Mar 15
Due to a family emergency I have been out of town and have fallen behind in my blogging. I am still on task with my bible reading but haven’t had time to write.
So here is something cool I just found that I thought was aptly named. “This Too shall Pass”
Hopefully I will be back on task next week.
Mar 12
Matt Chandler continues to be one of my heroes. Because he is preaching in the “Evangellical capital of the world.” He speaks to a lot of things that i see in myself.
There are so many reasons why people walk away from the church and Christ but I have come to believe more than ever it is because we are assuming the Gospel and preaching sanctification. This message sums it up much better than I ever could.
Matt Chandler – 20/20 2010 Session 1 from Southeastern Seminary on Vimeo.
Mar 7
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Mar 5
Moralistic Therapeutic Deism has become a bit of a catch phrase in certain circles it comes from, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers
This is a great video from the Resurgence. As someone who has worked in youth ministry I found the book Soul Searching that Dr. Horton refers to to be a shock. It is well worth the look.
Mar 1
In the past when I have read numbers I wondered if they census taker was rounding numbers off. How could it be that every tribe just happens to have numbers that round off to the hundreds?
The census here servers two purposes according to my study bible to show that the promise to Abraham was fulfilled in the number of his decedents and to show the fighting force of Israel, both should give confidence to the people as they enter the promise land.
Any way back to the numbers, they must have been exact counts because when the count is given for the Levites the number is 22,273; it would make little sense to round of all the other numbers. Anyway this is the first time I really noticed this although I have asked this question every time I have read this before.
It donned on me that I have done very little in the way of trying to see Christ in all the scriptures like I said I wanted to and this section of scripture didn’t do much more for me…
Num 6
24The Lord bless you and keep you;
25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
This is one of my favorite passages in scripture, it was the closing of almost all of my Lutheran services, our regular benediction. One thing I loved about those services is that most of them were the same. I can still repeat the liturgy almost all of the way through. ( I may write more about this another time)
At any rate, I have taken to repeating this blessing as a prayer every night over both of my daughters when I lay them down to sleep. I now some people don’t care much for prayers that aren’t improvised but my daughters are memorizing scripture every night and it will help to tie them to the word and tradition that Christians have enjoyed for generations.
Feb 28
I love you babe http://bit.ly/c07Bw8 #
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Feb 24
I would say “Maybe it is just me” but after years spent working with men in churches I know I am not the only one who feels this way. You know the feeling; Everyone is getting together to pray and you are thinking, “I hope this doesn’t last long so we can actually get out and do something useful.” No? Just me? Riiiiight.
Prayer is something that to many people, particularly men, seems impractical, I would almost be as honest as to say a waste of time. I am not saying that it is a waste of time , of course, but I often have to fight to keep myself from thinking that way. It is a sign of my sinful arrogance and self reliance. Why should I bother God when I can take care of part of it or all of it myself. Perhaps I am not thinking big enough or perhaps I think to highly of myself.
You Actually Have to Pray | TheResurgence.
I love the quote in this section from Martin Luther “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” I don’t act on it but I think it is sound. I have found that if I am to pray I must do it first, if I do not do it first thing I will not do it at all. I always have time for the things I put first, it is just unfortunate that I do not always look at prayer as something that actually needs to go first. I usually look at it as a formality but not as
Prayer is the Priority | The Resurgence
There is a rumour amongst charismatic Christians that praying is only really worthwhile if the Holy Spirit leads you to pray (and by this they mean that you already feel like praying). Jesus was much more straightforward: he told the disciples that the spirit may be willing, but the flesh is weak (Matt. 26:41).
As a recovering Charismatic this really resonates with me. Prayer has always been one of the places I have struggled in my walk because I assumed, much like the quote says, that it will be a leading of the Spirit that will make it easier. But is appears more and more that it is only through actually doing that things become easier. It isn’t helped that in most of the Charismatic circles I have run in no one ever admits their faults. So, while they tell the stories of getting up to pray every morning at 4:00am they don’t tell you how much they hated it. This year my wife and I have been rising early to read out Bible and pray as a couple and it has become easier but I am still not satisfied.