Unique Piano Playing

If you played Super Mario Brothers on the original Nintendo, or if you like different ways of playing the piano, these 51 seconds might be worth your time:

(HT: Zach Nielsen)

Before You Leave a Church

Some good thoughts from Mark Dever, taken from his book What Is A Healthy Church?

Before You Decide to Leave

1. Pray.
2. Let your current pastor know about your thinking before you move to another church or make your decision to relocate to another city. Ask for his counsel.
3. Weigh your motives. Is your desire to leave because of sinful, personal conflict or disappointment? If it’s because of doctrinal reasons, are these doctrinal issues significant?
4. Do everything within your power to reconcile any broken relationships.
5. Be sure to consider all the “evidences of grace” you’ve seen in the church’s life—places where God’s work is evident. If you cannot see any evidences of God’s grace, you might want to examine your own heart once more (Matt. 7:3-5).
6. Be humble. Recognize you don’t have all the facts and assess people and circumstances charitably (give them the benefit of the doubt).

If You Go

1. Don’t divide the body.
2. Take the utmost care not to sow discontent even among your closest friends. Remember, you don’t want anything to hinder their growth in grace in this church. Deny any desire to gossip (sometimes referred to as “venting” or “saying how you feel”).
3. Pray for and bless the congregation and its leadership. Look for ways of doing this practically.
4. If there has been hurt, then forgive—even as you have been forgiven.

(HT: Tim Challies)

Adopted for Life

One of the best books I've ever read is Russell Moore's Adopted for Life.  Today on his blog, Moore reflects on the past ten years since he and his wife walked out of a Russian orphanage with their two boys.  He writes:

As I’ve written in the book, God used this experience to upend my whole life. He taught me much about his Fatherhood, much about the gospel, much about community, and much about the mission of the church. But people sometimes ask me, “In the years since, what have you learned about becoming a family through adoption?”

The main thing is that convictions forged there in the July heat of the former Soviet Union have only crystallized more. As the father of five now, some by that adoption and some by the more typical way, I’m as convinced as ever that adoption, into a family or into the Family of God, is “real.” There is no such thing in God’s economy as an “adopted child,” only a child who was adopted into the family. “Adopted” defines how you came into the household, but it doesn’t define you as some other sort of family member. In the Book of Romans, Paul defines all Christians, both Jew and Gentile, as having received a common “spirit of adoption” (Rom. 8:15; 9:4).

I'd encourage you to check out the full post, where he talks some about the difficulties of adoption.  Also, as he does in the book, he writes about what the past ten years have taught him about the Church.

Sanctification & Holiness

Here's a two-part discussion between two guys that God has used to teach me a lot about the Bible and the Gospel.  John Piper (pastor for preaching & vision at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, on the left) and Tim Keller (pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, on the right) discuss sanctification & holiness.


Part 1:


Part 2:

Lego Music Video

This is one of my new favorite music videos.  I can't resist a good song with Lego animation.

NBA Nostalgia

It's been a looooooong time since I've posted anything on here, but I just had to post these videos I browsed tonight.  I've been a sports fan most of my life, especially basketball, and I've got the VHS tapes to prove it.  Lots of games on tape - from NCAA Final Fours to each game of the Chicago Bulls in the NBA Finals to even some regular season college & pro games - and quite a few NBA store bought videos.  My favorite one was probably Michael Jordan: Come Fly With Me, which my brother and I (and other Jordan fans we knew) had memorized word for word.  But battling for my next favorite were the first two videos in the NBA's Superstars series.  They featured highlights of different players set to a single song each.  I remember turning these on the TV, and then playing basketball with my brother or friends on the NERF hoop or adjustable (up to 6 feet in our basement) Dr. J. hoop.  Here are some of my favorite from those videos: