Vapor in the Wind

Don't Touch the QB

2010-12-03T13:35:00.004-06:00

Just saw an ESPN.com story about Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid being bothered by Michael Vick being hit late. This quote stood out to me:

"That bothers me, that bothers me. He runs, but he is a quarterback, so you can't treat him like a running back. It concerns me," Reid said, adding, "I'll deal with the people I need to on that."

Sorry, Mr. Reid, but the moment he leaves the pocket and runs, you absolutely can treat him like a running back. If you don't want to get hit so much, I see two options: 1) Don't leave the pocket or, better yet, 2) Don't play tackle football.

The Fate of Frozen Embryos

2010-11-27T14:00:00.002-06:00

I started writing this post last July, but am only now getting around to publishing it:

My wife just pointed out an article in Parenting magazine entitled "The Fate of Frozen Embryos." If you haven't thought much about infertility & fertility treatments, now's the time to start. My hope is that you'll never struggle with infertility, but I also don't want anybody to make a short-sighted decision when they're blinded by pain & their emotions.

The story at hand is about the "tough decision" that couples going through IVF treatments face when creating embryos - "left over" embryos are generally frozen, and either saved for another attempt at pregnancy, donated to other infertile couples, donated to medical research, or frozen indefinitely (so they won't be "destroyed").

This whole industry of infertility bothers me. Just because we have the technology to do something doesn't mean we should. There are so many moral & ethical questions involved, and the industry tends to do what the abortion industry does, using clinical jargon to avoid dealing with facts and their implications.

According to the article, "Experts estimate that hundreds of thousands of embryos have accumulated in fertility clinics throughout the country." This word "embryo" gets thrown around like its a consumer good. If you're reading this, you were once an embroy. As was I. It's simply a stage of human development. I was an embryo, and a fetus, and an infant, and a toddler, and an adolescent, and now I'm an adult. Whether you want to try and medically or biologically define specific stages, they're all periods of human life.

Pro-life advocates rightly ask questions such as "Do you think it would be okay to kill an infant? How about a toddler?" In light of fertility clinics, I'd add "Do you think it would be okay to freeze an infant or toddler?"

I find some of the sentiments about the "left over" embryos in the article to be disturbing. Here are a few (I've left out the names, so know that the "shes" are not all the same woman):

When the time came to decide about the extras, she says, "I thought I was going to be calm and casual." And she was, until the first bill arrived to keep the embryos frozen. "I was petrified," she says. "There was no practical reason to keep them. I just wasn't ready to make the decision not to keep them." She paid the $600, hoping that her thoughts would crystallize as time passed. This year, she's paying the bill again.

"There was no practical reason to keep them." Was there a practical reason to create them? Was there a practical reason to pay $600 a year to keep them frozen when there's no practical reason to keep them?

She has a 2-year-old daughter -- and six frozen embryos. "I would love to have another baby, if I were younger -- I'm 40 -- and if money was not an object." She finds herself trapped in a mental loop; while she doesn't have the same mind-blowing love for the embryos as she has for her daughter, neither does she consider them anonymous laboratory tissue. And there's another wrinkle: One of the six embryos is biologically hers and her husband's; the other five were created with donor eggs and his sperm. "What do people do?" she asks. "You have all of these embryos in all of these labs. Are people going to keep doing what I'm doing and pay the $40 a month ad infinitum?"

"... she doesn't have the same mind-blowing love for the embryos as she has for her daughter ..." That's understandable - that's how we are as people. We're material beings and attach to people and things that we can see and interact with. But seeing is not believing. Do we have to see the suffering of people in places like Darfur to believe it? For it to be real?

On the option of donating embryos to other infertile couples:

"I couldn't take the thought of knowing I had another child," she says. "I knew my heart couldn't handle it. We're all better off not knowing."

On donating to medical research:

[Another woman] would have liked more children through in vitro, but complications from the birth of her twin girls two years ago left her unable to get pregnant again. She had five embryos left and spent more than a year reconciling her choices with her religious convictions. Those five clusters of cells forced her to think, almost daily, about how she defined life. She considers herself pro-life, so donating to another infertile couple felt natural. The more she and her husband thought about it, however, the more unsettled they became. The questions she had were too big to be left unanswered. She didn't know if she'd ever stop searching crowds for little girls who looked just like hers. "It's a life-altering decision," she says.
They eventually decided to donate the embryos for medical research, as a gesture of gratitude to a system that had given them their dreams. "We were ultimately still giving life, just not for those particular five embryos," she says.
Many couples find donating to research a middle ground that gives the embryos a status somewhere between born children and simple clumps of cells. Although the embryos will not survive, giving to science can be a very caring act, says Dr. Lyerly, who has studied the issues surrounding frozen embryos. Couples who donate to research, she says, "feel like they were helped by science and they want to give back."

That sounds like sacrificing to the modern day fertility gods.

Here's another option the article calls "Thawing Without Donating:"

Some couples find themselves unable to escape the shadows of infertility without allowing their embryos to pass on naturally and with respect. Dr. Lyerly knows of a few women who've found a doctor willing to perform a "compassionate transfer," implanting the embryos into the woman at a time pregnancy is unlikely -- envisioning it as a way to return the embryos to their keeping. Other couples want to perform a ceremony of some sort during the thawing and disposal to show their reverence.

Finally, I found this to be the most helpful quote of the whole article:

"I don't think anybody knows what their opinion is until they're in this situation,"

I couldn't agree with that more. But I think that's because people don't think about it until or unless they're in this situation. Which is why I urge to you think about it now, before you find yourself in the middle of a situation that seems like there's no such thing as a good option.

Quotes and a Question

2010-11-27T07:36:00.003-06:00

Both posted recently by Josh Harris:

"The best thing is neither to seek nor avoid troubles but to follow Christ and take the bitter with the sweet as it may come. Whether we are happy or unhappy at any given time is not important. That we be in the will of God is all that matters. We may safely leave with him the incident of heartache or happiness. He will know how much we need of either or both." - A.W. Tozer, We Travel an Appointed Way, page 80.

"Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise,
but the companion of fools will suffer harm."
- Proverbs 13:20 ESV

If you counted websites, television shows, and musical artists as companions, would you say you're walking with the wise or the foolish?

All Things TSA

2010-11-27T06:54:00.003-06:00

Maybe I'll get an extra special full body search next time I fly just for posting this. Here are a couple of good articles written about TSA security:

The Things He Carried: Airport security in America is a sham—“security theater” designed to make travelers feel better and catch stupid terrorists. Smart ones can get through security with fake boarding passes and all manner of prohibited items—as our correspondent did with ease.
Don't Touch My Junk: The junk man’s revolt marks the point at which a docile public declares that it will tolerate only so much idiocy.

I'm hoping the American people, government, and airlines all wake up and realize that the TSA does a much better job wasting the people's time & money than they do making them safer.

(HT: Challies)

Why I'm Ungrateful

2010-11-27T06:47:00.003-06:00

Here's a good post from Russell Moore. Here's how he starts:

“If I hear the word ‘Daddy’ again, I’m going to scream!”
I heard myself saying those words. And, in my defense, it was loud around here. I was trying to work on something, and all I could hear were feet pounding down the stairs with four boys competing with one another to tell me one thing after another. I just wanted five minutes of silence.

My vocal chords were still vibrating when an image hit my brain. It was the picture of me, on my face, praying for children. The house was certainly quiet then. And in those years of infertility and miscarriage and seemingly unanswered prayers, I would have given anything to hear steps on that staircase. I feared I would never hear the word “Daddy,” ever, directed to me. Come to think of it, I even wrote a book about the Christian cry of “Abba, Father.”

Read the full thing here.

The Bible Is Not About You

2010-08-26T20:51:00.002-05:00

Collin Hansen at the Gospel Coalition blog shares one of my favorite extended clips from one of my favorite pastor/teachers:

To whet your appetite for the 2011 national conference—They Testify About Me: Preaching Jesus and the Gospel from the Old Testament—I wanted to share this clip from Tim Keller’s address at the inaugural 2007 conference. Heath McPherson, a gifted artist himself, mixed Keller’s words with music and paired it with drawings by Gustave Dore. All together the video tells a powerful story of what the Bible is basically about.

Stem Cell Research

2010-08-25T16:09:00.003-05:00

I couldn't let an entire year go by without posting something. Joe Carter shares the following:

The issue of research involving stem cells derived from human embryos is back in the news after a federal judge clarified that the government cannot use federal funds for such immoral research. Although the debate has been ongoing for almost ten years, the complexity of the issue and the peculiar terminology used often prevents many citizens from developing a fully informed opinion on the matter. To help, in some small way, redress that problem, I’ve compiled a brief primer, a “least you need to know” guide, that helps clarify and explain the questions most frequently asked about stem cell policy.

He goes on to provide brief answers to these questions and more:

What are stem cells?
How are stem cells different than other types of cells?
Why are stem cells so important to research?
What are embryonic stem cells?
Where do the embryos for ESC come from?
What are adult stem cells?
What is a stem cell “line”?
Why is there a controversy over ESC research?

Read the full thing here.

Between Two Worlds Has Moved

2009-09-21T15:49:00.004-05:00

Justin Taylor's "Between Two Worlds" blog has moved, and is now located at the Gospel Coalition. The Gospel Coalition has their own blog and plans to add more blogs. TGC's website as a whole is a terrific source for all sorts of gospel-centered ministry resources. If you haven't yet, I'd encourage you to check it out and bookmark it.

Chuck Norris

2009-07-20T20:04:00.001-05:00

I always enjoy some good Chuck Norris jokes:

When taking the SAT, write “Chuck Norris” for every answer. You will score over 8000.
Chuck Norris kicked Neo out of Zion, now Neo is “The Two”.
Chuck Norris doesn’t get wet, water gets Chuck Norris
Chuck Norris always knows where Waldo is. Chuck Norris is the reason Waldo is so hard to find.
When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris
Every year on his birthday Chuck selects one lucky child to be thrown into the sun.
Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table, because he only recognizes the element of surprise.
When Chuck Norris Does Long Division there is Never a Remainder
When an episode of Walker Texas Ranger was aired in France, the French surrendered to Chuck Norris just to be on the safe side.
Chuck Norris doesn’t need to swipe a card at an ATM, He just stares and the ATM empties itself.

THESE JUST IN!

In fine print on the last page of the Guinness Book of World Records appendix it notes that all world records are held by Chuck Norris, and those listed in the book are simply the closest anyone else has ever gotten.
When Chuck Norris had surgery, the anesthesia was applied to the doctors.
Chuck Norris can touch MC Hammer.
Chuck Norris ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.
Chuck Norris keeps a pillow under his gun.
Chuck Norris plays Russian Roulette with a full CLIP and wins.
Chuck Norris can kill two stones with one bird.
Chuck Norris can fry ants with a magnifying glass. At night.
Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water AND make it drink.
Only Chuck Norris can prevent forest fires.
Chuck Norris doesn’t love Raymond.
Superman has Chuck Norris PJs.
Chuck Norris can make a snowman. From rain.

(HT: Vitamin Z)

Thoughts On Parenting

2009-07-20T20:00:00.002-05:00

Vitamin Z shares some thoughts on parenting while observing a little girl and her mom in an airport. After telling the story and his first thought on the details of the story, he writes the following:

2. Kids are crying out for discipline. It's almost as though this little girl loves the give and take dance of her lashing out and her mother quietly trying to tell her to sit down. I believe that kids instinctively know that they need to be lovingly disciplined. It shows attentive care for them. You can see it in this little girl's eyes when she freaks out at her Mom that she is just waiting for her Mom to do something and continues to push it until she get some sort of reaction.

3. Kids will take as far as you give them. Sin runs deep in all of us and if we don't model God's disapproval for sin we do them a grave disservice. "Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him." Prov. 22:15.

