coming attractions

Posted on August 8, 2009 by bkingr

courtesy of Jonathan Dodson, I ran across this post by Mark Driscoll and his recent encounter with ABC’s Terry Moran and the Nightline crew.

Sounds interesting. I wonder what the finished product will look like.

I sat down for about 30 minutes with Terry Moran and we talked about how idolatry underlies all sin, how it is rooted on the false promise of happiness, how it ultimately destroys, how it is often the result of turning a good thing into an ultimate thing, and how it shows itself in our culture in how we idolize celebrities, athletes, food, family, sex, money, relationships, and achievement – or rather, what we call American culture.

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phridai photos

Posted on August 7, 2009 by bkingr

took this for a bokeh wednesday
H.B.W.

so hot and dry this year
summertime

enjoying a cool treat
Concert in the Park

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When Helping Hurts

Posted on August 6, 2009 by bkingr

Kevin DeYoung has put up a three part look at the book When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourselfby Brian Fikkert. It looks like a good book to read for guidance as we attempt to take on the job of loving people like we should love them.

When Helping Hurts part 1
When Helping Hurts part 2
When Helping Hurts part 3

the key piece of the puzzle comes in part 2:

In my opinion, Chapter 4 is the most important chapter in the book. Here Fikkert explains the three different approaches to poverty alleviation. The first is relief. Relief is the urgent, temporary provision of emergency aid to reduce immediate suffering. The second is rehabilitation. Rehabilitation begins once “the bleeding stops.” It seeks to restore people and communities to the positive elements of their pre-crisis conditions. The third approach is development. Development is the process of ongoing change that moves all people involved (“helpers” and “helped”) closer to being in a right relationship with God, self, others, and creation.

If you don’t ever read the book, or get anything else of these blog posts, try to remember the differences between relief, rehabilitation, and development. When North American churches think of helping the poor, they almost always think in terms of relief. This, says Fikkert, is “by far” the biggest mistake our churches continue to make.

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rebuilding a marriage after an affair

Posted on August 5, 2009 by bkingr

here is another Piper answer. this one regarding what to do to rebuild a marriage after one of the couple has had an affair. Tough timely stuff.

HT vitamin z

more from Piper on this subject here

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practical prayer helps

Posted on August 5, 2009 by bkingr

here is John Piper talking about how practically to develop a passion for prayer.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQkaxoC9-hk&hl=en&fs=1&]

what he says about the stories is just so true. I read a book about George Mueller in high school and it has had to biggest impact on my prayer life of anything.

The other part about praying scripture, Julie and I learned from Beth Moore while we were in Arkansas. Very good stuff.

Hat tip to Vitamin Z.

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a decommissioned dimension

Posted on August 5, 2009 by bkingr

here is a life plan from Julie Neidlinger.

My plan is somewhere lost in abstracts, or a decommissioned dimension. It doesn’t buy groceries or dentist visits or thinks past age 40. It seems real and concrete somewhere between midnight and 1 a.m., or when I’m laughing with my friend and tomorrow doesn’t exist. Five minutes from now catches me off guard, or the brief bit of conversation that turns everything upside down.

sounds intriguing.

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how weird am I?

Posted on August 4, 2009 by bkingr

seriously, how weird am I?

I have been watching the dialogue between Mark Krikorian, Wesley Smith and Jonah Goldberg in The Corner with great interest. They are talking about vegans and vegetarians, morality and whether or not it is morally permissible to eat meat etc. Really good stuff and very interesting.

Anyway, today Jonah posts this email correcting a philosophical point that Jonah made about the persuasiveness of one of Wesley’s points.

Paragraphs like these two just tickle my brain and make me happy. The last sentence especially just makes me want to jump up and click my heels together:

Here’s an example of a valid moral conclusion drawn from a factual premise: “Putting arsenic in a dog’s food will poison him [scientific fact]. It is wrong to poison dogs [moral premise]. Therefore, it is wrong to put arsenic in a dog’s food [moral conclusion].” Whether or not you agree that it’s wrong to poison dogs, there’s nothing invalid or fallacious about the argument.

So I don’t think Wesley Smith committed a mistake in moral reasoning. He just left implicit a key assumption: that the normal operations of our bodies reveal what it is morally permissible for us to do. Although that’s a controversial statement, it captures a bedrock principle of the influential school of moral philosophy known as natural law (members include Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and Pope Benedict). It isn’t at all fallacious. Smith’s argument would defeat the arguments of the vegetarians if the burden of proof is on them, but it would require quite a bit more dialectical work if the burden of proof is on him.

emphasis added

so, how weird does that make me?

