I was planning the Easter Sunrise Service yesterday and ran into the same problem I have every year at this time: there really isn’t a plethora of resurrection focused hymns or praise songs. At least one’s that I’m familiar with.

I found Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ to be very devotional, convicting, challenging, Christ-centered. But it was exactly as advertised: the passion. There were about 15 seconds of resurrection. In comparison to songs focused on the cross, there are about 15 seconds of resurrection based songs in our hymnbook.

Contemporary praise songs might boast a few more (of the one’s I’m familiar with), but not that many. It really reveals something about our “western” Christianity. We focus far more on the cross than the resurrection even though-if you want to play that game-Jesus was raised from the dead for our justification (Romans 4:25).

But the resurrection of Christ really destroys our typically Platonic (heaven or the spiritual realm is our ultimate reality/goal/destination). It reminds us that Jesus is the first fruits (the first of the harvest), then us, then all of creation. We get a whole new world. Heaven one day comes down, and is really in the process of coming down even now-just as He came down.
Remember Jesus’ prayer-Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.

We need some new hymn/praise song writers which focus on the resurrection of Christ and its significance to the Christian life and advancement of God’s Kingdom. Hopefully they come soon and remind us to be active in bringing God’s Kingdom (bringing His perfect will in heaven down to Earth).

This Saturday from 4-5 pm we are having an Easter Outreach Party at our house for Amy’s school kids, neighborhood kids, church kids, and whoever else will come. If you remember, go ahead and send a quick prayer that God provides everything and everyone. Thanks.

Anyhow, due to bad scheduling on my part, and some other factors, I will be missing the last kayak fishing tournament of the year. Last tourney I participated in, I missed a 25 dollar gift certificate by 1/2 an inch-so there is big money at stake I’m potentially forfeiting! Sure.

Regardless, yesterday someone sent me a link of a fishing tournament in Nigeria. You really ought to check it out by clicking here, and then go to the “Fishing Mayhem” caption for the slides. They really are interesting. If for some reason the link has changed, please post a response and I’ll find it for you. It’s that cool.

I’ve found a few similarities between the two fishing tournaments. Money is involved as well as fish and fisherman. Other than that, they look totally different because they are in different cultures-not to mention targeting different kinds of fish.

Their tournament weigh-in involves actual fish. Our kayak tournament ‘weigh-in’ involves digital images when we submit our camera’s memory cards (its an all-release tournament). They use nets while we can only use lures (no bait or even scented artificial lures), and usually specified lures at that. They can get knocked out while wrestling giant catfish. To my knowledge no one has ever been injured while battling a large fish in our tourneys.

If I were a missionary in Africa, and wanted to do a fishing tournament/outreach, I would never try to do a kayak/rod-n-reel/artificial lures only tournament there. That would be ridiculous.
Though I don’t have any desire to wrestle catfish (I would probably go for a different species because catfish have barbs that stab), I would have to fish like they do-even as detestable as that is to my ‘sporting’ convictions.

If I were a missionary in Africa, I would have to cater my ministry to the people would hope to reach. And so must we do that even in our culture today. We do that by finding places and activities which are culturally-or even sub-culturally relevant (but not sinful of course)-and participating in them: kids activities, coffee shops, school functions/responsibilities, homeowners associations, gyms, community concerns, etc…

If we can affirm what is culturally good with them, we are one step closer to redeeming what is culturally sinful.

Randy Pope, senior pastor of Perimeter Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, claims there are 3 major places where we have opportunities to make new relationships or build existing relationships with hopes of someday pointing them to Christ and/or His Church (what I mean by the and/or bit is that they may know Jesus but need a church home):

1. Where you work
2. Where you live
3. Where you play

For me, where I play (for the time being-my time on the water will obviously be cut short a bit when the baby comes) is the weightroom and water. I actually got several invitations to fish in a span of 5 minutes yesterday.

For Randy Greenwald, senior pastor of Hope Presbyterian Church, the lines become a little blurry. His new office (or study) is a downtown coffee shop. And from this place he has developed various relationships with all kinds of interesting people.

Today I was with him and met a former Defensive End for the Baltimore Colts. I’ve met two former Colts’ defensive ends in one week! One was where I “play” (gym), one was where Randy “works.”

But there is a reason why I say the lines for Randy are somewhat blurred. Talking to these folks at his study, as well as hearing their stories, was and is really quite fun-especially when they have a really cool dog like a lab.

Anyhow, just be aware that many of us fall into all three categories and have places where we work (workplace), live (neighborhoods) and play (hobbies/activities). And so these become places for relationships. But even for those who don’t go to work or play (don’t have time for hobbies), they still live somewhere. And as long as you live, there are people out there whom God calls you and I to love.

