Gospel Living

" Divided ," a film raising interesting points and claiming to have solutions, might not provide all it advertises.  Lyndon Unger provides us with a fitting critique of it as well as his thoughts as to the real problem: youth pastors .

(You may need to download a plug-in to view the video on this page.) Chris W. Ashcraft , MS., M.Ed. Seattle Creation Conference, October 2009 Download this video: Lower quality  13MB Med. quality  111MB Hi. Quality 245MB Purchase DVD PowerPoint: View PPT file Download 41MB ZIP of PPT & Video 413MB About the video:   What would the Earth be like without animals? They are indeed a very special part of the creation that provide endless fascination and bring much love into our lives. Unknown animals are discovered each year and the complicated world of these creatures has been made clearer by recent scientific discoveries. This presentation focuses on the amazing gifts of animals that illustrate the ingenuity of their design and creative power of our Father in heaven. This video file is a 60  minute seminar by   Steven Austin   that was recorded during the   Seattle Creation Confere...

We know we should teach obedience, but in what ways does this apply?  What does Scripture say about our obedience to our parents? Scripture repeatedly underscores and expands the Fifth Commandment principle, teaching us that honoring our parents involves obeying them (Deuteronomy 21:18-21; Ephesians 6:1); honoring them with our words (Exodus 21:17; Leviticus 20:9; Proverbs 20:20; 30:11); showing them respect in every way (Leviticus 19:3), even with our facial expressions (Proverbs 30:17); hearkening to their council (Proverbs 23:22-25); and not treating them lightly in any sense (Deuteronomy 27:16; Ezekiel 22:7).  A child's duty to honor parents does not cease even when the child becomes an adult.  The inviolability of this law was affirmed by Jesus Himself, who condemned the Pharisees for inventing a way for grownups to circumvent the Fifth Commandment ... (Mark 7:9-13). (John MacArthur, What the Bible Says About Parenting , pp. 108-109)

John Piper's battle with prostate cancer birthed a stirring blog post and booklet entitled "Don't Waste Your Cancer."  Written on the eve of surgery, his main points were these:   You will waste your cancer if ... ...you do not believe it is designed for you by God. ...you believe it is a curse and not a gift. ...you seek comfort from your odds rather than from God. ...you refuse to think about death. ...you think that “beating” cancer means staying alive rather than cherishing Christ. ...you spend too much time reading about cancer and not enough time reading about God. ...you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepen your relationships with manifest affection. ...you grieve as those who have no hope. ...you treat sin as casually as before. ...you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ. I encourage you to read Piper's post , which David Prowlison from CCEF augmented with his own biblical reflections after rec...

When jokes go awry: (HT: Justin Taylor )

Chris Ashcraft ,  "Genetic Variability by Design"  Journal of Creation  18(2) 2004  ( Read technical review ) Download this video: Lower quality  22MB Med. quality  142MB Audio PowerPoint: View PPT file About the video:   New alleles are accumulating rapidly in living populations and cellular mechanisms have not been adequately sought to explain the intentional production of these changes. Homologous DNA recombination occurs in all organisms and is at the heart of genetics. Since its discovery during meiosis, these reactions were assumed to occur randomly along the length of chromosomes, and only involved with gene crossovers. It is now well known that meiotic recombination is not the random process it was originally assumed to be, and controlled by highly organized regulatory systems. In addition, a form of homologous recombination has been discovered which is responsible for creating diversity in...

Words belong to sentences, and sentences usually belong to paragraphs, scenes, stropes, or larger units within the grammar of a genre. This is why I urge that a good expositional sermon never take less than a full paragraph, or its literary equivalent (e.g., a scene, a strope, or the like), as a basis. The reason is clear: Only the full paragraph, or its equivalent, contains one full idea or concept of that text. To split off some of its parts is to play with the text as if it could be bent in any fashion in order to accomplish what we think is best (p. 54). Kaiser, Preaching and Teaching from the Old Testament

(Repost from Nov. 2008) James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries posted a five part debate between himself and sociologist professor Michael Schutz on the topic of gay marriage. Schutz, taking the "pro" side of the debate, claims to be a Christian himself, though it is interesting to see what he appeals to as his authority. If anything, the debate is worth watching just for James White's opening remarks on the value of marriage. Enjoy! Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Spam message made it past my filter; approach with caution. Hey Shaun how have you been? I want to let you in on this , I am going to have a great year this year with this!! Read this and see what you think it's on google   One mustn't let technique be the consciously important thing. It should be at the service of expressing the form. -- Henry Moore I noticed this same message on other sites... different quotations seem to be the only differences.   

