Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey - Study Guide Now Available
POC Blog
The random technotheolosophical blogging of Reid S. Monaghan
The A-Team Blog :: Avoiding the Seminary Trap
This is a must read for our generation....
Fear and Comfort in the Wind
The expansion of my lungs, I feel it…breath
Nothing, but yet something moves
Oh, I feel a presence, Oh, something real – NO, someone is here
Comfort, yes, it is with Him, but yet I stay here
The wind blows…it is rushing into my soul
Comfort, yes, it is with Him, yes, I shall come to Him
But no, what will that mean?
So that in the wind I might hear
Breath to Dust – I am alive again
-- Reid S. Monaghan - September 2005
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Yes, someone is paying to put this web site online - too funny!
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LibraryThing | Catalog your books online
Start a Revolution--Eat Dinner With Your Family
Inversion Podcast
What is that? Aw, Yeaaaah! The Inversion Podcast is up and running. All of the teaching from the Inversion Gatherings will be pushed out to iTunes and other Podcast Aggregators from this day forth.
Podcast
Podcast file - www.inversionfellowship.org/inversion_podcast.xml or just connect through the iTunes podcast directory.
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Katrina...
- Castle Rock Community Church and Urban Impact Ministries exists together to transform the Central City of New Orleans through Spiritual Development, Christian Community Development and Strategic Partnerships. Last summer, Bethlehem’s Youth Pastor, Brad Nelson, brought a short-term mission team to assist with the summer outreach. Now the ministry staff and church people have scattered. Seventy have evacuated to Arkansas.
- Desire Street Fellowship and Desire Street Ministries are located in New Orleans. Pastor Mo Leverett and his wife moved into the Desire neighborhood and founded DSM in 1990, a time when the Desire project was ranked the worst in the country. The ministry has planted a church, Desire Street Fellowship and a school, Desire Street Academy. In the wake of the hurricane, the staff has been scattered taking with them many of the 200 boys from the school. For the time being they are planning to set up a temporary school in Atlanta. They tell us, “Our greatest immediate needs are for prayers and funding.”
- The Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Missions Board has a Disaster Relief section on the website. There you will find several ministry avenues for disbursing relief through Southern Baptist churches and affiliations.
- World Relief can also be supported directly with an online donation or by mailing a check to: Katrina Hurricane Relief Effort, World Relief, 7 E Baltimore St, Baltimore, MD 21202 or call (800) 535-5433.
- Prison Fellowship is gathering critical supplies—toiletries, blankets, etc.—to truck down to Louisiana’s prisons. You can donate online or by calling (800) 206-9764.
- The pride of man to build a city in a bowl, protected by levees, a disaster waiting to happen...Pride goes before destruction,and a haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18
- The kindness of human beings. The compassion of people on their neighbors has been an amazing thing to observe. Particularly the rallying of churches and believers to give, go, pray, open homes, has been a testimony to the God worshipped by these people.
- The depravity of man. Beyond race, color, creed, or political persuasion, people have evidence the truth of Scripture - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). The reports of rape, looting, violence has brought discouragement to many - oh how much more to live through this on the ground. Many brave souls have seen such depravity, yet held on to hope.
- We are not as strong as we think we are. In the last 100 years the wonderful technological advancement has given the illusion of stability and the easy life to far too many. The reality is that we are but dust, a fraile creature, each of our deaths certain. Those who perished in Katrina passed on in a drastic, tragic fashion. The rest of us have the same appointment, whether quickly or in a few score years from now, slowly dying with tubes and machines hooked to our bodies. The end is the same.
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, It is well, it is well, with my soul. It is Well with My Soul by Horatio SpaffordSuch was written in tragedy by a man who had just lost his children in a shipwreck. Such is the soul established on the rock of Christ and a life built on his words (Matthew 7:24, 25) . --------
Louisiana's Wetlands @ National Geographic Magazine
Reading this article - which ran in Oct 2004 - is a bit spooky...
We are not as strong as we think we are...we think we are the masters of our world. We are not...we are not...
