Ambient Corporation has developed and demonstrated a small device that, when worn by someone who does not have the ability to speak, is able to convert their thoughts into either audible speech or device control (wheelchairs for example). Simply think the thought, “wheelchair turn left; wheelchair move forward”, and the wheelchair obeys. At first I thought this was really cool, what a great help to those who don’t have the ability to control a wheelchair by touch or by voice. Then I thought about my thought life and how difficult it is to control my thoughts (Romans 7:15), terrible visions of wheelchairs running wildly down the streets raced into my head and my point was proven….

The Desiring God blog has a great post on 10 ways to make kids love missions (though it could easily be titled 10 ways to make yourself love missions). I’m looking forward, Lord willing, to being able to practice #5 more as my wife and I set out to look for a home to purchase. Enjoy!

Well, I will fully admit that I know nothing about this man or his poetry but I couldn’t resist posting something that appeared in Christian blogdom about my undergraduate place of learning (HT: Reformissionary). For those that know anything about UC Davis…we’re not in the spotlight much unless cow research is being discussed.

Click here if the above link does not work 

Jude 3 - …the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. There is something I have in common with Peter the apostle, and Paul the apostle, and Augustine, Justin Martyr, John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Wesley and George Whitefield. We all became believers of the gospel message. When I read about the sacrifices these men made to preach the gospel to people who had not believed, I feel a sense of unity with them, a common bond, because of the gospel message. The message hasn’t changed over the years. God hasn’t been refining the gospel since it was first preached as if it were something that means different things to different people. The truth that Peter believed is the same truth I now believe.

All of these men came from different backgrounds, lived in different cultures, spoke different languages and had different careers. Yet, each one believed he had sinned against God and that only Christ’s atoning death and resurrection could save him. The gospel is universal, it is not exclusive to certain races or educational backgrounds. The gospel is for everyone because all are guilty of sin. This message was entrusted to the apostles that they should teach it and pass it down from generation to generation regardless of race, nationality, age, gender, geographic location, or lifestyle. All those who believe are united in Christ according to the same gospel message.

“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 ESV blog linked to an interesting post today on a man’s encounter with J.I. Packer. Packer was signing various books for folks when a man asked Packer to sign a copy of his bible. Packer responded, “Son, this is God’s book. If you want it signed you will need to ask him.”

So, I’ll ask the obvious question. How would you go about asking God this? What kind of answer would you expect?

When you ask an author to sign their book, you are showing them how much you appreciate their work. Obviously the author has already poured himself into the book. He didn’t give you half his work, he gave you his full work, so you are not asking him to add anything more to it by autographing it, you are not looking for additional information on the subject. Asking for a signature also shows your recognition of the author’s authority on the subject he wrote about. You realize that the author is more knowledgeable in a particular subject and has more experience with it than you do, if not, you would have wrote the book in the first place. Asking for an autograph is a great complement to an author, it’s something you go out of your way to do.

How then would we ask for God’s autograph? How would we should him how much we appreciate his work?

1. ‘You have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel’ Col 1:5 - this may seem obvious but God wants you to believe his word as truth. The author didn’t mix truth with lies, his whole book is true, not just parts of it.
2. ‘But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves’ James 1:22 - any teacher would say they greatest complement they get on their teaching is seeing it have its effect in their students’ lives. You ask God for his autograph when you show him that you are living out his word.
3. ‘Be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love just as Christ also loved you’ Eph 5:1-2 - how else can we imitate God unless we know what it is we are to imitate? This knowledge is found by Spirit-led study of his word, which brings up the next point…
4. ‘These words…you shall teach them to your sons and shall talk of them and write the on your doorposts’ Deut 6:6-9 - an author’s delight is to know people are talking about their book and putting it on their “coffee table” for others to read through.
5. ‘I have hidden your word in my heart’ Ps 119:11 - but an author’s joy is to know that his book has been memorized and taken to heart. That it is meditated on day and night and touches every area of life.

