Mavs with the Giddenses

There are an amazing number of our friends who are from Texas. Well, we recently got to talking with some of our Texas friends, Tory and Kedra, and discovered that we are all Mavs fans. And by Mavs, of course I am talking about the Dallas Mavericks. We checked the NBA schedule and saw that the Mavs were playing in Indianapolis, which is only a two hour drive. We bought tickets, and last Friday, the six of us (Tory, Kedra, Abigail, Nathan, Ryan and I) headed to Indy.

Unfortunately, it was a heartbreaking loss for the Mavs, but we had a lot of fun. Great memories with sweet friends...what could be better!?

Recent Happenings

As the semester draws to an end, life has been a bit more chaotic than normal. Here are some highlights from the last few weeks:

•Girls' night at Carrabba's to celebrate Jaimie's birthday. Happy birthday, JZ!

•Beautiful fall colors. The leaves are so pretty this time of year. We were able to marvel at God's creativity last fall, but just today Ryan and I had the joy of raking up all the leaves after they fell. Seriously, we had so many leaves in our yard. I wish I had stopped to take pictures of our enormous piles of leaves, but we were trying to beat the impending thunderstorm. God so graciously held off the rain until the moment we were tying up the last bag of leaves. Thank you, Lord!

•I had a few days off from work, so Ryan and I made a day trip to Indianapolis (aka: "Indy"). We walked around downtown and along the canal. It was a relaxing way to spend the day.

•Fellowship at the McHardy's for our monthly small group meeting. The McHardy's live in a large house provided by Operation Appreciation (a ministry that reaches out to soldiers stationed nearby). I don't think you could ever run out of things to do at that house--ping pong, darts, air hockey, foosball, pool and so much more. It's incredible! We also had the privilege of babysitting Abigail and Nathan Giddens that night. It was fun getting a glimpse of what it will be like to one day expand our family.

•Thanksgiving at the Willemses'. We were so blessed to celebrate with the Willemses, Carey's family, the Giddenses and the Borns. It can be difficult to be so far from our family, but what a blessing to have such a great family of friends here. The feast was incredible, mostly provided by Carey's mom. The dessert was so good too. I think we had every cake/pie/cookie/brownie imaginable! For those of you who know me well, you know there were no objections on my end when we were sent home with a sampler plate of all the desserts.

Ganging Up on Gratitude: Piper Responds to the Thankless

I wish I had discovered this before today, but it's well worth sharing still. This week, John Piper responded to recent comments from famed atheist Christopher Hitchens and from former clergy John Shelby Spong. Each degraded gratitude: Hitchens for its implication that God is worth thanking; and Spong because giving thanks is weak. Take in Piper's illuminating remarks.

Surprisingly, Piper doesn't likewise address the two cents of Spong's counterpart, Dwight K. Schrute.

Procrastination's Cure: The Emergent Church

Few things infuriate me more than the Health & Wealth Gospel, how Osteen and others even less subtle are leading millions to hell by holding out a Jesus who was betrayed, tortured, and murdered just so you can drive a Bentley or get a promotion over the "unfaithful" or never get cancer or have your best life now.

Perhaps a close second are the truth-for-tolerance traders in the Emergent Church. Sure, Brian McLaren can turn a clever phrase. And Donald Miller helped me to remember that true faith is proven in faithful living, that Jesus meant what he said when he called his disciples to clothe the naked and feed the hungry and provide for the poor. However, in the name of relevance, the Emergent movement has lost its belief. To make Jesus more attractive to its hearers, Emergent reps don't mention the virgin birth, the wrath of God, the responsibility of people, Jesus' resurrection. Along the way, they've lost Jesus and present their hearers a prescription for peace, when they have no peace.

With papers due and finals coming, I have too much to do in the next two weeks. And when I get overwhelmed, shamefully, I procrastinate. During my putting off, I stopped by my daily blogs and found John MacArthur's Pulpit Magazine, which just responded to Emergent leader Rob Bell's new show, "The Gods Aren't Angry" (see the review, here). And I was reminded why I study: False gospels abound. Ministers of the gospel (including those who make their living in other ways), give yourselves to the faithful study and proclamation of God's word!

Till people see the glory of their Creator, who deserves His creature's obedience and allegiance...till they see that all have gone astray and sinned against their holy God, and that God's wrath is rightly aimed at them for unfaithfulness...until then, no one will know his need for a Savior. He will not see Jesus, who lived the life no other man did, and who, on the cross, took the punishment deserved by the sinners He came to save (Isa 53, 2 Cor 5.21). Alas, sinners will only know peace with God when they trust in Jesus only for salvation. And from that salvation, yes, believers' lives will be changed, and they will relate to God and others rightly.

We do listeners more than a disservice when we mislead them into believing that God is not angry with those who do not believe in Jesus. Rom 1.18-23: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Paul--not Joel and not Rob--reveals the real good news of the gospel--that God is wrathful and loving. Rom 5.8: God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Though the time has come when people have accumulated for themselves teachers to suit their passions (love of self and money), contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints!

