T.C. of an O.J.

I highly recommend Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”. From the first few seconds I began turning its pages, I was memorized by McCarthy’s story. I couldn’t stop thinking about it at work, when it was time to go to bed, and when I woke up in the morning. I’ve finished the novel and I still can’t stop thinking about it.

A story conceived in a post-apocalyptic world has always been my favorite setting for a tale, but few over the years have done the subject matter justice. What, zombies take over the earth again? No really, I would have never guessed.

Instead “The Road”, which was selected to Oprah’s book club and won the Pulitzer in 2007, gives a brutal, detailed account of two people, a man and a boy, who attempt to make dramatic journey to the coast in a barren, scorched and lifeless world. Food is less than scarce- the few humans that remain have turned to cannibalism.

The man desperately tries to protect the boy in this increasingly cold and hopeless world, but struggles with his own past and remaining alive in the present. Meanwhile, the only life the boy knows is one of struggle and starvation.

They were just asked to explain what grace meant and now the room of teenagers was struggling to come up with an explanation. Maybe you could blame it on the impending heat wave or the fact that the adolescent brain effectively shuts down for the summer beginning in June, but the answers given were of the mark.

“What is grace?” seems like an easy enough question, especially for a group of young evangelical-minded Christians. One suggested grace might be “forgiveness”, while another offered the kind of incoherent rambling answer you’d expect to hear if the student had slipped into a daydream during world history class and had just been unexpectedly called upon by the instructor and was now trying to answer without really knowing the question. Most just tried to quietly blend into a wall or a couch, hoping they wouldn’t be asked to answer. After minutes of failing to produce an adequate response to a seemingly simple question, a more knowledgeable older Christian stepped in after the students naively challenged him to come up with a sufficient answer.

“Grace is getting something you don’t deserve from someone who doesn’t have to give it to you”, he responded, quieting his young critics. Of course this older Christian knew the answer to this elementary question. Grace is all over the bible - it is what makes Christianity different from all other religions, gives us eternal life, and makes our Christian life work! In fact there’s a nifty little acronym to remember what grace is: “God’s riches at Christ’s expense”.

Grace is the gospel message, God’s plan to save us from ourselves. As Paul puts it in Romans, “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Grace isn’t about what we’re doing or did, rather it’s about the fact that we can’t do it and need God to do it for us. As the book of Ephesians famously says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

On this level, it is easy to explain grace. But, grace is still hard to understand. As humans, we’re programmed with pride and the feeling like we deserve certain things. Surely, if I was in God’s position, there’s no chance I’d send my son to die for a bunch of ungrateful, obnoxious creeps who are just going to spit on and mock his sacrifice anyway.

When I received a large, flat-screen television from my parents this past Christmas, I struggled with the gift. There was no denying I wanted what was in that huge cardboard box, but there was no way I could have afforded to purchase it myself. Worse, there was no way I could possibly repay my parents back with a few measly “thank you’s” and the much less-expensive gifts I would soon be embarrassed to give them. It was a humbling experience, much like God’s free gift of grace. There’s no way we can afford to purchase ourselves out of death, yet Christ comes along and pays the price for us. When we accept it, it with the knowledge that there’s no chance we’ll ever repay him.

There's always a catch, right? Illustration titled Lucky Find by Graham Roumieu

Some refuse to accept God’s grace because it feels so humiliating to admit inadequacy. Others spend the rest of their lives feeling obligated to try to reimburse God for his free gift, a notion that makes no sense, but happens anyway. After all, if it’s free, there’s no cost, right? Maybe we’re just used to our culture where “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” and there’s always a catch. It’s absolutely puzzling – along comes God and offers eternal life with no strings attached, yet most humans flat out refuse his offer! Why?

Grace is hard to handle for most; even the Christian “saved by grace” faces the seemingly constant temptation to live the Christian walk based on his or her own righteousness, not on God’s grace. In this vein, Paul rebukes the church in Galatians asking, “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” We read that spiritual growth is by God’s grace, just like salvation was.

Phillip Yancey wrote a good book called “What’s So Amazing About Grace?” In it, Yancey struggles to explain grace, instead relying on examples of what grace looks like in action. When I read, I felt completely inadequate to practice grace in my life. More often I operate like a bank’s general ledger: keeping track of the wrongs and rights I perceive people doing to me, and then writing out my own actions in payment to the corresponding person accordingly. So, in a lot of ways, I’m in the same “confused about grace” boat as the perplexed teenagers I was sitting in the room with.

Grace is a radical idea straight from God. Based on grace, we are able to walk directly into the throne room of God himself confidentially. As the writer of Hebrews, who I again surmise to be Paul, says:

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water…

Due to Jesus’ sacrifice and his blood we are able to have direct access to God, which happens “through the veil, that is, His flesh”. As Christians, we’re baptized into Christ, and God sees us exactly as he sees Christ. We enter the throne room of God clothed in Jesus, essentially as Jesus. On one level, grace is so simple - without it we can’t have salvation, sanctification, or glorification. All three of these are the result of letting God work in our lives, not our own works. Why does God want to take us to eventual perfection? Why does he save us from death and give us a lasting purpose? The answer is he loves us, but why does he love us so much? It is hard to fathom. One thing is for sure: without grace, we’d never even get close to God’s throne, with it we can approach it with confidence.

