The Perfect Storm

Those of you who are regular readers of Sola Gratia have probably noticed that posts have been extremely sparse over the last couple weeks.  Even some of our weekly features (e.g., A Word for Pastors, Friday Funnies) have come up missing on occasion.

The reason for this is twofold.  First of all, this is always the busiest time of year for me.  Annually during Lent, our church has Wednesday night fellowship dinners followed by a worship service.  I thoroughly enjoy these times each year...and not just because I'm the one who plans the services and preaches!  That being said, preparation for these services (on top of my other ongoing responsibilities) makes for a busy season in the life of this pastor.

Add to that the fact that a couple weeks ago, my father, who recently was diagnosed with cancer, had colon surgery.  I went to St. Louis to be with my parents for the surgery and the first few days of recovery.  It was kind of a last minute thing, so I didn't really have any chance to prepare to be gone.

The biggest challenge of going away for any period of time is always coming back.  The piles on your desk don't ever get smaller while you're away, and in fact often seem to grow.  This fact, matched up with the timing of my absence sort of led to "the perfect storm."

I say that for two reasons.  One is a means of explanation as to why there has been a reduced amount of blogging going on, and to make the point that this was a temporary situation.  Every storm eventually passes.  The second reason is it serves as a means of introduction to my sermon tonight on Mark 4:35-41, coincidentally (wink, wink) entitled "The Perfect Storm."  In it I will continue my series on "Faith & Doubt" as we examine Jesus' calming of the storm on the Sea of Galilee, pictured at left by Rembrandt.

If you're interested, the sermon should be up on our website by Thursday morning at the very latest.  You can go there by clicking here, or by clicking the link at the top of my blog's right hand column.  Also, if you're so inclined, you can click here to access podcast information and subscribe via iTunes by clicking on the link toward the bottom of that page's right hand column.

********* Update - The title of the sermon actually ended up being "Who Is This Man?" *********

Tim Challies

One of the wonderful things about living in this age is the access we have to so much wonderful teaching. The internet has made it possible for me to be spiritually fed by people all around the world. One such person is Tim Challies.

If by chance you are not already familiar with Tim, please allow me to introduce you to him. During my time as a pastor, I have been greatly blessed by Tim's ministry (and I'm not just saying this because he is a big baseball fan...though it does help his credibility!).  His fantastic blog includes great book reviews, interesting videos, and original posts as well as links to those by others. It is all there for your edification, and I found it so edifying that I've chosen to support it by becoming a "Friend of the Blog."

In addition to the blog, he has a weekly podcast with David Murray entitled Connected Kingdom. They have great great guests discussing interesting topics, and you can subscribe to it either via iTunes or through other media players.

Finally, Tim is an author of a number of books, the latest of which is The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion. It deals with the fact that though living in this technological age has many benefits, it also has its downsides. I have already ordered it and am looking forward to receiving my copy in the next couple weeks. Check out the very nice preview below.

Sola Gratia Year in Review

As the end of the year rolls around, you always see a lot of "Best of the Year" lists.  Whether it is athletes, movies, songs, or just about anything else, I love "Best of" lists.  So next week I'm going to be posting some "year in review" material, dealing mainly with (though not necessarily limited to) this blog.

Here's where you come in.  I'd love to hear from some of you readers as to what your favorite posts were throughout the year.  Please shoot me an email or a facebook message, or post a comment here or on the blog's facebook page, letting me know which posts you found memorable.  One day toward the end of next week, I will post a list of some of the postings that got the most positive feedback.

Thanks so much for your help and thanks for visiting my blog!  Merry Christmas!

Why Christians Are Online Jerks

I saw an interesting article by Jonathan Acuff over at CNN.com today. Acuff blogs at www.stuffchristianslike.net and is the author of the similarly titled humorous book Stuff Christians Like.

In the article, Acuff makes the observation that Christians are often jerks in their online communications with their bitter Twitters and hateful blogs. He goes on to ask why this is is the case, seeing as we serve a loving God who has told us that the among the greatest of commandments is that we are to love our neighbor as ourself.

Acuff suggests two reasons:

1. The Business Traveler Approach, which believes, "What happens online, stays online." Sometimes we buy into the idea that our internet life somehow "doesn't count," and we are free to become jerks in this forum.


2. Room Cleaning Christianity, the strong desire to do certain tasks (like cleaning one's room when you're in college) as opposed to more difficult tasks (like getting started on that final paper that is due). We tend to criticize others instead of doing the difficult work of loving one's neighbor. After all, as Acuff puts it, "Loving your neighbor might be simple, but it’s not easy."

Thankfully, as Acuff points out, there is a remedy for these phenomena:

Jesus came for the mess-ups like us. Jesus came for the failures. Jesus came for the jerks. (That’s not in the King James version of the Bible, I remixed it like Timbaland.) And the truth is, grace is the antidote to being a jerk online.

You can read the whole article here.