I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

- Romans 12:1 (ESV)

Romans 12:1 follows Romans chapters 1 through 11, in which Paul has systematically expounded on God's great mercies toward us. Paul's audience, which included converted Roman pagans, no doubt caught his stunning reversal of the concept of sacrifice when compared to the millennia-long practice of sacrifice that they knew well.

For a pagan (and, sadly, for many of us that call ourselves Christians), sacrifice is something we do to gain the favor of the gods. Love and mercy are foreign concepts to normal modes of sacrifice. Sacrifice to a pagan is a transaction, a trade. And sacrifice usually involves blood and death.

But by the mercies of God, this is not the sacrifice that we are called to. Rather than spill blood in order to satiate and gain favor from the gods, we have had the Lord's favor bestowed on us through his grace alone. Dwell on his mercy, gain a small understanding of his overwhelming love, and we find ourselves bowed before him in worship, awed by his great gifts to us.

And it is in this desire to worship, which goes so far beyond (and often has nothing to do with) singing to him, that Paul urges us to the beautiful righting of an upside down pagan vision: not a dead sacrifice caked with blood and flames, but rather a living sacrifice. joyfully and freely given to the Lord who has no need for anything, and who indeed has already given his all to us.

It's the moment by moment sacrifice of a life fully yielded; a beautiful work of art offered to the master Craftsman who made it.

Holy and acceptable.

That's worship.

The USA Soccer team beats #1 Spain 2-0.

"The idea I meant to develop was that God seems to favor using swords for plowshares, and plowshares for swords, and shepherds' slings for artillery, and cowards for heroes."

- from Lars Walker's excellent novel, Wolf Time

The President (finally) sends a message of support for the beleaguered citizens of Iran to their brutal government. It took a while, but I'm glad he has come out with this:

The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.

As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

Martin Luther King once said - "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness.

Molly turned eighteen today.

Bethany turns sixteen in less than two months.

Andrew turns twenty a month after that.

Blake is going into Middle school this fall.

[Bill checks to see if there are any good deals on time machines on eBay]

"The soul is healed by being with children . . ."

- Prince Myshkin, from Dostoevsky's The Idiot

As my kids could probably tell you, I've been somewhat conflicted for the last few years about music in general and modern evangelical church worship in particular. This comes on the heels of seven very challenging and extremely fulfilling years working with student worship bands. I'll never lose those memories. In hindsight (and every other kind of sight) I still look back on those years as wonderful and, for the most part, right where God wanted me. But that doesn't mean that I have little, niggling doubts about some of the things I took part in back then, and the worship culture I experienced.

I can't articulate them very well. But the iMonk does, here. Good read.

I'm still not on Twitter.

That is all . . .

This past Saturday, my eldest daughter graduated from high school (Summa Cum Laude!). It was a great weekend of celebration all around for our family.

Saturday night, following the graduation and our excellent El Gallo meal at home, Molly and Andrew put on a short, impromptu concert for the family and extended family, with Molly singing Grace Upon Grace by Sandra McCracken and Faith My Eyes by Caedmon's Call, accompanied by Andrew on guitar and harmonies. They sound so good together (I hope to get them to record Grace Upon Grace so I can post it). This was followed by an unplanned, unscripted time of blessing and encouragement as a family. Toward the end, Bethany, our younger daughter, stood up and spoke a sweet, tearful tribute to her older sister. Bethany just finished her sophomore year and is turning into a mature young woman so fast. I'm so proud of her and I had so much fun waltzing with her earlier in the night (to a High School Musical song. I'm a fan).

Someone asked me if I had any words to say. I did, of course, but the main thing I remember saying was that I've never been happier. I'm so blessed and privileged to be married to Jill and dad to Andrew, Molly, Bethany, and Blake.

Some pictures.



The Graduate. She got to wear all this extra stuff (National Honor Society cowl, Summa Cum Laude and French Honor Society ropes) - well deserved. Molly really worked hard in school.



Molly, with Andrew and Blake. Blake's not smiling for some reason . . .




. . . so he obviously needed a hug. My nephew Sawyer is also in the pic, to the left.




Better!




I love this pic of Molly and Bethany. My niece Macy is also in the picture, to the right.

I don't have any pictures of it (not that we didn't take any, I just don't have them uploaded) but the next day Molly also played piano for about fifty people for her Senior Recital. It was awesome.

Great weekend!

I smashed one of the front window panes tonight playing basketball with Blake. I was chasing a ball and took one dorky step too many and kicked the ball right into the pane (they are small panes, thankfully, of a multi-pane window).

