57 Express

A Monday with the Skaggs

2009-06-01T21:38:00.006-06:00

Today, I came home from work and Tim asked me if I wanted to go fishing or hog hunting. Since I was in a fishing mood, we decided to yank innocent fish out of the water by their lips! Typically, I always out fish Tim, but tonight it was different.

Things started great for Tim, and he was using a plastic worm. After fighting the urge to follow suit, I gave in, but I had never fished with plastic worms. Tim was a great teacher and below is a few pictures from our trip. I caught a few, but Tim out fished me! Congrats!

After doing a little "work" fishing, we came home and finished the evening with a great episode of WIPEOUT! Nothing like sitting around laughing at people hurt themselves! It has been a fun night!

Seinfeld: Skaggs Edition Part 1

2009-05-27T21:15:00.002-06:00

I continually tell Tim that the life of the Skaggs needs to be a Seinfeld episode. If you have ever heard him teach, you know the stories, and you know exactly what I mean! Lets call this episode one:

Molly and I were given a key to the front door and told this was for our convenience (so that we didn't have to get the hidden key each time we needed to get back). Molly was excited because she was having a hard time getting the key in and out of the disclosed location. Upon returning to the house, we used the key, we were so graciously given, to realize that the key did not work. No amount of jiggling, wiggling, or fanagiling would open the door. In fact, we were more likely to break the door of the hinges then unlock it with the key.

Because the Skaggs are such wonderful people, they went to make a copy of their key that worked perfectly (I was a witness to the key working). We assumed that Home Depot knew how to make keys so, $10 later, we had two keys (by the way Tim found an A&M key that he had to have and bought it). Much to both of our dismays, we traveled back to the house (after picking up my new Malard Drake stuffed duck...beautiful!) and found that the key still did not work. We did find though that if you stood on one foot, pointed to the north, shook your bootie, and jiggled the key...it still wouldn't open! But we would not be defeated! Obviously, we then realized that Weakley Watson was a better choice for key making (I mean they are a city tradition...why not?). Two keys were made, and Tim resumed the attempt to open the door.

If you can imagine with me Tim, standing in front of the door, hoping that the key will work. At this point, Molly and I are feeling like this is a hint to not come back. Tim and Jamie are thinking, "Well if we give them a key that won't work, maybe they won't come back." Either way, the key worked slightly better, but still it did not work right. At this point, we have five keys. Three of which do not work, and two that work slightly better.

At the end of the day, we are sitting around watching the Lakers-Nuggets game, enjoying a nice bowl of Ligh Blue Bell (a whole nother story in itself...if it is light can I eat more?), and laughing about the days event. Who knew that getting a key made would be such an experience...thus is life with our new housemates! Thank you Skaggs for a great day! We love you!

Check this out!

2009-02-23T08:55:00.001-06:00

Bible Study Magazine and Mars Hill are giving away 20 copies of Mark Driscoll’s new book, Vintage Church. Not only that, but they are also giving away five subscriptions to Bible Study Magazine and a copy of their Bible Study Library software! Enter to win on the Bible Study Magazine Mark Driscoll page, then take a look at all the cool tools they have to take your Bible study to the next level!

