Thom

For those of you who don't know, Thom Yorke, front man of epic rock band, Radiohead is one of the weirdest dudes on the planet and that's a good thing. Thom and his boys have basically created much of what we today dig as the sound of pop music. These guys invented Coldplay, Muse and a host of other bands that have been strongly influenced by them. I think Thom is one of those guys who walks that line between genius and insanity and depending on the day, you don't know which is which. Musically, he is a genius, but check out the way he looks at the crowd at the beginning of this video. Creepy! If you don't have their record, OK Computer, you need to repent and go get it right now.



(HT: B-Bergs)

Yet another sign that the apocalypse draws nigh...

Relevant Mag blog reports that the David Crowder band is in the studio now recording their next record. Guess who they have as a guest guitarist? Ted Nugent! The Nuge!!!! I wouldn't believe it, but you can watch for yourself here. I know it's legit because you can see some of the guys from the band in the video and we played a few shows with them when I played with Matthew West. It's really the DCB with The Nuge. There has to be a back story about this that I'm sure is pretty interesting. Watch the video here:



Here is another classic video of The Nuge:


Is this guy for real?

Are you self-righteous?

Mark Lauterbach asks some great questions concerning how you know if you are self-righteous or not:

1. Am I moody in my assurance of salvation, depending on the present state of my sanctification?
2. Do I think of myself as better than other Christians who do not do things in "my" superior way -- schooling, parenting, doctrinal convictions, church life?
3. Am I as fearful of the moral and religious as I am of the immoral?
4. Do I get discouraged by criticism?

Read the whole post here.

Just as I am

Nichole Nordeman has an interesting arrangement of "Just as I am" found on the "music inspired by the movie" soundtrack for Amazing Grace. You can get it here (iTunes).

Do you blush?

Wildman, and resident philosopher from Denver Seminary, Dr. Doug Groothuis says,

Truly, too many Americans have lost the ability to blush--a prelude to judgment if not repented of. Read Francis Schaeffer's Death in the City on the judgment of God against the West and what this means for Christians. We need more weeping prophets (like Jeremiah adn Schaeffer), not wimpy puppets. See Jeremiah 20:9

Ten of the best April Fool's Day hoaxes

Here is an article about the best April Fool's day pranks. This one is my personal favorite:

In 1998, a newsletter titled New Mexicans for Science and Reason carried an article that the state of Alabama had voted to change the value of pi from 3.14159 to the "Biblical value" of 3.0.

Long live New Mexico!

(HT: Relevant Mag)

Creative People and Truth

"It's the job of creative people, and especially those who are followers of Jesus, to be radical truth tellers "

-Derek Webb

From this story.

(HT: Relevant Mag Blog)

The Office - Promo for New Episode - April 5th

I can't think of anything to post today, but I thought that in light of tonight's rerun of The Office you might want to check this out.

After last night's American Idol, I had to post this...

Reactions to American Idol

1. Can someone please explain to me what is going on with Sanjaya? Dude needs to move on.

2. Holy cow, can you say 80's fashion? It made me want to break out my old white and pastel Miami Vice jacket that I wore in 3rd grade. I need to get a "members only" jacket and start wearing it around again.

3. Jordin is the best singer even though tonight she did a song that did not show it very well.

Bob on the Psalms

Bob Kauflin has a couple of interesting posts dealing with those that believe we should only sing the Psalms in our ecclesiastical gatherings. This quote was rather convincing to me,

There's no question that singing the Psalms (or at least metrical versions) can be and has been a rewarding experience for many Christians. I thank God for those churches today that remind us of the rich resource God has given us in the Psalms. But the most significant reason I don’t think God wants us to sing only the Psalms has to do with his desire to reveal himself in Christ. We aren’t meant to only sing songs where Christ can be seen “in the shadows.” The identity of Christ was a matter of life and death for the early Christians. Was he God or not? Was he to be worshiped or not? The first century church made it clear both in their theology and doxology (teaching and praise) that Jesus was God. The revelation of God in Christ required new songs of praise to be written both for the building up of the church and the spreading of the Gospel. Our situation is no different today.

You can find both posts here.

How to spiritually protect your family

God in the Suburbs?

