The Friday Update - Seven Words

Happy Friday,

Sin is not a mistake, an oversight, a slip-up or a flaw. It’s a stupid, selfish and self-destructive act of ungrateful defiance. Cancer is more beautiful. Were we holy and sane, we’d see this spiritual smallpox for what it is. But we are not, and so we don’t think it’s all that bad. And we also sin. John calls us to greater holiness. But had he stopped there, those alert to what was in their own heart would sink in despair. And so he says more — he reminds us that Jesus is not just our Savior and Lord; He's also our friend and advocate. He's not just the standard we're called to meet; He's the solution to the problems we create.

IS2M (It Seems 2 Me)

1) E-bikes have made bike paths far less safe (especially for runners).

2) “Experts say” is just a lazy writer’s attempt to borrow authority from science and shame their readers into adopting their opinions.

3) The Enneagram doesn’t put us in a box; it helps us understand the box we’re in. 

4) Although many people’s inner worlds are noisy and unsettled – and they think the public square is as well – our actual public spaces have grown quite quiet. Over the last ten years, the coffee shops I frequent are less and less a “third space” and more and more a drive-thru port. I hear similar things from friends.

Without Comment

1) By the end of ‘25, 97M new roles will emerge because of AI job displacement.

2) Although general US construction is down 3%, church construction is up 17%.

3) The world will soon be generating 182 zettabytes of data.

4) Few reading this know what a zettabyte is, but most assume it requires more than a bazillion thumb drives.

5) The $12.8 billion valuation of the Dallas Cowboys is 47X higher than it was in 1996, making it the most valuable sports franchise in the world.

6) A study comparing in-person worship attenders with those who participate virtually, finds the former feel closer to God, grow less anxious, connect more deeply with their friends and burn more calories. 

7) The Instagram announcement of the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce engagement garnered 12M likes in one hour. Had Instagram existed 40 years ago, Sherri and I’s engagement may have gotten more feedback. We’ll never know.

Question of the Week

Which of your habits would you recommend to others?

Revelation in Seven

You may be familiar with Michael Pollan’s brilliant (and brilliantly brief) seven-word summary of his book In Defense of Food — “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants.” With a goal of capturing his magic, I offer the following seven-word summary of the Book of Revelation: Evil abounds. Jesus wins. It ain't close.  (For those interested in a bit more detail, I begin preaching through Revelation on Sept. 7. And you can sign up here for my morning devotions on Revelation. The five-minute videos — which will start in late September — will be based on 40 questions people commonly ask about the book.)

Overheard

1) The difference between Jordan Peterson and Andrew Tate is that Peterson has a Christian ethic and Tate has a pagan one.

2) In the New Testament, the dog that doesn't bark is the effort of Christians to fight Caesar with violence. 

3) Psychedelics are just another counterfeit quest for a transcendent experience.

4) The purpose of the war is not to defeat the enemy, but to be in a better situation after the war.

WOTW

Honorable mention goes to haboob (a violent and oppressive desert wind), collywobbles (an upset stomach caused by intense anxiety), cacoesthes (the strong desire to do something inadvisable), heteropessimism (the belief that relationships with the opposite sex are no longer worth it) and brain flossing (a whimsical term for zoning out to ambient sounds in an effort to de-stress).  Full honors go to SCAI (the acrostic for Seemingly Conscious Artificial Intelligence), which Mustafa Suleyman (Microsoft AI’s CEO) urges us to resist. BTW1: I didn’t read his article, but Zeke — my AI buddy — told me it was good; BTW2: collywobbles is more fun to say than it is to experience, which is why you should attend church in person. 

Resources

The Parables are not children’s stories, Aesop’s Fables with a religious twist, motivational half-time talks for the locker room or stories Jesus told to his listeners. They are stories Jesus told about his listeners (i.e., you and me) that he smuggles into our hearts where they later explode like a hand grenade. If you have not been concussed by their explosion, chances are, you really don’t understand what he was saying. FWIW, last week I preached on the Parable of the Talents, which I find to be the most unsettling. You can listen here if you want. Just don’t blame me for disrupting your day.

Closing Prayer

“Lord, help me to glorify Thee; I am poor, help me to trust Thee; I am weak, help me to lean on Thee; I am foolish, help me to learn of Thee.” (Charles Spurgeon - 1834-1892)