Vikings Punter: Chris Kluwe

Apparently being an NFL punter means that you do close to nothing and perfect your Guitar Hero skills.

Hymn Of The Week: How Deep The Father's Love

One of the most powerful, theological rich songs that I know of. Written in 1995 by Stuart Townend. Check out this version by Mars Hill Seattle band E-Pop.

How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He would give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory


Behold the Man upon a cross
My guilt upon His shoulders
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished


I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no powr's, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

Ark Monk: NFL Hall of Famer

C.J. Mahaney has posted quotes by Art Monk's induction speech from Sunday night. Monk obviously glorifies the Lord, shows humility and shows how God can be glorified in a ceremony that is most notably about human achievement. Check out the post!

Prayer

How to pray? Before Jesus tells us how to pray - he tells us in His Word how not to pray. The last place you should look for how to pray is religious people.

What does it mean in the Lord's prayer when we say "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven"? A couple of nuggets to pay attention to in the following video

• Pagan Prayer = Making God do something
• Those who pray Biblically = Change
• Do we really ever pray like this = your will be done

When we really pray that God's will would be done we take the focus of us and put our focus and trust in the Sovereign Almighty God. When it comes down to it, I believe we like control - and the tendency I believe is to think we can control God - and one of the ways we try to do that is through prayer. When we pray for God's will to be done vs. telling God what to do - we can be released from worry, anxiety, and doubt as God will carry out his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Church Membership II: Spiritually Alive Members

Recently our church passed a motion to buy a security system for the church with cameras and monitors. In the last week a security camera caught a burglar down the road at a local Stop n Go that led to their arrest. Security has become something that we all see and use everyday. We create and purchase all sorts of devices to protect the entrance to our homes and cars. If you are like me you have created at least one or perhaps multiple electronic passwords for your bank and computer accounts. Airport terminals are crawling with an enhanced level of security that flat out annoys most Americans (that is until something happens and then we all complain and ask questions about where is the security on that?). Even in something as simple as my high school FFA (Future Farmers of America - didn't really end up there - but I can weld a belt buckle) access was restricted (until going through a process) so that the reputation of the organization was not compromised by unqualified members.
Yet with all the time, money, and concern that we show for security in almost every other aspect of our lives, it surprises me how careless many Christians and leaders in the church have become about the spiritual security of the local church. Mark Dever says it this way, "The health of any local church hangs in large part to whether its members are SPIRITUALLY ALIVE" (The Deliberate Church, Crossway 2005). Conversely a church with dead members will have diseases spreading of the decomposing souls that make up that fellowship.

I believe it is a good thing for church leaders to examine and make sure those that are coming into membership are SPIRITUALLY ALIVE. Dever in The Deliberate Church goes on to make sure these signs accompany new members which leads to a healthy church

• The password of the Gospel is required - members have repented of sin and turned to Jesus who has made them alive.
  
• The key of sound doctrine given priority - members understand church doctrine
• Verifying signs that point to the pursuit of holiness and loving others more than themselves
  

Nightmare

A nightmare unfolded last night as I was in bed watching the Twins relievers pitch 2/3rds of an inning of baseball and allow 6 ER. The starring roles in this nightmare belonged to Brain Bass in the lead role with Craig Breslow and Matt Guerrier providing a supporting role. Glen Perkins was the producer. After a day after praising the Twins for their surge to the top of the AL Central - their pitchers give up 10 runs in one inning to go from leading 6-1 (well on their way to going up 1 game on the hated south siders) to losing 11-6 to the AL's worst team. Amidst watching the worst inning of baseball all year for the Twins "this too shall pass" and they will bounce back tonight w/Scott Baker on the hill.

Packer Circus and Central Division Leaders

It has been a while since I had a sports post so here are my reflections from the last few days.
Packer Circus
Listening to Chris Mortenson, Ed Werder, and Wendi Nix on ESPN the last couple of days has gotten pretty annoying. The Brett Favre circus has continued and as I previously noted I want Brett to just go away. I am pleased that the Packers do have distractions. The Vikings for once don't have players getting in trouble or making big headlines during training camp. The Vikes optimism has been created due to signing and retaining players that aren't considering retirement and comebacks, but are entering the primes of their respective careers (Kevin Williams, Jared Allen, Chad Greenway, E.J. Henderson, Bernard Berrian, Steve Hutchingson, AP, etc.). We do have some vets on the downward slope of their careers (Pat Williams, Darren Sharper, Matt Birk, Ryan Longwell). The recent report that the Packers talked to the Vikes about Favre all flows from the assessment that Tavaris Jackson can't lead this team to a Super Bowl Title. I mean what Ben Roethlisberger did for the Steelers a few years back was a rarity in the NFL. Young 2nd and 3rd year quarterbacks just don't lead teams to Super Bowl wins, except in the Steelers case. Do the Vikes have a better shot to win a Super Bowl this year with Favre as our quarterback? The answer is a most definite YES! I would take my chances with T Jack as he will save the Vikes a lot more money, and will prevent this type of circus from coming to Mankato, MN next year during training camp. Oh and I am sure that Aaron Rodgers really has a fair chance in the new quarterback competition that will be had now in Green Bay. Good luck Aaron - you don't really stand a chance. What happened to those Packer front office people that said we are 100% committed to Aaron Rodgers?

AL Central Division Leaders
With yesterdays victory the Twins took a 1/2 game lead on the hated south siders from Chicago. Back in mid-May the Twins was the last time the Twins were in 1st place in the AL Central Division. I remember watching Baseball Tonight and hearing the analysis that the Twins will fad, their young pitchers can't keep this up, and their +.300 avg. with runners in scoring position won't last long. Here we are in the dog days of summer and the Twins are a serious threat to win the division and make the playoffs w/out Torii Hunter or Johan Santana. Here are my keys to understanding why the Twins are where they are.

• Clubhouse Leadership: Say what you want, but Ron Gardenhire and Rick Anderson (pitching coach) do about the best job in baseball with what they have to work with. They teach, demand the game to be played hard, and develop players from within. I do wish that Gardy would use Nathan more as my friend Aaron Gleeman has pointed out.
• On Field Leadership: Everything flows from Mauer and Morneau - It can be pretty much guaranteed that if one of these two All-Stars wouldn't have remained healthy all season the Twins wouldn't be where they are at right now.
• Patience - the Twins were forced to be patient with young players. Although it looks like Denard Span could've been more valuable all season rather than Carlos Gomez (who did hit for the cycle earlier this year) - the Twins have done a nice job of allowing young talent to grow and mature.
• Finally dumping Craig Monroe and Livan Hernandez - this gives us more optimism than ever as we were highly overpaying washed up veterans to do a job that Francisco Liriano and Randy Ruiz can do way better and for a lot less $$.

It may only be for a couple of days or for the rest of the season, but what the Twins do year after year is commendable amongst the giant spendors and giant media market teams that they compete with year in and year out.