The Man Hug

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funny, hugs, humor, masculinity, men, video, youtube

While I’m extremely busy, I’m posting a few videos I like. You may have already seen this one, but I think it’s hilarious.  (If you click through my humor tags you may decide that I have an odd sense of humor.  You won’t be the first.)

How to Give the Perfect Man Hug

more about “How To Give A Great Man To Man Hug (C…“, posted with vodpod

Phil Keaggy: “Little Ones”

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abortion, CCM, children, christian, christianity, Jesus Music, little ones, music, Phil Keaggy, pro-life, unborn, video, youtube

I’m extremely busy for the next few days, and won’t have time to post much, so my next couple of entries may consist of random videos that I like.

Technically this isn’t a video, but a slide show set to the song “Little Ones” from Phil Keaggy’s 1980 LP “Ph’lip Side”

Who will speak up for the little ones,
Helpless and half abandoned?

If you’ve never done so before, please take a moment after listening to the song and browse through my posts on this topic:  Abortion

I’ve got to speak up; won’t you?

How to watch a movie

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addictions, bible, christian, christianity, culture, discernment, entertainment, God, John Piper, movies, religion, stories, worldview

Do you know how to watch a movie?  I’m not thinking about the mechanics of popping a disc in the DVD player, so let me try to rephrase the question.  Do you know how to watch a movie in a way that glorifies God?  “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,” (which includes watching movies and everything else) “do all to the glory of God.”  (1 Corinthians 10:31)

What does it mean to watch a movie to the glory of God?  There were some good comments on my previous post that prompted me to think about that question.  That post and those comments also reminded me of an article I read a while back.

Essentially, movies tell a story.  Innately, we love stories, and we often find ourselves deeply affected by them.  God has even chosen to reveal His character and his power to us, to some extent, through stories.

Obviously, however, not all stories have equal value.  For that reason, it’s vital to think critically about every story that we see or hear.  Adam Parker urges Christians to do just that in this article.  Here are a few excerpts:

“Angels and Demons” – Fact, Fiction, Reviews, Questions

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angels, Angels and Demons, christian, christianity, Dan Brown, demons, entertainment, faith, fiction, movies, religion, Roman Catholic, science, truth

Angels and Demons, the movie sequel (novel prequel) to Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code is showing in theaters now.  The new film attempts, among other things, to explore the relationship between science and religion.  Obviously, the movie and the book it’s based on are both fiction, but it seems as if the line between fact and fiction is often blurred in movies like this.  Westminster Theological Seminary has created a website, Angels and Demons Truth, designed to help anyone who’s interested separate what’s fact from what’s fiction in the movie.

Are you open minded?

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Chesterton, christian, christianity, discipleship, G.K. Chesterton, intolerance, Jesus, knowledge, open minded, religion, tolerance, truth

Occasionally I’ve been criticized by unbelievers for claiming to know the truth.  Any claim to know the truth is greeted by some unbelievers with skepticism, and considered either arrogant, or intolerant of those who disagree, or both.  It’s probably impossible to be a follower of Christ and escape this charge, since a claim to know Christ is essentially a claim to know the truth.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also.”

Knowing Christ is knowing the truth.  Knowing Christ is knowing God the Father. Is that close minded?  In one sense, yes.  But is it arrogant?  Not necessarily.  Let’s think about it for a minute.

No, Mr. President: John Piper to President Obama

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abortion, Barack Obama, christian, christianity, death, family, God, John Piper, life, politics, pro-choice, pro-life, religion, roe v. wade, video, women, women's health, women's issues, youtube

This will be all over the blogosphere soon, but it’s just too good not to post.  It’s John Piper’s passionate response to President Barack Obama’s position on abortion.

HT: Abraham Piper

Bertrand Russell’s darkness

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atheism, atheist, Bertrand Russell, Christ, christianity, death, despair, life, random thoughts

Despite the bleakness of Bertrand Russell’s melancholy lament, the words he penned in his “Philosophical Essays” are at least honest and intellectually consistent with his atheism:

Brief and powerless is man’s life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark.

A meaningless end to a meaningless existence.  A brief, powerless life followed by a slow, sure, pitiless, dark death.  Unmitigated despair.  That’s all that Bertrand Russell could find in life and in death.

