Head-dibs

Founders Ministries Blog: What I saw in "End of the Spear" From the "what it's worth" department, I'm not going to see it. Portrayal of murder of any kind is just not entertaining. I don't care who is "involved" in the story. And you know what really torques me off? We are raising a bigger stink about "End of the Spear" than "Brokeback Mountain!" It's getting Oscar nods! (insert puking noise here) C'mon people!

"Relationships" by Dean of Students, RSwift One themes of the Bible is Relationships: God Created man; God made a covenant with man; Christ prayed for mankind in the garden--for unity. Our Handbook lists 5 goals of spiritual formation: Relationship with God: Students should demonstrate a growing intimacy in their relationship with God, as evidenced in the worship, prayerfulness and faith. Biblical Self-Image: Students should demonstrate a biblical understanding of themselves rooted in Christ, as evidenced in these areas of confidence, self-discipline and stability. Relationship with the Body of Christ – Students should demonstrate a growing relationship with the body of Christ as evidenced in the areas of community, unity and submission. Personal Relationships – Students should demonstrate a growing maturity in personal relationships, as evidenced in purity, faithfulness and servanthood. Relationship with the World – Students should demonstrate a desire to serve God fully as ...

[I've spent the entire weekend shifting gears. I've not been able to write at all, but have certainly made an effort to read and think. I can't get away from Exodus 32. I should be on Exodus 40 by now. I will try to make my thoughts concise.] People + left to themselves = disaster. It's been just over a month. God promised His presence among the people and they way the people saw it, as long as Moses was around, God was there too. After all, it was through him God made manifest his great work. But Moses was gone. Just over a month without a leader. The people were insecure and left to their own devices. Moses had taken Joshua and the elders part way up the mountain and they fellowshipped there before the LORD. Moses and Joshua had not returned. Some claimed they could see Joshua from time to time overlooking the camp, but Moses had disappeared in the fire. All the people could see and hear was the fireworks of rumble-mountain, a silhouette of Joshua and Aaron...

The LORD has promised good to me: Forgiveness of my sin; His rescue from the deepest pits, and healing without, within. (Ps 103:1-4) Understand and know the LORD Who love and judgments make known; Holds wisdom, might and wealth from me, As all these are His own. (Jer 9:23-24) We know God calls and works His plan In those whom He did choose; These show Him love and on their behalf Works all things for their good. (Ro. 5:8) The Word of God is a two-edged sword That pierces in between; Discerning gossamer threads of being, that none have ever seen. (Heb 4:12) copyright, James K. Wilson, Jr., 2006.

Herescope: Africa Watch Update: Missionaries told "not to minister the Word"! : "We interrupt our series on how the Emergent Church was formed by the Leadership Network to bring an important update on Africa! We have been concerned for some time about the activities of Rick Warren and Bruce Wilkinson in Africa for a number of reasons. One of our concerns has been about whether true evangelism would be permitted. As we studied the material pertaining to short-term missionary training and follow-up, and examined the relationships between the 3-legged stool of Corporate-Government-Church partnerships, we began to suspect that these short-term mission projects were simply civic activities and had little or nothing to do with the presentation of the Gospel. We are sad to report that new information has just come in that confirms our grave suspicions."

Between Two Worlds: Barna's Revolution : "Three professors from Indiana Wesleyan University have penned a letter to their students, encouraging them not to buy into Barna's Revolution book." Three professors from Indiana Wesleyan University have penned a letter to their students, encouraging them not to buy into Barna's Revolution book.

The word of God does things to people. Don't believe me? Somebody reading this right now is either accepting it or rejecting it. Someone is either ducking it or being discerned by it. Why? Because God's Word is contemporary despite all temporal gaps, applicable despite all geographic and cultural gaps, and personal despite opinion. God's word is living. Older translations say God's Word is ''quick". Though the word used in Greek is that rightly translated ''life' or ''living", we should not be so hasty to dismiss ''quick", which is really an older word for "life". Our current use of "quick" is used to denote speed and haste. I like this word because the English helps us grasp the kind of life the Bible has--expedient. The Word of God does not sneak up on people as it is ''there" already, waiting for us to catch up to it that the Holy Spirit can interpret it to us. It is alive, has l...

