Yesterday I had to call Microsoft Tech support. We are trying to use our computer to send and receive faxes. We've never done that before, but we're trying to set it up that way. So I called Microsoft so they could help me set it up.

I could actually understand what he was saying and he didn't sound like he was in India, so I was hopeful. He was also very friendly.

First he has me pull up Windows "Fax and Scan feature" and read it to him. Step 1 for setup says to plug my fax line into my fax modem. I have no fax modem. I explain this to him. He asks me if I have any modem, I tell him I have a DSL modem. He says, "In all honesty, I've never actually heard of a fax modem before. This is new to me." He asks me to hold while he researches this issue...

When he comes back to me, his first words to me are...

Wait for it....

"According to Wikipedia..."

You can pick yourself up off the floor now.

So now Microsoft techs are using Wikipedia for their research. You may go ahead and let your laughter out now. No one around you will mind. I wonder if Wikipedia knows this? I can see the ad tag now, "Microsoft uses us to learn how to use their own products."

Also spoken to me by my Microsoft tech support specialist while we were talking...

"Pardon me, but my browser is going slow. It's been acting funky all day."

I wonder if I should have suggested that he try Firefox?

Finally, he discovered by doing "research" that I need to go buy another modem, one that will be analog so that it can dial phone numbers, which a digital modem will not. Though he's not sure even then that it will work. He suggested I call my ISP to make sure they would recognize it and support it. In my Microsoft guy's defense, the dude at my ISP tech support had never heard of it either. And he said, "I asked around and all the other guys around here are shrugging their shoulders."

I should also say in my Microsoft guy's defense, that he was a very nice guy and he really tried. I don't blame him. I blame the Microsoft machine (both literal and metaphorical.)

So apparently, Microsoft Windows has been listing as a feature for a decade now that your computer can send and receive faxes, but no one actually knows how. I have this theory that no one actually does it, but we all assume that someone out there is...

It's like having a red button that says "turbo boost" on your car you've never pushed. You have it, so it must be cool...but you never use it. I wonder how many other features Windows claims to have, but they aren't actually real things?

I close with my second favorite quote (following "According to Wikipedia...") spoken by my Microsoft Rep...

"Oh my God. I'm getting blocked by a firewall on my end."

:-)

I'm so tired of updates on my computer. I get the dumb reminder, and it wants to install, (or it installs itself) and then it tells me I have to restart, and if I don't it'll eventually do it to me anyway when I walk away from the computer. And it's not just Window's, it's all kinds of programs. Feels like every program needs to update:
Virus Protection
Web Browser (in my case, firefox. They're the worst offenders. It's like once a week.)
Flash
Java
Adobe
Microsoft
Even the HP printer has updates...

And I'm sure there's more. It seems that every few days, someone wants to install an update which I wouldn't care so much about except that I have to restart my computer. And that's a pain, because I have all kinds of stuff I'm working on, and I hate having to remember what all I had pulled up so that I can go reopen it all again...and then I have to keep clicking "remind me later" over and over all day. Aaaargh! Enough Already!

Anybody know of a way around that?

I've thought of two ways:
1- A way for the computer to save all my stuff and restore it after the restart. The computer does save all my stuff,(it's called "hibernate") but a full restart cancels that out.
2-The computer could put all the updates in a bin, and do it all at once, once a month.

Am I the only one that gets aggravated by that?

Heeeeere's Helmut:

‘The conscience is not serene or troubled according to what we have done or not done. Peace of conscience depends solely upon what we are, i.e., on whether we believe – and the extent to which we believe – in the boundless unconditioned mercy of God … It is theologically wrong to try to pacify a conscience-stricken person by talking away his sins. To do so is to try to cure him by means of the “outer tent.” But there is no healing here, and cannot be. In fact the heart of his problem is that he is still loitering in this forecourt. The only way we can help is to point him to the εφαπαξ that which took place once-and-for-all for him in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ’. – Helmut Thielicke, Theological Ethics Volume 1: Foundations (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979), 310.

There's nothing more to say except, "Amen."

I did not know that. I'm glad. Yaaaay! I love that guy. (Just saw that he had a bit part in "Did you hear about the Morgans?")

Who else is still alive that you ummmmm, might not expect to be?

. . . about Glenn Beck before now. I haven't watched his show recently, but when I did in the past I found him somewhat funny, and someone that I could agree with on a number of things (but not everything, and certainly I could do without the hyperbole).

