Connecting
man to man to God
For
week of May 30, 2010
Issue 306
The
Men’s Ministry newsletter of Path Of Life Ministries.
Our
mission is to lead men to Jesus Christ and provide opportunity for
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“Thus
says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and
mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the
alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against
one another.”
Zechariah 7:9-10
CONSIDER
“Worry
does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its
strength. It does not enable us to escape evil. It makes us unfit
to face evil when it comes. It is the interest you pay on trouble
before it comes.”
Corrie ten
Boom
EVANGELICALS
PUSH 'THEOLOGY OF SEX,' ABORTION REDUCTION
The
National Association of Evangelicals has launched an initiative to
reduce abortions by promoting a "Theology of Sex" for
churches and pledging to find common ground with opponents on
abortion.
"There's
a sense that, whatever our laws are, abortion is a problem because
of the underlying issues of how we treat sex," said Galen
Carey, director of government affairs for the Washington-based
umbrella organization.
NAE
leaders have concluded that churches are not doing a "good
job" of teaching about sex and marriage and should better
address the high percentage of cohabiting unmarried young adults,
including many evangelicals.
"Addressing
that subject will do a lot, we think, to reduce the number of
unplanned pregnancies and the number of abortions," Carey
said.
A
Gallup poll commissioned by the NAE found that 90% of evangelicals
consider "hormonal contraceptives" to be morally
acceptable, and three-quarters consider abortion and unmarried sex
to be morally wrong. Less than a third – 30% -- think
national religious leaders are doing a good or very good job at
addressing the issue of abortion.... Read this in full at
http://blog.beliefnet.com/news/2010/05/evangelicals-push-theology-of.php
JEWS FOR
JESUS FOUNDER DIES
Moishe
Rosen, founder of Jews for Jesus, died May 19 around 8:30 p.m. in
San Francisco after a battle with bone cancer. Rosen, who founded
the evangelistic organization in 1973, was 78.
"Moishe
Rosen's innovative thinking and commitment to Jewish evangelism
built the largest Jewish mission organization in the world,"
Jim Sibley, director of the Pasche Institute of Jewish Studies at
Criswell College in Dallas, told Baptist Press, "but more
importantly, they have been used to reach countless Jews and
Gentiles for the Lord.
"His
concern began with the Jewish population in the United States, but
later embraced the major Jewish populations of the world,"
said Sibley, a former Southern Baptist representative in Israel
and former director of Jewish evangelism ministries for the North
American Mission Board.
"Often
provocative and controversial, he was always unashamed of the Good
News of salvation," Sibley said. "He has been a friend,
a brother and a fellow soldier; he will be greatly missed."
Mike
Saffle, president of the Southern Baptist Messianic Fellowship,
recounted a bit of Rosen's spiritual history: "Moishe was
born to an Orthodox family, yet became an atheist. After his wife,
Ciel, began an earnest search for God, Moishe finally admitted
what he'd known all along: there IS a God, and His Son is Y'shua,
Jesus."
Rosen
was "passionately in love with his Lord, his wife and his
people, Israel. His mission was to open the eyes of Jewish people
to the truth of their Messiah, and he pursued that calling to the
end. His ministry spans the globe, reaching many for Christ,"
said Saffle, pastor/rabbi of Shalom Adonai Messianic Baptist
Fellowship in Wichita, Kan.
He
was "a funny, humble, loving man whose greatest passion is
Y'shua and telling Jewish people about Him. We will miss him, and
pray for his family's strength and comfort," Saffle said....
Read this in full at
http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=32966
HOPE YOU
REALLY WANT
“Real
hope can only be based on truth. You can't put your hope in a lie.
[J]ust as there's no way my doctor can give me a 100 percent
guarantee that this cancer of mine will be cured. When he
prescribes a new treatment, I know he wants it to work, but he
can't promise me it will. He might say something like, ‘Thirty
percent of the patients who have tried this new therapy have been
in remission for an average of five years.’ Not bad. Thirty
percent. Five years. I'll take it.
“But
wouldn't you rather put your hope in something that is guaranteed
to work 100 percent of the time? Hope that doesn't depend on a
bill passing in Congress or a big jump in the stock market? That's
the kind of hope God offers us. In the face of all these things
(and more) that drag us down, you can have the life you always
wanted. A life that triumphs over any circumstance. A life that
lets you look into the jaws of any illness, financial calamity, or
family tragedy and say, ‘It's good.’
