Head-dibs

Thanks " Redeemed " for bringing this to our attention. ************ I’ve mentioned on a few occasions that in his book Velvet Elvis: Repainting The Christian Faith ( VE ) Rob Bell of Mars Hill Bible Church gives a first hand account of the distortion and denial of the Gospel of Jesus Christ currently going on within the Emergent Church exacerbated by their wrong view of the mission Christ gave His Church. The job of the real followers of Jesus is quite plainly spelled out in our text above: He has committed to us the message of reconciliation . We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors , as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God (vv.19b-20). If one needs to be reconciled then it becomes obvious one has not already been reconciled simply from Christ dying on the Cross alone. Because it is only after someone has been reconciled to God through His grace alone by a personal commitment by faith alone in Chris...

The Book of Mormon claimes to be "a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible." Both the Bible and the Book of Mormon declare themselves to be ancient, historical, and reliable rules of faith--the very word of God. These claims have historically been taken on faith. But is there any evidence to support them one way or the other? Is it even possible to "test" a rule of faith? More to the point, is there any basis for placing one's faith in the Bible or the Book of Mormon? It's an important question. It's an eternal question. This presentation puts the Bible and the Book of Mormon to the same tests. History, archaeology, textual criticism, and other disciplines combine to shed light on what is true...and what is false. Truth never fears investigation. Faith need not--and should not--be blind. Discover for yourself which of these books is worthy of being called "scripture" and which is worth of your trust. Participants: ...

Challies has a great article (as usual) on King Solomon with some very good reflections touching in the implications of straying from the Lord. Many consider Solomon as one who started well and ended poorly and in that sense creates an almost mythological and less a historical person. Can it be that simple? I wonder if Solomon was really the man we think he was. I would like to hear your thoughts on this, please. Solomon remains in so many minds a great superhero of the Bible: the son of David, rich and full of wisdom who went bad in his old age. I see the folly of Solomon beginning at, well, the beginning of his career. He did not have any control over his birth and all that event entailed, but was his rise to the monarchy full of the glamour and glory that he built upon to usher the kingdom into its golden age? Before we can conclude whether or not Solomon ended well, we should first discover if he started well. Consider Deuteronomy 17:14-20: “ When you enter the land which t...

The beautifully sculptured wall, 18 feet high and 300 feet long, in a majestic park in the center of Geneva, Switzerland, constitutes an impressive monument to the Swiss Reformation of the 16th century. Last week, on an afternoon off from my lectures at the Geneva Bible Institute, I went with a few of the French and Swiss pastors who were attending the conference, to visit Le Mur des Réformateurs. At the centre of the wall are four impressive statues of Farel, Calvin, Beza and Knox. Behind them in letters six feet tall is the motto of the Franco-Swiss Reformation: "Post Tenebras Lux" (After Darkness, Light), referring to the coming of the Gospel and the revival of true faith after centuries of medieval obscurity. Certainly, that old Geneva was not heaven on earth, but it still stands as a moving example of the revival of biblical faith and piety in both private and public life. Read the rest here .

Thanks, Derek.

We nod our heads to the statement, “It’s a blessing when God comes,” but we shouldn’t —the statement is false. Whether God’s coming is a blessing or not a blessing is determined by the spiritual status of those He comes to – not by God. His coming is a single shared experience; for some it is blessing and for others it is destruction. This is the concept of “mishteh;” a common shared experience with simultaneous blessing/destruction within a group of people – depending upon their individual status. This is a concept described in Genesis that continues through Revelation and the consummation of God’s promises. (read the rest here )

50 GREAT WORKS OF WESTERN LITERATURE: A SELECTED READING GUIDE FOR CHRISTIAN READERS Here is a resource provided by one of our Bible College Faculty you may find helpful. Most works are available online, so Google to your heart's content!

Prior, Kenneth. The Gospel in a Pagan Society . Downers Grove: Intervarsity, 1975. The author's may not be a name well known, but his little 120 page book is perhaps the best examination of Acts 17:16-34 to date. Kenneth Prior does not merely deliver a concise commentary on the passage, rather he gives his readers a guided tour through the mindset of the Ancient Near East and helps to discover principles for application for preaching the good news of Jesus in our modern setting. First, Prior contrasts the results of Paul’s missionary activity with what we may consider successful missionary activity today. In contrast to the events of Pentecost, Paul would not be considered to be a success, for there were no streams of converts pouring into the church. We are challenged to realize the difference between sowing and reaping and how, since the prophets, sowing the gospel is a process that will not see immediate results. Furthermore, we are caused to remember that nothing grows unti...

No, these guys are not Christian . . . nor are they Mormon: Get this video and more at MySpace.com

“We who defend Christianity find ourselves constantly opposed not by the irreligion of our hearers but by their real religion. Speak about beauty, truth and goodness, or about a God who is simply the indwelling principle of these three, speak about a great spiritual force pervading all things, a common mind of which we are all parts, a pool of generalized spirituality to which we can all flow, and you will command friendly interest. But the temperature drops as soon as you mention a God who has purposes and performs particular actions, who does one thing and not another, a concrete, choosing, commanding, prohibiting God with a determinate character. People become embarrassed or angry. Such a conception seems to them primitive and crude and even irreverent. The popular 'religion' excludes miracles because it excludes the 'living God' of Christianity and believes instead in a kind of God who obviously would not do miracles, or indeed anything else." C.S. Lewis, ...

Did you hear the news about the two jets that collided over the South American jungles just a few days ago? One plane landed and the pilots were arrested. The other plane crashed, killing all passengers and crew. Both jets were equipped with a modern traffic collision avoidance system, which monitors other planes and sets off an alarm if they get too close. Geraldo Pereira of the Federal Procecutor’s office said the Embraer Legacy 600 transponder, which automatically transmits electronic signals that communicate a plane's location, may not have been operating. "Preliminary investigations indicate that the pilots may have turned off the transponder, that they knew the risks they were running and nevertheless they took certain attitudes that endangered the lives of people," he said. This is not the first time this kind of thing has happened, either. In 1984 an Avianca Airlines jet crashed in Spain. Investigators studying the accident made an eerie discovery. The “black bo...

What is life like in small town Ukraine. Todd talks to a young woman who believes she will be reincarnated. Todd preaches to a Ukrainian chuch about Christ forshadowed in the Old Testament. Listen to "Way of the Master Radio: The Ukraine Edition" here .

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