“To attract people from our culture, some Christian churches depend on glitz and spectacle and technological tools, rather than on the strong, substantive declaration of the Word of God and its authoritative revelation for our lives.”
Marva Dawn- Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for the Turn-of-the Century Culture
Sorry folks. I’ve been away from the blog for an eternity. Been busy writing a thesis {The Tenth Commandment In Light of the Case Laws of Deuteronomy 24:17-25:16}, attended the Together For the Gospel conference with the staff here at CBC, fractured a finger getting the stroller out of the van {makes typing a thesis rather difficult}, got misdiagnosed and sent home, then was sent 2 weeks later to a hand specialist who confirmed the fracture and torn ligament which was completely missed by the first doctor/x-ray, awaiting a new finger splint, preparing for baby #4 {a girl!!!} due in a few weeks, and other family, church stuff, etc.
So, I’m back. Thought I’d post this VERY GRAPHIC video. One of my favorite books of the Bible {along with Deuteronomy and 2nd Corinthians} is Leviticus {not to be confused with the 80’s Swedish Christian band!}. I seriously love the book of Leviticus. This video helped me love it more. The graphic slaughtering of an animal has a way of demonstrating the depth of sin and one’s need of a Savior.
WARNING: THIS VIDEO IS GRAPHIC. To watch a video of a lamb being slain, click here.
Eric Raymond has sent out a must read memo to all fellow Christians.
Some John Owen for your Monday… ”Let faith look on Christ in the gospel as He is set forth dying and crucified for us. Look on Him under the weight of your sins, praying, bleeding, dying; bring Him in that condition into your heart by faith; apply His blood so shed to your corruptions. Do this daily… And this is the first thing that the Spirit does in order to the mortification of any lust whatsoever–it convinces the soul of the evil of it, cuts off all its pleas, discovers all its deceits, stops all its evasions, answers its pretenses, makes the soul own its abomination and lie down under the sense of it…the Spirit alone brings the Cross of Christ into our hearts with its sin-killing power…”
Apparently waterboarding was an ancient practice. I was reading in 2 Kings today and came across this: ”But the next day he took the bed cloth and dipped it in water and spread it over his face, till he died…” 2nd Kings 8:15
Michael Horton writes about the apostle Paul:”Who, having advertised for an outgoing team builder with a contagious personality, would have hired a pastor who openly disclosed the fact that he was not a great communicator, suffered everywhere he was sent, was nearly blind, and lacked the natural charisma of the “super-apostles,” who were only too happy to point out these weaknesses themselves?“ Read the excellent article here. {HT: DB} Also, Ruth Tucker weighs in on Jesus’ “failed” leadership. Both articles are well worth reading since our church culture values “pastorpreneurs” and “servant leadership” {which is usually clothed with secular business principles and values}.
Bob Kauflin has a few “most embarassing moments” as a worship leader. If you’ve ever led corporate worship {or you’re a musician}, you’ll appreciate these. {HT:Z}
This one’s for the preachers….Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary has a podcast {available through iTunes} designed for encouraging preachers to hone their craft. It’s usually a 5 minute discussion about a particular aspect of preaching and comes out each Monday. I’ve downloaded a few and they are well worth the listen. Dr. Haddon Robinson is one of the contributors. You can find more info here.
This is a spoof based on the Bud Light commercials “Real Men of Genius” {which are some of the funniest commercials out there}. This was too good not to post. If it hurts…well… {HT:CMP}
D.A. Carson has a great response to this question, which you can read here. My response is-
Never thought I’d see this coming. A California appeals court ruled yesterday that parents without teaching credentials cannot home school their own children. This is gonna get ugly. You can read more and find some great links at Denny Burk’s blog.
We’ve all misheard some song lyrics in our lives and were embarrassed when we found out the right words. Here’s a site, “Kiss This Guy: The Archive of Misheard Lyrics,” that has collected some of the best, like this, for instance: Jimi Hendrix- “Purple Haze”"Excuse me, while I kiss this guy…”"Excuse me, while I kiss the sky…” Go get corrected…
Mark Driscoll has a new series of books coming out this summer that look interesting.Here’s some info: On Who Is God? 
