HARMLESS THOUGHTS

 This is my first desktop background for the year 2013.  This is a slogan from World War II, produced by the British Government, in case of German invasion.  Though there were several copies of the original poster  made, it never saw public display and was eventually forgotten.  It was rediscovered by a second-hand bookshop in 2000. For me, I think that it is a great slogan for 2013.  (It is at least a good background for January.) source unknown

Beautiful video, full of truth. New Film Premiere - I Like Adoption. from ILikeGiving.com on Vimeo . HT: Justin Taylor

I agree with John Piper's thoughts on the President's words : "Well said, Mr. President." Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy [ht: Denny Burk via John Piper]

Here is the flyer that I printed out for our school.   If you haven't donated yet, please consider giving to our High Poverty school. For a printable version:

If you have been following me for any amount of time, then you know I am a huge Google fan.  Two years ago, any mocking for being a Google fanatic was quelled when I received in the mail a free Chromebook from Google.  I was part of their Pilot Program and received one in the mail. Since that time, I have grown to love my Chromebook.  I use it everyday.  After two years of non-stop use, it is still as fast as it was when I first got it. A couple of days ago, I heard about a special offer from Google and DonorsChoose.org for $99 Samsung Series 5 Chromebooks for Public Schools.  This is an amazing deal!  The school where I teach in is high poverty, we are barely scraping by on one lab of old desktop computers.  We don't have ipads or even a mobile lab.  I quickly put my name in and was accepted before the time ran out. I am writing this blog post to beg for money.  I only need to come up with about $2600 to get 22 Chromebooks for my...

My wonderful wife bought me this book last year. This year Crossway with Desiring God is offering a fireside reading of this book.  Desiring God hopes to offer Hope for the Hurting This Christmas .  If you haven't read this book, this is a wonderful way to hear what it is all about.   John Piper reads "The Innkeeper" from Desiring God on Vimeo . To read my review of this book from last year, click here . To purchase this book on Amazon just go here,  The Innkeeper .

I just finished reading Killing Calvinism: How to Destroy a Perfectly Good Theology from the Inside . I found the title of this book to be alluring.  It snatched my attention from the first time that I heard of it.  It was on my watch list for books that I was hoping would go on sale eventually.  Strangely enough, when it did go on sale, it wasn't me that purchased it, but it was my wife who purchased this book. She saw it on the when she was browsing through the Kindle books and decided to pick it up.  I was surprised to see it listed with my books, but quickly started to read it. Like I said, the title of this book is what drew me in, but what kept me reading was the openness and honesty of the author.  From the subtitle, How to Destroy a Perfectly Good Theology from the Inside , I could tell that this book was going to deal with the reality of people's reaction to, what is popularly called, Calvinism, and the difficulty of relaying that truth to others. The...

Click to Read The new Nine Marks eJournal for November/December is covering the topic of Lay Elders.  I am looking forward to reading through this edition.  I always find their work to be both enlightening and encouraging. I noticed that it was titled, "... part 1" so I am hoping for more on this topic.  As I looked through the table of contents, I didn't find anything about my situation exactly.  It is mostly geared toward elders in the church who are also holding down a full-time job.  That is me, but the journal isn't really dealing with Lay Elders who are the only Elder in their church. It still sounds really interesting with articles titled: A Job Description for Lay Elders How Much Time Can a Lay Elder Give to Ministry? Raising Up Elders: Three Areas to Address Raising Up Elders: Four Foundational Principles Four Ways to Equip New Elders Besetting Sins of Lay Elders How Pastor Mark Passes Out Authority They have a printable pdf version...

I finished listening to Christian Audio's version of  Seeing Through The Fog: Hope When Your World Falls Apart , by Ed Dobson about two weeks ago, but I have been really busy and didn't have time to post a review. This was a very interesting book.  It is sort of a memoir of Ed Dobson's after he found out that he had ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.  ALS is a debilitating disease. As it progresses, more and more muscles lose their ability to work. This eventually leads to more and more important muscle groups ceasing to function, which eventually causes death.  ALS is, as far as I know, an incurable disease. In this book, Ed Dobson shares his struggles and thoughts on the disease and on struggling in general.  It was a very honest book.  It was easy to listen to, and you could sense the author's desire to be as transparent as possible.  He shared his ups and downs, the highs and lows.  His honesty was refreshing and enco...

