So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:27–28

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2:7

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” Genesis 2:21–23

Interestingly, when God made us in His image, He used dust to form us. He could have just spoken us into existence, as he did the waters, lights in the skies, plants and animals. But he chose to form us out of the stuff He has already created by His speech. But the formed material was animated by His breath – His Holy Spirit. We are, in our formed bodies, “very good.” We are, in our Spirit enlivened selves, fully image-bears that are empowered to represent our Father in this good world.

With this simple truth in mind – consider the fascinating art by Allison Cortson.

Dust paintings by Allison Cortson

She has taken the dust (including the dust substance of her subjects) of the ground to make images that are wonderfully thought provoking.

It makes me think about how we, as those formed and animated by God, have a place in His forming and filling work in the world. We too have the ability to impact and form one another. We too are Spirit breathers that speak to one another in life-giving (or destroying) ways.

Indeed, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and have power to do mighty creative works in other people’s lives.

I’ve sat back and wondered about what God is doing in our culture with Tim Tebow. Our God does all things well, but He is certainly mysterious.

Tim Tebow has become a cultural phenomena (with his name having become a verb), which I am normally put off with when Christians are at the center of such things (because too many Christians have been more of a disgrace to Jesus than a genuine witness in the end). But this has seemed different to me somehow.

We live in a time when, on the one hand, people do not generally believe in or want to submit to God. God is perceived to be the enemy of good living, and Christians (in particular) are buffoons to be casually laughed off as throwbacks to a failed religion. On the other hand, people generally know that a world without God and the supernatural is somehow not right.

I think many are wondering to themselves, “What if?” People will be tuning it today’s game just to see if God will intervene again in history and surprise everyone. People are going very, very far out of their way to deny that they believe anything of the kind. But they…do. Read the rest of this entry »

Amy's Forthcoming Book

My dear wife has written a fantastic book to help Christian brides to plan their wedding. Nancy Wilson has written a forward to the book, which we are very grateful for! In part she writes:

“This wedding planner walks the bride through all the preparations and keeps her focused on the important things, like staying in fellowship with her groom and her parents. It’s full of suggestions and ideas, with a strict time-line to keep the bride on task. I know I will recommend this helpful guide to all those planning weddings, and I think we’ll keep one in the church office for check out.“

It is being published by Doorpost, and should be shipping in February. It is available now for pre-order now at the Dooposts website. Doorposts has also created a website just for this book.

All Things Are Ready is a new wedding planner book that will help you organize a beautiful wedding. Unlike most wedding planners available today, this planner looks at weddings from a distinctly Christian, Bible-based viewpoint.

We’ve celebrated four weddings in our family (so far), so we were excited when Amy Hayes (who coordinated at three of our weddings), asked us to help publish her book. Amy is a pastor’s wife in our church, and she has considerable experience as a wedding coordinator and organizer.

Amy wrote this planner with two basic questions in mind: “What do you need in order to plan a wedding efficiently and joyfully?” and “What does the Bible say about weddings?”

Answering those two questions led to three basic assumptions on which this planner is based:

• Planning your wedding doesn’t have to take very long (unless you want it to).
• The cost of your wedding should not exceed what your family can afford.
• A Christian wedding is all about rejoicing in what the Lord has done in the lives of 2 people and their families.

All Things Are Ready is full of to-do lists, planning resources, tips, budgeting and timeline tools, options for personalizing your wedding, ideas for portraying biblical themes, and devotions to keep your focus on the Lord and the work He is doing in your life through marriage.

Spread the word that the difinitive book for planning weddings has now been written and is available!

Religion, including the religion of Christians, is always accompanied by rituals, symbols, traditions and specialized language that both communicate to and order the lives of the faithful. These provide a sense of transcendence (i.e. that we are doing something out of the ordinary and significant) and imminence (i.e. that we are mutually participating in the life of God and other believers in ways that seem nature and good) – without even having to think much about it. And yet, when we do think about our theology, our worship and the practices of the Church we are more richly able to live our religion. Thus, in some cases the very fact that we do things over and over again, ritually, it has a way of impacting us and transforming us unconsciously. At other times, when we are meditative and thoughtful about these things we can see them in fresh new ways, and be impacted all the more.

Sometimes it is helpful for us to be exposed to our religion in ways that are initially unconventional and even uncomfortable for us. While some people thrive on poetry, others can be bored to tears by it. The same can be said with recitations of the Bible and theological discourse. The video is an example of something religious that is for some people very appealing and edifying, and to others less so. But notice – it is not everyday speech. It is a theological reflection artistically presented that could make us stop and meditate on the truths presented in a new and stimulating way. Contextualizing the Christian message for various tastes, manners of speaking and cultural backgrounds can not only be appealing and effective for unbelievers and new Christians, it can also provide a innovative way of communicating the truth for mature and faithful believers. In the Church, we need to be open to what God is doing in and through all kinds of people as they faithfully articulate the truths once delivered to the saints in the Bible.

As you can tell from my blog, I’m of the opinion that Christians undervalue the importance of celebration, feasting and holidays – not the least of which is Christian holidays (formerly thought of as holy-days). Along with the proper concern and criticism of “commercialism,” Christians need to embrace the good that in Christian Christmas celebrations, including the purchasing and giving of gifts.

Stev Wilkins has written a delightful piece on Christmas giving that I am pleased to pass on: Shopping and the true meaning of Christmas

Doug Wilson posted his recent sermon on the subject of the Theology of Christmas Gifts, and I have included the video and the text (for those that do not have the time or patience to watch or listen to it, although there is more material in the actual sermon).

Doug Wilson’s INTRODUCTION:
One of the most obvious features of our Christmas celebrations is the gift-giving. How are we to understand this as Christians? What are the pitfalls? Are all the pitfalls obvious? Because our lives are to be lives of grace, and because charis means grace or gift, this is something we have to understand throughout the course of our lives, and not just at Christmas. But it has to be said that the machinery of our consumer racket does throw the question into high relief for us at this time of year.

THE TEXT:
“And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh” (Mt 2:11).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT:
The first Christmas gifts were given by the magi to the young child Jesus. This happened sometime within the Lord’s first two years of life. Because three kinds of treasures are mentioned—gold, frankincense, and myrrh—it is often inferred that there were three wise men. There may have been, but we don’t know. What we do know is that the gifts were very costly. Read the rest of this entry »