well, we had a fun winter trip to Colorado, but it is time to make the very long trek home. Not looking forward to being in the car all those hours, but I am ready to be back home.
it was a bit cool, but fun
ain’t she pretty?
here is the whole gang of us
Courtesy of Carl Trueman here is an article in the Times of London from an atheist. His point is that what the continent of Africa needs is the spiritual renewal brought by Christian missionaries.
Here is a teaser, but you have to read the whole thing, it is fascinating.
But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I’ve been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I’ve been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.
Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.
….
Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.
…….
Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I’ve just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.
anyway, those are three snips from an article that should be read in its entirety.
I am here in Estes Park watching the sun rise over the Rocky Mountains and reflecting pinkly off the snow capped peak on the other side of the valley. Wow!
gives a whole new meaning to Job 38-41.
check out these verses from chapter 38 and then go read all four chapters.
The LORD Speaks
1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:
2 “Who is this that darkens my counsel
with words without knowledge?3 Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?6 On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone-7 while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels [a] shouted for joy?8 “Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,9 when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,10 when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,11 when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt’?12 “Have you ever given orders to the morning,
or shown the dawn its place,13 that it might take the earth by the edges
and shake the wicked out of it?14 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
its features stand out like those of a garment.15 The wicked are denied their light,
and their upraised arm is broken.16 “Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
or walked in the recesses of the deep?17 Have the gates of death been shown to you?
Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death [b] ?18 Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.19 “What is the way to the abode of light?
And where does darkness reside?20 Can you take them to their places?
Do you know the paths to their dwellings?
21 Surely you know, for you were already born!
You have lived so many years!22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow
or seen the storehouses of the hail,23 which I reserve for times of trouble,
for days of war and battle?
emphasis added.
These are a couple of pictures off of the back porch of the Middleton’s house where we stayed last night. Beautiful. The view, not my iPhone pictures
A little 620 mile road trip today to Colorado, so I am a bit late but here are some pictures.
sunset outside of San Angelo
Odessa prickly pear
mama’s big brother
is believing that Jesus was born of a virgin necessary for orthodoxy? Al Mohler’s answer is an unequivocal “yes.”
Can a true Christian deny the virgin birth? The answer to that question must be a decisive No. Those who deny the virgin birth reject the authority of Scripture, deny the supernatural birth of the Savior, undermine the very foundations of the Gospel, and have no way of explaining the deity of Christ.
Anyone who claims that the virgin birth can be discarded even as the deity of Christ is affirmed is either intellectually dishonest or theological incompetent.
…Christians must face the fact that a denial of the virgin birth is a denial of Jesus as the Christ. The Savior who died for our sins was none other than the baby who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and born of a virgin. The virgin birth does not stand alone as a biblical doctrine, it is an irreducible part of the biblical revelation about the person and work of Jesus Christ. With it, the Gospel stands or falls.
Go read the rest of it.
the best Christmas news you could ever receive.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aKEkzh0Inw&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]
hat tip to Vitamin Z
here is what Christmas is all about:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn10FF-FQfs&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]
Hat tip to Vitamin Z
Men, it is now Christmas Eve and time to panic if you have not yet completed your appointed rounds for your brides. In my never ending quest to assist my fellow men, I have scoured the internet and discovered these ten gift ideas from a couple of guys that really seem to know their stuff.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvn8FCpMn4c&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]
You may have heard a while back about a survey that indicated most American Christians believe that there is more than one way to heaven. The survey’s methodology was questioned and, as a result, it has been redone. The results did not change.
here is seminary president Al Mohler’s take.
And here is seminary student Todd Burus
Dr. Mohler says, in part:
As I told USA Today, this report reveals that a good number of those who attend evangelical churches either misunderstand or repudiate the Gospel. The New Testament reveals not only that Jesus claimed to be the only way to the Father [see John 14:6] but also that the Gospel of Christ is the only message that saves [see Romans 10]. This claim has been central to evangelical conviction — at least until now.
I am confident that much of this confusion can be traced to the superficiality that marks far too many evangelical pulpits. The disappearance of doctrinal understanding and evangelical demonstration can be traced directly to the decline in expository preaching and doctrinal instruction. A loss of evangelistic and missionary commitment can be fully expected as a direct result of this confusion or repudiation of the Gospel.
