Some Random Thoughts

Just some thoughts, and I realize that some of these are generalizations:

Why does it seem that if a mother is killed while pregnant the person can be prosecuted for the death of the unborn child, and many people are, rightfully so, angry about it, but abortion is legal?

In the same line of thinking; Why does it seem that many of those that are against capital punishment think it is OK to murder (I know this is not a PC description) unborn children in the name of choice? By the way those sentenced to death made a choice as well.

Also, why is it that so many are for saving the environment but saving the unborn is a different story?

Do those that argue against legislating morality realize that all laws are some form or comment on morality?

How is it that the Dove Awards were sponsored, based on the short bit I saw on TV, by the movie Evan Almighty? What next, will it be sponsored by Oprah or Depak Chopra?

Also, why is it OK to mock the God Christians are to worship in film but if Mohammad or Allah were have the same done to them it would cause a riot? Actually this one says much about Christians that allow this to happen and actually often spend money to propagate it.

Why is the standard argument against homeschooling one that entails a complaint against socialization when the vast majority of public schooled, and many Christian schooled, kids spend inordinate amounts of time in front of TVs and video games? Now that is socialization.

On the same note, why is a standard argument for sending kids to public school that we need to evangelize the lost when the children themselves are in many cases are themselves lost? In the end the evangelizing that takes place is at our children and attempts to convert then to the secular humanistic philosophy of the world.

New 9Marks Blog

Well there is a new blog on the block (say that 10 time real fast).

Those of you who have read the great stuff at 9Marks Ministries will be glad to know they have a new blog called Church Matters. I am looking forward to the articles they will put out and would recommend adding this blog to your RSS reader.

All Books $5 - June 27-28 at DGM

If there are any books you want from Desiring God then next week is the time to buy as all their books will be $5 on June 27-28 from the Desiring God store.

Here are some suggestions:

Desiring God

God is the Gospel

Let the Nations Be Glad
Don’t Waste Your Life
What Jesus Demands from the World

6 Dangers to Avoid in Family Worship

Joe Thorn adds to his 5 Reasons to have Family Worship with 6 Dangers to Avoid in Family Worship. As with most things that are good, and called for by God, our sinful nature has a tendency to distort them and this can also be true of Family Worship, thus the dangers that can exist. However, simply because there is danger does not negate that we are called to practice family worship.

Around the Web and Blogosphere (6/16)

Joe Thorn writes on 5 Reasons to have Family Worship. Reason number one is that it is our responsibility as parents to train our children and not the churches, or for that matter anyone else’s. However, it seems so often that the church takes the same mindset that the government takes and that is that someone else is more capable of caring for our children that we are. We then get lazy and just accept this and hand over our duty and responsibility to someone else. Children are to be a blessing and not a curse so let’s try and live that way. Let us make family worship the norm rather than the anomaly it is n today’s church.

Matt Bullen at Blessed Family Ministries has some words from John Wesley: On Family Religion.

Tom Ascol of Founders Ministries writes on the latest SBC Annual meeting to just finish up in San Antonio: SBC-SA Wrap up: the good, the bad, and the confusing . I followed the convention to some degree over the internet and to tell the truth get more frustrated every year. Tom has tried for two years to get people to speak to his resolution regarding Integrity in Church Membership without success but the convention has no issue with pass a resolution on Global Warming. The conventions apparent desire to ignore the bloated rolls in its churches reflects a numbers mentality that is very discouraging. People speak on numbers of conversions and baptism and gain lots of applause but when the question of true conversion is brought up heads seem to turn away. Personally I think the convention is afraid that if it every tried to speak to the issue of integrity in membership and all of those that are not truly attending were purged from the numbers annually given the SBC would loose a very large number of members, who are not really there anyway. They would then no longer be the numerical force it purports itself to be and I believe this is not acceptable to the present leadership and the convention as a whole.

Check out the computer generated pictures and video of Ancient Rome put together by the University of Virginia at: Rome Reborn 1.0

Also at The Jerusalem Archeological Park you can get computer models of the Herodian Temple Mount

Establishing a Multi-Generational Vision of Faithfulness

Scott at These are the Generations of….. is writing on Establishing a Multi-Generational Vision of Faithfulness and so far in part one he has set down the need that is glaringly evident. I am looking forward to part 2 to see the solutions and methods he proposes as at the end of the day it is not enough to recognize a need unless we do something about it and that is where the rubber meets the road so to speak.

