Larry Norman and a musical interlude

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As I look at this blog I get a sense that you can sometimes overdo the video. That’s said, I’m going back to the video vault for a little refreshment for you all.

I saw this video a few months back after Larry Norman passed away. If you’re not familiar with Larry Norman, he was a guy who lived off the fringes of Christianity and then came to Christ. Larry was prone to be rough around the edges, but he spoke clearly for all to hear.

Larry, in poor health for several years, went to be with the Lord on Feb. 24 of this year. I would suggest checking in at ChristianDiscs.com to hear more of what Larry had to say. Musical tastes are personal, so I can’t say that everyone will appreciate the music he made. But I can say that his was a voice that deserves to be heard.

And now, a small dose of Larry Norman (with help from 77’s front man Mike Roe):

Do hard things. Don’t be sheeple

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Alex and Brett Harris

Alex and Brett Harris are two awesome teenagers who have written a great book called “Do Hard Things,” which is an attack against the tyranny of low expectations. Read more about them on their blog.

Love bears all

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I cry easily. The emotion is very close to the surface, you don’t have to scratch very far and it comes to the surface. But, that said, if you don’t feel something after watching this video, you should see if your heart is still there.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. — I Corinthians 13:7

HT: Irish Calvinist

Are you comfortable? Should you be?

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Last weekend, Cyclone Nargis raged through Myanmar, causing widespread damage and killing at least 22,000. Twice as many people are missing. Let that sink in. 22,000 people. Gone. And, there are thousands more who have not been found yet. From the Associated Press comes a report from Yangon, Myanmar:

Hungry crowds of survivors stormed the few shops that opened in Myanmar’s stricken Irrawaddy delta, where food and international aid has been scarce since a devastating cyclone killed more than 22,000 people, the U.N. said Wednesday.

Corpses floated in salty flood waters and witnesses said survivors tried desperately to reach dry ground on boats using blankets as sails. The U.N. said some 1 million people were homeless in the Southeast Asian country, also known as Burma.

“Basically the entire lower delta region is under water,” said Richard Horsey, Bangkok-based spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid.

“Teams are talking about bodies floating around in the water,” he said. This is “a major, major disaster we’re dealing with.”

Suffering is all around us. We can’t escape it. But we try hard. After all, I had a good night’s rest, woke up to see my family and live comfortably in a nice house. In my local paper, Myanmar is a place far away, buried on page 8. The message is clear: If it doesn’t happen in my back yard, it is filed way back somewhere in that category of tragedies that happen to people I don’t really know. Besides, we have problems of our own. We aren’t making money as fast as we used to be. It costs more money to put gas in our cars. Our lives are not as comfortable as they could be.

We all are happy to thank God for our blessings. But God did not bless us to live more comfortable lives. We are blessed so that we may bring more glory to His name and show that we live for him and not for our own comfort. Sometimes I need to ask myself, “Would I trust God as much if I didn’t have food, clothing, a house, my health?”

I came across this from John Piper about ways to react to the tragedy in Myanmar. These are all good things to consider. For a great meditation on why God allows suffering of this, or any, magnitude, read this. The point is, we can’t ignore suffering. See it, react and tremble before God.

Here’s one way to help right now: The American Red Cross

Mother’s Day and the Culture of Death

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Trig Paxson Van Palin

This coming Sunday is Mother’s Day, and we will take time out to honor the people who mean so much in our lives.

And while we will spend a lot of money and energy honoring our mothers, there will be those who will have great discomfort on this day. Some will be reminded that they had children and instead chose to end their lives through abortion. But we know that God is merciful and that there is forgiveness of sin and there can be restoration to those who come to him through Christ. After all, we are all tainted before him.

The picture included in this post is of Trig Paxson Van Palin, whose mother Sarah will be especially happy on this Mother’s Day. You see, Trig was born April 18 to Sarah and her husband Todd. Besides being a beautiful baby boy, he was also born with with an extra chromosome, which means he has Down syndrome. Albert Mohler picks up the story

The Palins never considered aborting the baby. That means that Trig Palin is now is a very rare group of very special children, because it is now believed that the vast majority of babies diagnosed with Down syndrome before birth are being aborted.

Modern diagnostic tests are driving a “search and destroy mission” to eliminate babies judged to be inferior, disabled, or deformed. Some experts now believe that up to 90 percent of all pregnancies diagnosed as having a likelihood of Down syndrome end in abortion.

