The Bailout Game!

In addition to the Rush-Obama media feud, do you need a little entertainment during these hard economic times?

Go to The Bailout Game.

It's hilarious. I got 1,667 points.

HT: Kruse Kronicle

Obama's Mexico City Policy

Scot McKnight, Professor of New Testament at North Park University is right on:

The rescinding of the Mexico City Policy is not about reducing unwanted pregnancies, it's about reducing unwanted infants.

Read the entry with the above conclusion and the introductory piece.

Faces of Amazing Grace

This is such a neat application of a classic hymn, brought to us by the Salvation Army.

New U2 Song

I've been a fan from near the beginning, more than 20 years ago. They're still good!

People Get Ready

With the presidential inauguration of Barak Obama imminent, I wouldn't be surprised to hear this classic Curtis Mayfield song in the next day or two-- "People Get Ready"

Congregational Church Roots

Lately I've been researching Congregational church history. This past November, I did sermon around our Little River church's founding pastor, Rev. J.B. Schlichter. And right now, I'm delighting in correspondence with family members of Rev. J.E. Crane, who ministered in our church from 1913-15.

Today, I ran across a couple other names that I didn't know had Congregational roots-- J.I. Scofield and Dwight L. Moody. These are two people I greatly admire-- for their faith and impact.

Scofield was an influential early leader in the dispensational movement. He also pastored a Congregational church in Dallas and grew it to hundreds of people.

Dwight Moody was one of the great evangelists of the 1800s. Moody had a Congregational background and later attended a Congregational church in Chicago.

It's a privilege for me to participate in the rich history of Congregationalism.

My Sign Got Revealed

One of my pastoral responsibilities is to change the message of the outdoor sign at the church.

Right now it says: "Shine in '09 for Jesus"

Yes, it's hokey, but I don't have space to say much.

Today, my saying got exposed for what it really is.

My 11 year old daughter said to me:

"What's your next sign going to say Dad? 'Call your friend Ben in '10?'"

Was Jesus Thinking of Alexander the Great?

This Spring semester at Sterling College I'm teaching New Testament Introduction. Today's lecture included a brief discussion of what happened during the 400 years of silence between the end of the Old Testament and the start of the New Testament.

One of the important political events was Alexander the Great's incredible world conquest, which included the land of Palestine. But not long after Alexander gained political control of the world, he died prematurely at age 33 in 323 B.C.

Which made me wonder aloud: When Jesus said, "What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul" (Matthew 16:26, Mark 8:36, Luke 9:25), did Jesus have in mind Alexander the Great?

Any thoughts?

Common Sense

This year in Sunday School I'm teaching the junior high confirmation class. It's a lot of fun, as this exchange illustrates:

Mason: "Why do they call it common sense when so few people have it?"

Tyler: "Common sense? What's that?"

Not Sure There's Spiritual Warfare?

What Grace Looks Like

A most unusual story of a football game from Rick Reilly at ESPN:

They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas.

It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.

Did you hear that? The other team's fans?

They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, "Go Tornadoes!" Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.

It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on—by name.

You have to read the entire story. This is what grace looks like!

Message In a Tire

At the Cross At the Crossroads

In a world filled with war between nations, nationalities, religions--and, oh yes, our own interpersonal conflicts, the topic of loving our enemies is a continuous front burner issue. And yet, the study of such from a biblical perspective has been grossly neglected. Until now.

Craig A. Smith has assembled an outstanding group of writers who probe what it means to love our enemies. First, you'll find biblical essays that are exegetically grounded, like John Nolland's "The Mandate to Love Our Enemies: Matthew 5:43-48" and I. Howard Marshall's "The Religious Enemy: The Early Church in Acts."

Then, the topic is explored from a number of different angles: case studies in civil disobedience, 2 views about the military, loving our spiritual enemies, dealing with enemies within the church, Muslim neighbors, the psychology of loving enemies, and what the experience of persecution teaches.

