains much this summer and had organized this day trip to do just that. I love hiking; I think I like getting out into nature in general but there's something about hiking that makes me feel happy.  Perhaps it's from my Boy Scout days and memories of treks to Philmont and camping trips; who knows? And I mean, I love hiking (not just walking).  If there isn't some adventure to where we're going then I'm not all that into it.  Panther Creek Falls was that kind of adventure.  Rumor is that it's one of the most fantastic waterfalls in Georgia and I couldn't wait to get to it. And...

Have you ever been in one of those situations where you feel stuck, where you know what you want God to do in your heart but there's just something blocking you from doing it, or asking for it, or in some cases, you don't even know what to ask for.  I've been in that boat before, and honestly this morning was one of those days for me.  Not going to embellish  but I just felt really overwhelmed and I went into my prayer time really wanting God to do something.   I read today's devotion in Jesus Calling, something that was really good for the soul, and I needed that reminder from the devotion today.  When I started to pray, I had this thought pop in my head, especially as my mind was really all over the place. " Now to him who is able  to do immeasurably more than all we ask  or imagine, according to his power  that is at work within us..." (Eph 3:20) And somehow, in that moment, it dawned on me that perhaps the reason that my mind was ...

'So they called together all of the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, "What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel?'" - 1 Samuel 5:8 In my devotional reading time this morning, I ran across a story that I've always found somewhat amusing (this narrative has been preached by Louie at Passion Conferences before), but somehow today God popped a couple of thoughts in my mind that I thought I'd share. Over in the book of first Samuel (the story about how Israel's monarchy started beginning with the rise of Samuel the judge), the writer records how the Philistines annihilate Israel's army while two uber-corrupt priests are judges over Israel (a quasi-kind-of their version of the King at the time).  These two dudes decide to bring the ark of the covenant out to battle after they were beaten, as a trump card for their next battle, and in the process were slaughtered and the Philistines capture the ark and take it into their city (this is rec...

In the last couple of weeks, partly because of the study I'm working through with my small group but also through a lot of conversations within my community, I've really been thinking about what it really means for me to live Gospel-centered. One thing that I heard tonight that's really got my brain churning is how we as human beings can even turn the truths of this good news of unconditional, unmerited grace given to us at the expense of Jesus Christ somehow into a moral improvement code. Several years ago, a guy at Second Baptist gave a talk about the "two sides of the gospel" that has really stuck with me and I've gone back to often.  It also explains why we are, in many of our Christian circles, so quick to jump on the "performance bandwagon" - when we only embrace one side of the gospel and not the totality of what God has offered to us. If you think about "it" in terms of Accounting, consider that we human beings have a balance ...

Several years ago, I had made fun of a friend of mine that, on our group ski trips would insist on going snowboarding even though for three consecutive years she would get injured.  From my recollection, the injuries were: A foot broken in several places An ACL tear (and I can't remember what the third was, nor can I perfectly recall the order) And this girl was a pretty good skiier, but she insisted on going boarding despite the ribbing and the, as I can imagine, frequent trips to the hospital. Well, I can understand it now... Guess what friends?  I've signed up for my next Half Marathon. This is after, Silver Comet race - torn miniscus... surgery.  L.A. Rock and Roll - painful achilles tendonitis... finally able to run after 7 months and a lot of chiropractor and pediatrist visits.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can finish this year injury free?   But am I a glutton for punishment?   Maybe.   But I get what my friend (who still boa...

So - at dinner club last night and all around the twitterverse everyone's talking about the end of the world. Yes - somebody else with a formula and some loose scriptural interpretation has predicted it. Again. And he's likely to be wrong. Again.  (Yes - this same guy has predicted it before and struck out). So - while I'm pretty sure I'll see you all and have something witty and snarky to say to you on Sunday, the thought gives me a little pause, because Jesus didn't really tell us when he's coming back.  He just told us that he was. So, it could be today. And I'm not a prophet, and I don't have a formula, but it could be today.  And then again, it could be tomorrow. My question is: Does that make you happy?  Or does that make you afraid? I think there will be two types of people who will fear Jesus coming.  The first are people who have lived like there is no God... and then will see Him, in all of his glory.  That would be very sca...

