kickin' the darkness...

The grinches are at it again...

2011-12-14T15:26:00.003-06:00

Over at the Beratta Blog, Dr. Glen Peoples, took up the issue several years ago of whether or not Christianity is a copycat religion. In other words, Did Christianity construct a fake myth from pagan religions around it and fool everyone with it? In a post called "Merry Mithras," Peoples writes...

The grinches are at it again. Every year at Easter and Christmas the tired old wheels start squeaking and some of the detractors of Christianity start wheeling out a few predictable canards, all connected to the idea that Christianity is just a copycat religion and that the accounts of the life of Jesus of Nazareth that we have in the New Testament were just borrowed from other older religions.

Generally these attempts are now limited to personal websites and message boards on the internet, as they are so discredited that bringing them up at, say, a conference on New Testament studies, would get one laughed all the way home. But, unhappily resigned to the fact that some people only know what they know about theology or biblical studies because they read it at a website, it’s worth addressing some of these claims.

I’ve already dealt with the claim that the virgin birth was borrowed from Buddhism and the claim that Jesus’ life is just a re-hashed version of the life of Osiris. Another common “copycat” theory that floats around online is the claim that Jesus is a mythical character copied from Mithras.

Read the rest here.

You may also be interested in these links...

Is Jesus Christ a Mythical Entity Prefigured by Osirus-Horus Mythology? (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3)
Did Christianity Invent Stories by Borrowing from Pagan Religions? (with links to two debates with William Lane Craig on the issue)
Jesus, the Resurrection, & Borrowed Myths
Bart Ehrman of Emory University: "I don't think there is any serious historian who doubts the existence of Jesus. There are a lot of people who want to write sensational books and make a lot of money who say Jesus didn't exist, but I don't know any serious scholar who doubts the existence of Jesus.... We have more evidence for Jesus than we have for almost anybody from his time period. I'm not saying this as a believer. I'm not a believer, but as a historian you can't just dismiss it and say 'I don't know.' I mean you have to look at the evidence. There is hard evidence. " Check out this interview...

Ehrman: chasing the ghosts of his evangelical past...

2011-06-02T06:18:00.000-05:00

Michael Kruger of Reformed Theological Seminary has a good review of Bart Erhman's latest book: Forged: Writing in the Name of God. Kruger concludes,

In the final analysis, Forged is a book with a mix of positives and negatives. Ehrman’s helpful overview of the various kinds of early Christian forgeries and his excellent treatment of early Christian views of pseudepigraphy are bright spots in this volume. However, Ehrman’s level of confidence that the NT definitely contains forgeries is not commensurate with the arguments he puts forth to prove that thesis. In this regard, he regularly goes beyond what the evidence can sustain. For this reason the book, like many of his others, comes across as more autobiographical than academic; more polemical than historical. Ehrman still seems to be chasing the ghosts of his evangelical past. One wonders how many more books he will need to write before they go away.

My guess is, as long as he keeps making money from folks who are eager to listen to only one side of the debate.

Read the full review here.

Medved on homosexuality in the West

2011-06-01T12:15:00.001-05:00

Michael Medved has an illuminating article in a recent USA Today on the issue of homosexuality entitled, "Does it matter if only 1.4% of people are gay?". He writes,

The nation's increasingly visible and influential gay community embraces the notion of sexual orientation as an innate, immutable characteristic, like left-handedness or eye color. But a major federal sex survey suggests a far more fluid, varied life experience for those who acknowledge same-sex attraction.

Within the article, he states,

While pop-culture frequently cites the figure of one in 10 (based on 60-year-old, widely discredited conclusions from pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey) the new study finds only 1.4% of the population identifying with same-sex orientation.

Moreover, even among those who describe themselves as homosexual or bisexual (a grand total of 3.7% of the 18-44 age group), overwhelming majorities (81%) say they've experienced sex with partners of the opposite gender. Among those who call themselves heterosexual, on the other hand, only a tiny minority (6%) ever engaged in physical intimacy of any kind with a member of the same sex These figure indicate that 94% of those living heterosexual lives felt no physical attraction to members of the same sex, but the great bulk of self-identified homosexuals and bisexuals feel enough intimate interest in the opposite gender to engage in erotic contact at some stage in their development.

Read the article here.

Brooks: It's Not About You

2011-06-01T12:03:00.001-05:00

David Brooks has an excellent op-ed piece in the NYTimes regarding the narcissistic message that most graduates will hear these days. He says,

Worst of all, they are sent off into this world with the whole baby-boomer theology ringing in their ears. If you sample some of the commencement addresses being broadcast on C-Span these days, you see that many graduates are told to: Follow your passion, chart your own course, march to the beat of your own drummer, follow your dreams and find yourself. This is the litany of expressive individualism, which is still the dominant note in American culture.

But, of course, this mantra misleads on nearly every front.

College grads are often sent out into the world amid rapturous talk of limitless possibilities. But this talk is of no help to the central business of adulthood, finding serious things to tie yourself down to. The successful young adult is beginning to make sacred commitments — to a spouse, a community and calling — yet mostly hears about freedom and autonomy.

And he concludes his piece,

Today’s grads enter a cultural climate that preaches the self as the center of a life. But, of course, as they age, they’ll discover that the tasks of a life are at the center. Fulfillment is a byproduct of how people engage their tasks, and can’t be pursued directly. Most of us are egotistical and most are self-concerned most of the time, but it’s nonetheless true that life comes to a point only in those moments when the self dissolves into some task. The purpose in life is not to find yourself. It’s to lose yourself.

And I say, "Amen."

But, who has ears to hear among both the graduates and the culture who has discipled them to believe that "the self is the center of life?"

The end is near (again). No, for real this time....

2011-05-21T09:50:00.004-05:00

UPDATE: THIS JUST IN...

YAHOO News is reporting...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – With no sign of Judgment Day arriving as he had forecast, the 89-year-old California evangelical broadcaster and former civil engineer behind the pronouncement seemed to have gone silent on Saturday.

Family Radio, the Christian stations network headed by Harold Camping which had spread his message of an approaching doomsday, was playing recorded church music, devotionals and life advice unrelated to the apocalypse.

Camping previously made a failed prediction Jesus Christ would return to Earth in 1994.

----

Al Mohler has a good read if you are wondering if the end of the world as we know it will happen today. In a post entitled, "The End is Near? The False Teaching of Harold Camping", Mohler writes,

Harold Camping is now warning the world that the Day of Judgment will begin at about 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 21, 2011. The 89-year-old founder of Family Radio has made such pronouncements before, most recently in 1994. He now says that he simply miscalculated then, but he is absolutely certain that he has the right calculation now. You have been warned.

Despite the long tradition of people who claimed special secret knowledge about the return of Christ, and despite the fact the Camping has got it wrong before in 1994 (yes, this isn't the first time; yet he's been given a pass and scores of people still follow him and give him money--his ministry is worth $72M), Camping remains undaunted.

But Mohler has the right perspective....

First, Christ specifically admonished his disciples not to claim such knowledge. In Acts 1:7, Jesus said, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.” In Matthew 24:36, Christ taught similarly: “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”

To state the case plainly, these two verses explicitly forbid Christians to claim the knowledge of such dates and times. Jesus clearly taught that the Father has not revealed such dates and timing, but has reserved that knowledge for himself. It is an act of incredible presumptuousness to claim that a human knows such a date, or has determined God’s timing by any means.

Second, the Bible does not contain hidden codes that we are to find and decipher. The Bible has been given to us in order that we might know the truth, and the truth is clearly revealed in its pages. We are not to look for hidden patterns of words, numbers, dates, or anything else. The Bible’s message is plain and requires no mathematical computation for its understanding. The claim that one has found a hidden code or system in the Bible is an insult to the Bible as the Word of God.

Third, Christians are indeed to be looking for Christ to return and seeking to be found faithful when Christ comes. We are not to draw a line in history and set a date, but we are to be about the Father’s business, sharing the Gospel and living faithful Christian lives. We are not to sit on rooftops like the Millerites, waiting for Christ’s return. We are to be busy doing what Christ has commanded us to do.

In Hebrews 9:28, we are taught that Christ will come a second time “to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” That is the faithful Christian response to the New Testament teachings about Christ’s coming. The church is not to be arrogantly setting dates, but instead to be eagerly waiting for him. Of that we can be truly certain.

Read the full article here.

For years, Camping has convinced untold numbers that the visible church is evil, so they should follow him. And with all of this hullabaloo, scores more will be convinced that Christianity has nothing to offer because of con-artists like Camping.

So after today, can we please make Camping's name synonymous with "heretic"?

Like at 6:01pm to be precise?

Happy Belated Birthday, Mr. Hubble Telescope

2011-05-20T06:40:00.002-05:00

April 24th was the bday, but I'm thank for this telescope and the beautiful pictures of our universe that it has given to us.

Click here for the first 20 years in pictures.

NT Wright deconstructs Hawkings deconstruction of Heaven

2011-05-20T06:23:00.000-05:00

In case you missed it earlier in the week, the otherwise brilliant scientist, Stephen Hawking, ventured out of his narrow specialized field of theoretical physics to pontificate on why Heaven is a fairytale for scaredy-cats (the topic of "Heaven" being properly the realm of meta-physics).

Illustrating the old dictum that "the man of science is a poor philosopher," theologian & NT scholar, NT Wright deconstructs Hawking's stinkin' thinkin'.

Hawking is working with a very low-grade and sub-biblical view of ‘going to heaven.’ Of course, if faced with the fully Christian two-stage view of what happens after death -- first, a time ‘with Christ’ in ‘heaven’ or ‘paradise,’and then, when God renews the whole creation, bodily resurrection -- he would no doubt dismiss that as incredible. But I wonder if he has ever even stopped to look properly, with his high-octane intellect, at the evidence for Jesus and the resurrection? I doubt it -- most people in England haven’t. Until he has, his opinion about all this is worth about the same as mine on nuclear physics, i.e. not much.

Read the rest here.

The Nature of Nature

2011-05-19T12:45:00.005-05:00

I'm super grateful for my friend, Catherine, and her Easter gift to me: The Nature of Nature: Examining the Role of Naturalism in Science. The book is edited by her son, Bruce Gordon (see "Coffee with Dr. Bruce Gordon"), and his collegue, William Dembski.

The mammoth book (917 pages excluding endnotes) is a collection of essays by both Christian and non-Christian thinkers on the issue of naturalism, the belief that nothing exists outside of physical matter or nature. Some notable non-Christian thinkers include Michael Shermer, Francis Crick, Roger Penrose, David Berlinski & Michael Ruse. Noteable Christians include Bruce Gordon, William Dembski, William Lane Craig, JP Moreland, Alvin Plantinga, & Stephen C. Meyer.

The debate? Bruce Gordon explains in his introductory essay:

"A central issue in this interplay between presuppositions and conclusions, one made all the more pressing by recent scientific advances, is whether the universe is self-existent, self-sufficient, and self-organizing, or whether instead it is grounded in a reality that transcends space, time, matter, and energy. More pointedly, does our universe find its ultimate explanatory principle in matter or mind?"

Some of the articles are way out of my league (e.g., articles on Quantum Physics which, just perusing them is enough to make ones head swim--unless of course, you speak that language), but most are right up my ally in terms of my interests in philosophy, cosmology, & ethics.

What am I looking forward to reading the most?

"The Rise of Naturalism & Its Problematice Role in Science and Culture" (Bruce Gordon)
"Sauce for the Goose: Intelligent Design, Scientific Methodology, and the Demarcation Problem" (Stephen Meyer)
"Evolution versus Naturalism" (Alvin Plantinga)
"Must Naturalists Be Realists?" (Michael Williams)
"On the Origins of Life" (David Berlinski)
"DNA: The Signature in the Cell" (Stephen Meyer)
"Life's Conservation Law: Why Darwinian Evolution Cannot Create Biological Info" (William Dembski & Robert Marks)
"The Limits of Non-Intelligent Explanations in Molecular Biology" (Michael Behe)
"The Chain of Accidents and the Rule of Law: The Role of Contingency and Necessity in Evolution" (Michael Shermer)
"Naturalism and the Origin of the Universe" (William Lane Craig)
"Habitable Zones and Fine-Tuning" (Guillermo Gonzalez)
"On the Origins of the Mind" (David Berlinski)
"Evolution and Ethics" (Michael Ruse)
"Naturalism, Science, and Religion" (Michael Tooley)

As you might guess, this will keep me busy for a long while. Now, if I only had a reading group to discuss these articles....

Do you like mysteries?

2011-05-19T12:11:00.001-05:00

Dr. Holly Ordway has a nice, succinct post on mystery novels and the Christian worldview.

Mystery novels, taken as a whole, reflect at a deep level the truth of the Christian worldview. And yes, I mean mystery novels in general, not “mystery novels by Christian writers.”

Here’s why.

In any normal mystery novel (notice that I am omitting weird literary or experimental ones; those are the exceptions that prove the rule), certain ingredients are essential:

1. A crime.
2. An investigation of the crime.
3. A resolution of the crime.

All three conditions point ineluctably toward a moral universe, one in which right and wrong, good and evil, have objective meaning. Let’s consider each point.

The Great Debate: Is there evidence for God?

2011-03-30T16:55:00.002-05:00

Well, we of course believe there is overwhelming evidence for it. But tonight there will be a debate between two well matched opponents: Dr. William Craig (pro) & Dr. Lawrence Krauss (against). You can get the a preview of the debate here at Wintery Knight, and you can watch the debate online, 7pm EST.

Last day for free audio download

2011-03-30T13:33:00.001-05:00

Have you downloaded RC Sproul's "The Holiness of God" from christianaudio.com yet? Today's the last day to do so. I encourage you do get this free download. Sproul's classic work is one of the top 5 most influential books in my life.

