Monday, April 30, 2007

Plagiarists, beware

Who, me?

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OK Kids - 5000 years of Middle East history...right before your very eyes

Click on it...very interesting.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Why the increasing animosity towards Christianity?

Is it possible that a dearth of Christ-like characteristics -- such as integrity, holiness, forgiveness, compassion -- among believers is turning off "the world" to Christianity? Surely not.


OneNewsNow.com recently asked its Internet readers: What is the primary cause of the increasing animosity toward Christianity?

Readers said:

Anti-Christian media (39.58%)
Liberal public education (30.61%)
Political correctness (13.59%)
Indifference to religion (11.63%)
Anti-Christian politicians (4.59%)

On the Mississippi talk-radio show that I host, I asked the audience if a sixth answer might be appropriate. How about "Christians"? Could believers themselves be the primary cause of the "increasing animosity"?

OneNewsNow's poll was unscientific by polling standards. So were the answers to the talk show inquiry. But that day on the airwaves, 100% agreed that the Church has caused negative perceptions by:

  • Lackadaisical response and/or silence in the face of national moral decline
  • Mirroring the world's values
  • Rank hypocrisy -- we talk a good talk, but our walk is well worth criticizing
  • Powerless living
  • Anemic involvement in addressing the nation's problems

Is there an antidote to the Church causing loathing among the wider populace?

The audience thought so -- integrity, for starters. Talk holiness, but live it even more. Forgive those who wrong you and wrong the culture. Reach out to the unlovable and the "untouchables" of our age with Christ-like compassion. Quit saying that prayer is the most important thing and act like it really is. Be humble.

Like most talk-radio conversations, it all came out a little choppy. But there is wisdom here.

I once participated in a televised, four-person panel discussing my community --
Jackson, Mississippi. The city council was in disarray as the president of the council and another councilman were headed off to jail. The council president, for his part, had made a behind-the-back deal with a strip club for the purposes of a re-zoning ordinance, was caught and found guilty of the crime, and was subsequently sent to a correctional facility.

The moderator, a local newscaster named Katina Rankin, looked at me during the give-and-take and, trying to get a rise out of me, asked, "Matt, whose fault is all of this?"

Mission accomplished. I suddenly became agitated. My face began to get red and I prepared to launch into a tirade about how we are a nation of laws and how the city council president had looked at that law, trampled on it, and tried to get some cash flow he had no right to have as a public official. If we were looking for culprits there was only one place to put the blame -- smack dab in the council president's lap as he sat in his well-deserved jail cell.

That is what I was going to say.

But I never got the words out. One of the panelists sitting next to me was a gentleman named John Perkins -- author, teacher, community developer, national evangelical leader, Christian statesman. As my index finger stiffened and my blood pressure rose, I prepared to answer Ms. Rankin when Dr. Perkins intervened before I got a word out.

"It's my fault," he answered Rankin.

All heads, quizzically, turned his way.

"I have lived in this community for decades as a Bible teacher," he said. "I should have been able to create an environment where what our council president did would have been unthinkable because of my efforts.

"You want someone to blame? I'll take the blame."

You could have heard a pin drop. Part of the silence was mine as I reflected on my own lack of involvement.

Whose fault? Our fault. And that is something we can change.

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Your worldview - TC or ID? G or F? B or Q? C or L?

From Marvin Olasky...discerning worldviews.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Tuesday morning evangelistic smack-down, #27

A leadership seminar by Paul:

Luke summarizes Paul’s teaching in Acts 20:18-35, which can be read out loud in 2 minutes and 10 seconds. In other words, we have here less than one-half of 1 percent of Paul’s teaching content, even assuming it was a short one-day seminar. So from one perspective, we could say we have ended up with but a brief summary of the high points that seemed important to Luke. Or, from another perspective, we could say we trust that the Holy Spirit, who inspired Luke as he was writing Acts, guided Luke supernaturally to select the exact items that would be the most important for the leaders of the church through the ages. Let’s move on this latter assumption.

As I read it, it looks as though the seminar could have been divided into four sessions, all of which are important for Christian leaders in all places at all times:

· Session 1: Striving for a servant’s heart (Acts 20:17-21)

· Session 2: Counting the cost of discipleship (Acts 20:22-24)

· Session 3: Guarding against counterfeits (Acts 20:25-31)

· Session 4: Turning the church over to the nationals (Acts 20:32-35) (Peter Wagner, Blazing the Way, 197-200)


Urban Evangelism

Rodney Stark (Christianity Today, 6/15/98; Christian History, 5/30/01) talks about how the early Christian community “outlived the pagans.” Part of this was the urban sanctuary the Christians offered.

Greco-Roman cities were terribly overpopulated. Antioch in Syria, for example, had a population density of about 117 inhabitants per acre—more than three times that of New York City today. Tenement cubicles were smoky, dark, often damp, and always dirty. On the street, mud, open sewers, and manure lay everywhere. Newcomers and strangers, divided into many ethnic groups, harbored antagonism that often erupted into riots. For these ills, Christianity offered a unifying subculture, bridging divisions and providing a strong sense of common identity.

