Welcome Elsie Rose!!!

A while back my Uncle Johnny started blogging about how his new granddaughter, Khloe, has changed his life. Inspired some by that and some just by the overwhelming feelings of being blessed far beyond what I deserve, I thought I would get some of my thoughts/memories of the weekend of the birth of my daughter down here on e-paper...

1. Human life is incredibly precious. The love Carrie and I immediately felt for that little girl was and is amazing. What an amazing thing to watch your daughter enter in to the world, who is created by and in the image of the creator. She (and every other human being) has amazing value because of that. What a gift!


2. My wife is even more incredible than I knew before. I knew she was a strong woman, but she went through incredibly intense and fast labor without any narcotics or an epidural. It killed me to watch her in so much pain, but she never gave up and the reward for us was so great. Thank you Lord for giving me a strong woman who loves you and so admirably and honorably brought my child in to this world!

3. Carrie and I have incredible families. I know a lot of couples who dread spending time with family. The only thing they dread more than spending time with family, is having both sides of the family around each other at the same time. This could not be farther from the truth for Carrie and I. Our families were so supportive of us and so considerate of each other, consistently putting the other family before themselves. This helped make this time even more special for Carrie and I and we are so thankful that all four new grandparents (and one very proud new aunt) were able to spend that time with us. God blessed us with amazing, godly families.

4. My sister-in-law should become a videographer. She caught every precious moment from that time on video. Her instincts were amazing, and I pray that God grows me and gives me a heart to serve other people in such an innate way in the same way Jessica does. Thank you for that and the other countless things you did to help my wife during your time here. It did not go unnoticed!

5. God brings amazing good out of amazing hardship. I can't imagine being in as much pain as Carrie was in in those hours leading up to Elsie's birth. It had me fighting the tears back to see someone I love so much hurt so much. Then, all of a sudden, the tears changed from pain to joy when Elsie joined us. In the same way, the God-Man, Jesus Christ humbled himself in coming to earth, living a perfect life while under the same temptations we go through and then died the death that we deserved to die and bore the wrath of his Father for sins he didn't commit. It was the most horrible moment of injustice in human history. "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God," John 1:12. Through the most incredible injustice, God brought the most incredible grace for those who repent of their sins and worship Jesus as God., and it took something that great to save a sinner like me (or any of the rest of us). I got to see a small glimpse of God bringing good out of pain through the birth of my daughter. A moment I will never forget.

In Remembrance of Grandpa Boboth

This past Monday my grandpa passed away at the Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle. This week has been such a living example of the Lord's grace to us through trials. Sunday Carrie and I were on our way to see her family when we got the news that grandpa had flat-lined earlier that morning, but they were able to revive him and he seemed steady at the time. At this point I didn't even think about stopping and seeing him on our way to Port Townsend because it seemed like he was doing okay after the scare. Then I got a next from my brother saying that he and his wife were going to head up to Seattle to see grandpa. At this point Carrie and I agreed that we would stop and see him as well. We got to see him and a lot of the family for a couple hours that night which was hard, but a huge blessing. The next morning around 7:30, the Lord called my grandpa home to be with Him. I was so at peace amidst the sorrow because I had gotten to see him the night before. The Lord knew that I needed at extra text message from my brother to decide to go visit grandpa. He was so gracious in giving Carrie and I those last few precious minutes to spend with him.

Now, to the man himself. By buddy Aaron Halvorsen has a blog series entitled "The Manliest Men Who Ever Manned". I don't plan on doing a lot more of these but I do think that my grandpa fits into that category. I just want to talk about a couple of the attributes I admired most about him. One is his work ethic. As I'm sitting here thinking, I can't come up with a better example of what biblical work looks like than my grandpa. Work actually existed in the Garden of Eden as the Lord gave Adam the job to work and keep the land (Genesis 2:15). Lots of people are hard workers, but grandpa always went above and beyond. He did it joyfully. He did it because he loved the people he was serving. It was always one of the ways he told you he loved you. He also did it quietly and humbly. In fact, I didn't even realize how hard it did work, in many ways, until my reflections on him this past week. That's how quietly the man served.

Another thing I greatly respect about my grandpa is his love and devotion to his family. As my Uncle John said at the service yesterday, he was our family's "pillar". He was the father to seven kids and the loyal wife to my grandmother for 50 years before her passing ten years ago. Grandpa was never wealthy monetarily, but he knew that he was abundantly wealthy in the blessing of the family that the Lord had provided for him. He loved family get-togethers! He'd always have a huge smile on his face as he would cook some meal that no one could ever seem to quite duplicate no matter how hard they tried.

That leads me to the third thing I loved about my grandpa: his cooking. You never left starving after a meal at grandpa's house. Grandpa wasn't necessarily a man of many words, and his cooking was one of the major ways that he showed the people he loved, that he loved him. From the elk spaghetti to the Czech version of pigs-in-a-blanket. grandpa was always providing you a meal in which you couldn't wait to take the next bite (or get seconds if your plate was empty). I can't wait to take part in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19) with a multitude of believers, including my grandpa.

