The great Northwest

I'm a firm believer that you need to make the most of every day and every situation. For as long as we're here in Washington, we are trying to do that. We took some great photos of all the crazy snow we had here and now I've got these great pics from the hike we took a few weeks ago with my sister. I'm still not quite sure where we were, somewhere about an hour out of Bremerton, past Seabeck along the Hood Canal? Regardless, it was Washington at it's finest, sunny, clear and near the water and mountains.

Bishop of what?

Now that all the excitement has (somewhat) calmed down from the inauguration, it's interesting to see just how "tolerant" Obama was with his invites for those who prayed and spoke at the big event. Diversity seemed to be the key word on Tuesday. As with most politicians, Obama did his best to please everyone (always a mistake) by inviting opposing clergy such as Rick Warren and Bishop V Gene Robinson. I find it interesting in the debates of gays vs. not gays just how intolerant and angry most gays are with those who are not gay and don't openly accept and condone that lifestyle.

Rick Warren applauded the President-elect this week for inviting the openly gay Episcopal Bishop V Gene Robinson to pray at the inaugural opening ceremony. “President-elect Obama has again demonstrated his genuine commitment to bringing all Americans of goodwill together in search of common ground,” Warren said in a statement. “I applaud his desire to be the president of every citizen.”

Yet Robinson gave what seems to be a typical response to Warren's invitation to pray at the inaugural event: Robinson was among the critics, calling the Warren invitation a “slap in the face”, according to The Washington Post. If those who are gay are all about "tolerance" and "diversity" why can't their response be a little more positive when someone who doesn't share their view is asked to pray or speak?

Yet to me, as a pastor myself, this is where the Bishop Robinson issue gets weird. In preparation for the event, the bishop said he has read inaugural prayers throughout history and was “horrified” at how “specifically and aggressively Christian they were”, according to the New York Times. For his prayer, Robinson said he is “very clear” that it “will not be a Christian prayer, and I won’t be quoting Scriptures or anything like that”. “The texts that I hold as sacred are not sacred texts for all Americans, and I want all people to feel that this is their prayer,” he said.
Robinson said he might make the prayer out to “the God of our many understandings”.

I'm thinking at this point that he may want to opt out of the Christian faith. Maybe he needs to be Bishop of his own religion. It's like he sort of wants to still be affiliated with Christianity by being an Episcopal Bishop, yet doesn't want to do anything crazy like say a Christian prayer at the inauguration. Brother, pick a side. And we wonder why so many non-Christians want nothing to do with our faith. I can't blame them for being confused.

And kudos to Rick Warren for accepting the invitation to pray and doing such a good job on Tuesday.

This Washington weather is kinda crazy! These last few days we've been teased by the sun. I left the house this morning with my boys in the midst of thick fog and arrived home at 5pm in even thicker fog.

However, the reason we left the house this morning was to go on a hike with my sister Cindy, her husband Dave, my niece Stephanie and their dog Rascal. We hiked somewhere up near Hood Canal. Once we got there the sun was actually out and we had a blast. Not only that we hiked to a beach! A Washington beach, but a beach none the less. The whole hike/experience was absolutely beautiful. These sunny days really show off Washington's beauty.

I took a bunch of great photos on my sisters camera so once she emails the pics to me, I'll post some here. We are enjoying our time with family here and soaking in every opportunity we can. Even though our time here in Wa. will be shorter then I had originally planned on, we're doing our best to enjoy the extreme weather change from San Diego.

A night away

Thanks to the generosity of my parents, and sister, Kelley and I got a night away to celebrate our 21st anniversary. I'm so blessed to have such a great wife like Kelley. She is the love of my life and fantastic mother to our 5 wonderful children. I am a man blessed beyond measure and am daily grateful for God's goodness in my life. Here's a few pics of the killer room we got at less then full price 'cause the girl at the front desk was way-cool.

A different Christmas

It's actually a bit comical if you contrast these pictures with our family photo at the top. We took that picture back in October in Mission Beach in San Diego. Now here we are dealing with Northwest weather. This is the first Christmas in a way-long time that we've had snow, that is actually lived in it. The first pictures of our house are nice snow. That was when the snow was fun. Now it's melting and pretty messy. Notice the picture with the pool toys scattered in the snow. Don't really need those here. The top right photo is our street which was tricky to navigate for awhile. The bottom photos are pics of family gatherings at Christmas. That's my immediate family, proud of 'em and a big reason we moved up here. The bottom left photo shows our 30 + gathering on Christmas day. The only photo I couldn't manage to upload is the classic family photo standing around the snowman. I managed to save that picture onto the internal card of my camera and can't find the cord yet! Any ways, just wanted to let you all see how things are going up here. Much love to you all!

Prop 8

For all you Californians out there, we all know Prop 8 passed. I consider this a victory for traditional marriage and for what God considers best in regards to sexual relationships. That all sounds neat and tidy until you talk to a person struggling with not only homosexuality, but also how they reconcile that with their Christian faith. Below is a response I received from a good friend. His response is real, heartfelt and needs to be addressed in the church. I'm having lunch with him soon and hope we can continue our friendship and the conversation on this very important topic. Please let me know how you would respond to this, thanks.