Science & Faith

2011-03-29T15:27:00.001-05:00

"Once upone a time, back in the second half of the nineteenth century, it was certainly possible to believe that science and religion were permanently at war...This is now seen as a hopelessly outmoded historical stereotype that scholarship has totally discredited."

~ Alister McGrath, The Dawkins Delusion: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine

Ideas have consequences....

2011-02-03T23:31:00.001-06:00

"I see no reason for attributing to man a significance different in kind from that which belongs to a baboon or a grain of sand."

US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, qtd. in Time Magazine: “The Nation: A Clearer Voice?” (Sept 21, 1953)

Rome burns football idolatry

2011-02-03T23:16:00.002-06:00

You've probably seen the commercials of the guys who have "never missed a super bowl." If not, check it out here: Bob, Tom, Larry, & Don. Sports commentator Jim Rome surprisingly takes them to the shed in his typical cut-to-the-chase style. Check it out:

For the record, I need to hear Rome's rebuke as much as these guys do. As one who has allowed his weekend to be ruined by what a bunch of 20 year olds do on the grid iron, I need to be reminded of what is truly important as well.

How prone is the heart to call this into question...

2011-02-02T12:28:00.002-06:00

Memorable words from Jedi-master, Jonathan Edwards,

“There is no one thing whatsoever more plain and manifest, and more demonstrable, than the being of God. It is manifest in ourselves, in our bodies and souls, and in everything about us wherever we turn our eye, whether to heaven, or to earth, the air, or the seas. And yet how prone is the heart of man to call this into question! So inclined is the heart of man to blindness and delusion, that it is prone to even atheism itself.”

From Man's Natural Blindness in Religion
Qtd in James Spiegel's The Making of an Atheist, p. 9

Amazon makes me smile!

2011-02-02T12:00:00.001-06:00

Just arrived...

What was in it?

Amazon makes me smile!

Free Audio: Adopted for Life

2011-02-01T12:03:00.000-06:00

Christian Audio is offering Russell Moore's Adopted for Life for free during the month of February. Be sure to download it.

Reading Log for January 2011

2011-02-01T11:49:00.001-06:00

Below is a record of what I read in the month of January 2011. And to understand the ratings, here is my standard.

5 stars -- I loved it; highly recommended
4 stars -- A great read; recommended; will most likely read it again
3 stars -- Average read; most likely will not read it again
2 stars -- Didn't care much for it
1 star -- Painful, waste of paper

1. Hearing Jesus Speak Into Your Sorrow, by Nancy Guthrie. This is an excellent book by a mother who lost several children. She doesn't sugar coat the pain of living in a broken world, and she certainly doesn't spout platitudes. Here you will find a sure guide for journeying through pain and loss, and still seeking God in the process. While I have a few quibbles with how she worded a few things, I have a much more than a little admiration for the ways in which she worded so much of what she says. 4.5 stars

2. Servant Leader, by Ken Blanchard. A good little book with some practical advice about leadership characterized by servanthood. He strained some of the biblical texts, I thought, to support what he wanted to say, but he had some good things to say. 3 stars

3. Children of Men, by PD James. I went into this book wanting to be intrigued by the story. The first chapter is excellent as James sets up a world in which humanity has lost the ability to have children. Fascinating premise. But after chapter 1 it went downhill. My wife has a hundred page rule on a book--if the author doesn't do it for her by then, she puts it down. I have a 50 page rule. I gave James about 85 pages and then started skimming desperately looking for the story to pick up. Note to James: I don't care about what a man's earlobes look like, nor the kind of eyelashes he has, nor about his lips, his chin, his eyebrows, etc. Get on with the STORY. I'll probably give James another shot with a different book down the road, if only to make my wife happy. Sum: 1 chapter = brilliant. Next 10 chapters = painful. Remember, I wanted to like this book. 1 star

4. The Five Dysfuntions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni. I started this in December & finished it on the first day or two of the year. A good little book about leadership that is told via the form of a narrative followed by a section explaining the principles. Much more entertaining than James! And the narrative wasn't that great. He talks about the absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, & inattention to results. Good stuff that I'll using in team building. 3 stars

5. Who Made God: Searching for a Theory of Everything, by Edgar Andrews. Let me just start by saying 10 stars (okay, I know I'm using a 5 star rating standard, but I really enjoyed this book). Edgar is a brilliant man (with the credentials to back it up) who takes the whole issue of metaphysics, physics and biology and makes it accessible to the non-philosopher & non-scientist. And that's no easy task, but Edgar does it with wit & humor. His chapter introductions are worth the price of the book. While showing that the New Atheists are offering nothing new but repackaged silliness, he takes on the fairytale of Darwinian evolution and has some critical comments for the Intelligent Design camp as well. Check out Edgar's website as well as Challies' review. I will read this one again, and soon. 5 stars

6. The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission, by John Dickson. This is an excellent book--one I wished I had written because he says everything I would have wanted to say about the issue of 'promoting the Gospel with more than our lips' (the subtitle of the book). Dickson contends that it is every Christian's duty to promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but not all do it in the same way. Here are some of the many ways he suggests: promoting the Gospel with our prayers, our money, through the works of the church, through Christian behavior (being beautiful, he says, and he means by that something like 'living a beautiful and attractive life), through our public praise, through our daily conversation. Endorsed by all the right people (NT Wright, Christopher Wright, Alister Begg, Ravi Zacharias, Richard Bauckman, Jim Belcher, Tremper Longman, Timothy George--and now yours truly), this book is a must-read for believers (I know, the phrased is over used, but I plan to implement this book in my own ministry and leadership training). 5 stars

7. Of Mice & Men, by John Steinbeck. I haven't read this classic story since high school. I enjoyed it this time around, even though I knew the ending that came all too quickly. Who cannot love Lennie and his dream of feeding rabbits with his buddy George. Tragic story, but good story telling nevertheless. 4.5 stars

My wife brought home the library (she's a great wife) the DVD with Gary Sinese (George) & John Malkovich (Lennie). I somehow didn't get the memo that it was released in 1992. While some of the transitions were a bit wooden & I wished some of the scenes were a bit more fleshed out, this was a good film. Sinese is one of my favorite actors (since I first saw him on the silver screen in Forrest Gump), and Malkovich played Lennie to perfection. 4 stars

Scripture completed: Genesis, Daniel

Piper: If they say, “Are you a Calvinist?” say, “You decide. Here is what I believe . . .”

2011-02-01T06:48:00.000-06:00

John Piper gives some good advice on answering the question, "Are you a Calvinist?"

He says, "If they say, 'Are you a Calvinist?' say, 'You decide. Here is what I believe . . ."

I believe I am so spiritually corrupt and prideful and rebellious that I would never have come to faith in Jesus without God’s merciful, sovereign victory over the last vestiges of my rebellion. (1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 3:1–4; Romans 8:7).

I believe that God chose me to be his child before the foundation of the world, on the basis of nothing in me, foreknown or otherwise. (Ephesians 1:4–6; Acts 13:48; Romans 8:29–30; 11:5–7)

I believe Christ died as a substitute for sinners to provide a bona fide offer of salvation to all people, and that he had an invincible design in his death to obtain his chosen bride, namely, the assembly of all believers, whose names were eternally written in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain. (John 3:16; John 10:15; Ephesians 5:25; Revelation 13:8)

When I was dead in my trespasses, and blind to the beauty of Christ, God made me alive, opened the eyes of my heart, granted me to believe, and united me to Jesus, with all the benefits of forgiveness and justification and eternal life. (Ephesians 2:4–5; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Philippians 2:29; Ephesians 2:8–9; Acts 16:14; Ephesians 1:7; Philippians 3:9)

I am eternally secure not mainly because of anything I did in the past, but decisively because God is faithful to complete the work he began—to sustain my faith, and to keep me from apostasy, and to hold me back from sin that leads to death. (1 Corinthians 1:8–9; 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24; Philippians 1:6; 1 Peter 1:5; Jude 1:25; John 10:28–29; 1 John 5:16)

This is good advice, and it's a line of thought that I've used for years. People like to use labels, and often people mean different things with labels. I once encountered a university student who was enraged when she learned that I was a Calvinist b/c that meant--in he mind--that I endorsed burning heretics. That was rare, but in my experience in talking to people about these issues over the last 20 years, most people mean 'hyper-Calvinism' when they use the terms 'Calvinism.' Very few people accurately defined Calvinism.

To read Piper's entire post, click here.

Sometimes, you should just call it quits....

2011-02-01T06:03:00.000-06:00

Snowflakes evidence of Intelligent Design?

2011-01-29T07:15:00.000-06:00

After having temps above freezing this last week melting much of the snow that had accumulated so far this winter, it started falling from the sky this afternoon. I love the beauty of falling snow. But what you can't see with the naked eye can be photographed with high power equipment. Check this out...

Paul Burwell, edmontonjournal.com

Evidence of intelligent design, or random chances processes at work in a meaningless universe?

How do you account for the symmetry & beauty?

Art in nature points to the nature of the Artist.

Check out more photos online at the Calgary Herald.

Paul Burwell, edmontonjournal.com

Living for experiences is like chasing vapors...

2011-01-29T06:04:00.000-06:00

Here's a great quote from Michael Horton on seeking experiences vs. lived experience in light of truth...

"... manufactured and prepackaged "experiences" are incredibly short-lived. I cannot remember most movies I have seen. For whatever brief moments or even hours that I am wrapped in the cocoon of a space ride at Disneyland or am overwhelmed with intense emotion at a concert, the experience leaves as quickly as it came. However, my most enduring experiences are identified with events in which the goal was something other than having an experience. I will never forget hearing the minister say, "I now pronounce you husband and wife." Just words, right? They are words that change our life. "You have cancer." "We got all of the cancer - you're free and clear." "You're pregnant." "You got the job." Reports grounded in objective facts - outside of us and our experience - are the most significant experience generators in our lives.

"Each week, as I join my brothers and sisters in a public confession of sin and our particular sins to God in silence, Christ's ambassador declares that I am forgiven in Christ's name and on the authority of his Word. Regardless of what I feel inside, God's external Word assures me that I have peace with God in his Son. This is not a subjective experience - a peaceful, easy feeling - but an objective announcement. And precisely because of its objectivity - the fact that it is announced to me even when I am not overwhelmed by it emotionally - I get the experience of forgiveness thrown in as well. Living for experiences is like chasing vapors. It is sunsets, not "the sunset experience"; actual expressions of love, not "the love experience"; the Triune God, and not "the worship experience," that turn out to deliver the most important and lasting experiences."

- The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World, p. 224

[HT: routundus]

Alcorn on proving the accuracy of the pro-life position

2011-01-29T00:14:00.000-06:00

Randy Alcorn has a great post on proving the accuracy of the pro-life position by the use of photos of aborted children. This issue is an emotional, often heated one in which many Christians are divided.

I remember our years of ministry at Texas A&M when pro-life groups would display giant pictures of the horrors of abortion. It always produced conversation and debate, even among the believers that I knew.

Alcorn brings clarity to the issue, IMHO, even if it's uncomfortable.

I’ll never forget years ago when a pro-life candidate ran television ads showing aborted babies, and people were outraged. A CBS Evening News reporter declared the abortion debate had reached a “new low in tastelessness.” Strangely, there was no outrage that babies were being killed... only that someone had the audacity to show they were being killed.

The question we should ask is not “Why are pro-life people showing these pictures?” but “Why would anyone defend what’s shown in these pictures?” The real concern about pictures of unborn babies isn’t that they’re gory, but that they prove the accuracy of the pro-life position.

The Holocaust was so evil that words alone couldn’t describe it. Descriptions of Nazi death camps had long been published in American newspapers, but when these papers started printing the pictures of slaughtered people, the American public finally woke up. If not for the pictures, even today most of us wouldn’t understand or believe the Holocaust.

I visited a college campus where a pro-life group had set up displays of aborted babies alongside the victims of the Nazi death camps, the killing fields, American slavery, and other historical atrocities. Signs with warnings about the graphic photographs were posted clearly, so all those who looked did so by choice. I witnessed the profound effect on students and faculty, including those who didn’t want to believe what they were seeing.

Animal rights advocates argue that in order to make their case they must show terrible photographs, such as baby seals being clubbed to death. If there’s a place to look at such pictures, isn’t there a place to look at pictures of abortions? And if abortion isn’t killing babies... then why are these pictures so disturbing?

Was the solution to the Holocaust to ban the disgusting pictures? Or was the solution to end the killing?

Is the solution to abortion getting rid of pictures of dead babies? Or is it getting rid of what’s making the babies dead?

What do you think?

Can believers please God? Can we displease Him?

2011-01-28T05:04:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Justin Taylor for posting this very helpful response to the question, "Does God get disappointed in believers when we disbelieve or disobey."

Dr. David Powlison - Does God get upset when we disobey? from CCEF on Vimeo.

I've been saying this for years. Glad to see David Powlison taking the issue on and speaking with clarity.

Also, for further study, you may want to see the chapter "Pleasing God by Our Obedience: A Neglected New Testament Teaching" by Wayne Grudem in For the Fame of God's Name.

A Tale of Two Presidents

2011-01-27T06:42:00.002-06:00

A comparison of two presidents on the single most important issue of social justice in America today. First of all, President Obama's recent words:

"Today marks the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that protects women's health and reproductive freedom, and affirms a fundamental principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters.

"I am committed to protecting this constitutional right. I also remain committed to policies, initiatives, and programs that help prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant women and mothers, encourage healthy relationships, and promote adoption.

"And on this anniversary, I hope that we will recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights, the same freedoms, and the same opporrtunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams."

