Ziman: Confession, Grace and Repentance...

Note: A pic of my BFF Jonathan and his lovely wife Kari taken this year during their family vacation to New Jersey. Why someone would vacation in New Jersey is beyond me.

One of my buddies Jonathan Ziman is in seminary right now at Trinity in Chicago. He sometimes emails me ideas/thoughts/quotes from his classes. This one (I think taken from a class he's taking in Biblical counseling) is quite sobering.

"Confession doesn't get grace, repentance does, and continual sin will keep you from repenting. Faith is nourished by obedience, and disobedience deadens your faith."

Jonathan's commentary: I.E. - you can keep sinning and confessing your sin and then sinning some more and thinking the whole time that you are ok and its not a big deal and nobody is getting hurt because the sin is internal only, etc. etc. But in reality you are suffocating your soul and making it harder and harder to actually ever move towards repentance and grace. Powerful, and kind of scary thought really, don't you think?

Jeff Rev's Truck's Accident

Editor's Note: One of my good buddies (and member of my Tuesday Night Men's Group) Jeff Rev drives a large Dodge truck. I always mock him about the impracticality of his vehicle choice. But then a few months ago he awoke to the sound of a car accident outside his condo, and ran downstairs to see this scene. He sent this email and picture to his friends. I believe the reddish substance in the gutter is oil and brake fluid, not blood. I only shudder to think what would have happened if this car had run into Jeff's truck.



Full Tank of Gas: $72.00
Bi-Weekly Car wash: $21.50
A Scion smashing into my truck without a scratch: Priceless

Todd Brown's Truisms

A publicity photo that was taken, but never used of Todd and Danielle Brown and myself. One of the reasons it was never used is because it looks like we're all scowling.

In two days, our church is going to have its first annual FCC Worship Conference. Lincoln Brewster and Rick Muchow (from Saddleback) will be out here speaking along with Pastor Todd, FCC's worship leader. It's pretty exciting.

Today, I had the honor to help Todd hone his opening session speech. One of the reasons Todd rocks is that he just shoots straight from the hip. Although his stuff is probably copyrighted, I thought I'd share some of my favorite quotes from our meeting today. I call them Todd Truisms.

On Unity with the Senior Pastor
"If you feel like you're not on board with the Pastor's vision for the church, like you're trying to pull a mule, then don't lead some revolt. Be like David - hide in the mountains and if you get a chance to kill the King, don't take it."

On the Importance of Honesty in Church
"If you want people to worship and connect with God, you gotta be authentic. If you want them to shut down, be fake. It's either the H.S. or the B.S. You can't have both."

On the Importance of Honesty
"Be yourself. If you suck, talk to God and He'll make you better."

Funny, Fantastic and Moving

Three adjectives I'd like to think apply to me, but they don't. But they do apply to the following three videos.

Funny:
This is just hysterical. Thanks to Jonathan Ziman for the link. If you're married, you will understand. If you are not, well, this might frighten you. I will warn you, this content is not appropriate for children or people without a sense of humor.


Fantastic:
Dave Matthews and his college roommate Tim Reynolds just came out with a new DVD, live from Radio City Music Hall. On that DVD is a song called "Eh Hee" which Matthews wrote after spending some time with the Khoi San people while he was in Africa with his family. What struck me about the song was the lyrics, which you can read here.

Strange evolution how people have come to believe
That we are its greatest achievement
Barely, we're just a collection of cells
Overrating themselves
God I'm avoiding the truth

WARNING: One of the lyrics says that the world is "f-ing" crazy. Which although true, is still strong language intended for adults only. Click here to watch this astounding piece of musical genius, embedded with some deep truths. God does have many names and the devil does seem to have many, many more. And like DMB, I would very much like to drop the devil to his knees.



Moving:
Which brings me to my final clip. I thought this was cheesy at first, and then overdone and melodramatic, but then at the end, I just started crying. Which is weird, because I was there in my office and one of my co-workers came up and I'm bawling. This is about 400 volumes of theology packed into a three minute dance/drama. Although the demons and temptations aren't the same, this is about as perfect an articulation of my relationship with Jesus as I've seen - which I why I probably started crying. You can see it below, but a larger version is available by clicking here.