Lastly, and most importantly, the thing I respect the most about my grandpa is his love for Jesus. The Lord opened my grandpa's eyes to the truth of the gospel about 30 years ago at an Easter sunrise service at my aunt and uncle's house. I'm only 25 so I didn't know the "before Jesus" version of grandpa, but I sure did get the fruits of sanctification in his life. Grandpa was a faithful member of Lower Valley Christian Fellowship, where my family attends. He followed the example set by his Savior by serving others before himself, and he did it with a smile on his face. My grandpa, like all of us, was a sinner. All these good things I've mentioned didn't get grandpa even close to the level of holiness required to be in God's presence. But, praise God! He sent his son, Jesus - the perfect God-man, and had him take on the wrath of the Father on the cross that sinners like grandpa and I, deserved to bear. By God's grace, grandpa understood that and gave his life over to his Savior!

"Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:55-58

My grandpa's labor was not in vain! He is in the presence of his Savior! We will miss you grandpa!

Boring Bible Passages

That's a pretty horrible blog title, huh. Seriously though, there are many parts of scripture that are incredibly tedious to get through. Passages containing lists, genealogies, or census information don't tend to get me jumping up and down screaming "Hallelujah!" at the top of my lungs. Are you ever tempted to just skip over those passages? I am. It wasn't until a while back when I gained a new appreciation for these sleep inducing passages. There is obviously a reason why these passages are in the Bible, and here is one reason why I believe that they are. Listing genealogies and census information really does a lot for the historical credibility of the text. Take for instance Nehemiah 7:68-69, "Their horses were 736, their mules 245, their camels 435, and their donkeys 6,720." This passage would not be there if the author was just making up stories of which so many people think the Bible is composed. This shows a meticulous attention to detail. The human authors of scripture took their writings very seriously. Add that to the fact that 40 authors composed 66 books over thousands of years that remarkably tell one amazing story of a righteous God and the redemption of his people, who in no way deserve it. The one true God is the only one who could be behind such a feat. So next time you read the word "begat" 800 times in one chapter, remember this blog post and give thanks to our amazing Savior for the accuracy of His holy book. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work."

Tiger Woods and Athlete Apologies

I just got done breezing through Ted Kluck's The Reason for Sports, which was a fun, lighthearted take on sports in light of the gospel. There was a chapter in there on athletes and their (usually non-sincere) apologies when they make mistakes. He talks about how so often they shift the blame or they try to make it sound like they are victims of circumstance who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. The days of being a man and taking responsibility for your actions seem to be long gone in the sports arena. Because of this book, it was with great interest that I came home to read Tiger Woods' apology for the recent fiasco that he got himself into. Woods drove his car into a tree and a fire hydrant near his residence a few days ago in the early hours of the morning, which seemed odd enough on its own, but then rumors started spreading that Woods had been having an affair on his wife. The world's best golfer, and arguably best athlete, is under scrutiny like he has never experienced in the past. While I have always awed at Woods golf game, I have been less then impressed with his attitude. He is constantly caught swearing on camera, throwing clubs, and acting like a five your old throwing a temper tantrum. Because of all this, I didn't have high hopes for a seemingly genuine apology from Woods, but I was actually really impressed with his statement released on his website tigerwoods.com, earlier today. Words that I can't EVER remember hearing an athlete use to describe his/her actions were used by Woods. Words such as "transgression" and "sin". SIN!!! I don't think Tiger Woods is a follower of Jesus Christ, but I have no doubt that the Lord is working mightily in his life right now as he is being humbled in a way that he likely never has been before. Thank you Tiger, for being enough of a man to use accurate words to describe your actions. (I love how I just wrote that to Tiger, like he reads my blog).

The Gift of Reading Books

Since I was pretty young, I've never been much of a reader. I remember figuring out early on that it wasn't cool to be the nerd so I spent years trying to cover up my inner nerd. Well the nerd is back and better than ever! It has been a slow process over f the last couple of years, but the Lord has really grown in the area of how I manage my time on a day to day basis. This is by no means to say that I don't struggle with wasting time, just that I am seeing growth in this area. Reading Christian books has become exhilarating to me and I am beginning to learn a lot from them. I still have a long way to go, but I want to thank the Lord for this desire because I know that it is nothing that is of me. I also pray that this knowledge will make it's way to my heart and lead to a life more wholly devoted to serving the Savior.

The Consequences of Gospel Amnesia

Last Sunday, my pastor Mike Hanafee did a sermon entitled Gospel Centrality on how important the Gospel is for everyone from the unbeliever to the mature believer. Click on the title of the sermon to go to where you can listen to or download it. Our discussion in small group last night was on the same topic and it just culminated for me in reading chapter 10 of The Reason for God by Tim Keller. Instead of butchering something that so accurately portrays the importance of the Gospel (The good news of the person and work of Jesus Christ) I am going to quote a couple paragraphs from this chapter. In this quote, Keller is paraphrasing the argument made by Jonathan Edwards in his book The Nature of True Virtue.