Although their wedding day was filled with much drama and more than a few headaches, most in attendance didn’t realize it (that’s the work of an excellent wedding planner and many hard-working friends). More importantly, Eric and Andie were married and their wedding was a fantastic celebration of marriage and the Body of Christ.

I hope I’m not invading the privacy of the happy couple, but I was in the wedding and did want to write about it.

Every time I attend a wedding that takes place in the Body of Christ, I’m struck by it. They’re really fun! As I talked to Chloe, I high-school student attending her first Body wedding, she too was overwhelmed by how much fun these things could be!

People are dancing and celebrating and the guest list is full of people you know really well. It’s a big party for two people, in this case Eric and Andie, who’ve chosen to make a life together with dependence on God. I think this is why ultimately these kinds of weddings are so fun – everyone knows the marriage is going to be a success!

Leading up to the wedding, things were tense. As Melanie called to see were the late-arriving car of groomsmen was in relation to the hall, I played a mean joke at the most inappropriate time. “Where are you guys?” she asked, the weight of pulling off a wedding in the face of a reception hall that had made many errors resting on her shoulders. “We’re just about to leave Eric’s house”, I replied with a fib casually. Melanie and I both knew Eric’s house was almost an hour away from the hall, which we were supposed to have arrived at minutes ago. As soon as I had said it, I could sense Melanie about to have a heart attack despite prolonged silence coming from her end of the phone. It was a horrible trick to play and even though I quickly came clean and admitted we were minutes away, I imagined Melanie wanted to reach through the phone and strangle me, a feeling which later she positively confirmed.

The groom was nervous too. While everyone else could walk unencumbered around the hall and grounds, Eric was confined to a bench at the far end of the hall. If he moved, 20 screaming women would no doubt shriek and claw his eyes in order to preserve the tradition and ensure he would not see his bride before she walked down the aisle towards him.

So, we arrived at 1:30pm and took pictures for 20 minutes. Then Eric sat on a bench in his tuxedo until 5pm, all the while getting more nervous by the minute.

I have to admit, all this nervous waiting was making me nervous too! I would say it later in my best-man toast, but I was more nervous for this wedding than I was for my own. We knew Eric was making the right decision in marrying Andie, but that didn’t stop me from extending my obligatory “There’s still time to get out of here – just say the word and we’ll drive to Mexico” offer I give to all the grooms that select me as best-man. It’s just something a good best-man has to do. To Eric’s credit, he elected to proceed with the wedding, a righteous and godly choice.

Never gonna give you up! Photo (C) Neil Brooks 330-592-0924

The wedding was a blur: Grandmothers and mothers were escorted to their seats, bridesmaids paraded in. Andie made a beautiful bride – she looked like a glamorous 1920’s movie star! Eric tried like a champion to hold in a trickle of snot from a runny nose, but it elicited giggles from Andie and the bridesmaids who witnessed him trying in vain. Dr. Hughes performed the ceremony like an old pro, mixing in the right amount a humor and heartfelt direction for the new couple on top of a clear gospel message of love. The newlywed Mr. and Mrs. Schoofs looked like a photo spread right out of wedding magazine or that ridiculously good looking couple posing for the photo that comes with the photo frame.

Amy and I gave our toasts and although we were both nervous, I have to say those are some of the best toasts I have ever heard (although I’m biased!). Amy’s was hilarious – I mean “Beefcake Schoofs” are you kidding me? Afterwards, we both would have numerous people telling us how great those speeches were, although we didn’t get “rickrolled” which was awesome.

When it came time for the dancing, everyone was ready to boogie down. The DJ played all the hits and everyone was out on the floor moving, grooving, and singing along. I was hoping the party would last all night because everyone was having so much fun. But Eric and Andie needed to get out of there and get on with their lives (and get it on) – together!

On Wednesday, I had my second health assessment. If you remember, I have been trying to stick to a diet full of good foods and exercise regularly in the mornings before work. I would say that I’ve been fairly successful: I have not been super strict about what I have been eating (I still eat at Chipotle every Friday), yet I have stuck to the diet for the majority of my meals. The same can be said for exercise: while I have worked out harder and more consistently at other times in my life, I’m in the gym more often than not on weekdays with an occasional splash of basketball.

So, here are the results of the 2nd assessment:

Pretty good - since the goal is to lose fat and gain muscle. So, I’ve done just that. 2 inches have disappeared from my waist, yet no one except my belt is missing them because my pants fit and feel noticeably better. This is because I’ve lost 5 pounds of fat. Also, my blood pressure has dropped into the excellent range.

Ideally, I’d like to gain a little more muscle. Previously, I stated that I wanted to go under 15% body fat and I should be able to do that by the next assessment, which will be the week of July 7. I will actually need to start consuming more calories by either adding an additional meal during the day or increasing the sizes of a few of my existing meals to keep up the progress. The hardest part about this diet is actually keeping up with the eating – I have never eaten this much food in my life!

I have long thought of Steve Martin as a sad clown, a person who is funny on stage, but always seems to have an underlying melancholy. His autobiography, Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life, only served to reinforce my view of Martin, while at the same time proving to be a funny, engaging, and at times, a sad read.

My opinion of Steve Martin as a funny-man is very favorable, yet Born Standing Up also gave insight into Martin’s carefully crafted, painstakingly detailed, and utterly serious approach to comedy. Determined to be noticed, appreciated and become a success despite his perceived lack of talent, Martin managed to quickly turn his time on stage into something totally functional and devoid of all fun:

“Enjoyment while performing was rare – enjoyment would have been an indulgent loss of focus that comedy cannot afford.”