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conception of self part II

Posted on August 4, 2009 by bkingr

earlier I quoted C.S. Lewis in Perelandra to illustrate the point that our enemy has as his project the inflation of our ego to the point that we find it difficult to deny anything to ourselves and our own vision of how the world should be.

Satan has as his project affirming to us that we are the most important thing in the world and that everything else revolves around us and what we want and like.

I would submit that there are two basic things that we have to get right before anything else in the Bible or Christian life makes sense. We have to have a proper view of God and we have to have a proper view of ourselves in God.

God is everything. He made everything. He is sovereign over everything. He is God. Isaiah 46 is just one place where He laid it out for His people to see.

9remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
10(K) declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying,(L) ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
11(M) calling a bird of prey from the east,
the man of my counsel from a far country.
(N) I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it.

the first four of the ten commandments are also reminders that God is God and will be worshipped as God.

2(C) “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3(D) “You shall have no other gods before[a] me.

4(E) “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5(F) You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am(G) a jealous God,(H) visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6but showing steadfast love to thousands[b] of those who love me and keep my commandments.

7(I) “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

8(J) “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9(K) Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, 10but the(L) seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the(M) sojourner who is within your gates. 11For(N) in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

The whole point of all creation is to reflect the Glory of God. God chose Israel as His people in order to show the nations who He is. God chose us for the same reason.

God did not save us in order to meet our needs although that is a byproduct according to Matthew 6. God did not save us because He needed anything that we had to offer according to Romans 5:6-8.

God saved us for the praise of His glorious grace.  Check this out.

3(A) Blessed be(B) the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing(C) in the heavenly places, 4(D) even as he(E) chose us in him(F) before the foundation of the world, that we should be(G) holy and blameless before him. In love 5(H) he predestined us[a] for(I) adoption as sons through Jesus Christ,(J) according to the purpose of his will, 6(K) to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in(L) the Beloved. 7(M) In him we have(N) redemption(O) through his blood,(P) the forgiveness of our trespasses,(Q) according to the riches of his grace, 8which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9(R) making known[b] to us the mystery of his will,(S) according to his purpose, which he(T) set forth in Christ 10as a plan for(U)the fullness of time,(V) to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

11In him we have obtained(W) an inheritance,(X) having been predestined(Y) according to the purpose of him who works all things according to(Z) the counsel of his will, 12so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be(AA) to the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you heard(AB) the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him,(AC) were sealed with the(AD)promised Holy Spirit, 14who is(AE) the guarantee[c] of our(AF) inheritance until(AG) we acquire(AH) possession of it,[d](AI) to the praise of his glory.

emphasis added.

you have to get these two things written/engraved/etched into your very heart and soul.

1. God is God
2. Everything in all creation including us exists only and always to reflect God’s glory

that’s it.

So, as believers we are mirrors reflecting God’s glory to the world. Notice something though in II Corinthians 3:18:

18And we all, with unveiled face,(A) beholding(B) the glory of the Lord,[a](C) are being transformed into the same image(D) from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

emphasis added.

Did you see that? in addition to the magnificent, amazing, unbelievable, wonderful, glorious privilege of being glory reflectors, God is also lovingly transforming us into the very image that we are reflecting for His increased glory.

The point is that God is the only light source in the universe. We are mirrors, not suns.

mirrors try to make themselves better reflectors of God. Little make believe suns try to impose their reflection onto the world.

Do you see why these two things matter?

The basic foundational lie of Satan is that we are little light sources ourselves. As little gods, we are thus entitled to all the perks of godness including a world ordered around us and our whims.

notice on page 179 what the Lady learned in Perelandra after she did not succumb to temptation to go on fixed land:

The reason for not yet living on Fixed Land is now so plain. How could I wish to live there except that because it was Fixed? And why should I desire the Fixed except to make sure–to be able on one day to command where I should be the next and what should happen to me? It was to reject the wave–to draw my hands out of Maledil’s [Jesus’s], to say to Him, ‘Not thus, but thus’–to put in our own power what times should roll towards us….as if you gathered fruits together to-day for to-morrow’s eating instead of taking what came. That would have been cold love and feeble trust. And out of it how could we ever have climbed back into love and trust again?”

a cold and feeble love and trust indeed is one that says thank you to God for saving us, now get out of our way while we make our world like we want it. But yet that seems to be what we do, and much pain follows our rash willfulness.