Our Minister to Junior High students is being ordained this Sunday. Preparing for this event has caused me to reflect on my own ordination. When I was Licensed to the Ministry, the church gathered around me and acknowledged the work God was doing in me and through me, giving their public stamp of approval before sending me off to preach and lead and ultimately, to go to Bible College. While in Bible College I got to serve in a couple of area churches in various levels of ministry. The last church I served wanted to extend Ordination in continued recognition of what God was doing. We later considered a denominational change and possibilities for future ministry, but the denomination we were moving to did not recognize my Licensure nor my Ordination. No problem. I had graduated from one of their schools, so the work was not as rigorous, but I was seeking to be Licensed and Ordained—again. Long story short, I did not follow through on it. I did a good chunk of the work for Licensure, but ...

that is not my blog: Things Jesus and the Apostles Never Said While Defending the Faith All I can say is "STRONGLY SUGGESTED READ". It took me 20 minutes to decide which link to present . . .

I want to be perfectly, 100%, completely and truly honest here. I only skimmed Exodus 26-28. I did not read it. I skimmed it. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read it before, I know what it says, but I did not read it. Pretty boring stuff, right? If there was a “Better Homes and Gardens” channel of the Ancient Near East, this is it. I would crack a Martha Stewart joke here, but it’s just not the same anymore . . . thanks, Martha. How to make curtains from linen and goats’ hair. How to make boards and sockets. How to make a veil and a screen. How to make a bronze altar. How to make a court. How to make clothes for priests. I mean, c’mon. I must have yawned about half-way through the first paragraph of the first chapter-skim. Then I got convicted. This is not “The Idiots’ Guide to Porta-Churches”. This is not Extreme Temple Makeover. These are the way God wants it done. These are God’s instructions to build what He wants built. These are His blueprints, His plan, His color selection . ...

[Today’s chapel was good, but the notes were more “conceptual” and would not serve well to post here (I anticipate this to happen at times). What follows could be considered a “rant”, something that has been eating at me for a while and I hereby publish it including one principle from today’s chapel at “the bottom line.”] Every once in a while I will meet a guy who gets right to the point: reciting his resume and laying out his plan. This bothers me because this guy is a leader of some kind: a pastor, an assistant pastor, an elder or missionary. This bothers me because our conversation occurs because he needs something and is determined to find the quickest way to get it. I’ve observed some features that cause be great concern as it relates to leadership. First, recitation of one’s resume is the first step of manipulation--the guy wants something I have access to and ''will" get it. I'm supposed to be impressed or intimidated; either way, I am expected to deliver....

the cyberdeck dialogue : "I have been following the spiritual demise of Brian McLaren, and when I saw who he was working with, remembered a similar Christian leader who seemed to behave in much the same way at times. If you’re wondering where I read that Paul was working with the Areopagus, a group of 'thinkers' and religious philosophers who call themselves after the name of Ares, the pagan god of war, the article can be found here. " THIS IS A "MUST READ".

Exodus 23: God’s people get to tell the truth, avoid the wicked and not run with the crowd to do evil, pervert justice or take sides indiscriminately. God’s people get to return what is lost, help those who hate them by easing their burdens, keep justice, avoid falsehood, refuse bribes and treat strangers well. God’s people get to feed their family and those not in the family, grant rest to all in the household and remain free from idolatry. God’s people get to celebrate often before the LORD, giving careful tributes for the things He hath done. God’s people get to go forward with the LORD’s leadership making the way, making certain His voice is heard. Those who disobey the LORD gets to know Him as an adversary. God’s people get to be used by Him to deal with others, so worship must remain unmixed and pure. Exodus 24 Moses delivers the “book of the covenant” (20:22-23:33) to the people and everyone agrees, “All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!” (24:1-3) In that wonder...

(MJones) No, not the one Samaritan Jesus spoke of. There was more than one good Samaritan. Israel was in the sunset years. Elisha was the prophet of the Day (see Ch. 6). Ax heads were not readily available then as they are now. Elisha's servant was freaking out because the King was upset with his boss, but Elisha saw something the servant did not. We are not accustomed to using these kinds of tools in ministry. Setting 6:24ff the King of the nation was bringing the wages of his sin onto his nation. Then he blamed God. He was not listening and unrepentant. 7:1 Gas prices are dropping (as it were). Four lepers were sitting there and decided to do something. They encouraged each other. They thought they would see the end of the spear, but all they found was food and plunder. V.9 they realize they are not doing right and go back to announce the enemy was gone. One wise man urged the king to go see. God will work in the most awful situations. 3 kinds of people: The unwilling...

Didja hear the one about the young preacher who wrote home to his preacher dad about the problem he was having? The son had just been called to a church in a university town. He told his dad that every time he preached and started to say something about science, he remembered that a scientist was in the congregation. When he spoke about history, he remembered that a history professor was present. He was also intimidated because of the English professor and the mathematician. “Dad, what am I supposed to do?” he asked. His father wrote back and said, “Son, just preach the Bible. They won’t know a thing about it.” [i] What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Nothing. I just thought it was a good story. Summary of Exodus 17-20: Moses is instructed to strike the rock at Horeb for water, and then Israel prevails in battle against Amalek. Now that the people are so many and need to learn to live with one another as God’s people and not slaves, Jethro (Moses’ father-in-law) ad...

