Now THIS is the way to enter your wedding! Talk about a celebration.

My, oh my. The memories.

Some photos from Kyle and Amber's wedding last weekend

Have you ever seen a country boy "gettin' after it"? Go Papa, go!

One of my most cherished memories of the night was dancing with my brown-eyed girl. Hopefully she will be just as excited to dance with daddy at her wedding.

Grandma Tucker and the flower girls.

I still don't think they are fully convinced that the day wasn't about them.

The pile up - Emi really was o.k., believe it or not

Mom, I found some bread! - YUM

Jacob loves to take pictures with the camera - he has a fascination with taking pictures of the floor or his feet (probably the easiest thing to aim)

Aren't we so cute?

Wow!

(CNN) -- Chris and Georgia Frankel have no idea what it must be like to live alone as a married couple. They started out their life together staying with relatives and later friends.

Those early years proved to be good training because their house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, now has 12 people calling it home.

In addition to their three daughters, ages 3, 6 and 17, the couple shares their space with five adults and two teens.

The family started taking in people before the economy soured, and now they say they are weathering the downturn better than some, in part because of their unconventional living arrangement.

You can read the rest of this CNN article at www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/personal/02/19/survivor.extendedfamily/index.html

What would it look like if the church was out there doing this? What would the world say? What would others in the church say? It is kind of sad that in some circles, the only place people can experience the love of Christ is from the hands of non-christians.

Deep Ponderings

I was listening to a friend of mine talking the other day about Jesus. He pointed out something that I found very interesting. Now when I say that he pointed out something that was very interesting, you need to know that what I am really saying (in super-secret Christian code) is that he said something that convicted me. But, of course, being a pastor and all I shouldn’t be convicted because pastors don’t sin and if they do, well they get fired for being a “sinful pastor” and especially in this economy pastors don’t want to go around getting themselves fired just willy-nilly.

So like I was saying, my friend shared something about Jesus that I found very interesting. He was talking about Jesus’ encounter with Levi (Matthew) as recorded in Matthew 9:9-13 and then in Luke 5:27-32. First, we see in Luke the line, “After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, ‘Follow me.’” Jesus saw a tax collector, so says Luke.

Next my friend contrasted Mathew’s version of this encounter from his own perspective. In Matthew 9:9 we read, “As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me’”.

And here is where my friend pointed out the “interesting” part. You see, in Luke’s version of the story. Jesus saw “a tax collector”. In Matthew’s account, what stood out to him in his retelling of his own story was that Jesus saw “a man”.

“Yep, that’s Bob. He’s an accountant.” “There’s Sue. She is a nurse.” Okay, an accountant and a nurse are actually in an acceptable crowd of people. Let’s try this. “Yep, there’s Bob. He’s a truck driver. Smells like stale coffee and cigarettes most of the time, at least when it’s not hunting season.” “There’s Sue. She’s actually a thief. Heard she got caught shoplifting just last week down at Macy’s. I actually saw her using a food stamps card at Publix the other day too.”

Why must I see titles? Why must we be relegated to what we do as opposed to who we are? What would it be like when I go out to eat, instead of seeing my “server”, I saw a single mom trying to make extra cash because her husband hasn’t sent a child support payment in five years? What if, instead of seeing the “trouble kid” in the neighborhood we saw the young man that no one has ever given anything but criticism. He feels himself worthless and sees the only way out as numbing the pain with self medication or possibly with suicide? Why must we assign an individuals worth depending on their perceived place in our maddeningly prevalent and completely unbiblical social constructs?

Matthew was an outcast among his people. He collected taxes for the Romans, the occupying forces who ruled over the Jews. He worked as a traitor for the occupiers. It was also common practice for tax collectors of the day to skim off the top to line their own pockets. Not only was he a traitor, but he was also a cheat and a thief. Yet Jesus, passing by along the way looked over and saw a man. And because Jesus saw a man, we see Jesus through the gospel of Matthew, a man changed and used greatly in the kingdom. How have I handicapped the kingdom of God because of my lack of vision? Who have I passed by who could have been used greatly within God’s body?

Yes, I believe in the sovereignty of God and confess that He is firmly in control of everything. He is plenty big enough to make up for my shortcomings. But my correct theology should never be a blanket with which I seek to hide or disguise my sin, err, I mean those things that I find "interesting".

I was doing some reading the other day (and by reading I mean surfing the blogosphere) and came across the following blog entry from a guy named Steve Timmis.

If you ever want to make other Christians feel guilty, get them to listen to a talk on evangelism. For the majority of us, evangelism is a bit like base jumping—sounds like a great idea, but most of us don’t actually have the guts for it. Whilst it might be true that only a relatively few people are gifted evangelists, all of us can make a significant contribution to the evangelism process. What we need to do is change evangelism from “me doing the gospel thing with my mates” to “us doing the gospel thing with my (soon to be our) mates.” It’s a simple transition, but it makes a world of difference.

Make Evangelism Communal

In that context, I then introduce my friend who’s not a Christian to my brothers and sisters (a.k.a. church). My friend gets to see us hang out, laugh and cry, forgive and serve. He sees the gospel in action and he hears the gospel as we apply it to one another. Evangelism is going on all the time, and all I’ve done is bring my friend into a context where he’s going to be exposed to the gospel. Evangelism done this way changes it from being a big scary monster that makes us want to run and hide into a cute little puppy that we all want to hug.

Great article. Okay, except for the “cute little puppy” part at the end. That was a bit much. But Steve makes a great point.

Many of us are intimidated by evangelism because we envision Billy Graham standing on a street corner or on a platform in a stadium as opposed to a group of neighbors standing around a grill. There are a few of us who are called to stand on street corners and in stadiums to proclaim the wonders of the gospel at the top of our lungs. For the majority of us, we are called to something very different. Not to a different message, but to a different method.

Each one of us does “stuff” during the week. For some it is running. For others it is painting. Some might have an affection for or a heightened appreciation of fine coffees while others among us may passionately pursue the perfect grilled fillet. Here is the point. Evangelism is taking the stuff we are into (our God-given passions and desires) and seeking to glorify God by walking with others in pursuit of these passions.

If that is the point, then here is the twist. Sit down, this may be a shocker. It is okay to pursue our passions and desires with non-believers. Who came up with the idea that it is okay to wall ourselves off in Christian ghettos and pursue our passions only with other Christians? I mean, we have Christian bookstores, Christian coffee shops, Christian running clubs, Christian knitting clubs, Christian underwater basket weaving clubs. Okay, I made that last one up, but you get the idea. It is no wonder that statistics show the longer one is a believer, the fewer non-christians they are in relationship with. How can we win or influence a world from whom we are in constant flight?

So what do we do? We simply do what we are already doing. We run, we paint, we drink fine coffee, we pursue culinary perfection at our grills.... WITH NON-BELIEVERS. Don't know any non-christians? Try this, walk next door to your neighbor's house, gently raise your fist to the front door, and knock.