  • To cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity and hope.
  • To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate fellowship.
  • To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family.


Why was Paul a “tentmaker” when he didn’t have to?

  • Credibility: Paul says twice (1 Cor. 9:12; 2 Cor. 6:3ff) that he works in order not to put an “obstacle: in the way of the gospel. He tries to give the Gentiles no reason to distrust his motivation. He does not want to be classes with exploiters of audiences. He gets nothing, it costs him.

  • Identification: Paul is known for adapting to cultures…including the lower classes. A skilled artisan was somewhere in the lower middle (I Cor. 9:19ff). He would have had to immerse himself in the marketplace to gain the trust of the artisans and laborers. His identification would not be phony…he genuinely earned his living. This would be, of course, an imitation of the incarnational Jesus (Phil. 2:5-11).

  • Modeling: Paul, generally, would model the holy life of one living in an unholy world. “He lived a holy life in the same immoral, idolatrous, cesspool society where he expected converts to live holy lives.” He would do the same, more particularly, with a Christian work ethic.

    “With toil and labor, we worked night and day that we night not burden any of you, and to give you an example to follow.” (I Thess. 3:8) Work would not be optional for new believers. He would turn thieves, idlers and drunkards into good providers for families and generous givers to the need (I Cor. 6:10-11; Eph. 4:28; I Tim 5:8). More importantly, Paul established a pattern for lay ministry…all converts were to be full-time, unpaid evangelists in their places of work, extended households and cities, villages. Perspectives, Ruth Siemens


A witness, not a lawyer

”As a lawyer for God, putting up his case, I was a failure. As a witness for God, telling what he had done for me, I was a success. As in a flash I saw my calling: I was to be a witness! It was bitter medicine, bitterly and publicly administered, but I took the medicine and found it cured me of illusions. I would not be God’s able lawyer, but I would be a witness to grace. And I have been a witness - a witness before princes and peasants, before Brahmans and outcastes, before the mighty and the miserable of what Christ has done for an unworthy recipient. I have found that this is what people want to hear – testimony of what has happened and is happening to you.” (
E. Stanley Jones, Song of Ascents)


Bible help

Want help in Hebrew and Greek insights. You are missing out if you haven’t discovered the Blue Letter Bible online. http://www.blueletterbible.org/


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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Newsweek: Rick Warren vs. atheist Sam Harris

Newsweek magazine has a transcript of the debate. Read it.

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Excellent resource

Rick Warren podcast. Great idea generator.

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Friday, April 06, 2007

What Jesus saw from the Cross


James Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836-1902)
What Our Saviour Saw from the Cross
Gouache, 1886-1894
The Brooklyn Museum
Hat tip: Locusts and Honey

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Which Church Father are you

OK - it is the weakest survey of this sort I have ever seen (and I have seen some weak ones!). Still...try it for fun.
You are St. Justin Martyr!

You have a positive and hopeful attitude toward the world. You think that nature, history, and even the pagan philosophers were often guided by God in preparation for the Advent of the Christ. You find “seeds of the Word” in unexpected places. You’re patient and willing to explain the faith to unbelievers.

Check out St. Justin Martyr: The First and Second Apologies for more information on St. Justin Martyr.

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Thursday, April 05, 2007

The Passover Seder

Our church celebrates a Passover meal together, including the Christian insights that can be gained if you accept Jesus as Messiah. At any rate, enjoy these. Christian insights in the second part of three and part four:







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Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Tuesday morning evangelistic smack-down, #26

Here’s why we grew so wonderfully in the beginning
Let me state my thesis: Central doctrines of Christianity prompted and sustained attractive, liberating, and effective social relations and organizations. I believe that it was the religion’s particular doctrines that permitted Christianity to be among the most sweeping and successful revitalization movements in history. And it was the way these doctrines took on actual flesh, the way they directed organizational actions and individual behavior, that led to the rise of Christianity.” (Rodney Stark, The Rise of Christianity)


The Scent of Love
"In his book The Scent of Love Keith Miller proposes the reason why the early Christians were such phenomenally successful evangelists. It was not because of their charisms – such as the gift of speaking in tongues – and not because Christianity was such a palatable doctrine (to the contrary, it is about the unpalatable doctrine there is) but because they had discovered this secret of community. Generally they did not have to lift a finger to evangelize. Someone would be walking down a back alley in Corinth or Ephesus and would see a group of people sitting together talking about the strangest things – something about a man and a tree and an execution and an empty tomb. What they were talking about made no sense to the onlooker. But there was something about the way they spoke to one another, about the way they looked at one another, about the way they cried together, the way they laughed together, the way they touched one another that was strangely appealing. It gave off what Miller called the scent of love. The onlooker would start to drift farther down the alley, only to be pulled back to this little group like a bee to a flower. He would listen some more, still not understanding, and start to drift away again. But again he would be pulled back, thinking, I don’t have the slightest idea what these people are talking about, but whatever it is, I want a part of it.” (M. Scott Peck, The Different Drum, Simon and Schuster, ’87)


Second Generation Leadership
Chapter 9 describes the conversion of Paul, whose ministry dominates the rest of Acts. In fact from now on, except for the pioneering work by Peter in the home of Cornelius, these newer leaders are the standard-bearers of the advance of the kingdom.

