Mercy or Justice?

Dr. Piper offers some helpful thoughts here,

"I suggest three criteria for when to follow mercy or justice: 1) Know your personality and resist excesses that accord with your bent (lenient or demanding); 2) The more personal and private the offense, the more mercy to show; the more communal and public the offense, the more justice to require; 3) Be sure in either case that your motive is love for the most people involved, including the offender."

Jude 14-15 Application

Apostates come in all shapes and sizes. In Jude 15, Jude talks about the coming judgment of Christ (during his 2nd coming). The text says Jesus will come “to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds and…of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

MSNBC records a recent example of sinful speech in a recent news article.
’Oct. 1, 2007 issue - Some stories are best told straight. On Sept. 8, Kathy Griffin, a bawdy, foulmouthed comedian, accepted an Emmy Award for her reality show, My Life on the D-List, and in her acceptance speech she explained that while other actors might thank Jesus for such an honor, she wouldn’t consider it. ‘Suck it, Jesus,‘ she exuberantly added, waving her statuette in the air. ‘This award is my God, now.’”

Jude 4-16 makes a very sobering point: Sin and judgment go hand and in hand!
With that said, praise God for his grace and his forbearance! Perhaps Kathy will repent and embrace this Jesus as her Savior and Lord one day? For her sake, i pray she does!!!

Bad luck, bad night!

So my support for Rex Grossman has ended. He played a 4th bad game in a row. I don't think Griese is a great QB but he will hopefully be better than Rex. Sunday nights loss was not all about Rex. As cbssportsline reported "There were, in fact, plenty of things that went terribly wrong for Chicago and had nothing to do with Grossman. There was a Cedric Benson fumble that proved crucial, Devin Hester's lack of production and risky runbacks out of the end zone, and injuries to at least four key Bears players. (In the tunnel after the game was a frightening scene for Chicago fans: stud defensive tackle Tommie Harris, his left knee wrapped and secured in a brace.)"

Berrian dropped 3 perfect passes from Rex Grossman including the first pass of the game. The recievers on this team are not playing that well. Hester had the worst game of his NFL career, making numerous special teams mistakes. The D got tired in the 2nd half (partly because of the offense, partly because of injuries, partly because of the Cowboys). The O line has not been good this year and looks a bit slow (probably because they are pretty old).

To top everything off the NFL has a measure of luck involved. The Bears lost 2 starters from the D in week one. Mike Brown's loss hurts us like when Bob Sanders is out for the Colts. In addition to this Harris is now injured, Briggs did not play the 2nd half, Vasher went out with an injury, as did a couple of other players. If Tommie Harris is lost again this year this teams Super Bowl hopes are lost. When healthy (as i said last year) Harris IS the best D lineman in the game. You can not replace a Warren Sapp like player.

Lovie Smith has his work cut out for him. Will he stick with Rex one more week? I think he might...Then again perhaps he's like me and has finally lost his patience with Grossman.

You need to listen to this!

http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/sounds/02pagitt.mp3

September Reading Report

I don't know about you but i normally get half way through a book and then am tempted to stop and pick up a new book. I try and resist that urge as much as possible. Anyways, here is the latest update of the stuff i am trying to read outside of Scripture... What have you guys been reading???

Books I am currently reading:
Pages from Church History (Stephen Nichols)
The Exemplary Husband (Stuart Scott)
Shepherding a Child's Heart (Tedd Tripp)
Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth (Wayne Grudem)
Girl Talk (By Carolyn Mahaney)
Christian Living Beyond Belief (Cliff McManis)
The Message of the O.T. (by Mark Dever)
What Jesus Demands from the World (by John Piper)
Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 1 (John Calvin) (Book 1, Ch 17)
Numerous Jude commentaries (for sermon preperation/various authors)
Various articles/commentaries on 1 Cor 11:2-16.

Books I’ve finished in the last year or so:
Assured by God: Living in the Fullness of God's Grace (various authors)
The Reformation (Stephen J. Nichols)
Spurgeon VS Hyper-Calvinism (Iain Murray)
A Scottish Christian Heritage (Iain Murray)
Meetings that Work (A Strauch)
The Truth War (By John MacArthur)
No Place for the Truth (by David F. Wells).
The Cross and Christian Ministry (D.A. Carson).
Women's Ministry in the Local Church (Ligon Duncan/Susan Hunt)
The Holiness of God (by R.C. Sproul)
Growing Up Christian (by Paul Graustein)
How America Lost Her Innocence (By Steve Gallagher)
From Pride to Humility (pamphlet by Dr. Stuart Scott)
Humility: True Greatness (by C.J. Mahaney)
Biblical Eldership (by A. Strauch)
Expository Preaching With Word Pictures (Jack Hughes)
The Reformed Pastor (by Richard Baxter)
Legacy of Sovereign Joy (by John Piper)
Whose Money Is It Anyways (By John MacArthur)
The Treasure Principle (by Randy Alcorn)
Baptist Life and Thought (By William Brackney)
By His Grace and For His Glory (Dr. Nettles) large sections
Knowing God (J.I. Packer) through ch 19

More bad news (for the) bears

The defending NFC champion Chicago Bears have lost two defensive starters, free safety Mike Brown and nose tackle Dusty Dvoracek, to season-ending knee injuries sustained in the team's opening-day defeat at San Diego on Sunday afternoon.

