Rick Nier...Woo!

I shared this following story with my youth group on Sunday to demonstrate the idea that fair is not an issue in the Gospel story. Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned— We can read verses like Romans 5:12 and be pretty bummed. We didn't choose Adam to represent all of us. What's Adam's deal, anyway? Isn't he kind of stupid for screwing it up for all of us? But then we scroll down to Romans 5:18-19 and we read about Jesus taking all the bad stuff away. Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. That happened a long time before we were born as well. We also didn't choose Jesus or know what

I know I haven't been alone in my thinking when some whack job does something wacky. There's plenty of these people out there. But then it's made so much more enjoyable when said whack job gets a microphone shoved in front of himself and they claim the reason for their wackiness is they are a Christian. Awesome! Well, Dave Burchett was thinking the same thing when he wrote When Bad Christians Happen to Good People . As he said early on, 'this book is for everyone who has been disgusted by the hypocritical arrogance of a church congregation or its leadership. It is also for Christians who inflict the wounds.' I thoroughly enjoyed Dave's style, as he didn't mince words, but readily acknowledged that all Christ followers can be both the offended and those who offend. He spoke openly with Christians about our style and approach to all sorts of topics. But he also spoke about the expectations of non-Christians. Some of these arguments have indeed been

Yeah, how annoying was this commercial after the first time you saw it? I have had too many conversations. Period. Seriously, people can be so annoying. Alright, I don't mean that. But there is a particular conversation of which I have had too many. The main topic can be about a diverse number of things, but somewhere along the way people ask what they are thinking, what they are doing, when they will get around to it. This would be fine if we were talking politics, something I try to avoid. It would be okay if we were discussing sports, something I enjoy a lot more than politics. Alas, this conversation is happening in the Church. It's not just in the Church, it's about the Church. Indeed, it's about the particular church where I serve. Are you confused? Let me clarify... Nondescript person #1: So tell me more about this decision made by them . What were they thinking? I leave it as a nondescript person, because this seems to be a habit of many, dare

Jacie, my 11-year old daughter, was shocked to hear that girls use 5,000 words more than boys. (I actually made up the number.) Here’s how the conversation went; Jacie: Girl use 5,000 words every day? Me: No. Girls use 5,000 more words than boys every day. So if boys use 6,000 words in a day, girls use 11,000.   She was shocked and and spent many words detailing how shocked she was. Of course, whether the numbers were made up or not, she was making my point. But her need to use up her daily quota of words clearly knows no boundaries, as the next night, she was found talking in her sleep. Clearly, if she doesn't get anyone to listen to her during the day, this will not keep her from talking. She is not the only female in my house who talks in their sleep, but for reasons of safety, I cannot reveal the name of the other female. (Read: My wife would kill me if I told you it was her.) This got me wondering what the actual number is for average words used per day by

Conventional wisdom isn't always that smart. There are many things my parents spoon-fed me as a child that I now know the truth about. For instance, eating cookies before a meal does not ruin my appetite. But, in case my mom reads this, they also taught me to question logic that makes no sense. And that brings me to a comic-writing blog I would like to share with you, my readership. You can find this, and many more like it over at  http://xkcd.com Woo!

We are mostly passive in our choices of media. This is because we too often choose media for the sake of entertainment. What will this do for me? The positive or negative comments that follow are based purely on...me. And since we are each inundated with media in today's ocean of technology, I believe it is important to take a disciplined look at our choices and make a concerted effort to make the right decision. Ryan M. Blanck has given us just such a tool to assist in that endeavor. It's a book titled Engaging the Media 2.0 . As you may guess, Engaging the Media 2.0  is an updated tool from the original. As technology grows, so does our need to educate. I believe this is a great tool to use in that education. The premise, no matter the form of media, is based on 3 questions. Is this good for me? Is this in its proper place? Is this a stumbling block for others? After laying a solid foundation, Ryan tackles all forms of media, always bring it back to these 3 q

Yes, sometimes I have to get some things off my chest. Like John McClane in any Die Hard movie, if there was someone else to do the job, I would let them do it. But. There's. Not. So I am doing what nobody else will, hopefully signalling the clarion call to bring this mad world back to some semblance of normalcy and intelligence. I recently found the following: An article in Time.com noted that ketchup flows out of a glass bottle at a rate of .028 miles per hour. That's slower than a Galapagos tortoise, which, according to the San Diego Zoo, zips along at a blazing 0.16 miles per hour, or almost six times faster than ketchup. But impatiently tapping your ketchup bottle soon might be a thing of the past. Dave Smith, a PhD candidate at MIT, and a team of MIT mechanical engineers and nano-technologists have offered a posible solution to this ketchup flow problem. After months of research, Smith and his team developed LiquiGlide, which they define as a "kind of stru

