There is much to catch up on and I’ll have to pace myself doing so. First up on the agenda is to catch up on lost sleep, having only managed to catch a total of 11 hours of shut-eye over three days. There’s also much to reflect on — despite the hectic schedule, I managed to have a few interesting conversations on theology and evangelism with some fellow Christians in camp, some of which I might share here in subsequent days.

I have also been thinking quite a bit on a new direction Word and Verse might take come the new year, but I’m going to keep mum on that till there’s confirmation that what weighs heavily in my heart regarding this matter is not of my flesh but God’s.

Thank you for all your prayers, and I pray that all has been well with you, my dear brothers and sisters. I’ll catch up with you soon via email or at your blogs.Similar Posts:

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From Lane Chaplin:

“God helps those who help themselves.”

It’s not in the Bible. It’s even anti-Biblical, but, as Ken Jones of the White Horse Inn has pointed out, many “evangelicals” think that it’s in the Bible and, when they find out that it isn’t, they think it should be. Jeff Noblit lays that myth to rest in this sermon.

May it edify you as it did me.

To watch this sermon at your leisure, bookmark this page.Similar Posts:

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# Now I know that some of the best beer in the world were first brewed by monks, but that’s no reason to turn any pub into a pseudo church! Is it a pub or is it a church? Oh, wait, wrong people to ask — they are Emergent.

# Brian McLaren and Chris Seay in conjunction with a pack of poets, songwriters and storytellers have just released a new “translation” of the Bible that they claim is a “fresh expression of the timeless narrative known as the Bible”. The name of this fresh “translation” is The Voice and it claims to be a dynamic translation of the Bible. Chris Rosebrough at Extreme Theology shares his thoughts on The Voice.

# There’s no need to tell people that they are sinners! All you need to do to preach the Gospel is tell people that “God loves you, Jesus died for you!” Sigh! Modern evangelicalism…

# Speaking of modern evangelicalism, have you seen the following video? The White Horse Inn went to different theologians and lay people to ask what they thought of the state of today’s church.

# Why stop at just adapting secular songs as Christian ones for worship? “Great” ideas like that should be extended to Christian programming on TV!

# The next time you want to convince a brethren or sister that what you’re doing is right and definitely what God wants you to, try playing your “I prayed about it” card. Available at all good Christian stores, in time for Christmas!

# In case you were unaware, Phil Johnson was on Way of the Master Radio yesterday (Thursday, 20 Nov). You can catch both hours (1, 2) of the podcast at the archives.

# Blogging news part one: my good brother Derick Dickens has a new blog — Areopagus. Pay him a visit some time; Derick has already written quite a few good posts there.

# Blogging news part two: DefCon welcomes Nathan W. Bingham as a contributor. Good to have you on board, brother!

# Finally, please be informed that updates to the blog might be scarce next week as I report for a week of duty with the Reserves.

Until the next installment, God’s grace to you!Similar Posts:

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I had meant to go to that particular session to attempt to give a first-hand report but I’m going to heed the advice of my wife, who upon hearing about my intentions earlier, asked if I was indeed mad. I still have half a mind to just go and get a first-hand look at Saint Hinn myself but there’s no other good excuse I could come up with to sneak in.

Like, I can’t possibly say that I’m going there to ogle at the girls and guys participating in the beauty pageant and “Manhunt” respectively, can I? It would be putting myself in temptation city in the first instance and, seriously, I don’t have an iota of interest in the second. Kong Hee (the senior pastor at City Harvest Church which is organizing the conference) does teach that “to the pure, all things are pure” even while looking at teenage girls in skimpy shorts prancing on the stage in church, but I guess that won’t fly either…

So I’m grounded, and bummed. Thousands will be getting their lessons on personal grooming, influencing the marketplace, and how to get their “best life now” while I know that my best life will only come much later or whenever God decides my time on earth is up. What bums me most is that I’ll be missing the chance to give all the spending money we have left to Saint Hinn for those 40, 60 and even hundred-fold returns!

Sigh, since when is that fair?Similar Posts:

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Have bad news the NSPCC have tracked me down. They have found me and knocked on my door today. I am abusing Nakai emotionally. They could take her away.

Jean

Your prayers are urgently needed as Jean stands almost alone to fight against those bent on taking her daughter away just because it’s deemed cruel to “emotionally abuse” one’s child when the latter realizes that she can never be good or saved without faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

For the background to this request, please read this post by Jean.Similar Posts:

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The Charter for Compassion is a collaborative effort to build a peaceful and harmonious global community. Bringing together the voices of people from all religions, the Charter seeks to remind the world that while all faiths are not the same, they all share the core principle of compassion and the Golden Rule. The Charter will change the tenor of the conversation around religion. It will be a clarion call to the world.

Clarion call? You bet, though not in the same way as you’d define it, Ms Armstrong.

It was painful to sit through this 21-minute talk by Karen Armstrong, but it will help you understand what she and her “Council of Sages” at the Charter For Compassion are advocating. There’s also a 3:31 minute video on the Charter’s web site.

For more information on this Golden Rule initiative, I’ll direct you to a very comprehensive series written by a good sister, Bonnie, starting with this updated post.

