HARMLESS THOUGHTS

Are you a Christian or a Deist? I recently read an article on The Gospel Coalition blog that was titled, Deists who love Jesus (and talk like Freud) .  I found it to be really enlightening and relevant to many discussions that I've had lately.  One of the most important parts, the part that grabbed my attention, was a definition of something called Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.  Here are a set of beliefs associated with this form of deism: A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth. God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions. The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself. God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life, except when God is needed to resolve a problem. Good people go to heaven when they die. What I find to be alarming about this set of beliefs is that so many people I know, who would call themselves Ch...

John Calvin on Elections: When elections have to be made, just as today the governors have to be elected, and tomorrow and the day after and throughout the week the estates of this city and the judicial order have to be provided for, how many are there who think of God when they undertake this, which is such a religious thing?    The most solemn of all the elections is due now -- but those who will come to it, where are they, most of them?  I met some of my bumpkins (I could easily point them out by name,  but there is no need, for we all know them well enough); some of them were going up to the Bourg de four, and others were coming this way.  They thought they would have no time for breakfast unless they chose service time.  I saw this with my own eyes as I was coming to church.  And is it not a crying shame?    So when it is plain that we who ought to be well learned in the Word of God, seeing it is preached to us intimately every da...

I've received a double punch in my studies over the last couple of weeks.  The first punch came from my study in Ephesians for last week's sermon.  Eph. 2:11-22 deals with race relations and its connection to the cross.  The second punch came through Bloodlines by John Piper.  I received the book as a gift from my wife for Christmas, but didn't pick it up to start reading until I was preparing for the sermon.  I thought it might add some extra insight into my perspective of this passage. This two-punch combination left me filled with a whirling turmoil of thoughts and feelings in regards to race relations in America.  More importantly, it has stirred up some emotions in regards to race relations in Danville, IL. Here is a quote from Bloodlines that both explains and furthers my thoughts on this subject: When I step back from this controversy over personal responsibility versus political and community engagement with systematic racism, I have at le...

A livestream even on March 28th, that I would like to watch at my house. (If I'm not still on vacation...) Anyone interested in watching this with me?

I just finished reading Manalive by G. K. Chesterton a few weeks ago.  It wasn't until about a month ago that I learned that G.K. Chesterton wrote fiction.  To be honest, I didn't know much about Chesterton, but I always thought that his writing was limited to books like Orthodoxy and Heretics .  When I purchased my Kindle, I started looking at the free books on Amazon, that's when I found there was a broader scope to his writing.  I wasn't sure where to start, so I picked the first one that I saw and added it to my kindle. Because I wasn't sure of the exact genre of Manalive, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect as I began to read this book. It kept me on my toes as it brought new little surprises and twists as the story began to unfold. It is about a man who is, well, alive.  He has become, in many ways, like a child.  You first meet the main character chasing a hat and climbing a tree.  He expounds on the need for more hat-chasing type game...

Someone wrote into John Piper and asked this question: I believe I do love Jesus, but most of the time I'd rather spend time being entertained than spend time in God's word. How do I break this hold that entertainment has on my heart? This is an important question, and one that hits right near the heart of much that we've been talking about at Church during our Ephesians study.  This isn't a direct connection to our sermon series, to be sure, but if you've been a part of our discussions in the afternoons, you will see the relevance of this question.  Though we haven't talked about entertainment as an addiction, last Sunday afternoon we discussed the reality that many spend a significant amount of time being entertained as opposed to thinking deeply.  (If you are not a part of our church, but would like to hear the messages, we will have them posted here .) ChristianPost.com has a portion of the audio transcript where Piper answers the question.  If you wan...

Justin Taylor just shared a great quote from J. Greshem Machen: We are all agreed that at least one great function of the Church is the conversion of individual men. The missionary movement is the great religious movement of our day. Now it is perfectly true that men must be brought to Christ one by one. There are no labor-saving devices in evangelism. It is all hard-work.  And yet it would be a great mistake to suppose that all men are equally well prepared to receive the gospel.  It is true that the decisive thing is the regenerative power of God. That can overcome all lack of preparation, and the absence of that makes even the best preparation useless.  But as a matter of fact God usually exerts that power in connection with certain prior conditions of the human mind, and it should be ours to create, so far as we can, with the help of God, those favorable conditions for the reception of the gospel.  False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the recepti...

At church yesterday, I discussed the concept of thinking.  I am not going to talk about that right now, though I may post the sermon audio for it later.  I did want to share these 8 videos that talk about critical thinking.  There are tie-ins, both Biblically and Mathematically. These videos can be found at Bridge 8  with an accompanying resource at TechNYou . I originally saw these videos at 22 words.

It's no special day that I write this haiku, but I'm thinking of you.

I just finished Finally Alive by John Piper and I would like to write a review for this book that will encourage you to go out and get this book for yourself.  It was good enough that I am planning on doing a Bible Study/Book Study using this book.  And it is important enough of a topic, that I want to promote its study as much as possible. Here is what the Desiring God website says about this book: Spiritual rebirth is precious and crucial. When Jesus said, “You must be born again,” he wasn't simply sharing interesting information; he was directing us toward eternal life. It is essential to know what God intends when he uses this language of being born again, so that we may experience new birth and help others do the same. So, Finally Alive is a book about the New Birth.  John Piper takes the time to explore several different passages of scripture that deal with this teaching.  That might be my favorite part about this book, it is truly an exploration of ...