A concept to absorb:

“No truth more loudly calls for pastoral holiness than the linkage of a preacher’s character and the sermon’s reception.  I must recognize that if I were to return to churches I have pastored it is unlikely that people will remember many specifics I said.  They may remember a particularly vivid illustration, the way a verse had a telling effect at some crisis moment in their lives, or the impression a particular message left on their minds.  Yet, not one person will remember a dozen words of the thousands I have spoken through the years.  The people will not remember what I said, they will remember me and whether my life gave credence to the message of Scripture.”

Bryan Chapell, Christ-Centered Preaching (p.29)

I just heard the most succinct and beautiful condemnation of the prosperity gospel in John Piper’s sermon, “The All-Providing King Who Would Not Be King.”  (You have to listen to the sermon to get this exact quote).

Referencing John 6:26, Piper says,

“The essence of the prosperity gospel of every shade is that it leaves people unchanged in their old appetites and then provides Jesus to meet them, which is what the gospel of John is all about not doing.   God help us.  Are your existing appetites just the same as they always were before you came to Jesus, and He’s just useful now?  Better business, better marriage, better kids, better everything I wanted before?!  Then you don’t know Him.  He didn’t come to serve your unregenerate appetites; He came to give you new appetites.  That’s the meaning of being ‘born again.’” 

“…And so many leave people untransformed in what they crave, and then add the power of Jesus to get it.  That’s not the gospel.  It’s the kind of acclamation that Jesus walks away from.”

I’ve never heard it said better.

Haven’t had much of an opportunity to write for CMI in a long while.  Here’s my latest article on the PZ Myers talk I attended in Minot, ND, a few weeks ago. 

Evolutionary Equivocation

That’s the question I was asked by an online friend/acquaintance yesterday.  It was a sincere attempt from another Christian believer to understand why I feel called to focus on creation evangelism.  Why not just evangelism? 

I’ve included my response just after the break.  Of course, I’ve edited out a few personal comments and the dreaded typo (one of which drastically changed the meaning of what I had intended to say!), and done some editorial cleaning up here and there.  There are few passions as near and dear to my heart as this one.

For the last week, I’ve been reading The Heavenly Man, by Brother Yun, an amazing story of God’s miraculous provision and sustaining power in the lives of some truly heroic believers in the Chinese house churches. 

There have been many times while reading this book when I’ve had to put it down to pray, thank the Lord, and then pray again.  But tonight, while reading, I just had to put it down after being completely overwhelmed, not emotionally, but intellectually, by this section, in which Brother Yun is describing the training certain missionaries receive from their efforts:

Each…missionary receives training in several main subjects.  These include:

1.  How to suffer and die for the Lord.  We examine what the Bible says about suffering, and look at how the Lord’s people have laid down their lives for the advance of the gospel throughout history.

2.  How to witness for the Lord.  We teach how to witness for the Lord under any circumstance, on trains or buses, or even in the back of a police van on our way to the execution ground.

3.  How to escape for the Lord.  We know that sometimes it is the Lord who sends us to prison to witness for him, but we also believe the devil sometimes wants us to go to prison to stop the ministry God has called us to do.  We teach the missionaries special skills such as how to free themselves from handcuffs, and how to jump from second-storey [sic] windows without injuring themselves.

This is not a normal seminary or Bible College!
(p. 290)

I should say not!  I literally had to put the book down at this point because I just couldn’t get my mind around the difference between this training and what the typical Western seminary training involves.  Is there any wonder why their lives are filled with the awesome power of the Holy Spirit and the rapid spread of the gospel?  Their hearts are set on the spread of the gospel no matter the cost to themselves.  This is a far cry from most American Christianity, especially the health/wealth gospel.

However, I don’t want to just take shots at the health/wealth folks here.  All American Christians need a healthy dose of seeing what being a Christian means in many parts of the world.  This book has been eye-opening in that regard, and for some reason, it hit home to me in the above section.

This is, in one way, one of the most encouraging aritcles I’ve read in a while.  I’m not sure this is the absolute best way of solving this problem, but it appears to be a huge leap in the right direction.

Wrongly Convicted in Texas Paid $80G for Each Year Spent in Prison Under New State Law

I couldn’t help but shake my head when I read this gem of Orwellian doublespeak online today:

“So the only way to tell the truth is to lie.”

Now this wasn’t a politician, believe it or not.  Let’s give a bit more context from the quote:

“Everyone lies online. In fact, readers expect you to lie. If you don’t, they’ll think you make less than you actually do. So the only way to tell the truth is to lie.”

I suppose this makes it not even one’s own fault.  It’s everyone else’s fault that we have to lie online!

Who is this brilliant pundit, this social commentator, this wise philosopher, this moral giant?

Our revered Brad Pitt.  Somewhere, George Orwell is saying, “I told you so.”

You can read the entire article here.

Here’s the latest installment on America’s War On Men:

Childless man freed after serving time for child support violations

Ok, the good news is that he was actually let out of jail.  And they finally decided to not force him to pay $16,000 that he supposedly owed in back support – for a child that was proven to be never his!

Where is the restitution from the state for the last 13 years?  Where is the restitution from the mother, who falsely claimed it was his child?  And did you see the reasoning they gave for having continually demanded the payments from him, that he had signed an “agreement”? 

I’m sure they gave him a lot of choice in signing that agreement.  I’m sure they made it easy to get the DNA test to prove that the child wasn’t his.  If you believe that, I’ve got some swampland in AZ to sell you….

The first installment of America’s War on Men showed an incredibly similar example of the obtuseness of our so-called justice system.  This is the America that feminism has brought us.  But still, very few will speak out against these happenings because it hasn’t hit close to home enough in their own lives. 

We will keep hearing about these types of incidents, because they are out there all over the place.

Just saw this article on FoxNews.com:  Couple Ordered to Stop Holding Bible Study at Home Without Permit.

I’m thankful they’re fighting it legally, but I wonder what will/would happen if they’re denied.  Will they obey the Lord and gather anyway?  “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

John Piper’s blog has this wonderful post about self-forgetfulness, with a quote by John Stott.  Immensely helpful for me, and something I’ve never really given any thought to.  Although I don’t preach, I speak in public a lot, and hope to someday engage in apologetics and evangelism more publicly.  This is a wise quote to keep in mind:

John Stott on Self-forgetfulness