Another baseball video

My wife showed me this. Maybe you've seen it. Pretty sweet. I always dreamed about doing this in little league, but I didn't get on base much and never had the ups to make this kind of a play happen.



Does it match the play in this post?

Laughing Gravy

Sam and I are taking our youth group to something called Challenge 2010 this summer. It's an E-Free conference for high schoolers in Columbus, Ohio. It also features missions opportunities for our kids, including church plants in more "un-churched" parts of the city. I'm excited.

Anyways, we are doing some fund-raising to go. Last Sunday for youth group we played "Bigger & Better". To play, the group divided into three teams and we drove them around Ames from door to door, wherever they wanted to go. The teams each started with a quarter and, as they went door to door, asked if the resident has anything "bigger and better" to trade for a quarter. You keep trading up and up and so on, but many people just give us stuff they have lying around rather than trades us for something else they don't really want. We played the game for an hour. Tomorrow after church, the youth group will auction off the items we collected, as well as some other items donated by church members.

Here's a picture of what the three teams acquired:

Some of the acquisitions: chandelier, karaoke machine, stereo, 2 kites, wheel ramps, size 12 shoes, a tiny chair, a microwave, and lots of other miscellaneous stuff.

Oh yeah, and here's the kicker.You can barely see it, but on the right side of the picture there is a rudder and a box holding a sail for this bad boy:

Yep, we traded it for a quarter. Trailer included. Good job girls' team. We'll be selling it tomorrow after church, in anyone needs a sailboat.

The boat's name is the best part:

Keyboard Drums

This is one cool cat.

Watch the whole thing... pretty sweet.

The best play of the year on opening day?

Incredible.



Thanks, Martin Kalkwarf, for the vine.

Church was Cool Today

Not that church isn't always cool.

I just learned something I never knew before. Maybe you know it, but I didn't.

You know when the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ the Redeemer, was on the cross and He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" I had always taken this to mean that Jesus, bearing our sins upon Himself, was now separated from God the Father. I'm not sure how much theological sense this makes, but I won't get into that now.

My pastor, Michael, presented a far different interpretation of Christ's quote in his sermon this morning:
Jesus was presenting the Gospel in His final breaths before His death. Jesus was quoting the first line of Psalm 22, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" (My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?").

In the time of His crucifixion, written passages were referred to by their first line or two, not titles or labels like we have today. It is likely that it was the entire passage of Psalm 22 that Jesus wanted to convey as He was being asphyxiated by His own weight on the cross. When you read the passage, read it as if this is what Christ wanted to get across:

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
       Why are you so far from saving me,
       so far from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
       by night, and am not silent.
Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
       you are the praise of Israel. 
 In you our fathers put their trust;
       they trusted and you delivered them.
 They cried to you and were saved;
       in you they trusted and were not disappointed.
 But I am a worm and not a man,
       scorned by men and despised by the people.
 All who see me mock me;
       they hurl insults, shaking their heads:
 "He trusts in the LORD;
       let the LORD rescue him.
       Let him deliver him,
       since he delights in him."
 Yet you brought me out of the womb;
       you made me trust in you
       even at my mother's breast.
 From birth I was cast upon you;
       from my mother's womb you have been my God.
 Do not be far from me,
       for trouble is near
       and there is no one to help.
 Many bulls surround me;
       strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
 Roaring lions tearing their prey
       open their mouths wide against me.
 I am poured out like water,
       and all my bones are out of joint.
       My heart has turned to wax;
       it has melted away within me.
 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
       and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
       you lay me in the dust of death.
 Dogs have surrounded me;
       a band of evil men has encircled me,
       they have pierced my hands and my feet.
 I can count all my bones;
       people stare and gloat over me.
 They divide my garments among them
       and cast lots for my clothing.
 But you, O LORD, be not far off;
       O my Strength, come quickly to help me.
 Deliver my life from the sword,
       my precious life from the power of the dogs.
 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions;
       save me from the horns of the wild oxen.
 I will declare your name to my brothers;
       in the congregation I will praise you.
 You who fear the LORD, praise him!
       All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
       Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
 For he has not despised or disdained
       the suffering of the afflicted one;
       he has not hidden his face from him
       but has listened to his cry for help.
 From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
       before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows.
 The poor will eat and be satisfied;
       they who seek the LORD will praise him—
       may your hearts live forever!
 All the ends of the earth
       will remember and turn to the LORD,
       and all the families of the nations
       will bow down before him,
 for dominion belongs to the LORD
       and he rules over the nations.
 All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
       all who go down to the dust will kneel before him—
       those who cannot keep themselves alive.
 Posterity will serve him;
       future generations will be told about the Lord.
 They will proclaim his righteousness
       to a people yet unborn—
       for he has done it."

