Taken this week while heading to Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital. As always, click the pic for a large version.

Taken with the iPhone 3Gs, using the Camera+ app.

Last night Page CXVI played a live show at a secular venue where our first church plant, The Church in DeKalb, is located– DeKalb, IL. We at Redeemer and TCD love Page CXVI, so this was a show many of us were looking forward to. My two oldest children wanted to come along to hear the band, which really excited me because this meant saying no to Friday night movie night, and instead opting for a hymn night.

As the band played I couldn’t stop smiling and singing along. These are some of the most powerful songs written by the church, and Page CXVI’s arrangements of these classic hymns are creative and moving. The gospel was being sung, truly heralded, in a spiritually dark place. I guess shouldn’t have been surprised when a man who had been sitting in the back starting screaming and writhing. A glass shattered, he sat up and bolted out of the place.

It happened very quickly, but something serious had just gone down. My 9 year old daughter was starting to cry, and Elias was shocked. I asked Molly (Steve McCoy’s wife) to watch my two, in addition to her four (she’s a Super Mom), and Steve and I headed outside after the guy.  He was gone.

We went back inside, Page CXVI finished the song, and asked from the stage about the man. Was he okay? We said that he was gone, and the vocalist explained to the crowd that these songs about God make some people upset. “But we’re going to keep singing.”

My kids are pretty sensitive (they take after their mother), and they were really shaken by the brief interruption. We stayed for a couple more songs, but they wanted to leave and talk about what happened. We had a great conversation about  the gospel, and why we sing it; the devil, and demonic oppression; and how Jesus sets people free. We prayed for the young man who ran out.

We missed the end of the show last night, but what we saw was amazing. Page CXVI sounded better than I thought they would live.  Powerful, beautiful, Christ-exalting stuff. If you don’t have their first two albums, Hymns, and Hymns II, you are missing out. You can order CD’s or download digital copies here.

[photo of Page CXVI by Brian Malcolm]

I came across this great infograph through Thabiti Anyabwile’s blog. (Originally from My Modern Met)

I talk to a lot of people who want to use their mornings more wisely, but don’t know how to start, or have a history of starting new disciplines only to quit shortly thereafter. We all need routines and rhythms in our lives to help us really live out our lives. I’m not talking about thoughtless repetition, but meaningful rituals and patterns that give structure and strength to our daily lives. Most of us feel this need, but have a hard time making it a reality.

There was a good article on morning rituals back in March of this year. In it Seth Simonds offers practical advice on how to reclaim your mornings. You should check it out.

His advice is simple, but I will reword it a bit and add to it here. Determine what you really want to accomplish in the morning, then break the morning down into all the steps needed to accomplish the big goal(s). Figure out how much time it will take, adjust your bed time and wake time accordingly, and then (the most important part for me) approach the morning one step at a time. This last piece of advice has helped me quite a bit by forcing me to focus on the first step in the process when I wake up, and not the whole which can sometimes feel overwhelming. For example, you may want to wake up and have a meaningful time in prayer and the word, but when your alarm goes off early you feel too tired to attempt thoughtful reflection on Scripture. By breaking your morning down into steps that lead to the larger goals it really is much easier. In my case, I want to pray, read the Bible and run. But when I wake up early the leap from my warm bed to the cool street outside is too big for me. So I focus on step one, and go from there.

This is my typical weekday morning routine.

5:30am: Wake up.
I’ve been doing this long enough now, that at this point I typically beat my alarm by a minute or two. I Head downstairs, turn on the stove to either boil water or heat up a frying pan. I’ll have oatmeal, or a fried egg and a piece of toast, and a glass of water.

5:45am Eat breakfast and read Scripture.
I’m in no rush. I have plenty of time to eat, read and journal. Besides, in my case I need to wait about 30 minutes after eating breakfast before I can run.

6:15am Get into my running clothes.
No spandex or short-shorts, thank you very much.

6:30am I’m off and running.
I run without an iPod, and use that time to pray and go over what I read that morning. This is one of the best parts of the day.

After my run I cool down, shower, and head out for the rest of my day. And honestly, it feels amazing. Of course, if I’m getting up at 5:30am it means lights out, eyes shut by 10:00pm. That is crazy early for a guy who didn’t go to sleep before midnight for most of his adult life, but it’s worth it. This routine causes me to slow down while simultaneously creating momentum for the rest of my day.

I’d love to hear about your morning, afternoon, or evening rituals and routines that help you to find a healthy rhythm and do the things that matter.

Last week I was hanging out at one of our local cigar shops. I’ve been a patron at this particular tobacconist for 10 years. It is the kind of place you want to hang out at with exposed brick, leather chairs, a great selection of cigars and pipe tobacco, and amazing staff. I have found it to be a fantastic place to meet other men, have great conversations, and of course it’s one of those rare places in Chicagoland where you can actually enjoy a cigar or pipe.