I finally finished putting together our crib today. Its a nice looking crib, probably even close to worth the money we paid for it. But it wasn’t an easy task, for me at least.

The mattress support bars didn’t fit. They weren’t quite long enough to attach to the wooden frame. So I called customer service, aka the “Crib Keeper,” and I talked to a woman. Kind of humbling I must admit. I was feeling so masculine putting the darn thing together.

Anyhow, I told them that my mattress support was too short. I figured it was “their” problem. But she gently explained that people call in all of the time with the same complaint. It was probably “my” problem. A pictorial email shortly arrived to my inbox that explained everything.

I guess I hadn’t followed the directions as carefully as I had thought. There were 4 attachments which I assumed were interchangeable. They weren’t, and when I put the right ones in the right place, I had new life. I had a fully functioning crib.

Basically she explained to me that I was wrong; it was my fault, not their fault. But she did it with gentleness and respect. She even told me if that didn’t fix the problem to call them back (but she was pretty sure the email would expose my error). I’m reminded of Peter’s challenge in his first epistle to “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…(I Peter 3:15)”

Respect goes a long way in pointing people to the truth. Folks listen better when they are shown respect and gentleness. I know I do. So the “Crib Keeper’s” demeanor was both refreshing and convicting.

Amy doesn’t want to know what kind of baby we’re having. By kind, I mean sex. I do. But since she’s the one carrying the child, I really don’t get a vote. Kind of like Florida democrats, I guess-although I’m not really up to date, so feel free to let me know. Someone did buy her an “It’s A Girl” picture frame at her shower yesterday. Perhaps that will be prophetic. If not, a good friend reminded her she could just use a Sharpie to write in “It’s NOT a girl.” Not a bad idea. Hopefully Little T will have a sense of humor if Little T is a dude.

But as I was driving home from church, I pondered not the sex of the child, but how our life would change based upon the presence or lack of that ever popular external organ. Seriously.

Our life will move in different directions based upon its presence. Who we develop friendships with outside the church will often be connected with where our child’s interests land. Baseball or softball? Even if it is basketball (our kid is probably going to be tall-Little T already has long legs), is it boy’s or girl’s basketball? We’ll probably be most connected to other parents with kids of the same sex.

Now of course there is one non-negotiable constant: fishing. Boy or girl, when that kid can walk, I’m going to do all that is within my power give him/her “sea legs.”

But regardless, I just think its interesting that who we meet and hang out with will probably be determined by the sex of the child. Fortunately the sex of the child has already been determined by the great baby knitter (Psalm 139). So I needn’t worry myself with all of the relational and ministerial ramifications springing from its sex.

I used to listen to a band called Vertical Horizon. They were an acoustic guitar duo before they turned to the dark side of trendiness, leather pants, and pop music. Now they’re famous, popular, but not really as good (or course in my opinion). Ironically they sang a song called “Famous” with these lyrics (I wish they would have taken their own advice):

Oh I know
The wind is gonna blow
And in the winter
There’s sure to be snow
But with the warmth of your smile
And the sun of your face
Shine on me in the darkness
With your love and grace
And if time hides my eyes
Listen to my music and recognize

Chorus:
I don’t want to be famous in life
I don’t want to be famous in the world
I just wanna be famous
Famous
I want to be famous in your heart

I thought of this song the other day, because I have to admit I want to be famous. Steve Brown once told me that my writing is good, but “no publisher will take it because I’m not already famous.” He was just being honest, which is one thing I love about him.

Anyhow, I met a man in the gym-this all connects if you can stay with me-whose name I recognized. Someone told me that he played football and I immediately recognized he played defensive end for the Indianapolis Colts. Wow. But they told me I couldn’t say anything because he doesn’t want anyone to know. He doesn’t want anyone to know that he’s famous! So I can’t mention his name here.

That’s honestly something I struggle with. I would love to be famous. I really would. Not just so I could be published, but simply famous. I have to confess it a lot. But the reason I struggle with it so much is because I don’t believe the lyrics of this Vertical Horizon song: “I just want to be famous in your heart.” But if Jesus did come and die for me, has seated me in the heavenly realms (Eph 2:6), and knows the hairs on my head (Matt 10:30), then that’s pretty famous.
Famous in His heart. That ought to be good enough. Things I learned from pop stars and an NFL player.

During our session meetings, we usually bring up some sort of budget stuff: to see how things are going financially. Looking at all the numbers, I’m usually fairly overwhelmed-not because numbers were too small-because I didn’t really know what they meant.

Well, last night, I started to understand some of them. Then I realized how thankful I am that I don’t have to understand them perfectly. People in the church have different gifts. While preaching and teaching are very ‘up front’ public gifts, every gift is just as important as the next. And when you don’t have administrative gifts or abilities to run budgetary stuff, you become incredibly thankful for those who do. Churches don’t work without such people.

