Luke Timothy Johnson

I recently read a excerpt from a yoda smart guy named Luke Timothy Johnson (I agree, the name is a little over the top)

he writes:

"Does the church act triumphantly or treat people arrogantly? Is it an agent for the suppression of human needs and aspirations? Does it foster intolerance and small-mindedness? Does the church proclaim a gospel of success and offer Jesus as a better business partner? Does it encourage an ethos of prosperity to the neglect of the earth's good, or an individualistic spirituality to neglect the world's needy? Are its leaders corrupt and coercive? Such distortions of Christianity can find no harsher critic, no more radical rejecter, than the Jesus found only in the pages of the New Testament, the Jesus who was himself emptied out for others and called his followers to do the same."

I work at a pool. I just met my boss, his name is Greg. He encouraged me to use my job as a platform to share the Gospel. Praise God for men like Greg who are reformissional.

Yesterday

Yesterday was a good day. I went Disc Golfing in the rain with my roommate (in NC) who happens to be Jessica's cousin, then I went to the bank and had a quick chance to talk to my friend Renee who is going to Africa for a few weeks. It rained most of the day, which is weird because it is summer, but it ended up stopping about 4:30. This was a good thing because at 5:30 Daniel (Jessica's brother), Daniel's father-in-law Rick and I were going to go play golf.

During half of our 9 hole venture it rained. Drops hit the ground like bullets and exploded the dirt and grass all around my ball each time I geared up to take a swing. For most of the round I was given the opportunity to see the glory of God in his trees and wooded forests, not because I wanted to, but because God kept forcing my ball into branches and tree lines. He is sovereign.

My short game was killer however. The 5 iron was my club of the day. This was the only thing that saved me from getting double digits on every hole (I mostly shot between a 6-8 on each hole). Needless to say I lost the round.

Rick won with a 42, Daniel shot a 52 and I shot somewhere in the 70's. Mind you this was on 9 holes and that is terrible.

After golf we met up with Lauren (Daniel's wife), Lauren's sister Kelly and the AMAZING ZOE; Kelly's 2 year old daughter. Zoe is the most interesting person I have ever met. We met up with them at the airplane observation deck at the airport and then went back to D and L's house where Daniel made me a grilled sandwich with BUTTER on it! Who would have ever thought to put butter on a sandwich! It is incredible.

Zoe wanted to watch Batman, so we did. Then Zoe wanted to play "Let's go to the beach" so we did. Zoe gets what she wants because she is awesome. Just to give you some insight on Zoe's personality; she knows the lyrics to a bunch of songs including Disturbia by Rhianna, she likes to throw things, she falls down and doesn't cry, she pronounces things weird, she does "high knees" exercises when she walks like it is normal walking, she dances everywhere and she will climb up the side/back of a couch to sneak up on you like a cat and finally she has OCD...she is 2 years old.

Zoe is my favorite person of the week.

Daniel and I got the chance to talk for quite a bit about a myriad of different things, dating his sister, golf, pranks, banking, marriage, his baby on the way, his family, my family, God, ministry, ect. It was such a blessing and a welcomed time of fellowship.

I left their house about 11:30, got home and watched TV online until I fell asleep. Jessica was in Washington DC all day so I didn't get to talk to her until she got back at 3am. She got back safely which was good.

And that was my yesterday.

Zeloo

Do you feel more loved by God because he makes much of you, or because, at great cost to himself, he frees you to enjoy making much of him forever?

Read more from John Piper...