I’m no prophet, but it does look like it won’t be too long in the future when Christians who insist that Jesus Christ is the only way and the only truth (John 14:6) will be seen as uncompassionate people, along with other “lovely” labels we’ve already been bestowed with, e.g. “homophobes”, “intolerant”, “fundamentalists”, “bigots”, etc.Similar Posts:

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I use the adjective true in regard to the Christian not only to point out the necessity for the new birth but to indicate, also, the Christian who is living according to his new birth. I speak here of a transformed life pleasing to God, for if you want to be a Christian, you must agree to a very much different life. The life of obedience to Jesus Christ means living moment by moment in the Spirit of God and it will be so different from your former life that you will often be considered strange. In fact, the life in the Spirit is such a different life that some of your former associates will probably discuss the question of whether or not you are mentally disturbed. The true Christian may seem a strange person indeed to those who make their observations only from the point of view of this present world, which is alienated from God and His gracious plan of salvation.

Consider now these glorious contradictions and you will no longer wonder why the true believer in Jesus Christ is such an amazement to this world.

The Christian is dead and yet he lives forever. He died to himself and yet he lives in Christ.

The reason he lives is because of the death of another.

The Christian saves his own life by losing it and he is in danger of losing it by trying to save it.

It is an interesting thing that when he wants to get up, the Christian always starts down, for God’s way up is always down, even though that is contrary to common sense. It is also contrary to the finest wisdom on the earth, because the foolish things of God are wiser than anything on this earth.

You may also note about the true Christian that when he wants to sin, he always surrenders. Instead of standing and slugging it out, he surrenders to a third party and wins without firing a shot or receiving a bruise. He surrenders to God and so wins over everyone else!

Another strange thing about him is that he is strongest when he is weakest and weakest when he is strongest. It is God’s principle in his life that his strength lies in his weakness for when he gets up thinking that he is strong he is always weak. However, when he gets down on his knees thinking he is weak, he is always strong!

Again, he may be poor - and if he is a real Christian, he usually is - and yet he will always make others rich. Paul was a poor man in prison, but he immeasurably enriched the entire Christian world. John Bunyan was a poor man in Bedford jail, but he gave us Pilgrim’s Progress.

You can go on down the scale throughout history and you will find that a rich Christian was generally poor and the poor Christian made everyone rich.

This man who is a true Christian is at his highest when he feels the lowest and he is lowest when he feels the highest. He is in the least danger when he is fearful and trusting God, and in most danger when he feels the most self-confident.

He is most sinless when he feels the most sinful and he is the most sinful when he feels the most sinless.

Yes, he is a strange fellow, this Christian! He has the most when he is giving away the most and he has less when he is keeping most. That is contrary to the common sense of this world and that is why we are considered a peculiar group of people - but they don’t know us!

When they try to figure it out, they cannot get the true picture.

A man will say, “Well, I am willing to believe and to go to church at Christmas and on Mother’s Day, but I cannot understand this strange fanatic who seems to have the most when he is giving the most!”

He has never discerned God’s principle of blessing the nine-tenths which the Christian has for himself so that it is actually more than the ten-tenths without any provision for God or His causes.

Here’s a strange thing about the Christian believer. He sometimes is doing the most when he is not doing anything at all. Sometimes to get the most done, God calls him to the side and says, “Sit down there.” Sometimes he goes the fastest when he is standing still for in faith he may hear the whisper: “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!”

One of the important principles in the Christian’s daily life is this: he is saved now and is ready to declare it with shining face and yet he expects to be saved later! He is continually looking for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

We must look at this for someone is sure to say, “Make up your mind! Is he saved now or is he anticipating salvation?”

Of course he is saved now; but he is also looking to be saved. He has life now, but he is also looking for the perfection to be revealed in the future plan of God. Now, you will not be able to explain that to your neighbor; he will just underscore the fact that it is part of your strange religious fanaticism. He does not understand that you are a true Christian!

Neither will the world ever understand our insistence that the Christian born on this earth is actually a citizen of another country which he has not yet visited. He is born on earth and yet he knows by faith that he is a citizen of heaven.

The Bible tells us plainly that while we are walking on this earth we are seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus our Lord - and that doesn’t refer to the midweek prayer service! It means that by faith and spiritual position in Christ we are seated in the heavenly places.

The believer knows that in himself he is nothing, but even while he is humbly telling the Lord that he is nothing, he knows very well that he is the apple of God’s eye!

Some of our critics say: “You Christians talk about yourself and your relation to God as if you were God’s very best.”

I have a good answer to that, too! The very Christian who believes that he is the apple of God’s eye is the same unselfish Christian who is giving sacrificially of his money, sending his sons and daughters or going himself to preach the gospel to the least and the last of the peoples of the earth!

Finally, the good Christian is in love with one he has never seen, and although he fears and reveres God, he is not afraid of God at all!

Many of the philosophers and poets phrased it all wrong when they tried to advise everyone on earth not to be afraid of God for He is a good fellow and all will be well!

The true Christian fears God with a trembling reverence and yet he is not afraid of God at all. He draws nigh to God with full assurance of faith and victory and yet at the same time is trembling with holy awe and fear.

To fear and yet draw near - this is the attitude of faith and love and yet the holy contradiction classifies him as a fanatic, too!

Today, as in all the centuries, true Christians are an enigma to the world, a thorn in the flesh of Adam, a puzzle to angels, the delight of God and a habitation of the Holy Spirit.

Our fellowship ought to take in all of the true children of God, regardless of who and where and what, if they are washed in the blood, born of the Spirit, walking with God the Father, begotten unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and rejoicing in the salvation to be revealed!

Tozer, A. W. “The Christian Has a Right to Grin!” I Call It Heresy!
Harrisburg, PA: Christian Publications, Inc., 1974. 139-43.

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