Next, President Reagan:

Reagan also wrote "Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation" in 1984, well worth checking out. In it he writes, "Make no mistake, abortion-on-demand is not a right granted by the Constitution. No serious scholar, including one disposed to agree with the Court's result, has argued that the framers of the Constitution intended to create such a right."

When Reagan penned these words, some 15 million lives had been taken by abortion on demand. As of today, 50 million. Today, according to the National Abortion Federation, 35% of women will have had an abortion by the time they are 45 years old.

Praying today for prophetic voices like Reagan's to speak anew against this social injustice in my home country of the US & my adopted country of Canada, where there are no legal restrictions to abortion on demand.

A Visual Q&A on the Big Questions

2011-01-27T06:34:00.000-06:00

My favorite Reformation Creeds are the Heidelberg Catechism & the Westminster Confession of Faith. The latter has it's own catechism, which you can now explore visually with this cool, artsy project: Q&A: An Exploration of the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

This is a work in progress, so you can subscribe RSS to follow the project as more Q&A's are completed. Hopefully, when they finish Westminster, they'll move on to Heidelberg!

Great Resources: Apologetics 315

2011-01-26T11:26:00.000-06:00

Apologetics 315 constantly provides great resources to those interested in defending the faith. From interviews to links, this is a great site.

Typical FB & online debates....

2011-01-26T11:19:00.003-06:00

This is precisely why I try to avoid online debates....

Go ahead, I double-do-dare-you to debate this one!

[HT: Z / 22]

Blogging through JE's resolutions

2011-01-17T11:49:00.001-06:00

My peruvian amigo, Francisco, is blogging (in excellent English, I might add) through the resolutions of my favorite American philosopher & theologian, Jonathan Edwards. It would be well worth the time to think through Edwards' resolutions with Francisco...

He's completed the first 10:

Destroying evil without destroying us...

2011-01-16T06:39:00.003-06:00

Why did Jesus have to die? Couldn't God just forgive?

In his excellent book, The Reason for God, Tim Keller argues that forgiveness always means bearing the cost instead of making the wrongdoer do it. "Forgiveness means absorbing the debt of the sin yourself."

"It is crucial at this point to remember that the Christian faith has always understood that Jesus is God. God did not, then, inflict pain on someone else, bur rather on the Cross absorbed the pain, violence, and evil of the world into himself. Therefore the God of the Bible is not like the primitive deities who demanded our blood for their wrath to be appeased. Rather, this is a God who becomes human and offers his own lifeblood so that someday he can destroy all evil without destroying us."

Jesus is both the priest and the offering. He said, "I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep...No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord" (The Gospel of John, 10:11, 19).

What is "apologetics?" Are you sayin' you're sorry for something?

2011-01-15T23:39:00.001-06:00

apologetics |əˌpäləˈjetiks|

Apologetics is the defense of the Christian faith. "Apologetics" is a term that comes from the Greek work apologia that means simply, 'defense.' It is not to apologize for what you believe in or to apologize if someone's offended at our proclamation of the Lord Jesus Christ, but to make a defense for it. In Peter's first letter to the churches of Asian Minor, he wrote these words:

"...in your hearts set apart Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense [apologia] to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you...." (1 Peter 3:15)

More specifically, I believe Christian apologetics is a defense of the proclamation that Jesus is Lord--the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Believers are called to make a defense of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is in part a proclamation of His lordship. We are not called to make a defense of personal opinions or personal preferences on religious topics, but rather "to set apart Christ the Lord" and to give an answer for that. That is, we are devoted to His Lordship.

Christianity at its basic level is just this proclamation. This confession, says the late missionary to India, Lesslie Newbigin,

“...is distinguished in that it is a commitment to a belief about the meaning of the whole of human experience in its entirety--namely, the belief that this meaning is to be found in the person of Jesus Christ, incarnate, crucified, risen, and destined to reign over all things.”

I "Heart" Atheists

2011-01-10T20:20:00.002-06:00

I came across this website, iloveatheists.com, listening to an Unbelievable podast. The creator of the website found out in debates with atheists that the same arguments kept coming up. So with a desire to collect answers, he made this website to be his personal answer key.

The website features a "Top 100" list of challenges that are often posed by atheists, with answers given by iloveatheists' creator, Todd Pitner.

Check it out. And love an atheist.

Wars & rumors of war

2011-01-08T11:26:00.004-06:00

Foreign Policy online has an article they published before the new year signaling a number of hotspots around the world that are on the brink of war, or could easily be pushed that way.

Across the globe today, you'll find almost three dozen raging conflicts, from the valleys of Afghanistan to the jungles of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the streets of Kashmir. But what are the next crises that might erupt in 2011? Here are a few worrisome spots that make our list.

Côte d'Ivoire
Colombia
Zimbabwe
Iraq
Venezuela
Sudan
Mexico
Guatemala
Haiti
Tajikistan
Pakistan
Somalia
Lebanon
Nigeria
Guinea
Democratic Republic of the Congo

Thankful for the relative peace in which we dwell (despite living in a secular state), but also praying that the Prince of peace will come and bring His kingdom and set everything right.

Prayer Bootcamp for Urban Mission

2011-01-08T08:31:00.006-06:00

Back in November, my wife and I had the opportunity to attend the "Prayer Bootcamp for Urban Mission" in Vancouver put on by our Grace Church Planting Network. Justine Hwang & Pastor John Smed led the bootcamp. John writes,

"The secret to effective prayer is to connect the gospel to prayer and prayer to mission. This is the essential character of Jesus’ prayer. The upward priority of worship, the kingdom values of preaching grace and doing justice, and the inward practices of forgiveness and spiritual warfare are all contained in the Lord’s Prayer. This workshop is applied prayer. We put Christ’s teaching into immediate action as we pray together for each others’ churches and cities. The outcome of this workshop is ‘prayer trainers’. With prayer resources and instruments in hand, participants put into practice what is learned."

Here is a short video highlighting that project.

Grace prayer from Peter Jordan on Vimeo.
John & Justine are looking to expand this ministry. We would definitely endorse the bootcamp.

Moses was maybe smarter than you think

2011-01-07T07:01:00.009-06:00

It is common to hear that the writer of Genesis--Moses--was a doofus. With our modern assumptions about how we would have written Genesis (e.g., we would have used the same name for God in Genesis 1 & 2), we look back with a chronological snobbery that insists the ancients were too primitive to have any sense. [Of course, there are still some who cling to the JEPD theory of the composition of Genesis, but that's another story.]

At any rate, in prep for teaching on Genesis 6-9 (the account of Noah), I came across these examples of chiastic structures in the story. A chiasm is a literary device used in ancient literature which highlights certain truths at the center of the structure. A typical chiastic structure follows a pattern of ABC CBA.

Check out these chiasms, the first of which highlights how the story of Noah was carefully written to highlight God's covenant 'remembering' of Noah.

The second one is a chiasm within the above chiasm.

Moses a doofus? Yeah right.

Get your game face on, but don't waste your sports

2011-01-07T06:31:00.002-06:00

Game day. God. Do they have anything to do with one another?

I love sports. I can't imagine the world without sports. I'm so thankful that God has created us a culture builders, and one of the ways in which we build culture is by sports.   Granted, as with anything in creation, we can twist it for our own selfish ends, worship it giving it too much significance, and we can use it to abuse others.

But, sports is inherently a good thing because it's part of created life.   From the grace of a "Hail Mary" pass caught in perfect stride, to the complex performance of a high platform diver, to the strength and elegance of a race horse, sports is at once a highlight of humanity's abilities and potentials, and an excuse to give God glory. Eric Liddell, the Scottish Olympic runner immortalized in Chariots of Fire, knew this well when he said, "I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure."

Is it possible to "feel God's pleasure" while enjoying sports? I believe the answer is not simply "yes," but a resounding "YES!"

Christianity addresses all areas of life, including our sports lives.

Below is a list of resources--books, videos, articles--that are helpful in thinking through sports to the glory of God.

* Don't Waste Your Sports, by CJ Mahaney (book | website)
* Game Day for the Glory of God, by Stephen Altrogge (amazon | google | article)
* The Reason for Sports: A Christian Fanifesto, by Ted Kluck (amazon)

* A Theology of Sports, by James Spiegel

Video:
CJ Mahaney's "Thanking God for Sports"

CJ Mahaney's, "Don't Waste Your Sports"

Don't Waste Your Sports from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

Stephen Altrogge: Victory (1:23)

Stephen Altrogge: Defeat (1:43)

Stephen Altrogge: Sidelines (0:50)

Get your game face on, but don't waste your sports.

Is it possible there are no coincidences?

2011-01-06T21:28:00.003-06:00

So we had a mid-week family movie night last week, and we decided to watch M. Night Shyamalan's "Signs." It's one of my favorites. If you haven't seen it, go get it.

Mel Gibson plays a priest (Graham Hess) who has lost his faith after the tragic death of his wife. But strange things start happening when crops signs show up in the field next to their house. As it turns out, people start freaking out when it gradually dawns on people all over the world that these signs are markings for an alien invasion.

This is a great scene between Graham and his brother, Merrill (played by Joaquin Phoenix). In it, Graham explains to his brother that there are two groups of people in this world....

"People break down into two groups. When they experience something lucky, group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them. Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance. I'm sure the people in group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation is a fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear.

Yeah, there are those people. But there's a whole lot of people in group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope.

See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?"

What say you: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?

Wow, need a dose of racism to sober you up?

2011-01-06T12:53:00.000-06:00

It's not everyday when you hear such calloused racism, at least not for me. That's not to suggest that it's not there, and everywhere, but to go on record in a public forum stating your racism, well...

From Collive Community News Service, "Neoconservative thinker David Horowitz was put on the spot by a Muslim student during a speech at the University of California San Diego. His comeback revealed her true goal."

Come, Prince of peace.

God, Time & Eternity

2011-01-05T14:35:00.002-06:00

My friend, Joshua B, posted this quote on his facebook page. I had to re-quote it here so I wouldn't lose it.

"Time is the succession of thoughts in the mind of rational, created beings. God, being eternal, does not have a succession of thoughts, but rather His thoughts persist at once in their entirety, or put otherwise, they are immediate. God "interacts" with time insofar as every action of creation (including the succession of men's thoughts) is the result of God's thinking them so. Therefore time is an aspect of the created order and not an aspect of God's essential nature. Therefore time is subject to the will of God, and not God to the nature of time." (HT Aurelius Augustine, Gordon Clark)

Thanks, Joshua, for posting this. Beautiful.

Coffee with Dr. Gordon

2011-01-05T13:49:00.002-06:00

Yesterday, I had the privilege of having a four-hour conversation with Dr. Bruce Gordon, associate professor of science and mathematics at the The King's College in New York City and co-editor (along with Dr. William Dembski) of the forthcoming collection "The Nature of Nature: Examing the Role of Naturalism in Science."

Dr. Gordon loves the intersection of philosophy, apologetics, and science, as do I. Plus he loves mathematics, which I don't, but am thankful that people like him do. Along with his lovely wife, Mari-Anne, we enjoyed a great conversation over Starbucks coffee covering topics from his work as a senior fellow with the Discovery Institute in Seattle, his current work at Kings College, his work in Intelligent Design plus topics from the age of the universe to the Flood to biological determinism.

By way of introducing him to you, here is an article in the Washington Times by Dr. Gordon critiquing Stephen Hawkin's new book. The article is entitled, "Hawking Irrational Arguments: Theoretical Physicist Takes Leave of His Senses."

Check out this video (9:59) below of Dr. Gordon teaching on "The Absurdity of the Multiverse & Materialism."

Dr. Bruce Gordon - The Absurdity Of The Multiverse & Materialism

We've enjoyed having Bruce & Mari-Anne worship with us at New City Church while they have been in town visiting family. I look forward to following his career, plus having him potentially do some teaching for us at NCC on the area of Intelligent Design.

New Focus for the Blog

2011-01-01T18:13:00.001-06:00

Over the past few months I have clarified & narrowed what I want the focus of this blog to be. My few faithful readers over the years will have noticed posts ranging from sports to family to politics to theology. These will probably still make appearances from time to time, but the focus of this blog beginning in 2011 will be on the intersection of apologetics, mission, & culture with an aim to providing resources, links, and commentary to my (hopefully) growing spheres of influence. There is a big need in Canada to equip followers of Christ in defending and proclaiming the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

So, stay tuned. I hope it will be helpful.

Okay, this freaks me out...

2011-01-01T17:57:00.006-06:00

Is it moving or is it static?

[source]

Going Postal Over Culture?

2010-12-29T06:04:00.007-06:00

Mark Driscoll has a good article on Christians and culture called, "Why Christians Go Postal Over Facebook, Jay-Z, Yoga, Avatar, and Culture in General."

He writes...

I’m not advocating either a permissive or a restrictive approach to debatable cultural issues. Rather, I am encouraging Christians to involve themselves in culture not merely for the purpose of entertainment but primarily for the purpose of education. As a missionary, you will need to watch television shows and movies, listen to music, read books, peruse magazines, attend events, join organizations, surf websites, and befriend people that you might not like to better understand people whom Jesus loves.

He offers a helpful taxonomy for dealing with culture:

·     Receive – There are things in culture that are part of God’s common grace to all people that a Christian can simply receive. This is why, for example, I am typing on a Mac and am going to post this blog on the Internet without searching for an expressly Christian computer or communication format.

·     Reject – There are things in culture that are sinful and not beneficial. One example is pornography, which has no redeeming value and must be rejected by a Christian.

·     Redeem – There are things in culture that are not bad in and of themselves, but can be used in a sinful manner and therefore need to be redeemed by God’s people. An example that has resulted in a great deal of media attention is sexual pleasure. God made our bodies for, among other purposes, sexual pleasure. And, although many have sinned sexually, as Christians we should redeem this great gift and all its joys in the context of marriage.

