Marketing Fraud!

I love this book!

Anyone who has been at Christ Covenant for more than a few weeks knows how I love the Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones.  I love it for myself and am glad to share it with everyone – including the intended audience: children.  You can see it on your left here.

But look at the book on the right.  Look similar?  Indeed?  Is it at all similar?  Absolutely NOT!  Think that is a mistake?  Don’t bet on it!

The book to the right - A Jesus Storybook You’ve Never

I wouldn't even put this book in an outhouse!

Heard About: 20 Extra-Biblical Tales From the Untold Story of Jesus’ Childhood – is a marketing fraud of the first order.

It is a “child’s edition” of stories from Gospel of Thomas.  The Gospel of Thomas has been known and been around for centuries.  Most scholars would place it centuries AFTER the life of Jesus and the four Gospels in the New Testament.  It is widely reputed as of no historical reliability.  It was rejected by the early church and the people closest to Jesus not because it was different, but because it was untrue and unreliable.  That happens with other stories to this day!

Healthy Numbers For A Sunday of Ministry

When I go to the Doctor, they always take my pulse and blood pressure.  These are two quick measures that relate to my health.  So what are the measures of church health?  What are the “metrics of ministry?”

Most people look quickly to attendance and giving because they are pretty straightforward to measure and do say something about church health.  But everyone agrees that by themselves, “noses and nickels” are ineffective and incomplete measures of what real health is for the Body of Christ.

Southern Baptists were famous for counting Sunday School attendance rather than membership or worship attendance.  This gets closer to a measure of health, because Sunday School classes typically have a stronger relationship component than the worship service.

If I could get an accurate measure of two things, I would be most interested in each person’s depth of “Interactive Relationship with God” and “Living by Gospel Grace.”  I’m not sure I can aptly measure that in my own life – beware of self-deception – much less the life of anyone else, but you get my picture.  If those two roots are healthy, I’m thinking that a number of other “fruit” – prayer, Bible reading, giving, service, evangelism – would flow from them.

So, I’m not sure I’m closer to an adequate measure of church health for Christ Covenant, but I’ll tell you three numbers that I am celebrating from yesterday, August 18: 3, 29 and 115.

Running The Race Of Your Life

Today, I preached the Gospel of Grace from Hebrews 12:1-3 with a focus on the phrase, “let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”  The obvious metaphor is that of an endurance race.  In my preparation, I gathered the stories of two families I am close to who each faced a race of faith that was at one point similar, but became very different.  They both involved Down syndrome.

This past Thursday morning, I came across a post on TheGospelCoalition.Org site that pointed me to the ESPN story on the White family.  Though I did not use the entire video in the sermon, it is so moving and connects so well with what I hoped to say, that I want to make it easily available for you.  I’ve included some other resources as well.

Reading With Gospel Eyes: Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Lately, I’ve been reading Eric Metaxas’ biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  I was struck to see how deeply his way of reading the Bible and listening for God shaped his life and actions.  Though a well-schooled and brilliant theologian in his own right, Bonhoeffer essentially rejected the critical methods of Bible study taught in his university and seminary classes.  The listening heart had been cultivated in him as child, by his mother and governesses, all of whom were trained and influenced by the life that flowed from the Herrnhutt revivals of the 1720’s that formed the Moravian church.  It sounds much like what I refer to as “reading with Gospel eyes.”

Reading With Gospel Eyes: The Spirit Speaking Through The Word

The Holy Spirit speaking in the Bible is the supreme judge of all religious controversies. - Westminster Confession of Faith – 1:10

Written in 1646, The Westminster Confession of Faith has been the recognized doctrinal standard for orthodox Presbyterians ever since.  As a pastor in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, I have affirmed that I “sincerely receive and adopt it as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures.”  So what does it meant to listen for the Holy Spirit speaking in the Bible?

Texas Republicans Propose Abortion Restrictions That Are Too Liberal For France, Germany, Sweden, Russia and Japan

Don’t ever expect to see that headline in the United States.  Not because it isn’t true though, because believe it or not, it is true!  Texas Republicans more liberal than France?!?!?  Indeed.

Texas Senator Wendy Davis recently became a national “abortion rights” icon when she filibustered a bill that would restrict, among other things, abortions in Texas performed after 20 weeks.  She did this even while the case against Dr. Douglas Karpen – “The Kermit Gosnell of Texas” – was developing in Houston.

Curiosity got the best of me as I followed the news though, and I was floored to discover – with the help of Google, of course – that nations all across the world place restrictions on abortion that are far more restrictive that those proposed in Texas and opposed by Senator Davis and her supporters.  Look at the list below to see what I found astonishing.  

Porn In The USA

Porn now affects virtually everyone’s relationships, even if neither partner actively spends time with it. How so? .  .  .   If a critical mass of emerging adult men consume porn regularly—by most estimates we’re there now—it cannot but shape (sexual practices and relationships).  .  .  .  This is new, too. Online porn is a uniquely modern problem in that it—like hooking up—thrives in part because of its speed and because it encourages men (and some women) to compartmentalize sex as a consumer product to be regularly and briefly consumed. Unlike relationships, it doesn’t require work. And our lives, after all, are very busy. Sex has to fit in somehow (since sex is also increasingly considered a need rather than a desire). Thus porn is increasingly fitting into modern relationships—including marriages.
From Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think about Marrying by Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker.  Oxford University Press, 2011.  Click Here For Amazon.com link

Mark Regnerus is a sociology professor at the University of Texas.  He is just one of a number of social researchers who have begun to identify and measure the sudden and extraordinary impact of pornography on life in the United States.

There is a “New Porn” that has come into existence and influence as a result of high-speed internet connections.  And it is not the Playboy of my own college days "on steroids."  This "New Porn" is as different from that as a nuclear bomb is from a firecracker.  Think computers, iPads and smart phones at work, coffee shop and home.  Think about measurable, enduring changes to brain chemistry and connections.  As I reviewed the research – I was a sociology major in college, so I have some training in this. – I found that those studies that had the best research base were turning up the most frightening impacts.  This is never a good sign.  And the best research is all within the past five years.  This is new.  It is big.  It is pervasive.  It is different.  And it is destructive.