Hematohidrosis

This is from ChristianAnswers.net, and it describes hematohidrosis, the sweating of blood that Jesus experienced in Gethsemane. Here at Easter time, we want to be especially sensitive to Jesus' suffering, and as described here, not all of it was physical. Praise Jesus for "setting his face toward Jerusalem," "sweating great drops of blood" and going to the Cross, "scorning it's shame" in his

The Comma

Please skip over to the Stuff Christians Like blog for a great, encouraging read about grace at Easter.

Come Thou Fount

I have never been able to sing the 2nd half of the 2nd verse of "Come Thou Fount." I try every time, but nothing comes out.

Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wand'ring from the folds of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Bought me with His precious blood.

I have no voice until I recover at the start of verse 3, but then it's gone again when we sing,

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, 
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for thy courts above.

And then the song is over and it's time to mop up. What song 'goes right through' you?

The Recipe For Life

Family friend Jim Besaw wrote this for English class...pretty perceptive for an infinitely-distractable-hyperactive-frizzy-haired-skinny-jeans-wearing-Christian-math-core-hippy-freak 17-year-old.









The Recipe For Life
by Jim Besaw
Add 3 tsp of Energy, 1 cup of Joy and 2 parents beautifully in love. 
Let sit for 3 years, then slowly add 2 pinches of curiosity, 5 scoops of adventure, a handful of “I told you so moments” and 4 rancid rotten rebellions. 
Mix this well for about 5 years and your mixture should begin to turn a soft “know it all” shade.
Add 2 tablespoons of questions and continue stirring. 
Once the mixture has become a soft ball of adolescence, you should roll 13 to 14 small balls of hormones onto a tray of conflict. 
Bake these on a temperature of about “the flaming fury that your parents feel as they find out you’ve borrowed the car to go to your boyfriend's/girlfriend's house”. 
Once they turn a golden shade of wisdom, you should take them out and let them cool off until they are hard and or firm from the hardships of life. 
Finally they are ready to be frosted with a life well spent with the ones you love.

Drainers and Fillers

A wise man once told me, "there are two kinds of people in the world. There are "fillers," who, once you've been around them, you feel "filled" with cheer and encouragement. And then there are the "drainers," the people who drain your emotional energy and make you feel discouraged. I only want to be a filler."

I like that. And I think that for some of us, being the "filler" takes a little more work. I want to try harder at being a bit more of an encourager - even with this blog - though I still want to be as transparent and honest as possible while I grapple and report on life here in "Boothland." It's a balancing act...or maybe an art.

Do you ever think about how you relate to other people? Are you a "drainer" or a "filler?"

Prayers From Strangers

Recently there was a "day of prayer" over at Jon Acuff's blog, "Stuff Christians Like." This was neat since it was a 'virtual' thing. Anyone could sign up for a one-hour slot and pray for requests that were posted there at the blog. I got in a little late, but I figured, "well, why not put in a request for Janie anyway?" She'd been having a pretty bad day, coughing and just exhausted really.

So I went on and shared a bit about her story, just a few sentences and, well, I admit I paused a bit before I hit "add comment." I thought, "is this dumb? Is this silly? These people don't know Janie. It's so anonymous. So impersonal."

Call me crazy but,

How He Loves Us

Here's another performance of John Mark McMillan's "How He Loves Us," this time by Jared Anderson who is new to me. He did a really nice job and I love this song.

Janie Update 3-22-10

Hi! It's been a little while since we've updated you on Janie's situation, so...here goes........

Weekly chemo continues, and we really are so thankful for the technology! There are new chemotherapies being developed all the time and we of course pray for a cure. We never let up praying that Janie will be 100% healed!

The blood test called ca27-29 rose by quite a bit (up to 145 from the mid-90's) so it is time for Janie to move on to another chemotherapy drug. The new one is actually a return to

Happy Spring!

I know, I know, it's probably bad form to post two songs by the same artist two posts in a row, but, well, it's the first day of Spring! Now or never!

Ragamuffins In A Cool World

Now I'm not a very charismatic guy. Any of you who know me would agree: Chris doesn't have a 'rollin'-in-the-aisles kind of temperament (actually, I wonder how many 'melancholics' do...but that's for another post...). So I hesitate posting this lest someone might get the wrong idea...but I just really like this kid listening to David Crowder. Would you have the nerve to just let loose in the middle of your city?

We are called to be "aliens and strangers in the world" (NIV) (or "exiles and sojourners" as the ESV puts it). See 1 Peter1:1;  2:11 and Hebrews 11:13. So I must ask: how well do you "fit in?" Is that a problem for you? Are you as cool as the world? Is the vortex of coolness sucking you in?