4. The way to keep your child in check has to start at the home. If you want to manage your children well in public you had better be sure to manage them consistently at home, especially since you might get slapped with a lawsuit if you attempt to spank your child in public. I am not comfortable with spanking my kids in public, but my children know for sure that Dad will follow through when we are in the appropriate context. Your kids have to know that your words mean something. If you never follow through with what you say you are going to do then you simply become a liar in their eyes.

Read the whole post here.

Saved By The Bell Reunion

2009-06-17T21:10:00.002-05:00

It's been a while since I blogged about ... well, anything. But this was just too good to pass up:

The Murder of Dr. George Tiller

2009-06-02T16:09:00.002-05:00

Some wise words from Albert Mohler and Robert George on the recent killing of Dr. George Tiller:

First, from Mohler:

Abortion is murder. What goes on in those clinics is institutionalized homicide, often for financial profit. Abortion is a moral scandal and a national tragedy and a blight upon the American conscience.
But violence in the name of protesting abortion is immoral, unjustified, and horribly harmful to the pro-life cause. Now, the premeditated murder of Dr. George Tiller in the foyer of his church is the headline scandal -- not the abortions he performed and the cause he represented.

We have no right to take the law into our own hands in an act of criminal violence. We are not given the right to take this power into our own hands, for God has granted this power to governing authorities. The horror of abortion cannot be rightly confronted, much less corrected, by means of violence and acts outside the law and lawful means of remedy. This is not merely a legal technicality -- it is a vital test of the morality of the pro-life movement.

The Christian church has been forced by historical necessity to think through these issues again and again. The church has reached a basic moral consensus on issues of violence and governmental obedience, and this consensus requires that Christian citizens work within legal, judicial, and political means to persuade governing authorities concerning what is good, right, just, and honoring to God. Those who operate outside of this consensus and perform acts of violence are rightly understood to arrogate authority to themselves in a way that violates not only the laws of men but the law of God. Civil disobedience may be justified so long as the Christian is willing to suffer at the hands of the governing authorities, but is not justified if the citizen employs violence against the state or against other citizens.

In the case of Dr. George Tiller, the governing authorities failed again and again to fulfill their responsibility to protect all citizens, including those yet unborn. The law is dishonoring to God in its disrespect for human life. The law failed to bring George Tiller to account for what should have been seen as crimes against humanity. But this failure does not authorize others to act in the place of the government, much less in the place of God. The government must now act to prosecute and punish the murderer of Dr. George Tiller.
...
Murder is murder. The law rightly affirms that the killing of Dr. George Tiller is murder. In this we must agree. We cannot rest until the law also recognizes the killing of the unborn as murder. The killing of Dr. George Tiller makes that challenge all the more difficult.

And from George:

Whoever murdered George Tiller has done a gravely wicked thing. The evil of this action is in no way diminished by the blood George Tiller had on his own hands. No private individual had the right to execute judgment against him. We are a nation of laws. Lawless violence breeds only more lawless violence. Rightly or wrongly, George Tilller was acquitted by a jury of his peers. "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord." For the sake of justice and right, the perpetrator of this evil deed must be prosecuted, convicted, and punished. By word and deed, let us teach that violence against abortionists is not the answer to the violence of abortion. Every human life is precious. George Tiller's life was precious. We do not teach the wrongness of taking human life by wrongfully taking a human life. Let our "weapons" in the fight to defend the lives of abortion's tiny victims, be chaste weapons of the spirit.

Misc Parenting Links

2009-05-06T21:33:00.002-05:00

It's about time that I admit that I often use this blog instead of my internet browser's Favorites/Bookmarks - to save links for stuff I think looks interesting to read, but don't take the time immediately to read it. So while I haven't really read through all of these, I intend to come back to them. And I hope they may be interesting to you, too.

From LifeTogether:

From Between Two Worlds:

Big Truths for Young Hearts: An Interview with Bruce Ware

From Desiring God:

A Song For Earth Day

2009-04-22T19:14:00.002-05:00

In honor of Earth Day (hope you didn't forget to get your wife an eco-friendly gift like a box of dirt or a bag of mulch), my all-time favorite environmentalist song, which I first posted back in June of 2007:

Take a listen:

Here are the full lyrics, if you want to play it again and sing along:
Please don't melt our glaciers
Please don't kill us all
Please don't destroy our atmosphere
The sun will kill us all

Global warming
It's not just a prediction anymore
It's not just a prediction anymore
It's true
Help

Bush is such an idiot (I know)
He won't sign the Kyoto Treaty
Why doesn't he care?
Why won't he help?

Global warming
It's not just a prediction anymore
It's not just a prediction anymore
It's true
Help

Icebergs are falling into the ocean
The ozone layer is thinning
Make good choices
Don't use so many resources
Every single day
Don't drive your car as much
Find alternatives
Don't be careless
Recycle
Don't use so much electricity
Don't use styrofoam
Be friendly to the earth
It will be friendly back

Global warming
It's not just a prediction anymore
It's not just a prediction anymore
It's real
Help

If that's not enough, I've got a fair amount of posts regarding global warming.

Unity Amid Differences

2009-04-16T20:07:00.004-05:00

John Piper's latest "Taste & See" article is about his pastoral staff and unity amid differences. It includes six Biblical guidelines that I think the Church as a whole and individual churches in particular would do well to heed:

1. Let’s avoid gossiping.
2. Let’s identify evidences of grace in each other and speak them to each other and about each other.
3. Let’s speak criticism directly to each other if we feel the need to speak to others about it.
4. Let’s look for, and assume, the best motive in the other’s viewpoint, especially when we disagree.
5. Think often of the magnificent things we hold in common.
6. Let’s be more amazed that we are forgiven than that we are right. And in that way, let’s shape our relationships by the gospel.

Read the full article here.

That's My King

2009-04-09T22:07:00.002-05:00

I've seen & heard this before, but never knew whose voice I was listening to until today. It's the voice of Dr. S. M. Lockridge.

That's My King! from Albert Martin on Vimeo.

(HT: JT)

That's Easter

2009-04-08T22:04:00.001-05:00

THAT'S EASTER Life to Death from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.

THAT'S EASTER Death to Life from St Helen’s Church on Vimeo.

(HT: JT)

National Champs

2009-04-07T20:25:00.002-05:00

It's good to be a Tar Heel (or a UNC fan). And there's no more fitting end than One Shining Moment:

Watch CBS Videos Online

And Iowa Makes Three

2009-04-03T19:36:00.002-05:00

From ABC News:

A Republican congressman from Iowa warned Friday that the state could turn into "the gay marriage Mecca" if the state legislature does not begin restricting marriage licenses to in-state residents.

The statement from Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, which followed the Iowa Supreme Court's unanimous ruling striking down a state ban on same-sex marriage, underscored the emotional power the issue holds for social conservatives in the state, which will hold the GOP's first presidential nominating contest in 2012.

Iowa is now the third state where gay and lesbian couples are permitted to marry. The other two are Massachusetts and Connecticut.

My favorite part of the story is this quote:

"I believe marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman and the definition of marriage should be left to the people and not to activist courts," former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., said in a written statement provided to ABC News.

That coming from the man with no spine who kowtowed to "activist courts" in instituting gay marriage in Massachusetts.

Disappointing Championship?

2009-04-01T21:47:00.003-05:00

This is far from timely, as it happened a week and a half ago, but I promised my uncle, a University of Iowa graduate, that I would post it here when it happened. (Sorry it's a bit late, Jeff.)

ST. LOUIS, MO -- Despite crowning no individual champions, the University of Iowa wrestling team collected its second straight national team title at the 2009 NCAA Championships in St. Louis, MO, Saturday night. The Hawkeyes scored 96.5 points, edging runner-up Ohio State by 4.5 points, to record the school's 22nd NCAA team title. That is the closest margin of victory since Iowa won the 1999 team title by two points, and only the second time in school history that the Hawkeyes won the NCAA title without an individual champion. Iowa also accomplished that feat in 1978. It is also the first year that the Hawkeyes have not crowned an individual champion since 2006.

(Read the rest)

I'm really not much of a wrestling fan, but my brother & uncle both are. I spoke with my brother that Saturday morning, and he told me how the Hawks were trailing and it wasn't looking good because they only had one wrestler in a championship match. You know you've got a pretty good program when you win a team national championship and it can still be considered a disappointment because none of your five All-Americans won individual titles.

Fireproof

2009-03-30T21:58:00.000-05:00

Doug Wilson on Fireproof:
If I set myself to think of couples in marriages that I think would be greatly helped by watching this movie, I would run out of fingers inside of a minute. I can also think of Christians who would be offended by the schlock, but many of them would be those who know more about how a movie ought to be made than about how a woman ought to be treated. And they would rather watch a movie about a woman being abused so long as the movie was made right than to have the woman treated right in a movie that offended their refined sensibilities. So which is the altar and which is the sacrifice?
Read the whole thing.

(HT: JT)

Looking Back

2009-03-30T21:54:00.001-05:00

From Shaun Groves:

On your first day on the other side of the grave, do you think you’ll look back on this life and be flooded with gratitude for hours spent watching episodes of American Idol and Lost? Do you think you’ll look back fondly on the effort and money spent remodeling the kitchen? Do you think you’ll be glad you were up-to-date on the juicy details of celebrity lives? Will you be thankful for the hours, days, weeks, years you lived feeling victimized and sorry for yourself? Will you regret not spending more time at the office? Will you wish you had been more of a people pleaser? Will you miss your caffeine, porn or Facebook?

Me neither.

(HT: Vitamin Z)

Day of Atonement

2009-03-29T21:55:00.003-05:00

In our Adult Bible Fellowship (ABF) this morning, we talked about the Day of Atonement (see Leviticus 16), and how it points to what Jesus Christ did / how He fulfilled/perfected it. I had heard most of this before, but one thing really struck me this morning - in reference to the scapegoat (or "Azazel"), the goat on which the sins of the people are confessed/transferred. I had never before thought of how when I confess my sins, I'm not only confessing them to Jesus, but confessing them onto Him. Even writing this now, it seems so obvious - of course Jesus bore my sins on the cross (see 1 Peter 2:24). But I had never so clearly seen the connection with the scapegoat of the Day of Atonement. I am humbled and awed by being reminded that Jesus became our great high priest and our sacrifice of atonement.

I Don't Drink Beer

2009-03-28T15:24:00.001-05:00

I always enjoy a good spoof:

(HT: Vitamin Z)

Our Greatest Need

2009-03-21T10:22:00.001-05:00

“If God had perceived that our greatest need was economic, he would have sent an economist. If he had perceived that our greatest need was entertainment, he would have sent us a comedian or an artist. If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician. If he had perceived that our greatest need was health, he would have sent us a doctor. But he perceived that our greatest need involved our sin, our alienation from him, our profound rebellion, our death; and he sent us a Savior.”

- D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation

(HT: Of First Importance)

Never Let The Gospel Get Smaller

2009-03-19T13:36:00.001-05:00

From John Piper at the Desiring God Blog:

Here is a simple exhortation that I have been trying to implement in our family:
Seek to see and feel the gospel as bigger as years go by rather than smaller.

Our temptation is to think that the gospel is for beginners and then we go on to greater things. But the real challenge is to see the gospel as the greatest thing—and getting greater all the time.

The Gospel gets bigger when, in your heart,

grace gets bigger;
Christ gets greater;
his death gets more wonderful;
his resurrection gets more astonishing;
the work of the Spirit gets mightier;
the power of the gospel gets more pervasive;
its global extent gets wider;
your own sin gets uglier;
the devil gets more evil;
the gospel's roots in eternity go deeper;
its connections with everything in the Bible and in the world get stronger;
and the magnitude of its celebration in eternity gets louder.

