How Not to Be Seen- Church Version

Church Redone is looking for a new congregation to worship in.  He’s learning all of the wrong things to do so no one can find you.  It is pretty insightful, particularly in the fact that churches actually do these things.  They actually take courses of action that inhibit healthy growth, keeping people from knowning they [...]

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The Conflict Within

I really couldn’t decide what I wanted.  Such a picture of our divided hearts.  Paul drew that picture for us in Galatians 5- the flesh and Spirit at odds with one another.
My anguish was not over a great big sin.  I couldn’t decide if the Celtics should win or lose.  I have only been able [...]

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Pensee for the Day- Ryle

Dislike of dogma (doctrine) “is an epidemic which is just now doing great harm, and specificially among young people… .  It produces what I must venture to call … a ‘jelly-fish’ Christianity in the land: that is, a Christianity without boned, or muscle, or power.  A jelly-fish … is a pretty and graceful object when [...]

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Amazing Difference in Perspective

Apparently Obama’s pastor is upset with the New York Times.  He’s not the only one, to be sure.
I guess I find it odd that he thinks the Times is the Bush administration’s blog.  Every conservative I know thinks it is a bastion of liberal thought.  I think I can spot ‘middle of the road’, and [...]

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The Global Warming Swindle

Here is a lengthy documentary exposing the great global warming swindle.  The various parts of it are also found on YouTube.  Sadly, you found this in our public schools- just Al Gore’s manipulations of data and alarmist hyperbole.

Update: Apparently an improved DVD version will be released, we think.  The producers are [...]

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Friday Follies: Pastor Sues Over Pot

Cannibis.  Mary Jane.  That kind of pot.  Los Angeles pastor, Rev. Craig X. Ruben, was recently arrested for possessing marijuana.  That alone would be an interesting story.  But to make it better, the Temple 420 pastor filed a lawsuit for $30 million.
“Our congregation mandates members study the Bible, have faith in God and regularly burn [...]

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Pensee for the Day- Piper on Prayer

“Prayer is designed by God to display his fullness and our need.  Prayer glorified God because it puts us in the position of the thirsty and God in the position of the all-supplying fountain.”
“The point (in persistance) is not to finally break God’s resistance but to discover, by patient prayer, God’s wisdom as to the [...]

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Was I Wrong? Yeah.

My timing may have been off.  At the beginning of Spring Training I thought that Papelbon may move back to the closer role after Jon Lester is ready to come back up.  (insert my daughter exlaiming “Red Sox” here- much to my delight)
Rob Bradford says that rumors are flying around the camp that Tavarez (who [...]

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Seinfeld: A World Without Grace

This morning CavWife came in from an early morning walk in the rain.  Unfortunately for her, she had a “wall of hair” look that reminded me of Elaine.  She reminded me of what my hair looked like recently before I finally had it cut.  “What, did I have a face that looked like a horse [...]

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Pensee for the Day- Calvin on Prayer

I’m in Matthew 6:5-8 for Sunday’s sermon.  I came across this:
“Believers do not pray with the view of informing God about things unknown to him, or of exciting him to do his duty, or of urging him as though he were reluctant.  On the contrary, they pray in order that they may arouse themselves to [...]

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Idolatry Lives On

In church history, I’m currently teaching the kids about the Reformation.  I’m supplementing the lectures with the movie Luther.  One of the topics that arose was that of the saints, and the sale of little statues.
Yesterday my brother-in-law and I were in Barnes & Noble’s when I came across a Household Saints kit.  I almost bought [...]

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Bono isn’t the Only One

Like me, Anthony Bradley loves U2’s music and heart for the poor and oppressed.  Like me, he believes Bono needs to study economics.  I’ve mentioned this sort of thing before regarding Bono.  Sadly, he is not alone.  Most Congressmen and Senators would benefit from an actual economics class or two because they seem utterly clueless [...]

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Ministry is Moving Past Discomfort

I didn’t have to preach on Sunday, so it opened up some free space to think this weekend.  I was thinking about Ed Stetzer’s message on Breaking the Missional Code.
There are aspects in every culture that are in line with the Gospel.  They are reflections of people being in God’s image.  We should affirm them, [...]

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Review: The Astronaut Farmer

At first glance, The Astronaut Farmer looks like it may be a family movie.  Not so much.  There was just enough crudity/sexuality that I felt uncomfortable with the kids in the theatre.
This is a slow-moving movie that seems a bit conflicted at points.  Charlie Farmer, as we discover as the movie progresses, was in the [...]

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Discomfort with Culture

I was listening to Ed Stetzer’s message at the Resurgence Conference.  Sounds like we share similar opinions on Niebuhr’s book, Christ and Culture.  None of the positions fits every circumstance.  There are aspects of culture we can embrace, some we transform, and some we reject (for instance, pornography cannot be transformed for a good purpose).  The [...]

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The Endtimers

The place is Lake City, FL.  It is on I-75 between Gainesville and the Georgia border.  One of my elders went their on business recently and saw some unusual folks.  A few questions prompted him to learn more about the group people call The Endtimers. 
In 1984 Charles Meade and his followers moved there.  Things … [...]

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Brad Delp: Case Study in the Price of Conflict

Sadly, this is not a movie but a man’s life.  Singer of the legendary rock band Boston took his own life last week.  The details have slowly been becoming public.  My focus here is not on the how’s but the why’s of his suicide.  And that why is a number of unreconciled relationships that sucked [...]

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Pensee for the Day: Spurgeon, Again

“I believe that a very large majority of church goers are merely unthinking, slumbering worshippers of an unknown God.”  Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 11
 Just as true today as when he first preached these words.

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Off-Put by Offsets

Some of the people purchasing carbon offsets have been doing research into what they money went to.  Some of them were very disappointed with what they discovered. 

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Review: Women’s Ministry in the Local Church

Women’s Ministry in the Local Church has been in the chute for awhile.  I’ve been reading it here and there.  Part of what that says to me is that the book did not captivate me.  It was solid, but not spectacular.  With so few resources on women’s ministry from a complementarian view, this is an important [...]

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