So here’s two article summaries/excerpts I read last night in this weeks TIME magazine:

1. Nav press decided to print 10,000 copies of the New Testament for the ministry “XXX Church”. On the cover of the New Testaments (which will be the Message paraphrase) will be the words ” JESUS LOVES PORN STARS” real big on the cover with a cool 70’s looking Jesus in the background. The American Bible Society, the first publisher it approached, backed the mission of reaching out to the porn industry but rejected the cover as “misleading and inappropriate.” According to TIME, “with NavPress, XXXchurch was preaching to the choir”.

Well, part of me says, rock on… I think everyone should know they were created by God and for God. I’m also not sure that’s any more radical than putting, “JESUS LOVES BRIAN BERRY” on the cover. I’m a total idiot who doesn’t deserve it either. But, without the er of superiority, the question becomes, Is this the best way to reach those who are not living Bible supported lifestyles? It seems a subtle shift from Jesus loves porn stars to Jesus loves porn. It also seems to beg the question, what group would we not use this method to “market” Jesus to? What about JESUS LOVES TERRORISTS for army chaplains ministering to prisoners? What about Jesus loves CHILD PORN ADDICTS for a ministry to the other end of the porn industry? I hate the “pandora’s box” fear of stuff, but it does seem like we opened a bit of a can of something here.

Click here to read the full article on XXX Church for free until they archive it.

2. An article by Andrew Sullivan called, “My Problem with Christianism”. In it he writes a rant against those who claim that they hold the corner on the basic tenets of the Christian faith- and specifically those who have relegated it as a “republican” ideal. His conclusion is awesome. He says, “That’s what I dissent from, and I dissent from it as a Christian. I dissent from the political pollution of sincere, personal faith. I dissent most strongly from the attempt to argue that one party represents God and that the other doesn’t. I dissent from having my faith co-opted and wielded by people whose politics I do not share and whose intolerance I abhor. The word Christian belongs to no political party. It’s time the quiet majority of believers took it back.” AMEN Andrew. Amen. Thanks for speaking the truth. I pray it resonates loud and clear with people all over the globe. I know it resonates with Kingdom of God.

Click here to read the full article by Andrew Sullivan for free until they archive it.

I realized today that I have a problem with Grace. I have a problem with it because I can’t seem to manage it well in my own life. I know God loves me no matter what (thus the Grace of God)… it’s just that if I accept this, I feel some free reign to just do whatever I want and I get lax about sin. But, if I don’t accept his Grace, I find myself in a futile fundamentalist attempt to try and prove my love to God- which always results in utter failure.

This morning I read two things:

1. The passage in the Bible where Jesus tells Simon, after fishing all night, to go fishing again Jesus and to throw the nets down for a catch. Simon reluctantly agrees. He’s tired. He’s worked hard to prove his might as a fisherman and has come up empty handed. Now after he obeys, he sees God bless him immensely on the one hand and standing next to Jesus, the Son of God, he feels small and ungodly. So he says: “Go away from me Jesus, for I am a sinful man.” Simon isn’t any more comfortable with grace than I am. He knows he doesn’t deserve this, so he tells Jesus to go away. Grace makes us feel dirty before it makes us feel clean…. and it I want to push it away, looking for another way to get clean.

2. A chapter from Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller. Surprise surpise. The chapter was also on grace. His conclusion is worth stewing on for days: “In exchange for our humility and willingless to accept the charity of God, we are given a Kingdom. And a begger’s kingdom is better than a proud man’s delusion.” I read that like 10 times today. I still think it’s deeper than my temporal brain will travel.

Anyway- as I thought more on grace. I saw my new coffee pot.

I got it because my old one shattered when I dropped the carafe and it was too old to justify trying to fix it. So, my lovely wife bought me a new one. She gave it to me. For free for my birthday.

That’s like grace. Something is broken, it needs fixing. Rather than try to fix what is broken beyond repair, we just start over. In the case of grace and my coffee pot, you start over with something way better than you deserve and exceedingly more impressive than the pathetic thing I left behind.

My new coffee pot of grace is cool, cuz you can put coffee in it in the morning, and all by itself, it stays hot all day without any heating pad. However… it’s like grace that way for me too. It stays hot for a day. After a convicting talk at church.. I’m hot for a day. After a particularly high moment in my spiritual life or some grand moment.. I stay hot for Jesus for a day. But, I need to make a new pot the next day or nuke the old stuff or something… cuz it’s gone cold. Thus, the saga of grace for me. I am ready to live in it for a day. Then I jack it all up.

I am not holy enough to not need it.

I am not holy enough to not abuse it.

I am positive that I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to understand, embrace, and honor it.

Well. I get an F for updates on the bloggin world. I’ve been praying about whether I should stop this blog thing or keep it going. Here’s my struggle:

REGULARITY: I’m great at starting things. I stink at maintaining things.

CREATIVITY: I’m not the cookie cutter guy. I tweak just about everything I buy or get to make it my own. I tried starting a new blog with some new .mac stuff and a new iweb program, but it was more tweakable. However, it was also not as tweakable as I wished and required more work to end up with just a glorified cookie cutter in the end. So, if I’m gonna do the blog thing. I’ts gonna have to be through blogger for now. bummer. wish I knew html and junk.

MOTIVATION: I feel as though my motivations are mixed. Part of me wants this to be a journal, part of me wants to only blog processed thoughts, part of me wants to blog just to keep friends and family updated on my world, part of me wants to blog ideas and stew on stuff with those who interact with it.

COMMENTS: I’ve had a few verbal complaints that my .mac blog was too much work to interact with since it required an e-mail.

My conclusion: I’m going to make a twoish week commitment to blog once a day on this site. Today through May 25. We’ll see where that takes me. We’ll see if anyone reads this gig. We’ll see how much work it is or how much it matters. Honestly… I could just use the practice on finishing something, being consistent, and journaling more regularly. This “public” statement will serve as my accountablilty.

One of my complaints about blogger was that it was kind of a pain to get online and post.  I just downloaded this widget for my mac that lets me post off my dashboard.  now I’m all conflicted cuz I can’t do this with my new iweb program.  Maybe I’ll have to keep both of these sites alive.

Well, I decided to try posting through my .mac account using i web for a while which came with my new computer. Why do I have a new computer you ask, well you can find out if you go here! From there you can see a video of my kid we made for youth group, some family pics, and some blog stuff. Only downside is that you can’t comment, but of the 3000 visitors or so this site has gotten, it’s only had like 15 comments, so I’m not thinkin that’s gonna matter much. But if you’d like to drop a note, just e-mail me through the contact me info on the berrtribeland link at the top of the page. Ok… well, I won’t shut this one down for a while cuz I might be back to blogger. We’ll have to see. If you want to subscribe to it. Just hit the RSS button. Blog on.