“If
that's the kind of hope you really want, then I have a question
for you: Whom are you going to trust?”
Ken Hutcherson, from Hope is Contagious
THE
IMPORTANCE OF GUY TIME
by
Chris Glazier
In
the last two years, I’ve gotten married and moved two times,
which means that I haven’t had a lot of time to make new
friends. I’ve always had a lot of guy friends in the past. I
love the camaraderie, the respect and the accountability that
comes with a good friendship. As I get a little older, I’m
starting to realize why it gets so hard to keep up with your male
friends. I’m also starting to realize that even though it’s
difficult, there are few things that are more important.
As
Christian men, our guy friends give us things in life that our
families just can’t. Nothing is as important as family,
especially your relationships with your wife and your kids. But
there are certain things that don’t come naturally to those
family relationships. Though your wife may be your best friend
(mine is), women are just wired differently than us. As we go
through life, situations come up in our lives for which a fellow
guy is better able to walk through them or talk through them with
us.... Read this in full at
http://newmanreport.newmanmag.com/2010/05/importance-of-guy-time.html
FOCUS ON
THE FAMILY PRODUCTION OF ‘SCREWTAPE’ IS TOP AUDIO
DRAMA
"Dust,
grit, thirst and itch" is how C.S. Lewis described The
Screwtape Letters. Written from the point of view of a demonic
undersecretary in the "lowerarchy" of Hell, who must
instruct his nephew on the finer points of soul corruption, the
epistolary novel earned Lewis' disfavor for being the least
enjoyable work he wrote during his literary career.
Focus
on the Family's director of creative content, Paul McCusker,
describes a similar torment when he dispatched his Colorado
Springs radio-theater team to London to record a Screwtape
dramatization over six days in 2008.
"Our
team has worked together in one form or another for 20 years, and
we were genuinely surprised by the kinds of things that came up
that we hadn't really dealt with before," says McCusker, who
also came down with an unholy flu during the production. "It
was uncharacteristic sniping at one another, short tempers, petty
annoyances — which are very Screwtape-like. And that's what
so funny about it. You find yourself irritated, or you're
irritating someone, and you don't know why. So you step back and
think, 'Maybe something is at work here.'"
Focus'
four-CD Screwtape Letters set has sold 40,000 copies since its
release last fall.... Read this in full at
http://www.csindy.com/colorado/the-devil-in-the-details/Content?oid=1713586
WHEN DID
GOD BECOME A SPORTS FAN?
Baseball
players point to the heavens after hitting home runs; NFL players
pray in the end zone after scoring. Competitors routinely thank
Jesus, along with their sponsors, in post-game interviews.
Thanking
God from the winner's circle has become so common that one British
newspaper published a letter to the editor titled: "Leave me
out of your petty games --Love, God."
The
British letter raised a question: Does God care who wins on game
day? And, if so, do losers somehow have less faith? .... Read this
in full at
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/wayoflife/05/25/God.sports/index.html?hpt=C2
WOULD
JESUS GET A TATTOO?
by
Chuck Colson
In
Herman Melville’s classic novel, Moby Dick, a character
named Ishmael is forced to share lodgings with an unknown man.
When he wakens in the night, he is terrified at the sight of his
roommate -- a savage, covered head to toe in tattoos.
As
S. M. Hutchens writes in Touchstone magazine, readers in
Melville’s day did not have to be told that this man was a
pagan; his tattoos made it obvious. Readers understood that
tattooing one’s body was not a Christian practice.
Especially
was this true among Calvinist-leaning Christians of New England,
who stressed the continuing applicability of Old Testament law,
which, in Leviticus, forbade tattooing marks upon one’s
body.
But
today, 160 years later, even some conservative Christian
authorities don’t think the ban on tattoos applies. This
law, they declare, has been superseded by the coming of Christ.
They consider tattoos an area of Christian freedom. Well, maybe
they’re right -- I’m not a legalist.
But
as tattoos proliferate in the Christian church, we ought to begin
to think a little more seriously about them.... Read this in full
at
http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/14534
SHARK
ATTACK WAS 'GOD'S WILL'
by
Phil Boatwright
Remember
around six years ago when we heard of the surfer girl who lost her
arm to a shark? Just about everybody I've spoken to can recount
that news event.
