- RSS FeedSubscribe
- « Previous PostWhat I Hate About Blogging
- Next Post »The Truth About Wikipedia
A La Carte (9/30)
- 09/30/10
- 10
For those wondering about the next edition of the Connected Kingdom Podcast, well, David and I recorded one a few days ago but found later that technical issues had reared their ugly head. Unfortunately the recording quality was very low and the file was unusable. Ah well. We will be back next week with another podcast.
Repent of Pride - Rick Thomas offers an interesting take on pride, one that probably takes that specific sin a little bit further than most would. “Pride is a catch-all word for sin: pride is sin and sin is pride. Pride is a helpful word in that it accurately describes our fallenness. It is a word we know and a word we understand. When I say that I am proud, everyone immediately knows that it is not a good thing and that I need help. The word pride gets you thinking and moving in the right direction. Pride is like a warning alarm that calls the Gospel-centered man to action.”
Welcoming the Child Molester - Brian Croft answers a really tough question: “How do I and our church minister to a man who appears radically converted, desires to come to our church, but is an habitual child molester and long-time sex offender?”
Acts29 Bootcamp - If it is something that interests you, you can watch the Acts29 Bootcamp live on their web site.
Answering Abortion - Stand to Reason has a simple flowchart that offers ways of responding to pro-choice positions. “In other words, if you learn the three kinds of responses, then you'll be prepared to respond to any defense for abortion. In my experience, 100% of the arguments I hear on the street fall into one of these three categories.”
The Crisis of Credit - This video offers a very helpful overview of the recent financial credit crisis—what caused it and why it’s just not going away. Note that there is a very short part 2 after you finish watching this one. All told you’re looking at 11 or 12 minutes.
Show me a man’s books and show me a man’s companions and I will tell you what sort of man he is. —William Tiptaft
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
Releasing on April 1, The Next
Published in 2008, this book
This is a guide that calls men,
This review of the bestselling
New to the site? You can get
This is a guide written
Comments (10)
I cringe whenever I read a topic like “how to answer every justification for abortion”. They necessarily do disservice to (some) abortion supporter’s views. Not that they’re right, because they’re not. But the flowcharts and such designed to help one refute “every” pro-abortion argument necessarily oversimplify those arguments.
Take the “S.L.E.D.” test mentioned as a response to those who view a fetus as a human being, but who do not agree that all human beings are “valuable”. The “L” stands for “the unborn is less developed than an adult, but then a toddler is also less developed than an adult and we don’t think its okay to kill toddlers”. This is supposed to invalidate the idea that the developmental state of the unborn might place them in a special category of human for which termination is morally permissable.
But does it? Not really. Suppose my view were that there exists some threshold below which its morally permissable and above which it is not. The “L” point above does nothing to address this view. My response would be, “Yes a toddler is less developed than an adult and the unborn are less developed than toddlers, but the unborn are below my threshold and toddler’s aren’t.”
Ooops. That wasn’t supposed to be anonymous. New browser.
As for the habitual child molester, I’m not really opposed to the John Wayne method- “Shoot first and ask questions later.”
I have always felt pride is a “root” sin. It takes pride to believe that our way is better than God’s. It takes pride to rebel against the will of the omniscience. It takes pride to believe we will have time to get our life back on track.
http;//www.studyyourbibleonline.com
@ J.P.H.- That’s when I would use, “Is a baby born prematurely at 26 weeks more ‘valuable’ than a 38-week-old unborn baby?”
I’ve found that most people who claim an arbitrary threshold for “human worth” tend to also have exceptions that undermine their own threshold.
Regarding the child molestor blogpost, shouldn’t there be some mention of an “ex-child molestor” sine Johns epistles teach us that a believer does not go on practicing sin?
Michael,
I think your comment is seriously flawed in it’s reasoning. The very real reality is that believers do continue practicing sins…each and every day. It doesn’t negate the renewal of the Spirit and the steps towards sanctification that take place with the believer but even Paul emphasizes that he DOES what he DOES NOT WANT to do.The reality of King David, Peter, Paul, and many others that were held up as either believers or examples of men after God’s own heart that they sinned and continued sinning.You may ask or point out that for “X” sin, the person has now achieved “victory” etc. I think that the reality of our fallen world clearly points to the foolishness of believing that once a person is a believer they are now an “ex” whatever it is that they do…people repeatedly fall into temptation and sin…even those very sins they most want to be free of. The alcoholic sober for 20 years who falls back for a time. The pastor who is caught in adultery after a long marriage etc.When it comes to protecting the most vulnerable in our midst, our children, I’m not going to label any child abuser as an “ex”…Paul claimed to be chief among sinners…not chief among ex-sinners.
Probably the saddest lesson I’ve ever learned is that you must never, never, never trust a sex offender. That is not to say that none can be trusted, but that we can never know which ones to trust, and so must trust none. The stakes are just too high.
In a world in which these crimes were properly judged, we wouldn’t be asking what to do when these people show up in church; we would be thinking about how to bring them the gospel through prison ministries. Since that is not the case, the appointed “host” route described by Croft seems about the best that can be done.
The spirit begins dwelling in a human being at conception as evidenced by when John (“The Baptist”) lept in the womb of Elizabeth when Mary came to see her when she was told she was pregnant with our Lord and Savior Christ and John who was only in the womb 6 months at that time felt his (Christ) spirit in Mary.
Leaping in the womb is quickening, and that is precisely the point that various thinkers in the past have thought that personhood began. For instance, English common law prescribed different punishments for abortion pre or post quickening. One was a capital felony, the other got you sent to a penal colony.