So keep this in mind: Never let the gospel get smaller in your heart.

Pray that it won’t. Read solid books on it. Sing about it. Tell someone about it who is ignorant or unsure about it.

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel.... For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

Adoption Tax Credit

2009-03-16T22:24:00.001-05:00

From Vitamin Z:

Help make the federal adoption tax credit permanent. Click here to find out how. This is very important if you are serious about adoption.

One Shining Moment

2009-03-16T19:19:00.001-05:00

I just can't let an NCAA Tournament start without posting a One Shining Moment video. Here's the original, from 1987:

Go Heels!

2009-03-16T19:18:00.000-05:00

From an Associated Press story at ESPN.com:

North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Louisville and Connecticut share a No. 1 seeding in the NCAA tournament. Their graduation rates have less in common.
The numbers ranged from 86 percent at North Carolina to 33 percent at UConn, according to a report released Monday by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida.
Louisville was at 42 percent and Pitt at 69 percent.

Myths About Embryonic Stem Cell Research

2009-03-10T21:34:00.002-05:00

From Justin Taylor:

Yuval Levin--author most recently of Imagining the Future: Science and American Democracy--shows four basic myths that the public and the media believe about embryonic stem cell research and policy:
Obama has restored federal policy to what it was prior to Bush’s 2001 stem cell policy announcement.
The Bush policy was a ban on embryonic stem cell research.
There are no viable scientific alternatives to the destruction of human embryos.
The promise of pluripotent stem cells is quite certain.
Read the whole thing.

See also:
The President Politicizes Stem-Cell Research, by Robert P. George and Eric Cohen
Obama's False Choice, by Yuval Levin
Science Over All? by Yuval Levin
Winning Smugly, William Saletan (pro-choice journalist)
Obama Also Rescinds Executive Order for Alternatives to ESCR, By Wesley J. Smith
Perpetuating a Needless Stem-Cell War, by Ryan T. Anderson
Stem Cells: A Political History, by Joseph Bottum and Ryan T. Anderson

I haven't taken the time to read any of the linked articles yet, but based on prior experience, I'd recommend Robert P. George and Wesley J. Smith.

Galatians

2009-03-05T21:32:00.002-06:00

From Challies.com's A La Carte:

If Galatians was Published in Christianity Today
The Sacred Sandwich imagines what would happen if Paul’s letter was to be written and published today.

Visualizing $1 Trillion

2009-03-05T21:28:00.001-06:00

This is pretty cool: Someone used Google Sketchup to create this.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Memorize Scripture From Your iPod

2009-03-05T21:19:00.003-06:00

Crossway Bibles, who publishes the ESV Bible, offers the ability to listen to scripture online - at the ESV website or at the ESV Study Bible website (which is offering a free preview during the month of March, and is included with the purchase of an ESV Study Bible). B.C. McWhite shares the following steps for downloading the readings of selected passages to take with you on your iPod or other mp3 player, or to burn them to CD:

1. Open another browser tab so that you can refer back to these instructions as you do what I tell you to do.

2. Go to the ESV Online site.

3. In the top right corner, click on the “Options” tab.

4. Under “Audio Options,” click in one of the buttons for MP3 (I use David Cochran Heath because he has the most “normal” sounding voice).

5. At the bottom left of the page, click the “Save” button (that should open a page that says, “Your preferences have been saved” at the top).

6. Type the passage you want (e.g. Ephesians 4:29 or Matthew 6:25-34) into the search bar and click “search.”

7. When the passage comes up, you should see a link that says “Listen” next to the passage reference. Control-click (silly PC users right-click) on the “Listen” tab. A menu box should come up. Click on “Save Link As…”

8. When the box pops up, you will have to add an extension name on the end of the title if it doesn’t have one. So, for example, if the title of your selection is “49004029″ then you need to add .mp3 on the end, so that it reads “49004029.mp3″. Save the file to your Desktop.

9. Find the file on your desktop and open it with iTunes or Windows Media Player, or whatever you use. You can then load it onto your iPod, MP3 player, or burn it onto a CD for your car.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Adopted is Not an Adjective

2009-03-04T21:55:00.001-06:00

From LifeTogether:

Russ Moore spoke last week at our church on the topic, “Why We Want to be Foster Children”:

In Scripture there is no such thing as an adopted child. Adopted is a past tense verb, it is not an adjective. Those who have been brought into the household and family of God are really and truly part of the household of God sharing with their brothers and sisters everything that it means to be in Christ.

Listen or Watch his sermon
Preorder his new book, Adopted for Life
Check out LBC’s new adoption/orphan ministry called Just O.N.E.

10 Ways to Pastor Adoptive Parents

2009-03-04T21:51:00.002-06:00

By Jason Kovacs, Director of Ministry Development at the ABBA Fund, posted at the Desiring God blog:

There are many ways that you can express your pastoral care for those considering adoption and those who have adopted already. As an adoptive father and former pastor, I offer a few thoughts on how to help adoption become a biblically based, heart-led, missional movement in your church and not merely another program on your church’s list.

1. Develop your own heart for the fatherless.
2. Do a biblical study on God’s perspective on orphans.
3. Educate yourself on basic facts about adoption and orphan care.
4. Ask questions.
5. Remind them that they desire a good and God-magnifying thing.
6. Keep on encouraging them.
7. Provide financial counsel and help.
8. Cry with them and celebrate with them.
9. Celebrate adoptions publicly in services.
10. Don’t feel like you have to have all the answers.

Read the whole post for further explanation of each point.

Parenting Reality Check

2009-03-04T17:34:00.000-06:00

“The story of child rearing is almost wholly about imitation. We do good or ill, and the young ones follow in lock step, no matter how much we talk and point elsewhere. They are designed that way.…

This inescapable imitation should be listed as a means of growing in grace. Parents often jest about their children being ‘means of sanctification,’ suggesting that child rearing is often a trial. But the situation is much more serious than a passing trial. Given the way children have to imitate parents (or whoever fills that role), one cannot just coast passively, selfishly, like we often do through tough times. Our tiniest daily responses in front of the kids constantly mold and chip away at their persons. Children are a means of sanctification because they are daily adopting their parents’ characters, virtues and vices and all. This is a blessing when we are faithful, but it’s a frightening mirror when we see our own sins growing in them. With kids around, we can’t just move slowly on our own growth. We have to grow in grace for the sake of the kids. If we don’t, then we can become a curse to them and their children.”

- Doug Wilson, Angels in the Architecture, 121–122

(HT: Vitamin Z)

The Madness Is Near

2009-03-03T16:08:00.003-06:00

ESPN.com's Pat Forde understands why the NCAA basketball tournament should not be expanded:

The Tournament Starts Now
Tuesday night, the fun begins. At 7 p.m. ET, the quarterfinals commence in the Big South Conference and the Horizon League tournaments. At 7:30, the Ohio Valley Conference follows suit.
As of that moment, The Minutes counts 308 Division I teams harboring hopes of an NCAA tournament berth. A handful still will be competing to squeeze into the 299 conference tournament slots, since some leagues don't have an all-comers tourney. (Boo to them. And hooray to the Big East for getting it right this year.) A few more teams will be tussling for the Ivy League title.
So for everyone who starts whining at this time of year that college basketball ought to expand its tournament from 65 to 68 or 96 or 1.6 million teams, The Minutes has a simple and succinct answer:
You're already in. You just don't realize it.
Just about everyone has a chance to use the Little Dance as a vehicle for reaching the Big Dance. You have the opportunity to win your way in through your league tourney.

Adoption Motives

2009-02-26T21:52:00.002-06:00

From the Abba Fund Blog:

Jeremy has a must-read post on adoption motives:

It would seem nearly impossible for one to make the act of rescuing an orphan sinful. However, as someone recently thrust into the process, I have become well aware that adopting offers a myriad of opportunities for sinful behavior. I have even seen adopting Christians forget about the person they are rescuing because they are only concerned with how the process is affecting them at a given moment of delay or difficulty. Blinded by the deceitfulness of sin, what should inherently mean good for another is devoted to the altar of self. Feeling the natural tendency of my own heart, I have had to pray constantly, “Lord save me from turning the adoption of two Ethiopian orphans into an act of self-serving wicked idolatry.
...
May God help us to be more aware of the sufferings of these two boys than that of our own. Christ’s example teaches us that adoption has never been easy. May we be come to grips with the reality that whatever we have to endure over the course of several months (and maybe longer) for these two boys can never be compared to the suffering they have felt of being left fatherless. If this is what causes pain and turmoil in our lives so be it. But, may it not be just because we are not getting our way. Or because God is not doing what we think He should do.

I ask you to pray that we would remember that this particular adoption should not cause us to grieve the Spirit of adoption that indwells us. We must remember that we were orphans who deserve nothing but God’s judgment. By grace, we received adoption in Christ. By grace, we will receive this adoption as well.

Read the rest

(HT: Vitamin Z)

More Quotes!

2009-02-26T21:45:00.002-06:00

Here are a couple of unrelated quotes, neither of which came from Of First Importance (from where I've been borrowing liberally lately).

The only way in which a state-controlled school can be kept even relatively healthy is through the absolutely free possibility of competition by private schools and church schools; if it once becomes monopolistic, it is the most effective engine of tyranny and intellectual stagnation that has yet been devised. (J. Gresham Machen: Selected Shorter Writings, 167)

(HT: Desiring God Blog)

No, Machen is not a contemporary politician, he wrote those words in 1933.

"If our theology does not quicken the conscience and soften the heart, it actually hardens both; if it does not encourage the commitment of faith, it reinforces the detachment of unbelief; if it fails to promote humility, it inevitably feeds pride."

J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness, page 15.

(HT: Vitamin Z)

Warning Against Chronological Snobbery

2009-02-26T21:35:00.003-06:00

C.S. Lewis has been credited with coining the phrase "chronological snobbery." Dr. Art Lindsley, a Senior Fellow of the C.S. Lewis Institute, writes:

One of the often-heard objections to faith in Christ is that it is old fashioned or outmoded, a relic of the distant past and therefore easily discarded. After all, what could a two-thousand-year-old faith have to say to us in the twenty-first century?

This was one of the obstacles that C.S. Lewis had to overcome in order to come to faith in Christ. He dubs the problem as one of “chronological snobbery.” His friend Owen Barfield often argued with him on this issue. Lewis’s question was: How could this ancient religion be relevant to my present setting? Lewis defines this chronological snobbery as “the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate of our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that count discredited.”

(Quoted from C.S. Lewis on Chronological Snobbery)

Here's a lighthearted look at the problem of chronological snobbery:

(HT: Tim Challies)

Family Dinner Devotions

2009-02-24T20:20:00.002-06:00

I found this post at Life Together to be a good resource:

Mark Driscoll gives a realistic approach to doing family devotions at dinnertime:

Step 1. Eat dinner with your entire family regularly.
Step 2. Mom and Dad sit next to one another to lead the family discussion.
Step 3. Open the meal by asking if there is anyone or anything to pray for.
Step 4. Someone opens in prayer and covers any requests. This task should be rotated among family members so that different people take turns learning to pray aloud.
Step 5. Start eating and discuss how everyone’s day went.
Step 6. Have a Bible in front of the parents in a translation that is age-appropriate for the kids’ reading level. Have someone (parent or child) open the Bible, and assign a portion to read aloud while everyone is eating and listening.
Step 7. Parents should note key words and themes in the passage and explain them to the kids on an age-appropriate level.
Step 8. Ask questions about the passage. You may want to begin with having your children summarize what was read—retelling the story or passage outline. Then, ask the following questions: What does this passage teach us about God? What does it say about us or about how God sees us? What does it teach us about our relationships with others?
Step 9. Let the conversation happen naturally, listen carefully to the kids, let them answer the questions, and fill in whatever they miss or lovingly and gently correct whatever they get wrong so as to help them.
Step 10. If the Scriptures convict you of sin, repent as you need to your family, and share appropriately honest parts of your life story so the kids can see Jesus’ work in your life and your need for him too. This demonstrates gospel humility to them.
Step 11. At the end of dinner, ask the kids if they have any questions for you.
Step 12. If you miss a night, or if conversation gets off track, or if your family occasionally just wants to talk about something else, don’t stress—it’s inevitable.

