Don't forget to vote for Tom Ascol and the Founders Blog in the SBC Blog Madness Final Four. (UPDATE: He's currently in second place, 13 votes behind, but a push before the polls close tonight could pull out a victory for the good guys.)
Read about study results showing the unchurched prefer more traditional worship environments.
"By a nearly 2-to-1 ratio over any other option, unchurched Americans prefer churches that look more like a medieval cathedral than what most think of as a more contemporary church building."
Check out Lionel Woods' How Radio Ministries are Destroying the Local Church: The Celebrated Orator Epidemic.
"Lets not compare our pastors to Piper or Sproul. That is like comparing our wives to some airbrushed supermodel who spends hours working out, have no kids to worry about, and probably eats 800 calories per day to look the way they do."
Read the article that prompted Lionel's post: When Your Preacher Is Not John Piper.
"Third, if your pastor is (honestly) dull, but he preaches the truth faithfully, a little statement I once heard might be helpful for you to remember: 'The mature worshipper is easily edified.'"
Read Tim Challies' book review of Instructing a Child's Heart, by Tedd Tripp. Read also Challies' review of Shepherding a Child's Heart, also by Tripp.
Check out a video clip on Reepicheep of John Piper describing the Problem of Evangelicalism. The essence is that they don't receive Jesus for the treasure that He truly is.
Check out Brent Thomas on Why It’s Arrogant to Say “Just Give Me the Bible and the Holy Spirit, I Don’t Need the Opinions of Men” or, Why Theology is Practical. Incidentally, I think he's being influenced by Edwards in his writing, or at least in his titling.
Read George Will's Bleeding Hearts but Tight Fists, noting that conservatives are more charitable than liberals. (HT Matthew Bradley)
Read Abraham Piper's 6 Reasons Pastors Should Blog.
Read 10 biblical guidelines on how Christians can engage in politics without “losing their souls.” (HT Justin Taylor)
Read about the difference between good debt & bad debt.
Check out the 10 Most Historically Inaccurate Movies: Films that make your high school history teacher cry.
Matt Waymeyer at Pulpit Magazine's blog continues talking about infant baptism. (* indicates those mentioned last Monday)
Read A Biblical Critique of Infant Baptism*
Read Infant Baptism and Acts 16:31-34*
Read Infant Baptism and Acts 2:39*
Read Infant Baptist and Acts 15:1-29
Read Infant Baptism and Divine Adoption
Check out the impressive acting career of Charlton Heston, recently deceased. 2 of his movies (Ben-Hur & The Ten Commandments) make my all-time top 10. Read the AP obituary and/or read the NY Times obituary. Factoid ..."Mr. Heston was always able to channel some energies into the public arena. He was an active supporter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., calling him "a 20th-century Moses for his people," and participated in the historic march on Washington in 1963."
Read about and watch some Today show videos about a case of mistaken identity where one family thought their daughter was dead and the other thought theirs was in a coma. After 5 weeks they realized Laura was not Laura, but Whitney. That meant horrible news for one family and joyous for the other. Note the exaltation of Christ in the videos by both families. Think about holding a funeral for your daughter and then 5 weeks later hearing, "We have reason to believe that your daughter is alive." These are some pretty amazing words from the father of the girl who died:
"We believe that God is sovereign and that He takes an active part in our lives. Even in sorrow there can be joy."
Read as Darrell Bock takes A Look at the Two Christian Faiths in Our Public Square: Christianity and Jesusanity. (HT Ray Fowler)
Check out the upcoming national Founders conference in Oklahoma, near Tulsa. Anyone from the DFW area interested in carpooling?
"The 2008 National Founders Conference will explore the place, necessity, and some of the God-ordained means for church renewal and church planting under the theme, 'Lengthening the Cords and Strengthening the Stakes: Renewing and Planting Local Churches.'"
Read a powerful and sobering Touchstone article about how we now treat humans life with about the same dignity as animal life. (HT Brother Hank)
"Medical science now treats man as veterinary medicine had dealt with lower animals. Contraceptive and reproductive techniques, some of which have been around for centuries, were never applied to human beings until our own day. Camel drivers on caravans wanted to prevent the female camels from becoming pregnant during the trek across the desert. So they would simply thrust a stone up into the camel’s uterus. Centuries later in America we now thrust IUDs into women’s uteruses for the same reason.