He expressed a similar sentiment in his autobiography:

There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendour, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing.  Why live in such a world?  Why even die?

Indeed.  For Russell, thoughts like these were not the product of morbid bouts of depression; they were the logical result of his carefully considered atheism.

Given the opportunity, how would you have responded to Russell’s agonizing hopelessness?

Is it okay to question the Bible?

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bible, bible study, christian, christianity, hermeneutics, John Piper, religion, Rick Gamache, scripture, Stephen Altrogge, students

There’s an intentional and probably obvious play on words in my title.  I don’t at all question the authority or inspiration of Scripture.  But I think it’s not only okay, but essential to question the Bible in an interrogative sense.  There’s probably no better way to study the Bible.

Recommending this approach to Bible study, John Piper asks a probing question:

Can any of us at one reading grasp the logic of a paragraph and see how every part relates to all the others and how they all fit together to make a unified point? How much less the thought of an entire epistle, the New Testament, the Bible! If we care about truth, we must relentlessly query the text and form the habit of being bothered by things we read.

Do at least some of the things you read in Scripture bother you?  They should.  Piper goes on to give examples of things that ought to bother us and force us to ask questions:

Turning sorrow into worship

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books, cross, Death by Love, forgiveness, humility, Mark Driscoll, prayer, Psalm 51, Psalms, sin, sorrow, suffering, the cross, worship

Guest post by Isaac Johnson, who blogs at Doulos Reviews and Building a Better Me

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ll remember Barry’s post on forgiveness and Corrie Ten Boom. It reminded me of one of the letters Mark Driscoll wrote in Death by Love. It was addressed to a young man who was a Christian. His father often beat him up while he was growing up. Many times the son would put himself in harms way so that he would take the worst of the beating to protect his sisters. He had so many scars from childhood and the pathetic father he had. Then, the father becomes a believer. Now the son is left with many questions and a myriad of emotions. Now that his father is a brother in Christ, how does he let go of the past? Is he just supposed to forget everything and act like it never happened? And how does the father live with what he’s done? It was definitely one of the most powerful chapters in the book. This theme of forgiveness has caused me to look deep inside my own heart.

On one hand, I’m happy to say I’ve never really been wronged to such an extent that I’ve felt it hard to forgive someone. The person that I’ve had the hardest time forgiving is myself. Even after I have received the forgiveness of the person I have wronged and have asked for and received forgiveness from my heavenly Father, I have difficulty forgiving myself.

And then, there is the cross.

Is Hebrews one of Paul’s sermons?

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bible, christian, christianity, evangelical, Evangelical Theological Society, Hebrews, Paul, ryan ferguson, scripture, sermons, theology

I’ve been working a lot of overtime the last week or so, and my internet service and phone line are down at home, so I haven’t had much time or opportunity to be online.  I did just come across something, though, and I’m not sure what I think about it.

Several months ago I posted a link to Ryan Ferguson’s dramatic recitation of Hebrews 9 and 10 (and a few Psalms).  As one commenter noted, many scholars think the book of Hebrews may actually be a transcript of a first century sermon.  That seems probable to me, especially after listening to Ryan Ferguson.

Now I see that a paper to be presented in November at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society will argue that Hebrews is in fact a Pauline sermon transcribed by Luke, the physician who frequently traveled with Paul and would have heard him preach numerous times.

It’s an interesting thesis, and I find it pretty fascinating, but I wonder if there’s any real value in speculating about something which seems ultimately unprovable.  That’s not meant to be a criticism of the research or the researcher, it just makes me wonder about some things.

The high cost of adoption

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adoption, children, christian, christianity, family, finances, infertility, interview, kids, money

It’s expensive to adopt a child.  In fact, it’s ridiculously expensive.  That point was made more than once in the comments on my recent post on adoption and infertility.  My pastor’s wife responded with a word of encouragement for those who might be discouraged by the high cost of adoption:

It has been AMAZING to watch the Lord provide EVERY cent… I can’t tell you how many people I’ve talked with who write off adoption because it’s expensive. PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS!! I was definitely one of those people who would have never in a million years thought we’d be able to adopt because of finances. Never. And yet….the money has been there every step of the way.

Not coincidentally I ran across a post on this same topic at Adoptive Dads, published the very same day that Glenna made her comment.  Jason Kovacs, father of three adopted children, wrote: