Vikings Week 12: Gifts From the Jags

The Vikings 30-12 win on Sunday seemed to be an early gift to the Vikings as the holidays approach. Jacksonville gave the Vikings 4 total turnovers and missed 2 field goals on Sunday. The key to these turnovers was that 2 of them occurred early and scored on both to take a 14-0 lead. The Vikings D gave up a ton of yards in the pass game, but allowed only 35 yards rushing. The offense was so-so - especially concerning was the amount of hits that Gus took.

This game was especially nice because the Vikings seemed to have the game in control with about 10 minutes to go. In a time of thanksgiving the Vikings should send a card, an email, a text-message, or a couple of wrapped gifts to Mike Tice, Jack Del Rio, Brian Williams, and Troy Williamson for their sucky coaching, play, trash-talking, and the good gifts they gave the Vikes on Sunday.

My Grandfather: My family and my friend pt. 1

Proverbs 22:6 commands parents to: "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." My grandfather, Marlin Kusler, trained my mother, Sheila to raise me a certain way, to teach me, to put up with me and to ultimately love me despite my faults, disobedience, and times of disrespect growing up.

I had the privilege of spending a weekend around my grandpa last weekend, while deer/pheasant hunting. My grandpa got the opportunity to hang out with his great-grand daughters, which was truly a blessing. I got the chance to interview my grandpa and ask him some questions about growing up and living in one place for his entire life.

Saved From Wrath (Brett): "You were born in 1932 and spent your childhood growing up amongst the Great Depression: what is one of your memories of that time?"

Grandpa Kusler: "One thing I remember on the farm was sleeping in a grain bin for an extneded period of time. My parents were building the home on the farmstead and we kids sleep on top of the grain in the wooden bin on mattresses."

SFW: "What are some of the things you did for fun growing up on the farm?"

GK: "Well....we really didn't have any toys or anything so we had to make our own fun. I remember when mom and dad had people over we would sometimes find dired cow pies and stick them on the running boards of the model T's in the driveway."

SFW: "Grandpa....you haved lived in this town for 76 years and have never moved (aside from moving from the farm into town, but still spending all your time on the farm).....what have been the best and worst parts of that."

GK: "The best thing has been that we've never had a crop failure. We have been blessed. God has overseen the land we've been farming as a family for generations. I guess the worst thing is that i've never lived anywhere else, so I don't know if it would really be any better."

I am proud of my Grandfather because he is my family and he is my friend - along with a slow, but effective player at any card game. Stay tuned for part two when an interview will be coming with the one and only Oscar (aka "Ozzie") Moser.

From the Library - to the garbage can!

A fellow church member found this gem in our church library and we decided that it probably does not need to be in the church library any more. Why? Because our church isn't a KJV only church! We believe in using either word for word (ESV, NASB, NKJV, KJV) or thought for thought translations (NIV) and would discourage the use, for preaching and teaching, of paraphrase translations (The Message, NCV, NLT).
My favorite chapter is chapter 8 when the author goes through multiple translations and prints copyright information for each version (year - along w/publishing company). At the end of this list he asks the question:

IS THE KING JAMES BIBLE COPYRIGHTED?????
NO!!!!!!
WHY? You cannot copyright God's Word!!!!!!!
You can only copyright man's words!!!!!!

I pray against the people who make this a divisive issue and stray from talking about Jesus more than which version is the greatest.

Vikings Week 11: Hovan the Barbarian

Ex Minnesota Viking Chris Hovan (and his cut apart jersey) - along with his Tampa Bay Teammates beat the Vikes in a game that if the Vikings would've been average in the second half would've won. I am not going to blog about this this week. I just can't find any positives from this game. This is a game - against a well coached team that we should've won.....enough said

Kenny Chesney: "I think I speak for the crowd"

My lovely wife is from the state of Montana. Every time we head west to visit we crank up the radio and listen to country music. Last night we put the kids to bed and watched the CMA awards. I've always thought country musicians write songs that are the most honest, in your face, and passionate personal reflections. Comparative to other music, this is what puts country music into a distinctive category. If Contemporary Christian artists wrote with such honesty - who knows, the songs might say a little more about the glory and majesty of Jesus Christ (although there are some that do this).

