Hey Everyone,
Monday, November 29, 2010
J. Hudson Taylor - Missionary to China
Hey Everyone,
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
15 Books that...well, you decide
Sunday we looked at a part of a lecture (determined by class vote) from the Apologetics Conference last year. The topic was "10 Books that Screwed up the World", which in reality ended up being 15 books.
The basis of his argument was the importance of reading these books, especially for Christians, to understand both the depths and the ramifications of some modern thought. For example, The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin makes Darwinism hit home when arguments are made for applying "Origin of Species" methods, for lack of a better title, to humanity. We might call that social darwinism, or survival of the fittest, but to understand what Darwin meant by those, the Descent of Man outlines the fruit of evolution in society as eugenics (controlling the population through sterilization of certain peoples), and even extermination. This is the side you don't tend to hear about his arguments, but it is important to note for someone to consider themselves an advocate of Darwinism or not.
So here is the list of books (and I promise you I have misspelled some names and titles), along with a summary, if the speaker gave one, of the thoughts expressed in this book:
Machiavelli – The Prince (Beginnings of atheist thought in government. Ultimately, a government should do what is in the best interest of the people and the ruler, even if that means being immoral, because ultimately if you can get a government to not fear hell and punishment, there is much more you can accomplish).
Charles Darwin – The Descent of Man (described above)
Pivot of Civilization – Margaret Sanger (founder of Planned Parenthood, this book is something that most planned parenthood people want others to avoid because of the extreme views voiced in this book. Nevertheless, she is the founder of the movement that is the leading voice in encouraging abortion)
John Stewart Mill – Utilitarianism
Freud – The Future of an Illusion
Renee Descartes – Discourse on Method
Karl Marx – Communist Manifesto (full scope of communism, government that is run with the state and not the individual in mind)
The rest which we did not have time to examine, but that the speaker gives.
Meade – Coming of Age in Samoa
Hobbes – Leviathan
John Jacque Reusau – Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men
Lenin – The State and Revolution
Nitsche – Beyond Good and Evil
Adolf Hitler – Mein Kampf
Kinsay – Sexual Behavior in the Human Male/The Male Report
The Feminine Mistique – Betty Fernan
If anyone has questions or comments, or would like a copy of this session, let me know, and I will be happy to burn a DVD and mail it to you. God bless you all, happy reading if there is a book that sticks out to you as something that would be important to examine.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Summer Syllabus
Scripture Memorization:
Psalm 46
Psalm 91
Isaiah 43:1-7
All powerful passages that are good to be reminded of in tough times. Need to be hid in my heart, not just my Bible.
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners – John Bunyan
Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan
Coupled with the Pilgrim's Progress cell group I am hoping to dive into the story of this amazing man, Bunyan, who endured so much for the gospel.
It is Not Death to Die: A New Biography of
Hudson Taylor was another early Baptist Missionary. I am trying to read one missionary biography per year now, so I am looking forward to this one.
Physically:
Run 5 miles a week, some form or fashion.
Evangelism:
Attempt to share the gospel/swing to the things of God with at least one person a week outside of church. Continue developing relationships with people around me who need Christ.
Just for Fun:
Pistol: Life of Pete Maravich (Mark Kriegel)
One of my childhood heroes who still fascinates me. He became a believer later in life, but dealt with incredible demons in his younger years. Probably the greatest skill player to ever play, so this will be the relaxing read for the summer.
There you go, I am now accountable to all of you. Feel free to ask how I am doing in this. Let me know if I can help you figure out how to maximize your summer.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Social Justice and the Gospel
Spectrum
Let me just save us a lot of time and say that we looked at two extremes in the beginning - the inward salvation only Christian, and the social gospel Christian. Neither of which are right.
The inward salvation only Christian desires only for the spiritual needs of someone to be met. They do not consider physical needs worth caring for since we are all in fallen flesh, and seek to only spread the good news of Jesus. While there is truth in that model, it goes against the teaching of Scripture to see someone in need and do nothing about their physical need, while at the same time trying to give them the gospel (see James).
The social gospel Christian seeks to let the world know they are loved by serving them, and in all of our hearts this person is far more endeared. It is easier to love this martyr of human cause, who has given up so much to serve in such need, because it is so admirable. However, the social gospel begins to exist when only someone's physical need is met, and no teaching of their sin and need for a Savior is discussed. At heart, someone like this wants people to love them, not God.
Scripture
We see that the truth of Scripture is that Jesus spent his entire ministry doing two things more than anything else: meeting physical needs, and meeting spiritual needs. He healed the sick, but He had no delusion that their only great need was physical healing. He also shared the gospel, but He didn't do that coldly to the masses without touching the lepers and giving sight to the blind.
We have to be honest with ourselves in that mankind's greatest need is the gospel. It isn't to bring them into social peace with all cultures, it isn't to end disease, it isn't to bring about equality. Those are all temporal things this side of eternity. BUT, we do those things because we love mankind, and we want their circumstances to be raised so that when their physical hunger has died away, their spiritual hunger can now be dealt with.