Regarding these verses, I've over time kept and added to a little list of words that I think should define me as a Christian. I'm working on living up to it, though I admit it can be a struggle because * gosh darn it! * we all crave acceptance, right? Anyway, try these words on for size and see if they describe your walk in this world:

Alien

Stranger

Sojourner

Pilgrim

Wayfarer

Itinerant

Vagabond

Misfit

Ragamuffin
 Fool

Billy Graham once described evangelism as merely one beggar showing another beggar where to find food. Like it or not, we are spiritual beggars, ragamuffins. When we try real hard to look like something other than - something cooler than - a ragamuffin, we start to assimilate the culture and it starts to have more of an effect on us than we do on the culture. So, it seems, we need to learn how to be more of a misfit, not less.

I can barely remember that old Baptist spiritual - how's it go? "This world is not my home; I'm just a-passin' through...."

Or, to quote Switchfoot, "I'll be a Beautiful Letdown, the painfully uncool - the Church of the dropouts, the losers, the sinners, the failures...and the fools..."

How about you? What words would you add to define the Christian's place in the world?

Mysterium Tremendum

Which is weirder for the Christian? That Christ is in you (Colossians 1:27), or that you are in Christ (Colossians 1:28)?

Our pastor, Eric May, made a wonderful point today. (I'm afraid this is going to sound like a, "stop me if you've heard this one..." kind of thing, but, well, since this is a blog, and you can't very well stop me...) He said, regarding these verses, "are we in air, or is air in us?" *Dramatic silence* Then he said, "is a fish in water, or is water in a fish?" The answer is, of course, "Yes." Both are true.

I like this not just because it's clever and presents a bit of a mind-bender. I like it because it points out that, though they may at first sound like opposites, both statements can be true: we can be "in Christ" and Christ can be "in us."

I also like it because

Andy McKee

Completely mind-boggling skill and beautiful music..........

Cowbells and Colossians

Daniel played bass for the jazz band portion of the Green Mountain District 5 Music Festival tonight. Shredded basically and his awesomeness showed the most when his sheet music fell on the floor and he just kept playing from memory with out missing a beat. In fact if I didn't know better, I would almost suspect that he purposely made the music fall so that his awesomeness at playing without the music and never missing a beat could be seen by all. Except that's not like him and also I think no one saw the music fall except me and the trombone player next to him who kindly picked it up.

Plus, they also played an absolutely gorgeous version of Charles Mingus's, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat." Made you weep. (Of course, there is always the version by Jeff Beck, whose guitar weeps and which takes me back to my own high school days...).

There were other groups playing as well: a Women's Chorus and a Full Choir, which sang a really cool Magnificat which I love because school music programs across our great nation violate the supposed 'Separation of Church and State' every time they sing spirituals and no one raises a finger or even an eyebrow.

There was also a Middle School Wind Ensemble, but my personal favorite (apart from the Jazz Band of course), was the Middle School Concert Band. They played, "On Broadway." (Remember, "On Broadway?" Made famous and popular by the cool and suave George Benson in 1978? Well, remove the cool and remove the suave and remove George Benson and replace it all with 6th grade brass and a giant bass drum and you've got the picture...)

Anyway, the reason that this band was so great was because of their

"God Told Me..."

God speaks to us through Scripture. Undeniable.

God sometimes speaks to us through thoughts and impressions that He brings into our consciousness. Mmhm.

But honestly, though I have even had those impressions myself, and in hindsight I even found out that it was God, well, I also have a concern about, "God told me..."

Here's why:

Mae - Boomerang

God Redeems Idolaters

Beautiful Evidence

I nabbed this from the blog of a pastor in the mid west, bloggername, "The Blainemonster" which is cool. His blog is called, "The vertiCALL." Anyway, he just posted this today and it really resonates with me and I wanted to share it here, especially in light of my last post...the two seem akin to me somehow.....

I've always thought that beauty was great evidence for a Creator. What we see throughout history, unfortunately, is humanity worshiping beautiful things, and not the Creator. The sun, moon, stars, animals, weather phenomena - all these things are beautiful (which is an anemic word to describe the majesty of some of these objects) and have been revered as divine by mankind.

Well, we can't blame this idolatry on the beautiful things, nor can we

This Side

An old favorite: 'This Side' by Nickel Creek...embedding is of course disabled so just see it at Youtube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nneEIX59I8 

Go ahead, tell me I'm silly. Tell me I'm crazy and I'm reading too much into it...but I

Sanctification: Progress

God doesn't want us stuck in: 
"I believe. Help thou my unbelief." 

He wants us to move on to:
"in thy presence is fullness of joy."

How Metrosexual Is Your Worship Leader?

How Metrosexual is your worship leader? Here's a handy 55 point test!

I guess there are lots of ways to 'do' church...best to be able to laugh at ourselves, right?