Her
name is Bethany Hamilton and after hearing the details of her
story, it sounds more like a Hollywood movie. Indeed, it soon will
be. "Soul Surfer" is slated for a Spring 2011 release,
and it's shaping up to be a watershed moment in biographical
movies. Bethany and her family are devout Christians and together
they are having an impact on the surfing community, young girls
seeking solid role models, and anyone who has ever questioned,
"Why me?"
Bethany
Hamilton had already been surfing for several years when, at age
13, she and a few friends were a quarter mile off the North Shore
of Kauai on Oct. 31, 2003, enjoying another tropical day in the
Pacific paradise, when, in a split second, a 15-foot tiger shark
came up from the deep and took a huge bite out of Bethany's
surfboard -- and with it her left arm, clear up to the shoulder.
Almost 20 minutes from shore, her friends were sure she would
bleed to death (it is reported that she lost 60 percent of her
blood that morning) before getting help. But cool heads and lots
of prayer prevailed.... Read this in full at
http://www.bpnews.net/BPFirstPerson.asp?ID=32952
BIOMEDICAL
ETHICS IN A BRAVE, NEW WORLD
“We’re
still dealing with the age-old question: ‘Given what can be
done, ought we?’ But the list of ‘can-do’
options in health care get longer each day; hence, also the
‘ought’ questions and the complexities of knowing
right from wrong, good from bad,” said Tarris Rosell,
professor at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee,
Kan., and the Rosemary Flanigan Chair at the Center for Practical
Bioethics in nearby Kansas City, Mo.
While
subjects like nanotechnology, reproductive cloning, genetic
engineering and artificial intelligence capture the imagination of
some bioethicists, those are not the issues most people face, said
ethicist David Gushee.
“I
sometimes wonder whether there isn’t a bit of a
science-fiction fetish here, in which for some it is just fun and
interesting to ponder ethical issues from a future that hasn’t
reached us yet. I would prefer to deal with the ethical issues
that face us right now,” said Gushee, professor of Christian
ethics at Mercer University and a columnist for Associated Baptist
Press.
“Very
difficult health-care decision-making remains a reality that
everyone faces at one time or another, and not just at the end of
life. My own family’s recent experiences in the health-care
system remind me that it has its own momentum and practices that
are simply taken for granted from within the system,” he
said. “As Christians, we do need to have a broader vision
that asks questions rather than simply taking for granted the way
things are.”
In
recent weeks, Gushee’s wife, Jeanie, had an appendectomy,
and his sister, Janette, had surgery to remove a brain tumor.
“All
the talk of autonomy and informed consent bumps up against the
realities of how little laypeople understand what doctors are
saying and doing. Time pressures in situations of crisis,
situations which also tend to limit our rational capacity as we
are overwhelmed by fear and confusion and pain, also make it very
difficult to exercise judgment either for ourselves or for someone
else,” he said.... Read this in full at
http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/5125/53/
DUTCH
EUTHANASIA CASES INCREASED IN '09
Euthanasia
cases in The Netherlands continued to increase in 2009. The number
of reported cases of euthanasia in the European country increased
by 200 to about 2,500, Dutch News reported. That figure is likely
low. Experts said in 2007 about 80 percent of such deaths are
officially reported, according to Dutch News.
Euthanasia
involves the deliberate administration of drugs to cause a
person's death at his request rather than to relieve his
suffering.
Alex
Schadenberg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention
Coalition-Canada, pointed in his Jan. 4 weblog to a number of ways
in which the figure of 2,500 euthanasia deaths in 2009 is
misleading.
For
one, assisted suicide deaths are not included, and they would
account for about 400 more each year, Schadenberg said.
"Another
category of deaths is deaths without explicit consent," he
wrote. "The most recent government report (2005) showed that
the number of deaths without explicit consent was approximately
550. Many of the 550 deaths are directly and intentionally caused
by the physician but not reported as euthanasia because they
lacked consent." .... Read this in full at
http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=32021
THY WILL
BE DONE
“It
is quite normal that we want God to heal our friends and loved
ones who have been struck with an incurable disease or a serious
illness. We should never hesitate to ask God to heal them, but we
should be prepared to let God heal in His own way and in His
timing. I have known people who were never physically healed of a
disease but experienced an ‘inner healing’ that
transformed their understanding of God in such a way that enabled
them to cope with their illness far better than anyone could
imagine.
