We just returned from a vacation with Nicole’s family in Chatham, Massachusetts. My brothers-in-law and I went swimming in the Atlantic Ocean, and it was a blast. Apart from the Polar Bear Club feel (the water temperature was a chilly 65 degrees), a highlight of our trip to the beach was the nearby Grey Seals.

There were about a dozen of them floating around less than 50 feet off shore. They looked exactly like this picture! We wanted to swim out to them, but we weren’t sure what they would do to us. My brother-in-law Mike issued this ominous warning: “Those things can take a chunk out of your face.”

I love to take the opportunity while on vacation to learn about local history and nature. There is always something fascinating to discover. Here are some interesting facts about Grey Seals that I picked up from Wikipedia:

• The Grey Seal (Halichoerus grypus) is native to the North Atlantic and is the largest native mammal to the British Isles. They can be found year-round off the New England coast and occasionally make it as far south as Virginia.
• Seals are called “pinnipeds,” meaning: “fin-footed.”
• When they make it up onto land, they scoot around by their fins. This method of locomotion is called “galumphing.” I am not making this up.
• Seals can, if you’re not careful, take a chunk out of your face. (That was Mike, not Wikipedia.)

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I love the month of September. Most of all because every September 16, Nicole and celebrate our anniversary. But I also love the experience of God’s creation every time the seasons change.

I think it’s amazing how you always know what the weather will be like in September. It’s like God hits the humidity switch: we still get the warm weather of summer without the stifling moisture. And it happens every September. It never fails. I’ve been living in Virginia since 1992, and the first week or so of September is always the same!

I think this tells us something about what God is like. That we can predict what the weather will be like, reveals to us the faithfulness of God. He never changes, never fails. The changing of the seasons is a reminder of how God has set the earth spinning on it’s axis and rotating around the sun at very precise and regular speeds. Remember Grant Layman’s message?

“When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?”
Psalm 8:3-4

What is your favorite season and why?

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Y’all are a smart bunch, so I bet none of you ever think about school the way I did, wondering: “Do I really need this knowledge? Is this really going to help me when I get into the real world?” In case you ever do have those thoughts, the answer is: YES, you DO need to know grammar, geography, comparative politics, the periodic table, and how to figure a sine, among other things. Bad things could happen if you don’t; bad things, man.

The following examples are real newspaper headlines:

“How To Speak And Write Like a Colleg Graduate” Headline, Norfolk Virginia Pilot

“Are Young Americans Be Getting Stupider?” Headline, Corvallis (Oregon) Gazette-Times

“Illiteracy Is Still a Poblem Among Mississippi Adults” Headline, Hendersonville (Mississippi) Times-News

“Everything You Wanted to Know About High School But Was Afraid To Ask” Flyer sent to parents by a Long Island, New York school

“Why is he not learning or leaning so but so little, with my help. How comes his past teachers have been passing him from grade to grade without he progressing or advancing academicly. I will like to know what is causing the mental blockage.” Student evaluation written by Brooklyn, New York elementary school teacher

Study hard, or it could happen to you.

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Inspired by Grant Layman’s message from Psalm 8, I am rereading R.C. Sproul’s The Holiness of God in my quiet time. Wow. I highly recommend it. My eyes are being opened again to this most majestic of topics. Here are some choice quotes: (Note: I have an old edition, so my page numbers might not exactly line up with yours.)

“The one concept, the central idea I kept meeting in Scripture was the idea that God is holy.” (18)

“God is inescapable. There is no place we can hide from him… Therefore we must seek to understand what the holy is. We dare not seek to avoid it. There can be no worship, no spriritual growth, no true obedience without it. It defines our goal as Christians. God has declared, ‘Be ye holy, for I am holy.’ ” (20-21)

“The Bible never says that God is love, love, love, or mercy, mercy, mercy, or wrath, wrath, wrath, or justice, justice, justice, justice. It does say that he is holy, holy, holy, the whole earth is full of his glory.” (39)

“He is so far above and beyond us that He seems almost totally foreign to us. To be holy is to be ‘other,’ to be different in a special way.” (58)

“But when the word holy is applied to God, it does not signify one single attribute. On the contrary, God is called holy in a general sense. The word is used as a synonym for his deity. That is, the word holy calls attention to all that God is.” (60)

Remember that A.W. Pink quote I blogged a few months back: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” So, there is a question for us to ponder: “What does come to mind when we think about God?” Do we think of him as so far above and beyond us that He seems almost totally foreign to us?