This new survey should be received with great concern. Will it awaken today’s generation of evangelicals to the catastrophe before our eyes?
Todd Burus says in part:
This begs the question, at what point do we stop calling these people Christians? When we say “Most Christians” and when the society critiques “Most Christians,” it is now clearer than ever that they are not actually talking about Christians in the first place. They’re talking about people who wear the clothes of a Christian, but work for someone else. They’re talking about people who apparently don’t have anything better to do on Sunday morning (oh wait, they probably aren’t going to church, which explains our attendance numbers) and people who feel guilty for calling themselves what they really are, functional universalists (or atheists, since they seem to believe in no god I know of).
Why has this happened? Which came first: the denial of Scriptural authority and the inerrancy of God’s Word, or the abandonment of actual biblical Christianity? When did we become so self-assured that we lost the fear of God?
I don’t think I have anything constructive to say about this right now. Honestly, I’m shocked and appalled and a hair short of just really ticked off. I get so tired of people going around calling themselves Christians and then believing crap like that! If you wonder why Christmas is better called X-Mas and you are more and more likely to be shot trying to buy a Nintendo Wii than you are to hear someone talk about the birth of their savior and actually mean it, try these numbers on for size. This is sad, but unfortunately, it’s only sad because it confirmed what we’ve known all along.
I hope this motivates all of you, as it does me, to be more evangelistic and more adamant about the truth, the biblical truth, than ever before.
what is your reaction?
I noticed some similarities this weekend between John 1:13 and Romans 9:16
reckon if maybe there is a point here that we miss most of the time? just wondering.
Ligonier has posted a quote from Al Mohler on the mystery of preaching:
R. Albert Mohler:
“There is something deeply mysterious about Christian preaching, both in terms of its communication and in terms of its content. After all, what we preach is not what the world expects to hear. It is not a message they will hear anywhere else. No human wisdom, no school of philosophy, no secular salesman, no TV commercial speaker selling his CDs is ever going to come up with this on his own.
…
But if you preach the gospel, you just might discover that it is not quite so popular. But it is powerful and it is mysterious. Why? Because it was a mystery that God hid from previous generations in order that it might be displayed publicly at the time of the Lord Jesus Christ”Quoted in Feed My Sheep: A Passionate Plea for Preaching. 2nd edition, 2008 by Reformation Trust Publishing, an imprint of Ligonier Ministries.
what do you think? Is Dr. Mohler on to something here? Why or why not?
I just downloaded all nine of the messages in Mark Driscoll’s Peasant Princess series. I figured we are going to be spending some time in the car over the next week or so and might as well have something useful to listen to with our teenagers.
If you don’t know what this Driscoll series is about then check out Dangitbill’s review with links to the downloads.
the Mars Hill church source page for video and audio is here. I think this is going to be a valuable teaching tool for all five of us as we travel.
here is Mark Driscoll’s take on the Shack
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK65Jfny70Y&hl=en&fs=1]
a couple of other Mark Driscoll videos here including his entire message on using harsh language.
Justin Taylor pointed to an editorial by D.A. Carson that is packed with good stuff. Go take a look at it this weekend. In the meantime, here are some peeks.
The apostle Paul writes, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom 12:2). Elsewhere he tells the Corinthians, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor 10:5).
….
Neither Scripture nor experience suggests that this will be an easy task. Transparently, one of the things needed is substantial discernment, since some things the world thinks are not intrinsically bad (in the Reformed heritage, this is commonly seen to be the fruit of “common grace”). More difficult yet, the challenges are not vanquished once, enabling us to coast. Until the end of the age, the “world” continues to exist, and it keeps launching its challenges from constantly changing angles.
…..
These precise challenges never faced Paul, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, and Turretin. But what does it mean not to let the world squeeze us into its mold in the opening decade of the twenty-first century?I shall not here review the Christian resources God has kindly lavished on us to enable us not to conform to the pattern of this world. If we are to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, then we must be reading the Scriptures perennially, seeking to think God’s thoughts after him, focusing on the gospel of God and pondering its implications in every domain of life.
