reason #49.

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

So, why did He suffer and die?

Reason #49 … so that He would be crowned with glory and honor:
(The following is from John Piper's The Passion of Jesus Christ )

“But we see...Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.” (Hebrews 2:9)

“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every other name.” (Philippians 2:7-9)

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:12)

“The night before he died, knowing what was coming, Jesus prayed, ‘Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed’ (John 17:5). And so it came to pass: He was ‘crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death’ (Hebrews 2:9). His glory was the reward of his suffering. He was ‘obedient to the point of death…. Therefore God has highly exalted him’ (Philippians 2:8-9). Precisely because he was slain, the Lamb is ‘worthy… to receive… honor and glory’ (Revelation 5:12). The passion of Jesus Christ did not merely precede the crown; it was the price, and the crown was the prize. He died to have it. “Many people stumble at this point. They say, ‘How can this be loving? How can Jesus be motivated to give us joy if he is motivated to get his glory? Since when is vanity a virtue?’ That is a good question, and it has a wonderful biblical answer.

“The answer lies in learning what great love really is. Most of us have grown up thinking that being loved means being made much of. Our whole world seems to be built on this assumption. If I love you, I make much of you. I help you feel good about yourself. It is as though a sight of the self is the secret of joy.

“But we know better. Even before we come to the Bible, we know this is not so. Our happiest moments have not been self-saturated moments, but self-forgetful moments. There have been times when we stood beside the Grand Canyon, or at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, or viewed a stunning sunset over the Sahara, and for a fleeting moment felt the joy of sheer wonder.

"This is what we were made for.

"Paradise will not be a hall of mirrors. It will be a display of majesty. And it won’t be ours.

“If this is true, and if Christ is the most majestic reality in the universe, then what must his love to us be? Surely not making much of us. That would not satisfy our souls. We were made for something much greater. If we are to be as happy as we can be, we must see and savor the most glorious person of all, Jesus Christ himself. This means that to love us, Jesus must seek the fullness of his glory and offer it to us for our enjoyment. That is why he prayed, the night before he died, ‘Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory’ (John 17:24). That was love.

"‘I will show them my glory.’ When Jesus died to regain the fullness of his glory, he died for our joy. Love is the labor – whatever the cost of helping people be enthralled with what will satisfy them most, namely, Jesus Christ. That is how Jesus loves.”

see ya, '09

"What mighty praise, O God, belongs to You.... You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance." (Psalm 65:1,11)

Happy New Year!

and He will be called... Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

"My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot,
like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about His appearance,
nothing to attract us to Him.
He was despised and rejected—
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.
Yet it was our weaknesses He carried;
it was our sorrows that weighed Him down.
And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for His own sins!
But He was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all.
He was oppressed and treated harshly,
yet He never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
He did not open His mouth.
Unjustly condemned, He was led away.
No one cared that He died without descendants,
that His life was cut short in midstream.
But He was struck down for the rebellion of my people.
He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone.
But He was buried like a criminal;
He was put in a rich man’s grave.
But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush Him and cause Him grief.
Yet when His life is made an offering for sin, He will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When He sees all that is accomplished by His anguish, He will be satisfied.
And because of His experience,
my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for He will bear all their sins.
I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
because He exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels."
(Isaiah 53)


"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a SAVIOR has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.' Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

'Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth PEACE
to men on whom his favor rests.'"

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

happy thanksgiving!

"Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen."

- Revelation 7:12

pin split (part two)

When I was three, I prayed every night for a sister. When I was three and a half, my twin brothers were born.

Fifteen years later, I've never been so thankful that a prayer wasn't answered the way I originally wanted.

Words could not even BEGIN to express how much I love you two. You are the most amazing young men I know, and I am so ridiculously proud of both of you. And now, because you're sitting right next to me as I write this, I'm going to stop my message here and... attack!

Happy birthday, my pins!

pin split (part one)

My baby brothers turn fifteen on Sunday.

FIFTEEN.

They already have plans to pick up their permits and take over the Houston freeways as soon as the calendar flips to October 11. But this should be no big deal: they've been driving for years.

Because they're twins (or pins, as they corrected everyone who made this common mistake twelve years ago), they celebrate on different days. Because they're twins, the baby pictures must be brought out on separate posts.

But I don't mind. I kind of like these two.

taxed enough already

My family crashed the Dallas Tea Party over the weekend. Among those sweatin' it out were some of the funniest, friendliest people I've ever met. They posed ("Should I look outraged?") for my pictures:

let freedom ring

"I have a confession to make. I am truly, madly, deeply in love with America." This morning, the guys at Lone Star Times posted a brilliant blog worth reading. You can go straight to the link here.

Happy Independence Day, y'all!

"All things are lawful for me, but I will not be enslaved by anything."

- 1 Cor. 6:12