Ben Wright lives on (Hope Street)

My baby boy is two years old. Yesterday morning at church he...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 06:37:00 -0500

My baby boy is two years old. Yesterday morning at church he graduated from the nursery to the 2-4 class. I’m having a hard time with this. He stayed through the whole class. He didn’t even cry for his mommy and daddy. He’s becoming a big boy, and I’m not ready.

Hope for the Future of Evangelical Christianity

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:51:09 -0500

One of the many reasons I love being a graduate teaching assistant is that once or twice a week I stumble across little gems like this one, taken directly from a student’s review of Robert Webber’s Younger Evangelicals.

“Pastors are moving from power to servanthood; youth ministers from parties to prayer; educators from information to formation; worship leaders from programs to narrative; and evangelists from rallies to relationship.”

Cited without permission. I’m the TA, I can do stuff like that.

“For my own part, I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:59:05 -0500

“For my own part, I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await others. I believe that many who find that “nothing happens” when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.”

-C. S. Lewis

“What has exceedingly hurt you is the want for reading…Your preaching is lively, but not...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:56:51 -0500

“What has exceedingly hurt you is the want for reading…Your preaching is lively, but not deep, there is little variety; there is no compass of thought. Reading only can supply this, with daily prayer. You can never be a deep preacher without it any more than a thorough Christian. Whether you like it or not, read. It is your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifle all your days, and a pretty superficial preacher.”

-John Wesley to a young pastor

Pain Never Hurt Me Like Love, Foy Vance

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:01:53 -0500

Pain Never Hurt Me Like Love, Foy Vance

Movements, by Rend Collective Experiment. Despite the fact that...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:56:46 -0500

Movements, by Rend Collective Experiment. Despite the fact that this reminds me of a Gap commercial from 1998, there’s still a quality to this vid/song that makes me think that worship music (as a genre) still has some room to develop and evolve.

http://sendmeyourpaper.tumblr.com

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:43:55 -0500

http://sendmeyourpaper.tumblr.com:

I’ve started a new blog as part of my work as a graduate teaching assistant that focuses on writing tips, tricks and tools of the trade.

Video

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 20:47:27 -0500

Charlie Winston’s cover of Crazy (originally by Gnarles...

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 16:39:55 -0500

Charlie Winston’s cover of Crazy (originally by Gnarles Barkley). Going to see Charlie tonight at the Phoenix. I can still remember the first time I heard this song on CBC 2.

Mogadishu

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:05:18 -0500

For the last several weeks the name, “Mogadishu” has been running through my head. Until just now I had no idea it was the capital of Somalia (secretly I thought it was a Japanese dumpling). I’m praying for Mogadishu but I have no idea why…

EFF.

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:42:00 -0500

Jonah will be two years old next month. One of the very cool things about an almost-two-year-old is his lightning fast speech development. Lately, he’s been repeating everything. Which means…it’s time.

Over the last while I’ve totally lost control of my mouth. I blame the makers of Call of Duty. My mom always told me, “Video games are from the devil”, and I tend to agree. That’s why they’re so damn fun.

So dang fun.

In an effort to metaphorically wash my mouth out with soap (since literally doing it didn’t seem to work as a child) I’ve compiled a shortlist of scriptures to meditate on as I pray: Lord, sanctify my speech.

Mt 12:36, 37
But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be aquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.

Mt 15:10,11
Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”

Ep 4:29
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what s helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

Ep 5:4
Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joaking, which are out of place, bu rather thanksgiving.

Co 3:8
But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

2 Ti 2:16
Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly.

Ja 3:6
The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

Ps 19:14
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Grey (by Daniel Couper) black is white, but life is greyday...

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:48:10 -0500

Grey (by Daniel Couper)

black is white, but life is grey
day brings light, but light brings shame
i long to hide my tears in a pouring rain

but i’m afraid to step outside
cause i know i’m just not alright
if i were a bird i wouldn’t care to fly

i find life in the death of day
i find peace beneath the waves
but life and peace too slowly fade away

cause innocence takes forever to find
and i don’t live my life with forever in mind
i’m busy searching for a smile to hide behind

as the storm clouds roll across my lonesome skies
there’s no hiding, there’s no shelter for me this time
so hey there hurricane, it’s now or never
one last time

black is white, but life is grey
death is life, but life is pain
i long to cry these tears in your pouring rain

2011 Booklist (In Reading Order)

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:36:44 -0500

Everything Must Change (Brian McLaren)
His Needs, Her Needs (Willard Harley, Jr.)
Battlefield of the Mind (Joyce Myers)
Love Wins (Rob Bell)
Violent Grace (Michael Card)
Four Views on Hell (Walvoord, Crockett, Hayes & Pinnock)
Things Might Go Terribly, Horribly Wrong (Kelly Wilson)
Soul Cravings (Erwin McManus)
Every Man’s Battle (Aterburn, Stoeker & Yorkey)
Healing the Masculine Soul (Gordon Dalbey)
The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle)
Becoming Human (Jean Vanier)
Finding Our Way Again (Brian McLaren)

My list did not go as planned this year, at all. Nevertheless, I managed to squeeze in some stimulating reads. My faves were Becoming Human and Things Might Go Terribly, Horrible Wrong. I wasn’t a fan of: The Power of Now, Battlefiled of the Mind or His Needs, Her Needs.

2012 is already off to a good start. I’m currently reading Renovation of the Heart (Dallas Willard) and Introducing the New Testament (Achtemeier, Green & Thomson).

The 7 albums that got me through 2011 (in no particular order)

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 21:17:57 -0500

Aftermath, Hillsong United
Sigh No More, Mumford & Sons
Hope, Foy Vance
Torches, Foster the People
Mylo Xyloto, Coldplay
Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Yahweh, Hillsong Chapel

10 Day You Challenge (1 Picture)

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:34:28 -0500

10 Day You Challenge (3 Films)

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:33:13 -0500

1. Once (2007) - John Carney (writer/director), Martina Niland (producer), staring Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova.

2. Away We Go (2009) - Sam Mendes (director), Dave Eggers/Vandela Vida (writers), starring John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph.

3. Dan in Real Life (2007) - Peter Hedges (writer/director), Jonathan Sheestak (producer), staring Steve Carell

10 Day You Challenge (2 Songs)

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 22:33:00 -0500

If there were only two songs left in the world…

1. Gabriel & the Vagabond (Foy Vance)

2. Indiscriminate Act of Kindness (Foy Vance)

Photo

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:06:59 -0500

10 Day You Challenge (4 Books)

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:59:47 -0500

1. The Horse and His Boy, C. S. Lewis

“There was only one lion … I was the lion … who forced you to join Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the horses the new strength of fear for the last mile so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.”

2. Surprised by Hope, N. T. Wright

“The point of the resurrection…is that the present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die…What you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future in store for it…What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God’s future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether (as the hymn so mistakenly puts it…). They are part of what we may call building for God’s kingdom.”

3. Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis

“My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?”

4. The Bible

Audio

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:25:00 -0500