Adapted from “Family Dinner Bible Studies” by Mark Driscoll in Trial: 8 Witnesses from 1 & 2 Peter, a study guide. (Mars Hill Church, 2009), pages 69-70.

The study guide is a 208 page PDF that goes along with Mark's current preaching series, which you can subscribe to in iTunes here. Or check out more media resources from Mark and Mars Hill Church at their website.

The Only Reason I Can Sleep Well At Night

2009-02-24T20:16:00.001-06:00

I know I've been an a quote binge lately, but I'm lazy and these quotes are good, so here's another one:

“My conscience does not render a positive verdict in God’s courtroom when I look inside myself. The only reason I can sleep well at night is that even though my heart is filled with corruption and even though I am not doing my best to please him, I have in heaven at the Father’s right hand the beloved Son, who has not only done his best for himself but has fulfilled all righteousness for me in my place.”

- Michael Horton, Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Baker Books, 2008), 88.

(HT: Of First Importance)

He Knows What We Need

2009-02-16T21:42:00.001-06:00

Another gem of a quote, courtesy Of First Importance:

“Everything is necessary that he sends. Nothing can be necessary that he withholds.”

- John Newton

Quotes

2009-02-15T21:50:00.003-06:00

If "Of First Importance" is not a blog you regularly check out, you should. Here are a couple more recent quotes I found over there:

“On Christ, and what he has done, my soul hangs for time and eternity. And if your soul also hangs there, it will be saved as surely as mine shall be. And if you are lost trusting in Christ, I will be lost with you and will go to hell with you. I must do so, for I have nothing else to rely upon but the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived, died, was buried, rose again, went to heaven, and still lives and pleads for sinners at the right hand of God.”

- Charles Spurgeon
“The gospel, by telling us Jesus died for us, is also really insulting. It tells us that we are so wicked that only the death of the Son of God could save us. This offends the modern cult of self-expression and the popular belief in the innate goodness of humanity.”

- Timothy Keller, The Message of Romans (Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2003), 2.

Don't Waste Your Church Attendance

2009-02-13T16:52:00.001-06:00

Good Quotes

2009-02-02T21:49:00.002-06:00

“You don’t have anything to prove to us or the world. The work is finished at Calvary, and that work has unlimited meaning and value. Keep your focus there.”
- C. John Miller
“The message of the gospel is that you are saved by grace through Christ’s work and nothing else at all. As soon as you add anything to it, you have lost it entirely.”
- Timothy Keller, Paul’s Letter to the Galatians: Living in Line with the Truth of the Gospel (Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2003), 13.

(HT: Of First Importance)

Barack Obama Promise Tracking

2009-01-31T14:21:00.001-06:00

From Todd at Ideapalooza:

I continue to marvel at both the media and pundits discussions regarding the Barack Obama Stimulus Package. They wonder how things like money for the Arts and money towards Pell Grants can have any immediate impact on the ailing economy. What are items like this doing in a stimulus package?

The truth and the facts are that they are not part of the stimulus package. They are part of Mr. Obama’s Promise Keeper Package.

My Barack Obama Promise Tracker file contains 895 campaign promises culled from all of Mr. Obama’s speeches and his Plan for America. This file is downloadable, shareable, contains links to original sources and has a keyword search function.

The current stimulus plan, spun to us as a plan only recently concocted to heal the ailing economy, is a actually a year old plan formerly titled Barack Obama’s Plan for America. This is easily seen in my Barack Obama Promise Tracker.

A full year before the current economic crisis, President Obama published his Plan for America during his campaign run. In this, was a wonderful, wide-eyed, list of spending promises meant to transform America. The economic stimulus plan is this year-old Plan for America, only now it is fully funded under the guise called a stimulus plan.

I hope, wish and beg that the real intent of the stimulus plan is brought to light. That is, this is not a stimulus plan, it is a promise keeper plan. Let’s call it what it really is, I say. No disguises, no spin, real transparency.

The True Message of Jesus

2009-01-31T11:52:00.001-06:00

“Jesus’s teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did.”
- Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God

(HT: Of First Importance)

Voddie Baucham

2009-01-27T17:09:00.002-06:00

I recently read Voddie Baucham's Family Driven Faith, but didn't take much time to write about it. I found these clips of Baucham that give a good taste of the book:

The Definition of Disciple:

Family Discipleship:

The Purpose of Family Worship:

Put the Baby in the Beemer:

Is it ever too late?

Family/Children Part II

2009-01-27T16:55:00.003-06:00

Japan has a slightly different take than Speaker of the House Pelosi:

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) - Even before one reaches the front door of Canon's headquarters in Tokyo, one can sense the virtual stampede of employees pouring out of the building exactly at 5:30 p.m.
In a country where 12-hour workdays are common, the electronics giant has taken to letting its employees leave early twice a week for a rather unusual reason: to encourage them to have more babies.
Japan is in the midst of an unprecedented recession, so corporations are being asked to work toward fixing another major problem: the country's low birthrate.

Read the rest.

(HT: Vitamin Z)

"Stimulus" Quick Facts

2009-01-27T16:51:00.003-06:00

From the U.S. House of Representatives Republican Committee on Appropriations:

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have." - Thomas Jefferson

Total Cost of Stimulus Legislation: $825 billion

How does this compare?

• In 1993, the unemployment was virtually the same as the rate today (around 7%). Yet, President Clinton’s proposed stimulus legislation *only* contained $16 billion in spending

• The total cost of this one piece of legislation is almost as much as the annual discretionary budget for the entire federal government.

• This legislation nears a trillion dollars. President Reagan said the best way to understand a trillion dollars is to imagine a crisp, new stack of $1000 bills.

• If you had a stack four inches high, you’d be a millionaire. A trillion-dollar stack of $1000 bills would measure just over 63 miles high.

• In $20 bills, a trillion dollar stack would be 3150 miles high. That’s about the distance between DC and Trujillo, Peru.

• President-elect Obama has said that his proposed stimulus legislation will create or save 3 million jobs. This means that this legislation will spend about $275,000 per job. The average household income in the U.S. is $42,000 a year.

• This bill provides enough spending to give every man, woman, and child in America $2,700.

• This bill will cost each and every household $6,700 in additional debt, paid for by our children and grandchildren.

• Although this legislation has been billed and described as a transportation and infrastructure investment package, but only three percent ($30 billion) of this package is for road and highway spending.

• Much of the funding within the proposed stimulus package will go to programs which already have large, unexpended balances.

• For example, the draft bill provides $1 billion for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which already has $16 billion on hand.

• And, this year, Congress has plans to rescind $9 billion in highway funding that the states have not yet used.

• Deficit spending will not expand the economy. If that were true, then the current $1.2 trillion deficit -- the largest in history -- would already be rescuing the economy.

• $800 billion more will not change that.

• Trade groups state that every $1 billion in highway “stimulus” can be spent creating 34,779 new construction jobs.

• But Congress must first borrow that $1 billion out of the private sector.

• The private sector then loses or forgoes roughly the same number of jobs.

• Japan responded to a 1990 recession by passing 10 “stimulus” bills over 8 years (building the largest national debt in the industrialized world). Their economy remained stagnant and their per capita income went from the second highest in the world to the tenth highest.

(HT: Glenn Beck)

Family/Children Part I

2009-01-27T16:39:00.005-06:00

Denny Burk comments:
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is defending the fact that hundreds of millions of dollars of the forthcoming stimulus package are to be spent on “family planning.” Her argument is very simple. The economy is bad. Having babies costs money. Would-be parents need to save their money by not having babies.

Without a doubt, Pelosi’s remarks reflect the spirit of the age. In general, our culture has come to view children as a burden rather than as a blessing. Even among those who are married, children are increasingly viewed as add-ons—an option that may or may not be pursued by the couple.

This view of children is anything but biblical, and it is positively sub-Christian. From the very beginning of creation, having children has been associated with blessing from the Lord. God commanded Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply”—which was apparently the necessary condition of their ruling over the earth (Gen 1:28). Psalm 127:3 states very clearly that “children are a gift of the LORD; The fruit of the womb is a reward.” When his disciples attempted to dismiss curious children as a nuisance, Jesus said, “Permit the children to come to Me; do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Mark 10:14).

For a more helpful perspective on welcoming children into our families, take a listen to Russell Moore’s conversation on “The Albert Mohler Program” last week. You can download it here ...

I listened to Dr. Moore on the Albert Mohler Program mentioned. It was really good - I wish I had been taught some of this stuff earlier. Unfortunately I bought into society's philosophy of waiting until you were "ready" or could "afford" to have kids. My biggest regret in my marriage is that I kept my wife from having children for more than 3 years because I wasn't "ready." I got to the point where I actually asked my sister why anybody would have kids. Thank God (and my wife) for showing me grace and patience. If only somebody had knocked me upside the head and told me to grow up and be a man instead of just asking when we were going to have kids. At least now maybe God can use me to do just that for somebody in the next generation.

UPDATE: Upon further reflection, I owe an apology to anybody - particularly family and/or friends - who may have knocked my upside the head, but I was still too thick headed to feel it. Nobody else is responsible for me but me, and it was wrong of me to try to pass the buck and blame somebody else. I won't accept that in politicians; I won't accept that in my kids; and I will not accept that in myself. Particularly as I trust in God's sovereignty, I cannot honestly look back and say that I would change anything, because it's all a part of His plan to bring me where I am today. So looking forward, I hope in God & pray to Him that I will lead a life and a family that communicates the inherent value of children as a blessing from the Lord, as well as the responsibility of parents - particularly fathers - to disciple their children and pass on lessons such as these.

(HT: Vitamin Z)

Inauguration News

2009-01-21T16:58:00.005-06:00

I enjoyed these brief stories from the Onion:

Inauguration Crowd Moves To White House Gates To Watch Presidency Happen
WASHINGTON—Moments after witnessing the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama Tuesday, the massive, euphoric crowd shifted to the White House gates to watch the rest of his four-year term unfold. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the new president administrate as it happens," said Hawaii resident Matt Rogers, who paid a scalper $100 to secure his portion of sidewalk until January 2013. "These first 100 days will really set the tone for his presidency, and I'm going to see it all from 50 yards away." This is reportedly the largest crowd of presidential spectators to assemble since 1974, when 20 million Americans stood for six months outside disgraced former president Nixon's home in San Clemente, CA just to rub it in.

Hillary Clinton Mouthing Along To Presidential Oath
WASHINGTON—Network news cameras covering Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony Tuesday captured Hillary Clinton silently moving her lips along with each word of the minute-long presidential oath of office. As she stood watching several yards from Chief Justice John Roberts, the former Democratic presidential candidate could be observed placing her left hand on a leather appointment book and raising her right hand slightly from her hip. Clinton, who carefully followed the swearing-in procedure with her eyes shut tightly, only varied from the president's words once, when she soundlessly mouthed her name instead of Barack Obama's. Clinton was later seen at an inaugural ball pretending she was dancing with first lady Michelle Obama.

This is Disturbing

2009-01-20T18:20:00.003-06:00

According to a new Barna Group poll, among Americans who described themselves as Christian*:

"close to half believe that Satan does not exist"
"one-third contend that Jesus sinned while He was on earth"
"two-fifths say they do not have a responsibility to share the Christian faith with others"
"one-quarter dismiss the idea that the Bible is accurate in all of the principles it teaches"

Heavenly Father, draw us closer to You and Your Word, and may Your Spirit correct us and lead us into all truth.

