This is a slide show of family photographs taken June 20, 2009. I used the slide show tools from Photobucket.com to make it work.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Makayla and Matthias - June 20 2009
This is a slide show of family photographs taken June 20, 2009. I used the slide show tools from Photobucket.com to make it work.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Sunday Quote: Blaise Pascal on Truth - Apologetics 315
Apologetics 315 has published the following quote:“Truth is so obscured nowadays and lies [are] so well established that unless we love the truth we shall never recognize it.”
- Blaise Pascal
This is true!
Father's Day - June 21, 2009
Pastor Stewart asked me to speak in our church along with 2 other men in honor of Father's Day. It went well. Deacon Lamar Gaines and Brother Keith Warren Gaines did awesome. I've put a transcript approximating my remarks from that day. The text in "[]" was something I thought I was going to say but during the time I was delivering this, I thought that it was too far a digression but I included it today. The pictures are of my family.
Fatherhood is a gift from God. Plain and simple. It’s one of the best gifts that I have ever received and perhaps the most daunting. When I think of what being a father is I feel blessed and grateful because God did not have to give me Makayla or Matthias. I think of how I get to be a link in a chain that stretches back to the beginning of the human race. I get to pass on the things God wants us to know to a new generation as it was passed to me.
My own father is a good example for me. He showed me much about how important it is to provide for the family God has given you charge over. And although he always taught me that education was important, he himself modeled that the most important things you can learn are about God. God makes life worthwhile. I never have seen my daddy reading many things, but I have always seen him read and study the Bible as if life depends on him knowing as much about God as possible because it does. He instituted the policy in his household thst we all go to Sunday School every Sunday and he was always at YPWW and any other service he could go to. In addition every opportunity I have had came from God, through the sacrifices of my parents. These are the legacies that I have obtained from my father that I owe to Makayla and Mathias to pass on to them as I have received. I believe that this is the responsibility of every parent to their children (ie the children God has put in their lives.)
I’ve recently heard a lecture from a psychologist who studied famous atheist and found out they all had poor relationships with their fathers. He concluded that a bad human father makes it difficult (not impossible) to accept God as Father. Hearing this made me even more grateful for my father. It also challenged me because the last thing I want to do is to be a stumbling block to Makayla and Matthias to come to God.
There are a lot of scriptures about being a father. The Bible even gives examples of what not to do. For example when you have time check out Jephthah from Judges Chapter 11. Although Issac and Jacob were not horrible fathers, they still showed favoritism. That is also as fathers we must avoid. God doesn’t do it. We should not either. [As a freebee, at the risk of digressing too much, I’ve got to point out that election spoken of in Romans 9 and the way that God selects us in Ephesians 1: 4-6 says
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
I love it…for this is the gospel in a nutshell. Again this is what I want to make sure our children (and all of us) get.
The passage does not mean that God shows favoritism because “chose” which in the Greek is “eklegomai” means “chosen/pick out of a group” and carries the thought that what is selected is “picked without rejecting that which was not picked”. God picked you for Himself without rejecting anyone else. Just like when I choose to give Makayla a birthday gift in August, it does not mean that I’m rejecting Matthias if I don’t give him the same gift. I’m going to have press this point further at a different time.
Back to topic:] I want to focus on the scriptures that come to mind first about fatherhood.
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets – Matthew 7:7-11
Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. – Ephesians 6:4
Sons are a heritage from the LORD,
children a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are sons born in one's youth.
Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.
Pslam 17:3-5
These are just snippets of what the Bible teaches about fatherhood. Fathers are important to God and He is holding us accountable for the families He has graced us with. He wants us to call him “Daddy” and have that kind of right relationship with Him. This is why Jesus came and died. Remember Pastor Stewart’s message reminding us to remember we are children of God and admonishing us to remind one another?
I want to end with Romans 8: 14-16 which says:
because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
"We Are Autobots" - More Viral Marketing
I just found a new website called "We Are Autobots". You hook up your webcam and the website puts Optimus Prime's Head over your own in real time. Pretty Fun!
Here is a demo video I got from YouTube
Here is my own demo video - It's fun!
