What does Baptism Mean?

1 Corinthians 12 talks about the kind of body that the Church is.  And the kind of body that the Church is is the kind of body where the weakest members - the members who are least honorable - are afforded and given more abundant honor.  That's the kind of community the Church is.  And every Christian wants the Church to be that kind of community that honors the weak.  The question is: does our practice of baptism actually express that?  Or does the practice of baptism imply that only the strong need apply?  Does the practice of baptism imply that the weak need to get stronger before they get in?  Or are we saying that the weak in their weakness are incorporated into this body that is the body of Christ?

- Peter Leithart

The Cumulative Effect of Family Worship

"Family worship is an anchor and foundation for the rest of life.  When you sit with your family, read the Scriptures and pray together, you are giving them a touchstone they can relate to throughout their day and experiences.  It's not as if there's going to be direct one to one correspondence to what you talk about that day and what happened at school with their friends.  The effect is cumulative.  They don't remember what they had for dinner last Tuesday either.  But the effect in enabling them to grow is obvious.  ... You would never tell your family, 'I think we're just going to skip dinner tonight.' ... In the same way, the cumulative effect of teaching God's Word that informs their hearts and minds so that they can think Biblically and act Biblically as occasions arise in their lives... It is important to be consistent yet flexible."

- Timothy Witmer, professor of at Practical Theology at Westminster Seminary, 
author of The Shepherd Leader at Home

ADHD in Context

"I think that ADD is probably a necessary neurological adjustment to the all-at-once environment that we have.  This was Marshall McLuhan's prophetic awareness - to understand this.  ADD is a necessary adjustment."

- B.W. Powe

The Power of Presuppositions

"Education is a series of religious acts partly because the power of assumption is so great. Assumptions are even more powerful than assertions because they bypass a persons critical faculty and thereby create prejudice. Government education assumes God to be irrelevant to the educational process when, in fact, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Proverbs 1:7). Such false assumptions by the government schools can then be combined with arguments that prove the truth of what is false. These false assumptions are particularly beguiling because they appeal to one of our worst instincts - the desire to be fashionable or at least to avoid being associated with the unfashionable or unpopular." 

- Herbert Schlossberg,  (Idols for Destruction, 1983, p. 210)

The above quotation was found in Randy Booth's chapter "Family and Education" in The Church-Friendly Family, edited by Uri Brito.  In about a dozen pages, Pastor Booth articulates the best content summary of Christian Education that I have ever heard or read in my life.  I cannot recommend it to you highly enough.

So many kindly old ladies ask in exasperation, "How could anyone look at the hummingbird in flight or the sun setting over the ocean, or the elegant double helix of a DNA strand and not recognize God's glory on display?"

Pro-Life Living

Here, Greg Koukl from Stand To Reason exemplifies speech seasoned with gracious salt and loving truth. He is an example by his words and actions.  Enjoy.

Now Joseph was a Just Man ...

"Who is the model that Jesus followed as a young man?  His name is Joseph.  Joseph is the example that Jesus had in His early life.  Where do you think Jesus learned to lay down His life for His Bride, which is the Church?  Where do you think Jesus learned to love His Bride even when things did not seem to go the way they ought to go?  Where did Jesus learn to be humble and compassionate?  Where did Jesus learn to be a righteous husband?  He learned that from His earthly father, Joseph.  And so we learn this lesson:
Parents who imitate Joseph's righteousness are more likely to have children who imitate Joseph's Son."

- Pastor Uri Brito

The Dangerous Gospel of Jesus Christ

*Pastor's warning! Please note: explicit language warning for the first minute of this video clip!*


While we were busy running around in Sandestin for our annual Family Conference, on the other side of the world [down under], the Festival of Dangerous Ideas was concluding in Sydney.  The highlight of my time in Sandestin was getting to host our Q&A with Douglas and Nancy Wilson.  This morning, Doug posted the link to the Q&A session from FODI, which features his friend and Christian apologist, Peter Hitchens [brother of the late, radical atheist, Christopher Hitchens].
2 things stood out to me.  The first was the clarity and provocative intrigue of Peter Hitchens' articulation of the gospel of Christ Jesus.  The second is the utter disdain of children among the rest of the panelists.  It is often said by Christian Pro-lifers that we are a culture that hates children.  At times that has struck my ears as harsh hyperbole.  But in this clip, the hatred and abandon couldn't be more obvious.

