Fidelity

I finished Douglas Wilson's book 'Fidelity.' A friend of mine called me a heretic for reading Wilson. Wilson may be messed up on some important issues, but I have greatly benefited from his work on Marriage. This book is about what it means to be a one-woman man.

"We see that the key to keeping the marriage bed undefiled is contentment. Because God will judge, a man is commanded to be content with what he has. His wife's breasts are not like those of Miss February. So? God will judge. She can't make his orgasms last forever like those hot little numbers in the videos do. So? God will judge" (29)

"A man who does not have the gift of celibacy, and who is struggling to maintain his purity should get married at the first opportunity." (36)

"A flirtacious woman, a low-cut blouse, tight jeans, and a come-on look are all invitations to show contempt for God." (48)

"A wise man who loves the peaches at home does not want to shake any other trees." (53)

Emergent

Today at work, I had plenty of time to do some reading. I reread several articles by Don Carson, Al Mohler, John Hammett, David Mills, and N.T. Wright. It reminded me of a video interview that I had watched a while back. It is about ten minutes of interview between Brian McLaren, Scot McKnight, and Don Carson. I recently finished McLaren's 'A New Kind of Christian.' I bought this book because it was real cheap at Half Price Books, and my brother told me that I needed to read it if I was going to be discussing the emergent movement, which is true. McLaren is way off on several things, but I think we can learn some things from him. When I say 'we' I am mainly thinking of current or potential pastors and theologians who are founded in the Scriptures with a solid foundation of sound doctrine. McLaren is a good writer, and as my pastor recently said, 'When our emotions are engaged, our minds are less critical than when they are not.' As I watched the interview, I tried to place myself in the shoes of an American non-believer doused in postmodernity. I can't help but think that I would come away saying, "I like the way McLaren is thinking. That is Christianity." Of course a non-believer does not want to hear about the exclusivity of Jesus, or eternal torment ( and without these, the gospel is neutered). McLaren emphasizes that the church needs to be more concerned with doing good works, than being right about everything. His emphasis is 'kingdom-living.' You must eat the meat, and spit out the bones. His writing has a lot of bones, but some of the meat is top grade. Anyway, check out the video, and feel free to share your thoughts.

I recently posted about my desire to learn more about the Hebraic mindset of 1st century Jews. I recently finished 'Behold the Man! Discovering our Hebrew Lord, the Historical Jesus of Nazareth' by Dwight A. Pryor. It was okay. There some insights, but nothing profound. I actually read the workbook that goes with a DVD series that I don't have enough bread for. Here is a quote:

"We all wear culturally conditioned spectacles when we look at the life of Christ. Maybe they are 21st-century American White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) spectacles, or Irish Catholic, or Greek or Russian Orthodox spectacles. All these perspectives have value and contain elements of truth. But so much has been lost over the centuries-imortant Hebraic truths not seen or understood clearly-that the Lord is restoring in our day." (77)

Helpful post on what it means to be missional.

trip rundown

Wow. Our trip to the Evangelical Theological Society meeting was good! Most of the lectures (we listened to 13 total) were over our head, but good. It was a very scholarly event. The theme of the whole thing was the sufficiency of Scripture. To summarize all of it: Believe the Bible. It is sufficient for all faith and practice. We started the trip with Mohler bringing it from Luke 16. Very good. We got to meet him afterwards. Then we sat in Dr. Jason Lee's class on the theology of Luther. It just so happened that Thursday they were covering is work 'The Bondage of the Will.' It was an excellent class. Then we went to a seminar by Justin Peters. It was called 'A Call for Discernment.' He has Cerebral Palsy. This seminar was to expose the false teaching and ungodly methodology of faith-healers such as Benny Hinn, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland, Joyce Meyer, and others. He showed video clips that made me furious. He told us that Hinn lives in a 10 million dollar parsonage off of the Pacific Ocean, among other things that will make you want to kick Benny Hinn in the throat. His seminar was excellent! After the seminar, we went to the book store 'Theological Pursuits.' That was fun, but we didn't get anything. Thursday night we ended up crashing on Jacob Pittman's floor. Jacob was the definition of hospitable. He must be the nicest guy I have ever met. Friday morning, Chance and I went to a coffee shop to read. Our minds needed a break, so he read Don Miller, and I read Dan Kimball. The next day, we started the day off with Grudem addressing the sufficiency of Scripture and Evangelical Feminism. That man is brilliant! We ended up staying at the conference hotel on Friday night. As we were checking in, I jokingly asked the clerk to put us next to Grudem. She didn't know who he was. As Chance began to explain, I turned around and Dr. Grudem was standing right behind me. We got to visit with him for a minute. We ended up getting the room right beside him, and directly below Mohler. Later, Grudem came out and hollered at us because he didn't catch our names. We were both very impressed with his humility and friendliness. As Chance said, "Turns out these Godly men, live it." Later we heard lectures on the name and nature of Paul's apostolic authority by Dr. E. Earl Ellis, the authorial intent in Romans 4 and Galatians 3 by Aaron Morris, the sufficiency of Scripture and counseling by Dr. Mike McGuire, Mohler on sufficiency and Postmodernity. Then everyone was invited to Dr. Paige Patterson's house for refreshments. His library has 22,ooo books. Yes, that's 3 zeros. It felt weird to be in a 5 foot radius of Mohler and Grudem talking to each other, and Patterson with his wife. We just kind of stood around eavesdropping. Today we heard lectures on the sufficiency of the Mosaic Law by Dr. Jeff Griffin, baptists and sacramentalism by Dr. Lloyd Harsch, Mohler on sufficiency and sexuality (man, he is smart), Dr. Malcolm Yarnell on the sufficiency of Scripture for the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. We finished with Denny Burk on Inerrancy. We came away knowing that Sola Scriptura should still be in place, and that we have a lot of reading and learning to do.

