Bad News for the Good News! (Links)

IMB cuts missionary appointments this year due to the economy.

• http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=30535

And yet...

Tears of the Saints from Acts1v8 on Vimeo.

Christian Ethics

Dr. Russell Moore asks this question as the final exam for his Christian Ethics class. How would you respond?

Joan is a fifty year-old woman who has been visiting your church for a little over a year. She sits on the third row from the back, and usually exits during the closing hymn, often with tears in her eyes. Joan approaches you after the service on Sunday to tell you that she wants to follow Jesus as her Lord.

You ask Joan a series of diagnostic questions about her faith, and it is clear she understands the gospel. She still seems distressed though. When you ask if she’s repented of her sin, she starts to cry and grit her teeth.

“I don’t know,” she says. “I don’t know how…I don’t know where to start…Can I meet with you privately?”

You, Joan, and a godly Titus 2-type women’s ministry leader in your church meet in your office right away, and Joan tells you her story.

She wasn’t born Joan. She was born John. From early on in John’s life, though, he felt as though he was “a woman trapped in a man’s body.” Joan says, “I don’t mean to repeat that old shopworn cliché, but it really is what I felt like.”

Joan tells you that when she was twenty she began the process of “transitioning” from life as a man to life as a woman. She underwent extensive hormone therapy, followed by extensive plastic surgery—including so-called “gender reassignment surgery.” She has lived for the past thirty years—physically and socially—as a woman.

“I want to do whatever it takes to follow Jesus,” Joan tells you. “I want to repent…I just, I don’t know how to do it.”

“I am surgically now a woman. I’ve taken hormones that give me the appearance and physical makeup of a woman,” she says. “Even if I were to put on a suit and tie right now, I’d just look like a woman with a suit and tie. Not to mention the fact that, well, I am physically…a woman.”

“To complicate matters further,” Joan says through tears, “I adopted my daughter, Clarissa, when she was eight months old and she’s ten years old now. She doesn’t know about my past life as…as a man. She just knows me as her Mom.”

“I know the sex change surgery was wrong. I know that my life is twisted. I’m willing to do whatever Jesus would have me to do to make it right,” she says. “But what would Jesus have me to do?”

Joan asks you, “Am I too messed up to repent and be saved? If not, what does it mean for me to repent and live my life as a follower of Jesus? What is right for me to do?”

Good News! (Links)

Here is a great two-part interview with SBC President Johnny Hunt:

• http://www.ncbaptist.org/index.php?id=1210

And also today Kevin Ezell, senior pastor of Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, was nominated to serve as president of this year's Southern Baptist Pastors' Conference:

• http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=30492

Links (5/12)

• Mother's Day is a Bad Idea
  
• What is Preaching?
• Pastors Should Suffer
• Weird Baby Names
  

New Discovery

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081022/ap_on_sc/sci_scotch_tape_surprise

Scientists discover that opening scotch tape in a vacuum emits x-rays.

So, how do you get the job where you go to school for 10 years, then get paid millions of dollars to play with scotch tape?

Aside from that, this story makes me wonder. If you place a Christmas present in a vacuum, can you use the tape to see what's inside?

Introducing Leonard Ravenhill

I was first introduced to Leonard Ravenhill through the preaching of Paul Washer. Ravenhill was one of the last great preachers born out of the Welsh Revival of 1904. Ravenhill died in 1994, and left a legacy of preaching, revival and evangelism that was absolutely focused on the need for hearts to be transformed by the Gospel.

You can fine some sermons and interviews with Leonard Ravenhill. Below I've listed some great quotes that will hopefully whet your apetite to further investigate the teachings of this old preacher.

“A popular evangelist reaches your emotions. A true prophet reaches your conscience.”

“The last words of Jesus to the church (in Revelation) were ‘Repent!’”

“A true shepherd leads the way. He does not merely point the way.”

“Your doctrine can be as straight as a gun barrel—and just as empty!”

“I doubt that more than two percent of professing Christians in the United States are truly born again.”

“Our God is a consuming fire. He consumes pride, lust, materialism, and other sin.”

“There are only two kinds of persons: those dead in sin and those dead to sin.”

“Children can tell you what Channel 7 says, but not what Matthew 7 says.”

“Some women will spend thirty minutes to an hour preparing for church externally. What would happen if we all spent the same amount of time preparing internally for church— with prayer and meditation?”

“Maturity comes from obedience, not necessarily from age.”

“What good does it do to speak in tongues on Sunday if you have been using your tongue during the week to curse and gossip?”

“The only time you can really say that ‘Christ is all I need,’ is when Christ is all you have.”

“The Bible is either absolute, or it’s obsolete.”

“Why do we expect to be better treated in this world than Jesus was?”

“Today’s church wants to be raptured from responsibility.”

“Testimonies are wonderful. But, so often our lives don’t fit our testimonies.”

[Concerning one of the new “movements” in the church that was causing a stir among Christians:] “There’s also a stir when the circus comes to town.”

“My main ambition in life is to be on the Devil’s most wanted list.”

“You can’t develop character by reading books. You develop it from conflict.”

“When there’s something in the Bible that churches don’t like, they call it ‘legalism.’”

“We can’t serve God by proxy.”

“We must do what we can do for God, before He will give us the power to do what we can’t do.”

“There’s a difference between changing your opinion, and changing your lifestyle.”

“How can you pull down strongholds of Satan if you don’t even have the strength to turn off your TV?”

“Everyone recognizes that Stephen was Spirit-filled when he was performing wonders. Yet, he was just as Spirit-filled when he was being stoned to death.”

“If a Christian is not having tribulation in the world, there’s something wrong!”

[Concerning the fixation that today’s church has with numbers, with growth at any price:] “The church has paid a terrible price for statistics!”

