Great Expectations

Matthew's Begats

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:53:00 +0000

Over at The Gospel Coalition I've noticed Kevin DeYoung and Justin Taylor pointing out Andrew Peterson to me again this Christmas season and though I'd share this song with those who read this:

All The Earth - Paul Baloche

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 20:25:00 +0000

Napoleon Quote

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:53:00 +0000

I love when I get to hear and think about the difference Jesus has made on history - on things like the value of children, the value or human life and equality, economics, science, education, work, charity etc, etc.

I heard part of this quote in the Driscoll lesson on this topic of the difference Jesus has made in history:

"I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires, and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and whatever other religions the distance of infinity...

"I will tell you. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him. . . . I think I understand something of human nature; and I tell you, all these were men, and I am a man; none else is like Him: Jesus Christ was more than a man. . . . I have inspired multitudes with such an enthusiastic devotion that they would have died for me . . . but to do this it was necessary that I should be visibly present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, of my voice. When I saw men and spoke to them, I lightened up the flame of self-devotion in their hearts. . . . Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen, that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years, Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy; He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself. He demands it unconditionally; and forthwith His demand is granted. Wonderful! In defiance of time and space, the soul of man, with all its powers and faculties, becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him, experience that remarkable, supernatural love toward Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable; it is altogether beyond the scope of man's creative powers. Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish this sacred flame; time can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range. This is it, which strikes me most; I have often thought of it. This it is which proves to me quite convincingly the Divinity of Jesus Christ."

- Napoleon Bonaparte

Sweet Saves "Not in this carnival!" lol

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:12:00 +0000

Tim Thomas.

Rick and Kay Warren's Crazy Bad Marriage Start

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:42:00 +0000

This is a very interesting excerpt from Rick Warren's biography: Rick and Kay Warren's Painful, Gradual Love Story.

I think it's great when famous pastors like Rick Warren and John Piper are honest about their marital struggles and stuff because then the many people in their churches or who hear about them online can hopefully be freed to get help themselves in similar ways.

Josh Harris

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:35:00 +0000

I've been really appreciating Josh Harris video clips the last couple days as I've eaten lunch. Check them all out here.

And here is one of them:

Why Is Relevance?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:18:00 +0000

I read this in Finally Alive on the weekend,

What Is Relevance?

As a preacher, I think a lot about relevance. Why should anyone
listen to what I have to say? Why should anybody care? Relevance
is an ambiguous word. It might mean that a sermon is relevant if it
feels to the listeners that it will make a significant difference in their
lives. Or it might mean that a sermon is relevant if it will make a
significant difference in their lives whether they feel it or not.

That second kind of relevance is what guides my sermons and
my writing. In other words, I want to say things that are really
significant for your life whether you know they are or not. My
way of doing that is to stay as close as I can to what God says
is important in his word, not what we think is important apart
from God’s word.

Why Are We Here

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:49:00 +0000

I was looking on the Saddleback Resources website for some possible promotional video clips to show as we kick off The Purpose Driven Life this Sunday. One that they recommended was this clip from Everybody Loves Raymond....

Strange and Interesting

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:51:00 +0000

Justin Taylor entitled his blog post on this topic How to Train Your People to Laugh at Anything. It's a strange story, if you read it and listen to the 5 minute clip.

Tim Keller is so smart!!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:38:00 +0000

Tim Keller on how he sees the strengths and weaknesses of the Reformed, the emerging, and the Willow-Creekers:

John Frame’s ‘tri-perspectivalism’ helps me understand Willow. The Willow Creek style churches have a ‘kingly’ emphasis on leadership, strategic thinking, and wise administration. The danger there is that the mechanical obscures how organic and spontaneous church life can be. The Reformed churches have a ‘prophetic’ emphasis on preaching, teaching, and doctrine. The danger there is that we can have a naïve and unBiblical view that, if we just expound the Word faithfully, everything else in the church — leader development, community building, stewardship of resources, unified vision — will just happen by themselves. The emerging churches have a ‘priestly’ emphasis on community, liturgy and sacraments, service and justice. The danger there is to view ‘community’ as the magic bullet in the same way Reformed people view preaching.

From Justin Taylor

Funny Phone Calls

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:26:00 +0000

Stirring Affections

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:31:00 +0000

Matt Chandler often says that an important question to ask is, "What stirs my affections for Christ? And what weakens my affections for Christ?" And then to obviously avoid the latter while involving yourself in the former.

I know a few things that really stir my affections for Christ. I think I could list a bunch of things. But a couple I'm thinking of right now are great preaching from guys like Chandler and great music with great words by people like Lecrae!

Social Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:57:00 +0000

I found this interesting video over on The Resurgence.

