Category: Christian Worldview

Free audio for you to take advantage of

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Here are some free things for you to investigate and one that’s worth the price for your own nourishment.

John Lennox (M.A., Ph.D., D.Phil.,), Research Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science and Pastoral Advisor at Green College, University of Oxford recently gave a seminar on God and Richard Dawkins, which is now being offered online at BeThinking.org

For a little background, Lennox debated Dawkins last October in Birmingham, Ala. The debate was sponsored by Fixed-Point Foundation, which now offers videos of the event. Both men debated points from Dawkins’ book, “The God Delusion” before an audience of Christians and atheists. Even though this is not a free resource, I would strongly encourage you to see the debate because Lennox pokes all kinds of holes in the arguments Dawkins makes in his book while giving a vigorous defense of Christianity.

My personal connection with this is that Larry Taunton, the founder and executive director of Fixed-Point Foundation, and his wife Lauri are good friends of my wife and mine who we’ve known since high school. Larry and his family were gracious hosts of my in-laws last fall during the debate. But even without that connection, I would still strongly endorse the video. As a followup, Fixed-Point will be sponsoring a debate between Dinesh D’Souza and Christopher Hitchens in September. Hitchens, you may remember, is the author of “God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.”

In His Own Words
And, if you are itching for some more great audio, then you should head over online to ChristianAudio.com and download Martin Luther: In His Own Words (unabridged). From the site:

Each month christianaudio.com gives away a premium audiobook download for free. The way our Free Audiobook of the Month program works is like this: we give away one audiobook download each month totally free. The audiobook we give away is available for free only once – ever.

Use the coupon code MAY2008 to redeem this month’s free audiobook download from christianaudio.com

There are other great free sources out there, but this should be enough to get you started. More later.

HT: Justin Taylor and Tony Kummer

Playing by the rules

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petitionTo go a little different route, here’s an article I came across today from the National Review Online detailing the lengths groups which claim to be civil rights advocates will go to curtail views that are different from theirs.

The subject of the article is the battle to redefine marriage in California. While the state has already passed legislation defining marriage as between one man and one woman, opponents have enlisted the courts to overturn the law. A new measure is now being placed on the ballots by way of petition. This has led to vigorous opposition:

This, in turn, led to an increasingly desperate and hostile attempt to block the efforts of petition-gatherers. Brian Brown, the director of NOM who has moved back to California (where he was raised) to help the campaign, explains that a group called Equality for All reports more than 1,000 volunteers (some from out of state) for their “Decline to Sign” campaign, while there are only about 200 petition-gatherers working in the state.

The anti-amendment group solicits reports of petition-gatherers’ whereabouts, and then sends volunteers to where the gatherers are working. These volunteers are ostensibly persuading voters that the amendment is a bad idea. Brown notes, however, that they are beginning to document reports of petition-gatherers being physically blocked, yelled at, and intimidated. These complaints have become frequent. Brown admits that the day and night efforts to keep voters from getting an amendment on the ballot have made the process more difficult.

Interference with signature-gathering is illegal in California. As Gallagher points out, there is a sad irony in “civil-rights” organizations trying to prevent Californians from exercising one of their most basic rights.

To read the entire article, go here.

Battling with compassion

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Jonathan EdwardsAs I continue to think about the recent series of sermons being preached at my church, Berean Bible Church, I dwell on the image of the battleship and what that means for my life. Today, I have been thinking about Jonathan Edwards and his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”

A few weeks ago in Sunday school we were talking and it came up in discussion that Edwards’ sermon was something that everyone should read. We are fortunate in this age of the Internet that things like that are only a click away. If you are unfamiliar with Edwards, you can always go to Wikipedia, where you can learn about him. About his famous sermon, you’ll find:

This sermon was the very embodiment of a traditional “Hellfire and Brimstone” sermon of the Great Awakening. Edwards’ invoked horrific imagery with the intention of persuading his audience through fear of their own damnation. This sense of fear was apparently so great that during the sermon, according to Stephen Williams (a witness who recorded the events of the sermon), Edwards had to ask for silence from the overwhelmed crowd so that he could finish. When performing this sermon, Edwards would read it in a quiet, calm voice that commanded silence from the audience. Any disturbance would have been noticed, making it easier to gauge the reaction of the congregation as a whole. The subject matter of this sermon was not uncommon for Edwards. Invoking Hellish images was part of a greater arsenal of Gospel topics that Edwards commonly used throughout his catalog of sermons.

