The Forrest File

Asa and the Newsboys

2009-11-04T22:02:00.001-05:00

There's a song that's fairly popular in the Christian music world by the Newsboys called "In the Hands of God." That song includes, in the main refrain, the following lyric:
"... rest for the restless, and the weary, hope for the sinner..."

Asa is very emphatic on this point, and recognizes this song for this particular lyric, which he sings:
"... rest for the restless, and the wee wee, hope for the sinner..."

What do you do with that?

The Human Genome Project and Christian Theology

2009-10-28T21:52:00.000-05:00

I'm assuming you've heard of the Human Genome Project, the much ballyhooed endeavor to map every strand of human DNA. Much has been made of the potential that could be ours if we could master and manipulate the genetic code. Much of this, of course, is (or would be) great. It is also, however, a humanist's dream. In the words of Fast Company magazine:

It is one of the biggest scientific endeavors in history, premised on the notion that the results can be used to prevent or fix many things, or possibly everything, that ails the human body - from allergies to cancer to aging itself. (emphasis added)

That's heady stuff. In fact, it's no leap to say that what is described here is nothing less than salvation by other means, the fountain of youth, eternal life achieved by our own ingenuity. Think of a world without sickness, without aging (without death?), with a quick fix to any malady.

Well the genome was finally mapped 6-7 years ago. Fast Company, again:

Yes, we've cracked the genome. Experts can identify every one of the 3 billion bases in every micrometer of DNA in any cell in your body. But so far, that has given the medical world no more ability to treat or predict most illness than knowing that Al Qaeda is camped out in Waziristan has allowed the U.S. government to clean up terrorism or predict where it will strike next. In fact, while thousands of links have been cataloged in journals and trumpeted in the media, with precious few exceptions virtually no promising new treatments or even highly useful diagnostics have emerged. And the situation is unlikely to improve anytime soon.

What happened? Well it turns out that these things are pretty messy, complicated, etc. These genetic connections "happen to be hideously convoluted." You can read more about it all in the Fast Company article.

But I suggest that Christian theology/worldview might have something to say about this (it usually does). All of this seems to me to corroborate the doctrine of sin, specifically the idea that the world is completely screwed up because of the Fall, which is to say because of human sin. Allergies and cancer and Parkinson's and aging and death are a part of life on a fallen planet because it has been marred by sin.

That's clearly not an explanation that would satisfy most scientists, operating as they do from a naturalist / secular humanistic worldview and presuppositions. But maybe it might be enough to make a few of them think about it and ask bigger questions. I hope they do cure cancer, but they won't ultimately cheat death. Only one man has done that, so it stands to reason that he'd be the only one to tell us how.

Chick-fil-A on wheat?

2009-10-28T21:02:00.001-05:00

I was amused at Chick-fil-A tonight when the girl taking my order asked if I'd like a wheat bun for my Chick-fil-A sandwich. Because, obviously, the guy ordering a fried chicken sandwich, fries, and a Coke is really into making health-conscious food decisions tonight. Was it an attempt to assuage my guilt? Could I take some shred of dignity and self-satisfaction away from my fast food meal because I boldly proclaimed my preference for the wheat bun? Or were they merely trying to squeeze another 20 cents out of me?

Alas, it turns out I made the responsible decision and opted for the wheat. The sandwich wasn't quite as tasty, but I took my stand for my health, right?

Lydia Grace

2009-06-11T16:14:00.003-05:00

Lydia Grace Forrest (or, as Asa calls her, Lydia Grace Speedy Forrest) was born this morning at 7:45. The delivery was mostly good and incident free. Everyone is doing well. Yes this is a low-res picture from my phone, but it's all that I've uploaded thus far. I'll load up Flikr later.

The Boys' Weekend

2009-06-07T21:18:00.003-05:00

A couple funny kid items from the weekend:

* Asa learned to play musical chairs in his class at church this morning. They played twice and he was, according to the teachers, the first one out both times. Evidently he was basically willing to give up his seat for the other kids who wanted it. That's both pitiful, funny, and endearing all at once.

* This evening we had some friends over (Matt and Anna M). They have served as babysitters for us on numerous ocassions. Asa was excited to see them (he'd been anticipating their arrival all afternoon). Eli, however, had a different response. As soon as he saw them walk in, he stood up, began sobbing, said "Mama" and went straight to Keri to hold on to her. He thought for sure we must be leaving. Again, pitiful and funny at the same time. (Not surprisingly, the thing that finally broke his mood was his favorite thing in the world: reading "Go Dog Go.")

