atheism: REMIX a Review

I just finished reading the new book by Albert Mohler Jr., atheism: REMIX. While a short book it is full of information on what is called “The New Atheism.” As Mohler says in the book “The New Atheism is not just a reassertion of atheism. It is a movement that represents a far greater public challenge to Christianity than that posed by the atheistic movements of previous times.” (pg 12)

While there are many things that could be said about the book there were at least a couple things that stuck out to me. First were the eight hallmarks of the New Atheism that Mohler identifies. These are important for us to understand because in some ways they reveal that the atheists may be more perceptive of what the scriptures say than many professing believers today. Here are the eight hallmarks with my comments in italics and in blue:

1 - They have a new boldness in that the old atheists seems to have a sense of longing and a sense of loss but this is not true of the New Atheists. While in times past belief in God may have been seen as archaic and unneeded the New Atheists see it as dangerous to believe in a God. This is important to see in that it lets us see that there is little common ground when conversing with those that hold to this brand of atheism as they have as a goal of theirs rid society of any form of theism.

2 – They are clearer that they reject the Christian God of the Bible. The old atheists simply denied that a God could exist but the New Atheists see the specific God of the scriptures as being “untenable.” What I find interesting here is that while many try and avoid the obvious place of God in the midst of turmoil and Open Theisms attempt to save God from this issue the New Atheists seem to see that plain reading of Bible as God being intimately involved in trials and tribulations. So in some ways they see the text more clearly than many professing believers do. As Christians we need to deal with God and the problem of evil not by stripping God from scripture but truly dealing with the text and the mystery of how God is sovereign and bad things happen.

3- “The New Atheists explicitly reject Jesus Christ.” The reason being is that they recognize that Jesus is not a nicer version of God as so many professing Christians put forth but they see from the NT that Jesus is to be as rejected as the God of the OT. They also see that Jesus is restrictive in entry into heaven and thus they would reject Him for this as well. Again this is a place that all too many believers miss while the atheists seem to see the obvious. This is not new as fro the time of Marcion many have either purposefully or inadvertently tried to picture Jesus as something He is not. When it comes to the Atheist seeing the restrictivism of Jesus this is sort of amazing as there are far too many that claim Christ as savior that either do not see this or do not feel comfortable stating the obvious.

4-“The New Atheism is specifically grounded in the scientific argument.” They see that science in the end has to be able to explain everything and so “their commitment to the worldview of naturalism and materialism is absolute and nonnegotiable.” We as believers need to understand this worldview so that we understand why the New Atheists reject our arguments. I am not saying to change our arguments as many have tried to do but instead it is helpful to now their worldview and thus know from the beginning that we are placing answers before them that come from a worldview they reject. We are not to take of their world view but be firm in ours.

5- They do not tolerate moderate and liberal forms of beliefs. I found this interesting because the moderates and liberals have seemed to try and make palatable Christianity that in the end is obvious even to the atheist not Christianity as the Bible depicts. So the message to us is that the world sees a sham when it is put before them. They may dislike and even dispise true Christianity but they know what scripture plainly puts forth. They do not believe it but they see it clearly there.

6-The New Atheists see the need to rid ourselves of religious toleration. They see all religion as untenable and dangerous. Again, for years we have tried to make Christianity just part of a larger religious picture and sought after religious toleration but this will no longer placate the Atheist.

7-“The New Atheists have begun to question the right of parents to inculcate belief in their own children” An argument that John Dewey put forth in the early 20th century. As believers we need to be aware of this as this is the direction of the public school system. This is not a far flung idea but has been around for many years but as the leaders of academia, many of who would probably hold to some form of this New Atheism train the teachers and students of the years to come this idea will only become more prevalent.

8-They argue that to preserve human freedom “religion itself must be eliminated.” With many believers human freedom, what ever that is, drives everything as it does for the atheist. We need to regain a biblical understanding of freedom in light of the sovereign God revealed in His inspired word.

The other interesting thing to read was the various arguments against the New Atheists from professing believers that hold to some form of evolutionary thought to those that would be in the liberal fringes of belief, The interesting part is that while they argue against the New Atheism it seems clear that in their desire to have things their way they will not win the argument either. While all of the arguments they give attempt to try and show they have it figured out it seems that where they stray from scripture will be their down fall as in the end their footing is on sand and not the solid ground of God’s word.

