Posts

Today marks the 5th anniversary of starting my blog. Pretty amazing that I have been doing this for 5 years! Of course in the last two years, or so, the posts haven't been as frequent... but it is quality over quantity, right? I started at the, now nonexistent, Modblog which was a great community and introduction to blogging. I have, since then, had various blogs that I update with varying frequency, but it has been great running my own domain and just writing when I feel like it and about the topics I am really interested in. Everyone should blog really. No, really, go start one now, they're free! Should you desire to take a gander at the various things I have written about, check out the MattJonesBlog.com / Random Acts of Verbiage Archive and drop a note! To go along with this anniversary, I am also happy to say I had an incredible night/weekend with some amazing people celebrating my and Stacey's 30th birthday. I am supremely blessed to have the wonderful friends I have. Thanks to everyone who made it so special! We started the night at Anthony's on Pier 66 on Seattle's waterfront then went back to our suite at the Fairmont Olympic Hotel for swimming, eating, and just general enjoyment of each other's company. It was a night to remember! Please stop by Matt and Stacey turn 30! @ Flickr for some pictures from the evening.

Well here I am. Three decades in. I can look back and feel blessed, satisfied, and optimistic. Sure, there are things I wish I could have done differently or wished had turned out differently. But those things have become part of who I am. For instance, I make a pretty awesome third wheel. Life moves forward, I have finally found a career that I enjoy, I have incredible friends that encourage me every day, and wonderful family who blesses me all the time. Pretty freakin’ awesome.

I wonder what the next few decades will bring! I am looking forward to it!

Maybe a few dates would be nice... ;)

And happy mother's day to all the mothers out there!

Easter is once again upon us. We are forced to deal with Good Friday and look forward to Easter. So often we want to focus on Easter, but we cannot forget what took place first at Calvary. Jesus was not brutally executed because he was a good teacher or because he was a threat to Rome and Caesar. Make no mistake, he was killed because he claimed to be God. This was offensive to the high priests and worthy of mockery by those who did not see who He was. But Jesus knew who he was and acted in perfect submission to the Father. Only Jesus could be the Christ, could be the redemption of mankind. Could save you and I from the treason we have committed against the true King. We have been pardoned because of Good Friday. Without Good Friday, Easter would have no meaning. Christ had to die, for us, in order to conquer death and evil.

And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

Do you understand how big that is? The veil of the temple separating us from the Holy of Holies, the people from Yahweh, us from God, is torn in two. We are no longer apart from God. We no longer have to perform special ceremonies or rituals to talk to Him. We are in his presence because of Christ. What amazing grace! It doesn't matter who we are, where we are, or what we have done. We are accepted into his presence because of the price He paid. We can all say thank God for that! I hope everyone has a great and thoughtful Easter. Share this gospel (good news) with others. It is a blessing to the world and people desperately need to hear it! I wrote (a number of time) about Jesus' last words: Τετέλεσται: Some thoughts on John 19:30 that I found enlightening. Feel free to take a gander. Also, I would recommend a fairly new book by Craig Evans and N. T. Wright based on a few lectures they gave about the historicity of the death by crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus: Jesus, the Final Days: What Really Happened. Blessings and Shalom on this Easter's eve.

What's your "deal breaker" when it comes to relationships?

This may shock you, but I have actually written about this before. I suppose I should get a date first...

Last Sunday at All Saints Church Bill gave the first sermon in a series about relationships titles "Finding the Love of Your Life" - provocative, eh? The foundation of the sermon was Proverbs 3.6: "In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths." Seems like a good foundation. I am actually not going to talk about the bulk of the sermon (but feel free to listen to it, it was quite good), but I wanted to take a brief look at one of his points. He noted that going into marriage there need to be two nonnegotiables (and one strong recommendation) in finding "the one" (which is a load of crap by the way, if you disagree about that, feel free to argue!). Nonnegotiable #1: Spiritual Compatibility. Where are we in our walk with God? If we are in vastly different places, that could cause problems. The extreme of this is being in a relationship with a non-believer; this is a touch subject and is bound to piss people off, but it really is crucial. If you are going to be devout in your faith, how would being married to an unbeliever work? These are problems that would never go away. Being able to walk with God together is a foundational aspect of a healthy relationship. Nonnegotiable #2: Life Purpose Compatibility. Where are our lives heading? Amos 3.3 says "Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?" Or in the the paraphrase of The Message: "Do two people walk hand in hand if they aren't going to the same place?"  How could two people walk together if they were not going in the same direction? This is not to say that the couple cannot or should not have separate interests, but it does mean that two people heading for marriage should actually sit down and discuss where they want to go in life and see if those visions are compatible. If it is pushed away to be dealt with inside the marriage, it will just cause problems. If you can't agree now, you probably won't then. Strong Recommendation: Personal Compatibility. This isn't a nonnegotiable, but it is still pretty important. How did you grow up? What is your family like? What is their background? These are important questions that really do need to be asked. Of course a person's history does not completely determine who they are and how they act, but it can still play a big role. Understanding a person's context will help to understand them. Are the ways that you relate compatible or are there always misunderstandings? Personal compatibility is a big issue that should most definitely be explored. The reality is that our choices, and they are our choices ("decisions determine destiny"), should be made within appropriate boundaries. There are a number of ways that God guides/teaches/communicates with us in a number of way (which Bill expounds on in the sermon). It is up to us to use those resources to make the best choices we can; when we do that, God will bless our decisions. That doesn't mean thing will always be easy, in fact things will always get difficult at times (obviously), but it means that there can always be forward progress (Gary Thomas' book Sacred Marriage is a great read on this topic as well). There is freedom in the choices we make within the boundaries God has provided for us. And he truly has provided them; without boundaries things would be chaos and problems within the relationship would abound. Enjoy the freedom! Now if only I could get a date...

