30 Today!!

Today is Tasha's 30th Birthday! I couldn't see her telling the blogging world, so I thought I would. Drop her a little note to say hey. It would make her day! Boy, I love her so much!

• tasha@joshandtashavia.com
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Billy Turns 90

Billy Graham turns 90 today! It is almost unfathomable the legacy that he has left and the impact he has had in Christendom. Check out this video tribute the Charlotte Observer paid to Billy. It's pretty good.

Today in Via History

Today is my Dad's birthday. He and my Mom and my sister, Joy, came in for the weekend and we celebrated he and Joy's birthdays together. Good times.

My Dad is my hero. He lives what he preaches in the pulpit. He's real. He's sincere. He's contagiously in love with Jesus. Everyone he meets sees that there's something different about him. As a college student, he was radically saved by Jesus and has not stopped sharing with people the incredible gospel of Christ that saved him, changed him and made him a totally new person.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be a follower of Christ today if it were not for the influence of my Dad. I saw that his relationship with Jesus was real and thriving, and I wanted the same in my life. I remember countless mornings when I would creep downstairs earlier than anyone else in the house and find him on his knees in prayer praising his Savior with old-school Hosanna worship cassette tapes playing in the background. Seeing him in those holy moments before God made such a huge impact on me. Thanks, Dad, for being the realest Christian I've ever met!

How Tragedy Brings Glory to God

Yesterday marked the 1-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech tragedy. Having grown up thirty minutes from Blacksburg, VA it hit close to home for me last year. One of my friends, Matthew Church, was supposed to be in the class where Cho opened fire, but he slept through his alarm and missed class.

Continue to pray for the families that experienced loss in ways beyond what I could ever fathom or imagine.

Though I would never pretend to have all the answers to life's tragedies, I'm thankful that there is a God who understands. He understands how it feels to lose His only Son to tragedy, to the wicked, murderous hand of psychotic executioners, much like Cho. Still, when tragedy strikes close to home it begs the question, "How could God possibly allow something like this to happen?" So, many choose to discount the idea of a loving, all-powerful God as nothing more than a fairytale or children's bedtime story. Where is God when disaster comes? Where is God when Katrina lands a deadly blow? Where is God when a tsunami wipes out enough people to populate several countries? Same place He's always been.

But the critics cry foul and choose instead to deny God--a copout, simplistic approach, to be brutally honest. The Bible calls them fools. At the risk of sounding trite and simplistic myself, I like the Psalmist's approach. In Psalm 148:7-8 the writer explains that life's disasters actually give testimony to the greatness of God. He says,

"Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all the depths.
Fire and hail, snow and clouds, stormy wind, fulfilling His word."

How could California wild fires and Hurricane Katrinas be good things? They fulfill His word. Somehow in the providence of God, they fulfill His word. They give testimony to His greatness. They praise Him through and by disaster. I don't know how exactly, but they do. They praise Him over all the earth. They bring attention to His greatness. They act as neon signs that read, "Look at God! Look how amazing He is!" And somehow in the midst of the flickering, fluorescent catastrophe of events, God's power is put on display. He receives more glory and more praise than He would have otherwise.

The Last Song

Today in church history marks the death of Philip Bliss (December 29, 1876), a hymn writer and evangelist of the 19th century. He died at the age of 38 when his train derailed in Ashtabula, Ohio and plunged 60 feet into the icy waters below. He died alongside his wife and 92 other passengers.

He was famous for writing such hymns as "Wonderful Words of Life, "Let the Lower Lights Be Burning," "I Will Sing of My Redeemer" and "I Gave My Life for Thee." The lyrics to his brand-new hymn "I Will Sing of My Redeemer" were found among his belongings following the train catastrophe. They essentially became his last words and epitaph.

I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His wondrous love to me;
On the cruel cross He suffered,
From the curse to set me free.

Sing, oh, sing of my Redeemer,
With His blood He purchased me,
On the cross He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.

I will tell the wondrous story,
How my lost estate to save,
In His boundless love and mercy,
He the ransom freely gave.

I will praise my dear Redeemer,
His triumphant pow'r I'll tell,
How the victory He giveth
Over sin, and death, and hell.

I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His heav'nly love to me;
He from death to life hath brought me,
Son of God with Him to be.

Bliss died with the praises of God on His lips. The Redeemer to which he had just finished writing and singing became his heavenly audience moments later.

And I can't think of a better way to meet my Savior than to have just composed my last song of praise to Him - singing of my Redeemer.

The Thundering Scot

Today in church history marks the death of John Knox (11-24-1572). Knox was instrumental in the Protestant Reformation, particularly among Scottish churches. He was deemed "The Thundering Scot" as he boldly preached the truth of the Gospel in the face of corrupt officials in the Catholic church as well as in public office. If he were alive today, he would most certainly show up on CNN being guilty of intolerance and bigotry. But Knox teaches us what it means to stand for truth when it falls contrary to popular opinion.

Upon his death, Richart Bannatyne, Knox's secretary, honored Knox with these words: Knox was "the mirror of godliness, and patrone and example of all true ministers, in puritie of lyfe, soundness in doctrine, and boldness in reproving of wickitness" (www.opc.org).

A Tragedy, A Legacy, and a Ragamuffin's Commitment

Today, September 19, is the 10-year anniversary of the tragic death of Rich Mullins. It probably seems random that I know that, but Rich’s music had such an enormous impact on my life as a young Christian musician, it’s hard for me to forget details like that. Rich helped to shape the landscape of the early Contemporary Christian Music industry in a profound way. He defied and challenged traditional taboos, often playing concerts barefooted wearing simply a t-shirt and torn jeans. His lyrics were passionate, frank and honest, openly describing personal and spiritual struggles in his search to know God more intimately.

What I love most about Rich’s legacy was the fact that, in the midst of all of his success and accomplishments, he never ceased to keep Jesus Christ, the Gospel and the Bible his central focus. He once commented,

Sometimes it concerns me, the number of people who can quote my songs, or they can quote the songs of several people, but they can’t quote the Scriptures – as if anything a musician might have to say would be worth listening to . . . If you want entertainment, I suggest Christian entertainment, because I think it’s good. But if you want spiritual nourishment, I suggest you go to church or read your Bible (Creation Festival Radio Special, Mt. Union, PA, June 27, 1996).

Rich never wavered in preaching the fundamentals of the Christian faith through his music. Scripture was the most important thing to Rich. In one of his most famous and powerful songs, “Creed,” Rich took the Apostles’ Creed, the most fundamentally orthodox statement of the Christian faith, and put it to music. In this song he drew a line in the sand.

I believe in God the Father,
Almighty Maker of Heaven and Maker of Earth,
And in Jesus Christ His only begotten Son, our Lord
He was conceived of the Holy Spirit,
Born of the Virgin Mary, Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
He was crucified and dead and buried.

And I believe what I believe is what makes me what I am,
I did not make it, no it is making me,
It is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man.

Rich was committed to the basic truths of Christianity – the truth about Jesus Christ – that He came as the Messiah of the world to live, to die, to atone for sin and to rise again conquering death and offering new life. It never gets old to me – the fact that Christ came to this earth for helpless, sinful human beings. That’s the only message that will last through eternity. That’s the only message that ultimately matters. Thanks for your legacy, Rich.