Today I was reminded of this quote by the great Winston Churchill (or at least attributed to him - I don't have it sourced yet):

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."

This is going to be a rough year. Hang tight, people, use your God-given discernment, and pray for our country.

P.S. The sad part is that these days every year is an election year.

In an earlier comments thread I predicted this rematch. I'm not sure who will win, but I'll go ahead and just say the Giants, to balance out all the Patriot-love.

Who do you think will win? Let us know in the comments.

On this date, exactly two years ago, I made the following predictions.

Monday, January 18, 2010
Predictions
Posted by Philip @ 2:24 pm CST

1-Mitt Romney will win the Republican Nomination in 2012... but will ultimately lose to Obama.

2-Wearing your pants too low will finally go out of fashion, the direct cause being the "Pants on the ground" song which the general public will start singing behind the backs of guys wear their pants that way. The harassment will just become too much, and one man will have destroyed a fashion with a little song as catchy as a commercial jingle, and decent Americans everywhere will rise up and call him a hero.

3-Arnold Schwarzenegger will make another Terminator movie after he moves out of the governor's mansion...because he will be desperate for popularity.

4-Joe Biden will not return for Obama's second term, citing family and personal reasons, and Hillary will insist on being VP.

5-Obama will kill the "From Moon to Mars" space program, saying we need the money here on earth.

6-Joel Osteen will resign from public ministry because of depression. Dude's gonna burn out.

7-We will find Osama Bin Laden.

So how am I doing?

Status So Far
1- Looking good so far. The probability that I will be right has increased.
2- Looking good so far. What do you think? Seen anyone wearing their pants too low lately?
3-Looking really good so far. News Story from April, 2011 that Arnie will star in Terminator 5 and will be directed by Justin Lin.
4-Not looking good, but not out of the question. People are talking about it.
5-Partially right. Obama killed the Bush version of the plan that involved going to the moon by 2020 and then Mars after that for financial reasons as I predicted. However, the plan now is to go to an asteroid and then Mars.
What I meant was that he'd cancel "Project: Constellation" which he did, but we are still going to Mars, so I wasn't totally correct. Sigh.
6- Not looking good. At all.
7- Done. Nailed that one. My one definite so far.

I was 1-4 last weekend, although I didn't mind being wrong on a couple of those.

Grain of salt included, here are my predictions for this weekend's games.

New England over Denver
Houston over Baltimore
New Orleans over San Francisco
Green Bay over New York Giants

I'm still calling a Saints-Patriots Super Bowl.

. . . the best entry I've seen so far to the "Political Views" profile on Facebook.

At this point, I think even the Patriots better be careful underestimating Tebow.

Congratulations to the Broncos. Very few people thought that they would win against the Steelers. I had the Steelers making it to the Superbowl, actually. But I'm happy to be wrong.

I'm looking forward to next week - and fervently hoping for the nearly unthinkable: an AFC match-up between the Broncos and the Texans in Houston in two weeks.

Sports Illustrated has a rundown of some columnists' predictions of the playoff games that start today.

Here are mine:

FIRST ROUND
Bengals over Texans (even though I'll be rooting for Texans)
Steelers over Broncos (even though I'll be rooting for Broncos)
Saints over Lions
Falcons over Giants

SECOND ROUND
Ravens over Steelers (though I always root against the Ravens)
Patriots over Bengals
Saints over 49ers
Packers over Falcons (though I'd be rooting for the Falcons)

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Saints over Packers
Patriots over Ravens (in a very, very tight game)

SUPER BOWL
Saints over Patriots (though of course I'd be rooting the other way)

Obviously if the first round doesn't go the way I'm predicting this weekend, the rest is all wonky.

C. Michael Patton over at Parchment and Pen posts about his depression, nearly two years later. Below is an excerpt:

Two years later, there are still times when driving down the road, playing a video game with my kids, or drinking a Coke out of a bottle that I notice that recovery is chronic. “Oh, yeah,” I say to myself. “That is what it is like to be notice good things.” During these times I want to call out to God and say, “Time out!” Whatever made me realize again what I took for granted before needs to find its way to the shelves of the store.

