Saturday, July 31, 2010

Bacon is Good for Me!

I have my own live in nutritionist at my house. That’s right. The Charming and Beautiful Susan is a certified nutritionist. She keeps me healthy, in shape, and on track. Susan keeps me accountable in so many ways. She’s the best partner.

But sometimes I push back. I rebel. When I really, really, want to indulge in unhealthy eating, I fight with her. Sometimes I even mock her and say things I know aren’t true about the tasty delights I love but know are bad for me. The following video sums up a typical argument and attitude I display.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Share the Gospel through iPhone app

Mission Network News posted this about a slick new iPhone app launched by Faith Comes By Hearing.

FCBH07-26-10[1] The Bible.is for iPhone app's major features include:
• Listening and reading together
• Dramatized audio with 180 characters, music and sound effects
• Audio New Testaments with full text in 37 languages in 63 versions
• Simple verse sharing on Facebook
• Complete Bible in English (Old and New Testaments)

Read the entire article here.

Christian Action and Relief for Haiti

This past Sunday I was at Calvary Chapel Port St. Lucie (CCPSL) on Florida’s Treasure Coast. Pastor Mike Wiggins and his staff kicked off an initiative to take care of 400 Haitian children through Christian Action and Relief for Haiti (CARHA), and organization founded by Djumy Septembre, a member of the CCPSL congregation.

Djumy started CARHA in the Haitian community he grew up in. Recently, CCPSL took a team to minister alongside CARHA in Haiti. Check out the dynamite video documentation of the trip.

Shepherd’s Staff Mission Facilitators partners with CARHA to provide administrative support and integrity for donations and ministry disbursements.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Church Planting Lesson 24

Join us as we continue through the course on Biblical Church Planting taught by Pastor Jeff Jackson at Calvary Chapel Bible College.

Time: 50:44

Download

Subscribe to Podcast on iTunes

U.S. Government: You Can Jailbreak Your iPhone

capt.photo_1280161819295-1-0[1] I love it when the government doesn’t coddle up to big business. According to an AP report, Owners of the iPhone will be able to legally unlock their devices so they can run software applications that haven't been approved by the Apple cartel. If bad news comes in threes, Steve Jobs is ripe for good news to come his way. Between the anti-climax of the iPad, antennae problems with the newest generation of iPhones, and now the government siding with hackers, Jobs needs a win.

Here is a list of what else the government is letting happen:

  • To bypass video game protections in order to investigate or correct security flaws
  • For college professors, film students and documentary filmmakers to break the copy-protect measures on DVDs for embedding clips for educational purposes, criticism or in noncommercial videos
  • To bypass the use of external dongles if the dongle no longer works
  • For used cellphone owners to unlock phones so that they can be switched to another wireless carrier (this was a renewal of a 2006 exemption)
Can somebody tell me what a dongle is? No locker room humor pleeeeease.

HT: Mashable

Saturday, July 24, 2010

I Write Like

Attention writers: this month a fun new website, I Write Like, was launched by a young Russian software developer using an algorithm that analyzes your use of words and writing style. Just copy and paste your latest blog post, journal entry, or letter to your grandmother into a field provided on the website and, viola! now you know.

Here’s what I found out:

I write like
J. D. Salinger

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

I’m not sure I’m happy about this result, though, as popular as Salinger was. I never could get through Catcher in the Rye. I didn’t get.

Go find out who you write like.

HT: http://blogcritics.org/scitech/article/web-site-review-i-write-like/

This week’s best viral vids: Rockin’ the Food Chain

Cookie Monster busts a rhyme about avoiding his sweet addiction.

This little kitty learns the virtue of patience.

What cows are up to when you’re not watching.

Rodents chow down.

Remember feeding those hippos?

HT: Mashable

Friday, July 23, 2010

Why So Angry

This is a recent message taught by Pastor Jeff Jackson at a missions conference. Pastor Jeff is a dynamic teacher and gives listeners a whole new perspective on missions and the Bible and how God is working  through both in your life.