“Any method of evangelism will work—if God is in it.”

“Church unity comes from corporate humility.”

“You can have all of your doctrines right—yet still not have the presence of God.”

“Many pastors criticize me for taking the Gospel so seriously. But do they really think that on Judgment Day, Christ will chastise me, saying, ‘Leonard, you took Me too seriously’?”

“If Jesus had preached the same message that ministers preach today, He would never have been crucified.”

“You can know a lot about the atonement, and yet receive no benefit from it.”

“If the whole church goes off into deception, that will in no way excuse us for not following Christ.”

"We Christians are debtors to all men at all times in all places, but we are so smug to the lostness of men. We've been "living in Laodicea ", lax, loose, lustful, and lazy. Why is there this criminal indifference to the lostness of men? Our condemnation is that we know how to live better than we are living."

"No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who is not praying is playing; the people who are not praying are straying. The pulpit can be a shop window to display one's talents; the prayer closet allows no showing off."

"And there's no room for Him in the inn.
He got a bit older, there was no room in His family, His family turned on Him.
He went to the temple, no room in the temple, the temple turned on Him.
And when He died there was no room to bury Him, He died outside of the city.
Well why in God's Name do you expect to be accepted everywhere?
How is it that the world couldn't get on with the holiest Man that ever lived and can get on with you and me?
Are we compromised? Are we compromised?
Have we no spiritual stature?
Have we no righteousness that reflects on their corruption?"

"If a Christian is not having tribulation in the world, there’s something wrong!"

"Is the world crucified to you tonight? Or does it fascinate you?"

"That world outside there is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity, it's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity."

"The Church used to be a lifeboat rescuing the perishing. Now she is a cruise ship recruiting the promising."

"The most horrible thing that happens in evangelism today is we don't value the human soul."

"I watched the close of a service a few weeks ago, and at the end fifteen people came and in four minutes they said a prayer and went away. I can't get my car through a carwash in four minutes! Can they pass from death into life? Can they put off the old man and put on the new man? Can they get married to Christ in four minutes? Of course not!"

"Not 5% of people in America or England are genuinely born of the Spirit. They're born again of a decision, they get rid of a few lousy habits. There's nothing in it!"

"Many people make a mental decision. They want to be better, they want to go to heaven. But how many people really want to know God? Isn't the essence of Christianity, "Christ in you, the hope of glory"?"

[On criticism for going out to taverns and jails to share the Gospel] "I'd be an idiot to buy a $100 fishing gear and fish in a bathtub. And that's what were doing in church, fishing the same people every week. And people are dying without God."

"You never have to advertise a fire. Everyone comes running when there’s a fire. Likewise, if your church is on fire, you will not have to advertise it. The community will already know it."

What Happens When We Sing?

Bob Kauflin gave a great sermon on what happens when we sing. It's a great sermon!

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/ConferenceMessages/ByDate/2008/3260_Words_of_Wonder_What_Happens_When_We_Sing/

Mission: Idaho

I just returned from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. I got to spend eight days with three youth leaders and six youth from my church as we served a new church plant called Lake Pointe Church. The pastor, Mike Terry, had us going through the neighborhoods taking surveys and sharing the gospel. While we were there, we also taught at a local day care and invited people to a kid's club we had on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

We all had such a great time. Pastor Mike just ran the Coeur d'Alene Ironman last week, and he was trying to gain back about ten pounds, so we had some good food to eat. Northern Idaho has a very special culture. For one thing, the weather was crazy. Three weeks ago they had 36 inches of snow, and the week we were there saw daily temperatures in the upper 90s. As a result, air conditioning is few and far between. They have real winters, and they last from October to May (or in some cases, June). So in the summer people are outdoors all the time. Every night we got to go to Honeysuckle Beach, where a different family from the church each night brought us dinner. Here is what the beach looked like.

I believe this was the night we had steak, barbeque chicken, baked potatoes and an awesome fruit salad. (I told you we ate good!)


God provided for us last week in some special ways. We met a man named Tim on our first day in Idaho during the Sunday morning worship service. He is from Memphis, Tennessee. He is a pilot for FedEx who had a weekend layover Spokane, Washington. The reason he was at Lake Pointe was because he attends a church in Memphis that supports the church plant in Idaho. Also, the car he was supposed to rent for the weekend wasn't there, so they gave him a minivan instead. At the same time, the church that was supposed to lend our mission team a van had to use it, so without Tim, we would have had to make two trips everywhere we went on Sunday and Monday. It was wonderful to see God work as a like-minded believer was put in our path to meet one of our needs and offer us encouragement. After Tim had to return to work, a member of the church named Jody let us borrow his minivan for the entire rest of the week.

Of course, Pastor Mike would not let us come to Idaho without going hiking. Sunday evening we went for a short walk around a lake, but Friday we went to a 4th of July parade then headed to Montana. We did a six mile hike up a mountain, about 8300 feet above sea level, to an alpine lake. As soon as I get some pics, I'll show you that it was literally uphill both ways in the snow. Anyway, a member of the church named Lee went with us. The Lord saved Lee after our team was in Idaho last year, and he wanted to get baptized when we returned this year. So three miles into our hike up a mountain, 8300 feet about sea level, in a 38 degree snow-runoff lake, Pastor Mike baptized Lee. It was such a sweet experience. I'll post a picture of this soon as well.

And here are somp pics of the beautiful mountains. These are looking back at the mountains in Idaho from the mountain we were on in Montana. It was 9:30 PM local time.













While we were there everyone was exhausted, but no one got sick and everyone stayed safe. It was really good to be back in my own bed last night, but I really enjoyed Idaho and I already look forward to going back next year if the Lord permits.