Not only was Jesus proclaiming that He fulfilled the prophesy of the Messiah's death on the cross ("they have pierced my hands and my feet"), He was proclaiming the Gospel to the world.

He was proclaiming the way in which he was mocked by sinners unto His death ("He trusts in the LORD, let the LORD rescue Him").

He was proclaiming His Message to me and to you, "a people yet unborn."

He was proclaiming that His righteousness is inherited by faith, not by works.

"For He has done it."

When Hitler found out UNI beat Kansas...

Death

Hi there. Sorry it's been so long since we've talked. You know how it is... things get busy, and, well... blog posts are the first thing to go. I'm going to try to mend this relationship. Here goes:

So, I've been thinking a fair bit about death lately. You see, my Grandma Young, 85, passed away on Valentine's Day from complications from open heart surgery. She and I were really close, so it's been hard for my family and me. It's also a time for rejoicing, though, because Grandma's trust was in Christ. I was blessed to have an opportunity to give a eulogy at her memorial service. These were some of my thoughts:

If you met Grandma even once, you know that she was an amazing woman. She had this incredible ability to make people feel welcome and loved. She often took people into her home to feed them, to give them a bed, to listen to what was on their heart, and to lend her advice (whether they asked for it or not!).

There is so much I could say about how she was an inspiration to hundreds of people. She went back to college (ISU!) in her 40's when her youngest son (my dad) graduated high school and went there as well. She then became a high school English teacher in Clarion for almost 20 years and was simply called "Ma" Young by her students. Towards the end of her life she divulged to me that she would occasionally shut the door to her classroom to pray with her students. Even though it was illegal, not one of her students ever complained or reported her. Dozens of her former students came to her visitation or funeral. How many of your high school teachers made such an impact in your life that you would go to their funeral --- thirty-five years after you last had a class with them?

Grandma never really retired like we think of retirement. She worked part time for my dad until October of last year. Until two weeks before she died, she played piano for the contemporary service at her church. When I asked her how she could stand the drums being so loud, she said, "I just turn down my hearing aids and I can't hear a thing!"

Grandma's greatest inspiration, though, wasn't any of the things she did. If that's all we're inspired by, we've missed the main point of her life--- her faith in Christ. My last memory of Grandma is visiting her in her hospital room, a week before she died. It was just Sam and I at her bedside when she asked us to pray for her. When I asked her what she wanted me to pray for (I get teary-eyed just thinking about this...) she said, "Please pray that I would help people to know the Lord."

Grandma's life and love was invested in the Creator of in the universe and His Son, the Savior of humankind. Her love for family and friends (though great) paled in comparison. Certainly she was far from perfect, but she realized that she fell short of God's holy and perfect standard and knew her need for a Savior. Her trust was in Christ for her redemption, not the work of her hands. This was her greatest inspiration.

The wonderful 18th century American preacher/theologian, Jonathan Edwards, had a similar outlook on death as my grandma did. Edwards wrote the following note to his daughter, Lucy, as she was the only family member present at his deathbed. His love for his wife is so eloquently and beautifully expressed that it causes my heart to well up with excitement as I look forward to having such a deep and long-lasting marriage with Sam. The last two sentences of this letter are so faith-filled and God-centered that I even get pumped at the thought of my own death! I'll end with Edwards' simple last words to his family:


"Dear Lucy, it seems to me to be the will of God that I must shortly leave you; therefore give my kindest love to my dear wife, and tell her that the uncommon union, which has so long subsisted between us, has been of such a nature as I trust is spiritual and therefore will continue for ever: and I hope she will be supported under so great a trial, and submit cheerfully to the will of God. And as to my children you are now to be left fatherless, which I hope will be an inducement to you all to seek a father who will never fail you."