Back in 2005, ethicist George Neumayr commented: “Each year in America fewer and fewer disabled infants are born. The reason is eugenic abortion. Doctors and their patients use prenatal technology to screen unborn children for disabilities, then they use that information to abort a high percentage of them. Without much scrutiny or debate, a eugenics designed to weed out the disabled has become commonplace.”

These kind of stories catch my attention because, first of all, I do not want to see any child’s life ended through abortion. Secondly, in my own family we have been blessed with a special child with Down syndrome. People like the Palins and my brother-in-law and his wife are heroes to me because they stand in the face of what our society tells us is right — that these children have a life that is not worth living.

So, be thankful for your mother and love this coming Sunday. But also love those around you. People who have made mistakes and now regret them. People who don’t understand but still need love. People who are living difficult lives but who are witnesses that God is great and we are all needy people.

Please don’t pimp your daughters

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This is a little late to the game, but I was reading a post over at the Boundless blog and I thought I’d give my two cents.

My kids watch television and much of that is the Disney Channel. I will say right now that it is not the best model for how kids should live their lives, and my kids know I think this way. I see children who are deceitful, disrespectful, lovers of the world and generally bratty. I am not entertained by children who think they are adults and scheme to get their way.

Contrast what you see today with a show like “Leave it to Beaver.” Is it outdated? Perhaps. But, you know what, it is also more honest because children talk and act like children and there is more of a true sense that children recognize what a family should be like. It doesn’t feel as manipulative as practically every show on the Disney Channel (or Nickelodeon, for that matter) does.
Just trust the camera, not your conscience

So, long introduction aside, we are now hearing all this buzz about a photo shoot that Miley Cyrus, star of “Hannah Montana,” did for Vanity Fair magazine. It’s racy and she admits it and is now telling everyone who’ll hear her how embarrassed she is about the whole thing. Her parents are upset and saying that she was used by Vanity Fair and the photographer.

Miley’s dad is Billy Ray Cyrus, the guy who sang “Achy Breaky Heart” back in the early 1990s and is now playing her dad on the TV show. This is where it gets uncomfortable. It is so easy to sit here and criticize him for letting this happen, but the truth is that Billy and Miley didn’t get here by accident. They kept creeping closer and closer until what would seem like a leap was just a little step. Hopefully, the shock of all this will keep them from going farther.

Is it wrong for a girl to bare her back? Well, let me ask this: For what reason did the phrase “come hither glance” come into use? Is this modesty at all? Is the point of our faith in Jesus Christ to look as much like the world so that we would be totally indistinguishable to anyone looking on? You may disagree with me, but if so, chew on those questions first and then let me know how you’d answer. Perhaps Miley is “confessing” how much the world looks attractive to her right now. The good thing is that at least there is a part of her that recognizes that and is responding.

Update: Read this post for more about how our culture looks at our daughters before you just shrug off the above as prudishness.

Come to Jesus

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Today was a great day at church, and it was something different. First of all, I had the opportunity to lead the first- and second-graders in Sunday school. Our lesson was based around the passage in Mark 2:1-11 where Jesus heals the man who is paralyzed, but not before he forgives the man’s sins.

The way the lesson went, we talked about what the man’s biggest problem was. He was paralyzed, but Jesus did something else first. He forgave him. Now, there are many ways you can look at that passage, and it’s a great one. What we talked about was that we have to realize that we have a need greater than anything we can see about our lives: our sinful hearts. And there is only one person who can heal us: Jesus Christ. So we all need to come to him. Whether he solves all the things we see as wrong with our lives is not as important as our heart problem.

Another thing we talked about, which fit in nicely with the main service, was the friends who lowered the paralyzed man through the roof so he could get to Jesus. These men didn’t heal him, but they did something great for the man. As part of our battleship series, we prayed for the list of people we call POWs — prisoners in the spiritual battle for our souls. Even though these images aren’t the same, the idea is in that we need to bring people to Jesus so he can save them. It’s not us, but God uses our efforts to save sinners.

I asked the boys and girls if there was something that was special to them that they could tell me about. I heard about special birthday presents, their pets, their family. We then talked about how Jesus is more special than any of those things. If that’s the case we should want to share him with those we meet. Otherwise, we are not loving. That is the goal before us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:6-8

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.