I was in there with another member of Redeemer and four other people I had never met. They were twentysomethings who were having a lively conversation filled with hard opinions and passionate convictions. I thought to myself, “This crowd would probably be up for some God-talk.” But I didn’t even have to bring it up. One of them asked if I was a DJ (Don’t ask me why). Of course I replied with surprised sincerity, “I am a DJ!” They said, “No way!” And I said, “No, I’m actually a pastor of a church here in town.”

Then, one of the young men jumped right into theology, asking something like this,

Explain this to me. You have two men. One man is a good man who pays his taxes, is kind to his neighbors, good to his family, works hard, and doesn’t cheat. But he doesn’t believe in Jesus. Another man is a bad man who lies, cheats, steals, and is all around horrible to everyone. But this last guy asks God to forgive him at the end of his life. So, the bad guy goes to heaven for accepting Jesus, and the good guy to hell because he isn’t Christian?

It was a great conversation that allowed me to unpack the gospel by explaining (seriously summarized here) that civil righteousness does not commend us to God, since even if we are better in conduct than another man, we all worship idols, put ourselves before God and others, and are all guilty before God for our sins. All of us are justly condemned for sin and unbelief, but all are offered forgiveness, life and restoration in Jesus. We must believe in him to find it. I explained that a person will go to hell on account of his own sin, or will have peace with God on account of the righteousness of Christ.

Such conversations do not typically set themselves up like that, but I am praying and looking for more opportunities this week.

[This is not a post to debate the issue of tobacco, so please stay on topic in the comments. Thanks.]

This past Sunday morning as I sat in my favorite independent coffee house about 30 minutes before the start of worship I found my heart breaking for the lost and stirring for the gospel. The place was jumping. I saw runners and cyclists coming into the store for drinks after a long work out, old men reading the local paper, young men working on iPads and Macbooks, and families enjoying the beautiful weather and wonderful city of Saint Charles. At least at that moment on Sunday morning everyone was so content and happy in this coffee house, and I sat there broken.

How many of these people were enjoying God’s good gifts and common grace without knowing the Giver himself? How many of these people were educated, yet ignorant of the Truth? How many were religious, but separated from God? How many had heard the gospel? How many ever would? Who will tell them?

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
(Romans 10:13-15 ESV)

May God give us a passion for his glory and compassion for the lost that move us to befriend our neighbors and share the gospel with the eager expectation to see God bear fruit.

Back in the day I drank about 6-8 cans of Coke a day. I know, I know. It’s called gluttony.  3 years ago when I started eating healthier and running I switched to Diet Coke. This year I gave up my favorite beverage primarily because it was giving me headaches. Now I drink a lot of water, and some coffee (black, no cream or sugar). Now, I’m not the zealot who’s out to tell everyone to get off their favorite carbonated beverages, but I do want to encourage you – especially you pastors – to be temperate in your enjoyment of things like soda. Too much will make you fat and feel terrible. I speak from experience. I found the above graphic to be a good reminder.

(Image by Term Life Insurance)

Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification
Romans 4:24, 25

As it would not have been enough for Christ to undergo the wrath and judgment of God, and to endure the curse due to our sins, without his coming forth a conqueror, and without being received into celestial glory, that by his intercession he might reconcile God to us, the efficacy of justification is ascribed to his resurrection, by which death was overcome; not that the sacrifice of the cross, by which we are reconciled to God, contributes nothing towards our justification, but that the completeness of his favor appears more clear by his coming to life again.

- John Calvin

Earlier this summer I took the kids downtown for a day with Dad. It was a great time and we love hitting Millennium Park. This is Elias playing in the Crown Fountain. Click the pic for a larger version.

Photo taken with the iPhone 3GS using the Camera+ app.

Myth #5 Hell is for Bad People

This is the most dangerous of all the myths about hell. “Hell is for bad people.” Of course, this is a tricky one, and it depends on what we mean when we say “bad people.” In my experience “bad people” simply means “other people.” People who have done worse than us, at least in our own estimation. Hell is for the bad, the worse, the worst. Hell is for Hitler and Hussain, John Wayne Gacey or Kim Jong-il. It’s not for us regular people. Good people. The one point of agreement we should have with this myth is that hell is for bad people. And we are all “bad.”

Jesus said no one is good, but God. The Apostle Paul wrote that no one is righteous, all have turned away from God and become worthless. Yes, we are all bad and worthy of eternal condemnation. While one woman might be practically worse than another, or one man’s sin might be more heinous than another’s, we are all equally sinners and in desperate need of God’s mercy.

Hell is for bad people, if by bad people we mean people like us. Our hope is not that we will become good people, or even better people. Our confidence before God is not that we will somehow stand out among the evil people in the world. Our hope and confidence before God is the gospel– the good news that everyone who believes in Jesus is united with him, counted righteous in him, and forgiven through him of all sin.

So, in one sense hell is for bad people, but in another sense so is heaven. The former receives those who have rejected the truth of God, while the latter receives those who have received Jesus.