Russell Moore has a great commentary on the small amount that we know about Joseph, Jesus’ father, titled “Joseph of Nazareth vs. Planned Parenthood”. In it he reminds us that Joseph had every right to abandon Mary and her unborn child when finding out she was pregnant before they were married. In fact, Mary could have been stoned under the Law (Deuteronomy 22:23-24) and her unborn child would have perished with her. But Joseph obeyed God and took on the role of father to our Lord even though he would not be Jesus’ natural father. Dr. Moore reminds us that we have this same opportunity with the “unwanted” and calls for us to be more proactive in our defense against the pro-choice movement. Not to raise our voices and protest and buy the latest bumper sticker, but to fund more crisis pregnancy centers and to follow through by adopting those children who escape an abortion as a result of these centers.

It is difficult to get accurate statistics on the number of abortions performed each year, I’ve seen number ranging from 36 million all the way to 900 million. But it is clear that throughout history there have always been unwanted children. We have a great example to follow after in our Lord’s earthly-father.

I really just wanted to post some new sermons from Tim Keller but I thought that would make for a slim post, so here are a few more:

• Tim Keller at City Life Boston: A Broken Spirit and Encounter With God (HT: Reformissionary)
• C.J. Mahaney on our adoption into the household of God
• Mike Minter’s fantastic sermon titled I Want to be Like That
• D.A. Carson on Jeremiah (HT: Andy Naselli)
• Woodhouse on church unity (HT: Andy Naselli) though honestly I am not sure how I feel about this series yet. Have a read and let me know what you think

That’s it, enjoy!

“Oh really, you go to church too? I just started taking my family back to church, I didn’t go much when I was a kid but I think it’s the right thing to do for my kids, so they will grow up to be good.”

“That’s good that you’re doing that.”

“Yes and I just started going to a Wednesday night meeting, they talk about practical stuff there, stories from the Bible and such.”

“Really, what are you reading right now?”

“Well, I haven’t bought a Bible yet but I plan on doing that as soon as I get a chance to, they use the Spanish Bible at church and I like that, it’s in my language.”

“How long have you been going to church?”

“A few years now…”

A few minutes later, a trip to the local franchise bookstore revealed something to me that I had never really taken note of. We have more Bibles than we know what to do with. Has the Word of God become a product? You can get your Bible in any kind of packaging you want; metal casings, leather-bound, bonded leather, duo-tone leather, sheepskin leather, hardcover, paperback, thin-line, extra-wide margins, cloth casing with a handle to carry it, engraved, and even covered with the latest Christian artist’s face or album artwork. And English translations? Well, let’s just say you can have it in a language a cat could read.

I took a count of the number of Bibles in Spanish. I accomplished this with one hand. Not the number of translations or the number of packaging options mind you, the number of Bibles total.

But, the point I actually wanted to make was not about the difference in English/Spanish translations or packaging, that was just a side note. God’s Word is more powerful than a translation, or a human author’s notes, or a particular color scheme on the cover.

Hebrews 4:12:

For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

and Jeremiah 23:39:

“Is not My word like fire?” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?”

My heart finds rest knowing that as this stranger reads through whatever translation (I don’t speak Spanish) was given to him, he will be hearing God’s Word, hopefully on the plane he was getting on a few hours later. The packaging wasn’t very slick, he probably won’t be very proud to show off his gift, but the Word is in his home now. He can read it, he can share it with his children, he can memorize it, he can live by it. Lives are changed by the Word through the Spirit, nothing more.

Justin Taylor has posted some Bible reading plans on his blog.

I enjoy the reading plan put together by the Navigators because it gives you a few days at the end of the month to play catch-up.

If you’re just finishing up your Bible-in-a-year plan in the next few days, now is a perfect time to start thinking about what you’re going to do next year…maybe the Bible-in-half-a-year!

A headline from CNN Money: BB&T names Bible as assistant chief financial officer

Obviously I opened it to read more. Congratulations Mr. Daryl Bible on your new role as assistant CFO. How neat would it have been for a company to announce that they go to the Bible for financial wisdom, especially one as large as BB&T.

