There was an earthquake this morning in the northwestern suburbs of Chicago, near Elgin, IL. Several folks around here felt it. It reminded me of the words of Jesus:

“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains” (Matthew 24:6-8).

I went to an excellent Scott Phillips concert Saturday night at a local church. Scott is traveling throughout the country partnered with WorldVision, reminding the Church that She is an organism – not an organization – and showing the world the hope, freedom and love that can only be found in authentic Christ-centered community. To get a feel for his sound, combine the acoustic complexity of Shawn McDonald and Shane & Shane with the authentic, witty lyrics and storytelling experience of Derek Webb, but in a new and refreshingly unique way. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying his albums since the concert, particularly the organic heartfelt sound of his album “Love and the Like”. But the song that really struck me during the concert, which is incidentally the topic of this post, comes from his new album “Next Stop Willoughby”. Here are the lyrics to A Nursery Rhyme by Scott Phillips:

There is a man in me who is already free
And I’m just waiting
For him and I to meet; he’s who I’m meant to be
But I’m still waiting

And somewhere underneath, beyond what I can see
A heart is beating
A heart as pure and clean as newborn babies’ dreams
I feel it leading

And all because…
Chorus:
Mary had a little Lamb – his fleece was stained with blood
And everyone who killed the man
Was the target of his love
Oh-oh, oh-oh

Its enough to know that I’m a son in the battles yet to overcome
Its grace transcending
Because the war is already won, you know the bleeding and the dying’s done
Oh brother, what a happy ending

And all because…
(Chorus)

Bridge:
Every crime in my history, every crime that is yet to be
Disappeared when I first believed, whoa oh oh oh
So when the sun shines down on me, when the dark overshadows me,
Everywhere I’ve yet to be, the Lamb is sure to go
The Lamb is sure to go

That chorus blew me away when I first heard it, not only on account of Phillips’ lyrical genius, but also because of the profound truth that we have become new creatures in Jesus Christ, He has given us new hearts, and one day our sinful nature will be entirely eradicated and we will dwell with Christ forever in perfection. The battle of the flesh vs. our new hearts in Christ is familiar to every Christ follower. The daily struggle between the two is best described by the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:14-25 (ESV):

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Paul accurately captures the concept of the flesh by calling it “the sin that dwells within me” in this passage. Conversely, he refers to the new heart as his “inner being.” He doesn’t divide his nature in an attempt to eradicate his own personal responsibility for sin, but rather to explain the reality that we have to live with these two natures until we die and are united with Christ in perfection.

But isn’t my heart evil?
Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that I continually point out aspects of Christianity that no longer effectively serve the Church (the people not the steeple), of which there are many. But aside from church architecture, monologue sermonizing, fakeness, and many other things the pastor-CEO’s teach, one of the most dangerous teachings in modern Christianity is that our hearts are evil. I’m not talking about nonbelievers here, Scripture makes it clear our hearts are evil apart from Christ. I am talking about once we become Christians. Pastor-CEO’s primarily base this off of Jeremiah 17:9, which says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (King James Version). This really is not an accurate translation of this passage, however. The passage would be more correctly rendered, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, ESV).

Without Christ, the heart is certainly desperately wicked, but when we receive the indwelling Spirit of God, Jesus gives us a new heart. He promised this to His people long ago in the book of Ezekiel. Speaking of the new covenant in the Messiah, God said:

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. –Ezekiel 36:25-27 (ESV)

‘Flesh’ in this passage merely refers to our physical being. But notice two phrases: “I will give you a new heart,” and “I… will cause you … to obey.” The Apostle Paul again offers an extremely helpful explanation. He says that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV). Very simply put, because of Christ I am a new creation and can now choose to live from my new heart. I am no longer bound by my flesh in its hostility to God and inability to please Him (Romans 8:6-8), I can now choose to obey, and His Spirit even causes me to obey.

Christ’s perfect righteousness gets credited to my account, and when God looks at me He no longer sees my shortcomings and fleshly desires, but He instead sees the holiness of His Son, Jesus Christ. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NIV). We will never be free from our fleshly nature while here on earth, but we have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead available to us in order to die to our flesh daily and choose to follow Christ and walk in His Spirit (Ephesians 1:19-20; Romans 8:11; Galatians 5:16).

And that’s all because Mary had a little Lamb. His fleece was stained with blood. And everyone who killed the man was the target of his love.

Seth Godin came up with some phenomenal ideas for unemployed college students to attempt to accomplish in a year, but I think the list could be helpful for a much larger audience. If someone were to accomplish even a few of the items on this list, his or her job prospects would increase exponentially.

Check it out

P.S. I’m very proud of myself for using “his or her” rather than “their” in the second-to-last sentence. The English language doesn’t have a gender-neutral pronoun that works well in those kinds of sentences. We use “their” to avoid sexism in language, but it is actually improper English. I’ve been reading books on grammar to improve my writing lately, and I HIGHLY recommend Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English, Second Edition. By the way, improving your writing is also a good strategy for enhancing your job prospects.

