How to Share the Gospel with Muslims
“How do you pray?”Ahmed and I had been sitting at a little teashop talking about various things when he asked this question. Like many other Muslims, he was curious about how Christians pray. I began to explain how our hearts need to be purified in order for us to approach God in prayer. He agreed and wanted to know more. “What do you say when you pray?” he asked. I told him that we can speak to God as a loving father. I then went on to show him the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6.

Are You for Your Husband?
Husbands are fragile people.  We have sensitive egos.  We may come across as strong and indifferent, but that’s just presentation.  We’re actually quite needy.  I wonder if wives know this.  Do you know this?  I wonder if wives are aware how much their husbands need them.

Do You Believe Homosexuality is a Sin?
Interesting survey results from LifeWay:  ”Americans remain evenly split on the moral and religious questions of whether homosexual behavior is a sin,” McConnell said. “It likely reflects different beliefs about Scripture and different beliefs about who defines sin.”

Learning to Suffer Well: Trusting God’s Absolute Sovereignty
One of the things that is striking throughout the book of Lamentations is that Jeremiah finds no solace in attributing the destruction of Yahweh’s covenant people to secondary causes. Rather, he attributes the agonizing desolation of Israel to Yahweh Himself.

Why God is Selfish: a.k.a. Theology Slays Barbie Religion
Our culture provides our values, goals and wants. It tells us to be Barbie, to have our Ken, the car, the house, the health, everything. God only enters in to get us what we want. This is the most basic form of idolatry–making God a means to a higher end, the American Dream. If God is supreme in his own heart, the American Dream cannot keep its hold on us forever. Francis Schaeffer warned thirty years ago that personal peace and affluence had become the God of American evangelicalism. We cannot apprehend a self-centered God without utterly renouncing our captivity to the American Dream. No one can serve both God and Barbie.

Generational Blackmail?
It seems like every other day I’m told another reason why young people are leaving the church: because Christians fight too much, or because Christians are too political or anti-gay or don’t care about social justice.  Millennials, we’re told, are leaving the church because the church won’t bless their cohabitation or provide them with contraception for pre-marital sex. They’re leaving because they don’t care about fights over creation/evolution or abortion or worship style or what have you.  In sum, it seems we’re regularly informed that if the church doesn’t change, young people are going to leave.  And what exactly are we supposed to do with these claims?

Catholic University Drops Student Health Coverage – Cites ObamaCare
In its decision to drop coverage, the school cited the contraception mandate, but also a requirement that the maximum coverage amount be increased to $100,000 for policyholders — claiming that would have made premiums skyrocket. A university official told Fox News Radio the students’ basic $600 policy was going to double in cost in the fall and triple next year and that the school’s insurance provider said the increases were the result of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

An insightful article on a hot-button issue.  Well worth your read.

President Obama’s recent statement concerning his views of same sex marriage has generated no small amount of discussion and controversy. In what was doubtlessly a political calculation the President made that statement couched in political and attitudinal terms. That is, this new take is his personal view. He has personally has come to a place where he can now accept and stand behind same sex marriage

This change is not restricted solely to the President. Advocates for Gay rights have tirelessly worked to change the public perception of same sex couples. Over the last 15-25 years America has done a near 180 on the issue. The attempt has been to sanitize and normalize homosexuality.

There have been countless actors, musicians, athletes, and politicians who have publicly spoken out in favor of Gay rights. Many from these same spheres have themselves disclosed that they themselves are gay. It has become commonplace to have television shows and movies with gay characters. Characters like Oscar on The Office have helped to gradually move the meter on public opinion.

Read the rest.

John Yates writes about the loss of The Falls Church’s property in this past weekend’s Washington Post:

Our Anglican church in Virginia, The Falls Church, faces a hard hour this month. A Virginia court has ruled that buildings and funds we believe to be ours actually belong to the Episcopal Church. Our congregation of 4,000 must begin again, finding a new home and place of worship.

As the rector of the church since 1979, I believe I speak for all in saying that we leave without resentment or acrimony; we pray only the best for those who will follow us in our old and historic church, and that the transforming good news of Christ will always be proclaimed on this spot . . .

We will move on. It has taken a long lawsuit and several rulings for me to accept that this is for the best. It is possible still that our leadership will attempt another appeal. But we vacate this property in a few days.

The overwhelming scope of the ruling has caused me to conclude this is part of a larger plan.

The cost to us is huge. Locating available worship space and office space for a church our size is challenging. But we remain convicted about our decision to leave the Episcopal Church.

Do I have regrets? Yes, a few. I regret that so much ink has been spilled over a few social issues (important as they are), instead of on the deeper theological issue of how we understand and obey the will of God. And I wish we could have communicated more successfully that none of us is without sin. We all need the Savior.

Some good things have also happened. Since 2006, we have helped fund, staff and populate independent “daughter” churches in Alexandria, Arlington, Vienna and beyond. In our parent church, we continue to have 2,500 people in worship and fellowship each Sunday.

God also has given us opportunities to serve our local community. We recently entered into a partnership to expand a ministry in the Baileys Crossroads area, with Columbia Baptist Church and St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church. Together we minister to the poor and the immigrants among us in the Culmore Clinic. People now have a safe place to ask for and receive prayer, even as they are being treated medically.

We’ve been humbled by an outpouring of encouragement and offers of assistance, including furnishings and building space from Presbyterians, Baptists, Catholics and other friends.

Many details for our path forward remain unclear, and we know the adventure ahead is going to be challenging. But, we move forward with an invigorated feeling of purpose.

In a sense, this will be like starting all over again. There is a teaching in the New Testament: When you are at your weakest you actually are at your strongest. In weakness we are forced to trust in God. We know that where God leads us is a good place.