“I
have also known of cases in which a serious illness brought
healing to broken families. A few years ago, a man in his
seventies who had served the Lord all his adult life fell ill, and
the doctors informed the family that his condition was terminal.
His family gathered at his bedside and prayed for a miracle, that
is, all but one of his sons, who had abandoned his faith some
thirty years prior and had cut off all contact with his family.
Somehow, however, he learned about his father's illness and
returned home, to the surprise of the entire family. God chose not
to heal the father but performed an even greater miracle, the
healing of severed family ties. Stories like this remind us that
when we pray for those who are seriously ill, we should give the
situation to God and trust Him to care for it. Someone once said
that the perfect prayer is, ‘Thy will be done,’
meaning that whatever God chooses to do is exactly the right
thing.”
André K. Dugger,
from Prayer: Your Own Letter to God
WORKLIFE
VIDEO
Tim
Hawks, Senior Pastor of Hill Country Bible Church in Austin TX,
describes why your WorkLife is important to God. View this video
at
http://video.christianpost.com/20100526/tim-hawks-worklife-taking-care-of-business/
WORTHWHILE
WORK
“It
is essential to our life as Christians, that we should recognize
cheerfully and realistically that no worth-while work is
accomplished without patience and sacrifice; and more important
still, that we should realize with a sudden quickening of the
pulses that the cost we bear is, not a kind of occupational
nuisance, but the honour of sharing God's cost in bringing men to
Himself and changing them from being wayward human beings into
sons of Himself.”
J. B.
Phillips (1906-1982), Making Men Whole, London: Highway Press,
1952, p. 45
VERSE TO
PONDER
“I
will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my
God ... For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden
causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause
righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.”
Isaiah 61:10-11
CONSIDER
“To
succeed in life, you need three things: A wishbone, a backbone and
a funnybone.”
Author Unknown
THREE
QUALITIES OF A GREAT CHURCH APP
by
Alan Chandler
Your
church: is there an App for that? You may not like the way it
sounds, but it’s well worth the ponder. More and more,
people are choosing mobile phones with App capabilities over
“basic” phones. Business are responding to this trend
and developing Apps. Should the church? More to the point, should
your church?
When
considering a church App keep in mind three qualities:
Interaction, Connection, and Relationship.
Interaction:
to be effective, your church App MUST be interactive. If not, the
App experience will fall flat. A great church App allows people to
interface with your ministry on multiple levels.
Connection:
A great church App increases connection to your ministry. It will
increase both the number of connections and the quality of
connection. If developed properly, a great church App can also
help people connect with God through increased spiritual
formation.
Relationship:
the net result of interactive connection is establishing and
building relationships. A great church App will help you solidify
the relationship between the church and its members, members with
other members, and members with their friends who are far from
God.... Read this in full at
http://www.churchcentral.com/blog/Three-Qualities-of-a-Great-Church-App.
REFORMED
THEOLOGY? THERE'S A FREE APP FOR THAT
Ligonier
Ministries, the teaching fellowship of R.C. Sproul, has created a
new Ligonier App for the iPhone and the iPod Touch available for
free in the iTunes App Store. This new app lets you:
*
hear or watch Dr. Sproul's Renewing Your Mind daily broadcast and
archive,
*
read a daily Bible devotional,
*
view learning resources grouped by Topic, Teacher, Scripture or
Type with teaching from leading pastors and theologians including
R.C. Sproul, John Piper, Sinclair Ferguson, John MacArthur, Albert
Mohler, Alistair Begg,
*
browse thousands of free messages and articles located in the
Learn section.... Read this in full at
http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/pressreleases/reformed_theology_theres_a_free_app_for_that/
GROUP
APPLAUDS iPHONE ANTI-PORN STANCE
A
conservative group that monitors the entertainment industry is
applauding Apple CEO Steve Jobs for his pledge to keep porn
applications off the iPhone.
So-called
"apps," or programs, are wildly popular and can be
downloaded through Apple's iTunes store. There's an application
for nearly everything -- including news, sports, maps and
restaurants -- but Jobs says the store won't offer porn.