My small group is about to go through Tim Keller's Gospel in Life study in our group time in the next couple of months.  I am becoming a big fan of Keller, partly because of how clear he is in his message and the intellectual depth that he brings to the discussion (plus:  anyone who quotes Edwards & Lewis is cool in my book... just sayin'). So I'm started getting ahead a little (probably because I'm the leader... it's my job to know what's up), and in reading through the section on "City" we are reading through this letter that Jeremiah wrote to the Jews exiled to Babylon in 586 B.C., and in it he writes: "Build houses and settle down." - Jer 29:5 "Plant gardens and eat what they produce" - Jer 29:5 " Marry and have sons and daughters" (and encourage your kids to do the same) - Jer 29:6 "Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.  Pray to the LORD for it, becaus...

Happy Mother's Day! And in that light, I think Andy Stanley did all of the mom's and future mom's in his audience a big favor by taking a huge risk and being willing to step on we mens' toes.  And it's something we need to hear as men in our culture. I'm not going to give you the cliff notes of the talk, because the talk was way too good (and important) for me to summarize it in a weak blog posting.  But, if you really want to know... we need be cherishing women.  All women.  All the time.  Period. In every way. In our thoughts. In our actions. In our choices. The details of that, which Andy talks about today, are very edgy.  You can listen to the talk to know what I'm talking about :-). It was a little convicting for me, because the gravitation of this culture is strong and if we don't by the power of the Spirit swim upstream then it will take us with it whether we like it or not.  I prayed that God would give me grace where I didn't al...

Interestingly enough, where I am in my quiet time through Hebrews today happens to be very relevant with the significance of what we remember today.  A verse in this section that I vividly recall says this: "... because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." - Hebrews 10:4 Now, in our 21st Century non-Jewish world, this verse may make no sense to us.  But to the Jewish believers that this person was writing this letter to, it was rich with meaning. You see, ancient Judaism was a religion that was deeply entrenched in a sacrificial system that, in the minds of many worshippers, equated the sacrifice of a bull, goat, lamb, dove, pigeon, etc. for a sin offering (Leviticus 4:1- 6:7) and the yearly sacrifice of a lamb on the alter of the temple on the day of atonement (Leviticus 16) with the covering of sins that they and the nation has committed.  These sacrifices were commanded by God for the people to conduct when they sinned (I left ...

I was looking through my Estonia short term trip preparation thoughts the other day, and ran into this blog that I wrote back in 2008... I hope you are encouraged and challenged by it. ---------------- This morning as I am sitting down to have my quiet time (and) to also prepare for my small group discussion on Ephesians, God showed me something really cool.   I thought I would share :).  We are, this week, in Ephesians 4:1-16, where Paul is transitioning from (in my honest opinion) one of the best descriptors of our high calling, position, and value in Christ into the practical "how do you apply this in your world?" section.  This should be a cool section, because we as guys are into action even though I love the "look at who you really are" stuff :). So, I'm reading through this section and I get to verse 7, which says:  "But to each one of us  grace  has been given as Christ apportioned it..." And then describes our calling to be unified and t...

Yesterday, I got into a conversation with some friends about Passion 2011 and a couple of talks in particular.  They happen to be from people who have influenced me a lot... namely John Piper and Francis Chan. I hadn't stopped to listen to Piper's talk from Passion this year and had some margin today, so I downloaded it from the All Access site and watched it today.  It may.  have.  been.  one.  of.  the.  best.  talks.  I.  have.  ever.  heard.  from.  him. Seriously. Now, what really got me tuned in was how he introduced this idea of what ranks higher?  God's making much of us, and God's (and ours) making much of God?  It comes down to joy, what makes us happy? Have you ever really thought about what, at your core, makes you happy? What was really cool about this talk is that Piper pulled out a technique that I learned in a Market Research class in MBA school called "needs-value analysis" to...

