Like a lot of people in the business world I sit at a desk a lot of the day. Most of us desk sitters have heard at one point or another that sitting all day has been linked to everything from back pain to heart disease. GET SCARED! Being a pretty active person I try to combat these adverse health risks by putting into action any helpful knowledge that I can attain on the subject. I am an avid “CrossFitter” and thus try to workout using a full range of motion for most exercises. Because my right foot is 2 sizes smaller than my left foot and has a very tight heel cord among other things this poses some pretty big problems with my biomechanics. In an effort to combat this I have been following Kelly Starett’s MobilityWOD in an effort to fix some of my problems. When you combine my natural mobility problems with the fact that I sit at a desk most of the day you can end up pretty tight and thus injury prone. Here is a video that I thought would be helpful for anyone in my situation or just someone who wants to have good biomechanics while sitting at a desk all day.
This is one of the best sermons I have heard in a while from the 2010 Desiring God National Conference. Francis chan visits the question of “How much do we love others?” because how much we are focused on and love others IS how humble we are. Chan goes on to say “Some of you in this room think really hard through the Scriptures. My challenge to you is, How hard do you think about people? About the lost? When was the last time you wept for the lost?” I am definitely guilty of thinking more about doctrine and the scripture than applying that doctrine to the end of loving people more. It would do me good to hear this sermon every day and I think you will really enjoy it.
Knowledge is essential, but it’s not sufficient -John MacArthur
Here are some pictures of the severe swirling. Keep in mind that these pictures were taken after the car had been thoroughly washed using the two bucket method with a grit guard and clayed (this car had some serious contamination), so you are not seeing anything that can be washed off. This is pure damaged clear coat probably caused by years of automatic car washes and I wouldn’t be surprised if they used steel wool at some point (ok, maybe a little bit of exaggeration). In defense of the previous owners, Subaru paint is known for being super soft and scratching if you look at it wrong. Not to mention that black cars are usually the least forgiving to improper care, but that’s enough talk for now… you need to see for yourselves. …Read Full Post >>
To keep with the tagline of my blog (“a jumble of insight” if you’re not familiar) I figured I would give a glimpse of what I have been doing lately. I like learning and trying new things thus it is hard for me to stick with a hobby for very long before I have to change it up. My newest hobby is car detailing and paint correction. I am not talking about going to walmart and getting a bottle of armor all and some turtle wax,although there is nothing wrong with that if that does what you want it to do. I am talking about professional grade polishes used for paint correction and detailing using high quality products. I have always loved cars and tried to take good care of my car which up until a month ago has always been a black 94 civic coupe. With getting married and a family to come sometime in the future I decided that it was time to look for a four door car. After looking for a car for just a week or so (on craigslist of course) my car was hit in a parking lot outside the CrossFit gym I go to. As you can see from the picture it isn’t too bad but still messed up. …Read Full Post >>
Yesterday Yahoo put the Associated Press article about Al Mohler’s story on yoga on the front page. Needless to say this has generated lots of hate mail for the President of SBTS. Most of the original article is based on his thoughts on a new book by Stefanie Syman named The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America which Mohler says “is
a masterpiece of cultural history”
Here are some excepts from the original article to give you a summary of Mohler’s position :
Yoga begins and ends with an understanding of the body that is, to say the very least, at odds with the Christian understanding. Christians are not called to empty the mind or to see the human body as a means of connecting to and coming to know the divine. Believers are called to meditate upon the Word of God — an external Word that comes to us by divine revelation — not to meditate by means of incomprehensible syllables.
Nevertheless, a significant number of American Christians either experiment with yoga or become adherents of some yoga discipline. Most seem unaware that yoga cannot be neatly separated into physical and spiritual dimensions. The physical is the spiritual in yoga, and the exercises and disciplines of yoga are meant to connect with the divine.
When Christians practice yoga, they must either deny the reality of what yoga represents or fail to see the contradictions between their Christian commitments and their embrace of yoga. The contradictions are not few, nor are they peripheral. The bare fact is that yoga is a spiritual discipline by which the adherent is trained to use the body as a vehicle for achieving consciousness of the divine. Christians are called to look to Christ for all that we need and to obey Christ through obeying his Word. We are not called to escape the consciousness of this world by achieving an elevated state of consciousness, but to follow Christ in the way of faithfulness.
There is nothing wrong with physical exercise, and yoga positions in themselves are not the main issue. But these positions are teaching postures with a spiritual purpose. Consider this — if you have to meditate intensely in order to achieve or to maintain a physical posture, it is no longer merely a physical posture.
