SBC 2007 Education Resolution

I was asked where the text of the 2007 Education Resolution that Voddie Baucham and Bruce Shortt submitted for the 2007 SBC Annual Meeting could be found; so for those interested you can get the text of the document here: 2007 Education Resolution.

Or you can go to Exodus Mandate Project and download it from there.

Around the Web and Blogosphere

Timmy Brister has provided a list entitled : A Chronological Survey of the Calvinism/Arminanism Controversy in the SBC in which he has links to the various articles that the list references. You can also go to his site – Provocations & Pantings for the link as well.

Tom Ascol has again submitted his resolution entitled: 2007 Resolution on Integrity in Church Membership. Let’s hope it is taken as seriously as it should at this years SBC Annual Meeting in San Antonio June 12-13.

Over at The World From Our Window there is a post entitled, You Tube Tuesday: Creation Museum Highlights that are about the new Creation Museum in Kentucky.

Here is information from Voddie Baucham on the SBC Education Resolution 2007. I would encourage you to read all of what he has to say before making a judgment on the call to remove our children from government schools. I am sure that this will not be popular for many but often the correct thing to do is not popular.

Dog Fighting and Abortion

What do these two have in common? Well initially one may say nothing at all but if you listen to much sports radio you may see that they both tend to show the world view of many people. First off I am not saying that everyone feel this way but there does appear to be a large number of people that seem to be comfortable with abortion but when it comes to harming animals that is a different story.

Recently Michael Vick of the Atlanta Falcons was connected with dog fighting. Whether he is guilty or not isn’t the issue but the number of people that are outraged that he would promote dog fighting is. Recently I have heard more outrage over the killing and injury to dogs than one would ever hear about the killing of babies. Now I would not condone dog fighting either but I would see the need for more outrage over abortion than I would over dog fighting.

To even make this clearer Clinton Portis a running back for the Washington Redskins commented that he did not see this as a big issue since what Vick did in private should not be an issue. His opinion led to more outrage that this would be his thoughts on the issue; I guess there are absolutes for those that do not like to say there are any. Are not Portis’ arguments much like those of the pro-abortion advocates as they center on the rights of individuals to do as they see is best for them, hence the mantle of ”Pro-Choice.” Obviously Portis feels that Vick should have the “Choice” to promote dog fighting if he desires to do so.

So, while I would never condone dog fighting it is deffintly interesting, and saddening, to see that the world has become so accustomed to the idea of abortion that other issues that are nowhere near as vile are more vilified. How a people can seek to save animals and spend huge sums of money to see if we have global warming and still argue over whether abortion, of any kind, is OK says much about our world and especially western society.

It really does reveal a schizophrenic society that one day bemoans the way we treat animals and the earth but the next argues that we should be able to abort babies at will so as to maintain the freedom of choice for the women, never mind the babies choice ( I forget the pro abortion people would never call them babies). People can walk around with signs that on one side may say “Save the Seals” but on the other “Keep Abortion Legal” if that is not schizophrenic then I am not sure what is.

When a people abandon the Bible as the "actual" word of God for their own understanding what we see in today’s culture should not be a surprise. This is why even professing Christians can claim that abortion may not be OK for them but is OK for others or that it is even OK for them in certain circumstances. So again while I am saddened by all of this I am not surprised at all.

2007 Family Integrated Church Conference - Houston

I will probably repeat this reminder a few times over the next few months so it is not just my fading memory that is showing itself if you see this again.

There will be a FIC conference hosted by Grace Family Baptist Church October 26-27 in Houston. My family and I are going and are throughly looking forward to it.

I can not say enough about how much Matt Bullen at Grace has been an encouragement as we move along in starting Sovereign Grace Christian Fellowship here in Southern California. As I have written on before Donna and I spent a few days with the Bullen family lat February and it was not only a great time of fellowship but we also were able to try and glean what we could from GfBC and how they are ministering to families in a God glorifying way. We also got time while there to speak to one of the other Elders, Paul Renfro, and his family, which was also very helpful.

Again check out the GfBC site and read about the conference.