* "Born again Christians were defined as people who said they had made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that was still important in their life today and who also indicated they believed that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as 'born again.'"

Being Pro-Life Christians Under a Pro-Choice President

2009-01-20T18:19:00.001-06:00

From John Piper at the Desiring God blog:

That is the title of a sermon I preached January 17, 1993 three days before Bill Clinton was inaugurated president. It is just as relevant—or more—today.

The text was 1 Peter 2:17, “Honor the king.” I closed with eight ways to honor a pro-choice president. The seventh was this:

We will honor you by expecting from you straightforward answers to straightforward questions. We would not expect this from a con-man, but we do expect it from an honorable man.

For example,

Are you willing to explain why a baby's right not to be killed is less important than a woman's right not to be pregnant?
Or are you willing to explain why most cities have laws forbidding cruelty to animals, but you oppose laws forbidding cruelty to human fetuses? Are they not at least living animals?
Or are you willing to explain why government is unwilling to take away the so-called right to abortion on demand even though it harms the unborn child; yet government is increasingly willing to take away the right to smoke, precisely because it harms innocent non-smokers, killing 3,000 non-smokers a year from cancer and as many as 40,000 non-smokers a year from other diseases?
And if you say that everything hangs on whether the fetus is a human child, are you willing to go before national television in the oval office and defend your support for the "Freedom of Choice Act" by holding in your hand a 21 week old fetus and explaining why this little one does not have the fundamental, moral, and constitutional right to life? Are you willing to say to parents in this church who lost a child at that age and held him in their hands, this being in your hands is not and was not a child with any rights of its own under God or under law?

Perhaps you have good answers to each of these questions. We will honor you by expecting you to defend your position forthrightly in the public eye.

You have immense power as President of the United States. To wield it against the protection of the unborn without giving a public accounting in view of moral and scientific reality would be dishonorable. We will honor you by expecting better.

Imagine

2009-01-20T18:17:00.000-06:00

(HT: JT)

Making Christ a Minister of Condemnation?

2009-01-19T17:09:00.003-06:00

I couldn't pick & choose from this blog post written by John Piper at the Desiring God blog, so here it is in full:

At Barack Obama’s request, tomorrow in the Lincoln Memorial, Gene Robinson, the first openly non-celibate homosexual bishop in the Episcopal Church, will deliver the invocation for the inauguration kick-off.

This is tragic not mainly because Obama is willing to hold up the legitimacy of homosexual intercourse, but because he is willing to get behind the church endorsement of sexual intercourse between men.

It is one thing to say: Two men may legally have sex. It is another to say: The Christian church acted acceptably in blessing Robinson’s sex with men.

The implications of this are serious.

It means that Barack Obama is willing, not just to tolerate, but to feature a person and a viewpoint that makes the church a minister of damnation. Again, the tragedy here is not that many people in public life hold views (like atheism) that lead to damnation, but that Obama is making the church the minister of damnation.

The apostle Paul says,

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves , nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

What is Paul saying about things like adultery, greed, stealing, and homosexual practice? As J. I. Packer puts it, “They are ways of sin that, if not repented of and forsaken, will keep people out of God’s kingdom of salvation.” (Christianity Today, January 2003, p. 48).

In other words, to bless people in these sins, instead of offering them forgiveness and deliverance from them, is to minister damnation to them, not salvation.

The gospel, with its forgiveness and deliverance from homosexual practice, offers salvation. Gene Robinson, with his blessing and approval of homosexual practice, offers damnation. And he does it in the name of Christ.

It is as though Obama sought out a church which blessed stealing and adultery, and then chose its most well-known thief and adulterer, and asked him to pray.

One more time: The issue here is not that presidents may need to tolerate things they don’t approve of. The issue is this: In linking the Christian ministry to the approval of homosexual activity, Christ is made a minister of condemnation.

Reading this, I'm reminded of this passage of Scripture:

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Romans 1:16-32 (ESV), emphasis added

Bush Grants Clemency

2009-01-19T17:00:00.003-06:00

According to Fox News:

On his last full day in office, President Bush commuted the controversial sentences of two former Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a Mexican drug runner in 2005.
The imprisonment of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean had sparked outcry from critics who said the men were just doing their jobs and were punished too harshly. They had been sentenced to 11- and 12-year sentences, respectively.
Their sentences will now expire on March 20 of this year.

Finally. Now we'll have to see if anything happens with Johnny Sutton. If you aren't familiar with the story, check out my previous posts on the matter.

Russell Moore Hates Sanctity Of Human Life Sunday

2009-01-18T19:08:00.001-06:00

Russell Moore:
I hate Sanctity of Human Life Sunday because I’m reminded that we have to say things to one another that human beings shouldn’t have to say. Mothers shouldn’t kill their children. Fathers shouldn’t abandon their babies. No human life is worthless, regardless of skin color, age, disability, economic status. The very fact that these things must be proclaimed is a reminder of the horrors of this present darkness.
Read the rest of this very important article.

(HT: Vitamin Z)

Sanctity Of Life Sunday Sermons

2009-01-17T13:01:00.003-06:00

DesiringGod.org has a list of sermons given by John Piper on Sanctity of Life Sunday going back to 1987:

Sanctity Of Life Sunday

2009-01-16T21:03:00.002-06:00

From the Romans 15:4 Project Blog:

"The first thing I’d do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing I’d do." - Presidential Candidate Barak Obama, 2008

"Abortion has set us on a dangerous course. We may come to our senses and back away from the slippery slope. Or we may follow it to its inescapable conclusion - a society in which the powerful, for their own self-interest, determine which human beings will live and which will die." - Randy Alcorn, "Why Pro-Life? Caring for the Unborn and Their Mothers"

Message from AUL Action:

This Sunday is Sanctity of Life Sunday — a wonderful way to start a week that includes the presidential inauguration and the annual March for Life. Millions of Americans will go to churches where there will be a special emphasis on the sanctity of human life.

Yet many of those Americans haven’t heard about Congress’ plans to expand abortion through the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) — and other bills like it that would eliminate virtually every pro-life law in the country and force taxpayers to help pay for it.

You can help spread the word. It’s easy: http://www.fightfoca.com/

Visit Fight FOCA today!

Anchor Of Our Salvation

2009-01-16T20:33:00.000-06:00

“Our assurance, our glory, and the sole anchor of our salvation are that Christ the Son of God is ours, and we in turn are in him sons of God and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven, called to the hope of eternal blessedness by God’s grace, not by our worth.”
—John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (III.17.1)

(HT: Of First Importance)

Vote For Noah

2009-01-16T20:28:00.003-06:00

From Tim Ellsworth:

My wife entered a photo of Noah in the “America’s Cutest Last-Minute Tax Deduction” contest, and we found out that he’s a finalist. If you would, please take a second to go to the Cutest Tax Deduction site, scroll down to the bottom and cast your vote for little Noah.

Let’s rock the vote! (And no registration is required.)

Thanks very much.

Tim gives some background on Noah in the comments:

Noah was born Dec. 30, and was quickly taken to the NICU with respiratory distress. The next day, they discovered he had a pneumothorax (or hole) in each lung, resulting in an air leak.

So, Noah had to get two chest tubes inserted — one on each side. The chest tubes removed the air that had gathered outside his lungs, thus allowing his lungs to expand and to heal. He spent six nights in NICU before we were able to bring him home on Jan. 5.

The Lord was most gracious to us in healing little Noah. A friend of my wife’s works in an NICU at a different hospital, and she said it’s not uncommon for this kind of situation to require a much lengthier stay.

So, we’re so grateful to the Lord for healing Noah as quickly as he did. God is indeed good.

Thanks for visiting, and thanks for helping us by voting.

And also shows his humor:

Also, I should add: the grand prize for the contest is a $5,000 savings bond — which means, given the state of our economy, that it should be worth about $1.83 when it matures.

Go give the little guy a vote.

Family Driven Faith

2009-01-15T20:50:00.003-06:00

I just finished reading Voddie Baucham's Family Driven Faith: Doing What It Takes To Raise Sons And Daughters Who Walk With God. I really enjoyed this book, as it made me think about the responsibility I have to evangelize and disciple my children - that it's not something I can "outsource" to children's ministry personnel, youth group leaders, or the youth pastor at church. Baucham's words ring deep and true, both convicting and encouraging families, especially fathers.

I'd recommend this book to anybody who has kids or is planning on having kids. I'd also recommend reading the review of Family Driven Faith at the 9Marks website. Michael Lawrence, associate pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC, provides some good words of critique which he says "responds to a matter of secondary significance in Baucham's book," regarding the nature and purpose of the church.

Family Worship

2009-01-14T18:09:00.002-06:00

A couple of "How to" links about family worship:

Culture Of Death

2009-01-14T18:04:00.004-06:00

From the Washington Times' Jeffrey T. Kuhner:

Social conservatives are mobilizing to prevent President-elect Barack Obama's nominee, Thomas Perrelli, from becoming the next U.S. associate attorney general - the No. 3 post at the Justice Department. In a Jan. 6 story in The Washington Times, veteran reporters Stephen Dinan and Jerry Seper show that prominent special interest groups, such as the Traditional Values Coalition and the Family Research Council, are urging Republicans to oppose Mr. Perrelli's appointment.

It is rare for a sub-Cabinet nominee to generate such fierce criticism, but Mr. Perrelli deserves it. He was one of the lawyers responsible for the death of Terry Schiavo. While representing Mrs. Schiavo's husband, Michael, Mr. Perrelli played a key role in having the Florida woman's feeding tube forcibly removed. The 2005 landmark right-to-die case rightly outraged the pro-life community. As Mrs. Schiavo lay in a coma, her parents and siblings repeatedly said they were willing to take full responsibility, including paying for her medical care. Mr. Schiavo refused. He ordered her feeding at the hospital to be terminated - an act of coldblooded murder.

...

The selection of Mr. Perrelli is symptomatic of Mr. Obama's radicalism on social issues. He is staffing his administration with hard-core liberals bent on promoting a pro-abortion, pro-gay rights, pro-euthanasia agenda. The president-elect has tapped the likes of Dawn Johnsen, the former legal director of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL), to head the Office of Legal Council. He has chosen a fiercely partisan pro-choice Democrat, Tom Daschle, as health and human services secretary. Mr. Obama's intended secretary of state, Sen. Hillary Clinton, is a pro-abortion feminist, who will use the power of the State Department to promote a secular humanist agenda abroad.

On the campaign trail, Mr. Obama vowed that one of his first acts as president will be to pass the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) - a sweeping law that will entrench Roe v. Wade and eliminate state restrictions on abortion and parental notification laws. He is a fierce critic of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits use of federal Medicaid dollars for abortions except in cases of rape, incest and when the mother's life is in jeopardy. The law has saved countless lives. Yet, Mr. Obama and liberal Democrats plan to repeal it.

...

Mr. Obama is a prophet, but a prophet of the culture of death. He refuses to lift a finger to protect the most vulnerable and innocent in our society - the unborn. He now wants to appoint Mr. Schiavo's lawyer to a senior Justice Department position and he must be stopped in his tracks. Conservatives must vociferously object: Mr. Obama needs to know Terry Schiavo has not been forgotten - and that her death was not in vain.

Read the whole piece here.

When Christ Is The Treasure

2009-01-13T21:24:00.002-06:00

“I don’t think Christ is glorified anywhere more than when suffering people rejoice in him as their treasure.”