But in this day and age, “Hellfire and Brimstone” doesn’t go over well. We are told to love people, not scare them. But if you read through “Sinners,” you will see that making people aware of the existence and the clear path to it we all face is ultimately a loving act. How?

In his message “Two Motives for Missions, Or One?” John Piper explains that compassion pursues the rescue of perishing sinners. If we are truly loving, we cannot go about us each day with blinders on as people are perched on the precipice of hell.

We are battling sin and Satan and hell not just for ourselves, but for the glory of God. When we, out of compassion, work to rescue perishing sinners we bring glory to God by not by just warning them away from the punishment of hell but by luring them to the pleasure of Christ.

Go to battle. Do it for love and the supreme satisfaction of knowing Christ.

For a great talk about Jonathan Edwards and his life, go here.

Stand firm in Christ

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1

It is a hard thing to imagine standing against all that you live for, unless you know Someone greater than that. This Bible for Life spot from the ESV is a powerful reminder that God is greater than all.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

John Piper says “Don’t Waste Your Pulpit”

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First of all, I am not a pastor. I will say this: I am glad that my pastor values the word of God and does take time every Sunday to explain it to us. In the clip below, John Piper exhorts pastors to preach God’s word and not their own thoughts. It is a tragic thing when churches become places of topical discussion when we know that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing though the word of Christ.”

HT: Provocations and Pantings

What have we received that God has not given?

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Who\'s money?Like many, we will be receiving a check from the government that is a tax rebate. This “economic stimulus package” is supposed to help us revive our economy. There is always the urge to look at this as “free money” and then decide how we will spend it. For many, it will go towards debt relief, another sign of how we live in this country.

John Piper adds another option for us as we live our comfortable lives and also gives us pause about where our hearts may reside:

But do we really need this money? Very few do. We would have gotten on fine without it. If we didn’t know it was coming, we wouldn’t even be feeling the desires we are feeling right now.

May I encourage you to be radically creative and hedonistic. Jesus said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). And those crazy Macedonians in a “severe test of affliction” and in “extreme poverty” had an “abundance of joy” that overflowed in a “wealth of generosity.” They even begged Paul “for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints” (2 Corinthians 8:2-4). They really believed what Jesus said. Really.

Before the check comes dream of some person or ministry which might make much of Christ because you treasured him above your next home project.

Read the whole thing. And then think again about how much God is your treasure.

Don’t Waste Your Life: Wartime Lifestyle

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We have been talking at church recently about being on a battle ship rather than on a cruise ship. They have been powerful messages and I think timely.I have heard John Piper speak often about living a wartime lifestyle. Here is a podcast from Don’t Waste Your Life where he explains further.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

AWANA awards night

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Last night was Awards Night at our church’s AWANA program. AWANA? What is it, you say? AWANA is a program for children that, according to its Web site, “helps parents and churches worldwide raise children and youth to know, love and serve Christ.” Go follow the link to find out more about it, it’s quite the program.

Because I work evenings, I don’t help out there. My son is involved as a clubber (like in a member of the club) and my daughter volunteers. Every Wednesday, dozens of kids show up at church to play games, listen to an adult tell them how to live as a Christian and learn verses from the Bible. If they learn enough verses or complete enough assignments from their workbook, they earn things. Not that learning the precious word of God is a bad thing, but AWANA is there to make Bible memory a fun thing. And these kids have fun.