Then I see this.

I don't really care if other people like soccer or not. I know it doesn't mesh that well with American sports sensibilities and tastes. I used to think it was awfully boring myself.

But to imply that I'm un-American for liking it?

Soccer to me represents the last 8 years of seeing my now twelve-year-old son have an absolute blast - and lots of success - on the field. He's worked his way up to the top team on a local select club and is at the age where things are about to really get interesting out there on the pitch. His dream of dreams would be to play in a World Cup someday, and he and his friends yelled themselves hoarse during the USA-England match at the beginning of World Cup pool play.

I say all that to say this: we bring our experiences, our understandings, and our culture to our sports. Many Europeans think basketball's boring, for instance.

Don't get me wrong - I find humor in American jokes about soccer (so, my facebook friend who has engaged in humor at FutBol's expense, this is not directed at you). But I'm reminded of one time when I was talking to a friend of mine at church, one who was generally very critical of a lot of things (and entering his Calvin Cage-Phase, by the way). I mentioned something about soccer, and he rolled his eyes and said "third world sport" and then started complaining about immigration or something. That had a different "feel", and it wasn't even subtle. It wasn't "I think soccer's dumb". It was UGLY XENOPHOBIC AMERICAN.

So, Glenn Beck, go take a flying leap. The USA made it into the second round today!

I have a special place in my heart for those who wandered from the faith of their youth.

When I come across such folks, I often wonder if there was anything the parents could have done differently to prevent this. Obviously, I'm not blaming every parent of every prodigal.

However, there are those Christians who are more Pharisee (more elder brother) than anything else, so that they cause their kids to become the younger brother. (i.e. prodigals.)

I recently came across this Mommy blog post:

Crisis of Faith & Salsa
May 29, 2007

We went to Chipotle for lunch on Sunday. Jason stood in line while I snagged an empty table. As I tried to navigate Noah and a high chair across the crowded restaurant, hoping to not whack anybody in the ankles, I felt the weight of the high chair vanish. A young man wordlessly took it from me and carried it to my table, while I thanked him repeatedly, surprised at the unexpected help -- and also at how surprised I was about the unexpected help.

He sat down at his own table, bowed his head and prayed silently over his burrito.

I remember how my family used to pray over meals in restaurants. I remember not caring for a lot of years, and then I remember caring so very much. I remember my face flushing with embarrassment as my parents prayed aloud over burgers and fries at Friendly's, while our waitress hovered nearby, unsure whether placing the ketchup bottle on the table would disturb our communion with the Lord Father in Heaven.

A few minutes later a family asked the man if they could join him at his oversized table since there weren't any other seats. They were obviously eating out post-Church, dressed in their Sunday best, like my family had done almost every Sunday for my entire life. We attended a casual church but dressed up anyway -- it was disrespectful otherwise, although at some point in time I think my mother consented to letting my wear nice pants instead of a dress.

Soon the entire table was engaged in an easy, friendly sort of conversation. I wondered if the family had seen the young man say grace a few minutes earlier, or if they saw his shorts and t-shirt and assumed he needed to be saved. I wondered if they'd try to save his soul right there, like the time I made that little boy ask Jesus into his heart on the playground at McDonald's.

I wondered what they thought of my family, just one table away, all wearing shorts and flip-flops. I wondered if they felt sorry for Noah, like I used to feel sorry for the children at the booth next to us on Sundays, the day it was easiest to tell who went to church and who was a Godless lazy heathen.

I remember stressing about the fate of our fellow restaurant patrons to the point that I was unable to eat -- what if that baby over there never heard about God? Would it be my fault for not talking to her parents today? Would she go to hell because I was too busy enjoying my clown sundae with the M&Ms at the bottom to plant the seed of faith in their hearts and would Jesus look at me sadly one day in heaven because I'd been the crucial part in his plan for that little girl? Would he show me the jewels I could have had in my crown that I'd forfeited because I'd been too embarrassed to close my eyes during grace that day, when that's all it would have taken to be a witness for Christ?

The family asked the young man about where he worked and lived and how long he'd been here in America. They asked him whether the burritos were authentic or not, and whether he liked the hot salsa.

"They're different, but good." he answered with a smile. "And I like the medium."

I thought about how I ended up with a child named for a Bible story but who has never been to church. Who has never been baptized. I thought about the children's Bibles and religious books our families have given us and wondered whether they worry that we'll never tell him about Jesus. Or whether the salvation of his soul is their burden alone. I wondered what in the world I'm supposed to tell him about his Fisher-Price Noah's Ark playset.

