Forgiveness and Corrie Ten Boom

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biography, books, Christ, christian, christianity, church history, concentration camps, Corrie Ten Boom, forgiveness, God, Hiding Place, history, holocaust, israel, jews, mercy, persecution, Ravensbruck, religion, Religion and Spirituality

At times we all find it hard–if not impossible–to forgive those who’ve hurt us most.

In the mid-70s, not long after I became a Christian, I heard about a woman who had spent time in Nazi concentration camps for hiding Jews in her home during the Holocaust.  52 and unmarried, she had lived at home with her elderly father and older sister Betsie.  All three of them had been sent to concentration camps when the Nazis discovered they had been hiding the Jewish refugees.  The woman’s name was Corrie Ten Boom.

Corrie lost her freedom, her dignity, and her beloved sister and father in the span of a few months in those concentration camps.  In God’s providence Corrie was released due to a clerical error, just one week before the other women in Ravensbruck her age were executed.

Forgiveness and Fred Winters’ widow

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CBS, christian, christianity, church, Cindy Winters, death, discipleship, forgiveness, Jesus, national news, news, religion, religious news, video, youtube

We are never more like Jesus than when we suffer an injustice, and yet freely forgive those who have wronged us.  The wife and family of pastor Fred Winters suffered a grave injustice when a stranger walked into their church and fatally shot Pastor Winters during the early morning worship service.  And yet Cindy Winters responded with grace and compassion.

My wife saw this news segment the morning it aired, and was deeply moved by it.  I’ll have more to say about forgiveness later; for now, there’s nothing at all that I can add to Cindy Winters’ words.

(HT:  Peter Cockrell)

You don’t “Try Jesus”

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christian, christianity, church signs, Jesus, religion, salvation, Try Jesus

I drive by a church sign every day on the way to and from work that says, “Try Jesus. If you don’t like Him, Satan will always take you back.”

That’s clever.  And there’s just enough humor in it to keep me from getting too fired up about it.  Still, I find the phrase “Try Jesus” to be pretty demeaning to the name of Christ.  Is that “Try Jesus” like you try a new restaurant, or a different hair style?  Is he just one of the many items to choose from on the buffet of religious ideas?

Hardly.  You don’t try the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You bow before Him. You fall down at His feet and worship Him.  You surrender all that you are and all that you have to Him. But try Him? God “commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).  He never suggests that you try Jesus.

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

No other name.  Nothing else to try.  If you’re dangling from a cliff, about to lose your grip and fall, and someone reaches down to save you, you don’t try the hand.  You don’t nonchalantly decide to check it out.  You desperately lunge for it and latch on to it with every ounce of strength that you have.  It’s do or die.  That’s how you come to Jesus.  “There is salvation in no one else.”

If you’re just trying Jesus, you may not have to worry about going back to the devil.  You probably never left.

Do you take sermon notes?

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christian, christianity, church, listening, random thoughts, religion, sermons, taking notes

Just out of curiosity, do you take notes when you listen to your pastor’s sermon?  Why, or why not?  If you do take notes, how do you use them?

I’m a note taker.  I take notes primarily to help me stay focused on the sermon.  I wish I could say that taking notes aids retention, but I can’t. Nothing I do seems to helps me retain what I hear.  I also never refer back to my notes for personal use.  I do sometimes use them in family worship.

How about you?

What difference does a church covenant make?

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christian, christianity, church, church covenant, church covenants, church discipline, church membership, covenant, discipleship, local church, scripture, the church, theology

The last time I wrote about church covenants, I argued that the desire to make covenant commitments to those we love is a natural and godly desire; and that in fact, the inclination to make those commitments exists in our hearts precisely because we are created in the image of a covenant making God.  (If you haven’t read that post it would be best, I think, to click here and read it before going on.)  Having established what I think is a solid biblical rationale for making covenants, I now want to look at the practical rationale for making church covenants.

I want to make one thing clear, though.  I don’t remotely think that I have this all figured out.  I believe, on the one hand, that making and using church covenants is profoundly biblical; on the other, I have very little practical experience with them.  In fact, some of you reading this have much more insight into and experience with church covenants than I do, so I hope you’ll participate in this discussion.  I say all that just to say that I offer these thoughts as a fellow learner and disciple, and not in any way as an expert.