This book is not a spiritually laced liberal knee-jerk reaction to the topic of loving one's enemies, but a biblically sound and deeply probing work. You likely won't agree with all its conclusions, but you'll come away challenged and enriched.

10 Questions for the New Year

Sunday in worship our church family celebrated Epiphany, the time on the church's liturgical calendar that celebrates the Magi finding Jesus and presenting their gifts.

During the message, I focused on the moment the Magi finally saw the Savior--bowing down to worship Him. After a long journey, these wise men finally found the light and responded to the light. They had an initial encounter with Jesus and I trust it reverberated into the future.

For those who profess faith in Jesus, our testimony is to be Magi like-- we have found Jesus and we are continuing to find Jesus. That is, we have a past with Jesus, but we are also seeking a present and future with Jesus. To this end, consider these ten questions from Don Whitney that will prod you to a deeper relationship with Jesus in 2009:

1. What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?

2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?

3. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?

4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?

5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?

6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?

7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?

8. What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make this year different from last year?

9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?

10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

Whitney's link also provides a question a day for the month.

Links of the Intergoogle 12-30

The best article I've read about Pastor Rick Warren "He's against gay marriage and how dare he be invited to pray at Obama's inauguration" flap.

Insightful remark from Michael Medved:

"Advocates for same sex marriage regularly insist that they would never interfere with free exercise of religion and will do nothing to force unwilling churches to perform gay weddings. This position counts as hypocritical and misleading, and the current controversy over Pastor Rick Warren’s role in the Obama inauguration reveals the underlying intolerance in the gay agenda."

Top ten theological stories of 2008.

An interesting argument for changing the order of our Old Testament books.

If you like baseball, you'll love this article of major league odd events in 2008.

The Usefulness of Brokenness

Came across this thought provoking observation from a devotional by Evangelical Covenant Church president Gary Walter:

There actually is a distinction in the types of brokenness - not all brokenness is the same. Yes, there is brokenness that leads to disuse - the car breaks and can’t be used, or the plumbing, the computer, the toaster. When they are broken, they are of no use.

But there are other things that have no usefulness until they are broken.
• A horse is no good until . . . it is broken
• A baseball mitt is no good until . . . it is broken in
• In case of emergency, break glass
• And what does it say on your medicine? Break this seal.

The spiritual reality is that God uses broken things. In fact, our entire faith is built on this statement of Jesus about his sacrifice on the cross: this is my body, broken for you. And what does King David say is an acceptable offering to God? A broken spirit and a contrite heart.

Yes, in God’s upside down system of values, broken things are the most valuable. Brokenness does not inevitably lead to uselessness. Brokenness in God’s design is precisely the way to even greater usefulness.

Kansas-Oklahoma Conference CM Stepping Down

Rev. David Hansen, Conference Minister for the United Church of Christ's Kansas-Oklahoma Conference, announced on Christmas Eve that he is stepping down on January 15, 2009. The following letter was sent out by e-mail:

A Pastoral Letter to Members and Friends of the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference United Church of Christ

Theologian Paul Tillich preached a sermon on sin and grace that remains his most famous and widely read sermon. The sermon was titled, “You Are Accepted.” Tillich begins the sermon by describing sin as the condition of separation and estrangement. Grace, he describes, as acceptance. To know grace is to “Accept the fact that you are accepted by that which is greater than you.” He concludes the sermon by saying that though sin and grace are strange words; they are not strange things. They determine our life. They determine the life of the K-O Conference.

The year 2008 has been a year of sin and grace for those of us in the K-O Conference. It has been a year of wonder, estrangement, struggle, and blessing. Given all that has happened, the Conference Council and I have agreed that new leadership is needed. Thus, I am leaving the position of K-O Conference Minister effective January 15, 2009.

