OUR CHRISTIAN BLOG - Page 3

Dear President Obama

Posted: April 25, 2009 - 15:22 CT

I received this via email from Mark in San Antonio.  I'm not sure if Richard Ford is a real citizen, but this is a very appropriate and timely letter.  If Mr Ford does exist, I'm sure he's already on Department of Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano's list of right-wing extremists.  Since we tweaked the letter a bit, we're probably on the list also.

Dear President Obama,

Thank you for helping my neighbors with their mortgage payments.  You know, the ones down the street who in the good times, bought a house way out of their price range thanks to the pressure put on the banks by your mentors, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.  Rather than paying down some of their debt, they decided to refinance the house several times and buy SUVs, ATVs, RVs, a pool, a large screen TV, two Wave Runners and a Harley instead.  I was wondering, since I am paying my mortgage and theirs, could you at least arrange for me to borrow the Harley now and then?

Richard Ford
Queen Creek, AZ

PS.  They also need help with their credit cards, when do you want me to start making those payments?

PPS.  I almost forgot... they didn't file their income tax return this year.  Should I go ahead and file for them or will you be appointing them to cabinet posts?

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Keep What You Give Away

Posted: April 20, 2009 - 19:28 CT

This is just a quick post to let everyone know we're still here.  I've been putting in a lot of time at work (and grateful for that these days).  Most of my website efforts have been concentrated on writing the introductions to our Online Bible books.  These introductions include information on the authors, historical backgrounds, timelines, key verses, themes, interpretation hints and more.  I've gotten few loaded and have Matthew, Luke, John, Acts and Exodus thru Joshua in progress.  This has taken much research and been a real challenge, but very satisfying. 

One day last week, I heard RC Sproul state on his radio program, that most any scholar can describe something using technical language, but the real challenge was elucidating the doctrine or concept in such a way that it is understandable to a ten year old child.  He also said that if the teacher could not clarify his subject to this degree, he probably doesn't understand it very well himself.  I would have to agree.  I find it much easier to explain a doctrine to a Bible student by using Christianeze, throwing in some Hebrew, Greek or Latin for good measure, than to make the same concept clear to the casual reader.   Our goal with most of our writings is to make them scholarly enough for the student while at the same time, clear enough for all readers.

I heard John MacArthur say that the main Biblical things that he tends to remember is those that he has taught to others.  I also agree with this statement.  I remember only a small portion of the lectures and sermons that I've heard over the years, and a slightly larger portion of my Bible studies.  The doctrines and concepts that I have taught to others however, come more quickly to mind.  This is just another paradox of a Christian faith which is full of irrationalities and foolishness to the unbeliever (1Cor 1:18-21).  The more knowledge that you give away, the more you keep.

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Greatest Hits and Aging Rockers

Posted: March 14, 2009 - 15:23 CT

My wife and I went to Sam's Club earlier today to buy dog food among a few other things.  As per my usual routine, after loading the large bag into the cart, I continue helping by disappearing to the books or electronic section, thus helping my wife by staying out of her way while she shops.  I soon found my way to the classic rock cd's, but all they had was "Greatest Hits" packages.  First of all, I don't like most of these so called greatest hits packages.  They always exclude my favorite tune or tunes from each group.  I guess the key word is "Hits".  Why can't we get a "Greatest Songs" package instead.  I wonder, who picks these so-called hits anyway... the same experts who believe that listeners prefer hearing the same 20 or so songs played over and over and over ad nauseam on the classic rock radio stations? 

The other problem with greatest hits packages is that, in many cases, we loose the concepts of the original concept albums.  For example, how can we fully appreciate a song from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, the Who's Tommy, or the Eagles Desperado apart from the whole album.  Of a much greater magnitude of importance, the most common error that Christians make while reading the Bible is to interpret a passage apart from its context within Scripture.

Read the entire Aging Rockers article.

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Bible Literalism and various Literary Genres

Posted: February 14, 2009 - 21:36 CT

As the number of readers on our website grows, we're getting some folks linking to our articles and others using them in discussions of various topics.  We would like to thank all those who choose to utilize our material and encourage others to do so.  We only ask that you link back to any material that you use.  If you print stuff out to use for a class, please email us and let us know how the class went. 

We received an email from a reader, Tim in San Antonio, who alerted us to someone who posted some material from our Bible Genre Analysis section to a forum discussing whether Adam and Eve were real persons or fictional characters.  A person had posted his or her opinion that they were fictional, based upon the belief that the entire Bible was merely a series of metaphors.  Another person then quoted our material, stating that the Bible's inclusion of so many literary types apparently supported the first person's erroneous theory about the Bible containing all metaphors. 

The person quoting our material misunderstood the Bible author's use of the various literary types in two basic ways. 

Read the entire Bible Literalism article.

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A Ministry Update - Happy New Year 2009

Posted: January 3, 2009 - 18:47 CT

It looks like another year has gone and 2009 is here, so it's natural to reflect back and look forward.    As usual, these ministry updates have a dual purpose,  to keep our readers informed on what we've been planning and working on, as well as to remind us what needs to be done.

Before we start, I'd like to pass along a great Happy Chanukkah video by Marty Goetz, sent in by Karen Faith for our Jewish friends. 

We first like to say Happy New Year and thanks to all the great folks who have visited our website in 2008.  We hope you received a blessing and will tell your friends.  We collect no "cookies" or personal information from our visitors (see our Privacy page), but our ISP collects such general information as number of visitors, country of origin, and our most popular pages.  Thanks to you, by the end of the year, our monthly website traffic had just about quadrupled over the beginning of the year, including a fair amount of international visitors.  I've already learned the names of several new countries that I didn't know existed.