I wondered what happened to my faith and my fervor and my absolute belief in the Bible and the existence of God and heaven. I wondered when everything got so messed up for me, and why I have such ambivalence to the idea of putting on some nice pants and going to church on Sunday.

The church family's little boy spilled some rice, and the young man handed them his extra napkins.

I wonder if he'll ever know how much his actions spoke to me this Sunday.

I usually want to grab people like this, and with compassion say, "Please don't blame Jesus for the bad experiences you had. And please know that God is like the Father in the story of the Prodigal Son, not the elder brother.

Reading things like this also make me think carefully about how I am raising my own children "in the Lord." I want them to know the love of God, not legalism. This now grown lady's parents are probably good Bible-believing people who didn't necessarily do anything wrong but raise their child in the faith.

I don't know what to think about her childhood worries about whether the baby at the table next to her would go to hell or not. (Of course, if her parents had just raised her to be a Calvinist maybe she wouldn't have felt so much pressure. :-)

The following excerpt comes from the great Helmut Thielicke's sermon "The Parable of the Prodigal Son." Here he is talking about when the son comes to himself in the pigsty.

Now for the first time he begins to realize what it means not to be with the father, no more to be a son. so this is the end of his freedom, his autonomy, and whatever other glittering terms one may use.

The fact is, of course, that we are always subject to one master. Either to God, and then we are in the Father's house, possessing the freedom of the children of God, sons and not servants, with constant access tot he Father. Or we are subject to our urges and therefore to ourselves, subject to our dependence on men, subject to our fears - with which our hearts are always well supplied - our worries, our Mammon.

There is no such thing as neutrality between these two masters. And we begin to surmise what Luther was saying when he spoke of our human life as a battlefield between these two masters. We are not masters at all, as the prodigal son wanted to be; we are only "battlefields" between the real masters. In other words, the question we face is whether we want to be the child of the one or the slave of the other.

"I wanted to be free," says the prodigal son to himself - perhaps he cries it aloud, "I wanted to become myself; and I thought I would get all this by cutting myself off from my father and my roots, fool that I am! I have found nothing but chains!" And bitter laughter goes up from the pigsty.

That he should have wanted to separate himself from his father now seems just as ridiculous as that a person should fret over being dependent on air and then hold his breath in order to assert his freedom. We cannot with impunity - actually, without being utterly foolish - separate ourselves from the element in which we live and have our being. We can't take God off as we would take off a shirt. To separate ourselves from the Father is at bottom not merely "unbelief" at all, but simply the most monstrous kind of silliness.

Brilliant.

They're finally going to make a film adaptation of the C.S. Lewis classic The Great Divorce.
Mpower Pictures ("The Stoning of Soraya M.") and Beloved Pictures are teaming to co-produce C.S. Lewis' fantasy novel "The Great Divorce."

Veteran producer and Mpower CEO Steve McEveety will lead the production team. Childrens' book author N.D. Wilson ("Leepike Ridge," "100 Cupboards") is attached to write.

Lewis, who wrote the "Chronicles of Narnia" books and often wove Christian themes into his works, published "The Great Divorce" in 1945. Story centers on a man who learns that the sprawling, dim metropolis where he's been living is actually Hell; he hops on a bus headed for the outskirts of Elsewhere, only to discover that the one place worse than Hell, for a self-absorbed ad executive, just might be Heaven.

Mpower was created by McEveety in 2007 after he'd been a longtime exec at Mel Gibson's Icon Prods. He produced "The Passion of the Christ" and "We Were Soldiers" and exec produced "Braveheart" and "What Women Want."

(Screenwriter N.D. Wilson, btw, is pastor/wordsmith/curmudgeon Douglas Wilson's son.)

Helmut Thielicke was one of the most influential pastor/preacher/theologians of his time. I know, you're thinking, "Who?" Thielicke was a German theologian and preacher extraordinairre.

My first introduction to him was through the little book "A little exercise for young theologians", which is not for kindergartners, like it might sound. It's for anyone who is on the threshold of studying, really studying, theology.

But Thielicke did so much more than that.

When he spoke out against the Third Reich, he lost his teaching post and went to the German countryside to be a pastor.

After WW2, the world discovered him. He wrote the three-volume systematic theology, "The Evangelical Faith." He continued to teach, and on the weekends preached to thousands. He wrote an important book on Charles Spurgeon. He is said to have said, "Sell all you have and buy Spurgeon."