Don’t miss his thoughts on the unique challenges posed to this generation of Christians by the internet. Very interesting indeed.
new header picture
blurry
and still trying to get the sunset
powerful thoughts from Julie Neidlinger on helping others:
I have some guilt, I suppose, but I can see that that would serve no purpose except to cause me to do nothing. I’ve learned that guilt isn’t always a motivator from the conscience, but sometimes an excuse to wallow in inaction. I don’t understand God’s concept of fairness and how He doles out blessings and what it will all look like in the end, so I should just quit my philosophizing and do something in this moment to help.
My experiences in Nicaragua come to mind. I’ve dealt with the guilt dance down there time and time again, coming to the simple understanding that I must help who I can, when I can. It might not be everyone, but it matters to that one. “Jesus left the 99 sheep to find the missing one,” I lightly reminded a friend when our discussions on what to do to help veered into the territory of finding maximum use of our dollar, spreading it out as far as our fiscally reasonable minds would allow, or finding ways to help the most people though perhaps sacrificing a more personal care. “He wasn’t about helping the maximum amount. He went after one. He can take care of everyone. He just asks us to be faithful in the small things, the one.”
I also understand that it’s easier to help someone in need thousands of miles away instead of just a few blocks from my door. But Nicaragua served as a good teacher in telling me stop worrying about if I was getting taken for a ride and being lied to and using that as an excuse to withhold help, but instead, to see helping a person another way: the question isn’t about another person’s motives, but the condition of my heart. Will I, free and clear, answer the need presented to me, or will I question motives and try to determine if a person “deserves” my help?
emphasis added.
go read the rest.
I was watching this video (HT challies) and thinking about universal v. limited atonement. the questioner takes Rick’s universal atonement position and just wraps it around his neck like a bunch of stinky garlic. Rick tries to wiggle and squirm, but I don’t think he quite succeeds in escaping the logic of universal salvation following naturally from universal atonement. Very interesting stuff.
here are two clips from TBN with Kirk Cameron interviewing John MacArthur. Like Vitamin Z says, did they not know what he would be talking about?
These two clips are about 20 minutes of biblical goodness on the gospel of Jesus from the words of Jesus. Just watch and listen. wow.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNQoOEG8P2I&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_YYNuMN5II&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]
In a Tabletalk article Burk Parsons mentions the 2005 film Paradise Now about Islamic terrorists about to blow themselves up and uses it as a segue to discuss the concept of Paradise for believers:
Jesus promised paradise to the thief on the cross (Luke 23:43), and He has promised paradise to us (Rev. 2:7). Just as the thief recognized his destitute condition, so we cannot enter paradise until we first recognize that we cannot enter it by our own power. Our problem is twofold: First, because we have such a low estimation of how destitute we are, we have too high an estimation of our own strength in attaining paradise. Second, because we have such a high regard for this life, we have a low expectation of paradise; thus, we do not do not long for the promised paradise as we should.
…..
Christ has inaugurated His ministry of regaining paradise, and He will continue in that ministry at the right hand of the Father until He returns and establishes the new heavens and new earth (Rev. 21). Our paradise now is the spiritual reality that we are already glorified and seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Rom. 8:30; Eph. 1:20), and our paradise to come is physical reality wherein the Lord will wipe away every tear from our eyes as we worship Him coram Deo.
Do you agree that we have too high an estimation of our own ability to achieve paradise on our own? Do you agree that we have a low expectation of paradise because we have too high a regard for this life?
Why or why not?
Yesterday we went to the early service at Great Hills Baptist Church. Natalie had to attend a choir program and write about it for her choir grade. the program was decent, but sort of overproduced and too jazzy in a way that made it feel like we hadn’t been to church. When it was over, the clock said 10:45 so I figured we had time to make the 11:15 service at Austin Stone with some room to spare.
I didn’t tell anybody else in my family what I was doing. After a few minutes, consternation began to arise as the car began to figure out that we weren’t headed home or to a normal sunday afternoon eating place. Where are we going? Why?
