Restoration Experts and Sharpshooters

By Tony Reinke
 
The famous American flag Francis Scott Key watched flap in the sky as he wrote the national anthem (“O say, does that Star-spangled Banner yet wave”) is housed in the Smithsonian Museum of American History in D.C. It’s the first square flag I’ve seen, measuring about 30 foot by 34 foot in size, shortened horizontally by over 10 feet due to people cutting it into squares of handkerchief-sized keepsakes. And if that wasn’t bad enough, someone knifed at the middle to cut out one star, a brazen act that has left a sloppy haphazard hole right in the middle of the flag.
 
What was not sliced apart by its fans looks to be in good shape for an old flag that lived through a war. Which is to say it’s now tattered to threads, and has deteriorated badly, resembling a favorite t-shirt I wore in college on a regular basis until it took on semi-transparent qualities. It was a shirt I enjoyed wearing as a bachelor and probably would still be wearing had that shirt not experienced a post-marriage disappearance …
 
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The Month of Miracles

By Justin Wise
 
I read today in Proverbs that “hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.”
 
Great Scripture, but let’s sweeten the deal a bit…
 
According to the Hebrew calendar, we are in the month of Nisan. Nisan usually falls in March–April and Jewish scholars say that Nisan is “the first of the months” because it’s when the people of Israel were liberated from Egypt. According to Jewish custom, this entire month is to be one of happiness and freedom. Nisan also happens to coincide with when the Christian church traditionally celebrates Easter…
 
Do you see a theme going on here? …
 
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Excerpts from The Diary of “Dave” Brainerd, Christian Missionary to the Collegiate Indians of Central Michigan

By ‘The Bohemian Baptist’, of The Sacred Sandwich
 
August 2. After enjoying much sweetness in prayer, my heart was filled with the prospect of bringing the young heathens of North America to Christ. In anticipation of the Lord employing me thusly, I sought the necessary provisions for evangelistic success: the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the light of God’s Word, and a Facebook and Twitter account. Oh! What heavenly blessings for the advancement of God’s kingdom!
 
August 10. After eating a large bowl of Froot Loops for breakfast, I had an affecting sense of my own vileness and cried out to God that He might restore the self-esteem that my teachers at Bill Clinton Middle School instilled in me during my youth. My pleadings brought serenity to my soul that I might yet become an able, psychologically-balanced witness for Christ to the heathens. Watched the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy for the 56th time in preparation for spiritual battle.
 
September 7. My ministry begins! Entered heathen territory after many days journey deep into the wilderness of Central Michigan University where the natives call themselves the “Chippewas.” With my Dell laptop in tow, I encountered my first group of campus pagans in the student lounge and was immediately discouraged by the sight of the natives using Macbooks and other demonic tools from Apple. Alas! I have already alienated their homogeneous unit with my PC. Was enabled in the evening to plead to God for deliverance from iPhone envy …
 
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Find out how to win a FREE COPY of Robert Jeffress’ Clutter-Free Christianity on Monday

“This book will ignite a passion to live wholly and holy for God as an overflow of our heart’s love for Him.”

- Al Mohler

From the first chapter of Clutter-Free Christianity: What God Really Desires for You:

“Imagine your employer announces that in two weeks you’ll be moving to Vienna, Austria … forever. How would you react? Although you’ve seen pictures of this beautiful city, you know very little about it. Because of your limited knowledge, you’d probably try to find out everything you can about Vienna before you left. What language is spoken? What’s the temperature like? What clothes are most appropriate?

You’d want to obtain or update your passport, secure any other necessary travel documents, and purchase your airline tickets. You’d have to decide what items you want to move with you and which ones to leave behind. You’d arrange to sell your house here and purchase a new one over there. You’d want to exchange your dollars for the proper currency.

But it would be unimaginable to do nothing and simply adopt the “I’ll go with the flow” philosophy. Sure, you might be able to rationalize your lack of preparation with thoughts such as:

• “Maybe at the last moment, circumstances will change and I won’t have to go.”
• “I’ll wait until I get there to see what it’s really like.”
• “I doubt Vienna is any different from where I live now.”

Failing to prepare for your journey would be unwise and could result in some disastrous consequences. If you know you’re going to make a long trip, you certainly want to be ready for it.