I had a discussion with our college group recently on the book of Romans, specifically how we solve the riddle of God's choosing versus Man's choosing. Don't worry, several hundred years of great minds have not come to any solutions which answer all the questions, so you won't find that here. But it did get me thinking. What is the point of this discussion? I believe God’s sovereignty shows just how much God loves us. The detail God goes to, in leading all of world history to the point where Jesus was an amazing revelation to the world, shows us, even beyond the Cross, just how far God was willing to go to draw us all back to Himself. God calls a man by the name of Abram. He called him, knowing the guy would stumble along the way, because God knew it would lead to Jesus. God calls a man by the name of Moses. He called him, knowing this guy had blood-stained hands and would question Him every step of the way, because He knew it would lead to Jesus. God

Tired. There are moments when I am just so very tired. As a pastor, I believe it is fairly common for those moments to come on Mondays. It is a common day for taking a day off. The previous week was a long one. The Big Show, known more often as Sunday services, is over.  And if the prayers weren't immediately answered...      And if the challenge wasn't instantly accepted...           And if the next week looms very large... It can leave a pastor in a post-Sunday haze of doubt and fatigue. This is not unique to pastors alone. I am sure all people get like this, within the context of their own schedules. A break comes in the work schedule only to give enough time for one to realize that it will soon have to be done all over again.  Perhaps that is why I read these verses as a beautiful promise. The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from ev

I have been in youth ministry for about 15 years now. I think, in all that time, there has been one week where there wasn't some drama going on. I can only imagine what that week would have been like had all the days been together. Alas, one day was in 1997, the day I began. Another would not come for a few years and I daresay it's been at least a couple of years since the last drama-free day. Through it all, one of the things I have learned is that life is better when I shine the attention on someone other than myself. Which is why I am returning to the series where I link to what someone else is doing and say ' Woo! ' As in, Wooooo, that's fantastic stuff. There are a group of Chartists over at I Love Charts  that amuse me. I am not endorsing everything they do. They are often quirky and off the beaten path, but at times they hit the truth square in the center. Such is the case with the chart below. In case you're wondering, this is why there continu

The irony of writing a post directly to one person is not knowing if that one person will get the message. Case in point, today's post. I would give up all dozen readers to know that my wife still knows she is very much my Valentine. We do ministry together. It's not always pretty. We have 3 children which often feel like 6 or 7 children. Definitely not an easy task. Then we have to relate to each other. While we've gotten better at discussing problems (read: I've gotten better at not being a big stupid-head), after 16 years of marriage, we're still not perfect. But through it all, there is no other girl whose attention I'd rather have. There's no other lady that I want to impress and work out and work hard for than her. She is my love. She is my muse. She is the ear who listens to my rantings. She is my opus. And even though I can't sing a love song the way Bon Jovi believes it's supposed to be sung, I want her to know how I feel about her.

I have seen a lot of talk about guns and gun control. I know it's not an issue that's going away anytime soon. I know this post will not end it all. But I did like this and so I offer it my Woo of Approval. by Matthew L. Kelley The issue of gun control in the United States is once again at the forefront of our national conversation due to last month’s school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut—one of many similar incidents whose frequency is on the rise. A lot of people are giving passionate and articulate cases for their particular position, and as I am neither a constitutional scholar nor an expert on firearms or public safety, I will leave those arguments to those that speak on them with authority. I do, however, believe that the church has a significant role to play in this conversation, and I believe that the biblical witness and our theological heritage give us reason to support restrictions on firearms such as those currently being debated by the President and C

Religious people are more likely, statistically, to perform altruistic acts. That's a fancy way of saying the people with a moral standard are more likely to do something nice for someone than a complete jerk. But, of course, it's not a given. Anyone who has ever been to church knows that religious people can also possess a complete ineptitude to do anything nice beyond shaking hands during the greeting time. The fact is that as long as sinners are allowed in the church, and they should always be allowed, altruistic acts will always be something which may or may not happen. James was right to challenge the first-century Christians. "Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do" ~James 2:18. If religious people are found to be more likely to perform loving deeds, it can only be due to their proximity to the Creator of loving deeds. A person closest to the fire is more likely to get burned than those not even at the campsite. But even the

Babies are stupid. Let's not sugarcoat this any longer. In case you need proof, take the game of peek-a-boo as the perfect example. You put your hands in front of your face and then remove your hands. That baby will be surprised every. single. time. They're not smart enough to be faking it. They are genuinely surprised to see you show up in front of them. So, I guess it's a good thing babies generally have very strong hearts. Because I would play peek-a-boo for a long time and my babies would just keep laughing with delightful surprise.  Now, perhaps I was a bit strong when I opened up by saying babies are stupid. Because, truth be told, I am dumber. Don't laugh, because you might be right there with me. The Apostle Paul wrote the following to the Church in Colosse; For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ~Colossians 3:3 If it's not about me, I'm supposed to remain hidden in Christ. It's kind of like a divine game of peek-

