I’m preaching on the providence of God this upcoming Sunday. It’s probably one of the most comforting doctrines in all of the bible. That God is somehow involved in all of life, behind even human choices, is pretty cool.

For some people, this might be seen as an invasion of privacy. And I guess it is. He wouldn’t infringe upon the rights of His created people would he? Well, I need him to. And I think most people would welcome this invasion of privacy at least at some level.

For instance, if some crazy PETA member (and this is just a hypothetical, I think) is coming to blow up your house because you like to eat veal, then don’t you want God to “invade his/her (let’s not be sexist) privacy” and make them change their mind? You wouldn’t want to place all your hope in a fellow PETA member convincing them that killing people is actually worse than killing animals, would you?

I for one am glad that God can change people’s minds. I certainly need Him to change my mind all the time. Fortunately God invades my privacy, and does it a lot. He’s been doing it for some time now, and I need him to “will” and “to work” (Phil 2:13) until He completes the work He’s started (Phil 1:6). Invasion of privacy is my only hope for sanctification.

Unfortunately I listen to a lot of sports talk. Once I get an IPod, I’ll probably listen to a lot more edifying stuff, like sermons, when I’m behind the wheel. Maybe that will help with road rash, I mean, rage.

But the topic of conversation on pretty much every station, at every time of the day, is centered on one thing: Michael Vick and his dog fighting.

In case you didn’t know or care (and that is certainly an option), Michael Vick, the Atlanta Falcon’s QB has been indicted for conducting dog fights on his property in Virginia. Apparently the shitzu’s and the pugs, who fought not so bravely, were executed in a number of horrible ways. Actually they were pit bulls, but thinking of it now, lapdog fighting might be a little safer for both sides. Nipping and yapping can only do so much damage, you know?

Anyhow, Vick is innocent until proven guilty, in the court of law. But in the court of every Tom, Dick, and Harry, (and Geoff too) he is guilty until proven innocent. But is this a Christ-like attitude which me and Tom, Dick and Harry all share?

I just read last night how Jesus forgives those who recognize their need, even if they feel/we feel they are the worst of sinners John 4 (adultery), Luke 7 (serial adultery) and 1 Tim 1 (Paul for persecuting the church). But in this case, there is no confession, so not really an answer.

But if you go with the need for two witnesses (2 Cor 13:1; Deut 17:6; and I guess the Fed’s when they bring the goods to trial will count as ‘two’), then I probably ought to wait for the evidence. After all, both Jesse Jackson and I were led to believe the Duke Lacrosse players were guilty when they weren’t. The only other principle I can think of is the trumping love principle: love neighbor as yourself. If I were innocent, I would want others to withhold judgment.

But what if I were guilty? I guess I’m jumping the gun again.

I can remember some time last year encouraging Amy to read more, or really at all. Recently that has paid off, for me, as much as for her. I purchase several books from Amazon every 3-4 months or so, and recently I purchased some books by Mark Driscoll. He’s the “cussing pastor” of Blue Like Jazz.

Anyhow, before I have even finished Ordering Your Private World (which she already started and finished before me while I was out of town on the mission trip), she has been digging into ‘my’ books before I even have a chance to tell her about them! And she’s reading it alongside an Edith Schaefer book as well.

Long story short, it took my wife to get me back into the discipline of reading again. And while I’m not moving along as quickly as I’d like, fortunately I can count on her example challenging me. It shows the blessing of having someone (not necessarily a spouse-though you do get double word score) in your life who can challenge you sometimes without saying a word, but rather reading one.

I mentioned in my sermon last week how much my wife and I love 48 Hours Mystery shows. The only problem with them is the fact that you really never know for sure (except one time when the dude admitted brutally killing his love rival for a slap-on-the-wrist-five-year-plea-deal) if the people are guilty.

Well, Amy and I DVR’d a Dateline special on Mary Winkler, the minister’s wife who somehow shot her husband in the back. But this time, there was no doubt of her guilt. The only question was what degree of murder or manslaughter was it.

She claimed that she didn’t remember doing it. Convenient memory. She didn’t know why she was aiming a loaded shotgun at her husband, even though she remembers getting literally kicked out of bed moments earlier.

I guess if you forget that you killed someone, even if you confess to the murder, and have the shotgun in your ‘get-away’ mini-van, you have the chance of serving just over a year in prison.
Not the finest performance by a jury. Fortunately we can actually trust our Judge.

Something strange happened in Washington DC. recently. Well something strange always happens in DC, but this time, it had nothing to do with politics. It had everything to do with hospitality.

A man walked into a house holding a 14 year old girl at gun point and shouting for money. Unfortunately for him, but fortunately for everyone else, the family was just finishing dinner. So the family did what any good hospitable family would do: they asked him to sit down and have a glass of wine.

Amazed by the taste of this wine, and perhaps even more by the grace of its offer, he calmly admitted he was at the wrong house. Afterwards, he asked for a group hug and then left.

I don’t suppose that we’ll be thrown into this situation, but it does show you how hospitality, even if its only having a glass of wine with neighbors (which my wife and I try to do on a monthly basis with our neighbors), really breaks down barriers. It either figuratively, or literally in this case, makes people put away their weapons and defenses. In time, you’ll listen to what they have to say, and they’ll be open to hear what you have to say. However it usually doesn’t work as quickly as this unusual case. Nevertheless, the long term impact may be much greater.