We are Adam: A Day of Dominion

Along with three dear friends, I recently had the opportunity to exercise dominion over Rough River creation (see Gen 1.26-28). To see images of image-bearers bearing God's image, stop by Tory's blog. But first, see what Notoryous T.D.G had to say about my response to the Cultural Mandate:

It was 22 degrees, but we were well prepared for the night: Dan and I in the tent with our sleeping bags, Ryan and Eric in the car with the heater on. To Eric's credit, all he had was an old bed sheet while the rest of us hunkered down in our 20 degree sleeping bags. Turns out, Ryan had brought two 20 degree sleeping bags, one of which had been laying tightly rolled up within arms reach of Eric the entire night before they made their 6 AM dash to the 4 Runner. Ryan brought handy wipes, too...very resourceful.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Part 3

Well, the home makover is complete! We only went to watch it once, but it was fun getting to see the progress every time we drove by. As the home was revealed to the Hughes family, Patrick was presented a 3-D model of it so he could tell what it looked like.

Here's the Hughes' original home:

Here's the Hughes' new home:

The Louisville Courier Journal has many articles about the makeover, including this one, but here are a few highlights:

•The family — which packed for both a warm- and a cold-weather vacation — was surprised and flown to London for the duration of the makeover. Their house was demolished Nov. 9.

•Construction began later that day and continued through the weekend until, 105 hours later, a new house stood in place of the other.

•Their above-ground pool has been replaced with a handicapped-accessible ground-level pool, complete with a wheelchair ramp coming from Hughes' new, apartment-like portion of the home.

•One of the most amazing aspects of the house is a verbal-command automation system that has been installed in Patrick's portion of the 3,200-square-foot home.

•The home is equipped with technology that is able to respond to 350 verbal commands, from opening doors to changing the channel on the flat-screen television to telling the time or outside temperature.

•"The coolest thing is that Patrick can say, "Computer goodnight" and the system prepares the home for bedtime. It shuts off or dims lights, makes sure the doors are locked and will even play mellow nighttime music.

One of My Favorite New Songs: Embracing Accusation

For the last few weeks, iTunes has been set to repeat my Shane & Shane: Pages Playlist. And one of my favorite new songs is "Embracing Accusation." Shane melodiously affirms the devil's accusation that cursed are the ones that cannot abide by God's law. However, in all his schemes to make the believer despair, the father of lies leaves out the truth that Jesus saves those who trust in him.

This song crescendos to exalt Christ's complete work on the cross. It is there that the believer's hope is found. And the devil is right to remind us that no one is good enough to merit God's salvation. I pray your affections are provoked and that you worship the glory of God in Christ's cross. Believe!



(HT Will)

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Part 2

Well, we haven't experienced much of the transformation. We haven't walked up the street to watch the progress yet, but we do see it each time we leave the house. I usually take some pictures as we pass it, and I've posted a few--some are ones I've taken, and some are from the newspaper.

Anyway, it's amazing how quickly they can demolish a home, remove all the debris from it, lay the foundation, put up the framework, roof, etc. They still have three days left, and the house looks just about done from the outside. I read online that they had gotten 4 hours behind schedule because the concrete wouldn't set due to the cold climate, but they're back on schedule now. They work through the night too. We drove home Friday night at about 12:30, and the construction site was lit up like it was the middle of the day. People are constantly everywhere. Praise the Lord for the hard work of all these people to serve this family.

I'm planning on walking to the construction site tomorrow, so I'll keep you posted.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

So, for the last couple of days, Ryan and I have noticed lots of police cars lined along one of the streets we drive down to get to our house, though we had no clue why they were there. Well, yesterday, I found out why. Apparently one of the families on that street has been chosen by Extreme Makeover: Home Edition to have their house redone. (Extreme Makeover is a show on abc that picks families whose homes are not conducive to live in for one reason or another. They send the family on vacation for a week, and during that week, they completely rebuild their home.) Anyway, there's a 19 year-old boy, Patrick Henry Hughes, who lives there who was born without eyes and is unable to straighten his arms or legs. He is in a wheelchair and plays for the University of Louisville marching band. He plays the trumpet while his dad pushes him around the field into the proper formations. Click here to read more about it.


Construction starts at 12:30 this afternoon to build this family a wheelchair accessible home. I'm so excited for this family, and I'm excited to watch the construction of this home. It's so neat that it's just a few blocks away, a house we drive and run by on a regular basis. The unveiling of the house to the Hughes family is next Wednesday afternoon. I'll keep you posted on the progress and hope to post some pictures too.

Praise the Lord for providing for this Louisville family in such a big way!

Making Jesus Look Beautiful

Jill posted this video of John Piper on their blog the other day, and I thought it was so great that I had to post it on ours as well. It's a clip of Piper preaching in Birmingham about the Prosperity Gospel. So powerful and convicting! It's only three minutes--you have to watch it!