Approximately 5,000 sexually explicit applications were removed
from the store early this year after the Parents Television
Council, the conservative group, urged citizens to complain to
Apple. The PTC noted that children often browse the store, looking
for games.
Jobs'
stance doesn't mean the iPhone can't be used to find porn. It
still comes with a browser to surf the Internet, although it can
be disabled with parental controls. Companies such as
InternetSafety.com and BSecure.com also offer anti-porn filters
for the iPhone browser.
Additionally,
the iTunes store still offers some risqué applications,
although the majority of them appear to be gone.... Read this in
full at
http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=32985
MEDIA
EXPOSURE, ADDICTION
by
George Barna
I
do a lot of research. The facts and figures from Barna surveys
lead to a lot of conclusions, some of which are predictable, some
of which are surprising, a few of which become controversial. One
of the latter conclusions is this: media exposure has become
America’s most widespread and serious addiction.
According
to the American Psychiatry Association, an addiction is a chronic
disorder in which we are unable to control our need for the
substance in question. The Association adds that addictions have a
combination of several simultaneous components at work. Addictions
literally change our brains. They do so by changing the chemical
balance and flow within the brain, or by altering the brain
structure, or by changing our emotions, motivations and memory
capacity. Addictions cause withdrawal symptoms when exposure to
the addictive item is eliminated and they cause us to lose control
over how much exposure we seek to experience. The APA indicates
that addictions may produce a desire to reduce our exposure –
a desire that we are unable to satisfy. Another sign of an
addiction is that it causes us to abandon or reduce our
involvement in normal and healthy activities. And addictions are
characterized by the addict’s repeated denials that a real
problem exists. According to APA, when we experience the
concurrent presence of three or more of these symptoms, we have an
addiction.... Read this in full at
http://www.georgebarna.com/2010/01/media-exposure-addiction/
CHRISTIANS
AND MASS COMMUNICATIONS
What
is the best response Christians can have to a 24/7 news and
entertainment media cycle? How can we safeguard our children from
substituting too much fantasy from computers and video games from
reality at an early age?
Gordon
Pennington uses his experiences as a communications and public
relations consultant to examine questions like these. In an online
audio interview, he takes a look at what he calls our “choice
anxiety.”
According
to Pennington, we each struggle to extract the good from the bad
in the overwhelming amount of information we absorb each day --
far more than prior generations had to do.
Pennington
knows first-hand how effective advertising and mass communications
campaigns work, having served as director of marketing for Tommy
Hilfiger. Now, as managing director of Burning Media Group in New
York City, he counsels major corporate clients like Coca Cola,
IBM, MTV, and Sony, along with more religious-oriented
organizations like the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale
University.... Listen to this at
http://www.breakpoint.org/features-columns/discourse/entry/15/14529
CHRISTIAN
BIOCHEMIST: FIRST 'SYNTHETIC CELL' STRENGTHENS CASE FOR DESIGN
A
biochemistry expert at the science-faith think tank Reasons to
Believe is among those hailing the recent creation of the
first-ever “synthetic cell,” though not for the same
reasons as most.
“From
an apologetics standpoint, this is exciting work that I’m
happy to see pursued and would like to see even more effort
devoted toward this because it’s giving us a very powerful
case for [Intelligent] Design,” said Dr. Fazle Rana on
Friday, referring to the idea that holds certain aspects of nature
are so complex that they could not have come about by evolution
alone but instead point to an intelligent designer.
“In
fact, I even would go so far as to say that this is even a brand
new class of arguments for Design,” he added during RTB’s
flagship podcast.
On
May 20, a group of scientists announced that it had successfully
replaced all of the natural DNA inside a cell with
laboratory-synthesized DNA, creating the first-ever “synthetic
cell.”
The
team, led by Craig Venter of the J. Craig Venter Institute,
presented its findings in an article published on the website of
the journal Science, run by the non-profit American Association
for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).... Read this in full at
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100523/christian-biochemist-first-synthetic-cell-strengthens-case-for-design/index.html
See
also “First synthetic cell raises concerns”
http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=32990
CHART:
BELIEFS ON CREATIONISM, EVOLUTION BY US REGION
The
“East South Central” region of America is recorded as
having the largest population who responded “definitely not
true” to the statement “Humans evolved from animals.”
