I’ve been watching Disney’s Toy Story trilogy with my kids recently and something has occurred to me. They all deal with the question of eternal destiny. Toy Story 1 In Toy Story 1 we get a glimpse of hell with Sid’s room and treatment of his toys vs heaven with Andy’s room. The story begins and ends with the notion that a loving family (loosely speaking) is the best place for any toy to be. Meaning and purpose are seen to derive from their owner. ...
Recently I Tweeted “Senior pastor” is found in the Bible, its 1 Peter 5:4 and it refers to Jesus, not the CEO of your local church business. Based off of this post on Alan Knox’s blog. Here’s my extended take on the issue. Senior pastors, indeed all professional pastors, bear a burden they were never meant to carry nor called to carry according to Scripture. Nowhere in Scripture do we find one man saddled with the load the average church pastor is expected to carry. Contrary to John Piper, pastors today are, by and large, professionals. When you have a staff, budget, building, etc. you are a professional. In fact you are a business owner. A CEO. ...
We have an expression in the south, “Chewing the fat”. Fat is often the source of the best flavor, and it generally sticks around for a while like bubble gum. However it really doesn’t have much (if any) nutritional value. So to chew the fat is to partake in something that is enjoyable, but ultimately contains no nutritional value. Now some chewing of fat is a good thing. The problem comes in, however, when we think what we are chewing on is not fat. ...
There are at least three elements that make up a solid defender of the Christian faith. Training You can’t fight if you don’t know how. You might be able to flail about, but you won’t be very effective. What’s worse is that you are just as likely to hurt yourself and those on your side than you are the enemy. Especially since part of the training process is developing the ability to tell the difference between friend and foe and properly take stock of a battlefield before charging off to engage the enemy. ...
I recently got called to serve jury duty in Fulton County, Atlanta. During the voir dire process where the jury panel is asked a bunch of general questions, the defendant’s lawyers asked if anyone held any religious, philosophical, spiritual, etc. Beliefs which would prevent them from sitting on a jury if selected. Two of the women on the panel raised their cards and said their religious beliefs taught them not to judge anyone. ...
I’ve written on the problems with short term mission trips before. But what should or could we do instead to both use the resources we have access to more wisely and, at the same time, prevent the problem of dependency (HT Missional Edge). Several years ago the church we were in at the time hosted a missionary couple who described a radical (to me anyway) way they were approaching missions. Their approach was to plant a for-profit business designed to raise the local workers’ standard of living. After hearing how they operated and how their missionary efforts actually ended up turning a profit for the International Mission Board (For some reason I do not think this couple remained with IMB. I don’t think this model of missions fits the hand-out view of missions most Southern Baptists seem to favor.), I developed quite a fondness for this Business as Missions model of changing lives, and hopefully hearts. This struck me as a perfect opportunity to help the poor in other nations while at the same time honoring them by helping develop long term sustainable economic growth wherein all the people around them would hopefully be blessed. ...
I recently wrote a post on the pattern matching ability of the human mind, here I want to explore the implications of that pattern-matching ability a bit more. My contention with the mind being a pattern matching machine is that in order to match for patterns, we must first be aware of a pattern to match for in the first place. So it is incumbent on every worldview, theist and atheist alike, to come up with a reasonable explanation for why this is. ...
A liberal friend of mine sent me this article from Forbes which attempts to argue that “Congress Passes Socialized Medicine and Mandates Health Insurance -In 1798” From the article: In July of 1798, Congress passed – and President John Adams signed - “An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen.” The law authorized the creation of a government operated marine hospital service and mandated that privately employed sailors be required to purchase health care insurance. ...
The Virtues of Capitalism: A Moral Case for Free Markets was written to combat the popular notion, especially following recent economic events, that capitalism has failed and/or that it is somehow inherently immoral. From the book’s Facebook fan page: Capitalism brings out the best in people. It stabilizes society, fosters creativity, rewards initiative, promotes cooperation, engenders civility, and encourages personal responsibility. People who possess those virtues also make better neighbors and a better society. ...
And whenever the tormenting spirit from God troubled Saul, David would play the harp. Then Saul would feel better, and the tormenting spirit would go away. -1 Samuel 16:23 There are several things to note about this passage. The spirit from the lord was a tormenting one Much ink has been spilled about this passage with regards to the nature of this spirit. It is called in various translations a tormenting spirit, an evil spirit, and a harmful spirit. Based on the context I’m more inclined to view this spirit as something God sent to convict Saul of his evil ways. However, regardless of how we interpret the spirit that was sent, it is important to note that the spirit was from God and was sent to make Saul uncomfortable. ...