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I just finished Tim Keller's Counterfeit Gods.  As every other Christian in the blogosphere will tell you, it's awesome. 

But it was something at the very end of the book, in the acknowledgments, that really got me.  In thanking his wife, Keller quotes John Newton writing to his wife Polly:

It is no wonder if so many years, so many endearments, so many obligations have produced such an uncommon effect, that by long habit, it is almost impossible for me to draw a breath, in which you are not involved.

I don't know if anyone has ever better summarized the beauty of marriage in one sentence.

Bill Streger: Uncool People Need Jesus Too...

I have yet to assess a church planter who wants to move to a declining, smaller city and reach out to blue collar factory workers, mechanics, or construction crews. Not one with an evangelsitic strategy to go after the 50-something administrative assistant who’s been working at the same low-paying insurance firm for three decades now....Why is that?

Brent Thomas: Would You Like To Be Part of a Movement...

Though, on paper, we offer much less than other churches (we “do” Sunday mornings and Community Groups), we are actually asking you to consider an entire reorientation of your life around the Mission of God (Missio Dei), to be part of a movement, to transform the culture of the NorthWest Phoenix Valley through the power of the Gospel.

New resource from TheGoodBook.com called Beginning with God...

Beginning With God helps parents start a Bible-reading routine with their preschool-age children. The beautifully-designed book from The Good Book Company is an easy-to-use companion to the Beginner’s Bible and other popular toddler’s Bibles.

There is little doubt that masculinity has fallen upon hard times. Differences between men and women, between masculinity and femininity are downplayed in favor of sameness, in favor of androgyny. Suggesting that the biblical vision of masculinity has fallen prey to a foolish culture, Richard Phillips writes that his new book The Masculine Mandate "is written for Christian men who not only don't want to lose that precious biblical understanding, but who want to live out the calling to true manliness God has given us. We need to be godly men, and the Bible presents a Masculine Mandate for us to follow and fulfill. But do we know what it is? My aim in writing this book is to help men to know and fulfill the Lord's calling as it is presented so clearly to us in God's Word."

Looking to God's command to the first man in the Garden of Eden, Phillips teaches that men have a dual calling before the Creator: they are to work and they are to keep. "To work it and to keep it: here is the how of biblical masculinity, the mandate of Scripture for males. It is my mandate in this book, therefore, to seek to specify, clarify, and apply these two verbs to the glorious, God-given, lifelong project of masculine living." To work is to labor to make things grow, to nurture, cultivate, tend, build up, guide and rule. To keep is to protect and to sustain progress that has already been achieved. It involves guarding, keeping safe, watching over, caring for, maintaining. Words that may be useful in summarizing the terms are service and leadership, terms closely related to servant and lord. Men are to be servants and lords under the authority of God. "This is the Masculine Mandate: to be spiritual men placed in real-world, God-defined relationships, as lords and servants under God, to bear God's fruit by serving and leading."

Through a short series of chapters Phillips provides the doctrinal underpinning for this mandate. He looks at a man's sacred calling to work, to bear the image of God and to be a "Shepherd-Lord," one who tends and cares for all the responsibilities God has placed him over. He looks both to calling and to character, showing how a man must live if he wishes to carry out his mandate in each area of life.

The book's second part provides wisdom on living out that mandate. Since most men will find that a significant portion of their mandate involves the marriage relationship, Phillips writes three chapters dealing with the design of marriage, the redemption of marriage, and the way to live out both working and keeping within that relationship. He spends two chapters looking at discipling and disciplining children and then shows how the Masculine Mandate plays out in friendship with other men and then in the context of the local church. 

I found The Masculine Mandate helpful on several levels. I appreciated that Phillips defined a man's role independent of marriage. This is a trap many authors have been unable to avoid. Yet many men will remain single all their lives and this in no way reduces their masculinity. Jesus himself never married and was more of a man than any of us! And Jesus, despite never marrying, devoted his life to both working and keeping. At the same time, I admired Phillips' call to most men most of the time to get married. Marriage is, for the majority of us, a way God calls us to fulfill our mandate and too many Christian men seem eager to view marriage through a worldly lens. I appreciated as well that Phillips spoke both from Scripture and from personal experience. Many of his examples and exhortations were based on examinations of passages of Scriptures; many more were drawn from his own life and experience. It makes for a powerful combination.

Well-written and presenting tough truths within such a simple grid of work and keep, this book is a very useful call for men to live out their mandate before God. I feel challenged and equipped for having read it and am glad to recommend it to any man. Read it, apply it, live it.

Buy it at Westminster Books or Amazon:

Dave Kraft: What Makes A Leader? series

Hudson Taylor on Evangelism...