I love to change my desktop background on my computer every so often.  I used to post my backgrounds on the blog, but fell out of the habit.  Thought I would pick this habit back up, I am not ready for my blog do die! Here is December's background... via 22 Words .  A little bit of a retro poster that goes along with my love of books.

Every once in a while I will be reading a book or listening to a speaker and I will hear a phrase that cuts me to the quick.  This morning I was listening to the Christian Audio version of Paul Tripp's new book, Dangerous Calling .  It was already challenging me with the openness of the author, but then he said something that stuck in my mind the rest of the ride.  He said that a Pastor's... "... preparation will regularly kidnap their devotional time." Whoa.  Absolutely guilty here.  I have even purposely done that. My excuse has usually come in the form of understanding that a Pastor's preaching should flow from their devotional time.  I don't necessarily think that my devotions should stand as a completely seperate entity, but I will quite often feel that I've spent some personal time with my creator if I have been studying for a sermon. Quite frankly, it is not the same thing. I only have the audio version right now, through Christian...

From the Desiring God Blog : On January 4, 2011, on Twitter, Pastor John wrote:  Marriage. The roots are deep. The covenant is solid. The love is sweet. Life is hard. And God is good .  The quote is a rewrite of what Pastor John wrote in 2003 to Noël in the preface to his book Desiring God .  But when the quote appeared on Twitter in 2011, a woman named Patty Hurtarte copied it into her journal with no immediate purpose for it. But almost two years later she returned to the quote, used her artistic skill to turn it into a design, framed it and gifted her illustration to her pastor and his wife, Joshua and Shannon Harris . I found these words felt especially profound after my Ordination Ceremony this weekend.  My wife has been with me every step of the way.  She makes everything special. Here is that design:

I made it into the Maranatha Baptist Bible College Catalog! I am on page 95 of the catalog.  I am in the Math Education section. I knew that they were thinking about putting me in there, but I hadn't heard whether or not they had actually done it.  I sent them my "teacher photo" from the school. Click this picture to read my little write-up.  (Or you can click here to look at the education section of the school's catalog and scroll down to page 95.)

I don't normally like to beg, but this book really interests me. I've been using the Khan Academy in my math classes for about 2 1/2 years.  I've seen it grow and change over that time, and it keeps getting better.  I would like to use it more, but trying to figure out how to incorporate it, isn't always as easy. (I have a Khan Academy setup page on our new School Staff page .   Click here .) Most teachers have limited time with their students.  We are always wanting more time, especially in math.  We can't always depend on students doing homework at home, so I've relied more and more on class time to help my students get their needed practice with a new concept.  The Khan Academy has been great for reviewing those basic concepts, the ones I don't have time for in class because I need them to practice the new concepts, but I feel like I could incorporate it even more. The Khan Academy even has several RTI ( Response To Intervention ) possibilities fo...

Every month Christian Audio has a free download for the month.  There have been several really good ones that I have downloaded over the past couple of years.  The free book for October 2012 is extremely timely though, so I would like to point all of you there. The book?   How Should Christians Vote by Tony Evans. I've always enjoyed Tony Evans on the radio.  I've never read anything that he has written, but he has always seemed quite sound in his teaching.  I haven't listened to this book yet, but I am willing to give it a try. If you download this book, let me know what you think.  I am currently listening to another one, so I probaly won't get to this one for another week or so.