Two years later I know there are places I cannot go in my mind. Two years later I look through the peep-hole in the door of my emotions before I let anything in. Two years later I long for a glory that knows no tears in a way I had not longed before. Two years later I am stable but scared. Scared that it might happen again. Two years later, my heart does not know how to respond to others who are groping for hope in a dark mind. I want to grab their depression by the neck and kill it, burn it, smash it, and choke it. I hate it.

Many end these type of messages with the “But I am glad I went through this” type stuff. My sister says that she is glad I went through it. Okay, fine. Gotcha. Neat. But I don’t know if I am. I think I would rather not live with the haunting memory of that time. At least not now. To know that this actually exists in this world . . . Really? That? Torture, hunger, blindness, poverty, even holocaust are things I gawked at before. But depression is from a planet I could not imagine existed. A dark planet. A cold and lonely planet that no telescope can see, no pictures can describe, for which no analogy of being can be found. It only exists in theory before you have been there. But I think I would have rather seen it through the telescope. When I returned from that world, a part of me was left behind. I think I would have rather not had that passport stamped.

But I serve a God who is sovereign and does not have the word “meaningless” in any dictionary signed by him. In this, I suppose, you can pull my teeth until I say “Okay, it was good for me to go there. Better to go to the house of the morning than the house of feasting. Okay. Yeah, okay.” In glory, you will not have to pull my teeth to say this. But for now, you still do.

I encourage you to read the whole thing, and also his original post on the brokenness of depression from April, 2010.

There was a time in my life when I thought that the "blues" and times of slight hopelessness and small despair that I sometime experienced could be called "depression". Then I experienced depression second-hand in the lives of people I love, and I realized that I didn't know what I was talking about.

It's hard now to express what I think of this terrible condition. At least not in words that are fit to print in a family blog. I think C. Michael Patton said it well, above: "my heart does not know how to respond to others who are groping for hope in a dark mind. I want to grab their depression by the neck and kill it, burn it, smash it, and choke it. I hate it."

When Christ's kingdom is fully realized, depression will be a thing of the past. It will be cast into the lake of fire along with our enemy and all the other curses of fallen creation.

If you are currently suffering from depression, or in that baffling, helpless state of trying to help and encourage someone you love dearly who is wearing the dark sackcloth, my heart goes out to you. May the mercy and rescue of God be yours in abundance, and may joy truly come in the swift-approaching morning.

I was introduced to this by youngest daughter. At first I didn't know what to make of it, but I think it's darn funny (and innovative).



Fact!

(also, though we share a surname, there is no relation that I know of to the BoredShorts people).

Here is a real-life scenario of a friend of a friend of mine. I'll call the young lady Laura. She has been dating a Baptist guy for a year (I'll call him John). Her parents are Church of Christ and pretty hard-core about it.

John talked to her parents last week to ask for Laura's hand. The parents told him that the only way they would give their blessing is if he becomes CoC. He told them that was going to be a decision they would make as a family, but neither he nor Laura have a desire to become Church of Christ (or, in her case, to remain Church of Christ). They have been attending a non CoC church together. Laura has expressed that she has learned more about God's grace from her friends, John, and her new church than she ever did from her parents or their church.

Her parents have made remarks to Laura that John is leading her to hell, and they are worried about her soul. The parents want to sit down and talk with them both.

What advice would you give this young couple? They are both believers. I am not familiar enough with the Church of Christ to know how to approach this.

John and Laura gave me permission through my friend to post this on Thinklings. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I'd especially love to hear from those of you in the Church of Christ or who have CoC friends or family, but if you have any advice or knowledge at all on this your insight will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Do you have any predictions for 2012?

I'm going to posit a few:

1. Here's a bold prediction: Barack Obama will not win re-election.

No, I am not underestimating the man. He's very, very good at campaigning, he is personally popular (though his current job approval ratings are pretty low). And, though I disagree with most of his policies, I believe he is a smart and talented politician.

But . . .

