The Prosperity Gospel from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.

A great book is getting ready to be released this spring and 9Marks Blog has written up a great review about it:
http://blog.9marks.org/2009/10/contextualization-euphemism-for-homogeneous-unit-principle.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=8303567&page=1

I do not think there is anything wrong with house churches, but I do not believe they are the only “biblical” model of planting churches. Here is a short piece from a blog post at Alpha and Omega Ministries:

He then cites 2 Thessalonians 2:15. He says “there’s no doubt about the traditions of the apostles as regards to church life.” The question I have for Mr. Atkerson is can he objectively identify the apostolic tradition of instructions as to the size and dwelling of a church? Did the early church fail to pass on these traditions as Paul instructed the Thessalonians? Once persecution lifted, the church abandoned the use of the home as a meeting place. In God’s providence, did the Holy Spirit see fit to leave such an important tradition on the church either unwritten or buried implicitly that many of the great minds of the church missed it for centuries?

http://aomin.org/aoblog/index.php?itemid=3427

The 9 Marks Ministries eJournal is a journal published by 9 Marks ministries in Washington, D.C. This ministry is headed by Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church.

This month’s eJournal is about missions. There are book reviews of several major missions books. There are a couple of missions books that fall into the not so recommended mission resources that are interesting:

Book Review: Church Planting Movements: How God Is Redeeming a Lost World, by David Garrison
Reviewed by Ed Roberts

Book Review: The CAMEL: How Muslims Are Coming to Faith in Christ, by Kevin Greeson
Reviewed by Doug Coleman

Recommended Resources:

Book Review: An Introduction to the Science of Missions, by J.H. Bavinck
Reviewed by Andy Johnson

There are others and you can access the entire journal at: http://www.9marks.org/CC_Content_Page/0,,PTID314526|CHID598016|CIID,00.html

Last month I posted a link to the final exam question from Dr. Moore’s Christian Ethics class. Here is the question again:

Joan is a fifty year-old woman who has been visiting your church for a little over a year. She sits on the third row from the back, and usually exits during the closing hymn, often with tears in her eyes. Joan approaches you after the service on Sunday to tell you that she wants to follow Jesus as her Lord.

You ask Joan a series of diagnostic questions about her faith, and it is clear she understands the gospel. She still seems distressed though. When you ask if she’s repented of her sin, she starts to cry and grit her teeth.

“I don’t know,” she says. “I don’t know how…I don’t know where to start…Can I meet with you privately?”

You, Joan, and a godly Titus 2-type women’s ministry leader in your church meet in your office right away, and Joan tells you her story.

She wasn’t born Joan. She was born John. From early on in John’s life, though, he felt as though he was “a woman trapped in a man’s body.” Joan says, “I don’t mean to repeat that old shopworn cliché, but it really is what I felt like.”

Joan tells you that when she was twenty she began the process of “transitioning” from life as a man to life as a woman. She underwent extensive hormone therapy, followed by extensive plastic surgery—including so-called “gender reassignment surgery.” She has lived for the past thirty years—physically and socially—as a woman.

“I want to do whatever it takes to follow Jesus,” Joan tells you. “I want to repent…I just, I don’t know how to do it.”

“I am surgically now a woman. I’ve taken hormones that give me the appearance and physical makeup of a woman,” she says. “Even if I were to put on a suit and tie right now, I’d just look like a woman with a suit and tie. Not to mention the fact that, well, I am physically…a woman.”

“To complicate matters further,” Joan says through tears, “I adopted my daughter, Clarissa, when she was eight months old and she’s ten years old now. She doesn’t know about my past life as…as a man. She just knows me as her Mom.”

“I know the sex change surgery was wrong. I know that my life is twisted. I’m willing to do whatever Jesus would have me to do to make it right,” she says. “But what would Jesus have me to do?”

Joan asks you, “Am I too messed up to repent and be saved? If not, what does it mean for me to repent and live my life as a follower of Jesus? What is right for me to do?”

Dr. Moore’s answer to this question can be found here:
John or Joan Part 1
John or Joan Part 2
John or Joan Part 3
John or Joan Part 4
John or Joan Part 5

I am thankful for professors like Dr. Russell Moore who require us to think through difficult, real life, issues before we graduate. It would be easy to teach an ethics class with two columns. Everything in column one is good, everything in column two is bad. Dr. Moore tried to push us past this simplistic way of viewing the world and force us to make decisions using wisdom. Wisdom is a gift from God that can only be enhanced through knowledge and application of God’s word in everyday circumstances. Pray that Bui and I would be prepared to make wise decisions over the next few years as we prepare the ministry.

Don’t be deceived into thinking that the world is becoming overpopulated. Many developed nations have discovered that their nations are not becoming overpopulated, but underpopulated.

This video is very eye opening:

Last semester I took Introduction to Christian Ethics with Dr. Russel Moore. The final exam for this class was a case study. Here is a link to the case study:
http://www.russellmoore.com/2009/05/04/christian-ethics-this-years-dilemma/

The question was about a man who had a sex change operation many years earlier who wants to repent and trust in Christ. What does his repentance look like?

While answering this question I did some research on sex change operations. I wasn’t surprised to discover that Thailand has the highest number of sex change operations per year, but I was surprised to discover which country was number two. The number two country is Iran. Homosexuality is illegal in Iran, punishable by death. But, a homosexual can live life as a homosexual if they have a sex change operation. According to one reporter these operations are not undercover, they are done openly and legally. “It’s a very public phenomenon,” she says. “These sex changes are legal and are endorsed by the leading clerics. It’s embraced. I asked for a press permit before I went. After a month, I was given the OK. Officially, I was allowed to do what I needed to do. It’s not like I was doing a film on nuclear strategy — they don’t see it as an openly political issue. The rest was what you have to do with any documentary: spend a lot of time gaining trust.” (Iran’s Gay Plan - Accessed May 29, 2009)

The world is confused about gender and gender roles. The only place we can find answers to these questions is in Scripture. Christians must be ready to answer difficult questions that are posed by our society.

Paul was no slouch when it came to languages. His knowledge of Hebrew and Greek allowed him to communicate the Gospel to many more people than he possibly could have if he had only known Hebrew or Aramaic. His knowledge of Greek allowed him to speak with the centurions who arrested him (saved him) while the Jews attacked him. His knowledge of Hebrew allowed him to defend himself before his countrymen and share the Gospel with them. Paul’s speech in Acts 22 could not have happened if Paul had been too lazy to study while he was sitting at the feet of Gamaliel.
37 As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?” And he said, “Do you know Greek? 38 Are you not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?” 39 Paul replied, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.” 40 And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying:
Acts 21:37-40 (ESV)
The Hebrew language could actually be translated Hebrew dialect, which would mean Aramaic. Paul was fluent in Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew. Why are we as a church scared of knowledge? God used Paul’s knowledge to accomplish great tasks. I pray that the Lord would keep me from laziness as I study Greek. I study Greek, not so I can have a better quiet time and read the New Testament in the original language. But, I study Greek so that one day I can teach pastors who have no access to a seminary education how to read God’s Word in the original languages. Education is not for ourselves, but for the people we serve.