As we look back on 2008, we find lots of projects unfinished, but still in progress.  We always seem to run out of hours before material, but we were able to make significant progress.  At the suggestion of some readers, we abandoned the site index section and replaced it with a site search engine.  We added a section of Authors, to post classic literature and sermons.  To be more interactive with our readers, we began this blog back in the spring.  Finally, the fall witnessed the addition of our Christian Living and our Ministries sections, and our Apologetics section was uploaded a few weeks ago.  Each of these new sections are still in their infancy, but we hope to greatly expand them this year.

Moving on to projects for the new year, we still have dozens of half-written articles which we hope to finish and load.   Our top priority continues to be promoting Biblical literacy though our study guides, reading plans, commentaries, articles and theological writings.  We've now begun loading the last major section of our Bible Study Guide, the Bible Section and Book Introductions, containing backgrounds, summaries, theological and practical applications, and additional Biblical interpretation principles specific to each section and book of the Bible.  We've also begun adding paragraph headers to our Online Bible, and will be interconnecting with the introductions, our Bible Commentaries and other articles for easier navigation and Bible study.

We're currently re-programming and updating the  entire News and Culture section, working toward the goal of linking with many other fine cultural organizations, which will avoid duplicating efforts and free up more time for other projects.  Speaking of culture, we've begun what started as a simple review of The Shack, but quickly expanded into a full blown treatise on popular Christian media and our modern religious society.  We'll probably publish 15-20 articles related to this before we're done.  On another related set of articles, we've finished most of our research and will begin writing on a new section that will examine the Christian roots of America, including the faith of our founding fathers, the Puritans and Pilgrims, original documents, separation of Church and State and much more.

We continue to welcome your input.  It is of very high value to us, since one of the ways that God speaks is through other Christians.

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Once Upon a Time When America had Christmas

Posted: December 21 2008 - 19:13 CT

Over the past few years, while many Christians slumber during the wars on Christmas and our Christian heritage, many of our Jewish friends are on speaking up in defense of the holiday.   No one in history is more familiar with religious persecution than the Jews, and sometimes it seems as if they alone realize the stakes involved in this battle.  We as Christians are highly in debt to our Jewish friends, not only for our Hebrew heritage, but for their support in a culture which tolerates everything except Christianity.

One of these friends to us Christians is Rabbi Aryeh Spero, who wrote an article entitled Once Upon a Time When America had Christmas that should be a wake-up call to us all.  I first read it a few years ago and am very proud to publish it here.  More great articles from Rabbi Spero can be found at his Caucus for America website.

Read the entire When America had Christmas article.

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The Night Before Christmas - Marine Version

Posted: December 21 2008 - 16:55 CT

I received an email the other day containing a great version  of The Night Before Christmas.  I attempt to verify all the facts regarding any document before posting, so I began investigating this document.  It seems variances of this email makes its rounds near Christmas each year, claiming to be written by a marine stationed in Japan, Korea or Afghanistan on Christmas Eve.  A recent version was even tweaked to feature a sailor as the main character.

Others have claimed credit, but the poem was actually written in 1986 by a marine, Lance Corporal James M Schmidt, stationed in Washington DC.  Cpl Schmidt intended to place it on the door of the gym, but a colonel saw it, made copies and started distributing them to the various departments and the Marine Corps Gazette.  It soon was distributed worldwide and in December of 1991, published in the Marine Corps magazine Leathernecks.  The original published version appears below.

Read the Night Before Christmas - Marine Version article and poem.

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Marine Corps Boot Camp Graduation

Posted: November 27, 2008 - 17:03 CT

We've just returned from Justin's (our youngest son) graduation from Marine Boot Camp in San Diego.  On November 21, our country welcomed 589 new marines, dedicated to the core values of honor, courage and commitment.  The first thing you notice upon meeting these newest marines and their instructors, is the commitment to ethical and moral principles, and to be Semper Fidelis (always faithful) to God. 

What a stark contrast with the attitude of our modern culture, which tends to reject most authority and holds that all moral truths are relative.  Much of this starts with our leaders.  I think it no coincidence that massive corruption in our federal government is greatly increasing at a time that less than 25% of our legislature have served in a branch of the military (a generation ago, it was over half).  Many of those who served, such as John "our troops are a bunch of murderers and rapists" Murtha and John "get an education or you'll end up in Iraq" Kerry, have long since abandoned the core values of the military branches. 

We can know, however, in these uncertain times, that our sovereign God is on the throne working everything for good for those who love Him.  We also know that He uses certain people, who are faithful to Him, to accomplish His good and perfect will.  I was greatly encouraged to meet several of them the past few days.

Read the entire MCRD Graduation article.

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Thanksgiving Articles 2008

Posted: November 27, 2008 - 10:21 CT

Even with recent political and economic developments, we still have lots to be thankful for.  Maybe I just missed them, but it appears the drive-by media, with the election of their chosen one, B Hussein Obama are relatively proud of our country for the first time, and are writing less articles proclaiming that we should be  mournful rather than thankful this year.  They continue however, re-writing history by stripping all religious meanings from the holiday.  With that in mind, for those interested in the real meaning of Thanksgiving, we posted the annual reading by Rush Limbaugh along with links to the following articles:

We Should Give Thanks To God This Thanksgiving Day - TVC
A Day of Thanksgiving  - William Bradford (1647)
A Day of Thanksgiving - 1623
All you ever wanted to know about Thanksgiving
A Prayer for America  - CWA
Pilgrims Progressed by Nixing Communism - WND
Thanksgiving - the Antidote for Fear and Worry - WND
Thanksgiving Links - Links to many other articles

When upon life's billows
You are tempest tossed.
When you are discouraged
Thinking all is lost.
Count your many blessings
Name them one by one.
And it will surprise you
What the Lord has done.

Count your Blessings (Lyrics by Johnson Oatman Jr 1897)

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