Near the beginning of the book, Martin qualifies his written words; they are not representative of his entire life, rather their lone focus is on his career as a stand-up comedian.

In contrast to crude and vulgar comedy for shock value, Martin’s jokes are off-beat, zany and operate on an entirely different wavelength. His humor is smart and takes thought, something that might initially put my generation and younger ones off, but for the most part it stands the test of time. Martin is also a skilled comedy writer, having even won an Emmy penning jokes for The Smothers Brothers Show early in his career. I found myself laughing many times at both Martin’s on stage wit and the way he retold it with his meticulously selected words many years later.

Strangely, as I continued to read, I discovered Martin was a lot like me.

Steve is a deep thinker, constantly over thinking his every on stage movement days after performances in pursuit of acceptance from the audience. Often becoming twisted in thought over how an audience will react to a joke or an idea, he bombards readers with a constant stream of facts and detail. Even years later, he is able to recall the nuances of specific events in his career. Surely, he was also the only one who noticed these subtle details the first time around.

At the premiere of his now classic “The Jerk”, the audience roars with laughter almost non-stop, yet Martin still finds a way to have his feelings hurt. He wonders why the audience heads for the bathroom and the concession stand as Navin and Marie, played by Bernadette Peters, sing “Tonight You Belong to Me” as they along the beach while Martin strums the ukulele; a touching moment in the movie the sensitive Steve felt the crowd failed to appreciate.

Martin’s desire to be a successful stand-up appears to be driven by his quest for acceptance. Failed relationships and free love become lonely nights spent on the road. This translates into many years of honing the craft one-night stands until he is too famous to have them anymore.

The root of Martin’s drive during this time is his fractured and non-existent relationship with his father. However, the comedian talks about this failure with refreshing and unexpected candor:

“… [My father] offered to buy me a tuxedo. I refused because I had learned from him to reject all aid and assistance…I wish now that I had let him buy me a tuxedo, that I let him be a dad. Having cut myself off from him, and by association the rest of the family, I was incurring psychological debts that would come due years later…I tell you this story…to let you know that I am qualified to be a comedian.”

His father supported the family financially, yet was never available emotionally. At a young age, Steve grew bitter and resentful of him, remembering a childhood full of feelings of hatred towards his father.

“However [a one-time physical beating by my father] and his worsening tendency to rages directed at my mother – which I heard in fright through the thin walls of our home – made me resolve, with icy determination, that only the most formal relationship would exist between my father and me, and for perhaps thirty years, neither he nor I did anything to repair the rift. The rest of my childhood we hardly spoke; there was little he said to me that was not critical, and there was little I said back that was not terse or mumbled.”

As Martin reached super stardom, his father grew increasingly critical. Steve countered as he knew how- by cutting him off:

“[My father, after seeing me appear as a guest host gave an interview and] said, ‘I think Saturday Night Live is the most horrible thing on television.’ I suppressed anything I felt about his comments…But as my career progressed, I noticed that my father remained uncomplimentary toward my comedy…I never discussed my work with him again.”

Many years later, as his father lay dying, Steve reconciled with the dad who he felt never accepted him:

“At last [my father on his deathbed] said, ‘You did everything I wanted to.’ ‘I did it for you’, I said. Then we wept for lost years. I was glad I didn’t say the more complicated truth: ‘I did it because of you.’”

Despite fortune, fame, and a roaring laugh track, Martin could never escape the problems created by his dysfunctional relationship with his father. Although he thought he was escaping them when he foraged out into the world on his own and broke into comedy, he carried them with him wherever he went, as if they were packed along to travel in his suitcase.

Steve Martin performs on stage

From starting off as a young boy at Disneyland to packing sold-out stadium shows as an adult, for all the success Martin was able to accomplish, he found himself alone at the apex of comedy facing the pressure to deliver constant laughs. While the nation was spewing catch phrases like, “Excuuuuse me!” which he coined, Martin was unable to enjoy the fame and fortune success afforded him becoming even more lonely and burnt out touring the country. He had no real friends or relationships, his sole interaction coming nightly with a mass gathering of people who wanted to see his show. Afterwards, he would retreat to an isolated hotel room before collapsing for the night to wake up and perform again.

“Though audiences continued to grow, I experienced a concomitant depression caused by exhaustion, isolation, and creative ennui. As I was too famous to go outdoors…my romantic interludes ceased…I no longer had normal access to civilized life. The hour and a half spent on stage was still fun, but there were…no others on stage, and after the show, I took a solitary ride back to the hotel…and boom…nowhere to look but inward…it seemed like a near coma was the best way to spend the day…this was, as the cliché goes, the loneliest period of my life.”

Of course, Martin looks back on all this as older and wiser now, an elder statesman of comedy and film. Accept for the implications of his broken relationship with his family and father, little outside of his career in stand up comedy is mentioned. But, Martin’s story is a clear lesson for boys and girls attempting to pack their suitcases and run to a life of their own while thumbing their noses at Mom and Dad: your problems with home will impact the rest of your life.

