Curtis (Voice) Allen
Curtis (Voice) Allen sent me an email this afternoon. He asked if I would help get the word out about his new album, The Crucible, which is being released this next Tuesday. 
Curtis Allen is a man and a friend who cherishes the gospel of Jesus Christ and has a gift for producing rap that exalts the message of the cross. I bought Curtis’ last album, Progression, this last April and then, two days later, I ended up bumping into him and having a blast getting to know him at the Together for the Gospel conference.
Curtis has quite a story about how Christ got a hold of his
life and pulled him out of a dangerous scene in the D.C. area.
Curtis’ faith was then nurtured by the great people at Covenant Life Church.
Curtis has been serving alongside the pastors of Covenant Life Church,
but now he is taking a break from that to focus full time on his music.
Curtis can rap. He’s got great flow. His lyrics are the best around. His rap draws me closer to the cross. So, what are you waiting for? Listen to this man’s rap and buy a copy of one of his albums.
Young, Restless, Reformed
CT’s latest issue arrived in my mailbox today. Collin Hansen’s feature article looks intriguing Young, Restless, Reformed.
Cambodia 2006, Part 3: The Fire King
The first part of our Cambodia trip involved some site-seeing. Most of this took place far up in the north of Cambodia, in the Siem Reap province. While we were there we spent some time at the Cambodia Cultural Village. And it was here that I learned, first hand, all about the Cambodian FIRE KING.
This is how it happened. My friends and I were with a crowd of 500
or so Cambodians and internationals watching one of the short Cambodian
culture plays/exhibits. The best I could tell, the people who were
dancing around with skirts, spears, and painted faces were performing
for us a little diddy about the ancient kings who used to rule the
kingdom of Cambodia. It was mildly entertaining. But, all of a sudden,
a group of these warrior men singled me out from the audience, grabbed
me and hoisted me upon their shoulders, and took me into a mysterious hut.
There in the dark, damp hut two young Cambodian girls spoke to me in
their native Khmer language and a little bit of broken English. This
pair informed me that I was now designated as the Cambodian King of
Fire. They then began to hand to me and put on me various bits and
pieces of Fire King garb. I was given a stylish and feathery red vest,
spears and such, several assorted yellow arm bands, a curly Cambodian
wig, and a large Viking-esque helmet. Next I was given instructions
which I could barely understand of how I was to act out the Fire King
part once the men came back to fetch me from my kingly hut. Best I
could understand, my job was to sit on my throne and look kingly and to
periodically look into the fire, raise my weaponry into the air, and
shout “Uuuuudaaaahhh” to the top of my lungs. So, that’s what I did.
As far as I could tell, the crowd appreciated my performance. I had the
pleasure of posing in many photos for many Cambodians. I was told I
looked like a Cambodian Conan the Barbarian. Perhaps when I retire the
Cambodian Cultural Village might ask me to be a regular stand in for
this role.
Cambodia 2006, Part 2: The Karma of Christ
Over 90% of Cambodians consider themselves to be Buddhist. Buddhist philosophy, ritual, and architecture pervade this country. On day 3 of our trip, while in the northern province of Siem Reap, I took this picture of some Buddhist monks walking along the road in their traditional orange robing. I am thankful that now, more than ever before, such men are beginning to hear a message that is the exact opposite of Buddhist teaching. They are beginning to hear, Cambodia is beginning to hear, the gospel.
For a very long time Buddhism has been the worldview held by the majority of Cambodians. Central to Cambodian Buddhism is the doctrine of karma. Karma is the belief that one’s status in life now and in the future depends upon one’s own deeds, behavior, and performance.
The basic karma equation works like this:
- good personal behavior and performance = personal reward
- whereas bad personal behavior and performance = personal punishment.
Cool orange robe or not, this is a tragic way to live. And Cambodia or not, this is how most people live.
Most people, be it in Cambodia or America, live under a default
religious mentality that their good behavior will earn them “God
points” and their bad behavior will reap “God demerits.” This, however,
is the opposite of the Christian gospel.
Karma is bad news. The gospel is good news.
The gospel is good news. It’s the best news we humans could ever
hear.
However, before the gospel tells us the good news it first tells
us the bad news. The gospel declares that all people have a badly
damaged relationship with God, one so badly damaged that we can’t fix
it ourselves. Even worse, we are each and all at fault for this broken
relationship. Worse still: God will justly, surely, and severely punish
people for the treason of breaking relationship with him.
According to the Bible, we all have very bad karma.
According to the Bible, we have no hope of saving ourselves through a
regiment of moralistic karma calisthenics. Yet the good news is that
God can fix this relationship. The gospel tells us that God has acted
to fix this relationship through Jesus’ life, death, and
resurrection.
