Matt Chandler (Pastor of the Village Church) speaks to the ridiculousness of the secular theory that Jesus didn’t die when he was crucified, but was somehow revived when placed in the tomb.

A couple other clips of Matt Chandler:

The “De-Churched”

Reflexions on his personal walk with God:

How the church can be an obstacle to evangelism:

Each month the folks over at Christian Audio gives away a free audio book.

This month’s book (November 2009) is Desiring God, by John Piper. Back when I read it in 2000, it transformed the way I saw missions, putting God’s glory, rather than man’s salvation, as the foundation of the missions endeavor.

I would encourage anyone who is serious about God’s Word, Missions, or Church planting, to read it (or at least listen to it).

Click here to download Desiring God, the Audio Book.

Last weekend my brother Paul graduated from Marine boot camp (13 weeks of brutal DI’s, hoarse voices, lack of food & sleep, renunciation of personal rights, extreme discipline, one-hour-long (total) weekends, hand-to-hand combat, expert marksmanship, Psalm 23, and watered-down theology Sunday mornings.

His reflexion on boot-camp? He says that it wasn’t incredibly difficult physically (he had been working out extensively for months before beginning boot camp), but the mind games got to be annoying. He identified several different types of mind-games that were simply repeated over and over and over. One example of an attemp to break their will: he saw the packing and emptying of their footlocker over and over for 5-hours straight as a fairly pointless exercise.

But regardless of these types of annoyances, he is now a United States Marine… with the opportunity to be a light for Christ from within the U.S. Military.

We are very, very proud of Paul. His perseverence. His dedication. And his willingness to put it all on the line for the love of those around him.

Here are a few photos from his graduation:

John Piper lays out his abomination for the prosperity gospel:

A few quotes:

“Those who desire to be rich fall into a snare”

“The very thing that leads people to suicidal piercings of pangs, namely, the desire to be rich, is nurtured and cultivated by the prosperity preachers.”

“Jesus said: ‘It’s easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven’… Why would he say that? It’s because riches are such dangerous things. They are not a blessing, usually. They are usually a curse. People are destroyed by riches.”

“I don’t mean it is sinful to make a lot of money… it is sinful to want to keep a lot of money.”

HT: Desiring God Blog

I found this over at Andrew Jones’ blog (Tall Skinny Kiwi). I laughed and so thought I’d share.

Bob Roberts at the Missions One21 Conference. A lot of challenging stuff here:

A few quotes:

“We get first century, but we can’t get past William Carey: Instead of standing on his shoulders we keep trying to dig him up!”

“The Great Commission is “wherever you are you are going, in every single direction”

“When the Great Commission is accomplished it will not be because of a superstar, but because the whole body of Christ gets up off her feet.”

“The Church is merely a reflexion of the disciples we are making.”

“There is no such thing as a closed country.”

“You don’t have to have a platform or lie about what you’re doing there, sneak in & sneak out. You just need to be willing to die. And that’s all right, ’cause you’re going to die anyhow!”

“We spend all kinds of time taking missionaries & trying to turn them into businessmen. Why not take businessmen and turn them into disciples?”

I found this over at Guy Muse’s M Blog

Relationships with desires but no agenda.

Aaron was totally cool with Jonathan’s “desire” that he become a Christian, but opposed to the idea that becoming a Christian be a “condition” for their relationship… or even an agenda of Jonathan’s in their relationship.

-1 Peter 3:15?

Ht: Reformissionary

A few scattered thoughts on fighting the subliminal influences we are constantly fed.

Consider these statements:

• A mother at home has next to no value.
• A father who leads is a relic of the 19th century.
• Obedient children are sooo not cool.
• Only one car with no garage? It’s time to move up in life!
• Move to another town to help start a church? Are you kidding? That’s what we pay pastors for!
• Get married before I sleep with someone? No one around us waits anyway. Why should I?

Whether we know it or not, want it or not, or even like it or not, the thousands of messages continually slipped into our subconscious (through TV, radio, music, internet, billboards, logos, tag-lines, etc.) alter our perceptions, impact our emotions, and transform our values.

Our belief systems, our comprehension of family, manhood & womanhood, finances, humility, the nature of God, love, justice, and a myriad of other aspects of our lives morph and sway under the weight of this ever-present subliminal pressure.

Watch this incredible example of the impact of subliminal messages:

It’s no wonder that Joshua told the Israelites to “meditate on it (the book of the law) day and night”. He knew that we needed a counter-balance, some way to fight these constant subliminal messages, a way to let the influence of ancient truth trump current opinion even at the subconscious level.

Otherwise, we’re trapped in this present time and this present culture. Unknowingly, left and right, we’re swallowing current cultural values, current blind spots, and current generational sins.

We are constantly being influenced… the question is “by what?“

John Piper in his sermon “You Shall Worship The Lord Your God“, said this:

I have an abiding fear of what C. S. Lewis called chronological snobbery. Chronological snobbery is the arrogant notion that the ideas of our own day are better than the ideas of a bygone day just because the ideas are in our day. Chronological snobbery feels that things are truer because they are newer. And so it is both irrational and naive.

C.S. Lewis

It’s irrational because being new is no guarantee of being true. It’s pure arrogance to think that a thought in my head is better than a thought in the head of Martin Luther just because I live in the twentieth century and he lived in the sixteenth. There is no logical connection between the truth of an insight and the century when God puts it into somebody’s mind.

And chronological snobbery is not only irrational. It is also naive. Because there aren’t any really new ideas under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9-10 says,

What has been is what will be,

and what has been done is what will be done;

and there is nothing new under the sun.

Is there a thing of which it is said,

“See, this is new”?

It has been already,

in the ages before us.

So I try to flee every temptation to be a chronological snob. I don’t want to be irrational or naive. C. S. Lewis prescribed at least one antidote. He said that every third book you read should be from outside your own century. It was good advice.

Here is an eyewitness account by a member of our mission organization of what is going on in the Philippines and what we can do:

URGENT NEED: $50,000

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble…we will not fear.”

Please allow me to share this Urgent and important news/prayer item.

Due to the recent effect of typhoon in the last week until today (Ondoy-Ketsana and Pepeng), there’s more rain and massive flooding in National Capital Region, Central and North Luzon, all roads to the North have been shut down last night, all water dams opened due to excessive rain, 12 major bridges destroyed (Pangasinan and roads to Baguio), landslides, and major power interruptions and many cities are isolated right now including Baguio City (158 dead, 57 missing just last night), 52 evacuation centers opened for thousands of homeless victims.

…we have not stopped with relief distribution in Metro Manila and 2 provinces but we are gearing up to respond to 8 more provinces in the north.
…the need is rising everyday.

…Plans for our scheduled biennial national assembly on October 14–17 scheduled in Baguio City have been changed. Our new location is Greenhills Christian Fellowship, Ortigas, Pasig City, Metro Manila. Pray for wisdom and strength as 550 pastors and leaders on the way to Manila starting tomorrow. We will spend more time for praying and fasting for God to heal our land.

Please pray for me and my family including my staff working day and night now, with some sleepless nights due to emergency calls in the middle of the night. Pray for God’s provisions as we face these urgent giant challenges.

Thank you for praying and listening.

In Christ,
WorldVenture worker

CLICK HERE to donate to the tremendous relief efforts currently underway

Today the forecast called for rain… It didn’t. It was beautifully warm & sunny (especially for October!)

So after finishing up our morning service, we went ahead with afternoon plans and Cynthia was baptized in the lake behind her house.

60 or so people celebrated!

Here are some photos: