Give me some Good Ole Puritan Luv...
POC Blog
The random technotheolosophical blogging of Reid S. Monaghan
Historia ecclesiastica: WHY LAUGHTER IS AN APPROPRIATE RESPONSE TO BARNA & HIS ECCLESIOLOGICAL PROPOSAL
I don't know Michael Haykin - but I have a class under him in two weeks - I really look forward to meeting him. The reading list he gave us for the class is great - and this blog entry is pretty funny:
A short exerpt:
There will be some, I am sure, picturing themselves as brave souls going where few in our day have gone before—and so experiencing the adventure of the Christian life in all of its white-water intensity—who take up Barna’s suggestions and try to do Christianity without Church. In so doing, they will be sculpting their Christianity into the shape of our culture or sitting down to supper with the devil with a short spoon—either metaphor is frightening—and abandoning one of the key verities of the Faith.There is no "churchless Christianity" this is a great myth of our times... ... --------
The So Called Revolution...
Justin Taylor has links to several reviews of George Barna's "Revolution" - the reviews at the bottom by Ken Miller, Michael Haykin and Chris Treat look very interesting.
As to some other sort of kooky things Barna is in to - see my entry from June 2005...
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50 Best Robots Ever
Continuing in the 50 best category, Wired Magazine has offered its list of the 50 best robots of all time - some real, some fictional.
My vote would be for Optimus Prime - autobot leader and Transformer from my kiddo days.
But I do agree with Engadet - What about Johnie Five?
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Texas Church Plans to Give Away a House
Is this just sick or what? I am all for swimming in a culture with people - connecting with people where they live etc...but is there some prostitution going on here before the world?
Have the money changers moved venue and now offer the gospel in the name of prize packages and giveaways? Why not just find some poor people in the church and give them a house?
A sad thing going on here...
http://www.newsobserver.com/24hour/religion/story/3006864p-11693734c.html
HT-Challies
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Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years
- Walkman
- iPod
- PalmPilot 1000 (US Robotics!)
- Atari Video Computer System (1977)
- Sony Betamax (1975) Yep, we bought one, but when it went the way of the T Rex we got a VHS :)
- Iomega Zip Drive (1995) - though I went with a Syquest EZDrive first!
- Play, Inc. Snappy Video Snapshot (1996) - used it with our VHSC camcorder to digitize video
- Milton Bradley Simon (1978) - this was the first Christmas that I found out the secret about Santa Claus
Hell
What the Bible does say about the reality of divine judgment. Not a doctrine for rejoicing, rather for weeping...
No person ever should be flippant or trivial about the teaching of Jesus about Hell. Nor should one be silent or evasive either...
A helpful primer by John Sampson is found here
A quote from the post:
Dr. John Piper wrote the following, "Hell is unspeakably real, conscious, horrible and eternal-- the experience in which God vindicates the worth of his glory in holy wrath on those who would not delight in what is infinitely glorious." (God's Passion for His Glory, pg. 38)PS - Don't buy the Bahnsen DVD featured on the site :) HT - Challies --------
The Notes To Netflix Pool
People dropping funny little notes when returning their Netflix flix.
This one is great
HT - Challies
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Timeless ideas in a modern dress
Great link over at worldmagblog.com to an article by Doug Giles on contextualization - a great CS Lewis quote can be found there. Good advice to the older generation...
C.S. Lewis: “Our business is to present that which is timeless in the particular language of our own age. The bad preacher does exactly the opposite: he takes the ideas of our own age and tricks them out in the traditional language of Christianity. Your teaching must be timeless at its heart and wear a modern dress.”
HT World- Timeless ideas in a modern dress
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The Spouses of 'Big Love'
Newsweek has a story on a new HBO show featuring a family of 4. Not husband, wife and two kids. But man and three wives...