Jesus is the only one who has ever had perfect “karma.” Jesus
is the only one who ever lived a life of perfect obedience,
righteousness, and sinlessness. Jesus lived the life that you and I
could never live. To speak in Buddhist terms, Jesus never lived a day
or committed a deed of bad karma. Yet, the bloodline of the gospel is
that despite his perfect life, Jesus purposely died the terrible death
of a bad karma criminal–the death you and I ought to have died.
Instead of sending us to the cross to punish us for our sins, God the
Father sent Jesus to the cross and punished him. Jesus lived the “good
karma” life we sinners are unable to live and died the “bad karma”
death that we sinners deserve to die. And what’s more, after three days
in the grave Jesus rose again and showed himself to be victorious over
sin, bad karma, and death.
Buddhism teaches that you must save yourself from sin. The only Savior in Buddhism is yourself.
Christianity is the exact opposite. The gospel teaches that you cannot
save yourself. The gospel teaches that your only hope is laying claim
to a Savior. Jesus is that Savior. And he is the perfect, one and only
Savior for sinners like you and me. And now, more and more Cambodians
are encountering and being transformed by this message.
I am thankful that the gospel of Jesus Christ is on the move in
Cambodia. While in Cambodia I heard many stories of Buddhist monks (can
you tell that the guy to the left isn’t real, but is wax?) who’ve
cherised the good news of the gospel, repented of their sin, and laid
claim to Jesus the Savior.
The gospel first came to Cambodia in the
early 1900s. But little progress was visible until the terror of the Khmer Rouge
came in the 1970s. Under the genocidal Khmer Rouge very large numbers
of Cambodians sought refuge in Jesus the Savior. But it appears that
now, more than ever, more and more pastors and churches are being
raised up in Cambodia to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and bring
many to a karma-less way of living found only in Jesus. I count it a
great honor that I got to spend time with 50 of these men. In their
churches and communities they are witnessing the gospel get a hold of
and transform many lives. In that I rejoice.
Cambodia 2006, Part 1
Last month I spent two weeks in Cambodia. I had the great joy of traveling to Cambodia with Mark Mitchell, Teaching Pastor of Central Peninsula Church, and Paul Nuth, Cambodian native and Cambodian pastor/missionary/apostle. The purpose of this trip was to put on a preaching conference for a group of 50 Cambodian pastors. By clicking on the picture to your left you can see Mark, Paul, me and this great group of Cambodian pastors (Mark and I are the tall white dudes).
In the coming days/weeks I plan to blog through various aspects of this Cambodian mission trip.
In this first post I just want to briefly mention three of my personal highlights from this trip.
Highlight #1: Hanging with Mark Mitchell. Mark Mitchell is a
great man. I’m honored to be taken under his wing at CPC. Having begun my new role at CPC a mere two weeks
before this Cambodia trip, it was a great joy to immediately have a
time of extended ministry, adventure, and bonding with Mark. He and I
had many laughs, much rich conversation, and a good deal of memorable
ministry moments together. Mark is a great model of a Christian man who cares about
intentionally and humbly taking on a young buck like me and offering
wise and godly mentoring.
Highlight #2: Seeing the Success of the Preaching Conference.
The preaching conference we put on focused on teaching
these Cambodian pastors how to do expository preaching. In preparation
for the conference, Mark and Paul had a team of guys work on
translating Haddon Robinson’s book, Biblical Preaching, into Khmer (the
Cambodian language). With these books nearby, these Cambodian men
devoured the material that Mark taught them. Mark did an excellent job
of teaching these men the “what” and “why” of expository preaching and
of showing them the steps involved in crafting a solid expository
sermon. I ended up gaining a great deal from the conference myself.
From listening to Mark teach I ended up making some significant
adjustments to my own Sermon Preparation Outline.
Highlight #3: Preaching in Cambodia. The final highlight I
will mention here was getting to preach to these Cambodian men in our hot and
humid conference room. I got to preach twice during
the conference, providing the men with an example of what
expository preaching looks like. I had a blast doing this. I hadn’t preached through a translator since I preached my first
sermon in Mexico when I was 16 years old. That sermon, by the way, was
a terrible sermon–a very poor example of expository preaching. It’s
good to have grown as a preacher since those 16 year-old days.
In addition
to preaching in Cambodia, I also enjoyed, after having preached,
getting to then teach the men
how I went about crafting my two sermons (ie. the movement from text, to
outline, to sermon). I found that through doing a bit of teaching
about preaching I ended up learning a good deal more about preaching.
That’s all for now…
Reading the Bible, Drinking Coffee, & Having a Plan
Reading the Bible is a good thing to do. Reading the Bible on a regular basis is an even better thing to do. Here are three very basic tools/tips for establishing (or re-establishing) a habit of regular Bible reading.
