Today in Blogworld 02.06.13

Mike Leake

Interview with Anonymous

How do you interview an anonymous person? Stephen Altrogge did it. He interviewed the anonymous author of the book Embracing Obscurity.

How Much Doctrine Can One Distort or Deny and Still Be Saved?

Justin Taylor notes that this is a terrible question but not an altogether illegitimate one. He then compiles various answers to this question.

Should We Cheer For God?

This is a very interesting post by Barnabas Piper. I’ve done it in service with a host of others. Honestly, I’ve always felt a little weird clapping for Jesus. The crux of his argument is that “the deepest emotions, the strongest joys are not released in the loudest ways.” Give it a read.

10 Ways to Give Constructive Criticism

This is helpful. Giving constructive criticism is usually either neglected or everything but constructive. David Murray gives 10 ways to get better at giving constructive criticism.

I’m impressed. College coaches are probably already figuring out how to buy recruit this kid:

Quick Tips for Writing Effective Blog Titles

Mike Leake

You clicked here because of the title.

If you are a blogger hopefully you know by now that one of the most important things you do as an author is craft a catchy title. To create an effective title you need one that predicts the content, promises reward for reading it, perks interest, paces the article, and promotes it to search engines and social media. Here is what I mean:

  • Don’t put ‘Super Bowl’ in your title just because the game is on. Especially if your article is about the French Revolution. The title needs to predict the content.
  • Put words like How, Quick, Why, What, etc. in your title. Use words that promise the reader something. It’s like saying, “dude, read Why French Cheese is Better than Goat Cheese and you’ll know longer be an idiot when it comes to cheeses.” It helps if your title promises reward to the reader.
  • If your blog is featured on any sort of blog aggregator be sure to create a title that will force people to click on the title just to discover what in the world you are talking about. Example: Say you’ve written an article on the necessity of being Christ-focused as a church. You could make something like that your title: The Necessity of Keeping Jesus Central. That’s okay but I’m probably going to assume I’ve read it before. Try this instead How I’d Destroy A Church. The title had better perk interest.
  • If I’ve got a really to the point title like Resources on the Holy Spirit there really is no need for the article to do anything more than list these resources. But if my title is something funny then I had better provide more than a boring and detailed thesis paper. The title ought to pace the article.
  • If your blog is connected to Twitter remember that you can put @ or # in the title and it will also communicate effectively on Twitter. Also be aware of certain buzzwords and be friendly to search engines. Your title ought to promote the article to search engines and social media.

A Couple Miscellaneous Tips

  • Lists are good. Had I put ‘7 quick tips’ in the title it probably would have been even better
  • If you have a decent community established don’t be afraid to ask a question. However, it is usually better to make a statement.
  • Sometimes just say what it is. Example: ‘Here are pictures of cute goldfish’. You won’t attract anyone except goldfish lovers but you’ll be sure to attract them. (Abraham Piper does this really well)
  • A play on words is good but be careful not to tick off your readers. If you promise something you had better deliver—at least a little. My recent post The End of Biblical Theology tip-toed towards that line with that title.
  • You’ll read in various places that title is more important than content. It’s not if your goal is biblical faithfulness. If your goal is traffic that is true, but if your goal is biblical fidelity you had better make sure to deliver quality God-honoring content as well. Don’t skimp on working out the title—but don’t overemphasize it either.

Help for the Weary Worshipper

Mike Leake

Early on in my walk with Christ I assumed that the only type of worship/devotion that the Lord was pleased with was that which exuberant. I would beat myself up for any worship which wasn’t some sort of absolute surrender. Baby steps of devotion were unacceptable in my mind. After all, this is the King of Glory. How could I give him anything else?

And I was partially correct. But I’ve since come to believe that there is a type of weary worship that is also pleasing to the Lord. John Piper has provided great help to me in this area. In his book, Desiring God, Piper outlines three stages of worship.

The final stage is that which can be described by “unencumbered joy in the manifold perfection of God”. This was the only stage that I formerly acknowledge. But Piper notes the other stages which are also part of my experience. The second stage is when “we often taste, we do not feel fullness but rather longing and desire.”

