Packed to the Gills
Mar 27, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Headachey //NOISE: Jesse asking Grace a lot of questions
We went to the 10ish service at Riv this morning. It was packed. Our auditorium only seats 450. We had chairs packed all the way to the edges, there were people standing along the walls and sitting on the floors. We also set up about 40 chairs in the lobby and left the doors open so people could look in. All things told, there were 635 people jammed in there. Here are some shots:
Steve did an awesome job sharing the Gospel. It wasn’t the typical easter message. One of my favorite lines was “we need to repent if we think we have to be good or moral. We need to repent and realize we need to be rescued.”
Quote of the Day
Mar 26, 2005 Quotes
//MOOD: Laughing //TIVO: Desperate Housewives
Grace: “Why are you watching Desperate Housewives?”
Me: “Because it’s the day before Easter and the only thing on is a lot of Jesus crap.”
Happy Easter from the Heikkinens.
Clean Garage
Mar 26, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Clean //TIVO: AOL Commercial
I am not a neat freak by any stretch of the imagination. But there are a few things I love. The first is an organized closet and dresser. I like my clothes to live in a neat little world where they are nicely folded and ironed and sorted by type.
The other thing I like is a clean garage. Twice a year, I clean my garage. Today was that day. I moved the shovels and sleds and other winter stuff into the rafters and pulled down the bikes. Then I completely cleaned the garage and even swept it out. It took me the entire afternoon. When I was done, I returned the cans and bottles:
364 bottles and cans. I don’t think I have returned a single one this entire winter. But apparently Kroger only allows you to return $25 worth at a time. So I have to carry around these little slips of paper until next time I go back to Kroger to get my $11.40.
But at least I have a very clean garage.
Two Pictures
Mar 26, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Winding Down //TIVO: Jesus of Nazareth
Here is a snapshot of an average night at my house:
Here is Jaden’s latest fashion statement. Apparently, socks go on the outside:
Yahoo!
Mar 25, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Yippee //NOISE: Jesse just said “Dad?”
When you do a search for “heikkinen” on Yahoo’s new Creative Commons search engine, I am the first site to pop up. Cool.
Gurus and Heroes
Mar 25, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Nice…just nice //ITUNES: “Take Me Home Tonight” – Eddie Money
I was talking with a friend today. He is the interim pastor at a church that is going through quite a period of transition. He made the most interesting comment:
“I hate two things in the church. Guru worship and Hero worship.”
He went on to explain what he meant. He says many churches look for a Guru or a Hero to lead them. The Guru follows all the cool new trends, reads all the cool new books, and spends a lot of time trying out the latest church growth fads. The Hero is the one leader that will swoop into a church and fix everything. Each becomes the focal point of the church and leads everything through a strong personality that cannot be questioned, because he knows everything.
It reminds me of what Mark Driscoll said at a conference I was at this year. He was talking about false gospels we follow. One was “a virtuous man.” When we put all our hopes and dreams on one person to be the savior of a church, we forget one thing: he is still a sinner.
Good Friday Thoughts
Mar 25, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Sneezy //ITUNES: “Yielding” – Todd Proctor
“Out, damned spot!” That is the true cry of human nature. That stain cannot be removed without blood, and that which is infinitely more, and deeper, and profounder, and more terrible than blood, of which blood is but the symbol – the suffering of Deity.
-G. Campbell Morgan
Salvation is not some felicitous state to which we can lift ourselves by our own bootstraps after the contemplation of sufficiently good examples. It is an utterly new creation into which we are brought by our death in Jesus’ death and our resurrection in his. It comes not out of our own best efforts, however well-inspired or successfully pursued, but out of the shipwreck of all human efforts whatsoever.
-Robert Farrer Capon
Bods
Mar 24, 2005 Uncategorized Hodge Podge
//MOOD: Hungry //SMELL: Chicken a la Noel
Interesting post on Brain Orme’s site. He says, in part:
The other night I caught part of an interview on Access Hollywood with Jessica Alba…Billy, the interviewer, asked Jessica about being ‘born again’. Her response was interesting…she said, “I used to be. When I was a kid, yeah.” She went on to talk about the reason that she chose not to be born-again, “Because a lot of people gave me grief for being a woman–and made me feel ashamed for having a body because it tempted men”…
The same type of rhetoric was used by Jessica Simpson’s father (a former Baptist pastor), he said that it was hard to get a Christian contract because of the way Jessica looked–Christian labels didn’t want to deal with it. I think it’s interesting–there is [some] validity in questioning the way the church views the body. How should we deal with these issues in the church? Should we ignore the body? Make people feel guilty? Or, should we somehow learn to deal with these issues regarding the body in a way that is freeing but still appropriate and modest? Is this really even an issue, today? I think it’s a needed conversation, if for no other reason than to clarify some misconceptions.
This is something I have thought about in the context of our local church situation. With such high numbers of young people coming around, and therefore a lot of trendy clothes (read: “scant clothes”), I have wondered how we should think about this.
I think Justin did a good job talking about this at the High School group at Riv last night. He talked about the need for women to take guy’s struggle with lust stuff into consideration when they make fashion choices. But he didn’t stop there, he laid equal responsibility on the guys to make sure they treat women with respect and not objectify them, no matter what they wear.
I liked John Eldredge’s perspective at a conference a few years ago. He talked about the difference between appreciating the beauty of a woman (including her attractive body) as a good thing. We are wired to notice, first of all. If we didn’t notice a woman’s beauty, we may never procreate… Secondly, they are created in God’s image, and that includes all of them. In balance, though, when we cross the line from appreciation to “lust in our heart,” we have gone too far. It is an incredibly hard line to walk, but we could easily fall off either side of this razor’s edge.
