pagitt

here's a very telling blog about Doug Pagitt and the emerging movement. take a gander at it.

http://www.sebts.edu/Convergent/GeneralInfo/

Mark Driscoll at the convergent conference on Brian Mclaren, Rob Bell, etc... gotta take a listen...

A True Church

So I found this church's website and apparently I'm not actually a Christian. And neither are you. Sorry guys.

http://www.atruechurch.info/home.html

tracts

does this look familiar to anyone?
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByDate/1995/1546_Quest_for_Joy/

Looks like Matt and I were pretty close to Piper himself in explaining the Gospel message.

Matt, do you still have our version of the laws? I can't find a copy anywhere.

-joe

Calvinist Metal

There's this Christian metal band, Disciple, that I've thought was pretty sweet for a while, but for some reason I never noticed how Calvinist they are until today. I was driving around listening to them and they have this song, After the World, which is a bit more chill than the others. The chorus pretty much made my day because of how Calvinist it is.

I'm the one that you've been looking for
I'm the one that you've been waiting for
I've had my eyes on you ever since you were born
I will love you after the rain falls down
I will love you after the sun goes out
I'll have my eyes on you after the world is no more

So that's proof that even metal bands can be reformed.

Chronicles of Narnia Summarized

A few years ago I stumbled upon a website called rinkworks.com. It's pretty much just a humor site that's good for wasting time. They have a feature called Book-A-Minute which allows you to completely understand the entire plot of famous books in less than a minute. This is especially useful for me since I have the attention span of the average gold fish. Anyways, I recently discovered the Chronicles of Narnia have been ultra-condensed for your reading pleasure. I thought I'd share the goodness with you fellow Narnia fans. All the books are in alphabetical order by author so just scroll down until you find it.

All of Narnia in One Minute

-Russ

sound familiar?

so, i was reading on the worship matters blog today and stumbled upon this little diddy
"Here’s our most recent e-mail exchange.

Mark (in the e-mail with the 9th song): Another song for your consideration.

Bo Lotinsky (who works with me): STOP!! You’re depressing Bob and I have to cope with the results.

Bob: I’m going off to a hole somewhere. Mark, are you still a pastor?

Mark: Yeah, but I’ve been so effective, that all our folks are now completely sanctified. Got nothin’ else to do but watch TV and play guitar.

I thank God for Mark Altrogge, Sovereign Grace’s song writing machine. Now I just need to figure out where to put all those songs."

sounds much like the crap that we say at the end of a long night. oh, how funny...and woefully arrogant we are to say things like that, all the while knowing that we are petty wretches saved for His glory.

-joe

government

yo dudes...lets talk about view on government. why, you might ask, do i bring this up?
last night at youth i was asked whether or not to support war. big question. i answered it by telling them both common christian views, one of pacifism and one of allowing war and fighting for your country. i support the pro-war model. i told them that.
second...this morning as i was reading through 1 samuel 10:27 i couldn't help but think that this is the same thing.
there were some men when saul was anointed that thought he was bogus, so they refused to bring him gifts. the despised him. and they are called worthless.
is this the same as accusing our President of being an idiot? afterall, God is the one who places men in authority over the antions and brings about war in the first place. so, the reason they are worthless for despising Saul is probably because they refuse to acknowledge that God is sovereign over the creation of government. is that how we should read it? they are referenced ( i think) again in 11:12-13. the people want to kill them, but Samuel says that they shouldn't.

-joe

council

the council for biblical manhood and womanhood relaunched their outdated site here

-joe

dooby dooby do

am i wrong to think that this is funny?

-joe

1 samuel 3

i stumbled upon a pretty significant verse in my eyes...v. 7 of chapter 3. it just rang out to me. Samuel was being raised in a Godly environment, under the care of Eli. He probably knew the Scriptures extremely well. But still he "did not know the Lord and word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him." What a statement. He knew the Word from teachings, but it had not yet been revealed. God had yet to call, and when He did...Samuel had no choice but to answer. Amazing passage.

-joe

fake carson

so...there's a site that pretends to be the secret diary of d.a. carson. it is former students and friends of the man. it's pretty dang hilarious. fake carson blog

-joe

Truth and Love

Ever feel like you can never find truth in your love? Or ever feel like you can never find love in your truth? Sometimes I feel hints of truth in my love and sometimes I feel hints of love in my truth but never does it feel even remotely complete, not when I'm honest.

Lately I've been really pushing myself to care about the things I do.
-When I share my faith, I want to feel the pain of the lost person in front of me.
-When I tell someone I disagree with them, I only want to disagree with them if I can feel the pain of seeing them hurt because of what they are believing.
-When I serve someone, I want to serve them not because it brings me merit with God or merit with the world or merit with the church- I want to serve people because its the mission of God to show Christ's glory to the world.
-When I give advice, I want to give that advice with fear and trembling that Christ will be honored- not that people will act like me or be like me. I know this is comforting having others just like me, but lets face it; being like me is not helping anyone.
-When I read a story of someone hurting, I want to hurt; not continue on with my hard heart.
-When I do everything, I want to feel the severity of what is happening around me. I want to remember this is a battle here on earth. Christ wants people to know Him and follow Him to heaven. Evil wants people to know anything besides this and follow him into hell. This is first and foremost the battle we face. I want to feel the severity of this situation and cry out to God for help. I want to cry out.

I am sick of distancing myself from the truth of all love. I am equally sick of securing myself away from hurt by hardening my heart to love.

john piper...ahh...john piper

john piper's response to rabbi kushner. the first point...hilarious...john's angry.

-joe

worship and evangelism

this article was eye opening to me in so many ways. the truth of what evangelism is, and our constant thoughts and misgivings on what it is not. take some time to read it...it is kind of long...but so good

-joe