Bishop Josias Sendegeya [ pictured in middle, below ] Anglican Bishop of the Kibungo Diocese, Rwanda [Translated from the French by a visiting student.] Born in Rwanda as son of Anglican priest. The country not colonized because the country was under Belgium leadership. We don't have tribes like others in Africa. We have same language, culture and traditional religion thus one tribe with 3 ethnic groups. The problems we have are not related to Tribes. The problems began when Belgium began leaving they tried to divide the 3 ethnic groups, introducing identity cards noting which ethnic group one belonged to. The error was based on group reassignment by the government based on profession. Farmers, cattlemen and hunters of each group were reassigned, becoming identified [reclassified] to other groups. Farmers were all classified together, hunters were all classified together and cattlemen were classified together. Then the Belgium government favored one ethnic group building schools, f...

Dear God, bless the status quo, We like things as they are. Lead us not down narrow roads, Let us go not far. We've built our houses, set up shop, We've conqur'd mount and range. Then sea, now space (we'll never stop); Just don't ask us to change. We like our gospel nice and soft, our preaching short and sweet; Our music loud, our buffet oft'n, and prophets on the street. The truths too sharp for tickled ears, It shaves our nice, warm fuzzies. Growth takes too long (we want it now!), Not Bible-thumped head noogies. We'll hold our right to stand our ground, To keep and not divest those things we have that serve us most, Of fleshly inter-est. It's hard to live by what's not seen, Ease shapes our lives so much. Now hurry up those points and poems, so we can go to lunch! There is a foe who roams this world, That kills good church bus’ness; He only watches for himself-- That enemy is us! (Inspired by John Betjeman's WWII poem, " In Westminster Ab...

Exodus 14: Understand this unmistakably: He is the Lord. He is the creator of all things, most notably of man. He rules over all things as Sovereign. He is the LORD. He is not far, distant and removed, but certainly a close, at-hand, accessible, relational God. God has the ability to deliver, regardless of the circumstance. God promised to care of man’s sin problem from the very beginning, in the very beginning and the promise still stands. Unfortunately, so many still react like the Hebrews did when they were trapped between the Egyptians and the sea, “Then they said to Moses, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt?” [i] I react this way. Sometimes all I see is the circumstance. Sometimes I find myself in a situation that overwhelms me or I see one coming that I fear is too deep, too wide and impassible and I act like the Israelites did. I become an Ancient Near...

"In one thousand trials it is not just five hundred of them that work for the believer's good, but nine hundred and ninety-nine of them, and one beside." (George Mueller). The story is told of two artists, high on a scaffold in an Italian church. They were putting the finishing touches on a painting when the master painter stepped back to admire his work. The apprentice saw the move, and realizing his master was about to take a plunge to his death, thought not to cry out and startle his master and, in effect, assist in the disaster. Instead the young man splashed paint across the freshly completed portion, causing the master to lunge forward in anger screaming, "Why did you do that!?" Upon hearing the reason, his anger melted into tears of joy and thankfulness. "If we are impressed with the scholarship of man and the achievements of scientific knowledge, then let us not play the fool by trumpeting a tiny chirp and ignoring the thunder clap of omniscience. ...

Exodus 11-13 are crucial chapters. Thanks to Hollywood, we have had our thinking shaped about the Exodus event. If one takes a fleeting, coursory reading of the text, one misses something, well, quite wonderful. I've alluded already to the fact that God was working in the lives of two peoples: freeing the Israelites from slavery to bring them to the land He had promised through which the serpent-crushing woman-seed, the blessing of the nations would come. That is the key: blessing of the nations. God was also at work in the lives of the Egyptians that they would know that He is the LORD--and by our last entry, we saw that some were actually getting the idea! The main feature we not miss is that in freeing one, God also works toward another and He did so in ways that both parties could understand. Now we approach the crucial Passover passage, where all the first-born in the land of Egypt would die (11:5ff). The Israelites were instructed specifically to take a lamb, make it a family...

Getting to know God is exciting. Some think that God is only good for arguing against. I think it would be worth our examination to see how the Egyptians got along: GOD THRU MOSES REASON PHARAOH'S RESPONSE You . . . shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go (7:2) That the Egyptians will know that He is the LORD (7:5) Hard heart (7:3, 13) Go to Pharaoh . . . say, “Let my people go.” (7:16) That the Egyptians will know that He is the LORD (7:17) Hard heart (7:22) Go to Pharaoh . . . say, “Let my people go.” (8:1) That you (Egyptians) will know there is no one like the LORD (8:10) Hard heart (8:15) “This is the finger of God” (8:19) Hard heart (8:19) Go to Pharaoh . . . say, “Let my people go.” (8:20) Go . . . Don’t go. Hard heart (8:32) Go to Pharaoh . . . say, “Let my people go.” (9:1) Hard heart (9:7) Take soot and throw it in the sky in the sight of Pharaoh (9:8) Hard heart (9:12) I will send a plague (9:14) That the Egyptians will know that He is the LORD (9:14) I ...

Slain Pilot's Son Believes Spear Will Speak to Non-Christians in Several Ways By Jenni Parker and Allie Martin January 19, 2006 (AgapePress) - While some Christians are raising objections over the casting of actor and homosexual activist Chad Allen to play Christian characters in the soon-to-be released movie End of the Spear, producers of the fact-based theatrical film approved the homosexual actor's selection for the part -- one of them even daring to consider the possibility that God may have been behind it. End of the Spear, which opens in theaters tomorrow (Friday, January 20), tells the story of five young Christian missionaries, pilot Nate Saint among them, who were brutally murdered in the jungles of Ecuador 50 years ago by members of the fiercely violent Waodani people. The film goes on to depict how the martyred pilot's son, Steve Saint, who was five years old when his father and friends were slain, returns to the Waodani as an adult and befriends them, even becom...

I got home from the Seminary and took three of the kids up the street to play. The road further up has better asphalt so bikes and skates and skate boards run a bit easier there than closer to the house. The sun was going down and the temperature dropping while somewhere overhead a space-probe is on its way to Pluto at 47,000 mph. One child shoots down the grade on a street luge. Another battles the forces of gravity and inertia on her in-lines. Another races the other two on a rear-mounted tricycle--pedals spinning and churning like the hubs of a chariot in an ancient monster Chariot rally fresh from the Monster Chariot Garage--BEN HUR VS. BIGFOOT! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! The stars are peeking out--Orion is the first on the dance-floor of sky tonight. Enough heat is still rising to make every celestial diamond sparkle. The gladiators swap vehicles and Boom! COLLISION! The skater rests delicate ankles in her extreme and oversized in-line ballet boots. The boys swap lies and I fi...

This is the third time I’ve had to restart this blog entry. Third time because the LORD has pointed so many things out to me in these first few chapters of Exodus that I have tried to capture them all. But I’ve decided not to do that. Instead I will focus on just one great overriding theme in these first few verses, and that would be found in the Egyptians. God demonstrates fully his divine plan. He has no opposition, really. Those who oppose Him only think they do. Remember the way God stripped the pantheon of the Egyptians in the creation account and in so-doing, demonstrated to the first audience of the book that there are no gods? Now He is doing it again. Every time God does something in Egypt, it is not so Charleton Heston can look good someday on the big screen. It was not solely for Israel’s deliverance either. It was for the promise laid in Abraham that the nations be blessed. God was moving against the gods of Egypt and those who worshipped them! Setting: the Jacobsons...

by Dr. Nabeel Jabbour We remember that day very well and how much we worried. There have been two responses to 9/11: one has been increased prayer for Muslims in the 10-40 window. The other response has been less Christian. Islam is a strange phenomenon to the Western mind. To many it is like a Picasso: how can anyone pay so much money for that kind of art? Some understand Picasso and his style while others just see an eyeball here, an arm there and color. Both understand someone pays a great deal of money for this. In an oversimplistic style, here are two areas that help describe Islam today There are the Doctrines & perspectives on men: Jihad, Separation and the Model of Mohammed. In General terms, there are 7 kinds of Muslims: 1. Folk Islam: Fearful and spiritualistic, much like a tribal bushman; 2. Orthodox Islam: The Pharisees of Islam; 3. Secular or Cultural Muslims accept basics only, do not embrace all writings; 4. Ambivalent Muslims are just that; 5. Content Muslims--bless...

Some Christians in Africa sing this hymn: “In the beginning was God, Today is God, Tomorrow will be God. Who can make an image of God? He has no body. He is as a word which comes out of your mouth. That word! It is no more, It is past, and still it lives! So is God.” For the first time in history, we read of people who are labeled as God-fearers in Exodus 1. Note the scripture points out twice that these people are two Hebrew midwives. Two midwives birthing a nation. Here are two women sold out to their task for God, to see His plan is carried out. This is astounding. By the time we reach this point where the nation is Israel seems to be a threat to the Egyptians there are already: 1) a great number of people; and 2) leadership who forgot their heritage. This is significant because we are already a couple of hundred years or more down the line when these two midwives appear. I find it significant to note how the midwives feared God. I find it also significant to note also how they shar...