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Who was there?
How did it go?

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My friend Steven Sieb has asked me to let you know that we need some more help for the community carwash on Saturday morning.

This is an outstanding opportunity to put The five15 Challenge to work. Not only to you get to live “not for yourself but for him” by washing other people’s cars, but you get to practice reaching out to others in personal ways. You may even get to preach the gospel to someone or invite them to Alpha! I highly recommend this!

Here are the details:

• Time: officially 9am-1pm, but plan on arriving at 8:30am for instructions and prayer.
• Jobs: Washing cars, parking crew, holding signs, parking crew, security.
• Available? Email Steven if you can help!

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For those of you who came on the retreat and received a copy of Piper’s Don’t Waste Your Life, I hope you’re enjoying the book as much as I am.

Here are some choice quotations that I’ve read. What have been your favorite sections and why?

“Oh, how many lives are wasted by people who believe that the Christian life means simply avoiding badness and providing for the family. So there is no adultery, no stealing, no killing, no embezzlement, no fraud–just lots of hard work during the day, and lots of TV and PG-13 videos in the evening (during quality family time), and lots of fun stuff on the weekend–woven around church (mostly). This is life for millions of people. Wasted life. We were created for more, far more.” (119)

“At these moments, when the trifling fog of life clears and I see what I am really on earth to do, I groan over the petty pursuits that waste so many lives–and so much of mine. Just think of the magnitude of sports–a whole section of the daily newspaper. But there is no section on God. Think of the endless resources for making your home and garden more comfortable and impressive. Think of how many tens of thousnds of dollars you can spend to buy more car than you need. Think of the time and energy and conversation that go into entertainment and leisure and what we call “fun stuff.” And add to that now the computer that artificially recreates the very games that are already so distant from reality; it is like a multi-layered dreamworld of insignificance expanding into nothingness.” (125)

“God created me–and you–to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion–namely, to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life.” (31)

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Saturday night at the five15 BIG MEETING, I introduced The five15 Challenge. Doubtless there are numerous ways we can seek to “live not for ourselves but for him” in our daily lives. The change that God has wrought in our hearts affects how we relate to others, make decisions about music, where you find a job, etc.

Through The five15 Challenge, I highlighted one particular way that I think we can grow: reaching out to others. I am grateful for the absence of defined cliques in five15, and you are to be encouraged for that! But I’ve also noticed that it is possible for a guest to come to a meeting and spend some time without being greeted by anyone, while many teens are in their comfortable circles. I think we can do better, both at reaching out to new people, and to those in five15 whom we don’t know.

So here is The five15 Challenge: Let us seek to live not for ourselves, but for him, by reaching out to others every chance we get. Every five15 meeting, every Sunday morning, every special event, look for at least one person that you can reach out to. Talk to them. Listen to them. Learn about them. Introduce them to your friends. Remember their name. Go up and talk to them again the next time you see them. If possible, preach the gospel to them!

Know what happens if we do this? God is glorified, and other people are served.

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Tomorrow night is our second five15 meeting of the year (the first was the retreat!). A couple brief reminders:

• Pizza & ping-pong starts at… 5:15. Coincidence? I think not.
• The meeting starts at 6:30. If you’re not coming to pizza & ping-pong, please be prompt.
• Don’t forget your Bible. You’ll need it. Pen and paper not a bad idea either.
• Please pray for me, the five15 Band, the discussion group leaders, and each other.
• Be listening to the Holy Spirit: the Lord may want some of you to bring a prophetic word.

See you tomorrow night.

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This post is for parents!

The Girl Talkers just posted on their blog some thoughts from experienced parents (the Marescos and the Shanks) about teens and video games. This is an excellent two-part guide to how to think biblically and take meaningful practical steps.

Dads, even though this is post is on the Girl Talk blog from two mothers, it represents excellent leadership by these ladies’ husbands, so I want to highly recommend that you review these two posts. Don’t worry; I won’t tell anyone you’ve been reading the Girl Talk blog.

Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here.

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