When we made the turn off of first street, everybody knew what was up. Then one of the teenagers began to grumble in earnest. “we’ve already been to church. why do we need to go again? etc. etc” combined with the foot dragging and shoulder slouching that teenagers have down to a science.
I say all that to say that the stage was set for a rough time at the second church service of the morning. Then it started. Spur58 was leading the music and it was awesome. We did this version of Joy to the World and it was blow your socks off worshipful. Then we did O Come All Ye Faithful and How Great Thou Art. The set finished with a blow your socks off rendition of O Holy Night. Just wow. Christmas music that we have heard all of our lives took on real meaning for the first time in a long time.
I was thinking at that point, that I was glad that we came just to have experienced that worship time. I didn’t expect any great thing out of the sermon although Matt Carter is an excellent and faithful preacher of the Gospel. I just didn’t know how it could do anything but suffer by comparison to the worship we had just experienced.
Boy was I wrong. The sermon was incredible. Go to the link in the last sentence and listen to it yourself. Do it. Right. Now.
So faithful to the Gospel. So packed with deep Biblical content. The people in that high school gym yesterday heard the truth explained and presented.
Then we sang O Holy Night again. oh my. oh my. I looked over and the teenagers were singing. all three of them. with eyes closed worshipping the One who came to put death to death.
What a beautiful day and what a beautiful moment of family and corporate worship of the God who loved us. Who sent his Son so that our souls could feel their worth. Who in bringing glory to himself demonstrated his love toward us in the ultimate act of sacrifice. just wow.
Jonathan Dodson has posted a quote from Bono about this demonstration of God’s ultimate love for us:
“The idea that God, if there is a force of Logic and Love in the universe, that it would seek to explain itself is amazing enough. That it would seek to explain itself and describe itself by becoming a child born in straw poverty, in shit and straw…a child… I just thought: “Wow!” Just the poetry … Unknowable love, unknowable power, describes itself as the most vulnerable. There it was. I was sitting there, and it’s not that it hadn’t struck me before, but tears came streaming down my face, and I saw the genius of this, utter genius of picking a particular point in time and deciding to turn on this.”
then Jonathan adds:
Isn’t it compelling? The logic and love of a personal God revealing himself, accounting for our person-ality, our propensity to love. And oh, the mercy of God, born in shit and straw, to rescue us from ourselves, our godless gift-giving, and our arrogant disregard for God and for others so that we might know and enjoy him and his new creation forever. And that he, the infinite God, would do it in Christ, in time, in space, in confounding condescension to pivot the course of the entire creation project from despair, destruction, and dereliction to a hopeful, whole, and happy future.
Will you ponder the poetry of Christmas this year, the genius of the incarnation? What obstructions are in your path to dwelling on the vulnerable, inexhaustible power and love of God in Christ? Renounce them and rivet your attention on the Christ.
Don’t you see? the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The glory of the only Son sent from the Father full of grace and truth.
He didn’t have to do that, but he did do it to bring praise to his glorious grace. His grace is great and greatly to be praised.
Fall on your knees and worship the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob who is worthy of all praise. worship the Lamb of God who was slain for your sins and mine.
What other response to such love would be even remotely appropriate?
this quote from Joel Beeke on ligonier’s blog is a great way to explain the christian walk:
The way to godly living is surprisingly simple: we are to walk with God in His appointed way (Micah 6:8), diligently using the means of grace and the spiritual disciplines, and waiting upon the Holy Spirit for blessing. Note that godly living involves both discipline and grace. This emphasis upon duty and grace is fundamental to Reformed, experiential ideas about godly living. As John Flavel wrote, “The duty is ours, though the power be God’s. A natural man has no power, a gracious man hath some, though not sufficient; and that power he hath depends upon the assisting strength of Christ.”
emphasis added.
Quoted in Feed My Sheep: A Passionate Plea for Preaching. 2nd edition, 2008 by Reformation Trust Publishing, an imprint of Ligonier Ministries.
closest biggest brightest most awesomest full moon of the year.
like I said, when you refuse to submit to God’s way, what you are left with is will and power. What do I want and how do I find a way to get it. Check this out. I love it when the implicit gets made explicit. At least then we all know where we are.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgX5z698oEg&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1]
hat tip to Vitamin Z