John Calvin, commenting on Exodus 21:22-25: The fetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being (homo), and it is almost a monstrous crime to rob it of life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man’s house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light. [HT: Kevin DeYoung ] For me, abortion is not a political issue.  It is a life or death issue.  It is also a personal issue.  I can't agree with John Calvin more. Read Also: Three Moral Vote Four Decisions Made in a Pickup Truck 15 Pro-Life Truths to Speak (by John Piper)

I just finished the Christian Audio version of Don't Waste Your Sports by C.J. Mahaney.  It was free on Christian Audio for a short time.  I love free, so I couldn't help but snag this book. Don't Waste Your Sports was a short book.  Some of the chapters were only about 6 minutes long in the audio version.  The whole book took less than an hour to listen to.  That was OK though, the book was very to the point.  And, quite frankly, it is about sports, with the hope that athletes will read it.  So, not trying to be mean, but a short book might have been the best choice. I really enjoyed this book.  I am not a huge sports fan, so I have always been keenly aware of some of the negative aspects of sports.  Not being a good athlete myself, has also increased my sensitivity to the pride that reigns supreme in many good athletes. It was refreshing to hear many of those issues addressed directly in this book. I have to add, though, that because...

I have been reading, on a weekly basis, The Hidden Life of Prayer by David McIntyre. I have also been sharing some of what I have been learning with my church on Wednesday night prayer meetings. Near the end of Chapter 3, titled The Direction of the Mind, there was a poem that I felt.  Do you know what I mean by that?  I mean, really feeling a poem.  You feel it down deep because you have experienced what the author is describing.  I may not have actually written those exact words, but it felt like I did. I don't know if the poem had a title or not.  I am also not really sure who actually wrote it.  It is simply sitting at the end of a section about honesty in prayer.  Not only being open and honest before God, but also willing to hear the honesty from God as He might bring things to mind while you are praying.  Things you might have to deal with. I want to continue to give you the background to this bit of writing, but instead, I am just go...

I think God wants me to pray. I could have known this when Jesus told the parable about how we "ought always to pray and never lose heart."  Or what about when Paul says that we should "pray without ceasing." I could have picked it up from Paul as he was giving young Timothy some teaching about how we should be making all sorts of prayers for all sorts of people.  He later tells Timothy that the men (especially) should pray everywhere. I could have learned it from any of those passages, or a dozen others like them, but I didn't.  I learn most everything the hard way.  Through trials. It is through difficulties and challenges that I turn to God most diligently.  I wish it wasn't so... I really do, but I know that it is. Life has been fairly smooth for awhile now, but God has recently allowed me to face a couple of minor challenges.  These things have left me realizing, more than ever, the necessity of prayer in the Christian's life.  It is so ...

This is blog post number One Thousand Five Hundred One. I didn't realize I had posted so many times to this blog.  I started this blog September 2003, which means I have blogged, somewhat consistently for 9 years.  I can't even believe that blogging has been around that long.  It still seems like such a new thing to me. While I've been on this blog, I've lived in Indiana, South Carolina, and Illinois. I've taught at Faith Baptist Christian School of Lafayette, IN, Shannon Forest Christian School in Greenville, SC, Mauldin High School in Mauldin, SC, Blue Ridge Christian Academy in Landrum, SC, and Georgetown Ridge Farm High School and Mary Miller Junior High in Georgetown, IL. In addition to teaching, I've been a truck driver at three different moving companies.  I've traveled as far north as Connecticut and as far south as Miami.  I've also been a janitor and a pastor (which are surprisingly  similar) since I started blogging.  I've ...

This is a prayer for Edgewood Baptist Church , that was adapted from Psalm 27.  Feel free to pray this for us or for your own Church. The Lord is our Light and our Salvation. Who or what is there that we would fear? The Lord is the Stronghold of Edgewood Baptist Church. Is there anyone or anything that could cause us to be afraid? When Satan tries to discourage us. because of his desire to consume this Church, He may bring all manner of enemy against us. So much so that it will feel like an army in battle array against this Church. But We will be confident! And our hearts will not fear!  There is one thing that we are asking of you, Lord. Just one thing that we are seeking after. Our desire is your presence in this Church. We pray that this will truly be the house of the Lord, That we may live in your presence, not just today, but every day. We don’t want to miss your beauty or the beauty of your Gospel! May we come here to gaze upon it all the days of our lives....