Why do we do it? How can we stop?

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sunday night

Posted on August 3, 2009 by bkingr

we went to the Long Center front lawn last evening for the concert in the park series from the Austin Symphony. It was big band night and it was great. Took a picnic. brought the camera and listened to the big band sounds followed by shaved ice snow cones. hmmmmmm.

Have I ever mentioned that I love Austin?

concert in the park

concert in the park

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a conception of self

Posted on August 2, 2009 by bkingr

I read the C.S. Lewis space trilogy the first time almost thirty years ago. I read them again 3 or 4 years ago. Powerful stuff.

I especially find the story in Perelandra to be a wonderful glimpse into the Garden of Eden through the mind and imagination of C.S. Lewis.

In the book, Satan constantly whispers in the Lady’s ear. His project is to build up her sense of self, her ego, to such a degree that she feels entitled to go on land (the book’s forbidden fruit) in spite of Maledil’s (God’s) instruction not to go there.

Only a creature that feels like it is somebody is willing to transgress God’s instruction because it wants its own version of happiness and joy rather than God’s.

The enemy’s scheme is bearing fruit in this quote from page 118 in the paperback version linked above:

But the Lady did not appear to be listening to him.  She stood like one almost dazed with the richness of a day-dream.  She did not look in the least like a woman who is thinking about a new dress.  The expression of her face was noble.  It was a great deal too noble.  Greatness, tragedy, high sentiment–these were obviously what occupied her thoughts.  Ransom perceived that the affair of the robes and the mirror had been only superficially concerned with what is commonly called female vanity.   The image of her beautiful body had been offered to her only as a means to awake the far more perilous image of her great soul.  The external and, as it were, dramatic conception of the self was the enemy’s true aim.  He was making her mind a theatre in which that phantom self should hold the stage. He had already written the play.

emphasis added.

This is the way our enemy works. He does whatever it takes to make us think that we are the ones that the play is about. A dramatic conception of self is always his true aim.

People who are great are the ones entitled to live in Disneyland all the time.

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more like this please

Posted on August 1, 2009 by bkingr

Chris Isaak knows his limitations. this is one of the best answers I have heard in a while.

Maybe you could draw on your student council experience to help sort out the enormous budget crisis in California. Any remedy for it? I don’t think we want a remedy for it. The less the government has to spend, the better off we’ll be. But I should say that I, and the rest of entertainers, don’t know a god-durned nothing about policies. We’re too busy self-aggrandizing to come up with any solutions. It’s amazing how many entertainers can find time between adopting children to tell you how to live your life.

I get so sick of all the pretty people looking down their noses at the rest of us.

Bully for Chris Isaak. I am headed over to iTunes to buy Wicked Game or something.

Hat tip to Christian Toto

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God in nature

Posted on August 1, 2009 by bkingr

Challies put up an excellent post yesterday about the nine things he learned about God from nature. Take some time this weekend to read it.

I have also been struck by this fact when I take pictures:

…A GOD OF DETAIL

God overlooked no detail in creating this world. While humans like to declare that certain parts of our bodies are unnecessary or left over from some far-off evolutionary process, nature offers us no such hints. In Planet Earth we cannot help but see the beauty of God in the details—in the tiniest microbes and the largest mammals. God created this world to function perfectly, down to its tiniest and seemingly least significant parts.

If God has seen fit to be involved in the tiniest details of the tiniest creatures He has made, how much more can we trust Him in the details of our lives. The same God who sees the sparrow fall is the God who is present with us as we seek to live our lives in accordance with His will. The God who has woven together this world is the same God who weaves together providence for our good and for His glory.

the details are so amazing. that is why I love macro photography.
aperture experiments

butterflies on lantana

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hard questions

Posted on July 31, 2009 by bkingr

in our american evangelical church today how much do we really believe in community? you recall the recent denouncing of the “heresy of individualism” by the Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Episcopal church’s presiding bishop.

a lot of the commentary by the evangelicals being denounced as heretics seemed to agree with at least some of the criticism. the american church is too individualistic. The american church has incorporated too much of our culture’s surrounding individualism into the church.

it is a problem that I have talked about before, see here and here for example.

it is pretty clear that from Acts 2:42 onward, the church relied on one another.

