The Story of Everything

From the Month of July 2011

July 11
Harry Potter, Jesus and Me by Andrew Peterson

I’m a fan of the Harry Potter books. There. I said it. Whenever I visit a bookstore I can’t resist a walk through the Young Readers section, where my heart flutters at cover illustrations of dragons and detectives and ghosts and kids dashing across fantastic landscapes. I’ve always loved those stories, and many times I take the books from the shelves and, with chills running up and down my arms, thumb through them. Sometimes I even smell them. (There. I said that, too.) Click here to continue reading. 

(I not yet read any of the Harry Potter books. - ah)

July 12
Is It OK For Christians To Believe In The Doctrine of Hell But Not Like It? by Keving DeYoung

It takes a certain courage to look at what the Bible teaches, not like it all that much, and still believe it. I am thankful for brothers and sisters who believe in hell or believe in complementarianism or believe in election and reprobation or believe homosexuality is a sin despite their internal protestations. It’s a good sign when we take our stand on the Bible even when we’d prefer to take our stand somewhere else.
But it’s a better sign when we take our stand on the Bible and learn to love where the Bible stands.
Click here to continue reading.

July 13
Burst the (Christian) Bubble by Alvin Reid

Leaders of the church in any era have the responsibility of identifying the idols of our time and confronting them with the gospel. David Platt has done this with the idol of the American Dream and it’s materialism, for instance. We have a variety of idols in our time, from rampant sensuality, to prolonged adolescence (especially in young men) to the new atheism, and the historically ubiquitous idol of worshiping self. But there is another idol that has slowly crept into our lives and into the very culture of our churches. We joke about it, and can see it around us. But I am not convinced we see it as the threat to genuine Christianity that it has become.

I refer to the Christian subculture, or the Christian “bubble.”  Click here to continue reading.

July 18
Freedom of Religion Has to Be Freedom For Everyone by Ed Stetzer

I have great concerns when people start deciding what "is" and "is not" a real religion and if other religions can build places of worship. Be aware that the standard that Christians advocate here may very well be used on Christians in the future.

As the views of evangelicals become increasingly distasteful to many in prevailing culture, some may use these same arguments when they ban your building. How you treat our Muslim minority may very well point to how the majority culture will treat Christians one day. Click here to continue reading.

An Open Letter to an Unborn Baby by Russell Moore

a young woman will give birth to a little boy, and has made an adoption plan for this couple to become his parents. The pastor asked if I’d write a letter to this boy, for when he’s old enough to start asking questions about his adoption and what it means. I’ve changed his name, but this is what I wrote. Click here to continue reading.

July 19
Reparative Therapy, Homosexuality and the Gospel of Jesus Christ by Albert Mohler

This controversy will inevitably demonstrate the basic worldview divide that separates the secular therapeutic community and evangelical Christians. The politicians, the mental health industry, and the media will have their own debate on the matter, but Christians now face the urgent challenge of thinking about these issues in a way that is fully biblical and theological — and thus faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Click here to continue reading.

Cooperation

For we are God's fellow workers. ...

1 Cor 3:9 (ESV)


The Baptist Faith & Message


XIV. Cooperation

Christ's people should, as occasion requires, organize such associations and conventions as may best secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches. They are voluntary and advisory bodies designed to elicit, combine, and direct the energies of our people in the most effective manner. Members of New Testament churches should cooperate with one another in carrying forward the missionary, educational, and benevolent ministries for the extension of Christ's Kingdom. Christian unity in the New Testament sense is spiritual harmony and voluntary cooperation for common ends by various groups of Christ's people. Cooperation is desirable between the various Christian denominations, when the end to be attained is itself justified, and when such cooperation involves no violation of conscience or compromise of loyalty to Christ and His Word as revealed in the New Testament.


Exodus 17:12; 18:17ff.; Judges 7:21; Ezra 1:3-4; 2:68-69; 5:14-15; Nehemiah 4; 8:1-5; Matthew 10:5-15; 20:1-16; 22:1-10; 28:19-20; Mark 2:3; Luke 10:1ff.; Acts 1:13-14; 2:1ff.; 4:31-37; 13:2-3; 15:1-35; 1 Corinthians 1:10-17; 3:5-15; 12; 2 Corinthians 8-9; Galatians 1:6-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Philippians 1:15-18.
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For Southern Baptists cooperation means a worldwide kingdom work with others who share our faith, values and worldview.

Congregationalism is a deeply established Baptist principle. 

Congregationalism: The belief that a local body of believers is directly responsible to God's authority, not a church hierarchy.

Voluntary Association: The united, cooperative effort of churches with common beliefs to minister together in ways they could not minister alone.

Our churches can do together what no one church can do alone.

Cooperative Program: A plan of cooperation by which Southern Baptists provide financial support for ministry and missions in an ongoing, systematic way.

The Cooperative Program allows local Baptist congregations to unite in a single, unified budget for advancing the cause of Christ.


from The Baptist Faith & Message Study

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Our churches can do together what no one church can do alone.  Sometimes I wonder if Southern Baptists still believe this?  If only Southern Baptist Churches could get back to this Baptist pattern of cooperation.  It was John Wooden that said "It is amazing how much can be accomplished if no one cares who gets the credit."

Soli Deo Gloria
ah

Prayer for Sanctification (To Be Set Apart, Holy)

23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24  He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

1 Thess 5:23-24 (ESV)


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Soli Deo Gloria
ah

Continual Repentance

O God of grace,

T hou hast imputed my sin to my substitute,

          and hast imputed his righteousness

     to my soul,

   clothing me with a bridegroom’s robe,

   decking me with jewels of holiness.

But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;

   my best prayers are stained with sin;

   my penitential tears are so much impurity;

   my confessions of wrong are so many

     aggravations of sin;

   my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with

     selfishness.

I need to repent of my repentance;

I need my tears to be washed;

I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,

   no loom to weave my own righteousness;

I am always standing clothed in filthy garments,

   and by grace am always receiving change of

     raiment,

   for thou dost always justify the ungodly;

I am always going into the far country,

   and always returning home as a prodigal,

   always saying, Father, forgive me,

   and thou art always bringing forth

     the best robe.

Every morning let me wear it,

   every evening return in it,

   go out to the day’s work in it,

   be married in it,

   be wound in death in it,

   stand before the great white throne in it,

   enter heaven in it shining as the sun.

Grant me never to lose sight of

   the exceeding sinfulness of sin,

   the exceeding righteousness of salvation,

   the exceeding glory of Christ,

   the exceeding beauty of holiness,

   the exceeding wonder of grace.

From The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions

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Soli Deo Gloria

ah