Monthly Archive for June, 2011

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“I am Unalarmed”

Published on June 20, 2011 in Family. 0 Comments

Tim Challies interacts with the Barna study which shows an alarming number of children who leave the faith after growing up in “Christian” homes:

In September of 2006 George Barna released what must be among his most influential studies. Following interviews with more than 22,000 adults and 2,000 teenagers from across America, he revealed that the majority of twentysomethings who are raised as Christians subsequently abandon the faith. The study found that “most twentysomethings disengage from active participation in the Christian faith during their young adult years—and often beyond that. In total, six out of ten twentysomethings were involved in a church during their teen years, but have failed to translate that into active spirituality during their early adulthood.”

Another survey, this one commissioned by LifeWay, found that “Seven in 10 Protestants ages 18 to 30 — both evangelical and mainline — who went to church regularly in high school said they quit attending by age 23.” Still another study from Church Communication Networks said that up to 94 percent of Christian teens leave the church within a few years of leaving high school.

These statistics are alarming, and particularly so to those of us who are raising children and earnestly praying that the Lord would save them. It has often been my prayer that the Lord would save my children while they are young, long before they desire to taste the world’s pleasures as unsaved adults. According to these reports this is unlikely. Statistically speaking, I can have little hope.

Each of these studies appears to show that Christians are doing a very poor job of reaching the children in their midst. Ironically, the statistics are used to support solutions that reach from one end of the spectrum to the other: they vary from more programs for teens to fewer programs to teens to abolishing all programs for all children.

These statistics are widely quoted, widely believed, but I remain unalarmed by them. I remain skeptical about the results. Allow me to explain myself.

Read the rest here.

A Picture of a Farmer on Father’s Day

Published on June 19, 2011 in Family. 4 Comments

Happy Father’s Day!

The below picture is of my dad on the day of his farm sale.  My dad is the one with the yellow gloves and he is talking to his pastor.

My brother, Danny, is on the right.  He’s laughing at something.  With Danny, it’s usually best to not ask what he’s laughing about.

Barn Cats

Published on June 18, 2011 in Parenting. 0 Comments

The winsomely wise Amy Scott, considers her soaring cat population.  Growing up, we had cats (as much as anyone has a cat – - it’s more a matter of a cat having you)  I would now if I lived on a farm with a barn.  As it is, I’m content to read about Amy’s kittens:

The cats are out of control. There’s like 15 of them, but I don’t even know. Anything more than one cat is too many if you’re more of a dog person. I’m not even a dog person, though. I’m a beta fish lady.

It all started when I rescued four barn kittens when we moved to the farm. They were minutes away from certain death, and I hadn’t done my good deed for the week if the laundry doesn’t count for anything. But this is how it goes. If you do a good deed, you get taken advantage of. It spirals. If you give a mouse a cookie, then they want milk. Good deeds come back to bite you, or in our case, pee all over your petunias.

The kittens grew up and multiplied and now we have too many cats. Cats cost money because they eat cat food and ruin your plants. We live in a rural area where cats are seen as enemy combatants in a video game. If you hit one, you get 10 points, but I think that’s cruel. Spiders and snakes and rats? Yes. But not cats and dogs and hamsters.

I’m a softie so long as you’re not lying to me. Then I get mean. I won’t kill a cat (not on purpose), but I still think there is such thing as too much of a good thing.

I paid the vet to spay three of the original four cats. (The fourth cat was too far along in her pregnancy.) Two hundred bucks later (I bought the pain pills….) and all three of the cats were . . .

Read the rest here.

Is it sin if I didn’t mean to do it?

Published on June 17, 2011 in Doctrine and Westminster Standards. 1 Comment

First, sinning without intent is preferred to consciously doing the wrong thing.  All sins are equally wrong, but all sins are not equally bad.  A lustful thought is as wrong as adultery.  Certainly adultery is worse.

Having said that, whether or not sin is wrong is a matter of how it accords with God.  Neither people nor their intent define morality.  God defines right and wrong.

Consider the concise definition of sin in the Westminster Shorter Catechism

Q. 14 – What is sin?

A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of the law of God.

So, we can sin by not doing what we ought (sins of omission) or by doing the wrong thing (commission).  Either sort of sin can be unintentional.  The question is not whether we meant to do it, but, rather, how it accords with the character of God.

Hence, we must know the Word of God!  Psalm 119:9, “How can a young man keep his way pure?  By living according to the Word of God.”

Pray Together

Published on June 16, 2011 in Prayer. 0 Comments

When was the last time you prayed together with someone else?

We are taught to pray “our Father.”  “Our” is plural.  “Father” implies siblings.