This looks like an interesting article:

The Gospel and the God Forsaken: The Challenge of the Missional Church in Suburbia by Todd Hiestand. You can also download this paper in pdf form from this link.

(HT: RK)

NCAA Division II Championship

Who cares about division II hoops anyway right? Well, after having one of the greatest finishes ever in sports history you might want to pay more attention. This is greater than they could do it in the movies. Unreal.

The Final Four

Bill Simmons says that this upcoming Final Four this weekend might be one of the best ever. He writes,

We'll always remember that UNC-Georgetown game from 1982 not just because of the last 30 seconds, but because Patrick Ewing, Sleepy Floyd, Sam Perkins, James Worthy AND Michael Jordan were involved. Maybe there wasn't as much star power in the 2007 rematch, but Jeff Green, Roy Hibbert, Ty Lawson and Brandan Wright could end up being top-12 picks three months from now; Tyler Hansbrough should crack the top 20; and we're not even mentioning Wayne Ellington (one year away from being a prime-time player) or the three Georgetown perimeter guys (Sapp, Wallace and Summers) who shot a combined 19-for-30 on Sunday. With the exception of Wright (who probably would have entered last year's NBA draft under the old rules), that's just good fortune to have so many quality players in the same Elite Eight game. And over everything else, that's why you'll be flicking channels 35 years from now and stumbling across that game on ESPN Classic. You know, assuming it's one of the three days of the year they aren't showing a 24-hour poker marathon. Anyway, with two No. 1 seeds and two No. 2 seeds staying alive in a loaded college basketball season, we're headed for the most exciting Final Four since '99 with UConn (Rip Hamilton, Jake Voskuhl and Khalid El-Amin), Duke (Shane Battier, Corey Maggette, Elton Brand, Trajan Langdon), Ohio State (Scoonie Penn and Michael Redd) and Michigan State (Mateen Cleaves and Mo Peterson). From a talent standpoint, there's no comparison between then and now: This year's quartet features a future No. 1 pick and franchise center (Oden), six future lottery picks (Oden, Conley, Noah, Horford, Brewer, Green and Hibbert), two more potential first rounders (Afflalo and Collison), two elite college players with a knack for coming up big when it matters (Georgetown's Wallace and OSU's Ron Lewis), three superb coaches (Thompson, Florida's Billy Donovan and UCLA's Ben Howland, who pulled Bill Self's pants down on Saturday) and quality point guards on all four teams. You'd have to travel back to '93 (when three No. 1 seeds and a No. 2 seed made it, including Michigan's Fab Five team) to find this much talent and this many subplots in the Final Four.

All I know is this: Saturday's games (Florida-UCLA and OSU-Georgetown) are appointment viewing for anyone who ever gave a crap about basketball. When's the last time you could say something like that about the Final Four? I'm giddy.

S3

The final Spider-Man 3 trailer is here. Check it before you wreck it.

N.T. says...

N.T. Wright writes,

For generations the church has been polarized between those who see the main task being the saving of souls for heaven and the nurturing of those souls through the valley of this dark world, on the one hand, and on the other hand those who see the task of improving the lot of human beings and the world, rescuing the poor from their misery.

The longer that I've gone on as a New Testament scholar and wrestled with what the early Christians were actually talking about, the more it's been borne in on me that that distinction is one that we modern Westerners bring to the text rather than finding in the text. Because the great emphasis in the New Testament is that the gospel is not how to escape the world; the gospel is that the crucified and risen Jesus is the Lord of the world. And that his death and Resurrection transform the world, and that transformation can happen to you. You, in turn, can be part of the transforming work. That draws together what we traditionally called evangelism, bringing people to the point where they come to know God in Christ for themselves, with working for God's kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. That has always been at the heart of the Lord's Prayer, and how we've managed for years to say the Lord's Prayer without realizing that Jesus really meant it is very curious. Our Western culture since the 18th century has made a virtue of separating out religion from real life, or faith from politics.When I lecture about this, people will pop up and say, "Surely Jesus said my kingdom is not of this world." And the answer is no, what Jesus said in John 18 is, "My kingdom is not from this world." That's ek tou kosmoutoutou. It's quite clear in the text that Jesus' kingdom doesn't start with this world. It isn't a worldly kingdom, but it is for this world. It's from somewhere else, but it's for this world.