Matt Chandler

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:39:00 +0000

Matt Chandler is such a good preacher/teacher. Averil and I have been enjoying listening to him for a while now. The sermons we've listened to most recently called Games People Play (which has 3 parts) are so good and such good teaching. Today as he talked about the widow that gave all she had and how the point is not really about giving at all but is much more profound I really felt enlightened! Check out his sermons here.

What an amazing gift it is to be able to listen to the best teachers in the world over the internet.

Josh Harris Louie Giglio Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:14:00 +0000

Good teaching hear from Josh Harris. And while I watched it I noticed him mentioning that Louie Giglio joined Twitter - check out his funny press conference here.

Make Love, Make War (Brian Doerksen)

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:17:00 +0000

"When we worship, we do what Satan abandoned long ago - and the Enemy does everything he can to stop us from worshipping, because when we worship, he remembers. He spends more than a little energy convincing us that there really is no war going on, and that the sum total of our life's calling is to be nice."

- Worship Leader / Songwriter Brian Doerksen from his new book, Make Love, Make War.

Story

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:06:00 +0000

In classic Randy Alcorn style, here is a little story to get you thinking about how silly we are to store up treasures on earth:

When you're on a long airplane flight, you naturally talk to people, socialize, eat, read, pray, sleep, or mayble talk about where you're going. But what would you think if a passenger by the window seat started hanging curtains over the window, taped photographs to the seat in front of him, painted murals, and put up wall hangings? You'd think, Hey it's not that long of a trip. Once we get to the destination, none of this will matter. Even a long plane flight is short compared to the span of your entire life. (pg 102)

(Thanks to David Heska for the quotes from his book!)

Supertones ROCK(ed)!

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:46:00 +0000

I've been watching some old Supertones songs on youtube today at lunch. So good!! I love their music and lyrics passion and references to Jonathan Edwards and everything else!

See wisdom and knowledge is one thing that we lack
You’ve been a christian how long and you’re still on similac
So I call on martin luther and all the reformation back
Then the common people couldn’t read god’s revelation
You had to be a monk or a priest or read latin
That was all before the revolution happened
But the fire cooled down ever since that generation
We put down the Bible and pick up the play station
And we can’t defend our faith ’cause we don’t even know it
We say we love his word but pick a funny way to show it.

So what about you
Will you join us
Will you admit that the waters around us have grown
You better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone
Do you stand with us or do we stand alone
It’s time that we stand up, enlist for the war
I’ve tasted battle and now I want more
I’ve known the truth and been cut to the core
But I’m back in the game to even the score
And I mean to go out with both my guns blazing
Amazed at a God who’s so truly amazing
To triumph in battle as the spirit enables
Can’t turn back the clock but we can turn the tables

Michael Scott Paper Company

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:27:00 +0000

This is Michael Scott's best idea yet!

HT: JT

C.S. Lewis and Pride

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:23:00 +0000

I read this on the Desiring God Blog:

As a new Christian in 1930, C. S. Lewis was learning terrible things about his heart—the unfathomable layers of pride. It is astonishing how similar his description of his own heart was to the description Jonathan Edwards gave of our inscrutable strata of self-admiration.

Here is Lewis writing to his friend Arthur, amazingly within a year after his conversion:

During my afternoon “meditations,”—which I at least attempt quite regularly now—I have found out ludicrous and terrible things about my own character. Sitting by, watching the rising thoughts to break their necks as they pop up, one learns to know the sort of thoughts that do come.

And, will you believe it, one out of every three is the thought of self-admiration: when everything else fails, having had its neck broken, up comes the thought “what an admirable fellow I am to have broken their necks!” I catch myself posturing before the mirror, so to speak, all day long. I pretend I am carefully thinking out what to say to the next pupil (for his good, of course) and then suddenly realize I am really thinking how frightfully clever I'm going to be and how he will admire me...

And then when you force yourself to stop it, you admire yourself for doing that. It is like fighting the hydra... There seems to be no end to it. Depth under depths of self-love and self-admiration. (quoted in The Narnian by Alan Jacobs, 133)

Not-Small Tactical Error

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:22:00 +0000

Then I make a not-small tactical error by asking Colson where he goes to church.

"I've always resented the phrase, 'Where do you go to church?' I don't go to a church; I'm a member of a church. You don't ask where somebody 'goes' to a country club. I'm not talking about where you're going, I'm talking about where you plant your flag and say, 'The is where I'm a Christian.'"

- from Why We Love The Church, page 146

And another

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:13:00 +0000

This is so easy - you just take 30 seconds to change the song and then a little while later they send you a new video!

Another Remix (new song)

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:29:00 +0000

First Remix

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:17:00 +0000

I think I like this remix more:

Animoto

noreply@blogger.com (Mark D. Smith) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:43:00 +0000

It turned out great: