Madison Rising - Star Spangled Banner

I was planning on posting something else today, but then I saw this....(turn up the speakers and plug in your air guitar)

A Bill Nye Rebuttal

Have you seen this? It is Bill Nye's assertion that teaching children creationism is inappropriate.  Even stupid.  At least that's what I inferred from listening to him.  When Nye had his PBS show on several years ago, I thought it was fantastic, and it was.  Best produced science show for kids I've ever seen.  However, I didn't realize just how energetic he was in his disdain for creationism.  Too bad.  So here is the video, followed up by two other very well educated people who have formed a response to Bill Nye.  BTW, it is unfortunately not common knowledge that there are many, many PhD's, MD's and smarter-than-me's in every field of science who are Biblical creationists.

Why Is Church Life So Difficult Sometimes?

Why is church such a hard place to be sometimes?  Why is it so doggone difficult to get along with the people in church?

The people who populate a church on any given Sunday morning (or whenever) are not a typical group of people.  Think about it.  The people that comprise our congregations wouldn't normally be found together outside of church.

As we live out our daily lives, we naturally gravitate towards people who "fit in" with us, or vice versa.  Typically when we gather with folks outside of church, it's because we find ourselves cheering for the same sports team or enjoying the same activities.  You know, the people we jog with, dine with, and go to the movies with.

These relationships happen naturally.

May I suggest that a church body isn't a natural body?  It's supernatural.

Truly, the Church is a ragtag bunch if ever there was one.  And that's a giant testimony to the grace of God.  God sovereignly saves people from all different corners of culture.

Melancholies, cholerics, sports nuts, couch potatoes, fitness fanatics, stock brokers and grease monkeys, who might be down on their luck, high on the hog, crazy as crackers or smart as a whip - all of them inhabit the assembly of the saved.

We are truly a ragtag bunch.  No wonder there is such a strong Scriptural call for unity. Other groups can fall apart if they want to. We must stay together at all costs.  

If somebody abandons State U. to cheer for U. of State, big deal.  If your buddy gives up P90X for pork rinds, it's not the end of the world.  These natural clusters of interest we gravitate to and orbit around are fluid, not static.  People can move in and out because there's not much at stake, really.

But the people within the Church (notice the big "c") must hang together.  We must demonstrate the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  And that's one of the hardest things to do.  It's also one particularly magnificent way that God is glorified and the Gospel is proved to be real.

Click

Randy Alcorn, from Stand: A Call for the Endurance of the Saints,

Television and reading both put us in someone's company, and remove us from someone else's company.  You decide:  will you be different because you put yourself in the company of Spurgeon rather than Seinfeld? Over the long haul, will you grow closer to God and your family and your neighbor by watching television, or by turning it off and doing something that matters, something that's an investment in eternity?

Stand: A Call For The Endurance Of The Saints

Been reading a good book called Stand: A Call for the Endurance of the Saints. It's a collaborative effort from Justin Taylor, Jerry Bridges, John Piper, John MacArthur, Randy Alcorn and Helen Roseveare.  Not a bad list.  I had the book on my Amazon wish list for quite a while and finally ordered it.  I won't summarize the book here, but just want to share an excerpt from Jerry Bridges:

It's possible that sometime in your life things will totally fall apart and you will feel that you have nothing left.  Let me tell you, there are two things that God will never take away.  God will never take away the gospel.  IN the most difficult day so of your life you still stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ.  Your sins are forgiven.  Even your doubts are forgiven because Christ fully trusted the Father on your behalf.  And, second, God will never take away his promises.  These two assurances will remain even if everything else is stripped away. If you were brought to the point of being like Job, this you can count on. You stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Christ.  He will never, never take the gospel away from you.  And you will always have his promise, "never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

Castaways In Need Of Ropes

Farther along we’ll know all about it

Farther along we’ll understand why

Cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine

We’ll understand this, all by and by

Tough days.  If you've experienced depression of the type that is more than what so many people define as a "bad mood" or a "ho-hum day", and if you've known melancholy that goes beyond what others understand as a couple days that have been a downer, then you might know what real depression is.  Sometimes it is exacerbated by circumstances, but not always.  It typically appears in cycles that could be weeks, months or years apart, and the duration of the experience can stretch on and on before it lifts.

For me it's a draining of all desire, sadness like a hot uncomfortable blanket, inability to concentrate on work – fatigue of the mental muscle. It means days when frustration and anger and dismal delusions have you so stirred up in your mind that your gut follows suit and you find yourself physically ill as your insides churn.  It means being dulled, sapped and weary.  Too often as well it means becoming reclusive and avoiding people and surrendering to lethargy.

What depression doesn't mean for me is that I've lost hope in my Redeemer, and it doesn't mean that I'm not moved by Truth.  What I'm learning is that my fallen, fault-riddled self is given to these cyclical episodes of serious depression and that in the midst of these periods I don't have to give in to the sins of unbelief and bitterness because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

This modern version of "Farther Along" by Josh Garrels fills my heart with hope and healing, and it also happens to sound a bit in places like something Tracy Chapman would write. :) Drink it in.

Can't Be Earned

I've told the teenagers in our church several times that the Lord saved me when I was 6 years old, and after walking with Him for over 36 years, I STILL haven't done enough to earn my salvation.  It wasn't earned back then, it isn't now, and it never will be.  On my deathbed (if I die in bed...) I'll still be miserably, infinitely short of earning my salvation.  It's a work of grace and mercy.  Start to finish.

B.B. Warfield said that there is nothing that we do in oursevles that makes us acceptable to God. 

"We must always be accepted for Christ's sake, or wee cannot ever be accepted at all.  This is not true of us only when we believe.  It is just as true after we have believed.  It will continue to be true as long as we live.  Our need of Christ does not cease with our believing."

 My hope is built on nothing less that Jesus' blood and (His) righteousness.