* Asa was inspired by the French Open (Roger Federer specifically) to play a little tennis. So we got my racquetball racket out (about the right size, for now anyway) and began teaching him a bit in the driveway. Not surprisingly, he took to it fairly well. He does conflate his sports a bit. He was confusing tennis with baseball a little bit (the way he'd get into a stance and ready to swing), and then he'd say "Throw it to me, I'm open" - so football is up there somewhere too.

* We enjoyed a few minutes of MLS Futbol on Telemundo again this afternoon (we've done that a few Sundays). We all enjoy it when someone scores and the announcer (along with us) calls "Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!"

Death of a Blog? Nah... Perhaps a New Start

2009-06-04T21:37:00.005-05:00

There was a time when my job afforded me lots of dead time in front of a computer screen waiting on customers to enter a store. So I started a blog and blogged a lot. I was into it and was, for a little while, getting 100 hits a day or thereabouts. There was politics (national and denominational), culture/worldviewish stuff I was studying, etc.

Happily, I don't have that job anymore. Now I don't have the time and, frankly, I'm not sure I have anything all that interesting to say. And even if I did, I'm not sure that anyone is here to read it! It seems that blogs in general aren't what they once were. Sure there are some big-time blogs that emerged at the right time with the right content and achieved a wide readership.

So I've thought about killing this thing. But I won't.

Instead, I'm going to be more intentional in making it the Forrest Family Blog. I'll use it to post funny anecdotes and quotes from the kids and that sort of thing. I may put occasional pictures on it, but really I'll utilize Flickr for that since I ponied up the $25/year to do so (and since it is a much better format for photos). Thought about changing the URL to something like ForrestFamily... but for now I already have this one, and there's plenty of family stuff mixed in with the first five years of this blog.

The timing is good... Lydia Grace will likely be here in about 10 days. Here we go...

This and that

2009-06-04T21:30:00.000-05:00

A few random things that have been going on...

* Eli cannot get enough of "Go Dog Go" - and who can blame him? It's got lots of dogs and they often drive cars. He talks his way through it... sort of. "Ah-Ah" for dog. "Guh dah guh" is the title. "heh-wo" in a very high pitched voice when the girl dog greets the guy dog and asks if he likes her hat. You get the idea...

* Asa had to get an impromptu shower one morning this week after slipping into the potty... after the fact...

* Asa has been up 3 nights in a row with nightmares. He's scared of the dark for some reason. And once he has a nightmare, he cannot stand to remain in his room. And we've long since passed the point in pregnancy when we have room for him in ours. So I stagger out of bed and manage to get him set up on the couch. It's really a bit frustrating - we need to be sleeping these final pre-newborn days.

2009-05-30T13:55:00.002-05:00

"You need to get your shoes, big guy."

-- Asa, to me as we're leaving the house a couple weeks ago.

Photoblog Updated

2008-12-22T16:22:00.006-05:00

If you're curious, I've posted a bunch of pictures on my photoblog. There are family pictures (mostly the boys) and a number of scenic-type pictures (me having some fun with the camera). The date of each post is an approximation of when the photo was taken, but everything on the first page was uploaded in the last week or so. It's a handy way of backing up and sharing photos.

Good Music

2008-12-19T17:19:00.000-05:00

Let's mark March 3 on the calendar! It will likely be a good day for music fans.

Stott on responsibility for the death of Christ

2008-12-15T22:39:00.004-05:00

John Stott reminds us that, though it is easy to cast blame and look with incredulity upon the likes of Pilate, the Sanhedrin, and Judas, ultimately we are equally responsible for the death of Jesus.

"We may try to wash our hands of responsibility like Pilate. But our attempt will be as futile as his. For there is blood on our hands. Before we can begin to see the cross as someting done for us (leading to faith and worship), we have to see it as something done by us (leading to repentance). Indeed, 'only the man who is prepared to own his share in the guilt of the cross,' wrote Canon Peter Green, 'may claim his share in its grace.'"

Yet there is one who is ultimately responsible for the death of Jesus: God Himself. The Father gave Jesus up to die on the cross. Jesus, for his part, willingly gave himself up to death in obedience to the Father.

"As we face the cross," Stott concludes, "we can say to ourselves both, 'I did it, my sins sent him there,' and 'He did it, his love took him there.'"

-- John Stott, The Cross of Christ, 63-64

An amusing anecdote

2008-12-05T22:47:00.002-05:00

The story is a bit unseemly, but I can't help but record it for posterity. As I tried to persuade him to try to go to the bathroom before bed, Asa, with his pants at his ankles, pointed to his backside and informed me, "The poo poo is asleep in my bottom."

Asa and the Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

2008-11-11T21:35:00.004-05:00

A little anecdote worth recording for posterity...