Voddie Baucham’s New Book – Family Driven Faith

Voddie’s new book, Family Driven Faith, comes out June 11th from Crossway but as I pre-purchased the book from them they sent a PDF version so I have been able to read it already and it is very good. Donna, my wife, is way ahead of me and enjoying the book immensely and I have gotten through about chapter 2 and am also enjoying it. Now I say enjoying and in some ways that may not be the best word as often the book steps on my toes, which need stepping on, and this makes me, and will probably make others, a little uncomfortable.

The issue today is that Christians have become too comfortable in the world and we need books like this to awaken us out of our comfort zones. Those of you who have read or listened to Voddie know that he does not mince words and he does not do so here and in doing so he makes the call to reclaim our families from the world for God. I would encourage everyone to get this book.

Here is a link to Voddie’s site about the Book: Family Driven Faith

Here is the description from Crossway:

More teens are turning away from the faith than ever before: it is estimated that 75 to 88% of Christian teens walk away from Christianity by the end of their freshman year of college. Something must be done.

Family Driven Faith equips Christian parents with the tools they need to raise children biblically in a post-Christian, anti-family society. Voddie Baucham, who with his wife has overcome a multi-generational legacy of broken and dysfunctional homes, shows that God has not left us alone in raising godly children. He has given us timeless precepts and principles for multi-generational faithfulness, especially in Deuteronomy 6. God’s simple command to Moses to teach the Word diligently to the children of Israel serves as the foundation of Family Driven Faith.

You can pre-purchase it at Crossway and get the PDF early.

2 More Texts from the Past on Families

Matt at Blessed Family Ministries Blog has added two more Jonathan Edwards texts on the family:

Jonathan Edwards on Family Relationships- Pt III

Jonathan Edwards on Family Relationships- Pt IV

Words from the past on family

Over at Blessed Family Ministries Matt has some writings by various people of the past on family. I would encourage you to check them out.

Baxter on Family Reformation
Whitefield on Family Worship
C.H. Spurgeon on Family
Susanna Wesley on Family
Jonathan Edwards on Family Relationships – Part I
Jonathan Edwards on Family Relationships - Part II

More on The Reformed Pastor Audiobook

Well I just finished the first two hours+ of The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter on my new FREE Audiobook from Christianaudio.com and there is only one word for what Baxter has to say, OUCH! Now it is a good type of OUCH but the bottom line is that Baxter took the duties of pastoring serious, as we should as well. In just the first two hours he deals with everything from how a pastor should view compensation to the Pastors role in guiding families, especially fathers, to have family worship to even the salvation of pastors. He also deals with the seriousness of the Pastor actually being the Pastor and not just the CEO of an organization as is all too common today.

I have read this book before, but some time ago and well before I was as involved in ministry as I am now, and remember some of the same feelings then but it is a different experience to listen to the words being spoken. There is a deffintly a disadvantage to listening to a book while driving to and from work as I can not take notes but in many ways that may be good. Listening without being able to take notes may help me to get a better overall feel for the message than too much focus, at least for now, on the more specific issues.

I cannot recommend this Audiobook and the actual book itself too highly.

Entering the world of Mac

Well this is totally unrelated to anything I have written on previously but I just entered the world of Mac. Actually since I can run Windows XP inside a window while running Mac I can be exposed to both evil empires at once. The lap top is really well made and things did run fine from the start as they promised. The loading of Parallels and XP was a little buggy but it ended up fine. Parallels allows me to be able to do the things Mac does best and I can still have my Bible programs,such as E-Sword, running in XP so I did not have to run out and get new ones of those. Time will only tell if it is better than Microsoft but so far so good.

I had to update this post as to some errors: It is Mac not MAC :) and Bradon, my Nephew, pointed out that therer is a similar free program to E-sword at The SWORD Project.

Richard Baxter's The Reformed Pastor - Free Audiobook

Over at Christianaudio.com the monthly free audiobook is The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter. I have downloaded the free MP3s from them before, even though I have not been able to listen to all of them, and they are a great way to listen to books that you just can not find time to read. You simply click through and sign up for a free account and place the book in you cart and then when you get to checkout put the coupon code, MAY2007, in the supplied box and then the purchase is free.

There are 7 files to download for the entire book then you either burn them to CDs or put them on an MP3 player, or both, to listen to them.

Enjoy!