We see this in the story of the Prodigal Son. This does not end with the son being given some bread and a clean room to sleep in, after he was longing over the pig slop, though that is how many today would want to fulfill his need. His greatest need was to be reconciled to His Father, which we have to see as people's greatest need.
Jesus talked again and again about meeting physical needs - The story of the Good Samaritan, the Parable of the King (where we see "whatever you have done for the least of these..."), the feeding of the 4,000 and 5,000. We see lepers, blind, deaf, lame, dumb, mute, demon possessed, self righteous, poor, rich, etc, etc. get their needs met by Jesus in the midst of the gospel message.
So then...
How does this apply? Some of you are at certain ends of this, others at the opposite side. Let's list some things to avoid:
Social Justice as a sexy issue to slam the church:
This is growing incredibly popular. The reason that there are _____________ is because the church is having potluck dinners instead of ________________ . Be careful with this. In every church you can find things that happen that don't seem vital to the kingdom, but in the end are part of community time together, and serve a legitimate purpose (we see the book of Acts mentioning meals and just relaxed time together). I bet you relax at some point too. Be careful about trying to place blame on someone other than yourself. If God has given you a burden, move patiently through the means of a spiritual community, and find ways to serve there. But just because you are passionate about this one area this week doesn't make everyone apostate for not being on your wavelength.
Being arrogant about the church's role:
Believe it or not, the church wasn't put in place to solve the problems of the world. Christ is going to return to solve the problems of the world. So let's not place ourselves on the throne of all powerful in the world, that is God's role. That being said, it is the role of the church to labor tirelessly to meet physical and spiritual needs in its members and in the community, country, and world.
At Winter Conference, while being asked about the Haiti earthquake, one of the panelists said that the church in America should accept blame for the buildings in Haiti not being what they should be. It reminded me of what Josephus, an early Jewish historian, wrote about the Tower of Babel in Genesis. That men were so wicked they wanted to build a tower high enough to survive a flood as if to trump God's ability to get them. I am not saying that it was God's role to get Haiti in the least, but I am saying it is foolish for the church to be so arrogant as to think that in all the nations of the world we are going to take care of all things so that nothing bad can happen to anyone. That is the arrogance and guilt game, not love.
Let's Not Reduce this to politics:
Okay, let's not confuse these issues for being liberal or conservative. It is neither one of those, it is either loving and Christ following, or self seeking and idolatrous. Those of you who are liberal/moderate reading this will have to struggle with feeling like the conservatives are heartless because of some presupposition that they are money-guzzling, self-righteous racists based on the fringes of your party portraying them that way. Those of you who are conservative reading this will have to struggle with feeling like the liberal believers are freeloading, baby-killing, socialists based on the fringes of your party portraying them that way.
Believers, not political parties, need to unite around the truth of Scripture on this issue, nothing else. There is much that could be said here, but I will stop here.
Not wanting to share the gospel, just wanting to "love" people.
That's not love. We need to hear that. I am constantly praying that God will again and again scream that into my heart. We long to go through life making people think good about who we are, and maybe even have them think nice things about God, but as Paul says "how will they call on Him whom they have not believed? How are they to believe in Him they have not heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to (telling) them?" (Romans 10).
Conclusion:
That being said. I love how passionate many of you are about what God has placed in your heart. Use that to glorify Him, bring the church along patiently to assist you in that work, and humbly seek to grow in the knowledge of God in righteousness. Don't use these grand ideas and huge tasks to replace your need to grow in love of Christ, and as a student of His word.
People need their needs met: physical and spiritual. We need to use what God has given us to make sure we are laboring to do what we can in both of these areas.
Final Church History Lectures
PowerPoint 2
PowerPoint 3
PowerPoint 4
Monday, February 22, 2010
Church History Session 1
Church History 1
Just to save time, I am posting the PowerPoint and taking questions. So, if you were not here, and want to know some more specific information then email me a question, otherwise hopefully this can be a resource for you.
Powerpoint
Also, this is the deleted scene from Gladiator that I referenced on Sunday, with a group of Christians being fed to lions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6z38LmxW4g
Monday, February 15, 2010
Church History stuff
Alright, so I am going to try to do a better job at initiating this 4 week study on Church History. I am going to take a mulligan for Sunday, and do some better resource usage for you guys. Pictures and what not.
So beginning this week, we are going to begin again on a four week look at the history of Christianity. I promise that it will be interesting, cause I know many of you aren't history people. Hope you guys can make it, if not I will try to blog with the resources that I have.
Below is the link for a resource page that I am starting on our college page. For now I am including an even larger and better list of MP3s on Church History done by a really great pastor named Tom Nelson in Texas. He is a nationally known speaker, and author (He once was the keynote speaker for Campus Crusade's Christmas Conference in Charlotte when I went over Y2K - yeah that's right, I said Y2K)
http://www.firstbaptistwelcome.org/collegeresources.html
I hope this will be a fruitful experience for all of us! Don't miss it if you get to be in :)...