• At the end of March, Annie released her first album called This Life of Mine. It is a fantastic collection of songs with a unique sound and probing lyrics. Of course, I am a bit biased since she is my wife and she wrote two songs about me. You can go to her website or MySpace page to get a listen. Then you can head over to iTunes or Amazon to pick up the entire album.
• To follow up her music, she also recently wrote a children’s book for a contest put on by Cheerios. Annie loves to be creative and has been tossing around the idea of writing books for kids for some time. This contest is a perfect opportunity for her to take the first step toward that goal. We won’t know anything until October but I am pretty stoked about her story regardless. What can I say…I’m a proud husband.
• I just finished up my third distance course from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. Surprisingly, Nashville does not have a major seminary within city limits (aside from Vanderbilt Divinity School…which is a bit different). So I have been chipping away at my Master of Arts in New Testament from GRTS for the past two years. Which leads me to the biggest change of all…
• Annie and I are moving to Grand Rapids, MI at the end of July. It is time for me to go back to school full time and finish my Masters degree. We have been preparing for this decision for a couple of years. We have been close to moving several times but never made the plunge for a couple of reasons. First, we have strong convictions about debt. I came into our marriage with a lot of it and we resolved to pay it all off before we embarked on another large financial commitment. As it turns out, not only have we paid off all our current debt but we will likely come out of the next two years with no debt as well. God has certainly been gracious toward us and we thank him often. Second, we wanted to make sure that we left our company in a good place. We had to wait until the end of the school year when tutoring is slow so that A to Z had plenty of time to hire and train our replacements. It is just one small way of upholding our witness for Christ to our company and coworkers.
• So we told work about the move at the end of May. As another sign of God’s graciousness, our company allowed Annie to stay on as Curriculum Director and work from home in Grand Rapids. Additionally, they have kept open the possibility of allowing me to do some part time work for them from home. It is a huge blessing knowing that our income is set when we move (especially in Michigan’s depressed economy).
• A new nephew was added to our family just before Memorial Weekend: Jackson John Schurger. My sister and baby are doing wonderful. Of course, we had to drive up to see the little guy. Annie needed some baby time and I needed to make sure that we got this little one started down the right path toward Notre Dame fandom.
• Finally…on July 18th, I will be ordained for gospel ministry by our pastor and church. Concord-Grandview Baptist Church has been home to us for nearly our entire marriage. Our church family has had a big impact on us. We have been allowed to serve in multiple capacities and grow as a result of those opportunities. Our pastor has been a close friend of mine since our days on staff together at Judson Baptist Church. He also conducted our wedding ceremony. He has been a big influence in my life and it just felt right to be ordained and sent out by this church and pastor. It will be a special moment for us.

As you can see, it has been a whirlwind recently. We praise God for everything that we’ve experienced living in Nashville. It is the first place since college that either of us have considered home. Additionally, we have both been challenged and stretched in ways that would not have been possible had we lived elsewhere. We are going to miss all of our friends here but look forward to being closer to family over the next two years. We have no definitive plans about the future beyond school so who knows where we’ll end up. Certainly God knows and that’s good enough for us.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Jars of Clay has put together a five song EP called Flood(ed): A Benefit that consists of five different versions of their hit song Flood. You can download the EP from their website for $1.00 and all proceeds go to Nashville area charities helping with the flood relief. Their goal is to raise $100,000. They’ve also put together a short video that shows some of the footage from the flood.

Noise Trade, a fair trade music site, has also partnered with the local radio station Lightning 100 to put together a compilation of local artists to help raise money for the relief efforts. Like all albums on Noise Trade, you can download Local Lightning Vol. 1 for free. However, you also have the opportunity to donate funds to the Nashville Flood Relief as you download the album.

Section 303 has created the ever popular We Are Nashville t-shirts to help raise awareness and funds. The shirts are $20 with all the proceeds going to the Community Foundation’s Flood Relief Fund. Additionally, Nashville Flood Tees has designed several t-shirts and even baby onesies that can be picked up for $20 with 100% of the profit going to local churches and agencies helping with the relief.

Of course, you can donate your time by volunteering through Hands on Nashville if you live in the area. They are also taking monetary donations of any amount in order to raise support for flood-related volunteerism.

I’m sure there are many other ways you can contribute. If you happen to know of more organizations or special relief projects putting things like this together then please feel free to list them in the comments section. And pray that the people of Nashville might not only experience physical renewal but also the spiritual rebirth that comes from believing in the gospel of Jesus.

I think Wayne Grudem’s view on politics is helpful. He has a new book coming out in August called Politics According to the Bible that seeks to tackle the political process from a Christian viewpoint. The video interview below gives you a glimpse into the book and Grudem’s views on the matter.

Wayne Grudem on Politics and the Christian from Adrian Warnock on Vimeo.

The Story of Zac Smith from NewSpring Media on Vimeo.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Also…below is the music video for the song Death of Me to give you a little taste of what you will get.

Genesis Redux Pt. 1 from Darren Doane on Vimeo.

He rejected the possibility of divine revelation and flatly rejected the idea of divine judgment and hell. He told The Sunday Telegraph [London] that the God he had come to believe “probably” existed is “most emphatically not the eternally rewarding and eternally torturing God of either Christianity or Islam,” but only God as First Cause of the universe. In other words, Anthony Flew embraced a form of Deism (the belief in a God who creates but then removed himself from creation), rather than theism (the belief in a communicating, ruling, and judging deity).

Mohler ends the article by pointing out a few important observations and lessons from the life of Antony Flew. In my opinion, the most important lesson is this:

Third, the conclusion of Antony Flew’s life must affirm for us the fact that the rejection of atheism does not always lead to an embrace of Christianity. Salvation comes only to those who come to belief and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ — not to those who merely embrace the existence of a divine First Cause. Rejecting atheism is not enough.

Mohler’s comments would certainly be relevant to the rejection of any philosophy or religion. Unbelief in a false deity, system, or worldview does not automatically make a person right with the Triune God of the universe. Jesus says that repentance and belief is necessary to enter of the kingdom of God. Repentance is not only turning away from false religion but turning toward God in faith and belief. It is a reminder that it is not enough to simply refute the arguments of atheism or any other worldview. In the end, the goal should be to win the man behind the arguments.