In Hebrews 10:19-22 we read, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh…let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean…” Christianity is the only major faith whose core belief is in a person. The person of Jesus Christ. If Jesus was not a man, than the entire doctrine of substitutionary atonement falls apart. Substitutionary atonement is a theological way of saying God requires shed blood for sin (Leviticus 17:11) and that Jesus was our substitute on the cross. This is what we mean when we say Jesus paid for our sins, we mean that Jesus shed his blood and became our substitute sacrifice. He took our place on the cross.

So when we peer into the gospel we see that Jesus died the death that saved all who would believe. Could any man have done this? Could anyone else have been this substitutionary atonement that we’re talking about? The Bible clearly states that this would not be possible, no other sacrifice would be pleasing to God (Hebrews 5:9). But I also humbly offer this to you, would you trust anyone else to do it? Your eternal life depends on God’s atonement and your justification to Him, would you trust anyone other than God Himself to accomplish this?

“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

There has always been something fascinating to me about those who have written and published a book. A real book. How do you define a real book? Well, for the purpose that I write about today, something of substance and over 100 pages in length. I have a few publications out there, in journals and the school that granted me a degree, but that’s not what I’m describing here. I mean people whose names are on a solid, well-researched book. Where the countless hours poured into the study and writing are all redeemed when the binding is cracked the first time a reader looses themselves in whatever world is detailed. These are the people that fascinate me.

Recently, Steve Jobs (I don’t think it would be a stretch to refer to him as a “trend-setter”) was quoted, saying:

“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

The irony of how many people read his comment is almost on par with the fact that my Kindle e-reader came with a 20-page printed user’s manual.

Jeff Gomez has written a book called Print Is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age where he evangelizes authors, publishers, and distributors to get on the digital bandwagon and begin publishing in ways that are accessible to those who spend the majority of their time in front of computers and cell phones and rarely see printed text.

Here’s where I’d like to comment on Amazon’s drive to accomplish this. In conjunction with their release of the Kindle reading device, whose major one-up on all the other e-readers is that you can wirelessly download content in minutes almost anywhere you are, they have started a Digital Text Platform. It gives any author (with or without a publisher) the ability to publish their material for sale in the Kindle store. Just write, upload, set a price, and you’re published. No meetings, no approvals, no waiting.

Obviously making it so easy to become “published” will lead to an increase of poorly-written material being seen. But, it will also make it easier for some really exceptional writers who may not want to go through the processes that publishing houses place on them have their writings available. The great thing about the timing of this technology is that folks can easily comment on the “book” and rate it so that the poorly-written “books” will be weeded out and the well-written ones will become visible quickly.

I am excited about where things are going in this area, especially for Christians. Not necessarily that any Christian should publish anything they feel like, but allowing more pastors and elders to publish their sermons, or seeing more books published as a result of a conference. And making all of this more accessible, search-able, and shareable is the driving force at work.

One thing I really love about the Kindle is that there are tons of free books out there if you are willing to go through the agony of converting the file and then using USB to transfer them rather than just buying them and downloading them wirelessly over Sprint’s cellular network. It’s beautiful, you can convert all of the books that aren’t copyrighted and end up with this (click the pictures to make them bigger):

but then sometimes things are not well in Kindleland and the converter gives you this:

But how can you complain with free?

So, I’ve been evaluating the Amazon Kindle for a few days now. I will write a full review as soon as I have a better feel for it and after I use it in church services and Bible studies, but…it is awesome so far, much better than I was thinking it was going to be. Anyways, more to come.

One thing struck me last night, I looked for Tim Keller’s book for the Kindle on the 14th when it was released, but it was not available on the Kindle, only in hardcover form. But then I looked again last night and it was released! Then I also read the story of how the ESV was released for the Kindle. Basically, a few people commented that it would be nice to have the ESV translation on the Kindle and sure enough, Crossway released one.