Link - Television: The Spouses of 'Big Love' - Who's Next - Newsweek - MSNBC.com
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Headaches, Pain, Despair, and the Soul
Yesterday, our family flew to North Carolina to enjoy the Christmas Holiday with my wife's parents and brother. It was an early morning drive to the airport and then off on the Southwest flight to Raleigh. I had been a little sick the last few weeks, but had pushed through to continue work and family responsibilities - being there for my kids etc. On the flight, I guess infected sinuses and changes in air pressure caused some intense extreme pain in my face. Although lasting only a minute or so, it was some of the craziest pain I have had in my life. Later last evening I developed somewhat of a sinus migraine and attempted to go to be early - real early for me...what would have been about 7pm CST. I laid in bed and realized the intense connection of soul and body - my body was in extreme discomfort and I contemplated the state of my life, my calling before God, and where our family was in its growth and development. In thinking about such things there was nothing but a dark cloud before me - a haze amidst the blessings of God. I knew that my heart was not apprehending reality due to my headaches, but it was quite a learning experience to be so affected in body that I could not see like with any sort of clarity. I laid in bed for a couple of hours before rising again to be with my inlaws (I love my inlaws so it was easy to get up to spend some time). After some sinus - knock your butt out to sleep medicine, I did get rest. Then this morning I was still feeling quite bad, so I took most of the day to read the Bible, a great biography of Jim Elliot and turn again my heart to the contemplation of my life before God. Well, with the headache gone, I did find a bit more to be thankful for, a bit more to rejoice in, and a bit more peace. Yet, I still am not at rest completely. I tend to bite off way too many duties in life -perhaps to feel adequate, perhaps a desire to be needed or to be important. Either way, I felt a great peace today reading about God's sovereign hand in the life of Job and in the life of Jim Elliot. I felt a great kinship to Elliot - a man who was wrestling with calling, desiring to be great (and confessing the sick pride involved with that), and just wanting his life to be used by his God.
I guess this past 24 hours have been good. I guess I still want to be used greatly for the Kingdom of Christ...I guess I still need God to trample on my pride...I guess I still don't know what to do in the next five years of my life...but Elliots words helped me today.
He gives enough to know what to do for today. Yes, enough...even with headaches.
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Words that are not cool or used very much in the 21st century that are now cool again
All these words are not used very much today: honor, affections, glory, truth, grace, mercy, joy (and rejoice), Jesus, and esv – I plan to use them all a lot and make them cool for those I know. Join the crowd, sign the petition, use the lingo
- By the grace of God I am what I am
- Show honor to one another, what a cool way to treat folk
- The Truth will set you free!
- Jesus have mercy on me a sinner
- Rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory
- Read the ESV – it is cool
- Give us blazing, white hot, affections for you God!
You Know You've Attained Dispensationalist Divine Status When:
For all my dispy buddies out there - this is just too funny. Tooooo funny. Thanks Purgatorio! You crack us all up.
By the way - choose the ESV for your Bible Translation
Link - purgatorio: You Know You've Attained Dispensationalist Divine Status When:
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Does the Date of Christmas Have Its Origin in Paganism?
Very good post over at Theologica - please read this. This is very helpful
Link Between Two Worlds: Does the Date of Christmas Have Its Origin in Paganism?
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Humility - A Christmas Reversal at Covenant Life
Joshua Harris has posted to his blog the reasons why his church is now having Sunday services on Christmas Sunday.
For many this is not an issue about "Christmas" but cancelling gathered worship for Christmas. I guess Harris has come to this conclusion:
Link - Josh Harris Blogs: The Wrong Decision
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Heaven?
Last night ABC news and Barbara Walters did a special report entitled "Heaven -- Where Is It? How Do We Get There?". The show was a a montage of interviews from people from various faith traditions. The line-up included Catholics, Jewish scholars, Moderate Muslims, a Muslim suicide bomber (and yes, they talked about the virgins), an African American pastor, Hollywood's beloved Dali Lama (with cameo props from Richard Gere), an Evangelical (actually a Charismatic), an atheist, Mitch Albom (sports analyst turned Heaven guru), and several new agy types who had been approached by the light in in near death situations. There were others interviewed as well, but the above list is representative.
Overall, I was not disappointed in the show seeing as it was mostly what one would expect in our culture. What was said was deeply disappointing, but I was not diappointed as it was very predictable - I was even calling the way the show would go. Quite accurately most of the time, although it was a bit annoying to my wife hearing me say "this is what they will say next" and then being right.
There was talk about heaven being a state of mind, a hopeful idea that helps people in the here and now, that good people go there, etc. etc. The Dali Lama taught us about reincarnation and how people increase their estate in successive lives and go on to a blissful state...and then on to Nirvana, the obliteration of personality into the oneness of all. He also told us that we can descend downward into the animal kingdom if we are not so nice...he even said there are animals who are living good lives on their way to being human again. There are good dogs and bad dogs you see (yes, he did use that as an illustration of Karma and Reincarnation). All of this earned him a kiss from Barbara Walters - we in the west sure love the 14th reincarnated Dali Lama.