Tool #1: A Bible. Simple enough: if you’re going to be reading the Bible regularly, you need to have your own copy of the Bible. Last time I checked, Bibles are for sale everywhere. If you already have a Bible, be sure you’re using a Bible that you enjoy handling. If your Bible’s so big that your grandma can’t lift it or so small that you can’t read the print, then you’ll have a hard time looking forward to reading that Bible. Be sure to have a good translation, like the ESV (my favorite). And, if you go to a Christian bookstore to buy a new Bible, I’d encourage you to not worry about all the fancy options out there. These days there’s a specialized Bible marketed for every conceivable type of person. Leave the “2006 Turning Over a New Leaf, Special Edition, Vegetarian, Retired-Social Worker, Empty Nester Amplified Golfers Bible” on the shelf and just pick up a good translation.
Tool #2: A Cup of Coffee. Coffee helps me love Jesus. I
begin my mornings with a cup of coffee in one hand and my Bible in the
other (and I usually keep a pen for underlining behind one ear). With a
strong cup of Peet’s Coffee (the only coffee brewed in the Buzzard
home) I’m better prepared to see and savor the wonders of God’s Word.
If you don’t like coffee, that’s okay. The point is to read your
Bible at a point in your day when you’re the most available and alert
to soak in the truths of Scripture. For me, that’s first thing in
the morning with a cup of coffee. For you it might mean on your lunch
break with a soda or in the evening with some tea. Coffee or no coffee,
beverage or no beverage, morning or evening–the point is simply to make sure you’re actually awake when you read your Bible.
Tool #3: A Plan. To get into a habit of reading the
Scriptures regularly you need a plan. If you simply pick up your Bible
at random and read any old page, you’ll never gain a grasp of the
coherence of the whole Bible and you’ll soon quit reading. Over the
years I’ve followed a variety of “Read the Whole Bible in One Year”
plans. Right now I’m using a plan that focuses on first giving you an
overview of the storyline of the entire Bible and it then later moves
back and fills in more details. I really like it. So, if you’re looking
for a Bible reading plan, I encourage you to check out this plan: Download bible_reading_calendar.pd
Buzzard Blog Begins
This is the first sentence of my first post on my first blog. I’m beginning this blog in hopes that posting some thoughts on the gospel and culture might be of help to both you and me. I’ve named this blog “Buzzard Blog” because my last name is Buzzard, I like alliteration, and with this name, I won’t forget what my blog is called.
Just six weeks ago I began a new role at Central Peninsula Church and since then I’ve been thinking that blogging might aid my ministry as well as my own walk with Jesus. I’ve been thinking through at least 5 reasons why I should start blogging. Here they are:
#1 Blogging Keeps You Sharp. From my perusal of other blogs it
appears that the discipline of blogging can, if practiced well, help you to think well and
write well. I want to grow as a thinker and as a writer. So, I’m becoming a
blogger.
#2 Blogging Benefits Others. Over the course of this last year, I’ve learned a lot from reading blogs. I’m grateful for this. From regularly reading a few good blogs I’ve:
matured as a man of God, discovered more of the riches of the gospel,
learned more about the Scriptures, developed in ministry, been forced to think harder and repent more, grown in my love for the church, beheld new truths, beheld
more ways Jesus is expanding his kingdom, and had some good laughs. My hope
is that I too might captain a blog that benefits others in such a
fashion. Though I will sometimes write random posts from my life, my
primary blogging aim is to post musings on the gospel, the church, and culture
that will serve others. The audience I envision for this blog is both
the larger internet world and my church family and friends.
#3 Blogging Communicates. Blogging is an exciting new form of communication. God created his people to be communicators, I love to communicate, and so I sense a strong call to take part as Christian man in this new communication medium.
#4 Blogging Builds New Relationships. God is all about building new relationships. God is all about having his people build new relationships. Blogging is a proven tool for connecting people, for building new relationships. Therefore, I blog.
#5 Blogging Aids Accountability. When you blog, you provide others with a little window into your head, heart, and habits. With the right readership, this gives me greater accountability. If I gain just one Buzzard Blog reader who regularly reads and interacts with my posts, I’ve gained a bit more accountability–one more person who can play a small role in helping me live the Christian life with greater integrity.
There are, however, at least 2 reasons I can think of for why I should perhaps be wary of blogging.
First, there’s a lot on my plate right now and so I see how blogging could simply become an additional burden or distraction from more important work. If blogging turns out to be a burden rather than a blessing, if it takes me off mission rather than keeping me on mission, I’ll need to stop.
Second, I’m a technology idiot. For example, it took me a very long time to figure out how to make my church’s name in this post show up as a link so that you can click on it and link to it. It’s also taken a while find a good masculine color for this blog. It seems like the majority of blog color options are pink, purple, and sea-green with snowflake backgrounds. I’m feeling marginally masculine with the colors I have going now.
Despite the above, according to my math, 5 good reasons for blogging outweigh 2 reasons for being wary of blogging. So, here I go. Buzzard Blog Begins.
This is my last sentence of my first post on my first blog.