Many of his sermons were translated into English and were published here in the States. Thousands used to flock to hear him preach. If you can find anything by him, buy him. You won't be disappointed.

I can't tell you how much he has had an impact on me personally. My church members probably get tired of hearing about him...

I have learned more from him about the importance of the balance between head and heart when being a pastor-teacher than anyone else who has ever lived. (Yes, even more than D.A. Carson and John Piper. His autobiography, "Notes from a Wayfarer" should be required reading. In fact, it is. From now on, you are required to read it, because I said so;-) The story of him going to a little church in the German countryside during the war, is a story of a theologian learning how to be a pastor. It's powerful stuff. When he eventually regains a teaching post, he never forgets the lessons he learned about the importance of connecting God and people. The dude was real and he's my hero.

By the way, if you're going to start reading him, you better know how to pronounce his name. tea-LICK-eee. Practice it, because I plan to start telling you more about him... :-)

Back in Billy Graham's hay-day, not everyone was thrilled about him. Theologians in particular were not so sure about his approach.

From this blog:

“The great Swiss theologian Karl Barth once stood in the rain to hear Graham preach in Basel. When he told Graham that the sermon from John 3:3 was good but should not have stressed the must in ‘you must be born again,’ Graham begged to differ (and was soon gratified to hear another great theologian, Emil Brunner, affirm his position). But then Graham closes this account concerning Barth with these words: ‘In spite of our theological differences, we remained good friends.’” (Mark Noll, American Evangelical Christianity: An Introduction, Blackwell 2001, p. 47)

Another important theologian, Helmut Thielicke, also attended a Billy Graham crusade, but with certain preconceived notions which put Thielicke in an ill disposition toward the popular preacher. However, after coming under the preaching of Graham, Thielicke experienced an awakening of sort...

In Thielicke’s autobiography, Notes from a Wayfarer, he recounts the situation:

My meeting with Billy Graham, who was at that time holding his huge evangelization crusades in Los Angeles stadium, was of great importance to me. I at first had reservations about accepting his invitation to sit next to him on the balustrade.

When I then did indeed do so on the insistence of my friends, I kept my eyes wide open critically. As the people came forward in their thousands to confess their faith, however, I was aware only of calm meditation on the part of his crew and detected no expressions of triumph. His message was good solid stuff. His warmhearted, unpretentious humanity made a great impression on me.

Afterwards I wrote him a thank you letter in which I confessed that whenever I had previously been asked for my opinion of him I had said that I felt that many essential elements were lacking in his proclamation of the Gospel; he advocated an individualistic doctrine of salvation, and even this took place only in relation to the initial stages of faith. Although I had now personally experienced his message, I did not feel compelled to revise the objective side of this criticism, but I had resolved to modify the question in which I raised my criticism; it now ran: “What is lacking in my and the conventional Christian proclamation of the Gospel that makes Billy Graham necessary?”

I found the answer he gave me extremely significant. I was, he said, completely right in my criticism. What he was doing was certainly the most dubious form of evangelization. But what other alternative did he have if the flocks that had no shepherds would not otherwise be served? This answer gave him credibility in my eyes and convinced me of his spiritual substance.

Graham would take Thielicke’s constructive criticism to heart, as exhibited in his later emphasis on continuing discipleship and the importance of the local church, the latter which caused him much criticism (from fundamentalists) as he worked with local mainline Protestant churches and Roman Catholics whenever his crusade would come to a town.

I don't know if Thielicke really deserves all the credit for Graham's later emphasis on continuing discipleship and follow-up, but I think we should give him some... :-)

"Everybody loves the Thinklings, but nobody wants to do the dishes..."

That's a very rough paraphrase of a certain P.J. O'Rourke quote that shows up in our queue from time to time...

Bill and Jared have normally handled housekeeping duties around here, so I decided it was about time I stepped up and did my part...

I don't know about you, but I actually use our blogroll. It's how I read blogs. I just go there from here. (Though this guy's blogroll is my favorite.)

I got frustrated with some of the blogs on our blogroll, checking them to find that the last time they posted anything Mike Huckabee had a shot at the presidency.

If you are a thinkling friend or regular reader, please don’t be insulted if I removed you. My main criterion was whether or not you update. Start updating again and maybe I’ll put you back up. ;-) And for the rest of you on the blogroll, consider this your kick in the pants. You don’t want to lose your coveted spot do you?