Of course in Vermont, you need to go to Burlington - maybe - to experience this Christian culture phenomenon...maybe in a few more decades....

A few more funny additions to this are here and here.

It looks like some of this will be in a book...I hope it's only satire and not sarcastic-to-the-point-of-mean...but at least I could pull it out of my Euro-man-purse and stay currently Christian as I sip my double decaf green tea frappuccino at Starbucks...oh, no, wait...Rutland doesn't have a Starbucks...*sigh.*

Global Conversions in Real Time

Even if this were only half-accurate, even a quarter accurate, it's still exciting to watch in real time!

Leave your browser on the page for a while and watch the yellow icons (representing real people making decisions to accept Jesus) accumulate.

Keep an eye on the 'ticker' in the upper right...and praise God.

This is developed and run by Global Media Outreach, a ministry of Campus Crusade For Christ.

Head To Christ

Brian "Head" Welch was a wildly successful multi-platinum superstar guitarist for the hardcore rock band, Korn. He was super-rich, super-popular, a super-alcoholic, a super-meth-addict and was super-miserable.  What makes a man give up all that 'success?' It's got to be something pretty radical.

Listen to him give his testimony about how Christ found him in 2005.  Don't be thrown by his appearance...Jesus wasn't...



Now watch what he's been doing with himself since then:




He still does some edgy stuff...a few things that make me cringe a bit, but hey, he is a changed man on a new path.

Yes, But Is It Your Treasure?

Their village in Malawi, Africa had just received Bibles and they broke into songs and dancing...over Bibles.

Oh, that all of us spoiled Western Christians had even an ounce of these people's delight about God's word...



"Hey, I like reading my Bible as much as the next guy."

Yes, but is it your Treasure?


"I rejoice in following your statutes
as one rejoices in great riches."


"I delight in your decrees;
I will not neglect your word."


"My soul is consumed with longing
for your laws at all times."

Psalm 119:14,16, 20

There is more here if you'd like to read more...

Janie Update 2-8-10

I just realized its been 3 weeks since the last update on Janie...so time for a quick update.

We are still very glad to have the chest tubes out...not a pleasant experience. She still has a persistent cough, however...we don't know if this is doing damage and almost don't want to know!

I myself also had the flu last weekend and it moved north and developed into a sinus infection complete with, of all things, a cough. So poor Janie had to play nursemaid to me...a cruel role reversal...and as a result (I'm guessing)

The Bruised Reed

This is a cancer update from Texas pastor Matt Chandler who I have mentioned here and here.

I post it here because at about 2 minutes, he reads from a book by Richard Sibbes called, The Bruised Reed. In essence Sibbes says that God won't break the bruised reed (Matthew 12:20), but that He will still allow the reed to be bruised...for the good of the reed! Chandler has gotten a lot of comfort out of this, so I want to understand and learn from this.

I've been thinking about this kind of thing a lot lately, especially what could be meant by that word, 'good' in Romans 8:28, but I think I'll comment more on that in another post.  Of huge help has been Jerry Bridges' book, Trusting God - Even When Life Hurts (especially chapter 8 if you have the book). This really deserves the strenuous thought that it sounds like it takes....so don't be alarmed at the smoke coming out of my ears....

Churches Helping Churches

Maybe your church can give to Churches Helping Churches. Its a brand-new (one week old!) non-profit formed by Pastor James MacDonald of Harvest Bible Church and Pastor Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle. It seems incredible that they could set up an organization to help out so quickly, but I am sure that with the resources available to the mega-church, and staff as well, you can get things done in a hurry when you need to.

Please visit their website: www.churcheshelpingchurches.com.

This past Sunday, Mark Driscoll spoke about his and Dr. MacDonald's trip to Haiti this past week. He shows some graphic video footage, so be warned and keep the young kids away...


There are more videos available at the Churches Helping Churches website.

This is just an opinion, but from what we know of Haiti's corrupt,

Joni Eareckson Tada

Our friend Ingrid just sent Janie a clip from Joni Eareckson Tada's radio program, and it reminded me that I had prepared this post but never posted it. Thanks so much Ingrid!

Joni is one of my heroes. A quadriplegic due to a diving accident in her teens, she still insists (after many years of quadriplegia) on God's goodness and sovereignty. This in the face of the fact that of course God could have prevented her accident. She is thoroughly biblical and more joyful than most of us with four working appendages.

Here she is on Larry King


This is a 3 part series...parts 2 and 3 will show up after the end of part one. Here is her website.

****

And please, please, please find 49 minutes and 54 seconds and click here for a full length message by Joni called, "Suffering for the Sake of..." Don't miss this! Especially if you are going through a valley of your own. Joni has helped me get my feet under me more than a few times....

And by the way, here is what Ingrid sent...

