I did not engage this whole entry, but let me just call it Exhibit A that we have too much time (or too damn much time for the "cussin is cool" crowd) on our hands as we continually engage in such foolish arguments.

Just look at the title, see how loooong this debate goes on, and then go do something profitable with your time (Ephesians 5:15-17)

Link - Emergent What? � Cussing and Sin in the Emerging Church:

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There is an interesting discussion going on in the blogsphere about mentors and young Christian guys who want their lives to count. It started with a post by Tim Challies entitled A Desperate Jealousy where he humorously jokes about being jealous of Joshua Harris for having a sweet mentor in CJ Mahaney.

After having some fun about how examines all the new staff at the church he attends, he makes a very honest comment:

I am desperate for a mentor. I am absolutely desperate to have someone who will invest in me. I am desperate to find a person, or have a person find me, who will play Paul to this Timothy.

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So here I am. I'm not sure if I am writing this in the hopes that pastors and leaders will read it and it will help them understand that there are men in their churches who are just waiting and ready to be mentored. Maybe I'm writing it so even lay-people like myself will take a hard look at ourselves to find those men within our own churches who could be waiting for us to come to them. Or maybe this article is entirely selfish and I'm just putting my hand in the air and asking someone to notice me. I honestly don't know. As a bit of an introvert I don't think I would ever be that bold. What I do know is that I feel like I've come to a point in life where I not only want, but really need, someone to play a mentoring role in my life.

Tim, I just have to say I totally track with you. Next I read Adrian Warnock's encouragement to Challies...basically telling him to go find a mentor, do what it takes, go wherever you can find it. To that, my friend from the other side of the pond, I say "touche!" Great advice...but it ain't even always that easy.

I for one want to echo with these guys that this is about the Sovereignty of God. A little over a year ago I moved my whole family to find a mentor in another locale. A guy who had approached me, recruited me, and said to me "come on lets go." Is he my mentor today? No. But I have learned much from him. For some reason God's idea for me moving to my current zip code was to wrestle with Him, pause before his throne, be around someone whose life was so full that there was not an avalanche mentor time coming. So, here I sit again in the same dad gum chair. Wondering - maybe Jesus is my mentor, maybe that is more than enough. But somehow I think he wants me to find brotherhood here in middle earth as well as from his divine hand. The guy who was to mentor me, I love at a distance, pray for him quite a bit, but don't really know him very well. And to say it like a guy who has come right off of the leather sofa: "I'm OK with that now."

So Tim, I feel you brother, and Adrian, thanks for the advice. We need to pursue others diligently and find slices of bread from many guys while not expecting the whole loaf from just one...Now that little ditty I did glean from my almost-mentor. And for that I am very thankful.

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John Piper has an excellent message on the perpetual question of living "in but not of" the world. A quick exerpt:

Romans 12:1-2

I appeal to you therefore, brothers,by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ² Do not be conformed to this world,but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Oh, how many questions this verse—Romans 12:2—raises that need thoughtful, biblical answers. For example, How does the command not to be conformed to this world relate to Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 9:22, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some”? How is becoming all things to all people not conforming to the world? Or how does the command not to conform to the world, that is, to be counter-cultural, relate to Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 10:32-33? “Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.” How does not being conformed to the world fit with not giving offense to the world? You can’t always do both. How does not being conformed to the world fit with pleasing everyone for the sake of salvation? You can’t always please people if you refuse to conform to some of their thoughts and ways.

So the questions are many, and we will tackle some of them. My aim today is to give you a way to think about these questions. To give you some categories that I pray will be part of the renewing of your mind so that you can prove and embrace the will of God.

The reason there are questions like these is not because Paul slipped up and got confused about what it means to follow Christ in a fallen world. Paul was not confused. He was holding two Christian impulses—two principles—in balance. When Christ came into the world, and lived and died and rose from the dead, and set the redeeming kingdom of God in motion, and unleashed the mighty gospel on the world—two powerful impulses, or forces, spread everywhere the gospel spread.

The Indigenous Principle and the Pilgrim Principle

These two impulses are always in tension with each other. At times they push in opposite directions, and the great challenge is to find the biblical balance. Andrew Walls, in his book, The Missionary Movement In Christian History, calls these two impulses the Indigenous Principle and the Pilgrim Principle (Mary Knoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2001, pp. 7-9). In other words, the gospel can and must become indigenous in every (fallen!) culture in the world. It can and must find a home in the culture. It must fit in. That’s the indigenous impulse. But at the same time, and just as powerful, the gospel produces a pilgrim mindset. It loosens people from their culture. It criticizes and corrects culture. It turns people into pilgrims and aliens and exiles in their own culture. When Paul says, “Do not conformed to this world,” and “I became all things to all people,” he is not confused; he is calling for a critical balance of two crucial biblical impulses.

continue reading

John Piper - Do not be Conformed to This World - The Indigenous and Pilgrim Principle of Christian Living
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'A number of good, holy gay priests will probably quietly slip away from their calling because of the climate.'