The embrace of yoga is a symptom of our postmodern spiritual confusion, and, to our shame, this confusion reaches into the church. Stefanie Syman is telling us something important when she writes that yoga “has augured a truly post-Christian, spiritually polyglot country.” Christians who practice yoga are embracing, or at minimum flirting with, a spiritual practice that threatens to transform their own spiritual lives into a “post-Christian, spiritually polyglot” reality. Should any Christian willingly risk that?
Mohler ends with saying
Christians who practice yoga are embracing, or at minimum flirting with, a spiritual practice that threatens to transform their own spiritual lives into a “post-Christian, spiritually polyglot” reality. Should any Christian willingly risk that?
I came away from these articles thinking of how this is just another example of how as Americans in general think of life and spirituality as a buffet of sorts. You can just pick the things that you like and leave the things your don’t. I’ll take Heaven without Jesus, I’ll take yoga without Hinduism, I’ll take sex without marriage, I’ll take abortion without murder. Everyone just lives by the mantra “If it feels right, it must be right” without every asking questions like “Why does this feel right?”, “Should this feel right?” and most importantly “Is this right?” We have all done a bad job at thinking about the logical conclusion of our actions and beliefs before we act or believe. Fortunately if you are reading this you are still alive and there has never been a better day to change. I think this just serves as a reminder and an example of a bigger problem that exists in our own hearts.
All respectful opinions and thoughts are welcome in the comments!
As I was driving to work today I heard a song on the radio by This Beautiful Republic named Beautifully Broken. If you have listened to any Christian radio station you have probably heard it before. I have heard it countless times before without really paying any attention to the lyrics of the song. This morning, however, I noticed a phrase in the chorus that caught my attention. The chorus goes as follows:
Beautifully broken in Your eyes
You see the man my sins disguise
You took my place
You saved my life
Miraculous love, sweet sacrifice
Beautifully broken
You were beautifully broken
The specific phrase that I want to hone in on is “you see the man my sins disguise.” You might say this isn’t a big deal and maybe you are right but the more I thought about the implications of actually believing this was true the more I realized that at worst it undermined the entire Gospel message and at best it greatly diminishes the work of Jesus on the cross and the miracle that is our salvation. Here is how it works:
The Cross of Christ Minimized
If my sins are the disguise, then what is under the disguise must be something other than sin.
Since all sin is bad/evil/against God, the “real me”, that which is under the disguise must be by nature good or in favor of God.
If by nature I desire God/good and sin is just some sickness that I can’t shake by myself then yes I still need Jesus to save me from my sins, but my sins are a sort of add-on to the “real me” and are to be likened to some heavy burden or some external ailment that I don’t want any more than God does but I just need Jesus’ help ridding myself of it.
Jesus’ sacrifice and work on the cross has now been reduced to a kind of cosmic physician that helps heal me from my “sick” state to my normal good and caring self
Not only does this view minimize the cross, but it starts creeping toward semi-pelagianism and pelagianism by leaning toward a denial of original sin, which was condemned as heresy at the2nd Council of Orange in 529AD. I do want to make clear that I am not calling “This Beautiful Republic” heretics or even condemning them at all. I am just showing how potentially dangerous a poorly worded statement taken to its logical conclusion is and also how important it is for every person to contemplate the deep truths of God as revealed in scripture.
The Cross of Christ Magnified
We are sinful from birth (verse) slave to sin and sin has left no part of our being or consciousness untouched
As a result of our sinful lives and our open rebellion against God we are storing up God’s perfect and righteous judgment against our sin
Jesus, born of a virgin, did not inherit the sinful nature of our father Adam and went on the live a sinless life to God and fulfill the law of God perfectly
Jesus ended his perfect life by giving himself up to be Crucified on a Roman cross in our place and as our substitute, bearing the wrath of God that we deserved and canceling the sin debt of those who would believe in this “Good News” and put their faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection through faith in his sacrifice.
Through God’s gift of grace and faith, those who confess (believe) and follow Jesus have been rescued from the control of sin, death, guilt and shame and transferred to God’s Kingdom where we have peace and fellowship with God through His Spirit in this life and forevermore in Heaven.
I have attempted here to give a concise but biblically true summary of the Gospel, that magnifies our sinful condition, God’s hatred and wrath towards our sin and also God the father’s love and Jesus’ willingness in providing a wrath bearing Saviour. The clearer we see the separation between us and God that our sin has created the bigger we see the cross in bridging a gap so wide that none other than the death of God’s own son was sufficient.