See the chart at
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/05/the-people-arent-always-right-alabama-creationism/
HOW TO
WRITE AN AWFUL WORSHIP SONG
by
Stephen Altrogge
*
Recycle A Love Song.
Write
a song for your girlfriend. When she breaks up with you, convert
it into a worship song. Be sure to change all uses of “girl”
or “baby”.
*
Use Time Tested Rhymes.
Make
sure that you rhyme “love” and “above” at
least twice. The song becomes doubly awful if you can also
incorporate the word “dove”. Example: “You sent
your love from above, makes my heart feel like a pure white dove.”
You get the point.
*
Be Vague About Your Theology
Make
sure to avoid any theology at all costs. Don’t talk about
atonement, wrath, or any other biblical concepts. You want your
song to be all about feeling. Don’t let the mind get in the
way. Repeat after me: “Worship is a warm feeling, sort of
like heartburn, only better.” .... Read this in full at
http://www.theblazingcenter.com/2010/05/how-to-write-an-awful-worship-song.html
REVIVAL OF
OUTDOOR BAPTISMAL SERVICES CONNECTS CHURCHES TO COMMUNITIES
Some
Baptist churches are going back to the future -- and making a
statement to their communities in the process -- by holding
outdoor baptismal services resembling the ones Baptists held for
hundreds of years before indoor baptisteries became standard.
In
a public arena, baptism becomes a visual witness to the community.
Christ Community Church chose the town square because it is across
the street from where the congregation meets, but also to
reinforce its mission of being a church with a heart for the
city.... Read this in full at
http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/5185/53/
ACCEPTANCE
“Acceptance
is more than just being liked by someone. Jesus didn't say to me,
‘John, if you just clean up a bit, if you just dress better,
and read the Bible more, then I'll let you into my family.’
Of course he is going to help me become my best self, but I don't
have to pretend to be any better than I am to be in Jesus' circle.
How did Jesus accept you? Just the way you are. When someone knows
the embarrassing, humiliating truth about me and still accepts me,
I come alive.
“A
few friends and I from college days get together once a year for
an extended weekend to experience the fellowship that comes from
knowing each other deeply over a long period of time. Most of the
time I was with them, I tried to listen to myself speak as I might
hear someone else, and I was struck by how much of what I say is
designed to show how smart, how clever, or how funny I am, often
at someone else's expense. I found myself making my achievements
sound more impressive than they are. I wasn't sure that -- if I
were not me -- I would actually like me.
“I
read recently that one sign of narcissism is that the desire to be
admired is stronger than the desire to be liked. It was painful to
read that, because I thought of how much it describes my own
wound. While I was telling these things to my friends, I was
suddenly seized by the thought of how lucky I was to have friends
who love me, for I am broken. When I am in superficial
relationships, I can forget my brokenness. But when I am with
people who know me deeply and accept me fully, their acceptance
touches my brokenness as a doctor touches the injured place on a
patient's body. Their very touch begins to heal, and through the
mystery of the fellowship of acceptance, God's Spirit flows.”
John Ortberg, from The Me I Want to
Be
GOD’S
BATTALIONS: AN INTERVIEW WITH RODNEY STARK
Rodney
Stark is a prominent and prolific sociologist and historian of
religion. His Curriculum Vitae lists 28 books and 144 articles,
many of which have reached a broad academic and popular audience.
Often controversial, and known as a challenger of conventional
wisdom, Stark once described himself as neither religious nor
atheistic, but later came to understand himself as an "independent
Christian." After four decades as a professor, Stark is one
of America's preeminent scholars of religion, and serves as
co-director of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor
University. He spoke by phone with Timothy Dalrymple for Patheos'
Evangelical Portal about his latest book, God's Battalions: the
Case for the Crusades.
Q:
You are well known as a buster of historical myths. Your latest
book takes on one of what most Americans would consider a truism:
that the Crusades were simply evil and irrational. Why reassess
the Crusades?
A:
Because the Crusades are often understood within a larger
framework that says that Islam is the gentle faith and
Christianity the violent one. Karen Armstrong would have us
believe that Muhammad was a pacifist. Take Major Nidal Hassan, the
man responsible for the Fort Hood massacre. Had an evangelical
Christian of the nutty sort gotten up in front of Army
psychiatrists and talked about how much he respected people who
shot abortionists, he would have been out of the Army an hour
later. But everybody tiptoes around the issue of Islam.
