They are finally here. These "numbers" are a great complement to the Kids 4 Truth curriculum, or they can stand alone as great resources for moms and dads, teachers, ministry leaders, etc, etc, etc.

Go and spend a few minutes kicking the tires! Try entering the following numbers into the entry box (these numbers are taken from the curriculum. Each six digit number represents one of the curriculum units). 

040101

030207

020704

040909

 

"Radical rescue work" is how Dr. Tim Keesee describes this new video about ministry in impossible places like Cambodia and Borneo, but after watching it I'm convinced anew that there's another rescue work that needs doing. Dr. Tim knows what it is. So do I. American Christians need to be rescued from the blindness that selling out to the American Dream brings. His first video in what looks to be a series-in-progress is a strong prescription for our disease of comfortable apathy.

I want to thank Dr. Tim Keesee and the good people at Frontline Missions for producing this video. I am greatly looking forward to the next one and am praying that God will bless their endeavors mightily.

Folks I commend this video to you. Let's not settle for comfortable American dreams. Let's burn out for Jesus. I needed this video. I needed to be stirred again by the power of the Gospel. Oh how I wish the loudest voices were the ones most consumed with Christ and the power of His Gospel. 

Here are a couple previews below, but they're not enough! Buy the video and watch it with some friends. You can find out more and order the video HERE.

I sure enjoyed being interviewed by Stu Epperson a few years back. I see that today they replayed the interview on the air and online HERE. Hope you are well, Stu. I would love to reconnect sometime and let you know how our ministry is going sir!

Below is perhaps the most interestingly random conversation I've ever had with a junior camper and it happened this past week at Northland Camp.

This converstaion took place after a morning chapel service that really didn't have anything to do with missions work or activities, and certainly had nothing to do with Nepal.

***BEGIN CONVERSATION***

Camper (Girl, age about 9): "Mr. Bob, I REALLY need to speak with you about something VERY important."

Me (Adult Male, age old): [graciously shooing other children away] "Okay, let's walk over here and talk."

[we walk, we stop]

Camper: [BIG SIGH] "Well, here it is. Every time I hear about Nepal I get this tingly feeling in my heart. I think that maybe God wants me to go there."

Me: "Hey that's great..." [Camper interrupts my positive expression]

Camper: "Yeah but I ALSO think that God wants me to be a farmer."

Me: "Well maybe you can do some farming in Nepal."

Camper: "Well see that's the problem. I would really like to be a farmer in Nepal but let's say that I need to go back home and visit my mom and dad..."

Me: "uh-huh"

Camper: "...then WHO will watch my COWS?" [this question ends abruptly and with unusual intensity]

[pause]

Me: [I begin fighting a really big smile and sort of start losing I think] "Hmmm."

Camper: "I mean, I think that I could go to Nepal if I were to only have a few cows because then when I needed to come home I could take those cows with me when I go. I would definitely take a boat so that they could come too."

Me: "Well maybe there are some people in Nepal that you could ask to watch your cows while you are gone."

Camper: "I'm not sure there is anyone like that over there."

Me: "I'm pretty sure there are a few."

Camper: [ponders this thought, mumbles something, and then wanders away.]

***END CONVERSATION***

I really enjoy working with juniors. I mean... cows, Nepal, farming, and intercontinental-travel-by-sea all in one conversation, and all in under a minute. Beautiful.

I think Ken Ham does a very solid job of defining the biggest issues confronting Christians today.

THE VIDEO IS HERE

Major on the majors folks. Spend your time wisely. Let's endeavor to live uncomfortable lives for the Gospel's sake. Speak the truth in love to our culture...no matter the cost. 

I am doing my part to help the viral spread of this brilliant 3 minute video. It is worth watching on several levels:

1. The command this man possesses of the English language is one-of-a-kind. Our language is lovely, and listening to it spoken by one that weilds it with such skill and authority is marvelous.

2. He says really, really good things that need to be heard and heeded by all that carry any amount of influence. 

3. He boldly confronts with the truth. I'd love to hear this guy deliver a sermon! 

Enjoy!

 

Is it considered Christian growth because I just deleted a whole bunch of stuff I wrote about this ad and refused to publish it on my blog? 

I hope so. That would be the highlight of today's sanctification methinks. 

...right now would be a great time to experience our latest dynamation, Lady Lucy. Here is the link: www.kids4truth.com/ladylucy

This is another Kids 4 Truth dynamation that prods away at the evolutionist worldview and attempts to show that Darwinism is primary philosohical in nature, not scientific. 

And it is also a reminder why God demands repentance. Without Christ, we are lost, blind, and dead in our sins and enemies in our minds. We don't acknowledge God, and our most fundamental presuppositions are all wrong. Darwinists don't need more evidence, or more data, or more convincing ... what they need is repentance. They need to personally experience Colossians 2:3, that in Christ is hid ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 

I hope you enjoy the new dynamation and find it useful for Kingdom purposes. 

That being said, I now have a question for both of my readers: "What kind of dynamation would you like to see this year?"

We currently have three ideas on the table but I would personally love to hear from you if you have a thought about what we should do next. And please remember, our goal is not political, it is GOSPEL.We want to see, by God's grace, authentic conversions that glorify God.

Over Christmas my wife and I traveled to see her brother Marc and his family. Marc is a missionary to France currently on deputation and is staying rent free at a ministry-housing facility called "The Shepherd's Bethel." To say I was impressed by both the quality of facilities and the heartbeat of the leadership there is an understatement.

