Missio Dei Suburbia

You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

So 2008 has about thirteen hours left before it becomes history and the blogosphere is rife with posts on resolutions and reflections. Here are a few worth your time:

Bible Reading Plans: JT and Tim Chester (this is the one we'll be plugging at Christ Church for '09)

Becoming a Better Man in 2009A New Year's Prayer for 2009

The Top Lists - Jonathan Dodson

What Should We Pray For? - John Piper

Gospel-Centered Praying

The Resolution Solution

Tim Brister's Top 25 Christian Books of 2008

NT Wright on Human Flourishing

Books of 2008 (Leadership) - Todd Hiestand

Or Maybe We Can Get These Guys...

Favorite line - 'He's just like a mountie/He always gets his man...'

And what a waste of a Les Paul...

New Podcast Subscription

We've been having some troubles with our Podcast feed on iTunes, so we scrapped it and started over - so for those of you who have been listening in, here you go.

'I'm Not Going to Pee Sitting Down'

Heh.

HT: Steve McCoy

Happy Birthday, LEGO

Here's a visual timeline of everyone's favorite toy bricks in honor of LEGO's 50th birthday.

Boy, did I love me some Galaxy Explorer from the LEGOLAND Space series.

Arnold 'Fights' A Bear

The most unintentionally hilarious two minutes on film in the history of film.

Wanna See First Century Jerusalem?

Here you go - apparently someone has built a rather detailed model of Jerusalem ca. 66 AD - three decades after Jesus' crucifixion and 4 years before it was destroyed by the Romans.

HT: JT

MLK Day Ramblings That Don't Mention MLK

Random Monday stuff:

New Book Update: here's a pint for you bibliophiles out there - finished U2 By U2 (enjoyed hearing all four guys tell their story; loved the brotherhood developed by doing life together for 30 years); reading Chris Wright's The Mission of God (a bit thick at almost 600 pages and some fairly sophisticated thinking but I'm glad to hear someone put the idea of a missional hermeneutic on paper). Look for a list of the books you must read in 2007 - and by must I mean, like, you have to or I'll send Ed Young over to your house to do his Hulk Hogan impression.

I've started some pretty serious studying in Ecclesiastes in preparation of a sermon series I'm starting in April.

Speaking of U2, I was watching their concert at Slane Castle from the Elevation tour back in 2001 - those boys are having a good time.

I hate piano music, unless Brian Murphy's playing the piano.

I like Aaron Slaten's long hair - some of you were wondering after I cracked on him yesterday. And by 'like,' please remember that I do have a staunch record of heterosexual behavior.

I'm still wiped out after yesterday's worship gathering -heavy, heavy stuff in Hebrews 12:3-11. Always hard to ask your friends to pull out their hidden junk and deal with it, believing that Christ loves us in and through our pain. Total crap if it wasn't in the Scriptures.

I'm really disconnected from non-Christians, which is very comfortable and very miserable. There's a guy on our street who was gutting a deer in the bed of his truck last week - I'm going to hang out with him next time I see him out in his yard. Especially if he ripped out the deer's throat with his teeth like Jack Bauer did to some unsuspecting Arab dude last night on the Season 6 premiere of 24.

Note to 24 - quit giving away who you're going to kill off by announcing them as 'guest stars.' You did it to Tony last year and you're doing it to my boy Curtis this year.

So Gus Malzahn is bailing on Arkansas to go to Tulsa? Man, how bad must it suck to work for Houston Nutt if you're willing to go from the SEC and the best player in college football (Darren McFadden) to be the co-offensive coordinator at a Conference USA school? I love to watch Hogs implode.

Somehow I don't think Coach Tuberville is going to be making too many cute comments about thumbs or toes this year. I hope Auburn's enjoyed breaking into Alabama's house and eating their food. Daddy's home and he's not very happy. As my boy Herbstreit said last week, 'I hope Auburn's enjoyed their run, because when both schools are running equal, Alabama owns that state.' Deal with it.

I'm calling 9-3 for Alabama next year...a weak front seven on defense keeps us from 10-2 or better. I love the coaching staff and am looking forward to having 9 starters back on offense.

I strongly dislike American Idol, but Chris Daughtry's album's not bad...

A lot of my friends like weird music. 

Martin Davis with facial hair? Hmmm...somehow the name Garth Knight comes to mind.

Two-Minute Drill

Here's some really good stuff you might have missed floating around cyberspace:

Anthony Bradley gives us a good reminder of what being 'missional' isn't. I'll be honest - the biggest work of grace in my heart is that the past three years has seen a growing desire to be part of a kingdom that is bigger (but must include) the local church. I still suck royally when it comes to moving towards need and the lives of other people. I have far too few contacts with non-Christians. But I'm thankful that the desire to go and give is even there at all.

Bob Kauflin, musical guru for Sovereign Grace Ministries, talks about how to evaluate the use of a song in corporate worship from a theological basis. This might be helpful to those of you who ask me and Aaron why we don't (and never will) do a song like 'Above All.'

Tim Challies posted for those of us who struggle with reading through the Bible far too quickly.

Mark Driscoll has come under fire in Seattle for some comments he made recently about the Ted Haggard scandal (remember him?  Funny how our world obsesses over stories and then forgets about them, huh?). Here is his response to those protesting against him, a story that has been picked up by MSNBC.

Steve McCoy gives us a bridge to some good work by a guy in Australia who's thinking out loud about what it looks like to be a missionary in a suburban context.

Time profiles Chris Tomlin, whose songs get sung in alot of places, including our gym on Sunday mornings. By the way, if I said we were thinking about changing our worship gathering time to 5:00, how would you respond? (that's open to people inside and outside the Christ Church community, btw). [HT: Justin Taylor]

JT also has a post on praying for your pastor, and I ain't going to lie to you - I really need you to do this for me (or for the guy in your church whom God pulled into this pastoring gig) - for God's honor and my good (and maybe that will provide some residual benefit for you, as well!). I hate that I even feel funny about asking you to pray for me, but chalk that up to my being the north-end of a south-bound mule...

Holy Fake McGuire!

So I'm in Barnes and Noble last night so Jonathan can get his fix of playing with Thomas the Tank Engine (he's obsessed with Thomas and Snoopy - I've seen 'It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown' over 30 times in the past two weeks...pray for me!) and I'm wandering around when I run into this:

Besides the fact that the word 'Undressed' is brandished rather brazenly across the front of this book, I'm just wondering what in the deuce Steve McGuire's doing on the cover of the book. Is this what going on staff at Tech has done to you, dude?