“When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.”

C. S. Lewis, Letters (8 November 1952)

Happy six months, I love you Candie!!!

“Art mimics chance.” I thought this was a very interesting idea as I read it in a translated poem by Ovid found in the book, Paul Among the People by Sarah Ruden. Recognizing that one man’s understanding of chance is another man’s understanding of God’s creative sovereignty, I think there is truth in this statement. Art is man’s attempt to imitate or mimic the Creator God at work. Luann Purcell Jennings captures this in her article, “An Art-Full Church” where she writes that,

“God is an artist. When He created the world, He could have made it purely functional, but He never missed an opportunity to make it beautiful and surprising. Much of His revelation of Himself in Scripture is provided in narrative, song, poetry, parable, performance, and visual imagery. God is a creator, and we are created in His image (Gen. 1-2); we are his poiema or creative workmanship (Eph. 2:10). Therefore it is against our very nature to live unimaginative lives or to ignore creation’s beauty. The Scriptures instruct us to build, decorate, sing, play instruments and dance, and to do these things with excellence (see Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). Being an artist is a high calling and a privilege.”

I doubt many of us view art or artistry as highly as we ought to in light of the God we seek to emulate. In fact, this is most likely due to an underestimation of the significance of image bearing.  If taken to heart, the application of our status as image bearers ought to influence everything we do. By nature of being human, whether through work or play, poetry or scholarship, we are called to reflect the creativity and excellence of God.

For the first time in world history, more people live in cities than anywhere else.[1] Within a span of two hundred years, the world’s urban population has grown from 3 percent to more than 50 percent of the total population.[2] What has taken thousands of years to develop has exploded within the span of only a few centuries. At the current rate of growth, the world’s urban population should grow to 60 percent as early as 2025 and to more than 66 percent by the year 2050.[3] The number of cities with a population of 10 million or more has grown from 2 in 1950 to a projected 22 cities in 2015.[4] This means that the world is becoming increasingly urban and there are few signs of this trend reversing in the near future.

With the increase of global urban dwellers, there is potential for some significant shifts of power in the world. As larger cities become mega-cities, the current economic, cultural, and political centers of the world will begin to fade as new centers emerge. For example, the West has been thoroughly urbanized for quite some time, but only recently has the rest of the world begun to catch up with more developed nations of Europe and North America. According to Philip Jenkins, “80 percent of the world’s largest urban conglomerations are located in either Asia or Latin America”, he adds, “but African cities will become much more significant by mid-century.”[5] What this all means for the church planter is that the booming urbanization of the world will undoubtedly shape the future landscape of missions.

[2] Hiebert, Anthropological Insights for Missionaries (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1985), 289.

[3] Jenkins, The Next Christendom, 107.

[4] Payne, Discovering Church Planting: An Introduction to the What’s, Why’s, and How’s of Global Church Planting (Colorado Springs: Paternoster, 2009), 345.

[5] Jenkins, The Next Christendom, 108.

In case you are unaware, last week was the third Lausanne Conference on World Evangelization. There were some pretty important topics discussed such as globalization, poverty, urbanization, etc. and their relationship to global evangelization. I highly recommend you check out the videos from the conference discussing these topics and more  found here.

I had a conversation with a guy tonight that was sparked by Ephesians 1:5, which says, “…he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ…”. This non-reformed gentleman initiated the conversation by asking me where I stood on Calvinism. Thankfully, this person was in every sense a gentleman and the conversation didn’t turn into an ugly debate (which I cannot say about every exchange I’ve had on the subject).

Having refined my reformed views over the past few years, I told him that while I once took pride in being reformed and holding to however many points a good Calvinist makes, I no longer consider myself a Calvinist nor desire to be called one. If you were to survey my views on theology, you could certainly peg some of my beliefs into such a classification system. However, I refuse to be identified or to find my identity by being a “Calvinist”. I find my identity in Jesus, through the gospel. And not just through certain systematized and debatable idiosyncrasies of the gospel, however true they may be, but through the full revealed message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I don’t feel as if any of my doctrinal views have fundamentally changed. In reality, I’ve probably only grown deeper in those “particular” views. I just happen to think that my doctrinal views have matured beyond questions like “does God choose who will go to Hell” to questions, I hope, the Bible itself more clearly seeks to answer. If we simply searched the Scriptures and spent a reasonably proportionate amount of time on the issues that the Holy Spirit chose to major on, we wouldn’t get so hung up on the minors that we as believers disagree and spend so much time fighting and dividing over.

Ultimately, my desire or lack thereof, to be designated a Calvinist comes down to a discomfort with oversimplification and a desire to be known only by Christ’s fiercely territorial ownership of my life. It is His doctrine that I want to be known by and in the end it is His doctrine that should unite or divide.

(With that said, I have no quarrels with the many exceptional friends of mine who by conviction proudly bear the designation “Calvinist”.)

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Life Together”, p. 58

If you’ve been following the story of Armando Galarraga and umpire Jim Joyce over the past week than you will know how remarkable this photograph is. Having just the day before blown a call robbing Galarraga of a perfect game and baseball immortality, Joyce is seen here tearfully receiving more than a handshake and a lineup card. He’s receiving forgiveness.

That’s exactly what people will look back on this story and say: “What a picture of forgiveness.” Galarraga is nothing more than an average pitcher and Joyce is just an umpire. Neither man would have been remembered by the general populace within a few years, but the display of character by both these gentlemen, especially Galarraga, will endure far beyond either man’s career. This is the kind of inspirational story which Disney movie producers long for.

While this is a wonderful picture of forgiveness, there is an even greater picture to which this one can only point to. It is the picture of the cross. That is where the greatest act of forgiveness was demonstrated for all the world to see. When Jesus gave His life for us, He was laying down everything that was rightfully His so that we could experience a forgiveness that we should never have received.

In the world’s eyes Galarraga had every right to be angry, he had every right to hate Joyce for what he took away from him. How much more did it cost Jesus to forgive us? How much more did we wrong Him? But while we were still sinning against Him, He died for us. What a picture of forgiveness!

I know, it’s been a while, but with getting married, school, and everything else, life’s been a little busy for me and blogging isn’t high enough on my priorities list. So here it is! my first post in while and it’s about footba… I mean soccer.

Boy am I pumped about this world cup. To think back at where I was during the last World Cup is just crazy. I was still struggling to get through undergrad, working part time for Liberty during the summer. Now look where I am! I’m struggling to get through seminary, working part time for Southeastern. Hmmm, not exactly the great reversal of fortune I would have expected, but a lot has change in four years:

-I’m married to an awesome woman (a shocker if you knew me back in the day)

-I live in NC (pretty cool state, they don’t seem to mind too much about my expired VA tags…which reminds me…)

-I have a car now (didn’t really need a license til’ I was 22)

-I kinda know what I’m doing with my life (I think)

I’m sure there are other things, but I just can’t think of them. So, yeah, things are pretty different this time around and, seeing that this post about the World Cup actually has very little to do with soccer, might I add that I’m feeling pretty good about team USA’s chances. No, they won’t win it all, but I think they might could take England on a good day. We shall see. But here’s to blogging again! Maybe there will be more in the coming summer months. Only time will tell. but now the time is ripe to shower up and get ready for my date tonight with Candie. Should be fun.