Friday, June 19, 2009
Barack to the Rescue
An online e-card company, JibJab.com has applied their technology to a hilarious video showing President Barack Obama as a superhero complete with a theme song. Kinda Catchy.
Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!
Truthbomb Apologetics: How Did Jesus Argue? Jesus and Logic
Chad, from Truthbomb Apologetics, has posted the final entry to his series of post that examines our Lord and Savior Jesus from the point of view of Jesus truly being the smartest man who has or ever will walkk the earth. This particular post offers more material written by Dr. J.P. Moreland. Thanks, Chad!
G4 Specials: Steve Jobs' Life And Legacy
Here is a documentary from G4TV giving the background story to Steve Job's and Apple Computer's success starting from the mid 1970's. I like hearing about the paths people take in life. When we look at their challenges and the unexpected twists and turns we can see how God moves in their lives. It's unmistakeable. How does a man, found a company/industry - Apple, looses the job, starts a new company, and then Apple buys that company and he becomes the CEO of Apple! Jobs has changed the Computer/Electronics industry irrevocably and has affected every life on Earth.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Where is God in Failure? MP3 Audio by William Lane Craig - Apologetics 315
On the Apologetics 315 blog there is a great sermon by William Lane Craig. He discusses about where is God when we fail. It was pretty good. He points out that God's purpose of our individual lives could include experiencing failure and suffering. It made me think. I thought about when it comes to how God leads us and guides us, Craig sounds very Calvinistic. He does not have a problem with the idea that God is in control of our live and bring about everything according to His will and purpose. Human free will does not enter in. To which I readily agree. My question is when it comes to personal salvation and being reconciled back to God he runs back to Human Free Will Why? Brian always shares cool stuff on his blog. He linked the audio and video to his blog. Please go check it out.
Where is God in Failure? MP3 Audio by William Lane Craig - Apologetics 315
General Thoughts On Atheism
The writer of the Atheism is Dead blog. Mariano, has been invited to write an essay defining Atheism, and why it isn't reasonable. His work is always great to read and I highly recommend the article! Read it at http://www.google.com/coop/cse/
Truthbomb Apologetics: Jesus the Logician
Here is the 4th article in the series looking at Jesus as the greatest apologists who ever lieved:
Truthbomb Apologetics: Jesus the Logician
In this post, Chad gives us an essay written by Dallas Willard.
In Willard's article, Jesus the Logician, he writes:
'In understanding how discipleship to Jesus Christ works, a major issue is how he automatically presents himself to our minds. It is characteristic of most 20th century Christians that he does not automatically come to mind as one of great intellectual power: as Lord of universities and research institutes, of the creative disciplines and scholarship. The Gospel accounts of how he actually worked, however, challenge this intellectually marginal image of him and help us to see him at home in the best of academic and scholarly settings of today, where many of us are called to be his apprentices.'"
Is It Gospel? - Hazakim's "Theophanies"
I love this song....let me just get that out first. The important thing to understand that the duo, two brothers, making up the group Hazakim refer to their music as "Hip Hop Hopologetics". They use hip hop music to praise God and teach apologetics. I enjoy the way they put their music together and the messages they convey.
This post is about their song Theophanies and it is based on the Biblical passage Genesis 18:1-15. They tell the story of Abraham being visited by three personages. Abraham recognizes that one of three is God. The man most definitely talked with divine authority. Then the song brings up the point that no man has seen God any time.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. - 1 John 4:11-13
This is where we get the song's hook which points out that the preceding verses are true, however we have several recorded instances where the patriarchs see or physically experience God, so they ask the question, "Who was that they saw?". Many scholars and theologians answer the question the same way the song does: the pre-incarnate Christ. We know that God becoming a man is not out of nowhere because of Abraham and Sarah's experience in Genesis 18 as well as from other passages in the Old Testament. We also know this about Jesus:
No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known. - John 1: 18
Here is the audio for the song
| hitchens_wilson_de... |
In my opinion the song is most definitely an Example of Gospel Music!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Truthbomb Apologetics: The Apologetics of Jesus
In his third article spotlighting Jesus as the ultimate intellectual evidenced by his apologetic and logic, Chad announces a new book by Norman Geisler and Patrick Zukeran called The Apologetics of Jesus. This article is an awesome book preview. Chad has also given us the honor of providing a link to an interview of Patrick Zukeran and an article written by Zukeran on this topic. Great stuff!!!The Last Days of World War II - Death of the Reich
Here is a Great documentary on the end of World War II.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Truthbomb Apologetics: Featured Audio: Jesus as a Logician and Apologist
Here is Chad's next article examining Jesus fr0m the point of view of Jesus being a master intellectual. It features a lecture by Dallas Willard called Jesus as a Logician and Apologist.I am enjoying this series immensely. I agree that as Christians we don't think of Jesus is light of the fact that He did engage his culture and audience intellectually and we must do the same. This is why I see smaller audiences in Bible study services than other kind of services. I think that many people are either too lazy to put the time and energy necessary to learn as much as they can about everything they can.
