Author Archives: Clark Bunch

Application for Jeremiah 29:11

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The Bible is God’s Word. 2 Timothy 3:16 says that All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness... but the proper application of scripture to our lives requires discernment. Some verses speak directly to us while others require historical or cultural context. The United States is not Israel. The people of Israel in the Old Testament is often an allegory for the Christian Church but promises made to the nation of Israel do not apply verbatim to Americans. 2 Chronicles 7:14 is often taken out of context wrongly applied. If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land was a promise made to the nation of Israel. There’s a lot of truth in that verse that does apply to people everywhere. We should humble ourselves. We should pray, seek God’s face and turn from wicked ways. But the United States of America is not going to be healed as a whole as a Christian nation. The Kingdom of God is being built from people of every nation.

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Satur-deja Vu

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This was our forecast as we we went to bed last night. There is nothing like 2 to 4 inches out there this morning but there is some on the grass and car windshields. The wind is potentially dangerous and we expect a low temp around 15 degrees tonight. Friends in Kentucky were getting legit snow overnight and up the east coast may get substantial snowfall amounts still. Spring starts next week, according to the calendar, but I have seen enough snow to close schools as late as April 3rd.

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iMonk Radio Podcast #16

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Michael loves minor league ballparks. Students from China have a different view of education. Chariots of Fire contrasts Christian worldview with secular worldview. James Sire lists seven questions every worldview must answer. Don’t get in a codependent relationship with a church.

Satur-deja Vu

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Here’s a little early history of The Master’s Table. My wife and I, before our daughter was born, got to spend Christmas 2007 in Germany. She had grown up in Germany (army brat, not a German citizen) but had not been back in 20 years. She actually lived in West Germany before reunification. We visited for 10 days, arriving early in the morning on Christmas Eve and coming home January 2, 2008. I don’t take “vacations” and knew ahead of time that I would be confined to my in-laws home much of the time. I had never been on a 12 hour flight. So one of the things I did to prepare was to load up my 2nd gen. iPod Nano with every iMonk Radio and Coffee Cup Apologetics podcast available at the time. That’s why the iMonk Radio archive page contains episodes 48 – 81. They were downloaded, listened to, and forgotten about for a period of time. We had been living in Oneida, KY, and working at the same private boarding school as Michael Spencer since 2003. I was aware of the Internet Monk website and sometimes commented, but we saw him pretty much every day. He was a real person and the OBI Campus Minister before I encountered the Internet Monk and his online persona. I never felt compelled to start my own blog… until I spent 10 days listened to the podcast. That made me feel like I had some things to say.

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iMonk Radio Podcast #15

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Broadcasting live from a dugout in Sevierville, TN, but with Van Til engineering and 3,000 typing chimpanzees working at the Internet Monk compound in Saint Sades, MD. The introduction plane keeps circling, which is also fun.

Fun fact: When Clay Spencer moved into Kirwan Tower on the UK campus it was the only dorm that did not have air conditioning. The Kirwan-Blanding Complex was demolished in 2020.

Review of Finding God Beyond Harvard. The link to the Veritas website at the end of that review still works as well; Suffering and how western Christians relate to it; Why Men Hate Going to Church by David Morrow, churchformen.com is still up and active.

Satur-deja Vu

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The Empire State Building (NYC), Brandenburg Gate (Berlin), London Eye (London) and Eiffel Tower (Paris) are lit in blue and yellow, the colors of Ukraine’s flag in a show of solidarity. We’ve all seen convoys of military vehicles crossing the border and heard the air raid sirens in Kyiv but these images reflect a side of the story you may have missed. Pray for the people of Ukraine. Pray for the 40,000 NATO troops preparing to defend the rest of Europe and the 7,000 American soldiers that will soon join them. Pray for the whole of humanity should Vladimir Putin consider making good on his threat to use Russia’s nuclear arsenal. Even so Lord, come quickly.

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iMonk Radio Podcast #14

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You’re gonna think for a second you’re hearing the intro theme we all know and love but just wait. It’s different every week and hasn’t found a place to land yet. During the program listen for Van Til!

Discussion includes: Minor league baseball, cow pies, clown service, church shopping, Clay Spencer goes to UK (University of Kentucky, not the United Kingdom).

Satur-deja Vu

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Do you attempt to verify things you see on social media before sharing them, or just dismiss things that seem to be unlikely? Sometimes I see things that are meant to be funny but it forces me to think about them and then I have to do research. So here’s the deal with bananas:

Anything that contains potassium-40, as bananas do, produces antimatter as the isotope decays. Carrots, red meat, beer, lima beans – you and I – also produce tiny amounts of positrons. The thing about antimatter though is that it does not exist for very long. Every time a single atom of antimatter is created, it immediately cancels out one of atom of regular matter. So if a bunch of bananas lay on your kitchen counter for a week, the total amount of antimatter they contain is still net zero.

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iMonk Radio Podcast #13

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You haven’t missed anything. The very early episodes are the hardest to come by but I do have the next five in a row or so.

Today: Is Michael Spencer a Christian? New school year brings several students from China. I Have My Doubts is available via the iMonk archive site. Finally a few thoughts on Ravi Zacharias.

Killing Cupid?

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For every two or three friends I see on social media wishing others a Happy Valentine’s Day or posting a couples pic, there is another posting about gross candy in heart shaped boxes and $70 roses. I tend to think of Valentine’s Day in the same way as St. Patrick’s Day and Halloween. In our culture those days have a lot of activities for children but adults need to grow out of them. If you live in New York and have Irish heritage I’m not asking you to give that up but most of us are not Irish, not Catholic, and only talk about shamrocks and leprechauns one day each year. It makes something of a spectacle of people’s actual heritage. Adult Halloween parties send up red flags for me. Even Thanksgiving is a day for adults give thanks and spend time with family around a feast but it’s the kids that are making paper hats with buckles and learning about Pilgrims and Puritans.

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