Several
months after 9/11, former President Clinton gave a speech at
Georgetown University in which he apologized for the Crusades. He
said we had much to be sorry about, and we bore some of the guilt
for sending those airplanes plunging into the Twin Towers. Now,
Clinton isn't a nut. He's not an anti-American. He's just been
miseducated. He's been told a whole lot of nonsense about the
Crusades.
The
notion, for example, that the Crusaders went to get loot and land
and riches is made absurd by the survival of hundreds and hundreds
of mortgages that have been found in the archives at various
monasteries and convents. These people mortgaged away everything
they owned in order to get the money to march East. They went at
enormous personal cost. Most of them died. They knew there wasn't
anything out there in the sand that was going to reward them for
going.
The
things I write about in this book are no secret among historians
of the Crusades. I'm simply bringing their work to a popular
audience. I quote those scholars at great length throughout the
book. It struck me that the historians of the Crusades had not
reached the public, and I would give it a shot.... Read this in
full at
http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Crusades-for-Christ
16-YEAR-OLD
SAILOR CONTINUES HER SOLO VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD
Abby
Sunderland has been training all her life in the art of sailing
skills and seamanship. Since she was thirteen years old she has
been dreaming of sailing solo around the world. Now at the age of
sixteen her dream has become a reality. Abby set sail on January
23, 2010 from Marina Del Rey near Los Angeles, California on her
Australian built 40 foot solo rigged sloop named “Wild
Eyes.”
The
Sunderland family lives in Thousand Oaks, California and Abby has
an older brother, Zac, along with five younger siblings. Last
year, Zac broke records by being the first person under the age of
18 to solo-circumnavigate the world in his 36 foot sailboat,
“Intrepid.”
Zac's
voyage was quite an adventure riding out storms and avoiding close
encounters with pirates. After a considerable amount of
investigation and prayer, Abby and her parents, decided that it
would be safer for the teen to pursue a non-stop voyage. The
course would entail leaving Marina Del Rey in Southern California,
sailing South to Cape Horn at the tip of South America, around the
horn along the Drake Passage and then Eastward hugging the bottom
portion of the world to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and
back to California.
Abby
is very well aware of the life threatening risks involved in such
a voyage and it is quite a leap of faith for her and her parents
who not only granted permission but to assisted, equipped and
encouraged both their teenaged son and daughter for such a risky
voyage. In a video interview posted on her web site, Abby's
father, Lawrence said, “We are Born Again Christians, and we
don't make any decision just based on feeling or even on sound
knowledge. We also pray about it. The conviction of prayer and the
answer to prayer has led to where we are with Abigail's campaign
and definitely has help in the whole process and scope of making
decisions.”
Abby's
father puts it best when he said, “We have our dreams and
our aspirations but we have to remember that the LORD is in
control of everything.” .... Read this in full at
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/2010/s10050149.htm
MAN
WRONGFULLY IMPRISONED FOR DECADES HAPPY TO START RELEARNING LIFE
Meeting
54-year-old James Bain, the one thing that stands out is that the
smile never seems to leave his face. He appears happy and
positive, and the bitterness that might be buried inside a man who
was wrongly sent to prison for 35 years is nowhere to be found.
"I
kind of see myself as a man of God and being like Joseph," he
said. "In a sense, I feel like a bear, coming out of
hibernation. Like, they come out to eat, mine would be coming out
to enjoy what I have missed."
Bain
has missed a lot. His life was returned to him and his family in
December, when a Florida judge freed him after DNA testing proved
he did not kidnap and rape a 9-year-old boy in 1974 in Lake Wales,
Florida.
During
the past six months, Bain also has spoken to church groups and
organizations. "I try to show whoever I'm speaking to about
choices. That's my key word. Choice. Only you can make it because
you have to live with it," he said. "My choice was
snatched. ... It was taken from me. They didn't leave me no
alternative. It's like the old saying, the right place at the
wrong time." But Bain insists that he's not bitter.... Read
this in full at
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/24/life.after.prison/index.html?hpt=C1
DAFFYNITIONS
~
Excommunicated: Received a phone call from a former spouse
~
Protestants: Worker ants out to overthrow the Queen
~
Fanatic: To cool off the extreme upper portion of the house
~
Cauterize: Made eye contact with her
~
Donkey: Object that unlocks door to Godfather's home
~
Icing: What I do when I shower
~
Understudy: Prepare inadequately for the exam
~
Current: The fee charged by Rent-A-Mutt
~
Paradise: What you shoot craps with
~
Store Detective: Counter spy
~
Cannibal: A guy who goes into a restaurant and orders the waiter
~
Infantry: A newly planted sapling
http://www.mikeysFunnies.com
CONSIDER
“Don't
wait for extraordinary circumstance to do good; try to use
ordinary situations.”
