2008 Desiring God Conference

I was thrilled to see the lineup for this years Desiring God National Conference (Sept. 28-30th) in Minneapolis. I wasn't thrilled to see the names on the lineup - because God's truth is communicated through vessels of saved sinners - but was thrilled to see the challenging assignments given by Dr. John Piper to each of his guests for this weekend as I know the Word will be communicated in a highly effective way and the Gospel will shine forth bigger than any speaker or talk that is given and Jesus will be made supreme!

Here is a video of Piper explaining why he invited Mark Driscoll to the conference. We will be taking a group from my church in Fargo. Last year 7 of us attended. We are hoping to grow that number this year as this conference is a huge encouragment as we look at "The Power of Words and the Wonder of God"

Hymn Of The Week: What Wondrous Love Is This?

Words: Attributed to Alexander Means

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
To bear the dreadful curse for my soul.

When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul, for my soul,
Christ laid aside His crown for my soul.

To God and to the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb, I will sing.
To God and to the Lamb Who is the great “I Am”;
While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing;
While millions join the theme, I will sing.

And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on;
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing on.
And when from death I’m free, I’ll sing and joyful be;
And through eternity, I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on;
And through eternity, I’ll sing on.

The redone version that I have been listening too is available here.

Evidences of God's Grace

I believe it is good to reflect and praise the Lord as he shows His grace, His undeserved favor to us. This weekend for me was one of those stretches were evidences of God's grace were overflowing. I'd like to share them in three segments with you.

Sunday - June 15th - Shannon and I celebrated 5 years of marriage (Shannon will be visiting her fam in Montana on the 21st). By God's grace 5 years has gone by and I love my wife more and more. What a joy it is to know that she forgives me, carries burdens with me, prays for me, does ministry with me, and respects me all as a response to the Gospel of Christ. In addition to those things she allows me to yell at the television during sporting events, stink up the upstairs bathroom when I feel like, and drink from the bottles/cartons in the fridge (although that hasn't happened since we have children - so that priviledge if you can call it that - looks to be on the way out). I am a blessed man - by my wife's choice - not mine - we celebrated with going golfing and then heading out to eat wings at Buffalo Wild Wings and watch Tiger sink a 20 footer on the 18th hole to tie Rocco Mediate in the US Open. Man I love my wife!

Sunday - June 15th - God's grace has been poured out to me in having a daugter that I absolutely adore. She adores me, responds to me, prays with me before we go to bed, and hardly ever listens to me (we are working on that more and more everyday). I received a gift on Father's Day that consisted of a card with my name on it (although it had scribbled crayon all over my name), a new book on puppies to read to Aunika, and her latest picture from a coloring book. One of her latest fasinations is to put my shoes on and walk around. She must think her daddy is pretty cool to be wearing his running shoes - bet we won't be seeing this for long.

Saturday - June 14th - I got the priviledge of seeing God's grace in the lives of two great friends. I got to perform my first wedding and share how the lives of two individuals can be a reflection of Jesus and the Church. What a joy it was to see two followers of Jesus express their love to each other in a way that glorifies God. God's grace was seen through the weather this day. The wedding was an outside wedding and the rain stopped at 6:20 pm. The wedding was at 7 pm and went from 7:20 to about 8:05. The 50 mph winds and more rain came at 8:20 pm. The two hours that were needed for this wedding were granted as it was calm, sunny and beautiful outside. My favorite part as the officiating pastor was to see a man I admire as a father, who has raised his daughter with a great example of what to look for in a man, escort his daughter down the aisle with a smile on his face and a couple tears in his eyes.
Tuesday June 16-Thursday June 18th - God's grace is given to me in the undeserved gift of having great parents. We are leaving for a while as my parents take my family on vacation to Medora. It is our Christmas gift this year as my parents wanted time with them more than anything. "You can't put a price tag on that!" are the words of my folks.

God's grace is everywhere and shows up most importantly through Jesus Christ. May we know nothing else besides Jesus Christ and Him crucified for evidences of grace flow from that truth!

Going #2 in Space

Check out this video about going to the bathroom in space. As a kid when you first saw astronauts floating around, didn't you ever wonder how they could do that and go to the bathroom. Well here is your answer from a NASA engineer.

6 a.m. Bible Study: I actually got out of bed!

