what blogs are in your reader

photo © 2008 Daniel Henríquez | more info (via: Wylio)
I'm at a bit of a standstill right now with blogging.  I'm doing more reading and I've had less time to write and so I'm wondering:

What blog(s) do you follow religiously?  Who are your favorite bloggers?

In no particular order, I regularly check:
1. Rachel Held Evans
2. Jesus Creed
3. Justin Buzzard
4. Quadrilateral Thoughts
5. Jamie - The Very Worst Missionary
6. Our Beautiful Mission - It would be really awesome if all my friends and family would check this out.  It would be even cooler if someone would foot the bill and buy them a domain name and host and set them up with a rad website for 5 years!

Least favorite?


I'd say Mark Driscoll's blog and The Gospel Coalition.  There's some good stuff there...sometimes, but mostly I just stay away.


Which bloggers make you think the most?


Rachel Held Evans...hands down.  She's a deep thinker who can look at many different sides of an issue in the same way a jeweler looks at a diamond from different angles.


What blogs out there are beautifully done?  (Maybe the content stinks, but it is aesthetically eye appealing).


This one's a tough one, but I'm going with Carin Griffith's blog Learning As I Go.  Carin was someone I knew from college and she's a terrific mother and educator.  Her blog is really well done and she's a bit of a font freak (not my words...hers), so I know she spends a lot of time tweaking her blog in order to make it look just right. 


What bloggers did you used to follow but now no longer do?  What's changed between now and then?


I used to regularly check Jon Acuff's blog What Christians Like, but that was before his book and before he became famous.

father's day lament

So Father's Day is just two days away and while I don't have time at the moment to tell all of you what my father means to me (but I will...I promise), I thought I'd pull this out of the archives to share.  Enjoy!

Lamentations of the Father

For the fathers out there - can you relate?

forgiveness :: part three

Picking up from where I left off...

I've been writing - as of late - about what forgiveness is and what it is not.  It has been my experience that for many people (including many Christians) are unable to experience the power of true forgiveness in their lives because they misunderstand what forgiveness is, what forgiveness does and does not imply, and who forgiveness is for.  My previous posts address the second and third points listed.  Today, I'd like to spend a little time talking about a workable definition of forgiveness.

I've been asked on different occasions: "How do I know when I have forgiven someone for what they did to me?"

The late Christian ethicist, Lewis Smedes, wrote in his book The Art of Forgiveness that forgiveness happens when you truly wish someone well.  I believe this is a place to start for a definition.  For someone who is looking for a more "Christian-ese" definition, I say that forgiveness happens when you can say to the other person: "Peace be with you" or "The peace of Christ be with you."

I believe when we can say to the person who has wronged us: "Peace be with you" (even if we mean it just a little bit), we are on the path of forgiveness.

Where does this idea come from?

This thought came to me last year as I was preparing a sermon for the first Sunday following Easter.  I had spent a lot of time in the Gospel of John that year and I remembered the story of Jesus' first resurrection appearance following the tomb in John 20.

Beginning at verse 19 we find the disciples were  fearing the Jews and had locked themselves inside of a house.  Jesus appears to them and says: "Peace be with you."  I should know the Greek, but I can't recall it off the top of my head.  But as a budding Hebrew instructor I can say that the Hebrew equivalent is "Shalom aleikhem."

Shalom (peace)

aleikhem (with / upon y'all)

And so it is here in this one text where we find the One who was abandoned on the cross by His disciples, appears to them in the midst of their fear and says to them: "Peace be with you!"  I'd like to think this is the equivalent of saying "I forgive you" in our terms today.  Jesus says it not once, but twice in just a couple of verses.  "Peace be with you!"

So, Smedes says when you wish someone well you can know that you have forgiven.  For those who like more of a Christian slant, we may say when we bless someone with the peace of Christ, we can know we have forgiven.

Some Final Thoughts on Steps

1. We need to recognize our flawed humanity.  Each of us is flawed.  We have this stuff called "sin" in our lives and so we're all on equal ground.  We say and do things that hurt others.  We've all been there, done that, and gotten the bumper sticker.

2. We need to remember what Christ has already done on our behalf.  What Scripture tells us is that we are already forgiven for all the crap and sin and junk because of what Jesus has done.  What we need to do is grab hold of the radical forgiveness which is only through Jesus Christ, the Messiah, by saying Yes to Christ.

