Well, maybe not for dummies, but a 144 page stripped down version of Grudem's Systematic Theology is going to be published. I find these sorts of books immensely helpful (see also Packer's Concise Theology, Berkhof's Summary of Christian Doctrine, Sproul's Essentials). Grudem's book, edited by his son Elliot, will be called Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know. Look for it in November.
(HT: JT)
I think I met Tim Etherington online through Derek Webb's discussion board, which is a good place to argue about stuff. Somehow we found each other's blogs and have been in email contact for some time. He is a student at TEDS and a really old guy, like in his 40's. We have been wanting to meet up for some time and finally had a chance.
We had a great time talking for a couple of hours at a nearby Starbucks about family and ministry and the future for both of us. We have a lot in common theologically and in ministry, and it was great to meet another blogger in person. Read Tim's take on our meeting.
Go to CNN.com and click on the link to the video "Screams for Help" about the situation following hurricane Katrina. In it Jeanne Meserve, a CNN reporter, has been in New Orleans reporting on the devastation. She is on the phone, so it's not really about what you see, but what she says is very sobering and sad. She nearly breaks down a few times in her interview with Aaron Brown.
The photo is from CNN.
Here's evidence that humans are the only animals intelligent enough to desire demotion to an evolutionary chain...
Caged and barely clothed, eight men and women monkeyed around for thecrowds Friday in an exhibit labeled "Humans" at the London Zoo.
[...]
Visitors stopped to point and laugh, and several children could be heard asking, "Why are there people in there?"
London Zoo spokeswoman Polly Wills says that's exactly the question the zoo wants to answer.
"Seeing people in a different environment, among other animals ... teaches members of the public that the human is just another primate," Wills said.
[...]
"A lot of people think humans are above other animals," he told The Associated Press. "When they see humans as animals, here, it kind of reminds us that we're not that special."
Pat Robertson has apparently taken my advice and the payload has been dropped. Operation Heart Attack is underway and the world will be free from one tyrant in just a few weeks. Which world leaders are next?
Stay posted for breaking news and updates.
Brett Kunkle over at Stand to Reason has provided a short list of Dallas Willard articles on postmodernism. Nice to find.
(HT: Michael Foster)
Scot McKnight has finally advanced his online status through a url of his own. You can now read him at jesuscreed.org. Please update your bookmarks.
(This is the fruit of a conversation with a friend.)
Pat Robertson recently called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez. He's trying to play around it now, but whatever. He said it. And a lot of people silently agree while publicly speaking out against what he said. But I think there is a biblical way for Pat to save face, for Christians to get behind him (since we are all at our deepest core fascist Republicans anyway), and to get the job done without feeling guilty.
I just watched Super Size Me last night, and nearly vomited by the end of the DVD. Seriously, ask my wife. Thirty days of McDonald's nearly killed Morgan Spurlock who started the documentary in great shape. So Chavez, who is a little more pudgy, should drop after about three weeks of Quarter Pounders with cheese.
And the great thing is, Chavez can be assassinated without guilt. Romans 12:20-21 says, "But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty give him a drink." There you go, biblical justification for assassination by McDonald's.
So Pat, send Hugo a month's worth of Extra Value Meals and your desires will be fulfilled, your biblical foundations will remain strong, and your detractors will be silenced. I rest my case.
Big stories buzzing about alleged evidence that Lance Armstrong was doping in 1999 (during 1st TdF victory). No judgments either way here, but waiting to see what unfolds.
Original story from French newspaper
Cycling News
Washington Post
AP
Reuters
Cycling World Divided
The complete text of Lance Armstrong's statement, which was posted on his official Web site late Monday:
"Yet again, a European newspaper has reported that I have tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Tomorrow's L'Equipe, a French sports daily, is reporting that my 1999 samples were positive. Unfortunately, the witch hunt continues and tomorrow's article is nothing short of tabloid journalism.
The paper even admits in its own article that the science in question here is faulty and that I have no way to defend myself. They state: "There will therefore be no counter-exam nor regulatory prosecutions, in a strict sense, since defendant's rights cannot be respected."
I will simply restate what I have said many times: I have never taken performance enhancing drugs."
UPDATE 8.24 Morning: "The director of the Tour de France claims Lance Armstrong has "fooled" the sports world and that the seven-time champion owes fans an explanation over new allegations he used a performance-boosting drug."
UPDATE 8.24 Evening: Lance said today, "But to say that I've fooled the fans is preposterous. I've been doing this a long time. We have not just one year of only 'B' samples; we have seven years of 'A' and 'B' samples. They've all been negative," he said during a conference call from Washington, D.C."
UPDATE 8.25 at SportsIllustrated.com: "It doesn't surprise me at all that they have samples. Clearly they've tested all of my samples since then to the highest degree. But when I gave those samples," he said, referring to 1999, "there was not EPO in those samples. I guarantee that."
UPDATE 8.25 at Sportsline.com: "There's a setup here and I'm stuck in the middle of it," Armstrong told the Associated Press. "I absolutely do not trust that laboratory."
UPDATE 8.26 from Larry King Live: "If you consider my situation: a guy who comes back from arguably, you know, a death sentence, why would I then enter into a sport and dope myself up and risk my life again? That's crazy. I would never do that. No. No way."
UPDATE 8.26: "Lance Armstrong received strong backing Friday from cycling's domestic governing body, which said accusations against the seven-time Tour de France champion are "completely without credibility."