Today I got up for the weekly Men's Bible Study held at MBC. I typically have been a really good sleeper and a really bad discipliner of myself to get up for things that are totally worth it. Anyways I took some notes and thought today's discussion was worthy of providing some quotes on our discussion.

We discussed Pursuing Righteousness vs. Pursuing Wealth

Scriptures looked at in this order:

• Luke 12:13-15 - First part of the Parable of the Rich Fool
• 1 Tim. 6:6-12 - Contentment: especially enjoyed v. 8 - "But if we have food and clothing, with these, we will be content." Lead into v. 11 Pursue righteousness - righteousness leads to being in God's Word
• 2 Tim. 3:16 - training in righteousness
• 2 Tim 4:8 - the crown of righteousness to be awarded
• 1 Cor. 9:24 - 10:6

Some quotes that came up during our time of discussion. We did get into tithing and giving, as it is related to us pursuing wealth.

• "Many times we pursue the lesser of the goals (not Christ) that are before us"
  
• "The unexamined life isn't worth living."
• "Examine motives and what's inside....drill down into your heart - is it pure or is it greed - am I walking by faith or sight?"
• "As we are obedient in our giving - God will do more with the 90% left than with all 100%"
• "I give so I receive God's blessing - We fool ourselves though to always be looking at blessings in the form of wealth. There are disguised blessings: don't get sick as often, car doesn't break down, ability not to hold grudges/be jealous, etc. We always look for the wealth."
• "Pursuing righteousness = Pursuing the things of God. All is a response to being saved (Titus 3:5)."

Saved From Wrath II

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 (ESV) says:

For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

What is the "wrath" that is to come? from R.C. Sproul's Saved From What (Crossway, 2002).

• Some scholars believe it is a reference to the impending doom of Jerusalem that occurred in 70 A.D.
• Others see it as a reference to the last judgment.

The ultimate salvation that any human being can ever experience is RESCUE from the wrath that is to come. The RESCUE is in the form a man named Jesus Christ. Do we believe that there remains wrath that is to come? I do, but I believe many don't and chalk it up to, "That is cool for you Brett to think like that, but that's not God - man that doesn't sound fair to me" and go on living their lives without thinking about God's promised judgment and the wrath of God remains on them. I pray for the lost and pray for their RESCUE.

Don't Mess With My Familiar!

We don't like change do we? We love our familiar things and when someone brings a new idea, a different perspective, or an enhanced better option we tend to freak out and start taking ownership of things that really aren't ours to begin with. This was relayed to me the other day as I heard the story of Hockey Night in Canada and the CBC's decision to possibly take away the 40 year old, "second national anthem" theme song that kicks off every broadcast. When Canadians hear this song it is equivalent to Americans hearing the The Monday Night Football Theme Song. When you hear the song, you just know what is being coming - your favorite sport. Canadians aren't too happy as emails flooded the CBC office as a tradition hangs in the balance.

In many ways change represents to people that they lost something, but many times change is necessary to move forward and break free from older, less useful approaches. Discernment is a key area to talk about when making change. Change can be good if done thoughtfully, lovingly, and most of the time slowly to those that may not approve of the change. Change can be bad if done in a prideful way to ram road your own personal agenda through - while usually doing things very quickly without much counsel. Change can be hard as opinions and requests are made on both sides of the issue (with many potential positive and negative results forthcoming).

May we not put too much stock, energy, and passion into our familiar - because change may be on coming at any time!

My Call Home

I got a scare today as I called home to talk to my wife while I was at work. What I heard on the other end scarred me big time! All I heard was uncontrollable crying and weeping. My wife wasn't even able to talk to me! I couldn't make out the words coming out of her mouth because of so much crying - things were approaching hyperventilating. I thought something tragic was happening - maybe Aunika got hurt - maybe Shannon was hurt. Five minutes later Shannon called me back and told me not to worry she was just watching P.S. I Love You. Gotta love sensitivity? Right? I grew up with all men in the house besides my mom and can only remember slightly cracking a tear at the end of Rudy and White Fang. Some out there believe that God will bless me with all girls to guide me down the road of starting to become a more sensitive person. I will defer to allowing God to have his way with whatever He gifts us with, but as for now 1 girl and maybe another on the way!

You Never Outgrow the Gospel

How many times do we point to the Gospel as "Oh that is when I first heard the Gospel and when I made a decision to follow Christ" and that is it when we think of the Gospel. I don't know about you, but I need the Gospel everyday. I pray that is where you are at. Check out J Piper in this clip

Before and After

I was asked after church by someone why we usually end each service on the same theme of the cross. We usually have a time of response focusing on the cross or on God's glory being shown in and lived out through our lives.

