“Why is spiritual community so rare? I suspect it has to do with the requirement of brokenness. We’d much rather be impressively intact than broken. But only broken people share spiritual community…It is our weakness, not our competence, that moves others; our sorrows, not our blessings, that break down the barriers of fear and shame that keep us apart; our admitted failures, not our paraded successes, that bind us together in hope. A spiritual community, a church, is full of broken people who turn their chairs toward each other because they know they cannot make it alone.”

–Larry Crab

“Americans grow up convinced that they have a right to happiness. Most of the Third World would never make this claim. To them, survival is success. But for us, the good life is an inalienable right, and we pursue it with gusto. Should anyone thwart that happiness, we are quick to scream injustice. All types of actions are justified on the basis of not being happy. We leave marriages, we drop out of classes, we resign from jobs, we change churches, we transfer to another group. Confort is increasingly a norm we feel we are owed even though we joke about ‘no pain, no gain.’ And so we buy–to make us feel good–the latest, most updated, most powerful that will surely satisfy us (for the moment). It is how we construct who we are…

It was in the Garden that God declared ‘It is not good for Adam to be alone.’ God’s evaluation of the good life is relationship together, ‘the Body of Christ,’ the church relating to her God.”

Julie A. Gorman, Community That Is Christian

“When we read the Old Testament, we read the Bible Jesus read and used. These are the prayers Jesus prayed, the poems he memorized, the songs he sang, the bedtime stories he heard as a child, the prophecies he pondered. He rendered every “jot and tittle” of the Hebrew Scriptures. The more we comprehend the Old Testament, the more we comprehend Jesus.”

-Phillip Yancey

For some reason it strikes me as funny to think about Jesus hearing bedtime stories as a child. That is a really cool picture that helps me understand the humanity of Jesus.

And I really like this quote.

An excerpt from Justin Martyr, written about 150 AD, describing an early church service (before the Constantinian revolution). It is chapter 67 of his “First Apology” and is one of the earliest descriptions of a Christian worship service.

“And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president [the one who stands before] verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.”

I never did like to get dirty. Especially under my fingernails.

I dig a little deeper in the clay, churning the topsoil up to pat around the plant that the Gardner just finished planting. I pluck a few small weeds around it, hoping they won’t hinder its growth.

Looking in disgust at my fingernails again, I stand up from kneeling and dust off hands first, then knees. The Gardner is working a few steps away–harder than I, as usual. I take in the sight for a moment, in awe of the vast improvements this garden had seen. You can’t tell much difference day to day usually, but when I think back to a year ago…two years ago…the progress is remarkable. We still had a long way to go for sure, but the Gardner’s steady presence left no doubt that the work was going to get finished. That was an encouraging thought on a hard day like today.

I walked over to a familiar weedy patch, dropped to my sore knees again, and started pulling away. After a moment, I heard a voice boom over my shoulders, “You know, sooner or later we’re gonna have to get to that one.” He pointed at the tall, burly weed just a few feet away from where I was working.

“That one?” I answered. “No, I’ve tried to pull up that one before…its much too sturdy. And besides, its so old, it kind of just blends in with the garden, you know? Gives it a bit of character.”

“It doesn’t belong in my garden,” he responded, gently but firmly. “It cannot stay forever.”

His look cut me a bit, and it hit me how silly I was to imply that He was not strong enough to pull it. I knew better but I sometimes forgot. Regardless, I still did not want to part with that particular weed. “Okay, sure. We’ll get to it one day–but for now I’m just gonna clean up around it.” I continued to crawl and pluck.

He meanered my way, but I kept my attention on my work. When he got to the weed, he gave the trunk a sturdy kick, and seeds from its branches fell all around me. Three of them landed beside my hands in the dirt. “You know where all those little weeds are coming from, right? Please don’t tell me you’re oblivious to that fact. Day in, and day out, you crawl around here plucking those little seedlings, and by the end of the day they are sprouting again. Wouldn’t you rather cure the disease than treat the symptoms?”

He looked at me, enduring and patient. I sat back on my boots and stared at the weed, withered and old. The thing about that weed, you see, was that it had always been there. It was a constant–a given–as sure fire as the very dirt beneath it. Though I knew it to be a weed, its presence gave me a strange sort of comfort. I had given up on killing it long ago and begun to see it as a worthwhile part of my garden. As though it had a rightful place among the bushes, crops and flowers. I felt like killing it would be killing a part of me.

“It can’t stay in my garden forever,” he repeated. He bent over and placed his right hand and the bottom of the stalk, as if he was preparing to yank it out. “What’s it gonna be? Do you want me to kill it, or do you want to keep crawling around every day in its shade, plucking its fruit?”

I sat in silence, unable to answer. “You know,” he continued, “you could do an awful lot of planting in the time that you waste in this corner every day.”

I knew it. He was so right. But I just couldn’t watch it die. Not today.

“Tomorrow–we’ll do it tomorrow.” I finally answered, cringing on the inside. He sighed deep in his chest, let go of the stalk and stood up. Pursed lips and one last look at me, then he began walking back to his former project. Oh, how I hated that disappointed look in his eyes! But at least he was walking away, and I did not have to watch it die today. Tomorrow–tomorrow I would be ready for it.