The writer of Hebrews made our need for each other in Christ explicit. Hebrews 3:13 says that we must exhort one another daily so that none of us is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. here it is in context:

12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from ethe living God.  13 Butfexhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by gthe deceitfulness of sin.  14 For we have come to share in Christ, hif indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.  15 As it is said,

b“Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

do you see the vital importance that we should play in each other’s lives to prevent “falling away from the living God.”
Do we act like we take that responsibility seriously?
If we did take that responsibility seriously, what would it even look like?

Galatians 6:1 is similar.

6 Brothers,1 oif anyone is caught in any transgression, pyou who are spiritual should restore him in qa spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.  2 rBear one another’s burdens, and sso fulfill tthe law of Christ.  3 For uif anyone thinks he is something, vwhen he is nothing, he deceives himself.  4 But let each one wtest his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.  5 For xeach will have to bear his own load.

we have a duty to recognize when one of our own has been “caught in a transgression” and work to restore the trapped person. All the while recognizing that we are susceptible to being caught in a transgression too. Doing this restoration is how we bear each other’s burdens and ultimately it is the mechanism that enables us to stand under our own load before our sovereign God.

What is implied here in Galatians 6 is that we are living in a close enough community that we will see that one of us has been caught in a sin so that we can intervene.

Such intervention is not pleasant. No one likes to be told by someone else that they are messing up. No one receives correction well. Our first impulse is to tell the intervenor to mind their own business and get out of my face. But Hebrews 3:12-15 and Galatians 6 are explicit in telling us that such intervention by our community in Christ is essential to our sanctification and even to our very salvation.

Not only do we have the negative obligation to correct sinfulness in one another, we also have a positive obligation to goad/spur/provoke one another on to good works in Christ.

It is our job to make sure that we are all doing everything that we need to be doing for the Kingdom of Heaven and that none of us are coasting. Hebrews 10:19-25.

19 pTherefore, brothers,3 since we have confidence to enter qthe holy places by the blood of Jesus,  20 by rthe new and living way that he opened for us through sthe curtain, that is, through his flesh,  21 and since we have ta great priest over the house of God,  22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts usprinkled clean vfrom an evil conscience and our bodies wwashed with pure water.  23 xLet us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for yhe who promised is faithful.  24 And zlet us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,  25 anot neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and ball the more as you see cthe Day drawing near.

as we individually come into the throne room of God, the most holy place, the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum, we draw nearer to the others who are crowding into the same space and we are obligated to “consider” (think about) ways to provoke one another to love better and do good works. And importantly we do this consideration and provoking as we continue to meet together on a regular basis.

Again, we can’t be on our own for very long. Community is vital to our healthy functioning spiritual lives and we have missed out on so much of what our faith has to offer us by ignoring this basic element of spiritual health.

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phridai photos

Posted on July 31, 2009 by bkingr

down Lady Bird Lake
downriver

sunset
saturday sunset

there is just something about film and B&W that makes me like this picture of the dizzy bat race
dizzy bat race

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Paul Ryan in action

Posted on July 30, 2009 by bkingr

I watched an eight minute version of this video last night. here is an almost six minute version that Mary Katherine Ham posted. I agree with Mary Katherine that Paul Ryan and Katrina van den Heuvel need to take their health care debate on the road. Notice how Katrina disappears from the screen after she gets thoroughly shellacked twice.

this is good television. One more little side note. Do you see how this debate portrayed here is with the “journalists” against the Congressman?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdr49iGZOUw&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]

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love takes time

Posted on July 29, 2009 by bkingr

Jesse Phillips is bringing up a good quote from Jon Tyson.

“We simply cannot love one another as Jesus commanded if our lives only overlap in 15-minute segments before and after programmed Christian events. And we cannot reach out to those far from God if the normal flow of our lives is disconnected from theirs and channeled into church programs.”

This quote is taken from the Q Short: Renewing Cities Through Missional Tribes, by Jon Tyson

and the question, when do we love one another?  it would have to be sometime other than 15 minutes before and after a programmed event, wouldn’t it?

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are you or am I emergent?

Posted on July 28, 2009 by bkingr

Challies quotesKevin DeYoung’s test of whether we are emergent or not. Kevin says that “if all or most” of these apply to you then you are emergent. So let’s use 75% as a threshhold.  Look at my answers below and you tell me.  Am I emergent?  I think not, but they have some good points.