Marianne Duddy-Burke of gay and lesbian Catholic group Dignity USA in Boston in reference to the Vatican's recent stance of homosexuality and the Roman Catholic Church. --------

Abston Church of Christ

HT - JollyBlogger
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Well, Are you?

Link - Are You "Metrospiritual"

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It is always good to see what has influenced those who influence you.

It is no secret to those who know me (especially my wife) that I have been greatly touched, inspired, encouraged, exhorted, shaken, challenged, spurred on and genuinely blessed by the the labor and ministry of John Piper.

The following are a listing of books that influenced Piper. Link -
Books that Have Influenced Me Most

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A bold web site about Islam and the war on terror. Facing some of these realities is something the secular, postmodern, enlightened types is unwilling to do. Not endorsing this site or all of its views - but the willingness to discuss the relationship of Islam to terrorism is welcomed.

Link - Religion of Peace? One-Stop Shopping For War on Terror News

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Justin Taylor has a multi part series on the Emerging Church - It is very fair and highlights much of the positive aspects of the emergent conversation. Taylor is not critical in these posts (there is some very concerning stuff about some emerging thought) but rather informing the public as to the nature of the movement. Very helpful and gracious in tone

Link - Between Two Worlds

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Some funny photo blogs at purgatorio

Source - Challies.com

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We have traveled the road together of some necessary attributes for someone to be a defender of the gospel in contemporary culture. First, we said he must be compassionate – he must give a rip about people around him. Second, he must also be curious, a person that will read, listen, think, observe, watch, and participate where he can in the culture around him (note – he should not participate where he participates in sin or is intensely tempted to sin). Finally, we come to the last characteristic of an apologist in our day. She must be compelled.

By compelled I mean she must be driven, motivated, moved forward by something great and worthy of pursuit. Something must make it worthwhile for her get out of bed in the morning to share the gospel and connect the gospel to others. What must compel her? I hold it must be the glory of God in Christ, the beauty of the love of God for sinners expressed in the death of the Son of God.

The gospel must drive one to believe that God can and does save his sheep (John 6, John 10), that one died for all (2 Corinthians 5), that it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe (Romans 1:16). If we do not believe that Christ is the all consuming treasure of the believer, that he is satisfying to the weary soul, that he alone lifts guilt and sin and death and hell from us, we will not present him to others.

We must be satisfied in Christ – and see him as treasure or we will not seek to communicate the gospel of the glory of God to others:

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Matthew 13:14

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:6

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:1-5

22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1 Corinthians 1:22-24

For the believer, the cross must be the jewel of his faith. Where the grace of God is displayed and his mercy revealed to sinful people. When one realizes the work of the cross, to punish sin and turn the wrath of God from us to Jesus, we are put in a humble state of thanksgiving in which we are compelled to move forward in His mission. There is no other motivation but the treasuring of Christ and the display of the Excellencies of God seen in the redemption of sinners that will compel and move us to care enough, be curious enough and sacrifice enough to share the gospel with those who need to hear.

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This Thursday I am going up to Brown University to speak to a group of people about the gospel of Jesus Christ. See the following article from the Brown Daily Herald - the Campus Newspaper of the University. This article is pretty unbelievable. Not because it describes a party that sounds essentially like an orgy, but the response of the students who were there. Mind you, these students were partially or mostly naked, making out in public, it is reported that some were having sex at the party in the open etc. Were they ashamed to go and do this? No, they are angry because it was video taped.

Here are a few quotes:

One student who appeared in the producer's footage and wished to remain anonymous said she found it "incredibly offensive" that Fox News videotaped and aired images of her without her permission.

"I am a student now but I will one day be a professional," she said. "I never thought that going to such a social function would have such jeopardizing consequences for me."

Monica Skeldon '06, who was shown briefly as Watters described same-sex kissing, said she felt "a little violated" that she was taped without her knowledge.

Tumiski said he was upset that his image was shown on television without his permission. "They didn't have to show our faces. I thought that was unnecessary," he said.

It is a strange tale of a people flaunting morality, but not wanting to be shown as doing so...

Jesus once said:

"For God so loved the world,[g] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God."

I'm so thankful that Jesus forgives and redeems the lives of those like myself who do wicked things. That he draws us to himself, brings us into the light to expose us...so that we might call upon the God of grace who sent his son to a cross to redeem us, to make us knew, who once walked in darkness.