Check it out here.

Interesting graphic about home schooling in the US

2010-12-26T06:46:00.003-06:00

Click graphic to enlarge

[HT: Challies]

The Subversive Manger Scene

2010-12-23T15:44:00.002-06:00

Pretty clever commentary on our culture, IMHO.

[HT: Reclaiming the Mission]

Back in the saddle?

2010-12-23T15:40:00.000-06:00

Attention my dear five friends of this blog:

I have been away for a while, really for a good half a year.   Why?

* I've stopped blogging in order to focus on launching New City Church.
* I've stopped blogging in order to redefine (for myself) why I want to blog.
* I've stopped blogging in order to refrain from making snarky comments about US politics (not that there is anything wrong with that--I've just needed to check myself & motives for doing so).

So, what now?

* The church is launched and we're having a blast watching God work.   Not that there is not more work for us to do, but I feel like this blog is no longer a distraction.
* Why do I want to blog? Mainly just to reference stuff that I may want to remember, to keep up writing, and to share things with you--my faithful five friends (which may be even fewer now that I haven't posted anything in forever.
* I really have to refrain from political comments.   I'm neither Democrat or Republican (generally--snarky comment coming--I think the Dems are driving the car off the cliff at 85mph while the Republicans are content to drive it off at 65mph).   I'm generally conservative, but don't think our Republic comes anywhere near what was originally envisioned by the Signers of the US Constitution.   Plus, I'm living in Canada now, and Canadians are pretty snarky about US & Canadian politics.

So yeah, I'm back in the saddle.

Sports & Existential Despair

2010-11-18T18:26:00.002-06:00

The folks over at the Onion have outdone themselves on this one. Pretty funny. And yes, it will show up in an illustration for a sermon or a seminar. You can count on it.

[HT: Sean McDowell]

On Reading Less

2010-11-05T10:59:00.003-05:00

Wise words from John Piper...

I [do not] want to give the impression that I think there is virtue in reading many books. In fact one of my greatest complaints in seminary was that professors trained students in bad habits of superficial reading because they assigned too many books. I agree with Spurgeon: “A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than by twenty books which he has merely skimmed, lapping at them.” God save us from the allurement of “keeping up with Pastor Jones” by superficial skimming. Forget about “keeping up.” It only feeds pride and breeds spiritual barrenness. Instead devote yourself to boring in and going deep. There is so much soul-refreshing, heart-deepening, mind-enlarging truth to be had from great books!

I love books, and I read a lot of them. But I also try to have several that I'm going deep into. The ones I go deep into are usually the ones I've read quickly through, and desire to master. For example, I've read and have re-read taking notes along the way Wright's The Mission of God, Piper's When I Don't Desire God, and am currently going deep with William Lane Craig's On Guard as well as re-reading and listening to Piper's The Pleasures of God.

Not all books are created equally. This is a good reminder from Piper.

[HT: Z]

Tripp on the "Nowism of the Gospel"

2010-08-06T12:52:00.006-05:00

This is a good, short little article that is well worth thinking upon. What difference does the gospel of Jesus Christ make now in my life? Tripp explains.

1. Grace will decimate what you think of you, while it gives you a security of identity you've never had.

2. Grace will expose your deepest sins of heart, while it covers every failure with the blood of Jesus.

3. Grace will make you face how weak you are, while it blesses you with power beyond your ability to calculate.

4. Grace will take control out of your hands, while it blesses you with the care of One whose plan is unshakable and perfect in every way.

Check it out here.

Moore: "Abba Changes Everything"

2010-07-02T12:11:00.001-05:00

Here's a great article on Adoption by Russell Moore.

The creepiest sound I have ever heard was nothing at all. My wife, Maria, and I stood in the hallway of an orphanage somewhere in the former Soviet Union, on the first of two trips required for our petition to adopt. Orphanage staff led us down a hallway to greet the two 1-year-olds we hoped would become our sons. The horror wasn't the squalor and the stench, although we at times stifled the urge to vomit and weep. The horror was the quiet of it all. The place was more silent than a funeral home by night.

I stopped and pulled on Maria's elbow. "Why is it so quiet? The place is filled with babies." Both of us compared the stillness with the buzz and punctuated squeals that came from our church nursery back home. Here, if we listened carefully enough, we could hear babies rocking themselves back and forth, the crib slats gently bumping against the walls. These children did not cry, because infants eventually learn to stop crying if no one ever responds to their calls for food, for comfort, for love. No one ever responded to these children. So they stopped.

The silence continued as we entered the boys' room. Little Sergei (now Timothy) smiled at us, dancing up and down while holding the side of his crib. Little Maxim (now Benjamin) stood straight at attention, regal and czar-like. But neither boy made a sound. We read them books filled with words they couldn't understand, about saying goodnight to the moon and cows jumping over the same. But there were no cries, no squeals, no groans. Every day we left at the appointed time in the same way we had entered: in silence.

On the last day of the trip, Maria and I arrived at the moment we had dreaded since the minute we received our adoption referral. We had to tell the boys goodbye, as by law we had to return to the United States and wait for the legal paperwork to be completed before returning to pick them up for good. After hugging and kissing them, we walked out into the quiet hallway as Maria shook with tears.

And that's when we heard the scream.

Little Maxim fell back in his crib and let out a guttural yell. It seemed he knew, maybe for the first time, that he would be heard. On some primal level, he knew he had a father and mother now. I will never forget how the hairs on my arms stood up as I heard the yell. I was struck, maybe for the first time, by the force of the Abba cry passages in the New Testament, ones I had memorized in Vacation Bible School. And I was surprised by how little I had gotten it until now.

It's well worth checking out & contemplating.

[HT: Justin Taylor]

Grace Network of Canada

2010-07-01T21:09:00.000-05:00

Here is a video of our Grace Network for church planting in Canada taken from a recent retreat. In it, you will hear from some of my fellow church planters & pastors in Canada who are working on the front lines. ~ 10 min.

Book Log: May 2010

2010-06-05T13:57:00.001-05:00

45. Beyond Smells & Bells: The Wonder & Power of Christian Liturgy. 6 out of 10 stars.

I hate it when you have high expectations for a book and then it just crashes & burns. That's how I felt with this book by the managing editor of Christianity Today. I must admit, I fell for the title. But, as my Grandpa used to say, that paper will hold still and let you put anything on it you want.

Don't get me wrong. I'm a liturgical kind of guy--when it is done right & well. But I was hoping for a book to be able to give people that gives a biblical rationale for the different parts of the worship service. But I was disappointed. This book was at best a feel good explanation that probably satisfies very surface questions of what does the liturgy does for me. There were a couple of good quotes, such as...

"The liturgy lives out a story in a story-deprived world...By participating in the liturgy, we're doing more than 'attending a service.' We are entering a story--a story in which we also play a role. We are the people who have indeed been gathered. We ar ethe people who share in Go's very life. We are sent forth to proclaim God's story and to invite peole into the grand story."

46. When Helping Hurts: How To Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor...And Yourself. 8.5 stars out of 10.

This book is an excellent resource that would serve people well on a number of levels: short term & long term missions, mercy & social justice ministries, as well as Christians who desire to make a dent in the issues of poverty that surround us.

The contribution this book makes is in its understanding of the creation & fall grids through which we should view the issue of poverty. Building on the work of Bryant Myers, Walking with the Poor, the authors concur:

"Poverty is the result of relationships that do not work, that are not just, that are not for life, that are not harmonious or enjoyable. Poverty is the absence of shalom in all its meanings."

Basically, the book rightfully contends that poverty is much more than the lack of economic resources. Economic, social, political & religious systems are broken. The Gospel address all of these, and seeks to heal humans in each of these realms. The book addresses the god-complexes of the Western rich as well as the shame & feelings of inferiority that the poor carry with them. The book is well worth the read for any Christian that wants to help and have their help really help.

47. Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne. 7 out of 10 stars.

I read this book to the family after meals and we had a good time following the adventures of the cool Mr. Phileas Fogg, his servant Passaportout, and their perils around the world. I must say, even though I consider myself fairly educated, I don't think I have read a book in my whole adult life that contained so much new vocabulary for me. I take comfort in the fact that my brilliant and educated wife didn't know what half these words meant. It's hard to fathom how my son, Jason, read this book when he was 10.

At any rate, we had an enjoyable time, and even though we knew Mr. Phileas Fogg was going to make it around the world in 80 days, we were still surprised and delighted with how the story ended. If you are going to read through this book, keep a dictionary close by!

Churchless Christianity?

2010-05-22T18:53:00.001-05:00

Here's a great article by Kevin DeYoung called, "The Glory of Plodding."

He starts out,

It’s sexy among young people — my generation — to talk about ditching institutional religion and starting a revolution of real Christ-followers living in real community without the confines of church. Besides being unbiblical, such notions of churchless Christianity are unrealistic. It’s immaturity actually, like the newly engaged couple who think romance preserves the marriage, when the couple celebrating their golden anniversary know it’s the institution of marriage that preserves the romance. Without the God-given habit of corporate worship and the God-given mandate of corporate accountability, we will not prove faithful over the long haul.

Then he poses the question:

With all due respect, what’s harder: to be an idolized rock star who travels around the world touting good causes and chiding governments for their lack of foreign aid, or to be a line worker at GM with four kids and a mortgage, who tithes to his church, sings in the choir every week, serves on the school board, and supports a Christian relief agency and a few missionaries from his disposable income?

He concludes by contending,

Don’t give up on the church. The New Testament knows nothing of churchless Christianity. The invisible church is for invisible Christians. The visible church is for you and me.

The whole article is well worth reading & pondering. And applying.

To Justin & Kathryn

2010-05-07T17:27:00.002-05:00

Hey Justin & Kate,

Now that you all are parents, you have to get into the parenting mode. Important decisions have to be made. Discipline, diapers, & of course, transportation.

I know, I know: Jaycie is small and your vehicle is sufficient for your needs, but you WILL give in one day and buy a mini-van. It is a humbling day in your life, but it doesn't have to be humiliating.

Here's a little song dedication to help you readjust your self-image to your new role as parents. Who says you have to be uncool?

Just remember the "Swagger Wagon."

I can see you & Justin singing the song already.

Peace out,
John

I'm a proud Uncle!!!

2010-05-04T12:06:00.001-05:00

Congrats to my kid-sister, Kathryn, & her husband Justin on the birth of Jaycie Grace. She was born on Monday, 5-3.10, at 9:20pm. She is 20.5 inches long & weighs 9 lbs 13 oz.

"Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,

the fruit of the womb a reward."

~ Psalm 127:3

Reading List: April 2010

2010-05-03T23:43:00.005-05:00

36. The Dante Club. 6 stars out of 10.

I really wanted to like this book, but it just didn't get there. It even had an endorsement from Dan Brown which suckered me into reading it.

It's the story of a group of scholars--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, and J.T. Fields--who are translating Dante's Inferno into English for the first time. There are powers that be at Harvard who don't want it to be published in English. But when some murders appear that could only have arisen from an intimate knowledge of the sufferings in The Inferno, the scholars track down clues to prevent more deaths.

It had lots of potential, but the book tried too hard. It had a couple of more exciting parts to it, but for the most part, it just dragged. It could have been about a third shorter & would have been a lot better.

"We all revolve around God with larger or lesser orbits, I suppose, Wendell, sometimes one half of us is in the light, sometimes the other. Some people always seem to be in the shadow....."

37. 1 Corinthians, by the Apostle Paul.

This is one of two letters that Paul wrote to an amazing gifted & amazingly twisted church in 1st century Corinth.

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

38. "Revelation," by Flannery O'Connor. 10 out of 10 stars.

This is my favorite story by my favorite southern author. I recently reread it for about the 4th or 5th time, and it simply gets better with every reading. I told my wife that this might be the perfect short story.

Ruby Turpin gets a surprising "revelation" from a college girl who throws a book--aptly titled Human Development, at her in a doctor's waiting room. The girl grew irate after listening to the jolly but self-righteous Mrs. Turpin talk about herself & condescendingly about others.

"Her gaze locked with Mrs. Turpin's. 'Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog,' she whispered."

The rest of the story deals with Mrs. Turpin's "revelation" & her anger at God.

" 'What do you send me a message like that for?' she said in a low fierce voice, barely above a whisper but with the force of a shout in its concentrated fury. 'How am I a hog and me both? How am I saved and from hell too?'"

A-gruntin and a-rootin and a-groanin.

She unexpectedly gets one more revelation, and was graced to hear "the voices of souls climbing upward into the starry field and shouting hallelujah."

This is no cheesey Christian fiction stuff that is so prevalent today. O'Connor was a Roman Catholic writer writing in the Christ-haunted protestant south back in the 1st half of the 20th century. Good stuff. Go get it & read it.

On a side note, one's reading pleasure from O'Connor will be enhanced if one reads along with it Baylor Professor Ralph Wood's excellent work, Flannery O'Connor & the Christ-haunted South which I am doing as I'm making my way through her works.

39. "Parker's Back," by Flannery O'Connor. 9 out of 10 stars.

This is another favorite story of mine. O.E. Parker meets the ugly (speaking more to the inside) Sarah Ruth. They have nothing in common. He's a regular ol' guy, lost as he can be both in relation to God & in life. She's a stuck-up, self-righteous, Scripture quoting, people-hating Christian (I know, an oxymoron). They end up married. And nothing good can come of that.

When Parker was 14, he saw a man at a fair whose body was covered in tattooed from head to foot. O'Connor narrates,

"Until he saw the man at the fair, it did not enter his head that there was anything out of the ordinary about the fact that he existed. Even then it did not enter his head, but a peculiar unease settled in him."