Janie Update 1-22-09

"I'm free!" That's what Janie said as she came home smiling from

Haiti Orphans Meet Their New Parents

Our brother-in-law Joe works for Missionary Flights International, an air-support mission for ministries in Haiti as well as other areas of the Caribbean. MFI was priveleged to be a part of bringing 26 orphans out of Haiti to meet their new parents.

Adoption is a beautiful picture of the gospel:

"And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." Romans 8:23

"In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,  to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved." Ephesians 1:5

Get your box of Kleenex and watch these beautiful children as they join their new families...

Janie Update 1-18-10

Deja' vu all over again!

So once again, Janie is home from the hospital and resting comfortably in the recliner with a drink and her ipod. We had mentioned that Janie would go in today to get the chest tubes out, but it played out a little different than we had thought.

It turned out that

Janie Update 1-14-2010

So its about 3:15 on Thursday, and Janie is resting comfortably in our living room recliner by the pellet stove with a drink and her ipod. She'd had a restless night and felt kind of funny this morning. "Is my breathing weird? Am I dizzy? Is this what shortness of breath feels like?"

She decided to call the cancer center to see if

Choosing To Trust God

Jerry Bridges, in his excellent book, Trusting God, says this about choosing to trust:

"The same David who said in Psalm 56:4, 'In God I trust; I will not be afraid' said in Psalm 34:4, 'I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.' There is no conflict between saying, 'I will not be afraid' and asking God to deliver us from our fears. David recognized it was his responsibility to choose to trust God but also that he was dependent upon the Lord for the ability to do it."

He goes on:

Theological Correctness Part 2

I want to make sure that I'm really clear about that last post. My concern with posting it at all is that I have seen Christians hurt each other by being overly blunt with "The Truth." I am talking about the hard-nosed verbal bludgeoning of another person in the name of defending the Gospel and the Kingdom or God when they are really most interested in winning arguments.

Or to put it another way:
The bull in the china shop of someone's emotions rarely wins someone over to their point of view; they just break a lot of breakable fine china.

Or to put it another way:

Theological Correctness

Yanked this exchange off of the discussion board at Abraham Piper's blog, "22 Words."

jennapants says:

December 7, 2009 at 2:32 pm

This post makes me think of the many times I’ve felt guilty for not *feeling* correct theology.

For instance, sometimes, when I’m trying to tell my Dad what’s going on in my life, he jumps in with the theological pep talk, usually asking first, “Who’s in control?”

I am incredibly grateful to have the sovereignty of God in all things ingrained into my being, but…

How He Loves

What a great song from David Crowder....watch "How He Loves" at Youtube. Lyrics by John Mark McMillan.

Matt Chandler's Cancer

I've mentioned Pastor Matt Chandler from The Village Church in Texas before. It turns out that he has recently (Thanksgiving) found that he has cancer in his brain. Take 5 minutes and listen to him describe his condition as well as his understanding of God's grace to him in the news of cancer. I found it very encouraging and I hope it encourages you as well.

The doctors removed as much of the tumor as they could get on December 4 and he will get radiation and chemo. Here is a recent 'tweet:'  Path report is 2ndary at best...good report doesn't mean much, bad report doesn't mean anything...my days r numbered and nt by ths report

Read some profound thoughts from John Piper on his own cancer from a few years ago here. And if you just can't get enough on this exciting topic, this is good too.

Ref Tagger

Reference Tagger from Logos Bible software...hover the mouse over a Bible reference...and there it is...no more clicking away from the blog to see the verse...go ahead, give it a try right here: Rom. 8:28. Nice, eh?

Click here to get the code for your blog or site. Super easy to install.

Out Of The Doldrums...Janie Update 1-5-10

Well, here is yet another of Janie's emails to our praying friends:

Hello. . . . .again!

So no chest tubes!  My chest xray today showed no change from yesterday so we are in wait and watch mode again.  I am really trying to not talk (hahahahahahaha),

Janie Update 1-4-10

Janie sent this email to our praying friends today:

Hello Everyone!

I was hoping this new year would start out a little happier than it has.  Last week I had a chest tube put in on the right side and it was taken out two days later.  The surgeon was confident it had done its job.  I had a follow-up xray today and much to my dismay

Janie Update 1-2-2010

Happy New Year! Here's Janie's latest. The chest tube is out (yay) but she still has the cough (boo). Please pray that the cough would just disappear so her lungs (both of them) can stay in place and not become detached again. Of course, if the Lord wants the cough to disappear through the use of medicines, please pray that just the right one would be thought of, prescribed and put to work with much success...and very soon too please!

Janie was (hooray!) able to make it to the New Year's worship night that we had planned...and she barely coughed at all! I am so grateful that she could go...it was her idea in the