Random Thinking: Jimmy Carter, Kanye West, Calvinism, Health Care, Tim Keller, Learning Your "Fours," and a Host of Other Things

I have not had time to sit down and think through anything remotely interesting to blog on latey. My brain has kind of been a pile of mush the last few weeks when it comes to writing. So, I thought I'd throw up a bunch of random thoughts, twitter style, and see which ones stick. Comment as you wish.

• My health insurance for my family and me costs around $1000 per month. I had a minor surgery this summer to repair a hernia and another minor surgery to fix what wasn't fixed to begin with. I'm still having problems because the wound won't heal. I'm also facing mounting medical bills for these "minor" surgeries even though I had insurance. I'm not for government run health care, but something needs to be done to bring reform to this system. It is just unsustainable.
• Kanye West was out of line. End of story. Why do people give him any attention? Uh oh. Why am I giving him attention? He needs Jesus and I need to pray for him. 
• By the way, what's up with all the outbursts lately? Kanye West. Joe Wilson yelling out "you lie" to President Obama (I know, Democrats booed President Bush - both sides need to chill on that kind of thing). Then, you have Serena Williams. Excuse me? As John McEnroe would say, "Are you serious?" There seems to be a lot of anger building these days all over the place.  
• Jimmy Carter pulled the race card by saying that opposition to Obama is rooted in racism. I'm not saying that there aren't racists out there, but him saying that is the same thing as Republicans saying that those who opposed the Iraq War were unpatriotic. He needs to be denounced and this kind of rhetoric from both sides needs to end.  We need to have a vigorous debate over the issues and not demonize one side or the other. 
• I preached on election and God's foreknowledge this past Sunday. I'm not a Calvinist, but I see these doctrines in the Bible. I also see the Bible saying that God wishes all people everywhere to be saved. So, I proclaimed the mystery that declares both human created positions in this debate to be incomplete. It went over well, but there has been a lot of discussion about it since then.  I'll preach on 1 Peter 1:3-12 on how Christ is our Living Hope. I'm looking forward to it.
• We are still working on our building project for our church. I've spent WAY more time on it the past week or so than I have wanted to, but some minor changes needed to be made, which is harder when you have work crews trying to get stuff done and they are waiting on you to make a decision.
• Have you seen the Acorn scandal being reported on Fox News? Sadly, I think that there is corruption everywhere. It is just being exposed here. I hope that someone will clean this kind of thing up. By and large, we have become a pretty corrupt society, I think, so this kind of stuff is happening all the time.
• Caelan, my 4 year old son, learned his "fours" in preschool yesterday. He learned how to write the number 4 and everything. I told him that was a pretty big deal. It really is. Think about it. What if you had never learned your fours? You end up using them your whole life and it is pretty awesome to be able to come home and say, "Guess what I learned today? My FOURS." I didn't learn anything nearly that significant yesterday.
• We have been going through a study on Wednesday nights on Tim Keller's The Prodigal God. It has been outstanding. If you have not read it yet, I highly recommend it. It blew me away.
• My 2nd grader, Peyton, was talking to my 5th grader, Ashtyn, about the Fibonacci Sequence on the way to school this morning.  He was saying that his teacher likes to teach them things that are way beyond their level and Ashtyn said, "Yeah, you aren't supposed to learn that until you get to college." And he said, "Yeah, and then you'll be using really big numbers like 300 or something." Smart kid.
• We'll see a couple get baptized this Sunday. I performed their wedding this past Sunday. Amazing story of God's grace, guidance, and restoration. I love stories like this and hope to write a full post on what happened next week.
• My wife is awesome. She is going to graduate school, leading a massive fundraising project for the PTA at our kid's school, leading the Sr. High youth girls small group at our church, working a couple of days a week to make some extra money, and raising 4 kids while doing an amazing amount around the house. She apologized to me this morning for not helping me out more lately.  WHAT??? I'm thinking I need to go home and do some laundry tonight.
• I am seeing God's miracles all around me. In my kids. My beautiful wife. My church. People are encountering God. Lives are changing. I don't deserve what I am getting to witness. Sometimes, I take my eyes off the ball and miss it. I thank God that He is always working, though (John 5:17), so there is always something new and fresh happening right in front of me if I only have eyes to see. My prayer is that I be conformed to the image of Christ. That's a big prayer and I find that the most unruly terrain that I encounter tends to be my own heart.

That's it for right now. Lots of stuff going on. It is hard to keep up with everything. More than anything, I find myself in need of the Sabbath rest that Jesus provides. I need to be more attentive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and to prayer. Spiritual change only happens in spiritual ways.

God is working everywhere. The Kingdom of God is breaking in.

Comments

[Greg Alford]

Alan,

“There seems to be a lot of anger building these days all over the place.”