Gone with the Water
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Biblical Perspectives on Sex and Autoeroticism
I am not aware of a large number of children that read this site, but despite that I'd like to begin this article with a quick warning. What I am writing about in this short series deals with a subject that is best-suited for adults. So if you are still young, I'd prefer you had your mom or dad read it first and decide if this is something they would like you to read. Fair enough?Fair enough...He then continues with an overview of some material from Sex and the Supremacy of Christ - a new book edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor...he goes on to the "auto" stuff in part II - just so you know...but don't read Part II first...smile. Biblical Perspectives on Sex and Autoeroticism . --------
Between Two Worlds: Christian Beliefs: 20 Basics Every Christian Should Know
Justin Taylor has an entry about a new version of Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. First there was "big Grudem" then there was "little Grudem" now there is a "tiny little Grudem"
Taylor has a breakout of the chapters of this book at the link below:
Between Two Worlds: Christian Beliefs: 20 Basics Every Christian Should Know
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god-casting, Podcasting
What is Truth?
- Message 1 - Truth - A Treasure Which Must Not Be Lost
- Message 2 - The Inescapable Beauty of Truth
- Resources for further Study (pdf)
Seeing the Glory of God in Normal Things
This semester, at Inversion Fellowship - the young adult ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, Nashville, I will be teaching a series entitled Elements The messages series will consider how the beauty and glory of God is seen in the "created stuff" of this world. Far too often modern people, somewhat separated from our environment, seem to miss the magic and beauty infused in the world around us. Indeed, there are glorious finger prints everywhere around us, if we only learn how to see, how to consider, how to reflect on the majesty of God which is reflected in this world. Now, the Scripture will be our guide as we look, for we do not want to look without God as our tour guide. Two really new books I have found come across which I am using to aid my observations that I thought I would make note of:
Alister McGrath, Creation - Truth and the Christian Imagination (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005)
T. M. Moore, Consider The Lilies: A Plea For Creational Theology (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed, 2005)
Employing seven classic paintings, Creation invites readers to envision the origin, dependence, and larger purpose of the universe and their own lives. McGrath explores seven traditional aspects of the doctrine of creation: encountering creation, tending creation, the spirituality of creation, the parables of creation, the Lord of creation, the place of humanity in creation, and the ruin and restoration of humanity. The first of six volumes in the Truth and the Christian Imagination series, this book will help students and lay people understand the relevance of traditional theological terminology, the continued viability of a broadly Christian approach, and the pertinence of doctrine to their daily lives. (Source - Amazon)
How can we perceive and experience God's grandeur in creation? What does creation tell us about his plans, purposes, truth, or ways? T. M. Moore answers these and other questions in this artful introduction to creational theology, the discovery and celebration of God's glory through what he has made. The task of theology involves much more than simply studying Scripture or reading academic tomes. It involves doing theology-not just reading it. In Consider the Lilies, readers will develop the skills and disciplines for doing theology as they look upon and interact with the world around them. (Source - Amazon)Can I just say that I am super stoked about these books. Moore's book is endorsed by several people I respect from a wide swath of the body of Christ - I am just giddy to read this one and launch into the Bible and the Universe - to see the grandeur and glory of God in the midst of so called normal things -- even dirt, air, water, fire, space, and light. May the LORD of heaven and earth dance before you and captivate you in the fullness of his beauty. . --------
Stem Cell Happenings
- Washington Post Article - Skin Cells Converted to Stem Cells
- Top right of Science Now Home (8/23/2005) Short summary
Challies Dot Com: Radical Reformission (Part 2)
Part two of Challies' review of Mark Driscoll's Radical Reformission - very good review so far. It seems it will roll out over time. . --------
Pornified America--The Culture of Pornography
Great article on Al Mohler's blog Pornified America--The Culture of Pornography
After reading this - grab this book for a different vision of sexuality - God help us in these days. Pray for your brothers, open up to your friends, walk in the light together, savor God's vision for sex...we risk too much to do otherwise.
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Marriage is cool
I know that in our society marriage is broken. But I dream for the next generation in this place. That we would grab the mantle of marriage as designed by the creator. The we would mirror his image - male and female (Genesis 1:27), that we would mutually complete one another (Genesis 2:18), that we raise up godly legacy in this world (Psalm 127) as a sweet smelling aroma of Jesus Christ.
This weekend we had the chance to marry some dear friends. It is a humbling honor to be involved in helping couples vow together before God to love and marry in his ways (Ephesians 5:18-33). What God has joined, let no man separate. Lord, renew your people in our resolve to be kind, compassionate, forgiving one another in love - as you have forgiven us.
Let marriage and family and joy and children and the reflection of his grace rise in these days - to the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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Radical Reformission...