In the words of Mark Twain, “reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.”  Perhaps not all that greatly exaggerated, however.  I’ve been sick as a dog for the last two weeks, but thank God that I’m feeling a lot better now.  Let the blogging commence again!

As I mentioned, my friend Tony from Indy and I were blessed with tickets to Letterman last Thursday and we both agreed that an experience like that had to be blogged about.  In keeping with the spirit of the Late Show, we each decided to roll out our “Top Ten” list.  Here we go:

Top Ten Things I Learned From Letterman:

10. If we’re ever going to be taken seriously, Iron City is going to have to invest in letter jackets.  Lots of them.  All of Dave’s flunkies wear ‘em.

9. Instead of just inviting people to church at 10 AM, we need to have them get in line around 7 or so and get their tickets, then return by 9:30 for #8.

8. Coaching.  And lots of it.  There’s nothing like a team of 18-25 year olds explaining how you can respond (nothing high pitched) and when you can laugh (ALL THE TIME).  We need this if anyone is ever going to start “getting” my jokes.

7. We need to replace the ushers at ICC with “smile monitors” to walk around before and during the service to make sure everyone looks like they’re having a good time.

6. I need a mug girl (to bring out a drink during every commercial break).  Paul has one.  Dave has one.  Tommy needs one.

5. Speaking of commercial breaks, we need those too.  What pastor couldn’t use a couple of minutes mid-sermon for a re-write or two?

4. We need to scratch the welcome time and announcements.  We’re hiring a stand-up comedian to come in and warm up the crowd.

3. Tape at 5, air at 11:30.  And none of the goofs make it through.  Hmmm.  We definitely need to look into tape delay.

2. Wanna put butts in the seats?  Two words: Howard Stern

(drumroll please….)

1. It doesn’t have to be all that good if you can just get people to respond like it is!

It was actually a great experience (thanks Tony) and I had a really good time.  And with Howard Stern as the only guest that night, it was just a bonus (please note the tiny bit of sarcasm).  Anyhoo.  Another item checked off of my “wonder what that’s like” list.  I have a new found respect for the folks that put on a show like that night after night after night . . . .

I am privileged to be a part of a coaching network.  It is a group of about 15-20 pastors from all over the country and meet once a month with Nelson Searcy in a “learning community” in New York City.

So I’m sitting in the Pittsburgh Airport (thanks for the free wi-fi) getting ready to head out.  I’ll share later about my experience.  If you’re reading this soon, please pray for safe travel and that I would learn everything I can to become the leader God created me to be.

Peace out.

Isn’t it odd how in the United States we celebrate things in contradictory ways? 

Maybe I’ve just had too much time to think these last couple of weeks, but something seems a little funny to me.  We have a holiday called Memorial Day, designed to honor and remember all those who have died for our freedom and we celebrate it by (for the most part) grilling out and playing outside. 

We have a holiday called Labor Day when just about the entire country takes a day off.

And while New Year’s Day is historically supposed to represent a new start and the freshness of a clean sheet of paper for the next 12 months, most of us are busy sleeping off staying up too late watching what is possibly one of the most anticlimactic celebrations of the year. 

All that being said, January 2 is REALLY New Year’s Day for most of us; the day when we actually start getting things done.  And this morning I woke up to a fresh coat of gleaming white snow on the ground.  It just adds to my feeling of a fresh start and a clean slate to work on my end and pray towards God’s end and see what comes of it.  I’m so excited to see what God does in 2008 and I hope you are too!

My son TJ is now about 17 months old (that’s almost 1.5 years for those of you who don’t have kids) and we were so excited about this Christmas.  Amber and I held off on buying for each other to make sure we were able to get plenty for TJ — he’s still at the age where “the good stuff” is relatively inexpensive. 

So we spent hours wrapping various gifts the last couple of days and had all these grandiose plans that he’d get to open some gifts on Christmas Eve and then the special stuff would be there today.

Instead, TJ was asleep by 7:30 last night.  Not “napping” or taking a break — KNOCKED OUT!  So ix-nay on the Christmas Eve gift opening.  Then, today he did get the feel for ripping the paper off and opening stuff, but it took a while.  Not to mention, he was very much focused on one gift at a time.  All that to say this: he is again crashed and we still have gifts under the tree.

Please don’t misunderstand this as a complaint.  We’ve spent the day trying to enjoy and savor every moment, because I have a sneaking feeling that this may be the last year for a laid back, take your time kind of Christmas.  So we’ll open more presents tomorrow and just enjoy it while we can . . . . .

Here’s some photos: http://tommyduke.com/christmas/album/

I love Christmas.  I enjoy giving gifts (and receiving them in moderation).  I enjoy spending time with family and friends.  I enjoy stuffing myself with various food items and watching football on television.  I even enjoy hearing Christmas music on the radio (for the first 14 hours at least).