I would recommend this as book to read. If for no other reason than understanding if you are looking at sending your children to public school or even to college you need to realize that the men and women mentioned in this book that hold to this New Atheism are influential in academia. Whether they would directly influence you children or they do it by those they influence who then teach your children that influence is there.

One last comment; I think that it is a desire to not seem foolish that cause so many of the problems when speaking to those that hold the beliefs, or some form of them, that this book reveals. By this I mean we have forgotten that the message of the cross is foolishness to those that are perishing (1 Cor 1:17-21) so should we really expect anything different than the responses these New Atheists place before us. Yes we need to provide an answer for the faith we have (1 Peter 3:15) but realize without the work of God on the person before you the cross is a foolish message but for His children it is a message of hope.

Around the Web and Blogosphere (8/18/08)

I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by the Saddleback Faith Forum.  At least for me, I saw the Obama I have already seen and it simply confirmed my views. As far as McCain I was pleasantly surprised by his answers.  As far as McCain though my basic skepticism of politicians will lead me to see if He holds to what he proclaimed in the meeting at Saddleback.  Actually, even tonight there are questions as to whether McCain would have a Pro-Choice running mate and if that would happen it would make a great difference in what I would do in November.  If you were not able to see the event you can read the transcript from CNN here.  You can also read some other comments at:

CampOnThis:  Rick Warren and the Saddleback Faith Forum

FIDE-O: Reaction to Civil Forum on the Presidency at Saddleback

AlbertMohler.com: Backtrack to Saddleback -- Secularists Not Pleased

 

Scott at These are the Generations of.. has some good insight into the Olympics and how they reveal worldviews in his post: Worldview Training in Everyday Conversation.

 

Voddie Baucham writes an article that looks at the question: Is Christianity a Religion?  He does a great job of showing that simply redefining religion is insufficient to deny its place as a religion.  Among other things he says: “The argument that Christianity is not a religion has many inherent problems.  Most importantly, this line of reasoning is at odds with the English language, the history of the church, and good old common sense.”

 

Albert Mohler in his post: "Rights Talk" in California -- Confusing the Same-Sex Marriage Issue lends some good insight into the same sex marriage issue facing California this coming November. 

Psalms: Sovereign Grace Music’s New Album

Sovereign Grace Music has come out with its latest album and it is, as expected, as well done as their other offerings. The latest album Psalms has music that relies on, you guessed it, Psalms for its content. There are a few songs that seem to rely more heavily on instruments and are louder than on their last two albums, from my untrained perspective, and thus I felt the music sort of took away from the vocals in some places. For me personally this is an important thing as if I find myself getting into the beat more than the words I am missing the most important part of the song. Don’t get me wrong I really liked even the more up tempo songs but since I really want to focus on the words this creates sort of conflict for me

This all said I still highly recommend this album as not all the songs are as up tempo as a few of them are and even then you can distinguish the words which are great as usual but then again they are using the words of scripture. I think out of their last albums I like the last one Come Weary Saints the best, followed by Valley of Vision (probably swayed by the fact I really enjoy the Valley of Vision devotional) and then this album.

Contentment in the Kingdom

A couple weeks ago I preached on Contentment in the Kingdom (Heb 13:5-6) at SGCF.  This was a difficult passage as contentment is one of those areas that I often suffer with.  I say “suffer with” because often I do not realize what I am going through is simply an issue with contentment.  If you are like me we often rationalize our disgruntlement as what might be mistakenly labeled as “righteous discontent”.  Now I do think there is a discontent that we are to have that is instilled by God but this is not what I am talking about.  The discontent that God gives is a discontent that helps us see that the world we are in is not all there is.  So there is a little irony in that we are to be content where God has us but there can still be discontent that helps to protect us from being all too easily satisfied with the world’s offerings instead of being content with God’s provision.

The discontent that we are not to have is when we begin to be more focused on our circumstances than God’s hand in them.  For example we may be unhappy with our job and begin to feel God wants us to move on. While this may be true we need to start at asking ourselves if I am content if God would keep me where I am.  So, while God may work in our lives to move us along and there may even come a time that He uses discontentment but I do not think this is the norm.  God desires us to be content in whatever situation we are in (Phil 4:11-12) and it is then that God may move us on.

