I Am Not Ashamed of the Gospel...

Check out my brother's latest blog entry. I couldn't have said it better if I wanted to.

http://swanson.vox.com/library/post/cynics-and-sinners.html

About a year or so ago I started listening to Tim Keller sermons. In one particular sermon, "Born of the Gospel," Keller says the following:

An obsession with the gospel is the one obsession that will stop all other obsessions, all other addictions, all other over-desires.

I found that statement very intriguing and mystifying. I wanted to know what that meant, to be obsessed with the gospel, but I had no idea. I was pretty sure it didn't mean staring at gospel tracts that share the four spiritual laws or the Roman Road, but I was perplexed.
A few months later I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Keller at a conference in Seattle but I didn't have the time to ask him in the brief seconds I had with him. There was a question and answer time after one of his sessions, but I was too intimidated by the few hundred pastors and church planters in the room to ask the question.
About 10 months have passed since the conference, and part of me is now thankful that I didn't have the courage to ask him because it's forced me to figure out what he meant. About six weeks ago I was asked to teach a gospel class at my church. Though many days I feel woefully inadequate and ill-equipped to teach this class, I am also very excited because I find my love of and obsession with the gospel growing continually. The class begins tomorrow night, so pray for me and the people who come to the class as we look together at the gospel.
The reason I'm writing is because my trepidation in teaching this class has caused me to look and meditate and read and listen and pray. In short, it has caused me to become obsessed with the gospel. It is on my mind when I fall asleep, when I wake up in the morning, all throughout the day, as I'm in my car driving, listening to sermons, and begging God for help. It has helped me see just how frequently each and every day I live out of line with the gospel, how often I sin and how the root of my sin is not believing the gospel in that moment.
As I have stared and meditated and gazed upon the gospel--this glorious, beautiful, powerful true story of the love of God poured out on us with utter, unfathomable grace--I am finding myself more transfixed by it. I know it's power more than I did two months ago, one month ago, and one week ago. There is more glory--weight--than I saw in it before. It is more beautiful to the eyes of my heart and my mind than any time in my life. I can't wait to see another angle and implication of the gospel.
As Dr. Keller puts it so well, the gospel corrects the two erroneous tendencies of the human heart. The gospel tells me that, "I am more sinful and flawed than I ever dared believe," correcting the error that God is only loving and accepting,  "yet I am more accepted and loved than I ever dared hope," correcting the error that we must do something to earn God's favor and acceptance.
This afternoon I have been meditating on the cross of Christ with all of this in mind. It has given me a better  understanding of the passage I Corinthians 1:23 where the apostle Paul says, "but we preach Christ crucified." I have realized that one of the reasons for this is because of what the cross demonstrates, namely God's violent hatred toward sin, while at the same time demonstrating his unfathomable love for us that he would give up his beloved son to reconcile us to him. If we only preach the wrath of God, or only the love of God, the cross is emptied of it's power because the cross demonstrates both at once. To gaze upon the cross, the indescribable violence, ugliness and brutality of it is to see the love of God. Jesus was the truly innocent sufferer, the only human being who ever fulfilled the law of God, the only human being who didn't deserve to die. Yet because of God's love for us, he literally crushed and disowned his one and only son. II Corinthians 5:21, "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Jesus dies the death we should have died, we get the life we didn't deserve. Why? Because God is holy. Without a perfect righteousness--Christ's righteousness--we would be consumed immediately in the presence of God. But because he loves us, he suffered the ultimate agony--there really aren't words for the horror Jesus endured for us--so that we could become children of God. Think today about the violence of Jesus' death and see the love of God for you. Look at what Jesus has done, and by faith accept that Jesus bore your sins on the cross.

Tonight I was having a conversation with my friend Bryant Rosenwinkel at Muldoon's when the word "metrosexual" came up. It came up because a bunch of metrosexuals came into the restaurant, prompting us to discuss the origin of the word. I won't give the history as you can find it on wikipedia, where you can find anything.

The purpose of this blog entry is very simple, and self-serving. I coined a word tonight and I want it as a matter of record (as soon as google indexes this page).

The word is "excloogle" and it is a noun meaning, "an individual who exclusively uses Google to search the Internet."

Bryant and myself both confessed to being excloogles. Enjoy, use, and spread the word. Literally. Make us famous, like the guy who coined the word "metrosexual." I can't remember his name, but make us famous like that.

Ah, Culver's. For those of you unfamiliar, allow me to briefly initiate you. Culver's is a restaurant started in Wisconsin that specializes in two things: Frozen Custard and Butterburgers. It began from one humble location in Sauk City in 1984, but has since exploded to 330 locations in 16 states, thankfully with plans for wider expansion soon. If you wonder what a butterburger is exactly, I implore you to exert even the least amount of imagination and intuition and you'll probably come pretty close. Had Solomon written Ecclesiastes in our time, he may have included a reference to Culver's in that now famous list, a time for everything. Or maybe he already did when he said, "a time to die" or perhaps "a time to kill" depending on who's eating and who's preparing the food.

If you've never been to Culver's you should at least know this much: Culver's makes a steady diet of McDonald's and Burger King seem like a safe bet for long-term coronary health. Today at lunch I went to Culver's in Carol Stream, Illinois with my good friend Clayton Keenon. I hadn't eaten at Culver's in a while and I was craving meat cooked in butter and a bun soaked in butter. Of course, Culver's food is cooked to order so you can truly have it your way. For example, this is what it says on the nutrition information page on their website:

"Culver's food is prepared to order. That means we'll make it just the way you like it. If you have dietary restrictions, just let us know how we can help.

