Last semester I took a class about Islam at Southern Seminary we went on a couple field trips to Mosques in Indiana and Ohio. You can see photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2074282&l=66fad&id=51801407
This mosque in particular made me think of something Millard Erickson said in reply to a question from the audience during a lecture at Southern last semester.
Millard Erickson was asked after his lecture for his opinion on American megachurches. Erickson said he was scared that Americans couldn’t tell the difference between a megachurch with lots of services (i.e. child care, bowling alleys, etc.) and a mosque that offered the same services.
Muslims are already attempting to do this in major American cities. One mosque I visited seats 1500 people. They have a library, bookstore, a private school and even Sunday School. They teach about doing good and submitting to God. What’s the difference between this and a happy-clappy megachurch that doesn’t preach the Gospel?
I am not saying that we need to pass laws to make Islam illegal. I am suggesting that churches need to quit catering to the needs of non-Christians and begin to focus on the real Biblical mandate of preaching the Gospel.
We have finally found a church we can call home during our time at Southern. Immanuel Baptist is a diverse community of believers who love to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with people in the community.
Check out their website here:
Last weekend my wife and I went to Jackson, TN with Mom and Dad.
Dad with Waylon:
Bui and Mom with Waylon:
Myself with Waylon:
Waylon Pierce:
When we drive to Jackson from Murray, Kentucky we pass through Paris, TN. As we were passing through the court square there was a lone man walking around with a sandwich board. Bui took a great picture:
Before anyone assumes the lone protester was a Republican; the back of his sandwich board read, “Impeach Saddam Bush.” You should also know that he was giving a thumbs up to an Asian woman taking his picture. Confusion abounds.
For anyone who is married or is engaged, please check out the book reviews on this page. A couple books Bui and I read before we were married, by Ed Wheat and Tim LaHaye, were given pretty low marks. The reviewers wrote what I was thinking after reading these books.
http://9marks.org/CC/article/0,,PTID314526%7CCHID598014%7CCIID2427602,00.html#cg
Dr. Moore just posted a great article about end times or eschatology. It is not concerning the leaders or Middle Eastern countries or the nation of Israel, it is about the New Heavens and the New Earth, our eternal dwelling with Christ.
Many Christians think of their future existence as heaven, in the kind of disembodied, unearthly abode they know awaits them immediately after death. And yet the time between death and resurrection–what theologians call the intermediate state–is far from permanent. It is itself a time of waiting for the full blessing of salvation–the resurrection of the body and the coming of the kingdom. Karl Barth describes John Calvin’s vision of this heavenly interlude for the dead in Christ with perfect clarity. Believers in heaven are conscious and active “but with the rest and assurance of conscience that comes with physical death, contemplating God and his peace, from which they are still at a distance, but of which they are sure.” These believers are “not yet in possession of the kingdom of God” but they can nonetheless “see what here we can only believe in hope.”
Central Asia Church Planting Guidelines
1. A church is intentional about being a church. Members think of themselves as a church. They are committed to one another and to God (associated by covenant) in pursuing all that Scripture requires of a church.
2. A church has an identifiable membership of baptized believers in Jesus Christ.
3. A church practices the baptism of believers only by immersing them in water.
4. A church observes the Lord’s Supper on a regular basis.
5. Under the authority of the local church and its leadership, members may be assigned to carry out the ordinances.
6. A church submits to the inerrant word of God as the ultimate authority in all it believes and does.
7. A church meets regularly for worship, prayer, the study of God’s word, and fellowship. Members of the church minister to one another’s needs, hold each other accountable, and exercise church discipline as needed. Members encourage one another and build each other up in holiness, maturity in Christ, and love.
8. A church embraces its responsibility to fulfill the Great Commission, both locally and globally, from the beginning of its existence as a church.
9. A church is autonomous and self-governing under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the authority of His Word.
10. A church has identifiable leaders, who are scrutinized and set apart according to the qualifications set forth in Scripture. A church recognizes two Biblical offices of church leadership: pastors/elders/overseers and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
This list was given to me by a friend at Clifton Baptist Church. This list is not exhaustive, but it is helpful for people looking for a good church and people who are currently planting churches at home or abroad.
