Real Marriage

We’re doing a class right now at Garnett called, “Real Marriage,” the title of the new book by Mark and Grace Driscoll. Below are two articles I wrote to explain the importance and authenticity and usefulness of this book and the class, and if you are in town, you are invited to the class at 11:15 am Sundays at Garnett Church of Christ.

Publishers Weekly
Mark and Grace Driscoll: Telling the Truth About Marriage

I also interviewed Mark Driscoll for Leadership Journal
Mark on Marriage

There are people who have criticized Mark Driscoll for his

Fresh News from Heaven

Care for some fresh news from heaven today?

Here’s the headline: God rules the world.

If your church or mine is a grain of sand, the kingdom of God is all the sand on all the beaches in all the world. If the United States is a grain of sand, God’s kingdom is all the sand on every beach in all the world. We are part of a huge movement of an amazing God who loves us though we forget and need to be reminded to pray and thank him, and to be reminded that He rules the cosmos.

Psalm 103 reminds us that even though God is ruler of the incredibly big universe, He’s also incredibly attentive to our lives, and this is newsworthy today . . .

Praise the LORD, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the LORD, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

I like what Steven Furtick says about our prayer etiquette with God. We normally say, “Please” then “Thank You” but with God it’s “Thank You” and then “Please” . . . in the Lord’s Prayer it’s “Hallowed be your name!” and “Let your kingdom come!” then “Please, God, give us daily bread.”

And daily bread is what we need today. We need to take one step closer to the Father, His Son who died for us, and to realize that the Holy Spirit wants to walk beside us and even to live within us.

Ain’t that great news today?

Hosoi

Christian Hosoi (Photo credit: dmourati)

Hosoi: My Life as a Skateboarder Junkie Inmate Pastor
Christian Hosoi with Chris Ahrens. HarperOne, $26.99 Hardcover(336p) ISBN 978-0-06-202430-5

I recently reading a new book called Hosoi: My Life as a Skateboarder Junkie Inmate Pastor about Christian Hosoi (pronounced Hau-soy)

Christian Hosoi was arguably the best skateboarder in the world, turning it into art. His nickname was Christ, and he invented a maneuver called the Christ Air [launches and forms a cross with his hands and board in one hand], but he says this was “all without having a clue what the name of Jesus Christ really means.” [240] But drug and sex addiction took him from high in the air to crashing down at the bottom of the pipe. He says, “They called me Christ, but that was just a nickname and one I could never live up to. My hope and prayer is that you also meet the One and Only.” [308]

Hosoi is a little over the top in talking about fast life and weed but put together with excellence in writing and photos and a captivating story and storytelling.

You don’t have to like skateboarding to like Hosoi. Brilliantly written with Chris Ahrens, pro skateboarder Christian Hosoi does more than tell-all but quotes friends and includes more than 100 photos to show how he rose to the top of his sport and turned it into art.

You do have to tolerate a lot of second-hand smoke in Hosoi’s book, but this helps readers feel the gravity of drug and sex addictions that brought Hosoi crashing to the bottom of the pipe. “I can see now that God has been calling me all my life. I’m named Christian and have worn crosses ever since I can remember. My nickname is Christ, and I invented a maneuver called the Christ Air [launches and forms a cross with his hands and board in one hand], all without having a clue what the name of Jesus Christ really means.” [240]

Hosoi vividly recounts the California skateboarding scene with friends and stuff they smoked, shot up, and swallowed. A friend recounts, “You’re not Christian Hosoi anymore; you’re a junkie just like me, only on a different drug.” [212] This tell-all and fall from grace is different from all the others in its rad truthfulness mixed with evangelical fervor in the end.

Even in talking about faithfulness to his soon-to-be wife, it’s embarrassingly honest. About his prison time he says, “There are no women here, but I curtail my fantasy life and decide that I’m not even gonna masturbate anymore.” [240]

And somehow in all the autobiographical mix of self-deprecation and aggrandizement, his true desire shines through: “They called me Christ, but that was just a nickname and one I could never live up to. My hope and prayer is that you also meet the One and Only.” [308]