Perhaps if there were more of that intense distress for souls that leads to tears, we should more frequently see the results we desire. Sometimes it may be that while we are complaining of the hardness of the hearts of those we are seeking to benefit, the hardness of our own hearts and our feeble apprehension of the solemn reality of eternal things may be the true cause of our want of success.” (via)

GCM Collective (Gospel Community Mission) launches on Monday...

It is a gospel community that lives out the mission of God together, as family, in a specific area and to a particular people group by declaring and demonstrating the gospel in tangible forms. God is moving to create thousands of new gospel communities on mission around the world. Be a part of this movement.

Did I Get Married Too Young?

When my very smart and relatively young girlfriend (she was then 20) first told her father she was thinking of marrying me, he refused to even hear of it. "How much college debt does he have?" he demanded. "What's the rush? Why not wait until your career and finances are established? How do you know he's the one?"

Brent Thomas sees Rob Bell's Drops Like Stars

Just because someone says something very well, that doesn’t mean someone says something very right.

Acts 29 Theology Workbook

Tim Keller: The Big Issues Facing the Church & How Should Churches and Leaders Be Preparing To Address These Big Issues Facing the Church?

Joel Virgo: Pray with Perspective series

Francis Chan: Public Passion vs Private Devotion

Last summer I came to a shocking realization that I had to share with my wife: If Jesus had a church in Simi Valley, mine would be bigger. People would leave His church to attend mine because I call for an easier commitment. I know better how to cater to people’s desires so they stick around. Jesus was never really good at that. He was the one who said, “He who loves father or mother … son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matt. 10:37 NIV) I’m much more popular than Jesus.

Having come to that conclusion, I came back to the church with resolve to call people to the same commitment Christ called them to. I knew that people would leave, and they have. I found comfort in that because, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26 NIV) Over time though, the conviction can fade, and it gets tiresome seeing people leave. There is a constant pull to try to keep people around rather than truly lead the faithful who remain. When my church was started, I used to tell my wife that I didn’t care if we only had ten people, as long as they really loved God and desired to worship Him with all of their hearts. Where is that conviction now?

I’m a sucker for the Olympics.  I’m not sure why, but for several weeks every two years my evenings consist of my wife and I sitting on the couch and watching an evening full of events.  Like every Olympic year, NBC rolls out a whole shlew of stories featuring athletes and their emotional struggles that led to them being the athletes they are today.  Very rarely do I hear stories of an athlete’s faith.  I know it’s probably not to the fault of the competitors, but more likely editorial decisions at the peacock network.

Anyway…I came across this video featuring Chad Hedrick. He’s a USA speed skater who won the bronze in the 1000m race in Vancouver (to add to his gold, silver and bronze from Torino in 2006).

In the video, he talks about his faith as an athlete and how it can be perceived by others.  He says:

I have guys from the media talking to me all the time and I tell them I want to have a great time, make special memories with my family, and if I go there and give 100 percent and it’s not enough, I know God has a path for me, and that‘s the path that I’m going to follow. They interpret that as: I’m soft, I’ve lost my competitive edge, I’m not very confident. But they really don’t understand; and I’m hoping throughout the Olympics and Vancouver that they see that I am still very competitive, and that you can be a Christian and still be a competitive person.

How about you?  Can it be tough to balance being a Christian and being competitive?  Does knowing if an athlete is Christian change to way you root for them in an event?

(This video came from the website Beyond the Ultimate which has a list of Christian Olympians and features their stories.)

An Atlanta family has received a lot of publicity for their decision to sell their big home, buy a smaller one and use the profits to help those in need.  The Salwen family says it all started when their 14-year-old daughter Hannah became upset with the unequal chances for people based on their wealth.  By selling their home, the family used the $800,000 to do a lot of work in two dozen villages in Ghana.

Below are two news stories about the Salwen’s, who have now written a book called “The Power of Half.”

From what I’ve read about the family, I can’t really tell you about their faith commitment.  Regardless, it begs the question: Could you majorly downsize your life, like this family did, to help the poor?

Jet lag, when you travel from the UK to the USA, is not so bad as the other way around, of that I am sure!  On arrival stateside, for a few days you feel almost invincible.  Although a little tired in the evening, you force yourself not to go to bed too early.  Then, around 3 or 4 AM, it’s like a switch is pressed in your head. Bing! You are awake.  So, before anyone else is up, you get to do almost a whole extra day’s work.  And until the second or third day, a bit of coffee or tea is all you need to keep going through the day.  By the time you are starting to feel really tired, your body gives up the fight and you can sleep again like normal.