One day, while driving a tractor, he runs into a tree & it bursts into flame. Parker shouts, "God above!" as he falls out of the tractor. His conversion experience sends him immediately on a search for a tattoo that will impress his wife. He settles on getting a picture of Jesus tattooed on his back--the only place where he has any blank canvas left.

He goes home to show his wife, takes off his shirt & makes her look at it.

"Don't you know who it is?" he cried in anguish.
"No, who is it?" Sarah Ruth said. It ain't anybody I know."
"It's him," Parker said.
"Him who?"
"God!" Parker cried.
"God? God don't look like that!"

I'll leave the rest to you, but there are so many layers to this story, from the significance to their names, to his longing for communion, to the emptiness of self-righteous religion.

Again, go & read it.

40. 1, 2, 3, John & Jude.

Great *little* letters at the end of the Old Testament. The letters of John were written by the Apostle who also wrote the Gospel bearing his name plus the book of Revelation. John writes,

"Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life."

Jude, the brother of James writes this short letter urging, among other things, that we "contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints."

41. Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel & Community, by Steve Timmons. 8 out of 10 stars.

This is a good book that connects gospel communities ("the church") with Jesus' mission in this world. There is so much good stuff to say, but let me just point out on a chapter on evangelism in which he ties in the importance of the church. Here's a diagram illustrating the connection:

Here's a couple of videos explaining more if you're interested.

42. Job. This ancient, classic text tells of a man named Job who wrestled with a lot of junk that happened to him. He lost his family, his children, & most of his wealth. The bulk of the book is a dialog with Job & his friends, who implicated him for suffering for the guilt of his sin. Job was guilty of accusing God of wrong & being more worried about clearing his own name. In the end, God blesses him more than ever. In the meantime, Job (& we) learn much about the mysterious ways of God.

"For I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at the last he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been thus destroyed,
yet in my flesh I shall see God,
whom I shall see for myself,
and my eyes shall behold, and not another."

43. Acts, by Luke. Acts is the second volume of Luke's work on Christ, the first of which was the Gospel according to Luke in which he describes all that Jesus began to do and teach. Acts is about the continuing work & teaching of Christ through His Church. In this book, we see the birth of the early church, the preaching of Peter, and the conversion & ministry of Paul. My favorite chapter is number 17 in which Paul speaks to the Epicurean & Stoic philosophers in Athens. My favorite verse comes from ch. 20:

"But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."

44. Unpacking Forgiveness, by Chris Brauns. 9 stars out of 10.

An excellent book on forgiveness. Brauns avoids the trap that says we should forgive others so that we will feel better. Christians should always be ready to forgive, and to offer forgiveness, but we forgive others based on their confession of wrongdoing, just as God forgives us in Christ. Filled with real-life stories & examples, this book is an excellent resource & guide.

Chester on getting to know your neighborhood...

2010-04-28T13:48:00.000-05:00

Tim Chester is asking some good missional questions in order to understand your neighborhood:

Where?
Where are the missional spaces (places and activities where you meet people)?
Where do they experience community?
Are their existing social networks with which we can engage or do we need to find ways of creating community within a neighbourhood?
Where should you be to have missional opportunities?

When?
When are the missional moments?
What are the rhythms of your neighbourhood?
How do people organise their time?
What cultural experiences and celebration do people value? How might these be used as bridges to the gospel?
When should you be available to have missional opportunities?

What?
What are peoples’ fears, hopes and hurts?
What ‘gospel’ stories are told in the neighbourhood? What gives people identity (creation)? How do they account for what what’s wrong with the world (fall)? What’s the solution (redemption)? What are their hopes (consummation)?
What are the barriers beliefs or assumptions cause people to dismiss the gospel?
What sins will the gospel first confront and heal for these people?
In what ways are people self-righteous?
What is the good news for people in this neighbourhood?
What will church look like for people in this neighbourhood?

[source]

Trying patiently to go at His pace....

2010-04-28T12:46:00.002-05:00

Good words from Piper...just what I needed today:

"Impatience is a form of unbelief. It's what we begin to feel when we start to doubt the wisdom of God's timing or the goodness of God's guidance. It springs up in our hearts when our plan is interrupted or shattered. It may be prompted by a long wait in a checkout line or a sudden blow that knocks out half our dreams. The opposite of impatience is not a glib denial of loss. It's a deepening, ripening, peaceful willingness to wait for God in the unplanned place of obedience--to wait in his place, and go at his pace."

Future Grace, 171.

I need to start my days like this...

2010-04-10T23:34:00.002-05:00

From Pastor Scotty Smith's blog:

Most gracious Father, I dare not take on today's agenda without immersing my heart in the extraordinary good news and supply of the gospel. For I already feel a busy cluttered-spirit rearing its ugly head inside of me... wrangling over everything I need to get done and everyone I need to see. The control-meister in me is plotting orphan-like strategies just to make it through today. In short, I really need the gospel today.

Read the rest here.

Addendum to "Am I Sick If I Like Stuff Like This?"

2010-04-05T12:19:00.001-05:00

This is an addendum to my post, "Am I Sick If I Like Stuff Like This?"

I think Godawa is doing exactly what Flannery O'Connor does in her fiction. She writes,

"The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may well be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across to this hostile audience.... [Y]ou have to make your vision apparent by shock -- to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures."

[qtd. in Flannery O'Connor & the Christ-Haunted South]

Vintage Chesterton

2010-04-05T11:59:00.004-05:00

I've been reading Ralph Wood's biography / analysis of Flannery O'Connor, called, Flannery O'Connor & the Christ-Haunted South, and I came across this quote from GK Chesterton.

"If there were no God, there would be no atheists."

Pretty true if you stop to think about it.
Vintage Chesterton.

[Btw, the book on O'Connor is excellent, and I would commend it and all things O'Connor to my friends of literature and for anyone who has come into contact with Christianity in the south in the West.]

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T05:00:00.000-05:00

From NT Wright's Following Jesus:

Without Easter, Calvary was just another political execution of a failed Messiah.

Without Easter, the world is trapped between the shoulder shrug of the cynic, the fantasy of the escapist, and the tanks of the the tyrant.

Without Easter, there is no reason to suppose that good will triumph over evil, that love will win over hatred, that life will win over death.

But with Easter we have hope; because hope depends on love; and love has become human and has died, and is no alive for evermore, and holds the keys of Death and Hades. It is because of him that we know--we don't just hope, we know--that God will wipe away all tears from all eyes.

And in that knowledge we find ourselves to be Sunday people, called to live in a world of Fridays.

In that knowledge we know ourselves to be Easter people, called to minister to a world full of Calvary's. In that knowledge we find that the hand that dries our tears passes the cloth on to us, and bids us to follow him, to go to dry one another's tears.

The Lamb calls us to follow him wherever he goes; into the dark places of the world, the dark places of our hearts, the places where tears blot out the sunlight....and he bids us shine his morning light into the darkness, and share his ministry of wiping away the tears.

And as we worship, and adore, and follow the lamb, we join, already, in the song of Revelation 5.11-14, the song that one day the trees and the mountains and the whales and the waterfalls--the whole world, reborn on Easter morning--will sing with us:

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain...
to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength
and honour and glory and blessing!

To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honour and glory and power
forever and ever, Amen."

It's just, "So long...until our paths cross again."

2010-04-03T12:00:00.001-05:00

On Thursday we said Goodbye to our dear friends, the Doud's. We already miss them. It feels weird to be here without them. We keep telling ourselves that they are just on vacation and will be back in a few weeks.

Click here to read my wife's blog post on saying goodbye.

We're going to miss the Doud's. Shawn, you've been a great friend & brother to me, and you are one of a handful of people that I know are truly in my corner & have my back.

Reading Log: March 2010

2010-03-31T15:59:00.007-05:00

23. The Cellist of Sarejevo, by Steven Galloway. My wife recommended this fictional work by a Canadian author after she had read it in her book club. This character driven novel is a good read as you get to know what it would have been like to have lived through in the terror of the siege of Sarejevo. The author had a talent for painting pictures. For example, you could just say, "A bomb exploded killing everyone within its radius." Or you could say,

"It screamed downward, splitting air and sky without effort. A target expanded in size, brought into focus by time and velocity. There was a moment before impact that was the last instant of things as they were. Then the visible world exploded."

Pretty cool, eh? Evidently the author liked it as well b/c he repeated it two more times in the first chapter.

I also like this line:

"It is impossible to tell which version of a lie is the truth."

I give it 7.5 stars out of 10. A good read, but I'll probably never pick it up again.

24. James. This book written by the brother of the Lord Jesus Christ is packed full of practical directives for a faithful life. I've taught through this book multiple times from large groups to small groups so I'm very familiar with it. While in Peru, one of our former seminary professors, Dr. Knox Chamblin, came and did a spiritual life conference for us and did sort of a biblical theology of James and helped me see even more gold that I was blind to previously. Dig in & enjoy. Hear & do.

"Be doers of the word, and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."

25. 1 & 2 Peter. These two letters written by the Apostle Peter & member of Jesus' inner circle of friends are pure gold. I had the privilege of teaching through 1 Peter over the course of a year with the students at Texas A&M. Really, you could dive in anywhere and marinate in soul-edifying & stretching truths.

"...you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not withh perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1, ch. 1:18-19).
"For Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God" (1, ch. 3:18).
"But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells" (2, ch. 3:13).

27. Just Walk Across the Room: Simple Steps Pointing People to Faith, by Bill Hybels. 7 out of 10 stars. This is a book by the pastor of Willow Creek Church in which he does a good job of trying to get ordinary Christians to initiate spiritual conversations with ordinary people. Much of what he teaches here is based on his opening premise that Jesus left his comfort zone to reach us and we should do the same.

"...even the most 'Christlike' Christians on the planet will be totally ineffective unless they get near people who are living far from God....If you're attempting to do the work of evangelism and your life is stuffed with believers, you'll find yourself out of work pretty quickly."

He develops the approach of "Living in 3D":

When effective walk-across-the-room people interact with others in their world, they
Develop friendships--by engaging in the lives of people around them;
Discover stories--before sharing their own story and God's redemptive story
Discern steps--by following the Holy Spirit's direction.

28. Proverbs. Proverbs is one of the wisdom books of the Old Testament. Every time I read through this book, I realize how unwise I am and how much more time I need to soak in its wisdom.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction" (1:7).
"Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him." (30:5)

29. Undefiled: Redemption from Sexual Sin, Restoration for Broken Relationships, by Harry Schaumburg. 8 stars out of 10.

Dr. Schaumburg pioneered writing on this topic from a Christian perspective with his work, False Intimacy. This follow up book focused on where the problem needs to be addressed: the heart. While not mentioning any books by name, he took jabs at approaches that amount to behavior (& thus 'sin') management and don't deal with the core of the problem.

"We can't manage lust simply by diverting the eyes....We must understand the proper cause and effect for real change. Start at the beginning and don't put the proverbial cart before the horse: Sin in our lives causes the enslavement of what is popularly called a sexual addiction. In other words, disease or sexual addiction does not cause lust, adultery, or any form of sexual immorality. You and I sin because we are sinners. A sexual sinner is dealing with the bondage that comes from what's inside--the sinful nature. The will is in bondage to sin. Therefore, we inevitably and naturally sin."

Because Schaumburg starts in the right place, he can apply the only remedy for change: The Gospel of Jesus Christ. This book was good and I'll undoubtedly refer back to it, but I think the gold standard book, the one I don't need to write b/c it has already been written, is Joshua Harris' Not Even A Hint (whose title has been unfortunately changed to Sex is not the Problem (Lust is).)

30. The Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, by Paul Miller. 9.5 stars out of 10.

This is by far the most helpful book on prayer out there. Just get it and read it. I am already planning on reading this again, and I'm giving copies away to people. One of my friends said that this was not only the best book on prayer that he had read, but it was the best book on the Christian life that he has read.

Drawing from the Scriptures and what God has taught him, Paul Miller calls us to enter into a praying life as a child relates to & trusts in his father. Almost every page has a memorable quote. Most helpful to me were his chapters on "Understanding Cynicism" and "Following Jesus out of Cynicism."

"Cynicism is the air we breathe, and it is suffocating our hearts. Unless we become disciples of Jesus, this present evil age will deaden and then destroy our prayer lives, not to mention our souls."

"Both the child and the cynic walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The cynic focuses on the darkness; the child focuses on the Shepherd."

One more quote:

"Sometimes when we say 'God is silent,' what's really going on is that he hasn't told the story the way we wanted it told. He will be silent when we want him to fill in the blanks of the story we are creating. But with his own stories, the ones we live in, he is seldom silent."

Trust me. You need this book. Make it your companion in life.

31. Organic Outreach for Ordinary People: Sharing Good News Naturally, by Kevin Harney. 9 stars out of 10. This is a great book for people who are wanting to be more intentional about reaching out to others with the Gospel. We are going to use this book with our launch team for our new church plant here in Calgary.

"Evangelism is not a spectator sport. We are all called to get into the game. God invites every follower of Jesus to get off the sidelines and onto the field."

Stuffed with good advice, this book teaches how to raise one's temperature for outreach, to pray for people, to live incarnationally among those who do not yet know Christ, and to engage in spiritual conversations.

He begins the book by stating that everyone is engaging in evangelism, that is, they are telling family & friends things they are excited about. This really sunk in for me in a new way at a recent dinner party with friends and people were talking about favorite television shows, movies, & books that they liked, why they liked them, and were commending them to others. This is essentially what Christians are called to do with others. And this book is a good tool to help us do that. Highly recommended.

