Street Drummer

I'm gonna watch this more than once. A popular street drummer on Pitt St. in Australia.

It looks like he goes by Gordo Drummer on YouTube. Here's one he posted...

My Baby Makes Me Gravy

I saw Dale Watson by accident one night  on Austin City Limits and he started with this song. I can't not share it. This isn't from that performance, but it's pretty hard to mess up this song. It may be the greatest song of all time.

Book Review: In Search of Deep Faith

The Gospel Coalition published my review of In Search of Deep Faith (Amazon|Kindle) by Jim Belcher. It's one of the best books I've read in some time, mostly because it wasn't just trying to tell me something. It took me somewhere. My family and I have started to read it aloud together and it's changing the way we think about God and what He is doing with us. Here's a couple of paragraphs from the opening of my review. Please go read the whole review. I encourage you to pick up this book. 

After reviewing Jim Belcher’s first book in 2009, Deep Church, I was eager to get my hands on In Search of Deep Faith. I’m thankful for the opportunity to offer a review, as this book deserves a wide audience.

I’ve been a pastor for the past 10 years and have a wife and four children. Belcher founded and pastored Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, California, until he stepped out of ministry in 2010. He pastored there for 10 years. Jim is also married with four kids. There are obvious reasons for me to resonate with his story. Like this:

What I really needed was spiritual rest. I needed to take stock of my life, rediscover where I came from and where I may be going. I wanted to take a year to walk in the steps of my heroes, read their books again and marinate in their lives—go deeper into their stories and learn from them all over again. It was going to be like a pilgrimage, a time to spiritually and experientially connect with the places and people that had most influenced me. And, most importantly, to reconnect to God. (13)

This is the backdrop for a book about the Belcher family’s pilgrimage to some important places where faithful disciples who have gone before us have lived and served. Some of them suffered, and all of them died with deep faith in God. You don’t need to be a pastor or have young kids to resonate with this pilgrimage. You just have to be a disciple in search of the same deep faith.

Please go and finish reading my review. I'm very thankful for this book.

Lots-o-Links 2.12.14

New Phantogram, Voices, is really compelling. Stream the whole thing FREE right now.

It's poppy, dark, electric, fun, grindy, and more. If you had any love for Chvrches, you just might love this one too. Make sure you make it at least through the third song, "Fall In Love." Trust me.

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Race, Religion, Puritans: An Interview With Richard Bailey | Richard is a good friend and author of Race and Redemption in Puritan New England (Kindle). A sample...

Moore: It is not well known that Jonathan Edwards owned slaves.  How should we think of Edwards in light of this reality?

Bailey: I am not 100% certain how to answer this question, David. I am glad that this fact about Edwards is becoming more commonly known and I am glad that my book can have something to do with that fact.

But how to think of Edwards? Well, Jonathan Edwards is certainly more than simply a slave owner. He is an important figure in the development of American evangelicalism and the modern missions movement. He is one of America’s most prominent philosophers and theologians. He certainly ought to be remembered for those sorts of legacies. But he also was a purchaser of human flesh. He actively defended and participated in the slave trade. And I’d argue he must be remembered for that, as well. I think that is what it means to take on the virtual amnesias of our pasts.

The one way I would encourage people NOT to think of Jonathan Edwards is as “a man of his time.” That sort of phrase doesn’t really mean anything; rather, it is a way of not thinking about Edwards. And I hope people will continue to think about him, relying of the historical work of George Marsden in Jonathan Edwards: A Life (Yale University Press, 2003) or the recent novel by Susan Stinson, Spider in a Tree (Small Beer Press, 2013) to get a more complete picture not only of the man, but also of the society and culture of which he was a part.

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The Seven Benefits of Keeping a Daily Journal by Michael Hyatt | I don't do this but this makes me want to do something like this. Here are his points, but he elaborates on each and offers a lot more context on his website. Be sure to read the whole thing.

1. Process previous events. 
2. Clarify my thinking. 
3. Understand the context. 
4. Notice my feelings. 
5. Connect with my heart.
6. Record significant lessons.
7. Ask important questions. 

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Alt-J had my #2 album of 2012 with An Awesome Wave. Their coolest song among an album of quirky coolness is "Fitzpleasure." This is an amazing acapella version...by what appears to be a group of UK schoolboys? 

HGM: Bad Debt

Every so often an album comes along that reminds me why I search for good music far beyond what's on the radio and being advertised. I want music that makes me think and feel. I want music that makes me search through the lyrics to dig in deeper. I want hints at the backstory of the life of the songwriter, someone who writes out of their own experience. Those albums are great albums.