Download

Time: 1:03:09

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Allie Prone

This is the stander Allie was given yesterday by Children’s Therapies, Inc. in Jupiter.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Calvary Chapel Sokol

Calvary Chapel Sokol in Moscow is a frontline ministry. Pastor Dean Malispina, a Shepherd Staff missionary is serves constantly in the ministry trenches and then, somehow, has the time to post several blog posts about the ministry his church community in Moscow involves himself in. Check out these stories:

35052_1343330426719_1334971174_30832585_54846_n[1]One+One=One

%D0%91%D0%94%D0%9D%D0%A5 462[1] Baptism

Artom Nastya wedding 2010 100[1] Roma’s Birthday

UniverBB 019[1] Emanuel's Dream

Artom Nastya wedding 2010 297[1] The Ministry of Dr. Tom

Univer Metro 002[1] Valentine’s Story

Artom Nastya wedding 2010 055[1] Refat’s Heading to America

Free Hour of Joni Eareckson Tada’s “A Place of Healing” on ChristianAudio

You should go check this out…

A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain, and God’s Sovereignty by Joni Eareckson Tada is a new book coming from David C. Cook Publishers in print and christianaudio in audiobook.

Joni was injured in a 1967 accident that left her a quadriplegic. In the years since, she has been a tireless advocate for those with disabilities and has become a prominent Christan author. In a recent announcement, we learned of A Place of   Healingher diagnosis of breast cancer which has been a shock to all who have followed Joni’s ministry over the years. Her amazing story and witness for Christ is available on her ministry website http://www.joniandfriends.org and on her Facebook page.

For the rest of July (until the 31st), ChristianAudio offering the first hour of this new audiobook, read by Joni herself, as a free download!

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Classic Book Review: Tozer – The Pursuit of God

51-o95ErCOL._SL160_ This week I officially started training for the Disney Marathon. That’s four runs a week; two short; one medium; one long. This sounds like the topic of a different post, so why am I writing about this in a book review? Because it’s during marathon training that I listen extensively to my mp3 player while pounding the pavement. I usually listen to Bible teachers. One year I audited free college courses. This year, I’m going to listen to books.

I posted about the free audiobook of the month a little over a week ago. I downloaded it (free coupon code: JUL2010) and listened to it and loved it.

I read A.W. Tozer’s Pursuit of God years ago and don’t really remember it. But I listened to it over the past week and was struck by how incredibly current it’s observations, evaluations, and exhortations are. The book was published over fifty years ago in a pre-Leave-it-to-Beaver America people look back on with fondness. But Tozer seems to be addressing America in 2010. His prose dates him, but the issues and the exhortations read like today’s Sunday paper.

Download this book and listen to it. It’s free this month. You can also read it free here online. This is a quick read and a quick listen. It would be a good book to read once a year.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Lessons in Missions

These two MP3’s are hot off the press and ready for you to download. Both sessions were taught by Pastor Jeff Jackson at a recent missions conference hosted by Calvary Chapel Philadelphia.

The first message is Missionary God, a teaching about God’s plan for missions beginning in the book of Genesis.

Download
Time: 54:26

The second message is Culture Matters: Right in Your Own Neighborhood.

Download
Time: 48:39

Pastor Jeff is a pastor, church planter, missionary, and Perspectives on the World Christian Movement instructor.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Glenn Beck the theologian?

glenn-beck2[1] Glenn Beck gave one of the most clear and succinct presentations of the Doctrine of Salvation I’ve ever seen on television on his show last night. Go to his website to watch a video and read a summarized version of his presentation.

Glenn Beck is either ignorant, deceived, or a deceiver. Based on how he made his presentation, it’s my opinion that he is a deceiver with a goal of gathering conservative Christians into his political flock.

First, Glenn Beck unequivocally identifies himself as a Mormon. It is a well-known tactic of the Mormon proselytizers you see riding ten-speeds and knocking on doors to identify as closely with Historic Protestant Christianity as possible in order to sound like Biblical Christians. Mormons have a collective reputation for living wholesome, moral, hard working lives. These are ideals that are Biblical Christians and Mormons have in common that Mormons, as a whole, put into practice. Beck exploits this in popular media better than anybody while millions of Fox News viewers robotically nod their heads in agreement because it scratches where they itch politically. (Rupert Murdock is a genius for recruiting Beck from CNN during the election knowing that Obama was going to win. Just as Rush Limbaugh’s right-wing empire grew during the eight years of Clinton, so will the Beck/Murdock empire.)