I just finished the Christian Audio version of The Hole in our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung and read by Adam Verner. The full title of the book is The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness . The Amazon.com Description: The “hole in our holiness” is that evangelicals don’t look particularly holy, and, despite the flood of gospel-centered discussions, there seems to be a greater focus on personal depravity than on the pursuit of holiness. Looking to right the balances, Kevin DeYoung presents a popular-level treatment of sanctification and union with Christ, helping readers to see what matters most—being like Jesus. He shows how one can be like Christ in being joined to Christ. The market is ready for DeYoung’s timely book, ready to avoid legalism and ambivalence, and they are ready for someone to articulate the inextricable relationship between grace and holiness. I absolutely agree with the basis of this book. In my own circles of fr...

This image is from NASA's Image of the Day website.  Here is part of the description: Visible from space, a smoke plume rises from the Manhattan area after two planes crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center. This photo was taken of metropolitan New York City (and other parts of New York as well as New Jersey) the morning of September 11, 2001. Click on through to read the rest.   click here

Earlier in the year our church covered the book What is a Healthy Church?  The longer version of that material is found the the book called the Nine Marks of a Healthy Church  by Mark Dever. To prepare for the Wednesday night teaching, I read through this book to help me prepare. I was drawn to this book because I am the Pastor at a very small church.  And when you are the pastor of a very small church, you find yourself constantly questioning your own abilities and measuring your effectiveness by the number of people in the room.  I mean, surely if I was doing what God wanted me to do, then this church would grow... Right? Wrong. There are many cases in the Bible of Men doing exactly what God wanted them to do, and their lives weren't marked by popular success.  Noah didn't have one convert believe in his message of judgment.  Isaiah's message was that people weren't going to believe it.  And Jesus was eventually abandoned by all of his follower...

About a month ago I finished reading The Expository Genius of John Calvin  by Steven J. Lawson.  I had read another book about Calvin about a month before this, but I was especially intrigued by the focus of this book.  I was also intrigued by the low price when I purchased the Kindle edition.  (I think it was in the free section for about a week.) Knowing that, it doesn't mean as much if I say that it was a worthwhile purchase.  Let's pretend that it was regular price at the time... "It was a worthwhile purchase!"  Did the pretending help? OK, OK, let me just say that it was a really good book.  It was easy to read and covered aspects of Calvin's life and ministry that I hadn't heard of before.  I appreciated the examples that this book shared from different messages that Calvin preached.  The book was well researched and the examples demonstrated the points the author was making as to the methods of Calvin's sermons. It was interesti...

My family was featured in our local news paper, The Commercial News , over the summer. I've hesitated mention this on the blog because it felt a little too much like self-promotion. I don't want to do things that make me look good.  I want to do things that make Christ look good.  When I originally said yes to this interview, I simply wanted the end result to lift up Christ.  When I first read the final result, I felt that, to some degree, that was accomplished. So, I am sharing this now for that same reason. My secondary motivation for saying yes to the interview was the potential of getting the name of our church out there.  I love my church and I am totally content with the people who are there and completely satisfied with God having full control over the growth of this Church.  But I love people and I want them to come to our church! I really believe that our core group of people at Edgewood Baptist Church have a genuine desire to do things God...

It happened in one week. I've always felt like such a kid, and I've always felt like I was on the younger side of life.  But then in one week it all faded. On Monday, August 27th, I turned 40.  That's a big number to an actual young person.  I'm sure I could ask some real old people and they would tell me, "... Aw!  You're just a young pup!"  I think their perspective is just a bit skewed though. The 40 by itself wouldn't have done it, but at the end of the same week I received a prescription for cholesterol medication.  I've had high cholesterol for a while, and even though I've worked really hard at getting it down with diet and exercise ... since I've done next to nothing to remedy the problem through diet and exercise, the doctor felt like it was necessary to put me on some meds.  It was really high though.  triglycerides through the roof.  My blood was basically lard. So this double blow of oldness has hit me.  I a...

