For Brock

This is a Fourth of July tribute to my good friend Brock. I love you, man!

Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl by N.D. Wilson

In Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl, Nate Wilson takes us on a rambling journey exploring the world we live in and the God who created it. Taking his cues from the four seasons, he describes with “wide-eyed wonder” the work of God in creating and sustaining the universe.

When I referred to the book as a “rambling journey”, I am not kidding. There were many instances where I was, and am still, not sure where Wilson was going. He speaks in various creative terms: novel, play, poem, drama, etc. It was often hard to tell if he was talking about us as humans, God as creator and sustainer, or the earth as the creation. It might have been all of the above.

Perhaps, I am not the target audience. I accept that possibility. Someone a little younger than my less than forty years may get it. It is almost as if Wilson is trying a little too hard to write like Donald Miller (Blue Like Jazz), another author’s popularity I do not understand. Maybe that is where I should leave this review. If you like Miller, you might like Wilson.

More information about Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl, including a preview, can be found at Thomas Nelson’s product page. I am a member of Thomas Nelson’s Book Review Blogger program.

Zoo for Dead Animals

Ahh! I have you hooked already. You are probably asking yourself where this zoo is and how can I avoid it! It's the Brookshires World of Wildlife Museum and Park of course!
This fantastic park is located just outside Loop 323 in Tyler on Old Jacksonville Hwy. It is composed of a museum of stuffed and preserved animals (yes - real ones and some of them quite exotic) along with a country store. The animals were collected from the travels and hunts of the Brookshire family. The kids will love looking at toys and food items from yesteryear in the grocery store. The building is air conditioned which is a necessity on these hot Texas days, has great clean bathrooms (I know - it's a thing with me) and also a little general store where you can buy a little treat that probably won't break the bank. There are some vending machines as well as water fountains.
Outside there is a spacious children's park with lots of big shade trees and picnic tables. There's swings and play apparatus for the little ones as well as a fire truck, tractor and railway car to climb on. The older kids will love the the merry-go-round and jungle gym. There's a big slide and big swings as well.
Be advised that it gets very busy here - especially on Saturdays with it being a favorite birthday party destination - best to make reservations ahead! Yes - you can call and book some picnic tables for your party. They are closed on Sundays and Mondays.
Brookshires World of Wildlife Museum and Park - it's a great thing about Tyler!
Oh yeah! The zoo for dead animals is what my kids called it when they were little - they still like to go back again and again.

Love: A Godly Husband's Responsibility

Last week, I wrote about the Christian husband's responsibility to be a leader. I really believe that all of the husband's responsibilities can be distilled down to just two: lead and love.

This love is different than the infatuation that we feel early in a relationship. This love is not just felt, it is intentional. It is a choice that we make. Here are some related passages of scripture followed by ten rules for Christian husbands.

Ephesians 5:21-33 (New Living Translation)

²¹ And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

²² For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. ²³ For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. ²⁴ As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

²⁵ For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her ²⁶ to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. ²⁷ He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. ²⁸ In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. ²⁹ No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. ³⁰ And we are members of his body.

³¹ As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” ³² This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. ³³ So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

1 Corinthians 11:3 (New Living Translation)

But there is one thing I want you to know: The head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

1 Peter 3:1-2, 7 (New Living Translation)

¹ In the same way, you wives must accept the authority of your husbands. Then, even if some refuse to obey the Good News, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. They will be won over ² by observing your pure and reverent lives.

⁷ In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.

Ten Rules for Christian Husbands

1. The love you feel for your wife should be "agape" love: a divinely inspired love that reflects God's unconditional love for her.

2. Caring for your wife requires daily attention.

3. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.

4. You should encourage your wife's spiritual growth as she seeks to follow Christ, but you can't dead her there if you're unwilling to go yourself.

5. You must strive to love your wife as God loves you. That means that you must love her regardless of her response.

6. It's important that you provide for your wife and family, but giving material possessions is not enough; you must also give yourself to her.

7. You are to love your wife as you love yourself.

8. Take care of her needs, like you take care of your own. Ensure that your wife's needs for rest and recreation, spiritual growth, and clothing are met.

9. As a Christian husband, your purpose is to prepare her in order to present her to her eternal Groom, the Lord Jesus Christ.

10. Remember that love is a permanent commitment, not a transitory feeling.

Is there one or two of these that you struggle with? Which ones? Make an intentional effort to work on those this week.

Narcissism, ADHD, or Stalking: Which Best Describes You?

Like most of us, I use some social networking sites. I found this graphic a little disturbing. Is it accurate? Maybe to some degree. If you were going to give it a title, what would that title be? How about a caption? Have fun!

BTW: I will use Twitter and Facebook to notify people that this has been posted.

Coolness and Cussing

I am sure that there have always been preachers and pastors who made a habit of using coarse or crude language. Maybe they even outright cussed. I suspect most, if not all of these preachers were somewhere out on the fringe. I remember Gene Scott used to sit in his recliner smoking cigars, drinking scotch, and cussing as he "taught" and "preached".

In 2003, Thomas Neslon published Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. About half way through the book, he introduces us to Mark. Mark pastors a church in Seattle and says a lot of cuss words. Mark is Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. In Driscoll's defense, he doesn't cuss anymore. He does a really good job, I think, of watching his language. He can be a little coarse or crude sometimes, but he doesn't really cuss.

Ed Young of Fellowship Church in Grapevine, Texas, recently posted this video about preachers who cuss. I think it is a wise admonition to those who speak the truth of the Gospel. Warning: Young demonstrates some of the language he warns about.