This leads me to the sad cultural reality that the lyrics of Kenny Chesney's new song, Everybody Wants to go to Heaven represent. The song closes with these three lines:

Everybody wanna go to heaven
But nobody wanna go now
I think I speak for the crowd

There is truth in this lyric. Nobody wants to die and go to heaven because we have put our treasure right here on earth. Sadly, I think some Christians have bought into this as well. Our treasure being Christ has been replaced by this party called life (as "natural/sinful" beings rather than the resurrected beings that should long to be with Jesus). We don't get what Paul says in 1 Cor. 7 - "This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let ...... those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away."

Chesney says he "thinks he speaks for the crowd" and I would say he is right on here....even though I don't know his point in writing this song (as it is a fun Caribbean country song).

The truth is as I've heard one Pastor say, "If you are not a Christian - this world is the closest thing to heaven that you will ever experience....conversely if you are a Christian - this world is the closest thing to hell that you will ever experience." May followers of Jesus Christ want to go to heaven - because of the glory and majesty of Jesus Christ.

Vikings Week 10: Cheese Stinks

The Minnesota Vikings escaped with a wild 28-27 win on Sunday to go as Childress would say, "We went 1-0 this week, that's all we could do." Actually Chilly got his first win against the Pack and avoided going 0-6 against the hated cheese heads. He received the game ball after Sunday's win from Zygi and probably gained a glimmering hope of retaining his job through the end of the season. I believe the Vikings need @ least 10-6 and make the playoffs for Childress to be retained. The reasoning is this. Look at the Childress era.....

• First year - 6-10 record. Brought in Steve Hutchinson via Seattle with a huge contract for an OL. Improved the running game w/ brining in Hutch and Chester Taylor via Baltimore. Defense showed vast improvement in becoming a run - stopping machine. Pass D was still ugly. Troy Williamson sucked.
• Second year - 8-8 record. Made possibly the best draft selection in Vikings history with Adrian Peterson. Could run the football and stop the run. Pass D still bad. Couldn't get the ball down the field in the passing game. Lost D Coordinator, Mike Tomlin to the Steelers. EJ Henderson develops into a Pro Bowl MLB. Were on the brink of the playoffs and blew a home game to Washington in late December. Troy Williamson solidified himself as the biggest bust in Vikes history. Can you believe Williamson and AP were actually both drafted 7th overall???
• Third year - 5-4 record as of 11-12-08. Zygi spent some money. Brought in Jared Allen (via Kansas City - gave him a huge contract and traded draft picks), Bernard Berrian (via huge free agent contract - stole him from the Bears) and Madieu Williams (via free agent from the Bengals). Lost MLB E.J. Henderson for the season, benched QB T Jackson, and have decided to role the dice with the veteran known as Gus.
  

We need to be 10-6 this year. The owner has done everything possible to improve this team. The coaching staff has to do their job. As one radio personality put it the other day, "Everygame though is a circus. Get ready buckle up Vikings fans, it's always going to be a wild ride." That is how I felt Sunday was - a rollercoaster that finally stopped. Here's this weeks positives and negatives

Positives

1. Goat to hero - AP kind of looked like Terrell Owens on the sidelines screaming at Chilly to go for it on 4th and 1 - . If AP doesn't come back and have 8 touches (6 rush and 2 pass) on the final drive for 64 yards and the game-winning TD - analysts would be playing that clip over and over. Chilly finally just put the Vikings on AP and OLines back and good things happened.
2. Jim Kleinsasser and Jeff Dugan - J Kleinsasser absolutely pancaked Aaron Kampman on AP's 29 yard game winning run. Dugan is back and made it easier to go with 2 TE sets and a 1 back set - and presumably put Tahi (our FB) on the sidelines which I am happy about.
3. Safeties and Pass Rush - We had pressure all day on #12 for the green and gold. 2 safeties and a sack each from Jared Allen, Napoleon Harris, and Brian Robison. Throw in an absolutely awesome knockdown by Ben Leber and I think we had Rodgers a little frustrated.

