The Year's Best Musical Posts

From time to time, I'll post videos with music that I find to be either really good, really funny, or (sometimes) both.  Here are some of those posts from 2010:

Taylor Mali - Tchnically not a song, but a poem.  Either way, well worth checking out again.
Chick-fil-A - Tim Hawkins serenades us with his ode to the chicken sandwich.
I Love His Singin' - One of the funniest things to watch is someone who can't stop laughing...
Hallelujah - A Random of of Culture that is absolutely uplifting.
An Acapella Christmas - A funny, creative, talented group performance from just a couple weeks ago.  If you missed it then, go back and check it out now.

And some selections from the Andrew Peterson Collection:
Dancing in the Minefields - A beautiful song about marrriage.
BTLOG - A couple songs from his fantastic Advent concert, Behold the Lamb of God..
So Long, Moses - One more from Behold the Lamb of God.

Best Books of 2010

One of my favorite things about this time of year is the proliferation of "Best of" lists.  And one of my favorite types of "Best of" lists is "Best Books of the Year."  Different people use different criteria for determining such things, but it's fun to see what others have to say about the books they read this year...and get a jump on creating a reading list for 2011!

Here are a few folks whose opinions I respect:

Kevin DeYoung
Trevin Wax
Keith Mathison
Matthew Robbins
Sam Storms
Collin Hansen, Andy Naselli, and John Starke of The Gospel Coalition
Tony Reinke
Doug Wolters
Jared Wilson

What Christmas Is All About

When I was in fifth grade, I took part in a play at school.  It was a production of A Charlie Brown Christmas and I played the role of Linus.

Ever since then, A Charlie Brown Christmas has been my favorite of all the annual movies and television specials that we see each December.  And my favorite part of all is the same now as it was then: Linus's monologue on the true meaning of Christmas (which is actually a direct quote from Luke 2).  It was quite a bit to memorize when I was eleven, but I suppose that even then, the Lord was preparing me to become a pastor.

Merry Christmas to you all and may you know the joy that comes with knowing the true meaning of Christmas.

Friday Fun...Christmas Lights

Saw this over at Kevin DeYoung's blog a week or two ago and thought it was pretty good.  He had it labeled, "If You Can't Beat Em..."  Merry Christmas!

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!

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

"Spiritual pride is the main door by which the devil comes into the hearts of those who are zealous for the advancement of Christianity. It is the chief inlet of smoke from the bottomless pit, to darken the mind and mislead the judgment. It is the main source of all the mischief the devil introduces, to clog and hinder a work of God.

"Spiritual pride tends to speak of other persons’ sins with bitterness or with laughter and levity and an air of contempt. But pure Christian humility rather tends either to be silent about these problems or to speak of them with grief and pity. Spiritual pride is very apt to suspect others, but a humble Christian is most guarded about himself. He is as suspicious of nothing in the world as he is of his own heart. The proud person is apt to find fault with other believers, that they are low in grace, and to be much in observing how cold and dead they are and to be quick to note their deficiencies. But the humble Christian has so much to do at home and sees so much evil in his own heart and is so concerned about it that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts. He is apt to esteem others better than himself."

Jonathan Edwards

Bizarre Baseball Card Happenings

When I was a kid I used to collect baseball cards. One of my buddies got some 1950 Bowman cards from someone and I traded him a bunch of more recent cards for a few of his 1950 Bowmans. The three cards I got were of Hall of Fame Pitcher Robin Roberts, and two players I was less aware of named Walt Dropo and Phil Cavaretta.

Dropo and Cavaretta were good players in their own right. Dropo won the 1950 American League Rookie of the Year and Cavaretta won the 1945 National League Most Valuable Player. What is so intriguing about the fact that theirs were two of the three old cards I had is the fact that the two of them died within 24 hours of each other this weekend (Dropo died Friday night and Cavaretta died on Saturday).

I'm not quite sure what this has to do with anything other than to say that I found it oddly interesting and I have a blog, so there it is.

