Catch ‘em then clean ‘em

Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason (my favorite apologetics ministry and Podcast - check ‘em out!) has a great saying about how God deals with us in the same order that we handle fish: He catches us and then He cleans us.
In fancy church word terms, He justifies us (makes us right with him through Jesus’ payment for [...]

Eusebius – The Church History

I recently finished Eusebius’  The Church History, translated and edited by Paul L. Maier.  Eusebius is nicknamed the “Father of Church History” for good reasons.  He traced its paths for the first 300 years after the resurrection.  He quotes many people extensively whose writings we wouldn’t have otherwise.
It was dry in spots, but very informative [...]

Poster people for the Second Commandment

In a thread at Marshall’s place a liberal theologian was claiming that Paul was wrong in some of what he wrote in the Bible.  Finding this amusing from a person who claims to be a Christian, I said, “Hey everyone, [name withheld to spare him further embarrassment] is right and St. Paul is wrong. Just wanted to [...]

Roundup

Kevin started a “burden box” with his family where they write what they are worrying about and put it in the box.  Then they commit to stop worrying about it and let God deal with it.
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Do you want the United Nations to tell you how to raise your kids?  Didn’t think so. 
If you don’t want [...]

Redeem your iPod and your commute and ???

Faith Comes by Hearing is still offering a free download of the New Testament audio Bible.  I’ve used these for over 10 years (starting with cassette tapes).  I don’t usually give up things or start things for Lent, but someone pointed out that if you listen to these for 30 min. a day then you’d cover [...]

Hey, let’s just skip Socialism and go straight to Communism

From the “I am not making this up” department:
Houston taxpayers could start footing the bill to help first-time homebuyers pay off debts and improve their credit scores, under a proposal before City Council this week.
The “Credit Score Enhancement Program” will give up to $3,000 in grants to individuals who are trying to qualify for mortgages [...]

Roundup

Sign the Focus on the Family petition to prevent government funding of abortions
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Amid the grieving, a great act of sportsmanship – great read about some good coaches and athletes who have their priorities in order
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Something has gone horribly wrong.  I agree with Maureen Dowd and the NY Times on the wrongness of forcing financial rules-followers to [...]

More on “good people”

When sharing the Gospel in general or speaking with Muslims in particular (who believe our good and bad deeds are weighed in the balance to determine our salvation), I like to point out that if that is the criteria then I’m in big, big trouble. 
When estimating my good and bad thoughts, words, actions and inactions [...]

I’m too pro-science to be pro-choice

 <=== The shirt says, “Now that I’m safe I’m pro-choice” 
One of my favorite techniques to use when debating pro-choicers is to highlight how pro-life views are in concert with science and how their views are not.  It is easy to demonstrate the scientific fact that life begins at conception.  They may try to argue that but [...]

Good and bad ecumenism

Ecumenism is a movement promoting unity among Christians.  It is biblical in concept, given that Jesus prayed for believers:
John 17:20-23 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and [...]

In case you missed it . . .

This has been on quite a few blogs I read, but be sure to watch it if you haven’t already.  It is a great video by a 12 year old.  It isn’t some cutesy, emotion-based pro-life message.  She uses facts and logic to make her points. 
Sadly, they had to turn off comments on YouTube because of [...]

Not-so-skeptical skeptics

Dan & Edgar posted a good video (Warning: not for little ones) that shows the challenges of living coherently with one’s worldview when that involves denying universal morality.

One of the commenters caught my attention on a couple items:
This is just another deliberate misinterpretation of the Selfish Gene theory. It’s not about [...]

Roundup

Great piece by Roxanne over at Haemet on OctoMom (the lady who went from six kids to fourteen via in vitro and has no desire to have a dad involved).  It  highlights another example of the law of unintended consequences (that seems to be a theme lately).
OctoMom is liberalism’s Frankenstein. They created her and demonstrate their [...]

A little diagnosis

Stan had a post that reminded me of the importance of understanding why people are raising objections to God and Christianity before answering their questions.  
Much of the time objections are just smokescreens meant to avoid the reality of God (basic Romans 1 stuff).  I get sucked into time wasting conversations sometimes but have found that [...]

More on the law of unintended consequences

Marshall had a great link about the law of unintended consequences and how liberal policies break the law over and over.  One example of many:

Consider: with Obama, Reid and Pelosi screaming for the country to accept a ridiculous stimulus package to create jobs jobs jobs — liberals in Chicago are standing in the way of a [...]

Roundup

We’re going to celebrate Valentine’s Day at Arby’s.  We went to our favorite local place the other day, but Arby’s is nostalgic for us.  We got married right out of college and got dressed up and went out on a Friday night for our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple.  We never thought about making [...]