Wow, it has been ages since I have posted here!  I am such a bad Voxer!  I have been blogging at my main blog and keeping my Facebook updated quite a bit as well.  But I shouldn't be so neglectful!  I thought I would come back with something I just wrote up for my main blog.  I found it pretty interesting and something I am trying to wrestle with as well.  So here ya go!  (Original post: “The coming evangelical collapse” - I don’t see it)

Both Matt MacAdam and Bill Berger have pointed me to an article by Michael Spencer called The coming evangelical collapse: An anti-Christian chapter in Western history is about to begin. But out of the ruins, a new vitality and integrity will rise (the original, complete posts can be found at Spencer's website: The Original Coming Evangelical Collapse Posts).  While a lot of things that Spencer said resonate with me, I don't know if I completely agree with where he thinks evangelicals are heading.  While I won't do a full commentary here, I wanted to mention a few things about his article.

Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants.

This is a pretty bold statement.  To Spencer's credit, he is not claiming that this is news or necessarily backed in research; it is his commentary on the way he sees things. That being said, it is still a bold statement.  Here are the primary reasons he thinks Evangelicalism will collapse:

Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake.

While I think this was especially true in the 80s and 90s, I think this has lessened as of late.  Many want to distance themselves from the religious right.  While I am conservative in my politics, I don't really associate myself with them, and I know that many others don't either.

We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught.

I completely agree.  I do think that the youth need to be aware of culture and how it impacts the church, but they also need to know where their faith comes from and what it is based on.  They should be able to articulate what they believe and why just as easily as they can articulate what happened on the latest reality show.

There are three kinds of evangelical churches today: consumer-driven megachurches, dying churches, and new churches whose future is fragile.

I don't think that my church really falls into any of those categories.  I don't feel I am saying that just because I am biased, but because the church is vibrant, relevant, and has a real, meaningful impact on our city.

Despite some very successful developments in the past 25 years, Christian education has not produced a product that can withstand the rising tide of secularism. Evangelicalism has used its educational system primarily to staff its own needs and talk to itself.

I am not exactly sure what he means by that.  Is he saying evangelical seminaries or graduate schools are not proper educational institutions?  Regent might disagree with that (and so would I).

The confrontation between cultural secularism and the faith at the core of evangelical efforts to "do good" is rapidly approaching. We will soon see that the good Evangelicals want to do will be viewed as bad by so many, and much of that work will not be done. Look for ministries to take on a less and less distinctively Christian face in order to survive.

This is another statement that I cannot totally buy.  I think that many churches now see the need to work in their communities, not just because they want more people to come, or even people to come to Christ (even if they would like that to happen), but because they are understanding that there is a huge need in their community.  There is always "good" to be done and churches are starting to realize that more and more.

Even in areas where Evangelicals imagine themselves strong (like the Bible Belt), we will find a great inability to pass on to our children a vital evangelical confidence in the Bible and the importance of the faith.

While Evangelicals aren't really "strong" here in the northwest, this is definitely a concern.  Instilling values in our children in the midst of many conflicting world views can be a difficult, but necessary task that we are all responsible for.

The money will dry up.

Well, sure, that is possible.  But wherever people find value, their money will follow.

With the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey noting that "non-religious" populations are on the rise and many Protestant denominations on the decline, evangelicals definitely have reason to worry.  But, in my opinion, there aren't actually fewer religious people, but merely more people who are being more honest with their affiliations and beliefs.  It would be my contention that nominal Christians (of which there are definitely many) are realizing that they no longer have to identify themselves with Christianity if they don't actually believe the things that are part of the faith.  Regardless of why the numbers are declining, I doubt that those of devout faith are willing to let their churches die. 

Spencer's article is well worth the read because he does end on some helpful and hopeful notes.

We need new evangelicalism that learns from the past and listens more carefully to what God says about being His people in the midst of a powerful, idolatrous culture.

While I am not as worried about our impending doom, I think his cautions should be heeded.

Hummm... I feel like this post has been a bit of streaming-of-consciousness... but there ya have it. 

In honor of Independence Day, show us something patriotic.

 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Independence Day celebration!  And remember that our freedom isn't free; this is a day to be thankful for all the rights we have been given!

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Show us a picture of your father.

He is still greatly missed.  Me and him at Enchanted Village circa 1984 (ish).

To mix things up a bit, I thought I would do something I don't often do: a meme.  I stole this from Cori, no, I am not original. (Cross posted at my blog.)

The Instructions:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Can you figure out what my answers were?

1. Rannie and Matt - A wordpress guy.
2. New York Steak
3. Gig Harbor High School
4. Dark Blue Night
5. The Office: Jenna Fischer
6. Special Fashion Week Cherry Coke design
7. Massa Lubrense and Vesuvio
8. chocolate cheese cake
9. Still Life For Teacher
10. In God's Country
11. Tender Love and Care - cheesy much?
12. Project 365 - Day 137 - I guess "mattithyahu" doesn't show up that often, my pictures were the only ones there!

Well if you would like to know what I do on a typical Friday (haha, right), you should read my post: A Trip to Mount St. Helens @ MattJonesBlog.com.  Stop by and say hi!

Show us the comic strip you read most often.

 

Get Fuzzy is the best thing to happen to comics in a long time.  I can consistently laugh out loud when reading about Bucky, Satchel, and Rob.  Funny Stuff.