Biot514PhotoC[1] Second, Beck, argues brilliantly. He takes a fringe (but popular) social movement within Christianity and demonizes it. Then he gives a biblically accurate presentation of personal salvation through Jesus Christ in contrast to the liberal leaning politics of the Black Liberation Theology that Barack Obama is identified with. On one hand, Beck condemns the black vs. white dualism of Black Liberation Theology while dualistically contrasting his Salvation through Jesus against James Cone’s radical religious views and politics. The funny thing about this tactic is that he introduces his talk by making making a reference to Jim Wallis, someone that believes strongly in the Christians role in promoting social justice in politics but has little in common with the theology of James Cone.

Wallis[1] This is a disingenuous misrepresentation of Wallis’ beliefs, but plays well to Beck’s audience because they think Beck does no wrong or would not lie. What doesn’t help is that political currency buys his way into conservative schools like Liberty University and gives him the ear of Christian leaders like Richard Land. For some reason Land helps Beck make a presentation of Salvation to millions of viewer without helping Beck give a clear historic presentation of Jesus Christ.

Since Beck points out flawed theology in his presentation, it’s only fair that we examine the flaws so readily swept under the carpet by Mormonism’s founders and proponents. While an accurate explanation of salvation through Jesus Christ is given, the problem is the Mormon version of Jesus. The Jesus of the Mormon church is a fictional angelic super-being loosely based on the biblical Jesus of Nazareth. The Mormon Jesus is the fan-fiction creation of Mormon founders Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and subsequent “prophets on earth”.

Here’s a sketch from Mormon writings of the Jesus Beck depends on his salvation for.

  • He is a pre-existent spirit being. All of us are, related to one another as brother and sisters. Jesus is the first born brother among the many spirit-children that populate planet earth. (Doctrine and Covenants 93:21-23)
  • Jesus is not unique or of different essence than any other man. “The Divinity of Jesus and the Divinity of all other noble and stately souls, in so far as they, too, have been influenced by a spark of Deity – can be recognized as manifestations of the Divine (Elder B. H. Roberts citing Sir Oliver Lodge in Joseph Smith, King Follet Discourse, p. 11 note).” "Christ was begotten of God. He was NOT born without the aid of man and that man was God!"(Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 1:18)
  • Mormonism teaches that God was once a man. Joseph Smith, Mormonism’s founder said, “As Man is, God was, as God is, Man may become.” (Joseph Smith, King Follet Discourse)
  • No salvation without accepting Joseph Smith (Doctrines of Salvation, pp 189-190)
  • Jesus was not born of a virgin. ‘Christ was begotten by an immortal father in the same way that mortal men are begotten by mortal father."(Mormon Doctrine p.547) "The birth of the savior was as natural as the births of our children; it was the result of natural action. He partook of flesh and blood—was begotten of his father, as were of our fathers." (Journal of Discourses vol.8 p.115) According to Mormonism, God the Father, who has a body of flesh and bones (since he was a man), came to earth and had a physical sex with Mary, his own daughter and begot Jesus' physical body. (Doctrine and Covenants, 130:22; McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 471)

This extremely long blog post has been percolating for a long time; ever since Glenn Beck told anyone that goes to a church that teaches about social justice teaches Marxism. Even the leaders of the Mormon church distanced themselves from Beck for that comment. Jim Wallis does an outstanding job of explaining salvation, social justice as practiced by Jesus in the Gospels, and salvation in Jesus Christ. Political movements of social justice in this country and others have never been started by politicians; they’ve always begun in pulpits and congregations responding to prophetic teaching that challenges the status quo. Beck is neither of these. He’s an extremely opportunistic disc jockey with an agenda to establish the current political status quo as the will of this country’s founders and the will of his version of God.

video of James Cone
video of Jim Wallis
video of Glenn Beck and Mormonism
cartoon about Mormonism banned from YouTube (who has that kind of clout with Google?)
controversy of “The God Makers”

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Local authors and writing opportunities

image My pal Anitra, ReachFM morning jock, wrote this insightful article to aspiring writers.