Clear, biblical answers to some of the most difficult and controversial questions about God—all in one concise book you’ll actually read!
Packed with big truth, this little book can be read on average in one hour. Mark Driscoll, one of America’s most influential pastors, tackles five of the most controversial issues about God over which various religions and philosophies collide: knowledge of God, perspectives of God, the nature of God, the incarnation of God, and worship of God. Two appendices include a list of free online resources for further study on the existence and nature of God and a recommended reading list covering nearly every conceivable issue that leads to a right understanding of God.
On Who Is God? is part of a series {A Book You’ll Actually Read} of inexpensive and accessible books that give clear, biblical answers to difficult theological questions and controversies. Through this series, readers will get a solid and simple introduction to a major doctrine by spending just a little time. Also, check out-On Church Leadership On the New Testament On the Old Testament And the cover art of these books are fantastic. Minimalism at its finest!
This is a funny story. Who needs a laptop when you can drag your desktop into Starbucks?
Tom Bevan has a great post on why and when Hillary lost the campaign to Obama.
C.J. Mahaney has a great post on confessing sin. You can read the whole thing here, but here’s a teaser: When I have sinned against someone, a sincere confession is required. A confession that is sincere and pleasing to God will be specific and brief. I have learned to be suspicious of my confession if it’s general and lengthy. A sincere confession of sin should be specific (“I was arrogant and angry when I made that statement; will you please forgive me for sinning against you in this way?”) and brief (this shouldn’t take long). When I find myself adding an explanation to my confession, I’m not asking forgiveness but instead appealing for understanding.If my so-called confession extends beyond a very specific (acknowledgement of sin) sentence or two, then I am most likely excusing my sin, and requesting understanding for my sin, rather than sincerely asking forgiveness because of my sin. So I have learned to be suspicious of any confession of sin that is lengthy. Genuine conviction of sin is evidenced by a sincere,specific, and brief confession of sin, without any reference to circumstances or the participation of anyone else. When I sin, I am responsible for my sin, and the cause of my sin is always within my heart and never lies outside my heart.Often after I sin, and even after I confess my sin—most importantly to God to receive the forgiveness I need from him for my sin through the death of his Son for my many sins—I experience a conflict in my soul about the confessing, when necessary, to the appropriate individuals. And whenever there is this conflict in my soul about specifically confessing my sin, I am aware that pride is actively at work in my soul, opposing the confession and seeking to persuade me that it wouldn’t be wise or even necessary for me to confess. But I have learned to ignore this noise from my arrogant heart, and instead weaken this noise by specifically confessing my sin to the appropriate individual as quickly as possible.When I do confess, first and foremost to God and then (where and when appropriate) to others, I want my confession to be sincere and specific. I want my confession to express genuine sorrow and gratefulness to God for the mercy I experience because of the substitutionary sacrifice of his Son for my sins on the cross.And when I confess my sin to others and ask their forgiveness when I have sinned against them, I don’t want my confession to resemble the press conference of a high-profile athlete, characterized by evasive language and the refusal to be specific. Instead, I hope my confession of sin is the sincere and specific confession of one genuinely convicted of his sin, sorrowful about his sin, and amazed at the grace of God provided for the forgiveness of sin.
Michael Patton offers the top 20 signs you are taking this emerging thing too far. Funny.
Is God’s name Jehovah? What does it mean that Jesus is the firstborn of creation? Or the firstborn from the dead? Or that all things will be reconciled to God through the cross? I answered these questions in Sunday’s sermon on Colossians 1:15-23, which you can listen to here.
Would you please pray for a dear family that I know who were involved in a tragic accident over the weekend? The dad, one daughter and their son died in a car accident in Colorado. The mother {Janelle} and her teenage twin daughters {Avery and Alyssa} survived. They were God-honoring, joyful, fellow-workers for the gospel. It will be a long road ahead for these women so please keep them in your prayers. They have suffered broken bones {vertebrae, pelvis, clavicle, etc}, ruptured organs and numerous cuts. However, they are already testifying to the Lord’s goodness even in this dark time. Thank you for praying.
