Connecting
man to man to God
For week of January 18, 2009
Issue
237
“The
grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It
teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly
passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in
this present age.” Titus 2:11-12
CONSIDER
“Faith
means trusting in advance what will only make sense in reverse.”
Philip Yancey
RELIGION
AND THE PRESIDENCY
On
Jan. 20, 2009, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president
of the United States. The Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion
& Public Life has assembled a variety of resources on religion
and the presidency, including reports, event transcripts, polling
data, and a graphic featuring the religious affiliations of US
presidents past and present. See it all
at
http://pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=385
INAUGURAL
PRAYERS THROUGH HISTORY -- THE ULTIMATE ARCHIVE
Here
are the texts of invocations and benedictions at presidential
inaugurals since 1937 when the practice
began....
http://blog.beliefnet.com/stevenwaldman/2009/01/inaugural-invocations-and-pray.html
IN
'THE ALMIGHTY,' BUSH SEES A PROVIDENTIAL GOD
Throughout
his 8 years in the Oval Office, President Bush frequently made
public references to God, but instead of always using the
traditional Judeo-Christian term for the divine, he often chose
the more generic "Almighty."
"We can be
confident because freedom is universal," Bush said recently
during a stop at the US Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. "I
strongly believe there's an Almighty, and a gift of that Almighty
to every man, woman and child on the face of the Earth is
freedom."
Bush invoked the "Almighty" as he
departed Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, for example, when he
wished Jews a meaningful new year, and most often, when he
discussed freedom.
"Almighty" emerged as Bush's
frequent term for God as he embraced his Republican Party's
evangelical base, but especially as he reached out to
non-Christian groups. It was the kind of civil religion reference
to the divine that suited both George Washington and Abraham
Lincoln, but for Bush, it also worked for a country that had grown
more religiously diverse.... Read this in full
at
http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=17338
GIDEONS
MARK 100 YEARS OF GIVING OUT THE BIBLE
Long
before cable television, spa treatments and eco-friendly soaps and
shampoos became staples in hotel rooms, there was the Bible —
the Gideon Bible. And the book with the familiar two-handled
pitcher and torch on its cover that most guests find inside hotel
nightstands doesn't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.
Gideons International is celebrating its 100th anniversary
distributing Bibles and has begun efforts to hand out more
Scriptures in the U.S. to boost a distribution rate that's
remained relatively flat in recent years.... Read this in full
at
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-01-09-gideon-bible_N.htm
also
see
http://www.gideons.org/
NEW
RESEARCH EXAMINES CHURCHGOERS' DENOMINATIONAL LOYALTY
A
new study finds that among people who attend church, only 30% are
completely loyal to the denomination they are currently attending
(meaning they would only consider attending church within that
specific denomination). Another 44% prefer their current
denomination, but would be willing to consider others.
Denominational loyalty differs dramatically between Catholics and
Protestants. Six out of ten Catholics will only consider attending
a Roman Catholic church, while Protestants are about as likely to
be loyal to their toothpaste or bathroom tissue as they are to
their current denomination.... Read this in full
at
http://www.ellisonresearch.com/releases/20090112.htm
COULD
YOU LIVE LIKE JESUS FOR A YEAR? THIS PASTOR TRIED
The
Rev. Ed Dobson has spent most of his life following Jesus. But
only now does he realize how hard it is to live like him. The
retired megachurch pastor and one-time architect of the religious
right has spent the last year trying to eat, pray, talk and even
vote as Jesus would. His revelation: Being Jesus is tough. "I've
concluded that I am a follower, but I'm not a very good one,"
Dobson said. "If you get serious about the Bible, it will
really mess you up." Read this in full
at
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-01-01-jesus-year_N.htm
ED
DOBSON'S WALK WITH JESUS LEADS HIM TO NATIONAL STAGE
The
retired pastor of Calvary Church is in hot water with some
conservatives over his statement that living like Jesus during
2008 influenced him to vote for President-elect Barack Obama --
his first presidential vote for a Democrat. Dobson's admission he
took an occasional beer while witnessing for Christ also has
raised eyebrows at Cornerstone University, where Dobson is vice
president for spiritual formation. School policy prohibits
drinking by faculty and students.... Read this in full
at
http://www.mlive.com/living/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/01/ed_dobsons_walk_with_jesus_lea.html
CORNERSTONE
PRESIDENT, ED DOBSON RESPOND TO
CONTROVERSY
http://www.mlive.com/living/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/01/cornerstone_president_ed_dobso.html
LEADERSHIP
TIPS (BUSINESS, FAMILY, LIFE)
A
new book summary is available online. The Leadership Dynamic: A
Biblical Model for Raising Effective Leaders by Harry L. Reeder
III and Rod Gragg (Crossway). The American church is on a downward
spiral accelerated by worldly leadership. Instead of going to
God's Word as the basis for developing leaders, churches have
adopted the models of big business. Certainly, churches can profit
from corporate principles. But the church is not a business; and
pastors are not CEOs. Churches must rise above such worldly models
and return to biblical leadership principles. They must study the
life of Christ and the way He trained His disciples. The biblical
model focuses on a three-fold strategy that involves defining,
developing, and deploying believers who will model Christ-centered
leadership and intentionally multiply themselves for the purpose
of transforming the world. See this detailed summary
at
http://www.christianbooksummaries.com/
VERSE
TO PONDER
“[God]
has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord
require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly
with your God.” Micah 6:8
CONSIDER
“If
there are a thousand steps between us and God, he will take all
but one. He will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours.”
