Finally – The Truth of the World Economy

Correct.

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Porn, Kids, and Parenting

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(HT: Z)

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Faith + Beer = Guinness

I found this to be a pretty fascinating video.

In some evangelical circles, faith and beer are mutually exclusive concepts. I’m not arguing whether they should or should not be, but this video is really, really interesting. Might pick up the book described here because this seems to be a pretty intriguing story.

What do you think?

(HT: JT)

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Personal Reflections on the Flood of ’10

It’s been over a week ago since we were battling water in our home and we had to move out. We’ve had busy days of trying to figure out what the new “normal” is for us, which seems to be an important thing since it’s going to be a little while before we move back in. A week brings perspective, so I wanted to scratch out just a few reflections in light of what I look forward to describing to my grandchildren as “the flood of aught 10”. Here’s the thing, though: All these statements should be taken with a grain of salt, because even though we’re displaced, we are nowhere nearly as bad off as a tremendous amount of the city of Nashville.

Having said that, here’s some thoughts:

1. Time does indeed bring perspective. When you’re shop vaccing the water out of your life for hours on end, you never think tomorrow will come. But it will.

2. In the end, stuff really is only “stuff.”

3. Home is where you love people, and where you know you are loved.

4. It’s very, very difficult to accept help even when you’re in need.

5. Every experience in life is a ripe opportunity for the Lord to carry you on in the process of “becoming.” And there is tremendous value in every experience in asking the question, “What does the Lord want us to become as a result of this?”

6. Water, the basic necessity of life, can do incredible damage if it’s not channeled to its appropriate use. So can pretty much anything else in creation (sex, food, work, leisure, fill in the blank).

7. The gospel is a constant reminder that we’re going to be okay.

8. Human relationships are the means by which the invisible and intangible love and grace of God becomes visible and tangible.

9. A moment of crisis is a chance for a father to lay claim to the reality that this is what he was born for.

10. Crisis is also a tremendous chance for the church to be who she is supposed to be in the city where she is supposed to be.

11. Nothing in all creation takes God by surprise, and because it doesn’t, He provides grace for the challenges of each and every day.

12. There is no situation in my life that cannot be brightened by the love of my wife, the dazzling smile of my little girl, the creative heart of my son, and the gurgling chuckle of our baby.

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Flood Status

So here’s the deal – we’re not in nearly as bad a shape as some people. We have friends and neighbors who have literally lost everything. All their clothes, all their furniture, their whole house – all of it. Few, if anyone in Nashville, has flood insurance. It’s crazy. We are not in the same boat as those folks. (Bad pun in that last sentence; I didn’t do it on purpose.) Nevertheless, we’ve got quite a bit of damage at our home.

The boat we’re in is this: Our downstairs is pretty much ruined. Fortunately, we were able to save very much of our stuff that was down there. We’ve pretty well dried it out as best as we can; ServPro is supposed to come in the next day or so to take care of what we couldn’t. Because our top floor is jam-packed with our stuff and also because me and Jana’s bedroom was downstairs, we’ve moved out of the house until the downstairs is livable again. We’re staying with a good friend for a while.

Early this morning, the cleaning and restoration folks got into our house. I think we were able to save a pretty significant amount of money because we had some great help from some dudes in tearing out our carpet and hardwood. These pros are going to try and treat the basement, cut into the dry wall, and make sure the walls are completely dry. Then we’ll start the restoration process.

Pretty crazy stuff around here. The interstates have been shut down at numerous times. The Opryland Hotel and Grand Ole Opry is underwater. The drinking water is still safe in Nashville, but the treatment plants are operating at about 48%. We’ve all been told to conserve water when possible. The kids are particularly excited about this one because we have elected for them to remain filthy for the time being. You know, for the greater good.

Here’s some pictures to give you a visual of Nashville:

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Rejecting Atheism is Not Enough

Al Mohler:

The death this month of Antony Flew brings an end to one of the most interesting lives in twentieth century philosophy. Throughout the last half of that century, Professor Flew was recognized as one of the most significant philosophical advocates of atheism, eventually writing at least 35 works, many arguing for the non-existence of God. Then, at age 81, Antony Flew changed his mind. God, he explained, probably does exist.

