I enjoyed reading this article about Houston Rockets basketball player Shane Battier. Although he doesn’t have the stats to prove it, apparently when Battier is on the court, his own team plays significantly better and the opposing team plays worse.

Here we have a basketball mystery: a player is widely regarded inside the N.B.A. as, at best, a replaceable cog in a machine driven by superstars. And yet every team he has ever played on has acquired some magical ability to win …

Battier’s game is a weird combination of obvious weaknesses and nearly invisible strengths. When he is on the court, his teammates get better, often a lot better, and his opponents get worse — often a lot worse. He may not grab huge numbers of rebounds, but he has an uncanny ability to improve his teammates’ rebounding. He doesn’t shoot much, but when he does, he takes only the most efficient shots. He also has a knack for getting the ball to teammates who are in a position to do the same, and he commits few turnovers. On defense, although he routinely guards the N.B.A.’s most prolific scorers, he significantly ­reduces their shooting percentages. At the same time he somehow improves the defensive efficiency of his teammates — probably, Morey surmises, by helping them out in all sorts of subtle ways.

“I call him Lego,” Morey says. “When he’s on the court, all the pieces start to fit together. And everything that leads to winning that you can get to through intellect instead of innate ability, Shane excels in. I’ll bet he’s in the hundredth percentile of every category.”

Battier reminds me of the many people in church situations who serve quietly behind the scenes. Because they are not up front, you may not notice them a lot; but the whole church runs more smoothly as a result of their service.

Lenten Series:
    1. What is Lent?
    2. Should Christians Celebrate Lent?
    3. What is Ash Wednesday?
    4. Should I Give Something Up for Lent?
    5. Giving Up Church for Lent

I once received a phone call from a woman who told me she would not be at church for the next several weeks. I asked her if she was going away, and she replied, “No, I’m giving up church for Lent.” I said, “Excuse me?” and she said, “I’m giving up church for Lent.” I said, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.” She explained that she observes Lent every year and that this year she wanted to give up something that really meant a lot to her. She loves going to church and thought that would be a perfect thing to give up for Lent. I tried to talk her out of it, but she was determined. True to her word, she didn’t come back to church until Easter Sunday. She told me later, “I really missed church. It was a big sacrifice for me.”

My thoughts? Well, I agree if you are going to give up something for God, it should be something meaningful, rather than just chocolate or American Idol. (See my earlier post: Should I Give Something Up for Lent?) But somehow I don’t think God wants you to give up things like church attendance, Bible reading, or prayer. What is the strangest thing you have ever heard someone giving up for Lent?

The Program on Public Values at Trinity College just released the results from their 2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS 2008 Survey). Here are some highlights from the report:

• The number of American adults identifying themselves as Christians has declined. 86% of American adults identified as Christians in 1990 and 76% in 2008. 34% of American adults considered themselves “Born Again or Evangelical Christians” in 2008.
• The Catholic population of the United States has shifted away from the Northeast and towards the Southwest. Between 1990 and 2008, the Catholic population proportion of the New England states fell from 50% to 36% and in New York it fell from 44% to 37%, while it rose in California from 29% to 37% and in Texas from 23% to 32%.
• The percentage of Americans claiming no religion has increased. The percentage jumped from 8.2% in 1990 to 14.2% in 2001, and has increased to 15% in 2008. Northern New England has now taken over from the Pacific Northwest as the least religious section of the country, with Vermont leading all other states by a full 9 points.
• Changes in religious self-identification since 2001 have been moderate in comparison to the 1990s, which was a period of significant shifts in the religious composition of the United States.

You can read highlights of the ARIS 2008 Survey here or download a pdf of the full report here. Albert Mohler offers some good commentary on the data with his post: Faith as Fashion Statement — The New Religious Reality?

Update: Stephen Prothero questions the survey’s findings. Albert Mohler responds.

Related post: Most and Least Religious States

Yesterday’s message in the Gospel of Mark series was called Be Clean!, taken from Mark 1:40-45. Here is a brief outline of the message:

I. Consider the leper (verse 40)
    A. His hopeless condition
    B. His desperate plea
    C. His determined faith

II. Consider Jesus (verses 41-45)
    A. His compassionate response
    B. His power and willingness to heal
    C. His instructions to the leper

III. Consider the deeper meaning
    A. We are all spiritually unclean.
    B. We cannot cleanse ourselves.
    C. Only Jesus can make us clean.

