No More Six Year-Old Son

I just tucked in Karsten and prayed with him. I told him this would be the last time I ever tucked a six year-old boy in bed, because tomorrow night he would be seven. He seemed kind of sad about that. He prayed, thanking God for his mom & dad, for Karis & Darby, for Tybee & Melas. He asked God to send missionaries to people who don't know Jesus so they could know Him. I prayed and thanked God for how great it had been to have a six year-old son and prayed for Karsten to love God even more when he is seven and to be wise and courageous. I hugged and kissed him goodnight and I went downstairs in tears. I'm going to miss my son of six and I really don't want to waste a single day of seven.

The Five Stages of Workplace Tribes

This is a fascinating article from the Gallup Management Journal. The Five Stages of Workplace Tribes Anybody with experience in a medium to large company knows exactly what these researcers are talking about. I have a little more than an inkling as to how it looks in the church.

Satan's Double Lie

Here is what he, coming as an angel of light, may say to the church:
"The average human being is fairly slow, culturally encrusted. People like things that are palatable and light. So be palatable and light. And for goodness' sake, don't go into the primitive stuff - the blood of Christ or the realities of lostness throughout eternity."

Here's what he says to the uncoverted:
"You're too smart for the gospel. Look at how so many of its trappings are second-rate knockoffs of the real stuff you can find around you in theater, in deeply thought-through books, in higher education. Notice how much more of your mind is demanded even in your daily work than at church. You're ahead the way you are."

So between these two lies he goes about his business. The church buys into the simple-minded smoothed over approach; the world continues its assumption that there is, after all, a certain thinness to Christianity. In the middle of this gulf there stands the Savior, asking both the church and the world for entrance and holding out only one truth to each.

From Best, Unceasing Worship

Defining Worship

Here's how Harold Best defines worship, and why.

Worship is the continuous outpouring of all that I am, all that I do, and all that I can ever become in light of a chosen or choosing God.
Four observations:1. It involves the entire human race.
2. The words about a chosen or choosing god are meant not only to articulate two fundamentally contrasting theological positions taken within the body of Christ, but also to depict the confused condition of lostness itself.
3. The definition stresses the reality and foundational importance of continuousness. That is, worship does not stop and start, despite our notions to the contrary.
4. The term 'coninuous outpouring' particularly stands out. 'Continuous' implies relentlessness. It is the opposite of periodic or sporadic. 'Outpouring' is used to describe how one person relates to another. Many other words like serving, giving, befriending, revealing, sacrificing might have been used. Best chose 'outpouring' because it implies lavishness and generosity: when I pour something out I give it up; I let it go. God continually outpours within Himself and toward man made in His image. Man made in God's image is continually outpouring as well. Mankind was not just made 'to' worship or 'for' worship, but was made worshipping.

Nasty Evangelical Hijackers!

So who exactly was flying this particular plane when the evangelicals "hijacked" it? And who else actually has someone listening to them?
Prayer Day 'Hijacked' by Evangelicals, Critics Say - washingtonpost.com