Christians Beheaded in Indonesia
I just read
this news report
about the attack on four Christian women and the beheading of three of
them in Indonesia. I trust that they are comforted at Jesus' side right
now, but I weep with their family. How horrible it is to lose children!
But to lose children to murder, and horribly grisly murders at that!
Romans 12:15: "...weep with those who weep." I just did a
quick A9 search and
found how common this is
and just wanted to honor each of these people by praying for their
family and friends and praising God that he has conquered death,
"Thanks be to God, who gives us victory (over death) through Jesus
Christ our Lord":
Check out
Voice of the Martyrs. Praise God for those who are standing firm in the midst of persecution and suffering.
Our Sinners' Song
This is one of Abraham's best songs yet because it illustrates the paradox of my praise:
Our sinners’ song we loudly raise,
But who can care for sinners’ praise?
Or hear on high what we have said?
Perhaps the same who’ll raise the dead.
Though sin still makes our song sound wrong,
Your grace will tune us soon to sing.
And sing we will, this sinners’ song:
Oh, praise to Christ—the sinners’ king!
Our sinners’ song we bring—But why?
That you would make our awful cry
As sweet as angels’ sweetest chord.
Oh, turn your ear in mercy, Lord!
Though sin still makes our song sound wrong
Your grace will tune us soon to sing.
And sing we will, this sinners’ song:
Oh, praise to Christ—the sinners’ king!
Our sinners’ song we sacrifice—
Oh, surely there’s a higher price!
No, all that you would have us do
Is sacrifice our praise to you.
Though sin still makes our song sound wrong
Your grace will tune us soon to sing.
And sing we will, this sinners’ song:
Oh, praise to Christ—the sinners’ king!
On one hand I sing praises so loudly because I am a great sinner with a
great savior who saved me. Yet at the same time my sinful heart is
constantly tweaking my praise to make it imperfect worship--or even
worse and shamefully, self worship, for my ability to worship. Yet I
can praise all that much more knowing that God's grace even adjusts my
heart to give him praise, to praise not the king of perfect praisers
but the King of sinners: the King of kings.
If you have not gone by
CIsongs yet, please do, and put it on your
blogroll so that you can be regularly lead to see the glorious God we serve through his songs.
SelfEvidentTruth.org
A
Great site on abortion! This is definitely a keeper. Thanks to
Justin Taylor again for an excellent link. It's wonderful to see a
site that's
actually attempting to reach out to pregnant women in a way that won't
scare them aware from the right-winged religious nuts. I'm sure that
the site will get some flak from some who are "turned off" by
politically correct jargon and for offering support to those who have
had an abortion recently. If you are tempted to respond in a critical
way of
this site, shame on you. Praise the Lord that
people are reaching out in effective ways
to those who are faced with this difficult, life-in-the-balance
decision. This is not a political issue. This is not even primarily a
religious issue. Let's stop playing those games and just love and care
for scared moms who are tempted by the easy fix. Support them as they
choose life. Support them after they choose it...And support those who
have not so that they can deal with the grief and make a better
decision next time.
The answer to stop abortion is truth and love: This site offers it. The
ultimate answer is truth and love, and when we show people
God-glorifying truth and love in the midst of their most trying times,
I trust that the truth of God's love expressed in Christ will be
irresistable. I pray for more sites like this.
Hidden Treasures at Bible Church of Little Rock
Please surf on over to
The Bible Church of Little Rock's website and get the messages by CJ & Carolyn Mahaney from their recent conference. These are true gems that you will want to listen to. Pay special attention to CJ's "
Humility" message. I will soon be posting a review of
his book, which has been one of the best and most challenging books I've ever read.
Thanks to
Justin Taylor for the heads-up.
Clichéd Christianity
I just read Tim Challies'
very good post on
our (meaning Christians in general) contentment with the comfortable,
the overused, the trite, and the unhelpful. As our world faces huge
disasters everyday on one hand and monotonous pointlessness on the
other, we need answers for life that go much deeper than simply
spouting off a phrase that we read or heard or think sounds profound.
We need truth and we need to humbly wrestle with misery and mystery.
This weight is resting very heavily upon my heart tonight. I just
returned from an anxiety support group which was being held at a local
church here in Chandler, AZ. My obligatory attendance was based on a
nursing school assignment. The group purported to be Christian, but the
answers given for dealing with anxiety were no better than the worlds,
no they were the world's: Deep breath, relax, distract yourself, and
trust in your Higher Power. Suffering people were drawn to this group
which claimed it would provide solutions and answers to their
overwhelming anxiety with the world. My mention of Philippians 4:6-7
and the insinuation (based on Christ in the boat with the disciples
asking "Where is your faith?") that extreme anxiety may be sin for
which the solution would be repentance was met with blank stares and a
change of subject. The claim that prayer, thanking God, trusting God,
and casting our cares upon God was assumed to be nothing more than just
another "coping mechanism" similar to cathartic conversation, positive
self-talk, and distraction. My God is just as good as your God and it
doesn't matter what we believe about Him, just as long as He (or She)
helps you feel better about yourself and be less stressed. I was struck
with the glaring and painful truth that this is the message of much of
Christiandom and the message that I think gets through to peoples ears
when we use terms that have been robbed and clichéd by "Evangelicalism".
How Shall We Then Blog?
Building off my last post, "
The Sins of Blogging," I wanted to commend to any readers Mark Roberts's post, "
How Shall We Then Blog?".
Also, as a further verse unmentioned in Roberts's blog, I want to blog
and comment on the internet with the following verse in mind:
"Do you see a man who is hasty in his words?
There is more hope for a fool than for him."
