Barnabas Piper's Blog, page 61

New Happy Rant: The Perfect Worship Service, Best Summers, and Ridiculous Work Requests

In this episode of The Happy Rant Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas do a little conversational roaming over a variety of topics including:

What would be the perfect worship service?
What is the best summer they’ve ever had?
Ridiculous requests they’ve gotten at work

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order fresh roasted coffee from Lagares Roasters
Order your Happy Rant swag from Missional Wear (Use code RANT to get discounts on swag and/or shipping)

Please consider supporting the podcast financially as well. We have set up a Patreon page, and your donations help us cover production costs, do live events, and grow the podcast by trying some new things. Oh, and of course there are perks for those who commit to helps us such as free books and coffee!

To listen you can:

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Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
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Episode #198

3 Things I Like This Week – June 1

Each week I share three things I like – It could be a book, a movie, a podcast, an album, a photo, an article, a restaurant, a food item, a beverage, or anything else I simply enjoy and think you might too. You can find a whole pile of things, especially books, I like and recommend HERE.

1. Superheroes Can’t Save You by Todd Miles

[image error]You might imagine that trying to teach Christology using classic super heroes might be hokey at best. And, well, you would be right in most cases. But not this one. Miles does a brilliant job of using fictional characters to illustrate misconceptions people have about Jesus. This is a book about eight classic, historical heresies. But mostly it is a book about Jesus. Miles is less interested in proving heresies wrong than showing why Jesus is great. He uses his scholarly chops to dismantle falsehoods and weave together compelling explanations and lessons, but he does so in plain language. And of course the superhero starting point is already accessible and inviting. I found this book to be refreshing, compelling, and profoundly helpful. It would make an ideal resource for a group study or the foundation for a lesson plan if you teach or preach. Check it out.

2. The Southern Engine Deli, Nashville

[image error]Nashville is a thriving food city. Whoops, I mean Nashville is thriving foodie city. That means we’ve found 432 artisan ways to serve ketchup or kale, but we kind of suck at the basics. Foodies are so intent on creativity that they unbasic the basics to such a degree they aren’t even recognizable any more. Not at the Southern Engine! This is a straight shooting, down the middle, stack the meat and cheese high, real life deli. I’ve tried at least a half dozen of the sandwiches on their menu and they are all amazing. To top it off they’re located in the exceptionally cool Marathon Motorworks building (now called Marathon Village so the bachelorette parties will come visit the shops) right on the edge of downtown and about 200 yards from where I work. If you are a Nashvillian or just visiting town stop by and get some grub.

3. The Cash App

[image error]Sadly, this is not an app where you simply go and find cash. That would be awesome, though. Cash is simply the easiest way to send money to other people or receive it from them. I realize people can use Apple pay or facebook or paypal or venmo or just about any bank app to do this now, but Cash is still the easiest app to use. It is simpler and has a cleaner user experience than any of the others. I use it all the time to pay people for all sort of things. Oh, and if you sign up using the link we can both get $5 when you use the app. So I guess it is sort of an app where they hand out money. And everyone loves free money

 

New Happy Rant: All Social Media All the Time

In this episode of The Happy Rant Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas help readers with some pressing problems. In this day of social media pervasiveness people have developed some bad habits. This episode seeks to correct and instruct. They discuss the following:

What is the proper ratio of selfies to other photos for men?
Why do Christian ladies use “come hither” photos as avatars?
People’s use and abuse of the word “humbled”
Retweeting compliments

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order fresh roasted coffee from Lagares Roasters
Order your Happy Rant swag from Missional Wear (Use code RANT to get discounts on swag and/or shipping)

Please consider supporting the podcast financially as well. We have set up a Patreon page, and your donations help us cover production costs, do live events, and grow the podcast by trying some new things. Oh, and of course there are perks for those who commit to helps us such as free books and coffee!

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher.
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #197

3 Things I Like this Week: May 25

Each week I share three things I like – It could be a book, a movie, a podcast, an album, a photo, an article, a restaurant, a food item, a beverage, or anything else I simply enjoy and think you might too. You can find a whole pile of things, especially books, I like and recommend HERE.

1. Outlander Packable Lightweight Travel Backpack

[image error]I recently returned from a trip to Cuba. Before I left I sorted through the pile of backpacks I have collected over the years – conference give-aways, business swag, backpacking equipment. None of them seemed like the right sort of day pack to carry around a hot, humid place for a week. They were too big, too heavy, or too branded. So I ordered this on a whim, and it was perfect. It’s light weight nylon, holds plenty but is compact, and it can fold up into itself about the size of a quart bag for packing. And it’s relatively inexpensive. If you’re looking for an ideal travel/hiking day pack this is ideal.

