studying bible

Blog Meme – What are you studying?

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My friend David, at Boomer in the Pew, asked an interesting question yesterday; “What faith materials are you studying each week?”

As a pastor, I am always reading and studying for this weeks sermon as well as the sermon series that is a month away. Sermon podcasts have been a great blessing to me and they have enriched my devotional life measurably.

1. Daily Bible readings in the Old Testament
2. Finishing last Bible study on the book of Psalms for our Wed night series.
3. Preaching a series, “The church Jesus would join.” – This week is “The church of faith.”
4. Sermon podcasts I listen to – Craig Groeschel at LifeChurch.tv, Tommy Nelson at Denton Bible Church, Bill Mounce – Sermon on the Mount, Tim Keller at Redeemer Pres. Church.
5. About to finish Keller’s book “The Reason for God
6. Also reading “A Call to Die” by David Nassar, “The Effective Executive” by Drucker, and “My Grandfather’s Son” by Clarence Thomas.

My longer term projects include –

1. Researching and writing for two books –
“What if it’s Real?” A gentle apologetic for post-modern thinkers. Attempting to present a basic defense of the Gospel in a way that will connect with un-believers. I hope that believers will find it useful as a tool in their own ministries.

“Think Clearly, Act Wisely” Short, devotional length chapters on the need to think and act biblically. The difficulty is collecting the hundreds of stories from over the years. Glad for you to share one.

2. Expanding our missions ministry in Peru – “Casa de la Fe.” I need to find more time to complete the website and promotional materials. We have had very good response from churches to support missions in efforts.

Take a look at answers from other readers at David’s website – Blog Meme
He has some podcasts I am surely going to listen to.

Veteran's Day 2008

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It seems too few people know the history of Veteran’s Day. While dedicated to the memory of fallen soldiers, the date was selected because on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, a defeated Germany signed the armistice ending four years of a horrible war. President Wilson called WW1 “the War to end all wars.”

Sadly, wars have not ended. WW2, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq have reminded Americans of the sacrifice made by our #military.

On this solemn day, we salute you and we thank you.

Some other good sites are here and here and here.

ESV Study Bible

Win A New ESV Study Bible

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You can win a new copy of the ESV Study Bible. Subscribe to my blog via email for your chance to win.

The ESV Study Bible was created to help people understand the Bible in a deeper way–to understand the timeless truth of God’s Word as a powerful, compelling, life-changing reality. To accomplish this, the ESV Study Bible combines the best and most recent evangelical Christian scholarship with the highly regarded ESV Bible text. The result is the most comprehensive study Bible ever published–with 2,752 pages of extensive, accessible Bible resources.

Enter your subscribtion here today for your chance to win.

Rules:

  1. You must subscribe to the RSS feed via email.
  2. It is fine to add the email subscription if you already have an RSS feed.
  3. Only one entry per person.
  4. A drawing will be held December 1, 2008 of current subscribers.
  5. Any disputes will be mediated solely by the author (me).
  6. The winner will be notified by email and announced on the blog.
  7. Subscriptions are handled by Feedburner. You will have to verify that you are human TWICE. You will also have to click a link in an email to authorize the subscription.
  8. You may unsubscribe at any time; but I hope you won’t.

Vote For Me, I Will Give You Ice Cream

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A blogging friend found this in his email box recently. It has a moral to the story that is compelling in our current Socialist movement.

The most eye-opening civics lesson I ever had was while teaching third grade in 2000. The presidential election was heating up and some of the children showed an interest. I decided we would have an election for a class president. We would choose our nominees. They would make a campaign speech and the class would vote.

To simplify the process, candidates were nominated by other class members. We discussed what kinds of characteristics these students should have. We got many nominations and from those, Jamie and Olivia were picked to run for the top spot. The class had done a great job in their selections. Both candidates were good kids.

I thought Jamie might have an advantage because he got lots of parental support. I had never seen Olivia’s mother. The day arrived when they were to make their speeches Jamie went first. He had specific ideas about how to make o ur class a better place. He ended by promising to do his very best. Every one applauded. He sat down and Olivia came to the podium. Her speech was concise.

She said, ‘If you will vote for me, I will give you ice cream.’

She sat down. The class went wild. ‘Yes!Yes! We want ice cream. ‘ She surely would say more. She did not have to. A discussion followed. How did she plan to pay for the ice cream? She wasn’t sure. Would her parents buy it or would the class pay for it. She didn’t know. The class really didn’t care. All they were thinking about was ice cream. Jamie was forgotten.

Olivia won by a land slide.

“The moral of the story, boys and girls, is that someone has to pay for the ice cream.

Find more on #Socialism here and here and here.

Bar Stool Economics

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Something they don’t teach at Business School (or in Washington).

Our Tax System Explained: Bar Stool Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do.

The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. ‘Since you are all such good customers,’ he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.’ Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.

But what about the other six men – the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’

They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

‘I only got a dollar out of the $20,’declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,’ but he got $10!’

‘Yeah, that’s right,’ exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I got’

‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’

‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, ladies and gentlemen, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
University of Georgia

HT to Lisa

Missles of November

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Russia did not wait six months to test President-elect Obama according to PJ.

Former Spook, an ex-intelligence analyst, described Russia’s deployment of SS-26 Iskander to Kaliningrad as a “shot across the bow” of the incoming administration. The purpose of these missiles was to threaten to destroy components of the planned US anti-missile defense shield in to be based in Poland. The SS-26s themselves are fired from mobile launchers and designed to launch “effective missile strikes at small-size targets of particular importance” on very short notice. Russian President Dimitry Medvedev also said that Russia “plans to jam a radar located in the Czech Republic, used to detect in-bound missiles and guide the Polish-based interceptors.”