You might be an emergent Christian:

if you listen to U2, Moby, and Johnny Cash’s Hurt (sometimes in church)–I love all three, but only U2’s “40” in church.  It is the Bible after all
use sermon illustrations from The Sopranos–never seen it
drink lattes in the afternoon and Guinness in the evenings–hmmm I love lattes and the occasional Guinness (or 512 Pecan Porter), but not every day on either one as this implies
and always use a Mac–yep. love my Macs
if your reading list consists primarily of Stanley Hauerwas, Henri Nouwen, N. T. Wright, Stan Grenz, Dallas Willard, Brennan Manning, Jim Wallis, Frederick Buechner, David Bosch, John Howard Yoder, Wendell Berry, Nancy Murphy, John Franke, Walter Winks and Lesslie Newbigin (not to mention McLaren, Pagitt, Bell, etc.)–read a bit of Newbigin and liked it. read Velvet Elvis and really liked it. don’t care for the rest
your sparring partners include D. A. Carson, John Calvin, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, and Wayne Grudem;–Love D.A. Carson and Martyn Lloyd-Jones
if your idea of quintessential Christian discipleship is Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, or Desmond Tutu;–Yes on Mother Teresa. the others, not so much
if you don’t like George W. Bush or institutions or big business or capitalism or Left Behind Christianity;–love W, don’t like institutions or big business much, but I love capitalism. I really am growing to HATE “Left Behind Christianity.”
if your political concerns are poverty, AIDS, imperialism, war-mongering, CEO salaries, consumerism, global warming, racism, and oppression and not so much abortion and gay marriage;–abortion is tops. rest of them except poverty aren’t really on the radar. poverty only to the extent that capitalism could lift them out. love the whole micro loan business concept of the IMF.
if you are into bohemian, goth, rave, or indie;–not really. but I do like some indie and a lot of alternative
if you talk about the myth of redemptive violence and the myth of certainty;–violence does solve some problems and if certainty is a myth, we are all doomed. DOOOOOMMMMEEEEEDDDD, I say.
if you lie awake at night having nightmares about all the ways modernism has ruined your life;–mmmmm, I love modernism
if you love the Bible as a beautiful, inspiring collection of works that lead us into the mystery of God but is not inerrant;–I love the Bible as the inspired, inerrant word of God and from God.
if you search for truth but aren’t sure it can be found;–oh yes, He is very findable
if you’ve ever been to a church with prayer labyrinths, candles, Play-Doh, chalk-drawings, couches, or beanbags (your youth group doesn’t count);–never, but it sounds interesting
if you loathe words like linear, propositional, rational, machine,and hierarchy–I live for the linear, rational and propositional. it is the way the world makes sense. Why are machine and hierarchy on this list?
and use words like ancient-future, jazz, mosaic, matrix, missional, vintage, and dance;–I like jazz, mosaic, missional, matrix and dance. not so much ancient-future and vintage.
if you grew up in a very conservative Christian home that in retrospect seems legalistic, naive, and rigid;–legalistic yes, but not naive or rigid
if you support women in all levels of ministry,–nope. complementarian all the way
prioritize urban over suburban,–nope. love them both
and like your theology narrative instead of systematic;–love narrative to illustrate the systematic.
if you disbelieve in any sacred-secular divide;–hmmmm. will have to ponder. I think most of us have too much of a divide
if you want to be the church and not just go to church;–oh yes, do I ever!
if you long for a community that is relational, tribal, and primal like a river or a garden;–yes relational. the rest sounds like gobbleygook
if you believe doctrine gets in the way of an interactive relationship with Jesus;–true doctrine as the foundation is how we can have a right relationship with Jesus
if you believe who goes to hell is no one’s business and no one may be there anyway;–I believe God is in charge of this question, and we should share the Gospel with everyone. Obviously, Hell will be significantly overpopulated.
if you believe salvation has a little to do with atoning for guilt and a lot to do with bringing the whole creation back into shalom with its Maker;–Romans 8 tells me its both. The price had to be paid for our guilt, and creation groans for redemption
if you believe following Jesus is not believing the right things but living the right way;–wrong wrong wrong
if it really bugs you when people talk about going to heaven instead of heaven coming to us;–never bothered about this. Postmillenialism has virtually no scriptural basis, but the kingdom of heaven is both present and future.
if you disdain monological, didactic preaching;–love preaching. hearing it and doing it. Think it could be less of a monologue most of the time.
if you use the word “story” in all your propositions about postmodernism—Story is a powerful tool in the expositor’s arsenal. in this age and culture in which we live, story is a very important connection tool. It shouldn’t be poo pooed or dismissed so cavalierly.