My point in all this is that things seem to be moving much faster. Data is being produced in a form that allows it to be shared across all types of platforms without much difficulty. So, when I post something to my blog, I can share it on Digg, Facebook, etc. without having to tell each site what my data is and how it is formatted. In the same way, when a publisher creates a book, they can begin to publish it in many forms (hardcover, pdf, eReaders, etc.) without having to put a lot of effort into manipulating it.

So, I’m enjoying reading through my first book on the Kindle (The Reason For God). So far I like the book but I’ll wait until I’m finished before “passing judgment”. Once you figure out how to hold the device, you can lie down in bed and comfortably read through the book and actually forget that you’re reading an e-book. In just a few days I’ve gotten pretty fast at using the built-in highlighter and annotation tools on the Kindle so I’m still able to mark up the margins like I always do but now…I can search through my markings. This is one of the biggest selling points for the Kindle. Everything on it is searchable. Stay tuned for a full review once I’ve used it long enough!

I have the best wife. Ever. Not because she bought me

on the very day it came out. But because she knew to buy me that on the very day it came out. There is a big difference…

Anyways, I’ll certainly read through it in a few days but I won’t bother to review it, there are much wiser people out there that have reviewed it (read them here and here). What I’d really like to do is see if there is someone out there willing to read it along with me. The book’s subtitle is Belief in an Age of Skepticism, maybe you don’t believe but are interested in figuring out what this is all about. What do you think? Let me know if you’re interested.

Well, I know this is hard to believe but this post is not about an Amazon Kindle but its actually being sent from an Amazon Kindle. How, you might ask? Stay tuned…

Click the link above to enter for a chance to win some DVDs, and yes, by clicking above you improve my chances!

This morning, some of us woke up to find scenes like the one below

and I predict that at work/school today, everyone will “discuss” how horrible every driver on the road is. But no one will admit that they could possibly be the bad drivers on the road. So, if everyone is talking about all the other drivers on the road…who exactly are these bad drivers? The radio didn’t even bother to announce which roads are backed-up, it just said every possible road is delayed. Accidents were everywhere and yet, no one is a bad driver. So, if you’re waiting for me to admit fault….keep waiting, I walk to work!

EDIT: On the more positive side of things, isn’t God’s work amazing? Job 37:10 says “From the breath of God ice is made” and Psalm 148:8 says that the snow and hail fulfill His word. Today we were able to just stop and stare at God’s fulfilled word while we scrapped the ice from our cars and inched along the sidewalks trying not to slip. This weather, while frustrating our daily plans and causing delays in our schedules, is from God for us to be awestruck and marvel at His power and to realize that He is creator and ruler. You’re already late to work today, take some time to just stare at what He did today and give Him thanks for it.

We read in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” The gospel is not logical to those that do not believe it. It makes no sense. And why should it? It’s not in our nature to think that anything would come to us without some cost, with no strings attached and no way to earn it. We are performance-driven people so when something is offered to us for free, it scares us. It scares us to such a point that we would be willing to pass it by for fear of what it might bring.

I remember a time when I was in line for coffee and had a gift card with a few dollars left on it after I made my purchase. I turned around to the man standing behind me and offered him the card and said there was enough for a cup of coffee on it. He stared at me for a moment and then said no thanks. Thinking I hadn’t explained myself very well, I told him that I wasn’t going to use it and that he could use it to buy the coffee he was standing in line to get. And still, the same response. Now, this metaphor isn’t perfect. The gospel is not free. It cost Jesus his life to pay for our sins and he asks for nothing less than your life as well. But he promises eternal life in return. There is a cost associated with belief, but when you weigh the gain, cost loses its meaning.

“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

I think just about everyone else on the web has posted these and I’m about 4 days late in doing so but, that’s ok. Reformissionary has posted some more free Tim Keller sermons, you can find them here. They are related to Dr. Keller’s book, The Reason for God, which is due out on February 14th. For some reason that date is a really easy one to remember and it’s been at the forefront of my mind ever since last year when they announced it.