Roundup-1/21/10

Mark Rogers writes of doing missions when death is on the line.


The kind of Christian who gets offended when a clerk at Target says “happy holidays” rather than “merry Christmas” when checking out, probably won’t consider moving to a city where Christians are gunned down on Christmas Eve or shot at a wedding. Yet that is exactly what needs to happen. Algeria is 99% Muslim and 99% of the ethnic Malay people are Muslim. Their constitution declares that to be a Malay you must be Muslim. If the Malay, or the Algerian, or the Yemeni, or the Moroccan people are going to believe, thousands of believers need to leave their culture and enter these places with the gospel. Those who go must be prepared to be slighted, to be looted, to be hated, and even to be killed.


I have often pondered how I would fare up under such circumstances. Christians around the world die daily for the cause of their faith. In fact, we are told we will be persecuted for our faith, it should not be a surprise to us. As Rogers points out, hearing "happy holidays" is not persecution. May God raise up people to preach his word throughout the globe.

++++++++++++++++++
Michael Patton, in Parchment and Pen, provides an interesting contrast between the story of David and Goliath and the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. David had absolute faith that he would overcome Goliath; the 3 boys did not know the outcome, but trusted God anyway.

Patton writes, "Remember, God has made a lot of promises, but there are also a lot of promises that he has not made. Don’t read promises into Scripture. Try saying this next time Goliath is at your door, “If it be so, God can deliver me, but even if you strike me dead, I will not abandon my faith because I will not place my faith in something God has not promised. You may raise some eyebrows, but you will be representing truth much more faithfully."

++++++++++++++++++++

Another interesting Bible memorization website.

++++++++++++++++++++

Trevin Wax interacts with a commentator on his blog about proselytism. Basically, if we believe Christianity is objectively the only way to God, we should proselytize.

++++++++++++++++++++

John Acuff over at Stuff Christians Like wrote about Caring too much about Failure. He makes several great points, but his recommendations to learn to fail gloriously and "it's not about failure, it's about obedience" really struck a chord.

Weekend round up-1/15/10

I read a lot every week and I often come across things that I think are worth sharing. This week, is no different, particularly in light of the current crisis in Haiti. I am going to try to post a "weekend round up" every week covering the posts that I found most useful and enlightening. I hope others can benefit from this as well.

1) Does God Hate Haiti? by Al Mohler--"A faithful Christian cannot accept the claim that God is a bystander in world events. The Bible clearly claims the sovereign rule of God over all his creation, all of the time. We have no right to claim that God was surprised by the earthquake in Haiti, or to allow that God could not have prevented it from happening."

This article has been receiving a lot of praise around the Christian blogosphere. Mohler has handled this subject quite compassionately when other Christian leaders have been much more indelicate.

2) Shaun Groves provides a Compassion International-give Haiti profile pic. I have it put on my facebook.

3) Tim Challies posts about the relevance of Neil Postman's work to the situation in Haiti. "Three days from now we will have moved on. Maybe it will take four or five. But honestly, after the weekend, few of us will ever think of Haiti again. The next news story will come along and Haiti will be relegated to history. But three days from now and a week from now, the situation in Haiti will be far worse than it is today. The devastation will be more complete. The pain will be greater. " I fear this is absolutely true. How many people really think much about the tsunami anymore?

4) Zach Nielsen links to pics of Haiti and the devastation there. May it break our hearts and move us to action.

5) Jared Wilson on laying down your life: "If I’m not prepared to jeopardise a friendship so that I can tell others about Christ, I can be fairly certain I won’t give up my life." There are many other good thoughts here as well.

6) A thousand 9/11's--Justin Taylor cites Charles Krauthammer on Haiti, "We have heard the estimates. If one of the middling estimates of 100,000 dead is true, that would translate on a per capita basis — it would have the societal effect — in the U.S. [as] the loss, the death, of 3 million Americans — in one day! … That is a thousand 9/11s in one day."

If you are on facebook and can't open the links, here is a link to my blog: http://www.docsdining.blogspot.com/