I'm still around!

Chloe and Lydia

It has been a while since I posted anything, but I am still here! Things have been CRAZY the last couple of months!! Lydia was born on April 22nd and has been such a blessing! I WILL be updating more and posting more soon. Keep checking back!

Can it be true?! 90% of baby's with Down Syndrome are aborted!

Dr. Mohler discusses a horrific case out of Florida. The parents of twins decided that they would not be willing to raise a child with Down Syndrome, so they chose to have him aborted. The doctor terminated the life of his twin who did not have the genetic markers of Down Syndrome. The most excruciating aspect of the entire story was this one statistic: 80-90% of babies showing the markers for Down Syndrome are now aborted. How many people with Down Syndrome have you known in your life? How can it be that our culture has determined that this is a condition that we should eliminate from society. And why? Because there is too much work to raise a child with Down Syndrome? Because one of these lives will not "contribute" as much to society as a completely healthy one? And where does that end? What "disabilities" are bad enough to warrant the Holocaust of any child that shows a genetic predisposition to them. Please pray for our nation. Pray for our leaders who have the ability to enact real change for the lives of the unborn. Read the entirety of Dr. Mohler's article here. You can also read news articles about this particular story here and here.

Barrabas and Me, from Desiring God

David Mathis at Desiring God Ministries has posted an Easter article looking at the trials of Christ in a VERY interesting way. Who do you relate to in the Easter story? For sure the crowds screaming, "Crucify Him", Peter or even Judas. But Barrabas? Read the article here. With only a week or so until our Easter celebrations, we need to remember who we are and what He did for us at the cross. And we must never get over it.

Atheist Preachers? Al Mohler Discusses a Growing Problem.

I am so thankful that I have grown up under pastors who not only believe in God, but seek His will in everything they do. Read Dr. Mohler's article about evangelical preachers who don't believe in God. How can we expect the lost to see Christ as their savior if those tasked with teaching them don't believe it themselves? This is a cause for prayer, not only for these churches, but also for our pastors. Pray that they don't lose heart under the pressures of ministry and that their faith in God grows only stronger each passing day.

Kevin DeYoung on the balance of charity and evangelism

Kevin DeYoung has a post that sort of follows up my earlier post on charity and evangelism. Read the entire article here. In his post, Kevin tries to balance both sides of the debate between those who argue for social justice above the gospel and those who argue that the gospel and social justice are mutually exclusive.

Important article from Dr. Mohler

Here is a fascinating, yet terrifying article from Al Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In it he discusses the rising problem of girls being discarded in preference of boys. As the father of three daughters, this brings tears to my eyes. It also underscores the need for more parents to be willing to adopt this babies and also for education for the parents in these countries about ways to give these daughters away without murdering them. You can read the entire article here.

Jerry Rankin on the SBC

Dr. Jerry Rankin, president of the International Mission Board(IMB) has written a great article about the state of the Southern Baptist Convention and the need to reexamine its missions strategy. The Great Commission Task Force(GCTF) has made some powerful observations and recommendations concerning the future of the Cooperative Program and both the North American Mission Board(NAMB) and the IMB. Read the full article here.

Here is an excerpt:

"Cannot we at least take an objective look at what is happening in our denomination? Is it ever wrong to examine our structure, the use of our resources and the efficiency of our programs? Could it be that there are those whose entity or special interest may be threatened by such a study of realities?

There are those who say we already went through major changes in the mid-90s; there is no need to examine our structure again. Do they not realize how much our world, our society, our churches and our economy has changed in the last 12 years? Besides, what was labeled “Covenant for a New Century” really did not position us for the 21st century. Some entities were eliminated but the supposed streamlining just incorporated those functions into other existing entities. We were told this would make more resources available for missions, but the greatest benefactors in budget increases were ERLC and the Executive Committee. The result was an actual reduction in allocations to the mission boards!"

I think Dr. Rankin is right. No organization can perpetually continue without at least considering that there may be better ways of accomplishing the same task. Please pray for the GCTF as they seek God's direction of how to best steward the SBC and reach the lost for Christ.

Cherith the Hard Times! 1 Kings 17, Part 1

We all know how the story of Elijah ends. The image of a man riding to heaven in a chariot of fire, his protege watching from below. We also remember the battle on Mt. Caramel between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. But do we remember how this story begins, and more importantly what we can learn from it? 1 Kings 17 is where we first hear about Elijah. As I walk through the story of Elijah, I want you to pay attention to the names of each place that Elijah resides.

Elijah was a settler from Gilead. Gilead means "place of blessing and opportunity". He came from this land of plenty into Israel to proclaim a coming drought. God tells Elijah to go and live by the brook Cherith. Cherith means "place of want, destruction or failure". What?!?! THAT'S where God wants him to go? Yet, Cherith is where God promised to provide for Elijah. 1 Kings 17:4-"It shall be that you shall drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there." I have two observations here. 1. God has absolute authority over nature. He can tell birds where to fly and when to fly there. 2. God's provision for Elijah was waiting at the place where God had commanded him to go. When God commands us to go somewhere-even it is a place of want, destruction and failure-He has given us all we need to do it.

