Nick Bogardus

mashable: Breaking: Yahoo’s board of directors has approved a...

Sun, 19 May 2013 20:21:52 -0700

Breaking: Yahoo’s board of directors has approved a $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr, according to reports by the Wall Street Journal.

Date night was a blast.

Fri, 17 May 2013 23:42:25 -0700

Date night was a blast.

Found an old pic my brother took of me bottom turning at The...

Wed, 15 May 2013 08:27:05 -0700

Found an old pic my brother took of me bottom turning at The Wedge. Excited for the summer!

One of my favorite covers. Don’t let the super-fan’s...

Thu, 09 May 2013 20:35:00 -0700

One of my favorite covers. Don’t let the super-fan’s singing ruin it for you.

Few pics from 6am @scolesdang class at @teamoyama. They’re...

Thu, 09 May 2013 08:46:26 -0700

Few pics from 6am @scolesdang class at @teamoyama. They’re only blurry because we’re fast. Ha

A much needed reminder.

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:30:50 -0700

A much needed reminder.

The makings of a good night: @kbogardus amazing homemade...

Sat, 04 May 2013 20:26:34 -0700

The makings of a good night: @kbogardus amazing homemade tiramisu & the Gospel.

hurleyclothing: Bob Hurley – Newport Point – October 2, 1991 |...

Fri, 03 May 2013 16:28:50 -0700

hurleyclothing:

Bob Hurley – Newport Point – October 2, 1991 | Photo: Flame

npr: shortformblog: Stephen Wolfram took the statistics from 1...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:00:27 -0700

npr:

shortformblog:

Stephen Wolfram took the statistics from 1 million Facebook users who signed up for Wolfram Alpha’s personal analytics. What he found: Most people on FB tend to get married in their late 20s and early 30s. Oh, and a bunch of other stuff.

Interesting Facebook factoids. — tanya b.

So stoked to be with and teach over 100 @marshilloc men today.

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 09:09:41 -0700

So stoked to be with and teach over 100 @marshilloc men today.

. @Marshilloc guys getting worked by coach @scolesdang &...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:23:44 -0700

. @Marshilloc guys getting worked by coach @scolesdang & then @dailykeller this morning at @teamoyama.

The fruit of the gospel is different from the gospel...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:00:26 -0700

The fruit of the gospel is different from the gospel itself.

C.S. Lewis said, “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth ‘thrown in’: aim at Earth and you will get neither.” Similar juxtapositions have been said about desiring the gifts over the Giver, or redemption over the Redeemer. What you aim for affects what you value, what you measure, the methods you use, and what you emphasize.

It’s important that we aim at the right things, particularly as disciples and church leaders dealing with eternal reality. Considering that most people don’t even learn everything you teach them but just what you’re excited about, this means we gotta get excited about the right things. This distinction is of course important when, in today’s church language, the emphases aren’t necessarily on bad things themselves but good things elevated to primary things. There are many things to get excited about in the church, even really good things. Here’s what happens when you make them your aim:

Aim at transformed lives, and you’ll get self-help.
Aim at transformed cities, and you’ll get social activism.
Aim at emotional response, and you’ll get a momentary experience.
Aim at personal experience, and you’ll get loyal customers.
Aim at being a movement, and you’ll get excitement.

Those are each fine and good, but any secular, Muslim, or Mormon group can do the same things, and so necessarily they don’t define a Jesus-loving church. The fruit of the gospel is different from the gospel itself—that is, Jesus Christ crucified, resurrected, and reigning.

Life transformation without a Savior merely creates a more obedient or friendlier sinner. God, in and through the gospel, does the ultimate transformation of death to life, creating, as Jesus illustrated, a new tree that bears new fruit (Luke 6).

Transformed cities without a Savior are just better organized and friendlier Babels (Gen. 11). God, in and through the gospel, forgives those who once sought power, status, and recognition by using people to love and serve the people and places they live (Titus 3).

An emotional response without a Savior is manipulation and self-serving. God, in and through the gospel, forgives those who seek him only for signs and wonders, and gives them Jesus himself through faith (John 6).

Aim at the preaching of Jesus’ gospel and you get the only true hope of change, the only solid ground for social reform, and the only true joy: God himself.

Aim at repentance and faith in Jesus as Peter and Paul did, and pray that the Holy Spirit brings that long-lasting fruit. The greatest service you can perform, the greatest gift you can give someone, is to help them see their Savior more clearly.

This post originally appeared on The Resurgence.

“He is not disgusted with you.”

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 10:19:09 -0700

“He is not disgusted with you.”

itstactical: German Kampfschwimmer (Special Operations) during...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 16:33:34 -0700

itstactical:

German Kampfschwimmer (Special Operations) during underwater training in the North Sea

Early morning sparring at @teamoyama. Love this time w/...