More “closet cleaning”…

In the movie Mean Girls, a backstabbing, cut throat clique of glamorous teenage girls ruthlessly run their high school’s popularity contest. Regina George, the “Queen Bee” controls the other Plastics using manipulation and intimidation. When her status is challenged by Cady Heron, played by Lindsay Lohan, both girls go after each other as only adolescent girls can: disgustingly nice to each other’s faces, yet diabolically evil and merciless behind each other’s backs.

It’s a hilarious and seemingly a little over-exaggerated, but if you’ve had to live through high-school you know it can actually be like Mean Girls. In the halls and classrooms, there’s an endless competition going on to be accepted and loved by others. Most will either stop at nothing to achieve acceptance or submit to the realization they’ll never have it. One day you’ve got a best friend and the next you have a worst enemy, inevitably someone you’ve found out is gossiping about you behind your back.

Xenos' Mean Girls

But things get better after high school, right? In some ways they do, boys and girls become men and women. They dress more grown-up, becoming refined in the stealthy art of co-worker bashing, all-around gossiping, and general making their way to the top of the heap. There are some that naively believe the popularity competition stopped in high school, but in reality the power struggle is greater in the office and the suburbs than it ever was. If you can make the company money, you will advance. The rules of the game may have changed a little, but the most adept quickly adapt to stay on the top.

Graduating to the Office

In workplaces across America, there also exist countless groups of Plastics who seek to control the way things happen and decisions are made. Disappointingly, they aren’t nearly as attractive as Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams. Instead, their bloated and weathered exteriors more accurately match their filthy insides, yet their game is the same. They have the management’s ear while they play a game of appearances, acting naive, polite, and kind on the surface, but gossiping and backstabbing behind the scenes to orchestrate events to their liking. The corporate culture is a game of appearances, politics, and popularity. If you listen closely, you can hear the whispers. Things haven’t changed at all since high school.

People believe that as they grow older, they mature and leave behind the pettiness of their childhood. Yet, a quick glance around the workplace and the household shows the contrary. People are still playing games, putting on facades, and stabbing friends in the back to get what they want. Relationships still fall apart at an alarming rate, and where they still do exist, they’re held together loosely by circumstances like a job or a crumbling marriage.

Change

How then does real change happen? The daytime self-helpers teach us that we’ve got to do what’s best for ourselves. The TV judges and talk show hosts decree that only we have the power to make positive changes in our life. The message of the culture is clear: If we want to be better people all we have to do is wish it and it will magically happen.

Yet, the bible presents a viewpoint that is in stark contrast with the Dr. Phil’s and Oprah’s of the world.

According to the bible, people can’t just be good. In fact, at their very core, from a biblical perspective, humans are rotten- incapable because of our very nature of doing anything good. This view is as politically incorrect and offensive as it comes and it shocks the naive optimist in most of us that likes to believe “we’re pretty good”.

Forgotten Depravity

Even as Christians, how soon after receiving God’s grace do we start to forget how undeserving we were of it originally? Recently, I was arguing with someone about the Prom of all things. The topic of conversation was really trivial; the point was I had painted a picture of myself that was far off from how things really were back in my high school days. Even then, I liked to fancy myself as a decent guy and a great catch for the ladies, but the ugly truth was that I was no better than any other guy at the Prom that night: I was essentially a predator with selfish motives, albeit more devious and refined in method.

Even now, years removed from the prom experience, I tend to view myself in a highly esteemed regard compared to those around me. It’s an utterly selfish and narcissistic view from inside my head that I actually could think anything I’ve done in the years between makes me any better than I was back then. In fact, when I’m truly honest with myself, I see infinitely more cracks and blemishes today then I saw back then as a non-Christian.

If we’re involved in ministry, there’s a temptation to start complaining about the younger Christians we’re overseeing. They aren’t changing, they’re constantly sinning, and they haven’t lived up to expectations yet again. There’s no doubt these characters have problems, but for all of their short-comings, the wrong way to approach them calling for change is from atop our high horse. They despise the spittle that rains down from our nagging lectures, so they tune them out.

The sobering truth is, “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick”. This passage from scripture refers to all human’s hearts: yours, mine, and everyone’s. Here’s another: “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. So, just because we’re ’saved’ and have been a Christian longer than someone else, doesn’t mean we have any grounds to get self-righteous and feel we’re better, mightier, or somehow more acceptable in God’s eyes. Maybe we have God’s grace, but it is through no doing of our own.

Superstars

The apostle Paul always had this in the forefront of his mind, which helped him remain humble during ministry. Just as thankfulness was the key to Paul’s contentment, humility was behind his ability to successfully reach people for God. As Paul explains in Ephesians:

you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you…to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,

of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.

To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ…

How often do we feel like “the very least of all saints” as Paul called himself? Maybe there’s times we feel down or guilty for making a mistake, but more often than not it is easy, especially if we’re older as Christians, to view ourselves self-righteously. A wise Christian leader once said emphatically that “There’s no superstars in the body of Christ”! At the time, his statement felt more powerful than a blow to the gut because I loved to think of myself as many notches above most of my Christian contemporaries.

Paul was a prime example of “no superstars”, because of anyone deserved to be treated like the “LeBron James” of Christendom, it was him. However, Paul was more than happy to slog away in jail for years, work as a tentmaker, and deal almost incessantly with Christians who probably “didn’t seem to get it”. It would have been easy for him to complain or hold out for a more glamorous detail, but he didn’t. Instead, his encounter on the road to Damascus with Christ was burned into his memory. Paul deserved to die, he knew it, and he never forgot it. Anything other than death had to be attributed solely to God’s grace.