The greatest of all outcomes for us at The Falls Church would be if all of us were transformed through this experience, changed into Christ’s likeness. For to be like Him is the greatest of all possible outcomes.

Read the rest.

Sorry for the extra click – but it’s worth the effort as the accompanying story is touching.

Click here.

(h/t: Danny)

From the National Catholic Register:

When Saraswati Devi awoke from the anesthesia, her clothes were soaked in  blood. She was lying on a grass mat on the floor in excruciating pain, and there  were no medical staff to answer her cries. She was one of 53 women who underwent  surgeries at a “sterilization camp” sponsored by the government of India in its  national campaign to drastically cut population growth.

The campaign is underwritten by tens of millions of dollars in American and  British foreign-aid funds.

Read it all.

The North Carolina Vote
Ryan Anderson writes about the way the vote in North Carolina is being framed. “How we talk about an issue affects how we think about it… . Today’s vote in North Carolina is not about banning anything. Nothing will be made illegal as a result.”

Bigotry on the Ballot
From Albert Mohler: Many of the nation’s leading newspapers serve as advocacy agents for the normalization of homosexuality and the legalization of same-sex marriage. Leading this charge for some time, The New York Times regularly promotes same-sex marriage in its editorials and news coverage. Even so, the paper’s latest editorial serves as a display of how the argument for homosexual marriage is often pressed with what can only be described as undisguised intellectual dishonesty.

How to Win the Public on Homosexuality
President Obama’s support for same-sex marriage is making headlines but not news. That’s probably because he was in favor of same-sex marriage before he was against it and now in favor of it again. Campaigning in 1996 for state senate in Illinois, Obama said in a typed statement, “I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.” Running for statewide and then national office apparently changed his perspective, at least temporarily.

Why Bible Study Doesn’t Transform Us
Much of what passes for Bible study in Christian bookstores and church resource libraries just isn’t: while it may educate us on a doctrine or a topic, it does little to further our Bible literacy. And left to our own devices, we pursue a host of unsavory (and un-transformative) self-constructed approaches to “spending time in the Word.” Here are several that I encounter on a regular basis . . .

Delta Pulls Ads from ‘Daily Show’ Over ‘Vagina Manger’
Being a Christian in modern America means having to learn to live with the most infantile, imbecilic, offensive attacks on your faith and its followers, so in general I try to counsel people who are upset by stunts like this to just let them go, walk way, recite the beatitudes quietly to yourself. Being perpetually outraged at slurs on one’s faith is, after all, a market that’s been cornered by the Muslims, and lord knows we don’t want to make them upset by muscling in on their turf.

Thank you for your support (your phone calls, your emails and the many who turned out to the Town Council meeting tonight) on our behalf regarding our zoning change request.  Your communication and advocacy were critical.  And, to those who turned out tonight for the Council meeting, thank you for your patience (the “big box” store debate was the first agenda item on the docket – a 2 hour discussion!) and your support.  The visible show of support was powerful.

The result was that Town Council approved the first reading of our zoning change 9-0!

Thank you, also, to our Mayor and our Town Council members for their efforts, input, and their favorable decision.

I was particularly moved by the advocacy of some our neighbors who spoke about the generous ministry of St. Andrew’s in the neighborhood.  If you ever wonder the power of simple good neighborliness and Christian kindness, it was brought home in a fresh way tonight.

Thanks, especially, to the Lord who has called us at this time and in this place to give witness to Him and, who, in His kindness has given us favor with man.

Another great clip from another great sermon:

The whole pith and marrow of the religion of Christianity lies in the doctrine of substitution, and I hesitate not to affirm my conviction that a very large proportion of Christians are not Christians at all, for they do not understand the fundamental doctrine of the Christian creed; and alas! there are preachers who do not preach, or even believe this cardinal truth. They speak of the blood of Jesus in an indistinct kind of way, and descant upon the death of Christ in a hazy style of poetry, but they do not strike this nail on the head, and lay it down that the way of salvation is by Christ’s becoming a substitute for guilty man.

This shall make me the more plain and definite. Sin is an accursed thing. God, from the necessity of his holiness, must curse it; he must punish men for committing it; but the Lord’s Christ, the glorious Son of the everlasting Father, became a man, and suffered in his own proper person the curse which was due to the sons of men, that so, by a vicarious offering, God having been just in punishing sin, could extend his bounteous mercy towards those who believe in the Substitute.

SAMP is a scheduled to appear before the Town Council tonight to have our request for our zoning change considered (see previous post for more details).

Our Town Council meets tonight at 6.00 p.m. at the Town offices on Houston Northcutt Blvd.   Town Council has the final responsibility for deciding this matter.  You can help in the following ways:

1. You can pray.
2. You can attend the Town Council meeting this coming Tuesday (Town offices are on Houston Northcutt Blvd).  In fact, we would welcome your presence at the Town Council meeting.  Having Mt. Pleasant residents present and participating in Town Council meetings is always beneficial for our elected officials.
3. You can call, or email, our Mayor and Town Council members and express your support.  This, in fact, is an exceptionally helpful way you can participate in this process.  In your communication, you should be courteous, you should note that you are a Mt. Pleasant resident and you should ask the Town Council to support our rezoning classification from Residential to Public Institutional.

Please note that there is one – and the same – phone number and email address for both the Mayor and all Town Council Members.  The phone number is, 843.884.8517, and the email address is, councilclk@tompsc.com

Mayor
Billy Swails

Town Council Members
John Burn
Elton Carrier
Ken Glasson
Chris Nickels
Chris O’Neal
Linda Page
Craig Rhyne
Thomasena Stokes-Marshall