I hate radio commercials. They are like 10 times worse than TV commercials in my opinion. But there is always an exception that proves the rule: the “Real Men of Genius” commercials. They say, “We salute you Mr. really really short basketball shorts wearer” or things like that.

They’re sarcastic of course. But seriously, I do salute you Mr. organized budget number crucher explainer guy. But even more so, I salute the one who gives various gifts to His church (Eph 4). No church would survive on my gifts alone, nor yours either (though you may have more than I), nor the gifts of a few. We need them all. Yet another reason to become a regular part of a local church-though I didn’t plan on making that point. Last night, I was just especially thankful for the gifts that God gives His church.

On this Sunday afternoon around 3 pm, a few visitors stopped by our church. Actually, they were here to paint. Now normally that is good news, because our church is being painted now, but these were really not the painters/visitors we’d been praying for. They carried cans of lovely blue spray paint.

Something that Al Queda and gangs have in common is that they always take ‘credit’ for the bad things they do. Such was the case this time at it was spray-painted on the wall. Fortunately for us, we are in the process of painting, so it really wasn’t that big of a deal: someone just painted over it with the off-tope color of the newly painted other buildings.

Anyhow, these same hoodlums (he could hear their conversations) had been here before and painted “No Surremacy” on the walls.

I have several thoughts on the matter.

1.) Is there a special place in Hell for folks who steal from and vandalize churches? I think there easily could be but I shan’t take the time to explain. But do I deserve to be there for my sins, seeing as my heart has been made alive and I still continue to sin? Of course.

2.) How should I think of folks who do such things? The apostle Paul did much worse than vandalize the church; he arrested early Christians and approved their executions (Acts 8:1). And Jesus looked with compassion upon those crucified him. While I will not overlook justice for these spray-painting Latino gang members (I hope they get locked up), I think I should feel more compassion for these lost folks then dreaming of catching them in the act and beating them up (my first reaction/dream). They are young and desperately want to fit in this gang, this surrogate family. And that ought to make us sad. They really have more in common with us all than we would normally think. People wanting to fit in with other people who really don’t care about them. How common is that? About as common as air.

I hate it when people steal. Stealing of materials (like lawn mowers, cars, or illegal downloads) or material (ideas from people like jokes or even biblical insight-WHEN they have PROPER time/need to give reference; just my personal opinion). So I’ll tell you this up front: someone pointed out something really cool to me the other day during my discussion leading “Training Day.”

Now that I got that off my chest, and can limit my hypocrisy (all people are hypocrites I think-just to what degree), I want to share with you something I think is pretty cool. It concerns personal evangelism strategy.

Some people think they they can live godly, near perfect lives, in front of others in hopes that this near perfect life would make those around them say-in a nutshell-“Tell me about Jesus because I want this life that you’re living.” But if you study the gospels carefully, you’ll see that this strategy didn’t work for Jesus. His brothers and even his mother (yes even mother Mary) were concerned about his sanity (Mark 3:20-ff). It wasn’t until after Jesus’ resurrection that we see his brother James really come on to the scene.

Since the perfect life strategy didn’t work for Jesus, it shouldn’t be our M.O. The Jesus-centered life of faith and repentance is something people don’t see very often. And they want to. So relax if you ‘mess up’ and repent. Repenting is more likely to get others thinking than this attempt at near-perfection. Going and repenting is more Jesus-centered than staying and trying to be good. Who knows, you may one day point them to Jesus, and not yourself….?

We had another neighborhood cookout, or rather “smoke-out,” this Saturday. The last smoke-out involved someone’s car. This time we switched to beef.

And some folks came. And some folks stayed inside their houses. Trying to get people to get to know each other is like trying to get kids to eat vegetables. The only difference is that you can’t load neighbors up with ranch dressing or a pound of butter to make them ‘taste’ better.

However there really are those who want to live in community. And the number is growing: we had two first time households. One of those folks actually has a passion for smoking meat. Just a few days ago he was wondering if our neighborhood ever had a block party so he could smoke out. And then came a flyer to his mailbox. He will be replacing my burgers from now on. Even though the beef arrived an hour late, it was well worth the wait.

He not only brought the meat, but several members of his family. And his arrival reminded me that people really do appreciate these cookouts. He actually wanted to get to know his neighbors. And I have to believe there are more out there just like him. While we lacked the quantity of our previous cookouts, I was reminded that the friendships we’re building through these opportunities far surpasses my anxieties regarding them. Everyone who God planned to show up, did just that. And we all enjoyed our time together. Well worth it.