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law/gospel

Posted on July 28, 2009 by bkingr

iMonk goes on a rant about law preaching versus gospel preaching that is both entertaining and informative. take a look.

In other words, it’s an unmitigated disaster unless the Gospel is heard louder, longer and much clearer than anything else.
I’d really like to apologize to anyone- and there are a lot of these people- who ever showed up at church and heard the “good news” that if they would take their talent and use it for the Lord, they’d be blessed. Or if they surrender their all to Jesus, they’ll be happy no matter what happens. Or if they will stop making excuses and get serious about following Jesus, they can please God.

Really, I apologize. We’ve got better news than that.

We’ve got the news that if everything sucks, asteroids hit the earth, you die, the economy tanks, no one at work likes you, Christians are jailed, your computer breaks and your kid turns out to be a lawyer, you still can’t stop the Good News of what God has done for you.
We’ve got the news that God has declared religion out of business. We’ve got the news that the church has nothing to offer or say except the Gospel, so that should simplify your search for a church. We’ve got the news that at the end of the world, there’s going to be a party for you and me, where we’re going to be embraced, loved and taken to the new heaven and the new earth completely on the free grace of God in Jesus.

Hat tip to Vitamin Z.

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WOW!!

Posted on July 28, 2009 by bkingr

everybody has probably seen this already, but WOW! Texting while driving increases the risk of an accident or near accident by 23 TIMES.

After studying the behavior of real truck drivers covering more than 6 million miles of road, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute says people who send text messages while driving are 23 times more likely to be in a crash (or what they call a near crash event) than non-distracted drivers.

To conduct the study, researchers mounted cameras inside drivers’ vehicles. They studied where drivers’ eyes were looking as they did various things, such as texting, dialing a cell phone, talking on a phone, and reaching for an object. Not surprisingly, the numbers (PDF) showed that the tasks that took people’s eyes off the road caused the greatest amount of danger. In crashes or near-crashes, texting took a driver’s focus away from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds–enough time, the report point out, to travel the length of a football field at 55 mph. By contrast, talking on a cell phone, which allows a driver to keep his eyes on the road, represented an increased risk of only 1.3 times that of a nondistracted driver.

again, WOW. how about we all keep our eyes on the road people. its a jungle out there.

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New Piper book, free pdf

Posted on July 27, 2009 by bkingr

zach points out that the new John Piper book with missionary stories is available free for download.


DG Blog:

John Piper’s new book Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ is now available for download. Get it for free.

Read an interview by JT with John Piper concerning this book.

here is the direct link to 128 pages of goodness.

and here is the book information page

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the market works

Posted on July 27, 2009 by bkingr

this story shows that the market works. until the incentives change the piracy problem off of Somalia will continue and will likely get worse.

here is the introduction.

The rough fishermen of the so-called Somali coast guard are unrepentant criminals, yes, but they’re more than that. They’re innovators. Where earlier sea bandits were satisfied to make off with a dinghy full of booty, pirates who prowl northeast Africa’s Gulf of Aden hold captured ships for ransom. This strategy has been fabulously successful: The typical payoff today is 100 times what it was in 2005, and the number of attacks has skyrocketed.

fascinating article and video at the link.  how do you change the incentive structure?  the obvious answer to me is putting an armed guard with decent weapons on every merchant ship around there.  It would be cheaper than getting navies to patrol the whole area and probably just as effective in stopping a hijacking.

What do you think?

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six scriptural reasons why babies go to heaven

Posted on July 26, 2009 by bkingr

Dr. Mohler and Dr. Daniel Akin have reposted their article showing from scripture why they believe that infants go to heaven when they die.

they lay out six reasons for this belief. here is number six and an overall point about God’s justice, but do go read the whole thing. Including Charles Spurgeon in the conclusion

Sixth, some in Scripture are said to be chosen or sanctified from the womb (1 Samuel 1:8-2:21; Jeremiah 1:5; Luke 1:15). This certainly affirms the salvation of some infants and repudiates the view that only baptized babies are assured of heaven. Neither Samuel, Jeremiah or John the Baptist was baptized.

