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On the way home this morning I was listening to a past White Horse Inn episode and something really struck me.

(not a direct quote) -

Whatever you preach from the pulpit will be what your church looks like.

True.

If what your pastor preaches is examples from his life, pictures of his family, portraits of his marriage...you are going to have a church that looks JUST.  LIKE.  HIM.

If you preach the gospel...if you hide the man behind the pulpit and preach nothing but the Word, that is what your church will look like.

Monroe doesn't have a lot of depth...but it has a lot of love.  That is what is preached from what substitutes for a pulpit.  And that is what we look like.  We seldom hear personal stories, never see family photos.

We have a pretty diverse church and lots of love.

Update:  what it lacks is the Gospel

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I'm home...need to unpack, but a lot of it can wait for a little while.  Cooler stuff needs to come in, laundry needs to be done.  I think I'm going to buy a big tub to put my sleeping bag (and bedtime gear) in so it stays together.

Tom's first day of classes are today.

I think he'll do fine...and he said that the "cute, blonde exchange student from Finland" was "looking at him".  He's been playing games, watching movies, going out for a "cigar and ice cream".  Making friends and getting to know people.

I have the window cling for my car...I'm a  university mom.

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15- - Describe the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ, the second person the Holy Trinity.  Incarnate Son of God.  Crucified, died, buried, and resurrected for the remission of my sins.  Sacrificed so that I might be adopted by the Father.

Now sitting on the right hand of God, making intercession for me.

16- - What is the Holy Spirit up to in your life right now?

The answer is much different than it was two months ago.

In a specific way, I don't have a clue.  I don't know where He's taking me, I don't know what direction He's going.  And that might be the point.  If I don't know...all I can do is trust.

In a more general way, I'm broken.  Heart-broken and spiritually broken and messed up.  The only One I have to depend on is God and that's the general direction He's taking me...dependence on Him.

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started on 8/14...updated whenever.  The day that this will post I'll be camping.  I don't know if I'll be able to update weight, etc.

This week is going to be a rough week...A month ago I became "single" (can you say "HELL"?)  This week the first eagle leaves the nest.  Whatever bird you use to describe the second...that will come next week.  So this is "neener, neener, neener.  Nobody wants you, you're single and even your kids are gone" week.

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recipe:  Simple Celery and Almond Salad

ingredients:

1 bunch (12-15 stalks) celery, plus leaves
1 cup sliced or slivered almonds
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 cup roughly chopped parsley
salt and pepper

Directions:

  • Chop the celery and toss with almonds.
  • whisk the olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper.
  • drizzle over celery and almonds

serves about 4

It will be very easy to scale it down...although for camping it would make a good evening bite to eat - just toss the celery and almonds into individual baggies - and add the parsley so it doesn't get icky in the dressing and take the dressing in a sealed container.

I'll put that together this afternoon.

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13- How important is corporate worship? Other participation in church life?

I believe that corporate worship is essential.  I'm at Monroe because of the worship - I came to the conclusion that I can get good teaching on-line.  In the local congregation, I'd rather have good worship than good teaching.

14- How important is it to be part of a small accountability/support group?

It may be different for men's groups than for women's groups.  Women's accountability groups don't work.

I have been in an accountability group that was created for diet (think Weigh Down, only that that).  We talked about sinful eating habits, why we ate the way we did and other habits that were not fruits of the Spirit.

Important?  It may very well depend on the stage of life you're in and what your specific issues are.

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More from "Sons & Daughters"

Calling every daughter
calling every son
All who've been adopted
Through a sacrifice of love
There's no need for you to fear
Your debts have all been cleared

Calling all the downcast
Who feel like they're alone
Anyone who's longing
For a family of their own
God's prepared a place for you
He's calling you to...

Come and sing, come and dance
The Father's singing over you
Come rejoice and be glad
For God delights in you.

Not since Derek Webb has an entire CD resonated so well.

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hard core Atkins day...with a yogurt and fruit at lunch.

going to spend the day looking for waterfalls

  • Alder Falls
  • Yellow Dog Falls
  • Pinnacle Falls
  • head to the county visitor center for maps to more

camping tonight by myself (not the first time but I won't have internet).  Pick up Tom tomorrow night to head up to Copper Harbor, and then Porcupine Mountains.

Drop him off Sunday and then home.

Tom can tend to be quiet and withdrawn.  It's hard for him to make friends.

His roomie...Jason...is the opposite.  He's on the social committee, the welcome committee...the "let's get together and make the outsides of buildings into disc golf targets" sort of ad hoc committee.

I spent about 15 minutes at the dorm before Tom was whisked off to some social event.  he's not going to be allowed to sit in the dorm room and stagnate.  I think with this roommate, the action will come to him.

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This is Tom's first day of orientation at NMU. I need to go to the bookstore and get a bumper sticker and maybe a flag or something equally hokey to put on my wall at work.

MY plan for the day?

  • take a hike
  • camp out at a coffee shop with free wifi and do something contructive (go through old posts that lost their categories and tags when I moved webhosts and sort them out)
  • drink heavily.  (coffee)

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Can God Make a Rock So Heavy Even He Can't Lift It?

I remember when I first heard this bit of immature atheistic reductio ad absurdum. I was in high school, and I didn't respond to it because the Nirvana-shirted, long-banged drama stud who said it didn't say it to me. He was laying it on his friend like it was theist's kryptonite.

My answer then, steeped in C.S. Lewis as I was, would have been along the lines of the nonsense of the question as framed. It is a rhetorical and hypothetical "gotcha" with no sincerity behind it, and in any event, it is sort of like asking, "Does the number nine smell red or yellow?"

My answer today is different. My answer today would not be to skewer the nature of the question but to inject its insincerity with the sincerity of God and all the weight of the gospel.

The truth is that God did make a weight so heavy he couldn't lift it. He did so not by building an immovable force -- we did that with our sin -- but by incarnating the frailty of humanity and willingly subjecting himself to the force. As one of us, yet still himself, he created the conundrum of the incarnate God, bearing a cross he both ordained yet could not carry by himself, becoming condemned in death and also victorious. And God was crushed according to the plan he himself projected from the foundation of the world.

So, can God make a rock so heavy even he can't lift it?

Yes. And he did. For three days only. And then he drop kicked it out of the mouth of the tomb.

Link to:  "Gospel Driven Church"