During a recent weekend visit at my parents' house, my mom was putting Asa in bed for a nap and told him a fairly well known story about monkeys jumping in the bed:

"Five little monkeys jumping on the bed,
one fell off and bumped his head
Mama called the doctor, and the doctor said,
"No more monkeys jumping on the bed"

Four... Three... etc.

As she finished the story, Asa looked at my mom somewhat quizzically and said: "That doctor must have been very frustrated." (pronounced 'bery brustrated' - it will be a bittersweet day when he begins to properly pronounce the letter f.

Jesus' Perspective on the Cross

2008-11-10T23:28:00.001-05:00

"So then, although he knew he must die, it was not because he was the helpless victim either of evil forces arrayed against him or of any inflexible fate decreed for him, but because he freely embraced the purpose of his Father for the salvation of sinners, as it had been revealed in Scripture. This was the perspective of Jesus on his death."

-- John Stott, The Cross of Christ, 37

Packer on the Old Gospel vs. the New Gospel

2008-11-09T23:27:00.000-05:00

According to J.I. Packer, "one of the most urgent tasks facing evangelical Christendom today [is] the recovery of the gospel." He explains this statement, saying, "Without realizing it, we have during the past century bartered [the biblical gospel] for a substitute product which, though it looks similar enough in points of detail, is as a whole a decidedly different thing." He then provides a helpful, if devastating critique of what he means, some of which is quoted below. The amazing thing is that he was writing nearly 50 years ago. If it was true then, it is probably more true now.

His chief critique of the "new gospel" of our age is that it

"fails to make men God-centered in their thoughts and God-fearing in their hearts because this is not primarily what it is trying to do... it is too exclusively concerned to be 'helpful' to man -- to bring peace, comfort, happiness, satisfaction -- and too little concerned to glorify God. The old gospel... was always and essentially a proclamation of divine sovereignty in mercy and judgment, a summons to bow down and worship the mighty Lord on whom man depends for all good, both in nature and in grace. Its center of reference was unambigulously God. But in the new gospel the center of reference is man."

In practice, the new gospel results in flawed evangelism, a diminished view of God, and an elevated view of the part we plan in our redemption. Packer writes:

"Thus, we appeal to men as if they all had the ability to receive Christ at any time; we speak of his redeeming work as if he had done no more by dying than make it possible for us to save ourselves by believing; we speak of God's love as if it were no more than a general willingness to receive any who will turn and trust; and we depict the Father and the Son, not as sovereignly active in drawing sinners to themselves, but as waiting in quiet impotence 'at the door of our hearts' for us to let them in."

Packer was arguing, fifty years ago, that the answer to what ails evangelicalism, is a return to the biblical, God-centered gospel in preaching and practice. This is true for evangelicalism as a whole, but also for individual Christians and churches.

Quotes from JI Packer, In My Place Condemned He Stood, 114-115 (This book is a compendium of several previously published writings.)

A Biblical Perspective on the Election

2008-11-03T21:39:00.000-05:00

The Benefits of Gratitude

2008-10-28T18:22:00.000-05:00

In a brief but interesting article in Fast Company a couple months ago, the authors tout the importance of giving employees the opportunity to receive positive feedback from the people who ultimately wind up using and benefiting from their work. They argue that it benefits not only the employee, but the customer who wants to express gratitude. I found the following excerpt particularly interesting:

In her book The How of Happiness, Sonja Lyubomirsky, a professor at the University of California, Riverside, describes a dozen scientifically proven strategies to make yourself happier. The first? Expressing gratitude.
In one study, researchers asked a group of people to make a list, once a week for 10 weeks, of five things they were thankful for. Other groups in the study wrote different kinds of weekly lists, such as "five major events" or "five hassles." The "thankful" group felt more happiness, excitement, and joy than the other groups. They even reported better physical health -- fewer headaches and coughs.

Another study found that making a "gratitude visit" -- writing and delivering a letter to someone who was kind to you but whom you had never thanked, such as the friend who suggested it was time to ditch the trucker hat -- caused people's happiness to spike for a full month afterward.

Here is yet another instance of a biblical principle that "works" in real life. Should we cultivate gratitude, then, because we'll feel better and thus benefit? Of course not. That would be something other than real gratitude, which is focused not on self but on another. Real gratitude certainly hangs out with its buddy humility in recognizing that one is not self-sufficient. But it's just interesting to find "proof" that it also engenders joy all around.

The Richt Family on Adoption

2008-10-27T17:44:00.000-05:00

4 Ways to Save Money on Health Insurance

2008-10-18T13:56:00.003-05:00

I don't tend to blog about work (I do that here), but thought I'd make an exception to that rule today. I'm an independent insurance broker serving individuals and small employers in Georgia and South Carolina specializing in health and term life insurance. In an uncertain economic climate, there's a good chance you can save some money in your family budget by taking a closer look at your health insurance situation. Here are three ways you could save money:

1. The most obvious way you can lower your insurance premium (and here we're talking about any kind of insurance, health, auto, etc.) is by raising your deductible. Depending on your age, the size of your family, and other variables, you could realize significant savings by taking this one step. If you're relatively healthy, it's something you really should consider.