Love it...

This morning, like many Wednesday mornings, I'm sitting in the church study at my desk typing out emails and sermons notes with my baby daughter on my lap.  Right now she is saying that she "wannas eggies".  But we just ate lunch, so that's not gonna fly.  One Sunday evening, she wandered from her seat in the front up to the pulpit while I was concluding a service and I had to pick her up, finish my remarks and close in prayer while holding my toddler.  Such is life in the Kingdom.  So this morning I couldn't help but appreciate these news photos.  Apparently, even the Pope sometimes has the same challenge, only at the time, he was addressing 150k+ at the Vatican!

"Missional" Living

"All the people of the Church [must] live their baptism in a missionary way... throughout the developed world today, every territory is mission territory; when you walk out the door of your house - and even before you walk out the door of your house - because Christian mission really does begin at home."

- George Weigel

Losing Church Kids - The Numbers

The results are in from a recent survey headed up by the Fixed Point Foundation about young adults who have left the faith and were willing to open up about why and how it happened.   Here is a summary of their findings compiled by my friend, Steven Wedgeworth:

1- They had attended church
2- The mission and message of their churches was vague
3-They felt their churches offered superficial answers to life's difficult questions
4- They expressed their respect for those ministers who took the Bible seriously
5- Ages 14-17 were decisive
6- The decision to embrace unbelief was often an emotional one
7- The internet factored heavily into their conversion to atheism

Prayer for Mother's Day

"Father, because our nation was founded upon Your Law, and in many ways still reflects this, for indeed it is impossible to live and thrive apart from obedience to You and Your will, we as a nation have set aside this day as a special day of honor to our mothers.
So we lift each of our mothers up before Your holy throne today. Shine the light of Your face upon them, for theirs – above every other station – follows after that of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who showed forth His greatness by washing the feet of the lowly and serving and caring for the little ones when the others would send them away.
We are so grateful for the priceless gift You have given to us in our mothers. God bless, guard, keep, and strengthen them. Encourage their hearts who the world despises, but who are precious in the sight of God, which is to be truly precious indeed."

Book List [what I've been reading/listening to lately]...

You are what your mind eats ...

Hard work, Character, and ... Fun?

After reading Jerry Apps' interesting and touching memoir of growing up on a Wisconsin dairy farm during the WW2 years, I propose that we make this the new cliche for kids' pee-wee soccer teams everywhere:

"Listen, what matters most is not whether we win, but whether we all have ... a chance to work very hard at a very difficult task for a very long time."

Put "God" at the head of the list and you're practically quoting Qoheleth

"The 4 best words in the English language are love, wife, home, and work.  The fifth one is friend."

-Stephen Ambrose, Comrades

What ever happened to Promise Keepers?

"Men relate shoulder-to-shoulder with a common quest/vision/passion/etc.  Women sit face-to-face [romantically relating].  Try to make relationships happen to men when the relationship is the end and it is not going to last.  It's just not going to last.  There needs to be principles/Scriptures/a mission/a project/something there.  Because they bond deeply when they have a common passion.  I think forcing the relational thing as a constant getting together to talk about your relationship will abort eventually."

-John Piper

Book List [What I've been reading lately]...

You are what your mind eats ...

Fathers, Do Not Provoke Your Children to Wrath ...