Tiffany went to Baum’s Natural Foods in Merrillville and got an ion cleanse / foot bath. I compiled her short clips and posted a video of her experience on YouTube. Here’s the clip. I was really disappointed in how YouTube destroyed the video quality – it looked awesome in iMovie and exports great to QuickTime, but YouTube killed the quality. Oh well, without further ado, the video:

If you have any further questions about the ion cleanse post them in the comments

Jaymi, a friend from church, has begun a new site, www.homespunoasis.com. She writes:

Homespun Oasis is a Hip little E-zine that was created by me (Flipflop Mamma) because of my love for all things handmade. I wanted to bring the best of handmade to everyone as a way to encourage support for the little Mom and Pop shops. We’ll be reviewing (and giving away!) a variety of handmade items as well as having weekly DIY segments, Go green / Save Green segments, Baby bloopers (where our readers are invited to participate!), and sharing recipes! We really hope you’ll check it out, add it to your blogroll (and if you do let us know so we’ll reciprocate!) and spread the word!

I added it to my blogroll so you can find it anytime. Check it out!

Tiffany’s sister and brother-in-law hosted a Murder Mystery Dinner Party at their house last night themed “Honky Tonk Homicide.” In case you intend to play this game soon, I won’t reveal the murderer here (but if you really want to know see my facebook profile). Anyways, it was a great time and we had lots of laughs. Tiffany and I were cast as the televangelist and preacher’s wife. We aimed for the 80’s Jim Baker/Jimmy Swaggert/stereotypical televangelist look. I think you’ll get a kick out of our costumes (which only cost us $9.00 at the Salvation Army):

Here is Tiffany sipping on a beverage all preacher’s wives should enjoy! As a side note, Martin Luther wrote an essay on how there is nothing better than discussing theology over a good glass of beer.

Tiffany’s shirt was $3 at the Salvation Army, and it was ridiculous! Someone even took the time to sew a little animal on the back taking care of business. . . .

Here is Tiff’s sister and our brother-in-law Desi and Rob. Rob was cast as a karaoke host in a country bar, and Desi was the town barmaid. They were great hosts and made it a fun party!

This is Tiffany’s parents, Tim and Cindy. Tim was cast as the rowdy biker and Cindy as the town sheriff. Very funny!

Overall, it was very fun and a great time. It was certainly fun examining the stereotypical things Christians do and say while playing the role of a televangelist. While I certainly was “over the top” (I passed an offering plate around after my dinner prayer), it really made me think about the exclusive language Christians use. While all of what I did was in gest, it did carry some thoughts to ponder. So enjoy the posts… and remember, your gift of $50, $500, or $5000 dollars can be used to sow a seed that God will use to bless you for eternity! Call 1-800-PRAYERAMEDIC now to be blessed by giving to our ministry! (Just kidding, I hope you knew that already).

Do not put your trust in princes,
     in mortal men, who cannot save.
When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
     on that very day their plans come to nothing
(Psalm 146:3).

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 6:12).

Don’t forget to vote for Jesus every day.

In my last post, entitled “It’s raining, it’s pouring”, I showed a bunch of photos of the flooding in my neighborhood. I talked about having to evacuate my grandma from Munster, here are some photos of her house as of this morning:

A guy walking through it was up to his knees in water, so that’s probably about how much is in the house.

Please keep my grandma in your prayers.

Wow! We got hit with some rain. It took me almost an hour to get home the other day, and I was within a mile of my subdivision! Why? Because two of the only ways to get in were flooded, so I had to take Route 30 to get in a back way. The only problem is that Route 30 was backed up and hardly moving.

Later last night I got a call from my grandma in Munster, saying she got an evacuation order because the river was cresting. So I (somehow) managed to get to her house via back roads without turning my little Honda Accord into a glorified canoe. We then proceeded to load all of her prized possessions into my car, my mom’s van, and my brother’s truck. Wow. Imagining having to pack up everything you value in less than an hour because you know the water is about to ruin everything else. We tried to raise the furniture onto bricks and take everything off of the ground as well. My grandma, along with her neighbors, mostly elderly, were beside themselves. One of her neighbors is in her late 80’s and can’t walk. Very sad. By the time we finished loading up my grandma’s stuff, the city made us leave.

I posted several photos at NWI Connect, and here are a few more (different ones):

Notice the fence line in comparison to the water level in our backyard.

It took us awhile to figure out how to get out of our neighborhood. Stalled cars were everywhere.

Do I need a boat to navigate in my neighborhood?

It’s not so bad in this picture, earlier cars were stalled out everywhere in this puddle. I had a friend who hydro-locked her car.

Maybe shopping at Meijer’s wasn’t such a good idea.

Share your stories!

While this may not be the most faith-based topic, it’s one that is important to many people. Starbucks has announced that it will close at least 600 of its locations nationwide. Five of those hit home for folks here in the Region. Those five are:

1. Crown Point: 10761 Broadway
2. Portage: 6200 U.S. 6
3. Calumet City: 96 River Oaks Center
4. South Holland: 401 E. 162nd St
5. Chicago: 2347 W. 95th St

The Times says, “The Seattle-based company announced the closure plan on July 1, citing a faltering economy. The company said 70 percent of the stores slated for closure had opened after 2006.”

This was cross-posted at NWI Connect as well.