32. 1 Corinthians, by the Apostle Paul. Great book in the New Testament that was Paul's letter to a very messed up, struggling first century group of Christians living in Corinth. Paul addresses all sorts of issues, from divisiveness to immorality to abuse of the Lord's Supper.

"For the Word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1:18).

33. Joshua. This OT book picks up with the death of Moses having occurred and his successor Joshua picking up the mantle. Joshua leads the Israelites into Canaan to take possession of the Promised Land.

"Thus, the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers....Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass" (24.43, 45)

34. The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, by Tim Keller. 9.5 stars out of 10. I finally made it through this book, and I was delighted with it. This is an excellent work by Pastor Tim Keller giving both a defense of belief in Christianity and a challenge for skeptics to stop doubting everything but their skepticism. Keller rightly shows how every doubt rests on another (blindly accepted) belief.

"All doubts, however skeptical and cynical they seem to be, are really a set of alternative beliefs."

Even a statement like, "I feel no need of God in my life," is an alternative belief system. "The speaker is betting his or her life that no God exists who would hold you accountable for your beliefs and behavior if you didn't feel the need for him."

Keller address a number of common defeater beliefs, that is, beliefs that our culture holds that automatically rules out any consideration of Christianity. This book is written fairly, and I'd have no problem handing this book to any skeptic or any person who wants to think deeply on these issues.

35. Hebrews. This NT book is simply about the Superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ over every other option. It was written to Hebrew Christians living in Rome who were tempted to ditch the faith, no doubt in light of rising and heated persecution. This book is a call to persevere b/c, as Peter says elsewhere, Jesus has the words of eternal life. Where else can we go?

Singin' da blues...

2010-03-28T20:46:00.002-05:00

Singing the blues these days? Check out a few videos here....

The first is from a guy named Blind Willie Johnson (1897-1945), whom my friend Barrett F turned me onto. Blind Willie was a blind preacher & musician who lived in Hearne, TX, just outside of Aggieland (he was, I'm sure, an Aggie!). Here is a video (recreated obviously but the music is original), called "Trouble Soon Be Over":

The second is a cover by Canadian Bruce Cockburn of another song by Blind Willie called "What is the Soul of a Man?".

Blind Willie is a great blues musician. Cockburn makes me want to be able to play the blues! Just for the record, I'm almost pretty much convinced that the blues are the modern day equivalent of lament psalms in the OT. Maybe we could put a few of them to the blues?

Here's a few more songs on the WWW of Blind Willie.

Is God Silent?

2010-03-25T09:48:00.006-05:00

I've been reading Paul Miller's excellent book, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World, which is stuffed with great insights & quotes. Here's just one of them....

"Sometimes when we say 'God is silent,' what's really going on is that he hasn't told the story the way we wanted it told. He will be silent when we want him to fill in the blanks of the story we are creating. But with his own stories, the ones we live in, he is seldom silent."

I'm almost finished with this book (& give it top scores), but this book is not finished with me. A friend of mine said that this is not simply the best book on prayer out there, but one of the best books on the Christian life. I have to concur.

March Madness

2010-03-17T18:34:00.000-05:00

Okay, this is how it's going down...

Jason's picks: ...click to enlarge

Jason's Elite Eight

Kentucky, Marquette, Texas A&M (whoop!), Villanova, Kansas, Georgetown, Syracuse, & Kansas St.

Jason's Final Four:

Kansas, Kansas State, Villanova, Kentucky

Jason's Championship Game:

Kansas vs. Kentucky

Jason's National Champion:

Kentucky!

My picks: click to enlarge

My Elite Eight:

Kentucky, West Virginia, Duke, Baylor, Kansas, Georgetown, Syracuse, & K-State

My Final Four:

Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse, Duke

My Championship Game:

Kansas vs. Duke

My National Champion:

Kansas

Let the games begin!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2010-03-17T15:33:00.001-05:00

Click here to learn more.

Doud on "An Inconvenient Faith"

2010-03-17T13:16:00.001-05:00

My friend, Shawn, has a great post on an 'inconvenient faith.'

"Christianity, properly understood and practiced, is an inconvenient faith. It puts a squeeze on life as it’s currently practiced in North America. In talking with people about the Christian lifestyle employed in Acts chapter 2 of the New Testament the question is: Is this minimum church or maximum church?....

"...To steal a line of thought from former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin: You can’t have the Church Jesus wants with the participation levels that our cultural Christianity allows. Something’s gotta give."

Read the whole thing here.

The Rage Against God

2010-03-16T19:27:00.002-05:00

Just added The Rage Against God to my wish list:

From JT's blog:

Christopher Hitchens’s brother, Peter, has a new book coming out from Zondervan on May 1: The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith. I haven’t yet seen the book, but here’s a little preview:

Am I Sick If I Like Stuff Like This?

2010-03-16T00:04:00.007-05:00

Is morality relative? Well, let's test out that little theory, shall we?

Brian Godawa, author of Hollywood Worldviews, is working on a new film called "Cruel Logic." In it, Albert Fish, a brilliant university professor, kidnaps distinguished professors to have a little debate with them. Specifically he challenges professsor as to their theories of morality. This time, he captures a professor of socio-biology who insists that we are biologically determined beings. IOW, our behavior is determined by our genes. There is no such thing as right or wrong. Just behavior.

No absolutes. No guilt. No remorse.

The question is, can the good professor live with his beliefs. "Have you really ever lived out your theory, or are you content writing your papers inside your ivory tower torturing your captive audience of students with your intellectual posturing?"

Fish's offer: “Give me one valid reason why I should not kill you, and I will let you go.”

WARNING: This would be classified under the horror genre. Video is not appropriate for kids.

Friedrich "God is dead" Nietzsche would be proud. He'd say, "Now--at last--we starting to really debate the issues."

[DISCLAIMER: It should go without saying, but as a Christian I would disavow violence. That's b/c my worldview informs my morality. I'm just thankful that most people who embrace biological determinism, atheism, relativism, etc., don't live according to their worldview, but continually borrow capital from Christianity even as they are working hard to suppress it. But what happens when society buys into this teaching hook, line, & sinker?]

Thankful that Grace is taking my breath away today....

2010-03-15T16:14:00.001-05:00

I came across this quote today and liked it.

"Grace is getting what we do not deserve. It is exorbitant, senseless, staggering. Grace takes our breath away and leaves us gasping in stunned amazement.... It is one thing to acknowledge the theological reality that God is gracious. It is another thing altogether to personally receive that grace and breath it into your soul each day. "

~ Kevin G. Harney , Organic Outreach

Living by the grace of God today. Without it, I die & cynicism wins.

Dunk of the Year (or possibly the decade, or the century)...

2010-03-11T20:32:00.003-06:00

[HT: Z]

Questions churches should be asking (but probably aren't)...

2010-03-09T21:39:00.002-06:00

Timmy Brister asks the following great diagnostic questions to himself. Here are a few of them...

1. If our church would cease to exist in our city, would it be noticed and missed?

3. If the only possible means of connecting with unbelievers were through the missionary living of our church members, how much would we grow? (I ask this because the early church did not have signs, websites, ads, marketing, etc.)

4. What are the subcultures within the church? Do they attract or detract from the centrality of the gospel and mission of the church?

6. What are we allowing to be our measuring stick of church health? (attendance vs. discipleship; seating capacity vs. sending capacity; gospel growth, training on mission, etc.)
7. Are the priorities of our church in line with the priorities of Christ’s kingdom?

8. If our members had 60 seconds to explain to an unbeliever what our church is like, what would you want them to say? How many do you think are saying that?

9. If the invisible kingdom of God became visible in our city, what would that look like?

12. Are the people we are reaching more religious or pagan?
13. What can we learn about our evangelism practices by the kind of people are being reached with the gospel?

15. What percentage of our growth is conversion growth (vs. transfer growth)?

20. If money and space were not an issue, what is one thing we ought to dream for God to do in our midst where it is impossible for anyone to get the credit except for the omnipotent hand of God?

Read the whole list here. There are some other great thoughts/ questions by others in the comments.

[HT: Z: JT]

Designed to run...

2010-03-09T21:25:00.002-06:00

In January, I read Born to Run which for a lot of folks like me has drawn attention to the way we've been taught--or not taught--to run. Here's a video talking about barefoot running. Heads up: the video talks about the amazing ability to outrun quadrupeds that we somehow had the ability to evolve. Words still out on what we did until we developed this ability, but I digress...

I've been running some on the treadmill (mind you, I live in Calgary and don't want to try this in the snow) and can tell a big difference. Shin splints don't come so easily anymore and I'd recommend you give it a try. [Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor nor do I play one on tv.]

[ht: z]

On prayer...

2010-03-09T21:17:00.000-06:00

From Pastor Scotty Smith's blog:

Jesus, there’s no way I’m going to engage with Paul’s admonition to devote myself to prayer if I’m not increasingly aware of your devotion to me in the gospel.

Read his whole prayer here.

Well, this explains a lot....

2010-03-03T06:00:00.001-06:00

Filed under "Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid."
-----
You might want to sit down before you read this...

Considering that most of the 14,000 students who completed the exam (7,000 seniors and 7,000 freshmen) scored an F on the portion of the test covering basic American history and institutions, not only will they be repeating history, but with test scores like that, they’ll be repeating history class, as well....

In 2007, ISI administered a 60-question test to 14,000 students at 50 colleges nationwide. The questions were designed to measure the students’ aptitude in four areas: basic American history, government, foreign affairs, and economics. In a companion study, in 2008 ISI administered a shorter exam (33 questions) to a random sample of 2,508 Americans without a college degree in order to have a standard level against which the impact of a college education on a threshold level of familiarity with basic American institutions could be determined.

Here are a few frightening figures certain to keep you up at night:

71% of Americans failed the civics knowledge test;
51% of Americans could not name the three branches of government;
The average score for college seniors on the civics knowledge test was 54.2% (an “F” by any standard);
The average student’s test score improved only 3.8 points from freshman to senior year;
Freshmen at Cornell, Yale, Princeton, and Duke scored better than seniors on the civics knowledge test.
79% of elected officials that took the civics knowledge quiz did not know the Bill of Rights expressly prohibits the government from establishing a religion.
30% of office holders did not know that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are the inalienable rights referred to in the Declaration of Independence.
27% of politicians could not name even one right or freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment.
43% did not know the purpose of the Electoral College.
39% of lawmakers believe the power of declaring war belongs to the president.
The average score for college professors who took the civics knowledge quiz was 55%.

Are you surprised considering that the US Gov't funds education on these very things in the way of public education?

When Demand for the Scriptures Outstrips Supply

2010-03-02T14:21:00.001-06:00

Filed under "Aslan is on the Move"
-----

Here's an interesting report about the demand for Bibles....

The Bible Society has reported a growing demand for copies of the Bible in China where an estimated 500,000 people converted to Christianity in 2009 alone.

Although some four million Bibles were printed and distributed across China last year, the rapid growth of the church year on year means that demand for Bibles is now outstripping supply, according to the Bible Society.

Would that this were the case around the world, that the church was growing so fast that demand for Bibles was outstretching supply. Alas, one day....

I remember Richard Pratt at an RUF training event stating that he believed the next 'center' of Christianity was going to be China. He may very well be right.

[source]

Book Log: February 2010

2010-02-28T19:38:00.006-06:00

Here's my list of books I finished in February. A couple of notes: I'm changing the rating system from 5 stars to 10 stars. Why? Because I feel it gives me more flexibility. An illusion? Probably. Secondly, I'm not going to rate Scripture. It's understood on this blog that it's off the charts. Lastly, I'm going to add a snippet from most books that I appreciated.

11. Safely Home, by Randy Alcorn.
8.5 out of 10 stars. I started reading this to the kids back in TX, and we finally finished it. Alcorn does a great job with a story of persecution in present day China. Spoiler: I cried when martyr Li Quan entered heaven. Alcorn portrays the hosts of heaven & the Li family as anxiously awaiting his immanent entrance into heaven.

They [Li Quan & his guardian angel, Jadorel] passed through the between-world and came to a portal, with faces looking out at them. Quan heard voices, some Chinese, some English, and at least a dozen other languages that he was somehow able to understand.

"He's coming," shouted someone on the other side. "Li Quan is coming, and Jadorel carries him." [This is where I lost it while reading it out loud to the family. Now understand, we had grown to love Li Quan, and watched him through his imprisonment, starvation, & beatings.]

12. 2 Timothy, by the Apostle Paul. Paul is in prison and here writes his 2nd letter to his young protege encouraging him to be bold in the faith, to have strength in Christ, & to preach the Gospel in season & out. So many good quotes here, but this one is one of my favorites:

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith...The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen." (4:7, 18)

13. The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engles. 5 our of 10 stars.
The only reason this didn't receive a rating of 1 star is b/c of it's historical significance. Communism is responsible for more deaths in the 20th century than any other philosophy of life. It's listed as #1 in another book I'm currently reading, 10 Books That Screwed Up The World. I agree. Communism is an inherently atheistic approach to life and oppression. It fundamentally misreads human nature & the will to power, not to mention capitalism. Most telling quote:

"Abolish the family! Even the most radical flare up at this infamous proposal of the communists."

On a side note, a quote I came across in Kingdom Culture (see below) is appropriate here: "We have nothing to fear from those who do not believe in God; we have much to fear from those who do not believe in sin" (Chris Hedges).

Addendum: After consulting with my friend, David (see comments), I adjusted the rating from 2 to 5. It's always good to read something like this which has had a profound impact on humanity, even only if it is to understand better how to defeat it. Note: generally, the ratings are my subjective impressions on how much I liked the book. Hence the original rating of 2 for Marx & Engles. Another system of rating could have it much higher, such as the 10 books that screwed up the world.