That said I’m thinking a shorter blogroll is better…a big long list just makes the quality stuff get lost in my opinion.

So mostly what I did was delete. There is only one addition and one change. Longtime Thinkling friend Lauren, moved from her old blog, called God Loves Lauren, to this new blog called "The Happy Wife". And I added "Biblical Preaching" by Peter Mead. If you preach or teach the Bible on a regular basis, you owe it to your hearers to read this blog.

So what do you think about blogrolls? Do you use them? Or do you think of them as friend lists?

This looks fantastic!



[H/T Bride of Beau]

Some excerpts from anexcellent post on the Spyglass entitled "On liking Jesus and building the church":

A church sign I passed today has up what I would guess is the title of this coming Sunday’s sermon: “They Like Jesus but Not the Church.” Of course, I know that isn’t original, but comes from Dan Kimball’s book of the same title, but it got me thinking. Taken purely as a cultural observation, that would seem to be hard to argue—there are indeed a great many people who like Jesus but don’t like his church at all, and there are certainly churches out there that make it easy to understand why. No question, the American church needs to do a better job in a number of ways at living out the gospel and representing Jesus to the world, starting with actually being committed to living out the gospel and representing Jesus to the world, instead of all the other junk we so often get on about instead.

But stop a minute. If we were truly a Christ-centered gospel-driven Spirit-actuated community of committed believers who hungered and thirsted for righteousness, would that mean that “they,” whoever “they” are, would like the church and we would all feel nicely validated? The thing about Kimball’s title, which our neighboring church pastor borrowed for his sermon, is that most people don’t seem to take it or offer it as merely an observation, but rather as a criticism—that if we just did this church thing right, whatever “right” is supposed to look like, that “they” would like us. The underlying assumption here is, I think, that it’s perfectly reasonable that the world around us should like Jesus, and that if we were just more like Jesus, the world would like us too, our churches would grow, and we would be more “successful.”

It’s a widespread assumption, in part because it’s a very comfortable one for an American church that, by and large, still hasn’t realized that Christendom is dead, has been given its eulogy, and is now feeling the thumps of the gravediggers’ shovels; but there are voices that demur. Above all, there is this one:

“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets. . . . Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”

—Luke 6:22-23, 26 (ESV)
. . .

If our goal is to get people to like Jesus and like us, we’ve gotten both halves of it wrong. That is not the rock on which he said he would build his church, but the shifting sand against which he warned. We can’t judge what we’re doing based on results, because we can’t assume that the results we want are the ones Jesus wants to produce in us. All we can do is proclaim the gospel of grace and seek to live by grace in a manner according to the holiness of God—and if the world looks at that and tells us we’re crazy, and that maybe they don’t like Jesus either, well, results aren’t our business, they’re God’s. Ours is to be faithful and let him take care of the rest.

Amen times infinity. Read the whole thing.

It's been one of those mornings. Nothing major (certainly nothing even remotely approaching tribulation) has happened, but I still faced a few challenges. I was up late last night, and woke up this morning early to discover that the water heater wasn't working. I spent most of the time I had planned to use to prepare for the morning's CYS service scrambling in the attic trying to determine what was wrong. I ended up re-lighting the pilot and that seemed to do the trick.

So it's been a bit of a scattered morning, and after getting the College/Young Singles worship time practiced with Molly, Andrew, Andrew, and Leslie I headed back home to check on the water heater (and finish some prep). So I'm missing church, on Father's day. I'll head back in a bit for the College/Young Singles class.

I say all that to say this: To whoever wrote "I Love Bill Roberts" on the whiteboard in Roadside - I don't know who you are, family member or friend, but I thank you. I needed to see that this morning, and to be reminded of the One who always, always loves, and who used you today to encourage me. That did the trick!

The original Toy Story was a groundbreaking movie, and very entertaining. Toy Story 2 was even better, with fantastic writing and great action scenes.

Toy Story 3 may be the best of the trilogy. And that's saying something.

We saw it tonight. It's seriously awesome.

Every generation has preachers that rise to the top. Their sermons are listened to (or read) by people far and wide. Other pastors listen too. Every pastor needs a pastor, and some of these influential preachers serve that function. There are many that I am personally so thankful for, both past and present. (I won't list them all here, maybe under comments...)