Bad Debt is the almost-new album by Hiss Golden Messenger (M.C. Taylor) and it's right in the sweet spot of that kind of greatness. Taylor recorded these songs at his kitchen table while his family, including his firstborn son, was sleeping in the winter of 2009. The original release of the album didn't last long after the CD stock was destroyed in the 2010 London riots.

Now given a proper release, we get to hear this remarkable album. It's just a man, his guitar, and his songs. Lo-fi. Simple. Oh so simple. You feel like you are sitting on the other side of a narrow room listening to songs that were written long ago and have never been so relevant. I encourage you to pick it up and sit under their spell. 

Reviews worth reading --> Pitchfork 8.2/10 - "an album deeply concerned with the nature of faith and man’s relationship with his Maker" | Paste 8.6/10 - "just fundamentally phenomenal" | Slant 4/5 - "utterly ageless, like a surviving relic from time immemorial"

Mohler: The Conviction to Lead

I was around Dr. Albert Mohler as a student not too long after he lead a massive turnaround at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. What he accomplished and the stories I heard from his lips and the stories I've heard for many others ring in my ears on the days I need to remember that things can change, that God can change things, and that He calls us to lead change. Because of that, I want to recommend to you his book The Conviction to Lead. It's $4.99 for Kindle right now. 

Swifting With Ryu

My favorite update of this Taylor Swift "Swifting" video yet. So great. (Thanks to Max who commented with this link.)

10 Creative Rituals

Thought-provoking ideas about how to sustain creativity: "10 Creative Rituals You Should Steal." I've listed them and given you one in full so you get the idea. But you should check out the whole article. 

1. Take a Quarterly Vacation
2. Hold a “Retrospective” After Projects
3. Write Every Day
4. Create an “Interesting People Fund”
5. Keep “Tear Sheets” to Get Inspired
6. Nap Every Day
7. Envision What You Will Be Remembered For
8. Brainstorm at the Bar
9. Get Out of the Building
10. Engage in “Morphological Synthesis” 

One full example from #9 "Get Out of the Building"...

Radio host Garrison Keillor makes sure to get into the “observable world”:

I don’t think that one should sit and look at a blank page. The way around it is to walk around with scrap paper and to take notes, and simply to take notes on the observable world around you. If you walk into this room and see these great columns and think this was once a savings bank, you could put those two things together, and make some notes here – that would be the start of something.

I think everything – everything – starts with the observable world, and even though you may cut that out of your final go, nonetheless I think this is where it always starts, and with overheard conversations. There are a lot of conversations here that could be overheard, and you’re probably more likely to get them in the back of the room.

Darkness Can Slowly Creep In

From Jen Thorn...

You know, you can find yourself in a dark spot without tragedy turning your life upside down. Darkness can slowly creep in like a cool fog until it has filled your heart.

And Satan rejoices when this happens, because during these times I am useless for the Kingdom, or so it seems. I don’t do a good job encouraging my husband or pointing my kids to Jesus. Satan loves that. I forget what the providence of God really means and ignore his word. I become discontent and unhappy. I am sure this makes Satan cheer because my quest for godliness seems to have come to a screeching halt.

The path to godliness is not a “flowery” path full of ease and sunshine. Though I really wish it was.  It is instead an uphill road filled with difficulty, pitfalls, enemies, thorns, confusion, and sometimes darkness.

Read the rest: "Treasures in the Dark" by Jen Thorn

Amanda Tweeted About Dying With Cancer

I don't know if it's true. Some have said maybe not. Either way it makes you think about life and death. Something we can learn from...

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Amanda was diagnosed last year with terminal brain cancer and tweeted about it. It's very sad and it's very much worth your time. This video takes you through her last few months of tweets. She wasn't a Christian and didn't think about life and death like most of my readers do. She also didn't use language all my readers use, so be aware. But these last tweets of her life give us new eyes to understand our neighbors, and even ourselves. If you are anything like me, it will generate questions and provoke thoughts that will inform your ministry and even spark discussion with friends and loved ones. It's remarkable because it's rare to get a view into someone in social media this way. It's sad for so many reasons.

Cheap Kindle Books 2.5.14

• One With Christ: An Evangelical Theology of Salvation by Marcus Peter Johnson ($4.99)
• Brothers, We Are Not Professionals ($2.99) & Let the Nations Be Glad ($2.51) by John Piper
• Against the Gods: A Polemical Theology of the OT by John Currid ($3.99)
• Fallen: A Theology of Sin by several authors ($4.99)
• Still Sovereign by Schreiner & Ware ($4.39)
• Gospel-Centered Teaching by Trevin Wax ($2.99)
• What is a Healthy Church by Mark Dever ($1.99)
• The Finished Work of Christ by Francis Schaeffer ($4.99)

Lots-o-Links 2.5.14

I Don't Worship God By Singing. I Connect With Him Elsewhere by Donald Miller -- This is an important post and an important issue. I don't agree with Miller but he speaks for many and evangelicals and pastors need to talk about the issues Miller brings up and respond reasonably and not just react.