He paused just a few yards away and turned my way, a confused look in his eyes. “I’m starting to lose count of the tomorrows.”

“The neighborhood bar is possibly the best counterfeit there is to the fellowship Christ wants to give His church. It’s an imitation, dispensing liquor instead of grace, escape rather than reality, but is a permissive, accepting, and inclusive fellowship. It is unshockable…You can tell people secrets and they usually don’t tell others or even want to. The bar flourishes not because most people are alcoholics, but because God has put into the human heart the desire to know and be known, to love and to be loved.”

Chuck Swindoll, in Dropping Your Guard

This quote absolutely breaks me. Because it is so true. And because so many people are trying to fill this need in bars and not in our churches.

Oh that our churches would truly exhibit this kind of God-designed community.

Another long week it has surely been, and I am exhausted. Tomorrow when I get off work, Kristi and I are heading to Savannah to celebrate our 2 year anniversary, and I don’t remember ever being this excited to get away for a bit and rest.

2 years. It was Tuesday. I got sick from the restaurant we ate at and went to bed at 10:00. I have to be really sick to go to bed at 10:00.

I’m hoping Savannah will be better. I’m gonna try to track down Paula Dean’s restaurant and surely her food won’t make me sick.

2 years. I am unceasingly thankful for every day…all 730 of them. I didn’t think it possible because of the trajectory of our culture, but my affections have done nothing but grown for her over the past two years. Steadily. I adore this girl with every fiber, so much so that it makes me feel like I’m exploding sometimes when I kiss her goodnight. I can’t get a tight enough hug from her when I get home from work each day.

I’ve been thinking about what my favorite parts of marriage are, and the most important lessons I’ve learned so far.

Favorite part of marriage: This is going to sound lame, and I need to explain. Kristi doesn’t like to be touched when she’s falling asleep. I happen to love to cuddle up to her, because a) she smells good and b) because she is frugal and freezes us to death with no heat when its cold. Which is maybe the reason God created her to go to bed at 10:00 and me to stay up til 2:00. So every night, no matter how tired I am, how long of a day it has been…whatever–I get to walk heavy-eyed into our bedroom and crawl into a warmed up bed to my wife…who happens to like to cuddle after she’s asleep! So I can put my arm around her, scrunch up close to her and get warm, and kiss her on the cheek as she stirs. I literally cannot help but to smile every time and any frustrations from the day that I carried into the bedroom now just look silly. And this just may be one of my favorite parts of every day.

Most important thing I’ve learned: that the quality of life in our marriage depends primarily on how quickly we repent of sin. Arguments and hurt feelings are going to happen, and it is our choice whether they make 3 minutes miserable or 3 days miserable. Life is so much better if you choose 3 minutes.

I love you immeasurably babe…happy (late) anniversary. Let’s go eat some macaroni and cheese!

“When relationships are built around the truths of the gospel—the truth that we are walking in light even though we are still sinners in need of cleansing by his blood—we can be free from feelings of inferiority and the demanding spirit that is born of pride. We can pursue relationships without fear of being discovered as the sinners we are. This kind of open relationship rests solely on the realities of the gospel. We are more sinful and flawed than we ever dared believe, and so is everyone we know. Because of this, we won’t be surprised by other’s sins. They won’t expect us to be sinless either, so we don’t have to give in to self-condemnation and fear when they see us as we really are. We don’t have to hide or pretend anymore.

The gospel also tells us that we are loved and welcomed without any merit on our part, so we can love and welcome others whose merits we can’t see. We can remember the circumstances under which we have been forgiven, and we can forgive in the same way. We don’t deserve relationship with the Trinity, but it has been given to us. We can seek our relationships with others because we know that we have been sought out by him and that he is carrying us all on his shoulders.”

- Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Dennis E. Johnson, Counsel From The Cross

I wish I could have been there to see this in person. Unbelievable. You really do have to watch at least the middle part of this video, starting around 3:45. I’m serious, its not optional.

A little preview of heaven.

I’m really excited about seeing this movie when it comes out. October 27th…

On a related note, I went to see Richard Dawkins tonight, the prominent evangelistic atheist/evolutionary biologist. It was a great experience and here are a few thoughts:

• He is a smart dude, and has the added bonus of a British accent, which automatically gives you 15 smart points. If it were a debate, we would need N.T. Wright or the late C.S. Lewis(for their accents) just so we could start out on the same smart level.
• I would bet my life savings that he has been extraordinarily hurt by a believer in God of some kind. But who am I kidding about that being a significant bet?
• On a few points where I really wanted to hear his response(such as irreducible complexity), he dodged the issue and instead simply talked very badly about people who believe in God. That was disappointing.
• I have never realized how much harm has been done by ignorant and arrogant Christians as much as I did tonight.
• Living and ministering in the Bible Belt, this issue isn’t always the most prominent thing we have to be concerned about. But I have never been more convinced that regardless Christians everywhere need to make studying this issue a priority and be able to support our arguments intelligibly. I have a new found desire and commitment to do so.

“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”

1 Peter 3.15