Consistency

2008-01-18T08:39:00.000-06:00

I had a chance to sit down and think last night…those times don’t come very often. I was thinking about the last couple months of my life. You ever heard the expression of life smacking you in the face? I don’t reference that as if I am upset about it, but when I really think about all that has occurred, life has hit me ridiculously hard!
Within the last couple of months, I have married the most amazing woman in the world (assuming responsibility for another life, like I could even take care of mine), began the process of splitting bills one way, began my final semester of my undergraduate career, became an Associate Student Minister (my first Full-Time Church job), and the list goes on and on. I am not complaining, in fact, I am extremely blessed and excited that God has brought all these things to be; however, thinking about all this began the wheels turning about transitions, steps, and different “chapters” of our life.
Many of my friends are getting ready to graduate and begin the next phase of their life. Whether that is Seminary, marriage, career hunting, Graduate work, or other, it is a new stage in life. My thoughts circle around the idea of faith and pursuing after the Lord’s Will.
Wayne Grudem states, “Therefore, we must exhibit much caution, especially in the midst of difficult situations, in saying with any degree of certainty what the Lord’s will is if it is not clear from Scripture.” I began thinking about how much we as Christians think about following the Lord’s will. When we graduate from High School, we strive to follow the Lord’s will through our college selection, we strive to follow the Lord’s will and marry whom He desire, and we strive to follow the Lord’s will by pursuing a career that He has for us. However, I have to be honest with you. There have been numerous times in my life that frankly I did not know 100% that the choice I made was God’s will for my life.
When I looked into Howard Payne, I was not absolutely sure that God’s will was for me to go there. When I asked Molly to be my wife, I was not absolutely, 100% sure that was God’s will for me (I am so glad I did!). I will say though that at the time of making both of those decisions, as best as I knew, that was what God had for me. Of course I had my doubts, fears, anxieties, and worries, but I cannot say that at the moment that I made those choice for sure it was God’s will. So do I lack faith? Do I lack trust in God? Is my spiritual walk a failure because I cannot claim God’s will for my life in every situation or major fork in the road? ABSOLUTELY NOT!
I suggest that claiming in a decision that you know for a fact this is God’s will takes less faith than stepping out with the understanding that, “as best as I know, this is God’s will.” For when we do the latter, we must dearly cling to verses like Heb 13:5 and Psalm 139:7-10. Not that I negate the faith required of the former. I will forever look to Indiana Jones for the greatest illustration of this. Had he known absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Bridge was there (referring to the step of faith) the whole dramatic scene where he takes the leap would have been a little anti-climactic and less trust and faith would have been necessary than having to trust the book he was reading and act accordingly.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe God, as the living and active Redeemer in this world, reveals Himself to people and expounds His will to them and much faith is required to act that out. However, I suppose that following the Lord’s will is less about earnestly seeking supernatural, interventional guidance on individual decisions and more about living a life of consistent faithfulness to seek after the Lord. When we as Christians live our lives, we are to daily seek after the Lord, and when we live in such a close relationship with Him, the next steps in life are more clear than if we have not. This does not surmise that those decisions will be easy and will not require trust, but I believe there is much to be said about living a life of consistent faithfulness (not perfection), coming to a decision to be made, sensing as best as you know what the Lord would have you do, to step out in faith, and act! Is that not why Paul urges in Romans 12:2 for us to be transformed in our minds? Does this not come by following hard after the Lord, and is the result not understanding of His will? This is the thought process I went through in proposing to Molly. I had sensed the Lord leading me to do this, of course, I had my doubts, fears, anxieties, worries, etc, but a wise man asked me if my past year had been characterized by consistent faithfulness. If that were the case, would Christ be leading me while being close to Him to do something contrary to His desire?
In sum, after rambling in an attempt to explain myself, I propose that the answer to following God’s will is not begging God for a divine answer (asking for miraculous signs), but living a life of consistent faithfulness so that when those major decisions come you are so close to the coat tails of our Father that “as best as you can tell” you step out in faith, trust God, and act! May you follow and pursue hard after the Lord as you follow Him in the next stages and road marks of your life!

Makes me chuckle!

2007-07-02T15:53:00.000-06:00

Many of you might already know this, but the Lord showed me something this afternoon that I thought was pretty sweet (as most times it is) and want to share with you.

In Acts 1:8, Christ delivers the very powerful charge to the disciples that "they will receive power then the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." I have always thought this was amazing how Christ's intent for the disciples is to move outward and impact their community, "state," and outer parts of their world. His purpose is not for them to stay sitting pretty in Jerusalem. In addition to this verse, I have always been told however that the disciples did not leave Jerusalem until Acts 8. I have always thought how stupid of the Disciples to stay put when Christ had told them to leave, but then I am reminded to bite my tongue and remove the grotesquely large plank from my eye!

What hit me though today was what I read in Acts 8:1. It says that "On that day a great persecution broke out against the church of Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria." I am not sure why the Apostles were the ones who stayed, but I do know that because of this persecution Philip left to Samaria and proclaimed Christ there. Wait, you mean to tell me what persecution came and seemed to play into God's plan for His people to go into Samaria? But wait...I thought bad things weren't suppose to happen to Christians...ha! What is even more intriguing though is the thought that had it not been for the persecution who knows how long they would of stayed in Jerusalem. But still, what is even cooler, is the person to whom was causing the persecution and leading the way. None other than one of the greatest missionaries to ever walk this earth: Paul (then known as Saul). How Sovereign is our God that He uses a man to impart persecution on His people (by His permission), to get them to advance His mission, and to later have that man do more for the Lord then He ever though possible. Funny thing is, God was using Paul long before Paul even knew it!

Makes me smile and chuckle at how great our God is, how sovereign He is, and how I must strive to follow His commands daily while understanding that trials and persecutions are glorifying Himself by accomplishing His eternal will! It seems to have worked this way in Acts, and I believe it still works this way today!