For me at least this road to contentment starts right where I am. by seeing my situations and circumstances daily as being a result of the sovereign hand of God.  When I see God’s hand in the highs and lows I begin to see that the God that by His grace has called me to be one of His children only has what most glorifies Him and what is best for me.  Finding contentment in a world that thrives on creating discontentment is not easy but in the power of the spirit as a child of God we can be content.

I highly recommend reading Jeremiah Burroughs’ book The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.  This is one of those books that if you are not convicted while reading it you need to read it again.  Burroughs not only lets us see what contentment is but helps in revealing how God desires us to move towards contentment.  One of the things we need to realize is that the world sells that contentment comes by adding to our lives.  However to be content in the Kingdom of God often comes by subtraction, by removing from our lives instead of seeing what to add.  Again, I encourage you to read this book as Burroughs, through a great use of scripture, deals with a subject, contentment, many of us struggle with.

Augustine’s Confessions - FREE AudioBook

You can go to ChristianAudio.com and download this month’s free book: The Confessions of Saint Augustine by Augustine of Hippo by using the following Code : AUG2008. Yes it is free and all you have to do is sign up for a free account, did I say it was free. The books I have downloaded from here have been very beneficial and with the driving I do back and forth from work and home it is a great use of time rather than constantly listening to the babble on the radio.

Around the Web and Blogosphere (7/31/08)

You can download the HBC Missions 08 Conference sermons from here. I highly recommend these sermons as they are both encouraging and convicting. I had never heard Luis Sena or Conrad Mbewe (referred to by some as the African Spurgeon) before but they were both very good. Also speaking at the conference was Paul Washer who I heard before. The topic of the conference was Christian Imperialism and I am sure that title is as thought provoking as Piper’s Christian Hedonism. Just as with Christian Hedonism the word “Christian” before Imperialism makes all the difference. So listen to the Luis Sena and Conrad Mbewe describe what Christian Imperialism is and I am confident it will be difficult to disagree with their explanation, from scripture, of this term.



Grace Family Baptist Church is holding its 2nd Annual Family Integrated Church Conference "Semper Reformanda" October 10-12 at the Marriott Greenspoint in Houston, Texas. My family and I went last year and it was very good. You can get more information on the conference here.



Speaking of conferences; the Desiring God 2008 National Conference is coming up September 26-28. The conference theme is The Power of Words and the Wonder of God.

From John Piper: "This is one of the most unusual conferences we have ever conceived. My expectations are very high that its effect will be mind-sharpening, heart-humbling, mouth-seasoning, backbone-strengthening, and Christ-acclaiming. ......This conference is the overflow of my amazement at the significance of words."



Thanks to Erik, The Irish Calvinist, for linking to Travis Carden’s list of verses that deal with “Total Depravity” or (“Total Inability”).

From Travis: The doctrine of total depravity (or total inability) says that all men, as a consequence of the Fall, are born morally corrupt, enslaved to sin, at enmity with God, and unable to please Him or even of themselves to turn to Christ for salvation. (Thus the necessity of a gracious, unconditional election.)

Marriage in the Kingdom

As I prepared last week’s message at SGCF on Hebrews 13:4 titled, Marriage in the Kingdom, I realized at least two things. First, how I often fall short of living a life that honors marriage as God desires it to be honored. Second, how was I going to deal with the last part of this verse with children present and still be true to the passage?

Well first things first. The truth is we all fall short of honoring marriage as God would desire it to be honored. If you see Hebrews 13:1-6 as an extension of 12:28-29, as I do, and a call to acceptable worship in the Kingdom you quickly see that it is not just a matter of outward honoring. It is honoring God in our totality that makes our marriages or the marriage you may one day be in acceptable worship of God. We, and I know I do this, so often seek to please my wife, my children and myself in marriage but the first thing that should cross our minds is to ask if our marriages, including our views on marriage, are honoring to God who instituted marriage at creation.

