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As a mother of children currently ages 4, 2, and 6 months; at the first mention of meeting in homes as a body of believers, I thought “What do we do with the kids?” and I often still wonder “What do we do with the kids?”. When we met with two other families with young kids in Augusta, we started off hiring a teenager from the neighborhood who worked as a Mother’s helper. We quickly found that especially the kids under 2 kept making their way back to their mothers. Since we all lived next door and our kids played together almost every day and knew the rules of each house, we finally decided to all have a meal together and then let the kids play on their own while we studied the bible. Of course babies stayed in the room with the adults and all the kids were welcome to come quietly sit in on the study with their parents. On most occasions this set up worked really well for enabling the adults to study, but we never focused on prayer, worship, or teaching the kids anything about God. We were meeting as friends and neighbors doing a bible study and we all went to our respective churches where we worshiped and our kids were taught on Sunday mornings. ...

I ran across a image post on Facebook recently which stated: A reminder of what happens when we make love a crime. In reference to the following picture: My initial reaction was the simple comment that: Interracial marriage and same sex marriage aren’t even close to being the same thing. After a little bit of flack for daring to bring up the apprently taboo position that same-sex unions are not the same as interracial unions I recieved the following comment: ...

A Calvinist friend of mine recently asked me the difference between “unwilling” and “unable” and why I consider the two to be mutually exclusive when talking about mankind’s ability to sin or not. Here’s my reply If I am unable I cannot be unwilling because my inability precludes my willingness either way. I know you tire of hearing it, but it’s an apt description. If I am unable then I am no better off than a robot preprogrammed to run a certain course and as such I cannot rightly be held accountable for that which I have no control over. ...

Here are some additional thoughts from a conversation that ensued following my previous post on this subject: God does not create states of affairs and thus such we are under no compulsion to claim such states of affairs as having to have some sort of “greater good”. I think the greatest difference here is in how we view the will and sovereignty of God. You see, evil does exist but the person who holds to a “greater good theodicy” often does so out of a misunderstanding of God’s sovereignty wherein God MUST be the cause and initiator of all events that take place. Which, consequently, must be either directly or indirectly willed by such a sovereign God since, as this definition of sovereignty goes, God always gets his way and is always glorified in all that comes to pass). ...

The following is a snippet of a conversation regarding the twin Reformed doctrines of Limited Atonement and Total Depravity. More specifically, this segment of the conversation is in regards to who has been invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. In Matthew 25 what separated the virgins into two groups, what separated those who received talents, and the sheep and goats? I would have to say that it was the virgins that separated themselves. I imagine God foreknew and we could even consider the ones who were wedded (virgins), faithful (talents), and sheep to be elect but that election would have to be grounded in the free decision of the individuals to choose to accept the finished work God offered (as initiated via the bridegroom, master, and shepherd). ...

In a recent discussion on Facebook with a few Calvinistic brethren of mine, we ran across the topic of Total Depravity. Here is a segment of that conversation wherein I discuss the Reformed view of this doctrine’s flaws. Jared, your view of man’s depravity seems to be rather chaotic and confused. Much like Luther and Calvin’s views on the matter were. Especially Calvin. I remember reading in the Institutes on several occasions where Calvin would say in one chapter that Man was unwilling to submit to Christ while in the next he would go on about how man was unable to submit to Christ. Which is it? It seems fashionable in Reformed doctrine to attempt to have both. To have your epistemic cake and eat it too. However this is not merely a mystery (the favored escape hatch of Calvinists when faced with the logical and philosophical paradoxes elicited by the conclusions of their theological system). Rather, such notions of man’s inability to do good is antithetical, or logically opposed to the notion that man is unwilling to do good. ...

I recently ran across this article in the WSJ thanks to Ed Stetzer, Lifeway’s church planting guru. The article examines the whole church planting movement (or fad) in light of entrepreneurial practices that other small business or startups could emulate. Did you catch that? Other small businesses or startups. Where in Scripture are we given a picture of the church as a business institution? This article is rather sad in that it gives a good idea of just how market-driven the church in America is. ...

Bible Flashcards is an Android application based on the data files provided by the Crosswire Bible Society’s Flashcard application. It contains flashcards for both Greek and Hebrew along with appropriate fonts for proper display. I’ve also included an additional lesson set titled “greekBasics” which includes flashcards for the Greek alphabet. Here are some screenshots: You can find Bible Flashcards in the Android app Market by entering “Bible Flashcards” or by scanning the barcode below: ((http://market.android.com/search?q=pname:com.werxltd.bibleflash)) ...

I recently ran across this article by Dr Little regarding the question of evil and suffering in the world. Dr. Little asks the often overlooked (or assumed) question of “Must good come from every evil in the world?” Dr Little’s answer may surprise (and anger) you, especially since it goes against what many pastors tend to offer their congregations. Sadly, however, such an answer is not only inadequate when it comes to answering the evidence of gratuitous evil in the world around us, but such pat answers also pose very real potentially faith-wreaking threats to anyone who is not content with simplistic answers and, instead, decides to probe deeper. ...

In a recent discussion with a group of de-converts from Christianity the following objection was raised: Actually, my article *argues* that there is no objective definition of Christianity; it does not assume it. That was pretty much the point: there is no supernatural referent to “Christian” (or “God” or “salvation” or any of it), so the only definition(s) possible have to do with human social designations. Many groups of course *claim* to have objective definitions, but since I believe (a) they are all wrong, and (b) all lack the authority to settle the question for everyone, I can either scrap the word “Christian” altogether, or understand it to refer only to those who profess to be followers of Jesus. Thus, the boundaries of the term “Christian” are very fuzzy: it doesn’t refer to anything divine, and there is no universally accepted coding system, as it were. So: there is no correct answer. ...