Cats would be spayed, dogs neutered. Now we do it to human beings. Artificial insemination has long been standard in the breeding of cattle. We now do it to women. Human life in its coming into being is no longer considered human life and is subjected to experimentation and the ignominy of cryopreservation. We no longer treat human beings with the awe and reverence due to those endowed with the divine image."
Check out some thoughts from Daryl Wingerd posted by Black and Reformed Ministries dealing the question, "Is it OK for Christians to CUSS?" Being a student of language, a solid definition of "cussing" or "profanity" is often a very interesting conversation.
Check out 7 counterfeit gospels from How People Change, by Tim Lane and Paul David Tripp.
3. Mysticism. “I am engaged in the incessant pursuit of an emotional experience with God. I live for the moments when I feel close to him, and I often struggle with discouragement when I don’t feel that way. I may change churches often, too, looking for one that will give me what I’m looking for.”
Check out some reflective thoughts 40 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King at Blaque Tulip: Where do we go from here--Rebuild.
Read 5 Reasons Why [Movie] Trailers Are Bad.
1. If it’s a trailer for a comedy, you have now probably seen the best jokes from the whole movie.
Find out How to Identify the Learning Styles of Your Youth.
"When trying to discover learning styles, a standardized checklist or "test" in Bible study is not going to cut it. Try assessing your teens' learning styles informally."
Read Greg Gilbert's I Move We Don't Vote So Much! He suggests limiting church voting to 5 areas.
Read this ironic story of the man who called the police to complain about the neighbor's cat, but then the police found 84 marijuana plants on his premises.
Read this ironic story about cheating and plagiarizing the honor code of another school, without attribution, of course.
Read Newsweek's The Curious Lives of Surrogates."But what kind of woman would carry a child to term, only to hand him over moments after birth? Surrogates challenge our most basic ideas about motherhood, and call into question what we've always thought of as an unbreakable bond between mother and child. It's no wonder many conservative Christians decry the practice as tampering with the miracle of life, while far-left feminists liken gestational carriers to prostitutes who degrade themselves by renting out their bodies."
Read also Al Mohler's thoughts on Newsweek surrogate story.
Read as Johnny Mac lovingly confronts the question, "How do we know when to confront and when to quietly forgive and forget?"
Watch a video clip where Obama labels unwanted pregnancy as being "punished with a baby." (cf. Ps 127:3)
Read as Leslie Follmar wonders about the inconsistency with regard to contentment in desiring a spouse vs. desiring children.
"Why do we pray for contentedness for people that are single, but not usually for people that want children? Why don't we just ask God to bring them a godly mate just like how we pray to bring couples a baby? I've never heard someone pray, "God, make this couple content in their barrenness," but that's basically what we pray when we ask that singles would be content."
Read as Al Mohler addresses The Divorce Industrial Complex. Think about it ... not everyone wants you to live happily ever after.
"Few Americans seem to understand that marriage is being undermined by what can be called a "Divorce Industrial Complex" that includes lawyers, counselors, court personnel, and various others."
Read Rev's conversation with Dr. Bill Wagner, candidate for SBC president who has been critical of Calvinists as being "less missional" than Arminians.
"I [Dr. Wagner] do not see my enemies as the Calvinists or any other theological position. To me we have two real enemies. One is secularism and the other is Islam. We must work together to go against these two dangers."
Check out the controversy with LeBron James on the cover of Vogue magazine.
Read about how theology impacts Protestant bank accounts. (HT Colossians 3:16)
"The one big difference is the conservative Protestants' assumption that God is the owner of money and people are managers of it," Keister said. "They are doing with their money what God wants them to do with it, so that does mean that it is not sitting in their bank accounts."
Read as RC Sproul answers the following: Did Jesus ever laugh? What do the Scriptures tell us about his character and sense of humor? (HT Joe Thorn)
Read some inexpensive ideas for showing appreciation for Sunday school teachers.
Check out the song Indescribable, by Chris Tomlin, complete with lyrics and audio/video. Musical Monday is a regular bit on Samurai's Dogo.
"Indescribable, uncontainable,
You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name.
You are amazing God.
All powerful, untameable,
Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim
You are amazing God."
Comment of the Week:
"Gunny...this is entirely too much work. Haven't you heard of blogging for fun?" (selahV)
“Just as the physically blind cannot see the sun,
the spiritually blind cannot see the Son.”
-John F. MacArthur, Jr.
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