I’m not usually fond of blogs that quote a blog quoting a book, but Justin Taylor has been reading Paul Tripp’s Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy and posted an excerpt that I find extremely insightful and personally convicting…

Sin lives in a costume, that’s why it’s so hard to recognize. The fact that sin looks so good is one of the things that make it so bad. In order for it to do its evil work, it must present itself as something that is anything but evil. Life in a fallen world is like attending the ultimate masquerade party.

Impatient yelling wears the costume of a zeal for truth.
Lust can masquerade as a love for beauty.
Gossip

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We have been weaving our way through a teaching series called ChurchWorks . In digging through how a church functions we have been taking a look at expressions of the Spirit (a.k.a spiritual gifts). In doing research for this aspect of the teaching, I was turned onto a person claiming to be a powerful conduit of God’s Spirit. So, I thought it would be good to try and apply the teaching points we have unearthed in this study thus far (I Corinthians, Ephesians 4, etc.) directly to a Mr. Todd Bentley.

Here’s a general introduction from an Nightline special focusing on Mr. Bentley. BTW. I understand the people conducting the “investigation” are bent …

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There are few issues like politics that inspire question marks in the minds of Christians. Questions like, Do I vote for a candidate who is “pro-choice” when the other candidate is not only “pro-choice” but “pro-tax”, “pro-big government,” “pro-liberal social programs”, etc? Living in a society in which we are given the freedom to participate in the political process in turn demands that we learn to think through finding balance in how we cast our vote as a follower of Christ. Let’s face it, to abstain completely from voting because a candidate holds a view that you or me would consider to be “unchristian” will leave us with no candidate at all. A person with this …

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As you probably know, we have a team “on mission” with Mustard Seeds and Mountains in McDowell County, West Virginia. We have set up this blog to serve as a message board since “up in the hollers” there is practically no cell phone coverage.

The first two entries come from my wife, Vicki, who happens to have three of our kids with her – Ben, David, and Alexa.

Special Thanks to Will “LEGS” Bowman (team member and hill climbing extraordinaire) for making this connection possible!

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When we speak that there must be a necessary change when a person trusts in Christ there is often an undercurrent of distinction between the message of Jesus and the teaching of Paul. Advocates for looking toward Paul for the Gospel (and not the messages of Christ) will appeal to the sections of Scripture like Romans 3 and 4 because it is in these chapters we see the clearest picture of justification by faith alone. The reasoning goes something like this, “if there must be fruits of obedience to express a person truly being justified, then Paul would have most certainly included that teaching in these chapters.” At this point, a citation of a teacher(s) such as …

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There are those who would have you believe that trust in Christ is all that is needed when it comes to the foundational element in starting a relationship with God. Furthermore, if anything is added to this basic formula the Gospel message will become corrupted. Consider the following:

In the same way [as first-century legalism], the most telling modern assaults on the integrity of the Gospel do not deny the cruciality of faith in Christ. On the contrary, they insist on it. But to faith are added other conditions, or provisos, by which the essential nature of the Gospel is radically transformed. Often, in fact, a distinction is drawn between the kind of faith which saves and the kind which does

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We weep with those who weep, grieving, but not as those who have no hope.

News from last night: Steven Curtis Chapman’s youngest child died Wednesday evening after being struck by a car driven by her teenage brother in the driveway of the family’s Williamson County home.

Maria, one of the Christian singer’s six children, was taken by LifeFlight to Vanderbilt Hospital, which confirmed the death, according to Laura McPherson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

The 5-year-old was hit by an SUV. . . .

Singer/songwriter Chapman, who recently was inducted into Music City Walk of Fame, is one of contemporary Christian music’s most recognizable and most awarded names.

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This past Sunday Jeff Stables handed me a Wall Street Journal article entitled, Banned from the Church. The article presented a freakish view into the lives of people who have been disciplined by pastors across the Country in all types of churches. The writer, Alexander Alter, frames the church somewhere between a ravenous monster and an anemic institution trying to scrap together an authoritative stance in the lives its parishners. Frank Turk replies in an effort to create distance between churches that abuse their authority while maintaining the value that expelling people for sinful activity has in the life of a church.

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Tullian Tchividjian has written a blog that I thought was particularly interesting in finding balance in an age-old problem between being too removed from this world and being too relaxed in maintaining a distinction in lifestyle.

Quote from the above-linked posts that I thought were helpful in framing the handles of “removed” and “relaxed:”

Regarding being too removed:

Martin Luther was once approached by a shoemaker who enthusiastically announced that he had recently become a Christian. Wanting desperately to serve the Lord, he asked Luther, “What should I do now?” As if to say, “Should I become a minister, or perhaps a traveling evangelist? Or maybe I should make shoes only for missionaries and preachers?” Luther asked

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Greg interviews his co-author and long-time friend, Frank Beckwith, whose recent stepping down as president of the Evangelical Theological Society to return to the Roman Catholic Church. This is Beckwith’s first live interview since he caused such a stir when he made his announcement.

I found it interesting to listen to Greg talk to such a dear friend in a public venue now that they disagree on fundamental aspects of the faith and the Church. As you might imagine, STR has received lots of questions about Beckwith’s return to Rome. As an apologetics training organization, STR teaches believers to defend the historic, protestant, biblical understanding of Christianity. Yet, an ally of STR and co-author of Greg’s book

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