One of the more disappointing things about the show was that of the Christian witness. The Catholic guy represented his views well, but could have deepened the understanding of others. Heaven is the purpose for this life was the line of the bishop, but I longed to hear him talk more of the "Beatific vision" - that heaven is about a pure vision of God. The African American pastor did a great job talking about the hope of heaven for this life - a very prominent theme in Scripture and in the African American experience. Yet, he described heaven as an ethereal place rather than a real Kingdom, a place where Granda is, and not so much a place of the active, real, present rule of God.
Perhaps most disappointing was the covering of the evangelical viewpoint. The few churches mentioned were Lakewood Church (28K folks in a basketball arena in Houston), Saddleback and Ted Haggard's New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Most of the time was spent with Haggard, the president of the National Assoc of Evangelicals and footage from the charismatic New Life Church. Haggard described an evangelical somewhat accurately (belief in Jesus, the Bible and the new birth) in words familiar to evangelicals, but did not communicate/translate well those terms for Ms Walters or a broader audience. His response that one must be "born-again" to go to Heaven is not wrong per say, but he did not explain anything about our view of sin, salvation, heaven as the Kingdom of Christ, and very little about Jesus being the focus and treasure of the life to come. Walters of course asked if you have to believe in Jesus to go to Heaven and Haggard's response was that faith in Christ is the only sure way. Others would have to work it out on their own (what is meant by that, I'm not sure as no clarification was given). He was more forthright in saying that Hell is a reality for those without Christ to which Walters showed a predictable skepticism (Jews, Hidus, and Muslims don't believe that). All of this was woefully out of context - maybe due to Haggard's own inadequate explanation, maybe something was lost on the editing floor.
I found myself wanting another voice for the "evangelical" position. I thought "How about Randy Alcorn?" who just wrote a book on the topic. What about John Piper, who has studied deeply at the wells of Jonathan Edwards, one of America's finest theological minds on Heaven (See his Heaven is a world of Love). Or even a Christian apologist like JP Moreland, William Lane Craig, or Lee Strobel would have been a much better choice in my mind. Overall, here is what I wanted to say about the matter:
There was talk about heaven being a state of mind, a hopeful idea that helps people in the here and now, that good people go there, etc. etc. The Dali Lama taught us about reincarnation and how people increase their estate in successive lives and go on to a blissful state...and then on to Nirvana, the obliteration of personality into the oneness of all. He also told us that we can descend downward into the animal kingdom if we are not so nice...he even said there are animals who are living good lives on their way to being human again. There are good dogs and bad dogs you see (yes, he did use that as an illustration of Karma and Reincarnation). All of this earned him a kiss from Barbara Walters - we in the west sure love the 14th reincarnated Dali Lama.
One of the more disappointing things about the show was that of the Christian witness. The Catholic guy represented his views well, but could have deepened the understanding of others. Heaven is the purpose for this life was the line of the bishop, but I longed to hear him talk more of the "Beatific vision" - that heaven is about a pure vision of God. The African American pastor did a great job talking about the hope of heaven for this life - a very prominent theme in Scripture and in the African American experience. Yet, he described heaven as an ethereal place rather than a real Kingdom, a place where Granda is, and not so much a place of the active, real, present rule of God.
Perhaps most disappointing was the covering of the evangelical viewpoint. The few churches mentioned were Lakewood Church (28K folks in a basketball arena in Houston), Saddleback and Ted Haggard's New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Most of the time was spent with Haggard, the president of the National Assoc of Evangelicals and footage from the charismatic New Life Church. Haggard described an evangelical somewhat accurately (belief in Jesus, the Bible and the new birth) in words familiar to evangelicals, but did not communicate/translate well those terms for Ms Walters or a broader audience. His response that one must be "born-again" to go to Heaven is not wrong per say, but he did not explain anything about our view of sin, salvation, heaven as the Kingdom of Christ, and very little about Jesus being the focus and treasure of the life to come. Walters of course asked if you have to believe in Jesus to go to Heaven and Haggard's response was that faith in Christ is the only sure way. Others would have to work it out on their own (what is meant by that, I'm not sure as no clarification was given). He was more forthright in saying that Hell is a reality for those without Christ to which Walters showed a predictable skepticism (Jews, Hidus, and Muslims don't believe that). All of this was woefully out of context - maybe due to Haggard's own inadequate explanation, maybe something was lost on the editing floor.
