I just wanted to comment briefly about how great this Christmas was. Starting off with the superficial… I got a Wii and a Moleskine. A couple of good friends invested several hours of their lives into helping my wife pull off the Wii sneak attack - I was totally surprised, especially after opening a present that included a check made out to me, from Angie, for a Wii. “Sorry I couldn’t get you one, but when the stores have them again…” Ha, two presents later, from a package wrapped obviously for a woman with ribbons to boot, out pops a Wii! The Moleskine is a close second favorite. To some, it’s just another notebook. To a preacher/writer/designer, it’s a beautiful thing!
Deeper matters? I love my family! I missed seeing my family in Kentucky - my parents, my two grandmothers, my brother and his family - things didn’t feel complete without the full trek to the bluegrass state this year, but I got to talk to many of them by phone. In St. Louis, I got to spend the holiday with my wife and daughter and my in-laws. Angie and I even snuck away late one night to see Seven Pounds with Will Smith.
I’m hurting for the Shults family. Louis and Mary spent the weekend, including Christmas, in the hospital awaiting the doctors who are coming in on Monday with the probability of open heart surgery. Pray for Lou and his family. At the end of it all, I’m glad to be home in Bentonville - this is where God has called me to live my life for God’s purposes, and I’m excited about what the next year will bring!
For whatever reason, it seems God has brought couples into our lives that need marriage help. In fact, it’s epidemic today. For every one of them, I recommend seeing this movie. In fact, I think everyone should see it. It has multiple presentations of the gospel in a very accurate way. It addresses pornography, emotional coldness, the threat of divorce, and the restoration of a marriage the hard and real way, not the syruppy, sappy way Hollywood presents it.
I recently finished reading the book The Pixar Touch by David Price and have not had an opportunity to reflect on it yet - it’s cool! I have a mixed love for cartoons and technology, so Pixar hits both areas for me.
What I love about the book is how various relationships tie to one another. The story begins in the 1960’s when some college students began to play around with computer animation - back in the day when computers displayed nothing but lines of text in a system font.
When the story reaches the point where Pixar is releasing movies, each becomes the focal point of a different section. The Pixar Touch contains a pretty neat synopsis of the behind the scenes development of each project. The movies you’ve watched next to your kids suddenly have stories behind the stories.
The book inspires creativity and best of all - it’s extremely fun to read!
Every couple ought to go see this movie. Marriage brings out the best and worst in us, and I watch Satan driving wedges between husbands and wives on an almost daily basis. But your marriage is worth fighting for.
“Love not the world… for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world, and the world passeth away…” -1 John 2:15-17
Remember Louis Armstrong’s great What A Wonderful World? Angie and I had that song played at our wedding. This truly is a wonderful world in many respects. It’s the place where we view the glory of God in creation. This world is where Jesus came to minister and to give His life a ransom for many. This world is where Jesus found me and saved me and is now using believers across the world to extend His Kingdom. But this world is not everything. In fact, it isn’t even permanent.
John and other New Testament writers often used the word “world” (kosmos) to refer, not to the physical creation (though that was the literal meaning of kosmos), but to what we might call today, secularism. The “world” of which John spoke was the human realm of thinking, devoid of God. It’s the realm in which Satan attempts to pull us away from God through his three primary tempting agents: the lust of the flesh (that which feels good to our body), the lust of the eyes (that which appeals to our sight), and the pride of life (that which fills us with a false sense of fulfillment or self-achievement).
Preachers used to speak of “worldliness” more in churches, but it was usually in reference to cultural stigmas such as going to dances or movies or having the wrong haircut. Worldliness is much broader than these or any other simple actions. Worldliness is thinking in temporal terms, living for the here and now with total disregard to eternity. We’ll either live in fear of an eternal God or we’ll be left to our own devices (i.e. worldliness).
When left with the choice between living in godless humanism or godly cosecration, let us remember the words of Peter Marshall, “It is Christ or chaos!” Are your everyday decisions informed by Scripture or society? Do you think in spiritual terms or cultural tones? Does Christ have all of you or do you have one foot in the church and the other in the world?
I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. I've been blessed with a wife (Angie) and a six-year-old daughter (Ella). I'm Lead Pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in Bentonville, Arkansas. read a little more...
