Category: Miscellany

How Good Are You?

I used to get very frustrated on the golf course, I’m getting better though. I began getting better when I changed my thinking.

I once made four birdies in the first six holes I played. Then I made a ten on the tenth hole and ended up shooting 77, a pretty bad result considering I was four under after six holes.

The problem was I knew I was capable of playing six holes four under par and thought that’s who I was, rather than the golfer who was capable of making a ten on a hole.

The difference between me, or any decent amateur golfer, and Tiger Woods is not the quality of our best shots but our worst ones. My best shot is as straight as Tiger’s best shot. The difference is my bad drive goes out of bounds while Tiger’s trickles into the rough. My bad bunker shot doesn’t get out of the bunker; Tiger’s ends up ten feet from the hole.

Who I am as a golfer is not determined by the quality of my good shots but the quality of my worst ones. The same is true of who we are as people.

Continue reading “How Good Are You?”

Digesting The Death Of Bin Laden

This morning, the West will awaken to the news of the death of Osama Bin Laden, a misguided mass-murderer (is there any other kind?). And the world will be watching.

The Lord said if He told Ezekiel to warn a wicked man of impending judgment and Ezekiel failed to do so, depriving the wicked man of the opportunity to repent, the Lord would require his blood from Ezekiel. The Lord then said, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live.” (Ezekiel 33:11).

As I watched young Americans dancing in the street in front of The White House last night, celebrating the death of Bin Laden, it didn’t sit right with me. Continue reading “Digesting The Death Of Bin Laden”

Seeking The Living One

When the women arrived at Jesus’ tomb on Sunday morning, they found the stone had been rolled away and the tomb empty. Two men suddenly stood near in glowing clothes and said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead?” (Luke 24:1-6).

It was a good question.

More people will go to church today than any other Sunday of the year, and that’s a good thing. But most will go to the same church they’ve gone to in the past, perhaps the church they grew up in, where they’ve never found Jesus.

I grew up in such a church. The services were rote and ritualistic. It was like the people there were just punching a time clock. There was no life. Not surprisingly, I didn’t find Jesus there.

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The Error Of The Trendy

Perhaps you heard the news. The word is Rob Bell has gone off the reservation and gone public as a Universalist.

Supposedly, the evidence of this self-outing is found in Bell’s new book, Love Wins: Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived.

The book will not be officially released until later this month, but HarperCollins’s description of the book and Bell’s promotional video seem to warrant the accusations. I’m still hoping both are merely an attempt at provocative marketing.

I have not read the book. I have seen some of Bell’s video teachings and liked what I saw. If the accusations are true, my guess is that in his desire to reach those outside the church, Bell stretched so far he let go of the truths which had set him out after the lost in the first place. Continue reading “The Error Of The Trendy”