Whether you realize it or not, you will one day take the journey of a lifetime to a foreign land you’ve never seen. Although your departure time is unknown to you, the hour is already fixed on God’s calendar. At a moment known only to Him, you’ll leave everything you know and everyone you know, and you’ll stand alone before God. He will decide your eternal destiny: heaven or hell. If you wait until that moment to prepare for the journey, you’ll have waited too long. The preparations you make in this life will determine how you spend the next one …”

Note to self

By Joe Thorn
 
Dear Self,

Like Israel, you tend to forget the most basic things. Important things. You need constant reminders. So, find ways to remind yourself about these things that matter. If you aren’t intentionally setting the truth before yourself you will forget.

You’ll forget what you were (a slave to sin, a child of wrath, a dead man walking).
 
You’ll forget what you are (a disciple of Christ, a child of God, a new creation).
You’ll forget what you are made for (the glory of God, the good of my neighbors).
You’ll forget what you’re sent to do (make Christ known, make disciples).
You’ll forget it all.

And when you forget these things - you get into trouble. So erect something like “memorial stones” that will remind you of all these things (and more). Get back to personal journaling, preach these things to yourself, share them with your kids, and help others to see and savor them wherever you can.

 
Visit JoeThorn.net

When I Am Weak: Why we must embrace our brokenness and never be good Christians

By Michael Spencer
 
The voice on the other end of the phone told a story that has become so familiar to me, I could have almost finished it from the third sentence. A respected and admired Christian leader, carrying the secret burden of depression, had finally broken under the crushing load of holding it all together. As prayer networks in our area begin to make calls and send e-mails, the same questions are asked again and again. “How could this happen? How could someone who spoke so confidently of God, someone whose life gave such evidence of Jesus’ presence, come to the point of a complete breakdown? How can someone who has the answers for everyone one moment, have no answers for themselves the next?”
 
Indeed. Why are we, after all that confident talk of “new life,” “new creation,” “the power of God,” “healing,” “wisdom,” “miracles,” “the power of prayer,” …why are we so weak? Why do so many “good Christian people,” turn out to be just like everyone else? Divorced. Depressed. Broken. Messed up. Full of pain and secrets. Addicted, needy and phony. I thought we were different.
 
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Media Bias and the Resurrection of Jesus

By R. Fowler White
 
The military of ancient Rome really blew it. When it came to the resurrection of Jesus, the troops who guarded his tomb could have saved us all a lot of time and trouble by just giving up his dead body. One problem: they never did. They didn’t because they couldn’t. And they couldn’t because, despite what you may have read, the resurrection of Jesus was and is a well-attested fact, perhaps the best-attested fact of antiquity.
 
Neither the Romans nor the Jews of Jesus’ day denied it. In fact, practically nobody denied it for 1,700 years. But now it’s fashionable to deny it or, at least, to cast doubt on it. Why? Has the evidence changed? No, the testimony of history is still the same. As Thomas Arnold, former chair of Modern History at Oxford University, once wrote, “I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God [has] given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead” (see his Sermons on the Christian Life: Its Hopes, Its Fears, and Its Close [6th ed.; London, 1859] 324).
 
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It’s Not About You

By Jeremy Pierce
 
I had a friend who used to conclude from his conviction of God’s sovereignty and the fact that a young woman he was attracted to happened to cross his path that day that God was sending him a message about his future with that young woman. It was hard to convince him that just because it was part of God’s plan that he run across her path that doesn’t mean it was for the reason he might think God had them cross paths. It could be because his running into her reminded her of something she needed to be reminded of that day. It could have been because of something unrelated to the two of them, though, for instance maybe because God wanted them each to be at separate locations shortly after that, and the best way to achieve that at the precise times he wanted them to arrive was for them to walk right by each other. It could have even been so that he could have this conversation with me and be reminded that it’s not always about him and what he wants.
 
I Kings 20 is an interesting case study in a chapter we don’t look at all that often. Ahab, the King of Israel, engages in continual conflict with Ben-Hadad, King of Syria. It goes on for a while until Ben-Hadad decides he can get the better of Ahab’s forces by fighting in the valleys, claiming that the gods of Israel are gods of the hills, and the gods of Syria are gods of the valleys …
 
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Here’s the thing about Church

By Kim @ The Upward Call
 
When I go to church on Sunday morning, I want to know that I am in church.
 
Life is very ordinary. God is in the ordinary. I see Him in the regular, routine, mundane things of life. He is there; truly. However, on Sunday morning, when I gather with the Body of Christ, I want to know that God transcends the ordinary; that He is magnificent, holy, and supreme over the universe. Ordinary I can get at home. When I am sitting in church on Sunday morning, I want to see God in more than just the ordinary. I want to see Him high and lifted up and above all.
 
I don’t want to see a skit. I can get entertainment at home. I don’t need to have a plethora of pithy one-liners. Hey, I can go home and put Scotch tape on the bottom of my cat’s feet and be supremely entertained.
 
