New addition

That's it. I'm adding Mark (the shiverian) to my blog roll.

Reading list revisited

Thanks for the suggestions. (I'm glad to see you all read more than just my blog.) I think I'll look into some of the following books sometime during the summer based on your suggestions...

"Stealing Jesus" by Bruce Bawer (thanks, Rob and Mark)
"Cross Centered Life" by C.J. Mahaney (thanks, Amy... btw, I've read Grudem's Systematic Theology... much fun indeed. I'd recomend "Christian Theology," Millard J. Erickson, if you're interested...)
"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen (um, maybe not...)
"The Mountain of Silence : A Search for Orthodox Spirituality" by Kyriacos C. Markides (thanks, Mark) sounds interesting. So does "anything by Thomas Merton." I've been wanting to read Merton for a while. Just got into Nouwen recently...

Whilst I appreciate the encouragement to read the Qu'ran (James and Sally... wait, Sally's blogging??), I think I'll wait. I've promised myself I'd read the Book of Mormon or the Apocrypha first. Moneyball (Jay's suggestion) sounds interesting, but I'm only just now beginning to learn how to "watch" an entire baseball game on TV.

Thanks again, all! If you have more suggestions, please post them! Okay, off to more wedding stuff...

Reading list

I know I must appear to be "slack." I haven't changed my "current/recent" reading list in a while. There are a couple-o reasons for that. I'm currently reading two of them at the same time ("Liberating Ministry" and "Experiencing God in Worship"), plus I am reading the Bible from cover-to-cover with my fiancé, Kim. I do plan to begin some other reading as soon as I can get my head above water with these books...

In the meantime, do you have any recommendations for books I should consider delving into?

Cajun!

Heading out to a crawfish boil... I'm scared...

a thought...

I've been crockpotting Philippians 4:4-9 over the past few days. Struck by a thought that I've never really internalized until recently...

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. (v.8)

I always read this passage as an exhortation to look into God's Word to find the deeper, hidden beauty in life. Then, I read it in Greek (yeah, I'm a nerd). It's actually an admonition to look outward into the world to find the hidden graces and beauties God leaves everywhere! What a tremendous truth in our relativism-hungry society! The Church can (and should!) affirm the existence of things noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy and, yes, true in the world.

Isn't this what every follower of Christ is called to do, anyway? "Missionaries" have such a bad rap (and rightfully so for some of them) for going into cultures and changing the culture instead of allowing the Gospel to transform it. We're all "missionaries" in this post-Christian culture of USAmerica... this is a strong challenge for us not to hybernate and bubble ourselves away from society, but to be immersed deeper in it--finding those redeemable metaphors and symbols, and asking Christ to bring new meaning/life to them...

Yet, this is not the same as the pluralistic/relativism that exists in society today. The very next verse...

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (v.9)

All things are to be viewed in light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul (the guy who wrote this scripture) affirms that "truth is where you find it," but that in all things it must be weighed against the standard of the Gospel.

THE NEWS!

Yes, it's true! We're engaged! Adam ([ex]changed.life) and Kim (Little RunOn) are getting hitched! YEAH, GOD!

Check him out...

Found another blogger recently: Mark (the:shiverian). He's a seminary student at Columbia Theological Seminary in ATL (right down the road from the seminary I graduated from), and a fellow emergent thinker. (He's also posted on this site a few times.) Check him out...

April 15

I refuse to write anything about taxes today. *doh!*

Spring cleaning

I've been "spring cleaning" over the past 4-5 weeks. I do it in spurts. It has the exact opposite effect on me as shopping does. Shopping wears me out. After 30 minutes of shopping, I have to take a 45 minute nap; 1 hr, I have to take a 90 minute nap, etc.. (If I'm not careful, a full day's shopping could lay me out for a week!!) Cleaning, on the other hand, gets me excited and moving. I have to be careful with that. Last night I let time get away from me and went to sleep close to midnight. *sigh*

As I was cleaning out some old folders, etc., I ran across several notes scribbled on scrap pieces of paper. It took me a little while to figure out what they were, but I soon realized they were dozens of sermons I had written while in middle school and high school. A little history... I knew I was going to be a "preacher" sometime during my 8th grade year (at that age "preaching" was all I knew you could do in "full time ministry"). So, I started writing sermons and actually preached some of them in church and at Christian club rallys in my high school. I read my note cards from the very first sermon I preached in a "big church" (I was thirteen) and smiled. It was neat to look over these old scribblings and to think about God's faithfulness to me through the years...

Normalcy

Coming off my vicarious spring break... struggling to find some semblence of normalcy this Monday morning... amidst the dark clouds threatening thunder storms and the caked pollen yellowizing my truck. Perhaps I need coffee.

Yellow stuff...

Pollen! EVERYWHERE! We need rain.

Thanks. Thanks a lot. Part 4

Once again... a grimace while driving down Hwy. 92...

"The Easter Bunny didn't rise from the dead!"

Thanks. Thanks a lot. Part 3
Thanks. Thanks a lot. Part 2
Thanks. Thanks a lot.

TCOA

1027 Church, previously "The Church of Atlanta," has a new website. I know the guys planting this church... really tough area to plant in: Midtown Atlanta. Check 'em out...

Spring break

Well, I'm not in school, and I'm not a teacher. Yet, I am still living out the relaxed, lazy mood of spring break. The office is quiet (those staff members with kids are on vacation), and the streets have substantially less teenagers on them. Aaaahh... so this is what spring break in the suburbs is like when you're celebrating it vicariously...

BLOG DAY!!!

Yes, it's true! [ex]changed.life is 1 YEAR OLD today! Thanks to all who have joined in the dialogue over the past year. Special thanks to all the "regular" commenters here: Kim, Jay, Scott, Melissa, Greg, James, Gerry, Shiela, Hadge... and the many, many others who have joined in over the past 12 months!

To help celebrate the occasion, I've included a list of "best of" postings. These either had a lot of conversation or were "big" events in my life...

FIRST POST EVER! (April 2)
Prince of Peace (April 3)
Earthquake: My Experience (April 29)
SUVs and Coffee (May 2)
done (May 9)
Why Pray? (June 4)...followed by...Letting God be God (June 6)
Living Water (July 5)
Sabbath Rest (July 15)
Roots (July 22)
The Least of These... (August 8)
Cheers! (August 18)
Heart-o Worship (September 23)
Don't read this if you could care less about NCAA Football... (October 3)
"Church" today... (October 30)
soul.break (November 11)
Welcome to the bubble (November 15)
Movement (December 9)
Is it just me?? My latest Christmas rant... (December 16)
The end of all pretty people... (January 19) followed by... The end of all pretty people... Part II (January 21)
In the name of education (January 28)
Then there was half-time (February 2)
Mel Gibson is responsible for Jesus' death (February 17)
Learning to Listen (March 8) (And, yes, the pictures still don't show up! Hey... get over it! I have to "grow" somewhere in YEAR 2!)

Also, back in August of last year I was able to introduce my friend, Kim, to blogging. So, I celebrate Little Run On's First Post (August 11) as an imporant part of my first year of blogging. Looking forward to your blogday, Kim!

Here's to the conversation! Proost!