to dazzle us...

Don Miller, in his book "To Own A Dragon" tells a story of a conversation he and his mentor, John MacMurray had while watching the sun set. Don was asking if John believed that God made the sunset for our benefit. John said something to the effect that God made the sunset "To dazzle us". Don asked John:
"So He did, or didn't do it?"
"He did it, but He did it for us."
"Us? You mean you and me?"
"Us. He did it for His children. That is what beauty is for. All this beauty exists so you and I can see His glory, His artwork. It's like an invitation to worship Him, to know him."
"You think?"
"Absolutely Don. Beauty doesn't make any sense apart from God giving a gift to His children. Think about it. Is there a Darwinian explanation for beauty? Not really. It's a love letter. That's all. It's this massive letter to creation inviting us to enjoy Him. I'm always telling the kids that sunsets are God's final brushstrokes on the beauty of the day."
"But why would He do that?"
"Because that's who He is."

I was reminded of this conversation the other night as Katie and I, and a few friends lay on the deck behind our house, snuggled together, watching a meteor shower. It was an amazing display of beauty, and power. I felt a sense of connectedness. I felt close to God. I felt "dazzled."

I can't believe it!!!!

I'm a proud papa!!!

eight dollar hot dog

Thanks to Brett for sharing, thanks to TWOTP for the video.

God is fathering us

One of the most comforting ideas to me is that God sees me as a father sees his son. I've always liked the verses that talked about God being the Father but everything really clicked once my sons were born. All those verses became even clearer to me.

My love for my sons is not based on what they do. It is not is not based on how they look. It is not based on how they act. It is not based on what they know.
My love for my sons is based on who they are. They are my sons.

That is why it is comforting to me that God calls me son.

There are many times where a situation, or a conversation with my boys triggers a thought about another aspect of the fatherhood of God and how He relates to us.
The other day Obadiah and Malachi were talking about an event in the recent past and Malachi was having a hard time expressing his thoughts. He doesn't yet understand the concept of "yesterday". To Malachi, yesterday means some point in the past and tomorrow means some point in the future. He doesn't yet understand that yesterday actually means the day before today. Obadiah on the other hand is a recent graduate of Mrs. Hughes Kindergarten class and is looking forward to expanding his academic career in the first grade. He's got it all figured out. This is the conversation I overheard:

Malachi: "Obadiah, you remember yesterday when we were watching the show on dinosaurs?
Obadiah: "Malachi, that was like a week ago."
Malachi: "Yeah, I know... yesterday"
Obadiah: "No, you don't get it."
Malachi: (confused look, shrugging shoulders)
Obadiah: "Let's see, how can I explain this to you?"
Malachi: (listening intently, wanting to learn)
Obadiah: "OK, first of all... There are seven days in a month..."

That's all I heard of the conversation. I had to duck around the corner before I started laughing out loud. Later as I thought about this conversation I thought about how God must think of us sometimes. I can imagine God sitting back listening to us talk to each other. Maybe when we're discussing theology, or the meaning of life, and then one of us who feels like maybe we have it just a little bit more together than our peers offers our opinion. Then God has a little giggle and says to himself, "Oh, that's precious. They think they've got it figured out."

You see, when Obadiah incorrectly taught his little brother how many days were in a month I didn't love him less. I didn't jump in and tell him how wrong he was. I didn't think he was dumb for making that mistake. I just smiled, and I was happy that they were even trying to learn at all.
I think God sees us this way. I don't think He's worried that we'll never figure it out. I don't think He dislikes us as we stumble through life, trying our best. I doubt that He thinks we're stupid when we make mistakes. Kids do that... they make mistakes.

Fathers love them anyway.

full life worship

A while back a dear friend of mine asked me several questions in an email. She asked me to define worship, and asked how I maintain a lifestyle of worship in the midst of a busy life. She also asked if worship becomes repetitious (I lead music at 3 services per weekend), and if it’s hard to worship intimately when you’re in the spotlight.

All excellent questions.

To me worship is much more than singing. I was raised in a church going family and when people said worship they meant “praise and worship music”. There’s nothing wrong with praise and worship music but if that is your definition of worship you are missing out on so much. I believe that anything that points to God, anything that draws our attention to God and inspires us to think of God, or to pray to God is causing us to worship. So, if I’m out walking around Spring Lake and I’m in awe of the beauty I am surrounded by I can thank God for His creation and worship Him in that moment. If I’m in a museum or an art gallery and I’m seeing some amazing creative art I can thank God for making us in His image and giving us the ability to be creative as He is. If I’m reading a good book and it is challenging me, and making me think new thoughts I can thank God that He gave us intellect and free will.