This is a great website. Here are a few excerpts from their “95 THESES AGAINST DISPENSATIONALISM.”
5. Contrary to many dispensationalists’ assertion that modern-day Jews are faithful to the Old Testament and worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Hagee), the New Testament teaches that there is no such thing as “orthodox Judaism.” Any modern-day Jew who claims to believe the Old Testament and yet rejects Christ Jesus as Lord and God rejects the Old Testament also.
9. Despite the dispensationalists’ proclamation that they have a high view of God’s Word in their “coherent and consistent interpretation” (John Walvoord), in fact they have fragmented the Bible into numerous dispensational parts with two redemptive programs—one for Israel and one for the Church—and have doubled new covenants, returns of Christ, physical resurrections, and final judgments, thereby destroying the unity and coherence of Scripture.
14. Dispensationalism’s argument that “the understanding of God’s differing economies is essential to a proper interpretation of His revelation within those various economies” (Charles Ryrie) is an example of the circular fallacy in logic: for it requires understanding the distinctive character of a dispensation before one can understand the revelation in that dispensation, though one cannot know what that dispensation is without first understanding the unique nature of the revelation that gives that dispensation its distinctive character.
Many more can be found here:
I received this email from Jack and Lynn Kinnison last month and he gave me permission to post it. There is some helpful advice in this email from a couple who spent 35 years in Thailand and Laos.
Some have asked where we will settle down after we retire. Good question! We have not made a decision about that as of yet – wherever He guides us to. Great promise in Ps. 139: 9-10: “If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.” We rest on that promise – that He will guide us as to the “where”. In 1973 His hand guided us to Laos and then into Thailand in 1975 (when Laos fell to the communists); he has “held us fast” all these years, so when we “settle on the far side of the sea” (return to the USA), He will continue guiding and holding.
In April the Thailand Baptist Convention had its every-other-year gathering at our Baptist camp in Pattaya. About 750 Thai Baptists, as well as about 25 IMB mission personnel, were present from all over Thailand. We love these gatherings. We got to see precious Thai friends whom we have known for years, but had not seen in several years. On the last night of the annual meeting, we and the Ringer family (Doug and Brenda), who have served in Laos and Thailand the same years as us, were honored by a “Liang-soong” – a sort of sending-off ceremony. Lots of great folks (mostly Thais) spoke encouraging words, the kind that bring both laughter and tears. When given the chance, I told our Thai brothers that leaving Thailand is going to be very difficult because of two things: (1) When we left our parents, sisters, brothers, and other family members and friends in the USA in 1973, it was with the knowledge of the promise that our Lord would provide us with “mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, homes, and lands in this life.” He has fulfilled that promise many times over. Now in leaving Thailand, we are having to leave behind all of those Thai “fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters” who have been a part of our lives for many years now. Yes, we will undoubtedly return in years to come to visit and maybe engage in ministries, as and if the Lord opens up those doors for us. (2) The second reason we regret leaving Thailand is the FOOD – it is SOOOO GOOD here! We have yet to find a Thai restaurant in the States that can really duplicate “the real deal”. (The “sticky rice and mangoes”, the dessert of kings, in the USA is the pits!) Tears and laughter. What a great send-off. Some of our missionary colleagues have asked us, “What are some of the secrets to longevity on the field?” Lots of answers:
(1) Wherever you sleep, take your own pillow!
(2) Wherever you live, install a fan in the bathroom – especially during the hot season!
(3) Never lose your sense of humor.
(4) Never give up hope – maintain your walk with the Lord, no matter what. (I have attached a photo of the Ringers and us taken during the program that evening.)
The Ringers’ and the Kinnisons’ will be missed!
Oftentimes I forget that my wife is Asian. That sounds like a strange statement, but I do. Today Bui went grocery shopping at the Vietnamese grocery before we had lunch together. After lunch she told me to look in a brown paper bag to see what she had purchased. When I opened the bag I jumped in the air because something moved. Bui thought this was funny, but I have never been so scared in my life. She purchased two purple crabs that were just hanging out in the paper bag waiting for Bui to cook them. I thought I opened a bag full of snakes, but it was just a couple purple crabs.
Scary lunch break.