Philip Ryken is pastor of Tenth Presbyterian in Philadelphia, the author of several books and contributor to the Reformation21 Blog. Today he points to the blog of a NYC artist Makoto Fujimura which has some good essays and art.
I first heard of Fujimura through the International Arts Movement (IAM) where he is director and founder. There is an interesting interview with him on the IAM site as well.
Leadership Journal reprints a story from Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz on "The Campus Confession Booth." Also, don't forget to scroll to the end and read "A Post-Confessional Chat with Don Miller."
Russ Moore at Southern Seminary has written a short piece on the adoption of Russian orphans: Russia's Orphans and the Father of the Fatherless. Russ and his wife Maria have two adopted children from Russia.
Russian national leaders are concerned with foreigners adopting their children and may stop the practice, though it would only encourage institutionalizing orphans. Russ wants something better because God wants something better. Here's a portion of the article...
The Russian orphanage where my wife and I found our sons, then Maxim and Sergei, was the most horrifying place I have ever been. Its sights and smells and sounds come back to me every day. But, even more so, before my mind's eye every day are the faces of the children we couldn't adopt. Until now, my hope has been that Christians from America, Canada, Germany, France or somewhere may have adopted them, to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. If the anti-adoption Russians get their way, I fear that these children will be sentenced to institutions, never to find families.
The plight of Russia’s orphans ought to spur American Christians to prayer and to action -- not only for Russian children but for abandoned children across the globe. What if Southern Baptist pastors encouraged, from the pulpit, families to adopt orphans domestically or from across the sea? What if older, more affluent Southern Baptist couples pooled money for young families who wish to adopt, but cannot afford the seemingly astronomical costs?
Yesterday my now four year-old Benjamin walked up and hugged my leg, saying to me (in the little southern accent he picked up from us): "I'm glad you're my daddy, and I'm glad I'm your son." I have learned more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ from such statements than from all my studies in systematic theology. Before I met these two, I “knew” all about what it means to have a new name in Christ, a new household, a new identity, new brothers and sisters. But I knew so very little about these things.
Very cool. Joe Thorn has continued his series on reforming evangelism with a post on "The Diagram." This is a simple, but very helpful diagram that he and I have discussed a few times, and I use it in my church. The point is to help people know where they are: dead (uninterested or seeking) or alive (believing/converted and growing).
Kevin Cawley was the first and last person to recommend that I should watch The Big Kahuna. I finally gave in, and I'm glad I did. Kevin Spacey is brilliant as usual and Danny Devito has never been so good. It's a movie about God, honesty, character, business, life, reality, crisis, and understanding (among other things). I recommend picking it up to rent soon. I think it's a movie worth watching more than once.
Check out Kevin's "Finding God in a Hospitality Suite," a paper for his Ecclesiastes and Film class. But do yourself a favor and watch the movie first.
Really fantastic post by Scot McKnight on some suggestions for writing.
Carolyn McCulley's blog Solo Femininity has moved. Good blog for single Christian women.
Christianity Today has published an article written by Craig Keener, Larry Osbourne and Mark Driscoll. It's called "An Army of Ones: Does Diversity in the Church Work?" It's an interesting article with three sections each by a different author, and then responses by the other two.
Craig Keener is a white minister in a predominantly African American congregation.
Larry Osborne pastors North Coast Church—a ministry that pioneered the use of "video venues" to create multiple congregations distinguished by worship style within a single church.
Mark Driscoll is pastor of Mars Hill Church, a community birthed from a postmodern context now wrestling with issues of diversity as it matures.
We live in the distant Chicago suburbs, but we have yet to travel into the city as a family and make a day of it.
This Monday we hopped onto the train and went to Millennium Park, the Children's Museum and Navy Pier. It was a beautiful day and we had a blast.
I made a short, fast-paced video of the trip. Enjoy.
I'm looking forward to C.J. Mahaney's new book, Humility: True Greatness. I have the sermon audio this book is based on, so I expect great (er...humble) things.
You can read blurbs about the book over at Reformation21.
Wayne Grudem praises the book...
This is a wonderful, sobering, humbling, God-centered, Bible-based book on humility by an author who truly exemplifies it in his own life. I especially appreciated Mahaney's suggestions for practical disciplines to help us cultivate humility before God. This book's message will tend to keep us and our churches from self-destruction due to pride, will make us thankful for little blessings in everyday life, and will bring us closer to God.
(HT: JT)
Russ Moore notes the rise of porn star memoirs found at our local bookstores and asks us to pray for porn stars.
It would be quite easy to walk past the display of a porn "star's"memoirs at our corner bookstore clucking our tongues in righteous indignation. But instead perhaps we can pray for a multitude of men and women who are someones daughters and sons, and who are those for whom Christ died. Perhaps we can love them enough to pray for the liberating power of the Spirit to show them a Father who values them for more than the aerodynamic abilities of their body parts.
This post resonates with me because yesterday, before reading Russ' post, I was on a bit of a drive along a stretch that includes two strip clubs. I passed them before, but this time I began to pray for the girls inside who were far removed from God's intention for women and far removed from men who should be protecting them instead of using them for their own selfish pleasures. I thought of how many were hoping for survival of next month's bills or feeding their kids or making it through college or making it apart from their abusive boyfriend. I prayed for the men inside who were doing anything but acting as if they were created in God's image, who should be looking out for these women instead of looking at them.
And I prayed for my own heart so that I will view women as God does.