Mohler goes onto recount that though Flew rejected atheism, he did not embrace Christianity or any religion:

Antony Flew never embraced Christianity. He rejected the possibility of divine revelation and flatly rejected the idea of divine judgment and hell. He told The Sunday Telegraph [London] that the God he had come to believe “probably” existed is “most emphatically not the eternally rewarding and eternally torturing God of either Christianity or Islam,” but only God as First Cause of the universe. In other words, Anthony Flew embraced a form of Deism (the belief in a God who creates but then removed himself from creation), rather than theism (the belief in a communicating, ruling, and judging deity).

When atheist critics suggested that Professor Flew, then in advanced age, had experienced something like a deathbed conversion out of fear of death, the professor retorted with a rejection of any afterlife. “I want to be dead when I am dead and that’s an end to it,” he made clear. “I don’t want an unending life. I don’t want anything without end.”

Read the rest of the story here…

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What We Would Have Missed

(HT: Z)

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We MUST Keep Ourselves Occupied

In light of the story a couple of days ago about the Apple employee who left an unreleased version of the iPhone in a bar, Carl Trueman reflects:

Not only does it reveal once again that actually phoning anyone is the least important function of a phone these days (Phone somebody?  That’s like so totally yesterday and for you know losers and stuff, as my niece would no doubt tell me); it also highlights once again the vital component of aesthetics for consumerism: how much money is spent in this world on items that do things we don’t really need done but whose acquisition makes us feel cool, better about ourselves, superior to those around us, or inadequate if we don’t possess them?

Above all, the iPhone phenomenon speaks of the need to be continually occupied with texts, tweets and whatever.  The obsession with texting and these other phenomena is indicative of the general noise we need to generate to keep ourselves occupied.   One of those things which calls to mind Pascal: the measure of true human being is the ability to sit alone in silence in a room.   Were we to do that, in our fallen state we would have no choice but to face our own mortality, the ultimate hopeless futility of our existence without God.

(HT: Challies)

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Don’t Waste Your Easter

Jared Wilson writes about how not to waste your Easter:

In years past, churches have opened Easter Sunday services with AC/DC songs, laser light shows, egg drops from helicopters, and the like. This year the need to outdo last is pressing. One church is giving away automobiles and other prizes.

The simple explanation for all this is that they want people to hear about the resurrection, and these are ways to get people in proximity to hear the message. I am reminded of when Jesus tells the rich man in hell that if his surviving family didn’t believe Moses and the prophets, they weren’t going to believe a resurrected man. Does that sound backwards to you? The same principle is at stake here. If the message that Jesus died and came back to life(!) isn’t compelling enough to draw people, the enticement of winning a car is not going to cut it. Anyone who believes on Christ because they were attracted by “stuff” has been won to prosperity gospel, not crucifixion gospel.

The harder explanation for all this is that the PT Barnum pastoral tribe doesn’t trust that the gospel is a compelling message. They don’t trust that they can make it sound attractive and exciting just as it is. They’ve lost trust that it is, actually, power. If they hadn’t, they wouldn’t feel the need to put it inside the Trojan horse of cash and prizes.

Why do churches treat the resurrection like it’s the heartworm medicine you put in a hot dog to trick the dog?

The truth is that all the bombast, the flash, the publicity, the attractions are a waste. They are the offer of mud pies, because we just can’t figure out how to sell a holiday at sea. (When, really, the holiday sells itself.)

Read the rest here.

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I Bet Your Bracket Doesn’t Look as Good as This Guy’s

From NBC Chicago:

An autistic teenager from the Chicago area has dome something almost impossible. Nearly 48 games into an upset-filled NCAA tournament, 17-year-old Alex Mermann is perfect.

“It’s amazing,” he says. Truly.

The teenager predicted that Northern Iowa would beat the Kansas Jayhawks. He picked Ohio to knock off Georgetown. And Cornell to knock off Wisconsin.

In fact, he picked every game through the first two rounds correctly. The odds of anybody doing that? One in 13,460,000 according to BookofOdds.com. It’s easier to win the lottery. Twice.

Read the rest here.

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