Full Article from the Brown Daily Herald -- Fox News airs footage of Sex Power God - Campus News

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Justin Taylor has pulled some fun quotes from a Washington Post article about the internal culture at Google

Worth your time to read.

Source - Theologica - Between Two Worlds: What It's Like to Work at Google

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Can I just say that I am super stoked to read this book once it is out? In my own spirtual journey, I have straddled two parts of the body of Christ - The intellectual/confessional/ side of things and the Spirit filled/experiential side of things. I never quite saw why the two must be divorced. I think Word and Spirit ought to be both full throttle in our lives. The great thing about this book is that it is being promoted on Bible.org (a site driven by Dallas Seminary folks) - which is a great thing to see. Dallas has been a stalwart for the cessationist side of things, so it is good to see men from Dallas putting forth a "pneumatic Christianity" (Holy Spirit led, experienced, intimate Christian faith).

May the tribe increase that rejects the false dichotomy of "Word over Spirit" or "Spirit over Word" - May Father, Son and Holy Spirit lead his people empowered, comforted and gifted by the Spirit, obedience to, fed by, and rejoicing in his Word.

Link - Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit? An Investigation into the Ministry of the Spirit of God Today

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A story commonly scoffed at by doubtful folks has found some verification at the tip of the archaelogist's spade.

Get em David! Link - Finding Said to Boost Proof of Goliath - Yahoo! News

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I know most of you have seen this...but if not - worth wasting a few minutes on for a good laugh.

Trunk Monkey

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Cool article on the BBC about the archaelogical find of an ancient church in the Holy Land.

Link - BBC NEWS | Middle East | Ancient church found on jail site

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It is good to know what other brothers are soaking their souls in...Greg Koukl over at Stand to Reason has been chewing on John Piper's recent book When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy.

Koukl gives a peak into his own struggle to stay faithful to a life saturated with the Scriptures. Very encouraging.

I have this book on my table as a "must read soon" - but for now the Seminary pile awaits.

I'm fighting with you Greg, fighting to find my joy in God, that he would be my vision

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Books and Culture has a review of a new book about the religious developments of China. The book The Sinister Way:The Divine and the Demonic in Chinese Religious Culture looks to be an interesting read. I have marveled lately at how God prepares a culture with its religious forms, linguistic traditions, to receive the gospel. It is like God prepares peoples for the coming of the good new of Christ and then it explodes. South Korea is such a phenomena in the 20th century. A country which went from almost zero Christian influence to a near majority in less than 100 years. Perhaps China is on the horizon as Jesus' next lands for his sheep.

Here is a brief exerpt from the Books and Culture piece:

"Traditional Chinese religion, driven underground for a while by Mao and his minions, has resurfaced in a remarkable resurgence, especially in rural and southern China. For the first time in their long history, however, Chinese have an alternative. As David Aikman's Jesus in Beijing has shown, the spread of Christianity now offers hope of deliverance from demons and from the dominion of greed, rather than the domestication of the former with rituals and the latter by a sanitized god of wealth."

May God grow his church in the lands of China

Let the nations be glad and sing for joy! (Psalm 67)

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Zondervan is hosting a Pastor's conf this year with a featured "Emerging Church Track" - I could not believe the quote I read commenting about the "Emerging" church.

"Is it a movement or a conversation? Is it dangerous or the church's last hope?"

Last time I checked Jesus was the eternal hope of the church. He is the author and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12), he is our eternal faithful high priest (Hebrews 9 and Hebrews 10), he makes continual intercession for his people, not one of his sheep shall be lost, and all that the Father gives him shall come to him and be raised up on the last day (John 6 and John 10)

What the heck could it possibly mean that the emerging church is the church's last hope? How is this not hype and marketing crap? The sickening man-centeredness of that sentence is beyond comprehension...especially talking about a movement which is abandoning penal substitutionary atonement, denying the reality of God's judgment of sin and sinners (and thereby making the work of the cross quite an unecessary event), and and presenting a weak, new age like, universalist, pacifist Jesus, that needs us to become "Postmodern" (however one defines this) or the church dies.

Link - to the quote in context is found here Critical Concerns Courses | National Pastors Convention 2006

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Recent stats on religious and non-religious politics, Russia's abortion rate, and views on evolution. Compiled by Ted Olsen | posted 10/26/2005 09:00 a.m.

45%	1.5 million	48%
Americans who say religious conservatives have too much control over the Republican Party.	Russian women who gave birth last year.	Americans who say life has evolved over time.
44%	1.6 million	42%
Americans who say nonreligious liberals have too much control over the Democratic Party.	Russian women who had an abortion last year.	Americans who say life has always existed in its present form.
		18%
		Americans who say evolution was guided by a supernatural being.

Source - http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/011/17.24.html

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