Together the moves are designed to neutralize the US ballistic missile defense systems in Eastern Europe. By threatening to destroy the interceptors and jam the radar which may guide them, Russia can blow a hole in the defense shield. But they always could, from sheer numbers alone. The shield was never designed to blunt a Russian attack only that of a rogue state’s. That makes the reasons for the Russian move all the more puzzling. According to Phil Coyle, a former Pentagon weapons tester quoted by Wired, the US ballistic missile defense systems are nearly useless, at least in their current state. “The system proposed for Poland and the Czech Republic doesn’t exist, has never been tested, and has no demonstrated effectiveness to defend Europe or the U.S. under realistic operational conditions”.

Cartoon – United or Divided?

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HT to Right Voices

*** EDIT ***

Given the “passionate discussion and comments, I did a bit of digging and found some stats at Hot Air.

In 2004, Bush beat John Kerry by winning 62.04 million votes.  In 2008, Obama won 62.443 million, a gain of only 400,000. In 2004, Kerry garnered 59.028 million votes; John McCain only got 55.386 million.   That means this election saw 3.24 million fewer votes than four years ago.  Far from being more energized, the nation appeared to be more apathetic.

It also means that GWB got 51.2% and Obama got 52.99%. So the number for GWB is correct, not the 50.7 cited below, but BHO should be 53%.

Dow Tanks – Again

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The Dow Jones Average has experienced the largest two day drop since 1987, reminding us that our financial troubles are far from over. Jobless claims and a shrinking #economy have crushed earnings reports and stock prices. Overnight, Japan was down 6% and European stocks were down 5-10%. Russia is in trouble and China is not doing well.

Exxon, Cisco, Kroger, Tyco, GM, Intel, Blackstone, Amazon, Wells Fargo, all down. If President-elect Barack Obama has a plan for all this, now is the time to speak up since “change has come to America.”

Of course, many, including me, predicted that since Obama was part of the cause of our economic turmoil that his eleection would not solve the problems. Rather, electing Obama would deepen the problems.

It turns out that people on Wall Street are quite intelligent. The masses may have believed the lie that George Bush and John McCain were responsible for this mess but the smart folks know better. They can also read the tea leaves and predict the impact of “Spread the Wealth” on the economy and the impact of raising taxes on corporations.

By the way … will someone give the Obama leadership a basic lesson in macro-economics. American corporations has one of the highest tax rates in the world. When taxes increase, companies move jobs overseas and increase prices at home, passing the cost along to the consumer. If they cannot pass along the costs, companies delay hiring and/or lay off workers.  Hmmm. Higher prices and fewer jobs result from increasing taxes on companies. Not sure that is what we want from a President.

See Hot Air and Bloomberg

The Presidential Prayer Team

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My daughter wrote a wonderful note to her friends. She pointed out that after the last election, bumper stickers began to appear proclaiming, “Bush is not my President.”  As Christians, she said, we have a responsibility to support and encourage our leaders. This seems especially true when we did not vote for them.

While I will continue to speak out on issues from a biblical worldview, along with my wonderful Stephanie, I affirm that Barack Obama is my President and I will pray for him regularly. 

Take a look at the recent letter from the Presidential Prayer Team.

The Presidential Prayer Team is pleased to commit itself and it’s nearly 500,000 members to pray for the newly elected President of the United States of America, Barack Obama.

Calling in his acceptance speech for a new spirit of patriotism, service and sacrifice from the American people, President-Elect Obama swept to victory over Republican John McCain as the first African-American to hold the nation’s highest political office.

“We are and always will be the United States of America,” President-Elect Obama said from Grant Park in Chicago, IL. “A government of the people, by the people, and for the people has not perished from the face of the earth. This victory is for you.”

While saying a new dawn of American leadership is at hand, President-Elect Obama recognized that the road ahead may be tough and the climb steep in meeting the many challenges facing the nation, but that “we as a people will get there,” a sentiment followed by chants of “Yes We Can” from the huge Chicago crowd. He also called Republican presidential candidate John McCain a “brave and selfless leader” and said he looks forward to working with him and Governor Sarah Palin in the months to come.

Our faithful prayers for President-Elect Obama and Vice President-Elect Joe Biden are desperately needed. Their new administration faces the challenges of a struggling economy, active wars against terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan, and energy and environmental concerns – all perhaps unprecedented in a generation. With I Timothy 2:1-2 as our biblical mandate, The Presidential Prayer Team is dedicated to praying for our new president’s wisdom, protection and success as he faces these issues, and many more, over the next four years

Today, we are launching a countdown in prayer from Election to Inauguration for President-Elect Obama. It’s called 77 Days of Prayer for our New President, and I encourage you to please sign up for this prayer initiative now using the link below.

We’ll send you an email every morning that includes a specific prayer point, Scripture and words you can pray – first in worship of our Holy God and then in intercession for the specified prayer point. There’s also an appropriate photo to inspire and direct your heart as you pray.

This is an incredible time in the history of our nation. Join all of us at The Presidential Prayer Team in congratulating Barack Obama and Joe Biden and in committing to pray for their administration and all of our leaders, our nation and our Armed Forces. Thank you so much!

John Lind
President/CEO