So, do I attend church? Not often, to be honest.

Like I said, it’s not how I learn.

Miller's follow up post - Miller responds to certain comments he received after the initial post and elaborates on what he's already said.

While I love the traditional church, I love it like a foundational part of my past, as though it were a University I’ve graduated from to join a much larger church those still in the University program are quite suspicious of.

[...]

I’d say half of the most impactful people I know, who love Jesus and tear up at the mention of His name, who reach out to the poor and lonely and are fundamentally sound in their theology, who create institutions that feed hundreds of thousands, do not attend a traditional church service. Many of them even speak at churches, but they have no home church and don’t long for one. They aren’t wired to be intimate with God by attending a lecture and hearing singing (which there is NOTHING wrong with) they are wired to experience God by working with Him.

Journalists at Sochi Tweeting Their Experiences -- If you aren't following Sochi journalists, now is the time to start. This is frightening, sad, and ridiculous. 

My hotel has no water. If restored, the front desk says, "do not use on your face because it contains something very dangerous." #Sochi2014

— Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) February 4, 2014

Romans 1-7 For You by Tim Keller is out. About this series of books...

• READ: As a guide to this wonderful letter, helping you appreciate the great gift of righteousness with God.
• FEED: As a daily devotional to help you grow in Christ as you read and meditate on this portion of God’s word.
• LEAD: As notes to aid you in explaining, illustrating and applying Romans 1–7 as you preach or lead a Bible study.

Worldview Responses to the 2014 Grammys -- I love the idea of collecting short-ish responses to a cultural event. You get very different thoughts often from people who view the event from very different angles. I love the response from Greg Thornbury of King's College. Here's the opening paragraph of it...

If you heard the sound of yawning around America this morning, it wasn't because the country stayed up too late watching the Grammys, it's because we've gotten bored with them. The Grammys once mattered because pop music mattered. Once upon a time, J. Edgar Hoover monitored the movement of rock stars like John Lennon because he was a perceived political threat, because he was anti-establishment. Nowadays, our rock stars are the establishment, and that's not very, well, rock and roll.

Jared Wilson, #DGPasCon, & Storytelling God

It looks like Jared Wilson is beside himself as he speaks at the Desiring God Pastors' Conference because he realizes they stole his new book cover for their backdrop and branding!

Ok, he probably loves it. I do! Jared's speaking at a conference about The Vine and the Branches and he wrote a book about the parables, The Storytelling God, which comes out later this month. 

Pre-order it: Amazon | Kindle. More at Crossway.

Trying Out iPhone 5s Slow Motion Video

This is my first try at using the slo-mo feature on the iPhone 5s. I was out with Elijah (13) and Daniel (10 1/2) and got a short crash video from Danny. Nothing really done but slow motion and quick upload to YouTube before pasting here. I wasn't even thinking about landscaping my phone! Anyway, if you are looking for real world examples of what the 5s slo-mo feature looks like, here you go. I think the results are pretty great.

Short-Term Family Resolutions

I'm really bad at keeping New Year's resolutions. I know a lot of folks are. Making resolutions remains a big part of our culture. So does breaking them. 

In the last year or two my family has started to shift toward short-term resolutions, disciplines, and habit-building. It puts our goals within reach. We still have longer term goals, but by creating bite-sized "wins" we help ourselves take manageable strides toward them. We still make mistakes, as I explain below, but because the resolutions are short-term we get to adjust in the short-term.

This is what we have been doing.

We locate a date 3-6 weeks off. It might be the day a vacation starts, a holiday, the day school is over, etc. There's always something 3-6 weeks out we can choose as an end date. Then we think about and talk about what we want to do and write it down. Different types of fasting are involved as well as disciplines. 

Here are main areas of focus as we kicked off 2014. We called it a "January Fast" (though it wasn't only fasting).

• BIBLE READING - The kids and Molly completed a 24 day reading plan through Luke. The kids also completed a 5 day reading plan on student leadership. I read the New Testament in full in January. We picked and followed our plans through YouVersion. The family mostly read in their personal Bibles and I read YouVersion on my iPad. I've never done that and liked it a lot more than I expected. 
• FOOD - We limited, beyond regular family limitations, intake of sugary drinks/soda. The most difficult food-related fast was not going out to eat in January. We had grown lazy with that and needed a change.
• GAMES - We fasted from some of our favorite video games, mostly on the PS3. I haven't played Black Ops II for a month. That was difficult. My two youngest boys and typically play for 20 minutes almost every day.
• COMPUTERS - We put tighter limits on the use of computers and electronics by the kids for January. We had two "no electronics" days a week in January.