Double Authorship of the Bible

2007-06-12T08:57:00.000-06:00

I wonder sometimes what it must of been like for the Apostles to write the New Testament. What it must of been like and how it all happened. We read the Scriptures and know that it is "God-breathed" and the very words of God, yet we also know that humans wrote it down. Therefore, in a sense, there is this double authorship of the Scriptures. John Stott explains it amazingly in his book "The Contemporary Christian:"

"The same Scripture which says 'the mouth of the Lord has spoken' also says that God spoke 'by the mouth of the holy prophets'. Out of whose mouth did Scripture come, then? God's or man's? The only biblical answer is 'both'. Indeed, God spoke through human authors in such a way that his words were simultaneously their words, and their words were simultaneously his. This is the double authorship of the Bible. Scripture is equally the Word of God and the words of human beings. Better, it is the Word of God through the words of human beings."

He goes on to say this: "Thus on the one hand God spoke, determining what he wanted to say, yet without smothering the personality of the human authors. On the other hand, human beings spoke, using their faculties freely, yet without distorting the truth which God was speaking through them."

Therefore, because of this double authorship, we should approach Scripture in two ways. First, we must come before it in acknowledgment that it is the Word of God. We should read it like no other book. Second, we should read it like we read every other book, "using our minds, thinking, pondering and reflecting, and paying close attention to its literary, historical, cultural, and linguistic characteristics."

I love what Stott says here. I love the fact that he reminds us that Scripture is the Word of God, but it was given to us through the words of humans. I think some critics will try to say that Stott gives too much credit to humans; however, on the contrary, I believe this truth he presents shed even more light on the power of our God and His incredible nature that He would use fallen creatures to communicate His truth. We serve an amazing God! Wouldn't you agree!

In all, present in this truth stated by Stott is the need for balance. One cannot neglect the fact that human words were employed here, but also cannot take it to the extreme where the fact that it is God's Word is neglected. On the other hand, one cannot take it so far to the side of being God's Word that one rejects the participation of humans in the process. Just like with many other areas of our faith, there must be a balance, and we, as fallen creatures, have to rely on the Holy Spirit's guidance to live in this balance.

Pressing on,
Tim

PS. Please share your thoughts!

A Long Way From Home

2007-06-06T14:08:00.000-06:00

Never before in my life have I experienced such a display of hope and hopelessness. One minute you are witnessing the false worship of thousands, and the next moment you hear what must be a sound clip of the praises that will be heard in Heaven at the feet of Jesus. My trip to India has made an immense impact of my personal life, my relationship with the Lord, and my understanding of my role in this world. I have been back in America for about a little over a week, and I am continuing to process through my thoughts in an attempt to make sense of it all. Even as I sit here trying to write this blog, I am at a lost for words and am having a hard time determining where to start.
Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:4 states that "the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." I witnessed this blinding first hand while in India. You have people who believe that this monkey god will bring them some sort of strength or blessing as they bring their box of sweets to lay at its feet. You have people who believe that they can wash their sins away using one of the most polluted rivers in the world (Ganges River). And you have people who believe that they have relatives who have been reincarnated as a cow. It all seems extremely absurd to me, but this is the extent that the evil one has blinded them. But what joy it was to walk among the people, blessing them in the name of Jesus, and asking the Spirit to draw the people. It was an extremely dark place and spiritual oppression was everywhere, but it was so evident that there is light and that there is hope because our God reigns!
One of the great lessons the Lord taught me on this trip was through one of the Hindu worship services we went to. Every Sunday night there is this service where 7-9 Brahman Hindu men perform this ritual praising and calling upon the Ghanga. We went and proclaimed the name of Jesus, sang songs, and prayed for the people. It was an intense experience of roller coaster emotions as I found myself angry one moment, sad the next, then joyful, and then back to angry. Angry at the way the evil one has fooled and tricked these people, sad at the false worship and the lostness of the people, and joyful for my salvation and the God that sought me out. But as the bells for this ceremony rang, I tried to sing louder and louder but couldn't drown out the bells. It was seriously the most spiritually oppressive time of my life. And then my heart began to break at the sight of all the false worship and how it must have been making God feel. And then it hit me. God smacked me with a huge lesson, and it was as if I sensed God saying, "yes, my heart does break at the sight of these people's false worship; however, they aren't the only ones who worship falsely. The things they worship might be idols and such, but what about the things in your life that you worship: entertainment, success, materialism, consumerism, etc. They break my heart equally as bad." Wow! After weeping and being broken by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, I realized that God had blessed me with a means to connect emotionally to what my sin does to Him. Just as my heart broke at the sight of the false worship, God's heart breaks on an even greater scale. I don't want to break the heart of God, and I don't want to take the focus off of Him that is due to Him.
Like I said, we were able to witness the hope of India while we were there and heard amazing testimonies of some believers there and all that they have gone through. I will never really know what persecution is like and what losing a family for my faith is like. But one thing it did, was make me cherish my salvation and fall even more in love with the Lord. Sitting and listening to Indian believers worship the Father in heaven was an amazing experience that I will never forget. I will always remember their faces, the sounds, smells, and more. Thank you to everyone who supported financially and offered up prayers while we were gone. The Lord protected us and allowed us to experience some amazing things.
This really does not even come close to doing justice to the things I saw and did, there will be more in the days to come. Please ask me questions if you have them, and I look forward to sharing more with you.