Now I know that not every influential preacher is good, and not every celebrity pastor even deserves a pulpit, (we all had the same name pop into our heads right there, so I don't need to say his name), but there are many that have been used by God to train, rebuke, encourage, teach and challenge us.

There are many who have helped you and I personally. Thank God for them.

Blog posts have been dedicated to criticizing these guys. (and gal, if you count Joyce Meyers) And some of them deserve it (and I definitely count Joyce Meyers)

But sometimes we forget to be grateful for the gifts God has given us. (Ephesians 4:11-13) I wonder if the John Piper's, Charles Spurgeon's, Rick Warren's, Helmut Thielicke's, Bonhoeffer's, Mark Driscoll's etc...are at least a partial fulfillment of that passage.

I don't know if you'd call them "apostle"-types or what, but in many ways they have become pastors to pastors, and God has blessed their faithfulness by spreading their influence.

Peter Mead says:

I just read an article from Preaching magazine -25 Most Influential Pastors of the Past 25 Years. ...What struck me was how many of these preachers have blessed me in recent years (and I don’t spend much time listing to famous preachers).

I would encourage you to read the article and give thanks for these and other well-known preachers who have faithfully sought to serve God through their ministries. It is easy to critique the famous, but actually it must be hard to be in their positions, perhaps facing some unique stresses that most of us don’t face.

Perhaps the list might suggest some names that you haven’t heard before, leading you to trawl the web for a sermon by E.K.Bailey, or W.A.Criswell, or Fred Craddock. Or someone who doesn’t fit in your theological or ecclesiological comfort zone . . . anyone from Adrian Rogers, to Bill Hybels, to William Willimon, to Stephen Olford, to Warren Wiersbe, to Rick Warren, to Jack Hayford, to Tim Keller, etc. Have you observed Andy Stanley preach?

Maybe this kind of list has a handful of preachers that you have really been blessed by over the years – stop and give thanks for them. I’m delighted to see Haddon Robinson on there, I know many who would give thanks for the influence of John Piper in their lives, I have friends who have been so blessed by John Stott, and other friends who have faithfully tuned in to Chuck Swindoll, and of course, there are numerous people I know who would count Billy Graham as the preacher God used to reach them with the gospel.

The Preaching Magazine List can be found after the jump.

Who would you add?

Read the rest of this entry . . .

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’ - Revelation 2:7

This is the first post of what may end up being a series, but maybe not.

First, two anecdotes, a quote, and a disclaimer.

Anecdote 1: I recently taught a series on the letters to the seven churches of Revelation. I really enjoyed teaching it. I was repeatedly drawn to Christ's exhortation to the members of each church to "overcome" or "conquer".

Anecdote 2: Awhile ago, some older relatives of mine were describing their lives as newlyweds, many years ago. They had very little money and couldn't pay for any kind of entertainment. So they would set up salt shakers on their kitchen floor and together they would go "bowling" with a little rubber ball. They described all this, plus other hardships, with smiles on their faces. At one point my sister exclaimed "didn't you ever just get overwhelmed and break down?"

Confused looks . . . "Why would we have done that?" Then they continued on with their story.

A different, and greater, generation than ours.

Now the quote, excerpted from an otherwise excellent article quoted in a recent post here:

"A new generation who refuse to use the Christian "F word," fine. (How's life? Fine. How's your marriage? Fine.) The days where you could pretend that being a Christian meant you were perfect are numbered."

Finally a disclaimer. I reject any gospel that claims riches and ease for Christians. Christ promised us trouble on this earth.

Now, to my initial point, prompted by that quote (and I'm even going to leave the glaring false dichotomy in it alone). This post will be a short one, but I may well expand on it in other posts or in the comments thread of this one, if this generates any comments.

Christ promised us trouble in life.

He didn't, to use an example, promise us troubled marriages. Granted, your marriage or my marriage may be troubled, and it may be no fault of our own. It may even be a test of some sort.

But if another Christian tells you that their marriage is fine, or that their circumstances currently are pretty good, or whatever, that doesn't mean that they are lying or that they are being "inauthentic".

Consider, with grace, the possibility that they are telling you the truth.

If you drop your cynicism and look deeper, you might even find that they are going through trouble like you've never known. But in that trouble they have found seeds of joy and gems of grace from the Lord, and because of that, they are fine. Maybe they are overcoming. Maybe being a child of God is better than anything this world offers, and so the troubles of this life pale in comparison.