Read how Paul states this in 1 Timothy:

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.

The problem is that we’d like to distance ourselves from Paul. We weren’t dramatically blinded by God, so it’s easier for us to forget that we too were headed straight for death before God saved us. We’ve learned a few things from God and studied the bible a little, so all of the sudden we start walking the halls like the popular girls.

The people we are working with in Christian ministry need discipline, direction, rebuke, and correction. But before we mount our steeds to administer it, keep in mind we struggled through similar problems too. Most of all, remember that we’re only here because God allowed us to be.

Here’s something that always baffled me: even the most mediocre, painful to watch, disgustingly bad movies have that requisite “this is an amazing movie” quote plastered on their DVD case. It seems as though movie studios can dig up a, or if you remember this story from a few years back fabricate a fake, critic who’s more than willing to gush praises all over their not-so great films. Just once I’d like to pick up a movie and see “Wesley Snipes, Martin Short and Sandra Bullock are atrocious…so bad it’s good!” and “watching Mickey Rourke try to act will give you a dull headache…by the time ‘Bullet’ is over you’ll be reaching for the Advil” or “at least you waited for the DVD release and saved a few bucks…Ben Affleck goes through the motions and is forgettable.”

If someone recommends this movie to you, they hate you.

Because I Said So had “lots of heart and plenty of laughs” if by lots of heart and laughs you mean that you wanted to beat Diane Keaton and then yourself over the head with a lead pipe upon seeing the movie.

So often we scan the DVD cases looking for a movie that will interest us, but can we really expect an honest appraisal from the very people who want us to buy what they’re selling? Films routinely promise us mind-boggling entertainment and excitement, citing phrases like “action-packed thrill ride” or “the most memorial film you’ll see this year” but more often than not fail to deliver.

Bold Claims

Another bold claim maker, Jesus Christ, was acutely aware of the inherent skepticism he’d raise. In John 5 he reasons, “If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true.” In that ancient day, a Jewish court wouldn’t even bother calling the defendant to the stand. The reasoning: of course the charged would claim innocence, so why even bother?

However, Jesus did make huge claims, which if true, would profoundly affect the entire human race. Christ said things like “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” Jesus claimed God had given him the authority and responsibility of guarding the pathway to heaven and according to Christ our entrance into eternity is based solely on our relationship with him. Christ “also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God,” a claim that infuriated the religious leaders of the day and quickly lead to his death.

The statements Christ made are serious and therefore need significant validation for us to consider them. Thankfully, God anticipated this dilemma. He gives us 4 distinct witnesses to the fact the Christ is who he says he is:

John the Baptist is the first witness Jesus calls to the stand on his behalf.

“There is another who testifies of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me is true…John…has testified to the truth. But the testimony which I receive is not from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved.”

Jesus cites John the Baptist because his “street cred” was extremely high with the people of that day. Most thought of John as highly religious and some even concluded he might be the messiah. However, John deflected these speculations and instead pointed to Christ as the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies and the symbols of substitutionary sacrifice, saying, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

The next witness Christ cites are the miracles he has performed.

“But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish–the very works that I do–testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.”

Jesus is, of course, referring to the amazing supernatural wonders he executed in order to show he did have the kind of power he was claiming. Jesus often performed these in public so all could see the power of God working through him. At the time, there would have been many witnesses to these wonders; men like the paraplegic he healed would be walking around telling everyone he encountered about the person who had made it so he could walk again.

Yet, Christ doesn’t stop there. He’s also been validated by the Father.

“And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form. You do not have His word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He sent.”

Here Jesus refers to the witness given to Christians when they receive Christ and become believers indwelt by the Holy Spirit. In Romans we read, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God…”

This is a significant and power witness and it is more powerful than any external sources Jesus could cite. As Christians, the Holy Spirit, God himself is inside of us, powerfully validating that Jesus’ claims were true.

However, this witness only operates fully after a person receives Christ. A true skeptic would need more evidence than this.

That’s when Jesus pulls out the big guns…

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me”

Its obvious Jesus wanted us all to listen up regarding this final witness, as his statement feels pretty abrasive.

He’s referring to the Old Testament scriptures, a source all of the day knew well and trusted. Any good Jew could recite miles and piles of scripture; meanwhile, God had been orchestrating a paper trail that big to authenticate his coming messiah. Jesus points to these ancient scriptures, almost sarcastically asking, “It’s me- don’t you realize who I am?”

Amazingly, this authentication of Christ is as convincing and powerful as it was back then.

In Isaiah 42:9 God says, “Behold, the former things have come to pass, Now I declare new things; Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.”

God is omniscient, all knowing, and has the ability to look at time like a news reporter hovering over a massive interstate traffic jam in a helicopter. God can see the future clearly and he uses this to separate himself from other would-be idols, gods, and deities while at the same time authenticating his son, the messiah.

In Isaiah 44, God puts the challenge on the table:

“Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me. ‘Who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; Yes, let him recount it to Me in order, From the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming And the events that are going to take place. ‘Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.’”

To predict and declare the future is the unique ability of our creator God. No one else has this dramatic ability because it requires an infinite being to accomplish. God is such a being, saying, “If you’re God, let’s see you do this! How come your God can’t predict the future like I can? That’s right, only I can do this and only I am God!”

