Should You Protect & Defend the Word?
I recently had a discussion with a rather popular Christian blogger. In this discussion we disagreed on something. His stance was that we as Christians should not defend the Gospel that instead the Gospel would always prevail simply because it was well the Gospel. I disagreed and said that I thought that Paul would also disagree. With his letters to the churches in Galatia in which he did nothing but protect the Gospel and how it set us free. He didn’t really respond to me after that. I say that because I think this whole Rob Bell “Love Wins” thing is bringing that up and I feel like there are a lot of Christians who whether they agree with what Rob is saying or not don’t want others to speak against him. They think it’s the most...
No Fear of Conviction
I bought and read the book “Radical” by David Platt. It was awesome. You can read the book review on my other blog on March 12th (that’s when the book review article is scheduled) at www.MenRising.com I’m not going to review the book here, but after reading it I felt like a light had been turned on in my head, and I fell under great conviction. In short, get it, read it, and see if you are not equally challenged by it. Here I am, at least a week removed from reading it, and I am beginning to make decisions now based on the convictions of that book. Then it hit me, why do people seem to fear making a stand and fear the possibility that others might fall under conviction of the Holy Spirit about something they aren’t doing that...
Radical – the book by David Platt
Has anyone read this book yet? I have read the first chapter as it’s free online if you go to their website HERE. Just scroll down to the bottom, enter your email address, and it gives you a .pdf file of the entire first chapter of the book. Right now, budget issues are just a bit tighter than normal, so I haven’t rushed out to buy this book yet, but it’s on my radar now. This book was suggested to me by a friend, and so I went to look it up and that’s how I came across the website and the first chapter. Incredibly, David Platt is only 32 years old (or so the website says) and a pastor of a mega-church “not too far” away from here (about 1 1/2 hours) just this side of Birmingham. As I read the first chapter I was...
What keeps you from loving?
I’ll admit it there are some Sundays I don’t like my pastor. Some Sundays he stands at the front of the congregation and gently nudges us along. then other Sundays I worry someone is going to ask “Is that your blood?” and I would respond “Some of it,yeah” (note: Fight Club reference). Yesterday was one of the later both for me and for people I know who I believe and profess to be Christians. We are going through Galations and this week we finished up Chapter 3 and went a little into chapter 4. Galations 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. The preacher drove home that it should be easier to befriend and be in relationship with a...
Men of the Church
Great video sent to me from Just Jim. He feels like a less abrasive Mark Driscoll. “Church Planter” by Darrin Patrick from Crossway on Vimeo.
Extraordinary Faith
Teaching the kids at AWANAs tonight about the faith of Abram (not yet Abraham). He was told by God to leave his country, his kin, his people, his way of life and everything that made him feel secure and comfortable behind and go to a land where everything would be different for him. Not easy today, but imagine the leap in Bible times, and the disconnect he was being asked to make from everything that made him who he was. Fear did get the best of him on at least one occasion, and in the famine that came he fled to Egypt, but this only serves to remind me that he is no different than us. No less human, yet his faith was extraordinary. Thus the question: What makes faith extraordinary? I could try to be cliche and say God is the little extra in the ordinary,...