Coming home, it quite literally feels like your body arrives at least 48 hours before your spirit.  This time it feels longer than that!  I find myself incredibly hungry at odd times, and feeling physically sick at others, when everything within me says “sleep” but the alarm clock and my appointments for the day both say wake!  In fact, it’s Tuesday already, and almost the only times that I haven’t felt tired since getting home on Saturday are, firstly, on Sunday morning when the excitement of being back at the one and only Jubilee London gave me some adrenaline, and secondly, the first half of the night, every night!  I am quite literally shattered until the moment my head hits the pillow, when that switch seems to be activated once more, but not to the extent that I can do anything very useful as I stay awake.  Each night I hope and pray that my body will finally figure out that the fact it is dark is a big clue:  NOW is the time to sleep, not during the day!  I’m just glad I work from home, though I’m not sure my wife is right now as the kids are off school and I am not much help at the moment.  Things should be back to normal soon, though, I hope! I did manage to take four of the kids  swimming in the early evening today, which was fun.

“What are you staring at?” a disheveled mom at the grocery story hissed at me.

Before I could answer, she spun around, and demanded that the clerk apologize—again—for accidentally bumping her cart with her newborn inside.

“I said I was really sorry,” the cashier replied meekly. “It was an accident.”

The angry mom turned her rage back towards me. She wagged her finger at Evie, my three year old, and Caleb, my four year old. “You’re the one with the crazy kids,” she yelled.

What had been a small supermarket mishap, one I hadn’t really been involved in, had suddenly turned ugly.

Caleb, who had been staring at the angry mom, turned his attention to me.

I paused, holding back my fury toward this mother for involving my children, and turned my back to her.

“Let’s zip up our coats,” I said to my kids. She stormed out of the store and I thought the situation was over.

But when we went out to the parking lot, she was circling around in her car, waiting for us. As I threw my kids into their car seats, she sped next to us, rolled down her passenger side window and started yelling at us again.

I climbed into the car and as she circled around again, I sped out of the parking lot. Thankfully she didn’t follow me.

As I drove, I couldn’t help but wonder how things had spiraled out of control so quickly. I wonder if I had responded in the right way. I didn’t stick up for my kids. In fact, I hadn’t said anything to her. The woman was right: my kids were acting crazy. Both of them were having major meltdowns. But would it had mattered if I had tried to explain that we were only at the store to get my sick son some juice and popsicles? Would it had helped if I had told her that Evie hadn’t napped and that I’d had a long day and my husband was going to be late?
Probably not.

I wondered what the rest of her story was. She was frantic, almost manic, and looked like she hadn’t showered in days, and probably hadn’t slept in a while. Did she have postpartum? Did she have help with the new baby?

I looked in my rearview mirror. My kids had calmed down and had fallen asleep. They will probably see a lot more ugly behavior in their lifetime. But it’s up to me to teach them how to respond. As Christians, when confronted with a hostile situation, how should we respond—especially when we have little eyes watching us?

Brief Molly Update: Molly has been having some rough symptoms from her Chiari I Malformation the last 2 weeks. Day to day she doesn't know how she is going to feel. For the most part she keeps living and enjoying life and serving others as much as she usually does. In lots of ways she is looking to do more. What a lady! We are hoping the symptoms will just go away, and we believe they will in time. Thanks for praying for her.

I'm reviewing Gospel-Centred Life this week, Lord-willing. Already reviewed Gospel-Centred Family and Gospel-Centred Church.

Jonathan Dodson: 10 Tips for Missional Community Leaders

Jonathan McIntosh introduces us to the vision of Christ City Church in Memphis, his new plant. Maybe you or your church could help support this plant by my friend.

Verge-alicious Stuff...

• I have a series of blog posts on Verge coming up.
• A couple of orgs mentioned: Grounds4Good, LifeTree Cafe, Help Haiti
• Alan Hirsch videos from Verge
• Post-Verge thoughts from Brent Thomas, Jonathan McIntosh, Brandon Hatmaker 

Francis Chan's animated video played at Verge: The Big Red Tractor...

Leading up to this year’s Super Bowl, there was some controversy about a pro-life ad from Focus on the Family.  The commercial featured Heisman Trophy Winner Tim Tebow and his mom Pam, who  talked about her decision not to have an abortion (without actually saying the word abortion).   Pro-choice groups criticized CBS for accepting the ad, which was the first “political” ad the network ever approved for the big game.

So what did you think?  Was the ad effective?  Did it live up to the hype?

(Reminder: Quick Thought comments should be short.  Maybe a few sentences but no more than 100 words or so.)