Amber Stamps, a good friend that goes to CHBC (Capitol Hill Baptist Church), recently gave me a new book by Greg Gilbert who is the assistant pastor at CHBC in Washington DC. He says this in his first book titled “What is the Gospel?”
Scripture makes it clear that the cross must remain at the center of the gospel. we cannot move it to the side, and we cannot replace it with any other truth as the heart, center, and fountainhead of the good news. To do so is to present the world with something that is not saving, and there is therefore not good news at all.
In Closing, my goal is not to judge all song lyrics by their theological content, as important as that is, but rather to use this song as an example to help people (myself included) realize the importance of sound doctrine and theology in every thing we do and the dangers of thinking “It’s not a big deal”; for the way we view God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit will determine our response to each member of the Godhead. My Prayer is that our response would be a God honoring one taken from the Holy Scriptures that God has graciously given us.
If you have an opinion, whether in favor or in opposition to mine, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
This useful resource will help you not be the guy who buys a brand new Macbook only to have the new model come out the next week making your laptop one step closer to obsolete.
Although I am not the biggest fan of flash based websites and templates, I am impressed with the beauty and simplicity of the new Clover CMS called the “Greenhouse.” I am also a big fan of the heart and attitude of these guys and the end to which they are working. This will be exactly what some churches are looking for in a website.
Clover is also giving away a free iPad here for those who are interested.
I heard about this on the radio the other day and was pretty intrigued by it. I must admit it is pretty funny and after watching it multiple times I still laughed, especially during the sermon spoof. What makes it so funny(in some sense) to me is the churches that pop into my head that are exactly like this. This is a production of North Point Community Church which located in Alpharetta, Georgia and the home of Pastor Andy Stanley. What perplexed me is exactly why Northpoint made this video as their service looks exactly like this. Regardless of their reasons for creating it, I think it should move everyone to an examination of the motives and heart behind Sunday morning worship services for both the church staff and the members of the Church. As a staff member at a church, whether contemporary or not, I have to ask myself the question: Am I here to entertain people or to worship and glorify God? As a member/attendee of a church I have to ask myself, what is the main reason that I am going to church? Is it the people, the music, the pastor or maybe just a piece of mind that I receive from going? I think there are many good reasons to go to a church, but all of them secondary to worshiping God. If we are not going primarily to offer our praise to God then we are going primarily for the wrong reason.
More than anything I would love to hear your response to the video.
Why do you think Northpoint put this video together?
What problems do you see as a result of this being the typical church service?
What if anything in this picture needs to be changed?
While I was blog browsing last week I stumbled upon a quote by author / professor / physicist Lawrence Krauss from the Athiest Alliance 2009 conference that was quite educating in nature but unfair, I fear, in its conclusion. The quote is as follows:
Every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust. You couldn’t be here if stars hadn’t exploded, because the elements – the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution and for life – weren’t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way for them to get into your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today.
The Pose Method is a system of human movement and teaching based on determining the key pose in a movement complex and then working with the laws of nature instead of against them. This is achieved by using gravity as the primary force for movement instead of muscular energy. In simpler terms Poser running is learning how to position your body correctly so that you can make use of gravity to increase efficiency and speed while decreasing effort.
The Pose Method was developed in the 70s and first published by 2-time Olympic coach Dr. Nicholas Romanov in 1981 but it’s foundational principles are by no means new. Some of the foundational parts of the Pose running method are based on the principles of movement as studied and articulated by Leonardo daVinci and Nikolai Bernstein. In 1912, Thomas Graham Brown,a neurophysiologist who studied reflex movement and posture, offered the following description of the relationships among moving bodies, gravity, and work:
“It seems to me that the act of progression itself—whether it be by flight through the air or by such movements as running over surface of the ground—consists essentially in a movement in which the center of gravity of the body is allowed to fall forwards and downwards under the action of gravity, and in which the momentum thus gained is used forward, so that from one point in the cycle to the corresponding point in the next, no work is done (theoretically), but the mass of the individual is, in effect, moved horizontally through
the environment.”
The only thing new about the Pose method is it is the first running technique that directly takes into consideration the laws of physics, specifically gravity and economy of movement, for understanding how to run efficiently, using the least amount of muscular effort possible. Sounds like a win win situation to me. …Read Full Post >>
