death to self-righteousness

the Gospel ends self-righteousness. ht to Timmy Brister

two on suffering

first courtesy of Vitamin Z we get this comforting bit that we will never be able to fully explain the problem of evil but that we can trust God anyway: So how do Christians explain the problem of evil? The reality is, we can’t provide an exhaustive theodicy or explanation of the existence of evil.  [...]

Body metaphor

Randy Alcorn posts an excerpt from Philip D. Kenneson’s Life On The Vine: Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit in Christian Community (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999). I agree that we should probably all spend some time thinking a bit about what Kenneson says here: This [the church as a body] is only one [...]

this is also amazing

this is also amazing, but in a different way. surely at some point people will get really sick and tired of being hectored by someone who thinks they know better than everybody else. surely? Doesn’t he realize this country has a system of local school districts that run and pay for schools? WASHINGTON — Students [...]

this is amazing

everybody has seen this already, but the man is amazing. HT to Ed Morissey.

emerging church conversation

Here is an interesting interview by Trevin Wax of Robbie Sagers about the emerging church. Trevin is a blogger and Robbie is a PhD student and special assistant to Dr. Russell Moore. Robbie has contributed a chapter to Evangelicals Engaging Emergent: A Discussion of the Emergent Church Movement (B&H, 2009). here is a bit of [...]

friday fotoes

these cool mornings feel very fallish. loving the change after a very long, very hot, very dry summer. capitol renovations are on the horizon. soon this will be covered up with scaffold.

Logos Bible software

I mentioned Logos in passing the other day as my preferred Bible software to use on my laptop. I have been using it for at least 10 years and I love it. When I originally moved to Mac OS back in 2007, Logos didn’t have a Mac version so I had to buy Parallels and [...]

Aaron Ivy – Worship Band

Aaron Ivy – Worship Band, originally uploaded by Doug Klembara. Here is Aaron Ivy at Kyle Field in Aggieland. Doug Klembara (http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougklembara/) took this picture and some others. He estimates the crowd at 7K.

accountability for rejecting Christ

here is John Piper’s illustration of the difference between moral inability and legal inability and why a person can be held accountable for rejecting Christ even though they can’t choose Christ on their own accord. Give it a listen and see what you think of the argument. HT to Reformation Theology

acting like teenage kids

never forget that the crowd running the show in Washington truly deeply believes that they are smarter than you and care more than you do about things. from Drudge here is exhibit A in the condescension lalapalooza: Energy Secretary Chu: A teaching moment (AP) When it comes to greenhouse-gas emissions, Energy Secretary Steven Chu sees [...]

alarmed by bad news?

Iain D. Campbell posts a devotion form Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening devotional book on Psalm 112:7. Excellent reminder from CHS: “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings.” Christian, you ought not to dread the arrival of evil tidings; because if you are distressed by them, what do you more than other men? Other men have [...]

guilt and forgiveness

R.C. Sproul, Jr. on Cornerstones and Stumbling Blocks. Here is the opening paragraph, but go read all of it: Why do the wicked flee when none pursue? Guilt. Why do we by nature exchange the glory of the Creator for corruptible things? Guilt. Why do the nations rage, and the rulers take counsel together? Guilt. [...]

global warming

if there is something about which the world has been certain (at least certain far left precincts of the world), it is that global warming is occurring and that it is man caused. the proposed remedy has been to wreck our economies and teach people to be satisfied with a lesser standard of living. what [...]

II Timothy 3:12

II Timothy 3:12 says “12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,”. Do you believe that? Do you believe that all means all and that persecution really means persecution? Really? here is a John Piper quote from Vitamin Z: “Obedience in missions and social justice has always [...]

the Ministry of Meekness

Continuing to read Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we arrive on pages 95-97 at his description of the ministry of meekness that Christians owe to one another: Only he who lives by the forgiveness of his sin in Jesus Christ will rightly think little of himself. He will know that his own wisdom reached the [...]

photo phridai

rain and cool brought out the wildflowers (new header picture) sunrise last week and williamson county fall league ball has begun

PocketBible for iPhone

I have been using Laridian’s PocketBible software on my PDA then phones for a long long time. I used it on my old Handspring Visors, my Treo300 phone, my Treo600, my samsung PPC6500 (windows Mobile), and even on my Windows computer. For powerful Bible software on the go, it has been a dream. Lots of [...]

spiritual leadership

John Piper’s article on spiritual leadership is a treasure trove of extremely valuable information. I found this bit on marks of a good teacher especially interesting since I have spent a lot of time teaching. 9. Able to Teach It is not surprising to me that some of the great leaders at Bethlehem Baptist Church [...]

David Powlison on marital intimacy

fascinating talk from David Powlison on marital intimacy. Part 2 below about transparency in small groups about struggles is critically important. making prayer requests that are personal, real, and humbling is extremely important. If you are part of a group where the culture says that it is not ok to not be ok, then you [...]

ripple effects

I saw this interesting and strangely haunting story yesterday on one of the ripple effects of the worldwide economic downturn. Here, on a sleepy stretch of shoreline at the far end of Asia, is surely the biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history. Their numbers are equivalent to the entire British and [...]

Got to thinking about eyes

Yesterday after I posted about Joel Osteen and his blurb about his forthcoming newest book, I got to thinking. What I was thinking about is how the worldview he is promoting is completely foundationally skewed. It is exactly backwards. Here is part of what he says: Instead, your declarations should be: I am closer than [...]

more prosperity gospel

back to vitamin z for an update on Joel Osteen’s newest book. check it out: So, Joel Osteen sent us an email yesterday to let us know about his new book, It’s Your Time. Joel wanted us to know that we could achieve our dreams with his new book. That was the subject line, seriously. Here’s [...]

the mechanics of a D&X

courtesy of Vitamin Z here is the deposition testimony of Dr. Carhart from the University of Nebraska about the particulars of his method of abortion. Just read it, if you can, but I warn you that it is deeply disturbing.  This must stop.  there is more at the link above if you really want to [...]

phriday photos

cooling off