How language came to be

How language came to be: "

(HT: 22 words)

Humanitarian Jesus

Humanitarian Jesus

Humanitarian Jesus is a book written by Christian Buckley and Ryan Dobson.  I heard about this book through several different websites.  It sounded interesting, even though I wasn't exactly sure what it was about.  When I saw this offered on the Christian Audio website, I knew that I had to snatch it up.  Now that I have finished listening to this book, I have been referencing it all of the time.  This book definitely got me to think.

The book deals with the balance between doing things for people and the sharing of the gospel.  The author illustrates this debate well with the pictures of a sandwich and a tract representing the two sides of the debate.  He asks, do you give a tract before the sandwich, after the sandwich, or stick the tract in the sandwich?  This is much bigger than a sandwich and a tract, but I think you can get the point.

My favorite part of the book is the fact that in the second half the author interviews several different people who are illustrating the balance of these two sides of Christian Humanitarian work.  The main part of the book and the interviews were very interesting and held my attention throughout.

If you are interested in this book, I highly recommend it.  It left me feeling convicted in two ways.  One, I definitely felt the need of, "We're not doing enough!"  There are such great needs in this world, and I know that we just aren't doing as much as we should be doing.  But even more so than that, I felt convicted that I am not even doing as much as I could be doing right now.  With the resources that I have and the things that I own, I am not doing enough right now.

Visit Christian Audio and download Humanitarian Jesus.

Living Faith: In the Goodness of God

God is good...

...All the time!

That is such a great statement, and one that we are learning at Church.  We have been discovering the reality of God's goodness and His unchangeability in the beginning verses of the Book of James, but there are many in our Church that are also learning this lesson through the trials that they are enduring.

If you have been questioning the goodness of God in your life, then you may need to heed James' warning in  verse 16 of chapter 1, "Don't be deceived, my beloved brethren..."

Download and listen to Living Faith: In the Goodness of God

What is the Gospel?

I just finished reading another book on my summer reading list. This one was called, What is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert. I heard about this book on several different blogs, had heard such good things about it that I mentally added it to my list. When an opportunity to purchase a few books came up, this one made it on that list.

This book falls right in line with my renewed love of the gospel message. Most of what I have been reading lately has lined up with that, whether I have done that purposely or not. Greg Gilbert, does a great job of lying out the elements of the gospel message, while helping his readers do the same thing. This book is about the message of the Cross of Christ and it would be a great book to buy in bulk and hand out to people who are interested in hearing about that message.

I have learned not to write long drawn out posts on this blog, but I do want to share at least one quote from the book. The one I chose isn't a quote that is in any way a summarizing quote on what this book is about, but it is a realistic quote as to the response we face when sharing this message.

"But really, we should just face it. The message of the cross is going to sound like nonsense to the people around us. It's going to make us Christians sound like fools, and it most certainly is going to undermine our attempts to "relate" to non-Christians and prove to them that we're just as cool and harmless as the next guy. Christians can always get the world to think they are cool -- right up to the moment they start talking about being saved by a crucified man. And that's where coolness evaporates, no matter how carefully you've cultivated it."

What is the Gospel? is a worthwhile read. If you have the extra cash, I absolutely recommend this purchase.

part 3 in the downright creepy saga

Here is a great post that I just read regarding the Twilight Saga. Tim Challies linked to it, describing it this way, "Mary Kassian interacts with the first two Twilight movies, suggesting what it is about them that has drawn in so many girls (and women)."

In the article, Mary Kassian also gives 7 Danger Signs of a bad relationship and shows these signs in the storyline Edward and Bella's relationship. If you click through to read the article, try to pick out your favorite of the danger signs. My personal favorite is "neediness and obsession". After she points out these two signs in Bella, she also mentions how Edward shows these signs. She then says, "Edward is also needy. He stalks Bella and watches her continually. He even sneaks into her room and watches her while she sleeps. He shows up in her head in visions and speaks to her. (In my opinion, it’s downright creepy.)" I agree, downright creepy.

Anyway, click on through and read this article.

In the meantime...



"Let's go eat some people!"

The Power of Time

Every once in a while, you will hear something and thing, "Wow. That is so true." That is what happened in this video.




I need to go get my boys off of their video game.

[HT: Challies.com]

the bitter cup

Just read a great article at Randy Alcorn's blog.  The article is titled, Nourishment for the Soul, and you can read it by clicking here.  The article has to do with suffering and the goodness of God.  If you have a few moments you should click through to read it.  In it he mentions the sufferings of Joni Eareckson Tada, Sono Harris, and himself.

There is also a Spurgeon quote that I found to be less difficult to read than it used to be.

“It would be a very sharp and trying experience to me to think that I have an affliction which God never sent me, that the bitter cup was never filled by his hand, that my trials were never measured out by him, nor sent to me by his arrangement of their weight and quantity.”

Seeing that we have done so much talking about suffering at church lately, I knew that I needed to post this quote.