The Pursuit

Baptism, valid or not?

Thursday, May 17th, 2007 | Blogs Worth Mentioning | No Comments

Guy Muse over at The M Blog has written a very thought provoking post called, Was this Man Biblically Baptized?, concerning the IMB recent guidelines for baptism. Where he shares the story of a man who was baptized, but in a way that does not meet the very guidelines the IMB has setup as a test for future missionaries.

I highly recommend you read his post and answer for yourself the questions he ends with:

WAS THIS MAN BIBLICALLY BAPTIZED? If he was, why are we setting up standards and guidelines that go beyond what Scripture teaches about believers baptism?

Type Greek

Thursday, April 26th, 2007 | Blogs Worth Mentioning, just for fun | 4 Comments

Mark Goodacre over at NT Gateway is officially the man! He just recently wrote a post called Type Greek where he links to this pretty neat web site, aptly named, typegreek.com. As the site explains it, “Convert[s] text from a standard keyboard into beautiful, polytonic, Unicode-compliant Greek characters as you type.”

No more ugly character-map-pain-in-the-rear-hard-to-do-i-cannot-stand-it Microsoft Word character mapping!

Thanks for sharing this excellent find with us Mark! My life is officially easier.

Spiritual Disciplines?

Friday, April 20th, 2007 | Blogs Worth Mentioning | No Comments

Gary over at Meditations on Metaphysics wrote an excellent paper about spiritual disciplines. In his paper he answers the question: “What is the true nature of biblical self-discipline?” You will find he correctly demonstrates that preforming certain activities does not make you Godly, but being Godly pushes you to preform certain activities.

The first part of the paper has been posted, it is called Outward Signs of Inward Godliness - Part 1. He plans on putting the paper up in four installments, I highly recommend reading this paper. It is a well needed discussion on an subject that has been misused and abused throughout the centuries.

The Journey

Friday, March 23rd, 2007 | Blogs Worth Mentioning | 3 Comments

Currently there are a lot of Christians that are on The Journey. I call it the journey because I know of no other name to call it. It seems to be a widespread, yet small, movement of Christians shedding the snake skin of religion and walking in their shameful nakedness toward a closer relationship with God.

Wayne Jacobsen from Lifestream wrote a post called, When He Begins to Open Your Eyes, where he discusses an email he received from a lady who has recently started the journey.

Suddenly she’s finding that she doesn’t want to sit through all the meetings and finding them an “ugly weight” rather than a joy. But she feels guilty if she thinks about not going. She is realizing that although she goes in hopes of encountering God, it rarely happens there and yet she still has wonderful friends there.

I do not think her testimony is very different from others on this very same journey. There is definitely something scary about forsaking the comforts of religion and putting our trust in God - but as Wayne ends his post, it is God who promised us Life!

Thank you Wayne for sharing this story.

Hurry Up and Fast

Tuesday, March 20th, 2007 | Blogs Worth Mentioning | 3 Comments

Scot McKnight at Jesus Creed writes a blog entitled, Fasting: From What? where he asks the question:

What happens when we shift the word fast from “denying our body food” to “denying ourselves of our pleasures”?

He makes some very interesting observations. Are we misusing the word “fast” today?

Friday, March 16th, 2007 | Blogs Worth Mentioning | 2 Comments

Marty Duren at SBC Outpost has written An Open Letter to the Board of Trustees, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary asking them to consider the former of two possible question:

The first question is, ‘Shall we replace the President?’ If the answer to that question is affirmative, then remove the President and form a committee to replace him or her. If the answer to that question is in the negative, then a second question must be, ‘How shall we assist the President in carrying out his/her vision for the company?’

This is not a position post for me; I am not saying that I am for or against this action. I just feel this letter is very well written, worth reading, and worth considering.

Woe… MAN!

Wednesday, March 14th, 2007 | Blogs Worth Mentioning | No Comments

Scot McKnight at Jesus Creed offers some interesting commentary concerning the equality of Man and Woman from creation for “ministry.” In his post called Women in Ministry: Made for Mutuality he writes seven points of mutuality, the sixth is:

Sixth, many contend that the “curse” of Genesis 3 indicates that the woman is submit to her husband. Wait a minute, I say (with many others).

1. The word “curse” is used only of the serpent and the ground; neither the Adam nor the Eve are said to be cursed.
2. The impact of the Fall on the Eve seems to be multiply her efforts — she not only gives childbirth but she toils alongside the Adam.
3. Most importantly, the so-called curse deserves a different reading. Here is Gen 3:16:
To the woman he said,

“ Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

Here’s the million dollar question: Is this a prediction of “fact” or a demand for order? Is this how things “will be” or how things “should be”? I suggest the former — this is how males will manifest themselves in sin and how females will manifest themselves in sin.

What are the answers to these questions? Do 1 Corinthians 11 or Ephesians 5 play any part in interpreting Genesis 3? If so, are the against Scot’s interpretation of Genesis 3, do they agree with his interpretation, or are they completely unrelated?

Did Jesus Really Resurrect?

Wednesday, February 28th, 2007 | Blogs Worth Mentioning, News | 3 Comments

Many of you may have seen the headlines of late concerning the Discovery Channel documentary: The Lost Tomb. It is about an archaeological finding of four ossuaries, with the names, Jesus, son of Joseph, Mary (twice), and Judah, son of Jesus. At first glance this finding may seem shaking, especially to our faith. Fret not my friends, for this story is full of holes.

Ben Witherington elaborates on a recent post, The Jesus Tomb? ‘Titanic’ Talpiot Tomb Theory Sunk from the Start. I encourage you to equip yourself by read what he has to say.

Here are some other articles related to this story:
Documentary Shows Possible Jesus Tomb - WRAL
Archaeologists, scholars dispute Jesus documentary - CNN
‘Jesus Tomb’ documentary ignores biblical & scientific evidence, logic, experts say - BPNews

God’s Glory,
Lew

A Post Worth Mentioning…

Monday, January 15th, 2007 | Blogs Worth Mentioning | No Comments

Hey everyone! I was a little busy this weekend, so I did not really have the time to write up any new posts. However I recently read a post that I thought was really thought provoking.

Gary Harris wrote a very thought provoking post called “How High is Evangelism on your Priority List?” Here he poses a very interesting question: “If evangelism should be so high on the priority list, why doesn’t Scripture say more about it and how to do it effectively?” I am still thinking about what I plan on commenting on this post.

I encourage you all to read what Gary has said. Hopefully his words will challenge you and I am sure he would love if you would comment on his post to challenge him.