Autumn
The leaves are spilling color; Autumn is here.
God’s Kingdom Coming Here on Earth
I think everyone should go read what my friend Brian Miller has to say in his latest post: “Entrepreneurial church.” Here’s a brief but profound excerpt:
So I think about what it means to be a Christian, to be part of a community of followers who have the audacity to believe that our lives matter - that our lifestyle choices, our words, our actions–have something to do with God’s Kingdom coming here on earth as it is in heaven.
Notes on A Sunday Morning with Ravi Zacharias
Distinguished lecturer, Christian philosopher, apologist, and author Ravi Zacharias was in Lancaster yesterday. He was preaching both morning services at Calvary Church. We obviously couldn’t pass on this opportunity to actually hear Ravi Zacharias speak. We were not disappointed! Ravi delivered a wonderful and thought-provoking sermon. He is an amazing communicator of God’s simple (not simplistic) truth.
Ravi’s sermon was rooted in the eighth chapter Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy was Jesus’ favorite book, according to Ravi. When Jesus quotes Torah, most of his quotes come from Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is especially important for the follower of Jesus, if the number of quotes sourced by Jesus from this book is any indication. Read More »
100 Truths in 30 Years with Christ
Glenn Packiam’s Butterfly in Brazil
James Gleick, in Chaos: Making a New Science, writes: “Watch two bits of foam flowing side by side at the bottom of a waterfall. What can you guess about how close they were at the top? Nothing. As far as standard physics was concerned, God might just as well have taken all those water molecules under the table and shuffled them personally. Traditionally, when physicists saw complex results, they looked for complex causes. When they saw a random relationship between what goes into a system and what comes out, they assumed that they would have to build randomness into any realistic theory, by artificially adding noise or error. The modern study of chaos began with the creeping realization in the 1960s that quite simple mathematical equations could model systems every bit as violent as a waterfall. Tiny differences in input could quickly become overwhelming differences in output - a phenomenon given the name ’sensitive dependence on initial conditions.’ In weather, for example, this translates into what is only half-jokingly known as the Butterfly Effect - the notion that a butterfly stirring the air today in Peking can transform storm systems next month in New York” (8).
Glenn Packiam, associate worship pastor at New life Church in Colorado Springs, and director of New Life School of Worship, transforms the above scientific abstract into a meaningful metaphor for those disciples of Jesus who are looking for the next step. His book: Butterfly in Brazil: How Your Life Can Make a World of Difference. The lesson: small changes at the beginning can lead to big differences in the end. This is a great, and incredibly simple lesson for all of us! Read More »
The Daily Scribe Take Five or Six
A Deep Thank You to the IMG Team
I am, as a pastor/church planter, so proud of the men and women involved with and leading our church plant in Lancaster City. We are forming a healthy, open, and dialog centered culture from which all of us are striving towards an authentic expression of kingdom values and living. Our team is wrestling with a very serious topic and they have proven themselves to be people dedicated first and foremost to the values of Jesus’ kingdom. You all are tops in my book. Tops! Thank you!
Osteen’s 7 Simple Steps to Become a Better You!
I was going to write up a great big review concerning Joel Osteen’s new book Become a Better You …
Personally, I think that this book - as are most of Osteen’s works - is shelved wrong in bookstores. It should not be shelved under Christianity; it belongs in the self-help section. Joel Osteen, in Become a Better You, is a self-help guru and motivational speaker draped in Christian-looking garb. Is he good at what he does? Yes. Does it help people? Perhaps. Is it holistically Christian? Not if you are having a difficult time in life, it isn’t. In fact, it’s hardly realistic. Why? There is no - zero - theology of suffering and/or death. Christianity, the last time I checked, majored on these aspects of theology in a very serious and intentional manner. Osteen misses most - if not all - of this very real aspect of Christian thought and theology that speaks directly and holistically about personal transformation. Read More »
Everything Must Change by McLaren
I finally managed to find a copy of Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren at my local Barnes and Noble hang out. I’ll have much more to say once I’m finished with the whole thing. So far, so good. Well, that didn’t last long. It seems that chapters 1-5 are hung around a pretty serious looking strawman. I was honestly hoping for the best with this offering. More to come …
Ecological Sustainability is a Theological Issue
Christians in North America have ignored environmental issues for far, far too long. We have justified our actions - or lack thereof - by leaning too heavily upon complicated, if not abstractly vague, eschatological schematics. It worked too, at least for the time being. Why would or should anyone care about ecological stewardship if Jesus was returning tomorrow? You see, Jesus’ cataclysmic return not only signified the beginning of a new age for the Church, but also the subsequent end of the old age of the world. The total and utter destruction of earth as we know it, for some mysterious reason, become a practical if not fatalistic reality. The logic of this sort of apocalyptic thinking, of course, leads one to what would seem to be a very solid conclusion: if the world is going to be morphed into dust, why then should we worry about environmental issues? Well, most Evangelicals did not worry about it at all! Read More »