In Luke 24, Jesus gives his disciples a thorough bible study: “Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures…”

And we complain when the sermon gets close to an hour long? This must have been a long, intense bible study!

“and He said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.’”

Jesus took them through the entire Old Testament to show them passage after passage of predictive prophecy that referred to his life. There was no way Jesus could fake all these prophecies. Some scholars estimate there are over 300 distinct messianic predictions in the bible foretelling every aspect of his life and death hundreds of years before his appearance on earth. No one has control over things like where they will be born and how people will react to them.

Scriptures like Isaiah 53 eerily and accurately predict specific details of Christ’s life and demise, down to the fact that “He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities…by His scourging we are healed.”

Two types of pre-authentication are built into the bible regarding Christ:

The type John the Baptist referred to, which were the Old Testament symbols the people practiced in ritual. Ancient people often didn’t have the ability to read, however they could discern the significance of an animal sacrifice. The priest would place his hands on the scapegoat’s head and symbolically transfer the sins of the people to that animal. The symbols acted out as drama in front of the people later pointed to the same person who John pointed to: Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

The second type of pre-authentication employed by the bible is direct predictive declaration from God.

As we’ve seen, in effect God says, “You know this is me because I’m telling you what’s going to happen before it happens.”

For a Christian plagued with doubt or a skeptic filled with cynicism, direct predictive declaration is very compelling.

One of the most mind-blowing prophecies is found in Daniel 9 concerning the coming of the messiah. God not only says that Jesus Christ will come, he tells us exactly when.

Daniel 9’s Messianic Prophecy

Imprisoned for 70 years in Babylon, Daniel starts praying to God for Israel’s release. According to Daniel’s calculations, it’s getting to be close to the time that God promised he and his people could finally get out of captivity.

An angel visits Daniel in 9:24-25, telling him,

“Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.”

In the context of Daniel 9, the “weeks” the angel refers to in the prophecy are actually years, or more specifically “sevens” or Sabbath years. The prophecy seems complicated, but it’s actually easy to calculate. The time from the decree to rebuild Israel to the coming to the Messiah is, according to angel Gabriel, 7 sevens and 62 sevens until the Messiah’s coming. So, (7×7) + (7×62) = 483 years.

However, in Daniel’s time they used lunar years, which consisted of 360 days per year. We use a slightly different measure, the Solar year, which are comprised of 365.2425 days, or less nerdly - 365 ¼ days. When we convert, 483 lunar years comes to 476 solar years.

So, 476 years from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah comes. Now, when was that decree exactly?

In Nehemiah 2:1-8, Nehemiah is employed as the King’s cupbearer or wine-taster, a job that’s easy and painless most of the time, but dangerous and necessary because of the possibly a dissenter might try to poison the King. It was Nehemiah’s job to get poisoned first if the wine was poisoned, thus saving the King.

One day, wrapped up in Israel’s plight, Nehemiah looked especially downtrodden. Of course, the King was highly sensitive whenever the person responsible for protecting him from wine-poisoning was looking a little under-the-weather. Therefore, King Artaxerxes asked Nehemiah, “Why is your face sad?”

Nehemiah explained why he was so sad and because God was with him, the Emperor of the biggest Empire in the world at that time granted him his wish that Jerusalem be rebuilt.

This is useful because we know through biblical and extra-biblical sources exactly when King Artaxerxes’ reign began, 465 B.C. We can add 20 years to this in order to find the date when the decree was issued because verse 2:1 tells us all this “came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes”. The Ancient peoples dated their calendar from the fall, so because the reign began in spring, the decree was issued in the year 444 B.C.

As we previously determined, 476 years later would take us from 444 B.C. to 32 A.D. But wait, because there’s no “year zero” on a timeline, we add one year to date the prediction’s result to be 33 A.D.

This is an astonishing prediction and validation of God’s Messiah, as it corresponds with exactly when Jesus announced himself as the Messiah. Again, remember the Daniel 9 prediction was given over 530 years before its fulfillment, so it pre-dates Christ. It would have been impossible for either Jesus or his followers to fake its fulfillment, especially because they did not keep a precise calendar in that day.

Are there any other possible explanations to brush away the significance of this prophecy? I’ve presented only a quick and dirty run-down of it here. If you’re still skeptical, why don’t you take up God’s challenge and delve further into the details of Daniel 9, or more importantly, ask God in your own heart if he’s really who he says he is.

God’s Challenge

God is waiting to respond to you if you’re seeking him earnestly and he’ll verify himself to you personally if you check him out.

Later in the book of John, “Jesus answered them and said, ‘My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself’”.

When you have an encounter with the real God, the one who is able to foretell and predict the future and who created you, God himself witnesses to you regarding Christ’s authenticity.

Today, there is no doubt in my mind that Christ is real because I’ve experienced him personally, just like there’s no doubt in my mind that my wife is real. I sit and talk with my wife in the same way that I’m able to have a personal relationship with God because of his Messiah, whom he pre-authenticated and then sent to die for our sins to make that relationship possible.

Healthy skepticism is fine and in fact, God anticipated it and built evidence and validation right into the bible. As Christians, our faith isn’t blind, rather based in part on real, substantiated evidence.

