You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June, 2008.
Controversial author Shane Claiborne packs an old Baptist church in Pittsburgh to discuss a new book he co-authored called “Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals.”
Claiborne spent 10 weeks working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta, India, and has authored the book “The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical.”
Tim Challies reviewed “The Irresistible Revolution” last month.
Cedarville University created a stir by un-inviting Claiborne from a lecture he was to deliver at the school in February.
Claiborne has blogged at times at the God’s Politics blog. You can find out more information about him at The Simple Way’s website.
In defense of a threatened oak grove at the University of California, Berkeley, protesters have inhabited the endangered trees for 18 months now. They intend to forestall the construction of a multi-million dollar athletic training facility.
Not quite Simeonesque, but you have to give it to them for tenacity.
Sometimes God ordains that spectacular events take place in our lives. A large inheritance. Odd weather. A strange message. Our tendency is to receive such anomalies as endorsements from God to do a particular thing, even when God has clearly forbidden it.
For example, David and his men are sitting in the innermost parts of a cave when Saul, who is seeking David’s life, enters that very cave to relieve himself. This is a spectacular stroke of providence.
David’s men mistakenly infer from this that God is giving Saul into David’s hand. “And the men of David said to him, ‘Here is the day of which the LORD said to you, “Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you”‘” (1 Samuel 24:4).
David glides up to Saul in secret and severs a piece of his robe. His conscience immediately pierced, David says to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do this thing to my lord, the LORD’s anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the LORD’s anointed” (1 Samuel 24:6).
David understood that God sending Saul into his very clutches was not a divine endorsement for assassination. He chose to interpret his spectacular circumstances through what God clearly desired, rather than interpreting them as what God clearly desired.
We would do well to follow his lead.
Mike Anderson from the Resurgence blog highlights Matt Chandler today, providing links to conference video and interviews. According to Mike, “You need to know Matt Chandler.”
Chandler is the pastor of The Village Church in Dallas, TX.
Here’s some background info on Chandler from Mike’s post:
“Before becoming a pastor, Matt was running a non-profit. One of his big donors asked him to interview for a head pastor position at a dying Baptist church. Matt had zero desire to accept the job—but even when he preached election, elder-lead government, and God’s Sovereignty to an old school baptist congregation—they still hired him! God has used Matt in incredible ways. The small church has grown to over 3,000 people in a few short years, planted several churches, and sends out swarms of missionaries.”
Nina Berman writes about the Nathan’s Famous hot-dog-eating contest at Coney Island in the July 2008 edition of National Geographic:
“I remember the strange ritual held each July 4 when men gathered around picnic tables and gorged themselves on hot dogs. Now the Nathan’s Famous hot-dog-eating contest is known worldwide, drawing groupies who cheer the victors. Six-time winner Takeru Kobayashi competed with a jaw injury last year. He ate 63 hot dogs (and buns) – and still came in second” (pg. 14).
Have you ever participated in an eating contest? If not, what would be your dream contest? I think I would go for macaroni and cheese.
Sometimes it’s easy for me to read over a shocking statement about God and not let it hit me like it ought. Take, for example, Psalm 135:7 – “He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.”
Now, the verse says that God makes lightnings for the rain. That’s easy enough to picture. Dark, rolling thunderheads crackling with veins of fire. But then I remember that lightning can cause terrific damage, even take a person’s life.
On August 21, 1776, a nighttime storm raged over the city of New York for three hours, accompanied by intense lightning. David McCullough relates the carnage:
“Houses burst into flame. Ten soldiers camped by the East River, below Fort Stirling, were killed in a single flash. In New York, a soldier hurrying through the streets was struck deaf, blind, and mute. In another part of town three officers were killed by a single thunderbolt. A later report described how the tips of their swords and coins in their pockets had been melted, their bodies turned as black as if roasted” (1776, pg. 156).
This means that if God makes lightnings for the rain, then he is also behind the life-taking effects of those bolts. “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand” (Deuteronomy 32:39).
God roasts people. May that cause us to tremble. And then, may it drive us to ponder the sizzling rage Jesus endured in our place on the cross.