I'm thinking of the dozens of glass panes that have broken in our front windows over the years. Broken by basketballs, baseballs, soccer balls. And the dents in our garage door, made by same. And our front gutters, which are beat up as well from high rebounds.

They represent many years of pickup basketball between me and my kids. Years of throwing the baseball. Years of soccer practice out front. Years of fun.

I'm not particularly athletic (my kids are, however - they get it from their mom). But I sure have enjoyed these years. I will take all the dents and cracks! I wouldn't trade them for anything.

I fixed the window pretty quickly tonight. I have a few extra panes in the garage, and I've gotten pretty quick at it over the years.

Andrew - I remember freaking out at you the first time one broke, many years ago. You threw a baseball through one of the panes. I'm sorry; I was a jerk. First of all, I should have caught the ball. Secondly, I didn't know at the time how easy it would be to repair. I guess it's just part of the price you paid for being the first. You didn't deserve the rant.

Blake's team, the Dallas Texans Houston Division U11 Legend, won the Albion Memorial Day Cup this weekend.

It was a great tournament. Blake had three goals and played great. Way to go Blake!

It happens with every musician, early on. There's that moment when the instrument quits being a frustrating bafflement and becomes something that works, and that can be joyfully built upon.

I'm listening to my daughter Bethany in her room, playing guitar and singing. She's reached that moment in the last few weeks, and is progressing at a really swift pace.

I love the sound.

As a follow up to my last post, Andrew got his grades today from Baylor.

4.0

Congratulations Andrew!

Our eldest has completed his first year of College. We go to pick him up tomorrow and bring him home.

Assuming all four of ours complete a four year program, we have fifteen more years to go (a number of them will be simultaneous)! It's an adventure. Praise the Lord, who provided for us to pay for this first year without debt. We're hoping to keep up that trend.

And thanks to Andrew, who was remarkably self-sufficient (he never once asked us for spending money - unless his Mom is keeping that a secret :-)

Good job on getting this first year under your belt, Andrew! Well done.

Our venerable iMac G5 (from the early production run of late 2004) blew its mind two months ago. Since then I've had a crash course in replacing iMac logic boards. I use the plural because I've been through three of them while on this 60 day technological adventure.

Our original board developed a video ram problem. I ordered a replacement from some place in Cali, and the replacement had a . . . video ram problem. I got them to ship me another one. It had bulging capacitors (a common problem with early G5 boards). It worked for awhile but kept losing its mind whenever we put it to sleep, make undue noise, or breathed on it.

After some wrangling, I received a refund after shipping the deranged board back. Then I ordered a third board from another place. I was disappointed to find that it too has a couple of bulging capacitors (a mild case), but at this point, because a) it appears to be working and doesn't lose its mind when we put it to sleep and b) beggars can't be choosers, we're going to try it for awhile.

I really only want another year out of this Mac before replacing it. Hopefully we'll get there.

It's good to have it back. I was getting really tired of using our Wind'ohs machine.

We've had a busy and good weekend. There is much I could write about, but a contented weariness steals over me (in other words, I'm beat). I'll leave you with this (we sang this in church today):

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

From Wikipedia:

The original Old Irish text, Rop tú mo Baile is often attributed to Dallan Forgaill in the 6th century. The text had been a part of Irish monastic tradition for centuries before its setting to the tune, therefor before it became an actual hymn. It was translated from Old Irish into English by Mary E. Byrne in Ériu (the journal of the School of Irish Learning) in 1905. The English text was first versified by Eleanor H. Hull in 1912 and is now the most common text used.

I was talking to my mother in law today about how many young people seem to either not take their faith seriously or just lose it entirely when they come of age. Many, not all, of course. Lots of anecdotal evidence feeds into this opinion, such as my eldest son telling me recently that he only has one friend who really prays (she's a Godsend, by the way).

My MIL's reply was very wise: "Maybe they still don't understand that they need to be saved."

So true. We live in peace and plenty, even in our current "hard times" (which are, historically speaking, still very mild).

Why accept the Lordship of a Savior when it's so easy to remain your own personal lord and your own personal savior?

Pray for our younger generation. For my entire Christian life, I've heard Christian young people declare "we can be the generation that changes the world for Christ."

It's been a long while since I've heard that sentiment. May they, and we, wake up.

Anger is a killing thing: it kills the man who angers, for each rage leaves him less than he had been before - it takes something from him.

Louis L'Amour (H/T Milly)

Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

- Proverbs 16:32

This Fox Sports commercial never gets old:



Watch my Kobe Briant no-look Confusion Makuh!