A year doesn’t seem to go by without someone in ministry or the church confessing or being caught in the sin of adultery. It is a serious problem with serious consequences. So often people get to this point slowly, compromise by compromise. Often, by the time one gets there, they are consumed by their emotions and unable or unwilling to contemplate the destructive consequences of their actions. Surely there is hope for forgiveness and recovery, but more often then not the costs are great and lasting. Years ago Randy Alcorn assembled the following list as a reminder of the consequences he would face as a Pastor if he chose the path of adultery. It is a good and sobering reminder that there is a cost for every action. Lord helps us all to stay faithful!

Personalized List of Anticipated Consequences of Immorality

• Grieving my Lord; displeasing the One whose opinion most matters.
• Dragging into the mud Christ's sacred reputation.
• Loss of reward and commendation from God.
• Having to one day look Jesus in the face at the judgment seat and give an account of why I did it. Forcing God to discipline me in various ways.
• Following in the footsteps of men I know of whose immorality forfeited their ministry and caused me to shudder. List of these names:
• Suffering of innocent people around me who would get hit by my shrapnel (a la Achan).
• Untold hurt to Nanci, my best friend and loyal wife.
• Loss of Nanci's respect and trust.
• Hurt to and loss of credibility with my beloved daughters, Karina and Angela. ("Why listen to a man who betrayed Mom and us?")
• If my blindness should continue or my family be unable to forgive, I could lose my wife and my children forever.
• Shame to my family. (The cruel comments of others who would invariably find out.)
• Shame to my church family.
• Shame and hurt to my fellow pastors and elders. List of names:
• Shame and hurt to my friends, and especially those I've led to Christ and discipled. List of names:
• Guilt awfully hard to shake—even though God would forgive me, would I forgive myself?
• Plaguing memories and flashbacks that could taint future intimacy with my wife.
• Disqualifying myself after having preached to others.
• Surrender of the things I am called to and love to do—teach and preach and write and minister to others. Forfeiting forever certain opportunities to serve God. Years of training and experience in ministry wasted for a long period of time, maybe permanently.
• Being haunted by my sin as I look in the eyes of others, and having it all dredged up again wherever I go and whatever I do.
• Undermining the hard work and prayers of others by saying to our community "this is a hypocrite—who can take seriously anything he and his church have said and done?"
• Laughter, rejoicing and blasphemous smugness by those who disrespect God and the church (2 Samuel 12:14).
• Bringing great pleasure to Satan, the Enemy of God.
• Heaping judgment and endless problems on the person I would have committed Possible diseases (pain, constant reminder to me and my wife, possible infection of Nanci, or in the case of AIDS, even causing her death, as well as mine.)
• Possible pregnancy, with its personal and financial implications.
• Loss of self-respect, discrediting my own name, and invoking shame and lifelong embarrassment upon myself.

I am presently wrapping up a residency week of studying the Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary. I’ve got to admit that the class is messing with a lot of my theological categories. We just finished having a discussion on the casting of lots that is a very prominent method used throughout the Old Testament and was even used for the selection of an apostle in the days of the early church (Acts 1:26). My conclusion is that, as long as it is used with caution, there may be circumstances in which is it appropriate to cast lots for making a decision.

Below is a video of John Piper discussing the issue of casting lots. Appropriately, he emphasizes the need for using caution.

Last weekend I had my first opportunity to use Korg’s Pandora Toneworks processor in preparation for playing my Telecaster electric guitar in weekend church services. I’ve got to say, it was the coolest thing ever. Not only does it allow you to practice through headphones with eleven different guitar effects, but it also allows you to run an eighth inch stereo input from an ipod or CD player that can be instantly transposed into another key. In church, where charts are often lowered from the key of the original recording this is a gold mine feature. Though I haven’t used the feature, you can also record a 30 second segment (say for a guitar solo) and, without changing the pitch, slow down the tempo in order to practice at a more accessible speed. Practicing guitar will never be the same! BTW: This also works for bass guitar and can be found here for around $150.

I just finished reading the book of Job this morning and was reminded how inappropriate it is, like Job's friends, to live our lives with the mindset that suffering is always a direct result of wickedness. The idea being, if you are struggling with cancer or facing bankruptcy, there must have been something you did to cause it. Certainly there are consequences for our poor actions, but when you understand the gospel you see that even our most obeident actions are incapable of reversing the judgment we deserve because of sin. The point being that God's graciousness produces everything and anything in our life that is good, it is not a result of our righteousness, or in the case of suffering, our wickedness.