James M. Grier:

To approach God as Father implies the whole shared relationship of family. The stress seems to fall on the relationship of God to the church with secondary emphasis on the individual and relationship to God.  James M. Grier

See also Christianity is against individualism quote from Cornelius Plantinga.

A Father’s Letter to His Son

Published on June 15, 2011 in Parenting. 0 Comments

Father’s Day is Sunday. A few months ago, I read a letter written by a dying father to his three year old son. It makes me wonder if we shouldn’t be writing letters to our sons even before we know that life is short. After all, life is short.

August 11, 1991

Dear Christopher,

I’m writing this note to you now because I don’t know what the future holds for me. I want you to forgive me for being sick and not being able to be there for you when and if you need me, but I want you to know one thing above all else. I love you so much that I can’t describe the feelings that I’m going through.

I want you to grow up and be a success at whatever you attempt to do. The time that I did spend with you was a wonderful and enjoyable time in my life and you helped make it that way. This letter is very hard for me to write because I keep starting to cry, knowing that I will not be here when you are reading this. The sadness keeps overwhelming me and tears are flowing down my face. I’m so very proud of you and you have shown me just how smart you are already. I expect you to grow and be able to use your head to think things out and to be able to ask questions if you don’t understand something.

Above all else I need to know that you will always be there for your Mother and your sister. Your family is more important to you than anything else in this world. I know that there will be times that you get upset with Mom for not letting you do something that you want to do, but she does really know what is best for you. Listen to her and learn from her advice.

I’ve left you all my tools and tool boxs and other neat stuff. I hope that you . . .

See the letter and read the rest here.

“Don’t do to your child what I did to mine”

Published on June 15, 2011 in Church. 2 Comments

C. John Miller in his book, Outgrowing the Ingrown Church (34):

. . . I once overheard a visitor to one of our services tell this story to a young father. He said, “This morning you brought your child to be given over to the Lord. I did that once too. But let me urge you from the bottom of my heart, don’t do to your child what I did to mine. As he grew up, he listened to me criticize the pastor year after year. As a consequence, I turned off my boy to the church and to ministers, and today he is far from God.”

“I cannot remain silent”

Published on June 14, 2011 in suffering and Uncategorized. 3 Comments

Letters of note is becoming one of my favorite blogs.

April 29th, 1865: Queen Victoria, still grieving and “utterly broken-hearted” following the death of Prince Albert four years previous, writes an empathetic letter of condolence to Mary Todd Lincoln following the recent assassination of her husband, Abraham Lincoln.

Transcript follows. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Read more here.

Interviewed about Forgiveness on Peacetalk 660

Published on June 13, 2011 in Forgiveness. 0 Comments

Larry Wood of Peacetalk radio ministries will interview me today about Unpacking Forgiveness beginning at 11:30AM CST (12:30 EST).  You can listen here.

Living next to your son’s killer

Published on June 13, 2011 in Forgiveness. 2 Comments

Notice that when this lady unpacked forgiveness with her son’s killer forgiveness meant “more than a feeling.”  The victim’s mom and the killer ended up being neighbors.

If you watch the video, you will notice there is still some of the language of privatized / therapeutic forgiveness. For instance, the victim’s mother says that forgiveness is something that a person does for herself. However, Cross centered forgiveness is not just for the person forgiving. It is for reconciliation and a redeemed relationship. Indeed, I think this story of this lady forgiving her son’s killer shows that forgiveness wasn’t simply for herself. It has also been redemptive for her son’s killer and for her relationship with him.

Of course, I have lots more to say about this in Unpacking Forgiveness

MINNEAPOLIS – In Minnesota, a young man was murdered and his killer was sent to prison. Then, as CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports, the story took a surprising turn.

In a small apartment building in North Minneapolis – a 59-year-old teacher’s aid sings praise to God for no seemingly apparent reason. Indeed, if anyone was to have issues with the Lord, it would be Mary Johnson.

In February 1993, Mary’s son, Laramiun Byrd, was shot to death during an argument at a party. He was 20, and Mary’s only child.

“My son was gone,” she says.

The killer was a 16-year-old kid named Oshea Israel.

Mary wanted justice. “He was an animal. He deserved to be caged.”

And he was. Tried as an adult and sentenced to 25 and a half years — Oshea served 17 before being recently released. He now lives back in the old neighborhood – next door to Mary.

How a convicted murder ended-up living a door jamb away from his victim’s mother is a story, not of horrible misfortune, as you might expect – but of remarkable mercy.

A few years ago Mary asked if she could meet Oshea at Minnesota’s Stillwater state prison. As a devout Christian, she felt compelled to see if there was some way, if somehow, she could forgive her son’s killer.

“I believe the first thing she said to me was, ‘Look, you don’t know me. I don’t know you. Let’s just start with right now,’” Oshea says. “And I was befuddled myself.”

Read the rest here.