I don't think you can underestimate how bad the global economy is looking. There are just too many downward pressures: the financial ailments of the Eurozone, the instability in the Middle East, our large debt burden. For most voters, the economy is the biggest issue right now, and I don't expect it to improve very much between now and November 2012, though I hope I'm wrong. If it hasn't improved, I think Obama is done.

As a side prediction, Obama will replace Joe Biden as his running mate with someone else - perhaps Hillary.

2. Mitt Romney will win the Republican nomination and will be elected President. This is, of course, a corollary to my first prediction, and if I'm wrong on #1 I'll get a twofer fail. Regarding Romney, like him or not, he will be the most palatable alternative to Obama for most Americans. And they will vote for him, if things don't improve significantly in the economy.

3. The New Orleans Saints will beat the Pittsburg Steelers in the Superbowl. I'm never right about sports predictions, but I had to try. I'm assuming Big Ben's ankle gets better. And I realize that the Packers are having a great year. But what the hay.

5. Blo will post on Thinklings at least once in 2012. Hey, a guy can dream.

So, what do you think? Do you have some predictions, or want to take me to task for mine? Have at it in the comments.

Well, my technical issues resolved themselves quicker than I expected, thankfully. Thinklings has been upgraded to Bloo version 1.35 (as yet unreleased, but just about ready to be set loose).

Here's what's new in this release:

• Bloo now supports full comment moderation
• The comment thread subscription is enhanced. For instance, you can now cancel your subscription to a comments thread - every comment email you receive has a link which, if clicked on, will unsubscribe you
• Added two new spam Captchas: Bloo Captcha (which we've been using here for awhile and which is currently in force for Thinklings comments) and Google's reCaptcha service.
• Private Site, a new Bloo extension SnapOn, which allows you to set your entire blog private, meaning that only logged-in users can see it
• Max Links Spam Filter, also a Bloo extension SnapOn, in the Spamicide collection. Spammers, we hates them. we hates them forevah!!
• Emails coming from the system now look better (or that's the theory)
• Fixed a bug that caused comment counts to show no comments when viewing posts by category
• Performed various other bug fixes and architectural improvements

For some of you who have been thinking about starting to blog, and want to go the less-travelled road, you might think about giving Bloo a try. Be part of something small! (As you can see, marketing and snappy slogans are not my forte)

I'll be upgrading our little blog to the latest version of Bloo later today (this is a pre-release upgrade. I want to test the new software for a day or two here before releasing it into the wild).

I'm targeting the upgrade for maybe 7:00pm tonight, just in case you're on and everything crashes.

Update: OK, I said 7:00, but I guess I meant 8:30pm. Upgrading in 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . .

Update 2: Sigh. I've run into technical issues unrelated to the upgrade. May need to wait on this until I get those doped out.

Yesterday at work I went to lunch with some friends from work. The conversation turned toward spiritual matters (one colleague is a Christian, the other a Hindu).

It was one of those conversations . . . one in which I could have steered things way, way more toward the necessity and exclusivity of Jesus and farther away from the ecumenical "all religions are at their core the same" direction the talk went. Long story on that. But I got tongue-tied, and I could not figure out a way to get the right word in.

I didn't add anything of value to the conversation. This is ridiculous. What on earth is wrong with me?

I would appreciate prayer in this area, plus would love to hear about more positive experiences if you have some to share. I admit that I struggle a lot with personal evangelism.

Thanks.

Tonight I watched Frank Capra's masterpiece It's a Wonderful Life with my bride. I love that movie. Jill loves the fact that, no matter how hard I try not to, I get misty in the last scene.

Something occurred to me during the climactic "never been born" section of the movie that has never occurred to me before: I wonder how many people watch this show these days and think "Pottersville looks a lot more fun than Bedford Falls."

Pottersville, with its bars, dancing girls, gambling houses and gin-joints that serve hard drinks to men who want to get drunk fast fits far better into our coarsened, entertainment-saturated culture than the quiet streets of Bedford Falls, with it's Bijou, Emporium, and that wonderful old Bailey building and loan. Pottersville moves, and has the flashing lights, raucous crowds, and the frequent gunshots to keep our short attention spans jumping. No one's bored in Pottersville.

For my part, I'm hoping to spend more time in Bedford Falls in 2012.