Negatives

1. Where art thou head, Gus? - Gus completely lost his mind a couple of times on Sunday. The most obvious was when Bobby Wade was absolutley open on a deep post with no one within 5-7 yards on him - a sure TD. Gus proceeded to throw the ball not the V. Shiancoe, but to the other team. The 3 int's can't happen anymore. He did throw 2 TD's - but I give more credit to C. Taylor and Sidney Rice on those than Gus. Gus completely kept the Pack in this game.
   
2. Punt Coverage - In this space I've dedicated enough time to this issue. We now hold an NFL record for giving up 6 returns for TD's. Should our special teams coach be back next season? I don't think so. What does it say about your punt coverage when the returner catches a punt 2-3 yards deep in the end zone - ummm he doesn't respect you and your coverage unit at all.

Next week it is off to Tampa Bay. I heard it said the other day, "It's hard to win @ that stadium w/the pirate ship." I agree with this statement. The Bucs are 6-3 and are well coached with Monty Kiffin and J Gruden (chucky) at the helm.

No More Special Report w/Brit Hume

Brit Hume is retiring at the end of the year and will work 100 days a year for Fox News as a Senior Political Analyst. His reasons for retiring are interesting and well worth citing. Brit talks about one of his reasons for retirement in this recent interview and says,

"I certainly want to pursue my faith more ardently than I have done. I'm not claiming it's impossible to do when you work in this business. I was kind of a nominal Christian for the longest time. When my son died (by suicide in 1998), I came to Christ in a way that was very meaningful to me. If a person is a Christian and tries to face up to the implications of what you say you believe, it's a pretty big thing. If you do it part time, you're not really living it."

Brit also shows humility when he talks about the show that he has anchored and its' future:

"I have urged that the show be kept intact with a new anchor. I believe the show is not about its host to the extent, for example, that "The O'Reilly Factor" is about Bill. The stories he likes, his preferences, his views, they're stamped all over the show. That's fine. We notice when I'm away, the ratings hold up fine. When Bill's away, the ratings don't hold up so well. That's part of what we were trying to create when we created this show, a show that's not about me."

God's Glory Through Creativity

Creativity in worship music is something I have started to really appreciate this last year. I think at times in leading worship I can get obsessed with waiting for the next Tomlin CD, trying to do songs exactly as recordings, or just doing the "worship hits" according to CCLI. Perhaps no church provides creative arrangements better than Seattle's Mars Hill. Not your typical contemporary praise sound, but these arrangements point to the Creator as they show a creative and diverse sound that only He can instill and give. I am going to post the same song, but done differently by four different bands.

"
"

"

"

I Love My Wife: Therefore......

.....we went on a date night two weeks ago on October 24th to the opening night of High School Musical 3. Honestly, it has taken me 2 weeks for the pure shock of this event to wear off. Now that I am back to normal I can blog about this event without feeling the urge to punch myself in the throat.

We apparently picked the wrong showing to go to. Since my wife had just given birth 8 days earlier and was still in recovery mode, we went to the 7 o'clock show instead of the 5 other showings that night that were later. Mistake 1 - this is when all the girls 12 and under came to the showing. Although there were some annoying parts being in a sold out theater with this crowd the cultural implications that I observed were quite important