Just as you could only determine whether or not a movie is excellent or a flop by actually watching it yourself, you must make a determination for yourself regarding God. With eternity at stake, why would you leave it up to some other critic’s opinion? While movie tastes vary from person to person, Jesus’ claims are absolute and encompass the entire human race.

If you’re skeptical why don’t you take your search to God? Do you want to know him in a personal way? After all, Jesus makes outrageous claims that if true, will impact us for better or worse, regardless of whether or not we ever believe them. Due to the evidence God provides, these claims are plausible enough that should at least investigate them further!

Adopted from a teaching by Dennis McCallum.

I’m deeply grieved this morning over the loss of a friend. I got to know him while we were working summers together at the Walton Hills Service Department. He was one of the funniest people I’ve ever met and I still find myself laughing out loud during quiet moments every now and then when I think back on some of the hilarious things he said and did.

The circumstances surrounding his accidental death are tragic - the things you read about in the paper, but never expect to happen to someone you know. I can’t pretend that I was super-close with my friend; our relationship was limited to spray painting our work boots fluorescent colors, stealing ice cream from the park, the assorted other things a seasonal city employee does to past the time, and occasionally meeting up outside of work to go out to a bar or play basketball.

As we parted ways to move onto “real” jobs, we met up a just few times and exchanged random messages on Facebook. I don’t know if I would have ever seen him again except for maybe a chance run-in, but now I know that I won’t, at least not in this life.

We live on this earth as if we’re entitled to the maximum 70-80 short years we should get. While the “best-case” scenario flies by in the blink of an eye anyway, we really aren’t sure when the time will end. This world is extremely fragile and temporary. Teenagers are especially oblivious and naive to their mortality and often live as though they’re indestructible and the choice they jump at won’t affect them permanently. As you live on past high school, you start to hear the names, one by one; of people you knew who’ve passed.

I had only a short time to spend with my friend here on this earth. I’m not really sure if I’ll see him again, although I’m prayerfully hopeful I will. It weighs heavily on my heart because we never talked about things like eternity; rather in the time I spent with him I was absorbed with having fun and determining when the next time we’d play basketball would be. I should have been bolder and shared my faith with him. My heart and prayers go out to his family.

Here we are now live from the 2008 Servant Team Retreat in beautiful Covington, Kentucky, which is just over the Ohio River from Cincinnati. Covington itself is an interesting town, there’s a lot of ethic diversity present in the community and there even seems to be a Mexican area of town. Streets are filled with everything from law offices, a Lexus dealership and up-scale looking pet grooming shops to strip clubs, liquor stores and pawn shops. It’s hard to say if you’re in the ‘hood or just in a really unique area.

Jeff, Bryan, and Kyle are here and they’re playing some nerd games.

The teaching is good, I’ve heard 3 back to back to back earlier this morning. The main focus of this STR seems to be doing our small part in ministry and letting God work the rest. Some Highlights from the morning and night sessions:

“(As Christians) we do our part to help people’s eyes open to God…(and) we’ve been given the privilege. But, we just do our part faithfully and there should be a certain detachment about the results. The rest of God’s part! When people don’t respond properly, don’t feel angry or discouraged, we’re still getting to do an amazing privilege. Success is more about just playing our role and leaving the results to God.”

- paraphrased excerpt from Gary Delashmutt’s STR teaching

Is your first reaction to grace “oh yeah I know that!” (That should be a huge) danger sign! In Colossians 1:6 we see that the gospel is infinitely deep. (We need to) Apply it more deeply to our life. (This is the) key to continual spiritual renewal: it is the application of the gospel. (We) Need to have attitude that we don’t even understand the gospel. God is waiting to give us fresh insight into how much he loves you, bringing us into deeper anchoring and motivation. Ask ourselves “Am I gaining deep painful insight into my own depravity and deeper confidence into God’s amazing love”?

- paraphrased excerpt from Gary Delashmutt’s STR teaching

(Consider the) youth in urban America… (they live) disadvantaged, the world throws them away. (When you’re in this situation) You have nothing the world wants. (Now, ask ourselves) Why are we where we are? We didn’t make it (to our current position) ourselves - it is the position we were born into! …Under God’s grace he’s given us so much. (It is easy to) Lose sight of this and get caught up in our own little world.

- paraphrased excerpt from Jeff Gordon’s STR teaching, “The Church as Light: Evangelism and Justice”

(In) All these cases, God wanted to do something…the idea they came up with was unconventional, but was made exciting because of what God could do if given the chance…We never know what God wants to do until we venture out!

- paraphrased excerpt from Tom Dixon’s STR teaching, “Ventures of Faith”

He looked like three marshmallows smooshed together!

- Kyle McCallum, being hilarious outside of the elevator on the 16th floor of the Raddison

Now, this will be fun. Bear with me, I’ve an ear bud in one ear while the other must remain on-call while I’m at work. I’m not listening to My Morning Jacket’s new album “Evil Urges” in my sound proof booth, but I’ll do my best and let you know what I think, as I listen along:

1. “Evil Urges” – The title track and the only song I’ve heard previously. I believe this kind singing is called falsetto, which is definitely a different twist for My Morning Jacket. ‘Evil Urges’ is a solid song that’s growing on me by the listen, much as MMJ’s music on the whole tends to. My outlook for the entire album is very optimistic after hearing this track- I think that while this song is good, we’ll hear better before the album is over.

2. “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Part 1″ – Some nice sounds here. Are we setting up for something big in part 2? Only time will tell. A little synth and a whole different feel from the first track.

