Head-dibs

I’m the kind of person who waits for movies to come out on video instead of rushing out during premier week to see it. The only time I’ve ever bought music the same week it was released was when Christopher Cross came out with “ Sailing ” and GTR made their one-hit wonder " When the Heart Rules the Mind ." Books? Don’t even get me started. Today I finally saw the DVD many have been “all the rave” about since August: Bill Hybel’s interview with Bono. Honestly, I prayed very hard about this because 1) I just don’t get that excited about the rock music scene anymore; 2) Bill Hybels and Willow Creek don’t exactly “drop my anchor;” 3) I had to. It was shown in our Chapel service. Before going in, I prayed that God would give me discernment. The sequence was introduced with the encouragement to “engage the mind” and “listen critically.” Right away I could not help but think, “obviously there are some elements contained herein the school does NOT endorse. Why carry on?” Neverth...

Megapastor Rick Warren's Damascus Road experience Posted: November 20, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern WASHINGTON – Rick Warren, the superstar mega-church pastor and bestselling author of ''The Purpose Driven Life,'' had a Damascus Road experience last week – and like Saul of Tarsus, one of the after-effects appears to be blindness. Read the article . *************************** When a Megapastor Denies Christ Posted: 11/25/2006 . . . If you want to see what the modern denial of Jesus Christ looks like, I encourage you to watch this video clip . This clip features megapastor Rick Warren as he addresses the attendees of the TED Conference in Monterey, California. TED describes itself as a conference that brings together more than 1,000 thought leaders, movers and shakers every year to share ideas. The website claims that, ''After four days, you gain an understanding of how your own work fits into the larger web of knowledge and you get to connect with extr...

In case anyone's interested: Comfort, Ray. God Doesn’t Believe in Atheists . Comfort, Ray. How To Bring your Children to Christ and Keep Them There . Comfort, Ray. What Did Jesus Do? MacArthur, John. Hard to Believe: The High Cost and Infinite Value of Following Jesus. Murray, Iain. Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography. Nichols, Stephen. Jonathan Edwards: A Guided Tour of His Life and Thought. Watts, Isaac. Logic, or the Right use of Reason in the Inquiry After Truth With A Variety of Rules to Guard Against Error in the Affairs of Religion and Human Life. Van Rheenen, Gailyn. Communicating Christ in Animistic Contexts.

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle." Psalm 103:1-5

A Timely Call to the Employment of True Gospel Preaching by Greg Gordon George Whitefield said: “The Christian world is in a deep sleep; nothing but a loud shout can awaken them out of it!” We are preaching a man-centered gospel that denies a Holy God. The gospel begins with God and ends with God, if we miss this we miss the gospel. We are living in a age of synthetic gospel preaching, hence the Church has little power in modern day evangelism attempts. Satan has been successfully employing men in preaching a dethroned Christ and a powerless Gospel. - Greg Gordon A DETHRONED CHRIST Where is the power of Edwards or Whitefield? Where is a modern day Wesley or Spurgeon? To put it another way, where is the message that these men preached with divine authority? The gospel message that they preached was full of God, throbbing with God, God was the gospel. They preached the character of God, the law of God, repentance towards God, acceptance with God, and dependence on God. Everything...

Suppose that a person wants to become a missionary and bring the gospel to a tribe that had never heard it. But the person finds the process of preparation too long, difficult and expensive: years of language training, preparation to live in a primitive culture, raising financial support, etc. So the would-be missionary comes up with a brilliant idea—travel to a key place where the tribal members meet, sneak in at night, construct a huge cross, and leave the country without saying a word—and carries out the plan. The next day the entire tribe gathers to marvel at the cross and ponder where it came from and what it meant. Perhaps, in time, they would even come to relish the cross and see it as a sign from beyond their world. Read the rest here .

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin, Nov. 14 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Syrian News Agency today is featuring glowing reports of American evangelical celebrity pastor Rick Warren's junket to Syria. After reporting yesterday on Rick Warren's meeting on Syrian-American relations with President Bashar al-Assad, the news agency SANA reports the following about Mr. Warren's meeting with a Syrian Mufti today. "The Mufti called for conveying the real image of Syria, national unity and its call to spread peace, amity and justice to the American people which the US administration has distorted their image before the world. Pastor Warren expressed admiration of Syria and the coexistence he saw between Muslims and Christians, stressing that he will convey this image to his church and country." Read the rest here .