I found myself wanting another voice for the "evangelical" position. I thought "How about Randy Alcorn?" who just wrote a book on the topic. What about John Piper, who has studied deeply at the wells of Jonathan Edwards, one of America's finest theological minds on Heaven (See his Heaven is a world of Love). Or even a Christian apologist like JP Moreland, William Lane Craig, or Lee Strobel would have been a much better choice in my mind. Overall, here is what I wanted to say about the matter:
Barbara, what we believe about Heaven is this. First, it is not a place that is an end to itself, it is the restoration of all things to God, his established rule and reign on a renewed earth forever. Jesus Christ will be Heaven's ruler, the government of Heaven will be by a perfect, loving, king who is God in flesh. He himself will be heaven's treasure, not the streets of gold, not the lack of disease, not the lack of tears. Our tears are dried because he has defeated evil and death and disease. He has brought about an eternal age of joy and hope and peace for his people. In this life we all have a sense of longing in our hearts, a desire for a world much different than this one. We realize that there is something woefully wrong, something fractured and incomplete about this life, even our own selves. Jesus tells us that this world is under a curse by God due to our sin. We are all alienated from God and one another due to our own evil doing. Jesus tells us that it is the heart of people that is the source of pain, brokenness, and evil in the world. This heart needs to be forgiven and changed. Human beings need reconciliation to a loving God against whom they have sinned and rebelled. All of us who sin (all of us) and do evil will answer to a just and good God - this is a dreadful reality and truth. There will be no bribes, payoffs, hot shot lawyers to mediate between sinners and a just God...yet God in his grace and mercy sent Jesus to die a bloody, brutal death on the cross - to be crushed, so that we would not face the just judgment of God for our own evil. His displeasure against our sin was poured upon Jesus so that we could be forgiven and free for relationship with God. All who believe and trust this Jesus - believing that he has died for them, those who turn from their sin to him in a trusting relationship are reconciled to God in this life. We then follows this Jesus in his purposes on earth (service to the poor, preaching of the good news of his Kingdom, preaching his work on our behalf, reconciliation to one another and God, working for justice in this age) until he brings about the eternal Kingdom of Heaven in the last days. This Kingdom has come with Christ, continues through his sovereign rule of all things, and in his people on the earth. This Kingdom will be consummated at the end of time with his complete renewal of all things. Barbara, this Jesus will rescue people from every tribe, tongue and language, and religious background on the earth. I could tell you stories of my friends who are converted high caste Brahman Hindus. Or Muslims who have come to Jesus under great threat to job, social status, and execution in lands where there is no religious freedom. I could tell you of thousands of Chinese coming to this Jesus every day, of Messianic Jewish congreations deeply in love with Messiah, and I can tell you my own story - one of a cocky physics student who did not believe in Jesus - who was saved on the campus of UNC Chapel Hill in 1992. His purpose for this life is to redeem and change people, from enemies of God to forgiven sinners. Sinners who treasure is Christ and whose treasure in eternity will be the same Jesus - only clearly seen and whose benevolent rule will be absolute and wonderful.Oh, what a glorious place Heaven will be - a place where we see Christ face to face (1 Corinthians 13), a place where tears are gone (Revelation 21), where we will worship him together - black, white, asian, semitic, arab, all peoples (Revelation 5), and where our deepest longest and greatest thirst are satisfied (Revelation 22:17). Your Kingdom Come...Yes, Come Lord Jesus. ....
Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood addresses the TNIV
Behold the Lamb
A different sort of holiday CD
Andrew Peterson - Behold the Lamb of God
Peterson is a refreshing voice in the wilderness of evangelical shallowness. His lyrics are honest, have depth, theological contours, and a sense of beholding someone wonderful. Christmas and Church - Vote Now
Just for fun - A very non-scientific power of change poll:
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Spread your DNA - see links on this site
Looking around this "childless web site" shows some interesting links - check out the following - Baby Not on Board | Links
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