2. Good Thing by Leon Bridges

[image error]Leon Bridges debut album, Coming Home was sensational – a mix of Motown, R&B, blues, and soul. It felt perfectly, ideally classic – the kind of album lovers of Otis Redding, Bill Withers, or Marvin Gaye would appreciate. This, his second album expands on that. Bridges introduces new sounds and styles and shows off a different sort of creative range without losing any of the soul. There are about 5 artists whose work I will buy sight unseen and listen to ion repeat, and he is one.

3. Dentist Magic Trick

Nobody likes going to the dentist. Dentists don;t even like going to the dentist. But this one may have just earned (bribed?) himself a fan. The little boy’s reactions are fantastic.

 

Happy Rant Sports #10 – All Time Great Uniforms

In this episode of Happy Rant Sports Ted and Barnabas put on their aesthete harts and choose the best uniforms of all time. From defunct football leagues to 80’s baseball to WAY off the beaten path they choose the best looks in sports.

We also want to thank our sponsor – 503 Sports. If you love defunct football leagues, minor league baseball, or are looking to order gear for your own team 503 Sports puts out quality gear. Check them out.

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order fresh roasted coffee from Lagares Roasters
Order your Happy Rant swag from Missional Wear (Use code RANT to get discounts on swag and/or shipping)

Please consider supporting the podcast financially as well. We have set up a Patreon page, and your donations help us cover production costs, do live events, and grow the podcast by trying some new things. Oh, and of course there are perks for those who commit to helps us such as free books and coffee!

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher.
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #10

New Happy Rant: Safe Spaces for Men, The Next Big Thing, and Things We’d Like to Rant About

In this episode of The Happy Rant Podcast Ted, Ronnie and Barnabas rant about the following topics:

The book you’d most like to write
Topics we wish we could rant about but can’t
We predict the next big thing in Evangelicalism
Safe Spaces for Men

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order fresh roasted coffee from Lagares Roasters
Order your Happy Rant swag from Missional Wear (Use code RANT to get discounts on swag and/or shipping)

Please consider supporting the podcast financially as well. We have set up a Patreon page, and your donations help us cover production costs, do live events, and grow the podcast by trying some new things. Oh, and of course there are perks for those who commit to helps us such as free books and coffee!

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher.
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #196

3 Things I Like this Week: May 11

Each week I share three things I like – It could be a book, a movie, a podcast, an album, a photo, an article, a restaurant, a food item, a beverage, or anything else I simply enjoy and think you might too. You can find a whole pile of things, especially books, I like and recommend HERE.

1. Broadchurch

[image error]Broadchurch season 1 might be the best written TV show I have seen. Seasons 2 and 3 are not quite at the same level of brilliance, but they still far outpace nearly anything else being broadcast or streamed. If I had seen them first I still would have been hooked. It is a British police drama, but it is so much more than that. It’s a show that explores family and pain and loss and hope and healing. It is dark because evil is dark, but not gratuitous in any way (not language, sex, or violence). Evil is present but not visible. Characters are complex, but not in a “flawed hero” way – more like a flawed friend or well-intentioned idiot way. The setting, a small coastal English town called Broadchurch is perfectly bucolic and traditional without being Pleasantville, and it sets the scene for the dramas that unfold. The acting, specifically by David Tennant and Olivia Colman, is pitch perfect. More than anything, Broadchurch makes you empathetic for nearly everyone involved because there are no out-sized caricatures of villains or heroes or housewives or anything. It is tremendous.

2. Goo Goo Clusters

[image error]For those of you who, like me, consider yourselves to be adults and generally speak as such this is a difficult name to get past. But trust me. It’s worth it. Think of these as Baby Ruth bars but chewier, choclatier, bigger, and better in pretty much every way. I don’t think they have a market much outside the South, and that is a shame because they beat the trans fat out of pretty much any chocolate/peanut based candy bar out there. AAAAAAaaaaaaand there different varieties, including peanut butter if that is more your speed. And don’t mind the box – they do not come with a bite already taken.

3. Greg Maddux, Pitching Wizard

In our day of big fastballs and insane sliders, the subtlety of Maddux’s corner-painting mastery is mostly gone (Zack Greinke is probably the closest approximation). But he deserves 90 seconds of our time to remember how he owned the edges of strike zone for two decades. And by owned, I mean owned.

 

New Happy Rant: YES OR NO

In this episode of The Happy Rant Podcast Ted, Ronnie, and Barnabas tackle the toughest, most random, most listener-submitted yes/no questions thy have ever encountered. Topics include:

Barbershop Quartets
Canada
Vacation
Raisins
Writing
Best Friends
SO MUCH MORE

Be sure to visit HappyRantPodcast.com where you can:

Order fresh roasted coffee from Lagares Roasters
Order your Happy Rant swag from Missional Wear (Use code RANT to get discounts on swag and/or shipping)

Please consider supporting the podcast financially as well. We have set up a Patreon page, and your donations help us cover production costs, do live events, and grow the podcast by trying some new things. Oh, and of course there are perks for those who commit to helps us such as free books and coffee!