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 08:52:44 -0700

Early morning sparring at @teamoyama. Love this time w/ @marshilloc guys & @scolesdang

A great, quick read over at Mockingbird. Read the article and...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 12:16:15 -0700

A great, quick read over at Mockingbird. Read the article and then Forde’s On Being a Theologian of the Cross.

“Tiger Woods was nothing if not an “exiled soul” (Forde, it should be noted, takes this chilling term from the philosopher Paul Ricoeur). Reparation needed to be made, and the Nike ad claims that “winning” was the route. Forde’s claim is that Christianity all too often uses this same “exiled soul” story (he calls it “the glory story”) and simply puts the cross in place of victories on the golf course. Still, though, it is “success,” in one form or another, that is required for us to regain our former stature.”

I cannot get this song out of my head. —— I’m...

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 10:07:19 -0700

I cannot get this song out of my head.

——

I’m living in a land of death
the trees are burning grey
there’s a smoldering smoke overhead
and the night looks the same as the day

it seems a miracle that I can stand
when everyone i’ve known
drifts up in the air with the ash
every time that the wind starts to blow

but i feel alive with a life that’s not mine
your law is a stream in this wasteland - my lifeline

Chorus:
so much more than precious gold
are your promises my lord
by them is your servant warned
in keeping them great reward

your direction is marked in light
your law secures my wounds
i will meditate day and night
and in season you’ll harvest your fruit

though a poison should threaten to kill
i know my Savior reigns
and when the breezes of death leave a chill
I’ve got Jesus’ blood in my veins

So i feel alive with a life that’s not mine
and i’m believing that that is your intended design

Chorus
so much more than precious gold
are your promises my lord
by them is your servant warned
in keeping them great reward

The kingdoms of man have all decayed
the ruins of progress turn to waste
the gods of greed lay in their graves
darkness is everywhere
but there’s a path in the dark that has emerged
i can see a great light beyond this curse
a brilliant blaze that is your word
a beacon of hope that burns

and I focus my captivated gaze
on the radiant light from Jesus’ face
the water of life is all i crave
only your word remains

So much more than precious gold
is the beauty I behold
give me the glorious reward
of knowing you my king, my lord

Some light group sparring yesterday at 6am @teamoyama

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 08:40:36 -0700

Some light group sparring yesterday at 6am @teamoyama

Choir ready, baptismal filled, Easter eggs hidden, & Lime...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 08:20:59 -0700

Choir ready, baptismal filled, Easter eggs hidden, & Lime Truck coming. Happy Easter! #mhoc

A writer from USA Today recently asked me to help her with a...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 10:39:35 -0700

A writer from USA Today recently asked me to help her with a story she was doing about Millennials and Easter. Based on seeing a rising number of non-religious people celebrating things like Passover, Lent, and Easter, her angle was whether relationships have become something like a new religion. Below is some of what I wrote to her as a follow up to our conversation.

An Aversion to Definition

In addition to an aversion to an overarching authority or story, I think one other thread I’d tug on in your story is our current aversion to any kind of definition. Particularly when it comes to relationships we see the effect of that clearly in Hanna Rosin’s article, “The End of Men” over at The Atlantic or Kay Hymowitz’s article “Where Have all the Good Men Gone” over at the WSJ that document our culture’s inability to define what it means to be a man or a woman. That lack of definition plays itself out in relationships with little definition or even expectations – dating that equates to ‘hook up, shake up, break up’. It isn’t uncommon to meet couples where the woman has no idea what the man is intending. Does he just want a good time? Does he have a plan for a career? Is marriage on his radar? Where is this all going? Etc The couple can exist like that for years: no definition, no expectations other than companionship.

And of course it makes sense that in the absence of authority or an overarching story, definitions are either lost or tailored to suit. So, to your angle in the story, Easter loses its meaning. It is hollowed out.

Therapeutic god

It would make sense then that we approach God like that as well. If the American god of consumption led Americans to approach God like a shopping mall full of products and services to be rendered, then it follows that the current trend would be to remake God in our image of a cathartic, comfortable companion that has no bearing on our lives. He will reinforce my innate goodness, meet my needs, make no demands of me, and let me define how life should be lived. Ultimately, we turn him in to one of those parents who just wants to be our best friend rather than a parent. To the angle in your story, we impute our own meanings and values in to Easter.

Why Easter is Better

Of course the Gospel of Jesus Christ is infinitely better than that. The cross of Good Friday and the empty tomb of Easter are celebrations that even though we are “more sinful than we ever imagined, we are more loved than we ever dreamed”. By diminishing His authority, our brokenness, and his plan to redeem and restore, we ultimately diminish his love. The cross shows us that true love is costly; Easter proves that it is eternal. Because of that our relationships are free be sacrificial instead of consumptive, defined rather than ambiguous, intentional instead of ambivalent, and vulnerable instead of simply honest. An Easter celebration apart from those incredible truths is just a Sunday brunch.