I’m a huge fan of Nickel Creek, but Crooked Still gives them a big run for their money… right now at least, Still Crooked is my new favorite bluegrass album. Granted… I have very few favorites in the bluegrass variety since I’m a bluegrass neophyte. For years, I was pretty sure I hated bluegrass, but then I encountered Nickel Creek and the Avett Brothers and I thought to myself that this is not the bluegrass I was familiar with. And, well, it isn’t… it’s “progressive” or “alternative” as some call it.

Honestly, I think we could just call it newgrass or contemporary bluegrass - these are all young artists keeping a good bit of the old, but bringing in some great chord progressions, instrumental combos, and compelling vocals. Still Crooked offers all of this with striking variety. There’s some numbers that can almost pass for blues, some that can almost pass for soft rock or jazz, and some that are most certainly folk-oriented. With that variety - they still hold it together and never sound like a different band.

Even if you aren’t a bluegrass fan, I would recommend you give these folks a listen. It’s good stuff.

Note: They do some old-time gospel on this album, but this is not an album inside the Christian music bubble. Some great stuff on here.

In these great conversations something dynamic happens, doesn’t it? My favorites challenge me and introduce at least one moment of mind-expanding wonder. Each person involved is fully engaged - actively listening and contributing.

Sadly, these moments tend to be few. Most conversations are superficial. If we’re honest with ourselves, we keep it that way intentionally (or, at the very least, we do nothing to change it). We’re busy, hurried. We have no time for deep conversation because there is much that needs doing in the now.

I believe, many of us (myself included) have fallen into the lazy habit of saying as little as necessary so we can keep going. Now, let me pause with the caveat that I’m not talking about “work” conversations here - those have their own sets of problems. I’m focusing on the conversations we have with friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers outside of work.

Due to this tendency, we rarely say what we mean. Probably because we have given very little thought to what we’re saying because we’re only kinda listening. My mind tends to be focused on myself on an almost continual basis… you know: where I need to be next, what I need to do next, what point I want to get across, what’s happening to me, how I feel, etc. So, I’m not actively listening to you… I might even think I am, but my brain is so wrapped up in my own world at that moment, that I can’t.

How can I change this? Pray. Pray that God will help me get my head out of my own world and start looking at the one He put me in. Listen. Listen again. Listen some more. I am so out of practice when it comes to listening… pretty sure I’m not alone there. This atrophied state has a tragic side effect - we’re supposed to listen to the Holy Spirit every day - but many of us are not sure how. Maybe listening to people is supposed to be practice.

What does this have to do with the Gospel? For starters, how can we hope to contextualize the Gospel of Jesus Christ if we aren’t paying attention to the desperation hidden in every voice we encounter? How can we speak of the Gospel in a meaningful and fully-engaged way if we aren’t actively listening.

Of all the topics we can possibly consider discussing, the Gospel is the weightiest and most important topic of them all. It should garner our greatest attention, enlist our fullest concentration, and spark the most fulfilling conversations. But, sadly, for most of us, the Gospel is rarely on our lips. Why? We aren’t listening to the cries of quiet desperation with ears that truly hear as the Spirit hears so that we would be moved to be the ministers of reconciliation we’ve been called to be.

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

The crazy things we say
There are times we say things that just don’t make any sense. I heard a comedian recently talking about Christians praying for a “hedge of protection” around someone. He observed that it might make more sense to ask for a brick wall to protect someone rather than asking for them to be encircled by bushes.

Sometimes we say things that we just don’t mean. Like saying “bless you” to someone who is leaving when we actually mean “goodbye” or “I’ll be praying for you” when we really mean “good luck with all that” (with no real intention of prayer). My personal favorite is when we quote scripture in this way. For example, when someone shares with us something they are experiencing that is so painful or hard that we have difficulty even imagining it and we say “don’t worry…all things work together for good” when we really mean “you are scaring the crap out of me and I have no idea how to respond”.