The Human Paradox

2007-04-28T08:56:00.001-06:00

Good morning! I am sitting in the lobby of a Ramada Inn at my fiance's sorority banquet. I have decided to take the down time I have and do a little reading and writing. I have enjoyed my time here so far and am looking forward to a relaxing and enjoyable weekend.

I leave in 16 days for India. I cannot even believe it. In my last post, I asked that you begin to pray for the preparation process. I am going to add a few things to that list. We still have some people who have not raised all their money. Please pray that the Lord provides. Also, I found out that a few days of the trip we will be traveling to some of the paramount Hindu places of worship. These are such dark places, and we will need serious prayer as we try to bring light to these Hindu strongholds. I cannot give too many specifics about the trip, but if you want more, then email me. I will try and send you an update with more specific prayer requests.

In my last post, I talked about reading John Stott's book The Contemporary Christian. It has been a great book, and the topic of the last chapter I read brings me to writing today. In the first chapter, Stott talks about the Human Paradox. This paradox, as Stott testifies, is one between man's "dignity and depravity." I completely am on board with the depravity of man. At our core is a desire for evil and sin. We were sinful at birth, and only by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, has the penalty of our sin been lifted from us. However, even after we become followers of Christ, we still possess a nature that leans toward sin. That is why Paul battles that he doesn't do the good that he wants to but the bad he doesn't want to. We see throughout Scripture the desire for one to do good, but continually, drawn by a nature that is evil to do wrong. Thus, I am all on board with Total Depravity. However, my question of this paradox comes with the identification of the dignity of man.

Basically, the question I ponder is can man do good apart from God. To which I say, no way! However, we must look at this from two perspectives. The first with believers and the second with non-believers. John 15:5 addresses this issue with believers: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." As believers, who abide in Him and He in us, we know that the only way "good" comes from our life is from guidance of the Father "who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Php. 2:13). We as sin-natured creatures must rely fully on God to do good through us; thus, it is easy for me to understand this with believers and their "good" acts, but what about non-believers. How do you deal with those lost people who have achieved what society has deemed "great" things for the cause of justice, social reform, etc? What do we do about the lost people in the world who we know are not abiding in Christ nor Christ in them, yet perform "good" acts? Does a non-believer have the ability to perform good acts independent of the Father? If so, then what is the standard for good, and who sets it?

It has been established that man is sinful from birth; therefore, I believe that at the core of man is the desire to do evil. As believers, we understand acts of dignity or good acts as those that glorify the Father. Those acts that point to nothing of ourselves, others, or society but only Himself. This is not the case for a non-believer. Please don't read me wrong. I do believe that all acts of man (good or bad) ultimately glorify the Lord, whether in punishment of eternal hell or exaltation of Himself. That is clear from Psalm 46:10, "Be still, and know that I AM GOD; I WILL BE exalted among the nations, I WILL BE exalted in the earth." But, I do not believe that actions that non-believers perform that are labeled as good are considered good in God's eyes. When a lost person performs actions that are good what is the focus? Is it others, maybe selfishness, pride, betterment of society? I believe that these actions are good actions, that they do benefit society, and that I am eternally grateful for some of the work that was done; however, if the person performing the act is not pointing to the Father and their motive is not exaltation of Him, then it is not a good act because apart from Christ they do nothing.

Thus, my conclusion is that either God does not consider these acts good, or that in His Sovereignty, He controls the hearts, minds, actions of all people and utilizes the lost to achieve His plans: glorification of Himself and resultantly good and dignified acts. Therefore, all the good things of this world, whether done by lost or saved people are a byproduct of the Father. (This does not mean that a lost person can perform good deeds and be saved. I am not a universalist or pluralist. If you only knew me, then you would know this could not be further from the truth). Therefore, the paradox presented by Stott must be understood in light of all this: man possesses a sinful nature but at the same time desires for what is just, loving, and peaceful. He is depraved but desires dignity.

