My new employer: Desiring God

As of 5:30 PM today (CDT), I am now a part-time (With potential full-time opportunities) employee at the greatest place in the world, Desiring God.

Becky and I moved out here for two reasons: 1) INSIGHT, and 2) Desiring God. I finished the INSIGHT program last week, and now, by God’s grace, I work at DG.

I am excited for many future ministry opportunities at DG. I am thrilled to work with fellow Christian Hedonists as we spread a passion for the supremacy of Christ through resources and events.

May God be glorified and may his name be made much of through my ministry with DG.

A God-intoxicated church

A good word from Martin Luther King Jr. on the early church in Letter from a Birmingham Jail:

The Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven,” called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.”

Read the rest here.

You just might be a Calvinist if…

I don’t usually pay attention to articles or blog posts that start out with, “You might be a _____ if you _____,” but I looked this one over and found myself in several of the “you might be’s.” Here are a few of my favorites:

You might be a Calvinist if:

If a free Bible has ever arrived in the mail to you from John MacArthur

If you have ever purchased 100 or more copies of the same John Piper book to hand out to random people you meet

If you have adjusted the default passage setting at www.biblegateway.org from “NIV” to “ESV”

If you have ever purposefully sung a different word in a hymn to conform to scripture

Without me giving last names, you still know who I’m referring to (I got most of these right):

John
John
John
John
John
Jonathan
John
John
John

You know what a Remonstrant is.

Ten blogs I look forward to the most

1. 22 Words

2. Ten Digit Lumber

3. Never Hoot Alone

4. Purgatorio

5. Fighter Verses

6. Desiring God

7. The Pipers

8. The Big Picture

9. Jumble Thrift Shop

10. Between Two Worlds

These are not necessarily in order, but these are the blogs that I look forward to reading. What are some of your favorites?

*update: My apologies to JTS for screwing up and calling them Jumbo Thrift Shop. I’m not sure what I was thinking. I bet you don’t even believe me that I enjoy the blog because I can’t even get their name right!

Kempton Turner on Sermon Jams

Bethlehem’s very own Kempton Turner is featured twice on the new Sermon Jams album (Vol. 5). I have the privilige of working alongside Kempton Turner in the Young Adults Ministry here at Bethlehem Baptist Church. He is a joy-filled, Christ-centered example of Gospel partnership (Philippians 1:3-5).

Check out the album here.

Ten Ways You Can Truly Help the Homeless

This article is very relevant for my wife and I, as we minister in the Twin Cities. We have scores of homeless people here and have daily encounters with them.

1. Never give cash to a homeless person.

2. Talk to the person with respect.

3. Recognize that homeless people (and their problems) are not all the same.

4. Share God’s love whenever you can.

5. Pray for the homeless.

6. Take precautions for your own safety.

7. Encourage the homeless to get help through your local gospel-centered homeless ministry.

8. Financially Support your local gospel-centered homeless ministry.

9. Volunteer with your local gospel-centered homeless ministry.

10. Pray for the leadership and staff of your local gospel-centered homeless ministry.

Read the whole article here.

(HT: Scott Anderson)

Cual es tu Música Favorita?

I love music. I mean, I have deep affections for music. I’m guessing some of you do, too.

So, what is your favorite and least favorite type of music?

God has given me an amazing wife

She wrote this poem for me:

Today I watched you…
You’re so precious,
You make my world shine.

Today You held me…
I fit perfectly in your arms,
You are just right for me.

Today I heard you laugh…
Hmm…
Your voice leaves me breathless

Today I looked in your eyes…
Beautiful, entrancing eyes
I never want to leave from their gaze

Today I said goodbye…
The tenderest of things,
I hate it when you go.

Tomorrow holds the future…
And I’ll hold you forever,
Always, my sweetheart.

God is so good. He has given me an exceptional wife—I definitely do not deserve her.

Celebrate good times, come on!

I wish America had festivals like this one. I like being rowdy and I like colors, so, naturally, this is my kind of party. How about you?

For more on Holi—the Festival of Colors.

Good-for-nothing salt

A friend, who is originally from Texas, told a story of her first winter in Minneapolis. She told us that her and her husband, in their ignorance of how to brave the wintry Minnesota weather, used regular Morton’s salt to salt their ice-covered driveway and sidewalk. I chuckled at the thought of them doing that, but, oddly enough, her story made me think of Matthew 5:13:

You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

That salt, after being poured out onto the driveway, could no longer be used to season a juicy steak. It could no longer be used to add flavor to anything. I hope, by God’s grace and mercy, that I am not the salt mentioned in the latter part of v. 14; a salt that isn’t good for anything except to be stepped on by someone walking by.