Don’t text and. . .

We’ve all seen the signs “Don’t text and drive”, right?

Well, with the advent of smartphones and Kindles and more, many are using them during church. So perhaps we just need an encouragement to “Don’t text, surf, or email during worship.”

Mike Wittmer points out the problem and a proposed solution (with some humor)

I saw a fellow surfing his cell phone throughout the entire worship service yesterday, so for every good example you have rightly mentioned there are plenty of others who rudely give in to temptation. Perhaps we need to welcome people to use their technology while regularly reminding them about the dangers that come with it. What if we said something like this at the start of each service?

“Please silence your pagers and cell phones as we prepare to worship the living God. We welcome you to use your phones, readers, or other digital devices to follow along in God’s Word, but we warn you that this is the worst possible time to send texts, check email, or bomb angry birds. God demands and deserves our full attention, and he destroyed Nadab and Abihu for offering “strange fire” during worship. So use your Kindle fire at your own risk.”

Those who know me know that I really enjoy technology. I use my mobile devices at church and during worship. So I am not against using mobile devices during worship.  Let’s just not let them distract us in our worship.

Read Full Post »

If you watch the Super Bowl

Haven’t decided if or how much of the Super Bowl I am going to watch.  I have ambivalent feelings about the game but I won’t even go into those now.  I know I will miss the first quarter or so because Lord willing, I will be worshipping with my local church at our Sunday evening service (and hopefully be preaching).

However, if you are going to watch the Super Bowl, I would encourage you to take to heart some of these practical admonitions from C. J. Mahaney from a post he wrote a few years ago.  [To read full article click here]. There is an even a compelling quote from Tom Brady near the end.

1. Strategically assign the remote.

Some prefer to turn off all the commercials; other prefer to just keep an eye on it and turn off the offensive ones. Either way, be proactive about what shows up on your TV screen. One way to do this is to assign one person (someone with both discernment and quick reflexes) to remote-control duty.” This cannot be just anybody. Throughout the game viewers are assaulted with commercials—immoral commercials, commercials that assault and offend one’s intelligence, and commercials with immodestly dressed women (which both tempt men and belittle women). These are as much a part of the Super Bowl as the game itself. . . .

2. Watch proactively. 
I encourage fathers to watch actively and discerningly, never passively and superficially. There is no doubt that throughout the game you will hear one superlative after another attributed to the skill of the athletes. The accent throughout the game will be on skill, not character. . . .

3. Foster fellowship.
. . . .No matter who we invite to our homes on Sunday, let’s not just stare at the TV, paying little attention to our families and our guests. Watching the game should involve building relationships.

4. Draw attention to the eternal.
Sometime after the game—that same evening or the next day—it’s helpful for a father to draw his child’s attention to the game in light of eternity. It’s also helpful for us as fathers to be reminded of an eternal perspective.

Apart from those few who listen excessively to sports talk radio, this game will be quickly forgotten. Let me ask you this—who won the Super Bowl even five years ago?

The day before the 1972 Super Bowl, Dallas Cowboy running back Duane Thomas said, “If it’s the ultimate game how come they’re playing it again next year?” Some players seem to get it. Sadly, many fans don’t.

More recently Tom Brady, quarterback of three Super Bowl championships, is quoted in a 60 Minutes interview saying,

Why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there’s something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, “Hey man, this is what is.” I reached my goal, my dream, my life. I think, “God, it’s got to be more than this.” I mean this isn’t, this can’t be what it’s all cracked up to be.

I anticipate that in a week or two, after the Super Bowl has been won, the champions will experience this same dissatisfaction. As Augustine said, “You [God] made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace till they rest in you.”

We must impart this eternal perspective to our children.

 

Read Full Post »

Herding the elephants!

“If you have been following, or trying to follow, all the discussion and controversy surrounding James MacDonald and T. D. Jakes at Elephant Room 2, Mike Riccardi over at the Cripplegate has provided us with an excellent historical survey.”

Also the co-founders of The Gospel Coalition, D. A. Carson and Tim Keller, have offered their response as well.

(HT: Bill Combs)

Read Full Post »

Another reason to love Tim Tebow

Looks like Tim Tebow approaches some issues even better than some pastors who should know better.

“Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow is canceling an appearance at a revival organized by prosperity gospel preacher Rod Parsley.”

Joe Carter has the background to this.

 

Read Full Post »

So this is where winter went?

We aren’t having a winter here this year.  Not very cold and not much snow.   I guess if you like winter you should be over here.

Read Full Post »

Read your Bible more and more!

John Piper writes:

“Don’t rest on past reading. Read your Bible more and more every year. Read it whether you feel like reading it or not. And pray without ceasing that the joy return and pleasures increase.

“Three reasons this is not legalism:

1. You are confessing your lack of desire as sin, and pleading as a helpless child for the desire you long to have. Legalists don’t cry like that. They strut.
2. You are reading out of desperation for the effects of this heavenly medicine. Bible-reading is not a cure for a bad conscience; it’s chemo for your cancer. Legalists feel better because the box is checked. Saints feel better when their blindness lifts, and they see Jesus in the word. Let’s get real. We are desperately sick with worldliness, and only the Holy Spirit, by the word of God, can cure this terminal disease.
3. It is not legalism because only justified people can see the preciousness and power of the Word of God. Legalists trudge with their Bibles on the path toward justification. Saints sit down in the shade of the cross and plead for the blood-bought pleasures.

So lets give heed to Mr. Ryle and never grow weary of the slow, steady, growth that comes from the daily, disciplined, increasing, love affair with reading the Bible.

Do not think you are getting no good from the Bible, merely because you do not see that good day by day. The greatest effects are by no means those which make the most noise, and are most easily observed. The greatest effects are often silent, quiet, and hard to detect at the time they are being produced.

Think of the influence of the moon upon the earth, and of the air upon the human lungs. Remember how silently the dew falls, and how imperceptibly the grass grows. There may be far more doing than you think in your soul by your Bible-reading. (J. C. Ryle, Practical Religion, 136)”

Read Full Post »