I don’t really have a set “devotional time”, but I’m always looking for God’s touch throughout the day. This is a vital part of what I call “full life worship”. Full life worship is all about perspective. It’s all about looking for little glimpses of God in everyday life. For example, I do a lot of driving for my work and the route that I take goes through Sonoma and Marin counties with breathtaking views of mountains and vineyards. It’s an amazing drive. I’ve always known it was beautiful but one day my perspective changed. It went from “wow this is beautiful”, to “thank You God for the beauty of Your creation”. It has transformed my travel time into a worship experience.

In this way I can worship in my everyday life and this helps keep the “musical worship” on the weekend from becoming repetitious and boring. Truth is, sometimes I don’t feel like leading musical worship on the weekend. Sometimes I’ve had a crappy day, or a crappy week and the last thing I want to do is put on a fake smile and lead people (most of whom look like they’ve had a crappy week too) in worship. However, I believe firmly that I am doing what I was made to do, and sometimes it is a sacrifice of praise. Sacrifice means it costs something. Sacrifice means even if I don’t feel like it.

Worship should never be based on our feelings. If we only worship when we feel like it than the object of our worship has become ourselves. The Bible calls this “will worship”.

I really do love musical worship so I love to sing, even if it’s the third time I’ve sang this song in any given weekend, so the spotlight thing isn’t a problem for me. The only time I don’t like being up in front is when I screw something up. Because everyone notices! I still get nervous before I step on stage but as soon as I take that first deep breath and belt out the first note it just all comes into focus. I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. There’s a famous quote in the movie Chariots of Fire that says, “When I run, I feel God’s pleasure.”

For me, when I sing, I feel God’s pleasure.

now that's my kind of church

photo by keylime

When you think of an Easter service, you probably don’t picture 30 parishioners gathered around, looking on as a guy named Iggy presses a tattoo gun into a fellow parishioner’s forearm. But if you’re a member of the CrossLink Watershed Church that gathers for worship in the Drexel Theater on Grandview Avenue, you’re counting on it this Sunday.

Nathan Feathers, the young pastor of this new alternachurch, wanted to add a jolt of adrenaline to his Easter service, something edgier than the church’s resident rock band.

Then it hit him: What says Christ and the resurrection more than a big black tattoo of a cross?

CLICK HERE to read the rest of the story

Happy Easter

May you experience God's resurrection power in your life.

grace, peace, and much love, jimmy

good quote from a good book

"In the beginning.

In the first chapter of Genesis, when God creates the first people, He blesses them. This is significant. God’s blessing is the peace of God resting on people. The story begins with humans in right relationship, in healthy, life-giving connection, with their Maker. All of their other relationships flow from the health of this one central relationship, people and God. They’re connected with the earth, with each other. They’re naked and feel no shame.

And then everything goes south.

They choose another way.

And they become disconnected.

God goes looking for them in the garden, asking, “where are you?” The first humans make coverings of fig leaves, and then they’re banished from the garden.

Disconnected from each other.

Disconnected from the earth.

The woman is told that there is going to be conflict between her and the man. The man is told that there is going to be conflict between him and the soil.

And this is where you and I come in. We were born into a world, into a condition, of disconnection. Things were created to be a certain way, and they’re not that way, and we feel it in every fiber of our being.

Is this why the first thing newborns do is cry?

We’re severed and cut off and disconnected in a thousand ways, and we know it, we feel it, we’re aware of it every day. It’s an ache in our bones that won’t go away.

And so from an early age we have this awareness of the state of disconnection we were born into, and we have a longing to reconnect.

Scholars believe that the word sex is related to the Latin word secare, which means “to sever, to amputate, or to disconnect from the whole.” This is where we get words like sect, section, dissect, bisect.

Our sexuality, then, has two dimensions. First, our sexuality is our awareness of how profoundly we’re severed and cut off and disconnected. Second, our sexuality is all the ways we go about trying to reconnect.

Last year I was swimming in the ocean with one of my boys on my back in the midst of a pod of dolphins. They were swimming around us and under us and making their noises, which are incredibly loud and piercing, when one of them shot up into the air above us and did a flip. Right over our heads.

When we describe moments like these, the words we use are rarely about distance. The words are about nearness and connection, sometimes even intimacy.

Your friends just got back from hiking, and they say, “We felt like we could just reach out and touch the mountain.”

