Monthly Archive for August, 2011

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Warren Wiersbe: “He Knew I Was Pretending to be a Christian”

Published on August 19, 2011 in Prayer. 0 Comments

Oh for more Sunday School Teachers like Everett Ostrom who taught the great pastor and preacher Warren Wiersbe:

Everett Ostrom was the pastor when I was confirmed. There were only three of us in the class, but he was faithful to teach us and pray for us. I didn’t known until years later that every Saturday after Confirmation Class, Pastor Ostrom would fall on his face on the study floor and weep over me and pray for me. He kwew I was pretending to be a Christian and he yearned to see me make a true decision for Christ.

A year later, the Lord answered his prayers (Warren Wiersbe, Be Myself, Wheaton [Victor Press, 1994], 20).”

Eschew “Traditionalism.” Our Faith Cannot Be Be Caught and Tamed!

Published on August 18, 2011 in Church. 0 Comments

In his commentary on Hebrews, F.F. Bruce warns against a mistaken loyalty to nostalgia:

The faith once for all delivered to the saints is not something which can be caught and tamed; it continually leads the saints forth to new ventures in the cause of Christ, as God calls afresh….To stay at the point to which some revered teacher of the past has brought us, out of a mistaken sense of loyalty to him; to continue to follow a certain pattern of religious activity or attitude just because it was good enough for our fathers and grandfathers – - these and the like are temptations which make the message of Hebrews a necessary and salutary one for us to listen to. Every fresh movement of the Spirit of God tends to become stereotyped in the next generation, and what we have heard with our ears, what our fathers have told us becomes a tenacious tradition encroaching on the allegiance which ought to be accorded only to the living and active word of God. As Christians survey the world today, they see very much land waiting to be possessed in the name of Christ; but to take possession of it calls for a generous measure of that forward looking faith which is so earnestly urged upon the readers of this epistle. Those first readers were living at a time when the old, cherished order was breaking up. Attachment to venerable traditions could avail them nothing in this situation; only attachment to the unchanging and onward moving Christ could carry them forward and enable them to face a new order with confidence and power. So, in a day when everything that can be shaken is being shaken before our eyes and even beneath our feet, let us in turn give thanks for the unshakable kingdom which we have inherited, which endures forever when everything else to which men and women may pin their hopes disappears and leaves not a wrack behind (Bruce, Commentary on Hebrews, 392).

How do we know that the Bible is God’s Word?

Published on August 17, 2011 in Word of God. 0 Comments

Understandably, the below line is a lot to think about, but it’s worth considering carefully. The statement tells us that we know the Bible is God’s Word because it is self-authenticating.

Some may object to the Word of God should be confirmed by some other source of authority such as history or science. But if a source of authority appeals to some other source of authority, than the source to which it appeals is ultimate authority.

Westminster Q 4. How doth it appear that the Scriptures are the Word of God?

A. The Scriptures manifest themselves to be the Word of God, by their majesty and purity, by the consent of all the parts, and the scope of the whole, which is to give all glory to God; by their light and power to convince and convert sinners, to comfort and build up believers unto salvation: but the Spirit of God bearing witness by and with the Scriptures in the heart of man, is alone able fully to persuade it that they are the very Word of God.

What should I look for in a church?

Published on August 16, 2011 in Church. 1 Comment

Ann Voskamp: How to Go Into All the World

Published on August 16, 2011 in Missions. 0 Comments

Do you have a globe in your home?

Read Ann Voskamp’s thoughts on how to go into all the world.

Why Joni Eareckson Tada Wants to Bring Her Wheelchair to Heaven

Published on August 16, 2011 in suffering. 0 Comments

Justin Taylor:

Joni, from her moving booklet Hope . . . The Best of Things:

I sure hope I can bring this wheelchair to heaven.

Now, I know that’s not theologically correct.

But I hope to bring it and put it in a little corner of heaven, and then in my new, perfect, glorified body, standing on grateful glorified legs, I’ll stand next to my Savior, holding his nail-pierced hands.

I’ll say, “Thank you, Jesus,” and he will know that I mean it, because he knows me.

He’ll recognize me from the fellowship we’re now sharing in his sufferings.

And I will say,

“Jesus, do you see that wheelchair? You were right when you said that in this world we would have trouble . . .

Read the rest here.

Paradigm Shifts Introduced by Grief

Published on August 14, 2011 in suffering. 1 Comment

Jill Sullivan is a blogger who lost a daughter to cancer.  I read her blog and find that I am encouraged by her humble wisdom.  She recently posted:

All this week, I’ve been sitting in school workshops.  The last two days have been a presentation of the “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” and one of the big topics has been paradigm shifts.  As part of his introduction, the presenter posed a question to the group, “What is something that has happened in your life that led to a paradigm shift?”  A few people shared stories of events in their lives that had led to significant change.  I didn’t volunteer to share, but if I had, I would have said, “When my teenage daughter was diagnosed with cancer.”

There’s nothing like suffering and loss to change your paradigms.  There are definitely some military families who’ve had their paradigms shifted this week.

In Randy Alcorn’s book, “If God Is Good”, he shares nine paradigm-shifting insights that he learned through studying the book of Job.  If I wasn’t so drained from sitting in workshops all day every day this week, I might be able to come up with one more on my own, thus making today a true Ten on the Tenth.  But I just don’t think that’s going to happen tonight.  So, without further ado, here are…

Nine Lessons To Be Learned from Job (from Randy Alcorn)

1.  Life is not predictable or formulaic.

2.  Most of life’s expectations and suffering’s explanations are simplistic and naive, waiting to be toppled.

Read the rest here.

A couple of favorite cheers and a handy reference tool for football games

Published on August 13, 2011 in Sports Links and Stupid Stuff. 0 Comments

Football season is upon us.  If you have problems remembering the cheers, you might want to print out the below for easy reference.

I continue to be partial to the Stillman Valley favorite, “1-2-3-4 / you know what those cleats are for / stomp-em.”

“Retard them, retard them, make them relinquish the ball,” has always been a favorite as well.  It’ doesn’t always roll easily off the tongue, but what it lacks in ease of repeating, it makes up for with its poetry and eloquence.

From: 4-Block World

Forgiveness for Terrorists?

Published on August 13, 2011 in Forgiveness. 0 Comments

If you’ve ever struggled when you hear a group of Christians offer blanket forgiveness then a guest post I did on Zach Nielsen’s blog may be of interest.

Kevin DeYoung: The Glory of Plodding

Published on August 12, 2011 in Church. 0 Comments

Kevin DeYoung:

It’s sexy among young people — my generation — to talk about ditching institutional religion and starting a revolution of real Christ-followers living in real community without the confines of church. Besides being unbiblical, such notions of churchless Christianity are unrealistic. It’s immaturity actually, like the newly engaged couple who think romance preserves the marriage, when the couple celebrating their golden anniversary know it’s the institution of marriage that preserves the romance. Without the God-given habit of corporate worship and the God-given mandate of corporate accountability, we will not prove faithful over the long haul.

What we need are fewer revolutionaries and a few more plodding visionaries. . .

Read the rest here.