Dun Dun DUN!!

Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

Kim approaches the table where her friends are gathered. She struggles under the weight of the massive book she is carrying. What treasure does she carry? As she places the tome upon the table, the title is revealed for all to see: Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, edited by John Piper and Wayne Grudem.

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I realize it's not merely an article that you can click and read in ten minutes. I read through / skimmed chapter two, which is an overview of issues in question & answer form, and I found it to be interesting. Questions 31 and 32 deal with head coverings. There was another question in there about "women being silent in the church" from the end of 1 Cor 14.

Question 49 asks about how a lay person could ever hope to come to a clear conviction on these questions when so many evangelical scholars disagree. The response is quite interesting.

The table of contents reveals a whole chapter on head coverings, and a whole chapter on women being silent in the church which I will likely read.

So, I know people probably all have their own "goto" teachers whom they respect and look to for insight on tough things. One of mine is Piper. I appreciate his thoroughness, and care to walk people through studying and interpreting the text. So anyway, I won't be offended if your time is spent studying elsewhere (or other topics even). But this resource looks helpful so I'm recommending it =)

Test Your Faith

Something that used to scare my in college has become somewhat of an interesting game I've developed for myself, and I found a site to help share it with the rest of you.

It's a little game where I find books, web sites, or other information that contrasts or challenges my faith directly with pointed questions and read through them. Then, I refute the points. It's something that has strengthened my faith immeasurably as it forces me to look at (sometimes) rational arguments of non-believers and examine them to try and answer them as if I was speaking to a person who believed the thing I am reading.

This website was on another website I was checking out, hiding in an ad off to the side. I just got through the first post, and let me tell you, it is AMAZING the lengths that people will go to to try and disprove Christianity and the Word of God.

I'll just give you my little spoiler for the first one: it's all about prayer, and how the Bible says all over that if you ask for anything in prayer with faith, it shall be given to you. Then they try to go ahead and point out this isn't true, because lots of people pray for a cure for cancer and other such things and those prayers go unanswered. Not only are the missing the entire point about having FAITH, and how just saying that you believe it will happen and ACTUALLY believing it will happen are two different things, but also they take verses right out of context to try and make a point.

Anyway, if anyone wants to go through the list and debunk them with me (and, of course, POST your debunking with it's number), I'd love to see what you guys think. God bless, and happy learning and growing!

Ringomania!

And now for something completely different-

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1913069

Knowing Your Election

I wish I'd read this a long time ago. But then, God does seem to put just the right words into our lives at just the right times. This devotional illustrates one of the themes of my spiritual life lately: "Randy, stop trying to be saved, and let Jesus be your Savior."

For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you.

Will preborn lives be endangered by healthcare reform?

The following letter is from Focus on the Family:

Dear Friends,

Have you seen the recent media coverage of the healthcare reform legislation Congress is currently considering? You may have many concerns about such a sweeping reform plan from our government, but you may not have heard about the most dangerous part of the plan in terms of the sanctity of life.

The plan currently before Congress will mandate taxpayer-funded abortion coverage. Our analysts here at Focus on the Family^® are convinced that the healthcare reform plan--as currently written--would result in the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade.

This healthcare reform plan would dramatically increase the number of taxpayer-funded abortions and even mandate abortion coverage by private insurance plans. Even though two recent polls have found that between 63 and 71 percent of Americans support laws that protect tax dollars from being used to fund abortion, so far, Congress has defeated all efforts to ensure abortion coverage is not included in the reform plan. Sadly, we know that increased availability and funding will lead to an increase in the number of abortions.

In addition, the plan does not protect the rights of conscience for medical professionals who would choose not to participate in or perform abortions.

We have prepared a special online video that explains how this legislation effectively reverses more than 30 years of pro-life efforts at the federal and state levels. Will you join us in prayer that legislators will specifically exclude abortion coverage from the plan, as well as include protection for healthcare workers' rights of conscience? Thank you for your prayers in support of preborn babies.

In defense of life,

Tom Minnery
Senior Vice President, Government & Public Policy

Time to learn Greek

Dive in to learn greek.