Gospel Living

Frank Turek's is another story of how lip service to diversity of opinion really means "believe what we believe OR ELSE." From AFA: I urge you today to take a moment and let the decision makers at Cisco hear from you. If we don't start to speak up and fight back we are going to continue to lose and one day soon it will be illegal to preach against homosexuality from the pulpit. That day is coming. Frank was treated unjustly and unfairly (fired) just because he held traditional views on marriage.   TAKE ACTION and send this Action Alert to as many people as you can. Frank's story can serve a great purpose if we can get it across the country.   Send an email to Cisco and send this Action Alert to as many people as you can. Frank's story can serve a great purpose if we can get it across the country. Send your email letter now!

MacArthur gives us words of hope and wisdom in how we deal with the miniature versions of ourselves: Many parents live in terror that something they do wrong might mar their child's otherwise virtuous character in some irreparable way.  They think if something goes wrong in childhood, the child might begin to drift spiritually or wander morally.  But the truth is that our children are already marred by sin from the moment they are conceived.  The drive to sin is embedded in their very natures.  All that is required for the tragic harvest is that children be allowed to give unrestrained expression to those evil desires.   In other words, children do not go bad because of something their parents do.  They are born sinful, and that sinfulness manifests itself because of what parents do not do.  (John MacArthur,  What the Bible Says About Parenting , p. 32) It's no surprise to parents that kids need not be taught how to disobey and dishonor mom...

John MacArthur on false teachers:

... the other day, I had a dream where I was able to construct and engage a particle accelerator in time to stabilize and save the multiverse, but I missed the slide window in the process. Ugh.  Stuck here for 29 years. What did it all mean? Anyway , this video reminded me of the dream: Back now in reality, I am glad God is God and thus, everything is a bit more sane. Even though I can proudly say I keep up with Sci-Fi better than my wife.

A 60 minute seminar by Steven Austin recorded at the Seattle Creation Conference October, 2009. Here is the low quality video for slower connections. Right click on the video to zoom it into full screen. Other downloads (to save file: right-click link below and choose "Save Target As"): Lower quality  (wmv) 15 MB Medium quality  (wmv) 130 MB Higher quality  (wmv) 286 MB Purchase DVD (HT: this creation video resource vault )

Kaiser, in Preaching and Teaching from the Old Testament, writes on the problem of the Old Testament for today: Instead of receiving the Old Testament with gratitude as a gift from God, all too many in Christ’s church view it as an albatross around the necks of contemporary Christians. They struggle with questions like these: What is the significance of the Old Testament for us today? Why should believers even bother with the Old Testament now that we have the New Testament? … Questions such as these ultimately raise the issue of the Old Testament as a major problem, if not the master problem of theology (p. 29). Impact of the OT's exclusion today: There are a number of doctrines that come to their fullest expression in the Old Testament text. Some of the ones that come to mind are the doctrines of creation (Gen. 1–2), the fall (Gen. 3), the law of God (Exod. 20; Deut. 5), the incomparable greatness of God (Isa. 40), the nature of the substitutionary atonement of Christ (Isa. ...

Many of you already know, but for those who don't, John MacArthur just finished preaching through the book of Mark.  Forty-three years ago, he began to teach through the NT verse-by-verse at Grace Community Church, and these closing verses of Mark were the final verses for him to meet that end. You can watch, read, download, etc.  God bless! P.S., MacArthur will be back in the GCC pulpit at the end of the summer.  Continue in prayer for him as he continues to teach God's Word to the local church and to Christians world-wide, and as he presides over a college and seminary, seeking to train men and women to do the same thing.

I've been meaning to change the blog feed length for a while and finally got a round tuit.  I've opened up the plasma flow and adjusted the matter/anti-matter regulators to get rid of the "this is just a summary" line. Let me know if this gives you a bumpier or a smoother ride.

Kaiser on the question of cultural terminology in Toward an Exegetical Theology: But it is clear that Scripture refused to fall into some cultural containments which might thereby reduce the content of the message. One good example of this resistance is the Bible’s rejection of the “three-tiered” universe model. To see in certain poetical portions of Scripture the pre-Copernican cosmological model which had a solid dome, flat earth, and an abyss beneath the earth (along with supporting pillars and slits in the dome for rain and stars!) is either an exegetical contrivance or a failure to spot the use of figurative language.   The exegete must then ask when it is appropriate to adopt both the content and the form of the cultural item (p. 115).

It's not new. I remember: Those twice-a-day bus rides ferried kids to their destinations and delivered soul-numbing dread to many hearts. I rode from 6th grade until I was old enough to drive myself to school, and the state of bullying was the same then. Most kids learned quickly: you either bullied, or risk becoming a target of a dozen or more kids. Those of us who just wanted to be left alone either dared ill-fated stands against the crowd, or became a favorite of the troublemakers. While I quickly learned to defend myself, I was not a believer nor had any biblical guidance, and most often a worse situation was the result. What, then, does this little 4-year-old girl face? (HT: DefCon 's Pilgrim,who comments, " If this is the Lord of the Flies socialization I keep hearing that my home educated kids are missing out on, then I think they’ll be just fine .")

A glimpse at The Master College's adult degree completion program .

The Funny Friday post aside, wifey pointed me to an excellent article that everyone should read before going in the water. " Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning :" " Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for, is rarely seen in real life ."

Whether you're looking for material to help you get started with your home Bible study meetings, or you believe your meetings need to go a different direction than where they've been, you should consider Staying in the Word .  This simple, no-frills site is the product of years of group ministry within Cliff and Beverly Relyea's home and has several expository and topical studies from which to choose. I had the blessing of meeting these lovely folks.  Among other things, I was struck by the heart they have for this ministry, and the impact it has already had.  As such, I'm also adding this link to the "Some 5-Star Sites" category on the side of the page for easy access.

From Alex Montoya's  Preaching with Passion : We need to be well acquainted with doctrines and theology. … Unfortunately, theology can be studied solely for academic purposes, and we tend to preach it in much the same way. … Such need not be the case. Theology, if it be true, biblical theology, should make our hearts burn like those of the Emmaus disciples (cf. Luke 24:32).  Every preacher should be a theologian. He should know his doctrine because every sermon is a doctrinal sermon—an unfolding of some divine truth revealed in the Scriptures. If a sermon does not unfold a specific doctrine, if it does not elucidate or explain a tenet of the faith, it is not a biblical sermon. In short, we are failing to “preach the Word.” (47). Keeping it in balance: We need to ask ourselves, “Does my preaching resemble that of the scribes, filled with tangents and trivia, or is it like the Lord’s, focused on the weighty and meaty truths of eternity?” The question is vital to our ...

A Funny Friday bonus! Click for larger image:

Getting a bit dated now but still good: (from Sacred Sandwich )

With a short history of the KJV: A Short History of the KJV from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo . The video has 5 quiz questions about the KJV: Was the King James Version the first translation into English? ( 1:08 ) Was the King James Version King James' idea? ( 3:00 )   Who was the King James Version against? ( 5:30 ) Was the King James Version a fresh translation? ( 7:40 ) Was the King James Version the most popular Bible of its time? ( 10:48 ) (HT: Adrian Warnock )