I will be out for a few days. Me and my favorite cessationist Chance are headed back to Ft. Worth for the regional Evangelical Theological Society meeting at Southwestern Seminary. The topic is the sufficiency of Scripture with Earl Ellis, Al Mohler, and Wayne Grudem. It should be real good.

[I just noticed that the 'Pimp Your Name' site had some vulgar language on it that I didn't notice. Sorry if you were offended by this. I didn't read it before I posted it, which was foolish.]

Are You Serious?

When I came across this website, I could not believe it. Me and some of my friends used to joke about 'missionary dating', but the thought was never even close to being realistic, as it is unbiblical and about as wise as going bare-fisted with Roy Jones Jr. This girl has made an entire website, store, dating service, and message board, all dedicated to 'missionary dating.' I still think it is all a joke. Someone has too much time on their hands. My guess is that some girl had her heart broken by a guy who broke up with her after he read 'I Kissed Dating Goodbye' by Josh Harris. In turn, the girl was embittered, and developed an entire website to mock Christians in a sarcastic way. Here is a quote from her home page:
"Hello, my name is Tamara! As you can probably tell, I'm a Christian woman who loves Jesus Christ and cares for all humans, even the wicked. What you probably don't know is that I'm hot. My picture below isn't really that good. I want to use my beauty for GOD, and want to encourage Christian women (my sisters in Christ) to do the same, according to the Great Commission." It gets worse.
(HT: Protestant Pub)

For those of you who cannot wait for the 17th Left Behind book to come out, this will brighten your day. You can now order the PC game! You can now go rapture crazy!

I thought this was funny.
(HT: Scot McKnight)

Word is on the street is that Johnny Mac is republishing his study bible with the NASB text. I have the NKJV, so I won't bother with this one, but I sure wish mine was NASB, or better yet ESV. If you don't have a good study bible, this is one to have. I think this one, and the Reformation Study Bible (which I primarily use) are the two best on the market. MacArthur knows his stuff, but he has a dispensational slant and is an avid cessationist.

The Big Dance

March Madness is upon us. I love college basketball. I've got Duke, Texas, Memphis, Gonzaga, UConn, Illinois, North Carolina, Villanova, and Florida in the Elite Eight. I think Texas, Gonzaga, UConn, and Villanova will make it to the Final Four. Go ahead Jay, let me have it for putting UT over Duke. I know it is a fat chance, but it is possible. It should be a real good tourney. I would love to see Texas make it to the final, but I would also love to see North Carolina meet Duke. Neither will probably happen. I don't think Duke or UConn will win it though. We will see. Hopefully I won't spend too much time in front of the television.

holier than thou

This weekend I have been stacking up some major Christian points. I went to three different church services. Of course I am kidding about the Christian points. There is only one point that counts in the end and that is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. My fiancee and I went with her parents to Fellowship Church. This place is very big. I am not even comfortable calling it a church. It is more like an organization or business. Their store had form fitting t-shirts that said "Fellowship Church' across the front. Even the little cardboard things that you slip over coffee cups said fellowship church on them. It was way too commercialized, although I must admit I did enjoy the free Starbucks. They rebuilt their stage where it now contains a moshpit. Now the singers or preacher can get out in the middle of the crowd. I had been there one time before. I could never go or work there. Ed Young was out of town this week though. Instead we got a video sermon from Bill Hybles. Evidently this happens often. It was his message from the recent 'Creative Church Conference.' He was speaking to pastors. He set up his sermon with something like, "I want to share with you 4 things I would tell you about ministry if I were on my death bed. His points were 1. Create a vision and keep it clear 2. Engage your people 3. Make gatherings memorable 4. Prepare yourself for the long haul. Kind of ironic. He failed to mention what the apostle Paul would have mentioned, or did mention as he neared death. Paul told Timothy to "Preach the Word." I was saddened that this very influential man had a room full of young preachers and didn't mention anything about the Word, or preaching the Word. I don't know why I am surprised by this type of thing anymore.
This morning, we went to Providence Church. It is an Acts 29 churchplant. Their lead pastor Berry Keldie was out, but their guest speaker was great. He was a former Muslim. His testimony of God's faithfulness and providence was amazing. He was also very clear on the gospel. Tonight, we went to Matt Chandler's church The Village. He is preaching through Hebrews and tonight the text was Hebrews 5:11 to 6:12. And that means he had to deal with 6:4-6. Needless to say, it was a weighty message, but man was it good. He just straight laid it out, which I hadn't heard him do in a while. I really appreciated it and was spurred on by it.