"Col 3.21 says: 'Fathers, do not exasperate your children that they may not lose heart.' What is it that we can do to make sure that our children do not become angry and lose heart?  On the other hand, what is the mistake that we make that provokes our children to wrath and causes them to lose heart?
Well, it's neither being too harsh or being too lax.  In the Bible, what will cause children to lose heart is when they see that the father is not interested in them.  If you do not have constant interaction with your children, your children will perceive that you're not interested in them.
Children want to please their fathers.  They want to please mothers too, but particularly they want to please their fathers.  And if you fathers do not show interest in your children, then they will lose heart and they won't care about what you say.  In fact, there will be a lot of anger inside...
Having quality time with children is the key.  Involvement is the key, both involved in discipline and involved in the positive side: reading to them, praying with them, doing things with them that count as much as you can.  None of us do this perfectly, but involvement covers all kinds of errors.  We make all kinds of mistakes in raising our kids, but those things are almost entirely covered up if we really have involvement with our kids in quality time - real wrestling with them.  Problems almost always boil down to either leaving it all to mom or letting the kids run wild... Fathers are the key...  Be involved with them as God is involved with His children."

- James B Jordan, Lectures on Ephesians 6

Here is Carl Honore: In Praise of Slowness

[for the record, I believe what God has taught us, that time is linear - not simply cyclical - but Honore's thesis stands because the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, and we are blessed when we slow down at the right moments.]  

Susman and Myers on Personality and Culture

In the 19th century, character was key, but other key words related to the concept of character: citizenship, duty, democracy, work, building, golden deeds, outdoor life, conquest, honor, reputation, morals, manners, integrity, … and above all: manhood, virility.

Early 20th century, accompanying material change, we move from a production-oriented society to a consumption-oriented society, and character disappears and what becomes key is personality: personality used to mean the qualities that were universally shared by all persons – the things we had in common. Personality was then changed to describe the attributes or qualities that make you unique. So the advice is on how to build this sort of personality or image. Here are the new key words from advice manuals: fascinating, stunning, attractive, magnetic, glowing, masterful, creative, dominant, forceful. [these words were almost never used to described character – character is either good or bad, not glowing. The quality of being ‘Somebody’ is emphasized. We live constantly in a crowd [basically strangers who will never have time to know your character], how can we distinguish ourselves from others in the crowd? ‘Crowd’ is the most commonly used word. The new personality literature stressed items that could be best developed in leisure time and that represented in themselves an emphasis on consumption. The social role demanded of all in the new culture of personality was that of a performer. Every American was to become a performing self.

"Personality and the Making of Twentieth-Century Culture."

- Warren Susman

Ecclesiastical Nursing Homes

Children are part of the bride of Christ. As such, they ought not to be prohibited from learning how to commune (in corporate worship) with their Lord. They ought to be knit together with us. But this is not accomplished by sitting in a pew thinking wishful thoughts. We have to do what God told us to do—sing, hear, pray, say amen, stand, kneel, eat, chew, drink and swallow—and we have to do it all in true evangelical faith. Because we hold children back from this, they either fall away, or their devotional zeal (which has somehow survived) is diverted into other more individualistic directions. They become the top Bible-verse kid at Awana, and we wonder in later years why they don't have a high view of the Church. In this the Church is like parents who put their kids in day care for years, and forty years later wonder why the kids put them in the rest home. We are to instill ecclesiastical loyalty in our children by the scriptural means, and keeping them back from the Table is not that way.

- Doug Wilson

What makes a Southern Gentleman?

I recently found a neat little company that I commend to you.  It's called The Forgetful Gentleman.  Below is an example of what you might find on their blog:

Forgetful Gentleman interviewed the ultimate Southern Gentleman himself, Jeremy Blume, Principal at Bearings, a Southern lifestyle guide for men:

Why is the idea of a gentleman so prominent in the South?

Manliness and manners have always been important attributes in the South. We celebrate the man that hunts, works with his hands and has a backbone. Yet we are also a culture that prides itself on proper conduct and hospitality. The combination of those two characteristics is part of the fabric of a Southern gentleman.

What ideals, virtues and morals are integral to a southern gentleman?

A Southern gentleman should embody integrity, character, chivalry, hospitality and humility. His confidence in who he is as a man garners respect, but it’s also his humility that sets him apart. He has a healthy appreciation of the past, while at the same time a forward thinker.

What distinguishes a Southern gentleman in the following areas?