On a related note, most news sources allow you to set up custom feeds with keywords on articles you are interested in. I use Google News to send me a feed with any article matching the keywords: religion OR god OR jesus OR christ OR christian OR christianity OR faith OR bible OR theology OR jew OR jewish OR Israel OR archeology OR evolution OR archaeologist. So every day I get articles that match these keywords and occasionally I get confused that a computer is picking my news, not a person.

Because of the gospel, we love others more than ourselves. We put their interests ahead of our own. Why do we do this, isn’t the gospel something that saves our own lives? Isn’t it something personal to us? It’s what gets us into heaven, what does it have to do with others? Look at Christ’s example. Jesus’ needs were met before we were created. He already had everything He needed in the Father. He didn’t need to create us and certainly didn’t need to come down here and die for us. But He wanted to.

In the gospel, we find all that we need and that frees us to practice a similar kind of love. One that seeks the good of others over ourselves. How can we truly love others when we are still seeking after our own good? Philippians 2:5 tells us to adopt the same attitude that Christ had when he gave up His throne to become one of us and take on the punishment we deserved. This is an attitude of selflessness.

“And there they continued to preach the gospel” - Acts 14:7

Each Tuesday a different reflection on the gospel and its continual effect on our lives

The local church my wife and I are involved with is beginning a campaign to construct a new building on land we own a few miles from our current location. Our reasoning for construction is simple; we are a growing church and we have out-grown our current building. The fact that we have groups meeting in 3 geographically separate locations on Sunday morning attests to this.

So, the elders are asking for support from our finances, skills, and prayers and I would like to focus on the financial aspect. This post will not discuss why we should be giving since our pastor has already preached on these reasons. This post assumes your desire is to cheerfully give and you want to hear of some different ways to carry that out.

It has to come from somewhere

People use their money. All of it. At the end of every month, some amount has gone to giving, housing, clothing, food, bills, savings, etc. None of it just goes unused. For a building campaign to work, money has to come from somewhere, it either has to be earned or has to be moved around from its current usage in our budgets. In either case though, something has to be given up. Sacrifice must be made.

Last week, a group of us met during our usual Bible study time and talked about some ways that we can be smarter with our giving. There is nothing like getting a bunch of Christian men in one room and bringing up the subject of finances, I would compare it to strapping an engine to a super-bounce ball and letting it go in a wooden closet, you can’t get it to stop. We came up with a list of unique ways that we can make better use of God’s money and help further this campaign. Please add to this list if you think of any other ideas, I would love to hear if you’ve come up with some interesting ways to squeeze a dollar here or there.

Strategies

• 401k donations - some 401k plans will allow you to move money out of a 401k as a donation without penalty. As an example, if you planned on giving $200 after tax then by taking this from a 401k the church could get roughly $285 (if you are taxed at 30%) just by pulling the money out of a 401k rather than after the income has been taxed.
• Cash-back credit cards - agree to give the money earned from credit cards that provide a cash-back bonus on purchases.
• Sell unused items - look around your home and take anything that hasn’t been touched in two years and put it up for sale on eBay.
• Refinancing - try to get your loans down to a lower interest rate and agree the money you save will be given every month.
• Sacrifice - think of the things you can live without and agree that anytime you normally would have spent that money you will put the money in a jar and donate it at the end of the week. As an example, if you normally buy lunch for $7 a day, then every day you put $7 in a jar to be given at the end of the week.
• Recurring Sacrifice - this is a little different from above in that you can try to cut out monthly bills (TV channels, cell phone extras, premium memberships, etc.) and agree that you will give that extra money every month.

A little help

A few ideas for help in this area might be useful.

• Men’s night - Have the church organize a night where a CPA is brought in to try and help us squeeze more out of our monthly expenses. Use this as a Q&A time for questions people might have about certain laws or what they can do to cut back on expenses.
• Accountability - Form accountability groups where people can keep each other accountable with their expenses. This would require some openness on everybody’s part, but having someone else look at where your money is going can be a great way to keep things in perspective.
• Sermons - Have a listen to some of these sermons by Tim Keller, the items we’ve listed above are great methods for restructuring your finances, but if the heart is not restructured then truly radical giving will never be achieved.
• Ask God - Spend some time during your devotions to ask God for financial wisdom, study the Scriptures to see what God says about our hearts and our money.
• More reading - Here are some more articles/sermons on finances, enjoy!