Follow-up MRI examinations on both players confirmed on Monday that both have suffered ligament damage to their left knees. Bears officials had feared as much on Sunday evening.

The loss of Brown is particularly devastating since this will mark the fourth year in a row in which the star-crossed defensive back will miss significant playing time, and the third time in four seasons that his campaign ended prematurely with him on the injured reserve list. It will increase to 43 the number of games that Brown has missed in the past four years.
Fearing the worst, Brown, 29, was emotionally distraught in the Chicago locker room on Sunday evening, after injuring his knee with 10 minutes remaining in the game. He called the injury "another sad day in the chapter of my football career."

Said Brown, who is recognized as the emotional leader of the Chicago secondary, and a safety who specialized in big, game-altering plays early in his career: "It's a shame. It hurts my feelings really bad."

Brown missed 14 games in 2004 with a ruptured Achilles tendon, four in 2005 because of a severely strained calf, and 10 last season with a Lisfranc foot sprain. The former Nebraska star never missed a game the first four seasons of his NFL tenure (2000-03), but has not played a full season since 2003.

The former Pro Bowl performer (2005) moved from strong safety to free safety this spring to accommodate the Bears' acquisition of Adam Archuleta in a trade, and had a strong training camp. Before the injury on Sunday, he was authoring an excellent game, with four tackles, an interception that set up Chicago's only score, two passes defensed and a fumble recovery that rebuffed a San Diego scoring opportunity.

For his career, Brown, a second-round choice in the 2000 draft, has 304 tackles, four sacks, 15 interceptions, 22 passes defensed, and four forced fumbles.

Chicago coaches likely will choose between Danieal Manning and Brandon McGowan as his replacement at free safety. Manning started 14 games as a rookie in 2006.

Dvoracek, 24, missed his entire 2006 rookie season when he was placed on injured reserve with a foot injury sustained in preseason. His starting assignment on Sunday represented the first appearance of his career, and he had two tackles before his injury.

A third-round choice, the former Oklahoma standout won the starting job in training camp this summer, filling the void left by the Bears' release of suspended nose tackle Tank Johnson.

Perfect Day Off

Labor day was amazing. I was able to enjoy just a little bit of everything. Some quality time in the Word, some quality time with my lovely family, and some quality time watching my PGA favorite Phil Mickelson beat my PGA non-favorite Tiger Woods in the D-Bank Classic. I could not have scripted a better day. I hope your day off was as relaxing and enjoyable as mine was.

NFL Preview 2007

My younger brother Jordan told me to post this. So here you go.

I am a Pastor so i no longer have time to read every NFL preview magazine like some (Jordan K and Joe T). With that said, the NFL to me is the greatest form of sports entertainment in the world. College football is great, but the NFL is played on the Lord's day for a reason. Ok that is as close to sports blasphemy as i'm going to get. If one can keep wonderful things like sports from becoming idolatrous a Christian can really enjoy this league.

As you know, I am a big CHICAGO BEARS fan. I have been since i was a little kid. If i can find the picture when i was 2 years old with my Bears gear on i will post it here. Anyways, the Bears are the team to beat in the NFC. Can Benson make Grossman's life easy like Thomas Jones did last year? If not, Grossman can only throw 10-13 picks this season (unlike the 20 he threw last season). The Bears defense is deeper than ever before and should be one of the top 3 in the league. Our special teams is one of the top 3 in the league as well. So the Bears are pretty easy to predicate. We have everything in place but a consistent QB. I have faith in Grossman. I did not give up on him last year like so many bandwagon fantasy nerds. I care less about fantasy numbers. They mean nothing.

The New England Patriots are the team to beat. Mr. Tom Brady is the 2nd best QB in the league (behind my arch-enemy Peyton M) and he finally has some WR options. If Randy Moss is 85% to what he once was LOOK OUT!!!

San Diego has to be the 2nd best team in the league with the league MVP on its team and a very good D. LT flat out dominates. Of course Chicago can make a major statement during week 1 as the two giants will clash Sept 9 (i believe).

Indianapolis has a shot so long as #18 and #87/88 stay healthy. As much as i dislike Manning he is the best in the business and one of the top 3 players in the NFL. The guy prepares better than anyone else in the league. I hate the fact he whines like a girl and chews out teammates whenever they drop a poorly thown ball but whatever...He is a god in this town.

I put Chicago up there as the #3 team in the league (ahead of Indy). Why? We got better this year and the Colts probably went down a bit (atleast in player talent and depth). If Grossman plays like he did last year we will still win 9-10 games. If he improves we should win 11-12. I don't see us winning 13-14 because our schedule is much more difficult this season.

Do i have any sleepers this season? Yes, let me go with the Arizona Cardinals who will probably win 9 games this year if everyone stays healthy.

The Titans? They will be lucky to win 7-8 games this season. Vince needs some better WR's before he can really shine. Why didn't the Titans bring in Randy Moss?? I think he was worth a 4th round pick (and the risk factor). Moss is not a saint but he's definitely not T.O. (the tool).

I can't wait for the season. Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?