hard questions

in our american evangelical church today how much do we really believe in community? you recall the recent denouncing of the “heresy of individualism” by the Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Episcopal church’s presiding bishop. a lot of the commentary by the evangelicals being denounced as heretics seemed to agree with at least some of [...]

phridai photos

down Lady Bird Lake sunset there is just something about film and B&W that makes me like this picture of the dizzy bat race

Paul Ryan in action

I watched an eight minute version of this video last night. here is an almost six minute version that Mary Katherine Ham posted. I agree with Mary Katherine that Paul Ryan and Katrina van den Heuvel need to take their health care debate on the road. Notice how Katrina disappears from the screen after she [...]

love takes time

Jesse Phillips is bringing up a good quote from Jon Tyson. “We simply cannot love one another as Jesus commanded if our lives only overlap in 15-minute segments before and after programmed Christian events. And we cannot reach out to those far from God if the normal flow of our lives is disconnected from theirs [...]

are you or am I emergent?

Challies quotesKevin DeYoung’s test of whether we are emergent or not. Kevin says that “if all or most” of these apply to you then you are emergent. So let’s use 75% as a threshhold.  Look at my answers below and you tell me.  Am I emergent?  I think not, but they have some good points. [...]

law/gospel

iMonk goes on a rant about law preaching versus gospel preaching that is both entertaining and informative. take a look. In other words, it’s an unmitigated disaster unless the Gospel is heard louder, longer and much clearer than anything else. I’d really like to apologize to anyone- and there are a lot of these people- [...]

WOW!!

everybody has probably seen this already, but WOW! Texting while driving increases the risk of an accident or near accident by 23 TIMES. After studying the behavior of real truck drivers covering more than 6 million miles of road, the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute says people who send text messages while driving are 23 times more [...]

New Piper book, free pdf

zach points out that the new John Piper book with missionary stories is available free for download. DG Blog: John Piper’s new book Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ is now available for download. Get it for free. Read an interview by JT with John Piper concerning this book. here is the direct link to 128 pages [...]

the market works

this story shows that the market works. until the incentives change the piracy problem off of Somalia will continue and will likely get worse. here is the introduction. The rough fishermen of the so-called Somali coast guard are unrepentant criminals, yes, but they’re more than that. They’re innovators. Where earlier sea bandits were satisfied to [...]

six scriptural reasons why babies go to heaven

Dr. Mohler and Dr. Daniel Akin have reposted their article showing from scripture why they believe that infants go to heaven when they die. they lay out six reasons for this belief. here is number six and an overall point about God’s justice, but do go read the whole thing. Including Charles Spurgeon in the [...]

narcissism?

Carl Trueman points to this slashing article regarding the twitter and facebook impulse? truth or over the top? from page two of the article comes this bit: Well, indeed. For Twitter to be patronised by young people, it would need to be far more purposeful than it is, more pragmatically useful. But instead, it was [...]

who do you trust? part III

all right, now let’s go back where we started. In John 10:10, Jesus contrasts himself and his mission with the thief. The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy. Jesus came to bring abundant life. and here are we sheep in the middle. we have a choice to make. do I send this email to [...]

phridai photoes

went out last Saturday evening to take some pictures of the power plant on first street. as long as I was down there, I walked around and took some more pictures. here is the Lamar Street bridge and here is the pedestrian bridge

who do you trust? part II

earlier we talked about God’s thoughts on divorce and what Jesus had to say. Jesus proves his bona fides to us in his instructions because he is the good shepherd who laid down his life for us. We thus are forced to believe that he has our best interests at heart when he tells us [...]

who do you trust?

Jesus said in John 10:10 that the thief came only to steal kill and destroy. By contrast, his purpose was to bring life and that life “abundantly.” Jesus goes on in John 10 to assure us that he is a good shepherd. The proof that he is a good shepherd with the sheep’s best interest [...]

more on Justification

I have mentioned the topic of the Justification debate between John Piper and N.T. Wright before. I also linked once to John Piper being interviewed on the topic. Anyone who wants to know the Biblical basis for them to be declared righteous before God should listen to the podcast at the last link above. Now [...]

but I’m a good person

this one stung. more than a little bit. I spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on my kids sports and extra curricular activities each year while children in poverty in my community and around the world are ignored by people like me with means to help, but I am a good person. My neighbor is [...]

God’s will for our lives

Julie Neidlinger nails it again in talking about people searching for God’s will for their lives. A marked memory I had of my one year in Bible college was that of people frantically trying to find the will of God. It came out in all sorts of heartfelt and religious prayers and confessions, and ended [...]

SBC in the last thirty years

Nathan Finn is doing a series of 3 posts on 15 things that have changed in the SBC since 1979. the first five are here. interesting stuff. looking forward to seeing the next ten. here is number 5 5. Changing Relationships between Southern Baptists and Independent Baptists During the 1940s and 1950s virtually the only [...]

perspective

I have found that in taking pictures, perspective is key. getting low or getting high puts just a little different spin on reality. Joe McNally agrees. This guy once said, get your camera in a different place. I tell ya, sometimes when you have a camera in your hands you just feel you want some [...]

Mark Steyn with a cheerful perspective

Mark Steyn is always full of good cheer about the demographic future of western nations. Here is a particularly peppy bit. The transformation of developed societies – either into old folks’ homes (like Japan) or semi-Islamized dystopias (like Amsterdam, Brussels, etc) – will lead, in fact, to emigration. A young German or Japanese circa 2040 [...]

condescension in action.

just wow. watch this if you haven’t seen it already. I have been hearing about it for a few days, but only just now watched it. this is much worse than when she told the General to call her “senator” instead of maam. I really hope the people in CA are watching this buffoon embarrass [...]

two good ones from Focus on the Family

I received an email from Focus on the Family that mentioned a couple of good articles. Just in case the rest of the world isn’t already on Focus’ email list, here they are. a good one on teen rebellion In his book Losing Control & Liking It, Sanford offers some explanation about the struggles most parents [...]

friday fotoes

a pelican swooping over the water last Tuesday morning more macro flowers and a monochromatic sunstar from the old film camera

Pedantic Pet Peeve 2

here is another thing that Julie and I have noticed to be on the increase. sale is a noun. Sell is a verb. for instance, I need to sell my trailer. (incidentally, it is a Big Tex 50LA. 16 feet, rails, hardly used. about two years old. I love my trailer and I love having [...]