I am not sure if all of this makes sense. It sure is hard to understand it in my mind. I am in no way claiming to have this all figured out; therefore, any and all help and suggestions on this topic would be greatly appreciated and welcomed. Have a great day!

Waging war against the soul,
Tim <><

India, John Stott, and more!

2007-04-23T21:35:00.000-06:00

I have finally busted into the world of blogging. I have set this up to be able to post updates while I am on my trip in India, but also to share some of my thoughts about life! I don't know how valuable they are, but for anyone who wants to read this...I hope you enjoy.

Three weeks from now I will be on a plane heading to Delhi, India. It blows my mind and makes me nervous, anxious, and excited to see what the Lord is going to do in my life and the life of others while I am there. I ask that you would begin to pray for the planning process. I found out that I will be playing guitar some and am a little nervous. I haven't played guitar and a while, but I know the Lord will use it for His glory and His honor. You could also pray that I develop some good callouses. I ask not that you pray for safety and protection but that you pray that we be dangerous and a threat to the plans of the Devil. There will be days that we will be prayer walking through some of the strongholds of the Hindu belief. I pray that as light enters darkness, the darkness is scared and shudders. We come in the authority and power of the Creator of Heaven and Earth. At His name, every knee will bow and tongue confess. Wow! To truly understand that power is difficult.

India is heavy on my heart, but other things are heavy as well. As most of you know, I will be marrying the most amazing girl in the world (I might be biased) on December 8. I am so blessed to have such a beautiful and wonderful girl. The Lord is teaching me more and more about love, myself, and how stupid I was for thinking I know it all. He has grown me and shown me more of Himself through Molly. One of the big decisions in our life together will be the option to travel overseas and study abroad. I am looking into studying at Oxford, and I am extremely nervous. I had the opportunity to talk to a friend the other day about the opportunity, and he gave me some great suggestions. These suggestions and the thought it provoked is what leads me to write this article tonight.

I have been thinking about what I desire to study at Oxford. I am not sure how it all fleshes out, but I want to study Culture Theology. John Stott says is best in his phrase double listening (comes from his book The Contemporary Christian). He explains this as the task of listening "carefully both to the ancient Word and to the modern world, in order to relate the one to the other with a combination of fidelity and sensitivity." My heart is to teach students. The charge I believe is not only to get a student to confess Jesus as Lord and believe in Him, but also to go back into culture and transform it. Not remove themselves from culture, but plug oneself right back into it. Changing it and transforming it. The balance is guarding oneself from falling into sin that culture tempts them with and immersing oneself into it enough to impact it. Culture is a creation of the Lord, whether you want to admit it or not. "For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him" (Colossians 1:16). We cannot look at culture, adopt the attitude that it is evil, and remove ourselves from it. Why don't we do a better job of training and teaching students to take their faith with them as they rise to the top of their fields? I am not claiming that we need a theocracy, by no means am I claiming this, but we do need to charge people with what Stott has coined a second conversion: that conversion being one back into culture to transform it.
Something else that highly interests me is how an individual goes into a foreign country, assesses the culture, and then learns how to reach the people in a way that is contextual and applicable to that culture. What does one need to know about the culture? How do you go about addressing major social concerns? Do you even do this? What points of Christianity are paramount? Do you present Christ first and allow all else to fall in place? What do you do about a Muslim who comes to faith and has 6 wives? The Bible says God hates divorce and claims the command of one wife. But is this a greater "sin" than a man trapped in pornography married to a woman or a man caught in addiction? Some of these questions are those that cross-cultural missionaries must address. I believe Paul addresses the issue of what a culture needs to know about Christ when in Acts 17 he is in Athens. He assesses their culture and then makes a statement to the men of Athens in vs 24-31. I will have more on this later.
My desire is to teach students how to impact their culture. When culture is so greatly affected by those people who are between the ages of 12-25, why are we not training them to impact it? Not those who are older. It would be like me trying to change decisions that George Bush makes in the White House when I am not even close to the political spectrum. Lets begin to open students' eyes to the culture around them and incite them to transform it. But where do we begin? I think I smell a theses topic...eh?

As I sit here and write, so many thoughts come to my head. I don't believe I have said much. Don't worry, those that are reading this...I promise I will get better with the whole blogging thing! I believe I will close this post for tonight and start again when more ideas come. Until then, grace and peace be yours!