Maybe I worry too much, but I pray the verses these children are learning are sinking into their hearts and making them tender for God. I think it does happen because every year there are children who will come to Christ. It is a beautiful thing. But, like anything, there are those whose hearts remain hard. The fun and games keep their minds from the hard truth that they are sinners in desperate need of a savior. After all, how much fun is it to know that you are doomed to hell unless you come to Christ?

It is a delicate job trying to keep 20-30 children happy while also getting them to learn what God says about who He is and what that means for them. I am thankful for the adults who volunteer their time to listen to children recite verses or give them counsel. It’s important because there are many kids whose only relationships with Christians occurs on Wednesday nights.

So I sat and watched all these children receive awards for their work (or lack of work, in some cases) during the year. My prayer for these children, my own included, would be that these years in AWANA aren’t pushed aside when they are too old to be clubbers but that they are treasured as a time when their thirst for God and his word increased and they turned to the Bible.

Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! — Psalm 119:1

Appreciating and thinking deeply

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The small things made by a big God
Because of personal connections, I have been made aware that this is National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week. While I appreciate people who turn a keen eye on small things and handle things (bodily fluids) that would make most of us squirm, the main reason I’m bringing this up is because my wife is a lab professional. I deeply appreciate her ability to keep a calm perspective when others (like me) might not be thinking as clearly. It takes all types to get things done and she is the kind of person who — and this is often a great burden for her — pays heed to the details without letting her emotions overcome her judgment.

Thinking about my wife, it makes me thank God that he gives us minds to think deeply on things. As with her work, we can think deeply on the tiny, small things God has made us with and be amazed at the way we are designed. Even as I sit here, I can look out my window and see the purple flowers budding from the trees in the front yard, swaying gently in the breeze while birds sing and bees hover from blossom to blossom, doing the work God intended for them. Those things, small and big, obvious and hidden, are there even though we often don’t give them a second thought. Why not? Well, there are countless thoughts that shove them out of the way — where am I supposed to be in the next half hour, what am going to have for supper, what is the next thing on my list of things that I need to do.

That’s not shallow thinking, but it doesn’t often lend itself to a sense of wonder either. So, while I’m appreciating those who look at the small things and think deeply about them, I will force myself to think deeply about how great God is and how wonderfully he has formed the world around me.

Remember Easter?

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There are a lot of things going on this week, and it seems like Easter — the time of year where we mark the death of Jesus on behalf of mankind — has been pushed to the background. That’s not just sad, that’s tragic.

Today there will be countless number of people in this country gathered around television sets (or else distracted by them, if they are at work) watching to see if the right teams won so they can fill out their brackets. In our city, many kids looked forward to this week so they could not have school for several days in a row. Earlier this week, on Monday, many people honored the life of a follower of Christ by doing things that didn’t honor Christ. Millions of people are planning their evening to watch what will happen next to a group of people who exist only the minds of a group of television writers.

Living in the United States of America in 2008 means you can be a Christian, but please don’t push it in anyone’s face. But think about what this week of history means in our lives. If Jesus Christ had just lived a perfect life some 2,000 years ago and then just died, it wouldn’t have meant a thing. He was born to die a horrible death for our sins. And then, to show that God accepted that sacrifice, he rose from the grave. That’s the important part. Without it we’re just fooling ourselves and are living a lie.

Do you ever get a chill when you think about something that almost happened but didn’t? Well, without Christ’s death and resurrection we were all doomed to God’s wrath and to hell. You know, everlasting punishment for disobeying God. Think about that and shudder. Think about it and be jarred from the sleepy walk off a cliff called American pop culture. There is more to life than college basketball, St. Patrick’s Day, spring break, television, family visits and on and on.

Set you gaze on Jesus Christ and his perfect sacrifice. Think about the utter emptiness of this life without him. Realize that everything we’re looking for to fill up this empty void of our lives in fulfilled in him. Consider Jesus. Trust him. Treasure him.