Tuesday March 3, 2009
Ten Questions to Benefit from a Conference
Don Whitney gives a list of ten questions you should ask yourself after a conference or special event. "Having invested hours or days of my life in this way, I want to know that it's been time well spent. To better ensure good stewardship of the opportunity, I have developed these ten questions."
How to Exasperate your Children
This sounds like a profitable sermon from Irish Calvinist (and it fits well with Proverbs 15 which I just happened to read this morning).
Hospitality Tips
Lydia Brownback: "My friend Susie Cassel is the personification of hospitality. She opens her home to friend and stranger alike, and she is always prepared for drop-by guests. One-on-one or large groups--Susie hostesses all with grace and love." Susie offers four hospitality habits.
Great Damage: The Gift of Discernment
James MacDonald: "I have been a pastor for more than 25 years and I have heard some pretty harsh things; but the deepest wounding by far has been at the hands of people using the gift of discernment in the flesh. Most often, these are the folks that separate friends, divide churches and destroy families."
Calvin for the 21st Century
This conference at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary has an excellent lineup of speakers. Registration opened just yesterday.
ESV Online for Free
"Crossway, publisher of the #1 bestselling ESV Study Bible, announced today that it will make the highly acclaimed ESV Online Study Bible available free online to anyone, anywhere, for a limited time beginning today, March 2, 2009."
I Hope President Obama Is Right on the Economy
I think this is a good corrective from John Mark Reynolds. "It is bad politics, bad form, bad character, and bad patriotism to want the President's economic policies to fail. Don't get me wrong. I believe the Congressional and Presidential plan will fail and is already making the situation worse. I just wish it weren't so."
Don Whitney gives a list of ten questions you should ask yourself after a conference or special event. "Having invested hours or days of my life in this way, I want to know that it's been time well spent. To better ensure good stewardship of the opportunity, I have developed these ten questions."
How to Exasperate your Children
This sounds like a profitable sermon from Irish Calvinist (and it fits well with Proverbs 15 which I just happened to read this morning).
Hospitality Tips
Lydia Brownback: "My friend Susie Cassel is the personification of hospitality. She opens her home to friend and stranger alike, and she is always prepared for drop-by guests. One-on-one or large groups--Susie hostesses all with grace and love." Susie offers four hospitality habits.
Great Damage: The Gift of Discernment
James MacDonald: "I have been a pastor for more than 25 years and I have heard some pretty harsh things; but the deepest wounding by far has been at the hands of people using the gift of discernment in the flesh. Most often, these are the folks that separate friends, divide churches and destroy families."
Calvin for the 21st Century
This conference at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary has an excellent lineup of speakers. Registration opened just yesterday.
ESV Online for Free
"Crossway, publisher of the #1 bestselling ESV Study Bible, announced today that it will make the highly acclaimed ESV Online Study Bible available free online to anyone, anywhere, for a limited time beginning today, March 2, 2009."
I Hope President Obama Is Right on the Economy
I think this is a good corrective from John Mark Reynolds. "It is bad politics, bad form, bad character, and bad patriotism to want the President's economic policies to fail. Don't get me wrong. I believe the Congressional and Presidential plan will fail and is already making the situation worse. I just wish it weren't so."
Comments (14) »
1. David
March 3, 2009
9:15 AM
The college ministry I’m a part of has weekly gatherings at Susie’s house. It’s a highlight of our ministry, and a huge blessing every week.
2. ChrisB
March 3, 2009
11:03 AM
Since you can’t comment on Reynolds’ site, I’ll say it here:
You can have it both ways! I hope that all of Mr. Obama’s plans come to naught and everyone sees that it was a good thing.
3. therealdrag0
March 3, 2009
12:08 PM
Nice line up. Usually I’ll open in a new tab a couple of the links, but today I opened most of those up.
4. Jay Younts
March 3, 2009
12:36 PM
Re: Reynolds’ article. I agree with his concerns for civility and decency in communication. However, I would be curious to know which of the President’s policy’s he would like to see succeed. Maybe this will help put things into perspective. Do we want liberal theologians to succeed or fail in influencing others to follow their beliefs? I pray for President Obama. I pray that he will see his desires to spread abortion availability, increase entitlements and increase the role of government in daily life are policies that must be abandoned. I pray he will come to know the majesty of Jesus Christ.
5. Kim
March 3, 2009
12:44 PM
I also wanted to comment on Mr. Reynold’s post since he didn’t open it up for comments. I feel like I listened to a different speech than those who say Rush is mean-spirited, etc. Not only did I not feel he was mean-spirited, I agree with him, but that doesn’t mean I want my country to fail or our economic system to collapse or my president to be called a failure (I submit neither does Rush). Take Obama’s position on abortion: Does any pro-life person seriously want Obama’s policies on abortion to succeed?! No, I want him to fail to get those policies instituted and once they are (as some already have been reinstated), I want to work to get them overturned. Though most of his economic policies can’t be lumped with the grave morality of abortion, the same principle applies. I do not want him to get the majority of what he wants because it is bad for our country. I just can’t see how crossing our fingers and hoping for the best will be better for our country than vigorously opposing poor/immoral/dangerous policies.
