Matt_Gertz's Xanga

Overheard at the supper table

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 02:11:31 GMT

We decided to begin to incorporate some of the ordinaries from corporate worship into our suppertime routine to cement them into the kids (and our) memories and have the chance to discuss them. Tonight we began by singing "Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might..." Colleen and Michaelah pretty much have the whole thing down. Nathan, on the other hand, tends toward a more "freestyle" interpretation of our worship songs--not exactly in tongues, but it might as well be. Except for the ending:

Family (singing): A----men.
Nathan (not singing): Please have a seat... And give me a hot dog with cheese.

A pastor in the making, perhaps?

Getting Back in the Game

Mon, 21 May 2007 03:53:42 GMT

Back to the issue of "the story" with regard to what Yahweh is doing in history. It seems apparent from Scripture that the Lord intends to cover the globe with the knowledge of Himself, and that the Kingdom of God will expand until it fills the whole earth just like a plant grows in a garden. Now does anyone really think that the Lord intends to grow the Kingdom without the involvement of those already in the Kingdom? And is any area of life meant to be unaffected by this transformation? How is it then that our thinking is so fuzzy about what we as Christians are supposed to be doing during the short span of our lives? We seem to have so little corporate purpose, to say nothing of planning or strategy when it comes to what we are to be doing with our lives individually and together.

And no, I'm not even talking about missions and evangelism (yet). I propose that one of the goals of our lives ought to be to begin to transform the culture within our various disciplines and occupations. What happens when all of God's people begin practicing medicine, art, architecture, interior design, politics (yes, politics), reading, music, banking, flower-arranging, writing, engineering, driving, table-waiting, etc. etc. etc. to the glory of God and according to the rules of the Kingdom instead of the ways of the world? I don't know exactly, but I do know we had better get busy finding out. You see, the Christian life, and the life of the Church as a whole is part of the story of Christ's complete and irresistible conquest over His enemies and everything that stands at odds with Him. That means that those who know Him must take a keen interest in the state of the culture and in the particular circumstances into which God has placed us After all, culture belongs to the One we love most deeply, and our love for Christ must stir in us a desire to see His will done as it is in Heaven in all areas of life. Perhaps seeking His Kingdom first is a lot more practical of an exercise than we think.

Living the Future Story (Leaving Behind "Left Behind")

Sun, 06 May 2007 12:50:52 GMT

We all live more or less in accordance with our understanding of the Universal Story as well as the sub-plots of our own stories. In other words, our actions are largely governed by our understanding of the purpose and direction of ourselves and of creation as a whole. As Christians, our lives are permanently changed by the story of what God has done in the past as recounted in Scripture and we gain encouragement from our understanding of what He is doing in the present.

However, our lives and the life of the Church in general are perhaps more influenced by our understanding of the future. I am not thinking of the eternal joy in the presence of God that awaits His people, although that is a tremendous comfort to us and our greatest hope. I am thinking of how we understand the future story of humanity prior to Christ's return. Contrary to its neglect in the doctrinal statements of many churches, our understanding of the end times is critical to the church conducting itself rightly and pursuing the right ends. Without rehashing the whole dispensational time line, I think it is sufficient to note that this school of thought, immortalized in the "Left Behind" series does little for our cultural aspirations as the Church. This view would have us anticipate nothing but decline and dissolution for the Church until the coming of Christ, completely ignoring the 2,000 year spread of western Christendom and the expansion of the Church throughout the world. Because of this eschatological innovation, much of the Church has been lulled to sleep in the expectation that there is nothing to do but tend to our individual spiritual condition, save souls as we can, and wait for the unpleasant end to come.

If the dispensational view is correct, so be it. But I believe the church as a whole suffers from an overweighting, combined with a misunderstanding, of Revelation to the neglect of what God says in the rest of Scripture concerning His plan for the Gospel and the world. We cannot neglect all the places in Scripture that God says His kingdom will expand throughout the world and that the entire world will be covered with the knowledge of Yahweh and that the nations will worship Him. Our Lord intends to do much through the Church prior to His returning in gathering the nations to Himself and in transforming culture. He intends to conquer all His enemies before handing the world over to the Father. It is time that the Church (especially in American Evangelicalism) awake from its "Left Behind" mentality and put its shoulder to the work of expanding the Gospel and its benefits to the ends of the earth and to every part of every culture.

