An Idiot’s Guide to Week 5 #NFL Predictions

Mike Leake

Once again I proved myself an idiot.  I had the wrong MNF QB bathing in tears and needing a pacifier.  I only got 7 of the games correct.  Josh Gordon had a measly 16 yards.  The Titans did nothing close to upsetting the Texans and Jacquizz Rodgers showed why he’s still a backup.  I was correct about the Tebow chants beginning.  I nearly called the Browns upset.  I was right about Peyton’s bounceback game.  Sproles wasn’t horrible but wasn’t a stud.  But all in all I’m still an idiot and as one commenter pointed out I’m a false football prophet.  So here are your bad burrito picks for week 5.

Cardinals over Rams (missed FG in the 4th quarter)
Bengals over Dolphins
Packers over Colts
Ravens over Chiefs
Browns over Giants (upset of the week…it’s coming just you wait)
Steelers over Eagles
Falcons over Redskins
Seahawks over Panthers (4 turnovers for Cam Newton)
Jaguars over Bears (Cutler can’t put together two solid starts)
Titans over Vikings
Patriots over Broncos
49ers over Bills (but I want to pick a Bills upset)
Saints over Chargers
Texans over Jets

Fantasy Stud of the Week: Drew Brees (5 TD’s and over 400 yards)
Fantasy Sleeper of the Week: Brandon Weeden

Other Crazy Picks:

That missed FG for Greg Zuerlein is a 56 yarder
Matt Hasselbeck makes Tennessee fans ask “Jake, who?”
Peyton Manning throws a couple of really bad picks
The Tebow chants continue after Sanchez’s 4 turnovers
Brady Quinn throws at least 10 passes
Brandon Weeden throws for 350 yards and 3 TD’s
Mendenhall gets 2 TD’s in his return

4 Questions With Tim Challies

Mike Leake 1 Comment

On September 25th, 2012 Tim Challies celebrated his 10 year blogging anniversary.  If you’ve read Christian book reviews in the past ten years chances are one of them was that of Challies.  He has been a staple in my blogging diet from the first day that I started tracking blogs daily.  Challies and Justin Taylor (JT) are foundational bloggers in the Young, Restless, and Reformed movement.  On that day Tim shared a little about the history of his  blog.  He also agreed to answer 4 questions about his blog and blogging in general.  If you are a blogger you’ll benefit from reading Tim’s answers. 

What have been some of your greatest joys in 10 years of blogging?

Let me give one that is personal and one that is outward.

On a personal level, the greatest joy has been the benefit of daily writing. Though I don’t wake up every day just longing to sit down and write, in the end I’m always grateful that I’ve taken the time to pause, collect my thoughts, and write something. Anything. I can chart my personal and spiritual growth through blog posts; it really is a large part of my discipline of meditation. So personally, or selfishly, the joy has been in using blogging as a means to drive home truth.

In an outward sense, one of the greatest joys has been in meeting so many like-minded people. Some of those I’ve met face-to-face and others i’ve met only digitally. Whether I’m sending an email or traveling across town or traveling across the world, my life is much richer for having met so many interesting people and having begun so many friendships.

What has been one of your biggest disappointments?

I had to think about this one for a little while. I suppose the biggest disappointments are related to my  own sin. The biggest disappointments have consistently been related to readership. When I had 100 readers I wanted 1,000; when I had 1,000 readers I wanted 10,000. Perhaps the real disappointment is that I’ve often looked to what God hasn’t given me rather than marveling at and enjoying what he has provided. Another disappointment has been seeing my own desire to use my site as a forum for gossip or a place where I neglect to tame my tongue (or keyboard, as the case may be). A public forum provides a place to sin publicly. I’ve misused this platform too often.

When and how did your blog take off?

I don’t know that the site ever “took off” in the sense of suddenly surging in the number of regular visitors. Instead it has been a slow and gradual build over ten years.

I have often gotten bumps in the number of visitors when I’ve interacted with the big issues of the day. When The Purpose Driven Life was all the rage, I happened to be blogging through it day-by-day. When The Passion of the Christ was being pitched to churches as the greatest opportunity for evangelism since Pentecost, I wrote a review. The Shack, 90 Minutes in Heaven, Heaven is for Real–in so many cases I’ve tried to interact with what is popular in the Christian world and this has drawn in people who are interested in learning what these things are all about. Some of those people then stick around and become regular readers.

I guess the blog has been a parable of most things in life in that the growth has come through long hours and hard work. It has never come easily.

If someone were registering a blog for the very first time today, what advice would you give him/her? 

I would tell him that he should blog first and foremost for his own benefit. I don’t mean for that to sound selfish! Here’s the thing: blogging can be a great joy if you are content to keep writing regardless of whether anyone else reads along. When you can do this, you can avoid being driven by the numbers of visitors and you can avoid the allure of writing very pragmatically, choosing what you write about only because you think it will generate buzz. If you can be content with blogging for an audience of one, you will find much more contentment in blogging for an audience of one hundred or one million.

After all of this, I would tell him to identify a niche–an area where the blogosphere is underserved–and to work toward building authority in a narrow sphere rather than a wide sphere.

And then I would tell him to stop thinking about blogging and to just get writing. Too many people waste weeks perfecting a design and trying to get people to notice them when they should just be writing, writing and writing.

Very sound advice.  Thanks for doing the interview, Tim.  And I pray that the Lord continues to bless your ministry and that we get to enjoy reading from Challies every day until the Lord calls you home or returns. 