Note: Click on the Sermons tab at the top of the blog for this and other messages.

Please pray for the First Baptist Church of Maryville, IL who lost their pastor today when a gunman opened fire during the morning service. Please pray also for Pastor Winters’ wife and daughters at this time of loss.

Pastor Fred Winters with his wife Cindy and their two children, Alysia Grace and Cassidy Hope

From the church website:

Today, a little after our 8:15 service began, a man entered First Baptist Church and fired several gunshots at our Senior Pastor, Dr. Fred Winters. Pastor Winters was taken to the hospital but died of his wounds.

Please pray for Dr. Winter’s family, our two brave members who were injured when they stopped the assailant, for the assailant himself and his family, and for our church members as they deal with this tragic loss.

In this day, where uncertainty seems to abound creating an environment in which people are vulnerable in doing things they might not do otherwise, one thing is certain, we, as human beings need a foundation upon which we can live our lives. We at First Baptist Maryville, along with other Christian believers, share this conviction: that foundation is God’s Word. In the pages of the Book we call the Bible, we find the pathway for peace, hope, and a quality of living life despite what circumstances we find ourselves in.

To those who believe in the power of prayer, we covet your prayers right now.

                           
Edward G. Stafford asks: “Now that those of us who have been making steady, on-time payments on our mortgages for years will be paying off others’ mortgages through our taxes, can we claim a tax-deduction for our neighbors’ mortgage interest too?” (HT: Instapundit)

C. S. Lewis reminds us that we cannot truly love others until we put God first in our lives. “When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. Insofar as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.” (Letters; 8 November 1952)

Jim Martin shares some good thoughts on before you marry. “Marriage can be wonderful. It is a gift of God. Yet, it is very important to think through your reasons for wanting to get married. I have been thinking lately about what I have learned through many, many conversations with couples regarding marriage. I have been privileged to be a part of many conversations that were encouraging and thoughtful. Yet, on occasion, a few of these conversations have been troublesome. From these conversations I have also learned much.”

Sinclair Ferguson writes about the church’s failure to preach about the cross. “It is a disheartening fact that evangelical Christians, who write vast numbers of Christian books, preach abundant sermons, sponsor numerous conferences and seminars, and broadcast myriad TV and radio programs actually write few books, preach few sermons, sponsor few conferences or seminars, and devote few programs to the theme of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We give our best and most creative energies to teaching God’s people almost everything except the person and work of our Lord and Savior. This should cause us considerable alarm, for there is reason to fear that our failure here has reached epidemic proportions. We need to return to a true preaching to the heart, rooted in the principle of grace and focused on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Roger Overton shares about the joy of being hacked for Christ’s sake. “As best as I can tell, the motivation for all of this is that I am an outspoken Christian. When I read that, I immediately thought of the promise that we would be persecuted because of Christ, and I take great joy in that. I have many shortcomings, and there are times I wonder about the quality of my witness. But apparently there are those in the world who have identified me with Christ and one person in particular who decided to take their hatred of Him out on me.

“I have lost my website (a site I was never satisfied with), my Facebook photo albums, 3 or 4 Facebook friends, a pile of email I probably didn’t need and a few hours of sorting through the damage. All in all, it could have been much worse. Those things can be dismissed and/or replaced. What I have gained is of great value- a better understanding of the importance of web security, and (more importantly) a deeper sense of joy in my affiliation with Jesus the Christ.”

I stepped outside this morning, and the smell of spring was in the air. Actually it was the smell of skunk, but that’s close enough for me. Sometime last night Jimmy Skunk stumbled out of his hibernation hole and let off a fresh spray, announcing his presence to the world. Sure, it’s cold outside and there’s still snow on the ground, but it’s a sign I tell you. Old Man Winter is laying down arms, ready to yield pride of place to Lady Spring. Everything old is new again, and buds and blossoms will soon be back in style. All that’s missing are a few robins to grace my backyard.