• It amazes me that surrounding a movie there can be this engulfing type culture that has been born out of a production that captures the minds, attentions, and passions of kids. I know Disney has been doing this for years - but the obsession came true as I saw a picture of worship as the night went on. As the lights dropped - the place erupted with cheering. Two girls in the front of the theater got up and led the crowd in a chant. "I say High School, you say Musical.....High School _______....High School ________. I say Senior you say Year....Senior ______, etc." It was at this point that I knew I was in for a treat. After every song in the movie - there was immediate/loud applause and cheers. At the end of the movie people were on their feet clapping, dancing, and singing along.
• Another observation made was that I only saw 2 other dads at this movie with their girls. I saw a handful of moms, grandmothers, babysitters, and nannies. This reinforces the truth that Fathers in our culture don't really put family first - but put themselves, the bar, the remote, the job, or the project at home before spending time with their kids.
• Lastly - this movie was clean - but provides a foundational framework that provides the fantasy high school dream that is not even close to reality. This fantasy land of the perfect couple - accompanied with gossip, backbiting, and popularity - gives the framework for young girls to desire this fairytale - and to do anything to attain it - which in my opinion - is very sad.

Like I said I love my wife so I attended this movie......it was musically catchy and creative - but more importantly to me it was culturally insightful. More important than anything I observed that night - it was about my wife and serving her.

Vikings Week 9: Jared Allen Hurts My Fantasy Team

Going into week 9 at 3-4 and coming off of a bye week, the Vikings faced a must win last Sunday. The Vikes prevailed against the pass-happy Texans 28-21. It seems that the Vikings can never get blown out or conversely blow someone else out. Every game is a nail bitter or head scratcher.

Perhaps the most frustrating part of Sunday's game for me was seeing my best fantasy player Matt Schaub hobble off the field due to a low hit by Jared Allen. This came after Schaub had already thrown an interception, lost a fumble, and hadn't thrown a TD - so his fantasy score was pretty awful/non-existent - since he didn't stay in the game to reverse/offset those stats. Thanks in large part to Kurt Warner, Chris Johnson, Adrian Peterson, Antwan Boldin, and Andre Johnson - my team stayed in first in my league.

Week 9 positives

1. Special Teams - we didn't make a disastrous mistake - and limited Jacoby Jones of the Texans to limited yardage on punt returns - Jones had taken 2 punts to the end zone earlier this year. We also owe a big "thank you" to Darren Sharper for his leaping ability and saving the game with his onside kick recovery
2. 1 Back Sets - Adrian finally found some daylight and popped some bigger runs of 20 + on a couple of occassions. Much has been made of Peterson's preference to run out of 1 back sets (without big Tahi in front of him) - that he is more comfortable. If I were Darrell Bevel (O Coordinator) I would listen to #28.
3. Passing Game and Gus - Oh to be old and still be playing in the NFL. Gus has to be loving this! 3 TD's and 1 Int. Berrian and Shiancoe have been playing really well lately. Shows you what happens when the QB can make quick decisions and doesn't have happy feet. Sidney Rice - yes! Hopefully his TD is a sign of things to come.
4. Bend But Don't Break - the Vikes D gave up 398 total yards to the pass-happy Texans. We did have 3 takeaways (2 int's and 1 Fumble recovery) and 5 sacks which helped offset some of the yardage we gave up. I don't like the fact that we have to depend on turnovers, but we have playmakers and they are making plays.

Negatives

1. Jared Allen injured - Allen played the rest of the game, but suffered a shoulder sprain that could keep him out of the year's biggest game this Sunday against the hated cheese heads.
2. D - Line - a great strength this year - may suffer as Allen may be out Sunday and who knows when the water pills appeals will be over. It is likely that Pat and Kevin Williams will get 4 game suspensions. W/out Allen our D - Line consists of RE - Brian Robison, LE - Ray Edwards, DT - Ellis Wymns or Fred Evans, and DT - Otis Grigsby. That leaves only Ray Edwards as the only starter. With the loss of E.J. up the middle our D could be in trouble the next couple of weeks.
3. Coach Childress - can you ever show any emotion. The CBS postgame show had Chilly in the locker room with the guys and he was pretty emotionless - i am not even sure he was happy that we won. Please coach show some emotion and be happy once in a while.

With Green Bay coming to town - it will be a tough NFC North battle. It will be even tougher if J Allen doesn't play. I think the Vikes will follow precedence and will be in the game until the end and will win on a Ryan Longwell game ending field goal 27-24.