One More Thing

Hi Five Oakers, The weekend is coming and there are a few things I want to share with you.

The Weekend

Yesterday I discovered that a friend I had lost touch with died four years ago. 

He was a member of our church in Kansas. He ran a Christian 12-step group at our church for years. And he was our state senator.

Just before moving up to MN in 1997, I took my boys up to Topeka for lunch with Mike and a tour of the capital. The boys were eight and ten, but they never forgot the story Mike told us about the lady who climbed the inside stairs of the capital dome and flung herself down, landing right where my kids were standing. What a look on their faces! My boys didn't remember anything else from that visit, but they never forgot that story.

I have never forgotten Mike's faith story. Mike was a lawyer, and he was working a workman's comp case for one of the members of our church. Mike was an avowed agnostic. That member of our church challenged Mike one day with a simple challenge. Mike would have brushed it off, but his wife burst into tears. The challenge, and his wife's response, led to one of those bizarre "coincidences" that can only be chalked up to God's sense of humor. And before Mike knew what hit him, his life was turned upside down. I can't wait to tell you his story this weekend.

FYI

John Stonestreet on "Life, Suffering, and Dignity: The courageously mundane faithfulness of Kara Tippetts

A young Oregon woman with a brain tumor recently made the choice to die. But a Colorado woman facing a terminal disease is choosing to live. What can we learn from their stories?

Anand Giridharadas on "The Immigrant Advantage"

Eventually, Mr. Bhuiyan petitioned a Texas court to spare his attacker’s life because he had lacked his victim’s advantages: a loving and sober family, pressure to strive and virtuous habits. The naturalized citizen claimed the native Texan hadn’t had the same shot at the American dream as the “foreigner” he’d tried to kill.

One More Thing

Philip Yancey's writings have deeply impacted me over the years. One of his favorite subjects is grace. Here's an excerpt from a recent interview with Leadership Journal.

It takes no grace to be among people who look like you, think like you, and act like you. The rubber meets the road when you're around people who irritate you, and perhaps morally offend you.

One More Thing

Hi Five Oakers, The weekend's coming and there are a few things I want to share with you.

The Weekend

I'm very excited to share with you this weekend because I know this text will speak to everyone who is going through a crisis right now and everyone who will go through a crisis in the future. In other words, it speaks to everyone.

We're in Acts 12. James is executed. This is the first of the original twelve to die (excluding Judas) and the first to be martyred. Herod Agrippa I has him beheaded, and the people in Jerusalem cheer. Things have deteriorated in the ten years or so since Jesus was crucified. Then Peter is seized and put in prison. Herod is going to kill him as well, but he wants to get all the PR he can get, so he puts him in prison for the opportune time.

Here's the catch: No one, including Peter, expects him to survive! They pray. They pray earnestly, but when God answers, they're all surprised.

There are some important lessons here for us. First and foremost is that God's gracious answers to our prayers do not depend on great faith. All is required is faith. And if you pray, that's enough faith. But there's more. Lot's more. Don't miss it!

FYI

John Stonestreet on "To Boo or Not to Boo: What Christians Should Do with Halloween"

Steven Wedgeworth, a pastor writing at the Calvinist International, gives a third perspective. In one of the best overviews out there on Halloween’s history, he concludes that neither story gets it all right. There are definitely echoes of paganism in Halloween, and All Hallows Eve had a major influence, too. But the holiday of today—especially the costumes and trick-or-treating—is a recent invention. Like the commercialized secular Christmas, he writes, Halloween as we know it has more to do with department stores than druids.

Michael Hyatt on "My Secret Weapon for Extra Energy at Work"

It takes about 20 minutes for caffeine to affect our brains. Because of the way sleep affects our neurochemistry, a cup of coffee just before a brief nap actually increases the impact of the caffeine when we wake. In fact, it seems that a coffee nap is better for boosting memory than a nap alone.

Mathew Block on "Misreading Scripture Alone: How we end up heretics"

A new survey on American Evangelical beliefs reports grim news, according to an article published yesterday by Christianity Today. The first line says it all: “Most American evangelicals hold views condemned as heretical by some of the most important councils of the early church.”

One More Thing

Suffering can derail our faith. Trusting God in our suffering can deepen our faith. Here's a thought from Tim Keller's new book, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering.

If you have a God infinite and powerful enough for you to be angry at for allowing evil, then you must at the same time have a God infinite enough to have sufficient reasons for allowing that evil.