This also applies to the belief that if we are good, we will be rewarded with blessings from the Lord. One need to only view a few minutes of Christian television to see this theology preached in extreme measure. To think this way is to strip the gospel of it's beauty and power. God's gift of life is His benevolent action extended to us in spite of our sin. This grace frees us from the guilt and condemnation that comes with us always trying to "measure up" to a standard we're incapable of reaching.

In this video Matt Chandler illustrates how moralism is the very reason many churched people become de-churched. Those raised in moralism either become moralists themselves or see moralism for what it is and run as far as they can from the church. Moralism is one of the greatest dangers in the church and something that must be opposed.



(HT: Desiring God)

Thanks to all of you who were able to make this years Arts Ministry BBQ out at the Boatman's. The Lord was very gracious to give us a dry cool evening when, just the day before, it appeared rain was imminent. I am so thankful for the wonderful people I have the privilege to work with day in and day out at Parkview. What a great group of people who love the Lord and love doing life and ministry together! Thanks for hosting us Doug and Jean! The following are some pics of our time together.

Thanks to Ryan Lamb in San Fransico for the pic!

A year ago this week, Parkview was under 4 feet of flood water from the Iowa River. It's hard to believe all this church and community went through over the last year. Recently I went through all the photos and was surprised how much it moved me. The feelings were not of regret or frustration, but of fondness. Fondness rooted in the memory of working side by side with such wonderful people. Though some might think the flood got the best of us when it filled our facility with over four feet of muddy river water but, in my view, the Lord used the flood to cement our trust in Him and to fordge deep and meaningful friendships. For this I am grateful.

Here is a recent article in the Press Citizen regarding our return and below are a few pics and descriptions recounting some of the events that surrounded the flood. To see a complete review of the flood, you can visit my June blog archive for more pictures and written detail.

On Sunday, June 8th we began building a sandbag wall around the church. At the time we only expected to build the wall a few feet high.



Each day the flood projections required us to increase the height of the wall, leaving it at about 4 feet tall all the way around the building. Rain gutters were re-built in order to send roof water outside the flood wall.



Walls were fortified and sump pumps were installed all along the wall in order to maintain the integrity of the flood barrier.



Eventually trucks and tractors were unable to transport sandbags due to the eroding driving path. From that point forward long lines were made to pass sandbags where ever they were needed.



Here's our access to the main entrance of the church facility.



A boat with diesel fuel was ready to keep our generators fueled that were to power the sumps once land access was no longer available.



Sand bagging operations continued in our upper parking lot for both the church and area neighborhoods.



The water kept rising.



The wall on the southeast corner of the facility was holding back water by Wednesday, June 11th.



Sandbagging operations kept shifting further north as the waters rose.





On Thursday the 12th, we were ordered by the city to evacuate. At the time we were told flood waters were now projected to reach to the eaves of the building.



Most of the facility was evacuated in these crates that were hauled by lifts across the floodwaters into numerous semi trailers.



Services were relocated to West High.



Within a day the entire facility was flooded.



A few of us were joined by CNN (the guy with the camera) as we toured the flooded facility.



Here's the window in the main office.









On Sunday, June 22 the waters fully receded and we were given access to the facility to begin the process of clean-out.







On December 14th, we had our first services back at Parkview after almost 6 months of facility renovation.

From my reading from Leviticus for my OT survey course...

If a man's hair falls out from his head, he is bald; he is clean. And if a man's hair falls out from his forehead, he has baldness of the forehead; he is clean. Leviticus 13:40-41

Great reassurance for follicly challenged men everywhere.

This post is a bit out of the ordinary for my blog, but I could not help but brag on my sister who is a veterinarian in Kearney, Nebraska. She was recently trained in a cutting edge ACL repair procedure that involves rebuilding the structure of the leg in order to change the physics of how it functions. Outside of Omaha, she is the only vet performing this procedure which allows young larger sized dogs a quality of life previously unavailable. Here is an article featuring her work in their local newspaper and below is an x-ray of her first completed procedure. If you are looking for a good vet in central Nebraska, I've got a recommendation for you.