A Word for Preachers

"Of all I wish to say this is the sum; my brethren, preach Christ, always and evermore. He is the whole gospel. His person, offices, and work must be our one great, all-comprehending theme. The world needs still to be told of its Saviour, and of the way to reach him. Justification by faith should be far more than it is the daily testimony of Protestant pulpits; and if with this master-truth there should be more generally associated the other great doctrines of grace, the better for our churches and our age."

Charles Spurgeon

Friday Fun...A Digital Nativity

I saw this video yesterday and found it to be creative and fun (even if not 100% biblically and theologically acurate).  What might it have looked like if, instead of 2000 years ago, Christ had been born in the age of social media?

Friday Fun...Seminary Student Bloopers

As the semester comes to a close at institutions of higher learning, many professors are are in the midst of semester end grading.  As hard as final exams and term papers are for students, I imagine the task of grading them all is just as onerous for professors.

It probably helps if you bring a sense of humor to the task, which is exactly how seminary professor Mike Wittmer approaches it.  He has compiled a list of some of the more humorous "student bloopers" that he has seen including the following (with his commentary in parentheses):

“The power of Christ could not be overcome by Satin’s power of death.” (That 800 thread count is a killer)

“In Arminius’ view, the correct order of the gospel is that God gave His Sin, to whom we respond by repentance and faith.” (This seems to be a stretch, even for Arminians)

Click here to see the whole list.

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom

"Evil is the force of anti-creation, anti-life, the force which opposes and seeks to deface and destroy God's good world of space, time and matter, and above all God's image bearing human creatures…But if any sense this evil has been defeated -- if it is true, as the Gospel writers have been trying to tell us, that evil at all levels and of all sorts had done its worst and that Jesus throughout his public career and supremely on the cross had dealt with it, taken its full force, exhausted it -- why then, of course, death itself had no more power."

N.T. Wright

Did Jesus Ever Get the Flu?

This is the season of joy and laughter and celebration, but for many it is also flu season.  Over at his blog today, Russell Moore considers the question of whether Jesus ever got the flu.  He concludes that he must have, as the very point of the incarnation is that Jesus became just like us.

It just doesn’t seem right to us to imagine Jesus feverish or vomiting. But that’s precisely the scandal. It didn’t seem right to many to imagine Jesus as really flesh and bone, filled with blood and intestines and urine. Somehow that seemed to detract from his deity. It surely didn’t seem right to many to imagine the only begotten of the Father twisting in pain on a crucifixion stake, screaming as he drowned in his own blood. This was humiliating, undignified. That’s just the point. Jesus joined us in our humiliation, in our indignity.

I hope you don’t get a stomach virus this year, or the flu or the fever or a cold. But, if you do, I hope you remember, just for a minute, in your discomfort that Jesus has passed through everything you’ll ever face. He might have been racked with nausea or chills or aches, just as you are. And then he faced far, far worse.

But, as you lie there, remember the gospel of incarnation and substitution, a gospel that comes, as the old song says, to make his blessings known “far as the curse is found.”

I encourage you to read his whole post here.

An Acapella Christmas

Kevin DeYoung posted this earlier today from Straight No Chaser, a talented and funny acapella group that started at Indiana University. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share it as well. If you like Christmas, comedy, 80s music, or any combination of the three, odds are you will enjoy it as much as I did.

A Word for Preachers...Calvin on the Power of God's Word

"Let the pastors boldly dare all things by the Word of God, of which they are constituted administrators. Let them constrain all the power, glory, and excellence of the world to give place to and to obey the divine majesty of this Word.  Let them enjoin everyone by it, from the highest to the lowest. Let them edify the body of Christ. Let them devastate Satan's reign. Let them pasture the sheep, kill the wolves, instruct and exhort the rebellious. Let them bind and loose, thunder and lightning, if necessary, but let them do all according to the Word of God."

John Calvin

Christianese

As Christians we have to be careful not to slip into speaking a sort of Christian code language.  Sadly, this humorous video is not too far off in what it represents...



(HT: Vitamin Z)

Friday Fun...The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride is one of my all time movies. It tells a tale that occurred long ago in a far off land. Here's a take on what it might have looked like had it occurred not just in a far off land, but "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..."



(HT: Matthew Robbins)