Pulling Weeds with Scott Brown

Continuing on the theme of ranting in favor of little-appreciated causes, here is one on which lots of well-meaning brethren disagree with me:  age segregation in the church. It's destroying children and young people by giving parents incentives to abdicate as spiritual leaders. The statistics are in, and children raised in these paradigms are not sticking with the faith when they are out on their own. And yet we keep doing the same things (that already didn't work) over and over.

"The church is not the playground for our creative imaginations. Scripture calls us to be faithful to the means which God has appointed, having onfidence that God both ordained the means and controls the ends. In Leviticus 10:1-3, we are faced with the fact that God strikes men dead for offering profane fire 'which he had not commanded them.' God did not say, 'I told you not to do that.' He said in effect, 'I did not tell you to do that.' Consider how many things the church is doing today that God did not tell it to do. Does that bother us?"  

                                                                                      Scott Brown, A Weed in the Church

The side of the argument we never hear

For a number of years I have subscribed to Acts and Facts, a publication of the Institute for Creation Research. Each issue is flush with fascinating articles about the studies and discoveries of this excellent institute.  Contrary to the sterotypes of pro-evolutionists, these are not a bunch of quacks who are trying to bend truth to fit the Bible. They are real scientists with real credentials. However, the bias the scholarly, where politically correct and published academics vote to support each other's research while scoffing at everyone else's, has caused these brave scientists to be portrayed ludicrously.

The current issue, which arrived yesterday describes the following interesting projects now underway:

• Recent advancments in the field of radiometric dating have demonstrated that the rate of decay of certain isotopes was much faster in the past. This explains why many radiometric age estimates of certain rocks are vastly inflated from the true age. It also means that radiometric dating cannot be used legitimately as an argument against the biblical timescale.
• Advancements in technology have provided much more data about the universe than we currently have theories to explain. Dr. Jason Lisle, who is working on the Anisotropic Synchrony Convention cosmological model, says it's as though "the universe were screaming for a creation-based interpretation of the new data."
• Dr. Jake Hebert is using fossil data to address questions such as "Why did people live so long before the Flood?" and "What do we really know about extinct organisms?"
• Dr. Jeff Tomkins has demonstrated that he DNA of humans is more different than the 97 to 99 per cent similarity to that of apes which is often touted by evolutionists. 
• The notion of "natural selection" is being challenged by Dr. Randy Guliuzza, who has uncovered genetic data which suggests that organisms respond to their circumstances as though they were designed to do so by an intelligence.

These are but a few of the current projects underway by these diligent scientists. Since the controlling establishment will never acknowledge their studies, it is good to inform ourselves of these questions and discoveries in order to counter the smugness of a world which hates God and wishes it could prove He doesn't exist. 

Eroding freedom of religion

Here is a link to my latest.  This is a difficult subject for me to write about, and my editor has promised to back off on this for a while.  I am weary about so much attention being focused on one particular behavior, when so many sins are rampant in our society. Amerca needs to repent, but what prophet doesn't know that?  Father, have mercy!

Legal Gladiators

A few years back there was a movie called Legal Eagles which made heroes out of young lawyers who, frankly, were basically in it for the money, and tangentially supported mostly liberal causes. In contrast, there are a group of select young men and women who receive fellowships from the Alliance Defense Fund as Blackstone Fellows who learn to defend fundamental American freedoms. Fortunately, the ADF is discriminating in their admission to this group, so only about a hundred out of each yearly group of over 800 applicants are admitted.

I first became aware of this program a few weeks ago through a conferfence sponsored by Center for Arizona Policy. I had a table representing Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization, and the table representing ADF was right across the aisle in the exhibit hall. During lulls in the traffic, we chatted. The ADF representative was familiar with Arizona's tax credit law, and very supportive. I was fascinated to learn about the Blackstone Fellows, and very encouraged that ADF is investing in young gladiators who will go into the arena for truth and freedom.

I was reminded of the Blackstone Fellows as I listened to Hugh Hewitt last night on the way home. It turns out he is a big supporter as well, and interviewed one of the directors of the fellowship on his program. I endorse their efforts and encourage you to learn more about what they do here.

Wildcats are #1!

This afternoon I welcomed back my friend Joe Wambach from a long vacation up at Lake Powell, and brought him up to date on U of AZ's march through the College World Series this past week. It turns out he once interviewed U of A baseball coach Andy Lopez on behalf of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and learned thereby that Lopez is a God-fearing man with a passion for Christ.

While there are always those who want to point out how many jerks there are running lose who claim to be Christians, nobody ever mistakes the real deal when they see it. Before knowing that Lopez explicitly confesses to be a Christ-follower, most U of A sports fans, even as I, have discerned that this is a man of unique moral fiber and character-inspiring leadership. When I told my son Ethan about the conversation I had with Joe, his response regarding Lopez's faith was, "I'm not surprised at all."

The Bible says that at the final judgment, angels will sort the wheat from the tares, and we will see many of those loud-mouthed "Christ-claiming" jerks exposed for what they really are. But few would be surprised to hear the Master say to Andy Lopez, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"  Thank God for men like him.

Contra Mundam

It's happened!  I've found someone as crazy as I am!  Click here and watch "The World is Trespassing" or any of his other fine videos!

It's the last sentence that intrigues me...

"Before the church can hope to win over the surrounding society, it must first win over its own youth. Young people do not just need rules, they need reasons. It's time for the church to regroup, rethink, and recast its strategy for social and political engagement.
Christians must learn to engage the secular worldviews that drive the public debate. They must learn to articulate a worldview rationale for biblical morality. And more importantly, they must back up their message with authentic living before a watching world."

Nancy Pearcey, Saving Leonardo

Text exchange with Tom Massa

                                                                                            

TM: "I've been rereading The Chronicles of Narnia.  I think my favorite part out of all seven is in The Horse and His Boy, Chapter 11.  It's the scene wherein Aslan finally reveals himself to Shasta."                                                        

TA:  "'I was the cat.  I was there all along.' Classic!"                

TM:  "I'm not going to lie:  it brings me close to tears every time.  There is a lion who walks beside me through fire and flood..."                                                                                

TA:  "Amen."

thinking a lot about the disciplines lately...

"Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.

The classical disciplines of the spiritual life call us to move beyond surface living into the depths. The invite us to explore the inner caverns of the spirtual realm. They urge us to be the answer to a hollow world...

Psalm 42:7 reads 'Deep calls to deep.'  Perhaps somewhere in the subterranean chambers of your life you have heard the call to deeper, fuller living. You have become weary of frothy experiences and shallow teaching.  Every now and then you have caught glimpses, hints of something more than you have known. Inwardly you long to launch out into the deep."

-Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline

On the identity of marriage....

Here is my latest on Presidential Prayer Team. It got the usual mixed response, but more quantity than usual (it is a hot-button topic right now) and, what is more important to me, some signs appear of long-term residual effects from those who habitually read the PPT site.

One reader sees it as Republican Party propaganda and will not read it any more. I actually see this as progress - if someone can't see how careful we are to couch our arguments in biblical rather than political terms, then he/she is better off not wasting their time and ours. Several self-identified African-Americans are admitting to the unbiblical positions of our sitting President. And fewer irrational statements are being made, per capita.

Seed-sowing. We all do it somewhere. It's slow and arduous, but results will come. As the Caterpillar said to Alice, "Keep your temper!"