What do you think about Young's take on this? How far should preachers go with their language in trying to relate to their audience?

Paying for Creative Work

Today's post at the Communicate Jesus blog raised a pretty interesting question. It is actually a question I would likely not have thought about had I not read it there. The question is: Should Christian creatives work for free?

The post included a long affirmative answer from a man who is a senior copywriter (read: creative) by trade, so his opinion is hardly unbiased. I am completely uncreative, so maybe my perspective will be decidedly more balanced.

Let us assume that all (evangelical) churches have the same mission. All churches rely on volunteers to carry out their mission. For small churches, there may be little or no paid staff. This might even include the pastor. They also offer a limited number of ministries. Volunteers lead the music, teach the children, handle the checkbook, and maybe even mow the church yard. Mid size churches offer more ministries and employ more staff to manage these ministries. This does not mean there are fewer volunteers. In fact, there are likely many more. As churches grow, so does the trend of more volunteers, more ministries, and more staff.

Another trend is that as churches grow they tend to use more and more creative media. The church may begin by asking for volunteer work from a member who specializes in this field. It also could purchase prepared creative media from, well, creative media companies. In my opinion, as a church uses more creative media, it only makes sense to hire someone to produce it. This may start as a part-time position, evolving into a full-time job. If a church has enough need to justify hiring a creative type to do the work, then hire someone to do it.

All this to say, Todd, I approve of your job.

ABC News Nightline

I don't usually watch Nightline. I used to watch, if anything at all, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Now that Jay is off, I was kind of wandering. The last few nights, Nightline has led with stories about the election in Iran and the subsequent protests. It has been interesting to watch. In spite of all the technology available to this important national news program, they have been airing clips from YouTube taken with mobile phones.

Nightline will celebrate its 30th anniversary next spring. Its real anniversary will be in November of this year. I was reminded of this as I watched their coverage of the Iranian protests. That is how the show started. On November 4, 1979, 52 Americans were taken hostage at the American Embassy in Tehran. They would be held for 444 days. On November 8, just 4 days after the hostages were taken, ABC began airing "The Iran Crisis -- America Held Hostage: Day xxx" where xxx represents each day the Iranians held hostage the occupants of the Embassy. It was originally hosted by Frank Reynolds. Shortly after the program began, Ted Koppel assumed the duties of anchor. When the hostage crisis ended, the news program was such a part of the ABC schedule, they renamed it Nightline and kept it. I can honestly say that I vaguely remember the "America Held Hostage" program. Did you watch Nightline before it was Nightline? What do you watch after the 10:00 news now?

Lead: A Godly Husband's Responsibility

I absolutely love my small group at church. I truly enjoy almost every study series we undertake. I do not enjoy most marriage Bible study series. However original they try to be, whatever the perspective they try to take, at the end of the day, they are all about the same. We are doing a marriage study this summer. Fortunately, we operate on a different schedule for the summer and meet fewer times for the study. One thing we are doing differently is the men and women are meeting separately. We are discussing the same topic; we are just discussing the topic from the perspective of the individual sex.

This past week the men discussed the responsibilities of a godly husband. As I was preparing the Bible study and discussion notes, I came to the opinion that all of a husband's responsibilities can be distilled down to two: lead and love. The husband's leadership role does not denote inequality between the wife and him. The leadership role denotes his responsibility to meet the needs of his wife and guide his family.

I want to share the passages from the Bible that we looked at and then some general observations we made about the Christian husband's responsibility to lead. Many of the observations were inspired by "Life 101: Marriage Edition" by Bob and Ann Livesay. I want to encourage any Christian husband to pick a couple of the observations that you most need to improve on in your marriage and work on those specifically. It should help in your relationship with your wife.

Ephesians 5:21-33 (New Living Translation)

²¹ And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

²² For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. ²³ For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. ²⁴ As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

²⁵ For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her ²⁶ to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. ²⁷ He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. ²⁸ In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. ²⁹ No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. ³⁰ And we are members of his body.

³¹ As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” ³² This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. ³³ So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

1 Corinthians 11:3 (New Living Translation)

But there is one thing I want you to know: The head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

1 Peter 3:1-2, 7 (New Living Translation)

¹ In the same way, you wives must accept the authority of your husbands. Then, even if some refuse to obey the Good News, your godly lives will speak to them without any words. They will be won over ² by observing your pure and reverent lives.

⁷ In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.

General Observations for Christian Husbands

1. God intends for man to be the head of the household. This is God's divine design.

2. Leadership does not imply superiority over the wife or inequality. The leadership role simply describes the function of the man in his family.

3. A Christian leader is always a servant leader, so the role of a Christian husband is to serve his wife and children.

4. The mark of a leader is that he makes decisions. Sometimes this means that a man must be willing to step outside his comfort zone as he attempts to bring order out of chaos.

5. The wife needs protection and direction (1 Timothy 2:12-15), and the husband should provide it.

6. The wife will resist the husband's leadership (Genesis 3:16), but in spite of this fact, God still expects the husband to lead.

7. The Christian husband should never be detached from his family; he should always be engaged and involved , feeling the pulse of the family.

8. Husbands are commanded to treat their wives in an "understanding way". The wives are described as "weaker than you are" (1 Peter 3:7). Thus, women are, by nature, more vulnerable and more sensitive. They should be treated more tenderly than men.

9. Because women are different from men (both emotionally and physically), God intends for women to be treated differently, especially by their husbands.

10. Failure to treat your wife with honor and understanding will have a negative impact on your relationship with God.

Which of these will you work on?