I just spent an afternoon with a doctor who donates significant amounts of time working with people who have AIDS and can’t afford proper treatment. He loves it. He talked with great passion about they joy it brings him. He’s a successful, educated, wealthy man who loves to spend his time with the poor, uneducated people who are from a totally different world than he is. He was telling me how his work brings him a sense of connection, an awareness of the simple truth that we aren’t all that different from each other.

These moments move us because they have a sexual dimension. They help us become reconnected. They go against our fallen nature, which is to be cut off.

That’s why music is so powerful. Have you ever noticed that when you ask people why a particular song or concert moved them so much, they often resort to ambiguous explanations?

You get words like emotion and passion and energy and relationship and connection. Music is powerful because it is sexual. It connects us. We generally don’t think of it in those terms but it’s true. The experience of a great concert, with everybody singing together, waving their hands in the air, and a feeling of oneness permeating the room, has a significant sexual dimension to it. We don't know each other, we come from vastly different backgrounds, we disagree on hundreds of issues, but for an evening, we gather around this artist and these songs and we get along. The experience moves us so deeply because it taps into how things were meant to be, and we have so few places where we can experience what God intended on such a large scale.

Whether it's a concert or a church service or a rally for a just cause, certain communal events draw us into something bigger than the event itself. We feel connected with the people we're having the experience with, and not just connected but aware of something bigger than us all that we're brushing up against in the process.

What we’re experiencing in these moments of connection is what God created us to experience all of the time. It’s our natural state. It’s how things are supposed to be."

Sex God
Rob Bell

CLICK HERE to purchase Sex God

good quote from a good book

Will we ever understand the gospel of grace, the furious love of God, the world of grace in which we live? Jesus Christ is the scandal of God. When the Baptizer is imprisoned by Herod, he sends a couple of his followers to ask Jesus: “Are you the One who is to come into the world or should we wait for another?” Jesus says, “Go back and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind see, the deaf hear, the lame walk, the poor have the gospel preached to them, the messianic era has erupted into history, and the love of my Father is revealed. Blessed is he who is not scandalized in me.”

We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that He should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at His love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground.

Every parable of mercy in the gospel was addressed by Jesus to His opponents: murmuring scribes, grumbling Pharisees, critical theologians, members of the Sanhedrin. They are enemies of the gospel of grace, indignant because Jesus asserts that God cares about sinners, incensed that He should eat with people they despised. What does He tell them?

These sinners, these people you despise are nearer to God than you. It is not the hookers and thieves who find it most difficult to repent: it is you who are so secure in your piety and pretense that you have no need of conversion. They may have disobeyed God’s call, their professions have debased them, but they have shown sorrow and repentance. But more than any of that, these are people who appreciate His goodness: they are parading into the kingdom before you: for they have what you lack-a deep gratitude for God’s love and deep wonder at His mercy.

Let us ask God for the gift He gave to an unforgettable rabbi, Joshua Abraham Heschel:

“Dear Lord, grant me the grace of wonder. Surprise me, amaze me, awe me in every crevice of Your universe. Delight me to see how Your Christ plays in ten thousand places, lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not His, to the Father through the features of men’s faces. Each day enrapture me with Your marvelous things without number. I do not ask to see the reason for it all; I ask only to share the wonder of it all.”

Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

happy holidays

Happy Holidays everyone! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that.

I pray that your New Year will be filled with vision
I pray that your New Year will be filled with faith
I pray that your New Year will be filled with prayer
I pray that your New Year will be filled with worship
I pray that your New Year will be filled with grace
I pray that your New Year will be filled with gratitude
I pray that your New Year will be filled with hope
I pray that your New Year will be filled with patience
I pray that your New Year will eb filled with love
I pray that your New Year will be full of oportunities bless others
I pray that your New Year will have more time for you to "be still and know" that He is God
I pray that your New Year will find you surrounded by family and friends
I pray that your New Year will find you closer to God than ever
I pray that your New Year will find you connecting to God in ways that you never thought possible


grace and peace, jimmy

psalm 12.5

Into the hovels of the poor, into the dark streets where the homeless groan, God speaks: "I've had enough; I'm on my way To heal the ache in the heart of the wretched."

Psalm 12.5 msg

Thanksgiving in the Rockies

We spent our Thanksgiving in Colorado with my brother Ben, and his lovely bride Lindsay! We had several day trips up to the mountains, to take hikes, and this trip to Red Rocks.



Here is the whole family! This is the first time in years that we've had all the siblings in one place at one time! Here's the list of who's who, from the left; Sam, Me, Mary, Dad, Mom, Josiah, Ben, and Hezekiah.