Max Lucado
COLTS'
DUNGY RETIRES
Indianapolis
Colts head coach Tony Dungy, known for his strong Christian faith
and his commitment to family, has announced his retirement, saying
he wants to spend more time with his family and in volunteer work.
“We just felt this was the right time,” Dungy said.
“Don’t shed any tears for me. I got to live a dream
most people don’t get to live.”
Dungy, 53, told
his staff and some players after taking a week to discuss his
options with his wife, Lauren. He will be succeeded by associate
head coach Jim Caldwell. Dungy coached the Colts for seven
seasons, including the 2006-07 season when he became the first
African-American coach to win the Super Bowl. At the time, he said
he was just as proud as being an evangelical coach in the big game
as he was of making black history. Dungy said he wants to spend
more time with his family in Tampa, where he coached for six
seasons, and do more work in the community.... Read this in full
at
http://blog.christianitytoday.com/ctliveblog/archives/2009/01/colts_dungy_to.html
FLORIDA
QB MAKES 'JOHN 3:16' HOTTEST GOOGLE SEARCH
John
3:16" has appeared in various forms at nationally televised
sporting events over the years, but after University of Florida
quarterback Tim Tebow inscribed it on his eye black for the Jan. 8
BCS National Championship game, the biblical reference became the
most popular search item on Google.com.
In previous games,
Tebow, an outspoken evangelical Christian who was born to
missionary parents in the Philippines, sported on his eye black
Philippians 4:13, notes Christianity Today. The verse says, "I
can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."
The well-known verse John 3:16 is commonly presented as a
summation of the Gospel: "For God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life."
Tebow, who won
the Heisman Trophy last year as a sophomore, led the Gators to a
24-14 victory over the University of Oklahoma. See a photo of
Tebow’s eye black
at
http://wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=85729
HEISMAN
PROVIDES TEBOW BROADER AUDIENCE FOR MESSAGE OF FAITH
Florida
quarterback Tim Tebow took the microphone, scanned the 14 rows of
grim-faced men sitting in folding metal chairs and recognized the
familiar hue of blue. "How many Gator fans do we have in the
house today?" Tebow asked. After more than half the men
raised their hands, Tebow added, "All right, those who didn't
raise their hands, that's who I'm preaching to today."
On
a balmy Saturday morning in mid-April -- the Heisman
Trophy-winning quarterback's first weekend away from the bright
spotlight of Florida football -- Tebow had never seemed more
comfortable. His playing field was a concrete basketball court in
the middle of Gainesville Correctional Institute, a minimum-medium
security state prison where banished major league baseball stars
Doc Gooden and Darryl Strawberry once served hard time. His
sideline was a 15-foot metal fence topped by razor wire and
guarded by a correctional officer carrying a shotgun and driving a
small pickup truck. His audience no longer was tens of thousands
of Gator fans cheering his every move, but rather more than 150
inmates, many of whom are serving at least three-year prison
sentences for drug-related offenses and still trying to kick the
habit that put them in there.... Read this in full
at
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?id=3381810
FORMER
NFL STAR MOVES FROM PLAYING FIELD TO PULPIT, LEADING STARTUP
CHURCH OUTSIDE ST. LOUIS
During
his football career, Aeneas Williams earned a reputation as a
quiet leader who professed a deep Christian faith. Behind the
eight Pro Bowl appearances and a Super Bowl loss was a man often
sought out in the locker room to help put things in perspective.
Now, the 40-year-old Williams leads a small startup church that
meets in rented space at a hotel in suburban St. Louis, where he
weaves lessons from life and football into his sermons.... Read
this in full
at
http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/faith/37576389.html
FOLLOW-UP
ON CONTROVERSIAL SURVEY
A
new poll by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life finds that
a significant minority of self-identified evangelicals believe
that many religions can lead to salvation, even though some of
those evangelicals apparently are confused over what the term
"religion" means.