Twice the Bible uses the phrase "led by the Spirit."   Cripplegate points out a startling fact about those instances : they both refer to the mortification of sin (killing sin in our lives).  With this comes a warning: don't use this phrase as a way to validate and deputize your gut-feeling... Scripture is our sole authority.

We do not preach only passages we believe will be relevant, but the whole council of God.  He is the authority we seek, not our own ideas.  Similarly, we do not change the meaning of the text to fit particular niches . Yet, in avoiding the trend of relevancy in preaching, we do not want to give the impression that the text is irrelevant .  What is in the text but, "The Spirit says ," present-tense?  Kaiser, in Toward an Exegetical Theology , points out one way preachers do this without knowing it. The main pitfall to avoid in formulating these main points of the message is that of using dated statements. The tendency is to merely transfer from the text all proper names, places, incidents, and descriptions. This of course immediately makes more difficult a modern audience’s efforts to hear God’s “new” word to their generation from an admittedly old text. Therefore, the teacher or preacher will be well advised to delete all proper names from his main points (exce...

Well, here's a new model to consider:

From Alex Montoya's Preaching with Passion : Preaching is not merely an exercise in speech or oratory. Preaching is not an end in itself. It is a means to an end, and that being the helping of another human being. Preaching is one soul pleading to another, “ Be reconciled to God! ” (2 Cor. 5:20). Some men become preachers because they love the task, the accompanying glory, and the feeling of power. But such will never preach with passion. It is the burden for others that creates passion in our preaching. “Others” becomes our pastoral cry! (55) .

Every way we try to make our kids good that isn’t rooted in the good news of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ is damnable, crushing, despair-breeding, Pharisee-producing law. ... Good manners have been elevated to the level of Christian righteousness. Both of these posts are from Elyse Fitzpatrick at The Resurgence: Do You Teach Your Kids the Gospel or Law? The Danger of Moralistic Parenting

The free book download this month over at Christian Audio is The Millennials . Here is the book description and video teaser: At more than 78 million strong, the Millennials—those born between 1980 and 2000—have surpassed the Boomers as the larger and more influential generation in America. Now, as its members begin to reach adulthood, where the traits of a generation really take shape, best-selling research author Thom Rainer (Simple Church) and his son Jess (a Millennial born in 1985) present the first major investigative work on Millennials from a Christian worldview perspective.   Sure to interest even the secularists who study this group, The Millennials is based on 1200 interviews with its namesakes that aim to better understand them personally, professionally, and spiritually. Chapters report intriguing how-and-why findings on family matters (they are closer-knit than previous generations), their desire for diversity (consider the wave of mixed race and ethnic adoptions...

Extra info provided by Aaron: Conversation between Aaron Shafovaloff of Mormonism Research Ministry and Jared of "The Righteous Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" http://mrm.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteous_Branch_of_the_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_o...   CLARIFICATION / CORRECTION There were multiple leaders named Joseph Fielding Smith in Mormonism, and they are known as Joseph F. Smith (1838 - 1918) and Joseph Fielding Smith (1876 - 1971). Both opposed the Adam-God idea. The first, Joseph F. Smith, was the one who signed off on the 1916 First Presidency Statement promoting the new Elohim/Jehovah naming convention. Heber J. Grant succeeded Joseph F. Smith.   RELEVANT LEADER PROFILES: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_F._Smith http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heber_J._Grant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Fielding_Smith   MISCELLANEOUS TERMINOLOGY: "Adam-God doctrine" http://mrm.org/adam-god "Curse of Cain" h...

For your Independence Day edification: Like most stories, we probably won't know the details such as motivations and the like.  I prefer to take it at face value, with the hopes that this was a kind, Christian gesture.

May the celebrations of this great day The family, the freedom of our play Remind us of the blood formerly shed The sacrifices that are still now made Free from a king Let freedom ring! Without cracks, pure  Freedom  can ring in souls Through The One  we need only to behold The King , crowned with our sin around His head Rebels surrender and find their debt paid Free for  The King Let  Freedom  ring!

Here are a view cartoons for your kids (admit it, it's for you!) this 4th: No More Kings Lyrics Shot Heard 'Round the World Lyrics Preamble Lyrics Elbow Room Lyrics Fireworks Lyrics

I'm not sure if this is a repost, because I remember typing this sometime in the distant past.  Oh well.  This well-done video is by education group Soomo Publishing and was done as a spoof of Timbaland's "Apologize" . Don't let images of Weird Al or Mark Lowry dance in your head with that statement, as I'm undecided as to whether the satire is better than the original. For past Independence Day humor, revisit Sam the Eagle's patriotic greeting .