  • As we noted above, they become initiators while the apostles become verifiers. In a beautiful sequence Peter and John follow the lead given by Philip and preach the gospel in many Samaritan cities (8:25).

  • We can detect a certain hesitancy to change among the older established leaders, which is natural.
  • Thus, when there is an evangelistic harvest in Samaria by Philip, Peter and John are sent to check things out.
  • Peter later resists the message to go to the home of Cornelius (10:9-23).
  • When Paul tries to join the Christians in Jerusalem, he is accepted only after Barnabas intervenes before the apostles on his behalf (9:26-27).

  • When the gospel is preached later in Antioch among Gentiles, the Jerusalem11:19-24).


The good thing is that in each of these four instances of groundbreaking changes within the church, the apostles accept the changes after giving them due consideration. Our passion for obedience to God and his ways should make us careful about naively accepting every change that comes along without examining them. But it is our passion for obedience that also enables us to accept the changes even though we may sometimes be uncomfortable with them. In this way we not only encourage healthy change and growth in the church, we also help develop new and creative leadership. The abiding principle we learn from this is that good leaders are open to change that comes from younger creative people and, after giving it proper thought, encourage such change and even learn from it. (Ajith Fernando, Acts – NIV Application Commentary)


How to enthuse a eunuch!

Philip went up to the chariot of the eunuch reading (then, Scripture was always read outloud…learning comes by hearing) a scroll (worth about $20,000 in 2002 dollars). The Ethiopian was a wealthy character…the chief treasurer, a trusted official. He was reading the Isaiah scroll.

  • In those days, a eunuch had both testicles and penis removed…which means he could not have been circumcised.So at the temple, he could only proceed as far as the Court of the Gentiles (which had a railing that said “No Gentiles may go beyond this line, if you do you will be responsible for your death which will ensue”).
  • The eunuch wants some help from Philip concerning Is. 53.They began there.
  • Perhaps they made it as far as 56:“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths who choose the things that please me and hold fast to my covenant – to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off.”
  • No wonder the eunuch got enthused! (Jim Fleming)


A God beyond our control…

“It can be pointed out that while there is no first-century evidence of the church in Ethiopia, nevertheless several early church fathers attribute to the eunuch the evangelizing of the region (cf. e.g., Irenaeus, Against heresies 3.12.8-10). We can only say, it may be so, and in any case the eunuch can be seen as a fulfillment of the psalmist’s words: “let
Ethiopia hasten to stretch out its hand to God” (Ps. 68:31). For Luke’s purposes, however, at least part of the point of this story is to show that with or without apostles, God was going to fulfill his plan to spread the good news to “all flesh” even unto the ends of the earth, even if it required using an evangelist rather than an apostle, and even if it required direct divine intervention in various forms. The human leaders of Christianity in Jerusalem could only try to catch up with the plan of God, which was operating often apart from and quite beyond their control.” (Ben Witherington, The Acts of the Apostles, 301)


How not to evangelize


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Monday, April 02, 2007

Kudos to Alabama and their biblical literacy...but we can all do better!

From an H.B. London (Focus on the Family) newsletter:

A new poll found that Alabamians were the most knowledgeable on some biblical basics. The Press-Register/University of South Alabama survey of 404 adults found that most Americans can't identify one of the four Gospels while 70 percent of Alabamians can correctly identify all four. More than 70 percent of the Alabama respondents knew where Jesus was born (Bethlehem) and nearly 90 percent correctly identified Jesus' words, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God," as coming from the Bible, cited Boston University professor Stephen Prothero.

Only 16 percent of respondents knew that President Bush's reference to the Jericho Road in his first inaugural address was the biblical parable of the Good Samaritan. Prothero was most troubled that 30 percent of respondents incorrectly attributed Benjamin Franklin's adage, "God helps those who help themselves," to the Bible. In Prothero's opinion, the phrase is opposed to the spirit of the Bible that teaches God helps those that cannot help themselves.

A key concern for Prothero, "is that we're not doing anything about the religious illiteracy problem, but we are ramping up religion in politics, so there's more and more of a gap between what American citizens know and what's going on in the political world."

Dean of the School of Christian Studies, Cecil R. Taylor, commented on "how biblically illiterate even students who come from Bible-believing, Bible-teaching churches are." Forty-one percent of the poll respondents said they wanted to learn more, while 59 percent said they possessed a "full understanding." Taylor said that within some Christian circles, "It's not how much you know, it's whether you believe."

Prothero said that for evangelicals it is about having a relationship with Jesus and feeling Him in your heart. For most liberal Protestants, it's doing — soup kitchens, social gospel and taking care of the poor. Neither is about knowing. Prothero said that in early American history, Christianity was about knowing — God gave us our brains; use them. God gave us the Bible that has truth in it; we should learn it. Prothero continued, "But, you know, I think that we're now in a phase...where there's more emphasis on loving Jesus than on knowing what he has to say."