If our highest goal in life is the good of our family, then, says Edwards, we will tend to care less for other families. If our highest goal is the good of our nation, tribe, or race, then we will tend to be racist or nationalistic. If our ultimate goal in life is our own individual happiness, then we will put our own economic and power interests ahead of those of others. Edwards concludes that only if God is our 'summum bonum', our ultimate good and life center, will we find our heart drawn out not only to people of all families, races, and classes, but the whole world in general.

How does this destruction of social relationships flow from the internal effects of sin? If we get our very identity, our sense of worth, from our political position, then politics is not really about politics, it is about us. Through our cause we are getting a self, our worth. This means we must despise and demonize the opposition. If we get our identity from our ethnicity or socioeconomic status, then we have to feel superior to those of other classes and races. If you are profoundly proud of being an open-minded, tolerant soul, you will be extremely indignant toward people you think are bigots. If you are a very moral person, you will feel very superior to people you think are licentious... There are no ways out of this conundrum.


This is really easy to say, and much harder to do. However, I think a good chunk of American Christianity has just assumed that the Gospel is known and understood and as a result, it has become a misunderstood afterthought for many believers, who make other things their ultimate. These things are often good things, but not the ultimate thing. I'll end by quoting the apostle Paul from chapter 15 in his first letter to the Corinthians:

For I delivered to you of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures... 1 Cor. 15:3-4 ESV

Let us keep the good news of Jesus Christ where it deserves to be as a priority in our lives: first importance!

First Half of "The Reason For God"

 

Click here to find Tim Keller's "The Reason for God" on Amazon.com

I'm half way through Tim Keller's defense for the existence of God, specifically the trinitarian God of the Bible. The book is split into two parts. The first half rebuttals a lot of the common complaints about God/Christianity and reasons why He/it isn't correct. The second half goes on the offensive and argues for Christianity and the God of the Bible, now that the main rebuttals of our post-modern culture have been addressed. I don't want to get into any of the specific arguments, but I do want to talk about a couple of the big points that I got from the first half of the book.

The first point is that Christianity's stigma for being intolerant while liberal/secular viewpoints are tolerant of all, is bogus. I don't think you have to believe in God to see this, just use logic. Both sides tolerate certain things and don't tolerate others. Keller uses the example of a homosexual who is going to his gay/lesbian activist meeting. If that person gets saved and professes Christ and turns from homosexuality, it won't be long before he is asked to leave the group of activists. In the same way, if a pastor of a conservative, evangelical church is caught having a homosexual affair, he will more than likely be asked to step down from his post. Just because evangelicals hold a different viewpoint from the liberal secularists on a issue doesn't mean that Christians are intolerant and liberals are tolerant. They are just tolerant and intolerant of different things and often opposing things.

The second point that came up several times is that believing in ANYTHING takes a certain amount of faith. It takes a certain amount of faith to plan my day tomorrow since I am not positive if I will even be alive tomorrow. I takes a certain amount of faith to believe that the sun will come up tomorrow because even though we have a history of data to let us believe it will, there is still always that chance that it won't. Now, these are obviously extreme examples since as a young healthy adult, I will more then likely be in perfect health tomorrow and I will likely wake up due to the fact that the sun is beginning to rise. However, many people seem to want to hold the Bible to a standard that we don't hold anything else to, and then use that inconsistent standard to "prove" that the Bible is not the inerrant word of God. There is a ton of historical evidence for the truthfulness of the Bible, specifically surrounding its central figure, Jesus Christ. I don't want to get into all the nitty-gritty of those arguments here, but if you have any specific questions that have been holding you up then post a comment and I'll do my best to answer it. Anyway, all that to say that just because it takes a certain amount of faith to believe that Jesus Christ is God, that he lived a perfect life, bore the wrath of God for sinners in their stead, was literally resurrected back to life and ascended to heaven to be with the Father, doesn't mean that it isn't true.

I want to end with something Keller didn't talk about in this book, but that he did talk about in his sermon entitled "Who is This Jesus?". Before anyone should go dismissing Christianity as a bunch of wives tales, they should take a serious look at how huge the magnitude of the claim that Christ makes is. He clearly claims to be God in the Bible from passages like John 8:58 (...before Abraham was, I Am) among many others. He claims that no one gets to heaven except through faith in Him and following Him (John 14:6). These claims are outrageous. Not only that, his closest followers all were EXECUTED for refusing to speak against Him. Either Jesus, his disciples, and millions of people from vastly differing cultures throughout the last 2,000 years are all completely crazy, or there is something to the claims or Christ. It's not a claim that can or should be taken lightly by anyone.