The poll seeks to bring clarity
to a much-criticized poll by Pew in June that found 70% of
Americans, including 56% of white evangelicals, believe that "many
religions can lead to eternal life." Several Christian
commentators criticized that first survey's general wording,
saying that Christians often refer to their denomination as their
religion. In other words, those critics wondered: Were the
evangelicals who were polled saying they believe people within
multiple Christian denominations can obtain eternal life, or were
they saying that Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus also have a path to
salvation?
The new poll asked follow-up questions, and its
findings do -- as least partially -- support the claims of those
critics. Nevertheless, the poll contains very little good news for
the evangelical church.... Read this in full
at
http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=29629
DEAN
JONES: 'I WOULDN'T TRADE THIS FOR AN OSCAR'
The
San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival (SAICFF) recently
presented actor Dean Jones with a Lifetime Achievement Award
before a capacity crowd at the Lila Cockrell Theatre. Ken Wales,
producer of "Amazing Grace," the 2007 film on the life
of William Wilberforce, introduced the award to Mr. Jones on
behalf of the festival.
"I wouldn't trade this for an
Oscar," remarked Jones upon receiving the special Jubilee
Award. Jones has played in 46 films and 5 Broadway shows over his
career of more than half a century, including 10 films with
Disney, 6 of which are on Variety's all-time hit list. His
best-known role is that of racecar driver Jim Douglas in "The
Love Bug." In more recent years, he has appeared in such
films as "Beethoven" and "Clear and Present
Danger."
The special presentation in honor of Mr.
Jones followed on the heels of the world premiere of "Abraham
and Isaac," a short film by Crown Financial Ministries
(www.crown.org) which brings to life the biblical epic of
Abraham's call to give up his own son. Jones plays the lead role
of Abraham in the new film.... Read this in full
at
http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/221829148.html
A
LOOK AT 2008 TOP RELIGION BESTSELLERS
Forty-seven
different titles landed on Publishers Weekly’s monthly 2008
hardcover charts but only two of them -- Joel Osteen’s
Become a Better You (Free Press) and Emerson Eggerichs’ Love
& Respect (Thomas Nelson) -- enjoyed double-digit monthly
runs, 11 times for each. There was no single title that dominated
the top spot and seven books made it to #1. The longest run was
Become a Better You, which lead the charts five times, followed by
Mistaken Identity with two months at #1. The other titles -- Quiet
Strength, Walking with God, Before You Do, What in the World Is
Going On? and The Purpose of Christmas -- each had a single
landing.... Read this in full
at
http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6629552.html
RELIGION
A BIG STORY IN 2008
Religion
took center stage in the news during 2008. NPR’s radio
program Tell Me More looks back at the people and the stories that
rocked the faith world -- from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the
Rev. Rick Warren to the fallout over gay marriage in California.
Salim Muwakkil, editor for In These Times magazine, is joined by
Michael Sean Winters, a political blogger for the Catholic
magazine America, to discuss how 2008 helped shape religious
dialogue.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98946854&ft=1&f=1016
IS
THE BIBLE RELIABLE?
by
Aaron Menikoff
One of the most interesting stories of last
year involved the CERN laboratory outside of Geneva, Switzerland.
On Wednesday, September 10, 2008, scientists turned on the Large
Hadron Collider, an eight-billion dollar experiment, designed to
see what happens when protons crash into one another at
ridiculously fast speeds. “We can now look forward,”
said the project director, “to a new era of understanding
about the origins and evolution of the universe.” Christians
can and should be excited about this kind of research. Our
knowledge of reality, however, is not limited to what science can
prove.
Christians believe God has spoken (which presumes,
of course, a God who can speak!). As the apostle Paul wrote
Timothy, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for
teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so
that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good
work” (2 Tim. 3:16). If this text is not true -- if
Scripture is not inspired by God -- the gospel, the church, and
Christianity itself are all just smoke-and-mirrors -- a mirage
that disappears upon closer inspection. Confidence in the Bible as
God’s Word is essential to Christianity.... Read this in
full
at
http://www.christianity.com/Home/Christian%20Living%20Features/11598166/
MILKY
WAY IS BIGGER THAN THOUGHT, STUDY SAYS
Take
that, Andromeda! For decades, astronomers thought when it came to
the major galaxies in Earth's cosmic neighborhood, our Milky Way
was a weak sister to the larger Andromeda. Not anymore. The Milky
Way is considerably larger, bulkier and spinning faster than
astronomers once thought, Andromeda's equal. Scientists mapped the
Milky Way in a more detailed, three-dimensional way and found that
it's 15% larger in breadth. More important, it's denser, with 50%
more mass, which is like weight. The new findings were presented
at the American Astronomical Society's convention in Long Beach,
California.... Read this in full
at
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2009-01-05-milky-way_N.htm
ON
FAITH
“I
prayed for faith, and thought that someday faith would come down
and strike me like lightning. But faith did not seem to come. One
day I read in the tenth chapter of Romans, "Now faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." I had closed my
Bible, and prayer for faith. I now opened my Bible, and began to
study, and faith has been growing ever since.” D. L.