6. Kim
March 3, 2009
12:46 PM
I also wanted to comment on Mr. Reynold’s post since he didn’t open it up for comments. I feel like I listened to a different speech than those who say Rush is mean-spirited, etc. Not only did I not feel he was mean-spirited, I agree with him, but that doesn’t mean I want my country to fail or our economic system to collapse or my president to be called a failure (I submit neither does Rush). Take Obama’s position on abortion: Does any pro-life person seriously want Obama’s policies on abortion to succeed?! No, I want him to fail to get those policies instituted and once they are (as some already have been reinstated), I want to work to get them overturned. Though most of his economic policies can’t be lumped with the grave morality of abortion, the same principle applies. I do not want him to get the majority of what he wants because it is bad for our country. I just can’t see how crossing our fingers and hoping for the best will be better for our country than vigorously opposing poor/immoral/dangerous policies. As a Christian I agree we need to lovingly oppose, but oppose we should.
7. Shannon
March 3, 2009
12:49 PM
Re: Reynolds article:
I couldn’t disagree with him more. The hoping for failure of an extremely liberal economic agenda is not unpatriotic. He wants to compare an economic agenda to a war and say that to want to see Obama’s economic policies to fail is like wanting to see our country lose a war. Well…to run with that analogy….Obama just declared war and invaded Texas, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, etc…..so is that war ok to win? Is it ok to want that war to fail?
8. Kim
March 3, 2009
12:49 PM
Oops…I don’t know what happened. I hit preview, added a line at the end and hit preview again and it posted both! Sorry about that.
9. Abigail Dodds
March 3, 2009
1:10 PM
In regard to Reynolds: This is logic turned on its head in order to appear nice. But it isn’t nice; it’s disingenuous. If Obama’s policies were to succeed and the economy were to “recover,” it would be an entirely different economy than we have ever known (or would ever want to know).
Success of Obama’s policies means the killing of babies even after born alive after a botched abortion. It means a radically different USA with a government of mammoth size. Check out Justin Taylor’s post titled More Gov’t Less God. http://theologica.blogspot.com/2009/03/more-government-less-god.html
10. Michael Duenes
March 3, 2009
1:17 PM
Re: John Mark Reynolds, I agree and disagree. I pray for Obama and I want America to be the greatest nation we can be, but I don’t think we have to always hope to avoid difficulty. As a parent, sometimes I will want my child to fail at something which he may have engaged in under the belief that his actions will work out for the best. Does that mean I enjoy suffering and hardship in my child? No. But it does mean that I recognize the instructive role of failure and painful consequences sometimes. Yes, more humility and tentativeness is called for in economic matters than in abortion matters, but my prayers are for Obama and others to change their minds. Short of that, I want his policies to fail so that the voting public will change their minds and vote out the folks who are writing and voting for these economic bills.
11. Erik Raymond
March 3, 2009
3:25 PM
Hey Tim, thanks for the link.
12. Greg Scott
March 3, 2009
10:56 PM
I echo what the several contributors to this thread have already written. I happened to have been at CPAC for Rush’s speech, but even prior to that, it was plain what he meant about wanting Obama to fail. He wants Obama to fail in implementing his disastrous, totalitarian-oriented policies. We know that what Obama is trying to do is seize more command and control over our every affair, economic and otherwise. As freedom-loving Americans we should all want him to FAIL in his attempts at adoption and implementation. So, yes, I too want him to fail. Obama’s failure is to the nation’s (and I’d say the world’s) benefit.
13. Rachel
March 4, 2009
12:52 AM
As a side note, regarding the recent post on reading, I daresay several of the “Ten Questions to Ask” after a conference would also be good questions to ask after having read a book (with some modification based on medium). At least, it would be helpful with Christian-focused books and even, at times, with devotional Bible reading. It’s good to be reminded to live and act purposefully in circumstances where I may not feel myself to be the primary agent, such as at an event or when studying/reading.
14. J.P.H.
March 4, 2009
12:16 PM
I want Obama to succeed in the overall goal of fixing the economy. I’m not optimistic, but that’s what I’d like to see happen. The alternative is to wish continued suffering on those who are hurt by a poor economy. I don’t want that. I value people more than I do the ideal of free market capitalism.
I want Obama to succeed in his ultimate goal re: abortion as well, since the stated goal is to make it much, much less common than it is today. I would like to see him fail on certain points regarding abortion, such as making it as freely available as possible, but I wish him success in the overall goal of mitigating it frequency.
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