Today in Blogworld 10.04.12

Mike Leake 2 Comments

Leadership Lessons from R.A. Dickey

Since reading his autobiography I’ve been a fan of R.A. Dickey.  I appreciate this article on leadership lessons that we can learn from the Mets pitcher.  (HT: Challies)  I also agree with Challies that this is a biography that you need to buy. 

How Biblical is Biblical Counseling

David Murray, author of Christians Get Depressed Too, asks a very important question of biblical counseling.  Murray is a guy that you need to listen to on this topic. 

The Strengths and Weaknesses of Working from Home

Personally, I couldn’t do it.  I’m not disciplined enough to not get distracted while at home.  That is especially true if my kiddos were here—not sure I could work instead of play with them.  Trevin weights the pros and cons of working at home.  Interesting thoughts. 

7 Marks of Healthy Small Groups

Rick Warren, writing for The Resurgence, looks at seven marks of healthy small groups.  Think what you will about Warren and Saddleback but they have a very healthy small group program. 

Looks like something I’d do, OUCH!

10 Reasons Why The YRR Crowd Digs the Puritans

Mike Leake

Last week Anthony Bradley asked a really great question on Twitter, “Why do the YRR like the Puritans so much”.  (It was something similar to that).  I offered a quick answer that it’s because we love the gospel and the Puritans are gospel-rich.  That was probably too simplistic of an answer but sometimes it’s hard to really not be on Twitter. 

Today I hope to expand on that answer.  Rather than just straight up list 10 reasons why the YRR (Young Restless and Reformed) crowd loves the Puritans I want to make a sort of progressive list. 

Why do the YRR love the Puritans?

Or how did we start loving the Puritans?

1. Because Mark Dever does.

What I mean by that is that within YRR circles there are several leaders (see T4G) that we really admire.  Though often it brings the accusation of hero worship, I think for the most part it’s that God is really moving in our generation and they feed us Jesus.  So we look up to them because they bless us in Christ.  So, it’s only natural then that we start reading the things that they suggest we read.  Couple this with the fact that one of Dever’s aims is to get solid books into peoples hands (and often for free at conferences and such) and you see how we started liking the Puritans.

2. Because J.I. Packer and others did

If Dever and the T4G crowd don’t introduce you directly to the Puritans you’ll eventually get introduced to them by J.I. Packer and Martin Lloyd-Jones.  Puritan-love has been going on pretty strong since the 1950’s.  If you are young, restless, reformed and love to read you’ll either get introduced through the Puritans by the T4G crowd or MLJ (and probably both).  When all these dear men of God are rockin’ out to the Puritans why shouldn’t you.

3. Banner of Truth

When you have a publishing company churning out books from the Puritans for under 10 bucks and you’ve got guys like Timmy Brister doing a Puritan Reading Challenge then it’s only inevitable that we’ll start reading the Puritans. 

But why do you love them so much when you do read them?

4. We Aren’t Turned Off By Their Reformed Theology

Though a good chunk of the YRR crowd are Baptists and don’t agree with their infant baptism and aspects of their Covenant theology we aren’t turned off by the Calvinism of their Reformed Theology.  That means that we don’t stumble over that and have a bad taste in our mouth from their unashamed Calvinism.  So we are left to enjoy…

5. Their gospel-centrality

This goes back to my original answer.  The Puritans are gospel rich.  Seriously, if you embrace Reformed theology then you will not trip over their expositions of the gospel.  You’ll revel in them.  You’ll rejoice as John Bunyan reflects on the gospel promises and as he waxes on about the excellencies of Christ.  These dudes had a way of bringing everything back to Jesus. 

6. Their big view of God

The YRR crowd has a very big view of God.  Hopefully, nobody sees that as a bad thing.  So did the Puritans.  We have a shared vision of God.  Piper is just an Edwardsean Puritan with a microphone.  If you love Piper you’ll love the Puritans—so long as you are okay with the labor of reading them.

7. Their practical theology

Though often presented as pie-in-the-sky theologians arguing about angels dancing on the heads of pins and what exactly constitutes a witch, the Puritans were immensely practical.  Occasionally as we reflect on the bigness of God we are left wondering how to put into practice the theology that we are growing to embrace.  The Puritans helps with that and we love it. 

Sure, but there are other groups of people that have a big view of God, love the gospel, and will give you practical theology.  So is it just their Reformed theology or is there something else?  Some cultural similarity perhaps?

8. They were underdogs like us

This may only apply to the Baptist brand of the YRR crowd but we are underdogs.  The majority of people in the SBC (and other Baptist groups) are not Calvinists.  They aren’t necessarily militant non-Calvinists but they aren’t Calvinists either.  We are underdogs.  So were the Puritans.  We share an affinity with them.

9. They were a reform movement like us

The Puritans were passionate about reforming stale and stagnating church.  We live in an era much like the Puritans that might claim to be Protestant but we are filled with stale and stagnant churches too.  When the Puritans preach passionately about this it stirs us, exhorts us, and comforts us.  As they preach to awaken “sleeping and stupid sinners” they spur us on to do the same with a bold confidence that God can raise up these dry bones.

10. They were physicians of the soul in a hurting culture

They ministered in an era with such maladies as the plague.  They ministered to suffering people.  So do we.  The Puritans were some of the first people to talk about depression (fits of melancholy).  As we minister to hurting people the Puritans are a gold-mine to applying gospel-rich and God-centered theology to the lives of broken and hurting saints. 

But if I’m being honest it’s really…

They had cool hats and awesome beards.