That’s an understatement brother… I have never seen anything like this before, and to be honest I do not think it will take much to set things off. I find myself having to tell even those that I consider mature Christian men to just calm down. People are honestly scared… and that makes them angry and even bitter.

Jimmy Carter is just an embarrassment… and he is actually making things worse!

You preached on Election and foreknowledge this past Sunday? Good for you Alan! You don’t need to be a Calvinist to preach what the Bible teaches… just tell them what the Bible says (be the text Eph. Chapter 2, or 1 Peter 1:3-12) and trust the Holy Spirit to convict those who are his of both Truth and Error. Of course when you do this you are going to get lots of discussion… :-)

I also performed a Wedding this past Sunday as a part of our morning worship service… It was Amazing! This couple told all their friends and family that if they wanted to come to their Wedding they were going to have to come to the morning worship service… and they did. I got to preach the Gospel to a full house with about fifty folks that I know do not hear the Gospel preached very often… and before the day was over it was clear that God was working in many of their lives. I jokingly told the congregation Sunday night that I was not performing any more Weddings except on Sunday mornings :-)

Grace Always,

[Robin Foster]

Alan

I concur whole heartily with you on the health insurance. Mine is going up to 1300 from 900 this year. Whew!

Good words on predestination and election. Since I am no longer a Calvinist, I can still preach on those things. :-)

Praise God for Caelan learning his fours. May he grow up to be a mighty warrior for God!

Finally, thank God for our wives. You may have inspired me to do the laundry. Notice the key word "may." :-)

[Charles]

Hug your Children and wash the dishes.

Good stuff !

[John Alexander]

Yes, good things are happening everywhere. We need to tell people the good news, because they'll certainly hear the bad everywhere else.

Sounds as if you're experiencing close to what we're seeing in my rural pastorate. Our congregation has doubled (both in Sunday School and a.m. worship attendance) since June, with all the excitement and challenges that come with it. We'll celebrate our third service of Baptism and Holy Communion next week, marking 3 months in a row we've celebrated the salvation of new members. The building program's right around the corner. You can believe that at least one couple in the church still doesn't think things are going well because we're not doing things the way they did them in the 1950's.

RE: Election: I'm preaching through Romans for the first time ever; I hit Romans 9 this past Sunday, telling the congregation it's Part 1 of a 3-part sermon on Romans 9-11. I'm amazed that so few people see God's compassion pouring from those chapters.

Congrats on the blessing of one of the best wives in the universe. The best overall lives in Northport, wondering sometimes how she was stuck with a bi-vocational pastor and computer nerd for a husband. I definitely married up. :-)

[rynoyak.wordpress.com]

On your preaching on Calvinism:
I recently studied Acts 2:38-41 and developed a "How to be saved: a practical guide." In American Christianity (if I may generalize) we tend to take out the biblical understanding of "Repent" and replace it with "if you want to believe, pray this prayer," and the "sinner's prayer" goes from being a guide to helping someone understand repentance and communicate their heart belief to the Savior to a works-based, "magic words" salvation act.
throught a study of this passage, we see two things about salvation: God's sovereignty & human responsibility. "God calls" and "those who accepted/received the message." this passage speaks to a proper balance between the different "Calvinistic (for lack of a better word)" passages of Scripture and the obvious heart of God, such as II Peter 3:9 & I Timothy 2:4.
hope this is helpful.
ryan

[downshoredrift]

Good thoughts, all. The health insurance costs are a real issue. I would be for doing something about this if we could get a solution that was not mired in either leftist ideology or tied to the special interests that contol the right. If we could work on the private industry to bring costs down and then incentivize the purchase of private health insurance by both employers and citizens, it seems like that would be the best option. But, Republicans could have done that if they wanted, I guess.

Re: Calvinism, I am not advocating Calvinism at all. I am not a Calvinist. But, I am affirming what Scripture teaches through its positive statements. Scripture teaches election, God's foreknowledge, and His drawing and choosing. At the same time, Scripture also teaches that Christ died for all and that He wants everyone to be saved. The Apostles pleaded with everyone to repent. The answer to this is a mystery, I believe.

And yes, my wife is awesome. She works circles around me and is always positive and hopeful. What a blessing.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

[Sean]

Last year my family jumped off the health insurance bandwagon and jumped onto a Christian medical sharing community called "Samaritan's Ministry". As a numbers guy (and money hoarder by nature), this was a step of faith - that God would protect us and provide for any needs that might surface.

I can't tell you what a blessing this ministry has been to me - to be able to write a check to a specific family every month and help them with their medical expenses. Also, my gratefulness for our own family's health has skyrocketed, seeing that I now have an added incentive for health, so as not to burden my brothers and sisters in Christ with my medical expenses. Oh! And best of all, all of this is for about $300 a month (family of 6).

To God be the glory!