I believe this is the stage that John Newton describes when he says:

Blessed be his name for a taste, though it be but a taste, of the water of life. I long for fuller [drinks], and I trust he has given me that hungering and thirsting after righteousness, which shall at length be satisfied, and which cannot be satisfied with anything short of his love.

Often I cry out, “Oh! remember me with the favor [you give to your own people]”. I know there are heights and depths in communion with God, to which many of his dear children [experience], which are far beyond my present [experience]. But this rather encourages me; that they too were once as poor as myself, and have nothing now any more than I, that they can call their own; and he who has done so much for them, is rich enough to do as much for me…I desire to praise His name for what he has already shown me, and to hope in his mercy that I shall yet, ‘see greater things than these”.

Yes, there is a type of worship that is in the longing. But there is also a darker type of worship. One that Piper says is “where all genuine worship starts” and that is in “the barrenness of soul that scarcely feels any longing, and yet is still granted the grace of repentant sorrow for having so little love.” Piper continues:

Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of His worth. This is the ideal…Yet He is also glorified by the spark of anticipated gladness that gives rise to the sorrow we feel when our hearts are lukewarm. Even in the miserable guilt we feel over our beastlike insensitivity, the glory of God shines. If God were not gloriously desirable, why would we feel sorrowful for not feasting fully on His beauty? (97)

Something wonderful often happens when I find myself in this dark season and meditate on the truth that God accepts my brokenness and repentance for not being emotionally broken. My heart starts to come alive a little. I start to bask in His goodness for accepting such a miserable follower. And I slowly rise to that second stage of worship and cry out, “more Lord Jesus, more!” Occasionally he’ll answer with what Newton called “one single glance of his love” and before I know it I’m in passionately worshipping.

It’s comforting to know that no matter where this weary worshipper finds himself the loving embrace of Jesus is right there. That’s enough to cause me to drop the “weary” and just worship.

Should I Let My Son Have a “Jesus” Mii?

Mike Leake 2 Comments

I felt like Athanasius this morning.

My wife and I were attempting to navigate the choppy waters of Trinitarian theology with our five year old son. A couple days ago he discovered the Mii Channel where you can download other mii’s that people have created. One of them was of “Jesus”. He wants to import that mii so that he can play with Jesus.

What is a parent to do?

Isaiah told us that he wanted to download the mii because he loves Jesus and wants Jesus to be able to play the Wii with him. I mean how does that not just melt your heart and make you want to cave? But we didn’t.

Our son had just been learning about the 10 Commandments (thanks to The Gospel Project). And so we started by looking at the one about not making a carved image. I explained to him that the reason we aren’t to do something like that is because God is so much bigger than any picture that we could ever draw. We cannot create something to image God. And we feared that if we had a “Jesus” mii then he would be on the same plane as his SpongeBob mii, his Wolverine mii, and his Isaiah mii.

We also figured that it might be a little silly to have Jesus jumping over barrels, or getting bonked in the head with a big mallet when we played Wii Party. We didn’t want to make Jesus too small in our minds.

But there is that whole incarnation thing…

That all sounds great and theologically sound but it hit me that I probably wasn’t giving enough weight to the incarnation. I want Isaiah to know that Jesus did become a man and does perfectly image God. He did become fully human and so in some way it might be appropriate to give him a mii just like everyone else can have a mii. And is it really so blasphemous to picture our Lord running in a race?

The implications of the incarnation makes things a little more difficult. That Jesus really is fully human and this probably means that he not only enters into the suffering our world but also the joy of it. Maybe Jesus does need a mii.

But I also didn’t want to minimize Jesus. He’s more than something that can be captured on the Wii. I don’t want Jesus to just be one of the guys. He’s more than just “my homeboy”. I want Isaiah to know that Jesus is there with him in every moment and can transform everything even our playing of the Wii.

So at the end of the day mommy and daddy decided against the idea. At the age of five we felt that it’s probably more important to really embed in his mind that Jesus is quantitatively different than everything/everyone else. He’s above it all—even in His incarnation. Isaiah was sad but I think he understood.

What would you have said? Would you let your children have a “Jesus” mii? Why or why not?