We drove through the Rockies all day Friday to find snow. The boys really wanted to play in the snow. This is the first time Malachi has been in the snow. They had a blast!

It was really cool to be with the whole family for the holidays.

I was a little stressed though. Not because of Thanksgiving, but because I was scheduled to make my speaking debut at church the following weekend! I can usually put my thoughts together pretty good when I can sit down and type something up but speaking to a live audience really freaks me out. So, when we weren't off on field trips I was studying on my laptop preparing for the weekend. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. If you would like to hear the message click the link below. If you don't have time to listen to the whole thing I think the last 15 minutes were the best.
CLICK HERE to listen to Jimmy's message on worship.

if you don't have anything good to say...

I haven't posted much here lately. A while back I felt convicted that I had let this become my own "soap box" where I could ridicule, criticize, or belittle whoever I wanted. My favorite target was the people, and especially the leadership of the church. I called it speaking the truth in love. The truth is that it wasn't very loving at times.
I do believe that we, as believers, should spur each other on to good works. I believe that iron sharpens iron, but I've also come to the conclusion that when our attacks on each other are less than loving, and all too public, that it can be damaging to the witness of the church. I cringe when I think of the possibility that a non believer could stumble upon my rants and raves as I tear apart the church, and decide that they want nothing to do with such a dysfunctional family.

We are the body of Christ. We are flawed for sure, but we need each other, we need to build each other up, we need to support each other.



"So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life, your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life, and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. The body we're talking about is Christ's body of chosen people. Each of us finds our meaning and function as a part of his body. But as a chopped-off finger or cut-off toe we wouldn't amount to much, would we? So since we find ourselves fashioned into all these excellently formed and marvelously functioning parts in Christ's body, let's just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren't.

If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else; if you help, just help, don't take over; if you teach, stick to your teaching; if you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy; if you're put in charge, don't manipulate; if you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond; if you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face."

Romans 12.1-8

"Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don't see things the way you do. And don't jump all over them every time they do or say something you don't agree with, —even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department. Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently.

For instance, a person who has been around for a while might well be convinced that he can eat anything on the table, while another, with a different background, might assume he should only be a vegetarian and eat accordingly. But since both are guests at Christ's table, wouldn't it be terribly rude if they fell to criticizing what the other ate or didn't eat? God, after all, invited them both to the table. Do you have any business crossing people off the guest list or interfering with God's welcome? If there are corrections to be made or manners to be learned, God can handle that without your help.

Or, say, one person thinks that some days should be set aside as holy and another thinks that each day is pretty much like any other. There are good reasons either way. So, each person is free to follow the convictions of conscience.

What's important in all this is that if you keep a holy day, keep it for God's sake; if you eat meat, eat it to the glory of God and thank God for prime rib; if you're a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God and thank God for broccoli. None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. It's God we are answerable to, all the way from life to death and everything in between, not each other. That's why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other.

So where does that leave you when you criticize a brother? And where does that leave you when you condescend to a sister? I'd say it leaves you looking pretty silly, —or worse. Eventually, we're all going to end up kneeling side by side in the place of judgment, facing God. Your critical and condescending ways aren't going to improve your position there one bit. Read it for yourself in Scripture:

"As I live and breathe," God says,
"every knee will bow before me;
Every tongue will tell the honest truth
that I and only I am God."
So tend to your knitting. You've got your hands full just taking care of your own life before God.

Forget about deciding what's right for each other. Here's what you need to be concerned about: that you don't get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is."

Romans 14.1-13

thank you

I want to say thank you to all of our friends that have stood by us during the past few months. Your thoughts and prayers have meant the world to us. Thank you so much for your support.

It's been two months since we lost Katie's father. The grieving process is a fascinating thing. It sucks. We're still neck deep in dealing with all the emotions that go along with this process. The interesting thing is how vastly differently we deal with it.
I've thrown myself into work and helping out at Albert's house (we're almost finished with the remodel and getting ready to put it on the market). Katie is still having a really hard time with all of this. She still cries a lot.
Obadiah understood immediately what we were telling him when we walked him home from school that day. His grief came in quick, unexpected, violent spurts. Malachi didn't get it for a long time. He would bring the phone to Katie and ask if he could talk to Grandpa Albert. He knew that Grandpa was in heaven but he kept asking when he was coming back, as if he was just on a trip. On this past Saturday we were on the way over to the house to work some more on the remodel and Malachi asked once again, "when is Grandpa coming back from heaven?" I told him, "buddy, he's not coming back. That's where he lives now."
And it finally clicked. He cried all the way to the house.