This is not just about the outward acts, it includes them, but about how we view and what we believe about marriage. A look at the professing church would seem to say that marriage is taken lightly. Now many will protest “same sex marriage”, as they should, but then dishonor marriage with divorce, disorder in the home, incorrect views on the roles God has ordained for His people and a myriad of other views and actions. We even have a segment of the church that seems to be putting off marriage to a later date so they can meet their own needs. Of course there will be those called to singleness for a time and even some for life but scripture speaks of this being for the purpose of ministry and not making money, getting an education or any number of reasons usually given. To place marriage as a secondary institution dishonors God’s call in Gen 2:18 that it is not good for man, and by inference woman, to be alone.

As I said above, to me much of this stems from not asking the vital question that we should ask about everything we do, not just about marriage. That is to ask: How does what I believe and do honor God and is it acceptable as worship to God by God’s standards of acceptability? I do not see where we are specifically called to be creative in worship, by the way all of life for the believer is to be worship, but instead see a vast number of imperatives in scripture that dictate what God finds as acceptable worship to Him. So that this is not burdensome (1 John 5:3) scripture also gives a great number of indicatives that let us know that He empowers us to do all He commands. While I have only touched on a few things, of which I am sure some will disagree, I would hope that we would all step back when we are faced with issues such as marriage and not ask what I think is best but what does God say most honors Him.

As far as topic two and preaching on sexual immorality and adultery with children present. Being a church that sees all ages worshipping together as the biblical model one has to use discernment in how one words things and at the same time also be true to the text. To do this it becomes clear that you can find ways to word things that may otherwise lead to parents covering ears. One can just as easily speak of “the union of men and women outside of marriage” as to speak of “fornication.” My view is that the parents are to deal with these thorny issue and it is the preachers job to equip them to do so. Children may leave with questions and that is a good thing as then parents can take the role they are called to in rearing their children.

This said I think if you simply camp on the sexual issues at the end of 13:4 you will miss the point of honoring marriage. The writer of Hebrews is using an example of an area the professing Hebrews probably struggled with as they took on the societal norms that were around them. If we simply focus on the sexual area it is possible for someone that does not have a specific issue in this area to simply say “I have that wired” and tune out. But the truth is honoring marriage is much more encompassing than simply avoiding premarital sex and adultery. Yes we are to avoid this at all cost but if we do that but do not bring our families up in the fear and admonition of the Lord we have failed to honor God in marriage as well. If we avoid lust at all cost but as husbands do not care for our wives and be the head of the home as we are called to be we dishonor marriage. So as I thought about this passage it became much easier to preach as I realized to focus on the one area missed the point of the passage and for sure would miss the point important to the believers I minster to.

Well there is so much more involved in honoring marriage and I have very far to go to honor it as God desires. The good news, the great hope, is that the faith that brought us to the cross is the same faith that will enable us to do all that God commands. Yes we will look strange to the world around us obeying God’s commands but we are called to be pilgrims so let us be pilgrims.

Let us Honor marriage in the Kingdom

Is Your Church a Cruise Ship or a Battleship?

Thanks to James McDonald at Family Reformation who in his post, Choosing a Church, linked to the video below. We do have to ask ourselves if we seek after a church that is more like the Cruise ship or the battleship. The Cruise ship is so comfortable it is often a fight to not veer in that direction but we are not called to comfort but to battle and if we are to be a church that fights the good fight we need to be more like the battleship.

Around the Web and Blogosphere (7/15/08)

Thanks to Tony at The Shepherds Scrapbook for his post: Ferguson: Supporting the imperatives to holiness. In the post he relates a quote from Sinclair Ferguson on holiness that says:

“The great gospel imperatives to holiness are ever rooted in indicatives of grace that are able to sustain the weight of those imperatives. The Apostles do not make the mistake that’s often made in Christian ministry. [For the Apostles] the indicatives are more powerful than the imperatives in gospel preaching. So often in our preaching our indicatives are not strong enough, great enough, holy enough, or gracious enough to sustain the power of the imperatives. And so our teaching on holiness becomes a whip or a rod to beat our people’s backs because we’ve looked at the New Testament and that’s all we ourselves have seen. We’ve seen our own failure and we’ve seen the imperatives to holiness and we’ve lost sight of the great indicatives of the gospel that sustain those imperatives. … Woven into the warp and woof of the New Testament’s exposition of what it means for us to be holy is the great groundwork that the self-existent, thrice holy, triune God has — in Himself, by Himself and for Himself — committed Himself and all three Persons of His being to bringing about the holiness of His own people. This is the Father’s purpose, the Son’s purchase and the Spirit’s ministry.”
- Sinclair Ferguson, message from the 2007 Banner of Truth Conference, Our Holiness: The Father’s Purpose and the Son’s Purchase.

