Years ago, I bought “Falling Awake” by Paul Alan, primarily for the song “She’s the Reason.” I’ve been listening to the albums for years, but have never really listened to one of the songs on the album, and it might be one of my new favorites. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the more popular verses in the Bible among followers of Jesus is Jeremiah 29:11:
‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’
It’s a beautiful, hope-inspiring promise from God’s Word. Unfortunately, that promise isn’t ours the way most people think.
In this video, Voddie Baucham of Grace Family Baptist Church in Spring, TX explains why Christians today misinterpret this verse. For those that can’t watch the video, I’ll try to summarize his points below. For the rest of you, enjoy this short clip:
The heart of Baucham’s dissent (in which he’s not alone, and with which I tend to agree), is that this promise was made to the people of Israel. If you read the passage in context, you’ll see that Lord is speaking to the nation of Israel, promising them that at some point in the future (150 years, Baucham tells us) that He will gather Israel back together from the nations to which it has been exiled and bring them back to the land of promise. The “you”, then, in 29:11 is not a modern day Christian; it’s the entire Old Testament nation of Israel. Baucham also points out that this is not an individual promise, but a corporate promise. It’s not to, say, Jeremiah, but to all of the people of Israel as a whole.
Baucham also does a nice job dismantling that “yeah, but that was the Old Testament and this is the New.” He notes the “cognitive dissonance” (how great is it that that term shows up in a sermon? :) between the perceived promise in the verse (“plans for welfare and not for calamity”) and the harsh reality of life. “Why don’t you ask Ananias and Sapphira about that. Oh, I’m sorry. You can’t. God killed them. Not allowed them to die. He KILLED them. As a matter of fact, He killed them in church!” He then quickly listed how the apostles, all Godly men with strong faith all died horribly. Either God broke His promise to us in this verse, or we’ve interpreted the verse incorrectly.
For what it’s worth, I tend to think that there IS something for us in this verse. While God’s plan for us, either as individuals or as the church body as whole, may not be for welfare and not calamity, I think this verse, in concert with countless others throughout Scripture can give us comfort in knowing that God does have a plan for us. Unfortunately, that plan, in the short term at least, may very well include some pain and misfortune. Baucham says it best when he asked, “If God would crush and kill His perfect, spotless, sinless Son, who do you think you are?” Indeed.
For a long time now, I’ve been bothered by the idea of multi-site/multi-campus churches. From the outside looking in, there’s always been something about that type of church that doesn’t seem to square with what I read in Scripture, that of a man standing before a group of believers, sharing what he feels the Lord has put on his heart. In this type of church, with the pastor a projection on a screen, it seems that the congregation is intentionally separated from its “pastor”, so I wonder if it’s possible (dare I say it) to have a good church experience in such a setup.
I’ve been meaning to try to muddle through my thoughts on it to see if I can come up with a coherent reason why it bothers me, or maybe to see if I’m just being silly. Enter, stage right, Thabiti Anyabwile. Anyabwile, about whom I know nothing, and, indeed, hadn’t heard of until I read this article, articulates pretty well, I think, why multi-site churches are a bad idea. Sure, some good is coming from them, but I think he’s right that this type of church is not ideal. Go read the article and tell me: am I heading in the right direction, or am I just a tradition-bound crank? :)
Jason Gray is a fairly new name to the Christian music scene, so he’s probably not as familiar to most as he should be, as he has put out some really good work. One song of his that I really like is “More Like Falling in Love.” In this song, Gray talks about how the Christian life shouldn’t be about following rules, nor should it be about striving to be good under our own power, but it’s about the Spirit of God living and moving in us to make us more like Christ. We shouldn’t be following rules. Rather, we should be falling deeper and deeper nib love with Jesus Christ, from which the traits and behaviors of holiness will flow (super-) naturally. It’s a great song with a great message. Check out the video below, then go buy the song. :)
I recently took my family to visit the Oklahoma City Museum of Art for a special, one-of-a-kind new exhibit. Called “Passages,” the display “brings the pages of the Bible to life. This worldwide traveling exhibit allows people of all interests to experience the dramatic and insightful inner workings of the book that has altered history, shaped cultures, inspired minds and changed lives.”
It was nothing short of a five-star experience for each of us. If you have any regard for the Bible–or even if you do not–you will want to check this one out.
Click here for more information.
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:13 (ASV)
“As the clock ticks toward midnight and a shutdown of the federal government, President Obama and congressional leaders still lack a budget deal — and still dispute the major causes of the impasse that threatens to disrupt government operations.
“The government runs out of money at midnight unless Obama, Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., can resolve differences that appear to be narrow but intense.
“Reid said this morning that Democrats have agreed to $38 billion in budget cuts, but the big hold-up is Republican insistence on the inclusion of non-budget items in a final bill — particularly a proposal to de-fund Planned Parenthood because of abortion services. ‘This all deals with women’s health,’ Reid said.”
Us: Who is being ideological now, Sen. Reid? Taxpayers ought not be forced to fund the nation’s largest abortion provider. Even if you disagree, can we not see this is as an extraneous expenditure at this fiscally tight point?
Update: The Politico said of the deal, “The budget agreement reached late Friday night will not defund either the health care law or Planned Parenthood, but the Senate has agreed to take separate votes on both measures.” It’s hard to see how this is not a huge victory for Planned Parenthood. All the pressure to do the right thing is off. Go figure.
“[That] surveys show Facebook being cited more and more in divorce cases should make spouses think twice before ‘friending’ someone of the opposite sex, experts say.”
I would think we Christians could embrace the solutions and common-sense precautions offered in this piece.
“The scandal and heartache of teen pregnancy has been exploited by producers of popular prime-time TV, who have made stories of 16-year-olds stumbling through accelerated adolescence into marketable drama. Likewise, news media have scrutinized the teen birth phenomenon for some time.
“The truly shocking and underreported story, however, is that of unmarried 20-something parents. While 21 percent of children born outside of marriage are to teen mothers, more than 60 percent of unwed births occur to women in their 20s”
“It is not the young girls studying for the SAT or fretting over their prom prospects that make up the majority of women bearing the 40 percent of children born outside marriage. It is women in their 20s and 30s, demonstrating the impact of increasing cohabitation and the collapse of marriage, who are putting cradles before wedding bands.”