"Zuzu's petals! Zuzu's . . . they're . . . they're here, Bert!

What do you know about that? Merry Christmas!"

Merry Christmas, everyone, and may you have a wonderful new year!

The Queen's Christmas message this year was very good. You can read the full text here, but below is the conclusion:

Finding hope in adversity is one of the themes of Christmas. Jesus was born into a world full of fear. The angels came to frightened shepherds with hope in their voices: ‘Fear not’, they urged, ‘we bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord.’

Although we are capable of great acts of kindness, history teaches us that we sometimes need saving from ourselves – from our recklessness or our greed. God sent into the world a unique person – neither a philosopher nor a general (important though they are) – but a Saviour, with the power to forgive.

Forgiveness lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It can heal broken families, it can restore friendships and it can reconcile divided communities. It is in forgiveness that we feel the power of God’s love.

In the last verse of this beautiful carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem, there’s a prayer:

O Holy Child of Bethlehem

Descend to us we pray

Cast out our sin

And enter in

Be born in us today

It is my prayer that on this Christmas day we might all find room in our lives for the message of the angels and for the love of God through Christ our Lord.

I wish you all a very happy Christmas.

Amen.

Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Thinklings on Vimeo.

The quote below is a great follow-up to this earlier post. I lifted this entirely from Jared's blog.

Self-denying humility ought to show up in the way we worship together. Thankfully, we don't hear as much these days about worship wars in Christian churches as we did just a few years ago, but they are still there. For years I thought this phenomenon was the bane of the "make it up as you go along" whirl of low-church evangelical Protestantism, and mostly it is. But even with a set traditional liturgy, Roman Catholics and other groups often experience the same kinds of tensions.

Maybe you're like me, reared to have the worship music tastes of a seventy-five-year-old woman. That's because, I think, a seventy-five-year-old woman was picking out the hymns and gospel songs in the church where I grew up. I tear up when I sing "Just As I Am" or "To God Be the Glory." And I'm left cold by what some people call the "majestic old hymns." They sound like what watercress-sandwich-eating Episcopalians from Connecticut would listen to (not that there's anything wrong with that). And so many of the contemporary songs sound as if they were written by commercial jingle writers, trying desperately to find words to rhyme with "Jesus" ("Sees us?" "Never leave us?" "Diseases?"). I'm not saying aesthetics don't matter in worship. Worship is, after all, commanded to be offered with "reverence and awe" (Heb. 12:28). I am saying our varying critiques of musical forms are often just simple narcissism disguised as concern about theological and liturgical downgrade.

We need more worship wars, not fewer. What if the war looked like this in your congregation—the young singles petitioning the church to play more of the old classics for the sake of the elderly people, and the elderly people calling on the leadership to contemporize for the sake of the young new believers? This would signal a counting of others as more important than ourselves (Phil. 2:3), which comes from the Spirit of the humiliated, exalted King, Christ (Phil. 2:5-11).

When I insist that the rest of the congregation serve as backup singers in my own little nostalgic hit parade of back-home Mississippi hymns, I am worshiping in the spirit all right, but not the Holy Spirit. I am worshiping myself, in the spirit of self-exaltation. The church negates the power of the third temptation when we remind ourselves that we all have this devilish tendency and cast it aside whether in worship planning or missions or budget decisions.

-- Russell Moore, Tempted and Tried (Crossway, 2011), 149-150.

Yes.

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. (Romans 12:10 ESV)

Imagine an army barracks overseas. Someone walks in to where the men are sleeping in the middle of the night and wakes one up. “A baby has been born to you,” the messenger says. “He is the one you’ve been waiting for.” The soldier who receives the news sits up with a start. “To me?” he says. The soldier starts waking his buddies. “Great news!”, he says. “A child has been born to us! God has given us a son!” Word spreads quickly throughout the base. It sure sounds like that soldier is a new father, doesn’t it?

Babies get born all the time. But if a baby is born to you, it’s special. Your life has just been changed forever. You call people. You send notes and baby announcements. You want everyone to know.