I know this has been my heart to make sure that when I preach of the imperatives to holiness that I also speak of the fact that for those that are His there is also the great hope that He has not only called for holiness but has equipped and works for that end in us. There is no real hope in imperatives to holiness without the corresponding indicatives that support them.



You can now download the introductory notes on Psalms from the upcoming ESV Study Bible: Introduction to The Psalms



At the Reformed Baptist Fellowship is an article entitled: Parachurch-So what’s the problem? While not all may agree with the assessment of the Parachurch it does bring up important questions as to their biblical warrant. In reading the comments it is clear that the question is not so much with regards to the needs of many of the Parachurch ministries that are out there but how does this idea apply to Missionary Societies of the past and today. My personal opinion, based on what I see in scripture, is that those ministries need to be under the auspices of a local church. They may have support from other sources to help them but they need to be accountable to a local church somewhere. An example of this is a Missionary ministry such as Heart Cry Ministries which is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Muscle Shoals, Alabama.



At the 9Marks website one of the articles from the July/August eJournal is: 30 Practical Ways For Pastors to Love Their Wives & Families. While I am sure there are other things that can be added and some that may need to be adjusted, I am not sure I can get up any earlier to do my quite time as I am already up at 4AM for work, these are a great place to start. As I read through them I had to say ouch a few times and realize that I may not be as proactive as I should be in caring for my wife and family.

Around the Web and Blogosphere (7/5/08)

Check out Doug Phillips’ (June Archives) and Scott Browns’ (Archives for June Pictures) blogs as there are great pictures from The 2008 Scotland Faith and Freedom Tour. One word of warning; if you look at these pictures too long you may experiecne "Travel Envy" which can only be dealt with by much prayer and fasting :)


Check out the side bar as there is a new link to the Joshua Project that updates daily to show a new unreached people group. This should help in praying for the nations and peoples we are so often uninformed about.


There is a new movie from the creators of Facing the Giants coming out September 26th called Fireproof. You can check out the trailer and other information on it at their website: Fireproofthemovie.com

This months free audio book at ChristianAudio.com is The Practice of the Presence of God (Unabridged) by Brother Lawrence. All that needs to be done to download this book for free is sign up for an account (also free) and then when ordering use the code: JULY2008

Last Couple Days to Enter Contest

Only a couple days left to enter the Reclaiming the Culture DVD contest from a previous post or you can enter here if you like. The deadline to enter for a choice of one of the DVDs from Vision Forums new Reclaiming the Culture DVD Series is 5PM(PST) on the June 29th with a winner to be chosen June 30th. Simply leave your name and I will announce the winner by July 1st. If you leave you e-mail now I will contact you or you will have to check back when the winner is announced.

Around the Web and Blogosphere (6/21/08)

James McDonald at Family Reformations writes: When the Village Raises Children. He reveals a Canadian court decision where the court overruled a fathers grounding of his 12 year old from the use of the Internet. We may say this would never happen here in the good ol’ USofA but do not be too sure. The initial court decision in California to outlaw Home Schooling reveals the heart of many, that those other than parents know what’s best for children. What may be more scary is that many believers seem to buy into this when it comes to such things as education and public school.


Richard Smith at The Spurgeon Blog has some good words to ponder on Evangelism in his post: The Love of God and Evangelism. We need to take care when we take part in evangelism that we present a God-centered God rather than the usually presented man-centered God.


Scott over at These are the generations of… links in his post, Home-schoolers threaten our Cultural Comfort, to an article from a secular paper on why so many hold those that home-school in contempt. Here is a link to the article: Home-schoolers threaten our cultural comfort. What is so sad is the number of professing Christians that dislike home schoolers but I fear it is because they have bought into a world-view that is much like if not the same as that mentioned in the article.