3. “Highly Suspicious” – if you just played this song for me without telling me this was MMJ, I would have never guessed. I probably would have hypothesized this was Living Colour’s follow up to “Cult of Personality”. This is a fun song that will have people talking when they hear “Evil Urges”. It sounds like Prince featuring Technotronic and Green Jelly. I anticipate some won’t like this, but on the initial listen, I love it. Maybe after time, the novelty will wear, but right now I’m reaching for repeat. This is my jam so far. Judging from the first three tracks alone, this album is better than most I’ve heard in awhile. It’s daring and a definite departure for MMJ.

4. “I’m Amazed” – Now, this is the signature MMJ reverb heavy vocal and we hear some of that southern Skynyrd sounding geetar attempting to burst through. But, this is why I love MMJ- the songs are laid back, jam-like, and reverby, but there’s so much tension there. You feel like its going to build and rock out, but they don’t give it to as soon as other bands do. Finally, when they do it is sweet. But, they don’t give you too much.

My Morning Jacket's Jim James rocks out.

So Rock n’ Roll it hurts.

5. “Thank You Too” – “You really brought out the naked part”? Is that what vocalist Jim James just said? I don’t know how I feel about this song; it sounds like someone’s thankful alright. If not for the naked part, I’d say they were thankful for their Grandmother for raising them when Mom and Dad died, despite the fact they never showed it. I do like the straight-up guitar, sounds like I would if I just plugged right into an amp.

6. “Sec Walkin’” – a definite country feel at the start. Okay, this song and the last one remind me of something seventies, just can’t put my finger on it. James Taylor…something off of a soft rock station my mom used to listen to in the car when we were little. Sounds really familiar and comfortable like an old pair of shoes you forgot you had buried back in your closet. I like the background vocals and I’m picturing a seventies lounge band. I just wish I could identify which singer this song reminds of. Over the last couple tracks, the guitar has a dream-like kind of sound I just can’t think of how to describe. Maybe if this wasn’t just the first listen…who thought of this idea anyway?

7. “Two Halves” – love the reverb. The middle of the album is really soft and laid back. Not bad, but after the first few tracks, maybe I was expecting something more up tempo. I don’t want to say this is a sad album, because it isn’t, but it’s definitely melancholy. Reminds me of driving to your Grandmother’s house when you were little on a sunny Saturday morning in a station wagon. I don’t know if I ever drove to my grandparent’s house under those circumstances, but listening to this, I think I might have.

8. “Librarian” - Just name dropped “Karen of the Carpenters” and this whole time I’ve been holding back a Carpenters comparison of my own. This is Carpenter-quese, I should know. My parents used to listen to that group all the time. “Sexiest librarian”…weird, all the songs are about someone. Not just the usual vagueness that’s often present in most songs where they could really be about anyone, this album and this song have so much detail and personal touch- they are being sung to someone specific. I can’t tell on first listen from the lyrics if all the songs tie together to one person or not.

9. “Look At You” – seems to have a similar feel to the previous tracks. This is a really personal album, “Look at you..you”, sounds like Jim James is singing to someone he had a friendship or a relationship once, but maybe doesn’t now and is fondly recalling it.

10. “Aluminum Park” – Rockin’ now. Some big, driving guitar with a little distortion. “Aluminium Park” fitting name for MMJ, most of their vocals and sounds bring to mind like a big metal airplane hanger for me. I don’t know why, I’ve just always pictured one of those big, rusty metal air plane hangers in the middle of nowhere on an overcast day when I hear MMJ. I love how MMJ do their “rock-out” songs: they still maintain that reserved feel, even when they’re going “Wahhooow!” I like the piano coming in over the guitar buzz.

11. “Remnants” – two up-tempo numbers back to back, this time with some really howling guitar. That guitar been begging to be released since “Highly Suspicious”. Another thing about MMJ striking me again, they always have that urgent sounding feel, it doesn’t matter what tempo or style the song is. The Music always comes across as genuine- like they wrote it because they wanted to, not because they were trying to sell records or felt obligated to.

12. “Smokin From Shootin” – Wow, I really like this song. It’s sort of slow, but definitely not boring. There’s anticipation here and it feels like it might build to something. It has that urgent MMJ feel to we were talking about, despite the successful use of that country whining instrument (wish I knew what that was). This is a nice track. I like the way James sings “Do…you…see” short and longingly, as if he really is hoping whoever this is written to is watching him. Without a doubt, my favorite song of this album.

13. “Touch Me I’m Going To Scream Part 2″ – got some wind blowingish sounds and we’ve got 8 minutes left…I wonder where this is going. Now, some synth again, as we heard in part 1. Wait, the driving drums just kicked in and for a split second or two, they reminded me of some “Twilight Zone” by Golden Earring…they still do.

14. “Good Intentions” – screech! What? Done.

Overall, not something I’d want to pop in at just anytime. The album feels too mature and laidback to do that. The album, however, is way too complicated and different from what’s coming out now for me to just push aside. It also seemed familiar to me, for reasons I still can’t put my finger on. “Evil Urges” probably won’t go down as a classic for me, but there’s something to be said for music that takes you away somewhere. The album has a distinct beginning, middle, and end. I feel this album must be examined further to appreciate.

My Morning Jacket’s “Evil Urges” will be released officially June 10, 2008.