Category: Miscellaneous

Perfection in Seattle | Philip Humber Pitches Perfect Game

I am a die hard Cubs fan, but I am also a baseball fan. Today the highest achievement possible for a Major League pitcher was accomplished. Twenty-seven up, twenty-seven down. That is the feat that Chicago White Sox pitcher Philip Humber competed today. I was not able to watch the entire game, but the last inning was televised during the game of the week. In the entire history of the game of baseball only twenty-one perfect games have been thrown.

Here’s the math. Major League Baseball was founded in 1869. But, since 1900-2008 there were 173,000 games played [Source], give or take a few hundred since then. The percentage of games that have been perfect is 21/173,000. This amounts to .0001 perfect of the games have been perfect. This is like saying none of the games have been perfect because it happens so infrequently. But, that is exactly why they are remembered!

Two things stand out. First, the Mariners fans are fans of the game. They saw their team lose and yet applauded the feat that they witnessed. It was a great thing to see.

Second, watching a man overcome the situation by staying in control of himself was impressive. The first batter of the inning had a three ball, no strike count and Humber comes back to strike him out. Sports are great events. The fans get to watch premier athletes performing at the top levels of sports competition.

Chicago White Sox vs. Seattle Mariners – Recap – April 21, 2012 – ESPN Chicago.

The Guy Who Let Jesus Get Murdered Proves God’s Love For Sinners

I read this article in Christianity Today (click the link to read the article). It takes a look at the question that we all have asked and tried to answer. How can there be a “good” God and there be so much evil and suffering in the world? The article is interesting on a couple of levels.

First, the author, Mark Galli, senior managing editor of Christianity Today, looks at the short clause in one of the ancient creeds of the church. The phrase comes from the Nicene Creed (you can read it here) and is this,

“crucified under Pontius Pilate.”

This appears to be a relatively simple statement of fact. This four-word clause gives us a historical context clue about when the event we are talking about took place. The person that was crucified, was executed during that time when Judea’s (or modern day Israel’s) governor was Pontius Pilate. Great! So why is that important when we are talking about whether or not God is a good God? The answer to this question is where Galli’s article makes its strongest argument.

Too often the discussion of evil, suffering, and God’s goodness descends to the point of speculation and second guesses.

  • “Well, if I were God I would do this or would have done that.”
  • “A good God wouldn’t allow people to suffer.”
  • “If God were really good, he would never condemn an innocent child who never heard about him or Jesus to hell.”

Every statement or question that has this tone, this attitude, forgets one very important FACT. Jesus was “crucified under Pontius Pilate!” The abstract guesses and assumptions that lead us to question God’s goodness are completely and forever contradicted by the FACT of Jesus’s life, death, and (Praise God!) resurrection from the grave. The power of this little phrase is that it reveals to us that God did not address the reality and the horror of sin, death, and hell in an abstract way. God dealt with the reality of our hell-bound trajectory by coming into the mess we call humanity. Jesus became one of us so that we could enjoy what he and the Father have enjoyed for all eternity.

Galli writes,

This is a startling and counterintuitive revelation; this is not a grand religious idea one can logically work toward, but an event that occurred under Pontius Pilate, not a theology but a God caught in the act of loving us. This factoid and its revealed meaning are what we are called to believe and to proclaim, not what God might or might not do in this or that situation. We are asked not to preach according to our imaginations or our nightmares, but according to what God has, in fact, done for us in Jesus Christ.

And that is the point of this whole thing: The guy who let Jesus get murdered proves God’s love for sinners. God did not “run” from our sin. As a matter of fact, God sent Jesus and Jesus came willingly to die for the sin of the whole world. The FACT of Jesus’s ministry, life, death, and resurrection is substantiated and corroborated by the life of the one who “washed his hands” of Jesus.

Learning How to Mourn is Never Easy | “Missing Missing” by R.C. Sproul Jr.

R. C. Sproul Jr., a theologian and apologist in his own right, is the son of R. C. Sproul Sr. (I know that’s just crazy right!). Anyway, late last year his wife passed away. In this post, R. C. Sproul Jr., speaks about the process of mourning. It is moving and difficult to read. You find yourself wondering and imagining how you would feel in those same circumstances. And yet, there is comfort in knowing that Jesus is good and God is most loving to those that serve him.

These sentences serve as an example of what I mean.

She has, rightly, wisely, and through the very love of our Savior, left me. And I feel lost. By His grace, however, I have a path to follow. For His pierced feet leave bloody prints all the way out of the valley, all the way up the mountain. I will follow Him, who promised to be with me, even until the end of the age. [Source]

Some Resources for Good Friday

Here are few resources to get you thinking about Good Friday, Jesus and what all this means for you!

  1. Raised for Us and Our Salvation: Too often in our churches the resurrection of Christ is a doctrine of secondary importance. It is neglected and forgotten until Easter comes around each year. The same disregard for the resurrection is seen in how we share the gospel. Christians can tend to share the gospel as if Jesus died on the cross and that is the end of the story. We make a zip line from the crucifixion to “repent and believe,” contrary to the example Peter sets for us in Acts 2:22-24 and 4:26. As central as the cross is to our salvation (and it is absolutely central!), what was accomplished at the cross is truly incomplete if the tomb is not found empty on Sunday morning.

  2. Why Good Friday is Good: It was on this day that sinful humanity killed the perfect Son of God, and did it in the most deplorable and humiliating public fashion available at the time. So wretched and seemingly hopeless was humanity’s condition that when faced with One who was one of us, but so not like us; when faced with the One who could and would redeem us and lead us to God, we lashed out with murderous intent and nailed him to a Roman cross. No, by any measure available, this did not seem to be humanity’s finest hour. But it was God’s greatest hour.

  3. The Father’s Cup (Good Friday): This is a wonderful and powerful retelling of the events Good Friday.

  4. The Day Jesus Died: The day that Jesus died—the day we remember as Good Friday—goes down in the history of the world as a day of great suffering, when Jesus Christ endured the weight of sin and shame on our behalf. As we remember what it cost him to reconcile us to himself on this day, it is worth walking through what Jesus endured that day.

  5. The Good (the Bad and the Ugly) Friday: “Why do we call it Good Friday if it’s the day when Jesus was murdered?” If you haven’t fielded that question from a child or a newcomer to the Christian faith, you’ve probably wondered yourself. The common answer is “It’s good for us, because the cross is how Jesus saved us.”

  6. What Happened on Friday of Holy Week?: The witness of the four gospels are harmonized so that can read for yourself what was taking place during the Friday of the first holy week. It is well worth the time to read it.

Enjoy.

Happy Easter!

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