The Threads Blog

When you are driving down the road and you look out your window at the ground you are passing by what does it look like? If you are normal, then it looks like a giant blur with some pieces looking noticeable but mostly everything is simply passing by so fast you have trouble recognizing it. When a car pulls beside you and is moving the same direction at the same speed as you are, what do you see? Unfortunately, you get to see too much. Either you see someone driving while texting which is a disaster waiting to happen, you may see them singing along to their favorite song which is always funny, or you make eye contact and awkwardly snap your head back around and pretend you were not looking. Whatever you see when you glance over, the thing is you can see each other as if you were not moving at all.

Just wrapped up the audio recording for the Collegiate Preview video with Valerie. Collegiate has joined the Threads family and is new for the Fall ‘08 issue. Make sure to watch threadsmedia.com in the next few weeks so you can check out the Collegiate video!

There, I said it. It’s out in the open, much as my wife would like for it to be concealed. I’m a magic junkie. If there’s a magician on TV, I’m watching it. And if there’s a magic show in town, I’m going to bend over backwards to see it. Once I bought a magic kit for $40 and I practiced. A lot. I carried around for a number of years some very thin twine in my wallet because you never know when you’re going to need to make a dollar bill float in the air.

One girl in the back asked if you could get married in heaven. Of course, with all my theological training, I gave her the straightforward answer I figured was right, “No!” I went on to explain that it wouldn’t matter because you’ll be in heaven worshiping Jesus and that would be fully satisfying, and you wouldn’t worry about anything else. Well, I figured I had done a great job dealing with that one when she began crying out loud. Of course this left me dumbfounded. I immediately replayed the last few minutes in my head and was sure I hadn’t said anything to make her cry, so I wrapped everything up and dismissed the group so I could handle this new situation. When I asked her why she was so upset her answer blew me away. She said, “If I die before I get married then I will be single for all of eternity.”

Adam stopped by our offices last week, and I got this quick video of him talking about the new study that he is writing for us. Adam has a great message about first culture Christianity and seeing the world through the lens of Christ. I hope you enjoy this sneak peak into Red Revolution, which releases this fall.

After full day of church-related activity, I found myself in need of food at 9 p.m. Sunday. I rolled over to Burger King, got myself a Steakhouse Burger and found something that changed my life. In the top of my sack, there was a note with my reason for being able to purchase this fine sandwich. According to BK, I am now the Keeper of the Eternal Flame of Hope.

I just gave my wife a Pandora bracelet, guys if you don’t know what this is you should so look it up, and two charms for her birthday. It was the really big birthday in between 20 and 40 but I will let you guess the exact number. It was not a huge gift by any means, but for me it was pretty big. She is totally excited about it right now, but how would I feel if in three weeks I find it laying around the house and she has tossed it aside for something else? Very angry I can promise you. I would probably take it away and sell it on E-Bay or something. Yet everyday I do things that must look the same way to Christ.

As I was talking to Michael Kelley this week, we were discussing how Apple is currently taking over the computer industry. We checked out the new “mobile me” system Apple has created. If you have not checked it out, it is quite fascinating. Just go to me.com and see how they are syncing everything together. We both kinda joked that maybe Steve Jobs was the antichrist. People are amazed by his “powers” and the Apple logo is found everywhere now. Even though we were totally joking, it is this type of figure that appears to be portrayed as the antichrist. Not necessarily the evil monster we sometimes think, but rather a beautiful person with amazing power and charisma.

We have the great privilege here at Threads of working with some incredible authors. These men and women are part of our team, and part of our lives. Through working on their studies, we’ve gotten to know them well—and maybe you want that chance, too.

That’s why next week there’s a chance for you to talk with Threads authors through a cool video chat tool called Oovoo. This virtual coffee break is an opportunity for you to have a real conversation with folks like Mark Batterson, Jen Hatmaker, Todd Phillips, or myself. You can ask questions or just spend some time getting to know us.

Of all the titles this month, this one bothers me the most and also expresses how so many people truly feel. Guess what? Jesus is absolutely not the copilot. In our culture we’ve relegated Him to that seat, the seat where we ask Him to take over so we can take a bathroom break or grab a cup of coffee. Or maybe if things are going bad we may ask for a bit of help, but overall, we are OK if He just sits there until we need Him. It’s this view of Christ I don’t understand. If He is not THE pilot, we are all in trouble. The fact that He allows us into the cockpit at all is truly amazing. I remember my first time on a plane and the pilot letting me see the inside of the cockpit and then giving me those cheap plastic wings. I felt privileged that the pilot had let me in to see what the others were not allowed to see. How crazy would it have been for me to say, OK Capt. Bob, thanks for the tour. I think I can handle it now. I’ll let you know if I need anything.