D.A. Carson explains the rise in popularity of Rob Bell in “G-Rap” Michigan at the Reformation Underway blog. Thanks Lance for the link!
For those Star Wars junkies out there, this fall there will be a new Star Wars hitting the big screen- Star Wars: The Clone Wars. You can read more about it here and watch the trailer here. 
Also, tomorrow the trailer for the new Indiana Jones movie-Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull- will be available for viewing here. The year of the Lucas is upon us.
The simple truth is that we were created for one purpose: God’s glory. In a time when so many are seeking a reason to live, this booklet offers a concise understanding of God’s desire to restore his nature to us, renewing our souls, so that we may reflect his glory in our words, our actions, and our very being.
Helps Christians to understand what it means to glorify God, and how that affects our everyday lives. Presented in an easy-to-understand booklet format. Part of the Basics of the Reformed Faith series, which introduces lay readers to Reformed distinctives.
C.J. Mahaney gives some wisdom on pastoral discernment, specifically as it relates to Rob Bell. Greg Gilbert gives the scoop on Bell’s NOOMA videos in three parts. If you’re wondering what all the ruckus is with Rob Bell, these would be some great places for you to get yourself wet with his theology without buying 19 videos and several books.
I just got tipped off to this site: puritanlibrary.com. Check it out!{Thanks, Matt!}
Justin Taylor has posted part 1 of an interview with Dr. Daniel Wallace, one of the leading Greek scholars today. Dr. Wallace teaches at Dallas Seminary amongst the many other hats that he wears. This is a fascinating story of God’s amazing grace! Here’s JT’s post:
The following is the first of a multi-part interview with Daniel B. Wallace, Professor of NT Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is a short bio: “Dr. Wallace influences students across the country through his textbook on intermediate Greek grammar. It is used in more than two-thirds of the nation’s schools that teach that subject. He is the senior New Testament editor of the NET Bible and coeditor of the NET-Nestle Greek-English Diglot. Recently his scholarship has shifted from syntactical and text-critical issues to more specific work in John, Mark, and nascent Christology. However he still works extensively in textual criticism, and has founded The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, an institute with an initial purpose to preserve Scripture by taking digital photographs of all known Greek New Testament manuscripts. His postdoctoral work includes work on Greek grammar at Tyndale House in Cambridge and textual criticism studies at the Institut für Neutestamentliche Textforschung in Münster. When he is not involved in scholarly pursuits, Dr. Wallace and wife, Pati, enjoy spending time with their boys and beagles.”
Let me start, if I can, on a more personal note. The other day I was reading Lee Strobel’s The Case for the Real Jesus, and he makes the provocative comment that you taught yourself Greek by reading one of your own Greek textbooks-obviously a line begging for an explanation! Can you tell us a bit about that season of your life?
Eleven years ago this March I was diagnosed with a bizarre strain of viral encephalitis. It did serious damage to my memory, as well to the connection between my brain and my body. At one point I didn’t know who the president was. I knew who Bill Clinton was but I didn’t think that he was president. Later, I forgot my wife’s name. But we had only been married 22 years, so I consider that short term memory loss! Once we’re married for 50 years, I’ll have no excuse. I even forgot my own name a couple of times.
I was in a wheelchair for more than nine months. And I was exhausted all the time. During the summer after I contracted the disease, I was sleeping 22 hours a day. I couldn’t read, I couldn’t study. I would be hot one second, cold the next. I would sweat while wearing a short sleeve shirt in the snow. Bright lights really affected me, and still do. The neurologists finally decided to give me a rather potent drug by IV, known as Gancyclovir. This drug has been the prescribed treatment for HIV patients. It cost us almost $1000 a day for the drug. Pati would administer it in two 90 minute doses—a slow drip IV. She had to put on new rubber gloves each time because the drug was toxic and could burn through almost anything. A nurse had to take my blood twice a week to see if this napalm for the body was doing any other damage, like to vital organs.