Don’t forget to enter the Reclaiming the Culture DVD contest on my previous post or you can enter here is you like. Deadline to enter for a choice of one of the DVDs from Vision Forums new Reclaiming the Culture DVD Series is 5PM(PST) on the June 29th with a winner to be chosen June 30th. Simply leave your name and I will announce the winner by July 1st. If you leave you e-mail now I will contact you or you will have to check back when the winner is announced.

The Challenges of Hebrews 12:12-14

This past week on the Lord’s Day at SGCF we looked at Hebrews 12:12-14 (The Path of Perseverance) which tells us that which we should do in light of the exhortations given in 12:1-11. The truth is we need to go back to Chapter 11 as well as it is only then that we see that the only way to do what we are called to do is “by faith” as those in Chapter 11 modeled for us. Just has been the case with all of Hebrews it places challenges before us that we all too often read over too quickly.

In V12 we are told to “lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees.” This tells us a few things but most of all it tells us that the pilgrimage we are on as believers is one where weariness and struggles will exist. But, the encouragement, gotten from 12:1-11, is that God is the one that has ordained those trials for our benefit and is the one that will strengthen us to persevere. The Christian pilgrimage is fraught with hazards but they are hazards placed by God for our growth and He is also the one that will sustain us and keep us in the midst of those trials. This is a great hope as we can then see that in the midst of any situation that God has not abandoned us. He may be correcting us or strengthening us but He is still there moving us towards holiness.

Then in V13 we are told to make straight paths so that we and others that are struggling will not stumble. This is a great verse because it speaks of our responsibility for our walk as well as that of other believers, especially in our particular community of faith that God has placed us. In our highly individualistic age we are so prone to see scripture for what it says to me, about me, and for me but there is so much more. God has given us the local church so that as we travel on our pilgrimage we can know we are not alone and that we are to work together to persevere to the final reward. We are to encourage others and even realize that we may face trials that are simply bestowed on us to encourage others by our walk , “by faith,” through the trial.

Next in V14 we are told to strive after peace and holiness. It is so great that these are together because it sets the limits to how far we can go for peace and that is it cannot hinder our striving for holiness. The word strive is one of intensity as if one were hunting a prey. The goal is that we strive and the encouragement is that when faced with those that are difficult to be at peace with we can know God has put them there for His glory and our growth towards holiness. So we are to strive for peace, it may not come but it will not be because we have not tried.

We are also to strive for holiness which is a virtue that I think many do not contemplate enough, I know I do not. But if we see this verse in light of 12:1 we see that we are to put aside whatever gets in the way of our pursuit of holiness. Of course we will not achieve perfect holiness this side of glory but we are to pursue it never-the-less. How would our lives change if we asked a simple question when faced with choices: “How will this choice hinder or increase my holiness.” I know for me this makes for some choices that seem strange in our culture today. But I would challenge us to try this and to take heed to 12:1 and do all we can by the power of the spirit to put aside whatever it is that hinders our pursuit of holiness.

The challenge of Hebrews is that it is not simply a book about a group of 1st century believers struggling with faith choices. It is a living and real sermon for us today in a culture that at every turn seeks to have us deny the Gospel. We may not see our actions as so just as the Hebrew believers probably did not, that is until they heard Hebrews. The call is for us to heed the message that Christ is to so hold our affections that all we do is to reflect that and anything that hinders that reflection is to be done away with. Let us, “by faith,” seek after holiness so that God gets the Glory that only he deserves.

Pilgrim’s Progress Free Audiobook Download

This month’s free download at ChristianAudio.com is Pilgrims Progress. Simply by signing up, its free, you can download this unabridged audio book for free. The coupon code is: JUN2008

Around the Web and Blogosphere (6/07/08)

Philip Ryken blogs on the upcoming ESV Study Bible. Ryken says:
I look forward to seeing the whole ESV Study Bible when it is finished, and to studying its notes more carefully. But what I have seen so far leads me to believe that Crossway is producing the apotheosis of the study Bible.

And here is the definition of “apotheosis.”