3. We need to relinquish control.  We need to let go of the desire to get even with those who hurt or wrong us no matter how badly we want to hurt them back.  "Vengeance is mine" says the LORD.  When we relinquish control, we are imitating Christ, who had the authority and power to get even, but He didn't.  He surrendered himself to the "one who judges justly" - that is, His heavenly Father.

So...what steps have you taken lately to forgive?  To what lengths will you go?  
Other ideas on forgiveness?  Anyone?

caution :: do not to go to seminary

Just a few months ago, I officially graduated from seminary which means that I've in a reflective mood.  It must be that I'm missing writing papers or something.  But, as an "older" and supposedly more "mature" student among many recent college graduates, I realized that I might actually have some wisdom to share with a younger generation.

So, as I began to reflect on my 4.5 year journey through seminary - yes, I said 4.5 years - have concluded that while many become seminary students because they are called to serve as pastors or missionaries or chaplains, there are some really good reasons not to go to seminary.  Oh, and by the way, I am attempting some mild humor here.

My first piece of wisdom is: do not go to seminary...

1. ...because you want to be debt-free.

2. ...because your favorite popular pod-casted preacher is adjunct faculty there.

3. ...because you love to write theological treatises.

4. ...because you love to sleep in a library cubicle.

5. ...because your parents named you John or Calvin or Wesley (after John Calvin or John Wesley).

6. ...because you want to get an educational tax credit.

7. ...if you think the world needs more unemployed Ph.D. candidates.

8. ...because you look forward to Spring Break.

9. ...because you once thought to yourself: "Wouldn't it be really cool to read the Bible in it's original language?"!

10. ...if you are really good at making a living doing something else.  This last one isn't all that funny, but it is some of the best advice I was given.

So, what are some more reasons for not going to seminary?

forgiveness :: part two

This post has been long overdue...

A few weeks ago I posted some thoughts on the topic of forgiveness.  You can read that post by clicking here.  And in that post I talk about a number of things that forgiveness is not.  For example:

Forgiving is not excusing.


Forgiving is not a reunion or a reset to "the way things were."


Forgiving is not instantaneous.


Forgiving is not the wrong thing to do.


Forgiving is not forgetting.


It's here I should add another thing forgiving is not...forgiving is not the same as judging. 

Forgiveness implies that a judgment has already been rendered.  Think of it this way...in a United States courtroom, the offender / defendant goes through a trial process for a crime.  Both the prosecution and the defense teams present their best cases and cross-examine witnesses.  When both sides have "rested" their cases, a jury (or in some cases a judge) will deliberate and render a verdict.  The verdict of the case is stated and if the defendant is found guilty, then punishment is rendered.  At what point in the process is judgment given?  When the verdict is given, right?  Many people have fallen into the trap by believing that when we forgive someone for something they did to us that we render a verdict of "forgiven" or "not-forgiven."  But what we need to realize is that to forgive (or not to forgive) is not when the judgment (or verdict) is given, but when the punishment is carried out.

Forgiveness implies a guilty verdict, if you will.  "You did this to me and it hurt me...what you did was wrong."  That is a judgment statement.  "Right" and "wrong" statements are judgment values.  What forgiveness does is suspend punishment.

Forgiveness is surrendering your legitimate right to get even with the other person.  We can affirm that what they did to us was in fact "wrong," but in response to their wrongful action, we give up our right to get even.

As Holy Week, Good Friday, and Easter have come and gone, I've been reflecting on the implications of forgiveness as I understand it in context of Jesus' mediating role between God and us.

In the court of God, we are all found "guilty" and deserving of death.  But because of...

Christ's work...
Christ's healing...
Christ's teaching...
Christ's faithfulness...
Christ's preaching...
Christ's obedience...
Christ's ultimate once and for all sacrifice on the cross...
Christ's shed blood...
Christ's three day descent...
Christ's RESURRECTION...
Christ's victory over death and violence and sin and Satan...

Because of all of these and more, even though God says "guilty" to all of humanity, for those who are in Christ, God surrendered his legitimate right to get even and says to us: "forgiven."

Guilty yet forgiven.

In the third and final installment on forgiveness, I'll share more about what forgiveness is and how next steps can be taken to forgive.