What they were saying
In this passage from 1 Timothy, Paul is addressing something that was a common saying among them. The saying, namely “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” was a phrase they would have all been familiar with. They may have been a little too familiar with it. The problem with that, of course, is that this is not just a “saying” to be used in a flippant way like “bless you” or “I’ll be praying for you”. This is a declaration of the gospel itself.

Christ Jesus – His title expressing His divinity and common name reflecting His humanitycame into the world – showing His incarnation and preexistence to save sinners – declaring His mission

What is Paul saying?
The gospel is not just a saying. In Romans 1:16 Paul says “…it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” It’s not data to be memorized and parroted back. It’s not a mantra or magical incantation. The gospel is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance! Paul wouldn’t have to remind them that this expression of the gospel was trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance unless there were those who were not trusting in the gospel and accepting it fully. We need to be certain that we aren’t taking the gospel for granted, that we haven’t become too familiar with it. That it is not just something we say but that we are trusting in and accepting the gospel fully.

Why Paul can say it
Why does Paul seem so confident that the gospel can be trusted and accepted – because he has experienced the reality of the power of the gospel first hand. After declaring that Christ came into the world to save sinners, he describes himself as the foremost sinner (a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent). I don’t think Paul is saying that he is the worst sinner ever (relatively speaking, I think there’s a list of people who had him beat). I think this is Paul’s way of saying that he is the biggest sinner he knows. Paul is able to say that he is the biggest sinner he knows and that he is living proof that the gospel can be trusted and fully accepted. The foremost sinner had become the foremost example of Christ’s mercy and patience to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life (verse 16).

What can I say?
It’s funny. I have a few things in common with Paul. For starters, I’m the biggest sinner I know. I don’t know what anyone else has done to transgress God, but I know what I have done. I have also experienced the transforming power of the gospel and know it to be more than just words. Because of this, like Paul, I’m able to say to others that the gospel is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. If you are the biggest sinner you know and you have experienced the transforming power of the gospel, then you can say the same thing (and should as often as you have the opportunity).

Webb has called this his first “rock” album and he’s right as long as you hearken back to the sound of the British Invasion in the 60s. For many today, this is not exactly the sound they conjure up when the term “rock and roll” are spoken. Still, it’s a great sound and it fits his voice and poetry quite well. It’s a nice departure from the folk-oriented style he’s so well-known for.

Covering topics ranging from being a prisoner to our own closed minds (”The End”) to the culmination of Christ’s glory (”This Too Shall Be Made Right”), Webb weaves a great set of songs that are designed to challenge as well as entertain. My favorite songs are the songs dealing with harder hitting issues and my least favorite are the love songs - no surprises there. The politically charged “Savior on Capitol Hill” and “Love That’s Stronger Than Our Fear” will surely raise some eyebrows, but they both address issues that most Christian artists are afraid to even touch in fear that they might upset the party line. After all, Christian = Republican, right? I told you I liked the harder hitting songs.

All in all, I truly enjoy this album with my foremost complaint being its length… it’s too short. At just slightly over 30 minutes, this album recycles itself too quickly in a CD player. Other than that small complaint, I find much to like on this album and heartily recommend it. It’s probably Derek’s strongest album yet.

Tracing the history of Christian thought regarding human spirituality they bring two ways of looking at the human equation: 1) the Biblical view and 2) the Platonic view. They do an apt job of tracing these two concepts and proving how the Platonic view has infected the Christian subculture. Another L’abri alum, Nancy Pearcey, penned the book Total Truth which also deals with the same false dichotomy between the physical and the spiritual. While Pearcey’s book deals with worldview, Macauley and Barrs deal with humanness.

Having read Pearcey’s book, I thought I was well-prepared to just nod my head through the book with few experiences that would be revelatory… I was mistaken. In almost every chapter, preconceptions I didn’t know I had began to surface and I was challenged to look much deeper at how I viewed my fellow man - Christian or not. I was stunned to find such deep prejudgment about people within me. My mind was opened to recognizing what it means that man was created in “the image of God” and how that should affect the way I think.