Peter tells us that the heavens and the earth that now exist are stored up for fire (2 Peter 3:7).
Some would use this to justify not caring for the earth. It’s a sinking ship, after all.
Can you think of other situations where we care for things that won’t last?
History is one of God’s kindnesses. Through reading it he allows us to rehearse our futures a thousand times over. Consider, for example, 1 Timothy 6:6-7: “Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.” In one sense, I have not yet experienced the end of verse 7 (“we cannot take anything out of the world”). But in another very real sense, I have.
During the winter of 1776, British and colonial forces were at a standoff. The redcoats were cornered in Boston while the ragtag American army encircled them around the perimeter. Finally, in a surprise move in early March, George Washington ordered his troops to set up defenses under the cover of night at nearby Dorchester Heights. Seeing that the colonial army had the unexpected upper hand, the British packed up shop and sailed away, bringing a number of civilians with them who were loyal to their cause. The hasty exit forced many to leave valuable belongings behind.
A man named Reverend Henry Caner reported his losses. David McCullough tells his story in the book “1776“:
“As rector of King’s Chapel, the first Anglican church in Boston, the Reverend Caner was the leading Church of England clergyman in Massachusetts and a greatly respected figure among all denominations. He had been rector for nearly thirty years and lived alone in a small farm house close to King’s Chapel, at the corner of School and Tremont streets. In his account of ‘goods left in my house at Boston, March 10, 1776,’ he listed, among other items: ‘a handsome clock,’ two mahogany tables, teacups and saucers, ‘one rich carved mahogany desk and book case (with) glass doors,’ pictures of the King and Queen ‘under glass with rich frames,’ a pair of brass andirons [used to hold up logs in a fireplace], ‘a fine harpsichord,’ 1,000 books, a barn and ‘appurtenances,’ a cow and a calf” (pg. 100).
When I read an account like this, it puts skin on a text like 1 Timothy 6:7 and I am reminded once again to not store up for myself treasures on earth, where ships and military stealth force me to leave them behind.
The harpsichord stays, Johnathon. The harpsichord stays.
Susan Wunderink from Christianity Today interviews Tim Keller on his book “The Reason for God” and how he approaches doubts that people raise about Christianity:
“Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and cofounder of the Gospel Coalition, is behind some of the most ambitious — if not the most radical — efforts to reach urban professionals. Now he’s expanding his ministry in book form, with the publication of The Reason for God, which moved its way up to number seven on The New York Times nonfiction bestseller list.
Keller’s book tour, hosted by the Veritas Forum, has attracted 6,000 attendees to universities around the country. Many readers are saying that the book provides satisfying answers to the questions that churched and unchurched people commonly raise about Christianity. CT assistant editor Susan Wunderink sat down with Keller as he passed through Chicago.”
Here are some of the questions Keller answers:
- Are the doubts that believers face the same doubts that unbelievers face?
- Why have you avoided using arguments from intelligent design in your apologetics?
- Do you hear a lot of “I can’t believe in Christianity because I believe in science”?
- The recent Pew study talked about changing patterns of belief in America. Has that affected your apologetics ministry?
Check out the book’s website for more information, as well as a reader’s guide, study guides written by Redeemer’s pastors, and some select sermons.
Joe Carter has an insightful post today called “Six Thoughts about Jesus.” He wrote it in response to those who would ask why he doesn’t mention Jesus more often, since he runs an evangelical blog. Here is his answer:
“Over the years people have asked me why, since this is an evangelical blog, I don’t mention Jesus more often. My usual glib answer is that I prefer not to name-drop just because I’m on a first name basis with the Creator of the Universe. I also take offense at the implication [that] my sole mission as an evangelical blogger is to end every post with an altar call.
While it’s true that I don’t casually use the name of Jesus, I believe that, like Flannery O’Connor’s South, this blog is ‘Christ-haunted.’ Still, there is a time to talk about Jesus more directly. Since I think about him constantly, I often have questions, concerns, surprises, opinions, and–on rarer occasions–insights, about Christ. Here, for instance, are a few thoughts I’ve had.”
If you have time, I’d encourage you to stop over and check out his few thoughts. They are refreshingly perceptive.