Author
Unknown
VERSE TO
PONDER
“Beloved,
do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good. Whoever does
good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.”
3 John 1:11
THIS
WEEK'S HYMN: PENTECOSTAL POWER
Words
& Music: Charles H. Gabriel, 1912
Lord,
as of old, at Pentecost,
Thou
didst Thy power display,
With
cleansing, purifying flame,
Descend
on us today.
Refrain
Lord,
send the old-time power, the Pentecostal power!
Thy
floodgates of blessing, on us throw open wide!
Lord,
send the old-time power, the Pentecostal power!
That
sinners be converted and Thy Name glorified!
For
mighty works for Thee, prepare
And
strengthen every heart;
Come,
take possession of Thine own,
And
never more depart.
Refrain
All
self consume, all sin destroy!
With
earnest zeal endue
Each
waiting heart to work for Thee;
O
Lord, our faith renew!
Refrain
Speak,
Lord! before Thy throne we wait,
Thy
promise we believe,
And
will not let Thee go until
The
blessing we receive.
Refrain
>from
NetHymnal at
http://nethymnal.org/htm/p/e/pentecop.htm
ON PRAYER
“May
the strength of God pilot us.
May
the power of God preserve us.
May
the wisdom of God instruct us.
May
the hand of God protect us.
May
the way of God direct us.
May
the shield of God defend us.
May
the host of God guard us against the snares of evil and the
temptations of the world.
May
Christ be with us.
Christ
before us.
Christ
in us.
Christ
over us.
May
Thy salvation, O Lord, be always ours this day and forever more.”
St. Patrick
Breastplate
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.]
CLASSIFIEDS
Are
you looking for something or do you have something to sell? Let me
know and I'll put it in this newsletter.
Book your next
vacation with us!
Http://www.ChristianConnectionTravel.com
Books,
Music & More!
http://www.ChristianConnectionBooks.com
Get
your domain name here!
http://www.GoGlobalDomains.com
Let
me show you how to earn money as you
travel!
http://www.earnGlobalVacations.com/
It's
as easy as 1-2-3!
SHARE YOUR FAVORITE
WEBSITES
Tell
us what sites you find enjoyable and why.
Haunting
photos of Gulf of Mexico oil spill
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100524/sc_ynews/ynews_sc2199
How
to Buy a Used Car
http://artofmanliness.com/2010/04/11/how-to-buy-a-used-car/
Octopus
steals underwater camera from diver – while it’s
recording
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/822023-octopus-steals-underwater-camera-from-diver-while-its-recording
All
links to websites are provided as a service, and do not imply
endorsement by this ministry.
(BTW: whenever the URLs in
this newsletter are too long to turn into links on your e-mail
program, just copy the entire URL (two lines or more) and paste it
into a temporary email message. Then delete the return in the
middle of it and copy it again. Then paste it into your web
browser and hit enter.)
Live
so the preacher won't have to tell lies at your funeral.
Min.
Frank Coleman, Editor
Rev.frank@gmail.com
Thanks
for welcoming CONNECTIONS into your in-box!
----------
CONNECTIONS is a periodic newsletter of
announcements, news, recommendations, articles, and other
information helpful to men in our spiritual growth. Thanks for
welcoming CONNECTIONS into your in-box!
-----------
The
CONNECTIONS Team offers a variety of activities for men to
interact with other men on our journey of faith in Christ
together. Large group, small group, and one-to-one events
encourage relationship building and spiritual strengthening that
result in maximizing the potential we all have in Christ.
Contact
Min. Frank Coleman, 773-410-1483, frank@frankcoleman.com
if you'd like to participate in a men's discipleship program.
Path Of Life Ministries is located in Chicago, IL.
Visit
our website at: http://www.pathoflifeministries.net/
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