I highly recommend this book as serious reading for anyone who is interested in having their own preconceptions laid bare - what surprised me was that I was pretty sure I’d already had my major paradigm shift… this book proved just how deeply my incorrect view of human spirituality was ingrained.

The Christian music industry is a fast-growing slice of the Christian subculture (or “bubble” as some of us call it) - our own stores, our own food, our own music, our own television channels, and even our own logo (the fish). We live in a world where, if you wanted to, you could ensure that your children are only taught lessons sanitized from anything that is not deemed holy, you could ensure that you never have to listen or watch anything that isn’t specifically Christian in nature, and you could ensure that everything you purchase in some way goes to further the Gospel somewhere. Friends - there is no way this is a good thing.

While there is nothing wrong with an artist specifically and explicitly writing songs that are moral and uplifiting and there is certainly nothing wrong with a song specifically and explicitly worshiping God for what He’s done - the categories are false. Historically, the only categories have been songs specifically designed for corporate worship and… everything else. Today’s categories don’t reflect this in any way. (In fact, we created a third category called “worship” for the stuff explicitly written for corporate worship.)

Music is music. Worldview is worldview. Some music is incredibly creative while the worldview espoused is incredibly depraved. The creativity in the music and lyric belong to God - all creativity is borrowed creativity. Just because someone isn’t glorifying God with their content… they’ve completely missed the fact that what makes their song “good” is something that only God can enable… the creative spark.

I like music. I listen to a wide variety of musical styles and worldviews. I’m amazed at the insight that I’m granted when I hear something that so obviously espouses an incorrect worldview. I’m also amazed at how my singing and playing are improved when I expose myself to other influences. While we should be discerning about what we pump into our brains… we should not allow another person’s label to exclusively determine whether or not we should listen to something. We must be guided by the Spirit of God in wisdom without labels.

In Scripture, you don’t see this model explicitly shown. In fact, it seems the Bible is more concerned about speaking truth than it is about proselytizing in general. The Great Commission tells us to preach the Gospel and make disciples. There is no script and there is no urgency to close the sale. So, the Christian who fears he is being asked to bludgeon somebody with great arguments of apologetics and archaelogy or a rapid-fire memorization of the Romans road or spiritual laws can rest easy. These are not the requirements of evangelism. We’re called to preach the Gospel.

Now, if preaching the Gospel brings up pictures of a sweaty man standing on a street corner waving a Bible, it’s an understandable, though imperfect, generalization. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is both much simpler than street preaching while at the same time much more mysterious and complex. The Christian responsibility is to speak the truth in love. We are to proclaim the goodness of God and the dire state of man and the fact that the death of Christ purchased a miraculous thing: any person who calls on the name of Christ can be transformed from death to life.

Telling people about Jesus is not a scripted process - it is a relational and active one. We love them with the love of Christ and the fruit of our lips speak of His wonder and our love of Him who saved us should be evident in all that we do. This is at once simpler and far more difficult. It’s simple because we don’t have anything to memorize and get “just right.” It’s far more difficult because it’s about living a life of worship where His life is evident in our life and His name is always on our lips because we love Him that much. A script would be far easier… that’s why people create them.

The Bible teaches us a different standard. We are to consider others more highly than we consider ourselves. We are to live at peace with others (at least when it comes to our own actions). We are to love one another. The only way to do this is to live for someone other than ourselves. That someone else, of course, is Jesus Christ. When we place our trust in Christ, He does not leave us in a vacuum and tell us to fend for ourselves. No - we are given help by the Holy Spirit who Christ sent after His resurrection to give us comfort and to empower us to live the life we are called to live.

Can truth be defined? Some people say that truth is different for every person. Scrutinized, this view is either naïve or an attempt at accommodation. Mere whimsy. Fanciful notions. Relative homogeneity. We know truth is out there… somewhere. We feel it in the core of who we are (unless, out of hopeless frustration, we’ve become jaded into believing it can never be found and therefore must not exist).

Veritas is the latin word for truth. Our vision and goal is to be a place where truth is declared openly and honestly with no apology - that truth is Jesus Christ.