To listen you can:

Subscribe in iTunes.
Listen on Google Play
Listen on Stitcher.
Leave us a rating in iTunes (it only takes 1 click and it really helps us).
Listen using the player below.

Episode #195

The Best Quotes from “The Gospel”

That title is awfully grandiose, but don’t worry. The Gospel, in this case, is a book by Ray Ortlund Jr, and a wonderful little book at that. The full title is The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ, and it is 120 pages of wisdom, theology, and instruction for church members and church leaders alike. I have the privilege of sitting under Ray’s leadership at Immanuel Nashville, the church he pastors, and I can confirm that what he writes in the pages he exemplifies and teaches to the church. And we are better for it. Here are a selection of the best quotes.

The church must ever be at war with Satan, since Satan is always at war with it – with us who believe. – J.I. Packer, foreword

This good news is more than good vibes. This message has specific content. It can and must be defined, and from the Bible alone.

Let’s not assume our churches are faithful to the gospel. Let’s examine whether they are.

Any church of any denomination today that falls short of the gospel of Christ in either doctrine or culture will inevitably collapse under the extreme pressures of our times.

Without the doctrine, the culture will be weak. Without the culture, the doctrine will seem pointless.[image error]

Truth without grace is harsh and ugly. Grace without truth is sentimental and cowardly. The living Christ is full of grace and truth.

Not one of us has ever had a single thought about God that was fully fair to the magnitude of who he really is.

This is the massive love of God – the Son leaving nothing of the Father’s glory unexpressed, leaving nothing of our need unfilled, opening the mighty heart of God to the unworthy.

Perishing and eternal life are the only alternatives standing before us.

God’s final category for you is not your goodness versus your badness, but your union with Christ versus your distance from Christ.

Hell is for people who could have enjoyed the love of God but held back.

Scripture is clear. Christians have to choose between isolation, which is easy, and belonging, which is costly – and much more satisfying.

Fixing broken things is the way of God.

Justification clears us legally of guilt before our Judge, but adoption includes is emotionally in the heart of our Father.

The household of God must offer a clear and lovely alternative to the madness of this world.

We either proudly believe we are too good to be judged, or we proudly believe we are too bad to be saved. So the gospel is a continual surprise, and we need to hear it again and again.

Exalting ourselves always diminishes [Christ’s] visibility.

Fear of human disapproval feeds political posturing. It makes us want to be perceived in a certain way and identified with certain people. It destroys honesty, spontaneity, and joy. It builds walls that Jesus dies to tear down. It corrupts good doctrine.

The one thing the gospel never does is nothing. The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ refuses to be held at arm’s length with critical detachment. No one judges the gospel. It judges all, and it saves some.

Too often we regard God’s power as an added ingredient that turbocharges our own efforts.

The gospel never advances without someone paying a price.

New courage always begins with the leaders. Whatever the leaders are, the entire church will eventually become.

A heart aloof from God grows aloof from others.

3 Things I Like this Week – May 3

Each week I share three things I like – It could be a book, a movie, a podcast, an album, a photo, an article, a restaurant, a food item, a beverage, or anything else I simply enjoy and think you might too. You can find a whole pile of things, especially books, I like and recommend HERE.

1. Zebco 33 Spincast Combo

[image error]My first ever fishing pole was a Zebco 22, which is the weaker, spindlier, cheaper version of this. The Zebco 33 was the first fishing pole I ever bought with my own money. To a serious angler it is a mere toy. To all of you who read that and say, “What’s an angler? I just want to go fishing with my kids” this is a great starter rod and reel. I even bought one for each of my daughters and intend to break it out in a few weeks as an end-of-school surprise. It is ideal for dock fishing, pond fishing, creek fishing, and otherwise casually enjoying the summer. But don’t you worry, it can haul in a good fish too. I managed more than few good sized bass and a couple big catfish too with mine.

2. Acorns Investing

[image error]I am not an investor. I have a loose idea of what the stock market is and no idea how it works (except that you should never panic and always leave your money invested . . . right?). I am a natural spender and have had to work hard to learn the discipline of saving, so when I ran across Acorns it seemed like the perfect place to get started for an utter novice like me. It takes whatever amount you want to invest, either a little bit at a time or big chunks, either one time deposits or recurring, and puts it into an investment portfolio on your behalf. You can give direction what kind of portfolio (small business, growth stocks, etc.). And the kicker for someone like me is that Acorns will automatically accrue and invest your “spare change” by rounding up any amount you spend on approved cards or accounts to the nearest dollar and investing those little bits. It has been a fantastic investment starter option for a dummy like me.

3. “It Ain’t Fair” by The Roots and Bilal

The sound. The lyrics. The message. All of it.