But more than all that stuff, I love CHRISTMAS.  I am amazed that the God of the Universe loved us so much that He sent His own Son – Jesus Christ – to take on flesh and dwell among us.  I really like how The Message Bible phrases this sentiment (John 1:14).  It tells us that Jesus (the Word, God’s Son) “became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.”  Unbelievable.

Why?  Because we were created to live in a relationship with our Creator.  He made us with the opportunity to choose good or evil and we chose evil.  That left a separation between this Holy God and the unholy us.  And no matter what we tried, how we thought we could “make up for it” or “be a good person,” we couldn’t — ever.  This is why religion itself is a failing venture.  Because there is no way we can make our way to God.  In less spiritual terms, we were screwed.  Because the price to be paid for these screw-ups (aka: sin) is death.

That’s where Christmas comes in. 

The turning point of God’s Conspiracy to save us and redeem us is that He sent Jesus.  Not to be born into a wealthy family with a silver spoon up his in his mouth.  Not to rise up to political power or special religious office.  But to be born to a common, hard-working, real family. 
And to live a sinless life. 
And most importantly to die in our place.  To pay the price for all of our sin. 
And not only that, but being fully God, Jesus defeated the one thing that takes out all of the rest of us: death itself. 
He rose again three days later a victorious champion.
Through the finished work of Jesus, God made a way for us to Himself.

And He offers that payment to us for nothing more than to receive it.  What a deal!  In return for cashing in our screwed up lives, He gives us a new one.  Complete with a relationship with God now and forever.  Eternity.

Yeah, we celebrate all of this again at Easter, but it’s Christmas that made Easter possible.  It’s only because of Jesus’ birth, that we can celebrate His death.  It’s only because of Jesus’ death that we can celebrate His resurrection.  And it’s only His resurrection that gives us Hope.  For today.  For tomorrow.  And for eternity.

And that’s why I love Christmas!

We have had some snow in the last couple of weeks, but today’s high was 61 and it’s been raining all day – go figure!

If I’m honest, the weather around here is a little bit like my attitude sometimes.  Am I the only one that feels that way?  One day it’s sunny and beautiful, I’m feeling confident and solid in who I am and the promises I have in Christ.  Then the winds blow a little bit and next thing you know I feel like the dark clouds have rolled in and there’s no end in sight. 

Has God changed? 
Is there any less of His power available to me?
The answer, of course, is a resounding NO!

Sometimes we all need a reminder of the life-changing power and love of Jesus and the fact that it’s always available.  whether you feel like it or not.

This is especially true in starting Iron City Church.  Church planting is not an easy, overnight process.  God is working on me in a big way lately in this very area: He’s teaching me that the ups and downs of the little day to day wins and losses can’t be my “barometer” as to what’s happening in the grand scheme of things. 

The great thing is that “transforming the Pittsburgh metro area with the love of Jesus” has been part of God’s mission WAAAAY longer than it has been mine!  And now that He’s given me the chance to be a part of it, I plan to guide this ship that He’s building through all sorts of storms and sunny days . . .

Thank you God for the gift of PERSPECTIVE

I had the distinct pleasure of visiting the doctor’s office again today (for the second time in two weeks) for a sinus infection and some sort of an “eye thing.”  He started me out on an antibiotic for each issue last week and neither seemed to make much of a difference, so today he amped things up a little.  I had sinus surgery about a year and a half ago and have lived a pretty blessed life, health-wise, since then.  Until now, that is.  Praying that God will go ahead and knock this out…

Since we live on a street with no sidewalks, we decided to take up the offer of our friends Doug and Amy Daw to drive out to their neighborhood and join them for some trick or treating last night.  TJ gladly wore his monkey suit (literally) all night and was a trooper. 

He got to ride on my shoulders most of the night - again I was reminded of the joyful hilly terrain of southwestern PA as I climbed the flight of stairs up to a bunch of front doors.  No gym time for me this morning because I did my stairclimber training last night with the monkey on my back.  By the end of the night TJ was leaning off my head to make his own selection from people’s candy bowls.

I’ll post photos whenever I can track down our camera….

There’s a line in Evan Almighty when Morgan Freeman says something like, “when you pray for patience, do you think God will give you patience or give you the opportunity to be patient; when you pray for courage, do you think God gives you courage or the opportunity to be courageous?” 

I try to limit the theology that I glean from movies, but this is something that’s proven true in my life.  Every time I pray for some quality/trait/characteristic (and a lot of times when I don’t), it seems that God places me in a situation that stretches me and requires just that thing I’ve been praying for.

Sunday I mentioned in passing while I was teaching that I shave my head because I have a good looking head and don’t mind showing it off…  About 2 minutes after the service ended and I was heading for the cafe a teenager came up to me (his first time attending) and said, “You know how you said what you did about your head? It’s really not that good-looking.  In fact, it reminds me of an egg.”  And he walked away.

Thank you God for answering another prayer for humility.  And also thank you Hank for making me self-conscious about my “egg-shaped” head every time I look in the mirror.  At least I’m more aerodynamic than all of you….