Well, of course, the brook Cherith dries up. So now where would God have Elijah go? Zarephath, which means "trail by fire". Even better!! 1 Kings 17:9-"Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; I have commanded a widow there to provide for you." I have two observations here as well. 1. Same as before, God provision is waiting for Elijah where God has sent him. 2. I have to wonder if this widow knew she was being used by God to provide for Elijah. It says that God "commanded" her to provide, but did she know that she was being directed and willed by sovereign Yahweh to be the salvation of this man, Elijah? I believe she did not. I believe she was just going about her life, assuming that she was making some choices from her own will. Why do I think this?

In verse 12, the widow protests Elijah's request for bread and water. She and her son were resigned to starvation and death. They fully expected to soon be dead and Elijah showing up was a surprise to them. A few verses later, when the widow's son dies, she believed it was a result of her sin. She had no idea of the plan she was a part of or that everything she was doing was for the glory of God, but she most certainly was. And here in Zeraphath, God provided a unending supply of flour and oil for them to live on and brought her son back from the dead!

So God led Elijah from a place of blessing and opportunity to a place of want, destruction and failure. From there, Elijah was sent into a trial by fire. But in each of these difficult places, Elijah was provided for. Even more amazing, in each of these places Elijah was able to experience the miraculous had of God! At Cherith, God provided birds for food. At Zeraphath, God first provided the flour and oil needed to make bread, then He raised the widow's son from the dead through Elijah. I believe all of this was preparation for Elijah's upcoming confrontation with the prophets of Baal. I also believe that this is a story that we can apply to our lives as well.

When God leads us somewhere, he WILL provide for us. Yet it is important to realize, that as with Elijah, often God promises to provide for us when we get to where we are going. Moreover, where God is leading us doesn't always seem pleasant. But in all of it, God is preparing us for something; He is making us into something. Every part of our Christian life is meant to make us more like Jesus, especially the struggles. Everything we face is also preparing us...preparing us for battle with Satan and preparing us for the glorification of Jesus.

Part 2 coming soon, we will look at how well Elijah responded to adversity after receiving all of this preparation. Hint: he didn't do very well...

"We are the World"- Theology, Charity and Michael Jackson

I knew that the star-filled 1985 classic "We are the World" was being remade this year to help raise funds for Haiti, but I didn't have much interest in watching it. But then I began to see many of my friends express disappointment in this new version. I decided to check it out. I must say, I definitely agree with my friends, this was a poor remake at best.
But more than the quality of the singers, more than the overwhelming self-servingness of it all, I found myself pondering the theological aspects of this song. Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie wrote "We are the World" over the course of a few hours and were able to put the group of celebrities together within days. The purpose of the song was to raise money for Africa. One line stuck out to me. "As God has shown us by turing stone to bread so we all must lend a helping hand."
There is a fundamental problem with this, God didn't turn the stone into bread! The reference comes from Matthew 4, just after Jesus was baptized. Not only did Jesus not give in to this temptation from Satan, He rebuked humanity's reliance on bread for our sustenance. We are to depend on God's word more than we depend on food.
This all made me start thinking about Haiti. Recently, a Haitian witch doctor complained that American missionaries were sharing Jesus with the people instead of just giving food and shelter. This man showed the same misunderstanding of scripture as Michael Jackson did while writing "We are the World". God is not only about taking care of His creation's physical needs. We see an example of this in John 5:1-15.
Jesus had just healed a lame man and then left. Jesus later found the man in the Temple and said, "Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you." What did he mean by that? What could be worse than being lame for 38 years? Was it possible that this man could lose the healing that Jesus had given him? I believe Jesus is talking about the man's spiritual condition, not his physical ailment. Hell is worse than being lame for 38 years.
So how does this apply to Christian charity? Are we to give to the poor? Are we to go to places like Haiti and serve the suffering? YES!!! But we cannot ignore the spiritual needs of the people we serve. I believe that being charitable without being evangelistic is worse than not being charitable in the first place. If we tend to someone's physical needs, but ignore the spiritual, we make Christianity nothing more than another secular aid organization. Yes we must meet physical needs, James tells us that in James 1:27, but we must also seek to meet spiritual needs. Instead of just giving people bread to keep them alive, let's also give them the Bread of Life.

My first post!

Well, I'm giving in a starting a blog. This won't be anything groundbreaking, but if you care to know what I think about things, this will be the place to find out. I will comment on some current events, on theological issues and on other things that just pop into my head. I hope not to bore you, but to encourage, challenge and entertain. Please comment when you have something to say, as that will keep me honest with any claims I make, and will help me know how to improve my blogging abilites. I look forward to what we all will learn as I share my thoughts with the world!