Ladies,
I want to remind you of the Ladies Meeting this Saturday, from 9am-12pm at the church building.

My Nicole will be speaking about Biblical Femininity for Everyday Life.

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Guys,
Reminder: our not-so-big meeting this Saturday night is a Men’s Meeting for the 7th-12th grade guys and their dads. We’ll be talking about God’s perspective on work. We’ll get started at 6:30pm; NO PIZZA & PING-PONG beforehand.

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A historic anniversary to be celebrated today: 0n January 24, 1984, the first Apple Macintosh was sold.

I say we cancel school, close the bank, have a parade, and observe a moment of silence.

Yay for Mac.

How should we think about this? Putting aside the meaningless PC/Mac debate, we can all thank God for the common grace displayed through technology. People demonstrate the image of God–whether intentionally or not–when they use the abilities and resources God has provided to improve the world.

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The winning caption:

“Keep reading, Honey. Only thirty-two more books,
and then we can sign up for the pancake breakfast!”

Congratulations, Em the Brit. $20 to the church bookstore coming your way.

I picked this one because of the obvious tie to our church life. Well done, Emily.

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One final post about God and Sports. At the Redskins game last week, I told you about the lesson CJ gave my brothers-in-law and I about handling the remote control. This is an important topic, becuase so many commercials are simply unacceptable in their content, exalting greed or immoratilty to promote a product. Read Philippians 4:8 before you watch your next batch of commercials and ask yourself: how many of these commercials are described by this verse? Not many.

The first step is to have a go-to channel. Another major network channel isn’t a great idea, since they usually play commercials at the same and those likely won’t be any better. My personal favorite is the Military Channel. The NASA Channel and C-Span are also highly recommended.

So once you have your channel, you have to be ready. According to CJ, this requires three things:

• Concentration. If you’re busy trying to get the last of the queso out of the jar, you won’t be able to do this job effectively. So watch closely.
• Anticipation. You gotta know when to go. If you wait until the commercials actually start, you might be too late.
• Coordination. Push the right button! Helps to keep your finger there.

Some might be wondering: Am I saying that it is always sinful for Christians to watch commercials? Of course not. But I am making a plea for wisdom and discernment, knowing that we are easily influenced by what we see, and the advertising industry isn’t really interested in influencing us toward godliness.

Dads, I want to encourage you in particular to lead in this, and set a godly standard for your family. To do so is to take one step in obeying Proverbs 4:23:

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”

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In the second part of the talk Saturday night, we considered: What does God think about what is happening in the family room? Meaning, what should we be looking out for in our own hearts as we watch professional or collegiate sports?

I told the story of quickly becoming angry during the game against Tampa at what I thought was an unjust personal foul penalty and ejection of Sean Taylor, only to be humbled when I learned that Taylor had spit in the Tampa Bay running back’s face. I was wrong, and I had to ask for God’s forgiveness for my arrogance.

We read Romans 12:3, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

From this verse we learn that humility is required of each of us. There is such a culture of criticism towards the referees, the coaches, and the players. It is so easy to quickly and confidently declare a referee blind, a coach idiotic, a player an idiot. But that’s thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought. Our TVs don’t give us the vantage point that the referees have, we don’t share the expertise of a professional coach, and we certainly don’t compare with the athletic prowess of a professional player. So let’s think of ourselves with humble, sober judgment and refrain from criticizing referees, coaches, and players.

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Google has recently released Google Earth for Mac. (If you have a PC, you’d had this capability for a while.)

Google Earth is a very cool program that combines satellite imagery with altitude data to give 3D terrain rendering. The coolest part is watching it “fly” halfway around the world for a new view.

Here are some screen shots of the Grand Canyon, New York City, and Washington, D.C.

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In his book, Humility: True Greatness, CJ Mahaney writes the following words, which will help us understand how we should think as Christians about professional sports. Enjoy:

Nowhere is the word great mentioned more often in our culture than in professional sports. If you watch any game this weekend and listen to the announcer’s commentary, then like a mantra you’ll probably hear the word great repeated throughout–great, great, great. Yet it may well be that nowhere in our culture is the absence of true greatness more evident than in professional sports. So be careful about cultivating an excessive love for professional or collegiate sports.

Now, I’m not opposed to professional sports… but when somebody is called “great” for making a tackle on special teams, I try to seize that opportunity to say, “Now, son, is that greatness as biblically defined? Do you think God is particularly impressed by that tackle?”

Did you ever wonder what God thinks as He watches all this celebration of supposed greatness in professional athletics? I can tell you one thing for sure: He’s not impressed. If anything, He’s grieved over the exaggerated celebration.

That doesn’t mean it’s wrong to cheer–that we should just listlessly stare and say… “Don’t clap!” That’s not what I’m saying at all. I cheer and my kids cheer, but I also seek to impart discernment.

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Let’s talk about Saturday night. It was painful to watch our Redskins lose to the Seahawks, but it was a ton of fun to be together.

First, we decided together that Clinton Portis and Sean Taylor are the best offensive and defensive players the Redskins have. Then we asked the question: What does God think about what happens on the field? We looked at two stories from the gospel of Mark: 9:33-35 and 10:35-45:

And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” … And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Here, Jesus is redefining true greatness: not as physical ability, not having “skills,” not elite performance in a highly publicized playoff game. Jesus is saying that true greatness is found in serving others. Talent is no substitute for humility.

True greatness is all around you, although not normally found on the ball field. The first place to look is to your parents: they have served you and are serving you more than you know. Thank them today for the example of true greatness they have provided for you.

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A really long time ago (27 BC), halfway around the world (Rome), Gaius Octavius Thurinus (known to historians today as Octavian) was busy ruling the known world as the emperor of Rome.

It was on this day, January 16, 27 BC that the Roman Senate granted Octavian the title “Augustus” which, when combined with his ancestral title inherited from Julius Caesar, yields the Caesar Augustus known to us in Luke 2:1, “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered…”

You know the rest of the story: a faithful carpenter and his pregnant bride-to-be go to be counted, arrive in his hometown to find all the hotels booked solid, so the Savior of the world is born in a cattle stall. Two things stand out to me:

1. This brief reference to Caesar Augustus is one reminder (among many, many, many others) that the the Bible is true and accurate, that it happened to real people at a real point in time. Luke’s gospel and his book of Acts are particularly well-known for precise references to actual people and events. Any time we read about these people, we should remember that the Bible is a historically verifiable record of actual events and actual people. This should bring us faith and confidence.
2. We also see the sovereignty of God here. Micah 5:2 predicts that the Savior will be born in Jerusalem: “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.” But Mary and Joseph lived in a town called Nazareth , more than 50 miles from Bethlehem. But God uses the quiet workings of everyday life (a census) to bring Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem just in time for Jesus to be born. Every promise of God is perfectly fulfilled, at just the right time.

So, we can have great confidence in God’s word and in God’s workings. He is nothing but faithful. Psalm 33:4 “For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.”

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