Or maybe they said "fine" because they share their deepest troubles with trusted people who are much closer to them, and who aren't part of the new, authentic, my-life-stinks generation, because, egad, you're discouraging as hades.

Maybe they just need you to give them a break.

Jonathan Acuff, writer of the excellent blog Stuff Christians Like , wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post called:

Three things Christians say about pop culture scandals

If I wanted to start a huge Christian blog I know exactly which two subjects I would write about: Calvinism and whether Christians should drink beer. I'd call it the "5 point pint" and it would be massive overnight. Thousands of people would flock to debate the merits of both TULIP and lager. I'd be a huge success and probably go on the 700 Club, which is our version of Oprah.

But if that didn't pan out, I'd probably stick to the popular method of reacting to pop culture scandals. I'd write about Lady Gaga and Tiger Woods. I'd essentially try to be the Christian edition of US Weekly. And if I did that, I'd have to write about the three things we Christians say about pop culture scandals:

1. "That would never happen to me."
I don't know the devil personally, but I have to believe he does a bit of pop locking when he hears Christians say this. We sometimes think we're infallible or perhaps invincible so when we see someone fail spectacularly we distance ourselves by immediately claiming we will never do the same thing. Jon and Kate are perfect example of that. If I had a dollar for every time a Christian claimed they would never get divorced or do that to their kids, I could buy the complete set of the Left Behind books, which totals 37 at this point. But the truth is, when we act like we're immune to an issue, we ignore it and allow it ample opportunity to sneak up on us.

2. "I can't believe they did that."
Is interrupting Taylor Swift at the MTV awards technically a sin? I'm not sure. I mean we have no Biblical evidence of David jumping on stage and grabbing the mic from Saul. "Yo, I'm going to let you finish, but Jonathan was the best warrior this season. I gotta be real!" But when Kanye West interrupted Swift's moment in the spotlight, one of the favorite reasons I heard from Christians for not forgiving him was that he had done it before. Friends told me, "He always does that, over and over again." We couldn't believe it. But the truth is, I've never committed a particular sin just one time. I wish I was "one and done," but the reality is I am often a repeat offender. The things I mess up usually happen more than once. I have bad habits, not single acts of sin. So that West jumped on stage and wrecked Swift's moment isn't surprising. Sin tends to be cyclical.

3. "Wow, they need a savior too."
This one isn't as sensational. This one doesn't make the headlines. Unfortunately, the crazy Christians are the ones who get the attention. The Westboro folks with signs splashed with hate, the militia stockpiling guns. Those grab our collective interest, but there's a new generation of Christians trying to change. A new generation who refuse to use the Christian "F word," fine. (How's life? Fine. How's your marriage? Fine.) The days where you could pretend that being a Christian meant you were perfect are numbered. Whether it's folks like Mike Foster and his "People of the Second Chance," or Craig Gross and his xxxchurch ministry, Christians are starting to admit life is messy and that grace is vital. This reaction might happen less than the other two, but it's still there.

I don't know what pop culture scandal we'll face next. I promise that Lady Gaga is going to rehab for exhaustion eventually. We tend to wear our pop princesses out. But if she does end up there, I pray number 3 will be the reaction you hear most from us Christians because I think it's the closet to the truth.

After all, pop culture icons need saviors too.

What else is there to say?

Well, no he didn't.

This is just a shameless plea to get someone to comment on something we post here.

Maybe somebody just needs to start a good argument. ;-)

It's time for someone else to bask in their 15 seconds of fame. (After all, if you are acknowledged here, you know you've arrived...or at least that we're trying to ride on your coattails.)

Our own Daniel Ross, Thinkling friend and commenter, got himself up on the video screen at a Bon Jovi Concert. In his words:

Yeah, I did it. I'm a tiny bit embarrassed but it's also really, really awesome. Starts at about 3:27 through the chorus. I'm in the lower-right-hand corner.

To explain: I tired to win tickets to the Bon Jovi Nashville show I was going to (I was trying to get better seats). They had this "make your own 'Livin' On A Prayer' video" contest going on so I entered. I didn't see it on the screen in Nashville so I assumed it had gone into the ether. Lo and behold, it shows up on the screens when Bon Jovi played the New Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey in front of 65,000 people.

Like I said, it's cheesy and embarrassing (that I'm making the faces and whatnot, not that I like the band — I like who I like) but it's also pretty cool. :-)

Yes, Daniel, we agree. It's pretty cool.

I really liked what they did there, showing fans singing along on their home video cameras. Neat stuff.