Piper to Obama

I once heard John Piper say, “I wear controversy like a garment.” – Yeah, I’d say that is true…

I agree with every word here… every word.

Thoughts on canceling church

I had to cancel church this morning at Bethel Bible Church in Tyler, TX.

I’ve posted my thoughts about this very hard decision here…

Rob Bell review

I know… the title is kind of pandering to the search engines…

But, since this is always such a hot and lively topic here at Amazinggreycity, I thought I would alert you to a very gracious review of Bell’s “the god’s are not angry” DVD.

Scot McKnight is a great New Testament scholar that has a bleeding heart for the emergent and seeker churches. Not that that is bad… it is just an observation filtered through my value for both of those. — Anyway, he reviews the show and gives a pretty good summary (he was able to do it in, uhmm, 4 short paragraphs). Due to the length of the summary, 1/4 of it was dedicated to, what I took to be, the shortcoming. Here is what McKnight concludes with:

Because of my own study of atonement, I kept waiting for Rob to come forth with a theory of atonement but he didn’t…

Now, that is not the whole statement. He does work very hard to redeem Bell… but, the statement is true. In fact, that is my real discomfort with the whole presentation. How can you speak of what Christ does and not speak about “Atonement?” I still don’t get it…

 

Read the whole review here…

 

- ross

wow… it’s quiet here

So… the quiet is deafening! 

I’ve been blogging here for the last couple of weeks (since my vacation to D.C.). 

Rob…? Benji…?  Where art thou?

 

OK… a couple of very worthy blogs I have stumbled upon in the last couple of weeks:

22 Words - blog of Abraham Piper, content manager of Desiring God

Smithmag – this is such a great place to spend a little time. The home of 6 word memoirs. 

 

Also, if you haven’t seen it, Twitter is the latest craze. 

Any great blogs you’ve stumbled upon lately? Are there any readers left?

From the iPhone

Yes. This is from the iPhone. So many ways to blog, so there is no excuse not to do it.

How are you using your iPhone?

Testing. This is from…

Testing. This is from Jott.com, I’m actually speaking this entry into my phone, from my office to test and see if this really works, so far this is been an amazing service. listen

Powered by Jott

Inside the body of Christ

Wouldn’t it be great if stories like this marked us as the body of Christ?  This is a great picture of Grace shown for those who find themselves on “different sides” of sometimes heated, but non-essential issues that we struggle with inside the body of Christ

 

(HT: Justin Taylor)

strangest fight

OK… Everything looks normal here in the beginning. Like you are going to see a good old fashion baseball brawl. But, then all of the sudden, you are in a different world.

Does anybody have any idea why that is happening?

in the news

abortion (positive)

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,363434,00.html

 

global warming (ridiculous)

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/366025_bonfire06.html?source=mypi

 

Just scratching my head in disbelief…

-ross

my daughter is in middle school

Ok… it is a surreal season in life now that my oldest daughter is not in elementary school as of today. She is in middle school. She just graduated to the youth group. The youth group sometimes hangs out until 10pm or later… that is past her bedtime, or what used to be her bedtime. So many changes and I have just discovered I am not really prepared like I thought I was. Tonight she sent me a link to a YouTube video. Yes, SHE sent me a link from HER email address… and it is hilarious! I share it with you. This clip was the source of the bellowing laughter I just heard from the other room. I love that sound…

 

-ross

 

Top 5 Preachers

Steve McCoy over at Reformissionary has posted the last couple of days: The Big 5: Systematic Theology, The Big 5: Books on Personal Evangelism and The Big 5: Books on Church Leadership. The comments are building and it is interesting to see that so many of us get locked into a “stream” of the church. Now, I’m not saying that is a bad thing, it is a natural thing. While Reformissionary has not stated this as an objective, it does give the readers and the author a good idea about the “streams” that the blog is swimming in and who is reading it. 

 

So, I post today for your consideration… Who are the Top 5 Preachers/Communicators of the Gospel living today? What are your thoughts?

 

-ross

greetings & bible software

OK, it is not something I’m even trying to hide anymore… I’m a nerd. I love bible software. It absolutely humbles me when I stop to consider that the generations that came before spent years diligently compiling information that I can reproduce in just a few moments with any number of bible software programs. 

The two programs I use on a weekly basis are Accordance Bible Software and Logos Bible Software. I roll with a MacBook Pro and am currently working very hard to dust off my Hebrew skills. 

I am excited to join amazing grey city. I have read all 423 posts over the last two years and I look forward to seeing how it will continue to take shape. Benji is one of the most creative, brilliant and passionate men I have ever met. He is a great teacher. A model husband. An inspiring father. An encouraging friend. 

 

So Benji, I begin in a predictable fashion: Bible Software.

I love these kind of posts… This answers the question of real life uses of Bible software. Any pastor or lay teacher of the Bible will certainly relate to the need to do such searches in the wild of the week as they eagerly, with fear and trembling, approach Sunday and the chance to stand before God’s people to proclaim God’s word.

If you are interested in seeing how the different options perform the same tasks, then check out this post…

BibleWorks, Logos, Accordance: Searching in Hebrew/Greek, Scanning/Context in English

 

Ross