• Ask for the bun without butter

That's always a good start. One might expect them to first mention they have salads.

So when I went up to place my order, I ordered a Butterburger with Cheese (398 calories, 20 grams of fat, 8 of them saturated), only ketchup. As the woman was inputing my order, I jokingly asked her if I could get extra butter. She was more than happy to oblige, clearly missing the joke as her finger rapidly prodded the touchscreen to customize my order. "No, I'm just kidding," I told her. She only hesitated briefly, pausing to tell me that they can do it and then went back to changing my order. "No, I don't want extra butter. It was just a joke." This time she paused and looked up, "Everything is made to order, so we can do that for you. We make everything to order, so they don't cook it until the order is tendered." "No, I really don't want extra butter." She seemed disappointed, so in the spirit of generosity and deference to my cashier lady friend, I got cheese fries. I didn't have the heart to explain to the poor lady that the whole extra butter thing is a family sin I'm trying to bury with me when I die.

And if you're curious about Clayton, he ordered the Double Butterburger with Cheese. Talk about a double entendre. His health numbers? 580 calories, 32 grams of fat, 10 of them saturated. Then we split a custard. I think that's mostly butter too.

Psalms 14 and 53 both begin with the statement, "The fool says in his heart, There is no God." It seems that modern science has given us yet another reason to believe the Word of God. Check out these pictures just released by NASA:

 

I wanted to say "I love the fall" but that would sound like I love the fall of man. On the other hand, "I love Autumn" sounds like I am in love with a girl named Autumn, but I'm not in love with any woman at this point in time, and I hate the fallen nature of man. But I'm not ready to wax theological just yet. The only item on my vox agenda for today is creating a first post. Therefore, I'll say what's pressing on my mind right now. Nearly three months ago I moved to Phoenix from Chicago and for the past month I have been dying for a little hooded sweatshirt and jeans weather. You see, Phoenix is in what some might call "the desert." While "the desert" may very well be a delightful place to spend the winter, it's equally undelightful in the summer. In fact, I can't recall a moment in my existence where I ever had a hankering to get burned by touching the steering wheel in my car. It's little experiences like this that remind me I'm in a strange new land, one which causes deep longings for my home climate, a climate with four seasons instead of two. (Unless you consider Chicago's two seasons of "Winter" and "Construction").
The point is, I miss the bright colors of fall in the midwest. I miss the crisp fall air. I miss the stark contrast of vibrantly sunny days sandwiched between rainy, dreary, overcast days. I miss grass in every yard because in my subdivision, we have gravel. It's a "decorative" gravel, mind you, but it's still gravel, and it's still a shade of, well, brown. Just like the dirt, and the mountains, and the rocks and the houses.
Don't get me wrong. There is much to love about Phoenix and the southwest in general, but the midwest has a distinctive charm that's all I've ever known. I'm home for a visit in Chicago and I love this place more than I ever have. I'm not one of those people who didn't know what I had until it was gone. I've always loved it, but now it's not just outside the front door.
Autumn in Chicago is a time that makes me slow way down. I'm rarely in a hurry as long as I'm outside. I breathe deeper, I look longer, I think clearer, I feel more hopeful, and I linger, hoping somehow my lingering will cause the season to linger with me. Many people see the hand of God in the sky, in canyons, in vast bodies of water, in mountains, and countless other places. I see it most clearly during a brief window in time when green drains from leaves and reveals the most beautiful colors imaginable. The beauty of the Gospel is visible to my eyes every fall. Leaves are most beautiful when they are dying, as the green chlorophyll that keeps them green and alive drains from them to reveal their true colors. The leaves will fully die and fall to the ground to decompose. Were it not for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the truly wonderful and good news of redemption, the fall would be a horrible reminder of what is to come for us. But it is not what is to come for those who are in Christ Jesus, for though he died, he is alive and we are alive with him. And although we will all die like those leaves, and our bodies will return to ash, we will be raised again to new life, with bodies imperishable, unable to die ever again, because of him and because we are in him. So there is beauty even in death, for, like the Apostle Paul says, there is no sting in death because death is swallowed up in Christ's victory over it. Death is no longer the end, but truly the real beginning. When Jesus calls us to pick up our cross and follow him, he invites us into a death not unlike a leaves of Autumn. The most beautiful thing is a saint who has learned to pick up his cross and deny himself. The more of his life he loses, the more beautiful he becomes, the more of a gift he becomes to everyone who sees and knows him. Dying to self isn't easy, but the confidence of resurrection is a glorious hope that makes it possible. As autumn winds blow through the trees their leaves seem to whisper to one another something we must listen carefully to hear. They preach to each other--and to us--that death is coming, but they tell each other not to fear, because after a short season of death, the spring will come and bring with it a brand new life. Jesus did not run from death and because he did not, we too, like the leaves can preach to one another. Death is coming, but life as it was meant to be comes after. Praise the Lord for the fall, which preaches to us, reminding us with beauty and mystery, that the first Fall, the one that brought death, has been overcome. Listen for the Gospel of Jesus Christ the next time you hear wind blowing through the trees. The death of the Holy One of Israel has secured life and redemption.

 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." - Revelation 21:5