After surveying these arguments, it is important for us to remember that anyone who is saved is saved because of the grace of God, the saving work of Jesus Christ and the undeserved and unmerited regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Like all who have ever lived, except for Jesus, infants need to be saved. Only Jesus can take away their sin, and if they are saved it is because of His sovereign grace and abounding mercy. Abraham said, “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25). We can confidently say, “Yes, He will.” When it comes to those incapable of volitional, willful acts of sin, we can rest assured God will, indeed, do right. Precious little ones are the objects of His saving mercy and grace.

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narcissism?

Posted on July 25, 2009 by bkingr

Carl Trueman points to this slashing article regarding the twitter and facebook impulse? truth or over the top?

from page two of the article comes this bit:

Well, indeed. For Twitter to be patronised by young people, it would need to be far more purposeful than it is, more pragmatically useful. But instead, it was dreamed up by — and used almost exclusively by — the most self-obsessed, narcissistic, self-important generation that ever walked this earth, the generation which is forever poised just outside the confessional ready to divulge personal information of great weight to the whole world (‘I have just tied up my shoelaces. I did the right one first. And then the left’).

go read the whole thing. Now, what do you think? I think he is definitely pointing out something very real that is occurring, but at the same time there is a human element that cuts through the mostly mundane crap.

I believe that good information gets shared, but is it drowning in the noise and chatter of the vacuous?

I have been glued to @suzhalliburton ‘s twitter feed the last couple of weeks to keep up with Lance Armstrong at the tour de france. surely that is worth something.

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who do you trust? part III

Posted on July 24, 2009 by bkingr

all right, now let’s go back where we started. In John 10:10, Jesus contrasts himself and his mission with the thief.

The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. Jesus came to bring abundant life.

and here are we sheep in the middle. we have a choice to make.

do I send this email to someone not my spouse that will take me a step further down the road to adultery? Do I make this phone call? do I set up this lunch appointment? Do I…..? whatever it is.

What thoughts are going through my head in that moment? My spouse makes me miserable. I should be happy. This other person makes me happy. I can’t bear the thought of staying home with the spouse that makes me miserable. oh, who am I kidding we make each other miserable. Really it isn’t fair to either of us to stay locked down like this in misery. Surely God wants us to be happy. surely it is better for all of us if we just find a way out. After all, the kids shouldn’t have to watch us fight. I feel so awesome when I am around this other person. they make me feel wanted. They make me feel sexy again. and so on and so on.

Here is the thing. As human beings, we can think and reason. We have an absolutely amazing capacity to rationalize what we want to do and make it seem ok. We have an enemy who wants to destroy us who has thousands of years feeding rationalizations by humans to take them down the path to destruction. we also have the remnants of the flesh in us that want to be gratified.

The combination of these elements means that all we like sheep have gone astray. there is not a single one of us who isn’t bent.

we all need God’s power to keep us from rationalizing ourselves into indulging our flesh.

We also need to believe at a very deep level that pursuing God’s way is better for us. Because the bottom line is that we are going to do whatever we really truly want to do.

That is why I have titled this series “who do you trust?” Because that is the question.

Do we trust God who sent His only begotten Son to die a horrible death on the cross so that we could be reconciled to God with our very happiness?

Or do we trust our limited ability to decide what’s best for us as we rock along in our little bubble of RIGHT NOW.

It is kind of silly for us to think that we can do a better job of deciding what is better for us and those we love than God. God who loved us when we were unlovely. God who made the universe. God who designed us. God who cared enough about us to leave us His Word for us to get to know Him better.

But so many times every day that is what we do. We just decide that we know best. We then get off in the ditch and start begging for God to get us out or worse, we blame God for letting us get off the road in the first place.

God hates divorce. He wouldn’t accept offerings from promise breakers. Jesus said that divorce was only given because people were selfish and hard hearted.

So there it is. Do we trust God with our marriage? Or do we trust ourselves and our own rationalizations as we go down the path to blowing up our lives in the name of “happiness”?

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phridai photoes

Posted on July 24, 2009 by bkingr

went out last Saturday evening to take some pictures of the power plant on first street.
saturday sunset at the power plant

as long as I was down there, I walked around and took some more pictures.

here is the Lamar Street bridge
Lamar bridge 28mm

and here is the pedestrian bridge
pedestrian bridge 28mm

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