2. Of course you can also compare your current plan with other insurance providers. You might find a similar plan at a more competitive price with another carrier.

3. You might also look to see if there are optional benefits or supplemental policies that you could do without, which would obviously result in a little breathing room in your budget.

4. If you're covered through your employer, you may be paying a pretty good chunk of change for coverage for your dependents. (You may not, but this is worth checking). If that's the case, and your family is fairly healthy, you might be able to realize significant savings by dropping them from the group plan and picking up separate individual coverage for them because it's typically cheaper.

Of course we'd be ready, willing, and able to help you explore these and other options to help you save money and maintain good health insurance coverage. See our website for more info.

BP Sports

2008-10-14T20:36:00.004-05:00

I meant to link to it here earlier, but last month I wrote a little piece for Baptist Press Sports.

Potty Time

2008-08-24T14:21:00.003-05:00

A couple weeks ago we embarked (again) on the adventure of potty training. This time we meant business. Keri basically put Asa into some big-boy underwear, put a towel or something underneath him on the couch, and told him that it was time to use the potty if he had to do any business. Asa soon discovered that it's uncomfortable to go anywhere else when not diapered, while simultanously learning that big-boy underwear are, when dry, more comfortable than diapers. The (in?)famous Elmo's Potty Time video underscored the message.

The clincher? The promise of a Thomas the Train sticker for every successful potty experience. The time will come when we can only wish that a little sticker was enough motivation, but at just under three years old, that's pretty darn cool.

The process was remarkably quick, to be honest. About a week in Asa was rocking and rolling, and had moved on to Curious George stickers donated to the cause by equally eager grandparents. Trips to the potty became cause for great to-do and celebration. At present, we've been accident-free for over a week. And we're saving serious moolah too.

Bridges on Grace

2008-08-09T20:57:00.001-05:00

Jerry Bridges, in writing about the misconceptions that people have about grace, says: "The statement that 'God's approval does not have to be earned but is simply there' is not true. God's approval does have to be earned. But the gospel tells us that His approval was earned for us by Jesus Christ in His sinless life and sin-bearing death. It is true that God's favor does not have to be earned by us. In fact, it cannot be earned by us. But it comes to us without earning because Jesus paid for it in our place as our substitute."

Bridges then provides a very good and succinct definition of grace:

"Grace is God's favor through Christ to people who deserve His disfavor."

Jerry Bridges, Growing Your Faith, 18-19

Athens

2008-08-07T22:26:00.002-05:00

Last Sunday I had the unexpected opportunity to preach at Crossway Fellowship, the Sovereign Grace church in Athens, GA. As I told them, I was a stand in for the stand in while their pastor was away. It was a last-minute opportunity that I was at once excited and stressed about. I preached the 1 Peter message I preached in our church two months ago. In my view it was adequate not great, but the people were very encouraging and it seems that, in God's providence, the text and message spoke into a number of people's present circumstances, so I'm very grateful.

We had a wonderful time there. The people just blew us away with their earnest warmth and hospitality. The fellowship was rich and fun - it was as if we'd been there a long time. We left feeling full in a good way (and also full because of a fun lunch at Barberito's after the meeting).

It was the first time I'd been in Athens in probably a decade. I spent a decent amount of time there for various reasons as a teenager, but not lately. It's still a quintessential college town, but there is noticeable and significant growth (I'd heard that, but it was still interesting to see). It is not just a college town anymore. Keri had never been, so it was nice to show her around a bit - including driving around UGA and letting her see Sanford Stadium. (Football season is approaching fast and we all know who's ranked #1!).

A few more photos

2008-07-14T21:34:00.004-05:00

There are, of course, many more photos. I hope to find time to put a bunch of them on the photoblog over the next week or so, but these will suffice for now.

Baptism & Testimonies

2008-07-13T21:53:00.001-05:00

Imagine that you're staying at the Marriott for the weekend, and on Sunday morning you decide to head down to the pool. Then imagine that a couple hundred people gather around the pool and 18 of them are baptized in the shallow end. That was the scene Sunday morning as our weekly meeting included a fun time at the pool witnessing so many baptisms. I enjoyed seeing fathers baptize their teenage kids and couldn't help but think about the day when I hope to do the same.

It was also nice to hear the testimonies of a few of the people participating - there was unfortunately not time to hear all of them. I just read a rather remarkable story that we were not able to hear. It's worth the read.