A practical rationale for making church covenants

There is a command in Hebrews 10:24 that provides the biblical basis for thinking about developing and using a church covenant:

You can never go home again REDUX

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blues, CCM, christian, christian music, christianity, Glenn Kaiser, music

You can never go home again is one of the most personal posts I’ve written since I started blogging a few months ago.  I closed it with the lyrics to a song that I’ve liked since the very first time I heard it.  I couldn’t find a link to the audio when I initially posted the lyrics, but now you can listen to it (all the way through for free, once) by following the link below.

For some reason, this song affects me deeply.  Sometimes, it makes me cry;  always, it makes me long for my true home.  I was made for another world, and I know it.

Listen to: A Long Way From My Home (From the CD Trimmed and Burnin’ & Slow Burn)

Vote for me at the 2009 SBC Voices BLOG MADNESS

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basketball, blogging, blogs, blogs and blogging, March Madness, SBC, SBC Voices, southern baptist, southern baptists, sports, tournament

I discovered just a few days ago that my blog has been selected for inclusion in a sort of  “blog tournament” (being held in honor of March Madness) for Southern Baptist bloggers.  Who would’ve thunk it?

I don’t have a chance in the world of winning.  I’m like tiny Davidson going up against Kansas.  But like Davidson, I wouldn’t mind pulling off a couple of upsets along the way, and giving Kansas a scare.

Now, since BLOG MADNESS is held in honor of March Madness, it would be fitting to vote for a real basketball player, don’t you think?  Well, let me tell you–I am a real basketball player.  Or at least I used to be.  As proof, here is Exhibit A, scanned from the cover of one of my old high school basketball programs.  (You’ll just have to try to overlook those ugly shorts.  After all, it was the early 70s.)

If you’d like to vote for me (tiny Davidson, the scrappy underdog), my blog is listed under

D.A. Carson coming to Union University in April

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bible, Children Desiring God, christian, christianity, commentaries, conference, D.A. Carson, Gospel Coalition, new testament, old testament, scripture, southern baptist, southern baptists, theology, Union University

I’m excited about an opportunity coming up in April to go and hear D.A. Carson, a leading New Testament scholar, in person.  A group from our church will be going to Jackson, TN, where he will be the keynote speaker for the Word Within The Word conference at Union University.

These conferences are always good.  I’ve gone with a group from our church twice before.

Carson will be lecturing this year on the use of the Old Testament in the New.  Because of his expertise in that particular field of study, he was one of the editors of a recently published commentary on the subject entitled Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament.  (For some reason I get a kick out of that title.)

A Self-Portrait

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art, baseball, children, drawing, family, humor, kids, t-ball

It’s a well-known fact that all 5-year-olds are gifted artists.  Just ask any parent.  As evidence I present the following exhibits.

This is a picture of my youngest son from his T-ball days.  It was taken about four years ago, before he decided to retire from baseball.

Around that same time he was diligently honing his artistic abilities.  Below is a copy of one of his most beloved works from that period, based on the above photo and

Win a Free Calfskin ESV Study Bible

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bible, bibles, blogs, Crossway, ESV, ESV Study Bible, free, giveaways, study bible

NOTE:  THIS CONTEST HAS ENDED.

One of my good blog friends, David Porter, is giving away a very nice premium calfskin leather version of the new ESV Study Bible, courtesy of Crossway.  The retail value of this Bible is $239.99.

If you have a blog, Facebook or MySpace page, you can enter, too.  Read this post on David’s blog to find out how.  But hurry.  The drawing is Monday, March 16.

Insulted by the Gospel… “We are worse off than frogs.”

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Christ, christian, christianity, cross, gospel, grace, hell, Jesus, John Piper, pride, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Romans, salvation, sin, the cross, the gospel, Tim Keller, Timothy Keller

A clear proclamation of the gospel is inherently offensive:

The gospel, by telling us Jesus died for us, is also really insulting. It tells us that we are so wicked that only the death of the Son of God could save us. This offends the modern cult of self-expression and the popular belief in the innate goodness of humanity.

(Tim Keller – The Message of Romans, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2003), 2.  HT:  Of First Importance

John Piper made a similar point in his book Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die.  The death of Christ does not prove our worth; it proves our lack of worth:

Are you inoculated against Jesus?

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christian, christianity, conference, Desiring God, gospel, Jesus, Matt Chandler, Matthew 7, pastors, religion, the gospel, video

That may seem like a strange question, but I urge you to consider it, and answer carefully.  Why?  Because if you’ve been inoculated, you probably don’t know it.  Watch Matt Chandler discuss the difference between the gospel and religion in the video below from this year’s Desiring God Pastor’s Conference.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matt 7:21-23)