salt the planet

My wife and I have decided to try our hand again this year at reading through the Bible in one year. We made it through about three or four months in 2005, but lost steam as our lives got busier. We found it difficult to maintain our focus, keep up with the reading, and pour our hearts into it. Basically, it became a checklist for us and not the means by which we were seeking to approach God.

Recently, I found a website that takes you through the Bible in one year (Tyndale style) with commentary and pictures to boot. Plus you get to see other people's comments on their journey through the Bible as well. I have been pretty excited about this for several weeks and praying that God would truly help us see the big picture in his Word.

That last statement reflects an interesting area of study that I have not been sure where to begin. I feel that by reading through the Bible in one year, I have an opportunity to see what I have only heard others describe: the meta-narratives of scripture. I have some general ideas of what this is, yet I want to dig deeper.

If anyone has any suggestions, please post some suggested resources that discuss meta-narratives in scripture.

Wade Burleson, IMB trustee from Oklahoma has been taking up the topic of the Board's new policies on speaking in tongues and baptism. There have been numerous conversations going on about this since they passed. Nick has gathered and organized a lot of good resources here and here, if you are new to the discussion.

If you have been up on this already and are interested to move into a Beastie Boys theme: "You gotta fight, for your right, to..." then click on Wade's post and sign your name to the petition by adding a comment.

Seriously, though. This is an issue that affects millions of lives and is a harbinger of what is to come from the IMB unless we (those who care) choose to stand up and be counted.

So please, go to Wade's post and add your name.

(HT: Steve McCoy)

In preparing for our numerous open houses over the Christmas Holiday, my wife and I had much work to do since we had just bought our first house.

As we prepared for the open house, we straightened each room, moved boxes out of the way into the attic and basement, vaccuumed, dusted, mopped, and generally cleaned the more traversed areas.

And yet, we did so much more than that. Preparing for visitors required filling the house as well. My wife cooked some amazing dishes and decorated each room with Christmas cheer (I especially loved our Star Wars tree with the Yoda tree topper)! She also lit candles and created a potpourri mix to cook on the stove, which filled the every portion of every room with fragrant aromas.

Filling our house took all these things: cleaning, straightening, reorganizing, filling the table with food, adorning each room with beautiful decorations, lighting candles for fragrant aromas wafting through the air.

We had created a space for people to enter and know we are honored by their presence.

These images remind me of implications I have learned from Matt. 12:43-45/Luke 11:24-26. The primary implication, which can be especially seen in Matthew's account, is that the house was empty as the evil-spirit returned. It was not full, only swept and put in order. I have discovered the metaphor of my life as a house to be helpful in understanding how I often treat Jesus, who already dwells here. The struggle comes, for me, when I do not make space for Him to fill me completely.

He works to clean, straighten, reorganize, and fill my house with his food, his decor, his fragrant aroma, and yet I make things dirty, hide the overflowing boxes of junk, and would rather find beauty and satisfaction beyond what he offers.

I must make space for Him to let him know I am honored by his presence. I must slow down to enjoy the cleaning, straightening, and reorganizing of my life as well as its fullnes of fragrant aromas, delicious morsels of satisfying food, and the ways he adornes me with beauty.


This is a song that put into words the metaphor upon which I have meditated on many occasions.

Take me, make me
All You want me to be
That's all I'm asking, all I'm asking

Welcome to this heart of mine
I've buried under prideful vines
Grown to hide the mess I've made
Inside of me, come decorate, Lord

Open up the creaking door
And walk upon the dusty floor
Scrape away the guilty stains
Until no sin or shame remain

Spread Your love upon the walls
And occupy the empty halls
Until the man I am has faded
No more doors are barricaded

Chorus:
Come inside this
Heart of mine it's
Not my own
Make it home
Come and take this
Heart and make it
All Your own
Welcome home

Take a seat, pull up a chair
Forgive me for the disrepair
And the souvenirs from floor to ceiling
Gathered on my search for meaning

Every closet's filled with clutter
Messes yet to be discovered
I'm overwhelmed, I understand
I can't make this place all that You can
(Chorus)

I took the space that You placed in me
Redecorated in shades of greed
And I made sure every door stayed locked
Every window blocked, and still You knocked

Take me, make me
All You want me to be
That's all I'm asking, all I'm asking

And so, my question to you is, what metaphors/verses/images do you use to make space for Him?

While Nick and I were at the YS Convention in Nashville, we talked with Tony Jones after the late night theology dicussion. He told us of his upcoming visit to SBTS to talk with the guys of the International Center for Youth Ministry as well as other individuals from the school. I have prayed that his reception there would be welcome with hearts open to dialogue.

According to his post, God made it so.

Though I am still at the beginning of a long road into what emergence, missionality, holism, and community look like, I am highly encouraged by the fact that some key individuals within the SBTS system are entering the conversation with such graciousness. I look forward to the ripples of this for some time to come. I pray that it will encourage true conversation about the EC and the ideas of missionality on the campus, which will ripple into our churches.

One of my favorite CD's ever is Enter the Worship Circle. It's acoustic sounds and earthy rhythms soften my search. As I was playing some of the songs on guitar this afternoon, I stumbled across one that I hadn't played in awhile: Come Fall on Us. With a fast-paced pick keeping time on the strings I found the words coming from my mouth fresher than they did the first time I sang it.

Two unbelievable encounters over the past few days on the web. Not a lot of time to represent thoughts here. I had beaucoup turkey with friends and my wife's family. Props to my wife and mother-in-law for the preparation and delivery of some fantastic vittles! But suddenly our hero feels his powers weaking. What could it be? No! NO! NOT THAT! Not the dreaded tryptophan! But...must...deliver...links...

First is a Wrestling with Disillusionment. As happens at times, it comes from within my own denomination (SBC). The IMB has passed a new policy on prayer languages and baptism. I only want to point you in the way of resources to discern for yourself what to think and what must be done. Joe Kennedy is maintaining a great post with a running list of resources for this. I will hopefully be having an extensive conversation with one of the trustees about the guidelines, trying to come to a point of understanding and conversation. Right now, it just isn't making any sense.

Second is a Wrestling with Hope. I "stumbled" across this blog by Alex McManus that I think I have been needing to read for a long time. There was nothing accidental about my staying up late after too much turkey this afternoon. As much as it is may seem like a kowtow (yes that is spelled correctly!) to current pop-culture, it resonates with my being and journey to say that "Aslan is on the move..."

As I read this post, I wondered if I could be classified as "emergent." But then I just laughed...

It was one of the funniest posts I have seen in FOR--EV--ER (Squints' style).