Talk to a writer and you catch a glimpse of the incredible power of words to inspire, encourage, entertain and challenge. For some, writing is a deeply personal catharsis as the effort of choosing the words and stringing them first into sentences, then paragraphs, and then into chapters brings a corresponding order to people and events. For others, it is “the sky’s the limit” aspect of fiction that becomes addictive, with its promise of multiple characters in which to delve. read more

Tune in to Anitra’s Sunday afternoon show.

HT: Good News of South Florida

Aaron’s Greatest Hits

Of all the videos created by my son, Aaron, these are my faves…

Stop-action Spiderman vid.

Part two of Spiderman. Definitely the best sequel ever.

This ministry video will melt your heart. A house is given to a faithful grandmother…

Christopher Columbus re-mix

One of Aaron’s original songs.

Something to think about regarding the abortion issue

Christmas special remix

New song and artwork; all original

More original music

aaron

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Church Planting Lesson 23

Join us as we continue through the course on Biblical Church Planting taught by Pastor Jeff Jackson at Calvary Chapel Bible College.

Time: 56:45

Download

Subscribe to Podcast on iTunes

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Free Audiobook: The Pursuit of God by Tozer

I just downloaded my free copy of A.W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God. I'm taking it with me on my run this morning. Go get yours.

Click here to download this month’s free audiobooks! Be sure to use coupon code JUL2010!

Friday, July 09, 2010

Über Christ Follower Joyce Kauffman

imageJoyce Kauffman has shattered the glass ceiling on this blog. I’ve written about the many mentors I’ve had in my life but I’ve neglected to include any women. Shame on me. Today that ends.

Last week my very dear friend Joyce retired after 16 years of service on staff at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale. Before joining the staff at CCFTL, she served at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale with Dr. D. James Kennedy. Going back further, she worked several years for the Coca-Cola Company.

When I served with Joyce on staff at CCFTL as a young man in ministry, I treated her office like it was the Holy of Holies because there was so much ministry happening around her at all times. She is a woman of deep compassion, great discernment and godly wisdom. She never hesitates to bring your needs boldly before the throne of the King. She knows that God cares about you personally and she represents Him with integrity in everything she does. She taught me to always listen with empathy and compassion and to always pray knowing God loves to do the unexpected.

She has been a mother to me and a grandmother to my kids. She’s slapped me upside the head when I’ve misbehaved.

“You made that poor girl CRY!” she said as she popped me one time after I mistreated a secretary for a small mistake. “You’re TOO big for your britches!” But when she saw me do something well, she always let me know and explained how God uses me even when I don’t know it. That has given me incredible self-awareness and has caused me to communicate the same thing to those I’ve been privileged to mentor over the years. Her ministry reaches further that she’ll ever realize.

She hates that I work in dangerous places like Africa and the Middle East. She loathes my motorcycle. But I know I keep her on her knees in prayer for me and that’s something I’ll always need from her.

Joyce is a true God-reflecting human being. The picture above should accompany any definition of a cheerful giver.

Pretty Trick App

The one good thing that’s come out of the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf is the comedy. I know it’s dark comedy, but comedy it is nonetheless, and comedy equals laughter and laughter is medicine for the soul.

Some creative nerd tech guys have created an app that pollutes any website you choose with an oil spill of your very own. Viola!

mondokblog

calvary chapel fort lauderdale

glenn beck

shepherd's staff mission facilitators

Create your own oil spill.

HT: Mashable

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Colorful, Brilliant

This is why I praise God for the Internet. OKGo knows how to go viral.

Monday, July 05, 2010

How we swing

Since Allie’s recent surgery, we’ve had to switch to a new swinging strategy. The Charming and Beautiful Susan shot these short videos today at the park.

Here’s another quick shot from another angle…

Sunday, July 04, 2010

Church Planting Lesson 22

Pastor Jeff continues to teach through the book of Acts.

Time: 47:14

Download

Subscribe to Podcast on iTunes

Saturday, July 03, 2010

Fourth of July Videos

In case you can’t think of anything to do after all the beer’s gone.

Our beloved Anthem butchered by our fellow citizens.

The above is tongue-in-cheek, but the following is serious. This is a great commercial.