- John Piper, “Suffering for Christ,” an interview with C. J. Mahaney

(HT: Of First Importance)

Climate Change

2009-01-12T17:06:00.002-06:00

Do I sound more sophisticated and intelligent if I say "climate change" rather than "global warming?" I hope so. Because then I can mindlessly jump on the ice age bandwagon and still pretend that I'm smart.

RedOrbit carries a story entitled "Research Claims Earth Facing Ice Age:"

Scientists are now making an alarming claim that the earth is on the brink of entering another Ice Age that could last the next 100,000 years.

They believe a 12,000-year warming period is currently winding down.

They say ice cores, ocean sediment cores, the geologic record, and studies of ancient plant and animal populations all demonstrate a regular cyclic pattern of Ice Age patterns, separated by intervening warm interglacials, each lasting about 12,000 years.

Read the full story here.

So evidently this means that in the past 35 years, we've gone from the brink of an Ice Age (see this story from Time's June 24, 1974 issue), through the worst global warming in the history of the planet, to the brink of another Ice Age.

Swords Are For Killing

2009-01-05T21:17:00.001-06:00

John Piper's reflections on the sword of the Spirit:

In New Testament times swords were not for digging, shaving, or whittling. They were for killing. The only reason Peter cut off Malchus’s ear was that he missed (John 18:10).

But Herod didn’t miss: “He killed James the brother of John with the sword” (Acts 12:2).

Many saints have felt the full force of the sword: “They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword” (Hebrews 11:37). So it was and will be: “If anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain” (Revelation 13:10).

That’s what swords are for. So when Paul calls the word of God the “sword of the Spirit” in Ephesians 6:17, he is serious—something must be put to death. And it is not people. Christians don’t kill people to spread our faith; we die to spread our faith.

The link in Paul’s mind is given in Romans 8:13.

If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

The word of God is the sword of the Spirit. The Sword is for putting to death. And by the Spirit we put to death our sinful deeds. So I conclude that the way we kill our sins is with the Spirit’s sword, the word of God.

All temptations to sin have power by lying. The are “deceitful desires” (Ephesians 4:22). They tell us that the pleasure of the sin is worth it. The killing blow against these lies is the power of God’s truth. Hence the sword of the Spirit, God’s word, is the weapon to use.

As John Owen said, “Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.” That is what swords are for, especially the Bible.

The Worst Climate Predictions of 2008

2009-01-05T21:13:00.001-06:00

From Watts Up With That?:

2008 will be the hottest year in a century.
You could potentially sail, kayak or even swim to the North Pole by the end of the summer. Climate scientists say that the Arctic ice . . . is currently on track to melt sometime in 2008.
Australia’s Cities Will Run Out of Drinking Water Due to Global Warming.
Hurricane Effects Will Only Get Worse.
Corals will become increasingly rare on reef systems.
No More Skiing?

Prayer

2009-01-04T20:41:00.002-06:00

A couple of links about prayer:

2 John (ESV)

2009-01-04T20:24:00.000-06:00

The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all who know the truth, because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father’s Son, in truth and love.

I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

The children of your elect sister greet you.

Links

2009-01-02T15:19:00.003-06:00

This stuff was too good to pass up, but I didn't have the time to spend on each one separately:

Posted at Between Two Worlds:

Posted at the Desiring God Blog:

Why Do Bad Things Happen?

2008-12-30T20:39:00.004-06:00

A great clip of Voddie Baucham:

Read/hear more from Voddie at his website. I'd recommend listening to his "The Centrality of the Home" and "Multigenerational Promise" podcasts, as well as checking out his book, Family Driven Faith.

Is Global Warming Dead?

2008-12-29T20:23:00.001-06:00

From the United Kingdom's Telegraph:

Easily one of the most important stories of 2008 has been all the evidence suggesting that this may be looked back on as the year when there was a turning point in the great worldwide panic over man-made global warming. Just when politicians in Europe and America have been adopting the most costly and damaging measures politicians have ever proposed, to combat this supposed menace, the tide has turned in three significant respects.

First, all over the world, temperatures have been dropping in a way wholly unpredicted by all those computer models which have been used as the main drivers of the scare. Last winter, as temperatures plummeted, many parts of the world had snowfalls on a scale not seen for decades. This winter, with the whole of Canada and half the US under snow, looks likely to be even worse. After several years flatlining, global temperatures have dropped sharply enough to cancel out much of their net rise in the 20th century.

Read the full story.

Bare Your Bookshelf

2008-12-27T11:44:00.003-06:00

According to Christian Resources International:

Research indicates that the average American Christian owns nine Bibles and is actively in the market for more. That statistic troubles us here at CRI, since we receive more than 400 letters a month from pastors and Christian workers in developing countries whose churches own no Bibles or Christian books.

Every day, more than 122,000 people become Christians, and most of those people are in Africa, Asia, and South America. They’re attending churches where even the pastors have no Bibles. In our country, the church isn’t growing so much. But the pile of Bibles on every Christian’s bookshelf sure is.

This discrepancy is why we have launched Operation Bare Your Bookshelf, a project to make it easy for American Christians to send a Bible (and a Christian book or two) overseas.

If you're like me, you have old Bibles sitting around that don't get used. What a tremendous opportunity to serve the worldwide church. CRI provides all the shipping materials to send Bibles to "a specific pastor, Christian worker, church member, or seeker overseas." They even send the recipient's name so you can pray for them specifically. Click here to find out more.

Liberated From Self

2008-12-27T11:43:00.000-06:00

“Not self-conscious nor self-confident, a Christian is liberated to be self-forgetful.”

- Timothy Keller, Ministries of Mercy (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1989), 64.

(HT: Of First Importance)

A Christless Christianity

2008-12-27T11:42:00.000-06:00

“There really is no place for Christ in many people’s Christianity. Their faith is not actually in Christ; it is in Christianity and their ability to live it out. This kind of ‘Christianity’ is really about shadow glories of human knowledge and performance. It does not require the death to self that must always happen if love for Christ is going to reign in our hearts.”

- Paul David Tripp, A Quest for More (Greensboro, NC; New Growth Press, 2007), 106.

(HT: Of First Importance)

A Little Perspective, Please

2008-12-27T11:30:00.002-06:00

I'm a complainer, and am an impatient person, especially when it comes to seemingly minor things. Comedian Louis CK provides some perspective on our selfish, thankless, impatient society:

(HT: Vitamin Z)

Santa Claus Is The Law, Jesus Is The Gospel

2008-12-27T11:24:00.001-06:00

(HT: Vitamin Z)

Countercultural High School Football

2008-12-27T11:19:00.003-06:00

Rick Reilly writes about a remarkable story:

They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down
in Grapevine, Texas.
It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it
was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the
Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.
Did you hear that? The other team's fans?
They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, "Go
Tornadoes!" Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.
It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans
sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on—by
name.

Read the full story.

Adoption For Christmas

2008-12-27T11:04:00.003-06:00

I found this at Vitamin Z's blog:

Here is a very cool adoption story. The Minneapolis Star Tribune story begins with this:

Every year, Dorothy Bode asks for two things for Christmas: a new Bible and a new baby. The previous year's Bible inevitably has been destroyed by one of the babies. "There's something about those crinkly pages that attract little hands," she said.

So the Bibles keep coming, and so do the babies. This year's arrival is Jeremiah.

This is the seventh Christmas that Dorothy and her husband, Robert, have adopted an infant. Their two-story home in northeast Minneapolis teems with 10 kids from infancy to 12 years old, a blend of birth and adopted children, white faces, black faces and unknown races. The new babies come to them battling autism, fetal alcohol syndrome or their birth mother's drug addiction.

To them this is not sacrifice, it's a mission. It's their way of following Jesus' teaching to love your neighbor. "Every person is equally valuable and important," Dorothy said. "[We are] doing all of this in Jesus' name -- with no strings attached for those we serve."
Read the rest.

I'm The Worst Sinner I Know

2008-12-27T10:56:00.005-06:00

Head over to the Straight Up blog and listen to James MacDonald's interview clip with C.J. Mahaney from the Straight Up Pastors Conference. If you haven't read or heard much from C.J. Mahaney (or even if you have), you may want to watch & listen to it more than once.

Disturbing Christmas

2008-12-23T15:12:00.002-06:00

From C.J. Mahaney at the Sovereign Grace Blog:

The days before Christmas can be a tiring season of preparation, planning, shopping, and wrapping. But I think as we prepare for the Christmas celebrations, dinners, travel, and gift giving, it’s equally important that we pause and prepare our souls for Christmas.

During this time of year, it may be easy to forget that the bigger purpose behind Bethlehem was Calvary. But the purpose of the manger was realized in the horrors of the cross. The purpose of his birth was his death.

Or to put it more personally: Christmas is necessary because I am a sinner. The incarnation reminds us of our desperate condition before a holy God.

Several years ago WORLD Magazine published a column by William H. Smith with the provocative title, “Christmas is disturbing: Any real understanding of the Christmas messages will disturb anyone” (Dec. 26, 1992).

In part, Smith wrote:

Many people who otherwise ignore God and the church have some religious feeling, or feel they ought to, at this time of the year. So they make their way to a church service or Christmas program. And when they go, they come away feeling vaguely warmed or at least better for having gone, but not disturbed.

Why aren’t people disturbed by Christmas? One reason is our tendency to sanitize the birth narratives. We romanticize the story of Mary and Joseph rather than deal with the painful dilemma they faced when the Lord chose Mary to be the virgin who would conceive her child by the power of the Holy Spirit. We beautify the birth scene, not coming to terms with the stench of the stable, the poverty of the parents, the hostility of Herod. Don’t miss my point. There is something truly comforting and warming about the Christmas story, but it comes from understanding the reality, not from denying it.

Most of us also have not come to terms with the baby in the manger. We sing, “Glory to the newborn King.” But do we truly recognize that the baby lying in the manger is appointed by God to be the King, to be either the Savior or Judge of all people? He is a most threatening person.

Malachi foresaw his coming and said, “But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap.” As long as we can keep him in the manger, and feel the sentimental feelings we have for babies, Jesus doesn’t disturb us. But once we understand that his coming means for every one of us either salvation or condemnation, he disturbs us deeply.
What should be just as disturbing is the awful work Christ had to do to accomplish the salvation of his people. Yet his very name, Jesus, testifies to us of that work.

That baby was born so that “he who had no sin” would become “sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The baby’s destiny from the moment of his conception was hell—hell in the place of sinners. When I look into the manger, I come away shaken as I realize again that he was born to pay the unbearable penalty for my sins.

That’s the message of Christmas: God reconciled the world to himself through Christ, man’s sin has alienated him from God, and man’s reconciliation with God is possible only through faith in Christ…Christmas is disturbing.

Don’t get me wrong—Christmas should be a wonderful celebration. Properly understood, the message of Christmas confronts before it comforts, it disturbs before it delights.

The purpose of Christ’s birth was to live a sinless life, suffer as our substitute on the cross, satisfy the wrath of God, defeat death, and secure our forgiveness and salvation.

Christmas is about God the Father (the offended party) taking the initiative to send his only begotten son to offer his life as the atoning sacrifice for our sins, so that we might be forgiven for our many sins.

As Smith so fitly concludes his column:

Only those who have been profoundly disturbed to the point of deep repentance are able to receive the tidings of comfort, peace, and joy that Christmas proclaims.
Amen and Merry Christmas!

A Forgotten Word?

2008-12-22T18:31:00.003-06:00

Tim Ellsworth has some good reflections on saying "No" to our kids:

One of the most difficult things about parenting is knowing where to draw
the line when it comes to buying things for my kids.

On one hand, it
gives me great pleasure to provide good things for them. But yet, I don’t want
to spoil them, and I don’t want them to grow up with any kind of entitlement
mentality.

While I know there are undoubtedly times when I cross the line, I think
too many parents make “crossing the line” more the rule than the
exception.