Again, please don’t let your giving become a meaningless event where you are only trying to give more. Our aim should be to glorify God by giving back the blessings He has given to us. If I left anything out, please comment below and add to the list.

Justin Taylor posted an article from Christianity Today magazine by Darrell Bock, research professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. Professor Bock gave some great guidelines for Christians responding to the media’s reporting of current events in Christendom. Lately, the media has been reporting on the many books and movies coming out with unorthodox views of the history of Christ and His church:

Topics like the James ossuary and the Gospel of Judas have hit Times Square, not only pricking the attention of seminary students, but also garnering coverage from journalists and culture-watchers, from CBS News’s traditional news team to 360 Degrees’s Anderson Cooper.

The typical response by Christians (and this includes myself) is to call out these articles as attacks on the faith and just dismiss them as being slanderous. In the article Bock addresses what he thinks the response from pastors, seminaries, and Christians in general should resemble. When he lays out some principles for individuals, I took this to heart because I often write about this type of reporting here. Bock says:

Rather than seeing new media reports as conspiracies to rail against, why not see them as opportunities to discuss faith with friends and neighbors who will find them intriguing? Only we mustn’t do so with an angry or dismissive tone. Rather, we ought to respectfully explain the historic Christian view. Becoming equipped for such discussions may require seminars organized by local churches. Imagine churches working together to help believers contend for the truth in their communities.

So I am asking you for your assistance in keeping me accountable when I post on these types of things. Call me out if I am dismissive or arrogant. I think a good test would be this: would you be ashamed to send these posts to those who don’t call themselves Christians? Thanks for your help!

Pyromaniacs has a posting on unbelief as a sin. As I read it today, I got to wondering if some may get the wrong impression of this blog’s title, “Help My Unbelief”.

The title comes from Mark 9:24, here is the entire passage from 9:14-24:

And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

This statement is common in the life of every believer. We all believe, but yet unbelief still remains. Not unbelief in who Christ is because this is impossible for the Christian, but rather, unbelief in all satisfaction being found in God. Imagine what our lives would be like if we were completely satisfied in Him? Would we doubt? Would we worry? Would we sin? How would we treat others? What would our attitude be during struggles? What would our work look like? Where would we spend our time? Where would we spend our money?

Unbelief is not something to be taken lightly, as if it weren’t sin. So, this blog exists to help with our unbelief. This includes my own unbelief. I want every aspect of my life and my family’s life to be so saturated in a passion for God that unbelief falls away and is replaced with child-like trust in God and His goodness. All that we need is found in God. And our access to Him is made possible only by the work Christ has done for us on that glorious day when he bore the punishment we deserved.

Reuters is reporting on comments made by the Vatican in response to a lot of criticism they are receiving for their perceived methods of evangelism. Some groups have gone so far as to call it:

proselytism, or seeking new members aggressively or through coercion

Rome defended its methods of evangelism and even called it:

an inalienable right and duty, an expression of religious liberty …

Is this true? Without getting into a discussion on Roman Catholic theology, can we correctly say this about evangelism, that it is a God-given right which cannot be taken away by man? Is there any such thing as a God-given right that cannot be taken away?

My thought would be no, evangelism is not something that cannot be taken away from us, because it was never promised to us. What has been promised to us?

Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.
Matthew 10:16-23

For the true Christian, that is our promise. That when we go to these places where God’s established government will not allow us to preach the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) that we will be persecuted for His Name’s sake.

So, there are such things as inalienable rights. To the Christian, they are called the promises of God:

I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Hebrews 13:5

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
Romans 8:1

that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ
Philippians 1:6

The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.
Revelation 3:5

These are just a few of God’s promises to us, thank God for His Word that we can rely on to be true. These promises are meant for us to rest upon, to give us hope during the difficult and the easy times in our lives. These are the only things we can rely on, those things promised by God. Anything else is fleeting and will not last.

Now it’s your turn, what other promises does the Christian have? What promises does the non-Christian have?

The article also says the Roman Catholic church is working on a missionary “code of conduct”. I think I would like to write more about this tomorrow (what the Scriptures say about a code of conduct for missionaries) unless someone cares to pick up on it on their own blog?