Moody
A
HISTORY OF DOUBT
Poet
and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht says that as a scholar she
always noticed the "shadow history" of doubt out of the
corner of her eye. She shows how non-belief, skepticism, and doubt
have paralleled and at times shaped the world's great religious
and secular belief systems. She suggests that only in modern time
has doubt been narrowly equated with a complete rejection of
faith, or a broader sense of mystery. Listen to this interview on
Speaking of Faith
at
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/doubt/
HISTORIANS
TRACE BEGINNING OF BAPTIST MOVEMENT BACK 400 YEARS
Some
Christians before 1609 held what many refer to as distinctively
Baptist beliefs. Baptists in 1609 practiced believer’s
baptism, but they didn’t immerse. Even so, most church
historians agree Baptists emerged as a distinct movement 400 years
ago.
From their beginning, Baptists have been characterized
by a restless pursuit of God’s truth, Bill Leonard said.
“Historically, the Baptist movement began in a time of great
political and religious turmoil, when individuals and churches
were searching for the ultimate revelation. Many were willing to
relinquish once-cherished beliefs and practices when convinced
that a greater and more biblical truth had been discovered,”
Leonard, dean at Wake Forest University Divinity School, wrote in
Baptist Ways: A History. “Such theological inquisitiveness
led Baptist founder John Smyth to move from Anglicanism to Puritan
Separatism in his quest for the true church. He then elected to
administer believer’s baptism to himself -- an act that
marked the beginning of the Baptist movement.” Read this in
full
at
http://www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3769&Itemid=53
CONSIDER
“I
have on my table a violin string. It is free. I twist one end of
it and it responds. It is free. But it is not free to do what a
violin string is supposed to do- to produce music. So I take it,
fix it in my violin, and tighten it until it is taut. Only
then is it free to be a violin string.” Rabindranath
Tagore
VERSE
TO PONDER
“Stop
doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the
oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of
the widow.” Isaiah 1:16-17
THIS
WEEK'S HYMN: REDEEMED, HOW I LOVE TO PROCLAIM IT!
Words:
Fanny Crosby, 1882
Music: William J. Kirkpatrick
Redeemed,
how I love to proclaim it!
Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb;
Redeemed through His infinite mercy,
His child and
forever I am.
Refrain
Redeemed, redeemed,
Redeemed by
the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed, redeemed,
His child and
forever I am.
Redeemed, and so happy in Jesus,
No
language my rapture can tell;
I know that the light of His
presence
With me doth continually dwell.
Refrain
I
think of my blessèd Redeemer,
I think of Him all the day
long:
I sing, for I cannot be silent;
His love is the theme
of my song.
Refrain
I know there’s a crown that is
waiting,
In yonder bright mansion for me,
And soon, with the
spirits made perfect,
At home with the Lord I shall
be.
Refrain
>from CyberHymnal
at
http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/r/e/redeemed.htm
ON
PRAYER
“How
many Christians look upon it as a burden and a duty and a
difficulty to get alone with God! That is the great hindrance to
our Christian life everywhere.” Andrew Murray
PRAY
FOR PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS
TODAY
http://christiansincrisis.net/
DAILY
BLESSING PACT
Use
the following list as your daily prayer guide. Think of a brother
or situation that applies and lift them up in prayer.
I am
agreeing in prayer with you for God’s blessings to overtake
you!
PERSONAL
Marital harmony
Family unity
Children
saved
Faithful pastor
Spirit-filled church
Real
friendships
Relatives redeemed
Educational
benefits
Recreational time
Fulfilling career
Favor with
God and man
Be in God’s will
FINANCIAL
Better
Jobs
Raises or bonuses
Benefits
Sales &
commissions
Business Growth
Settlements
Estates &
inheritances
Investment increase
Rebates &
returns
Checks in the mail
Gifts & surprises
Money to
be found
Bills decrease while blessings increase
"And
all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou
shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God" (Deut.
28:2).
[As you travel on business or vacation, let me know
if you'd like the church guys to pray for your safety and
spiritual effectiveness. I'll add your name to the list for the
time you'll be away.]
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US Airways Crash
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gathers no foot.
Min. Frank Coleman,
Editor
Rev.frank@gmail.com
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