...

In short, children need to learn what “no” means. Parents need to teach
them. It won’t kill you. Otherwise, we’ll raise a generation of kids who will
grow up to be insufferable, spoiled adults, and we have too many of those
already.

Read the whole thing.

Don't Waste Your Church

2008-12-22T11:16:00.000-06:00

Going Giftless at Christmas?

2008-12-22T11:06:00.002-06:00

Shaun Groves just completed a 4-part series entitled "Going Giftless." He's got some good points that are well worth considering.

(HT: Vitamin Z)

Many Paths to Heaven?

2008-12-18T20:35:00.001-06:00

From AlbertMohler.com:

Are American evangelicals abandoning the exclusivity of the Gospel? A new report out from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life suggests that many evangelical Christians are, at the very least, badly confused about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
As Cathy Lynn Grossman of USA Today reports:
Most American religious believers, including most Christians, say eternal life is not exclusively for those who accept Christ as their savior, a new survey finds.

Of the 65% of people who held this open view of heaven's gates, 80% named at least one non-Christian group - Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists or people with no religion at all- who may also be saved, according to a new survey released today by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

This most recent report, released today, clarifies a report issued earlier this year. That earlier report became the cause of some controversy because some researchers questioned the accuracy of the responses, since some of those surveyed may have confused other Christian denominations for other religions.

In releasing this updated report, the Pew Forum isolated the question and made it far more specific. Those who affirmed other ways of salvation were then asked to specify what they meant. As USA Today reports, the vast majority of those who affirmed other ways of salvation went on to specify "Jews, Muslims, Hindus, atheists or people with no religion at all" as valid options.

The report indicates that 52% of those belonging to churches and denominations that teach that Jesus is the only way of salvation reject that teaching.

Mohler was interviewed for the USA Today story:

Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, calls the findings "a theological crisis for American evangelicals. They represent at best a misunderstanding of the Gospel and at worst a repudiation of the Gospel."

And:

Overall, the new findings are "an indictment of evangelicalism and evangelical preaching," said Mohler. "The clear Biblical teaching is that Jesus Christ proclaimed himself to be the only way to salvation."

Mohler sees behind the statistics the impact of pluralism and secularism in U.S. society and the challenge of facing family and friends with "an uncomfortable truth."

"We are in an age when we want to tell everyone they are doing just fine. It's extremely uncomfortable to turn to someone and say, 'You will go to hell unless you come to a saving knowledge of Jesus,' " Mohler says.

High Stakes Gamble

2008-12-18T20:26:00.002-06:00

LifeSiteNews.com carries a story about a UNICEF report about daycare, with some troubling data:

The report observes that "most children in the developed world are spending their earliest years in some form of care outside the home.” According to the organization, “80 per cent of children aged three to six are in some form of early childhood education and care outside the home,” and “about one in four under the age of three are also cared for outside the home — with the proportion rising to one in two in some countries.”

The report concludes that, "To the extent that this change is unplanned and unmonitored, it could also be described as a high-stakes gamble with today's children and tomorrow's world."
...
The most comprehensive study done in the US was released last year and found that the more time children spent in center-based care before kindergarten, the more likely their teachers were to report such problem behaviors as "gets in many fights," "disobedient at school," and "argues a lot." (See "Largest US Child Study Finds Early Child Care Linked to Aggression and Disobedience": http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/mar/07032607.html).

Other studies have found everything from increased frequency of illness to impaired social and emotional development in children attending preschool centers.

“The biggest eye-opener is that the suppression of social and emotional development, stemming from long hours in preschool, is felt most strongly by children from better-off families,” said UC Berkeley sociologist and co-author Bruce Fuller, who performed research on the question in California in 2005.

Economic Policy

2008-12-18T17:24:00.003-06:00

Check out this interview with President Bush:

"I've abandoned free market principles to save the free market system"? I've been expecting this country to become the United Socialist States of America, but I never expected it to come under President Bush's watch.

Christmas Shoes

2008-12-17T21:09:00.004-06:00

Warning: If you don't like sarcasm, don't read this post. From the blog, What Christians Like:

Does the whole world know about the song "Christmas Shoes?" I assume this tender ditty about a boy trying to buy pretty shoes for his mama in case she dies and meets Jesus, is an international smash hit. Maybe it hasn't spanned the globe yet though so I posted a video clip of it below.

According to the Internet, which is always 100% accurate, this song took four years to write. I have a hard time believing that because it has the air of three songwriters sitting in a "cheesy song laboratory," trying to concoct the most emotionally manipulative song ever. And when I hear it come on the radio I immediately rip my stereo out of the dashboard and throw it in a river. If I'm not near a river, a small "crick" will suffice.

But what if I'm wrong? What if it's actually the greatest song ever written? What if despite all my sarcasm and all the other great blogs that have already joked about this song, it's actually the most important song our generation has ever experienced? What if Christmas Shoes is the greatest song ever written?

Here are five reasons I think that might be true:

1. You can sing it to every other Christmas song.
This year, I've secretly been playing a game of "What would Christmas Shoes sound like if it was another song" in my head. For instance, Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is you?" That one becomes "All I want for Christmas is Shoes." Or, "Carol of the Bells," the Ding Dong song becomes "Here are some shoes, these are some shoes, do you like my shoes, my mama's shoes?" Try it, it works with any song.

2. It's got its own movie.
Name me three other Christmas songs that have been turned into “made for television movies” starring Hollywood's Rob Lowe? You can't, can you. (Sure, Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman are songs and movies, but was Lowe in either of those?) Here's how CBS describes it, “In this heartwarming holiday drama, a workaholic attorney crosses paths with a young boy on Christmas Eve and rediscovers the true meaning of love, life and the holiday season." Wow, that's powerful right there.

3. It's got its own book.
I really hope that when my book comes out in 2010 someone will make a song version. (Preferably to the tune of Prince's "When Doves Cry," "This is what it sounds like when you side hug.") You know you've got a good song when there's a book version as well, even though Publisher's Weekly describes the book as "Two couples find their lives transformed by a Christmas gift in a gooey holiday parable that leaves no stone unturned in its pursuit of tear-jerking moments." I promise my book will not be gooey.

4. A little kid sings at the end of the song.
Who doesn't like that? We Christians love when a chorus of children come in at the end of a song. Especially if it's a sweet little kid that says "mama." As I've said before, if I ever have an audio book made of something I write, I'm going to have a really adorable third grader read the last chapter. Hopefully, Christopher Walken will agree to read the first 20, but to close it out on a strong note, I feel an 8-year old is in order. At least I get that sense from all of the Christian songs that end with a choir of kids.

5. It's played fairly often on Christian radio during the holidays.
It's available. Don't you hate when you hear about something good and you can never find it? You google it and ask your friends and no one knows where to direct you to enjoy this magical thing you're looking for? Don't worry about that happening with the Christmas Shoes song. It's currently played every other song on some Christian radio stations. So it's easy to find. That's a nice thing, right?

OK, I confess, I don't love that song, but I do wish I was signed up for the iTunes affiliate program and not just the Amazon.com one, because right now, I imagine readers are buying the Christmas Shoes song like some sort of delicious hot cake. And with the money I earned I'd probably buy my cat Sir Scratch a Lot, some new feline fancy feet socks in case he meets Jesus tonight. He was hit by a car while saving a wheelbarrow full of orphans and nuns that was stuck in the middle of the street. I think this might be his last Christmas with us and those socks are just his style.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

2008-12-17T21:02:00.001-06:00

Probably my favorite Christmas hymn, I shared the lyrics two years ago. Here it is, performed by Jewel, featuring scenes from The Nativity Story:

Bethlehem Morning

2008-12-17T20:49:00.004-06:00

I love Christmas music. I hope to share some of my favorites in the next week or so. Here's one of them, "Bethlehem Morning." First, performed by Silvie Paladino:

Or click here to hear my 2nd favorite version, done by Sandi Patty. (My favorite is listening to my sister sing it.)

Eschatology of Parenting

2008-12-17T20:31:00.002-06:00

Some good words from Russell Moore about parenting (taken from his blog, Moore to the Point):

Yesterday I helped a toddler clean up a 44 ounce cup of Coke Zero he’d spilled everywhere (yes, it was mine; and no, there were not 44 ounces left remaining in it when he found it). I answered forty questions about whether Jesus made Lego blocks (so stay tuned for my new sermon series on “The Logos and the Legos”). And I disciplined a tantrum thrower and a sulker.

All of that was about the end times.

When we think of Christian eschatology, we tend to think first of prophecy charts or apocalyptic novels, but nothing is more eschatological than parenting.

A parent disciplining a child, for instance, communicates to the child the discipline and judgment of God in ways deeper and more resonant than any Sunday school lesson (Heb 12:5-11). A parent who will not discipline a child for disobedience, or who is inconsistent in doing so, is teaching that child not to expect consequences for behavior.

In short, a parent who will not discipline is denying the doctrine of hell.

At the same time, a parent who disciplines in anger or with harshness teaches a judgment of God that is capricious and unjust. An abusive parent, worst of all, ingrains in a child’s mind a picture of God as a ruthless devil who cannot be trusted to judge justly.

Parental discipleship and discipline ought always to have repentance and restoration in view, picturing a God who is both just and the justifier (Rom 3:26). Discipline should be swift and fair with quick reconciliation between parent and child. Long periods of “time out” do not communicate the discipline of God; they communicate the isolation and exile of hell.

Parents who spend time with their children, especially at meals, demonstrate something of the harmony they want their children to long for beyond this life. It’s a longing to eat at another Father’s table in the kingdom of Christ.

Moreover, we should teach children to respect and acknowledge authority, attributes necessary for citizens of a democracy for a short time, yes, but more necessary for subjects of a kingdom forever. Teaching children to refer to adults as “Mr. Smith” or “Mrs. Jones” or “Pastor Doe” and to say “sir” and “ma’am” (or the culturally equivalent signifiers of authority) is about more than politeness. It is training children to recognize proper hierarchy and authority when the veil is lifted and we see face to face.

Those of you who are parents probably grow weary and discouraged sometimes. I know I do. It seems as though you’re not “getting through” sometimes, that your children aren’t responding the way you thought they would. Keep hugging. Keep kissing. Keep chastising. Keep teaching. This is a long-term project. You’ve got a long-term project in front of you. And there’s a lot at stake.

After all, parenting isn’t about behavior modification. It’s about Christian eschatology.

Is Adoption Missional?

2008-12-01T20:37:00.000-06:00

Posted at the Q Ideas blog:

Johnny Carr, National Director of Church Partnerships for Bethany Christian Services, explores the intentionality and service of adoption. Johnny adopted his first son, James, a deaf child from China, in 2005.

I guess the first thing is to define missional. "Missional" is one of those junk drawer buzzwords that has become common in our Christian vocabulary with several definitions floating around. Wikipedia says that "missional" is a missionary-term that describes a missionary lifestyle, and I guess that is as good a definition as any. To live "missionally" is to express the Gospel holistically in the way you live - every day and in every thing. It is a way of life, not a program. It means living like Jesus lived. If you know much about Jesus you know that includes helping to meet the emotional, physical and spiritual needs of others. Living missionally means making a conscious decision to live each day with others in mind, rather than yourself.

In other words, YES - adoption is missional.

Recently, I was speaking with a lady who had asked her church for financial help for their adoption. The church leader responded that the church did not help with "optional" things like adoption. The pastorâ€™s perspective seemingly saw adoption more like consumption than ministry. He saw adoption as a want - much like I want an iPhone. He was not viewing adoption from the perspective of the child.