When I had been on Gancyclovir for about a month, I had one of the most bizarre episodes of the encephalitis. It was June 6, and I began hallucinating. I was in bed (as usual), with not even enough energy to walk. But all of a sudden, I thought I was a marine on Gold Beach on D-Day. I jumped up out of bed and ran smack into the wall! I fell over and couldn’t move. Shortly after that, four big paramedics strapped me in a gurney and hauled me down to Parkland Hospital in Dallas (where JFK had been brought). During the ride, I seemed calm enough to the paramedic sitting next to me that he offered to unstrap me. I told him I didn’t think it was a good idea because I kept hallucinating that I was fighting dragons in medieval Europe!
By October 1997, I found myself at the Mayo Clinic. They never could figure out exactly the strain of encephalitis I had. The CDC never figured it out either. It has taken years to recover, and I’m still not 100%. If I get too tired or too hot, the first thing that goes is my legs. But I’m learning to cope with it and not work too hard. I used to run on 4 hours of sleep a night, but I can’t do that any more.
Through the whole experience, one thing I learned was how much God’s people care for one another. Folks were jumping out of the woodwork to bring us meals, help us with housecleaning, and help with paying the bills. I can honestly say that I’m grateful for having gone through it.
My Greek grammar had come out in the summer of 1996. I had spent seventeen years working on it, taking it through five pre-publication drafts that had been used in the classroom since 1979. In the fall of 1997, when I was teaching intermediate Greek again, I found myself not recognizing very much that was in the grammar. I couldn’t even understand the concepts, let alone recognize that these were my words! Then I discovered that even my basic Greek skills—parsing, vocabulary, translating—had all but disappeared. I had to relearn Greek in the midst of teaching it. I was teaching first-year Greek at the same time, and that helped me to relearn the basics. It was a very difficult year though, because I was really only one step ahead of the hounds all year. As I kept coming back to Greek, the synapses in my brain began to kick in. It was easier relearning Greek the second time around, but the circumstances were a bit unusual, especially having to reread my own grammar to understand the language better.
Remarkably, one activity has not seemed to suffer at all from the disease: examining and photographing biblical manuscripts. I was in Athens last summer at the National Library, in the manuscript room. The temperature was about 100 degrees in the room. The room would be open for five hours a day. I would take no breaks—either for a meal or even to get a drink of water—and wonder where the time went when the day was over.
It looks like more Christian leaders who signed the Christian/Muslim document are expressing regret. You can read about Wheaton College administrators here.
Also, Greg Livingstone responds to why he signed the document from the Desiring God conference Q and A:
Greg, can you address your signing of A Common Word?
Greg Livingstone: When people have lived for years and years looking for an open door, they find themselves getting a bit hasty when they see an opportunity. Some of us are more called to defense of the faith, and others are more called to opportunity.
I’m not afraid to rebuke the American Christian that thinks that Muslims are bigger sinners than we are. The idea of signing it was to get into the same room as these guys, and then to get one on one. There might be a Nicodemus among them.
Should it have gone in the NY Times? Probably not. It’s not my first mistake.
Rick Love responds as to why he signed the document here.
If you’re unaware of the story behind all of this, I blogged on it here and here.
The bottom line: we must be very clear in our evangelism that Christians worship the Trinitarian God and the god of Islam is not one of these three.
I’m back. Been away at a pastors conference which you can read more about here and here. It was a refreshing time.
Here’s some stuff worth checking out to get’cha back on track with me:
Ann Coulter weighs in on McCain.
N.T. Wright gets it right (mostly) about Heaven.
Randy Alcorn longs for joy.
The Gravity blog converts me to Scrivener.
“The Incredible Huck,” Mike Huckabee (the only conservative left in the Republican race, not counting Ron Paul), takes on the Colbert Report (this is much better than Rick Warren’s appearance!).
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