Current Tunage: JustMe – The Song
My next rap review will be JustMe’s album “One Man’s Trash”. So far, it’s sounding pretty decent – hasn’t stood the test of repeated scrutiny yet, mind.

One of the perks of being married to a schoolteacher is that I’ve been getting sick more. I’m sure anyone that works with kids will verify that working with kids inevitably equals more sickness. I had a friend who used to rent in a house that doubled as a daycare and he was in and out of being sick all the time.

Anyways, all this is to say, I’m not feeling well at all. I’ve started work on the first content post of The Second Reformation series (tenatively titled: “Lost Love?”) which, as a teaser, will be working out of Revelation 2:1-7 in your trusty ESV or translation of choice.

Until then, check out Matt Chandler’s post today on TheResurgence, as I found it a most excellent challenge and observation.

Here’s an excerpt:

Here are a few men who loved our great God and King and were obedient beyond the norm:

  • Moses spends his whole life with grumbling whiners and dies without getting to walk into the promised land.
  • Samson suicide bombs the Philistines – and when the dust settles, he is dead and the Philistines still rule over Israel.
  • David’s son rapes his sister and leads a rebellion against David, dethroning him for a season.
  • Jeremiah ends up in exile with the rest of the country after repeatedly getting beaten for preaching what God commanded him to preach.
  • John the Baptist is beheaded by a pervert who gives his head to a 15-year-old stripper.
  • Peter is killed, reportedly crucified upside down.
  • Paul is killed in Rome but only after he spends his life (with thorn intact) being beaten, rejected, lost at sea, and consistently dealing with people coming in behind him and destroying what he built.

-Matt Chandler, Pursuit – posted on theresurgence.com

The questions this prompted in me are:

1. What does it say about us (as Pastors, Teachers, Servants) if our “ministry” makes us superstars and much-loved folks outside the body of Christ?

2. If the cross is an offense (see Gal. 5 and 1 Cor 1), why are so many who claim it so “nice” when they should be decidedly “offensive”? What does their manner and their reception in the world reveal about the gospel they preach or teach?

You can read the full post [here].