14. Lamentations, by Jeremiah. Great little book nestled in the OT after the Book of Jeremiah. Lamentations details the after-shock of OT Israel after they were carried off into exile as an act of justice (b/c she had become more sinful than the surrounding nations) & mercy (God had to put an end to her wickedness, child-sacrifice, sexual perversions, murder, etc). Favorite line:

But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
"The Lord is my portion," says my soul,
"therefore I will have hope in him." (3:21-24)

2nd favorite line:

For the Lord will not cast off forever,
but, though he cause grief,
he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steafast love;
for he does not willingly afflict
or grieve the children of men.

15. Black Hawk Down, by Mark Bowden.
9 out of 10 stars. A very well told story of 'the longest sustained firefight involving American troops since the Vietnam War.' Many people had never heard of Samolia until CNN carried video of the bodies of US troops being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu. My favorite quote from the book:

"[Captain] Steele gave the unapologetic impression that he could break you with his bare hands if it weren't for his strict devotion to Jesus...."

16. Titus, by the Apostle Paul. Paul's letter to his 'child in the faith,' Titus, whom he left in Crete to establish the church there by appointing elders. So much of this text has to do with God's people being marked by good deeds--not in order to earn salvation, but to display the salvation received already by faith. Favorite line:

"The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works" (2.11-14).

17. Philemon, by the Apostle Paul. Paul wrote this letter to his friend, Philemon, pleading for Philemon's runaway slave, Onesimus, who evidently became a Christian under Paul's ministry while he was in prison. Paul sends Onesimus back to Philemon encouraging the latter to receive "him as you would receive me." My favorite line is subversive of an institution at its most powerful for those with eyes to see it.

"For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother" (vs. 15-16).

18. Kingdom Culture: Growing the Missional Church, by Phil Wagler. 8 of of 10 stars.
This is an excellent book for doing what the subtitle suggests: growing the missional church, a theme that is very much in line with my heart. It was good to see him saying the very things I've been saying:

No One Gets Left Behind
Our Leaders Lead
I am a Disciple of Jesus & I Contribute
We Exist for the World Our Lord Came to Save

This will be a trusted resource to go back to over and over again as we go about our business of church planting in Calgary.

19. The GOD i Don't Understand: Reflections on Tough Questions of Faith, by Christopher Wright. 10 out of 10 stars.
I can't say enough good things about this book. Ever since reading his book, The Mission of God (which has had as big an impact on me as any book I've read), I've had a man-crush on Christopher Wright. I'm even reading through his commentary on Deuteronomy. In this book (The GOD i Don't Understand), Wright deals with three questions: (1) What about evil and suffering; (2) What about the Canaanites?; & (3) What about the Cross? I give this book 10 stars b/c I had to put the book down at numerous places having been moved to worship the GOD i don't understand.

20. Acts, by St. Luke. This is Luke's record of the Acts of Jesus Christ, Part II. Part I was the Gospel that bears his name, and Acts is a continuation of the story of Christ's mission that he continues through his church. There's so much that is good & instructive in this book. My favorite chapter is Acts 17 where Paul is preaching the Gospel in Athens. My favorite verse though comes from 20:24 where Paul says,

"But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."

21. Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions, by Greg Koukl.
9 out of 10 stars. An excellent book by the founder & president of Stand to Reason, an apologetics ministry that seeks to equip believers to share & defend the faith. This book is a 'must-read' for any Christian who wants to speak intelligently to others about the Gospel. There is so much practical advice & tactics that I couldn't possibly distill it here. Just get it, read it, digest it. You'll be a better equipped disciple if you do. Favorite quote:

"The most important gauge of our success will not be our numbers or even our impact, but our fidelity to our Savior...Push yourself beyond your comfort zone."

22. The Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life, by John Calvin.
7.5 out of 10 stars. This book is a almost a collection of proverbs by Calvin arranged by topics. Good solid counsel & nuggets of wisdom. 7.5 stars b/c it just didn't read well, but the content was good.

"A true Christian will not ascribe any prosperity to his own diligence, industry, or good fortune, but he will acknowledge that God is the author of it."

23. The Logic of Evangelism, by William Abraham. 8 out of 10 stars.
I recently read a blog by an evangelist who said that his church had passed out over 3 million tracts in his city, but saw no noticeable difference in attendance in their church. This only confirmed to me that so much of evangelism is simply off base, and doesn't take into account a changed life here & now (note: I'm sure some people were genuinely converted with the tracts--I'm not dogging tracts at all). But when you read the NT, there was really no such thing as coming to Christ that was not at the same time coming to be a part of the people of God marked out by baptism. Abraham seeks to address this issue by stating that "we should construe evangelism as primarily initiation into the kingdom of God." He argues that 'coming to Christ' should entail understanding the rule of his kingdom since he is a king, as well as entrance into the church through the sacrament of baptism.

"What is important is to combat the isolation of evangelism from the full ministry of the church and to rescue it from the shallow anthropocentrism and individualism into which it has tumbled in the last two centuries."

Though I definitely do not agree with everything written in this book (why do I even feel the need to qualify my comments?), there is much here that is spot on. Favorite quote:

"In the end, the kingdom will come; in the meantime let us prepare the world to receive its Lord & Savior."

God's Amnesia

2010-02-26T16:49:00.004-06:00

I've been reading through Christopher Wright's book, The GOD i Don't Understand." I have been led to worship & tears again & again. In reading his chapter, "The Cross--How?" I came across this section that was water for my thirsty soul:

We may have no control over what other people think of us, but that need not destroy the proper sense of dignity and self-respect that comes from know the affirmation of God himself...

...the same person, alone with God and the memories of the past, can quite properly feel the most acute inner shame and disgrace. It is not, however, a destructive or crushing emotion. Rather it is the core fuel for genuine repentance and humility and for the joy and peace that flow from that source alone. When I remember my sins I know that God does not. From his side they are buried in the depths of the sea, covered by the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, never again to be raised to the surface and held against me. And it is only in the awareness of that liberating truth that I can(or even ought) to remember them. For this is not the memory that generates fresh accusation and guilt--that is the work of Satan the accuser. Satan's stinging jolts of memory need to be taken straight to the cross and to our ascended High Priest, for
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
No, this is the memory that generates gratitude out of disgrace, celebration out of shame. It is the memory which marvels at the length and breadth and depth of God's rescuing love that has brought me from what I once was, or might easily have beome, to where I am now, as a child of his grace....

...That is why I said that, of all the things that lead me to speak of the God I don't understand, the cross is top of the list.

Sink your teeth into these promises...

Hebrews 10:17, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
Isaiah 43:25, "I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins."
Hebrews 8:12, "For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
Psalm 103:12, "As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us."
Micah 7:19, "You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."

Do you believe that? How I am thankful for the amnesia of an omniscient God!

Church planting from scratch is a lot like shaking your booty, I think

2010-02-26T15:23:00.004-06:00

You may have seen this video before. I recently came across it again with commentary on leadership.

This basically sums up our endeavors in church planting from scratch. Feels like shaking your booty. Will it catch on? I'm willing to be the fool for Christ. Come, Holy Spirit. (& perhaps, Lord have mercy.)

Will we have any followers? Does anyone want to join the dance? We'll find out soon. Upcoming informational deserts in April for any & all who want to find out more about New City Church.

April 14th & 28th

Click here for more details.

Rap: Austrian vs. Keynesian Economics

2010-02-04T23:19:00.000-06:00

My friend, James, posted this video breaking down the differences between the Austrian and Keynesian schools of economics. I too, James, thrown my hat in with Hayek. Shawn, I expect to see Burk singing this along with Nan the next time we get together!

Can you guess whose econ theory is ruling the world right now?

Around the Web

2010-02-04T22:45:00.004-06:00

N.L. premier's U.S. heart surgery sparks health-care debate: Supporters and critics of Canada's health-care system have found themselves in a new debate sparked by the decision of a provincial premier to seek heart surgery in the United States.
Obama, with straight face, lectures American's on how to spend their own money the same week he proposes the biggest spending budget in US history. "When times are tough, you tighten your belts," the president said. "You don't go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don't blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you're trying to save for college."
What exactly did Bush and Cheney do wrong? You know its bad when Salon.com is asking this question.
Setting a Reading Goal: 100 Books in 2010: Trevin Wax writes, Several years ago, I began setting a goal of reading 100 books a year. That’s roughly two books a week. 2007 was the first year I met the quota. Since then, several people have asked about setting goals for book-reading. Others have asked, Can it really be done? Here are some tips to get you started.

Atheist vs. Unitarian minister on what is a true Christian

2010-02-03T15:49:00.003-06:00

Stand to Reason notes this interesting interaction in an interview in the Portland Monthly, where fire-breathing jihadist* atheist, Christopher Hitchens, responds to a question by a unitarian minister who considers herself a 'liberal Christian', and schools her:

Maryiln Sewell: The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make and [sic] distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?

Christopher Hitchens: I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.

Game. Set. Match. Though I must admit, its tough to know who to root for in this situation.

Btw, did he just unwittingly evangelize her???

[*the term 'jihadist atheist' is the term David Berlinski uses in his book, The Devil's Delusion: Atheism & It's Scientific Pretensions, to describe the new atheists--zealots who are hell-bent (excuse the pun) on converting everyone to their very narrow & dogmatic beliefs. I'm only about half-way through this book by a self-described 'secular Jew,' but so far I like it and would recommend it.]

Book Log: January 2010

2010-02-03T13:19:00.002-06:00

1. Born To Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes, And the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, Christopher McDougall. 4 out of 5 Stars. Great read about a lost tribe of ultramarathoners that the author discovered after asking the question, Why does my foot hurt when I run. Riveting with unforgettable characters; humorous (in the sad sort of way) chapter on evolution, & great incentive to run!

2. The Lotus & the Cross: Jesus Talks With Buddha, Ravi Zacharius. 3.5 out of 5 Stars. Fun little read of an imaginative conversation that highlights well what Jesus has to offer & why Buddhism is ultimately bankrupt. Left me wanting more, but the design of the book is for a short conversation.

3. The One Thing You Can't Do In Heaven, Mark Cahill. 3 out of 5 Stars. A book mostly about the author's experiences in sharing the Gospel with others--some amazing like with his former teammate Charles Barkley & Michael Jordan, along with an attempt to teach along the way. Not very well written, IMHO, but a rah-rah book nevertheless.

4. Lone Survivor, by Marcus Luttrell. 4.5 stars out of 5. Fascinating read written by the lone survivor of a group of Navy Seals in Afghanistan. Fun to read about Navy Seal training, sad to read about the doom sealed by their fear of crucifixion by the liberal media in the USA, & riveting to hear about their gunfight with Taliban being outnumbered by at least 35-1.

5. Questioning Evangelism, by Randy Newman. 4.5 stars out of 5. Great read about the art of asking questions when engaging people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Newman insists that Christians need three skills: declaring, defending & dialoguing the Gospel.

6. The Gospel of Matthew, by Matthew. 5 stars out of 5. Eyewitness account of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ and the inauguration of the Kingdom of Heaven that He proclaimed and ushered in with His life, death, & resurrection.

7. Romans, by Paul the Apostle. 5 stars out of 5. This is Paul's great work detailing for us the revelation of the righteousness of God in how through the work of Christ, God is able to demonstrate His Justice while at the same time being able to justify those who place their trust in Christ.

8. 1 Timothy, by Paul the Apostle. 5 stars out of 5. Paul's pastoral letter to his son in the faith, Timothy, in which he calls Timothy to fight the good fight of the faith entrusting to him the teachings that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

9. The Externally-Focused Church, by Rick Rusaw & Eric Swanson. 4 stars out of 5. The title sums up the book in which they stress that we are not social workers but kingdom builders. They insist that Christians cannot really grow if they are not involved in service & mission to the communities in which God has placed them.

10. Heaven is a Place on Earth: Why Everything You Do Matters To God, by Michael Wittmer. 4 stars out of 5. Good worldview book about Creation, Fall, Redemption & Restoration of all things in Christ. The part on Redemption emphasized the cosmic scope of Christ's work almost to the neglect of the personal aspects of redemption (~ 2 pgs.). Other than that, it is a great read with many memorable quotes.

The Gospel Tells Us What Questions We Should Be Asking...

2009-12-07T17:33:00.002-06:00

Trevin Wax nails it:

I am uneasy saying, “Answer the questions of the culture” and leaving it at that. Why? Because this impulse can reduce the gospel to a mere response to whatever questions our culture puts forth. In the end, we let others frame the question, while we seek to fit the gospel into that cultural framework.

But what if the culture isn’t asking the right questions?

What if the culture has so downplayed the idea of guilt that a biblical understanding of sin has all but disappeared?

What if the people in our society refuse to grapple with the fact of their own mortality?

The gospel does not just morph and adapt depending on the culture. Instead, the gospel is culture-creating. The gospel does not merely answer the culture’s questions. It includes those answers, yes. But it also creates a culture of its own… a culture that leads to other fundamental questions.

So the gospel provides us with not only the right answers to the world’s questions, but also the piercing questions the world does not want to deal with. The gospel tells us what the world should be asking.

As witnesses to the gospel, we can and should seek to answer the questions of the culture. But we must go further – pointing people to the right, biblical questions that they may not have thought to ask. We are called not to fit the gospel into our current cultural framework, but to challenge the cultural framework with the earth-shattering, death-defying news of a risen King.

Around the Web

2009-11-06T22:51:00.002-06:00

Washington Post: Real Unemployment Rate in US is 17.5%

All Crisis, All The Time. The American Addiction to Overreaction. The Weekly Standard says, "We seem to have fallen in love with crises, and the more crises we find the more animated we seem to be. We are immersed in a Crisis of Crises, replete with illogic, a surfeit of emotion, and strings of events vying for crisis status."
Do you believe in guardian angels? Randy Alcorn does, and gives some biblical reasons to think so.
You'd think that the President would care about this: Abortion kills more black Americans than the seven leading causes of death combined, according to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 2005, the latest year for which the abortion numbers are available.

