Something most TV preachers will never say......

Don't Waste Your Sports

What does sports have to do with the glory to God? Can you play sports in a way that does not bring glory to you and you become an idol of our own accomplishment?

Here is a great message by C.J. Mahaney

Don't Waste Your Sports from Sovereign Grace Ministries on Vimeo.

What is mainstream Islam?

Jonah Goldberg at the National Review has this article where he asks if the so-called moderates in Islam are really the ones who are hijacking the religion and making it into something it is not. Goldberg writes.... For years, we’ve heard how the peaceful religion of Islam has been hijacked by extremists.

What if it’s the other way around? Worse, what if the peaceful hijackers are losing their bid to take over the religion?

He takes a hard look at the recent assassination of a Pakistani Governor Salman Taseer who was a moderate Muslim. He was killed for defending a Christian woman who was accused of blasphemy.

The west is facing an ancient foe in Islam. Islam, at its heart, is opposed to the values of the west and ultimately of Christianity. It is violently opposed to it all. I believe Goldberg is spot on in that Muslim moderates are not speaking for true Islam.

Finally, Islam is opposed to the cross of Christ. Christ crucified for sinners- western sinners and Muslim sinners is a message that Islam cannot tolerate. The great hope for the west is if the Gospel is able to win over much of the Islamic world- provided that the west does not loose its own grip on the Gospel.

Islam is a large and mighty foe, but compared to the Gospel it is a paper tiger. The preaching of Christ crucified is able to demolish strongholds and take every thought captive and make it obedient to Jesus Christ.

We may yet see in our day a large scale conversion of many in the Islamic world to the gospel of Jesus Christ. (Just remember the suddenness of the fall of the former Soviet Union).

Watch and pray.

Flash mob sings the Hallelujah Chorus in a mall

This is an amazing video and what a picture of how the glories of Christ will one day be the song of all peoples- that is of those who believe.

See What Steve Saint is up to now- literally "up" to.

Steve Saint is the son of Nate Saint who was one of the 5 missionaries who were killed in Ecuador. Check out his new venture- mainly aimed at use in missions, but pretty cool anywhere. I want one for Christmas! May God use it for the cause of the Gospel.

He blinded me with science

Steven Hawking has settled the question of the origin of the universe and has declared that God is not needed. Physics is all we need, or so says Hawking. We can all go home now.

What is the source of the origin of the universe? Gravity. Yep, that's right, plain old fashioned, things fall down, gravity. Who'd a thunk it? Why didn't we look there before? What...... you don't get it? You're a rube, a naif, a man who clings to the opiate of the idea of God. You are a poorly educated, anti-science fool. So there, and if you come back again I shall taunt you a second time.

Hawking is the mystical sage of the science world who gives pronouncements like the Buddha. He says that "Spontaneous creation is the reason why there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist" and that gravity is the reason behind all of this. Get it?

He is playing the part of the grand magician who can pull the universe out of the hat of gravity. What is amazing is that so many smart people are fooled by a cheap trick.

The Bible has seen many Hawkings' come and go and has said in no uncertain terms that no matter how many physics equations one can breakdown, a fool says in his heart "There is no God" (Psalm 14:1,53:1). Smart people can say the most foolish thing possible.

**to "blind with science" means to deliberately confuse someone by giving the impression of highly complex knowledge.

5 Big Myths About Calvinism- or as a Calvinist named John Newton termed it- Amazing Grace

Here is a great article looking at 5 common myths about Biblical Calvinism, sometimes referred to as the Doctrines of Grace or Reformed theology.

Here are the five big myths:

1. CALVINISM DESTROYS EVANGELISM

2. CALVINISM APPEALS TO THE PRIDE OF MAN

3. CALVINISM STUNTS HOLINESS

4. CALVINISM TEACHES THAT MEN ARE MERELY ROBOTS

5. CALVINISM DIMINISHES THE GOD OF LOVE

Here is a money quote from the article from Charles Spurgeon....

“I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, "You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself." My hope arises from the freeness of grace, and not from the freedom of the will. Free will carried many a soul to hell, but never a soul to heaven.”