I like this quote by Jerry Bridges and I think what he says gives us good guidance that a proper response should always be to the cross.
"It is primarily the message of God's saving grace through Jesus Christ, with everything in Scripture before the cross pointing to God's redemptive work and everything after the cross--including our sanctification--flowing from that work."

Low Point of the Season

Last Monday I was thrilled as the Minnesota Twins had just split a 4 game set with the New York Yankees and were 1 1/2 games behind the Chicago White Sox in the AL Central. After a week that saw the Twins go 1-6 and drop 2 games below .500, they are now 6 1/2 games behind the White Sox for first place. Today marked the low point of the season for the young Twins. Being swept by the hated White Sox on Monday completed a 4 game sweep that saw the once confident young twins pitchers go a combined 0-3 as they pitched a combined 16.1 innings and gave up 25 ER in the four games.

I have been a Twins fan for a long time. I don't jump off and on the bandwagon. I will watch them during the tough times and the good times which means that tomorrow night I will be watching as the Twins travel to Cleveland to hopefully break out of this mess of a streak.

Hymn Of The Week: I Lay My Sins On Jesus

This hymn was originally written by Horatius Bonar (1808-1889), who has been called the prince of the Scottish hymn writers. In it we are reminded of how God invites us to bring our sins to Jesus not just initially when we come to Christ for justification, but repeatedly as we continue to become trapped in the guilt and shame of our remaining sin. The version I have been listening to is a rearranged version by Eric Gilbert of Perimeter Church, a PCA church in the Atlanta area.

Verse 1
I lay my sins on Jesus,
the spotless Lamb of God;
He bears them all and frees us
from all our heavy load.
I bring my guilt to Jesus,
to wash my crimson stains
White in His blood most precious
’till not a spot remains.

Verse 2
I lay my wants on Jesus,
all fulness dwells in Him;
He healeth my diseases,
He doth my soul redeem.
I lay my griefs on Jesus,
my burdens and my cares;
He from them all releases,
He all my sorrows shares.

Ending
I take my guilt to Jesus
He rescues me from shame
Washed in His blood most precious
And called His child by name

Manliness

Today I cleaned the garage with some help from a couple of sidekicks (Aunika and Shannon). It was a true family event that produced much joy as Aunika sat on the floor of the garage and drew with her new colored chalk that Shannon purchased for her. I considered this event a family outing much like going to the park. Going to the park isn't really the most manly thing to do because soccer moms are usually all over the place. I considered today's alternative to be super refreshing!

Saved From Wrath I

The name of this blog is SFW - Saved From Wrath. I hope you can answer that you are saved from wrath. I will expound more on wrath and being saved from it in more upcoming posts.

Here is an excerpt taken from Pierced For Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution (Crossway, 2007).

Romans 5:8-10 contains two parallel statements, both of them reasoning from what was accomplished by Christ at the cross to what can be expected on the future day of judgment. In outline, the logic runs as follows: We were sinners; Christ's death (his 'blood') justified us; we shall be saved from God's wrath (vv. 8-9). We were God's enemies; Christ's death reconciled us; we shall be saved (v.10).

More posts on being Saved From Wrath will be forthcoming

Carlos Comez: Going to the Movies

Here is an excerpt from Twins beat writer, Phil Miller's blog on a story that he observed on the road recently in Kansas City. Phil ran into Twins center fielder Carlos Gomez at the movie theater. Gomez was the major piece that came back to the Twins in the Johan Santana trade.

There's one guy in front of me, and yes, he was like a kid in a candy shop. "Some of those, and a box of those. Wait, you've got Milk Duds? OK, a box of those, too. That's it. That's all. Oh, and a red licorice." Finally, Carlos Gomez peeled off a couple of $10 bills and started scooping up his sweet-tooth loot.

I suppressed a laugh, just as Gomez turned and saw me standing behind him. First he looked surprised, then got that half-embarrassed grin that he so often sports, and shouted, "Hey, que pasa!" He stuck out his hand, then did that half-hug greeting that became the norm among pro athletes about 10 years ago and that makes me appear so hopelessly awkward.