Well, turns out that our hotel has internet so I thought I'd post some pics from our trip. Here is me giving Mr. Spurgeon a wet one on the cheek.
Here is Chance getting a little nauseated while reading some bad theology in the library at Southwestern. The book title is "Salvation through Participation." It was a mess.

Last night we got back from Ft. Worth. The conference was excellent! We heard lots of good preaching and lecturing about preaching. I was very encouraged, but a little overwhelmed by the amount of work these men put in on a weekly basis. I especially liked Dr. Jerry Vines and Dr. Mac Brunson. They both brought it. My view of preaching (especially expositional preaching), preachers, the SBC, and all of Southwestern Seminary was highly elevated. We also sat in Dr. Emir Caner's baptist history class. It was very good. I wanted to ask him some questions about some of his comments on Tom Ascol's blog, but never had the oppurtunity to. Lord-willing, we will be heading back in a few weeks for some lectures by Wayne Grudem and Al Mohler on the Sufficiency of Scripture. Shoud be good stuff. It made me real excited about being at Southern this summer! I am heading out of town again until mid-next week so I probably won't post anything until then. Peace!

I am going out of town for a few days, so I wanted to leave you with a laugh. Me and my buddy Chance are heading to Ft. Worth to go to an expository preaching conference at Southwestern Seminary. We will hit up Chandler's church 'The Village' on Sunday night. It should be good. Thanks to my friend Jamie Moore for the pic.

Humility

I finished C.J. Mahaney's book 'Humility' on Tuesday. Man, was it good! I will definitely read it again. It is pretty short and easy to read. He starts off by motivating us by the fact that "Our pursuit should be driven by the amazing promise that humility holds out to us: God gives grace to the humble!" He goes on to say that the ultimate purpose and motive of pride is "to rob God of legitimate glory and to pursue self-glorification, contending for supremacy with Him. The proud person seeks to glorify himself and not God, thereby attempting in effect to deprive God of something only He is worthy to receive." The book is very practical. "How we begin our morning so often sets the tone for the day. I'm convinced that the most decisive time of our day is very often our first waking moments, because they color everything to come...Begin your day by acknowledging your dependence upon God and your need for God..." "The end of the day offers us a unique opportunity to cultivate humility and weaken pride, as well as to sense God's pleasure. How? By reviewing our day and carefully assigning all glory to God for the grace we've experienced that day.....So don't just fall asleep tonight or any night. Seize this opportunity to mortify pride and cultivate humility by setting apart sleep as a holy gift from God, as a reminder of your full dependence on Him and as an occasion to examine your heart before Him." He later tells us to "Identify evidences of grace in others. This means looking for ways that God is at work in the lives of other people." Be sure and check out his list on how to kill pride and cultivate humility here.

Autistic Baller

A couple of days ago, my best man Dustin posted about an autistic basketball player. He was the manager for the varsity team. Coach let him in during the final home game, and he caught fire. He scored 20 points in about 4 minutes. Very cool story, watch it here.

Ed Stetzer

On Monday I finished 'Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age' by Ed Stetzer. It was very good. Of course you wouldn't enjoy it unless planting a church was a viable option for your future (as he is VERY practical and hands-on & it is long). He has a doctorate from Southern, and used to teach there before he moved over to help with the North American Missions Board. He emphasizes theology, encourages biblical models and principles, and focuses on being relevant to your surrounding culture, or being missional (sorry Mark).

"The concept of missio Dei, the mission of God, is recognition that God is a sending God, and the church is sent. It is the most important mission in the Scriptures. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of that mission; the Holy Spirit is the power of that mission; the church is the instrument of that mission; and the culture is the context in which that mission occurs." (22)

"There is no basis, biblically or theologically, for the territorial distinction of missions and evangelism." (28)

"Postmoderns do not want to hear about Christianity; they want to see Christianity in action." (141)

"Postmodern preachers don't populate the pews; they connect people to the living Christ. Postmodern evangelism doesn't say to the world, 'Come to the church.' Rather it says to the church, 'Go to the world.'"

"When the church exists for feeding believers only, those believers become spiritual sponges that absorb more and more knowledge. If those sponges do nothing but soak in a pool of their own learning, they eventually sour. An unchurched person can hardly feel welcome in such a setting." (268)

"All biblical preaching is expositional preaching." (276) "The church planter must allow the text to set the agenda and to address the issues." (277)