When I am in a hospital and hear "Brahm's Lullaby" played over the intercom I am happy for whomever just had a baby. But it's not my baby. I pause for a moment. I think, "How nice." Smile. Maybe even say a prayer for the baby and family. Then I move on.

But when each of my babies was born. I was there. And it was life-changing. Every. Single. Time. This is my baby. This is my son. He is a part of my life now and I am a part of his. He will always be my son and I will always be his dad. My life will now be reordered, rearranged and different because of him. He will be a part of who I am and I will be a part of who he is. A baby has been born "to me."

Now imagine yourself outside a small town 2,000 years ago. You see a small group of shepherds taking care of their flocks. Some are asleep, some are awake. Suddenly, someone appears out of and in the midst of a bright light. The messenger says, “Do not be afraid! I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

Shepherds lived on the fringe of society. They were considered dirty and untrustworthy. Yet God chooses to send his first baby announcement to them!

Notice those two little, but very important words: “to you.” They do what anyone who just got news of their new baby would do. (Yes, I said, "their new baby.") They rush to go see it. Then they spread the word all over Bethlehem even though it was probably still the middle of the night.

A savior had been born to them. Not just somebody else’s savior, but their savior.

"To us a child is born, to us a son is given..." (Isaiah 9:6).

The Bible says, "TO US". Think about that. In order for a child to be born to you, the child must belong to you. In the case of Christ, the only way that the child belongs to you is if you belong to him. He saves you only if he is your savior.

There are many for whom Christmas is like hearing "Brahm's Lullaby" over a hospital P.A. They stop for a moment. Think, "How nice." Smile. Say a brief prayer. Then move on with their lives. He's not their savior. He wasn't born to them.

According to the Bible, the child isn't born to you, unless you are born to him. "No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (John 3:3). If you haven't yet been born spiritually, what are you waiting for? The savior can be your savior as he was for the shepherds.

For those who know and trust in Jesus alone, "to us a child is born, to us a son is given" should be the source of endless joy all year long. Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, born to be your savior, is life-changing. That’s what makes celebrating the birth of Jesus Merry.


(The idea for this post came from Charles Spurgeon in this sermon, A Christmas Question, which is far better (and far longer :-).

From Think Theologically: How to worship when you think the songs suck. Some excerpts, below:

And that my friend, brings us to the point. “How do I worship when I think the songs suck?” you might ask. Well first off, you don’t express that you think the songs suck to anyone else. You may ruin a genuine worshipful experience for them by your complaining. While they were perfectly fine worshipping to that particular song, your comments could forever taint it for them. You are certainly free to mentally critique the artistic and theological merits of the songs you sing each Sunday. But when you decide one or more are duds, don’t rain on everyone else’s parade.

The church has enough people complaining about enough things.

Yes.

I am guilty of ruining songs for other people. And I'm not talking about songs that have bad theology. I'm talking about songs that don't float my boat, or have an emphasis problem or metaphorical turn that I find slightly troubling.

I hadn't thought of it this way: I may be ruining a worship experience for someone else when I do that. I may be stealing worship from God, and replacing it with confusion or cynicism.

This still leaves the question though of “how do I worship when I think the songs suck?” The answer, in short, is that the worship set wasn’t picked for you, and part of being in community of believers gathered to worship is forfeiting your preferences in deference to others. A prime example of this is theologian John Frame. While a classically trained organist who doesn’t like contemporary worship music, Frame nonetheless argues for its legitimate place in worship services. I’m sure he might cringe as well at some of the current praise choruses that are popular out there, but out of love for his brothers and sisters in Christ, he lays down his preferences and worships alongside those who sing songs he might not particularly like.

I think this is the ultimate answer to the question. When you think the songs suck, you can still, and should still worship God as fervently and freely as you would when its your absolute favorite song being sung. You may however need to mortify your critical spirit and get over yourself first, but you should still strive to worship God through song each Sunday whether you particularly like the selections or not.

Jesus didn’t die on the cross so you could sing your favorite songs every Sunday. He died so that you might learn to die to self as well. Part of doing that might just be singing songs you don’t like, and singing them as genuinely as the songs you do.

Amen.

[H/T Parchment and Pen]