(HT: Evangelical Outpost)

Elliot's New Record

I posted a few days ago (found below) on Elliot Yamin of American Idol fame and his new single "Movin On". It's a great song and I encourage you to buy it if you dig that style (Pop, R&B, Funk, Soul, etc). Recently his whole record was released and I was very excited to purchase it since I seriously believe he is the best singer that American Idol has discovered. Unfortunately my feelings about his whole record are not as positive.

In short, I was disappointed with it. Bad production (except for the single), subpar songwriting, and cheesy, low budget programming. It kind of sounds like the record co. didn't want to spend that much money on him and it shows. To be sure, Elliot is an amazing singer, but if the songs don't really speak it doesn't matter a lick. It doesn't even seem that he gets to show off his amazing vocal chops that much. It's like the songs have constricted him.

One of my biggest pet peeves these days is the obligatory "slap President Bush in the face" song that is chalked full of gross over simplifications about how we all just need to get along. Blah, blah, blah. Elliot has one of these songs on his record. This bugs me. John Mayer has one of these on his last record (that I think is one of the greatest creations ever conceived by a musician) but at least John's song has one of the nastiest (good nasty) grooves ever played by a band.

Don't give up on Elliot just yet. If he even does a mediocre job with his sales with this record, the record co. will probably give him a bigger budget next time and it will be worth a listen just based on his amazing vocals.

If you were to buy a couple more songs from the record get, "A Song For You" and "Alright". These are pretty good too.

Sometimes it's ok that your church is embarrassing

Dan Edelen writes:

One of the things I appreciate about my church concerns the openness to letting anyone talk. The pastor and elders do a fine job of knowing when to let others stand up and take the microphone. That’s a real gift. It also means everyone’s involved in the service. People don’t just sponge it all up; they contribute in tangible ways.

I feel blessed to be a part of a church that has so many positives going for it.

I love to see my wife dance in church. Several of the women danced spontaneously—yet another blessing to have that openness to express one’s worship through dancing. But by the time the A/C kicked in (82 degrees in March?) I was pretty sweaty and so was my wife. We fanned each other after I came down from behind the drums.

We sit near the front. Since our church does draw a rural crowd, we get a lot of folks who sit in the last third of the church. Most of the visitors do, anyway. But this morning, two women visitors sat behind us. During the offering time, the church breaks up to greet others, so we chatted with the visitors.

Moments later, one of the men of the church approached the pastor with several things he felt we should be praying for. He listed the needs and called people up for prayer. At that point, I knew the pastor wouldn’t be preaching that morning and I got that “Oh no, the visitors aren’t going to see a normal Sunday” feeling.

It’s a mixed feeling. I want people to come back. I know when I’m out of town and visit another church, it’s always disconcerting to me to show up on that weird Sunday when nothing’s the way it normally is. I’m always fascinated by what constitutes “normal” church for other people, so I get disappointed when I get the guest speaker or it’s “Raise Money for the New Children’s Wing” Sunday or some other aberrant meeting.

So when it got a little “pentecostal” during the extended prayer time, I had that feeling wash over me—the “Hey, it’s not even noon, so no one can be drunk” riff on Peter’s original Pentecost sermon. When the worship team got called back up to the front, I had this in mind about our visitors:

If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
—1 Corinthians 14:23-26

Plenty of building up happened Sunday. God blessed people and they blessed Him in return. That’s the best you can hope for on any given Sunday. Even if the blessing this particular Sunday might be perceived by outsiders as a bit unconventional.

I’m perfectly fine with whatever looniness I exhibit. I learned a long time ago not to be so stuck on myself that I keep God from doing a work in me or through me. But what about those visitors?

As you all well know, I’m not ashamed of the charismata. Yet I always get a little voice inside me saying, “What are the visitors thinking?” What I consider perfectly normal, they might think is…well, loony.

Or better, rightfully embarrassing.

Read the whole post here. Thoughts?

An American Wrongfully Imprisoned In Nicaragua

Have you heard about this? This is crazy.