gutsy gospel

yesterday morning at the breakfast table,
the topic came up about how we’re
to ‘wrestle’ with the scripture:
(henry was all ears & really took to this idea)
to think about it,
to pray it,
to meditate on it,
to ask Christ to reveal it to us,
to memorize it
until it
bursts
open
in our hearts.

last night at some point,
nathan was talking about
how he has been learning that
actually experiencing Christ
in our heart
is different from
simply believing in him.

i am grateful
that our family,
adults and children,
are sitting under a pastor &
spiritual leadership
that aren’t afraid to tell us the truth
and
that they have so saturated us
with the gutsy message
of the gospel
that it comes out in our
casual conversations.

(recently, specifically:
about suffering,
about spiritual dryness,
about God’s silence.)

the massive redemptive work of God
is present in the mundane
of family life
and i
don’t
take
that
for granted.

whew.

tim’s book just came out,
the reason for God
+
tim is in
newsweek this week*

*it’s not necessarily an interesting article
in my opinion,
but i actually did laugh
out loud a few times.

she got this right:
“This is the Rev. Tim Keller,
a Manhattan institution,
one of those open urban secrets,
like your favorite dim sum place,
with a following so ardent and
so fast-growing that he has
never thought to advertise.”

(though i thought she would have been more
correct to introduce him as
the ‘rev. dr. timothy keller’,
but hey.)

and i liked:
“Keller is a pastor for people who
like their Christianity straight up.”

i didn’t really care for the way she
said the ‘callow junior minister’.

unfortunately, this article almost made
it sound like the goal is to replicate a
‘rick warren’-style ‘megachurch’
which isn’t redeemer’s vision,
as i understand it.

anyway.

(remember the times article
from awhile ago?
i thought they portrayed
him/rpc more accurately +
i liked the groovy slideshow photos.)