We would all do well to look at this topic with regards to our families as so often, and I am guilty of this, we just tend to plow along trying to do the best we can without any deep thought put into it. However, it is when we go to scripture and discover what we are called to do and then plan a biblical course of action that things are done in the most God glorifying Christ exalting manner.

The Literary Study Bible - ESV

Like I need a new bible but the new “Literary Study Bible” (ESV) from Crossway may be hard to resist. When I took my Old Testament class in seminary one of the many great things I learned was that we need to read the Bible as literature since that is the primary medium God has determined to use to convey His message to use. When we begin to see the Bible as literature, albeit divine literature, we will begin to better see the message God is conveying to us. Too often we read scripture in all the same manner, revelatory the same as narrative, and this will hinder our understanding of the word of God that is right in front of us. This may seem foreign to some but the idea is not to minimize the inspiration of the text but to better see what God has inspired or better yet expired, breathed out, (2Tm 3:16) out of the various authors in various literary forms.

You can look at more information about this bible here: Crossway "The Literary Study Bible"

Gaining Knowledge is Not the End of the Road

Heb 2:1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

I have been teaching through Hebrews lately and have to truthful say that even though I have read Hebrews many times I have not seen as much as I have recently as I prepare weekly to teach from the book. Chapter one is a glorious passage where the writer of Hebrews expresses Christ’s superiority and in the process reveals his divinity and many other attributes. What is interesting is that when you get to 2:1-4 the writer takes a brief respite to exhort the reader, the hearer of the time and us to do more than take in information but to “pay much closer attention” to what has been heard.

This speaks volumes to the whole idea of Orthodoxy (right doctrine) and Orthopraxy (right practice). All too often we as believers in a desire to grow spiritually simply take in information with no outflow or result ensuing. We read the Bible, listen to sermons, read books and go to numerous conferences all to gather that next morsel of information but at the tend of the day we are not left time to put into action all that we have taken in.

We are a nation and world that hungers for facts and see the accumulation of knowledge as the salvation of all. How often have your heard that if a certain group only had more education they would be better off or that having more knowledge means having more power, While these adages may be true in some fashion they both ignore the work of God in all that we do and that we as a human race have a much bigger problem than a lack of knowledge.

I have even written, as have others, in the past that all too often this mindset that revolves around knowledge invades the Christian Homeschool movement and leads to people schooling at home rather than home schooling. This mindset does not see the Christian reason to Homeschool being the raising of godly children but instead sees raising kids smarter than public school kids as the goal. This is the mindset that says I want my kids to have more information that your kids. Again, I am not saying information is bad it is just where we place it in the priority of things than can be an issue.

What does it take for us to see that one of the results of the fall is take the sin nature of Adam and Eve leads us to desire to seek knowledge for the sake of knowledge? We are not to abandon knowledge as people have done in the past as an over reaction to just this problem but we are to seek knowledge for the Glory of God and that Glory comes from living out all that God indwells us with. If we were to truly to see that we are to do all for His glory I dare say we would have to ask, “why am I learning this” or “why am I going to this conference” or even, yes even this, “why am I reading the Bible.” If we simply read the Bible for readings sake and not transformation through the power of the Spirit we have missed the boat. We read scripture to know Christ and it is the knowledge of Christ that is to transform us.

So I would encourage you not to stop taking in knowledge but to always ask the critical question of why and this may help in making sure that we “pay closer attention to what we have heard” and read. Do not make knowledge the end all be all but go further to let the understanding that God gives outflow into the practice of our lives and from this we will begin to have both Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy

Added 6/7/07

My friend Matt Bullen let me know that Kevin Swanson had some similar thoughts on knowledge in his blog article: Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth

Free New Attitude 2007 Conference MP3s

If you are looking to download the free MP3s from the New Attitude 2007 conference you can also get them direct from the New Attitude website as the Sovereign Grace online store was so busy. Sovereign Grace Ministries also has a link to download the files directly.

New Attitude 2007 site

Sovereign Grace Ministries site