 John Piper says that his first encounter with John Calvin was through this short biography, called  Portrait Of Calvin by T.H.L. Parker.  Hearing that made me want to pick this book up. I will say first of all that John Calvin was not what I had expected.  Because of "Calvinism" he has been portrayed as this cold, unfeeling, almost dictatorial leader.  Reality though, none of those is true.  He was actually a very warm, tender individual.  He showed great care and concern for the people he was pastoring. Though there was political influence that he showed, the reality is that he was simply a pastor.  He preached the word of God and he did that consistently.  Throughout his life he would preach in an expository fashion through books of the Bible.  Whether it be Old Testament or New Testament, he plodded his way through passage after passage, making the central theme of his preaching Christ and the core of that preaching focused on ...

I found The Dragons Curse by J.J. Abrams with the free books on Amazon.  I noticed it because it was J.J. Abrams... I think the same J.J. Abrams known for his work in television and movies.  It was free, so I picked it up. The book's description on Amazon: An innkeeper's son is entrusted with a dragon egg, leading to a quest to restore the ancient race of dragons to their former glory. The setting was definitely medieval times.  No description was given of the time or place.  The kings and kingdoms are not mentioned in detail, but only in passing, focusing on the boy and his grandfather. Though there was definitely some predictable aspects of the story, there were also a couple of twists and turns along the way. One particular aspect that I enjoyed was that the boy was continually respectful to his parents and others throughout the book.  So often there is the expected rebellious hero that has to go through a series of issues with the parents ...

I want to direct you to an incredibly thought-provoking article.  It concerns the combined topics of porn and gaming addictions.  If you've never made that connection, then you've never really paid attention to a gamer before or you've not known or been a porn addict.  The similarities, on a purely initial-impression perspective, are striking. The article is called Fake Love, Fake War .  It is written by Russel Moore and you can find it on the Desiring God blog .  Allow me to quote a couple of paragraphs that really grabbed my attention. Near the beginning of the article, Moore makes this valid point: Pornography promises orgasm without intimacy. Video warfare promises adrenaline without danger. The arousal that makes these so attractive is ultimately spiritual to the core.  Satan isn't a creator but a plagiarist. His power is parasitic, latching on to good impulses and directing them toward his own purpose. God intends a man to feel the wildness o...

Until a few months ago, I did not realize that G. K. Chesterton was a writer of fiction.  I knew of his books on such topics as orthodoxy and heresy, but was unacquainted with the fictional works that had an impact on such authors as C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.  The first book I read was Manalive.  I wrote a review of that book not too long ago. The Man Who Was Thursday was described by C. S. Lewis as, "A powerful picture of the loneliness and bewilderment which each of us encounters in his single-handed struggle with the universe."  It is about a man named Syme, who is employed in the service of the British Police, in a special department, by a special man, to fight against the anarchists of the world.  As he infiltrates the inner circle of anarchy, taking the name of Thursday, as each member of the inner ring has a name of a day of the week, he is left wondering, and fighting to determine, who is this man named Sunday? I've really enjoyed reading ...

"Is not this then the very time when the door is wide open for the preaching of the Gospel?  The age in which we are living is so similar to the first century in many respects.  The old world was exhausted then.  The flowering period of Greek philosophy had come and had gone, Rome in a sense had passed her zenith, and there was the same kind of tiredness and weariness, with consequent turning to pleasure and amusement.  The same is so true today; and so far from saying that we must have less preaching and turn more and more to other devices and expedients, I say that we have a heaven-sent opportunity for preaching." From Preaching and Preachers by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

I just finished listening to the Christian Audio version of The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler with Jared Wilson. Of all of the books that I've read on the Gospel in the last few years, I would rank this one near the top.  Matt Chandler does an excellent job of explaining the Gospel in an... well... explicit way.  He describes the Gospel in the broader perspective as the "Gospel in the Air" and the "Gospel on the Ground" is the more personal aspect of the Gospel. He then discusses the dangers of focusing on one aspect of the Gospel without taking into account both the big and the small picture of what God is doing. I especially appreciated his personal approach, sharing stories and experiences that illustrated different aspects of the Gospel.  In many of his stories he was willing to share how he had struggled or gotten it wrong in the past; times where he had shared the gospel in not-so-perfect ways, but God's grace was even in those events of his...

Final Ephesians message from Chapter 3 with illustrations from my son. Click to Enlarge