It's All About the Story

Fri, 04 May 2007 11:19:03 GMT

I've been reading some N.T. Wright lately, and he has reminded me that there are no such things as "bare facts". There is no "neutral" vantage point from which to view reality, and there is no way to have any significant understanding of a fact until you grasp how it fits into its larger context. Try giving a description of anything or any event without reference to its larger story and you will not be left with much. So if you want to rightly understand anything, you must rightly understand its story first. I plan to follow up the implications of this truth in the next few entries.

Yeah?

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 19:10:30 GMT

Not that this probably needs to be said, but in light of this morning's worship service, I propose an eternal ban on the use of the word "yeah" in any song intended to be offered to the Lord in worship. Corporal punishment for those writing or perpetuating such lyrics should not be out of the question.

Employment Update

Fri, 26 Jan 2007 05:38:44 GMT

My friends, the Lord has blessed us with a job offer from Koch today in an engineering role that more or less guarantees we will be in Wichita indefinitely. We are humbled and very grateful for this provision. Praise God with us!

Job update

Thu, 18 Jan 2007 15:58:59 GMT

I had a good initial meeting with a manager of one of Koch's sub-units yesterday. Before we parted ways he informed me that he will be setting up the official corporate interview shortly--I'm looking forward to it.

More job stuff

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 21:05:50 GMT

Well I received a call from Koch Industries today regarding potential employment. If you roll in the interview requests issued by ministries over the past week and a half, this totals some 5-7 opportunities simultaneously after five months of nothing. When it rains, it pours.

When children and plumbing collide

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 15:52:49 GMT

We had an interesting Wednesday evening to say the least. I was already pretty under the weather with whatever-crud-is-floating-around-the-house-this-week, and I came home to a daughter just emerging from discipline and a baby that needed feeding. So Michaelah (hereafter MJ) heads to the bathroom to take care of "business" before supper. This is good--no mid-meal interruptions. However, as I sit feeding Joshua I can hear that the toilet tank is still filling quite a while after she has flushed. I ask MJ to go jiggle the toilet handle to get the tank valve to seat properly. This is where things start going downhill in earnest.

She proceeds to tell me that there is water all over the floor. "Of course there is," I think to myself, and my thoughts immediately leap to the more serious consequences of that announcement, which would also prove to be true--but more on that in a bit. Colleen, hearing MJ's announcement regarding the state of the bathroom, leaps (I assume she leaped, I was still feeding Joshua) into action and goes to shut off the toilet valve and to put down towels. Unhappily, I still hear the sound of my previously anticipated "more serious consequences" after Colleen has shut off the water to the toilet. Those consequences were like unto the sound of many waters. So while still feeding Joshua, I make the trip downstairs to see what my worst fears actually look like. As it turns out, they look much like several fairly substantial waterfalls coming out of the basement ceiling. You see, all of our upstairs vents are in the floor, which pretty much guarantees that they will serve as conduits for any liquid that happens to be spilled near them. But of course, they are not designed to be watertight so they tend to release the water onto whatever is below them at a fairly prodigious rate. I'm convinced most people designing homes for our price range are childless.

All I can do at this point is assess the damage, let the water drain, and then proceed to clean it up while MJ conveniently skips off to AWANA (after profusely apologizing several times). Thanks be to God, all of the water ran into our unfinished storage area and not in ways that harmed anything like my wife's wedding dress, which is stored there.

Upon further interrogation we learned that MJ had used toilet paper in an amount approximating the size of a grapefruit to wipe after going potty. That's right--potty. A couple of drops of moisture. We have since had the conversation on the reasonable amount of toilet paper to use and the explicit pronouncement by yours truly that any future incidents of this nature would not be treated as accidental but as sabotage of the family manse.

I expect her to remember that for about a week.

Update on the J-O-B

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 22:35:35 GMT

Just got out of my first interview with a local engineering firm. The interactions were positive, the work looks rewarding, and I'm probably going to see how far I can go down this road. The next step is a more extensive set of interviews, provided the group of people I met with today thinks this is worth pursuing further. Thanks for your prayers!