After graduation from HGM’s BFBC, I’ve taken some time off to spend with my family.  We are preparing for a lot of travel during the holiday season all over Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma working for HGM-TX and fund raising for our trip overseas in January.  Special thanks to those who have already made financial contributions.

There have been some interesting discussions on the blogosphere of late.  I won’t comment on them here, but I will direct your attention to some things that have made me laugh.  Challies.com shows us just how far people will go to use religion to make money.  Make sure to read his post on “Your Best Life Now: the Game.”

Someone in the comments of his post directed my attention to the Jesus Christ Superstore.  Spend some time on this site looking around.  Remember - it’s satire, not serious.

I hope to being in December what I intended for November - a day by day commentary on the book of Proverbs.  This is meant to be largely a journal of sorts.  As I previously posted, Proverbs has shown me over the last few months just how much I had turned the Christian life on its head.  Though some will inevitably be offended, they shouldn’t be.  I will write on what God has shown me through the Scriptures.  Thus, these posts are not rebukes at anyone but myself for living so wrongly and un-Christianly.

I will also take up the discussion of moving towards a post-(post-Modern) hermeneutic again in hopes of concluding this discussion before the year’s end.

So, this is obviously about a week late.  This is not unintentional.  I’m slow, but not that slow.  I’ve waited to see what would be written across the blogosphere, and I have to say that I’ve been pretty disappointed.  Almost every article I read denounced the scandal without looking deeper, but rather finding it sufficient to shame the scandal.  I’m afraid that we are missing a major opportunity to address a very serious problem in the Evangelical world.  the problem?  In my opinion, half of the problem is that we don’t even recognize that there is a problem - besides the actual scandal itself.  But what is behind all this?

(more…)

I wanted to send an invitation to everyone to attend Heart of God Ministries’ graduation ceremony of class 11 from Beautiful Feet Boot Camp. November 18th at 6:00 PM at HGM’s Oak Hill base in Choctaw, Oklahoma.  Hope to see you all there.

Everyone should stop by Ancient Future Worship and read “A Call to an Ancient Evangelical Future.”  If you want, sign the document online (I hope you will - I did).  I hope to expound upon the six points during this series.  Much of what is discussed in “The Call” is exactly what I want to discuss in this series where I’m trying to get past post-Modernity back to pre-modern thought.  Thus, we’re moving towards a post-(post-Modern) hermeneutic.  One thing that needs to be pointed out is how most theologians agree with the material in “The Call,” but these ideas are not pervasive in our discussions and our vocabulary.  Or, as is the case of some, they think this is a fad in evangelical theology, and that a renewal in patristic theology will not have a lasting impact on academia.

(more…)

I feel like I owe everyone an explanation, and I’m not sure why. Readership of this blog is quite varied. There are seminary students, there are laymen, there are the young and the old, the educated, the ignorant, and the naïve, both laity and clergy. Nonetheless, the discussion that I’m contributing to online in these posts contain information that is new to some, and old hat to others. In order that “no child be left behind,” some of this discussion might be remedial.

(more…)

Ministering Cross-Culturally – Lingenfelter & Mayers

What a wonderful contribution the authors have made for the Christian faith! I had a marvelous time learning as I read this rich book. Though it has been by far the most academic book that I’ve read in my time here at HGM’s Beautiful Feet Boot Camp, it was also one of the most practical, devotional, heart-engaging works I’ve known. These character issues that God is working into me as He is conforming me into the image of His Son stem from my own Christian background, which divorces the Christian faith from culture in a bad way. Lingenfelter & Mayers taught me that, while there is a distinction between the Faith and our culture, the dichotomy is different than I previously understood. Whereas historically I’ve tried to run away from culture, the missionary calling is to embrace culture and redeem it. Consider the question posed by Christianity Today – “Is your church reflecting the culture, or shaping it?” While I don’t want to sell out, I don’t want to be so out of touch with reality that I’m ineffective, whether here in my own culture, or in another one that is completely foreign and unfamiliar to me.

(more…)

The Radical Reformission – Mark Driscoll

This book should be required reading. Period. Driscoll has great things to say about how the gospel interacts within culture and how it transforms both people and their cultures. Witty humor and a desire to be relevant make this book easy to read. Even more enjoyable is his unwillingness to capitulate entirely to the culture as have many post-modern emergent pastors. Driscoll’s commitment to theological conservatism seems to have saved him (literally, 1 Tim. 4:16) from the error of other emergent heresy. His subtitle is accurate: reaching out without selling out. Honestly, I’ve had a difficult time deciding how to write about this book, but I’m going to try to do it in three paragraphs: the gospel in culture, relevant evangelism, and post-modern pandemonium.

(more…)

Check out this post on legalism by Phillip Bethancourt over at his blog Fill Up.  I wish I had read it before I posted “A little help in understanding me.”  Had I known about this, I would have included it also along with the Douglas Wilson article.

I can really identify with this particular quote in his article.

The scary thing is that the one who rejects the legalism of others can be just as guilty of pride. Many times, their rejection of legalism is not a rejection of legalism in general but just that person’s type of legalism in particular.

What really stands out to me, as I commented on his blog, is how easy it is to be in sin while rejecting legalism out of pride. Coming out of a very legalistic community, it has been easy for me to rearrange my sin by scoffing at what I used to believe (therefore, necessarily also scoffing at those who still adhere to this legalism) instead of putting sin to death.

Recently, I find myself over and over again in conversations with people who think very differently than I do. I do not mean to say that our beliefs are different; they are not. However, while they do not arrive at significantly different conclusions, the road they take to arrive at their conclusions is a very different paradigm than mine own. This has led me to think deeply about problems such as worldview in discussions. How can we explain to people that, while we agree with many if not all of their conclusions, the way that they arrive at them is problematic? I find this especially difficult to explain to people who don’t even have a working knowledge of what ancient, modern, and post-modern thought/philosophy are. Hence, they almost always have bought in to modernity hook, line, and sinker, but are not even aware of this. It seems to me that, if these persons were willing to read certain material, they would be significantly influenced for the better, and being educated would be able to participate in theological dialogues in a more meaningful way.

(more…)

For those of you out there who are having a hard time with my strong reaction against the so called “holiness” that was taught to me, I want to give you the chance to understand.  Hopefully, after reading this, whether you agree with me or not, you’ll understand why I think there is just as much sin in the “overcorrection” and overemphasis on false righteousness than there is in the antinomian camps who have no rules and regulations about what is okay and what is not.  In a nutshell, if you read this article by Douglas Wilson, it will help you explain why everything must stem from genuine relationship with Christ by walking by the Spirit.  And, as I’ve been saying for the last few months, the hard think about walking by the Spirit is that you actually have to do it.  What I mean is this: when people ask, “How do we walk by the Spirit?” often they are looking for rules of what it means, which defeats the purpose.  Walking by the Spirit is not, and cannot be, formulaic.

(more…)