Today marks the two-year anniversary of the start of this blog. It has been a good year with a lot of new readers and guests. I somehow hit the front page of Digg back in June which gave the blog a nice boost (you can read about it here), but most of the growth has come through good old-fashioned word-of-mouth via links on the web and the magic of search engines.

Here is a comparison of this year’s stats with last year’s:

Visitors:
    This year: 348,701
    Last year:   65,783

Page Views:
    This year: 633,215
    Last year: 118,489

I realize that is chump change compared to the “super blogs” out there, but it is some nice growth and I am happy to share what I share on this blog with as many people as I do. So thanks for reading, thanks for linking, thanks for commenting, and here goes for year number three!

Related post: 1-Year Blogiversary Bash!

TECHNOLOGY EDITION.

• Like robots? The Big Picture has pictures.
• E.T. Phone Home. The Kepler Spacecraft will launch Friday in its quest for Earth-like planets in Earth-like places.
• Read Kindle Books on Your iPhone. Can’t afford to shell out $359 for a Kindle 2? Download this free app that lets you read Kindle books on your iPhone instead.
• How to Make Your PC Boot Faster. I know, my brother would say, “Buy a Mac.” (See PC and Mac in the Garden of Eden) The “/noguiboot” setting was a new one for me.
• Gdrive in 2009. Google Drive, or Gdrive as it is better known, will offer online storage where Google servers have enough capacity to hold the entire contents of your hard drive. (Question: Do you want to give Google access to every file on your hard drive?)

78-year-old Alec Garrard has spent more than 30 years constructing a 1:100 scale model of Herod’s Temple in his back yard. The original temple was built by King Herod the Great between 19 B.C. and A.D. 4 and was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70. Garrard’s model measures 20ft by 12 ft and is considered one of the best representations of the historical temple in the world.

“I’ve always loved making models and as I was getting older I started to think about making one big project which would see me through to the end of my life,” Garrard said. “I have an interest in buildings and religion so I thought maybe I could combine the two and I came up with the idea of doing the Temple. I’d seen one or two examples of it in Biblical exhibitions, but I thought they were rubbish and I knew I could do better. I have been working on it for decades but it will never be finished as I’m always finding something new to add.”

Thousands of visitors from all over the world have come to see the model, and Garrard provides them with binoculars so they can see all the details.

Garrard has written a book with information about the temple and detailed photographs of his model: The Splendor Of The Temple: A Pictorial Guide to Herod’s Temple and Its Ceremonies. You can also view a picture gallery of the temple model here.

Related post: Behold the Temple!

STUPID CRIME EDITION.

Forgot something. Go figure. A Florida man ran out of gas after robbing a gas station. The police picked him up down the road from the station.

Facebook addict. A 19-year-old man snatched a Starbucks customer’s laptop after being told he could not use it to check his Facebook account. He was caught in the parking lot and charged with felony robbery by sudden snatching.

Burgling the burglars. Patrick Rosario was in his basement when he heard a pair of burglars upstairs. He snuck outside where he found the burglars’ van with the motor running and the keys in the ignition, so he got in and drove away. When the burglars came out and found their van gone, they left Rosario’s belongings at the door and escaped on foot.

Each month ChristianAudio.com offers a free audiobook download. This month’s free selection is Donald Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (run time 9 hours; normally $14.98). I have read a number of Whitney’s materials and found them helpful and clear. Use the coupon code MAR2009 to download the book for free this month only.

Here is a description from the site:

It’s not uncommon for an accomplished musician to be able to sit down in front of a new piece of music and play it through without a hitch. To make it seem easy, as if it required no effort. Yet the “freedom” to play with such skill comes only after years of disciplined practice.

In the same way, the freedom to grow in godliness—to naturally express Christ’s character through your own personality—is in large part dependent on a deliberate cultivation of the spiritual disciplines.

Far from being legalistic, restrictive, or binding, as they are often perceived, the spiritual disciplines are actually the means to unparalleled spiritual liberty … Whitney takes you through a carefully selected array of disciplines that includes Scripture reading, prayer, worship, Scripture meditation, evangelism, serving, stewardship, Scripture application, fasting, silence and solitude, journaling, and learning.

You can listen to a free audio sample from Spiritual Disciplines here.