The Obligatory New Year Blog Post

In truth, I should have posted this a few weeks back. That's because, according to the Christian calendar, the new year begins with the season of Advent and the coming of Christmas. Celebrating with the Christian calendar for the past 3 years has been a powerful reminder about where I come from and where I'm going, about the years past and the the years ahead and the year just ended and the year to come. 

It's a reminder that the way to gauge a successful year is by asking the question; Am I more like Christ than I was last year? Am I headed in His direction? Am I following His lead?

When I do that, I'm reminded that while job loss or job gain or a new house or a house foreclosed upon or a President I'm excited by or one I'm concerned about may be important, they are not what is most important. They are not what I am called to fret over or give my life over to. They are not what I am called to avoid or pursue. I am called to avoid those things that are not of Christ -lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. I am called to produce the fruit of His Spirit -love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

It's significant that the season of Advent and Christmas is followed up with the celebration of Epiphany. As we remember that our lives are about preparing space for Christ to reign, we are also to open ourselves to what Christ has to teach us and what God has yet to reveal. We enter a new year open to new possibilities, new challenges, new risks, and new opportunities. We ask the question; What does God want to show me about Himself and myself, about His plan and my place in it?

I hope to do just that and I hope that you will too. I hope that we will begin this year asking the right questions and passionate about the right things. I hope that we will continue to ask, and seek, and knock. I hope that will strive to know Christ, to be formed in His image, and to walk in His Way. I pray that we will trust and obey. I pray that we will follow His lead, wherever He leads, whatever the consequences, whenever He calls.

May God bless you in this coming year and may you be reminded that God never blesses simply for the sake of those that are blessed, but also for the sake of those they might bless.

The Sacking of the Shack

Let me begin by saying that I haven't read The Shack. My feelings on it are fairly neutral in that I'm not at all upset about it nor particularly excited about it. It doesn't really seem like my kind of book, but I wouldn't be opposed to reading it. But watch this clip by Mark Driscoll:

A few things that bother me about this, but let's just go with #2 and #1.

What bothers me almost the most is that Driscoll is questioning the doctrine of allegory, which is silly. Allegory exists to help people grasp ideas that are difficult to grasp, not to present the pictures as established facts. What I mean is that the ideas presented about God in an allegory can be heretical, but the portrayal itself cannot. If this book were shelved in Christian Doctrine, I might agree with Driscoll (sort of). But it's shelved in fiction. That means that the Holy Spirit isn't an Asian woman anymore than God is a lion named Aslan, but portraying them as such in an allegory isn't heresy. If the Asian woman's sole purpose as a representative of the Holy Spirit is to make the people she encounters rich and powerful, THAT's heretical. About 6 minutes in Driscoll addresses a few ideas about the Trinity that the Shack's author may (again I haven't read it) need to have been more thoughtful about, but attacking The Shack as if it's the Nicene Creed is absurd.

But here's what bugs me most. Catch what Driscoll says at the beginning: "How many of you have read the book the Shack? If you haven't, don't."

Here's my question; when did critical thinking become something Christians discouraged? Driscoll's suggestion (and I'm basing this on other instances as well) seems to be that we should just let him tell us what's wrong instead of doing some discerning for ourselves. 

Look, I thought The God Delusion was wrong, but I'm still glad I read it. I thought The Da Vinci Code was garbage (for its poor writing and preachy story as much as its flimsy ideas), but I'm still glad I found out for myself what all the uproar was about.

I'm not saying we should put The Satanic Bible in the hands of impressionable youth, but I will say that I've read through it and my faith remained intact. Driscoll attacks a lack of discernment at the end of his talk and yet seems to say that what you do with the masses who lack discernment is to tell them what to think and not to teach them to discern. The Bible teaches us to seek and test in order to discern what is and isn't true. Those that would lead, should do so by teaching us how to think and not by doing all our thinking for us.

That said, Driscoll's more right about Joel Osteen. He even encourages his congregants to discern.

We'll Provide The Cheerleaders

This is what Christian love looks like.

Year's End Lists

Books

Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen

The Hakawati by Rabih Alameddine

A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

Surprised By Hope by N.T. Wright

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

Home by Marilynne Robinson

The Little Book by Selden Edwards

America America by Ethan Canin

The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher

Indignation by Philip Roth

Music

Deerhunter -Microcastle
The Dodos -Visiter
The Welcome Wagon -Welcome To The Welcome Wagon

Bon Iver -For Emma, Forever Ago
Nimrod Workman -I Want To Go Where Things Are Beautiful
Micah P. Hinson -Micah P. Hinson & The Red Empire Orchestra

TV On The Radio -Dear Science

Fleet Foxes -Fleet Foxes

The Notwist -The Devil, You + Me

Shearwater -Rook

(click here for full year end mix)

Should also mention the Arthur Russell compilation Love Is Overtaking Me. While I don't count it as a 2008 release because all the songs are previously released, it is a great collection for anyone who has yet to discover this amazing singer/songwriter.

Click here for Best of lists from years past:

2007 Books, 2007 Music

2006 Music

A Christmas Moment

A Christmas moment from my buddy, Blair.

Why I Love The Movies

40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes @ Yahoo! Video

A Third Way

Check out this post from fellow Inkling, Shelton Green. Excellent stuff!

A Third Way

Check out this post from my friend, Shelton Green. Excellent stuff.

The Light of Advent

Only with a vast amount of light can we combat such brutal darkness.

-Rabbi Yosef

...if the Church which preaches [the gospel] is not living corporately a life which corresponds with it, is living in comfortable cohabitation with the powers of this age, is failing to challenge the powers of darkness and to manifest in its life the power of the living Lord to help and to heal, then by its life it closes the doors which its preaching would open.

-Lesslie Newbigin

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

-Romans 5:8-11

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world...

-Ephesians 6:12

Advent Conspiracy

Advent Conspiracy

Advent Conspiracy

Advent Conspiracy

Advent Conspiracy

Advent Conspiracy