This morning, working out at the hotel gym where I'm staying, I caught a little banter that the guys on the financial channel were throwing out for today's Ash Wednesday "so,what are you giving up for Lent this year?" conversation.  Somehow, I caught this little exchange and was a little surprised that the guy who "apparently" observed Lent said that he was giving up watermelon this year.  In fact, he said, he gives up watermelon every year. The other commentator bantered back, "that's not much of a sacrifice."  To which Mr. Watermelon replied with something like "perhaps next year I'll give up something else." Now, I'm not Catholic nor do I prescribe to a ritualistic religion of works, rather an embracing of the grace Jesus offers to us through the cross.  However, I do think there's something cool about the idea of sacrificing something during the 40 days preceding Easter.  I'm not so sure about watermelon, thoug...

It's always great to get a little perspective.   Especially when we (or I) get too focused, anxious, and permeated in something small... ...er than.... God.   Today was one of those days for me.  When your perspective is on the here and now in your life's circumstances, and you try to control "it" but you feel like "it" is controlling you, it's a little easy to get discouraged, cynical, down... just plain ugh!   Thankfully, God got me out of me.  He nudged me to go to this Bible Study tonight with some life giving friends, and in that little gathering, singing "All to us," God turned my head around to this theme that He's been weaving in my life since Passion 2010.   It is not crazy to trade something small, in exchange for something HUGE.   And in that moment, that perspective became once again clear.  What I was so fixated on, what was draining my mental energy is... in light of eternity... worth....  Nothing. An...

Happy Valentines Day! Either you love it, hate it, or you're trying to ignore it.  Ignoring it may be hard to do if you go anywhere like a mall, grocery store, gas station, church, wherever... basically if you're not in a cave meditating on the meaning of darkness you can't escape it.  A friend of mine that's on staff at church somehow got on this kick last year of tweeting cheesy pickup lines during Valentines Day and making people laugh.  It was quite funny and I guess she may be doing it again this year.  It got me thinking, what's the funniest pickup line I've heard?  It may be one that I heard at fusion (not one a guy used on a girl, but we were playing a game where we were trying to "vote" on the funniest one). And then somehow I thought:  What would be the best one?  What is the best one?  I'm not a "pickup line" kind of guy, but if I had to use one what would I use? And this hit me.  This was the best one.  It was actual...

I am re-reading through Luke in my quiet times right now, partly because my small group is tracking through it in our group discussions and it's been really fascinating.  The discussions we've had have motivated me to dig more into the Word and meditate on it. So - I ran across the parable of the shrewd manager yesterday, and when I was noodling on it thought about what Andy has been talking about in church the past two Sundays.  He's been talking about how feeble our American prayers have become, and how we generally pray for things that don't really require God's intervention (like, help me have a safe trip), for God to bless us, and then for a few random sick people.  The sarcasm he threw out about our prayers as Americans for God to "bless us" stuck with me, because he's absolutely right that if anyone from any other part of the world heard us pray THAT, they'd probably laugh at us because compared to everyone else we are already SO blessed i...

Did you know that the return of Jesus is scheduled on May 21, 2011? No? How did you know, you may ask me? I saw it on a billboard on I-10 in Louisiana. And you know, interstate billboards like much of the internet, can't be wrong. Well, you know that roadside marketing and internet blog pages (not this one, mind you :) ) are full of interesting stories, and you can't believe everything you read. But, just because I was curious by the fearless prediction and the fact that some person or some group of persons thought it was important enough to spend money to advertise on a billboard, I decided to Google "May 21 2011" just to see what was going on with this, and which "prophet" or group was propagating this thing.  Turns out, like the whole "2012" Mayan calendar thing, someone had done a "Biblical" calculation based on some scriptures pulled out of context (my opinion), young earth theoretical dates, and some extrapolation of ra...

Another Christmas has come, and will soon be gone.  Another season of feasting and celebrating with family and friends.  Another day of the eager and giddy ripping open of presents from Santa and from loved ones. Another season to manically rush through the busyness of celebration. Another season to wonder "did I get the perfect gift?" Another season to pause.   And in that pause, I hope that we reflect on the reason that we're celebrating this day in the first place.  It's easy to get lost in our culture, our hustle, and all of the expectations of the season that one day about 2010 years ago, give or take... something happened in a marginalized part of the world, to the most unlikely cast of characters, in a very inconvienent set of circumstances... that changed the course of history and if we fully embrace the promise that comes with the coming of Christmas, the course of our lives.   On that day, a baby was born.  That baby was Christ the Lord.  Who...