I said, "just wondering if there's anything left to buy," and he smiled and headed for the theater. I noticed his showing of "Indiana Jones" had started about an hour earlier, so I pictured Gomez, his usual bundle of nervous energy, sitting in the theater thinking, "Candy. I need candy." Probably more than once.

Airline Ticket = Calculated By Your Weight?

Check out this story about the interesting ways airlines are cutting costs and also ideas that they have that may be on the horizon

In Pursuit of Humility

This past week I got the privilege and honor to preach at MBC. I chose a very humbling portion of Scripture Philippians 2: 3-8.

Some of the resources that I used to put things together that you may want to check out are the following.

• Mark Driscoll's sermon on humility: If anyone thinks that Mark Driscoll isn't humble - you agree with Mark - as he preaches a sermon to himself on humility. Many quotes and points for my sermon were taken from this sermon on humility.
  
• John Piper and Matt Chandler's Q&A at the Resurgence Conference that I attended.
  
• C.J. Mahaney's book Humility: True Greatness. Some of the quotes that didn't make my sermon transcript, but I felt necessary to share them are as follows:
  

"Every time I claim to be the "author" in my life and ministry of that which is actually God's gift. I'm committing cosmic plagiarism."

"Father, I want to stand as close to the cross as I possibly can, because it's harder for me to be arrogant when I'm there."

"Pride undermines unity and can ultimately divide a church. Show me a church where there's division, where there's quarreling, and I'll show you a church where there is pride."

"Humility is honestly assessing ourselves in light of God's holiness and our sinfulness."

The sermon I delivered on Sunday had more quotes and points taken from others than probably any other sermon that I've done up until this point. I was reminded recently that using others thoughts aren't bad as I was reading a quote that Charles Spurgeon gave from a sermon in 1863 in which he said, "He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves he has no brains of his own."

A Sport?

Are any of the following actually sports? What makes an activity a sport? Do you have to actually exercise and train and be in good shape? Or is a sport anything that has competition? Any thoughts? I have decided that pro wrestling doesn't make the cut. Sorry to all of you who live in your parent's basement and think Vince McMahon is a sports icon.

I suppose since I am around 225 lbs. I can't ever participate and be a jockey


The jargon of using numbers to identify drivers, teams, and owners is just flat weird


I think just getting into wranglers would be considered a sport for me


Is anything that has an organization called Gamblers anonymous considered a sport?

Hymn Of The Week: My Lord, I Did Not Choose You

Verses written by Josiah Conder (1836). Additional Chorus by Devon Kauflin

Verse 1
My Lord, I did not choose You
For that could never be
My heart would still refuse You
Had You not chosen me
You took the sin that stained me
You cleansed me, made me new
Of old You have ordained me
That I should live in You

Chorus:
Jesus, You have saved me
And taken all my sin, all my sins away
Jesus, You have called me
Before the world began, to glorify Your name
I was without hope and dead inside
But You chose to save my life

Verse 2
Unless Your grace had called me
And taught my darkened mind
The world would have enthralled me
To Your glories I'd be blind
My heart knows none above You
For Your rich grace I thirst
I know that if I love You
You must have loved me first

My Wife's New Job

Today, my bride of almost 5 years starts a new job. She is starting the full-time job of being a stay at home mom. She actually asked me when I got up for work this morning if she could pack me lunch. I have never heard those words before, so I said, "Most definetly." With a 16 month old already running around and another gift from God due in October, we were led to make a decision (amidst several factors) for Shannon not to renew her contract through the Christian school where she had taught the previous 3 years.

Some may say that we have finally come to our senses and made the right choice with having my wife stay at home with the kids. Some may say that in today's world with the price of living (gas, food, etc.) that a wife needs to work to help support the family. I believe in allowing a person's conscience to lead them in discerning how God wants them to make decisions on this issue. This means that I am for whatever God leads, directs, and calls a family to do depending on their situation. I am for my wife working (she will probably go back to work when all our kids are in school). I am for my wife staying at home.

Theologically I have been challenged to think about this differently over the past 4 months. I was challenged by Pastor Mark Driscoll in February on this issue. Mark brought up the idea of do I, the husband think it is fair to carry only one curse while my wife carries two? My wife carries a curse through bearing children, while in Genesis I, the man must work and that is my curse. Why do I have to carry only one curse, while my wife bears children + works full-time on top of that. So if at all possible financially, which we believe now it is, we think it be better to have Shannon stay at home. Hopefully that can cut down on habits like this developing