For several years the Mike Weiss family has served missionaries and other ministry families by providing free housing. Well, maybe not 100% free as Mike requests that dads put in a few hours every week working to maintain and/or improve the facilities. 

My wife and I had the opportunity to attend a going-away meal for one of the missionaries there. Did I mention Mike is a great cook and in another life he was a top notch chef? The food was great but the fellowship was better. I got the sense right away that the Weiss' love and pray for the families that stay there. I think if you're there for any amount of time you are counted as a part of the Weiss family, and that is an altogether good thing. 

I began talking to Mike about fishing up north and ended talking to him about his "need" for more families to stay there. I would have thought there was a waiting list to stay at a place like this! Not so. There is room here, and if you find yourself among those that meet the qualifications (i.e. full time ministry) and have a need, I implore you to call Mike today. You can find all the details you need here: www.shepherdsbethel.org. 

One other thing, if you go to visit Shepherd's Bethel make sure you wander around French Lick for a couple hours. If you don't know why the little town of French Lick is significant, shame on you, and may Larry never find out about your ignorance! 

 

Okay. I found this orangishy, cardstocky tract at a gas pump recently while traveling through--prepare to be shocked--the deep south. There are at least 3 major problems with this tract. Try your skill and see if you can find all 3 today! 

(HINT for 1 of the 3: You will NOT need this blog post 10 seconds after you die.)

"It strikes me that, here in England, we greatly need more Bible catechizing of the children of all classes. I was very much struck with the Scotch, how vastly superior their children are to our youngsters in the knowledge of the Scriptures. I sometimes take young men into my institution for the ministry whose education is very deficient, and I sometimes find these good, earnest young English brethren, though they have read the Scriptures, [they are] not thoroughly acquainted even with the historical parts and narratives, but often make sad blunders. Now, though I have dealt with many Scotchmen, I never met with one who was not thoroughly acquainted with the narrative and well-instructed in the doctrine. I attribute that to the use of catechisms, and I think that, if we could revive, more and more, the use of a good catechism, or the catechetical principle of bringing home, by question and answer, the doctrines and truths of Scripture to the lads of our villages, we should be doing a world of good. The way to secure the masses would be to secure them when young." -- Charles Spurgeon

Merry Christmas friends! Here are a couple images from our soon-to-be-released dynamation, Lady Lucy.

The humanist agenda gets it. In order to change the world one needs to change the minds of others. And no mind is more easily influeneced and directed than the mind of a child. 

http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=1083934&p=1 

 

No.

But this guy says that children are predisposed to believe in God. Read this LINK

Perhaps what this guy is observing is that children are more open to faith in God because they haven't spent many years suppressing the truth in unrighteousness. But whether one is a tender child or a hostile atheist, regeneration is what is needed. It's the only thing that can make that which is dead in sin alive in Christ. There is no difference in the fundamental nature between the child or the old atheist. They both desperately need God to grace them with saving faith and repentance.

I found the comments on the article to be of particular interest. 

This is a worth-your-time debate on the existence of the Christian God between Douglas Wilson and atheist Christopher Hitchens.

It is about 100 minutes in length and about a 40MB download. 

Here's the LINK

***WARNING*** Hitchens mutters the occassional expletive and during a Q&A session one member of the audience quotes Hitchens' work which uses some foul language.

Here are a few reasons why I encourage Christians to regularly listen to debates like this (at least a few times a year): 

1. Because all Christians are commanded to give an answer with meekness and respect (1 Peter 3:15). You need to know the questions and objections so that you can answer them. We are living in a post-Christian age...and we will be witnessing to atheists more and more. There is simply no reason to be fearful of them and their arguments unless you have not equipped yourself. One reason I listen to debates like this is to help sharpen my evangelism.

2. It demonstrates the primacy of one's worldview. Hitchens is an atheist...and he interprets everything through that filter. Wilson is a believer in the triune God...and he interprets everything through that filter. Hitchens begins with reason (or what he perceives as reason). Wilson begins with the Bible. (There is a fascinating discussion of reason and logic between the two debaters near the end. Notice the tangled web Hitchens gets himself caught in. The bottom line is at some point we all hit bedrock.)  ***NOTE*** I appreciate the fact that Wilson states that one cannot reason themselves to God. Wilson is a solid presuppositionalist and he understands that unless God is gracious to open up one's eyes through the truth, no amount of evidence, data, facts will convince the unbeliever to become a believer. There needs to be a fundamental/presuppositional/bedrock change in thinking. Hitchens has man at the center of his universe, in particular himself, and therefore needs to repent. And he won't repent unless God grants him repentance.

3. It should cause you to grieve over the lostness and blindness of the atheist and pray for God's grace to open eyes.

4. Most of us live in a comfortable Christian subculture away from the bothersome challenge that the atheistic worldview brings our way. Stop it. God didn't call you to live a comfortable life. It shoud stir up a righteous passion in you to confront the culture because you hold, in your jar of clay, life saving and life changing truth by the grace of God. And we know how God has used this truth in our lives so it stands to reason based on His nature and promises that he'll do it for others too.

5. Realize that we can engage non-biblical viewpoints with humility, while still weilding the sharp edge of the truth with authority. 

I also found this LINK to what is probably my favorite Christian-V-Atheist type debate ever.

I hope that you will benefit from these solid resources.