I think this is how we show God we want his autograph, when we worship him. ‘May all the kings of the earth praise you, O LORD, when they hear the words of your mouth.’ Ps 138:4

Please add to this list, how else do we ask for God’s autograph? Or maybe answer the question: what kind of answer do we get from God when we ask for this?

I stumbled on a neat way to look-up Bible verses (for those of us who don’t have the whole Bible memorized). Have a look at OpenBible.info to see it in action.

Also, there is a way to visually analyze the frequency of a word used in the Bible, for example, “love” is used a lot more in the epistles than in the gospels, but it looks like Psalm has them both beat. Yet another website that makes good use of the ESV’s online presence. Enjoy!

A few days ago I posted a reference to an article by John Piper titled Signs and Wonders, Heresy, and Love for God. I wanted to think about it for a few days and write some more.

The basis of Piper’s article is that great signs and wonders have always and will always happen and that God uses them to test us. I thought about what kinds of false signs and wonders we might witness today. At first I thought about, honestly, dinosaurs. Maybe the fossils we have today could be one of these false signs because it does lead the people astray to follow after the god of science. I quickly talked myself out of this because it does not fit with the text. Both the Matt. 24 and Deut.13 passage imply some kind of miracle that is performed by a false prophet, either a prophecy of future events or a miracle performed in front of their eyes.

The only thing I could come up with was healings and fortune tellers. These are definitely miraculous (when they work) and would be very convincing to those who witness them that the person performing them has some kind of supernatural power. But the Bible tells us that true prophets can do the same things. So then the question is, how can we distinguish the false from the true? Thankfully, God never leaves us to fend for ourselves, He gives us a spirit of truth and tells us to test the spirits. Here is our test:

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God…They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world - 1 John 4:2-5

This passage tells us that we can know false spirits from true spirits by their doctrine. What they say and what they preach. Their acts may appear loving and compassionate but their teachings will not. Their doctrine will tell of a different Christ than then one we believed in. False doctrine goes right for the cross and tries to skirt around it; preaching a Jesus that did not join in humanity, taking on the flesh and all its temptations, and suffer on our behalf only to be killed as an atoning sacrifice and rise up again to life on the third day.

Jason VanDorsten, pastoral intern at Reston Bible Church (where my family attends), has joined Matthew Wireman’s Off The Wire blog. I’m looking forward to some great material from Jason. Read his first post on why pastors should allow the people they minister to see all sides of their lives, even the messy ones. Enjoy!

Here is an article from Ken Connor titled “Disposing of the Disabled” (HT: kerux noemata). My heart sunk when I read that, according to the New York Times, 90% of babies are murdered once the parent(s) finds out it has Down syndrome.

90%. Let that number sink in.

I appreciated the author’s relating the problem of abortion to the period of time when blacks where not treated as equals in America and his hope that abortion would, in the future, become as equally shameful to us as a horrible period of American history:

There were times in America’s past when neither blacks nor women were regarded as full fledged members of the human family. As a result, they too were deprived of the full panoply of rights endowed by the Creator to those created in his image. Those were not the best of times in America’s history. Thankfully, however, there were other times when Americans were willing to pay the price to see to it that both blacks and women received the protections they were entitled to by virtue of their humanity. Will we be willing to pay such a price for the unborn and the handicapped in our time? Again, only time will tell.

Unfortunately, the main difference between these two time periods is that one group had a leader emerge from its own ranks to fight for justice and reform and the other group’s leaders are taken out before they even emerge. O Lord, forgive us.

Here is a great article from John Piper that I am still pondering.

In it, Piper opens with a verse from Matthew 24:24:

For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.

And explains that these signs and wonders are supernatural but that they aim to deceive. So, if these things are supernatural, what is God’s purpose in them happening? Piper brings up Deuteronomy 13:1-3

“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

And then spells out five things to notice from this passage, mainly that God is testing us by it. There are a few things I want to think about with this passage, but I’d like to hear from you if you have any stories of witnessing one of these signs/wonders? The passage in Deuteronomy says the sign will come true, meaning the sign was some kind of future-telling event or miraculous performance as opposed to teaching some kind of false doctrine to try and lead the church astray. So, has anyone ever seen something like this? What was it?