There were other pieces of the "January Fast" that we planned and only completed in part. Some reading I didn't finish, for example. I planned too much. We did some Bible memory, but not all we wanted. Our family worship didn't quite go as planned. And we were going to do a more traditional fast from food during the month but somehow it didn't happen (my youngest pointed that out). But with short-term family resolutions we are always only a few weeks away from hitting refresh, changing goals, fasting from something new, or whatever else we'd like to work on. 

In the past we've done things like no-shopping fasts where we have to make meals out of whatever is in the freezer and pantry so that we don't shop for more food for a few weeks. It's amazing how much great food keeps getting passed over and over.

To break our "January Fast" we are going out to eat tonight. It's probably going to be something simple, a burger and a Coke. But we don't know for sure where we are going because every time we try to discuss it with the kids they keep talking about what God's been teaching them though the fast! It's been a very cool, and in many ways difficult, January. But it's been good. I'm sure tonight we'll be talking about what "fast" we'll try before spring break!

Keep On Creating

"It takes a while, it's gonna take you a while, it's normal to take a while, and you just have to fight your way through that." -Ira Glass

“The most important possible thing you could do is…do a huge volume of work.”

The Fault In Our Stars | Trailer

I've been looking forward to the trailer for The Fault In Our Stars for a while now. The movie is based on the John Green book with the same title. The trailer is both heartbreaking and hopeful.

If you want to know what your neighbors will be watching, and feeling, and longing for, and crying over...this is it. It brings together life and death, the fear of oblivion, the hope of finding love, and a bunch more.

You may want to check out the book before the movie releases in June (Amazon | Kindle).

Goldeneye

I have seen some interesting things while at the doctor before on x-rays, MRIs, etc. I've never seen this. Elijah (13) has something wrong with his eye. Red, irritated, not pink eye. Dye was put in his eye to check for a scratch yesterday. This photo has no filters or adjustments. Dye and a blue light to check it. Awesome.

Pete Seeger Dead at 94

I've learned a little about Pete Seeger through some documentaries I've watched recently. His life included a lot of controversy and a lot of song. Regardless of your view of him, his music remains and his influence was and is wide. From the NYT...

Mr. Seeger was a prime mover in the folk revival that transformed popular music in the 1950s. As a member of the Weavers, he sang hits including Lead Belly’s “Goodnight, Irene” — which reached No. 1 — and “If I Had a Hammer,” which he wrote with the group’s Lee Hays. Another of Mr. Seeger’s songs, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?,” became an antiwar standard. And in 1965, the Byrds had a No. 1 hit with a folk-rock version of “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” Mr. Seeger’s setting of a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes. (via NYT)

I can't help but see him as a cultural "worship leader" of sorts, as you can see with songs like "If I Had A Hammer" and "Michael Row the Boat Ashore." He believed that there is a power in song. You can find some of those songs in albums like If I Had A Hammer: Songs of Hope and Struggle.

As Christians it would be good for us to consider the power and possibility of creating songs a culture can sing beyond the church. Is there value in that? Is there anyone out there doing that? How can we foster artists who make a cultural impact? 

Worldviews & Whirlwinds

I'm fascinated by a couple of new titles for sale at WTSbooks.com. In particular, the description of What's Your Worldview...

How do you view the world?
It's a big question. And how you answer is one of the most important things about you.

Not sure what you'd say? Join James Anderson on an interactive journey of discovery aimed at helping you understand and evaluate the options when it comes to identifying your worldview. Cast in the mold of a classic “Choose Your Own Adventure” story, What's Your Worldview? will guide you toward finding intellectually satisfying answers to life's biggest questions—equipping you to think carefully about not only what you believe but why you believe it and how it impacts the rest of your life.

Endorsements by D.A. Carson, John Frame and others.

Tim Keller endorses David Wells' new book, God in the Whirlwind...

In this important book, David Wells begins the process of bringing his influential critique of late modern culture and the church down into practice. Here we have a ‘practical theology’ for conducting the church’s life based on the reality of a God of ‘Holy-love.’ This particular way of understanding and preaching the doctrine of God, Wells believes, protects the church from either being co-opted by the culture or becoming a ghettoized subculture. Decades of teaching theology is boiled down here into accessible, practical chapters. I’m glad to recommend this volume.