Archive for June, 2005

Hat tip: Dan Edelen

You can see what I think about this Supreme Court ruling over in my LiveJournal account.

What I want to know is, will your pastor be brave enough to speak on this from the pulpit? Will he love his congregation enough to tell them the $10 million spent on their brand new building was likely all for nought? Or will he be too scared that the Feds will take away his coveted tax-exempt status for speaking about political issues?

We always knew these buildings were only temporary, and destined to perish — but few would have guessed just how temporary they might be…

So if you ask me tonight, “All right, tell us then, what is the unwasted life? What does it look like? What is the essence of the unwasted life�” I just mentioned it: A life that puts the infinite value of Christ on display for the world to see. The passion of the unwasted life is to joyfully display the supreme excellence of Christ by the way we live. Life is given to us so that we can use it to make much of Christ. Possessions are given to us so that by the way we use them, we can show that they are not our treasure, but Christ is our treasure. Money is given to us so that we will use it in a way that shows money is not treasure, but Christ is our treasure.

The great passion of the unwasted life is to magnify Christ. Here is the text that, perhaps more than any other, governs what life is really about: Philippians 1:20-21. Paul says, “It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.“

Paul’s all-consuming passion was that in his life and in his death Jesus Christ be honored, that is, that Jesus Christ be made to look like the infinite treasure that he is. The reason you have life is to make Jesus Christ look great. There is one central criterion that should govern all the decisions you make in life and in death: Will this help make Jesus Christ look like the treasure he is?

I just got my (complimentary) advance copy of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck This collection is, hands down, the best “classic Disney character” stories I’ve ever read!

Left his seamless robe behind
Woke up in a stable crying
Lived and died and rose again
Saviour for a guilty land

It’s a story like a children’s tune
And it’s grown familiar as the moon
So now I ride my camel high
And I’m aiming for the needle’s eye

I chased the wind, but I chased in vain
I chased the earth, but it would not sustain

There’s only one who never fails
To beckon the morning light
There’s only one who sets loose the gale
And ties the trees down tight
When all around my soul gives way
He is all my hope and stay
There’s only one, only one Holy One

Lord, You are my Prince of Peace
But this war brings me to my knees
See there’s a table You’ve prepared
And all my enemies are there
But where my Shepherd leads
Where else can I go?
Who else fills my cup till it overflows?

There’s only one who never fails
To beckon the morning light
There’s only one who sets loose the gales
And ties the trees down tight
To the Solid Rock I fly
Though He bids come and die
There’s only one, only one Holy One