My truck’s a beater (better than an old limo). It’s a severely hail-damaged 4-cylinder with crank windows, manual locks, an aftermarket air-conditioner, and a ton of miles. It may not last much longer. I’m a family man now so when the wheels fall off of this one the next truck is gonna be a people-mover. [...]
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Peas & Carrots. I Hate Carrots.
The world is full of traditional pairings. You know, stuff that just always seems to go together. PB & J Parties & regrets Jordan & Pippen Dating & drama etc… You can’t seem to have one without the other. Sometimes that magnetism makes for great things (i.e., PB & J) and sometimes not (i.e., dating [...]
Continue Reading →Why the Bible won’t spoon feed your politics to you
There has always been a debate about how to apply what we read in the Bible about politics. Israel was a theocracy. That meant (among other things) that the Church and the State weren’t separated. Taxes and tithes were all dumped into the same pot! But that system changed when Israel demanded a king. At that [...]
Continue Reading →How to know God’s will (or at least a start)
3 of 3 (FYI, Here’s part 1 and part 2) The ‘how-to’ section is always tough. So here are a few disclaimers: this isn’t an exhaustive list. this isn’t a formula or a trick. this doesn’t exclude the obvious! That being said, when you’re trying to figure out God’s personal will, working through this list sure [...]
Continue Reading →God’s will, downgraded.
Yesterday: some different forms of God’s will. Today: a false distinction between forms of God’s will. I’ll keep this simple: The oft-discussed ‘perfect will of God’ is a redundant statement. If it’s his will it’s perfect, by default. The problem with the phrase is that it gives rise to a false version of God’s will: the [...]
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Royal Jelly
A queen bee is special. No queen, no colony. She’s royalty. But apparently, in terms of DNA, every bee in the colony is identical. They all start out the same: jobless, genderless, larvae. And when the time comes for a new queen a larva is chosen (again, no different than the ones around it). This [...]
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You’re not aging well
Limos don’t age well. I drove by an older one a few weeks back. It looked terrible. And not for reasons you might think: It had been maintained well. It was clean and free of dents. It was driven by a professional-looking, kind-faced chap. It wasn’t even that old, actually (it was probably newer than [...]
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Vineyard Lab: Digital Giving at Church
We’re always kicking ideas around at the Maryville Vineyard. At the moment, we’re working on how to create more and better digital giving options. We have online giving available via PayPal. People are using it more and more, which is cool. Some folks give from their paychecks with an automatic withdrawal that comes to us [...]
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Fringe
We do a lot of brainstorming where I work. Occasionally an idea will be shot down because it won’t be applicable or helpful to the bulk of people. Something like this will be said, “That will only appeal to the fringe.” Good point. We’ve got limited resources and we want to impact as many people as [...]
Continue Reading →My Favorite Rules to Break
Some rules are dumb. Legalistic types in ancient Israel made it a rule that you couldn’t spit in the dirt on the Sabbath. The idea was that spitting in the dirt was similar to mixing mortar…which is work. And, of course, you can’t work on the Sabbath. Therefore: Spit on the dirt: you sin! Spit [...]
Kyle needs prayer, and our help
Kyle Mules is an incredible kid. He’s also incredibly sick right now. He’s fighting a ruthless virus called Guillain-Barre, along with severe pneumonia and other complications. He’s in ICU at Children’s Hospital. Kyle’s mom, Kelly, recently posted on facebook: Last night the warm peace of Jesus came over me and held me tight…I KNOW HE is [...]
Getting Things Done
Time was in short supply. For me, there never seemed to be enough time to do my work and serve my family the way the Bible teaches (the way that I want to). Week after week one or both of those things got shorted. And week after week, the guilt and the stress grew. But [...]