Click here for a link to the story, in case you want to read it, or if you don’t believe me.

Today I paid a decent bit of money, and the only thing that came out of it, was the assurance that I would have to pay a lot more money later. I waited at my house today from 1-4 pm (because the plumbing service always operates with exact science) so that a lad could come and fix my sink (I guess that’s a sexist assumption-but I’ve never seen a female plumber). He charged me $75 to fix something that really should have been under warranty.

But anyhow, I agreed to pay the 75 dollars to stop the leak under the bathroom sink. So he grabbed the 15 dollar part and proceeded to ‘plumb away’ with it. After two of those 15 dollar parts, the leak was still as active as the humidity these days. He deemed the sink useless. So I was stuck paying 75 dollars so that he could tell me my sink was useless, and not fix it. After he made a phone call on my behalf, he dropped the fee to 45 dollars. Still, I hate paying for someone to not fix something.

I think sin is much like paying for our product (our life) to be fixed, but finding out in the end that our payment only leaves us more frustrated. Because not only did nothing get fixed, we feel more in debt than before; the payment only leaves us more aware that the problem is not something we can fix, or can afford to fix. But this is where the gospel becomes sweet: we’re not more in debt tomorrow even though it feels like it. Our debt has been canceled and new sink purchased. The ‘glory’ in confessed sin and need is that the gospel tastes that much sweeter: like bottled water as opposed to tap water.

As some of our young folk were singing the offertory “I am not skilled understand” a few weeks ago, I was really pierced by the unique cost of Christianity. In no other religion does a deity sacrifice himself to save a people. I’m not sure any deity even does anything that makes him/her uncomfortable or inconveniences him/her a slight bit to save a people.

Every other religion requires sacrifice from the people, where as Christianity requires first a sacrifice from God: Himself. God the Son gives Himself up and God the Father turns His back on God the Son’s cries. Wow. The height of sacrifice, pain, and inconvenience.

I think it pays to marvel over the fact that God had to actually do something, something HUGE, to save us. Pretty cool, eh? That’s good news any day of the week, I think.

Last night my college bible study was not well attended like the week before. So the few of us decided on a movie that could at least generate some thought (and wouldn’t last too long). Some of us wanted to see The Fountain, but I didn’t push that since one dude had already seen it twice.

Instead we picked another existential movie called Garden State. The movie is rated R, and deservedly so with more than a few “f” words and one scene to skip, but it does give some helpful critique into the soul of much of our world.

On a positive note, the movie critiqued a quick to medicate, pain numbing, notion of keeping everything happy at the expense of ‘keeping it real.’ The relationship between father and son, was NEVER good, and the main character challenged his father on what it really meant when he said, “All I ever wanted was for us to be happy again.” Without confession on how each had sinned against the other, and how messed up life had become, they couldn’t move forward.

On a sadder note, though not necessarily negative, it gives me a greater picture into the mind of my neighbors (not literal because most of mine are older!). What I took from the movie was: be real and honest, embrace the uncertainty of not knowing God or the future, explore who you are because you are all that’s certain.

Last Tuesday, on the way home from eating with a friend, I purchased a kayak. I really wasn’t buying it on a whim. I had been wanting to do this for a while, investigated a few, and then decided to make the purchase.

I finally took it out for its maiden voyage on Monday. I’m glad I didn’t crack a bottle of champagne (as is customary on large vessels) or even the champagne of beers (Miller High life) on the hull because it would have made it harder to return. Yep return. The ride was awful, it hurt my back, and I almost tipped it over several times while re-positioning myself. But The Sports Authority came through in the clutch.

I learned a few things here.

1.) Always keep receipts (either by putting them in your wallet or leaving them in a bag in your car).
2.) Sometimes its better to be REALLY patient and read several reviews on expensive products before committing to purchase them
3.) If you neglect #2, then make sure you buy from The Sports Authority, which boasts (or perhaps its just me boasting about them) the world’s most liberal return policy.

“I am incapable of being an extraordinary service to God without God. That’s what He likes to do. He’ll take an ordinary person and allow the them to do the miraculous.”

It has been a rather encouraging ‘sports week’ for me. I don’t mean that any of the teams I pull for actually won a game or two (the D-Rays haven’t won 2 games in their last 14). What I’m referring to is that I’ve been encouraged or challenged in my faith recently through the sports media.

This morning on ESPN, they ran a special on Andrea Jaeger. She was a tennis phenom (at one point ranked #2 in the world) from age 13-19 before being injured and unable to play any longer on the circuit. She later started a ranch for terminally ill children, and has involved people like David Robinson, Andre Agassi, Kevin Costner, and yes, even personal friend Cindi Crawford.

In fact Cindi Crawford even commented on her faith, explaining that “…she didn’t choose to become a nun: she was called.” Fairly recently, Jaeger felt called to become an Anglican Dominican nun.

Jaeger’s quote that is posted above testifies to a sovereign God at work in her own life. When people make leaps of faith, it is out of a faith that is first given by God. Now saying that God hasn’t given you faith is not an excuse to not step out in faith; however, when you do, you can be assured that it is His work. And when you see a quote like this, you are observing God given faith and humility.

To read more about Andrea Jaeger, particularly from another secular perspective (PEOPLE, although ESPN’s segment on her life was very God honoring), click here.