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Facebook Faceoff

By Tim Sweetman
 
I couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking as he pulled out his iPhone and took advantage of a new Facebook application — right in the middle of the sermon.
 
It was then that I realized the narcissistic machine that is Facebook.
 
Shifting uncomfortably in my chair, I found myself desiring to do the same. I shuddered. Have I really come to this place where I’m more concerned about what’s taking place on Facebook than what’s going on in this church service? More concerned about a self-serving social networking site than this Bible on my lap?
 
Later on that evening, I thought more about my internal battle between Facebook and my Bible. I understand that one of my desires as a Christian should be to know God more deeply; the reality is that I spend very little time actually getting to know Him. Too often, my hours are spent pursuing other human beings through convenient electronic means like Facebook. My life can quickly become all about striving to know my buddies better than my Lord.
 
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What You Watch

By Bob Waliszewski, Boundless
 
I was hanging out with some Christian friends a while back, and as so often happens, the conversation turned to movies. Because I review movies for Plugged In Online, my friends know that I have strong opinions about a lot of the media we see in our culture today.
 
When the topic turned to an objectionable R-rated movie, a person close to me told me to plug my ears so that he could offer his positive perspective on the film. Because they were concerned about what I thought, I reassured — and challenged — them by noting that, “It doesn’t matter what I think, it matters what the Lord thinks.”
 
Fortunately, this person took this comment in the spirit in which I intended it — not cutting or condemning, but thought-provoking. He would later tell me that my words helped him make significant changes to his viewing habits.
 
That’s the purpose of this article. My message is simple: Our thoughts about the media should be determined by God’s thoughts, not the other way around …
 
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After…Then

By Steven Furtick
 
After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
 
Jesus offended the religious professionals by claiming that He would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days.
 
His opponents didn’t understand His deeper meaning, and apparently, even His disciples didn’t comprehend His intention-
Until after His resurrection…
Then they believed.
 
Sometimes we don’t/can’t/won’t know what God is up to until after…then …
 
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What Is A Sucessful Christian?

By Stephen Altrogge

What makes a successful Christian? Who’s number one on God’s “most impressive Christian” list? Is it:

• The mega-church pastor who preaches six times on Sundays, writes chart-topping books, and has his own podcast with really cool rock music (probably U2) at the beginning? Maybe.
• The children’s ministry volunteer who dispenses fifty-three pounds of goldfish crackers to sweaty three-year olds every Sunday? Maybe.
• The homeschooling mom who deals with large volumes of laundry and baby poop on a daily basis? Maybe.

In Matthew 25:14-28 Jesus spells out a blueprint for success that’s very different from our standard definitions of success …

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The nitty gritty of sanctification

By Kim @ The Upward Call Blog
 
I hear teenagers complain a lot. Truly, I do. And I don’t just mean my own. As I chat with the teens of our youth group at our weekly get togethers or whether it’s just in a casual, everyday setting, I often hear complaints. They are the typical teenage complaints. Things are “boring.” They don’t like their jobs (I sympathize; I didn’t like slinging hamburgers, either). Their teachers are a pain.
 
Some of the complaints are a little more serious; they don’t like the “bubble” of evangelicalism. The church is legalistic because the church leaders want people on the platform to wear ties. One of the more serious allegations is that our church is anti-intellectual.
 
And of course there are the complaints about their parents and families.
 
What I have noticed is that the people who have the most stress and difficulty are often the quietest …
 
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The ‘C’ Word

By Dan Edelen
 
Julie was a store manager of Furniture Fiesta. Four years ago, Digi-World picked up the small chain in an expansion move, hoping to expand into the office furniture market space. But a bad economy exposed Furniture Fiesta as a ball and chain on Digi-World’s overall business. Nine months ago, Julie got the word: Furniture Fiesta would soon join the likes of Circuit City and Steve & Barry’s.
 
After putting in a dozen years, Julie knew she needed to move fast to save her career. She polished the résumé and checked out a list of Furniture Fiesta competitors that were still standing. That’s when Glenn called.
 
Glenn was a Digi-World regional manager. Desperate to keep knowledgeable staff, Glenn pitched Julie a hard-to-refuse offer: Stay on, see the store liquidation through to the end, and take home a $30,000 bonus. She bit and signed the contract.
 
And now, after putting in her nine months, months when she could have been pounding the pavement before the economy tanked even further, Glenn had the nerve to tell her the bonus deal was off. Not only that, but Digi-World’s flotilla of legal sharks had found a way to negate her contract …
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