The pain was unspeakable. His body jerked and different parts of his body seemed to take on peronalities of their own. He imagined his limbs were like rats fleeing a sinking ship. In one simultaneous response, his mouth clamped shut so he could not scream; his eyes clamped shut and tears gushed from under his eyelids--or his eyeballs were melting. Somewhere off in the distance he could hear his wife call his name, "Honey . . .?" The fire roared in ears. He could hear the crackling of the timbers as his bones were being consumed in the bonfire, the flames licking at his chest, his throat, his face. Behind his soldered mouth he grunted in excruciating pain as his ears vanished like match-tips. "Sweetheart . . .?" he could hear her voice imploring. He turned his head to one side and managed to open one eye to a slit. The moisture that streamed from his eyes blurred his vision and he could only discern swimming swaths of color all around him. He tried to swallow as t...

1 Tim. 1:8, " But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully " Rom 7:12, " So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good ." Stuart Briscoe was born in Millom, Cumbria England in 1930, and after graduating from high school, he began his preaching career and in 1959 he devoted himself to full-time ministry. He is best known as the pastor of Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, his radio and television show entitled “Telling The Truth” and he is the author of twenty-five Christian books. During the Korean Conflict, Stuart was drafted into the Royal Marines. He came under the control of a particularly imposing regimental sergeant major. He was a stern disciplinarian who taught Briscoe the marine way of doing things. The day Stuart was discharged from the marines; he stood with his discharge papers in one hand and breathed a sigh of relief. He put one hand in his pocket and slouched a little, a posture never all...

"And together in a single leap, swim, rush, flail, jump, sail and glide, upturned to sun, moon, stars, they would go above Atlantic, Mediterranean; over country, wilderness, city, town; in gaseous silence, riffling feather, rattle-drum fram, in volcanic eruption, in timid, sputtering roar; in start, jar, hesitation, then steady ascension, beautifully held, wonderously transported, they would laugh and cry each his own own name to himself. . . . Each feeling the bright feathers stir and bud deep-buried and thrusting to burst from their riven should-blades! Each leaving behind the echo of their flying, a sound to encircle, recircle the earth in the winds and speak again in other years to the sons of the sons of their sons, asleep but hearing the restless midnight sky." Bradbury, Ray. "Icarus Montgolfier Wright." The Day it Rained Forever . Granda: London, 1977.

One day a man was hiking in the mountains when he came upon the hut of a hermit who had isolated himself from other human beings. He struck up a conversation with the hermit who told the visitor that he was completely self-sufficient to meet his own needs. He said, "I cut the trees and hewed the logs for my cabin, and I put it together with wooden pegs. I grow or hunt all my own food, and I get along just fine. I don't need anybody else." The man looked at him for a moment, then said, "Tell me, how did you cut the trees you used for your cabin?" The hermit replied, "With my axe." Then the visitor said, "But wasn't someone else responsible for making that axe and your other tools, and for mining the iron that was used to make them? What about your clothes, do you make all of them?" "No," replied the hermit, "I have to make a trip outside about once a year to get new clothes." "Then," said the man again, "...

Thinking about: Galatians 5:16, " Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh ." Think for a moment of the vastness of space and all that exists in it. Consider for a moment that light travels 186,000 miles per second through the vastness. Our closest star is approximately 4 light-years away. If I've done my math right that means that light our sun is roughly 2,479,127,040,000,000 miles from our closest star. And there are objects far above and beyond that. God our great creator is outside of all that we call "Universe;" yet, when He indwells those in whom put their faith and trust in Him--where can He go? Can we contain God? He has no choice but to overflow. One is reminded us of the seed that has fallen between the slabs of paving and has grown and grown until the great concrete blocks are lifted, even broken by the power of the life contained within that seed. This is the triumph of God's Spirit over our flesh. When we overflow o...

Slipping In The Youth Door I have been studying Rob Bell , author of Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith (VE), for quite some time now. Unless you have been on another planet you’ve probably heard of this fast rising cultural icon and leader within the Emergent Church by the name of Rob Bell. In fact, Bell is virtually becoming the Elvis of Emergent . Literally I have spent months reading much of his work, in VE as well as studying other sources, listening to Bell’s sermons and also watching his Nooma videos. So I can tell you that Phil Johnson of Pyromaniacs was quite correct when he said recently that “ Bell’s message is completely and radically different from anything you would hear in a seeker-sensitive context .” Read the rest here .