"Now that 8 has passed maybe the church can go after the real causes of the destruction of the family like divorce, adultery, child abuse & neglect etc... It is fine to be against gay marriage but the church is never happy until they single out certain sectors of society. Gays are treated like lepers and stereotyped by pastors as fruity, evil people. The hypocrisy is mind boggling. Where is the constitutional amendment to ban divorce? Homosexuals make up a very small percentage of the population and yet are blamed by the religious right for everything. When is the church going to wake up? I go to bed lonely every night. Is that the solution? Christians have decided to prioritize sin and the worst thing you can possibly be is a fag. Even gay people who are not acting upon their "condition" like me are not welcome. It just really bums me out."

Election mayhem

Even though I didn't vote for Obama, I'm posting a picture of him here because I now believe it is my job (and everyone else's who didn't vote for him) to support him, pray for him and know that God will use any president in our country. I also found this great list of things to keep in mind no matter who our president is. Enjoy.
1. God is still Father, Christ is still at His right hand, and the Holy Spirit is still abroad in the world, recreating that world according to the image of Christ. When the nations conspire against Him, He laughs at them.

2. The most important thing we can do for our nation, and for the world around us, is to gather for worship every Lord's Day. The privilege of voting in presidential elections comes to us every four years, while we are graced with the opportunity to take the Lord's Supper week to week. Right worship reforms the Church, and is therefore God's central instrument for remaking the world. For this reason, we must insist on worship that is in accordance with Scripture. Judgment begins with the household of God. Our generation is fatherless. In the power of the Spirit, in the name of the Son, we must therefore worship the Father.

3. The first and greatest command is to love God, and the second is to love our neighbor. When the question arises, as it will, as to who is our neighbor, a good policy is to always begin with the smallest, the least, the most defenseless. Never apologize for a crawl-over-broken-glass pro-life stance. Live in such a life-affirming way as to expect apologies from those who would redefine the lives of others (always the lives of others, isn't it?) into expendible insignificance.

4. Honor women. Honor your mother, your wife, and your daughters. We live in a culture that despises women, and which has engineered a vast machinery of propaganda designed to get them to surrender to it. If you don't know how to honor, on a day-to-day basis, the women in your life, then learn. Make it a priority.

5. Don't doubt in the dark what you knew in the light. The late Francis Schaeffer taught evangelical Christians to think like Christians as they engaged with unbelief in the public square. But a goodly number of his proteges, disciples, and name-appropriators have begun to "engage with the culture" in a way that looks more like going native than it looks like missionary work. Melancthons fall apart more rapidly than they used to. Get used to it, but don't you do it.

6. While pro-life work is at the very center of all mercy ministry, it should not be allowed to distract from the broader kind of mercy ministry that offers gospel help to those who have contributed to their own misery -- addicts, convicts, the uneducated and the unemployable. Such mercy ministry must be consistently tenderhearted and hardheaded. Sentimentalists are never able to give themselves away in the ongoing way that bleeding (but thinking) Christians must.

7. Learn something about economics. Please.

8. Cultivate a godly sense of proportion. My family, living in the UK, are encountering evangelical Christians who think that "lack of socialized medicine" is just as bad as abortion-on-demand, because in both cases people are dying. This is as wrong-headed as it is possible to get, even for evangelicals, and on two counts. In the first place, deliberate murder cannot be compared to well-intentioned negligence or incomptence. In the second place, to the extent that we do attack death-dealing incompetence -- as we must -- we must begin by attacking the species of incompetence that lets people die after many months on waiting lists because some people don't like accurate pricing mechanisms. Water won't run uphill just because you can arrange for three bishops to say "Trinitarian" or "incarnational" over it.

9. Count the cost. Freedom of expression is part of our Christian heritage, and one of the things we are fighting for is the right to that expression. We cannot lose the tree and keep the fruit of it. When the laws come, as they will, prohibiting (for example) condemnation of homosexual behavior, then count the cost. And the very next Sunday, start your sermon series on the sins of sodomy. The first message should provide the introduction, and allow the congregation to count the cost as well. They might want a heads up -- some of them might think it prudent to head over to a more docile church, one with a kennel-fed pastor. Whenever the state yanks on his lead, he always heels, and then waits expectantly for his treat. A much more sensitive and sensible ministry, don't you think?

10. Fight in the culture wars as those who gladly serve the triune God of heaven. We are not dogs fighting over a piece of meat, and we must never allow the surly or shrill attitudes of the self-righteous to creep into anything we do. We must be puritan cavaliers, and merry warriors. Fight like a regenerate D'Artagnan, and not like a thug with a Bible he stole from the motel, or a like prim and censorious Miss Grundy, she of the pursed lips. We are Christians, not wowswers.