McLaren, Driscoll, Juno and Famous Black People

Vicky says it has been too long since I have blogged. Not believing her I decided to check and yeah, it’s been a while. So I thought I would catch up in 3′s:

3 Books I’m in right now

- Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren

- Introduction to Biblical Theology by Klein, Blomberg, etc.

- World Biblical Commentary – 44 – Colossians, Philemon by O’Brien

Mostly school and a little fun from BMac.

3 CD’s that are rocking my world right now

- Fort Nightly by White Rabbits

- In Rainbows by Radiohead

- Juno Soundtrack

3 Issues that have been on my mind

- Abortion

thanks to the following: NPR – possibly the worst thing I have ever heard on the subject, I had to turn it off before I completely lost it; Obama – the man and I have very different idea of what “justice” means; Juno – great, great, great movie. Unfortunately, what it does for pro-lifers it does the same for teenage fornicators. Adam Carola – he’s been especially preachy lately, great for perspective on commentary against the church)

- Politics

thanks to the following: Vicky – she’s a junkie for sure; Time Magazine; Jonathan’s blog; Matt Drudge

- 14 kinds of Grace

thanks to Mark “300 books” Driscoll. I mean really, was mentioning over and over again that you are going to write that many books necessary to helping me understanding grace? Really? Still great, but really?

3 Things That Might Change This Year

- The city I live in  (I know, when will it stop)

- The amount of people I live with

- The amount of healthy churches that meet it bars in Las Vegas

3 Things About This Blog

- We get roughly 25-30 hits a day for people searching for “famous black people” thanks to my post on The Bible Experience. And with Black History Month coming up I expect that number to increase. Sorry people searching for famous black people, you’re stuck with two white guys.

- Ryan’s in his last real semester of Seminary. Go ahead and send him some encouragement. I am really proud of him. Who would have though Dawson Leary in Seminary and Joey a manipulated Scientologist. Times have changed.

- Last year we had a little over 13,000 blog hits which was aided supremely by the Washington Post linking here. This month we had a little over 3,000. So expect a healthy dose of posts about more famous black people over the next few weeks. We’re shooting for 50,000 this year.

Peace Out – matt

If you don’t love ‘Sheed…

Then I don’t want to know you.

Jingle….Jingle…Jingle…Jingle…Bells.

Merry Christmas

matt

The Silverdome Revival

In his weekly NFL column Bill Simmons points out what Jesus is doing in what I call, “The Silverdome Revival”:

GOD’S TEAM

11. Detroit
There’s a higher power working for these guys, and that’s not even a joke: David Fleming’s ESPN The Magazine feature about Jon Kitna contained the follow nugget: “Since (Kitna) signed a four-year, $11.5 million deal in March 2006, about 20 Lions have given their lives to
Christ.”

I thought that number seemed startlingly high, but just to make sure, I called my buddy House to see how many guesses he would make before he reached “20.” He started out by guessing three, then five, then seven. Then he yelled, “You’re lying!” Then he made four more guesses before getting to “15″ and giving up. When I told him the answer, he screamed, “Whaaaaaat??? Jon Kitna needs to be stopped!” I thought that was funny, especially because House was drinking a beer in a bar when I called him to play the game. (He’s definitely headed to hell, and not just because he’s naming his fantasy hoops team “TRUCK PARTY” after one of the N.Y. Post headlines about the Marbury/Knicks intern sexual escapade.) But clearly, SOMETHING is going on with the Lions here, right? Twenty teammates???? Don’t we need more information about this? Did any beat writers convert? What about ball boys and trainers? It’s the single most fascinating story of the 2007 season other than Moss’ comeback and Turner and Cottrell’s slowly turning Tomlinson into a serial killer.

Here’s how you know this is Jesus – THIS IS JON KITNA. This is not the first time that God has supernaturally blessed a quarterback for his glory.

 

Cubs fan for life, Rockies fan for the moment

Ahh sweet Lou has brought my beloved Cubs into the playoffs. Or shall I say more honestly the abysmal collapse of the Brewers threw the Cubs into the playoffs. But a funny thing has happened, in fact I am in the midst of committing adultery… sports adultery! Here is my new fling.

Yes thats right I am swooning over the Colorado Rockies. To be honest I have off and on flirted with them for many years. When they came into the league I thought it was exciting Colorado was getting a team, and when I visited my dad during the summers He and I would go to a few games. The Rockies were always a good time, I loved when they had the Blakestreet Bombers and the average score at Coors Field was about 11 to 15. But it never got serious, our times together were always brief and never going to go anywhere; truth was I already had a team that I was committed to.

Well something happened this summer. Living in Colorado the Rockies and I were now closer. I went to a few games, and one thing led to another, and over the last month I have just fully embraced them. They have won 14 of their last 15 games to make the playoffs and play the most entertaining baseball I have ever seen. The young players have heart, and loads of talent. Not to mention the whole city has been swept up in Rockie fever over the last three weeks. Also, it has not hurt that the Denver Broncos have looked about as good as a port-a-potty so far this year.

So here I am in a conundrum of what Bill Simmons would say of crossing many major sports fidelity lines. Right now I know that disaster possible awaits as if the Cubs and Rockies both win their playoffs series and meet in the NLCS I might be faced with a choice between my long time wife (Cubs) and my new hot girlfriend (Rockies). Well I am going to be on dangerous ground and have a date planned with the Rockies this weekend as my good buddy Brad has scored my a ticket to the Rockie playoff game on Saturday. Ohh Lord help me.

Cowboy Matt

As part of my job I get to visit ranches my company owns a few times a quarter. A few months back, after helping coordinate a rodeo cow “sorting” event, some co-workers and I decided to participate.

 

And oh yeah, this was my first time on a horse, EVER! After participating in the rodeo event, I was asked to help herd cattle for the rest of the afternoon. The only scary part was realizing that I had a horse at full gallop with only a half-hour of riding experience.

good times.

matt

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Now playing: Nine Black Alps – Unsatisfied
via FoxyTunes

Billy Boy

Hey dude you need to (if you have not already) quit reading what I am writing and go over to Simmons and read his “go-Karting” article. It is vintage simmons and funnier than anything I have read in quite some time. Maybe you have already read it, in which case this post is moot, but I just had to give you a heads up.