Rick Nier...Woo!

With the New Year upon us, it means that we are in the season of ranking things. From shows that will rank the top plays in sports to newspapers that will rank the top people for the year. Then the bloggers will rank everything else under the sun, even their own blogs. I saw a show the other night ranking the best commercials for 2010. (I taped it so I could fast forward through the commercials.) Since I fancy myself to be in the top 10 of pastors currently at our church, I thought I might offer some thoughts on this trend of ranking everything in life. I was thinking back through the books I have read this year. I started keeping track using an online tool where people can connect and discuss books together. (You can connect with me here .) One of the books I read was called Angels by David Jeremiah. Since they are special messengers from God and have wings, I think I always assumed angels to be cooler than man. It’s mainly the wings since man is also a messenger of God. I’m not

One does not have to ever look at a calendar to know that a new year is upon us. You only have to watch for the Top 10 lists. Each year we are inundated with lists ranking people, music, shows, planets, species, colors and anything else you can imagine. I even found the following online. Top 10 Dumbest Online Business Ideas That Made It Big Time Top 10 Facts About Top 10 Facts The Top 10 Weirdest USB Drives Ever I'm really excited about that last one. I was concerned that I might never know which USB drive ranked #1 on the weirdness scale. Despite our need to rank and rate everything, I do think this time of year comes with a benefit. The fact is that another year has gone by. We won't get 2010 back no matter how much we may want another shot. The turning of the calendar forces us to look forward. I've entered new years with moderate success. Sometimes I make no list at all. Other years I have made a list that would rival any government document. This year I believe I will

It was 6 months into what my wife would call her golden age of doing dishes. It was the first time in her life that she had ever owned a dishwasher. If anyone can wear certain parts of domestication like a Girl Scout patch, it was this. 'Watch as I do the dishes at the push of a button,' she'd sing. Sometimes she'd simply stare at the machine while it did the work, then look at me condescendingly and ask me why I wasn't working as hard as the machine. She wasn't alone in enjoying this piece of technology. I wasn't exactly reminiscing the days when the only help I got with the dishes was in midget form. But that was when my daughter shocked me. She said that she didn't like the dishwasher and she missed doing the dishes with me. (Seriously, what are they teaching kids these days?) Missed doing the dishes? Missed it? I'm wondering which part she missed. Was it the scolding I would give her when she would become wetter than the dishes she was rinsing? W

When I was a student in middle school, my second biggest fear was that I would finish a big assignment, only to learn I had missed something. (My biggest fear was that I'd wake up and find myself running naked through the hallway just as all the classes were released.) Imagine putting in weeks worth of work, staying up late, kissing any social life I never had good-bye and working countless hours, only to find out you had missed an important part of the assignment. Certainly you've felt that sinking feeling in your stomach that indicates hope has just left the building and he did not take his key with him. Now imagine that fear applied to your entire life. Have you ever wondered if you had heard all the Bible stories and were still missing...something? If you have ever feared the reaction of an over-zealous teacher who had nothing better to do with her weekend than read your essays, imagine getting to the end of your life and hearing from God that you had missed the most import

Joshua is probably best known as the guy who followed Moses. And how do you follow something like the Exodus? By opening a can and owning the Promised Land. People hear Joshua and they think Jericho. I have to admit, it's good stuff. But there was way more to Josh's life than shouting his way to victory. 40 years before he rocked all over Jericho, he was being outvoted and sent back into the desert. Much like B.A. Baraccus and the rest of the A-Team, he was forced to wander for a crime he did not commit. I hadn't really thought before about how up and down his life was. He was on the verge of entering the Promised Land and then was pulled back to a nomadic lifestyle. I often have a flare for the dramatic. When I dream, I like to dream big. But there are people who make me wonder if perhaps I dream too small. Maybe I don't have enough faith in God. What if I continually make Him to be small, or place Him in a box, or...or....choose your very own overused sentiment? Yeah,

Have you ever felt like life was treating you poorly? Maybe you've been in class when the teacher decides to punish the whole class for the wrong doing of one student. My kids have cried foul this year as teachers would not release a class to recess until everybody was quiet. (Where are these kids who talk more than my own?) Life can get that way. It beats you up and then goes on its merry way. The righteous suffer while the unrighteous seem to continue on without a care. That's nothing new. People have been crying 'no fair' for a long time. (Check out Job 35:9-16). If someone could understand, then I believe it was Paul. This guy had been on both ends of this situation. When he was doing wrong, he seemed to succeed. Now that he was giving his life for Jesus, bad things seemed to follow him like stink follows a county fair. Paul was arrested because a bunch of people were beating him up. (Acts 21:31-36) How does that seem fair? Did the Romans feel Paul had it coming

Let me give you a typical conversation at the Nier household. Jennifer will be cooking supper and I will be calling the children to wash up, an activity that resembles herding kittens. I will go to our 4-year-old and say that it is time for supper. She will respond, 'I don't want anything icky.' The amount of trust that our children give us is mind-numbing. But since I know which foods get defined as icky and which foods get eaten, I measure my response. I will explain to her that she should trust that her parents will only give her good food to eat, but she has seen too much broccoli to believe that. She has her own version of truth and will not allow my perception to warp her reality. Such is the case with Jesus and some Jews that we're told 'had believed him' (John 8:31). The conversation starts out innocently, with Jesus offering them freedom. Jesus breaks it down for them, even telling them why they are ready to kill Him. 'You have no room for my word&#

I could endanger myself writing such blasphemous words here in Indiana, but I think the Indianapolis Colts may not make the playoffs. To redeem myself in the eyes of Manning-fans the state over, I'll add that if they make the playoffs, I would not doubt their ability to win. But this is a far cry from how Colts fans have talked for the past decade. The words have always been 'when the Colts make the playoffs.' But not this year. This year is if , not when . That's an important distinction, I think. It is one we as Christians would be wise to consider when reading the Bible. There are many times that we find an expectation written down that we treat as a choice. The Sermon on the Mount comes to mind as I think of Jesus' words of instruction concerning 'when' we pray, fast and give. That's an expectation from God Himself that we would be praying, fasting and giving. I came across another verse that is written less as a command but would be good of us to co

"Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." James 4:17 I don't know about you, but for me, that sounds like a call to action. This is so much more than your parents asking you to make your bed or your boss asking you to take out the trash. This is an opportunity to open our eyes to a world of need that exists beyond our finely crafted bubbles. Have you ever been in a dark room when someone suddenly turns on a light? That may be the uncomfortable feeling you get here when you see what has been hiding in the dark. You may find yourself rubbing your eyes and needing to take a second look at what you see. But once you have seen, will what you see impact your heart? Compassion takes courage. Courage to do the right thing for the right reason. So what do you have the courage to do? Hopefully it's more than killing the spiders when the women in your life call for help. Being a hero is much more than putting on spandex and flying around the

I was recently given Chasing Francis by Ian Cron to review. When reading that it was about St Francis of Assisi, I figured it might be interesting. And I was not disappointed. This is novel meets history. And I enjoyed both aspects greatly. Here was the description; In his debut work, Cron shares a Franciscan vision for the postmodern church. The book is a story about a disillusioned pastor whose faith is restored by the teachings of St. Francis during a pilgrimage to Italy. “St. Francis is the consummate saint for the times we live in,” claims Cron, who came to know about St. Francis’s life at the height of a spiritual crisis. “He was the first environmentalist whose theology of creation is still unparalleled, a Christian activist who radically identified with the poor and oppressed. He led the first transcontinental peace delegation to make peace with Muslims during the Crusades. He worshiped with all the abandon of a Pentecostal, saw the world through the eyes of a mystic, prayed l