Still, every day gets a little better. Little by little. I've got a friend who lost his father a few years ago and he tells me "it never goes away, you just get used to it." Maybe that's what is happening. Maybe we're just getting used to the pain, little by little.

Thanks again for your prayers.

grace and peace, jimmy

the grove

Two months ago I told you about my favorite place on earth. I told you about the grove in Northern California, the place that makes me feel closer to God. I told you that in my opinion it was the most beautiful place in all of creation.

What I didn't tell you was how I found the grove. I was introduced to this amazing place by my Father In Law, Albert Merritt.

The first time Albert took me to the grove he told me that this was his favorite place on earth, that it made him feel closer to God, and that in his opinion it was the most beautiful place in all of creation.

We visited the grove again yesterday. This time it was to spread Albert's ashes.

I learned a lot of things from Albert. He had a deep love of God, and it was contagious. He was passionate. If he loved something you had to love it too. If he liked a book, he'd buy 6 copies and hand them out. Same thing with CD's. He was the same way about his love for Jesus. He wanted you to experience the same joy he felt. He had a relationship with his kids and grandkids that I hope to have with my kids and grandkids. He accepted me into his family and loved me as one of his own. He talked straight. You never head to guess what he was thinking. He loved life, but he didn't hold on too tightly. He wasn't afraid to die.

His death was tragic and unexpected and our family is still in shock. We are mourning the loss of his companionship for ourselves and our children. We will miss him.

We appreciate your prayers as we navigate this painful chapter in our lives.

I'm getting old

I can't believe how big my kids are getting! Obadiah is getting so tall, and Malachi is outgrowing all of his clothes! I'm amazed at how smart they are getting and how quickly they are turning from little kids into big boys!

Today was a milestone for us. It is Obadiah's first day of school! He's been so excited! For the last two weeeks he's been counting down the days to when he could start school. He would frequently say, "I wish summer was over so I could go to school!"

I'm gonna remind him of that someday.

there's got to be a better way...

closer to God

There seems to be a recurring theme lately in stuff I've been reading or listening to. The theme is "Sabbath". Everywhere I go I hear people saying that we need to slow down, turn off the cell phone, get away from the office, disconnect. Sabbath is a biblical principal that has been all but ignored by the church. Sabbath is more than going to church once a week. Sabbath is stopping EVERYTHING for one day a week to just rest, relax, and experience God.

There are two podcasts which I just listened to the other day that were on this very topic. One podcast was featuring an interview with Rob Bell, author of "Velvet Elvis", and the other was an interview of Eugene Peterson, author of "The Message".
Both podcasts are from the people who put on the Catalyst Conference. You can go to www.catalystspace.com to download the podcast and sign up for their online newsletter, and you can subscribe to their podcast at iTunes.

Katie and I are going to endeavour to make Sabbath a priority for our family. We are committing one day a week to relaxing. No work, no lists, no errands, no shopping, no church, no cell phones, no email, nothing, just relaxing and enjoying God's, and each other's presence.

When I want to get close to God I try to find a quiet place, outdoors if possible, where I can experience the beauty of God's creation. Last week Katie and I went with family and friends to the Northern Coast of California. We spent several days in one of the most beautiful places on earth. As soon as I got out of cell phone range it almost felt like I could feel my soul batteries being charged. I love getting away like this.

This makes me feel closer to God.

Our favorite campground is up in Humboldt County. It's called Hidden Springs. It's right next to the Eel River, and it's right on the "Avenue of the Giants". We had a blast so I thought I'd share a few pictures from our trip.

Here are Obadiah, and Malachi and their cousins Hannah, and Summer. We had the best time going on hikes through the forest!

The boys called this picture their "America's Next Top Model" picture. Strike a pose!

Here is the boy's tent. This is the first time the braved the elements in their own tent.

Here is our swimming hole on the South Fork of the Eel River. It's within walking distance of our campground. This redwood tree fell into the river years and years ago. It landed just right so that it sticks up out of the water like a built in diving board.

And what is camping without SMORES?!?!?!

Obadiah prefers his marshmallows EXTRA well done. Cajun style in fact.

One of our favorite spots to go is a special grove. The ground is covered with sorrel, it looks like four leaf clovers. There are also ferns all over the place. It is so beautiful. This is my favorite place in the entire world.

Good times.

dang!!!

Forecast calls for highs of 104 today and tomorrow.