I'm not saying that everyone need to be a scholar. You do not need to be able to identify logic concepts and be able to know everything. Some people are called to it but not everyone. No one is going to be as good as Jesus at it. What I've got to remember is the following verse and serves to keep us humble.
Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God. - 1 Corinthians 8:1-3
Truthbomb Apologetics: Featured Audio: Jesus as a Logician and Apologist
Anne Frank - Aged Progressed to 80
I just found out that using the magic of computers a portrait of Anne Frank underwent age progression so now we know what she probably would have looked like had she grown up and was alive today.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Sunday Quote: J.P. Moreland on God's Existence - Apologetics 315
RE-Do. About two weeks ago, I read a post on the Apologetics 315 blog and now I can't find it! I hate it when that happens especially since I wrote quite a bit. Here is my attempt to re create it. Here is the quote:“God maintains a delicate balance between keeping his existence sufficiently evident so people will know he's there and yet hiding his presence enough so that people who want to choose to ignore him can do it. This way, their choice of destiny is really free.”
– J.P. Moreland
I found myself looking up this post because othe post just below this one. There is a link to a lecture given by Moreland on how it's important to be able to reason out and think about what you believe and why. I totally agreed with everything he said. What struck me is the fact that I so vehemently deny the quote I read from him on June 7, 2009. It really left a bad taste! Re-reading the quote and the comments made me relaize that I jumped all over Moreland because I thought that he was talking about salvation. While he may be an Arminian (ad I don't know that for sure), I should not have taken the discussion there. Moreland was only talking about human knowledge when it comes to God's existence. He just tacks on "free choice". I'm gonna have to disagree with him and agree with one of the commenters on the original blog
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. - Romans 1: 18-25
Sunday Quote: J.P. Moreland on God's Existence - Apologetics 315
Truthbomb Apologetics: The Greatest Apologist Who Ever Lived: Jesus Christ
Chad is starting a series on his blog Truthbomb Apologetics in which he provides resources and astute commentary regrading Jesus from the point of view of Jesus as an intellectual and apologists. I agree with Chad that Jesus is not just the best and perfect man who ever has ever lived but also the most intelligent. He was constantly intellectually challenged by the skeptics of His day and He pawned all of them. This is a series worth checking out to learn more about who Jesus is.I listened to the JP Moreland recording in the post and he does a great job of showing through scripture that we must love Jesus with our minds and be prepared to explain what we believe and why we believe it.
Truthbomb Apologetics: The Greatest Apologist Who Ever Lived: Jesus Christ
Obama Speaks in Cairo
Not long ago President Obama gave a speech to the world in general and the Arab world in particular. In this day, the Presidential offices seems to post all speeches in YouTube so i have linked to it below.
As always the speech in structure and style was flawless. The content I have a problem with. Anyone who has studied anything about Christianity and Islam knows that there can never be any true common ground! By definition being a Christian means that you believe that Jesus was the incarnate Son of the living God who died for the sins of humanity via crucifixion to reconcile us back to God and then rose again 3 days later. It is by this we are saved. Islam rejects every bit of this! Every thought expressed in my summary of what a Christians is Muslims reject by definition. Where is the common ground? Yes, we are monotheistic, hate abortion and immorality, but so are many Atheists, Buddahists, and other folks. How can we have common ground if we reject the foundations the other stand on? There will be no peace in the Middle East until Jesus comes back and brings it.
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