Scratching the Itch

Here is a vid from Ligonier Ministries where Dr. R.C. Sproul is asked about his thoughts on the "seeker-sensitive" movement. Enjoy!

The Perfect Gift

"Lord at thy Birth" from Erick Sorensen on Vimeo.

Receiving....Growing....Going....

Going....Jesus: Sent for you!

Jesus the Sent One from Erick Sorensen on Vimeo.

This is War

Here is a video from an artist named Dustin Kensrue. The video is made for a song called "This is War," from his 2008 Christmas album titled, "The Good Night is Still Everywhere" The video contains an intro from Dustin explaining his different take on the advent of Christ as a declaration of war on sin and death.

Receiving....Growing....

The first video from our new location at First Lutheran:

Growing from Erick Sorensen on Vimeo.

P.S. Next week, the angle for the video should be a little better. Hopefully ;)

Bad News: Santa Claus Is Coming to Town

A quick clip from John Piper regarding the bad news of Santa and the Good News of Christ. The complete sermon can be viewed here.

"and you will be hated by all for my name's sake."

What is being called the "first mega-church in China" was attacked by 400 police and hired thugs in China on a rainy Sunday in mid-September of this year. Here are a couple of excerpts from the Associated Press article:

LINFEN, China — Towering eight stories over wheat fields, the Golden Lamp Church was built to serve nearly 50,000 worshippers in the gritty heart of China's coal country.

But that was before hundreds of police and hired thugs descended on the mega-church, smashing doors and windows, seizing Bibles and sending dozens of worshippers to hospitals with serious injuries, members and activists say

Today, the church's co-pastors are in jail. The gates to the church complex in the northern province of Shanxi are locked and a police armored personnel vehicle sits outside.

The closure of what may be China's first mega-church is the most visible sign that the communist government is determined to rein in the rapid spread of Christianity, with a crackdown in recent months that church leaders call the harshest in years.

Courts, police and government officials in Linfen refused to comment on the claims of violence and persecution. A local Communist Party spokesman said only that the case centered on the mega-church's lack of planning approval.

"We have always supported and allowed everybody to believe in religion. But the church itself is an illegally constructed building," said the spokesman, who would give only his surname, Wang.

A lawyer for Wang and Yang, Li Fangping, said the church had applied for permits to build the church from the local religious affairs bureau and the land use authority, but received no reply.

Almost three months after the crackdown, people in and around Linfen refuse to discuss the church, and police vehicles remain parked on virtually every corner of the neighborhood where the Golden Lamp is located.

This church is part of the ever growing "house-church" movement in China. In another part of the article it claims that there are 60,000,000 Christians worshiping in "illegal" churches. There are approximately 20,000,000 worshiping in the state controlled churches. (For the rest of the article click here.)

When Jesus sent out the twelve apostles he told them that they will be hated for his name's sake. We see that this hatred and persecution was not only shared by the apostles but by the early church as well. This hatred and persecution continues on today in many parts of the world.

Have you suffered? Have you been hated because of Jesus' name? What forms do hatred and persecution take? Do you think a lack of proclamation equals a lack of persecution?

Santa vs. Jesus

Here is a little video created by the folks over at Igniter Media. It seems to be geared towards children, but I think we all need to be reminded of this message.

How Helpful Is The New Pew Study?

Interesting, disturbing, yet not surprising article posted on the White Horse Inn's blog regarding a new Pew study. Here are some of the stats:

Between twenty and thirty percent of self-described Christians

• believe that people will be reborn in this world again and again (22%)
• believe that Yoga is a spiritual practice (21%)
• believe that the position of stars/planets can affect people’s lives (23%)
• have been in touch with the dead (29%)
• have found “spiritual energy” in trees, etc. (23%)

The article goes on to point out that,

In addition to pointing out a crying need for catechesis in our churches, this survey should also encourage pastors to be aware: don’t take your congregation’s grounding in the faith for granted. Continual teaching (especially in identifying alternative religious movements and contrasting them with the Gospel) is crucial for disciple-making.

Click the link to read more: How Helpful Is The New Pew Study?

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Pre-Surgery Video from Matt Chandler

Video from Matt Chandler

Suffering Well

As many of you know, Matt Chandler is a preacher I admire quite a bit. I admired him mainly for his boldness and passion in proclaiming the gospel, but now I admire him in a far deeper way. On Thanksgiving morning, 35 year old Matt suddenly had a massive seizure. Never having this happen to him before, the doctors did some tests and found out he had a tumor on his right frontal lobe. This last Friday he went through brain surgery to remove the tumor. Thankfully, he has seemed to come out of the surgery OK so far. He is married with three small children. Below is a message he recorded for his flock shortly before the surgery. It is a testimony to knowing a gracious and sovereign God and walking in that knowledge at all times, good and bad. As he says it, he has joy that he is counted worthy to suffer well for the name of Jesus...

"Biblical"

Here is a quick commentary on the use of the word "biblical" that was posted on www.stufffundieslike.com. Enjoy.

The Bible is ostensibly the fundamentalists authority for all matters of faith, practice, and flatware. As a result, the adjective “biblical” gets applied to anything and everything that the fundy does. There is biblical soul-winning, biblical courtship, biblical dress codes, biblical counseling, biblical dentistry, and so on.

The proverbial fly in the soup is, of course, that very few of these things are actually found explicitly or implicitly commanded to be done in fundy style anywhere in the actual Bible. Nobody would be more surprised than the prophets and apostles to learn that they had unwittingly given explicit instructions for how long a man’s hair is allowed to grow or the types of instruments allowed to play in a church service.

One is left to suppose that requiring actual Bible passages and exegesis to support arbitrary standards is something that is decidedly not biblical. And then one’s head explodes.

Christmas Worship

Andrew Peterson:



HT: Kevin DeYoung

Tim Keller in New York Magazine

Tim Keller is profiled in New York Magazine if you'd like to get a pretty basic sketch of who the man is, and how God is using him.

I just got done reading his latest, Counterfeit Gods, about idolatry (the sin that underlies every other sin). Very well written, convicting and gospel centered. You can buy it here if you like.

Justification

Kevin DeYoung has an excellent article on Justification that I would urge y'all to check out. In it, he discusses the differences among Protestants, and the differences that still divide Protestants and Catholics on this issue. The cool thing is, this is in the Christian Science Monitor in their op-ed section! Christians writing about justification in secular op-eds? Hooray!

Here a quote:

The doctrine of justification is not an esoteric wrangling about words to the people in my congregation. Justification by faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone means we can have confidence before God. There's no need to figure out venial versus mortal sins. There's no purgatory for remaining imperfections because God looks on his people and sees them clothed in the "Lord our righteousness" (Jer. 23:6; Zech. 3:1-5).

Justification means I don't have to find the god within because I have already been declared innocent by the God without. It means an end to all my futile attempts at self-justification, whether by politics, parenting, or preaching. Justification means I can sleep soundly at night, whether I wake up in the morning or not, knowing that God is for me and not against me.

Read the rest here