Richard Smith has an article at The Spurgeon Blog entitled: The Glory of God Who Loves Himself. He says:
The true Gospel is that there is hope that God will save based on grace which has its cause within the God who loves Himself. The true Gospel is that there is hope that this God will have mercy and will change the heart of the sinner so that it now loves Him rather than itself.


Mark Dever at the 9Marks Blog writes on the use of video in corporate worship: When Seeing Doesn't Help Believing: Videos "in Church".



At Doug Phillip’s blog there is a list of articles dealing with a number of important issues: Vision Forum Articles on Life, Babies, and Biomedical Ethics.



Don’t forget to enter the Reclaiming the Culture DVD Contest on my previous post

Reclaiming the Culture DVD Giveaway.

Thanks to Vision Forum for once again allowing me to offer a free DVD. The free DVD will be your choice of one of the 7 DVDs from the Reclaiming the Culture DVD Collection.

All you need to do is leave a message that you would like to be entered in the contest. I will take entries until 5PM on June 29th and will contact the winner on the 30th to get a shipping address, so leave your e-mail address. This giveaway is limited to the 50 States, Canada and those in the US Armed Forces. Once I get the winners shipping information and DVD choice I will forward it Vision Forum and they will get the DVD to you in about 3 weeks.

You can watch clips from the collection here.

Here is the list of the DVDs in the collection:

The Promise: The Beauty and the Power of the 5th Commandment
What is Biblical Femininity?
Training Dominion-Oriented Daughters
Foundational Elements of a Godly Estate
Providential Nexus of Jamestown and Plymouth
We Cannot But Speak
Guerilla Apologetics for the Glory of God





You can also click below if you would like to go to the Vision Forum website to see other items they have to offer.

God’s Loving Discipline, Yes Loving!!

As I was studying for last Sunday’s sermon at SGCF on Hebrews 12:3-6 (God's Loving Discipline-Part 1) I kept wondering how much people’s lack of understanding of discipline affects their correct understanding of these verses. When I say this I am not speaking of unbelievers but of believers or at the least professing believers. In a day and age where states seek to pass law against spanking and people see discipline of children as “stifling their creativity” what do you do with a passage that speaks of discipline as that which we are to be thankful for?

Keep in mind that the author speaks of discipline in two manners: that of correction for sins we have done and that which is simply to build us for what He has planned and are not specifically tied to particular sins. So discipline covers a wide gamut of things in our lives. The goal of discipline is to disciple and train us to be the men and women of God we are called to be. It is to move us to holiness so that we become more holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:13-16, V16 cites Lev 1:44).

The writer of Hebrews continues on to encourage his audience to endure the race before them and that the struggles that they will encounter are of the God. Even including those struggle that lead to the shedding of blood (12:4). With the popularity of such beliefs as “Open Theism” this is obviously an area of struggle for many. How can a “loving” God allow, or even ordain, that which is painful for His children some, if not many, will say. Well V6 says why; because he loves His children and by the way all of His children are disciplined. In using a quote from Prov 3:11-12 the writer is also making a vital connection with the past and letting those he is applying this to, including us, realize God is working as He always has. God’s having always worked this way is why the “cloud of witnesses” in V1 are so vital to the Hebrew believers and us, they too have been through this at the hands of the Lord.

One needs to always keep in mind when reading Hebrews that this message, or sermon, to the Hebrew believers was meant to encourage, exhort and bring hope. Yes, to know God is intimately involved in our trials is to bring hope. The alternative is hopelessness, in that if God is simply a reactor to trials what type of God is that. A God that is not part of our struggles and is not the ordainer of them may seem comforting for a short time until you realize that there is then no purpose to what goes on in our lives.

Instead we are to see God, as the writer of Hebrews sees Him, as the architect of all that happens first for His glory then for our good, by the way they coincide for His children and that is the point behind V11. So what may “seem” painful now, and they are truly painful from a temporal perspective, will be joyful when God produces in us what He desires and ultimately when we get to glory. Our foresight is forever getting shorter and that is why the smallest pain is often seemingly unbearable. Unlike in times past when life was generally more hash our pain threshold, so to speak, is much lower.