The "missing link" is, well, not a missing link...

2009-11-06T14:12:00.006-06:00

Same song, 7134th verse [**yawn**]...

You may have missed this retraction. If so, don't worry. It was easy to miss it. There wasn't nearly the fanfare circulating around the correction as was made around the giddy announcement. Here's the scoop from the AP with the headline: "‘Missing link’ primate isn’t a link after all: Ida is as far from monkey-ape-human ancestry as primate can be"

NEW YORK - Remember Ida, the fossil discovery announced last May with its own book and TV documentary? A publicity blitz called it "the link" that would reveal the earliest evolutionary roots of monkeys, apes and humans.

Experts protested that Ida wasn't even a close relative. And now a new analysis supports their reaction.

In fact, Ida is as far removed from the monkey-ape-human ancestry as a primate could be, says Erik Seiffert of Stony Brook University in New York.

Well, alrighty then.

Hmmm...what kind of lessons do we learn about Ph.D's in this area? The media? Does this inform the way you view dogmatic 'scientific' announcements on the subject?

Just asking....

Some ruminations in light of recent conversations....

2009-11-03T19:56:00.001-06:00

Questions are good if they are employed in the search for truth, but they can also be endlessly employed in the evasion of truth as well.

"To be sure, an open mind is a good thing. But a mind is open only as long as it is closing in on truth." ~ from Reinventing Jesus

Orphan Sunday

2009-10-19T19:03:00.001-05:00

Check out the video....

Orphan Sunday from Christian Alliance for Orphans on Vimeo.

[HT: JT]

Missional: Front Porch Ministries

2009-10-19T18:54:00.001-05:00

Cool. We need more Christians like these....

Stating the obvious (or what should be)...Christianity, Religious Pluralists, & Intolerance

2009-10-16T17:27:00.009-05:00

In the USAToday, opinion columnist Tom Krattenmaker has an interesting piece called, "And I Like To Thank God Almighty." Seems he's a bit miffed about evangelical Christians [insert "join the club" here]. Oh, he has praise for many of them and the way they comport themselves. But there's that little problem with Christianity that they preach that he doesn't like.

"If their take on God and truth and life is the only right one — which their creed boldly states — everyone else is wrong."

Of course, Krattenmaker thinks this is perfectly unacceptable in our pluralistic society--you might even say it is the unforgivable sin of religious pluralism.

But what he and other folks who hold similar views can't seem to get is their own bigotry, defined of course as an intolerance towards other's beliefs and opinions. What makes this sort of bigotry especially deceptive is that it masquerades as being open-minded, tolerant, self-evident. He laments that evangelical Christians have "little appreciation for the beliefs of the rest of us," all the while SHOUTING FROM THE ROOFTOPS the fact that he has little appreciation for the beliefs of evangelical Christians. Ahem, physician, heal thyself.

Let's hit the ball back into their court by restating his central assertion this way:

"If their (Krattenmaker & other so-called religious pluralists) take on God and truth and life is the only right one--which their [pluralistic] creed boldly states--everyone else is wrong."

But being blinded by his own zeal, Krattenmaker can't see is that when they say, "There can't be one religious truth, and Christians--quoting Jesus--are wrong [John 14:6]," that itself is a religious belief and an arrogantly smug claim to knowledge. IOW, Krottenmaker et.al. are saying that they perceive more of reality than all the religions of the world, and so they can make the audacious claim that they know more of ultimate reality than, say, Christians, Jews, or Muslims."

And make no mistake about it, Krattenmaker believes so strongly in rightness of his viewpoint that he is zealously preaching it from the nation-wide pulpit of The USA Today. He's evangelizing trying to win converts to his own narrow and arrogant viewpoints. Or to put it the way we like to in the West, he's shoving his views down everyone else's throats.

It's better if we'd all get off our high horse and just admit that we all are exclusivists. We all believe that our views are correct. The better question is to ask, "How shall we then live?" "How do we get along?" Which worldview / philosophy / religion provides resources for dealing with those who are different?

As for me, I'm sticking with the resources provided by Jesus who prayed for, welcomed, and laid down his life for his enemies. Anybody got a trump for that one?

Related Posts:
*A Conversation About Christianity & Exclusivity

*Check out Penn's thoughts on the subject (& he's an atheist & no friend of Christianity!):

"I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward–and atheists who think people shouldn’t proselytize and who say just leave me along and keep your religion to yourself–how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?"

Through thick & thin....

2009-10-14T12:25:00.003-05:00

Psalm 16:8, "I have set the Lord always before me...."

The faithful Christian,
"...whether he abound in wealth or be pinched with poverty
whether he be of high or low degree in this world
ought continually to have his faith
and hope surely built and grounded upon Christ,
and to have his heart and mind
fast fixed and settled upon him,
and to follow him through thick and thin,
through fire and water,
through wars and peace,
through hunger and cold,
through friends and foes,
through a thousand perils and dangers,
through the surges and waves of envy,
mailice, hatred, evil speeches, railing sentences,
contempt of the world, flesh, and devil,
and even in death itself,
be it never so bitter, cruel, and tyrannical,
yet never to lose sight and view of Christ,
nevert to give over faith, hope, and trust in him."

~ Robert Cawdray, cited in Spurgeon's Treasury of David

Joshua Harris: Hold That Thought, God. Need to Check My Email

2009-10-12T16:49:00.002-05:00

Filed under: "Note to Self"
-----
Joshua Harris: "I think a lot of us we could rephrase the words of Proverbs 24:33-34 about the sluggard and say, "A little web surfing, a little Facebook, a little folding of the hands around the smart phone and spiritual poverty will come upon you like a robber."

Stranger Know Thyself

2009-10-08T14:39:00.003-05:00

In his book, Lost in the Cosmos, the late Walker Percy asks,

"Why is it that of all the billions and billions of strange objects in the Cosmos--novas, quasars, pulsars, black holes--you are beyond doubt the strangest?"

Flickr Favorites: Ballooning over Yangshou

2009-10-07T22:09:00.002-05:00

Ballooning over Yangshou, originally uploaded by Charlie Lawrence.

Book Review: Liberal Fascism

2009-10-07T21:07:00.009-05:00

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning by Jonah Goldberg

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a great read of intellectual history. Defining fascism as essentially "a religion of the state", Jonah Goldberg traces core liberal ("progressive") commitments as well as those of liberals-masquerading-as-conservatives. In the process, he traces the thread that runs through the politics of Hitler & Mussolini, Woodrow Wilson, FDR & the New Deal, Kennedy, Johnson, as well as George W. Bush ("when somebody hurts, the gov't has got to move" & his 'compassionate conservatism'), Pat Buchanan, Hillary, and everybody's favorite, Obama.

Most people react emotionally to such a claim b/c fascism is usually associated with Hitler & Mussolini & their atrocities, but what is forgotten is the praise given to these leaders by the West before their atrocities. "Before the war, fascism was widely viewed as a progressive social movement...". Faciscm is a totalitarian political religion, and the mood at the beginning of the 20th Century was for social engineering, complete in some instances with eugenics, racial profiling, 'family planning,' moving beyond Christianity, etc. For example, the title of the book comes from HG Wells, who told the Young Liberals at Oxford in a 1932 speech that progressives must become 'liberal fascists' and 'enlightened Nazis.' It's hard to imagine anyone saying that after the war.

My view, all governments tend toward totalitarianism unless something prevents it from going there. In the absence trust in God, folks will trust in the nanny state for cradle to grave love & care & security. In other words, totalitarianism, or a holistic approach where nothing falls outside the realm of regulation--from what you eat to what you say to what you believe. In America, it takes the form of a 'smiley-face' fascism. As Goldberg contends,

"If there is ever a fascist takeover in America, it will come not in the form of storm troopers kicking down doors but with lawyers and social workers saying, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help.""

And again,

"...in America, where hostility to big gov't is central to the national character, the case for statism must be made in terms of 'pragmatism' and decency. In other words, our fascism must be nice and for your own good."

Goldberg closes with a quote from CS Lewis:

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

Overall, a good read & well documented. I learned much that I never even remotely learned in the university. In fact, when you read this book, everything going on in today's politics at the federal level becomes crystal clear.

View all my reviews >>

Discipleship: Bridge or Dead-end

2009-10-06T17:22:00.003-05:00

"Discipleship must always be discipleship-in-movement-to-the-world. The disciple who will not lay down life for the world and for the Gospel of reconciliation is not worthy of being a follower of Jesus Christ."

"Far too often mission is relegated to one of those 'wishful thinking' categories that we hope to get to some day in our ministry. The newer third-world churches are supposedly not ready to engage in mission on their own until they reach a certain level of maturity...Meanwhile the North American and European congregations often relegate 'mission' to the leftover category, with the internal necessities of congregation and membership receiving higher priority. Mission calls us to radical reexamination. If mission is part of the essence of the Church's nature as the body of Christ and the people of God, then it ought to be at the top of the list."

And I love this quote of Johannes Blauw's in The Missionary Nature of the Church...

"There is no other Church than the Church sent into the world, and there is no other mission than that of the Church of Christ."

And again,

"If one wants to maintain a specific theological meaning of the term mission as 'foreign mission,' its significance is, in my opinion, that it keeps calling the Church to think over its essential nature as a community sent forth into the world. Seen in that light missionary work is not just one of its activities, but the criterion for all its activities.... It is exactly by going outside itself that the Church is itself and comes to itself."

"Collision" : Atheism vs. Christianity

2009-10-06T16:50:00.008-05:00

I'm really looking forward to this documentary being released later this month. The new bad boy of atheism, Christopher Hitchens, & Doug Wilson, began writing about the topic, "Is Chrisianity good for the world?" Then they took their conversation to the streets. Both are capable evangelists for their religion.

SYNOPSIS
COLLISION carves a new path in documentary film-making as it pits leading atheist, political journalist and bestselling author Christopher Hitchens against fellow author, satirist and evangelical theologian Douglas Wilson, as they go on the road to exchange blows over the question: "Is Christianity Good for the World?". The two contrarians laugh, confide and argue, in public and in private, as they journey through three cities. And the film captures it all. The result is a magnetic conflict, a character-driven narrative that sparkles cinematically with a perfect match of arresting personalities and intellectual rivalry. COLLISION is directed by prolific independent filmmaker Darren Doane (Van Morrison: To Be Born Again, The Battle For L.A., Godmoney).

OVERVIEW
In May 2007, leading atheist Christopher Hitchens and Christian apologist Douglas Wilson began to argue the topic “Is Christianity Good for the World?” in a series of written exchanges published in Christianity Today. The rowdy literary bout piqued the interest of filmmaker Darren Doane, who sought out Hitchens and Wilson to pitch the idea of making a film around the debate.

In Fall 2008, Doane and crew accompanied Hitchens and Wilson on an east coast tour to promote the book compiled from their written debate titled creatively enough, Is Christianity Good for the World?. “I loved the idea of putting one of the beltway’s most respected public intellectuals together with an ultra-conservative pastor from Idaho that looks like a lumberjack”, says Doane. “You couldn’t write two characters more contrary. What’s more real than a fight between two guys who are on complete opposite sides of the fence on the most divisive issue in the world? We were ready to make a movie about two intellectual warriors at the top of their game going one-on-one. I knew it would make an amazing film.”

In Christopher Hitchens, Doane found a celebrated prophet of atheism. Loud. Funny. Angry. Smart. Quick. An intimidating intellectual Goliath. Well-known for bullying and mocking believers into doubt and doubters into outright unbelief. In Douglas Wilson, Doane found the man who could provide a perfect intellectual, philosophical, and cinematic counterpoint to Hitchens' position and style. A trained philosopher and and deft debater. Big, bearded, and jolly. A pastor, a contrarian, a humorist--an unintimidated outsider, impossible to bully, capable of calling Hitchens a puritan (over a beer).

It was a collision of lives.

What Doane didn’t expect was how much Hitchens and Wilson would have in common and the respectful bond the new friend/foes would build through the course of the book tour. “These guys ended up at the bar laughing, joking, drinking. There were so many things that they had in common”, according to Doane. “Opinions on history and politics. Literature and poetry. They agreed on so many things. Except on the existence of God.”

Should make for some good viewing and discussion.

For more info, check out the website here.

Brought in to be sent out...

2009-10-06T15:50:00.006-05:00

I'm reflecting on this quote and the best way to get God's people to buy in to their calling to be God's missionary people:

"The Church is not an exclusive club of privilege, neither is it a place to rest from our labors. We have been brought in so that we may gather others into this Kingdom of Grace."

Chapter 4 of this book includes a discussion of "The Essence of the Local Church in Historical Perspective," and speaks about the traditional reformational marks of the church (word, sacrament, & doctrine) and casts those in light of a missional reading of the four attributes of the church (one, holy, catholic, & apostolic). Then concludes with these thoughts...

"What is the Church? It is the unifying [one], santifying [holy], reconciling [catholic], and proclaiming [apostolic] activity of Jesus Christ in the world. Mission cannot be something separate from or added to the essence of the Church. The essential nature of the local congregation is, in and of itself, mission, or else the congregation is not really a Church."

"Notice that this description is a far cry from saying that 'everything the church does is mission.' What the church does internally with no intention of impacting the world outside of itself is not mission. But when a local congregation understands that it is, by its nature, a constellation of missional activities, and it intentionally lives its life as a missionary body, then it begins to emerge toward becoming the authentic Church of Jesus Christ."