When I meet with Pastors to discuss adoption ministries, I will often ask them, "Who does adoption help?" The typical response is "infertile couples." That is when I lovingly explain that adoption primarily helps children. Whether the child is an orphan from war, genocide or disease in Africa; whether the child is an orphan due to abuse and neglect and the state has severed the rights of his/her birth parents, or whether it is a new born baby that was born due to an unplanned pregnancy - adoption is (or, at least, should be) always about the health and best interest of the child. Unfortunately, many Christians are focusing on adults (us) rather than the child (them).

When adoption is seen through a child's eyes, it is easy to see the missional nature of adoption. In fact, this may be the ultimate missional decision because adoption is a lifetime commitment. Many people today are adopting children with special needs. Some of these children will never grow up to be independent. The people who are adopting these little ones know that they are making a decision today that will affect the rest of their lives. Instead of raising a couple of healthy kids, sending them off to college, and then sailing off in their motor home into retirement, they will be serving the least of these until one of them "retires" into eternity. That is truly missional.

Someone once said missional living was "religion without all the junk added," I thought that was interesting in light of James 1:27, "Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." (NIV)

There are many different perspectives on the best ways to care for orphans, but with 143,000,000 orphans in the world today, something must be done by followers of Jesus Christ. Only 1-2% of these children will be adopted. We need many strategies that will best fit the cultures, values, and environments of the places where these orphans live, and adoption is a one great strategy.

Adoption is not the one-stop cure all for the orphan crisis, but it is a strategic and effective mode to care for the orphans of the world. It's also a commitment of sacrifice, a holistic manifestation of the Gospel, a missional posture and a service to Christ.

Bethany is an international team of nearly 900 people actively involved in ministering to the needs of children, young people, and families. With over 75 offices nationwide and international ministries in 13 other countries, Bethany touches the lives of more than 30,000 people each year. Bethany is supported through fees and gifts received from individuals, churches, corporations, and foundations. Bethany is known by many as an adoption agency, but our family-focused ministries also reach people struggling with unplanned pregnancies, infertility, and a multitude of other human hurts.

Penal Substitutionary Atonement

2008-11-20T21:01:00.002-06:00

In reading Gerald Hiestand's recent post at entitled "Saved from the Savior," I tried to pick a couple of parts to share. But I kept adding, and soon had each paragraph. So here's his post in full:

I’m finishing up The Nature of the Atonement (eds. Beilby and Eddy). The book presents four differing views of the atonement—the Christus Victor view (defended by Greg Boyd), the kaleidoscopic view (Joel Green), the healing view (Bruce Reichenbach), and the penal substitutionary view (Tom Schreiner). Each author is given a chapter to defend his position, followed by a response from the other three contributors.
While there is a significant amount of disagreement between the four contributors, what I found interesting is that Boyd, Green and Reichenbach are fairly united in their criticism of penal substitution (perhaps Reichenbach less so). With one voice, they call into question the very idea that humanity needs to be saved from God. This is seen perhaps most clearly in Boyd’s chapter and subsequent responses. In defending the Christus Victor view, Boyd argues that the cross of Christ is about being saved from Satan and the evil spiritual ‘powers,’ rather than from God. The idea that we need to be saved from God, Boyd argues, is a misread of Scripture. “The New Testament concept of salvation,” he writes, “is centered on our participation in Christ’s cosmic victory over the powers [Satan]. It does not first and foremost mean ‘salvation from God’s wrath’ or ‘salvation from hell’ as many Western Christians mistakenly assume” (p 35).

This seems to be a fairly common criticism of penal substitution. God is love, the argument goes, and he does not need to be paid off or placated. The cross is about God saving humanity from evil powers (Boyd), the effects of sin (Reichenbach), or a combination of both (Green). But it’s not about humanity being saved from God’s vengeance or wrath. After all, God is the Savior!

But such thinking misses a key element of God’s salvific activity. Let’s recount the Passover.

Moses, as the mediator of God’s wrath, has stretched out his hand over the land of Egypt and brought destruction upon Pharaoh’s kingdom. Yet Pharaoh will not yield. Not to worry, the Lord tells Moses. One last plague is coming, different from all the others, and with this plague Pharaoh will fold. But the difference with this plague will not merely be the degree of its severity; the difference will be in who delivers it. With the plague of the firstborn, God himself will come to visit the land, directly and without a mediator. This is a significant escalation in the conflict. Amidst the terrors of darkness, in the black of night, Yahweh will descend upon the land, a sword of judgment in his hand. Yet a problem presents itself. The Israelites have called in fire on their own position. The nearness of their God is both a blessing and a bane—the fire that will consume their enemies threatens to consume them as well.

God is for the Israelites, but they have not been properly for him. They have joined the opposition and sided with the enemy—an enemy God is determined to crush. But God is gracious in the midst of his vengeance. Another ark of salvation is prepared in the midst of a second flood of vengeance; the blood of a lamb is shed and God’s people are delivered once again…from God. We, like the Israelites in Egypt, need to be saved from our Savior.

And that’s a basic point of penal substitution—that God, in his willingness to save us from the power and dominion of sin—must also somehow save us from himself. Any view of the atonement that fails to grapple with this uncomfortable—yet distinctly biblical—reality, falls short.

Just another terrific post from the guys at Straight Up.

Fight FOCA

2008-11-19T16:47:00.004-06:00

I'm not normally a fan of online petitions, but this is one I've signed. I'd encourage you to go to their website and read up on Fight FOCA, and watch the video on the right side of the screen. Then, if you so desire, scroll down and sign the petition.

UPDATE:

I've been reading some of the bill. (The Senate version & House version are basically identical.) Wow. Here's just a little bit, with my responses:

(1) The United States was founded on core principles, such as liberty, personal privacy, and equality, which ensure that individuals are free to make their most intimate decisions without governmental interference and discrimination.

I thought the first "core principle" that the U.S. was founded on was life. Seems to me like without life, one cannot really experience liberty or personal privacy.

(6) In countries in which abortion remains illegal, the risk of maternal mortality is high. According to the World Health Organization, of the approximately 600,000 pregnancy-related deaths occurring annually around the world, 80,000 are associated with unsafe abortions.

So roughly 13% of women who die from pregnancy-related causes are associated with "unsafe" abortions. That pales in comparison to the 100% death rate of aborted babies.

(7) The Roe v. Wade decision also expanded the opportunities for women to participate equally in society. In 1992, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (505 U.S. 833), the Supreme Court observed that, `[t]he ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives.'.

I'm not a biologist, but I'm pretty sure that women have always been able to control their reproductive lives. As have men. It's called abstinence. It may not be easy, but it's 100% effective.

(10) Legal and practical barriers to the full range of reproductive services endanger women's health and lives. Incremental restrictions on the right to choose imposed by Congress and State legislatures have made access to reproductive care extremely difficult, if not impossible, for many women across the country. Currently, 87 percent of the counties in the United States have no abortion provider.

How does abortion fall under "reproductive care"? If it's not a baby, there was no reproduction. And if it is reproduction, and therefore a baby, then it's most certainly not caring for what has been reproduced. Did I miss Planned Parenthood's new motto, "We kill because we care"?

(11) While abortion should remain safe and legal, women should also have more meaningful access to family planning services that prevent unintended pregnancies, thereby reducing the need for abortion.

Again, let me point to the 100% death rate for aborted babies (not what I'd call "safe") and the much maligned "family planning service" known as abstinence.

(12) To guarantee the protections of Roe v. Wade, Federal legislation is necessary.

No it's not. Courts do not establish law. They merely decide how law is applied in individual cases. Legislatures and voters establish law. It's part of the separation of powers of the government.

(13) Although Congress may not create constitutional rights without amending the Constitution, Congress may, where authorized by its enumerated powers and not prohibited by the Constitution, enact legislation to create and secure statutory rights in areas of legitimate national concern.

What about "legitimate national concern" about the lives of babies?

SEC. 6. RETROACTIVE EFFECT.

This Act applies to every Federal, State, and local statute, ordinance, regulation, administrative order, decision, policy, practice, or other action enacted, adopted, or implemented before, on, or after the date of enactment of this Act.

There you go - there's the kicker. The Senate's version of the "no matter what" game I used to play with my brother when we were kids. Only back then we were usually talking about who was the better athlete or whose favorite team was better. Not quite the same seriousness as killing babies.

Serbian Abortionist Become Pro-Life Activist

2008-11-17T20:46:00.001-06:00

From LifeSiteNews.com:

The Spanish daily "La Razon" has published an article on the pro-life conversion of a former "champion of abortion." Stojan Adasevic, who performed 48,000 abortions, sometimes up to 35 per day, is now the most important pro-life leader in Serbia, after spending 26 years as the most renowned abortion doctor in the country.

"The medical textbooks of the Communist regime said abortion was simply the removal of a blob of tissue," the newspaper reported. "Ultrasounds allowing the fetus to be seen did not arrive until the 80s, but they did not change his opinion. Nevertheless, he began to have nightmares."

In describing his conversion, Adasevic said he "dreamed about a beautiful field full of children and young people who were playing and laughing, from 4 to 24 years of age, but who ran away from him in fear. A man dressed in a black and white habit stared at him in silence. The dream was repeated each night and he would wake up in a cold sweat. One night he asked the man in black and white who he was. 'My name is Thomas Aquinas,' the man in his dream responded. Adasevic, educated in communist schools, had never heard of the Dominican genius saint. He didn't recognize the name."

"Why don't you ask me who these children are?" St. Thomas asked Adasevic in his dream.

"They are the ones you killed with your abortions,” the Dominican saint told him.

"Adasevic awoke in amazement and decided not to perform any more abortions," the article stated.

Read the whole thing here.

The Supremacy Of Christ

2008-11-17T20:42:00.001-06:00

(HT: Vitamin Z)

Christ Alone

2008-11-17T20:40:00.002-06:00

Some good words from David Block at Vincit Omnia Veritas:

Our society claims that tolerance or rather blind acceptance is the law of belief that all men must accept today. They say, “If your meaning of truth works for you great, just as long as it doesn't get in the way of my truth. After all, with so many religions and beliefs systems out there how can you know if there is a right or wrong one? In the end it doesn't really matter what you believe as long as you are sincere.

But the cry of Christians has always been what Peter says in Acts 4:12, that, “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved,” and as Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:5, “there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Why do we Christians say these things? To the world this seems unfair, unjust, arrogant or even bigoted. Christians say these things because Jesus said theses things about himself. Jesus said that he was the Way, the Truth, and the Life and that no one gets to God except by him. Jesus also said that “unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

Why do we need Jesus to be the only way? The Bible teaches that we are all separated from God due to our sin and the breaking of God's law. Because God is just he must see that every law breaker is justly punished which means the death penalty. We owe God a debt that we could only pay with our eternal deaths. But fortunately, for us God is also loving and so he sent Jesus to pay that debt. Jesus died and took upon himself the full penalty of his people's sin. He is the only way and the only truth because Jesus was the only one willing and able to do this for us. No other religious leader, like Buddha, Mohammed or Confucious even claimed to take the penalty of sin for us let alone rose from the dead to prove that what he said was true; but Jesus did.

There is a huge gap between the Christian view of Jesus and other religions. Atheism, deism or pantheism sees Jesus as just a man, if he existed at all, Christians call him God. Jews say that Jesus was not the Messiah, Christians say he was. Muslims say that Jesus didn't die on the cross but Christians do. Hindus claim that God has and is incarnate multiple times over, Christians believe that God has only been incarnate in Jesus. Buddhists believe that the world will be perfected when we do what is right. Christians know that apart from God, no one can do what is right. So there are really two options left. Choose your own system of belief or popular religious leader and pay for you sin by yourself for all eternity or Jesus can pay it for you. Looking at the price that Jesus paid how could anyone say that believing that he is the only way is unfair or arrogance? We rejoice that there has been a way made to God at all.

So the question is: Do you believe in Christ alone?