I want to thank you for the grace-filled events of the last five years and for the privilege of serving as Conference Minister. Sally and I are truly grateful for your prayers and the gift of friendships formed and ministry shared. Let me name just a few highlights. The Conference welcomed two new congregations, celebrated three new church starts, and now has two conversations taking place that may eventually lead to new church starts. The Conference launched a new newspaper, The K-O Focus, and a new website. The Conference initiated, but not yet funded, the position of Justice and Witness Organizer. The Conference took courageous stands on important social issues: the right of all people to earn a moral minimum wage, religious freedom for Hawaiian inmates, standing in solidarity with the people living in the area of Tar Creek, initiating a movement toward becoming an eco-conference and a Fair Trade conference, and initiating a new Doctor of Ministry program in partnership with Phillips Theological Seminary. Conference partnerships with the Madhya Kerala Diocese of the Church of South India, and the Protestant Church in Baden, Germany are strong. The new Conference organizational chart is a work in progress begun in recognition of the fact that the financial realities of the future will demand that the Conference conduct its affairs in a new way in the future. The next two years will see the Conference living into this reality in ways that few have anticipated. I would like to thank the Personnel Committee in particular for their hard work these past several months as they help forge this path to the future.

White Memorial Camp has a special place in my life and in the life of the Conference. I want to especially thank Jim Power for his years of faithful stewardship of the camp and Ron Klein for his extraordinary work at the camp. The camp now has a new Executive Director, Sara Shaw. Sara is an incredibly gifted and talented woman for whom camp is both a calling and a profession. Under her leadership I am confident that the camp will become more fully a place to experience God’s grace and to nurture Christian life and values, if she is allowed to provide the leadership to which she is called.

The Reverend Dr. Kathy McCally and the Conference Council will make crucial decisions in 2009 that will to a large extent determine the quality of Conference life for the future. It is my prayer that in and through their work and lives grace may abound.


Blessings,

Rev. David P. Hansen
Conference Minister
Kansas-Oklahoma Conference
United Church of Christ

December 24, 2008

Christmas in Little River

A Sad, But True Christmas Story

Andy Whitman some time ago wrote this sad, but true Christmas story about his father. How we still need the Savior and his forerunner who will "turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1:17).

A Candy Foxxx Christmas

It’s Christmas Eve, 1994, and my daughters, ages 8 and 6, anxiously await the arrival of Santa Claus.

Instead, my dad shows up with a new girlfriend in tow. Her name is Becky, and she’s a dancer. “Oh, do you do ballet?” Kate asks. Kate is so sweet. “No, I dance at a club,” Becky says. Kate ponders that one.

My dad totes in a bulging plastic trash bag. He dumps the contents out on our living room floor. There are presents, lots and lots of brightly wrapped presents. My daughters’ eyes widen. “Seventeen presents!” my daughter Katryn marvels. My dad picks one up. “This one’s for you,” he says, and hands a package to Becky.

Becky, whose nom de strip is Candy Foxxx, is maybe 30, maybe 50, it’s hard to tell. She looks at my dad with utter contempt. I know within the first two minutes of meeting her that she doesn’t give a rip about this old man and his Sugar Daddy pretensions, that she’s here in my house for one reason, and one reason only. She rips open the package, unwraps a dress. “Thanks,” she says.

My dad picks up another present. “Oh, look,” he says, “this one’s for you, too.” Becky unwraps a necklace. “Thanks,” she says in a monotone.

We watch this sordid exchange fifteen more times. The second hand inches along. There is wrapping paper scattered all over my living room floor. I watch my daughters’ eyes. I would give anything to shield them from this, to spare them this scene.

We eat our Christmas cookies and drink our eggnog in almost total silence. “Well, we have to be running,” my dad says. He bundles up the dresses, the necklaces, the purses, the perfume in the plastic bag. “Nice to meet you,” Becky says, averting her eyes. And then they are gone.

“Grandpa didn’t even say goodbye to us,” Katryn says.

“No, he doesn’t know how to,” I tell her. “He doesn’t know what to say.” And it’s true.

Guys: Buy Right This Christmas

I admit, I'm not a very good Christmas shopper for my wife.

Fortunately, she's very gracious.

Meanwhile, guys, avoid the doghouse!