Pardon my French, but I don't know any. I'm not exactly sure why the French seem to be so unpopular. I imagine politics has something to do with it. I'd love to go back in history and find out how they rank among most hated countries. That would be a fun study. The French versus the Romans or the Huns or the Philistines.  The only French I know and use is sacre bleu . It feels like a mix between something religious and something involving salad dressing. But I looked it up. It's normally associated with saying oh my gosh in English. I say it simply because it's one of the only things I can say with a French accent. And what better way to sound snooty than to use a French accent? But I actually have a problem. It's p ardoning your French before you swear. Do the French all speak like this? Are they all a bunch of potty-mouths? And if so, are they all pardoning their language before they even speak up? Is this like hello  for them?  French-speaking per

I recently took my teens on a retreat where the speaker talked about imitating Christ. We are going to choose to imitate something, so it is on us to decide what that will be. Allow me to offer an example not to follow. This is a link to the booking.com ad, where it would seem we all want to use expletives, but are still forced to purity by petty man-made rules of propriety. If you can't see the video, click here . Now, I'm assuming a few things. First, the ad wizards knew what they were doing. And they knew that we would know what they were doing. Right? Because the goal is primarily to get us to use their product. And we might do that if we think they're funny. At least, that's the goal. Secondly, the ad wizards are fairly confident that their tongue-in-cheek dance with the f-bomb will not turn off any potential customers. And they are very probably right. Because we, very generally, no longer see a problem with the use of vulgarity. From movies and musi

One night I allowed my kids to have cookies and milk. As it was getting late, I only allowed for 1 cookie. That's my soft side meeting my stone cold side. I offer good things, but only. so. much.  After all, I can't go letting the kids think I'm on their side. They'll go around telling their friends about how I'm their cookie source. I have a reputation to protect, plus I need to make sure there's plenty of cookies left for me.  I digress.  But my oldest didn't hear me, with bedtime prep being a bit of a crazy time at our house. So after the other two were done, I found her with a stack of cookies and a glass of milk. I informed her I had limited to the others to one cookie. She put the extra cookies back, without complaint, but then asked me, "What am I going to do with all this milk?" She's a smart cookie and poured an amount of milk that would be proper to soak up the stack of cookies she had. Of course, she heard what sh

While some of you may assume that Ridiculous Nonsense  could be the title of just about every post I write, I have chosen it for this one because of a fun little book I just read. It's called Armed Gunmen, True Facts, and other Ridiculous Nonsense: A Compiled Compendium of Repetitive Redundancies . If you're not catching on based on the title, the book takes a light-hearted look at tautologies. Since I tend not to use very many fancy words around here, here's the definition from dictionary.com: ~needless repetition of an idea, especially in words other than those of the immediate context, without imparting additional force or clearness, as in “widow woman.” But rather merely list tautologies and help us correct our use of the English language, Richard Kallan has gone the next step and given new definitions for these tautologies. For example: Serious Crisis: Not to be confused with all those whimsical crises. Today's Soup du Jour: Fresher than yesterdays s

I am part of a blogging for books program at Waterbrook Multnomah. With keen insight, they realize that this time of year is often used for reflecting and planning. So they have offered five excerpts from books that can help with that process. This is part 5 of 5. Enjoy!  Resolve to Love by Kerry and Chris Shook Right now, there are three relationships in your life that trouble you. Perhaps a good friend said something to you yesterday. It felt critical, but you’re not sure what she meant. The two of you used to be so close, but lately you’ve been drifting apart. Something’s not right. Oh, and your mother called. There’s that. You know you should return her call, but you haven’t. Why? You know there are things you should have said before, you avoided them, and now you feel it’s too late. It’s always so hard with her. Always messy. And then…your son has been missing. Not missing physically, but he’s been distant, quiet, silent. Missing emotionally. What’s that about? What’s going o

This chart doesn't mean much to you. Until you read the following, gleaned from Relevant Slices . Then you might see why I'm a bit concerned about #8. Psychopathy—which is, in its most basic definition, a lack of emotions—isn't just something that serial killers have (although it's a pretty common trait of serial killers). Psychopaths are, all around, just living normal lives and not really having much in the way of emotions. But there are some places where they're easier to find than others, and Kevin Dutton has written a book called The Wisdom of Psychopaths to help you know where to look for them. Certain careers lend themselves to psychopathy, and Dutton's made a handy side-by-side comparison of professions with the highest preponderance of psychopaths (CEO is number one) and professions with the lowest number (care aides). As the chart shows, psychopathy is technically a "disorder," but it's not necessarily a terrible thing. Certain jobs