This passage is also not about getting through trials and pain by gritting our teeth and plowing on. It is as James says in 1:2 to be counted all joy when we face trials since when seen in light of Hebrews 12 it is proof of God’s love for us. Let us thank God for the love He shows us as His children in disciplining us and working in us to make us holy. Thank Him for His work in us to make us useful instruments in His hands. Let us truly “cuont it all joy” when we face all kinds of trials.

Another Update on Subway Contest

Although I could not find the Subway/Scholastic apology myself AFA has checked into it and has a copy on their website: Subway apologizes to home scholars. Thanks to Paul at Vaughnshire Farm for letting me know about this response.

Lay Aside Every Weight - Hebrews 12:1-3

This past Lord’s Day I preached on Hebrews 12:1-3 (Sermon: Exhortations for the Christian Pilgrimage) and the study for this passage was to say the least convicting.  I think we often read this passage, I have, and do not stop to contemplate what “lay aside every weight” really means.  What I think you will find if you take time to stop and pray about it is that these four words are asking believers to make radical decisions about how we go about our Christian pilgrimage.

Since verse one separates “every weight” and “sin” we need to as well and to look at both areas.  Most will easily agree that we need to put aside sin in our Christian walk, or in this case run.  But what are we to do with this idea of excess “weight?”  Well the idea, in taking from the analogy of being in a race, is to put aside or take off what ever will hinder one from the goal of finishing the race they are in.  I would even say that it is not just about finishing but finishing in such a manner that we most glorify God by our manner of running.

With this in mind what does it mean for a believer to “lay aside every weight” or some translations may say “hindrance.” This is not simply about listing specific sins to stop because we have seen the author has set sin as a separate area.  When it comes to hindrances the issue becomes more convicting because there are many things that are not in and of themselves a sin but that get in the way of our Christian walk. 

How often when deciding on what we are to do we contemplate how a particular action will affect our walk?  Many times we do things that not only may lead us to sin but we also do things that simply take time away from what we should be doing.  In a race one puts aside everything that will hinder their run and in our Christian walk we should do the same.  Again it is not just about running but running in a God glorifying manner.

One area that I struggle with and I am sure many others do is in the area of entertainment.  I quite often am good at justifying that I just need to relax but what I find is that a short time of relaxation leads to more time relaxing at the expense of time with God.  Our preoccupation with entertainment seems to be more about escapism than relaxation and renewal.  Should we not get to a point where time with God is the renewal and relaxation we require.  So, while some entertainment may not specifically be a sin if it is interfering with our time with God and doing what God desires of us we need to put it aside.

There are many things that on the surface may seem good but can end up being detrimental to our walk. When areas such as these show themselves we need to make adjustments and lay aside what needs to be laid aside.

I guess my call is for us to better look at what we do.  Not in light of what everyone else does but in light of how it affects our walk in the eyes of God.  In doing this we need to ask if what we are doing takes from God’s glory and if it detracts from our progress towards holiness.  This may, or I should say will, lead to making decisions that will result in us looking different from the world around us.  But being a Christian is to be a pilgrim and pilgrims do not look like those around them.

So re-read Hebrews 12:1-3 in the context of all that is around it and then stop to meditate and pray about the things you do and ask if there are things that need to be laid aside.  Are we not only running the course that God has set before us but are we running it in a manner that God gets all the glory.

Subway Update

I received an e-mail today that made me think that I may need to be clearer on my previous post with regards to the Subway Writing contest that does not allow Home Schoolers to participate.

For me the contest is not a discrimination issue with regards to legalities as I realized Subway is private company and could make the contest for whatever group they like. The issue is more about letting others know that homeschoolers are often singled out for no apparent reason other than a personal bias, in this case a corporate bias. From a Christian perspective if we homeschool for biblical reasons, rather than simply academic reasons, we should not find this bias surprising.

I think that often we as believers rely too much on such things as the constitution, not bad in and of itself, as the Bible tells us to rely on Him, and by extension His Word, and by doing so we will in the end be singled out as every other believer has been in history. Jesus Christ was singled out for doing the Father's will so why should we expect different treatment.

This does not mean we as believers should not seek to have influence in laws and government but I think we do have to be careful not to end up relying on that rather than God, the one who even allows those that lead us to do so.